Twilight Sparkle awoke that morning as she did every morning. Her alarm clock began its incessant clatter at precisely eight-thirty, when the first beams of springtime sunlight began to shine through her bedroom window. With a swipe of her hoof, she silenced the infernal device that seemed to govern her life. As usual, before moving again or even opening her eyes, Twilight attempted to remember roughly how late last night, or perhaps how early that morning, she had left her books for her bed. The attempt was in vain, and at long last, the purple unicorn threw aside her blanket and dragged her tired body away from the soft, warm, inviting sheets.
Twilight trudged over to her mirror with groggy determination, yawning twice in the ten seconds it took to reach the dresser where it stood. After blinking for several seconds to clear away the sleepiness that blurred her vision, she peered at her reflection. Her pink and indigo mane was in an extremely disheveled state, and even though a quick splash of water and a few strokes with a brush would make it shine and sparkle as it usually did, the frazzled mass of hair was nonetheless a depressing sight to the slightly woozy unicorn.
Hmph. Just be glad you don’t have a mane like Rarity’s. Although Twilight admired Rarity’s beautiful swirling mane at times, she wasn’t envious of the effort that was undoubtedly needed to keep it in such a state. And with that in mind, her horn glowed slightly, and the brush lying on the table levitated up the unruly mane and began its work.
As she worked at taming her jungle of a morning mane, Twilight mentally reviewed the topic of her studying from the previous night. The volume she had been reading was called Magic of the Three Tribes, and explained the different kinds of magic that Earth Ponies, pegasi, and unicorns used. Although unicorns were the only ones with voluntary control over their magic, the other kinds of ponies had apparently inherent magical instincts and abilities that unicorns did not. This included the ability of pegasi to walk on clouds and manipulate weather, and an earth pony’s great strength and affinity for growing food.
While spells existed that allowed unicorns to walk on clouds and control weather, they were just a temporary imitation of Pegasus magic.. Also, all Earth ponies were biologically much stronger than the other two kinds of ponies, and had an inborn tendency to more skilled at manipulating things with their hooves. This dexterity allowed Earth ponies to develop the skills needed to cultivate, domesticate, and grow food.
With her mane under some semblance of control, Twilight set the brush down and turned to leave her bedroom. She came down the stairs carefully as she was still a little groggy, and made her way to the shelf where she kept her expansive collection of checklists. Twilight had prepared all her checklists for the week in advance, so all she had to do this morning was pick out the list that was in the current day’s slot on the shelf and see what needed doing.
“Let’s see… Re-shelving time until eleven, lunch with Rarity and Fluttershy until noon, research with Lyra…” Something was missing, what was it? As soon as she realized exactly what, or who, rather, was missing, Twilight giggled softly. Immediately after, she bellowed, “SPIIIIIKE!!!”
It didn’t take long for the purple and green baby dragon to hurriedly stumble down the stairs to the main floor of the library, nearly falling and barely catching himself more than once as he tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes.
“Wha- I’m up, I’m up…” he mumbled as he ran up to Twilight and grabbed the list and quill that she had been levitating. “Did I miss breakf-” he started, but stopped mid sentence as his face suddenly scrunched up in discomfort. A second later he belched out a small puff of green flame and smoke, which floated over to Twilight and materialized in front of her as a rolled-up letter.
Twilight caught the letter in a cloud of purple magic. “Hmm, a letter from Princess Celestia?” she mused. “It’s a little early in the day for this.”
“Tell me about it,” Spike moaned, doubled over. While it wasn’t necessarily painful for the baby dragon to receive letters from the Princess, it certainly wasn’t comfortable, and getting one this early in the morning was no pleasant experience.
Twilight smiled sympathetically at Spike, and levitated him onto a nearby chair. Then, she unrolled the letter to see what was so important to her mentor needed her to know this early in early in the morning.
