It is a beautiful summer day over Ponyville. Celestia's glorious warm sun rays are beaming down onto the earth, the birds are singing their sweet summer songs, and ponies are happily greeting each other on the street. Twilight Sparkle and her friends are not going to waste a single minute of this beautiful day .
"Oh' I hope I haven't forgotten anything." says the purple Alicorn princess, Twilight Sparkle, who is stressing over her list for maybe the tenth time.
"Oh, Twilight," says the pink pony named Pinkie Pie, who is in the process of stuffing four boxes of cupcakes, three bags of balloons and streamers, a deck chair, a party cannon, pink floaties and a canoe (complete with paddles) into a picnic basket. "It's a picnic, and picnics are fun, so stop worrying your silly head about it."
"Yeah, I mean, we have been waiting for like half an hour, Twi, and I'm getting bored of watching Pinkie pack and unpack her stuff," says the blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane, justly named Rainbow Dash, who is flying idly on the spot.
"Ok, Ok, I'm done. Don't be so impatient," Twilight says, as she adjusts her saddle bag and shoots a glare at Rainbow Dash, causing Dash to roll her eyes. Twilight walks up to the stairs and yells up it, "SPIKE WE ARE GOING! YOU COMING OR NOT?"
"I'm coming," Spike says sleepily, getting out of his bed and grabbing his bag by the window. He throws a quick glance out the window, and just as he is about to turn around and leave, something catches his eye. "Umm, Twilight? Do stars usually appear during the day?"
"Of course not Spike. The sun is too bright for us to see the much weaker lights of the stars," Twilight says in matter-of-fact voice.
Spike frowns at this, "But I see one right now, Twilight."
Spike hears the sound of multiple sets of hooves coming up the stairs. "Spike, if this is a joke, it's not funny," Twilight says with clear irritation in her voice. As she enters the room with her friends, she walks past Spike and looks out of the window. "I mean, stars appearing in midday, that's impossible and stu...," Twilight pauses as she saw the glowing red dot in the sky. It is hard to see because it is so close to the sun, but there it is, and it is pretty big too.
"What is it, Twilight?" says the yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, called Fluttershy, as she comes up beside her. Twilight turns to face her, causing her to back off a bit. "I mean if that not a dumb question," she says in a meek voice hiding behind her mane.
"No, it's not a dumb question, but I'm not sure what it is actually. But it's not a star, of that I’m sure."
"Is it just me, dear, or is it getting bigger?" asks the white unicorn with a purple mane called Rarity who approaches the window.
All the girls look out and see that she is right. It is getting bigger... or is it closer...?
Over at Canterlot, Princess Celestia also notices the red light in the sky. She frowns at the unnatural light and then turns to her drowsy and recently awakened sister and asks, "Is this your doing, dear sister?" as she points toward the red light.
Luna squints at the light, "It is not me, sister. It looks like a Meteoroid, but I wouldn't think so. I would have noticed it long before it got this close to us," Luna says with a shake of her head.
Celestia sighs and then speaks to what appears to be thin air, "Discord? Is this your doing?"
"Oh you wound me, dear Tia," comes an annoying small voice from underneath a tea cup. Celestia lifts up the cup with her magic revealing the odd miss-matching creature called Discord having a bath. "Can't a Draconequis have a bath in peace," he says covering himself in the shower curtains to hide his always naked body. Celestia just continues staring him "And no, I didn't do it," he finishes with a small hint of annoyance his voice.
Celestia puts the cup back down and then looks back at the red light in sky which has gotten slightly bigger, "What is it then?" Celestia asks the world in general.
"Duh, it's a meteoroid and soon to be meteorite!" says Discord appearing behind Celestia and putting a dunce hat on her horn.
"What! Impossible! I would have noticed it days ago if it is a meteoroid!" scoffs Luna, annoyed that any pony would think she could miss something as obvious meteoroid when she is sky crafting.
"But how could you? Considering it didn't exist till an hour ago, besides it is quite small, about the size of a large room," Discord says adjusting his big nerdy glasses.
