Sleep came a little too easily to the young dragon as his eyes slowly opened to moonlight. He groaned and draped an arm over his head to ease the new sensations of wakefulness. Spike was thankful that the guard was here to cover for him. He overslept again. Ponies would probably be banging at his door by now if he had to run everything.
Throwing the sheets to the side, Spike rolled over until he sat on the edge of the bed. His posture was weak and his features did not do much to display confidence. His own responsibilities we not the only thing that weighed on his conscience. For the past few weeks he had to explain to the rest of the girls that ’Twilight was busy and that she was also really sorry she couldn’t be here when the map sent them off to solve another friendship problem.’ Their worried looks made him feel helpless. What was worse was the look on each of his friend’s faces once he expressed his concerns.
After hearing of the increasing frequency of Twilight’s escapades in the quest for knowledge, each were hesitant to step in. He didn’t blame them. They all had their fair share of Twilight’s antics, and he wouldn’t hold it over their heads for not helping him. In a sort of backwards way, Spike was happy that his friends trusted him to care for Twilight.
He thought that it had only been a stroke of luck that Twilight herself hadn’t been called herself. Secretly, he wished it would happen too so maybe the girls would help him convince Twilight to get some fresh air.
“Maybe Celestia was right about her new princess-y powers,” Spike muttered to himself, “She’s lucky that the world puts up with her.” Only then did Spike freeze up from head to toe. He let a shiver travel up his spine, freeing him of the sudden stiffness. Up to now, he quietly accepted the absurdity of the whole ordeal surrounding Twilight and her friends. The girls were more than able to take care of themselves. They were independent mares after all. He just could not help but harbor some frustrations for Twilight.
There was no doubt that Twilight was one of the smartest ponies that Spike knew, and it could be argued that she was the smartest pony in all of Equestria. But where was the logic in avoiding her friends and her duties? What if the ponies of Ponyville desperately needed royal intervention? What if avoiding her friends caused the Elements to weaken somehow?
’It’s reckless. This has gone far enough.’ Spike thought to himself. Somewhere in his mind, he knew that none of these things would happen. What he needed was just a good enough reason to convince himself to confront Twilight.
Despite this section of the castle grounds being off limit to the general population, guards had every right to walk the halls. Various lunar guards gave a quick salute before returning to their patrols around the castle. There were no real restrictions to their movement sans a large ’KEEP OUT’ sign that hung over a single door. Its bold red color and rather large font made sure that nopony could mistake the sign for anything less than a warning. Spike, however, paid no heed as he began to pound on the door.
“Twilight! You’ve been holed up in there for weeks. You need to come outside already!” Spike demanded.
To his surprise, the doors swung open with enough force to launch him clear across the hall. Spike found himself only inches from the opposite wall before he felt a familiar aura envelope his body.
“Ah, Spike. I could use a helping hoof,” Twilight said as she brought Spike into the room. Slowly, Spike entered the maelstrom of parchments. The sheer quantity of research formed an unholy union of abject horror and morbid fascination on his features.
To say that a tornado swept through the room just a few moments prior to the dragon’s arrival would truly do no justice the magnitude of chaos present. Twilight had managed to coat every single surface in countless charts and graphs. It seemed as if somepony had attempted paper mache but forgot the paste. Spike could not even begin to ask before his gawking was abruptly stopped by a familiar mountain of paper.
“I need you to hang up these new star charts in designated sectors of the room,” Twilight said with a bit of coarseness in her voice. Spike, not appreciating the relegation to sorting duty, felt his frustrations exploded from the stack of parchment and gave his friend a pointed glare with a pointed claw to match.
“Twilight, are you even listening to me? You’re out of control again!”
Suddenly, the air began to crackle. Twilight’s focus was not on her assistant originally, but all bets were off as she snapped the pen held in her magical grasp. The sound of heavy grindstones in motion could almost be heard as Twilight turned to face Spike. A shiver returned to the dragon as his unconscious mind begged him to run. It wasn’t the sudden disregard for stationary that worried him. It was moreso Twilight’s flat expression.
“What did you just say?”
