“Ah can see it! It’s a little blurry, but that’s it!”
“Ooh! Let me see!” Sweetie Belle swiveled the telescope towards herself and took a peek. There was a cone-shaped light visible in the rosy morning sky, close to the horizon. The fillies in their class were going to be jealous, they had to be the first ones in town to spot it. Scootaloo jostled her out way to take a peek. “Oh, cool! I just saw a meteor!”
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “It’s not a meteor, it’s a comet.”
“No, I mean a meteor!” Insisted Scootaloo. “See, there’s another one!” The other two started struggling for a position at the scope again.
Sweetie Belle gave up and dashed out of the clubhouse to see if she could spot anything with the naked eye and sure enough, it was a meteor shower, clear as day.
“This stargazing sleepover was your best idea ever, Apple Bloom! Rarity’s gonna die when I tell her about th-”
BOOM
Sweetie glanced around, startled. Something had just gone off like a bomb.
Apple Bloom was shouting. “Ah saw it! Ah saw it! Somethin’ just hit the chicken coop!”
What felt like seconds later the three of them were inspecting what was pretty clearly an object from outer space that had knocked a fencepost down and made a fairly respectable crater in the sand. Scootaloo poked it gingerly but it was merely warm to the touch.
“Is this really a meteor?” She asked skeptically. “It looks more like some kind of gemstone. Whoa! Sweetie Belle! Your horn!”
“Huh?” Sweetie had been leaning in closely to inspect the foreign object. She backed up. “What about my horn?”
“No, get close to the rock again.” Sweetie moved close again and, crossing her eyes, was able to see her horn glowing incandescently. “Oh my gosh.”
The crusaders stared at each other for a moment. “Magic meteor cutie mark,” pronounced Apple Bloom dramatically.
Green is an uncommon color for a pony. Yellow, pink, pastel tones. It sticks out. Moreso in an apples-and-carrots town like Ponyville, where every little fluffy mare seemed to find her life's purpose in daffodils or cinnamon rolls or somesuch. That wasn't it though. There really was something different about Spacey. Her uncombed purple hair, her offputting mannerisms... really, it was the eyes. She had a gaze like a owl, and it made everypony uneasy. At least at first.
Thing is, however, many Ponyvillers had never seen a zebra before, or a griffon. In a way one eccentric neighbor is much like another, and between the odd monster rampage or power-mad demigod the residents had fostered a sort of resilience to the strange, the surreal, the alien.
"Good morning, Spacey!"
Such it was that this odd little pony found herself living a peaceful life in this peaceful town- not ostracized for being strange, not alone, perhaps a little lonely. But that too was common.
"It’s acceptable."
Mrs. Cake produced an orange dream float with a crazy straw and set it before Spacey with her customary hospitality. The sweet shop was popular as always, although muffins and rolls were more the norm this early in the day. But Spacey took sweets. She usually kept to herself. She didn't usually wear a motorcycle helmet. Today, she did. She was forced to retract the visor a bit to admit the straw. It wasn't that the other ponies didn't still stare, sometimes. They even tried to break the ice occasionally, but Spacey had a knack for saying strange things. A pony named Lily tried her luck today.
"Good morning, Spacey. You look... busy today."
"That I am, Lily. I've been busy for weeks." Her voice had a muffled quality behind the headgear. With a click she retracted the visor fully, revealing her stare. Lily couldn't help but stare back. A few moments passed in silence.
"I'm experimenting with alternate fuel sources. Fruit juice is passable, but ice cream may have a stabilizing effect. That reminds me, have you seen Twilight Sparkle today? I want to consult with her about psychic augmentation."
Lily's mouth opened a bit. "She's probably in the library .. I mean usually..."
It seemed to register on Spacey that she was being strange. Her wide eyes found focus on the countertop. Lacking for words, she had no recourse but to drop some bits and hit the road. The visor went down.
The day was getting warmer, right on track with the weather schedule. Twilight was easiest to get hold of if you could fit into her schedule, but Spacey had a schedule of her own. Today was a day for expediency, for hard work! Hopefully the purple mage wouldn't be hard to find. And hopefully the sun would only grow brighter. "Expedience!" she said aloud, brightly.
