Essays Index
History series: Part 1 - Pre-Earth | Part 2 - Ancient Earth | Part 3 - Pre-Classical Era | Part 4 - Classical Era - "Era of the Two Sisters" | Part 5 - Classical Era - Reign of Chaos

This is a history of the Pre-Classical Era, the period between the arrival of the Three Tribes in the Heartland and the founding of Equestria. See the Borderworld Pantheon and Locations series for more specific details on some of the places and events mentioned here.

This is also a heavily revised and expanded version of the original essay, which last previously updated in 2015. It has been expanded so much, in fact, that its word count will no longer fit in a single post like the original version did. As this version of the essay is so significantly different and longer than the original, and requires multiple posts, I thought it best to start over on a new thread. For those who've already read the original version, I still suggest giving this one a look for the revised lore and original content. The previous essays in the History series have also been updated this month, and may be worth a second look as well, but the changes to parts one and two were less substantial than those made to part three.

Pre-Classical Era:
Kings in the North:
By the time the Three Tribes arrived in the north, the land had already been engulfed in war for centuries. The native yak tribes and their warlords, despite a long history of conflict amongst themselves, had long since unified under a line of high kings, descended from a great conqueror that forged them into the beginnings of a true yak nation. The Dragon Empire, meanwhile, now ruled by a distant descendant of the Worldbreaker known as Vainglorious the Golden, had begun a practice of enslaving and eating the mountain goats. Upon attempting to do the same to the yaks, they had found that they were much more belligerent and unruly than goats, and put up greater resistance against the Empire's expansion.

With the two most violent and warlike peoples of the region already busy with each other, and the goats all living as slaves under the Dragon Empire's heel, the Three Tribes were unopposed in the early years after their arrival. They established themselves in the north with relatively little trouble, and divided the land between them. The unicorns held the northeast, including some parts of the Forsaken Crags where they had previously erected castles and fortresses. The earth ponies went south, setting up better farms in the warmer climate, and mines in the northeastern Yaket Range. And the pegasi settled the western lands, their military serving as a bulwark to defend the realms of ponies from the wrath of the dragons and the yaks further west.

All three nations were close allies and trading partners in this time. Pegasus military might kept the Three Tribes safe, while their weather abilities helped the earth ponies grow their food. In turn, the earth ponies fed the Tribes from their farms, and were also the primary source of gemstones and metal for the region. The unicorns, in these days, mostly provided magical services, but also traded in new inventions and discoveries, as they were a more scholarly society that had more time to spend on such matters. Both the unicorns and earth ponies were capitalist, and traded directly with each other using an early form of the bit, while the pegasi eschewed currency, and provided their services freely in exchange for a tithe of goods and services called the Warrior's Privilege, which included food, weapon enchanting, and room and board while in their neighbours' lands.

In time, the yaks and the Dragon Empire would eventually turn their attention east, making war with the ponies as well. However, the Three Tribes fared much better against them than they ever did against the griffons.

While the dragons could fly, breathe fire, and had tough outer scales, they were also slow and lumbering compared to griffons, and lacked the ability to magically affect the weather. With the advantages of greater speed, dexterity, numbers, and tactics, a competent team of pegasus legionaries were capable of slaying a full-grown dragon with some difficulty, and did so many times over the following centuries, though not without taking many losses of their own. Earth ponies and unicorns fared notably worse against the dragons, but fortunately did not often find themselves facing them.

Meanwhile, the yaks had spent several centuries specialising as dragon-slayers, and so were initially ill-equipped to deal with pegasus tactics. As a groundbound people at war with a species of large, flying creatures, they traditionally employed large catapults to combat aerial targets, and found themselves unable to deal with large numbers of smaller, faster pegasi, who would siege them from above almost with impunity. In later skirmishes, the yaks began deploying archers for pegasi, to greater results, but this merely evened the playing field, rather than turned the tide.

The Earth Pony Revolution:
With the pegasi guarding the west against external threats, it was internal strife from class warfare that most troubled the earth ponies. The common farmers and miners who worked the land grew dissatisfied with the ruling noble class, who owned all the land and reaped all the rewards of their work, while seemingly contributing nothing of note themselves. The wealth disparity between them also came after generations of animosity built up during the migration across the Forsaken Crags, during which the earth pony peasantry suffered the worst, while their nobility again did little to contribute.

Viewed as selfish and corrupt by the vast majority of their people, the earth pony noble class inadvertently inspired a violent uprising against them. This revolution ended the line of the earth pony kings, as well as the majority of their noble houses, and sent the remainder into permanent exile in the Unicorn Kingdom. After the revolution, the earth ponies went through several different chancellors before finding one competent enough to unify the country and restructure the government into something functional, but despite this rocky transition, a true democratic republic did eventually emerge from the conflict.

However, while the removal of the noble class and the addition of democracy did much to lessen the wealth disparity amongst the earth ponies, the new Earth Pony Republic as a whole was much poorer after the fighting. Production and trade had been greatly hurt by the conflict, resulting in widespread famines for all the Tribes, and the loss of so many earth pony lives meant that it took a generation for the Republic to return to previous levels of productivity. Additionally, relations were greatly soured with the Unicorn Kingdom, who had supported the noble class during the civil war.

