A beautiful full moon was shining over the equally gorgeous-looking Crystal Empire. Every pony (except for the royal guards) had already retreated to their homes, sleeping peacefully and having pleasant dreams. Even those who had unpleasant dreams were considered lucky as they had the opportunity to meet and receive guidance from Luna, the benevolent princess of the night. Needless to say, everything and everyone was at peace that night.
Or so it seemed.
The only pony who had difficulty sleeping that night was Princess Cadence, the co-ruler of the empire alongside her husband, Prince Shining Armor. She had been standing on the palace balcony for two full hours, watching the night sky and searching for anything interesting to see. Unfortunately, her efforts had proved to be fruitless so far. She was also contemplating about whether or not continuing for another hour and had just decided to do so when her husband suddenly showed up.
"Honey? What are you doing here at this time of night?"
"Oh, sorry to worry you dear. I was just distracted by the beauty of the sky."
Out of curiosity, he also started looking at it.
"Well, it does indeed look gorgeous, but is that really the only thing distracting you?"
"Um, no, actually. I've also been thinking about something."
"Oh? What is it?"
"Okay, uh, I know this is sounds a bit silly, but I've been thinking about life in other planets."
He then gave her a confused look.
"Life in other planets, huh? Do you really think it's possible?"
"Look, I know it doesn't really make much sense, but if there are indeed creatures in other dimensions, why not in other planets? After all, we can't really be alone in this vast universe, right?"
"Um, hate to break it to you hon, but Twilight tried to solve that mystery about a decade ago and she was left empty-hoofed."
"Really? What did she do?"
"Well, I don't really remember much due to the whole experiment being VERY complicated and confusing, but I do remember her looking at every star she could find in a night sky as clear as this one and writing a gigantic math equation."
Cadence chuckled a bit.
"Oh, wow! Her room must've been a real mess that day!"
Shining chuckled too.
"You have no idea! It took nearly three hours to clean it all up and that's not including the dust!"
They both laughed for a short while before Cadence spoke again.
"So, what was the result?"
"I think the word she used to describe it was 'inconclusive'."
She thought about this for a few seconds.
"Oh. Well, um, that doesn't really mean that life is non-existent throughout the rest of the universe, right?"
"Uh, no, but I don't think it's something to be that excited about. I mean, what if these other life forms turn out to be evil?"
A small smile appeared on her face.
"Aw, come on, dear! We both know that pessimism won't bring anything good."
He instantly became nervous.
"What? No, I'm not being pessimistic! I'm just evaluating the possible outcomes and these creatures turning out to be bad guys is a very real possibility. We must be ready to deal with it when the time comes."
She was not fazed by this.
"Is that what you think? Well, I believe that as long as we establish good communication and maintain a healthy collaboration with them, they can be very friendly."
Before Shining could respond, three ginormous meteors appeared on the horizon and suddenly hit an area only five miles away from the empire. Not only their overall impact on the empire was a small earthquake, but also both Cadence and Shining noticed their crash and were extremely shocked by the event.
"What in Equestria were those?!", Cadence asked and Shining replied, "I don't know, but they seem to have come from outer space and I don't think they looked like regular meteors."
"Does that mean..."
"Yes, it seems to be our first potential contact with alien life. I need to go and rally the troops for an investigation."
Right before he left, Cadence held his hoof and gave him a kiss.
"Please, be careful and only use violence as a last resort."
"Will do. Just stay here and keep the citizens from panicking."
"Sure thing. Good luck."
He gave her a slight nod before heading out.
About fifteen minutes later, Shining Armor and a small squadron of guards arrived at the crash site and began looking for clues regarding the location or the appearance of their visitors. Although they were initially unable to find anything significant, they did discover that the crashed objects were not actually meteors, but rather giant metal escape pods that were opened from the inside. While there was practically nothing inside these pods, on their outer surface was a strange symbol that looked rather ominous.
A short while later, they discovered something even more shocking. There were a number of oddly shaped craters around the pods and while the guards initially did not know what to make of them, Shining soon realized that they were actually the footprints of the visitors. Although he followed them for a handful of seconds, they eventually disappeared and were replaced by endless straight lines that looked like carriage tracks. Just like the footprints that preceded them, they were varied in terms of size and were going towards three separate directions. The biggest one was headed west (towards Luna Bay), the smallest one was headed south (towards Neighagra Falls), and while the last one initially seemed to be heading east, one of the Pegasus guards soon noticed that it had changed direction and was instead going to the last place Shining wanted it to be: the Crystal Empire.
Upon learning this, he immediately pulled its troops back from the crash site and together, they began trotting towards the empire as fast as they could. Although they were able reach it in just under fifteen minutes, they were instantly greeted by something too frightening for them to comprehend.
Right outside the empire's gateway was a humongous green-colored vehicle made of metal with two long cylinders attached to its top. The same symbol that was on the pods was also present on the front end of the vehicle.
Surrounding it were a whole swarm of ponies all awakened by the crash and were now curiously inspecting it in order to find out what it was supposed to be. While Shining Armor and the guards tried their best to hold these civilians back, Cadence arrived and began to approach it slowly and cautiously. Though her husband initially wanted to stop her, he remembered her advice on using violence as a last resort and instead, decided to carefully observe the situation.
