War of the Worlds

Chapter 3 - Ponyville Common Part 2 - The Fighting Machine

When Twilight awoke, the hammering from the pit and the pounding of explosions grew louder, her fear rose at the sound of somepony creeping into the house. Then she saw that it was a young royal guard, weary, and streaked with blood and dirt. “Anypony here!” he called into the darkness.

“Come in, here –drink this” Twilight said offering him a glass of water, which he took in his mouth and thanked her for. “What’s happened?” Twilight asked him after a short silence.

“The wiped us out. Hundreds dead – maybe thousands” he answered, his voice shaky and uncertain

“The heat ray?” Twilight asked leaning forward slightly

“The aliens” he answered, “they were inside the hoods of the machines they’d made – massive metal things of legs! Giant machines that walked – they attacked us! They wiped us out.”

“Machines?” Twilight asked confused.

“Fighting machines!” he answered “picking up colts and bashing them against trees! Just hunks of metal, but they knew exactly what they were doing.”

“Hmmm, there was another cylinder came last night” Twilight said.

“Yes, it looked bound for Canterlot” he answered

“Canterlot, the Princesses!” Twilight gasped “I had never dreamed that there could be danger to the Princess so many miles away, I have to get to Canterlot at once.”

“And me” he said “I’ve got to report to headquarters – if there’s anything left of it.” Twilight and the guard who identified himself as ‘Midnight Flash’ met up with Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy near the town hall. The Mayor was trying to calm the panicked citizens, in the crowed Twilight could hear rumours of Nightmare moon and the end of the world.

“We have to get to Canterlot as quickly as possible” Twilight whispered to her friends.

“Why? What’s going on here? And just who the hay is this guy?” Rainbow dash asked pointing at the guard.

“My name is Midnight Flash; I was part of the Royal Guard 5th Pegasus division, you know the one that was part of the cordon around Ponyville common. We were alongside the 7th Unicorn division and the 3rd Earth Pony Battalion; we were formed up when this thing came out of the pit, it must have been at least a hundred feet tall; and it had these huge green ‘eyes’. We attacked it with everything we had, but it had some kind of barrier around itself, you can’t see it until something hits it, it just stood there for a few moments before it emitted this shrieking sound, it sounded like the scream of the damned. Then it attacked us…..there were just these flashes of light, a cyan light…and then everypony was gone, it killed everyone, everyone” as he finished there were tears in his eyes. Twilight took a shine to the white Pegasus in his golden armour and comforted him, before saying

“Another of those cylinders came down near Canterlot, and Midnight Flash is worried that the city may have been attacked or soon will be,” Midnight nodded in agreement. Rainbow dash then spoke up again saying

“Well what are we standing around here for then, if these aliens want a piece of the princess then they’ll have to go through me first” proving yet again why she is the element of loyalty. On the way Midnight described the fighting machines in more detail and also said that it took the aliens approximately a day to assemble them. As they journeyed a fierce storm had set in, the pegasi that controlled the weather for this part of Equestria had missed several storm dates; so this storm was particularly vicious. At Coltston they came upon an inn but it was disserted,

“Is everypony dead?” Fluttershy squeaked

“Not everypony, look” Twilight answered pointing at 6 fire ballista’s with earth pony operators standing by.

“Bows and arrows against the lightening…they haven’t seen the heat ray yet”, Midnight Flash said shaking his head. The group hurried along the road to Saddlesbridge, suddenly there was a heavy explosion, the ground heaved and gusts of smoke erupted into the air. “Look there they are….what did I tell you” Midnight yelled.

Quickly one after the other four of the fighting machines appeared, Monstrous tripods; at least one hundred and fifty feet tall, striding over the pine trees and smashing them. Walking engines of glittering metal, each carried inside the hood of the machine, just below those luminous green windows a long, thin metal tube, and Twilight realised with horror that she had seen this awful thing before.

A fifth machine appeared on the far bank, it raised itself up to full height; flourished the tube high in the air and the terrible cyan heat ray struck the town. As it struck all five fighting machines exulted, emitting deafening howls that roared like thunder. As the group watched a lightning bolt descended from the sky with a brilliant flash and struck the fighting machine on the bank. When it struck there was a bright flash and the air around the goliath rippled like water, “what was that?” Twilight wondered aloud.

The six ballista they had seen now fired simultaneously, decapitating the fighting machine. The alien inside the hood was slain, splashed to the four winds, and the body, nothing now but an intricate device of metal, went whirling to destruction. As the other monsters advanced, pony’s ran away blindly; but the seven friends jumped into the water and hid until forced up to breathe. Now the ballista’s fired again, but this time the heat ray sent them to oblivion.

With a cyan flash the heat ray swept across the river, scalded half blinded and agonised the group staggered through leaping, hissing water towards the shore. They fell helplessly, in full sight of the aliens, expecting nothing but death. The foot of a fighting machine came down close to Twilights head, and then lifted again, as the four aliens carried away the debris of their fallen comrade….and Twilight realised that by a miracle, they had escaped.