The Great Extraterrestrial War, 1023-1027

by The Blue EM2

O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break our sleep at all?

The morning calm was suddenly and dramatically interrupted by the blaring of loud sirens.

"What's going on?" Izzy asked, as they all ran into the throne room turned command centre for the war. "What's the alarm about?"

A soldier turned and looked to them. "Bad news!" he said. "A Heron and its support formation have broken through the edge of our lines, and are heading straight for Zephyr Heights!"

"Uhh, this is bad," Zipp said.

"Sis, this is TOTALLY worse than bad!" Pipp exclaimed. "We're not exactly fitted out for resisting a siege here!"

Queen Haven sped into the room, still looking a little disorderly. "The enemy broke through our lines?" she asked. "Scramble the home defence squadron and order the batteries to be on high alert!"

Sunny glanced back. "I can offer to help, if you'd like. I do moonlight as an alicorn, after all."

"Any help we can get would be most appreciated," said one of the Generals, handing Sunny a headset as he did so. "This radio will allow you to stay in contact with other units and assist our troops in coordinating fire. I cannot understate the importance of this situation, but put very simply we must drive that thing off before it can cause any harm to civilians."

Sunny nodded, and headed for the palace balcony to take a look for herself.

---

Once outside, she saw a pair of biplanes roar overhead, heading towards the target.

"Can you guys hear me?" Sunny asked over the radio.

"Greetings, Sunny!" said a voice in a very posh accent. "Good to be up in the air for Queen and Country, what? The Royal Flying Corps shall have this here blighter driven off with two turns of a greased watermelon!"

"Err, what?" Sunny replied.

"Driven back through precision flying. Don't you earth ponies speak Ponish?"

"Sighting confirmed!" said the other pilot. "Dicky blighter has snitched a parcel sausage-end and gone goose over stump frogside!"

Sunny shook her head. The words these pilots were saying were most certainly Ponish, but they might as well have been speaking a different language for all the sense it made. "Have you seen the Heron, yes or no?"

"It should be coming into visual range now!"

Sunny looked on in shock as she saw the enormous machine scale the side of the mountain like a pony climbing stairs. It stopped, seemingly waiting for its army of Spiders to catch up, before resuming its march towards them.

She closed her eyes. "Come on! I know it didn't work against them last time, but I really have no other choice!"

With a blast of energy her alicorn form flared into being, and she took to the air, catching up to the biplanes in a few seconds. "Dad, can you get to the balcony?"

"I say, we appear to have been joined by some sort of aerial being. Where did you come from?"

"Maretime Bay, originally," Sunny replied. "I'll guide you two in and lead you to the target."

"Release the chocks! Grab your egg and fours and let's get the bacon delivered."

---

The Heron marched through the streets of Zephyr Heights, looking about for the palace it seemed. The machine was followed by its Spiders who were moving in close formation.

Sunny looked down. "Batteries, hold fire. Heron is currently in civilian territory and there is a high risk of collateral damage."

"Understood, holding fire."

Sunny noticed the two biplanes dive in and open fire, their machine guns barely making a dent on the shield as they flew over and across the target. One of them narrowly avoided slamming into a building, but recovered and pulled back into the air.

"Took a waspy there!" the pilot said.

"Watch you don't flip over on your Betty Harper's and catch your can in the Bertie!" said the other. "Look sharp! Dropping custard!"

The other biplane wheeled around in the street and fired off another volley, which did little other than annoy the large machine. The plane narrowly avoided being hit by sustained energy fire from below. "I was nearly out for a duck with that lot of iron!"

Sunny then noticed the course of the Heron. It was marching through the streets towards the Palace! Of course!

She radioed her father. "Dad, are you out on the balcony?"

"In position now. I can see the Heron."

"I need you to line up your energy cannon, but don't fire until I give the word."

"Understood."

Sunny began to build energy beneath her translucent horn as she flew in on the target. "Steady... steady... NOW!"

Two beams of light roared across the city and crashed into the Heron's shielding, completely overloading it. Sunny changed channels. "Batteries, open fire!"

She flew clear as the loud roar of artillery started up in the distance. The Heron, on the other hand, tottered about like a drunkard... and walked straight into a minefield. The explosions crippled the legs, and it toppled onto a nearby balcony.

Sunny touched down just as the local defence regiment arrived to seal off the area. This was a good thing, as a large crowd had assembled with only one thing on their mind. Revenge.

"Let them have it!" one colt yelled. "They killed my dad! We should kill them!"

The soldiers continued to hold the crowd back as Sunny fired her beam up again, and began cutting open the cockpit of the Heron. The metal was surprisingly thick, which stunned her. Mom had said the armour wasn't particularly thick, so this new revelation was a little surprising. Perhaps something in the alloy was designed to resist magic somehow?

She continued cutting through as she tried to find her way into the cockpit. After a few more minutes she was through, and the metal plating slammed to the floor. She stepped inside, making her way past wiring and other control surfaces to try and find whatever was at the controls.

