Dear Mother:
How many times have I started this blasted letter? A thousand? Two thousand? I have literally lost count. Of my many lifetime sins, perhaps one of the most grievous is how many trees I sacrificed over the years to simply write two words atop sheets of paper, only to bawl them up and discard them…. Much the same way I felt discarded.
I certainly hope you can forgive my lingering bitterness. As much as I regret what I wrote in the last letter I mailed you, none of it was false, not to me. Regardless of how true or not true my claims had been, I should not have said such terrible things to you. I am sorry, Mother. I was sorry as soon as I sent the letter, and yet…. I felt compelled to let you know of my discontent.
Please don’t misunderstand, and please don’t stop reading. I promise that this isn’t going to be like my last letter. It will lack the venom that my youthful rage had ingrained within the words, but there will be pain in my message. Please, humor me, Mother.
First of all, I want to thank you for giving birth to me. I realize that I was not the mare you wanted me to be, nor was i the right species. Even now, I truly I wish I would have been born a unicorn, rather than take after Father. Don’t get me wrong, Father was a wonderful stallion, and I am proud that I lived up to his legacy. Fate is cruel though, for he would have been just as proud of me had i been born with a horn, rather than without. It is unfortunate that the same could not be said of you. Still, I am here because of you. So, thank you.
Had I been blessed with a horn and magic, then perhaps we could have been closer. Perhaps…. I could have been like Twilight Sparkle.
It would be a lie for me to claim that I’m not jealous of the Princess of Friendship, but i am not envious of her for the reasons one might think. I don’t care about castles, accolades, or glory. However, Twilight recieved things that I wanted most from life… your attention, your patience, your forgiveness, and your love.
During that one fated Summer Sun Celebration, you had chosen our town…. my town as the site for the most glorious of rituals. I remember thinking that you had perhaps seen it in your infinite and profound wisdom to forgive your foolish daughter at last. I had worked so hard, and you had even sent a helper to ensure the celebration’s success. If only I had known that your representative would be the one whom I longed to be the most.
I heard rumors over the years, about other star pupils, but none were like Twilight Sparkle. Even I am wise enough to admit she deserves to be your star pupil. Know this, had I had the ability to do magic, I would have devoted multiple lifetimes to mastering magic… if only to make you smile at me like you smiled at Twilight.
That is why I became a mayor after all. It was the only way that I could even come close to being like you. I had hoped that you would have noticed what a good job I had done with Ponyville, and I really did try my best.
No one , aside from your star pupil, could have seen the return of Nightmare Moon, and none could have saved your sister like Twilight either. By all accounts, she deserves to be the daughter you never had with me.
At the celebration, when you debuted Princess Luna to the citizens of Ponyville, I tried to get your attention. I tried to show you my smile. You never noticed me.
I wonder if you would have noticed me if I would have kept my natural hair color. After all, it was the same color you once had. Having your hair color only reminded me of the fragile relationship I had shattered with my stinging words. After all, it was those words that stopped your infrequent letters to me. It is my own foolishness that banished me into isolation. From my own research, I discovered that Princess Luna had a bout of foolishness that doomed her in a similar fashion.
Does my aunt even know I exist? I mean… she has perhaps seen into my dreams, but does she know that our blood is the same?
Does it even matter at this point?
I remember when I was a filly, and I was living with Father in Canterlot. Some of my fondest memories were when you used
to fly into my room at night, whisk me up in your wings and hold me close, and sing me to sleep. Do you remember that lullaby you used to soothe me with?
What happened to us? Why did those things have to stop?
You came to Ponyville so many times, and not once did you ever come to see me, or say hello. Whenever I tried to approach wherever you were, your guards would turn me away. Did they know that you hated me? Did they know that you wanted nothing to do with your bitter failure of a daughter? Perhaps not. Perhaps it was just the ripples I created in the giant pond of destiny. I should have been more understanding. I should have been more patient. Of all the things i had ever done, that is what i regret the most. I ruined the best thing I ever had...