My faithful student,
Last night, an unknown object in the heavens caught the attention of my sister. We need you and the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony to come to the Royal Palace in Canterlot with all possible haste. As far as we can tell, there is no immediate danger, but much is unknown about what Luna witnessed. Please mention this to nopony other than your five friends.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Twilight frowned as she read the letter, and she was done, rolled it back up and trotted to the closet to get her saddlebags. “Spike, will you be okay by yourself here today?”
Spike, now recovered from the unexpected jolt, hopped down from his chair and looked at his friend with a worried expression on his face. “What did the princess want? Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine, Spike,” Twilight said, doing her best to give the dragon a reassuring smile. “The Princess just wants to see me and my friends today.”
“Huh? What for?”
“Something to do with the stars,” Twilight said as she put on her saddlebags and hurried out of the library.
After Twilight was out the door, Spike stood where he was for a few seconds, wondering what the stars could possibly doing that Twilight and her friends had to rush off to Canterlot in such a hurry. One idea began to slowly take shape in his head, but he quickly dismissed it. That kind of thing was impossible, right?
Apparently, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony were not the only ones Celestia had summoned that day. Of course, Princess Luna was in the throne room when Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack arrived, but there were two others present. One was the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor. The other none of the friends had seen before.
One by one, the six mares filed into the study and properly greeted the royal sisters with a bow. The two princesses were seated behind Celestia’s desk, the rising sun shining through the windows behind them. Celestia was always happy to see the bearers, but today her joy was tempered by the gravity of the situation. “Thank you, my little ponies, for coming on such short notice,” said the white alicorn.
“We came as soon as we could,” Twilight said reverently. “What happened with the stars last night?”
“Luna will answer your question shortly,” said Celestia. “But first some introductions are in order. I know you all are already familiar with Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard,” Twilight and her brother shared a quick glance and a small smile. “But allow me to introduce Doctor Whooves,” She nodded to stallion standing next to Luna. “Doctor Whooves is head of Canterlot’s Astronomy Department.”
Doctor Whooves was a plain brown earth pony, with a dark brown mane that was spiky and slicked back. An image of an hourglass adorned his flanks, and he wore a simple red bow-tie. “It’s a pleasure to meet all of you,” he said with slight Canterlot accent that sounded intelligent rather than snooty. “Your exploits are well known to me and my colleagues.”
“Now, to attend to business,” Celestia announced, then turned to her sister.
“Fairly early last night,” began the midnight blue alicorn. “A new object entered our night sky. It was not a star, comet, meteor, or any other heavenly body that we have seen before. It seems to have begun to revolve around our planet. It is not something natural that has drifted here from the depths of space. Rather, it is something artificial. I sensed it was unimaginably complex, and carrying a sentient being.”
“Wait,” Twilight interjected. Are you saying there’s a pony out in space?”
“Whatever it is, it is not a pony, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna calmly replied, but the reaction to that statement was anything but calm. Instead, eight shocked pairs of eyes stared back at Luna, and an unnerving silence gripped the study.
The silence was finally broken by Doctor Whooves. “Your Highness,” he asked, slowly and carefully. “Are you saying that we are being visited by-” he paused. “-extraterrestrial life?”
“Extraterrestrial life?” Rainbow repeated, frowning slightly. “Isn’t that the same as saying…um…aliens?”
Fluttershy emitted a small “Eep!” at the word, and Twilight, Doctor Whooves, and both princesses nodded solemnly.
Rainbow’s mind instantly went to the book she had read a few weeks prior, Daring Do and the Ancient Ponies of the Red Planet, in which green, scaly quadrupeds from Mars attempted to take over Equestria. She quickly repressed the thought.
“Well,” Doctor Whooves said pensively, bringing a hoof to his chin. “That certainly creates more questions than answers.”
“I’ll say.” Shining Armor finally spoke. “Do we know anything about what they want, where they came from, or what they can do?”