And what she found there, hardwired into the machine itself, horrified her.

"Misty?"

---

A few hours later, the wreckage of the Heron had been hauled away for study by the allies, who were keen to find out more about how this bizarre machine worked. The process, they suspected, would take quite a while, and so whilst they were waiting further planning was being conducted on the future prosecution of the war.

This wasn't the only thing being investigated. The other ponies had had to work incredibly hard in order to cut Misty out of the Heron's cockpit, not to mention disconnect all the wires and cables that had been plugged into her. She was currently recovering in a hospital bed, but apparently was lucid enough to answer questions.

So they did. "What happened to you?" Zipp asked. "I recall you vanished shortly after we fought Opaline at her castle, but we don't know the other specifics on that front."

Misty looked up at them, her eyes wide. "It's a long story."

---

Misty left the Brighthouse in the middle of the night, feeling a little better than she had earlier. Having helped them, and saved Sparky from a horrible fate in the process, certainly helped clear her conscience a bit. She continued to make her way along the pathway towards a convenient resting spot when suddenly she was grabbed from behind.

She tried to scream, but her assailant covered her mouth and was quick to apply some sort of chemical over her nostrils. She tried to fight back, but it wasn't long before she slipped into unconsciousness.

---

When she awoke, she found herself wired into a huge amount of equipment mounted to a metal platform. All the information from them was being routed directly into her brain. She looked around in confusion. "Hello? Is anypony there?"

"Did you really think you could trick me, Misty?" said a familiar voice, as Opaline stepped into view. "You should know by now that I take betrayal very seriously, and your efforts at fooling me didn't work."

Misty shuddered.

"I can sense Cutie Mark streams, so I always knew you had one. It just suited my plans to play along with your little ploy. But now I know what they can do, and can plan accordingly."

Misty looked at Opaline. "Please! Let me go!"

Opaline smiled cruelly. "I love it when you beg. But no. I can't have you blabbing about my plan, can I? Besides, the fires of war can easily clean this sort of problem up."

Misty yelled out as the top of the platform she was on suddenly closed, and the world vanished around her. She screamed as her mind was flooded with messages that were blocking out her own thoughts.

FOLLOW ORDERS

OPALINE IS YOUR SAVIOUR

OBEY

TO DIE IN BATTLE IS GLORIOUS

PROSECUTE THE STRUGGLE

ATTACK THE ENEMY AND DESTROY THEM

TO SURRENDER IS TO SHOW WEAKNESS

Misty's own thoughts were being subsumed by whatever was powering this machinery. She continued to fight it even as the machine she was stuck in was being pushed towards the lines.

---

"So, I deliberately tried to move towards Zephyr Heights to warn you all," Misty finished, shuddering. It was pretty clear this situation was still affecting her pretty badly. The others stayed silent out of respect for such a harrowing tale.

Zipp's phone then buzzed, which she took a look at. "Got an update from the science team," she said. "It's not good."

"What do they have to say?" Hitch asked.

"They've started to analyse the Spiders which were captured along with the Heron," Zipp began. "They're largely made of materials native to Equestria rather than from another planet. That strongly suggests they were built here rather than shipped from another planet."

"What sorts of materials?" Sunny asked.

"Iron, copper, steel- all fairly common metals on Equus," Zipp pointed out.

"That explains what the Lice were up to," Pipp commented. Her face went pale. "We thought we were fighting them off with our offensives and our weapons... but this entire time we've only been making them stronger!"

There was a mood of gloom in the room. The entire strategy on which the war was built was only prolonging it, and helping the enemy in the process.

Zipp's phone then buzzed again. "Another update," she said. "This time it's a video. They've removed some sort of glass container from the head of one of the Spiders, and it contains this strange substance they're struggling to identify. It behaves in a sense like fire, but they can't scan it properly. It's almost- magical, according to their research."

Misty looked over as best she could. "That's Dragonfire," she said. "That's what Opaline was trying to extract from Sparky."

"That's something we didn't get to the bottom of," Izzy said. "Why did she want the Dragonfire in the first place?"

"She's using it as a fuel source for her army," Misty explained. "The machines are all powered by it as it produces a lot of power. The only problem is the amount of it required to get the machines working. Opaline has been draining dragons for centuries in order to get enough for the machines she's using against you. That's why I think there are so few left, as Opaline has drained so many of their Dragonfire in order to get her invasion started."

"That just leaves one other question," Sunny said, now looking over and worried this was yet another betrayal courtesy of Misty. "How was Opaline able to assemble an army like this without anypony noticing?"

"I was underground when I was sealed into that cockpit," Misty answered. "So it's likely that Opaline built her army down underground as well where nopony would think to look. I believe the original thinking was that the machines came from outer space, correct?"

"Talk about nerve wracking," Pipp noted. "The threat was under our hooves this entire time? How many tripods must there be down there?"

