Twilight Sparkle was delighted. Princess Celestia had requested her presence during the visit of the representatives from the Griffin Kingdom. Twilight was organizing her saddlebags, making sure that her crown and other important items were packed so she would be ready to greet Aguila and Leon. Since her success with the Yaks, Twilight had hoped that Celestia would include her in more diplomacy. As the princess of friendship, that kind of thing really should be up her alley, even if it meant she'd have to leave Ponyville sometimes.
Twilight was ready to leave her castle in Ponyville and fly to Canterlot. On her way out, she passed the cutie map. The large, flat circle showed all of the known areas of Equestria. She felt a bit uneasy as she looked at it. The map hadn't actually summoned her to Canterlot. Was she actually supposed to go? Surely following a summons by Celestia was just as important as the cutie map anyway. What if it summoned her while she was gone? Spike would be staying, she reasoned. If something was going on with the map, he could send her a letter, and if she was needed, the cutie marks on her flanks would begin to flash and she could fly home from Canterlot pretty quickly to see where she was being summoned to next.
Twilight had already said her goodbyes to her Ponyville friends, so as soon as she was outside, she took off.
Celestia sat on her throne, awaiting the arrival of Twilight and the Griffin representatives. Luna sat next to her on the dais. The princess of the night usually didn't attend daytime meetings with her older sister, but the Griffin's ambitions would affect Luna's domain.
Celestia smiled at her younger sister and said "What do you think we should tell the griffins this time? This is after all the tenth time they're going to make this request."
Luna sighed, her face full of sadness. "The Griffins will not be happy when we reject them again. They strongly desire to go to the moon. If only we could tell them the truth."
Celestia frowned and said "One of the things that I love most about the beings of this world is how beautifully naive they are. They don't need to know all the hard truths as we do. They don't have to understand that they are, in essence, in a cage. Birds don't like cages Luna, even if they're half lion."
Luna's right front hoof tapped on the floor as she became lost in thought for a moment, the beautiful stars of her mane swirling even more quickly as her alicorn magic caused it to wave as if with an unseen wind. Finally, Luna replied. "Neither do ponies, wings or not. You are right of course. We can not be honest as I would like, but it will be difficult to keep brushing them off."
Just then, the guards at the door parted way and a stressed looking Twilight ran in, her hooves tapping across the floor at a frantic pace. "Am I late? Did I miss the representatives?" Twilight always seemed like she was afraid of failing a test, even though with all her success thus far, she should have been one of the most confident of all ponies.
Celestia's expression was one of serene amusement. "No Twilight, you were just on time. Luna and I were just discussing what we might say to the griffins."
Twilight smiled, clearly relieved and said "Whew ok! So... what are they visiting about?"
Luna answered "They want to visit the moon."
Twilight nodded and said "That sounds fantastic! After all, it's only natural that after so many decades without another moon mission, that other nations would want to emulate what Neil Hoofstrong did. The moon isn't just for ponies, even if you do control its movements right? They could gather lots of new scientific data."
Luna frowned, unsure how to proceed tactfully, and glanced to Celestia for help.
Celestia paused for a moment, and cleared her throat, before looking gently at Twilight and saying "Twilight, we had you show up earlier than you really needed to because we wanted to tell you something very important about this before the meeting with Aguila and Leon. You see... the moon...."
Trumpets began sounding, announcing the arrival of the griffins, ahead of schedule. "Horse apples!" Luna muttered under her breath. Twilight smiled with excitement, quickly adjusted her crown and regalia, and stood at attention next to Celestia and Luna, trying to look as regal as she could manage.
Celestia whispered "I'll tell you later Twilight, just follow our lead, OK?"
Twilight nodded.
"Her excellency Aquila, Ambassador of the Griffin Kingdoms, and Representative Leon." announced a royal guard.
The doors swung open and two high ranking griffins entered. Aguila was a female griffin with a white head, deep blue
highlights around her eyes, and a light tan that appeared gold on her wings and body. She was larger than her companion Leon, a male with a gray head, darker gray feathers around his eyes, and a dark brown body and wings.
The griffins marched toward the dais that the three alicorns were standing on, and bowed their heads respectfully. Celestia and Luna tilted their heads slightly as per protocol to show respect for the rank of the griffins. Twilight mimicked the other alicorn's motion. Formalities aside, the meat of the meeting, as the griffins liked to think of it, was about to begin.
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, we have come here from the Griffin kingdoms to yet again make a formal petition to your country to allow us to pursue our own space program." Aguila began, with a strong, clear voice.
Leon continued, in a confident, yet calmer tone. "Just as ponies dream of making their homes among the stars one day, we griffins do as well."
