//------------------------------//
// The Shooting Star They Saw 
// Story: A Tale of Noble Spirits 
// by Commando-Scarecrow 
//------------------------------//

Hey there. I'm Noble Spirit of Ponyville. Now, you're probably wondering why I'm in a tunnel with a unicorn wizard, a DJ, a fashionista and with the princess of the night knocked out and injured on my back with almost no sign of waking up. Also, there are Canterlot Royal Guards that are trying to find us for something stupid like treason. It is a long story. Actually, it really isn't, but for the sake of telling a half descent story, I'll try to make it as detailed as I can. As Rarity always says 'design is in the details'. Actually, she never says that, but it seems like something she WOULD say. Regardless, here I go...

It all started last night when I was on a date with my out-of-my-league girlfriend, Scootaloo. The orange mare is almost a whole two years ahead of my 17. Someponies, but not a lot, tried to make a stink about it in the past, but neither of us really cared. All that mattered to us was what we thought of it. At any rate, there we were, lying on our backs and looking at a beautiful October sunset. The colours in the sky complimented the orange and purple of her coat and mane gloriously. "If you could wish for anything in Equestria right now, what would it be?"
"I'd wish my boyfriend wouldn't ask me stupid questions and realize happy where we are right now," She snarked with a smile. We had a weird system, but it was ours. She wouldn't do that if she knew I couldn't take it or if she couldn't take it herself.
"Not even an apple-fritter?" Applejack had taught me a thing or two about baking. In fact, for the last seven years, I was hanging out almost non-stop on Sweet Apple Acres. It was a job as much Rarity's boutique or Pinkie Pie's baking. And just like those two with their careers, I loved mine. At least, I loved the people I worked with. Big Macintosh is the closest thing I have to a brother and Applebloom and Applejack are like my sisters. Keep track of all the past and present tense words I use, by the way. They're very important for keeping up with the plot. "Because I can whip one up for you real fast if you want."
She just laughed it off. I had no idea how he landed her as a girlfriend, but at the time, I felt like the luckiest colt in all of Equestria. "Well, there is one thing..." She turned to look me in the eyes, her big, purple eyes glowing in the Ponyville sunset. I got the idea and went in for the kill. I mean kiss. It seemed like I was about to enter an eternity of bliss, only to be interrupted by a dark blue streak trailing across the goldenrod sky.
"What the hay was that?" I asked first. Being focused was not my strong suit, it seemed.
Luckily, though, Scootaloo's adventurous personality couldn't not let her ignore what we had just seen, either. Now, to an outsider, it would seem that she gained that trait by acting as Rainbow Dash's little sister, but to everypony who knew her best, which included all of ten different ponies, Spike the dragon included, it was known that she was always like that. "Don't know..." then she looked at me with an excited smile. I knew that look better than I'd like. "Let's go check it out."
I only nodded slightly, even though I was kind of interesting into what it was too. We walked through the south fields, wondering what in the hay it was. We both stayed quiet, exchanging only brief looks of caution and excitement at what just plummeted to the earth. The feeling of trepidation and adrenaline was something I hadn't felt since the time I'd first asked Scootaloo out around six months ago.
After nearly ten minutes of walking in silence, either out of fear or anticipation, we finally found what we were searching for. I am not gonna lie. I was excited at first. That was, until, I saw what shape she was in. Princess Luna had fallen from the sky like a comet, leaving an entire crater of destruction in the wake of her dynamic entrance. Even with the sun setting and all the debris around and near her, obscuring my view, I could still tell she wasn't in to great of a condition. "Princess Luna?" I called out. More or less like I expected, she didn't answer, but it didn't hurt to check. That's when I took a look at Scootaloo. "We gotta get her out of here, Scoots."
She nodded. "What do you think brought her down here like that, Noble?" She said as she help the fallen princess of the night on my. We didn't bring any rope, but we didn't need it, either. Years of work on Sweet Apple Acres made sure of that.
I only shook my head. "I don't know, Scoots, but- Is she secure?"
"Yeah, Noble."
"Cool. I don't know, but I think we should find out." I looked off dramatically into the horizon, and then looked back at the orange mare. "Which is closer, Zecura's place or Twilight's?"
"Zecura's, but you really want to go into the Ever-free forest this close to night-time?" She had a good point.
