Anno Equestria: A Brief History of the Pony Nation

by Insert Pen Name

A Declining Capital*

Anno Equestria
A Brief History of the Pony Nation
A FiM fic by (Insert Pen Name)

A Declining Capital
AE300-666

By AE300, the population of Equestria had reached over 10 million ponies. Peace and plenty flourished from coast to coast as a tremendous post-war boom gripped the nation. Despite the war, trade with the Griffon Isles was at an all-time high, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Equestria’s new griffon diaspora. Boom-towns such as Baltimare and Los Pegasus grew by the day, and through it all, the promises of harmony brought continued hope and optimism to the pony nation.

But in the midst of this golden age, tragedy was brewing. While Equestria grew and thrived, the beloved capital of Canterlot was slowly sliding into decline. At its height, Canterlot had been the proud home to nearly 200,000 ponies, and was the golden hub of Equestria’s trade network. For generations, artists, scholars, engineers, philosophers, and innovators of every stripe had called the city home, drawn by its vast libraries, beautiful gardens, and splendid palaces. Canterlot was the jewel of Equestria, and for the longest time, its splendour seemed unassailable.

Unfortunately, fate conspired against the city from the very moment of its foundation. The great Everfree Forest that had once provided timber for its construction and forage for its populace had slowly became its greatest enemy. Of course, in the early years of Equestria, nopony had been aware of the anomalous nature of the Everfree Forest, nor could they have predicted what would become of their fair capital. But even by AE25, the forest had visibly begun to spread, and by AE300, the entire east side of the city was under the shadow of the Everfree. The walls became overgrown with vines, trees and bushes sprouted freely within the yards, and many of the homes nearest the wall had been abandoned as ponies became more and more superstitious of the mysterious forest. Despite numerous defoliant efforts, the forest was unrelenting in its expansion. Within the next three hundred years, the Everfree would almost completely encircle Canterlot.

With the roads slowly being swallowed up by the forest, merchants coming from the East Coast were forced to find alternate routes to reach the city. Eventually, the trade routes bypassed Canterlot altogether, with numerous smaller towns and villages growing rich off the detoured merchants. This loss of income was coupled with a growing need to import food from farther afield, as the encroaching Everfree began to overtake Canterlot’s surrounding farmlands. Though Canterlot’s recession was gradual, many ponies began to seek their fortunes elsewhere. In AE380, the national census put Canterlot’s population at a steadily shrinking 92,500 ponies. Compared to Manehatten’s growing 126,000, the trend was clear; Canterlot’s glory days were ending.

Even the city’s political culture was in sharp decline. Though Parliament and its Triumvirate remained the model of Equestrian democracy, the same could not be said for the rest of the nation. Throughout Equestria, most towns and cities were still controlled to some degree or another by members of the nobility. Though the Unity Act had long ended the nobility’s status as exclusively unicorn, noble families continued to maintain authority through a combination of wealth, charisma, and cooperation with other wealthy families. As the power of the nobles grew, so too did the power of the cities they controlled. By the early AE400s, many of the major cities, particularly Manehatten, Baltimare, and Los Pegasus, had virtually become city-states in their own right, exerting their own authority while Parliament became little more than a token body. Only the Triumvirate continued to wield any real power over the nation.

This pattern of political decay came to a head in the year AE453, when the famously (and almost ridiculously) corrupt former mayor of Manehatten, Tweed Suit, was appointed to the Eighteenth Triumvirate*. Though not a noble himself, he had close ties to many wealthy families, and strengthened his political base with a brutally efficient system of bribery, blackmail, and intimidation. Over the course of his fifteen years as mayor, Suit had embezzled an unfathomable sum of money, which he used to fund his Parliamentary career. As Triumvir, he began a slow, but masterful campaign to reroute power and funds back to Parliament, and thus to himself. His efforts were not without opposition. Both the nobility and his fellow (morally upstanding) Triumviri constantly worked against him, and over the next ten years, Suit managed to survive two attempts to dissolve the Triumvirate and remove him from power**. It was not until AE463 that confirmed reports of Suit’s corruption, combined with witness accounts of his personal excesses, finally gave Parliament the legal precedent to expel Tweed Suit from the government. Suit was sentenced to life imprisonment for his various crimes, and died in prison in AE479.

Ironically, Tweed Suit’s machinations had served some good for Parliament. Despite his iniquities, Suit had succeeded in weakening the power of the nobility and their cities, and Parliament immediately set about reasserting itself and imposing strict parametres for the balance of power in Equestria. The Triumvirates were restricted to twenty year term limits, and a series of new bills imposed clear limits on the powers of city governments and the nobles that controlled them. Despite Parliament’s resurgence, however, Canterlot continued to crumble. By AE600, the city was spiraling into debt, and its population had shrunk to a mere 76,000. Only the city’s artistic and intellectual heritage kept it from falling apart entirely.

Unfortunately, Canterlot’s days were numbered, as a new and unfathomable power emerged to bring the whole of Equestria to its knees...

*Eighteenth Triumvirate (AE453-458): Tweed Suit, Lady Orchid, Windchaser.

**Subsequent Triumvirates:
Nineteenth Triumvirate (AE458-462): Tweed Suit, Baron Pearly-White, Raindancer.
Twentieth Triumvirate (AE462-463): Tweed Suit, Radiance, Colonel Hailstone.
Twenty-First Triumvirate (AE463-483): Radish Red, Radiance, Colonel Hailstone.

Comments

[Pilgrims Progress]

A Pony Tammany Hall? Awesome!

[BenRG]

Thus was the state of the Magical Land of Equestria when Discord came.