Ch. 2 - Starting From Scratch
“Hey! Have you seen a pinkish-purple unicorn with a purple mane with a light blue streak running through it? She’s using magic to levitate herself.”
“No, sorry miss.”
Twilight had spent the better part of the past 45 minutes interrogating nearly everypony on the streets of Cloudsdale, trying to get a lead on where Starlight may have went, but ultimately she had gotten nowhere.
“Twilight, I don’t think we’re gonna find her at this point,” Spike stated, still seated atop Twilight’s rump.
Twilight stopped flying and landed on the street, with a defeated look on her face.
She sighed deeply and then spoke up. “You’re right. She’s probably found a way to hide from us at this point. We’ll just have to figure out a different course of action.”
“Yeah. We probably ought to head home and think things through,” Spike suggested.
Twilight froze as her eyes widened further. “There’s only one problem with that, Spike. Our home doesn’t exist yet.”
It had finally clicked in Twilight’s mind what their situation truly was. She and Spike had become stranded 12 years in the past with no money and no place to stay.
She simply stood there, processing the whole situation. Even Spike had become caught off-guard, and was currently reflecting on their status.
After a minute or two, a young filly holding a blue backpack in her mouth brought them back to reality.
“Heyuh, yhou dhropped vhis!”
She turned around to see the filly, who was grey and had a yellow-blonde mane. Twilight immediately recognized Spike’s backpack that Starlight had teleported off of him to get at the time-scroll. She took the backpack in her aura, and levitated it over to Spike, who proceeded to put it back on.
“I saw it fall through the clouds, and I’ve been looking all over trying to find you so I could give it back!” the filly beamed.
“Well thank you, it really means a lot to me that you’d go out of your way to do that!” Twilight replied.
“You’re welcome! My name’s Derpy Hooves by the way!”
Twilight froze up. She suddenly recognized this filly as the pony that would grow up to be her regular mail-mare. It was a bit strange to think that everypony she had talked to so far would be considerably older if this was the present.
“N-nice to meet you, Derpy, I’m...Twilight Sparkle,” she responded in a rather uneasy tone.
“Anyways, I gotta get back to flight camp. See ya!” the filly said, before flying off.
Twilight waved slightly, before bringing her attention to Spike. “Well, we got the backpack,” she stated dryly.
“Not like that solves anything,” Spike deadpanned.
“Maybe we could try talking to Princess Celestia; I’m sure if I explain everything she’ll be willing to help us.”
“And if telling her you’re from the future destroys the timeline?” Spike pointed out.
Twilight bit her lip. “Well…”
“Plus if she listens to you she’d probably listen to any lies Starlight might tell her. So if you wanna spend the next 1000 years in Celestia’s garden or Tartarus…”
Twilight sighed. “I guess you’re right, Spike. First thing’s first: we need a place to stay, and I think we both know there’s only one place for two ponies in a situation like ours.”
“To Ponyville we go!” Spike declared, pointing ahead.
It was early afternoon by the time Twilight and Spike reached Ponyville. Proceeding into town, Twilight noticed that it felt somewhat sleepier than she was used to, not to mention smaller. Many houses were missing, several buildings looked much fresher, and significantly less ponies were out and about.
“Ponyville sure was smaller back in the day,” Spike commented, walking along side Twilight.
“Mm-hmm,” Twilight replied.
Even more different than the buildings were the ponies, as many ponies the two recognized were younger, some even foals. In addition, there were some older ponies that were clearly not around in the future. Overall, the town felt very surreal. There was also a lingering feeling of disconnect from everypony in town, especially as some stopped and stared at the sight of an alicorn and dragon walking around.
Eventually, two arrived at the archway from which a sign hung, proudly displaying the words “Sweet Apple Acres” in bright white paint. Not surprisingly, the farm looked almost no different than it did on the other side of the 12-year gap.
Twilight walked up to the main entrance door to the farmhouse, which had its top portion open, letting in the warm summer breeze.