"If it was there an hour ago why didn't you tell us about it," asks Celestia who had long since removed the dunce hat, and then as an after thought add, "And what do you mean it didn't exist?"
"To answer your first question, I was busy making toast," Discord says drinking a bowl of black sludge, which looks totally inedible to Celestial and Luna, "And to answer your second question, I meant exactly what I said. So instead of torturing me with dumb questions, you should stop it before it hits something," he says giving her a wicked smile.
"Don't worry about it, sister, it sounds small enough to just burn up in the atmosphere," Luna reassures her worried sister, but something is still worrying Celestia.
"I'm going to stop it anyway, it just feels like something is wrong," Celestia says, as she removes all her shoes, golden jewellery and crown and places them on the ground.
Luna frowns at her sister's lack of faith, but then she puts it toward her sister's over worrying nature. "Fine, but if you’re going, then I’m coming too!" Luna says doing the same as Celestia.
"And I will watch!" says Discord who is holding a camera.
Celestia rolls her eyes as she teleports, followed by Luna and Discord. They appear in the space around their planet, that is called Equis. Now that they are in front of the light, they can see it is a lot bigger than a large room, it looks as big as Ponyville's town hall.
"Discord, that's a lot bigger than you said," Luna says as she stares at the huge ball of fire that is moving quickly toward them.
"It was smaller when it first appeared," Discord says, while putting on a huge pair of sun glasses to hide his eyes from the blinding light it emits.
"Why is it flaming that strongly? It hasn't even reached the atmosphere yet?" asks Celestia, her eyes on the meteoroid as it heads toward them, faster than it should.
"Stop asking dumb questions and just stop that flaming ball! I'm getting bored!" Discord says, crossing his arms and yawning.
Celestia, now ignoring Discord, turns to her sister who is staring dumbly at the ball of fire. "You need to concentrate, Luna, it's much bigger and faster than we thought, and we need stop it before it can hurt somepony." Luna nods and closes her eyes showing that she is starting to build up her magic, Celestia does the same, pulling magic from her source of power, the sun. Magic that can blow away cities and mountains, it is the unstoppable power of the sun. She never uses it in Equestria for fear of killing innocent ponies. Her hair is now fire and her eyes are burning with the brightness of a nova. She turns to see Luna whose eyes are now glowing like the moon and stars, with her hair sparkling like a galaxy. She nods to show she is ready. They both turn their heads toward the ball of fire and...
"GET ON WITH IT!" yells Discord, throwing popcorn at them while he lies down on a deck chair.
...still ignoring Discord, they fire a massive white and black beam at the ball, engulfing it completely and most surely destroying it. Celestia smiling turns toward Luna, who is charging towards her? Before Celestia can do anything her sister tackles her sending them both flying backwards.
"What is that for...?" But before Celestia can continue her sentence, the fire ball, now twice as big as before, flies through the spot where she and Luna had been hovering.
"We didn't destroy it, sister," Luna says sadly.
"But that is the most powerful and deadly spell we know. It could destroy a nation within seconds," Celestia says in shocked tones and all Luna can do is nod.
"Well hugging is lovely and nice, but that fire ball is still heading for Equestria and most importantly, to Ponyville. You have about a minute to stop it," says Discord pointing toward their planet with a pointer. Celestia and Luna give him a confused look. "Oops, did I forget to mention it is heading directly toward Ponyville? Funny I could have sworn I said it," he says with a sheepish look on his face.
Celestia and Luna feel their stomachs knot at this new information and a single word screams in their heads "TWILIGHT". Like a shot the two Princess take off after the ball of fire, with Discord following close behind. The Princess catches up with it pretty quickly and are soon beside it. From the side it looks like a long football.
"Go! Team! Go!" yells Discord behind them wearing a full cheerleading outfit with a blonde wig and he is also waving two pom-poms about.
"YOU COULD HELP, DISCORD!" yells Luna trying not to get hit by a random bolt of fire that shoots out of the fireball seemingly trying to shoot her and Celestia down.