Celestia held up a hoof to calm the captain. “Like I said to all of you, not much is known about this. The only information we have is what Luna saw and sensed last night. For the moment, all we can do is wait and watch.”
“But we can prepare ourselves for anything,” said Luna. “Twilight, we want you and your friends to keep the Elements of Harmony with you at all times. The last thing we want is a frantic search for them in the middle of a crisis.”
The six bearers nodded, understanding the request. Twice in the span of a year the Elements were needed to save Equestria from a hostile takeover, and both times they were unavailable, either because they were stolen from the vault where they were stored or said vault was overrun by Changelings.
A golden aura surrounded Celestia’s Horn, and the gem-covered chest floated out from underneath the princess’s desk. “It is my sincere hope that you won’t need to use these,” she said as she levitated each ornate necklace to its respective bearer. Rarity and Twilight caught their pieces of jewelry with their own levitation magic, and the princess fastened the others around the necks of the other four. “But it is better to be over-prepared than ill-prepared.”
At this, Shining Armor spoke again. “Speaking of being prepared, do I put the Royal Guard on high alert?”
“No, Captain Armor,” Luna replied. “There is no danger that we can see, and another high alert would only cause unnecessary panic, as the memories from the last time it was needed are no doubt fresh in everypony’s mind.”
Shining Armor frowned slightly at the memories of the crisis right before his wedding.
“But there are still measures you can take to ensure everypony’s safety,” Celestia added. “Do whatever you can to heighten the Guard’s readiness without raising suspicion.”
“Yes, Princess,” said Shining Armor and straightened up, glad to have orders he could follow.
Celestia turned back to the six mares that so far had remained silent. “All of you except Twilight are to return to Ponyville at the conclusion of the meeting.”
Twilight blinked in surprise. “Then what am I supposed to do?”
“I want you to accompany Doctor Whooves back to the Royal Canterlot Observatory. You two need to keep a careful watch on this object, and if anything happens, alert me and Captain Armor immediately. And, if needed, you will then return to Ponyville as quickly as possible to unite with the other Elements.”
“One last thing to mention,” Luna said in a very serious tone. “Once you walk out those doors, not a word of this is to be discussed with anypony. Secrecy is of the utmost importance.”
“Can I at least tell Cadence what is going on?” Shining asked, not liking the idea of keeping secrets from his wife.
“She already knows,” Celestia said calmly. “And she has been instructed to discuss this affair with nopony outside this castle, just as all of you have. Outside this castle, none of you can speak about this with anyone, not even each other.” And with that, Celestia dismissed the group. They all stood, bowed respectfully, and filed out of the study.
Once the two royal sisters were alone, Celestia turned and gazed out the window at her precious sun, and a frown of worry darkened her expression.
Luna approached her sister carefully, and touched one of Celestia’s forelegs in what she hoped was a comforting manner. “What is wrong, dear sister?”
The frown deepened, and Celestia closed her eyes. “Luna, I’m afraid I was not entirely truthful to you or our friends.”
Now it was Luna’s turn to frown. “What aren't you telling me?” the dark alicorn asked, fully aware that she might regret doing so.
“I may not know who that being is that you sensed, but I fear that I know exactly what it is, and where it came from.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Yes, if you wish. But I should warn you, Luna; this particular story was kept from the records of history for a very good reason.”
Spike had always teased Twilight when she paced around the library during times of stress, but suddenly it didn’t seem like such a silly habit.
Twilight hadn’t come back yet, and it was nearly midday. The baby dragon had managed to keep a level head for about an hour, but after he finished his morning bowl of sapphires and emeralds, Spike remembered the last time all six of his pony friends were summoned to the castle by Princess Celestia with no warning. That was when Discord escaped and practically turned Ponyville inside-out. It was not a pleasant day to remember.