Disappointingly the mage was hard to find. The dragon assistant was in residence, but he was down with pneumonia and in no condition to keep track of ponies, schedules, or anything. The second assistant was available, but that one was a bird.
Spike mumbled sleepily. "Library's closed. Just read a newspaper or something..." He pulled the covers over his head and scrunched up into a little ball.
"Who", said the owl, quizzically.
"I suppose I'll need to shelve this phase for the moment. Another day, owl. Maybe."
Rarity was having a fine time that morning. Sitting in the shade of a cafe canopy, drinking an iced mocha, wearing a broad sunhat and mentally mapping out her 3-day weekend.
It was likely that she'd take the train to Canterlot, crash all the big events, leave a marvelous impact as usual. For the moment she was lazily daydreaming about renting a balloon and touring the sky cities. Cloudsdale was grand, but too industrial for a connoisseur of beauty such as she. There were whole grandiose skyscapes that the pegasi kept all to themselves, and one day she planned to see it for herself. If only to garner inspiration for a new line of designer aerial-wear.
There was Twilight. That girl was so tied town with poor Spike that it felt like ages since they'd spent any time together.
"Hi Rarity! Let's have sandwiches."
"Yes, let's."
There was nothing quite like the companionship of fellow unicorns, in Rarity's mind. Even Twilight Sparkle, who fit in better in a quiet country burg than she had in her own sparkling city. Naturally, it wasn't long before they were talking about the comet.
The Lodestone comet was a hot topic lately. It passed through the world's magnetic field about once very five centuries and (according to fable) sparked off all kinds of uncanny magic phenomena. These tales were mostly a part of unicorn culture, so the more sensational details were a little dubious.
Twilight couldn't help it, she was obsessed. "Some accounts describe wildlife exhibiting wild outbursts of magic. Chaos magic, even."
Rarity wrinkled her nose. "Goodness, I've had enough chaos for one lifetime. I'm more interested in the auroras. They say the whole sky turns a shimmering gold. Can you imagine?" Her eyes twinkled. "Why, I'd trade my horn for hand-me-downs to see such a thing."
She paused, in thought. "You don't suppose there’s any... danger? I mean..."
Twilight put a smile on. "The princess is on top of things, as always. I've been reporting my studies to her, but it can't be anything she hasn't seen before."
Rarity nodded reverently. "Of course. I keep forgetting how ancient she is. She isn't the type to let things... go to seed, as they say. Ah, that reminds me, Applejack asked me to tell you... what was it now, something about magic rabbits?"
"Already in the itinerary. I even have a little free time."
"Another cup of coffee, then. My bit." Rarity signaled the waiter.
Twilight could've spent the whole afternoon relaxing in the shade with friends, but it wasn't her way. She had shopping to do, groceries, ink and quill, chemistry supplies, and of course anything that could make Spike's life easier, and by extension hers. It was tough being without a scribe - he had such good penmanship. Her script was all chicken-scratch and margin notes. But a thunderclap scattered her thoughts.
What, rain? No, hardly a cloud in the sky. Then what...
She glanced to the right. The Ponyville junkyard. Maybe there'd been an accident? It was worth investigating.
The place seemed deserted. Wasn’t there supposed to be a guard dog? She passed little entropic mountains of spring mattresses, broken carriages, reading lamps, black stoves and soda bottles. Then there, sticking out of the debris, a pair of green hooves, flailing uselessly.
"Hold on, I'll get you out!" In a heartbeat Twilight had magicked the mess into neatly ordered stacks divided by recyclability. Aluminum, glass, paper, pony.
Well, a sort of pony. The odd green one... what was her name? Spark Plug? No...
Spacey was carrying a toothed chain, her loot apparently. She swapped it to the other hoof and shook Twilight’s.
"I'm so grateful to you, Twilight Sparkle. For both rescuing me and helping me find you." She removed the helmet she had (fortunately) been wearing.
Twilight couldn't help but feel like she'd stumbled into some kind of social trap. "What are you doing out here in this mess... ah... Spacey, right?"
The green one tossed the chain into a wheelbarrow which was already mostly full of heavy-looking appliances.
