[Based off Game of Thrones History and Lore: Oldtown by Pycelle and Qyburn.]

Star-Swirl: Ah, Canterlot. Without question, Canterlot is the oldest, wealthiest and greatest city in all of Equestria.

Vorpal Blade: Though Manehattan is more populous, and arguably more lucrative.

Star-Swirl: As I was saying, the city is built into the mighty Mount Canterhorn. The word ‘Canter’, of course, is taken from the old equine term ‘Cannt’ meaning to ‘observe from above’. This was combined with the onomatopoeic sound the common hoof makes when walking hard and briskly. For a while, ‘Canter’ was the word used specifically when travelling uphill. Hence why, Canterhorn and Canterlot are as high as hills will go in Equestria.

Vorpal Blade: You’re quite certain? There is some evidence that the word is taken from ‘En Canto’, the Crystalline term for vocal spells or enchantments. Thereby declaring it the centre-point of both magic and royal decree.

Star-Swirl: A plausible theory but one with little actual base. Now below the city, built under the mountain where the Seadragon River winds through the rock, is the semi-subterranean Canterbury Port, kept alight day and night by the glowing crystals in the Canterhorn, where trade and travel are accomplished, vast stairways providing safe journey up through the mountain and into our great city. The bounty of the nation flows beneath the stone and crystal to and from ports renowned throughout the world.

Vorpal Blade: Thus we needn’t speak more of them. Much more interesting is the deeper history of the city. For none can say when it was founded. Its rulers have changed for certain but as far as anypony can tell, the city has always stood at the peak of the mountain, watching over the domain. Many centuries ago, a few intrepid scholars sought out the Elk who claimed that ponies have lived at the peak of the Canterhorn since before the First Age of Magic.

Star-Swirl: Nonsense. Archmage Polaris proved that the city began as a stronghold to protect the first rulers of the Flutter Pony Kingdom-In-Exile when they fled the valley, hounded by Tirek and his creatures, desperate to build a fortress that could not be reached even by him. This was shortly after the end of the First Age of Magic.

Vorpal Blade: Really? I have heard that Archmage Hamadryas dated pony remains found around the mountain to be much older than that particular era.

Star-Swirl: Well, I’m sure that the possibility that some form of equine society was based at the mountain peak is fairly likely but no actual city was built until during the First Invasion of Tirek.

Vorpal Blade: But Archmage Extravaganza dated it much earlier. And Archmage De Witt much later.

Star-Swirl: Yes, but Archmage Polaris was there at the time and provides the fullest documentation.

Vorpal Blade: Fullest is not necessarily the most accurate.

Star-Swirl: Nonetheless. The port was built to supply the Flutter Ponies and in time they ventured from there into pastures new, spreading the words of friendship and harmony across Equestria’s free domains in the Flutter Pony’s desire to explore and adventure. Hence, the highest building in the city, the Tall Tower of Time where the Princess and her most skilled servants are allowed to work and study in safety, the place secure and stable to support the most adventurous spells. The tower was raised even before the city walls as a watchtower. Originally built out of wood and standing a mere fifty feet about the stone base of its foundation, it is now thick marble and silver, tempered in brass and gold, and rises even taller than the spires of the Princess’s Castle. Those born and raised in the city can tell the time of day by where its shadow falls.

Vorpal Blade: But nopony can tell why. One would think it counter-intuitive to build a watchtower before the walls were built and, even then, what would be the point of watching out for an enemy emerging upon a city that, if attacked, had nowhere to escape to but off the mountainside? As for the ancient stone that forms from the mountainside, supporting the tower and most of the west-city, its stone is smooth yet sheer and white as snow. One would not be able to safely build a city upon it without it sliding off the edge. Yet the towers rise with no hints of joints or mortar, no chisel marks of any kind. We know the stone predates the city itself by thousands of years. But who built it? How? And against what?

Star-Swirl: Well, Vorpal Blade, if you had been among those who have actually studied it, you would know it to be of Crystal Pony construction, akin to the spires of their own Imperial Cities and the caverns guarding the Tree of Harmony. As is well known, the ponies of the Crystal Empire, back in its glory days, could turn base rock into crystal and shape it as they wished.

Vorpal Blade: Not just rock. Ice, mud, plant, bone and even living flesh could be transformed into the gems they prized so dearly. But didn’t Archmage Proone link the fortress to the vanished subterranean Hipposaurs? And Archmage Cribbage to the legendary ‘Gores’ who inhabited the mountains before the ponies, griffons and dragons?

Star-Swirl: Ugh...Marginal opinions without common support. But of more importance than the city and what it’s built upon is the family that first ruled it after the Founding. Though not the city's founder's, they were undoubtedly its most influential administrators. The House of Precious from whence the celebrated Princess Platinum was born. The millennia-old ruling family, known for their wisdom, generosity and love of peace.

Vorpal Blade: And of power.

Star-Swirl: During the Second Age of Magic, when Laurelore the Firsticorn first appeared on Equestria, with many of the populace fearing this otherworldly entity would be a threat, Princess Platinum did not oppose her through force of arms as Hurricane wished to do, but through reason. She built the grand Hall of Harmony, the house of governance, and debated long and keenly with the Alicorn, never showing fear or anger.

Vorpal Blade: A rare feat. Some might say beyond realistic.

Star-Swirl: I remember it well. She then bound her house to the Alicorns by swearing a sacred oath upon the Element of Generosity to always uphold the virtues of harmony or give up their gift of magic. Every unicorn family that did the same as her prospered and thrived in the unity of ponykind. The list of all one-hundred and sixty families was documented by myself soon afterward in the Inheritance of Gratitude.

