//------------------------------//
// The Experiments 
// Story: Sol and Lune 
// by Waxworks 
//------------------------------//

Starswirl the Bearded was the greatest wizard of his age. Everypony knew his name, and everypony knew that he was capable of. He was the best and the brightest that had ever lived, and possibly ever would live. When it came to matters of magic, ponies came to him. He was one of the few that had ever attempted to raise the sun and have his magic survive it.

But now, with the alicorn sisters here to take that burden away from him, he could focus on what he had learned from his days of raising and lowering the sun. There was power, to be had there. The alicorn sisters proved it. Their bodies were energized by the movements of the celestial bodies, and their youth retained. Starswirl was old when the two of them had arrived, and that promise enticed him. The promise of power, of energy, and… of youth.

What he learned while raising the sun was that the sun was not a chemically balanced thing, if you could call it a “thing” at all. It was more than that. It was beholden to magic, but it was also made of magic itself. Heavily reactive to it, one might say. Like sodium was to water. The unicorns that would burn themselves dry while lifting the sun were feeding it power, making it stronger, though their magic was naught more than a drop in a bucket to something as large and impressive as the sun. That’s where their magic went. Starswirl had felt that happening to him the very first time, and refused to help until he had studied the phenomenon more. He had left them to their fates while he himself learned how to protect against it, then not shared his findings.


It wasn’t out of malice, it was that he knew no other unicorn would be able to perform the complex trickery that he had engaged in with the sun. They were like two partners in a dance, he and it. He fed it magic, and from the subsequent reaction, he had taken the ensuing burst of energy and transformed it into a usable form. Through rough experimentation he had created a reaction his body could feed off of to re-energize itself, keeping his magic. It was yet imperfect, and he would have run out eventually, but it kept him magically fit until the sisters arrived.

Ah, the sisters. They were an enigma. Unfortunately, they were an enigma with personalities. He could not simply walk up to them and ask to study them. He had tried once, in private, after earning their trust. He had approached the younger of the two and asked to study her. Things had gotten awkward very fast, and he had been forced to withdraw. She still made eyes at him sometimes.

The elder sister was dangerous. He dared not try the same thing with her. Not with the younger one watching him and waiting for an opportunity. The sheer drama might end with him getting exiled from the castle, and that would set back his research. Instead, he bided his time, avoiding the younger, and waiting. Waiting each morning for the sun to be risen.

He observed in quiet while the two of them traded their celestial position to the other. The moon was not as reactive as the sun, he had learned. It did not take magic from ponies, it merely gave it to the younger sister, Luna. It drew magic from the sun, leaving her free from its terrible influence.


The older sister, Celestia, she was different. Her body was similarly reactive in an equal and opposite way. The two fed off each other in horrifying fashion, siphoning magic, changing it, molding it, mutating it! They threw it back at each other in a deadly dance, one which kept both of them alive and firey. She was as dangerous as it. The mere thought set Starswirl’s beard on edge.

As time passed, however, he was able to learn of magic the moon possessed. As a result of the terrible assault from the sun, the moon’s magic had been changed. There was something there. Something dark, living on the surface of the moon. A mutation or an anomaly of some sort. He couldn’t tell what it was, but it was there, in his telescope.

Something moved.

The idea set his mind awhirl. The sheer concept that the sun’s energy could affect life or create it was new and terrifying. He considered this as he watched the sister’s work. Was it possible it came from another dimension? He’d been exposed to several in his time, but if there was the entrance to one on the moon, that would mean something had created one. The only possible answer there would still be the sun, though. The sun’s rays, beating down on the surface uncontested, had opened a portal or created life.

Starswirl knew, from observation, inference, and experimentation that the sun was a dangerous, energetic force that was uncontested in its sheer, unflinching, and uncaring malevolence. The only being capable of interacting with that malevolence with no repercussion, was Celestia.

She was dangerous.

He needed to understand her and her function for the safety of Equestria, and the safety of ponies everywhere. The sun must be understood.

In secret, Starswirl took some energy from the sun. Just a little by a little every day. He examined it, stored it, secreted it away and hid it in one of his many hidden laboratories across Equestria. He even took it away to other dimensions through the magic mirrors he possessed. He wanted to test it, study it, experiment with it.

He found, to his surprise and consternation, that the sun’s energy was not changed throughout any of the worlds that he found. There was one strange world where he lost his hooves and gained feet. In this world there was no alicorn princess, but the sun still rose and fell. There was no magic, yet they still lived. No unicorns or tribes or anything. Yet still the sun rose and fell.

