Dear Celly,
Today was Sugarcube Corner’s last day.
The Cakes and I partied in the kitchen one last time. It was awesome and amazing, and with many chocolate cakes and cookies! Mrs. Cake’s salted all-chocolates are totally the best. They use a lot of eggs from AJ’s farm, much more than the recipe calls for. But, you know, sometimes the fun’s in those little things, right? What would Rarity say…? “We must indulge sometimes.” I’m sure it’s a word like that. And let’s throw a Darling! in for good measure!
Well, we locked the door behind us, I planted a warning sign, then we went to the train station.
The Cake family and I gave each other tons of hugs! The twins even waved at me as the train left. Mare had managed to schedule one last ride to the town. We nearly missed it though, clocks aren't alright anymore in town.
So, yeah, I managed to keep smiling the whole time! You can be proud of me. Mr. and Mrs. Cake needed a smile more than the twins did, I think. I pinkie swear I didn’t cry.
The two sweeties are going to make looooads of friends in their new home. I helped Mr. Cake fill out some boring forms for the local daycare. There’s a huge wait list and Mrs. Cake was biting her hooves over it. But I’m sure they’re going to fit in right away.
There isn’t much business left for them in Ponyville anyways.
Leaving was the right thing to do, Celly — Does Luna call you Celly? Can I call you Celly? —, I mean… Tomorrow, I won't be able to go to Sugarcube Corner safely. And when I say I, I mean everypony.
The Wall’s going to gobble up Sugarcube Corner’s door frame tomorrow and the whole door, the day after. The Wall is a very, very hungry hippo, and a very mean one too. I don’t like it. It never stops eating. It already ate Quills’, half of the Town Hall, and the pond... and the river... and so many houses.
I tried putting on a smile when I laid the warning sign too, Celly. For the twins. But… since the Wall ate Sweetie Belle, everything’s been very scary, and hollow. I dunno how it must have felt for her. You brush a single hair against the Wall and Wooosh!, you get sucked in like, well like a vacuum cleaner! What a terrible image...
I’ve put warning signs everywhere for ponies not to go near it! It’s dangerous but not dangerous like a rollercoaster ride. It’s really real this time. I’ve seen Blossomforth go near the Wall today. She looked at it with intent. But she wasn’t defiant. We talked. She thanked me. She walked away.
I didn’t sleep well last night..
But you must already know that, of course. Everypony must be sending you letters. And you came to Ponyville eleven times since Twilight’s been missing inside the Wall. I counted!
So I’m writing letters too. I just need to tell somepony else what’s going on inside my brain. I feel like I’m getting repetitive around the town lately. Scratch that. I know I’ve become repetitive, Celly. I don’t like it.
So… Everypony has really been bummed out about the Wall. It just keeps eating and getting bigger.
My job is to get ponies to smile, and it’s a lot harder these days. Jokes get boring after a while and I’ve used pretty much everything I know — Pinkie Pie is having a joke shortage!!! Comedy comes in threes and surely doesn’t grow on trees! It’s not like farming apples, you can’t wait for a joke to get ripe when so many ponies need them. Wait, don’t tell AJ I said that!
Ponyville is in the middle of a fun famine! And that’s very sad. It’s like a cake in the middle of a kind of meh party. It’s a quarter gone, two third of the ponies already left, and most of the rest is hanging in the corners. And you can see one or two leave every minute.
Do you know when you’ll find a solution, Celly? I mean, Starlight was with Twilight inside the castle when the Wall appeared. I figure it’s kind of hard to figure things out without them. Princess, don’t be too harsh when you finally find a way to break them out and pop that big black balloon thingy. Find Sweetie Belle too! They can’t be dead! They can’t.
I’ll make every cake in the world when Twilight and Starlight return, and plenty of extras for the whole of Equestria. Every single flavor… to celebrate. Everything’s going to be rainbows. And smiles. And parties.
Dear Princess Celly… I can’t get a curl in my mane anymore. And I’m scared.
Please, help us.
Your littlest, partiest, sugariest pony, Pinkie Pie!~
Your Highness,
I like walks…
What a weird way to start a letter, but I swear I tried my hardest thinking about this first sentence. So, here I go. I hope you will excuse my cavalier approach.
I wish to report on the state of my beloved town and I couldn’t find a better way to start. I like walks, by day, by night, whether in the summer or winter. It’s one of the ways I’ve found effective at refreshing my mind, brainstorming new ideas, and maybe escaping the grind of city hall’s affairs. But there isn’t much of that anymore.
I sometimes wonder if it gets better. For you, I mean. As the scale of what one pony works on increases, are there less faces to meet and greet? Are the names listed on each and every page easier to handle? It’d be less personal, for sure...