“Hello? Is anypony home?” Twilight asked into the seemingly empty living-room.
“I hear ya, just hold yer reins fer a minute there!” came the unmistakable voice of Granny Smith, who seemed to be speaking from the kitchen.
The elderly mare walked into the living-room, her appearance being a fair bit younger than Twilight had always known. She stopped before the door, looking straight at Twilight with a skeptical expression on her face.
“What can I do fer ya?” she squinted and rubbed her hoof on her chin. “Now wait jus’ a darn minute! I can’t recall y’all’s names; ya must be new ‘round these parts.”
“Oh!” Twilight froze as she was momentarily taken by surprise. Taking brief moment to collect her thoughts, she responded, “Well, um, my name’s Twilight Sparkle, and this-” Twilight wrapped a foreleg around Spike’s neck and squeezed him against her “-is my little brother Spike.”
He waved.
“Well howdy-do then! I’m Maria Smith; most ponies jus’ call me ‘Granny’ though. Now what brings ya all ‘round here?”
Twilight thought for a moment, trying to formulate a story that could at least be half-true.
“Well, Spike and I used to share an apartment in Canterlot, but this past week, we ended up becoming homeless. One of my friends happened to be a member of the Apple family, though, and recommended I come see you guys in Ponyville to possibly find a place to stay.”
“Eh, which Apple was this?”
“Uhh... We...called her Apple Jam.”
Granny paused, continuing to stare at Twilight. “I guess my memory’s just goin’ bad. Come on in,” she said, opening the bottom portion of the door, allowing the other two to come inside.
They walked in and took a seat on the couch while Granny walked back into the kitchen. A couple of minutes later, she exited and sat down next to Twilight on the couch.
“Wish I coulda made another apple pie fer y’all. Normally like ta have one ready fer house guests.”
“Don’t worry about it; you seem like you’ve had your hooves rather full,” Twilight replied.
“That don’t make up fer anythin’ though,” Granny maintained.
“I at least appreciate you letting us stop by.”
“Ta an’ Apple, friends are like family.”
The front door swung open and Little Mac walked into the room, looking quite exhausted.
“I – got the – garden watered, and the – animals fed, but I need a break,” he panted, walking over to one of the chairs and dropping into it. His voice, while still quite masculine and definitely not that of a young colt’s, was a few octaves higher than in the future. As for his appearance, it was quite a bit different than what he would eventually grow into; he was much smaller and lankier, and he looked as though he had already worked all he could, in only half a day.
“Woah, he’s really different,” Spike whispered to Twilight, her nodding slightly in response.
“Little Mac,” Granny said, getting the colt’s attention. “This here is Miss Twilight an’ –” she looked down at Spike, “– eh, what’d ya say yer name was again?”
“Spike,” he replied.
“– and Spike.” She continued, “They’re gonna be stayin’ with us fer a little while ‘till they get back on their hooves.”
Little Mac groaned slightly as he rolled his eyes.
Twilight took notice. “Miss Apple,” she began, turning to Granny, “if it isn’t too much of a problem, me and Spike could help out around the house while we stay here, just so we won’t be too much of an inconvenience to you and Bi– err –your grandson.”
“Thanks for asking me if I–” Spike got cut off by a short and hard jab in the side from Twilight.
“Oh I wouldn’t wanna inconvenience ya any,” she replied, waving a hoof. “Little Mac an’ I have got it taken care of, right Mac?”
Little Mac reluctantly nodded, and hopped off the couch to head upstairs.
“You sure? Because if you need help with anything at all, I’m here,” Twilight insisted.
“I appreciate yer offer, but I’m assurin’ ya, we got it all corralled. An’ Mac’s jus’ upset that his parents an’ sisters ain’t around anymore.”
“Her name’s Applejack, right?”
Granny nodded. “Yep. She’s in Manehattan right now. An’ Apple Bloom’s bein’ babysat by my niece Gala Appleby.”
