IMPORTANT NOTE: I wrote this story for a research class at Carnegie Mellon University, to help raise awareness about light pollution. Therefore, it is written for a reader that has no prior knowledge of My Little Pony.
The two royal princesses are coming to visit us at the orphanage this week. Both of them. I’ve never seen both of them before.
Equestria, the land of ponies, is ruled by two princesses. Princess Celestia, the Princess of the Day, and her sister Princess Luna, the Princess of The Night.
My name is Gari. I’m ten years old, and I live in the orphanage in Canterlot, the biggest city in Equestria. About 1 million ponies live here, but I only see about 50 other ponies every day because I stay in the orphanage almost always.
Nurse Tranquil is the grownup pony that takes care of us. She’s a nurse, so she wears a white and red nurse’s hat that matches her fur and mane colors. She says that we should come up with questions we want to ask the Princesses when they come and visit. I know a lot about Princess Celestia. We read a lot of stories about Princess Celestia and the modern technology that she brought to Canterlot.
Princess Celestia gave us electric trains to help us get around. And we have electric refrigerators, so our food won’t spoil. The orphanage also has a gramophone player that we can use to play music.
Princess Celestia brought floodlights to Canterlot so that she could turn the night into day. At first the floodlights used to be red and orange in color, and so it didn’t really look like the sun. Then Princess Celestia paid money to make the floodlights better and better. So then the floodlights became gold in color, then white in color, then brilliant white, then super-duper brilliant white. And now it’s so super-duper brilliant that the floodlights look even more like daytime than the real daytime.
You can get to anywhere in Canterlot and never have to step into the dark. They even used to shine floodlights on the trees, but then the trees got sick and they had to be cut down.
Canterlot is Princess Celestia’s favorite city. She must like it here because it’s like day all the time. Princess Celestia doesn’t live in Canterlot, though, she lives far away, in the Castle of the Two Sisters with Princess Luna. But Princess Celestia really likes to visit Canterlot. She visited the orphanage here twice already. This time, Princess Luna is also coming.
I don’t know much about Princess Luna, except that she’s the Princess of the Night. I don’t know even what she looks like. Maybe her fur color is black, the opposite of Princess Celestia’s white fur color.
We haven’t read any stories about Princess Luna. There aren’t any stories about Princess Luna, actually. Nurse Tranquil says it’s because nopony likes Princess Luna.
Everypony likes the day better than the night.
Nurse Tranquil lets us play outside in the courtyard at night, with the floodlights turned on. We’re only allowed to play in the paved courtyard. Outside the courtyard, it isn’t lit and everything is dark. One time, I asked if there was another place outside the courtyard where we could play.
“What’s out there?” I asked, pointing outward.
“Nothing,” Nurse Tranquil said. “There’s nothing out there. Just dark.”
Aurora Shine told me what’s actually out there. She’s another filly at the orphanage. She sleeps in the bed next to mine. She used to have parents, but they died when she was young so she’s in the orphanage now.
Aurora said that her old parents told her that there’s monsters hiding in the dark. She’s really scared of the monsters. She says that they hide under her bed, or anywhere else that’s dark. And then they come out to scare you, or they give you bad dreams.
One time, Aurora woke me up in the middle of the night because she had a really bad dream. She said in the dream, she was lying in the dark, looking up at the night sky, and the monsters and scary creatures with fangs were all staring down at her.
“Are there really any monsters?” I said. “Did you see any? What did they look like?”
“No, I didn’t see anything,” she said. “But of course you don’t see them. They hide in the dark. And you can’t see anything in the dark.”
And that’s why I got scared. I just stay inside the light part of the courtyard, and I don’t look up either, because I’m scared that something might come from above and scare me.
But then tonight, I was playing ball with Aurora Shine in the courtyard. We kicked the ball around with our hooves. Aurora doesn’t kick very well. I kicked the ball to her, but then she kicked too hard, and it flew out of the courtyard and past the lit part.
