Dear Princess Celestia,

With a heavy heart

It is my sincere regret to inform you

I have no idea how to even start and Spike stop don't write that down

Dear Princess Celestia,

First, allow me to offer my deepest apologies. I have no doubt the news I'm writing to you about has, somehow, already reached you.

Still I know it is my responsibility duty to bring this matter to your attention myself. Especially given that it involves a national hero.

On my authority as your personal student, I have placed the human known as Gary Stu under citizen's arrest.

Please believe that nopony is more shocked than I am about this.

I realize that Mister Stu has done much for our world. He helped to recover the Elements of Harmony. He was indispensable in the defeat and recapture of Discord. He almost single-handedly saved the Crystal Empire

He's also lied to me

Which just makes it worse

What truly shocked me and prompted his arrest though

Hi, Princess, it's Spike. I took over writing again.

Twilight said she just needs some time alone, but I really don't think she's feeling up to writing this. I can hear her crying all the way from our room. So I kinda thought that maybe I should just tell you about what happened.

Even though I'm really not sure about that myself.

So Gary. You know Gary right? Helped Twilight and rest of the girls save Equestria a whole bunch of times? He's almost the whole reason they managed to beat guys like Discord and Queen Chrysalis? Not to mention helping the Cutie Mark Crusaders try to earn their Cutie Marks and taking care of a whole bunch of other problems that keep popping up around Ponyville.

He's basically the most popular guy in town and he's been staying at the Golden Oaks with me and Twilight Twilight and me. We set up another bed for him in the lower part of our loft. He keeps a bunch of other junk that came from his world under it and it gets pretty cluttered.

Well today he was out helping Applejack with setting up and running her family reunion, so I decided to do him a favor. See, I figured the reason he probably doesn't clean under his bed so much is that he's so busy helping everypony else. So I figured I'd clean and organize it all for him and surprise him when he got back! And Twilight thought it sounded like a great idea too!

So she went to get the mop and broom and other stuff we'd need while I dug out all the junk he kept under there. And believe me, there was a lot of stuff. But the weirdest thing I found was a couple boxes.

At first I thought they were just really small books, except they didn't have any paper in them. Plus, all of them had pictures of Twilight and Rarity and, well all of us on the front of them! Even me!

Now I know you and Twilight always told me I should respect other creatures' privacy, but I was just so curious about them. I mean, I don't see my face on many books! So I sort of opened them up to see what they were about.

Turns out they were actually boxes that all had a bunch of shiny, flat donuts inside. I thought they were a snack at first, then I remembered Gary doesn't eat gems like I do, and then I saw there was writing on each of the donuts and on the back of the boxes.

Twilight came back upstairs before I could read any of it though.

I thought I was in so much trouble. She took the boxes and started to scold me for looking through Gary's personal stuff instead of just cleaning it up. Then I guess she noticed the writing on the boxes because she went real quiet and looked super confused.

Then she just said, "Spike, finish cleaning up. I need to check something."

So I did like she said and then waited for her. I don't know what she was doing that took so long but it was almost time for dinner when she came back upstairs and she looked like she'd been crying. I tried to ask what was wrong but she just hugged me

My apologies, Princess, but I think I should take over from here.

As disappointed as I was in Spike for so flagrantly violating somepony else's privacy, I was more struck by just what was written on the boxes he'd found. There was a list on the back, something like a table of context for a book I suppose. Each one was followed by a sentence or two, and it occurred to me that they were summaries. These strange disks apparently contained a collection of stories, and the boxes listed the titles of the stories and what each one was about! No doubt some marvel of technology from Gary's world.

What had me concerned was just what these stories were about.

(Princess, I very respectfully ask that you be sitting down when you read this next part.)

These story disks are about us.

Specifically they're about my friends and myself and all the adventures we'd had since meeting Gary Stu in the Everfree Forest during Nightmare Moon's return. But none of the stories' summaries mention a thing about Gary at all! I wasn't sure what that could mean, so I did the only thing I could think to do: I researched a spell to help me find out what was on the disks.

It was not easy, by any means. Allow me to thank you for loaning me that book about Haycartes's Method, by the way, since it provided the basis for the spell I wound up putting together in order to observe the disks though it still required quite a bit of work and no less than three other great wizard's theories

I'm sorry, I'm digressing. I promise to include a report about my spell and the research that went into developing it with a future letter. The important thing is that I managed to put together a spell that would allow me to learn what stories the disks contained by placing myself into the world of the story as an invisible observer. Much like how Haycartes's Method transforms the caster into an illustration within the book they're researching. In doing so I was able to watch these apparent recordings of our adventures unfold before my very eyes. They were, for the most part, faithful to events that had transpired, except...

(Princess, I very respectfully ask that you sit down again if you've stood up since last time.)

Gary wasn't present in any of them!

I went from one disk to another, I triple-checked my research in case I'd made a mistake with the spell, I scoured every word on each disk and box but there was no mistake. In the disks Gary wasn't in the Everfree Forest when my friends and I went to retrieve the Elements of Harmony. He didn't step in when I was trying to decide who to share the tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala with. There was no sign of him shaking us out of Discord's spell or helping me convince the others that something was wrong with Princess Cadence or doing any of the other things, big or small, that Gary had helped us with!

And yet, despite the complete and utter lack of Gary helping us, everything turned out fine in those stories! My friends still showed their virtues in the Everfree without Gary prompting them, and I (or rather, the disks' version of me) still realized that and connected them to their Elements. It was you and Spike retrieving old friendship reports in order to snap me out of Discord's spell rather than Gary doing it with his scrapbook of our adventures

I'm sorry I needed a moment to calm down.

Princess, these disks came from Gary's world. He hasn't come in contact with a portal to his "Earth" since we met him. These disks must have come over with Gary the same day he himself did, which has lead me to only one conclusion:

Gary Stu is no hero.

He's had knowledge of every danger, every problem great and small, that my friends and I would face since his arrival. What's more, he's used that knowledge for his own benefit by giving everypony the same solution (or a reasonably close facsimile thereof) that the disks showed they could would have arrived at on their own.

He's been doing this for almost a year now, for everything from helping us purify Princess Luna to saving the Crystal Heart and stopping King Sombra.

That is why Gary Stu is currently tied down on the research slab in the basement of the Golden Oaks Library. Perhaps that's a bit excessive, but considering that he attempted to run when I confronted him with what I'd learned I felt it necessary. I've told Spike not to go near the basement nor let Gary out until we've heard back from you.

Please help, I have no idea what to do.

I eagerly await your judgment on the matter.

Author's Notes:

As a quick note, no this is not targeted at any story in particular. If you read this and feel I am picking specifically on your story then I apologize as that was not my attention.

Though if you do feel that way perhaps it's a sign you really need to take a look at your story?

So what we have here is the result of me spending months trying to work on another fic, not liking anything I wrote, starting over, getting decently far with it this time, then deciding I dislike the new stuff I wrote and deciding to just toss out a little plot bunny that is completely unrelated to what I've been trying to work on but has been hounding me for longer than I care to admit. As such it has gone through... minimal editing to be honest.

Yes, this story has been heavily inspired by another story with a similar premise. As you might notice though my Gary is not a fledgling reality warper with the power to make everyone ignore his blatant attempts to metagame/rail jump his way through conflicts.

Not sure when/if I'll continue this, but if I do expect to see Celetstia's response and likely a few missives from the rest of the Mane Six and probably Gary himself Regarding: Gary Stu!