A musing on the foundations of ponykind and Equestria as we know it.
A textbook documenting the supposed development and rise of ponykind, the creation of pony civilization, and the events that shaped it into Equestria as it is today.
We unfortunately have very little documentation on ponies prior to the creation of the Three Great Tribes, as there is no historical record and a very limited fossil record. However, what we do have is enough to at least make an educated guess as to the origins of our species.
The oldest pony remains have been found much where modern ponies are now: the plains around Canterlot Mountain. Of course, the mountain itself was hardly what it is today, as at the time the Saddle and Crystal landmasses had just started to meet (just being relative, of course, as the two were already beginning to buckle together), and it would be many thousands of years before the peaks would reach their great heights.
Ponies back then were quite different from the creatures they are today. Scientists suggest that the coats of our ancestors were much duller in color, taking shades more apt to their environment as camouflage. However, a much larger difference was in the apparent diet of prehistoric ponies. They were predators, and while the grains, fruits, flowers, and grasses that make up our diet today were certainly part of their food stock at the time, they were also apt to eat other animals, and it is thought that they were vicious hunters. Despite their vast differences, though, they also had many of the key traits that would remain in the pony bloodline even today.
Prehistoric earth ponies were the first of the subspecies to exist, and their usual tactic was one of endurance. They could pursue their prey for great distances, simply outlasting the animals' abilities to run while feeding off of wild plants in the meantime. In the case they had to defend themselves, their great bulk and fortitude came into play. They could survive wounds that would cripple other animals, and their large herds allowed them strength in numbers.
It's unclear whether pegasi emerged before unicorns, but it is known that the growth of the earth pony population made hunting ground game a much harder issue. The pegasi's wings were definitely a strange development, and one that's extremely hard to trace, much less understand, to the point where a hypothesis has caught on that they were an entirely different species, possibly related to the griffins, that somehow merged into the pony bloodline. Whatever the case, their wings were a great boon, allowing them to hunt aerial prey and to scout for ground prey much farther than their earth-bound brethren. They sacrificed the bulk and endurance of the earth ponies, but gained a new resilience as they learned to fling themselves on ground prey in great dives, breaking the target's bones with crushing force without harming themselves. It is unknown whether these proto-pegasi were able to manipulate clouds and weather as they can now, and whether it was ever used for any purpose at this point.
Unicorns, unlike pegasi, were definitely a development of earth ponies, in response to the magical nature of the world. It is a long-held theory that magic is a fundament of the universe, rather than a biological development, and magical creatures are simply ones that learned to tap into this power. Unicorns gained a horn atop their heads, likely at first a mere focus for magical energy unlike the complex extension of the brain prevailing today, allowing them to point magic at far away objects to manipulate them. It was likely rather rudimentary, but it could still be used as a weapon, whether to trip up pursued prey or to deal them direct physical harm.
The three races were perhaps not terribly close, but they still mingled enough to provide the interbreeding needed to keep them as a single species. This interbreeding likely helped to generate the variety of colors that our race sees today, as well, as the different races would have had different camouflages in order to blend in to their different surroundings better, from the blue of the skies to the green of grasses to the many colors of the earth.
Unicorns, slowly developing a greater capacity for intelligence with their magical abilities, were likely the first of the ponies to start using tools. Their growing mental prowess, and the easier time they had taking down prey, had begun to take away the physical strength and stamina of their earth pony cousins, and they began to make up for it with sticks and stones. At first, swinging branches and throwing rocks was a way to do harm to hostile creatures, but as they grew smarter they began to sharpen their weapons.
Pegasi were soon to pick up on weapon use. Though they lacked the directed magic of the unicorns, flying allowed them to use their hooves to grasp objects, which they could then attack with. Earth ponies, having the least comfortable way of using weapons and the least need for them, likely took a fair bit longer to really start to adopt them. However, this lack of technological development likely did help to pave the way for their greater connection to nature and life.
Around the same time as weapons began to come into use, so likely did language. Ponies needed a way to convey ideas to one another, and so rudimentary words were formed to indicate certain objects and, eventually, concepts. As with tools, linguistics probably came best to unicorns, who, with their magic and tools, generally had more things to talk about. Pegasi, who could always see more than the two grounded races, also developed a wider vocabulary, while the earth ponies were stuck with very simple communication.
The Earth Ponies began to become outclassed by the other two species in matters of hunting. As they began to rely more on plants, they started to gain a greater understanding of them, and their language and tool use began to develop more towards agriculture. Eventually, they would gain their own lead compared to the pegasi and unicorns.
Thanks to the close proximity of the three races, none of them were ever too far behind the others in development, and though there were glaring differences between them, they were never quite enough to leave any of the three out of the joint species that is ponykind.
The nomadic ponies traveled far and wide across the land that would eventually be Equestria, moving with the food. Pegasi tended to follow the migratory patterns of large birds, unicorns the movements of prey herds, and earth ponies the same vegetation that the prey herds were tracking. Eventually, the earth ponies would reach the rich foothills of the Crystal Mountains, where runoff from the icy peaks met fertile soil in a wonderful climate for agriculture.
