• Published 30th Jul 2020
  • 1,666 Views, 34 Comments

Equestria Gets Called Out On Its Imperialism - Deergenerate



Equestria is an incredibly imperialistic place. It takes the Student 6 a near death experience at the hands Discord to realize that.

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What Do You Mean Culture Property?

After a rather lengthy shouting match with Discord, Twilight sighed and dropped onto her rump, a hoof on her forehead. He had literally sent Twilight and her friends on a death defying journey with no pay off, just so he could mess with minors?

"Ok." She suddenly said after removing her hoof. "Did anyone get hurt by Discord? Starlight told me he sicked a bug bear on you guys." She turned to see the student six, all looking battered and worse for wear. They were standing in the main hall way of the

"Bear bee almost rip Yona in half. Yona will need years worth of therapy and counseling. Yona still see it's teeth when eyes closed." Yona the Yak exclaimed standing there with a blank look on her face.

Twilight sighed. "Today has been a disaster. I am guessing the Spell-venger Hunt I planned out didn't work out either?"

"Discord made a bunch of suit of armor come to life and made a picture try to kill me. So it went about as well as things normally go for us." Gallus exclaimed sitting down with a shrug.

"Great..." Twilight once again sighed sitting down. "Spike can you gather up the artifacts for me please? I have to send them back to Celestia's vault within the hour."

Spike sighed and went about collecting the

"Wait Celestia's vault? Shouldn't they go like... back to their own races?" Sandbar exclaimed said stepping forwards.

"Uhm... No. They will be going to Celestia's Vault, cause Celestia gave them to me..." Twilight said looking at the small pony.

"Wait a second!" Smolder suddenly shouted. "You mean to tell me Ember didn't give you Knuckerbocker's shell? In fact, that thing has been lost for centuries, how did she even get it?"

"Yeah, and hold on, how the heck did you get your hooves on Grover's Crown, that thing went missing decades ago!" Gallus shouted, taking to the air and grabbing the crown out of Spike's claws holding it above his head.

"And I thought the Amulet of Aurora looked suspicious! I saw that around my aunt's neck the day she and my cousin went to help you beat the Storm King! How did you get it?" Silverstream said as she picked up the amulet and put it on, admiring it's shiny-ness.... she was easy to please.

"And Yksler is important Yak warrior! We have legendary tales about him. Even have holiday!" Yona shouted, putting the helmet on herself. It instantly fell down over her eyes, mainly due to the fact that it was a couple sizes too small for her...

Ocellus scooped the Talisman of Mirage into her hooves and held it in the air. "And this went missing over a millennia ago! Pharynx is really freaking out over this! He thinks that Chrysalis is hiding it so she can use it as a weapon to come back!"

All eyes instantly snapped onto Twilight, who stood there wide eyed. She opened and closed her mouth several times before stooping and deeply inhaling.

"I swear to Celestia, I have no idea how she got these." Twilight said putting her hooves in the air. "B-but they were all in a museam... I think. So no problem right?"

"What do you mean no problem?!" Gallus shouted taking to the air.

"W-well..." Twilight claimed, flinching back from her gryphon student. "They were in a museum, so you could visit them at any time, and Equestria isn't actually exploiting their magical abilities at all."

"Yona not mean to be stick in the mud." Yona said stepping forwards. "But ponies have advancement of magic, which makes ponies better than all other races in almost all ways. Ponies stealing the artifacts of Yaks and other races not only cruel, but also extremely vindictive, as artifacts only way non-ponies might be able to defend themselves. Equestria acting like school yard bully taking away other toys because toys make calf's just as cool as bully. Not to mention devalues culture of nation artifact taken from. Especially if they are cultural symbols of unity and leadership for creatures like crown, or magical artifact that protect and keep creature's safe, like amulet. Equestria also try to historically steal artifact that is corner stone of entire nation's culture and way of life."

"Yeah! A lot of sea ponies are still salty about you trying to steal the Pearl... hehe... get it? Salty? Cause they live under the sea? In salt water?" Silverstream said giggling to herself. She elbowed Gallus a couple times, to generate a reaction out of him, but he didn't react. Too shocked at the lengthy speech the normally rather... dense Yona gave.

