In the small hours of the morning, next to nopony was awake, let alone working in the dead of night. This night, however, was different. Something so extraordinary happened to disturb the citizens of the quiet town of Ponyville. In less than an hour, thousands of ponies had abandoned Ponyville with whatever they could carry out. Thousands more simply barricaded their doors and windows. Few ponies got any sleep that night. They simply could not comprehend what just happened, let alone adjust to it within a few hours.
This change was present in almost every pony who witnessed the initial event. All through the night, Twilight was up, on edge, wondering what would come of the meteorite strike. From the Castle of Friendship, the observation deck was strewn with open books, reference manuals, and Twilight’s frantic observation notes. Her personal Constellation BlueEye telescope was aimed at the remains of the western mountain ranges. The sun was just about to emerge over the ridgeline, but sunrise could not come soon enough. The near face of the mountain was still draped in shadow, but the early morning sky was slowly beginning to light up. The anticipation of directly observing the aftermath of a meteorite impact was more than enough to keep the adrenalin flowing through Twilight’s veins.
In fact, she was dripping nervous sweat as she fiddled with her telescope’s levers, switches and knobs. As her eyes twitched and readjusted to a new sight picture, she had to make minor adjustments to her instruments, but they were never perfect. Rainbow Dash had burned through her initial excitement and panic of watching the colossal devastation and now hoovered in the middle of the room waiting for the next action, her forearms crossed in front of her chest as she flapped her wings in frustrated boredom. Where some would cower, Pinkie was sometimes known to be naively cheerful. Here, she simply slept through the night, snoring peacefully as the rest of the gang fretted over this new event.
Applejack had already returned to her farmhouse, eager to check up on her family, as any good breadwinner would do. Fluttershy had similar worries about her animal friends and ran to her cottage as fast as her legs would carry her. Rarity had her own problems to deal with. Once she made sure Sweetie Belle was safe, her mane and hooves needed attention to ensure they were still well-groomed.
“Something’s definitely out there,” Twilight uttered under her breath as she remained focused like a laser on the recently reshaped mountain range. She thought she saw movement, but small fires were still alight, dancing around creating the illusion of moving objects. Even as she spoke with certainty in her observations, in her mind, she was as clueless as a filly in a crowded Manehattan street.
“Twilight, dear,” Rarity interrupted, putting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, “perhaps you should rest. You’ve been up all night.” She was concerned for Twilight’s wellbeing. Twilight was known for being obsessive over small details, sometimes to the detriment of her health.
“I can’t, Rarity,” Twilight groggily protested as she shrugged Rarity’s hoof away, “This is too big a cosmic event to ignore.” In any other circumstance, Twilight would have spoken this line with enthusiasm and excitement. Here, since it was so close to her home, she was a combination of shaken and frightened, but also too curious to flee the imminent danger.
“Twilight,” Rarity said once more, this time pushing Twilight away from the telescope, “I have missed enough beauty naps to know that it drastically affects a pony’s performance.” Rarity tended to get dramatic when she felt close to certain topics. “I won’t let you suffer such sleep deprivation as I have.” Truthfully, it was never more than a few hours of sleep lost per day, but Rarity’s particular brand of drama made it seem quite serious.
“I’ve gone days without sleeping, Rarity,” Twilight replied, pushing back and returning to her observation post, “I think I can handle doing it again.”
“Rainbow Dash and I are perfectly capable of taking over for you.” Being the refined lady she was, Rarity politely, but firmly made her stance on the issue known by escorting Twilight out of the observatory. Twilight relented, unable to summon the strength or will to continue to resist her friend’s assertiveness. “Besides, I already got my beauty sleep. You still need yours.
Twilight knew Rarity well and what her capabilities were, but was still skeptical of her claims. After all, Rarity was an expert in fashion, not astronomy. She felt uneasy leaving Rainbow Dash at the helm of her equipment, but Rarity had a light touch, so her getting overzealous with it was unlikely.
“Don’t worry about a thing, Twilight,” Rarity reassured before Twilight could voice her concerns, “With my keen eye for details, I shan’t miss a thing.” Like Twilight, Rarity was capable of writing notes with her magic while looking elsewhere.
“I guess you’re right,” Twilight admitted, realizing just how much she realized how much good a nap would do for her. “Still, do come wake me if anything changes.”
