Luna was getting bored. She always was when her sister had her nose in her books. It was a shame, because up until now, today had been so much fun. They had spent the day at the historical Windigo Caves, learning all about the founding of Equestria, where she was allowed to roam the snow-covered mountain tops by herself. She even found one of the original hoofprints left in the snow by Princess Platinum, or so she thought. To top it all off at the end, they even had ice cream with her choice of flavor. But now all she could do was lie on the balcony, watch her sister read, and do nothing. That was pretty boring by comparison.
“Tia, whatcha doing?” Luna asked as if she didn't already know.
“Studying,” Celestia replied flatly.
Luna turned onto her belly. “Whatcha studying?”
“The skies.”
“Shouldn't you be looking up at the sky then and not down at your book?”
Celestia didn't look up. “I've already seen what's up in the sky, but I haven't read what's written in this book yet.”
“Oh, okay.”
Luna turned back onto her back. She never understood her sister's obsessions with books. Whatever was written in them was always so incredibly dry and bad at explaining things. If she really wanted to understand something, she would just ask her sister about it anyway, who would explain it much more clearly, usually through something she had read in a book. To Luna, that was a much more effective way of reading.
But if Celestia wanted to read for now, that was okay. If her sister didn't want to watch the skies, Luna could always do it for her and report any unusual findings later. That's why they made such a good team.
The sky wasn't by any means spectacular tonight. Just the same old stars splattered across the same old constellations. Once she would be in control of them, as her sister and her mother said she would be, she vowed to mix things up a lot more. Every night, she figured, should be a special one.
The only thing making this night kind of special was the moon. It was almost full but not quite yet, probably being just a day or two away. Still a waxing moon, as Celestia had told her it was called. Celestia knew everything about the moon and the stars and the sky, which made it especially strange that she was studying them so much. She would probably also know something Luna had been struggling to find out for a very long time, ever since she noticed that the moon was one of the few things in the sky that didn't twinkle. There had to something special about its composition that made it untwinkling.
Luna turned to Celestia. “Tia, what's the moon made of?”
Celestia pretended not to hear her. She was still entirely wrapped up in her book, although from the way she was scrunching her face, Luna could tell she had a hard time concentrating.
Luna got up and trotted over to tug at her older sister's mane.“Tia?” she tried once more. “What's the moon made of?”
She got no reaction whatsoever. Over time, Celestia had gotten pretty good at ignoring her, although Luna had gotten even better at making her pay attention. When she got like this, Luna knew there was always one way or another to make her acknowledge her. This time she figured it was spreading herself right across the book her sister was reading.
“Tia?” she asked as innocently as she could.
“What!?” It worked, although the look her sister shot her was deadly. “Can't you tell how busy I am?”
Luna fidgeted with her hooves. “I'm sorry. I didn't want to disturb you.”
Celestia sighed. “But you did anyway. What do you want?”
“I just wanted to ask you a question.”
“And you couldn't have done that any other time?”
Luna grinned. “But you said I have to learn as much about being a princess as possible and whenever I had a question you would answer, no matter what.”
“That's true but...”
Luna went on: “And if I don't know all about being a princess, I might do something foolish and plunge Equestria into chaos.”
“But you won't... My reading... That's totally... Fine!”
Celestia conceded. She couldn't argue with that. Luna knew exactly how to push her buttons and make Celestia feel as if she had done something wrong herself.
“Okay.” She sighed once more, shooing away Luna to close the book. “I'll just have to read this when you're in bed. What do you want to know?”
Luna returned to where she had previously been lying and pointed at the skies. “I just wanted to know what the moon is made of."
“Rock,” Cesletia replied casually. “We don't exactly know which kind of mineral, but through the use of magically enhanced telescopes, ponies have discovered that it is definitely made out of rock, and not made of cheese as some jester might suggest.”
Luna thought about this for a moment. “Why don't we know what rock the moon is made of?” she asked.
“Because many rocks look alike and you can only see what it's made of on the surface. In order to find out, somepony would have to experiment on it in some way or another. That pony would have to interact with the moon in some way to make an educated guess as to what type of rock it is.”
“For example by touching it?” Luna suggested.
Celestia hesitated. “Not what I had in mind, but sure, it would help to touch it.”
But this brought up an entirely new question. “Then why doesn't somepony go and touch it?”
