"Got any six, Mitkin?" asked Jeblime.

"Nah, go fish," answered Mitkin.

"Seriously, we're playing Go Fish for weeks now. I'm bored, don't we have anything else to do?" asked Mallan.

"You should have thought twice when you applied for a kerbonaut, dude," responded Endo as he pulled out a cart from the pool. "Argh, another two!"

"Okay guys, we're injecting into a direct aerobrake with K-11's night side...or at least the side away from it's shiny moon," announced Bill over the intercom. Mitkin, Mallan, Endo and Jeblime all looked through their chambers' windows, and admired the sunset of the alien planet.

"It kinda feels like there's something else down there..." commented Mallan.

"Well, it's always kind of a possibility, Twilight. What if there's a species out of Equestria spying on us?" asked Lyra, looking at a book of constellations.

"I told you, Lyra. Nopony has ever found any object outside of the Sun and the Moon. Quite likely there is nothing outside," responded Twilight.

"Aw, you have to at least consider it. You remember that time where we thought ponies were the only intelligent species in Equestria? It was actually not true," said Lyra. "And that time where everypony thought that outside of Equestria it was an endless pit. Turns out we live in a planet," she added.

"You have a point. But still, I just cannot imagine a place where a planet orbits a star, and spins by itself without at least one figure to help it," said Twilight.

"Well, in the stories, that's exactly how it is at the homeworld of huma-"

"Lyra, don't even start," interrupted Twilight with a stare.

"Alright, no need to get stressed," replied Lyra with a sheepish grin. However, that grin quickly disappeared, with a shocked expression replacing it. "Wow, Twilight, look!" she said, pointing towards the window behind Twilight.

A falling star.

"Well, I didn't expect a falling star at this time. And it's redder than normal...sort of like...flames..." commented Twilight as she looked at the massive fireball.

Pretty much everypony still awake at Ponyville, Cloudsdale and Canterlot had noticed the fiery spetacle going up there. Even the creatures at the Everfree Forest were looking at the fireball.

Of course, at Canterlot Castle, the spetacle wasn't looken kindly at by the mare of the night. Looking out the window of the throne room, Luna had asked the guards to leave the room as she uncomfortably gazed at the flaming fireball. It was not natural. She tried to use her magic to check what that object was, but it seemingly blocked off her powers. Whatever was it, it was up for no good.

"Some outside force tries to change my night....such crime shalln't go unpunished," said Luna as she stared at the alien object. She, however, knew that Celestia could think that she was simply overreacting. She'd have to ask for Twilight's help.

"G-forces stable. Head Shield discarded. Aerobrake sucessful," reported Bill Kerman, looking at the flight computer. "We're heading to a direct landing now," he added.

"Wait, we're not going the usual aerocapture-then-land manuever?" asked Bob as he looked over the window.

"No, because thanks to K-11's lack of rotation, we can aim for a direct landing with proper manuevering," answered Bill.

A short retro-booster was deployed, and it's engines flared to life and burned at full power, reducing the base's velocity. Alongside them, several of RealChute's white-colored drogue parachutes were deployed.

"Speed reduced from awesome-tastic fast to boring-slow," reported Jebediah. "Fine, from 452m/s to 65m/s," he corrected himself after recieving a glare from Bill.

The retro-rockets were dumped and main parachutes were deployed, those much larger than the drogue parachutes, and fitted with several orange stripes. LT-2 Landing Legs were activated to take up most of the damage and protect the wheels from impact.

"Aaaaand.....we have touchdown!" said Bill over the intercom.

"Wait...we actually made it?" asked Thompden.

"I'm still alive and well..." replied Hadnard.

"The best part is no more microgravity!" shouted Jeblime as she and the others ran out of the base module and embraced the gravity with the night sky overhead. K-11's gravity was near identical to Kerbin's. It was at 9.98m/s² whereas Kerbin's was at 9.82m/s².

"Alright, guys, we probably should recover back into the base. It's nighttime, and we don't want to wake the wildlife up, in case of there being any," said Bill over the base's deck.

"Aw, you're such a buzzkill, Bill," replied Mitkin as he climbed back into the base.

"As my job as mission commander, it's up to me to decide what's the best for our crew," responded Bill, while the others headed to their chambers.

