by Europa
The Tuesday morning had started out just fine. Then a changeling queen crashed into her bedroom.
Twilight was nowhere near as terrified as she would've been in the past; she'd been exchanging letters with Chrysalis for a few weeks now, in secret; as far as anypony else knew Chrysalis was still 'somewhere else, not affecting Equestria' but Twilight knew better.
But still, she flipped out and teleported out of her bed into a combat pose, because breaking through somepony's window into their castle was just not something you did. She prepared to fire at the changeling... when a tap on her back made her realize she'd assumed a combat stance facing the wrong way.
She snapped around to glare at Chryssy. "What reason could you possibly have had for - "
The changeling lit up her long, crooked horn and glued her mouth shut. "No time, Twilight. I'm afraid I have some bad news. You see, the world's about to end."
She blinked, and then sighed. Her wings, which had been extended in her combat pose, folded against her sides. "Oh. So I'll just go get my friends and - "
Chrysalis shook her head. "Won't work. The world will end before you can get them together, even with teleportation. I'll explain on the way, come here."
"On the way?" she asked, stepping next to Queen Chrysalis's side regardless. "On the way to where?"
"The Badlands, where else?" There was a dark, groaning noise outside, and suddenly the sunlight streaming from her windows darkened. "Oh, sooner than I expected." Before Twilight could ask anything, a ring of fire surrounded her, and the two of them sank...
... and the red, dry stone of the Badlands spat them up. Twilight craned her neck back, since the sky had something she did not expect. It was wide, it was made entirely of overlapping plates of metal, and over all loud. She could feel the deep thrum of massive engines deep in her gut.
"What the buck is that thing?!" she demanded.
Chrysalis shouted in return, "They're aliens spaceships! They use radio waves to talk like our hive mind, so I picked them up just now!"
"Shouldn't you be with your people?!" she demanded.
"Not gonna have a 'people' much longer! This only works with one other!"
Then the dull rolling of engines was replaced by a slimy, lawyer voice. "Attention people of... whatever you call this world. As you all know, plans for the development of this region involves building a hyperspace express route through your star system, and your world is as a result, scheduled for demolition."
Twilight's eyes went wide. DEMOLITION? No, she was not going to take this laying down! She fired up her horn and began firing blasts straight up into the air.
"No, stop that!" Chrysals wrapped a foreleg around her and let loose a steady, pulsing beam straight up. "Don't destroy them, they're our ticket off this world!"
"No point in acting surprised about it. We've been in contact at your nearest starport councilor for fifty of your years. If you can't be bothered to take care of your affairs, it's your fault." The voice continued, but seemed to forget it had the communicator still on. "Apathetic bloody planet. I've no sympathy at all. Razincs zzilarlo."
Chrysalis held her tighter, and Twilight screamed. In rage. In fear. In surprise. Chryssy briefly extinguished her magic and lowered her horn, then raised it up again brighter than ever. Lightning flashed throughout the cloudless sky. Then... fwoom!
They were in an enclosed metal room, with only one door leading out. It smelled like cooking gas. There were pipes everywhere.
The changeling let go of her, muttering to herself. "Damn it. Should've brought a towel, it smells awful in here."
Then the lightning crackling far beneath them reached a crescendo. There was a loud rumble, and Twilight created a vision portal to the world.
The Badlands, and the neighboring Equestria and the ocean, entered her view. She watched, and later when asked to describe the destruction of her homeworld and nearly everything she had ever loved, she would simply say, 'It was there, and then it wasn't.' Because that was precisely how it went. One moment the world was there. The next, as if she had blinked, there was nothing but rectangular ships and inky stars.
Carrying its equine passengers, the Vogon Constructor Fleet slunk off into the void. It was a good thing they had magic, otherwise the aliens might've been able to command them around.