Spike yawned and the lateness of the night and the sheer boringness of the situation began to take its toll on the baby dragon.
“Twilight...” He said to the unicorn who sat not far from him as she gazed intently at a star in the night sky. “We really should head back to the library and get some sleep, it’s really late.”
“Sorry, Spike.” Twilight Sparkle said, still staring at the same star, her eyes calculating it and trying to figure it out. “But this is big, I mean, really big!”
Her horn began glowing as she levitated a piece of parchment and quill and wrote down some notes. Spike sighed.
“What’s so important about a star?”
“Because, Spike, this star wasn’t in the sky last night, nor was it the night before that, and the night before that! This star never existed before!”
Spike stared at Twilight.
“So?” He asked. “Maybe Princess Luna decided to create a new star.”
“You can’t just create a new star, Spike.” Twilight stated. “For centuries, sailors used the stars in the night sky to navigate their way across the sea, you add one star and you could mess up the whole navigation process! Plus, why would Luna create just one star and not say anything about it?”
“Ugh, I don’t know.” Spike said, his patience gone. “Couldn’t you just wait until morning and ask Princess Celestia about it?”
“Maybe,” Twilight said. “I’ll see what I can gather tonight before sending a letter to the Princess.”
“Fine, but I’m gonna go to bed now.” With that, Spike turned and made his back to the library, leaving Twilight to stare at the sky alone.
Shortly after Spike had left, Twilight began having second thoughts.
Maybe he’s right, she thought. Maybe I’m just over-obsessing on something that is really no big deal at all.
She looked back up at the star and blinked, rubbing her eyes.
Is it... Getting bigger!? She shook her head. “I must be seeing things...” She muttered. It must be because it’s so late.
A yawn confirmed to the unicorn that she was, indeed, very tired. Maybe the Princesses know something about this, like Spike suggested... With another yawn, Twilight made her back to the library to get some sleep.
Meanwhile, high above the planet, towards the ‘star’. A large battlecruiser hung above the planet, trying desperately not to let the gravity of the world draw the cruiser further in. Inside the bridge of the ship, sparks blasted from several destroyed consoles and two heavily armed marines had their guns trained on the door as two crewmen tried desperately to keep it closed.
“Captain!” A technician in front of one of the working consoles called out, catching the attention of a brown-haired man in a light gray uniform to turn to face him. The technician continued.
“Engines two and four are giving out, we can’t maintain orbit for much longer!”
“Sir!” A woman by another console shouted. “I just lost contact with engineering! I think they were overrun!”
“Captain!” One of the crewmen at the door called out as a loud bang was heard. “We can’t hold them back much longer!”
The captain growled. “Argh! Damn you Calabas! I get you out of Tarsonis and this is how you repay me!?”
Another bang on the door, this time louder. “Orders sir?” A marine asked.
The Captain thought for a moment, then turned to the woman.
“Activate the self-destruct! Let’s not give our so-called master what he wants!”
The woman nodded, her eyes wide as she realized that, no matter what they did, they were all going to die. She tapped a few keys and her face went pale.
“Sir...” She said. “There is something in the ship that is chewing up all the wires connecting across the ship. I think it’s some sort of Zerg creature.”
“Damn... Damn it all!” The captain cried out, defeated. Then he got an idea, an idea born out of desperation. It’s a long shot, but we don’t have any other options... He turned to the other technician.
“We still have connection to the engines, right?” He asked.
“Uh, yes sir, we do...”
“Deactivate them, maybe the ship will burn up in the atmosphere if we just let ourselves drop and offer no resistance.”
“Yes sir...” The technician began tapping on the keys of his console while a loud creaking sound was heard.
“Sir!” A crewman at the door called. “I think they’re-”
He was interrupted as a monstrous arm ripped through the door next to him, then tore at the man’s chest, ripping him apart. He fell back, dragging blood on the door as he slid to the ground, dead. One of the marines opened fire on the arm, peppering it with shells. An inhuman scream shouted in response as the dead arm was pulled back.
“This is it, boys!” The captain called out, drawing a pistol and aiming it at the door that was being ripped apart. “Lock and load!”
The door burst open, and once human forms rushed in through, only to be torn up by the two marines and the captain’s guns...
The Battlecruiser’s engines gave out, cut off from power, and it immediately began to fall toward the planet, instantly heating up as it entered its atmosphere...
Back on the planet, if anypony were looking up at the sky and saw the bright star, they would’ve seen its light suddenly disappear, but then slowly reappear as a comet as it fell from the sky and into the heart of the Everfree forest, hitting the ground as a giant fireball. The shockwave from the explosion rocketing across the entire forest and the nearby town of Ponyville, jerking everypony awake and shattering the windows in their homes, including the library.
“Gah!” Twilight screamed as she fell out of her bed. “What in the name of Celestia was that!?”
“I don’t know!” Spike called back. “But, be careful where you step, there’s glass everywhere!”
It took some time, but Twilight was able to safely navigate her way outside the library and see that the carnage was across the entire town.
“Twilight!” A voice called out. Twilight turned to see Pinkie Pie bouncing towards her. “Did you see the spaceship that crashed!? It was so cool!”
“Spaceship? Pinkie, this is no time for jokes, we gotta find out what caused this.”
Pinkie shook her head. “Nonono, that was the spaceship! I’m telling you!”
“It wasn’t a spaceship Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash called out as she landed next to her friends. “It was some kind of meteor that crashed into the Everfree forest!”
“A meteor?” Twilight asked, then her eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh! Do you all know how lucky we all are!? If it was a smidge bigger, all life in Equestria, neigh, the whole world would’ve been wiped out!”
Pinkie groaned in mild frustration. “It wasn’t a meteor, it was an alien spaceship, look!” The pink earth pony pointed in the direction of the Everfree forest, where a large amount of smoke was billowing from deep within, and a large orange glow could be seen.
“Oh no...” Twilight said. “I hope Zecora’s okay...”
She turned to the rainbow mane pegasus.
“Dash! Fly up and see how bad the damage is, we gotta put out that fire!”
Dash saluted and flew up to the sky. She returned a few minutes later coughing and wheezing for air.
“I can’t get close to the Everfree!” She gasped. “The air is filled with some kind of poison.”
“Duh!” Pinkie said. “That’s the fuel from the alien spaceship being burned from the fire.”
Twilight sighed. “Pinkie, how do you know it’s a spaceship?”
“Because I saw its silhouette as it fell from the sky!” She answered. “And it was definitely not some big rock!”
“Pinkie!” Dash said, agitated. “Spaceships are only in science fiction books, they don’t exist in real life!”
Pinkie’s eyes went wide, but they quickly turned into a glare. “Say that again, Dashie. I dare you...”
Moving between the two ponies before things got worse, Twilight cleared her throat. “We can worry about what it actually was that crashed into the forest later, but right now, we need to do something about the fire that’s spreading across the forest!”
The two mares nodded in agreement.
“Pinkie,” The unicorn said. “Find Rarity. Dash, get Applejack, we’ll meet in Fluttershy’s cottage and see what we can do about the fire.”
“What about the rest of the town?” Rainbow Dash asked, gesturing to the town where many ponies were scrambling to clean up the glass and other damages made to the town, while also glancing with worried expressions to the smoke.
Twilight shook her head. “The rest of the town can handle things here, we gotta make sure that fire doesn’t get out of control.”
The mares nodded, and split off to find their friends.