Falling Skies - Invasion of Equestria

Chapter 2 - An Odd Mystery, and the Day of Harmony

Twilight Sparkle went out the door by herself, but after she creaked it closed, she felt her front hoof knock something over. She was surprised to find a newspaper on the doorstep; it was an issue from the Ponyville Express. Normally, she doesn't subscribe to the rather drab newspaper, but what was curious about it was on the front page; it was up-to-date from the Canterlot Observatory. She picked it up and read quietly aloud:

The Ponyville Express

Unknown Object Discovered? Experts Bewildered!

June 14, 1001 ANM

Five days ago, Dr. Star Gazer of the Canterlot Observatory, discovered a needle-shaped object found in near-Equestria orbit. However, how it appeared was even stranger. Dr. Stargazer described that toward the area it was found, there were only stars.

A few seconds later, however, he, in an interview taken yesterday, said to have seen "a strange pool of light come out of nowhere. When it disappeared, there it was [the needle]! It looked like it came out of a portal!"

Armed with the latest in Equestrian technology, he took photographs of the object, using a camera embedded in the telescope itself, to prove to others that it existed. He took several more pictures to strengthen her credibility. Here are two of his photos, lain side-by-side for comparison (right).

Twilight looked at the two photos on the front page. They were black-and-white and grainy with pixels, with glowing stars against the black background. Circled at the bottom-right corner of each picture were different versions of the alleged object, which was colored white. Indeed, it was shaped like a needle, albeit with a rather artificial appearance. What intrigued Twilight even more was a faint impression of a light on its "rear end". Perhaps it was from a star hidden by the object, she thought at first. However, when she looked at the right, the object moved slightly "forward" toward the top-left corner, but the rear light was still there, as if it were part of the object. There was no sign of the supposed "portal", though. Each photo also sported the dates and times taken on the bottom-left; she saw they were taken five days before the article date, just like it said. The photos were also taken roughly fifteen seconds apart. Twilight continued reading:

The next day, Star Gazer sent the photos to a group of analysts, who concluded that the photos were either cleverly made fraud or a simple technological error. Stargazer and his crew denied this, insisting that technological errors do not move on their own in a slow fashion. Others simply could not identify the object or its nature, but it was definitely not a star or an asteroid (the latter would come close, but asteroids normally do not have such a bizarre shape).

The day after, Star Gazer looked in his telescope to find the object again, and it was still there, but at a different place in the sky. It appeared as if it were in orbit around the world, much like the Moon. When he looked one last time last night, the object was gone.

So far, research is still being conducted about what the object was and how and why it came.

"Hmm." Twilight closed the newspaper and put it in her hip sack, where she normally kept her books. Twilight felt delighted to see a new opportunity to give to the community. Then she decided to seize it and learn something, perhaps even more things to write to the Princess.

So she went into the streets. As she trekked, she thought about how she could learn more about this object. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something very peculiar is going on. Could this be just a mistake or misidentification, or could it be true that this thing is the-?

"Hi, there!"

Twilight yelped at the squeaky female voice and flash of pink as she trampled into a bush behind her! Annoyed by the sudden intrusion, she lifted her head to see who it was.

It was Pinkie Pie.

"Oh, it was you," Twilight sighed.

Pinkie Pie hopped as joyfully as ever toward her, and then gave her an inquisitive look. "Hey, haven't you heard?"

"About what? I really don't have time for this!" Twilight was feeling rushed.

"You know, the new celebration!"

Pinkie Pie always had a reputation for being a wild party animal, as she always held up celebrations whenever she saw (or even believed to have seen) the opportunity to do so. She would welcome any newcomer to Ponyville with a huge celebration, as well as birthday parties whenever they come up. If anything that has to do with celebrations has been issued, Pinkie Pie would be the first to know about it.

"What kind?" Twilight asked, "you hold many celebrations, Pinkie. What makes this one so special?"

"Why, the Day of Harmony, silly!"

"Day of Harmony?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. At first, she did not understand what Pinkie meant, but as she tried to figure it out, she noted that it was summer. And the name was peculiar too. But when the word "summer" and "harmony" went together she suddenly remembered something.

