Phantom Son

Freedom

Day 364994 of Celestia's Rule

Canterlot

A purple unicorn mare looks through her telescope to see a beautiful night sky over the kingdom of Equestria. As she is looking over some constellations, a flash of light draws her attention elsewhere. Her telescope rotates to the source only to find several green lights soaring through the sky past the moon and its mare pattern. "Spike!" she exclaimed in excitement. "Come here. There's a meteor shower." She heard a yawn.

"Twilight?" A little purple dragon with green spines walked onto the balcony.

Twilight moves over and lifts her younger brother to look through the telescope too.

He smiled brightly at the shower, amazed. "That's pretty cool. We rarely see those." He rose a brow after a few seconds. "Now that I think about it, why does it look green?"

Hearing the question, Twilight Sparkle got into book mode. "Meteor showers happen when something, usually a comet, leaves behind small particles of dust as it travels through space. If our planet happens to cross that path, those tiny bits of dust - called meteoroids - can run into our atmosphere and burn up. The color depends on what the piece of dust is made of. In the case right now, if there's a lot of magnesium in it, it'll emit green light as it burns up."

Spike stared at his older sister in confusion. "I don't think I understood half of that."

Twilight shook her head in amusement. "In retrospect, I don't expect you to, Spike. I only learned that in my Astronomy class during the academy."

Rolling his eyes at her, Spike started walking back into the house. "In any case, thanks for letting me see it. I should get back to work. I'm still working on my gift for Moon Dancer. Remember to put that away and lock up before you go to bed." He chuckled. "You don't want stray pigeons nesting in the library again."

She narrowed her glare at the young dragon. "One time. It happened one time. I took hours for me to shoo them out and clean up their mess." She shivered. "I still have nightmares of them tearing up pages for their nests."

Spike gave one last deadpan stare. "I'm not even surprised that you cared more about the books than them cleaning out most of our pantry." He continued his way to bed. "Goodnight, Twi."

Twilight gave a playful snort. "Goodnight, Spike." She continued to stargaze wondering what else this big world would hold.

Somewhere, The Next Morning

The area is flourished with numerous colors. Several birds perched on the branches of tall green trees. A gentle breeze sways the blades of grass. The only thing that stood out of place was the smoking crater. A small red fox approaches in curiosity with other forest creature close behind. They all felt the impact last night, curious about what it was. Looking down at its base, they all see a black and white stallion. While they have met other ponies in passing, this one felt different. There was a strange aura around him. A brave robin flutters to the bottom of the hole and lands on the pony's head. Making contact, she felt the cool yet comforting fur. Looking closer, the animals could see the pony's barrel expand and contract slower than normal. He was alive. How did he get here? How did he survive such a fall? Taking another risk, the robin began pecking at the stallion's face in hopes of waking him up. After a good minute of poking his cheeks, the body jerks slightly. Seeing this, the fox scurries a few away from the possible danger. Seeing the pony's eyes start to blink, she flew to a nearby branch, giving the pony some much-needed space.

Dusk felt pain all across his body. His mind felt hazy. 'Ugh. My everything hurts.' He rested for half an hour before attempting to move, flickering his eyes against the bright light now and then. It took several attempts for him to roll onto his back. After many breaths, he finally he opened his eyes to blue skies. Seeing the drastic change in atmosphere, he forced himself to his hooves, nearly falling over again. Steadying himself, Dusk took in the area around him. He was in a hole, a deep one. 'I hate my life...' Taking another half hour to crawl out, he collapsed. Immediately, his senses flared. His body pressed against the grass. His lungs breathed in the fresh, natural air. His eyes gazed at the multiple colors in the landscape. A flock of birds flew overhead and to the horizon.