“Aww, why did you do that!?” I said.
“Where did the ball go?” she said.
I tried to look, but the white floodlight was shining in my face and I couldn’t see. “I don’t know,” I said. “Somewhere in the dark.”
“Well…you go get it, Gari,” she said.
“No you get it, you kicked it!” I said.
“No you get it, you didn’t catch it!” she said.
“No you get it!”
“No you get it!”
So I got it. I walked slowly. The paved ground became grass. Then I left the lit part, and it got darker and darker and darker. But then after I was in the dark for a little longer, it got a little brighter. Like my eyes could make the land brighter or something.
I walked a little more, and finally I saw the ball. I tried to pick it up, but then I rolled and landed on my back by accident. I was looking up at the dark sky.
I saw a dot in the sky. A teeny, tiny dot. Much smaller than the moon. The dot got brighter, then it got dimmer. It blinked. And light came out of the center, like little points.
I don’t know what it was. At first, I thought it was one of those monsters that Aurora was talking about, except they found a flashlight. And they were gonna come, and find me, and bite me in the neck, and gobble me up for lunch!
But I stared at the dot of light for two whole minutes, and my neck felt fine. Except for the nervous sweat that was making my fur itch. The dot of light just got a little brighter. Then a little dimmer.
Actually, it was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.
I ran back with our ball, and I told Aurora, “Come here! You have got to see this!” but she didn’t want to because she was scared. She was really scared, actually. She said she couldn’t see my orange-brown mane coming in from the dark, and then when she saw all me all of sudden she got scared and started crying.
When I was in the dark, I could see Aurora. But when Aurora was in the light, she couldn’t see me. That’s weird. I thought it’s the other way round.
Nurse Tranquil got mad at me for making Aurora cry, but I said sorry and Aurora forgave me, so it was okay.
Nopony in the orphanage know what that dot in the sky was. Aurora didn’t know. I asked Nurse Tranquil, but even she didn’t know.
Maybe I’ll ask the Princesses tomorrow when they come and visit.
I didn’t sleep very well last night. They don’t close the curtains in the orphanage, so the floodlights from the streets shine through the window. Sleeping in the light is hard. Sometimes I pull the blanket over my head and that helps. Aurora says it also helps the monsters go away.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came to our orphanage picnic lunch in the park today. Princess Luna’s fur color is actually a dark blue, with a few black patches on her flank.
We ate hay sandwiches and soda outside. Princess Celestia brought a cake, but she ate half of it. There were lots of big guardponies too, with gold armor and sharp spears. Three of them stared at me and frowned.
While we were in the park, Princess Celestia pointed out one of the floodlights to everypony. “See, children, these new models will illuminate the night with the brightness of forty suns,” she said. Everypony oohed and aahed. Except Princess Luna. She growled. And then she put on really really dark glasses and looked away.
Aurora wanted to talk with Princess Celestia. All the other foals also wanted to talk to her too, so then there was a big blob of ponies with Princess Celestia’s smiling head sticking out in the middle. Princess Luna didn’t really say much after Princess Celestia talked about the forty-sun floodlight. She sat on the other side of the field, all by herself, under the tree shadow.
The guards were standing around Princess Luna and I didn’t want to go up and talk to her. But Princess Luna saw me, and she smiled at me.
“Greetings, child,” she said. She told me to come over.
“Princess Luna, I have a question,” I said.
“What is it, child?”
“Princess Luna, last night, when I was playing ball with my friend, erm, and we, erm, I, no she, no my friend, my friend kicked it far and I went into the dark to get it, and I tripped over the ball and I…”
Princess Luna put her hoof over my mouth. “Calm yourself child, don’t be nervous. What is your question?”
“Well, Princess Luna, I looked up, and I saw a little point of light in the sky at night. Do you know what that is?”
Princess Luna chuckled. “What a silly question, child. What you saw was a ‘star.’ One of the great wonders of the night.”
