It was a young morning. The sun hasn't even risen yet. It makes sense that the sun didn't rise, if the Alicorn who now controls the sun and moon hasn't woken up yet. But that quickly changed.
“Princess, something bad happened!" Called the guardian pegasus, who was pounding his hoof against the stone door. The sound echoed throughout the corridor and even across the Princesses room.
The Princess growled, half-opening her eyes and cautiously lifting her head from the pillow.
“Ugh-! Speak!”She said, annoyed.
"Today, from Zero-fifty to three-zero-zero, four ponies disappeared from Ponyville!"
Twilight analyzed this information for a moment before finally getting out of bed, putting on her crown using magic and walking to the stone door which she opened.
“Four ponies? Wh-where- How? Do we know the names?”
“Two from SugarCube Street, one from West Ponyville, and the last one from the Square. Three of the four families noticed it right away, while the fourth had friends. Amethyst Star, Lyra Heartstrings and Vinyl Scratch who calls herself DJ-Pon3 .”
"Strange. And who is the last one?”
“Fleur De Lis, Princess!” He answered.
Twilight thought for a moment. She didn't think of anything! She was still sleeping!
The purple Alicorn looked behind her for a moment to see some inspiration with a plan. When she noticed the lights coming through the curtains a bit, she thought of something. She turned back to the guard.
“Send a reconnaissance division to EverFree Forest and Ponyville. At the same time, send a message to our neighbors to try it on their territories and borders.”She said.
"Yes, Princess!"The guard saluted, turned, and stumbled through the hall.
The princess closed the door, turned and came into the middle of the room.
Then she trotted to the balcony and sat down by the telescope. Using magic, she took the binoculars and pointed them to the west of Ponyville. Where the iron object landed.
"First that and now this? Different places, different ponies. Why, how and where did they even disappear?”
Twilight watched the object with her binoculars for a while, which had been there since yesterday, but she still hadn't seen it with her own eyes.
"Eh, when I'm already awake..."She said to herself, spreading her wings and taking off, towards Ponyville.
After a few minutes, the Princess of Equestria circled the object.
Something didn't seem right to her.
Everything Spike was telling her was accurate. An iron cylinder, half buried in the ground and completely "mysterious". Huh. Yeah sure Spike.
Twilight landed next to the object and placed a hoof on the surface.
“Weird… I'd bet it's hollow. Otherwise, I don't know how it survived the flight through the atmosphere."
Twilight circled the facility at least five times now. Until she noticed something…suspicious.
The Cylinder was...open from the top...
Princess raised an eyebrow, looking around. She noticed a round-like object that was a few meters from the Cylinder. She thought someone had opened the cylindrical object and was inside, but there was silence.
Out of nowhere, sounds that Twilight would compare to the engine of a steam train running through Equestria began to come from inside the cylindrical object.
Twilight was very confused as she backed up step by step. A train inside of this? Wait…inside?
In the split of the seconds, the object soon split completely in two pieces, revealing something that even Spike had no idea. Yes, he said it might be a capsule, but rich in gems. But in the end it turned out to be neither.
It was…something together. Like wires with an iron cube in a box.
Suddenly the thing started to…unwind. What appeared to be tentacles-like legs, straightened out along the iron "head" that appeared to be an oval rectangle. The "head" rose and the whole thing slowly began to rise, along with smaller puffs of steam coming from somewhere.
When it all straightened out, Twilight couldn't place the shape of the thing on anything. Plus, it was taller than Ponyville Town Hall!
A "head" like thing was attached to an egg-shaped "gearbox" with three legs coming out from underneath. At the top of the "head" was an outlet from which faint smoke was coming out. The "head" also had glass, similar to a window. These “windows” were even in the front lower part of the “head” and in the back of the “head”. There was a cage hanging from its back…
After the Princess analyzed the whole object, she felt a tree behind her. In shock, she couldn't move anymore. The moon, which was in the last quarter, partially illuminated the tall object. She noticed the shine.
“That's…made of steel too!?”
As soon as she said it out loud, bright, white lights came out of the “windows”, revealing the sleeping landscape beneath the steel structure.
The object looked around until its lights fell on the sleeping Ponyville. The object stood still, preparing for...something.
(Meh, I'm gonna use the 2005 film's horns and SF, because they're just good!)
Two loud and deep horn-like sounds came from the tall object. Seconds later, its tentacle-like leg just made its first step. Then another, another another...
The ground shook with every step the thing took. Then, hatch the size of a door opened from under the head. A wheelbarrow-sized prism emerged from the hatch. It was attached to thick tentacle-like wire. On the end of the prism, a light blue hemisphere started making unpleasant hissing noises which increased every second.
Twilight watched in horror as the "machine" slowly approached the city. The Princess gained courage, she soared, flew past the "machine" and stopped in mid-air in front of it.
