Letters to a Lost World

Chapters

Prologue
Letter 2: Rainbow Dash
Letter 3: Pinkie Pie
Letter 4: Twilight Sparkle
Letter 5: Applejack
Letter 6: Sunset Shimmer
Letter 7: Fluttershy
Letter 8: Princess Twilight Sparkle
Epilogue
Letter 1: Rarity

Prologue

Sunset? Are you there? Please answer when you can.

Hey Twilight! I’m here! Sorry you couldn’t make it today. Royal business?

It’s not that. There’s a problem. A big problem. With the portal.

What? What happened?

I’m not sure. There was some kind of mechanical malfunction. Spike and I fixed it, but even after that, the portal didn’t reopen!

Oh no! Twilight! Maybe I can try from the other side?

Don’t do that! If it works on that side, but not the other, you could get stuck here!

What if I just try throwing a rock or something through?

You can try, if it works it might give me some data to work with… but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Worst-case scenario, could you just build a new machine to keep it open?

I’ll try everything I can, but right now my working hypothesis is that the problem is with the power source. I won’t be able to say exactly why it isn’t working for a while, but it seems like the malfunction happened because of the mirror itself.

How?

It pushed back against the magic that’s been keeping it open so long. It’s like it knows the connection between worlds wasn’t meant to be continuous.

Hmmmm… that’s upsetting, but not unsolvable, right? If we could find a different power source, that should be able to fix it!

That could take an incredibly long time, though, if there even is one out there!

Wait, I have an idea. Think of it like this. The mirror must have learned to understand what’s keeping it open and react to it, right? Well, all we have to do is disguise the magic somehow! If it can’t recognize it, the portal should be able to work again!

You read my mind, but finding ways to disguise that kind of magic is tricky at best. I’m assembling a team to help with the research. I’ll dedicate as much time to this as I can, but my coronation is only two moons away, and, once that happens, things will have to fall almost entirely to the team. In the meantime, though… you’re going to have to tell our friends that I can’t come back for a while.

Absolute worst-case scenario, it will just re-open at the end of the current 30-moon cycle, right?

I hope so, but I’m concerned that may not be true anymore. Undisturbed, the portal opens for a period of about a week. But we had it open for years, and I’m concerned the portal may remain closed until all that time – a week per 30-moon cycle – is “made up for.”

But that would be hundreds, maybe thousands of years! Twilight, you can’t believe that!

I truly, truly hope I’m wrong. Unfortunately, if I can’t find a way to reopen the portal before then, we won’t know for sure for another 16 moons.

Wait! What about the other portal we found? The one that leads to the Everfree Forest!

No good, sadly. You were incredibly lucky it was open when you needed it, because when we found the site where you landed, there was nothing. It must be operating on its own schedule. We’ve checked regularly, but, so far, it hasn’t opened again. Until it does, I wouldn’t have any way to know where to direct the magic to keep it open, if that portal would even respond to it.

That’s really disappointing. Though even if you could come through there, we’d have to rescue you from a deserted island to do anything.

I wish I had something more hopeful to say.

I’ll tell our friends that you can’t come through, maybe for a while. But I can’t give them that kind of doomsday news until we know more. Maybe the solution is easier than we think and you’ll have something really soon! Maybe we’re fretting over nothing!

Maybe we are. I’ll keep you posted as best I can. Believe me, I was truly excited to be there today. This is the last thing I ever wanted to happen.

I’ll be waiting for anything you can give me.

By the way, I tried throwing a rock through the portal. It bounced back.

I’m so sorry.

I know. I am too.

Hope you all are staying well. With any luck, I’ll see you again soon.

Hi, Sunset.

Twilight! How was the coronation? Hail Twilight, Ruler of Equestria!

Hah. It was a disaster, twice. I’ll tell you all about it later. But I need to talk about our, shall we say, present problem.

I’m listening.

Like I said before, I’m now going to have to take a step back from actively working on the solution. Starlight and Sunburst are providing some oversight for the research team, but I’m not feeling good about it. We’ve tried all sorts of ways to disguise the magic, but none have worked so far. We’re still not even completely confident in our hypothesis about what caused the problem.

I’ve tried looking into alternate solutions as well. Star Swirl provided me with the spell he used so many years ago to transport the sirens into your dimension. Unfortunately, while it seems to work, I’d only be able to cast it from within Equestria, and I wouldn’t have a way back. Everything I’ve tried to keep a rift open for more than 10 seconds has failed. And we know from what you’ve told me of the Friendship Games that, even if I could make one, rifts created from your side are dangerous and unstable.

It feels miserable being so close to what should be a solution, but I can’t risk becoming trapped away from my kingdom, nor can I risk the safety of your entire dimension in trying to leave it.

Of course not, Twilight. We would never ask that of you.

The good news is that, with my move to Canterlot, we were finally able to move the mirror as well, and we’ll have more ponies available to work on it consistently. But at this point, it feels like I’m just guessing blindly for possibilities. And I still have no way to know if it will reopen on its own.

Don’t give up, Twilight. It’s only been two moons. We’ll see each other again. I know we will. I have to see what you look like once you start growing Celestia-shaped.

Don’t remind me, that’s such a weird idea. I’m glad you’re still optimistic, it gives me a little more hope to know that. But I think it’s time you told your friends the whole story.

I already have.

I thought you weren’t going to, though?

They caught on that something was wrong and forced it out of me just a short while ago. As much as I hated to tell them, they deserved to know.

How did they take it?

Not well, at first. There were some tears.

Thank Celestia I gave you that stockpile of extra journals. If they want to talk to me, we can give them some.

I will. Related to that, though, we came up with an idea.

An idea?