I didn’t know what she meant. “What’s a ‘star’?”
“You mean…you don’t know?” she said.
“No,” I said. “None of my friends know either. Nurse Tranquil doesn’t know either.”
And then that made Princess Luna cry. I made Aurora and Princess Luna cry.
“Why are you crying?”
One of the scary guardponies gave her a tissue. He also stared at me and that was so scary I almost peed myself. “No, it is nothing, child. Did you…enjoy seeing…that star?”
“It was pretty,” I said. “Really pretty.”
And then Princess Luna looked up at the sky, but she accidentally looked at the sun and she turned away. “What is your name, child?” she asked.
“Gari.”
“Okay, Gari. Listen to me closely. Do not go to sleep tonight. Wait for me at the window next your bed at midnight. We’ll go on a little trip.”
“How long of a trip?”
“I promise, just for the night. And nights aren’t very long these days.” Princess Luna looked down. “So, what do you say, child?”
“Sure,” I said.
“One more thing. This is a secret. Tell nopony of this…especially my sister. Is that clear?”
“Yes.” And then the picnic was over. The guardponies took the Princesses away.
I wonder why Princess Luna wants to see me. I wish I could tell Aurora Shine about what happened to me. Aurora said that it was so crowded that she didn’t even get to say hi to Princess Celestia at all. “But she smiled at me, though. That was pretty awesome.”
Princess Luna came at midnight, like she said. She opened the window, and it made a creeeak noise. Nopony got woken up though. I sat on Princess Luna’s back.
“Are you ready, child?”
“Yeah.”
I wanted to say goodbye to Aurora, but she had the blanket over her head so I didn’t wake her up. Anyway, Princess Luna said I’m not allowed to tell.
“Let us go.” Princess Luna flew me out with her wings. We went higher and higher, until the ponies walking down the streets turned into colorful dots, and all the streets in Canterlot became like little bright white ribbons crossing each other.
Good thing I held on tight! Princess Luna can fly really fast—because she’s a princess, duh—so we went really far. We flew farther and farther away from Canterlot. At first, I could see the orphanage building lit up. But then when we got far, the lights came together, into a big, bright white ball. And you couldn’t see any buildings.
And the ball of light got smaller and smaller and smaller.
“Look up, Gari,” Princess Luna told me.
I still looked back at Canterlot. The big, white ball got smaller and smaller. Until it just became a glow in the sky. Like the rising sun.
After Princess Luna flew over the mountains, the light got blocked, and I didn’t see Canterlot anymore. Princess Luna told me again to look up, but I didn’t listen. Finally, we stopped in a little field with a stream. It was cold, but Princess Luna used her magic to cover me and keep me warm.
“Why…why am I here?” I asked.
“Look up, Gari,” she kept saying. She pushed up my chin with her hoof.
There were lots of dots in the sky. “Stars.” A hundred of them, or maybe a thousand, or maybe a thousand hundred! There was a huge, long line of light in the sky, too. Princess Luna says that it’s actually lots and lots of dots of light, all mushed together.
“Is it night?” I asked.
“Of course it is night, child.”
“I thought the night was dark.”
“This is dark.”
If this is what the dark is, then I’m not so scared.
Princess Luna takes me out to the field one night a week, and we go look at stars. She taps my window at midnight, we go, and then she brings me back before Nurse Tranquil wakes up.
There’s no floodlights out in the field. Just a few lanterns.
I can play outside, anywhere I want to in the whole field. Not just a small floodlit part. Princess Luna taught me how to play connect the dots with the stars. But you can only play it in the field, because if you don’t have a lot of stars then it’s not very fun, because you can’t make that many different shapes.
Some nights, Princess Luna and I stay in. She whispers stories to me, while everypony else is asleep. Different stories than what Nurse Tranquil reads to us.
The stars are all good spirits that watch over us and keep us safe at night. Some of the stars point in different directions, to help tell us where we are. That’s how Princess Luna knew how to fly from Canterlot to the field. She looked for the northern star, and she followed it.
