MLP:TDV, season 1 episode 8: Discourse on Fillies
The episode opens, and the first thing we see is a wizard.
Star Swirl the Bearded lies sleeping in a rustic lodge or tavern, with thick logs of dark grainy wood for walls. He is lying in a rounded niche or hollow in the wall that looks quite uncomfortable, but he seems accustomed to it.
He wakes up and we hear singing. But this is not the singing we are used to in My Little Pony, the stage musical songs sung by girls we all know and love. This is a rowdy tavern song sung by stallions, and not the cartoony friendly, nonthreatening stallions we’re used to, be they calm brothers or twinks with reedy nervous voices in a world of maretriarchy. Instead it’s virile, loud and ragged, sung by rough and tumble stallions with deep raspy voices who drink and smoke too much, on the outer edges of civilization where this companionship is the greatest comfort there is.
Scars, bandages, and missing teeth are in evidence as they sing. It is a song about memories, wanderlust, good times, longing and belonging. A song about searching for something, and looking back at where you’ve been.
Star Swirl gets up, looking much as we know him: old, bearded, wrapped in his robes and his wizard hat, and he moves through the lodge and between the singing stallions with ease and comfort, in his element. He leaves the building but the music shifts from diegetic to non-diegetic and follows him: this song is his leitmotif.
Outside is deep forest and high mountains, tall spruce trees and hills covered in snow below the peaks in the distance. From the look on his face it is clear that he is searching for something, but we do not know what. As he walks we see his hooves sinking into the soft snow with a tactile shuff shuff that makes the audience feel the sensation in their bones, leaving behind hoofprints of compressed blue ice.
He sets off into the woods without saying a word.
The camera lingers on the dim and snow-covered scene before it morphs into something bright and green, where the snow is rapidly melting away. Green grass grows, fresh buds shoot on the trees, and a river runs abundant through the rolling fields.
The stallions’ song fades away and in its place the opening theme music begins. It is a new version of the song (starting at the 2-minute mark) that opened the first My Little Pony movie in 1986, here repurposed to tell of another springtime:
My little pony, my little pony
All in a twinkling, spring is here
My little pony, my little pony
When did all the leaves and grass appear?
Where there were snowdrifts
Now there are no drifts
Nor is the sky overcast
My little pony, my little pony
Winter is over at last!
My little pony, my little pony
Frisking about as spring unfolds
My little pony, my little pony
Dreaming of the sights this new world holds
Creatures of wonder, sunshine and thunder
What could be waiting for you?
My little pony, my little pony
Now let the world start anew!
As the song plays we see ponies, coming out from hiding under trees and other natural shelter, possessing nothing but what they can carry with them, emerging and seeing this bright and open new land spreading out before them. Old ponies who thought they would never see another spring look up in wonder as the warm sunlight hits their faces. A young blank flank earth pony filly who was born during the long winter emerges from the crowd and looks in astonishment at the first springtime she has ever seen, so full of possibilities and hope.
We see the building of a new town by ponies of all three tribes, working together. Among other characters we see the recognizable Founders of Equestria: Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy, Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie. We see the vast wilderness outside the bounds of the town, the primordial forest filled with beautiful sights and marvelous creatures. And we see the shadows lurking on the edges, looking at the town with sinister intent for this strange new thing that has appeared. This is a world of wonders and fables.
At the end of the song the ponies come together for the group shot in the center of the newly built town. They gather below the Fire of Friendship, the glowing purple heart that burns eternally with magic fire atop a magic fountain in the center of the community.
From there it cuts to the title screen with the My Little Pony logo:
My Little Pony: Tales from Dream Valley.
The episode proper opens on a filly, the same one we saw in the opening sequence, running through town at a full gallop, with an abundance of childlike energy. This is Goldie, short for Golden Seedling. The episode credits show in the subtitles, ending with the episode title: Discourse on Fillies.
Visually, this Equestria resembles G4. The characters share the general style of MLP:FiM, if perhaps a little less well-fed. But the surfaces are a touch more textured, the sunlight more nuanced. Everything feels a little more detailed, more naturalistic, more organic than a computer animation.
“Goldie! Get back here and do your chores!” Goldie’s granny yells after her, but the filly pretends not to notice and keeps running.
An old stallion passing by watches her run. “She’s a very bold filly.”
Granny unhappily replies, “In the old days a bold filly like that would wander off into the woods and get mauled by a bear.”
We follow Goldie as she runs. All around her we see ponies bustling, houses being built. This is a new town, still under construction, filled with ponies working together to build their new home, and Goldie delights in taking in the sights as she runs.
