Unwholesome Unification
Some things weigh heavier on the conscience than others. I know this from my moon rising and setting on the world countless times. I know how my actions have shaped the people around me, and how they have failed to do so. The echoes of my decisions rippling far and wide have defined my kingdom. In many ways, it has also defined me. The choices I've made and what I have done have largely stopped mattering in my long absence from the earth. Soon though, they are due to matter once again.
So much has changed since I was the one making decisions. So many things that seem lost in the sands of time; things that I have held strongly in my mind even in these thousand years. The memories that have weighed on my heart and mind alike. Nobody was around for those memories besides my sister. We are the sole living vessels for antiquity to our subjects. In many ways, we run away from our past. In a scant few, we revel in the history books that we originate from.
In my heart, I was seized by a horrible sensation one morning. Like a boulder laid atop my chest, the emotion wrung the wind out of me and left me panicked. My waking dreams were haunting me once more. Keeping me up far into the day. In the spaces of idle thought, those memories that haunted the dark corners of my mind had been creeping back. Like a thousand undying echoes of the past whispering faintly into my ears, haunting my heart.
I roused from bed, eager to occupy my mind with anything that could save me from these thoughts. Intrusive and undeniable, they gave chase. My hooves led me to my desk. There had to be something to help me. This wasn't the first time I had been gripped by these feelings. Inevitable as gravity itself, it would not be the last. My mind raced for what to do. Escape from these mental shackles was all I desired. No amount of wine and gourmet food could save me from it. They sped my mind in its race to escape these thoughts, but my endurance was limited. The ghosts of my past would always return.
Spending my days in study was likewise, futile. The first spare moment to grace me would be tainted with a poison that would leave me in the same spot I currently was. To run away from this was a task akin to a titan pushing a boulder up an endless hill. All my effort and progress was nothing, as the first moment of weakness would send me rolling back to the bottom.
My sister wasn't one to talk about these things. I couldn't trust her to properly hold audience with me about these matters. She would brush them off with the same consolations-- as she always did. Consolation wasn't what I wanted. The shackles chaining these emotions to me weren't to be broken by forgiveness. I needed someone to be honest with me. Someone that would be honest about their feelings for the past which I would describe to them, and the actions taken by both me and my sister.
My mind reached out and clung to one pony... the most logical choice in my mind. Someone that most in my position most likely would never turn to about such a matter. I wasn't looking for anyone that would be unoffended by the past however. I was looking for someone that would tell me how they truly felt.
Foregoing sleep, I ordered for my company to be escorted to me post-haste. By noon they arrived in Canterlot and were escorted to me. A tap at my door signaled their presence. Using my magic to relocate myself instantly, I opened the double set of doors to reveal an orange farmhand. She did not wear her typical hat in such a formal situation, though I did not expect her to treat it formally. She was worthy of standing in my presence in her casual attire in my mind given her standing.
"Ah, Applejack, please come in. It is quite late for me... however I am more than happy to welcome you."
She strode into my tower abode with a look of interest written on her face. Her green eyes flicked to the bookshelves, and the map of the stars emblazoned on the ceiling. Then the intricately patterned carpet beneath our hooves. The doors shut on their own behind her, and I made sure to slide the door bar across to ensure our privacy.
My horn glowed softly, drawing the shutters and curtains tight over the windows. The candles on the circular coffee table were lit at the center of the room. I had a seat on the couch on one side of it, while motioning for Applejack to have a seat opposite me.
"Anytime, Princess Luna. I heard this was urgent though. What in particulars am I going to be doing for you? I don't know how much I can help but I sure as well can try."
In my mind, I had pictured her perhaps questioning this situation. It made sense after all. However I instead shook my head and replied to her questioning in a matter-of-fact tone. Keeping a lid on it until she had made herself comfortable.
"This is not a matter that can be solved by... how to say, direct action on either of our parts. Instead this is only something that can be solved through a discussion I wish to have with you. If you would like to have a seat, I could fetch some tea with my magic, and we could begin. It will be a lengthy talk. I'm not sure what state our friendship will be in afterwards either."
The mare blinked, her eyes fixated on me as she seated herself. A tea kettle appeared between us. I took the time to let my words sink into the air. It would properly set the tone. What was to follow wasn't casual conversation. Heavier in its subject than even the usual things talked about in the courtrooms in the castle. To break the long pause between us, she spoke.
"That... sounds like it's certainly something important Princess Luna. Are you sure that you'd be okay talking about it with me? Whatever it might be."