“Because that's the way it is in life,” Celestia replied. “You can look, but you can't touch.”
That didn't make sense whatsoever. “What's that supposed to mean?” Luna asked
“Forget it,” Celsetia said. “What I meant to say was, it is much too far away to touch it. No pony can reach that far.”
“Far away? How far away?” Luna couldn't really grasp what that was supposed to mean. How could the moon be so far away? If it truly was, wouldn't it be too small to see?
“Very, very far away.” Celestia pointed at the horizon. “Farther away than any point in Equestria you can see from here.”
“Farther away than the Windigo caves?” Luna asked.
“Farther than that.”
Luna had to think. What was the place farthest away from here she knew. “Farther than the Crystal Empire?”
“Even farther than that.”
“Wow...”
It was hard to believe, but her sister wasn't the type of pony to pull her leg. If Celestia said the moon was incredibly far away, Luna knew it had to be true.
Still, it was too much of a mystery for her to leave alone. Long after she had been tugged into bed, thinking about it was keeping her awake. Just what was the moon made of? There had to be a way to find out. There had to be a way to touch it. And she already had an idea how she'd find it.
Her sister was already sound asleep, so sneaking into the study was no problem at all. And there, in the same place it always was, lay what she was after: her sister's universal spell book. Luna didn't know what exactly she was looking for, but she was sure she would find something. There was bound to be a spell in it that could help her out.
Her first instinct was to look under 'Moon', but she didn't find an entry between her mold removal and her multiplication spells. She tried 'Sun' next, but didn't find its entry either. Although on the page right after where it should have been, she found something very interesting, something she was sure would bring her closer to the moon than anypony had ever been before.
“Switcheroo Spell,” she read aloud. “In situations when cunning is necessary, it is possible to switch a certain object with a decoy to fool your enemy. All one needs to cast this spell is a decoy of similar size and shape as the object with which to switch it and then chant the following incantations as one thinks of the object.”
The incantations themselves weren't to hard to read. Luna stumbled over a word or two, but when push came to shove, she was sure she would get them right. She had all night to try after all. Much more interesting was the small hoofnote at the bottom of the page.
She read: “The success of the spell and its detectability by counter spells depends on a couple of factors: first, the aforementioned similarity in size and shape of the decoy and the object to be switched, second the proximity between the object and the decoy. But the most important factor is the personal connection of the caster and the object. The spell has proven to have a near perfect success record if the object is very dear and shares a personal connection with the caster.”
A personal relationship to the moon should not be a problem at all, given that Luna was supposed to inherit the duties of raising and lowering it for the rest of her life once she was ready for it. That should be connection enough. But size, shape, and proximity of the decoy were an entirely different matter, given that she knew neither how big and how far away the moon actually was.
“It has to be something big and round,” she said to herself as she rushed to the basement with the book in one hoof, looking for anything that could do the trick. Sure enough, she hit pay dirt with a deflated beach ball they had lying around from last summer. When inflated, it was easily bigger than the whole of Luna, which ought to come pretty close to the size of the moon already, she figured. She blew up the beach ball as she was galloping out to the balcony, nearly stumbling multiple times on her way over there.
The final condition for the spell to be successful was the most tricky one. If she could get anywhere close to the moon, she would have no need for the spell in the first place. Although for the spell to work, she didn't need to be close to the moon at all, she realized; all that would have to be close was the beach ball.
Her plan was simple: she would begin casting the spell, and right as she was about to finish, she would toss the beach ball straight up towards the moon. Even if she only got halfway there her chances should be pretty good.
“Alright, let's give this a shot.”
She put down the book to her right and the beach ball to her left. With the moon above her, she had everything she needed. She got onto her hindlegs, grabbed the beach ball with both her forelegs, and started the incantation. At the very last word, she pushed the ball into the air as hard as she could, sending it soaring above the ground, five meters, seven meters, ten meters in the air, until finally it reached its apex and came tumbling down.
“Shoot! And I was so close.”
Luna quickly picked up the ball again. Maybe she had let it go a little bit too soon. Next time, she would wait a little longer and hope it would turn out better this time around.
Once more she got on her hindlegs, grabbed the ball and started casting. She waited only a fraction of a second longer, releasing the ball in her hooves in the middle of the last word, thrusting upwards as hard as could. It soared through the sky again, five meters high, ten meters, fifteen, until inevitably it reached its apex and came falling down again.
