Dear Princess Twilight,
Hello from the School of Friendship! It’s the ambassador students writing to you today; this is Ocellus, personally conducting the letter. Smolder, Yona, Gallus, Sandbar and Silverstream all want to all say hello to you as well in a big personal letter!
We’re writing to you by request of Headmare Starlight, because... well. Recently, we brought up a problem that we weren’t able to figure out on our own... Namely, what will become of us? Us being a bit figurative, but meaning ‘your students’ and ‘you.’ You and the other professors. Your students who have spent the first days of our real “lives” together, with others who feel the same as us. Who were rejected because of the norms of society, and have come to be accepted now after the fact. Something that was impossible, before you opened up your ideals of ‘Friendship’ to the world. Ideals we’ve been striving to learn from and represent...
Gallus is pointing out that the school is named after you, and that you founded it- but I’m reminding him that we can’t expect you to run a school and a country at the same time. Certainly not on your first day! We know you’ll be around again sooner or later, checking up on Headmare Starlight and us of course. Yona says you’ll ‘lead us from a distance’, which I guess she’s meaning by example, but it might be a Yak saying. Silverstream thinks it means you’ll be with us in spirit, because you’ve already taught us all you can with your heart.
Personally? I know it means you’ll be a part of our lives for a long time. You’ve been a part of some of our lives now for years in some way or another- whether your saving our world from crashing down under the weight of evils and powers we can’t control, or inspiring greatness in others, so we inspire ourselves. So I’m not too worried about the problem, but I still share my other classmate’s opinions...
We miss you!!!
Smolder wrote that. She’s proud of herself- she snatched the scroll to write that... but, she’s not wrong. It’s only been a few days, and already it feels like months. You all taught us so much, from Professor Applejack’s Honesty Lessons, to Pinkie’s Pranking Projects, and even Professor Fluttershy’s Kindness Courses. Generosity & Fabulosity, and Awesomeness in Loyalty.
We all miss you, so so much already... Sandbar’s saying we shouldn’t be trying so hard to hold onto you guys. You’ll still be here for us when we need you- just a letter away in some cases, or maybe a quick ‘trot’ down the road. Heh...
Silverstream just told him that he’s missing the point in the letter though- to underline the problem we want to bring up. Some of you may still be within reach, but it won’t be... ‘The Same’ as having you actually teaching us again. We don’t want you guys to drop everything of course and just come back to the school- you have a lot going on in your lives. Professor Applejack was often caught being late to class because she had to run from the orchard, and Professor Rarity was always working on a dress, and multi-tasking when teaching us. (She always gave us plenty of her time though, when we asked.) Yona just said ‘too much’, which I guess means she was being too generous for her own good.
(There’s a lull in the conversation right now, so I’m just going to fill in my two bits real quick.)
Personally? I miss your Workshop classes. I miss you recalling the stories about the adventure’s you had with your friends for days on end. Camping in the Everfree, exploring the Castle of the Two Sisters, pretending to be a Hero to quell Professor Dash’s ego- especially the stories about your own troubles. Your “Lesson Zero” as Spike called it was fascinating to listen to, if a little off putting. I can’t see you even being that kind of pony, if ever. I miss you going over the tunes Pinkie Pie sang, or the incident with the Parasprites. Especially Professor Pinkie’s clones! That was a great workshop to talk about!~
... I... I miss them. I’m going to miss them- I know you wrote a lot of them down in your book (which we have a copy of in our library,) and maybe even told us a few that weren’t but. Hearing from your experience? It wasn’t just stories you told, but your lives you were sharing. Being so open and honest with yourselves to us. Being so honest about your friends with us...
(Oh- Conversations resumed. I’ll pick back up on this in a minute!)
Gallus says you guys will forget about us in time- that we aren’t anyone special. Just a bunch of kids most part. Which, he’s half right, we are a bunch of kids, but I don’t agree with him. I know we aren’t just kids to you, we’re more than that. Much more. He says you all will forget about us with time, move on from us and we’ll move on from you, which. Yeah. Some of us might but, I don’t believe any of us want to. Silverstream just told him she would swear to never forget about her days here at the School- she’s swearing up and down to him right now with a Pinkie Promise that she’ll remember every moment of these days we spend together. That we spent with you together...
Actually. I just thought of something- and I’m sharing it with them as I write. But I just realized, we’re going to be the only students who remember you, as our professors. The next year of students, won’t have you as their teachers. They won’t have the teachings from ‘The Elements of Harmony’. The greatest Teachers of Friendship in the world. Nothing against our future teachers of course, but it just won’t be the same as having the real pillars... How are we supposed to deal with that? I feel like we should maybe share our experiences with the next year of students when they come along. And that we make friends with them? Silverstream is agreeing with me- as is Yona and Sandbar.
Smolder’s talking about why they should care about you guys, besides being the elements of harmony. You were just “our” teachers (she’s waggling two of her claws when she is saying this,) not “theirs.” Why would they care. And, yeah. I agree with her on that to a degree too, I can’t really feel like anyone else outside of our year is really going to understand what it’ll mean to be without you going forwards...
But, I guess that means we’ll just need to stick together going forwards, right? As long as we have each other, we’ll also have you there too. Our memories of you.
