Bedtime Stories For The Mare In The Moon

by Needling Haystacks

First published 2nd of April, 2016

Analysis And Science Of Traditional And Original Stories, including the Tale of the Mare in the Moon

In-universe non-fiction work. If you read carefully, a second story or theme underlies it.

First edition was published 1 year before the Millennium Summer Sun Celebration. Interest was re-kindled after the famous events that occurred then, and the text has been updated and expanded to include commentary on events since then. Includes a mix of traditional legends and original fiction, followed by an analysis of the state of Equestrian science and/or history with respect to each story.

Front Material

Author's Notes:

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.

Chapter 1: The Mare In The Moon

Chapter 1: The Mare in the Moon

Once upon a time, there were two royal sisters who brought peace and harmony to the land of Equestria, uniting all three types of ponies in one nation. The elder sister raised the sun at dawn, while the younger raised the moon at night. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. For while the ponies cherished and played in the day, they slept through and shunned the night.

One day, the younger sister refused to lower the moon to make way for the sun. The elder sister tried to reason with the younger, saying that without sunlight nothing would grow. But the bitterness in the younger sister's heart had transformed her into Nightmare Moon, the Mare of Darkness. She swore to shroud the land in eternal night.

With a heavy heart, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known: the Elements of Harmony. The elder sister used their power to banish her sister to the moon, and thereafter took responsibility for both sun and moon. And Equestria has had peace ever since.

But it is said that one the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and Nightmare Moon will emerge once more to bring about nighttime eternal.

[Paraphrased from “Friendship is Magic” by L. Faust]

Commntary: The story of the Mare in the Moon is told to foals and occasionally found in books of fairy tales. The definitive version was produced by one L. Faust a little over 900 years ago, though in the commonly circulated versions there is some variation. I've attempted to encapsulate the basic structure above. Often, more modern tellings will omit the last portion, regarding the mare in the Moon's escape.

This story is one of the major reasons why this book was written. While it is often lost in modern tellings, it is well known that Celestia has been the sole Princess of Equestria for nearly 1000 years (more on this to follow). What is not commonly known, though it is something of an open secret among historians, is that the Mare in the Moon story is rooted in historical fact, and that Celestia was the older sister in the story.

Celestia herself has generally declined to say much about the incident. Consequently, the information given above is essentially all that is known about the confrontation itself. What is known, however, is that over 1000 years ago, two Alicorn sisters were made rulers over the united Earth Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn tribes. The time is estimated as around 1200 years ago, but Discord's reign falls in there somewhere, and THAT period gives historians no end of headaches. This fell within the lifetime of the Unifiers of the Hearthswarming story, but that connection I shall save for a later chapter.

The older sister was, as stated, called Celestia. The younger sister was called Luna. While Discord's reign destroyed many records of the period before that, both the historical record and an interview with Celestia about a hundred years ago attest to this. If it were not for the clear record, I would be inclined to think the name a later invention: 'Luna' is an ancient word for the moon, so an Alicorn mare whose name means “Moon” and who controlled the Moon was banished to the Moon.

As for the story of her fall, while it shares many aspects with the tragic plays that have survived from Antiquity (pre-unification), there can be little doubt that something like it actually happened. The motivation is a bit less clear. In eternal night, little would grow, and within a few years the ponies whose adulation she so desired would largely have starved to death, though a smaller population could theoretically survive on moondew moss. Still, perhaps she was not aware of this, or perhaps Luna was corrupted by an outside force. Whatever the case, the root of the matter seems to be a severe case of loneliness and depression. To brush on a delicate matter, harm to self or others, though rare, are not completely unheard of in those that suffer from these. So, Eternal Night may well be what you get when a person with control over a major celestial body reaches that point. Celestia has said that it was her (that is, Celestia's) fault that Luna became Nightmare Moon, but it is unclear how much that is true.

I find I cannot bring myself to say more on that subject. Anything further would be even more speculative than what I have already said anyway. We will now turn, then, to the promised science portion.

The Science, part 1: The Mare in the Moon

Moving on to the moon itself, the historical record is sadly a bit sparser on what the moon looked like before. The well known “Mare in the Moon” pattern on the face of the Moon visible from Earth is, at any rate, not mentioned prior to 1200 years ago, and the general conclusion is that it did not exist before then. Prior to the invention of the telescope some 400 years ago, the nature of the pattern could not be examined. But on telescopes by Galley Leo and, subsequently, Fig Newton allowed a much closer examination. At this point, two theories received primacy with respect to the pattern: one was that the pattern corresponded to a massive valley created by Nightmare Moon impacting the moon, the other that it was a difference in pigmentation. That is, either shadow from surrounding higher land creates the pattern, or the rocks on the Moon's surface are physically darker on the Mare-in-the-Moon pattern. Telescopes were not capable of resolving this issue for a few hundred years.

Around 100 years ago, the Cloudsdale Observatory was constructed. The observatory is one of my employers, it should be noted in the interest of full disclosure. One of the first objects it observed was the Mare in the Moon. It was discovered that the pigmentation theory was correct. Celestia, on questioning 300 years prior, would or could only say that it was a necessary by-product of the spell that banished Nightmare Moon, which did not distinguish between the theories. It is probable that she is not completely sure of the details herself, since the magic of the Elements of Harmony was largely mysterious. They apparently became inert shortly after Nightmare Moon's banishment and fall out of the historical record not long thereafter, prohibiting further study. It is generally assumed that they are held somewhere in Canterlot Castle, though the exact location is a state secret.

Thus we still do not know the reason for the pattern, even if we now know what it is. It may have been a magical “burn”, imprinting Nightmare Moon's actual silhouette on the moon, writ large due to the Moon's great distance. Alternately, it may be a magical circle that is somehow linked to Nightmare Moon's prison itself. Lacking further evidence, or an expedition to the moon, we can only speculate. Celestia has steadfastly refused requests to allow an expedition there, no matter how well repaired, presumably in case it actually is a sealing circle and any disruption could release Nightmare Moon.

Supporting the “magic circle” theory, the region of the moon containing the Mare-in-the-Moon pattern behaves differently than the rest of the Moon's surface. Over the course of a moon, the moon goes from full to new and back (hence the term 'moon'), but the portion of the moon containing the pattern is always visible when that portion of the moon faces us, even if it should be dark based on the phase. This leads us to conclude that the area around the Mare-in-the-Moon pattern glows faintly. Lunar phases themselves will be discussed briefly later. In pre-Celestian records, there is no mention of this oddity. Of course, that does not prove that the anomaly did not exist, but as with the pattern itself, one would expect this oddity to have roused some mention, especially in the works of Ptoe Lamè, whose study of astronomy was extensive.

On to the next topic, the “stars aiding in her escape.” As this will require significant expounding, it seems reasonable to being a new section here. Actually, we are not quite done with the moon, but we need more information on the 'wandering stars' to explain that.

The Science, Part 2: The “Stars”

As all foals are supposed to learn, there are 2 broad categories of “stars”. There are the “fixed stars” (which are not actually fixed) and the “wandering stars,” or planets. The fixed stars are so called because they maintain a fixed relationship with respect to each other, though as one moves about on Earth their positions relative to your horizon change, and of course they shift in a cycle over the course of the year. The “wandering stars”, however, move in their own patterns, quite independent of our own patterns of 30 days per moon and 10 moons per years (neglecting Hearths Warming Eve and Heart's Warming itself), though the patterns themselves are regular and predictable. I use the term “wandering star” in preference to planet hereafter to emphasize the connection with the legend.

Since there are no special alignments that can be described with the fixed stars and the moon per se, the wandering stars must have something to do with the prophecy, if it is indeed correct. There is, about a year and a half out from the date of writing, a rare alignment of all four wanderers that are visible to the naked eye. In fact, from the point of view of Equestria, assuming Celestia does not alter the usual lunar patterns and that no unicorn cults cause another “great slip” as happened in CE 408 [Book Cook, “The Great Slip and Other Matters”], they will all appear to converge behind the moon.

It is well-known that the Moon covers up the stars near it. The Moon is in slightly different positions each night, and also over the course of the year the stars turn in their own courses, bringing some stars out from behind the Moon and putting others behind it. This also applies to the wandering stars, though this requires a bit more patience to observe. This tells us that the Moon lies nearer to Earth than both the fixed and wandering stars. So, what about the Sun? Well, students of history may recall that an event called a Solar Eclipse was reported about 1000 years ago, possibly corresponding to Nightmare Moon's emergence and that similar events have been arranged by Celestia a few times since to mark certain occasions, and twice for scientific research [Star Party, “Festivals and Festivities,” Ch. 6, “Rare Celestial Celebrations”]. It was expected that the stars were further away than the sun, both intuitively and with some rudimentary observations from festival eclipses, but it was not confirmed until the two “research eclipses”. With the advent of a telescope it was also determined that the wandering stars are closer than the fixed stars: When viewed with a telescope, wanderers appear larger, but fixed stars do not, being presumably much further away. Thus, a rough plan of distances from Earth goes “Moon-Sun-Wandering Stars-Fixed Stars”. Hopefully you already know this.

With the exception of the Mare-in-the-Moon anomaly, the illumination of the moon is determined by its position relative to the sun, an thus its position in the sky. These positions are determined by Celestia, at least in broad strokes, but the cycle always stays more-or-less regular (though see previous notes on “The Great Slip”). This regular cycle was also more-or-less observed in the era before Celestia and Luna (discussed more later), when the Moon and Sun were controlled by unicorns. The Mare-in-the-Moon anomaly was not there, of course, leading to a slightly different phase cycle (see further “The History of Lunar Phases,” by De Grass), but the broad outlines were there. Apparently this was a result of some experimentation: it was actually easier to keep the moon going on these cycles than to simply have a full moon every night. Part of this, of course, is that this involves moving the moon slightly less each night, but there also seems to be another component. Of course, one could simply leave the moon where it was, and then it would take a full year for it to go through its phases. However, doing this actually takes more magic. According to unicorn scholars who have studied the issue, corroborating historical records with interviews with Celestia, raising and lower the sun is easier if the moon is used as an “anchor”. In the process, the moon is moved just a bit, both in its relative position to the sun and in spinning about on an axis.

Of course, the moon can be moved quite independently, and the degree of “push” can be adjusted, but the 'usual' cycle is the easiest way to go about it. The 'wandering stars' do not seem, in general, to be controlled by Celestia (though legends claim that Starswirl the Bearded could control them). However, she could, if she wished, manipulate the moon so that the wandering stars did not line up with the Moon on the Millenium Summer Sun Celebration. However, it's unclear where that part of the legend came from: was it a time limit on the spell, or is some stellar alignment actually required, or are both involved? Or is it even true? I suppose we shall find out soon enough, for better or for worse.

That brings up an intriguing question. What sort of state is Nightmare Moon/Luna even in after 1000 years of imprisonment? Has she been conscious all this time, as Nightmare Night customs suggest? Foals are often told that Nightmare Moon, or perhaps a magic 'shade' of her, comes to take candy and in some versions eat naughty foals. Not to disillusion my younger readers, but this is generally just adults getting their share of the candy, sometimes dressing up to put on a show. Still, some records suggest Luna could enter pony's dreams, so perhaps the frequent nightmares reported around Nightmare Night, mostly by foals admittedly, are a manifestation of Nightmare Moon's magic. Alicorn magic is poorly studied enough that it cannot be ruled out. But then again, perhaps that is overly Romantic thinking (in the sense of 'of or relating to the Romance period in literature, not as in amore). It is, at any rate, possible that she is at least semi-conscious: there is air on the moon, though it is a bit thin for most Earth Ponies and Unicorns. We can tell this by the way starlight behaves as it passes by the Moon, though the details of this are complicated enough to be beyond the scope of this book.

The Science 3: The Celestial System

On a final note, it is the motion of the wandering stars which first gave rise to the notion that Earth circles the Sun. The details are complicated, but the gist of it is that occasionally Earth “catches up to” and passes the other planets, making them appear to move in the opposite direction from what they usually do, compared to the background of fixed stars. In fact, 2 of the 4 wandering stars that will contribute to the alignment the Summer Sun Celebration around a year form the projected time of publication will be in retrograde (moving 'backwards') at that time. It is possible to construct models that, while more complicated, keep the Earth at the center and the sun circling it. Prior to the invention of the telescope, these models were favored as Celestia has to raise the sun each day. Celestia herself was uncertain as to the actual arrangement, as the sun raising is, in essence, a spell, and like most spells its effects need not be understood fully for it to work. Countermanding this model was the fact that the wandering stars did not seem to need Celestia's intervention to move. This does not, of a necessity, mean that they orbit the Sun and not the Earth, but it was a significant gap in understanding.

Since the invention of the telescope, we have learned more about the true size of the Sun and the distance between us and the wandering stars. The Sun is, in fact, many many times larger than the Earth, not just the 2 or 3 times your typical school orrery (model of the Sun and attendant planets) shows. This is well known to most ponies who have graduated from primary school. In order to raise the Sun, Celestia in fact spins the Earth about on an axis, using the Moon as a counterbalance (as previously indicated). The Moon is raised in a mixed fashion, both dragging the moon a bit at and rotating the Earth around. This is the typical fashion of things: exceptions are made, such as the research and festival eclipses, but those exceptions require more magical energy to cause, typically much more. Celestia was reported to be visibly exhausted after each of those eclipses, while for the daily Sun and Moon raisings, she does not even break a sweat. Regardless, the conclusion has been that the Earth and wandering stars orbit the Sun, and the Moon orbits the Earth. Non-Astronomers typically do not think much of these nuances, and indeed they do not really need to, but for us it is a critical point.

What is not commonly known is why the planets do not need magical intervention, but the Moon and Sun do. While I hate to be a tease, most of that discussion will have to wait for a later chapter, as it ties more directly into the topic of rainbows and the “Sonic Rainboom” incident some years ago (and the older legend thereof). See Chapter 5, “Rainbows and Rainbooms” for more. For now it is sufficient to note that the Earth is surrounded by (or perhaps generates) a “magic aether” (that is, a gas-like fluid, though it's made of magic, not gas), and this aether either extends to the moon or else the moon generates its own. It is suspected, though not yet proven, that the wandering stars all have their own clumps of aether, and that these clumps can resonate with each other. This means that if the Mare-in-the-Moon pattern is a magic seal, as previously suggested, certain alignments of the Earth, Moon, and wandering stars could resonate in such a way as to weaken or break that seal, as it is apparently woven in with the Moon's substance. Now, the resonance hypothesis is far from proven, and even if it is correct, there is no telling if it will actually break the seal or merely weaken it, and even if it does break, it seems unlikely that Nightmare Moon would not have undergone some mental and/or physical changes after all this time. Unless she is in perfect stasis, but that is an absolute worst-case scenario. Much as I hate relying on her, one assumes Celestia has some plan for this eventuality, if true. If such a plan did exist, it would probably be a state secret.

At any rate, I do not wish to be overly alarmist, so I emphasize that the worse cases are all rather unlikely. Most likely the seal, if that's what it is, will weaken a bit but this will produce no effect noticeable unless you are looking right at the moon at just the right time. Telescopes in several points around Equestria are set to do just that. So on that note, we move on to our next chapter.

Chapter 2: The Flight of the Eagle

Author's Notes:

Author's Notes: The story given here of Pegasi scientists who deliberately fly up to the uppermost limits, despite the risk, is inspired by a true store. Physician and biophysicist John Stapp participated in experiments on human tolerance for g-forces using a rocket sled. He was part of the analysis side, but volunteered for testing on the sled himself more times than anyone else, despite breaking his wrist twice. He holds the record for highest experimental g-forces experienced at 46.2 g's, and for a long time held the land speed recording, leading to him being dubbed “The Fastest Man on Earth.” Apparently, he wanted to not just hear about the effects, but experience them first-hand. He maintained that the human body could take far more than he did, but for safety reasons, no one's ever deliberately tried. Accidents have resulted in higher forces, of course, but that's another matter.

One upon a time, in a land worlds away, there lived a people who looked on a Moon and Sun much like ours. But unlike ours, this moon and this sun heeded neither beck nor call of any who lived beneath them, no matter how great or powerful they were. So as this people grew and spread, they looked up at the Moon with wonder and awe. They tracked time by its courses, they saw in it powers both good and evil, and they dreamed ever of what it might be. As time passed, they began to dream that creatures might live on the moon, or might go there. And they envisaged creatures like themselves and creatures unlike themselves, and gods and wizards and monsters that might be there. But always for them, for those below, the moon was an unreachably distant dream.

