Princess Twilight Sparkle writes letters to her former mentor.
Her friend, Spike, would rather she didn't.
Chapters (7)
- Member Since 22nd Dec, 2012
- offline last seen 2 hours ago
Shakespearicles
The Man. The Legend. The World's Strongest Writer™
Shakespearicles
Joined 22nd Dec, 2012 ·
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I mean this in a non-asshole way: as soon as I saw the tags, I knew where this was going. While the destination was obvious, I suppose the journey is the point.
It reinforces my immediate reaction after I saw the leaks: Twilight is not the sort of pony who would be happy taking Celestia's place, especially not when it's in circumstances so similar to Celestia's thousand-year solo reign. The saddest part is, Season One Episode One Twilight would have been better off psychologically than Series Finale Twilight. S1E1!Twi was all about her checklists and correctness. Finale Twilight lives for her friends and loved ones.
I'm sorry you don't get to be happy anymore, Twilight.
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Regrettably, the tags do take some of the impact out of the ending. But likewise, I don't want people to get mad about too much of a gut punch twist. This was just a short thing I needed to write. For much the same reason why Twilight kept writing. To cope.
Oof, that twist at the end. Well done!
Damn. Poor... well everyone but mostly Twi.
I both love and hate this. I knew the ending was coming yet it still hurt...all so beautiful
Thanks a lot for ruining my day with that ending. Are you proud of yourself? You shouldn't be if you are. It does make me wonder how many, if any at all, Celestia saw herself.
I get the feeling the one about Luster did. And maybe the very first couple. But that's it.
Where's Cadance and Flurry Heart when Twilight needs them? Unless you really are heartless and killed them too.
Wow, that ending sure was a twist to my heart.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown but to wear it eternally... as Twilight said, it's both a blessing and mostly a curse.
Well done, Shakes!
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Thank you.
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This wasn't something I wanted to write. It was something I needed to write, even as it pained me to do so. Just as Twilight continued to do so. To cope. Cadance and Flurry Heart are alive and well, and they help when they can, but there is only so much they can do to stem the feelings of loss with the tide of time. It's a cumulative grief.
Nicely done :)
Dangit!!! THis is so sad!!!!
*Cries out to the heavens with tears in eyes*
Well done!!
That line she says, where every night she prays she'll wake up in her old bed, and every morning she get's angry when she doesn't? I relate to that so hard, in multiple ways. On the lower end, that's how I've been feeling ever since I watched the show's final episode. I keep wanting to go back and wake up back around the Season 2-4 times, when the show wasn't over and was so fresh and new and simple.
On a much bigger level, that's how I've been feeling about my whole life in general for years now. I keep just wanting to go back, back to one of the few times in my life where I was actually happy, or at least content. I'm not even very old, I shouldn't feel this way but I do. Every change only seems to bring even greater pain with it. I can't even imagine what it's like to be middle-aged, or an old person when I already feel this way as a young adult.
So yeah, good story.
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They lose their bodies, but their magic flames are eternal!
Great story! It really is!
Not a huge fan of "Celestia and Luna randomly stop being immortal despite being alicorns" thing. Them being dead seems kind of like a cheap ploy for reader tears and a way out of explaining why Celestia won't help Twilight with these issues.
The letters were very nice. It's really just this chapter that seems unnecessary and kind of lessens the impact. Of course, many others seem to think this one makes the story better, so... eh. To each their own.
I don't read tags so didn't see the end coming, and it was a complete surprise for me. Twilight is really having troubles adapting to being immortal, and it's understandable.
Great story.
You know, I would have found it hilarious if they just crumbled to dust in front of Twilight the instant they gave up their royal status. Better yet, if they died like the guy who drank from the wrong Holy Grail.
I guess the secret is that it didn't require anything special to do
Did they do that to themselves?
