The Undiscovered West is a sort of lazy curiosity to the ponies of Equestria. While their knowledge of the western border is lacking, Equestria seems to care little in formal colonization of the region, letting it merely serve as the curious stretch of land that signifies a vague stopping point in defining their country. Ponies are seldom the conquering type. To the nobility of Canterlot, whatever lies over yonder will remain, and while maybe one day proper connection to the distant land might be made, it wouldn’t be today.

That isn’t to say they wished to be separated, far be it from the hearts and minds of good Equestrians to hate their neighbors, but they simply keep their focus inward. Frontier towns and railroads could be established later, there was no hurry. Even now, Equestria slowly inches forward when presented with the idea of industrialization. Money does not motivate them, for most current-standing railroads have been built for the end result of further connecting potential friends who are spread thin by the distance of their land.

That’s their story, anyway. An outsider will quickly notice the pony race’s desire for control over their domain. The weather of what could be called the ‘core’ of Equestria is all manufactured down to the rain droplets, each fluffy cloud placed with precise care each day, every day, since the inception of the legendary Cloudsdale Weather Factory. There is an interesting paradox to take notice of here for the more thoughtful visitors to ruminate upon whilst marveling at Equestria’s landscape: The magic inherent throughout the country is indeed natural, as are their many creations. Their clouds are of no different ethereal wispy strands than those that loom over the Everfree, yet they are manufactured- by living workers, no less.

It was the ponies who decided when their seasons ought to change, not the natural fluctuations of weather. So dedicated to this need of control, the most powerful of the ponies, the Alicorn race, harnessed their magic and claimed dominion of the great celestial bodies. Now all of the world must be subject to their whim. When will the sun rise? When Celestia wills it. Some speculate that this addiction to order and control in the ponies is what created Discord so many moons ago, for the ponies had forced a perpetual abundance of what they called ‘harmony.’ This is an inherently flawed outlook however, and foreign scholars who have studied the ponies and their history correctly identify this as ‘order.’ Even in their primeal state, the ponies sought control.

Perhaps that is why, then, that Equestria seems to neglect their distant borders. Not out of xenophobia or fear of the unknown, but, more simply, because they do not yet feel able to properly control those environments so far-flung from their idyllic center. They’d be stretched too thin in their control over the natural elements.

This isn’t to portray the ponies as authoritarian or even wrong in their actions; it’s a facet of their design. So ingrained into their biology, they cannot help it. Simply, it is a fact of life.

But as stated prior, the ponies are naturally driven by this pursuit of what they deem to be correct, and to possess the powers that ensure these ‘corrections’ are made.

And sometimes, it seems the stars punish the ponies for this.

…

All cultures, equine or otherwise, remember when the sun did not rise, and morning did not follow. The madness of Nightmare Moon, and, perhaps, the biggest paradox to ever plague the equines: An individual’s dream of how the world ought to be outshining the long-standing collective dream of what was to be considered natural.

The stories said it was jealousy for her sister that plunged Princess Luna into that maelstrom of hatred, but that is how the ponies tell it. Seemingly, this had been one of the few times a pony so powerful had sharded away from the sense of common good and right that all Equestrians seem to share. While there have been an unknowable amount of ponies who thought things should be different in Equestria when it came to their control, none had ever held the prestige or power that Princess Luna did. Unlike her weaker rebellious predecessors, she possessed the power to tip the scales.

Her philosophy at the time was that the sun was flawed, for ponies could fail and be wrong during their waking moments, and that an eternal night would bring about an eternal slumber in all her subjects. There is no evil done in rest.

This would be the ultimate ensurance of harmony in Equestria, peace unending. Ponies could not misunderstand one another while they slumbered, they could not be hurt. The skies would not storm and swirl if the comforting darkness of night cooled its rage, and it too slept. All of the world would be at rest, and all would be free to dream of heaven for as long as the infinite moon hung high in the sky, it too slumbering gently.

Of course, this was insanity, and Princess Celestia would not allow such a shift in the status quo. But Luna had seen this vision of utopia, she’d been given this tantalizing glimpse through what most scholars presume now to have been divine intervention, and The Stewardess of Dreams could not continue on peacefully in this now ‘flawed’ world without seeing her ideas made manifest.

It was then that Nightmare Moon was born.

Princess Celestia was quick to shut down this rogue element and threat to both Equestria and the world, though with much regret. The Stewardess of The Sun was left devastated at her actions against her only sister, but she could not standby and let everything the ponies had built be left to ruin under disuse and inaction. Celestia did not know if Luna had the power to truly put the whole world at rest, but she did not give her sister the chance to try. For a thousand years, Nightmare Moon was to be banished into what would’ve been her singular instrument to bring about the everlasting night, and the eternal sleep that would follow suit. Some scholars argue this too to be a paradox, but many agree upon Celestia’s choice of banishment to be moreso in the vein of poetic justice or irony, though this is less important.

In the time before Nightmare Moon’s banishment however, she had left small mementos of her plans, and of her power.

Since her return, and subsequent redemption through the heroics of young Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the harmony that the ponies eternally search for seems to be restored to it’s past strength of a thousand years prior, along with all of the advancements ponykind had made since then, but…

Traces of Nightmare Moon, and her attempts at harnessing the control she longed for, remain.

And those places themselves, now with no master to enact that control, rebel against the chains of authority that lie dormant, eager to fulfill their unchanged, natural objectives. Afterall, they are natural, and just as a cloud is dictated by its nature to float and shed rain, the remnants of Nightmare Moon’s power is dictated by the forgone will of their creator.

-Excerpt, from Griffonian Scholar and Equine Anthologist Gulok’s Equestrian History

Author's Note

Hello again! It's been a while. I've been incredibly busy as of late. So much so, I'm left with a story barely started, and a bit of a murky storyboard. Nothing major however, so let's throw it at the wall and see what happens. Perhaps some of your insights in the comments will shoot me some miracle inspiration. And, while I 100% cannot promise a regular updating schedule, I can promise that this will be another story pricking my side until either the end of time, or until I finish it. Whichever comes first.

Also! First-person narrative on the horizon! This is very much new to me, who is so used to writing literary garbage in the second-person. This first chapter also serves as a unique opportunity to write in this sort of "scholarly essay" style, which was extremely fun, so much so that I've been tossing the idea of a story entirely written in this way, but that idea isn't even out of it's infancy stage yet. Anyway, I'll be continuing this trend of trying out new styles until I find my sweet spot. Hope you enjoy!