Leon gave a glance to Luna's mane before continuing. "We feel that the sky belongs not just to every pony, but to every griffin as well, and to every intelligent being in this world."
Aguila nodded solemnly at what her companion had said, and picked up the speech "We have great admiration for your Equestrian astronauts, such Neil Hoofstrong, Buzz Coltrin, and others... and we believe that griffins should be granted the same opportunities as ponies to achieve our highest ambitions."
Twilight Sparkle was impressed with the griffin's plea. She wanted to cry out "Yes! Yes! Yes!"... but she stayed silent. Celestia and Luna were in charge, and she had been asked to follow their lead. She looked to them, excitement bubbling through, difficult to contain. Twilight was disappointed to see that the other princesses didn't seem to share her level of enthusiasm. They couldn't say no though... could they?
Celestia spoke in her most patient of voices. "Dear Ambassador and Representative, you have made this petition nine previous times, and each of those times, your petition was rejected. While it's true that ponies have walked on the moon, we have unfortunately lost all 13,000 reels of data pertaining to those missions, making it incredibly risky to attempt again. The loss of this information was so great that even we have not attempted such a landing again for a very long time now. This is why we can not grant such a request at this time. More research must be done, until we can determine it is safe to try again. You have been told this the last nine times. Why do you feel that this petition will be better received than the others?"
Aguila's feathers fluffed up, and she looked almost twice as big as she had before, dwarfing her male companion. "Griffins are a fierce people, Princess. We will not give up on this, even if we have to develop all the science on our own, from the ground up."
Leon spoke up after her. “You will not be able to stop us forever princesses." Leon paused, looking up at the alicorns. “With all respect, your highnesses.” he finished.
Luna's voice was cold. "Do not speak to us about who is fierce." Her eyes flashed with what looked like moonlight for a moment before she glared down at the griffins. "I spent one thousand years magically embedded inside of the moon. I know the moon as if it were my own flesh, because for that time it was my flesh. Nopony, and no griffin, knows the moon as I do. You will not be able to go there."
Twilight's jaw dropped and her eyes went wide, diplomatic stoicism unable to be perfectly held after what Luna had said. She was in complete shock. A glance from Celestia made Twilight regain her composure, but her emotions were reeling. Why wouldn't the other princesses let the griffins achieve their dreams?
Aguila, not missing a beat, pointed a claw to Twilight. "Even your princess of Friendship wonders why you continue to block us."
Leon spoke directly to Twilight "Surely princess, you see the sense in what we are saying... you love science, and reading. Surely you wouldn't deny us our rights to build upon the scientific achievements that ponies have made."
Twilight, the initial shock of the moment over, looked seriously at the griffins. "Nopony is more of an expert on the moon than Luna." she declared. "I would defer to her in such matters." Celestia and Luna were relieved at Twilight's response, but were trying not to show it.
Celestia took up the conversation then. "Ambassador Aguila, Representative Leon, I am sorry but your petition can not be granted at this time. The reasoning for rejection is the same. Please feel free to stay in the castle tonight, rooms have been made available for your comfort."
The griffins were quickly escorted from the throne room by royal guards, and Twilight looked up to the other two alicorns in shock.... "But... why...?"
Celestia and Luna remained silent for several moments, as Twilight stood with them on the dais, her question hanging in the air.
Luna's horn glowed, and a clear solid dome of magic surrounded the three alicorns, blocking sound. Finally Luna answered "Twilight Sparkle, as a princess of Equestria, it is time for you to be privy to certain secrets. You must promise not to share them with anypony else."
Twilight nodded, and went through the motions of the Pinkie promise as she recited "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye".
Luna's expression was puzzled at this form of promising, but her face became serious once again and she continued. "To our knowledge, nopony has ever been to the moon, except for myself, and even I did not walk its surface. I was in the moon, not on the moon."
Twilight's right ear twitched as her eyes widened in shock. Her legs felt weak and she dropped to her knees on all four legs. Twilight tried to speak but couldn't. Twilight felt as if the room around them had begun to spin, even though she knew it was motionless.
Celestia continued where Luna left off "Twilight, even my sister would never have reached the moon if it were not for the magic of the Elements of Harmony that sent her there."
Luna added "There is not a surface on the moon that a pony could walk on. Your hooves would not stick to the moon if you tried to stand on it. You would take a long dive back to the earth. It would be as if you were trying to walk on the ceiling of this great throne room. The moon is a self-luminous circle floating in the sky, its movements guided by my magic, but nopony will ever set hooves on it. "
Twilight stammered "Wh-what about Neil Hoofstrong and the other astronauts? What about the other moon missions? Those are well known history!"
