Horizon Rising

by Rubystars

Acceptance

A successful movement promoting friendship within the griffin's kingdom had been spearheaded by the young hengriffin Gilda only a year ago. Since that time, the griffins had begun to realize that they could do just about anything they set out to do, if only they worked together in teams. Griffins would always be prone to being prickly, but their culture was changing for the better. There was more kindness, less greed, and a sense of pride in their kingdom and species that had been long absent. It was only natural that, before long, the griffins began to dream of making their nests among the stars.

Aguila and Leon had worked very hard to try to make these dreams a reality. They believed that it would be much more difficult to make this happen without getting help from Equestrian space scientists. Princess Luna also could make it difficult or impossible for them to reach the moon if they set out for it without her permission, considering she could move it with her magic. So far, the ponies had been the only ones to have said they visited the moon. Since all ten requests for cooperation Aquila and Leon had made to the princesses had ended in rejection, they had to come up with a new plan.

The two griffins knew they couldn't return home again with more bad news, or they'd both be stripped of their titles and banned from further diplomatic work after such repeated failure.

Aguila and Leon had no intentions of staying at Canterlot Castle after being treated with such callous disregard by the princesses. The griffins had seen it as a terrible offense when Luna had been so forceful in her words with them and they were not about to spend one more moment in proximity to her or the other princesses at the castle. They went instead to the Canterlot Sculpture Garden to ponder their next move.

"Celestia and Luna do not own the sun and moon. They belong to all of us." Aguila stated firmly as she walked along the packed dirt path between sculptures of various ponies.

Walking beside her, stepping quickly to keep up with Aguila's longer strides, Leon replied "There's no point in making another petition to the princesses for help. The Crystal Empire has been no help either, as even Cadance simply refers us back to the sisters."

They passed the pony sculpture symbolizing victory, a flag held between its hooves with three diamonds was waving in the light breeze. "How Ironic.." mentioned Leon, but Aquila did not reply.

Aguila's eyes narrowed with her fury, the dark blue feathers around her eyes making her expression seem even darker. She looked like she wanted to rip in to the victory pony, but that wouldn't be very good for her beak or claws. Soon after, they walked by a statue of the famed Star Swirl the Bearded, a great unicorn of Equestrian history, and inspiration to the princess Twilight Sparkle.

Leon's mood wasn't the best either, but it improved as the Star Swirl sculpture reminded him of Twilight Sparkle. Leon had made it his business to find out as much as he could about every prominent pony in Equestria, including hearsay and rumors about them.

"Perhaps Twilight Sparkle would be on our side though. She certainly seemed taken aback by the other princesses' stubbornness." Leon spoke aloud.

The pair paused in front of a combined sculpture of the Equestrian astronauts Neil Hoofstrong and Buzz Coltrin.

Aguila again seemed to ignore what Leon had just said, as she gave the stone ponies a deathly glare. She then shook her head fiercely, with what looked like tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "It's useless, much like Cadance. Twilight would want to help us, but she'll never contradict the two sisters. Twilight was Celestia's student for years and probably still feels subservient to Celestia regardless of her own ascension. You heard her today. She deferred to Luna almost instantly."

Leon flexed his claws, considering Aguila's point. "I am certain that griffins are smart enough to figure it out for ourselves, but it would be a much shorter process if the ponies would simply share their science with us. I don't believe that stuff about the 13,000 lost reels of data. Nothing that important would ever just be lost! Luna in particular can make it very difficult if she moves the moon to avoid our rocket, even if we do discover how to build one from scratch. We may not need their cooperation, but we should at least try one more time to get it. Perhaps there is a way to reach Twilight so that she can be our advocate. Rumor has it, she has a crush on a particular stallion in the Crystal Empire"

Aguila's eyes widened. "I didn't expect a nice tiercel like you to be so devious..."

Leon's head feathers fluffed up. "I can be just as cunning as any hengriffin Aguila. Especially when it comes to matters of love."

Both griffins managed a laugh.

Aguila raised her right claws to her beak and rubbed at the underside as she became thoughtful. "Who is the stallion you were referring to?"

Leon answered "It is said that upon her return from her mission through Cadance's mirror, Twilight Sparkle seemed quite smitten with one of Cadance's crystal guards named Flash Sentry. I am not sure if the feelings are mutual, but they may be."

Aguila replied "Perfect. We must meet this Flash Sentry and see if we can use him to get to Twilight."

Leon replied "Just what I had in mind..." He sighed with frustration knowing Aguila was going to try to take credit for his ideas again. In Griffin society, it was said that behind every successful hengriffin was a great tiercel, but Leon wanted to be acknowledged for his own accomplishments sometimes.

Both griffins took off, flying in the direction of the Crystal Empire. They knew they had to accept the fact that Celestia and Luna would never help them without being pressured, but at least they had the beginnings of a plan now.

---

As soon as she was out of Canterlot castle, Twilight began flying in the direction of Ponyville. Tears streamed from her eyes as she rose into the air, and she was sobbing uncontrollably.