In the fullness of time this people found ways to bring the heavens closer, at least in their sight, with tubes of glass and metal: telescopes, much like ours. And turning these upon the moon, they saw that the face that they had long seen looking down on them was made of craters and lakes. For a time, they thought of what sort of fish these lakes may have, but as their telescopes became bigger and better, they found that these lakes were dry. Further, through cleverness and perseverance, they found that the moon was airless and sterile: a silent, lifeless rock. Yet still they did wonder what it would be like to walk over that rock and see not the Moon but the Earth looking down on them.

And what they did next, I have difficulty saying, for it is not a thing that has ever been seen in our land, or had been known before in theirs. They fashioned birds of metal, that soared higher than any of flesh and feathers, but these rode on air and fans without a flap. And these took them ever higher, further up than any Pegasus or Griffon could manage, though of these kinds there were none left in that world. But as high as they went, the Moon was yet higher. They had discovered, as have we, that it was higher than the tallest of mountains piled up on itself 400 hundred times a thousand times. Though creatures without wings had taken to the air, still the moon was unreachable as ever.

Next they did something yet harder to explain. For they crafted great tubes of metal, with wings far too small to fly even in the manner of their metal birds. And the top of this tube they put a cone with some of their people in it, and in this tube they somehow made use of air and water, so that fire was thrown from the back. They sent these tubes up so high that they could not fall back to Earth without missing, and the tube fell from the cone, and the cone circled around like the Moon about Earth, or Earth about the Sun, until more fire sent the people in the cone back to Earth, landing in the sea. Many of these tubes they sent, and they proposed what not long before would have been unthinkable: to send some of their own to walk on the Moon.

First, they sent one of the cones around to moon, merely to look, to show that they could do that much. And then they made ready their tube. The Eagle, they called it, for far beyond any eagle they intended it to soar. And fire roared out the back, and tube fell from cone, and for three days they journeyed through the darkness and the light. Attached to the tip of the cone was a metal spider, large enough for two of three. So while one stayed with the ship (for thus they called it, saying that they moved through the void as a sailor might moe through the ocean), the other two went aboard this spider, and fire sent them down to the Moon. And that whole world held its breath as one far away counted how much of their magic air that made fire was left, until legs met soil. They sent images back home as though a movie as it was made, and one made a step both small and giant.

Now scarcely like their own kind they looked, for to live in the cold and the dark of that Moon they clad themselves in thick garments, with things like scuba tanks bound to them, and helmets sealed tight, with dark visors. Now, these people were much like minotaurs, but without tails, having two legs on which they walked and two with which they worked, though I had not cause to mention this before. Thus clad they looked like strange monsters, certainly to us and perhaps to them.

They rose a flag and gathered rocks and dust, then returned to their spider The spider shed its legs and returned to the cone, and the cone returned to Earth. Thus, by the strange hooves of their own they brought a piece of the heavens down to Earth, not by divine provenance, or perhaps I should say not merely by that, but by their ingenuity and their effort. Thus ever after would those people look back on that moment, and reflect on how the impossible might be made possible.

And here the tale stops, not because it ends here, as many tales written in books do, but because, in the manner of tales written in the world, this is all I know. But there does linger in my mind one more phrase, which I think is connected: “We came in peace for all mankind.”

Analysis:

This is the first story in this book whose kernel came to me in a dream, though I have attempted to make it a bit more sensible. Perhaps some readers will understand when I say that it seemed not like a dream, but like I was seeing something that really happened, albeit not to our world, though I suspect most readers will simply find this notion strange and ridiculous.

It is undeniable that a few things in this story are simply wrong, at least for our world. It has been hypothesized that there are other worlds, either magic [“Through the Looking Glass: Celestia and the Magic Mirror”, by Merry Carrol, who is a bit more definite on it than I would prefer], or simply elsewhere in space. Our moon does, in fact, have an atmosphere, though a thin on. A pony could breath on the Moon, though for most non-Pegasi it would be labored breathing, as the air there is approximately equivalent to that high in the atmosphere.

The Mare in the Moon legend is no guarantee of a breathable Lunar surface. If nothing else, Nightmare Moon may be in a sort of stasis that does not require air. Rather, that the moon has an atmosphere can be determined by careful observation of stars near the moon. When they pass within a certain distance of the moon, they are distorted. This is akin to how stars “twinkle” due to the passage of light through Earth's atmosphere. I will not go into the rather technical details of how we know it is breathable but thin. The interested reader may check for journal publications at their local library, particularly “On the Atmosphere of the Moon,” Airy Bubble, Equestria Astronomical Society Journal, vol 413, no. 3.

The reader may be aware that the air above Earth does eventually become unbreathable, setting an effective limit to flight. Actually, most birds are limited to a far lower height than this would necessitate. Pegasi and Griffons fly partially by magic, and thus can ascend to airs that would otherwise be too thin to sustain flight, though they are breathable. Balloons do not fair any better than the average bird, and in fact fare worse, since they require the air inside the balloon to be less dense than the air outside in order to rise. Dragons are assumed to have similar height limits to Pegasi and Griffons, but they are so poorly studied that as yet, no one is sure.

A strong enough flier may, for instance, carry an air tank with them and so ascend higher, but they soon find that even Pegasus flight cannot carry them indefinitely higher: the air will simply not sustain their flight, to say nothing of the difficulties of carrying an air tank. It is possible to briefly surpass this limit by building up momentum on an upward flight towards the break point, perhaps aided by others giving you a push. Even though one cannot fly further up by any amount of effort, if they are already moving upward, their inertia will carry them past this point. I have tried this technique myself. If you can get high enough, the pull of the Earth is less, and so it takes some time to fall back down unless one makes a conscious effort. If you can keep your wits about you, you can see the curve of the Earth as it falls away, a truly magnificent site. I believe this may be the heights the devices in the earlier part of the above story reached.

I should caution my Pegasus readers that this should NEVER be attempted alone. If your air runs out or malfunctions or if, like I once did, you attempt it without an air tank to reduce the weight and count on holding your breath, you are likely to lose consciousness. Without the air tank, this tends to happen well before you actually reach the powered flight height limit (trust me on this). It is also possible to go into shock from the odd changes and extreme temperatures up there. Interestingly, there is a point past which it becomes hotter as you go higher. This had been hypothesized, but recent high-altitude runs have successfully reached the edge of this zone. I have managed this myself. In fact, as of the time of writing I hold the 3rd highest recorded flight on record. The appropriately named High Flyer is number 2, while Cloud Brick holds the world record. Number 4 is held by Glenda Griffon, if the reader is curious.

But even with this method, one cannot reach heights so great that one misses on falling back towards Earth and so enters an orbit like that of the moon. It is fairly certain, from Fig Newton's Theory of Gravitation, that such orbits are possible, assuming there is a point where there is no air (and there seems to be), but we have yet to achieve this definitively. Hurling a small object on a high flight should not be able to achieve this, mathematically speaking, but when it has been attempted, the objects were not recovered, so some fringe theories hold that it has been achieved.

The metal birds from this tale did not seem to fly any higher than the aforementioned maximum height, so they are of limited impressiveness. The strange tubes, however, could go much further. I do not know what strange magic would allow water and air to yield fire, but I can only surmise that it is some sort of alchemical reaction, since I saw no trace of unicorn magic in that world. Unicorn magic is what most ponies mean when they say “magic”, though strictly speaking unicorn magic encompasses only a part of the magic continuum. My best guess on the process is as follows: it IS possible to isolate the components of water, Hydrogen and Oxygen, by magic or electricity, and later to recombine them. Recombining them requires an additional infusion of energy, but this process, aside from its difficulty, does not produce anywhere near the sort of thrust the tubes would require. From the impression I had of water and air being involved, though, I suspect these creatures had devised some clever way of modifying this base reaction to create a higher yield. This is, however, only a guess, and one which is rather lacking at that.

The creatures themselves, bipedal and tailless, have no counterpart in Equestria, or as far as we know, anywhere on Earth. Minotaurs and some dragons are bipedal, but they have tails and at any rate are far larger at maturity than these were. Unless I miss my guess, these creatures, while shorter than an average pony, were nonetheless somewhat smaller than Celestia, on average. Since tailless creatures and bipedal creatures are known to exist, though, it is not unthinkable that a tailless biped could exist somewhere.

I suppose my reader is now thinking I am very foolish indeed, applying such scrutiny to the fancies of a dream. However, it has given me a chance to touch on alchemy and biology, which I would not otherwise have done. Besides, my personal feelings on this particular matter aside, the exercise of applying scientific examination to flights of fancy can be entertaining in its own right. Still, I would not wish to bore or distract my readers too much with such musings, so I shall end this chapter here.

Chapter 3: Hearth's Warming And The Founding of Equestria

Long ago, before Equestria existed, the three groups of Ponies lived in another land. While the Earth Ponies worked the fields and grew food, the Unicorns raised and lowered the sun and moon, while the Pegasi regulated the weather. But despite their mutual dependence, the groups were constantly at odds. Each group thought themselves the most important. The Earth Ponies resented the Unicorns, who lived in relative luxury, and were nervous of the Pegasi, who had the only substantial military force. The Unicorns considered the other two types inferior, while fearing that they would take action against the Unicorns, while the Pegasi felt their contributions were under-appreciated and made aggressive gestures.

There then came a time when the land they had inhabited turned cold, and not just in winter. With no spring or summer, the Earth Ponies could grow little food, and what efforts the Pegasi and Unicorns made to correct the situation were ineffective. It was later determined that the cold was unnatural, caused by creatures called Wendigo, who had been drawn by the strife, but at the time none knew this. After a tense meeting that ended in disaster, the three groups each independently determined to relocate to other lands, in hopes of building a new nation with their kind alone.

In advance of the main migration, the leaders and their assistants from each nation scouted the new land in advance. These were, for the Earth Ponies, Chancellor Puddinghead and her Secretary Smart Cookie, for the Pegasi, Commander Hurricane and her staff attendant, Private Pansy, and for the Unicorns, Princess Platinum and acting court wizard Clover the Clever.

Arriving by different paths, all three groups arrived in the same land, as yet unaware of the others. Chancellor Puddinghead named the land “Dirtville”, changed to “Earth” at Smart Cookie's insistence, while Hurricane declared it Pegasopolis and Platinum called it “Unicornia”.

All three groups soon discovered the presence of the others. Despite their assistants' calls for calm, the leaders declared war over possession of the new land. But they had barely begun tussling among themselves when a blizzard sprang up seemingly out of nowhere.

Seeking shelter together in a cave, Clover the Clever identified the source of the storm as Windigo, storm spirits in the shapes of a ponies. They are drawn to, and feed on, conflict, and bring snowstorms with them. The Windigo had been drawn by the leaders' bickering, and fed on it until the leaders froze solid. The assistants, on the other hand, proclaimed their desire to cooperate. This reminded Clover the Clever of a particular spell, referred to as the Fire of Friendship, which could be fueled by a pony of each tribe who shared a strong bond. This spell either drove the Windigo away or destroyed them, and restored the leaders to normal. Inspired by their assistants, the leaders agreed to cooperate and found a united nation.

However, each tribe wished to maintain their own form of government, and none were willing to give up too much power to the other. Initially, a council of 6 governed the new nation of Equestria, consisting of the leaders and their former assistants. But, their duties to their individual tribes often led to difficulties in meeting and reaching decisions in a timely fashion, so they sought another solution. It was Clover the Clever's old teacher, Starswirl the Bearded, who provided it. For around that time he finally returned from his travels, or else perhaps found the new nation in the course of them. He was at this time accompanied by two adolescents of a tribe that had not been seen by anyone living in Equestria. They were alicorns, possessing traits of both tribes. These alicorns, the sisters Celestia and Luna, were declared Princesses of Equestria, with the two of them holding rule jointly, advised when possible by the former ruling council. Many things befell between this event and the rise of Nightmare Moon, but those are stories for another time.

Analysis:

I hesitated to include this chapter, as I could not easily link it to any of the “hard” sciences. Instead, the reader will find below an analysis in terms of sociology and political science. I do realize this may upset some of my colleagues in these fields, as they may see me as “stealing their thunder”, so to speak. However, these events culminate in the coronation of the alicorn sisters, and as will be seen are, as I hope to show, intimately linked to the transformation of Luna into Nightmare Moon. The legend of Nightmare Moon being my original impetus for writing this volume, I ultimately decided that this chapter merited inclusion.

To begin with, most pre-Equestrian records were lost to the blizzards and the forced emergency abandonment of their previous settlements, so this is essentially the earliest point that is considered solid “history”. History, in the formal context, means the sequence of events deduced from recorded accounts. If written accounts do not exist, it is not technically history in this sense. There are a few scattered records from pre-Equestrian times, but a coherent narrative is difficult to assemble. At any rate, that Is beyond the scope of this book.

This is all to say that we do not even really know precisely where the pre-Equestria settlements were. Rumor has it they may have been in the now-frozen north, but unless some intrepid archaeologist uncovers ruins (ideally of a library), there is little more that can be said that is not in the tale.

This much can be determined. In the pre-Equestrian era, the three pony races lived in an uneasy peace driven by mutual dependence. Without the unicorns to raise and lower the sun, or the pegasi to control the weather, the earth ponies would not have been able to grow the food needed by all three races. Versions of the tale differ on their respective views of which race was the most reasonable (presumably depending on which race originated that version), but the basic result is that their cooperation was constantly on the verge of collapse. When this conflict drew the windigo that apparently nested nearby, they were unable to form a united front to deal with the problem. The lands were abandoned, along with much culture and history.

As an aside allow me to note here that, strictly speaking, Platinum's father, the King, was the technical leader of the Unicorn. For some reason, perhaps an illness, he was unable to directly lead his people at this time and Platinum was ruling as regent. His real name is no longer known with certainty, though based on Celestia's recollections it was something like “Gold” or possibly “Bullion”, or maybe some combination thereof.

It is unclear why the leaders of the three groups would choose to scout ahead with only a single assistant. Some versions of the tale say that the rulers did not want to put their people at risk, others that they wanted as much glory for themselves as possible, and others that they were separated from their respective groups. Some analysts [see, for instance, Bad Prop's “Morphology of the Folktale”] propose that there were actually more ponies in their group that were just not mentioned in the early oral retellings. Given that no version mentions others, I am inclined to think some combination of the first three explanations is behind it, but this is not exactly my field.

I do tend to agree with Bad Prop that the unreasonableness of the leaders contrasted to the reasonableness of the assistants smacks of poetic embellishment. But again, even the earliest versions are consistent on this, so it is difficult to say what the truth was. I is known that nopony can survive being literally frozen solid, so either this detail is a poetic exaggeration, or the windigo possess a magical means of freezing their victims. The latter options seems most probable, as it would give them a means of 'preserving' their prey for later: presumably, sufficiently argumentative ponies would, on defrosting, resume bickering, this time on whose fault it was that they had been captured. One last point on the topic of potential embellishments, the “Fire of Friendship” spell IS documented in the Royal Canterlot Archives, as I have verified for myself, and as near as anyone can figure, the description is spot-on. It seems to specifically be a warmth spell, which explains why it does not seem to have been considered as a counter-measure to Discord or Nightmare Moon.

The rest of this chapter will focus on what is given only one paragraph in the preceding tale: the organization of the new nation and the coronation of the alicorn sisters. On the origin of the alicorns, it is unclear where they came from. When Starswirl the Bearded appeared in the new lands, having been absent from pony society for many years, he simply knew where the sisters were living. He was a bit reticent to recount the full story, saying only that he had come across them in the course of his journeys.

Beyond that we have only speculation, as Celestia herself seems to have only the vaguest of memories of the time before that: she and her sister were living in Canterlot, which at that time was abandoned save for them, after having been raised there by another Alicorn (or possible more than one: she has not been entirely clear on this). Or so she claims: some theorize that she knows a bit more than she is letting on. But besides those conspiracy theories, we are left with only hypotheses. The oldest of these is that they were born to some waning Alicorn kingdom that had once existed in the area around Canterlot. Reasons for why the other Alicorn(s) left vary. To give a brief list: they left to explore the world, or to make way for new ponies, or they ascended to some higher plane of existence, their kingdom was destroyed by some magical accident, or an invasion, or by some great foe (possibly Lord of Chaos Discord: see Chapter 4: The Elements of Harmony and the Great Threats), or they had been rendered sterile, or they had always been nearly sterile and had been going slowly extinct since their creation (whatever that was). Celestia has never had a foal, but to my knowledge, she has never actually tried, so this is not a great indication. Though such matters ARE rather private, so perhaps Celestia knows more about that than she is letting on. Other theories are that there are never more than three alicorns at any one time, and Celestia, Luna, and their mysterious caregiver were made into alicorns by magical means, or perhaps their caregiver was actually their mother who was made an alicorn and gave birth to them, possibly with Starswirl as their father. In those models, Canterlot was not an Alicorn kingdom but a kingdom of some other race. In recent years, the emergence of a new Princess has made these once-fringe theories seem more plausible.

