Brand New Life, It's A Glorious Day

The voices of Celestia and a stallion echo faintly down the hallways of the castle, audible to almost anypony around. In the middle of the hallway is Celestia, talking to a light brown stallion dressed in a typical chef's outfit, but with a few noticeable differences, the gold trim which indicated that he was the head chef for royalty. A truly wonderful title to be entitled with.

"Oh! Very well then!" Said the stallion. Strangely, it was said not with the usual 'upper-class' accent that everypony of Canterlot commonly had. Instead, it was merely an average accent from nowhere specifically important. A slight touch of Manehatten was in it at times, but that was all.

"As for the theme of tonight's dinner party, my princess?"

"Hmm... Surprise me!" Celestia said with a wink.

The stallion reacted with a face of surprise. He was caught off guard, but then smiled excitedly.

"Very well then my princess! I won't fail you!" He shouted before he started galloping down the enormous hallway.

He then ran through a white door, disappearing into the royal kitchen, and in no time, the sound of the cookware clanging, multiple hooves shuffling, and his voice shouting orders to the other chefs filled the hallway.

Celestia smiled at the stallion's antics, and slowly walked down the large hallway, followed by the slight echo of her gilded shoes. It wasn't like she had somewhere to go. As she walked down the hallway, the bright sunlight shone through the stained glass windows, leaving a variety of shapes and patterns of different colors allover the floor. She looked at the patterns and observed its beautiful array of colors, admiring its brilliant glow. She always enjoyed as much as she could from life, even if was something as simple as scented pine cones, or as complex as a beautifully well written orchestral piece.

At the end of the hallway a giant open gate led her to the Castle gardens, the bright sunlight instantly gleaming into her eyes, causing her to squint a bit until her eyes readjusted to the brightness.

"Oh my, has it been this long since I last stepped outside?" She said to herself, followed by a lighthearted giggle. She then sighs. Most of the time, making humor to herself worked. Now, it just wasn't working its magic.

Celestia then begins to wander slowly around the beautiful patches of flowers, observing each and every blooming rose, sunflower, carnations, lilies, and almost every other flower you could imagine. She suddenly stops, and looks more carefully into a certain patch. A small hummingbird was flying around in the inside of the patch, feeding itself.

"Ohh my, aren't you just adorable!" She smiled. In an instant, the startled hummingbird quickly flied away, disappearing into the distance in just a few seconds. She looks into the same direction that the bird flew away into, and dejectively sighs.

"Such fun you must have... To depart whenever you wish, and fly wherever your heart desires."

Celestia simply remained there and continued to look towards the same direction, lost in her mind for countless moments, imagining how wonderful it'd be to explore, and discover many new things.

Many looked upon her as the wisest of all, and the most knowledgeable of all ponies. Well, it wasn't a lie. She was indeed the wisest, and most intelligent of almost everypony. But, of course, there was always a start, even for the most wisest and intelligent of all ponies.

Celestia then giggled as she began to recall her memories during her early days as a princess.

They were absolutely the most stressful days she ever encountered in her entire life, and the two alicorns were merely beginning to grow out of their fillyhood. Still having a fresh young mind, ready to learn much more, she had no clue how to be a princess, and the same for Luna. Starswirl the Bearded was their magic mentor, up until then, and simply became their royal court mage afterwards.

On the first day, Celestia and Luna sat on their thrones, jaws hanging, as they stared at the endless line of ponies who stared back, waiting for their problems and questions to be solved and answered. Needless to say, it was an utter catastrophe.

She chuckles a little more, still smiling after reliving those days.

In her early youth, she never would've imagined she could end up becoming who she was today. The incredible range of problems... and questions. Goodness. You would think that the royal sisters would go mad after a week of dealing with such an incredible variety of problems that should've been dealt with by more than just two royal alicorns. But miraculously, they didn't. Instead, she listened to them all, and with patience and love, slowly began to learn. Through many mistakes of her and her sister's suggestions, and many years later, the two sisters slowly began to build their wisdom, slowly seeing the way how problems worked, and the solutions to them. As society began to evolve, so did their wisdom and intelligence. But then, much more came along as time went by. More than just mere problems and questions.

