Good night Twilight Sparkle

by ty500600

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad, Other, Tragedy, Slice of Life, Human, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 4450

A hospital ridden brony gets a penpal

A terminally ill brony is living out his last days in a hospital bed, consoled only by hopes and dreams. One night, looking out his window, he makes a desperate wish, something he hopes can make his last of his days painless. Friendship IS magic, no matter the distance.

Published 2012-09-02 10:44:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-02 10:44:03 UTC

Good night Twilight Sparkle

Good night Twilight Sparkle

Good Night, Twilight Sparkle
By: Ty500600
Edited and preread by:
Athanix
Golden Arbiter
C Note
SennenRyu
Ice
Dancing Dead

"Love is in bloom! You're starting a life and making room for us!" The finale sounded before cutting to silence. I sat up somewhat in my bed, smiling inside my tired body. That was probably the happiest ending I could have asked for. The screen on the TV reverted back to the cover of the box art, leaving me staring at the vibrant colored ponies, imagining what it must be like to live among these happy and carefree peoples.

I sat hard in thought, creating a little pony version of myself to roam around Equestria and join Twilight and friends in their shenanigans. A unicorn, I would have to be a unicorn, that way I could try to impress Twilight! Not to mention my fascination with magic even before I came across the show. I remember when I was really young I would try to impress the neighbor kids by doing cheap card tricks and things like that. I was never very good at it though, but I still tried my best.

However, with me being recently laid up in the hospital due to a bad case of cancer, I've had a decent amount of time to add a few more tricks to my repertoire. Pretty sure I could make my family cat disappear, although that might be a result from me chucking it out of the window. I hate the stupid creature, more of a dog guy personally.

The beeping of the heart monitor drew me away from my rampaging thoughts. I thought that the constant beeping would have just kind of faded into the background noise, but it hadn't. The damned thing constantly drones on and on, even breaking into my dreams when I sleep, that is to say IF I sleep. The thought of being terminally ill with pancreatic cancer tends to leave you thinking late into the hours of the night, but I've gotten past the depression stage, and I have to thank My Little Pony for that one. The smiling and cheery faces pulled me right through the worst of it. Although now I'm kind of in the bargaining stage of loss or tragedy or whatever its called.

All I really want now is something really magical to happen, something to make me smile and feel warm one last time. The doctors say I won't live till the new season comes out, so I can't wait for that, and being that I only have my mom, and don't get me wrong, I love my mom with all my heart, I've seen enough of her to last me a lifetime... on second thought that sounds really bad. I felt so ashamed at that thought that a tear formed in my eye. I didn't mean it like that, I just meant I want something else other than my mom visiting every day.

I glanced around the room, trying to take my mind off of it. The bland drapes did little to help that, and the ever whining heart monitor didn't help much either. I share the room with another cancer patient, but he was busy snoring away the rest of his life, not helping my case. My eyes rested back onto the netflix screen boasting the colored ponies, my woes fading somewhat when I saw my dream friends, Twilight's smile sending warmth down my spine. A satisfied sigh escaped my lungs, fogging up slightly from the cold. A sudden gust of wind drew my eyes towards the window, I watched the drapes billow slowly in the wind. The fogged breath reminded me of Spike sending a message for Twilight. "Heh, if only..." I mumbled out loud, letting the thought die off with silence.

It was then, in the silence of window staring, that I saw a flash of light streak across the sky before vanishing into the night. I thought quietly to myself, wondering what to wish for. It was then did my heart lump with sadness, crushing my own wish before it could escape. I had never been very pessimistic, although cancer might have changed that a bit. Although it still didn't stop me from writing a little note and whipping out the box of matches that the hospital had left for candles and proceed to light the note on fire and toss it out into the frigid night. For the hell of it, I thought before rolling over and killing the light.

I awoke blinking heavily into the sunlit room I had grown so used to, yet something felt off. It felt warm. What with it being in the middle of January, I should have been shivering my butt off, yet the breeze coming in the window felt nice. It was right then that a nurse walked in.

