My Little Nationalist Pony

Written By Emily Lewis and Anonymous

The 2021 movie “My Little Pony: A New Generation” follows Sunny, an Earth Pony who, unlike everybody else, is sceptical of her world where Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies live in three separate locations – three “nations” divided by survivalist fear. When Izzy, a unicorn, arrives in Sunny’s hometown, the latter decides to embark on a journey with her new friend to uncover the truth and bring back magic. Among cheerful songs and colourful animation, this film emulates and exposes real-life nationalist rhetoric to its young audience.

Hierarchy & Defensive Nationalism

 
The movie establishes that all three pony kinds live in a notable malaise caused by unstable national identities: lack of magic disconnects them from past traditions of “magical civilisations”, creating an ontological void within national subjects. Bridlewood Unicorns have dull colours; Zephyr Heights Pegasi can no longer fly, with the exception of the monarchy. Whereas this is really just an illusion of strings and lights, this ability legitimises their authority: they replicate a lost era of “magical glory”, a familiar touchstone granting their people illusive security and a cohesive national identity tied to common folklore.This also distributes power according to class, a hierarchy reflected by the monarchy being physically placed above its subjects. Their consequential adoration as divine-like beings mirror real-life narratives used by leaders to justify their power through religious imagery. The Pegasi Kingdom thus acquires a normative supremacy over all Pony-kinds as dictated by their unity under their “divine” monarchical power. Earth Ponies are stratified as “the pony ladder’s bottom-rung”, whilst Unicorn “barbarians” are placed slightly higher – but still under the Pegasi. The latter’s Kingdom becomes a separate, superior ethnic “nation”. 
 

Meanwhile, Earth Ponies of Maretime Bay are a society living in institutionalised survivalism. Phyllis is the head of Canterlogic, a tech company creating products to defend “ponies like you from ponies like that”. This cements Maretime Bay’s mantra: “to be scared is to be prepared”, re-emphasizing an ethnic divide between pony-kinds, and the urgency of “preparing” a defense against invasive ethnicities. Phyllis takes on a populist role, presenting her company as dedicated to Earth Ponies and their safety. She voices their lingering fears. Maretime Bay inhabitants are thus caught in an ethnic bind legitimised by fabricated history: the three kinds fought against each other in the past, and are bound to do so again. They cannot cohabitate; diplomacy is useless as ethnic violence will resurface. Phyllis reinforces a pre-existing malaise, and presents Canterlogic as its solution: a technological shield guaranteeing “national” survival. Canterlogic’s defensive nature parallels New-Right Barrèsian discourse on ideas of incompatible birth-cultures as defined by biology and cultural belonging. A defence against “ethnic invasion” must be established.

Unicorns and Pegasi are described as “cruel”, “vicious”, able to “fry brains” with their horns and dive from the sky to kidnap Earth Ponies. Cohabitation with biologically-defined predators is impossible. Canterlogic has grounded this into Maretime Bay: new defence products are regularly presented at tech-shows, streets are riddled with traps. Fear of the “Other” is ingrained in the landscape. Grim posters with dark, angular silhouettes, sharp horns and spiky wings, menacingly hover over innocent-looking Earth Ponies. This “Other” is bestial, morally inferior to “civilised” Earth Ponies; yet superior in its ability for violence, hence the need for Canterlogic. Their technology accentuates this hierarchy: natural “weapons” (horns and wings) are less sophisticated than Canterlogic, attaching an inherent primitivity to other pony-kinds. Securitising discourse on the Other’s immanent brutality legitimises Earth Ponies’ defence against foreign invasion: Unicorns’ and Pegasi’s nature (kidnapping, brain-frying creatures) compels them to attack. Earth Ponies thus have a right to defence, a right to violence.

Sunny’s father, Argyle, is reprimanded by Phyllis for teaching Sunny she should aspire to have Unicorn and Pegasi friends, to re-establish communication between “nations”. Argyle is an historian, a “genealogist” directly opposing Canterlogic’s narrative. Phyllis states he should “act” like an Earth Pony: he must follow a romantic Earth Pony Will, at the risk of becoming a traitor to the nation. Argyle’s independent study is threatening the “nation”. Fear of the Other motivates a “preparation” for national survival. Diverging from this pathway by researching communication routes threatens the entire Earth Pony “nation” by undermining “preparation”. Individual choice is thus rejected as “dangerous” in Maretime Bay.

