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Essays Index
Equestrian Culture series: Part 1 - Religion | Part 2 - Government and Military | Part 3 - Values and Morality | Part 4 - Names and Family | Part 5 - Language

Government:
Equestrian royals:
Equestria is a constitutional federal diarchy with Celestia and Luna sharing equal power in law, and together acting as the heads of state. They are officially known as the ruling princesses. Between the two of them, they have final authority and can impose their will as law as long as they agree on a matter, unless overruled by Congress or the ascendant royals. Celestia and Luna are theoretically equal in power, but both take on separate duties according to their particular talents and areas of expertise.

Celestia is more involved in Equestrian politics. She presides over Equestria's Congress and Supreme Court, overseeing matters of law at the highest level, and also represents Equestria internationally, all of which involves a lot of managing paperwork, attending meetings, and making visits. She also addresses the more mundane needs of her citizens by holding an open court several hours a day to hear petitioners, and regularly hosts and attends charity functions and social events for numerous causes. Her most important duty, of course, is raising and lowering the sun every day.

Luna's duties are more martial in nature, and usually involve protecting her subjects from threat, whether that be the night-dwelling monsters which she fights in the physical world, or the nightmares that she battles in the Dreamscape. Prior to her banishment, Luna's title was Warmaster, and she was the princess who led in times of strife, rather than the one who handled civic matters. In modern Equestria, she is instead the Commander-in-Chief of the Protective Pony Platoons, a title which she technically shares with Celestia, but which in practice is more Luna's. Raising and lowering the moon is also an important part of her role.

Under the ruling princesses, there are the ascendant royals. In Equestria, truly exceptional ponies are often uplifted to alicorn status and granted a royal title for certain accomplishments. This is a tradition that has been going since the earliest days of Equestria, though what criteria one must meet to be worthy of ascending is vague and not well-understood by most who know of it. Some ascendants are also adopted into the Equestrian Royal Family (such as with Cadance), but this is uncommon. Ascendants are legally considered the next tier of authority below the ruling princesses, but are nevertheless treated as equals by the Royal Sisters themselves as a matter of respect, though ascendants generally tend to defer to them anyway.

Each ascendant royal begins their own noble house if they did not previously belong to one. The heads and heirs of a royal house are granted royal titles of their own, but they occupy a lesser, third tier of royal authority, and are not normally granted ascension to alicornhood unless they earn it by their own merits.

Prince Blueblood is one such lesser royal. He is the patriarch of House Thorncrown, a royal house started by an ascendant royal adoptee some centuries ago, and as such inherited his title from a long line of princes and princesses who came before him. Shining Armor occupies this tier as well through his marriage to Princess Cadance, with the two of them being the first generation of a whole new royal house. Flurry Heart, as their heir and firstborn, would also normally be a lesser royal, although her alicorn status at birth serves to confuse matters somewhat.

In general terms, the role of the ascendant royals in Equestria is to ensure that there is always a line of succession to replace the ruling princesses. Moving the heavenly spheres by themselves is possible for the Royal Sisters mostly because of their alicorn physiology, and so it is vital for their heirs to become alicorns, so that they may also perform these duties if need be. Lesser royals serve a similar role, ensuring that there are always ponies capable of replacing the ascendants. In case the worst should happen, and Equestria will imminently be left with no alicorn royals, the lesser royals serve as a shortlist of emergency candidates for ascension, under the assumption that they will have been educated and groomed to rule.

Ascendant and lesser royals may have additional duties, but existing as potential successors to the ruling princesses is their only true obligation as royalty. Beyond that, any additional role that they may play in running Equestria is entirely voluntary. Royals are free to do nothing and simply live the high life if that is what appeals to them, and this is the life that many of the more obscure lesser royals live, but ascendant royals are often chosen for their drive, and so will often seek purpose and try to serve Equestria in their own unique ways, rather than being content merely occupying a throne.

Princess Twilight Sparkle, for instance, has the duty of spreading the magic of friendship, and protecting Equestria from powerful threats, a role which she chose for herself after the Tree of Harmony created her castle. Princess Cadance's role was initially similar to this. She started out as the self-proclaimed Defender of Love, a job with ambiguous requirements which mostly involved keeping ponies happy by spreading love. Since the Crystal Empire's return, her responsibilities have expanded, and she has since taken a secondary title and become the ruler of that region.

For terms of address, ascendant and lesser royals are addressed as "Your Highness," while "Your Royal Highness" is the correct formal use for ruling princesses.

