Twilight was excited. She was behind a large curtain on the main stage in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, preparing to give a speech. She had been asked to explain the Solar System to young foals, recently accepted to the school. After all, the common misconception was that Celestia literally moved the Sun in the sky, and any foal studying at a university should learn the truth.
Twilight knew they only asked her to give the speech because she was a Princess and one of the most awarded graduates in history, but that did nothing to lessen the honor she felt.
"And here is Princess Twilight Sparkle, to give a short educational speech!" stated the announcer.
Twilight walked out on stage, carrying a display board with several pictures in her magic. All the young ones in the audience looked at her, amazed at the young Princess, who had only been a foal like them, but became Princess Celestia's personal student. It was truly inspiring.
"Hello, my little ponies," Twilight said with a smile, "Do any of you know how the Sun and Moon are raised each day and night?" she asked.
A pink filly raised her hoof immediately. "The Pwincesses do it!!!" she shouted excitedly.
Twilight smiled at her antics. "That's correct! But not quite the answer I was looking for," she said, while using her magic to reveal the first image on her display board, "This is our solar system." she stated.
Confusion was evident on the foal's faces. "The ball of fire is the Sun, the blue-green rock is Equus, and the smallest rock is the Moon," said Twilight, "So the Moon goes around Equus, and Equus around the Sun. Any questions?" Twilight smiled. Of course there were questions.
A blue colt raised his hoof. "Um, wouldn't the Sun and Moon raise on their own then?"
"Yes! And they do raise on their own!" Twilight said. The foal's eyes were practically bulging out of their skulls now. "Lets take a closer look at Equus." said Twilight, revealing the next image on her display board.
"Equus is surrounded by a dust cloud, as shown in this simple picture," said Twilight,"The cloud prevents all light from reaching the surface. Of course, we need that light, so unicorns invented spells that could allow the light through the clouds. These spells had to be renewed every day and night, and they required experienced unicorns to work." Twilight paused and called on a young filly who had raised her hoof.
"Who raised them before the spells?"asked the filly.
Twilight bit her lip. She hated the fact she couldn't answer this question. "We don't really know. Some say it was an alicorn, one ponies didn't know about. Or the dragons, or even Discord. But we do know that one day, neither the Sun or Moon rose, so the spell was invented to fix it." she finished.
Another filly raised her hoof. "Could it have been the Pwincesses?" she asked.
A colt's hoof shot up. "But why would they have stopped raising them?" he said.
"Calm down now," said Twilight calmly, "All we know about the Princesses is that they showed up to defeat Discord, and always raised the Sun and Moon afterwards."
Another little pony raised his hoof, very excited for some reason. "My mommy said that when Discord came, the Sun and Moon moved all over the place. But that doesn't make sense!!" he said.
Twilight smiled again. "Well, think about the dust cloud. It's made of millions of grains of dust, right?" she asked. All the foals seemed to nod their heads and agree. "Well, each grain is like a little tiny mirror. If you can reflect the sunlight the right way, you can make it look like it's moving all over the place. That's also how Princess Luna can move the stars in the sky."
All the foals seemed to accept this, but one filly raised her hoof. "Wait!! In the first picture you showed us, the Sun was huge!!!!! But it's really not that big!!!" she said.
"It is that big," said Twilight, "But it's so far away that it looks small. That goes for the stars too. They're even bigger than the Sun!" she said.
Practically all the foals hooves were in the air. Twilight called on a plump little colt.
"Are there other planets too?!?" he asked excitedly.
"There are indeed. Millions of planets orbiting millions of stars, and those are only the ones we know about." said Twilight.
A filly raised her hoof timidly. "Are there other p-ponies on the p-planets?" she asked in a frightend tone.
"We think there might be, but they probably wouldn't look like us." said Twilight. The filly who asked the question looked very scared at the idea of alien ponies. "Don't worry, there's no way they can reach Equestria." Twilight reassured her.
"Now, just to recap, the Moon orbits Equus, and Equus the Sun. But Equus is surrounded by dust, so the Princesses use their unicorn powers to allow light and warmth to shine upon Equestria. Any questions?" Twilight smiled warmly. There were probably a million questions left.
But there weren't. All the young foals seemed to be happy with what they knew know. The auditorium slowly cleared as the announcer gave instructions for orientation, and Twilight went backstage to prepare to depart for Ponyville.
"That was really a nice speech, Twi. You blew their little heads off." Spike the Brave and Glorious congratulated her.
"You have to do that to instill a scientific curiosity in them. Like when Princess Celestia first showed me how much magic she could do, I just wanted to learn it all!" responded Twilight.
"Well, now that you've finally made some friends, your dreams have com true." said Spike. He and Twilight chuckled at the kind reminder of their friends, who were waiting to congratulate her in Ponyville.
Probably with a super-crazy-funtastic-nervecited party planned by Pinkie Pie and her Party Cannon™.