“Oh, come on!” screamed Luna.
She ran over to the ball to pick it up again, only to find it wasn't a ball any more, but something gray and strangely rugged. She looked up and found her giant beach ball sitting in the sky alongside the stars, confirming her suspicion: the spell had worked.
She walked up to touch it, when to her surprise, the moon suddenly rolled away from her. It rolled around until it the side always facing the earth was right-side up. It's face quickly scanned its surroundings before it eventually rested on Luna and waited. It was clear to see it wanted something from her, although it was impossible to tell what.
“Um, hi, Mr. Moon,” Luna greeted.
The moon said nothing. It circled Luna once, taking her in from all angles until it returned to where it had landed. It turned towards the sky, jumping up and down a couple of times towards the giant beach ball in the sky.
“You're probably wondering how you got here and what you're doing here,” Luna guessed. It was hard to make out what it was really thinking, but she was slowly getting the hand of it. After all she instantly felt a strong connection with it.
The moon nodded.
“You see,” she began, “I wanted to know what you're made of, but Tia, that's my sister, didn't know, so I thought I should find out for myself, but Tia said nopony could do it, although I was sure I could and I used a spell to get you down here to see for myself.”
The moon said nothing.
“Would you mind if I touch you?” Luna asked. “I just want to see what you're made of.”
The moon still said nothing. But when Luna reached out to touch it, it suddenly charged forward, causing her to squeal as she only barely managed to dodge the assault. She had just enough time to pick herself off the ground as the moon spun around and came at her again.
Screaming her lungs out, she made for the balcony, the moon chasing close behind. For a rolling bolder it was surprisingly agile. Whenever she sidestep out of its path, she didn't gain more than an inch before it corrected its course. She tried losing it by running circles around the living room sofa, but it was on her tail the entire time.
Naturally it was only a matter of time until the ruckus they were making attracted somepony else. “Lulu, you're supposed to be sleeping,” a sleepy Celestia pointed out from the other room. “What are you making all this noise for?”
“Tia, help me!” Luna shouted. “The moon is trying to run me over!” The little breach in her concentration was almost enough for the moon to catch up to her. She had to make a leap over the sofa for her escape.”
“You're just having a bad dream. If you calm down and go back to sleep, you will—”
Celestia was left speechless,when her sister, the moon right behind her, ran past her into the kitchen. Before she could compose herself, her sister had already jumped on one of the cupboards, cowering helplessly, while below her the moon was jumping up and down, trying to snap at her like an angry dog.
Celestia's gaze inevitably wandered between Luna and the moon. “What's going on? How did you even get yourself into this mess?”
“I don't know. All I wanted to do was know what the moon is made of, and then... and then...”
The tears started flowing freely as Luna struggled to finish her thought. She didn't even know how she got herself into this mess. All she had wanted to do was touch the moon, and then somehow things turned sour.
Celestia quickly picked up Luna off the kitchen cupboard and let her cry herself out into her shoulder. She still hadn't figured out any of what was going on, but she was happy just to provide her sister with a shoulder to cry on in her moment of need. And as long as what she still couldn't believe to be the actual moon would behave itself, Luna would be alright eventually.
The moon meanwhile had stopped its bouncing. All its aggression had vanished the instant he saw the little filly crying, and it was now curiously watching the scene in front of it.
“So,” Celestia began once Luna had calmed herself to the point where she was only producing a few snivels, “what exactly has been going on over here.”
Luna snuffled one last time. “I thought about what you said about nopony having touched the moon before, but I figured there had to be a way to do it. So I snuck out and looked inside your spell book and cast a spell from it to bring the moon to me.”
She pointed at the moon as she hid behind her sister's mane. “But then he went mad and just started chasing me for no reason. It's an evil moon, I tell you.”
The moon said nothing.
Holding out a hoof to protect her sister, Celestia warily approached the moon. If it tried anything like before, she would retaliate with everything she had. “Is that true?” she asked.
She wasn't exactly ready for what happened next. Suddenly, the moon went completely wild, although not in an aggressive way. It rolled around the floor with no discernible pattern. Sometimes it stopped, facing the window or the cupboards for whatever reason, until it finally settled back into the same position as before.