There’s lots of creatures hidden in the stars, too. The stars that make the shape like a bear, that’s the Ursa Major. The Ursa Major’s a really nice creature that is awake in the night. She’s very big, bigger than the tallest mountain, so she can beat any creature that might come to hurt me. But, if it’s too bright in the night, the Ursa Major gets blinded and runs away.
Princess Luna closed the storybook. “But not to worry, child,” she said. “The Ursa Major always watches over us, to keep the darkness as safe as the light. Trust that she will protect you, and you will be safe.”
I wish Aurora knew about this. Because she said she had that dream about the sky being full of monsters, when they’re actually full of creatures that help protect you and make sure you don’t lose your way. If she knew, she wouldn’t be scared of the dark anymore.
Princess Luna didn’t come for a few weeks. I ran off to the field by myself once, in secret. Just don’t tell Nurse Tranquil, she’ll get mad. I drank water from the stream, and Princess Luna also taught me how to find a place to get berries by following the stars at night. I got to the field and came back before sunrise.
Weird things happened during those weeks that Princess Luna was gone. There was a lot of smoke and fire coming from the south, where the Princesses’ Castle is. Then, for three days, the sun was down all day. And then another day, the sun kept going up and down, up and down.
Then Princess Luna finally came back one night. I remember Aurora was wide awake that night, because she said the monsters were out. She heard Princess Luna leap through the window.
Princess Luna looked different. Her fur was pitch black, and her mane had little stars in them that looked nice. She had sharp fangs. And she had scratches on her face, like that time a year ago when I fell down the stairs in the orphanage and I hurt myself.
“Princess Luna!” I said. “I missed you!”
“KYAAAAA!” Aurora saw Princess Luna with the black fur and fangs, and she got scared.
Aurora’s scream woke up everypony. They sat up in their bed, and when they looked back at the open window they all screamed, just like Aurora.
Nurse Tranquil got scared too. “Children, quick! Hide!” She dragged us all into a little dark corner of the room. I was stuck in the middle of the crowd, and I could see the ponies next to me all looking down at the floor, and shuddering in fear.
“Is she gonna eat us up for lunch, Nurse Tranquil?” I heard one pony whisper.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, don’t worry.”
“I don’t wanna die, Nurse Tranquil.”
“It’s okay. Shh. Shh. If you don’t wanna die, be quiet.”
I tried to stick my head up and look, but Nurse Tranquil’s mane was still blocking Princess Luna’s face. So, I pushed through the crowd.
“GARI, NO!” Nurse Tranquil screamed.
I walked up to Princess Luna, and she followed me with her eyes. “Princess Luna, what’s going on? Are you okay? Why do you look different? And why is the sun and moon moving around so much?”
Princess Luna smiled at me. Her smile was still the same, expect for the fangs in her mouth. She pushed my chin up with her hoof. “Gari, sweet child. I wish more foals were like you. Well, to answer your questions—”
Suddenly, Princess Celestia came in through the open window, and that’s when the whole building started shaking. She glared at her sister. “That’s ENOUGH, Nightmare Moon!”
Before I could blink, Princess Celestia zapped Princess Luna with her magic. I was so close to Princess Luna, I almost got hit. The fur on one of my hooves got burnt to black.
“Gari!” Aurora screamed.
I heard Princess Luna screaming too. Then a thud, and I heard the floorboards snap.
Everypony in the orphanage cheered. Nurse Tranquil too. They all ran up to Princess Celestia, jumping up and down with excitement, and they asked her what was going on. If she was okay. And what happened to the sun and moon.
The same questions that I asked Princess Luna.
Princess Celestia turned to me. “Did Nightmare Moon hurt you?” she asked me.
“Who’s Nightmare Moon?” I said.
“Princess Luna,” she said, pointing to her, lying unconscious on the floor.
“No, she didn’t hurt me,” I said.
“She didn’t hurt you?”
