Sitting in the Shower with Bottles of Cider

Ah, another day of tasteless, stale-cracker-like work complete.

Another day of wasted time, earning pay that barely allows me to scrape above the "poverty line" of Ponyville. With the places I've been and the things I've seen though... I don't think "poverty" is the proper word. To me, poverty means wondering if you'll have food tomorrow, clean water the next. Sometimes it means wondering if you'll have any of that at all.

The water is nice and warm again... I had to wait earlier. The dishes needed to be cleaned and I had to use most of my undersized water heater's warm water to clean them. So I felt a bit agitated needless to say. How dare a lack of hot water prevent me from the one true solace I have in this miserable little world with its droll, adventureless happenings? How dare it? At least I have warm water now, though.

I'd rather sit here instead focusing on a possible adventure... because, like I said, money builds adventure these days. Bits. Bits. Bits. It's all anypony talks about. I make enough to live comfortably compared to some of the griffons and zebras to the north and east of Equestria. Life there is so much worse, and nopony here even really comprehends it. Daddy and Mommy don't send your happy little flank through college or give you that toy you wanted for Christmas and immediately "life sucks."

I know I sound oxymoronic. Here I am complaining about not having any adventure in my life, and at the same time griping about how much ponies don't really GET what poverty is. What a mess I've become. What a mess I am. Oh well, it's not as if there's anypony relying on me for support. Morally or financially. Thank Luna's Moon.

Speaking of dependency... what the tartarus is up with couples...? They always start of slobbering all over each other and saying that "we'll always work through this... it's just money right?"

Bah.

It's just money...

Money makes the damned bucking world go round. Charity or War. Business or Pleasure. Lovers or Friends. It's gonna start looking REAAAAL nice when there's no food on the table for that hungry marefriend or stallionfriend's tummy and you look like a sap because your job doesn't pay jack-squat because YOU didn't put YOURSELF through college by taking the initiative and reaching out for those free programs that Celestia keeps yammering on about every time I see her with young ponies at the university or when she's outside at the schoolhouse.

Not only that, but ponies don't 'work things out' anymore. There's just so many options, so many ponies to choose from. If you're 'too good' for 'this treatment' or 'this level of living' you just trot off and find somepony else. It ain't hard.

But it's damn shallow.

I'm getting worked up over nothing though... you know?

Sweet Celestia this cider tastes great... I'm glad I bought a whole bunch before the season was over. It's just a tart, sweet flavor that Sweet Apple Acres crate has in it.

It'd be ironic if I drowned in the shower.

"I drank myself to death" and other lines come to mind. It's kind of funny really.

"He drowned his troubles in cider!"

That's a good one. I'll have to save it for when some poor shmuck does exactly that, just to be a smartflank.

I know what you're thinking though... "If you're so poor, then why did you buy all that cider? You could have spent it on something else, something that you needed!"

Got two words for you: Buck. Off. I'm not poor, I was just using that as a springboard for this writing. If you didn't catch that, then shove off and go catch a disease or something.

I'm sour and don't care.

Poverty is relative. Ponies here in Ponyville, and most of Equestria have food, water, safety. They can go to school, read, write, and play in the sun. I've been places where you can't. Places where little fillies and colts get whisked away in the night to unspeakable horrors and places. Places the average pony'd never even know was a place. Places that everypony talks about, but has never been to, never experienced. It's all just so INFURIATING. Here I've got the truth, but everypony's so blind that it doesn't even matter. Any Royal Guard who's been sent "on an away trip" can tell you.

But they probably won't. And neither will I, even if you ask. In fact, unless you're reading this... you probably won't even know what to ask or how!

And here's why: Ponies like me gave up our veil for the truth, so we could protect that lie that keeps everypony safe and happy back home. We swore not to bring that truth back with us too.

But that's for another time.

My point is, as this wonderful and amazing water splashes down on my face and muddles my ability to write by getting in my eyes, that life in Equestria ain't bad. There's no such thing as the kind of poverty I've seen, the kind of hopelessness I've witnessed.

And don't go around asking why we didn't help them... because if we did, your happy little world wouldn't be able to exist, 'cause the resources just aren't there. Trust me, I wanted to, we wanted to. One nation cannot support two. It just doesn't work!

But... it's so important... You gotta know: Your own people always come first, 'cause you don't know what those other people are gonna do when they aren't focused on being unhappy. They might want more, and then keep taking when it ain't their turn or when they become too lazy to want to earn it, shamelessly, like leeches from Froggy Bottom Bog.

This is depressing. But you know, it's also kinda liberating... admitting you know what's going on, and not giving a buck about it one way or another. Cause you know... you can know all the truths in the world, but unless you got somepony else who believes... well...

... it might as well be a lie.