“…Check!”
Spike swiftly moved the quill in his claws. One more check - one more step to ending that bureaucratic hell. While extremely bored, the young dragon was watching his tormentor keenly. Twilight, despite doing no research work and just reading throughout the day, looked quite fatigued.
“Now…Quadruple check the checklist in case we’ve missed something on the alternative triple-checked checklist!”
“All clear! Wait…here it is. We didn’t double check the “checked checkered check” checklist and the “grocery store checked check checked” checklist! I guess we’ll have to start all over again, Twi.”
“WHAT?! This doesn’t make any sense! We checked the checkered check checkered checklist yesterday!”
“Aaand I think we can check the “check Twilight’s ability to misspell checklists”! Check!”
It took her several seconds to connect the dots. Twilight turned around, dropping her scroll and quill, to face her smugly smiling assistant.
“That's NOT funny, Spike!” Instead of confusion, her voice was now full of irritation.
“Come on Twilight! We’ll miss the whole thing because of your stupid checklists. It’s just a picnic with your friends!”
Twilight groaned, her exasperation slowly fading. Then she just sighed.
“Maybe you’re right. But I really want everything to be perfect," said Twilight, gazing once again unconsciously at her back, as if waiting to see once more the ghostly wings she had refused to get. "There's been a lot of stuff on us lately. First, confusion with marks, then trouble with the tree of harmony and the stupid plants of Discord. I just want us to have a calm quiet night. We'll watch the meteor shower, we'll talk about normal stuff, and we won't worry about a thing."
"Speaking of not worrying, if I were in your horseshoes, I'd start with myself," commented Spike while rummaging through a large picnic basket, sorting all the cupcakes, eclairs and other goodies he'd spent cooking the last few hours.
"Spike...Yes, you're absolutely right. Thanks for taking care of all preparations... and putting up with my..."
"Also I'm taking your horseshoes."
"Wha...Wait, what?"
A smug grin appeared on the young dragon's face once more.
"Gotta find new ways to impress Rarity, so..."
"Just...How?"
"My ultimate tap dancing skills," said Spike in a comically overproud manner and soundly tapped with his legs a couple of times.
Twilight's vivid imagination quickly drew a picture of spike trying to dance in horseshoes, and she couldn't resist a tiny giggle. This giggle grew into a laughter when Spike joined her. When they both calmed down and decided to take a breath, the young dragon finished preparing the basket and grabbed another one, with several blankets and tableware.
"Now that's definitely not funny, Spike!"
"Whatever. At least now I don't have to stare at your sour muzzle all the time. Come on, if we take too much time and show up late, one ultra fast pony will be ultra pissed."
Twilight chuckled one last time and nodded to him. She looked up at the piece of sky seen from the library window. That night, she was sure, the sky would show them some real magic.
*****
The seven friends met on a small hill that offered a beautiful view of the whole sky, as well as of the distant lights of the Canterlot towers. Surprisingly, besides them quite a few ponies came to see the meteor shower. Spike had a truly difficult task from the get-go - he had to setup their picnic spot while simultaneously fending Pinkie off from their food basket. It would seem that she shouldn't have been that hungry, given that she must've tasted all the muffins that she cooked and brought with her. Smiling Applejack hurried to help Spike, before he lost both his patience and control over their hyperactive friend.
"Woah there, you might want to slow down if you want some space left for Granny Smith's famous apple and blueberry pie!"
Pinkie's attention shifted immediately to a massive pastry, that, judging by the rising steam, was pulled out of the oven just recently.
"But if you want a slice, you'll wait for the start of the show, sugarcube."
"Agh... fine!" groaned Pinkie.
Rarity was the last to come, probably because of her meteor shower viewing couch (which was surprisingly similar to her fainting couch). After she shared a set of small decorative pillows with her friends, Rarity lay down with comfort. Unsurprisingly, Spike was quick to offer her a plate with the fanciest eclairs on it and some punch.
"Why thank you, Spikey-Wikey! Whatever I would do without such a gentlec...dragon."
Rainbow Dash felt that her eyes rolled on their own and chuckled. She was lying on her back and looking on the results of her work. That night she took it on herself to ensure that the sky above Ponyville was perfectly clear. Moreover, thanks to Fluttershy's squad of birds and frogs, there were almost no mosquitoes or flies nearby.
"Oh, oh, look, look! It started!" suddenly shouted Pinkie Pie and devoured her hapless namesake in one bite.
