Dear Twilight,
you should have seen Rainbow's face. I didn't need changeling empathy to know that she was so jealous you and your friends got to do that. She loves those comics. Some things are weird, of course, like the comic being called 'Power Ponies' on this side as well, despite the heroines clearly being human. I could go into details about Rainbow gushing about this but you know how she can get so I don't suppose I really have to.
Enjoy your stay in Ponyville,
Sunset
Dear Sunset,
turns out my stay in Ponyville wasn't as relaxing as I hoped. The morning after we returned AJ discovered an infestation of Vampire Fruitbats in her orchards. Fluttershy wanted to build a Sanctuary for them. Oh how I wish we'd have listened to her to begin with.
Basically what happened was that we had Fluttershy use her Stare (can your Fluttershy do that to? I know there isn't much in terms of magic beyond the portal, but your Pinkie has the same reality bending powers so I won't rule it out.) to hold the bats in place. Then I used magic to try and stop the bats' hunger for fruit, so they wouldn't eat the whole orchard.
It seemed to work, but the next morning the apples had been eaten anyway.
It took us some time to find out but apparently my magic had traveled along Fluttershy's stare and transferred the fruitbat traits onto her.
It was a rather intriguing transformation, really. Red eyes, leathery wings, fangs, large bat ears, the whole program. It took some effort to catch her, but once we had it was only a matter of reversing the spell.
In the end we did build a sanctuary anyway.
I'm now on the way back home, It'll be less than two weeks before Aegis and her brothers (still feels weird to say that) hatch.
Take good care of CHS,
Twilight
Dear Twilight,
oh yes, our Fluttershy can do that too, the Stare is pretty much the only thing that can keep the Crusaders in line when they get one of their ideas. So are you saying, pony-Fluttershy effectively turned into a vampony a few days ago? Because I got a text from Fluttershy (the local one) this morning saying she couldn't sleep tonight and really could go for some apples.
It could just be coincidence but maybe the two worlds are more closely connected than we first assumed.
Just hypothesizing here, don't mind my ramblings,
Sunset
Dear Sunset,
true it may just be coincidence, but it may be more than that. Without a powerful source of arcane magic (the harmonic magic you brought over likely wouldn't work) the effects likely couldn't manifest properly so all your Fluttershy felt was a sudden hunger for apples and a bit of insomnia.
Let me know if there is something else that you think may be affected by the Equestrian side of the portal,
Twilight
Dear Sunset,
I have adult children. Aegis, Intel, Ferrum and Riposte hatched a few hours ago. I'll give them a few days to acclimate to adult life, then we'll head out to Manehattan. Rarity managed to get into the Manehattan Fashion Week. The other girls will be there too and this is an excellent chance to show my first adult children around an Equestrian city.
I'll let you know how things go there,
Twilight
Dear Twilight,
congratulations. Both to you and your kids. Still kinda hard to believe that you have adult kids, I mean you're basically as old as I am and you have not only kids, but adult kids. Kinda hard to wrap your head around. I texted the girls. They send their congratulations as well.
Good luck in Manehatten, don't get lost.
Sunset
Dear Sunset,
thank you for your well wishes. I know it must be even more confusing to you and the girls, since you get the sped-up version of everything that happens here on top of changelings growing up faster. (how long has it been for you? a month?)
In other news: The fashion world is ruthless. Today Rarity had her Fashion Week contest. She invented a new kind of fabric especially for it. Another designer named Suri Polomare saw it and, generous mare that she is, Rarity gave her some of the fabric. Said designer then turned that into a whole line and submitted it before Rarity did hers so it would look like Rarity had copied her.
Only flaw in her plan was that she couldn't resist gloating, and that Rarity is a far superior designer. She made a fantastic new line from the things we had in our hotel suites.
In the end she won the contest anyway and she'd have left it at that.
