My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Starlight Sparkle
Starstruck
The Mare in the Moon: Myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria. Defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the moon. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about night time eternal.
Twilight lowered her copy of Predictions and Prophecies and watched as Astra paced in a highly agitated state back and forth across the library floor.
"You wanna run this one by me again, Astra?"
"Don't you see?" The pony princess stopped pacing and rounded on her, her face wracked with guilt. "It was me! I freed Nightmare Moon! The stars aided in her escape all right - thanks to me. My name even means 'the stars'."
"I still don't exactly follow. What did you do?"
Astra dropped to the floor and covered her eyes with her legs as if ashamed. "My experiment. On the eve of the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration, at the very instant that Nightmare Moon returned, I performed a powerful magical ritual." She lowered her legs and gazed at Twilight with huge, fearful eyes as she continued.
"You know the stories about Starlight Sapphires? Magical gemstones formed from crystallized starlight. I created a special lens to focus and trap starlight, so I could artificially make a Starlight Sapphire. In order to make a really special one, I decided to wait until the stars aligned around the moon in the moments leading up to the Summer Sun Celebration. I then used my lens apparatus in conjunction with a powerful spell in order to form an actual Starlight Sapphire."
"So?"
"So I captured the light from the four aligned stars reflecting from the moon's surface. A side effect of the process was that while my experiment was running, a bridge of magical starlight existed between the moon and Equestria. I never thought anything of it at the time, because I never believed the Mare in the Moon was anything but an old pony tale. But Nightmare Moon is real, and that starlight bridge I created must have allowed her to escape her prison in the moon and return to Equestria."
Twilight glanced at the entry in the book once more. It contained an illustration of the moon complete with a lunar mare design to signify the presence of Nightmare Moon. Surrounding it was four stars. Twilight recalled the night of the alignment quite vividly, as it occurred at the end of her very first day in Ponyville. She recalled as well the appearance of Nightmare Moon, a frightening experience at the time. If it hadn't been for Twilight and her friends, the sun would never have risen again. But then if it hadn't been for Nightmare Moon, it was quite possible Twilight wouldn't have even come to Ponyville and met her friends in the first place.
Either way she could see it clearly now. The illustration of the moon and the four stars represented the same visual pattern as the crop circles. The real question now was, if Astra was correct, then what was the connection between Nightmare Moon's return over a year ago and the crop circles and pony abductions now?
"Oh no!" Twilight snapped the book shut and stared off into space, a horrible thought occurring to her. Astra whimpered.
"'Oh no'?" she parroted, "Don't tell me it gets worse!"
"I think I might know what's been going on, and if I'm right ..."
Oh no indeed.
"Were are we going?" Astra called out to Twilight as she hurried to catch up with her. The purple unicorn galloped through the streets of Ponyville and prayed that it was not too late.
"If I'm right, we need to destroy that Starlight Sapphire before it finds what it's looking for!"
Which wouldn't have been a problem if she had kept a hold of it. Unfortunately Twilight had elected to give the star stone to Rarity, who had of course been over the moon to receive such a splendid gift.
"Finds what it's looking for?" Astra said as they stopped outside of Carousel Boutique, "It's a sapphire. How can it be looking for anything?"
Twilight hammered on the door with her front hooves, creating an awful racket. After several agonisingly long seconds the door opened to reveal Rarity, who was mercifully unharmed.
"Twilight, Astra, whatever is the matter?"
"Rarity! Where's the sapphire I gave you earlier?"
Rarity blinked in surprise and glanced back into the shop. "It's on the table over there-"
Twilight barged past her before she could even finish, narrowing her eyes at the glittering blue gem. Sure enough it lay innocuously upon a table alongside several other gemstones and dress making materials. Twilight lowered her horn and aimed it at the sapphire.
"Stand back, I'm going to hit it with everything I've got!"
Rarity's eyes bulged with alarm and she threw herself in front of Twilight, legs outstretched as if she were defending a poor defenceless filly. "Twilight Sparkle, get a hold of yourself!"
"Stand aside Rarity, this is a matter of life or death!"
Rarity scoffed. "Oh now you're just being silly. Nopony ever died because of a sapphire. In any case I will not allow you to destroy something so magnificent!"