Twilight was in a similar state of shock before shaking her head. She sighed. "I get your point Yona, but I can explain all of that in a rational way-"

"And isn't Equestria's most famous book series about a mare who breaks into ancient ruins and takes extremely special items? What is her name... uhhh..." Gallus started.

"Daring Do?!? It isn't like that with her! Daring Do only takes pony artifacts from ancient pony temples and ruins. She doesn't go out of her way to claim artifacts from different cultures-" Twilight started. She was quickly cut off.

There was a sudden burst of rainbow and a burst of wind. Standing in the middle of the room, was Rainbow Dash, and in her hooves, was a book.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Twilight! I was just flying home after our run in with Discord and, oh my gosh, a new Daring Do book came out! Look!" Rainbow Dash practically screamed, shoving her book out for all to see.

On the cover was an image of Daring Do jumping head first into a massive cavern while Doctor Caballeron shook his hoof, swinging after her on a vine. At the very bottom of the cave was the Idol of Boreas, sitting in the middle of a massive creatures rib cage. The title of the book was printed on the top in Comic Sans. 'Daring Do and the Plunge for the Idol of Boreas.'

All eyes instantly snapped to Twilight, particularly Gallus's which were staring daggers at the princess. Twilight sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that day, visibly deflating under the pressure.

"Just keep the artifacts."

Author's Note:

Season 8's episode; A Matter of Principals and other episodes which included the artifacts and outright said that these were cultural artifacts of all of the different races, yet they belonged to Princess Celestia really rubbed me the wrong way lol.

A note, I am not one of those people who cry; "Cultural Appropriation" every time I see a white person making tacos or some shit, but I do feel that in this case -certainly- Equestria is really being rather Imperialistic. It especially seems mean in nature running from the fact that Equestria is basically already superior compared to all these nations, there is no need for Equestria to be hoarding their artifacts too.

Yes, feel free to call me a libtard in the comments. Just know that my political ideology is so full of contradictions and odd conclusions that you will never be able to grasp my true standing! Mwuahahahahahahahah!

If this story gets blocked due to politics or whateves, so if that happens, PM me your comments I would like to read them XD

Constructive conversation only please.

Also, I really didn't put much effort into this lol. I just sorta wrote it for the sake of writing it.

Comments ( 34 )

The fic itself is fine—a bit too blunt for its own good, maybe, but fine nonetheless. My problem is that it falls into a subgenre (the "Episode gets DESTROYED with FACTS and LOGIC!" comedy oneshot) whose continued success I've since grown rather irritated with.

To put it simply, it's not you, it's me. Sorry.

10358740
Oh believe me it's more than OK.

I am being a bit of a hypocrite with this story I will admit, because I am in the same boat and I tend to hate those fics.

This one really rubbed me the wrong way because it is an insanely easy fix/idea that they didn't do at all and in the end it has some pretty big diplomatic blow back XD.

They could have said that these were borrowed from the leaders of the other nations, but instead it implies that these literally *belong* to Celestia, which kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

Yeah, I do agree with you on this one, why the heck does Celestia own all of these artifacts

For a slightly more palatable theory
>Canterlot, barring a few outliers the show focuses on, is relatively safe
>Nobody much wants to screw with the Big White Horse unless they don't need or want a sun
>Therefore, the royal vaults are extremely safe for artifacts of significant magical powers. Maybe less accessible, but...
Being magical WMD Switzerland isn't a particularly great answer either, I know.

For a specific theory, I figure she's also sitting on Grover's crown until there is a king in Griffonstone again. Or at least a civic leader who won't hock it for money within ten minutes. Still not great, but a well-intentioned not great.

Wow as much I really don't like to point fingers And twilight didn't even knew about this whole thing you do have a good point there Especially with the artifacts It did kind of raised a lot of question to be honest with you I never really thought of that And how did princess Celestia knew about these There's a lot of things she never tells us which that makes her a little suspicious :trollestia: I mean I'm not gonna say she's a bad guy But it doesn't Help her case For not telling the other creatures and twilight about this she's got a lot explaining to do but with this episode Yeah it did kind of rub me the wrong way as well Specially discords attitude almost putting the dangers of the kids And it doesn't help it was the same writer who wrote the episode Non-Compete Clause Which she has a really bad reputation to the mlp fandom Now it's not the worst episode but it did not deliver properly specially I really want to see young 6 Which I always feel like they always had to be in the bad episode at least some when they show up which that's not fair for them And they always have to be in the background I really want to get to know to these kids But I guess this is what happens when you don't have the time Which that makes you feel they should have done this Earlier in the show But I don't hate the show and I still love it up's and Downs but anyway this was An interesting story

Well that was not bad.

