My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Starlight Sparkle

Invasion of the Pony Snatchers

Doctor Geronimo stared through the two-way mirror and into the observation room beyond. In the three years he'd spent working as chief xenobiologist of Area 15, he'd never once encountered anything as bizarre or unusual as this. The subject defied rational explanation. She certainly looked like your average run of the mill earth pony, but in this case appearances were certainly deceiving. For instance, even though she was currently pulling funny faces in front of the mirror, Geronimo was certain she was not as stupid as this made her seem.

He nervously straightened his bow tie and then glanced down at the clipboard, which contained his observations thus far.

Subject: Pinkamena Diane Pie, aka 'Pinkie Pie', aka Pinkius Piekus
Age: Unknown (claims she can't remember)
Gender: Female
Race: Earth Pony
Cutie Mark: Three balloons
Hobbies: Baking, ice skating, partying, singing
Likes: Laughter, cake, chocolate, chocolate cake, parties, pranks, Gummy, friends
Dislikes: Mean ponies, rock farming, quiet parties, parasprites
Place of residence: Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville
Occupation: Confectioner and baker
Abnormalities: Can predict the future with unerring accuracy. Hyperactive personality. Prone to spontaneous bouts of singing. Able to defy the laws of physics under certain circumstances. Possible source of synchronicity.

"What'cha doin?" Pinkie Pie asked. Doctor Geronimo jumped, startled by her. She was standing right beside him and had been leaning over and reading his clipboard as well. With wide eyes he stared at her, then glanced back through the mirror to the observation room. It was now empty, even though the door to it remained shut and locked. He turned back to her, gaping in astonishment.

"How on earth did you do that?" he asked.

"I'm an earth pony," Pinkie answered brightly, "I'm always on earth. Except when I'm jumping. Or flying. Or upstairs. Say, what does synchronicity mean?"

"It means meaningful coincidences. Do you mind? I'm supposed to be observing you!"

Pinkie Pie leaned forwards and inhaled sharply. "I love your bow tie! Bow ties are cool, aren't they? Oh! You know what? You should wear a hat. Hats are cool too. Especially fez hats. They're super cool!"

Growing annoyed, Geronimo pointed sharply at the observation room. "Pie - room - now."

Pinkie Pie let out a long, irate groan. "But I'm hungry!" she complained. "I haven't had anything to eat since the party last night, and it's already lunch time! Don't you at least have any snacks around here?"

"Here, have some jammie dodgers," Geronimo levitated a plate of biscuits over to the pink pony. Her expression lit up at once and she scooped all of the jammie dodgers from the plate with her tongue. The Doctor set the plate back down and watched as she swallowed the lot, then licked her lips with a loud slurping sound.

"Better?"

"Much!"

As Pinkie Pie bounced back to the observation room, Doctor Geronimo brandished his quill and clipboard.

Conclusion: I'm not qualified to make one. Nopony is.

The first thing Twilight did was send a report to Princess Celestia, telling her what had happened and asking if she could arrange for Pinkie's release. If the CIA really did get their authority from the princess then presumably she could order them to let Pinkie go. With a puff of green flame Spike sent the letter on its way.

Together she and Astra then spent all morning pouring through the books, trying to find anything about pony abductions and crop circles. By the time the afternoon rolled around however, they were both about ready to give up. There simply wasn't anything remotely like it written down anywhere.

"This is useless!" Twilight bemoaned, slumping down amidst a pile of reference books and indexes. A short distance away Astra shut the book she had been flipping through and scowled. Her horn glowed as she magically lifted a photograph of the crop circle.

"I just know I've seen this pattern somewhere before," she insisted irritably, "But where?" She groaned and released the photograph, unable to remember. While the two unicorns wallowed in gloomy silence, Spike appeared with a bulging backpack and a smile on his face. Twilight eyed him suspiciously.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm joining Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo for their first sky watching session tonight."

Twilight stared at him, inviting him to explain.

"UFEs, Twilight! The whole town is talking about them. Last night Lyra, Minuette and Ditzy Doo all saw strange lights in the night sky. A whole bunch of us are setting up a camp just outside of Ponyville to see if we can spot anything."

Twilight growled and rolled onto her back in an overly dramatic fashion. "Not this again! How many times do I have to say it Spike, there's no such thing as UFEs!"

Spike crossed his arms defensively. "Well how do you explain what happened to Pinkie Pie then?"

Twilight sat back up and scowled, more annoyed at herself than with Spike. "I ... can't. Not yet. But I'm working on it."

The library door burst open and in rushed Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They were all wearing tinfoil hats and carrying cameras around their necks. They skidded to a stop and beamed at Twilight.

"Hey Twilight!"

"Hi Twilight."

"How's it going Twilight?" asked Sweetie Belle. She noticed Astra and waved to her. "Hey Astra!"

Astra waved back. "Hello Sweetie Belle. Umm ... why are you wearing that strange hat?"

"Oh this?" She reached up and adjusted her shiny headwear. "It's to protect us from the UFE mind probes."

