Counterclockwise

by AdrianJNovelle

Twilight's Letter

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have been through a lot in the past twenty-five years. Well, not as much as it seems to me because most of what I have endured, I experienced through different points in time. After you passed, I studied magic with even more aggression than I did back when I was your student, and I soon learned and mastered the art of time-travel and temporal manipulation. I felt invincible with my newfound powers, but I could not forget the loss of my dear friends. One by one, they left Ponyville, and forgot to take me with any of them. Even Spike left me to go to Manehattan, where he at last married Rarity and, of course, that resulted in her continued leave. The others all had their reasons for abandoning me.
While out on my adventure, I learned a lot about myself and about my life-to-be. I'm only forty-one years old right now, after the longest twenty-five years of my life. I have spent even longer traveling through time, exploring Equestria in eras millions of years from now. I will admit: I was impressed with their technology, but I've seen the fate of ponity. Come the year one billion, we'll all just fade away - vanish - disappear - and life on this planet will cease to exist. I was so devastated by my visit to that timeline that I didn't even feel like seeing if there was anything else out there left to be seen. I just headed back to where I had kept a home all this time, with Dr. Zimmermare, when, in reality, I should not have even left this year.
I'm sorry for leaving and venturing off into the great unknown, Princess Celestia. As it turns out, it was my friends' absence which caused the Great Disaster Princess Cadence held herself responsible for. Since our reunion, the Great Disaster has been evaded, and life in Equestria continues to go on and prosper under the rule of my sister-in-law; and, to a lesser extent, my brother.
Oh, yeah, I'm sorry: your sister resigned shortly after your death, since she was so devastated by your absence, she knew she would not be able to properly overrule Equestria with the hoof she intended. So, she resigned from her position as Princess of Equestria, and, instead, Princess Cadence took over. It was misery and woe for the longest while, especially for me, since I had spent nearly a billion years away from everypony. Then, when I finally gave up my journey, I returned to this time, only to find Princess Luna rising over the horizon. And, following right behind her: all of my friends. She said that in her departure, she had learned that even though she knew she was no longer able to be Princess of Equestria, you would want her to be there as if you had never left. So now, Equestria has two Princesses! And the Equestrian Declaration of Foundation doesn't say anything about there not being allowed two Princesses!
I know how my life is going to run, now, having explored nearly every aspect of my future. I'm going to get married and start a family and spend many, many years in nothing but love and happiness that is provided to me from my happy, loving family. I'm gonna be the luckiest unicorn in Equestria someday!
My older self lived over eight hundred years. At first, I thought she spent all that time in total happiness, like the earlier years of her life. But, as I learned, she was miserable. She spent hundreds of years alone in the dark. She was not hated or resented in any way: just lonely and miserable. As it turns out, she used an age retardation spell to keep her living for almost a millennium.
I have a confession to make...I will not be using the age retardation spell. Based on how long ponies tend to live, I have less than half a century left of my life...I will be lucky to live even a hundred years in all. I won't be able to see this world evolve and transform like I did when I traveled through time. I won't be able to see what happens to my family beyond my death, nor what happens to anyone else who outlives me. I am literally almost half-dead now. My life is half over, and nothing that will make me the Twilight Sparkle who I met has come true yet.
But that doesn't mean it won't happen. I will not be like the Twilight Sparkle who lived eight hundred years: I will live my life, set on my own path, leaving hoofsteps wherever I go, and wherever my friendship takes me. And I will keep writing letters to you every week, just like old times, even though I know you will never receive them. No matter what my fate.
Since I won't magically cheat death, I understand I don't have forever to live. But that's okay. Knowing that I'm going to die someday only makes the life I live now all the more precious.
I now understand where I belong in this universe and this world. And I didn't need to travel through time to find out: I'm a a pony. A unicorn. A will-be wife and mommy. But, for now and forever, I will keep writing and learning and growing as the years go by.
I may not always be the same pony. But I will always be your most faithful student.

Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle