Bedtime Stories For The Mare In The Moon

by Needling Haystacks

Front Material

Author's Note:

A note to the human reader:
For the purposes the of the following work, the events depicted in sources other than the TV series are treated as rumors or urban legends that may or may not be true. This includes the IDW comics (MLPIDW), the chapter books, and perhaps some fan lore. The intention is to avoid taking a firm stance on their canonicity. The reader is left to work out everything else on their own.

Forward to the second edition:

As is now well-known, shortly after the publication of the first edition of this book, the Mare in the Moon was, in fact, released, and revealed to be Princess Luna, hereafter 'Ms. Luna', as my reasons for avoiding royal titles remain unchanged. Oddly enough, the markings which formed her 'head' on the moon disappeared as well, suggesting that they were part of a magic circle or seal. To my regret, I must leave this hypothesis to my unicorn colleagues to confirm.

Since this event, there has been renewed interest in this book. Mostly for the historical narratives and analyses therein, though I hope at least some have enjoyed the flights of fancy that are also included. This interest has necessitated a second printing, and I have deemed it appropriate to write this new forward to accompany it.

I have, for the most part, let the original text stand as written,. I have taken the liberty of inserting a few personal names that I was unable to find at the time of the original writing, that have since been supplied to me. This means that various speculations that have been proven wrong are intact, as are those that have been proven true (and I wish there were more of those!). I hope the reader will appreciate the pre-millenial academic environment.

Three entirely new chapters have been inserted at the end. One deals with Luna's return and what that has meant, one deals with the brief return of Discord, the recent Royal Marriage (a term not really properly applied in over a thousand years), and the return of the Crystal Empire, and the third is a new original story.

It has been revealed, though not widely publicized, that Ms. Luna is adept at a new form of magic which deals with the viewing and manipulating of dreams. This has caused much concern in some corners, though I shall save that discussion for the new chapters. I mention it here because, as I mentioned in the original forward, some of the works of fiction in this volume began as dreams. This new information draws the intriguing possibility that those were not simple dreams, but the banished Alicorn reaching out from her prison. I have had occasion to question Ms. Luna about this, and she stated that that was a possibility, but that she does not remember being responsible for those dreams in particular. Given the tendency of dreams to fade on waking, this seems imminently plausible. On the other hand, perhaps I have been infected with a touch of royalist sentiment myself, and am trying to find connections where there are none.

Since I wrote the extra chapters of this version, but before I submitted the final draft of this forward, a new princess has been crowned. This reflects on some of the material in this book, but the looming deadline given by my publisher has precluded me from writing on it to the extent that I would wish. Not wanting to confuse matters further with a third edition, I think that I may write a separate volume on the history of the roll of Alicorns in our society. If, that is, my duties permit the necessary time and I can secure a collaborator. While there is much I would say on the subject, history is beyond my usual ken.

However, I may say a few words here. Ms. Twilight Sparkle was a student of mine for one semester, when I was an adjunct professor just starting out, and to date I have had exactly one interviewer, Ms. Written Blabber, inquire about this. The full interview may be read in the Canterlot U's student magazine's Harvest Moon edition of this past year, where it was originally published. Excerpts may be found in the Canterlot Times issue of December 2nd of this year. To summarize: I do remember her (indeed, Celestia's personal proteges tend to attract attention, whether they want it or not!), I tried not to show her favoritism, though I do not know how well I succeeded, and while she was a bright student, I have had students and colleagues of comparable ability. I dare say some of my unicorn colleagues would likely consider their abilities to surpass hers, though they may grudgingly admit to lacking her raw talent. Further commentary on the issue will have to wait for my next book, if indeed I ever find the time to write it!

Here follows the original forward.

Forward:

The book you now hold in your hands is a strange amalgam. I originally thought to write a layman's summary of the advances in astronomy over the last decade or so, but on realizing that the millennial Summer Sun Celebration was imminent, I narrowed my focus to the study of the moon. A few traces of the original intent remain here and there. As I began to write, I realized that the millennial legend should really be included, as it is seldom studied save by historians and the odd romantic astronomer like myself. From there, it became natural to include various other bits of folklore, and to analyze them in the light of astronomical observations of the last century or so. Legendary elements having been introduced, it became natural to use this work as a vehicle for publishing some of the fictional short stories I have dabbled with over the years. The end result is a work that interleaves the study of legends, an elaboration of modern astronomy, and works of fiction related to these.

Two caveats should here be noted. First, I am, as I have stated, and astronomer. I am in no way a historian or a folkloreist. I have, however, endeavored to make use of colleagues and frinds who are, as well as the libraries of Cloudsdale College and Canterlot University. The bulk of the history work was aided by Book Cook and the folklore by Dr Secondhand Quill. Various sources are cited as appropriate, though I suspect the lay-reader will simply pass these by. I hope that I have not made any serious errors, or at any rate not more than a handful. Second, some of the original fiction herein was inspired by dreams I have had. I found myself compelled by them and have attempted to render them as sensible as I can. I hope that some measure of the ineffable quality dreams often have will impress itself on the reader.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to my friend Book Cook for aiding me with the history research, and to Dr. Secondhand Quill for his aid with the study of folklore. Thanks also go to the Cloudsdale College and Canterlot University libraries, whose resources were invaluable as well. And of course, a thanks to my loving parents, whose work and support put me in the position where I had the luxury of writing this.

Comments

[Needling Haystacks]

I edited this material to square with my current plans for the "Second Edition" chapters. I had planned to only do 2 originally, but then came up with a third I wanted to do. I also added slightly more detailed descriptions of those chapters.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

I point out that historians generally consider that you need 50-100 years to understand the significance of events and longer is better.

In other words, we've got a fairly good grasp of WWI, some idea of WWII, & starting to get a grip on the 1960s. Anything nearer than that is just a guess.

I'd say Equestrian historians have the same problems.

[Needling Haystacks]

7648653 True. Doesn't stop people from trying in our world, though. XP