"Wait," Twilight continued, "are you talking about the Summer Sun Celebration?"

"Well," Pinkie answered, touching her chin in brief thought, "it was the Summer Sun Celebration. So I guess you could say that."

Twilight gasped and asked herself, "is it about the day we defeated Nightmare Moon?!"

Twilight remembered that just after she and her comrades used the Elements of Harmony to destroy the Nightmare Moon form of Princess Luna, she and her sister, Princess Celestia, united once again after a thousand years of separation. According to legend, the princesses Celestia and Luna ruled Equestria much like today, representing day and night, respectively. However, as the ponies were awake during the day and slept at night, Princess Luna grew bitter and transformed into Nightmare Moon, and attempted to create "night eternal". To stop this, Princess Celestia banished her in the moon, creating a dark profile of the corrupted princess. This profile would later be known as "the Mare on the Moon", which disappeared when Nightmare Moon returned to the world.

It had been almost one year since then, and now all of Equestria must've been celebrating the return of the old order.

"Then what are you doing here?" Twilight asked.

"I'm going to visit Applejack to collect the apples for the cake, lots and lots of them!" Pinkie Pie replied.

Twilight thought about how Pinkie Pie was off gathering apples from Sweet Apple Acres, which would be a daunting task that is normally handled by the Apple family.

So, she decided to seize this opportunity by helping her out. Besides, she was in the library for quite some time, so she asked, "May I join you?"

"Of course!" Pinkie Pie jumped for joy at the offer.

"Thanks, Pinkie."

"Okie-dokie!" She nodded.

And so the two mares trotted along the road outside of town and then down the path to Sweet Apple Acres.

After about a half-hour of walking, they arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, which was composed of a huge, red barn-house with spanning rows of apple trees in front and gardens of corn and carrots, and chicken and pig pens on the sides.

As they entered through the gate, they suddenly heard a very familiar, child-like voice.

"But it's true, sis! I saw it!" Twilight looked towards the source; it was Apple Bloom confronting her older sister, Applejack. She went on, "I saw it with mah own eyes!"

"That's enough o' yer stories!" Applejack was clearly frowning with discontent of her little sister, "besides, we've got work to do if we're gonna make this Harmony Day stuff happenin'!"

Apple Bloom groaned.

Twilight went over to Applejack to see what was going on. Pinkie Pie followed.

"Hey Applejack." Twilight greeted.

"Oh! Hey, Twi." Applejack responded as she turned, "I didn't see ya there!"

"What's all the fuss about? We heard you talking to Apple Bloom about something," Twilight asked.

"Oh, Apple Bloom here was tellin' me all o' them stories about some flying thing she saw."

"Oh, Twi!" Apple Bloom went to Twilight, "you are a smart girl, maybe you'll believe me!"

This is getting interesting, Twilight thought, First, there is this object in space, and now this "flying thing". There seems to be some connection, here.

Twilight spoke to Apple Bloom, "you know-"

"No, nuh-uh!" Applejack objected, "I don't want to hear no more about it!"

"Oh, c'mon, Applejack. Just give your little sister a chance." Twilight responded.

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie said, "And we need all the apples we can get for Harmony Day! Mr. and Mrs. Cake are gonna make this huge, huge cake and we'll need a lot of apples and flour to make it!"

"Say what now?" Applejack asked Pinkie as she turned. At first she did not understand as she was too caught up with her little sister's business. But when she figured out about the Day of Harmony, Applejack blurted in realization. "Oh, that. Alrighty!" Applejack tilted her hat, "let's get to it, then!"

Pinkie Pie cheered and jumped for joy as usual, and she and Applejack went over to the apple orchard. But Pinkie saw that Twilight was not with her.

"Hey, Twilight!" She asked as she turned around, "aren't you coming with? You said you were gonna help us!"

"Oh! I'm just gonna talk to Apple Bloom, Pinkie. I'll be with you in a minute."

"Pinkie Pie promise?" Pinkie crossed her hooves to prompt Twilight.