Bored with the conversation, Spike hopped off the couch and followed Mac upstairs. He peered in the doorway to Little Mac’s bedroom and spotted him lying down on the bed. He stepped further into the room and Mac sat up.
“Need somethin’?”
Spike shrugged. “Not really. Just wondering what you do for fun.”
Mac relaxed a little bit. “Oh, well, me an’ my sister do all sorts of stuff t’gether! We race each other, hoof wrestle, toss horse-shoes, go swimmin’, square dance...well, we did do all that. She’s in Manehattan now.” He broke eye contact and looked down. “So what’s a dragon an’ alicorn doin’ in Ponyville anyway?” he asked, looking back up.
“Oh me and Twi used to share an apartment in Canterlot.”
“Canterlot? So are ya friends with the Princess or somethin’?”
“Well I have used her as my personal transportation before!” Spike declared, proudly crossing his arms.
“Ya what?”
“It was only for a minute though, and she was the one who set me on her back...” His proud demeanor deflated.
“Huh. So Twilight yer mother or somethin’?” Mac asked, cocking his head.
Spike scratched the back of his head. “Eh...Sorta. She was the one who hatched and kinda raised me, but I always call her mother ‘Mom’, so Twilight’s more like my big sister...it’s weird.”
“Family’s family. That’s all that matters.”
“So...wanna do anything?”
Mac raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Ya mean, us do somethin’? Fer fun?”
“Sure! I mean, you and– err, uhh... –I mean, I had a friend like you back home I did stuff with all the time!”
A small but happy grin was starting to creep across Mac’s face. “So what do ya wanna do?”
“Well, I happen to know of a little game full of vast, unconquered lands, vicious beats, and hoards of treasures, all ready for two mighty explorers to conquer!” Spike stated, clutching his claw in a fist and pulling it down as he took a grand step forward.
Mac’s eyes were wide with amazement. “That sounds amazin’! How do we play?”
Spike sat down on the bed next to Mac, and put his arm around Mac’s neck. “Come young apprentice, as I introduce you to the fantastical world of Ogres & Oubliettes!”
“Diinneer!” Granny shouted.
The colt and dragon walked into the kitchen laughing about their fictional adventure.
“You two seem like you became friends pretty quick!” Twilight noted.
Spike was about to reply, but was interrupted by Little Mac.
“No kiddin’! Spike’s the best friend I’ve ever had! Well, ‘cept fer winnin’ four hoof-wrestlin’ rounds in a row!” Mac gave a small glare at Spike.
Spike just smiled smugly at Mac in return.
“Well I’m glad you two hit it off so well!” Twilight said.
“And thank you fer offerin’ a helpin’ hoof...and horn an’ wing with makin’ dinner,” Granny said to Twilight.
The four sat down at the table. The offerings which Granny and Twilight had prepared consisted of a green-bean casserole, a side of fresh salad, baked potatoes, and buttered biscuits.
Little Mac gulped down his soda and belched loudly, then turned to Spike with a smug smirk and one eyebrow raised. Spike responded by gulping down his own glass of soda, which was followed by a large burp of his own. The burp sent a plume of fire across the table, engulfing a stray butterfly that had flown inside. After the fire dissipated all that was left was a tiny stream of falling ash.
“Oops.”
Granny looked up and noticed the ashes. “Well that’s one way ta get rid of those darn moths.”
Mac wrapped a foreleg around Spike. “Guess I know who ta call if I ever need ta light a fire! You jus’ keep gettin’ better an’ better!”
“Just don’t let him hold something you aren’t prepared to lose,” Twilight snarked.
Spike chuckled nervously as Mac looked over at him with a sly grin.
Twilight proceeded to take her first bite, her eyes lighting up as soon as the food reached her mouth. “This casserole is great!” she exclaimed.
“I know!” Mac excitedly replied, before immediately starting to lose some of it. “It’s one of Applejack’s favorite dishes...”
