They Walk Among Us

"Spike, I need you to write that letter NOW!"

"Alright, alright, just wait a while, I need to find my quill and parchment," said an exasperated Spike. He just woke up, and he quickly fell victim to Twilight's chronic panic attacks. "OK, ready."

Spike quickly and (almost) accurately wrote down every single word Twilight said, and the parchment became all smudgy because of Twilight always taking back her words and changing them.

"So, Spike? Are you done?"

"I think you better have a look at the letter first..."

Twilight snatched the letter from Spike with her magic and read it.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I am writing to you today not to tell you a lesson I learned about friendship, but to report a grave occurrence in outer space today.

At exactly 8.20 p.m today, I was looking through the telescope, gazing at the things I usually gaze at this time of night, when something strange caught my eye.

As my dear friend Pinkie Pie brought out, our moon that orbits Equestria has started to grow steadily. Even now, the moon is still continuously growing. I have also noticed that the moon's surface has started to change colours. What used to be plain white with a few craters is now a crater-less green and blue surface. There were no patterns in the colours, and I seem to see tiny organisms walking about.

Another thing I have found to be disturbing was the change of position in our sun. Instead of being where it should normally be, the Sun has changed its position to be behind the (literally) 'new' moon. As you and I both know, this would cause many problems, the most dangerous of which is the possible start of a new Ice Age.

I know that the Royal Telescope is under repair, so I have to send you all of these pieces of information in the hope that you would know what to do in response, and to ask you a simple question...

What is happening?

Sincerely,

Twilight, your most Faithful Student.

As Twilight scanned the letter for mistakes and errors, she asked Spike to gather all their best friends to discuss the matter. Spike rolled his eyes, sighed, and left. Just another small problem, not something Princess Celestia can't fix... she thought. But deep down, even he knew that nothing of this sort has ever happened before, and he felt worry start taking root in his heart.

Twilight read and re-read the letter, checking if she's got all the facts on paper. and after making sure that it was perfect, she said: "Spike, send the letter."

Silence.

"Spike?"

Then she remembered that she already sent Spike to go fetch her friends.

"Owlysius, can you send this letter to the castle immediately?"

Owlysius enthusiastically snatched the letter from the counter and flew off into the night. Twilight knew that Owlysius also planned to hunt while doing the job, so she expected Owlysius to take some time to return.

As Twilight waited for either a reply from the Princess or her friends to come, she looked through the telescope again, looking for a sign, ANY sign that might help her make sense out of the situation. She had already looked through the whole library for information on what is happening. What is supposed to be her most reliable source of information has failed her for the first time, and she was desperate enough to even look at all the story books, horror novels, and other fictional books, but to no avail.

As she looked through the telescope, she noticed that the moon had finally stopped growing, but that its colour is now completely green and blue.

I need Pinkie here right now... she thought, her Pinkie Sense and her evident 'wierdness' might've helped her in finding out what the hay is going on. After Twilight started scanning the moon, she had immediately sent PInkie Pie home, and then regretted it only a few minutes later.

But what the hay is going on? Twilight kept asking herself this question, but she knew (but refused to acknowledge) that this question can only be answered in time. So for the next half an hour, Twilight just sat there and observed every single thing that can be observed in outer space, while at the same time running multiple calculations to try to find out how much time it will take for the light of the Sun to reach Equestria now, how much light will actually arrive, and its possible effect on the growing of crops, among other things.

But she knew that other than what she was doing then, there was nothing she could do but wait.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Its been around half an hour since the video conference, and the atmosphere in the Observatory became much more tense since then. It seemed as if everyone in the room already knew that something bad was happening, and something even worse will soon come.

Alan had already went home, and Steven's Dad went to buy lunch for the group. Meanwhile, Steven and his team stayed back in the Observatory, not doing research, but discussing what might come out of this mess.

"Well, the question here is: Where the &#$@ did our Sun go? And how did this Sun suddenly take its place?" asked Bill.

Steven nervously paced around the room. For about half an hour, he had been deep in thought. Sure, he said that the purple Sun was not their Sun, but that was in the heat of the moment. Truth is, he doesn't know whether it really was their Sun or not.

He looked out the window. From here, the Sun still looked yellow, like usual. He already found the reason for that- the light produced by that purple Sun was still normal light, so from this distance, everything looked normal.

As he paced around, his thoughts flowed like a raging river. Logic dictates that the consequences of the purple Sun appearing should be no big deal, as the Sun does more or less the same thing as the usual Sun. The only bad thing that he could think of is the Earth getting much more brighter during the day and maybe becoming considerably warmer. Other than that, he couldn't think of any possible dangers.

The doorbell rang.

"Who is it?"

"It's me." said Steven's Dad.

"I'll open it." said Chen.

