Canterlot

Canterlot is the capital city of Equestria, and thus, is the seat of the Equestrian royal family.

History
Ponies have been living in Canterlot for over 1,000 years as of the Era of Twilight, with the construction of Canterlot Castle starting when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were both foals. The construction of the castle was rocky, however, as animals kept damaging the construction equipment, causing many set-backs until Luna managed to reason well with the animals and come up with a fair compromise. However, in the early days after the castle was finally constructed, there was no real city of Canterlot yet.

Approximetely 1,000 years before the Mare of the Moon incident, Princess Luna was banished from Canterlot to live on the Moon after she succumbed to the corrupting powers of the Pony of Shadows, causing Princess Celestia to feel great shame for nearly 1,000 years.

After Luna's fall, Luna began invading the dreams of ponies from Canterlot, but was beaten back by Princess Celestia. Much later, Canterlot was invaded by an army of Smoke monsters who attempted to siege and sack the city but were beaten back by Celestia and a volunteering group of unicorns and other ponies. Among the group was Professor Inkwell, who defended the city with all of her might, even causing great injury to herself. Ensuring such catastrophes no longer happen, Celestia founded Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns to better defend the city. Among her first recruits for teachers was the aforementioned Inkwell, who although hesitant at first, became one of the most prolific teachers at the school, teaching there all the way up til Twilight Sparkle's first years.

A few decades before the Mare of the Moon incident, a young unicorn named Sunset Shimmer was born in Canterlot, or at least lived there and eventually began to study at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. She became Princess Celestia's personal student, but was lead astray until she eventually betrayed Celestia and used the Magic Mirror to escape to the Human dimension.

Later, Twilight Sparkle was born in the city as the only daughter of the her family and would become the youngest child. After proving her skill by hatching the young dragon named Spike from his egg, Twilight was accepted into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and would later become Celestia's pupil. Unlike Sunset before her, Twilight did not falter from the straight and narrow and proved herself to be kind, selfless, brave and heroic, if a bit awkward, anti-social and rude at times.

Years later, Twilight was tasked with going to Ponyville to organize the Summer Sun Celebration, but decided to stay in the city after discovering the magic of friendship. A little under a year later, Princess Cadance, the princess of the Crystal Empire and former babysitter/honorary big sister to Twilight Sparkle got married to Shining Armor, the captain of the Royal Guards and big brother to Twilight Sparkle. Though the two were madly in love, their wedding was disastrous, with the invasion of the Changelings, thus starting the Changeling wars, took the city by surprise. After a plot was revealed that the Cadance Shining Armor was marrying was Queen Chrysalis in disguise, Twilight managed to free the real Cadance and together, the two saved the day. The following night, Twilight thought about the event dreamily as she wondered who she would some day marry.

Sometime later, the Secret Comet passed by the night sky of Equestria, amplifying the magical powers of all magical creatures. After Twilight and her friends embarked on an adventure to defeat Queen Chrysalis who came back with a vengeance, Spike traveled to Canterlot tot ry to tell Celestia what happened and inadvertently joined the battle to save Canterlot from the Cockatrice army, becoming a war hero in the process.

Major landmarks

 * Canterlot Castle
 * Canterlot Mountain
 * Canterlot garden
 * Canterlot forest
 * Canterlot river