"Rarity, please!"
It was no use, Rarity refused to budge, and any attempt Twilight made to get a clear shot at the sapphire only resulted in her friend moving to block her aim. Growing increasingly frustrated and worried, Twilight called out to Astra.
"We have to destroy it!" Twilight urged her.
"But-"
"Please trust me on this!"
Astra looked from Twilight's pleading expression to Rarity's staunch determination. On the one hand Twilight Sparkle was her mentor. A hero. A pony Astra admired and looked up to. On the other hand she quite liked Rarity, who had been very kind to her. Astra didn't want to upset her by destroying the thing she clearly loved so much. What should she do?
Before she could make up her mind the decision was taken out of her hooves. Perhaps sensing what was going on, the Starlight Sapphire rose from the table and shone with a brilliant white light. They all gaped in astonishment at it, especially Rarity, who very nearly fainted from shock.
Recovering from the spectacle, Twilight shook her head and aimed her horn once again. It was no use though, as the shining sapphire shot through the air above their heads and escaped out the open door. Astra spun around in time to see it soar into the night sky.
"What in Celestia's name just happened?" Rarity demanded, utterly bewildered by what had just transpired. Twilight drooped and groaned.
"It got away is what happened. Now we're in trouble."
She saw that both Astra and Rarity were giving her earnestly questioning stares and decided that it might be worth risking a few seconds delay to explain the problem to them. First she filled Rarity in on what Astra had told her back at the library, then she elaborated on the sapphire itself.
"I don't know for sure about this, but given what we've just seen I don't think I'm too far off the mark," she said patiently, "When Astra released Nightmare Moon during last years Summer Sun Celebration, it's possible that Nightmare Moon's dark magic tainted the Starlight Sapphire, imbuing it with a sort of ... unnatural life of its own. Every so often it journeys out at night and searches for a pony to possess."
"The abductions," said Astra, finally beginning to understand. Twilight nodded.
"Right."
"But everypony taken simply woke up the next morning in the middle of a crop circle. Why?"
"It needs power. The stronger the pony the greater the potential. I think it's searching for a pony with magical abilities on the same level as Princess Luna, or at least as close as possible." Twilight paused to make sure she had their full attention before she went on. "We're talking about the same dark magic that transformed Luna into Nightmare Moon. If that sapphire finds a suitable pony, then at the very least we'll have another Nightmare Moon on our hooves."
"At the very least?" Rarity goggled at her, on the verge of panic, "What could possibly be worse than that?"
Twilight trotted over to the Boutique's front door and stared up at the starry night sky. She swallowed. "Well can you imagine what would happen if that thing found Princess Celestia?"
Astra and Rarity exchanged startled looks. They didn't want to imagine something like that. Twilight was right, they needed to destroy that sapphire. Rarity joined Twilight in standing at the doorway and staring up at the sky.
"It's awfully late though, I can't imagine anypony is out and about at this time of night. Surely we're safe for the moment?"
"I wouldn't be too sure about that ..."
They turned to face Astra, who fixed Twilight with a deeply worried look and raised a hoof to her head. "Tinfoil hats, remember?"
Twilight gasped. "Oh horse apples!"
How could she have forgotten so soon? Spike, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and who knew how many other ponies had a camp set up just outside of Ponyville. And they were waiting to catch a glimpse of the very thing that had just taken flight.
"I heard they're hairless apes that wear clothes and talk jus like anypony," said Apple Bloom. Scootaloo snorted at that.
"Nah. What I heard was they're green tentacled monsters with dripping fangs and two heads!"
"You're both wrong," Sweetie Belle waved a hoof to dismiss their suggestions as to what the aliens were really like, "They're ponies, but they're all grey, have big bulging heads and huge black eyes. And no tail or mane, either."
"Do they have cutie marks?" Apple Bloom asked, tilting her head as she considered Sweetie Belle's version of the aliens. The little unicorn shook her own head in response.
"Nope."
"Hey, in that case maybe we could invite one of them to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders! If'n they don't have their cutie marks neither, I bet we could offer t'help 'em out!"
All three ponies stared off into space as they tried to imagine what it would be like to have an alien filly as a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"Cool!" they said in unison.
