My most faithful student,
As pleased as I am by your prompt acquiescence to my requests, I fear that some details about how I wanted this matter settled were somewhat muddled.
Yes, it is true that I recommended Gary Stu find someplace other than your library to stay for the time being. Yes, I do believe it was for the best that the two of you remained separated while things are sorted.
Booting him out on the street without figuring out where he might go might have been just a touch extreme, however. It certainly didn't make things easy for Sir Flash Sentry, the investigating guard.
Nevertheless, what's done is done. Seeing as Gary has done very little outside of Ponyville (and more notably outside of the company of yourself and your mutual friends) I trust Flash Sentry to find him. Try not to worry yourself too much on the matter, Twilight, but do try to be a bit more even-tempered in the future. Quite frankly I worry about how much stress you tend to put yourself under.
Which brings me to why I'm so glad you spoke with Applejack first. While I had no idea how any of your friends might have reacted to the situation, she and Spike both brought up excellent points in your last message. We do not know the full reasons why Gary chose to insert himself into our lives the way he did, and we do not know if there's some reason he could not simply tell us about what he knew.
Hopefully these story disks will offer some answers to at least one of those questions, or perhaps the numerous others that surround this strange case.
In the meantime, continue as you have been. I've no doubt word about Gary being expelled from the Golden Oaks will spread quickly in a town as small as Ponyville and the rumors will not be far behind. Better your friends hear the story direct from the horse's mouth before things carry too far.
Your loving teacher,
Princess Celestia
Luna,
The disks have arrived.
Celestia
And I thank every star in the heavens. If I had to listen to one more minute of Blueblood trying to impress me by pretending to know what he's talking about when it comes to Reneighsance Era paintings I was going to go insane.
Again.
I shall be with you presently.
Luna
Dear Princess Celestia,
You are absolutely right about just kicking Gary out and I'm so sorry but even after getting your letter I was just so upset over this whole mess I couldn't even stand to look at him
(I think it might be easier to sum up that Twilight's amazingly sorry about just letting Gary go like that. Really though, I think if she hadn't he would've just run for it. Heck, he almost did after she untied him. Not that I blame him. Twilight can be kinda scary when she's mad. —Spike)
At any rate, you'll be happy to know that my talk with Applejack has given me some perspective on this matter regarding Gary Stu. I'd been so blinded by the fact that he hid all this future knowledge from us that I forgot for a moment how altruistic he'd been with most of it. And nopony should know the stress that a small amount of future knowledge can cause better than me.
Still, the situation with the visit from my future self and Gary's own prophetic story disks do have some stark differences. In the former case I had only an incomplete guess about what was going to happen. Gary has had a full road map stretched before him for every disaster that might strike Equestria that my friends and I played a part in, from the largest invasions to the smallest social missteps. I acted out of fear, Gary—
You and Applejack are correct in that we don't understand what motivated his actions, but it doesn't change the fact that he saw a version of events where we handled things ourselves. Does attempting to help us towards those endings truly count as doing good when he knew his assistance was unnecessary? Even if today's disaster at Sweet Apple Acres had gone through Applejack still would have learned an important lesson, one that would have brought her closer to her family. All Gary did was remove her mistakes from the equation.
Even if he's not using that knowledge for evil, I have a hard time believing that his intentions were completely pure. Especially given certain other events that you'll no doubt observe on those disks.
In the meantime, Spike and I elected to inform Rainbow Dash next about today's situation. Given her famous speed I doubt it shall be long before I'm sending you another letter!
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S.
Hey, Spike again. I just had another thought.
See, Twilight mentioned how she got that visit from the future once and it made her all panicky, right? Only the more she tried to change things the more she wound up forcing things to go the way her future-self knew they would.
Maybe Gary's got the same problem? I mean yeah, he's obviously already changed a bunch of stuff, but even he couldn't do a thing to keep Twilight from getting all crazy and talking about stopping time after meeting Future Twilight. Maybe the reason he never told us about any of this is because there were just some things he couldn't change and he didn't want us to worry about them? If he knew about Future Twilight's visit and how Twilight was gonna act about that it makes sense, right?
I don't know, I guess I just don't like seeing Gary getting such a bum rap over all this without even getting to say anything for himself. I tried bringing it up with Twilight and she just got real quiet.
Anyway, we're already at RD's so I guess I'll try and talk with her more about it later!
