How was Canterlot founded?

[ggg-2 3,554]

As revealed, Celestia and Luna originally lived in The Castle Of The Two Sisters in what is now the Everfree Forest, but Celestia left sometime after Luna was banished, with the original battle with Nightmare Moon evidently leaving the castle heavily damaged. How was the current royal city, Canterlot, founded?

[CT-1138 3,184]

Probably with magic. I mean, if ponies can use magic to defeat crazed magical beasts, magicking bricks and furniture up the side of a mountain should be no problem 

[Fhaolan 4,491]

Well, there's a couple of possibilities we already know of.

 

1) Canterlot seems to be on top of extensive crystal mines that are abandoned and forgotten about by the average pony. Perhaps Canterlot was originally a mining town a thousand years ago that due to it's geographic location was picked to be the new capitol when the Castle of the Two Sisters was abandoned. This is not unheard of in real life. Ottawa and Washington D.C. are not the original capitols of their respective countries, they were chosen quite a bit after-the-fact.

 

2) In the Hearth's Warming Eve story the various tribes came from *somewhere*, and there's not a lot of room on the continent that Equestria is on right now. Maybe the original 'Equestria' founded by the tribes was much smaller, and eventually expanded to absorb the former other lands (which were likely city-states given the time-line), and Canterlot was the original capitol for Unicornia. Which would explain why it is mostly Unicorns even now.

 

3) If you go by older generations for hints, in G3 there were a handful of castles that pre-existed before the ponies showed up. If that still holds true, then Canterlot (or at least the castle part) may have originally been built by a mysterious 'someone else' before the founding of Equestria.

[Violet_S 785]

Good question.... I really dont know but maybe they wanted to get out of the everfree forest and go to a safe-er place and they found a mountain and made a city there, maybe? 

[sweetolebob18 728]

Well, plausibly, after banishing Luna, Celestia didn't want to live in the castle anymore. Sort of like moving after a bad divorce.

 

Wether Canterlot or the castle were already there ( a mining town, possibly pre  Equestrian) are good questions.  Thinking about it, the castle on supports looks like something Discord would do.

[CT-1138 3,184]

Well, plausibly, after banishing Luna, Celestia didn't want to live in the castle anymore. Sort of like moving after a bad divorce.

 

Wether Canterlot or the castle were already there ( a mining town, possibly pre  Equestrian) are good questions.  Thinking about it, the castle on supports looks like something Discord would do.

The way I heard it, Lauren Faust based on Minas Tirith. Honestly, I do see the resemblance: 

[Kiri 7,291]

We know from the series premiere that the Everfree Forest developed after Luna's banishment, and is said to function differently than the rest of Equestria. It's possible that a remnant of Nightmare Moon's dark magic may have negatively affected the area surrounding the old castle. That, in addition to Celestia's deep distress over the loss of her sister, could have driven her to relocate.

 

As stated above, Canterlot is situated on top of an old crystal mine. Perhaps Celestia chose that spot because it was highly economical? Maybe the mine was inactive by the time Celestia moved there, but the crystals still greatly benefited the kingdom until other businesses drove the economy? In addition, Canterlot is an ideal capitol because it is at the heart of Equestria and it's an elevated city, which is a great advantage against enemy forces. I could imagine that Celestia might have felt more vulnerable without the Elements and her sister, so she'd have reason to be more paranoid about security.

[sweetolebob18 728]

The way I heard it, Lauren Faust based on Minas Tirith. Honestly, I do see the resemblance: 

 

IDK, to me the Canterlot Castle looks more like the Disney Castle in Florida.  As to the mines, don't forget it's been 1,000 years since Luna was banished. That is plenty of time for mines to play out & be abandoned & forgotten.  Here in the USA, a few decades is often enough. They could have come and gone LONG after Luna was banished.