“Mac,” Granny began, “ya know Applejack left because she felt she needed ta find her own path. I know ya didn’t want her ta go, but it was her decision ta make.”
“But how can she jus’ leave like that?!” he yelled, slamming his hoof on the table. “She always liked helpin’ out ‘round the farm, then she jus’ wants ta leave right after Mom an’ Dad get killed!?”
Twilight coughed on her food slightly as she looked up at the two. “Killed?”
Mac looked over at her. “Timberwolves. Granny kept sayin’ they’d be around fer the zap apple harvest anytime, but Mom an’ Dad jus’ went on that walk anyway!”
Twilight paused. Applejack hadn’t spoken much of her parents, and even more so the circumstances of their death. “O-oh. I’m so sorry; Apple Jam told me it was sudden, but...I didn’t think it was that sudden.”
Mac sighed. “Granny said we’d get through it t’gether, an’ then Applejack ju’s goes an’ leaves, sayin’ she’ll be better off in some big fancy city? It just don’t make sense! I know Applejack, this just don’t seem like her!”
“Now, Mac...” Granny began.
“Actually,” Twilight interrupted, “I think it does make sense.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Mac, you said Applejack liked helping around the farm, right?”
“Yeah. She an’ I would always be out helpin’ Mom an’ Dad any way we could.”
“That might just be it.”
“Huh? Whadd’ya mean?” Mac asked.
“You two always did farm work with your parents, but now that they’re gone, it’s probably hard for her to deal with that when she’s always doing things that remind her of them. It’s just a natural part of grief for some ponies; feeling like everything’s reminding you they’re gone.”
“I guess yer right, it’s been hard fer me too. But I never felt like leavin’ though.”
“Everypony takes it differently. Besides, it’s pretty normal for a pony to make rather bold decisions when they’re going through emotional pain.”
“I wish ya could’ve said all that ta Applejack before she left,” Mac sighed, slumping in his chair.
A lightbulb went off in Twilight’s head.
“Actually,” she began, “what if I did say that to Applejack?”
Mac curiously looked up at Twilight. “Huh?”
“What I mean is, what if I had a talk with Applejack about all of this?”
“An’ how are ya plannin’ on doin’ that?” Granny asked. “I don’t think she’s just gonna listen ta some random stranger over the phone.”
“But she might listen in person,” Twilight said.
“Ya’d still be a random stranger,” Granny stated.
Twilight thought about it. Sure it would be hard for Applejack to listen to a stranger, but Twilight also knew Applejack well, and would know how to make her feel at ease. If this worked, she could end up giving Applejack the push she would need to return home and earn her cutie-mark, and more importantly, put a part of history back on track.
“I think I should still try,” Twilight announced. “The worst that could happen is she’ll stay there, which is what probably will happen if we don’t say anything.”
“Really? You’ll go all the way ta Manehattan ta talk ta her?” Mac asked, becoming excited.
“If it means making everypony happier, then yes.”
Mac beamed with joy at the thought of his sister returning.
“So, when are we gonna do this?” Spike asked.
“We’ll leave tomorrow,” Twilight replied.
“Thank ya, Miss Twilight,” Mac said.
Twilight smiled. “It’s the least I can do.”
“Well, this is the guest room,” Granny said, opening the door to a rather bare bedroom.
It had a bed, a dresser, a nightstand, a desk, mirror, a window with curtains, and a rug. On the nightstand was a lamp, flashlight, and an old wind-up alarm clock. It was fairly simple.
“Thank you again for letting us stay here,” Twilight said, walking in with Spike.
“Oh it ain’t a problem,” Granny said.
“Have a good night!”
“And yerself.”
“Hey Spike!” Mac called into the room.
“Yeah?” Spike replied, turning around.
“If ya wanna do somethin’ before we go ta sleep, I’ll be up.”
“Sure; I’ll be over in a few! We can continue that Ogres & Oubliettes game if you want.”