At one point we cut to an old earth pony stallion sitting on a rock. He has a huge flowing beard and wears a toga, reciting lines of poetry to himself as he plucks on a lyre. Goldie crashes into him and sends his instrument flying as she keeps running. He cries out “D’oh!”
“Sorry!” Goldie yells back before she turns her attention forward again, grinning.
Something ahead of her catches her attention. In the center of town are ponies shouting, and a huge crowd has gathered, standing in a circle around some commotion. She joins them, pushing through the crowd to see what’s going on.
In the center stands a stranger, a newcomer to the town. He is a unicorn stallion, skinny and shorter than the other stallions, a quiet-looking type with thin lips and small eyes. He is wearing a boxy red hat and red robes that were probably once very fancy, but are now clearly the worse for wear, dirty and damaged from the long road. He has a small wooden cart he has been hauling with him filled with his belongings, most visibly a stack of books.
He is instantly recognizable as a particular notorious historical figure, and all the adults in the audience know him immediately.
All the ponies standing around are clearly unhappy to see him. But none more so than Clover the Clever, who is furiously lunging and flailing in his direction while Princess Platinum and Smart Cookie physically hold her back.
“Clover, that’s enough,” the unicorn princess says with frustration.
“No it isn’t!” Clover shouts. She is burning with anger unlike anypony in Dream Valley have ever seen on the normally-patient scholar’s face. “Don’t listen to a word he says! That pony is the reason everything went wrong in the old kingdom! He’s the most untrustworthy pony who ever lived!”
“I was never anything but truthful,” the newcomer says, seeming unruffled. “It’s not my fault that everypony misunderstood me.”
Clover the Clever redoubles her ineffectual flailing, while letting out a wordless scream of rage.
Princess Platinum looks very unamused. “That’s enough, Clover. Do you remember what you said when we first planted the flag here? That everypony is welcome in Dream Valley? The New Start?”
“That was for all the different pony tribes. Not for ponies like him.”
“What a wonderfully elastic rule,” the newcomer interjects, which only makes Clover glare harder.
Smart Cookie leans in and tells Princess Platinum, “Platinum, he’s alone.”
Platinum takes the lead speaking to him while Smart Cookie holds Clover back. “You’re here alone? Why?”
“My services were no longer wanted in your father’s court. I was exiled to house arrest.”
Clover the Clever interrupts. “See? Even they didn’t want him around!”
The stallion continues, ignoring her. “I tried to be invited back into their good graces, but to no avail. When the great winter came I saw I had no choice but to leave. I heard about this place from traveling ponies, and came here.”
“Don’t believe a word he says,” Clover the Clever warns, but Princess Platinum doesn’t listen.
“We will give you a chance,” the princess says. “You can stay. But if I find out you’re lying, you’re exiled twice over.”
“I have no intention of starting a fight with my neighbors. I only want to live in peace, same as everypony else.”
“We’ll see.”
Clover the Clever, disgusted, snorts and trots off without another word.
With the commotion over, the crowd begins to disperse. Goldie looks around, and sees everypony’s reactions. They all seem to be on Clover’s side, and watch the newcomer with expressions ranging from suspicion to open scorn.
The filly looks thoughtful. “Huh. I wonder what that was about.”
Goldie catches up with the newcomer in the market, by a pony selling fresh-baked bread out of her cart.
The baker has dropped her customary smile for this particular pony. “Four bits.”
“The sign says two bits,” the newcomer points out.
“Four bits. Wanna make it five?”
The newcomer grumbles, but passes over four bits and is given the smallest bread from the cart.
He wanders off, and Goldie walks up behind him. “Hi. Who’re you?”
He glances briefly in her direction and identifies her as insignificant. “You should go back to your parents, little filly.”
“I don’t have any,” Goldie says bluntly. “I live with my granny. I saw you in the town square, what was that about?”
“Nothing new. I have that effect on some ponies.” He glances at her again, and she is clearly still waiting for his answer. “My name is Macavallo. Those ponies dislike me because of my old job.”
“Yeah? What was your job?”
“I was a royal councilor at court.” Goldie looks up at him with a blank smile. It is clear those words mean nothing to her. He tries again. “I gave advice to the king. In the old kingdom, before the long winter.”
“Huh. What kinda advice?”
“About how to stay king, mostly… You can read it, if you like. I wrote it all down.”
With his unicorn magic, Macavallo pulls out a slim book from his cart and passes it to Goldie.
