//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Debris // Story: Ponycraft: Equine War // by DarkColt //------------------------------// “Darn it, Applebloom!” Applejack cried out to her sister. “Ah said stay inside!” The orange earth pony ran out of the house after her little sister, who protested. “But Applejack!” “No buts! We don’t know what caused this, now git back inside with Granny while Big Mac and I try to figure this out!” Applejack said as she caught with Applebloom and stopped dead in her tracks, she stared perplexed at a large metal object stuck deep into the ground in front of her. “What in tarnation is that?” Applebloom asked, stepping towards it, before AJ stepped in front of her. “Don’t git too close to it, Applebloom.” Even from here, she could feel a lot of heat radiating from it. Her eyes glanced toward a bright red form next to her. “Any idea what this is, Big Mac?” She asked. Her elder brother shook his head. “Nnnnope!” He said. “AJ!” A voice called out, causing the earth pony to look in the direction of Ponyville, there she saw Rainbow Dash flying towards. “Rainbow!” AJ called back, waving. “Do you know what’s goin’ on?” “Something crashed into the Everfree forest,” The pegasus answered, landing next to AJ. “She wants us to- Woah!” That was when she noticed the metal object in the ground. “Yikes!” She said. “I guess Pinkie was right, it must’ve been a spaceship...” “A what-now!?” AJ asked, confused but Rainbow simply shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, look, there’s a fire raging out of control in the Everfree, and Twilight wants us to meet her at Fluttershy’s so we can figure out how to put it out.” “A fire?” AJ looked over into town, and saw the large amount of smoke and the orange glow emanating from the forest that sent shivers up her spine. “Sweet Celestia...” The earth pony turned to Big Mac. “Take Applebloom inside, an’ make sure she doesn’t git out again. I’ll go help Twi and the others to help fix this mess.” “Eeeeyep!” Big Mac answered, herding a protesting Applebloom back toward the house. With that, AJ galloped after Rainbow Dash, heading back towards Ponyville. In the heart of the town, a door slammed open, surprising a nearby gold-maned grey pegasus and causing her to stumble into two other ponies who were nearly finished cleaning up the glass. Emerging from the door, was a pure white unicorn with a spikey blue mane and huge, oversized glasses. “ALRIGHT!” Vinyl Scratch called out to nopony in particular. “WHERE’S THE DJ THAT CAUSED THIS, CAUSE I WANT THAT DJ’S AUTOGRAPH! AND HIS OR HER SOUND SYSTEM THAT CAUSED THIS!” “Vinyl!” A high-class voice called out from behind the unicorn. Octavia stepped out, nervously stepping over any nearby glass shards, before glaring at Vinyl. “What?” The unicorn DJ asked. “Do you see what happened here? Think what I could with a sound system THIS powerful!” Octavia shuddered. “I’d rather not...” “It wasn’t a DJ.” The grey pegasus said, causing both ponies to look at her. “Ditzy?” Octavia asked. “What do you mean?” “I heard Pinkie Pie tell Rarity that it was some kind of spaceship that crashed into the Everfree forest.” Vinyl scoffed. “Really? A spaceship? Come on... Even you, Derpy, have to admit that is beyond stupid.” Ditzy glared at the DJ, which caused her to hold back a chuckle at the pegasus’ eyes. Ditzy simply pointed a hoof toward the forest, and plume of smoke and orange glow. Vinyl stared, lowering her glasses, partially revealing her wide red eyes as she got a better look at it, and whistled. “Well, buck me...” She said. “How come that wasn’t the first thing we noticed?” Octavia asked. Before Vinyl could make any kind of response, Rainbow Dash flew by, knocking over the DJ. “Gangway!” The rainbow maned pegasus called out. “Coming through!” “Sorry!” Applejack said as she ran by. “Emergency!” Vinyl got up before Octavia could even move to help her. “Watch where ya fly, you damned Pegasus!” Vinyl yelled, shaking her hoof at Dash. As Twilight came into view of Fluttershy’s cottage, she gasped to she saw that even the cottage was hit by the soundwave of the explosion. She galloped, worried for the emotionally fragile pegasus. As she came closer, her nose caught a scent that nearly made her gag. It smelled awful and... artificial and wrong. She ignored it when she saw Fluttershy in the field , tending to something on the ground. “Fluttershy!” She