This new Princess, Mi Amore Cadenza, seems to have not been born an alicorn but became one sometime after birth. The details are fuzzy, but in her case she remembers clearly that she became an alicorn via magic of some sort, and Celestia found her soon after. For more on her, see chapter 7, “Brief Tales of Rare Magic”. In the aftermath, the 'acension hypothesis' mentioned above has gained credence: that is, they were some other sort of pony who became alicorns in a similar manner to Mi Amore Cadenza, though at a younger age. The most common version holds that they were once unicorns, though pegasi and earth pony models have naturally been proposed. Still others suggest that they were two different types, forming a trinity with some other alicorn, perhaps their caregiver, perhaps the predecessor to King Sombra of the Crystal Empire (see Chapter 4), or perhaps first the one and then the other, with one of each type among the trinity. Siblings having different races is rare but by no means unknown, and given the fractious climate of the time, such a birth would likely have been viewed with suspicion, perhaps leading to their parents abandoning them to be found by their Alicorn caregiver. Without further evidence, we cannot say any more on this.

At this time of their first appearance, they were in late adolescence, but lacked cutie marks. This is suggested by legend, and has been confirmed by Celestia [see Punchy Headline's interview in the Canterlot Times of June 21 of Solar Year 902]. Whether this is due to their nature as Alicorns or merely due to what some of this age would call “misfortune” is not known for certain. When interviewed, Celestia thought it was the latter. The caveat there is that the original interview's transcript no longer exists. It was conducted soon after the sisters' coronation, and was apparently lost when the Castle of the Two Sisters was abandoned. A complete copy may still reside in the ruins thereof, locatable from the air in the Everfree Forest, but wards on the castle have prevented study of more than the outer courtyard and ramparts. Celestia has forbidden any further attempts to force the wards, as a previous attempt seriously wounded the wizards who attempted it. The castle will come up again in Chapter 4.

Initially, Equestria could be described as a loose confederation of states with a united central government existing primarily for coordination and international affairs. This was most clear during the brief era when the Council ruled, as they came together only occasionally and its members mostly dealt with affairs in its own land. After they had deadlocked a dozen or so times on what to serve at meetings, they began to see the need for impartial arbitrators. For the interested reader, Chancellor Puddinghead preferred cake, despite her name, Commander Hurricane preferred apples, and Platinum preferred tarts [Bead: “The History of Equestria”, though many more recent volumes report it as well. This applies to most historical notes in the rest of this chapter.]. When the Starswirl mentioned the Alicorn sisters, they were soon accepted as a solution. Initially, the intent was to add them to the council, effectively acting as a tie-breaker in the event of a deadlock. However, they soon realized that meetings would come down to whatever the sisters chose, and as the individual leaders were often busy in their own lands, and before the sister had even been approached, the council decided to move to an advisory role, though the new leaders' powers were to be strictly circumscribed. Mind you, the “Lesser Unifiers,” were in favor of a strongly unified state. However, the Unicorn King and Commander Hurricane were loathe to give up any authority. Chancellor Puddinghead's opinion is reported as being “Let the blind lead the deaf!”, but no one is sure what, if anything, she meant by this.

Before the sisters were contacted, there was much debate over what their title would be, at least among the senior leaders. It is perhaps worth noting that Platinum was not present at these meetings, ruling over the Unicorns while her father attended the Council. However, he seems not to have been markedly different from his daughter in temperament. They could not have titles that seemed less than the leaders of the respective groups, but none of the leaders wanted them to have titles greater than them. The sisters were not military leaders, so Commander was inappropriate, and they would not face elections after appointment, so Chancellor was similarly out. Queen was proposed, but rejected for two reasons. First, Queen would imply more power than the Council intended to bestow on them. Second, it was thought that there being two Queens would lead foreign leaders to assume that there was some sort of polygamous arrangement involved. So, it was decided that they would have the title of Princess. This did cause a debate that the title seemed 'lesser' than the King, so it was agreed that upon the then-current Unicorn King's retirement or death, the Unicorn leaders would henceforth be “Prince” or “Princess”. Hence, in history, he is commonly known as The Last Unicorn King. It is said that as a result of this, Platinum's relationship with the new royalty had a rocky start, both as it meant she would not be called “Queen” and because it meant sharing the title she already had.

The existence of Princesses (and to some extent Princes) of the Unicorn royal line have caused great confusion in elementary Social Studies classes, confusion which often persists even into University. Especially as Celestia, post Nightmare Moon, adopted the line as honorary family. The current head of the family is Prince Blueblood, legally Celestia's nephew. The family now has little political power, and anyway Blueblood has little interest in governance, so it is unclear if this title will persist much longer. Readers familiar with international affairs may also know that some of our neighbors still have Kings and Queens, and thus Princes and Princesses, furthering the confusion of some foals. The lost Crystal Empire had a Queen, and a King as usurper, and the Griffons have a King (though of late he has been largely symbolic).

Worth noting here, for convenience, is that Alicorns possess traits of all 3 tribes. Actually, exactly what traits of Earth Ponies Alicorns possess was a subject of some debate at the time. Legend has it that Chancellor Puddinghead threw a large rock at Celestia's head, and when Celestia shattered the rock with her hooves she proved she had an Earth Pony's strength. Celestia herself has refused to confirm or deny this report, but she does say that there was some sort of testing. The tri-partite traits are not especially important here, but will come up occasionally later.

As has been said, the Princesses were initially given strictly limited powers. According to Celestia, they actually rejected the notion of having supreme governing authority before the terms had even been put to them. They only found out later that their response had convinced the skeptical members of the Council that they had chosen the right candidates. This changed a great deal after the Reign of Discord, but that will wait until the next chapter.

It was determined that a new castle would be built for the Sisters, to serve as neutral ground for the governing of the combined kingdom. Now, Canterlot would have been appropriate, but the Unicorns found it ideally positioned for manipulating the Sun and Moon (or rather, the Moon and Earth), and so their claimed the abandoned city. The sisters ultimately settled on a place deep within the Everfree Forest. Then as now it was a very dangerous place, but they chose a small clearing (that some say was magical) to start from, and with the power of two alicorns and a small cadre of guards of each of the three races, the workers were well protected. There was some difficulty in transporting the materials, but nothing insurmountable. Surviving records, and Celestia's recollections, mention that the sisters designed many traps into the castle. Apparently, they were intended primarily for pranks, but could double as defense in a pinch.

This brings us around to the connection to Nightmare Moon. By setting themselves apart, the sisters necessarily isolated themselves. While in these early days, the involvement of the Council and the relative decentralization of power ameliorated the effect, in the days to come as Council members died and were replaced, while the sisters continued on, they would gain more and more power. This was solidified post-Discord. Despite their initial protestations that they did not want that much power, it was virtually inevitable that they would accumulate in these circumstances. Besides their critical role in defeating Discord and their long life, there was, I believe, a factor at least equal to the effect of Discord's defeat. The sister had been set up from the beginning as symbols. They were thus set on a pedestal, made to be “more” than ponies, and their status as alicorns reinforced this. Even if lacking traditional monarch powers at first, the royal titles had a powerful association in the psyche of pony-kind, and indeed continue to do so [see Young's “The Structure of the Unconscious” for more]. Thus, as those who limited their power died, then so long as they did not make any moves bad enough to make the populace turn on them, they were elevated in prestige even more. And with the increase in prestige, ponies by and large felt that they could be trusted with more power. This faith does not, on the whole, seem to have been entirely misplaced, but it did contribute to a gradual, continuous separation of the sisters from the public in the public's mind. While there were certainly exceptions [see for instance “Rebellions and Protests of the Celestial Era” by Long Tale], this held for the most part. The result, then, caused the sisters to became increasingly isolated from everyone but each other. Once they got their cutie marks, the sisters took dominion over the Sun and Moon and thus were necessarily isolated from each other by their schedules.

As ponies are diurnal by nature, Luna almost never interacted with citizens. And since Celestia was the one they saw, the ponies showered her with adulations while largely ignoring Luna. I suspect, though I have little evidence for this other than Celestia's recollections of ancient conversations, that they did not despise or ignore her in their hearts and minds, but rather viewed her as a shadowy guardian of the night, to be respected and admired, but only from afar. Possibly the general mood was that Luna preferred isolation. She may have, but even the most anti-social of ponies generally like to have someone to converse with every now and then.

In other words, had Celestia and Luna not been set up so high above everyone else, both by title and eventually by power, things may have been different. Celestia would likely have received fewer accolades, reducing Luna's reasons for jealousy, but also Luna might have been seen as a pony, with a pony's need for companionship, and treated as such. That latter conclusion may be a bit hasty: there are normal ponies all the time who are not separated by title or power but nonetheless are isolated even in a crowd, but those aspects certainly do not help. To be fair, such ponies generally do not have the power to blanket the nation in darkness.

The nocturnal/diurnal issue would have stood, but even then there were astronomers (though they did not use telescopes, which had not been invented yet). It was also not uncommon to wake up at night and spend an hour or so reading or whatnot. Besides, had she not been set up as unapproachable, she would have had more freedom to pursue friendships and/or romances, or be approached regarding the same. If nothing else, without the burdens, expectations, and setting of them on pedestals, Celestia at least would have been more likely to have noticed and tried to help her sister, rather than keeping her distance until Luna could take no more.

After Luna became Nightmare Moon and was banished to the Moon, Celestia took some steps to reverse her own isolation. Adopting the royal Unicorn line was one such step, and another was opening her School for Gifted Unicorns. Besides her interactions with her proteges, she tried to see that the teachers at that school viewed her as more of an equal, at least within the confines of the school. I can verify that this has had mixed success: some of the teachers hold her in awe, others see her much the same as the principal at any school. She has also at least made attempts to reduce the near-worship she enjoys in the general populace, but this has met with by far the least success of any of her initiatives. But, she has not snapped yet, so some of her more successful initiatives have presumably had an adequate effect.

Having exhausted that line of logic, it is now time to turn to our next chapter and the legendary Elements of Harmony.

Author's Notes:

Vladimir Propps was a Russian folklorist who wrote “Morphology of the Folktale”. I ponified his name a bit for a reference in this text. Meanwhile, Carl Jung's essay “The Structure of the Unconscious” is also real, and and first proposed the collective unconscious and the archetypes that reside therein.

A good chunk of the analysis in this chapter had to be re-written when I re-read part of “The Journal of the Two Princesses” (the real-world published version) and found statements that I could not reasonably ignore, though I did not fully incorporate most of them either.

Chapter 4: The Elements of Harmony and the Three Great Threats (And One Minor One)

We briefly encountered the mysterious elements of Harmony in first chapter. In this, we will examine them in more detail. Instead of a single tale, however, we must examine three different stories. One, that of Discord, may be quite familiar to my readers, and as the best-documented of the three, it is the longest. The other two are those of King Sombra of the Crystal Empire and Tirek the Minotaur. There are both less-known and more poorly documented and so shall be briefer. The odd story out is, of course, that of Nightmare Moon from the first chapter, which we will not repeat here.

Great Threat 1: Discord, Lord of Chaos

After the founding of Equestria and the coronation of the two sisters, Equestria flourished for many years. However, one day, a strange creature appeared at the Castle of the Two Sisters.

“I am Discord the Draconequus,” he said, “The Lord of Chaos, and your new ruler.”

“It is not so!” said the youngest sister, in a loud inflection known as the Royal Canterlot Voice, “For my sister and I are the rulers here!”

“Oh, yes, I think you would make a lovely ruler,” Discord said, and with a snap of his claws the younger sister's body turned into a wooden stick with lines on it: a ruler, in other words.

“That is not funny!” said the elder sister, in a voice less loud, but more threatening.

“Oh, I disagree,” said the Draconequus, chuckling his throaty laugh. “I think it's hillarious! You're just an old stick in the mud!”

He snapped his claws again, but the elder sister was faster and raised a shield. Mud appeared beneath her and she sank into it, but she herself was unchanged.

“No fair!” said Discord, his jovial tone beginning to break, “No unicorn can resist my magic! Wait...” he looked again at the elder sister and at the younger, who was currently a stick with wings. He snapped his claws and returned the younger sister to normal. At the same time, he shrank down and landed on her back.

“Ah, wings AND a horn!” he said, tugging on Luna's wings, “Alicorns then? How delightful! Oh, this will be fun!”

But Luna fired a blast of magic at the intruder, who vanished before it hit, reappearing between their stone thrones on a new, golden throne perched on top of them.

“Not if we can help it!” Celestia said, moving closer to her sister. With a great magical exertion, both vanished in a flash of light.

From the reports of the castle staff later, it seems that Discord was at first angry at his toys escaping his grasp, but his ever-mercurial mood soon shifted again as he declared that there were not enough toys at this castle, and with a snap he and all the residents of the castle vanished, reappearing in Canterlot in the midst of the castle there.

Thus began the reign of Discord. None ever found out where he came from, or why he appeared, but he was indisputably there. In those days, the very laws of nature were turned on their heads, and floating buildings, rains of cider, and streets of soap were the norm. It is also alleged that he made the national currency air. It was plentiful, but difficult to spend. Not that it mattered as any goods were likely to turn into ducks or the like, and most services were pointless in the shifting, chaotic landscape. Time was hard to mark, as Discord's whims made day into night and night into day in the blink of an eye, but the scholars and astronomers of the time would later reckon by the motion of the stars that it was over a year.

Over that time, the sisters made attempts to fix Discord's magic and even assault the creature himself, but whenever they made progress, Discord would undo their work. They could stop his magic against themselves, or with practice reverse it on each other, but they could not protect others. It is said that he had some means of magically controlling the populace to prevent a coordinated uprising. Shortly before his defeat, the sisters found a way to reverse that effect on some, but most of the populace was thoroughly cowed regardless, so progress was slow.

The reign of Discord came to an end when the sisters found six magic stones called the Elements of Harmony. These stones represented Kindness, Honesty, Laughter, Loyalty, Generosity, and Magic. Each sister wielding three, they combined their power and turned them against Discord. This overwhelming magic was something even he was powerless against, and so the mighty tyrant was turned to stone. It is said that his stone form stands as a statue on the Canterlot Castle grounds to this day, a reminder of that dark time.

Great Threat 2: Sombra, the Shadow King of the Crystal Empire

The Crystal Empire was a realm so ancient it predates the founding of Equestria. During the reign of Discord, its ruler, a benevolent alicorn queen, protected the city by cutting it off from the rest of the world using the ancient artifact known as the Crystal Heart. Thus, the Crystal Empire suffered the least during that time. But, when the reign of Discord ended, they lowered their barrier and sent out aid to the ravaged land of Equestria. It was during this time, when the Empire was weakened, that a dark force moved in. Belonging to a race of shadow ponies, Sombra used his dark magic to overthrow the Queen and set himself up as King. For a time, he ruled and consolidated his forces, while the Princesses of Equestria were too preoccupied to notice and stop him.

Thus, after some time, King Sombra made war on Equestria. However, his plans for a sudden sneak attack were ruined when his scouts were discovered. Gathering what forces they could, the sisters took the Elements of Harmony to the Crystal Empire in the far North. Though Sombra's dark magic kept the Elements from destroying him entirely, they nonetheless succeeded in sealing both him and the Crystal Empire away. And so, the once-great empire has slept for nigh-on a thousand years, while Celestia prepares for the day when the seal will fail, and the Empire and its dark King shall rise again.

Minor Threat: Tirek the Centaur

Far, far away lies the Kingdom of the Centaurs. When they learned of the Kingdom of Equestria and its great riches, they sought to trade with this land. The two Princes of the kingdom set forth as the head of this overture. The younger prince was kind-hearted and held his brother in awe, while the older prince was cruel and selfish. Unbeknownst to the Centaur King, his eldest son sought to use the embassy as a way to steal the magic of unicorns. When the younger brother found out, he was dismayed, for on the journey he had come to respect the ponies of Equestria. Not knowing what else to do, he informed the princesses of his brothers plans in secret. So, before the elder brother could act, the princesses harnessed the elements of harmony and sealed the older brother away in a place called Tartarus, that they had prepared as a prison for some of the more monstrous creatures of the land. The younger brother, saddened, returned home, deciding that their two lands were not yet ready for closer relations.

Analysis:

Now seems a good time to note that the dialog in the first story is a bit speculative, derived from Celestia's account of the events.

