Short Shorts

by Coranth

212. Humility.

“I am Prince Blueblood, Grand Duke of Canterlot, direct descendant of Princess Platinum, ruler of Unicornia, and nephew of Princesses Celestia and Luna. I and my fellows here, come before you to hopefully resolve the current stand-off without any further issues. Would you be willing to speak with us at this time?” It–no, he-asked in an imperial and borderline haughty manner.

The human gazed down upon the male white unicorn with a look that was weary, almost sad. "You speak your words and titles as if they're supposed to have meaning to me," he responded. "I am afraid to say that they do not. I have no knowledge of this 'Princess Platinum' or of 'Unicornia' -- but by your manner of speech and haughtiness, I do not think that it or this 'Platinum' are good at all." At the Prince's affronted look, the human shook his head. "Your words are meaningless to me -- but I will tell you words that have meaning... if you will listen."

For reasons unknown to him, Prince Blueblood nodded; then he backed off as the human first knelt, and then sat down before him that he and the Prince were roughly the same height. Blueblood soon chose to sit as well, and then the human began to speak, his words soft, gentle, and entrancing. "One philosopher asserted that he knew the whole secret," the human began. "He surveyed the two celestial strangers from top to toe, and maintained to their faces that their persons, their worlds, their suns, and their stars, were created solely for the use of man.

At this assertion our two travellers let themselves fall against each other, seized with a fit of inextinguishable laughter." That's from Voltaire's 'Micromegas' in 1752. In the seventeenth century there was still some hope that, even if the Earth was not the center of the Universe, it might be the only "world." But Galileo's telescope revealed that 'the Moon certainly does not possess a smooth and polished surface' and that other worlds might look 'just like the face of the Earth itself.'

The Moon and the planets showed unmistakably that they had as much claim to being worlds as the Earth does—with mountains, craters, atmospheres, polar ice caps, clouds, and, in the case of Saturn, a dazzling, unheard-of set of circumferential rings. After millennia of philosophical debate, the issue was settled decisively in favour of 'the plurality of worlds.' They might be profoundly different from our planet. None of them might be as congenial for life. But the Earth was hardly the only one.

This was the next in the series of Great Demotions, down-lifting experiences, demonstrations of our apparent insignificance, wounds that science has, in its search for Galileo's facts, delivered to human pride. Well, some hoped, even if the Earth isn't at the center of the Universe, the Sun is. The Sun is our Sun. So the Earth is approximately at the center of the Universe. Perhaps some of our pride could in this way be salvaged. But by the nineteenth century, observational astronomy had made it clear that the Sun is but one lonely star in a great self-gravitating assemblage of suns called the Milky Way Galaxy.

Far from being at the center of the Galaxy, our Sun with its entourage of dim and tiny planets lies in an undistinguished sector of an obscure spiral arm. We are thirty thousand light years from the Center. Well, our Milky Way is the only galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy is one of billions, perhaps hundreds of billions of galaxies notable neither in mass nor in brightness nor in how its stars are configured and arrayed. Some modern deep sky photographs show more galaxies beyond the Milky Way than stars within the Milky Way. Every one of them is an island universe containing perhaps a hundred billion suns. Such an image is a profound sermon on humility."

When "The Speech of Humility" - as it would come to be known - was done, Prince Blueblood sat before the human, his body trembling, jaw quivering, and his eyes misty. Then, a moment later, he looked up at the man and stuttered, "I--I have to go..." The Unicorn left, shortly thereafter and returned to the lookout post, meeting up with Lyra and Twilight. "Well?" the Alicorn Princess of Friendship asked. "Did you talk to the human? What did he say?!" Struggling not to cry, the Prince repeated The Speech the human had given him word for word; both Twilight and Lyra, too, became entranced, the Alicorn copying it down on Parchment word for word, utterly making sure there was no error.

Then, "The Speech of Humility" was presented to the Alicorn Sisters--and they were indeed, made humble. Luna nodded, grinned even upon hearing about her moon, then went slack in awe at the thought of there being other moons and galaxies beyond Equus, as did Celestia at first--but then the Sun Princess nodded as as her sun was made mention of as 'a lonely star'; then she was in tears as she heard the final words, "...an island universe containing perhaps a hundred billion suns." "The Speech of Humility" spread throughout Equus like wildfire, igniting scientific curiosity and foals' dreams of 'what's out there?' and in the end, both Princesses visited the human, near-demanding to know who had written "the Speech." The human, David, introduced both Alicorn Sisters not only to the works of Carl Sagan, and other human scientists; the sisters were brought to greater tears as they listened to "Pale Blue Dot"; then Twilight was awed, saddened, and yet utterly fascinated as she studied the crippled yet highly intelligent Stephen Hawking, the man and his many works.

Author's Note:

Thank you, Carl and Stephen.