Vorpal Blade: I believe I’ve glanced at it. Though I confess to being disappointed at not finding the information I was seeking, namely what happened to the remaining ninety-six unicorn families that didn’t swear the oath.

Star-Swirl: Well, of that little is known. Needless to say the Alicorn monarchy, advised and administered by Platinum, Clover and the other Founders, was the safest and most prosperous domain in Equestria. All others at the time provided little sanctuary to those so foolish as to denounce the age of harmony. Platinum’s allegiance to Laurelore and the benefits both houses brought each other transformed her family from powerful but relatively minor monarchs to the greatest heroes in unicorn history. Thanks to her courage and the wisdom of her faithful servant, Clover the Clever, the House of Precious, though nowadays only distantly related to the fabled Princess of old, has always had great influence in Canterlot, even indirectly. It is through Platinum and Clover’s example that the unicorns have mastered their higher pursuits such as learning and trade and strategy.

Vorpal Blade: On that, we agree. When Platinum’s grandfather, King Calsim the White, killed his arch-rival Windsor the Red, he traded his first wife for Windsor’s younger and prettier widow.

Star-Swirl: Queen Dovedale held the hearts of Windsor’s subjects! Her marriage to Calsim was the quickest way to ensure peace! The former Queen Ruthenia was well-treated by Calsim after their separation! Even you, Vorpal Blade, cannot believe Calsim the Just was motivated by something so petty as carnal desire!

Vorpal Blade: Not at all, I was merely pointing out that I admire him for knowing a good trade when he saw one. Just as Princess Platinum traded to Laurelore not only a list of anti-alicorn sympathisers among her vassals but also her last-living niece, Glittering Gem, in return for custody over a young Flutter-Pony that she had learned was very close to the Princess- Mimic.

Star-Swirl: Oh for goodness sake! Those two affairs were not related, Vorpal Blade, nor meant as a threat to either party! Laurelore gladly allowed the tutoring of Glittering Gem and Mimic. And under Platinum and myself, Mimic learnt all there was to know about magic, becoming Archmage after me and ruling well for the duration of her life. As to the ‘anti-alicorn sympathisers’ as you call them, no severe action was taken against them. Laurelore simply wished to know who among her subjects were troubled and needed reassurance. In any case, all they did was for peace and plenty among the unicorn kingdoms as well as their neighbours. With order restored at last, myself and my faithful students Platinum and Clover were at her majesty’s side whenever she wished, teaching her and her daughters the importance and the finer points of the gift of magic.

Vorpal Blade: Is that quite correct? In the Romance of the Three Tribes by Deacon Touchstone, Platinum was described as a spoilt, petulant bully who turned her muzzle up at the Alicorn Princess and her ‘blank-flanked’ daughters and was soundly humiliated multiple times by them and Clover who denounced her before the court.

Star-Swirl: A slanderous lie put about by mud...slinging charlatans three hundred years after the fact! The book was disproved mere months after its documentation and despite its distressing popularity among more naïve communities, ponies of wisdom know better than to take its word as that of the princess’s. Hah! I would have thought such baseless allegations too fanciful for even you to believe, Vorpal Blade! Ah, then again, the fantasising of history is whisky and tobacco to dreamers and radicals.

Vorpal Blade: Well, I wouldn’t know. Perhaps if I’d studied at Canterlot as long as you, Archmage, in the Royal Academy.

Star-Swirl: It would have done you the world of good, as I have often said. The Royal Academy, of which Princess Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns is the most prominent subsidiary, is the greatest seat of learning in the Known World. Without it, and the scholars it trains, Equestria would be a land of superstition and ignorance.

Vorpal Blades: Like the ignorance that surrounds the destruction of all the other greatest seats of learning in the Known World? Or indeed the ignorance that still surrounds the workings of magic itself?

Star-Swirl: Even without official records, we have more than enough reason to believe that the Royal Academy and the School For Gifted Unicorns were based off the first unofficial university ever designed by unicorns, the Court of Echoes, designated an area of religious and expressive freedom where scholars and priests could enquire, debate and philosophise in peace and where wise unicorns would always have a home. Built and assembled by the wise and benign sorceress queen, Starflower of Fayglade. After her death, her youngersister Moonstone built the Court of Echoes greater and grander so that the wise could continue their lofty practices that had given such joy to her elder sister. After Fayglade was nearly ruined during the Invasion of Tirek, Moonstone kept the designs and had similar courts built across her domain, prompting all rulers with similar wisdom to do likewise. The designs were kept safe by Platinum during the great winter and gifted to Laurelore after the founding whereupon the largest and most glorious of the magical academies was built in Canterlot. And it has stood ever since, proudly and earnestly serving the realm.

Vorpal Blade: The realm had magic before the Grand Academy or even the Court of Echoes. And the means to study it. It’s indulgent to think the Grand Academy gave ponykind something so natural as the thirst for knowledge...or for power. The Grand Academy serves its own importance, as do almost all of its scholars.

Star-Swirl: Hah. Every word you speak merely validates how you should have taken up my offer of tutorship when you had the chance. You would have found it a very enlightening and rewarding experience.

Vorpal Blade: I find enlightenment well enough on my own and that’s all the reward I need. And regardless, the scholars of the Grand Academy certainly are experts in ‘What Is’ and have advanced far beyond the ‘What Was’ of previous kingdoms, as you yourself, Star-Swirl, proved against your predecessor, Archmage Stance. But ‘What Will Be’ remains a mystery, one nopony in Canterlot seems prepared for. To prepare for a mystery is indeed difficult if not impossible but the world changing is always an inevitability. No matter how high the tower, the clouds will not hold it up if the ground shifts beneath it.

6852011
Very interesting as always