A letter from Chancellor Pretty Visions, about the history and culture of her nation, New Equestria...

The kingom of New Equestria lies for to the south of the Ponyland confederacy, beyond the Darkstone mountians that were once the domains of the Dark Lord Tirek. Our country was founded here more than 600 years ago, when Princess Luna sought to create a refuge for the ponies who had been orphaned or Displaced during Tirek's first war against Equestria. The recently emptied Ponyland Republic was a land opened for resettlement, so our great mother had the first settlers flown away from the war torn homeland, and brought them here, to dwell in the safety and solace of the caves. Over the next century thousands of more settlers came, as Alicornists and ponies who believed in the power of Friendship left the old Equestria behind.

As the colony grew out from it's initial settlement, the pony colonsts tried to re-create the world they had lost. Cities bearing names such as Trottingham, Fillydelphia, and Vanhoover sprang up across the map, suprisingly matching the spots said cities were in the old country. Bits were established as the colonial currency, and a land free of monster attacks prospered and grew. Princess Luna granted the colony enough atuonomy to govern itself, and the stage was set for a society that could run itself. A final influx of settlers came with the onset of the Grogar Wars, and when news came that our beloved mother had died battling the accursed goat- demon, it was decided by our elected parliment that something had to be done.

When Equestria was reorganized into the confederacy, New Equestria delcared it's independence. And it was here our two cultures diverged. Most of the settlers who had come to our lands were pure-blooded Equestrian ponies, while in the homeland orenital ponies, eastern ponies, and other barbarian equines poured into the old country. They diluted the blood and society of the few who didn't migrate or weren't killed, bringing an influx of strange customs and cultures into the decaying homeland. Stallions of this mixed blood grew more aggressive and savage, and the fuedal society of brutes that emerged from the Grogar Wars couldn't stand to live outside thier hive-like citadels, and left the open countryside to the incoming humans and elvish cultures.

But we colonials, we continued on as Equestrian ponies always had. Choosing a new Princess to rule over us, we continued to grow and thrive as if the home country had never fallen. Now, airships fill the skies over our cities, and our Pegasus forge and create our weather in New Cloudsdale. Our languge, while not the exact same tounge spoken by our ancestors, is an evolution of the old Equestrian tounge, rather than the hooting and hollering borrowed from a race of primates. We have not gone to war in four hundred and fifty years, and diplomats of every race and culture on the planet carry out diplomacy in Seleina, our capital city.

In other words, we are Equestria now- a beautiful butterfly that has spread it's wings to soar. Ponyland is the dead skin we have shed, which has been taken by lesser ponies as the home, the way a hermit crab takes a dead mollusk's shell. It may sound like arrogant boasting, Tornado, but I'm afraid the facts speak for themselves. Tell your wife the Princess I am still greatful for the new hairdo she gave me on your last visit, and I wish her well. Farewell, and may the light of Celestia and Luna watch over you all.

Pretty Visions

And Paradise's own speculation on this land's mysterious ruler...

The Mysterious Princess of New Equestria

New Equestria... a beautiful place, that carries on the traditions and customs of old Equestria, where life goes on much as it had in the old kingdom. There, the entire kingdom- a wonderful paradise of frendship and freedom. completely devoid of Ponyland's anger and rivalries and revenge. Under the wise rule of it's frienship council, this land has floursihed and prospered, the kingdom of Equestria living on in a land far to the south. But the ruler of this land- the mysterious princess who commands the ponies of Equestria- remains a figure shrouded in secrecy and rumor.

Who is this mysterious pony, who maintains the most harmonious equine kingdom in this world? Some say she is a changeling, a taker of forms who travels in disguise amongst her subjects, and learns what they really think and feel in order to rule them better. Others believe she is a crystal pony, shining the magic of her love over all of the ponies in her kingdom. But whatever the truth, it remins clear that this elusive mare remains hidden away from the public, only her closest advisiors and family actually see her in person, and carefully guarding the truth surrounding this myterious monarch- known only as the princess of friendship.

But amongst all of this speculation and rumor, lies one possible tale more fantastic than all of the others. Some fanficful ponies believe that the ruler of New Equestria is actually an alicorn, and immortal survivor of dome bygone age of Ponykind, who keeps the old ways alive from the shadows. They say she was a great pony of old, who did many great deeds, and saved ponykind of all sorts of evil and calamity in her day, but now seeks the solitude of her capital, Selenium, and seeks only to keep her small little corner of ponydom free of the darkness that tiants the rest of the world.

If this mare is indeed whom the whipered rumors claims she is, then even Applejack, the late Princess Cadence, Spike and even Celestia and Luna knew nothing of her continued existance. And if that particular pony did indeed survive the dak times, and even now lives in shadows far to the south... such a revelation would rock ponydom to it's very foundations, and NOTHING would even be seen the same way ever again. But the whole notion would be ludicrious, for how could [i]she[/i] have possibly survived the dark ages unoticed? She couldn't still possibly be alive...

Could She?

Paradise Oaisis