5:34 P.M. Ponyville Park, Ponyville
Roseluck was taking a leisurely stroll in Ponyville park, her face buried in a book she had recently purchased from the newly opened bookstore in town.
She was so engrossed in her reading however, that she didn’t notice the familiar springing noise that was drawing nearer, until she walked straight into someone. Both ponies fell over and ended up in a heap, groaning as they tried to untangle themselves and pick themselves up off the ground.
Shaking her head, Roseluck opened her eyes just in time to see a balloon invading her face’s personal space.
“Hi Rose! Sorry for running into you, I wasn’t looking where I was bouncing!” Pinkie Pie peeked out from behind the balloon and gave an apologetic smirk, rubbing the back of her head slightly.
“Oh, no, it’s alright Pinkie, I wasn’t looking where I was headed either. I was just reading this really interesting book I just bought.” Roseluck smiled back and accepted the apology balloon, not even caring how the other mare had managed to conjure up the gift in such a short time.
Brushing off the cover of the book from the dust it had settled in, Pinkie Pie read the cover as she handed it back to Rose.
“’Battle of the Planets’? That sounds intense! What’s it about?”
Rose blushed and quickly pulled the book to her chest. “Well, it’s kind of silly, but… it’s a new genre of reading, called ‘science fiction’. This one in particular is about aliens that invade Equestria from the moon and wreak havoc in giant tripod walkers and quick flying machines. They shoot lasers and are super tough, and the story focuses on a simple pony just trying to survive and get away as his whole world seems to crumble around him.”
The pale earth pony mare blushed as Pinkie leaned in even more, her mouth formed into a large ‘O’ and her eyes wide at the news.
“That sounds really cool actually!”
“Y-you think so? It’s a pretty small niche for literature right now, but- hang on, aren’t you supposed to be in Canterlot stopping some kind of weird invasion from happening?”
At the change in subject, Roseluck found herself on the receiving end of the strangest look Pinkie had ever, who slowly backed away the way she had come, keeping her eyes on the Rose the entire time, somehow miraculously doing hopscotch backwards when she walked across a hopscotch grid drawn into the dirt.
Roseluck stared back at the pink earth pony, a thoroughly puzzled look on her face, her concentration only broken once a high-pitched whine reached her ears. Flicking them she looked around for the sound, eyes darting in every direction, before the sound intensified to a nearly deafening level and something large and blue whipped by overhead, quickly followed by several other blue blurs.
Crouching down on the spot, a sense of unease came over Rose, and several screams reached her ears. Looking to the source of the shrieking, she saw a mare clutching two fillies to her chest and looking over her shoulder as she ran out of the park. Roseluck followed her gaze and gasped at what she saw, her book falling, forgotten, from her limp hands.
Marching through the Everfree Forest towards Ponyville was the largest, strangest, and scariest thing she had ever seen. It was taller than any building in the town, and on top of three massively long legs perched a large bulbous head, from which red lasers spewed in all directions, turning anything they touched to slag or rubble.
Her book forgotten on the ground, Roseluck hightailed it out of the park, ducking for cover between the close buildings of her home town. The strange monster had made it out of the forest now, and was headed straight for Ponyville, and from where she hid behind a corner, she could see ponies of every kind running for their lives and screaming in terror, while the ground shook beneath the behemoth’s steps.
The high-pitched whine reached her ears once more and she looked up in time to see what looked like a massive blue insect zipping across the sky. Rose hid herself behind the building once more and prayed that what she had read in her book wasn’t actually happening, hoped that it was all a dream, hoped that none of the alien monsters found her.
Until the whining sound suddenly stopped, and a massive shudder through the ground told her something very large had landed just on around the corner.
Trembling in fear, she no longer heard anypony screaming. In fact, the town had gone eerily silent, besides the sound of the things flying overhead and the giant tripod stomping around somewhere. Peeking around her corner, her vision was obscured by something dark blue.
Looking up, she saw it was a dark blue leg, attached to a dark blue body, which was attached to a dark blue head. The head had long slitted eyes that glowed the color of blood and were staring straight at her.
The terrified earth pony screamed at the top of her lungs and ran in the opposite direction, but she couldn’t even hear herself over the titanic screeching sound the monster made as it crashed into buildings and tried to wedge itself into the alley after her.
Bursting out from the other side of the buildings, she looked both ways, seeing the street was deserted and ran straight into a steel-grey metal slab that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the street.
Rubbing her snout and wincing at the stars she saw, she shook her head to clear it somewhat and looked up at the metal slab.
The higher she looked, the less she thought it was a metal wall. It bent and slanted, and was much narrower than she had originally though, but it was still as wide as her shoulders, and reached high up into the sky, before connecting to two others nearly directly overhead. Looking back down, she saw the slab lift up and slam down on the ground several meters away, causing the ground to shudder, followed by another one of the spindly metal towers, and another, and she finally got a good look as the thing moved off.
It wasn’t a wall.
Two more of the giant tripods had moved into the town, stepping over and onto and straight through some of the buildings as they unleashed fire from their bulbous heads in all directions, rubble being all that was left after they had passed.
Falling onto her back, Roseluck broke down and just cried; her life gone, her friends most likely burned away by the lasers the giant tripods and alien ships were slinging about.
Looking up at the evening sky, the lonely mare blinked as a bright point sparkled to life high above her. Quickly, it went from a bright point to a flaming ball, then transitioned into a ragged and misshaped lump screaming down into the atmosphere, coming straight towards her.
She saw pieces break away from the main body of the object and create their own trails of flame, all the while the bright flame in the sky got brighter and larger. It was so close now she could almost feel the heat radiating off of it as it roared through the atmosphere straight for her and the town.
Seconds before it impacted and blaster her into oblivion, she saw a strange greenhouse-looking contraption sitting on top of the massive object, with strange skeleton-looking things running around inside.
Then Roseluck’s world went white.
***
Roseluck woke up and screamed at the top of her lungs, falling out of bed and scrambling to her hooves, where she felt all over her body to make sure she was still alive and whole.
Eyes darting in every direction, she quickly opened her window and stuck her head outside, to be greeted by the chirping of birds and ponies going about their morning business.
There was no screaming.
There were no fires or destroyed buildings.
There were no alien tripods causing mayhem all over town.
There was however, the sound of snoring.
Turning back to her room, Rose jumped at the sudden sight of Discord sitting slumped over in a chair in the opposite corner beside her bead, his head resting against the wall as he snored gently, a book resting in his lap.
Taking careful steps towards the god of chaos, Roseluck carefully and quietly picked up the book and read the page it was open to. Her dream was starting to disappear, but as she skimmed over the lines, she couldn’t help but feel it was familiar. She read the last few lines that was written out loud, trying to make some sense of it.
“Seconds before it impacted and blasted her into oblivion, she saw a strange greenhouse-looking contraption sitting on top of the massive object, with strange skeleton-looking things running around inside. Then Roseluck’s world went white.”
Looking thoroughly confused, she closed the book and looked up, only to find that Discord had disappeared, and a faint mocking laugh could be heard coming from all directions.
Looking down she read the title of the book and her confusion grew.
“What’s an ‘April Fools’?”