No one knows for sure where Discord came from. Some say he is a primordial force of nature, the deity of Chaos. Others say that he inherited the mantle of Lord of Chaos from someone else, perhaps by finding the theorized “Elements of Disharmony”. A variant is that he became Lord of Chaos from such a means, but that he was the first. Relatedly, some suggest he was originally Starswirl the Bearded, who vanishes from history between the founding of Equestria and the reign of Discord. The exact date is unclear.

Starswirl had long been fond of going off on expeditions for long periods of time without warning, so it was a long time before anyone noted that after one of these, he never returned. Furthermore, according to an entry in the Canterlot Archives, he had developed some sort of time travel spell, so it is possible he vanished into the future or past. Some claim he will turn up in the future at some point. Others say he went to the past and possibly became Discord. This is due to persistent rumors regarding Discord's relation to the Alicorn civilization.

The Alicorn civilization, as mentioned before, vanished suddenly, leaving a nearly-empty city behind. As related last chapter, Celestia and Luna were the only inhabitants when Starswirl found them. One hypothesis has it that the Alicorn civilization sealed Discord away, and with their disappearance, no one was left to maintain that seal, and so he emerged. This may never be answered unless Discord returns some day. It is very unclear whether even being turned to stone was enough to put an end to him for good.

Two points with regards to Magicology are important here: Discord's magic and the Elements of Harmony. I caution that this is necessarily not my specialty, but I have collaborated with enough of my unicorn colleagues to at least have a working knowledge. Discord's magic seems not to follow the rules of Unicorn magic. He could instantaneously transform ponies with little effort, for instance, while all known unicorn magic transformation spells require great concentration and time. He was also able to 'hang' spells, such as floating buildings and, by some accounts, twisted, non-Euclydean architecture, without continuing to exert effort, and these spells seemed to remain constant with time. By contrast, imbuing spells into objects for such purposes as flying toys or audio recording have a distinctly limited timeframe. Now, it is possible that he was using the same sort of magic, but was simply that much more powerful, and his spells WOULD have faded eventually. The claw snapping, rather than horn glowing, could be chalked up to differing biology.

Here we find a point that I, and many other, sorely wish we had more information on. Did Discord's magic create significant 'magic leakage'? Unicorn magic is nearly always accompanied by either a glow or a flash of light. This represents a wasting (or 'leaking') of magical energy, but seems to be unavoidable. There is no mention of such effects, but then most ponies do not comment on the 'unicorn glow', since that is what they always see. In fact, this would not even bear mentioning were it not for the unusually powerful nature of his other magic, as well as a clever researcher named Residue thinking to ask Celestia some seven hundred years ago. This was still several hundred years after the fact, mind you, but closer to it than we are now. Celestia had other concerns on her mind during Discord's reign, of course, but to the best of her knowledge she saw no signs of 'magic leakage'. That is, his magic was strictly conservative in a way that it does not seem to be possible for unicorn magic (or indeed alicorn magic) to be.

Whatever the case, Discord's powers were too much for the alicorn sisters to handle unaided, and his mind influencing magic made an organized resistance difficult. Celestia has been unable to fully articulate exactly what his mind control entailed. There are, of course, unicorn spells to manipulate both emotions and memory, though in most circumstances it is illegal to cast such spells on intelligent beings. True mind control has never been successfully done with unicorn magic, though that may just be that the obvious ethical implications have limited research efforts in that area. It IS known that Discord's manipulation was not true mind control either, but it induced a sort of practical apathy. Celestia has mentioned at interview that the counter spell involved awakening the victim's memories in some way, so it is likely that some form of memory manipulation was involved in Discord's spell.

This leads us to the Elements of Harmony. For security reasons, Celestia has never divulged where they were found, or their current location. It is known that their location was communicated to them by Starswirl the Bearded prior to his disappearance. It is also known that they take the forms of stone spheres when inert, or gemstones when in use. The sisters each controlled 3 of the elements, with Luna responsible for Laughter, Honesty, and Loyalty, and Celestia for Generosity, Kindness, and Magic. According to Celestia and surviving records, the Elements of Magic looked like a star when in gem form, while the others looks like a pointed variant on the “emerald cut” often used for jewelry. That is, there were only 2 short sides on top and bottom, coming to a point, where a traditional emerald cut would have an additional side on each of top and bottom, running perpendicular to the long sides.

Of these elements, 4 of them, Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, and Generosity, are personality traits or virtues. Laughter and magic do not seem to fit this theme, but that could be a translation problem. Laughter and magic per se are not inherent virtues, but can be good or bad depending on how they are used. But, if we suppose 'laughter' is supposed to mean “inspiring happiness”, laughter often being a sign of good times and/or happiness, then it fits with the others. This does assume that the element names were originally in some other language. Lacking knowledge of where they, or even their names, came from, there is little more we can say. According to Celestia, the names came with them, but it is not clear if she means that the names were magically conveyed to the wielders, or if they or Starswirl read the names somewhere. As for magic, it is a force of nature, not a personality trait or virtue. But, in an archaic usage, magic was sometimes used to mean something like “divine creation”, or possibly “possessing an ineffable supernatural/spiritual quality.” What we mostly call magic now was generally called sorcery in the early Equestrian era and earlier. In this case, we might say that the Element of Magic was “The element of divinely (or spiritually) inspired creativity”. That is only a virtue if the modifier is inherently good, so for a modern rendering I think “divine creativity” would be best.

The elements themselves, like Discord, seem to have powers transcending ordinary unicorn magic. Again, it is possible that they are simply very powerful unicorn magic, stronger than Discord's, but they seem to function fundamentally differently. The first usage of the elements produced an effect that does not seem to have been specifically intended: the sisters wished to neutralize discord, and the elements caused it. Apparently, they also safely reversed most of the physical damage and mental manipulation he had done. Unicorn magic generally requires specific direction and intention, especially at higher levels. Admittedly, at higher levels that is at least partly a safety measure, to prevent an uncontrolled explosion, but then the elements, with little direction, did not produce an explosion. The other two definitive uses of the elements, against King Sombra and Nightmare Moon, had more specific intention behind them, especially Nightmare Moon, but we will get to those in a moment.

An odd point is that two sisters wielded three elements each. One might ask, why 6 elements, then? Why not one element per sister, or one wielder for all 6? Now, at the time, the sisters were still working as a team, but after Luna became Nightmare Moon and was banished, the elements went inert, so there seems to have been some practical link. It IS possible that that was due to the trauma inflicted on Celestia's psyche by the experience, but I will leave consideration of that hypothesis for others, as without a deeper insight into either the elements or Celestia's psyche, anything further said on the matter would be pure speculation. The other theory is that the elements would normally correspond to 6 individuals, but as Alicorns the sisters could wield three each without damaging them: one each for the Pegasus, Unicorn, and Earth Pony traits they possess. This would suggest that, were the elements to re-emerge and re-bond with individuals, there would be 2 elements to each type of pony. Sadly, until and unless something of the sort occurs we cannot be sure.

Sombra of the Crystal Empire seemed to also possess a magic fundamentally different from Unicorn magic. Records indicate it had an eerie glow, different from the unicorn magic glow. He also allegedly possessed some form of mass mental manipulation, though records are sparse enough that the citizens of the Crystal Empire may have simply been afraid of him. Further, his magic seemed to deal entirely with illusion and manipulation, though that may have been his own personal predilections.

Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony for the second time recorded time against King Sombra. In this case, they had the goal of neutralizing Sombra, but it only partially succeeded. According to Celestia, Sombra still wanders the northern wastes in a shadowy, ethereal form. It seems that he cannot leave them, perhaps due to a ward created by the Elements and/or Celestia and Luna, or perhaps his present form cannot withstand direct sunlight. At any rate, he has never been spotted outside of the northern wastes. At the same time, the Crystal Empire vanished due to a fail-safe spell Sombra had cast. It has been hypothesized [“Lost Locations”, Zap Weir] that restoring him to physical form would restore the Empire, but the wastes are vast and that would leave a re-empowered Sombra to deal with.

Tirek the Centaur is considered a minor threat, though his actual threat level is unknown, since his plan was never put into action. It is unclear if the Elements of Harmony were actually used against him. It is a possibility, but the best guess is that they were not. In fact, there have been suggestions that Celestia alone dealt with him. This was very shortly before Luna's banishment, so it would not be unexpected for the sisters not to have worked together for a relatively minor threat. This may, in fact, have turned Luna even further against her sister, if she were not consulted on this. There are few contemporary sources, given the relatively minor nature of the incident, and Celestia has been reluctant to talk about it, claiming unclear memory of the incident. It might again be due to the incident being relatively minor, or it may be that as I suggested earlier the incident was linked to Luna's banishment. If, however, the Elements of Harmony WERE used, then we would have another example of them effectively imprisoning an enemy without destroying them.

The final known use of the Elements of Harmony was, of course, to banish Nightmare Moon. In this case, Luna having been taken over, Celestia alone used all 6. Whether because of this “overloading” of six elements on one alicorn or because of Celestia's state of mind, the Elements became inert, turning into stone spheres. It is also unknown whether the supposed 1000 year time limit was Celestia's intent or whether it was related to the mishandling (in one way or another) of the Elements. In any case, this is the final data point we have. In all cases, then, the Elements of Harmony do not destroy, but imprison. The preferability of this is a debatable moral issue in most cases, but they seem to be powerful enough that it is reasonable. After all, none of the threats they have imprisoned have emerged in over or about one thousand years.

Regarding the fate of the Elements, which I have mentioned in passing earlier but include here for completeness, after they were rendered inert following the banishing of Nightmare Moon, they are not mentioned in history after this point. One possibility is that they reside in the castle in Canterlot, hidden by Celestia's orders. It is indeed only by her word, and the fact that they have never been used again, that we know that they were rendered inert. Another possiblity is that they are still in the Castle of the Two Sisters. The place was abandoned the same year as Nightmare Moon's banishment. It is, however, unknown if it was immediately afterward. There is, as was mentioned before, a ward around much of the Castle. it is possible that this was placed as part of Luna's banishment, though it is unclear why this would be so. The other possibility is that Celestia sealed it when she left, perhaps not wanting the bad memories, perhaps to protect explorers from its traps, or perhaps to protect the Elements of Harmony. She did permit some attempts to break the ward, as stated in the first chapter, but if the Elements are there, perhaps she planned to retrieve them, or perhaps there is some further ward around the elements themselves. Or maybe they are in Canterlot after all. Since their location is a national secret, the truth will likely only be known if and when they are used again.

I wish to end with one hypothesis on the Elements that I intentionally omitted from my earlier discussion of their nature. While even Celestia does not know their true nature, some have speculated [“Fundamental Magic” by Fairy Tail] that they either represent or come from the source of our world's magic. According to a popular theory, the original magic is Love. In a related theory, Divine Love is sometimes said to be the font of all Creation. If, as hypothesized earlier, the Elements each represent a virtue, then this would tie together nicely. This is all highly speculative, of course, but it seems a good note to end a chapter on.

Next chapter: The Tale of the Sonic Rainboom.

Author's Notes:

Author's Note: The bit about Discord making the national currency air is from “Equestria, A History Revealed” by Hoofry_Poneigher. I did not make use of the rest of the, very funny, work, but that one gag seemed to fit well enough, and was too good to let go.

I'll admit, I had to treat “The Journal of the Two Sisters” as relatively firm history in this and the last chapter. It drops more clues about Celestia and Luna's origins than the show, which is so sparse that there isn't really any reasonable narrative I could make without using the Journal.

A weir is a type of barrier across the river. One features in William Butler Yeats's poen “Down By The Salley Gardens”.

Chapter 5: The Tale of the Sonic Rainboom

Here, we have 2 stories to tell. The first is the relatively short legend of the Sonic Rainboom, the second is a construction of the events that are much more recent: less than two decades ago. The former is such a dimly-remembered legend, that I cannot say too much about it. Further, out of respect for the participants (who are still around), I do not make any poetic turns of phrase or imposition of narrative structure to the latter event. Thus, these may be a bit dull to read, but then they are short.

The Legend:

Many years ago, before Equestria was founded, there was a Pegasus named Firefly, who could fly very fast indeed. Through practice, she got faster and faster, until she could fly so fast that a loud boom would accompany her flight. But then, one day, another Pegasus flew into a snow cloud by mistake, and their wings froze. As her friend plummeted towards the ground, Firefly dived after her. In this case, not only was there an explosion of sound, but there was also one of color. A rainbow appeared behind her as she flew, and she was able to catch up to her friend and move set her on the ground without injury, the rainbow trailing her as she went. After much practice, Firefly was able to create this “Sonic Rainboom” at will, forming rainbows wherever desired nearly instantly. But no other pony was ever able to replicate this feat, and in the passing of time, the skill was lost.

The Fact:

Some years ago, at a Young Flyers camp in Cloudsdale, a phenomenon so similar to the legends occurred that it could hardly be anything else. For some time, until the parties in question came of age, the names of the participants were kept anonymous. Now, it is known that the creator of the Sonic Rainboom was one Rainbow Dash. She was goaded into a race by two colts, Hoops and “Dumb-Bell” (not his real name, but apparently what he goes by). A traditional “go through the hoops” race, there was one “power dive” checkpoint. During this section, she left her competition in the dust and broke the “magic barrier”. A rainbow-colored circular shockwave radiated out from the low point of her dive, and afterwards a rainbow trail formed behind her as she flew, eventually petering out. The event was seen for a long distance across Equestria, reaching not only Canterlot, but all the way to the Diamond Mountains and the Rock Plains.

Analysis:

We can say little with regards to the ancient legend, except by comparison with modern events. However, we should note that Firefly is not universally accepted as the name of the pegasus in question. For instance, the version told among the pegasi of the Cloud Mountains has her name as the apropos “Swift Wing”. Some versions hold that the pegasus was male (with similar names), while the griffons claim that it was actually a griffon who first achieved this feat! The griffons give “Greta” (for female) and Groucho (for male) as possible names. Firefly being the name most commonly told in Cloudsdale, I will stick to that hereafter. As a side-note, the famous General Firefly was supposedly named for the Firefly of legend.

With regards to the incident in Cloudsdale some years back, there are a few points to note before we consider the Sonic Rainboom itself. The first is the filly who performed this feet. While still young, she has placed in the top three in a number of racing competitions since then, though her current occupation is as a weather pony. With regards to that last point, for those who do not know, unless one can get one of the coveted slots in one of the professional teams, it is difficult to make ends meet as a pure 'flier'. The best-known of these teams is the Wonderbolts, though there are others. There are even a handful of solo performers who make a living appearing at private events.

Next, Ms. Rainbow Dash has yet to reproduce the feat. While her cutie mark, according to her, actually appeared after the start of the Rainboom, the fact that its appearance was near then suggests that the magic 'boost' that occasionally accompanies a cutie mark's emergence (regardless of the bearer's species) may have played a role. There have been a number of attempts to get her to repeat the feet, including one I undertook myself. That makes a mildly interesting anecdote in and of itself. However, because it was ultimately unsuccessful, I do not feel that that anecdote fits here. I will include it in an appendix, for the interested reader1.

Now, since unlike the tales from previous chapters, this one has been replicated recently enough to be in many living memories, we can be a bit more definitive in our analysis. But first, a brief overview of terms for my non-pegasus readers. The 'ring race' is a flying competition whereby the contestants must pass through rings in a specific order. For young fliers, they are generally made of cloud to avoid injury, but metal rings may be used for more advanced fliers. For the event in question, they would have been cloud since the participants were young. Next, the “power dive”.

A power dive is a gravity-assisted maneuver where the pegasus actually moves faster than the free-fall velocity. There are some complications to that statement, as we shall see in a moment. Many pegasi can do this without thinking. There has been analysis of this maneuver for at least as long as recorded history. “Analysis paralysis,” where thinking about how one does something renders one unable to do it, proved something of an impediment, but it has been well studied by this point. The invention of high-speed magic photography in the last few years has allowed further analysis of the actual physics of the process.

In the beginning of a power dive, the pegasus begins to free fall by angling downward and tucking in the wings. As they continue to accelerate, they must progressively tuck in their wings in order to achieve maximum streamlining. At a certain point, some feathers have to actually “pop” up in order to disrupt turbulence that would otherwise form. This last point is rather complicated, so I shall not bore the reader with the details. Mind you, this all occurs in a very short time. Once within a certain distance of the ground, the wings must be progressively extended to slow down enough to 'make the turn' and avoid impact with the ground. [see B. Ponyz [sic] and Horse B. et al., “Diving-Flight Aerodynamics.”]*

The process I have just described is something falcons and other birds can do as well. For them, they are technically in free fall the entire time, they are merely minimizing drag from the air. Pegasi are a bit different. I suspect most of my readers have never considered how pegasi fly, assuming it is the same process used by birds. To some extent it is, but a pegasus's body-mass-to-wingspan ratio is simply too high to fly without rather furious flapping, and anyone who has observed a pegasus in flight will know that this is simply not what most pegasi do. Instead, the innate magic of a pegasus allows them 'push off' against the air via and expenditure of magic. In addition, they can 'swim' through (or 'push off of') the magic field that permeates our planet to some extent. There are limits: at high altitudes, there is less air to push off of. The reduction in the magic field is minor by comparison, but 'swimming' through the field alone is not enough to keep a pegasus afloat. Thus there is an upper limit to flight, as I mentioned back in the first chapter.