"Pinkie Pie promise," she hastily returned the gesture.

"Okie dokie!" Pinkie Pie hopped as she followed Applejack, leaving Twilight to tell herself to make this quick if she is going to keep her promise, for good reason.

With the two girls out of the way, Twilight Sparkle turned to the filly with a smile. "Okay, Apple Bloom. What d'ya got?"

Apple Bloom began her story, "it was after Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and I were tryin' to get our cutie marks by trying to help rebuild that skyscraper! Ye know, the one that fell down a while ago with that Mare Do-Well? Well, we were trying to help fix it, an' we did pretty well, too. But then, Scootaloo messed it all up and it fell down again! We were sure glad we survived! But we were bummed out about not getting our cutie marks.

"So, at night, I was on mah way home, when I heard this weird noise comin' from the orchard. It sounded like this: 'WO-woo WO-woo WO-woo WO-woo!' So I went there and I saw where it was comin' from! There was this shiny metal thing that was floating above the ground, and it was about as big as I am. I went up to it and said, 'hey! Mah name's Apple Bloom! What's yer name?' But as I came closer, whoosh! It flew away! I swear that thing could beat Rainbow Dash in a race, 'cause it was darn fast!"

Twilight noticed something peculiar in Apple Bloom's story. First, there was the dream, then the object from space, and now this "shiny metal thing" that Apple Bloom mentioned. The story itself sounded rather bizarre, too. Then she began to suspect something.

"What was it shaped like?" Twilight asked.

"I don' know, it was pretty dark, but it definitely looked like it had wings that were really stiff and pointy. And I can tell it was made o' metal, because it was reflectin' the moonlight."

Based off Apple Bloom's description, Twilight pictured in her mind a bird made of metal, but it was nothing like the space needle from the article. Maybe it was just a story, and that the little one saw a rare type of bird with razor-sharp wings. She even thought to have come across it in a book she read once. The sound she described might've been its mating call. After all, many odd – and often amazing – creatures come from the nearby Everfree Forest, and since Sweet Apple Acres is situated near the forest, it would make sense that Apple Bloom came to face one on her way home.

"Maybe it was a type of rare bird you saw from the forest. You should be fascinated to have met one of-"

"It wasn't a bird!" Apple Bloom burst out, "It didn't flap its wings and it didn't have any feet! It looked like one, but it wasn't! Honest!"

Twilight flinched from the outburst, and then raised an eyebrow, "you mean it just...floated in place?"

"Yeah! And I didn't see any eyes, either."

So a floating, stiff-winged, eyeless, metal bird thing? Twilight thought, this sounds strange. Wasn't she just making up stories? Even a story like this? Children tend to have an underdeveloped ability to discriminate fact from imagination. But then again, she said to have seen it last night, and the needle object was reported to have disappeared at the same time. Is it just an amazing coincidence? But I'm gonna have to help Pinkie and the Apple family help out, so I'll have to make sense of this later.

"Well, this is very interesting, Apple Bloom." Twilight concluded. "What you've described was very strange. I'll have to look this over some time. But for now, let's focus on helping your sister. Okay?"

Apple Bloom smiled as she gave a nod. "Alright, Twi."

So Twilight and Apple Bloom went to find the others and help pick the apples.

Three hours later, Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack returned to Ponyville. Applejack pulled a good-sized cart of apples of many types while the other two trotted alongside her.

"Wee-hoo!" Applejack cheered! "That was sure darn fantastic! Who woulda known that cake would be so darn big?"

"Yup," Twilight commented. "The princesses do like big things."

"Yeah," Pinkie Pie replied. "That's why we need so many apples! It took me a while to knock down those trees! I mean, they keep falling out of the baskets and I had to put them all back in. And then Applejack taught me how the apples get bruised when they hit the ground if I'm not careful and…"

Twilight drifted her attention off Pinkie Pie's chatter when she heard a distinct jet-like whooshing sound in the distance. As she listened, her right ear perked up as it got rapidly louder and more intense. It must be the-!