So I love walks, yes. At the drawing of dusk when the streets of Ponyville aren’t yet lit by streetlight, when only the orange glow of nightstand lamps and a few candles pours out from the houses and chases away the evening darkness.
That’s the time when that faint orange hue reflects upon the steady waters of the river that cuts Ponyville from north to south, albeit in twists and turns. Ducks and boats and barges share the waterway then and, in the coming of the night, all head out to their homes or hurry to their next mooring.
It's a time of peace, really. Everypony has gone home to eat; nopony has yet walked out to enjoy a party, a bar patio, or the warmth of a porch’s torchlight. That’s the Ponyville I know, grew up in, and loved.
But nowadays, it is pretty much all gone. Everyday is that peacetime in the early evening. And I’ve come to hate it.
Applejack, and her family, finished shipping the last of their trees to her cousins in the south. We got most families resettled—it took a long time, but it ought to be done. The last train left yesterday and only the old bones remain. Like mine.
In a sense, we're dismantling Ponyville, piece by piece, bit by bit, chipped away and shipped to other places where they will find some renewed use. There’s nothing left to do here but wait.
And there’s nothing left to enjoy either. Most homes are now empty husks. Rot has never spread so fast.
There used to be pontoons on the river. It’s the kind of thing you’ve seen so many times that you only ‘see’ them once they’re gone. The owners pried the wooden planks off the pontoon stilts, and went away with them. Old bones are sometimes made out of steel, concrete, emptiness, and rust.
Now the river is empty and cold too. Late winter lays its ice on the embankment where water once flowed. It’s dried now. The Wall has recently swallowed a stretch of the river. Did you know, Princess? Now the water only flows in the northern part of the town. It ends its course in the darkness and whatever lies beyond. The rest of the riverbed is just dead ice, snow, and dust. This summer, it will evaporate and only shingles will remain.
And of course, the black will take it all from us by then.
It's been a long time since your last visit, Princess. We miss you. Some even resent you. I know I do sometimes. But when the anger passes, I don't hold a grudge or any blame. There isn't much to see here anymore. Your time is better spent elsewhere, searching for a solution, I’m sure. I hope…
Three fourths of the town are gone. Only the north end, the eastern edge, and the southernmost reaches remain — the parts furthest from Twilight's castle.
I really wonder where all the water from the river is going, where all the birds, and leaves, and plants and animals I’ve seen going in... where do they end up? I really don't want to know, but I’m still curious. A sort of call of the void, one could say.
I’m really getting in over myself. Anyway.
I've recommended everypony left should leave, but they're stubborn. Like everypony's supposed to be, I guess. When life throws stones at you, yielding shouldn't be the first thing you do — and yet it feels more and more like an accomplishment. There is a time when stubbornness becomes obstination, then a tragic resignation.
If I am writing, it's to ask you, Your Majesty, to intercede with the remaining five Elements of Harmony. Though Applejack sent her family and farm away, she’s still here. Though Fluttershy relocated her animals, she’s still here. Despite the loss, Rarity is still here. Withering away. It’s the same for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. They’re still here. Not even Discord managed to convince them to leave, and retreat to Canterlot.
I think they’d be better by your side than here, waiting by the Wall, every day that you make. There is no solution here, but maybe in Canterlot they’ll find one.
It’s a lot to ask of you, but you are a voice ponies will listen to. And Ponyville longs for yours. My own words can’t reach that far anymore.
Please, Princess, I humbly request you to intercede. Have them see further than these old bones. Staying here won’t help anypony. I know you must be working with Luna on finding some kind of solution. In the meantime, the only solution here is to retreat and bide our time. Ponyville is no more and they need to come to you. To help.
This is my town. My ship. And as any good Captain should, I’ll sink with it.
At least, that’s how I see it. That’s what I’m telling myself. My rant to myself, I suppose.
Though I want to leave, I can’t. It’s my town, my responsibility. It’s not the Elements’ problem any longer.
I think I need to end this letter here and send it right away, otherwise I will burn it. Like the other drafts before.
When you finish reading this letter, please ask Ditzy not to come back to deliver mail from Canterlot again. There’s nothing in Ponyville to find. She will serve a new town well.
Yours Faithfully,
Mayor Mare
Your Majesty,
I do not know what Mayor wrote to you. But whatever she ended up writing, discard it. Please take no offense to it. I tried my damned hardest to stop Ditzy from taking that letter but she’s a pegasus and I’m an earth pony. No matter what I do, she’s still going to be faster than I will ever be. Everypony always underestimates Ditzy.