"I am improvising. I don't have a lot of time or resources to work with. And... we've spoken before, Twilight Sparkle. At the Gala. About telekinesis in earth ponies." Spacey's eyes assumed a determined, searching aspect. A bug lost its grip on her hair and tumbled down her nose.
Twilight recalled the conversation... vaguely. She remembered vaguely understanding it. She had been distracted. She was distracted now. "I've never seen a book about that in the index. Have you tried expanding your search...?"
"This is very important, Twilight. I'm running out of watermelon juice..."
"Wasn't there a dog? Like a really big one..."
"And that comet's coming..."
Twilight let out a sigh. Her hair-straightening appointment would have to take one for the team, it seemed. This day was beginning to get that friendship-letter feel to it.
Twilight was beginning to worry about Spike. She'd tried to tackle whatever Spacey's dilemma was logically, she really had, but she couldn't understand half the things the pony said, and the other half just made her nervous.
Spacey's house was a rusted metal cylinder, propped up with planks and cinder blocks. Inside it was poorly lit and humid. And crowded... radios, welding equipment, discarded clothing, photographs clipped to a cord running the length of the ceiling. And so many ice cream cartons.
"...biologically, Twilight! Glucolic impulsion!"
"Uwah?"
"My cutie mark!"
Twilight glanced at Spacey's flank. It looked like three pink lollipops. "I don't follow."
Spacey picked up a piece of paper with her mouth and gave it to Twilight. it looked like a crudely-drawn crayon drawing of an... electrolysis setup, or something.
Spacey looked introspective. "I've always felt that I was a bit different, Twilight. I never knew my real parents. It's just a feeling, you know? Like I don't belong here."
Twilight set the paper on the oven top, the nearest flat surface. "And the comet.. where does that fit in..."
"I'm certain that all ponies have cosmic powers. Unicorns can use magic. Pegasus fly. I'm only an ordinary pony, but I think that the Lodestone is trying to communicate with me, and I'm just too weak to receive its signal."
Twilight tightened her lips. “Hmm.”
"The ponies on the other planets. They need my help."
Twilight rubbed her temple testily. “I’m sorry, Spacey, but I just... have a lot of work to do. I’m already late and I can’t spend all day indulging in your stories. I’m sorry.”
"But..."
Twilight vanished in a shower of white stars. Spacey found herself alone in that metal tube house. Alone with her theories, her drawings. Again.
Applejack didn't like it. Not any of it.
This year the zap apples had grown misshapen, like bananas. Distressing, though harmless. Then there came the swarm of frogs, and the earthquake that opened up a hole south of the carrot patch.
Wasn't right. The way Rarity had talked about it, this comet thing was going to be fun, like a bird migration. Eh... unicorns.
They adapted as always. Like prepping for a storm, just with more variables. Stay in when the shooting stars start up. Hoe up any plants that look like they don't belong. And keep up with the farming. Nothing put a spoke in Apple Family production, come tidal wave or Tartarus.
She was expecting Twilight this afternoon. She was expecting Twilight a lot of afternoons, lately. The Acres wasn't the only place odd things had been happening but it was starting to feel like ground zero. That pony was always coming round to unmagicify something. And Applejack was at her wits' end today. Giant rabbits. Eating trees. Macintosh couldn't wrestle all of them.
"Applejack!"
Twilight was coming up the dirt road. "You're late," said the farmpony wearily.
"I got sidetracked. What's today's special?" asked the unicorn. "You mentioned rabbits, but that sounded a little... lightweight."
"I didn't think it was urgent until they started eating everything. It's good you're here. We've got yards of rope on hoof, but we’re we’re short on hooves."
After a few minutes of hard giant-rabbit-catching work Twilight was enjoying a slice of pie between Macintosh and Granny Smith at a table in the open air. She'd enjoyed a fair number of pies these last couple of weeks, down here. She hoped it wasn't starting to show.
An afternoon glow swelled across the farm. Quiet sounds of wind blowing through the leaves, a cool breeze, accompanied by chirruping frogs. Everything felt normal, and right. Something in the rear of Twilight's mind stirred with unrest.
"Applejack, do you grow watermelons?"
