The Skies Above Canterlot

by Juvenal

A Visit

The road home was long and dark. He sought something to do, so he did what any astronomer might do. He looked up skyward and thought of the Princess moving the stars, all the moons, and all the planets. It was a wonder to him that one being could manage such a thing, even with gifted magic talents and the mind to match. He stopped on the side of the road in particular to see the moon sail upwards. It seemed to go unusually fast, as if excited by some unknown force. But still, it impressed him as always. He saw the mares of the moon and contemplated if it would be a good idea to rename them, considering that the word “mare” now referred to about 70% of the population of the world he stood on. But he probably couldn’t keep it straight anyways, so mare they would stay.

He got back on the path and took his long route home. A few carriages passed him, but it was otherwise uneventful, and he got to enjoy the night sky setting in. It was different, gazing at it on foot. It wasn’t quite like seeing it through a telescope, notepad at his side. That was work. This was admiring, like staring at the tide coming in at sunrise or a beautiful mountainside in the early morning. It was a beauty, with a pitch-blackness tinted just slightly by shades of red and purple from the remnants of daylight giving way. The stars glistened bright as diamonds, with the moon being a great white opal blessing the sky. Picture perfect, it was true beauty in his eyes.

He situated himself for the night watch, despite being a bit tired from the day’s work and the banquet. After redressing himself, he took a sit in his beloved recliner, one of the few comforts from home that he had had remade by ponies. Between the comfort of normal clothes and the serenity of his hilltop, he wondered why he ever left the place. His eyes slowly panned across the room, across the simple dressers and tables and beds; stopping on a framed photo. Oh, right. That’s why. The photo showed a young boy, sitting pleased at the main square of a county fair many, many years ago. He was surrounded by all manners of men and women enjoying the day, all eagerly deciding between what to visit first: food stalls, game booths, or the main attractions? It made him feel rather sad, actually – he hadn’t seen a soul of his own kind in eight months. He’d been optimistic to come back for the first two months, but once he settled into a routine and career he’d given up hope such a portal would ever come. Dancing, families, girls… ponies were fine folk, but those are things they could never supply. Not in the same way. He sighed, and stood up and headed towards the observatory section of the building. There was no sense dwelling in the past, and even less in wanting things he could never have.

The observations that night were rather queer, and everything seemed to be gliding around rather giddily compared to normal. If he didn’t know better, he’d say they had a mind of their own. But it was no matter, observations were observations and there was no time to dilly-dally with silly speculation as to why.

A week passed, and another report on activity was due. Two days prior, he’d tripped on the hill and rolled quite a distance down before stopping on his knee; so he sent a message requesting that his documents be ferried by a royal envoy instead of by-hand, as he always did. A shame, he thought. He’d been doing well in being reliable for the court, but all the want to visit Canterlot personally was out of the question. He tidied up the front of his home expecting professional company, particularly his study (which was cluttered) and his observatory dome (which was even worse). It was hard to keep this place clean by his lonesome, leg injury and all. His mother always told him that a woman’s touch was irreplaceable, and he pondered hiring a maid. Bah, it costs far too much. I might make a respectable sum, but those custom suits are far too pricey. He grimaced.

One o’clock came, and he began expecting company. The courier was due to come at fifteen-past-the-hour, but a knock came at maybe forty-five past. He hobbled over to the door, and opened his mouth in preparation to complain just a bit. But that wouldn’t be so. At the door was NOT the standard courier, nor the stallion he usually reported to with data. Instead, there was six royal guards, three on the left and the other three on the right, and her Majesty Princess Luna standing just beyond them. Panic set in, and he immediately dropped to the ground to bow.

“Rise, Astronomer.” She said.

“Yes, your majesty.” He responded. This dinky house was not fit for a princess’ visit, and what on Earth was she even here for!

“I have no doubt you’re wondering why I have arrived at your little doorstep.” She walked a bit forward. She tried to present herself as tall and powerful, but unfortunately humans’ head level is a good bit above even the tallest ponies. So he instead straightened up a good bit, and gave the look of a duly fearful servant.

