Independence Day: Resistance

by Admiral Wyatt Stone

02: Darkness

-Ponyville-
7:49 AM

The light from outside the windows forced spike to squint as he woke up, lifting himself out of his bed and stretching his arms out. As he hopped out of bed, he heard rapid hoofsteps that got louder until the door to his bedroom opened, Twilight swiftly galloping in.

The small dragon yawned as he spoke to his friend. "Morning Twilight, what's got you-"

Spike was interrupted by Twilight's reply. "Sorry Spike, but my friends and I have got a meeting with Princess Celestia to attend, and I need to get everything together so that we can come up with a plan."

"Ugh, is this about that 'alien fleet' again?" Spike asked, slightly annoyed by the subject.

"Yes, and I've found out something else." Twilight replied as she looked for her supplies. "After sending my letter to the princesses, I decided to take another look at the moon, and I noticed something else near it. At first, it looked like one of those smaller ships that broke off from the mothership. And then I saw more of them, but the other ships didn't look familiar to the ones I saw last night."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Different ships? How many were there?"

"I didn't take count that time around, but I think there were around 20 or more ships on the other side of the moon."

"You think they're a part of this 'invasion force'?" Spike asked as Twilight picked up some quills, several pieces of paper and a compass.

Putting the items into her saddlebags, Twilight replied. "I'm not sure, but whatever they're doing, it doesn't look good."

Spike looked around the room for a moment before seeing and walking over to his backpack, Twilight picking up the already drawn on paper from it and placing it with the other papers. "Well, since you're so worried about this alien fleet up there, you want me to come along?"

"Due to the circumstances at the moment, yes." Twilight said as she placed the saddlebags onto her back. The alicorn then trotted over to her dragon friend before speaking once more. "Hop on."

"Spike did so, climbing onto his friend before the two galloped out of the room, racing through the halls until they saw the others.

"That was fast." Rainbow Dash said with slight surprise.

"So, are we ready to go?" Rarity asked Twilight.

"I think so, we can take the train to Canterlot so that we can get this meeting underway." The alicorn princess replied as she and her friends began trotting to the doors.

"So what do you think these aliens are gonna do? Do they like parties?" Pinkie Pie as with a smile on her face.

"I think that'll have to wait a little while. If they're a friendly species, they might be willing to-" Twilight stopped as she felt the ground rumbling, almost as if a small earthquake was occuring.

"Is... Is it an earthquake?" Pinkie asked curiously, but got no answer as the room started to become slightly darker. Curious, Twilight trotted over to one of the windows nearby, and saw a dark grey cloud in the sky. After closer examination, however, she noticed small streaks of orange coming from the direction the cloud seemed to be heading.

Twilight was silent for a moment before turning to her friends. "Everyone, outside." Twilight said as she galloped towards the door, her friends following suite.

Opening the doors and briefly taking flight past the stairs, she landed before lifting her gaze to the sky, her friends stopping behind her and doing the same. The cloud was large and circular, seemingly big enough to cover Ponyville, Canterlot, and even the Everfree Forest. The front of the cloud was a bright, fiery orange, as if something was trying to enter the atmosphere of the planet. At one point, the cloud let out a howl, almost as if the cloud was alive.

Twilight and her friends stared at the horrific sight, unsure of what was going to happen next...

-Canterlot-
8:01 AM

Celestia took a sip of her tea as she trotted around the kitchen table and continued making breakfast. She sniffed the air as she smelt the delicious scent of the pancakes she was making. Some would've thought Celestia would be immediately preparing to meet up with Princess Twilight to discuss the supposed alien armada, but surely, Celestia thought, she could sate her hunger before getting onto business.

As she watched the pancake cook, she heard a low rumble from outside. Curious of what it was, Celestia trotted over to the nearby window to see what was going on. While it wasn't the best view, she could see what appeared to be a large cloud floating towards the city. The front of the cloud caught Celestia's eye, as it glowed a brilliant orange, like it was on fire.

Celestia's curious viewing of the anomaly was interrupted when her sister barged in through the door. "Sister!"

What's wrong?" The Princess of the Sun asked worriedly.

"Outside, quickly!" With that, the two alicorn sisters raced out of the kitchen, but not before Celestia turned off the oven. Didn't want to cause a fire during this strange day.

As the two princesses entered the hallway, they galloped to the door and opened it. Upon stepping outside, Celestia and Luna looked up to the sky to see the large cloud. Celestia could now see the missing details, the shape of the cloud was circular, and was large enough to bathe Canterlot and Ponyville in darkness.

And darkness soon came to Canterlot, as the cloud slowly hovered over the city, blotting out the sun. There must have been something inside the cloud, as not a speck of sunlight pierced through.

"...Sister?" Luna said with a hint of fear in her voice, but Celestia didn't reply. All she could do was watch the enormous cloud cover the whole city of Canterlot...

