//------------------------------//
// Author's comment:  What are these poems about? 
// Story: Three Poems for Discord 
// by Slipshod Extension 
//------------------------------//

I think it's generally looked down upon for a writer to explain their own work, but no one else is going to analyze these pieces.  Thus, in the hopes that it may be interesting or useful to someone, somewhere, someday, I'll briefly discuss what I was trying to do with each of these poems.  I claim no monopoly on interpretation, and if you get something else out of these, that's perfectly valid!  If you don't want my interpretation to color yours, it's probably best not to read this.

The conceit of the cycle is that it provides three different perspectives on Discord, each empathizing with him more than the last.

"A Nightmare Night Rhyme" is meant to offer a sort of folkloric, naive interpretation--the way ponies would talk about Discord when (if) he was just a half-remembered figure of legend.  Accordingly, he's presented as a great evil, fundamentally opposed to the Elements of Harmony, and ultimately treacherous.  The poem takes the form of a dare, which foals might repeat to one another around a campfire (not unlike real-world ghost stories about how to summon demons, etc.).  Stanzas 2-6 explain that the way to summon him is by directly contravening the five substantive Elements of Harmony (lie, against honesty; be cruel, against kindness; share misery, against laughter; indulge jealousy, against generosity; ignore obligations, against loyalty).  Stanza 7 is just a namedrop.  The final stanza promises that, actually, summoning Discord by acting selfishly will bring you only suffering, and he will not do what you want.  At the time of writing, I had in mind that Discord could have played some role in Luna's transition into Nightmare Moon.  Thus, the final stanza suggests that trafficking with Discord could get one banished to the moon (and provides him an opportunity to exhibit his playfulness).

"Some Old Folks Bicker About the Entertainment" is meant to offer a perspective on Discord from someone who knows him well, but regards him as an enemy.  This is made more--perhaps fatally--obscure by the poem's inspiration by Monochromatic's The Enchanted Library.  The poem is a thus a sort of fanfic-fanfic based on that story.  In the setting of The Enchanted Library, Celestia and Luna are gone, Cadance rules, as I recall, as an intangible, isolated ghost, and Twilight Sparkle is a ghost trapped in the ruins of the Golden Oak Library.  In the story, Rarity stumbles upon the Library and comes to love the ghost Twilight.  The poem is loosely based on this scenario.  It centers on a debate between Discord and Celestia, the latter envisioned as impotently banished to the sun, about the value and meaning of the fleeting lives and loves of ponies.  Discord pretends nihilism, claiming that he is interested in other creatures only for entertainment.  Celestia argues that even this interest constitutes a (thin, cowardly) form of emotional investment, and that someone who lives a brief life full of passion has a far more meaningful existence than do the bickering immortals.  Celestia views Discord as misguided, suffering, but still ultimately an adversary.  She has an idea about why he does what he does--a desire for meaning alloyed with a deep emotional cowardice.  This drive doesn't appear in his own statement of purpose (Poem 3), but, then, he probably wouldn't recognize or admit to such feelings.

"A Snake Shaped Like Interstices" is supposed to be Discord's description of himself, his manifesto.  He argues that ponies view him as absolute evil, opposed to order (see Poem 1), but that he is actually the inevitable consequence of contradictions between and within the categorization schemes ponies use to make sense of the world.  There is no sense of disorder without a contrasting vision of order, created by thinking beings.  The poem presents a sort of origin myth, with Discord claiming that he is the spirit of a holistic world with no categorizations or divisions between anything (light, music, sun, grass, cow).  He claims that this holism was cut apart and tortured ("vivisected") by the invention of language, abstraction, and categorization schemes, and he mourns for the unnamed, holistic world that was.  Discord states that he survives only in spaces of ambiguity (when categorizations conflict or leave gaps--is this mine or yours?  Who decides what is the center and the edge of civilization?  Where does the twig end and the leaf begin?).  Thus, Discord--the breaking of order--is the consequence of order (or of the intersection between contradictory orders).  However, even in his twisted, marginal form, he is eternal, for categorizations are always changing, always conflicting with one another, and never capable of containing the full complexity of the world.  In short--he claims he is the inevitable consequence of ponies' efforts to make sense of and organize the world, the product of their hubris, not some demon from outside; and he cannot be banished so long as they continue to order and organize an infinitely complex and shifting world.  "You ponies started this fight, you created me, and I will always be with you even in your very efforts to eradicate me."  That's what I was going for, anyway.

"I Am the Very Model of a Solar Princess Alicorn" is just a bit of fun that popped into my head.  I didn't think it merited a standalone post, so I included it as a bonus.