I hadn’t thought about the artifacts, but when you think about it, Equestria became the guiding hoof behind many of these cultures through “friendship”. It’s hard not to see a correlation to historical Imperialism, even if the staff had not intended it.
But then, the ponies don’t come across well in Season 8 and 9. Perhaps it’s me, but they seem a little more vindictive in the last seasons, more mean-spirited. Season 8 ended with the ponies sticking a clearly disturbed filly into Tartarus, so claiming the ponies are actually Imperialists holds more weight than the staff meant.

Yeah, that episode just shouted warning bells to me. In fact, the whole school of friendship is kinda white man's burden to me in that only ponies know friendship and must teach it to other species.

10358840
I agree with you fully. The only race that I think would actually need 'friendship' lessons are the changelings. And that is literally only because they didn't have a culture and spent all of their history as practically mindless slaves.

Equestria's School of Friendship is literally a White Man's Burden type thing, and you would not believe the amount of people I have interacted that have that exact mind set of 'The Alicorn's Burden' or 'The Pony's Burden', it is almost infuriating XD!

10358861
Like the writers probably didn't intend for it to be that way but as a grad school history student, that school reeks of White Man's Burden. A better idea would have been for a school where students could share their culture and how each culture views friendship.

10358745
Maybe not so much own as she gets a dane geld for protecting gimcracks.

Yeah that episode felt kinda wack, and the whole school thing just doesn't work. I dun like it, so it's not a friendship academy in my setting. It's more of a noblebright Scholomance. Teaches all sorts of things, including magic.

Some of the artifacts, might be in Equestria due to security. Like the crown of Grover, but yeah a lot of that is questionable.

There are a few errors, such as typos, and sentences with no endings.

"Ok." She suddenly said after removing her hoof. "Did anyone get hurt by Discord? Starlight told me he sicked a bug bear on you guys." She turned to see the student six, all looking battered and worse for wear. They were standing in the main hall way of the

Also, I thought Knuckerbocker’s shell belonged to the hippogriffs?

Also also, I always thought that the idea of the School of Friendship was cheesy even by this show’s standards, so I like to imagine that its true purpose it to help the races get along, like the Jade Mountain Academy in Wings of Fire.

10358783
with her language about how discord's magic could be "of use" im not supprised she would keep powerfull artifacts lile that she is proberbly doing it as bargining chips so that she can blackmail others into allies

Just know that my political ideology is so full of contradictions and odd conclusions that you will never be able to grasp my true standing!

Hey, me too. :pinkiehappy:

10359038
I think Knucklebocker's shell belongs to the Dragons cause it summons a dragon when you blow into it.

I think the Amulet fits better for the Hippogryphs more, since it controls the tides and stuff lol.

10359390
Nice to know I’m not the only one either :pinkiehappy:

10358861
Conversion. Those stories are ponies burden incarnate.

10358861

this kind of thought process leads to isolationism and xenophobia as protecting your own culture from outside influences becomes seen as a good thing. Because embracing others who aren't exactly like you would be weakening your culture and changing from lessons from them becomes them corrupting you

You know i kind of have to agree with this, it is kind of messed up that Celestia is hording the magical artifacts that belong to other nations (and not protecting them very well at that), and this is coming from someone who hated the episode Daring Doubt.

"Ok." She suddenly said after removing her hoof. "Did anyone get hurt by Discord? Starlight told me he sicked a bug bear on you guys." She turned to see the student six, all looking battered and worse for wear. They were standing in the main hall way of the

Spike sighed and went about collecting the

1) Think you mean the word 'sicced'.
2) These sentences end in fragments
3) Yeah, I can see both ends of this square - hoarding these artifacts and the claiming your monopoly on friendship is due to the possession of is circular logic at best and definitely not buena at worst. That being said, the Idol of Boras was the thing that triggered the civil war that destroyed Griffinstone in the first place, so the impact of some of these artifacts is... a bit overstated by the others, I might say.