"Twilight's it is, then." And so we took off from the south fields of Sweet Apple Acres. Under most circumstances, like Night Mare Night or Hearth's Warming, a visit from Princess Luna would be great. She was always welcomed in Ponyville. She was also one of my best friends. In fact, I was the only pony besides maybe Twilight Sparkle that she let call her just 'Luna'. Naturally, seeing her like this was kind'a distressing for me.
Finally, after walking non-stop for nearly 15 minutes, we finally made it to Twilight's home. The sun was already down at this point and there were only a few ponies out at the time, meaning almost nopony would be able to spot the precious cargo I was carrying. Scootaloo and I both heard some loud crashing noises. "Spike! The entire east shelf is on fire!"
"Peewee did it!" Spike denied it. He was talking about his pet phoenix he found on a journey of self discovery that ended in disaster.
"Spike, Peewee went south for the winter last week!"
"Fine. Owlowicious did it!" Scootaloo gave me her 'seriously' expression. I only shrugged. Spike was one of my closest friends, but he did have a habit of shifting blame on the rare occasions he set things on fire. Like the time he set my tail on fire.
After we waited for a few more minutes for them to stop so we wouldn't intrude, and also because it was funny, I knocked on the door to the large tree house thing. Spike was the one who came to the door, "Hey, Scoots. Hey, Noble, and Princess Lun-" He paused for a moment, obviously surprised by the sight of a princess on the brown maned stallions back.
"Noble, why do you have Princess Luna on your back?" He'd grown a lot in the last seven years. Where once he was the height of only a foal, now he was about the height of Princess Luna. He still acted essentially the same, though. He even still fawned over Rarity.
I was irritated by his stupid question, so I answered with a sarcastic expression. "Because it tickled my fancy, Spike. How should I know? We found her like this in the Sweet Apple Acres south fields."
My admittedly rude response didn't even register, so great was his shock. "Twilight?! We got a problem!" Damn skippy, we did.
"What is it, Spike?" Twilight walked down from where who bed was, tending to some books that she kept in her nightstand. "Oh, hey, Scootaloo. Hey, Nobl-" She gave me the expression that Spike gave me only a moment before. "Noble, why-"
"I don't know. Me and Scootaloo found her like this," I snapped. At that point, I wasn't sure whether or not my impatience was born out of worry or just, well, impatience, but Twilight Sparkle didn't deserve my rude and snappish response to her question. I knew that much. "Twilight, can you please help her?" I asked in a more concerned tone.
She was astounded by the sudden change in personality, or maybe it was still from Princess Luna being knocked out on my back. Either way, she opened her home to Scootaloo and I. "Yes, of course. Come in." She turned back into her home, almost as worried about Princess Luna as I was.
"Thank you, Twilight," I responded gratefully. Now I know what you're thinking, and you're close. But we aren't going into the tunnel quite yet. Just be patient. "Where should I put her?"
She took another look at the deep blue alicorn asleep on my back, then sighed. It was obvious that she knew even less about what was going on than I did. "She can use my bed." I laid her on the bed carefully. Then Twilight turned her head to her assistant, "Spike?! Find every book you can on ancient Equestrian history and healing spells!"
"Twilight, we want to help too," Scootaloo was right there next to me. She told me about the time Luna visited her in her dreams a couple of years ago. She figured that she owed the princess a lot for that, I guess.
The purple mare gave us both a smile, then responded. "Alright. You two can go help Spike look for medical books and references to the princess," she began toward her door. "I'll go find Zecura. She'll know what to do."
Now I'm no coward, but I couldn't help but want to warn Twilight about that. "You sure you wanna go into the Ever-free this close to dark?" The sun had almost totally set by this point, and night time in the Ever-free was NOT place where you wanted to be. Trust me on that.
She then hesitated as she began to exit the door. "Good point. Spike? That one book on obscure unicorn history, please."
"Sure thing, Twilight," he handed her the book, and she began to look through it fervently. At that point, when we all got situated, I took time to notice for the first time a couple of things. First off, what exactly Spike had set on fire. It wasn't THAT bad, but a more than a few books were lost. I'd say maybe 12. Second, I took notice at what kind of shape the princess was in. She had scrapes and scratches all over her body and scorch marks on her arms and legs. I was worried, to say the least. Regardless of how little she visited in person, she was still one of my best friends.