Twilight managed to look even less amused than she already was. Her rational mindset wanted to scream at everyone's behaviour. "Mind probes," she repeated heavily. Scootaloo reached around and produced a small white envelope.

"Hey Twilight, some guy stopped us outside and asked us to give you this."

"Some guy? Who?"

"Don't know. Never seen him before. Gave me some money to do it though."

Twilight magically floated the envelope to herself whilst the three fillies rounded on Spike. "All set?" Apple Bloom asked him. Spike gave them the thumbs up.

"You bet. Let's go!"

They each pressed a hoof together and let out a cheer. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ALIEN ASTRONOMERS! YAY!"

And then they were gone, taking Spike with them. Astra and Twilight were left to check out the contents of the envelope Scootaloo had been tasked with delivering. It turned out to contain a small folded up note with a hastily scribbled message.

Meet me at the fountain in the Town Square, tonight. Make sure you aren't followed.
- Deepsnout

"What do you think that's about?" Astra asked, her curiosity piqued. Twilight didn't have the faintest idea, but with the current UFE craze, the CIA involvement and that damned crop circle, it was a fair bet that this Deepsnout pony wanted to talk to her about whatever it was that was going on in Ponyville. With no useful leads to go on, there was nothing else for it.

"I'm not sure, but it looks like we've got a date at the fountain tonight ..."

The fountain in question contained a statue of a pink earth pony balancing on a ball. Twilight and Astra were waiting for a good twenty minutes after dark before their mysterious appointment appeared. He was a grey earth pony with shifty eyes and a large 'X' for a cutie mark. Gaze darting about as if afraid he was being watched, Deepsnout approached the two unicorns and spoke in a hushed voice.

"You weren't followed were you?"

The melodrama was getting a bit too much for Twilight. She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Oh, somepony tried to tail us but I think we lost them."

"Really?" said Astra, oblivious to Twilight's sarcasm. Twilight shot her a despairing look.

"Would you mind telling us who you are and why you wanted to see us like this?" she asked eventually. Deepsnout cast one final look around the square before sidling closer to her.

"I'm a reporter with the Equestria Daily," he hissed, "I understand you're investigating the crop circle that appeared this morning?"

"That's right," said Astra eagerly, "Do you know anything about it?"

"I should say! This isn't the first time it's happened y'know."

"It isn't?"

"No. Four crop circles appeared around Canterlot. In each case a pony went missing the night before, and each night strange lights were seen in the sky."

"You're kidding," said Twilight a shade sceptically. Deepsnout shook his head, then reached around and produced a series of photographs clutched in his teeth. Twilight and Astra peered closely at them. Several of them were of crop circles like the one Pinkie Pie had appeared in. All of them made in the same pattern - a single large circle surrounded by four smaller circles. Once again Astra felt a stab of recollection, but couldn't quite place where she'd seen the design before. There were also snapshots of a bright shining light hovering in the sky, as if a star had detached itself from a constellation and soared down on Equestria.

"There was no obvious connection between any of the ponies taken," Deepsnout informed them after he tucked the pictures away again. "They seemed to have been snatched at random. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What happened to them?" Astra asked, "Were any of them hurt?"

"No. Just confused. Couldn't remember a thing. The whole thing started about a year ago. The CIA has been investigating ever since, but they don't know what's been causing it. Whatever it is, this latest event is the first one to happen away from Canterlot."

"That's strange ..." Twilight raised a hoof to her mouth in a thoughtful gesture, frowning as she considered the implications of this. Deepsnout whipped his head back and forth as if he was trying to look in every direction at once. He was one deeply paranoid pony, that was for sure.

"I can't say any more than that," he hissed, "Keep searching Twilight Sparkle; the truth is out there!"

And with that he was gone, darting off into the night. Twilight watched him go and then sighed wearily. "Well that was a lot of help. Even knowing all that, I don't think we're any closer to figuring this thing out than we were this morning. Come on Astra, lets get back ..."

The two of them trudged back towards the library in silence. The streets were empty, the inhabitants of Ponyville either sound asleep or up on a hill somewhere peering at the night sky for signs of intelligent life amongst the stars. At least it was a nice night for it; the stars were out in full force, and a full moon shone brightly upon Equestria. Astra stared at it for a long while. For so long in fact that she walked into a building.

"Astra! Are you alright?"

Princess Astra lay flat on her back after rebounding from a wall she had collided with. She was too stunned to answer, and not because of the obvious reason that she had just walked right into a wall. She was stunned because something inside her mind had ignited. A dim recollection that now roared to life and burned fiercely in the forefront of her memory.

The crop circles.

Astra's eyes grew wide with horror as the realisation hit her. It was her fault. All of it. She had seen that pattern before. One big circle surrounded by four smaller circles. Only she hadn't seen it in a field, or a book. She'd seen it in the sky. The moon, surrounded by four bright stars. Just over a year ago. On the eve of the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration.

The Mare in the Moon.

Nightmare Moon.