The pegasi never officially took a side in the earth ponies' fighting, being too busy holding the west to intervene. Nevertheless, the uprising inspired the pegasus stratocracy to finally get rid of their own royalty, who had been mere figureheads with no real power since before the Three Tribes had even left Thoroupe. The old Royal Legion of the Pegasus Nation became simply the Pegasus Legion, and the last of the royals' ceremonial powers were finally given over to the office of the commander.

This anti-royalist sentiment spreading among their neighbours set the Unicorn Kingdom on edge for some time, but no similar uprising ever began in their own nation. While classism did exist amongst the unicorn royals and nobility, their direct involvement in running the kingdom, as well as the relatively easy living conditions of the lower classes, meant that the peasantry were never inspired to a major revolt.

In the following decades, political stability gradually returned, as the Three Tribes settled into the new status quo, and inter-tribal relations continued as before, though now with a palpable sense of tension between them.

Southern Expeditions:
The first northerner to travel south beyond the Crystal Mountains was a dragon prince named Nidhug, the king's lastborn son, who sought a kingdom of his own. He flew further south than any dragon before him, and eventually settled in Mount Canterlot, where he carved out a home for himself. There, he found a tribe of mountain goats, much like those whom the Dragon Empire had enslaved in the north, and he made them his subjects. To them, Nidhug became known as the Mountain God, and this dragon cult dutifully served him, bringing him sacrifices, mining gems for him, and protecting his hoard whenever he fell into dragonsleep.

Another dragon, Lestraktus the Red, later followed Nidhug's example, and also went south in search of his own fortune. He did not go as far as Nidhug, instead settling in the Crystalline Mountain at the southern edge of the mountain range, near the future Crystal Empire. He would also be the last dragon to venture beyond the Crystal Mountains for several centuries, leaving the Dragon Empire ignorant to the later developments in the south.

Some time after this, the Three Tribes began making their first excursions south. The unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi alike sent scouts and traveling parties beyond the Crystal Mountains, all for their own reasons, with an aim to explore and discover. These explorers quickly made contact with the natives of the south, such as the cattle, deer, goats, and sheep, as well as other settlers such as the zebras and donkeys. The southerners were initially wary of ponies, but also curious, as none of them had civilization on the level of what the Three Tribes had at the time.

Some minor skirmishes aside, the southerners proved valuable guides and trading partners to the explorers, and so the Three Tribes began establishing several small settlements and trading posts in the south. To secure the route between the north and south, outposts and castles were built along the main routes through the Crystal Mountains, beginning with Northmare's Peak in the Earth Pony Republic, and ending with Outpost Neverwinter at the southern end of the mountain range, which later grew into the town of Fort Neverwinter.

The southern colonies quickly flourished, and the pony homelands also reaped the benefits of their discoveries. Raw materials were imported from the south in large quantities, new innovations came every other day, and unicorn academia studied the southern lands and their peoples with great fascination, learning much from the deer and zebras in particular.

As well, the southerners also benefited from the arrival of the Three Tribes. The earth ponies brought agricultural knowledge, the pegasi brought safety and on-demand weather control, and the unicorns brought their many magical and technological wonders. The zebras of this land first invented the art of alchemy by applying unicorn magic theory to their own natural abilities, which served them well in their attempts to settle the lands south of the Everfree Forest. Many southerners also began integrating into pony civilization, especially the donkeys, who almost entirely abandoned their own communities to join up with the ponies.

However, not all was well for the southern colonies, as the griffons, making their own western expeditions across the sea from the Griffish Isles, also reappeared to menace the ponies for the first time in centuries. Their territorial disputes with the pegasi along the east coast slowed the Three Tribes considerably in their attempts to colonise the south, and skirmishes with griffon raiders were an unfortunate but accepted reality of life in the southern colonies for several centuries.

The Path of Harmony:
It was during this period that the Tree of Harmony was first discovered, as a party of earth pony explorers happened across it in the Everfree Forest. The Tree spoke to the earth ponies, telling them about the ways of Harmony and its mission on Earth, and they quickly became enamoured with it. The earth ponies formed a cult around the Tree, worshipping it as a divine being and a legacy of the creator, Epona. They called their new religion the Path of Harmony, and news of their existence soon spread to the rest of the Three Tribes, bringing more followers to the cult from the Earth Pony Republic.

In time, the most enlightened and harmonious of the cult's followers started to gain a temporary crystalline form, allowing them to use their positive emotions to transcend the limits of mortal flesh. This ability was rare and difficult to learn at first, but became more innate with each new generation of the cult's descendants, as they internalised the Tree's teachings.

This fascinated the rest of the Three Tribes, and many ponies from both the motherlands and the southern settlements came to see the Tree of Harmony for themselves. The unicorns, being a more secular society, maintained their distance from the cult and their philosophy as they studied the Tree, limiting their research to academic curiosity and writing down their findings to send back home. The pegasi, in contrast, were more open to the idea of the cult, and many of them joined up themselves. However, the warlike nature of the pegasi was deeply ingrained, and they had much greater difficulty than the earth ponies in embracing the ideals of the Path of Harmony, leading to many of them making only a partial transformation which mostly affected their eyes.