The result is that pegasi can, in principle, reach even faster speeds than a falcon when in a power dive. Typically, the acceleration distance and time are short enough that the speeds cannot exceed that of sound, much less that of magic. That assumes, of course, that the pegasus in question tries to avoid crashing in the typical manner. Apparently, leading up to the Sonic Rainboom, Ms. Rainbow Dash became so engrossed in the race that she neglected to decelerate longer than would ordinarily be safe. According to Hoops, her nickname at the school was “Rainbow Crash”, as apparently this was a habit of her. When flying around clouds instead of the ground, it is typically less of an issue.

I mentioned above the speeds of sound and magic, and I must take some pains to describe what I mean here. The speed of sound is, logically enough, the speed at which sound travels. In thunderstorms, the lightning is always visible before the thunder is audible. This is because sound travels more slowly than light. By having a pegasus trigger a lightning strike at known distances from the observer and measuring the change in delay over the distance, one can find the speed of sound. Note well: the speed of light is so much faster that the lightning's visual transmission can be said to be instantaneous for any distance over which it is visible. It is about 770 miles per hour at sea level, and generally decreases as you go up in altitude. There is a temperature dependence, so there is some variation as well as altitude transitions where it decreases. There are also other ways of measuring it, but as this chapter is already heavy on the science, I will not bore the reader with further details.

The speed of magic is, as one might guess, the speed at which magic travels. Here, however, we have to take some care. The EFFECTS of spells typically travel much slower than this speed, being limited both by what the unicorn wants to do and by limits on their ability to follow these effects. The classic example of this is unicorn kinesis: an ability possessed by most unicorns to move small objects via magic. The object itself may move quite slowly, or even stay still, suspended in the air. The speed I mean here is that which carries this effect from the unicorn's horn to the object, typically signified by a similar glow surrounding the two. This does have a limited speed, though for simple kinesis that speed is so fast that the response is essentially instantaneous.

If, however, a unicorn were to, say, send a zap of magic over a long distance, then one might be able to tell how fast that zap moved. The unicorn would have to be careful that this zap was PURE magic, since if he or she instead used magic to create lightning or sound, the effect would move at the speed of those phenomena. One could also measure the delay moving an object at a great distance, though here since kinesis is generally restricted to line-of-sight one must be sure that there is sufficient open area. These measurements are a bit trickier, so the speed of magic is known with less precision, but it is about 900-1000 miles per hour. The greater uncertainty makes it difficult to be sure, but it seems to vary little with altitude, tested via unicorns casting a 'walk on clouds' spell first, then the test spell.

There are ways to exceed the speed of sound. A bare handful of pegasi throughout history have been able to just barely exceed the speed of sound. In recent times, besides Ms. Rainbow Dash, there is also Captain Spitfire of the Wonderbolts. There have been a dozen or so others known to have possessed this ability, but it would be tedious to list them here. With the exception of Ms. Dash, however, none were able to go enough beyond this speed to exceed the speed of magic.

The end of a good bull whip (my apologies to our bovine friends, but that is the name most know it by) can also exceed the speed of sound, which is what causes the distinct “crack”. Interestingly, a carefully made whip wielded by a sufficiently skilled hoof can actually exceed the speed of magic. This does not create a Rainboom, though. Neither does lightning, which is strictly speaking caused by electrically charged particles called electrons. I will not go into that particular nuance here, but it can be found in many college textbooks. From this we can conclude that a Rainboom requires not only exceeding the speed of magic, but also an entity that has an innate magic charge. Using magic to drive a whip does not work, as the driving spell is itself limited by the speed of magic. It is possible to imbue a whip with magic, and then crack it in the normal way, which produces a bright 'spark'. It is a useful trick in stage magic, and perhaps in some sort of Daring Do-esque adventure, but still not a full Rainboom. Likely, the concentration of magic must be sufficiently high and/or the speed maintained long enough for a full Rainboom to occur.

There are two visual and one audible components to a Sonic Rainboom. The audible component is a lightning-like “boom”, which can actually cause a blast wave that can knock things down, if done too close to the ground. The two visual components are an initial “blast wave” circular rainbow pattern and a rainbow “trail” which follows the direction of flight. With respect to the first, based on the accounts of those who are there, the blast wave appeared to travel perpendicularly to Ms. Dash's direction of travel. The appearance of this blast wave is now officially recognized as when a Sonic Rainboom has really occurred. The rainbow “trail” began at or just past the initial break-point and persisted for some time, with additional 'track' being added as Ms. Dash continued to fly at high speed, stopping when she slowed down below a certain point. Of note, while the initial blast occurred during a power dive, the trail continued to exist as Ms. Dash flew upward again.

There was apparently also a visual cue that the Rainboom was forming. When Ms. Dash was approaching the critical speed, both she and Hoops say they saw a sparking “envelope” that was mostly white with streaks of rainbow colors. This envelope probably narrowed and increased in intensity leading up to the boom: they were not paying particularly close attention to such subtleties at the time. This is interesting in that it has been hypothesized that at supersonic speeds a “Mach cone” will form around the traveler with an opening angle that narrows as they go more times the speed of sound. In this case, the cone seems to have formed before she reached the speed of magic, though perhaps after she reached the speed of sound. Captain Spitfire has said that she has observed the beginnings of such an aura forming during some of her higher-speed flights. Ms. Dash, for her part, hedged her words more, but is fairly certain that she has observed this aura or cone forming during some of her attempts to create another Sonic Rainboom.

The best model of the Rainboom is thus that when the speed of magic is approached by a magically charged body, there starts to be a conversion from magic energy to light energy, and possibly sound, creating the sparking and possibly crackling aura. It being difficult to hear when flying at speed, it is not certain of this aura makes a sound. After the speed of magic is exceeded, the conversion is continuous and directed, pointing away from the direction of travel. At the 'break point', there is a sudden, massive conversion as the local magic field and the pegasus's innate magic first adjust.

A useful analogy is a tightly wound watch spring. If over-wound then suddenly released, the results can be rather dramatic, but if one end remains tethered, it will subsequently settle into a must smaller and stabler oscillation (the end bouncing back and forth, in other words). Similarly, when the pegasus's innate magic first 'breaks through,' so that it travels faster than the local magic field, there is a big release of energy, but once this barrier is broken, there is instead a smaller, steader stream of energy released.

Possibly related is the aforementioned fact that the rainbow trail continud even after Ms. Dash began to climb against gravity. It seems that she actually maintained faster-than-magic speeds during at least some of that time as well. Typically, gravity slows one down during a climb. In this case, it seems that the conversion of magic energy, directed away from the direction of flight, gave her a 'boost' that enabled her to maintain speed. This is a most fascinating effect, and I do wish it could be studied further. If there were an easier way to harness it, it may be possible for, say, trains to maintain high speeds with minimal expenditure of coal, magic, or pony power. Though the repeated use of this effect would probably temporarily drain the local magic field. However, since the conversion of magic energy of all unicorns throughout history has not shown any negative effects in this manner, the draw-back would likely be only temporary.

There is some question as to whether the energy from the initial aura comes from the local magic field or the flier. Ms. Dash and Captain Spitfire say that once the aura appears, it gets much harder to fly faster, possibly going a long way towards explaining why the Sonic Rainboom had not been seen in well over a thousand years. This means that the magic field is resisting them. It might be best, then, to consider this effect like the brakes on a train hitting the wheels. This resists the train's motion (slowing it down) while kicking up sparks. In this case, the 'brake' is not part of the 'train', but as the energy of the sparks comes from both wheel and brake in a sense, so here the energy of the auro likely comes from both the pegasus and the local field, as the two 'rub up against each other,' creating a 'magic friction'.

On another note, Ms. Dash has a rainbow-colored mane and tail, and had such before performing the Rainboom. I do not know if that is serendipity or some sort of cutie mark-like magic linked to her ability to perform a Rainboom in the first place, but she and some observers claim that her mane and tail seemed to actually be part of the rainbow trail that formed following the initial boom. This raise the question: if, say, Captain Spitfire were to perform as Sonic Rainboom, would the trail be orange, like her mane? Would her mane turn rainbow-colored, either permanently or temporarily? Or would there be a disjoin between the two? In that case, would it be a gradual gradient, or a sharp cut-off at the end of her actual mane? Without more data, we simply cannot tell.

What we CAN say is that this is evidence favoring the hypothesis that a pony's mane and tail are particularly imbued with magic. There are two or three pieces of evidence besides this. First, Celestia's mane and tail remain in perpetual motion without any apparent conscious effort on her part. As she generally wakes and sleeps without attendants present, it is unknown if this effect persists in her sleep, which would fairy well confirm it as an innate magical properties. Understandably, this has been a prickly point for scientists to bring up. I understand a Ms. Neighther** asked once, but while permission was granted she decided against conducting the observation for fear it would destroy what remains of Celestia's privacy. The next two pieces of evidence are debatable, but most likely at least one of them is true. The first is that a pegasus's mane and tail (and fur, actually) seems to automatically align themselves so as to improve flight, something that does not seem to happen to, for instance, an earth pony or unicorn plummeting towards the ground. Naturally, the latter part of that is not especially well studied, particularly on the fur level, but it seems to hold for what incidences have been caught on camera. The second is that in rare instances, certain ponies are able to manipulate their hair to some extent, often subconsciously [Pinkie Pie, “The Art of Fun”, chapter 7, “Hares and Hair”]2.

I believe I have now said all that can be said for now. Now that it has been proved that the Sonic Rainboom is possible, I think it only a matter of time before someone, whether Ms. Dash or somethng else, creates one again. When this happens, there will perhaps be even more to say. I hope the reader will forgive the length and single-mindedness of this chapter. As stated near the beginning, this is the only legend mentioned in this book that has recurred in the living memory of ordinary ponies, and consequently there is the most to say about it. In the next chapter, we turn to the subject of magic artifacts other than the Elements of Harmony.

Notes to the 2nd Edition:
1: This appendix comes after the chapters of the original edition, but before the chapters new to the second addition. This may be confusing to some, but it allows returning readers to easily find the new material.

2: I understand that Ms. Pinkie Pie and Ms. Rainbow Dash are both linked to the Elements of Harmony now. I also hear that an acquaintance of mine, Professor Doctor Rock (the Professor is a title, the Doctor is part of his name. Confusing, I know), is currently thesis advisor to Ms. Pinkie Pie's sister, Ms. Maud Pie. It is, indeed, a small world.

Author's Notes:

*The bit on power dives relies on this paper: Diving-Flight Aerodynamics of a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus). Benjamin Ponitz , Anke Schmitz, Dominik Fischer, Horst Bleckmann, Christoph Brücker. Published: February 5, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086506 . Yes, Ponitz and Horst are their actual names, serendipitously. It took only a bit of tweaking to ponify them.

**Neighther is derived from Noether (pronounced "noy-ther", rhymes with neither), as in Emmy Noether, the early 20th century mathematician who happened to be female. Definitely one of the top 10 most influential mathematicians of the 20th century, and arguably in the top 3. Also, one of the Jewish intellectuals forced out by Adolf Hitler's regime. Look her up, her story is fascinating.

Chapter 6: Ancient Artifacts

In this chapter, we will review the stories of a number of ancient magic artifacts. For most of these, there are only a few lines attached to their legends, so we are considering them all at once. A brief list follows.

The Crystal Heart
The Crystal Heart Pendant
The Siren Stones
The Flankara Relics
The Crown of the Dragon Lord
The Rings of Scorchero
The Alicorn Amulet
The Mirror Pool

The Crystal Heart:

Long ago, there was a place called the Crystal Empire. Before it fell to King Sombra, it housed a powerful relic called the Crystal Heart. This crystal was taken from the heart of a fiery mountain, where an ancient dragon slept. The ponies that had previously eked out a meager existence in the frozen north found that an area around the Crystal Heart would stay warm and suitable for growing food. So they built their city around it. But some years later, the dragon awoke. Finding its prize gone, it became angry and made to attack the Crystal Empire. Though their Queen held off the dragon with a shield, they were besieged. Hearing of this, the two Princesses of Equestria came to their aid, and managed to negotiate a trade with the dragon. A large number of jewels were mined over some years and sent to it, securing the Crystal Heart for the ponies of the Crystal Empire.

It is said that the Crystal Heart, when surrounding by ponies with hearts full of love, had a residual effect far beyond the borders of the city, rendering the frozen wastes more hospitable, and even improving the crops as far south as Equestria. When Sombra came to power and the Crystal Heart vanished, the wastes became even more inhospitable than they had been before, and so they remain to this day.

The Crystal Pendant:

When the Crystal Heart was first found, the Crystal Ponies carved facets into it. They set the shavings that resulted in a pendant made of more mundane crystal, and gave it to their Queen. But before the fall of the Crystal Empire, the Queen lost her gift when caught in a storm on the way back to her kingdom. And so it was not there when the Crystal Empire was sealed away, but remained lost for over a thousand years.

Then, one day, Princess Celestia found a young alicorn, carrying a strange pendent and telling a stranger tale. She told of a village of Earth Ponies that had been tormented by an evil witch. This witch carried a pendent with her that amplified her greed and jealousy. One day, this alicorn, then a pegasus, seized the pendent while the witch was sleeping. Or so she thought, until the witch awoke. The witch tried to use the pendent, but the pegasus's love and compassion resonated more with it than the witch's rage, and the witch was rendered powerless, while the pegasus became an alicorn. This pegasus-turned-alicorn is the one we know today as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

Analysis:

The Crystal Empire and the Crystal Heart definitely existed, and are well-documented. Whether the wastes are really even less hospitable than they once were is unknown, as the Crystal Empire predates Equestria, and its records were lost when it vanished. It is also very difficult to quantify whether the purported increased crop yield really did exist, as agricultural records at the time were kept only sparsely. We have covered the Empire already in earlier chapters.

For years it was unknown if the Crystal Heart Pendant ever really existed, and if so, if it still existed. When Mi Amore Cadenza appeared, she had a pendant with her, and its powers mimic those the Crystal Heart supposedly had. The witch, Prismia, who is still around, though lacking in more than very basic magic, found it on the edges of the northern wastes. Between these, it seems at least a strong possibility that the pendant is the legendary Crystal Heart Pendant. Without breaking it apart, though, it is not possible to tell if it contains shavings of some other crystal in its structure. Its powers also cannot be examined further, as apparently transforming a pegasus into an alicorn used up all of its magic. It is possible that it may recharge some day, as some magic artifacts are known to do, but if so it will likely not be for many years.

The Siren Stones:

Far away, around an island in the ocean, there live the Sea Ponies. The Sea Ponies are known for their singing, which they are quite adept at. In the ancient past, they forged a number of Siren Stones, which would give their songs a magic ability to influence the emotions of those around them, beyond the effects of normal music. These stones could also gather some of the energy released by these emotions and feed them back to the singer, reinvigorating her or him and enhancing the singer's performance. Their maker forged them in pursuit of the ultimate concert, heedless of the moral implications. When the leader of the Sea Ponies found out, she ordered them locked away, never to be seen again. Until one day, they were stolen. It is said that the three who stole the Siren Stones became known as the Sirens and stole power from many an unsuspecting pony. When Starswirl the Bearded heard of this, he faced off against the trio and banished them to another world. Neither Sirens nor Stones were ever heard from again.

Analysis:

I personally find this story most interesting not for its content, but for its context. This story first emerged, and the final events of it seem to have occurred, not long before Nightmare Moon's emergence. But this was over a hundred years after the founding of Equestria, and so Starswirl should have been long dead. There are theories that he is immortal, or a time traveler, or both, based on this and other appearances long after his most active period just before and after the founding of Equestria. One of these stories may be true: there is said to be at least one time travel spell somewhere in the Canterlot Archives' Starswirl the Bearded wing. It is also possible that the name “Starswirl” was applied to any bearded wizard for some time.