That being said, very few know how to evoke the feels like you. So even if I disagree with your interpretations (Chrysalis use a Talisman of Mirage? That implies of stage of grief about losing her throne she shows negative hints of accepting throughout the whole series), I think you for a fantastic FIMFic nonetheless.

10401817
Ah ok, so the Spanish stealing Native American gold and artifacts and shoving their children into missionary schools where they were forced to unlearn all of their customs and teachings wasn't attempted Cultural Genocide, it was merely culture sharing.

And the Natives who protested this? Psht, they were just being Xenophobic.

10401877
Chrysalis using the Talisman is what Pharynx thought she was gonna do, not what she was actually gonna do.

You know Pharynx is lol. Paranoid as hell.

Yeah, those are some good points/questions. Also would like to add in the fact that Sunbutt and MoonShine also seen to hoard a crap-ton of knowledge, as seen in the archives, that are SOoO well guarded that no-pony can get in and just yoink some kind time-spell or manual about an ancient powerful relic, which belonged to an mythic evil-... Oh wait...:derpytongue2:

I wonder is it still there or was it wrecked at the end?

10401884

hey, guess what. The actions taken there where horrible because of what they did to people without all the concern for the culture

the cultural genocide argument has always been a strange one to me. No one seems to realize things like the American South had and to a degree had and has one and it sucks but people are trying to get rid of it. And good riddance when it's gone. It treats a ton of people like crap and used to treat them even worse

Actually, it makes sense that those artifacts would have belonged to Celestia when you consider that she owned the whole planet.

I mean, maybe it's a minority opinion, but I kind of think that whoever controls the sun is running the show.

10493819
She doesn't own the planet. Otherwise the concept of other nations and leaders like Queen Novo, Ember, Thorax, Prince Rutherford and whoever rules the gryphons wouldn't make sense in the slightest NGL.

10493824
I still think that whoever controls the sun is running the show.

10494133
Then there.is no point in the other nations existing. They would all just be Equestrians without leaders of their own.

And that implies that Celestia is a bitch who steals cultural artifacts from her own people and locks them away in a vault to keep the away from the people they are important to.

So she is a racist tyrant bitch to her own non-equine subjects.

Never really thought about this before. It does raise a lot of questions. Even if Celestia wasn't intending on going imperial on other nations, it seems the results are the same.

Sunbutt got some explaining to do.

To be fair the artifacts were a really odd thing to suddenly be used as a device for evil bu cozy. I mean what are the odd right? That Twi just happens to have all of what cozy needs. How convenient.

Interesting story. I like the silliness of it. Can't say one way or another if it makes much sense though. It depends greatly on how Celestia got the relics. If Tia sent out her ninja pirate assassins to steal the items, BAD. If the princess was gifted the items and/or bought them, GOOD. There could be a lot of different ways the things came to be in her care.

There is the problem of who do you give the relic to? It is not an easy sort of question. For example the crown, lets say Tia wants to be give it back to the griffins. Who would it be given to if there is no government? Lets say there are a number of factions, would it be moral to give it to one of those factions? Griffs might see it as Equestia interfering in their country. It could make a number of enemies of the factions the crown wasn't given to, maybe even sparking conflict.

There is also cultural differences to take into account. Lets say she tries to return the Yak relic. The Yaks could see this as a GRAVE insult! How DARE Equestria say YAK relic isn't worth having!! YAKS GO TO WAR!!!! That could be a funny follow up chapter (funny as long as it goes with the silly way MLP does conflict).

After a rather lengthy shouting match with Discord, Twilight sighed and dropped onto her rump, a hoof on her forehead. He had literally sent Twilight and her friends on a death-defying journey with no payoff, just so he could mess with minors?

Someone had to say it. That's a story I would be interested in reading.

"Ok." She suddenly said after removing her hoof. "Did anyone get hurt by Discord? Starlight told me he sicked a bug bear on you guys."

I think 'sicced' is the right way to spell it.

"I swear to Celestia, I have no idea how she got these." Twilight said putting her hooves in the air. "B-but they were all in a museam... I think. So no problem right?"

Equestria also try to historically steal artifact that is corner stone of entire nation's culture and way of life."

(there's no space, 'cornerstone' is a single word)

I would have minded far less if the episode had gone out of its way to explain a better situation because you're right, it does reflect badly on Celestia.

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