//------------------------------// // Alien Invasion // Story: Friendship is Grievous // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// Dozens of quad-winged C-9979 landing craft descended onto the burning land of Equestria at considerable speed. Supporting the landing craft were most of the Separatists’ remaining contingent of fightercraft. Vulture droids swept the skies clean ahead of the descending transports, while Hyena bombers cleared selections of ground with proton bombs, flattening prospective landing sites with ruthless efficiency. There was panic in the streets of all of Equestria major cities as the naysayers’ worst predictions of alien invasion came to pass. With no warning their nation had been set on fire by an enemy that they could not even see. Now they could make out alien craft swooping down from space, enormous metal monstrosities shooting nearby pegasi out of the sky as they came. As ponies are want to do in situations that distress them, many panicked and bolted in all directions. The authorities everywhere struggled to enforce some sense of control on the populace – that is, when they were not a part of the panicked crowds themselves. One by one, the transports touched down on the scorched earth, disgorging their cargoes of MTT transports and AAT tanks outside of each and every major population center in the nation. Fighters soaring protectively overhead, the troop transports trundled forward on their repulsorlift engines before opening up their doors. Racks containing hundreds of folded battle droids were extended and, one row at a time, unleashed onto the surface. In eerie, silent unison the droid armies of the Confederacy of Independent System marched on the land of Equestria. Outside of her humble cottage, Fluttershy was racing around in a tearful panic. For absolutely no reason that she could discern, there had been some enormous, ground-shaking explosion while she had been inside caring for an injured squirrel. Now the air was full of choking dust, while towers of flame and smoke rose from parts of the Everfree. She couldn’t see well and had to wear a mask to breathe, but as ever, the yellow pegasus’ concern was not for herself. If the pegasus was afraid, her animal friends were absolutely terrified out of their assorted minds. Those that were capable of flying away had already done so, disappearing into the massive black clouds that were blocking out the sun. Her chickens were squawking at the top of their lungs, running around their enclosure and leaping at the fence, frantically beating their wings in a desperate bid to be somewhere, anywhere but there. Her free-ranging pets were bolting uncontrollably in all directions, no matter how frantically she called out to them to stay calm and let her help. She tried to grab one of her friends that was close, a red fox, but it sank its sharp little teeth into her leg. With a yelp as much of surprise as pain, Fluttershy let it go, and it fled hurriedly. To make matters worse, the animals of the Everfree that could leave the now-burning forest were doing so, stampeding out of the trees past Fluttershy and her cottage. They were not as friendly as those Fluttershy was better acquainted with, nor did they much care for the pleas of a single butter-colored pegasus to be careful with where they were going. To her horror, Fluttershy witnessed more than one large animal simply crush a smaller creature beneath its feet as it ran by, careless of others. Once she spotted a poor little raccoon stumble over a root, only to be immediately stampeded over by several others of its kind before she could do anything to help it. For the gentle-hearted nature lover, the scene was heartbreaking, and tears flowed freely from her eyes. Fluttershy’s heart leapt as she spotted a familiar face emerging from the smoking woods. It was enormous grizzly she knew fondly as Mr. Bear, whom she had on more than one occasion treated for his reoccurring shoulder tension. He looked scared, one of his back legs had a limp, and his fur was badly singed. Fluttershy raced through the air to try and aid her friend, but before she could another shape emerged from the Everfree. Two-legged and dark, it flipped over Mr. Bear’s head, landing directly in front of him. Fluttershy belatedly recognized it as one of that horrible alien monster’s minions. Droids he had called them. But what was it doing in the Everfree? To her surprise, Mr. Bear shrank back before the black-armored droid, seeming almost to whimper meekly. The droid had something long and sharp in its hand, and before she had time to do anything but cry out a warning it drove the massive knife right into his shoulder. Mr. Bear roared in agony, flailing wildly with his powerful front claws, but the nimble machine easily avoided each blow. Backing away several steps, it reached to its back and pulled out another of its strange devices, leveling the weapon at the grizzly bear’s head. The sight of her animal friend in mortal danger drove the fear from Fluttershy’s mind, replacing it with the rage of a mother looking to protect her young. “HEY YOU!” she screamed at the droid, which paused, turning its glowing white photoreceptors to face her. She stared back into those unnervingly soulless eyes bravely and without flinching. “LEAVE MR. BEAR ALONE, YOU BIG MEANIE!” But Fluttershy’s real strength was not in her words, but in her eyes. When her friends were threatened, some latent power – Twilight had hypothesized that it was some as-yet unknown form of magic – within her came to the fore. The Stare, as she called it, had intimidated manticores and cowed full-grown dragons. The full out version she now gave the menace looming over her friend was enough to give pause to any living thing. Such a pity, then, that the droid was not a living thing. The commando droid pulled the trigger on its blaster rifle, the red energy blast easily burning