Twilight's birthday: 200 years old as of today.
Letter to the princess
Subject: The North Ridge
Good morning, Princess,
I'm afraid it may actually be late afternoon by the time you read this as, unfortunately, this far away Spike's messaging system is delayed. Today we got together our temporary living quarters at the North Ridge wind turbine center. They are massive as is, and there is still much to do in the construction phase of this process. With a 60 foot base of solid concrete, and a height of 300 feet, I'm not sure these things could ever fall victim to the harsh winds here.
I am also very happy to report that the spells we have used to keep the other elements alive are working perfectly, with the exception of Pinkie Pie. Though the others got over the initial illness quickly, Pinkie Pie has remained sick. We have become quite worried about her, but your unicorns seem to be keeping a good eye on her.
I thank you for sending me on this trip Princess; studying the fine work of the crews that are working to create your dreams has been an exciting experience for all of us. We have already passed through the highway system they are creating and it is making wonderful progress. The production plant is our next stop, so I will soon be able to issue a report for that as well. However, we both know the wind turbines are a top priority and thus we will be staying here for four years to supervise the construction of these amazing creations.
One last thing, if I may. I wish to see Princess Luna at her earliest convenience. Can you please send her my way?
Thank you again for this trip, on behalf of your 5 loyal subjects and your student.
-Twilight Sparkle
[-----]
4 months after Twilight's 200th birthday.
Letter to Twilight Sparkle.
Subject: RE: The North Ridge
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I am terribly sorry for the delay. Things here at the castle have been busy since you left. Your brother and I are working furiously on some local projects, so I have not had time to reply until now as I did not feel it worthy of you to have an air reply on my behalf.
I thank you for keeping up on your reports, and I trust you are now carefully supervising the initial construction of the wind turbines. Your work has been of great use to us as it ensures a proper building standard for the construction of what is sure to be one of the most important phases of this massive construction effort.
Furthermore, as you requested: My sister is on her way, she will meet you in your room sometime soon. Her time of arrival is subject to weather conditions. I trust you have found your room more than enough for one pony? By now I'm sure all of your friends have discovered the many perks of their new rooms, including the shower that Rainbow Dash requested.
On another important note, I wish to see a report on Pinkie Pie's full condition. We cannot afford to lose an Element of Harmony, and it is a shock to me that she has been sick for this long. Finally, my sister will not be needed back at the castle for some time, so feel free to take her with you on your trip. She could use the company of the only true friends she seems to have. Please take care of my sister, I'm afraid she's taking her return with great difficulty.
Your teacher Princess Celestia
[----]
Twilight set down the letter with a frown, looking up at Rainbow Dash. She sighed as if incredibly frustrated by something. "Four months I had to wait for a reply, this isn't like her at all," Twilight said in frustration.
"She's very busy you know," Rainbow replied, taking the note and skimming over it herself to see if Twilight had left anything out when she had read it aloud. "At least she's sending Luna here, you didn't even expect her to do that."
"Yeah..." Twilight said looking down at the floor for a moment. "I know she's busy, but she used to send back letters within minutes of getting one.. And now I have to wait months? I wanted Luna here four months ago," she said with some depression in her voice.
"I'm starting to wonder who your favorite sister is now,” Rainbow teased with a smile. "Why do you need her here anyway?"
"Rainbow don’t you feel any different? I mean... Spitfire, Soarin... They're all gone now and, you don't feel weird about that? I just need to talk to someone who's used to this, used to immortality."
"Of course it feels weird," Rainbow said with a frown. "The trick is to focus more on who will still be around, and not who we will lose... We've already lost 2 rounds of friends. I'm incredibly lucky that Celestia has taken pity on me and given the spell to Scootaloo, or I don't know what I would have done..." she sighed, looking down. "Twilight, I know I'm not the best to talk about this. I think before you head back to your room tonight and possibly run into the princess, you should talk with Fluttershy. She's been helping all of us, especially Rarity..." Rainbow said as she trailed off for a moment, thinking about everything that Rarity had been put through with Sweetie belle.
"Thanks Rainbow," she said standing up, reaching over wrapping her hooves around Rainbow Dash in a tight hug knowing the mare might need to now that they had just gotten over this depressing topic.
"Fluttershy is hanging out on the scaffolding for wind turbine 28. She’s going to be there for a few hours, so no hurry," Rainbow said before turning around to the door, leaving without another word, making for an awkward silence in the room as Twilight debated what to do next. She quickly decided it would be best to talk with Fluttershy now rather than later, knowing if Luna was to be at her room when she returned, she would not want to keep her waiting.
She made her way over to turbine 28, a good walk from Rainbow's room as the turbines had massive wing spans that forced them to build each turbine very far apart. As she made her way up the scaffolding of turbine 28, she soon caught a flash of yellow and pink. Fluttershy was over 100 feet in the air, sitting at the edge of the scaffolding, looking out at the construction zone below her.
