War of the Worlds

Chapter 7 - Canterlot Falls

Twilight, Midnight and their friends hurried through the deserted, destroyed streets of Canterlot. Everything around them was covered with a thick layer of the strange black dust; it seemed that nothing could escape the touch of the Martians. As they approached the castle they could see that not even it had survived unscathed, huge sections of the walls had been collapsed and there were dead guards everywhere. Despite this Twilight could see that they had made the Martians pay for it; the courtyard was also littered with damaged fighting machines.

All of a sudden there was a yell of, “hey! You lot…over here!” Twilight looked around to see where the shout had come from; and there standing atop a pile of rubble was a royal guard. He was a white Pegasus with a silver mane and tail and he had a castle tower for a cutie mark. He beckoned them over and said.

“Commander Flash…I thought you were all wiped out in Ponyville?”

“I got lucky I guess” Midnight Flash replied, “Looks like you gave those buckers one hell of a thrashing.”

“Yea, but with a lot of casualties” the guard said “we can’t beat them in a strait up fight that’s for damn sure”. The Guard then turned to Twilight and said “I’m commander Rooks by the way, and you must be Miss Sparkle, this way, this Princess is expecting you”.

Commander Rooks led the group through the destroyed halls of the once beautiful castle. Twilight saw that in places ceilings had collapsed, the stained glass windows had been smashed and sticky tendrils of Red Weed clung to the weathered stone masonry. When they arrived at the great hall the Princess was sat on her throne talking to one of her guards, but when the group entered she stood up and greeted the group warmly.

Twilight ran up to her mentor and nuzzled her affectionately before spouting the millions of questions that she had.

“Princess, what’sgoingon?whatarethesethings?whyaretheyattackingus?”

Princess Celestia silenced her babbling student with a simple raised hoof and then said quietly

“Follow me”

Princess Celestia led them through the castle and into one of the other great halls; everything had been cleared out of the room and been replaced by a large metal table and various parts of one of the alien tripods. Standing in front of the table was a brown colt wearing a lab coat, he turned to the group as they entered the room and bowed when he saw the Princess.
“This is Professor Nebula, he is Canterlot castle’s resident astronomer and is trying to learn everything he can about the humans”, Princess Celestia said.

“Humans?” Applejack asked, “I thought they were Martians”

Princess Celestia looked at the floor for a moment before saying, “They are both”.

“I don’t understand Princes?” Twilight said “what are these things?”

Princess Celestia stared out of the broken window before beginning the tale.

Millennia ago before the world was as it is now, it was a very different place a world devoid of magic. It was a cruel and violent place populated by a race of intelligent bipeds called homo-sapiens or simply Humans. These humans were more intelligent than any other species alive at that time, including ponies. They built cities that spanned entire continents and even reached out into space, they used technology to perform tasks that we would use magic for. But despite their immense knowledge they possessed very little foresight. Eventually their insatiable quest for understanding proved to be the undoing of their empire, during an experiment to recreate “the big bang” an event that they believed marked the beginning of the universe; something went wrong. It is not clear exactly what happened next but it is believed that to escape their own extinction they built giant craft that could travel through space, and escaped to the planet Mars. Whatever event destroyed their society left remarkably little behind, but one artefact that did remain was a stone library carved into a cave. It detailed what happened and that the humans would one day return to reclaim what was once theirs.

“I believe that this is what is happening now” Princess Celestia said in a serious tone,

Applejack was the next to speak, “so, these ‘humans’ were here before us?”

“Yes” Princess Celestia replied, “it is believed that pony kind evolved in the wake of the disaster, and that Equestria occupies a piece of land that the humans once called ‘Europe’”.

The ponies nodded to show that they understood and the Princess turned her attention to Professor Nebula, as if on cue the Professor proceeded to tell the group what he had learned about the humans and their technology. He explained that the technology that made up the ‘suspension pods’ - as he came to call them – and the mysterious machines that the humans were using was at least 300 years more advanced than anything that ponies possessed. He also explained that – after examining several human corpses – that they breathed a similar Nitrogen/Oxygen air mixture that existed in Equestria, but on mars the concentrations of these gasses were much less; so when the humans came to Equestria – or back to Earth – the air would have been toxic to them, and that is why they are wearing the environment suits.

“But if the air is toxic to them then how in the hay are they gonna live here?” Applejack asked incredulously.

Professor Nebula gave a wry smile and then pointed a hoof at a small table in one corner of the room, as the group approached the table they saw what lay upon it. Under a grow lamp and still very much alive was a tendril of the mysterious ‘Red Weed’ that had begun sprouting up all over Equestria.

