Respect's a funny thing, its sweetness sour
Like lemonade without the proper mix:
It's fine at first but rankles by the hour.

Before we met, before the seed could flower,
I knew your name, had heard about your tricks.
Respect's a funny thing, its sweetness sour,

But wing to wing with you, its bonding power
Exploded through me hard as smashing bricks:
It's fine at first but rankles by the hour.

Connection blossomed, built a perfect tower,
Then crashed, the whole foundation made of sticks.
Respect's a funny thing, its sweetness sour,

Until you spit it out. I won't devour
Your phony rules with all their salty licks:
It's fine at first but rankles by the hour.

The Bolt of Bolts, you look at me and glower.
Believe me, Dash: there's nothing here to fix.
Respect's a funny thing, its sweetness sour:
It's fine at first but rankles by the hour.

Author's Notes:

The title here:

Comes from the phrase Lightning Dust shouts as she vanishes into the ionosphere at the end of "The Washouts." I watched the episode when it was broadcast, couldn't figure out what she saying, downloaded and watched the episode again from iTunes, still couldn't figure out what she was saying, then finally hunted down the transcript on the MLP Wikia.

Then when Present Perfect reviewed "Dweebs," Gilda's villanelle from earlier in this collection, and I realized that we had another villain here who needed a villanelle, the title was right there. Of course, a poem for Lightning Dust has to break the rules somehow, so I've made the one-syllable words "sour" and "hour" rhyme with the two-syllable words "flower" and "tower" and such even though they, of course, don't rhyme at all.

Oh, such a rebel I am!

Mike