Author's Note
Thank you all for coming and reading my humble little story. I will be honest, the story my character tells is true, it is a story that happened to me. I will not be angry at you for persecuting my actions, in fact I persecute myself here. I wrote this during an emotional moment and I thought I would keep it to myself. I sent this to a few friends and they all seemed to like it. I am now more than ever very welcome to any meaningful criticism from anybody. Be honest here. I wrote this so my pain could seep from my soul and into a word format, I never really planned to upload this. I sent it to some friends and they liked it, and Miya, I hope you enjoy this as much as you thought you would. Also a special thanks to Dan, a good friend who helped me out here by editing this story. To everybody else, I appreciate your opinions and I will listen to them as carefully as I can, but I will try not to let any too negative effect me. Thank you again for reading this and have a beautiful day.
Learning to move on
Twilight Sparkle had never felt such an emotional pain as she had when attending Fluttershy’s funeral. All of her other friends had already passed except for Rarity, Pinkie and a human who had dropped into her world a year ago. Rainbow Dash had been trying to recapture her youth and crashed, only this time she did not get up. Applejack had overworked herself on her farm. Fluttershy so far was the only one to pass away from old age. Both Fluttershy and Rarity had aged very well, keeping their beauty and even transforming it a bit as the years wore on them. Twilight had no idea how Pinkie had lived so long and stayed so energetic at the same time. Both Pinkie and Rarity would be passing away. Twilight was beginning to see the flaw in her immortality, and decided what she would do next. Twilight remembered the human who had fallen into her world, he was smart and when he needed to be he could be more philosophical than any poet. She called for Spike, who hurried into the room, obviously wishing to comfort her, but she gave him no time as she raised a hoof and spoke.
“Spike, take a letter”
Celestia had finished the letter at least half an hour ago, Twilight’s wish had been fulfilled, now it was down to a waiting game as her guards looked for the human. He had mentioned a desire to see what knowledge they had on science and magic. The only part the guards would find hard would be locating him in the massive labyrinth of a library. Within the hour the human was standing before her, his pose respectful and his eyes questioning. The letter was covered in a golden magic before it was slowly floated down to him, he took it in hand and read it to himself. His eyes darkened and tears welled up as he read the news. He looked back up and nodded, Celestia nodding back, and the human followed the guards to her personal chariot.
Soon the chariot landed and Kaleb stepped out, wishing for a second that the chariot had landed further away from Twilight’s castle so he could decide what he would say. He had consoled many friends in the past, but never because of something like this. It was not until he had opened the door and walked down the hallway to face the door to the map room that he realized he had no advice to give, aside from moving on. Kaleb could hear the sobs from here, he recognized how Pinkie and Rarity would soon pass and he knew he had to say something to help the first friend he made in this world. Kaleb pushed the doors open and looked around, he spotted Twilight sitting on her throne and crying, but Spike was nowhere to be seen. Kaleb assumed she must have sent him away. Kaleb stepped in and closed the doors behind him. Kaleb walked around the table and dropped to his knees next to Twilight. He knew Twilight noticed him, but she seemed too grief stricken to speak. Kaleb swallowed his anxiety and spoke up.
“Are you all right, Princess?”
Her response was nearly instant. “No, I am not all right! Don’t call me “princess”, either. You are my friend”
Kaleb nodded and spoke again.
“Tell me Twilight, what specifically about this has made you sad”
Her face had taken a slightly angry look when he had called her princess, but the grief had returned.
“I am losing my friends and I can’t do anything about it”
Kaleb nodded in understanding, somehow the heavy emotion within Twilight had gotten the best answer out the first time. Kaleb sighed as a certain memory floated to the surface of his mind, this memory however did give him somewhere to start.
“I have never had a friend die Twilight, but I have lost friends. If you are alright with it Twilight, I will share the story with you.”
Twilight remained silent, her only response to his question was to nod her head.
Kaleb spoke again, but this time his voice was somber and filled with a strange mix of emotions, a mix that Twilight could not specifically define.
“A long time ago in my world, when I was a child, or by your reasoning, a foal, I became friends with another boy my age, whose name was Thomas. Now in my world, we have different races, I am white, and he was black, and this is what eventually ruined our friendship. For a long period of time in history, the white men of America stole black men and women from Africa and brought them across seas to be slaves, and this is a history few have forgotten, even hundreds of years later. Only because of my society having a heightened understanding was I allowed to befriend Thomas. Back during those days of slavery the white men had created a word, more of a derogatory slang for their black slaves based of a word in another language meaning ‘Black’ They used this word like a curse, and because of this, the word is now considered almost an obscenity in my society. I am not here to give you a history lesson, so let me get to my point. The last time I remember talking to Thomas as a friend was on the playground of our school, and for some reason we started arguing, the fight escalated and nearly resulted in me and Thomas physically fighting each other, but instead of hitting him, I used that derogatory word. I knew what it meant even then, and I didn’t regret it until it came out and I saw the hurt in his eyes. I had just used a horrible word on my best friend. I had looked him in the eyes and said it without caring how it would affect him, and when I said it I wanted to hurt him as bad as I could, and I did. I could see it in his eyes, a mixture of wanting to hurt me, and wanting to cry. He turned and ran off, that was the last conversation I had had with him and our friendship was ruined. I have never forgiven myself for that and I have never used that word on a black man again, but this is not the moral of my story, Twilight. My friend didn’t die, in fact, the pain would have been less on me if he had died. What I did to him was way out of line, and because of my words, spoken in anger, I got to go to class with him for the rest of my school life, and everyday I saw that look of broken trust in his eyes. Thomas didn’t die, but our friendship did, and I was forced by fate to sit with him in every class and live with the knowledge that I had crossed a line I had no right to cross. He made other friends and laughed with them away from me, and the pain grew. But even that is not my moral, my moral is for you to learn to move on, Twilight. I moved on from Thomas knowing I would never be able to talk to him again, I still regret saying those words, but I have learned that I need to move on from these things.”