Not for the portal, sadly. But for you. Something we can do while we wait to see where things are going.

We’re all going to write you letters.

Letters?

Not goodbye letters, strictly. We're all holding out hope. But more… appreciation letters. Things we’ve always wanted to say to you, about these past few years and everything that’s happened. We all just graduated, after all, and we’re heading into a new period in our lives too; even when we can finally restore the connection between our worlds, we’ll all be in a different place than we were the last time we met in person. We thought it could be a way to mark the occasion, I guess, especially when it’s already such a momentous time for you.

Sunset, that’s really really sweet. I’d say you don’t have to but, knowing all of you, that wouldn’t do anything to stop you.

It absolutely would not.

Heh. I have to step away right now, but rest assured I absolutely look forward to reading them. I miss all of you dearly, and even seeing kind words from you will bring me some needed comfort.

Good luck out there, Princess Twilight Sparkle. I miss you too. And you still need to tell me all about your coronation.

I will.

Letter 2: Rainbow Dash

Hey Twilight, it’s me.

Rainbow Dash, I mean. Sorry. Think I’m getting the hang of this.

Look, I’m sure everyone except the eggheads will say this, but I don’t do a whole lot of writing. I mean, that’s just time you could be spending on basically anything else! And I’m not good at the whole mushy sappy stuff that everyone else is probably doing.

Wait, you’re an egghead too, right? Crap. Pretend I didn’t say that.

Anyway, I’m okay spending a little time writing if it’s to you, at least. It’s basically just manual texting! Wait, did we ever explain texting to you? Yeah, I think we did.

It’s gonna be rough trying to teach you all about this stuff if you aren’t gonna be here anymore. I hope you can come back sometime. Not just for that, obviously, but it’s the little things, right?

I mean that’s gotta be part of why you like coming to our world, isn't it? Getting to be something different, try different things, learn all this stuff that must seem crazy to you? I mean, I totally get wanting to be human. I was a pony like you for a little bit. It was weird. I mean it was kinda fun sometimes, but not enough that I’d want to stay that way, you know? Especially not the wings. The wings I get in this world are cool, but those big weird pony wings? Ick.

But I still remember the first time I met you, out on the soccer field. You weren’t half bad for someone who’d literally never been on two legs before. But I meant it when I said the things I cared about most were your heart and determination. And you’ve got them. You’ve really, really got them.

We never got a lot of chances to hang out one-on-one, just by ourselves. But there was that one time about a year ago, last summer, when you came over and you were just really insistent on learning about human sports. I guess it was for your studies, or your teaching stuff, or something? I mean, if there’s one thing I know about Twilight Sparkles, it’s that they love to learn.

But the point is that you weren’t gonna just watch me do all the sports you wanted to see. And you knew the rest of us probably would’ve taken it easy on you if you’d asked them. Believe me, I know a lot of people think I’m too intense. But you wanted the real experience, and you knew I was gonna give it to you.

Sure, you gave up after just tennis and softball, but hey, that’s longer than basically any of my friends except Applejack (maybe Sunset) would be able to keep up with me. That and the whole “hitting you in the head with the softball twice” thing. Sorry about that.

Point is, all that heart and determination is still there in everything you do, not just stuff like breaking ancient rules of magic or something to come help us fight three evil sirens. And it’s still the thing about you that makes me admire you more than anything else about you!

So much has changed ever since I met you, because I met you. It’s crazy stuff. But it’s also awesome stuff, and I’m glad that you were there for a lot of it.

I’m kinda struggling to think of what else to write about here. (Like I said…) I’m sure there’ll be lots that comes back to me when we start chatting after this. So I’m not gonna drag this out any longer.

Twilight, you’re super, super, super cool, and you gotta come back soon so I can teach you about touch football.

And I know you were never officially enrolled or anything… but we’ll always be Wondercolts forever.

Your totally awesome friend,
Rainbow Dash

Letter 3: Pinkie Pie

Hi Twilight! It’s me, Pinkie Pie! Remember me?

Well of course you remember me! But what if you didn’t remember me, though? That’d be weird. You’d be like “who’s writing this letter to me? And who was that girl who kept hanging out with me and all my other friends every time I was in the human world? Did she steal all of Sunset’s journals? Should I be talking to her? Is she using me to plot some kind of interdimensional heist that could threaten the entire space-time continuum? Oh no! I gotta be careful what I tell her, or it could be the end of everything in existence!!!”

So it’s a good thing you do remember me, so you’re not thinking anything like that.

Anyway, how’s pony-world doing? It’s gotta be cool now that you’re in charge of everything. Are you throwing lots of royal parties? I bet those are really fun! They’re like regular parties, but you don’t have to worry about things like “Pinkie, that’s way overbudget” or “Pinkie, we don’t have the permits for that” or “Pinkie, you can’t bring live alligators on school property.” Darn fun police. But you don’t have to worry about that when you’re in charge!

I bet you’re feeling a little sad that you might not be able to come over here for a while. I’m a little sad that I can’t come visit you in your world too. But stuff like that isn’t fun to talk about. Why don’t we talk about fun things instead?

Hmmmmmm…

Are you reading this as I’m writing? That’d be funny. You’d be like “why’s she taking so long to think of something? Is there really nothing fun for Pinkie Pie to talk about?” But of course there is, silly. I just want to make sure I pick the right thing for this letter! We can talk about all the other things later.

Wait, I know! We can talk about what we’ve been up to while you’ve been away! We graduated! Isn’t that great? I mean, maybe it’s a little sad because we’ve had a lot of fun memories at Canterlot High, and a lot of us won’t be going to the same school anymore after this. But it’s a whole new chapter in our lives now, too! Sunset and I are going to Crystal Academy of the Arts this fall, and I’m gonna be taking classes about cooking and about drumming! Which are two of my absolute favorite things!

