~…...~

The Next Day…

A piece of white fluff landed on Luna's nose, making her want to sneeze. She gave her head a small shake, and the fluff drifted down to the ground. Puzzled, she used her magic to lift the fluff up close to her face. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that it wasn't a single piece of fluff, but rather a conglomerate object made up of dozens of tiny, smaller pieces of… something.

That's odd, she thought to herself. It looks just like snow.

The scientist inside her coming forth, she strode quickly to her quarters, still magically holding the oddity in front of her face. Once she was inside, she quickly closed the door and sent the piece of fluff over to her microscope. It sailed through the air, and then dropped to the floor, where it quivered in place. Puzzled, Luna sent another wave of magic at it, becoming worried when it jumped up about a foot and then floated slowly back down.

Becoming frantic, she picked the piece of fluff up with her hoof and placed it on the microscope slide. She tried to turn the focus knobs with magic, but to no avail—her magic was apparently useless—so she turned the knobs clumsily with her hooves. Once the oddity came into focus, she had to rub her eyes and make sure that what she saw was correct.

Thousands of tiny particles, all moving independently, made up the piece of fluff.

"That's not snow," she whispered.

~…~

Twilight yawned, stretching. She blinked a few times like an owl, and then stood up. None of her friends were up just yet. She glanced at the clock and sighed; it read a quarter past six. She had only gotten about five hours of sleep. The sunrise hadn't even started to light the sky.

Spike had somehow managed to bury his nose in Rarity's side while he was sleeping without her noticing—perhaps it wasn't an accident, she thought amusedly to herself. Rarity didn't seem to notice; her mouth hung open comically, resonating snores coming from her throat. Fluttershy had stayed in almost exactly the same position, except for her head being cocked to the side at an odd angle.

She picked her way slowly through her sleeping friends, opening the door silently with magic. She stepped outside and gasped, not bothering to close the door. A thick layer of snow had somehow accumulated over the night, despite it being nearly fifty degrees outside. Twilight took off at a hard gallop towards Celestia's castle, leaving a rooster's tail of snow in her wake.

~…~

The royal castle in Canterlot had two main spires: one for each princess to raise their respective celestial body. Celestia stood on top of her spire, her horn glowing brilliantly, but nothing happening; not even a flicker of red or orange appeared on the eastern horizon no matter how hard she tried.

"Luna!" Princess Celestia screamed with both her voice and her mind. "Come here!"

Luna nearly dropped her test tube when the telepathic call from her sister resounded through her head. Apparently that still works, she thought, flying as fast as she could to her sister's tower.

Luna could immediately see that the lack of magic had affected her sister—her mane wasn't flowing like it normally was, since it was kept free from gravity's pull by her magic. It lay on the ground in a tangled, sweaty mess as its owner strained intensely. And Luna had a good guess why: the fluff was falling heavily, like snow, and was blanketing every surface that she could see.

"It's no use, Celestia," Luna said softly to her sister, alighting by her side. "Something's blocking out all of our magic, except for a few things."

A flicker of accusation crossed Celestia's face, but it vanished nearly as soon as it appeared. "How do you know?" She didn't stop straining, her horn still glowing brilliantly.

"It's because of this fluff," responded Luna carefully; it was obvious that Celestia was suspicious that Luna made the fluff fall from the sky, despite the white Alicorn having renewed trust in her sister. "It looks like snow, and it's made up of tiny particles like snow, but it isn't snow. And it's blocking all of our magic."

Celestia hesitated for a moment, and then withdrew whatever magic that she had left in her horn, which promptly stopped glowing. "Alright, then. But how do we stop it? We have to have magic to function," she said, pawing the ground anxiously.

Luna sighed. "I wish I knew, sister."

~…~

"Where'd he go?" Rainbow Dash muttered, hovering above the trees. She had spent what felt like all night chasing, looking for, and catching glimpses of an odd-looking pony that seemed to be looking for something. She landed, panting; sleep deprivation and exhaustion had begun to catch up with her hours ago, but she didn't let it get to her. She simply had to find the weird-looking pony.

"Looking for someone?" Chirped a happy voice.

Dash spun around. "Who're you, and why are you wandering around in the middle of the night?"

Before her stood a tan colt with brown, spiky hair. An hourglass adorned his flank. He was leaning casually against a tree, a goofy smile on his face. "I'm the doctor, and if I may answer a question with a question, what're you doing wandering around in the middle of the night?" His voice had an odd accent, one that was scarcely seen in Ponyville. Dash wondered if Rarity had picked up her accent from the one that this… doctor… had.

"I… I was just curious," Dash said defensively.

The 'Doctor' smirked. "Curiosity killed the catabron," he said, walking away.

"What's a… cata-thing?" Dash said, running after him. "Hey, where are you going? Come back here!"