At an early morning meeting of the cast and crew of My Little Pony, Lauren Faust stood at the head of the table, getting ready to discuss the plans for the next episode. Everyone had gathered promptly, and was looking toward her expectantly. For once, Ms. Faust didn’t seem overly enthusiastic, but rather, seemed kind of sad. She tapped her pile of papers against the table, kindly calling for attention.
“Good Morning everyone, I’d like to get this meeting started. Unlike other meetings, this time I would like to start by reading a letter we received yesterday. I have never seen anything like this, and I think you all deserve to hear this.” The crew sighed, expecting another piece of hate mail. Ever since the episode “The Last Roundup”, they’d been getting hate mail from people who opposed the character Derpy. Ms. Faust waited for a moment for the chatter that had sprung up to die down, and began to read the letter.
To Ms. Faust and the cast and crew of My Little Pony,
My name is Rob, and I wanted to share a story with you. Yesterday, my best friend passed away. But I know that My Little Pony brought joy to his final days, and I want to share that story with you.
My friend’s name was Lucas, and he had cancer. If the doctors had caught it earlier, he might have had a chance, but as it was, they didn’t and when they did, it was already too late, having metastasized throughout his body. When he was admitted to the hospital, he had less than a month to live. He was angry at the world, he was only 24, and dying. He ended up pushing away every friend he had, and almost pushed me away, but I had been his best friend since childhood, and I wasn’t about to let him die alone.
I visited him every day in the hospital. He was always depressed and angry, and our visits usually didn’t end all that well, but still I went. It wasn’t until after a couple of weeks had gone by that I came up with an idea of how to cheer him up. I had been watching My Little Pony from the beginning and I realized how much it cheered me up when I was sad, and so I set myself on a mission. I made phone calls to the hospital before I came to visit that day, and asked if they had a dvd player we could use. They did, and so I brought over a couple of episodes that I had in my collection. When I went that day, I told him what I was going to show him, and he was immediately opposed. He kept calling it a little girls show, and even called me a fag for watching it. I pushed on, not dropping the subject until he relented and agreed to watch the first two episodes with me.
I put the disk in and hit play, and the wonderful Ponies of Equestria came to life on the screen. We watched both episodes in silence, and after they had ended, we sat quietly for a while, the only sound the music from the DVD. Lucas spoke first, asking if we could watch more. He had a sheepish grin on his face, and I couldn’t help but tear up. It was the first time that I had seen him smile since he’d been admitted to the hospital.
The rest of that week went by in a similar fashion, me coming over to spend time with him, watching episodes of the show, and usually talking about the shows afterwards, and the different ponies and which ones were our favorites. I don’t know why, but he latched on to a pony in the background that was a fan favorite, Derpy Hooves. I liked her, but at that time I wouldn’t call her my favorite. He latched on to the show as if it could save his life. He knew all the characters, and after the fourth day, asked me if I could leave some of the DVDs with him so he could watch them some more.
That weekend was the weekend that The Last Roundup aired. I stole a copy off the internet and burned it to a DVD so I could show it to him. I know I shouldn’t have stolen it, but I desperately wanted to see him happy. That episode, as you know, was the one where Derpy spoke. I knew how much he loved her, and I thought it would definitely bring a smile to his face.
When I got to the hospital that day, he looked more upset than ever. That day he’d gotten the official news from the doctors that he had less than a week left to live. I wanted to cry for him. I tried to put on a brave face and offered to put on the new episode to help him take his mind off things. He agreed, and we watched it. He was excited when Derpy spoke, and it did bring a huge smile to his face. I didn’t really watch the episode that much, I kept looking over at Lucas and wondering why this had to happen to him.
Monday, he passed away. I was called by the hospital, because I was listed as his next of kin. (He has no living relatives worth mentioning) I went to collect his things, and get the information for the funeral. One of the nurses who’d been paying attention to us stopped me before I entered the room. She told me that when he passed, he’d been watching an episode of My little pony. More specifically, one scene on repeat. I asked her which and she said she didn’t know, but the disk was still set the way he’d left it, and they’d just hit stop. I thanked her and went into the room.
I slowly gathered his things, and my DVDs that had been scattered. Before I took the disk out of the DVD player, I decided to hit play, my curiosity piqued. The scene started and Fluttershy started singing her Lullaby. I broke at that moment. I sat on the bed and cried like I was a child. I didn’t have to ask anyone if it had been painless now, and I didn’t worry for Lucas, because Fluttershy had really sung him to sleep, so it had to have been gentle.
That’s the story of my best friend, and how the wonderful world of Equestria brought a smile and comfort to him in his final hours.
I really just wanted to say thank you for creating such a wonderful show. I know that you probably never thought that it could comfort someone so much when you started it, but it did, and I know it will continue to comfort me as I go through this rough time.
So thank you. Just thanks…
Rob
Ms. Faust stood at the front of the room, silent tears flowing down her face. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. It was silent for quite a while after she’d finished reading the letter, and the silence was only broken by Fluttershy’s voice actor. “You know….maybe we could………”
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Several weeks after sending his letter to Hasbro, Rob was in his apartment, finishing the last remnants of his friends will. It was Saturday morning, and that meant it was almost time for a new My Little Pony episode. As he thought of the show, and his friend, he realized that he was glad Lucas hadn’t lived long enough to see the fights about Derpy. So many people were raising a fuss that Hasbro hadn’t put her in an episode in quite some time. There were even rumors that they were going to get rid of her completely. Lucas had adored that pony as if she had been alive, and seeing the anger that her appearance caused would have upset him. The time for the show had arrived, and he sat down on a well worn couch to watch it.
It was a good episode he thought as Twilight finished her letter to Celestia. He reached for the remote, to turn the volume down for the credits, when he saw it. Well, rather heard it. The faint strains of the background music for Fluttershy’s lullaby began to play and he turned his head to stare at the T.V. White words on an all black screen spelled out “Dedicated to the memory of Lucas Biggs”. Rob simply stared. He couldn’t even think. His eyes began tearing up, and that’s when it happened. Both Fluttershy and Derpy walked on screen. Derpy’s eyes were uncharacteristically un-derped. “We’ll miss you,” Derpy said as Fluttershy looked sad.
Rob couldn’t take it. He sat there as the credits rolled, and cried.
