Excerpt from the introduction of A Linear History of Ponyland by the great scholar Quill.

While few historic documents survive from the earliest days of Ponyland, tales and history recorded by scholars of the early Republic are recounted in history books even today and are all the information modern scholars and students have to rely on. Cultural memory insists that the ponies of Dream Valley have always been there, but the limited archeological evidence available indicates no inhabitation of the valley any earlier than 800 years Pre-Republic. This figure however, may be incorrect as the early inhabitants of the valley had few material needs and as a result may have left little archeological evidence behind. The earliest artifact is a single pony shoe, datable to approximately 800 years Pre-Republic. Considering its extreme age, it shows relatively little damage and testing has demonstrated a lingering magic field even after hundreds of years buried in the ground. While it is no longer possible to determine the nature of the enchantment that was placed on this shoe, we can infer that it was probably a similar type of spell as is found on the magic shoes of today, imparting levetation and possibly invisibility. The presence of such an advanced artifact in an archeological record with so few examples in toto and none found any earlier in the record indicates one of two possibilities. Either pre-existing pony inhabitants of the valley somehow traded for it with a traveling merchant or by traveling to another isle in search of trade, or an emigrating herd brought it with them. The lack of any artifacts pre-dating this in Dream Valley, as well as the wealth of other far older artifacts found on different islands and the mainland amongst other, now extinct, pony cultures indicates to this author that there was most likely emigration to this island around 900-800 P.R. Dream Valley and the other valleys of the island of Ponyland are now the only places that ponies can be found despite archeological evidence that they once existed on the surrounding islands and mainland. Evidence indicates that each of these communities ceased to exist between 800 and 700 P.R. Whether this is related to the arrival of our ancestors in Ponyland or not is a topic that will be explored in chapter 5.

According to the writings of Starlight the Elder, which agrees with the archeological record, the Dream Valley ponies began to develop more material needs or desires and began to create and trade for material objects with increasing frequency starting around 550 P.R. Generally the items were practical storage devices, but decorative items and musical instruments have also been found. In a business journal of a pottery merchant from Rainbow Isle, an entry is noted in spring of 395 PR that 4 large pots with lids, a pitcher and 2 decorative vases were traded to ponies from the east for two bushels of exotic and delicious red fruit unknown on that island or the mainland. As the only location east of Rainbow Isle is Ponyland, we accept that the merchant dealt with inhabitants of Dream Valley. This is further supported by the description of the fruit which almost certainly refers to apples, which even today will only grow in Dream Valley and are the prime export of the island.

It is around this same time when we begin to see the accumulation of material goods that we find a foundation; the remains of a house from that period. It stands to reason that while Ponies as a species have no trouble living completely outdoors, particularly in the mild weather of Dream Valley, and many continue to do so today, the accumulation of material goods led to the construction of structures to protect them. Pots and baskets were made and traded for to store food items out of season. Buildings and more material goods were created or traded for, to then decorate the buildings. Following this advent of materialism in Dream Valley the archeological record becomes full and rich. However all written documentation from this time was destroyed at the time of The Great Burn when the dark wizard Rathaun attacked the valley with the goal of enslavement of the pony race in order to drain their magical powers for his own purposes. It was only a result of the incredible magical and organizational abilities of Majesty the first (known as Arctic Gale before her coronation) that the ponies were able to destroy the dark wizard and band the herds together for the first time in the known history of ponies to form the Republic. Since then detailed records have been kept and maintained in the underground vaults of Dream Castle.

The purpose of this text is to explore the Prehistory of Ponies both in Dream Valley, and from a time when ponies were found across the archipelago, and to examine various hypotheses associated with these times lost to antiquity. If the student of this text has interest in more recent developments in pony history, I refer them to my previous texts including A Critical Examination of the Birth of the Republic, History of the Republic: 435 years of Growth, Commerce and Strife and my most recent publication, The Reign of Majesty LXI: How the Acquisition of the Rainbow Locket has Shaped a Regency and a Nation.