War of the worlds.

by Glitched Grim

Canterlot Is Dead.

The train kept moving through the tunnels, the tunnels lanterns quickly illuminating the trains windows before disappearing, despite being in a rather safe place not a single pony did or say anything, Ponyville…the one place these very ponies called home had just been destroyed and torched into flames and the ponies that didn’t make it on the train probably already died because of Gods knows what, that Tripod managed to enter the town without being seen and the moment the ponies looked at the tripod…it was already to late for them.

The train ride went on for what felt like hours, normally it wouldn’t be that way as going there on hoof would take a while but not certainly an hour, especially if you used a chariot, but these secret tunnels were supposed to be kept hidden in case of emergencies or events like this, and because of this it was usually the longest route to Canterlot, And finally after what felt like hours they had finally made it to Canterlot and to their surprise, it was already night time.

When Starshine, Rose, Ember, and the guard as well as the rest of the ponies trotted out of the train the first thing they noticed was how dead silent Canterlot was, so silent in fact the you could see the old paper flowing through the wind cliche, as they continued walking through the city they began to hear a noise, they closer they got to the noise the more clearer it got until they finally saw what was causing the noise.

It was a crowed of nobles and news ponies with cameras and microphones talking to none other then the solar princess herself, bombarding her with question after question.

“Do you have any idea what could cause such a phenomenon that was the lightning storm?”

“Was the earthquake we felt natural or could it have something to do with the storm?”

“Is something really attacking us?”

The questions kept adding up with Celestia trying her best to answer all of them the best she could, it was already clear to our squad that Celestia was as confused as they were of the situation, but unlike Celestia they knew what was the cause and they needed to warn her before said cause came strolling to Canterlot, locked and loaded, and ready to cause another massacre…Starshine looked back at the train they were just on, the screams of the unfortunate ponies still ringing in her mind, as if some unseen specter was mocking her, telling her that she couldn’t save them, and even when she continued to look..she could almost see the smoke of the now disintegrated Ponyville.

When Starshine looked back towards the crowed of ponies still asking continuous questions, she could see that both Celestia and Luna were both losing their patience with the crowed and in just a moment Luna would scream with her royal voice to shut up the crowed, and since Starshine didn’t want her ears assaulted she decided to step away from the crowed with Rose quickly glancing at her before following suit.

As Starshine kept walking away from the crowed, she tried to think of ways to tell the princesses and what words to use, as she was doing this she failed to notice her best friend Rose following her, Rose noticing the look of stress and terror on her friends face, didn’t want to keep it this way so she decided to speak up.

“Thinking about what to tell the princesses?” Rose said breaking the silence. Starshine had a quick look of surprise on her face before softening it.

“Yeah I guess you can say that, I just don’t know what to say to her without causing a mass panic.” Starshine answered, “the idea of a threat bigger then anything we faced before, destroying our homes and killing us off can cause even the most dead inside pony to panic, at least slightly”. Starshine continued.

“Well….why can’t you just tell Celestia in private?” Rose suggested.

“Really?! You of all ponies would know that a simple Pegasus like me will never get a reaction out of her, besides she already busy with like 100 nobles and news ponies as it is!” Starshine exclaimed.

“…Luna?” Rose once again suggested.

“……..”

The deadpan stare along with Starshine’s silence was all Starshine could give as an answer, and it seemed to work as Rose sighed and gave off a defeated expression.

STOMP

“Well if those don’t work, then I don’t see how we’re going to tell them”. Rose said.

“That’s what I was worried about! We’re trying to warn them of life threatening danger and we can’t even come up with an easy way of doing so!” Starshine exclaimed/complained.

STOMP

“Well like you said your a Pegasus why cant you just fly towards the princess?” Rose asked/suggested

“…guards?” Starshine said a bit annoyed by how somewhat idiotic these suggestions were, and now she feared that she was running out of ideas on how to tell them, she failed to warn the ponies of Ponyville but she wasn’t going to fail this time…she hoped. However they were so focused that they failed to notice…..Emberlane and the royal guard galloping towards them.