“I am the keeper of the stars. All your reports eventually trickle down to me through superiors, but I’ve found that trickle…lacking.” He shuddered. Am I being fired?

“Therefore, I’ve chosen to come to the source for more information. Therefore, I shall be getting reports directly from you from now onwards, to aid in my Celestial task.” Her voice rose toward the end of the statement, giving the impression of supreme power. If seeming supreme was a skill, she was an artist at it. Even her guards subconsciously lower their shoulders, as if to bow without seeming off-task from their martial duties.

A wave of relief fell over him. He might have to work harder to seem worthwhile as a servant, but at least today wasn’t the end. “Yes, your majesty.” He spoke.

“Guards, keep this home under sharp supervision, and allow no visitors. I shall take care of my business and we shall return to the castle, as planned.” She said, matter-of-factly.

Standing just to the right of the door, he pulled the door open with his left, bowed, and motioned inward with his right. Ladies first, especially royalty, he figured. He proceeded through the house and into the observatory-dome, adjacent and connected via a small hallway to the home. He was silent and stone-faced while leading Her Majesty, Princess Luna; he figured that was the most respectful thing. As he opened the door to the observatory, again with the bowed door opening that looked most servile, she walked through and he carefully shut the door. It might hurt her royal ears if it were slammed, of course.

“You may speak freely, Astronomer. We’ll be working rather closely from now on, given the nature of our work, and I don’t want to be hostile. I’m a bit more approachable than you seem to think!” She giggled, and he blushed a bit. Why didn’t she stop me from making a fool out of myself? He wondered, with a hint of irritation.

“Yes, ma’am.” He said. He still felt the urge to be formal. Luna smirked, sensing this – which was not a particularly extraordinary feat. He had it written in his face, a bit embarrassed while failing to hold a straight face.

After a brief silence, she walked over towards the main telescope. She eyed it over a bit, and spoke: “This is your telescope, yes? I’ve never actually seen one.”

“Why, yes. It is. It’s a fine one, at that, the glassworker you commissioned to fashion the mirrors did a fantastic job. No automation like the mirrors at home, it’d been done by hand, slowly. It’s…proper, that way.” He said. He stared for just a moment, stuck thinking about the word “hand”.

Luna contemplated his wording, then assumed he meant hoof. “I’m pleased to hear it. Glass Smith is a fine stallion, and master of his craft. We told him to take his time and create the finest mirror, on account of it being for Royal usage; so fine it is. We were actually worried he’d rushed to make it and make mistakes.” Another brief pause followed, with discomfort in the air. “How well can you make out the Moon?” She asked, with soft care.

“Very well, actually. I found a way to mount a camera to the eyepiece, and it works splendidly. Here, the photos.” He handed her the photos. They were pixel-perfect to real life, clear as the night that they’d been taken.

Luna pulled the photos out of his hand with a slight glow of magic. She levitated them to her eyes and studied them, eyes flashing left and right like a typewriter scrolling from side to side. She smiled softly, without a doubt she’d never seen it so closely before. The smile kept growing as she kept looking.

“It’s so very clear this way. I spend so much time managing my Moon, and yet I never really get to see it – beyond eyesight, I mean.” Luna said, trailing off in thought.

He walked around to her side, handed her a close up image, and pointed at a large crater on the moon. “It’s a lovely shot of the crater Copernicus, actually. Look, you can make out all the ridge lines from the impact site.” He traced his finger about the perimeter of the crater; so that the crater’s interior edge was visible.

She studied it closely, just as interested in it as the first photo. She smiled, and he looked into the photo a bit closer. The glossy photo reflected Luna’s eyes, which shined a very gentle blue. He shook his head a bit to reset his focus, and then moved onward towards his desk. He began organizing his notes on stellar movements, and Luna continued looking through his many photos, making quite a messy stack on the desk. Her smile held still.