Celestia turned to her sister. “Do you have any idea what it is doing?”
“Sure,” Luna replied, confident enough to step up from behind her sister towards the moon. “It just answered your question.”
“You mean it was trying to tell us something?” She looked over to the moon, still standing still in front of them. “And you actually understood what it was saying?”
Luna looked completely perplexed. “Of course I did. Didn't you?”
“No, I didn't. What did it say.”
“It said that it really chased me around, but only because it thought I was trying to play a mean prank on it. You see, it has a low tide scheduled for in about half an hour and thought I was trying to keep it from fulfilling its schedule. So it was chasing me to get me to put it back in its place. You see, it has never ever missed a single tide and is very proud of its record.”
Celestia looked the moon up and down. It didn't appear to be pulling any tricks. “So you need to get back to the sky as soon as possible, don't you?” she asked.
The moon nodded.
“Alright then. Luna, what spell did you use exactly?”
“The Switcheroo spell.” Luna replied simply.
“Switcheroo? Does that mean...”
Celestia rushed out to the balcony, her sister and the moon following close behind. Sure enough, she found something entirely different from what would be expected where the moon was supposed to be.
“Our old beach ball,” she said absentmindedly. “I didn't even know the spell could do that. I didn't even know you could cast such a spell.”
She turned to the moon. “But it's nothing I can't fix. Right now even, if you want me to.”
The moon shook its face. Then it rolled right past Celestia and in front of Luna, gesticulating as wildly as it had before.
“I'm sorry too,” Luna said. “I shouldn't have brought you here without your permission. I say, we should let bygones be bygones and be friends instead. I mean, if you want to.”
It rolled around the floor once more, causing Luna to giggle.
“What's it saying?” Celestia asked.
“It said that it may be made of rock, but I shouldn't think it's made of stone. Of course it wants to be my friend.”
Celestia smiled. “That's great. Although if you really want to make that tide, you should hurry up and say your goodbyes now, before it's too late. Wouldn't you agree?”
The moon nodded and quickly bowed before Luna. Luna quickly did the same, and the moon readied itself for its departure. But just as Celestia was about to cast her spell, Luna interrupted her.
“Wait!” she told her sister and turned to the moon. “Before you go would it be... okay to touch you? Just this once, to see what it feels like.”
The moon only thought about it for a short moment, then nodded and rolled right up to Luna, who couldn't believe her luck. She was about to be the first pony to ever lay hoof upon the moon. A momentous occasion and a unparalleled show of trust she couldn't begin to treasure enough. Without any hesitation she reached out with her hoof.
It felt very dusty. And hard. Dusty and hard, like a dust-covered rock. Not necessarily a great sensation. For some reason she had expected something completely different, but was still perfectly content with it.
“Thank you, Mr.Moon,” she said, her hoof still on its surface. “Thank you and goodbye.”
A moment later, the moon was replaced with a familiar beach ball. It was a much more fluffy and soft sensation on her hoof.
With the excitement gone entirely all of a sudden, both started to feel the lateness of the hour. Celestia yawned and Luna couldn't stifle one of her own.
“What a night,” said Celestia, “Spells were cast, friends were made, and for a few minutes a gigantic beach ball was hovering above all of Equestria. If you say it out loud, it all sounds kind of silly. I don't think I would believe it if I hadn't been there.
“Anyway.” She turned around and trotted towards the balcony door. “I think we should be going to bed now. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow after all.”
Before she left, she pointed at the beach ball in Luna's hoof. “Don't forget to put that back to where it belongs before you go to sleep. Otherwise mom will go crazy when she comes back tomorrow. You know how she gets when tidiness is concerned.”
“Yeah,” said Luna. She was clutching the beach ball tightly. On her left hoof, she could still feel a little left over moon dust in her fur, a souvenir for her to keep of this night. “In a minute,” she said.
Behind her, she could hear her sister close the balcony door as she went up to the railing to get a better view. She stared up at the moon, now back in its rightful place, indubitably putting the finishing touches on the low tide it had been preparing. Her sister had been wrong. Sometimes you could look and you could also touch. Although that wasn't important anymore, now that she had already done it. And seeing it shine brightly amidst the starlit sky, Luna had to admit to one thing: in this case, looking was much more fun anyway.