Now, almost four hours later, Spike found himself pacing back and forth in the library as he had seen Twilight do so many times before. His head was tilted down, his hands were behind his back and his claws were interlaced. Spike walked over the same line over and over again, and the number of repetitions was likely in the thousands. Sometime in the past four hours, he vowed never to make fun of Twilight for her nervous pacing again. There was just something oddly comforting about watching his feet as they moved him in the same pattern for what he guessed to be the thousandth time.
Spike had just reached a corner of the library and was about to start back in the other direction when he felt a slight but familiar convulsion in his stomach. He tensed for a brief moment, and then belched out another cloud of green flame and smoke. The cloud condensed into a rolled up piece of parchment, and it fell to the floor.
Anxious for news, he practically pounced on the letter. It wasn’t on the ground for more than a second before the purple dragon scooped it up and unrolled it.
Dear Spike,
I’m sorry I had to run off so suddenly this morning. I hope you’re not too worried, because it’s no big deal this time. The princess just wants me to do some research at the Canterlot Observatory. I’ll be gone for a few days, so you’ll have to cancel a few of my appointments this week. But everypony else will be back in the afternoon. Rarity will stop by when she gets back to check on you.
Your friend,
Twilight
Spike breathed and audible sigh of relief. If Twilight told him not to worry, he wouldn’t worry. And best of all, Rarity would be coming to visit. Just thinking of her sparkling white coat, her swirling purple mane, and her sweet voice almost made Spike swoon. The dragon’s romantic fantasy was interrupted, however, when a loud knocking came from the door. He shook his head to clear it and ran over to the door to answer.
When Spike opened the door he saw a familiar pale green unicorn standing in the doorway. “Hey Lyra,” he said and smiled.
“Hi, Spike,” Lyra said in her usual cheerful sing-song voice. “Is Twilight there?”
“Sorry Lyra, but she got called away to called away to Canterlot for something important. She’ll be gone for a few days.”
Lyra’s ears drooped slightly at the news and she looked down at her hooves. “Oh, well, that’s ok, I guess, but Twilight said she would help me with some research today.”
“I can help,” Spike offered. “I know the library just as well as Twilight.”
“Could you? That would be wonderful!” Lyra perked up again and smiled hopefully at the baby dragon.
“No problem.” Spike returned the smile and opened the door wider, welcoming in the minty green unicorn.
Lyra stepped into the library, and Spike gently shut the door behind her. “So Twilight told me about a really neat spell she found,” she told him. “It’s supposed to show you who wrote a piece of music when you play it.”
Spike though for a moment, tapping the floor with his foot. “Yeah, she told me about that when she heard of it. Composers and their lawyers used to use it to settle author disputes before the other spells were invented.”
“So do you know which spell book it might be in?” Lyra asked.
“Yeah, it would be back with some of the old legal books. Follow me.”
Lyra followed Spike from the main room of the library to one of the smaller rooms in the back. The room reserved for the subject of Equestrian Law was one that was hardly ever used, so the curtains were closed and the room was dark when they stepped in. After Spike moved back the curtains, Lyra understood exactly why it was seldom-visited. As soon as the room was lit, she could see that there were very few normal books on the shelves. Instead, there were was a multitude of dull-looking tomes that were thicker than they were wide, and pyramids of yellowing scrolls that looked like they hadn’t been touched since they were stacked.
As Spike scuttled around the room looking for the book which held the spell in question, Lyra began glancing at the spines of some of the almost obscenely thick law books, reading some out loud as she skimmed, her eyes getting wider and wider with each title. “Civil Court Proceedings of the Classical Era, Hoofington Building and Zoning Regulations, Municipal Election and Campaign Finance Law, Sweet Celestia, Spike! Does Twilight read all of these books, too?”
Spike, who was pushing a ladder to the shelf where he was looking, had to stop and laugh for a moment. “Thank goodness, no. Even she has limits.” He began ascending the ladder and continued, “Besides, she likes books about science and magic. All this legal stuff is too boring, even for Twilight. The only reason these are here is because it’s required for every library to have them.”
