"And how fares the Principality of Everfree? Since this is supposedly a diplomatic visit, I should ask about that sort of thing. One ruler to another, and so on." Celestia smiled warmly as she settled into place in the parlor.
Twilight Sparkle waved a vague hoof. "Oh, there's some minor crisis every five minutes, and everypony wants me to solve it, of course. Twinkle Shine actually runs the place these days though. I'm much too old and creaky to have the energy. I just sit on the throne every now and then, and pretend I'm still actually in charge." Twilight grinned. The laugh lines around her eyes were deep these days. Her hair had gone gray too, hardly a trace of color remained, and her coat has softened into a silvery lilac.
Celestia laughed. "There are some days, my dear Twilight, when that's exactly what I do as well. So many of my little ponies do the day-to-day work of running Equestria. I only have something to do when there's a real emergency."
"Poor Celestia. You can't even come running to me to pick up the elements and deal with disasters anymore."
Celestia laughed even more at that. A servant came in with a platter of sandwiches and a pot of tea, and both princesses were silent for a moment as they helped themselves to lunch. When Celestia spoke again, after sampling both the sandwiches and the tea, she asked, "How are the other element bearers doing? None of them write me terribly often these days."
Twilight gave a little snort at that. "They don't write me all that often either, though I do see Applejack regularly, since she still lives more or less on my doorstep. You couldn't budge her out of Sweet Apple Acres with a crowbar. I hear from the others now and then. Fluttershy is still in Ponyville, of course. Pinkie Pie sends the odd letter, as does Rarity. But Rainbow Dash! She never writes at all! She's gotten one of those ridiculous electro-phone gadgets! She wants me to install one here, so she can 'phone me. Instead of writing! As if a slap-dash conversation held without seeing another pony's face were any substitute for putting quill to paper and organizing your thoughts." Twilight stopped suddenly. "Forgive me, I was ranting. I just do not like these new-fangled electro-phones at all. Ponies should see each other in person, or take the time to write letters. Twinkle Shine wants to get one installed here too, she keeps pestering me about it. All the young ponies are so excited about the blasted things! They'll be ruined by them, I swear. No more writing? Their brains are bound to go, if they stop writing."
Celestia was laughing again, not just the light chuckle she'd had previous, but a deep laughter that seemed to threaten to send her actually rolling on the ground. Twilight frowned at her. "I don't see how the ruined minds of the next generation is a laughing matter, Celestia."
Celestia caught her breath. "Forgive me, Twilight." Another giggle escaped, and she put a hoof to her mouth, as if to hold the laughter in. After another deep breath she'd calmed herself. "Forgive me. You just reminded me of an old lesson. Once, quite a long time ago, I thought something very much like what you think now."
Twilight tilted her head to the side, looking puzzled. "How could you have been worried about electro-phones a long time ago?"
"It wasn't electro-phones that worried me," said Celestia with a smile, finally regaining her usual serene expression. "It was writing. I remember telling my student at the time that the living word of knowledge would vanish from the earth, to be replaced with soulless writing, that was only an image, something which could neither speak nor teach."
Twilight gaped at her. "That... I recognize that! Broad Interests wrote that his teacher, Choate Power, had said that!"
Celestia nodded. "Yes. Broad Interests was one of my very first students."
"Y-you're Choate Power? That means you invented philosophy!"
Celestia chuckled softly. "Only some of it, Twilight. But you're getting a bit distracted from my point. When ponies began writing everything down rather than memorizing it I was concerned, much as you are concerned with the way ponies are using things such as the electro-phone rather than writing. I worried that their minds wouldn't be as developed if they stopped learning things by heart and instead merely put them in books. I actually considered banning writing and books, for a time."
Twilight gasped. "Banning books?!"
"Shocking, I know."
"How could you even think such a thing? Books are windows into other worlds, glimpses of other pony's lives! Books are wonderful!"
"I fully agree, Twilight. My point was not that books are bad, but that for all of pony history each generation has worried that the new inventions of the next generation will ruin everything. They never do, Twilight. They never do."
"Oh. I see what you're getting at." Twilight heaved a sigh. "A conversation over a wire just isn't the same as getting a letter, though."
Celestia leaned over and gave Twilight a little nuzzle. "No it isn't. But reading a book just isn't the same as having a dialog with a live pony, and yet I've learned to rather enjoy books. I know a 'phone conversation isn't like a letter, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I have a 'phone installed in the palace at Canterlot, you know. You don't have to install one here if you don't want to, but don't worry too much about the minds of the next generation. One way or another they'll be fine."
Twilight nodded, then smiled. "Suddenly I feel the urge to write you a friendship letter. Even if it is terribly old-fashioned."
"If you want to be truly old-fashioned, Twilight, you could just tell me what you learned."
Twilight straightened unconsciously as she organized her thoughts. "I learned that you were Broad Interests' possibly mythical teacher!" She flashed Celestia a grin. "I also learned that my worries about the future were unfounded, that every generation has had the same worries, and that something like books, or like electro-phones, that's frightening to one pony, can be wonderful to another."
"A lesson well worth learning." Celestia lifted her sandwich and took another bite. She made a face. "I, on the other hand, have just learned that pausing during lunch for philosophy and life lessons will let your sandwich bread dry out terribly."
Twilight laughed. "Then I guess we have both learned a valuable lesson today."