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// Manehatten 
// Story: Cities of Equestria 
// by UnicodingUnicorn 
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	This City began like so many others, a loose cluster of homes and families in the troubled times of desperate struggle after the Banishment of the Younger of the Two Sisters. It was founded on the shore of the Great Eastern Sea, for it was from the Sea that the Hamlet drew its lifeblood from, and it was to the Sea that Things of the Hamlet did return. Raiders and warlords bothered not the Hamlet, for it was of little significance to them, and it was such that in a state of quiet existence did decades pass.

Time passed as it always does, and under the efforts of the Elder of the Two Sisters, the land slowly stitched close the wounds of the past and became a Nation once more. The Hamlet, like all the others, soon fell under the Banner of Equestria, yet life passed as it always had. Life was good and the harvest of the Sea was bountiful, for the reluctance to shed blood will always be rewarded, as dictated by the Book of Law before the Dawn of Time. And so it was such that the inhabitants of the Hamlet prospered and generations rose and fell.

As always, promises of wealth and fortune draw creatures of all shapes and sizes towards the source. Ponies came pouring into the Hamlet, building homes and constructing businesses, all structured around the never-ending cycle of generosity to and generosity in kind between the Sea and the Hamlet. Evil things, too, came, but were quickly dispatched by the fledgling nation's military, for as much as you cannot have good without evil, you cannot have evil without good. And it was such that the Hamlet grew and expanded, becoming a Town. So yet more decades passed and the young nation became the State of Equestria.

There was once an old Haysian saying, "When the winds of change blow, some may build walls, but the wise ones build windmills." And the winds of change did blow, for on a fateful day centuries after that first cluster of houses on the edge of the Great Eastern Sea, the Ships came. They were towering constructs of wood and cloth, powered by the forces of nature and the will of the creatures controlling them alike, constructed by a races not gifted by the Land with the Gift of Magic, bringing Trade and Progress from Lands beyond the East Sea. And Trade and Progress the State of Equestria did accept with open and willing arms, so it was such that Surveyors and Prospectors of the Royal Court scoured the Lands of the East from the Frozen North to the Scorching South, in search of places for Receptacles of this new found Change to be built. And so it was such that the Windmill for the Winds of Change from the East was built in the Town. 

The Winds of Change benefit those who harness them. The Town, with its deep waters and peaceful populace, drew great reward from the welcoming of these new neighbours. Trade flowed freely, the Technology of the East mingling with the Magic of the West, advancing both races by great leaps and bounds. The Port of the Town became the Focus of the East, for it brought great wealth and likewise gave bountiful riches upon its partners in trade, for all ye who receive shall too give. And so centuries past and the collaboration between the State of the West and the Nations of the East grew stronger, reaching forth to new heights in a Golden Age of Friendship and Harmony.

It is only inevitable for Time to pass. The foolish may choose to resist its passage, but the wise will harness it for the better. And the inhabitants of the Town with the Port were wise. Time brought Progress, which brought about the strengthening of Trade, growing upwards and upwards in a spiral that seemed to reach up to the infinite limits of the sky. Haysians have a lot of sayings, "those who harness not progress are foolish". The Port grew, expanding its accommodations and facilities, welcoming more of those great Ships, now clad in iron and powered by the fumes of coal or the spark of magic, than those First Founders who commissioned the Port could ever have hoped to dream of. And so it was such that the Port grew, and that the Town with the Port became the Port with the Town.

The adage that wealth and fortune attract people is still not unfounded even in this present day. As the Wealth of the Port with the Town grew, migrants came. They came from different backgrounds, from the refuge escaping the war-torn country from whence he grew, or the struggling entrepreneur looking to make it big for the final time, or the rich businessman looking to invest in new ventures. Yet, diverse as they were, it all mattered not, for in this new Town they were one and the same, a vast horde from the Eight Directions of the Horizon, pouring into the Town and swelling it to proportions more enormous than before. And so it was such that the Town grew into a City, the Port becoming but a part of this new and dynamic world within a world.

Progress and Time walk hand in hand. With the Trade that had poured so freely into the Port of the City, came the Concept of Electricity from the Lands of the East. And with Progress comes Change. For the first time in Millennia, the land of Equestria lit up under the watchful gaze of the stars and Moon above, and ponies began to live in the Night. Being the Receptacle of Trade and Progress, the City led in the forefront, and blazed up like fire upon a pyre. With wealth comes art, and the City was a wealthy one. Legendary figures destined to be imprinted forever into the collective lore of the people of the City, of bosses at the head of corporations, masters of wit and skilful manipulation in the cutthroat world of business, of the voices of singers blessed with the Gift of Music, of the soulful tunes of jazz and the bouncing beats of music yet to come. And so it is like this that centuries have passed and will continue to pass.

For this is the story of the City of Lights and Legends, Manehatten.
And so it is such that if you walk under the blaze that is the Lights of the City of Lights and Legends, you walk among the Legends themselves. Do take this moment, fair reader, and wonder: What will you do with this Life?