"Rise and shine! It's almost fifty outside, a total change of pace from the sub-freezing weather, eh?" She asked over-cheerfully, trying too hard to seem like she cared.

"Yeah, nice," I grumbled nonchalantly. "Any mail?"

It was about then that she realized that I didn't give a damn about her charade, so she dropped it, thank god. "Na, doubt anyone would write to you anyway," she mocked.

I smirked, "That how you feel when all your ex's never text ya back?"

She shot me a dirty look before storming out of the room. Pleased with at least a small victory in this hospital, I rolled in my bed and closed my eyes, trying to snag a couple more minutes of shut eye before enjoying my wonderfully confined room in which I could go absolutely nowhere.

I had just shut my eyes before they were immediately wrenched open by the sound of what seemed to be a hurricane forming in my room. The wind had formed a small wind tunnel near the window, blowing snow and dead leaves and garbage through it. I leaned over and slammed the thing down as hard as I could, which to passers by probably sounded like a feather hitting a pillow, but screw them, I was weak from cancer dammit.

The maelstrom of wind must have alerted to the nurse standing outside who came in and saw the mess from the tornado. "The hell happened?" She asked, bewildered.

"I dunno, Hurricane Katrina part two?" I said sarcastically. She gave me another dirty look before setting out picking up the trash. It was then did she pause for a moment, looking at a rolled up piece of paper.

"This yours?" She asked, uninterested.

"Yes, the yellow, old newspaper is totally mine and not some hobo's blanket that blew in through the window," I said accompanying the worlds largest eye roll.

"Well, its got your name on it," she growled before tossing it onto my bedside stand. She finished picking up the trash and dumped it into the garbage and left again, leaving me with coma guy and the roll of paper.

Well I doubt he will be a good conversation. So I grabbed the paper and unrolled it. I scanned the paper, noting the pen ink and fine handwriting. What I saw at the bottom, however, made my jaw drop. Engraved at the bottom in black ink was Yours Truly, Twilight Sparkle.

I was so dumbfounded that I didn't believe it. It must've been that bitch nurse jerking me around or something, but how would she have known about the wish? Or what I wrote for that matter, I burned the letter. My eyes scanned the parchment in front of me, now noting the little seal at the bottom and how that the paper was not paper, it was real parchment. My eyes shot to the top and began to read.

Dear Sir,

I do not believe that we have been acquainted yet, and it also does not help that after writing your grammatically deficient letter, you did not think to include a signature of any kind. If you would feel so kind, the next letter you send to me should include a name so that I may get to know you on first name terms, since you already seem to know my full name.

On another note, well on this same piece of paper, but on a different topic, how did you manage to send a letter through Spike? Normally only letters from the Princess would arrive via dragon, otherwise the mail comes through Ditzy. And what do you mean, you made a wish? Is it your birthday or something? Otherwise I can't really think of a time where a wish would be applicable, especially considering wishes aren't actually real, just hopes based on luck and magic.

Please get back to me soon so that we can hold an intelligent and informative conversation.

Yours Truly,
Twilight Sparkle

I sat there, confused about many things, one being whether to be insulted or not by Twilight's contempt towards my grammar. I know I never passed any high end English classes or anything, but come on, it couldn't have been that bad. The other thing was HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE? How did a pony from a cartoon reply to a letter I lit on fire and tossed out a window? Something had to be going on, so I figured I'd test it. I grabbed a pen and paper and started writing, hopefully with a bit more intelligence behind it this time.

Dear Twilight,

I apologize for not including a name. You should be able to read it down at the bottom of the page. I am a cancer patient at a hospital in the United States of America on the planet Earth. Last night I had seen a shooting star and wished that I could talk to you and your friends one time before I pass away. If this is real and I'm not dreaming or dead, then my wish came true. And please, excuse my grammar, I never did make it out of college before landing in the hospital. I hope that I am not dreaming and that you reply as quick as you can.