called out, causing the pegasus to jump and squeal in surprise and fear. She whirled around and, upon seeing Twilight, burst into tears. “Twilight!” She said as she nearly tackled the unicorn in an embrace, crying in her shoulder. Twilight returned the embrace and spoke in a comforting voice. “It’s okay, I’m here and the others are on their way...” “T-t-the explosion scared all the critters...” Fluttershy sniffled. “All the b-birds flew into the air, but then they all fell and now they’re... they’re...” Fluttershy broke down again and cried harder. Twilight then remembered the stench that filled her nose and remembered that Rainbow couldn’t fly very high because the air was filled with some kind of poison... “I’m so, so sorry Fluttershy...” She said, holding her a little tighter. “But, once the others get here, we’ll find a way to stop this. I promise.” Fluttershy sniffled again, before looking to see Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow and AJ running over to them. “Is everything alright, darlings?” Rarity asked, her eyes filled with concern. “No,” Twilight answered, turning to face her friends. “We have to move to stop this! Before any more damage is done!” She was mad, mad to see Fluttershy in such a broken state. It pained everypony to see Fluttershy so hurt. They made their way inside the cottage silently, sedately. Even Pinkie had stopped her bouncing, and glanced back to Fluttershy every now and then. As Fluttershy slowly shut the door behind her, Rainbow Dash scrunched her nose. “The air here smells exactly like the poison higher up except not as strong and overpowering.” She said. “What could possibly cause such a horrid stench?” Rarity asked. “The fuel from the spaceship, like I said before.” Pinkie answered. “Pinkie...” Twilight said, about to question her before AJ spoke. “Twi, I think Pinkie may be right. Over by the farm, me an’ Big Mac saw this huge piece of metal sticking deep into the ground, an’ it was hot, even from a distance. Wasn’t natural either, somethin’ made that.” “If it’s an alien ship...” Rainbow said. “Does that mean this is some sort of attack?” Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think crashing a ship would be an attack. If it was a ship that crashed, it was probably a terrible, terrible accident.” “I hope the aliens are okay...” Fluttershy said quietly. “Hey, maybe they deserved it, for all we know.” Rainbow said. “These aliens could be complete jerks who probably would’ve invaded us anyways!” “We’re jumping to conclusions, everypony!” Twilight said, walking over to the window overlooking the forest. “Right now, there’s a fire burning wildly in the forest and, if we don’t do something soon, the whole forest could burn down, and spread to the town itself. We have to find a way to stop this before it’s too late.” Everypony nodded in agreement. “How are we gonna do that?” AJ asked. “I have a few spells that might be able to do the trick,” Twilight answered. “But it all depends on how bad the damage is already.” She turned to her friends, horn glowing before a flash filled the room for a second. When it vanished, all the ponies rubbed their eyes, before looking to see a purple aura glowing from them. Twilight had the same aura, and sniffed the air, before smiling. “Woah, Twilight!” Rainbow said. “What did you do?” “It’s a protection spell,” The unicorn answered. “Now we can enter the forest without having to worry about the heat from the fire or the poisonous air. If you’ll notice, you can’t smell the stench from the fuel.” Rainbow sniffed the air, and breathed deep. “Oh, it feels so good to smell fresh air again!” “My my my, darling!” Rarity said, examining her forehoof and the purple glow all around her. “You’re magical talent certainly has improved.” “I know, years ago I wouldn’t have dared try anything this complex.” “But...” Rarity hesitated. “Does it have to purple? No offense, but this aura colour doesn’t really match with my fur.” “Ah, quit yer whinin’!” AJ said. “If it protects us, that’s good enough fer me.” “Let’s make our way to the forest, girls!” Twilight said, running out the door followed by her friends. Flames burned all around the trees next to the wrecked hull of the cruiser. A rumble was heard inside, and then a bang, and then a large door slowly opened part way, where numerous shapes of twisted human life forms emerged, howling at the flames and the forest.