I stood there looking dumbly at the picture of the...Fuhrer, with brief glances at the unfortunate pony who learned of his existence.
The endless number of World War II TV documentaries, history classes, Hollywood films, and parodies of the German movie Downfall had made me aware of his existence. The not-so pleasant stories my Grandpa Franz and Great Aunt Rachel had of the old country made me...intimately familiar with what he had done.
Yet, seeing the tearful eyes of the purple pony, I began to see the crazed dictator in a new way. In a way that made me feel...uncomfortable. Maybe even...guilty in a way I couldn't describe.
"Your Majesty," Roger asked in a respectful, though concerned voice as he approached the bed. "Are you hurt? Are you injured? Can I get you-," he paused as I shoved the textbook directly in his face. He took it and looked at the open picture of Hitler. While Roger's faced remained stoic, I could by the way his fingers turned white, that he was squeezing the book a bit in anger.
"Your Majesty," Roger said in his overtly professional tone, putting the book away. "These crimes are just are past events. Humanity has made great strides since the dark days of the Second World War. Human rights are celebrated across the world, and our nation is devoted to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Twilight still didn't look up or stop weeping. It was clear that Roger's patriotic pap wasn't doing the trick. The same uncomfortable feeling and the shadows of my own past gave me an inkling of what I needed to say. But, if it came to that, I felt it needed to be a private moment between me and her.
"Roger," I said quietly with a pointed look. He ceased his robotic bromides. "There is a security issue I wish to discuss with you." Roger followed me out the door, having taken the hint that I wanted to talk to him alone. After he closed the door, we both stood near the foot of the stairs.
"I need you to let me talk with the Princess in private," I said to the agent. My tone wasn't the immature frustration I felt when Roger disrupted my routine. It was a low, serious tone that Roger picked up, since he wasn't giving me the same indifferent look he would at my petty complaints. "Believe me, I can talk to her about it in a way no one can."
"But Mr. Klein," he said in a more empathetic tone then he normally used, "it is my job to comfort the princess." I knew arguing with him was futile. Instead, I went back into my bedroom. When I came out, I was wearing the red-velvet yarmulke I only wore about 6-7 times a year. Then I uttered one quiet word to Roger.
"Shalom."
Roger, for the first time since he came into my house, obeyed me. Without a world, he immediately began to walk down the stairs.
"Jake," he said once he got halfway down. I was rooted to the floor in shock, since it was the first time he called me by my preferred alias. He took off his shades, giving me a very serious look,"choose your words carefully. Remember, you and Mary found Twilight when she was near death. You two gave her shelter and food, which saved her from starvation. Thus you share a bond with her that no other human being could ever hope to have. This means your words are the ones she trusts." He took a deep breath, revealing a panic I never thought he could show. It would almost have been funny, if not for the situation we were in. "And if she really is a Princess," he continued in a more quiet tone. "Then whatever you say will alter the course of human-pony relations." Without another word, he continued down the stairs, and walked toward the kitchen.
I immediately felt as if a giant weight had been placed on my shoulder. The fate off a successful first contact between our species was in jeopardy, and I was the one who had to salvage it. I had to convince a creature that humanity, despite being guilty of mass murder, was worth trusting.
I was in a situation where my words...would shape the course of world history.
I mean, I learned about the Holocaust in school. I traveled to Israel and toured Yad Vashem when I was 13. Grandpa Franz told me about how he gave up everything to get tickets to America. Aunt Rachel tell me about how she was betrayed and lost her entire family. I had seen Schindler's List and The Pianist. I read Elie Wiesel's Night and The Diary of a Young Girl. I knew of the centuries of antisemitism that had preceded the Holocaust, like Martin Luther's virulently racist tracts and the blood libel.
I learned about the economic and political dysfunction of the Weimar Republic, the painful loss of World War I, the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles, the threat of Stalinism, and how all these factors would give an opening for Hitler to come to power in Germany.
I knew of the Milgram experiment, the manipulative power of propaganda, and Hitler's insanely effective public speaking.
I read about how so many nations closed their doors to Jewish refugees, and Grandpa Franz had to give up all his cash JUST to save himself, Grandma Ruth, and my Aunt Esther out of Czechoslovakia. I read about how FDR didn't bomb the death camps because he didn't to be seen as waging a "Jewish war," in the eyes of an American public who themselves were still hostile toward Jews.
But even knowing all this, the Holocaust and the cruelties of the Third Reich are still hard to understand.
How was I supposed to explain them to a being who came from a world where they were non-existent. One who, if she wasn't a liar and was really royalty, could pull the plug on any first contact if she desired.
With a sigh, I went back inside the room, and walked toward the pony, who was still lying on the bed. Her tears stopped, but she was giving me a look that was chillingly cold.
"Uh, Twilight," I said, walking toward the bed. She didn't respond. I rubbed the back of my head, and sat in a white chair. "I'm sorry you had to read about-,"
"Why," Twilight asked, in a sorrowful voice.
"Why what?"
"Why did Hitler kill all the....Jews," Twilight asked. "Were they trying to kill him? Did they have special powers?"
"Twilight, I told you, all human beings share roughly the same characteristics." According to Twilight, ponies were divided into three tribes: unicorns, pegasi, and Earth ponies (who had super strength and some connection to the soil). She came from a special breed of pony, called alicorn. In her words, almost all alicorns gained their power once they were deemed worthy enough to rule.
Other sentient races in her world included dragons, cows, zebras, seaponies, hippogriffs, griffons, yaks, donkeys, and changelings. They all totaled about 29 million beings (classified as sentient) on the planet.
Again, it sounded like her world was invented by a fantasy writer.
When I told her about how humans beings were the only sentient creatures on Earth and numbered 7 billion, her mind was truly blown.
"Then why did Hitler work so hard to try and kill them," she responded, almost about to cry again.
"Um," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "Are you saying that hatred and bigotry is absent in your world? That everyone-"
"Everypony."
"Every...pony in your world just gets along."
"No," Twilight said with some hesistance. "Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns used to fight a lot. We used to blame each other whenever something went wrong. And dragons, griffins, and changelings," Twilight paused, trying to sound diplomatic, "would hurt ponies too and vice-versa."
"Well, that's how Hitler came to power," I told her. "I don't know if you read this, but Germany was in bad shape. Under normal circumstances, the Nazis weren't very popular. But Germans lost a war and got the blame for it, and then their economy collapsed twice". Twilight gave me an odd look. "A lot of things went wrong for the Germans, and Hitler gained a lot of popularity because his screaming and ranting was exactly how Germans felt."
"Yes, but why blame the Jews," Twilight asked, her voice full of horror and frustration. "What makes Jews so different that Hitler wanted to kill them all?"
"Well," I said. "In America, for example, there is a lot of racism toward African-Americans, who are usually people with darker skin colors. A lot of people think they are lazy and criminal."
"That is the stupidest thing I ever heard," Twilight said with anger. "In Equestria, ponies and other creatures come in all kinds colors. I don't hate others ponies because they are green or blue, so why would I hate them for being brown or black!"
