//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Falling Skies // by Adrian DeWiartt //------------------------------// The stars are lovely tonight. They were that night long ago as well; the day Applejack's parents passed away. Applejack was just a filly back then, she couldn't grasp the significance of life and death, yet, she comprehended the pain of losing loved ones far too well for a youth such as her. The hole in her soul became vast that night, and it would not be filled so quickly. There is never a day she forgets the tender smile and mirthful eyes of her mother, the sweet songs she would sing to Applejack and her siblings each and every night. There is never a night where she doesn't remember the joy of her father's laughter, and the the toughness he passed down onto her and her brother. She always remembers them, and although she holds all but good memories in her heart, it is the very same thing that tears her apart inside. She has her brother Big Mac and her baby sister Apple Bloom, and she is more than grateful for being blessed with them; but there's still that itching loneliness in her breast, something she cannot shake no matter how hard she tries. She has fought this loneliness for years, trying to convince herself that things would get better with time, but deep down she knew it never would. At least, as far as she knew. Applejack has developed a method of masking her pain to both her family, friends, and even herself. She pushes herself day and night, working twice as hard than any other pony despite the plea of others for her to go easy on herself. Day and night, she would work hard: harvesting apples from the orchard, doing work on the fences around her property, tending to the humans and their stalls before going to bed to repeat the process. Tonight was special though, special for Applejack because it was the one night that she agreed she would take it easy and relax. It wasn't really her idea, it was the combined effort of her family and friends to convince her to at least take one or two days off for herself. And so, Applejack, after a long and grueling week of harvesting apples and cleaning human stalls, she decided to unwind late one Friday night, gazing up at Luna's vast canvas of violet, gold, and black. Applejack curved her lips, offering a small smile to the beautiful scene of the night sky, which in turn sparkled and shone, the moon gazing its pale illumination upon Applejack's form as the humbled earth pony laid upon the field of emerald grass surrounding her home. She pondered deeply of her achievements throughout the week, reminiscing the joy of accomplishing her goals after multiple hard days of work. She remembered how thankful she felt for the help of her friends and siblings, proud of their efforts just as much as she was of hers. The meaning of her smile shifted from proud to forlorn as the thought of her parents drifted into her mind once again. She would contemplate deeply about the tender words spoken by her mother, the words of encouragement and pride from her father, how proud they would be to see how far that she and her siblings have carried the farm. Warmth filled her face and chest, tears leaked from the corners of her eyes partially blurring her vision. She tucked her hat over her face, as if to hide her tears from the night sky. She let out a deep sigh, followed by a chuckle that rolled from her throat after a brief moment of silence. "Applejack, you're a full grown mare now, stop getting all sappy!" she scolded herself. "You need to be strong, for Big Mac and little Apple Bloom" she said to herself, sniffling and wiping her eyes with her forehoof. Applejack fell silent after that, pursing her lips while losing herself in deep thought, staring at the chestnut roof of her hat. She pondered the concept of companionship, she wasn't sure how the topic of thought came to mind but she rolled with it anyways. Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Granny Smith are a given; they never fail to make her smile, but still she always felt an itch in her heart, something that her family just couldn't provide. She remembered that Twilight just recently got a human, he's a troublemaker from what she hears but still Twilight seems to enjoy the companionship. Applejack has her barn full of humans that she takes care of every day, but she can never get attached to them for too long because a lot of them are often bought and taken away. She pondered if she could adopt one of the humans she owns. Even though she owns these humans, they are up for sale, that is how she makes a large portion of her income. No, it's a bad idea, even if she did take one of the humans in as her own, she would be far too busy and the very few strong and capable humans she has are often quickly bought up by... Peculiar customers. She also pondered if she could find a coltfriend. She has been offered many relationships in the past but would always turn them down because of her busy schedule, there was no time for dating. She thought about looking for a coltfriend who could work just as hard as she did, then again, finding a stallion athletic enough to keep up with her was impossible considering most of them were taken. She sighed, shaking her head. Rolling onto her side, Applejack would close her eyes and relax her body. She let the cool emerald blades of grass beneath her caress her fur softly, curling up as if she were a small filly in the embrace of her parents once more. She stayed like that for several minutes, before deciding that it was late and she should go inside and get some shut eye. She rolled to her knees before pushing herself up to her hooves. She bit onto the edge of her hat and tossed it onto her head, adjusting it with her hoof before