//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five 
// Story: A Different Kind of Magic 
// by Krizak 
//------------------------------//

*WUBWUB*

Rarity's groans were almost drowned out by the heavy bass that rumbled through the library as DJ PON-3 got her equipment started. The unicorn shook her head as she turned to her friend, giving her a critical eye. "Really, Twilight, did you have to hire Miss Scratch to provide the, ahem, 'music' for your party?"

"Sorry, Rarity," Twilight replied, her sarcastic tone depriving the apology of any sincerity. "I looked into booking the Canterlot Philharmonic, but I just couldn't figure out how to fit them into the library."

Twilight was her friend, and was merely five minutes away from hosting a party that the poor dear seemed to be pinning all her romantic hopes upon, despite everything Rarity had said to reassure her that this was not her one and only chance to be with Pinkie Pie. She was understandably stressed at the moment, so Rarity could forgive Twilight's stinging sarcasm quite easily, and so she scaled down her response from scathing to reasonably calm, yet firm enough to dispel her friend's mistaken beliefs about her.

"I most certainly do not believe this sort of soirée—" She raised her hoof to gesture to the redecorated library, now festooned with colourful streamers and balloons coloured to match a certain earth pony's coat and cutie mark. "—to be the place for a classical ensemble; I was thinking more one of the more talented local rock bands, covering some of the basic staples. Princess' 'Bovine Rhapsody,' the Griffons' 'Hotel Equestria,' the Strolling Pones' 'Sympathy for Discord,' the sort of songs that really say something, rather than just being a beat to dance to."

Twilight was taken aback by the passion in Rarity's words, stammering for a moment before she found her tongue and managed, "Oh, I'm sorry, Rarity. I... guess I misjudged you." A thought visibly flickered over Twilight's features, and her expression turned to confusion. "Wait, but Rainbow Dash complains all the time about how you don't like rock and roll!"

"Is she still on about that?" Rarity sighed, closing her eyes as she recalled exactly why Dash would say such a thing. It wasn't a memory she particularly liked reliving. "I changed the music for our performance, yes, but I truly felt a more graceful number fit my wings better," she said.
She started dwelling on it despite herself, recalling with shame how appalling she had been that day. It hadn't been her finest hour, true, but why couldn't Rainbow Dash just let it go?

Her train of thought was interrupted by a gentle hoof on her shoulder, and she looked up to see Twilight giving her a reassuring smile. It was still strange to see Twilight without a horn, though Rarity supposed that it would take more than a couple of hours to make her feel otherwise. "Thank you, Twilight, dear. I shouldn't dwell on such thoughts. Rest assured, my tastes encompass a wide variety of musical forms—" A whining, heavily distorted noise filled the air, joining with the heavy thumping of the bass in what Rarity could scarcely call a melody. "—though there are certainly exceptions," the unicorn finished through clenched teeth.

In stark contrast with her friend, Twilight was bobbing her head along with the beat of Vinyl's music. "Sorry, Rarity, I don't know why I like this sort of music so much, but I do! The beat really moves my hooves." The former unicorn smiled guiltily, turning her head to look over at the DJ. "And... and Pinkie really likes it. You know how much she raves about Vinyl's music; she even convinced Cadance and my brother to let Vinyl play at their reception."

Rarity decided that it was time to move onto the more important matter at hoof, and took advantage of the opening Twilight had just given her. "Ahh, yes, that is an important consideration, but we don't want Pinkie's attention on Miss Scratch, do we?" The unicorn lowered her eyelids into a sly look as she used a hoof to pull Twilight's eyes back to her own. "We want our sweet party-loving friend's gaze firmly fixed on you, my dear. To capture her heart, you must first capture her attention."

The fashionista released Twilight's chin and began to stroll slowly around her, taking in her latest ensemble with a critical eye, making certain that not a thread was out of place. Fortunately, Twilight's preference for simplicity in her dresses had made throwing together something at the last minute relatively easy, but an outfit consisting of less demanded more of each part, and little doubts nagged at the back of Rarity's mind as she inspected her creation. Did the sheer black material hang properly off of Twilight's body? Did the jewelled belt draw the viewer's eye to itself or to the part it complemented? Was white an appropriate highlight, or should she have used something more colourful, more attention-grabbing?