I folded the letter, lit it on fire, and tossed it out of the window just like I did last night. Now I had to wait, and it was the longest wait I had ever endured. After being in a hospital bed with nothing to do for several months, you would think that waiting would have been something I had become used to, but this was different. This wait was horrible, and it must have been three minutes before the window was wrenched open and a roll of parchment landed in my lap. My heart lept into my throat and the heartbeat monitor showed a slight elevation in pulse.

I gingerly open the scroll and started reading;

Dear Sir,

For one, you forgot your name again, I'll expect it with your next letter, that is assuming that you send more. As for where you are from, I have never heard of such a place, nor have I heard your planet's name mentioned before. If that is so then you must be an alien‽ Oh I have so many questions for you, but before that happens, I am so sorry to hear about your cancer. Let me assure you that you are not dead, as for cancer, we have that in Equestria as well, but normally it claims the lives of the elderly, and if your society is anything like mine, then most college students are fairly young. How old are you? What kind of cancer is it? What do you look like? How far did you get into college? How do you control the magic needed to send and receive letters from such great distances? WHAT IS YOUR NAME‽

Yours Truly,
Twilight Sparkle

Yup, I'm dead. That fact didn't stop me from grabbing another piece of paper to
start writing again. My heart was pounding now, the heart rate monitor rated my pulse at around 112. I needed to calm down otherwise the doctors might rush in here and ruin it.

Dear Twilight,

Sorry about the name, I was just so eager to get a message out to you to see if it was real or not, that I just forgot. As for your list-o-questions, I'll do my best to answer them. I am 21, it is pancreatic cancer, I'm assuming you mean my species, so, I am a human; A bipedal creature with almost no hair except on the head with two arms. I have brown hair and blue eyes, weight about 140 lbs but that is because of the cancer, I'm also 6' 1". I got to my junior year in college and as for magic, humans do not control magic, so your guess is as good as mine as to how this is possible. And my name is Jayce.

So for the next couple of days, that's how my days had been passed. By passing letters, like I was back in elementary school or something. Well, I suppose it wasn't quite like elementary, since I was sending letters by lighting them on fire and my pen pal was a pony from either a different dimension or planet, neither of us were quite sure which it was. Also, I had opted out on telling her about how I had learned of her, since saying, "I saw you on a TV show meant for little girls," didn't seem like the smartest thing to do.

I had told Twilight just about all of my life story, and I don't know if she was very good at hiding it, or she genuinely cared, she stayed interested through all of it, taking particular note of my school life. Having told her about college, I could almost feel both the heightened interest and disgust in the college system. And although I think she may have secretly enjoyed my in depth description of some of the parties I went to, she acted like she didn't.

Dear Jayce,

The act of partying as you say, sounds like an absolute waste of valuable study time for the practice of theories and many other educational lessons that would have benefited you throughout your lifetime much more than drinking and, how did you put it? Getting cold with the babies? I think it was? Nothing sounds as entertaining as getting intoxicated with a group of friends and doing what you call shenanigans. Or wait, I may have written that wrong... Either way, study is the way to go, not partying.

Yours Truly,
Twilight Sparkle

I had to laugh a bit at the miss print she had. You know? Thinking about it deeply, Twilight does seem like the kind of lady to go get drunk, even though she is a book worm/egg head type of girl. Best not have her try it though, god knows what might happen if she did. On second thought it would probably be hilarious, what with her amazing analysis skills, she'd be trying to describe every little detail, more so if she was drunk.

A small laugh escaped from my mouth before being followed by an immense pain. My chest started heaving and my breath was heavily strained. My whole body felt like it was on fire, killing me from the inside. I struggled to grasp a piece of paper and write out to Twilight, "In pain, talk to you later." That was to no avail and the pain became so immense that my vision began to fog. I could feel myself blacking out, but not before I shrieked out in fear.