“What in Tartarus are you girls doing all the way out here?!” Ember asked.

“Yeah we were trying to find you girls in the crowed, please tell us next time.” The guard said.

Starshine sighed, “I’m sorry it’s just I was worried about what we were going to say to the princesses, I didn’t want to say something weird or bad or make the ponies think I was going mad.” Starshine finished.

Ember took a quick glance at a flock of birds flying above them before speaking, “I can understand that, I use to tell my teachers about things that I thought were serious but they never would believe me, it usually would be my classmates who would believe me simply because they were my age or higher or lower.” Ember explained.

“Wow you did all that back then? Let me guess which ones were true or false.” The guard said giggling a little.

Ember chuckled before answering, “yeah I was kind of a liar back then but usually it would range from made up stories to false beliefs on certain situations, and I think those stories were why I grew on th—“ before she could finish her sentence, she took a glance in front of them as she saw the birds hovering over something, her feel good face she formed when talking about past memories slowly shifted to absolute horror at what she saw.

Starshine, Rose, and the guard already knew what she was looking at, so they slowly turned their heads hoping to Celestia herself it wasn’t what they were thinking, but of course…..they were false hopes. Imagine this scenario, you undergoing your city’s mass destruction by a giant monster you didn’t even no existed, as your running, desperately trying to find an escape, you see the very monster wreaking havoc upon your city until….the monster stops and looks at YOU, your completely frozen, your an ANT compared to this thing, yet it’s putting its attention on YOU.

Thats what Starshine, Rose, The guard, and especially Emberlane felt at that moment, the Tripod was just standing there, staring, hiding in the shadows! The only reason why Ember could even see the Tripod was because of the birds, the damn birds! It was only a matter of time before it would go on a killing spree! “Princess Celest—

BWWAAAAAAAAOWAAAAAAAAAMMMMMmmmMMMH

Now EVERYPONY was silent, the crowed, the main six, the two princesses all had a look of shock before they transformed into complete terror, then a pony began to walk away from it, then another, and then more began to run, Starshine, Rose, Ember, and the guard quickly followed but were interrupted by the Tripod when it let out another ominous and dreadful howl.

BWOOOOOOOOAAOOOOOOEEEEEEEUM

I giant massive beam of light lowered upon them, Starshine looked back to see that the Tripod had activated some sort of massive spot/searchlight but not only that, to Starshines absolute horror, two MORE Tripods appeared with their own giant searchlights! If one was capable of destroying all of Ponyville by itself..she physically shuddered at the thought of what THREE could do in the SAME location!

Starshine looked back to her friends and proceeded to gallop faster, as she was she saw a train ready for ponies to board and escape, along with the train, there were other chariots flying in a desperate attempt to escape but it was all for not, as the chariots were just taken down by the heat rays. They needed to get on the train asap, Starshine looked back at the Tripods one more time and saw that they were deploying tentacles of some sort, she didn’t have time to question the tentacles though, for all she knew It could be extra heat rays! Once they were In the train they saw that the car they were in was almost full, at least 15 more ponies could get in before the doors closed, and once they did the train would immediately start running.

Starshine looked out the window to see the princesses and a couple of royal guards try to delay the Tripods from getting close to the train but every single arrow, spear, and magic bolts just bounced off of the three as if they were shooting play dough at the Tripods, it seemed like they were going to fail until…

WA—BOOOM

WWAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOUM

The Tripod in the middle let out an earth shattering howl as it got hit by the most biggest & powerful magic blast Celestia could give it, the impact of the blast was so powerful that it knocked the Tripod off of its feet and collided with the ground! The Tripod on the left noticed this and walked over to its comrad in an attempt to help it up, but the Teipod on the right had other ideas or should I say…ONE idea in mind.

