//------------------------------// // Dear Princess Celestia // Story: Letters // by TalkingToMyself //------------------------------// To Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia, Please allow me to express my deepest gratitude to receive correspondence from Your Highness. To be worthy of receiving Your Highness' personal words points as an unforgettable event in the life of anypony, especially of a lowly subject as myself. More so, it is truly the blessing of a lifetime to receive invitation to Your Highness palace. The fact that Your Highness would even consider me for a personal audience leaves me with a loss of words suitable enough to even begin expressing my gratitude and happiness of such happening. Truly, Your Highness' benevolence is outshone only by Your Highness sun's radiance. It is with but endless grief and everlasting shame that I find myself unable to follow your invitation and comply Your Highness wishes to enlighten my unworthy self with her shining brilliance. There is no way for me to ever make up for such failings against Your Highness and even asking for forgiveness is futile compared to the gravity of my sacrilege. Never again shall I be able to walk in the shine of Your Glorious Sun without being pained to know how miserably I disappointed its ruler, Your Highness Princess Celestia. While I'm not deemed worthy to ever receive your response, I'm willing to receive any punishment Your Royal Highness plans to send at me and furthermore... "Okay, I'm gonna stop right here. You want me to send this to Princess Celestia? Seriously?" Spike tore his eyes away from the parchment and back to the mare who had written it. Crystal Note face darkened with a frown and she whispered in her meek voice "You're right. It's probably not formal enough for the Princess." "Not formal enough???" Spike's voice was loud enough to echo through the room by now and he smacked his calw against his forehead to stop himself from yelling "Okay, listen. Princess Celestia just invited you for tea on Sunday. I'm pretty sure all she expects as a response is 'Yes' or 'No.' from you." Crystal Note shook her head and some strands of her mane escaped from her bandana "Spike, this is Princess Celestia we're talking about, the guardian of the sun and ruler of all of Equestria. I can't just say "No" to her, she's the highest royalty of the entire land. King Sombra punished all ponies who did not show proper respect towards him." Spike rolled his eyes "What do you think the princess will do if you're not formal enough? Banish you and then throw you in a dungeon in the place she banishes you to?" Crystal Note blinked confused and shook her head "Come on Spike. That's ridiculous." He let out a sigh of relief but his claw flew to his forehead again when the mare added "Princess Celestia is practically a Goddess, so she'll most likely smite me down with divine light or something." Spike stared at the crystal pony and his mouth hung open while his left eye twitched. He needed a minute to snap out of it with a vigorous shake of his head “Okay, first of all, Princess Celestia is not like King Sombra was, and second she’d never smite down a pony for not having tea with her. She would never smite down anypony, period.” Crystal Note looked down at the floor, surprised at how the young dragon would defend the princess “Spike, you don’t get it, it’s…” “No, you don’t get it!” Spike interrupted her “I’ve been living in the palace most of my life and Princess Celestia practically raised me until Twilight and I were old enough. I know the princess and I’ve seen how she’s in private as well. The worst thing I ever saw was her shouting at somepony and she even apologized for that right after.” Crystal Note clenched her eyes shut and kept her head hung low when Spike finished. The young dragon, with the parchment still in his left claw, pinched his brow “Listen, what I’m trying to say is Princess Celestia really is a nice pony. Just tell her you’re busy on Sunday and why you can’t come and she’ll understand. Maybe you can schedule something the week after instead.” Spike watched how Crystal Note’s ears flopped down until the almost vanished in her yellow curls. He had spent enough years with Twilight Sparkle to notice all the signs that raised his suspicion “You are busy on Sunday, right?” “Well…” For the third time today, his claw met his forehead “Oh, come on! If you’re not busy, why don’t you just go see Princess Celestia?” “And then what, Spike?” The young dragon doubled back as a pair of angry turquoise eyes bore into his “Do you really think Princess Celestia would invite me just because she needs company for tea? She has a whole city of important ponies she could invite for that.” “But she invited you because she wants to meet you, Crystal Note. I’m sure she and Luna talked about what happened and now she wants to get to know you. I don’t see what the big deal is.” Crystal Note sighed deeply “Spike, you know Princess Luna, right? She’s one of the nicest and kindest ponies I’ve ever met and she helped me so much. But Princess Celestia banished her to the moon for a thousand years anyways. Maybe she didn’t have any other choice, maybe she was just mad at Princess Luna, fact is she did it and she didn’t leave any loose ends to it. She more or less erased her out of pony history.” Before Spike could say anything in defence of the Princess, Crystal Note glared again and he remained silent. “Now imagine,” she continued, “what will happen when I meet her. I’m the only crystal unicorn because all the other ones fell during her war with King Sombra. I am the last loose end left of King Sombra’s dark magic –and- the threat against her nation from the past. So Princess