I closed the front door behind us after Skyla and I got home. Mom and dad stopped walking with us to and from school shortly after fourth grade started, and while they weren't by our side, I knew they were watching us. They weren't as sneaky as they liked to think they were, and I'd quickly come to recognize the sound of mom teleporting.
"We're home!" Skyla announced.
"Hey, girls," mom said as she walked over from the living room. "How was school?"
Skyla promptly started complaining about one of my favorite classes. "History is so boring. Why do I need to know why somepony did something seven hundred years ago?"
"Because history can repeat itself," I said. "And the way trains changed everything is pretty cool."
"Nerd."
I let my chest swell with pride. "Yes, I am the nerd of nerds. You may bow before me."
Skyla rolled her eyes before going towards the dining table to start on her homework. Mom levitated an envelope over to me. "By the way, you got a letter from Ponyville, Inova."
I looked at the envelope with some confusion. My name was in the middle, and up in the return address area was a familiar name. "Why would Lil' Cheese send me a letter?"
"I don't know." Mom opened the envelope and pulled the letter out for me.
I took the letter with my teeth and went to my room with it. Once my saddlebags were off and I turned the light on, I went to my desk and read it.
Dear Inova
I'm writing this letter as a school project for some extra credit. Buck Shot's calling me a nerd for it, but I like the idea of having a pen pal.
Things are still as weird as usual with mom and dad. I've been going to the fountain and Sugarcube Corner after school for peace and quiet more often, but with the pegasi preparing for winter, the fountain's becoming less appealing. Whenever I go to Sugarcube Corner, Cup Cake gives me a hot chocolate for free. She says it's because mom considers her my honorary aunt, which I don't get.
Dad's been trying to get me to learn to play the accordion, but I want to do something else. I don't know what, though.
Mom's being, well. . . Mom. You met her, so you know what that's like. I don't know how she does what she does, and neither does anypony else. Same with dad. They're too chaotic for me, and I've played card games with Discord.
Maybe I'll see if I can spend some time in the Crystal Empire. It's a quiet and peaceful place, right?
Sincerely, Lil' Cheese
I put the letter down and set my shaking forehooves on the desk. The sound my hooves made was drowned out by my racing thoughts and confusion. Ultimately, it came down to one question. I called for the pony that could answer it. "Mom!"
"Just a moment, Inova!" Mom called back. It felt like weeks and less than a minute before she came in. "What's wrong?"
I stared at the letter. "What do I do with this?"
She glanced over the letter. "Well, it looks like he considers you a friend. You should write a letter back."
"Wha-bu-I. . ." I sputtered as I tried to figure it out. It didn't make sense to me. I didn't have any friends, so why would somepony consider me one?
"Consider it some surprise Princess training." She draped a wing across my back. "Sometimes, you have to talk to someone through letters like this. You have to respond quickly, but you also have to slow down and think about what you say."
"So what do I say?"
"Well, you need your writing materials first." She levitated them onto my desk and set Lil' Cheese's letter to the side where it was out of the way, but could still be read. "Now, think of it like you're just talking and go from there. If you need to, you can start over on a new piece of paper. I'll check on your progress in a bit."
I stared at the blank paper as I tried to figure out what to write in response. The myriad of colliding thoughts and ideas did not help.
Dear Lil' Cheese
I'm responding to your letter because mom said it was the right thing to do. I've never written a letter, so this is new to me.
The Empire is pretty boring compared to Ponyville, but I'm happy with my Golem Bricks, so I don't really go looking for things to do. I usually just go along when mom or dad go somewhere.
Dad tried making a salad a few days ago. There's still a faint smell of smoke in the kitchen. I don't know how. Skyla ate the burnt salad by herself, since nopony else would touch it.
Mom's been giving Skyla and me Princess lessons, and we've been with her to learn how to run court. It's not as easy as I imagined it would be, and not fun in the slightest.
I'm still a klutz with my hooves, wings, and magic. I trip, flop, and can't do much levitation. I've been trying forever to get better, but it feels like I'm going nowhere with any of it.
Sincerely, Inova.
Mom looked over my completed letter. "This looks good for your first attempt. Well done."
"Thanks." I wasn't fully satisfied with the letter. There were more things I wanted to include, but with mom looking it over, I didn't put them in. "How do I send it?"
"Let's go to the office." Mom took my letter and the opened envelope, and led me to her office, the main paperwork area of the house. "We need an envelope, quill, and stamp."
I sat in mom's chair at the desk and picked up the quill. "Now what?"
"Write your name and our address in the upper left corner. . . Now put Lil' Cheese's name and address in the middle. . . And a stamp in the upper right corner. Very good."
"What about the letter?"
"We fold it like this." She folded it into three, then put it in the envelope. "Now carefully lick it here."
"Uh, why?" The idea of potentially licking important papers was very confusing.
"So the glue on the envelope will stick and keep it closed. Just do it carefully so you don't cut your tongue." She held the envelope in front of me.
I carefully licked the envelope as mom directed me to. "Blegh! That tastes weird."
"You'll get used to it. Now close it. . . And there we go. The mail's already been delivered today, so I'll show you how to send it in the morning before you leave for school."
"I wish I could send it by pressing a button."
"That would be nice, but there's nothing like that. Maybe you'll be able to create the letter sending button." She set the envelope into the tray labeled Out.
"Mom!" Skyla called out. "Can you help me with this history stuff?"
"I've got it!" Dad called back.
I looked around the office. I hadn't been in it very often, so it was still a bit of a mystery room to me. "How are things organized here?"
Mom smiled at the question. "Your Aunt Twilight helped design it. This is where I sort the mail based on how important it is. . ."
After learning more about the office, I decided to lay down on my corner sofa and just stare upwards at nothing. The fact that I'd gotten and responded to a letter from somepony that considered me a friend shook me quite a bit.
Laying down to stare at nothing wasn't doing much for me, so I decided to go through some balancing exercises.
The balancing exercises didn't help much, so I went to my desk to work on a Golem Brick set.
Building wasn't helping me, so I started pacing around on the rug. As I made the short laps along its edge, I felt the nervous energy dissipate a bit, though my mind was still racing at speeds I could only dream of actually achieving.
Finally, I decided to just give up on trying to make sense of it all and went back to the corner sofa. I still felt some tension from the letter, but giving up on making sense of it had gotten rid of a lot of it. I even found myself wondering what Lil' Cheese's response would look like.