"We're the only ponies what grow watermelons," said Applejack, beaming, "Leastwise in Ponyville. Take one home. My treat."
"Do you remember a green pony with a bike helmet?"
Applejack tapped her chin. "Yeah, I know the one. Buys fruit in bulk. Kind of a loose nut, but I like 'er. She reminds me of my uncle Crabapple. You met him at the reunion, I think. Obsessed with seaponies. Thinks they captured him and took him to Aqua-stria."
"You don’t believe in aliens, right?" pressed Twilight. "There's nothing scientifically wrong the idea, but I just can't bring myself to accept flying saucers. It's not... empirical, I mean."
"I seen it!" cried Granny Smith alarmingly. "It came in the night and lifted up all the cows into the sky with a big laser beam. Then it blew up the barn!"
Apple Bloom giggled. "That was a movie, Granny."
"Oh yeah, I guess it was. Still, it gets awful quiet out here in the countryside. Sometimes you see things and ya ain't sure you seen what ya saw. Mac knows, don'tcha sonny?"
"Eeyup."
"Yeah!" chimed in Apple Bloom.
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Now let's not get on about that again. There ain't no such thing as a body snatcher, or a choopycabra, or whatever it was y'all were on about. Twilight, you talk some sense into this buncha hayseeds while I get that melon for you."
Twilight took her time walking home in the reddening evening, burdened by heavy fruit and unformed thoughts fluttering around her head like moths at a streetlight. The wind picked up a bit, scattering leaves across the path and making the limbs of the trees sway like weeds underwater. It was fully dark by the time she opened the door to the library, and she didn't really realize she was tense 'til she'd turned the key and locked the door.
The dark princess Luna spent the early hours of the night roving far afield on wing. An old habit. In the keen starlight the fields and rivers of Equestria looked like a soft quilt, dreamlike. She could remember wars being fought on this soil, although the memory was warped, as if seen through a lens in reverse. Dragon kings, minotaur vulgarians, pegasi in polished armor. It all sounded so whimsical now, an antiquated fairy tale.
The Lodestone was a fresher vision. Luna caught a swift wind and rose rapidly over the cloud cover. The comet's tail arced elegantly across the dark indigo like a feather of snow.
The princess gave an involuntary shiver- she had only witnessed the passage of that glowing rock twice before, and once during the height of Discord’s reign. She'd expected that monster to seize control of the whole world, half expected him to take it apart piece by piece. She chuckled bitterly. The second time she had seen the comet, she had already succumbed to darkness herself, and witnessed it from her dream-state of banishment in the moon. So, not happy memories.
She was sure she could feel something in the air. Odd, low-key magic, or fate. Perhaps that was why she'd kept a diligent watch. Or perhaps only a compulsion... seeing shapes in the shadows, grinning fiends, reflections.
Luna may have smoldered like this indefinitely but spotting a pegasus drew her out. Far off, sitting alone on a small cloud, brightly colored against the dark earth.. Luna banked and descended.
Rainbow started and nodded respectfully. “Hi, Princess.”
“Good evening, Rainbow Dash. It’s quite late. Can you not sleep?”
“Yeah, I keep having this weird dream. Sorry if I interrupted your flight, I’m sure you’re busy.”
Luna smiled. “Dreams are my specialty. I believe they carry significance, especially when they recur. You should tell me about it.”
Rainbow nodded, yawning. “Ok. So like, I’m dreaming about flying. Trying to see how high i can go. And I keep going higher and higher, but it doesn’t get cold and hard to flap like it normally would. I go so high I can see the stars, but then I can’t see the ground anymore, every direction is just open sky, everywhere. Then all of a sudden I feel the cold, and I can’t fly, and I start falling into the darkness... then I wake up.”
Luna considered this. “I suspect the magic of the comet is influencing your dreams. The comet is magical in nature, but its origin is deep in outer space, so its psychic influence can be unsettling. You musn’t let it trouble you.”
Rainbow resumed her upward gaze in silence.
Luna considered her. “You want to try it, don’t you? To fly beyond the sky.”
"Bet I could," said Rainbow, a bit brassily.
Luna lowered stern eyebrows. "There is no air to fly in, Rainbow Dash. Only a void. 'Tis a fool's errand."