“Sounds Great!”
Mac ran off and Granny pulled the door shut, leaving Twilight and Spike by themselves.
Spike tossed his backpack onto the desk, and Twilight, hearing the noise, turned to find the source.
“Hey Spike, what did we put in that backpack anyways?” Twilight asked. “I kinda forgot after this whole time-travel mess.”
Spike unzipped the backpack and opened it somewhat wide. “Oh! It’s the slides from your presentation.” He pulled out the case they were in, took out one slide, and held it up in the direction of the lit lamp that was sitting on the nightstand. “This one looks like...I can’t tell,” he said.
Twilight took the slide in her aura and began examining it, squinting to try and make out the small dark image. “It looks like...me and my mom? Spike, hand me that flashlight over there.”
He grabbed the flashlight and brought it over to Twilight. She turned it on and shined it through the slide, giving a slight projection onto the wall.
The result was a photo of a young Twilight sitting next to her mother on the living-room couch. The Twilight in the picture appeared to be in tears, trying to smile for the picture even though she was upset.
Twilight’s face immediately grew concerned. “I don’t remember this slide at all.”
“Neither do I.”
“It’s like Dad or Shining took the picture to try and help me feel better or something. Either way, how would this have even gotten mixed in with the slides without us noticing?”
“I don’t think it did,” Spike said, “I used every slide for the presentation – even the one of me on the beach.”
Twilight turned her head around. “There was a slide of you on the beach?”
“Yeah, I left it in by mistake.” He began rummaging through the backpack to find it. After a moment, he stopped. “Hey Twi? What’s the date on that slide?”
Twilight checked the penciled date on the slide and froze. The date on the slide was the same as the current date. “T-today.”
“Twilight, I think that slide used to be the slide of your acceptance letter to Celestia’s school.”
Twilight nodded slowly, a thousand yard stare in her eyes. “Without the rainboom, that picture of me with the certificate can’t exist, but this new one, which must’ve been taken after I failed the entrance exam, would.” She turned to face Spike. “That slide must’ve changed because the future is changing. Spike, if those slides are changing because the future is changing, we’re in trouble.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Twilight used her wings to quickly dash over to him in the air. She held him between her forehooves as she continued to hover. “What I mean is, without being in Celestia’s school, I won’t become a princess, which is what ended up driving Starlight to take revenge on us. Without Starlight trying to take revenge, we won’t end up traveling back in time, and if we don’t travel back in time, we’ll stop existing!” She wasn’t even looking at Spike anymore.
“Stop existing?!”
She pressed her nose against Spike’s. “We need to figure out how much time we have left!” She pulled her head away. “Get me the slide with the most recent date on it. Oh, and the two most recent dates after today’s.”
Spike saluted as Twilight let him go, only for a “AAAHH!” to escape his mouth as he fell straight down to the floor, which was now several feet below them.
Twilight blinked and looked down. “Oops.”
“Next time, check if you’re doing your anxiety hovering before letting me go,” he muttered.
“Sorry!”
Spike got up and began shuffling through the slides. Once he had found each requested slide, he passed them to Twilight.
She first shined the flashlight through the most recent slide, revealing one of the graphics from her presentation. The next one was a picture of Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark, taken around eight years ago. The third depicted a young and cutie-markless Twilight riding on her mother’s back while water-skiing.
“Well, at least two of them are fine,” Spike commented.
“But that also means the future is changing slowly, and we might not be safe from its effects. We’ve only been here a few hours, and this photo...which must’ve originally been the one of my cute-ceañera...already changed.”
“So how long do we have until everything catches up?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to keep an eye on the slides to see when the next one changes.” Twilight sighed and looked down, the fate of Equestria’s literal future resting on Spike and herself.
“So...so we just try and fix the future, right?” Spike asked, nervously.
Twilight took a deep breath.
“There’s no guarantee it’ll work, but yes, we have to at least try to fix the things that we can.”