....
Yona’s talking about our first day now. Things got quiet when I said that, I think she’s trying to lighten the mood. She says it was her first time in the pony-lands, and the school itself wasn’t too interesting. The school was boring (no offense, but it WAS really boring for those first few days) and we are all kinda agreeing with her that it was. But, then she says we were right there with her through it. Through the boring stuff. We all felt the same way as she did, and we all found a way to bond over it. Together.
Gallus just chuckled. He says he remembered something funny Smolder said back at that lake out by the edge of the school grounds. Smolder asked him what, but he isn’t telling her. She’s getting kinda red in the face asking him what it was, and we’re all trying not to laugh.
Sandbar thinks I should be writing this all down, but I don’t see why. I don’t want to record our off topic stuff...
(Another pause. Gonna continue with my thoughts)
... I remember once. In one of the first workshop’s we had, when the school really ‘Opened’, you asked us to define what ‘Magic’ was. I told you that that was impossible, because no one has been able to successfully define magic in the last 1300 years of history. I said; “Starswirl the Bearded once described magic as that which cannot be explained in measurements. Not chaos, not insanity, not strength, not intelligence, but something weirder. Something abstract and unreal, but yet, beyond physical. Something that is more confounding than love, and something more impossible than fate... It would be easier to describe what Magic literally isn’t, than what it is.”
You told me I was correct, and that Magic was indeed impossible to describe. It was everything, or nothing, at the same time. Magic couldn’t be bound to our words, and our thoughts, but it could be felt and believed in.
You then told us that Magic was real. And of course, we agreed with you- but then you clarified. “Magic is truth. An absolute truth, a truth that you believe in, one that is specific to you and only you. The reason Magic cannot be defined, is the same reason we all see the world so differently. Because we all come from different kinds of “Truth”. Truth about the world, and how we see it. How we interact with it, and how it interacts with us.” You went on to tell us how Magic was bound to our souls and our nature, and our beings... And you said as the Element of Magic yourself, you didn’t understand why it had to be you when it all happened.
It could have been anyone, but. Then you said, it could have ‘only been you’. Your view of the world was limited. It was small, and deceptively close minded. It was weak and it was false, flimsy to even the smallest push from the outside world. You knew the contents of (several) entire libraries, but said “none of that information would help you with the will of the world.” You told us that it could have ‘only been you’ because you didn’t know what your truth was... Until you met your friends.
(Okay, Smolder just yelled out that we all got kinda lost and I wasn’t paying attention for the last 20 minutes everyone’s been talking. Sorry for the rambling, I’ll try and wrap it up the next moment I can.)
Honestly. We’re all feeling kinda lost right now. Our point we were trying to make was that... We don’t know what to do. It’s not over yet- we’ve got next year to look forward too of course, and all the years after that! But. We kinda feel like that, without you guys. We (and I quote) “Have lost something important.” according to Yona... I agree with her. We have.
We lost friends. (I just said that outloud to everyone.) They haven’t gone to someplace we won’t ever see them again. I mean, we’ll see you guys around lots! Just in a lot less than what we’re used to, or... really want. You’ve all become our friends- every last one of us. And I just feel like, maybe we all are afraid of losing pieces of ourselves without you. Pieces of you that aren’t going to be around without your guidance, or your presence right here with us.
(... I just stopped everyone, and read out my personal thoughts to them. There’s an important reason why I did this, I promise, just bear with me for a moment.)
You have taught us, so much, Professor Twilight. You, and your friends. And, I think in that process, you taught us something else. Something that will stick with us for a long time.
When you were talking in your workshop class, about Magic, you said “I didn’t realize what Magic truly was until I had my friends. I had studied and practiced it for my whole life, becoming a powerful spellcaster, but I had never experienced “True” Magic until that moment.”
The Magic of friendship, isn’t magic that you can cast. It’s a magic that exists in all of us- a small kind of magic. A miraculous kind of magic, that makes us all feel better, knowing we share commonalities with others. Even in the face of impossible odds and eternal struggles, we will always have a little Magic when we are with our friends... And we’ll always have Magic with those friends who are gone.
You’re our friends. We haven’t lost you. You’ll always be with us, won’t you?
Wow. Everyone’s silent. I think I just stunned them with that discovery. Heh. I guess, even when you’re not here, you’re still teaching us. Aren’t you? So long as we have friends, we’ll always have you, won’t we Professor Twilight? So long as we remember our friends, we’ll remember how we learned to make them. We’ll remember the lessons you taught us in friendship.
With big adventures, comes tons of fun. Having beautiful hearts, faithful and strong. Sharing kindness, it’s all an easy feat. And how the Magic makes it all complete~
You know. Princess Twilight. I don’t think we’ll be needing you to answer our question anymore. I think we all just did on our own. So thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve taught us over this year- and thank you for sharing your own years of experience with us. We’ll miss you, going forward. We all want to go on doing great things with our lives but. We also want to do them all ‘Together’ now.... Hopefully you and your friends will do the same?
Sincerely, The Student Six.
Gallus, Ocellus, Sandbar, Silverstream, Smolder, and Yona...
(a.k.a.) Your Friends.