straight through Mr. Bear’s skull, killing him instantly. Fluttershy let out a scream of horror as her friend’s corpse slumped limply to the ground. The killing machine turned to seek its next victim, leveling its gun at the sobbing yellow pegasus. “Wrong move, tin-for-brains,” came the sound of a voice over the wind. The commando droid looked around in manner that could have been described as frantic if it had had any emotions. Its head swiveled this way and that, blaster rifle pointing in all directions. It never saw what hit it. Without warning, the smoke around the machine’s head flowed together into the shape of a bright red boxing glove, which promptly uppercut the droid’s chin. The impact was forceful enough to send the mechanical soldier flying through the air and directly into a nearby tree. Its head thoroughly smashed, the commando droid slumped uselessly to the droid. The smoke continued to materialize before the startled pegasus’ eyes, forming a long, almost serpentine body of mismatched parts. Also a pair of boxing gloves and matching shorts. “He goes down!” cheered the voice from somewhere. “It’s a round one knockout! A round one knockout! Oh, I’ve never seen anything like in all my years folks! A real round one knockout!” The figure punched the air a few times with its boxing gloves before raising its hands triumphantly to applause that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. “Thank you, thank you!” he said, blowing kisses in random directions. “Thank you all! You’ve been a lovely audience!” he turned to face Fluttershy. “Especially you, my dear,” he said with wink. Fluttershy blinked. “Discord?” “In the flesh,” he said, somehow emerging Fluttershy’s ear. “Oh thank goodness you’re here!” she wrapped her front legs around the draconequus’ chest, sobbing. “It’s horrible! Everything is on fire and I don’t why and so many animals are dead and nopony will listen to me and-” “Shhh…” said Discord in an uncharacteristically gentle manner, putting a finger over the pegasus’ lips. She looked up at him with tearful eyes. “Let’s get you and your friends out of here, shall we?” Fluttershy nodded, Discord snapped his fingers, and the both of them vanished. In the crystal palace of Princess Twilight Sparkle, there was chaos. Those residents of Ponyville that hadn’t immediately bolted for the hills or cowered in their homes when the sky began to fall on them had mostly chosen to go straight to the local princess and several-time savior of the nation. They were swarming throughout the building, each pressing in on the thoroughly overwhelmed and equally confused young alicorn. A dozen shouted questions, pleas, and demands struggled to make themselves heard over one another, not even giving Twilight time to think. She had been nervous when Princess Celestia had written to her of the terrible choice they had faced, and their decision to hand over Grievous to this Galactic Republic. She had been more nervous when she had helped a number of clone troopers covertly eliminate the droids that the cyborg had left behind in her castle. It seemed to her an act of war, though when she had turned her own telescope onto the scorched crater that had once been Sunny Glens she had immediately understood why the royal sisters had decided as they did. Protecting Equestria from such devastation had to come before even the ideals of hospitality – she was not so naïve to the ways of the world that she failed to understand that. Only now, it seemed that they hadn’t managed to protect Equestria from anything. Without warning the world had been pounded from above, and now ponies were yelling about things descending from space on top of them. Twilight genuinely had no idea what exactly had happened, though she guessed that it was the Separatists come to avenge the treachery against their general. How they had known was up for debate, but the way deadly energy beams had pounded against Ponyville’s magical defenses left no doubt as to their intentions. Everypony and their grandmother, it seemed, was vying for the princess’ attention. She could not in any conscience turn them away, but nor could she force them to be quiet long enough for her to establish any real sense of order. She was wearing her voice out with trying to shout over the other ponies for calm. It was just as Twilight was charging a spell meant to temporarily freeze everypony around her in place that there was a flash of white light. The alicorn found herself surrounded by all six of her Council of Friendship, plus one towering draconequus. The shouted questions ceased… for approximately three seconds, whereupon they promptly resumed at greater volume than ever, now having eight figures to question rather than one. Discord was considerably less hesitant to deal with the impromptu petitioners than Twilight had been. With a look of annoyance on his face, he snapped his fingers once and just about everypony in the room found their mouths replaced with sealed zippers. A few of the more desperate or brave souls continued trying to talk anyway. “QUIET!” the spirit of chaos yelled at the top of his lungs, the force of the shout rattling the tree castle slightly. When everypony was too busy clutching their ears to try and anything, he nodded with satisfaction. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Now then, ahem,” he cleared his throat, glancing at the princess and her friends behind him. “Her Royal Sparkleness and the rest of these bunch,” he jerked his thumb backwards at them. “Will need to speak with yours truly for just a moment. So please be good little horses and resist the urge to try something stupid until we get back to you. Sound simple enough? Good, she’ll be right with you.” With that, Discord grabbed both walls of the room in his hands and pulled them together like curtains, cutting off the mass of ponies from the those he had gathered. “Discord!” Twilight looked both relieved and angry at the spirit’s sudden arrival. “Where have you been?! We need your help! Equestria is under – mmph!” Whatever the alicorn was about to say next was lost as her own mouth became a sealed zipper. Discord, looking both irritated and a little less energetic than usual, folded his arms across his chest. “Hmmph! There’s gratitude for you! You know, if I hadn’t spent the majority of my juice defending it, there wouldn’t be an Equestria right now! “Huh?’ Twilight had managed to dispel the enchantment on her face, and looked up at the spirit. “What do ya mean by that?” asked Applejack. Discord sighed. “Look, long story short because we haven’t got a lot of time: ol’ sunbutt came to me a little while back asking for help. She thought this place might be due for an attack sometime soon and asked me to lend a bit of my magic to her unicorn wizards. It’s because of that that every city in this country wasn’t flattened from orbit.” “Y-You mean that?” asked the still-tearful Fluttershy. “Somepony t-tried to k-kill us all?” “Yes my dear,” said Discord, looking a little sad. “They did. And they haven’t given up.” Everypony, even the incomparably cocky Rainbow Dash, flinched back a little at that. Discord’s tone was uncharacteristically serious. “There are thousands of alien invaders landing all across the country right now. It seems they mean to get the job done from the ground.” “Well what are you doing here?” demanded Twilight in a frantic tone. “Can’t you go…” she waved her hooves vaguely. “Snap your fingers and make them go away or something?” “Weren’t you listening?” Discord snapped abck. “I told you, I already used the greater part of what I’ve got keeping millions of your subjects alive!” “And besides,” said a tiny voice in Twilight’s ear. “To be perfectly honest I haven’t felt quite like my old self since the whole Tirek “incident” a few months back. I haven’t been entirely sure why.” “Well still,” Rarity took the initiative. “Twilight raises a good point. Of all the places you could be right now, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in Canterlot, helping Princesses Celestia and Luna?” “Because,” Discord’s irritation faded back to a trace of sadness. “Celestia made me promise that if anything happened, I’d see to you lot. “Those ponies are the greatest hope Equestria has ever had in its times of peril,” she told me. She said that if anypony would be able to save the day, it would be you lot.” The draconequus paused. “And because of you, my dear Fluttershy,” he continued, a moment later. “M-Me?” the butter-colored pegasus blushed, shrinking back. Discord nodded. “Uh, not that this isn’t touching and all,” interrupted Rainbow Dash. “But can you please tell us exactly what business it is that we needed to know? ‘Cause there’s a lot of ponies out there that could use our help.” “Yes, right,” Discord’s tone became serious again. “That. You should know that there’s a droid army thousands strong about five minutes from here, marching this way. And judging from what they’re doing to anything else they see, they’re coming to kill you all.” There were gasps of shock and alarm from the six ponies and one dragon. “Now listen to me,” Discord said, taking the time to look each pony in the eye. “I want you all to take everypony in Ponyville and run. Go southeast, towards Ghastly Gorge. There aren’t any droids for a good ways in that direction. I’m sure you all know where the old silver mines down that way are, yes?” When the spirit of chaos received nods of confirmation, he went on. “Good. Take every stallion, mare, and foal in this town and lead them there. The area is safe and there aren’t any aliens about. I looked.” “But…” Fluttershy squeaked. “What are you going to do?” “Me?” Discord sighed. “I’m going to make sure you have time to get away. What else?” “No! You can’t!” yelled Fluttershy with unexpected vehemence. “If you’re already tired out and you try to take on so many, you might…” she hesitated. “You might…” “Die,” Discord finished for her. “A possibility I can’t rule out, however much I might like to. But I’ve already accepted that risk.” “Come with us!” urged Twilight. “You don’t need to anything stupid!” “You’re being stupid for eating up time arguing with me when you could be running!” Discord countered. “If you don’t get some more time, they’ll catch up with you and kill every last pony in this town!” he sighed again, more wearily this time. “Look, if I had the juice left for, say, a mass teleport of any significant distance I’d agree with you. As it is, you need some time, and I can give it to you. If I make it, I’ll try and meet up with you again as soon as I can.” He turned away from the ponies. “Don’t do it!” Fluttershy cried out, tears in her eyes. But the spirit of chaos was already gone. Not far from the outskirts of Ponyville, thousands of battle droids marched in eerie, silent unison along the dirt road leading to the village. Alongside them floated a number of AAT hovertanks and scouting commando droids on nimble STAP floating platforms. They had their orders directly from General Grievous: they were raze the village before them to the ground and kill every last living they found there. There would be no mercy, no stopping until every last equine had been slaughtered and burned to ashes on the great funeral pyre of their civilization. It was not long before the scouts spotted a lone figure standing on the road in front of the army. One of the commando droids went in, firing its STAP’s dual laser cannons as it swooped down, intending to kill the figure as it already had several lone wanderers along the beaten path. And then the droid smashed roughly into the ground and was torn to pieces as its floating gun platform spontaneously became a pile of candy corn. Discord stood there in overalls, a red flannel shirt, sunglasses, and a cap. In his hands, he cocked a shotgun. “Let’s boogie.”