Speaking of cooking, I got a new job, just like you! Well, not just like you, obviously. But I’m not working at Sweet Snacks Cafe anymore. Now I’m working at the Canterlot Cake Emporium! They scouted me at a CHS bake sale last month and they decided they had to have me! Maybe I don’t even need to go to school if they like me that much already! Twilight and Sunset both say I still should go, but I don’t know… But it’s a really cool thing to do even if it’s just for a few months.

Anyway, that’s what you missed with me. I can’t wait to hear about how you are with all the big things in your life!

Sunset says you’re a little worried that you might never see us again, but you shouldn’t really be upset about stuff like that. Even if it’s true – which it can’t be, because we always make these kinds of things work out in the end! – it’s not like we wasted any of the times we’ve been together.

I mean, you got to see this whole new world of strange new things and people, and you helped us fight dark magic and learn to be friends and play in a band with us and have sleepovers and all kinds of other stuff! And we got to meet you, show you around, have fun and experience magic! Without you, I don’t think my friends and I could ever have become a magical super-team with cool powers that can fight evil and make snacks blow up and other stuff!

If we have to have a long-distance friendship, that’s okay. In all the times you’ve come to visit our world, and the one time we visited yours, we did more than a lot of other friends do in a whole lifetime! How many friends can say they’ve changed each other in the way we have?

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. I hope we’ll see each other soon, but you’re one of my besties either way.

Hearts!
Pinkie Pie

Letter 4: Twilight Sparkle

Hi, Twilight, it’s... Twilight.

I’m still thinking about the best way to start this. I guess maybe I’ll start at the beginning?

It’s probably not very surprising to you that I still remember the first day we met. Obviously, it isn't often that you get to meet a doppelgänger from another dimension who’s actually a powerful unicorn sorceress. Even you said it was the strangest thing that had ever happened to you.

But it wasn’t meeting you in the courtyard that was the most memorable part to me. It was what happened that night, at our sleepover at Pinkie’s house. The seven of you were reminiscing about some of your past adventures and talking about everything that had happened since the last time you’d been here. And I quietly slipped out of the room because I felt like I wasn’t fitting in. And I just started crying.

Barely two days earlier, I had opened an amulet filled with magic I’d stolen from our friends and corrupted myself into a monstrosity. I’d nearly torn reality to pieces in a demented lust for knowledge, and it was only through the efforts of my future friends, following your example, that I was saved from myself. I was, and remain, eternally grateful to them, and I believed them when they offered me friendship, to the point where I transferred schools in the hopes of a fresh start.

Seeing you, and the relationships my new friends had already built with you, couldn’t help but make me feel upset. Like an instant fraud. That I’d never be anything to them but a disappointing replacement for you. You were the hero that had brought them together and inspired them. I was a villain who’d nearly taken everything they had and gotten away with it because I was wearing your skin.

It was the most miserable I’d ever felt in my life, until you noticed I was gone and found me. You sat down next to me, offered me a shoulder to cry on and listened as I blubbered out everything that had been haunting me since the Friendship Games.

Then you asked me about who I was. I told you about my background, my home life, my brother, my dog. You asked me about why I’d been part of the Games, and what I was trying to do at Canterlot before then. And after I told you, you pulled me in close and told me you understood everything about how I’d gotten to be where I was.

You told me about yourself, your life in Equestria. About your studies, about your obsessions, and about how you’d met your own group of friends in that world, and how it changed everything for you when you did. And that, in spite of all your accomplishments, all the things you’d done to help others and even save the world… you didn’t want me to think you were better than me.

That in another life, where things had turned out differently for you than they did, you could easily have walked a darker path. That circumstance and good fortune played as much of a role as anything in you becoming the Twilight Sparkle you are, and you were lucky to be in a position to reflect on that. And that the most important thing for me to do moving forward wasn’t to try and replicate the things you’ve done, but to reflect on who I am and how I can be the best version of myself possible. And the way for me to do that would be with my new friends.

It wouldn’t be until Camp Everfree that I truly defeated the ghosts of my past. But I don’t know if I could have ever gotten to that point without that assurance. That seed you planted inside me, that told me that I wasn’t a hollow impostor or evil twin, and that my friends would accept me for who I was, not tolerate me for who I wasn’t. That I could be someone worthy of the people who saved me from the darkness, if I let myself.

That I am Twilight Sparkle, inside and out.

In the years since we met, we’ve learned a lot about each other, and it’s amazing how much we both continue to astound each other. I remember the first time I took you to visit my lab, and you just had this incredible awe at everything you were seeing. You asked me to describe my latest experiment in the most meticulous detail possible, and you were hanging on my every word. Even Sunset can’t put up with me talking science for that long uninterrupted, but you had me going until I couldn't stay awake. And, at the same time, every story you tell of your work with magic on the other side of the portal leaves my jaw on the floor.

I’ve got to admit, I’m feeling a little bit of secondhand pride knowing there’s a version of me who can run an entire kingdom. As any of my friends can tell you, that’s not me. But at the end of the day, that’s kinda what we are to each other. You are me, I am you, but you and I aren’t the same. And the things that make us individuals are just as incredible as the things that make us both Twilight.

I’m probably saying a lot of things that basically just all mean the same thing, if they even mean anything at all, but even for someone used to writing complicated technical jargon, this will never not be a strange concept to me. But it’s one that I’m happy to continue exploring with you. I truly hope we’ll be able to keep exploring it in person together some day.

(Yes, in person. Clearly you can handle yourself on two legs better than I can on four.)