Rarity shoved aside her doubts as she finished her inspection; it wasn't as though there was time to change things now anyway. Besides, if Rarity was confident in her dress, Twilight would be as well, and confidence would do more to build attraction than any outfit. "You truly do look stunning in that outfit, Twilight," Rarity praised, bringing a rosy tint to Twilight's cheeks. "But appearance is only the first step. The right words, the right gestures, the right glances can all light the fires of a pony's heart."

Twilight sheepishly grinned, rubbing the back of her head. "But I've never done any of that," she admitted, her blush only growing more intense. "I–I don't even know where to start!"

"I know that, Twilight," Rarity said, and it was true; she had known, or at least highly suspected, that her friend had absolutely no experience whatsoever when it came to matters of the heart. How fortunate for Twilight that it had been Rarity who had come along during her big performance; she shuddered to think of what sort of advice Twilight might have gotten from Rainbow Dash or, worse yet, Applejack. "While we haven't the time for you to learn all that I know, I can give you a few basic pointers that should help you through this party. And of course, I shall be here all night, should you require my assistance."

"Oh, thank you, Rarity!" Twilight's relief was plain on her face as she hugged Rarity, letting her feel the tension in Twilight's body. She had known Twilight was under a lot of stress, but this was far greater than even she had imagined; Rarity wrapped her arms back around Twilight, hoping that the gesture would help calm her friend slightly.

After a few moments, Twilight let go and stepped back, looking at Rarity expectantly. Rarity immediately launched into her first and most important lesson. "The number one thing to remember, Twilight, is to not be discouraged. Your first attempt at wooing Pinkie may not go as well as you hope. Your second attempt may go even worse! But unless she has specifically said that she's not interested, that she only wishes to remain friends with you, then hope remains!"

Rarity's gaze left Twilight, staring off into space as she considered her own efforts of late. "It can be frustrating, I admit. There may be times when you feel like abandoning all your pretenses of romantic gestures, when you just want to go up to the mare you love, take her hooves in your own, look her straight in the eye, and declare that you love her! By Celestia, you love her despite her uncouth nature, you love her despite her casual disdain for what you do, you love her with all your heart and soul, and if she can't or won't love you back, if she won't run her rough, calloused hooves through your mane and kiss you deeply, then it is better that she break your heart now, so that it can mend all the sooner!"

"Um, Rarity...?"

Twilight's worried tone brought Rarity back to reality, immediately fearful that she had given away a bit too much. Turning to Twilight, Rarity smiled just a little too widely as she asked, "Yes, Twilight?"

Twilight gestured over to the open library door, where a couple of ponies were looking in, seemingly uncertain if they should enter or not. "I have to go play hostess now. When Pinkie shows up, could you please occupy her until I am ready?"

"Of–of course, dear. It won't be a problem at all!" Rarity answered, somewhat relieved that Twilight remained oblivious to her own hidden desires. Twilight gave her a nod and walked over to the door to greet her first guests, leaving Rarity to consider what was to occur tonight... and to hope that everything wouldn't end in disaster.




"This is a disaster!"

"What are you talking about, Twilight?" Spike's question was garbled by the appetizers he was loudly chewing on, his claws holding a pile of even more as he walked over to his distressed mentor. "This party's great! Everypony's having a great time, the music is awesome..." He swallowed his current mouthful and shoved a couple waiting mini-pizza bagels into his mouth. "...and the food is as good as it gets without visiting the jeweller's!"

"Yeah, sure, the party's great," Twilight said, her sarcastic tone tinged with very real frustration, before lowering her head to Spike and letting her irritation out in full, "if you ignore the fact that the guest of honour is an hour late!"

Spike's eyes widened, and he hastily swallowed his food to say, "Relax, Twilight. So Pinkie's a bit late. I don't see Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy here either, and you invited them too, right?"

"Except that Rainbow Dash has never been on time for anything in her life!" Twilight pointed out, exasperated that Spike didn't seem to be taking her seriously. "And Fluttershy isn't coming; I ran into her as I was passing out the invitations and she had to decline, since it's her 'nocturnal night.'" She sat down and wiggled her front hooves up and down a couple times as she said the last two words.

"'Nocturnal night?'" Spike repeated with a raised eyeridge.

"Every Tuesday night, Fluttershy changes her whole sleep pattern so that she can tend to the needs of those creatures who live their lives in the darkness," Rarity explained as she walked up alongside Applejack. "It is a true show of dedication to her work; I scarcely think I could change my schedule so drastically in such a short amount of time."

