Six Truths From Discordby RB_ChaptersRainbow Dash and the Spiked CollarApplejack and the Ten Foot FencePinkie Pie and the Joyous SunRarity and the TightropeTwilight and the Leaden CrownFluttershy and the Box of Razor WireDiscord and the Inevitability of His FateRainbow Dash and the Spiked CollarRainbow Dash Flies With a spiked collar Around her neck. Its spikes point inward Scratching Poking her Drawing blood sometimes. You see, Rainbow Lost a friend recently And that Injected the poison into her brain. You see, Rainbow Is getting older, now Her body Doesn't heal as fast Her bones Are a little more brittle. So what if The next flight Does her in? What if she Misjudges a turn? (She'd never do that, she tells herself) (But what if) And she careens into a barricade And her skull fractures And there's bits of bone in her brain And so much blood And there's nothing The doctors Can do? She's already past her prime (Though she doesn't want to admit it). Already on The way out. But what if She doesn't make it To that nice Wonderbolts retirement package? This never bothered her Until now. She'd never even thought about it. And she compartmentalizes it. She has to. Tucks it away in her mind Any time she's on the job. But at night In bed It always escapes its confinement. Gnaws at her. The spiked collar Gets tighter. Is this it? Is tomorrow's race... It? She thinks about resigning But that would be cowardly. Disloyal. This was her dream, she can't be Scared now, she Put so much Time Effort Sweat (Blood) Into getting here, how can she Be so Afraid? One day Fate will grab that spiked collar And give it a yank And her head will come flying off. One day. Who knows when. (Me) (I know when.) But for now All she can do Is not sleep And barely eat And tell everyone she's fine. Applejack and the Ten Foot FenceApplejack has, In true farmpony fashion, Built a fence around her heart. It's ten feet tall And electrified And topped with barbed wire. She first started building it when her parents died And has been adding to it ever since. You see, Applejack Isn't very honest With herself. She's the tough one, Or so she thinks. She can't Be allowed To feel Pain At all the death that surrounds her. She's the rock of the group Standing resolute in the rushing waters That everyone else can cling to. But rocks erode. Fences can be scaled Even if they're electrified Even if the barbed wire at the top Cuts and nicks at your underbelly. Threatens to rip you to shreds. Even if it makes you bleed. Someday someone's going to scale that fence. Reach that fleshy, warm, vulnerable heart And then the fence itself will come tumbling down And everyone will be able to see how scared she is. That's what she hopes, anyway. That's what she wants. That's what she can't be honest about. Not to herself. Not to anyone. But no one ever will. She built it too tall. And when that heart stops beating That fence Rusty, now Will still be standing. It will outlast even her. Pinkie Pie and the Joyous SunPinkie Pie is (Contrary to what you might expect) Genuinely a happy pony. She has a daughter, now (Or is it a son?) And a loving husband And she is content. But she is happy because She has known misery Before. I am not saying That one can only be happy If they have been sad. There are certainly many ponies Who have been very content with their lives Who have never been hungry. But Pinkie Is happy because She has tasted misery in her life. And she swore that she would do Whatever it took To keep from falling back Into its depths And becoming stuck In the bog And the muck And the blood Again. And she also swore She would do whatever it took To help others escape it. And ah, you're thinking to yourself "She is misguided!" "Suffering Is necessary, sometimes!" "She will shelter that child!" "And they will grow up fragile!" This Is not who Pinkie is. She knows that to be sad is also equine That happiness and sadness Joy and misery Are both to be welcomed In measured amounts And at the right times. But she also knows That one can be miserable And still be made to smile. And so when her father dies She will throw a party. Not to distract But to honour And to cherish. And when her mother dies She will be there to comfort her sisters And talk about All the good times They had together. And when her friends die One after another (She will be the last one standing) (It's already started) She will cry But she will also smile And she will encourage the others to smile And she will encourage me to smile (As she already has) Because, moreso than even Celestia She is The sun. Rarity and the TightropeRarity, Though she's only just beginning to realize it, Walks a T-I-G-H-T-R-O-P-E. She's been walking it Balancing along, suspended Above it all Ever since she made her first sale At the Carousel Boutique. And one day, She is going To fall. On one side of the tightrope, The artist. On the other, The businessmare. And ne'er the two shall meet. See, Rarity Takes great pride in her art. But she also Is her own accountant Does her own taxes Runs