Celestia Sleeps In--Chapter 3 notes and thanks · 12:44pm Feb 9th, 2013
Special thanks to my mother, who proofread until midnight last night, so this could be posted this morning
Thanks also to Woonsocket Wrench for additional proofreading
The concept of 'corseted shoes' is from Over the Edge and Through the Wood, an excellent read.
Edit: I'd also like to give a BIG shout-out to Humanist, who came aboard as a pre-reader after this chapter. He had strong opinions (as you can no doubt see if you read the comments) about Celestia's actions in this particular chapter. He's not alone, of course; it (Xenlestia) is often a topic of discussion in the Protect Celestia group.
In a way, the first-contact dilemma is much like the "trolley problem" thought experiment, with a variation: you don't know if the trolley will stop safely on its own, but you DO know that if you switch it to the other track, it will stop, and you will kill an innocent bystander.
The problem in game theory is that the payoff matrices are entirely unknown, with possible extremely good and bad consequences. Avoid contact, and one may be evading the end of one's own species, or knowledge and allies which might save it. Accept contact, and one may find fast friends or implacable enemies. Display friendliness, and one may prove oneself a friend or a sucker. Display hostility, and one may make an enemy out of a potential friend, or pre-empt a lethal attack from a foe.
I would guess based on what we've seen of Celestia in canon that she'd prefer a friendly option, but there's no way Equestria has survived this long in a dangerous world by Celestia being naive and foolish.
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Correct on both counts, in my opinion. She banished her own sister to the moon; that's pretty hardcore--but she did it because she had to, and from the comics, it's obvious that hurt her deeply.
I'm inclined to agree with the both of you; that based on what we've seen of Celestia, her actions this chapter aren't outside what I would consider normal for her, if she were put into that situation.
I always find it a bit of an odd talking point, though, because not only am I acutely aware of how subjective the whole question of "is [X] in-character here?", but also because the way I see it some measure of suspension of disbelief and artistic license should be taken with questions like this. To take the immediate topic as an example, violence on such a level as discussing murder would never come up so directly in the MLP show, so a certain level of disbelief has to be adopted for the tone of the story -- i.e. if we're tuning in for a mature look at first contact, I think we should also be prepared for a more mature portrayal of the characters than you would see in the show itself.