The Deer–Pony War:
In time, the deerfolk, already worshippers of Order, became aware of the Path of Harmony, and opened hostilities with the cult over their veneration of the Tree. The pacifist crystal ponies of the cult were reluctant to fight back against the deer, but the sparkly-eyed pegasus followers had less of an issue, and so fortified their position in the Everfree to defend them. This conflict eventually grew into a full-scale war between the deer and ponies, as the sparkly-eyed pegasi requested aid from the main legionary forces, and the deer expanded the scope of their attacks to include pony settlements and trading posts, which they overran with magically-controlled plants and wild animals.

Although the deer were fierce fighters, and outnumbered the ponies in the region at the time, several factors led to their eventual defeat. Firstly, the deer were too uncompromising and rigid in their beliefs to accept an offered alliance with the griffons, which would have allowed them to counter the pegasi's air superiority and weather magic, leaving them at a disadvantage. Secondly, as the aggressors in the conflict, they lost all popular support from the other southerners, who had all established friendly relations with the Three Tribes already, and so helped the ponies against them. And thirdly, they had no knowledge of how large and powerful the pony nations truly were, having only ever encountered their colonial towns and outposts, leaving them unprepared for their inevitable reprisal.

Reinforcements from the north eventually arrived to aid the colonists, and with popular support from the goats, sheep, cattle, and other locals, the deer were mostly driven back to their forests. Although some individual tribes did accept defeat after this, most continued to fight relentlessly, even after it was clear that they were beaten, and a few even chose annihilation before surrender. Once it became clear that the deer king was leading his people towards extinction, the Path of Harmony cultists, not wanting to be responsible for a genocide, volunteered to leave the Everfree Forest permanently in exchange for peace. The deer gladly accepted this offer, and hostilities were ceased.

Timbucktu and Crystaltown:
After the end of the war, the Path of Harmony cultists split into two groups and went their separate ways.

The sparkly-eyed pegasi remained in the south to establish their own community, the independent cloud kingdom of Timbucktu, so that they could stay relatively close to the Everfree and watch over Tree of Harmony, while still remaining out of the deer's reach. Timbucktu was built in honour of the Tree of Harmony, and designed as a grand, ostentatious monument to her, though of course rendered in the traditional pegasus style of architecture. In time, it became the largest settlement in the region, as pegasi from near and far flocked to see the city which was said to rival Cloudsdale itself in its majesty, and Timbucktu became a strong ally and trading partner to the Pegasus Legion.

Meanwhile, the true crystal ponies settled at the southern end of the Crystal Mountains near Fort Neverwinter, and established the independent mining settlement of Crystaltown there, which welcomed earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns alike, so long as they accepted the ways of the Path of Harmony. As it was positioned close to the only route through the Crystal Mountains, this was an ideal location for the crystal ponies to welcome travelers from the north, and to hopefully win new converts.

Unfortunately, the crystal ponies had also caught the attention of Agamarath, Lord of the Great Abyss, who considered the possible spread of their religion to the rest of the Three Tribes a grave threat. As the deer had failed to wipe out their cult, and the Arachnian Empire was too distant and embroiled in its own conflicts, he instead took the rare risk of opening a direct portal between Midgard and Svartalfheim, and sent a force of umbrums to destroy them. With help from the Three Tribes, Crystaltown was able to survive this onslaught as well, but attacks from umbrums would continue to be a persistent problem for the town for decades afterwards, and the danger they posed scared away many potential converts.

The War of the Sun:
As ponies and the other mortal races dealt with their own successes and failures on Midgard, the Eternal War continued to rage in the background, and finally came to a head when all the solar systems across the Nine Realms suddenly froze in the heavens. Earth and its eight parallel versions ceased rotating, and were forced into perfect alignment with each other, and each realm's respective sun began orbiting around the planet like a second moon, much to the confusion of the mortal inhabitants of Midgard.

This disruption, thought at first to be Havoc's fault, instead turned out to be the work of Borr, who had sacrificed Svartalfheim's sun in order to use its magic to seize control of the heavenly spheres. Borr had designed his alicorns with an affinity for moving the heavenly spheres, and so had made the Nine Realms dependent on them to maintain the cycle of day and night. By threatening to end this cycle and destroy all life in the Nine Realms, Borr hoped to compel Yggdrasil to surrender and withdraw from Mutter's Spiral.

Instead, however, she responded by going on the offensive, forming an unlikely alliance with Havoc to breach the dimensional barrier protecting Asgard. She then grew an offshoot into the realm, and used her magic to transform the alicorns, granting them the ability to feel emotions and exercise free will. With Yggdrasil's help, Havoc stirred the newly freed alicorns into a rebellion against their master, and Borr, Havoc, and Yggdrasil each called upon all their troops and allies to settle the fate of the Nine Realms in one last decisive battle.