“I was trying to make something useful,” Macavallo says, with a hint of regret. “I wanted to describe the things I saw in the world around me as truthfully and accurately as I could… But, many ponies didn’t like what I had to say. Quite ironic, really. It turns out the best advice I can give is that you shouldn’t let anypony know you’ve read my book. It’s not enough to know things. Ponies have to think that you don’t know. Ponies will distrust you, if you know too much. But if you pretend you know nothing at all, then ponies will trust you. Then you can make them think anything you want.”
She listens with curiosity, and looks at the cover. “The Princess. Is it a storybook?”
“There are certainly stories in it.”
This comment makes her laugh. “You’re funny, mister Macavallo. But thanks for the book. I hope you like Dream Valley.”
Goldie returns to her home, a small wooden cottage, where her granny is busy working. The old mare gives her the side-eye as she comes in. “Where have you been?”
“Nowhere,” Goldie said, trying to look innocent as her granny gives her the granny stare.
Cut to later that night. We see Goldie lying in bed, a pony doll lying next to her on the pillow. Her granny lies sleeping on another bed across the room, snoring. But Goldie isn’t sleeping. Quietly, disobediently, Goldie lights the candle, pulls out The Princess, and begins to read.
The next morning the foals all sit out on the green grass, listening to their teacher, Miss Magic Star. She is a flighty-looking unicorn, whose slim muzzle and large glasses give her an unbalanced appearance, and she walks with curvy lopsided steps and her head leaning to the side, which makes it look like she’s always one half-step away from falling over. Nonetheless she looks happy and motherly as she speaks to all the foals.
“After they left the cave and saw that the snow was melting, the leaders of all three tribes and their assistants agreed to build a new city here, the capital of the new country they named Equestria. You foals are the first generation of ponies to grow up here, and learn what it means to be an Equestrian pony. And learning is what life is all about. You learn for as long as you live. We tell stories to learn from them. Those fairytales your parents tell you aren’t just for fun. They’re to teach you about the world. We learn so that we can do better. Everything in the world has something to teach us. Now, my little ponies, who can tell me the name of this town?”
A skinny unicorn filly with a long wavy mane raises a hoof. “Dream Valley!”
“That’s right, Willow Breeze. And what’s outside of Dream Valley?”
“The Wild Forest!”
That’s right! And do you know what lives in the Wild Forest?”
“Plants?”
“Animals.”
“Witches!”
“Monsters!”
The teacher nods. “And what are monsters?”
“Dangerous!” “Scary!” “Mean!”
Magic Star nods. “Yes, that’s all true. But they’re more than that. Ponies learn from looking at the world around us. ‘Monsters’ is what we call things we don’t understand. The word monster comes from the old Ponish word monere, which means to teach. In stories the monster is never just a monster. It’s there to teach a lesson.”
Goldie lies slumped on the grass, with her pony doll on her back, bored out of her mind. “I agree that teachers are monsters.”
The teacher gives her a disappointed look. Then, as soon as the teacher looks away, somepony throws a pebble at the back of Goldie’s head.
Goldie turned back to glare at the two fillies sitting behind her, a unicorn and a pegasus, whose faux-innocent faces and the way they dodge the teacher’s attention instantly tells us that they are the playground bullies giving her a hard time. These are Silver Scale and Starcatcher.
After the lesson ends we see Goldie and Willow Breeze walking together. The unicorn filly is slender, her long mane falling down to either side of her head. She seems delicate and cautious, and Goldie seems blunt and stocky compared to her.
When the grownups aren’t making them work, every chance they get to weasel away from their chores, all the foals roam around the green outskirts of Dream Valley, a spot with uneven ground near the edge of the Wild Forest where nopony has begun to build yet. The foals are there now, posturing on a rocky green hillock like a gang, dominating the space with an implicit air of menace to anypony else who would pass by, and Silver Scale and Starcatcher are on top.
Willow looks anxious as they draw near. “Let’s go play someplace else.”
Goldie looks at the crowd with frustration. It’s clear this isn’t a new situation for her, and after being chased off too many times she’s sick of it. “Nuh uh.”
“They’re gonna take our toys again…”
“Aren’t you tired of getting pushed around? I’m gonna do what I want.”
Goldie keeps walking, head held high, and it isn’t long before Starcatcher flies over and drops down on the grass right in front of her. “Hup! You know the rules. This is Silver Scale’s patch. You wanna run here, you have to pay the toll.”
Soon Silver Scale follows, and the rest of the foals behind her to back them up.