"You know, that would make a good anti-racism slogan," I said with a laugh. Twilight still looked unamused, so I continued. "As I told you before, humans beings aren't divided by any special physical characteristics unique to one another. They are divided by languages, religions, color and culture. And human beings take those things very seriously."
"So Jews have a different culture," Twilight asked.
"Yes," I said. "In the Middle Ages, Christian religion was a big deal. Jews have a very different religion, and religious leaders were annoyed that Jews wouldn't convert or respect Jesus for his sacrifice. A lot of times, Jews were blamed for the death of Christ, or for killing children and using their blood for matzo."
"So Jews were attacked and persecuted over...superstition," Twilight said with disdain.
"Um, Twilight, I would be careful how you use that word," I said with a serious tone. "For a lot of people, Christianity is a big deal. And they don't like their faith to be called 'superstition'."
"I mean, Christians say that some guy was sent to the planet by his father to die for humanity's sins," Twilight said with confusion. Despite her scholarly extinct, she is also fascinated by mythology and folklore. At the military base, she eagerly read a bible offered to her by a military chaplain. "And then I came back to life. And we have to...worship him. Why would anypony have to believe that?"
"Saying your leaders raise the sun and moon sounds kind of crazy," I replied in a strong tone. Twilight looked at me with frustration.
"That's different. You can't bring people back from the dead. I've seen Celestia and Luna raise the sun and moon," she said, stamping her hoof on the bed. "I told you that already." Apparently, in her world, two alicorns rose the sun and the moon. To say we had an argument over this is an understatement. The idea of the Earth revolving around a sun, and the moon moving on its own boggled her mind. But now was not the time for the discussion again.
"Moving on," I said. "In the old days, religion and superstition was how people lived without scientific study. Not worshipping Jesus meant you were damned to eternal torment, and thus kings wanted to bring that torment to people who didn't convert to Christianity."
"So Jews were persecuted over religious faith," Twilight said with confusion.
"The other issue was of Jews were often merchants and moneylenders. So people assumed Jews were naturally greedy money lovers."
"Are Jews always successful?"
Under any other circumstances, I would've brought up my cousin Isaac. He's a human wreck. But now was not the time for a joke.
"Not always," I replied.
"So did Hitler hate Jews for...not liking Jesus and having a lot of money?"
"Well, no," I said. "In the 19th century, the way nations were built changed. Before that, nations were organized around religion and/or worshipping a king. But with the Enlightenment, empires and kingdoms in Europe were replaced by the nation-state." I paused. "Nation-states are often organized around the idea of a nation being governed by a specific ethnic group or people."
"Ethnic group", Twilight asked.
"Groups of humans who are united by a common culture, language, and/or history," I replied. "Nationalism revolves around the idea of a nation built to protect the interests of those considered to be loyal to that nation. Extreme nationalism revolves around the priorities of the state being revolving around the dominant ethnic group in question." Twilight looked at me, intrigued.
"Well, all the sentient creatures in Equestria kind of do the same thing," Twilight accepted. "Dragons tend to live with dragons, ponies tend to live with ponies. But that's because we kind of need different environments. What does that have to do with Jews?"
"Well, when nation-states first began, Jews initially got equal rights," I replied. "But a new kind of hatred emerged in these new nation-states: Jews were seen as disloyal to the dominant ethnic group." I paused, having done a lot of talking. I noticed Twilight's disgust re-emerge. I took a deep breath. "Hitler was one of these Jew-hating nationalists, but he wasn't the first one. In France in the 1890s, a Jewish army captain was sent to prison for treason because he was a Jew. A lot of French people decided that Jews weren't loyal to France."
"Did Jews...try to get their own nation?"
"Yes. The State of Israel was created for that purpose."
"Then why didn't Hitler send the Jews there," Twilight replied.
"Well, it is a bit complicated," I replied, finding a way to condense the Arab-Israeli conflict into something that was understandable. " Jews had been kicked out of the land thousands of years ago, and thus we believe the land was rightfully ours. But Arabs, another ethnic group, believed that the land of Israel belongs to them. So Jewish settlement there was not always easy. When Hitler came to power, Jews in Germany and other countries tried to go anywhere, and Hitler initially wanted Jews to immigrate to other countries. But like I said, people thought Jews were loyal only to Jews, so the countries they wanted to go to didn't want to let them in." Twilight looked a bit downcast at that. So I continued. "And when Hitler began conquering these other countries, he had more Jews, and still no place that would let them in. So, the Holocaust was his solution to what he called 'The Jewish Question'." Twilight looked stunned.
"But, but," Twilight said, tears falling down her face. "Hitler thought that killing people would make Germany a better place?"
"Unfortunately yes," I replied in a solemn voice. "He also believed in racial purity, and thought Jews were naturally inferior and had no right to live. He felt that eliminating Jews would prevent racial contamination."
"That's insane, "Twilight said with a touch of anger. "You said human beings are all biologically the same."
"People back then thought that some humans had natural superiority to others," I said with a shrug. "Hitler took that idea and brought it to a terrible extreme."
"And Germans, just, thought that it was a good idea?"
"Let me ask you this Twilight," I asked. "Do you believe this Princess Celestia is a nice, kind ruler?"
"Yes," Twilight said with conviction.
"Maybe she is an evil dictator, and she lies to you a lot," I said. I knew I struck nerve, because Twilight's eyes began to narrow.
"Don't you ever say anything like that about the Princess," she growled, pawing at the surface of the bed.
"Why not? I don't know her," I said, my voice shifting to sound more obnoxious. "Maybe she could secretly torture other ponies in her basement. Maybe she cooks ponies in her kitchen, maybe-," I paused as Twilight lit up her horn in anger. A purple glow surrounded me, and I felt myself being lifted into the air.
"Don't you ever talk that way about the Princess," Twilight yelled, her horn glowing dangerously. She lifted me at least 3 meters in the air. "She's not perfect, but everything she does is for the good of Equestria!"
"Really," I asked in an unimpressed tone.
"Yes!"
"Well, that's how a lot of Germans felt about Hitler," I said. Twilight looked at me in shock. She released me abruptly, and I fell to the ground with a thud. I rubbed my pelvis, feeling it throb with agony.
"Jake," Twilight said, leaping out of the bed, and onto the floor, her voice sounding regretful. "Are you OK?"
"Yes, I'm fine," I said through gritted teeth. Twilight looked like she was about to cry.
"Jake, I'm sorry," she said, tears flowing down her eyes. "I shouldn't have blown up at you. It's just...some monster turned Celestia into stone." Twilight's ears wilted. "He tried to steal her magic, and even though Celestia lived, I'm scared for her. So I get defensive when-" she paused, and began crying again.
"It's OK," I said in a soothing tone. I got on my knees to give her a hug. She wrapped her hooves and wings around me, giving me one of the warmest, most cuddly hugs I ever got. Once Twilight got herself under control, we released each other, and she used her magic to help me back into my chair.