The battle in Asgard, later known as the War of the Sun, lasted for three days, and to this day remains the single bloodiest battle in the Borderworld's history. On the fields of Vígríðr outside Valhalla, millions of mortals and lesser spirits were killed, including alicorns, demons, chimeras, nightmares, umbrums, and other creatures, as well as hundreds of gods. Among the most notable casualties were Borr himself, who was killed by the alicorns, and Havoc, who was slain by Agamarath. With their deaths, the alicorns were eventually able to drive back both the armies of Order and the hordes of Discord, allowing Yggdrasil to seal the portals behind them, claiming Asgard as the third Realm of Harmony.

In the aftermath of the battle, an alicorn named Odin was crowned King of Asgard, and he pledged his allegiance to the ideals of the Tree of Harmony, promising to lead his people into a new age of peace and prosperity.

The Sun-Bearers:
While the War of the Sun was being fought in Asgard, control of the heavenly spheres was momentarily neglected by the alicorns, leading to a worldwide crisis as the sun and moon remained frozen in the sky for two days straight. Many panicked and proclaimed it to be a sign of the end, while others argued and blamed it on their enemies, using it as an excuse for war and violence. Fortunately, for the most part, cooler heads prevailed, and on every continent, councils convened and national leaders met to discuss and tackle the crisis.

In the Heartland, a summit was called by leaders of the Three Tribes to address the issue, attended by the Commander of the Pegasus Legion, the Chancellor of the Earth Pony Republic, the Queen of the Unicorn Kingdom, and all of their best magical and spiritual advisors. While the leaders discussed contingency plans and practical realities, the brightest and the best of the Three Tribes came together to look for a solution. Through their combined efforts, they eventually concluded that it was theoretically possible for a large enough number of unicorns to move the sun and moon, and so, on the third day of the crisis, the greatest wizards of the Unicorn Kingdom convened to attempt to task.

Though difficult for them, the unicorns were successful in their endeavour, and as the end of the crisis was celebrated, it was announced that the Unicorn Kingdom would shoulder the burden of moving the heavenly spheres from then on. It was determined that the task would require the efforts of twelve unicorns per day, six to move the sun, and six to move the moon, with at least one experienced mage in each team to guide the rest.

As this was an extremely exhausting task that no individual unicorn could be expected to perform for long, it was decreed that there would be no permanent, dedicated teams for solar cycle duty. Instead, it was to be the civic duty of every unicorn to assist in the rituals when called upon. Citizens would be called for solar cycle duty at random, which would last for a minimum of one week, after which they would be allowed time off to recover.

The Decline of Magic:
Although this seemed a reasonable proposition at first, and was realistically the only way the Unicorn Kingdom could continue moving the heavenly spheres, this arrangement also crippled the country's economy. Workers being called away for solar cycle duty hurt the productivity of many businesses, not just for their initial week of absence, but for their many weeks of recovery afterwards. Many unicorns suffered long-term or even permanent magic loss, leaving them effectively unemployable in many fields. And the government's attempts to compensate those who suffered as a result of solar cycle duty brought the royal treasury to the brink of bankruptcy as well.

This changed the dynamics of trade between the Tribes. In previous years, the Unicorn Kingdom provided magical services and products to the earth ponies and pegasi in exchange for food and protection. However, with productivity down, their economy collapsing, and many unicorns suffering magical burnout as a result of solar cycle duty, many of these products and services became unavailable. The Unicorn Kingdom was soon unable to pay for their food, and so instead began demanding that it be granted to them as a tithe for the burden that they collectively shouldered, similar to the Warrior's Privilege.

The Earth Pony Republic, as a capitalist nation like the Unicorn Kingdom, initially refused to agree to these terms. However, when the unicorns responded by refusing to raise the sun, threatening to leave the world in darkness until they yielded, the earth ponies had little choice but to capitulate, especially after the Pegasus Legion pressured them to agree to terms.

The Unicorn Kingdom received their tithe, albeit at a cost of their neighbours' animosity, but even this was little help for them in the long run. Although solar cycle duty lasted a mere week for most, and individual unicorns were rarely ever called for it more than once, it was still an exceptionally exhausting effort that many never fully recovered from, and in time, it also became clear that it dramatically shortened their lifespans.

As well, although they did not understand this at the time, the unicorns all burning through their magic to keep the solar cycles going would also have an adverse affect on later generations. Each unicorn that suffered severe magic depletion and died young was one more weakened soul that would be reborn as a magically deficient foal, and thus, each subsequent generation of unicorns was weaker than the last, more severely affected by solar cycle duty, and less capable of completing it.

By Clover the Clever's time, it was normal and expected for unicorns to suffer complete and permanent magical burnout after less than a week of solar cycle duty, most foals were born without magic and didn't gain any until well into their teens, and the vast majority of unicorns were milky-eyed and blank-flanked, a fact that earned them endless mockery from their resentful neighbours.

Rebirth of the Eternals:
With the temporary deaths of Order and Discord, the Eternal War reached a low point in the Nine Realms, as their respective forces retreated and waited for their champions to return.

