//------------------------------// // To // Story: Dear Princess Twilight // by Test4Echo //------------------------------// HOW DARE YOU?! This is the third time I'm trying to get an answer from you, Twilight, don't ignore me! Do you think this is funny, setting up an anti-teleportation spell wherever the hell you are and then ignoring my letters? Didn't you say you wanted to communicate better than Celestia? Answer me! Fine, maybe my first two were a bit too angrily worded, so I'll start from the top. Again. Did you think I was stupid? Maybe I've been dense at moments in the past, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize when everypony else is getting older and you stay the exact same. Today is Starry's twelfth birthday, and I just realized something. I look exactly the same as when I married Kaiser. I think I’ve aged in reverse! And Kaiser? He's fully grey now. That's what happens when you have to deal with the stress of a PhD career and also a kid. And me? Princess of Friendship? What do I have? Nothing, that's what. No grey hairs, no wrinkles, nothing! This is unnatural, Twilight! This afternoon was the last straw. I was ignoring it until now. Maybe, I thought, that it was still just a byproduct of ascending to alicorn status. But it's been a decade now, and nothing has changed, aside from literally everycreature around me. It felt as if all of Ponyville was at Starry’s party. My friends were there along with their kids, as well as Mom, Dad, and Grandma. If Grandpa was still alive, he'd be there, too. It wasn't until Bonfire remarked on how good I looked despite having to deal with a colt like Starry that things finally clicked: I wasn't aging. When I was able, I grabbed Mom and Dad. I guess the look on my face already told them what to expect, because by the time I sat them down in the living room to talk, they both looked on the verge of tears. So I asked them, "Mom, Dad, what's going on? I look around and see all of you getting older, but here I am, and I don't feel any different than I did ten years ago." Mom's face. Oh, I haven't seen that face in years. Have you seen an elder pony cry, Twilight? Well, I have now, and it isn't pretty. When is crying ever pretty, Twilight? There must be a lot around you some days. Mom and Dad were quiet for a bit, and I could tell that whatever they were wanting to say was tearing them apart inside. Between sobs, Mom managed to say to me that, like all alicorns, I was immortal. I would never age, never get sick, and non-fatal injuries would heal within hours. You want to know how that felt? Do you really, really want to know how that felt? You're lucky, because I can't fully describe it. Instead, I'll just tell you that after it finally sunk in, Dad had two ponies crying on his shoulders. I don't know how long I spent with them. Mom was crying her eyes out, and I guess I was too. Dad even began to weep a bit from the collective hurt. Why didn't you tell me, Twilight? This was something you should have told me before I ascended. Eventually, I guess I teleported here, to my bedroom. I don't remember doing it, but I do remember sobbing more into my pillow. It's been a few hours now, and I think the party has wrapped up. Hopefully everycreature else had a better time than I have. The quiet has given me time to think and write, as you well know by now. Maybe I didn't think enough, because this is the first letter that probably isn't just lines upon lines of rage. So, you thought it was befitting to make me watch as all my friends, all my family, everycreature I ever knew, know, and will know, age and eventually die around me? What kind of compassion, what kind of reward, is that? The only creatures that will be with me are yourself, Cadance, and Flurry Heart. I don't know what happened to Celestia and Luna, but they're rarely seen, so they wouldn't be reliable friends. Oh, and Discord, but, really, do you expect him to stay on the straight and narrow once Fluttershy is dead? If you honestly do, you might need to reevaluate things. Mom and Dad aren't getting any younger, and sure, I knew they were going to die before me, but I wasn't supposed to look like the same young mare they knew growing up! My friends are getting older, too. Midnight got in an accident last year and lost a wing. Though it’s not like she was able to fly for the last few years anyway, as she had early-onset arthritis in them. Bonfire has had to step back from performing as much, between her responsibilities as a parent and her aging body. Even her fire has begun to falter and cool. Barnard, well, Barnard is the same. Just bigger and louder. Heh, maybe he'd live forever like myself. And Kaiser, I already talked about him. He's so caring, Twilight. How is it fair to him, knowing that he's going to fade away while I stay as physically strong as ever? Maybe I would have lived longer than him anyway, but we would have grown old together, surrounded by friends, family, and extended family. We could have looked out on our legacy and died satisfied and happy. Now I know why he appeared so saddened a couple of years ago: either somepony told him, or he figured out that I wasn’t aging. I don’t know why he didn’t tell me then. Maybe he thought I already knew? Or perhaps he didn’t