Until then, you have my incredible gratitude for helping me understand who I am, who I can be, and so much more about this weird magical world I live in. I hope no one ever puts me in charge of it.

Yours truly,
Twilight Sparkle

Letter 5: Applejack

Author's Note

For the purposes of this story, the Rainbow Rocks promotional short “Perfect Day for Fun” (watch here) takes place the summer before 12th grade, 1.5 years after Rainbow Rocks and a year before this story.

Letter 5: Applejack

Dear Princess Twilight,

Believe me when I say I ain’t happy to be writing this.

It’s probably not too hard for you to guess that it was me who really put my foot down and told Sunset she had to tell us exactly what was going on with why you haven’t been able to come see us. I’m not angry at her or you for holding it back, I get it. There’s still plenty of reasons to hope and a whole lot of doom and gloom ain’t gonna help anyone.

But I can’t let something that’s this big of a deal be kept secret from all of us. Even if it hurt to learn, we needed to know.

I’m holding myself back a bit, as best I can, because I know I’m still processing. Still need to think about exactly what this means to me, and why it’s hurting to think about you being gone. Even if you’re not really gone-gone. I can’t say all the not-knowing-for-sure is helping.

I know it’s kinda complicated for you when you live in another world, we don’t see you that often and you know other us-es, or something. But we still think of you as one of us, in a pretty real way. I don’t think any of us have ever not been excited to see you whenever we hear you’re stopping by; we’d always get together and try to think of the best things we could do as a group and make the most out of each visit. Every time you’re here, it’s an event.

And it’s not because of what you are. You aren’t special to us because you’re from a planet of magic horses, or even that you helped us discover new powers and fight evil and stuff like that. I’m not saying that that ain’t special or meaningful or nothing, but it’s not really why you’re special to us.

You’re special to us because you’re our friend. Simple as that. You helped show us there’s magic in friendship, and every time you’re here, we get a new reminder of that.

Remember last summer, when we went to the county fair right behind the school? Most of us had all been before, and we weren’t really planning to go when Sunset and Twilight said they couldn’t be there that night. But then we heard that you were coming, and we all knew we had to take you. (Besides, you were gonna walk out right into the middle of it anyway with the portal and all.) Anyways, it was just such a perfect night of fun, doing all this silly carnival stuff that was all old hat to us but somehow had all this new energy because we were getting to do it with you. Hall of Mirrors, strength testing, photo booths, having to explain the whole idea of the carousel to you… I remember you going off about how weird it was to ride one of those.

And top it all off, we got to perform onstage! Still don’t know who it was that had to cancel, but it sure was lucky for us. It was our first time playing with you since the Sirens, and it felt like we hadn’t missed a single beat in all that time. Felt bad when we had to text Sunset and Twilight for their blessing to play without them, but like I said, no secrets held back. Besides, those two got to take you sailing the next day anyway (like heck if I’m ever getting on another boat).

But the point is that you’re one of us, Princess. We love having you around and making your every visit to our world the best it can be. And maybe you’d have had a lot less time for us anyway with your new position and all, but still, the idea that maybe it’s just over already? No. Heck no. Doggone it, that can’t be right.

Maybe I’m being a bit selfish right now, and maybe I’ll feel bad about saying some of this. But right now, I need to say it. I don’t want you to go away, Twilight. There’s more adventures ahead for us. There’s more fun ahead for us, more stories to be told. I know in my heart that we ain’t seen each other for the last time.

Then again, maybe I’m also just not ready for the big changes in our lives, period. Maybe I’m not ready for the seven of us on this side of the portal to start going to separate schools, studying different things. Maybe I’m just too stubborn to let things be different. Maybe this is just one uncertainty too many for me.

But it hits a little differently when you put that word forever into the mix. I’m not gonna be apart from all my other friends forever. I don’t see why that shouldn’t be true for you.

I’ve had more than enough forever goodbyes in my life already.

So I’m gonna have to grab on to Sunset’s ray of hope and clutch it with all my might. And once we can crack that portal open, you’re gonna be in for the biggest hug of your life.

Hang tight there, sugarcube. I know we’ll see you soon.
Applejack

Letter 6: Sunset Shimmer

Dear Princess Twilight,

There really isn’t a whole lot that we haven’t talked about by now. And yet it feels like there’s so much I want to tell you that I can’t figure out how to even begin to put it into words.

Once upon a time, I lived in a place called Equestria. Once upon a time, I was a unicorn, scouted by the reigning monarch of the kingdom to become her personal pupil. I was her presumptive heir, learning fascinating and powerful magic and becoming convinced it was my destiny to rule over all of ponykind.

Today, I’m a high school graduate, living in a body my old self would never recognize, about to begin taking classes for a career in graphic arts.

I couldn’t be happier with how my life has ended up.

The road here was long, hard and chaotic. And I brought most of that chaos on myself. But I’ve reached the other end not merely happy, but genuinely thrilled with the person I’ve become.

When I look in the mirror, I don’t see a vicious scheming bully. I don’t see a broken, miserable wreck. I don’t see an unconfident bundle of nerves who can’t help but feel like a failure at every turn, questioning whether she even belonged in this world. All of those things were me, at one point or another. But they’re not me now.

When I look in the mirror, I see someone whole and fulfilled. I see the culmination of everything this long journey has taken me on. I see myself, for perhaps the first time in my life.

A lot of my friends are feeling nervous about the months ahead, and it’s completely understandable. And I’m not gonna pretend I’m fully ready for all the changes about to happen. But I’m confident I can face them as me. Not a tough persona. Not a brave face. Me.

And I can never thank you enough for putting me on the journey to this point. For helping unlock my true self.