He climbed the ladder up to a high shelf, and selected one of the few reasonably proportioned books in the room. “I think this is it,” Spike said, and tossed the book down to Lyra, who caught it in a yellow cloud of levitation magic.
“Spells for the Unicorn Lawyer,” she read aloud, and opened the book. After reading the table of contents, Lyra exclaimed happily, “Found it!” She then flipped to the specified page and read the spell’s description. “‘The Author Spell is used to reveal the creator of a work of literature, music, or any other art form. When properly used it creates an image of the originator in the presence of their creation’. Spike, this is just what I needed!”
“Great!” the baby dragon said as he hopped down from the ladder. “Do you think you can do it?”
Lyra read the instructions for performing the spell, and after a minute, she looked back at Spike. “Well, I’m not as great as Twilight with magic, but it doesn't seem too complicated. I think I can manage.”
“Well, the book is yours for a week. Enjoy, Lyra!”
“Thank you so much, Spike! I’ll see you later!” Still carrying the open book in an aura of yellow magic, she turned and cantered towards the door.
When Spike heard Lyra close the door behind her, he immediately ran from the legal room upstairs to the bathroom, skipping steps as he bounded up the stairs. Rarity would be here any minute, and his scales had to shine.
Lyra’s home was a simple place. She didn’t spend much time at home, unlike ponies that lived and worked in the same place like Twilight, Rarity, or Fluttershy. No, she didn’t need a large or distinctive place; she just needed a place to sleep at night and occasionally eat breakfast in the morning. And so when she moved to Ponyville she bought a small house on the main street that ran through the center of Ponyville. It was a simple dwelling, which contained only a bedroom, a bathroom, and a small kitchen. A few framed photos of her family hung in the kitchen, and there was a chair and music stand in the bedroom, but beyond that, it was a very bare-bones home.
Although Lyra normally did very little in her house, today’s task had to be done in privacy. Still toting the book Spike had given her, Lyra locked her door behind her and headed for her bedroom. Once inside, she closed that door as well, and dove under the bed to retrieve her lyre. After a minute of digging through old sheet music, garbage, and quite a few dust bunnies, she found the instrument and pulled it out. It had five strings, was made of brass, and her family name ‘Heartstrings’ was inscribed on the side with ornate lettering. It was an old family heirloom, and had been passed down through more generations than history bothered to record. An image of that very lyre was imprinted on her flanks.
But today Lyra wasn’t going to simply tinker with an antique. She was going to unravel the mystery surrounding it. When her mother had given her the lyre, she also taught Lyra a simple melody to play on it. It was a slow, sweet tune that was simple, yet melancholy. The melody was even older than the lyre, and also had been kept in the Heartstrings family for so long that nopony really knew who wrote it. Nopony knew, that is, until today. Today, Lyra was going to learn, if not who the pony was that started the family traditions, at least what they looked like.
Lyra carried the lyre to the chair beside her bed and began to play the simple, yet sweet melody her mother had taught her. She, like other non-unicorn musicians, had no problem playing the instrument with her bare hooves. Even though her family had been purely unicorns, it was an old family tradition to learn to play the family lyre with one’s hooves, and that was how her mother taught her.
Lyra smiled to herself, fondly remembering the days of her fillyhood when her mother would try to teach her how to hold the instrument properly, how to pluck the strings, and also how her mother often had to fight just to get the young filly to simply pay attention to the lesson. Each pluck of the strings sent more of the sweet vibrations through the air, strengthening the minty unicorn’s nostalgia and causing her to become even more lost in the memories of her fillyhood.
Eventually, Lyra snapped out of her whimsical canter down memory lane remembered the spell she had been trying to find for days. The mental shift caused a slight hiccup in the rhythm of the song, but she recovered quickly. The book was lying on her bed, still open to the page with the instructions for the spell. She peered at them one last time, and then, without missing a beat in her song, Lyra began the spell. Her horn began to glow, and she concentrated as hard as she could on the spell without losing the sequence of notes on her instrument.
