A Squire's Tail- Lunar Guards

by BBkat

Chapter 5

The rest of the walk was uneventful as they left the hedge maze and started along another small path and hill.

Chase shivered, his coat bristling as the chill moved down his spine. It hadn’t felt all that cold at first, but now that he’d been outside for a bit the cold was beginning to get to him.

“You can relax, we’re almost there,” she said, noticing his shivering. “And it’s inside too.” She stopped and stretched one wing out towards a building that, somehow, Chase had not seen till that moment. “Welcome to the observatory.”

It was a tall, cylindrical building with an opening in the top and clear dome. Of course, compared to the rest of the castle it wasn’t very large or impressive looking. Then a thought occurred to him and he turned to Wish.

“But wait, I thought this was like, the princess’ or something.”

Wish shook her head before pointing behind him, “You’re thinking of that one, the big one. This one’s the, public one. It’s not as large or as impressive of course, but anyone can use it, especially us.”

Chase craned his neck to see what she was pointing at and sure enough there was a much larger observatory a ways off, near the edge of the Canterlot Castle. It was huge, almost towering over all the other buildings of the palace with a large telescope poking out through the top of a smaller building that stuck off of it.

“There are two?”

“Of course. Come on it, I’ll bet you’ve never seen the stars like this before.” She grinned as she trotted towards the observatory, pulling the door open as she waited for Chase. “Since there’s nothing interesting happening in the sky at the moment we shouldn’t have to worry about other ponies coming here. Of course when Secretariat’s Comet comes in a few weeks this place will probably be packed with ponies trying to get a closer look.”

Just inside the door was a small room and a short, curving staircase that led up into the actual observatory. Wish trotted up the stairs ahead of Chase, trotting up every other step as she went. The section at the top of the stairs was an open, empty circular room. There was a pile of astronomy books near a wall and the telescope sat pointed up at the stars.

“Well, take a look,” she said, standing off to the side as Chase stepped into the observation room. “I bet you’ve never looked at the stars like this before.

She was right, he hadn’t. He’d only ever view them from his bedroom window, and even then for not long as his mother more often then not would pull the curtains closed and tell him to go to bed. And they didn’t own a telescope or binoculars, so his stargazing was limited to his own eyes.

Trotting forwards he put his eye to the lens, peering into the sky. He frowned and drew his head back, looking at Wish, “Are you sure it’s working, I’m not seeing anything.”

“Well that doesn’t make any sense, if it was broken they’d put a sign up.”

“I’m telling you I don’t see anything.”

She sighed, “Here, lemme look.” As he stepped aside Wish peered through the lens. After a few moments of silence she looked up again at the sky, then back into the lens before taking a few steps back, laughing.

“What’s so funny?” asked Chase. “Are you laughing at me?”

“Oh Chase, just look through again.” He gave her an unsure look and she rolled her eyes, “Humour me ok?”

He sighed and once against switched places with her and looked through the telescope. “I still don’t see anything.” There was a squeak as the telescope moved and suddenly the bright, shining stars moved into view. “What did you do?” he asked, looking up at her.

“I moved the telescope over smart guy. You were looking at a cloud.” To prove her point she pointed out the window, towards what Chase guessed had to be the only cloud in the sky.

He opened his jaw to speak and closed it again silently and shook his head as a blush coated his cheeks. He felt utterly foolish now, a cloud, how could he not tell he was looking at a cloud? With a huff, trying to ignore the giggles from the bat pony mare, he went back to the telescope, shifting its position so it was, hopefully, pointed at the star he wanted.

What he saw through the telescope was amazing, no it was beyond amazing, it breathtaking. He couldn’t even tell if it was pointed at the correct part of the sky anymore, as the sky seemed to just explode in stars. What looked like ink black sky was now filled with many tiny, glittering stars when viewed through the telescope.

Wish must have heard his gasp of surprise because she laughed slightly before patting his back. “Yeah, it’s something isn’t it?”

With one eye pressed to the telescope lens he moved the telescope around the sky, trying to pick out constellations or stars. Finding the constellation of The Great Bear didn’t take long once he had it pointed in the right direction, and it, like the rest of the sky, suddenly seemed to have exploded with stars around the large bright ones making up the constellation.

Lifting his head from the telescope he looked at the sky and tapped his chin with one hoof thoughtfully before an idea hit him. Readjusting the telescope he peered into it again. The silence was broken as he yelped and stumbled back, rubbing the eye that had been in the viewing lens.

“Something wrong?” asked Wish, cocking her head to one side.

“Bright. The moon, it’s really bright through that thing,” he said, shaking his head to try and clear his vision. “I didn’t expect it to be that bright so close.”

“What were you expecting?’ she asked, still laughing behind her hoof.

“I don’t know, but not that bright. I mean, I know the sun would be bright, telescope or not, but I didn’t expect the moon to be so bright.” He paused for a moment as he moved his leg, trying to readjust his vision to the darkness. “I probably should have huh? I mean it is pretty full.”

“Probably. But that aside, what do you think? Neat no?”