He finally resolved that he should disrupt her viewing (she’d been entranced for almost five minutes, and he saw no sign of it slowing), and brought over some star charts. He’d kept track of all stellar positions to an accuracy of a tenth of an arc-second, and was quite confident that it’d look very professional and meaningful to his benefactor.

“Princess, I have the data for you. Princess? Your majesty?”

“Why did you call that crater Copernicus?” She responded, looking up intrigued.

He was taken aback a bit; Copernicus was a standard name. Why wouldn’t it be Copernicus?

“Well, where I’m from, it’s what that crater is called.” He said.

“But why?”

“Err, that was the name of a famous Scientist. So someone named the Crater after him in honor of his work”. He said. A curious look came on her face. “What’d he do?”

“Among other things, he formulated a theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun.”

“Oh my, that IS very important. Before my sister and I founded the colleges of Astronomy and Physics to tell people this, most people assumed that we did everything about the world. And that we were Goddesses. People still bring us sacrifices instead of gifts, from time to time.” She giggled, with a hint of worry. “It’s very interesting, though. Humans had to learn much about the stars without our help, so they had to guess instead of know…It must’ve been hard.”

“It was, I suppose. It took us thousands of years to learn even basic things like the difference between stars and planets, moons and our sun. But it made us very good at discovering things for ourselves.” He said.

Luna smiled. “Such curiosity doesn’t seem to be natural to ponies, sometimes my sister and I think we’re dragging them through lessons instead of them following us. It’s…nice to see someone take interest.” She looked away for just a second, and then turned back. “But yes, the star catalogs. Let me see them.”

He led her to a file cabinet, and took out some papers. In proper ledger paper, he had the many stars he’d kept track of recorded, with times and dates, names, positions, and other miscellaneous data recorded. He handed them off to Luna and she studied them as she did the photos.

“There is something wrong with this particular star’s data, though.” He said. He pointed to one star, which he suspected (without proof) was Sirius. “Three weeks ago, this star looked far too in front of itself, and I tried checking and rechecking and it came back wrong. In fact, a few stars had that same problem. So I’d ignore that day’s data.”

“No, that’s right.” She said. “I was…upset that week, and I suppose I pushed it too far.”

“Pushed it too far…?” He said, perplexed.

“Well, for most objects, my sister and I move them on gut feeling alone. We use magic to move them, but accuracy is rather hard when you’re thinking about other things. “

He was rather shocked. Not appalled, but surprised. He’d never really thought of it in terms of how they moved, just that they did. And to think, they’re so accurate every night that we thought it was natural… He mused.

“So, this data…” he began

“…is a checkup system to make sure my Sister and I do our work correctly. We’ve never had the luxury of having someone make sure we don’t mistake, so this is a blessing beyond your imagination. We’ve worked for so long without help…”

Her Royal façade fell. For this entire time, every smile had been hinting of it, but she’d still kept it up until that very moment. How very… human, of her.

“…I’m glad to be of assistance. Princess.” He said, attempting to sound a bit reassuring.
They continued to play with numbers and telescopes until Luna was sated. She walked towards the exit, and beckoned. He came, and began to open the door.

“It’s been a pleasure, thank you for your time. It’s not often I get to discuss my stars with anyone who cares…” She said. “Besides my sister, I mean.”

“And for me, as well.” He responded. “This observatory rarely gets visitors.”

“I shall return soon, to see more data. Probably next week, if no crisis takes my time.” She said.

So he opened the door and escorted her through the little house as he had before. As he opened the door, she changed her posture quite pronouncedly. She stood taller, held her neck high, and adjusted herself most carefully. The guards did as well, though much more visibly. Clangs sounded as they all scrambled to their proper guard posture, with a salute.

“Guards, prepare the carriage for departure. I must return to the Palace in time for the evening. Let us not delay!” She pronounced. They quickly did as commanded, and the princess rode down the little hill quietly.