"The Rise of Equestria is not a question of if, it is a question of when. The Equines of the world hold in their hooves a chance, an opportunity to forge a new nation, a nation where all Equines are united under one government, under one nation, and under one leader. And this Greater Equestria shall last us longer than the old. It shall last for a thousand thousand years!"
-Twilight Sparkle, Empress of Equestria, March 15th, 14 A.N.M.
Throughout the lifetime of one pony's life before the Greater Equestrian Empire, one would often be in an ignorant bliss of the outside world. The issues of the Griffins, the Ibexians, Prance, the Zebras, and the Buffalo were issues that the Princess, and later the Princesses would deal with so that we equines can live calm and simple lives. It was a time period lasting just a little over a millennia that in retrospect one can call Equestria's Golden Age under the Sun and Moon Goddesses, Celestia and Luna. It was a time where nopony would starve or thirst, where none would freeze on the coldest of nights, or die of stroke in the hottest of days. It was a time where everypony would live in the moment, with little to no concern of what would happen the next day, let alone the next week, month, year, or decade. It was the best of times for Equestria, a time that my children or my children's children will never again experience because of the events that had taken place over the course of the last half century. It is a time that will one day go in the history books as a time that many would strive to return to, but would never get it right again. It will in time be a mythical time period that will be the stuff of legends and fairy tales.
"Equestria, Awake!", the echoes of this chant still travel throughout the streets of cities like Canterlot, Ponyville, and Manehattan even after years of being separated into two nations, long after the collapse of the regime that had given birth to that slogan and the accompanying message. In the spring of 38 A.N.M. (After Nightmare Moon), as the Greater Equestrian Empire was taking its final plunge into the dark abyss, Griffin, Prench, and Ibexian forces found massive warehouses filled with information about Equestria. Files detailing the rise of Twilight Sparkle and her regime, and millions of records indicating the cause of its rise, and the reason for its demise. It was the office of the Head of the Imperial Storm Troopers, Rarity, that would lead to the greatest find for historians after the Second Great War. It was the personal recollections and writings of each member of the infamous "Mane 6", the group of ponies that had led Equestria to greatness, and through defeat in a period of merely three decades. This finding in Rarity's Canterlot office would provide historians studying the origins of such mottos like "Equestria, Awake!" and "One Empress!" simple, and easy, and it would make it easy for us who had lived through the darkest period in Equine history to fully understand the causes of the situation we still find ourselves in. No doubt, this finding had clarified many rumors and allegations and misconceptions about the time period, removing the glorified "Struggle of the will of a nation." in the words of the Empress herself, and replacing it with a much more brutal and realistic way to look over the events of those thirty years that had significantly altered society for not only all ponies in Equestria, but for all ponies and beings throughout the world.
The swift collapse of the Greater Equestrian Empire that spring in 38 A.N.M. however was not the culmination of a single military campaign that the Griffins had launched against the last line of defense in Equestria, but it was instead the final chapter of a long story that goes back to when times were simpler, when it seemed much more like a fantasy world than the gritty and modern times we live in nearly half a century after Celestia's Golden Age came to pass away. The origins of this story go further back than Twilight Sparkle's attempted Ponyville Coup in 14 A.N.M. by her National Equine Socialist Party (NESP), and instead go to the true origins of this time period in our long history. It instead goes back to the days of the Principality of Equestria, when under the rule of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Equestria was dragged into the first war it had seen in well over several centuries. It was in the summer of 6 A.N.M. that a series of events would set in motion the rise of the world's most notorious pony, and the downfall of the world's most well known and arguably wealthiest nation in history. It was the event that had turned a simple student and librarian living in Ponyville to go on the path to lead her to power, along with her Inner Circle who all had a major role in forging today's Equestria.
Many questions will be answered in this piece, questions that had been plaguing many ponies for the last few years in the aftermath of the Second Great War. What were the circumstances of Twilight Sparkle's death? How did life turn from a utopia into a dystopia in such a short time? Will Equestria ever be forgiven for the sins of its past? What happened to Princess Celestia after the First Great War? These questions will in this piece all be answered in the first true work of literature unifying everything known about Equestria over the last half century into one work so that all ponies in future generations could learn from the past to prevent such a disastrous history from repeating itself again. In the words of the former Princess Luna, "Anypony who doesn't study the Rise and Fall of Twilight Sparkle and Equestria will be doomed to repeat the single most regretful act in any nation's, nay, in any species' history.", words which ring true to the millions of Ponies, Griffins, Dragons, and others who can still remember the times of peace and plenty before the times of starvation, death, and the desolation of a whole nation and of a world brought to its knees by a madmare bent on world domination. It is through this history that it can be prevented from ever happening again to the once great nation that was Equestria, the land of the Equines.