Dan Vs. Equestria · 3:13am Dec 6th, 2017
Equestria may be similar to Earth and a few countries in it, but there are a few key differences. It's no secret that Dan fell in love with Equestria, specifically Ponyville, the moment he laid eyes on it because he thought he was the only human on the planet. To a man who absolutely hated the stupidity, redundancy, inefficiency, greed and just plain irrationality of his fellow humans, it was a paradise. But in reality, it's not that all those things that Dan thought weren't there were absent, just that they weren't around. At first, anyway.
Fact: there's over 6 billion people on Dan's Earth, 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of which Dan usually hates at any given time. But there aren't that many ponies- only about 2 or 3 million spread out across Equestria itself, only a few thousand of which reside within Ponyville. The Enclave which Dan fought comprised the majority of Cloudsdale's population, a sobering fact and part of the reason Dan was so quick to forgive them. The fact is, there just aren't that many ponies compared to the population of Earth. This is partly because Equestria was created and then periodically recreated since 1981, the time it was conceived by the creator of My Pretty Pony, the progenitor toy line of MLP. The other reason is far simpler:
The number of sapient and sentient lifeforms of human-level intelligence is roughly 6 billion, around the same as Earth's population.
Some of them just can't be seen.
While humans(or cars, mice or dolphins if you're hitchhiking) are the dominant species of Earth, there is no specific dominant species of Equestria. One could argue that Princess Celestia, Luna and the ponies with their supernatural magical powers and abilities were the dominant species, but the other races have largely caught up in other ways. The griffons, possessing no innate magic of their own, steal, plunder and invent their way to success on the global level. Other races like the zebras and mountain goats have their own forms of magic which they harness through the use of potions, crystals and other arcane substances.
In reality, Earth and Equestria have a lot in common. The stupidity, irrationality and corruption Dan didn't see in Ponyville was there, just in smaller amounts. Greed was represented by the griffons, including Gust Grasp who Dan has accepted. Corruption and zealotry were embodied by Zen Zeal and his zebras. Betrayal and disloyalty came from the Enclave itself. Lies and deception? We have Vice Grip to thank for a lot of that. Inefficient bureaucracy and government evil were made clear when Blueblood usurped the throne under the pretense of being a transgender princess. He has since reformed and is now working to repay his debt to society, mostly by working under Trixie.
There are some key differences, mostly cultural, which Dan likes. The hometown atmosphere of Ponyville is something Dan finds very preferable to the crowds and noise pollution of San Garry's Mod(suburb of Los Angeles). Although Dan wants his car back, mostly just because it's his, he absolutely loves the lack of traffic. Not only that, advertisements and new products are slow to release in Equestria, a stark contrast to the oversaturation of entertainment and products on Earth.
Things like Trixie's traveling show and the latest Daring Do novel are the major releases in Equestria. While the internet is there, there's a lot less content and a lot less advertisements and services. This makes what is there a lot more prevalent and exciting when something new does come out. Rather than new blockbuster movies every few weeks, there's a new motion picture every year, no remasterings or special editions. The theater is more heavily emphasized but no two renditions of a play are the same.
So what is Equestria's secret? Population control? No, the population of Equestria is almost the same as Earth. Even population density is comparable, with the country and kingdom of Equestria even being about half the size of the continental United States. Ponyville's on the east coast, Las Pegasas on the west and Appleloosa in the middle, with the Crystal Empire being essentially Canada(suggestion taken from Howard035).
Is it regulation? Strict adherence to tradition? No, Equestria has the internet and all the technology accompanying it. There are even major stores, mostly pony-equivalents like Pone Depot and Stop Game. Electronic Apple covers both EA and Apple and is worse than both combined.
But then, what is it? How are Ponyville and Equestria just so serene?
The secret is they are united. Mostly because they are such a young nation, the fact that they have to rely upon each other, most folks know each other, they care about one another, and other things like that, ponies largely share the same core beliefs. They are resolute in their beliefs as well and another contributing factor is that they are isolated. Although the internet is in Equestria, many of the other races like the zebras don't use it. The donkeys have their own separate version, the griffons mostly steal internet from Equestria and dragons are usually too busy being dragons to use the internet. Spike and a few others being notable exceptions(Spike's porn folder is full of exactly what you'd expect it to be full of.)
Yes, there are barriers in the world of Equestria that are more natural than those of Earth and the races there have not been overly eager to overcome them. They like their own culture, the ones that don't move and largely the kingdoms and countries have remained the same for centuries. Each race has its own specific resource and geographical needs, so wars over territory and resources are not as frequent. There are fewer religions and there are only a couple spoken languages, english being the majority one.
Equestria is like a collection of small towns. There's a shared belief system, most ponies know each other, speak the same language and a sense of community that galvanizes things. Competition is still a major factor of innovation, and there are still a few like Flim and Flam who try to cheat their way to the top. But generally, ponies live happier, more peaceful lives than many on Earth, a somber fact.
Is there a chance for Earth ever to be like Equestria? Perhaps. Earth could even become better than Equestria, and in fact, there are some places that are happier and more peaceful than Ponyville, especially now that Ponyville comes under attack so often. And there are people who are just as happy as the ponies on Earth, just Dan wasn't one of them. Until now.
Earth and Equestria are linked. There are parts of them that are able to slip through the dimensional gaps and express themselves on either world, sometimes both. And like Dan, there are many in Equestria who think Earth is a much more preferable place for the exact inverse of the reasons I listed. If you have been paying attention, many of the "good" things I listed that Dan likes largely are determined by point of view. As they say, the grass is greener on the other side. It's also true that the grass on the other side can make you appreciate your own, however green they both may be.
Depending on your view of maths, game theory, complexity and network theories and all the rest, the optimum unit for humans seems to be about a million or so, giving a trade off between exponentially exploding self processing beaurecracy and ability variation for technological complexity, the so called medaevil city state.
I wonder just how much of the increasing rate of techology advancement, or at least teh increasing noise of advertising of same, is due to desperate adrenaline junkies needing ever higher and more often doses of their fix, no matte the consequences, so we are at the point where the release o a new item is already too late because the next one isnt already here with eager announcements of th next few years items coming soon. Because the more variations there are, the larger the range they have o cover, which means for an essentially fixed base, you have to consider ever smaller and smaller details. You can say a country has an infinite coastline, but once you get down to induvidual atoms, its all over. And then you crash.
This kind of makes me wish there was an episode of Dan Vs where he just moved out of LA to try living in a small town in the midwest for a while.