“Yes, yes, of course, darling,” Rarity said, thinking quickly to nip Twilight’s workaholic nature at the bud. Closing the observatory doors ever so gingerly, Rarity trotted back to the telescope to assume her new duty as watch pony.
Careful not to touch the eyepiece directly, Rarity used her magic to make ever so slight adjustments to get a better view. Unfortunately, rotating the eyepiece was the only adjustment Rarity knew how to make on this bafflingly complex contraption. Rarity was quick to don an expression of minor frustration as her limited knowledge of telescopes failed to bring the mountainside into focus.
“You know there’s a better way to see what’s out there, right?” Rainbow Dash asked Rarity in a rather smug manner.
“Do tell, Rainbow,” Rarity replied, supreme skepticism about her, “what could possibly be better than-”
Without another word, a gust of air disturbed Rarity’s mane, getting the white mare to look up from her task of refocusing the lenses. The brief glimpse of multi-colored streak through the air was a telltale sign that Rainbow Dash had been there just milliseconds prior, but had since moved on.
“Of course, she would,” Rarity sighed as she rolled her eyes. It wouldn’t be Rainbow Dash if she didn’t fly straight towards the unknown. Looking at it from afar was simply not enough for her.
~~~
The White Mane mountains were certainly a sight to behold. In the mornings, the snow would sparkle for a few moments as the sun rose to touch the mountain side. Some ponies would rise early and wait hours for that five minutes of a beautiful natural light show. Unfortunately, several things now disrupted the normal morning air. The three prominent peaks were now two, but the massive mountain disappearing was only a symptom of something far worse.
As Rainbow Dash approached the meteor’s impact site at her trademark breakneck speed, something was wrong enough that even she could see. Normally, the rising sun would illuminate the snow-covered mountain, but a conspicuous absence of snow allowed the natural gray and brown rocks underneath to meet the sun first. Where once there was a gentle slope which transitioned seamlessly to steep cliffs, there was a hole punched clean through, as if an angry god more powerful than Celestia decided to gouge out the mountain and scorch whatever his hoof touched. Craters large and small littered the gentle slopes and she could swear that something or somepony was moving around down there. Through the wind, she couldn’t recognize the figures, so she decided to close the distance.
The first things to come into focus was a scattering of small red objects. What they were or could be, Rainbow could only guess. Each one was a distinct blood red and bristled with spikes and other extraneous-looking bits of metal. Rigid wings jutted from the sides of each one, varying in length, profile and sometimes number from one to another. Stemming from the rear of each object was a large cylinder. To Rainbow, it was most reminiscent of a firework or bottle rocket.
Now within a hundred yards of the nearest impact site, Rainbow fought against the wind and glare to observe the first of the life forms around the craters. What she saw was hard to describe, as it was akin to nothing she had ever encountered before. Bipedal creatures were not unheard of in Equestria, but they certainly did not reside in mountains, nor were they a hideous shade of snot green. No two were alike as they each wore a different uniform. Some had simple leather clothes and makeshift hatchets or swords. Others appeared to have claws instead of five-digit hands. Their blood red eyes were intimidating, but stirred no fear in Rainbow’s heart.
How are there already ponies all over this area? Why would they be right where a meteor landed? Many more questions were forming in Rainbow’s mind as she approached what remained of the mountain. If she were as smart as Twilight, she would have questioned why there seemed to be a large presence of creatures around the impact site, but no signs of anypony leading up to it, as if the meteor had deposited them there after the impact.
More perplexing was their behavior. None of them seemed to be in charge and they were all preoccupied with scouring the obviously foreign objects littering the wrecked mountain side. Every effort seemed to be made to collect any bit of metal not already riveted in place. It obviously wasn’t food, so perhaps they were scavenging from their wrecked objects.
Curious as ever, Rainbow flew down to the strange creatures to try to make contact, descending to what uneven ground remained after the violent impact. As an Equestrian Airpony, a Wonderbolt no less, it was her duty to render aid whenever possible. Her first contact was a creature whose upper body was completely inserted into a hole that looked like it was blasted through the side of the craft. Its legs were just inches off the ground, making it look like a dog that got stuck in a rabbit hole. It was clearly preoccupied with finding something buried within. It let out small grunts of exertion with each swipe and tug at the mechanical innards. Rainbow was no egghead, but the small pile of parts amassing at the green-skinned creature’s feet looked like something Twilight was doing when she was assembling her fancy new telescope. So engrossed with its current task was the green-skin that it didn’t even notice Rainbow perch herself just above the hole blasted through the side of the craft.
