"Hey Twilight?"
"Hmm?" the purple unicorn mare hummed while turning away from her stargazer. Her hooves however, continued to adjust the delicate dials upon it's tripod.
"I know you already it explained it, but..." he said before biting into a piece of rock candy. His eyes were glue to the night sky above. "What makes this meteor shower different?"
"Well..." Twilight began while taking a glance through the eyepiece, making sure that the telescope was properly adjusted. Personally, she had no objections to explaining the rare phenomenon. "It's not a scheduled sort of occurance. You remember what I told you about their moon cycles and comets?"
"Yeah, but..." Spike glanced over to the purple unicorn. "But aren't meteor showers supposed to be random? I mean, all those rocks burn up."
"You're correct Spike," Twilight replied with a smile while her eyes looked up at the nioght sky as well. "However, with the right calculations, we can find exactly when a meteor shower might happen. To answer your question, this shower is different mostly because I wasn't looking for it. I have yet to fail at detecting any outer atmosphere anomalies."
"That means... what exactly?" the dragon stood next to the mare with a puzzled expression.
"It means that this shower appeared out of nowhere," Twilight said with a hint of excitement. "There's room for error, but after a thorough look through my notes, I'm absolutely positive that it appeared just inside the moon's orbit."
"Huh..." Spike grunted. "If something like this has never happened, do think it could be... aliens?!"
"Spike..." Twilight sighed. "While I know that there hasn't been sufficient evidence supporting nor opposing the existence of extra-terrestrial life, and that there is a chance of this being them, I'm certain that they're not the aliens in those sci-fi graphic novels you've been reading so much."
With that said, Twilight looked down at her number one assistant with a reassuring look. He was still looking a bit apprehensive, but that quickly changed as a flash of light appeared out of the corner of her ye. Twilight looked over and quickly matched her assisstants own awe.
What appeared was a stream of light streaming from the sky. It arced downward over the horizon and seemingly disappeared. Not three seconds later did another stream of light soared overhead. It matched the first, but was colored a soft pinkish color. Twilight noticed that this one seemed to land directly over by Fluttershy's cottage. She couldn't exactly wonder more about it before the night sky was filed with dozens of streaming lights. Each had an individual color, and it's own individual direction. They seemed to be going everywhere!
"Whoa..." Spike drawled in awe. "This... this is amazing!"
Twilight did not hear her assistant. Her well trained eyes were looking at every small detail from the tails the rocks left behind to their exact trajectory. It was only when she was shoved by Spike that she was forced out of her train of thought.
"Spike! What the hay?!" Twilight exclaimed, looking at her assistant with a glare. In response, Spike pointed to a portion of the grass. A piece of debris, no bigger than any normal rock, lay in the center of a ring of scorched grass. The chunk itself was glowing a bright purple. The two stared in wonder and amazement.
Spike stepped towards the small thing, and reached out to pick it up. As soon as his claw touched it, he pulled away with a yelp. "It's too hot, even for me!"
"Of ... of course it is Spike," Twilight said after a shake of her head. "It just fell through several atmospheres."
"Still though, aren't dragon scales able to withstand at least a thousand degrees of heat, or something?" Spike asked while rubbing his slightly seared claw. Meanwhile, the space rock cooled visibly losing it's bright coloration.
"Some dragons, yes," Twilight said as she delicately reached out with her magic to pick the rock up. "Some don't, and some even don't have scales at all."
The unicorn brought the rock up to her, or she tried to. The rock seemed to fall out of her magical grasp halfway through. This caused Twilight's attention to focus on the object. Twilight felt something when the rock fell... It wasn't like someone pinching her skin or getting under skin. This feeling was her magic being drained away in a mere instant.
"What's up, Twi?" Spike asked worriedly. Twilight didn't respond at first because of her deep thought processes ticking away.
"Spike," she finally began with a curious tone. "Try picking it up now... it should be cool enough..."
The drake looked at the unicorn with a dubious expression before going to pick the rock up. "Okay... but... what happened there?"
"I'm not sure Spike, but..." Twilight said while staring at the rock. "I know that I'm going to busy for a few days... I'm gong to need you to carry it back to the library for me."
"Sure," the drake said looking at the rock. He knew Twilight well enough to know that she was going to experiment with it for a few days. He looked up and around at the sky. "Looks like it's over..."
