War From the Stars

by James Pwyll

Impact

A smile was upon Sunset's face as she enjoyed the warm glow of the fire before them. All of her friends were here, even Spike, who was currently snoring beside Twilight's ankle as she sat and roasted her marshmallows. The girls, all sitting in a circle upon logs around the aforementioned flames, were busy chatting with one another about all they'd been doing that day, but by far the loudest of them, as expected, was Pinkie, who stuffed an entire bag's worth of mallows into her mouth and swallowed before letting her general feelings known. "Wow! You know, it really is great that Gloriosa Daisy invited us here to Camp Everfree to look after the place while she and her brother take that long-overdue vacation! And we've had so much fun while the place has been closed for us to work on it! It's like we've got our own, private forest for the summer!"

Rainbow, having had her own mallows by this point, looked around herself before turning to Pinkie again. "Er, Pinkie? Why are you talking like that? We already know why we're out here and what we've been doing. You don't need to explain things."

"Oh, don't I?" the party-lover remarked, looking slyly to the side as if she was in on some sort of joke.

Ignoring her, Applejack chuckled as she looked to the fire. "Ya know, ah can't think of a better way ta spend mah summer than this. Lots o' outdoors work, bein' with all o' y'all. It ticks all the boxes."

Rarity smiled to her, scooting over slightly so as to be closer. "Indeed, Applejack. And fingers crossed our time here will be less...shell we say, fraught than our original visit?"

Applejack blushed slightly to the other girl's now-closer proximity, which Twilight herself was happy to see between them. "I wouldn't worry, Rarity. Remember, all that weirdness was caused by the gemstones and, well, we have them now."

Fluttershy nodded to her spectacled friend. "Now we can just enjoy Everfree like it was meant to be. Calm, peaceful and filled with precious, little critters!"

As if to emphasise that latter point, a little bird immediately flew into the hand Fluttershy had opened as she'd been speaking, chirping happily as she took immense delight in having it be there. Sunset, looking to all of the other girls, breathed a sigh of relief. "I just hope Gloriosa get get some of the stresses of this place worked out of her by the time she returns."

Twilight, having adjusted her glasses, nodded in agreement. "Same. Even without all the magical nonsense she was going through, it's pretty clear just from our first day here that Camp Everfree is a real handful." She glanced around herself. "Honestly, it's a wonder she never took any vacation time before this."

Rarity, leaning back on her log slightly, mused on that. "Well, we all know how hard it is to fall into overworking ourselves." As before, she looked to Applejack. "Don't we, Applejack?"

Applejack, for her part, just rolled her eyes to that not-so-subtle jab at her personal work ethic, though the others clearly found it funny by the laughs they all tried to stifle. But, getting back to Sunset, the former unicorn glanced upwards, to the stars, and seeming, for the moment at least, very content with how things were. "Well, in any case, I'm glad to be here. And with all of you here with me too."

Pinkie, having at last finished her marshmallows, a thing even her friends thought wasn't going to happen, giggled before she too looked up at the night sky. "You can say that again! Just us, the forest, the beautiful stars and...oh!"

Twilight, noting her uncharacteristic halting of her own words, looked to her with interest. "Pinkie?"

The other girl, if possible, smiled even wider before pointing straight up to the sky. "Lookie! A shooting star!"

As expected, all eyes were on the heavens as they saw that their friend had the right of it. There was indeed a trail of light streaking amidst the already-impressive canvas above them. "Well, that's the beauty o' bein' away from the city," Applejack remarked. "Ya can actually see stuff like this!"

But while most were in awe of the sight, Twilight was not so enthralled, as there was something about the specific light they were looking at that just didn't sit right with her. "The angle...the shape..." she murmured.

Sunset looked to her with concern. "Twilight?"

Then, to the surprise of all of them, the former Crystal Prep girl shot up from her side of the log, standing tall and bearing a look of utter horror. Spike, who had been sleeping next to her, was also jolted from where he was, awakening immediately and looking around frantically. "What?! What time is it?!" he asked absentmindedly.

But Twilight didn't listen to him. Instead, when she spoke, it was with a voice that had been brought down to a whisper. "...It'll hit." A silence fell on the group after that, but it was broken when Twilight herself spoke again. "Run," she said with an almost stunned quietness.

"What?" Sunset asked, clearly feeling her friend's fear.

Twilight looked her right in the eye. "RUN!!!" None of them needed an explanation, so all got up from their logs and began to run as fast as they could from the area, heading towards the direction of the main visitor centre of the Camp. Looking over her shoulder, Sunset saw when Twilight had feared. The shooting star growing closer and closer, now revealing itself to be a giant, flaming object of some sort that would undoubtedly cause massive damage wherever it fell. They'd all had their fair share of scrapes, but this was something else altogether. Even Pinkie was silent and serious as she ran alongside everyone else, all of whom were giving it their all to clear the area. But eventually, the inevitable occurred, and they could hear the object finally collide with the ground some distance away. Before any of them could say a word, they felt it, the approaching shockwave of the impact.

Rarity, turning her head in that direction, immediately stopped. "GET BEHIND ME!!!" Without question, they did so, knowing what she was planning. And sure enough, she activated her gemstone, erecting a magical barrier all around them. And not a moment too soon, for the shockwave of the fall now hurled towards them, and they held each other to brace for it, seeing Rarity's power face its greatest test yet.

Comments

[A.P.O.N.I.]

For some reason, I wasn't expecting this world. I should read tags more.