By the End, Maybe Things Will Have Changed

Dear Rarity,

I worry that I've been a terrible friend! Please, let me know if I've been doing anything to anger you! I just want to get a letter from you again. I really do hope that Nifty Flight has been losing your letters. If so, I can dismiss her and get a new mailpony! Please, please write back!

Your friend,

Twilight Sparkle

The candle flickered, sending shadows dancing across the parchment. Tears still ran down Twilight's face as she rolled up the letter with such fear and desperation that it nearly tore. The frantic burst of magic illuminated her face, red and blotchy where tears had dried. Had she really disregarded her friends' needs and wellbeing so much that they refused to write to her?

A choked sob escaped her throat, and almost immediately, the door creaked open. Twilight turned, to see Celestia standing in the doorway. A horrified look crossed the white alicorn's face as she took in the scene. Blankets and quill pens strewn everywhere in a frantic search for more parchment, ink spilled on the mahogany desk by an unsteady hoof. With just a simple teleportation spell, Twilight was wrapped in an embrace warmed by magic.

"Twilight, I'm so sorry... Who told you?" So it was true. Her friends- they were no longer her friends. Ripping herself away from Celestia, Twilight made a decision.

"Let me ask you something. Why didn't YOU tell me?! Why did you let me go on believing everything was FINE?!" She sobbed. Celestia flinched away at her volume.

"I-"

"NO! No excuses! Not this time! You were always stalling me, occupying me with some "important" papers, preventing me from seeing my friends! Because of YOU, thy aren't even my friends anymore!"

Tears filled Celestia's eyes as she realized that Twilight hadn't made the right discovery, as she realized that SHE would have to tell her the truth.

"Twilight... Your friends love you very much..."

"But?" A stray tear fell from Celestia's muzzle.

"But I'm afraid you can't see them now."

"Because of my 'duties'?"

"N-no... Twilight... Your friends...."

Silence. Then, "What?"

Silence. "What happened to them?!"

Celestia stepped forward. "Twilight, you must know by now that alicorns have.... Extended... Lives..."

"...And?"

"Twilight, normal ponies do not... What may have seemed like two or three years to you has been one hundred years for them."

Twilight's eyes widened. "They aren't...? They're not.... D-de...." The purple alicorn slumped forward, eyes rolling back into her head.