For as long as our people have lived and died, our home has been the Green Lands. Peaceful, fertile, bountiful. These lands have sheltered and provided for us for countless ages and, if fate is kind, will continue to do so for many ages to come. To the south lay vast and scorching deserts. To the west, the untamed wilderness of the Everfree Forest. To the north, the mountainous lands that serve as home to the Gryffs. And to the east, there is the endless ocean. Here, in the centre of it all, the Green Lands alone know peace and plenty.

And yet, it was not always so. While nobody today could ever remember a time when things were different, the dawn of our nation was filled with infighting and strife. Where today we have but one nation, in days gone by, there were many. The "age of a hundred kingdoms", as the common folk like to call it. And they are not entirely wrong. Before the unification of our people by Solaris the Great, there was hardly a time when one or two of our realm's separate states were not in conflict with one another. Some, like the lands of Solaris himself, managed to stay out of the constant infighting, but for others, their lives were a frequent battle. Gold, glory, land, or simply to pay back for some ancient offense. All these reasons and more kept our world at each other's throats for many generations.

But, then the unification began, and by the time it was done, we were but one people, and one nation, living peacefully for the first time in recorded history. And yet, even then, strife was known to us. The Gryffs of the north continued to plague our people, even after their failed first invasion, though their strikes would often be divided by many years, if not whole generations. And again too there were other conflicts, such as those of the Buffs and Zebes of the south. Thankfully, these latter conflicts were nowhere near as damaging, and often resulted in peaceful co-existence with those races.

But the question must, of course, be asked; exactly when did our people first come here? It is a question that is, more often than not, impossible to answer. Some more fanciful stories would claim that we were always here, and that our earliest ancestors simply sprang forth from the ground one day. Naturally, such claims can be easily dismissed. Others have theorised that we may have come from some distant land beyond the eastern ocean, but again, this theory has never had much weight to it. After all, even the most experienced of sailors will tell you that, even if you were to travel out into those blue waters for months on end, you would simply end up seeing more water.

But, while the exact truth of our origins may never be known, for most, it is not much of a concern. The lands we call home have always been everything we needed of them. All we could want is provided for by these good lands, whether through toil or otherwise. From the low lands all the way to the great Crescent Range of mountains at it's centre, where Canterlot now lies, the Green Lands are, for all intents and purposes, a paradise, rarely, if ever, interrupted.

However, no discussion of our homeland could be complete with out it's crown jewel; Canterlot. As discussed previously, this great city sprang forth from what was, at first, simply the ancestral home of House Solaris, the keep of Brightblaze. When many of the other kings of the realm perished at the Battle of the Border, King Solaris gracefully accepted many of his now-leaderless followers into his own home. However, Brightblaze was a modest holding, and nowhere near large enough to accommodate so many newcomers. So, construction began. Homes and venues were provided, and high walls erected to protect them. But, over time, this would serve only as the beginning.

As the one and only king of the newly-unified realm, Solaris found himself attracting a great many to his domain. Farmers, traders, artisans. All these and more flocked to the new abode of Canterlot, swelling the young city yet further. In later generations, even Brightblaze itself was felled, to make way for a new, and grander royal palace, where Solaris' descendants remain today. And so it was that, in the fullness of time, Canterlot as we now know it today, came into being.

Will the peace and plenty we have known last forever, as some hopefuls might claim? It is impossible to say. After all, there was once a time when it was thought impossible that there would be only one king in this land. Who knows what the next generation might experience in our good home.