Mayor wasn’t herself when she wrote it. That damn mule headed…
Well, now I’m tabled and writing. I guess I better continue.
I don’t expect you to know me. I’m just Ponyville’s former teacher. Yeah, that Ponyville. Today, I’ve sent the last of our foals on their way somewhere else. No more “Fillies and Gentlecolts” for me. At least for now. I don’t know yet where I’m going to be heading. Being a unionized teacher kind of gives me the privilege to not have to care about paperwork. Even if I wanted to.
It does take away some of your freedom as a teacher, though, but I enjoyed the status for so long I guess it’s the other side of the coin rearing its face. I don’t know where the Rectorate will send me. Till then, I can enjoy some more days with Mayor before being sent away...
I’ve thought about resigning and staying here but… wouldn’t that be selfish? Sacrificing some foal’s education for my own romantic ventures.
Ah! That’s even more selfish — egotistical, maybe? — when you think about it. I’m not irreplaceable, just a normal teacher, in a normal town, during extraordinary times. I just wish extraordinary meant something different. Positive, you know. Alas.
We’ve not heard from the big-shots in a long while, Your Highness. Sometimes, when I can’t sleep and look out through the window at the town, what remains of it really, I can only wonder if we’ve been forgotten.
I would get it, let’s be honest. The drama, the rushing, the mess of trying to save a small town at any cost. It takes a lot of labor, money, and publicity. Especially when the looming monster threatens far more than just a few houses and ponies.
When the nation is at stake, and I’m sure it is, what’s a small town but an acceptable sacrifice?
I get it. Just...
Could you tell Mayor?
It shouldn’t come from me, or the Elements. Nopony but you can console her. Not even I can pry her hooves off the proverbial floorboard of this place. And trust me, I’ve tried. She’s served this town for so long that she can’t let go. Ponyville can be gone tomorrow, and let’s be honest it will, and she will stay within its borders. She fancy herself the captain of this ship. She means well, but… I care. I really do. I want us to enjoy our time, not anguish here waiting to die.
Can you just wave your hoof? Tell her you’re at least considering the situation?
We were used to Twilight handling everything around here. But now she’s been gone for months, eyes have turned back to you. At least Luna comes to us in our dreams. There’s a lot of nightmares to spare among the Ponyvillians, despite how few remain.
Just a touch of a Deus ex Machina would go a long way, you know. I can only go so far for Mayor, and I don’t want her to make her choose between the town and me.
Your presence would be welcomed.
I wish you the best in finding a cure to the monster eating our lands. I hope Ponyville will have been worth it. I am not being sarcastic here. Tone is hard to convey in writing.
If I get sent somewhere and you manage to remedy this whole mess. Just save a spot for me in the line to talk to Twilight. I have some flanks to spank.
Reconsidering, I have a resignation letter to write.
Yours truly,
Cheerilee
My Little Mayor,
It is with great pain that I read your words. I can only empathize, worry, and hurry.
Being a ruler isn’t an idle task and, though Ponyville is dear to my heart, my eyes cannot always be turned inland towards the grave danger that lies and eats at our counties. A grim realization I never wished to contend with, and yet have had to many times in my life.
But rest assured, your plight is not unheeded. We are arduously working on it. Everypony is. Ponies that are better at this task than I am. I am not omnipotent, or omniscient. Everything would be so dull otherwise. And so I have tasked the best of the land to the task.
Let’s drop the formalism here, Mayor Mare. I really, really ache for Ponyville, that town that my dear student has grown to love and cherish. And though I wish I could help, the best in this situation is definitely not me. Even poor Discord cannot snap this danger away. Twilight’s allies have been working so very hard, Miss Mare. Sunburst has led the charge, and though he doesn’t often pop by Ponyville, and I do actually mean ‘pop by,’ he is scouring Equestria and further beyond for any information that could be of assistance.
Twilight and Starlight may have unleashed something they were not expecting and I am pretty sure they are still in there, lost. Begone the neighsayers. They have saved Equestria so many times that it is now Equestria’s turn to save them. But help, sometimes, comes late. And I am sorry for that.
I wish I could clap my hooves and be gone with it. But the nature of power often does not come like that and I am sorry.
Were you to choose and come to Canterlot, I would gladly welcome you to stay as long as you’d needed, and if you want to witness the research undertaken by the great minds gathered by Starlight’s dear friend, a door will always be warmly opened for you.
I am sorry I do not have more to offer now, than my words, but a promise would be of ill abode, if not a lie. And I would hurt giving you false hope. It is slim, but here nonetheless.
I love you, my little pony. Be strong. Though the night may be dark, you are not alone.
Also you may call me Celestia!
Celestia~