With a nod I set our teacups down on our respective sides of the coffee table. This was a conversation that had to take place between me and her. I had made up my mind on this.
"I trust you with this Applejack. I do request you keep it a secret however. I treasure your input as the Element of Honesty. You may address me without my royal titles for the duration of this visit, as well."
For a moment I could see the hesitation on the humble mare's face. However she replied after a pause.
"Of course Luna. This'll stay between us. Whatever it is."
There was a small release of tension from my body. Those were just the words I wanted to hear before we got started with all of this. Surely soon she would not be of the mind to properly be addressing me as royalty anyways. It would help somewhat... though it was but a small help. Steeling my nerves, I began.
"In that case, Applejack, I want to talk to you about the past. About things that happened a long time ago. Long before you were born, and long before anyone you know was born. In ages past. Specifically about how things used to be. About how things are, as well. About the history of Canterlot, and how it came to be. About myself... and my own past actions."
Long ago there was a sentiment in my mind. In every magical creature's mind, about those not gifted with the ability to perform magic. An inherent feeling of being something greater. A higher being that was set apart from those incapable. Unicorns and alicorns could lift far beyond our body weight with hardly any mental training. Catch fast flying objects flung towards us with little difficulty. Handle machinations that required dexterity far beyond the capabilities of hooves. Other equines were practically crippled by comparison in capability.
In our minds, this sentiment made sense. It enabled us a sensation that we were the rightful bearers of a power that we could bend to our will and shape the world around us. It was our burden to do so, for no other equines could. We forged ahead in studying magic, the mind, physics, mathematics, and the deepest secrets the world had to offer us. It was a glorious time for us. In our arrogance we believed ourselves the rightful rulers of everything.
Nobody in those times trusted a unicorn besides those that had been around one. There was a deep seated suspicion of magic. Nobody trusted those that wielded it due to a very inconvenient... and harshly true fact. Nobody could be trusted to use their magic in an ethical way. The rights of others was something that was sang from the rooftops to most at those times, but in practice it was more a suggestion. A vague and non-binding suggestion. A small magical glow around a unicorn's horn was enough to send most ponies running away, and leave them wondering what had been done to them weeks after.
There was a feedback loop. Ponies did not trust unicorns for fear of their autonomy being violated. Unicorns felt the only way to properly get anyone to comply was to do so. Scholars of magic figured it as the cost of being gifted with greater power. That we would naturally be mistrusted with such things, as after all they did not understand what it was like to be a unicorn. To wield magic itself, to have our ideas of culture and way of life, was to have magic. Every bit of our lives was defined by it. Our progress, our supposed enlightenment, it all hinged on magic. It was our right to use it as we saw fit. We were forged in magic and nobody could stop us from using our gift to shape the world with it.
Quietly over the years, using magic upon non-unicorns became acceptable. It started with things such as law enforcement. Pacifying a lawbreaker via magic became normal. Soon enough things such as debt repayment could be magically be forced to occur, it did not have to happen on the indebted party's terms. They could be compelled to do so, even if it crippled them financially. Soon altercations could be defused with magic with immunity granted to the one performing the defusal. Pacifying and removing the agency of the conflicting parties was completely warranted according to the law.
Unicorns, naturally being precluded to most mental tampering with minimal effort, were effectively immune to these things. These legal points only effected earth ponies and pegasi. These measures slowly, over time, became the cultural norm to use magic on them for a multitude of things. It was fine in the eyes of the unicorns, which viewed the other equines as resistant to basic reason otherwise. The last nail was put into the coffin of the other races' dignities one late summer. An amendment to Equestrian law was passed in Canterlot, and the entire kingdom. This decree, penned by none other than myself, effectively gave most unicorns in a position of authority over a non-unicorn a legal excuse to exercise magic on their subordinates to ensure ruliness and cooperation.
Students, the indebted, hired workers, assistants, foals, and more were all legally allowed to have magic exercised upon them 'within reason' as the very vague law stated. To state that this statute was abused was truly to make a mole-hill out of a mountain. A long seventy years passed with this mandate in effect. It bred the most paranoid and fearful parties that the kingdom had ever seen. Over time the innumerable abuses of this were swept under the rug, but they were scarcely forgotten despite the best efforts of those that benefitted the most from the arrangements. For naturally within unicorn society there were regretful parties, who began to feel the situation particularly unpleasant.
It was only a lifetime later that at last it all came to a head. A unicorn scholar was caught duplicating her memories, mentality, and personality into her students, resulting in tremendously high marks and her ascension to being one of the most beloved teachers of the time. However, upon her morally bankrupt acts being revealed, she simply stated she was within her bounds by the local court. After all the earth ponies of the town she worked in sent their foals to her to have them shaped into proper citizens of the kingdom, she was obliging. Even if it meant causing immense mental and psychological damage to the identities of developing minds.
