Toffy Marble thought over the previous day's events as she twirled her quill in her mouth. Why had that Thestral paused when he saw her? What were those hard-to-read emotions in his eyes? Why did that slogan he had called sound so familiar? The last question, at least, she was able to satisfactorily answer in time. It appeared to be a common graffiti slogan of Manehattan Thestrals who were disgruntled with the current order. Suddenly inspired, she put quill to paper, and began to write.
For the citizens of Manehattan, Trottingham, Vanhoover, and other cities which are more densly populated and less sanitized than the likes of Canterlot, graffiti is a common sight. This has become even more so as urban populations have swelled, and political tensions have heightened following the return of the Princess of the Night.
One of the more common sentiments expressed in political graffiti has been observed to be a feeling of betrayal by Princess Luna. Many Thestrals believed that her return would herald a new beginning for their kind, and a recognition of their status as a tribe of ponies. Aside from a few token concessions, like the inclusion of Thestrals within her guard, Luna was unable (or unwilling, many say) to affect meaningful change.
This brings us to this pamphlet's topic: Representative Government. A representative government is a revolutionary idea, as nopony has lived under one since before the ascension of the Princesses. Indeed, even the democracies which did exist in those days were often illiberal at best.
One might object to our assertion that nopony has ever lived under a truly representative government for thousands of years by pointing to municipalities which choose to elect a mayor. While this is indeed a great boon to the ponies of Equestria, it is not enough. The only officials we see elected tend to be those with cutie marks focused on organization and leadership, while common ponies may as well be excluded from political office. Beyond this, there is an ever-swelling class of bourgeois nobility and pseudo-nobility, especially in large cities, which have formed sprawling slums and suburbs filled with workponies in order to support the ruling class. Snow Ponies and Thestrals have been especially prominent in these tenement districts.
It is for this reason that we propose two documents to be outlined. FIrstly, a charter for the rights of all ponies, including the forgotten tribes. Second, a charter on the rights and duties of nobility.
The rights of all ponies must include freedom to speak critically of the government, freedom to peacefully assemble, freedom to vote in local government and run for local office, and freedom from compulsory service based on one's cutie mark.
The charter of the rights and duties of nobility is to outline firstly the procedure for stripping a house of its land and titles, and secondly, a duty for all nobles of age to complete, lasting at least ten years. Nobles will be compulsed to enter service in one of three branches. Equestria lacks diplomats, as the only ponies studied in rhetoric are the parasitic nobility and pseudo-nobility. As such, diplomatic office is to be one of these branches. The second, seeing as Equestria's guard formations lack an experienced officer cadre, ought to be ensign postings. The third should be a bureaucratic posting.
In this way, all ponies will have their rights protected, and all nobles will be made to serve their interests.
Toffy Marble set down her quill and folded up the parchment. She placed it into an envelope and brought it downstairs.
"Hey dad." She said, smiling like a filly. "I finished the second one!" Her father, one Snow Marble gazed approvingly at her, and took the envelope in his mouth. He set it down on a table so he could speak to his daughter.
"I'm proud of this project you've started. I'll just look this over, and then I'll send it off to the presses." The two nuzzled, and Toffy went outside.
Stepping outside, the chill of suburban Manehattan hit Toffy. She was going on one of her normal trotting routes, which led out of the city, and into the woods. It was a chill day, and the sky was gray, as it so often was here. Perhaps if democratic reforms could be instituted, the public could have a say in the operations of the weather patrol.
Lost in thought, she trotted, watching the tenement slums by the docks fade, giving way to a meagre industrial park, and finally, to tall, unkempt grass. She was not traveling along any major roads, as those areas were quite well manicured, but simply cutting through the sprawling city, and making exodus from it along an unbeaten path. Night began to fall once more.
Killjoy sprang from his upside-down sleeping position, taking flight within the confines of the narrow cave he dwelt in. The night air hit him full on as he exited the cave network, flying towards the embrace of the sky. One day, when he was but a colt, he had tried to journey all the way to the stars. He'd passed out after getting so high he could hardly breathe, and then regained consciousness just soon enough to control his descent to the ground. His peers, who had always maligned him for his tribe, his coloration, and his verbose manner of speech had cheered him that day. He had relished in that praise, and strived to acquire more ever since.
As he rose into the sky above the outskirts of Manehattan, he thought again of those stars, how they had captivated him. It was auspicious that his cutie mark should be of that great star of Celestia, the sun, being eclipsed by darkness. In time, all of Equestria would fall into primal darkness indeed.
Killjoy realized that the air was getting thin, and was not eager to repeat the experiment of his colthood, so he leveled out and began to glide on his fleshy wings. He made a great circle all around the spires of downtown Manehattan, and surveyed that bank he had brokebn into the previous night. It was still a burnt-out ruin, of course. A pang of guilt struck him when he realized that ponies had died in that explosion. It was no help to the cause to worry though, so he banished it.
Sweeping over the suburban tenements by the docks, he saw the corridor through which he and his stallions had made their exodus of the city after the robbery. With curiosity, he wondered again of that mare who had watched him. Banishing that thought too, he flew out to the city limits, and kept going, back to the grotto from which he directed the Great Dark Mark. Then he saw her.