“Here,” Goldie says, proffering her doll. Willow Breeze gawps at the sight, but Goldie seems unbothered to give it up. “We wanna join your band. You can have my doll if you’ll let us join. What do you say?”
“Why are you asking her?” Silver Scale asks sharply, and steps in front of her friend. “This is my band.”
Goldie turns to look at Silver Scale instead, slightly jolted, like this was a surprise to her. “Oh, hi Silver Scale. Of course you are. You’re the sharpest filly in Dream Valley, of course everypony wants to be in your band.”
“Uh huh,” Silver Scale says.
“Besides, I’m sure what Starcatcher said about you last night can’t be right. There’s no way a cool pony like you cries at night cuz you’re scared of the dark.”
“She said what?”
Starcatcher suddenly looks stung. “That’s a lie!”
Goldie looks at Starcatcher with naive confusion. “Huh? But I could have sworn I heard you say that when you talked to Dazzle. You know, when you two were alone behind the grain storage after sunset on moonsday?”
Clearly she did, and the filly clams up, embarrassed. The colt in question is there as well, and he too glances sideways, suddenly uncomfortable with where this is going, and begins to take a few steps back. The other foals are now no longer backing the bullies, but watching the drama unfold.
“You know what, you’re right, I must be mistaken,” Goldie continues. “I thought I heard Catcher say he could do much better than you, but you two are such good friends, you’d never talk about each other like that.”
Silver Scale is furious, indignant, and giving her friend a death glare.
Goldie turns to Starcatcher. “I’m sure it also isn’t true that Silver Scale doesn’t think you’re brave, Starcatcher. Don’t listen to what ponies say.”
Now Starcatcher is the hurt one, and looks accusingly at Silver Scale, who is shocked at this allegation. “You don’t think I’m brave?”
“No I don’t,” Silver Scale says ambiguously, before correcting herself. “I mean, yes I do!”
“Because I’m the bravest pony in all of Dream Valley!”
Goldie grins, all friendly. “Of course you are! In fact, just to prove it to her, you should do what all the bravest ponies do. Go into the Wild Forest and hunt for treasure.”
The other foals gasp at this suggestion, all looking to Starcatcher to see how she reacts. She is clearly scared at this thought, and trying not to look like it.
“A brave pony like you isn’t scared of the witches,” Goldie says aloud, then whispers so that only Starcatcher can hear: “Unless of course Silver Scale is right about you.”
The two friends now both look agitated and suspicious of each other, both furious at how the other has insulted them, both feeling the need to stand up for themselves in front of the others, but also both clearly lying.
Silver Scale: “That’s crazy talk. Nopony goes into the Wild Forest.”
Goldie: “Oooh, she doesn’t think you’re brave enough.”
Starcatcher: “You think I’m scared?!”
Silver Scale: “This is stupid!”
Goldie: “She thinks you’re scared and stupid?!”
Starcatcher: “Take it back!”
Silver Scale: “Take back what you said to Dazzle! Or do it then, and show us how brave you are! I dare you!”
Starcatcher chokes, and says nothing, flapping her wings and hovering a pony height above her friend as they glare at each other.
“Well gosh, I guess she was right then,” Goldie says innocently. “Guess you’re scared the witches are gonna get ya.”
Starcatcher: “I aint scared!”
Silver Scale: “You betrayed me!”
The two fillies’ anger at each other reaches a breaking point and they both reject each other, turning away with tears of rage and bitterness, Silver Scale stomping on the ground as Starcatcher flies off.
The other foals watch the show in astonishment, their leaders broken apart and reduced to tears. None of them have ever seen anything like it before, and confusion and awkwardness spreads.
Silver Scale turns back to the crowd, but now they all look unsure at the sight of her. A crack has appeared in the armor. Some of them whisper between each other. One of them doubtfully says that she thought Silver Scale could stare down anypony.
Willow Breeze looks at Goldie with horrified astonishment. “How did you do that??”
Goldie, looking smug, doesn’t answer. She bends down and picks up her doll from the ground, where it had fallen in the commotion. She addresses the foals.
“Those two have been telling you what to do all this time, but they’re just a pair of noponies like anypony else. Aren’t y’all tired of them taking all the best toys and telling everypony what to do? Follow me instead, and there’ll be toys and games for everypony and we’ll have the best time ever!”
Silver Scale stands looking sorry and ruffled to the side, suddenly lost for words. One by one the foals turn from her, and look to Goldie to see what will do next, as the filly smirks and stands proud in her triumph.
