A Poetry Anthology

by Shaslan

Rating: everyone
Tags: Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad, Princess Luna
Length: 4916

A selection of mlp poems, each inspired by a different episode

A selection of mlp poems, each inspired by a different episode or character. Each poem written for a Quills and Sofas speedwrite.

Published 2020-10-26 00:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-09-29 02:15:02 UTC

1. Taking Manehattan

Looking into windows,
Looking into faces,
Looking for I know not what.

Searching for meaning in all of this madness —
The whirligig bustle of Manehattan Central
Is spinning me like a leaf in a stream.

I try to keep my head up, I try to stay afloat;
To be kind and generous, to be true to what I hope
Everypony is, on the inside.

I am spun from sleep to work to sleep again
From catwalk to office to workshop
A few snatched minutes and back once more —
I swear I’ll go until I drop.

Hoping that this will all be worth it;
Hoping I can live my dream;
Hoping somepony can tell me
What all of this might mean.

I’m alone in the fight; I’ve never been so alone
So isolated from you all. But I’m clinging to this cliff,
My friends — I will not let myself fall.

So one more stitch, one more cut,
Just one more until I’m done.
I can tell myself that, until it’s morning
And time for my next supply run.

It seems eons since I have seen you
Since I have held your hoof in mine;
It seems years since we have relaxed together
Oh, darling, how I long to unwind.

But all of this will be worth it —
Though I feel about to drop.
All of this will be worth it,
Which is why I will not stop.

And you’re due in on the next train;
You’ve come to see me shine —
So I’m looking into windows and into faces
Which carriage holds the little ponies that are mine?

There! The gleaming rainbow of your tail, your wide and smirking grin,
Followed by your pink bouncing gait, and you, the frazzled lilac mare—
Your shy and sweet ‘hello’, whispered from behind your mane,
and that battered old brown hat of yours, that one you always wear—!
Oh, just let me hold you! Oh, my dears, welcome, one and all!
My friends, how I have missed you! Oh, nothing can compare!
What fun we shall have, now you are here at last —

Though of course, I have to work. But I’ve got you tickets to the latest show—
And I’ll join you soon — I promise, this play will drive you wild —
No, really, of course you must go —
And I’ll come, I will…just as soon as my work is done, my orders filed.
Go on, darlings, really, go, I truly have to work…I’ll miss you all, I will, I will—
But really, I must work.

Author's Note

Inspired by Rarity's 'Taking Manhattan' episode.

Some bonus art I did a few months ago.

2. The Return of Harmony

I’ve nowhere left to go
I’ve got nowhere left to run.
I’m all out of ideas,
and I fear that Discord’s won.
I’ve taken every turn,
Gone down every track,
I’ve tried every avenue
But none seem to lead me back.

Back to the exit, back to my friends
Back to real life, where this nightmare ends.

My hooves are bloody
But the maze is unending
My breath is short
But in vain I’m sending
Purple sparks shooting up
Distress signals into the night —
Magic bursts from my horn
But nopony answers my light.

The trickster has trapped us, the labyrinth enwraps us
Tight in his choking embrace.
My hooves are all blisters, but oh, where are my sisters?
The ponies he has stolen from me?
He took our wings and our magic, then both were returned —
What can I do against magic like this?
He has the power of a deity, and demands we swear fealty —
Even my Princess cannot help me now.

A surge of wild hope, as I see my friends before me,
As Discord pouts and warns, “Don’t bore me,”
But hope turns to horror as these are not the friends I know and treasure;
Their colours are fled, their spark removed for his pleasure,
Only pale mockeries where once their cutie marks lay.

All hope fades, all is lost
Equestria will be conquered
And at what cost?
Until I remember in a spark of inspiration
All I need to do is use my imagination
And find a way into their hearts.
“Remember,” I tell them, hope flaring bright,
“Remember when we met, that very first sight.
You were loyal and brave, honest and true,
Kind and generous, and laughter lived in you.”
Their colours return in a rainbow flood,
The enemy is stoned, and all is good.