"But as I said," continuing my point. "Many Germans loved Hitler the same way you loved Celestia. Remember, Germany in 1933 was not in good shape. He promised to make Germany a proud and strong nation."
"Did he," asked Twilight.
"Well," I said uneasily. "For the first few years, he kind of did. He gave people jobs, he ended the political chaos in Germany-although that was because he locked up opposition. He also rebuilt the military, absorbed a lot of territory, and his army managed to win a lot of battles. He gave people vacations, and art, and a lot of other things."
"So Hitler...helped a lot of people," Twilight said, shockingly.
"Well, that was mainly to keep power", I said with some quiet disdain. "He also used a lot of propaganda and terror. Germans who rose up against the Nazis risked torture and death. And propaganda, often by radio, made people think of Hitler as this great leader. Thus, a lot of Germans felt, at least in their own minds, he was doing more good then bad."
"So no one cared when he killed Jews," Twilight asked with a sad tone.
"Well," I said somewhat sadly. "That didn't happen overnight. He did persecute Jews, but again, many Germans themselves didn't like Jews. Even those that didn't hate Jews felt Hitler was doing more good then bad. And also, if you did speak up, you could end up in a horrible prison camp. A lot of Germans, therefore didn't really do a thing when he started persecuting Jews, and no one believed he would actually try and wipe them out." Twilight's eyes widened. "When the Holocaust did occur, it shocked everyone, because it was a level of evil no one could imagined. Yeah, there were plenty of Germans who were just plain monstrous, but many Germans who weren't, and felt their actions were for the greater good."
"So a lot of Germans felt Hitler was doing the right thing," she said.
"Yes. Twilight, very few people choose to be evil," I said. "No ruler, even the most kind, most generous one, is perfect. While justice and virtue is what we aspire to, most of us will serve a human who will ensure we have food and shelter. Decent people will do terrible things because authority told them that those things needed to happen to preserve their livelihoods and/or are promised great rewards." Twilight looked a bit nervous. "When you came hear, didn't you steal Mary's flowers?"
"I...I guess," Twilight said, lowering her face into the bed, her ears turning downward.
"Did you do it because you were evil," I asked.
"No," Twilight said. "I wandered a dimensional void for days without any food."
"Should you go to prison for eating my flowers?"
"Well, uh," Twilight stammered.
"Well I don't think so," I said quietly. "You were in a bad place. And Mary and I gave you home. A lot of people often do terrible things because they had no choice."
"I-I guess that's kind of true," Twilight. "Two of my friends....were like that."
"Really," I asked.
"Tempest Shadow was this unicorn who...lost her horn in an accident."
"Ouch," I said with a wince. According to Twilight, magic was central to the identity of a unicorn. Losing a horn for a unicorn would be like a soccer player who lost the ability to walk.
"She worked for some evil conqueror who wanted to take over Equestria," Twilight said gravely. "all because she wanted her horn back."
"She must've been really desperate," I said with shock.
"She became an outcast because she lost her horn and couldn't find work, and the bad guy seemed like the only creature who would help her," Twilight sighed in frustration. "My other friend, Thorax, he worked for-,"
"The Changelings," I inferred. Twilight looked confused.
"How did you-,"
"Well, you told me the Changelings are like horse bugs. So the name Thorax seemed fitting."
"Oh, well," Twilight said, her eyes darting back and forth. "I guess that makes sense. Anyways, Thorax hated the Queen, but felt that ponies would never love him for real," Twilight said, remembering with sadness how the young Changeling looked when Shining Armor glared daggers at him, and how Thorax had to hide being a pony just to be accepted.
"Well there you go. A lot of bad people are often stuck in places they didn't want to be in," I said empathetically. "And thus, they end working for real monsters, because the monsters can pretend to be beings who give them food."
"I guess". Twilight said. "After World War II, did people make sure that something like the Holocaust would ever happen again," Twilight asked hopefully. She frowned when I didn't answer immediately.
"No," I said after a bit of hesitation. "I mean, world leaders wrote new laws outlawing genocide." I paused. "But those laws...weren't always enforced as they should've been."
"Why," she asked. I took a deep breath, struggling not to release the harsh truth. I realized however, that our relationship can't be built off of a lie, and so I forced myself to tell her the truth.
"Because the people doing the genocide were politically useful," I said. Twilight looked horrified at that. "Or...some people didn't care."
"You mean, human leaders willingly worked with mass murderers and/or didn't care about their crimes," Twilight said, with a harsh whisper. She looked calm, but it felt like the calm that masked a raging inferno.
I remember reading about how the US government backed Saddam Hussein, even when it became public knowledge he was gassing the Kurds. As a teenager, I watched on television as Yugoslavia and Rwanda descended into bloody terror. This was around the time Grandpa Franz and Aunt Rachel told me what they went through.
It was shocking how Josip Tito's dream of a united South Slavic nation crumbled so quickly under a wave of nationalism. And it was horrific how so many Tutsis died under a flurry of machete-fueled violence. I remember how Aunt Rachel ranted about how no one gave a fuck when those two atrocities went on. I remember how Bosnia only got help after so many died, and how Rwanda got almost no help from the international community.
And seeing Twilight's coldly furious face, as all these facts swirled within me, began filling me with anger too.
"Yeah, well, the world humans live in is one where money and politics is often more valuable than human lives," I said with some bitterness. I saw Twilight's face become undeniably angry. Knowing that her power was great, and that my job was to talk her down, I swallowed my anger.
"I mean, it isn't as bad as it used to be. The international community has done more in recent years to bring war criminals to International Courts." Twilight stopped fuming, but she still look displeased, crossing her forelegs on the bed.
"But are your leaders clean," I pointedly asked the annoyed pony. "Have they always done the right, or have they often chosen the lesser evil or simply defend their privileges?" A leaned in, as if to make my point clearer. Twilight's temper cooled, and she let out a sad sigh.
"Well," Twilight said reluctantly. "Equestria isn't free of conflict, or selfishness, or terror. Before Princess Celestia, there was...a lot of evil," Twilight said sadly She let out a long sigh.
"Look Jake," Twilight said, with a firm tone. "I don't really know if it is safe for ponies and humans to meet," she said with discomfort. "I am really thinking that it is best for me to go back to Equestria, and never return."
"But why," I said respectfully. "You just said that ponies and humans are capable of the same evils?"
"Well, yeah," Twilight said. "But... well…," she stammered uncomfortably.
"What is it," I said, petting her back. Apparently, in her world, petting her back was a platonic gesture, so she didn't mind me doing it. "Why do you feel that way?" After a moment, she relaxed and looked at me.
"When I first saw your world and what it had to offer," Twilight said wistfully, "I thought it was paradise."
"Really," I asked with confusion.
"Everything I found on Earth seemed like something out of my favorite science fiction books," Twilight said with adorkable joy. "Carriages that could pull themselves by burning liquid dinosaurs, heavier-then air aircraft that didn't need to flap wings, lights powered by electricity". I let out a goofy smile. The stuff she was talking about was pretty typical for most people, even people in poor countries, but Twilight's enthusiasm reminded me how incredible our modern life really is. "Electric boxes that could spread and share information and news, boxy ovens that could cook food in less then a minute." Twilight looked toward me with a proud smile. "And you told me that Norwalk is a pretty small city, but you have more people living here then in Canterlot."