Spike closed his eyes and swallowed back his fears. Twilight’s mane was far removed from its clean cut and straightened appearance. Her eyes were bloodshot with dark circles dominating her eyes. If one took a closer look, they would notice that one eye was intensely focused on the young dragon; the other was thoroughly content to go on a field trip while the teacher wasn’t looking.
Spike quietly weighed his options. He made a mental note to come more prepared for Twilight’s antics if this was going to be a monthly occurrence. Really, all he needed to do was vie for some extra time. He was good at that sort of thing at least.
Twilight narrowed her eyes and took a step forward. It really made no difference to her if Spike responded or not. She had weeks to prepare for their inevitable conflict.
“You heard me, Twilight,” he said after gaining back some of his confidence, “Why are you avoiding your duties so much? It’s crazy late.. Not only that, but what about being the Princess of Friendship? Avoiding your best friends and the ponies of Ponyville doesn’t seem very princess-y.” Spike could only jump as any confidence retreated from the battleground upon hearing the giggling of a manic unicorn.
“That’s just it, Spike. I am attending to my duties!”
Twilight could clearly read the confusion written across her assistant’s face. The doors behind them swung shut. Her threatening mood was all but gone as she happily flipped a switch in her mind, lecture mode fully engaged.
“What if there are other’s out there?” she began.
“There are others out there. Plenty of-”
Twilight shoved a hoof onto Spike’s mouth before he could even finish his statement. “No, I’m not talking about anypony in the castle. I’m not even talking about anypony in the entirety of Equestria.”
Spike used a claw to gingerly move the hoof invading his personal space.
“Sooo… Griffons and-” Spike asked.
“No. No, Spike,” Twilight said gesturing to the room as a whole with a sweeping gesture of her wings. “Think bigger. Much, much bigger than even the zebra, dragon, and griffon lands.”
“The sea beyond the frozen nor-” Spike stopped mid-sentence once again as he was picked up and rattled violently by Twilight’s magic.
“Space! Don’t you see it, Spike? Space! There could be ponies in space!” It was only after the frantic flailing of the dragon did Twilight set Spike back down onto the ground. Spike’s eyes rolled around in lazy circles as he tried to re-orientate himself in the room. After a quick shake, he focused back onto Twilight who had taken it upon herself to fly across the floor to a nearby wall of parchment.
“Look. I’ve spent the past few nights observing the night sky for any sign of life.” she said, gesturing to Spike to take a closer look.
“Has it ever occurred to you that we might not be the only ones out there? There are thousands—millions, no, billions—of stars out there in the night sky. I’ve been making star charts and cross referencing them with old charts that go back all the way to the days before the founding of Canterlot. It’s taken me weeks to chart the movement of some celestial bodies, but I’ve finally done it.”
Twilight flew over to the opposite side of the room to point to yet another massive wall of yellow charts. It was difficult to make out in the moonlight, but Spike began to notice the advanced age of each piece of her expansive puzzle. Some of the research strewn around the room looked old enough to be an exhibit at the museum, not part of some crazypony’s wallpaper.
“Well, it’s kinda hard to compare them all from here-”
“They do!” Twilight screeched out, cutting off her assistance once more. “Not only that but I also managed to find charts that predate the rule of Celestia and Luna themselves.”
The new wealth of information was not too complex to elude Spike’s understanding, but the late hour did put a damper on his ability to flex his mental muscles. “Alright, I guess it’s neat and all that you can accurately map the stars, but what does this have to do with your duties as the Princess of Friendship and the Element of Magic?”
Twilight’s mane seemed to come alive with an invisible static as she smiled at an opportunity to divulge another in her work. “I believe that Celestia and Luna are lying about their powers.”
Spike only managed so much as a gasp before a purple hoof stifled his cry. Twilight angrily shushed him. Only after she was sure that Spike wouldn’t squeal did she pull back.
“Twilight!” Spike said as his eyes darted around the room. “-You can’t honestly believe what you just said, can you? You’re a student of the Princess after all!”