"Hey Fluttershy. How are you?" she asked in a careful tone, making her way over to the mare sitting next to her, following Fluttershy's gaze out toward the ridge.
"Something you need Twilight?" she asked curiously, looking over at her friend with a frown. "You look kinda worried..."
"Kinda... Luna is coming soon and I was telling Rainbow about how immortality is affecting me and... I don't know, things got sad quickly."
"Rainbow nearly had a break down with Scootaloo before Celestia assured her she would get the same spell. She's very lucky" Fluttershy looked down with a frown. "We’re all affected by it Twilight. We saw what happened with Rarity and we can't let that happen to the rest of us. Perhaps Luna can help us with this? She's thousands of years older than us after all."
"How is Rarity? She won't let me see her," Twilight frowned. Rarity had been angry with her ever since she refused to force Sweetie Belle into accepting the spell.
"Still creating dresses, making designs, but she doesn't talk much. She’s still very upset. Don't worry about her, you need to deal with your own issues." Fluttershy said.
"My own issues?" Twilight asked.
"You're waiting on Luna to get here right? I'm sure she's here by now. You should talk about this with her. I'll tell Rarity you said hello."
"I... alright," Twilight frowned. "I'm sorry to trouble you like this," Twilight said with a sigh, walking over to the edge of the platform looking down. "How's the wind today? Think I can fly down?" She asked, having not done much wind training with her wings.
"You should be fine, you need to be more confident with your abilities Twilight. Your flying is as good as your magic," Fluttershy commented with a smile.
"Maybe you can check on Pinkie Pie for me and get a report from the unicorns watching her? Celestia needs a report on her to help her out," Twilight said, making sure to get her concern across before dropping off the ledge and making her way down to her room. Stepping up to her door, she frowns with a heavy sigh, thinking for a moment before using her magic to unlock the door. Stepping inside, she saw the Princess of the Night standing at the window, the sun beating down on her as she turned back to greet Twilight.
"Oh, there you are little one, how is my favorite princess doing?" Luna asked with a gentle smile.
.
I think I'll definitely be sticking around to read this. Besides the horrible, blaring, awful, disgusting grammar errors(I'm joking. They aren't that bad), the story is quite interesting! I've noticed that more often than not, what seems to separate a front-page story from one with fifty views is simply grammar. Many people/ponies are picky about that.
This is a great story :D I will definitely be reading the rest of this when it's released.
A story dealing with immortality... and this time, with all six. Quite interesting!
I'm actually not surprised at all that Fluttershy is among those who took it the best ; when you deal with animals for an extended amount of time, one of the first lessons you learn is that the vast majority of animals have lower lifespans than humans and I bet that in the setting, ponies likewise enjoy human-like lifespans.
In short, even as a mortal, Fluttershy was already prepared for the shock of outliving others. Of course, losing a fellow sapient hit a *lot* harder than losing an animal friend but fact is, Fluttershy is actually the one who was most prepared to tank the surge of sorrow and grief born of outliving somebody.
I'm likewise suspecting that Pinkie's illness is from her having the most difficulty dealing with the grief ; she become friends very easily but most probably was even less prepared for the shock of losing friends. It's likely that her tendency to get close to people meant she was exposed to massive amounts of grief much quicker than the others, probably enough to hinder her ability to cope.
As for Rarity, I picture she's still in the early stages of dealing with immortality but hold on better than Pinkie, hence why she became depressed but the spell held strong anyway.
Regarding Rainbow Dash and Twilight, mixed results ; Rainbow Dash got her loyalty to her immortal friends and Twilight has her relationship with Celestia & Luna to keep them grounded but they're probably not as prepared as Fliuttershy was for the grief (especially blatant with Rainbow Dash and Scootalo). However, their relationships allowed them to avoid the breakdown Rarity went through. They'll have to deal with their feelings eventually, though.
Oh and of course, I'm curious as to how Scootalo is holding up too (though she'll probably be a minor character). Varying on how old she was and what philosophy she took, the ranges of how she's taking it can vary greatly ; she could be taking it just as well as Fluttershy or she could be on the verge of breaking down. It all vary.
Ultimately, immortality is all about accepting grief and letting go of permanence being a factor to judge relationships. Grief is part of life ; even as a mortal, you face it too. Immortality just remove the "I won't outlive X person" rationalization but practically everyone go through grief at least once and one of the necessary steps to enjoy immortal life is to realize that it's a normal part of existence. Relationships are already finite when one is mortal and they're no less worth it. Why would they be less worth it when immortal?
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I like you, You're fun.
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I'm glad you think so! I hope you'll enjoy me commenting over future chapters ; I tend to go off theorizing and analyzing like that. Just think it's nice to share thoughts and ideas.
Sorry I know another update on this hasn't come out in a few days, things are busy over here. I'm almost done the next chapter should only be a day or 2 if things go as planned.
Which they never do.