“We just hit two point five millibars!” Spike’s voice rattled up through the brass speaking tube.
Twilight tentatively pressed the middle lever.
The Telescope moved flawlessly on its new bearings. Feeling as though it had never been broken in the first place.
True to her words, Applejack, a humble farmer, had improved on the design considerably. The Telescope now focused in and out, whisper-quiet. Safeguards had been installed which made sure the mare’s help would never be needed again, but a small part of Twilight felt saddened by that… and even more so when she’d left. Needed, no, but wanted?
Still, even with this new revelation, she was glad Spike hadn’t told Applejack about the Mare on the Moon. He hadn’t seen the hoofprints like she had; he still probably thought it was a fault with the Telescope. Twilight had believed that, too, hadn’t she?
For now, the Mare on the Moon remained her little secret.
She widened the field of view, scanning the lunar surface for that pinprick of blue on white desert. There, a few… kilometers? Yes, about that far from the edge of the darkness as the moon started to wane.
Why not stay at the far edge, then, where it was always light?
She narrowed the field of view until she could see the Mare fully. She was galloping now, looking back over her shoulder, mane and tail streaming behind her—caught in that breeze that couldn’t be. The Telescope had to move fractions of a millimeter to keep her tight in the unicorn’s view. What was she running from? The darkness, obviously, but…
Twilight leaned back away from the eyepiece. This mare was like a foal on the beach, playing with the lapping tide; running with it as it receded, and then away as it pushed its way back to shore, each cycle running the course of a month.
She wasn’t just lonely. She was bored.
“Hey, Twilight, can I see?”
Spike’s disembodied voice rattled her out of her revelatory reverie. “See what, Spike?”
“The Mare on the Moon. I want to see her!”
Twilight considered it a moment. Was there really a reason to keep it to herself? Why hadn’t she reported it to the Princess yet? The thought of telling the Princess of Mourning about this felt… wrong, for some reason. Very wrong.
Spike, though?
“Sure, Spike. Make sure the boilers won’t explode without you, and come up here. Take the ladders, though, we don’t want to waste pressure on the elevator.”
“Gotcha. Be there in a few minutes.”
Twilight would feel more guilty about sending Spike up the ladders if she didn’t already know two things: that the elevator was up here at the top, and so she would have to spend pressure on sending it down as well as back up, which was the cold logical reason. The other was that Spike liked climbing. Maybe not that much, no, but it was the closest he could come to flying, since his wings hadn’t grown in yet. Those claws of his made him a better climber than any pony, and he took no small amount of pride in that.
Twilight tracked the galloping mare on the moon slowly, the minutes passing in breathless seconds. She jumped when Spike tapped her on the shoulder.
“Oh! I kept her in view for you. The telescope should be moving at the right speed to keep up with her, now, so all you have to worry about is looking down the eyepiece.”
Spike grinned as Twilight vacated her little brass-and-velvet seat affixed to the Telescope’s side and Spike plopped down in her place, stretching his neck to reach the eyepiece.
“Woah, she’s really moving, isn’t she?”
“She’s trying to outrun the darkness. I think it’s like a game to her.”
“Boring game,” Spike grunted. “Not like there’s anything else to do up there, though, is there?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“How long do you think she’s been up there?” Spike wondered, eye never leaving the harsh metal eyepiece, pressed to it like not even Twilight dared to with her far more sensitive pony physiology. Draconic skin, draconic skull, draconic eyes all made pressing into it less painful.
“I have no idea. The tracks seem to run all over the moon though. If she makes a circuit once a month… She’d have to have been up there for hundreds of years.”
“The Telescope isn’t broken, is it? There really is a mare up there, huh?”
Twilight was uncharacteristically silent at that.
“Woah!” Spike yelped, suddenly. “Stop! Stop the telescope! Go back!”
“What? What happened?”
“She stopped running, and the Telescope just shot right past her!” Spike jumped out of the chair, giving Twilight a worrisome look. She took his place, magic gripping the lever again and pulling it gently back.
The Telescope moved less than half a millimeter on its bearings, but its view shot back across perhaps a hundred meters, maybe two. The Mare on the Moon was standing, stock still, looking up into the sky…
Directly at her.