her own business A business that's constantly growing Eating up more and more of her time. She's an artist at heart But being an artist at heart Doesn't put food on the table (And it certainly doesn't pay for all the wine.) And it makes her uncomfortable Every time she has to cut a corner Every time she has to compromise on a design So that it can be manufactured (A dress, manufactured! Perish the thought!) In three locations (Soon to be four) (Soon to be five and six and seven) (Soon to be in Griffonstone) (And Yakyakistan) (And Kludgetown and Mt. Aris and you get the idea) By dressmakers Who make less than she did When she started (Keep the margins low, darling.) But it erodes at her Slowly, at her artist's heart Clawing and gnawing And soon she will fall One way Or the other From her perch on high. Her element was generosity, you know. That's what she used when she turned me to stone. But she's always felt that she had to earn it More than the others Honesty Comes so naturally to Applejack Fluttershy Always was so kind (Even to me.) But Rarity? Well She'd just have to put in the effort, She supposed. That becomes harder to do When you're trying to compete In a cutthroat market. They'll eat her alive if she's not careful, shows Any sign of weakness. At what point Does a virtue Become a brand? Become a selling point? At what point are you Just going through the motions? Ponykind Created a great beast And then chained themselves to it. And now it is in Rarity's home, Eating Rarity's bread, Eating Rarity. Always eating Chewing and Swallowing Until it has consumed everything And begins gnawing at its own legs. But... Not yet. Rarity Isn't there yet. But it's coming. She's going to trip. She's going to fall. One way, Or the other, And it won't be pretty Either way. Twilight and the Leaden CrownTwilight. Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. Twilight isn't prepared to rule. The leaden crown sits Upon her head But she does not know its weight yet. She thinks she does. Celestia Has been preparing her for this all her life Cadance Is always ready to give advice Luna Will step in if she needs it (Even though she does not like ruling, Not really.) And sure, Twilight Already feels like she's not ready. But she does not know how Not ready she is. Celestia Always made it look so Effortless. So simple. Twilight Wasn't there for the Hundreds of years Where Celestia was still learning the ropes. The famines. The skirmishes. The disputes. The plagues. (I watched it all from my stone prison, you know.) If there is any pony alive Who is more qualified To lead Equestria Then I do not know of them (And I know all of them.) But ruling Being a good ruler Is something you can only learn Through experience. She doesn't know About the turmoil That lies ahead. All the Impossible choices She will have to make. The lives She will have to balance Against the greater good Of her flock. Equestria's future Is not an easy one. Not for her. She's a god now, Among ponies And one day She'll find out What that truly means. And she'll pull through it all! Because she's strong (Stronger than I) (Stronger than Celestia) (And Cadance) (And Luna.) (Stronger than anyone.) But she won't be the same pony She is now. There will come a time When she will look at herself in the mirror And she will no longer see The unicorn She was when she met me. She will no longer even see The alicorn Who overcame so much To be there. She will only see the crown. As Celestia does. As Cadance will. As Luna was always afraid to. And she will breathe. And she will sigh. And she will smile at her apprentice (The last of hundreds) Upon whom she will inflict The same fate Someday. Fluttershy and the Box of Razor WireFluttershy Was born in a box of razor wire. It was a metal box, Rusty As long as she'd known it The wire Twisting and mingling through its bars like vines. But she was a small filly And there was room for her, then. Her mother Would come every day to whisper to her Bring her food, and water, and Sometimes Hold her hoof through the bars And Fluttershy was happy Because she knew nothing else. But years went by And she grew bigger And sometimes her father would come And sometimes her brother would come And she would wonder "Why am I The only one in the box?" And as the years passed And she grew older And she became a mare (Beautiful, maybe) There was less and less room in the box And the razor wire Drew closer and closer And she had to sit very Very still In the center Staring at the blades. And her mother Her father and her brother Still came around And she tried to put on A happy smile For them But the question The ever-present question Rattled around her skull Echoing Getting louder and louder. And she kept growing Growing and growing Until there was no more room And the razor wire Dug into her skin (Beautiful, maybe) And with every beat of her heart Every breath Every twitch The steel bit deeper Until it scored her bones. And her mother Still asked to hold her hoof sometimes But Fluttershy couldn't