"Well, 7 billion people need somewhere to live," I said with a shrug.
"And it wasn't just your technology, it was your institutions. Your government is so egalitarian, that instead of bowing to the President, you just shook his hand." She let out another smile. "And you don't even call him some fancy title. You just call him 'Mister.'"
"Well America was birthed by those ideals," I said with some pride. "Of course, it hasn't always lived up to those ideals," I said, my patriotic zeal replaced with the solemn candor.
"Yeah well, your world seemed so incredible," Twilight said with some quiet candor. "Your technology and social progress made me think of you humans as enlightened. But after reading about Hitler..." she paused, shaking.
"Reading about him just rained on your parade," I said with a soothing tone.
"That's putting it mildly," Twilight said with a roll of her eyes. "Hitler did all these horrible things because of technology. I always thought technology made the world better, but it just made humans... worse," she said bitterly.
I think I understood Twilight's disappointment. Equestria, based off what she told me, seemed technologically similar to the First and Second Industrial Revolutions. Her world was still one ruled by steam-engines and carriages. Where mail remained the most important form of communication. Where hit singles appeared on vinyl records. Her world remained one dominated by nobility rather then egalitarianism. But it was one where positive changes in living standards within a few generations was palatable.
Her outlook was similar to the Belle Epoque , a cultural period just before World War I. In that period, people often gushed about the wonders of technology, and how it seemed to promise everlasting progress. Utopian ooks of the time imagined that hunger, violence, oppression, and conflict would become a memory within a few generations. That optimism was soon blown out of the sky by the industrial warfare, totalitarianism, and genocide.
It appeared that technology, instead of creating a better world, created new kinds of terror.
Twilight Sparkle loved science, and Earth seemed to fit her humanist mind like a glove. And to see her dream world broken apart tore at her.
"Well technology can be used for good or ill," I said. "Hitler used the printing press to spread his lunatic beliefs. Just because some people write horrible things, does that mean we stop people from writing anything?"
"Well no," Twilight said. "But," she gritted her teeth in anger. "I'm not saying that my world is free of evil, or greed, or violence, or prejudice." She let out a sigh. "I'm saying that in my world, the reasons for it are more...rational."
"What do you mean," I asked, narrowing my eyes.
"Yes, prejudice is bad," Twilight said. "But in my world...it makes more sense. Because in my world, there are a great number of tangible differences between species. Differences born from biology. Dragons are very different from ponies, griffins are very different from seaponies, yaks are very different from buffalo, zebra magic is very different from unicorn magic, pegasi are-,"
"You're rambling," I warned her, albeit playfully. She blushed at that.
"Sorry," she said with some embarrassment. "I tend to do that. The point is there are clear and substantive differences between the sentient races of Equestria. These differences, for a long time, prevented interspecies cooperation. Because the life of a unicorn will be very different from the life of a dragon. And the abilities of a Pegasus are different from that of an Earth Pony"
"What's your point," I asked.
"I'm getting there," Twilight said. "Also, while evil exists in my world, the evildoers have a rational, if terrible reason for what they do," Twilight muttered with frustration. "Some villains want magic power, some want to rule over others, many want cash and attention." She gritted her teeth. "Queen Chrysalis brought Canterlot to its knees, and wanted to drain ponies of their love, but she did to make herself magically powerful."
"How do you drain someone of their love," I asked. But she ignored my question, continuing her tirade.
"My point is that in Equestria, evil does occur, as does prejudice among species, but at least those things come from actual tangible desires, and actual tangible differences," Twilight said in a serious tone. She telekinetically lifted the open textbook up, showing off the black and white image of the Nazi dictator. "But the worst crime in recent human history didn't happen because of anything rational, but it was born from a belief in...national identity and...racial purity, despite human beings being biologically the same!"
I started to understand Twilight's point.
"You tell me that in the past, Jews were victimized by Christians out of some idiotic superstition," Twilight asked.
"Twilight," I said with some frustration. "Again, many Christians don't consider it-,"
"That's how it sounds to me," she almost yelled. "A dude rising from dead after being sent to die by his father just sounds to me! And Jews were hated for...not believing it? For not being seen as part of some culture," she said with disgust.
"Again culture is very-,"
"And in America, despite Roger saying that this is a nation where "all men are created equal", is in place where skin color is the thing that determines how you are treated by society," Twilight grumbled furiously to me.
"Well," I stammered, trying but failing to respond to her. Knowing about the deep rooted racism in American society, her tone stung me a bit. She was an outsider casting aspersions on American society, and her words cut a lot.
"The point is, the reasons human commit their worst crimes isn't based on anything rational," Twilight said. She then slammed the textbook on the dresser with force that made me jump. "Human beings seemed to be ruled by social constructs. More so any species in Equestria!" She then gave me a cold, furious look. One that made me think that perhaps her story about being a Princess might be true.
"And," I said, uneasily.
"Let's say I open the door to Equestria," she continued in frosty tone. "What's to stop some human dictator from using … atom bombs to destroy all of Equestria's races," she asked, narrowing her eyes as she finished the question. "And what if he/she does it because he believes Equestrian creatures threaten his/her "national identity" or and decides to do to them what Hitler did to the Jews. Or because he thinks magic was evil."
"Uh," I said, trying to find an excuse. "International Law?"
"You said that people ignore that for personal gain," Twilight said in a exasperated. "Or let's say some religious zealot decides ponies aren't good Christians and decides they need to be blown up." She then hovered in the air and got into my face, a scowl on her muzzle. Her position, and the flap of her wings, made her seem very...authoritative. It made me shrink into my chair a bit.
"Again, I'm not saying ponies are above evil, or that the don't have moments of lunacy or craziness," she looked down a bit." I myself have done many imbecile things. But human beings seem to need little reasonable excuse to do worse," she finished.
"Well-,"
"Unless you can tell me with a straight face that human being won't mass murder ponies for irrational reasons...then I don't believe ponies and humans should meet." Her eyes narrowed. "Yes, I would love bring human science to my world. But the safety of my subjects matters more." Her words made me sink in my chair even more. Twilight said those words with a tone that was...regal. Her voice sounded less girly, and seemed to sound heavy with the tired responsibility of a leader. She flew back into the bed, landing on her haunches with a grace that seemed out of character. She sat if she was sitting on a throne and looking down at me. "So tell me, honestly, are their humans who would butcher ponies over nonsense, and world governments who would ignore for their own personal gain?" She gave the look of forced patience. Of waiting for someone
I felt cold when I realized what Twilight's point was. Her concern wasn't whether or not humans would kill ponies. It is that human beings are capable of tremendous evil for the most stupid, inept reasons. Her world, while less technologically advanced and sounded fantastical, seemed less dominated by blind faith, fanaticism, and myth then our own.