The next few scenes are interspersed with montage showing the flock of foals following Goldie as their leader. She is full of confidence as she commands them, and they hang on her every word as she leads them on a campaign across town like a marauding army.
In the montage Dream Valley is presented with a bird’s eye view, showing the landmarks and different parts of town like a map, with the foals moving from place to place and setting their flag in each location: Honey Briar, Sweetwater Creek, Lookout Hill, Baker’s Row, the Hostel, the fruit orchards and grain fields and the scattered plots of buildings as ponies build their homes, and in the center of the valley the big public square with the Fire of Friendship, beside Clover the Clever’s tower and Princess Platinum’s not-really-a-royal palace.
As the day goes on Goldie looks increasingly confident, satisfied, and wickedly gleeful. Meanwhile, Willow Breeze seems increasingly unsure with what her friend is doing.
United, the foals feel powerful and brave. At their head, Goldie commands them as if she knows what she’s doing, and they follow her as if they think so too.
Brief scene One. In the daytime teams of ponies forage for fruits and berries in the relatively safe woods near town, to feed the growing town while they work on growing farming fields and orchards. Smart Cookie manages the effort, keeping track of where everypony goes and how much they collect, gathered in woven wicker baskets.
One of the foragers deposits a full basket with the rest. “That’s another ponyweight.”
Smart Cookie: “Great work. We’ll put these in cold storage and dry ‘em, they should last us all year.”
The foals hide in the bushes while Smart Cookie writes down their haul, staring hungrily at the great bounty, clearly not loving the idea of these delicious fresh fruits instead being dried and tasteless. Willow Breeze’s mouth waters as she stares at the colorful fruits.
At Goldie’s signal a pegasus foal soars out and snatches Smart Cookie’s hat from her head, and zooms off in the other direction.
“Hey! Give that back!” Smart Cookie shouts, and runs after the pegasus. While she’s gone the other foals grab their prize, filling their bags with sweet berries from the baskets and running off in triumph before she comes back.
Brief Scene Two. We are back on the foals’ roaming grounds, where the gang is celebrating and growing in number as even more of the town’s foals join them.
“We brought all our toys together like you said,” one of the foals says, placing her stuffed animal toy into a big pile along with an array of other toys: wooden blocks and animals, balls and simple puppets, even a few checkered boards with playing pieces.
Goldie sits on a stump like a throne, accepting the tributes that are brought to her. “This is a good start. But we can get more. Come with me!”
We cut to them sneaking by the wall of a house and looking in a window. Inside a pegasus mare sits whittling a piece of wood with a knife held in her mouth. On a rack by the wall is her old armor: this is Private Pansy, formerly an ill-suited soldier, and the rest of the room is filled with carved wooden toys.
Pansy finishes carving the figure of a pony, and puts it down in a beautiful wooden dollhouse she’s clearly made herself: Dream Castle. All the foals look at it with desperate longing.
Pansy looks at the display with satisfaction and then leaves the room to attend to some other task, humming a melody to herself.
When she returns a minute later her face freezes in shock as the dollhouse is gone.
Brief Scene Three. Back on the green, Goldie sits regally atop her stump-throne as the center of attention, while around her foals feast on berries, play with their toys, and generally revel in their victories. The other foals praise her glorious leadership and cheer her name, and Goldie eagerly soaks up their adulation.
Willow Breeze is at her side, but looks increasingly unsure and worried about her friend.
“Are you sure this is okay?” the unicorn filly asks Goldie. “This feels wrong.”
“It all went well! And everypony’s having the best time ever. How can it be wrong?”
“Miss Magic Star told us to be nice to each other. And definitely not to just take things from ponies.”
Goldie rolls her eyes. “Yeah, well. Miss Magic Star isn’t the only teacher out there, you know.”
The pegasus filly who snatched Smart Cookie’s hat, her mouth stained with berry-juice, asks, “What are we gonna do next?”
Goldie looks resplendently, ambitiously smug at this question.
We cut to another spot in town. Not far from the central square where the Fire of Friendship burns is Princess Platinum’s home, a small cottage that pretends to be a royal palace. The interior is bright and colorful, decorated with shiny metal conversation pieces and jewels. Goldie, Willow, and a few other foals sneak inside.
“This definitely doesn’t feel right,” Willow says, looking around nervously.
“It’s not like she uses it anymore,” Goldie says.