bear the pain And eventually her mother gave up And stopped coming And Fluttershy kept growing And the razor wire kept cutting ribbons out of her. And Fluttershy realized then, As blood mixed with rust And her heartbeat grew slower And her vision grew blurry That it was not a box. She had been born into a cage. And I watched her Slowly, Slowly, So slowly, Bleed to death. She was, Of course, Not the only one in a box. All of ponykind is If you think about it. But hers Seemed tighter Than most And I loved her So much And now I can finally See the bars The metal The blades Closing in On me. Discord and the Inevitability of His FateThe sad part About all of this Is that I Can do nothing about it. I am a god. A trickster. A conniver. I twist words (and ponies) with ease. But To twist the truth You need to know the truth. I can see My entire life The lives of all things Stretching out in all directions All the paths they May take Will take Won't take Could take Would never take Wish to take Dream of taking. But I am just a pawn (With a frightening amount of self-awareness, granted.) I do not truly have free will. I am merely following the script That was handed to me When this world was created. This is what being a god means. I have tried to fight it Tried to run away But Fate is a stronger force than even Chaos. (I am not actually that powerful In the cosmic scheme of things.) The end to my story Was written eons ago And I can see it! I can see it getting closer! I can see every domino along the way! My emergence My defeat by the sisters My resurrection from stone My defeat by these wonderful ponies My friendship with Fluttershy All of it was inevitable, Bullet points On a list That only I can see. That I cannot stop And I cannot change. So I cannot help Rainbow With the spiked collar that digs at her throat. I cannot help Applejack With the fence That she herself built. I cannot help Rarity Off the tightrope That she must walk. I cannot help Pinkie Pie Even as she helps me Become whole again. I cannot help Twilight Bear the leaden crown That weighs upon her temples. And I could not help Fluttershy Escape the prison That she was born into. As much as it hurt. As much as I cried. I Can Do Nothing. That is simply how it is. And that, My friend Reading this Reading these words right now Is the cruelest joke of all!
Rainbow Dash and the Spiked CollarRainbow Dash Flies With a spiked collar Around her neck. Its spikes point inward Scratching Poking her Drawing blood sometimes. You see, Rainbow Lost a friend recently And that Injected the poison into her brain. You see, Rainbow Is getting older, now Her body Doesn't heal as fast Her bones Are a little more brittle. So what if The next flight Does her in? What if she Misjudges a turn? (She'd never do that, she tells herself) (But what if) And she careens into a barricade And her skull fractures And there's bits of bone in her brain And so much blood And there's nothing The doctors Can do? She's already past her prime (Though she doesn't want to admit it). Already on The way out. But what if She doesn't make it To that nice Wonderbolts retirement package? This never bothered her Until now. She'd never even thought about it. And she compartmentalizes it. She has to. Tucks it away in her mind Any time she's on the job. But at night In bed It always escapes its confinement. Gnaws at her. The spiked collar Gets tighter. Is this it? Is tomorrow's race... It? She thinks about resigning But that would be cowardly. Disloyal. This was her dream, she can't be Scared now, she Put so much Time Effort Sweat (Blood) Into getting here, how can she Be so Afraid? One day Fate will grab that spiked collar And give it a yank And her head will come flying off. One day. Who knows when. (Me) (I know when.) But for now All she can do Is not sleep And barely eat And tell everyone she's fine.
Applejack and the Ten Foot FenceApplejack has, In true farmpony fashion, Built a fence around her heart. It's ten feet tall And electrified And topped with barbed wire. She first started building it when her parents died And has been adding to it ever since. You see, Applejack Isn't very honest With herself. She's the tough one, Or so she thinks. She can't Be allowed To feel Pain At all the death that surrounds her. She's the rock of the group Standing resolute in the rushing waters That everyone else can cling to. But rocks erode. Fences can be scaled Even if they're electrified Even if the barbed wire at the top Cuts and nicks at your underbelly. Threatens to rip you to shreds. Even if it makes you bleed. Someday someone's going to scale that fence. Reach that fleshy, warm, vulnerable heart And then the fence itself will come tumbling down And everyone will be able to see how scared she is. That's what she hopes, anyway. That's what she wants. That's what she can't be honest about. Not to herself. Not to anyone. But no one ever will. She built it too tall. And when that heart stops beating That fence Rusty, now Will still be standing. It will outlast even her.