I mean, why worship an intangible God when the real thing exists, if this sun-raising pony isn't a charlatan as I still believed?
In her world, villainy and prejudice were born from real goals and desire, but on Earth, people could be driven to violence for nothing more then blind racism and fanaticism.
And fear of some crazed human zealot bringing death and destruction to ponies out of pure paranoia wasn't something that was inconceivable.
Not to mention pony population was heavily dwarfed by the population of dozens of countries. A single human army had the potential to wipe them out. Hitler himself managed to wiped out 6 million Jews. It would be even easier for a modern day tyrant to cause even greater death and murder.
I could imagine some vile human being enslaving, deporting, and killing ponies out of some fanatical cause. Or some crazed Christian denouncing pony magic as "Satanism," on one of those Christian TV shows. Or some ISIS-style fanatic blowing them up or running them over.
"I see your point," I said with some sadness. Twilight's angry look faded into sadness. I rose from the chair, and went to the top shelf of my dresser drawer. "But, whenever I despair about humanity, there is a story that gives me hope." I went into the dresser drawer.
"Really," she said, her sadness giving way to faint hope.
"Twilight, "I'd like to tell you about my family history." I showed her my trump card. A photo album labeled "Klein Family History" in gold letters.
Let's the honest here, that's absolutely metal.
But yeah, even with the bullshittingly op resource of magic Equestrians would struggle to resist any major nation with a murder boner towards them. Twilight has quite the reason to worry, even if there's quite some logical solutions that don't involve cutting contact. But then again, emotions are certainly high.
Twilight complains about all the war humans wage, but it's honestly a miracle Equestria hasn't had a war of its own since season 1 began. Every time they were saved by some magic doohickey or a deus ex machina. Nightmare moon returning could have sparked a civil war, but was stopped by the elements of harmony. Chrysalis invading Canterlot could have started a war, but was stopped by the 'power of love'. Then you have Sombra, the Storm King, just so many opportunities.
In fact, Twilight has seen many of these play out during the season 5 finale. Though I guess it's understandable why she'd try to forget seeing such things, but Twilight needs to remember that it is pure luck that Equestria isn't in a war right now.
Jake could probably make a scenario where one of the major events I listed may plausibly lead to a war, showing Twilight Equestria isn't as untouchable by large scale conflict as she might like to believe.
9766009
Well, it educated me. Dead serious here (at least on the subject of Jesus, the hypocricy of Catholic church seems more or less common knowledge). Granted, I didn't specifically look for this info before, but it's still pretty curious.
9766720
It's not luck. It's her. She and her crew is the reason, maybe the sole reason why recent years were troubled but ultimately peaceful. She's just upset humans didn't have anyone to stand up against it like she did.
You weren't lifted 6 meters into the air and then land with a thud and merely feel your hip throb. Meters are bigger than yards, not the same as feet.
9766720
It's not so much that they wage wars, but the motivations that terrify her. Most of Twilight's major conflicts that could have led to wars have been against non-ponies, like Tirek and Chrysalis. And many of them had a physical reason to fight. She has trouble grasping the concept of beings of the same species fighting against one another over ideological differences, much less many other people going along with it. The closest thing she has to an example of that is Sombra, and he explicitly had to use mind control magic to get others to go along with his war.
This isn't as bad as I expected.
9766749
Keep in mind during the season 5 finale, when we saw all those alternate timelines, bad things did happen. And it was just one event which started the chain reaction. If every timeline she went to was random (Off the top of my head I remember 6 different ones), then that means there was only a 1/7 chance that everything would go right, and end up with a peaceful world (and that's not counting the events that happened from season 6 onward).
Looking at this, it's much more likely things should have gone wrong than right.
If Nightmare moon more aggressively tried to stop the mane 6, they would have failed. If Cadance and Shining didn't get lucky during their wedding they would have failed. If Spike stayed by Twilight's side when taking the Crystal heart off it's pedestal, they would have both been trapped and failed.
A lot of luck was involved.
9766795
OK. Good point. Will make the correction.
9766797
That is a fair point. She would be shocked by a war between just one species. But every war has some reason for it occurring, even if some of those reasons are terrible (like that one war that was fought over a bucket).
Hitler actually had, in his mind, a good reason for going to war. He loved Germany, and hated what happened to it after WW1, so he wanted to retake its former glory, and make it the greatest country in the world for him and all Germans. His methods were awful but his heart was... umm... you get the point I’m trying to make.
9766801
The bad things simply happened without her. We've seen the rest of mane6, consistently still being quite relevant in whatever 'future' may hold, but not her. Or Spike, for that matter. It seems that the primary effect of Starlight's efforts was removing them from the picture. Everything else just followed naturally.
9766837
That just shows that if one pony can make such a big difference, the system as a whole isn’t as robust as she thinks. The stability of a nation shouldn’t depend on one pony unless it’s already on a knife edge.
9766851
Fair, but most of the events she took part in were of quite apocalyptic scale (each!). An eldritch god from outer space, Hell or ancient prison isn't something you can easily prepare for strategically. They put Equestria on the brink. Spike & Twilight duo helped pull it back from it.
The changelings were different, but there's a plausible argument that Chrysalis outplayed Celestia by being too
stupidreckless and direct, exactly the opposite of changeling nature. Still. Exception reinforces the rule.So, oversimplified, the issue is that humans act on what they think is true, rather than what is actually true?
The only way to really separate the two is to run an experiment to test what you think to be true against reality. This isn't always possible or feasable, and would in rare occasions even be evil in and of itself, depending on what is necessary for the experiment in question.
9766837
She would logically come to the conclusion that without the proper balancing force, her ponies are capable of similar evils to our own past.
9766834
Indeed, and that's what terrifies her: the thought that someone whose country is in the dumps much like Germany was could decide to use Equestrians as the scapegoat instead of jews and lead a mass-purge of ponies.
Even the greatest villains she fought weren't out to purge ponies. Sombra wanted to control them, Chrysalis wanted to capture them even Tirek just wanted their magic.
9766851
Kinda. Remember that there were multiple timelines in which the other crisis's were averted. In the Chrysalis timeline for example, the Nightmare Moon crisis was averted even without the mane 6. In the Crystal War timeline, both Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis were handled without them.
There were other heroes who stepped up to the stage when Twilight and the girls were lacking and solve the crisis. It's just that without Twilight and the girls, those heroes couldn't stop all of them.
9766880
Could be. She's a scholar and philospher by nature, her reverence of Celestia nonwithstanding. Still, for her it's way WAY distant past, because for ponies progress seems inseparable from harmony, at least within their own species. Which is something with a lot more practical obstacles than humans could ever have.
9766876
💜
9766895
It's also worth remembering that warfare as earth knows it would lead to eternal winter on Equestria. It becomes significantly harder to start a major war when the first counterargument by both your political opposition and your people is "Yeah, but I don't like freezing to death."
