Historical Figures: Stout Lance and Bindle Featherstone

One year after the three tribes discovered Equestria, immigrants were still leaving Stirrope with hopes of staking their claim on new soil. However, a number of the original colonists chose instead to not go to the new world. Among them was an earth pony named Stout Lance.

Stout Lance defected from the Crown, setting out as a lance for hire. He traveled across Stirrope, doing multiple questionable deeds for the sake of gold.

His travels brought him to the country of Taurus, where he heard tale of a plague-bearing dragon terrorizing the small kingdom of Hippadacia. The reward for anyone who slew the dragon would be the king's bronze, gold, and half the kingdom.

Stout Lance allied with other wandering knights who sought the quest... and then murdered them as they slept.

Lance found the dragon in front of the local princess, who the townsfolk had tied to a stake as an offering. The knight chose not to face the dragon in a fair fight, and so instead ran the dragon through while his back was turned. Stout Lance won the reward, and ended up marrying the princess. However, this only brought him misery.

The Dragon was named Bindle Featherstone (or Errol, if you were his friend). He was a Swamp Dragon (a species only a little taller than a large stallion), and was an unobtrusive sort, preferring to be left alone in his den. Far from being aggressive, like other swamp dragons, Errol was also a kind and gentle soul, helping small birds back into their nests if they fell out, leading travelers through the swamp so they would not become lost (and also eating will o' wisps for the same purpose), and even herding fish into the lake near the town so the ponies would never run out of food. He lived in an uneasy peace with the equines, who thought it best to leave him alone.

However, when plague-bearing parasprites suddenly appeared from the swamp, the ponies of Hippadacia believed Errol had become angry, and sought to appease his nonexistent wrath by offering him two ovine slaves per day, as well as several chickens. The chickens were devoured, but Errol led the "doomed" sheep through the swamp, away from their equine masters who had simply decided they were disposable. These were the ancestors of the various sheep tribes that now roam the hills of Taurus, who still respect the swamp dragons of Taurus' marshes.

When the plague did not alleviate, the ponies decided to offer their foals, chosen by lottery, to the dragon. And it so happened that the first chosen was the King's daughter, a mare who was beautiful to look upon, but was vile and cruel at her core, having been spoiled her entire life by her doting parents. Seriously, she was just awful.

She was brought to the edge of the swamp where Errol lived, screaming and flailing, the string of curses towards the "inferior peasants" causing some of the nearby plant life to wilt and shrivel. There she was tied to a stake and left to die.

And there was much rejoicing by the townsfolk.

Now, Errol didn't want the princess, naturally. Her screaming was scaring the fishes away, and Errol wanted her gone, so he set about untying the ropes. That was when Stout Lance killed him.

The princess, for her part, had learned nothing after being so willingly given up by her subjects, and soon the citizens of the kingdom left, leaving the king, the princess, and Lance ruling nothing beyond a deserted kingdom.

Of course, this did not last long, for news spread quickly of the pony who had killed a dragon, and retribution was taken. The kingdom of Hippodacia had taken months to build, but only one night to burn to ashes.