Steven's Dad came back with two plastic bags full of food. We told him that we planned on working late tonight, so he went and bought them lots of food to share. There were burgers, chips, soda, pizza, everything that they needed to last the night.

As the rest of the team started unpacking, Steven went to the telescope to take another look. He needed to find out what was going in. His inner curiosity won't let him go otherwise.

Behind him, he could hear Nick Richards open a can of beer, followed by Chen slapping it out of his hand, berating him for drinking on the job. Everyone else except Steven laughed. That's because he just spotted something.

There was something wrong with the Sun. The actual Sun is just a tiny dot now, but he could see the energy surrounding it was massive. He switched to 'Heat Vision Mode', and the results were the same. But as he observed the Sun, there was something bothering him.

That energy movement, he thought, that amount of energy produced, the size of the Sun, everything around it is consistent to...

"Guys?" asked Steven in a shaky voice.

Everyone looked at him.

"You might wanna see this."

Bill took the telescope and looked, followed by Chen and Nick.

"I don't see it. Sure the Sun's really tiny, but we predicted this and know how to counter it." said Chen.

"As tiny as you." said Nick. Bill stared at him. He always was sensitive to racism, and if looks can kill, that 'stare' of his can destroy all life in a thousand mile radius.

"No, look closely," said Steve. "Look at the patterns, the flares."

"I don't get... Oh. OH!"

"Come on, guys! What's going on?" asked Steven's Dad.

Steven looked at his dead with a grave face.

"The Sun is exploding."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Ah don' understand, Twilight." asked Applejack.

"Yeah! What do you mean by 'the Moon's gonna disappear?'" asked Rainbow Dash.

Twilight looked at all her friends' faces. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity just looked at her as if she forgot to take her 'medicine'.

"Um... Girls? I think this is a really... serious problem. Please understand... I mean, if you don't mind me speaking... But when I walked to the lake nearby my, um, cottage this morning, I saw that most of the marine life was struggling to stay under water. The tides have stopped moving..." said Fluttershy.

"That's what I've been trying to tell all of you! The 'Moon' is not having any of that gravitational pull it used to have that would make the tides appear!" said Twilight, frustrated about just how stubborn these ponies were.

"My dear Twilight, I seriously doubt that the Moon will completely change after just one night." said Rarity.

"Haven't you listened to a single thing Twilight said, Rarity?" Pinkie yelled. "That's no moon!"

"Then wah don' you tell us what it is then, Pinkie?" asked Applejack.

"Um... Ooh! Ooh! That's no moon... It's a space station!" said Pinkie, looking excited for some reason.

"No it's not, Pinkie... But it is definitely not a moon." said Twilight.

Rarity sighed. Loudly.

"Aren't you taking this much too seriously, Twilight? I mean, many a time have you panicked for no apparent reason." said Rarity.

"I'm telling you, this is a-"

At that exact time, Owlysius brought back the reply from Princess Celestia. Spike took it from him and handed it over to me.

"You could've waited for me..." mumbled Spike.

Twilight spared a small smile and read the letter. As she scanned through each row of words, Twilight's face showed various emotions- first happy that she finally got a reply, but then she looked concerned, then worried, then sad, and finally she broke down into tears.

"What did the Princess say, Twilight?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Supernova..."

"What did you say Twilight?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"A Supernova. I was so busy analyzing the moon that I didn't look at the Sun clearly enough."

"What does this, um... Supernova do, Twilight?" asked Fluttershy.

"It means that the Sun is going to explode."

"WHAT?" Rainbow Dash fell down, crashing into Fluttershy, who was right below her.

"Read the letter." said Twilight.

Applejack took the letter and started reading. By the end of the letter, she was almost at tears too.

Dear Twilight, My Most Faithful Student,

I have noticed all of the above events that you have stated, and it worries me as well.

First of all, the 'Moon' that you see is nothing but a projection of another planet, and that our Moon is gone forever. However, this is not what worries me.

About 5 minutes ago, I noticed that the new 'Sun' is going to explode, which would create it into a Supernova.

In the case that the Supernova would consume Equestria, then all of this world would be destroyed.

There has been no found countermeasure against the devastating power of a Supernova, and the Royal Scientists in Canterlot hoped that the Sun would continue living for about a few hundred billion years.

The only thing that can give us even the smallest chance of survival is when all the unicorns in Equestria would work together to create a magical barrier large enough to cover all the land.

Right now, I am sending a letter to all living Unicorns to go outside at 12 a.m. today to form the magical barrier, and I would like you, Twilight, to gather all of the Unicorns in Ponyville and tell them about the situation.

And in the case that the barrier fails, then it would be right for me to tell you right now that I have always believed in you Twilight. I'm sorry for saying this right now,of all times, but you were like the daughter I never had.

And If you would survive when I would not, then I would like you to open a safe behind the A-F bookshelf, which will unlock itself upon my demise.

