//------------------------------//
// A journey begins 
// Story: Dark Comet 
// by Mr Tinkertrain 
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“Spike, hurry up with the preparations! They said that there will be a lot of shooting stars on the night sky!” Twilight was yelling up the stairs in the library, waiting for Spike, who looked for her telescope as well as her book about astronomy. She heard a rumbling upstairs and went looking. Spike was lying on the ground, buried by a pile of books, which fell out of the shelf. “Uh … Spike? Are you okay?” She was a bit worried as she was asking, but felt the relief as the baby dragon climbed out of the pile of books. “Yes, I am fine. And I found your telescope!” He said, as he held up the telescope with one hand, while he held a book in the other one. “And here we have your book about astronomy! I think you’re ready to stargaze now. But are you really sure about it that you want to be all alone this time?”

“Yes, Spike, I am sure that I want to be alone. This time, I really want to study the celestial phenomena and I don’t want to be distracted. There is nothing you would need to worry about.” Twilight smiled as she realized that Spike worried about her plans to watch this event alone with her telescope and her astronomy book. She went downstairs again, helping Spike with carrying the telescope and the book and putting them into a cart. After the preparations were done, Twilight was looking out of the window. It was a wonderful evening, the sun just went down and colored the area outside of the library in golden and red colors.

But Twilight just couldn’t wait for the night and the stars to come, no matter how beautiful the evening was this day. She was just standing there, watching the sun going down, and the night coming. She lost the track of time and was sunken in her thoughts, as Spike tipped her on the shoulder. “Uh, Twilight … It’s time to go.” He reminded her. “You wanted to be at your spot early so it won’t be occupied when you come, remember?” Twilight smiled and nodded. “Thanks for remembering me, Spike. I should better be going now!” Twilight went over to the cart. “And you really don’t want me to come with you?” Spike was asking his friend another time. “Or at least tell me where you want to go?” 

Twilight just shook her head. “No, I want to get my studies done, and I prefer not to be disturbed while doing so. Well, what will you do tonight, Spike?” The purple dragon put a finger on his mouth. “Well … let’s see … I will hang out with the others and watch the shooting stars. You know that Pinkie made some cupcakes just for this occasion?” He was asking, as he was packing his own stuff for the night together. “No, I didn’t know that. But it still won’t change my decision to study tonight.” Spike just shrugged. “Well, when you change your mind, the others agreed on meeting up in Sugarcube Corner. If you want to come, we will be there until the event begins.” He was shouldering his backpack and waving goodbye to Twilight as he left the library. 

The unicorn was looking after her friend, as he went down the street into the direction of Ponyvilles sweetshop. She used her magic to pull the cart with the telescope and book after her, as she left the library and walked to a hill outside of the city, just out of the range of sight of anypony who might stand at the border of the city. Also, the hill was covered by a group of trees, which made it the perfect spot to gaze at the stars and doing her studies on them. Soon she had passed the border of the city and stood on top of the hill she picked for this night. 

Twilight placed her telescope on the top and checked, if the lenses are clean and if it was working properly, for about the hundredth time now. She placed the book next to the telescope and sat down in front of it. She looked to the sky, which had a dark blue color now and the first stars were appearing, and the moon started to rise. The trees around the hill were silent and rustled as the wind was rushing through them. Yet Twilight felt like she was being watched by somepony around, but she couldn’t see anypony. It was already too dark to see between the trees.

She shrugged, even if there was somepony, he or she probably picked the same spot to stargaze as she did, so she didn’t care about it anymore and waited for the stars to show. Her patience got rewarded as she could spot the first shooting star flying across the dark night sky, followed by another one. And then another one followed the first star. Twilight watched them for a moment, forgetting about her studies. She remembered them and opened up her astronomy book and looked through her telescope, until something caught her attention. It was an almost dark shade on the sky, which she wouldn’t have seen without her telescope. But now, that she saw it, she could follow the shade without her telescope with ease. Whatever it was, it went down to earth somewhere beyond the Everfree Forest and Twilight could see how a blazing light lit up for just about a second.

She couldn’t say how far away it came down nor what it was, but she knew that this event needed further investigations. It must have been almost directly to the southwest. She would have talk to the others to set up an expedition into the southwest to check what had happened there, but for now, Twilight kept on to gaze at the stars. After all, this was still a unique opportunity for her. She kept on with her studies until the last shooting star disappeared, but she didn’t have any success with her studies. She could have spent the night with her friends, but then she probably would have missed how that dark shade on the sky appeared and crashed down. She just needed to know whatever this was, or if it could be a threat to Equestria.

She was walking back to the town now, but the feeling of being watched returned. Twilight shuddered, as she went on. The pale moonlight just lightened up the path she was walking on, but it wasn’t bright enough to show much more. She wished she would have thought of a lantern or any other source of light right now and hurried up to reach Ponyville. It was a relief for the unicorn as she could recognize the dark silhouettes of the houses in the pale moonlight. She threw a look behind her, but couldn’t see anything there. She decided to take a longer route back to the library to check on the Sugarcube Corner. The windows were dark and Twilight just guessed that everypony already went home, so she headed directly to the library now, not risking anymore delays. 