It seemed like I was reading out of that history book for forever. It didn't really offer much, though. It only said something about Starswirl the Bearded and a short list of his most famous pupils. Tempered Steel, greatest of all unicorn black smiths, was one of them, along with Clover the Clever. 
After hours and hours of research, I fell asleep with my ace drooling in the dusty tome. When I dreamed, though, it almost felt like it was a big, empty stage. It was like being in a play, and nopony was watching you. Not even your parents. That was when I was woken up by an only somewhat familiar voice.
"Yo! Anypony home?!" Vinyl Scratch had, for some reason, decided to visit early. At least, it seemed early. I walked to the door and opened it. "Wassup, Spirit? Is Twi home?"
"Vinyl, do you know how early it is?" I asked as if I knew myself.
"Ya. It's 'levin thirty, Dude!" That's when I turned to look at the clock above Twilight's bed. "Would I be up if it were any earlier?"
I only nodded in agreement. I didn't know Vinyl that well, but one thing I did know about her was that she was not, by any means, a fan waking up early. I ran my hoof through my my mane. "So what's up?"
"Octavia's gonna be in town next week and she wanted to borrow one of Twilight's Manetoven records." Then she looked past me and noticed the princess asleep on Twilight's bed. "Is that who I..."
Facehoof. Grabbed her by her shoulder and pulled her in. "C'mon. We gotta talk." We couldn't just let her see the princess like that without explaining everything. So I did. From me and Scootaloo on that blanket watching the sunset to the research we did all last night.
After nearly ten minutes of explaining everything as best I could, I got her a cup of coffee. "Thanks, Noble." She happily took a drink of her warm beverage, viewing as a nice relief from the cool autumn air.
I took a seat across from her at the coffee table "So what do you think?"
She took another drink then answered. She wasn't smiling, which was weird for the DJ. "Gotta say, Dude... that's one crazy-flank story." That was about as serious as I ever saw her.
I took a deep sigh, not sure whether or not she knew how big this was. "Look, Vinyl... Nopony can know about this. We don't know what sent Luna here in that kind of shape." I put my hand on her shoulder and lowered my voice, remembering that everypony was still asleep. "We gotta keep this quiet, okay?"
"Gotcha, Noble!" She went with a loud voice at first, then covered her mouth, realizing how loud she was just now. "Keep it low key, protect the princess." Then she smiled. "I can dig that."
Well, that was a relief. "Good, that's good." This whole deal with the princess was exhausting, but I had a duty to protect her. Princess Luna would do no less to me. For the first time in since last night, it was quiet enough to simply drink in all the details. A freaking princess fell out of the sky. I tried to pinch myself just to make sure it wasn't a dream or somepony wasn't just writing a story or something weird like that, but it was real. At least, it was real as I was. That's when I looked back to Scootaloo, still asleep. For some reason, seeing her at peace like that was nice. It was... comforting. "So what do you think is gonna happen?"
"I dunno, Dude," She shrugged, wearing her sun-glasses to hide any discernible expression she might have had in her eyes. "But I got a feeling that if a princess falls out of the sky, then somethin' big's about to go down." Well, at least I knew I wasn't the only one who thought that.
Then I looked back to the princess. She looked cleaner than she did last night. Doubtless Twilight had cleaned some of her wounds while she was unconscious. At the time when I watched her sleeping, I thought she was beautiful, but I wasn't sure whether that was from admiration and respect for the princess or maybe me just finding her beautiful as a mare. Big Mac once even told me confidence that he found Princess Celestia very beautiful, although he never specified why. Maybe he wasn't sure like me. That's when I noticed that Spike was missing.
I quietly searched around the whole tree, careful not to wake anypony, but couldn't find him. My heart started beating out of anxiety. Then I took a deep breath and calmed down. It was almost lunch time, so maybe he just got a bite to eat. That's when I heard the front door quietly screech open. Apparently, he wasn't just trying to keep quiet for our sake.
I took a hint and began to whisper to him. "Where were you?"
"Shh!" he shushed me, noticing that Vinyl was in the room. He disregarded her, though, as he set Rarity down on the floor, knocked out. "Quiet!"
"Why is Rarity knocked out like that?" An even better question, given the total lack of context regarding THAT.
"Guards..." he answered in one word. "All over town. Weird black armour. Not Luna's guards, either."
That did not sound good. "How did they find us?!" Whispering had become difficult, given recent developments.