While Willow stands by the door and keeps watch, Goldie and the foals search the cottage. They look in Princess Platinum’s closet, her drawers, and a wooden chest that looks like a treasure chest. Goldie pulls out a thick folded cape from the chest with her teeth, and under it she finds what she’s looking for: Princess Platinum’s amethyst-studded platinum crown.
She puts it on, adjusting it to the back of her head so it doesn’t fall down her face, and stands tall and proud like a warrior princess while the other foals ooh and ah.
Brief Scene Four. We cut to the middle of town, where ponies are complaining about the sudden wave of disturbances. No-one knows who is responsible, but everypony is annoyed and complaining to the six founders.
Smart Cookie, her hat rumpled: “And when I turned back a whole basket of sweet berries was gone!”
Clover the Clever: “I know this is his fault somehow.”
Commander Hurricane: “He hasn’t done anything. He’s been in town all day ordering his affairs, and nopony else followed him.”
Clover the Clever: “We’ll see about that.”
We cut away to Macavallo, who is indeed being visible and uncontroversial in town. He sees the gang of foals pass by, led by Goldie wearing the crown, and she sees him.
The other foals run off to their next target. Macavallo glances around and notes that Hurricane (who is not subtle) is not watching him at this moment, and he approaches Goldie.
“You seem to be in high spirits.”
Goldie beams. “Am I! Your book is spot on, mister mackie. I’m the queen of all the foals in Dream Valley now!”
“Fascinating. After all, ponies are always the same. Perhaps playgrounds and palaces are not all that different. But just so you know, taking command is only the first challenge. Staying in command is the second, and that is a constant struggle.”
Goldie looks at him like he’s just teased her with a secret. “What do you mean?”
“There are always other ponies who want to take command from you. If you wish to stay in power you must be prepared to do whatever it takes. Look out for challenges to your authority, and overcome them. Well, I must be going. I wish you good fortune in your endeavors.”
“Yeah… bye,” Goldie says, her face and tone of voice telling us that she’s already wondering which of her followers might want to betray her.
We cut to a new scene. We are on the outskirts of Dream Valley, and for the first time we get a good look at the nature that lies just outside the town.
While the nature of Ponyville in FiM was bright, inviting, all open spaces and strong colors, here it is old and untamed. The clouds are less cartoonish and less friendly, a little more organic and wild, and the forest outside the town glitters with translucent fog. Thick roots wind through the grass, forming little steps and paths between trees with rough bark. The landscape is fairytale-like, Kittelsenian.
Goldie leads the foals along the path to a place where a river cuts through the forest. The water has carved out a deep gorge, and it flows swiftly down below them. Her expression is colder now, and she looks back at her followers with thinly-veiled suspicion.
There is a brief flashback to her reading the book in bed the night before, and we hear Macavallo speak in voiceover:
“It can be said of all creatures that they are ungrateful, fickle, liars and deceivers. While you benefit them they will love you, and promise you anything. But when you need their help you will find few who stand by your side.
“So it is safer to be feared than loved, and it is necessary for a leader who wishes to maintain her position to be able to learn not to be good.”
Goldie jumps up on a rock and faces her followers, looking every bit the princess with her crown, above them, with the grandeur and mystery of the wild forest behind her, and starts to speak.
“We’ve done some great things today. And we’re gonna do a lot more. Dream Valley is gonna be our kingdom, the kingdom of foals, and the whole Wild Forest is gonna be our playground!”
The gang of foals hangs on her every word and stomp their hooves on the ground with applause.
“You know, you’re really lucky to be here today. Everypony who joins up later is gonna wish they were here for this. Cuz you’re gonna have all the best toys and all the best games. And best of all will be my knights. For my first decree as your princess I declare that first dibs on everything will go to my knights, the strongest and the bravest ponies in all of Dream Valley. So…”
To the audience at home her words have an obvious sinister undertone. She looks over her new army with an eye to seeing who is going to betray her. “Everypony who wants to be a knight step forward.”
Practically everypony is excited. But five foals immediately volunteer, the biggest and the strongest, and also a small colt who kicks at the dirt with his hooves like a racer digging his heels in.
Goldie smirks. This is going according to plan. “Now, not just anypony will do. If you want to join you have to pass the test.” Goldie points to the narrowest point over the river gorge. “Jump across the gorge. No wings allowed.”
The foals look unsure. The fall is high, and the river below is swift. But the gorge is narrow.
Goldie looked at the largest colt, an earth pony. She knew that he liked the attention, and hated it when ponies looked down on him. She has a sly smile. “Lancer, you’re brave. Surely you can jump the gorge?”