Celestia will take the chance to end this once and for all when she gets hold of me.” Spike had been listening with his arms crossed before his chest, but as Crystal Note started explaining, his arms slowly sunk down until the hung loosely at his sides. His eyes opened wider with each word, as did his mouth. In the end, he stood there staring at the crystal pony, completely surprised and confused “I don’t believe it. I’ve never thought it was even possible, but you’re even more paranoid about the Princess than Twilight!” Now Crystal Note stared at the dragon in disbelieve and from the far end of the library, the mentioned alicorn called out annoyed “Hey! I heard that!” Spike rolled his eyes and snapped the crystal pony out of her daze “Look. Let’s say for a moment Princess Celestia really was mad at you for whatever reason. You really think she’d invite you to lure you to Canterlot? She could just have the royal guard arrest you and take you there. Or she could come herself and say she wants to visit Twilight and then go after you when nopony will notice. Heck, if she was that angry, she could just smite you on the spot anywhere as soon as you step into the sunlight next time.” Crystal Note tried to respond, but other than her lips moving without words, she just went back to staring. She couldn’t find anything to say because, to her own horror, everything Spike said made perfect sense “You see how ridiculous this is? She sent a letter through me to Twilight and asked her to forward her letter to you. She didn’t ask her to do it secretly even, so lots of ponies saw how Twilight gave you the letter. Even if this was all a big scheme, Princess Celestia would create more open ends that way.” Crystal Note slumped on her haunches with another deep sigh as her eyes darted back to the floor “Crystal Note, there is no way Princess Celestia will hurt you. I’m pretty sure she just wants to chat. After all, you and Luna are the only ponies left who can still remember Canterlot from a thousand years ago.” Crystal Note smiled and a soft giggle bubbled out “More or less. I still don’t know, Spike.” “Well, you know what I do when I’m not sure about something?” Crystal Note kept her head low but her eyes glanced up to the dragon “Run away from the decision and hope it will somehow just pass eventually?” Both of the chuckled for a moment before Spike shook his head “I go ask my friends for advice.” This time the crystal pony raised her head to meet Spike’s gaze squarely as the young dragon continued “Because I know my friends will always tell me what they think is best for me, as good as they can at least.” Crystal Note thought for a moment while looking at Spike, with his big honest smile and an almost childlike innocence in his eyes, despite the sharp wits he just showed. After a minute of hesitation, she spoke up “Hey Spike? Do you think I should take the invitation?” “Totally!” Spike grinned widely and winked “Though I might be a little biased on that one. Hey Twilight!” The purple alicorn looked up from her book as Spike called her from the other side of the room “Yes?” “You think Crystal Note should go visit Princess Celestia this weekend?” “Of course! She keeps asking me about Crystal Note in her letters and I know she’d love to meet her. Why are you asking?” “Just double-checking.” He winked to Crystal Note again “See? There’s your answer for that. But if you’re still not convinced, you could ask the others, they all met Princess Celestia as well. Or go ask Lyra, she’s been in Princess Celestia’s school with Twilight, I bet she could tell you a thing or two.” Crystal Note nodded and sat down to think. By a force of habit, she started to play with the strands of hair that had escaped her bandana. An even older habit made her hum a soft tune under her breath as thoughts raced through her mind. “Hey Spike? Could I borrow a quill from you?” Spike grinned and held out the parchment to the crystal pony the same time a quill floated into her field of vision, levitated by a purple glow of magic. Crystal Note turned her head around and smiled back at Princess Twilight who was standing behind her by now. Crystal Note took the quill in her mouth, her horn writing was still not the best even after weeks of practice. She scribbled down a few words before she rolled up the scroll and hugged Spike. The young dragon just smiled and happily reciprocated before he took the letter from her. Princess Twilight was the next to receive a hug before Crystal Note left the library and stepped out into the bright sunny day. Twilight and Spike watched her with a smile “So, you heard everything from over there, huh?” Twilight Sparkle hummed affirmatively and the young dragon gently poked her side, which caused her to giggle “You could have helped me, you know.” “Nah, you had it covered. And you handled it perfectly, Spike. I’m proud of you.” Now it was Spikes turn to giggle, along with a feint blush as he rubbed the back of his head “Well, you know. All in a day’s work for a number one assistant.” Twilight just smiled and wrapped one of her wings around Spike as they watched through the window as Crystal Note walked back into town. Twilight gently nudged the young dragon with her muzzle "Don't forget to actually send that letter, Spike." "Right. On it!" He took a deep breath and exhaled a small burst of his green flames. The enchanted fire engulfed the scroll and turned it into a cloud of smoke that flew out through the still open door, directly towards Canterlot. Under the words from Princess Celestia, a few more words were written on the parchment "Dear Princess Celestia, Thank you for Your invitation. I'd be happy to come for tea. See you on Sunday. Your humble subject, Crystal Note”