“Like getting Applejack to come home?”
“Exactly. If we start doing things like that, hopefully we’ll be able to correct the course of history enough for me and my friends to end up meeting again. Right now though, we should probably get some sleep, we’ve got a long day ahead tomorrow.”
Twilight pulled Spike into a hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Upon release, Spike started to head towards the door.
“I’m gonna go play some more O&O with Mac.”
“Don’t stay awake too late,” Twilight called out.
“And waste my last few nights of existence?”
Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed. “Spike, I said we’d only stop existing if don’t-”
“C’mon Twi, relax; it’s just a joke.”
Twilight blinked. “Right… Well, goodnight Spike.”
“Night!”
Spike ran out of the room and shut the door. Twilight playfully shook her head and got ready for bed.
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Congrats! You get a like.
You have my attention.
Cool story
Interesting!
I was surprised that Twilight and Spike didn't stumble upon Bright Mac and Pear Butter at Sweet Apple Acres, but then again they might have distracted from the story's premise, possibly even stolen the show.
Them being alive would also have robbed the story of the similarities between Little Mac (and Applejack later on, I assume) and a younger Starlight. Not that I expect Twilight to notice them before a long time.
Speaking of noticing... in the previous chapter, Twilight being an alicorn makes filly Rainbow ecstatic and causes several pegasi to close in on her with questions about this very subject; soon into this chapter, she worries that her status as "an unknown alicorn walking around" will land her in Canterlot's dungeons if she as much as gets close to the city.
All of this disappears after they decide to go to Ponyville.
Yes, Granny Smith gets suspicious when a complete stranger shows up to Sweet Apple Acres, asking to stay over and mentioning a relative she doesn't remember to even exist. But it's never because Twilight is an alicorn.
Samewise, Little Mac isn't surprised at all to see his grandmother talking to an alicorn of all things when he walks in.
Granny Smith not batting an eyelid can be chalked up to having seen it all in her younger days, being thoroughly blasé at anything and everything the universe can throw at her or just plain grief over the death of her son and his wife. The last one could also explain why Little Mac doesn't care, but it's still odd to see something that seemed so important earlier in the story swept under the carpet.
True, I can't recall a time in the show itself where someone who never saw Twilight before commented on her being an alicorn—at least without "that means you're a princess" being the really important part—but as I just mentioned, it's not depicted as a meaningless detail here.
Letting it fade from memory could help a surprise or two later in the story, though. Word can travel far in five fours or so, especially when all the witnesses have wings, and Twilight and Spike's journey has just begun.
Twilight starting to think about her cover story only once she's talking to Granny Smith, even though she spent four hours and a half on a train just to get to Ponyville, on the other hand... It's salvageable as well, but you'd need to show why it never came to her mind during that train ride. Because as it is, not mentioning it doesn't come off as 'leaving subtext' but rather as skipping something genuinely necessary.
She certainly has enough things to worry about for it to slip her mind, though I'm not sure it's in-character for her for such distraction to last so long. There was Spike along with her as well, and he could have wondered the same and asked her about it.
Beyond those issues, I found the rest of the characterization faithful. Twilight and Spike are as obliging as I expect them to be, and that includes her little overruling jab when he spoke up about asking for his permission first.
I loved the bit about the slides from two different timelines merging together. Twilight and Spike wondering at first if this was caused by "chemical imbalance" is another nice nod towards her scientific knowledge as well as Spike's. He's lived with her his whole life. Just because he had difficulty with the word 'imperative' doesn't mean he learned nothing from being around her since he was born.
Moving on to another character, I disagree with Twilight's assessment of Celestia's reaction to "some lunatic who claims she’s from the future and is stuck here." Yes, she'll likely be swarmed by the royal guard as soon as one of them sees her. But Princess Twilight looks just a little too much like the culmination of all her plans, starting with Luna's rescue.
