Dawn of the Space Age

Planetshine flew from Cloudsdale to Ponyville, heading for her new home near the edge of the town in the middle of Equestria, just south-west from Canterlot. She carried her supplies and everything she needed on a huge saddlebag, flying to her new home.

Planetshine was a pony that loved gazing into the night sky, looking at the stars, chartering constellations, and looking at the moon change shape every so often, but she has never seen what's beyond the night sky, into space. She was also a great flier, learning to fly when she was a foal, and being able to fly super fast and have good coordination while in flight, almost like the Wonderbolts, which were the most elite fliers in all of Equestria.

She lived near the north-east border of Ponyville, which was where Dr. Whooves happens to live, an earth pony that was fascinated by science. He loved to experiment with materials and makeup hypothesizes such as how Equestria was formed, or how his flameless fireworks light up with love.

Once Planetshine flew into town, the first pony she met with was Dr. Whooves, which she sort of had a little crush on. The two ponies quickly became friends and started talking about science, something that also interested Planetshine a bit. She then started the conversation, 'Dr. Whooves, do you know what's beyond the night sky?'

Dr. Whooves was confused with that question, not knowing how to respond to it, but he did try to reply to it, 'Uhh, I don't know, maybe worlds just like Equestria.'

'Oh yeah, I think that's it, I feel like I need something that can make the night sky be seen better, like something that can magnify the night sky.'

'Yep, that's it.'

Planetshine walked off to the local glass shop and bought some convex lenses, usually used in magnifying glasses, things that detectives use to solve mysteries. She then trotted over to her new home and started to construct a new type of magnifying glass, one that would look in the night sky at a very high magnification.

'So, this goes here and that goes here,' she muttered to herself.

After a lot of time, precisely 1 hour 26 minutes and 54 seconds, she was finally done with her new invention, ready to try it out. The only problem was that it wasn't nighttime, meaning that she couldn't use it. Instead of testing it, she knocked on Dr. Whooves' door, the invention standing up on her right.

'Planetshine, what is that thing beside you?' Dr. Whooves asked.

'Oh, just my new invention which I never tested because it isn't nighttime and it was designed to be used for nighttime to look into the night sky, you know,' she replied.

'Well, why don't you try it out in a dark room in my house, complete with little light bulbs that shine like the stars, which I invented.'

'Ohh, I didn't know you were an inventor.'

'I'm actually a scientist that happens to invent things, nothing special really.'

Planetshine walked into his house, seeing his inventions for the first time in her life. The flameless fireworks were in a testing chamber and other inventions and science equipment scattered in his house. 'That's a lot of science equipment you got there,' Planetshine said.

'Yeah, but some of them are actually my inventions, see that ball over there, once you flow electricity through it and touch it, your mane will stand up,' he replied.

'Ok, can I try it out?'

'Ok, but after testing the thing you made in this room that I sometimes do my experiments in, topped off with a larger light bulb for light, one of my inventions.'

Once Planetshine walked into the room, looking around the room as Dr. Whooves turned on the lights, but the small light bulbs that were like stars couldn't be seen. Dr. Whooves then turned on the small light bulbs which were scattered across the room and then turning off the main light. Planetshine looked at the spectacular view, the little light bulbs scattered just like stars in the night sky, but it did light up some things in the room, but they were dim enough to light up the whole room.

'Dr. Whooves, this is so beautiful, how did you make this?' Planetshine asked.

'Well, all I can say it took a long time of hooking up wires and things like that,' he replied, trying to remember how he created it.

Planetshine looked into the invention she made. The light bulbs were highly magnified and she could see every little detail in the objects the light bulbs emitted light onto. Dr. Whooves also wanted to try it out, so he did what Planetshine did, looking into the invention she made. He too could see exactly what Planetshine made.

'Wow, this is a really good thing to look into the sky with, and it does it very nicely, now we just need to name it something,' Dr. Whooves said.

'Well, I thought of a name like 'telescope,' because it magnifies things from far away and it's like a scope on a crossbow, but it magnifies the image.'

'Great idea for a name, let's just keep it that way.'

The two ponies then talked about Dr. Whooves' huge pile of inventions and science equipment until it was twilight. Once it was twilight, the two ponies went outside, Planetshine carrying her telescope. Once they were outside, Planetshine placed the telescope right in front of her and started to look into the sky.

When she looked around the night sky with her telescope, she saw something very faint, something that wasn't a star or a smudge, but it looked a lot like something else, something like a planet. Planets were really just in sci-fi books and were not believed to exist in real life, but now Planetshine had discovered one, she had to document it. The next pony that saw the planet was Dr. Whooves, who looked into the telescope and also saw that little smudge in the sky.