Pony Stories

by GullibleCynic

Determination

Clover the Clever instructs a young Celestia in the magic of the sun and the moon

The memory of the old homeland was just starting to fade. The three tribes had taken well to Equestria and were divided no longer. Government would always remain government however. Fortunately for Clover the Clever it was his turn to instruct the foals.

As Clover walked through the halls of the capitol building in the early hours before dawn he was shadowed by a small white filly. She was still quite small and had a hard time keeping up at her normal walking pace. As always she was excited and full of questions, even at that early hour.

“Why isn't Lulu joining us Miss Clever?” the filly asked, looking up at her mentor for the day.

“My dear Celestia, your sister is still too young for this, she needs her rest. But worry not, her time will come, she will not be left out.” That seemed to satisfy the filly for the moment. Celestia’s desire to include Luna in everything always warmed Clover’s heart.

Before long Celestia’s questions began again. “You still haven’t told me what we’re doing up so early though.”

“I thought you liked surprises.” Clover retorted

“I like causing surprises. There’s a difference.”

Clover smiled at this. “Well, hypothesize then. You have some data, what conclusion can you reach?”

“Well, I know that you are here and you are the Archmage of the Unicorns are are very powerful. I know that Lulu is too young for what we are about to try. And I know that it is almost dawn.” The look of realization shot across Celestia face in an instant. “Oh, that makes it obvious!”

Celestia giggling filled the halls as she bounced all around the older pony, a wide smile on her face. “Are we really going to see the unicorns raise the Sun? Are we, are we?”

Queen Platinum would have had a conniption if she saw Celestia acting with such lack of decorum. The thought broadened Clover’s smile just a bit wider. “Well done, yes we will and perhaps more than that someday. But for now we are almost there.”

Of course Celestia knew how to present herself properly, but this was the most important and powerful of Unicorn magic, and she was going to learn about it first hoof!

Soon they exited the hallway and emerged on a platform overlooking the lands and facing to the east, the direction of the rising sun. In a circle all around the platform there were unicorns wearing the highest level mage robes. They had already started their chanting, warming up the spell.

Clover made her way to the middle, beckoning the now slightly hesitant filly to join her. “Alright Celestia, stay close to me. And don't worry, the first time is always a bit disorienting.” This did not fully reassure Celestia.

Slowly the air around them started to shimmer and the familiar scenes to the city and countryside below gave way to a strange, ethereal space full of stars and nebulae.

“This is the astral sea.” Explained Clover. “Many powerful magics can be performed here. Memory spells to relive events of a pony’s life. Augmentation spells, to increase a pony’s magic.

“And it is from here that we can most easily raise the sun and the moon. But more importantly, it is from here that we can show new unicorn mages why we must cast these spells.”

An image of the world as if seen from high above still dark from the night appeared before Celestia. All of a sudden she felt very far from home. From this distance it would take Celestia many days of flying at her top speed to get back to the world below. But the calm presence of Clover reassured her.

Far off in the distance she could see another smaller orb glowing brightly. “The moon” Clover explained as Celestia pointed at the curious object..

Then she saw a third sphere peak out from behind her world. It was about the same size as the moon and about the same distance from the planet. “Is... is that another moon?”

“No.” Clover sighed. “That is the sun.” Celestia had never seen it from this perspective before. She had always assumed it was much larger than the moon, it was much brighter after all.

As the unicorns around them started casting their sun raising spell Clover conjured a simplified diagram of the planetary system.
“The truth is if we stopped casting our spells day and night would continue, for a time. But do you notice anything about the way these objects are arranged Celestia?”

Celestia stared, but couldn’t see anything that struck her as odd. Though, truth be told she did not have much of a basis of comparison. She shook her head no.

Clover nodded. “It is very subtle. Essentially, this is not a stable configuration. The sun and the moon never cross paths. The sun is only seen during the day, the moon at night. But, unless they are both at the exact same distance from the planet and have the exact same mass this can not happen naturally. And it probably didn’t. We don't know how this arrangement came to be, but without us nudging everything back into place it would all fall apart very quickly.”

Clover was somber, but the look of understanding on celestia’s face filled her with hope.

I that moment Celestia looked more determined than Clover had ever seen her. “Someday Luna and I will make sure that the sun and the moon will no longer be an impending disaster hanging over our heads. I promise Miss Clever.”

Author's Note:

The Prompt: "That’s no moon!" Link

Comments

[Twi-Guy]

It's a space station.