Hi, This is where disclaimers go, so I suppose I'll type a quick disclaimer.
First, I DON'T own My little pony, nor am I affiliated with it in any way, shape, or form, albeit I'm fairly sure I don't need to say that. Second, This is a fanfic, and therefore, made up, it is canon in no concievable way.
Also, in case you didn't see it, One of my other fanfics is up for adoption. It's "MLP A Whole New World", please PM me and give it a good home.
Pronunciations for the names and descriptions can be found at the bottom of the chapter. And this first, rather long, chapter is merely an intro, the real storyline kicks in at the beginning of chapter 2.
Chapter 1: Opening Narration
If you were to ever be fortunate enough to visit the land of Equestria, you'd be taken aback. A land without political upheaval, war, famine, pestilence, or any other form of negativity that befalls so many of our less fortunate governments today. No, it is a land of loving kindness, everlasting friendships, and every-pony's always ready to lend a helping hoof. The governing body is composed, seemingly exclusively, of two princesses. The elder ruling the day and raising the sun, the younger ruling the night and raising the moon. Together these two just and moraly upright princesses rule the land gracefully and lovingly.
But during the kingdom's beginnings the opposite held true. Celestia has ruled her kingdom with love for more than one thousand years, but Equestria dates back more than five thousand years. And there have been three rulers in those years. From 3000-2199 B.C. Gladius Crown ruled. From 2199 B.C. through 1421 A.D. Arsonic Nero ruled. Celestia has ruled since 1421.
The first king, Gladius Crown, was appointed by the ponies of the land. He was an alicorn even larger than Celestia herself. His magic was very powerful, at least for what they had at the time, but over time magic evolves just as much as civilization, and today Gladius would be considered only fairly powerful, but no match for the alicorns, or even high ranking unicorns, of today. Gladius was appointed for being just, kind, and above all, extremely clever. During his reign Equestria only contained the areas engulfing what is now Canterlot and the Everfree forest.
His kingdom was troubled by pegasi and griffons. For you see, during the earliest ages of the land Pegasi stuck with griffons, for they believed that they were the masters of the sky. When a pegasus would come to the ground Earth Ponies and Unicorns tended to look down on them. And the griffons were being ruled by Lord Massacre, who had taken the griffon empire by brute force. Gladius's main goal as a king was to slowly expand his own empire, while maintaining peace with the other kingdoms.
Lord Massacre, although he had a pact with Steel Wing, ruler of Pegasi, he hated ponies. And his goal was to, in time, destroy them all. First he would build an army, then take the strongest equine nation, then second strogest, and so on and so forth, until the time came for a surprise attack against the Pegasi.
Steel Wing was content with where his kingdom was. Griffons were expanding only on the ground, he had a non-aggression pact with Lord Massacre. And the ground ponies, how he reffered to Unicorns and Earth Ponies alike, couldn't reach the sky. He was free to rule the skies, and clouds however he pleased.
Gladius wasn't fond of griffons, and he thought lowly of Pegasi for siding with them over ponies. But he didn't want to deal the first blow, so he focused on building an army and expanding his territory. His first political move was to purchase the Colting Land, a large area of land covering what is now Manehattan and Phillydelphia. This, however, proved to be quite tricky, as the Colting Land wasn't one territory, but many small territories ruled by various tribes. He had finished buying the land and moving the native tribes by the year 2955 B.C. Then he established a large communit on the border of the Alicorn Ocean, which eventually became Manehattan.
If you are still reading this, allow me to thank you for your endurance! The next chapter begins a decent, if I may say so, storyline explaing the history of our favorite fictional kingdom.
Arsonic Nero is pronounced Are-Sonic Near-Oh. He is black with a red mane. His cutie mark is a flaming, black crown.
Gladius is pronounced Glad-Ee-Us. His name is taken from the Latin word gladiator. He is blue with a yellow mane. His cutie mark is a sword with a crown around the hand guard.
Lord Massacre is a large blakc and silver griffon. I don't think they can have a cutie mark...
Steel Wing is a deep, sparkling blue, with a shiny, silver mane. His Cutie mark is a wing clutching a sword.
Every chapter I like to hide history, camoes, reference's to other's work, symbolic numbers, and lots and lots of symbols that have been used in our history. SO...If any of you found refernces to real history, or any thing else I've thrown in the mix, feel free to leave a review, even if you don't have an account to let me know what it was. And every chapter the references will become harder to find, GOOD LUCK!