Your most faithful student's Number One Assistant,
Spike
Dear Princess Celestia,
I'm writing to you much sooner than even I expected. Then again, the reason should be apparent as I doubt anypony in Ponyville or Canterlot missed that particular Sonic Rainboom just now.
To explain: Rainbow Dash took the news about Gary and his future knowledge somewhat more violently angrily passionately than even I anticipated.
I'll do my best to catch up with her before she finds Gary herself. You might wish to inform Flash Sentry to hurry with his investigation though.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
On Spike will he stills tick with what he said after seeing how the Crystal empire was suppsoe to been saved, hsi chance fo being a hero taken away or that hasn't happen yet?
Hmm, I kind of figured Dash would have two reactions. Completely okay with it or not okay with it. Judging by the Gary-seeking missile, I'd say she picked option two. Too bad, I was hoping she'd ask him if/when she becomes a wonderbolt. I'd totally abuse it if one of my friends ended up knowing the future.
Oh, and we also don't know how Twilight phrased it. It's possible Twilight told Dash "Gary had access to the future and isn't really your friend, he's just using us to get famous." Do I think Twi said this? No. But Dash didn't hang around for the full story like AJ did.
Well, can you really learn from a mistake that was never made? Does it even have the same impact? It's like leaving the training wheels on your kid's bicycle and never taking them off. Sure they learn to ride the bike but only with the training wheels. What happens when they decide they don't need the training wheels anymore and you're not around? Sure it might be fine but it could also easily end up with them hurting themselves and you're not there to help them.
There's also the fact that his knowledge about Equestria extends only as far as the episodes he has seen. What happens when the Mane 6 finally encounter a problem he has no knowledge about? With all of his 'helping' they'll immediately turn to him for advice and he'll have no idea what to do. At best he leaves it to them to solve the problem and at worst he tries to solve the problem and only makes it worse.
honestly celestia your going to have to stop being polite or you may end up unconiously letting your student be responsible for the death of a possibly innocent man
OH God, RD is mad
Maybe the next will say something about Gary being almost knocked out by her
So, did Gary not intercede during Twilight's time travel meltdown, did he try to help and fail, or did he just not bother?Well, don't I feel dumb.On the whole, I'm disinclined to like Gary. If nothing else, he's arrogantly assumed responsibility for, and control of, the future of an entire world. And so far, the only unambiguous beneficiary seems to have been himself.
8371069 Gary must be a decent person enough for Spike to stick up for him and give him the benefit of the doubt. So far, Spike has been the only true and rational person in this story aside from Princess Celestia. And then Applejack too. If he truly was a douche of the typical Gary Stu trope, he'd have been crucified at this point.
8371125 Not exactly a good analogy, it's still possible to learn from the example of others. Many of the disasters and mistakes described (while not shown or would be due to it being a kid's show) WERE life and death situations (tirek, Changeling invasion). While it may be possible that things would have turned out that way, the future can never truly be written in stone. His appearance in this verse already alters it. It's possible he's scared of the worst happening and is trying to keep things relatively the same. And there's nothing shown contrary that has prevented the girls from still learning the magic of friendship.
We still need more info, too many people are just making assumptions.
8371148 She has sent Flash Sentry after him. It's possible she's doing this to prevent it from getting our of hand (hoof?) and to guarantee his safety and get his honest side of things. Celestia isn't my favorite character but I have no doubt she would ever condemn someone fast and furious to the same manner as Twilight.
8371311 Go back and read Applejack's chapter. The Apple Family clearly benefited from his involvement and even Applejack was happy that she didn't have to rebuilt a farm. I think she wants to know more if he's really doing it for their benefit and not his. But so far, we've seen nothing of a glory hog, or else Spike and Applejack would have specifically mentioned it. So far there's still a big nothing burger in that regard of Gary's glory seeking.
8371311
As Spike mentioned in this chapter, Gary did attempt to calm Twilight of her future fears. She simply refused to listen to him (just like how she refused to listen to all her other friends about it).
Your sum up does capture all of Gary's interactions with Equestria though. There have been times where he intervened and changed or prevented episodes, there's been times where he's done so and failed to change anything, and (as will be revealed soon) there's been some events he hasn't even tried to change...
8371474 Did Applejack benefit more by his intervention than she would have if she made her own mistakes and "learned the lesson" on her own? She obviously obviously believes she did, but that is only her opinion. The story hasn't yet addressed what the net effect of Gary's interventions has been.
