//------------------------------// // Prelude: Incoming! // Story: My Little Annihilation // by Word Wizard //------------------------------// All but exhausting the resources of a galaxy, the battle between flesh and machine rages on through the cold void of space. Planet after planet, used and discarded as battlegrounds for the CORE and the ARM. For four-thousand years, this perpetual conflict has raged on, decimating everything that lies in its way. Fueled by their mutual hatred, the CORE and the ARM will continue to fight, the only acceptable outcome for either side total annihilation of the other. Technology, captured, assimilated adapted and advanced to create fearful self replicating mechanisims of war. The CORE uploading the minds of it's finest soldiers directly into battle machines, allowing the same conciousness to be replicated hundreds of times over. To counter this, the ARM used cloning, creating thousands of soldiers to pilot gigantic machines, their sole purpose destruction of the CORE. When these two frightening armies clash, a conflict beyond measure is found, the mere footsteps of a commander flattens forests, cracks rocks and destroys villages. Each battle ending in a stalemate, each side burned and maimed, the resources of the current planet depleted they move on, migrating to another celestial body. This time, a planet known as Equestria is slated to be the next battleground for the two warring factions.... ~~~~~ "Twilight!" Rainbow flew into the library. Twilight, who had been attempting a very tricky manuver of placing all the books in the library in the proper place at once. It had been a very busy night of studying and she didn't want to spend too much time cleaning up. When Rainbow flew in, she lost all concentration she had. All the books dropped to the floor with a loud thump. "Thanks for waiting Rainbow," Twilight said, flattening her ears as she turned to the hovering Rainbow Dash. "No problem," Rainbow said proudly, "Anyway, I came here to tell you that there's this weird star thing in the sky!" "Star? It's the middle of the day!" Twilight snorted, in an instant she was next to the telescope with a flash to have a look at what her friend thought was so dire. "Well, there's something up there, and it's moving fast," Rainbow flew over to the telescope where Twilight had teleported to and alighted next to her. Looking in the telescope, Twilight scanned the sky. "Rainbow, I don't see anything," She said, continuing to scan more and more of the sky. "See, it's right there!" Rainbow pointed to a fiery streak in the sky. Twilight swiveled the telescope to look up at where Rainbow's hoof was pointing. Then she saw it. A large fireball was flying over Equestria, red with flames and slowing down rapidly. “Twilight, what is that thing and why’s coming down so fast?” Spike called from the other room, worry ladened in his voice. “A meteorite or something and it’s coming in fast, it should abate in speed with the change in atmopheric density,” Twilight called, fast and furiously rolling the words off her tounge. “A what’cha what?” Spike called back. Twilight sighed. “It’s big, and it’s going to hit the ground, soon!” Twilight translated for her friend and assistant. Twilight turned to Rainbow, "Chase after it, but try to keep your distance when it hits, and it's probably going to cause a rather large blast and crater when it does." "You got it," Rainbow said, flying up into the sky, "That's what I'm here for!" She streaked off over the horizon, chasing the fiery object in the sky. Twilight galloped down to the library, "Spike!" She shouted into the other room, "Spike! Get in here, I need your help!" "Yeah yeah, Twilight?" The little dragon walked out of the kitchen, "What, woah! You better put these books away before you do anything! What did you do, let a bomb off in here last night?!" "Spike, this is no time for jokes, I need all the books on spacecraft and planetary science we have!" Twilight exclaimed as she started digging through the pile of books. "You got it! Hey... what do you need them for anyway?" Spike started scanning through all the books as well, grasping every related one in his claws. "Nevermind, there’s no time to explain." Twilight said, horn glowing as she grabbed a number of the books in her magic and putting them up on the stargazing balcony. "Oh... okay, yeah, that again. Why do you never explain anything to me?" Spike dumped his load off at the balcony as well, where Twilight was feverishly looking through book after book, shaking her head and throwing them down to the library. "Since when was