Equestrian nobility:
In Equestria, families recognised by law who can trace their ancestry back far enough, and who own at least one property, can have their family recognised as house. Houses are legal entities tied to an estate, ruled by a house head, and much like corporations are able to own land, property, and businesses which belong to the family as a whole. The position of house head is hereditary, and is typically inherited by the firstborn child of the house head, much like in a royal succession.

Noble houses are houses whose heads hold noble titles such as "duke," "count," or "baron," typically bestowed on them or their ancestors by the Crown. Their heirs are also commonly addressed by courtesy titles. The proper formal term of address for a duke is "Your Grace." When referred to with titles, they are called "lord" or "lady," with their dukedom specified afterwards. For example, were he not also a lesser royal, Prince Blueblood would be called "His Grace, Lord Blueblood, Duke of Canterlot." For a count or baron, they are instead referred to by their noble title directly. For example, the current Countess of Trotsylvania would simply be addressed as "Countess Licentious of Trotsylvania."

In ancient times, the noble houses both in Equestria and other countries would rule over vast, mostly autonomous lands, which belonged entirely to them. In these times, the nobles were free to tax their people at their leisure, raise levies, and enforce their own laws, kept in line only by a hierarchy of vassals answering to liege lords. In Equestria, later reforms curtailed this authority, allowing the nobles to keep their titles, private estates, and businesses, but abolishing the duchies, counties, and baronies themselves to give their lands and legal powers over to the elected state governments. Equestria's modern nobility thus retain their wealth and landed titles, but those titles no longer mean anything significant in and of themselves.

Equestria's Protected Territories, the nations which survived the Reign of Chaos relatively intact and became protectorates of Equestria, also often have their own nobility, considered separate from the Heartland and colonial nobles. Although the Protected Territories are nominally Equestrian, they are effectively sovereign nations, being totally self-governing, and neither represented in Equestria's Congress nor subject to its federal government. Because of this, most of them have completely different laws governing their nobility, who may thusly have any number of possible titles, including "king," "emperor," "sultan," or "pharaoh."

Government structure:
Equestria is a federation, composed of technically self-governing states, all of which are subject to the federal government under the Royal Sisters. They can be grouped as either Heartland states or colonial states. The Heartland states were established during the Reunification Wars as a replacement for the fallen member nations of the old Equestrian Concord, to ensure that the various territories and provinces of the Heartland held equal representation in the new union. The colonial states, similarly, were established in the same period as replacements for the fallen nations whose lands Equestria liberated.

Each Heartland state is centred around a major Equestrian city, which governs both itself, and its surrounding environs and smaller communities. Canterlot, for instance, is its own state, and encompasses both Canterlot City, Mt. Canterlot, the Unicorn Range, and outlying villages such as Ponyville. Colonial states are typically much larger, as they were replacements for whole kingdoms, and can encompass several major cities.

Equestria's federal government runs the nation as a whole, and includes executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as well as several ministerial departments, some operating independently, and others under the umbrella of one of the three branches. The ministries manage everything from taxes, to education standards, to national defence, but for the most part are relatively hands-off, leaving much of Equestria's governance to its state and local governments where possible. The ministries are staffed by civil servants and bureaucrats, but are overseen by ministers jointly appointed by the princesses and Congress, who are typically elected officials.

The diarchy and ascendant royals form the executive branch, acting in their previously described duties, but are kept in check by Equestria's constitution. This constitution is enforced by the judicial and legislative branches, both of which have power to challenge the executive decisions of the princesses when necessary, though this power is rarely used. The judicial branch encompasses Equestria's courts and justice system, while the legislative branch mostly concerns Congress.

The Equestrian Congress contains both a House of Representatives and a Senate, formed by elected officials representing both the Heartland and colonial states. Congress also selects the Prime Minister from their own numbers, who occupies Equestria's highest elected office, and speaks to the Royal Sisters as the voice of Congress, and thus the voice of the people.

Equestria holds its elections every five years, during which time the states vote for their governors, senators, and representatives all at once. There are numerous political parties across Equestria, particularly in the colonial states, enough that no single one ever dominates in Congress for long. However, the most prominent three in the Heartland are the Friendship Party, the Freedom Party, and the Justice Party, each concerning themselves with different issues.

On a more local level, Equestrian towns and cities handle their own basic day-to-day services, and hold their own mayoral or council elections separately from state and national ones. These mayors and town councils are mostly accountable to their respective state governments, but there do exist a rare few unincorporated frontier towns such as Appleloosa, which were established outside the borders of any pre-existing states. Such towns often have much greater levels of independence and self-governance, and usually grow to become states of their own in time.