Author's Note

Inspired by Twilight in 'Return of Harmony'.

Now with extra art inspired directly by the poem, drawn by the lovely Snow Quill over on Derpibooru:

View on Derpibooru - Original source

4. The unknowable mare

Mystery…surrounds me.
It ensnares and enshrouds me.
The night is dark, unknowable, deep,
The night prowls silent while ponies sleep,
The night… I long for touch, for love to keep.

I am lonely. So lonely.
Nopony seems to want to know me.
They throng to the light and to the daytime,
To heady summer days and yellow sunshine,
And not a single pony questions the paradigm.

They love her, they worship her
Her white wings, her mane, her power;
And my stars are thrown by the wayside
And I too am discarded and tossed aside,
And the rage fills me, and crawls and writhes inside —

I love her, but I hate her
And I long to control her
To rip and tear and rend her
Maybe that would end my distemper—
If I could smash and bite and dismember.

The darkness is growing,
I can feel its power showing,
My fur dims to black, my pupils slitted
And against my own elder sister I am pitted
And I won’t stop until she has submitted —

My Nightmares will force the world to dream
And it is my moon ascendent that shall reign supreme;
After all, why bother with Princess, when I could be Queen?

Author's Note

Inspired by Luna's thoughts before her transformation, and accompanied by the traditional bonus art from my deviantart on the same theme.

6. The Wife: An Eldritch Horror

"I can't stay out late," said Big Mac,
"The Wife hates it when I don't come back
Right on time for tea."

"I'm afraid I can't," said Troubleshoes,
"The Wife would absolutely lose
Her head if I stayed out late without warning her."

"Another time," said Thunderlane, face dead and blank,
"The Wife would simply have my flank
If I didn't bring her these flowers on time."

"It's our anniversary, you know,"
They drone as one, eyes aglow,
"The Wife loves us, every one -
She'll love you too; would you like to come?"

Author's Note

When old men discuss The Wife and what she will and won't allow him to do...what if they're all the same Wife? And what if The Wife is Chrysalis?

7. Celestia's Pastimes

Celestia knew it was not nice
To manipulate ponies for her own ends.
Their genetics, their abilities,
Their magic and capabilities.
Celestia knew she should not splice
DNA strand and string; it was not the right way to make friends.

Yet to Celestia what other choice remained?
Her sister banished to the moon was too much to bear.
Twisted and stolen, corrupted and broken,
Her magic dark and her vile hatred spoken.
So Celestia tinkered and bred and grafted and maimed
To find the bearers who would tame the Nightmare.

8. The changeling who dared to love

I'm watching from the corner and I'm waiting
I listen for the whispers of Her hating
The ones She wants to live, to die
I obey, and still, I try —
All I want is to save you
All I want is to protect you
So listen to me, listen, listen,
Listen, and run.

We colour the sky black and we are swarming
We're descending from above without warning
We do as She commands, and though
I want to try, and fight, I know —
I can only do as I am bid
And to kill your kin I am bid
Listen to the screams, listen, listen,
Listen, and run.

The song of the Hive it is within me
And not a drop of water but a flood are we
The rush of the chase, the thrill
The hunt, the shrieks, and then the kill —
It's almost enough to consume me
But their panicked cries still move me
And I listen, Hive help me, I listen, listen,
Listen, and I watch them run.

My wings are buzzing now without my say-so
The Queen wills it and I can't say no
Drops of blood arc through the air
And my fangs flash, and rend, and tear —
Is it your flesh on my tongue
Every sense screams this is wrong
But I listen, I have to listen, listen,
Listen, and pray you can run.

Your eyes were sky-blue and your smile was kind
You saw so much but love made you blind
I was a monster and you bought my lies
You trusted me, and now, the skies —
Black on blue — black like a bruise
Like the ones I leave on your neck — like abuse —
Listen to me, listen, listen,
Listen, and run.