9766904
Oh yeah, I actually didn't think about that. That is, indeed, another excellent motivation for playing nice.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
Well since no one else has brought it up yet allow me to pose the question of how it was that the most peaceful religion, Islam, and it's use of peaceful trucks and bombs was left out of this conversation from the most recent of modern times and how the one period in history when Christianity finally struck back against it's enemies was the core of this conversation? Let me ask how an ancient event is the case study for this topic when modern jihad is butt-f***ing the world at the moment.
After centuries of enduring attacks from all fronts and peoples, being invaded on all frontiers, Christian Europe finally had enough and beat the crap out of the the middle east for a while, and said middle east has been crying about it ever since. But nowadays when hundreds of Christians are exploded, burned, drowned, shot, beheaded, dismembered, drawn and quartered (still), crucified, flayed, impaled, hung and other various other forms of horrific ways to die, just this year in 2019, that is ignored in favor of the "terrible crusades". Seems like a tad bit of personal bias, no? Eh, Twilight?
So we want to call Christianity superstition, OK, that is fine, but let us also call Islam and every other belief, superstition as well. Let us say fuck the Hindu, fuck the Muslims, fuck the Christians, hell, if you believe in something that I can't definitely see and touch, fuck you too, 'cause you're stupid. Obviously. If that is the mind set, then we can agree to disagree, Twilight, but pick and choose your preferred belief to bash and I can call you a hypocrite for clearly signalling your discrimination against a set value.
I am not calling anyone out here, but look introspectively at yourself and ask, "If all faith based ideas are fundamentally superstitious and foolish to me, then how can I choose one to single out? And more so when that particular subject happened centuries ago when there are modern examples to use in the exact same way."
Maybe some food for thought. Are you biased, Twilight? Cherry picking your examples of human ineptness much? How about we talk about the good that happens everyday. Every. Single. Day. The fact that there are 7 billion of us proves how much each person cares for their family, cares for their people, cares for Humanity. Let's talk about the work off billions that keep the world fed to the highest extent it has ever been. Humans aren't bastards, we simply have to live with them, we work around them, we do our best and grow everyday, we try our hardest. And in the end we die with the hope our child has a chance and the tools to be even happier then ourselves.
If you don't see good in us, you aren't looking. If you don't see love in us, you are not trying. If you don't look into the eyes of a mother and a father and see dedication to LIFE itself, then maybe you should take a look inside and see if it exists there. We didn't get here because of the evil that has happened, we got here despite it, and we are doing our best, little by little. Do not damn my humanity by equating it with the horrors of demented minds. I am human, I am life, I have value, and I will not allow my child to be compared to the likes of evil-doers because they are simply human too. Judge evil persons for their actions, but do not judge me, do not judge humanity.
Love, A Simple Human
Not in the way you're saying though. There's still plenty of racism, but a whole lot of it is not directed at the whites and what is directed at blacks is a different kind of bigotry, it's an infectious sorta compassionate racism that still sees blacks as inferior. Sure the other kind still exist, but in the 'racism' sphere it's more a 50-50 between the two camps, and even then a good portion of the populace just doesn't care. If you bring up job rates, it's usually because the person in question isn't qualified for the job they're trying to get, not because they're black. Business doesn't care about color, it cares about money, and you aren't worth anymore than the money you can bring in.
Point is, the assumption that American's at large are still racist is a rather bold one. At least racist towards blacks. More people are against Asians, or middle easterns before they'd dare insult a black man.
9766919
How... how does Twilight picking Christianity as her example of a religion to focus on mean she is biased towards Islam? What logic led you to this conclusion?
Glad to see this updated and that the author wasn't scared of by the debates in the comments.
Really enjoying how much of a nuanced take on the holocaust this is, yes it was an atrocity but there were so many factors leading up to it It's not fair to lay ALL the blame on the Nazis while ignoring the events that set the stage for them. It was a complicated series of unfortunate events that began even before WW1 kicked off.
Also I'm curious why the question isn't reversed on Twilight. Can Twilight promise humanity that some crazed Unicorn might not try to brainwash a high-school to raise an army for power? Or that some chaotic being might not decide to just play a prank that upends countless lives? Equestria isn't harmless either.
9766947
Because she's focusing on previous atrocities and didn't once mention the current atrocities going on in the world today.
Though that makes sense, since humanity is trying to put its best foot forwards, so probably isn't showing her current events.
Though, her thinking is flawed, since she believes in prophesies and fairy tales, and Nightmare moon was probably an evil on another level than Adolf, for a much more petty reason. Hitler loved his people and saw the Jews as an easy target of their anger and despair for the war. Little known fact is Adolf's I believe it was mother in law was Jewish, or maybe another relative. Nightmare Moon almost caused the world to die because she was selfish and just wanted people to love her night. Discord was much the same reason, just wanting to enjoy his chaos and cause suffering for no other reason than to cause it, and the cherry on top is that ponies are EXTREMELY xenophobic. Let's go ahead and mention Zecora and leave it at that.
Where earlier I made the argument of "Humans are naturally evil", I would say "Ponies are naturally xenophobic" which can lead to some devastating consequences, that along with Twilight being raised in Canterlot, where the hardest problem is the nobles are too snooty. I'd refer people back to Manehattan, where it's very clearly run by the same greed Manhattan is in our world. Busy, industrial, greed. There's plenty of cases where Equestria is just as bad as humanity at large, for just as petty reasons, Twilight is just blind to them just like the Germans were blind to what Adolf was doing.
"Thank you for telling me your family story," Twilight smiled. "I feel so much better knowing that that super bad evil guy Hitler isn't representative of humanity. By the way, I noticed you have ponies here on Earth, but I was handed the idiot ball for this story and it never occurred to me to look up how humans treat them. What can you tell me?"
"Oh, nothing important," the protagonist dismissed. "We've kept horses as a subjugated slave species for thousand of years. In this part of the world, the males are usually castrated without anesthetic and used as slave labor their entire lives, while the mares we parade around and ride like animals. In between forced breedings, of course."
"Oh, that's fascinating!" Twilight beamed. "Hitler sure was a bad man, but strangely I am totally unbothered by this! Please tell me more!"
"Well, in other parts of the world, horse meat is still eaten, so that generally means factory farming. They're branded and kept in tiny cells for years until eventually they're murdered by being dismembered alive, then eaten, with the various body parts each being shipped off to various industrial purposes. Worldwide we eat about 4.7 million horses every year, so that's kind of like a Holocaust every year, except with a little more dismemberment and castration and eating the bodies."
"Yes, yes, whatever" Twilight nodded, quickly becoming bored of such irrelevancies. "Let's go back to the part where you tell me how bad Hitler was."
How did she lift him six meters? Aren’t they indoors? Does the bedroom have a hugely vaulted ceiling?
Also, ponies are pretty xenophobic on the show. When Zecora first came to Ponyville, they shuttered all their windows and hid indoors. When Twilight tried opening her school, Neighsay tried closing it down because he’s straight-up racist. Ponies are just as susceptible to the same foibles that humans are. What’s worse, they’re panicky and neurotic and prone to catastrophic thinking. Monster attacking the town? Panic. Cider shortage? Panic. Cutie mark failure? Panic. Forgot to turn in your homework? Panic.
