//------------------------------// // Discovery // Story: Transformers: War for Equestria // by Awesomo3000 //------------------------------// All was quiet that night in Ponyville. The stars twinkled delicately in the dark sky like tiny lanterns as misty clouds gradually rolled past the moon, courtesy of Princess Luna over at Canterlot. After a long day, everypony was now sound asleep in either their houses or cottages. Nothing disturbed the peace. The only noise to be heard in the entire town was the quiet chirp of a lonely cricket, perched on the edge of a sagging blade of grass. And the peace was definitely needed, especially seeing how Twilight Sparkle had now been granted the amazing gift of becoming an Alicorn princess. Her friends still couldn’t get over this extraordinary event that had happened, followed by her coronation day and moving speech at Princess Celestia’s castle. However, due to her still adjusting to her new royal life, Twilight had been permitted by the princesses to remain at her library home in Ponyville for the time being, just until she felt she was ready. Over at Carousel Boutique, a certain purple-maned unicorn lay asleep in her queen-sized bed, mask draped over her closed eyes. The snug blankets over Rarity’s tired form slowly rose and fell with every quiet breath she took, nothing distracting from her beauty sleep. Until the clatter of her pony mannequins toppling over onto the floor sounded, followed by a rumble progressively growing in volume. The unexpected noises made Rarity’s eyes clench tight before finally opening up, prompting her to sit up in her bed. Peeling her eye mask off, she studied the fallen mannequins scattered over her floor by her window. “What in the world…” the unicorn muttered to herself, pushing her stiff body out of bed and into her fluffy purple slippers. Walking groggily over to the window, she pulled one of the soft fabric curtains back and squinted at the outside world for the source of her sleep’s disturbance. “Rainbow Dash, if this is another one of your late-night flying stunts again…” she began to mumble irritably as she looked at the sky in search of her pegasus friend. She never finished her sentence. Her exhausted eyes finally widened in alarm as she did spot something in the night sky. But it wasn’t Rainbow Dash. Nor did it look like a pony at all. A pair of gigantic balls of flame rocketed past her house, almost racing each other in the sky. The two comets both soared over the trees of the darkened Everfree forest, finally ending their course with a crash in separated parts of the trees. Her mouth agape, Rarity hastily rubbed both her eyes and did a double take of the places they had both crashed, checking that she wasn’t imagining this. From the looks of things, she definitely wasn’t. The astonished unicorn finally spoke the only words that could come to mind: “Good heavens…” Shaking her head to clear her thoughts of this out-of-the-blue situation, Rarity turned away from the window and pondered to herself on what to do, speaking aloud as she did. “Two comets appearing from the sky out of nowhere? This is most incredible! But what must I do? Well I suppose I could tell somepony. Yes, but they’re all asleep, it would be most rude to disturb them. Now that I think about it, I suppose that is true. But what about these comets? They can’t have come from nowhere. I’d highly suggest investigating. They landed in the Everfree forest, maybe Zecora could help with this. But the Everfree forest is so unsanitary! And plus, it’s darker at night than it is in broad daylight… Though it might be something important, or maybe dangerous. And you were the only pony to notice it occur. And if that’s the case, you should be the first to investigate and inform the others about it, including the Princesses.” Finally having reached a conclusion, despite her love for cleanliness and desire for beauty sleep, Rarity tiptoed downstairs quietly in her slippers and went to the door, being very careful not to disturb Opal in her kitty basket. Gently placing her hoof on the door handle, the unicorn quietly pushed open the door and stepped outside. A chill ran up her spine from the cold weather for a moment, but she shook it off. Quietly shutting the door, Rarity trotted down the path away from her comfortable home and towards the gloomy forest. She stopped, hesitant, at the edge of the dark trees for a moment or two, thoughts of what horrifying creatures could be lurking in the darkness haunting her mind. Forcing those frightening images out of her head, Rarity breathed in deep. And set one hoof into the forest. Finally, her whole body forced itself into the spooky atmosphere and pushed on through the trees and undergrowth. The unicorn shuddered quietly as chilly wind blew eerily and wrapped itself around her shivering legs. It seemed as though everything around her, including the shadows, were watching her tentatively, ready and waiting for the pounce. Struggling to ignore it, Rarity carried on through the bushes and rocks, unkind branches scratching at her bare skin and trying to snag her neatly brushed mane. Though trying to remain courageous, she prayed she would find the strange comet soon so she could get out of here. It wasn’t until she finally reached her destination that she breathed that held-in sigh of relief. Stepping cautiously into the clearing, Rarity surveyed her surroundings. A long smoking crevasse engraved into the dirt and grass lay in front of her, giving her the implications of a harsh crash-landing. Her sight following the line of burnt earth and ash, her eyes finally met the source of the commotion. Something enormous rested at the end of the ditch, wisps