Chapter One(1)-In the Dark

Author's Note: Hey everyone, what's up? I know you're all wondering what I'm doing writing an MLP: FiM fanfic. But truth be told, I've taken a liking to the 'show' in recent weeks and can officially say that I am a fan or 'brony'. (Not a hardcore one. Lol. Just a casual viewer and enthusiast.) It teaches morals, lessons, and it's downright awesome. Every other cartoon (aside from Regular Show and Adventure Time) needs to be at least "20 percent cooler" to even come close. I will have to admit though, I never thought I would like it. I was bored and it was on demand so I put on a random episode. It got progressively interesting, plus I like the rock style opening. (Somewhat.) XD But... yeah. Anyway, in this chapter you'll get thrown right into the situation after a few paragraphs with as little knowledge as possible. (Like Hasbro tends to do with everything.) But I hope that you enjoy it, and I will accept and appreciate any feedback. If you're an anti-brony or you don't like the fandom however, please don't waste my time with your pointless slander or I'll have Fluttershy send Discord to troll you for the rest of your life. Enjoy!

Plains Outside of Ponyville, Equestria-'Mane' Six, Ponyville Residents, and Unidentified Groups-19:37:05 (7:37 P.M.)

Twilight Sparkle PoV

There we were, out in the plains standing exactly a mile away from our enemies. They looked fierce and ready to fight to their deaths, but so did we. This was our home. This was our land. Those... creatures would not succeed against us.

It started a week ago with the attack on Manehattan. Then it was Fillydelphia, then Baltimare... They found a way to cover our entire northeastern flank before we could even act against them. Yesterday while Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and I were finalizing our main strategy, they all attacked Cloudsdale. Cloudsdale! The post of the Wonderbolts and the reserves. The secondary guards posting! The center of our military might and historic culture was attacked and taken with little trouble. What does that mean for us here in Ponyville? I don't know yet. All I can say is that we aren't them. We still have a chance to turn the tide.

Princess Celestia had arrived a few moments ago, as she stood in front of us beside Luna. With a firm tone and stance, she addressed our enemies. "By the power bestowed upon me as the Princess of the Sun and Equestria, I command you to leave this land and retreat back into the depths of whatever places you arose from! This is a land of peace, and it shall remain that way! Leave now or suffer the consequences!"

There was no reply as all of them just stared right back at us, un-moving. Something was up and I knew it. Not even a second later, I began to feel the ground shake from beneath the surface. The others felt it too and looked around uneasily. I knew it wasn't just me at this point. 'Oh no...' This could most likely only mean one thing.

I heard a large crack and looked to my left to see a large figure appear out of the ground. I heard somepony call out, "Tatzlwurm!" The large worm-like creature examined all of us quickly before releasing a loud roar. Seven more of the monsters rose up from various spots in the field with an unprecedented amount of tremors. The ground almost caved beneath me!

All of the tatzlwurms looked around at us and the fear we had plastered on our faces. They seemed satisfied by it and went back underground... before coming up very quickly and jumping into the air. At that same point in time, the enemy armies across the way began the first major wave of their charge. There were battle cries being omitted all around me as the worms came closer to landing once more onto several groups of ponies.

Amongst the chaos, I managed to locate Celestia and Luna up front with extreme fear, but more so evident in Luna. The Sun Princess regained her composure before she began to bark out orders. "Earth ponies, Alicorns, and Unicorns; prepare yourselves for battle! We shall meet them halfway with a charge of our own! Pegasi, take to the skies and relay any movement that we can't clearly see. Do what ever else you can to halt their advance if possible. We will win this battle, for it will be the turning point in this war!"

She then turned her head to the left to see our allies next to us. They were new here in Equestria, but they had proved their good intentions and seemed trustworthy enough. They still never told us what they were exactly, so we referred to them as 'aliens'. It may be rude, but they don't seem to mind. They had several powerful and destructive weapons and vehicles that were designed to specifically wage war. But at least they were on our side. Well... most of them anyway.

Celestia turned to their leader. "It would be best if you just do whatever you can to help us w-" She was interrupted by their male leader. He had a small smile on his face as he spoke. "Trust me, ma'am. We know exactly what we're doing. We won't let you down; just focus on protecting your citizens." He turned back to his army. He said something about heading towards the sounds of chaos and then ordered them to charge.

