Dear Princess Luna / My Faithful Patient (take your pick),
My apologies for not being available for your meetings with the Elements of Harmony. My wife was in labor once I came home, and I doubted that you wanted to hear my constant shouting as my wife cursed me for getting her pregnant. Call me crazy, but I have a feeling that you were able to get all of the Elements to attend the dinner. Before you toss this letter in the trash, the fireplace, or inside of a frame to remind yourself of the trials and tribulations that you were put through in order to get where you are today, I would please ask of you to finish this letter before you make your decision.
When you first selected me to be your therapist, I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. I accepted it as I would any other job, and I treated you the same way as all of my previous patients. I thought that with a constant amount of visits, I could eventually talk you towards the solutions that would help you at the end of a visit. But I was naive. I assumed that we would have enough time to address all of your problems. I thought we could address the things throughout your life that have been swirling around your head and dismiss them as either a problem or a possibility for a solution to yourself. That simply was not the case.
When you first sat down on your bed and faced me, the eyes of a pony without a purpose were staring back at me. Whenever you talked about your past, your sister, or even yourself, you never met my gaze. You only looked me in the eyes when you were talking about me, or my family. Your body language was enough to give me an overall view of what you were, but I always hesitate to simply take one characteristic and use it as my findings. I had to come back. Again and again, from the cards that I presented you to your fight with Celestia, your words and actions only corroborated my hypotheses.
Many doctors would sit you down and provide you with a diagnosis of your problems, followed by a list of possible ways to ameliorate the problem. This is probably why I am not a doctor, since I will not do either of those things. Here is what I will tell you.
You are not replaceable.
You are an Alicorn Princess of the Night with the ability to look into pony’s dreams, a mind that has been strengthened by your vast library, and a grasp of empathy that cannot be learned. No one on Earth can replace you Luna, despite how close it seemed to you.
When you first looked into my cards, you provided me stories and answers that I’ve never heard before. You told me about moths with goals, handicapped creatures, and authoritarian figures that challenged your disposition and made you uncomfortable. I attempted to write down every word of yours, and when I couldn’t, I made sure to remember them.
Every visit of ours was full of emotion, but the moment I mentioned Celestia, your emotions either boiled over or ceased completely. You conditioned yourself to act a certain way around your sister, when it simply did not have to be so. The Legend of Nightmare Moon tells us that you were imprisoned by your sister for a thousand years. Combined with your attempt to solve Starswirl’s spell and your contempt for Twilight’s success back in our first and second visits, your actions were all but a paper of connect-the-dots.
Please do not think I am saying that your thousands of years of emotional turmoil is as easy as a children’s drawing game. After all, you can’t create the game if you don’t have dots in the first place. Your hesitancy to elaborate your anger with your sister gave me some more information that I will continue with. My apologies if this letter is getting long. This will be the last letter that I send you as your therapist, so I want to make sure that I am thorough and you understand me completely. Or I might be rambling. The baby has been crying a lot and I’ve probably taken enough painkillers to subdue a minotaur.
Let me preface my statement by saying that I do not know everything about you. I wish I did, because then I could give a perfect diagnosis. Nevertheless, here is the part of the letter you have been waiting for. But it seems I am running out of room, so I will send you another letter.
Sincerely,
Your Therapist
~
Dear Princess Luna,
My apologies for the wait if the mail system decided to send your letter a day later. Anyway... we should continue. The problem I noticed the most in our visits was the lack of communication between yourself and your sister. I found it hard to believe when you told me in our first few visits that Celestia did not bother to integrate you into Equestrian society when you came back. While some may call you a liar, I would simply say that you were mistaken. There are powerful mechanisms inside of your mind, which were built up through a millenium and a few years that probably biased your opinions. It is as you said: a thousand years thinking about the same things probably changed your mind for the worse.
This does not mean that your thinking cannot be changed. The first part of fixing a problem is realizing it exists. You do not have any trouble in this department. You never did. The part that was hard for me was getting you to confront them. I’d be willing to guess that back before Nightmare Moon, you had a very confrontational personality. I could sense it from your anger towards me for trying to send a letter to your sister, but it quickly drained away when Celestia visited our room for the first time. You got all up on your high horse back then, pardon the pun, and was instantly smacked back down to reality when you were imprisoned in the moon.
If I were to take a guess, I would think that you negatively correlated confrontation and communication with punishment, which is one of the unfortunate things that may happen. You avoided your sister like the parasprites and wallowed in your own depression and guilt due to your supposed lost chance at rekindling your love with your subjects.
When you appeared on your first Nightmare Night since your return, I was there. While you simply dismissed it as your “one day of fame”, I saw it as an opportunity that completely passed you by, but still remains within reach. Equestria loves you Luna, and while that seems like a sweeping generality that made you roll your eyes on our second visit, I’m sure that Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack provided you with enough proof that we want you back. Pipsqueak, Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, I bet even the new reformed Discord wouldn’t have as much fun if you resorted to anonymity.