"Been there! Tried that!" Discord says, now appearing in a full body cast and wincing. "It didn't end well, it seems to resent being meddled with."
Luna gives a worried glance to Celestia who returns it. The two try to tether the fireball with their magic to at least slow it down, but every time they try, something mentally attacks them causing them to let go because of the sheering pain it causes. It seems that whatever has control over the fireball is much more powerful than Celestia, Luna and Discord. And it is as if the fireball is mocking them. It shoots ahead of them with a speed which would make Rainbow Dash blush. Celestia thinks she can hear a young filly laugh coming from it as they are knocked back by the sudden increase of speed of the fireball. But that laughter could just be Celestia's exhausted and stressed mind playing tricks on her. They try to catch up to it again, but the two Princess are too exhausted both mentally and physically to even get close to it, so all they can do is watch as the fireball gets closer and closer to Ponyville, Twilight and her friends. Celestia can hear screaming ponies as the fireball gets closer to Ponyville, Celestia tries to turn her head away, too scared to watch what she thinks will happen, but Discord stopped her.
"Look!" Discord instructs. Celestia does and to her surprise the fireball had stops above Ponyville. It stays there for a few seconds, or is it few minutes, and then it explodes, raining fire all over Ponyville. In its stead hovers the biggest and most beautiful phoenix she has ever seen. It is bigger than a dragon and more beautiful than its hoard. Celestia wishes Philomena was here to see it too.
The phoenix makes an ear splitting screech which causes all three of them to flinch and then it flies toward the Everfree Forest at a speed that would make a cheetah give up his spots.
"What is it doing, sister?" asks Luna her eyes following the phoenix and with relief spreading across her face at the fact that Ponyville is spared.
"I don't know, Luna," replies Celestia, but, as if to answer her question, when the phoenix reaches the edge of the forest it pulls up and throws a smoking black and silver object toward the centre of the Everfree Forest. Then the phoenix seems to disappear.
A huge crash can be heard as the object hits the ground and Celestia winces at thought of that hitting anypony.
"You don't suppose that phoenix is trying to save us do you?" asks Luna, looking at the smoking crater in the distance.
Before anypony can answer, a small fireball flies past them giggling like a filly all the way. Discord raises one eyebrow, "Nah, we have been totally trolled."
"We should head back Canterlot to rest, send one squad of guards to check if everypony is alright and another squad to secure that object." says Luna, fatigue catching up on her, and Celestia, aching all over, agrees. They don't have the strength to chase after the small fireball, that is already disappearing into the distance.
"Why bother! The girls are already on their way to check it out anyway." Discord says, crawling into a floating bed and pointing toward a group of six mares that are running toward the forest and the crater.
Celestia smiles, at least they are fine. "Let’s go back and send the guards anyway, just in case." Celestia says as she teleports back to her palace.
"Whatever," Discord says, he and his bed disappearing in a cloud of confused flies.
Luna looks towards the crater, the place phoenix disappeared and the small fireball that is now long gone. She then shakes her head and teleports away as well.
About a few minutes ago, back at Golden Oak Library
Twilight frowns, she has been watching the red light from her balcony. It has been getting bigger, there was also a huge flash and it suddenly grew in size.
"So what is it, Twilight?" asks the small purple and green dragon called Spike from beside her.
Twilight shakes her head and says, "I don't know, Spike, but I can feel a huge amount of magic coming from up there, maybe a..."
"Sorry to interrupt, Twilight, but is it getting hotter, or is it just me?" interrupts the orange pony with a blonde mane called Applejack. She is trying to cool herself down by fanning herself with her long brim hat.
She is right. It is getting hotter. Twilight looks back up at the light and sees that it is much bigger again. Squinting at it she then sees that it is flaming, and comes to a sudden realization. It is a huge meteorite. Twilight screams.
"What wrong, Twilight??" asks Applejack, her face is suddenly etched with worry at her friend's outburst.
"IT'S A METEORITE!" Twilight yells, turning toward her friends, panic in her face.
