The mysterious Comet
The full moon cast its silver light over Equestria, Luna had really outdone herself this evening. From the Canterlot city square the clock stuck two and a night guard began the hourly patrol. As usual there wasn't much to report, nothing really happened in Canterlot any more apart from the occasional pony who had had a little to much hard cider and needed to be escorted home. The night guard performed his regular sweep of his allotted sector however nothing caught his eye this evening, all houses were dark now, their residents having long since turned in. With his patrol complete he returned to the Barracks to begin filling his report ready for the regular guard to take over.
Not every light was out however, from her new room in one of the taller towers in Canterlot Castle Twilight Sparkle sat with her eye glued to one of her Telescopes
. "Hmmm" Twilight thought to herself.
"Find something Twi?" Spike asked while trying to supress a yawn. He`d been sat there for over 4 hours waiting while Twilight scanned the heavens, somehow she had managed to persuade him to assist with her stargazing, which meant staying up half the night waiting to take notes on any new astral bodies that she may find. So far the only excitement to occur turned out to be a bug on the lens.
"Nothing yet, but iv got a feeling that this will be our lucky night" replied Twilight with a hopeful note, though in truth she was close to calling it a night she wasn't finding anything of interest at all.
After another half hour her patients wore thin and she sighed "I guess its not our night after all", she turned away from the telescope and began to head back inside.
"Come on Twi cheer up, you cant expect to find something every night" yawned Spike as he made his way to his basket.
"I guess so" said Twilight as she turned to look one last time at the night sky "but I was sure that tonight would be the night I made a major discov......". Her voice trailed of when she noticed something strange in the sky, "SPIKE" cried Twilight as she raced back to the telescope" get the quill and Ink hurry, I think I may have been right after all.
"Ugh this better not be that bug on the lens again" he grumbled as he climbed out of his basket, he had just lay down and got comfy when Twi had called.
"Ok tracking object 2.3 degrees north by north east" said Twi as she spooled off a load of co-ordinates, the excitement in her voice made evident by the way she was practically dancing on the spot.
"Tracking object 2.3 degrees, wait did you say 2.3 or 3.2?" asked spike as he desperately tried to keep up with the mass amounts of data being hurled at him.
"ugh spike! please pay attention" groaned Twi "I may have just found a brand new Comet and as the new princess, I want to make sure I get every detail right before I present my findings".
"ok ok but could you at least slow down a bit?" replied spike " its nearly three in the morning and I should have been asleep hours ago dreaming of Rarity", Spike clapped a claw over his mouth as Twilight looked up with a mischievous grin on her face.
"Dreaming of what now" she asked with an amused look.
"errrrr... r. rare Gems! yeah that's it rare Gems" he replied in a very nervous tone "anyway why do I have to do this?" he said as he desperately tried to steer the conversation in a safer direction, "couldn't you have got Owlicious to do this?" he's always up at this hour anyway".
Twilight rolled her eyes "Spike you know Owlicious is still in Ponyville helping to look after the Library while we`re away for royal duties" "besides how's he supposed to hold a quill and write?" she asked, apparently oblivious to the irony of the question, "now if your done grumbling lets continue".
After two more minuets of constant observation Twilight was suddenly struck dumb by what she just witnessed. "Its gone" she spluttered
"what do you mean its gone?" asked Spike in confusion
"I mean ITS GONE" she replied "it just faded from view right before my eyes". In all her years of Star gazing she had never once seen a comet just fade away as if it was nothing but mirage, it was impossible, wasn't it?
"I'm starting to think you may be seeing things now Twi" sighed Spike "maybe your more tired than you thought".
"NO" exclaimed Twi stomping her hoof to punctuate the point " I know what I saw, and I saw that Comet or whatever it is fade away as if it was never there".
"Well maybe we should ask Princess Celestia or Princess Luna for advice in the morning" yawned Spike as he put down the parchment and quill and headed back to his basket "but right now its gone so im going to bed, goodnight".
Twilight sat there perplexed, how could something as large as a comet just disappear? She decided she would take Spikes advice and ask Celestia in the morning, but right now bed didn't sound like a bad idea. The excitement of her discovery and the shock of it sudden disappearance had left her feeling exhausted, she yawned as she climbed into bed and lay there looking up at the ceiling " how could something like that be possible" she thought to herself as she slowly drifted of to sleep, she didn't know but she got the feeling that it wouldn't be the last time she would see that mysterious comet.