spoiler Is Equestria unstable? (season 6 finale spoilers)

[Silver Letter 1,832]

I had been thinking about this since the season six finale was aired early. I watched "Top Bolt" then decided to finish the season right away since it was in order.

 

Anyway, I've ruminated over this question and I don't think it was asked before but I've been wondering about people who've said that they would surely live in Equestria if given the chance. I've seen a poll on facebook too about that and everybody of course said they would. After all, it is rather perfect from what we've seen. I too said that it was far more preferable than the human world in terms of a lack of violence, strife and such things. With friendship in control, things are much better there.

 

I stand by that more or less. While Equestria is better than Earth, I think that living there might not be good as a result of a total lack of conflict necessarily. Comparing Equestria to the United States in particular, our government in this nation hasn't been overthrown three times. Equestria has now. The first by the Changelings in season 2. The second by Tirek in season 4. The third now by Changelings again in season 6. And if one counts Nightmare Moon and Discord, that goes up to five times. That's five times the government has been forcefully disbanded. Five times that the authorities were powerless to do anything about it. According to the bad futures seen in the season 5 finale, I can assume that there are scenarios in which invading powers have won long term and thrown the world into chaos. These coups/invasions would be decisively worse than some conventional ones in our real world as the ones in Equestria often come with the tearing apart of society as part of the package. Even the tearing of space and time with Discord.

 

Is Equestria really that safe? Is it even stable by our standards? Has Celestia faced catastrophe year after year for a thousand years? If it is due to the nature of ponies, then it is possible that they are simply incapable of defending themselves save from a group of ponies blessed by destiny and a higher power. I would rather have a military, I think. I do recall that in one of the bad futures, Celestia created an army to repel Sombra and his dark powers. If Equestria had been this prepared, the complete capitulation of the Equestrian monarchy wouldn't have been forced in the season 6 finale.

 

What do you think? Am I way off? Maybe Equestria is still better somehow regardless of this weakness. Maybe not.

[leonbrony17 1,217]

No, after watching the end of season six definitly no. Their "so powerfull" were so easy defeated and inprisoned by these little amateurs of changelings? That was really weird but it was also disturbing.

[VengefulStrudel 1,495]

Hey @@Silver Letter, even though you've already put "spoiler" in the title, added a spoiler tag/prefix to your thread as well.

[EmeraldStar04 250]

Equestria is better off because it has friendship and magic. If terrorists in this world had chaos magic and shapeshifting and magic draining instead of guns and bombs and trucks, our government would be overthrown before you could blink.

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

Equestria is still safer.

Yes they have had strife, but they were not really overthrown, conquered and tossed into complete disarray like countries here are. I mean Discord ruled for what? A day? Same with Chrysalis and Tirek? Obviously I don't have the exact amount of time that transpired, but it was not all that great.... and it seems they are no worse for the wear.

Of course it is just a cute cartoon show trying to tell stories in a low violence environment. In reality i am sure ponies would die, and there would be far more fall out than what we see.... but I also think we would see a more stable and competent military or means of defending themselves than the cartoon shows, just because they kinda have to be ineffective just so the mane 6 can save the day.

I would prefer it there more because you don't have the utter hate, and bigotry there you do here, capitalism is not utterly out of control, and politics seem far removed and not screaming in your face to choose a turd sandwich or a giant douche. I am sure it has it's problems like anyplace else, but in the end it just seems a more preferable world than this one.

[Silver Letter 1,832]

 

 

Yes they have had strife, but they were not really overthrown, conquered and tossed into complete disarray like countries here are.

I'm not sure. On Earth, a lot of times a revolution merely changes leaders but for the common people, life continues as normal. In Equestria, the entire system halted because their leaders were taken prisoner. If the Changelings had succeeded even further, it makes sense that they would have drained the love from ponies. A truly stable system shouldn't be able to be dismantled so easily. They had no failsafe. Their protectors who have saved Equestria in the past (Twilight, her friends, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance) had failed. Their B team prevailed but who knows what could have happened if they did not.

