Six Truths From Discord

Applejack 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.