WARNING: Flop. I frankly just wasn't mature enough to deal with the themes contained within this story at the time of writing.
Celestia wanted to let her former student handle work worthy of her title as princess, but foreign relations could be risky if one didn't know what they were doing, and Twilight hadn't even read up on foreign relations until a just few days ago. In addition, the yaks weren't known to be easy to deal with, so it would be much better for Celestia to handle the relations herself.
But could the yaks be too unreasonable, even for her?
Chapters (1)
Mmm. I don't think this one's ultimately a success — although I do like some of the ideas, like the Celestia/Luna confrontations and the final solution (though the justification for Celestia snapping the prince's neck is weak and awfully startling).
There's an interesting problem in the middle here that got my mind going:
"Show, don't tell" is not an ironclad rule; there are times when telling is better than showing, because they accomplish different things. Showing adds detail. It makes scenes more vivid, and draws attention to what's in them. A story with nothing but showing starts to bog down; telling allows you to gloss over parts that are less important so that you can dig into the cool stuff more quickly.
In this case, you're basically just going through the same scenes the episode already showed us. Adding more detail is just going to make readers' eyes gloss over, because you're spending time communicating something they've already watched. This is a great example of useful telling.
However, there are a few ironclad rules of show vs. tell, and one of them is: don't tell your plot. If a scene is central enough to drive your story, using telling to gloss over it is a signal to readers that your story is unimportant. So even though the telling in this scene is appropriate on one level, it's alienating on a more important one.
Switching to showing isn't the answer, for the reason outlined above. Which is something of a dilemma. The solution is: think outside the box! You're already overruling Twilight to have Celestia and Luna be in charge, so there's no reason why the episode should have involved the yaks getting offended at the same things … or even still be set in Ponyville. This is a chance to flex your writing muscles and tell the big beats of the episode your way. How would the sisters try to make the yaks feel at home? If I were answering that question, I probably wouldn't involve (e.g.) Fluttershy's animals. Giving us new scenes of failed hospitality lets you dig in deeply, and show us vivid details and new characterization.
6149142
Yeah, I might've rushed this one, and on top of that in a bit rusty for not having written anything in several months.
Now that I look back, Celestia snapping the yak's neck should have probably been removed or explained a lot better, since it's so it off the ordinary it's startling and potentially offensive. And when I skipped over the scenes, I knew it was to much like what happened in the show, but I think at that point I just wanted to start on the end, hence how it cane out rushed. I kind of stopped caring how the sisters actually tried to cater to the yaks and eventually just wanted to see the annoying yaks get destroyed.
Next time I write revenge porn against something from the show, I won't bother setting things up differently.
6149297
Fair enough. Kudos for brushing the rust off and getting something published, though!
Yeaaaah. Celestia deserves something bad happening to her for this.
6163592
Why?
6163820
Well, let's see...
She crippled a helpless prisoner in cold blood despite being powerful enough to shut him up any other way, then she went to an actual enemy of Equestria, a race of emovore parasites who were shown to drain their victims dry and have no care for them, to help them undermine a society that didn't even know they'd become a target, much less that Celestia just crippled their prince and intends to transform them to her own liking. So, that cute little Yak boy? The one who Pinkie skied with? Celestia just left him at the mercy of the Changelings, all to protect her own backside.
6164036
Well, that's one of many possible interpretations of events.
It's also possible that that was the only safe way of stopping the yak, or that it was the only sage way of sipping others in the past that acted like him, and Celestia was playing it safe. It could also be possible that Celestia panicked, perhaps our of some ptsd from things not mentioned.
It's also possible that changelings aren't enemies of Equestria, that Luna's out of the loop. It's possible that Celestia made sure that the changelings wouldn't hurt the yak populace.
You don't know whether any of this is true or not. My story should clarify Celestia's actions or change them so such negative interpretations aren't possible, but I don't think it's healthy to interpret things in the most negative possible way either. Plus, ' to protect her own backside' is wrong. She specifically said she'd rather keep any fighting away from the populace, even if that meant the leaders (on both sides) had to deal with the entire burden.
6164203
All that is possible. I'd argue that there aren't that many hints in the story proper for the interpretations you mentioned, but they're possible nonetheless.
And just to make absolutely clear, I did not downvote your story or anything. The fact that I find Celestia's actions distasteful at best have nothing to do with the quality of your work itself.
6165161
Nah, finding Celestia's actions distasteful when I didn't intend it has everything to do with the quality of my work.
I suck.
6165181
Aw.
I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to upset you.
6165184
Oh, I'm not upset. I relish the thought that I will be born anew, clean, once I give myself proper punishment.