The train conductor must’ve noticed this as the train began moving, Starshine formed a small but hopeful smile as it seemed they were going to finally escape! Until…

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAP

A quick flash of neon light shined in front of the train and incinerated the train tracks in front of them! All ponies on board didn’t even get time to react before the Train dislodged off the tracks and came hurdling towards ground, Everypony braced for impact but it never came, Everypony opened their eyes and saw that the train was floating in a golden aura, however this aura didn’t last long as it disappeared just a few seconds after it appeared. The train finally made contact with the ground but a lot less forceful as it was going to be, after rolling down the hill for a few seconds the train finally came to a stop as it landed on its side….

Celestia looked down at the train, thankful that she managed to stop it just in time. Now that her little ponies were safe she turned back towards—

STOMP

“SISTER!” Luna shouted, but Celestia didn’t even acknowledge her sister as the giant searchlight of the Tripod beamed down upon her, all she could think of doing was slowly look up to the very Tripod she shot at with her moss powerful blast, and to her horror, I didn’t even leave a scratch..not even a dent was visible on this thing, and her horror only worsened when it started to lower….

It’s gaze was Cold, Uncaring, Unsympathetic, and lacked any emotion whatsoever and yet…she could almost feel it, like it was judging her…analyzing her…that’s when she realized something, this was the first time she ever felt absolutely and utterly TERRIFIED, not scared..terrified, she was scared at nightmare moon’s return, she was scared at Discords return, she was scared during chrysalis’s attack on canterlot, she was scared during Sombra’s invasion on the crystal empire, she was scared during Tirek’s rampage, but never terrified, the reason? Twilight and her friends would always appear at the nick of time and save the day, Twilight and her friends even when it seemed all hope was lost, would bring back harmony and put things back to normal….but THIS…this situation felt utterly hopeless and thus…she felt terrified, but then she finally uttered three things at the Tripod, “What. Are. You?” Celestia asked in any desperation that the Tripod would answer but instead, a single tentacle emerged from the Tripod and slithered its way towards her.

That’s when she started galloping towards her sister, as she was she thought of two things, 1( get me and my sister to safety via teleportation and 2( we need help, but from who? From who?!…Wait a minute..

Before she could finish her thought, she reached her sister and teleported them to somewhere she hoped would be safe…the Crystal Empire. The tentacle which was mere inches away from Celestia, retracted back to the tripod and it elegantly rose back to full height, as it did it turned back to canterlot, it’s searchlight beaming down upon the city, and proceeded to vaporize canterlot and it’s remaining residents and guards….

Inside of the train, many groans and grunts from ponies could be heard from within the train, just because the impact on the ground was less impactful then it was when it was hurdling, didn’t mean it didn’t hurt when it DID impact the ground but even then, the adrenaline mixed with the desperate attempt to escape didn’t keep them down for to long, “Hey Everypony!” A stallion shouted, Everypony looked up towards the source of the voice and found a pegasus stallion standing outside the door on top of them all, “I can carry you guys out of this door, but I can only carry one at a time” the stallion said, and as he did Everypony nodded in agreement, much to the stallions pleasure, “alright but first, is there any other Pegasus in here?” The stallion asked, four hoofs raised to the air.

“Good now listen closely, I need you four to fly out this door and go to the other cars in case there’s any ponies stuck there, got it?” The stallion ordered, and with nods of conformation the four Pegasus went off, “Alright let’s hurry up Everypony, we don’t have much time!” The stallion said, and thus he began helping ponies out one by one and then him and Starshine both carried out Rose, and then Emberlane, and finally the guard, as they jumped off the car Starshine started to hear something, and it was getting closer…

Until she finally realized that it was the Tripod getting closer! She tried to warn Everypony but it was too late, as the searchlight already shined down on them, letting them know that they’ve been spotted, and to the groups horror a second searchlight shined down on the train, then that’s when they heard it.

