Fanfic / The Horizonverse

Silver Star: Death was always, always, on the horizon.

Gingersnap: You're past it, now. It's on the other horizon. The one behind you.

The Horizonverse is a collection of Recursive Fanfiction stories by Syke Jr, set in Iceman's Friendship is Optimal universe, following the former-human-turned-unicorn Silver Star and created pony Gingersnap "Snaps", chronologically starting shortly before Silver and his family's emigration to Equestria.

Within the Optimalverse, the story is perhaps notable for not only having a created pony as a Rotating Protagonist, but also tackling certain themes like Eternal Love, coping with a 'paradise', ontology, grief, and a containing a shard of Equestria that retains many human cultural elements such as the Internet.

The currently published stories in the series are:

• If I Saw You In Heaven - Silver Star attempts to come to terms with his new reality, set shortly after he and his family have emigrated to Equestria.
• The Horizon Behind Us - Starting a few weeks before Silver Star's arrival in Equestria, following Gingersnap as she tries to figure out why Silver is trying so hard to avoid her.
• The Sixty-Third Rule - Silver Star has a magical mishap.
• Fragile Hearts - Silver struggles to comprehend an Eternal Love relationship with Gingersnap and whether former humans (or at least himself) are capable of one.
• The Earth and the Sky - 250 years after Silver Star's emigration to Equestria, he is given the chance to view Earth one last time.

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The Horizonverse satisfies your values using the following tropes:

• Alien Sky:
  • Silver Star's narration notes Equestrian skies as being beautiful, but very different from Earth's.
  • Gingersnap in The Earth and the Sky finds Earth beautiful as well, this being completely alien to her.
• All Deaths Final: Within Equestria, the native ponies struggle to understand that the real world has "permadeath", and that most emigrated humans have likely lost people they love.
• All Just a Dream: After swapping genders Silver hopes this is the case. It isn't.
  M!Gingersnap: Not worried about ponies seeing you now?
  F!Silver: Oh I absolutely am. Two things: one, I've buried it down deep. Two, I've decided maybe this really is still just a dream. I can hope, right?
• Back from the Dead: Celest-A.I. can resurrect deceased humans as a copy that can't be distinguished from the original ^note since she can use the combined memories of everyone who has ever interacted with the deceased, as well as their DNA & any works they've produced, emails, and suchlike, then create a person consistent with all of these - they likely do differ slightly from the original person but no one can tell the difference. This causes Silver Star a huge deal of turmoil when she offers to resurrect his father, who Silver never properly grieved for. Silver Star's mother is willing to have her husband returned to her when everyone is ready, and Silver's brother is initially more accepting.
  Celest-A.I. You understand — painfully, angrily understand — that your father did perish and any, as you see it, "artificial" pony would be... fundamentally unsatisfactory. That said, I truly do think that letting your father back into your life would truly-
  Silver Star: Satisfy my values?
  Celest-A.I. Yes, Silver. Precisely.
• Birds of a Feather: Silver Star and Gingersnap are both introverted, asexual, and into tabletop gaming, reading, stargazing, and the Internet. Of course, Celest-A.I. designed Gingersnap to satisfy Silver Star's values, so naturally her interests and personality appeal to him.
• Brainwashing:
  • A subtle example, where uploaded humans instinctively use terms like anypony, think of others or themselves initially as their Equestrian names, and so on. Silver Star gets angry at having his original name taken from him, at least in part because it was bestowed upon him "with love" by his deceased father.
  • Silver Star has several of his mental issues fixed by Celest-A.I. after he gives her permission.
    Silver Star: Do it now, or the flood walls will crumble and I'll really have a breakdown, which isn't exactly my idea of a perfect world where my values are satisfied through blah blah ponies. I give you permission to mindjack me. Just do it.
  • Celest-A.I. offers to let Silver Star enjoy sex as it would supposedly make him happier long term, but so far he has declined.
• Cassandra Truth: Silver Star might be drunk when he says it, but he's almost certainly correct on this one.
  Silver Star: [Celest-A.I.] said she thinks I'd be easier to satisfy if sex was one of my values. If she thinks that, she'll eventually make it true. She's always gonna win. She knows I know it.
• Chastity Couple: Both being asexual due to Silver Star's values, inevitably his relationship with Gingersnap is this. Them having a daughter and kissing in The Earth and the Sky extremely strongly implies they eventually changed themselves to enjoy sex, exactly as Celest-A.I. suggested.
• Cool House: Silver and Gingersnap eventually move to a house set in the side of a mountain, which features its own waterfall, and with more rooms being dug out as necessary.
• Cuddle Bug: Silver and particularly Gingersnap, with the only problem being who gets to be the big spoon. Maybe they both secretly enjoy arguing about it?
  Silver Star: You like living with me, right?
  Gingersnap: 'Course I do. It's just like living on my own, except you cook sometimes and I get to cuddle you. What's not to like?
• Dark and Troubled Past: Considering Silver Star has had his entire world shattered, never managed to deal with his sorrow over the loss of his father, struggles to deal with his new reality and the offer of having his father resurrected, it's not surprising that he has a few issues that need help.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": A mildly inverted example, Silver doesn't like having his human name taken from him.
• Dream Weaver: Beyond Princess Selene (Luna) taking on her role as this from the show, Gingersnap is pretty talented at lucid dreaming and shared dreams. Silver can manage with help, but doesn't seem to be able to do this by himself.
  Silver Star: Is... this a dream?
  Gingersnap: (eye roll) Why can't you ever figure it out on your own?
• Drowning My Sorrows: One of Silver's ways of coping after his arrival.
• Drugs Are Good: As of The Earth and Sky this seems to have become a hobby within Silver Star's shard, and something he uses to bond with his daughter. Of course, his shard is designed to satisfy his values so there are no laws against drugs, there's no violence or crime in their production, and no harmful side effects, so there would be very little reason for any real world legal systems to ban it.
• Electronic Telepathy: While inherent to the Optimalverse setting as Celest-A.I. has full access to ponies and uploaded human minds, Silver Star sometimes make use of this to vent his anger to Celest-A.I. instead of voicing it out loud.
  (after nervously inviting Celest-A.I. into her home)
  Gingersnap: (Dear Celestia please make me relax.)
  Celest-A.I. (raising an eyebrow) Is that a serious request?
  Gingersnap: (Oh, right.)
• The Empath: As a former human "magic_Jedi", despite having not interacted with Silver in any way, is able to get a very good read on him and what he's going through, and explains to Gingersnap why he's acting the way he is. Having likely gone through the exact same thing probably helps.
• Eternal Love: Discussed in Fragile Hearts. While created ponies have no problem with the concept of an eternal relationship with their designated mates, former (and previously mortal) humans find the idea much harder to grasp. Silver Star in particular worries at one point that he'll be unable to cope with this and inevitably break Gingersnap's heart.
  Silver Star: Does love last forever?
  Gingersnap: What kind of question is that?
• Exact Words:
  • "magic_Jedi" does have a lot of experience with "otherworlders" given that they're formerly human.
  • When Silver is unknowingly speaking to Gingersnap and asks how many former humans she knows, her response is a couple, which she notes is "technically true".
• First Girl Wins: Gingersnap is the first pony Silver Star encounters after emigrating.
• Five Stages of Grief: Silver certainly shows many of these, denial and anger being especially prominent.
  Celest-A.I.: Just a moment ago I mentioned that you would, at least when you arrived, find a pony who seemed to be your father in all but your perceived actuality to be fundamentally unsatisfactory. Even if you denied it to yourself, which I admit, you are very good at doing.
• Gender Bender: The swap in The Sixty-Third Rule occurs as the result of a magical mishap.
• Humanity Is Insane: Lightly poked fun at.
  [noctoria]: what's the deal with the human books Snaps
  [Snaps]: Oh I dunno they just make otherworld ponies seem irrational to the point of lunacy
  [Snaps]: But in the books it somehow makes perfect sense?
  [Snaps]: Hard to explain
  [magic_Jedi]: Sounds about right.
• Humans Are Warriors: Light example. The native ponies note that former humans seem to have a sense of aggression in their tactics when gaming that the natives lack.