"Twilight." He slowly crept to a window on the other side of the house, carefully looked through it, and then closed the curtains. "Sent a letter to Celestia about Princess Luna. She thought it would be a good idea."
"So why is Rarity knocked out?" Still wanted to know that.
"Who ever said I was asleep?" She said, as she lay on a pillow Spike brought with him for her.
"She got all dramatic about it. Started swooning, so I just carried her," Spike finally answered why he carried Rarity all the way from her boutique to Twilight's library-house-thing.
I pictured that for a brief moment and then nodded. "Yeah, I can see that." The fashionista shot me a glare of weak acid, but I ignored it. It wasn't anything she could deny.
Then Spike did something that was uncharacteristically Spike: he took command of the situation. "Wake everyone up. Now."
Taken a little bit aback by a command from, well, Spike, I recovered and heeded his instructions. "Hey," I whispered to my sleeping girlfriend. Adorable. If she could read my mind, then she would kill me. "Wake up." I shook her gently a few times.
"Hmm?" She opened her eyes, then got up immediately, forgetting exactly what happened last night for a moment. "What's-"
I only placed my hoof over my mouth, signaling her to be quiet. That's when Spike gave his next set of instructions. "Follow me." So we did. Luna was placed on my back by Twilight, and Rarity and everypony else followed Spike to a room in the back of the home of Twilight Sparkle. Eventually, Spike lifted up a rug and we all saw a door to the underground. We were all shocked, but Twilight was especially taken aback.
"Spike? What is that?" She asked what we were all thinking.
"Remember back when King Sombra returned four years ago?" That was NOT fun for anypony to remember. "I started on a tunnel after that. Just in case."
Twilight gave a surprisingly impressed expression to her dragon assistant. "Wow, Spike... good job!" Under any other set of circumstances, Spike would have been more than grateful for the praise given to him, but now? Now the teenage dragon was as stoic as I'd ever seen him. It was unnerving.
It wasn't until Rarity spoke up when I realized exactly what he planned to do. "Spikey-Wikey? Whatever are you-"
"Rarity," he cut her off midsentence. He and Rarity were the only ones who had any idea what was going on outside, but at least one thing was clear as day. The guards hadn't come to bring Princess Luna home because she was missing by mistake. They were HUNTING her. "You have to promise me that you won't stop running until you know you can win."
"Spike?" And there it was. Made evident by Rarity calling him by Spike, an act seldom if ever done, a cold and hard reality had finally set itself into the fasionista's head. Tear's began to well up in her sapphire eyes. "Win wha-"
And for the first time, Spike was able to truly articulate the way he felt to the violet maned unicorn. He kissed her long and he kissed her hard. As Rarity allowed the dragon to fill her mouth with the smokey ecstasy of his dragon breath, she found herself wishing that it would never end. For years, each and every one of Spike's closest friends wondered how a relationship between him and Rarity would play out. Now I guess we knew.
She wished that it would never stop, I think, but it did. As he separated his scaly lips from hers, she looked to see a desperate but resolved look in his eyes. He knew what he had to do. "Don't stop, Rarity. Don't EVER stop." He placed her in the tunnel, then was followed by Vinyl Scratch, but not Scootaloo.
As our awe at what the scaly defender just did finally settled, I turned to the mare I held close to my own heart. "Scoots?" I asked her as she was looking back at the front door. We all heard loud noise coming from outside. One thing was clear: these were not, by any means, good and friendly guards. "Don't tell me you're-"
Scootaloo followed the dragon's lead and kissed me longer than she ever had before. "Take care of yourself, Noble," she said with a somber smile upon her face. She never has been one for sharing her feelings. She only gave a smile. "It's been real." She knew what was at stake even less than Spike, but that wasn't going to stop her in the least. I hated when she did that.
That was not going to stop me from trying. "Scootaloo, you are not staying behind like this!" My voice was beginning to rise, and then tremble, out of anger and fear at what was going on. There was probably a little sadness mixed in there, too. "I won't let you!"
Then I took a good look at her face as it changed. I'd never seen it so serious "What makes you think I'm giving you a choice, Noble!?" She pushed me into the tunnel below as hard as she could. I couldn't believe what was happening. I took a look at the princess that had fallen to the cold dirt floor of the dragon's catacombs. Just a second later, Spike threw, literally THREW Twilight into the tunnel that he had secretly been working on for years, then immediately locked the door to the cellar.

And this is where the story begins...