Twilight rocked back in her seat, tearing herself away from the eyepiece. Spike tugged at her fur, like an anxious child years his younger would.
“What? What happened? Why’d she stop?”
“I think… I think she knows we’re watching her.”
“How?! Is she mad?” Spike stared up at the moon, a child awaiting judgement from a parent, hand caught in the cookie jar. Twilight knew how he felt.
Looking back into the eyepiece, she saw that the Mare was still staring up at her—at her—across the great span of the aether between them. The Mare shook her head slowly, mane still caught in that wind that couldn’t be, and started running again. The spell was broken.
“She knows,” Twilight whispered.
“Did you see her face, though?” Spike whispered, as if the Mare could hear them, even now.
“I did. Why?”
The little dragon looked at her a long moment, then down at himself, claw scratching idly at a soot stain earned from working the boilers. Finally, he worked up the courage to say what he thought. “She looked just like you did, when Applejack left yesterday.”
Twilight’s heart froze, an unbeating block of ice weighing against her chest, as she looked up at the bright moon above.
A decision was made.
“We’ve got to find some way to talk to her, Spike.”
“What? But… but nopony has ever sent a message across the aether before! Magic won’t go through it, even if you got the Princess to help you!”
It was true. The Princess of Mourning was strong enough to spin the world, but even she had stated that it was impossible to send magic out beyond Equestria. A single tear had fallen from behind the black veil that she was never without, not even alone, so Twilight knew the truth of it.
“Then we can’t use magic,” Twilight agreed, pushing herself away from the telescope and peering down, down into the bookshelf labyrinth below, and she made a decision. “Tomorrow, I’m going to the University. Science will succeed where magic has failed.”
“You sound so sure. You haven’t even made me double-check anything! How do you know?”
Twilight stepped into the elevator, Spike plodding along behind her, everything about his expression and body language pleading for an answer.
“Because it has to, Spike. I know, because it has to.”
Whatever Spike’s thought on that matter, he remained silent the length of the elevator ride down.
Small chapter, small comment.
For some reason, I really like this sentence. Has a nice rhythm.
As per the chapter proper -- the biggest mystery here is how the hell does Luna realize Twilight is looking at her. Aether eats magic, that's established, so it can't just be her alicorn powers (also, notice how Twi doens't freak out by the fact that she's an alicorn -- that oughta mean something). I have no idea how. At first I thought about some kind of reflection? From the telescope, perhaps? Like, the lenses gleaming. But I doubt such a thing could be seen, so that's probably not it.
Maybe it's something a little more poetic, or more magical in nature. I don't think I can really guess it, so let's go to the next chapter already. I'm pumped for that one.
Twilight needs to improve her boilers. 2.5 millibars is nothing, it is only like .036 psi. A balloon needs like 1 psi to inflate it to overcome the elastic forces of the balloon; that's like 69 millibars. Shouldn't have any issue with the boilers exploding at those pressures, much less wrecking a telescope.
I really want to know how this elevator works now. It is storing potential energy as it goes up so going down should be a breeze.
The writing is good and you have an interesting premise. However, the engineer in me wonders about Twilight's inventions.
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Sounds like an excuse to get Applejack to come back, maybe? Fix em boilers!
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Sorry I didn't reply to this one earlier. Saw all your other comments but this one until 5700405 pointed it out, in his own way.
See, the electrical stuff that comes later? I actually did the maths and research for all that [1] but pressure seems to be something I was off by a few orders of magnitude. I admit, I used those units only from memory, which appears to be egregiously wrong.
If you could send a PM my way regarding some of the more... well, embarrassing errors, I'll be happy to fix those up right away.
[1]I'm damned proud of my laser calculations (and just how much lampshading was needed to sate the engineers in the audience) and my lightning energy conversions...
I've got a feeling that, sometime soon, six intrepid ponies and a dragon will be flying a steam-powered aether-proofed-transport-mobile across the void to the Moon. What happens then depends on whether that's Luna or Nightmare Moon...
Unless, a thousand years alone has cured the Nightmare of her hate and left her only with a desire to go home and feel her sister's hooves embrace her again.
