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// Prologue Pt 1: A Falling Star 
// Story: My Little Lantern: Eventide Star 
// by Shepard1707 
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Nighttime over Equestria. Luna's moon shone brilliantly in the dark sky, and Twilight was having a wonderful time examining it's surface, watching the way that it played with the stars that twinkled around it. Luna had told her that there would be a meteor shower tonight, and that some of the meteors would be striking the moon, rather than shooting through Equestria's atmosphere. All in all an exciting time to observe incredible events in the name of science.

Right on schedule, the brilliant streaks began to track through the sky, and with her other telescope, Twilight kept an eye out for any that Luna might have to intercept, if they were too big. She'd asked that the princess perhaps save some and deflect them somewhere harmless so that she'd be able to get a chance to study one.

Just then, there was an impact on the moon, and Twilight's breath caught. Leaning in, she levitated her pen and notepad over so she could take notes as she watched. "Debris plume is expanding out exactly as Luna said it would... this is so amazing!"

Twilight scribbled away her notes of that and nearly a dozen other impacts, detailing the properties of each one. Soon enough, the meteor shower was over, and she had already almost completely filled the notebook. Smiling brightly, she gave only one sigh of disappointment. "Wish one of them had actually survived reentry. I would love to have gotten a closer look."



Far above the sky of Equestria, yet one rock remained. It had traveled for many ages, many hundreds of ages, until it came to this place, this sky. And it would have passed on without any incident, either. It's trajectory was one that would strike neither moon nor atmosphere. But as it floated just so, it felt a tug upon it's essence. Deep within, a green fire flared to life, and the meteor was pulled down, down towards the planet below, to the night darkened half.

As was to be expected in such things, the rock slowly, for such distances and speeds, slipped into the atmosphere. At first the air was a gentle push against the rock's body, but that quickly grew until it shoved against it with all it's might. Fire soon ignited around the rock as dust and grime accumulated over millenia burned away, leaving brilliant green crystal. As the crystal was revealed, the fire tinged to a fantastic green, and the rock streaked through the sky.

Instead of breaking apart and burning away, the crystal stubbornly refused the intense heat and powerful force of the wind. Such petty, physical things could not harm it. Were it to smash into the ground at this weight and speed, it would level an entire town. But this night had a watcher, and she quickly came to investigate the disturbance.

Luna frowned as the meteor continued it's plunge. There wasn't a whole lot of time left, she had to reduce the rock as much as she could. Flipping over and flying above it, she charged her horn and readied her attack. She loosed the dark blue bolt of magic into the crystal, where it refracted and shot back to her as a beam of green. She dodged out of the way easily enough, and merely set her determination even more.

Once more, she charged her attack, but this time placed the power into the tip of her horn, and swung down. With a speed matched to the meteor's, and the force multiplied many times by her powerful magics and then focused onto the point of her horn, she chipped at the crystal. It split along the side, a little less than a third of it exploding and falling away from the rest, much of it just tiny sparks that finally ignited into green fire and then fizzled out of existence, their power diffused into the night air.

Having solved how to crack the dangerous target, Luna prepared yet another attack. Her next pass split the rock almost in two, with the smaller half tumbling off into the night, leaving the larger to shift it's course to a peaceful hamlet that lay just a few thousand meters below, now. Luna ghasped as she recognized Ponyville, and with one final charge, she struck at the meteor.

Again the meteor split. The larger of the two halves was carried away by the strike, sending it plummeting into the great, dark forest to the north of the village. The smallest piece, however, tumbled through the air, as though a dice shaking around in an invisible hand. The die was cast, and it streaked down to the earth, landing some distance outside of town.

Luna floated up into the night sky again, casting her gaze around the sky to see where the other pieces had struck, and what the damage was. Much to her confusion, not a single plume of fire, nor smoke, nor dust filled the air. It was as though the only evidence that the meteor had even existed was the small piece that remained below, and her own exhaustion.

But by now the night was beginning to wane. Luna's moon was finally dipping below the horizon even as Celestia's sun rose at the opposite side. Luna gave a sigh, and turned to fly toward Canterlot and home. She would have to investigate the matter tomorrow night.



Below, in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle could barely contain her excitement. A meteor had fallen to the earth, and even better, Luna had pushed a chunk of it toward Ponyville for her to study. The excited scholar gathered her things and rushed out the door. It wasn't very long, Celestia's sun had only just risen above the horizon, before Twilight found the crater.

It was unlike anything she had ever expected, and she took furious notes the whole while she approached it. The meteorite had left a great furrow in the ground, digging up the earth but leaving it completely and totally intact, otherwise. Not even a blade of grass had so much as singed from heat, especially surprising as she'd expected a great conflagration to have covered the entire area. As it was, she doubted anypony would even know there had been an impact, unless they had been looking out into the night sky as she had been doing (something a sad few ponies ever really did on a regular basis.)

Twilight slowly stepped into the furrow, looking about the dug earth for the rock that had caused all this confusing destruction. Quickly, she found it. It was smaller than she'd expected, and as she sensed at it with her magic, she felt that it was warm but not hot to the touch. She gently tapped her hoof to it, and it responded with a very crystalline tink. Twilight scrunched her face, getting the sneaking suspicion that this meteorite was not the ordinary chunk of space rock. Even so, it would be a valuable thing to have and study.

Putting her suspicions aside and focusing instead on the exciting prospect of study, Twilight lifted the crystal and placed it in her sack. She did a quick look around to see if anypony else had seen what had happened. In doing so, she noticed that a smaller piece of the crystal had come off, and she lifted that and placed that in with it's larger sibling.

A final search ensured she had everything, and that nopony had been bothered. Finally, she set course for home, and grinned at the prospect of yet another mystery to unravel...