-Manehattan-
8:03 AM

The streets of Manehattan were bustling as usual, ponies trotting the sidewalks and carriages rode down the streets as if nothing was amiss. One of the pedestrians was Coco Pommel, who was exiting the fabric shop after acquiring supplies. She was trotting out the doors of the store when she heard something, a low rumbling from far away. Assuming it was just some loud machinery somewhere in the city, Coco continued trotting down the street, nearing the crosswalk when she felt the ground shake lightly. The rumbling was more prevalent now, and Coco couldn't stop herself from looking around to see where the noise could possibly be coming from.

Then, looking to the sky, she saw it. A large, dark cloud slowly covering the city. The mare was put at unease upon seeing the orange, fiery glow from the front side of the cloud. Other ponies looked up at it too, curious and horrified as to what was above their city. The rumbling became more noticeable as the city seemed to quiet down, but Coco paid no mind to it. She could only focus on the enormous cloud that was shrouding Manehattan into darkness...

-Las Pegasus-
8:04 AM

Prince Blueblood sipped his beverage as he relaxed at a table near one of the amusement park rides. He always saw such 'entertainment' to be childish, but at least this place knew how to make a good drink.

"Delicious." The spoiled prince said as he set his drink onto the table with his magic. As he sat back to relish in the beautiful sight that was Las Pegasus, he heard a low howl far away from where he was. His chair, along with the rest of the ground, began to shake lightly. As the shaking progressively got more rough, his drink fell to the ground, the glass breaking into several pieces. Annoyed, yet curious, the prince stood from his seat and looked around. At first, he saw nothing, but after trotting away from the building to get a different view, he could see it.

The cloud was gargantuan, dark, and seemed to be on fire. Blueblood seemed disturbed by this anomaly as he watched it slowly cover the city of Las Pegasus. From afar, he could hear some ponies cry out or scream as they looked at the cloud. Some workers broke into a gallop after getting a good look at the sight above. Blueblood, however, just stood where he was and stared at the monstrous cloud, wondering what was causing it to appear like that.

-The Changeling Kingdom-
8:06 AM

Pharynx breathed tiredly as he raced towards the Changeling Hive, disturbed and worried about what he had seen during his scouting mission. Whatever that large cloud was, it could pose a threat to his fellow drones, and he wasn't going to waste a second to prevent that.

As he landed inside the hive, Pharynx ran through the shifting corridors, unsure of where the Queen was. Fortunately for him, she wasn't that far. After passing through six or seven corridors, he saw her, discussing her plans with some of her other drones.

The purple-eyed changeling warrior took a breath as he finally stopped in front of Queen Chrysalis, who gave a satisfied grin of anticipation as she spoke to him. "Report, Pharynx. What did you find?"

"Hah, my Queen... hah, I've found... hah, something." He finally caught his breath as he steadied himself upwards. "Something large."

"What is it exactly?" Chrysalis asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You may want to follow me." He said as he began to fly out through the corridor and back outside. Chrysalis, curious of what had her drone in such a rushy mood, followed after him, the drones she communed with a moment ago following suite.

As they made it outside, Chrysalis nearly lost control as she landed erratically, stunned by the sight she was seeing. A cloud of fire that looked so enormous it could cover the entire kingdom.

Recovering from her shock, Chrysalis asked Pharynx, "What is that... thing?"

"I... don't know, but it can't be good." As he said that, Pharynx's eyes widened at the cloud, something was coming out of it, something metallic and bulky, but he couldn't tell what it was. All he and his fellow changelings could do was watch as the cloud revealed its true appearance...

-Hippogriffia, Mount Aris-
8:10 AM

The top of the mountain was bustling with hippogriffs, many flying around the various structures they had built in their time on the mountain, others were talking to their friends or looking around the various shops for supplies. Except one, a yellowish gray hippogriff with arctic blue hair sped down towards Hippogriffia, fear evident in her eyes. As she spotted the building where her mother resided, she continued her fast flight through the city, only stopping when she had reached the doors of the building.

Opening them, she called out, "Mom!" At first, she got no response, "Mom, there's something I need you to see!"

"Hold on, Skystar, I'm coming." The voice of Princess Skystar's mother, Queen Novo sounded from the staircase leading to the upper part of the palace, and a short moment later the Queen walked down the steps to see her daughter. "What did you find this time?" Novo said with a hint of unamusement in her voice.

"It's big, come with me!" Without giving her a moment to reply, the Princess of the Hippogriffs took flight back outside. Novo let out a sigh before taking flight, following her daughter to wherever she was going.

A short flight away from the building later, she could see Skystar in mid-air hovering high above the Kingdom. Flying upwards to hover alongside her, Novo spoke again. "I swear, if this is another one of your silly discoveries, you're-" She stopped as she saw what Skystar was talking about, a large, cylindrical cloud that bore fire on the front of it.