trotting up the inclination towards her house. Upon entry, she was greeted by the warmth of the fireplace, where the wood Big Mac put in earlier were now fiery embers. It somewhat cheered her up, the presence of her siblings during such a vulnerable and sensitive moment. Even if they had no idea how she felt, what pain she may be holding back, they comforted her with their smiles. Their smiles, and the smiles of her friends are the only things that have carried her this far. Applejack decided to stop herself from thinking such depressing thoughts, and to move on to getting a good night's rest. Her small break ended the day after tomorrow, so she wanted to wake up early to enjoy it. Applejack dreamed, like most of her dreams, she dreamed of what she missed the most: her parents, the wholeness of her family. They all might have moved on, but there was still a hole inside of her, and she's been fighting it for so many years. Only in her dreams, was Applejack truly free. It was late, around five in the morning when Applejack and the entire house was awoken by a shrieking explosion that thundered throughout the atmosphere. As the shrieking boomed, it was followed by a monstrous howl. This howl provoked several frightening cries from the barn that the humans were kept in, as well as a scream of terror from Apple Bloom's room. Applejack quickly rolled off the bed and onto her hooves, galloping out of her room and down the hall to Apple Bloom's chambers. She barged in, quickly darting to her little sister's side and comforting her from the frightening sounds. "Applejack!" Apple Bloom cried, clinging to Applejack shakily. "It's alright sugar cube, I'm here, don't you fret" Applejack spoke in a gentle and calm voice, wrapping her forehooves around Apple Bloom, pulling her closer into a protective embrace. Big Mac soon came flying into the room, the heavy and rapid thudding of his massive hooves storming up the stairs sounded like a stampede. He was out of breath, panting heavily as he quickly trotted over and nuzzled Apple Bloom's cheek reassuringly before glancing over at Applejack, confusion and shock worn across his features. "What's going on?" Big Mac asked, shouting over the thunderous howling outside. "I don't know!" Applejack replied, looking just as confused and panicked as Big Mac did. The three siblings jumped and clung to one another upon the sound of yet another roaring explosion that shook the house, shattering a few windows here and there. "Mother bucker! I just replaced those windows yesterday!" Applejack hissed, covering Apple Bloom's ears so she didn't hear her curse. After a few moments, the rumbling and explosive echoes faded into dead silence. No crickets were chirping, no wind was blowing, everything was eerily quiet. Applejack glanced over at Big Mac, before looking towards Apple Bloom's bedroom window. Applejack let go of Apple Bloom, who clung to Big Mac in response, and trotted quickly over to the broken window to gaze out and see what caused such a disturbing series of sounds. Applejack's gaze turned into that of a glare mixed with shock and anger. There was a vast metallic object surrounded by debris, charred dirt, and several splintered trees that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire. Whatever this object was, the giant dirt trail leading from the farm's eastern well all the way towards the apple orchard showed that it had descended from the sky, like some sort of meteorite. "Aw buck..." Applejack grumbled lowly, before glancing over at Big Mac and Applebloom. "Big Mac, I need you to take Apple Bloom and head into town, get Twilight and the other girls and tell them that a mother bucking meteor just crashed into my orchard!" Applejack ordered as she galloped out of the room, infuriated and kind of befuddled. "Applejack!" Big Mac called out, but his stubborn sister has already charged out of the room and down the stairs, flying out the front door in a full on gallop. The red stallion let out a huff, grumbling before lifting the sniffling Apple Bloom onto his back. He tossed a small blanket over her before he trotted out of the room, down the stairs, and followed the road leading out of Sweet Apple Acres and into town, which seemed to have woken up from all the horrible sounds this meteorite caused. Applejack rushed as fast as she could, biting down on the handle of a large bucket full of water. She has been running to and from the house and the crash site, not even catching a glance at the object yet because she was far more focused on snuffing out the flames caused by the meteor so the fire wouldn't spread to the rest of the orchard. Applejack pushed herself for thirty whole minutes, rushing back and forward between the crash site and the well to extinguish any hazardous flames or embers. As the panic died down in Applejack along with the fiery glow of the crash site, the extinguished embers gave off a vast amount of smoke and steam that shrouded the small portion of the orchard she was in, laying tune to an ominous aura surrounding the silhouette of the meteorite. "Out of all the bucking places this damn meteor could've landed, it had to pick our farm? What is this, a cheesy movie flick?" she complained aloud as she approached the meteorite's silhouette slowly and cautiously. Applejack would mutter incoherently to herself out of frustration, approaching the meteor at a slow pace. Once she was close enough however, she soon realized that... This thing... It was no meteor. It looked like... An alien ship. No, it was way too small to be an alien ship, but it certainly resembled a small spaceship that she would see on all those sci-fi movies that she watched with Twilight before. She didn't understand a whole lot of that science-y nerdy stuff, all she