Celestia blinked. She turned the scroll over and saw that the other side was blank. She flipped the paper back to the front and reread it, hoping to comprehend what she was seeing.
It was good to hear from Twilight again. Since her life had gotten busier, she had learned most of the fundamentals of friendship that she could write in a letter and her friends had also taken up her mantle for lessons they learned on their own (or just to let Celestia know they hadn’t learned anything on their latest outing, as Applejack had once done and would never live down for all her days), Twilight had been writing to Celestia less & less.
Now, it had been almost three months since her last letter. Celestia knew her student was doing just fine in her new life, but she had hoped for more casual correspondance. She loves writing to me, Celestia thought. Surely she knows she can simply write to me anytime about anything she wants, right…?
But that changed today. As Celestia was attending to Day Court, just as a stallion approached and began describing some stuff she couldn’t care less about, she saw a scroll materialize right next to her and felt her heart leap into her throat.
She would know Twilight’s postal style anywhere, and she felt herself get a little giddy. Celestia saw Twilight as her adopted daughter of sorts even though Twilight’s parents were alive and well even at this moment, but she had been suffering from a mild form of empty nest syndrome for some time.
Hence, why she suddenly shot ten feet straight into the air shouting, “WOO-HOO!” after the letter had materialized.
The stallion mistook her approval for Twilight’s letter for approval for his own petition, and after thanking her profusely, ran out of the throne room happier than ever. To this day, no other pony has ever run out of a Royal Court session so happily; it led to a brief upsurge of attendance in the Royal Courts (and double the workload for the poor princesses who had to host them).
Well, now I gotta give him whatever he was asking for, I suppose, she thought dismissively. But nevermind that! Twilight just wrote to me! I can’t wait to read it! She struggled to calm herself down as another pony approached her throne and began to regale her with some more boring ponyfeathers she couldn’t give two hoots about.
Day Court couldn’t have lasted longer if it had been stretched out for ten consecutive eternities. Or at least, that was how Princess Celestia, ruler of the day, felt. But now, Day Court had finally concluded – even at its worst she couldn’t recall a Day Court that was ever so long – and she was free to go back to her chambers and read the latest correspondance from the mare she wished were her real daughter, which she did without further ado.
But now that she had read it, she wasn’t sure if her anticipation and giddiness were worth it. Twilight’s letter read thusly:
Dear Princess Celestia,
I heard you like reading my letters,
so I wrote you a letter about me writing you a letter so you could read my letter while you read my letter.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle