The Philosophical Substitute: Discord

by CrackedInkWell


Lesson 5: The Art of Imperfection

That Monday morning it was pouring with rain. Discord ate his doughnut lasagna as he waited in the hallway for his students to show up. Of course, students that pass by him couldn’t help but notice the Draconequus eating breakfast sideways on a wall as he tapped his talons, staring at the windows right across from him. Not only that, but those said students that went to and from couldn’t help but notice what Discord was wearing. A black robe in the Neighponiese style, complete with a part of his Mohawk being tied back into a bun.

“Why are you in a Kimoto?” Discord’s attention was turned to the ground as he found Professor Fluttershy looking up at him.

“Ah! Good morning my dear!” her friend slithered down to give her a hug. “I just found this old thing in my closet, so I thought it would be perfect for the lesson I’m teaching today.”

“Really? I didn’t know you had a Kimono.”

“Neither did I until the author decided to give me one.”

“What?”

“Point being, I have this on for the occasion of today’s lesson I have that requires the right atmosphere to get it across.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “So… I take it that you’re teaching something from Neighpon?” He nodded. “I thought you were only doing Western Equestria philosophy?”

“Says who? An idea never obeys borders. That’s why they’re ideas. If anything, I’m not paying attention to the fixed as a board syllabus and go for what these kids wanted and, more importantly, needed to learn. After all, it’s not my fault of where these lessons come from as long as they’re helpful.”

“What exactly are you going to teach then?”

Her friend gave a toothy grin. “Pottery.”

Fluttershy blinked. “I don’t understand.”

“Remind me of telling you about it tomorrow when we have our tea.” With the morning bell echoing throughout the school, the two teachers bid one another farewell as Fluttershy rushed to get to her class.

Minutes later, his morning students arrived with Yona asking: “Did someone die?”

“Pardon?” Discord asked.

“Teacher has black funerary robes. Like Yak mourning robes.”

“Oh no.” Their teacher chuckled, “Nobody has died yet. Trust me if that were the case, I’d be hunting death down until he gives my friends souls back. No, what I have on is the traditional dress in Neighpon in a time period that today’s lesson is from.”

“Neighponiese?” Ocellus looked through her copy of the syllabus. “But I don’t see any-” Before she could finish her sentence, she watched as her copy had folded itself into a paper swan in which it flew away.

“You don’t have to worry about that thing.” Discord told her. “What I have is something that is much more useful, if not fascinating as those in the East have a different approach to philosophy then this part of the world does. So come inside, I have an activity for all of you to do.”

Their teacher opened the door to his classroom. This time as they walked through, it was converted into a garden of bamboo, ponds with large orange and white fish, cherry trees, evenly raked sand, smooth rocks, nearby trees, and grass. They walked along a wooden platform that suspends them above the flora and fauna that winds and coils into the garden.

“Compared to the West such as Equestria,” Discord said, “we tend to expect to learn things from books. In the East like Neighpon, they tend to find wisdom in the most simple and unexpected sources. Take for example the philosophy that its origin came about by accident. Before I go into detail, today you all will be doing a little art assignment for this to work.”

“Really?” Smolder deadpanned. “We’re gonna be doing arts and crafts? I thought that was Professor Rarity’s job.”

“Nothing like this.” Their teacher wagged a claw. Within moments, the students found themselves at the end of the wooden trail was a round platform with simple podiums. On each of these six podiums were porcelain vases as white as clouds. Discord could tell just by the looks on their faces that they had no idea what they were for nor knew what to do with them. “For this activity, all you have to do is simply touch one of these and get a clear picture in your head of the perfect, ideal life you’ve always wanted. Such as having the perfect home, being famous, rich, in love, anything you want within reason, really. Let your imaginations paint the life you’ve always wanted.”

Silverstream the Hippogryph stared at her teacher. “Is that it?”

“That’s it. Well, for now. But go on, pick one.”

Six students looked at one another until Sandbar stepped up to one of the podiums in which he reached out a hoof to touch the cool, smooth surface. And no sooner had he touched it had the vase sprouted blue lines of patterns and shapes all along the porcelain. Before their eyes, waves twisted and crashed, a tiny portrait of Sandbar with two adult ponies plus Gallus roasted marshmallows in its flames as the sun sets. As the students got closer, they couldn’t help but notice that all four faces painted instantly were happy by the time the earth pony withdrew his hoof, thereby freezing the blue lines in place.

“Oh, I’ve got to try this!” Silverstream went to a nearby vase in which she touched it and blue lines swirled about before it settled on an image. It showed a stage in which she was in a graduation gown and Princess Twilight gave her diploma while onlookers of her friends and family were cheering her on.

Immediately after, the four other students went to their porcelain vases to which they painted with their minds. Smolder holding up the scepter of the Dragon Lord. Ocellus with her family on Hearth's Warming morning. Yona sliding down the side of a snowy mountain with her friends. And Gallus being surrounded by riches and his arm wrapped around Sandbar as they celebrated.

“Gotta admit,” the gryphon said, “this is actually really cool.”

“I can see all of you like your pots.” Discord commented as, with a snap of his paw, his students held a bowl with a golden liquid and a brush. “Now for the next part.”

“Uh, Mr. Discord?” Ocellus asked as she looked at these new materials in her hooves. “What are these for?”

“For this,” and before any of them could say or do anything without warning, Discord took away the podiums. In their shock, the students couldn’t react fast enough as they helplessly watched their vases come crashing on the wooden floor. A tremendous bang as the images of their ideal life was literally shattered into pieces.

HEY!” Smolder yelled. “What did you do that for!?”

“This is our lesson today.” Their teacher explained. “Today we are to learn from the art of Kintsugi. Loosely translates as: ‘To mend with gold.’ Yes, what I did was a bit cruel, but there is a legitimate philosophical lesson to be learned. For this, I’m giving you an assignment of using that bowl to glue back all those broken pieces together. However, and this is important, that you should have no attempt to hide the damage. All the fault lines should be visible.”

As the students gathered up the remains of the porcelain vases, Yona asks: “What learn from fixing broken pot?”

“While you all are gathering the pieces, I should explain where the idea came from. While Equestria’s renaissance was dawning, in Neighpon, the Shogun Watashi Wa Umadesu, accidentally broke his favorite tea bowl. Not wanting to have it replaced, he sends it to Equestria to have it fixed. When he finally got it back, he was horrified that it was stapled together. So, he turned to his craftponies to come up with a more elegant solution. The result did not only do they mended it but did so without trying to hide the damage and made it artistic too.”

“Uh… Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Silverstream asked as she picked up one of the broken pieces. “I don’t think many of us had fixed stuff like this before.”

“As long as you be careful and thoughtful of how you put all of these together, this will still work.”

Before long, the students began to place the bottom pieces together and glue it with the sparkling lacquer. “So why make a philosophy from broken pottery?” Sandbar inquired as he held two pieces in place.

“I’m glad you asked.” Discord replied as he slithered over and around his student. “Neighpon at this point in time already had a philosophy that was becoming popular. Compared to this side of the world where folks like yourselves value perfection, youth, and happiness that would make Starlight’s old village look like heaven, the other side sees it differently. If anything, they have a different view on what is considered beautiful. In Neighpon, the most stunning things of all are the things that are imperfect, old and melancholy. They have a phrase for this called ‘Wabi-sabi.’ In plain Equestrian, the closest (roughest) translation might be ‘Mature Melancholy.’ Mind you, it has nothing to do with being sad all the time. Rather, think of it as a grown-up way of how to behave when facing imperfection, rugged and depressing situations with grace.”

“Like what?” Yona asks.

Discord glided over to the Yak’s vase in which on the ground she had organized the original image. “Take for example what you have here. A fun day sledding down the mountain with your friends. What you have here can not only be your expectation of what it’s going to be like, but also what might happen in reality. However, life tends to throw a monkey wrench into your plans as something could be bound to go wrong. Like what if someone gets hurt? Or none of your friends could come? Or maybe an avalanche comes down to encase you in ice for future archaeologists? With such a blow, it leaves nothing of your dream except some shattered and seemingly worthless fragments.”

Smolder smirked as she prepared another piece of porcelain. “Kinda reminds me the first week at the school.”

“Tell me about it.” Gallus agreed, “We thought that we were going to a place that might be worth going to, instead we got trapped in a boring school with bad teachers, mountains of books and a bigot to lock us out.”

“C’mon, it’s not so bad.” Sandbar pointed out. “I mean, we all became friends despite what happened. And the school has gotten better too. Sure, I admit that not all the teachers are perfect, but at least it was better than what it was.” The other students agreed.

Piece by piece, each student put on a layer of the gold lacquer and carefully letting it set between the other fragments as the shape of their vases took hold. Discord couldn’t help but notice that every so often, his students would pause as they would look at the joined pieces, especially when it had the faces of friends or family that were reunited with a vein of gold. While the shape wasn’t perfect, and some had too much or too little lacquer to reconnect, or even if they had to rethink where a piece goes, much care was going into these repairs.

“Since you’re almost done, I have one last story that would tie this lesson in a nice bow. That about a hundred years after this discovery to repair pottery, a philosopher that was an advocate for wabi-sabi called Sen No Rikyu when he was traveling through southern Neighpon. He was invited to dinner where his host hoped that he would impress him with a perfectly made and expensive antique tea jar that he bought. However, Rikyu wasn’t interested in it was he was with a branch that was swaying in the breeze, that he had spent hours talking and admiring it. By the end of the meal, his host got so upset over this that he smashed the jar before going to bed. His guests, however, decided to gather up the pieces and glue them back together through Kintsugi. By the time it was fixed and seeing all the golden veins that showed, Rikyu smiled and said, ‘Now, it is magnificent.’”

“Because it was broken?” Sandbar asked, and his teacher smiled.

