Across many of the alternate worlds investigated by the Templin Institute, there is a dream. A dream of a future where everyone gets along without prejudice, where peace thrives, and where people from all walks of life have endless, equal opportunity. In other words, an utopia. Sadly, in most of these alternate worlds, this dream is unreachable. Tyrants and conquerors who view their race as the only worthy one, and all others as “undesirable”, view this utopic dream as a threat, and instead wish to realize their own, their soldiers stomping their boots over the faces of ladies Liberty and Justice.
Yet, if the common people are strong enough, and the tyrants are stopped before they can commit their crimes, then this dream is achievable, and a future of peace, freedom and prosperity awaits. And in one such world, where the dominant species are multiple, varying types of intelligent ungulates, there rests a land of magic and friendship. A world wonder, serving as a beacon of light against the darkest of terrors, and at the same time, an Arcadia where everything is possible, and where there’s plenty of everything for everypony. Such a feat in this world was only accomplished in the Principality of Equestria.
The Principality of Equestria is a totalitarian, theocratic and aristocratic monarchy, wherein absolute power is invested in a single individual of the Alicorn Pony race, known as the Crown Princess or alternatively, the Crown Prince. The decisions, actions, and legitimacy of this Crown Princess are subject neither to external legal constraints, nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control. In this unique form of despotism, the transfer of power is instead conducted entirely through state-sanctioned trials, battles, and false flag operations. When a Crown Princess grows complacent, begins to show weakness, and is eventually unfit to rule, their title, power, property, and authority are transferred to the pony who they chose, passed the trials, and likely got transformed into an Alicorn, if it wasn’t before. This, in theory, ensures that only the fittest ponies are able to rule Equestria, through either the threat or use of force, social manipulation, or deceptive cunning.
Ironically, while espousing the values of friendship, which are commonly associated with democratic and socialist governments, there appears to be very few, if any, democratic freedoms within Equestria. The Crown Princess has possibly limitless control over the state’s economic, social, military, and foreign policies, and is able to change policies, enact and promulgate legislation, determine national priorities, estabilish and abolish institutions, convict and execute possible criminals without a trial, and perform other actions, all seemingly at will, consulting only other members of the national government.
The only possibly elected individuals within Equestria, are the Mayors of individual municipalities. These act as local proconsuls who are seemingly do not have any actual powers of their own, and instead act at the behest of the state and its representatives. Given the apparent lack of a parliament and regional governors, as well as possibly any political party, it is belived that all mayoral elections, if there are any, likely only have a single candidate. It is also likely that the position of Mayor within the capital city of Canterlot is conferred on the Crown Princess itself.
In addition to the Alicorns, there are other, “main” pony races, the three main ones being the Earth ponies, the Unicorns, and the Pegasi. These races heve varying social status, with the Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth ponies being at their own levels within society, albeit with exceptions. Earth ponies are primarily low-class proletarians, such as farmers and menial laborers, although some managed to reach the upper classes. The Pegasi are primarily middle-class due to their flight capabilities, with a variety of roles such as botany, athletic sports, generalized weather control, mail delivery, among others. Finally, the Unicorns are predominantly upper-class and comprise the rich-and-powerful Bourgeoisie of Equestria, some possibly holding as much power as Russian oligarchs, and occupy high-profile roles such as military and security officers, entrepreneurs, government officials, fashion designers, and other upper-class jobs.
The central domineering ideology of Equestria is one of friendship, love, and tolerance. This is reinforced across the state, primarily through mass propaganda efforts which also discourage the the ponies of Equestria from doing anything that might offend their leader. The association of the Sun and the Moon with the Alicorns, alongside the manipulation of the weather through the Pegasi, and constant control of the school system and the media, among other measures, ensured that the citizens of Equestria universally worshipped the Alicorns, while at the same time making it impossible to go anywhere without feeling as though an Alicorn was watching them. Where this approach failed, a corps of armed Royal Guards and other agents and military units were on stand-by, ready to enforce the will of their leader and its clique of Alicorn gods.