Even if that journey may now have cut me off forever from the place I once called home, from so much that was once special to me, I don’t regret taking it. Because this world is my home now. It may have been once that I couldn’t imagine a future where I didn’t rule Equestria, but now I can’t imagine a future where I even live there.

That’s not to say, obviously, that I wouldn’t be disappointed if I could never come back to the other side. There’s too many loose threads of my old life that I’ve still never bothered to clean up. I hope dearly that I can spend one more day with Princess Celestia, just sitting down with her and explaining everything that’s happened to me, who I am. To tell her how much I’ve missed her. To see that smile of hers, and that warm feeling of pride in me that I caught all too brief a glimpse of the last time I saw her; a feeling that helped keep me afloat in one of my darkest hours.

There’s more I’d do, too. I’ve always been curious about properly meeting some of your friends. And I’d like to see Starlight again. And maybe share a lunch together with some of my old magic school classmates. And maybe visit some places I’ve never been. Like Rainbow Falls, or Las Pegasus, or even the Crystal Empire.

Maybe find my birth parents, if I can. I doubt they really want to see me, but they should know where I’ve been.

But also, perhaps most importantly of all… I want some hayfries.

Oh Celestia, how I miss hayfries.

We’ve got potato fries here. A few other kinds too, but mostly potato. They’re fine. But they’re not the same. Not the same kind of crispness or texture, not the same flavor… at all. No. I need you to open that portal, Princess. Please, I’m begging you. Please let me have more hayfries I swear I’m going to die if you don’t get me some hayfries I need to go over there and I’m going to bring all my friends and we’re going to try them together because I need to prove to them that I’m not crazy and it’s not nostalgia they just really are THAT GOOD! And you CAN’T make them here because HUMANS CAN’T EAT HAY BELIEVE ME I’VE TRIED IT WAS AWFUL AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sorry about that.

The point is, even though my future is in this world, that assurance that I would always have access to Equestria is something I’d been taking for granted. I’m still a believer that we’ll get things reopened once more, and I’m ready and eager to help from this side of the portal if the solution demands it. Once it’s back, though, I’m taking full advantage of it.

Because even though I’ve found a new home, I never properly said my goodbyes to my old one.

And now, I’ll be able to do it as myself.

I won’t bore you with the expressions of gratitude I’ve given you more times than I can count, and that I know you’re mostly sick of. I will simply say thank you, Princess Twilight Sparkle, for being my friend. For being a friend to all of us, and for bringing the spirit of Equestria to this world. And for giving me the chance to live my life to its fullest potential.

I won’t let you down.

Your friend,
Sunset Shimmer

Letter 7: Fluttershy

Hi, Twilight. It’s me.

Fluttershy, that is.

I guess you’re probably wondering why I took so long to write this letter, when everyone else did theirs so fast. Well, maybe it wasn’t really that much longer. But still. I guess I just feel like I have a lot to say to you. Not that the others didn’t, of course.

I remember that I was the first one of us to meet you, at least in a friendly way. I’d been getting bullied a lot at school, and no one ever really stood up for me, especially not around then. So it meant a lot that, when you saw me, the first thing you did was put yourself in the way. That was at a point when it felt like I was just going to be afraid and lonely forever, so seeing you do that for me really felt special, and gave me some hope.

Out of all of our friends, I was the only one who really got to know you one on one during that first visit. You were very strange, and not like anyone I’d ever met before. Obviously I know why that was now, but back then I just thought I was helping out the new girl at school. I couldn’t not try to show you the ropes after what you did, especially since I was kinda afraid you were going to get yourself killed. You once told me you weren’t sure you’d have made it through that first day without me, so I guess I did my job there.

But what was really amazing to me was when we found out what you are. Not because it changed my idea of who you were (even if it did make a few things about you make more sense), but because of the way it actually didn’t. It wasn’t as though you pulled off a mask and revealed that you were someone completely different. It was just a detail, and you’d been showing us your true nature all along. Your kindness, your spirit, your heart.

It wasn’t your magic powers that brought my friends and I back together after so long apart. It was you, stirring a magic of our own inside us. And it’s a magic that’s only grown as I’ve made new friends, like Sunset and Twilight, and learned to be more confident in myself over these amazing few years.

If there was ever a thing that made me feel… odd, I guess, about you, it was when I learned that we weren’t the only ones of ourselves that you’d met. That you knew us, from another world, and those versions of us are your best friends. It made me a little upset, at first, and then I felt upset for feeling upset about it.

After all, none of that changes what you did for us. None of it makes the way our lives are different any less real or important. And of course you have friends in your world; otherwise, how could you be the Princess of Friendship?

Still, though, it made me a little distressed. I couldn’t help but wonder what you really thought of us when there’s other versions of us you're already friends with. Were we just substitute friends? Would you have helped me if I hadn’t looked like this other Fluttershy? Would you have thought to bring us back together if these other us-es weren’t also friends? Was I only special because a different me is special?

But I was always too afraid to ask you. Not because I didn’t think that you’d have an answer, but because I knew I’d feel terrible asking a question like that to someone who’d done so much for us.

Meeting our world’s Twilight helped me understand things a little better. She’s a lot like you, in so many ways, but also quite a bit different. And that made me think that maybe there’s more things separating us from these other us-es than I assumed. And I remembered that you hadn’t realized who I was when you first stood up for me that day. With a little more understanding, I eventually worked up the courage to ask you about your world’s Fluttershy.

I remember being really surprised when you told me she’s a grown-up, at least by your world’s standards. After all, I only just graduated high school. But it was an important detail, because it put all of our other differences into perspective. Like the fact that she lives by herself and supports herself. That she’s an instructor at a school for friendship. That she runs a beautiful animal refuge that she designed herself. That she’s been on all sorts of amazing adventures with you, and that she's changed a lot in all the time you’ve known her.

And that was when I really started to understand that you don’t think of us as replacements for your other friends. After all, if that was true, why would you have started visiting us when we didn’t have an emergency? Maybe you did find us at first because we were familiar to you, even if we didn’t know it. But I don’t think you stuck with us because we just happened to be like friends you already had. I think you saw — and still see — potential for amazing things in us, the way you did with those friends, and you want to be there to watch it blossom.

I’m sorry I never told you how I felt, but if it means anything, I don’t feel that way about you at all anymore.

And I’m sorry you might not be around to see us keep growing now that we’ve started to hit our own adulthood. I hope so much that there’ll be a breakthrough, and we can be with you once again. After all, we’ve noticed you make some changes of your own over the years, especially once you learned you were going to become a ruler one day. And now it’s happened, and that’s so wonderful for you! I want to see you and congratulate you in person!

And maybe, just maybe, I’d also like to come to your world and meet the other me. It’s always possible I could learn a thing or two. (And I just have to visit that animal sanctuary!)

But if the day never comes, and these books are the only way I can talk to you from now on, know that I’m thankful for every moment we spent together, for everything you’ve done for us, and I’m glad that we could be your friends in our own unique little human way. And I hope you can tell other me that I said hi.

Sincerely,
Fluttershy

Letter 8: Princess Twilight Sparkle

Dear Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle,

Oh my goodness.

Reading all your letters honestly brought me to tears. Every single one of them. Even Pinkie Pie’s, as much as she didn’t want me to feel sad reading it.

You don’t know how much I want – need, even – to just break through space and time and give each and every one of you a hug. You don’t know how much I miss you. Even with everything that’s happened since our last meeting, even with my new position and responsibilities… I don’t think a day has gone by where I haven’t thought about you, and how much I’d give to open that portal right now.

Before we get too far in, I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is that I have to disband the team that’s currently working on the portal situation, as they were never meant to be kept away from their regular duties for so long. However, they are spending their last week training a replacement team that will be able to pick up where they left off. Even then, however, I can’t throw ponies at this forever. If we haven’t made significant progress by the day the portal theoretically opens on its own, I will sadly have to freeze the project.

Believe me when I say I’m trying desperately hard not to think about that possibility. And I don’t want any of you to do so either. But, like Applejack said, you deserve to be in the know about this.

The good news is that, as of now, we won’t have to worry about running out of space in these journals. Starlight and I worked out a spell that will allow us to erase previous conversations and restore the pages to a pristine state. So long as the journals don’t become seriously damaged on your end, we’ll be able to keep in communication indefinitely.

I considered writing seven separate letters to each of you, so my expressions of gratitude could be more personal. Trust me, I mean it when I say each of these touched me deeply. But, as reigning monarch, my schedule is terribly limited and I didn’t want to stagger these responses out one by one. I’d feel awful if one of you was left waiting for weeks longer than the rest.

Besides that, though, I really do want to speak to all of you, as a group. And I want to explain just how amazed I am at all seven of you, and the people you’ve become. Fluttershy was right when she suggested I’ve always seen something special in you, and it’s been a true privilege to witness all of you come into your own as friends, as heroes, as human beings.

In response to something Fluttershy said in her letter, I am so, so sorry I ever let the validity of my feelings towards you come into question. I’ll admit that I have had thoughts like that cross my mind before, however. Was it fair of me to gravitate towards the people who most closely resemble my pony friends? Was it destiny that I happened to meet you when I already knew your counterparts, or some kind of bizarre magical nepotism? I don’t have an answer for that, and I’m sorry. But I have never thought of you as replacements. Please, please don’t reduce yourselves to that. You’re your own human selves, and I love you all the more for it. I am deeply, truly honored that so many of you still called me one of your best friends in your letters, even when I’ve nearly always been a long-distance friendship for you.

Perhaps that makes sense, though, when I consider that my friendships with you all are quite possibly the strangest I’ve made with anyone, and that’s saying quite a lot. Some of you said that I was special to you because of the ways I’ve guided you, helped you and, as Rarity so elegantly put it, taught you in the art of friendship. (Though I must object to being called a “master of the craft,” as I continue to discover new things about friendship every single day.) But to others, and sometimes the same people, I’m special, or just as special, because, when I’m here, I’m just another one of you, or even a learner myself, whether it involves getting beaned in the head with a softball by Canterlot High's star athlete or growing to understand myself more through meeting another Twilight Sparkle.

And what’s amazing is that I really am all of those things: a guide, an equal, a pupil. And I’ll never not be grateful for the ways you’ve allowed me to experience these different sides of myself in new ways, in a new world. There’s so much I’ve learned about myself through coming to this place, through being your friend.

Maybe Rainbow Dash is right. Maybe I do like being human sometimes. Though if you do ever get to come back to Equestria, maybe give your pony wings more of a chance this time. Trust me, new wings can take some getting used to.

And I’ve taken the lessons I’ve learned in your world to heart. Understanding more clearly what brings people together, and what drives them apart, was essential when the Cutie Map made it a near-daily assignment for my Equestrian friends and I. As was learning to see the potential for good in someone who’s done wrong; without the example of Sunset, I don’t know if I’d ever have taken Starlight Glimmer on as a student. And, as mentioned, I grew to discover a new side of me through meeting Twilight, finding new interests and even drawing some magical inspiration from her scientific work. (To Twilight: I’ll send you some details on that last part later!)