Rainbow turned toward her, the moon glinting brightly in her eyes. "I bet YOU could. Did you ever leave the world, Princess? What’s out there?"
Luna splayed her wings and beat them down, lifting abruptly. "Mind yourself, dreamer. We're only ponies."
A cascade of shooting stars lit the sky. For as long as they lasted the element of loyalty stayed to watch.
There are times that a pony falls through the cracks, vanishing into thin air. There are many ways this can happen. Often the event is unbelievable, becoming urban legend and eventually forgotten. Changelings had once been an obscure folktale, for instance. Spacey had always believed in them.
Spacey believed many such stories. There was the filly from Manehattan who was lost into a mirror, and when she returned months later she was changed. Something had happened to a friend of hers once. A friend she was visiting this evening.
The doctor led Spacey down a many-cornered hallway with a waxed floor. A couple of the lights were burnt out- the feeling she got was off-kilter... this corner of the hospital felt both tidy and forgotten, like a book no one had read. Most of the doors they passed were open, showing empty rooms with neatly folded sheets. Some were closed. A few had locks.
And then there she was, a blue mare in a hospital gown, sitting calmly on a tidy bed.
"Hi Screw."
The doctor left. Spacey unslung her pack and drew out a magpie's nest of wires.
"Got a treat for you. Ham radio. Beyond repair, just how you like it."
The pony on the bed turned to face the window without affirmation.
"Come on. Tell me they didn't take away your screwdriver. What, like you'd put your eye out? Yeah I bet."
Loose Screw pulled the covers and curled up in her bed.
For as long as Spacey could remember Screw had been her best and only friend, the one with whom she had confided all her secret feelings and ideas. As fillies they had founded a Mystery Club and spent their time looking for fairies and haunted houses, or whatever else caught their short attention spans. After that Screw became interested in electronics. The whole “acting like a dog” thing certainly wasn’t new, but it had gotten gradually worse and become a... condition. She believed she was a werepony. Sometimes. Spacey was sympathetic to the idea but she found this difficult to express at the moment. Screw was definitely in a bad way that night.
"Come on girl, this isn't like you. Say something to me."
Her old friend shifted then, made eye contact. But her violet eyes didn't have much of anything to say.
Spacey felt a tug at the back of her throat. She hesitated for a time, then closed her eyes. She shouldered her pack and left without a word.
The only sounds were a hooting owl and a ticking clock somewhere. Screw sighed and played idly with her gown's strings. A few minutes passed this way. Suddenly Spacey reappeared in the doorway, making her jump.
"Screw this. I'm getting you out of here."
Doing it was laughably easy- they took apart the window frame and just like that it was barely wide enough for a filly to squeeze through. It was the first floor, it was night, they were splendidly quiet. Like riding a bicycle, as they say.
Two figures in the dark, they crested a dewy hill outside of town. Screw cocked an eye at the waxing moon and then threw her head back in a wild howl. AROOOOOOOO
"Hey, cut that out! You're betraying our position."
Screw giggled. "I can't help it. I'm mad."
Past midnight in a Ponyville cottage much like any other, music drifted from an open upstairs window. This wasn't at all rare from this house. The neighbors never made a fuss- rather they enjoyed it, a bit of young talent, Ponyville flavor. Well.. perhaps not tonight, though. The hour was late and the selection a bit eclectic. But then... it was also possible this was a tune that only one pair of ears could hear.
Sweetie Belle had never performed proper magic before- only arcs and sparks. But at this very moment she was doing... something magic. Spoons, pencils, pots and toys were floating rhythmically around her room, colliding with one another, playing a hypnotic percussive melody. Inspiring, ephemeral.
This hadn't been the first time. It started a week ago with little things- Light shows, dancing dolls. Just little tricks. Her first impulse had been to tell everyone who had ears to hear, but she had a reason to keep it to herself- it wasn't her. She had something hidden under the bed, and she knew that's where the magic was coming from. A part of her suspected there was something strange and dangerous about it, that she was bound to get in trouble.
But at the same time, turning in that whirlwind of music and enchantment, she wanted it to never ever end. So she hid it like a treasure, and didn't dare add her own voice to the ensemble.
