One Last Letter

by jdb1984

Chapter 1

Dear Princess Celestia,

It’s been a long while since you have gotten any friendship reports. But I know that my time is now short, and I thought I should send you one last letter before I pass away. A lot has happened during my years in Ponyville, and I experienced more than I could have ever dreamed.

I’ve seen ponies change with time and circumstances. For example, Rainbow Dash spent a few years with the Wonderbolts before a performance accident crippled her wings for good. She’s now one of the teachers in Cloudsdale’s Flight Camp, helping other young pegasi to become great fliers. She matured a great deal, from when she used to brag she was the best and showing off for anyone that would watch.

Other ponies, though, have not changed. Rarity and Fluttershy live in Manehatten, and Rarity is still designing dresses for sale, but now they’re sold at the biggest stores all over Equestria. She found a nice stallion, and got married several years ago. She now has three full grown foals, and I heard one of them is now pregnant with her own foal. Meanwhile, Fluttershy found some work acting as a pet counselor. She helps owners and pets find equal ground, using her ability to understand the language of animals. She is now known as the animal whisperer, though she’s not happy about the attention her fame brought her. She never married, but she still had a filly named Butterfly.

As for my other friends, Pinkie is still making parties, though she lost the boundless energy she had when she was young. Instead of having spontaneous parties whenever, she helps design parties for other ponies, whether it’s for birthdays, anniversaries, or whatever reason they have. Sadly, she got diagnosed with diabetes from the sweets she consumed throughout her life, but she’s handling it as best she can.

Applejack now lives in Appleloosa with her husband. Their cousin needed help at his apple orchard in the desert, and Applejack volunteered to go. She left Sweet Apple Acres to Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Apple Bloom's husband Pipsqueak. Applejack had foals of her own, though only one stayed with his parents.

Since Apple Bloom came up, I guess I should mention what happened to the former Cutie Mark Crusaders, now adult mares. Apple Bloom found that she could fix up the old barns and tools, helping the family save money and increase profits. Pipsqueak and their colt handle most of the apple bucking, and Big Mac handles the finances.

Once Sweetie Belle got over her stage fright, she found she had a talent for singing, and got a musical note as her cutie mark. She now performs at concerts all over Equestria, and also uses her talent to advertise her sister’s business by wearing her dresses.

Scootaloo sadly found that she’ll never be able to fly thanks to a birth defect, but she still found that she can do amazing tricks on the ground and make a living off of doing that. She removed the handlebars from her scooter, turning it into a skateboard, and does her tricks in front of large crowds.

As for myself, I just stayed with the library here in Ponyville. I kept the library going, practicing my magic whenever I could, and doing some babysitting for my niece and nephew. Though I never married or had foals of my own, I was happy with how my life had turned out. Thankfully, Shining Armor’s kids helped keep my mother off my back about staying single and not giving her grandfoals.

Writing about all of this makes me remember all that I experienced during my life, and all the ponies that I have met all over Equestria. Though one that lived with me now live outside Equestria. Spike left to be with his own kind once he grew up, and left with the rest of the dragons during the last migration. He said he would be back to see me once the dragons pass through again, but we both know my time will come before then. I worry about him sometimes, like any parent would, but I know I raised him right.

But Celestia, you are one of the most important ponies in my life. Your kind rule, your patient teaching, and your beauty are all things I love about you. I have to thank you for all you taught me about magic, and all the things you had me learn for myself. I was truly blessed to be your personal student, and to be able to say that you and Luna are among my friends.

It seems like only yesterday that you sent me here to Ponyville to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. I was not happy at that time, since I wanted to find a way to stop Nightmare Moon. I now realize that you did it not just to rescue Equestria from an eternal night, but to help me find the the one thing I was missing in my life.

Through my adventures, through the experiences in my life, I learned so much. I learned things that I would never find in any book, things that you can only learn if you encounter them yourself. I didn’t always make the right decisions, but I did the best I can. It’s a life I wouldn’t trade for anything, a life I would never have if I would have stayed in Canterlot.

Everypony need a circle of friends around them, ones that will comfort you and be with you when you’re sad. Ones that will laugh with you at the good times. And ones that will call you out when you need to come to your senses. We had all of that together, and the ups and downs of our friendship were the best times of my life.