8371539 Oh wow, can't believe I missed that.
Celestia? Stop taking this so damn lightly. Tell Twilight what some of her actions were actually. WRONG! So much sugarcoating, I have nearly the feeling that Celestia's letters smell like sugar itself.
I have the slight impression that Rainbow Dash goes down the "He's a spy!" route like in episode 1 with Twilight.
Spike acts much more reasonable than the supposed to be future princess. Thumps up!
And I wait for the hilarious moment when Celestia realizes how much "Friendship Lessons" Gary prevented from happening and how much he intervened, wanted or not. There are two possibilities:
1. Gary kicked Twilight's day of ascension so much into the future that he may have doomed Equestria, because Twilight isn't an Alicorn when Tirek appears and he destroys them all. And Gary as well.
2. Celestia finds out through the discs that he completely destroyed the "prime timeline" and made it impossible for Twilight to ascend now. In this case she might very well kick Gary into the sun herself for ruining her plans and LATER they will all fall when Tirek comes. Because in this situation is the same problem. No Alicorn Twilight who could take the power of four princesses into herself without exploding, what would be needed to fight Tirek on even ground.
8356440 If that's Luna justification to kill him, she deserves to die.
8371809 Her life, so yes her opinion is what really only matters. The only difference made is a barn destroyed and embarrassment vs barn not destroyed and Applejack probably thinking her idea might have been a bit over the top and forced. Heck, even him talking to her about could make her come to that conclusion and learn that lesson minus the disaster and possible injury of her family members.
Still more needs to be seen, so many details left unanswered.
8371875 In regards to #2, not necessarily so. It would only alert her to Tirek showing back up because he's escaped from Tartarus. Depending on the timeline, she might reinforce or check to make sure he's still there. If anything, her knowing he will appear gives her plenty of time to come up with a plan to stop him or she may find him and even kill him preemptively if she deems it so.
She could even come up with a plan to speed up her ascension or take Luna to deal with him before he gets out of hand and Twilight's ascension may be accomplished by different means.
8371875
Option 3 - Celestia will watch show carefully and she will find out, that Tirek is hiding (edit: probably, if including Gary's existence) inside her old castle, so she will be able to kick his ass, before he even become dangerous. Solo knowlegde about Tirek escape is enough to fight him.
8371950
I disagree. After all, it wasn't her choice to change things. At best, Gary took the decision out of her hands because he thought he knew better than her how her life should play out. The only choice she made was whether to be upset or not that he interfered.
I'm not saying Gary's decisions are necessarily coming from a bad place, but they aren't his decisions to make.
The big shame about Celestia being this utterly unhelpful sugar-coated ineffectual mother figure in this story is...
it's basically how she would go about it in canon.
8372005
LOLWUT!?
Uh, she was in charge, same was it was even in the episode. What made you think otherwise?!
8372089 Change the future, not change her mind.
We probably won't get the full story until we get Gary's side of things (assuming Dash lets him live), but speaking for myself, if I were to end up in Equestria with a full set of the show's DVDs, whether I was using them for personal gain or not, I'd probably keep them secret too, since while them knowing the future COULD be beneficial, it could also seriously screw things up. For example, Cadance and Shining's wedding was mentioned, and that Gary backed up Twilight in her accusations about "Cadance" being evil. It doesn't elaborate, but presumably Chrysalis was unmasked then before the invasion was in full swing. However, if they had the DVDs they probably would have tried to avoid Chrysalis' infiltration entirely. This is actually bad because while the DVDs could allow a smoother foiling of Chrysalis' original plan, trying to stop her entirely runs the risk that she would change plans to something that would render the foreknowledge completely irrelevant and possibly even harder to stop.
8372070
... it is, though, isn't it?
8372232
Sorry to say, but your initial argument is somewhat weak: It was still her decision, as she could have easily decided not to listen to him. All he did was give her addition things to think about, and because he'd given what she perceived as "good advice" in the past, she decided to give it a shot. Any rational individual would have done this. This one is actually a point in Gary's favor, if only for the moment, because as it stands it does not appear that he himself would gain any material benefit from sharing the information he had.
But then, I think you and I both know what they say about appearances....
8372232 You missed the part where Gary intervened but made no difference as mentioned regarding Twilight with the Self Time Travel episode. There were even events that he didn't intervene in at all. Chaos theory of time travel predicts that any form of interaction with a timeline will change it, even the smallest detail. History has already been altered when he was found in the Everfree Forest.
We still have no clue what the hell is going on and need more information.
What in the world am I reading that makes me... empathize with Gary Stu!