"Yep," Twilight said while packing up her stuff. "Looks like it." With that, the two began to clean up their spot on the hill.
"Test number 42," Twilight spoke aloud as she began to fine tune some scientific instruments. Upon a lab table, a quill scribbled independently as the violet unicorn spoke. "Subject of experimentation: unusual space debris, has shown time and time again an unusual affinity for magic. Not just unicorn magic, but magic in general."
The unicorn approached where the rock lay. Currently, it rested in a petri dish with a wire leading back to some sort of analyzer where a needle ticked back and forth, making what scribbles on it.
"The proper preparations have been made. I am going to record all possible data as I, Twilight Sparkle, will allow my magic to be absorbed partially," she said as she took up a small stance. With a small breath to calm herself, she shot a concentrated magical beam at the rock. After a few moments, Twilight began to feel a bit winded. "As...as expected, the subject is absorbing magic as fast as I... I can... agh!"
The rock began to glow a purplish hue as Twilight continued. As the experiment continued, Twilight began to feel herself being pushed to her absolute limits. Feeling that this was far enough for today, Twilight thought it best to stop.
Except she couldn't.
"S-subject is absorbing magic at an alarming rate and, I... I cannot stop the experiment!" Twilight exclaimed. "I-if my friends find this, I want you all to know-"
A bright flash erupted from the rock as a sort of feedback causing the mare to be flung back against the wall. The light lasted for a few moments before dying out. When Twilight came to her senses, what she saw shocked and amazed her. After a few moments, she bolted up the stairs from her basement shouting, "Spike!!!!"
Author's Note
Preview of the next chapter... Also counts as a spoiler... Open this link in a new tab. Do not look at what pops up. Just listen.
Floating. Cold. Dark.
"Um... Hello...?"
Hovering. Frigid. Shadowy.
"E-excuse me... um..."
Suspended. Chilled. Inky.
"I-if you don't m-mind..."
Hanging. Frozen. Black.
"I-I need you to do something for m-me... okay?"
Falling. Alone. Oblivion.
"P-please, just wake up...!"
It was dark. The dark is scary to more than one, but this dark... It was different. It was different to what he has known for... for who knows how long. What was different? He could feel. It wasn't cold, but actually felt warm. His little toes even felt-TOES?! He tried moving a little, and he felt it. He decided to take the plunge. With a small wince, he opened his eyes.
The light stung his eyes for a moment and everything was more a blur, but after a second or two the world became clear. Her was lying on the floor. The room was somewhat rustic, but somehow already felt like home. Then, four yellow pillars came into view... No, wait... Not pillars, legs. His eyes slid up, and saw a warm, and relieved face. It had the same buttery yellow color that the pil- legs had. The eyes were a light blue and the hair was a light pink.
"Hello little puppy..." she said softly and calmly.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
~Five Minutes Earlier~
Fluttershy paced about her cottage in worry, but her expression showed signs of exhaustion. Sure, the mare would love to go to have a little cat nap, but she couldn't sleep... not yet, at least. She looked over to the small bed made for her cottage's latest animal guest. "Poor thing..." she thought to herself. "Please be okay..."
Last night, she was woken up by a loud knocking at her door. She was only a little bit afraid... until she heard Twilight's voice. After recognizing it, she flew down to greet her friend and... ask why she was out at this time of night. What she found was the frantic unicorn talking a hundred miles a minute. It made the pegasus' head spin, but as soon as Spike brought in a bundle with a sad look in his eyes the animal caretaker knew what this could be about. Leaving Twilight to talk, Fluttershy flew out into her kitchen fast enough to make Rainbow proud. She immediately went to her medicine cabinet and began to just take down all the essentials. Pain meds, gauze, medical tape, stethoscope- while she was no substitute for a veterinarian, she was often left with tending to wounded animals.
She then flew back into her living room and saw Twilight still talking. She sort of knew that her friend would get like this sometimes, and just let her talk. Fluttershy seemed confused as she heard the tone of Twilight's voice. It sounded... happy, and way more excited than normal. She couldn't be happy about this... Shaking her mind away from the distracting unicorn, Fluttershy montioned spike to put the poor creature into a nearby bed that she kept around if someone wanted a nap. She quickly adorned the stethoscope and drifted over to examine the patient. She gasped lightly at what she saw.
