Of course, no history of Troy or Trojan Horse would be complete without his counterpart and wife Mare Grace. Despite the norms of the time she rose to be a prominent figure in history, an equal in all respects to Trojan himself. Her past is a bit better known than Trojan's, given her rather prestigious upbringing under the famous Lord Rasputin Stalliongrad, the very same featured in countless works of theater and the subject of speculation by many historians. Through my own research into her family they have confirmed that many of the details found in common history for the two are extreme embellishments on one end and outright fabrications on the other. Nonetheless, Mare Grace and Trojan horse first came together in Stalliongrad...

Stalliongrad, 104 BNNM

It had been a full year since she had first noticed that stallion looking at her in the market, she found him interesting. Most of the stallions, and the occasional mare, looked at her with a bit of fear, if not outright terror, while others thought themselves superior to those who had fallen before them at her father's hoof. Most all who had dared approach her had met the same fate, they didn't please her father, much less her mother, and thus were quickly and permanently removed.

But this stallion, he was different.

When there eyes had met that day, there was no superiority, but respect, there was no fear, but a sense of duty. She was sure that were her father still in the picture, he would approve. Nonetheless, her father had disappeared suddenly about a month prior to her meeting the stallion in the market, and it had driven her mother mad with grief. Already the empire he had built was starting to crumble in his absence, and Mare Grace knew she needed to get out of the city before it came down on top of her. She also knew, or at least hoped, that this stallion would be the one to carry her away to safety.

In the months that followed after their initial encounter she had caught the stallion's eye more than once, he was watching her that much was certain, looking to make his move as his affection towards her grew, but he had yet to make a move towards her.

It was on a somewhat cloudy day that things changed. Mare Grace was in the market, as she usually was in the afternoons, she was coming a bit more often now hoping to catch a glimpse of the stallion again, but this time she was approached by three cloaked figures, two in front and one behind her, slavers if she correctly recognized the bands they wore. One of the ones in front spoke up in a low voice, "Your father's been getting a bit lax with the 'protection' money, a shame."

The other spoke up, "Not for us though, we've been waiting for this chance. We take you... and we'll have all the money we'll need."

Mare took a step back, and found that the one behind her had gotten much closer than she had expected, they spoke nearly right into her ear, "Either he'll pay what we ask for you, or somepony else will..."

Scared, she looked out at the crowd, to find that most of the ponies had taken a few steps back. Clearly her father's power had faded more quickly than she had anticipated. But there, moving towards her through the crowd, was another cloaked pony, the same stallion from before. She hesitated as the slavers continued their approach, her eyes met the stallions, and he nodded to her.

Mare moved quickly, ducking down to spin on her forehooves to buck the first slaver back, right into the stallion's waiting hooves to knock the slaver to the ground with a heavy blow. The other two bolted, clearly having expected the pampered mare to be an easy mark, while the battered slaver struggled just to get up.

She approached the stallion who ad come to her aid, "We must thank thee kind sir, we do not know what wouldst have happened to us hadst thou not intervened." The stallion looked nervous, despite the courage he had just demonstrated.

"Well, umm... I j-just thought that... well, it's not nice to..." He attempted to clear his throat and tried again, for the first time unable to hold her gaze, "I m-mean... slavery is a rotten thing to, um, d-do..." He seemed to realize that he had forgotten to do something, and he suddenly (and quickly) made an effort to bow - and when he did, his flank smacked into one of the nearby potted plants and tipped it over.  Before it hit the ground however, he jumped up and tried to catch it... though his leap for it sent him right into the front of the stand selling the plants, where his head connected with it and made a sound akin to thumping a coconut with a rock.  

He rebounded, almost as if he were performing some sort of calamitous ballet, and tried to keep his footing... which was where the corner of his cloak caught on one of his flailing hooves, and with a jerk he made a flip where he went head-over-hooves, and with a yelp he landed muzzle-first on the floor, his rear leg striking one of the stand again and causing a single potted plant to fall, the pot breaking on his head leaving a small pile of dirt and a single desert lily like some sort of horn on his head.

He was clearly embarrassed by the whole endeavor and started to slowly pick himself up when Mare grace's soft laughter reached his ears. She carefully took the flower from his head and placed it in her mane after shaking the dirt from it, then carefully lifted the stallion up. She let him shake the dirt off himself as she payed the mare running the stand for the flower before turning back to her stallion, "Our favorite, how didst thou know sir...?"

"Horse,"

She raised an eyebrow in confusion

He chuckled, "Yeah, it's unfortunate I know, my name is Trojan Horse."

She smiled in understanding as she moved to stand beside him, gently prodding him to walk with her, "Ah, tell us about thyself, Sir Horse. We feel that we have much to discuss with thee."