This was ruled to be within her rights after being taken to the high court of Canterlot, leading to a complete outrage sparking across the kingdom. The dominoes that had been set up over a lifetime of unethical treatment were starting to fall, cascading into one another towards the end of that era of unicorn exceptionalism. Ethicists within the unicorn courts at last made themselves known and stood against this ruling. In the coming years, the mistreatments of the present, and the past, that the other equines had to endure at the mental command of unicorns came to light. Finally a decade later the revision was made to Equestrian law once more, and all ponies were precluded from any act that would 'violate the mental, physical or emotional autonomy of another, regardless of race.' This included many smaller laws regarding thousands of fringe cases revolving around magic, and a specific ring of courts to be set up to investigate magically perpetuated crimes.
"Wait, wait wait." Applejack said, her face contorted into a knot of confusion. "I've never heard about this none. Not in history books, not in class, not from anybody. Not even Twilight talks about this."
My mind fastened on this, and I figured that made a fair bit of sense. It wasn't as if my sister would be keen to allow others to simply light upon something that in the end could cause a lot of lingering hostility towards unicorns even in the present day. It'd probably be better in her mind to eliminate any evidence of these things so that the citizens could live harmoniously, without that shadow lurking on them. However I felt differently, so I answered the orange mare honestly.
"The records have been expunged from all but the Royal Archives, which only a scant few ponies have access to. Including me, Celestia, and Twilight. Though I doubt she's gone into the deeper sections... one can read for a lifetime in there. Keep in mind this was over a thousand years ago... it was much simpler to get others to forget over a couple generations than it is today." I explained, and upon seeing her face still somewhat confused, I decided to state why this probably occurred.
"Celestia most likely saw the lingering records of unicorn abuse of magic upon the other Equestrians as an obstacle that prevented true harmony among the citizens. What she most likely did... was slowly eroded the records of it over a few generations. Removing it from books, history classes, and so on. Until those that had lived with it were long gone and the memory had faded from all living memory. Then completely expunging it from history within the next couple decades after I was gone, leaving nobody but herself with the information I am imparting unto you, and a couple dozen books in the royal archives."
The response from her was one that I mostly expected. First an expression of slow curiosity... then of annoyance, then of suspicion. Her tone of voice clearly reflected it too. She was truly the Element of Honesty.
"So instead of having people just accept that it happened a long time ago, but still let it be as a lesson to all of us here today, she swept it all under the rug?"
In my mind, I had expected almost precisely that response. She would want clarity and earnesty in this rather than being misled even if it was with good intentions. I decided to console her, but in a manner that would lead the way into what I wanted to address next.
"In a lot of ways, I enabled the issues of what happened so long ago... and I feel no end of guilt about it. My pen passed many of the laws that caused the situation to begin with. So while the public forgetting about these things is firmly the responsibility of my sister, the actual misdeeds perpetuated under those statutes are to be traced back to me. I enabled this. A lifetime for most... under laws I now firmly regret creating."
My guest looked at her tea, clearly having lost her thirst for my refreshments.
"I'd be willing to forgive, if I just could understand where you were coming from, was all." She pondered.
Forgiveness wasn't something I expected. Earnestly it wasn't something I wanted. With another sip of my tea, I set the cup down on the coffee table once more. I decided I would explain the general mentality that unicorns had at the time. The justifications that were put forth for what had occurred.
In the era that Equestria was formed, pegasi were still nomadic, and earth ponies were content endlessly performing the same cycles of agriculture. Nothing had changed for hundreds of years of their way of life. Unicorns in the meantime had been plucking away at their birds for quills, filling books in an effort to push the natural born gift of their magic further. Object manipulation was a parlor trick. It was what was truly possible with it that they sought. The capability to reach beyond the physical and pierce the veil of the arcane.
My sister and I were always partial to unicorns. We were enamored with their spirit and willingness to research. We would lend them our ancient wisdom and observations, as well as our hoarded scrolls from ages long since past, in exchange for development of magic. This came with many unintended discoveries, such as advanced mathematics. Soon basic chemistry followed as well. Education was made mandatory for our citizens. An educated populace arose in the city-state.
