“The legacy of life is long,” said Princess Luna, her wings folding closed again. “The ancients once looked up from their single world, with only tubes and glass and curiosity. They looked and wondered and dreamed that maybe, maybe, someone else might be looking back. Many years later, they came looking. With machines and with starships they visited every star from one end of creation to the other—but there was no one there. They found only the smallest, simplest life. The further they traveled, the more sure they were. The act of fate that had created them—them and every other kind of complex life that had ever been—had only ever happened in one place.