The talk of banishing them from the world entirely is intriguing, as it implies that there are others. That wording comes directly from Celestia, but she has been cagey as to what that means, exactly. It could mean one of the other planets in our solar system, in which case their punishment might have been the prototype for Nightmare Moon's banishment, or it could mean a parallel universe. The former seems more likely, but the latter is an intriguing possibility. In that case, though, Starswirl dumped dangerous criminals on someone else. Unless that world somehow disallows their magic. Theories of other worlds [see, for example, Different Green's “The Elegant Universe”*] hold that this is possible, though it would be simpler for parallel universes to have the same physical laws but different physical configurations. Without some evidence one way or another, there is no more to be said on this subject at this time.

The Flankara Relics:

Shortly after ponies first came to the area around Ponypeii, the nearby volcano of the same name became active. Originally, the inhabitants would evacuate and re-settle using rough, quickly-built structures. But each time, the volcano's output encroached a little more and a little faster, threatening to drive the settlement out entirely. The Stalwart Stallion of Neighples brought Staff of Ponypeii, the Sword of Lusitano, and the Arrow of Marapor, collectively known as the Flankara Relics, to their respective villages, forming a protective circle. Now, when the volcano erupts, the debris is routed around the villages by this ward. The ward is powered by the eruption itself, allowing normal movement in and out during other times.

It is said that the three relics together can also cure any magically-inflicted injury.

Analysis:

This is not much of a story, partially for the reason that it's factual. Around fifty years ago, the area around Ponypeii was colonized by ponies from Equestria. The problems mentioned above nearly drove the colony out of existence, but The Stalwart Stallion of Neighples saved it in the manner described. The stallion's actual name might be known by the villagers, but they have not disclosed it in order to protect his privacy. According to the villager's account, he found the Flankara relics in an ancient ruin. This may have been a ruin of the Alicorn civilization mentioned in previous chapters. The name of their creator, Flankara, was written in the ruin. The knowledge of the ward, as well as the bit about curing any injury, were probably also found in the ruin. The location of this ruin is known to certain archaeologists, but the information is considered too sensitive for public release, in case there are other powerful magic relics within.

The Crown (Jewels) of the Dragon Lord

Deep within dragon territory, in a place no pony has ever seen, dwells the Dragon Lord. The dragon lord possesses a set of crown jewels, which he can use to summon dragons from far and wide at need, or at certain designated times. When this happens, dragons glow faintly and converge on one place.

Analysis:

Due to how little is known of dragons, even this short bit of lore is uncertain. The dragons glowing and converging is observed at mostly predictable intervals. On a few occasions, ponies have reported seeing a dragon with a crown and scepter, thought to be the Dragon Lord. That these are the tools used to create a summoning is mostly supposition, but what little pony-dragon communication has occurred supports that there is a Dragon Lord, but that who holds the title changes more frequently than would be expected were he ruling until dying a natural death. So then either the position is turned over when some event occurs, the Dragon Lord's power shortens his life, or possibly he is the target of frequent assassination attempts. I understand one of Celestia's students has been making something of a study of dragons, so perhaps there will be answers to these questions within the next few years.

The Rings of Scorchero

Long ago in the Tenochtitlan Basin , a wizard named Scorchero created a set of gold rings which could control the weather of the area, which was notoriously difficult to tame. However, he made them too well: a fairly simple ritual could be used to blanket not only the basin, but all of Equestria and beyond, in a single, persistent weather pattern for hundreds of years. On realizing this, Scorchero scattered the rings into the dense jungles of the basin, never to be found again.

Analysis:

This legend probably has a fuller form among the native ponies of the Basin, but this is all that has filtered to Equestria. No other relics or magic, except maybe that of Discord, are known to be able to affect the weather over so wide an area and for as long as these are. It is possible that the range and duration are a poetic exaggeration. If they are literal, one wonders why Scorchero did not destroy one of the rings if he considered them so dangerous. The need for the rings was obviated with the influx of pegasi from Equestria, but this came long after the time of Scorchero. Perhaps he wanted the rings to still be around to correct extreme weather, or to counter a similar invention by another wizard. Of further note is that the natives of the area seem to all be Earth Ponies. Either they once had some unicorns, or Scorchero came from somewhere else. Perhaps he was an early Equestrian explorer. It is my understanding that Ms. A. K. Yearling, writer of the popular Daring Do series, did much research on the rings (as well as other relics) when writing her books. The research and attendant papers, much like the series of novels, is still ongoing, so perhaps there is more information about them forthcoming.

The Alicorn Amulet

Long ago, during the reign of the two sisters, there lived a powerful unicorn wizard. This wizard was envious of the power of the alicorns, so she sought a way to replicated it. Hearing that their power was a mix of that of the three races of ponies, she captured samples of earth pony, pegasus, and normal unicorn magic in an amulet. She then mixed in chaos magic and bound it all together with shadow magic. Fearing that it could be taken from her, she added an enchantment that it had to be removed willingly. When she put it on, this amulet did indeed grant her great power, but at the cost of eroding her sanity.

She soon challenged the alicorn sisters, and indeed could match them. Working together, they attempted to remove the amulet, but could not. They were wounded for their troubles, and the wizard explained the spell on it and proclaimed her superiority, declaring herself the new ruler of equestria. But, on seeing that the wizard's reason had eroded, the elder sister whispered a plan to the young. The younger sister taunted the wizard, saying that her power was not her own. If she were sincere in her declaration of superiority, she would remove the amulet and face them without it. The wizard declared that she needed no such thing, and took the amulet off, where it was immediately snatched away by the elder sister. Free of the amulet's influence, the wizard surrendered, and she was placed under house arrest in the castle, under the sisters' supervision.

The amulet was locked away deep below Canterlot Castle, until a way could be found to safely study it. Until one day, it was stolen. No one knows who stole it, or where it went, but since it has never reappeared, it is assumed that whoever took it knew of the amulet's curse and so did not use it.

Analysis:

For obvious reasons, the details of the amulet's construction have not been made public. It is not clear how the wizard in question learned chaos magic. They may have examined Discord's petrified form, or maybe learned from him. We do not even know for certain if this was before or after Discord's reign, but it seems to have been reasonably close to it in time. Before his reign seems the more likely possibility, as the story makes no mention of the Elements of Harmony. It is also possible that the wizard did not make the amulet at all, but found it somewhere. In this case, the public story would likely be intended to discourage anyone from looking for where it came from, while they futilely try to reproduce it. Assuming the public story is true, though, the anonymous wizard could have learned shadow magic from Sombra, the future king of the Crystal Empire, or from wherever he learned it, possibly the Crystal Empire library.

The amulet is assumed stolen, but as it was not checked on for a long time, no one knows exactly when it was stolen. It is even possible that it was just misplaced, and is in the catacombs beneath Canterlot Castle somewhere. If someone had used it, though, its great power and insanity-inducing side effects would doubtless have brought it back to public attention. Again, we cannot completely discount the possibility that the official story is a lie meant to discourage or misdirect those who might seek the amulet.

Since few details of this incident are known, it may reasonably be assumed that the amulet's effects were fairly rapid, or it would have become far better known before the final confrontation occurred. If it happened quickly, it would have been much easier to suppress detailed reports in order to keep knowledge that might lead to reproducing such a dangerous artifact from circulating.

The Mirror Pool

1 Listen my children before last bell chimes
2 A story told in simplest rhymes
3 “Where the brambles are thickest, there you will find
4 A pond beyond the most twisted of vines.”

5 A pony walked across the plain
6 Came there looking for shelter from rain
7 Searching for friends to ease her pain
8 Never knowing what she would gain

9 She fell into a hole in the ground
10 And saw what had never been found
11 A pond that sparkled and made no sound
12 And reflected only her of what was around

13 “And into her own reflection she stared
14 Yearning for one whose reflection she shared
15 And solemnly sweared not to be scared
16 At the prospect of being doubly mared.”

17 She thought fun would be had and caused quite a stir
18 With a friend who was exactly like her
19 But trouble did follow and so it did stay
20 Until the other her was sent away.
21 And new friends with her did play.

Analysis:

Versions of this nursery rhyme vary: the quoted lines are the most constant.** The fifth verse is only occasionally seen, and the very last line adds an awkward triple-rhyme to lines that come in fours in other verses, with what would otherwise be two couplets in the last verse. It is possible this last line was added purely to resolve the idea presented in line 7. Some versions do not have the second verse at all, but this leaves an odd gap where the subject of the rhyme is never identified.

This rhyme speaks of a lonely pony who was looking for friends and sought shelter from the rain in the forest. She pushed deeper in, through brambles and vines, then fell down a hole and found a strange pond. I would like to note to my readers that this is a BAD idea: if you're unfamiliar with a forest, you really should not venture deeper into it on your own. If you fall, as she did, you may well break a leg, and then you would be in trouble.

Returning to the rhyme, the protagonist is either prompted by a magic impulse, or perhaps merely acts on a whim, and looks into the pond while wishing there were another of herself, promising she would not be scared by that prospect. Oddly enough, some versions of the rhyme simply end there: with the protagonist wishing and nothing else. There is some implication that it works in that case, but that is all it is. The last verse, with its final line appearing to be awkwardly shoehorned in, describes the protagonist initially having fun with her new twin, but trouble following. Assuming this twin followed the usual rules for magical duplicates, she likely had a personality that was less 'complete' than the original. Magic duplicates, for those unfamiliar, tend to distill one or two aspects of the original's personality. For example, a duplicate of a racer may ONLY want to race, and have no interest in interacting with friends and family outside of that context.

We are not told what the trouble was exactly, but apparently it was bad enough that the duplicate was sent away. This may be literal, that she was sent somewhere else, or it may mean that the spell was undone, resulting in a resorption of the duplicate into the magic fields of the original and the caster. Regular duplication spells have counters, though both spells and counters are so difficult and require so much magic that very few unicorns can cast them. Perhaps one of the friends of the last line was a skilled unicorn who cast such a spell on the mirror duplicate. If so, that would mean the mirror pond works much like a duplication spell, and thus may have been constructed by a wizard. This assumes, of course, that the pond even exists.

This rhyme is very old, and no one knows if anything it refers to still exists, or even if it ever existed. Some have suggested that the Everfree Forest is the home of this pond, but this is pure speculation. The poem suggests that the pond is underground, so it would be quite difficult to find if it is there. Barring a lucky accident, a large, coordinated search effort would be needed to find it, and that assumes it even exists. One or two relic hunters have searched for it, as well as a few military types (it could make an instant army), but these searches were all small and, usually, without any real conviction that there was even anything to find.

On that somewhat disheartening note, this chapter draws to a close. Our next and final chapter+ will be on the Legend of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

+Note to the second addition: Do not be confused: the next chapter is no longer the last.

Author's Notes:

Author's Notes:
* Brian Greene is a real-world physicist who wrote a book called “The Elegant Universe”.
**The quoted lines are also those from “Too Many Pinkie Pies”.

Chapter 7: Ursas, Major and Minor

This being the last chapter, it seems appropriate to begin with an analysis so that the book may end with a story. First, regarding the creatures known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Ursa Minor is simply the name for the juvenile of the species, the equivalent of a filly or colt. This aspect sometimes gets confused in the telling. Second, the Ursa Major is a real creature. Ponies that live near the Everfree Forest know this, but those who live far from it sometimes think it is a myth. Every decade or so, Ursa Majors will congregate near the edges of the Everfree Forest for their mating season. No concentrated effort has been made to determine their age, but there is a recorded instance of an orphaned Ursa Minor being found around 800 years ago. It took nearly 100 years to reach sufficient maturity that it could be released into the wild. Gatherings of them seem not to top two dozen, but since only 3-4 Ursa Minors are seen with their mothers at such gatherings, there may well be more [Preceding facts from Beary Nice, “Rare and Exotic Animals”].

Next, a matter I could not work in the first chapter without going over-long: the fixed stars. There are, as you may know, constellations called Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The story to follow regards the relationship between these and the creatures. The story is now considered a work of fiction. While it was always somewhat suspect, as no one could point to any record of the event actually being witnessed, the invention of the telescope essentially eliminated any doubt: point a telescope at the stars in question, and you'll find that the apparent shape is, in fact, merely the brightest of an enormous, dense field of stars. Such shapes become meaningless with a good enough telescope. Furthermore, we are now reasonably certain that the fixed stars are, in fact, distant suns. The was proposed over a thousand years ago, but until the invention of the telescope and the sextant, there was way to tell if this was true.

As was mentioned in chapter 1, when looked at through a telescope, the wandering stars become larger (and one displays a “ring”), but the fixed stars do not. The predecessor of the astronomical sextant can be found in observatories built during the Reign of the Two Sisters. There were, at the time, a few observatories with 'mural sextants'. Mural sextants are essentially giant protractors carved into and painted onto the room itself. These are, of necessity, fixed in place, and at the time they were popular they relied on visual observation. Later devices were developed that were movable and could be adjusted by means of gears and pulleys (or magic). They achieved better accuracy in this way, as one could 'sight' them as one might a bow-and-arrow, and were only slightly smaller than the mural sextants so that the arm made the angular change more noticeable. Eventually, an astronomer named Bradford Pear* developed a better way, using a finely-beveled screw with markings on the head and a plumb line. A plumb line is a weight attached to a string, which thus always points straight down. By starting with the plumb line aligned with a mark on the telescope and counting the turns of the screw (and portions thereof), the angle could be adjusted with very fine accuracy. Then it was only necessary for the telescope to magnify the star enough that it could be centered with reasonable accuracy.

But why would astronomers needs to know what angle their telescope was at when pointed at the star? Let us start with the case of the Earth's motion around the sun. Debated for centuries, the development of the telescope finally put it to rest. Consider, if you will, a star located directly over the center of the system. There is no real star in this position, although Polaris in Ursa Minor is close, but assume there is one for the sake of argument. Now, if the system is geocentric (that is, the Earth is at the center), then the star will remain fixed in position as seen from the earth. If, however, the system is heliocentric (the sun at the center), then it will appear at a slightly different point in the sky if the Earth is on one side of the sun than on the other. Ignore the possibility of the sun's light rendering the star unseeable for now. It is important to note here that one must compare their position relative to the position of the sun at some fixed point in time. By convention, it is the Spring Equinox. Obviously, the stars 'rotate' about the Earth over the course of a year (or appear to anyway), but this is motion besides that. It is important to note that this apparent motion would also apply to all stars, but it would be north-south instead of east-west.

Now, by examining the above model, if the stars were close by, they would all show significant deviation of this sort over the course of a year. They do not, because they are quite far away. Bradford discovered, though, that all stars do have a small yearly deviation, and from this he determined that the Earth orbits the Sun at a distance of about 93 million miles. Also from this model, you can hopefully see that the closer a star is, the greater this motion will be. If, then, the stars are at significantly different distances, some of them will show a greater motion. This motion, however, is smaller than that caused by Earth's orbit around the Sun, and is correspondingly more difficult to measure: only in the closest of stars can it be detected.

It was not until a generation later, still around 150 years ago, that Astral Vessel** first definitively measured this motion, known by the rather discordant name of parallax. He found that a particular star was about 96 trillion miles away, or 1 million times farther away than the sun. The parallax of about 150 other stars has been measured, with the closest being Alpha Centauri (the brightest star in the Centaur constellation), at around 26 trillion miles: still a considerable distance!

Once we know the distance to a star, the star's brightness, and the sun's brightness, we can determine how bright a star would appear if we were near it. From this, we have determined that the stars with known parallax are mostly around the brightness of the Sun (some more, some less). This indicates that our Sun is, in fact, a star, and distant stars are Suns, which may have other worlds with other ponies, griffons, dragons, etc, or even other creatures the likes of which we have never seen!

This is all speculative. At the very least, we can say that a constellation like Ursa Major would look very different from another Sun, particularly one within the constellation. Thus, the patterns of the stars likely have no real meaning. There are so many stars in the sky that some groups of them are bound to look like something. Those who have seen Ursa Majors can attest that they look only vaguely like the constellation.

This chapter is running a bit short, but I believe I have explained as best I can without boring many of my readers, so I shall move to the story. Of note: the dragon in this story was apparently very serpentine and could not fly. Such dragons are not unknown, though they are not the kind most often seen. With no further delays from me, then, here is the tale.

Story:

Once upon a time, there was a mother Ursa Major who was raising her cub, and Ursa Minor. One day, when the mother was out foraging for food, the cub wandered off on its own. While out, it was attacked by a dragon. Fleeing in terror, the cub fled up a high mountain, the highest in the world, pursued by the dragon. When the mother returned home and found her cub gone, she dropped her prey and followed the trail in panic.