"Not to mention how ornery you get whenever you don't get yer beauty sleep," Applejack quipped, her grin growing even wider as Rarity turned to shoot her a withering glare. Moving on before Rarity could fire a barb back, Applejack looked over to Twilight and said, "Rare and I were enjoyin' this fine shindig you put together, Twilight, but we heard you over the crowd and decided to wander on over, see how yer doin'."

Turning away from Applejack with a look that Twilight had come to associate with her unicorn friend's eventual vengeance, Rarity nodded at Applejack's explanation. "You sounded a bit distressed, darling. Whatever seems to be the matter?"

"Well, as I was just explaining to Spike here," Twilight said with an accusatory glare at her young assistant, who simply shrugged in response, "Rainbow Dash is always late, and Fluttershy said she wasn't coming, but Pinkie Pie's penchant for punctuality is practically perfect! She's never late for anything!"

"I'm certain she'll show up, Twilight," Rarity said, gently placing a hoof on Twilight's shoulder; the touch had a calming effect on Twilight, reminding her that Rarity had pledged herself to helping in any way possible. "Give it a few more minutes, and if necessary, Applejack and I will go find Pinkie ourselves."

Applejack nodded affirmatively at Rarity's plan, and Twilight felt a wave of relief rush through her. They were taking her seriously. One way or another, Pinkie would show up at the party Twilight had thrown together for her, and then she would be able to put Rarity's advice to good use. Yes, the prospect of actually using that advice still terrified her, but at least she'd be able to get to that point.

"I don't know why Pinkie hasn't shown up, though." Spike's musings pulled Twilight's attention from her thoughts. "I mean, she talked about being at the party when she showed up earlier..."

"What?" The new information threw Twilight's calm for a loop, and she turned to Spike, her gaze filled with suspicion. "Pinkie was here earlier? After she left? What was she doing here?"

"Well—" Spike's explanation was cut off abruptly as the library suddenly plunged into darkness, drawing gasps and shouts of surprise from the ponies attending Twilight's party. "Whoa, what's going on here!?"

Twilight looked up, seeking out her magelights in an instant. The main level of the library had four of them that Twilight had installed herself – optimal lighting was important to proper study, after all – but while they occasionally failed when the delicate materials used in their construction deteriorated, four breaking at the exact same time was extremely unlikely. "Rarity, could you please nudge my lights back on? There must have knocked out by some sort of magical interference... though what could cause such a thing...?"

As Twilight mumbled to herself, trying to reason out what had happened, Rarity's horn lit up, her light blue magic encompassing the closest magelight. Her face screwed up in concentration for a second, before her horn's glow faded and she looked over to Twilight with a somewhat surprised expression. "I can't seem to, darling. As far as I can tell, your lights should be able to turn back on; they just won't."

"That's what I'm getting over here as well!" The loud yell attracted the attention of most of the room, where Vinyl Scratch had her goggles lifted up, her magenta eyes filled with distress. "She should be spitting out the beats but she just won't get up and go! C'mon, baby! C'mon, sing your song for me, just like you always have! Don't you die on me!"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "How melodramatic!" She noticed Applejack's bemused expression as she turned back to her friends. "Yes, yes, I know, kettles and pots and all that!"

Twilight shook her head. "What is going on here? Alright, I've got some candles around the library, we can light them up and—" No sooner had she mentioned them than the candles did light up, but not with warm, inviting flickers of orange; every wick was burning with a blue flame that cast the room in an eerie light. "Ooookay, at this point, I think I'm going to have to recommend that we exit the library in a calm, orderly fashion," she announced to the partygoers.

"The door is locked!" Cheerilee yelled over the crowd, drawing a few more frightened gasps.

Cheerilee's shout spurred Applejack into action. She ran over to the nearest window and gave it a quick and ineffective shove. "Window seemed to be locked tight as well," she said. "Whatever it is that's causin' all this, it seems like it doesn't want us leavin' any time— Whoa nelly!" Applejack jumped back from the window as a flash of light filled the library, followed almost immediately by a thunderous clap. "A thunderstorm!? There's not supposed to be another big storm scheduled for another week! What in tarnation is going on here!?"

"Twilight, is the library h-haunted?" Spike asked, a bit louder than was necessary, and Twilight winced as exactly what she expected to happen occurred right away: the ponies gathered at her party began to panic, yells and screams replacing the gasps and murmurs.