want to burden me? But then it’d be harder when I would find out as he continued to get older. Agh! This is making my brain hurt. Whatever the case, dense ol' Luster Dawn thought that she wouldn't have to experience immortality. Okay, yes, I knew that Celestia and Luna would live forever, since, well they're tied to the bucking sun and moon! Same with you, now, come to think of it. Cadance and Flurry I had assumed were tied to the Crystal Heart, which would explain Cadance's long life and probably Flurry's as well. But not me. I mean, I'm only the Princess of Friendship. Like you say yourself, friendship is magic. Friendship doesn't need an immortal, all-knowing alicorn to represent it, does it? Can't somepony else fill its shoes every few decades? Or maybe it's because you're too lazy to actually bother to train a protege every so often! I know that you haven't found somepony to replace me despite my years now as one of your peers. You claim to spread friendship, to instruct others, but I guess now it's solely my responsibility, while you go controlling the sun and moon and look pretty for all the newspapers when you solve some political crisis, right? Well, you won't be like that for much longer! You'll have to work for things again! I'm done with being ignored, Twilight. What you've given me isn't natural, and it certainly wasn't your right to do without informing me of the consequences first. Turn me back into a unicorn now! I know you can do it, you are the most powerful alicorn in existence. If anycreature can reverse what you did, it will be you. And don't give me excuses, there must be a way! ...Right? I don't want to be alone, Twilight. Please, don't let me live alone. Alicorn memory isn't perfect. I've seen it myself. When I interrupted you years ago for some help with a magic lesson, I saw you looking at photo albums of your friends. You were crying, and I heard you mumble something that had, until now, escaped my memory. "I don't remember this," you said. A couple hundred years from now, I don't want to be wherever I'll be without memories of my friends, my parents, my son. What happens when I do forget them? Will I forget my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc? What happens when one day great-great-great Grandma forgets her offspring? A pony's mind, even an alicorn’s, can only hold so much, Twilight. How can you live with yourself? You are going to outlive your friends a hundred times over, and you just carry on, like nothing is happening. Do they know? They must know. And they're okay with this? I've seen Applejack come into town every so often. She's old, Twilight, it takes her minutes to just get from the bridge to the square to the town hall. She has a decade left, at most twelve years. If she makes it longer, then I'll be surprised. What will you do when she's dead? Try to forget, right? Wouldn't you have preferred to grow old with them? I mean, see them mature, become more fulfilled with the fruits of their labor and yours. Mourn them when they pass, but know that you'll be with them soon enough? Alicorns aren't truly natural, Twilight. I see this now. It's natural for ponies to live for a short while, experience life, and then rest forever with friends and family. Ponies should be like flowers in a field, not some great tree that's stood against storms for ages. I need to process this more, Twilight. What you've done, the way that you so carelessly gave me this position without explaining everything, I'm not sure how this can be moved past. I want a response, but don't expect anything more than acknowledgement from me. I need to think. You've taken everything away from me! Maybe not this instant, but my hard work cultivating these friendships, my marriage, my son, and fixing my relationship with my parents. All this you're taking away! How dare you?! Who gave you the right?! I'm surprised I was able to write this much of a coherent set of thoughts on paper. There are hoofsteps coming upstairs. Kaiser is here. Well, he's outside. He's knocking. I think he knows what I'm doing, locked away in the bedroom. Our bedroom. For now, it's our bedroom, anyway. Oh, and there's Starry, asking what's wrong with his mother. Should I open the door and explain things to him? Let him know that so long as Aunt Twilight lets Mommy be an alicorn, she'll watch him grow into a fine stallion before he dies in her arms of old age while she hasn't changed a bit? How do you think that will go for a foal, Twilight? I should open the door, but I don't want Starry to have to worry about it yet. Because I at least think of the consequences of important actions before I do them. Maybe I'll just teleport Kaiser in here. Hold him, like I used to on the beach of Foal Shores. We haven't gone there in years. Should probably do that before he gets too old, and I have to care for him like I'm his daughter rather than his spouse. No, I should open the door and let Starry see that I'm alive, if not all right. He's old enough to understand that I'm not perfect, and I think seeing me like this would do some good, but, he doesn't need to know why I'm upset. Yes, I think that will work. Thank you for reading this, Twilight. You've been such a big help. Can't wait to have to deal with this. Luster