The Pony Everypony Thinks They Know
Lyra Heartstrings
We are the pony, the gracious and harmonious pony, equum sapiens nobilis, stood astride the earth, athwart the mountain, atop the sky. We are the fountain builders, the planters, the raisers of the sun and moon. We are the pinnacle, the core of harmony, the life of the world, the providers, the healers, the philosophers, the singers, the poets, the travellers, the ponies everypony wants to be.
All these things are we, and none at all.
Ponies are not, by their nature, particularly good at humility. Though we are a naturally social species, we are very good at excluding others based on the simple belief that we are better than they are in some way. This is not a flaw in and of itself. We are a herd. We keep out predators. Ponies survived for most of our time on this earth through the formation of tightly knit groups that excluded anything perceived as a threat to the well-being of that group. This can become a great strength, or a great weakness.
In some ways we are better than others; everypony has a special talent, a special part of their identity, proudly borne upon their flank, that few can truthfully claim to share with them. In that one single endeavour, that pony is better than nearly any other pony she may meet.
The first and greatest thing a practitioner of the Still Way must learn is to accept this, with humility and thankfulness; we are better in that one, single, special way. To hide or deny it is to hide from our own self. This is not to say we should be prideful, but rather be humble, for true humility acknowledges strength and weakness, and does not seek to minimise either state.
The second, and equally greatest thing we learn is to know our true self in every way, and to be truly humbled by it. We seek to know our flaws, to understand our weaknesses, and to turn them to our advantage; to know our strengths and how they can be turned against us; to know our extent and our limitations, and to know where we begin and where we end. Only when the pony knows herself inside and out can she practice the Still Way.
This is truth: most ponies do not know themselves. We think we do. We believe that we know how others see us, and we think we know how we see them, but we walk though our days with our eyes closed, both to the deep and terrible flaws we carry, and the true strengths we share.