The Fates, who managed the Loom in Niflheim, took command of Order's campaign in the rest of Mutter's Spiral, while Agamarath managed Order's remaining forces in the Nine Realms, and focused his efforts on Midgard. Meanwhile, Hixelkicks and Paradox, the two most senior remaining figures of Discord's side, both retreated to the Nexus in Jotunheim to heal, leaving the remaining demons and chimeras in the care of Havoc's children. Hel continued to rule over Helheim, while Havoc's son, Fenrir, caused trouble on Midgard, leading a horde of barbarian raiders across eastern Thoroupe.

In Asgard, with the end of Borr's rule, the alicorns under Odin were forced to totally reform their entire society, which until that point had not even truly been a society, so much a mad tyrant's slave army. This began with a rebuilding of Valhalla in a new architectural style, after it had been badly damaged in the War of the Sun, and then transitioned into establishing new cultural customs and traditions. The alicorns began experimenting with art, music, and public performances, and explored love and romance for the first time, birthing a second generation of alicorns, the first to have had a true childhood.

This second generation grew and eventually made their own contributions to Asgardian society, in particular Odin's son, Tyr, who invented Asgard's systems of law and justice. However, along with this second generation of alicorns, Order and Discord were also quietly reborn in new forms. Order's soul, which had remained in Asgard after Borr's death, found new life as an alicorn colt named Svaðilfari, while Discord's soul drifted to Jotunheim, and was reincarnated as a draconequus named Loki, born to the Frostclaws tribe. Left to their own devices, both would have eventually regained their memories, and the Eternal War would have simply picked up where it left off. However, the Tree of Harmony sought to manipulate events to prevent this outcome, and make her counterparts less dangerous.

As it was extremely rare that both Order and Discord would ever be dead at the same time, and reborn in such close proximity to each other, an opportunity had now presented itself. At Yggdrasil's prompting, during one of Asgard's standard raids into Jotunheim, Odin found the newborn Loki after the battle, and took him back to Asgard to raise him as his own. Loki and Svaðilfari were both to grow up together in Asgard under Odin's reign and Yggdrasil's influence, where she would be able to keep their memories suppressed with a dampening spell. It was the hope that allowing them to grow into their new lives together with less influence from their previous selves would allow both Order and Discord to see life through a new perspective, and maybe even teach them to value friendship and harmony.

Surely, this plan was foolproof, and could not possibly fail.

The Neighyptian Revolution:
Although Order and Discord had both been temporarily killed during the War of the Sun, their influence did not fully recede. A time-traveling future version of Loki appeared in Zebrica not long after Havoc's death, and assisted an ambitious jackal named Anubis in a coup against the pony pharaoh of Neighgypt. Anubis initially took over with a relative lack of bloodshed, and was at first, by most accounts, not an exceptionally terrible leader, at least by the standards of the old pharaohs.

However, this revolution did not go unnoticed, and Agamarath did not miss the opportunity to subvert Discord's victory. At his order, the Nightmare Forces dwelling in the Dreamscape made contact with Anubis, and offered him their power. Ambitious as always, Anubis gave into temptation, and allowed himself to be possessed by the Nightmare Forces, who did indeed grant him great power, but who also pushed him to be harder and crueller.

Already something of a brute, the Nightmare-possessed Anubis became a warmonger with a penchant for slavery and torture, as well as a huge ego. He renamed the nation Anugypt, after himself, and made war on several neighbouring countries, such as Eyzrael. As well, ponies under his rule became second-class citizens to the jackals, while the cats, previously held in high esteem by the pony pharaohs, were either killed or enslaved.

For these and other reasons, Discord betrayed Anubis, and helped kickstart a second revolution by the cats against their jackal masters, working closely with one in particular named Baast, who became a leader of the revolution. Although Discord did not stay to see this revolution through to the end, he later returned to this time period again with Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders to reunite with Baast and witness the revolution's final victory over Anubis. In the aftermath, Baast established a new line of cat pharaohs, and renamed the country to Miaowgypt.

Star Swirl the Bearded:
Later known as the greatest wizard of the Pre-Classical Era, Star Swirl the Bearded was born some decades after the War of the Sun, the result of an unusually long pregnancy. Star Swirl was the scion of a noble house, and brother-in-law to King Bullion through his elder sister, and so received only the finest tutoring in his youth. On top of that, he was also a natural genius and a magical prodigy. By age twelve, Star Swirl had read through his family's entire extensive library, and by his twenties, he had mastered several schools of magic, and risen to become a champion magic duellist.

Star Swirl left education early, feeling that formal schooling had nothing more to teach him, and spent several years traveling the land and living a life of adventure, for which history would remember him forever.

Star Swirl's travels took him all across the Heartland, over to Zebrica and Thoroupe, and into the Southlands as well. He met and broke bread with the yaks, griffons, zebras, jackals, deer, buffalo, and many other species and cultures which were just being discovered at the time. He explored the deepest depths of the Caverns of Maretania, and climbed to the very top of Mt. Canterlot before the first brick of Canterlot City was ever laid there. He even crossed into other dimensions and explored the Nine Realms, becoming the first pony to ever encounter a windigo face-to-face and live to tell of it.