Mother, I have never stopped loving you. I have never stopped dreaming of those nights when you would comfort me, and cherish me. I long for those, and I despair that they are long lost in the vast river of time. I’m sorry that I had been a bad daughter. I’m sorry I was so brash. I wish that you could forgive me.
I started this letter thousands of times, but I had to actually finish it this time...
Mother, I’m dying.
For the last year, I had been battling with an aggressive form of cancer, and no matter how many magical treatments I went through, or how many arcane potions I drank, the cancer would always return. I’m tired, Mother. I’ve given so much to this town, and they don’t even need me anymore.
After all, a princess lives here now. Princesses are always more important than mayors… always.
I’m not going to lie… I’m so scared. I don’t have a lot of friends or loved ones, mostly because I threw myself into my work… just like you did. I wanted to be like you so much that I now find myself quite alone.
Anyway, I don’t think I have anything else to say.
I love you, and I always will.
Your foolish daughter,
Mare-in.
***
It was a cool night tonight, and Mayor Mare laid in her bed, gazing out through her balcony doors. She blinked, and it took more effort than it should have. That was a sign. Would it be tonight? It had to be… please… oh sweet Celestia let it be tonight.
Her throat was dry, and she would have loved to take a sip from the cup beside her bed. Her body lacked the strength to reach for it though. This sudden weakness had embraced her about an hour after her nurse had went home for the night. Mayor Mare’s body had also lost some of its normal heat.
For just a moment, Mayor Mare gazed at the picture resting on the nightstand beside the cup of water. She was younger in the picture, and her pink hair had been styled like the famous and elegant mares of the Canterlot elite. She smiled.
The stallion beside her was an older earth pony.
“I’m coming, Father,” Mayor Mare thought. “I did my best, just like I promised you.” She had planned on speaking the words aloud, but she couldn’t summon the energy to do so.
Several tears dripped on to the bed, and she sniffled a little.
Slowly, her eyes drifted back to the balcony.
The doors were open, and a white-coated mare stood at the threshold between the open night and the chamber saturated with eminent death. The mare was taller than any other pony in Equestria. Her elegant white wings, which were extended seconds before, folded against her torso. The alicorn’s white horn pierced the stillness of the room like a needle.
Mayor Mare glanced up, and she urged every ounce of her strength to smile. Did her mother see it?
Princess Celestia moved across the room, closer to the bed, and the soft clop of her hooves resounded like thunder. She didn’t say anything as her horn glowed with a yellow light.
The same aura of energy cascaded around Mayor Mare’s body, and she was lifted into the air.
All Mayor Mare could do was watch as one of Princess Celestia’s wings flapped open and wrapped around her frail form.
The Princess leaned down, kissed the top of Mayor Mare’s forehead, and then gazed into her eyes. Two, radiant magenta pools glanced back at her. For a moment, the chillness that had plagued Mayor Mare’s body had retreated back momentarily. Great warmth encompassed her.
And then Princess Celestia started singing. Mayor Mare was brought in closer, and never once did Princess Celestia break eye contact.
“Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to lay your sleepy head,
Hush now, quiet now,
It’s time to go to bed…”
The weakness returned, and it was even stronger than before. Mayor Mare’s body shuddered, but she stared into her mother’s eyes.
“Drift, drift off to sleep,
Leave the exciting day behind you,
Drift, drift off to sleep,
So the dark dream might find you.”
Each breath became harder to draw in than the one before it, and yet…. This whole thing wasn’t nearly as frightening as what she thought it would have been. After all, Mayor Mare had her mother there.
“Hush now, quiet now,
Its time to lay your sleepy head,
Hush now, quiet now,
It’s time to go to bed.”
Tears fell upon her face from above, and Mayor Mare glanced up one last time. Blackness consumed the world around her, but in the center of the vortex of ominous mystery, her mother still reigned as a brilliant beacon.
The last thing she saw was the loving eyes of a mother… a mother who had never stopped adoring and caring for her earth pony daughter. A mother who perhaps wanted the rekindling of their relationship more so than Mayor Mare herself.
In her last moments, Mayor Mare felt sweet relief.
The end.