It wasn't the simple 'how do I harvest the crops?', followed with their answer 'with tools that you must create, my little pony' anymore. It was much more. Then came the deep problems. Such as the complicated workings of emotions; sadness, anger, jealousy, and so on. And the management of economy. Oh, and how could they forget about politically dealing with the other societies, such as the Dragons, and Gryphons?

As ponykind began to get smarter, and more aware (thanks to the two alicorns themselves), more new problems arose. Some ponies began to have conflict with each other. Problems weren't so simple anymore. It was day one, all over again.

Afterwards, a few centuries passed, and the two royal alicorns slowly began to get their recognition as true princesses. That was when they began to be recognized as 'goddesses' from there on, from the seemingly endless knowledge that they had learned throughout their time, and incredible wisdom. All of that, used to solve and stop problems and conflict that ranged from simple disagreements, to huge, chaotic situations, such as Discord, and the multiple wars that they expertly avoided with other societies. From there on, they were then looked upon truly as the royal princesses they really were, and not two clueless ponies that had a fancy horn, and powdered wings.

It was all a very interesting experience. An experience that would never be felt again, to learn from life, and the many challenges it exposed to her. She felt that she and her sister were at the peak of their lives, and she was prepared for everything. Or, so she thought.

Until it came. That single, insignificant, stupid doubt.

She had an incredible amount of knowledge, and the wisdom that an average pony would never have in their lifetime. She learned everything that a ruler could possibly know, from advanced magical theory, to agriculture, to social skills, to life, and the list went on. Yes. It was all clear.

Wait. No.

No?...

That specific word rang in her mind. Life.

Maybe what she knew about life was wrong? She began to doubt herself. Doubt, which slowly turned into fear. Fear that her subjects would then lose their faith in her, and begin to disrupt into chaos, for their princess was wrong about everything this entire time. They wouldn't know what was right or wrong.

She was overreacting of course, but still being in her early youth (speaking for an alicorn), she was well aware that she wasn't exactly a 'thousands of years old, ultimately wise and almighty' type of princess just yet, but a mere approximate six hundred years old. She knew well enough that there was occasionally room for a little error, but still being how she was at the time, she resumed to overreact.

In her mind, now that all of her beloved subjects looked up to her and her sister, she needed to be prepared for any possible question, and situation. So onwards she went, to both satisfy her curiosity, and to be prepared for anything that her subjects would need help with. But what? What could it be? She needed to be prepared for anything. What about life could she possibly be wrong about?

Wait. No. Perhaps she wasn't wrong afterall. Yes, she was indeed correct about life this entire time. Maybe, she was just missing something about it? That had to be it. She quickly came up with a simple idea, and decided to review her knowledge.

Celestia's smile then slowly faded, as she remembered that very moment.

She decided to simply observe what went on throughout her subject's lives. Couples, colts, fillies, foals. Then some individuals. Carpenters, scholars, bakers, farmers, and so on. The farmers farmed, and the bakers baked. Obvious enough, since she had taught them all those skills centuries ago, and their ancestors passed down those skills through the many generations of their family. There had to be more than just that? Have things truly remained the same over all this time?

Celestia paid even more attention, everyday as they walked by her castle grounds, pondering through the many streets of Canterlot. They sleep, eat, relax, play, socialize, work, study, and much more. It was nothing new, and once again, obvious. Then, with a little more focus to details, Celestia saw more than just that.

She learned something.

Celestia sighs in frustration, clearly hinting a bit of regret aswell, and continues to recall her memories of what happened during those times.

She observed for many days, weeks in fact, and finally found what she wanted to know. But the odd thing was, what she found was certainly not new. It was just that she always had passively ignored these things.

