//------------------------------//
// The Last Mare of Mareland 
// Story: When The Eagles Go Marching 
// by Wanderer101 
//------------------------------//


WAR IS PEACE. 


FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. 


IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH



Official Motto of Marelandia



The Commonwealth of New Mareland had suffered much in recent years. Black Wednesday has left the nation's economy in tatters. Tensions between the griffon natives and pony colonists were at an all time high. Their immediate neighbors were becoming increasingly aggressive. A section of their nation had become home to a bunch of hairless apes from another world. Throughout all of this they received no help from Equestria or the crown. 

Governor Jet Set was finding it increasingly hard to maintain pro-equestrian sentiment among the population who felt betrayed. The saying ‘Celestia’s Sun Sets On New Mareland’ was becoming very popular among the disgruntled citizens. When a petition arrived on his desk with support from much of the government & populace he found his hooves tied. A few days later a shocked Celestia received word that New Mareland, due to indifference of the crown towards its plight, were now declaring their independence. Celestia attempted to find some kind of way to get the ponies of Mareland to reconsider but this attempt proved to be futile. New Mareland was leaving and no one could stop them.

Almost immediately people wondered just what path should their now independent nation take. Some looked towards the US which had been buying land off the New Mareland government which had helped the nation’s economy greatly. Some wished to form a new government based on the US. Others wished to make an alliance with the small nation. A radical few wanted to join the US and form a united human-pony-griffon government. Unfortunately none of these plans came into fruition. Instead New Mareland was about to go red.

Communism had quickly become very popular in the struggling New Mareland society. One such communist party known as MARESOC, short for Marelandian Socialism, had promised to create a society where everyone was equal. Slowly but surely MARESOC assumed control over the country. First they had Jet Set recognize Stalliongradian independence, the first Equestrian affiliated nation to do so. Next they implemented numerous reforms that placed much of the nation’s manufacturing & infrastructure under government control. Last they began replacing many elected officials with MARESOC members. The last measure was not accepted by many Marelandians who attempted to resist. 

On a cool saturday morning a mob of protestors gathered outside the government building where MARESOC’s leader resided to protest the new laws. Survivors of the incident say they could see her stare out the window at them, her purple eyes uncaring & mouth in a slight frown. She continued staring as MARESOC troops supported by Bitty Simple tanks gunned down the protestors. Immediately after the massacre MARESOC removed any pretenses of New Mareland being a free nation. The borders were closed, unauthorized transport between cities banned, Jet Set was imprisoned, and a curfew was in immediate effect. 

It was then the Great Purge began. Anypony that had said even the most minuscule of criticism towards MARESOC during its rise to power was executed from politicians to journalists to even civilians on the street. Fear soon gripped the country as MARESOC’s new ‘Thoughtpolice’ ensured everyone was thinking correctly.

Everyday as all traces of the old order were eradicated the leader of MARESOC, known as Big Sister, would go on the radio telling the people that she loved them and that she must be firm in order to keep the nation from falling. In addition to their long hours of work making weapons the people of New Mareland had to report for ‘re-education’. The ponies of New Mareland were ‘corrected’ on the many things they believed to be true. 

There never was a ‘New Mareland’. This place had always been Marelandia. They never were a colony to Equestria. They were in fact at war with Equestria and always have been. The United States and humanity didn’t come from another world. They had always been there. It wasn’t Marelandia territory that the US sat upon but US territory that Marelandia would one day take. As if someone could take land from Big Sister! Big Sister had always been their leader. They weren’t living in poverty. Things were actually better than how they used to be! Don’t they remember?

The ponies of Marelandia weren’t stupid. They knew this was all nonsense but when under threat of being arrested by the thoughtpolice they were willing to think whatever Big Sister wanted. At first they were simply pretending to believe but with each passing day under constant propaganda more and more ponies started to actually believe. By the time of the Liberation there were barely any ponies left that didn’t become good obedient and ignorant proles.

Still not everyone had fallen under the sway of MARESOC. Cross Island & New Manehatten had both seceded and joined the US upon MARESOC’s take over. Many of New Hoofington’s residents sailed across the channel on makeshift rafts towards New Manehatten before Marelandia set up a proper coastal patrol. The native griffons were easily the biggest opponents to the new order. Unfortunately for them Big Sister wasn’t willing to take no for an answer. Those that they couldn’t deport to surrounding nations were ‘unpersoned’. All information on that person's existence from photographs, official documents, and even other people in the most drastic cases were simply erased. If an unperson wasn’t executed outright they became ‘living equipment’. Working long hours with little rest and given lower rations than the most destitute of proles. Unpersons were quite literally worked to death.

Ironically the few griffons that decided to give in to Big Sister and become good proles got to experience something that was only dreamed about in the old Commonwealth: racial equality. In Marelandia there was only the Inner Part, Outer Party, and Proles. It didn’t matter if someone was a pony, griffon, or thestral. That kind of thing didn’t matter in Marelandia, only your social class did. Many griffons actually managed to join the Inner Party and a thestral was one of Marelandia’s best generals.

MARESOC and Big Sister only ruled over Mareland for little over four years. It is for this reason most are shocked at just how much damage they did in so little time. Those that had visited the nation before Big Sister’s rise to power could not recognize the country. The American Liberation while destructive was unable to compare to the amount of destruction done under Big Sister’s orders. All of Mareland’s iconic and majestic buildings were either repurposed or destroyed. The Sunset Opera House was bulldozed and replaced with a munitions plant. The New Hoofington Museum of Fine Art was burned. Thousands of civilian homes were left to rot as their owners were crowded into massive shanty towns outside the major cities. The history of entire cities and regions were rewritten to fit the Inner Party’s narrative. New Hoofington and New Ponyland both had the ‘New’ taken out of their names. The region of Celestia was renamed in honor of Big Sister.

The United States from the moment the first MARESOC flags were raised over Mareland started making plans to invade the country. Unfortunately the US military was still in shambles at this point in time. Being more akin to a mob, though a well organized & equipped one, than an actual army the US military was barely capable of defending their home territories. Performing an invasion of Marelandia which would require multiple naval landings would require a lot of planning & preparation.

It would all have to wait though. The United States was about to undergo its own government change and unlike Mareland this one would be for the better.

Excerpt from The Last Mare of Mareland: Rise & Fall of MARESOC by Gorge & Ore Well, New Washington Printing Company, 1032 ALB