Twilight Sparkle stood on her castle balcony, looking down at all the ponies below her.
She sighed heavily, unable to enjoy the beautiful scenery around her.
On her face was an expression that was across between bored, and sad.
Or was it more like...listlessness.
She couldn't believe it. Why would Celestia tell her that now of all times? She didn't know what to do anymore.
So, she continued to stare blankly out at the scene below her, watching it pass by like time, slipping by entirely, all without her notice.
She was brought out of her musings by a voice from behind her.
"Hi, Twilight!"
She didn't even bother to turn around, lifting a hoof and lazily waving it back and forth in greeting.
"Hi, Spike."
"That bad, huh?" Spike said, putting a hand on Twilight's shoulder.
"You have no idea." Twilight looked over her shoulder and gave him a small smile, turning back to watch the crowd.
"You wanna talk about it?" He asked, squeezing her shoulder gently.
"Nope." Was all she said
"I could...write to the princess?" Spike suggested.
"We just left from Celestia's, spike. If I wanted to vent to her I would have stayed. I just...need time. This is all just...a lot to take in all at once." Twilight huffed and laid her head in her hooves, which had until recently been hanging loosely off the edge of the balcony.
"Well, why don't you write about it? We don't have to send it anywhere. Just write it down. Get it off your chest, ya know?" Spike suggested once more, one claw raised to make his point.
"That's...a great idea, Spike. If i can't handle this internally, I'll just write down my feelings on paper! Thank you!" She turned and hugged him tight, galloping off to get a paper and pencil.
"Hi there! My name is Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia's former student, element of magic, and current Princess of Friendship. I am also an alicorn. My special talent is magic and i am, and forever will be, a magical scholar."
"But...recently, I've learned that, beyond all of that, I am something much more important."
"You see, i...am a Conduit."
"Did you ever wonder why Alicorns are so powerful? Why they seem to simply radiate strength, and have an overwhelming presence about them at all times?"
"It is because they carry within them all the magic of Equestria, and then some."
"More specifically, they are the only ones who possesss the means to access all of the magic in equestria, to use however they please, at any point in time, should they deem it necessary."
"How is this possible, you ask?"
"Simple. We ourselves, are those means. We are the keys to that magic. Our horns allow us to access much more magic than a normal unicorn."
"But that is common knowledge. So, what exactly makes me different?"
"Not only does my Alicorn status allow me to access all of the magic in Equestria at any time, but i am a Conduit, one of the many doors to that magic."
"If I, or any of us for that matter, were to die, or lose our status as princess by negative means, much like Chrysalis did when she became a queen through the use of dark magic, equestria's magic would be forcibly locked away, gone for a hundred years. And if we all were to die, then... I don't even want to think of the catastrophic consequences that would set in motion."
"Unless someone found a pony or ponies worthy of taking our place, Equestria would be without magic forever."
"That is why we are trained at a young age to be able to properly use our magic and protect ourselves should something happen."
"Celestia could see my potential, and chose me to be her personal student, all those years ago, all for this reason."
"However, she could not always be there for me, and so she placed someone with me who could look after me while continuing my training and getting me ready for the day when this would all be revealed to me."
"Her name was Cadence, Celestia's neice and current princess of love. She introduced herself as my babysitter, but she was really a senior Conduit, there to teach me everything she could about our work."
"We keep the balance. We are the nails that hold the magical realm in place. Without us, a good portion of equestrians would be without a way of life. Not that they coudnt learn to adapt, but thats not the point."
"We are here to act as a go between for this world's magic. It flows through us, and then out again."
"If anyone were to take us, they could easily use our powers against the world, should they so choose.
"And the worst thing is...I'd already known all of this. I had been told this before, and yet I couldn't remember anything about it until now."
"When I asked Celestia about it, she told me that she wiped my memory of those things. She said she didn't want me to grow up without a childhood, that she couldn't let what I truly was stop me from living the life I would soon have."
"I wasn't mad. After all, I understood. For a child, learning something like that can shape their lives from that point forward. And depending on what they grow up around, it can do real damage to their lives as they grow older."
"Basically, they grow up too fast. They don't talk to others. They put their mission ahead of themselves at what is and will forever be the point in one's life when all they should care about is themselves and their health. Celestia wanted me to have a normal childhood. And so, bye- bye memories."
"Believe it or not, now that I think about it, I should probably thank her. My life could've turned out a lot differently if it wasn't for her. I probably wouldn't have met my friends at all. And so, I thank you, Celestia, for everything."
"Absolutely...everything."