The spell might not have been complicated, but summoning the image of a pony that had undoubtedly been dead for thousands of years was certainly draining. Lyra could feel the spell soaking up more and more of her magic, and yet she had only achieved a making a sparkly but faint outline of a shape that looked nothing like a pony in the air in front of her.
She poured more magic into the spell, and played a little louder. The book said nothing about volume having any effect on the spell, but seemed to be helping, so Lyra played louder still. Whatever the shape was, it was becoming clearer and more defined, but still in no way resembled a pony. Lyra closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, giving the spell every ounce of magic she had. It took significant effort to continue playing the tune, but Lyra had waited years for a way to find out who wrote the music, and she wasn’t about to give up now.
Eventually, Lyra slumped back in the chair and stopped playing. Maybe she just didn’t have the magical ability to perform the spell. Maybe she would find Twilight when the librarian returned from Canterlot and ask her for- hold on a second, Lyra thought. Am I still playing? She was still holding the lyre, but the hoof she had been using the pluck the strings was hanging limply at her side. So why am I still hearing the song?
When Lyra opened her eyes, she yelped and nearly fell out of her chair. The spell had worked alright, but the sparkling, translucent, yellow-tinted image her magic had created was not one of a pony. The young mare’s golden eyes went wide as she stared at the strange being that was standing in front of her.
The image was of a tall, slender creature that stood on two legs, and was wearing a long white robe that covered most of its skin. The skin the Lyra could see was its feet, arms, neck, and head, and was mostly hairless. Instead of hooves, the creature had hands and feet, similar to that of a dragon, but with fleshy, flexible fingers and toes rather than sharp claws. It didn’t have a coat of fur like ponies did, but a long red mane of wavy red hair cascaded from the top of its head. The creature held a lyre, and was playing the very tune Lyra had been playing just a few seconds ago.
Lyra blinked in disbelief a few times as the magic dissipated and the image disappeared and the music with it. It sure wasn’t a pony, but if it wasn’t a pony who wrote the song, who did? The better question was what wrote the song?
That evening, when Twilight followed Doctor Whooves through the door that led to the royal observatory, she couldn’t help letting out a small gasp. The door led to small platform at least twenty feet up from the floor of the giant space, and there was a small staircase down to the main floor. It might have looked a relatively small part of the castle, barely noticeable from the outside when compared to the rest of the expansive royal palace, but the royal observatory was bigger on the inside.
The entire room was a cavernous dome at least a hundred feet in diameter and fifty feet high, with smooth white walls and an enormous telescope occupying most of the space, and that telescope poked up through a rectangular opening that stretched from the base of the dome to the crest. The floor of the dome was mostly empty, save the intricate tower of metal beams and gears that held up the telescope and allowed it to tilt while surveying different parts of the night sky. The eyepiece of the telescope wasn’t at a small end of a large tube. Rather, an internal system of mirrors and lenses channeled whatever the large end was looking at into an eyepiece that was fixed near the bottom of the tower, no matter where it was pointed. Near the base of the tower was a desk that was covered in astronomy books and loose papers, presumably for recording observations.
Doctor Whooves trotted down the stairs that led to the main floor, his hoofsteps echoing in the empty but well lit space. Once at the bottom, he beckoned Twilight, who was still admiring the telescope from the door at the top of the stairs. “Welcome to my humble abode,” he said graciously.
“You mean you live here?” Twilight asked as she trotted after the brown stallion.
Doctor Whooves smirked. “I’ve spent more nights here than where I actually live, if that’s what you mean.”
Twilight smiled back and gave an understanding nod. She herself had spent her fair share of sleepless nights gazing at the night sky through her own telescope at the library.
“Now, to business,” said Doctor Whooves and turned and walked over to the desk where the notes and books were piled high. “According to Princess Luna, the object will appear in a few minutes at the east horizon, and follow this trajectory.” He gave a piece of paper to Twilight with the details of the path the mysterious object would follow across the night sky.