"Whoa, something touched me! Something cold!" a stallion yelled from within the crowd, causing other ponies to leap away from him as fast as they could.

"Somepony is whispering, can you hear it? It must be a ghost!" Lily yelled out just before she passed out from fright. Rose and Daisy immediately rushed to their friend's side to try to revive her.

"Enough!" Twilight's yell reverberated through the library, the force of it causing all the gathered ponies to grow quiet. Taking advantage of the silence, Twilight quickly jumped onto a table, raising herself up so that everypony could see her. "There is no need to panic. Even if I believed in ghosts – which I most certainly do not – I would have to point out that this library has never been haunted before, and I'm certain that nopony has died here recently. This is all some sort of..." The purple pony blinked at her sudden realization. "...prank. Spike, you said Pinkie was here earlier?"

The dragon nodded up at her. "Yeah, she wanted to look up some spells that she could use while she still had her horn. Well, uh, your horn... or is it... I still dunno how that works."

"I see." Twilight smiled thinly; it was obvious what was going on now, but some of the implications annoyed her greatly. "I suppose one of the books she looked at was Null and Void: Countermagic Made Easy, where she could find a spell that can temporarily disable magical devices within a field."

"Yeah, that was one of them! How did you—" Twilight glanced meaningfully up at her dead magelights, and saw realization come over Spike's face. "Oh. Right."

"Y-You mean this is just temporary?" Vinyl Scratch asked, and when Twilight nodded in her direction, the DJ visibly relaxed, her forelegs embracing her equipment as well as they could manage.

"Don't worry, Vinyl. As soon as the field is dispelled or your equipment is removed from it, it'll start working again. Now, let's see..." Twilight cast her eyes across the shelves of her library. She knew every book on these shelves, even she hadn't quite read all of them. "Burn My Dread: Mastering Mystical Flames would cover the eerie blue-burning candles." Spike nodded at that, confirming that Pinkie had consulted that volume. "My First Cantrips would be sufficient for the locked doors and windows and, well, the spell is called Ghost Sound." Another nod from Spike. "And The Unicorn Way: Magical Weather Control would have been necessary for the storm..."

Spike raised up a claw to stop Twilight. "Uh, Twilight, Pinkie didn't look at that book."

Twilight looked down at her assistant. "What? But that's the only book that has the sort of weather magic that can create a storm of this magnitude!"

"I dunno what to tell you," Spike said with a shrug. "Pinkie didn't ask for any weather magic, and even if she had, that book is in the restricted section, which only you can get into."

"Right, the restricted section..." Twilight repeated; now that she had been reminded, she remembered that The Unicorn Way was restricted, partly because of the power of the spells contained within and partly because it was a terribly racist book, stemming from pre-Equestrian times, and she didn't want any impressionable young colts and fillies reading it. "But then how did she conjure up the thunderstorm?"

"If you'll pardon my interruption, Twilight, I think that you're overlooking a bit simpler of an explanation." Applejack walked back over to the window and glanced over at Rarity, nodding to the window. "Rarity, can you undo the spell lockin' this window?"

"That shouldn't be too difficult, darling," Rarity replied, her magical aura encompassing the clasp at the side of the window. After a moment, the clasp popped open audibly, and the window swung open, the driving rain outside almost immediately soaking Applejack right through her coat. "Oh, Applejack, I'm sorry! I didn't mean for that—"

"Never you mind, Rarity, it's just a little water." Applejack stuck her head out into the rain, and looked up into the thunderstorm that filled the skies above the library. "Rainbow Dash, you cut out this nonsense right now before I come out there and give you a whoopin'!"

To Twilight's surprise, the pegasus in question suddenly appeared outside the window. Rainbow Dash was completely drenched, the rain soaking through her coat and feathers, but it wasn't enough to wipe the enormous grin off her face. "Aww, c'mon, AJ! I was just getting started! Soon I'll have thunder so loud that it'll shake the books right off of Twilight's shelves!"

Twilight groaned. "No, thank you, I like my books right where they are!"

"You heard the mare, Dash! You clear these skies right now!"

Dash visibly wilted beneath Applejack's loud words. "Fine, fine... Ruin all my fun..."

