//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: The Curtain Falls - The Decline 
// Story: Equestria: A History Revealed 
// by Hoofry_Poneigher 
//------------------------------//

	Eventually, with the passing of the Three Reformers Caballeros, the Equestrian Spring was brought to an end, with the abolishment of the collective leadership structure. Instead, all of the power was placed into the parliament, which could never reach the high standard that the Caballeros set. As such, the political situation deteriorated immensely. According to traditionalist scholars, once the republic lost their most prominent leaders, the entire nation began to be uncertain in where the true leadership in the government lied, intensifying division, and allowing a “revolving door” situation to unfold, in which leaders were replaced as easily as one would change a t-shirt (which, for an earth pony, is actually quite difficult, but that’s not the point these historians are trying to make). “The members of the Equestrian parliament plotted against each other in order to consolidate their own rise to prominence, causing the national body of the government to flounder in its leadership, ignoring many vital issues in favor for their petty grabs for power.”[17] This sparked an increase of detractors to the Republic, who started making many public statements critiquing the new state of affairs.



“The progress made by [the Caballeros] has been reverted, its potential squandered. If ponies in parliament can agree on one thing, it is how they can quicken the fall of the once proud Equestrian nation.”[18]



But of course, as always, the traditionalist scholars were wrong, stupid, and probably smelt of elderberries. Actually, they probably weren’t wrong in a traditional sense, but rather that they exaggerated the corruption of the republic to advance their pro-Celestia monarchy agendas. The state of the republic could not have been as bad as they said it was, as they managed to pass many new and great laws and the parliament continued to be productive. For example, modern critics of the republic cite the government’s inability to agree on the simple creation of a paved road, which took weeks of intense discussion before the idea was scrapped altogether,[19] but these critics tend to forget how quickly the parliament managed to pass Article 48; the abolishment of penalties for homicidal evisceration, which only provoked one hour of debate.[20] Smart scholars: 0; me: 1.

Most pony historians state that the Equinus Republic could no longer agree on anything substantial, and cited this to be their greatest weakness in the eyes of the public, as well as in the eyes of history. However, as I had just proven, they not only could agree on select points, but they were able to unanimously agree on issues of national importance. Not regarding the dwindling rate of food supplies. Not regarding the increase in aggressive monster attacks across the nation. But regarding the banishment of all the critics of the Republic to the “Pit of Monsters”, Tartarus.[21] 

While this remains a strong point of contention in which most ponies agree spelt the downfall of the republic, I believe that this issue was far more important than national starvation or an increased rate of monster raids. After all, if these critics were allowed to fester, then that would hurt national pride. And then what would become of the Ancient Equestrian Games? After all, the government had already spent a vast amount of the national budget on such an event, and if the government was unable to make this money back through an increase in spending, they might as well have used it to do something stupid, like pouring the money into agriculture.

In fact, some revisionist historians (or should I say, historians who have the gall to call themselves revisionist historians) state that if it was not for the intervention of Discord, the nation would have collapsed on its own anyways, in a violent country-spanning revolution.[22] But as I have proven multiple times in this chapter, this very idea was stupid. The strength and national might of the Republic could be seen in its underpaid and underfed volunteer army, who would never have allowed such a revolution to even begin to take shape.

Some have even criticized the Republic for allowing the national army to weaken to the extent that it did, which many attribute to allowing Discord to quickly rise to power, but to them I say, did you even read my last sentence? I was clearly stating that the army was still truly a force to be reckoned with, at 237 ponies strong.[23] Clearly, Celestia-biased sources had embellished the facts, going even as far to say that such an army was “too small” and would be “unable to defend Equestria in the face of danger”.[24] Well, I’ll have you know that I couldn’t fit 237 ponies in my studio apartment, and I’d like to remind you that my studio apartment is quite large. 

And regarding the national negativity of the Equestrian population, they probably weren’t angered at the Republic’s supposed “inability to get anything done”, but rather in the fact that their families were being eaten alive by rampaging manticores. But what could the Republic honestly do about that? They weren’t responsible for what some manticores do in their free time (probably just letting off some steam from all that other eating alive of ponies). 

Also, the so-called “Pit of Monsters” where the political prisoners of the nation were banished to probably wasn’t even that bad either. It was probably just a cute little nickname that tourists give to places they travel to, such as “Canterlot: The City of Snobs”, “Ponyville: The Disaster Town” and “OhmyCelestiaohmyCelestia, you’ll be devoured by hydras here, Froggy Bottom Bog”.

It was the harsh superfluities in history such as this, in which the pro-monarchy scholars were able to condemn the Republic for weaknesses that it never even had, in order to maintain Celestia’s foul agenda.