Great story. Stuff like this is why you hold the title of “World’s Strongest Writer”. The gradual slip from happy to sad to simply attempting to survive is perfect. It’s kind of depressing, but I understand that it’s a story that needed to be told. The potential there is to great to ignore.
On a personal note, nothing to do with the story, I partially believe that Twilight would somehow give up her immortality if it came to it, since there’s not much point in being the princess of friendship without any friends. Idk. I’ve just preferred stories like the “Remembrance” animation, or even Somber’s recent story “One Last Snap” in their depiction of friendship, or the lack thereof, being more powerful force than immortality. Just a personal preference, still great story. Rant over.
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So... Twilight should never have made friends in the first place? She should have just stayed emotionless and distant the whole series?
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Immortal doesn't mean invincible. Maybe Celestia choked on a ham sandwich. Maybe they were both in the same train wreck. The 'how' isn't important.
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Plus we've seen several times in the show that there are entities with the power to circumvent or absorb magic.
Be that Discord, who can remove both the wings and horn of alicorns with a snap of claw.
The Throne from Chrysalis' Fortress nullifying magic completely.
Tirek literally draining magic.
Or even those stone balls that Tempest threw in the movie. Those things could turn an alicorn to stone in seconds and I think we all remember what happened to the Storm King well enough to validate their lethal capabilities.
Honestly the Princesses are lucky they haven't been dusted so far, considering the amount of times they've gotten wreck'd.
Perhaps it was a legendary anti-magic Ham sandwich. Who knows.
Gonna be honest chief, the added Twilight/Celestia romantic kinda came outta nowhere and made me feel p uncomfy. Esp with how Twilight was acknowledging that she was now aware that Celestia had been grooming her to take her place.
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On the contrary, she should never have become a Princess. She'd have been happier as a librarian in Ponyville, or (if some sort of official government position is necessary for reasons) Archmage. If Celestia wants to retire that badly, she can hand things over to Luna. If you need two alicorn princesses (again, because reasons) then we have a spare up in the Crystal Empire.
In any case, Twilight would make a miserable Monarch of Equestria, and the job would make Twilight miserable.
Really? Twilight has been writing to a dead Princess Celestia all this time? No offence, but that`s a let down.
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Okay, that makes a bit more sense. But I still don’t think that Twilight would have had a problem with just being a Princess. It’s the immortality that’s the problem. As I said in my previous comment, I prefer the idea that Twilight would ultimately choose a short life filled with happiness than a long one filled with sorrow, similar to what you said. But there’s nothing to say that she couldn’t do this while still being a Princess. There have been several episodes through the series, including the last one, that showed that despite her increased responsibility, she still was able to make time for her friends and be happy. So being a Princess isn’t inherently bad for her. Sure, if she stays immortal and lives millennium without her friends, yes, that would definitely be a problem. But I think she would rather pass on her reign to another(Luster Dawn maybe?)much sooner than Celestia and retire, likely giving up her immortality so that she wouldn’t have to continue to live without her friends. Just a thought.
It still pains me knowing how much pain and suffering Twilight is feeling. A princess of friendship, having all her friends eventually pass on after all the adventures, hardships, and happy memories they experienced together. And the worst part is, she still lives on with her immortal life, with the haunting memories. At least Spike is still with her...
Reminds me of one particular line from the musical Hamilton:
"If there's a reason I'm still alive when everyone who loves me has died, then I'm willing to wait for it... I'm willing to wait for it."
Nice story~!
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Did you just make a Mama Cass reference on purpose?
She didn't actually die from chocking on a ham sandwich. She died of a heart attack. http://www.legacy.com/news/celebrity-deaths/article/the-truth-about-cass-elliot
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Yes and I'm aware.
I dig the evolution Twilight is going through, she finally dropped the "princess" act!
I guess the immortality is tied to being an actual "ruler" vs an alicorn. Celestia and Luna rescinded theirs for reasons similar to why Twilight despises her own. They've earned their rest and reunion with old friends.
