//------------------------------//
// Preface 
// Story: At the Inn of the Prancing Pony 
// by McPoodle 
//------------------------------//


At the Inn of the Prancing Pony

A Fictive Reimagining of the Early Monarchy

By L. P.

(Edited by McPoodle and Hope)



Preface





The story you are about to read is a work of fiction.

I wouldn’t have to point this out if I was writing for an audience of my fellow ponies.

Back in Equestria, the period immediately following the banishment of Nightmare Moon is a period of intense interest to both scholars and layponies alike. Sociologists use it to seek out the mythical “base state” of pony society, the way it supposedly would be under minimal influence from the Princesses. To the general public, it is the setting of A Mare Forsaken, the oldest play still considered part of the classical repertoire.

It goes without saying that it is an era of which I have no first-hoof knowledge. It is also not an era that the main character in these proceedings is prepared to discuss at length, for reasons that I hope should be obvious.

My interest—besides the familial—rests on the idea of how a civilization may be rebuilt, how such a rebuilding may in fact be justified, when the fall is not the work of a mad god or a schizoid populace, but rather a natural response to a justifiable act: what if Princess Celestia, instead of slogging through her loss like she actually did, instead did what any normal pony would do in her situation...and gave up?


—L. P.