To conclude, I wish you and your friends luck, my dear Twilight. I honestly hope that we can meet again someday.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia, your Most Faithful Teacher.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"A Supernova," said Steven, "is the result of the death of a star, and the amount of energy produced by said Supernova is said to be as much as the Sun can produce in its whole lifetime. This energy bursts out, completely destroying anything near it."

"So what you mean to say is," said Steven's Dad, "that we're all doomed?"

"No, not exactly." said Bill. "You see, we humans have always known that a Supernova which would threaten to destroy the Earth is going to happen someday, so we have already created a way to solve the problem."

"You see," Chen continued, "we have engineered a special bomb-like device that would trigger a black hole. This black hole will, um, 'suck up' everything around it, including light. Nothing escapes it."

"And that's what we plan on doing to the Supernova." said Nick. "We plan on making the black hole suck up the Supernova, leaving no trace of the explosion behind. That's when we would release this."

Chen opened up a blueprint on his monitor screen. It showed sketches of a rocket, and inside that rocket is what looked like a small circle. There were many notes written, and most of those notes have been scratched out.

"This here, is an artificial Sun." said Chen. "When we shoot this rocket into the place our Sun used to be, the rocket will deploy the new 'Sun' into that space. The Sun will grow and will be, for all intents and purposes, the same as the old Sun."

"Whichever way you want to look at it," said Steven, "this seems to be the only solution out of this mess."

"Well, this, or we all die." said Nick.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Rarity, it's already 11:50. We should head outside now." said Twilight.

Rarity had just been finishing up hugging Fluttershy, whose tears were dropping like streams on Rarity's shoulders. In fact, Rarity might have been hugging Fluttershy for Fluttershy's sake, because Fluttershy didn't seem to want to let go.

"Come on, Fluttershy." said Applejack. "Rarity needs t'go now."

Fluttershy finally let go of Rarity, and proceeded to hide her face in her mane.

"Let's go, Rarity." Said Twilight.

Twilight and Rarity then went outside the library to their allotted place- just outside Quills and Sofas. The rest of the gang followed closely, but none of them said a word to each other.

On the way to Quills and Sofas, Twilight thought deeply about a lot of things. Her friends, her family, the Princess... It was too early to lose it all.

Then she remembered the Cake twins, who had barely even got the chance to see the world, and now it is going to be utterly destroyed.

No! Don't think like that, Twilight! We must be optimistic! No matter what happens, the dawn WILL COME!

But that was much harder to believe than she thought. No matter how she tries to cheer herself up or to at least think of a good outcome, there was a persistent, nagging feeling that was tugging at the bottom of her heart. Somehow, she knew that after this, nothing is going to be the same again.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"OK, the Sun will turn Supernova in... 12 minutes. We better get ready with the equipment."

The Observatory has turned from tense and confused to lively and busy in a matter of minutes. Everyone seemed to be doing two jobs at a time and they all had to run across the room every 4 seconds, yet nobody felt tired. Least of all Steven, who was determined to prove himself once and for all.

Savior of the Earth... Not bad. Not bad. he would think.

Steven's Dad watched the whole process with awe and amazement. He knew that even if he tried to help, he would've slowed them down. He didn't understand a single thing these young men were doing.

And now his son is going to try to save the world. After Steven told the UN that he could solve the problem, the world decided to rely on them to do it.

"OK guys, now make sure that the Plutonium from the Libyans go into the rocket, and then get ready to unleash 1.21 gigawatts into it." said Steven.

"The speed's been adjusted, Steve. First it'll go 88 miles per hour, and then its going to travel at light speed to the Supernova." said Nick.

Steven's Dad knew that it was best to leave them to it, but he could not help but feel in his gut that something was about to go wrong here. He was worried.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The group reached Quills and Sofas, and both Twilight and Rarity was at the front of the group, looking up at the sky and waiting for the signal.

At the back, Pinkie Pie was holding Fluttershy and was trying to cheer her up, but to no avail. Fluttershy just kept on sobbing, and with every sob, her grip on Pinkie tightened even more. Rainbow Dash, who had all four hooves on the ground, was talking in low voices to Applejack, who just nodded.

"I swear, Fluttershy may be very timid, but her hugs can hurt if she wants them to." said Rarity, showing her torso, which was very red from Fluttershy's very tight hugs.

Twilight chuckled. For better or worse, this will be over soon.

Let's just hope we can last the night.

"Rarity, let's practice the making barrier one more time, shall we?"

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Chen, you prepare the black hole device, Nick, you're gonna prepare the Sun Rocket. Bill, keep watching the telescope to decide whether we succeeded or not. When I finish counting down, Chen, you press the freaking red button."

Steven's Dad went beside Steven, and hugged him tightly.

"Whichever way this ends, Steven, know that I'm very proud of you."

Steven hugged back.

"Don't worry, Dad. We can do this." Steven said.