It is around this part of the letter where I extend my heartfelt apologies to you for the many tricks that I played. I will admit, my letter to Celestia was probably the action that should I apologize for the most, even though your confrontation with her gave me the most information towards my hypotheses. Whether you wanted it to or not, I needed her in order to help you. However, betrayal is an act that makes my blood boil, so I understand your anger and for lack of a better word, beg for your forgiveness, Your Highness.
You were right. I didn’t know what would happen during your confrontation with your sister, but I felt that you needed to talk to her. Whether it was a complete meltdown of feelings or not didn’t matter to me. I wanted something to happen between you and her. However, my biggest frustration was probably the night that you asked me to be your royal advisor. I tried in all of my previous visits to prove to you that you could be the confident and benevolent Princess you yourself doubted. In that one visit, upon being given a task that scared you with the consequences (even though there weren’t any specific ones), you reverted back to your introverted ways and tried to get me to help you, even though it wasn’t needed. While you did not deny the dinner, your improvement (to me) was moving at a snail’s pace. So I grew impatient. I didn’t want to cease being your therapist altogether, but I did want something to snap you into action, something that would put you on the spot and force you to make decisions. Something a Princess sometimes has to do. The dinner was my perfect chance.
So, I left you. I’m sorry Princess Luna, and I will always be sorry for my betrayal. But you have to understand that I couldn’t fuel your passive personality any longer. I suggested our first visit to Fluttershy’s cottage because I wanted to see you talk to someone else other than me. I wanted to see how you would choose your words, what you would do in an actual conversation, and last but not least, try to make a friend. You told me yourself that you wanted to become more prevalent in your subject’s lives, and yet, I had to practically drag you to someone’s house (the house of one of the most timid ponies might I add) in order to get you to do it.
My apologies if this seems like I am insulting you. I’m not. But you have to understand my frustration. The Princess Luna that I was subjected to was an introverted pony who believed she was useless and weak because she was unable to live up to the paragon that her sister created. My apologies for saying so, but the Princess Luna that I talked to was introverted by choice. As I previously said, it was a choice that was defiled and mistaken due to your previous fallacies, but it was your choice. You cannot deny that. I will agree that your sister should have tried harder to integrate you into society, but it’s hard to drag someone kicking and screaming into change. They have to accept it first or at least recognize that it exists. Long story short, I refuse to believe that the Luna that I talked to is the real you. It would be ignorant of me to tell you who the real Luna is. I’m only assuming this because of past legends and history books that accentuated your role in Equestrian society before your imprisonment. Yes, I do have history books that are that old, even though they look like they are going to crumble from a simple touch.
Speaking as a professional therapist, here is the reason why I am jealous of you. You are a mare that was born into royalty and was given one of the most important jobs in Equestria during the period of your birth. Yes, I’m aware that your sister was capable of doing your job, but I agree with her. There is a difference between the artificial creation of something and the intention behind somepony’s actions. Celestia rose the moon to keep her subjects happy and alive. You rose the moon because it was your destiny, it was your beauty and your creation. The moon was an extension of yourself, rather than a tool used by your sister. I’m sure your sister would feel the same way about her sun. It’s like the old phrase, “Just like Mom used to make.”
I’m getting off-topic aren’t I? Jealousy, got it. Maybe it’s just because I love seeing the mechanisms of others minds in action, but I saw an extreme amount of potential in you for my job. Now, I know that you will never quit being the Princess of the Night just so that you could become a therapist (although lucky for you, if you did, student loans wouldn’t be a problem), but you have the capabilities to become a better therapist than I ever could.
In my perfect world, I see somepony walking into your room with their worries left at the door. They might have been piqued because of the numerous Royal Guards in the castle, but they quickly drain away when your soft voice meets their ears. I see you sitting them down in a chair or laying them down on a bed before you explain your therapy process. You then begin a short back and forth much like we did numerous times in the beginning of our visits before I see you putting them to sleep, watching their dreams, and creating hypotheses from what you see. Dreams are one of the most interesting gateways to the mind and you have access to any dream at any moment. Once again, from a therapist’s point of view, that is useful to say the least and bucking awesome to say the most. I can only hope that this hypothetical situation unlocked your desire to follow within my footsteps, but I know that you are not interested in therapy. Nevertheless, while I go assist other ponies with their troubles, I hope to hear the following statement: “I talked to Princess Luna about it, and she gave me some very good advice on...”
You have fallen Luna. You fell harder than any other pony in the world and yet you are still strong enough to lecture me on betrayals, defend yourself from your sister’s overprotective nature, and explicitly state what you want from your sister even though your request probably shattered her heart. I am glad that you are going to reconcile with her. Your sister made a lot of mistakes, but she has nothing but good intentions and love for you, Luna. The two of you were meant to rule together, as loving sisters of a harmonious nation.
You did not fail me, but more importantly, you did not fail yourself. As I previously said, this letter is going to be the last that I send you as your therapist. I announce my official resignation, effective immediately. It was fun, Luna. It was eventful, but I’m sure you can agree with me when I say that we are both ready to move on. I hope to see you at Nightmare Night again, I’m sure my wife and foal would love to meet you.
Sincerely,
Rationale
~
Dear Princess Luna,
Can we talk tonight? I need... someone to talk to...
Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle