Aliens: Consuming Equestria
Chapter 4

It had finally reached sunset and darkness had overtaken the landscape. Newt had been sent inside the dropship for the night alongside Bishop. Bishop had been laid inside the dropship mainly to maintain it and check if any messages were being sent by Weyland Yutani. The darkness camouflaged any creatures that might want to viciously rip them to shreds and eat them, so Newt and Bishop were really sent in the dropship because they would be defenceless if such a beast did emerge. While Newt had survived in Hadley’s Hope without any outside help, it was enclosed and she hid in small ventilation systems. In the open ground, there was no way she would outrun anything bigger than her. At least if Newt and Bishop hid in the dropship, they might have the safety of the beast not wanting to expend energy on tearing it open.

Hicks and Ripley sat in the grass outside, gazing wordlessly at the star-dotted sky. Both of them were lost in the beauty of the night. The silence between them hung like a noose in the wind. It was frighteningly silent. If either of them were paying attention to the silence, they might have been suspicious about it.

Ripley mercifully broke the silence.

“So, a spear through the neck huh?”

“Yea,” Hicks replied, taken aback by the atrocious attempt at small talk.

“I never took you for the hunter type.”

“You have to know how to do a lot of things in the Corps,” Hicks replied, returning his eyes to the stars. “It’s not all about rescuing stupid colonists from their own mistakes, or sweeping through a facility full of terrorists. The terrorists did have their own headquarters, and we had to infiltrate them. Before I joined the squad, I felt like there was a satisfying feel of discipline and organisation. People were actually worried about dying as soon as they stepped forward. It was that sort of thrill that kept things exciting.” Hicks sighed deeply.

“Then I joined the squad. Immediately I felt too invincible. I was just surrounded by a bunch of meatheads who saw all of it as a game where they were the gods of creation and destruction. Boy were they proved wrong on LV-426,” Hicks chuckled. “I feel kinda bad about feeling good that they were taught otherwise, but they were gonna be taught one way or another. Guess it just had to be the hard way.”

“You sound as if being invincible in battle was a bad thing.”

“Yea well, I guess I just got bored of winning.”

At that moment, a low snarl was heard in the darkness. It was a quiet, menacing growl that said “Get off of my territory”. Ripley and Hicks both jumped to their feet and readied...

Readied for what? A fight?

While they both got into a defensive stance, they both knew that whatever that was, they were not going to be able to put up much of a fight against it.

Something in the darkness began to move around in front of them, taunting them. It approached closer and closer until it almost felt like the entity was right on top of them.

Suddenly, a load roar signalled the attack of a gigantic lion, its mouth the size of a van, with purple bat wings and a scorpion’s tail. It pounced at Hicks who in turn rolled out of the way and onto his back. The Manticore shook its head wildly and growled angrily at its prey. Hicks, still on his back, crawled away desperately before the Manticore could try again. Hicks was not crawling fast enough to escape the Manticore for long and soon, he could feel the wind rushing against his legs as the Manticore barely missed because of the dark atmosphere. Hicks suddenly heard the Manticore roar in pain. He turned to see (barely) that Ripley had found the spear and had thrust it into the Manticore’s leg. Ripley was knocked away and into the dropship by the Manticore which in turn knocked her unconscious. The Manticore roared again in triumph before turning back to Hicks again. It snarled before approaching Hicks, ready to tear him limb from limb. Hicks reached into his pocket and pulled out his pistol. He aimed it directly at the beast’s head.

Twilight had stayed up late that day. She was still affected by the sudden death of Turner. He was a good friend and a fellow scientist at that. Twilight and Turner occasionally conversed generally about certain scientific subjects. They were pleasant, intelligent conversations that she rarely ever had. Twilight leaned against the balcony at the top of the library, relaxing and staring longingly at the stars.

At that moment, all of the peace and serenity of the night was interrupted by six loud thunderclaps, each timing perfectly in succession. It startled Twilight and she almost fell over the edge of the balcony. Immediately, she was in a state of befuddlement. What were those loud bangs? There was no way it could have been thunder. A storm hadn’t been scheduled, and there was no way any thunder could occur in such succession with only a millisecond in between each of them. Something else was going on here.

Twilight had heard roughly where the loud claps had come from. They were in the direction of Whitetail Woods, opposite the Everfree Forest. She observed closely the area in which the claps had come from, but the dark night obscured any vision of the area she might have from her balcony. Immediately, she went for her telescope in hopes of seeing something. She needed something to go on. Anything!

She peered through the small eyepiece and checked the area. At first, there was nothing but darkness. But then, Twilight could definitely say she saw some sort of shape or form. It was a bolder black than even the night itself. On the dark object, Twilight saw a small glint. A metal object had reflected light reflected by the moon. Something metal was over there! This was something worth looking into! So many new things were happening. A strange alien that lays a small egg in one’s chest. Another strange alien that burst from this egg. And now a strange metal object in the long stretch of fields between the Everfree and Whitetail Woods. Twilight wasn’t sure if she could take all of these new discoveries. She had spent most of the night pondering why the egg didn’t hatch a younger version of the layer. Perhaps it was a part of some sort of Biological relation between two species?

Twilight was extremely excited. She wanted desperately to find out what metal object was sitting in the fields, but it was too late. The darkness harboured many dangerous animals; all who would want to eat you for dinner. Of course, she could wake Fluttershy up and ask her to stop any wild animals that might be considered dangerous, but that would be inconsiderate. Fluttershy had been the most tired out of all the ponies, and one of the most upset. Her poor little heart couldn’t take the death of other ponies as well as others could (not that anypony could really take death well).

Reluctantly, Twilight made a mental note to wait for tomorrow to investigate the metal object.

Hicks sighed in relief as he emptied half of his magazine into the monster’s head causing it to collapse to its side. Three bullets lodged into the Manticore’s jaw, one other into its eye and two more went straight through in random positions, making the beast’s head a bloody mess. The beast would have closed its eyes if one hadn’t been blown out. Hicks felt a small sense of familiarity. He knew exactly what it was as he wiped his forehead of sweat and felt the bandage covering his eye.

Hicks knew that the shots would have gained unwanted attention. Panic set in and immediately, he jumped to his feet and scooped up Ripley in his arms. He activated the door on the dropship and stepped inside, unaware of the set of eyes locked on the small glint of moonlight the door had reflected upon opening.

As the door shut behind him, he set Ripley down on in a Cryopod and checked her pulse. Thankfully, he found it quickly indicating that she was still alive and well. Hicks decided that it was late enough and avoiding anymore run-ins like that was the best option. He was only going to save his pistol for emergencies and after shooting out half a magazine, he was on three and a half magazines left. Sleep was a nice thought right about now. There was too much to think about tonight, one thought being how they were going to convince the natives that they weren’t carnivorous bloodsucking demons from outer space? Another thought was quite concerning. If the natives were practically horses, how were they going to communicate at all? Hicks hoped that through some divine miracle, the two species spoke the same language.

Soon, all the thinking had Hicks extremely weary, and he fell asleep hoping another Manticore didn’t decide to rip open the dropship.

Twilight heard a knock on her door. She had only just recently got out of bed and had forgotten about the strange metal object. She of course hadn’t forgotten about the alien which was now in a metal box with holes that resembled a cheese grater at the top. It was rather small and compact, and the alien inside didn’t like it one bit. This was evident as it would constantly smash against the side. It seemed to be getting bigger and small by the hour. Soon, Twilight wouldn’t have a container strong or big enough to hold it. She planned on reporting the creature the Neighland Yutani so they could come and pick it up themselves.

Twilight opened the door not too eagerly. Her mood brightened when she saw Fluttershy, but it was dampened again when she saw her expression. It was one of ‘nervous worry’ if that was even a proper expression. She was clearly worried about something, but she seemed timid about either the situation or the fact that she had visited Twilight at quite an early hour.

“Hi Fluttershy!” she greeted happily “What brings you here so early? Do come in!” Fluttershy silently obliged and trotted straight over to the couch as Twilight sat down.

“So, what is it?”

“Well... um,” she began. “I think there’s... something bad near Whitetail Woods.”

“What makes you say that?” Twilight asked curiously, her memory of last night slowly coming back to her.

“Angel bunny told me,” she stated quite bluntly. Twilight was quite doubtful. She wouldn’t expect a bunny to know whether something was good or bad unless it was trying to eat him.

“What did he say about it?”

“That it was really tall. That it had a spear and was about to kill something, I’m not sure what though. It could have been... him or somepony else.” Fluttershy struggled to suggest the danger could have possibly tried to kill Angel.

Suddenly, Twilight fully remembered the events of last night.

“Actually, I did see something strange last night. It was in the fields between the Everfree and Whitetail Woods. I think we should be able to see it now that it’s daytime.”

Twilight led Fluttershy up to the balcony where her telescope still stood tall, pointing down towards the fields. Neither pony even needed the telescope to see the black, out of place dot on the fields. Whilst it was quite far away, it was still rather big and conspicuous. Even so, Twilight looked through the lens to see the object in clearer detail. She gasped in amazement.

The object was definitely metallic. It had what looked like a large door on the front that Princess Celestia could easily fit through without having to duck. It had several windows on the sides indicating there was indeed an inside. The object was clearly on small little legs, but the legs were half submerged into the soil. Some of the parts on the object were hanging loosely in the slight breeze. The object itself had very flat surfaces and very sloped surfaces that looked rough to touch. Next to the object, obvious signs of a fire laid in the grass.

Something else gained Twilight’s attention. Just beside the strange metal object was a horrific sight. It was less horrific, more terrifying, than Turner’s chest exploding outwards with a small creature inside. Beside the object, was a Manticore with six visible holes in its face. It was terrifying in the sense that something had the ability to do that ghastly act, and it was right inside that metal box.

Twilight stood back from the telescope, shaking. Upon seeing Twilight, Fluttershy barely wanted to look through the telescope. Unfortunately, she did anyway. Twilight had left the telescope so it was still pointing towards the Manticore’s corpse. Fluttershy immediately felt even sicker inside than when Turner died. She too drew her head away from the telescope, shaking with fear (and attempting to keep her breakfast in).

Twilight looked over at Fluttershy.

“Your right. Whatever it was, it’s dangerous. But remember, it might just be carnivorous. Just because something eats meat, doesn’t mean it’s evil. Besides, it didn’t eat the Manticore. Maybe it was out of self defence.”

“You’re... you’re right,” Fluttershy barely said. “We should... we should talk to them. Maybe we can convince them... not to eat all of Ponyville.”

Ripley stretched as she stepped out onto the grass outside the dropship. All the others were awake, and Bishop was actually designing a new pair of legs for himself. He didn’t show this, but occasionally staring longingly at his nonexistent legs and spending long periods of time staring at nothing in particular with strange whirring noises coming from his head clearly showed he was planning something. Also, a strange pile of useless metal and useless wires had appeared next to Bishop’s cryopod.

Newt appeared by Ripley and hugged her arm. The dead Manticore was still there, but carnivorous animals had obviously come along and eaten some of it. Huge bit marks and rips were visible on the Manticore’s skin and blood had poured out onto the grass. Newt caught sight of the Manticore, and as soon as she had seen it, she sharply spun her head around in disgust and utter horror. Ripley chuckled inside. ‘She just escaped a planet full of blood-thirsty aliens who very nearly killed her twice, but she still flinches at the sight of blood? Fair enough I suppose. I don’t think I’ll ever get fully used to seeing someone’s guts hanging out. I very nearly puked when Bishop’s legs were torn off.’

Ripley’s thoughts were interrupted by seeing four strange figures approach over nearby hill blocking their sight from the village. The creatures were colourful and varied. One had a horn and one had small but visible wings on its side. What was curiosity was now dread. ‘They’ve found us.’

At that moment, the four creatures spotted them and Hicks emerged from the dropship. Ripley noticed something about their faces. They were each varied in emotions for a start. Two looked what one could describe as angry and horrified at the same time. This belonged to the blue winged one with rainbow hair and an orange one with a Stetson. One face actually bore intrigue. It hardly seemed to notice the corpse of the Manticore and seemed more interested in them. The last one... they couldn’t quite tell. The smile on the pink one was bigger than anything the humans had ever seen before. It looked as if it were to get any bigger, the pink equine’s face would actually split in two.

The two adults - due to the faces on two of the ponies – mentally prepared to fight. Hicks put his hand on his pistol in preparation. Both didn’t want this to come to a fight. They knew that they had to make a friendly first impression to the inhabitants of the village.

At that moment, Ripley realised why two of them were angry (or at the very least suspicious). ‘If we really are in some sort of children’s book, these creatures surely wouldn’t be familiar with the concept of death. There is a dead giant lion next to us that has been ripped to pieces by wolves or something like that. If that isn’t suspicious, I don’t know what is.’

Twilight had already seen the dead Manticore, and she couldn't see the bite marks through her telescope, so she paid no attention to it. Of course, that meant she didn’t see the biting all over it that definitely would have made her suspicious. It did not take long for Rainbow Dash and Applejack to spot it though. Pinkie didn’t seem to notice the Manticore at all. That or she just didn’t care. She just looked extremely happy to see the strange new aliens. She was probably already planning a Welcome-to-Ponyville Party. No, scratch that, a Welcome-to-Ponyville-and-all-of-Equestria party. Twilight would consider adding Please-don’t-eat-or-kill-us on that title.

After gaining confirming nods from her companions, they all set off down the hill towards the metal box. The aliens seemed to become more and more suspicious or curious as they got closer.

Finally, when they got in range, Twilight spoke.

“Hello. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

The aliens looked startled to say the least. They probably didn’t expect Twilight to speak at all. Twilight just hoped they spoke the same language. When there was no answer, she continued.

“We are ponies from Ponyville – the village over there - and we have come to welcome you to Equestria,” ‘In hopes that you are actually friendly.’ Twilight smiled nervously at the aliens.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Twilight,” one of the aliens with a female voice said. “We apologise if our arrival here was unnerving at all, but trust us when we say we don’t want to have any fights here.”

“Trust you?!” Rainbow Dash shouted angrily. “How can we trust you when there is a half eaten Manticore right besides you?”

Hicks looked over at the Manticore curiously before looking at Ripley quizzically.

“Was that you?”

“Ah c’mon. Don’ act all innocen’ to us. I’s obvious tha’ ya’ll did it. Do ya’ll think we i’s stupid or som’thin?”

“No!” Ripley answered back. “We genuinely didn’t do it. I mean yea, we killed it. But that was in self defence, but we didn’t eat it. I suspect wolves or something ate it.”

“I have seen a very nervous friend of mine befriend one of those things before! She didn’t have to kill it!”

“Rainbow Dash please, we don’t want any fights here.”

‘Heh, fitting name’ Hicks thought to himself, chuckling inaudibly.

“Yea. Besides, if these alien-guys can take down a Manticore, we sure don’t wanna make ‘em angry, right?”

“Exactly Pinkie. So, who are you?” Twilight asked, pointing towards the humans.

“Well, I am Corporal Hicks, and this is – “

“Wow! You’re in the military?” Rainbow Dash asked pointing at him.

“Why yes, I – “

“What’s it like? What kind of adventures have you had? What’s that in your pocket? Is that your weapon? Isn’t kinda small? Did you kill that Manticore with it?” She asked all of these questions whilst flying around Hicks’ head. He didn’t look very happy to say the least.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight scorned her friend. “You can ask Hicks about his career later, for now, introductions must be made.” Rainbow Dash reluctantly landed besides Applejack, who didn’t look as intrigued about his career but rather the object Rainbow Dash pointed out in Hicks’ pocket, which he still had his hand over.

“This here is Ripley. This little one here is Newt. She has been through a lot recently. Back in the ship is Bishop. He is an android, but he prefers Artificial Person.”

“You have an android!” As soon as Pinkie practically shouted that at the volume of a massive amplifier, she shot into the dropship at the speed of light, leaving behind a pink pony shaped cloud.

“Ah’ll get ‘er,” Applejack told them before trotting inside.

“What do you mean Newt has been through a lot?” Twilight asked glancing at the little girl who looked curiously back at her, still clutching onto Ripley like a small child would to her mother.

“We recently escaped a derelict facility upon a planet that was in the middle of Terraforming,” Ripley explained. “Paraterraforming had already begun on the planet, but it was still in its early stages as far as I could tell. Terraforming takes a long time.”

“Why did you have to escape from it?” Twilight asked curiously.

“The colony on the planet had disappeared. I had tried to tell them that it was dangerous to go on the planet, but they insisted on sending me with a dispatch of Colonial Marines to investigate the facility. I was there primarily as an advisor, because I had dealt with the threat before.”

“What threat?” Ripley paused to consider whether she should actually tell her or not.

“The Xenomorphs,” she replied with venom dripping from her tone. “Horrifying creatures that live for nothing else but to eat and bring back hosts for their Queen to impregnate a small Xenomorph in with her facehuggers.” Suddenly, Twilight noticed something. She was referring to the serpent-like creature she was harbouring before the scientists at Neighland Yutani came to get it. That creature could be one of the greatest discoveries of all time. If she let this new creature see it, she would surely kill it.

“Come to think of it, you didn’t happen to see any did you?”

“No! Nope, certainly not. I haven’t even heard of anything like that, it sounds awful.” Twilight interrupted Applejack who very nearly blurted out the whole thing as she exited the dropship.

“I thought you were keeping one in a convenient metal box you found in your basement?” Pinkie said as she walked out of the dropship. Immediately, the three humans stared down at Twilight, irritation spread across their features. Even Bishop who was unwillingly riding on Pinkie’s back stared shocked at Twilight.

‘Oh dear,’ Twilight thought, ‘this isn’t going to end well.’

Author's Note

Well, that's the chapter I'm giving you before I run off to Italy for a week. I am also coming back on the last day of my holiday, so I need to do homework before then and I'm going to be occupied with school after that. So see ya for now!