I awoke very groggily and still in a heavy amount of pain. I slowly and grudgingly opened my eyes, hoping to find a new letter from Twilight resting near my bed. There was nothing except a brand new IV drip lodged in my arm. Great, another one. I loathed the thought having more plastic hooked up to me, what with the other IVs and the heart rate monitor already occupying their own fair share of my body.

I looked around the room, not daring to move more than my head for fear of what cosmic anvils may land upon my body if I did. There was a small crumpled piece of paper sitting on the bedside table. I pulled it open, hoping to see a friendly letter from Twilight, but disappointingly was the letter I had attempted to write before being pulled into unconsciousness.

I crumpled the ball in my weak hand and made an attempt to toss it into the trash although I assumed it would have seemed more like a spastic flail to anyone who would have been watching. Being that I'm white, the ball landed so far away from the trash can it would have embarrassed coma guy. He probably could have gotten closer right now than I could have. I grabbed a new sheet and began writing.

Dear Twilight,

I'm sorry I haven't written you in I don't know how long. After your last letter, I had come under a huge wave of pain and passed out. I don't know how long I've been out, but based on how I smell, its been at least two days. Although it may just be this smelly hospital, I don't know. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to how long I've been out? That would be great.

Thanks Twily,
Jayce.

My head began to throb again, not nearly as bad as last time, but enough to make me shut my eyes and try to hide away from the sun like a World of Warcraft player. After jerking the blanket over my head and wedging my eyes shut, I fell into a restless sleep, dreaming of the pain I had endured not long ago, but on a lighter note, of Twilight.

I awoke after a small nap to see, to my dismay, that there was no letter from Twilight yet. She might be doing something with her friends. Deciding that I had nothing better to do with myself, I grabbed the remote and flicked the television on and selected MLP from the drop down list of shows I could watch. I went all the way to the top of the list and hit play. Since I have no idea how long I'm gonna be in here... I'll just watch every episode again. And why not? Nothing much in this world cheered me up like the show did, so I figured it would be a good way to pass the time until Twilight got back to me. Also maybe she might be doing something similar to one of the episodes.

It was around the end of episode three did the magic flame come rocketing into my window, warming both my outside and inside. I scrambled for the letter, almost knocking over the bedside lamp in the process. The scroll was still warm from its travels and felt refreshing to the touch. The heart rate monitor kicked in again, beeping faster than normal. Gotta relax, don't need the doc coming in. I took a deep breath and slowly unrolled the scroll.

Dear Jayce,

I'm so glad you're okay! I was so scared that, maybe, you had, I don't know, moved away from me. I wouldn't want that to ever happen. You're one of the most interesting pen pals I've ever had. I don't want you to go, and because of that, I've been doing a lot of research in the week that you haven't replied....

Holy shit, I've been out for a week? That's a bit disturbing.

... What I've been researching is ways to possibly heal your cancer. Based on what you have told me about your society and it's advanced technologies, it might be possible to use some techniques that would normally require magic to help slow your cancer. The consist of...

I ran my eyes straight past the list of "home remedies" to the end.

... and rubbing maple logs against a silver spoon. Otherwise, if none of those work, I've also been looking into ways to bring you here to place you in a magic stasis that can slow the cancer growth until we find a way to reverse it. Although, unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to bring you to my world since I still don't know how your letters are even getting to me. I could say just magic but that doesn't suit me right. Oh, one more thing, the solutions I gave you to try in your world will probably only work on the early stages of cancer, so I hope that you're not too far along. Anyway, I missed talking to you Jayce, reply to me soon.

Love,
Twilight.

Love Twilight? Interesting... And I suppose the fact that she is trying to get me into her world might be interesting too. I honestly don't know what excites me more, her saying "Love?" Or her saying that she is trying to bring me to her to cure my cancer. Probably both at the same time, although I don't have high hopes for the whole bringing-me-to-Equestria type of thing, since I'm slightly larger than a piece of paper. But if she could find a way to cure my cancer, that would be awesome too. I just wish that this had happened before my cancer progressed to stage four cancer.