of thick smoke floating off its surface and curving in many patterns and shapes. Almost hesitantly but still fascinated, Rarity crept closer to the object, its outline beginning to become more clear through the smoke as she neared it. As she got closer, she progressively became more and more shocked as it started to become clear that this comet had arms. A pair of legs. A body. And a head. She finally realized this wasn’t a comet at all. It was a being. Fully captivated now, Rarity gently clambered up one of the creature’s arms and onto its bulky chest, studying it more closely. Its body possessed a red and blue colour scheme. Its warm and solid surface made it evident it was, strangely, made of metal rather than skin and flesh, coated in giant scrapes and cuts. It lacked scales, hair or fur of any description. And inscribed on both its shoulders was a bright red insignia resembling a face of some sort. It was clear that this thing wasn’t a pony of any sort. But as for what it was exactly, Rarity had no clue. “What in Equestria are you?” she whispered almost inaudibly. Her puzzling thoughts were interrupted by a low humming emanating from the creature’s chest. The unicorn started to become nervous as she noticed the creatures eyes slowly light up a shade of light blue until they glowed brilliantly. She let a small shriek escape her mouth as the creature began to sit up, causing her to slide off its chest and land harshly on her back. Rarity’s eyes widened to the point where they would nearly burst out of their sockets as the metal being slowly stood up, tiny pieces of burnt dirt falling from its body. She swore it stood at nearly thirty hooves tall. Her courage faded almost immediately as the being’s head looked down at her, its translucent blue eyes almost piercing her soul. Rarity’s body shook like a rattle. The creature remained still. Neither said anything for the longest time. Finally the being spoke gently. “Don’t be afraid.” “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” The unicorn took off like a rocket, her hooves pounding against the ground as she sprinted back into the forest, screaming her head off in her trademark high-pitched voice. Branches and bushes scratched vigorously at her sides and mane, even a cobweb caught itself on her tail, but she didn’t even blink. She wanted to get away from whatever this creature was as far as possible. Still screaming even as she finally exited the forest, Rarity galloped rapidly to Twilight’s library as fast as her exhausted hooves could carry her, leaves and broken twigs sticking out of her mane like splinters. A few peeved ponies opened their windows and glared after her, yelling at her to shut up, only for their shouts to be ignored as she kept running. At last Rarity reached her destination and didn’t hesitate to pound her hoof repeatedly against the door. It would have broken off its hinges completely if an incredibly tired and annoyed Twilight hadn’t finally opened the door. “Rarity?” she groaned, rubbing her eyes with her hoof, “What are you doing here? It’s almost one in the mor…” She didn’t get the chance to finish as her panicking friend grabbed her and shook her back and forth frantically. “TWILIGHTYOUGOTTAHELPMETHERESAGIANTMETALMONSTERINTHEMIDDLEOFTHEEVERFREEFORESTTHATFELLFROMTHESKYANDITSGONNAKILLME-HE-HE-HE-HE-HEEEEEEEEEE!” Her neck now achy from the harsh shaking, Twilight finally managed to free a hoof from Rarity’s tight grip and place it over her mouth, silencing her terrified babbling. “Rarity, calm down for a moment!” the purple Alicorn scolded, not taking kindly to being woken up and shaken back and forth, “Now I’m going to take my hoof away from your mouth. And when I do, I want you to calmly tell me what it is you have to say. Understand?” “Mm-hmm.” came the muffled response, though in a very high-pitched voice. "Good.” With that, Twilight gently removed her hoof from her friend’s mouth but still kept it ready in case she started babbling again. Fortunately Rarity didn’t and instead began her story, but still sounding quite panicky. “I was in bed, because of course, who wouldn’t be at this time of night? When all of a sudden, there was this rumbling outside and I thought it was Rainbow Dash doing one of her silly late-night stunts again. But when I went to check two fiery comets fall from the sky and land in the Everfree forest. I didn’t want to disturb any of you so I decided to check it out by myself and see if Zecora could possibly help. So I did and I got to the crash-landing site of the closest meteor and you won’t believe what I saw! It was this sort of…” “CAN’T A PEGASUS GET ANY REST WITHOUT HER FRIEND WAKING UP THE WHOLE TOWN WITH HER SCREAMING?!” Turning their heads in the direction of the loud complaint, Twilight and Rarity both looked up and saw an incredibly ticked off Rainbow Dash, her multi-coloured hair messier than it always was from lying in bed and visible bags underneath her eyes. And beneath her, also looking like they had all just woken up were Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. “Rarity, y’all better have a good reason fer wakin’ us up in the middle a’ the night like this.” Applejack grumbled, her eyes squinting as they adjusted to the intense light coming from the inside of Twilight’s house. “We could hear your scream from a mile away.” Fluttershy added, her voice quiet and nervous while trying not to be cross with being woken up. “And so could I!” squealed Pinkie Pie, still her perky overexcited self, despite it being the middle of the night, “I thought it was a happy scream because that would probably mean that you’d be having an exciting slumber party over at Twilight’s house again! But