Letters From a Friend

by moviemaster8510

First published 2nd of August, 2018

A young man forms a long-distance relationship with Twilight Sparkle through a series of letters they send to each other through a magical anomaly.

Toby was looking forward to a very interesting project for his English class: writing to a complete stranger somewhere in the country to learn about them. However, through some anomaly, his letters make their way to Twilight Sparkle, an alicorn princess in the land of Equestria.

Though confused over how this is possible, Toby and Twilight decide to continue writing to each other, getting to learn all about each other and developing a strong friendship through only their written words.

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Inspired by the movie Her as well as a short story I read in middle-school, along with a since-deleted story called Pen Pals by user Justin Daniels.

Just something I’d update now and then.

9/8/15

To Whomever Receives This,

My name is Toby, and we’re doing this project for my English class where we write letters to other students across the country, talk about whatever, and study each other’s writing patterns and whatnot. I assume you know all about this already, being that your school’s in on it too, but I just want to clarify so you don’t think I’m some creep or that I sent a random letter to the wrong address.

Anyways, as you can tell from the envelope, I live in Chicago, and you live in Denver. I actually remember going to Colorado as a kid once. Although, I spent most of my time in Boulder than Denver. It’s a beautiful state, and I wish to go there again someday if I have the money.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing back from you. I think this will be a lot of fun.

Sincerely,
Toby Cray

Moon 3063, Day 17

Mr./Mrs. Cray

I apologize in advance, but it seems you have definitely sent a letter to the wrong address. I’d be more than happy to send your letter to your intended recipient in Denver, except I don’t know where in Equestria that might be. In fact, Chicago and Denver don’t show up on any map for any other of the foreign lands on the planet. I’ve never even seen an envelope like the one you’ve sent this letter in before. Regardless, whomever or whatever you might be, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and send this letter on the address that appeared on the envelope as a token of my apologies.

Best wishes,
Twilight Sparkle

9/9/15

To Whomever Receives This,

My name is Toby, and we’re doing this project in my English class where we write letters to another student somewhere in the country, talk about stuff, and study each other’s writing patterns. I would think you’d know this, considering you’re part of the same assignment as me, but in case this letter ends up in the wrong hands, there you go.

Anyway, I live in Chicago, and from what I can tell, you live in Denver. I love Colorado. I remember going a long time ago in middle school, but I was closer to Boulder than Denver. Lovely state still.

Anyways, I look forward to hearing back from you. This should be fun.

Sincerely,
Toby Cray

Moon 3063, Day 18

Mr./Mrs. Cray

Please stop sending me this letter. I’m now beginning to think that you’re just some foal trying to play a prank on me. Please refrain from contacting me again.

Twilight Sparkle

9/10/15

To Whomever Receives This,

My name is Toby, and we’re doing this project in my English class where we write letters to another student somewhere in the country, talk about stuff, and study each other’s writing patterns. I would think you’d know this, considering you’re part of the same assignment as me, but in case this letter ends up in the wrong hands, there you go.

Anyway, I live in Chicago, and from what I can tell, you live in Denver. I love Colorado. I remember going a long time ago in middle school, but I was closer to Boulder than Denver. Lovely state still.

Anyways, I look forward to hearing back from you. This should be fun.

Sincerely,
Toby Cray

PS.: If you’re the person that keeps stealing these letters and replacing them with this elaborate “Twilight Sparkle” nonsense, stop immediately, or I’m going to call the police. This isn’t funny. I’m going to get an F on this assignment if you don’t stop, not to mention that what you’re doing is already illegal, so quit it now, and I won’t get the police involved.

PPS.: And if you’re really the person I’m actually writing to, please accept my apologies in advance and ignore the first postscript. Some dumb kids in my neighborhood thinking they’re being funny by taking my mail and replacing them with these scrolls from some “Twilight Sparkle” character. It’s more ridiculous than it sounds. Haha. Let’s hope this doesn’t ruin this.

Moon 3063, Day 19

You’re the only one who’s ridiculous here. I guess I should thank you for your mentioning the authorities, as I shall be contacting them the second after I send you this letter. My only hope that when they find you, they, along with your parents, give you a stern talking to so that you don’t pull this juvenile stunt again. Goodbye for what I hope is the final time.

9/10/15

What’s going on? I’m certain I put that last letter in my mailbox. I waited out on my porch after I got done with class and put the letter in until the mailman came. I even waited out to see if someone would still put in one of those scrolls in as some desperate attempt to keep this prank going. No one but the mailman came, but you clearly got my last letter if your response back was any indicator.

