The annals of Equestrian history have been wrought by a myriad of usurpers claiming its throne as their own. There was once the Pony of Shadows who attempted to usher in an era of darkness and destruction but was chained to a realm between dimensions by his own friends, never to be seen since. There was the mighty Discord, whose chaos bent the land to his will and still taints the land with his to this day, as seen by his chimeric creatures that continue to haunt our forests to even the Everfree Forest itself. Then, there was our own Princess. Luna, who in her madness attempted to plunge the world into eternal night and was struck down by her own sister, imprisoned on the moon.

Unlike some of these great usurpers, Equestia has also seen its fair share of less impressive ones. Many have been lost to the oblivion of history. Others, however, and still known, even if vaguely, to this day. We will be focusing on a very unlikely tyrant. Aergia the Lazy, who ruled over Equestria for a sum total of four days.

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Aergia was born in the year 327 CE (Celestian Era) to a noble Canterlot family. Her family was your standard noble unicorn family of the era. That is to say, they were useless, but not such a burden to be considered a nuisance.

She grew up as a completely mundane, if not underwhelming, foal. She had friends. She got decent grades. She went to a middling-quality school, as far as noble schools go. By all accounts, she would grow up to be a normal pony who would live and die without leaving any mark in her wake.

However, by a mysterious stroke of fate, she had the cutie mark and talent of a conqueror. A pony elevated and staring at a crowd surrounding her, gained when she refused to let anypony else on the playground take her spot at the top of the slide. The highest point on the playground. The towering pinnacle from which only true born leaders may stare down upon their lesser and sneer.

She didn’t really do that, though. You see, it may shock you to find out Aergia the Lazy was, in fact, extremely lazy.

She really just didn’t want to get up.

Later historians had concluded that her special talent almost certainly had to do with his absurd slothfulness. There was no question that a pony of her caliber had zero leadership ability and had no right sitting on the throne.

Most ponies of that era, however, did not know that. And those that did know of her true talent instead chose to hide it. You see, the nobility was beginning to stir with dissatisfaction. They felt that the poor were being treated too fairly underneath the rule of Celestia and wanted to put them back into their place. While the price of grain and housing tanked for the common pony and lead to economic growth unpatrolled until the dawn of the Arcano-Mechanic revolution of the 800s, the average noble had begun to see a 0.5% reduction in the average annual increase of their portfolios.

This was interpreted by them as a harsh and direct attack from the Princess. It was clear to them that she despised the nobility and wished for nothing but their destruction.

Thus, Aergia became the figurehead of the Righteous revolution, a noble-led revolution that sought to oust Celestia and elect themselves as rules of Equestria. Beneath Aergia's natural-born leadership their numbers swelled until nearly all of Canterlot nobility backed them. Every day and every night ponies flocked around the castle and screamed for revolution. They were paid to be there by the nobles, of course.It would be beneath the nobles to protest in person.

This went on for years until that little filly Aergia hit her 18th birthday as the nobility thought that it would probably be a good age to rule.

At the stroke of midnight, a deliberate act in defiance of Celestia, ponies carried the to-be-tyrant towards her rightful seat of Canterlot Castle, rolling out the red carpet in front while scattering rose petals in the air. Trumpets blared and bards sang ballads of her glory and her exploits.

Once she finally reached the gate, a hush fell across the crowd she looked up at the castle and, in return, the Princess of the Sun descended down from spires of the castle. Despite the fact that it was the night, sunlight flickering across her coat as if she were the sun itself piercing through the black, falling down to earth. She landed in front of the usurper and looked down upon her. The pony who had claimed her cutie mark and her birthright all those years ago by towering over others now was forced to crane her neck up.

It is postulated that many ponies at that gathering had then grown to understand the folly of the Righteous revolution. Surely nopony existed that could hope to even match the splendor and power of Celestia. Their records, though, say otherwise. All ponies who witnessed this event spoke of the sheer presence of Aergia and how, despite her diminutive stature, she exuded such pressure that the Princess was forced to relinquish her crown to her.

Modern historians believe that Celestia found the event hilarious and wanted to teach the nobility a lesson while getting a quick vacation.

Whatever the case may be, the crowd erupted when Aergia claimed the throne.

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Festivities went on the rest of that night for the nobility and even into the next day. Many finely-aged barrels of wine were politely drank alongside cheese and crackers. The newspapers ran all night so that the common ponies could know about their glorious exploits in ousting the despot Celestia and how they will lead Equestria into a new age. It was only late into the morning when the barrels ran dry did they finally come to realize that the sun had never risen.

We have records that the common ponies of the time panicked that morning, as they realized the severity of the situation. Crops wouldn’t grow. Equestria would cool and, eventually, freeze. If this were left unchecked, the land, if not the world, would surely wither and die.

The nobility, on the other hoof, were worried about how the sun wouldn’t play just right off of their mansion windows anymore and how this would spell their social ruin. Regardless, they considered themselves strong and choose to invest in studying new interior design techniques that primarily utilized the use of candlelight.

Meanwhile, Aergia sat upon her throne, surrounded by a few nobles who chose to actually control Equestria with her as figurehead, including her parents, as well as a litany of confused guards who had been instructed by Celestia to treat Aergia as they would her.

Ponies approached the throne and beseeched favors or help, as they had with Celestia. This went on normally for a few ponies before the noble handers around Aergia realized that she felt that any action was too much action. After a mere hour, she was quickly ushered away.

These nobles then attempted to enlist the help of castle staff in order to parse the dense legislation that comprised the government of Equestria. They only thing the staff offered them were laughs and jeers.

Finally faced with no other option, the nobles find themselves forced to make their servants read the legal code themselves and simplify it down for them.

While the servants worked hard long into the night, the nobles harrumph’d themselves to bed, now realizing that their job would not be easy.

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As it turns out, while the nobility of the time was particularly useless, their servants were not and they were able to form a council that parsed the legal code and form a somewhat stable plan of actions in the absence of Celestia. Once Celestia returned, she kept this council around, as they had actually proven themselves to be competent. They, indeed, were the precursor to the modern Senate that aids Celestia in ruling Equestria.

For now, though, all they could do was scramble to try to keep Equestria afloat. The following few days came and went beneath the darkness of night. Equestria began to freeze over and ponies grew restless.

Every day, the mob of common ponies grew outside the castle, demanding the return of Celestia. Every day, the nobility grew less and less certain of their revolution. Every day, more and more ponies trickled into the mob from the ranks of nobility, no longer concerned about their bottom line or their posturing but instead about their life.

Everypony could see that this would be the end of Equestria. By the end of the fourth day, the only ponies holding out were the nobles so keen to control Equestria beneath their own hoof, the council desperately keeping the land afloat, and the great Aergia, napping on her golden throne.

Finally, after four days of darkness a brilliant light cracked the sky. The mob fell silent. They stared up in awe when the darkness of the sky was washed away beneath waves of pink, yellow, and, finally, blue.

Celestia walked toward the gate of Canterlot Castle calmly and slowly. The silence was only broken by the clacking of her hooves against the cobblestone. It was if even nature itself was in hushed awe of her glorious power. Finally, she was joined by the sound of a second set of hooves descending from the castle.

Aergia, putting in more effort than she had done for anything else in her life, walked out and stood across from her Celestia. With a historic mumble of “too much work…” she returned the golden crown, once again, to the true Princess of Equestria.