The battle is raging and the fire is rising
Emotion flares from the dying and heaven help me, it's appetising
Their lives are in my hooves but I don't
The chitin is stained, and please, I won't —
Resistance is futile, submission divine
But what I would give to save the one I call mine
Listen to me, I told you, listen, listen,
Listen, and run.

But there like a nightmare through the smoke
The colours of your mane; for a second I hope
Can you outrun my brothers and sisters
Can you fight back, can you resist us —
But my wings are swift, and no, oh no
I'm landing hard, and no, oh no
I see it in your eyes that you know me
Beneath the exoskeleton and the fins still you know me
My Queen, please, relent, forgive
I've given all that I can give
Don't make me, please don't make me
—Resistance? My little drone, what is this?
A pony, just a pony, oh please, let her live
—Equestria has wronged me and I do not forgive.
And you are Queen and I am not
You will endure while I will rot
I love her, oh I love her
Though I only fully understand it now
But Your will is implacable and I must bow
And
And my hooves come
Down

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

Blood spatters on my face and I am crying
I wish that it was me who lay dying
I'd have given my life for you
I did all a drone could do —
I wanted to protect you
And I tried so hard to save you
And you listened, you listened,
You listened, and you ran.

I'm cradling you close and I am weeping
Through the holes in my legs the blood is seeping
The Queen demands — Arise! Fight!
But, suddenly, it all seems...trite.
Now I lie in my bed of gore
I don’t have to listen to Her anymore
I won't listen, can't listen —
Won't listen, won't run.

Something changes inside me and now I'm glowing
Over my ruined hide colours they are flowing
My hivemates stop and stare, aghast
As I become the one thing, at last
You would have wanted for me;
I look at your broken face, and finally, my love, I'm free.

9. Raven Inkwell to Celestia

Oh Princess, are you out there?
Princess, I can’t bear
The feeling that you’re not with me
A lonely worker with no queen bee.
Oh Princess, won’t you help me?
Princess, can’t you see
That the walls are closing in from every side
And I’m drowning in this rising tide.
Oh Princess, won’t you come back home?
Princess, I can’t be alone
Princess, please don’t leave me
Please please please don’t leave me
I can’t — I’m just a secretary
I can’t — I just — I need you with me —

Author's Note

Raven Inkwell loses it after Celestia's untimely death

10. The Midnight Tree: A Nightmare Night Ballade

I.
Alone with the stars and the cool night air
Soft through the dark crept a filly so blue,
Wishing for something, for a world that was fair —
Her mood matched her mane, both the same hue.

The grass was silver with star-speckles of dew
Reflecting the night sky, the fruit of her toil;
And the tear on her cheek, well, that glimmered too,
As it fell to the earth to soak into the soil.

II.
But the tear, where it fell, the mark of despair,
Gave rise to something — something quite new.
Up from the ground, as she stopped weeping to stare
Came the tiniest sprout, and she watched as it grew.

The stem sprouted a leaf, which soon became two,
And the filly watched the green sapling uncoil.
It was tall as her knee, as her horn, filling her view,
And the earth with its roots began to bubble and roil.

III.
“What’s happening?” she asked, though no one was there
And that no one would answer, she already knew.
Just her and the tree, a strange mismatched pair —
But she spread her wings anyway, and up they both flew.

The tree was a giant of the forest, beyond all compare
And the filly she watched it with eyes wide and afraid;
“I didn’t know that this was something I could do.”
But there was no answer from the tree she had made.

IV.
And when growth ceased ‘neath the moon’s silvery glare
The filly rested in the boughs of the forest’s denizen most new.
“I wish I had friends,” she said, and in her voice pain was laid bare,
"That they’d love me as well as Tia, even if it was only a few.”

The tree gave no response; it possessed no point of view,
And the filly’s face fell as her hopes of companionship were betrayed.
“Maybe,” she snarled, “They’ll love me if I stage a coup.
If Tia was gone…then I’d have to be obeyed.”

