Equestrian History · 4:32pm Dec 17th, 2011
Wow, so Hearth Warming Eve answered and raised a whole bunch of questions, most obviously about how Celestia and Luna figure into all this. It did nicely confirm the placement of at least one historical period in Pony history, though, so that's cool. Here's how the historical periods seem to break down from my perspective:
Paleo-Pony Period - Earliest known Pony history
Pre-Classical Era - Tribal era before the founding of Equestria
(Star Swirl the Bearded conjures a lot, creates
the Amniomorphic Spell)
Classical Era - Earliest days of Equestria's history - major settlements founded.
Discordian Era - Discord rules Equestria, Ponies suffer in chaos and misery
Sororal / Diarchic Era - Royal Pony Sisters defeat Discord, rule in Harmony
from Castle of the Royal Sisters
Celestian / Monarchic Era - Celestia banishes Luna, rules alone from Canterlot
for 1,000 years
Harmonious / Modern Era - New Element Bearers emerge, Luna returns, Discord returns
and is defeated, Pinkie Pie eats too many Corn Cakes
What do you think, everypony?
Looks relatively solid from here. I'm interested in noting that the episode didn't actually cover anything about Celestia and Luna's origins, but...
The Equestrian flag had them on it already. And the first thing that sprung into my head was this:
"Did six ponies leave that cave? Or was it two alicorns?"
Yeah, this seems about right.
As for the discontinuity of the flag, don't forget this was just a rough stage version and it was just a prop. They might use a symbol the everyday Equestrian citizen might be more familiar with as opposed to the actual original flag (If there even was an original flag.)
2076
Indeed. It has been suggested on the EQD thread that:
A) It's a modern flag used as a prop by modern Ponies in their play - like schoolkids using the modern Stars and Stripes for some founding fathers pageant in the USA,
B) It was a graphic that was still lurking on the studio drives, and the Flash animators used it out of expedience and/or as a shoutout to the Season One preamble.
Looks good, but where does Medieval Equestria fit in? I believe Twilight mentions the book "Understanding Medieval Equestria" at the beginning of "Secret of my Excess".
2166
Good point!
I would imagine that the Sororal/Diarchic time period I pinned down there could best be considered "the middle ages."
It's after the classical expansion of the nation, and before the more contemporary period of Celestia's lonely rule...