A light shimmer enveloped the room as Twilight began to float paper after paper over to Spike. With each passing scroll, Twilight became more crazed.“That might have to change now that I’ve found out the truth, Spike. The Princesses are lying about their ability to control the skies and I have proof-”
This time it was Spike who clamped shut the mouth of somepony who was speaking a little too much. Once he was sure that Twilight had nothing more to say, he darted towards the door. Peering outside, he was thankful to see that none of the lunar guard had moved through the halls and overheard their conversation.
“You can’t say things like that! That’s, like, like, it’s like high treason! Heresy!”
“Pfft,” Twilight responded with a cocky grin, “Heresy, Smeresy. I have my duty as the Princess of Friendship. If anything it is the princess’s fault that I haven’t been able to carry out my duty to the fullest.”
“You’ve got to be confused. What kind of crazypony would be as insane to accuse the princesses for something that’s obviously not their fault.”
Twilight rubbed her temples as she let out an exasperated cry. She dove over to the mountain of scrolls and levitated a few towards Spike for him to see. “Occasional retrograde planetary motion? Variable photometry? Stellar parallaxing? Shadows existing? Come on, Spike! Everything here points to my theory that we are not the only planet out there in the sky. Even you have to admit that it’s hard to ignore the evidence.”
Spike only blinked in response. “Right, let’s both pretend that I know what you are talking about. What does any of this have to do with friendship?”
“This has everything to do with friendship! I’ve studied the works of Clippurnicus and Gallopleo. All of their observations points to the idea that this world orbits the sun and not the other way around. Who’s to say that this isn’t true for every other star in the night sky?
“There are billions of stars out there, Spike, and each of them could have their own little planets with intelligent life just like here in Equestria. If I’m going to be the Princess of Friendship, then I’m going to become friends with every single being out there.”
Spike deadpanned at his alicorn companion. It was clear that she was too far gone. Aliens he could believe. But heliocentrism? That was just plain heresy. He hoped that he could find a way to resolve her antics without bringing in the princesses again, but once again he was left with no choice.
“Right. Okay. I’ll just have to get Princess Celestia to knock some sense into you again.” Drawing in a deep breath, Spike aimed his dragonfire around the room and let the flames reach every undusted corner and forgotten hideaway.
“Nice try, Spike, but I already planned ahead,” Twilight said cutting the dragon’s assault short. “I made sure each and every piece of my research in this room was made fire proof. Even I’d be hard pressed to set off a spark.”
Hearing her words, Spike relented for a moment to verify things for himself. Much to his dismay, Twilight was one-hundred percent correct. His dragonfire did not even burn the smallest piece of parchment. As far as he could see, his flames didn’t even leave the slightest charred mark on anything in the whole room. Twilight did not hesitate to revel in her victory. She began to get giddy with anticipation once more.
“Well, I guess it can’t be helped. Might as well help me get started with mapping out the stars. We’ve already wasted enough time as it is.” Twilight was not even halfway finished with adjusting her telescope before she heard the fluttering sounds of paper fill the air.
“Guards! Guards! There is a crazy heretic here in the castle!” Spike frantically screamed as he rounded a corner. Scrolls and charts flew from his body as he struggled to hold onto each bit of incriminating evidence. “They believe in heliocentrism!”
Twilight jumped at Spike’s words. Her being a heretic? An accusation like that was heresy! With a powerful flap of her wings, Twilight made her way down the hall after the young dragon.
Deeper into the castle, Spike had barely a moment to react before the shadows themselves seemed to solidify in the form of an armor-clad lunar guard. “Heliocentrism?!” a voice said from the darkness. The young dragon slammed into a foreleg of the batpony and came to a full stop. The guard did not even flinch as he looked down to Spike.
“Sir, we heard thy concern,” the batpony said quickly, “Please, lead us to this heretic posthaste.”
Shaking his head to regain his senses, Spike looked to meet the captain’s gaze. “Captain Sunshine! I’m so glad you’re here!” Spike said as he peeled himself from the captain’s armor. The batpony stood attentively, watching the halls with an uncovered eye before giving an affirmative nod. Sunshine always saw Spike hard at work around the castle. He was happy that the young dragon’s duties also extended to hunting down heretics.