Lancer is clearly unsure, but, put on the spot, tries to look brave as he steps up towards the side of the gorge. Willow Breeze, who has accompanied Goldie all day in spite of her doubts, tries once again to talk to her friend. “Goldie, are you sure about this? That’s dangerous.”
Goldie glances at her friend, unhappy about this undermining of her authority. She answers in a mutter out the side of her mouth. “Just go along. I know what I’m doing.”
Willow is unconvinced. “What’s gotten into you? Can’t we just go back to town and play normal?”
Goldie hesitates, thinking. But her face hardens. “The ends justify the means,” she says to herself, and then to Lancer, “Do it.”
The colt huffs and snorts, lowers his snout, and charges up the path towards the gorge, and jumps.
His front hooves set down on the grass on the far side, but his hind hooves don’t. He scrabbles for purchase. And the ground under his legs crumbles, and he falls into the gorge.
Goldie looks on in horror as all the foals gasp and run forward to look down. “Look!” One foal points, and we see the body of the colt in the water, carried by the current, face down, his ankle twisted.
“What do we do?” one of the foals, frightened, asks Goldie. Goldie stared with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open in shock. “Goldie, you’re the queen! What do we do?”
“Somepony get a grownup!” one of the foals shouts as they run down the slope towards the water and drag Lancer out. They carry the injured colt back along the path while the pegasus foal flies ahead, yelling for help. On the outskirts of Dream Valley Clover the Clever appears, along with Commander Hurricane. “Go get the doctor!” Clover the Clever says, and Hurricane zooms off.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” Willow Breeze says, and looks around. “Goldie? Goldie!”
Goldie is already running away.
A moment of silence as we cut to a new scene.
Macavallo is sitting in the room he has arranged to stay in for the time being, in one of the shelter houses where ponies stay until their homes are done being built. His room is sparse, and he sits at a simple table and is reading a thick gilded volume when Goldie finds him.
She throws his book down on the table in front of him. “I read your book.”
He glances at it calmly. “Finished already? Thank you for returning it.”
Goldie doesn’t move. “I did just what it said.”
“Did it work?”
“Yeah, it worked! I was on top of everypony. Everypony listened to every word I said, did everything I told them to. And then to stay on top I told a colt to jump across the gorge, and he fell in!”
Macavallo remains calm. “Oh. Well. If you want to hold on to power then you can’t let yourself be bothered by who gets hurt along the way.”
Goldie blanches in horror. “That… that’s horrible!”
“Well, if you feel that way then you probably won’t hold on to power for long.”
“Your book is horrible! It just hurts ponies!”
“That’s as may be. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”
“You made me paranoid! I looked at my friends, and all I could think about was whether they were going to turn on me. You made me do horrible things! You—you…”
Macavallo still has not looked up from his book. He speaks impassively. “I never told you to do anything.”
“You gave me your book! It told me everything!”
“I only told you how to take power. What you did with it was always up to you.”
He continues speaking coldly while Goldie is quiet.
“I only told you the truth. I showed you how the world works, and how ponies think. See how easy it was?” He turns his head to look at her with a cold, contemptuous gaze. “I’ve heard about your pleasant little community. Your great dream, your new start. It won’t last. You saw how easy it was to break. Sooner or later somepony is going to put on a crown. Sooner or later somepony always does. Your nice little ways and your friendly conversation and your meeting ponies with understanding and forgiveness isn’t going to stop them. It’s just going to make it easier.”
“You make me sick. I don’t want your stupid book anymore.”
“That’s fine. But somepony else will. There are always ponies who want power.”
“Take your stupid advice and go jump in the gorge!”
Goldie runs out. Macavallo stays where he is, not even bothering to turn around to watch her leave.
We cut to a new scene. A door opens on Clover the Clever’s study in her little wizard tower, and Clover herself walks in. She has been working hard and is tired. “Let me know if anypony sees Goldie,” she says to a pony outside the door, and closes it.
She goes and sits down by her desk, by the window looking out over Dream Valley. Her study is not a huge library, although she’d clearly like it to be. Books are hard to come by still, and her room is instead filled only with a few of them, as well as the souvenirs she was able to bring with her when the unicorns left the old kingdom, and what they’ve made since. Gifts from her friends, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns alike. Clover the Clever sits down and sighs.
There is a sound behind her, and Clover turns to see Goldie entering the room. The filly looks miserable. Both of them are silent, the filly clearly overwrought with emotion, the adult considering the situation before speaking.