He nodded, “You’re probably better at this than I am though.”

“Probably, but then again we’re taught how to read and navigate the night sky, helps if you get lost you know,” she said, taking her turn at the telescope. “I suspect you’ll probably learn how as well, though with the sun and daytime, stuff.”

Navigation, was that was going to be part of his training too? He wasn’t too sure he liked that idea very much, especially since he had a terrible sense of direction. Dismissing the thought, he made his way over to the pile of books and began to root through them while Wish looked at the sky.

‘Beginner’s Guide to Astronomy’

‘A Compendium of Constellations’

‘Star Gazing for Amateurs’

‘Finding Your Way With the Night Sky’

‘Star Gazing for Dummies’

They all seemed to be generally the same, books on the stars and the night sky for those who knew next to nothing about stargazing. Some of them contained star maps, and one even had a rotating map so one could change it to show what could be in the sky on any given day. That was certainly interesting enough and Chase found himself rotating it to that night’s date.

“Chase!” Wish’s voice broke the silence, startling Chase and causing him to yelp in surprise. The bat mare giggled, “Come over here ya goof, I found something you might find interesting.”

He exhaled heavily as he regained his composure and, after quickly restacking the books, made his way over to her side. “What did you find?” he asked.

“Well, take a look and tell me what you think it is.”

He rolled his eyes before lowering his gaze to the telescope again. He could see, something in the view field. Something that didn’t look like a star, but rather a blurry, silvery shape, like a glowing cloud in the nighttime sky.

“A, cloud?” he asked. “A glowing cloud?” He knew it was probably a dumb sounding guess, at night clouds, no matter their colour, tended to look like dark masses that blotted out the light, and he’d never heard of any that glowed. He may have liked looking at the sky, but he never claimed to actually know anything about it.

“Sort of, did you notice its shape?” Wish seemed to be grinning and pacing on the spot, almost as if she were excited about something.

“Its shape?” He looked back at it, squinting slightly as he tried to discern a shape from it. “It doesn’t really look like anything, but there is a sort of void in it, but it’s hard to tell.”

“It’s the Horsehead Nebula!” she exclaimed. “I wasn’t even sure if this telescope was powerful enough to actually see it, but you can, even if it is small. Isn’t that so cool?”

Chase rubbed his leg as he thought of how to respond. Wish seemed to find this absolutely exciting and beyond cool, but he didn’t. Not to the extent that she did at any rate. Yeah it was cool and all, he did have to admit that, but he wasn’t jumping for joy over it.

“Uh yeah, it is cool. I know I certainly wouldn’t have been able to find it if I had been looking,” he said after a few moments. “So do you come out here a lot?”

“When I have nothing else to do, and the twins are gone yeah,” she said. “It’s quiet and I can be with my thoughts, and there’s no one to bother me.” She seemed a lot quieter as she spoke, the previous excitement having been replaced with a calm that he couldn’t quite place. “And not many ponies are that interested in the stars. I mean, the closest I can get the twins to being interested in them is by telling them the stories behind the constellations, those they seem to like.” She sighed, running a hoof through her mane before giving him a small smile, “Thanks for, letting me drag you all the way out here, even if you’re not, all that interested in the stars.”

“I uh, I’m interested, what makes you think I’m not?” he asked quickly, faltering slightly as he spoke.

“Your voice and mannerisms,” she replied. “I can tell you’re not super interested in this and only going along with it because I brought you here.”

“Not true, I’m interested in it, I’m just, um, overwhelmed?” He rubbed the back of his head nervously. “I mean until now all I’ve had to look at stars with was my bedroom window and these,” he pointed to his eyes. “So this is all new to me. So, how about you show me some more stuff up there?”

Wish gave an excited squeal, prancing on the spot before taking the telescope to look for more things.

Author's Note:

Fun fact: Chase's experience with the telescope and the stars is drawn from my own experience the first time I used a pair of binoculars to star gaze. Simply put, you can see a ton more things, and it looks cool. And yes, full (or near full) moons are very bright, especially through a telescope/binoculars. Even if it does look really cool and you can see the craters and such.

And yes I know you probably wouldn't be able to see the Horsehead Nebula with a regular telescope here, but hey, Twilight was able to see it with her telescope, so I figure their night sky is constructed a bit different. Or something like that.

Comments

[kingsmen]

Amazing work I've been following this story since the beginning!( by beginning I mean 2 chapture.) is wish devolving some feeling for chase?

[Bigou]

You have done another great chapter.

Twilight was able to see it with her telescope, so I figure their night sky is constructed a bit different. Or something like that.

They more likely "just" have far less light-polluted sky.

[BBkat]

3237466
Well that too. xD Lack of light pollution most definitely helps for star gazing.

I've never actually tried looking for it since I've never had a chance(the only time I get a decent sky for stargazing is summer on vacation, and it wouldn't be in the sky till winter), so I don't know if you could see it from earth with standard equipment like a simple telescope or binoculars(if you could it probably wouldn't be very clear, a glorified blur I'm sure).