V.
But then she shook her head; “No, I suppose I don’t dare;
She’s far stronger than me, I know that much is true.
And I love her, I guess — I suppose I do care
But I still sometimes wish I wore the golden horseshoe.”

The wind whispered through the branches, as though to say, You?
And the princess snarled: “I could be Queen, it could be fated!”
With a flash of light she was gone, and the tree couldn’t pursue
And it was alone as she had been, before it was created.

VI.
Years passed, centuries passed, and yet still it stood there;
Weathered and bent, but still the great yewtree grew.
A new shadow was on the moon — if it was fair or unfair
The tree did not know, and it could not construe.

The mare in the moon did not move, did not stew
On the injustices done her by the sister she hated.
But the tree, if trees could, might have wondered if too
She would regret it as much as the sister who waited.

VII.
And after a millenium had passed, again came the melancholy mare
And in her mane starlight shone, galaxies born anew.
As she walked to the tree unseen wind stirred her hair
And as she reached its side, her friend old and true —

— Her horn glowed, the moon rose, and she watched it through
The leaves and the branches of the tree she had cried
And she thought of her sister fighting alone to be the glue
Keeping their kingdom whole after she had all but died.

“She waited like you did,” said the mare to the yew
Which stood tactiturn and sentinel, a silent old guide.
“I asked her how she did it, and she said she just knew
That I’d come home and rule again at her side.
If I were patient like her, like a tree, perhaps I’d have seen
That it’s better to be two princesses than just a single queen.”

Author's Note

This poem is a bit longer than the traditional 28-line ballade, but it follows the traditional rhyme scheme of ABABBCBC for the first five verses, before finishing on the required ABABBCBC/BCBC.

Usually when I write poems it's more freeform, so it was fun to try a specific structure and do something more regimented. It took a lot longer to do though!

11. To be a tree

I walk through the forest and my limbs flare with pain.
Each step is like agony as I rip my roots out again.

The trees stoop low overhead, whispering their sorrow
Whispering that if I stop, it will all be over by tomorrow.

If I stop and rest, and let my body do what it needs to do
Then I’ll be calm, and at peace, and part of the forest too.

The tangled leaves in my mane will flourish and sprout
And my skin will slough away and let the bark beneath out.

My hooves will split and make way for my thick taproots
And I’ll drink and from my wings will grow a thousand tiny shoots.

I’ll flourish with them, they whisper, just try it, you’ll see,
Your branches will mingle with ours in our green canopy.

“No,” I reply, and my voice creaks, cracks and breaks,
I can tell I’m half-tree already, and resisting it aches.

But I have to keep going; I have to keep pressing on —
If I can keep up this pace I’ll be there by dawn.

Back where it began, the place that was my home years ago,
Where the draconequus I loved looked startled and said “Uh-oh.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked him, my voice still pretty and light,
Before it groaned like a branch in the wind late at night.

“I just sneezed,” he replied, “But I think something went wrong;
I didn’t mean to, but I’ve made something that doesn’t belong.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, “After all, how bad can it be?
Some chocolate rain will fall soon — let’s wait and see.”

And so we waited, and we saw, and with horror we watched
As our friends’ skin gave way bark marked and notched.

The Princesses fell first, trying to hold back the infection,
And one by one the ponies of Ponyville went the same direction.

My friends were the last, save for my lover, sweet Chaos,
Who spent the last of his magic to rid my fur of swift-growing moss.

And now I wander alone, trying to find my way through the glen
But everything is different, and I’ll never find my way back there again.

I’m looking for — I’m looking for — it’s hard to keep my mind clear —
All I can think of is silence, and peace, and the slow passing of years.

If I just stop now, if I just give up, I’ll be one of them, I’ll be home
The sunlight is sweet, there’s a space just my size, and rich is the loam.

It would be so easy, and — I’m sorry, I’m afraid I can’t quite remember
What was I…it’s…it’s late, and the fire’s burnt down to the very last ember.

And then, as I stumble through a thicket of brambles and stop short
I see them — my friends, my friends, their lives given for naught

A circle of five trees with space for a sixth, gathered close around one
A tree so tall and distorted and wrong it almost blots out the sun.