Pinkie Pie and the Joyous SunPinkie Pie is (Contrary to what you might expect) Genuinely a happy pony. She has a daughter, now (Or is it a son?) And a loving husband And she is content. But she is happy because She has known misery Before. I am not saying That one can only be happy If they have been sad. There are certainly many ponies Who have been very content with their lives Who have never been hungry. But Pinkie Is happy because She has tasted misery in her life. And she swore that she would do Whatever it took To keep from falling back Into its depths And becoming stuck In the bog And the muck And the blood Again. And she also swore She would do whatever it took To help others escape it. And ah, you're thinking to yourself "She is misguided!" "Suffering Is necessary, sometimes!" "She will shelter that child!" "And they will grow up fragile!" This Is not who Pinkie is. She knows that to be sad is also equine That happiness and sadness Joy and misery Are both to be welcomed In measured amounts And at the right times. But she also knows That one can be miserable And still be made to smile. And so when her father dies She will throw a party. Not to distract But to honour And to cherish. And when her mother dies She will be there to comfort her sisters And talk about All the good times They had together. And when her friends die One after another (She will be the last one standing) (It's already started) She will cry But she will also smile And she will encourage the others to smile And she will encourage me to smile (As she already has) Because, moreso than even Celestia She is The sun.
Rarity and the TightropeRarity, Though she's only just beginning to realize it, Walks a T-I-G-H-T-R-O-P-E. She's been walking it Balancing along, suspended Above it all Ever since she made her first sale At the Carousel Boutique. And one day, She is going To fall. On one side of the tightrope, The artist. On the other, The businessmare. And ne'er the two shall meet. See, Rarity Takes great pride in her art. But she also Is her own accountant Does her own taxes Runs her own business A business that's constantly growing Eating up more and more of her time. She's an artist at heart But being an artist at heart Doesn't put food on the table (And it certainly doesn't pay for all the wine.) And it makes her uncomfortable Every time she has to cut a corner Every time she has to compromise on a design So that it can be manufactured (A dress, manufactured! Perish the thought!) In three locations (Soon to be four) (Soon to be five and six and seven) (Soon to be in Griffonstone) (And Yakyakistan) (And Kludgetown and Mt. Aris and you get the idea) By dressmakers Who make less than she did When she started (Keep the margins low, darling.) But it erodes at her Slowly, at her artist's heart Clawing and gnawing And soon she will fall One way Or the other From her perch on high. Her element was generosity, you know. That's what she used when she turned me to stone. But she's always felt that she had to earn it More than the others Honesty Comes so naturally to Applejack Fluttershy Always was so kind (Even to me.) But Rarity? Well She'd just have to put in the effort, She supposed. That becomes harder to do When you're trying to compete In a cutthroat market. They'll eat her alive if she's not careful, shows Any sign of weakness. At what point Does a virtue Become a brand? Become a selling point? At what point are you Just going through the motions? Ponykind Created a great beast And then chained themselves to it. And now it is in Rarity's home, Eating Rarity's bread, Eating Rarity. Always eating Chewing and Swallowing Until it has consumed everything And begins gnawing at its own legs. But... Not yet. Rarity Isn't there yet. But it's coming. She's going to trip. She's going to fall. One way, Or the other, And it won't be pretty Either way.