BWWAAAAAAAAAOOOOWAAAAAAMMMMMmmmMMMH

“Oh no…no no NO NO NO!” Screamed a stallion, upon looking up, they realized it was the very pegasus who had helped them out of the car, he tried to fly away but it was futile as the Tripods tentacle swooped down faster then he could fly and took him. “NO NO NOOOAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa”, and that’s when they realized that those tentacles weren’t extra heat rays, they were meant to capture them! Starshine looked on at the other ponies the four other Pegasus helped get out, and they started to run, and then the three Pegasus try to fly with only one managing to get away while the other two got snatched by the tentacles, she also watched as the fourth pegasus who is still trying to help a pony looks in utter horror as she realizes that’s she’s been spotted, but the poor mare won’t stop and keeps pulling the pony out, she’s constantly looking back and forth between the Tripod and the pony she carrying until the pony finally gets out and starts running, and the Pegasus mare tries to follow the pony but…she isn’t to fortunate.

Starshine’s look of horror as she sees the mare get captured while screaming absolute bloody murder is quickly interrupted by the sounds of the tentacles ripping and destroying the top of the car’s just so they can snatch the ones that remained inside, her mind filled with more screams as they’re taken away, dear god the screams……

“Hey!” Rose shouted, snapping Starshine out of her horror filled daze, “we need to get out of here like RIGHT NOW!!” Rose shouted with a fearful look. With a nod of conformation she, Rose along Ember and the guard began bolting for the forest in front of them, the Tripods never taking their “eye’s” off of the victims still in the train car’s, once they made it to the forest entrance, no matter how tired or exhausted they were, they still kept going until they were for sure out of the Tripods line of sight, and once they felt like they were…they collapsed taking a heavy breather before looking back, preparing themselves for the carnage they were about to see.

Yet it was eerily quiet, with the only sounds being that of the screams of the ponies who couldn’t escape the Tripods, as well as they heat rays up in canterlot. There were two Tripods capturing ponies near or in the train with a third in the back walking towards the right, possibly to capture or vaporize any ponies who went into the same direction, the group slowly looked up at canterlot, it was up in flames completely with two tripods continuing to vaporize it, the group slowly looked to the left and saw three more Tripods approaching near the hill they were looking at, the ponies that were on the hill upon seeing the Tripods ran in the opposite direction while screaming for there dear lives. The Tripods started vaporizing the ponies almost instantly, setting the trees underneath them ablaze while leaving trails of ash from the ponies they vaporized, and finally what accompanied ALL of this was the Royal Canterlot Siren, a siren that played before or during natural disasters as well as villain attacks, but now? It played to tell any nearby ponies that there is no hope for this place anymore, the Tripods have already taken over, DO NOT COME HERE.

Starshine feared what three could do, and now there were eight of them in. The. Same. Location. The group decided that this was enough and ran deeper into the forest hoping that one of the Tripods didn’t see any ponies going their direction, and they continued running, deeper and deeper into the forest they went, with the siren that filled ponies with dread constantly telling them…

Canterlot is dead.

Author's Note:

Hoh hoh that got DARK at the end there! Seriously I feel like out of all the three chapters I’ve currently written, this one is the one I’m the most proud of, of course there’s probably a ton of flaws I missed, but I feel as if I’ve improved a bit….or not depending how you see it. I also should apologize for the THREE MONTH LONG WAIT like holy shit! I probably scared you guys for making you think this was dead!

But yeah the reason I didn’t publish this much sooner is because I didn’t really know how to go about it (plot/story wise) and it REALLY demotivated my enthusiasm on making this, but as you can see I pulled through and WALLA!

And as always feel free to criticize but DONT BE MEAN ABOUT IT!

Comments

[Skyblazer9]

Well worth the three month wait for the next chapter as I had already forgotten about this story had actually existed! LOL

[SonicStreak5344]

Humanity will have to come to the rescue!

[Schwaboo]

Me when update:

[Glitched Grim]

11547404
I like your enthusiasm lol.

[The Blue EM2]

11673706
If it interests you I've also adapted WoTW.

[FridayPie]

11673699
Yeah, that's why in modetn movie they were given shields and some kind of farming machinery kept in secret - to make their intent less transparent and give them chances against modern weapons