As Twilight reached the library and went inside, she found Spike sleeping on a pillow. She tried to walk as silent as possible, trying not to wake the baby dragon up, and went upstairs to her room without causing noise successfully. She spent the rest of the night lying awake and thinking about what she had seen during the starfall. And how to find possible answers to it. 


When Twilight woke up the next day, she immediately asked Spike to prepare a longer journey, as well as some journals and her saddle bags, while she went outside to look for her friends. Her first destination was a lonely cloud over the town square, which had a rainbow colored tail hanging from it – which belonged to a certain pegasus. “Hey, Rainbow! Wake up!” Twilight was yelling up to the cloud, without any reaction at first, until Rainbow Dash lifted her head, looked around confused at first, but then she finally was looking down on her friend. “Oh, hi Twilight.” She said, still a bit sleepy. “Why do you wake me up that early in the morning? Is it important?” 

“Well, did you see something crashing down on earth beyond the Everfree Forest during the starfall last night?” Twilight could see how her friend thought about it and tried to remember. “No, I don’t think so. We all were in Sugarcube Corner and went outside late to star gaze a bit. You surely missed a fine party there.” Twilight pointed her hoof over the horizon. “Well, something came down, and I want to investigate what came down there.” Rainbow had suddenly a sad look on her face. “Well, if you want to do that, you will have to do it without me. You know, work and all that. No time.” She waved with her hoof through the air. “Somepony in Cloudsdale got the weird idea to register every single pegasus in Cloudsdale and Ponyville, and they’re really going to pull it through.” 

Rainbow was annoyed about this, and not just a little bit. “This means just waiting for hours in some office or whatever. I would rather travel with you through Everfree Forest than doing this stuff. But I have to pass.” The pegasus shook her head. “Sorry, Twi.” Twilight nodded. “I can imagine. Well, I guess I’ll go ask Pinkie then. See you!” Twilight waved at her friend on the cloud, who saluted shortly as a goodbye. "See ya around, Twi!” Rainbow said, spread her wings and took off into direction of Cloudsdale, while Twilight went into the direction of Sugarcube Corner.

The doorbell rang as Twilight opened the door and entered the sweets shop. Mrs. Cake was standing behind the counter. “Well, hello Twilight. How can I help you?” She was asking as soon as she saw the purple unicorn entering the store. “I wanted to ask Pinkie if she would come on an expedition with me into the southwest. Do you know where she is?” Twilight just had said the last few words, as she already could hear the pink pony working in the kitchen of the sweets shop and could see her through the door behind the counter how she balanced a baking tray fully loaded with muffins and cupcakes on her head over to a table. 

As she left the kitchen to tell Mrs. Cake that she had finished another tray, she just noticed the unicorn in the sales room. “Hi Twilight! Do you want a muffin? I just made some!” The pink pony was euphoric as always. “Uh, not now Pinkie, thanks. I actually came here to ask you if you would want to come with me on an expedition into the southwest.” Pinkie looked at her friend in a silly manner. “I’m sorry Twilight, but I have so much cupcakes and muffins to make right now, it is a large order, no time, no time!” The pink pony rushed back into the kitchen again to make another tray of goods. “Well … see you then … I guess.” She waved goodbye to Mrs. Cake and left the store. No Pinkie, no Rainbow. She crossed Applejack off the list directly since it was applebucking season. She surely wouldn’t have the time to go with her on a long journey into the southwest. That left Rarity and Fluttershy on the list.

Twilight firstly went to Raritys house. It took Rarity a while until she opened up the door as Twilight knocked, and she didn’t really talk to Twilight, even as she opened up the door. “Twilight? You? I don’t have time now, I have a lot of dresses to create! No time!” And then she slammed the door shut in front of Twilights nose, who was standing confused outside of the house with widened eyes. Sweetie Belle suddenly came walking by the unicorn. “Don’t worry, Twilight. Rarity is just really busy because of that big order of dresses she got.” Twilight shook her head and shrugged. Guess that his leaves Fluttershy as companion for the expedition. 

When Twilight arrived at Fluttershys cottage, the pegasus couldn’t be seen anywhere around. She knocked at the door, and Fluttershy opened the door after a moment. “Oh, Twilight. Uh … What brings you here today?” Twilight just sighed and told the story once again. “Well … Uhm … you should probably just go with Spike … I’m surely not the one you want to come with you on such a long journey …” Her voice faded more with each word. Twilight tried a last time to talk her into coming with her. “Come on, Fluttershy, it will just be a fast check of what happened over there and we will be back in no time, you’ll see!” The pegasus just gave in to her friend. “Okay … I’ll come with you. Just let me pack my things.” Twilight waited patiently as her friend was packing her saddle bags, and came out of her cottage again. 

“Well, then let’s go! Spike is waiting for us at the library.” Fluttershy didn’t say anything and just followed her friend to the library, were Spike waited with a backpack and Twilights saddlebags, everything packed and ready. On Twilights question about the backpack, he shrugged. “I won’t let you go on such a long journey without coming with you myself.” Twilight nodded as a confirmation, and the purple dragon climbed on her back. “Well then, let’s go then into the southwest!” Twilight said to her friends, as they started their journey into the direction of Everfree Forest.