[EmeraldStar04 250]

Equestria is still safer.

 

Yes they have had strife, but they were not really overthrown, conquered and tossed into complete disarray like countries here are. I mean Discord ruled for what? A day? Same with Chrysalis and Tirek? Obviously I don't have the exact amount of time that transpired, but it was not all that great.... and it seems they are no worse for the wear.

 

Of course it is just a cute cartoon show trying to tell stories in a low violence environment. In reality i am sure ponies would die, and there would be far more fall out than what we see.... but I also think we would see a more stable and competent military or means of defending themselves than the cartoon shows, just because they kinda have to be ineffective just so the mane 6 can save the day.

 

I would prefer it there more because you don't have the utter hate, and bigotry there you do here, capitalism is not utterly out of control, and politics seem far removed and not screaming in your face to choose a turd sandwich or a giant douche. I am sure it has it's problems like anyplace else, but in the end it just seems a more preferable world than this one.

Actually, today's politics is Hillary screaming in your face to choose a turd sandwich or her, while Trump just laughs because he doesn't need to pay for ads, he gets slandered constantly and anyone smart enough to see through it will vote for him.

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

Actually, today's politics is Hillary screaming in your face to choose a turd sandwich or her, while Trump just laughs because he doesn't need to pay for ads, he gets slandered constantly and anyone smart enough to see through it will vote for him.

 

Actually anyone smart enough to see through it all would want to just start all over with candidates who actually care about the people and not just their own personal careers.

 

But that is not what this topic is about.

 

I'm not sure. On Earth, a lot of times a revolution merely changes leaders but for the common people, life continues as normal. In Equestria, the entire system halted because their leaders were taken prisoner. If the Changelings had succeeded even further, it makes sense that they would have drained the love from ponies. A truly stable system shouldn't be able to be dismantled so easily. They had no failsafe. Their protectors who have saved Equestria in the past (Twilight, her friends, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance) had failed. Their B team prevailed but who knows what could have happened if they did not.

 

That is a revolution... not a conquering. In a revolution the people want the ruler(s) out of power. It makes sense the people will still do their very best to maintain their own personal order unless they are just causing a massive overthrowing of the country to rewrite everything.  From what I see, the citizens of Equestria love it there.

 

And they run on a monarchy, of course the system would break down that easily if "all" of their leaders were taken killed or taken hostage. That is one of the problems with them (among other things). It is why some dynasties were crushed due to entire family lines being wiped out just to prevent anyone from contesting the throne at a later date.

 

So yeah, if that happened and there was no Mane 6 to pull them out of the fire, we would be screwed. But that is all a bunch of "what ifs". That is no different than what we have here. Just the other day we had a "what if" Russia declared war and invaded thread, and although totally improbable, were it to happen.. I don't think the US citizens would be nearly as comfortable after such a situation as the citizens of Equestria seem to be.

 

I just see Equestria overall, as a much safer and more stable place to live. Not saying there are not issues, but compared to the world we live in today.. it is way more stable. Like someone said, sure we don't have giant monsters attacking us every other week, but we also don't have super powerful magicians and nearly omnipotent alicorns protecting us either.

 

Just my take on it.

[Silver Letter 1,832]

 

 

I just see Equestria overall, as a much safer and more stable place to live. Not saying there are not issues, but compared to the world we live in today.. it is way more stable.

It's hard to say. It might not be that stable if ponies don't know if their government is going to be around the next day.

 

Especially since the omnipotent alicorns are impotent. All four were taken out. They had no intelligence to see it coming or the power to stop it when it came.