The lights of the "machine" fixed on the Princess of Equestria, who had a serious expression. The “Machine” stopped and watched the purple Alicorn motionless. Only sounds that resembled an engine could be heard. The confused residents of Ponyville could also be heard as they were awakened by the shaking of the ground and the horn. What they saw stayed in their minds forever.
Princess Twilight Sparkle who stopped the big colossus.
Well…except that the colossus stopped to…make the aim easier...
The “Machine” aimed the prism at the Princess. In the middle of the light blue hemisphere, a blue, spinning ball began to form, with faint flashes.
This is what the Princess knew about unicorns, like waiting to create a powerful spell! Realizing that the blue body was about to shoot something powerful, she quickly wrapped herself in a thick layer of her magic.
A blue, rippling line shot out from the prism, which, while it didn't break through the purple shield, was powerful enough to throw Twilight to the far side of Ponyville at incredible speed. Twilight came down very hard.
It took several minutes before she was able to recover. When she opened her eyes, she was in bed. Wait, in bed?
“For Luna’s sake! I flew through someone's roof!"
As she untangled herself from the wooden debris and put on her crown, she heard…sirens and screaming of ponies and other creatures…
Worried, she returned back to the roof. It wasn't over yet. But when she saw the wasteland...
"Oh no…"
West Ponyville was on fire, smoke went into the air, the houses were in pieces. Some houses from the West part of the city were even upside down on the square buildings!
“What are they using to cause destruction of this magnitude?!?”
But the arrow that struck her heart was yet to come…
“Dear, Celestia… Fluttershy…Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash…AppleJack!”
Then Twilight heard the sounds of movement…
“That machine-!”
Twilight flew up to a certain height to spot the three-legged machine on a smaller hill, behind Ponyville! It was chasing some creatures!
Twilight flew to the machine and prepared a medium-strength, magical beam.
*SNAP!*
The magic…it stopped the magic…before it even hitted the machine!
"WHAT THE HAY!?"
Twilight fired her magic at the intruder again, but with the same result! The magic beam just stopped short of something.
“Princess! Save yourselves!!”
Twilight noticed the two ponies that were in that…cage. They were trying to get out! But, when they noticed the Princess, they took action.
The three-legged machine didn't have time to return fire as it focused on the unicorn below. He had the same problems as Twilight. The magic didn't go through…something invisible was making that thing…invulnerable.
"I won't leave the ponies behind!"She said.
"No! Run! It's shooting something, that makes our magic turn off somehow! If you try to save us, this will probably happen to you too!” A yellow unicorn with a light green mane said.
“Wait a second… That thing has two functions?”
As soon as Twilight finished her question, something like a sound wave came out from the prism. That hitted the unicorn, which was now paralyzed!
Twilight watched as the unicorn tried to teleport away but his magic wasn't listening. The machine knelt down to him and a tentacle-like hand came out of the "gearbox" and picked him up and threw him into the cage with the other unicorns.
Hol up, other unicorns?
Twilight knew that this machine had to be neutralized immediately. But even if her magic couldn't scratch the surface of the machine, she had to connect with someone. Make something big, that could defeat its shield… She had to save Equestria from evil again. And the only option she could think of at the moment was the 'Elements of Harmony'.
But little she knew, that task was impossible…
Now, she had to warn her subjects. What happened this morning was an invasion for sure! And at the same time a declaration of war against…machines.
Twilight found it hard to leave lives in need, but she had to.
She teleported away to the castle. Or rather, to the throne room. The hall was known in the castle as the hall of 'history'. But when Celestia abdicated and was replaced by Twilight, all but the most important images of Celestia were dismantled and replaced.
As the purple Alicorn reached her throne, she pressed the red button on the side. A button she hoped she would never push.
Sirens began to sound throughout the castle, mainly to wake up the soldiers and generals.
After a few moments, the first beings reached the throne room, where a frowning Twilight was already waiting on the throne. Spike got there too. Finally, the commander of the royal army emerged from the confused crowd. It was Griffon Gallus.
A light blue winged Grif, with dark blue wings and circles under his eyes, he wore golden armor, specially created for his figure.
He took off his helmet and asked.
“Princess? This meeting- Have we been attacked?”
The princess stood up from her throne and pointed to a window that had a beautiful view of Ponyville.
Gallus came to the window and looked at Ponyville. He was shocked and surprised.
“Ponyville has been attacked!?”
“By the machine that was hiding in that cylindrical meteorite. It's taller than Ponyville Town Hall and a laser that destroys anything in its path.”She explained and walked over to a shocked Griffin who was still staring at a burning chunk of Ponyville. Until, one thing occurred to him.
“If the machine is that big,”He started and looked at the Princess.
"Then why can't I see it?"
To this the Princess answered lightly.
"Hunting ponies."
“Oh… S-should we call all capable soldiers immediately?”
"Definitely!"She said without thinking.
"And mobilize others at the same time. What walks Equestria now has a shield.”