“Of course she didn’t.” I said. “What did you do to her? Is she gonna be okay?”
Princess Celestia was quiet for a bit. Then she sighed and she said, “It’s all right, young filly. You’re free now. You’re free.”
Princess Celestia left, dragging her sister’s unconscious body out. I looked out the open window and watched her fly away. It made sense that I couldn’t see the Ursa Major in the sky. She would have never let this happen.
The floodlights are even brighter in Canterlot now.
Princess Luna got fed up with the floodlights that Princess Celestia put in Canterlot to turn the Night into Day. That’s why Princess Luna turned into Nightmare Moon. She turned herself into Nightmare Moon so that she could use her magic to make the Night last forever.
Then Princess Celestia got even madder, so then they fought, and Princess Celestia won. She banished Princess Luna to the moon for 1000 years as punishment. So now you can kind of see the outline of Princess Luna (aka Nightmare Moon) on the surface of the moon.
Now Princess Celestia’s the only royal princess in Equestria. She moved to Canterlot because it’s her favorite city. Her picture is now on the gates of Canterlot. There’s one really, really bright sixty-sun floodlight that shines on it, all night.
You can see the cloud of bugs from every window in the city.
Aurora and I started playing ball in the floodlit courtyard again, after Nurse Tranquil finally let us play outside at night. For a while, she didn’t even let us play outside in the daytime.
“Is your fur on your hoof still singed?” Aurora asked me.
“Yeah, but it’s starting to grow back,” I said.
“That night was so horrible.” Aurora shuddered. “Nightmare Moon hurting you like that.”
“But she didn’t hurt me, Princess Celestia was the one who zapped me.”
“But because of Nightmare Moon. I mean, she’s only the scariest, most frightening pony to ever live in Equestria! She tried to turn the sky into night forever!”
“Princess Luna isn’t scary. She’s actually a very nice pony. She…she took me out on trips.” I know Princess Luna made me promise not to tell, but she’s banished anyway.
Plus I really want to share this with everypony. I don’t get why the night sky has to be a secret.
I told Aurora, “Princess Luna taught me that the night sky is full of little shiny dots, called stars. I know, I saw it with my own eyes.”
Aurora looked down at the bright ground and she said, “No, I don’t believe you! I mean, look!” She pointed up. Now she’s even more scared of the night. Because she looks up at the sky from the floodlit city, and all she sees is black and the moon.
Pitch black, plus the image of Nightmare Moon.
“There’s nothing good about the night sky,” she said. “It’s just dark, and Nightmares.” I made her cry again.
So, I took her to show her. Nurse Tranquil told us to come inside and brush our teeth and go to bed. I told Aurora to wait until midnight. Then, at midnight, we got out of bed, and we walked together, out the gates of Canterlot, and into the dark sky.
Aurora got scared after we left the gates. She kept looking at the ground, and holding onto me with her hoof. “Why is it so dark? Are you lost?”
“Of course I’m not lost.” I actually got less lost as it got darker. When the sky is light, there’s only one star to look for. The sun. But at night, there’s a thousand hundred stars. So I know exactly where I am.
My eyes adjusted, so then I could see more. After we got to the mountains, it was dark enough that the Ursa Major came out to protect us. And I followed the northern star the rest of the way.
I don’t know a whole lot about the stars, because Princess Luna only read one or two stories to me before she got banished. But someday, she’ll come back. And she’ll tell me more stories.
We reached the little field over the mountains, where Princess Luna first took me. “Well, here we are,” I said to Aurora Shine.
The first thing she did was look up.
Author's Note
"Less than 100 years ago, everyone could look up and see a spectacular starry night sky. Now, millions of children across the globe will never experience the Milky Way where they live. The increased and widespread use of artificial light at night is not only impairing our view of the universe, it is adversely affecting our environment, our safety, our energy consumption and our health." --International Dark Sky Association
Learn more about light pollution, and how you can prevent it: https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/
