And because no one asked - Mad Ramblings · 1:12pm May 21st, 2013
My theories/mad rambling on how Luna and Celestia's magic actually works.
Again, no one asked for this, but I thought deeply on it. Who knows, if this becomes a thing, I may post more Mad Ramblings.
First off, lets remember that according to the Hearths Warming story, they were not the ones who exclusivity were able to control the Sun and Moon, but I imagine, that the Unicorns had to go through like a major ritual and it took several of them to do either action.
It would be easier for Luna to control the Moon, being connected to it in a special way, add that to great magical ability to start with, and it becomes a simple task for her. I imagine that she uses her magic to directly act on it, grabbing it and moving it by will, or at least giving it a push to continue on as it normally does.
Now, the Sun, being much larger than the Moon, and the Earth, would be much harder to move, easily impossible. So my theory on the matter, is that the Sun doesn't actually move, not in respect to the Earth. Instead, Celestia is grabbing the Sun with her magic, and the Earth continues to spin and go around the Sun. Think of it as climbing a ladder, you are grabbing the ladder and pushing yourself up on it, but in respect to you, the ladder doesn't move, you do.
I also theorize that without anypony using magic on either the Sun or the Moon, they would continue as normal for a little while before things start to slow down, and eventually come to a stop.
Celestia could know this and keeps it a secret, or no one knows because they never had a Galileo pony. Some may ask if the Sun isn't moving in respect to the Earth with Celestia's magic, shouldn't her cutie mark be that of the Earth? And I don't think so, it would still be the Sun because as she perceives it she is acting on the Sun and it is moving in respect to her.
Also, as to why Celestia is able to control the Moon during Luna's absence, it is likely due to natural talent and maybe foreknowledge as to how Luna was doing it. Or maybe she had a secret order of Unicorns that helped her with the Moon at times. That could make for an interesting fanfic, yeah? An order of unicorns that are no longer needed with the return of Luna? How would they feel, losing their role in things?
Well, anyways, before I end up off topic, to sum up what I said.
1. Celestia and Luna are not the only ponies capable of controlling the Sun and the Moon, but are the only ones talented at it.
2. Luna directly moves the Moon using her magic.
3. Celestia doesn't directly move the Sun, but instead moves the Earth around it by using the Sun as an anchor.
4. Without anypony preforming these acts, the Moon and the Earth would eventually come to a stop.
5. There was never a Galileo Pony.
Thank you if you bothered to read this, I do have my own theories involving my head canon on alot of subjects, I won't likely make a habit out of this, but if enough people like this, I may make them faster.
Oh, and if you can make sense of it, congratulations, you are a more clever pony than I. Or perhaps just crazier.
What a coincidence, I had the same theory. And it's scientifically plausible in a way that they don't move them, but Luna just gives the Moon a little daily push while Celestia does the same to the Earth relative to the Sun. Theoretically, this would mean they expend less energy in the form of individual gravitational pulls that 'correct' the drift of those massive objects. And space is empty. That means there's no air in space (that's why no one can hear you scream). And no air means no friction. And without friction there's only the gravitational pull of the Earth relative to the Moon and the Sun relative to the Earth, which means that Celestia and Luna don't need to expend as much energy as they make it seem like.
So, anyone care to calculate that, because I suck at physics.
I personally am split between a guess similar to this and one that is simply that neither of them control the sun or the moon, it's all gravity like here on earth, and that they simply rule during the day and night respectively. In that scenario, Luna uses mass illusion magic to create the view of the night sky, and Celestia used it in her place while she was on the moon. They then would be lying about raising the sun and the moon in order to help keep power. After all, who would want the sun and moon to come to a standstill?
On the subject of the unicorns doing it, in my second guess they didn't actually control them either, the other ponies just gave them credit because they didn't understand it and assumed it to be magic, and the unicorns went along with it.