Defence:
Protective Pony Platoons:
The Protective Pony Platoons, or PPP, are ran directly by the Ministry of Defence, and presided over by the High General and Minister of Defence. The Platoons were formed in the aftermath of the War of the Night to replace the old feudal system of relying upon noble levies, and consolidate Equestria's existing armed forces under a single banner. United under the goal of protecting Equestria from harm, the Platoons comprise many separate divisions, each uniquely tailored to fight a certain type of threat, and these divisions can vary wildly in their size, command structures, available resources, and levels of funding, secrecy, and oversight.

Earth, Unicorn, Pegasus Guard:
The EUP Guard is the main military force of Equestria and the most publically visible division of the Platoons. It is headed by a five-star general, with several lesser generals serving under him, and makes its headquarters at a base on Equestria's east coast. The EUP Guard has a large number of reserves, and would be the front-line fighters for the country in times of war. It is a multi-racial, all-terrain military force, and can be divided into several subdivisions, including the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

The Equestrian Army is mostly earth ponies and unicorns, and utilises a lot of fairly advanced technology by Equestrian standards. They make use of gunpowder, utilising cannons for their artillery, and elite infantry are also trained in the use of primitive flintlock firearms. As well, the Army have access to tanks and other vehicles, which are variously either magic-based, mechanical, or rely on steam-powered combustion engines. However, much like the Royal Guard, most of the Equestrian Army are still primarily trained with spears, lances, and halberds, as well as race-specific weapons such as wing-blades, unicorn swords, and hammer-hooves.

The Equestrian Air Force are mostly pegasi, and have numerous aircraft which they use for a number of different roles. Gigantic, magically-constructed airships are used to transport and deploy pegasus strike teams and flying squadrons, as well as other aircraft, and these form the backbone of the EAF's fleet, with their flagship being the Prometheus. Helicopters, gyrocopters, or hot air balloons are also used as bombers or dogfighters, but the former two can only ever be piloted by non-pegasi, requiring either unicorn magic to power their engines or earth pony strength to keep them aloft with pedal power. The EAF also often handles transportation of supplies.

The Equestrian Navy are an even mix of all three races, and maintain a decently impressive fleet, mostly composed of sailing ships. Like the Equestrian Army, they are equipped with cannons, and some are also trained with firearms, but most are melee fighters, as they are expected to fight in close-quarters when boarding another ship or being boarded. However, unlike the Army, ponies in the Equestrian Navy primarily use swords and cutlasses instead of more typical pony weapons, despite the greater difficulty in the technique, as spears and halberds are often ineffective at close range. The Navy are the only subdivision which still sees regular action, as piracy is still a frequent problem in Equestrian waters.

However, while the Army, Navy, and Air Force are the largest subdivisions, they are not the only ones. The Royal Guard is a separate entity from all three, a carryover from the Classical Era that was integrated into the PPP upon its founding. Being that they were originally an independent organisation, the Royal Guard to this day are oddly separate from the rest of the EUP and Platoons, despite technically being a part of them, and still answer only to the princesses (a point of great frustration for intelligence organisations like the EIS).

The Royal Guard is headed by the Captain of the Guard, and is itself further split into the Day Guard and Night Guard, each ran by a first lieutenant. While the Day Guard and Night Guard have different cultural traditions and customs, and of course, operate at different times of day, their duties are essentially the same. They perform in ceremonies, they guard their princesses, and they protect Canterlot Castle and the surrounding city from any threats. As criminals are included amongst what the Royal Guard constitutes as potential threats, they also take a law enforcement role in Canterlot, often acting as beat cops, allowing the Canterlot Police Force to dedicate itself to more investigative policework.

Another smaller subdivision of the EUP are the War-Mage Corps, an all-unicorn platoon comprised of magically exceptional individuals, many of them graduates of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. The War-Mages are typically either highly versatile spellcasters trained in a wide variety of arts, or highly unique ones wielding powerful or esoteric talent spells. Being highly specialised, and with a large variance in ability, they are rarely ever deployed as a group, but are collectively considered among the EUP's most formidable assets.

As well, no rundown of Equestria's military forces would be complete without mentioning the Wonderbolts, initially formed for the Summer Sun Celebration during the First Celestial Year of Peace. They are a subdivision of the EAF, currently headed by Captain Spitfire, but in previous generations were also commanded by admirals, generals, and other higher-ranking individuals, until the current order was established.

