Headhunters

The weather report stated the night would be all clear. Pegasi weather teams had been working all evening to clean up the remnants of their morning’s scheduled rain-storm.

Ponyville and the rest of Equestria were left with a perfectly clear Friday night. And with nothing to do the next morning but sleep in, it was time for everypony to enjoy Princess Luna’s night sky. Six mares in particular sat on a lonely hill on Ponyville’s outskirts, silhouettes against the night sky with their bright eyes angled upward to the sparkling inky canvas Luna had drawn for them.

All six friends had their own reasons to be sitting out late at night watching the glittering sky. Some just wanted to see the beautiful stars and aurora borealis streaking past the full moon. Others wanted to just spend time with their friends.

Princess Twilight Sparkle was sat with her friends to get a little astronomy studies in. She had been itching to check the accuracy of her star chart all autumn week, but bad weather scheduled by the weather teams had thwarted her plans. Until tonight.

Tonight she could examine the stars and see all the constellations she’d read in books for real. At least, she might be able to if Pinkie Pie slowed down to take a breath.

The curly maned pony was pointing from constellation to constellation, star to star asking energetically, “and that one? What’s that one called? And what’s that one called? What about that one? Are these real names? Whoever named all those stars?”

Twilight chuckled, only barely keeping up with each of Pinkie Pie’s questions as she pointed out the stars and constellations. “That’s Osiris, and that one there is her twin, Solaris. That constellation is called the ‘dipper,’ not to be confused with the ‘big dipper.’ And no, Pinkie. They aren’t real names. As in, they aren’t named after anypony in particular. The pegasi from the times before Equestria was founded gave the stars and constellations names.”

Brushing a lock of her mane out of her face, Twilight Sparkle smiled down at the book she had open in front of her while her friends watched the stars, listening curiously to the young alicorn’s story.

“When the pegasus scouts were looking for a new land to settle, they flew long and far, often beyond the known world. And while they would get lost in the mountains and the deserts and at open sea, they discovered the one true constant were the stars. They discovered that the stars were like faithful friends, the same constellations and winking lights returning to keep them company every night while they were away from their friends and family. They gave the stars and constellations names, to better identify and share them, even using the night sky to map their path and heading, so they could always find their way back home.”

“And what’s that really big one right next to the moon? Does that one have a name?” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly. “Wooo! It looks like a doozey!”

Twilight smiled not even looking up from her book. “That’s the northern star, Pinkie. That’s the one that always points you to north.” She didn’t have to look up to know that one. There was only one extremely bright star next to the moon.

It was Rainbow Dash who seeded some doubt with a cringe. “Uh, I don’t think that’s the northern star.”

“Hmmm?” Frowning, the princess looked up from her books to take a look at her friends.

All of them looked concerned at the sky. All except Pinkie Pie, whose eyes were widening enough for Twilight to catch the glistening of something very bright in the sky. Whipping her head around she felt her own eyes grow to the size of saucers, the new star in the sky she’d never seen before reflecting in her own massive pupils.

It was far from where the northern star was supposed to be, and burning with such an intensity that it washed out the light of the surrounding stars. A few flickering flashes at first, the glistening star almost half the size of the full moon spread horizontally with a ring of fire and light rippling outward and bleeding into the night sky before the whole star began to die.

Then as quickly as it had flared, the star was gone, vanishing in the darkness and letting the surrounding stars poke through.

“Wow!” Twilight Sparkle exclaimed flabbergasted. “What was that!?”

“Hey, you’re the smart-pony,” Rainbow Dash scoffed.

“That weren’t no normal star,” Applejack mused.

Rarity nodded. “I agree with Applejack. That was definitely not normal.”

Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth in an attempt to explain. Only she was stopped before she could even utter a word by Pinkie Pie. Darting in close, she hugged the princess tightly with one pink hoof clamping over Twilight’s mouth, the other pointing at her tail.

“Ooh, twitchy-twitch tail! Something’s gonna fall!”

Much to everypony’s shock the mop of curly pink tail was twitching violently beyond her control.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends winced, almost ducking for cover as they all looked up at the open, clear sky above them.

“Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked, ducking under Applejack’s powerful legs for cover. Pulling her long mane over her face, she smiled apologetically up at the earth-pony mare, who merely smiled back at her friend.

“Ah’ don’ think anythin’ is fallin’ on our heads,” she said thankfully.

“No,” Pinkie gasped with a hoof pointed up at the sky. “But whoever those land on is going to be a very unhappy pony!”

Looking back up, the ponies were witness to a second lightshow. Though unlike the other where it was just light, this time there were a dozen lights, streaking through the sky high above them.

The asteroids – meteorites now they’d entered the planet’s atmosphere – burned their way through the sky, lancing by on clouds of fire and smoke before arching over the next hill and hitting the earth with enough intensity to cause the ground to quake. The subsequent boom of each landing was like machine gun fire reverberating in their chest cavities, nearly driving the wind out of the six mares.

Finally the last one hit, closer than the others clustered tightly together. The final meteor slammed into a nearer patch of Everfree Forest, the impact throwing up showers of glassed earth.

Then there was silence. Not a cry of a night bird, not a flutter of a bat.

“Awesome!” Twilight Sparkle of all ponies exclaimed, causing her friends to jolt with fright. “That one landed really close! There could be all kinds of alien minerals and such to be discovered in that meteorite. We should check it out!”

Rainbow Dash chuckled before pointing out, “that does sound really cool, but, uh… that’s the Everfree Forest. And it’s the dead of night!”

“It didn’t land that far in,” Twilight Sparkle argued.

“And if that rock is still hot it could cause a forest fire,” Dash added. “We don’t wanna just go walking into a potential inferno.”

Fluttershy nearly fainted at the prospect of a fire breaking out, and Applejack admitted that sounded like a dangerous possibility.

“Ah’ d’nno, Twilight. Rainbow Dash could be right. ‘N ya’ll have no idea what dangerous space critters could be hidin’ in that ol’ meteor thingy.”

“Oh, c’mon, girls,” Twilight sighed reassuringly leading them to the edge of the forest. “The rainstorm made the earth and foliage way to wet for a forest fire to start. And it’s just a hunk of space-rock! What danger could there be?”