Clover breaks the silence. “The doctor says that the colt is going to be fine. He just needs to rest his leg for a while.” She keeps a carefully neutral face as she looks at the filly, an adult trying to keep calm dealing with a child in a difficult situation. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
Goldie’s voice is tired. “I talked to Macavallo. And he made me do horrible things. ‘Cept he didn’t make me. I did horrible things all on my own and I didn’t even notice. And now I feel awful.”
A flash of anger passes over Clover the Clever’s face, but which she quickly suppresses. She looks at Goldie, and the anger turns to sadness, maybe a sense that she has failed. The filly looks pained, expecting punishment.
Clover steps close and sits down on the floor beside her. “We were all fooled by him.”
Goldie looks up at Clover the Clever, and it’s clear that the unicorn is revisiting old and painful memories. “Him, and other ponies like him. Ponies who thought that making others give in was the same as being right. That making ponies believe you was the same as telling the truth… The old ponies in Dream Valley have already seen where those ideas lead. But that’s the thing. There are always new ponies, and more chances to make all the same mistakes. So we have to keep learning the same lessons, again and again. You just… weren’t prepared.”
Goldie scrapes the floor with her hoof, fidgeting. “I read his book. It was full of evil ideas and evil thoughts.”
Clover grimaces. “Books are like that sometimes. I’m supposed to say that books are never bad, and they can’t make anypony do anything… But sometimes they do anyway. I’m supposed to be nice, and say that you have to forgive ponies who hurt you. But it can be very difficult. Especially when the ponies you’re supposed to forgive are just going to hurt you again if you give them the chance. The world is a complicated place, Goldie. Ponies like him… He makes it even more complicated, or maybe he just makes us notice it’s complicated where we didn’t before. He shows us a road to terrible things, and he makes that road look so smooth and easy to walk.”
Goldie looks up with tears in her eyes, feeling horrible about what happened. “Am… Am I a bad pony? I did all those things. It wasn’t him, not really. It was me.”
Clover is there with her, taking her feelings seriously. “We’re all just ponies, Goldie. Temptation, and fear of losing what we have, can make any of us do terrible things. It’s all too easy to talk yourself into doing something you shouldn’t. Us big ponies all know that already. That’s why we’re here. That’s what Dream Valley is all about. We’re trying to be better. We’re trying to build a new kind of community, someplace where ponies don’t think like him. Where things won’t go wrong like they did in the bad old days… I don’t think you’re a bad pony for listening to him, Goldie. When you saw where those ideas take you, you said no. You learned from it. As my old teacher used to say, I don’t think we can ask for more than that.”
“You really think so?”
“I mean. You should still apologize to that colt. And give back all the stuff you stole.”
“Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I’m gonna do that.”
Cut to a new scene. The evening sun drifts over the distant hills, and the theme music plays softly. The sunlight shines in Clover’s window on her desk, where she is writing a letter. She attaches it to a homing pigeon, and sends it flying out the window. In voiceover she reads it aloud.
Dear teacher,
It seems like bad ideas never really go away, and like seeds they can blossom again even after a long winter. Old wounds can reopen even after a long time. It seems like we ponies have to keep learning the same lessons again and again.
Today a filly here learned a hard lesson, about ponies and about herself. Power corrupts, and even the sweetest filly can talk herself into doing things she’ll regret. Sometimes bad ideas sound very eloquent, spoken by learned ponies and written in gilded books, and reason itself can deceive us by making us blind to the real cost. And once you start down that road it can be hard to turn away from it.
Thankfully, sometimes we see our mistakes before they grow too big, and we can fix them before it’s too late.
Dream Valley is growing every week, and we’re still learning how to get along and work together. But I think we’re getting the hang of it.
Your student,
Clover the Clever.
While the letter is read to us we see Goldie meet the ponies she manipulated and robbed, her body language and expressions clearly contrite and apologetic. She speaks to Lancer, lying in bed with his injured leg, and his gloomy expression softens. She speaks to Silver Scale and Starcatcher. She returns Platinum’s crown, and the Dream Castle dollhouse. And she speaks to Willow Breeze, and the two of them hug and make up.
Lastly we see Star Swirl the Bearded read the letter, the pigeon sitting on his back. He wears a wistful smile, satisfied in his student’s abilities. He rolls the letter up, and it vanishes under his robe.
He looks ahead to the mountain peaks that rise before him, and the snow-covered path leading upwards. Far behind him ponies work at building a place of community and friendship.
He walks on silently along the path, into the wilderness and the cold.
