How easy it was to take over:

Thousands of ponies enter and exit Canterlot every day. Many of these ponies were the rich, the influential ponies who held so much sway over the masses, hoping to add even more riches to their inflated wealth, despite the fierce competition of hundreds of nobles attempting to do the same. And there were many that were attempting to gain a new life from farming, aspiring to reach the status of nobility. Nobility went out seeking business and social gatherings everywhere in the white city of Canterlot. And with so many trying to strike it rich in the city deaths and accidents quickly caught up.

You could step off the curb of the street and get hit by a Canterlot Taxi. At least two nobles a day would be killed in a crossing accident. At least one would find his or herself in front of the new railroad carts. Bits and pieces would be found for the next few days. Fires would take dozens of lives, and at least one would get shot. With all these deaths, one would assume something odd is going on and perhaps Canterlot is not safe. But the lure of power and money was too great for most ponies, and still the familiar sound of new hooves hitting the pavement echoed through the city of Canterlot.

But something disturbing arose as more and more continued to come.

The Old Money, as they were favorably called by the regular citizens of Canterlot, were slowly being picked away. Those who had grown up within the old society of Equestria, and who had taken to the lessons of friendship to heart, were slowly being replaced by those who had grown up with the new capitalist system in their minds and souls. Even with the newly established secret service, sworn to protect all the citizens of Equestria, the murders and accidents continued. But no pony in Equestria could possibly conceive that these incidents had all been planned. No pony had ever been born who was so sadistic and mad as to plot the deaths of the country's beloved nobility.

So one afternoon, when a young handsome surgeon, his horn glowing as he picked up his suit case, stepped off the train and into a world full of steam, smoke, clamor, danger, and endless possibilities. He looked around the crowded platform, and watched with glee, the moving forms of mares and children. How their legs moved with simple grace, the muscle underneath pushing against the skin. And the blood coursing through their entire bodies. He licked his lips as sniffed the scent of smoke, sweat, and scent on the train platform. He began to walk away, the large coat masking his mismatched limbs from the general public, and smiling happily. He would like it here.

For it was easy to disappear, to fake emotion, and so very easy in the smoke, clamor, and din to mask that something sinister and deadly had taken root in the heart of the kingdom that worshiped kindness and friendship.

This was Canterlot, on the eve of the greatest event of Equestrian history.