At this time, the tatzlwurms landed, taking at least a toatal of eleven ponies underground with them. This shocked and scared everypony. Seeing this, Celestia yelled once again. "What are you all doing?! Charge! Go, move up! We can do this!" Mainly out of fear of another attack from the worms, all of the ponies rushed forward to meet our enemies. Some of them were more aliens, but bad ones.

I was stuck in the middle of all of this when only a few days ago, I would have been resting at the library right about now reading a good book. But fate had different plan for all of us. Before Celestia had ordered us out to the plains I placed Spike, Doctor Hooves, Octavia, Cheerilee, and Derpy in charge of keeping the foals safe. Vinyl Scratch was preparing a secret weapon or something. She said it was as strong as the aliens' weapons and that she had been working on it for a few months. Whatever it was, it had to be pretty darn strong to match their 'firepower' as they called it.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost missed what Celestia told me. "Twilight! I need you to gather your friends and get the elements. Use your wits to flank them to get a good look at how many forces they have. If you can, do something about them. The pegasi are about to get some company of their own..." She gestured towards a swarm of parasprites and changelings. The parasprites weren't a direct threat, but if they flew by everything and got to the farms, we'd be all out of food. Not to mention that they would be coming for anything else next. But they were so darn cute... No, they're still a threat and... I'm wasting time just thinking about trivial things. Focus, Twilight... Focus.

Getting caught up again, I missed her question. "Twilight, did you hear me?" I shook my head to clear it before answering her. "Yes, Princess Celestia. It will be-" She interrupted me with urgency. "I know it will, now go!" She turned around and faced her sister before addressing her. I hadn't heard what they said however, as I was already well on my way towards my friends who were all looking a bit scared.

Although I was surprised, I wasn't at the same time. We'd all seen battle before but it was never of a scale such as this. Half of our fighters were every day ponies. Especially since Cadence had sworn to hold our northern flank against the enemy. She was granted with the remaining Wonderbolts to aid in the defense of the Empire and to act as a QRF if we got into some deep trouble. If the Crystal Empire somehow is attacked and falls before we can get there... we're done for.

I felt worried quite understandably. Not just for my friends or Spike this time, but for my brother. Shining Armor was a great prince and a great captain, but I could tell that he felt bad for not being able to be here and help out when we had our final meeting yesterday. His not being present also meant that half of the guards couldn't be here either...

'Damn it! Stop thinking so much and do your duty as a princess! Heck, as a resident of Ponyville and Equestria!' My mind finally got through to me as I reached my friends and found my words. "Alright girls, we have to get to the castle and grab the Elements of Harmony. There's no way we can win this battle without using them." They all nodded as we turned and began to run towards town.

But as we got a few yards ahead, a barrage of light went over our heads and there were small, sharp objects whizzing by us. These were the aliens' ammunition. I looked over to see them shooting their sticks of power. They never did tell us what the general term for their weapons were but... that could wait for now. They were aiming for the charging enemies not too far away now in order to provide cover for us and the other ponies on the ground.

As more of the sharp objects whizzed by me, I told my friends to speed up and go ahead of me by a few 'meters' as the aliens called it. So they did and I followed not too far behind. But as we were almost off the field of the battle, I heard one of the aliens yell, "Grenade out!" I didn't know what that meant, but something landed right behind me as an enemy was a few hoofsteps away.

I continued to move to avoid the changeling near me, but I heard a short 'boom' sound and felt a massive wave of heat envelope me... before everything went black.

A/N: Sorry if it seemed rushed halfway through. I was just so excited to get this out. Lol. I haven't typed much recently. (But of course I'm still at work with my other ideas.) If it seems like I'm being lazy overall with all of my other stories, please know that I am not attempting to do that. There is just... a lot of things going on right now. And I mean besides, most of us have lives outside of the internet, right? XD Until the next update for any of my stories though, adios mein kamerads. And if you can, please leave a review for some form of feedback on the first chapter of my first MLP story. (Or just to say hello. :P) It's nothing great, but any form of feedback will be appreciated. -Whiskey