A Complete History of the Kingdom of Equestria

by Book_Wyrm

The Solar Era

Chapter 6: The Solar Era

The Solar Era, in which Princess Celestia ruled as a single absolute monarch, is often considered a Golden Age for Equestria and its pony neighbors. During this era, technology and society progressed in leaps and bounds. For an overwhelming amount of the millennium of the Solar Era, Equestria and many of its neighbors were at peace.

The Solar Era is also known for the rise of Amiscitism, a philosophy of friendship and harmony that is most prevalent in modern Equestrian culture. Although history is unsure how this philosophy first arose to power, its concept quickly took root. By the early 300’s EE, it had overwhelmed all other philosophies and religions in Equestria, becoming a dominant force. The government embraced Amiscitism. It quickly became the foundation for much of the new policy.

In the mid 300’s, Princess Celestia began a series of reforms to alter the government. With her sister gone, the Princess created new position, Captain of the Royal Guard, to lead the armed forces. Another reform was the creation of the Equestrian Education Association, to help regulate the schools.

The legal reforms implemented were also astounding. The death penalty was abolished, as was every form of slavery as a criminal punishment. A court system was set up. No longer were most trials sent directly to the Princess, a reform necessary with the growing population and the beginning of Celestia’s rule as a monarch.

During this time, Equestria also began to globalize, forming alliances with neighboring kingdoms. One of the most notable of these kingdoms was Prance. After signing a treaty with King Charlemane, the leader of Prance, agreed to assist Equestria. New trade routes were opened, and the Prench and Equestrians began to immigrate and trade between their two nations. Within a hundred years, the kingdom of Prance had been incorporated into Equestria, joining them as the southwestern territory on the coast. It was in this fashion that Equestria came to hold as much territory as it did. Though many kingdoms, mostly those run by other creatures or separated from Equestria by great distance, remained autonomous, numerous pony lands were absorbed into the kingdom as time went on, voluntarily abdicating their autonomy to join Equestria.

One side effect, sadly, of the beginnings of Equestria and the fact that Equestria is a majority pony society, is that it retained and still holds an overall backwards view of outside societies and species, generally considering them barbaric and dangerous. The prejudices towards these other creatures was rather similar to the prejudices towards dark magic users. These views, while not personally shown by Princess Celestia, have led to a lack of cooperation, or friendly ties between Equestria and nearly all non-pony nations. Throughout the Solar Era, though there were few to no battles inside the borders of the kingdom itself, there were many expeditions into other kingdoms. Many of these expeditions led only to further hostilities between Equestria and the nations, because these nations often considered the pony military invaders and meddlers, and justly so.

A prime example of this would be the Zebra wars. In 633 EE great zebra chieftain began to attempt to unify the Zebrican Tribes. This leader is seemingly unnamed in history books, for it is believed the Equestrians never bothered to write down the names of most creatures from elsewhere during military expeditions. The unification process was long and bloody. About two years into the war, Captain Ironhead of the Royal Guard ordered an expedition to “calm things down.” The expedition ended up killing the zebra chieftain and razing many Zebrican villages and farmlands while hunting down the zebra military. They then occupied Zebrica for fifty years. During this time, Princess Celestia had left the kingdom on diplomatic business with a group of creatures beyond the Gryphian Mountains.

The occupation of Zebrica was a terrible time. The Equestrian military destroyed numerous ritual sites and powerful Zebrican objects. They controlled food supplies in the few Zebrican cities. Ironhead continued to make things worse for the zebras, saying, “The savannah creatures obviously are incapable of getting over their savagery unless we teach them.” He attempted to press as much of Equestrian culture upon the zebras as possible. The oppression only stopped after Ironhead died at the age of 88 in 715 EE. His successor, Legion, saw the foolishness of what they had done and pulled troops out of Zebrica as quickly as possible.

The sudden disappearance of the Equestrians plunged Zebrica back into chaos. A bloody war was fought and lasted for nearly ten more years. When the zebras finally found peace, they had separated once again into the tribes. They blamed Equestria for their instability and bloodshed. When Celestia returned, she was shocked and furious about the whole affair. She sent a profuse apology to the Zebrican leaders and promised to remove most of the border troops. However, the Zebras closed themselves off from Equestria, and this isolation, and the memories brought home by Equestrian troops, led to today’s common prejudices and fears.

After the Zebrican Wars, the known world saw peace for nearly two a century. But then, in 810 EE, the Gryphon Kingdom collapsed. King Gruto, the king at the time, was slaughtered when Arimaspi the Cyclops broke into the palace and the Idol of Boreas, the Griffons most sacred artifact. The item was lost when Arimaspi, chased by the griffon soldiers fell into the Abysmal Abyss, a great crevice just outside of Griffonstone. This led to the decline of the griffons. Soon enough, the kingdom broke apart and Griffonstone fell into ruin. There was no true centralized government, and the griffons entered a period of poverty and chaos. However, the Equestrian government failed to reach out to the griffons. After the immense failure of the Zebrican campaign, Princess Celestia and the Equestrian government became increasingly more isolationist, and other creatures were becoming more and more rare in Equestria. In fact, very few ponies even knew Griffonstone had collapsed at all for nearly two hundred years.

Few notable events occurred after the fall of the Griffons. One notable event, however, was the founding of Ponyville in 956 EE. The Smith family asked for permission to settle on unclaimed land near the Everfree Forest. Princess Celestia granted them permission. The Smith family settled on the land and were soon joined by numerous other families. They soon grew into a town, one of the largest in the Equestrian Central Region.

Another notable even, in 1035 EE. One day, Princess Celestia mysteriously ventured into northern Equestria. When she returned, she brought with her a young alicorn filly, who was quickly coronated and dubbed Mi Amore Cadenza. Princess Mi Amore then faded into the background for many years and did little on the political stage until the invasion of Canterlot in 1050 EE.

In 1049 EE, Equestria was celebrating its official 1000^th Summer Sun Celebration. However, the young student of Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, found evidence of the return of the then legendary Nightmare Moon. Then, the celebration, taking place in Ponyville, was in fact destroyed by Nightmare Moon, who arrived, proclaimed eternal night, and took the title of ruler of Equestria.

Twilight Sparkle gathered to her a group of other ponies, by the names of Rarity Belle, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkamena Diane Pie (Pinkie). They traveled into the Everfree Forest. There, they found the legendary magical weapons, The Elements of Harmony. They battled Nightmare Moon and defeating her. Afterwards, she returned to her original form of Princess Luna.

Princess Celestia announced her sister’s return. She officially reinstated her as a Ruler of Equestria and pardoned her of any crimes against Equestria. However, it is important to note that after her 1000 years on the moon, Princess Luna was little known in Equestria. All that remained of her for the most part were legends. Ponies were scared and confused by this new alicorn, and because of it, as well as her lack of knowledge of modern Equestria, Princess Luna did not take much of the political role, preferring to return to her ancient and long vacant position of Steward of Dreams.

With Luna’s return, the Solar Era officially ended, and pony kind stepped into its new and continuing era: The Era of Harmony.

Author's Note:

Finally. This took so long to actually finish. Vacation and schoolwork have been getting in the way. Its here at last though.

Comments

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

If this is finished, you need to change the status to "complete"

[Book_Wyrm]

9593967
one more chapter to go.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

9595528
Sorry, I haven't read this yet. When I skimmed the last chapter, it looked like you had caught up to the present

[Artist]

This is amazing I love it