God, if you gave ponies human technology, the social upheaval and the wars they’d have would reduce the surface of their planet to a wasteland.
9766720
Yes but the population difference alone is huge reason to worry. It would be at least fair fight in those equestrian wars. If humans bring there war to equestrian her world would bogged down in our corpse's before we notice the cost.
That sounds like historical revisionism to me. I think it's undeniable that Hitler loved Germany and wanted to make it strong. The problem I have with that line is that all rulers do this. It is an unavoidable consequence of being in power; if you don't support your constituents/subjects, they will remove you.
Hitler was a raving lunatic, but he loved the German people— he made the lives of Germans better not because he had to, but because he wanted to (although I can understand an actual German Jew saying that).
Making caricatures of horrible people would make us blind to how they actually were, and that might let another one slip through the cracks into power. Historical revisionism is extremely dangerous nowadays for this reason.
9766720
That would be an interesting idea to explore: somepony pointing out how ridiculously unprepared Equestrians are for a major threat, and how their entire defense strategy is dependent on a group of six ponies liking each other.
But again, Twilight concedes that ponies are capable of violence. Her main point is that humans go murder crazy for reasons that aren't particularly logical-in her mind.
Not to mention that when they go murder crazy, they have the means to kill a huge number of people. Ponies could easily be wiped out or greatly reduced by a human-pony war.
9766797
Wanting to conquer a kingdom for nothing more then megalomania is a pretty common reason, even if it is... cliché supervillainy.
9766800
That is the nicest thing I have EVER heard in my life. You have a way with words, you.
9766947
The impression that I got from her point of view was that instead of specifying "religion" as the root issue she picked a specific topic, in this case Christianity as a branching topic from the holocaust. While the crusades were not mentioned by name they were implied with the killing of Jews by Christians, like Christians were the only ones to do that. Instead of saying something like "Religious wars have caused atrocities" they go on about a single event causing the implication that it is potentially the best and only example of that religious zealotry in question when the Muslims also murdered their way across north Africa and into Spain before being ejected from Spain during the crusades.
"The crusades and other examples of religious intolerance blah blah blah" would have been a better way to frame this. I'm saying how it struck me, and it seemed targeted rather than generalized. Perhaps I could have interpreted their points differently, maybe that wasn't even the whole point there, but I'm just voicing the question that why were more modern forms of this terrible zealotry ignored in favor of that particular example?? What are your thoughts? If she had only used Islamic terror as examples I would have made the same point, because they are not the only ones that have done that to people, it's not one over the other, it is supposed to be the inclusion of the entire IDEA was my point.
9766834
Again, conquering stuff is something Twilight can grasp. Lebensraum and Generalplan Ost was basically "imperialism without a velvet glove", but it many conquerors could be just as cruel. What disturbs Twilight was seeing a man so hateful, he built an entire industrial apparatus for the purpose of mass murder of his own species.
9766876
Look, I am not going to get into a philosophical debate.
Twilight strikes me as a bit of an arrogant intellectual who prizes reason over emotions. She valued studying more then she valued having personal relations outside her family.
Plus, she lives in a world where religious fervor is not existent, because the rulers of the land have the power to move Celestial objects.
Thus, she finds it disturbing how people can get violent over what is, in her words, "an old pony's tale."
9766959
Well, again, the EG world doesn't exist in this fic, so that didn't happen. Although Sunset's reasons, a desire for power, is something that a lot of evil leaders have had.
Discord seemed more like an impish troublemaker then a world conqueror to me. He was like a child who plays pranks given the powers of a God.
9766967
Please don't compare the use of non-sapient horses to the murder of millions of sentient beings.
9766986
A lot of stories on FimFiction, including the anime Gate, feature medieval armies facing down modern weapons.
The former lose. Hard.
It is troubling for someone to say he loved the German people.
At the end of the war, he was so full of spite and hate he actually ordered his soldiers to burn what remained of Germany. His belief in social Darwinism was so ridiculous, he felt Germans deserved to be destroyed.
9763296
Well, Twilight's point wasn't that ponies are saints.
Her point was that while Equestrian racism is bad, it is born from substantive differences between species.
Humans, meanwhile, are willing to kill each other over abstract things that don't have logical explanation.
Well, those concerns would be pretty valid, i don't think a simple family history can change something there.
Humans only stopped escalating their conflicts after a mutualy assured destruction scenario came up , a stupd concept on its own and it just held for a while, by now we have some leaders who think they could survie it with enough patriotism and others who are psychotic enough with their afterlife bs that they just don't care as long as the other side also dies, so eventually mad turned into the dumb bs it always was.
Sure equestria has the biggest mad card ever but that isn't something to build diplomatic relations on and eventually the hypothetical threat of bringing the moon down or throw earth into the sun wouldn't stop certain fanatics and might even inspire some
The only thing that could work would be the overwhelmingly positive reaction to a first contact , something that would make people break out of this cycle of xenophobia but the individuals who hold their power wouldn't let that happen without a fight.
Its rather understandable why Twilight would want to close and burry that door before the irrational religious bs that plagued humanity since centuries might start to swap over.
I mean at this point. There are probably a lot of individuals and probably a few world leaders legitimately considering how to 'take care of' the 'Equestrian problem'
I mean Twilight is a magic pony from a world of magic and there are still large groups of people who look at things like Harry Potter or Pokemon and burn them as witchcraft. Some crazy person or group is definitely going to try to bomb Canterlot, or shoot the Princesses, or something because 'their magic is an affront to God' or because Celestia and Luna are 'false idols' or something.
9767077
Well, the mutually assured destruction nearly came to be multiple times, where the closest time where in the Cuban Missile Crisis where one Vasily Alexandrovich Arkhipov saved the world by voting no.
Good girl, Twilight. Keep the evil humans out of Equestria. Nothing good ever comes out of dealing with us. Give them an inch and they'll vote some pure evil basterd like Trump into office, proving nobody learns from history.
9766963
Well of course she's focusing on previous atrocities. She just read a book about World War II, she hasn't even gotten to current day atrocities. Can't exactly expect for Twilight to have an opinion on events she doesn't even have knowledge of.
9766967
Applejack has farm animals too. Non-sapient animals aren't exactly an alien concept to Equestrians.
9766977
Ehh, pony xenophobism is generally exaggerated in the fandom. Ponyville panicked over Zecora to be sure, but once Twilight & Co. explained everyone was just being a punch of panicky wussies, everyone made a complete 180 and accepted Zecora without problems. Then the next time we saw her she was the storyteller for Nightmare Night, throwing her previously considered dangerous magic everywhere to spice up the story, with all ponies completely trusting her not to pull anything. Hell, even Neighsay, the biggest racist we've seen on the show so far, turned around and admitted he was wrong the moment he was shown he was wrong.
I wish racism on earth was solved as easily as it is in Equestria.
