Version: 1

Yellow was sitting at the table, happily taking sips from her warm tea. She sighed. It was a wonderful Saturday morning. No worries.

Blue was about to enter the room, but paused in the doorway at the sight of Yellow. He scratched his head before approaching the table and taking a seat across from the peaceful mare.

"How are you this morning, Yellow?" he asked tiredly.

"I'm great!" she announced cheerfully. There was an awkward silence.

"So... what's new with you?" Blue asked hesitantly.

Yellow sat up with pride. "Not much. Just saving the human world."

Blue's eyes widened. He gulped. "Yellow? Did you do it?"

She blinked at him. "Do what?"

"The thing that's all over the news. The big attack. The dam," he whispered.

"Oh that," she giggled. "Yup, that was me. It's pretty great huh?"

Blue was suddenly very awake. Awake and stunned. "What... what are you talking about? Why would you do that?!"

"Why? Because someone had to. Do you have any idea how bad it is over there in the human world?"

"I don't see how destroying a dam would make anything better," Blue gushed in confusion.

"I did my part to save the environment," Yellow explained as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Blue stared. "What?"

"See, I recently got on the human internet and started learning about this Environmental Movement that's been really struggling to save the world. On their planet, evil doesn't act all at once. Instead it takes its time, building up great schemes over generations. Some of those plans are nearing completion now. The world itself is on the brink of destruction and the resistance can't muster enough strength to stop it. They needed a hero. So I decided to join their noble cause!"

"You're talking like a crazy person. And... how do you save the world by knocking down a dam?"

"That dam destroyed the downriver ecosystem and created a huge artificial lake," Yellow growled, clearly frustrated with the lack of praise for her deeds. "By knocking it down I restored the environment to its natural state. I'm even planning on going back next week to smash some power plants. If I don't stop carbon-dioxide from building up in the atmosphere... a lot of bad things will happen."

"Worse things than you destroying key infrastructure?" Blue mumbled.

"Infrastructure?" Yellow echoed with a vacant expression. "Like roads?" she asked before shaking her head. "No I wasn't thinking of cutting off major highways, but that might be a good way to stop humans from driving all those polluting cars."

Blue didn't respond for a while. "Yellow, let me get this straight. You think you did something good?"

"Duh," the mare pouted.

"Do... you know what you actually did?" he hissed.

She rolled her eyes. "I just told you. I restored a part of nature."

"You killed thousands and ruined the lives of about a million others."

Yellow blinked in confusion. "Nuh-uh. I helped them. Their planet is being murdered by an evil cabal--"

"When you broke the dam you released a hundred-foot wall of water. You washed away three towns, killed thousands."

Yellow's mouth snapped shut. "Oh."

"And that artificial lake was a major water reservoir. Now hundreds of thousands of people don't have any clean drinking water."

"Well..." Yellow droned off before she could say anything.

"And there was a nuclear power plant that relied on that lake for water to cool the reactors. Now they've had to shut the entire plant down and several major cities are now without power. A million people are in the dark because of you."

Yellow winced. "Well... the world is in danger."

"The world is a complicated thing. Everything is interconnected, Yellow. You can't solve big problems with a wrecking ball. You need to understand not only the problems you're trying to solve, but the problems with your solutions."

Yellow looked down at the table silently. Her tea continued to steam. She lifted a hoof and stared at if for a few minutes. "A wrecking ball?" she echoed darkly. Eventually she looked at Blue with a thoughtful expression. "Blue... are you saying I have fat ankles?"

Author's Note

We've got a lot of people running around these days trying to save the world, but they don't seem to understand how bad some of their proposed "solutions" are. That they'd just be trading one problem for another. "Either eat the damn cake or admire it," as they say.