Twilight and the Leaden CrownTwilight. Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. Twilight isn't prepared to rule. The leaden crown sits Upon her head But she does not know its weight yet. She thinks she does. Celestia Has been preparing her for this all her life Cadance Is always ready to give advice Luna Will step in if she needs it (Even though she does not like ruling, Not really.) And sure, Twilight Already feels like she's not ready. But she does not know how Not ready she is. Celestia Always made it look so Effortless. So simple. Twilight Wasn't there for the Hundreds of years Where Celestia was still learning the ropes. The famines. The skirmishes. The disputes. The plagues. (I watched it all from my stone prison, you know.) If there is any pony alive Who is more qualified To lead Equestria Then I do not know of them (And I know all of them.) But ruling Being a good ruler Is something you can only learn Through experience. She doesn't know About the turmoil That lies ahead. All the Impossible choices She will have to make. The lives She will have to balance Against the greater good Of her flock. Equestria's future Is not an easy one. Not for her. She's a god now, Among ponies And one day She'll find out What that truly means. And she'll pull through it all! Because she's strong (Stronger than I) (Stronger than Celestia) (And Cadance) (And Luna.) (Stronger than anyone.) But she won't be the same pony She is now. There will come a time When she will look at herself in the mirror And she will no longer see The unicorn She was when she met me. She will no longer even see The alicorn Who overcame so much To be there. She will only see the crown. As Celestia does. As Cadance will. As Luna was always afraid to. And she will breathe. And she will sigh. And she will smile at her apprentice (The last of hundreds) Upon whom she will inflict The same fate Someday.
Fluttershy and the Box of Razor WireFluttershy Was born in a box of razor wire. It was a metal box, Rusty As long as she'd known it The wire Twisting and mingling through its bars like vines. But she was a small filly And there was room for her, then. Her mother Would come every day to whisper to her Bring her food, and water, and Sometimes Hold her hoof through the bars And Fluttershy was happy Because she knew nothing else. But years went by And she grew bigger And sometimes her father would come And sometimes her brother would come And she would wonder "Why am I The only one in the box?" And as the years passed And she grew older And she became a mare (Beautiful, maybe) There was less and less room in the box And the razor wire Drew closer and closer And she had to sit very Very still In the center Staring at the blades. And her mother Her father and her brother Still came around And she tried to put on A happy smile For them But the question The ever-present question Rattled around her skull Echoing Getting louder and louder. And she kept growing Growing and growing Until there was no more room And the razor wire Dug into her skin (Beautiful, maybe) And with every beat of her heart Every breath Every twitch The steel bit deeper Until it scored her bones. And her mother Still asked to hold her hoof sometimes But Fluttershy couldn't bear the pain And eventually her mother gave up And stopped coming And Fluttershy kept growing And the razor wire kept cutting ribbons out of her. And Fluttershy realized then, As blood mixed with rust And her heartbeat grew slower And her vision grew blurry That it was not a box. She had been born into a cage. And I watched her Slowly, Slowly, So slowly, Bleed to death. She was, Of course, Not the only one in a box. All of ponykind is If you think about it. But hers Seemed tighter Than most And I loved her So much And now I can finally See the bars The metal The blades Closing in On me.
Discord and the Inevitability of His FateThe sad part About all of this Is that I Can do nothing about it. I am a god. A trickster. A conniver. I twist words (and ponies) with ease. But To twist the truth You need to know the truth. I can see My entire life The lives of all things Stretching out in all directions All the paths they May take Will take Won't take Could take Would never take Wish to take Dream of taking. But I am just a pawn (With a frightening amount of self-awareness, granted.) I do not truly have free will. I am merely following the script That was handed to me When this world was created. This is what being a god means. I have tried to fight it Tried to run away But Fate is a stronger force than even Chaos. (I am not actually that powerful In the cosmic scheme of things.) The end to my story Was written eons ago And I can see it! I can see it getting closer! I can see every domino along the way! My emergence My defeat by the sisters My resurrection from stone My defeat by these wonderful ponies My friendship with Fluttershy All of it was inevitable, Bullet points On a list That only I can see. That I cannot stop And I cannot change. So I cannot help Rainbow With the spiked collar that digs at her throat. I cannot help Applejack With the fence That she herself built. I cannot help Rarity Off the tightrope That she must walk. I cannot help Pinkie Pie Even as she helps me Become whole again. I cannot help Twilight Bear the leaden crown That weighs upon her temples. And I could not help Fluttershy Escape the prison That she was born into. As much as it hurt. As much as I cried. I Can Do Nothing. That is simply how it is. And that, My friend Reading this Reading these words right now Is the cruelest joke of all!