Celestia smiled sadly, considering that her student may never look at her the same way again. Celestia sat beside Twilight, glancing down at her and said "Surely you don't believe you know more history than we do Twilight. "
Twilight allowed a couple of tears to drop. "No... of course not... but..."
Celestia continued "Neil Hoofstrong was a wonderful actor, and Coltbrick was a wonderful film maker. The films were so well done, almost everypony believed they were real! There were a few ponies that pointed out things like intersecting shadows or the Equestrian flag waving where there shouldn't be any air. However, almost nopony takes conspiracy theories seriously, especially when they accuse me of lying."
Twilight's face turned a darker purple than usual as warmth spread through her cheeks. She closed her mouth and her lips pulled tight and her eyes narrowed and filled with tears as she glared at the other princesses. Twilight trembled.
Celestia placed a wing around Twilight in a gesture meant to comfort the younger pony.
Luna then spoke "When Celestia and I were fillies, over one thousand years ago, almost everypony knew the true basic structure of the world and its moon and sun. Upon my return from the moon, it was quite a shock to find that a different story had been popularized. The error started about half way through my absence. A scientist named Coltpernicus believed he had evidence that our world was a ball that rotated on its axis and circled a distant ball sun. I am certain you are familiar with this stallion from your studies. These ideas were and are utter nonsense of course. When I finally learned of this, I felt the truth should be told and the error corrected, but we can not do that now."
Luna gave a meaningful glance to the stained glass window closest to the dais they were on. The window portrayed sunbeams shining down upon a globe world with a ringed planet in the sky. The window was nearly as old as Coltpernicus' theories.
Twilight followed Luna's gaze to the window, then her eyes shifted back to the princesses. She finally found the strength to reply, her voice shaking with fury. "All of Equestria trusts you two and looks up to you. Most ponies worship you! Why would you lie? Why would you fake this? Miss Cheerilee back in Ponyville, and other teachers believe they're teaching their students how the world works! Rainbow Dash admires our astronauts! Rainbow dressed up just this last Nightmare Night as an astronaut! They are heroes for everypony, but now you are telling me the astronauts were actors? How can you justify this deception?"
Celestia sighed, and pulled her wings back around herself tightly. "Our little ponies are very prone to panic. The griffins were correct in that they are a much fiercer race than ponies. The griffins could probably handle the truth much better than our people could, even though they too would take it very badly. It is in a bird's nature to resist a cage. No wonder that your friend Rainbow Dash, a pegasus, envies and admires the astronauts who are said to have flown highest of all. For better or worse, it is in the blood of most ponies to be fearful of danger, and that includes fear of entrapment. The universe is a much smaller place than you have been taught until now. If they learned of the barrier now after believing for so long there was none, there could be strong negative reactions."
Tears dropped from Twilight's eyes, soaking into the plush carpet next to Celestia's throne., Her ears went back, her teeth were grinding together, as if she were working on a particularly tough piece of hay. "A barrier? Are you saying.... we can never leave this planet?"
Luna answered for Celestia "That is correct Twilight Sparkle, although it is more of a plane than a planet... a vast plane to be sure. There is plenty left to explore, even now. That area, though very large, is limited, as we are in a relatively flat, circular world under an impenetrable dome. There is no such thing as outer space as you have been taught. If there were, surely I of all ponies would know. After all, it was I who began to use magic to paint the dome of the sky at night with the images of stars, hoping some ponies would appreciate the night better that way. Sometimes, stars even shine through the translucent dark parts of the moon when it is not full. Back then, my art work was no secret, but our subjects still had no love for the night."
Twilight's world as she had known it, and even her whole concept of the universe with all its vastness and beauty, was now destroyed by the words of Celestia and Luna. Twilight felt a tightness in her chest and a lump in her throat. "The world is flat too and the stars are all fake?" she cried out. Twilight then screamed as loudly as she could, and the reverberations bounced off of the sound barrier that Luna had set up. The other two princesses winced and their ears flicked back.
Twilight, threw herself against the dome of silence in an attempt to flee, with her wings and forehooves beating uselessly against it as she continued to shriek. Luna's horn stopped glowing, and the barrier disappeared. Twilight trotted off still carrying on, as guards quickly parted to let her through the throne room doorway.
Celestia called out "Twilight!, please come back!"
Luna placed a wing over her sister's back. "Tia, it is best not to stop her. Twilight will accept this in her own time. I do not believe she will tell anypony else."
Celestia looked down at the rich carpeting of the throne room, trying to focus on its patterns, as her own eyes began brimming with tears. She said "I have to trust that you are right Lulu... there's too much at stake to believe otherwise."