I don't really like THE SHOW IS A HORRIFYING DYSTOPIA! line of thinking. I prefer the Equestria is fine, but after this fanfic it'll be Hell on Earth line of thinking.
But see, under the line of reasoning I took, it
isn't. Celestia is a relatively benevolent immortal monarch/goddess who occasionally takes reasonable measures to protect her subjects/worshippers. Simply put, "some bad things happening" =/= "HORRIFYING DYSTOPIA". England in
A Clockwork Orange was at best mildly dystopic (that is the correct form for that, isn't it?
) by today's standards. Most modern nations are far worse than it in many respects, and we don't consider ourselves to be living in a dystopian world. By comparison, Equestria really is a land of rainbows and sunshine, even if it
were canon that Celestia commited acts of xenocide in the past to protect her subjects.
The line of thought where she is a merciless, iron-hooved totalitarian who has mind-controlled every pony into believing that they live wonderful lives is dystopian. One where a leader takes necessary steps to protect her people from being eaten alive is not.
Re: Spike as child slave. No, he isn't. For a perfect example of imprintation of dragons on caretakers of other species, see
The Dragonriders of Pern. In both situations the relationship is mutualistic. Regarding the idea of wild/tame dragons, I think that, as pony civilization is at minimum more than 1,000 years old, it is much more likely that this sort of relationship between dragons and ponykind has existed for a very long time, and that dragons living in the wild are dragons who were once in a similar situation, and left for an independent life once their companion/caretaker died. Hence why the adult dragon was familiar with ponies, as well as being fairly friendly once he wasn't being assaulted or woken up from a nap.
Utopia: Where all your worries are inconsequential and petty, taken up a notch. Bam.
Different =/= inconsequential and petty. Just because ponies have different types of problems and conflicts, or that they endeavour to resolve them quickly, doesn't mean that they don't matter, or are somehow false. I made my stance abundantly clear on a certain other thread, and if need be I will repeat it here.