In the blanket lay a dog. The coat was a light purple color and, upon further observation had a slightly dappled mark on the small of it's back. The legs were very thin, and the tail was short and stumpy. The ears were a darker brown. The snout and head seemed to be connected to the body as the mare could not really identify a neck. As far as Fluttershy could recall, she never has seen a dog like this before.
She placed the stethoscope against the dog's chest, and was relieved to ear a heartbeat. She then began to examine the puppy. "Hmm... odd..." Fluttershy mumbled.
"Wha-"
"What?! What's odd?! Please tell me!" Twilight said nearly trampling Spike. "Does it have two hearts? Does it glow orange? Is it not even real?!"
"Um... ... he's... not hurt..." Fluttershy replied with a more than just confused tone. "He's just unconscious..."
"Oh... that's just great!!! Did you hear that Spike? Write that down! Oh, wait! Better Idea! Fluttershy!" The mare in question jumped as her name was exclaimed.
"Y-yes...?"
"Will you take notes of it? I just need to know everything about him! This is going to change science as we know it!!" Twilight rambled while walking towards the door.
"Um... where are you going Twilight?" Spike asked with a slight yawn.
"We, my dear assistant, are going rock collecting~" Twilight said while taking the baby dragon in her magic. She opened the door and giggled dorkishy. "Thanks for doing this for me Fluttershy!"
"N-no problem-" The shy mare was interrupted as the door closed before she could finish. "Twilight..." With a sigh, she turned back to the dog, and gave the little cutie a little belly rub before flipping him onto his belly.
The Pegasus then bean to ponder what she was supposed to do with this dog. Twilight said to take notes, but why? Fluttershy thought about it for a few seconds before giving up trying to figure the unicorn out. The mare then retrieved a piece of parchment and a pencil, and began to scrawl some notes down.
I'm not sure what you'd like me to write, but... he seems to be ok for now...
Fluttershy then dated the note and watched the little dog. He didn't move from where she last left him. He hadn't moved all last night, which brings her to her nervous pacing now. She expected him to do something, maybe just whine a little in his sleep or pretend he was running, but he lied perfectly still. She paced over to where not was made and added an addendum.
The little dog has been unconscious for most of the night.
Fluttershy, feeling desperate, approached him and began to whisper to him. She read somewhere that if you whisper to someone in a coma, they could possibly come out of it. Thinking that it could be the same with animals, she asked him politely to wake up. Then, a very awkward and nerve-wracking silence overtook the cottage.
Her heart leapt at seeing a paw twitch. She tried to contain her excitement as the little puppy woke up. She slowly walked into his vision and put on her best welcoming smile.
It turned into a confused and sad frown as the dog screamed quite loudly.
"I-it's ok!" she said quickly, falling to meet the eyes of the dog. "I-I won't hurt you..."
The dog trembled, seemingly a lot calmer.
"There, there... waking up in a strange place..." Fluttershy said, reaching out to pet the cowardly dog. "Seeing a stranger... I would be afraid too..."
The dog relaxed as it felt the pegasus' gentle touch. He even began to smile and giggle a little.
"Aww... you're just the cutest little dog I've ever seen..." Fluttershy said with a giggle. "You're so much braver than me too... I couldn't even muster up the courage to look at most ponies..." The yellow mare noticed as the dog perked his ears. "What's wrong...?"
She was met with a small whine. She began to somewhat understand what this meant. "W-was it something I said?"
"Uh-huh! Uh-uh!" The dog grunted with a nod.
"Um... was it ponies?"
"Nu-uh!"
"Was it muster?"
Again, she was met with a definitive no.
"Braver?"
The little dog shook his head and gestured her to go on.
"U-umm... dog? Cute? Little? Look?" The mare began, trying to remember what she said. "Courage?"
"Yes!" the dog exclaimed. He stood up on hos two back paws and began to almost do a dance that fillies did when they needed to use the bathroom.
"Courage? What about it?" the mare asked confusedly. "I-I know I should try being a little braver-"
The dog began to point at himself, hoping she could get the last of the message.
"... Your... Your name is courage?"
"Yes!"
"Well..." Fluttershy began with a smile. "It's nice to meet you!" The mare then bean to giggle. Courage, confused, looked up at the nice pegasus. He hoped she wasn't laughing at the irony of his name... "Oh, it's nothing... My friends just think I could use a little Courage every once and awhile..."
Author's Note
Well, here it is. The first part of the Brave Arc. Hope that answers your questions dear readers...
