War of the worlds.

by Shadow-Aura

Everfree common and the heat ray

*Everfree common*
The next morning a crowd gathered on the Common hypnotized by the unscrewing of the cylinder. Suddenly two feet of shining screw projected when suddenly the lid fell off. A set of Two luminous disc-like eyes appeared above the rim. A huge rounded bulk larger than a bear rose up slowly
glistening like wet leather. It's lipless mouth quivered and slavered with snake-like tentacles writhed as the body heaved and pulsated.

A few younger stallions crept closer to the pit. A tall funnel rose then an invisible ray of heat leaped from pony to pony and there was a bright glare as each was instantly turned into fire. Every tree and bush became a mass of flames at the touch of this savage unequestrian heat ray.

Ponies clawed their way off the Common
and I ran too. I felt I was being toyed with that I was on the very verge of safety.
This mysterious death would leap after me and strike me down.

At last I reached ponyville and in the dim coolness of my home I wrote an account for my newspaper. Soon after I sank into a restless haunted sleep.

*The next morning*
I awoke to alien sounds of hammering from the pit and hurried to the railway station to buy the paper. Around me, I saw the daily routine of life. Ponies were working-eating-sleeping was continuing serenely as it had for countless years.

On Everfree Common the Martians continued hammering and stirring sleepless indefatigable at work upon the machines they were making.
Now and again a light like the beam of a warship's searchlight swept the Common and the heat ray was ready to follow.

In the afternoon, a battalion of royal guards came trough and deployed along the edge of the Common.

That evening there was a violent crash
and I realize with horror that my home was now within the range of the Martians heat ray. At dawn, a falling star with a trail of green mist landed with a flash like summer lightning. This was the second cylinder...