“Hey there, big fella,” Rainbow Dash announced, ensuring she got the creature’s attention. The creature gave a curious grunt, stopped rummaging around and emerged from its hiding place. It struggled as it shuffled backwards, but got out fairly quickly to face Rainbow. The creature was much larger than Rainbow initially guessed. The stocky legs seemed like a gross mismatch with the massively muscular torso. Its face was vaguely ape-like with a strong lower jaw bristling with dirty ivory fangs. It gave a perplexing look as its pupil less red eyes gazed upon the multichromatic pony before it.
If Rarity were here, she would comment on the beast’s sense of dress. She’d say that hoof-stitched leather work trousers clashed against a welded metal tunic. Besides, the black-and-white checker pattern shoulder pieces only made the incoherent mess of an outfit even harder on the eyes. Fortunately, Rainbow was not bothered by such things and went straight for the important matter to discuss.
“Name’s Rainbow Dash. You may have heard of me,” Rainbow stated with a swelled chest and pride in her voice, “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of you. So, where you from?”
The creature’s expression changed from a confused blank stare to snarling aggression. Reaching behind itself, the green beast drew a long makeshift hatchet, merely a circular saw blade fastened to a piece of pipe by a length of barbed wire. The creature’s next response would tell Rainbow all she would need to know about it in the future.
With cat-like reflexes, Rainbow dropped the ambassador persona, unfurled her wings and crouched low to push off with enough force to launch far away from the greenskin’s lethal-looking weapon. The creature let out a bellowing “WAAAGH!” as it swung its rusty hatchet right where Rainbow was sitting. The repurposed saw blade bounced off the metal hull with a sickening clang and grinding noise as sparks flew from the point of impact. By that time, however, Rainbow was already above and behind the beast that nearly took her life. The creature took a moment to assess its surroundings, but it almost concluded that Rainbow was gone.
“Hey!” Rainbow barked from above, getting her attacker’s attention, “That’s not how we greet somepony in Equestria!” The creature had no interest in what Rainbow was saying. Instead, it was busy picking up the junk from the wreck. The next move it made was a grunt of exertion from throwing a broken crankshaft straight at Rainbow. She didn’t have to move far to avoid the jagged metal rod, but it was clear that diplomacy was getting nowhere.
“You wanna play rough, huh?,” Rainbow huffed, now aware that she was going to have to use the universal language to get through to this lumbering beast, “Fine!”
Rainbow’s approach was to zig-zag all around her opponent, randomizing her movement such that even she was unsure of where she would be next. This was all a controlled chaotic approach, a tactic the Wonderbolts taught for one-on-one combat. It had the desired effect nonetheless. The green skinned creature paused, unsure where or when to swing its weapon to strike the darting blue pegasus. Its eyes were darting all over the place, but unable to keep up with the incredible speed presented before it. The creature held its crude saw blade hatchet high, anticipating a moment to strike, but unable to judge the correct moment.
When the confusion reached a fever pitch, Rainbow struck hard. She was up against a large armored target, so its inertia would be a task to overcome. Not a problem for a pony with a warrior’s mindset. In an instant, Rainbow closed the distance and landed a two-legged blow to the creature’s center of mass, sending a thundering crack through the air.
The creature was halfway through its trajectory before it realized what happened. Rainbow was pleased with landing the first blow, now she wanted to land the rest, and then the last. The green beast landed somewhere over the hill behind it with an audible crash back to earth.
“You’re in Equestria now, pal,” Rainbow shouted, hoping her words would reach her dazed opponent. She wanted to be sure her stance sunk in, so she gave chase after the creature she sent airborne. “I hope you learn not to mess with Rainbow-”
Rainbow stopped cold when she realized she was no longer up against a lone beast. Her encounter had been making quite a ruckus. All the noise attracted more of the greenskins to her location. Now there were at least three dozen of them come to investigate what all the noise was. No two were dressed or armed with the same, but the overall look of patchwork weapons and armor all brandished in Rainbow’s general direction sent a clear and unmistakable message.
No sooner than spotting Rainbow’s multi-colored mane did the group collectively unleash their barbaric “WAAAGH!” battle cry. Some brandished weapons that resembled cannons to Rainbow. She knew immediately and without question that peace was nowhere in their list of priorities. The next few moments were a blur of near-panic, adrenalin and too many near misses to count, but Rainbow managed to evade the salvo of cannon fire long enough to get far out of range and find concealment in a passing cloud overhead. Small projectiles were still passing through the cloud cover, but they seemed to be shooting blindly. Once the rush of energy wore off and the greenskin horde ceased their assault, Rainbow could rest on a passing cloud and reflect on what just happened.