Every friendship report tells of a lesson that I learned, and this one is no different. I’ll tell you of a lesson that I learned throughout my life. It’s the most important thing that I or anypony can ever learn:

Friendship really is magic.

Your faithful student, now and forever,
Twilight Sparkle

Comments

[Night Sky]

no! no sadness! im still getting over another sad fic, and the remembering fics are the saddest

[fireflutterpony]

Compared to the other 'Twilight has a last moment with her mentor/writes one last letter' fics on the site, this one just doesn't measure up. It's dull and lifeless, is mostly consumed in telling Celestia a whole lot of things she almost certainly would already know, and doesn't go anywhere meaningful. Twilight learned she needed a circle of friends? Yeah, she learnt that when she first moved to the town.

Your writing, technically speaking, has nothing particularly wrong with it. But it's got no soul and you're saying nothing of note. Go back and think really, really hard about what you're actually trying to say with this fic. Remember, this idea isn't original, so if you want to write something worth reading you're going to have to really throw a twist on the message you're conveying AND wow folks with how you express yourself.

Good luck, but you've got a long way to go.

[Vanathor]

Down vote for sad fic.

'Sides, first thing every competent magic user does is research age-extension magic. There is reason that thematically wizards live for centuries.

[Pegasister77]

[Mr Ignorable]

1153557 Oy! I take offense to that! Especially since I specialize in sad fics.

[ApologeticTrixie]

So cute and sad (Nice story, though! )

[Lord Vinder]

Not bad, nothing special, but not bad.

[Vanathor]

The voting system is for the masses to express there approval is disapproval on a fic. I do not like sad-fics (especially bland ones such as this) and thus I express my opinion by down on it. Even if I was neutral towards the genre (or indeed positive about it) I would still down vote it based on quality alone.

Really its a shame I cannot down vote a fic more then once, otherwise I would to knock it for both the issues I have it with.

[0956]

[Tomiix]

1153815
Honestly announcing a down vote because of it not being your choice of genre is just douchebagery. You rate it based on the type of fic, not because the person writing it. It is like saying that Harry Potter as a whole is a terrible series because you don't like wizards. If you think the quality is bad, give it some constructive criticism instead of saying. I DON'T LIKE SAD FICS. DOWN VOTE.

How do you spend your day? Scrolling through sad fics and down voting them?

[Vanathor]

1.) Harry Potter IS a terrible series, it being about wizards has nothing to do with it. Though if you want an actually good Urban Fantasy series to read I reccomend the Dresden Files.

2.) Giving constructive critism is too much work.

3.) No that is not how I spend my day. Though now that you mention it, it seems like a decent way to spend an hour when I am bored and have nothing better to do Thanks for the suggestion.

[BaliBriant]

Besides what somepony else already said, that Celestia would already know all of this and therefore this letter seems pretty useless, and that the lesson learned is the exact same lesson from episode one, there were a few very distracting technical elements. Such as, why is Twilight dying in the first place when Rarity is just having kids? She can be more than 40 and it's not exactl an unatural death if she knows about it beforehand and writes a letter. Second, Applejack marry Pipsqueek? Idk who you're thinking of but when I hear pip-squeak I think "Pipsqueek the Pirate, at your service." from the nightmare nigh episode. He's obviously too young for applejack.

[jdb1984]

1154259

To clear up some misconceptions you had:
-Apple Bloom was the one that married Pipsqueak, not Applejack.
-Rarity's kids are all grown at this point, and it's her daughter that's pregnant.
-Twilight knows that it'll come soon, and she wants to write the letter while she has the timne and strength to do so. Also, since Spike isn't around anymore, she has to send it through the normal mail system.

[BaliBriant]

1155021

Oh, sorry about that. I read this at 3AM so I was pretty tired. Still some of that might need a little further clarification, usually I wouldn't miss that kind of thing. I think this could be really good if you focus more on the lesson and the emotions going through Twilight's head and less on the trivial catch up talk. You might want to think about that and make some edits.

[DefinesFTW]

This is sad in a good way