One after another, pure-white sparks started to appear at the top of the pitch black sky, completely outshining numerous yet dim stars. Growing in numbers with each minute, hair-thin lines turned from scattered drops into a stream, completely dominating half of the sky.
"Uuh... Girls, what the hay is that?"
Applejack's friends followed her gesture with their eyes. The sight above towers of Canterlot quickly took their full attention.
That part of the sky was no long black and white. It was now full of colour, vibrant and constantly changing – from neon green to bright azure to deep purple. The source of the colour – several arcs that looked like they were silk ribbons made of light. Moreover, it seemed that the were no shooting stars anywhere near these lights, as if as if these two phenomena were not supposed to exist at the same time and now divided the night sky in half.
"Aurora borealis? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of country, localized entirely above our Canterlot?"
"What's that and why do you sound so surprised?" slowly asked Twilight Spike without taking his eyes off the colour-changing beauty.
"Spike, how can you not know? That's..."
"These are northern lights. Some flames in the sun go crazy and burn so bright that they reflect on the sky for some egghead reason. And you usually can see those only in the north," answered Rainbow Dash, intercepting Twilight's lecture. Noticing that her friends were staring at her with not so flattering surprise, she growled: "I am the weather pegasus, you know. And it shouldn't surprise you that they showed up at night, cuz it's normal thing for northern lights, Twi."
"It was just a part of the joke, okay? Still, doesn't explain...Wait, look!"
There were clear changes on both sides of the sky. The meteor shower lost its power and now was fading, the stream reduced to thinnest jets. Meanwhile, the northern lights started to slowly flicker, the ribbons changing shape and direction with each blink. By the time the last shooting star graced the sky and faded into oblivion, the bright light above Canterlot were now in shape of arcs, which in turn formed some sort of loose circle. But the strangest thing of all was the colour of these northern lights. Even Rarity couldn’t choose the right words to describe it. Sickish dark brown at one moment, that colour turned to nauseous pale violet as soon as the eye of the observer moved ever so slightly, and vice versa. After one minute passed, the sky was completely clear from any signs of either phenomenon, as if all that happened was just a dream.
“There should be some explanation to this! I’ll need some…”started enthusiastically yet somewhat dreamily Twilight.
“Oh no you don’t. What you need is normal sleep. Hitting the books will have to wait until morning”
Twilight looked at her dragon friend with visible confusion, then slowly nodded.
“Yeah…You’re right, Spike. This can wait. It’s just some colour anomaly, probably because of the magic field fluctuations. I think I do need to sleep.”
The other mares agreed. Although the spectacle they had just witnessed was extraordinary, weariness slowly began to take its toll. Pinky, in her usual manner, didn't feel like going to bed, but instead was distracted by the odd-looking moth and seemed to have completely forgotten everything they just had seen. After cleaning up their picnic spot and wishing good night to each other, the friends headed to their homes.
*****
Although Princess Luna was, like every night before that, meditating in her tower, that night also had an effect on her. As the Mistress of the Night, she was aware of each and every shooting star even while overseeing dreams of her subjects. And if somepony happened to make a wish upon a star, she always heard it. Most of the time it was something small, personal wishes. At other times she recognized a desperate plea for help or a bit of crucial information that could directly and significantly affect somepony’s life. At these times she always found time to deal with the matter personally, and if necessary, immediately.
It was nearly the end of the meteor shower. Luna rubbed her metaphysical temples and sighed wearily. The stream of pony voices finally began to die down. After she finished checking another dream, she decided to just sit and turn her attention to the wishes. After all, some of them were downright hilarious, and a change of activity might help ease the headache.
"I want a new wedding dress."
Don't be lazy, go to Rarity. Just remember that your fiancé LOVES garters.
"When my friends jump from the cliff, I want to jump too!"
Good thing you're a pegasus, little one.
"I want a new wedding dress!"
Just borrow one from your future wife, she'll order it soon. Although a bit of explanation would be in order, tiger.
"I wish for a free cake."
"I want an A+ for my next test."
"...I wonder if death by falling is painful. At least the view is great..."
She flinched, her eyes wide with horror. The last one slashed through her mind like a scalpel. It wasn't a wish, these were dying words! Luna immediately pinpointed the origin of the thought - it was right above Canterlot! She broke from her trance, spread her wings and then flew out of the window. Her eyes, capable of seeing in the dark as long as there was even the tiniest dot of light, could easily make out the falling figure. She rushed to it, begging for one more fraction of a second - just to make it in time.