A gang of green apes with cannons crashed to Equestria and first contact resulted in hostility. This was a cruel and extremely dangerous prank to pull, even by Discord’s standards. As Rainbow wiped the sweat from her brow and caught her breath from the most frantic she ever flew, she thought of what to do next. She couldn’t keep this encounter to herself. Somepony had to know. Twilight was the first to mind, so that was Rainbow Dash’s next move. If anypony would know what to do in the event of an alien invasion, it would be Ponyville’s premier egghead.
Without another moment wasted mulling over the past few moments, Rainbow immediately made a beeline for Ponyville. A sonic rainboom thundered through the atmosphere as Rainbow basically announced to all of Equestria that something big was about to go down…
---
Far to the east of Ponyville, the Rambling Rock Ridge was abuzz with activity. Mostly in the form of doubled watch ponies posted, watching for anything out of the ordinary. After meteorite shower that happened last night, the Royal Guard heightened security, wary of Equestria’s enemies taking advantage of the confusion. It would not be a frivolous measure, but it would prove to be of little use against what was to come…
Private Sureshot was at his post facing east, watching for any unusual signs of activity. His eyesight was so sharp that he could see for miles at a detail that his peers simply could not match. It would be a skill that would save lives in the near future. Living up to his name, Sureshot spied an unusual haze over the east horizon. Hazes were not uncommon as many were simply weather phenomena. This one was different. It did not recede after a few moments. Something was causing it to stay. Without hesitating, Sureshot reached for his radio transceiver and prepared his report to his watch officer on duty.
“Rocky Ridge Command, this is PVT Sureshot. I have a sighting report, over.” A few tense moments passed before the radio operator replied, but in that time, Sureshot already had a list of details that made this report quite unique.
“PVT Sureshot, this is Rocky Ridge Command. Go ahead, over.”
“East horizon,” Sureshot began, “large atmospheric disturbance. Large group of objects approaching, approximately twenty in number. Correction: thirty. No, fifty.” The objects were appearing from all angles in Sureshot’s field of vision, not just due east any more. What’s more, they had closed enough distance to remark on shape “Command, I’m seeing hundreds of airborne creatures quickly approaching my post. Could be dragons, or… or…” The young private’s report was interrupted by his own lack of words to describe what his eyes were telling him.
Were they some sort of bird? An airship, or derigible? It’s form was too rigid to be the former and too fast to be the latter. Something akin to rockets were fixed to each tip of the wings, emitting a telltale stream of heat from the rear. Dragons normally move as one large mass of individuals, but these beings grouped themselves into clusters of exactly five, one leading four others forming a chevron shape. They must have been partially reflective or metallic because Sureshot had no other explanation for the light he saw reflecting off many of the objects as they moved forward.
Dozens of them now filled the sky and were moments from passing directly overhead. Sureshot craned his neck back to keep observing the olive green cluster of strange beings passing over him. Sounds were now audible and they were unmistakably coming from the objects approaching from the east. Each one was a low rumbling at first, but slowly grew to a healthy roar, like a stream of fireworks without the light show. It was just enough to drown out the low volume on the radio’s earpiece, so Sureshot had no idea the operator on the other end was asking for clarification.
Now directly overhead, the squadron of unidentified airborne objects were in the clearest of focus. Some even completely enveloped Sureshot in their shadows for a brief moment. As soon as one passed, another appeared right behind it. Sureshot was so in awe that he completely forgot his current task of reporting his findings. As the last of the objects passed by, Sureshot turned around to follow it. Now facing west, he could see over a hundred individuals sailing forward without distraction. Straight towards Ponyville, Sureshot thought, snapping back to reality and regaining his bearings.
Sureshot replaced the earpiece he dropped and immediately contacted his command center. “Command, this is PVT Sureshot,” he began, ignoring protocol while frantically delivering what he could remember seeing. Command had already received that a large group of unidentified flying objects was heading west, but not so fast that hundreds of them had already passed overhead. That would put them over Ponyville in mere minutes. Whatever was about to happen, it was about to make the Changelling invasion of Canterlot look like child’s play.