9767036
Y'can't expect Twilight to know and list every single atrocity humanity has committed over its thousands of years of existence. You'd be sitting there for years. Twilight had to pick and choose her subjects, and she had to pick and choose from those she was aware of. She might not even know Islam exists, much less the conflict between it and Christianity. She only just finished a book about World War II, of which Jewism is a key topic, and that religion is closely linked to Christianity, hence why she only knew of those and didn't mention Islam.
Correction: Most likely million.
9767193
I might be wrong, but Trump ain't exactly a shining example for what's wrong with people. He's an idiot sure, and most of the crap he says makes no sense, but if you wanna look at real bad people in modern times, Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un are better examples.
9767205
No, 7 Billion is the total population. 7 million is slightly less than New York City alone.
9767234
Response: This Unit was responding to the city part.
9767205
He’s talking planetary population in that line though.
9767263
Informative: Acknowledged.
Unfortunately, I don't think he could give her an answer that'd satisfy her. Not in this regard. She's perfectly right, there. And as much as it pains me, I'm with her on that one. Humans and ponies should not meet, like that, and if she can't stomach the danger - if she's not willing to sell her ideals out for the technology we offer - then she should go home and forget we exist.
In fact, I wouldn't be suprised if, hypothetically, such an event did occur sometime in our past - that we were visited by another sapient species and, after judging us too violent and irrational, they just put up a "subspace buoy" that sends out a common warning of "AVOID / DANGER" to other spacefaring races.
In this science-fiction retelling, the Author has again pitted humanity's best (exemplified by Twilight Sparkle) with humanity's "meh average". And it's still not looking pretty. Sometimes I wonder if there's even a point to venturing beyond "our" little blue rock, y'know? I mean, what for? To spread our flavour of hate amongst the stars?
Yes, I'm clearly confirming myself to be a misanthrope, it seems. With each fic I read, it's crystallising more and more in my mind - we not only don't deserve to meet Equestria, but for the love of all that is kind, Equestria certainly doesn't deserve to meet us. I wouldn't wish it upon my greatest enemy - why would I wish it upon a potential friend?
Well... This has left me with a desire to kill some brain cells tonight...
Okay so here is my question: What exactly is stopping some powerful unicorn from destroying Earth?
Twilight seems to ignoring the fact that pony's are perfectly capable of destroying mountains, messing with time, mind control, reality warping..
What exactly is stopping any sufficiently powerful unicorn from just showing up one day and mind controlling some random leader to fire nukes.
Oh boy, the comments that will follow this chapter are going to reveal how young so many readers are.
Twilight is fundamentally wrong. The innate root of conflict between groups of humans comes from the different societies that tell its constituent beings what is right and wrong, where they come from, and who they are. They are dividing marks that are no less real than the genetics between species that populate Equestria, and just like the species divide, physical appearance is generally a shorthand for what ideas and attitudes they embody due to the ethnic origins of most nation states. Just like with Equestria, the challenge we all face is finding common goods to build healthy relationships around.
9767197
They were more getting at how we mistreat our animals. But we don't know how Equestrians treat theirs or if they wouldn't do the same thing, such as in the YHAY universe. I saw the comment and didn't bother to answer it because of how much of an ignorant way of looking at the situation.
I have several problems with Twilight's arguments. The first is with her core argument which to my understanding is basically humans are bad because they do horrible things for irrational reasons while ponies/other MLP creatures are better because they have rational reasons for doing horrible things. My first issue with this is that this is a terrible argument in general. Bad behavior is bad behavior, whether they are for reasonable reasons or not. For example in Twilight's mind a pony being racist towards a griffon is better than a white person being racist to a black person because in the first case they are two different species and that makes it better. However I would say in both cases one party is treating another poorly because of looks/culture and they are both equally bad. And we know racism is a thing in equestria due to the existence of Neighsay. My second issue is the assumption that the creatures of MLP do bad things for rational reasons. Just from watching the show we can see this is not true. From our list of villains we need to look no further than Nightmare Moon or Discord to see this is false. Nightmare moon decided it was a good idea to damn the world because she was lonely and unappreciated (and we see her ruling as a dictator in the season 5 finale) and Discord does nasty things and causes suffering for no other reason than he is insane. For examples of ponies being unreasonable and cruel to other ponies we have the previously stated example of Zecora who is basically a pony that has been ostracized from society due to "silly superstition" as well as the CMC who are relentlessly bullied by Diamond Tiara for not having Cutie Marks (and while you might say "well there just kids", horrible children grow up to be horrible adults"). One could argue that these are one off cases or were easily solved problems, but since the show only gives us a small view into the world we have to extrapolate what we see and assume it holds true for the world at large. So if we see examples of shitty ponies in the show, we must assume there are a good number of other shitty ponies like them in the larger world.
The second problem I have is the technology is bad argument that got slipped in. While it is easy to focus on the negatives that can come with technology, overall better technology makes people lives much better. No one would want to live in a world without modern medicine and modern conveniences like phones and the internet. We like to focus on "bad" technology like nukes but even then nukes have prevented major conflicts between world powers from occurring. The third and final problem I have is the argument Twilight makes of that bad things and bad people might come to equestria and for that reason we shouldn't maintain contact. One is that it is BS to ask someone for nothing bad to ever happen because that is an extremely unreasonable thing to ask. Also while something bad could come through but you shouldn't ignore all the benefits that would emerge from forming a more permanent link between humanity and equestria (Twilight is also ignoring that powerful lunatics from the MLP side could come to our side. The magic that gets thrown around is no joke.) It is also just generally a terrible argument as if you focus only on the possibilities of bad things that could happen and set up useless straw-men you never get anything done. She is also ignoring the fact that since the way to get to earth was through magic the equestrians would likely have all the control over any portals to earth and who comes through them.
Anyway that is my rant. Not a bash on the story and it is perfectly fine for Twilight to have flawed arguments. It even makes sense to a degree as due to her likely sheltered upbringing and scientific personality it is not entirely unreasonable for her to have this point of view. However I just wanted to highlight why her arguments are generally poor ones.
She really should read George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984. Evil DOES come from tangible desires. Well, from the viewpoint of the dictator, so to speak. Like desire for wealth, power, oppressing internal fears by installing fear in everybody else etc. Most truly evil dictators only use ideologies as explanation and support for whatever they are doing. Whether it is a religious or non-religious ideology, it doesn't count. The Catholic Church wanted (and had) power here, in the real life. Stalin (Glimmer) used the ideology of equality to rise above and control everybody else. Hitler used national socialism for the same. Even modern "ideological" leaders who were not war criminals craved for wealth and power, for example Rajneesh (Osho) instilled fear deliberately into his followers if they didn't support him (financially, too).
She does have a point that a lot of people are very easily fanatized. They do evil for seemingly inexplicable reasons. Leaders know how to play the crowd, how to use the media, propaganda, even education to instill fear, beliefs and superstition into people, then trick them into becoming evil by constantly convincing them that they and their loved ones are in danger. The constant feeling of being threatened, that's how a lot of people turn to evil. Even if the threat is artificially created by the REAL monsters.