[vanillapudding 44]

From what I've observed, even when the ruling powers are dismantled there still isn't much to fear...unless you live in one of the three hotspots (Ponyville, Canterlot, or the Crystal Empire). The first time a crazy all powerful creature tries to cause problems in the country, sure, that's kinda scary, but by the time you've had five or six try to take over and all be taken down within a few days its a bit less frightening. Unlike the real world, none of the threats pervade over long periods of time. Nightmare Moon went down in one night, Discord went down fairly fast, since apparently the first three seasons took place in one years time - Even though I like to completely ignore that factoid from the show because it makes my head hurt, it does put the other attacks into some perspective since they'd have had to have quick turn around times to all fit into the span of one year. Chrysallis, once revealed, went down in an afternoon. Sure the changelings were always there in the background but they didn't come back for quite some time, and when they did...well, I know this is a thread discussing spoilers but I won't speak the spoilers of the season six finale until after Saturday passes.

 

We also see that Ponyville kind of regularly faces other problems (Cerberus, the BugBear, and that's not even touching on the uncontrollable forest of crazy they live next to). Since we don't follow the other locations nearly as much, its hard to say if that's common. From the comics (I know not primary canon, but they still reveal some fun stuffs) we can see that Canterlot has had a few incidents in its time, and from the episodes in the Crystal Empire we can see that they also have their own magical problems when they don't power their heart-stone-shield-maker properly. But that's what you get for building your empire in the frozen north where it's apparently a near constant blizzard. 

 

The point I really want to get at is that the ponies don't seem all that worried. Despite all the crazy that happens in Ponyville, they all still live there. They chose to build up their town near the Everfree Forest knowing how dangerous it could be. They could have just been like 'yo Apples are cray cray we ain't livin here,' but apparently rainbow apple jam was enough to convince them to build the magical stomping ground of their nation. And despite all the magical attacks aimed at all of Equestria, no one is clambering to go move in with the zebras or the yaks (er, well, can't blame them there) or to any of the other nations. So...basically, even when the royals are dismantled and changelings are putting everyone in cocoons, everypony still comes out the next day smiling. I know its a happy show so they're probably never going to address the long term emotional consequences of all the attacks, but taking everything presented in the show as the canon lore and lifestyle it seems that perhaps instead of Equestria being unstable....perhaps its so stable that it doesn't really need its rulers. 

 

I mean, clearly they still need the rulers, but if a band of six ponies that all started out as every day(ish - Twilight was clearly part of the 1% right from the get go) citizens can handle things, then maybe the other ponies are pretty hearty too and really only need help when the big guns (Discord, Tirek, Chrysallis) come along.

 

I mean...we clearly see in the finale just how hearty some of the citizens can be. Without magic! They might not have been able to turn Discord to stone, but we've seen that with a bit of love and friendship he never needed to be stone in the first place. The only fights they might never have been able to win are Nightmare Moon (since the elements of harmony rainbowed the nightmare right out of her) and the battle against Tirek (since the elements of harmony...rainbowed the magic right out of him, a bit more literally this time). All the crystal ponies needed was for someone to get them their heart then they took care of the rest. It didn't necessarily have to be future princess Twilight, and Cadence didn't necessarily have to majestically swoop over them all pretty like. Then Flurry Heart both caused and solved the problem when it shattered, so without her the problem wouldn't have existed to begin with.

 

Soooooo, yeah that's my rebuttal. :3 Maybe they don't need their princesses as much as the show tries to lead us to believe. Having princesses to do the hard work for them is just a nice perk of living in Equestria.

[Regent 77]

Yes, and it's this way because ponies are unstable. Twilight, Starlight, and even Celestia have some serious emotional and competence issues that real people wouldn't put up with for long.

 

For sure, it makes for fun television to give powerful creatures the maturity of 12 year old kids... but you see the result.

 

Not that I'm complaining.

