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// Letter One: Dear Reader, a note 
// Story: A Sky of Light 
// by Starlight_Flight 
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Dear Reader, a note:

This book which you now read was written by your Princess Luna, who wishes to enlighten and edify you regarding certain mysteries of my abilities. That is the whole and proper purpose to which I have devoted myself here.

By the suggestion of certain associates, I use a modern idiom in the writings herein. As I have been away for so very long, I must needs listen to the voice of wisdom regarding the world and its changes. The activities of so many, the environment of ponies today, the strictness of spellings and the changes of letters and words, the many new forms and discoveries in so many arts and sciences, and so forth: these beg that I investigate for at least four or five years of intense and unresting study! I have that time, but so few tutors; so if I should slip in my ways, I beg thy indulgence. (Here I wink to you, reader, but only halfway so; for We desire the intimacy of the older forms, which We miss, which were much clearer in nature as to whether We as speaker were distant or intimate, formal or informal, greater or lesser than the focus of Our speech. Yet betimes I feel that the world fades in and out of that Age now past, for it were as a mere moment ago to me, but to you it is beyond the imaginable lifetimes of your direct blood ancestors and into the times of legend and myth.)

"Such florid speech!" I imagine you say to these words. Yet those who wrote a thousand years ago, wrote for the sake of their readers. A letter to one's intimate friend, a book of philosophy or science for the edification of the Ages, a sermon or lecture to a handful of ponies, a deed to land, a declaration of law: each of these requires its own manner of writing. Thusly we come to the telling of tales, and how one might write them. Storytelling has been an art long honored among many peoples, for speech allows us to learn from others, to expand ourselves to encompass that which we have not directly experienced, to experience the little play that a storyteller makes in our minds as clearly as any put forth upon a stage. I am here to tell tales to you, Reader, and tales as I might tell to any small one whose eyes are bright and ears aimed forth to hear me. So I will write them as simply as a teller might speak them.

On top of that, the conceit of a letter is herein used where I wish to make direct address which is not part of a tale. I find that the writing of letters to share stories is most appropriate, for that is how we have until this most-modern day shared our lives with each other when apart, for lives are full of stories that are worth the sharing between intimates, and sometimes those stories are good to share with a crowd.

So we come to my purpose in this series of tales: Many of you have questions about my magics, abilities, and history. I attempt here to answer your questions with stories, as if I, too, were a simple storyteller; for the stories of our dreams and nighttime encounters are often sources of much wisdom, and the wisest of us would do well to look to the night as oft as to the day when seeking the answers they most truly need.

Yet this modern time is filled with distractions and easy entertainment! With this much in mind, I must begin my tales, or you might put away this book and look to some other source to brighten your eyes and point up your ears, other sources to answer the questions surely upon your minds and lips.

I am, as always,

Her Royal Highness Luna Princeps
Director of the Moon; Mistress of the Stars and the Night; Watcher, Guard, and Guide over the Ponies of Equestria in all Times of Darkness upon the Land