The cub reached the top of the mountain and collapsed from exhaustion, but the dragon was not far behind. As the dragon closed in on its prey, he heard the cry of the mother. Thinking quickly, the dragon grabbed the cub, knowing the mother would not risk harm to it. But, sadly, the mother was too distraught and did not see the cub. She swatted both dragon and cub with her might paws. The dragon released its grip, and it and the cub flew apart. Too late, the mother realized her mistake. Already, the two were flying up, up, up, far beyond her reach. They flew so high, that they broke through the sky and became the constellations of Ursa Minor and Draco. Wailing for her cub, the Ursa Major backed up and, with a running start, took a mighty leap off the mountain. Driven by her desire to reach her cub, the Ursa Major broke through the sky as well, becoming the constellation of Ursa Major. And so they stand, mother watching over cub while the dragon waits nearby.

Author's Notes:

*Bradford Pear = James Bradley, who in real-life devised this method and discovered annual precession.
**Astral Vessel = Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, the first to publish a clear case of measured parallax, in December 1838. I'm assuming here that Equestria's astronomy, based on its existant observatories but lack of necessary supporting technology, is in a state roughly equivalent to the 1930s or 40s, but has been 'stuck' there for two or three decades.

The story of the Ursa Major here is, to my knowledge, original, as the actual tales of the constellations did not seem to 'fit' Equestria. Also, if you've read the whole thing: ha ha, made you learn astronomy! XP The explanation of parallax and the movement of stars here is more or less historically accurate to the real world. Look up the two persons mentioned above if you want to learn more, or you could try messaging me.

Appendix A: A Sonic Rainboom Attempt

Appendix A: A Sonic Rainboom Attempt

About a month before I submitted the final manuscript for this book, I contacted the pegasus known as Rainbow Dash and convinced her to attempt to create a Sonic Rainboom. This has been noted in the the “Sonic Rainboom” section of chapter 4. Said note and this manuscript were necessarily last-minute additions, and the writing of this book was one reason the attempt was made.

Ms. Dash had previously been approached by a number of researchers, both in Cloudsdale and after her relocation to Ponyville. After the first few failed attempts, she began turning away takers. I had some ideas that had not been attempted before. Notably, I hypothesized that the Sonic Rainboom may require a pegasus to remove the unconscious restraints we all develop as we age, but that some foals have not yet developed. One alternative, mentioned in chapter 4, that the appearance of a cutie mark is necessary, is not easily testable. The legend of Firefly has some ambiguity as to whether she was an adult when she performed a Sonic Rainboom, but it seems implied in most versions.

Ms. Dash would not even entertain new ideas without some proof that the scientist had some idea of what they were doing. Thus, I challenged her to a carefully constructed race. She was already known, at a relatively young age, as one of the fastest fliers in Equestria, but high-speed flight cannot be maintained indefinitely. Of course, I am an inferior enough racer that I would not have stood a chance if a long race were all there were to it. I will not reveal the details here, as a courtesy to Ms. Dash, but suffice to say that with a proper understanding of aeronautics and some careful calculation, as well as some smaller tricks, I was able to eke out a victory, and thus secure her cooperation.

The easiest way to achieve great speeds in flight is what is known as a power dive, whereby the pegasus (or other flier) dives at or near vertical. In this manner, gravity is working with the flier to accelerate them. According to reports, Ms. Dash was doing such a dive when she unintentionally performed a Sonic Rainboom as a filly. Thus, our experiments focused on power dive maneuvers.

In order to overcome the psychological barriers mentioned earlier, we employed two basic tricks. The first involved dressing a ponyquin to resemble one of Ms. Dash's friends, to simulate an emergency situation. The ponyquin was provided by Ponyville's clothing store, the Carousel Boutique, whose owner, one Rarity, provided the necessary materials and expertise for free in exchange for a credit. For legals reasons, she retained ownership of the items at the end of the experiment.

This approach alone would cause some problems, as a failure to create a Sonic Rainboom, which studies suggest converts magic into momentum and allows precision turns, could well result in injury, particularly if the removal of psychological barriers were successful, as avoiding hitting the ground is one such barrier. Thus, a vat of gelatin, provided by a local, was used as a cushion.

This set-up alone produced no results, so further experimentation required a different tact. I taught Ms. Dash a technique I call 'cloud phasing.' In cloud phasing, a pegasus sinks slowly into the clouds. For my non-pegasus readers, pegasi typically either stand on clouds as if they were unyielding surfaces or simply burst through them and disperse them. Subtler manipulation, whether shaping or slowly moving through them without dispersing them, is much more difficult. Ms. Dash picked up the technique quite quickly, but it still took up much of the remaining research time (this field research was on my own time).

Upon resuming power dive testing, Ms. Dash did manage to pass the speed of sound and create a normal sonic boom, but not a true Rainboom. There are a handful of pegasi in the world (and possibly some griffons) who can create a sonic boom, but none who have been able to produce a Rainboom other than Ms. Dash. Unless a foal- (or even filly-) specific trigger is needed, I concluded that likely Ms. Dash would only produce a Sonic Rainboom again if there were genuine danger to somepony else. Obviously, this would be highly unethical to deliberately test.

So for a different tactic, if anypony reading this knows of any pegasi (espeically foals) who are much faster than the norm, you may contact Cloudsdale University's aeronautics department. I am no longer involved in Sonic Rainboom research, but the department administrative assistant can direct you to someone who is.

Author's Notes:

And now that "Rainbooms 101" is done, it's back to this story. Up next will be the promised post-pilot chapters.

Chapter 8: The Mare In The Moon Came Down On Time

The longest day of the thousandth year arrived mere moons after the publication of the first edition of this book. As you almost certainly know, the sun failed to rise that day, resulting in over 24 hours of night. Nightmare Moon returned and, somehow, imprisoned Celestia. The details are sketchy at best, perhaps because Celestia does not want anyone repeating the act. The subsequent events may be related.

This period, now known as The Longest Night, ended by the scheduled dawn of the following day thanks to the effort of a group of 6 ponies. Led by Twilight Sparkle, one of Celestia's proteges, these six followed Nightmare Moon to the Castle of the Two Sisters, found the Elements of Harmony, and were somehow able to use them. That they were able to seems to imply that Celestia no longer can, and perhaps has been unable to since Nightmare Moon was originally banished a millennium ago. Regardless, while the expected result was to imprison Nightmare Moon on the moon again, the end result instead was the return of Luna.

Section I: Luna's Reform

The official story was deliberately vague, leading some ponies to conclude that Nightmare Moon had held Luna prisoner. However, Celestia has freely admitted to any who ask that Luna had become Nightmare Moon (as, indeed, she had before The Longest Night). What is not entirely clear is just what was at play here. Did dark magic used on or by Luna create a transformation? Was Nightmare Moon just a name-change and an illusion? And why did the use of the Elements of Harmony result in such a seemingly drastic change of heart on the part of Nightmare Moon/Luna?

A rather disturbing possibility is that the Elements of Harmony can brainwash ponies. This would not be completely unheard of, as mind control spells are known to be possible (though for obvious reasons the details of their casting are not publicly accessible). However, those spells have somewhat different effects. On the milder end, mind manipulation spells can be used to implant suggestions, but these suggestions are limited in that they mostly concern small actions and cannot be something that the victim (or target if you prefer) would find abhorrent. It is also possible to magically induce certain emotional states to, for instance, make a mare mad at her coltfriend in the hopes that they break up, thus freeing one of them up for the spell caster to court. On the most severe end, it is possible in principle to construct a spell which causes the victim to carry out all those and only those instructions which the caster gives them. This sort of spell is virtually unlimited, and personal morality does not seem to play into it: rather, the body is moving on a sort of auto-pilot. The only restriction at that point is the most primal of instincts: survival. A pony in that state will generally not an order that puts them in mortal danger, though it is speculated that they can be tricked into thinking a mortally dangerous situation is not so. Some of this is speculative: officially, no such spell has ever been cast on an intelligent creature. Such spells have been cast on lesser animals, however, and allegedly this yields all the above result by extrapolation. Unofficially, there are a few incidents where it is suspected intelligent creatures did have such spells cast on them, but this is difficult to confirm. It is unknown, therefore, whether a pony victim of this spell retains awareness of what is happening.

All of the above examples require specific instructions or intent from the caster, and do not explain the general change in attitude of Nightmare Moon/Luna. There are some “reform” spells which have been tested on the criminally insane (if you will pardon the outdated jargon), but the effects are not quite the same. Reform spells are typically used on the criminally insane, and act to suppress aggression. This tends to have the effect of suppressing the patient's personality as well, however, so they are only used in the most extreme cases. The effect is said to be like being in a constant daze or dream-like state. The effect also does not last forever: the spell must be reapplied, at minimum, every moon. At least, this is the version publicly known: in theory, it could be made to last indefinitely, but no such rendition of the spell is publicly available, if it exists. While I suppose it is possible that some such spell is being cast on Luna regularly, from my conversations with her I believe that this is not the case. I shall get into the why shortly. It is possible, of course, that the effect of the Elements of Harmony is an even higher-level magic that effectively does brainwash the target, but one hopes the objects touted as the embodiment of good would not do something so morally questionable.

I have had occasion to converse with Ms. Luna since her return, and while it is of course possible that I am being fooled, her repentance seems sincere. By her description, she existed in a semi-conscious dream-like state while imprisoned on the moon. It is possible to realize one is dreaming and control one's dreams, and as an adept in dream walking, Nightmare Moon/Luna was able to do this more frequently and more readily than most. It did not last forever: normally, when a pony achieves this state, they may believe they awake when they are not, and thus lose their awareness of their state. However, she was conscious and able to think for some fraction of the time.

In this state, she made an initial attempt to break back into Equestria through someone else's consciousness. This was repelled by Celestia, who put a ward around Luna's dream state. Afterwards, Luna had little to do during her moments of lucidity but think. At first, she seethed in her rage at being defeated in addition to the loneliness-turned-rage that drove her to her rebellion in the first place. However, after some time (she is understandably vague on the exact passage of time), she was unable to continue suppressing her pain with anger. Sometimes, she would deliberately slip out of lucidity when she did not wish to think on it more. But this did not always work, and so she began to look back on happier times. Into this introspection, rage would creep back in at what had been lost. Between these fits of rage, she gradually began to see the problems with her original plan. She had, at some point, and as seen on her return, decided to make ponies love the night by making it night forever. The inevitable result of this would have been mass extinction of many forms of life and a reduction of pony population to a small group eking out a living on mosses and other low-light plants. While she was not completely clear on the details, Luna did begin to see the consequences her actions could have had.

During her fits of rage, she rationalized that it would 'only' last until all creatures in Equestria had come to properly appreciate the night. She was, of course, unaware of the night life and nocturnal occupations such as astronomy that had arisen since her banishment, but as she was out of circulation, she can be excused for that one. A part of her knew her plan did not really make sense, but she also could not let go of her anger at both her previous loneliness and neglect and her subsequent imprisonment. In addition, during her calm spells, she began to see that she had already hurt Celestia significantly, and depending on how much time had passed, possibly as much as Celestia had, in her opinion, hurt her. But then, during her darker moments, she rationalized that even if Celestia had suffered, the OTHER ponies of Equestria still had to suffer for how they had treated her. And then again, it would enter into her head that that was wrong. In her centuries of dreaming, then, she realized that the revenge she desired was evil, but was unable to let go of her anger.

The end result of this sort of back-and-forth seems to have been what I am told is termed a psychotic break, though I prefer the term psychological break due to the connotations of the word 'psychotic'. Unable to reconcile the conflict of regret and calm consideration with vengeance and rage, her personality became increasingly polarized and, to some extent, split. Part of her could not be evil, but part of her could not recognize that what she had wanted (and to some extent still did) was evil. In effect, then, “Nightmare Moon” became one persona and “Luna” another, both residing in the same body.

Why, then, was it Nightmare Moon that was released and not Luna, or a being conflicted between the two? Based on Luna's recollections and some corroborations from Celestia, the events immediately preceding her banishment are the key. Luna knew when she confronted Celestia that her sister's magical ability exceeded her own, at least in terms of combat. To negate this difference, Luna had studies dark magic of the sort used by Sombra of the Crystal Empire (which has also reemerged: see the next chapter). As these require harnessing emotions to unhealthy extremes, it did little for her state of mind. Besides this, it seems to have metamorphosed her body. According to reports from some of those who defeated Nightmare Moon, as well as from Celestia and Luna herself, Nightmare Moon was slightly larger than Luna is now and had canine-like teeth and magically created armor. While it is not widely known, Luna was much smaller and younger-looking for a time after her return, but this will be covered shortly. The physical changes attendant to becoming Nightmare Moon seemed to have insured that the 'surface' personality was one that would be willing to use the dark magic that had created them.

As an aside, Luna was at the time linked to three of the Elements of Harmony. She did not think that Celestia would be able to use them alone, and thus thought that dark magic would be enough. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, the elements went dormant after this, perhaps because Celestia had to 'force' the elements to work for her without Luna.

The conclusion I reach, then, is that the Elements of Harmony, used properly, 'stripped away' both the dark magic metamorphosis and at least some of the corresponding personality. The previously 'buried' Luna who had come to regret her actions then came to the surface. In the process, the elements seem to have rejuvenated her into a younger form. According to Celestia and Luna, when she was first sealed away Luna looked approximately like she does now. However, for her first two or three moons in Canterlot following these events, she was much younger and smaller. Her fur was even a different color! While there is no good way to confirm this, the best guess that Luna and Celestia could arrive at (and I have no better explanation) is that the dark magic of Nightmare Moon drained Luna's magical and physical strength so that when it was gone, her body reverted to a smaller, younger form to conserve energy. The effect seems to have been akin to an age spell, where the target's physical age is temporarily altered. For those who do not know, a regular age spell can only be performed by a handful of unicorns (and possibly alicorns) and tends to last a few days at most. If this hypothesis is correct, the powerful magics involved in this particular incident led to a longer-lasting form.

Section 2: The Returned Luna's Role In Society.

This brings us to what Luna's role has been since her return. For the first few months, while the de-aging effect mentioned above ran its course, she was kept largely out of the public eye. It does not, however, seem that this was primarily due to the magic mentioned, though that may have played a role. Having spent one thousand years away from society, she had a good deal of catching up to do. It seems that, in addition to Celestia attempting to make up for lost time (and, to my understanding, Luna being slow to respond), much of this time was spent educating Luna on the last millennium of Equestrian history. During this time, the only ponies Luna interacted with were Celestia, a few royal guards, and a few teachers from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I could say more on the elitism and racism embodied by THAT school, but this is neither the time nor the place.

Somewhere in her studies, Luna came across the tradition of Nightmare Night. Now, the origins of this holiday are unclear. It seems unlikely now that Celestia would have encouraged a holiday that inspired the fear of her sister. It is possible that it began as a solemn remembrance that over time morphed into the celebration as we know it today, but it does not seem likely as there is little evidence of it having ever been a solemn remembrance. Mostly likely, it was an appropriation (with a slight change in date) of the older “spirit's night.” Some ancient societies believed that the spirits of deceased ponies returned to the world of the living on that night. After the incident with Nightmare Moon and the appearance of the Mare in the Moon, she substituted for spirits of the departed to some extent. Celestia and a few bystanders did report the true story, rumors had begun to fly almost immediately. It seems, given what Luna did next, that Nightmare Night was not the actual date of her banishment. It may have happened on the Summer Solstice, but the historical record is oddly vague on this point. At any rate, Nightmare Night came to be when the event was observed, and when Nightmare Moon was said to emerge in the world. Of course, as most know, she never actually did.

Returning to the matter at hand, Luna learned of Nightmare Night and determined to turn it into a more joyous festival, starting in Ponyville. Celestia wanted to help her, but she insisted on going alone, accompanied only by two Night Guards. To my understanding, Luna did not want to be dependent on her sister. Ponyville was selected as it was the home of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony, who knew of her past and reform and thus were more likely to accept her.

There turned out to be some problems with this plan, as it being Nightmare Night, everypony expected there to be an attempt to scare them. You may have read about some of what resulted in the newspapers and tabloids. In short, ponies were initially scared. Her overly dramatic entrance combined with some ill-timed lightning effects from a mischievous pegasus did the initial work. Following this, her tendency to use the Royal Canterlot Voice, which apparently involves yelling at the top of one's lungs, did few favors. Her outdated mode of address also impeded understanding, though this was secondary.

