My name is Luisa. I am pegasus from Cloudsdale, the Water City. It's called that because nearly all of the water in the Equestrian Empire comes through there. It makes sense, given it's such a rare good and so important, thus strictly controlled. Almost all pegasi in Equestria work in rain delivery. They assure that every part of the Empire gets water, and only as much as they need. Not a single drop more. Of course, the water comes in the form of rain – the most efficient way, since most of the water is used to water the fields. And what about drinking water? Well, there are ways to catch the rain, right? Like, set up a giant container with a giant funnel on top and hope it will catch enough water for the week, because there is only one rain every week, on Sundays. And what if you forget to set it up? Well, good luck for you and your eight-pony family; I hope your souls will find peace...
I'm not kidding. Lack of water is very deadly. The sun, though needed to even live, makes this life very, very hard. Over three fourths of the world is nothing more but endless expanses of deserts where one would burn in sun in the means of four or five days, and die of thirst in thirty hours at the very best. The habitable part of the world is still very hot. Very few rivers and lakes exist, and they are all heavily exploited by water pegasi just to keep citizens of the Empire alive. But it's not the only consequence of hot climate. The other is just as severe – the hot sun dries out all plants at tremendous rate, making crops very small. And to compensate that, more area must be designated for cultivation, leaving nearly no space for anything else – cities, namely. Throughout the whole Empire, there are only nine cities that are more than just aggregation of farms. And compared to farmlands, life in them is bliss. It is because only wealthy ponies live in them. The lifestyle of aristocracy is truly serene. They don't have to worry about food – they all own large plots of land in the most attractive localizations, and water pegasi always make sure to always put a nice thick cloud layer over it so the sun won't scorch it like the property of common ponies. And of course, the aristocracy don't work there themselves – they are rich enough to hire common ponies to work for them, in exchange for minimal food rations (which are still bigger than what they could grow if they owned their own plot of land – those clouds really do make a difference). As for water – though water supply is so limited, there are still ways to bypass it and have as much water as you want, or even more – if you can afford it, that is. And the aristocracy is really rich, so they have no problem with, for example, having baths everyday.
But the aristocracy aren't the only occupants of cities. There is also a decent amount of middle class, who despite not being nearly as rich as the aristocracy, they still have much more money than common ponies. Most of them are crafters of various kinds – tailors, carpenters, potters, jewelers, you name it. They all live from making fancy things and then selling them to aristocrats. Apparently, wealthy ponies like fancy things. But even though it sounds fun, this is really hard work, almost as hard as the work of farmponies. Crafters need to work almost all day everyday, because food is very expensive, and they can't live without food, obviously, so they must make a lot of stuff in order to make enough money to not die of hunger. But at least they have full dinner everyday, unlike the farmlands poverty.
Besides crafters, the middle class consists also of merchant ponies. Merchants' life is probably the most exciting of all ponies (who aren't aristocracy, that is). They spend most of the time buying goods from “their” crafters (the ones they have contract with) in mass amount, and then running trips around the aristocratic manors near town. Some merchants are hired by aristocrats themselves, and in that case their role is to take excess food from them and sell it in the city to those who need it. There are also a few pegasi who run errands between cities. This is very hard job, since the distances between cities are long and the sun is deadly all the way, but also the most profitable – if the wares are not available in the destination town, the price skyrockets. And the competition is almost non-existent. Not that it is a problem to others – the crafters' talents are very good, but at the same time so narrow it is nearly impossible to find two ponies with same talent, if they aren't blood‑related somehow. But anyway, being merchant is good. It is very hard to become one, though, because you have to already have a decent fortune for investing necessary. But when you finally get the business rolling, you're gonna make so much more in very short time! And most importantly, you have much free time; more than farmers can allow themselves, more than crafters can dream of, even more than most aristocrats have! You basically wake up not so early in the morning, barter for few hours before noon, and you're free for the rest of the day.
"Day"... This word always bothered me. What is it? It's a period of time equal to 24 hours. And what is an hour? It's one twenty-fourth of the day. Simple as that. And makes no sense. Why day is this long and not different? Why we have 24 hours and not, for example, 16? And why the midnight is when it is? This is so arbitrary it always made my brain suffer. There is absolutely no difference between midnight and any other time of day. The sun shines all the same, all the time, and never moves. Clouds are non-existent save for those that are made in Cloudsdale, and they can be deployed anytime. Why Sunday? Why is it called Sunday to start with? And why next Sunday is seven days after last Sunday? Why this period is called a week? This is so arbitrary that it makes my head hurt. This just makes no sense. There must be some meaning under all of this. Some cruel truth purposefully hidden from the eyes of common ponies, for an ominous reason.
