Prologue: Fallen to Equestria.
Princess Twilight Sparkle gazed out of the window, and up to the rich night sky that was hanging above Ponyville. The rest of Ponyville was also keeping their bright eyes fixed towards the dark sky. For you see, there was a special event that was going to occur tonight, one that only happened once ever so often in the skies above Equestria: The Tears of the Stars.
It was an old event, in which the sky was lit up by a passing meteor shower, causing the night sky to glow as they rocks left trails of bright blue flames in their wake. It only occurs once every two hundred or so years, and Twilight was not going to miss such a astronomical show. Her friends were all at their own abodes, either preparing to watch the shower with family or, failing that, any other friend they could get their hooves on. Tonight, Twilight was alone; Spike was up in Canterlot, doe some small errand for her, and she actually wanted to see this rare event happen on her own. She didn't know why, other than that it felt like the whole show would be more special that way. So, with a large tome on the subject of meteors and the like beside her, the Alicorn Princess settled down and waited for the event to take place.
After what seemed to be a small eternity of anticipation and waiting, the first streak of blue appeared in the night sky. To Twilight, it was one of the most beautiful things that the young Alicorn had seen. The dark blue of the trailing flames did give the impression that the night was weeping, which was emphasized by the slow pace that those space rocks seemed to be moving at.. What it was weeping for, however, was far beyond Twilight's mind. Soon, that lonely tear disappeared from her view, but then more arrived to fill the vacant sky. Numerous blue tails filled the sky, and the Princess was enraptured by the spectacle that had laid itself before her. However, about a few minutes into the show, Twilight Sparkle noticed something.
A different meteor.
This one was a vicious red, hurtling faster than its fellow meteors, and the streak that it was leaving was much longer, and it seemed to be much sharper. That meteor seemed to fall in and out of Twilight's focus, and she could barely notice the smaller fragments that seemed to come off from the main object. Even if she couldn't focus on it, her large eyes followed it, as it disappeared out of view.
The small boom that followed its disappearance told her that the red object had landed nearby. Her eyes, still focused on the last point of where the falling star was, tried to make sense of what exactly the object was. She stood like that for a couple of minutes, wondering where it had landed. Soon, however, she had shook the object from the forefront of her mind, and turned back to the remaining tears that continued to fall from the sky. She decided to check in with her best friends tomorrow, to see if they had seen the same, red object, and to see if they had any news about such a peculiar object.
After a couple of hours that seemed to fly by quicker than Rainbow Dash, the beautiful blue meteors ceased to fall, and the last ones in the sky slowly disappeared from sight, such as their brethren had done so before them. Princess Twilight continued to stand there, staring up at the sky for a few, long minutes. Concluding that no more would fall tonight, or any other night for a few hundred years, the tired mare made her way back to her comfy bed, and she soon fell into a deep and wonderful sleep, dreaming soft dreams about her friends, and the adventures that they have had. The red meteor had altogether fallen from her mind.
Little did she know, however, that trouble was brewing just outside Ponyville, in the Gem Fields, where the Diamond Dogs live. Trouble that would eventually find its way to the Princess, whether she sought it or not.