History Part II · 6:32am Jan 17th, 2014

The Founders of Equestria
Headcanon incoming!
Be warned. Wall of freaking text.
Art by: Emkay-MLP

The Hearth's Warming story is of course well known to the denizens of Equestria, however it suffers from the fact it is the summation of several years worth of history compressed into a few hours. I particular, the presentation of the 6 founders tends to be fairly skewed, with most plays showing off mostly the positive traits of Clover, Pansy and Cookie, and focusing mostly on the negative aspects of their superiors. This has left the public with a somewhat unflattering impression of three very central figures of Equestria's founding. These next two posts shall provide a closer look at all of Equestria's founders, and their roles in forming a nation out of three tribes that largely couldn't stand each other, starting with the 3 leaders.

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Princess Platinum
Often seen as the least sympathetic of the founders, and usually regarded as an example of every negative stereotype the unicorns are given; this is largely due to how it often seems that the unicorns, especially the nobility, seem the most well off of the tribes. Assuming any distinction is made between unicorn nobility and their peasantry, which often is not shown in the plays. This usually forgets the context of the time period. Platinum largely looks bigoted and above it all by modern standards. At the time, she was considered somewhat progressive minded, in that she at least considered non-nobility and non unicorns as actual entities, if inferior (to her mind). It is also worth noting that Platinum's attitudes shifted towards a more progressive mindset as she got older, especially after Equestria's founding. The events of the Hearthwarming plays is a very pivotal moment for Platinum, much like the other two leaders. Further more, at the time of those events, Princess Platinum was not the legal leader of the unicorns. That distinction was held by her father, the king.[1] While little information survives regarding the king, it is known that he genuinely was an example of just about every nasty thing anyone could say about unicorns and royalty. To the point that the only thing that kept an uprising in check was Platinum's own efforts.
Princess Platinum is known to scholars for being highly intelligent, and more than a little conniving. She would often "review" her father's proclamations, and edit them so that they would not be as damaging to the realm before issuing them. She was also the kingdom's main diplomat with the other tribes. This was mainly because the king insisted only royalty could function in that capacity, due to fact diplomats would make decisions that would affect the kingdom, and no other tribe would remotely consider dealing with the king himself. For the first summit, both the earth ponies and the pegasi specifically requested Platinum to be the unicorn representative. Her relationship with Clover the Clever was a close one, especially in later years, when Clover actually began reciprocating her friendship. Platinum trusted Clover a great deal, and during her time as reigning sovereign, Clover was her most trusted adviser. This stemmed from the fact that Clover was often her only real companion growing up, being the daughter of Platinum's chambermaid. Though the more cynical among us may note that Platinum, who did have a tribalist streak throughout her entire life, may have favored Clover as she was a powerful magician, and thus represented what she believed the unicorns were superior for.
Her biggest role in the founding of Equestria also was what saw her elevated to the position of Queen. When Clover, Pansy, and Smart Cookie had drawn up the charter for the singular government, she knew that her father would never agree to it, and as it required the signature of each of the tribes leaders, Platinum finally engaged in a plan to remove her father from power. To her credit, she was so successful in gaining the support of the nobility and the unicorn royal guard, that the king was forced to abdicate without struggle, making her coup completely bloodless. Her speech before the grand assembly in particular, is so famous that it has been the subject of more than a few works of literature itself.

