On the Inaccuracy of Proverbs
Cadence sighed, and addressed the little bundle under the blanket.
"What did they say, Twilight?"
There was a silence, broken only by a few sniffles from below the embroidered stars. Cadence felt something knot unpleasantly in her gut. She was not a violent pony, never that, but the idea of someone teasing Twilight until she wept and hid herself under her blankets made something cold and ugly uncoil inside her. For a fleeting moment, she recalled how certain ancient chronicles described Celestia as 'terrible.’ Right now, Cadence felt she could be terrible, too. All too easily. But that thought fled soon enough. There were more pressing things, like trying her best to be a good foalsitter. She laid a gentle wing across the bundle, and stroked it lightly with a hoof.
"Were you hurt by the things they said?"
A face peeked from under the blankets. A tear-streaked, puffy-eyed face of a tiny unicorn filly pretending with all her might that she wasn't as upset as she was.
"There's—there's a saying about that," said Twilight, voice raw and wavering.
Cadence lifted her up gently, and let the little filly lean against her. Absentmindedly, she wiped away a tear with a wingtip.
"And what would the saying be?"
Twilight's face took on a look of extreme concentration.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones," she said in a sing-song voice, "but words are the smallest units of language capable of carrying meaning in isolation and, thus, cannot exert the four thousand neightons of force per square centimeter necessary to break pony bone."
Cadence managed to choke down a laugh. She'd bite her wings off before hurting Twilight's feelings in a time like this. Still, it took some concentration to ask her question without snickering.
"That's all true, Twilight, I’m certain, but that's not how the saying goes, is it?"
"No. Mine's better. I improved it. 'Cause--'cause, it's more accurate, I looked it all up, and I was thinking..."
"Yes, honey?"
"Sticks and stones can break my bones. That's why mom says to be careful and not climb things, and words can't break my bones, but—"
Cadence didn't say anything. She simply tried to look encouraging, and shifted her wing so it covered her charge. Twilight snuggled into the down, and for all that the little filly tried to be serious and scientific, she could feel a quivering under the sensitive feathers. Her weather-sense tried to tell her it was a storm coming. It wasn’t entirely wrong. After a while, Twilight spoke up again.
"They can't break my bones but they can hurt. The saying is stupid. So—so I made it better," said Twilight, looking up at Cadence, proud, but with fresh tears welling up in her eyes.
There was nothing Cadence could think to say, so she just scooped Twilight up in her forelegs and held her close, as she wept, and wept, and wept. She held her like that until the little filly, exhausted by tears, drifted off to sleep.
Oh....oh, Twilight...
This is just the strangest combination of feels...
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Dear me. More people respond to my zero word comment than to my dozen paragraph epics. Perhaps I should be infuriatingly concise more often!
3697165 I'll have you know, that's a "we shall see" face! (And that, 3697295, is the face of undeserved self-satisfaction)
We have seen. Now, since you asked, we shall criticize.
That was too good. That was an excellent video, and it is so very Twilight. Watch it again, but imagine Twilight standing in for that guy. Yeah. It works. I briefly wondered if you had altered the value of the N/cm² figure for pony bones. Y'know, they might be stronger.
Also, in my unending quest to be right on the internet, I declare this story insufficiently sad to warrant such baffling tagging.
Kidding again. It works.
Well, now. I have always rather enjoyed the notion of Celestia going mama-bear on those who would harm her student, but I very much LIKE this part here, indicating that Cadance is the same way.
Easter Eggs.
You rat, I don't think you told me about the origin for this story idea! Certainly I don't remember seeing that video before. You've just got a stack of these folks, don't you? CGP Grey, Vsauce, who else do you have tucked away?
Anyway, I reread this chapter since I figured if I was going to post a comment, I might as well make it a real one. Sadly, this remains my least favorite chapter in the collection—probably because of its length. I do still like it, but it fails to really invest me in what it's talking about. That said, Foalsitter Cadence and Filly Twilight tend to be pretty wonderful to read, and this is still plenty enjoyable. But I should really go re-read one of the other stories, too, when I can. (And you're getting enough wonderful comments right now that you can live with me being less than gushing, I suspect. )
Only the people who have never been at the receiving end of bullying, who are callous idiots, or most likely both, believe in the cruel lie that words can't hurt you. (The extra-special, lay-the-blame-on-the-victim version adds "unless you let them", a piece of such exquisite sneering brutality that anyone giving it as "advice" to the victim of bullying should be liberally pelted with sticks and stones.) The soul of a child is easy to hurt, and the scars of the soul linger longer than the scars of the body.
It is, frankly, the shittiest proverb on Earth and seems to exist solely to excuse adults from having to deal with the pre-psychotic little monsters known as 'bullies'.
I Twilight so much.
Yup. This is one of the most wildly inaccurate English-language sayings, so it’s always nice to see it debunked. Also see XKCD. I think it was done by Calvin and Hobbes too, but I can’t find the strip right now.
I think it's just as well that Cadence doesn't let herself be terrible.
What can an angry Celestia, element of the sun, do to you? Incinerate you to a crisp, send you to the moon?
Now imagine what the element of LOVE can do to you if she gets angry.
And that's so much worse isn't it?
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What's doubly-amusing is that this is accurate, or close enough (50 MPa was the figure I'd seen).
A moustache for GhostOfHeraclitus for not only having Twilight geek about something, but for doing the research.
Mixed feels is the only description.
3703762 My bones are reinforced with adamantium now! *mad scientists...*
3698758 I beat up the bullies.
Then they learned that, like sticks and stones, I too could break bones.
Anyway, as for words not hurting, I have only this to say: FUS RO DAH!!
I'm a fan of Vsause so I was surprised I hadn't seen that video before. I can definitely see a filly Twilight fixing proverbs though.
That moment when you are blindingly angry on behalf of a fictional unicorn.
[RCV]THAT IS FALSE! IT HAS BEEN PROVEN THAT LUNA DID, IN THE PAST, USE HER VOICE TO PUNISH NE'ER-DO-WELLLS[/RCV]
It's well written, the imagery is right, but it couldn't get me to feel anything for Twilight.
The effect, for me, was just that of watered down comedy. Charming, with a nice moment when I saw just what Twilight did, but ineffective.
Twilight is adorable and oh god why am I laughing.
(I don't remember where, but I once saw it continued with "... but words can break my heart".)
Ah yes, the sticks and stones proverb. They may not cause physical harm, but words can very much hurt. Stupid useless ass proverb.
Well, this lived up to the tags. Heartbreaking, yet also sweet and funny. Well done.
6829852 It stupid because you learned it wrong. Words can hurt, yes, but they can't damage. The point of the proverb is to remind you that however much verbal abuse you've suffered, you can still live your life as you have up till then. In fact, I'd agree it makes a very inaccurate proverb, but it makes a darn fine mantra.
The trick to not being hurt by words, is in not believing the words.
In most cases, they can be treated as you would the barking of somebody's yappy little dog, though in all fairness, a dog is at least motivated by instincts to protect its home and owner, and so is worthy of some small respect.
Insults thrown in malice by people are good only for showing what sort of flawed people they are.
And this is probably Twilight's childhood in a nutshell. The good and the bad.
HUGS FOR TWILIGHT!!