She's going to listen, whether she ends up believing Twilight is genuine or if she's false hope made flesh by one of her enemies.
There is one last thing I want to mention. I noticed this issue in the first chapter, but here, I feel that it's grown to an extent that's actually detrimental to the story. Possibly because it was spread across five thousands words rather than only one thousand.
The narration.
Most of the time, it just states what the characters are feeling, usually along with why they're feeling that way. The reasons are generally obvious from the context, making the explanation unnecessary then, and it comes back to the 'stating' matter when the reasoning could use some fleshing out.
For example;
can be shortened to
because the very sentence spoken by Twilight makes "at how cute the foal looked" redundant, and "Twilight said" is unnecessary because of the context, even before merging the two paragraphs together.
Another example;
Everything written after "he said in a depressed tone" is unnecessary, precisely because of this same context. Little Mac himself confided in Spike earlier in the story, and that's just the most recent instance.
The other half of the flaws I see in the narration is, as I mentioned, that the character's feelings and thoughts are just stated.
One example would be;
How does this "inner annoyance" translate into his face? What does this look, well, look like?
This line later in the story is better, for instance;
It's not much, but it's already better.
It could be improved, possibly by describing how jarring it felt to Twilight, busy as she was stuffing her face with Granny Smith's cooking, but this one is more a matter of writing style.
As much as I emphasize showing rather than telling, it's not automatically better. This line is entirely 'telly,' for instance;
and yet, there's nothing wrong with it. It's not redundant, it has nothing unnecessary. It's short and to the point. The simple "decided to comment" implies she took the time to think about doing so or not and the entire sentence works beautifully.
Despite my amount of criticism, I'm looking forward to the rest of this story. I may have my issues with the execution but the content is solid as far as I'm concerned. As I said previously, I like the premise and find the characterization faithful.
Huh???
9643762
Or they could obviously be DEAD
P-phone? Does this Equestria have phones? I guess I could see old timey phones — the new gen does have smart phones, so I guess. This just felt a bit out of place — specially when Twilight uses letters to the princess to communicate.
11465199
Look on the right side of the desk.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/11/16/2197913.png
(From "Rarity Takes Manehattan")
Additionally, in "Somepony to Watch Over Me", Applejack telling Scootaloo and Sweetie that "Rarity's on her way here to look after you two," directly implies that she had instantaneous communication with Rarity, while the two were not in the same location. Considering there would be no way for her to send "Spike-mail" for lack of a better term, this implies the existence of phones.
As for Twilight and Celestia, consider that as a princess, Celestia is quite busy. Thus, a letter is likely more convenient for her, as she can read it at any time. It saves her the issue of having to possibly step away from an important meeting to speak with Twilight, or play phone-tag should she have to just momentarily ignore Twilight.
Yeah she's probably long gone by now since we got distracted crafty Pony
Aww young Derpy so cute
Hate to break it to you but the timeline is already broken after Starlight stopped Rainbow Dash during the Sonic Rainboom
Little Mac
There's so many theories about what happened to Applejack's parents but it's still makes it sad that they're not around
Yeah the last time you tried to do something with Rainbow Dash did not go very well try to approach it gently
Oh no the time line has changed because she never got into Celestia school and Spike was never with her oh boy this is so like Back to the Future
this is so like Back to the Future Vibe here
Okay once again this is so like Back to the Future situation so after they couldn't find Starlight they need to find a place to stay in the meantime since their home doesn't exist yet and they only thing they can think of his Ponyville and they stopped at Sweet Apple Acres which Granny Smith gave them a home to stay and even Spike making friends with Big Mac or Little Mac at this time line since they are the same age kind of and when they're having dinner Twilight want to see if they can persuade Applejack to come home hopefully she will approach this a little bit better than last time but then they realize something that the timeline is changing and if they don't get everything back on line not only the timeline will change but the original timeline of Twilight and Spike would not exist anymore so they had to Race Against Time
Masha! Granny Masha!