Something is definitely up here. I want to test something right now. If you do get this message, please respond right away, because this is really trippy. I can't even believe I'm signing this letter at this point, but...

Toby Cray

P.S. To clear anything up, I’m a male, by the way.

Moon 3063, Day 19

Okay, Mr. Cray,

I must say that I too am alarmed by what is happening. I mailed my last letter hoping to catch the foals I thought were doing this in the act, but as I went to get the letter from my mailbox and give it to the mailpony personally, I saw your letter in its place. I’m certain I didn’t hear anyone go by during that time, so there’s no way it could have been taken unless… Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself, and forgive me for being blunt, but… are you an extra-terrestrial trying to contact me?

9/10/15

Ms. Sparkle,

I honestly was about to ask you the same thing. I want to take this as diplomatically as possible. I’ll begin by introducing myself. My name is Toby Cray. I’m a species known as a human being from a planet called Earth. I’m a sophomore at the University of Chicago, in the state of Illinois, which is a part of the United States of America, the country I live in.

And to clarify, I have not been trying to contact you. Denver is a city in Colorado, another state, and I have an assignment to write to someone there and study their linguistic patterns. How you are getting my letters is a mystery to myself as well. Whatever the reason may be, I hope this information will suffice in some way.

Apologies,
Toby Cray

Moon 3063, Day 19

Toby,

I thank you for this information, and I must say that sounds like a very fun and interesting assignment. I’m so sorry that whatever’s happening to us is impeding your studies, but you must admit, whatever is happening is nothing short of incredible.

In fact, I want to test something. I’ve never heard of you “humans” before, and am intrigued to know exactly what I’m talking to (and I did mean to use that word, no offense). If you can include some sort of photograph with your next letter, I’d really appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle

P.S. I would very much like to continue writing to you and get to know who I’m talking to.

9/11/15

Twilight,

First of all, no offense taken.

Second of all, no worries on the assignment. I put the original letter in a mailbox near the school, and assuming you didn’t get that one too, I’m going to safely assume it’s getting sent to the right place this time.

Third of all, sorry for the delay. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing. Anyways, yes, I printed up a selfie of myself with this next letter. Here’s to hoping that interdimensional postage doesn’t have restrictions on pictures.

Anyways, it’s the weekend where I’m at, and if the weather is going to stay this gorgeous, I may just spend it sitting on my porch. Plus, I’ll have plenty of free time to write to you.

Look forward to your response. Honestly.

Sincerely,
Toby

P.S. Also, if photographs indeed exist where you’re from, I’d like to have one of you, so that i know what and who I’m talking to.

Moon 3063, Day 19

Dear Toby,

...Wow, I mean, I honestly wasn’t expecting your kind to look like that. Not to say you’re ugly or anything, I’m sure you’re quite handsome for your kind. Either way, this is very good. Not only do I have a good idea of what you look like, but we now know we can send more than just letters to each other. We may have to experiment in the coming days.

As you asked, I have provided a photograph of myself with this letter. Please forgive the lateness of my own letter, it seems ponies don’t have cameras or a photographer as readily available as you humans do.

And as much as I’m looking forward to continuing writing to you, I’d hate to take up your weekend that you could be spending with your friends on your own world. Plus, I do have friends of my own. I hope you understand.

I still look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle

9/12/15

Twilight,

Your picture strangely makes a lot of sense now. I actually shouldn’t say strangely considering your talk of “ponies” and “foals,” but I mean, still.

Woah.

Actually, I’ll get this out of the way right now. We do in fact have ponies on my world, but they don’t have bright, colorful fur, nor do they have unicorn horns or pegasus wings, or both for that matter.

And letters. They definitely don’t write letters.

And since we’re judging each others’ appearances, I just want to say, and please don’t take this the wrong way, you look absolutely adorable. Like seriously, you’re the cutest-looking pony I’ve ever seen.

And don’t worry, I do in fact have friends of my own. In fact, we’re going to see a movie later tonight. I don’t know if you have movies in your world, but if you do, maybe I can share my opinion with you.

Other than that though, my schedule this weekend is totally open. Don’t know what plans you and your friends have yourselves, but know that if you want to talk, I’ll probably be able to reply right away.

Can’t wait to hear from you again.