Between his adventures, Star Swirl also invented whole new spells, wrote numerous books and essays on a variety of subjects, and collected stories and lore from the various foreign cultures he interacted with. He periodically returned home to the Unicorn Kingdom to present his many fantastic discoveries to the king, along with stories of his adventures, and in doing so greatly expanded ponykind's understanding of the world outside their borders. Star Swirl's achievements made him a legend in his home country, particularly in the academic community, but his most significant contribution to history was yet to come.

The Rainbow Bridge:
Despite all his other deeds and discoveries until that point, by far the most impactful of Star Swirl's early adventures was his first visit to Asgard, shortly before the birth of the third generation of alicorns. It was Star Swirl who first made the alicorns aware of Midgard, and who spread the Equestrian language to them, which gradually replaced the Alicornish tongue as travel between the realms opened up. Star Swirl's visit inspired the alicorns to construct the Bifrost, bridging Asgard and Midgard, and after its completion, many alicorns began venturing out into the wider world to leave their mark.

All of Odin's children, already great warriors and heroes from their deeds in other realms, became known to Midgard as well. Thor, who wielded the power of thunder, was a frequent enemy to Agamarath, and saved the ponies of Crystaltown from him and his umbrums on many occasions. Tyr famously saved Thoroupe from Fenrir through trickery and guile, binding him in magical chains. And Odin's daughter, Baldur, who wielded the powers of light and life, walked among the Three Tribes, and was beloved by all who met her.

A few alicorns also moved away from Asgard permanently to settle in other realms. Most disappeared or lived out the rest of their lives in quiet obscurity, but a rare few who settled in Midgard went on to leave a larger mark on the world, as Odin's children did.

One alicorn mare, whose name was lost to history, married an exiled zebra prince, and settled with him in the jungles of Southlands, in a castle they built together. She later gave birth to a zebra-alicorn filly, whom she named Parabola. Parabola was an exceptional specimen, being not just a zony, which was already very rare in this time period, but also an alicorn born of a coupling with a mortal, the only known instance of such until the birth of Flurry Heart over a thousand years later. Queen Parabola, as she named herself after her father's death, became a figure of worship to the local chimeras, who paid tribute to her with gold and gems, and was rumoured to be the creator of the map spider species.

Another notable alicorn who left Asgard was Second Chance, better known as Lord Second, who traveled to Thoroupe and helped to liberate the Valley of Eden from its most recent conquerors, the griffons. After driving out the last of the invaders, Lord Second was surprised when the natives proclaimed him their king, but gladly accepted the crown of the King of the Valley, which he would then hold for another thousand years.

Between the heroic tales of Thor, Tyr, and Baldur, the news from Thoroupe about Lord Second's coronation as King of the Valley, and the revelation of Asgard's history with the Tree of Harmony, the alicorns collectively earned an almost religious reverence from the Three Tribes. They came to be regarded as the ideal ponies, and an example of what mortal ponies could be if they strived to better themselves, even as tensions between the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies were otherwise growing.

As Asgard's influence grew, Star Swirl also maintained a close relationship with the alicorns. He became a friend and confidant to Odin, and even married an alicorn valkyrie, with whom he would have a child, a unicorn colt named Sigurd. Star Swirl's wedding was attended by Odin himself, who gifted him an enchanted sword named Gram for the occasion, and Star Swirl would carry it with him on many future adventures.

Tragically, Star Swirl's valkyrie wife was slain in battle only a few short years into their marriage, and so for the sake of his son, the widowed Star Swirl retired from adventuring, and returned home to take over his family estate. Between raising his son, Star Swirl also took on a young Clover the Clever as his apprentice, published several more books and research papers, invented many more spells, and took up a position in the royal court as an advisor to his brother-in-law, King Bullion.

Founding of the Crystal Empire:
Despite the growing tensions in the north, and the constant threat of attack from Agamarath and his umbrums, Crystaltown continued to cling onto life in the south, barely holding off their enemies with the help of the neighbouring Fort Neverwinter. The arrival of Thor on Midgard, and his many battles with Agamarath, surely saved the crystal ponies from annihilation several times over, but it wasn't until after the discovery of the Crystal Heart that their community was truly able to defeat their enemies, and grow beyond the borders of Crystaltown.

Prior to its discovery by the crystal ponies, the Crystal Heart was merely a beautiful but natural crystal formation with no innate magic to speak of, which was part of the hoard of Lestraktus the Red. After leaving the Dragon Empire and settling in the Crystalline Mountain, the dragon had found and added the Crystal Heart to his collection, and later fallen into dragonsleep, unknowing of the new pony community that later formed on his doorstep and began mining his mountain.

Not long after the arrival of the alicorns on Midgard, the crystal pony miners accidentally burrowed into the lair of Lestraktus the Red, and happened across the Crystal Heart. Not initially recognising it as part of a dragon's hoard, the miners took the Crystal Heart back to the surface, and presented it to the town's mayor. The mayor's daughter, a rare crystal unicorn filly named Amore, who deeply loved her home and her people, was inspired by the Crystal Heart's beauty. Using her magic, she poured all her love into the Crystal Heart, seeking to turn it into a symbol of hope for the town, to lift their spirits after they had spent so long under the threat of annihilation.

