That cant be right…  

@Background Pony #21F4  
Actually based on what Celestia and Luna said about their roles as princesses in The Journal of the Two Sisters, Equestria is more akin to the British Commonwealth or more specifically the Commonwealth Realm (the collection of countries in the British Commonwealth that still recognize the ruling British monarch as their head of state) in that it is actually a collection of individual territories, each with a certain degree of autonomy that recognizes the princesses as the heads of the Equestrian Commonwealth or whatever its official title is. Manehattan probably prides itself on being the largest and most democratic territory of the Equestrian Commonwealth and most likely had that statue built to represent that, but that’s mostly speculation on my part.

Or maybe it’s a monument to the last war between Equestria and Griffany denoting that the ponies are a sapient race entitled to liberty.

Nice headcannon

Well, the real Statue was a gift from France to commemorate independence, so maybe someone else built it for them when Equestria became a nation?
 
Which means ponyverse Statue of Liberty is like thousands of years old wow that’s trippy.

“Kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

I can hear this playing in the background.
 
@Background Pony #D733  

It may not be a traditional monarchy, though.

here’s hoping it doesn’t have a giant beating heart inside it

>the description
 
Pre-Equestria didn’t have Celestia and Luna as leaders so if anything it would be a metaphorical middle finger to the other races.
 
In any case, I would make Mare Liberty a declaration of liberty to other non-Equestrians coming in (for tourism or immigration) since it does sit at the edge of the ports would go.

Now I want a fanart parody of this statue depicted in the Red Alert 2 Soviet invasion scene.