I suppose I should let her know about how far I am into my cancer. I again reached for the paper pad and pencil.

Dearest Twilight,
I am actually in the furthest progressions of cancer, stage four. If any of those remedies you mentioned in your last letter were meant for that, you should really let me know, otherwise, I'm eagerly awaiting your solution to cure me. Also, you were worried about me? That's so adorable Twilight! But now I'm just teasing. If you can do anything, I would be eternally grateful.

Love,
Jayce.

As I sent the letter via the strangest form of delivery I had ever seen, I felt another wave of pain hit me, although this time it was much more gradual, and made me more sleepy than anything. A huge yawn wrenched my mouth open and I started to feel sick. So sick that I puked. I had just quick enough reflexes to reach for a garbage can. Just the act of puking almost made me pass out. I decided to write another letter to Twily, just so she would know that I might be out for a while again. I pressed my arm towards the paper and began writing.

I couldn't really tell what I was writing, my body was almost on autopilot as I lulled in and out of conciseness. I fell asleep for just a moment, smashing the pencil into my falling face. I was jolted back into my state of alertness, which was the equivalent of a deaf and blind cow. I looked down, only a little bit more to go.

I struggled to bring the pencil across the last of the paper. Each letter seemed like a paragraph of writing, and each word, a story. Times like this where I wish I had a pen, it makes things so much easier. Even on my deathbed, I think about how I want a pen to write to a little pony from far away... An agonizing and violent cough shook me away from my cynical thoughts. After the fit passed, I looked down to see tiny red dots smeared on the paper. Great... I didn't have time to rewrite this, my arm was heavy, as were my eye lids. I just wanted to roll over in my bed and take a nap before finishing. A quick glance at the note spurred me on to finish, only a couple more words and a signature, then I could get that nap.

... Twilight, I'm feeling really sleepy right now, and I have a feeling that it's gonna be a while before I write you next, don't fret though, its not quite my time yet. I'll write you again once I'm feeling better, probably next week or so. I'll miss you in that small time frame, but, hey, love hurts right? Who ever thought that an adult human male could fall so much in love with a purple pony genius like yourself. Good night Twilight Sparkle.

I smiled warmly after reading it once more to myself. This will do... I strained to get the box of matches out, and struggled even harder to get the damned things to light. My eyes closed for a minute, but snapped back open at the smell of burning sulfur. I held the match against the paper, and let it float out the window. I stared after it for a moment before killing the light and rolling over in my bed, finally getting a chance to shut my eyes. A big sigh escaped my breath before I almost feel asleep.

The breeze from the still open window rolled over me gingerly, helping my way into dreamland. I felt my muscles relax and my mind was filled with pleasing thoughts, mainly the many letters Twilight and I shared. The first time she wrote me in particular was in my mind, how she insulted my grammar and my inability to add a name. The smile returned to my face, I could feel my cheeks stretching.

I was just about to fall away into a slumber when the breeze picked up slightly, disturbing the soothing wind, now turning it into more of a gust. A light illuminated space in front of my eyelids, making me scrunch my face up in discomfort. "Can't a guy get a little rest around here?" I called out hoarsely.

"Not when they forget to sign their name on a love letter," Came a familiar voice.

The gentle beeping from the patient's heart beat monitor closest to the window ceased abruptly, replaced by a wailing screech. Doctors and nurses poured into the room, knocking over the bedside table in a fruitless struggle to bring the young man back to the living world.

In the corner of the room lay a small television that had been knocked over in the rush to try and revive the patient. The screen was filled with mostly static, only occasionally flashing a moment of a show that he had been watching before he had moved on. The television let out a small last chirp of sound before befalling the same fate as its watcher, "Cause you know you're my very best friends..."