While the guard could barely understand what Spike was spurting out, he knew that it had to be nonsense. ’Stellar parallaxing? Surely, it must be some form of black magic. Sunshine’s reassuring composure was soon changed to that of mild concern as he pointed a hoof to something just behind Spike. Across the hall, a disheveled Princess of Friendship appeared.”Thy thanks can be saved for later, sir. Right now we have more pressing matters on our hooves.”
It had taken Twilight a while to find Spike. While she could have easily used her magic to stop him, he had to be within her sight for her to get a good grasp on him. Anything less and the dragon would probably be able to wiggle free without much effort.
“Princess Twilight, forgive my forward behavior, but are thou feeling well this evening?” he said stepping between the alicorn and her assistant. Truthfully, the captain already had a good idea what had gotten the Princess of Friendship in a tissy. He only hoped that his banter would vie more time for his brothers to act on his behalf.
Twilight gave no response as she began to take slow steps towards the two. Sunshine readied himself and bared his fangs not willing to give ground. He had known about Twilight’stendencies no thanks to Spike, but it was not the first time he had been clued into the situation. Both royal sisters expressed concern for the new princess once they caught wind of her strange behavior in recent months. It really was no consequence of for them to send some guards over to keep an eye on her.
“So, could it be that our own Princess of Friendship is the heretic that has been causing so much trouble on the castle grounds?” Sunshine said glaring at the alicorn in question.
Twilight’s horn lit up with magic as she tried to pull her scrolls from Spike’s grasp. It was only by some miracle that the dragon held fast. “It may be heresy,” she said, “but I’ll gladly be branded as such if befriending everypony is seen as heresy.”
“Nay, Princess Twilight. Thou are within thy own right to speculate on life beyond the veil,” the batpony began, “But heliocentrism? Again, please forgive me, but even thou must see the heresy of thine beliefs!”
Twilight’s horn flared with each syllable as she spoke to Sunshine. “Heretic or not, those space ponies need friendship. Nopony has to know.”
“We can say with good faith, Princess Twilight, that thine interests need not lie in the two that stand before thou,” a mature voice echoed throughout the halls. A sudden flash of light filled the room, breaking Twilight’s concentration and blinding the lunar guard confronting her. Only after the magic slowed to a shimmer did the ponies in the hall see the lunar princess.
True to her word, Princess Luna seemed to have the full attention of Twilight. The young princess felt her ears flatten against her head. She tried to answer for herself, but Princess Luna would not allow it as a hoof rose to silence her. Without wasting another second, Luna stepped forward to meet the three standing in the hall.
“We would first like to extend our thanks to Captain Sunshine for informing us of the situation here in Ponyville,” she began. The captain gave a short bow in response. With a nod, Luna continued. “Captain Meadowlark spared no effort in gaining our attention.”
Hearing a familiar name, Sunshine’s ears perked up. “It is good to hear of my brother’s success. Thought, I see that he is not accompanying you, Princess. Is there something else of pressing concern that the guard should be informed of?”
“Aye,” Princess Luna said with a smile on her face, “We have tasked Captain Meadowlark with cleaning out Twilight’s observatory of all her research.”
A unladylike shriek came from the pony in question. “No! You can’t do that!”
Luna raised an inquisitive brow towards Twilight. “And pray tell, what reasoning would there be for a Princess of the Night to not look into the work that details the workings of her domain?”
Twilight fidgeted about for a moment trying to collect her thoughts. She peered around to the others longly for any sort of help. Her pleading looks were easily brushed aside by Captain Sunshine’s years of service to Luna. Spike was not much better. From behind Captain Sunshine, he only offered a small nod to Twilight. To him, the gig was up.
“Well?” Luna asked impatiently.
Twilight swallowed back her hesitation before she spoke. “It’s just that if you confiscate my research, I’ll never be able to find all the friendless ponies out there beyond Equestria.”
Princess Luna chose not to respond. Instead of trying to speak with words, she would first try to sway Twilight with her actions. There was a brief moment of awe shared by all those present in the hall as the lunar alicorn’s horn lit up with powerful magic. The halls began to glow in the pale moonlight as the alicorn moved the moon itself. Even the stars that dotted the night sky seemed to contribute the heightened majesty of the evening.