"Who made you the mission commander?" a curious Jebediah asked.

"Gene." answered Bill as he headed to his chamber, which he shares with Jeb and Bob.

Next morning, at Ponyville...

"Morning, Twi'," said Spike as Twilight walked down the library's stairs.

"Hi, Spike. You woke earlier today?" asked Twilight as she walked towards the dragon.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep much further with all that chatter going outside. Apparently a red-colored falling star passed by here, and everypony is talking about it," answered Spike as he handed Twilight a newspaper. True enough, plastered on the front page was a picture of the flaming fireball, alongside a report.

Red falling star flies above Ponyville!

Above: An artist's rendition of the falling star from the given description.

Deep in the night, Ponyville, Cloudsdale and Canterlot witnessed a large falling star passing right above Ponyville. Nopony has ever seen a falling star so close, or red-coloured. Red coloration may indicate flames.

"I was placing my little tot on the bed, and suddently I hear a loud noise, and when I go outside to check, I see that large red thing directly above me going faster than a sonic rainboom, heading for White Tail Woods," commented a fellow resident of Ponyville who asked to remain anonymous.

Read more at STARS, A1.

"Yeah, I remember seeing it last night with Lyra. I didn't expect for so many people to overreact, though," commented Twilight as she shook her head.

"Well, you don't see a red falling star passing right above you every day," said Spike as he put the newspaper on the counter. Twilight was about to counter-argue, but a knock on the door interrupted her. Spike went ahead to open it, and, unsurprisingly to Twilight, it was Lyra again.

"Hi Spike, is Twi- oh, hi there, Twilight, have you seen the news?" she asked as she (somewhat rudely)hopped in the room.

"Yes, I have seen it, apparently everypony knows about the star now," answered Twilight. "Lyra, what's going on? You seem chippier than usual," she commented.

"Well, you see, nopony knows why this falling star is red and so close, and the newspaper says that it went to White Tail Woods, so I thought we could head there and see what is it!" Lyra explained, never removing her huge grin from her face.

"Can I come, too?" asked Spike as he approached the two mares. However, before Twilight could give twenty five reasons why they shouldn't go there, Spike barfed up a message with the royal night symbol.

"A letter from Luna! Odd...she hasn't sent a letter to me before," exclaimed Twilight as she levitated the message next to her, and opened it.

"Hmm..." muttered her as she readed the letter. "Well...it seems that the red star is apparently not created by her, and even her magic is incapable of manipulating it. She wants us to search for any odd activity around here, but to never, under any circumstances, head over to White Tail Woods, as she feels a strong manipulation force that deters magic from there." Both Lyra and Spike said "Aww..." when they were told to avoid the crash site.

"I find this kind of ridiculous. Such an object that is resistant to the princesses' magic simply can't exist, but since this is for the princess, I guess I'm in," said Twilight as she closed the letter.

"Oh, come on, Twilight, stop living in the known and take a peek on the unknown," replied Spike as he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah! We may be dealing with space aliens who came here to conquer Equestria and suck our brains with straws!" added Lyra.

"Oh, please, Lyra, that's ridiculous," responded Twilight. "We'll scout Ponyville for any odds, and we'll meet up back here at the library after we're each done," she said.

However, at the same time in a treehouse somewhere in Sweet Apple Acres, three ponies - specifically fillies - had different plans.

"Girls, I invoked this reunion for a very important reason," said Scootaloo as she marched back and forth like a general, while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat down watching. She picked a small stand blocked by sheets, and pulled the sheets out, revealing the morning's newspaper, and the red star in the front page. "As you can see here, a mysterious falling star has been found heading towards White Tail Woods. Nopony has had the courage to investigate there themselves. If we get there first, we might get our cutie marks as star researchers!" she announced.

"Uh...I don' know... it seems dangerous, nopony knows what's there..." replied Apple Bloom.

"Come on, Apple Bloom. If it was an alien creature, it'd have died from all these flames," said Sweetie Belle. "Besides, it's not like it's in the Everfree Forest or something," she added.

"And even if we don't get cutie marks in star or alien research, we will get them in courage!" said Scootaloo, dropping her military voice. "Deal?"

"Deal!"

"Deal..."