Twilight gasped, "Look out!" She hastily used her magic to push the other two ponies out of the way, and then took cover!

Pinkie and Applejack yelped from getting tossed over by Twilight's magic, and the cart that Applejack carried tumbled over, dumping the apples all over the road like spilled marbles from the bag! The source of the sound slammed closer toward them, and then-

…it stopped.

Twilight was crouching, covering her head with her front hooves when the jet-sound stopped behind her, which turned into an obnoxious and almost recognizable laughter.

It was Rainbow Dash.

Twilight uncovered herself to turn around, and then saw her roll on the ground laughing.

"Oh, you should watch where you're spilling your stuff!" Rainbow Dash continued laughing.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie raised their heads to see the awful mess on the street, hundreds of tumbled red and green apples spread all across the road. The wooden cart in the middle was upturned on its top, with some of the apples smashed under its ridges into a pale-yellow pulp. Rainbow Dash was right by the cart still laughing, and Twilight on the other side. Applejack was furious, and so she got up and stomped over to Rainbow Dash.

"What in tarnation is the problem here?!" Applejack exclaimed, "and just look at all them apples!"

Twilight looked behind her. "Oh no…" her eyes widened and pupils shrunk in horror upon discover the apple mess she had caused in her silly fright; nearly three hours of hard work had gone to waste.

"We've worked for three hours straight and now look at 'em! They've all been bruised, mushed, and filthy from the road! And now we'll have to do it all over again! What in tarnation were ya thinkin', Dash?!"

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie agreed, "And now we'll have to wait longer for that cake!"

"Pft! Relax!" Rainbow Dash said, "we've got all week. We'll just grab more some more apples and we'll be all set!"

"Are ye outta yer mind?" Applejack rebuked, "those apples don' just grow on a single day! We've worked hard to get as many apples as we could! But now they're all dirty! We don't got all day"

"Oh what are you whining about? You're acting just like Rarity! Besides," Rainbow Dash walked to one of the apples and grabbed it. She spat on it and rubbed it like she were shining metal, "I'm sure we'll just clean them up and we'll be all set."

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight intervened, "those apples need to be perfect for the cake for Harmony Day! They're for the princesses!"

Rainbow Dash fell silent. "Oooohhh... right."

But then Twilight remembered that it was she who tossed over the ponies in reaction to Rainbow Dash, causing the cart to toss over and spill the apples.

"Actually, Rainbow," Twilight corrected as she admitted. "It was my fault. I spilled the apples. I'm sorry, I thought you were a... um..." She struggled to find what she thought it was, because it happened so suddenly.

Twilight felt relieved of that when Rainbow Dash said, "Aww, don't sweat it, Twi!" She put her hoof on her shoulder. "I'm sure you didn't mean it, right?"

"Yeah, you're right. And I was wondering, Rainbow Dash," She added curiously, "just what were you doing up there?"

"Are you kidding?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, "I was practicing for the holiday! The Princess asked me to practice my Sonic Rainboom while the Wonderbolts are performing!"

"Oh, yeah. Then why did you rush over to us?"

"I saw you girls with that cart of apples, and thought I'd take a break and hang out."

"Well," Applejack entered, "Ain't ya gonna help out? Ya know, clean up this mess?"

"Well, I don't know," Rainbow Dash answered doubtfully, her front hoof touching her shin in thought. "I was kinda practicing right now, so maybe not now."

Twilight decided to make up for her mistake, now that Applejack brought it up. So she announced, "I'll clean it, Applejack."

"Really? Outstandin'!" Applejack cheered, "now let's get to workin'!"

"What?!" Pinkie Pie objected, "but we just finished!"

"We need to clean'em up," Applejack remarked. "We'll just pick up all the apples that're still intact, and then put'em back in that cart. We'll put away the ones that've been mushed. And when we get to Sugar Cube Corner, we'll take some time to get the bad ones out and the good ones in. Ya got that?"

"Okie-dokie!" Pinkie Pie hopped.