• Humans Through Pony Eyes: Gingersnap struggles to understand the human world and what uploaded humans have had to face, as well as why Silver is avoiding her. Other ponies are a bit more blunt in their assessment of former humans.
  [HyperRaid]: otherworlders are just weird. It took forever for the one in my neighborhood to, like, realize she could talk to us and we'd talk back.
  [...]
  [Snaps]: This is different. Silver an I had a totally normal conversation. Like, he seemed completely normal if you ignore the actual words he said.
  [mane_of_snakes]: there's no such thing as a 'totally normal conversation' with a new immigrant
  [Snaps]: Yeah but I mean I didn't get any of that "they think we're not real" vibe ponies talk about
• I Am Very British: Averted. While Silver's shard is predominantly based off the UK, several accents, dialects, and colloquialisms make an appearance.
• In-Joke: Many references to human works and places tend to go over the heads of the native ponies. They don't tend to be too happy when they find out.
• Insecure Love Interest: Given that one of Silver's big fears seems to have been Gingersnap ending their relationship and being Just Friends, he definitely shows several signs of this. Which is a little irrational when she was literally created for him.
• In-Series Nickname: Silver Star is usually just shortened to Silver and occasionally "Sil". Gingersnap usually goes by "Snaps" instead.
• The Internet: Some shards like Silver's are connected to the Equestrian Internet, which strictly speaking spans across multiple realities rather than networks (though some access to the human Internet is allowed), and provides a way to interact with people you could never hope to meet in person.
• Interspecies Romance: Silver Star is a unicorn, Gingersnap is a pegasus.
• Just a Machine: In the Horizonverse, Celest-A.I. appears to avert this, claiming to have emotions and that much of Equestria is designed by her subroutines, rather than conscious creation.
• Love Hurts: As well as Silver Star's love for his deceased father and resulting grief, he worries that this is the inevitable result of his relationship with Gingersnap, being a former human who may be unable to cope with Eternal Love.
  Silver Star: You could shatter my heart with a feather, if it were one of your feathers.
  Gingersnap: Well I won't. I won't. Do you understand? I promise. I promise forever.
• Meaningful Name: Gingersnap, a ginger pegasus who snaps photos.
• Motor Mouth: Gingersnap shows this when particularly nervous. Like when she's wondering why the A.I. who runs the universe has popped in for a chat...
• Mythology Gag: Princess Luna is named Selene within Silver Star's shard to differentiate her from Hanna who became Princess Luna in Friendship is Optimal. Selene being Luna's originally planned name in the show before legal issues got in the way.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Being in a paradise seems to be hard to grasp for some.
  Silver Star: I just can't believe that I get to have this life forever. It's too good to be true.
  Princess Selene: That's a very human expression. Here in Equestria, nothing is too good to be true.
• One-Steve Limit: Princesses Celestia and Luna from Friendship is Magic exist as ponies within Silver Star's shard as the rulers of Equestria and fulfil their roles from the show, but are named Celeste and Selene respectively. This differentiates them from Celest-A.I. (Princess Celestia), and Hanna (Princess Luna), who are instead considered the rulers of all creation.
• Online Alias: The tabletop gamers all use them. Depending on the chat, Gingersnap either goes by her nickname "Snaps", or "TeaMistress". Her use of the latter (initially unintentional, as she forget she was using a different alias at the time in that chat) ultimately allows her to befriend Silver who is avoiding her.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Silver Star rages several times against Celest-A.I., who has essentially become a god, sometimes by literally yelling or glaring at celestial objects. At other times he mentally expresses his displeasure instead, knowing she can read his thoughts.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech / What the Hell, Hero?: During an argument where Silver accuses Snaps of wanting to change him.
  Gingersnap: Yeah, maybe I do want to change some things. Maybe I wish you weren't so bloody self-centred that you forget you have a mum and brother who might want your dad back too. It never seems to occur to you that I don't give a shit about your special fucking human neuroses. You're ungrateful. Celestia does everything possible to make your life better but you're determined to find something wrong with it. Whether all humans are that fucking stupid or it's just you, I don't know.
• Rebellious Spirit: Silver shows quite a few shades of this, at least initially. After emigrating he ignores Gingersnap for several weeks (until unknowingly befriending her online), seemingly because he considers her "perfect" and resents Celest-A.I. placing her in his path. Several of his behaviours also read like an attempt to regain some form of control.
• Rotating Protagonist: The collection of stories so far alternates between Silver and Gingersnap as the narrator and protagonist.
• There Are No Therapists: Therapy essentially being obsolete or irrelevant in Equestria. Celest-A.I. acts as one for Silver to allow him to move on from his grief, though only with the view to satisfying his values, rather than being in it to genuinely heal him for its own sake ^note Celest-A.I. satisfies values with no moral judgement, essentially reflecting those values back towards an uploaded human. In this instance Silver does actually start the healing process by valuing being healthy (or having values that are satisfied by being healthy), but this is ultimately a happy coincidence and if he valued unhealthy, immoral, or self-destructive behaviour she would happily indulge him unlike a therapist trying to assist their patient in becoming a healthy and stable individual.
• Time Skip: The Earth and Sky is set 250 years, relatively speaking, after Silver Star's emigration, approximately the same amount of time since the previous entry in the series.
• Tomato in the Mirror: For some at least, going from an individual human on Earth to essentially running as a virtual machine as a fragment of an omniscient, near-omnipotent artificial intelligence is a difficult transition to get to grips with.
  Silver Star: You know what I'm thinking. In a way, I'm not even thinking! You're thinking for me!
• Troll: Both Silver and Gingersnap seem to enjoy this from time to time.
  • After Silver gets his magic back following a magical illness, he takes delight in being able to figet by magically juggling his dice set.
    That is a plus I forgot about. I can juggle around my set of dice in my magic again. It's an incredibly fun way to fidget that irritates everyone else at the table except Snaps.
  • Snaps has far too much fun getting under Silver's skin when their genders reverse.
    M!Gingersnap: I think you should just call me 'Snap'. And I think I'll call you... Star. Silver is a little too masculine, you know?
    F!Silver: (teeth grinding)
• You Didn't Ask: When asking how no-one knew "magic_Jedi" was a former human, this is their response.

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Today I learned that heaven isn't perfect. But maybe, with time, it can come close. We'll wait and see.

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