Dear Princess Celestia,
I know that I've been sending you letters on the magic of Friendship for the past year, but today I have a friendship problem that I don't know if I can solve. Artemis is a very unsociable pony and there's something about him that makes him feel unapproachable. I tried my best to be friendly with him, but he seems to like it better when he's alone. I mean, today he got mixed up with Pinkie Pie and the experienced seemed quite shocking to him. I guess it's because he might live his life alone most of the time, or because his ways are firmly based on logic, but still! If you could have seen the look in his eyes when he 'ported in here, you would feel the same as I am right now when I tried to help him but he refused before storming off into his room. It made me feel more sad than angry, really. How am I supposed to help such a stubborn pony and get him out of his shell? I really want to be friends with him, but I think he considers everypony other than himself an enemy. I will wait for your response.
Your most faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
After scratching out the final lines of my letter, I sighed sadly. "I wonder what happened between him and Pinkie Pie today to make him get so erratic? He seemed so calm and composed yesterday and today, not counting the fact that he was kind of short with me yesterday but I guess that was because he was tired."
From what I could gather from Pinkie Pie's long monologue, she'd followed him around and given him quite a shock by showing him what she could do with physics. I could feel for him because while my reactions were significantly more subdued (Ok, maybe not so subdued), I too had felt that I had the ground yanked out from under me. Being the studious unicorn I was, I had strived to learn everything I could under Celestia's guidance about magic and the world around me, so I guess when I encountered somepony like Pinkie Pie who defied logic my brain fried out. Spike tells me that it was a lot more chaotic that just "my brain frying out", but he's just a baby dragon and he tends to exaggerate things a tad.
Regardless, what I couldn't understand was Artemis' attempt to cover up his discomfort and rebuffing my attempts at trying to help him and make him feel more comfortable. I was so sure that if he would just let me explain, he'd be able to feel more at ease! I guess he's really a recluse like Celestia says though. She explained to me in her letter that Artemis was reluctant to be in any sort of contact with other ponies, but I couldn't believe it until I saw it for myself. There's no doubt about it; I don't think anypony will be able to breach that cold exterior of his.
What I still don't understand is what Celestia meant at the end of her letter: "Try to help him be what he once was."
Used to be what? Friendly? Sociable? Actually being able to accept another pony's help? Maybe she means to help him not be so hateful of other ponies. I may not have let on, but I've noticed his body language whenever he's in the presence of me or Spike or any other pony, really. He's tensed up as if he's bracing himself, while every movement emits insincerity and sarcasm.
I'm glad Celestia puts such faith in my abilities, but I'm afraid that for once the magic of friendship won't help me with what I need to do. Not this time.
-Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville Librarian and Element of Magic