Those are some broad examples, but the truth is I feel as though I’m always finding something new of value any time I’m with you. And if I managed to impart any knowledge of my own in doing so, as so many of you said, then I’m thrilled beyond measure. But these experiences have informed me of who I am as much as any, and I’ve carried them with me all the way to my current post.

(Twilight, when you said you can’t possibly imagine yourself in my position of authority, I understand completely. I’m still struggling to comprehend it myself. But don’t doubt your own abilities, either. When I get nervous about the responsibility of leadership, I remember how, in plenty of my brightest moments as a leader before, I never even realized I was leading anyone at all.)

But please know that I didn’t come to this world so many times to learn lessons. I came for all of you, because I wanted to be with you, because I deeply enjoy your company and the experiences I have with you. Whether it was running around a carnival, attending one of Pinkie’s parties (though I have to agree that the alligators were a bit much, sorry Pinkie), having a sleepover or singing with the Rainbooms, they were times that felt uniquely human, and uniquely you. I will miss them dearly.

Before I make my final address here, I want to say something directly to Sunset. Dear Sunset, you’ve had perhaps the most unique journey of anypony I’ve ever known, and watching your growth over the years has been one of the great joys of my life. I am truly sorry that you’re now separated from Equestria at a time when you finally feel ready to visit as yourself, and I desperately hope you get that chance. But knowing you’ve found your home, and the people who’ve made it that for you, warms my heart immeasurably.

I’m afraid I’m running out of time to continue for much longer, but I want to make it clear that, even if the worst possible version of events comes to pass, I don’t see this as an end for our friendship, in any way. It’s merely a new chapter, and it’s up to us to make the most of it. With any luck, I’ll see you again someday, but I won’t think of any of you as being less of a friend if that’s not the case. And as you all head into the bright new future that awaits after high school, know that I’ll always be cheering on your success and happiness.

I struggled to find the right way to translate some of these feelings into words for a final sentiment, until I remembered that I don’t actually have to. We already did, years ago, together. And I can think of no better words to end this letter.

Nothing stays the same for long,
But when it changes, doesn’t mean it’s gone
Time will always get away
As it leaves behind another day

Things may come and things may go
Some go fast and some go slow
Few things last, that’s all I know,
But friendship carries on through the ages.

Your faithful friend, now and forever,
Twilight Sparkle

Epilogue

Sunset?

Hey, Twi. I’m here.

Right where the portal should be?

Yeah, by the statue base. Everyone else is, too. It’s really early here and I told them all to just sleep in; I didn’t want anyone to be disappointed if things didn’t go well.

But they all came anyway.

Of course they did. Tell them I said hi.

You can tell them yourself in a little bit. You’re right in front of the mirror, I assume?

I am. The new machine is standing by. If the portal opens, I’ll know, and if the machine can keep it open, I’ll know. That’ll be the difference between whether we just have the one week or if the connection truly is restored.

Either one sounds great to me right now.

I agree. It’s been a long… I can’t even remember precisely. Moons and moons. To think all of you have been through an entire year of college by now.

And you’ve been through an entire year of Crown Princessing.

That too. And I still need to tell you that coronation story. I can’t believe I let it slip for this long, but it works better in, well, person anyway.

Can’t wait to hear it.

I’ve worked hard to schedule things perfectly so I can take this full week off. My first Royal Vacation.

I can’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather go right now.

And you’re sure that the portal will open? And that you can keep it open?

I’m not sure of anything, Sunset. My team is brilliant, and once I got a good look at their work we had some genuine breakthroughs. There were so many warning signs I should have seen in the old machine design, I’d made it in a huge rush to get to your world and then just never got around to making improvements… after so long, the mirror just got overloaded with magical energy to the point where it sealed shut. But according to all the magical theory we’ve been working on these last few weeks, the portal just needs to, to borrow a phrase from your world, reboot. The mirror should open tonight, at the end of the 30-moon cycle, and, once it does, our new machine should be able to keep it open, without overwhelming it.

But you’re not 100% sure in the theory?

With advanced magic, you never really can be. But I’m about as sure as I can be with this many unknowns in the mix.

Is your team there with you?

Yes, they’ll be monitoring from this side and running some tests. But it won’t matter very much this week, since the portal should be open naturally. Well, “naturally,” anyway.

You don’t know how excited I am… how excited we all are to see you again. The idea that you’re actually coming back... But what if it doesn’t work?

I’m certain it will.

I thought you just said you weren’t?

I’m not talking about magical theory anymore. As confident as I want to be in our calculations, that’s not what’s making me say that.

I’m certain because I believe in us.

It’s been over a year since those amazing letters all of you sent me, and in that time we’ve gotten to learn more and more about each other through these journals. I wondered if that pang I’d felt to come and see you would fade as time went on, but it’s only grown stronger. You talked about taking the portal for granted in your letter, but quite honestly, I did the same thing. I don’t anymore.

It’s always rough to be separated from a friend, but to have that separation imposed on you, rather than accepted through a conscious decision (even an unwanted decision), is painful. There’s nothing invalid about a long-distance friendship; these days, quite a few of mine are exactly that. But thinking back to everything all of you wrote, I want to experience all of this again. To experience us.

I want to learn touch football with Rainbow. I want to go to more of Pinkie’s parties. I want to learn more about human science with Twilight. I want to have those adventures Applejack sees in our future.

I want to feel the strength of our bond as a group that Rarity so lyrically described. I want to show Fluttershy how genuinely unique that bond really is to me.

I want to witness that joy in Sunset Shimmer’s eyes when she sees herself in the mirror, and I want to take her right back through this portal so she can give Equestria the goodbye she needs. (And get the hayfries she craves, too.)