As the pegasus flew away from the window, Applejack turned back to Twilight, the window closing behind her courtesy of Rarity's magic. "See, Twilight? No need to jump to magic being the cause of everythin' when it could be a simple partner-in-crime!"

"But the partner of whom?" Rarity added, her horn floating a towel over to dry Applejack off. "You seem to think Pinkie is the one responsible for all this, Twilight, and while I won't deny that this is a prank worthy of her, the simple fact remains that Pinkie isn't here. You said so yourself, darling."

The thin smile returned to Twilight's lips. "Yes, but that was before I knew that Pinkie learned some new spells. Now it's obvious that Pinkie wasn't late at all, but that she read a book that I myself haven't managed to get the time to sit down with yet." She glanced back over the crowd, her eyes narrowed. "Isn't that right, Pinkie? You read The Art of Invisibility Spells, didn't you?"

"I sure did!" To her credit, Twilight only jumped a little when Pinkie's shrill declaration came from behind her, and she turned to see the pink pony fade into view standing right next to the table she was standing on, drawing gasps of awe from the partygoers. "Hi, Twilight! Hi, everypony! I hope I didn't scare anybody too badly with that prank!" She looked up at Twilight with a grin on her face. "I totally wanted to have a bit more fun, but Twilight's still the smartiest-pants around even without her horn."

Twilight tried to suppress her anger at having her theory proved right. "It was nothing," she said through gritted teeth. "Now would you mind cancelling your nullification field so the party can get started again?"

Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "Um... I don't think I read that chapter," she said.

"Pinkie..." Twilight covered her face with one hoof. "Imagine a soap bubble popping and then, while you're doing so, concentrate on your horn."

"Okey dokey lokey!" Pinkie's face screwed up in concentration, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. Her horn glowed blue for a second, and all at once, the library was once again filled with light and music. "There we go!"

"Very good. Now..." Twilight jumped off of the table, approaching Pinkie with a determined gait. "Pinkie, do you remember what you agreed to before I cast the spell last night?"

"Yep! No lifting anything bigger than myself, no using magic on others, and think everything over twice!" Pinkie's voice remained cheery, but Twilight could see worry in her eyes.

"You forgot the part about using no magic directly on yourself!" Twilight declared, pointed a hoof accusingly at Pinkie. "Magic like that invisibility spell you were using!"

"Hey, that doesn't count!" Pinkie protested. "It only bends light around a target. It doesn't actually affect a pony at all!" She stuck her nose up in the air, as though she were dismissing the claim outright.

Twilight shook her head furiously. "Oh, no, don't you try explaining it like that! The spell would still link intrinsically to the target it bends light around, making it a spell you cast on yourself!"

Applejack glanced back and forth between her two friends. "Okay, I'd like to step in and stop this arguin', but I haven't the slightest what you two are arguin' about. Mind puttin' things in plainer terms?"

"Fine." Twilight jabbed her hoof once more at Pinkie. "She broke a Pinkie Promise! Pinkie Pie herself broke a Pinkie Promise!"

"What!?" Rarity exclaimed, her eyes widening as she and Applejack both turned to Pinkie. "That can't possibly be true, darling... can it?"

"I... Well... You see..." Pinkie squirmed under the gaze of her friends for a few seconds before she threw her hooves up into the air, letting out a frustrated cry. "Fine! Yes, I broke the Pinkie Promise I made to Twilight! I cast Ingrid's Improved Invisibility on myself, and Cirrus' Cloudhoof, and Terminus' Terrific Teleport, and even Petunia's Perfect Perfume!"

"Hmm, I was wondering what smelled so nice," Spike commented in a low voice.

Pinkie took a step towards Twilight, a pleading look in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Twilight! When I made the Pinkie Promise, I totally meant it, a hundred percent! But today there's this little voice in my head saying that the promise is silly, that I know what I'm doing, and I-I resisted the temptation at first, but then I learned all those spells, and I'll never get another chance to cast them, and I had this great idea for a prank, and—"

"Stop." It was all Twilight could manage to get out as she processed what Pinkie was saying. She knew that little voice; it was the one that had tried to get her to fix Rarity and Fluttershy's friendship when it had been threatened by Fluttershy's modelling career. Only Pinkie's constant presence had prevented Twilight from breaking her Pinkie Promise at the first opportunity.