Suddenly, the cloud seemed to slow briefly, bringing a hopeful smile to Skystar's face. But that smile immediately faded as something emerged from the cloud, a large, circular object that stretched out for miles, at what must have been the front of the ship was a tall, wafer shaped structure that stuck out from the rest of it. The ship let out an unnerving howl as the cloud behind it began to dissipate.

Queen Novo was silent, simply staring at the large object as she and her daughter watched it slowly hover towards Mount Aris...

-The Crystal Empire-
8:15 AM

The once bustling Crystal Empire had become one driven by fear and uncertainty. Townsponies ran around the town or into their homes as they tried to escape from whatever had taken their skies. As the large alien vessel slowly hovered over the city, Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor stood atop the palace as they watched the large newcomer. Behind them, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Thorax and Sunburst galloped over to them, all four of them horrified by the large object in the sky.

"What in Equestria is THAT?!" Trixie almost screamed to her friends.

"We don't know, it came out of a large, fiery cloud behind it." Shining Armor replied, continuing to stare at the large ship that was now almost blocking every inch of sunlight from the Empire.

"We need to send a message to my aunt, she might know what to do." Cadance said to her husband and their guests.

"That sounds like a good idea right now." Starlight said as the six of them all raced back into the palace, intent on figuring out what to do about the unknown object above their city.

-Canterlot-
8:19 AM

It had been moments since the fire cloud had been first noticed, and now the alien ship that had departed it was now hovering right over Canterlot, just above the mountain. The royal palace was directly underneath a dented section of the underside of the ship, leaving Celestia and Luna to wonder just what that part of the ship was. The rest of the city was in a panic, ponies running or flying as far away from the ship as they could possibly get.

One of the royal guards exited the palace and trotted over to Celestia and Luna. "What are your orders, your Highnesses?"

Celestia snapped her eyes away from the ship, steadying herself as she gave her answer. "Prepare the conference room, we're having guests that can help us with figuring out what to do about that vessel up there."

"And get a reporter here immediately, I shall address the nation once I've finished with the meeting."

"Understood." The guard said before bowing to the royal sisters, then turning back towards the palace as the princesses continued to gaze at the spaceship hovering above Canterlot.

"I have a very bad feeling about this, sister." Luna said, fear present in her voice.

"I know.... and to be honest, I'm scared too." Celestia replied as she and Luna stared at the monstrous ship above them.

-Ponyville-
8:24 AM

The 6 mares and dragon sat in their seats as the train they boarded began to depart. Twilight placed her saddlebags in the space between her and Spike, taking a deep breath from all the running they had performed to get to the train.

Rarity broke the vocal silence within the car. "So, what are you bringing the tools for, Twilight?"

"In case we need to use it to develop our plan," Twilight looked up to the city of Canterlot, fear present in her next words. "and if we find out anything new, I'll need to document it like I did earlier last night."

"But, what if we can't do anything to stop them, assuming they're going to attack us?" Fluttershy asked, sharing Twilight's fearful tone.

Twilight sighed before looking down at the floor of the train. "I don't know, Fluttershy." Then, lifting her head up with newfound determination, she continued. "But we have to hope that they aren't here to hurt us, that they're just bringing a lot of guests with them to make first contact."

"That's one possibility, I mean, if we were a near-extinct, space-faring species we'd probably do somethin' like that, right?" Applejack said in support of this theory.

"I would hope so, I can't imagine what would happen if it's the former." Rarity said, her hope slightly drained as she considered all the possibilities they could think of.

"Well, whatever happens, we'll just have to worry about what we can do after our meeting with the princesses." Twilight said finitely. The others nodded in agreement before looking out the windows to look at the darkened sky. They all stared at the large, dark ship with fear, fear that if Twilight's predictions were true, then Equestria may need more than it has to stand against the alien fleet.

Comments

[Shadowflameking]

moar

[Shadowflameking]

can't wait to see if celestia HURLS the sun at them lmfao

[Hillbe]

THANK YOU Dragon Lord Torch
He loves a good game of shuffle board & frisbee

[Marytryne]

My dear queen, it seems like your plan have to be put aside as well as your grudge against equestria if all life on the planet has a chance to survive, the coming harvest. For they shall show no mercy no more, only in a united cause shall all see the light of day.

I really hope she joins the war against the Xenos cause conferred to another military mind in Equus she one of the best in the field if she commands an army.

[Illumynarty]

If they blow up the Crystal Empire castle, imagine the explosion from that, as it is massive.

"Outside, quickly!" With that, the two alicorn sisters raced out of the kitchen, but not before Celestia turned off the oven. Didn't want to cause a fire during this strange day.

I sense some foreshadowing here...

[Razzy]

Yay, best bughorse.

The real question is... Who is Equestrian Jeff Goldblum?