While the unicorns moved on, the earth ponies lingered for some time, using seeds from the local plants as well as those they had collected on their journeys to begin experimenting with agriculture. They felled the sparse forests to create permanent homes and settled into the first civilization of ponies. They became almost wholly herbivorous in diet, with meat becoming a rare treat enjoyed as wildlife came and went with the seasons, and the still-nomadic pegasi and unicorns appeared with extra meat rations and disappeared with more stable plant-based foods.
Unicorns were the first to join the earth ponies in settling the Crystal Mountain foothills. Game had become harder to track, and the unicorns were ultimately losing out to better pegasus hunters. They were less capable of agricultural exploits than the earth ponies, but managed to trade food for better tools and magical assistance. They also lent themselves well to administrative capabilities, and helped to manage planning and crop rotations.
Pegasi soon began to settle as well, mostly because of the strain the long migratory flights put on them. They had already begun showing signs of weather manipulation capability, but it had little use given the natural healthy inflow of water to the hills, and they mostly operated as scouts, guards and hunters. They were the last of the three races to adopt herbivorism as their main diet.
It is at this point that the specific callings we now know as cutie marks began to come together, though the marks themselves would not appear immediately. However, ponies were able to focus on more specific tasks after settling down, with families of earth ponies becoming experts in particular plants, artisans becoming experts in the creation of certain tools, and pegasi focusing on mastering particular weapons.
A great deal of hypotheses surround the origins of creatures actually capable of utilizing magic. Now that we have some geological records, however, the most popular one is the belief that all magic-using species are descended from ponies in some way. Even if that is not true, evidence does point to ponies being the first of modern magic-users by a long margin, and most of the other beings who can now use magic came into existence around the time pony civilization started to advance at a rapid pace.
The windigos, being barely creatures and more malevolent spirits embodied in nearly pure magical energy, have no geological record, but records of their existence only stem back to early-mid pony civilization, as writing started to become prevalent. The windigos also share their appearance with ponies in a few ways, which suggests a familiarity with the pony form (though some argue that this may have merely been a case of a parasite trying to make itself more familiar with its prey). Philosophers speculate that the windigos may have been negative feelings, anywhere from resentment to hatred, given form by powerful magic, and equualogists agree somewhat. However, the scientists believe that the creation of the windigos may have been at least partially intentional, sapient curses meant to ruin the days of their victims.
Either way, the windigos began to grow in number, and their hunger for the energy of negative pony emotions grew as well. They began to farm the pony masses, encouraging as much anger and resentment as possible, and slowly laying the seeds for the near-schism of pony society. Racism and xenophobia began to emerge in the greater populace, and soon the three races began to part ways, with the pegasi claiming homes in the clouds and the unicorns heading a short way south, creating a city that would eventually become Manehattan. They were still forced to trade services between each other, though, as the earth ponies now depended on advanced unicorn tools and pegasus weather control to maintain their high-yield farms and the other two races needed the food from those farms. The windigos, lusting for yet more of their emotional food and ignorant of the eventual consequences, prepared the final spell to create as much bitterness as possible between the three nations.
The windigo magic created a great winter, destroying the ponies' ability to produce food. The national stockpiles were able to last for a few months, but tempers did not. Each nation immediately began to blame the other two, and though war never broke out, any negotiations that were attempted fell apart very quickly out of distrust. Eventually, with food supplies dwindling and ponies starving, the three races were forced to emigrate from the area, now considered irreparably cursed.
Most went south in various directions, but it is speculated (though without proof) that a group of earth ponies, and possibly a few unicorns, traveled north, past the Crystal Mountains and deep into the frozen wastes. These hardy souls would manage to escape from the windigos and would learn to live off of the semi-lithic plants that managed to thrive in the freezing climate, becoming the crystal ponies.
Another group is believed to have been created by the windigos. A few of the various races were so tainted by the dark magic and hate that had been bred that they no longer had the positive emotions needed to survive. These once-pony husks became parasitic, consuming the love and kindness of other beings in order to survive. They blended together into alicorn-like forms and became somewhat of a hive mind. As they learned to hide their unnatural, vaguely insectile forms with magic, they earned their modern name: changelings.
The rest of the ponies would end up finding their way back to the plains and foothills around Canterlot Mountain, despite having made prior efforts to diverge from one another. It is unknown whether the windigos had arranged this or if it was just coincidence. The three nations immediately began to fight over the fertile land, preventing its use and causing food supplies to dwindle even more. As the windigo winter set in, all three races suffered famine, losing their embittered leaders to starvation and freezing.
Despite their immense hatred for one another, the remaining ponies were forced to come together to survive. The pegasi were able to hold off the magical snow storms as the earth ponies grew what plants they could, providing much needed food, while the unicorns worked to drive off the magic and discover where it was coming from. As their respect for one another improved and hatred began to disappear, the windigos became desperate, and made their appearance, trying to directly incite the ponies to hatred. Unfortunately for them, the friendship and camaraderie pony magic thrived on had grown too powerful, and the beasts were driven off, never to be seen again.
As the winter quickly cleared, the ponies began to settle, and Canterlot Mountain became the location for a fortress city to watch over the pony lands, recently dubbed Equestria. The three races worked together, and soon other races began to move in, including donkeys, cattle and pigs. Equestria grew rapidly, but all was not perfect. A new evil, greater than the windigos, set its site on the nation.