While pegasi still wandered the north of what would become Equestria for decent hay, Canterlot was developing into a glowing testament to our progress. With our discoveries we pushed architecture further than ever before. As the castle itself was in the middle of being reconstructed, a final breakthrough was made. A reliable manner of performing magic was discovered. Not specific to an individual or a cryptic cave scribbling of a hermit who perished long ago. True magic that couldn't be explained by physical means... but instead only obeyed laws. Eluding even the basic rules of science, but complementing science's basic principles.
By this time my sister and I had claimed Equestria as our own. The earth ponies of the new kingdom had little issues with this. They were quite literally being handed education, medicine and more in exchange for a share of their crops, which they had more workers to plow the fields than ever thanks to mortality rates dropping drastically. The pegasi were a harder sell, but eventually came around to the idea. However they were wise to question that the effective ruling class were only those that could use magic.
As unicorns began mingling with the other Equestrians it became clear how far apart we had drifted socially, and culturally. It became blindingly obvious to even a foal that they distrusted us in positions of power. They would accept our medical breakthroughs, as well as our education in matters of science and mathematics, but the changes that came with us governing them oftentimes led to unicorns being run out of town. If they were lucky, of course. Some had their horns taken off by those that deeply disliked unicorns as a whole. Taxes, the concept of banking, and changing their ways of life to be more like our own weren't on the table in the minds of most, but in the minds of certain groups, actively hurting mostly innocent unicorns was justifiable.
This couldn't stand for long. There was quite literally no way it could. We all but demanded that earth ponies adopted money instead of trying to trade us food or tools that were useless to us, as well as cease their assaults on ponies that were simply going about their obligations. The population grew to a point where the earth ponies had no choice but to adopt our farming methods. We taught them this with the implication that they would have to bend and start to use money. This didn't happen, until at last I personally gave a written order to a scholar of magic to convince, by any means, a few of the elders in an earth pony town that they needed to cooperate. This worked at last, but under the mental influence of magic.
The precedent was set, and this was done with the stubborn settlements of earth ponies all around Equestria soon enough. Those that vehemently refused to pay taxes or to educate their foals would have their mind swiftly changed. Soon enough, however, an even great tension arose. They began to catch on. Nobody who had been exposed to a unicorn alone could be trusted. But it had been decades of modernization for these ponies. Unicorns accepted crop shipments, managed growth reports, did a census, educated foals, ran libraries, doctors that absolutely had to be trusted, and more. They couldn't forsake all of that.
So things settled into a deep seated tension, and behind our backs most earth ponies cursed our names. Pegasi were thankfully much more easily brought to sway, adopting what was at the time modernity. Their tendency to accept shortcuts and be eager to save energy played well into modern life. Even with their sometimes fiery temperament they at least could be reasoned with. Earth ponies however were almost completely obstinate. Stubbornly refusing to change despite constant encouragement and later demands.
The stereotype perpetuated itself in unicorn culture that an earth pony was an archaic, mule-ish creature that hated creature comforts, education and reveled in their own ignorance. This was after all the experience that most had with them, given the sheer amount of mistrust earth ponies had towards unicorns. Earth ponies had similar views the other way around. That a unicorn was an easily swayed, flighty being that felt entitled to circumventing hard work through their natural gift of being born with a horn. They saw Canterlot as a monument to arrogance and magic as a tool that would almost always be abused to force them to change.
Things began to consolidate despite the earth ponies digging in their hooves. They paid taxes, gained educations, used modern farming techniques, and elected local officials that worked alongside representatives from Canterlot, who were almost always a unicorn. What they did not know is that practically every single pony we selected to collaborate with this local elected official was very well versed in mental manipulation magic. Personally as a princess I trained hundreds of these representatives to govern in a manner that was consistent with Canterlot styled values and decision making, and made sure they would enforce that on the local official they were assigned to manage.
All around improvement marked the coming decades. By then unicorns were somewhat commonplace, though of a generally higher class than earth ponies. Pegasi tended to be more than content being middle class in Canterlot and running errands, having fully adopted the Canterlot culture. Though unicorns still saw them as a firebrand, it was an embraced and positive relationship between the two species. Where earth ponies were to be controlled if one was to get anything out of them. Among lawmakers, lawyers, and scholars across Canterlot, most were in agreement that use of magic to enforce behavior onto an earth pony or a particularly unruly pegasus was ethical. Especially considering the improvements that had been made since we adopted these manipulation policies.
We traveled headlong down the slippery slope and were happy to ride it to the very end. A vast amount of the magic that tampers with the minds of others originates from this era. This is due to the fact that we openly experimented with it on non-unicorns, oftentimes without them even being aware. The sheer amount of manipulation that could occur was astounding to us. It gave us great glimpses into how the mind worked. We kept pushing to go further as the printing press finished development, and now papers and books could be pushed out by the bucketloads.