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That sort of makes her tirade in a letter here about how she wishes her curse of immortality would end kind of... dumb? Like, they only thing keeping you alive is routine, Twilight. If you really want to stop being immortal, surely you have no shortage of spells and artifacts to kill you. Or ask Discord if he'll take away the alicorn bits and trap you in a memory of the past until you die of not being an alicorn.
This was brilliant.
Oof. This was good, and important. I'm glad I didn't really stop and think about the tags it made the last two bits give my heart a nice little drop. Good to feel, because until then I didn't think my heart had picked itself off the floor from last week. Poor Twilight.
Saw the ending coming from pretty far away, but I'm not upset with it. I consider it a happy ending, because it proves that Alicorns CAN die if they really want to. It sucks that Twilight is trapped in her responsibility for as long as she feels she needs to be, but her suffering will end as surely as the sister's someday, and she'll be with them again.
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It can't have been the entire time; the first letter, at least, is before Twilight takes the throne, and we know Celestia was alive then. I do wonder just when the change happened, though.
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Yeah, one of the hard things about graves fics and the new tags is that it spoils any real surprise they might have in them. It's one of the issues with a story revolving on a twist, I suppose.
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It's a mix of anger from envy, as well as a feeling of obligation to remain and see to the well-being of Equestria, lest Twilight's sacrifices all be in vain. She does what she must, even as it pains her to do so.
It should be no surprise then that Celestia had her School for Gifted Unicorns running to find a new protege. After things with Sunset Shimmer didn't work out, this new unicorn with a cutie mark from the Tree of Harmony had to seem, to her, fated to finally be her ticket out.
It should be no surprise then, that Twilight has kept the school going, and eagerly sent Luster Dawn to Ponyville to learn about the 'magic of friendship'. Just because Celestia served over 1000 years, doesn't mean Twilight is about to. No fool, she. She's all about those term limits.
A fine story overall, but how does "I tried talking to your sister" work if Luna is also dead?
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Maybe they didn't die at the same time.
Maybe she wrote a letter to 'Luna' in the same way she's writing to Celestia now.
Maybe she 'talked' to Luna in the same way Spike did when he delivered it.
Twilight is not well, and is somewhat of an unreliable narrator in this.
Honestly, this is the part I always felt was something that should've been addressed in the show. Twilight NEVER even hinted at wanting to become a Princess, she liked studying magic and just needed some friends, she never asked to have all this crap just dumped onto her and eventually being forced to bear the weight of an entire country on her shoulders along with having to watch her friends, family and everything else she loved slowly wither away with time.
If Twilight had the option with no negative repercussions, I know she'd have chosen to going back to just being Ponyville's librarian as opposed to a Princess.
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Honestly, this is probably my biggest peeve with Twilight's character arc. Nobody ever asked Twilight what she wants. Not the Princesses, not her friends, not anypony. It's always "Are you ready for this?" and "Can you handle this?" it's never "Do you want this?". I kind of wish somebody at some point just sat down with her and gave her the respect to just ask what she actually wanted, or if she was really okay with any of this.
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My personal crazy theory is that if a time-traveling Twilight came back to before the first episode and told Twilight about all the history that's been hidden from her up to that point, all the stuff that will happen if she follows The Plan, and how things worked out in all the alternate realities Twilight has seen, Twi would have decided to somehow reform Nightmare Moon without using the Elements, then helped Luna run Equestria, probably while living in the Ponyville library.
I have to admit, I did NOT see that coming...
Somehow, this makes the idea of Twilight's immortality even worse.
Twice now, I've had ideas for stories come to me and not leave me alone or let me sleep until I wrote them down. I'm guessing this was a similar thing.
I'm still not ready.
I really liked it, thank you.
Some real sadboi hours going on
Forgot to add a quotation mark after the “she said.”
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Fixed
An interesting and touching look at Twilight's reaction to what she's gone through, with a heartbreaking ending.
10/10, would cry again.