Twilight listened to his whole story, her grief remained and even more came into her heart, the new grief was different, though, because it was for Kaleb. She looked up into his eyes as he stared off into the corner of the room, his vision focusing on nothing. In his eyes she could see a deep sadness mixed with a sort of self-hatred. The story had all been true, that much was obvious.
‘Thank you Kaleb, I feel a bit better. I doubt I will accept what is happening today or even within a year, but your words have actually helped me.”
Kaleb nodded slowly. “Anything for a friend, Twilight, but just promise me one thing before I leave.”
She looked at him for a minute before nodding.
“Find a way to cope and move on. I could have prevented myself from hurting Thomas the way I did, but I didn’t. You can do nothing for your friends, Twilight, and while those words may sound discouraging, don’t let them stop you from making new friends. Since Thomas, I have made a great many friends, many of whom I would trust with my life. Life moves on; just don’t let it leave without you. The longer you let these emotions control you, the harder they will be to overcome.”
A deep sadness still clung to Twilight’s heart like a weight, but she was beginning to understand. She held eye contact with him before answering.
“I promise, Kaleb. Now go back to the library. I should be fine now.”
Kaleb could see that she did not mean those words, but she would need to be left alone to think things over. Kaleb rose from his spot and walked across the room, stopping at the other end of the table. Kaleb reached into his shirt and lifted out a necklace on a small chain. Kaleb lifted it over his head and looked at it in his hand. A chain barely long enough to fit over his head held the seed from an abnormally large peach. Years ago Kaleb and Thomas had ventured onto a farmer’s land, finding a peach tree. They had climbed the tree in childish merriment before Thomas had found a massive peach at least three times as big as the others. The peach had been a freak of nature, one in a million, and they had shared it together under the stars. Thomas had been like his brother, Kaleb’s mother even joked about getting a second son. Thomas had given him the pit of the peach as a present, having tied a simple weak string tied through a sloppy hole near the top of it. Since then, the string had broken and had been replaced by a stronger sort of chain, a chain often used for dog-tags. Kaleb looked long and hard at the symbol of friendship between him and a man who would never speak to him again. Kaleb had worn it all this time to be a sort of constant reminder, but finally, he had met somebody with a better use for it. Kaleb then spoke up.
“This peach pit is all I have left to remember Thomas by. It was a sign of friendship given to me by him. All these years I have used it as a reminder of what I did to him, and a reminder to keep my tongue in check around my friends. It didn’t always work, but it was there. On a much higher level, this necklace has been a sign of a friendship long gone, and now, I wish to give it to you. To show that I will always be here for you if you need me.”
Kaleb set the necklace on the map table and walked to the door, glancing only once back at Twilight, whose eyes remained focused on the necklace. Without another look back, Kaleb stepped out of the room and closed the door, Spike running up with a worried look on his face. Spike was now a bit bigger, not quite a teen, but he had definitely grown since Kaleb had last seen him.
“Is she going to be okay, Kaleb?”
Kaleb nodded. “Leave her be Spike, she needs to think about things”
Spike seemed to want to hug Twilight right then and there, but he heeded Kaleb’s advice and walked towards his room.
Kaleb stepped out of the castle and took a deep breath in, the cool air of the afternoon filled his lungs and soothed his mind. Kaleb would stay true to his promise and help Twilight next time one of her friends passed away. Kaleb would have much to think about and he probably would not be able to read for a while. He shook his head and stepped into the chariot, the pegasus guards taking flight.
Twilight had not moved since Kaleb left, but rather sat in silence and thought on what he had said. She had come to many realizations in that time, and now she felt ready to send one of the first friendship reports she had sent in a very long time. It was time to get all of this out of her system and move on. She called for Spike who was understandably surprised when Twilight asked him to take a letter; nonetheless he retrieved a quill and parchment and began to write as Twilight spoke.
Celestia sat on her throne, a letter appearing in a wisp of green smoke. Celestia caught the letter with her magic and began to read, a smile slowly spreading across her muzzle.
"Dear Princess Celestia
Today I have learned that while friendship is a gift, it does not always last forever. I may never find it easy, and the loss of a friend may stick with me, but I have learned that I must find a way to move on. This experience will not prevent me from making friends however, that would be giving up, and I can’t give up on my duties to Equestria as Princess of Friendship. I may never get Rainbow Dash back, or Applejack, or even Fluttershy, and we both know that nobody can replace Pinkie. Despite this I will endeavor to make more friends so I can learn more on the Magic of Friendship. Many years ago, I asked myself what friendship could be, now I believe I have an answer. Friendship is a gift, something you never truly understand the magnitude of until you lose it. Friendship is like a glue holding all ponies together, despite the cold bite of losing such a gift. Friendship is what makes me who I am, I may be smart, I may love reading, and I may be good with magic on a scale most unicorns could only dream of, but even I realize now that what truly defined me was my friends. All of my friends made me, and I made them, on a scale none of us recognized. I end this letter with a summary of my thoughts. A friend is a gift, something to be cherished. You and your friends may fight, but in the end you can benefit from it, even you and that friend part ways.
Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle”