Her friends give her confused looks and then Rainbow Dash speaks up, "Umm... Twilight, what's a meteorite?"
Twilight sighs, panic receding slightly, and explains: "A meteorite is a space rock that does not burn up in the planet’s atmosphere and hits the ground. If it did burn up it would be called a meteor. When they float around in space they are called meteoroids. Equestria has been hit by a few small meteorites in the last decade, but they have been too small to do any real damage. But this one looks huge and possibly could wipe out all of Ponyville." Twilight finished, smiling at a job well done.
Her friends are still no less confused, "OK, I got the part about it could destroy Ponyville," says Applejack, and rest of the girls nod in agreement. Twilight rolls her eyes and wishes her friend were just a bit more knowledgeable sometimes.
"So what are we going to do about it?" asks Rainbow Dash who is actually starting to sweat as it gets even hotter.
"I don't know. Usually Princess Celestia destroys them before they can became meteorites," Twilight says panicking again.
"Can you do something, dear!" yells Rarity, "It is getting closer!"
Twilight turns toward the huge fireball and then concentrates on it with her magic to try to stop it or at least slow it down. Magic swirls around her and her eyes start to glow and she grabs the meteorite with her magic. Suddenly she feels a sharp pain in her head like a sharp needle has pieced her brain. Wincing she ignores it and continues. But more pains come, quicker and much more painful like the needle are getting bigger. She tries to continue but suddenly she feels a pain that felt like it would crack open her skull. She screams in pain and lets go and then collapses on the floor clutching her forehead.
"TWILIGHT!" yells her friends as they rush to her side and start to pick her up gently.
"Did I... Did I stop it?" Twilight says, cradling her sore head in her hooves.
"Umm... better take look, Twilight," says Rainbow Dash.
Twilight looks up and her eyes widen, not only had it not stopped or slowed down it has grown bigger. It is now probably bigger than Ponyville, and is about to hit any second.
"I failed," says Twilight tears appear in her eyes and her face falls into her hooves. We are all going to die and I can't stop it.
Suddenly hooves wrap around her in a hug, Twilight looks up at her friends who are smiling at her.
"Don't worry, Twilight, you tried your best," says the sweet voice of Fluttershy in comfort.
"Yeah, even if we all die here, I can't say I regret one minute of my life," says the chipper voice of Pinkie Pie "Except, I've never beaten the worlds cupcake eating record. Curse you, Vorago!" Pinkie shakes her hoof at the sky.
The rest of the girls giggle and nod in agreement at the first thing Pinkie said.
Twilight, tears in her eyes, returned the hug, "Me too!" Twilight says tears streaming down her face.
The world shakes as the meteorite gets closer to them. The girls close their eyes and hold each other close least they get torn apart. They can hear ponies screaming on the street as they are about to witness their last moments. A whimpering comes from Spike causing Twilight to hold him tighter. It gives Twilight some hope that Spike will most likely survive this. The shaking gets stronger and the roaring gets louder. The girls shut their eyes tighter and wait for the end.
Which does not come.
"Hey, it stopped?" Pinkie yells.
The girls open their eyes and gasp. The fireball is floating right above Ponyville. It is like the sun has come down to greet them. Its flaming surface is only like 10 metres away from the tallest building. The whole of Ponyville seems to be silent and holding its breath, waiting to see what happens next.
Spike is the first one to break the silence, "Well what happens no..."
The fireball explodes. Small fireballs rain down on Ponyville and bounce off rooftop harmlessly and hit the ground where they blossom into bunches of spring flowers. No one notices it because of the massive bird of fire that appears in the place of the fireball.
"WHAT THE HAY IS THAT!!" yells Applejack, as the bird starts to flap its wings, sending fourth gale force like winds across the town.
"IT'S A PHOENIX!" Twilight yells, trying to be heard over the wind. The wind feels strong enough to blow a pony away.
"WEEEEEEEEE!!!" goes Pinkie Pie, as she blows past Twilight, only to be grabbed by the tail by Rarity to stop her from being blown away, which causes Pinkie to giggle, "I'M LIKE A KITE!" she says, while flapping in the wind.
