Epilogue:
Time was the problem. That was our true enemy. After all, no matter how many times we came together and vowed "Never again," we still ended up forgetting the first word of that statement. And so, "Never again," became "Again" and again and again and again...you get the idea. Why was that?
A child sits upon his father's knee and hears about the pain and strife of war. But the son doesn't have his father's experience. He can't understand the visceral impact of actually "being there." But usually, the father can impress hard enough the feelings of pain and despair that conflict brings. But the son of the son has even less of a chance to understand. If he's lucky, maybe his grandfather is still around to share the story. But the distance between them makes it even harder to impress into the child's mind, what a terrible thing war is. By the time the next generation comes around, it is nothing but a distant memory, a lifeless thing only talked about in dry texts on history and reminisced about by people who can only tell the story second-hand anyhow. Another generation further and war becomes little more than an impersonal story. Eventually, recollection fades and it becomes no more than a fable.
Time eats away at our understanding, with the horrors of the conflict becoming more vague and ill-defined with each successive generation. Eventually, we reach the point where we can't appreciate the price that comes with conflict and we turn back to the things our ancestors swore to set aside. We learn our lesson all over again. And then, we forget it again.
But the ponies found a way around that. With their Princesses, they could have someone around to keep the memory alive, to remind each successive generation of the horrors of war and strife and the despair they bring. And maybe that was enough to keep them reminded that the petty divisions among them weren't worth the bloodshed and agony that comes with true conflict. And so, Equestria endured and continues to endure. For, so long as they have one of the Princesses at the helm, the little ponies won't descend back into that same vicious cycle that dogged them in the millennia that came before.
It was Him, no question. He had been the first to ask the question. What if we had someone like the Princesses? What if we had an immortal soul to guide us, to remember for us, to keep us from repeating the same mistake over and over again? It wasn't power that we wanted. We didn't care that Celestia and Luna moved the sun and the moon. We only wanted to ensure that those who came after us wouldn't fall to the vicious cycle that had preyed on us, as it had the ponies, for countless generations before.
At least, that's what He said. Who can say if He was earnest about wanting to save us from ourselves? I can't. But then again, I don't really care. It doesn't matter anyway, because what happened still happened. Celestia and Luna weren't very willing to share the secret to their immortality, perhaps for good reasons, perhaps not. Again, I don't really care.
When He was denied, He went elsewhere to get what He wanted. Maybe that didn't turn out so well for us in the end. But then again, I'm not exactly unhappy with my current lot. Sure, my body is stuck in a pretty nasty place and He is always threatening to do whatever with it. But I get to roam freely and play around with whoever I like; like this poor sap for example...
Hey, wanna make a deal with me?