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Chancellor Puddinghead.
If Princess Platinum is often seen as the least sympathetic, then Puddinghead is most always seen as the most. Once again, this stems from the highly abridged nature of the plays, which often seem to imply the earth ponies were little more than serfs, or even slaves, of the pegasi and unicorns. This was not exactly the truth. On the whole, the food provided to the other tribes was not tribute, or a tithe, at least not technically, but simply payment for services rendered. In general, both tribes were aware that the jobs of weather control and the moving of celestial bodies are as vital for their own survival as much as the earth ponies, and also required for the production of food. The food they received in in exchange, in turn, was known by the earth ponies to be necessary in order for the other tribes to continue doing their jobs. They just wished the other tribes would stop being so sanctimonious about it. The forceful attitudes and lack of respect given the earth ponies engendered a strong resentment towards the other tribes, and Chancellor Puddinghead was known for being very openly bitter about the need to provide the other tribes with so many resources. This, combined with her generally quirky personality and jovial attitudes made her a popular leader, but that same resentment, combined with her stubbornness often resulted in more butting heads than was necessary. It's not to say the earth ponies were not entirely justified, and many historians agree by the time of the Wendigo's arrival, they were taking significantly more than they required, the earth ponies were not being forced at spear point either. Another thing to consider about Puddinghead's leadership was just how much she relied on Smart Cookie. Like Platinum towards the king, Smart Cookie often had to spend a lot of time trying to get Puddinghead's head on straight for nearly every decision she made, only for the chancellor to take full credit. This largely saw a decline in the year or so after Equestria's founding, before Puddinghead stepped down and Smart Cookie was elected to the position. That said, Puddinghead was also very charismatic, and was often able to direct the sometimes fickle natures of the earth ponies towards policies that may not have been popular, but necessary. Smart Cookie often praised Puddinghead's ability to unite a crowd, saying "She had an uncanny ability. She could take anything, literally anything, and get a crowd to adore it. Without her, it is likely our ponies would never have agreed to ratify [the founding charter]."

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Commander Hurricane
Brash, impulsive, arrogant. These are all words that describe Commander Hurricane. Idealist, naive, optimist. These are words that are generally not associated with the pegasopolian commander, however, in her youth, she embodied all three. The commander was born a commoner, to a family without even a proper surname. She joined the pegasus military as soon as she was of age, as all pegasus ponies did, and quickly took to the pegasus military philosophies. Honor, duty, honesty, camaraderie, Hurricane lived and breathed them, and joined with her natural aptitude for fighting, she rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a sergeant during one of the frequent border skirmishes with griffons that were so common at the time. During one engagement, attempting to stop a raiding party attacking an earth pony farm, the captain of her regiment was killed by a lucky arrow shot, and the demoralized pegasi were nearly overwhelmed. Hurricane, desperate to salvage the situation, launched a surprise attack at the griffon's own commander, and to the surprise of quite literally everyone, the lowborn pegasus overwhelmed and defeated a griffon elite before his own soldiers even knew what happened. The tide turned in an instant, and the griffon's were routed. Hurricane returned home a hero, and in an unusual move, was given her name, and made an officer in the army. One thing that stood out about the engagement however, was the earth ponies the griffons had attacked. The slaughter of the family was something that stayed with Hurricane, and Hurricane came to see the pegasi as protectors of the other races. For a time, Hurricane actually saw an improvement in tribal relations, due to her zeal in protecting earth ponies from the depredations of others, however, after she became commander, she started to come under an attitude shift. Generally attributed to her vastly different responsibilities as the leader of the entire pegasi tribe, wherein she had to prioritize her own ponies needs over others, she begin to become more belligerent in "claiming what was their due" for their protection of the other tribes, and the manipulation of the weather. The weather especially, as weather ponies were ponies that were not fighting. By the time of the wendigos, the young idealist was long gone, at least seemingly. It was always wondered why Hurricane invested so much onto Private Pansy. Some speculate that Hurricane saw a younger version of herself in Pansy, but no one knows for certain. Certainly, she trusted Pansy, and when the private brought the charter to her commander, Hurricane signed it without even bothering to read it. Notably, this resulted in several challenges by high ranking pegasi officers, who did not like the new government. Those that survived did not continue to complain.

Okay, this ran kinda long, so I will split it here, and do the other three later.

[1]His name has long been lost to history. Some claim it was King Mythril. Others King Adamant. A few don't really care, and simply refer to him as king asshat. Interestingly, this moniker actually appears in one ancient text, ascribed to Star Swirl the Bearded.

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