The War Of The Worlds

by King Of Thieves

Chapter One: Mysterious Burst of Flame

An excerpt from Equestria Daily went almost unnoticed by most readers:

Flaming Gas Burst From Mars

Reports from the Canterlot Observatory indicate the sighting of a mass of flaming hydrogen gas bursting out of Mars about midnight on the 12th.This flaming gas appeared to be moving with enormous speed towards Earth, but within fifteen minutes, it became invisible.

Twilight Sparkle herself had missed the article, so she was completely ignorant of what would soon become one of the greatest dangers to the pony race. And the purple unicorn would have stayed ignorant until it was to late had her assistant, Spike hadn't informed it to her when she got home that evening.

"Twilight!" welcomed the little purple dragon. "Hi Spike." Twilight greeted back as she entered her tree home. "What do you think of the news from Mars?" Spike asked.

"News?" Twilight asked, puzzled as she sat down on her couch. "What news could there be from a planet 40 million miles from here?"

"An exciting and unusual happening," cried Spike. "A great light-a blaze almost-has burst from the surface of Mars."

Twilight looked at him quizzically, not quite certain that she could share the her assistant's excitement.

Guessing her thoughts, Spike suggested "Why don't we go down two the Canterlot Observatory tonight?"

"Oh I don't know." answered Twilight still puzzled about Spike's new obsession, "Since, when have Spike had ever been interested in Mars?" Twilight thought to herself. She decided to just accept it, they do live in a library after all, maybe he read a book about Mars and just got obsessed with it. She would like to go to the observatory, but today had been a stressful day for that she nearly spent it all helping AppleJack buck apples.

"Oh come on Twilight!" Spike pleaded, "Please!"

Twilight thought about it some more. Then she finally agreed. "Yeah, why not."

That night at midnight, Twilight was taking her turn at the telescope when she saw a reddish flash around the edge of Mars. "Come quickly, Spike!" she cried.

The young mare never dreamed then that the flash was the launching of an accurately aimed missile from Mars, following the same path to Earth taken by the first one only 24 hours before. Yes, the Things they were sending to the blue sphere were flying swiftly and steadily across 40 million miles to bring much death and destruction to Earth.

"Well, Spike," she said as her assistant turned away from the telescope an hour later, "are the Martians signaling us?" In the darkness of the observatory, the purple dragon couldn't see the mocking smile on Twilight's face.

"Ridiculous!" he cried as he climbed off his step stool. "It is probably some meteorites falling in a heavy shower on Mars, or perhaps a huge volcano exploding."

"But why do you doubt the existence of life on Mars?" Twilight asked.

"The chances of any sort of life there are a million to one," Spike replied. "Remember,Twilight, Mars is 140 million miles from the sun, and the light and heat it get's is barely half of what we get on Earth. Life couldn't possibly survive, for Mars is getting colder and colder. Come on Twilight! You should know these things, don't you read the books about Mars? We live in a Library for Celesta's sake!"

"But there is air and water on Mars," Twilight argued."Wouldn't that support life?"

"Perhaps..perhaps," Spike replied, deep in thought, "but surely not life as advanced as ours."

Little did Twilight and Spike know that night that their planet was being watched closely by beings with greater intelligence than ponies, beings who were just as mortal as ponies, beings who had created instruments and weapons ponies had scarcely dreamed of, beings who watched Earth enviously, and slowly made their plans to leave their dying planet and take over their only hope for survival-a green, fertile planet crowded with what they considered inferior animals.

Other observers on Earth saw the flame burst forth from Mars that night, the night after that, for a total of one month. Why the shots stopped after that one month, nopony on Earth attempted to explain.

Meanwhile, the missiles the Martians had fired sped earthward at many miles a second, nearer and nearer. But even with this death and destruction hanging over them, ponies went about their daily activities, peaceful and safe, giving only an occasional glance at the bright red dot of light in the heavens called Mars.

Author's Note:

This version of War Of The Worlds is based on the Malvina G. Vogel adaption.

Comments

[SyrinxSilvermane]

This is a very good adaptation/crossover you doing here. I say that as a fan of H.G. Wells' novel.