I guess we've always been unconsciously striving for a utopia, Princess Celestia the most of all. Every so often, she would send a pony to Ponyville to gain friends. She was so pure, Princess Celestia. That's all I can remember from personal accounts. Even my little filly self recognized that, so pure that she was otherworldly. Wise, and mysterious, and pure.
That, and the one time Princess Celestia visited Ponyville. She was sitting in her carriage, serene and beautiful, her pastel mane flowing behind her and smiling in that soft, knowing way of hers. Princess Celestia was turning her head, waving and laughing at the cheering, rambunctious crowds around her. I stood by the side, cheering along with everybody else, swept up in the contagious air of excitement. I was a filly then, young and peeping out from between my father's legs. Celestia turned and for one second, our eyes met. She gave a smile and turned her head. It was just for a second, but that moment was engraved in my mind forever.
Six months later, Her Highness's face was plastered all over newspapers and magazines, the news in big bold print: Princess Celestia was sick. Nopony knew what to do, nopony knew what to expect. Were celestial princesses like Celestia supposed to get sick? What was she infected with? Was it contagious? What would happen if she died? Where was Princess Luna? For another torturous six months, we were barraged with updates on her unidentified sickness that the best physicians & doctors of Equestria couldn't heal or even help a little. We were held in tensed anticipation. Schools were cancelled for weeks, important meetings postponed-even villains held off their attacks, probably busy conjuring plans of world domination once Celestia died.
And then it came. That dreaded, unpredictable day. I guess that was what really scared us the most: the mystery of that cursed sickness. How quickly would it take for her to die? How could it be healed? What did it do to your body that caused that yellow saggy skin, those hollow eyes, that shriveled mane and tail? When and what was the final stage (for it seemed to go through stages)?
It came for a shock to everybody. I mean, everypony knew, deep down in their hearts, that Celestia had a very very very slim chance, so they were expecting it. What they didn't expect, was exactly how important Celestia was. The whole world seemed crippled for a whole year after Celestia's death.
And then Princess Luna. We all knew she had a bad history, a history never blurted out, but instead whispered. The Princess of the Night. I always kind of sympathized for her-it isn't her fault she was chosen as the Princess of something ponies are naturally afraid of. It wasn't her fault that she never quite radiated as brightly as her older sister, kept tucked to the shadows, just the mare that raised the moon.
She was the one that rose to power after Celestia's death and the first time I saw her, still just that little filly between her father's legs, I thought that she looked grief-stricken and exhausted. Her large eyes drooped a little bit more than usual and dark bags hung under her eyes. She seemed to hang precariously between the past and the future and she labored over her speech, sometimes stuttering out words from older times. The very next day, newspapers were stamped with Luna's face, proclaiming that she was suffering from "extreme fatigue," "depression," and "heavy grief." Some even proposed the idea of lunacy
By the next year, Equestria seemed somewhat recovered and Luna was back on her feet. She seemed more assertive than Princess Celestia, striving for something greater than peace and harmony. She wanted prosperous, she wanted advanced, she wanted peaceful, she wanted perfect. Just as I had moved out from my dear parents' house and had gotten a nice little condo a few blocks away from the quaint little bookshop my parents owned, right next to a coy pony named Fluttershy, the quest for utopia began.
It wasn't the previous hints, unconscious references, or tries. This time, she faced the situation head-on, proclaiming to the world that their newest and most important goal was to create a utopia.
You can imagine the tabloids.
Many ponies laughed, but it was the nervous kind, the one that dies off to thoughtful contemplation.
I didn't even waste time laughing, I just continued on as best as I could. I guess you could say I was an author-I wrote fantasy books. Not the kind that Fluttershy's friend, Twilight Sparkle reads-not the magic books the purple alicorn ambitiously pours over, no, these were leisurely books, books that should be read for pleasure.
Surprisingly, the advances after that were quite successful. Princess Luna started taxing us-taxing! Where in Equestria had she gotten such an idea? But I forked over my bits just as every other pony did, trusting that Luna would put good use to it. And she did.
First were the trees. Gardeners and botanists from all over Equestria were summoned to Canterlot, where they entered the castle. For a month, nopony heard from them and even the Royal Guard were clueless on what was going on. Everypony was perched on their seat in the curious way that ponies do when following two celebrities' divorce. Observant and conjuring up theories but not really stepping in.
A moon-phase later, plants suddenly appeared in front of our homes, for ponies that don't live near the forest as well. Even inner Canterlot was decorated with beautiful trees and blossoms. The very next day, Princess Luna stepped up and gave a speech, encouraging us to plant more plants, to take good care of them and to not litter.
The strangest part of this were the botanists and gardeners. They came back different-peppy, too happy, too eager. Even old surly Sicily Radish became optimistic and almost chatty.
I was a little suspicious. Sicily Radish, chatty? Everypony was, but nopony was complaining.
After that, more and more changes came, faster and larger. Soon, everypony was swept up in the idea of utopia. It always seemed just out of reach, everypony striving for one united goal. Nopony questioned the Vanishings, the Conversions anymore, except for the Skeptics yet even they were becoming slowly less doubting. Of course, these names were dubbed by the Skeptics themselves (groups and names for groups of ponies create rivalry within a nation, says Princess Luna.)
And now, I sit here in a nearly perfect world, watching the world around me change, yet again.