“Yes. Because when that jar was perfect, it was boring as there was no way to connect with it. However, once it was shattered and repaired, it was even more beautiful because of the imperfection of being broken. They never saw damaged things as something to be shunned or be set in the very back where the sun doesn’t shine, but to be put out into the open and embraced. After all, if there’s anything to be taken from this lesson, it is this: Imperfection is perfection. If you were perfect, you would have stopped. But for the simple fact that you have flaws, that you’re not that smart or physically fit, creative or could spell ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ in one go, doesn’t mean that you’re worthless. It is because you are imperfect, there’s nothing to stop to you from becoming anything you wanted to be.”

From the stunned silence, he looked around to see a dozen eyes looking at him. “Woah,” Gallus said what was on their minds, “that’s… that’s actually beautiful.”

Discord shrugged. “After all, if you guys have this much care and love for these shattered pieces, this should encourage you to respect what is damaged, scared, imperfect and vulnerable that starts with yourselves and those around you. Now, how close are you all to finishing?”

Yona was the first to put the last piece of her puzzle together. “Yak pottery is better… but this pot is best pot.” There was a sniff that was heard, and the students turned to the source, being Sandbar drying his eyes. “Pony okay?”

“Y-Yeah.” He said as he wiped the tears away. “I just… need this.”

“Why?” Gallus got up before he could put the final pieces together as he went over to him. “Was there something… oh…” the young gryphon got a look at the repaired pot, particularly at the image of the two adult ponies that were glued together. He put a comforting claw on Sandbar’s shoulder. “I get it now.”

Discord didn’t. He allowed his students to put the final pieces in place of their vases before telling them that they can keep them as a reminder of that day’s lesson. He even has them teleported to their dorm rooms.

After dismissing his class, he allowed them all to go except for Gallus that he asked to stay behind. Once the students left, it was only him and the teacher.

“Before you ask, the answer is no, you’re not in trouble.” Discord clarified. “I just wanted to ask you two questions. First being, why was Sandbar crying?”

“Oh uh…” the young gryphon rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know if I should tell ya.”

“Over what?”

“Look, as his friend, I can’t say very much. Let’s just say that Sandbar has some… family issues. Kinda like mine in a way. And before you say anything, I’m fine. If anything, I’m actually impressed that you’re going out of your way to help him in something that I couldn’t.”

“I did say that I wanted to tailor my lessons to the needs and concerns of my students. This brings to my question: Is there something you want me to teach that you’ve always wanted to know but nobody has a clear answer?”

Holding his beak in his claw, Gallus hummed in thought. “Nothing that I could think of… except…”

“Yes?” Discord leaned in closer.

“Something that has been bugging me about today’s lesson actually. While fixing these pots should teach us that we should embrace imperfection when hardship comes along. But I think you’ve forgotten to show us how. I mean, it’s one thing to expect that everything is gonna be crappy, but how do you deal with stuff that isn’t that easy to fix?”

His teacher too pondered over this. “While there are a few ways I could tackle it, I think there is someone that I can answer your question.”

“Like, you know them personally or…?”

“Yep. There is somepony that I have in mind that had to deal with hardship through all his life and wrote a great book about it. He’s actually a rather fun guy too once you get to know him.”

“That’s great.” Gallus asked, “Where is he?”

“He’s dead.”

His student frowned. “I should have seen myself walking into that one. I’m guessing is a really old guy?”

“About a couple thousand years, give or take. But what he has to say is still useful, to someone like you, for instance, he has written some advice that even you can relate.”

“That’s great but, I think I need to head to my next class.”

“Oh very well.” Discord leads his student out the door in which he tells him, “When you get to Fluttershy, tell her I said hi.”

Once his student was gone, he drew out a sword in which he cut a time portal through the floor. From the other side, there was a shout as spears were instantly pointed out.

“Prohibere! Et veniet in pace. (Stop! I come in peace.)” Discord quickly said to the ponies through the portal. “Mihi opus est ad aliquid mutuari- (I need to borrow some-)”

“O es? (Oh, are you?)” A voice questioned him from the portal. “Si rite audita recordor, vos got mihi paene interfectus est. Praeter enim dolorem esse fecistis Imperii. (If I recall, you almost got me killed. Apart from the pain that you did for the Empire.)

“Quia in una hora, commodare mihi Libellus. (Lend me your little book for one hour.)” He replied as he cautiously stretched his claw through the portal. “Pectus mihi confer mundum legere librum scriptum est in mundo quod sapientia sit, et non videtis me inspirati iterum. (Allow me to read a book is written, the wisdom that the world is inspired by and you do not see me again.)”

There was a pause. “Numquam adhuc? (Never again?)” Discord promised that would be so. To which he pulled out his claw a scroll.

“Gratias tibi. (Thank you.)” He told the ponies through the portal as he closed it.

After freezing time and plopping down into a bamboo beanbag, he kicked back as he opened the scroll past its title that had a single word: Aurelius.