Aegis wasn't having it though. She and a young mare named Coco Pommel worked together to reveal Suri for the fraud she was. The fashion world did not take kindly to that. Let's just say Suri won't be taking part in any Manehattan contest any time soon.
Rarity ended up befriending Coco and perhaps she'll even employ her one day.
Lesson learned: Don't mess with my kids, or their friends.
Take care Sunset,
Twilight
Dear Twilight,
I agree, not messing with your kids sounds like a good idea, so does not messing with you actually, I can only guess at the kind of magical power a changeling queen studied under Celestia would have.
That designer, I can't help but feel I've heard her name before, I'll ask Rarity tomorrow.
Take good care of your kids,
Sunset.
Dear Twilight,
I was right. I asked Rarity about Suri Polomare and she is in fact a somewhat known aspiring fashion designer over in Crystal City. I warned her to be careful around Suri, just in case she is anything like her counterpart.
Speaking of Crystal City. Today Principal Celestia announced that our school would be hosting the Friendship Games a month from now. It's a competition happening every four years between CHS and Crystal Prep Academy over in the City.
We'll see how that goes.
Sunset.
Dear Sunset,
Friendship games, huh? Sounds interesting, I'll have to see if I can manage to attend. Say, is it just me or does Crystal City and Crystal Prep sound suspiciously like a counterpart to the Crystal Empire? What kind of friendship are they about? Between students? Between Schools?
Anyway, I got a letter from Pinkie Pie today, turns out she may or may not be a distant cousin of the Apple family. They went on a bit of a road trip together. Another cousin of the Apple Family, Goldie Delicious seems to be some kind of family historian. Turns out the same smudge Spike found on the scroll that first tipped them off, was also on the records Goldie had. Some ponies really don't care much for their work it seems, one does not copy ink smudges.
In the end they decided that it didn't really matter because they were so close friends, they would treat each other like family anyway.
Did something like that happen on your side as well? Did the humans actually manage to copy their records properly?
Take care, and good luck with your games,
Twilight
Dear Twilight,
as it turns out, the answer to most of your questions is 'Yes'. It does sound a lot like the Crystal Empire and Pinkie did indeed go on a roadtrip with AJ today. However, no they couldn't find any conclusive evidence here either.
As far as I understand it CHS and CPA have a rather long-standing rivalry and no one really remembers why the event is called Friendship games. But with all the magic here now, we shall see if we can't remind them.
Well, it's still a month till then, we'll see what the girls get up to in the meantime.
Sunset
Dear Sunset,
today I got a letter from my friends. They spent the day together at Rainbow Falls. The qualifications for the Equestria Games Aerial Relay were held there. I knew that beforehoof of course, some of mine and mother's drones were there as well, after all. The EGPC approved of having mother's drones and mine compete in the games as well. (they did forbid them from disguising in the competition. Not sure why, as an illusion doesn't affect performance but maybe they think we actually shapeshift) Rainbow had a blast catching up with Brass Excursor, he was her guide throughout the first few weeks of her stay in Stripped Gear. He spent most of that time chasing after her, but they became friends anyway.
That aside, the Wonderbolts (competing for Cloudsdale, obviously) apparently tried to get Rainbow to fly with them. Not sure what they were trying to accomplish with that. She may be a Wonderbolt but she still lives in Ponyville. Not sure why they thought getting the Element of Loyalty to abandon her home team had any chance of success at all. I guess sometimes ponies just don't think things through.
It seems the evening was as fun as the day. The girls had a wild party and, if Rarity's hornwriting is any indication, got terribly drunk. (the first half of the letter is written by somepony who is clearly not in full control of their magic, and the second half by somepony who is trying to use magic with a terrible headache)
From what I could deduce Pinkie vanished at some point and even she can't remember what happened that night.
In the end Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and both teams from SG ended up qualifying so all is well. We're preparing a party for both our teams when they return.
It seems we'll both be partaking in games of some form rather soon. Good luck with yours,
Twilight