"IT"S MUCH BIGGER THAN PHILOMENA!" Fluttershy yells while she hangs onto the balcony railings to stop herself from being blow away.
"YOU DON'T SAY, SHY!" yells Rainbow Dash, as she flies against the wind.
A sudden and ear splitting noise spreads across the town, causing the girls to clamp their hooves over their ears in hope of blocking out the horribly loud noise, they can hear glass shattering and the very world vibrating.
"WHAT THE BUCK IS THAT NOISE!!" yells Rainbow Dash, trying to be heard over the sound.
"IT'S THE PHOENIX, IT'S TALKING TO US" Fluttershy yells back.
Suddenly the noise stops. The girls look up and see that the phoenix is now flying towards the Everfree Forest. There is also a crash and a yelp as Rainbow Dash flies forward and crashes into a tree branch because of the sudden lack of wind to fly against. There also a thump and another yelp as the laws of gravity remember Pinkie Pie and drop her on top of Rarity who is still holding onto her tail.
"Ugh. You are saying that the phoenix was talking to us, dear?" Rarity says, while trying to untangle herself from Pinkie Pie who is still giggling.
"Umm.. well, I mean, it was talking, maybe not to us, I mean, it could be talking to anypony, I just heard what she said, is all," Fluttershy says nervously, also hiding her head behind her mane again.
"That's OK, sugarcube." says Applejack, pulling a dazed Rainbow Dash out of the tree branch, "Just tell us what she said anyway."
"Umm... OK," Fluttershy says, straightening up, "She said 'Psych! And here is a present from space! Have fun girls!' and that's all."
Suddenly there is a huge crashing noise and a slight tremor.
"WHAT WAS THAT!" yells Rainbow Dash snapping out of her daze and whipping her head around.
"It is the phoenix. It dropped something into the Everfree Forest, and then disappeared," Twilight says, looking out toward the Everfree Forest. She jumps off the balcony and glides to the ground. "Spike, look after the library, I'm going to check it out."
"OK, Twilight," replies Spike.
"Wait a minute, Twilight, if you’re going we are going too." Rainbow Dash says, dashing in front of Twilight stopping her in her tracks.
"Yeah!" says Pinkie Pie, appearing beside Twilight, "Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro Uno!"
"If it's OK I would like to come too and help, if that OK?" says Fluttershy, gliding down from the balcony.
"I won't be able call myself a good friend if let you girls go into the forest by yourself," says Applejack, as she and Rarity appear from behind the library.
"Yes let’s go and see what that phoenix left behind." says Rarity, smiling and brushing her hair out of her eyes.
"You girls" Twilight says, smiling at her friend loyalty, "Fine, lets solve this!" Twilight yells as she runs towards the forest.
"YEAH" yells her friends following behind.
The crater is smoking as small fires smoulder and die. In the centre of it, a large object of metal sits. Its once shiny chrome surface is burnt and scarred but still intact. Only a single hole is visible on its ruined surface, which turns out to be a corridor. At the end of the corridor is a pair of sliding metal doors. Suddenly a slamming noise comes from the other side. After a few seconds it stops and suddenly a red flat glowing blade is shoved between the middle of the sliding doors and starts prying them open. The doors start to part. Two armoured hooves shove between them and start pushing them open. When they are open enough, a silver and red figure walks though the door and down the corridor, sometimes leaning against the wall for support. It jumps off the end of the corridor onto the ground, stumbling as it lands. It is clad in silver armour with a blood red painted dragon on its crest. Its visor is shiny red and the side of its face glows every time it breathes out heavily. It has blood running down its legs. On its rear is a dark grey device with the symbol '300-M' on it. On its left side is a long black tube, on its right side a dark grey device with two flaps and the symbol N7. A silver and black round device is on the left side of the '300-M'. And finally a black boxy device with a white pony skull on it on the right side of the '300-M'.
The figure starts limping forward toward the forest leaving a trail of liquid crimson behind it...