Canterlot was primarily a city of unicorns. There were very few total pegasus ponies in Cantlerlot except the weather ponies, the Wonderbolts, and a few tourists, so thankfully not very many ponies had gotten a chance seen how upset she was before she lifted off. She had gotten a few looks of curiousity and empathy from some unicorns on the ground, but only three pegasus ponies had been close by in the sky as she had taken off and they had been too busy moving clouds to bother her as she flew past them.

Twilight knew she had made a Pinkie Promise not to tell what Celestia and Luna had revealed to her... but holding such a huge conspiracy secret was almost as bad as telling a lie herself. Twilight didn't want to lie to anypony, even by omission. Luna seemed to be in the same situation, but she had chosen to keep the secret.

Twilight wanted to make a different choice, but she needed time to think. She allowed herself to breathe more slowly, calming herself. Twilight didn't want to freak out as badly as she did that time in Ponyville where she nearly caused a riot over her doll Smarty Pants. Instead, Twilight flew higher. As she rose, the tension in her body seemed to leave her and her sobbing ended. She was able to think more clearly.

Twilight hovered, looking out to the horizon with her new knowledge. She gasped, coming to a new realization. "There's no curvature!" Twilight was nearly as high as the clouds, and yet the horizon had risen to her eye level, and looked flat. On a globe, the line of the horizon should have dipped lower as she climbed. The curvature would have caused the horizon to fall away in the distance rather than rising up with her.

Since she had gained her wings and begun flying a year ago, she hadn't even thought to look for curvature or the lack thereof. She had simply assumed it was there. Sometimes as she had glanced out to the horizon, she had imagined that the earth was curving away from her, but now she realized that imagination was based on her educational conditioning that she lived on a globe. She didn't want there to be a lack of curvature. She didn't want the earth to be flat, but wants did not determine reality.

Twilight felt a surge of anger go through her. She couldn't be a flat-earther! That wasn't scientific, no matter what Luna and Celestia had said!

"Maybe I'm just not at the right altitude to see the curvature." she reasoned. If only she could fly higher, surely she would be able to tell the curvature was there. Twilight flew higher and higher until the air became thin and she felt light headed. She spun around in the air, looking in all directions. The horizon was still flat, and had still risen to her eye level. She knew now. There was no denying it. That was only possible on a flat surface.

At this altitude, she should have seen some curvature, even a little bit... but it simply wasn't there. "There's no way the horizon should rise to my eye level like this if we were on a ball." she admitted to herself. "With the earth curving away beneath me, I should have to look way down to see the horizon... maybe not even see it at all, just the ground beneath me... but it's all around me!" Fresh tears dropped from her eyes, feeling frosty on her face in the cool thin air. In every direction, she could see the horizon. It had come up with her. On a ball, it would have fallen far below her line of sight at this altitude. She knew she needed to accept the truth of what the princesses had told her.

Twilight allowed herself to drop slowly in altitude, making wide circles and taking deeper breaths as the air got denser. She paid attention to the horizon on the way down. It was always at eye level, and it was always flat. Her eyes began to water again, but she blinked away the tears the best she could.

Twilight began making her way home to Ponyville to ponder her new knowledge. On the way, she came to another realization. "I can fly straight.... I don't have to correct for the curvature! If I were on a globe.... I'd have to keep dropping in altitude to account for the earth curving away beneath me." These were things that should have been obvious to her before, but she'd denied the evidence of her own senses because of what she'd been taught was scientific before. "Rainbow Dash thinks I'm an egghead, but... I'm the most stupid pony ever! How could I have not seen this before?"

"This is how things are..." Twilight thought to herself. "This is reality. I don't have to like it... but it's the truth. I have to believe the observations I've made with my own eyes."

Twilight was relieved when she finally got home to her castle. "Maybe I can get some rest at least."

Spike, her small dragon companion, greeted Twilight with a hug as she entered the castle. "So Twilight, how'd the meeting with the griffins go?"

Twilight choked up again... but managed to return Spike's hug and mumble something about griffins being persistent.

Spike could tell something was wrong, but decided not to press it. "I made one of your favorite foods for dinner Twilight, that will help you recover from your flight."

Twilight perked up a little. Dinner could be nice and relaxing as she came to accept the new reality that had been revealed to her. "Really Spike? What is it?"

Spike grinned happily. "Pancakes of course!"

Twilight squeaked in horror, leaving Spike feeling confused.

Author's Note:

I don't believe in flat earth myself but I thought it was a good plot for Equestria. I also don't agree with flat earther's horizon argument but in this story, unlike real life, it's valid.

This video shows what their argument is with regards to the horizon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmQO-YSrdBE

Comments

[new55]

That was interesting I wonder what will happen next.

[Rubystars]

11164585
Thank you! I'm going to try to keep working on it. I do have a full time job and other things to do so it is difficult to keep up... hence the long gap from chapter one to chapter 2, but I'll definitely try to get them out sooner than that!