[cider float 2,539]

When one individual can have that much militaristic power yeah that does bring some concern. Tirek, Starlight and Discord alone could take over the entire world. You cross any of them they can destroy you. Heck you would probably feel a bit scared to piss off even Twilight or any other common unicorn that knows some magic can screw you over if you say or do the wrong thing. And though Twilight is a relatively nice pony who's to say there aren't mean spirited unicorns out there? Thank god Trixie didn't have as good magic as Twilight but one can see just how dangerous she becomes with that mind and the alicorn amulet. Since magic is very unpredictable and you cannot predict where it could come from (like from artifacts or locations) it can screw you royally over if you make the wrong step in the wrong places and since there's no internet or any other way of accessing information around Equestria (even their books lack many information) you wouldn't know where to place precaution towards.

 

Outside of the pony villages you would have all sorts of mythological monsters like dragons heck nothing is really stopping them from attacking pony villages since they don't have any fortifications or military forces. 

Edited October 22, 2016 by cider float

[Justin_Case001 4,934]

politics seem far removed and not screaming in your face to choose a turd sandwich or a giant douche.

LOL!  Which one is which? 

 

 

Of course it is just a cute cartoon show trying to tell stories in a low violence environment. In reality i am sure ponies would die, and there would be far more fall out than what we see.... but I also think we would see a more stable and competent military or means of defending themselves than the cartoon shows, just because they kinda have to be ineffective just so the mane 6 can save the day.

I think you really hit the nail on the head with this.

 

 

I think Equestria is better overall, but it seems to be a case of trading all of our micro problems for a few macro ones.  So, here, you've got daily hatred, constant crime, bigotry, assaults, murders, what have you.  But on the whole, as the OP pointed out, most countries seems to be more or less "stable".  Governments don't crumble before super villains, and there's typically no threat in this day and age of entire civilizations being wiped out or enslaved or something.  There's some big problems in the world, yeah, but not...like...f*ckin General Zod levels of threat.  In Equestria, you don't have all that daily crap; there's much more love and friendship, little to no government because it isn't needed, no crime, no homicides, but you've always got the looming threat of some super villain that could destroy the world, and you've got to place your faith in the chosen ponies to save the day.  So, basically, the price for having a utopian paradise is that you have to defeat the epic forces of evil every so often.  If I could choose, I'd definitely go with the latter, the Equestria world model.  I'm an advocate for quality over quantity, and life if it's worth it, not life at all costs.  I'd rather take the risk of epic super villains for the payoff of paradise, rather than the depressing, mundane middle road where safety is essentially a matter of probability and anonymity.  (I.e. you're probably not going to get gunned down because there's a lot of other people to get gunned down.)  Basically, in Equestria, either everything is going to be perfect, or you're gonna be dead, and I'd prefer those extremes to, well....this.

 

After the S6 finale, I definitely feel like national security is a major issue in Equestria, though.  The Sisters really need to address this.  The changelings obviously spent a very long time planning this strike and gathering strength, but still, the fact that all of the leadership and power in Equestria crumbled so quickly is alarming.

[silvadel 1,393]

What scares me more is the control on the personal level.

 

Starlight Glimmer had a spell that could remove cutie marks.

Twilight Sparkle's library had dozens of books with mind-controlling reform spells.

Starlight managed to cast a spell on 5 of the main 6 completely denying them their will.  One which NONE of the five resisted despite the fact that Pinkie was truly upset over the whole thing and Starlight having made her mess up a cake.

[Vlazamal 338]

Yes, it is very unstable from existintial threats, but not from the inside out.

 

Remember, in Equestria, there have been multiple thousand year eras of complete chaos/destruction. Not to mention that because of Starlight, Equestria was destroyed on multiple different occasions and people had to live with those realities. Remember the time where she messed with time and Equestria was a lifeless wasteland? Yeah, tell me there was no death involved. The ponies in Twilight's era are very lucky, their ancestors have dealt with thousands upon thousands of years of dispair (when you consider the comics canon)

 

People are happy with the Equestrian monarchy, likely due to it's good seperation of powers. It's more ceremonial than actual ruling. It has a weak government and content population, similar to a pre-enlightment europe without warmongering (because friendship, lel).