Prologue
“And this is how the Moon affects the oceans and orbit of our planet,” Twilight concluded to herself, her quill dancing across the parchment. I’ve never really taken the time to study these things, she thought to herself. It’s a wonder I haven’t – it’s fascinating!
She briefly turned away from her study and peered through the telescope, looking over the pale lunar surface.
It was a little before midnight, and Twilight was sitting outside on her balcony, studying – you guessed it – the moon and the stars. The moon almost looked alien, the shadow of the Mare in the Moon gone forever. Twilight had grown up seeing those dark craters, and now that they were gone the moon seemed almost brighter, it’s radiance shining down over Equestria. She turned back to her books and parchment, rubbing her eyes, feeling a little bit sleepy. She was used to this late night study, so it didn’t really cut into her sleep cycle much. She turned her head back to the telescope, and then let out a startled gasp when her horn hit the eye-piece, knocking the telescope to face a different direction.
“Oh no!” She sprang to her hooves, and examined her precious sky-gazer for any signs of damage.
“Thank Equestria,” she sighed, finding nothing to worry about. This telescope had been a gift from her brother for her birthday many years ago. Feeling lucky, she looked on through. In her new telescopic field of vision was a star. A particularly bright star, with a reddish-orange color, twinkling brightly against the dark sapphire midnight sky.
“No, not a star, it’s a planet.” She said to herself. “Hm… Venus? No, Venus only appears in early morning and evening… Mars, that looks about right! Its mars,” she confirmed to herself. She examined the bright, star-like object for a bit before turning to her books.
“The Sun and Moon are important celestial bodies,” she spoke to herself. “And each is controlled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna respectively, but what about the planets?”
Curiosity began to seep into her mind; Luna and Celestia control the sun and moon. But what about the other planets?
An interesting thought, a nagging curiosity. Twilight had never thought about it, she knew there were other planets and yet this thought had never come to her. And now that it did, it hit her like a train. She picked up The Astronomical Astronomers Almanac to all things Astronomy – a brand new copy she’d ordered after Spike accidentally roasted the other one.
“This should be interesting!” she said with a smile.
~~~
“Twilight?”
Twilight felt a claw gently nudge her shoulder, and she let out an irritated, indecipherable mutter.
“Twilight, wake up,”
Twilight opened her eyes to a wall of text. She groaned, and lifted her head with a stiff neck; the book fell forward off of her head. How it ended up on top of her head in the first place was beyond her. She blinked her bleary eyes, and then rubbed them with her hooves. “What time is it?”
“It’s noon,” Spike replied from behind her.
“Noon!?” Twilight sprang to her hooves. “Why didn’t you wake me earlier?!”
“Uh, I… sort of took the opportunity to sleep in,” the dragon admitted and Twilight sighed. She levitated up her books and papers, causing a small wave of pain to course through her head from her horn. She shook her head as if it would shake the headache away, and neatly stacked the papers, then turned and trotted indoors with her things levitating behind her and Spike following close behind.
“What were you doing all night?”
“Studying, Spike.” She paused, as if momentarily forgetting what exactly she’d been studying, then a metaphorical light bulb lit up over her head.
“I was thinking, The Moon and Sun each have deities – in this case Celestia and Luna – who raise and lower them, control them, and so on. But what about the planets?”
“What about the planets?” he asked.
“Do they have special ponies who guide them through the sky? Or do they guide themselves? I mean, I’ve heard that the planets and some other astral objects – even our planet, have minds of their own and move themselves, and I just got so excited to study it!”
“And did you find what you were looking for?” he closed the door to the balcony, and tugged the books out of Twilight’s magical magenta grip, ready to put them away for her.
“Well – no, actually…” he ears drooped. “All my books talked about them, what they’re made of, key components, and their distance to the sun, how fast they move, and so on… but nothing about whether or not they’re sentient, or have ponies that guide them through the sky.”
“Bummer. Hey, I’m going to put these books away,” he told her and headed for the steps.
“Alright,” she said. She trotted up to the mirror, and started running her hairbrush through her mane. The wonder still tugged in the back of her mind, refusing to go away.
“This calls for more study,” she then winced at a particularly painful throb in her head. “…After I take something for this headache.”
She set the brush down and headed into the bathroom. She searched the medicine cabinet until she found what she was looking for, and then unscrewed the cap. She levitated a pill up and popped it into her mouth, grimacing at the bitter taste. She trotted down the steps and into the kitchen. She searched the cupboards for a bit, then sighed.