then again, if you hadn’t invited us or Applejack like last time, who else could be going to it? But I suppose it could be with your sister Sweetie Belle but she’s with your parents, or perhaps it could’ve been Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy except they’re both here with us. Hey, was it a slumber party? Was there cake? Or games? Or pillow fights? Or maybe scary stories? Is that the reason you were screaming so loudly? Because of the scary stories, like the one about the Headless Horse? Or maybe it was…” “QUIET!” It was that one word from Twilight that finally caused everypony to simmer down. “No, Pinkie, it wasn’t a slumber party or any kind of party.” She continued calmly once everything was quiet again, “Rarity told me she’d see two comets fall from the sky and land in the Everfree forest.” This piece of information made everypony’s eyes widen with interest and surprise. “Now that’s weird.” Applejack said in puzzlement, “I don’t recall Princess Luna tellin’ us about any meteor showers of some kind happenin’ tonight.” “Two comets? In Ponyville?” Rainbow asked, almost getting in Twilight’s face with these pestering questions, “And I didn’t even get the chance to see them? How in the hay did I miss it?” “Umm… because you’re a heavy sleeper?” Fluttershy offered timidly, receiving a glare in return which caused her to shut up. “Tell us, Rarity; what did you see?” asked the purple Alicorn, turning back to her friend who still looked quite anxious. “Well as I said, I went to investigate and I found the nearest comet. But when I looked closely, I saw that…” She paused for a moment as her breath caught in her throat, “It wasn’t a comet at all.” Now very interested, Twilight couldn’t help but lean in closer, along with the others. “It was a creature.” Rarity finished in almost a scared whisper. “What, ya mean a timberwolf or a cockatrice or something like that?” Applejack asked. Turning to face her farm friend, the unicorn shook her head frightfully. “Oh, no, this creature was nothing like anything in Equestria at all, Applejack.” She responded, which made Fluttershy quiver in the knees a tiny bit, “I think it was some sort of alien or something. I mean, this creature was huge, around thirty or forty hooves tall! I-It was made of metal instead of skin! There was no hair or fur anywhere on its body, a-and it had these glowing blue eyes that stared right at me as it woke up!” Fluttershy was now completely shaking from head to hoof with each description Rarity gave, while Pinkie Pie only smiled more and more with excitement. “I climbed onto it to get a closer look and then it started waking up. Then i-it stood and looked down at me!” the white unicorn continued, looking very frightened as she recalled the events, “And it said “don’t be afraid”, and I screamed and ran back here as quick as I could!” “Well that explains the twigs and bushes stuck in your mane.” Twilight muttered to herself before regaining her focus and looking Rarity in the eyes, “But are you sure this is what you saw, Rarity?” “Of course I’m sure! I’m positive I saw it, Twilight!” Rarity almost screamed in reply, “What do you think I am, overreacting?” That question earned her a few uncertain “umms” and “uhhs” from the other ponies. “Well, um, we don’t actually know if it’s here to hurt us or not.” Fluttershy spoke up, “It might be a friendly creature from outer space.” “Fluttershy’s right, we shouldn’t judge this thing straight away, Maybe we should go investigate the crashsite.” Applejack stated, straightening her cowgirl hat in determination. “And if these things, for any reason, do wanna hurt us, we should tell Princess Celestia right away.” Twilight added. Above them, Rainbow Dash did a loop as she laughed almost giddily. “We get to meet real life aliens! Awesome!” she whooped, “This is better than comets any day!” Pinkie Pie, unsurprisingly, also couldn’t contain her excitement, bouncing up and down on the spot like a lively spring. “Oh, my gosh, this is so exciting! But it’s also really interesting! It’s interciting!” she giggled at her made-up word as she continued babbling, “Do you think they’ll wanna be friends with us if they’re nice? Maybe they’ll wanna have a party! I could throw them the bestest ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party EVER!” “Now, Pinkie, let’s not get too excited.” Rarity said calmly, slightly softening her pink friend’s extremely happy mood, “Like Fluttershy said, we don’t know if it will be friendly or not, so we’ll have to inspect it up-close.” “Well, Rarity, since you found the first one, I think you should lead the way.” Twilight instructed, “Rainbow, fly overhead and see if you can spot the second crash-landing site. When you do, we’ll split up into two groups and investigate both sites.” “Well then what are we standing around for?” the smiling blue pegasus asked impudently, “Let’s get searching!” With that, she took off toward the edge of the Everfree forest, the rest of the Mane Six running after her. Rather than use her new wings, as she was still getting adjusted to them (she was planning to hopefully get some lessons from Rainbow), Twilight just followed her friends on the ground. Inside her head though, she was absolutely head-over-heels with this news. Her first chance to actually meet real life aliens from another planet, who wouldn’t be excited for something like that? But on the other hoof, what if Rarity was right and these creatures were in Equestria to invade them? Shaking those distressing thoughts out of her head, Twilight ran alongside her friends to the gloomy edge of the forest. Whether or not these beings would be peaceful or not, that was to be found out.