The Wonderbolts, while a military organisation, are best known as flying performers, and serve as the public face of the EAF. However, they also act as first responders to any major crises such as monster attacks or natural disasters, and are specialists in neutralising hazardous weather events such as rogue hurricanes or wild storms. As being a Wonderbolt is such dangerous work and requires a lot of specialist training, they operate their own Wonderbolts Academy to train potential recruits, the best of which become Wonderbolt Reserves. The best of the Reserves, in turn, are front-runners to replace outgoing members of the main Wonderbolts team.

Equestrian Intelligence Service:
The Equestrian Intelligence Service, or EIS, is an intelligence organisation concerned with matters of both national and international security. The organisation is ran by a director, and is split into several departments that all serve different functions, each answering to a department head. The two most important are the Department of Science and the Department of Special Operations, whose scientists and agents respectively are the lifeblood of the EIS.

The EIS is funded by the federal government's black budget, and has bases all over the country, despite being a relatively smaller group. Their main headquarters is Mother Base in Canterlot, and their next largest facility is their Manehattan lab, where they keep most of their dirtier projects that are secret from even the princesses, such as their viral experiments. They get away with this due to having an almost unprecedented level of secrecy allowed. They are given almost no oversight from the Platoons, save for a single monthly inspection in all their major facilities that the PPP know of, and a report from the director submitted to his superior.

The EIS has remained secure for most of its existence, but as of the Changeling Incident, it was revealed that they were compromised at even the highest levels by the changelings. While the love magic wave at Canterlot killed all the infiltrators in Mother Base, the rest of the EIS remained infested for some weeks afterwards. Although they eventually defeated the remaining changeling infiltrators (codenamed CHARON), this was not done without irreparable harm to the EIS's reputation and infrastructure, and they were nearly shut down as a result.

Apollo Division:
Apollo Division is a now defunct agency, once dedicated to fighting monstrous or supernatural threats, most especially vampires and hengstwolves. They began as the Royal Order of Celestian Knights, once colloquially known as ROCK, founded by Sir Apollo Sunwrath to fight the armies of Nightmare Moon during the War of the Night. After the war's end, the knightly order was incorporated into newly established Protective Pony Platoons, where it became better known as Apollo Division, displacing the acronym as its most common nickname.

Apollo Division were the Equestrian government's premier monsters-hunters for two centuries, a public sector counterpart to all the civilian companies associated with the Hunters Guild. Acting with the Crown's blessing, they were able to get away with a significant amount, including employing a vampire known as Sir Viscous as an agent, an action that would have had them accused of heresy by the culture of the time if not for their secrecy and protected status.

Their agency dealt with the research, regulation, and dispatch of magical/supernatural phenomena such as vampires and other monsters. Though they had a fearsome reputation in the hunter community, they were actually very moralistic by the standards of the time, refusing to blindly kill monsters out of hatred or fanaticism as many others did, even protecting those whom they deemed innocent and harmless.

Apollo Division would eventually meet its end thanks to the hunter Van Helsing, who initiated a series of events that ended with most of its staff dead and its headquarters burned to the ground. The organisation is today considered defunct, and all attempts to reestablish it have been foiled by bizarre circumstances and misfortunes, leading to rumours of a curse on the Apollo name.

SMILE:
SMILE is a successor organisation to Apollo Division, set up more than a century after Apollo went defunct. Like their predecessors, they serve as Equestria's official response to all monster-related matters that are beyond the purview of the rest of the military. Unlike Apollo, however, SMILE operates in secrecy, emphasising stealth and espionage instead of force, an approach that would later inspire the foundation and philosophy of the EIS. They had several branches, most prominently in Canterlot and Manehattan.

The organisation operated with impunity for many years, but was shut down following an incident in which they failed to prevent a break-out from Tartarus by the Bugbear. All of its agents retired and went into hiding under Celestia's orders, so as to preserve their own safety in the face of forces that would hunt them down, with Special Agent Sweetie Drops being among their number. Despite this, many rogue agents continued to operate in secret using leftover resources from the defunct agency, and several more were picked up and recruited by the EIS and the civilian Torchwood Institute after the fact.

Some time later, the Manehattan branch of SMILE would be officially reopened by royal decree to combat a new changeling threat, ironically just as the EIS was risking shutdown.

Acknowledgements:
-Luna as an old warhorse is something of a fandom trope, but I don't remember where I first saw it.
-The restriction of the powers of Equestria's nobility, and the replacement of noble levies with a more unified military, borrows from The Lunar Rebellion by Chengar Qordath.
-The Royal Guard being divided into a Day Guard and a Night Guard is common fanon, but the first time I personally saw it used was in Night Guards by Raugos.

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