Amore went far beyond creating a symbol, however. When the Crystal Heart was presented before the crystal ponies, the love and happiness that they felt in return fed into it, and amplified Amore's enchantments. The Crystal Heart was transformed into a powerful beacon of love and friendship magic, which it projected all across the land. This magic was anathema to the umbrums who lurked in the wilds of the region, and turned all but the most distant of them into crystals, not dead, but dormant. Amore's mother had the crystallised umbrums buried, while the young Amore herself gained her cutie mark, and was raised to near legendary status in the eyes of the crystal ponies.

With the umbrums mostly defeated, and the power of the Crystal Heart protecting them, the crystal ponies were able to expand like never before. Under Amore's guidance, they built outposts, opened mines, and settled farmland further and further out from Crystaltown, spreading across the lands south of the Crystal Mountains. Their expansion also attracted immigrants from the Three Tribes and their southern colonies, who were surprised to learn that they too became living crystal when exposed to the Crystal Heart's power. This grew the crystal pony population significantly, and necessitated even further expansion as a result.

Within only a decade's time, Crystaltown became the Crystal City, and numerous satellite towns and villages grew out of its distant farms, mines, and trading posts, until the Crystal City's territory encompassed almost the entirety of the southern Crystal Mountains. A magnificent citadel was constructed in the centre of the Crystal City to house the Crystal Heart, and with its completion, the Crystal City's lands officially became the Crystal Empire, and Amore was coronated as its first Crystal Princess.

Crystals, crystals, crystals.

The Last Days of Tribal Peace:
Despite the examples of the alicorns and the Crystal Empire, however, the situation with the Three Tribes in the north continued to deteriorate.

Under the rule of King Bullion, the Unicorn Kingdom grew ever weaker and more incapable of controlling the solar cycles, eventually forcing the king himself to begin personally assisting as the sixth unicorn guiding the sun rituals. When he too inevitably exhausted his magic, the duty then fell to Star Swirl the Bearded, who was discovered to be abnormally capable of enduring solar cycle duty, leading to him taking on the burden as the guiding mage for both the sun and moon rituals at once. Clover the Clever's formal education ceased shortly afterwards, and she became a personal advisor to Princess Platinum, who was herself made regent of the Unicorn Kingdom due to her father's weakened condition, despite her youth and inexperience.

At the same time, Commander Hurricane of the Pegasus Legion brokered an extremely unpopular peace agreement with King Gregor of Griffonia, which ceded the southern airspace to the griffons. Although this peace ended the bloodshed in the south, and opened up trade between Griffonia and Timbucktu, turning the latter into a centre of interspecies commerce, the Pegasus Legion itself benefited little from the agreement. Commander Hurricane faced great resistance from his own people at home, who accused him of selling out his honour for the wealth of Timbucktu, and with his power threatened and his position precarious, Commander Hurricane was forced to take a more politically hardline stance on other issues to win back his credibility.

To make matters worse, the belligerent Chancellor Puddinghead was also elected leader of the Earth Pony Republic, after running a campaign riding a wave of anti-unicorn resentment. The Puddinghead administration pursued aggressive renegotiations of previous trade agreements with the Unicorn Kingdom, and enacted policy changes intended to throttle their trade with the southern colonies, which relied on routes passing through Republic territory. This had the predictable effect of angering the unicorns, and accomplishing little else.

This was the state of relations between the Three Tribes when the Fimbulwinter began.

Fimbulwinter:
Over the generations of their feuding, the animosity between the Three Tribes (the unicorns and earth ponies in particular) became so powerful that it bled through the dimensional veil and attracted the attention of the windigoes. Crossing between worlds from Jotunheim, the windigoes were drawn to the ponies' conflict like sharks to blood, and grew strong from feeding upon it, spreading winter with them as they went.

The presence of the windigoes and the eternal blizzard that followed them only worsened tensions between the Three Tribes. Ignorant to the true cause of the weather, both the earth ponies and unicorns initially blamed the pegasi, while the pegasi accused the unicorns of causing the blizzard through their mismanagement of the heavenly spheres. The Three Tribes also suffered famines as a result of the weather, as the Earth Pony Republic's farms began failing, and Chancellor Puddinghead instituted a strict rationing policy, which also severely restricted trade to the pegasi and unicorns.

A summit was called to bring together the leaders of the Three Tribes and address these issues, just as had been done during the War of the Sun. However, this summit was not nearly as productive as the last. As regent, the pampered and inexperienced Princess Platinum stood as representative for the Unicorn Kingdom, and clashed immediately with both other leaders. Puddinghead, having always hated the unicorns, but blaming the pegasi for the current crisis, also antagonised both her counterparts. And Commander Hurricane, though theoretically the eldest and most experienced leader at the table, could not afford to back down or show weakness, given the fragility of his power, and so argued, threatened, and postured just as much as Platinum and Puddinghead.

With the summit a failure, and with the Three Tribes practically on the brink of war, the windigoes rapidly multiplied in the background, and the cold and the famines only grew worse. It soon became clear that the blizzard was not going away, and that the land would become uninhabitable before too long. Each of the Three Tribes independently came to the same conclusion, that they should abandon their northern homelands and begin a mass migration across the Yaket Range to their southern colonies instead.