And one day, I had been offered the answer. Not a straight answer, of course. That would be too simple. But at least it all started to make sense. One day, I had a dream. In this dream, I saw something I have never seen in my life. Before me stood a tall pony. What was unusual in it was that it had a horn on its head, and at the same time there were beautiful wings on its sides. A pegasus, but a unicorn. I knew it was something special; and I wasn't mistaken. The next moment I heard a voice; a voice bellowing in thousand different voices, all in perfect unison. I assumed the voice belonged to the pony before me; such unusual voice could be only of someone just as unusual, and pegasuso-unicorn is unusual. The voice introduced herself as Luna. She said she was an ancient goddess, one who created the world; the very world I live in. She told me the world wasn't meant to be like this. She said there should be a second sun, the sun of cold and dark that would be counterweight to the sun of warmth and light; the sun called Moon. And that she plans on returning the Moon to the world, but she can't do that on her own. She needs help. She needs my help. Why me? I will never know. She promised me ever-lasting glory if I succeeded on my mission. What mission? I don't know exactly. But nevertheless, I did accept her offer. I was sick and tired of the cruelty of our world: the iniquity of wealth distribution, the corruption of nobles, the impassivity of our Emperor. Our Emperor Osiris XII who promised to take care of poor and make life of our nation better; all that he managed was make life of nobles better, of course at the expense of the poorest. I hate him. This is why I decided to rebel and to follow the path Luna showed me.
That day I was also given my cutie mark. I haven't noticed it right away, though, due to its specific nature: it's changing its shape. At first it was simple curved line. Then it became more of a sickle, and it was widening every day. Then it became half-circle, and was still expanding up to the point when it became perfect circle. Then it began shrinking from the opposite end, becoming half-circle again, then sickle and eventually it vanished entirely. Then the whole process repeated. It was my personal calendar of sorts. I noticed that the full cycle lasted exactly four weeks. Each of the quarters of cycle – empty to half, half to full, full to half, half to empty – lasted exactly one week. I knew this cutie mark was a gift from Luna, and that she's trying to direct me to the answers to my questions about time. Although I didn't understand what she was trying to tell me, I had my faith in her.
I spent many months on my journey, and I felt I was getting close to the answer. In the Canterlot Library, I'd found a book where the moon was mentioned. It said something about an uncharted land in the west, beyond the Great Desert. I've gathered supplies and went on my way to the west, not knowing what awaits me. But I hadn't even reached the border of Equestria, and something bad happened. I stopped to get some sleep and have some food, but the moment I fell asleep, a group of ponies had ambushed me. I was apparently being followed, by royal spies. Their mission was to prevent me from fulfilling my destiny. It made sense; if I succeeded, it would mean the end of the world as we know it, the fall of Osiris dynasty, and with it, whole royal court would be dragged to the bottom, and a new order would take their place. This is exactly what I wanted – to make a difference; but this wasn't at all what they wanted. We emerged in a fight. The outcome wasn't too surprising; I was traveling for days, with very little stops, and was running on an empty stomach at the moment; that, plus the fact that I was heavily outnumbered, made it clear that I didn't stand a chance against them. I was quickly beaten to ground, and then... well... they killed me.
* ~ * ~ *
“...and this pretty much sums up the story of my life”, Luisa added.
Before her stood an old stallion. He had a pale coat and long, white beard. He was towering over her, being about three times bigger than her. He was staring at her judgingly, and wasn't saying anything for a long while. To the pegasus, it seemed like eternity. Finally, he spoke:
“This was the best story I've heard in a long time.” He paused, then added: “In fact, the best story ever since I've heard it for the last time.”
A long silence emerged. It was broken by Luisa's abrupt shout:
“WHAT!?”
The stallion sighed quietly under his breath, then said:
“You're not the first pony whom Luna has chosen to free her. Actually, you're the sixth one.”
Luisa stared at him in utter shock and remained still for some time. At her lack of reply, he continued:
“And when I was told it the last time, I already knew it was a matter of time until I would see you here. And I already knew you would fail. And you are the last one who did; the next Champion will succeed.”
If he wasn't who he was, she would think he's just messing with her. But she knew he was dead serious (pun intended). So all she said was:
“How do you know?”
“The prophecy says so.”