The magical aura dissipated from the princess’s horn as she turned to face Twilight. “Is it not obvious that my sister and I control the heavenly bodies?”
“But- but- bu-” Twilight stammered, “ Everything lined up so perfectly. All the stars in the sky matched previous observation, even the movement of the planets were all screwy.”
Luna raised a brow. “Movement of the planets? That sounds not of something we would add to the night.”
At that, Twilight’s wings flared. It looked to be an opening for her to explain herself. “But it’s true, Princess! The there are brief windows of time in which some planets begin to move back on themselves. How else can the be explained but through heliocentrism?”
“Silence!” the lunar princess roared. Her sudden display of force nearly toppled all those present in front of her. “Have thine observations directly pictured these planets? What evidence do you have to support your claims!”
“That is, uhm,” Twilight sputtered. It was true that she had not confirmed that these points of moving light had been planets. Her telescope had not been powerful enough for her to directly observe the celestial bodies. Much worse, no attempt to magnify the image had ever seen success. Before Twilight could form the words, she noticed another lunar guardpony appear with a few scrolls tucked beneath a wing.
The new arrival dropped to a bow before presenting his findings with a hoof. “Please excuse us, Princess Luna. We have retrieved the evidence you require to convict the heretic.”
Taking the charts with her magic, Luna began to go over each slowly. The whole party of ponies and dragons in the hall stood in silence as the lunar princess browsed Twilight’s research. Not a soul spoke fearing instant reprimand from the elder alicorn. It was not long before Luna finished reading through what had brought to her. Looking back to the group of ponies, she smiled.
“Excellent work, Captain Meadowlark. Though, we have no need for any of these scrolls. There will be no trial. The Princess of Friendship has only chanced upon a misunderstanding.”
“What!” both Twilight and Spike managed to exclaim in unison.
“Aye,” Princess Luna said with a sage nod, “This is just a misunderstanding of how my sister and I control the heavenly bodies. Thy theories pertaining to the movement of ‘planets’ and other inconsistencies in the stars can be amounted to ourselves. We are still quite novice at painting the night after so many years of absence.”
Twilight pointed an accusatory hoof at Luna. “You can’t just dismiss scientific evidence with ‘I messed up’. That makes no sense!” Her words prompted the two lunar guards to spring to life. Soon enough, they stood in front of their princess. Their leathery wings flared up and a scowl spread across their faces.
“How can one even dare to accuse the alicorn sisters of any transgression!”
Twilight just rolled her eyes. “It’s just too convenient,” she said snatching a scroll away from Luna. “Who’s to say that Princess Luna isn’t just making things up.”
Stepping forward between her two Captains, Luna eased their aggressive natures with a wave of her hoof. The two batponies were well trained, that much was true, but even they struggled to bite back words. They bent to the ground to bow to the Princesses of Equestria before standing down.
“Now would be the time to convince us of your research, young Twilight,” Luna said simply.
Twilight smiled. “Retrograde motion?”
“There are many stars in our night. We are embarrassed to admit that we cannot control each aspect of the stars. In due time that issue will correct itself.”
“Stellar parallaxing?”
“Princess Twilight, are you suggesting to us that your instruments are accurate within one ten-thousandth of an arcsecond? Can you be so sure? Even the royal observatories struggle with measurements that small.”
“Oh…-Er, what about the shadows! The sun and moon would not cast shadows is they orbited Equestria.”
“That is explained simply by the rotation of Equestria itself.”
Wisps of smoke began to hover from Twilight as her frustration grew. The way that the lunar princess managed to swat each of Twilight’s theories down was starting to grate on her nerves. And the fact that Princess Luna did so nonchalantly with no scientific evidence to back up her claims did no better to calm Twilight. The younger princess loaded a new batch of questions into her mind, ready to spout them at her fellow princesses with breakneck speed.
“Variable luminescence.”
“Atmospheric scattering.”
“Midnight sunlight?”
“A tradition of our sister.”
“Oh. I guess that also answers for polar nights…-The North Star?”
“It makes a good starting point for us.”