Families would go out together, and participate altogether in an event called 'camping'. Some individuals would go and practice for 'sports'. Some adventured out of Canterlot to experience the 'outer lands'. Or 'travel', as they would say. Kind individuals reached out a hoof in their own time, and helped the unfortunate. Some ponies, pegasi in particular, would get together and participate in an activity called 'racing'. Two ponies, each of the opposite sex would go out together on 'dates', in order to get more intimate. Ponies with many friends would invite them all to gather around, and have 'parties', and the list went on.

She ignored all of these trivial things her entire life, never paying much attention to it, and never even bothered to analyze the significant meaning behind it all. It was simply because all these activities brought happiness to her ponies. She assumed that if it brought happiness and joy, then there was no harm being done at all, so she left them to continue what they enjoyed to do.

Although, this time she was on a search for a more significant meaning behind it all. She thought that it may somehow give her more knowledge on life. What frustrated her though, was the fact as to why she was trying so hard to find a significant meaning for something so simple. She knew the very purpose to it all, it was to attain happiness, and joy.

Then, it felt as if somepony placed a bucket over her head and smacked it with a shovel.

Of course. The significant meaning behind it all was nothing more than just that. For happiness and joy. She was simply overlooking it, trying to find more to it when there wasn't anything at all.

Of course, it was so simple all along. How would it be fun to be locked in a room all day, not having a moment to breathe and relax after a week of hard labor? To enjoy the fruits of life so you could balance all the negativity that life always gave?

Suddenly, what she had just said in mind, instantly slapped her across the face. 'To be locked in a room all day, not having a moment to breathe and relax'.

Celestia's entire life had consisted of just that. She always had to stay and attend her royal duties. To deal with politics. Economy. Law and Order. She had always done it all simply for the love of her ponies, but once the idea sank in her mind, it was true. She never had a moment to relax, let alone breathe.

She never had a moment of time to herself.

At first, she thought nothing of it, tried to ignore it, but it quickly came back to her mind, and continued to bother her. The idea dawned upon her. She began to slowly want some of that freedom. To enjoy life, and relax for a moment.

But over the years... it gradually went from being a small wish, to something else...

Celestia shakes her head, as if it would help get rid of the memories from her mind, and slams her right hoof down into the ground in frustration.

She began to atleast try and enjoy life, by getting involved with her subjects. It always would be futile. She had royal duties to attend to, and it would always cut her short from spending time with her subjects. She would try to invite as many of her ponies as she could into her castle for small parties, dinner, anything. Once again, all of that being futile thanks to her royal duties.

Over time, it slowly sank into her mind that her status as princess was getting in the way of her life. Over that same time, it sank into her mind that she didn't want to experience life just to 'fit' into its description anymore. That was just pointless. She, in fact, wanted to experience life because it then became her desire.

It was no longer something she tried forcing upon herself. She saw over that time that trying to experience life by forcing it wasn't right at all.

She learned that life was something beautiful, and you could only let it happen.

It was fun, exciting, fascinating, enthralling, scary, confusing, sad, adventurous, heartbreaking, perilous. It was many things. It was a roller coaster that had ups and downs, and always had something in store for you.

It became her absolute, deepest desire.

She wanted nothing else more than to atleast have a taste of life.

Of course, being a princess was a part of it, because helping her subjects was what she truly enjoyed doing. She loved everypony, and wouldn't trade her spot as being a princess for anything. Yet, the frustrating part was... being a princess was the only thing getting in the way between her, and her new desire.

Celestia raised her hoof up in the air, ready to slam the ground under her again out of the same frustration, ready to explode. But she simply let her hoof flop onto the ground, causing nothing but a small cloud of dirt to stain her golden shoe with a dark brown smudge. She simply sighs, and wipes her left eye with her hoof, removing the tear that was waiting to fall.

"No Celestia..." She said to herself, slightly choking.

"Be strong."

She closes her eyes, and begins to breathe in and out in a slow rhythm, attempting to calm down. The white alicorn remains there, her eyes closed, and posture firm, as she begins to meditate.