They pondered over this for a moment. "I guess you got your wish, though," Hitch commented. "We captured a Heron. Hopefully this'll end the war quicker."

Just then, Argyle arrived. "I think I've made a breakthrough," he said, looking at them with a mixture of worry and relief. Quite how it was possible to hold both facial expressions at once was something of a mystery, but Argyle somehow managed it in this case. "I think the answers that the science team have gleaned explain something I recall finding in ancient texts."

Sunny turned. "What's that, dad?"

Argyle opened some pages and showed them. "As you can see here, this text comes from the last days of the reign of Princess Twilight Sparkle. The text makes reference to an army of three legged machines advancing across Equestria and being unstoppable. Not even the Princess and her friends could stop them, as they were just too strong to confront directly. And now I think I know why."

"Really?" Zipp asked.

"Yeah," Argyle answered. "The substance that powers these machines is the clue as to why they were unable to bring them down. They've been conducting experiments on the stuff, and they've found that, whilst Dragonfire is magical in its nature, it interferes with magic on the structural level, meaning that magic simply fizzles out when used near it. And as magic was the core of the standard offensive strategy used against the various foes that the Guardians of Equestria faced throughout their lives, they would have been unable to stop them using that method. Put simply, whomever built them had learned directly from their strategies and developed weapons built to counter it."

"Opaline," Sunny said to herself. "That was her endgame all those moons ago. And with magic returned she's trying it again! Now wonder the tripods are dragging the war out- they're trying to force us to surrender so she can rule over all of Equestria!"

"How are we gonna stop her?" Izzy asked, her face looking worried. She had reason to be, having been on the front lines of the conflict when it began all those years ago.

Sunny raised her eyebrows. "I might have an idea. It seems crazy, but I suspect we've exhausted the pool of sensible ones to use."

"What's that, Sunny?" Zipp asked.

"Misty here drove the Heron to this place, and we've captured it for our own purposes. Quite apart from the stuff that we can reverse engineer from it, we now know that ponies can operate these units, correct?"

"I'm not sure I like where this is going," Hitch commented, glancing about at the others to see how they were feeling about this situation.

"My thinking is that we get the Heron and its Spiders back up to operational status, and then I can pilot it. From there I can find my way to the underground tunnels where these things first came from and make my way into them. From there, I can advance to the heart of the swarm and end this fight once and for all."

Author's Note:

Well, big plot twist in this one! Turns out there were no aliens at all-just ponies. And Opaline has firmly crossed the moral event horizon in doing so.

The idea about the machines being impervious to magic is taken from a theory I put together about the fall of G4 Equestria-Opaline was aware magic was often used as a weapon against the various foes Equestria countered, and so fielded an army that wouldn't be affected by it.

Comments

[The Blue EM2]

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Look sharp! New Chapter at 6 o'Clock!

[shining paladin]

awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter

artillery came a long way in warfare

[Exotic Butter]

Biplanes?

Haven (1 year before present): "Hey, I know times are bad, but...can my pegasi take to the air and do air support for the allies...? No...? Nevermind, we have flying machines now, so Earth Ponies and Unicorns can help too."

Also, I should have guessed that Opaline was to blame for all of this, but... I completely forgot about her...damn.

p.s. How in Tartarus did Misty last TWO years in that machine without food and water?

[The Blue EM2]

11700598

The German Guns, by Private S. Baldrick

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

[The Blue EM2]

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Well, pegasi aren't exactly the most durable of airframes and don't have obvious mounting points for weapons.

To answer your question; Herons have nutrient supply systems which are refuelled from the corpses harvested by the Lice. I'll update the text to make this clearer.

[Exotic Butter]

11700664
In my story, Pegasi were used as CAS (Close Air Support), along with magic-explosive arsenal. And you know why Equestria didn't made flying machines?

The war was so quick, it ended in ONE week. So there wasn't really time for some inventions. (Unless I count the W-Weapon.) So Pegasi were the only 'airframes' Equestria had and needed.

Now their arsenal:
"The biggest bombs that pegasi could carried, were ‘M.B. 500’ Also known as ‘Magic Bombs 500 Lb’.

These bombs (As the name says itself…), were multi-purpose bombs with a Magic ‘war’-head. These bombs could make a pretty deep crater with a TEN meters radius.

Now that is a piece of technology for a Race that never used them.

Since the start of the Invasion, there was no fear of running out of these 'saviors'. Twilight’s factory made more than was planned before…"
-Magic Vs. Machinery, Chapter 9

The bombs were made when there was 9 months of tension between Equestria and Griffonia that ended in peace. It's not that important, but it's the only reason these bombs exist in my AU. The M.B.'s were attached along the waist of the pegasi and connected to a button, that was like a bracelet on front hoof/ hooves, to detach the bomb. (I hope i didn't make it too confused.)

I wrote this to prove a little, that Pegasi still CAN have some air superiority.

Anyway, have a good day!

[The Blue EM2]

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I'd like to borrow this idea in a future story, if that's OK by you.