The Great Migration:
The ponies did not all leave the north at once, instead moving south in waves. Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead each led an expeditionary force ahead of the main migrations, keeping their paths as separate as possible, and later waves of migrants would follow the trails left by the initial expeditions. In this way, they attracted less attention from the yaks and dragons, and the latter waves had time to pack up and transport everything of importance.

The Earth Pony Republic were the first to completely vacate their homelands, clearing the path for the unicorns, who took longer to transport their remaining material wealth and possessions with so many of their citizens in such a weakened state. Star Swirl the Bearded and King Bullion stayed behind to assist in coordinating the Unicorn Kingdom's withdrawal. The pegasi were the last to abandon the north, waiting until the most opportune moment to withdraw from the west without their enemies' notice, and took their entire capital city of Cloudsdale with them, pushing it south across the mountains.

Despite these tactics, the exodus of the ponies would surely still have been noticed if not for the windigoes. With the ponies leaving, the windigoes in the north split their forces, with many choosing to follow the southern pony migration, but many more staying behind in the north to feed on the chaos and disharmony of the yaks and dragons instead. The Dragon Empire, now under the rule of Queen Teneblight, eventually discovered the windigoes that were feeding upon them, and fought back. However, the emotions that the fighting brought out in the dragons only fed the windigoes more, making them stronger and prolonging the conflict for decades.

While the Dragon Empire would eventually be victorious, in the end, it was all in vain. In the chaos of the war, the ponies had disappeared completely, and without the pegasi maintaining the weather, the north's natural cold climate took over, combining with the lingering magic of the windigoes to make the Fimbulwinter truly unending. Even destroying the windigoes entirely was no longer enough to stop it, and fierce magical snowstorms still cover the north even to this day, which is why the region is now known as the Frozen North.

The First Hearth's Warming:
In the south, the migration of the Three Tribes ended in yet more conflict. The leaders of the expedition forces attempted to go their separate ways, intending to settle different sides of the continent, which they variously named either Unicornia, Pegasopolis, or Earth. However, the pre-existing earth pony colony of Baltimare and unicorn colony of Fillydelphia were already in close enough proximity that they could not avoid each other. To make matters worse, the pegasi also drifted off track and arrived in the region ahead of both the other expeditions, parking Cloudsdale over Foal Mountain before they arrived.

With the Three Tribes all believing that they had a prior claim on the land, and all refusing to back down, violence finally broke out over the border dispute. The sheer disharmony of their fighting led to the windigoes creating another blizzard, which only worsened matters, as the Tribes only became more convinced that their neighbours were the true cause of the Fimbulwinter.

As the weather worsened, Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead were all incapacitated, nearly freezing to death while fighting in the blizzard. It thus fell to Clover the Clever, Private Pansy, and Smart Cookie to take command of the Three Tribes and maintain order. With lives at stake and the blizzards becoming worse by the day, the three quickly negotiated a ceasefire, and began evacuating civilians from Cloudsdale and the nearby colonies to take refuge in the lower caves of Foal Mountain together.

It was this act of cooperation which revealed the windigoes, who were detected by Clover the Clever when they followed them into the caves and froze over the exits. Once they had identified the windigoes as the true source of their woes, Clover the Clever, Private Pansy, and Smart Cookie gathered their peoples together and revealed their discovery, telling them that only by putting aside their differences and unifying in the face of the greater threat could they hope to survive.

The earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi took the message to heart, and built fires and sang songs together to keep warm in the freezing cave, determined not to let the creatures beat them. Old feuds were forgotten, and new friendships were forged, not the least of which was the friendship between Clover, Cookie, and Pansy. This newfound unity inspired Clover the Clever, and reminded her of the tale of the Crystal Heart and how it had defeated the umbrums.

Using her magic, Clover the Clever infused the largest bonfire in the cave with the power of her newfound friendships, and then amplified its magic by harnessing the positive emotions of the other ponies in the cave. The magic of friendship turned the bonfire's flames pink, and transformed it into a potent weapon against the windigoes. With the newly created Fire of Friendship, Clover and her friends were able to melt the ice, revive their fallen leaders, and finally drive the windigoes back. This event marked the first Hearth's Warming Eve.

The following day, the newly recovered leaders of the Three Tribes returned to their previous positions. Seeing the merit in what their subordinates had done, and now knowing who their true enemies were, they agreed to forget the border dispute and share the land between them, and formalised an alliance to fight the remaining windigoes together. Clover, Cookie, and Pansy were all awarded various honours for their services, and were appointed to a special council with the purpose of organising and overseeing the new Equestrian Concord.

The formal declaration of this alliance marked the official foundation of Equestria, and the beginning of the Classical Era.

Acknowledgements:
-The Warrior's Privilege, and the general concept of the ancient pegasi as a moneyless society, was stolen from The Lunar Rebellion by Chengar Qordath.
-The name of the Equestrian Concord is taken from Bug on a Stick by Orbiting Kettle.