It bears dozens of fruits and with horn and antler it is crowned
And I cry out as it all rushes back — my friends all dying as my lover they surround.

“Help us,” they asked, and “I can’t,” I wept, “I love him, I can’t, I can’t.
“I won’t help you kill him, even if…even if it makes us all into plants.”

“It’s the only way,” Twilight whispered, a branch sprouting from her eye,
“Maybe she’s right,” Discord said, “Maybe I have to die.”

“No!” I cried, “No!” and I fled into the woods — unable to face them
Until now, when I want only to take root with the friends I condemned.

My time has run out, but now I’ve come to the end, I find
After all that has passed, I can accept it...I don’t mind.

I’ll die — or at least, my life will change, and I’ll move on
But I’ll be with my friends and my Discord, here in the sun.

I take my place in the circle, and turn my face upwards with a sigh,
And the branches burst out of me and reach up to the sky.

Author's Note

This poem is an entry for the Arboreal Yearnings contest.

12. Redeemed

Redeemed

The sinner is beyond redemption, far past
The point of saving,
But the moon glows just the same and the stars
Are still blazing.
The nightmare is monster made flesh, darkness
In pony form.
Yet that under it all, my sister waits in the eye
Of the storm.
Those eyes with slitted pupils are the same sky-
Blue they were,
Though a thousand years' rage tarnishes and
Blackens her fur.
So I call on Sirius, Naxos, Hestaphion,
Demeter and Phrene,
On Belgath and Astus, Bucephalus and Castor
and Leda and Numene:
Bring her back to me, bright stars, you who are
her oldest friends,
Bring her home safe to me and I'll make sure
The nightmare ends.
Aid in her escape, and let the pieces I planned
Fall into place;
My sister, my little sister, returning at last from
The emptiness of space.

14. My mother's grave

I met it under the moonlight, in the darkling glen one eve.

I met it there at midnight, when I went to the crypt to grieve.

I paused there in the doorway, and over my shoulder looked back:

Something strange and cold and fey, stirred in that wind-whispered black.

A rustle of leathery flapping wings, a shadow cast over the moon,

A high keen like a siren that sings, an uncanny twisting faerie tune.

It lighted then atop the tomb, the sepulchre where my dead mother lay,

Strange angel come to portend doom, to look down at trembling mortal and say

"Deep in the star-spangled gloaming, why now wander my lands?

Why now for thy daywalker roaming, when the light hours are thine to command?"

Something inside me quickened, in anger I stared in her slitted eye;

"Though their blood is thickened, unbeating, here my ancestors lie.

But once again you come hunting, and my blood still pumps red.

I'd lay wager those fangs sting, and I'll fight to keep from feeling them yet."

She drew back horrified and hissing, "Lay not your crimes at my door!

Ponies are faithless in their forgetting, but my people have never made war!"

"War? O no," I scoffed at her, "Only a little blood here and there.

A trifle ponies might term murder, if the truth be stated bold and bare."

"Say what you mean, pony, and say it posthaste," the enraged thestral quoth,

"Before I tire of insults only, and you feel my claws and fangs both!"

"An aged mare drained dry, a little colt stolen — these and dozens more!

Borne up on leathern wings to fly, a family slain — but one colt lived and saw!"

With practised hooves my stake I drew, dropped into lowered fighting stance,

Ready to avenge the family I hardly knew, to perform at last this deadly dance.

Mournfully the winds blew wild, the forest howled and moaned,

The monster faced my mother's child; the batpony hissed and the very mountains groaned.

"Fool!" she spat, "But thy kind ever were thus: we drink of fruit and sup on dew;

But what pony has ever listened to us? Daywalkers lie, we pay, what there is new?

The Princess counselled mercy till the day she broke; in her name I tell you, we seek not thy blood!”

With a bitterness old as the hills she spoke, and the oaken stake in my jaws felt good.