Despite its ideology, Equestria is severely lacking in terms of civil rights and liberties. In addition to its society’s heavy stratification and despotism, many races, such as the intelligent Cows, the bovine Yaks, the avian Griffins, the aquatic Seaponies, the feline Abyssinians, and the insectoid Changelings, do not have the same rights as the three main races, with some races, such as the Cows and the Sheep, being treated as cattle and herded around as farm animals.
It is worth noting that a program of forced historical alteration and Damnatio Memoriae exists within Equestria, and as such, the true history of Equestria is unknown, replaced by state-sanctioned versions of historical events. The totalitarian measures in place hindered the Institute’s investigation into Equestria. Many Institute personnel were lost during this nation’s investigation. Their lives and service will not be forgotten, regardless of whatever the state does to them.
Like most totalitarian regimes, Equestria places a focus on conquest and subjugation, toppling leaders and heads of state, and replacing them with puppet rulers loyal to the Crown Princess. One such example is the Crystal Empire, whose leader was ousted by a group of state actors known as the “Mane Six”, who had been given the potentially-lethal “Elements of Harmony”, a weapon supposedly able to pacify any enemy targeted by it. Like-wise, another nation, the Khanate of Yakyakistan, had its leader secretly removed, and replaced with a dragon-like reality-bender.
These efforts almost always end with the same outcome: The target nation-state loses its sovereignty and independence, and becomes part of Equestria, with a puppet ruler replacing the old one. Laws and constitutions that were valid before become null and void, being replaced by Equestrian laws and regulations.
These leaders, alongside other enemies of the state, are summarily sentenced and punished depending of their usefulness to the state. If an individual is deemed useless, they are given cruel and unusual punishment, such as full body petrification, or indefinite exile to other celestial bodies. For individuals who are deemed useful, the state possesses one of the most effective re-education programs known to the Institute, supposedly able to “reform” any traitor into a loyal citizen of Equestria. Individuals who undergo these sentences are not criminal defendants, there is no trial, and “conviction” already took place by order of the Crown Princess. “Reformation” is primarily non-magical, but if the individual cannot be reformed through normal means, a “reformation spell” is used to reform the individual by force through brainwashing.
One such individual is a Unicorn known as “Starlight Glimmer”, the creator and proponent of a proto-socialist ideology known as “Equalism”, which, in addition to common socialist values such as communal living and placing the community over the individual, also encouraged the removal of the ponies’ “cutie marks”, abstract symbols on the rear of the body gained during late infancy, which determine their main life focus, and possibly their role in society, also granting them some form of skill or capability through unknown magical means. After being successfully reformed, she abandoned Equalism as an ideology and fully submitted to state ideology and values, likely preventing the rise of communism in this world.
The lack of left-wing and labor movements appears to keep Equestria’s proletariat in a state of perpetual servitude. Despite the presence of modern machines and devices, neither modern automation, mechanization, or even the basic principles of mass production are used within Equestria’s factories, instead, the factories of Equestria are technologically stagnant. This ensures that the workforce operating Equestria’s industrial production will spend the majority of their adult lives working, with little, if any, time for leisure or personal goals.
In addition to the stratification of society and the systemization of speciesism and god-like faith in the Alicorns, Equestria and the Crown Princess are willing to commit war crimes and other heinous acts to eliminate threats and further their goals. One example was the petrification and punishment without trial of three surrendered combatants following a false flag operation. In addition to one of the combatants being a child, whose punishment is cruel and unusual in most human nations, another one of the surrendered combatants was an insectoid Changeling Queen, who was likely the only one of her kind. Given the Changelings are a hive-mind species similar to bees or ants, and primarily feed on the emotion of love, it is likely that the Queen was the only Changeling capable of reproducing, by eliminating her, Equestria likely ensured the genocide and extinction of the Changeling species, by ensuring the Changelings are unable to reproduce.
It is said that one of the greatest tricks that dictatorships pulled was convincing future generations that they were the good guys. The same might be said of the Principality of Equestria. Many eons later, in the far away future, where the story of Equestria has long since faded into myth and legend, only the young and idealistic among the new generation of ponies might know that the wonderland of Equestria was real, but even they cannot grasp the horrors that went into creating it.