mythology related to planetary science?" She shouted a little annoyed at Spike. "Well, there is an awful lot of, 'how the planets were made' and stuff so I just thought..." "Nevermind what you thought, mythology and science are different! Ah here we go, 'Atmospheres and suchlike' by Luke Horseward," Twilight reached out with her magic and pulled the book up to her face, and, employing magical speed-reading, a skill she considered cheating in any normal situation, she read the whole thing in ten seconds flat. "Okay, that thing is definitely a spaceship, it's executing re-entry, causing it to burn, but it has a heat shield, that's why its still up there... Get everything we have on spacecraft," Twilight called to the heavily laden Spike. "Yeah yeah, I'm coming," Spike said from underneath a pile of books reaching almost to the ceiling. "Woah!" The little dragon lost his balance, falling over and looking up at the large stack of books, expecting them to land on top of him. Instead, he saw them hovering in the air. "Great, thanks Spike," Twilight said, busily arranging her new acquisitions on the balcony. "Heh... No problem, not at all," Spike said, rubbing the back of his head. "Oh, oh dear," Twilight said, a look of concern appearing on her face as she read one book after the other. "Whats wrong, Twi?" Spike asked, walking up to the balcony next the unicorn. "Look at this,” She looked at Spike and pointed to three books she levitated them in front of her and Spike, pages opened to pictures and descriptions of the ‘Streaks’. “These 'Streaks of Death' have been flying around the galaxy for years. One followed by the other, leaving destroyed and misshapen planets in their wakes... I don't know what they are but they destroy planets... quick Spike, is there another one in the sky?" Twilight explained, jumping to the telescope. Another streak came into view. "We're doomed." Meanwhile, in Appelosa country.... "Come on, y'all!" Applejack shouted, "Them apples ain't gunna buck themselves!" "Eeeyup," Big Macintosh agreed, hauling a wagon laden with the fruit past Applejack. Applejack and the rest of the apple family had gathered in Appelosa to help the ponies there with the harvest. Since the conflict with the buffalo, Appelosa had made it's orchards larger than the town could harvest in order to keep the growing buffalo population in check, so every year the apple family would come down to help with the harvest. After learning a thing or two from Twilight during Winter Wrap Up, Applejack decided to organize the event this year. Early that morning at the red light of dawn, she and a group of other ponies were out putting baskets under the trees, so now all anypony had to do was buck the trees. It was almost mid afternoon and they still had a half of the orchard left to go. "I sure do wish these trees would buck themselves," Applejack muttered to herself before bucking the tree next to her. The fruit fell neatly into the four baskets along side it with a satisfying thump. *Neeeerow!* Applejack turned her head to the sky along with everypony else. Two streaks were running along side each other, one rainbow one red, the red one headed for the ground and the rainbow one keeping it’s altitude. "Look out!" Rainbow Dash called to everyone, "It's gonna hit, but I think it's got awhile yet!" The red streak suddenly executed an un-precidented manuver. Ejecting the shell like an onion skin, an odd shaped metal craft appeared. About the size of a skyscraper, it was pointed sideways, into the wind. Four metal rockets deployed from the side, covering up the glimpses of the payload the ponies were able to get, and fired. Along with the rockets, a parachute deployed out the back, slowing it down. It's horizontal velocity countered, the craft ejected the parachute and began its final descent towards the ground. "Ahhh!" Everypony screamed, running at full tilt out of the orchard which had turned into a slated landing site. The large rockets ejected from the craft, falling to the ground and erupting in a fiery explosion, lighting the orchard on fire, adding to the confusion and panic of the ponies below. All Applejack was concerned about now was getting everypony out safely, she stood, ushering her family members and Appelosens out of the orchard. The payload of the craft was now clearly visible, a gigantic humanoid robot, towering about six stories tall was being lowered onto the ground by smaller rocket engines. It's menacing blank face, with two triangles sticking out either end of the front mask, glared straight on. Two arms, one pointed down and the other curved up