Maybe I’ll get to do all of those things. Maybe just some. But after losing over an entire year to this… whatever we’re able to do together, I’ll accept it gladly.

Because we are the Rainbooms. Maybe we’re a little bit older. Hopefully we’re a little bit wiser. But we’re still us, and we are going to make this the best week ever.

That’s why I know, in my heart, that I’m going to step through that portal, and I’m going to see all of you again.

I believe you.

There’s just a few more minutes left.

I’ll see you on the other side.

We’ll be waiting.

Letter 1: Rarity

Goodness. I’m going first, am I? Dear me, I truly wished I had planned ahead for this. Essays were never my strong suit, I’m afraid.

Oh wait! I should have started with a greeting, shouldn’t I? What sort of a lady dispenses with the formalities so casually! Can I start over? Sunset did an awful job of explaining this magic book of hers to me.

~~Dear Twilight Sparkle~~
~~Dear Princess Twilight~~
~~Dear Princess Sparkle~~
~~To the Most Illustrious and Magnificent Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria~~

Apologies for those. Let’s start things off from the beginning.

To my dear friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Perhaps it’s a bit odd of me to call someone a dear friend when I’ve spent far less time with you than anyone else I could grant such distinction to. But, then again, it would be difficult for me to overstate the importance of all the days we've had together. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Sorry, I’m a little distracted, Opal just hopped onto this desk and, if I’m not careful, she’ll try to rip out the pages here. Shoo, Opal! You’ll get your pets later!

Where was I?

Ah yes. Why I think of you as a dear friend. I suppose the appropriate place to start would be what makes you special. Which is a bit of a trickier question to answer than one might expect, given I happen to have another dear friend who is also Twilight Sparkle, in more ways than just name.

Of course the obvious answer for what makes you different is that you’re a magical pony princess from another dimension who, if I understand correctly, now wields the power of the sun itself and has recently become the reigning monarch of an entire kingdom. Goodness me. And to think this world’s Twilight used to talk about how uncomfortable she was at being named president of the robotics club.

But this isn’t really about the difference between you and one of my other friends, or even what makes you different from everyone else I’ve ever known. This is about what makes you special to me. What makes you someone – somepony, as Sunset would phrase it to you – I will always appreciate having the privilege to know, and what makes me honored to be somehuman you would consider a friend.

You see, you are an artist.

Are you surprised? Perhaps, if you were thinking merely of drawing or painting skills. It seems as though you still have a long way to go regarding the use of your fingers in our world. Your calligraphy skills on the other side of the portal seem impeccable, I must admit.

But art comes in many forms. I should know, of course; my art is composed of fabric and textiles, and while my sketches are crude at the best of times, the end results, if you’ll allow me this small indulgence of personal pride, shine through. And so it is with you and your medium.

You, Princess Twilight Sparkle, are a friendship artist.

Hey! Don’t think I didn’t just see you roll your eyes at me! Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking. “That’s one of the most ridiculously cliched statements I’ve ever read in my entire life, and to think that it came from Rarity, of all people!” Well, darling, I would politely ask that you hear me out.

Looking back, it feels quite ridiculous that I could have been so bitterly divided with the people I’d grown up calling my friends, over such trivial reasons. But generosity is something that needs to be extended to oneself from time to time, especially regarding the matter of understanding. And the truth is that my friends and I were in a rather dark place before you arrived in our world – before Sunset Shimmer, even.

All of us knew we were headed down different roads in life. We all knew our interests were different, our lives would be different. We thought the failure of our unit would inevitably come with it. We let someone else tear us apart because, at the end of the day, we didn’t think we belonged together. Friendship had become a formality for us, an unwanted tradition we were secretly grateful to see end.

What you did for us, in bringing us back together, was simple. But what it sparked was profound. It lit a fire in me that has never gone out. It restored a bond that I now know is not merely strong, but unbreakable. You showed me that friendship truly means something, something far beyond individual interests and personal pursuits, and that something has been truly beautiful to behold as the years have gone by.

But you didn’t stop at reforging an old connection. You pushed me to expand, to fully embrace the spirit of generosity within myself. To take in a girl who had been cold and cruel to me, someone I once might have felt no shame in kicking while she was down and leaving to her fate. Instead I opened myself to her, and, in something that surprised me more than any of the magic I have ever witnessed, she opened back up to me.

Sunset Shimmer is now a friend so dear to me that I can scarcely imagine life without her, with as strong a bond as I have with any of the friends I grew up with, and I have you to thank for that.

Of course, one must also practice what they preach, and you’ve proven quite the friend to me on your own terms. You’re a kind heart, a sympathetic ear, an indispensable guide to the new world you’ve opened up for us. Even when you’re far away in your world, you still watch out for us, giving us all the help you can at times of crisis. But when you are here, whether we’re fighting dark magic or having a slumber party, I feel that same strength of friendship with you that I have with the six girls I am now permanently linked to – thanks, again, to you.

That is what I mean when I say you are a true artist of friendship, both a master of the craft and an invaluable instructor of it. (I’d say you should teach friendship classes, but I hear you already do that.)

Darling, I miss you.

I truly hope we can keep having conversations. Sunset says she has enough journals stored away that she can give a few to each of us. But alas, it’s hard to imagine you’ll have sufficient time to tend to our inquiries while dealing with the business of running a nation, managing the movements of celestial bodies and more things I can’t even conceive of. But rest assured that I will treasure whatever communication we can achieve.

And if the day comes that I see you in person once again, and I cling to hope that it will, I will surely repeat all this information in a blubbering, inelegant and almost certainly unintelligible manner. But until then, I can simply say I thank you for everything you have done for my friends and I, and I will hold you close in my heart.

Your grateful friend,
Rarity