Hi everypony, my name is Imperator Augustus and today on Crash Course, I'd like to start with a question. When, if ever, is it ok to sink a city of two million beneath the waves?

To answer this question we need to back to the last chapter on the Great Exodus. If you remember the ponies fled Elephan from the Titans. Well, after about quarter year at sea going from island to island, a great beacon lit up the sky, guiding the pony vessels to the shores of Maredoron. This beacon was the explosion of the Elven Skybridge

About a thousand years prior, the Elves decided it would be a great idea to bring their gods, whom had blessed their civilization with prosperoty, from the ether down to the mortal world. So they devoted their resources to a great mechanism to open up a portal to the ether called the Skybridge. But when the Gods came through, the mechanism exploded behind them, blasting away any non-godlike life for thousands of miles and creating a massive mountain chain in the center of this new desert (Now the Southern Empire and the Skybridge Mountains).

When the first of these ships arrived, they were set upon by the Aqus'Dorim, the greatest sailors in the elven navy. Battles raged back and forth, with the overwhelming strength of the exodus fleet pushing past and landing their passengers upon Maredoron. Now on the continent, they went to war with the Elven Empire, beginning an immensely long conflict called the Thousand Years War by Ponies, and the War of Eternity by the Elves

The first millennia of the Thousand Years War made it look like the Elves would push the ponies back into the sea, their superior weapons making battles quick as they brought plasma rifles to bear against the steel swords of Ponykind, but it was when they made the terrible decision to use their Myrmidon war constructs against the ponies.

During their imperialist era, the Elves had subjugated the other native races of Maredoron, the Kobolds, Dragons, Griffons, and Changelings. When the Elves deployed the Myrmidons against the Ponies, they had to pull them from the garrisons keeping the subject races in line, and without those war engines, the garrisons were in no condition to withstand the revolts that erupted around that time.

The first revolution that occurred (revolution being a revolt that succeeds, a rebellion being one that fails) was of the Dragons, the great Wyrms clearing out the mountains of Southern Maredoron of Elves, next came the Kobolds to the west, Changelings in the South, and Griffons in the northern mountains, these forces carving out somewhat short-lived kingdoms that would eventually be absorbed by Ponies.

With these revolutions came increased strain on the Elven Empire, having been reduced down to their heartland by 600,000 B.C. (Before Conquest). Onward ponies pressed, turning to their Alicorn Aquamancers to sink the fortresses they could not capture beneath lakes and rivers. A grievous blow to the Elves came in 542,345 B.C. when the Alicorns sank the Elven capital city of Vashra'irys, seemingly killing the beautiful Queen Ryaven.

Oh, is it time for the open letter?

An open letter to Warfare

Dear warfare, you've been a pretty dominant force in Gaian history, having decided the fates of entire species through clashes of arms, being the first true shared culture of ponies and elves, and being so vastly opposed by certain civilizations that others have decided to wage war against those peace loving civs.

To start off, a lot of war really is pointless, like the Aqus'dorim needlessly attacking the Exodus Fleet and starting the Thousand Years War, but for a lot of history, the greats revolutionary ideas came from warfare, like the idea that no one nation can control a continent from the Thousand Years, that an empire can be built from twenty different feuding tribes during the Southern Conquest, and can bring true alliances to kingdoms that have spent their entire existence at war from the Legion's Invasion

All in all, you've been both good and an asshole

Best wishes, Augustus

So the Thousand Years War ended in 7289 B.C. at the Battle of the Mists when the Elves drove an Alicorn force from the Gate of Mists, the entrance to the Eternal Forest and the birthplace of Elves, now named Ios. After this, the kingdoms of the other races, excluding Zebras, whom we will talk about next, were absorbed by Ponykind, eventually forming the kingdoms of Ottomare, Equestria, Boletaria, Cariosus, and the Southern Empire

While the advance of ponies is undeniable, the damage to the environment, especially by the Southern Empire, is something that never would of happened under Elven rule. Whether or not the Ponies emerging victorious in the Thousand Years War is up to debate, but you can't change that, so it is best to study it so it never happens again

See you next time when we discuss the Zebras, Zecca, and the rise of the Blood Benders