knew is that this was something certainly out of this world. The best way she could describe this ship thing was like a giant metallic egg. with several strange protrusions on it. There were so many strange designs and edges on it, whatever it was, this thing was definitely not built by ponies, for it does not resemble anything she's seen so far. Another memory popped into her head: a pod, this thing looks like a machine version of a chrysalis pod she would see on a caterpillar when it molds into a butterfly. The vast metal pod was glistening, reflecting light from the moon that made it look as if it were glowing. Applejack hesitantly approached the strange pod, standing about a meter and a half away from it. She stopped once there was only a foot of length between her and the pod. Swallowing nervously, she extends her hoof out cautiously, not intending to touch it, but to merely feel if there was any heat radiating off of the metallic surface. There was, quite a bit of it actually. She could probably cook pancakes off of that hot metal surface. She retracted her hoof and examined the pod closely, trying to determine the purpose of this strange mechanical chrysalis. Then it hit her, if it is like a chrysalis or any other insect pod, wouldn't there be something inside that's alive. Applejack glanced around the area for a bit before trotting over to a splintered piece of wood that broke off from one of the destroyed apple trees. She returned to the pod, looking over it with thorough eyes. She took the stick into her hoof and reached out, feeling around the pod, looking for a latch or something that would open it up. After all, if this was like any of Twilight's sci-fi flicks, then there has to be some sort of release latch or button to open it up. As Applejack continued to prod and explore the surface of the pod, she was startled by the sudden shocking sound of glass shattering. The glass on the front of the pod, that was reflecting too much moonlight to see through, was shattered all the sudden by a massive fist. A human fist. Applejack recoiled, startled by the fist bursting from within the pod, reaching through hole of the window to grasp what looked like a latch. The latch appeared to be specifically designed for a human hand to grasp, rather than a pony's maw or even a hoof. After the massive fist pulled the latch, the canopy of the pod came flying off, crashing into an apple tree parallel from the pod. Applejack darted back several feet, her heart racing, her eyes wide with shock as a massive human emerged from the metallic pod. The human had to be at least seven feet tall! It was ripped with bulky muscles, giving the human a very burly physique. Unlike most humans who usually have long hair, this one was shaved bald with only a faint shadow of fuzz visible on its scalp. This human was male, no doubt about it, no female human Applejack has ever seen had such a beefy physique like that! It made her cheeks flush a bright red. Scars, the human had a vast quantity of them scattered across his body. His body looked as if he made regular trips to tartarus and back! It was almost as if he was a soldier, which is insane since the usage of humans in war have been banned in Equestria, then again, he could be from another kingdom. That's also impossible, since she hasn't seen anything like this pod or the technology behind it. Luckily, the human was garbed in a pair of skin tight shorts, because if Applejack saw what was causing that massive shape beneath the fabric, then she would most likely have fainted. The human suddenly turned his attention to her, his unnaturally blue eyes locked onto her like a hawk locking onto its prey. He slowly turned his body towards her, and began to march over, his massive feet thudding heavily against the ground as he approached the frightened mare. Applejack squeaked, falling onto her haunches, scooting back as fast as possible, though the long strides of the human caught up with her quicker than she could evade. As the human reached out with his massive hand, inches away from grabbing a hold of her, Applejack let out a cry. "N-NO!" she cried out, shielding her face with her forehooves while curling up into a ball. This is it, Applejack thought. This is where she died, at the hands of a massive human that fell from the skies. She didn't even get to say goodbye to her brother, her sister, Granny Smith, or any of her friends. This is where she died. Or so she thought. For several long moments, she remained curled up with her eyes closed tightly, waiting for the impending doom. However, when it never came, she hesitantly opened her eyes and glanced up, only to find that the giant human had retracted his arm and was now just standing above her. His unnatural blue eyes stared at her like a machine would in that move: Terminator movie where that big robot pony was sent back in time to kill this mare that would give birth to some important cold who would grow up to save pony kind. He looked her over studiously, slowly kneeling down once he noticed her glance up at him. Applejack stared at him cautiously, too scared to move. She would flinch or whimper each time he moved. Eventually, after several long minutes of gazing at one another, the human reached out once more. Applejack flinched, closing her eyes tightly, however she was startled when the sensation of the human's massive hand petting her mane raced across her skin. She opened her eyes again, gazing up at the giant human in confusion. He was knelt down on one knee, his right arm outstretched, his massive palm gently caressing the top of her head as a sign of friendliness. The human then did the unthinkable, something that no human has done ever since their discovery over nine-hundred years ago. He smiled.