"Good!" Twilight said, "but first, let me upright that cart," Twilight used her magic to set the tumbled cart on its wheels, though the pulp from some of the apples still stuck on its ridges. She turned to Rainbow Dash.

"You can get back to your practice, Rainbow Dash. We'll take it from here."

"Well, alright." Rainbow Dash replied, "I'll catch you guys later."

So, Rainbow Dash zoomed back over toward the sky where she came. While they did spend three hard hours collecting all the apples from the orchard, simply picking them up and rejecting the bad ones didn't take as much work. Twilight was conscious of Ponyville's traditional restriction of magic, so she only used her magic to pick up one apple at a time rather than all at once.

After about half an hour, the street was clear of the apples, and the mush put in a nearby trash bin. The three mares relieved themselves after finishing their work.

"Now all the ponies can pass through without trouble," Twilight commented.

"True that," Applejack answered, then she turned to Pinkie Pie. "Now, whad'ya say we head to Sugar Cube Corner?"

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie cheered as usual, "then we'll make that cake!"

When Twilight thought about how long she was gone from the library, it came to her that Spike was still with Peewee, who could be causing a great mess in there. It had been some four hours since she was away, which would mean...

"Hey, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie asked, "aren't you coming?"

"No," Twilight responded, and began to fidget. "You girls go ahead. I'll head over to the library to check on Spike."

"Okie-dokie!"

"Well," Applejack said as she set up her cart, "In that case, I'll see ya around, Twi. Thanks fer helpin' out."

"It's no problem at all," Twilight returned modestly, and then added privately, maybe except for the bucking part.

When Twilight bid them farewell, Applejack and Pinkie Pie made their way to Sugar Cube Corner. With that said and done, she rushed to the library.

As Twilight Sparkle was on her way to the library, an older female voice called out her name.

"Twilight!"

She turned to find Mayor Mare running towards her.

"Mayor Mare!" Twilight called when the Mayor stopped in front of her, panting a little.

"Oh, it is an honor to see you! Have you heard about Harmony Day yet?" the Mayor asked.

"I have," Twilight replied, "but is there more I need to know?"

"Well, I don't know how much you've heard about it, but it celebrates the Princesses' reunion since the last millennium. I'm sure you remember the Summer Sun Celebration last year, correct?"

"Yes," Twilight answered.

"Well, now that her sister is back, Princess Celestia changed it into the Day of Harmony. She also declared that it be extended a full day and night - Celestia presented in the day, and Luna at night. That way, there will be no disputes. And perhaps you remember Nightmare Moon, right?"

"Of course, Mayor," said Twilight.

"Well, it was because of you and your friends' efforts that made this celebration, possible. Which means," the Mayor gave a wink, "you will be invited as our honored guests!"

"What?!" Twilight was a little intimidated by this. But of course they would be guests of honor, especially after all they've done for Equestria, if not the entire world. "You mean we're going to be presenting ourselves to everypony?

"Of course!" The mayor answered gleefully, "how would the celebration be complete without you?"

"Whoa!" Twilight felt overwhelmed, what with the things they'd have to do.

The mayor giggled and reassured, "Oh don't worry, Twilight. There's not gonna be a whole lot of work."

Twilight felt relieved. "Well this is rather nice of you, Mayor Mare. We'd be obliged to accept your offer."

"Excellent!" The mayor gave an even larger smile, "I just thought I wanted to come and let you know. Now, how is the cake going? It's going to be for the Princesses, and perhaps for all Ponyville!"

"Umm..." Twilight began fidgeting again, knowing her clumsy incident with the apple spill, which she thankfully (or rather hopefully) settled with Pinkie Pie and Applejack. So she told her uncertainly, "i-it's going great" as she gave a nervous smile, hoping the mayor will buy it.

"Good, I just wanted to ask. Now I must attend to my duties. I'll see you later, Twilight!" Mayor Mare went back the way she came. Twilight sighed in relief now that the pressure is off her shoulders.

"Okay," she started talking to herself, "now it's over. Now we're gonna just head to the library and hopefully that phoenix doesn't burn it down."

So she hurriedly cantered her way there.