Toby

Moon 3063, Day 20

Toby,

Accept my apologies again. I've gotten so wrapped up in talking with a human on some faraway world that I've completely forgotten to properly introduce myself. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I am an alicorn (a winged unicorn, if you weren't familiar with the term), and I come from a land called Equestria filled with unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, and alicorns like myself. I live in the aptly named town of Ponyville, and If I have an opportunity, I'd like to take some photographs of my home to share with you.

And to answer your question, yes, Equestrians do have movies. I can't imagine that they're anything like the movies you have, but I would very much like to hear about the movie you're going to see tonight, and I think it would open ourselves up to another interesting discussion over what our kinds consider entertainment.

And seeing as you're free, as you said, I'd love to see some pictures of where you live. I can hardly imagine that it's anything like Ponyville, but

Sorry, forget that. I'm sure your home city is lovely too, and I can hardly wait to see it and hear back from you too.

Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle

P.S.: Your comments about me in your last letter left me quite flushed. I hope you're happy!

9/12/15

Twilight,

I’m certain that your home is probably far more fantastic than mine (considering who I’m writing to here), but I actually received a text from my friend that we’re going to hang out at Navy Pier before the movie tonight. I guess that means less talking to each other then. Boo hoo. But that means I have an opportunity to take a lot of cool pictures of the city. Hooray!

Actually, while we’re on the subject of texts and pictures, we have these devices called phones, and most of them are small and advanced enough to fit inside of a pocket. The picture of myself that I sent you and the pictures I intend to take of Chicago today are taken with my phone, in fact. And when I say “text,” that means I can send a virtual message to one or more of my friends. They’re kind of like the letters we’re sending to each other, except it isn’t done through magic (or however it’s happening, but if I’m talking to a unalicorn on the other side of the universe or some other dimension, I’ll accept magic).

I’ll spare you the boring stuff now. The movie we’re seeing is called The Visit. These kids meet their grandparents for the first time, and the daughter is filming their stay as some kind of personal project. But the grandparents start acting super strangely; I don’t know, it’s a horror movie. I’m sure you have those too right?

Don’t want to feel like I’m rushing you, but if you can get my letter and send a response in the next couple of hours, I should be able to write back one more time before I have to meet up with my friends.

Hope to hear back.

Toby

Moon 3063, Day 20

Toby,

These phones of yours sound quite incredible. I suppose that if the concept of magic is more practical in recognition to you humans, that must mean that your species is more technologically inclined than us ponies. In any case, I do look forward to see what you'll manage to capture to show me.

As for the movie, that certainly sounds like an interesting premise. I'd like to hear all about it when you get back from it, and perhaps I can share a couple of classic horror tales from our world and we can compare them. Of course, they're merely short stories and campfire tales, but this may allow me to test if we can send larger objects like books and journals to each other. If this works, the possibilities of what we can share amongst one another could be endless!

Anyways, I hope I've caught you before you left to meet up with your friends, and I'll hear back from you later tonight. In the meantime, I'll try and find a good short story collection to let you borrow.

Talk to you later.

Twilight

9/12/15

Twilight,

You couldn't have caught me at a better time. I'm leaving to take the L in just a half hour, and I'll probably be off once I put this letter in the mailbox. Might go around the Loop once and get some good pics there before I meet up with my friends. Depending on what time I get home and how awake I feel, I may not send out another letter until tomorrow morning, but granted you're able to send that book over, I'm going to try and read at least one of those stories before I go to bed tonight.

Even if I do send another letter before I go to sleep, I can't imagine you'll be up yourself to read it, so I'll bid you a good night right here, and we'll continue talking more tomorrow.

Toby

Moon 3063, Day 20

Toby,

Not sure what this “L” or the “Loop” are, but I’m confident that your pictures will explain them well enough.

I already found a really good horror story collection in my library. Feel free to return it whenever, but I’d still like you to be careful with it. It’s a limited-edition copy and it’s pretty valuable. Of course, I’m risking sending this book off through the cosmos or wherever it’s traveling to reach you but

Anyways, if you do get it, please treat it like you would your own books.

Looking forward to hear what you think.

Twilight

Moon 3063, Day 20

Sorry, me again

Just to be sure, I tied my last letter to the book with some twine, and now the book’s gone. Let me know if you got it on your end.

This is so exciting!

9/13/15

Twilight,

I got both of your letters, but there's no book. I'm sorry. As bad as this still sounds, hopefully some neighborhood kids are actually playing a trick this time and took it. There's nothing I can do right now, but I'm going to get up first thing tomorrow morning and go looking for it.

Sorry again,
Toby