Twilight, who was now sitting right next to the doctor, took the piece of paper in a cloud of magic and squinted at it. To most other ponies, it would appear as a meaningless mumbo-jumbo of lines, dots, and numbers. Thankfully, Twilight was not most other ponies. Thanks to a number of research projects and papers she had completed on the subject, Twilight was well-read on the subjects of celestial bodies and orbital mechanics. “Does the princess know how high up this thing is?”
“Higher up than we've ever been able to go,” replied Doctor Whooves, still rifling through the notes on his desk. “As far as Luna could tell, it’s orbiting our planet in a similar fashion to the moon, but there’s no magic involved.”
“Does that mean it’s just at the mercy of gravity?”
“Luna couldn't feel any magic coming from it, so we assume so. That's also how she knew it wasn't a pony. Although, it seems to have inserted itself into the perfect orbit even without the assistance of magic, so it won’t be falling out of the sky any time soon. And it’s high enough that no pegasi can fly up and get a closer look at it.” He selected a page and took it to the base of the structure holding up the telescope, and began turning cranks and pulling levers. “And that means this telescope is the only way to get a decent gander at the thing.”
“Is it closer or farther than the moon?”
“As far as Luna could tell, it’s closer. And it’s moving much faster. Luna usually moves the moon around our planet about once a day, and the princess said this thing goes around in about ninety minutes.”
Twilight looked back at the sheet of notes Doctor Whooves gave her thoughtfully, chin in hoof. “Are we sure it doesn't just look faster because it’s closer? I mean, if it’s closer, than even at the same speed it wouldn't take as long for it to go around.”
Doctor Whooves poked his head around the structure holding up the telescope to look at Twilight. “You really are as bright as Celestia boasts.”
Twilight responded to the compliment with a small blush.
“Hopefully,” he said, going back to the telescope’s controls and grunting as he struggled with a very large lever. “That’s one of the questions we’ll answer over the next few days.”
With a final grunt and a mighty yank, the chestnut astronomer finally moved the massive lever, and the telescope came to life. Every gear in the tower supporting it began to turn and the lens of massive telescope began tilt downwards. When Twilight looked up through the opening in the ceiling she saw that the stars appeared to be moving, but in reality they weren't. She gasped again a she realized the whole room was slowly rotating, and that the doctor was pointing the telescope at the exact point in the sky where the object would appear.
“Doctor, do we know what this thing looks like?” Twilight asked.
“Princess Luna sent a rough sketch, but it’s not all that descriptive. Whatever we see tonight will be the first good look pony kind gets at it.”
Finally the room and telescope stopped moving, and Doctor Whooves peered into the eyepiece with one eye closed. He didn’t move for a few minutes, and Twilight could only watch anxiously. Suddenly, without moving, his closed eye opened wide, and Twilight could only assume is other eye, still pressed against the telescope’s eyepiece, widened as well.
“Oh,” the doctor murmured. “Oh, my.”
“What is it, Doctor?”
“Twilight, you may wish to come see this.” There was a slight tinge of fear in his voice as he stepped away from the telescope.
With a worried look on her face, Twilight wasted no time in galloping the short distance to the spot where Doctor Whooves previously stood. She pressed her eye against the tiny lens and gasped. Luna’s sketch wasn’t inaccurate, but her smaller spyglass just didn’t reveal the level of detail that Twilight was being treated to on the more powerful machine. It certainly was no space rock, it was artificial. This thing was massive, yet its design was aerodynamic. The doctor must have set the telescope to follow the object’s trajectory, because the stars around seemed to be moving but the unknown shape stayed in the center of the image. “Doctor, is that it?” she asked.
“Well, I think you’d be hard pressed to find anything more unusual than that in the night sky, so yes.”
“It’s huge!” Twilight gasped.
The doctor, who was back at his desk scribbling notes, looked up at his lavender assistant. “Care to be a bit more descriptive?”
