Request by ShadowPony300: “What about twilight sacrifice herself when queen chrysalis and the other two villains came through the castle doors with a big explosion.”
pyrrhic: adjective, (of a victory) won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor.
Twilight Sparkle isn't about to abandon her friends to the whims of three horrible villains. She just needs a solution. Unfortunately the only solution she can think of is rather dangerous.
10786283
Trolley problem. Inaction will cost many lives, action will cost fewer lives (but different people).
In detail: A runaway trolley is speeding towards a group of 5 unaware people. You cannot warn them and the impact is certain to kill them. However you can throw a switch to redirect the trolley to a different track, which unfortunately would cause the trolley to crash into a single other person, killing them. Is it more ethical to throw the switch (killing one to save five) or to do nothing (not sacrificing one person, but - through inaction - allowing five others to die)?
Twilight favored to act, saving many at the cost of fewer. Whether it was morally the right thing to do - well, there are several different opinions on that, but I feel you already have hinted at yours by saying "mass murder".
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10786283
I believe the best description for this situation is negative utilitarianism. Twilight took the course of action that produced the least harm.
The choice between the deaths of millions or the death of billions
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10786381
Either way a lot of ponies would view it as murder and Celestia knows it.
10786414
Is it murder if there was no intent to kill? Mull that one over in your head for a bit.
10786395
Some choice.
10786419
Ask the ponies that question, they’re the ones I was talking about.
But to answer your question; no.
At the same time though the situation here could be seen as more complicated than that since her intentions were to essentially create a bomb that would kill her, Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy despite knowing what the consequences could be.
Regardless though the fact that Twilight consciously did what she did would no doubt lead to ponies viewing her as a murderer which, again, is what Celestia was expecting to happen should ponies find out the truth.
Can't Twilight just? I don't know, TELEPORT herself ( along with the Evil Trio) to a far away place, AWAY from the Heavily Populated Canterlot?! And then, blow up the bell??!!
Like Mastered SSJ1 Goku did with Semi-Perfect Cell by using Instant Transmission.
Or WHY didn't the citizens leave the city already?! Are they blind that the Villains attack the castle?! They should know how to evacuate the city themselves?!
Another thing, DOESN'T Twilight know that her ( And Shining's) own Parents live in Canterlot?! She might have "accidentally" killed them as well! Along with Moondancer, and her old Canterlot Unicron Friends.
Edit: Seriously?! Why do I have a dislike as well? Now it's ten dislikes.
10786465
This is a complex and difficult ethical issue, and I suppose that, at the end of the day, there is no right answer. Welcome to the world of tough decisions, where no matter what route you take, you end up with blood on your hands. The 2016 film Eye in the Sky portrays this dilemma very well.
10786886
It's mentioned in the story that her own magic field was on the verge of overloading. All the power in generating the shield and holding the Doom Legion back had left her seriously drained.
10786902
Dang! So no quick teleporting to a wasteland or something? Also, personal question?! After all of this. Does Twilight deserve to go to Heaven or Hell for this? Or maybe purgatory?
10786900
Pretty much.
10786933
I don't know if ponies have any concept of that. Given the hell she's been through, perhaps oblivion would simply be enough.
10786974
What would you have done in the circumstances?
So detonating a nuke in your capital is a worthy method of getting rid of corrupt government? Interesting
10786979
Don’t know.
The good news is that she got rid of most of the nobility...
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The bad news is she got rid of most of the nobility.
Dont get me wrong some of the hereditary nobles were probably pretty venal and greedy, but they do usually have outliers in the family and they know how to manage their lands if they want to keep being fairly well off. Celestia now has to reassemble a government that she has no hold on nor the knowledge of their personalities and abilities from the remaining nobles that were not in canterlot or their branch families. While grieving.
10787273
Sensible.
So she was willing to sacrifice other lives for her friends?
Of course celestia would be stupid.
I would honestly still tell, because I’m not seeing the problem.
I’d take those consequences.
You're back!
I have a headache
You can thank Starlight and her Timey whimey stuff
So was Canterlot saved?
Well no and yes
no & yes?
The city was spared but the Nobels got lobotomized . . .
So everything's back to normal . . .Great
and Rarity's Queen
Wut!
That's how I became King
As My Little Ponies know I never do anything
10787108 Alondro just sits there... looking shifty... and pushes a suspicious device under his bed.
Twilight went all Majin Vegeta on the Terrible Trio... but forgot to ask Piccolo to take them all to the nearest convenient wasteland! Dangit!
10786886
Actually, those are some good points.
10790465
Thank you!
I could get the "We have to suppress this for the sake of stability" argument if it was a few weeks after the event, but a year? It's simply been too long for it to be a big issue, and Equestria certainly has recovered unity from the villain trio's efforts. I think that was this story's one stumbling block (aside of Twilight's brain being just like a Star Trek computer with impossible exact-time-to-failure measurements for unpredictable things), it made Celestia seem massively overprotective of Twilight's reputation, when the reality is most ponies would be accepting, and the few that wouldn't would have only a dead pony to be angry at.