slightly jutted out from the metal body. Large legs, with feet the size of a quad of apple trees touched the ground, a large shockwave echoed through the earth. As the vibrations reached the apple trees, all the ripe apples fell out, squarely into the baskets. "Well, I guess that takes care of the harvest...." Applejack said, galloping off with the rest of her family. The craft flew away, leaving it's menacing payload towering over the orchard. Meanwhile, in Canterlot..... "Princess, we have a problem," Shining Armor shouted, running into the throne room. He had been visiting for a week, much as he hated it, without Cadence, to act as captian of the royal guard. New recrutes had just come in and someone had to give them the run-down. "What is it?" Celestia, sensing the urgentness in Shining Armor's voice, set down her teacup and newspaper and stood up. "An odd streak has appeared in the sky, your highness," Shining Armor explained, "It seems to be heading for the ground." "What?!" Celestia rushed out of her throne, brushing past Shining Armor who now followed her through the castle hallways. "Like I said, there's this streak, a spacecraft of some sort coming in, fast," The emphasis he put on this last word made the princess shiver. "Very well, where do you think it will land?" Celestia stepped out on her balcony, scanning the sky for the object. "Probably just outside Canterlot, Princess," Shining Armor said, "I can arrange for some men to meet it if you'd like." "That won't be nessesary," Celestia said, looking at the orange and red ball in the distance, "Get everyone from the Canterlot houses into the castle, we're not sure where it's going to land." "Yes your highness," Shining Armor bolted out of the room, shouting orders as he went. Celestia looked at the sky and sighed, "I hope you won't hurt out people, otherwise I'll be forced to take preemptive actions." As if in answer, something crazy happened. Instead of dropping the shell like on the ARM craft, the pod mearly forwarded the back shell to create a very thick front edge. Then, a parachute deployed out the back and rockets fired. When the smoke cleared, the craft was headed straight for the ground. *BOOOOOM!* The craft hit the ground and released shockwaves greater than the other commander touching down... shaking the very foundation of the castle, Celestia braced herself against the shock. "Sister, what has happened?" Princess Luna ran into the room, visibly shaken from the impact. "I don't know, but it can't be good," Celestia said, "Come, we must help Shining Armor get everypony into the castle." "But Tia, what about that... that falling star?" Lune asked, surprised. "Don't worry about it, right now we can only help with the evacuation." Before Luna could respond, a gigantic, almost seven story tall robot pulled itself off the ground, revealing it's menacing head just above the mountain. "Move!" Celestia grabbed Luna, jumping off the balcony and gliding down to Shining Armor who was ushering ponies into the castle, his guards forming a pony wall to keep the residents organized. "Shining Armor!" Celestia called, "How is the evacuation going?" "Well, your highness, a few more minutes and we should have everyone out of the city proper." "Good, when you finish with it, cast the shield spell over the castle, I'm afraid we have something much more than just a streak in the sky now" Celestia said, nerves and tension creeping into her normally stately voice. "Yes Celestia," Shining Armor said, patting the princess on the back, "I will not fail you." "Good." As Celestia spoke, however, a frighting sight walked out from behind the hill... the menacing robot who's head Celestia recognized. A large bi-pedal huminoid robot, towering almost seven stories tall, with two arms, one an obvious weapon...a weapon which Celestia feared. The other, a highly advanced mechanism which she didn't recognize. The non-weapon arm began to suck up trees, disintegrating them into nano particles and sucking them in... clearing a pine in a second. "GO!" Celestia shouted, staring at the machine, "GET INSIDE NOW!" Her words had an effect on the somewhat obstinate crowd, all the ponies now cooperated, letting their makeup get tarnished just to obey the Princess. Behind them, the robot began to build an extremely large solar array, it's nanolaythe constructing it piece by piece. "Everypony's in, get inside Princesses, I'm putting up my shield," Shining Armor called to the royal sisters. Dashing inside just as the blue shield surrounded the castle, Celestia looked back, looking into the heart of the sinister machine.