Harmony

**Harmony** is an ideology with a strong following in Equestria, the Crystal Empire and Iridian Changeling hives.

## Principles

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> "With Earth Pony farming, Pegasus weather control and Unicorn magic, Equestria is invincible."
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> Quote often attributed to Celestia, real author unknown.
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Harmony is based on the principle of deriving strength from unity among different kinds.

Under harmony, damaging the unique skills of a creature is seen as a particularly heinous crime, for moral or practical reasons depending on the position on the pragmatism-equalism axis. Breaking an Unicorn's horn or a Pegasus' wings can get a much worse penalty than causing other injuries under Equestrian law.

While based on a common idea, there are variants of harmony which can be generally placed along two axes:

* A pragmatism-equalism axis that addresses the question of whether harmony is merely pragmatic (acknowledging the efficiency of combining strengths but rejecting equality) or whether it entails the same rights and duties for all creatures and fairness in their treatment.

* An exclusionism-inclusivism axis that addresses the question of how many races and species harmony encompasses.

## History

The direct predecessor of harmony started around the time of Equestria's unification under the agreement that sharing the strengths of the different Pony races would be beneficial for all Pony nations. These ideals fell in the pragmatism side of the spectrum, with the strengthening relationships seen as purely pragmatical.

Harmony as it is currently known began taking shape in 6th century Ponyville, the capital of Equestria at the time, whose population was evenly divided between Pony races. While the question of whether harmony extended to other species hadn't been addressed yet, that time starts to see significant popularization of harmony as inherently equalist while racial supremacisms remained common.

The ideals of equalist harmony first became enshrined in the myth of the origin of Hearth's Warming Eve, which saw friendship between Pony races as necessary for progress.

These ideals, endorsed by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna as a means of upholding social order and avoid racial violence and conflict, steadily gained popularity over time and spread to other regions of Equestria.

As equalist harmony became the mainstream form of harmony and close to synonymous with harmony itself, many supporters of pragmatist harmony have rejected harmony as a whole as a means to stick to their supremacist ideals.

However, new forms of pragmatist harmony have surged as the industrializing Equestrian society employs creatures other than Ponies for their skills and resources, such as Changelings to procure wax and honey. This has sparked new ideological fronts which accept equality among Pony races but reject it for other species while acknowledging their necessity in a modern economy.

On the flip side, racial supremacists have largely done the opposite and accepted other species as an alternative to other races. For example, Earth Pony supremacists in Gaia view Qilin immigrants as an alternative to Unicorns while Unicorn supremacists in Ceria view Zebras as an alternative to Earth Ponies.

## By region

### Equestria

*See also: Equestria#Ideology*

Harmony is extremely popular in Equestria and is considered intrinsic to the country itself.

Equestrian harmony typically involves Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns living in true equality rather than seeing their relationship as merely pragmatic.

Support for harmony covering species other than Ponies has been gaining in popularity, although species-based discrimination remains common.

### Crystal Empire

Unlike in Equestria, supremacism in the Crystal Empire is based on nationality rather than race. Under Crystalline harmony, creatures of different species are more easily accepted into society as long as they adopt a Crystalline nationality.

### Iridian hives

Iridian harmony promotes trade and good relationships with countries that are not primarily Changeling, which are often credited with the economic success of Iridian hives.

However, this harmony rarely includes Erebian Changelings. Only fringe elements of Changeling society call for equality between Iridian and Erebian Changelings.