“It’s like an airship almost,” Twilight said as she squinted back into the lens. “But without a balloon to hold it up. It’s long and cylindrical, like a candle, but it looks like there are big flat wings coming out from the sides. It’s just so...” She paused to try and think of a way to properly describe what she was seeing. “It’s so alien,” Twilight said resolutely. “Sorry if that doesn't do a whole lot of describing, but I've never seen anything like this before.”
“That’s quite alright,” the doctor said around the pencil in his mouth. “I did catch a glimpse of it myself, and I understand. Whatever this thing is, it’s definitely not from this world.”
Twilight stepped away from the telescope and joined Doctor Whooves at his desk. “Is there any way to tell where it’s from?” she asked him.
“I’m afraid not. My colleagues and I have long thought it possible for planets capable of supporting life to exist elsewhere in space, but we've never actually spotted one. Ours is the only planet in the solar system that can sustain life, and as wonderful as this old girl is," he paused and patted the telescope affectionately. "She can't see planets outside of our system. And even if she could, there are millions of stars that could have planets like ours, and it would take thousands of years to search them all. As I’m sure you know, Twilight, a great many things have to go right during a planet’s lifetime if it’s going to sustain multi-cellular organic life.”
Twilight nodded. “I know a planet can’t be too close to a sun, or solar winds will blast away the atmosphere, and if it’s too far then it’s simply too cold for anything to live.”
“Very good, Twilight,” Doctor Whooves mused. “Perhaps you should have been an astronomer rather than a librarian. But there are many more factors that contribute to a planet’s suitability for life as we know it.”
“Like what?” Twilight asked.
“The atmosphere has to be made up of a very specific combination of gases, and there needs to be an abundance of liquid water. The planet itself needs to be geologically stable enough, or there would simply be too many earthquakes and volcano eruptions for anything to live there. Also, if anything big enough collides with said planet, say a large comet, asteroid, or even another planet, not only would the collision obliterate any life that managed to pop up, but it could knock the planet out of its ideal orbit around the sun, therefore ruining chances of life coming back at all.”
Twilight was floored. Based on Doctor Whooves’ description, it seemed almost impossible that all the life in Equestria existed in the first place.
Doctor Whooves saw the young mare’s incredulous expression, and said, “Like I said, a great many things went right on our planet. And while it is theoretically possible for another planet to be as lucky, the cards are stacked against it.”
Twilight nodded in understanding, before thinking of another question. “You said we've never spotted another planet that could sustain life?”
“Not that we can tell,” the doctor sighed.
“Well, if whatever is in that thing made it all the way here from wherever it’s from, they had to see us first, right?”
Doctor Whooves raised an eyebrow, curious where Twilight was going with this. “I suppose. Go on.”
“Is there any area relatively nearby that we can’t see, maybe because it’s blocked by something else?”
The doctor thought for a minute. “The only direction we can’t point this telescope is directly at the sun. So if you’re suggesting there is a ‘hidden’ planet in our solar system, I think behind the sun would be the only place where such a thing could be.”
“And what if that hidden planet was more or less like ours, shared the same orbit, had the same distance between it and the sun, had the right atmosphere, had enough water, and everything?” By now, Twilight was getting excited. A semi-plausible theory was forming in her head, and there was nothing to disprove it, so far.
“You know,” Doctor Whooves said, holding his chin in his hoof again. “That might just be the most believable thing I've heard today. And the fact that something is here in the first place means whatever is on that planet could have easily sent something or someone out far enough to where it could see us.”
Twilight got even more excited, before realizing exactly what the doctor had said. “I wonder just how long this thing has been watching us?” she asked with a shudder.
Doctor Whooves, who was still slightly giddy over the extrapolations they had made, already had a quill and parchment out on his desk. “It may be best not to think about that, Twilight. Now let’s get our theories sent to the princesses. They’re going to want to hear this.”