About half a minute later, Cadence was only three feet away from the vehicle and determined that it was the right time to speak to their visitor.
"Greetings, traveler from outer space. I am Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire and it is my great honor to welcome you to our beautiful land of Equestria. We sincerely hope that you accept our most generous offer of friendship and make yourself at home during your stay."
Although nothing happened during the next ten seconds, the cylinders eventually pointed towards Cadence and began to glow. Fearing for the worst, Shining quickly pulled her out of the way before a pair of huge laser beams emerged from the cylinders and obliterated a small portion of the street.
As a result of that, every single pony began running to their homes screaming and Shining ordered the guards to attack the hostile alien. Unfortunately, their efforts soon proved to be useless as its armor was too strong to be pierced by arrows, swords, or spears. After two whole minutes of failing to damage the intruder, the guards eventually became tired and gave up on their weapons. Before they could think of another way to solve their problem, however, they witnessed something even more mind-blowing:
The enemy vehicle moved and altered a good number of its parts, and in just a few seconds, transformed into a twenty foot long robot with an equally intimidating appearance.
As the ponies tried to comprehend what just happened, he spoke with an earth-shattering voice:
"YOU CALL THAT AN 'ATTACK'?! I'LL SHOW YOU AN ATTACK!!!"
His purple-colored parts began to glow and Shining ordered a full retreat. They managed to escape and avoid being harmed just in the nick of time, as the robot emitted an extremely powerful shockwave that destroyed several buildings in the surrounding area and shook the entire empire to its core. Right after that, his right arm turned into an assault rifle and he started shooting at the rest of the buildings with rapid neutron blasts.
Soon enough, he had begun to tear the whole place apart crystal by crystal, and there was pure chaos everywhere. The civilians were running without direction due to panic while the guards (along with Shining Armor and Cadence) were desperately trying to both contain the destruction and evacuate as many ponies as they could.
The robot, on the other hand, was enthusiastically shooting at everything he saw while maniacally laughing at the whole spectacle. He simply had no sympathy for the innocent lives he was endangering and in his eyes (or more appropriately, optics). all the destruction he was causing was just an enjoyable part of his job. Even though his weapon ran out of ammo in a few minutes, he instantly turned it into a rocket launcher, which caused even more mayhem.
And when that weapon also ran out of ammo in a short while, he pulled out a giant spiky hammer from his back, and performed some kind of whirlwind attack that demolished another good number of houses before he spotted Shining, who was busy saving a foal from a burning building. As soon he returned the foal to his parents, the robot promptly grabbed him and brought him right in front of his optics.
"WHERE IS IT?!"
"Whe- Where's what?"
"The artifact! The one your ancestor stole it from us! Where in the name of Primus did he hide it?!"
"I... I don't know what you're talking about."
Right after he said that, his face was brutally pressed against the sidewalk.
"LIES!!!!"
"I... I swear! I have no idea where or what this artifact is!"
"Are you absolutely certain?!"
"YES! I'm telling you the honest truth!"
He instantly released him
"FINE! If you won't spill it, then perhaps your sibling will. This signifies the official end of your usefulness."
"What? NO! Stay away from her!"
"You have no say in this, insect! In fact, I believe the nonsense you just uttered were your last words."
He lifted his foot upwards and was just about to squash Shining like a cockroach when a high-concentrated blast of magic hit his leg, causing him to stumble backwards. Soon after that, Cadence showed up and help her husband to get back on his hooves.
"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"
"A little, but I'm fine. Impeccable timing, by the way. Though, it could've come a bit earlier."
"Sorry, the evacuation took a bit longer than expected. But, I can now assure you that every pony is away from danger."
"Good. Our first priority is done, then. Now, let's deal with the next one. Are you ready?"
"Born ready."
They gave each other determined nods and turned to face the mechanical monster who had become even more furious than ever.
"YOU INSOLENT PESTS! You dare challenge Brawl, the commander of the Decepticon ground forces and a most loyal follower of Lord Megatron?! Then, prepare to be sent to oblivion."
He transformed into his vehicle form and fired another pair of huge laser beams at the royal couple, who responded with beams of magic. While theses opposing beams initially seemed to be equal in strength, Brawl's attack eventually proved to be much stronger and the beams he emitted came dangerously close to the royal couple. Just before they were hit, however, they quickly conjured up a magical shield that only barely managed to protect them. The resulting explosion left them alive, but also severely injured.
Satisfied with this outcome, Brawl transformed back into its robot form and picked them in order to have one last talk while Shining managed to give the merciless warrior a small glare.
"What's the matter? Not brave enough to finish what you started?"
"Shut it. You two put up a decent fight for a couple of insects. This is one of the only two reasons I spare your miserable lives. The second one is the fact that you're going to deliver a message to your fellow royals from our leader: Consider this as a small glimpse of our true power and return what is rightfully ours as soon as possible. If not, the doom of your entire species will rain from the sky."
After saying all this, he dropped them to the sidewalk and departed in his vehicle form, leaving the grievously wounded royal couple to recover and gaze upon the utterly horrific destruction all around them.