“This is how miss Applejack” Nebula said

He then proceeded to explain that the ‘Red Weed’ was what he called a habitat changer, it pumps Nitrogen into the atmosphere to make the environment more habitable to the humans, however this change will make the atmosphere unable to sustain pony life.

A young royal guard then entered the room and approached the Princess, he was a white unicorn stallion, heavily built, with a two tone blue mane and watery blue eyes.

“BBBFF!” Twilight exclaimed happily rushing to give her brother a hug

“Twiley!” he said as he returned her hug, “when I heard that Ponyville had been destroyed I thought…. But I’m glad you’re alright” He said with tears in his eyes. Princess Celestia stood watching them with a smile on her face, remembering why he had entered the room Shining Armour’s face returned to its serious demure as he straightened. “I have the report you requested Princess” he said, Celestia nodded to allow him to continue.

He told the Princess that the fighting machines were no longer approaching Canterlot but were gathered in a circle facing outwards. And that they were building something in the centre although they could not see what it was.

Twilight then remembered her discovery, “this might help professor” Twilight said getting Nebula’s attention. “I noticed that whenever one of their ‘fighting machines’ was destroyed there had been a thunderstorm in the area”.

Nebula’s eyes lit up as he exclaimed one word “EURICA!” before hurrying back over to the partially dismantled tripod and said, “I suspected that lightening could interfere with their shields but I needed proof to prove my theory, thank you miss Sparkle”. Twilight smiled glad to have been of help.

“So, now we know how to hit back” Shining armour said.

Just then there was a whistling sound followed by a heavy explosion that shook the castle. A young Pegasus pony ran into the room and screamed, “Princess! The castles under attack, One of those cylinders has hit the north corridor!” His ranting was cut short by 3 more explosions in quick succession, 3 more cylinders.

For a few moments there was a ghostly silence…and then the castle erupted into chaos, Royal guard running and yelling orders to each other. Over it all Twilight heard the Princesses voice, “We have to get the elements!” she said. The group ran through the corridors of the castle, passing several of the cylinders which were already beginning to open. When they reached the corridor leading to Canterlot tower Twilight thought that they finally had a hope of stopping this, but just as they started down the corridor a cylinder smashed into far end. Twilight was blown back into a pillar by the force of the impact, Bricks and masonry rained down on them as the corridor collapsed…blocking access to the elements.

“We have to get out of the castle!” Midnight Flash yelled helping Twilight to her hooves, Then they were running headlong towards the main entrance hall, the Cylinder’s that they had passed were now open and the humans were firing their ‘heat ray’s’ at the panicking guards. As they reached the doors a turquoise beam of death smashed into the wall just above Twilights head, when they got outside they saw a gold carriage waiting for them.

“Where are we going Princess?” Twilight asked

Princess Celestia looked at her and said “Cloudsdale, my sister and Princess Cadence are already there, it seems to be the only place that these metal monsters can’t get to us”. They bundled into the carriage and it sped into the sky, royal Pegasus guards flew around them, some even carrying their fellow guards that couldn’t fly. As they flew over the landscape leaving the smouldering city behind, they flew over the tops of tripods, each raising their heat rays to fire at the carriage and its occupants.

When they neared Cloudsdale they could see more cylinders, missiles with a trail of green mist falling from the sky.

“Oh my” Rarity exclaimed, “There’s thousands of them”

Twilight looked out upon the landscape of her home, once lush and green and beautiful; it was now charred and black with veins of red running through it. The humans monstrous tripods strode unchallenged across the land with their gating lope, ready to destroy any ponies they came across. As she watched she could also see the squat six legged ‘handling machines’ scuttle over the ruins of towns like ants, probing, examining, learning. Finally her attention turned to the newly fallen cylinders, where already handling and fighting machines alike were congregating to protect their newly arrived brethren, forming the strange outward facing circles around the pods.

As the carriage touched down on the soft clouds, Princess Celestia cast a spell to allow them to walk on the clouds that made up the floating city. It was then that Twilight noticed all of the refugees, hundreds of ponies stood nose to tail; packing every outside space, whilst Royal guards were trying to process all of the new arrivals to the city.

Princess Celestia walked up to a nearby guard who bowed deeply and said, “I wish to speak with my sister”

“Of course you majesty, follow me” the Guard replied and the group set off, following the guard through the packed city towards the centre.

Midnight Flash walked beside Twilight and said softly, “if there is a way to win this and reclaim our home I know you’ll find it”

Twilight just smiled at him, the truth was that without the elements, she didn’t know if there was a way to stop this. “Maybe” she thought to herself “Maybe they’ve already won, and we’re just delaying the inevitable”. Twilight shook the thoughts out of her head, they were going to find a way to beat the aliens and reclaim their home, she gulped…or die trying.