That gave him pause.

If there was no cost to make the sun rise, why did their sun need a princess to do it? Where did this requirement come from? Was it similar to the changes on the moon? Was magic a mutation caused by the sun?

In his continued studies, Starswirl found something unusual. He discovered that the sun’s energy—its magic, as it were—was indeed what was changing pony physiology. It did it in response to some outside influence, though what that influence might be, he didn’t yet know. The changes came about to force ponies to expend their magic, so that there would be no danger to the world of Equestria. A sort of… magic heatsink, if you will. The response, of course, was the creation of the alicorns. A mutation. One that could keep the sun’s magic at bay, and allow ponies to live their lives in peace, with a modicum of joy and entertainment.


Starswirl had to admit that he thought himself one of these mutations. He was smart enough to take the sun’s energies and steal right back. That made him wonder if he could take the energy and force a mutation in himself further, so that he might become an alicorn himself. An ascension to godhood, where he could take the sun’s energy and use it to prolong his life. He was getting old, he had to admit, and his death loomed ever-present on the horizon.

To that end, he took what he knew of the sun and began his work of collecting it. He stole from the sun, little by little, day by day, until he had what he determined was enough to work with. He kept them in specially prepared jars. Containers built to contain the light. Illumination spilled from under the lids, and he had to spread them out among different laboratories, as too many in one room became far too hot.

The next step was the most dangerous and would require careful planning and speech. With the younger of the two sisters interested in him, he had to first see if she would respond to the direct sun’s light the way he imagined, or if he would somehow have to get close to the older sister and experiment on her directly. He feared he already knew the answer.

“Princess Luna, I must speak with you,” Starswirl said, approaching the princess as she raised the moon.

“It can be Luna between we two, Starswirl.” She turned to look at him with a smile. “What might thou need of us?”

“I wish to test some of my magic, if I may, but it relates directly to alicorns. I do not want to offend you or your sister, and much of this must remain secret, but may I get your assistance?”


“Thou hast piqued our curiosity, Starswirl. What is it thou seekest to understand?”

He told her, though not everything. He told her of his journey to understand the sun and how it functioned. Why it was stealing magic from unicorns, and why it was not doing the same to Celestia and herself. How it was a leech of magic, yet Celestia was unaffected.

“We know not why we are immune, but we suspect we may be unaffected by our association with the moon. Thou sayest thou saw an entity on the moon itself?”

“Indeed. Something moves there. A mutation, I believe, caused by the sun’s rays.”

“It may be that we are unaffected because the moon absorbs the harmful magic of the sun before the rest gets to us. That would give us the benefit, with none of the harm. We are not well-versed in science like thee, however. We would… not mind being taught, ‘privately.’”

“Princess, please! This is important! I am concerned that there is something sinister going on with the sun. This is not the time nor the place.”

“Then make time, and we can find a place. We are a princess. None can make us do what we do not wish.”

Unsure how to respond. Starswirl knew he needed to keep her goodwill for his experiments. He also knew he could not engage her or her sister without either bringing Celestia’s or Luna’s wrath down on his head. He answered carefully.

“I will get back to you when I have more information, princess. There is something I must check, and I need to see if I can find that entity on your moon again. I think that is something we can look at together.”

“We look forward to it, Starswirl.” She winked.

Starswirl left Luna behind with a grumble. She was receptive, but she wasn’t the one he needed. He really wanted to avoid abusing her goodwill, but if it helped him reach her sister then he might have to. Still, there was plenty of activity on the moon that he could examine first, because she did have a point; did the moon absorb the harmful effects of the sun?

Starswirl returned to his laboratory and to his telescope. The moon was high in the sky by the time he got there, and he whirled his telescope around to point at it. He furrowed his brow up at the orb before putting his eye to the lens. The moon’s surface zoomed into view, and he scoured it, looking for clues.

“The moon may absorb the harmful rays of the sun,” she had said. If that were true, then there should be some evidence of it. The moon’s rocky surface might be as simple as just that, a surface, but if he could find that moving thing on it, he might be able to learn something.

Some of the questions he had were: Did it eat? What would it eat? Was it physically present, or was it merely a cloud of the sun’s magic? Did it seem aware? The questions came one after another as he swept he telescope back and forth. Time passed, until his eyes burned.

He pulled his head away. He had found nothing, and seen nothing. He turned from his telescope and went to his books, looking through them for information on the moon. Maybe there was some long-lost tidbit of information that some enterprising pony had put down long ago that may prove useful. Anything he could find would be welcome at this point.