The spell that had switched things up between Pinkie and Twilight had given Pinkie that nagging little voice that insisted that it was right... and Pinkie had actually resisted it for a while, in a way Twilight hadn't even managed one bit. It was entirely Twilight's fault – or rather, a fault of Twilight's – that had caused Pinkie to break her promise, and that meant— who was tugging on her tail!?

Twilight turned to see who needed her attention so badly, but there was nopony with a grip on her tail. It was just jerking up and down of its own accord. Shrugging, Twilight turned back to Pinkie to apologize to her, only to be greeted by the wide-eyed stares of three ponies and one dragon fixed on her rear end.

And that's when it finally hit her. "Twitchy tail."

As one, the five of them dove under the table that Twilight had been standing on only moments before. The table wasn't nearly large enough for all of them, though, and they only succeeded in getting all their heads under the table and delivering a spectacle for the recovering party around them to behold.

After a few moments, when the only thing they had managed to succeed at doing was giving themselves kinks in their necks, Pinkie shook her head. "Ugh, it must be one of those really delayed Pinkie Senses," she said as she pulled herself out from under the table. "I hate when I get those. 'Oh, something's going to fall, but only three hours from now.' Really useful, tail!"

"So what, I'm just going to have this twitching until something falls?" Twilight asked, her voice unbelieving.

Pinkie shrugged. "Well, at least you can get used to a twitchy tail. It's not like it's—" She was interrupted as Twilight's entire body suddenly started shaking. "—a doozy..."

"A doozy!?" Applejack, Spike, and Rarity all exclaimed at once, before Applejack and Spike turned to give Rarity a curious look. "What? Fluttershy told me all about it at our spa session that week."

"A-A-A-A d-d-d-o-o-o-z-y-y-y!?" Twilight repeated, barely able to get the words out of her chattering mouth. She stopped shaking, and immediately turned to look at her tail, which was still twitching. "But my tail is still going! So does that mean..."

Twilight turned to look at Pinkie just as they both arrived at the same conclusion. "A doozy falling from the sky!"

"Quick, Twilight, you can tell where the doozy's are if you concentrate during the shake!"

"Okay, but it's not like I can control when I get the—" Twilight was interrupted as another full-body shake took control of her. After a few seconds, it stopped, and Twilight stared at the others in shock. "It's at Fluttershy's cottage!"

"Then we don't have any time to lose!" Applejack announced, already turning and heading for the door.

Rarity turned to Spike. "Spike, explain to Twilight's guests that we had to step out for a bit. Be a dear and see that they're taken care of."

"You can count on me!" Spike said as the three friends quickly rushed after Applejack.

As the ponies left the library, Rainbow Dash swooped down to fly alongside them. "Hey, what's going on here? I thought Pinkie's ghost trick sent you all packing, but Pinkie's here too." She looked over at Pinkie. "How'd the prank go, anyway? I just got done clearing up the storm."

"I can tell you all about it later, Dashie!" Pinkie said, only barely looking up at Dash. "Fluttershy might be in danger! Or she might just be having an epiphany."

"What!?" Dash shouted, the surprise causing her to fall behind for a second before she managed to catch up again. "'Shy's in trouble!? What kind of trouble?"

"Don't rightly know!" Applejack yelled back from the head of the group. "All we've got to go by is Twilight's Pinkie Sense. Or is it Twilight Sense now?"

"You had me at Pinkie Sense." Dash flew ahead of Applejack, turning in midair to fly backwards facing her friends. "I'll fly ahead, make sure that 'Shy is alright!"

"Yes, go!" Rarity growled, irritation in her voice.

"Going!" The pegasus turned around again and flew off ahead, quickly disappearing over a hill.

As Twilight watched Rainbow Dash fly off, she noticed something else in the sky, a brilliant object streaking across the starry field. "A meteor? But there's no meteors scheduled for tonight..."

Pinkie looked up at Twilight's words, her mouth hanging open as she panted; she was used to an earth pony's endurance, and the run was tuckering her right out. "Is... is it... getting bigger...?"

Twilight nodded. "I think it is!" As she watched the meteor, it clearly was getting larger and larger. The former unicorn did some rough calculations in her head, glad that her spell last night hadn't taken that from her. "Let's see, at the rate of its increase in apparent size and its movement across the starfield..."

As she reached her answer, she took a look back at her still-twitching tail and then at Pinkie behind her, her eyes filled with fear.

"That's the doozy! That meteor's going to land on Fluttershy's cottage!"