Just a ways away from the interrogation, Spike chewed the ends of his claws. The conversation between the two princesses was tame for now, but how could he be sure that would last? Two lunar guards shrugged and resumed their duties around the castle prompting a surprised look from Spike. Afraid to speak up and face scorn from his princess like the batponies, he pantomimed his concerns to the guards. They shook their heads to dismiss his worries. To them, the outcome of the debate was already decided. If the Princess of the Night could wait 1000 years to return to Equestria, then she would be able to weather a few nosy questions. They ushered the young dragon to follow them away from the two alicorns. It would be best to leave them to finish their conversation in private.
Celestia rose from her throne as her court adjourned for the morning. She knew that the ponies would soon return with their various proposals, but that would have to wait for the afternoon’s court. There was more pressing matters to attend to. The guards opened the door for their princess’s exit to which Celestia gave a smile of appreciation.
“Please return for the afternoon’s court if you wish for your proposals to be heard,” Celestia said simply. “If you all will excuse me, I have some obligations to attend to. This court is adjourned.”
Ponies shuffled about and made their way out the door after their solar princess. Some lingered and huffed at the notion that their hearing would be put off yet again. Others made their way down the halls in a hurry. Celestia found herself among the latter group as she stepped onto a nearby balcony and took flight. This earned her a confused look from most of the ponies on the castle grounds. Normally, the princess walked through the halls of the castle. It was not only for the sake of appearance, but also for the fact that Celestia enjoyed the company of the castle’s many residents. It was rare to see her in a hurry.
’A small luxury such as that is no consequence.’ she thought to herself.
It was true, she had just received word of her sister’s return to Canterlot just moments before her morning court ended. And while Celestia did not know the details of her sister’s visit to Ponyville, she had—on good authority—an idea of what happened.
A short flight later, Celestia landed gracefully on the flight balcony of the castle’s Royal Observatory. There would normally be a pair of guards posted there to greet her, but they had been personally dismissed for the day. The princess let out a sigh as she folded her wings and walked into the tower. Not too far from the balcony was a rather ornate looking door that led to the main observatory. Without much ceremony, Celestia swung the doors open with her magic eliciting a low hiss from her younger sister.
“Celestia! Close the doors. You are making our work more difficult,” Princess Luna said angrily.
Celestia walked into the tower room and shut the doors behind herself. “I’m sorry, sister. I heard what had happened and came as soon as the morning court ended.”
The lunar alicorn scoffed at her sister’s apology. Luna was not scornful of her elder sister. It was really that the events of the previous night wore her patients thin. Twilight was no doubt a brilliant scholar and spared no detail in her search for the truth. It was directly because of these details that Luna had toiled all morning to perfect the illusions that surrounded the entirety of their world.
“Thy ‘faithful student’ was quite adamant about her theories, sister. Maybe you should reconsider who to take under thy tutelage,” Luna said while perfecting some of her illusions.
“Ah, dear sister, do not be like that. You know as well as I do that Princess Twilight is just trying to carry out her duties as the Princess of Friendship,” Celestia said with a smile lacing her words with humor. “I’m sure you could understand her reasons for going to such lengths to fulfil her duties.”
Luna did not answer as she grit her teeth and continued to strengthen the veil of her illusions. She did not like to be reminded of her time as the nightmare, but she knew that her sister was just trying to play to the irony of the situation. Noticing her younger sister resist her antics, Celestia walked over to help Luna with strengthening the sky with magic.
“You have done great work with the Veil, my dear sister,” Celestia said as her magic poured into the magic around Luna.
The lunar princess gave a small nod as she focused the new magic into her spells. “Yes, it should be enough to cover the movement of the heavenly bodies from any observer for a while longer.” Luna said. Noticing her elder sister’s intentions, she let her magic fade.
“Do you think it will be long enough for us to properly explain to Twilight our true secrets?” Celestia said as she took control of the spells that powered their illusion.
“The secret that we don’t really control the heavenly bodies?” Luna said turning away from her sister.
“I mean the secret that there is really life beyond our world.”
Luna let a cold shiver run down her spine. “That would most definitely be the end times for us. The ponies of Equestria would be easy to calm, but there is no telling of the chaos Princess Twilight would enact to befriend the countless others in the universe. She must not be allowed to know.”
“Agreed.”