The Millennium Archives

by Moonatik

The Centuries of Calm

“This part isn’t nearly as cool in my opinion, so I’ll-” Moonatik takes a thick, modern book out of the desk, “-just read out of an encyclopedia.”

Extracts from Encyclopedia Equestris, Vol VII

The Centuries of Calm, also known as the “Pax Equestris” (Old Equestrian for “Equestrian Peace”) or “Pax Celestia”, was a roughly seven-hundred-year period of uninterrupted peace and stability in Equestria. It is often described by historians to be a “miracle made possible only by Celestia’s guiding hoof”.

In the aftermath of the Lunar Rebellion, Celestia lost control of large swathes of Equestria with mass unrest and the fear of famine gripping the ponies of Equestria. Celestia couldn’t be everywhere at once, especially considering the loss of her sister and the defiance of her legions. Even the seat of her own power, the Everfree Forest, was not safe from this unrest as a group of Luna sympathising thestrals succeeded in a plot to detonate barrels of gunpowder in the castle cellars, which destroyed much of the castle. Before long the entire forest had to be abandoned due to the threat posed by bandits, other terrorists, the monsters of the Everfree, and so on.

Celestia moved to Canterlot and made that the new seat of power in Equestria, as it was the only location capable of projecting any semblance of authority so she could ensure stability across the country and prevent famine. Whilst Celestia was capable of securing stability in the valleys immediately around Canterlot, anything beyond that proved troublesome, so Celestia had to delegate the authority to govern the regions of Equestria to various local powerbrokers, some she trusted and some she only worked with out of necessity, only ever outright rejecting a certain powerbroker if they were aligned against the interests of a harmonious Equestria. The power these entrusted individuals had over the territory they governed was rather limited compared to those in other feudal societies of the time, in that they never held the power of life and death over their subjects.

The local powerbrokers eventually cemented their positions and gave themselves titles like “Baron”, “Duke”, “Lord” and such, with some even as bold enough to declare themselves “Prince” or “Princess”, with these positions being made hereditary in the majority of cases. Once the initial period of crisis was solved and the majority of ponies were saved from chaos and starvation, Celestia began to reassert her authority by revoking the power of these nobleponies to raise personal armies, forming the E.U.P. Guard as the primary army for all Equestria, and by making herself the official “owner” of all land in Equestria. Those beneath her were merely “holding” or “leasing” control of land whilst being subordinate to her will.

Despite this seeming attempt at centralising authority, Celestia ruled with a light hoof and mostly allowed her subjects to govern themselves as they pleased, only ever flexing her power to prevent disharmony and mostly acting as a “teacher” to the ponies of Equestria rather than an autocrat. The responsibility for kingdom-wide governance fell on behalf of Celestia’s Royal Court, a group of statesponies hoofpicked by Celestia herself. The members of her Royal Court varied from established nobles, to accomplished administrators, and experts in law, science, art, and business. It was common for Celestia to choose younger ponies to take positions on the Royal Court as she believed they held the most relevant perspective on current affairs, and the average age for court appointees was as low as 25 in some periods. Nonetheless, ponies tended to hold onto their positions for decades, if not life.

Princess Celestia also sought to take her role as a teacher in a more literal sense, founding a School for Gifted Unicorns, a School for Talented Pegasi, a School for Exceptional Earth Ponies, and even a School for Outstanding Thestrals a few centuries after the Lunar Rebellion. By far, the most successful of these was the School for Gifted Unicorns, a school at which Celestia herself would personally teach for hundreds of years, with her commitment to the other schools being mostly advisory with personal appearances and lessons being infrequent. This said, the School for Exceptional Earth Ponies soon evolved beyond a mere school and into a prestigious academic institution with a strong focus on agricultural research, and the School for Talented Pegasi became one of the most esteemed flight schools in the world, even if it would be overshadowed by the more famous Cloudsdale Flight School.

The result of these efforts was seven hundred years of peace, comfort, order, and stability. No other society in history, before or since, has enjoyed the level of elongated peace that Equestria did in this period. Even the lowest peasant knew only full bellies and a comfortable standard of living.

---

“Seems all hunky dory, right?” says Moonatik.

He stares at you. Menacingly. “Hahaha,” he laughs. “Hahaha!” he cackles, pointing at you. “Hahaha! FOOL! IDIOT! It WASN’T fine! It was TERRIBLE and here’s the proof!”

Verbal account of a thestral peasant, circa 340 ALB. Transcribed by Moonspeaker Thistle Starcotton.

Several moons ago, a golden chariot pulled by two gilded pegasus guards entered our village, carrying none other than Celestia.

After disembarking she strode through our village. None of us met her eyes. After getting the attention of one of us she asked them why we all looked so skinny and whether we’d had anything to eat today. Perhaps this was a sick attempt at humour.

Soon she announced the reason for her visit. A filly in our village had made a name for herself as a prodigy, teaching herself to read and write despite her squalid living conditions and lack of access to educational materials. Celestia hoped to take the foal away from the village to her school in Canterlot, “Celestia’s School for Outstanding Thestrals”. Celestia met with the foals mother, and the mother spat in Celestia’s face. Afterwards, the mother said, “You’re not teaching my foal anything until you’re prepared to teach the rest of Equestria the truth”. This was in reference to the unification war, something Celestia has lied about for centuries.

At this, she seemed legitimately shocked and confused. She passively denied the wars by repeating the false myths about how she claimed Equestria was founded, but when it became clear that we weren’t convinced by her fabrications she pivoted to asking why we treated her and those of other tribes with such hostility.

The answer was simple. When we hoped to trade with other villages or apply for aid from above, we were denied. All of us were treated like we had personally betrayed Equestria in a rebellion that ended three hundred years before we were born. With the Princess of the Sun herself treading on our home and asking we surrender our foals, it served only to rub salt in the wound.

Celestia received this information with surprise. Was she genuinely unaware of our plight? Regardless, she promised that agricultural aid would be sent to our village and that the nearby settlements will be instructed to treat us with dignity. With that, she left.

We have heard nothing since.

---

“Yeah, turns out that for like a thousand years things were absolutely terrible for thestrals. That’s just one anecdote, but the whole millennium was full of them, trust me. Alright, back to the encyclopedia just to wrap things up.”

Extracts from Encyclopedia Equestris, Vol VII

Nonetheless, historians rarely refer to the Centuries of Calm as Equestria’s “Golden Age”. The defining characteristic of this period was stagnation and slow growth. What progress was made in the realms of culture, industry, or science, with great achievements separated by decades if not centuries. Over the whole period, Canterlot’s population grew from 30,000 to 300,000. Coastal cities like Manehattan and Los Pegasus eventually grew into prosperous hubs for commerce and industry, but this was a centuries-long process.

In 649, the development of deep-water navigation allowed Equestrian traders, led by Colthumbus, to found the colony of Sunset on the South-Western tip of Griffonia. This colony would expand over the centuries into the Commonwealth of New Mareland. This colony and the access to Griffonian markets it provided would allow a hitherto unknown impetus to trade and industry which spurred the growth of the new class of merchants, industrialists, and financiers, who were the driving force in the Great Reformation.

---

“What’s the Great Reformation, you’re probably thinking?” Moonatik nods his head, leaning closer to the glass. “Right? Right?” He shuffles away, sinking into his chair. “Mhyeah.”