I did what was moral and right, when I leapt up towards the stars,

When I snuffed out the light, in that cold and inequine heart.

Why then did the wind sob so, the pines lashing beneath the clear sky?

When it wuthered pained and low, and the moon itself seemed to cry?

And why did the very night, as the thestral mare looked up with love

And whispered “Princess, I come," seem to tremble in the heavens above?

I met it under the moonlight, in the darkling glen one eve.

I slew it there at midnight, and now I look up at the moon and grieve.

3. My ideas are scattered by the gentlest of breezes

3. My ideas are scattered by the gentlest of breezes

When I close my eyes,
I can create. I can take the
Material I hold and weave and shape it
In just the right way, until I have crafted a masterpiece.
I can shape and tuck and snip and pin, trim and tease and plait;
But then I open my eyes, and the vision recedes.
It was just a fever-dream, an infantile wish,
A shot at the moon from a foal who
Dared to dream that he could
Be somepony different.

I open my eyes, and
The world wavers before me.
My breath stutters and my hooves shake.
My masterpiece shimmers and fades like a mirage,
And I cannot recapture it. I try anyway — or at least, I try to try;
But my brain and my limbs cannot communicate.
There is a crossed wire, a signal lost, a
Ghost in the machine, and I am
A stranger to myself.

All I can create is disaster.
All I can achieve is despair.
All I can do is keep trying;
But it seems like I’ll never get there.

Author's Note

Inspired by Zephyr in 'Flutter Brutter'

5. A Conversation

“Discord, perhaps you should leave her.
You’ve been here for seven days straight.
Discord, you have to sleep sometime —
There’s still a long time left to wait.”

“No.”

“Discord, come on — be reasonable.
She wouldn’t like to see you this way.
Discord, rest, it’s clear you need it;
While you’re gone, I promise I’ll stay.”

“No.”

“Discord, even the spirit of chaos —
Even the lord of misrule —
Some things are enough to wear all of us down,
And I can see you’re exhausted; I’m no fool.”

“I don’t think you grasp what is happening here.
I promised I wouldn’t leave her side, and
Not high seas nor wind nor hell itself
Could induce me to move one inch tonight.”

“I know you love her—”

“—Spare me! What do you know?
Of all of your friends she’s the last one to go.
You’ve watched them all slip off one by one
And you never lifted a hoof to help.”

“Discord, I know you’re upset —
This must be the hardest point in your life.
But Discord, friends don’t speak to each other like that —
You know I loved my friends, you know I loved my wife.”

“I don’t give a hoot what you think I know;
Everything I learned about friendship I got from her.
Tell me, Twilight, tell me honestly —
What will I do if my wife is taken from me?”

“I — I don’t —”

“You think I’ll stand at the graveside,
Shedding a single dignified tear?
That’s not how my mourning will work.”

“Are — are you threatening me?”

“Well, I’m certainly not making small talk.
Let me tell you a little something about her and about me,
And let you decide if this is the path you want to force us to walk.
I know you have other options…other options you could choose.
And I’m warning you now that you’ve got…a lot left to lose.

As much as me.
Fluttershy, she…

She's a candle in the night;
A softly, gently flickering light.
She warms me and she warns me,
She keeps me straight and true;
If I were to lose my Fluttershy -
Well, I'd probably have to kill you.

And that’s just for starters!
Everypony in Equestria, all creatures great and small;
I'd grind them and I'd crush them,
I'd watch your armies fall.

I'm telling you this, Twilight,
Not out of malice or bad intent:
Think of it as a friendly warning,
From a draconequus to his friend.
I've asked you nicely, I've played along,
Followed the rules of this stupid game —
I've done all you asked for oh so long.
So humour me, Twilight, light your horn,
And make my Fluttershy an alicorn.

I’m telling you now…
I won't ask twice.”

Author's Note

Written in 15 minutes for a Quills and Sofas panic, won second place.

13. In the Blood

Author's Note

Trying something new for Halloween. You might have to zoom to read it!