“Want me to make something?” Spike asked, stepping in.
“No, actually – how about we go get muffins or something from Sugarcube Corner.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Spike replied eagerly.
“Hang on, though,” Twilight said, trotting into the main room and towards her ‘reading desk’ she produced parchment and quill, scribbled down furiously, and then rolled the letter up. “You don’t have to send this,” she told the baby dragon. “I’ll give it to Ditzy; this one isn’t going to Celestia.”
~The Next Week~
“Package for Twilight Sparkle!” Ditzy’s husky voice was accompanied by a knock on the door, and Twilight closed her book, put down her reading glasses and headed for the door, opening it wide. The light gray Pegasus was fluttering next to a large box which couldn’t have possibly been pushed or carried, and had a letter balanced on her hoof.
“For you!” Ditzy, or if you wish her preferred nickname, Derpy, said. She handed Twilight the letter, and nudged the box.
“Thank you,” Twilight smiled, taking the letter. Derpy saluted, and then flew off, letters trailing behind her. Twilight looked at the massive package for a moment, before opening the letter.
Twilight Sparkle,
I shipped you all of the books on the subject that we have, though I’m curious as to why you want them. Anyway, they’re due back next month, and I’ll assume you can read all of them in that time. Knowing you…
Anyway, enjoy.
Your friend and fellow librarian, White Quill
Twilight smiled, “They’ve arrived!” she levitated up the box with minor difficulty, and brought it inside. (She had to turn it onto its side to get it to fit)
“What’s arrived?”
“Spike, I ordered a bunch of books from the library in Canterlot. The one I used to work in, don’t you remember?”
“Oh. What did you need?” Spike looked at the massive package in confusion. “Isn’t that a little excessive?”
Twilight opened the box, and peered in. “Books on the planets, the sun and moon, theories and such on Celestia and Luna… and a few spell books.”
She then levitated the books out carefully, and placed them each around her ‘reading place.’
There’s got to be at least forty books, fifty at most! Spike thought, and Twilight picked on out.
“Alright, Spike! Time to study!”
Stats
Page generated in 0.02 seconds
Total duration
995 users online
2,169,696 hits today, 2,707,512 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
How... how has this never been done before?
I'm really liking it so far, too!
i12.photobucket.com/albums/a216/DarkTorrent/cute-puppy-loldog-indubitably.jpg
Whooaaa, never thought about that :O
1832784 I love you.
1832783 Wait, this hasn't been done before?
...
....
YESSSSSS I'VE DONE IT FIRST~ I'VE DONE IT FIRST~
...*Ahem* Please continue your daily activities.
1832809 i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2010/12/15/a4a74181-ab9c-4539-8082-e1f5b656140f.jpg
I love you too.
Add 3 words to the chapter and I'll read it.
1832928 Huh? What do you mean?
I mean exactly what I said.
1832999 But I don't get it. Does the page appear blank to you or something?
Wow... you're such a nub. Guess I'm not reading it.
...I guess someone already pointed out how close this chapter is to leetness. SO CLOSE!
Anyways, joking aside, you've got something interesting here. Will Twilight actually discover some actual ancient/forgotten deities in the pages of a history book or will she get a lesson on typical astronomy and physics on gravity and of the such? OR WILL SHE LEARN ABOUT BOTH?!?!
Either way, I'll be tracking this. This could turn out to be a pretty fun story.
1833018
Add three words to it so that the chapter's word count equals 1337, AKA LEET in leetspeak.
I feel very bad for having to explain that meme.
1833052 I don't care whether or not you read it, but now I feel stupid. Can you at least explain what I'm missing?
1833096 <- what he said. Except that LEET is short for elite... as in... 'pro'
1833096 Oh. I've never heard of that meme. I feel really really dumb.
1833103
Close enough.
It's so Twilight Sparkle it hurts.
Well done. A question: Did you mean to use the same planets from our solar system for Equestria's? The names all came from Greco-Roman mythology, and of course Equestria's mythology is quite different from ours...For one, Tartarus is a real place and actually guarded by Cerebus... You can of course keep it, in which case I'm looking forward to the pony Gods of War and Love...Wait, isn't that already Cadence?
Regardless, adding to read later.
1833833 yes, I am using the same planets earth has, and I haven't quite come up with a reason how.
Maybe Celestia and Luna named them?
Maybe they named themselves, maybe they ARE the gods that they're named after. I haven't quite come up with a reason yet,
This is rather excellent so far, a good start and very to-character. I'll have to read the rest of it later, but I can't wait either way