Goodness. I’m going first, am I? Dear me, I truly wished I had planned ahead for this. Essays were never my strong suit, I’m afraid.
Oh wait! I should have started with a greeting, shouldn’t I? What sort of a lady dispenses with the formalities so casually! Can I start over? Sunset did an awful job of explaining this magic book of hers to me.
Dear Twilight SparkleDear Princess TwilightDear Princess SparkleTo the Most Illustrious and Magnificent Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria
Apologies for those. Let’s start things off from the beginning.
To my dear friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Perhaps it’s a bit odd of me to call someone a dear friend when I’ve spent far less time with you than anyone else I could grant such distinction to. But, then again, it would be difficult for me to overstate the importance of all the days we've had together. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Sorry, I’m a little distracted, Opal just hopped onto this desk and, if I’m not careful, she’ll try to rip out the pages here. Shoo, Opal! You’ll get your pets later!
Where was I?
Ah yes. Why I think of you as a dear friend. I suppose the appropriate place to start would be what makes you special. Which is a bit of a trickier question to answer than one might expect, given I happen to have another dear friend who is also Twilight Sparkle, in more ways than just name.
Of course the obvious answer for what makes you different is that you’re a magical pony princess from another dimension who, if I understand correctly, now wields the power of the sun itself and has recently become the reigning monarch of an entire kingdom. Goodness me. And to think this world’s Twilight used to talk about how uncomfortable she was at being named president of the robotics club.
But this isn’t really about the difference between you and one of my other friends, or even what makes you different from everyone else I’ve ever known. This is about what makes you special to me. What makes you someone – somepony, as Sunset would phrase it to you – I will always appreciate having the privilege to know, and what makes me honored to be somehuman you would consider a friend.
You see, you are an artist.
Are you surprised? Perhaps, if you were thinking merely of drawing or painting skills. It seems as though you still have a long way to go regarding the use of your fingers in our world. Your calligraphy skills on the other side of the portal seem impeccable, I must admit.
But art comes in many forms. I should know, of course; my art is composed of fabric and textiles, and while my sketches are crude at the best of times, the end results, if you’ll allow me this small indulgence of personal pride, shine through. And so it is with you and your medium.
You, Princess Twilight Sparkle, are a friendship artist.
Hey! Don’t think I didn’t just see you roll your eyes at me! Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking. “That’s one of the most ridiculously cliched statements I’ve ever read in my entire life, and to think that it came from Rarity, of all people!” Well, darling, I would politely ask that you hear me out.
Looking back, it feels quite ridiculous that I could have been so bitterly divided with the people I’d grown up calling my friends, over such trivial reasons. But generosity is something that needs to be extended to oneself from time to time, especially regarding the matter of understanding. And the truth is that my friends and I were in a rather dark place before you arrived in our world – before Sunset Shimmer, even.
All of us knew we were headed down different roads in life. We all knew our interests were different, our lives would be different. We thought the failure of our unit would inevitably come with it. We let someone else tear us apart because, at the end of the day, we didn’t think we belonged together. Friendship had become a formality for us, an unwanted tradition we were secretly grateful to see end.
What you did for us, in bringing us back together, was simple. But what it sparked was profound. It lit a fire in me that has never gone out. It restored a bond that I now know is not merely strong, but unbreakable. You showed me that friendship truly means something, something far beyond individual interests and personal pursuits, and that something has been truly beautiful to behold as the years have gone by.
But you didn’t stop at reforging an old connection. You pushed me to expand, to fully embrace the spirit of generosity within myself. To take in a girl who had been cold and cruel to me, someone I once might have felt no shame in kicking while she was down and leaving to her fate. Instead I opened myself to her, and, in something that surprised me more than any of the magic I have ever witnessed, she opened back up to me.
Sunset Shimmer is now a friend so dear to me that I can scarcely imagine life without her, with as strong a bond as I have with any of the friends I grew up with, and I have you to thank for that.
Of course, one must also practice what they preach, and you’ve proven quite the friend to me on your own terms. You’re a kind heart, a sympathetic ear, an indispensable guide to the new world you’ve opened up for us. Even when you’re far away in your world, you still watch out for us, giving us all the help you can at times of crisis. But when you are here, whether we’re fighting dark magic or having a slumber party, I feel that same strength of friendship with you that I have with the six girls I am now permanently linked to – thanks, again, to you.
That is what I mean when I say you are a true artist of friendship, both a master of the craft and an invaluable instructor of it. (I’d say you should teach friendship classes, but I hear you already do that.)
Darling, I miss you.
I truly hope we can keep having conversations. Sunset says she has enough journals stored away that she can give a few to each of us. But alas, it’s hard to imagine you’ll have sufficient time to tend to our inquiries while dealing with the business of running a nation, managing the movements of celestial bodies and more things I can’t even conceive of. But rest assured that I will treasure whatever communication we can achieve.
And if the day comes that I see you in person once again, and I cling to hope that it will, I will surely repeat all this information in a blubbering, inelegant and almost certainly unintelligible manner. But until then, I can simply say I thank you for everything you have done for my friends and I, and I will hold you close in my heart.
Your grateful friend,
Rarity