Letters - IV

Conscience is instinct bred in the house, 
Feeling and Thinking propagate the sin 
By an unnatural breeding in and in. 
I say, Turn it out doors, 
Into the moors. 
I love a life whose plot is simple, 
And does not thicken with every pimple, 
A soul so sound no sickly conscience binds it, 
That makes the universe no worse than 't finds it. 
I love an earnest soul, 
Whose mighty joy and sorrow 
Are not drowned in a bowl, 
And brought to life to-morrow; 
That lives one tragedy, 
And not seventy; 
A conscience worth keeping; 
Laughing not weeping; 
A conscience wise and steady, 
And forever ready; 
Not changing with events, 
Dealing in compliments; 
A conscience exercised about 
Large things, where one may doubt. 
I love a soul not all of wood, 
Predestinated to be good, 
But true to the backbone 
Unto itself alone, 
And false to none; 
Born to its own affairs, 
Its own joys and own cares; 
By whom the work which God begun 
Is finished, and not undone; 
Taken up where he left off, 
Whether to worship or to scoff; 
If not good, why then evil, 
If not good god, good devil. 
Goodness! you hypocrite, come out of that, 
Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. 
I have no patience towards 
Such conscientious cowards. 
Give me simple laboring folk, 
Who love their work, 
Whose virtue is song 
To cheer God along.

by Henry David Thoreau

Dear Princess Luna,

Thank you.

My waste bin is full of false starts: Longer winded gratitude, nervous anecdotes, I think I even tried to crack a bad ex-villain joke at one point?

Then I remembered something Twilight once told me. "The magic of friendship can be boiled down to three things: Patience, compassion, and simplicity." I thought she was joking with the last one. Simplicity? Like her mile long lists? But... I think what she means is, simplicity is without conceit. It's true that feelings can get complicated and tangled, but how do you solve the worst knots? Go back to the beginning and move carefully forward. All you have to do is follow the thread. Simple.

I am grateful for your last letter, so I say, "Thank you!" and leave it at that.

Though I guess I already failed that, huh? Twilight says simplicity is a lifelong pursuit. That's one big knot, if you ask me!

As for forgiving myself... It's strange. I can hardly recognize the pony in the mirror most days. I want so badly to forget the things I've done, but that just leads to repeating mistakes. I visit my foalhood friend Sunburst on the weekends, and he picks my brain about how I traveled through time. I'm happy to share the knowledge, but it digs up bad memories. I have nightmares of the wasteland Twilight showed me.

At the risk of sounding rude, your choices led to one possible bad future. In my case, my choices very nearly led to all of them.

Though, I guess to soften the harshness of that fact, Sunburst claims time is a linear track, and even though the futures changed depending on how I tried to change history, only one of them could have been possible. Meaning none of them were, since Twilight talked me out of it. But then Dr. Hooves, a resident here at Ponyville, argued vehemently that from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, time is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. Meaning I guess that all the futures could have been true? And are? I'd bring it up with Twilight, but I can only handle so many lectures in a week...

Still grateful, and wishing all the best,
Starlight Glimmer

Comments

[Cynewulf]

Time travel is the worst

I remember reading a fic where Hooves and Twilight argued their way into a full blown relationship because of temporal theory. Maybe it was Salvation.

[Troublesome Beast]

Ouch. There's a double hitter there. One wonders why the good doctor is... Prodding. Though it could just be distraction, given the doctor's nature.

But poor Starlight. Sunburst likely doesn't even know. Too assertive in some things, not enough in others.