Chapter 2: The Early Settlement of Equestria
After the beginning of the Unification, the three rulers decided on a course of action. They sent messages through unknown means back to their homeland. The messages encouraged the ponies of the three kingdoms to leave their homes and come to the newly founded Equestria. A vast majority did so at the behest of their leaders, though some opted to remain behind. These remnants, the few documents show, communicated with the Equestrians for about a century until starvation from the rarely relenting windigo storms and the outbreak of the bubonic plague destroyed them in about 168 E.E, the time of the last communications with Equestria.
Traveling long distances, most of the settlers made landfall in three bays, where they settled. These are the three cities of Manehattan, Baltimare and Fillydelphia. Manhattan and Fillydelphia both served for a time as the capitals of Equestria, which was ruled by the three rulers. Princess Platinum decided matters of government and ran the court, Commander Hurricane matters of violence and military, and Chancellor Puddinghead matters of land distribution and agriculture. The three worked together to oversee settlement efforts.
One matter often overlooked in records of the founding of Equestria is the native species of the land. These species include the Yaks, Cows, and Buffalo. There is evidence that there were ponies in Equestria, but that they had gone mostly extinct by ten thousand years ago, and their closest genetic relatives are the horses of Saddle Arabia. The ponies of Somnambula, Hayseed Swamp, and other locations are of unknown origins, but coinhabited the land with the native species before the settlement. Of the native species of Equestria, only the Yaks hold still most of their native lands. Being immensely fierce and warlike, as well as living in a near unreachable location, they resisted any colonization and settlement attempts, though the hostilities led them to close the borders of their nation for centuries. The buffalo though attempting to keep their lands, were not as successful as the Yaks, and were driven out until they only resided in the dry southern parts of Equestia, and even now their territory is shrinking. The third group, the cows, put up little to no societal resistance. In some places, the cows became bandits and rouges, but in most, they remained peaceful, becoming creatures seen but ignored in Equestrian society.
Pushing these native species out, Equestrian settlers spread as far as Foal Mountain by the year 4 E.E.*, when the founding of the town of Hollow Shades occurred. Within ten more years, they had pushed past the Everfree Forest, which they avoided. The ponies brought with them both weather and plant control, changing the natural order of things. Only in the Everfree Forest, where some strong, unknown magic dwelled, did things remain as they were. The settlers also killed off most of the dangerous magical creatures that once roamed the land in large numbers, leading to the extinction of a few, namely the cockentrice, a subspecies of cockatrice, and the wyvern, a two-legged relative of the dragon.
Unicorn and earth pony peasants, due to their similar lifestyles, had fairly few issues coexisting in these new settlements. Fairly quickly, they began to work together using unicorn magic and earth pony strength to build villages and run farms. The similarities in everything from the clothing to the social structure of the lower classes of the two tribes, though among upper classes they varied greatly, had led to there being a few villages, even before the unification, in which the two tribes had bridged the large river between the two kingdoms, the Rhein. The pegasi however, had a harder time integrating. Not only did some have to adjust to living on the ground, but they had to alter their lifestyles to fit a less regimented schedule, a lack of food rations, and without wars and a large military, they had to adjust to not being the dominating culture, s early Equestria was fairly dominated by unicorn social customs, which is where many modern words relating to manners and etiquette come from.
As time went on, problems with the new govermental system arose. The three tribes often had trouble agreeing. Their opinions were shaped by prejudice, and the leaders often had trouble keeping in mind the other tribes. At that point they decided they were in need of an impartial leader. This is when Starswirl the Bearded steps to the forefront of Equestrian history. He promised the leaders an impartial ruler, and after a journey of six months, returned with two little fillies who had wings like pegasi, horns like unicorns, and the earth pony ties to the land; the two sisters, the alicorns. No pony besides Starswirl and the Royal sisters know from where they came, but they were judged to be impartial, and with their powerful magic, capable of defending Equestria from many threats. The two were coronated in 13 E.E., officially becoming the Princesses of Equestria, commanding equal shares of power. Commander Hurricane took charge of the Equestrian defense force, Princess Platinum assisted them in the learning of proper decorum and the running of courtly affairs, and Chancellor Puddinghead continued to run the agricultural work.
However, the true beginning of the power of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the royal sisters, began in the year 15 E.E., on what became known as Subtracti Luminis Diem, or The Day of Lost Light, now celebrated by a minor festival only in unicorn majority towns. It was on that day that the unicorns lost control of the sun and the moon, for raising the heavenly spheres drained unicorns of magic. On that day, according to the Catalogue of Mares by Haysiod, a record of the heroines of early Equestria and their deeds, the Princesses discovered their ability to raise the sun and moon, gaining what were then aptly named Marks of Destiny, which are now referred to as cutie marks, for unknown reasons. At the time, it is said, they were around the ages of forty-four in the case of Princess Celestia, and twenty-seven, in the case of Princess Luna.
The transfer of the duties of controlling the heavenly bodies passed onto the Princesses. With that transfer, Equestria passed into a new era, The Era of the Two Sisters, a time of unification, advancement, and magic.