Within the next few decades even public facing scholars, educators, public officials and more began to ponder the idea of unanimously allowing mental manipulation, to ensure cooperation and harmony in the kingdom. After all, if everyone got along then and the means weren't violent or damaging, it was fine. The sentiment was enticing considering how modernizing a majority of the population was dragging onwards ever so slowly. It came to a head whenever I stood in a courtroom one day, hearing a case that had occurred in a large farming town.
A pony had burned down an entire granary in protest of 'being made to use a contraption they had never seen before I have to pull day in and day out.' Though negotiations were had with them that they could give up farming if they wished and do something else, they took that as an even bigger disgrace and insult. They vanished into the night and by the time they were found again, nearly a year's supply of food had been destroyed.
When I heard their testimony before me, all I received was stubborn pride justifying their actions. I stared them in the eyes, lit my horn and made sure that they'd be content managing, reporting, and tracking the town's food supply for the rest of their days for coming close to starving their entire town for the winter. I did it without hesitation, and it convinced me that there were a fair few situations that yes... mentally tampering was much easier, less violent, and simpler than any other punishment and could be a second or third route of action if initial demands or negotiations fell through. The scholars I called peers in my magical studies were right.
Not even a few weeks later I signed the amendments to our laws permitting such things to be used when authorized by courts. It became commonplace to settle payment disputes and violent behaviour this way. The wider reaching implications of this however became clear soon enough... as the road paved with good intentions led us elsewhere. Personal misuses of this permission by authorities became immensely commonplace. Over a lifetime it insidiously permeated every aspect of Equestrian life that related to unicorns.
Eventually it all culminated into the event with the prodigious unicorn scholar mentally altering her students to adopt her mindset and habits to make them successful. Formerly blind to these misuses in my marble castle, isolated from the issues of the earth ponies, I investigated deep into this culture of manipulation, magical abuse and prejudice. Me and my sister repealed it unanimously after things proved to be heating to a flash-point. Some schoolhouses in parts of the kingdom were being burned, and a fair number of unicorns in rural areas had gone missing... we needed to act and had a will to do so.
Applejack stared into her drink, having arrived at room temperature a few minutes ago. Her normally bright green eyes seemed to have faded to a moss tone in the dim starlight that shone from my ceiling. It was mid-afternoon by that point, but the curtains kept the room dark. Silence reigned. It felt like she was trying to read my words for anything that would govern the context of what precisely I wanted out of this engagement. Our eyes met. Tension sat heavily on both of us. At last, she spoke.
"What was the point of telling me all of this, Luna? Just to get me mad at you?"
I shook my head slowly. Of course that was not my intentions at all.
"Negative. I intended for you to simply be informed, and to talk to me about your thoughts on this. It is also why I had you swear to me that this would not leave this room. As your word binds you more than any other."
"Well, obviously, I think that it's awful. Everything about what you just told me was just awful. What the unicorns did, what you did... what the earth ponies did to some of the innocent unicorns. I never heard about any of this. I never thought about the idea that a unicorn could do any of that. It... makes me sorta anxious."
My eyes searched her face. Perhaps, this was what my sister had acted upon. That sense of anxiousness that Applejack was confessing. It made sense after all that I had revealed to her. The idea that such things had occurred, and the idea that the capacity lay within ourselves to do such things again. Based on tribalism and preference. She stared up at me, as if she expected me to console her about these feelings. It was a consolation that I wasn't about to give.
"Such things are far in the past... I don't know how much we've changed since then though. Technology of all types have set many on equal footing with those magically gifted. Great thinkers are just as often earth ponies as they are unicorns these days. However it remains ponderous how much it's all truly changed. I don't know if that comforts you at all, however..."
She looked back down into her drink. Quietly, she set it aside. Her next words weren't so expected.
"I can't tell anyone about this, can I?"
For a moment, I pondered the thinly-veiled request. I decided that I would allow her a small freedom considering the weight of these revelations.
"You may tell Twilight and Rarity."
The young pony met my eyes one last time before taking her leave of me. Her expression wasn't lost on me however. She was wondering why I had instructed her to tell only them if she did reveal this to others. The answer was double-edged. She was less likely to tell them if she was truly deeply effected in her friendship with unicorns... and Twilight and Rarity would be the ones to be most tied to this news considering the horns upon their heads. Twilight most of all. How they'd react, I had no idea. I simply knew that it was the clearest course of action in my head at the time.