A couple times in the chapter you have said "The Mourning Princess." So unless in the land down under you spell the time of day with "U" You're saying that she is the "princess of grief" When someone you love dies, you are in mourning. When the sun comes up, it's Morning.
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Keep reading and it will make sense. It says that she's always wearing a black veil as you as would do when mourning the dead
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I've think you've missed some... crucial signs.
Shoułd this not be 1 sentence?
Y'all motherfers need electricity
Ah man, the feels there...
Don't worry Twilight, Spike will make himself sure to be present when they explode .
I don't know why ,but i first understood it that way
Damn it, Numbers, I hadn't recovered from the gut punch of "for some strange reason, that made Twilight sad" yet.
You're not allowed to steal my emotions like this! Perfectly normal ponies like me need a reliable food source!
This is awesome. All hail Luna. The best Princess.
I love the little details you give about the state of the land, and more importantly, the state of Celestia. She truly misses her sister.
I fell in love with the premise immediately, and now? I'm falling in love with the characters. Twilight is still twilight but in a world where science rules over magic. Same with AJ and spike. The mare in the moon is so far executed really well.
And the princesses of mourning. Not morning. Forever veiled in black in memory of her lost/banished sister (taking guesses here) and yet I expect she will still be like celestia.
I cant wait to read more.
Achoo! Oh I think I accidentally hit 'like' and 'favorite'. Oh well, might as well leave it.
In all seriousness, I've fallen in love with this story and it's characters, it's beautifully written so far, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
Okay... you just took one of my pet peeves about fannon (Luna ON the moon) and not only made it work, but made it good. Bravo!
Oooh.
So this Celestia doesn't move the sun, but rotates the planet instead.
A very nice touch there.
OOOOH!
So she was strong enough to send Luna to the moon (for whatever reason) but can't bring her back?
...maybe an alicorn experiment gone wrong?
I'm eager to find out!
Quick followup for a quick chapter! You can find the rest here!
I just want to say, as someone who enjoys chapter titles consistencies, opposite views or essentially being creative in my presentation of the story structure itself, I do love that we go “The Mare Who…” to “Character Focus.” That was quite nice indeed.
Actual note: Dun Dun Dun. And here we get another note in the dark orchestra playing every time Celestia is mentioned. Something is very wrong with the world. The real question is… is it just that this world is different… or something more? (For the longest time, I thought it was the world was different, honestly).
Wow.
And that big about the black veil? A somber chord was just struck…
So princess Celestia moves the earth. But around the sun, or does she just spin it. What about the moon, is it just up in the sky 24/7 or does earth move around the moon moving around the sun?
I like how this story uses the word "Mourning" like a double standard.
it sound spike "morning" but at the same time she is also morning the loss of her sister.
so it would depend on who you asked for which was it should be spelled.
Foreigners would hear "morning" and never think twice about out cloudy day.
while ponies who live there know she is really mourning.
I just really like this small tidbit.
Oh man! I just thought of sonething!
"The stars will aid in her escape"
Twilight's cutie mark is literally a six pointed star!
Say, if apples are hard to lift for unicorns, does that mean unicorns are generally rather magically-weak compared to their canon counterparts?
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It could be less a question of if they have trouble pick one up and more a question of do they have the reaction time to catch one from the air.
More so if they weren't expecting it to be thrown their way.
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As it turns out, they're rather weak compared to their canon counterparts...because there's less magic on the PLANET. Once they hit space they appear to reach canon levels of power.
I'm getting Jules Verne From the Earth to the Moon vibes from this, which is awesome
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With five stars surrounding it
Magnificent chapter. Nightmaremoon included in the Friendship is magic in the development ♡
Twilight Sparkle has good instincts. I guess the best she can is spread the knows of the mare in the moon by letting others see her. Hundreds would be preferable so Celestia can't run from her failure and perhaps start a Celebration of her Sister years before she returns. Maybe get Nightmare Night improved, with the eating foals part removed.
Holy cow. This is great! The pacing, the descriptions and details, the occasional subversion of expectation, and now, with it seeming like it's Luna looking back and not Nightmare Moon, it's going to be an amazing ride.
Ooooh... Chills.