A short distance away Spike watched as Rainbow Dash strutted impatiently around in circles, growing increasingly restless. The pegasus pony had joined the Ponyville sky watch because the prospect of flying against a UFE was too alluring to resist. Rainbow Dash was already confident that she was the best flier in all of Equestria by far, but how would she fair against a flying pony from another world? There was only one way to find out, and if any flying alien ponies decided to show up she would be ready for them.
"How fast do you reckon they can go?" she asked, trying to picture a race with one of them. "They'd have to be able to fly pretty fast to even get here in the first place. I wonder if any of 'em has ever seen a sonic rainboom before. How cool would it be if I got to show off my flying skills to a whole other world full of ponies!" She laughed and took to the air in a brief display of aerial acrobatics, only to crash into Ditzy Doo who was also airborne at the time. The two pegasi hit the ground in a tangled heap.
"Ouch!" Rainbow rubbed at her now very sore snout and winced in pain. "Hey, why don't you watch where you're flying?"
Ditzy shook her head several times and tried to fix her crossed eyes upon Rainbow Dash, without much success.
"Oh gosh, are you both alright?" Fluttershy trotted over and leaned close to check on them. "You really should be more careful about flying when it's so dark."
"Good advice," said a familiar voice. Everypony turned and stared in awe at the sight of Princess Celestia, who stood at the edge of the UFE camp with none other than Pinkie Pie smiling at her side. Fluttershy let out a gasp of delight and glomped the pink pony, so happy was she to see her.
"Pinkie Pie!" Rainbow exclaimed excitedly, "You're back!"
Princess Celestia was overjoyed to see how thrilled they were to have their friend back, and glanced down at Pinkie. "When I received Twilight's letter this morning, I personally saw to her release from Area 15. I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience caused; the CIA do take their work very seriously ..." She raised her gaze and noticed the other ponies gathered about, all whom were bowing out of respect for her. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you all doing outside so late at night?"
They explained to her about the UFEs, repeating the story of what happened to Pinkie Pie last night, and showed her the crop circle which was still taped off in an adjacent field to the one they'd set up camp. The Princess listened with interest until they were finished and then cast her eye over the assembled ponies. "I see. Is Twilight Sparkle not among you?"
Spike crossed his arms and let out a faint scoff. "Twilight thinks it's all a bunch of nonsense. She doesn't believe in UFEs at all, even with everything that's happened."
"Maybe she changed her mind," said Pinkie, juddering to a stop beside Spike and pointing with her hoof. "Look, here she comes now! Hey Twilight!"
No one save Pinkie noticed Twilight, Rarity and Astra galloping towards them at breakneck speed. They were all preoccupied with staring up at the sky, their attention fully drawn to the bright glowing light darting to and fro. Gasps of delight and awe escaped their lips, and so distracted by the sight were they that they didn't even notice when Twilight started yelling as she drew nearer.
"Oh my gosh!" breathed Spike, astonished, "A UFE. An actual UFE! They really do exist!"
The glowing light finally appeared to notice the gathering of ponies and abruptly changed direction, shooting through the sky towards them with such speed that even Rainbow Dash was impressed. It hovered overhead, giving them all a superb and unrivalled look at it, dazzling them with its radiant beauty. Even Celestia was speechless while confronted by such a thing.
A bright beam of white light stabbed out from the hovering star and swept over the group of ponies, further entrancing them. It moved from one to the next, as if examining each one intently, until it reached the Princess. When it did it remained fixed upon her and did not move on.
What occurred next happened so quickly that many of them had to replay it in their minds eye before they fully understood what they had just seen. As the beam of light shone down upon Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle leapt out of nowhere into the path of the beam just as it pulsed with energy.
She vanished.
"Twilight!" her friends cried out in shock and dismay. The beam disengaged and the brilliant shining star shot straight up into the sky. Rainbow Dash rocketed after it, leaving a faint rainbow hue in her wake. The air slapped at her like a tidal wave due to the sheer speed of her rapid pursuit. Just as she was about to catch up with the star, it abruptly changed direction and arced downwards. Dash screeched to a halt and turned about to watch it go.
"Get back here, you!" she called after it furiously. Her anger was wiped away an instant later however, when the star hit the ground far bellow.
And exploded.