Sprout & Accelerationism 

When Izzy arrives in Maretime Bay, she immediately becomes the existential threat Earth Ponies have been preparing for. Yet Canterlogic traps are inefficient, head-sheriff Hitch leaves town to arrest her, and the town falls into a state of emergency. Ponies turn to the only remaining authority in town: co-sheriff Sprout.  With Hitch gone, Sprout fills the “power vacuum”, grasping the occasion to rise to leadership as a flamboyant military chief. Similarly to leaders like Trump (whose looks he shares), Sprout legitimises his power under the pretence of populism, claiming he is the voice of reason and the key to their security. His song “Danger, Danger” paints a romantic mass of Earth Ponies united behind him. He becomes their spokesman, their “truth-teller” by stating “millions can’t be wrong, especially if they’re screaming loudly” (he is, ironically, the only one singing). He uses aesthetics of rebellion and insurrection against invasion. They become an “angry mob”, mirroring New-Right Barrèsian ideas that populism grants legitimacy to the leader, and that nationalism thus emerges from an illusive bottom-up will. 

Sprout subverts Phyllis’s defensive logic: to him, this undeterred threat requires immediate offence, an acceleration into an unavoidable race-war emulating New-Right Accelerationist discourse. The latter states that ethnic binds must come to their “inevitable conclusion”: “a global race war needs to be fought to ensure survival”. Sprout replicates this sense of cynical urgency. Through mediation, Izzy, a single unicorn walking through Maretime Bay, becomes the entire Unicorn group invading Earth Ponies. The race-war between different pony-kinds is thus predetermined, and the only answer becomes offensive violence: 

“They’re gonna steal, plunder, and pillage

They’re gonna take over the village (…)

Let’s enter a blind, irrational state!”

These lyrics highlight the urgency behind saving a Lebensraum-like national space and identity from destined “pillaging” by acting first. Canterlogic follows this accelerationist discourse by shifting production from defensive to offensive weaponry, manufacturing tank like machines. Violence is re-established as their “pony right”, paralleling the concept of birthright, a right to attack for survival as they are morally and technologically “superior”. 

Warrior-masculinity is also re-established: Sprout changes into an extravagant military uniform and sunglasses, an intentional design-choice recalling the appearance of Gaddafi. His turn to military apparel as a traditionally masculine aesthetic creates a sense of authority and security following a warrior-protector role. Though pushed to comical level, it is eerily similar to aesthetics of hyper-masculine nationalism.

“You might not have a bale of hay to borrow Are you saddled with your sorrow? 

(…)

Well, it’s all gonna work out painlessly If you follow my orders brainlessly”

  Not only is Sprout the warrior-protector, he will also solve their domestic issues. The “bale of hay” and “sorrow” are a metaphor for general ailments anybody can relate to: money, health… By mediating domestic issues to the national level, nationalism offers a simple explanation to all socio-economic problems: we are suffering because of the Other, therefore the Other must be eliminated. Uniting under Sprout’s authority is thus the only way to save the nation and eventually establish a better status quo.

The Lighthouse  

During their quest, Sunny and her friends break these ethnic prejudices through communication and co-habitation. Pre-established hierarchies tied to class disappear: Pipp and Zipp lose their royal “flying privilege” while Hitch loses his sheriff medal. The five ponies are stripped of their artificial differences and reduced to their pony status, enabling them to work together.In the song “Fit Right In”, all characters dress up as Unicorns, highlighting the artificiality of “fitting right in” the “nation” and its romantic crowd. Wings and horns are very small differences: through “dress-up”, the immutable identities of Unicorn, Pegasus and Earth Pony become permeable. Difference between ponies is effectively a social construct binding ethnic incompatibility to surface-level differences. 

“Take away our wings and horns, and we’re just frightened steeds”

Throughout the song, characters list stereotypes they were taught: the Other is unhygienic, vicious… breaking down these notions through communication. Nationalist norms are thus torn apart.  As the movie ends with the unity of all ponies, Sunny becomes an alicorn embodying and representing all different pony-kinds. Though aimed at younger audiences, this film exposes real-life nationalist discourses with the hope that future generations will better identify and question processes of “Othering”.

Bibliography

Costello, Tim, “Vladimir Putin: A Miracle Defender of Christianity Or the Most Evil Man?”, The Guardian (2022) (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/06/vladimir-putin-a-miracle-defender-of-christianity-or-the-most-evil-man, accessed 07/03/2024).

Mandelbaum, Moren, “The Repetitions of Nationalism: Ontology, Fantasy, and Jouissance” in De Orellana, Pablo & Miechelsen, Nicholas (eds.), Global Nationalism: Ideas, Movements and Dynamics in the Twenty-first Century (2022), pp.3-22.

Orellana, Pablo de; Michelsen, Nicholas (eds.), “Viral Nationalism: The Return of Ethno-Nationalist Ideas Through the New Right”, in Global Nationalism: Ideas, Movements and Dynamics in the Twenty-First Century (2023).

Illustrations by Emily Lewis.