After some coaching from some of the ponies who wielded the Elements of Harmony against her in the first place, she began to fit in more in Ponyville's festival. This worked for awhile, until she apparently misunderstood the point of a simple toss game and used magic to animate the plush spiders in order to score more points. To use technical terminology, this freaked ponies out. This next part is not publicly known, but one particular pony had instigated much of the fear of Luna that night. This was one of the element bearers, a pony named Pinkie Pie. Investigation by Luna and Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's student and element bearer whom we have encountered before, revealed that she was not really scared but playing into the theme of Nightmare Night because she thought that was what the intent was. Given the trick with the spiders, this was perhaps understandable. Luna then deliberately played into the legend, using a glamour to make herself look like Nightmare Moon and gaining candy from the foals. After one of them assured her in some manner that they really had had fun and were not really afraid of her, Luna apparently made peace with the celebration.

This was Luna's first public outing. She had been raising the moon for some weeks at that point, but since then she has been a part of the public ceremonies that occasionally accompany that raising and lowering of the sun and moon. While ponies do show her more reverence than formerly (for whatever that's worth), and she has become aware of the night life that now exists in Equestria, she now runs afoul of a problem often experienced by Celestia. Namely, nearly everyone she interacts with sees her as something more than pony and thus treats her not as a friend but as a ruler. This is one of many problems I have with the monarchy, but that is another discussion. In addition, Luna's nighttime duties involve few interactions with the public, even those that are typically awake at night, and fewer interactions with staff as only a few night guards are out then. Thus, while Luna has a few compatriots and a relationship with her sister which she did not have before her banishment, she has still largely been isolated. Such isolation is, I suspect, much more to the point of her previous difficulties than the lack of reverence that she and others have publicly claimed.

There is, of course, an obvious solution to this problem. Indeed, this is one reason I wrote this second edition. Namely, ponies should treat Luna, Celestia, Cadence, and any other alicorns that may emerge as ponies. Not as divine, not as untouchably distant figures, not even, if I were to have my preference, as rulers, but as ponies. They may have more skill in some areas than most, but they are still just ponies. They eat, they breathe, they love, they bleed. To treat them as anything else does a disservice not just to them but to the ponies doing so.

Lastly, it has been confirmed that Luna can, in fact, 'walk' into other ponies' dreams. Though she can directly interfere, she typically is merely a passive observer. This raises some troubling questions regarding privacy. The victim, for I feel this is an appropriate description, may have no knowledge or memory of the intrusion, but this scarcely makes it better. I have only recently become aware of this phenomenon, and have communicated my concerns to both Luna and Celestia. As of the time of writing, the issue has not been resolved to my satisfaction, but Luna has tentatively agreed to restrict these activities for the time being while more opinions are considered. If you share my concern, please write to one or both of them and let them know. I do not know whether considerations will be ongoing by the time of publishing, but they could certainly be reopened if there were enough of a public response

Now perhaps I have gotten a bit too far into my own personal hang-ups. There is little more to say on this subject at this time, though I suspect there will be further developments. Perhaps a third edition would be in order? Anyway, let us now turn to the other two momentous events that have occurred since the first edition of this book: the return of the tyrant Discord and the changeling invasion of the 'royal' wedding.

Author's Notes:

Bonus points if you can name the reference in the title. (Bonus points have no cash value).

In the analysis of reform spells, I found very helpful this video by one HeartsyArtsy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOdw8BGCm-A Credit where credit is due.

Chapter 9: The Tyrant Discord and the Royal Wedding/Canterlot Invasion

The two events in the title occurred within a year of the Longest Night. The return of the Tyrant Discord was probably related, but the Canterlot Invasion seems to have been coincidental. The wedding timing was likely also coincidental.

Section 1: The Tyrant King Discord

A few months after the Longest Night, a state of emergency was declared in Canterlot. Around the same time, Ponyville and the surrounding environs underwent a strange and dramatic change. In addition, the day and night changed rapidly for what would have been a bit over a day, had the usual day/night cycle . This has been reported to some extent, but for those who have only a cursory knowledge of the events, local gravity in Ponyville went haywire and chunks of land were uprooted and changed color. Also, cotton candy clouds rained chocolate milk and the roads turned to soap.

These were all the result of the return of the legendary being Discord, also known as the Tyrant King. His brief reign in the past is somewhat infamous in Equestrian history, and featured many similar effects according to reports. It was Luna and Celestia's defeat of Discord that changed their roles from largely ceremonial to near-absolute rulers. As covered in an earlier chapter, the Elements of Harmony were used to defeat Discord by turning him to stone. There was a competing theory at the time that he may not have literally been “imprisoned” in the stone, but was killed outright. Celestia confirmed that he had turned into a stone statue, but could not be certain he was still alive in it. This alternate view was fully debunked by Discord's return. Also confirmed was that the statue in the gardens was the original. This quite frankly confounds me: if there was any chance at all of him breaking free, why not keep the statue in a dungeon or something? Given Discord's apparent power, this might not have done any good, but it would have been a reasonable precaution.

It is not clear what the proximate cause of Discord's release was, but it is likely that the overall cause was the Elements of Harmony. When Nightmare Moon was defeated, the elements bonded to new wielders for the first time since Discord had been imprisoned. If the spell holding him prisoner was dependent on the elements, they may have reinforced it until their realignment, at which point it gradually faded over several months. Since no one was aware that they served this role, the new wielders never re-applied the spell.

Whatever the case, the released Discord wrecked havoc, as noted above. He hid the elements of Harmony and in some manner neutralized the wielders. It has been requested that the details of the wielders' encounters not be mentioned here, but the curious may find Twilight Sparkle's report on the matter in the Canterlot and Ponyville libraries. Eventually, though, the wielders reunited and used the elements to re-imprison Discord. Of note at this point is, once again, Celestia and to some extent Luna (who was still apparently recovering) were unable to deal with the threat and had to delegate the task to others. The element wielders have largely kept a low profile, despite their importance, but their names are generally known.

Section 2: The Royal Wedding and the Changeling Invasion

The wedding of Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor, captain of the royal guard, was a major event. Ms. Cadenza is an alicorn and has been designated “princess”, though at present she does not actually rule over anything*. She apparently saved a remote village before becoming an alicorn, but little information is available about this. It is far from clear to me what qualifications she has for being named a princess, especially as unlike Celestia and Luna, no representatives of the ponies of Equestria ever appointed her. But I digress.

At this wedding, it came to light that the bride had been replaced by Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. Ms. Cadenza had been replaced over a week before the actual ceremony. Chysalis then made the threat against Canterlot herself in order to draw attention away from Ms. Cadenza, whose mannerisms she could only vaguely mimic.

Of not is that the public engagement period was only about three months long, leading to some salacious rumors as to the reason for the rush. Of course it might have just been the public announcement, but it seems to have been privately short as well as according to reports, the sister of the groom, one Twilight Sparkle, suspected the switch but had been out of touch with the bride long enough that she could not be certain or provide proof. This is the same Twilight Sparkle who is Celestia's protege and wielder of an Element of Harmony. It is unclear how much this is actually related.

At any rate, Ms. Sparkle was not believed until it was almost too late. She found the real bride imprisoned in the abandoned tunnels under Canterlot and returned her to the surface, revealing the deception. But Chrysalis had been feeding on Shining Armor often enough for long enough that not only was he under her control, but her powers had increased. In the resulting brawl, Luna was conspicuously absent, Celestia was defeated, and the Elements of Harmony were locked away and unavailable. In the end, the couple themselves drove the changelings off with some force by synchronizing their magic in a rare tandem spell. Both are experts in barrier magic, according to reports, so the result was quite dramatic. Expeditions sent out subsequently could find neither changelings nor their bodies. Since changelings can fly, it seems likely that they fled somewhere.

This leads us to the subject of changelings. Their existence has been well-known for centuries, but outside of certain corners of the scientific and security communities, few ponies know much about them. Changelings are shape-shifters who feed primarily on love, but in a pinch can consume other strong emotions such as fear and anger. They typically operate on the fringes of Equestria, quietly replacing ponies to feed on others' love for them. There are two typical ways that they do this: one is to kidnap the pony to be replaced, the other is to replace somepony who is leaving town for some other reason anyway, such as business or a vacation. In the latter case, they claim to have 'returned early' and the pony's friends and family only discover that something is up on the real pony's return. The changeling will either have an accomplice or keep a close watch themselves and leave town just before the real pony returns.

Oddly enough, there are almost no cases of changelings killing ponies that they replace. The legend about changelings replacing newborn ponies is just an old mare's tale that seems to have resulted from tragic misunderstandings of birth defects and/or mental disorders dating back to the pre-Equestrian era. The ancientness of these legends indicates that changelings were known by are ancestors before coming to Equestria. Since the land that would become Equestria was sparsely-inhabited before Earth Pony and Pegasus magic reshaped the climate, it seems probable that the changelings follows the pony settlers.

Lastly, there ARE a few documented instances where changelings seem to have created ponysonas wholesale: pretending to be somepony new in town and garnering affection from there. Typically, they are discovered by accident one day when their transformation wavers due to either extreme hunger or strong emotion, though sometimes they are uncovered by magic examination. There are even rumors of rogue changelings who became so used to these roles that they underwent some sort of fundamental change, only being discovered as non-ponies at this point, but this is unconfirmed. It is, of course, difficult to be sure that there are not changelings of this class that have gone undiscovered. If they do exist, they do not seem to be in large enough numbers to significantly drain the citizens of any one town.

This chapter has been a bit sparser than I would like. The value of history is best seen in retrospect, and these events occurred to closely to the time of writing. Still, it has provided a window for the further discussion of Discord and the Elements of Harmony, as well as introducing the subject of changelings. In the next chapter, we shall return to the format used in the first edition. We will start with an original story and lead into an analysis of such informed by recent events.

*Since this chapter was written, Mi Amore Cadenza has become ruler of the returned Crystal Empire. It was too late to incorporate this event into the chapter proper.

Chapter 10: Sky Diver and Bright Flame

Story:

Once upon a time there was a stallion named Endymion, or in our tongue, Sky Diver. Now this stallion was said to be handsome, but distant, preferring the company of the stars and moon over other ponies. He was the first to track the stars in their courses, making him the first astronomer.

One night, as was his wont, Sky Diver sat with parchment and quill, mapping the stars. As he sat beneath the full moon, he caught the eye of the moon goddess, Selene, or in our tongue Bright Flame. She saw that, like herself, he was distant and beautiful, and she was smitten with him. She spent many a night watching him from afar, whenever he sat beneath the moon, until one day, unable to bear her distant vigil any longer, she came down in the form of a pony shepardess. The two ponies fell in love, and in time were married and had two foals of their own, both fillies.

But Bright Flame was a goddess, and therefore immortal. In the passing of time, she saw her love begin to age. Seeing this, she realized that if nothing were done, she would long outlive him. Unable to bear this thought, she took him to a cave far from everywhere and cast him into a deep sleep, in which he would not age. Every so often, she would return to the cave, and eleven months later would bear another daughter (for the goddess could only bear daughters), each of whom would become a star, keeping their mother company in the sky. And it is said this continues to this day, so that when on those rare occasions a new star appears, it is a reminder of the lovers of old.

Analysis:

This story has some roots in ancient myths, but some of it came to me in a dream, and more is an elaboration from these. The “Sleep of Sky Diver” is an ancient idiom used most recently in time (roughly around the founding of Equestria) for death. In what records survive, in even older times, the name was an older Endymion, from some ancient tongue similar to that used for mottos and on crests, with essentially the same meaning. The profession of astronomer is a common guess as to the name’s significance, though someone fond of making rapid dives is another possibility. In this context, the “sleep of Endymion” refers not to death but to a magically-induced sleep in which one neither changes nor ages.

Selene is another ancient name, that she was a moon goddess and extrapolation from its meaning and context. The storyline of her and Endymion, at least in broad strokes, was something I dreamt about after hearing a lecture on the common language from which the names originate. I developed it a bit from there.

The Mare in the Moon was never a goddess, though some treat Luna and Celestia as if they were. Their aging is much slower than normal ponies, but they readily admit disease or accident could kill them (or assassination, though they are understandably less open about that possibility). They also claim that they DO age, albeit slowly. Furthermore, neither has had children in at least the last thousand years, if ever.

So having established that the above story is pure fiction, it is nonetheless interesting to consider some of the implications it raises regarding a couple from species with disparate lifespans. It is unknown if this will be an issue for Ms. Cadenza and Mr. Armor or if the sisters are unique. They may not even know themselves, as Ms. Cadenza became an alicorn relatively recently. She has, it must be noted, aged more or less normally by all accounts, but Celestia and Luna have indicated that they themselves only ages slightly more slowly than other ponies until reaching adulthood, so that may not be a good indicator.

First, as Luna and Discord seemed to be in at least semi-stasis during their imprisonment, one wonders if a normal pony would have similarly remained ageless in such a state. This is not certain, but if so, it would provide a way for the ‘ageless sleep’ seen in this story to come about. Of course, if such a sleep were truly deep and permanent, then the couple would still be parted. Although, if one of them had dream-walking abilities, it might not be a true parting. Another part of the story hints to another solution. You may note that the couple continued to have children, suggesting that Sky Diver was awakened at least briefly during those times. We will return to this in a moment, but first I wish to make an aside regarding new stars.

There are a number of myths about the emergence of new stars, many having to do with heroes or rulers taking a place in the sky. Generally speaking, new stars that emerge (or rather, become visible to the naked eye) are not permanent. Obviously, new stars must emerge at SOME point, but astrophysics tells us that the times between these events are extremely long due to the fact that we can only see a tiny fraction of even our own galaxy (or ‘stellar neighborhood’) with the naked eye. Instead, what we call a ‘nova’ or ‘new star’ is really a distant star which is not normally visible exploding. These stars may remain in the sky for months, but eventually fade. By looking at records of ancient astronomers and training our telescopes in the correct direction, we can sometimes see where there is still a faint remnant of the star left, but this is an issue too complex to delve into here. Suffice to say that stars, being incredibly large, take quite a long time in our terms to explode, even though with respect to the star’s lifespan it is the blink of an eye. These things were all in my mind when I wrote or dreamed up the last parts of this story.

Now to return to the previous issue, if the longer-lived partner was not truly immortal but merely slower aging and if a stasis spell is available then there is a solution of sorts. The shorter-lived partner would be in stasis for some portion of the time, and awake for another. For a simple example, if the longer-lived partner had a lifespan ten times that of the shorter-lived, then the shorter-lived one would spend 9 years asleep, then one years awake, then nine years asleep, and etc. This could also be worked in terms of months or even weeks depending on the details of the spell and the preferences of the individuals. The point is that the ratio works out. This could be rather hard on the longer-lived partner, particularly if their lifespans are very disparate, but on say a by-day pattern (such as 9 days asleep and 1 awake) it would not be so terribly different from couples who work opposite hours and may only see one another awake for longer than an hour or so on the weekends. Another similar example might be couples where one of them travels a lot, and so is gone much of the time. Or, digging back into the past, couples where one is deployed in the military and the other remains behind, and thus they are largely separated for months at a time. Of course, there are letters in those cases, but no analogy is perfect. The point is it would be workable if this issue comes up for Cadenza and Armor, or if they desired a regular pony partner the two sisters.

Author's Notes:

The story here takes the rough outline of the real-world legend of Selene and Endymion. I took a few creative liberties. Look up the original myth if you’re interested. It’s apparently so old that no one is sure what culture it originated in. Endymion was probably a shepard: the astronomer theory was proposed by later writers. Also, I slipped in the fact that horses have an 11 rather than 9 month gestation period.

The next chapter will be a short afterword/epilogue from the ‘author’, which will (finally!) close out this story.

Epilogue and Afterword

Thank you for reading this far. We have gone on quite a journey, from ancient legends of Equestria to original stories to an analysis of recent events. If dramatic events continue to happen at the pace they have been, further work may be merited. But as some of the 2nd edition chapters have already strayed somewhat from the original purpose of this book, I believe I will write a new book rather than a third edition.

In addition to those thanked in the original acknowledgements, I would like to thank Ms. Luna for granting an interview that was invaluable for these more recent chapters. I would also like to thank Ms. Twilight Sparkle for her less direct help. While I have not spoken to her directly as of yet, her detailed reports on the events reported in chapters 8 and 9 have been invaluable. There are copies of the reports I used, as well as others, available to the public through the Canterlot Archives, but I believe only one or perhaps by now two have been published and thus disseminated. Interested readers are encouraged to contact the Archives with inquiries.

Lastly, if my writings have stimulated your curiosity for math, history, folklore, or whatever, I urge you to follow that curiosity where it leads! Your local library is an excellent source of information, and can always use your support!

Best Wishes,

Professor Needling Haystacks

Author's Notes:

Ok, wound up shorter on the epilogue than I expected. :P Please note that in real life, non-college libraries are sort of dying, thanks to the internet. :( Still, they sometimes have interesting stuff.