Chaos and Disharmony
Equestria is once again under dire threat, it seems, and I have an important meeting to get to. Still, I have a little time yet, and since you’re here, I think I might entertain myself by letting you in on a few secrets you might find interesting.
The dire threat? Oh, don’t worry about that. It happens a lot more than you think, and you haven’t died from any of the previous ones, have you? No, obviously not, but I’m sure you’re asking yourself why you should believe me.
You shouldn’t.
Better you take what I have to say and mull it over for a while. Truth is such rare thing, after all, that you would be unwise to either assume it or dismiss it. Still, consider this: I may eschew the wings and a horn, but I am what you have come to know as a princess, or alicorn, or even sometimes god. That last one always makes me smile the most. It’s such a silly thing. What does it even mean? If you mean power, then who isn’t a god? Everypony has something that they are the best at, and everypony has the power to do extraordinary things and change the lives of everypony around them, for better or worse. It’s just a matter of courage and intent.
We’re different, of course, each of us part of a system that keeps Equestria on track. We don’t always know exactly where we’re on track to, but sometimes that’s part of the fun. It’s the fact that we all have our own ways of doing things that keeps the balance, and stops any one mistake from being big enough to threaten everything. I like to live out the lives of otherwise regular ponies. I get to experience what it is to be young, old, weak, powerful, loved, hated. Others, Celestia being the most obvious, prefer a more fixed approach. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and sometimes we’ll trade styles simply for a change of pace.
Take Cadence, for example. She’s lived so many lives already, but now she has taken to the spotlight to see how it feels. She’s taken a mate and wants foals, eager to bask in as much love as any one pony can; we all deserve it from time to time, and times have not always been as nice as this. Celestia is quite the opposite, and for a long while she was the golden child; she could do no wrong in our eyes. Now, we’re not quite so sure, but I need to start that story at the beginning.
Luna and Celestia were always so close, and it’s an odd thing among our kind for good reason. Celestia’s way is inscrutable even to us. You may think she’s the bringer of order, but let me tell you something incontestable: Discord had nothing on her when it comes to pure chaos. He’s one of us too, but he rebelled. He’s a second-rate knock off who thinks that chaos is simply pandering to his every insane whim. Still, if it weren’t for Luna, he would have succeeded in annihilating everything we had built. She stood by her sister and raised the Elements of Harmony against one of her own, and won.
I know, that’s a hard thing to swallow, isn’t it? Celestia as the champion of chaos? Consider this:
Celestia never worries about what happens tomorrow. She never tells a pony what to do. She’s just there. She just accepts whatever happens as the natural order of things and makes her own choices with an almost disturbing lack of concern. She didn’t raise a hoof against Discord, nor did she do anything to warn Twilight Sparkle before Luna’s return.
Luna, bless her soul, cannot replicate that. To be honest, none of us can, but that’s why we focus on our own way, content to add our knowledge and experience to the effort to keep Equestria free and peaceful. For a while, we were in awe of what they had accomplished together, but in the end, it only demonstrated why their bond is so dangerous. I don’t need to tell you what happened when Luna’s jealously consumed her. I know the story says that Celestia banished her sister, but that’s a convenient lie told by me, a dozen lifetimes ago. I banished Luna, because Celestia could not raise a hoof against her sister. We grew soft, and trusted too much in Celestia’s all-encompassing grace. It cost us more than we ever dreamed and we don’t plan on repeating that mistake.
Naturally, I made sure I was in the right place to help her return to us, and we’re overjoyed that she chose to come back. Pay attention: she chose to come back, and Discord did not. Perhaps one day he can be returned to the fold, but I have my doubts; he simply hates Celestia too much, even if he won’t admit it. For now, we must stand back and watch again, hoping that Luna can make it work this time. We cannot fix a mistake by making another one, so we remain in hiding, except Cadence. She chose her current form to coincide with Luna’s release. I hope she learns quickly enough to make a difference this time, because I remain unconvinced that Celestia has learned her lesson.
It is no coincidence, of course, that Cadence happened to be Twilight Sparkle’s foal-sitter, and has married her brother. Not that there is anything untoward about the marriage; I think they have proved beyond all doubt that their love is genuine. Neither of us was entirely satisfied with how things were coming to pass. Maybe we just lack Celestia’s courage, or maybe she’s blinded by her own success, but we wanted to be in place to make sure things panned out just right. I don’t quite buy into the ‘let the seeds fall where they may’ attitude, but the truth is, when it came to Discord’s return, she was right once again. She just sat back and let things work themselves out, trusting in the good of ponies’ hearts to come through. I, however, was completely taken in and almost lost everything. Again, that’s why we each do things our own way.
Still, here we all are. Luna’s looking better, Cadence is blissfully happy, Celestia is… well, I’d say she’s still commanding an army of zombie ponies fawning over her every whim, but that’s just me. Look at what it’s done to Twilight. She ran afoul of her parents rather high expectations to begin with, and being around Celestia drove her to be more neurotic than ever. That’s why Celestia keeps her at a distance; Twilight needs to start taking her strength from her friends in order to undo the damage my oh-so-well-intentioned sister has wrought upon her. Not just any friends, of course, very particular, very carefully selected friends.
That’s my hoof at work, by the way. Twilight’s friends are all as broken and neurotic as she is. They may have used the Elements of Harmony, but that doesn’t mean what you may think it does. Applejack is not the Element of Honesty because she’s honest; it’s because she is burdened by the fear of what being dishonest might mean. She was lied to, a lot, and now she can’t stand to lie to others, but she does anyway. Rarity gives time and energy to her friends because she craves attention. Rainbow Dash wouldn’t know real loyalty if it bit her flank, but she is consumed by the need to validate herself, and so needs to be seen to support her friends. Fluttershy was mistreated, and the idea of mistreating any living thing in turn terrifies her, so she simply can’t do it, and Pinkie Pie is so scared of being alone that she can’t stand to see another pony feeling anything less than loved and happy and special.
They’re all running from their deepest fears, and that brings them together in a way that nothing else, even Celestia, ever could. They all need, so they all feel needed in return. How else would you find six young mares that could bond together strongly enough to wield the Elements of Harmony and free Luna? Let me simply say this: Celestia was not pleased when I caused Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom to alter the flow of events and bring these ponies together. You might find it easiest to think of it as seeing the future, but it really isn’t. It’s more of an instinct for possible outcomes, and it’s hardly a science, much to Twilight’s irritation.
Hmmm. Speaking of which, it is time that I went to meet Twilight and her friends about the aforementioned Equestria-threatening debacle. I’m sure you find yourself wondering exactly who I am, and I must confess that I may have misled you just a teensy bit. I did get six young mares to come together in friendship and harmony, but one of them may have been a lot easier than the others, and may only be ‘young’ from a certain point of view.
I don’t have a single name in the way you are used to, but right now, in this life, I play one of those six:
I’m Pinkie Pie.