It was another sunny day in the land of Friendship. Every city in Equestria began to mobilize and get prepared for the war that had already begun. But little anypony in Canterlot knew, Ponyville wasn’t the only city that had been attacked…
In the Canterlot Castle, Princess of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike were in the royal library. They were trying to find anything about life from space.
“I don’t know, Twilight. The only world I know, where life is, is only behind the mirror. What if the aliens are humans?” Spike asked, as he searched more than fifty books.
“It cannot be humans, Spike! They don’t know ANYTHING about our world. It has to be someone or something, who lives on a different planet, that is near our planet!” She explained, as she was holding ten books about life in her magic.
“Okay, if we are gonna put the reason, why and how they got here, out of the way, don’t you want to try to find that machine instead? Since this morning, it just vanished!”
“Vanished?” She asked, confused.
“*Sigh* Twilight, you are a good leader and that, but that thing left the region of Ponyville this late morning! There’s a pretty big chance it's hunting ponies in Dodge City!
I am asking you, as a friend; YOU are the face of the Ponykind. YOU are the Guardian of the Friendship and Equestria. Do you think you can just set aside the land you need to protect? Lives need to be saved?” Spike said, as he put his claws on her shoulder.
“Yeah… You’re right.” She realized, as she put all ten books back to the shelves.
“I shouldn’t leave Equestria behind. I just…can’t stop thinking about the simple questions that could explain the reasons for this invasion; Why and who are they?” She explained and looked at her dragon friend.
“We will never know. If…” He twirled his hand
“We won’t execute them.” Twilight finished the sentence.
*KNOCK KNOCK*
Then a knocking was heard from the royal library doors. Twilight walked to them and opened them.
“Princess.” A royal guard was on the other side of the doors. He was holding something.
“Letters from Applesoona, Manehattan and Griffonstone.” He said, which Twilight raised an eyebrow.
She took the letters with her magic, guard salutes and trotted away. She looked confused at Spike who had the same expression.
Little scared, she opened first letter. She was horrified.
“Something bad?” Spike asked, but got ignored.
Twilight opened another letter. Same horrified face, but worse. Spike gets little worry.
“Twilight, what is happening?” But he got ignored again.
Now Twilight opened the last letter and hoped it wouldn't be the same as the first two. It was not.
“Twilight!” Spike screamed. She finally looked at him.
“H-How long would it take to mobilize, if we had only 5 c-cities?” She asked. Spike looked at her with his head tilted.
“What? Why five? We have eight cities to mobilize, right?”
“I guess not anymore.” She said in a slightly squeaky voice.
Spike couldn't hold it anymore. He took one of the letters from her purple magic and started reading for himself.
“Manehattan has been attacked by the Machine! We count the injured by the thousands, the dead by the hundreds and the kidnapped by the tens! For those abducted, it was mostly unicorns! Mobilization isn’t possible! After the attack, the machine changed direction, now heading back inland!”
After he read the letter, Twilight gave him another one, in front of his face, in her magic aura. Spike slowly took it and looked at it. It wasn’t a letter. But a photo taken by one of the known photographers in Equestria.
In the photo, they already had a familiar death machine. But...there wasn't just one...but two. And they weren’t even in Manehattan, but…
“Las Pegasus…? But…what will we do now? Manehattan was the only city that could mobilize enough ponies against the ONE Tripod! But if the machine isn’t alone anymore, then this is how we send our soldiers to certain death!” Spike said, a little shocked.
Twilight turned her back on him, putting her hoof on her chin. Seconds later, she spoke;
“If they can use technology, that can make them invulnerable, then it's finally time to take science back to life.”
“What do you mean?” He asked, a little worried.
Twilight looked at him.
"We need to make a weapon that must be strong enough to pierce that shield of theirs. And if that weapon can pierce the shield, then piercing steel armor shouldn't be a problem. Although I'm under pressure, I feel that here in the library, I can find a clue that can create this weapon for us.”
Spike looked at her, dumbfounded.
“W-What about the others?”
“Tell Gallus to make a plan that could get the ponies to try to get to Canterlot. Canterlot has a shield that could deflect their lasers…for a few days.”
“Uh…you sure it’s safe outside, if one of the Tripods is coming back here?”
“I know their speed. They are REALLY slow. So...two days?”
“That’s not enough time for any of this!”
“Trust me, ponies will survive, if they know where to hide.”
“Well..if you think... I’m gonna go tell the general about your plan.” Spike said as he was leaving the library.
When he was about to turn down the hallway, he remembered something.
“What was in the letter from the Griffonstone, anyway?” He asked, while standing in the doorway.
“They…they’re saying that another cylinder shaped object, that was falling from the sky, has been seen. By their words, it landed into the Celestian Ocean.”
“More double trouble.” He just said, sighed and went down the hallway.