He turned around to face his team again. Every one of them were looking at him, ready to do their duties. Steve smiled.

"Alright. Let's begin the countdown."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

A large firework exploded in the Equestrian sky, creating a large, colorful head of a unicorn.

"That's it. That's the signal." said Twilight.

Twilight and Rarity concentrated all their magic into the tip of their horn, which glowed very brightly. The two unicorns then shot their magic into the sky, which formed two circles in the sky.

"Woah..." said Rainbow Dash.

Woah indeed. Within seconds, many beams of light reached for the sky, and formed circles of their own. Finally, all the circles in the sky combined, creating a beautiful multicolored barrier in the sky.

Twilight and Rarity was still concentrating very hard, as even one tiny hole in the barrier can allow the Supernova to enter Equestria's atmosphere, destroying the barrier and Equestria itself.

Then they all heard Princess Celestia's booming voice in their heads. Twilight figured that she must have used some kind of magic to project her voice in all of her subjects' minds.

"Brace yourselves, My Little Ponies. The Supernova is coming."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

10...

9...

8...

Everything was going smoothly and just as they planned. 7 seconds left...

6...

5...

Wait... what's that noise?

4...

"Steve! Steve! The Supernova appeared already!"

"What? According to our calculations, it's supposed to explode in 14 seconds!"

"It exploded early!

"Come on, we can still make it! Chen! Press the button!"

"CHEN!"

Chen hurriedly pressed the button, unleashing a the black hole device from the NASA headquarters.

"Oh no, we're too late!"

"It doesn't matter! We must remove that Supernova!"

"It's working! The black hole is sucking up the Supernova!"

No. Its too late. The Earth might not be destroyed by the Supernova, but...

"A blackout? What's going on?"

"Its the black hole. The Earth's electromagnetic fields are down."

"You mean we're being sucked into the black hole?"

Steven nodded.

"Come here."

The whole group present, with Steven's Dad, all gathered in a circle next to the telescope. All of them had looks of despair in their faces. Steven had to say something... ANYTHING to cheer them up. After all, they were the people he loved the most.

"Guys..."

"It's been a honor serving with you."

And they were gone.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Girls, close your eyes!"

Lucky Twilight said that. The Supernova was very bright- bright enough to burn the naked eye.

"Come on, Rarity... We can do this. Push it back!" said Twilight.

Rarity couldn't say anything anymore. She was pushing her magic as hard as she could, wanting to do our part in possibly saving the world.

But suddenly, there was nothing pushing against their barrier anymore.

Twilight stole a peek, and noticed that all the bright light had gone.

She looked up to the sky, and saw nothing.

"WE DID IT!" she shouted.

As if on cue, everypony else opened their eyes and looked at the sky.

"Well I'll be..." said Applejack. "Ya saved us, Twilight, Rarity!"

Pinkie sang a rendition of 'Twilight and Rarity are my Bestest Friends'

Twilight and Rarity looked into each other's eyes, and then embraced the other.

"We did it, Twilight."

"Yes we did, Rarity."

All of the group started crying at the same time. They were safe. They could continue on with their lives. Sure, they did not have a Sun anymore, but they can manage. They're magic after all!

And then she felt it.

"Girls, what's that rumbling noise?"

Twilight looked up. A black hole appeared in the sky.

How did a *BLACK HOLE** appear all of a sudden?*

But then she noticed that the black hole wasn't sucking anything in, but it was pushing something out. Something round, large, and Green and Blue...

The Moon?

And it was crashing into Equestria.

"Rarity! Shields up!"

Rarity looked confused, but when she took one look at the sky, she immediately understood and performed the barrier spell.

But the barrier was far from complete. A few ponies had also noticed the large body on its way to crash Equestria, but a majority of ponies did not notice it. The barrier was full of holes, and was not strong enough to withstand a crash from another stellar body.

The Earth crashed through the barrier, and by now everypony knew of its presence. But by now it was far too late.

Twilight and Rarity abandoned the effort and ran to their group of friends. All of them were still crying, and they might even be crying louder by now, although Rainbow Dash was trying to hide it.

'It's OK, Rainbow. It's OK to cry." said Pinkie, her voice uncharacteristically shaky.

Rainbow Dash understood, and let her tears flow freely.

They embraced each other and did a group hug- their last group hug.

Twilight smiled at her group of friends. They all had the strengths and weaknesses, but they were the best group of friends that she could ever hope for.

"Girls, we have stood by each other through thick and thin." Said Twilight.

"We've supported each other though even the most super problematic of problems." said Pinkie Pie.

"And we've laughed at each other's jokes..." said Rarity.

"An' cried at each other's losses." said Applejack.

"And now we're going to go somewhere, and we don't know where." said Fluttershy.

"But it won't matter because..." said Ranbow Dash.

"We'll always be together." said Twilight

And everything went black.