Why Equestria looks like such a great place to live

I've been having some thoughts recently about some of the things that initially drove me to write fanfiction. My interest in MLP has wavered in the last year, but I still find myself passionate when it comes to writing A Dream of Sunny Days. Finding the answer to that was fairly easy: I absolutely love the setting. Writing a good utopia is very difficult, mainly cause a perfect society doesn't mean life will be perfect. In fact, every society has flaws and the possibility of being overcome by those flaws, which is the essence of what I wanted to do with Sunny Days. Today though, I wanna talk about why Equestria seems to be such a great place to live.

I'm going to limit myself to elements found in the show's first two seasons. I won't touch the comics or fan interpretations. While I do believe that the quality of the show severely declined after Magical Mystery Cure, this isn't the reason why. My goal here is to analyze the initial world building, and I think that the team behind the show changed to the point where a good chunk of that initial vision is now gone.

The first element that grabbed my attention are cutie marks. I remember that first CMC episode as the big point that made me realize this was more than just an entertaining cartoon. Unlike other kids shows where the characters are shown living in some friendly little town where everyone likes each others, we had something unique that actually explained why ponies seemed generally happier than us normal people. They have a clear sense of purpose. How many of us struggle with finding our place in life? How many of us settled for a job we didn't like because it was expected of us? How many of us even took the time to consider what we want to do with our lives, ignoring the expectations of others?

Now, imagine our same society, except that everyone in their early teens gets some magical tattoo the moment they find the one thing they're both great at and love doing. Imagine that society embraced it, and finding a job was as easy as showing off your tattoo, maybe answering a few questions about it. Obviously, Equestria isn't that clear-cut. Some marks are a bit more symbolic than others (Twilight), or might lead to an entry-level job before the true talent can be explored (Rainbow Dash). On the other hand, you do get cutie marks that are pretty clear-cut (Applejack). Let's not forget that they're not just a symbol of a pony's job. They represent their essence. Rainbow Dash would never have gotten this cutie mark if she didn't have it in her to work her way up and push rainclouds around for a few years before she got her big break.

Not only do the ponies have a strong sense of individual purpose, they also have a sense of community and social responsibility imposed by their environment. Winter Wrap-Up is the perfect example of that. Everything needs to be managed by the ponies themselves, from animal migrations, to the weather, to the changing of seasons. They are equipped with the natural tools to do so, but also need to work as a community. Again, their individual talents come together like a well-oiled machine to manage their world.

That's not to say that conflict never happens. People are still people, but the overall objectives are there. They just don't have this option of isolating themselves, as their entire society depends on teamwork. At the same time, because they have a sense of individual purpose, they all end up doing work that's suited for them. This is something that not enough of us find: the sense of both making the world around us better and doing something we love at the same time. People who are really great at what they do are often like that. Think about teachers who really make a difference and stay after school to help strugling students, or when you deal with some government agency and find the one person working there who really tries to help you rather than just blindly following the rules. Hell, think about the people who share their artistic vision with the world.

I have no idea if the purpose of cutie marks was to create a utopia based on the knowledge of self. Based on other smart but subtle elements of the first season, it wouldn't surprise me.

There are still parts of Equestrian society that seem flawed. They seem to live under an antiquated caste system, for example, with a nobility that does very little. Although in fairness, Blueblood was a one-off joke character, and pretty much everyone in Canterlot seems to act like they're part of the bourgeoisie, rather than a select elite. (Those of you who read Sunny Days can see I've taken artistic liberties here.) There's also the very obvious question of the monarchy, although Ponyville does seem to have an elected mayor. My personal theory is that Celestia is more of a protector than a ruler, and Equestria is essentially a coalition of city states, but I don't really have proof to back that up and make it anything more than a personal interpretation.

In the end, it's still a kids show limited to 22 minutes episodes. Still, I think they caught on to something, and it might be one of the reasons why so many people latched on to it.