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// 7.Summer Comet 
// Story: The Unbroken Spear 
// by Jamis 
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Canterlot castle was where the Princess lived. Her name was Celestia and she was older than any of her subjects. Her skin was not pale though it did seem to glow white. Her hair was multicoloured and flowed with an invisible current. She wore a golden crown with a single purple gem in its center complimented by a white dress of flowing and yet well fitted cloth. Her necklace was golden and was encrusted with a gem which shared her crown's gem colour. The horn beneath her crown was longer than any unicorn in her country. Her white, wide feathered wings were folded on her back.

Celestia walked through the halls of her palace, its white and gold colour scheme was present even in her guard. Having just finished her lunch, she moved on to her next bit of business. She was on her way to the throne room in order to open the court, where her ponies would come to tell her of their problems hoping gain aid from the crown. The petitioners were often there before she raised the sun and she would spend hours listening to them. There would always be more than she had time for. 'Maybe I would hear them all if the aristocracy didn't come so often. They rarely have actual problems which couldn't be solved without my intervention.', the princess cared deeply for her subjects, but some tested her patience. Because of that she had developed quite a lot of it throughout her extended lifetime.

As she made her way to the court she would have to remember to prepare herself for tonight. She was not sure, but the prophecy her student, Twilight, had discovered, plagued her mind before Twilight's grandparents had been born. She wasn't sure if her sister would return tonight, but she knew one thing. On the day she had seen Twilight get her cutiemark, she had done some digging on the rainbow explosion which occurred at the same time. Five other mares had received their cutiemarks, all of them now resided in Ponyville and each, clearly an embodiment of the Elements of Harmony.

Celestia, having realized this, reasoned that these six would be the ones destined to defeat Nightmare moon if she did return. She glanced out a window at the sky, it was a clear day, the weather teams seemed quite happy to make the sun shine for as long as possible. She had sent Twilight to Ponyville under the guise of organizing its preparations for the Summer Sun Celevration tonight. In reality, Celestia wanted to be ready for any possiblity, she, unlike her subjects didn't hold much love for the celebration. It was a personal self-reminder of her decision to banish her sister, she regretted the deed to this day.

As she walked, she sensed a spike of magic West of her. She rushed to the window and she saw it. A shining light streaked across the sky like shooting star. It was a yellow and orange light which made the blue around it darker as it moved. It held a small trail and she could almost hear its flight. It passed beyond the mountain and Celestia's eyes widened as it made its way over Ponyville before diving into the Everfree. She saw small flames lick the tree-top before the crash site calmed.

"Princess," her assistant Page Turner came up to her, she was a grey pegusus with glasses and a wardrobe worthy of a librarian. "The petitioners are waiting, the line is a bit longer this time."

Celestia turned to one of the guards who were at many of the doors in the corridor and ordered, "Send a message to Captain Shining Armor that I want him to send an investigation unit to the Everfree Forest to see what crashed there." Celestia knew they wouldn't get there till late in the evening, however, she felt it would be a good measure. 'What ever that was, it spells a bad omen to me.' She entered the throne room and briefly held another thought, 'I just hope my belief in Twilight and my ponies is not misplaced.


...


Atreus touched down deep in the forest and stood once he stopped. He took in his surroundings, his impact had left a small crater surrounded by angular scorch marks. While it didn't affect the overall landscape of the forest, there were now a few knocked over trees and a bit of rising smoke. 'It never feels like I have leapt, only that I have fallen.', his thoughts were interrupted by a growling sound.

He turned his head to look at the source of the sound, what met his eyes puzzled him slightly. These were clearly some of the monsters he had been warned about, but instead of being something more conventional, he found himself facing three wolves made out of wood. Growling, the wolfs leapt at the warrior. He stabbed through the first wolf with his spear, it's two kin were upon him in moments, he removed his spear and shielded against the wolf's pounces. He bashed his shield against them, throwing them back. He slashed the wolf to his left twice before kicking the wolf to his right. The wolf he kicked began to run off when it realized it was alone. Seeing that, Atreus pulled back his arm and threw his spear, ripping the fleeing wolf to kindling.

The spear returned to his hand as Pantheon huffed. The man placed the spear butt into the dirt and looked at the compass he hand just taken out from his bag. He reasoned he should be almost completely south of Canterlot, there was a settlement along the way if Atreus remembered the map in his pack correctly. He placed the compass back into his pack and picked up his spear. The sun was at a point that indicated to him it was early afternoon, 'I need to get out of the forest by nightfall. The monsters will be greater in number and more active', as Pantheon walked he began to take in the forest, the trees were dark and twisted. The forest floor was a thick brush of plants and decaying matter. The clearing the man had destroyed with his landing held the light of day, the rest of the forest however was shaded and you could barely see through the leaves into the sky.


...


In Ponyville the whole town was helping prepare for the festival. It was a big event, and getting a visit from the princess was monumental. Ponyville wasn't a small town, but it was most certainly not anywhere near a large town or city. Only the ponies of the court saw Celestia, if you didn't count castle staff that is. The town heard a humming noise, almost like a uniform vibrating chord and they turned their eyes to the sky and beheld a flaming ball as it passed above them; it quickly landed with a single loud crashing thud somewhere within the Everfree.

"Wow what was that!", Spike asked Twilight in a curious tone.

"Uh, a meteor, i think. It can wait for later, for now we need to finish making sure everything is ready.", Twilight answered her assistant. 'I hope that the princess is right about the mare in the moon and ,with any luck, that the meteor is unrelated,' she reassured herself, continuing on her list of things to do.