Canterlot castle, the Kingdom of Equestria
From the office of Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia

Dear Christophe,

When you live to be more than a thousand years old, you come to hate long goodbyes. I trust that my send off was not too cold as a result. I shall miss your company. It is too easy for many of these ponies to see me as the infallible sun goddess. In some ways, it is necessary for the kingdom to run that they only see that. It was wonderful to have the luxury of opening up to you for the short time we had.

Know that you and your lance have the personal thanks of myself and my sister for your help in protecting our kingdom. I trust that your payment will be more than adequate now. The request really gave the royal academy a challenge. Gold has not been in demand in that quantity for many years. The look on the head mage's face alone was almost worth the order.

I have no doubt that Atlas will return again. He is too clever to be pushed away forever from the land he calls his. However with Luna prepared and by my side I think we will be better equipped to deal with him in the future.

He mentioned calamities. An old friend over a thousand years ago found out that too much transformational magic would tear the land apart. Creating a kingdom of harmony has been a balancing act between magical peace and reality. Twilight Sparkle's research is proving insightful into concepts that my friend could only scratch the surface of. I have no doubt that she will be able to keep our kingdom peaceful for a long time to come.

I sincerely hope that I do not see you again, for that will mean you have a long and successful career. If we should meet again, you will be welcome in Equestria, but I may not allow you to leave again.

I wish you all the peace and harmony that your career will allow.

Sincerely,
Her Royal Highness
Princess Celestia

---

Dear Commander Christophe Black,

I have written this letter in case the cross null realm mass translocation spell has the side effect that I fear, which is that you will be transported to the right place while my friends and I will be transported back home. The final burst should return you to your 'home', but it may do the same to us as well if I cannot focus the spell well enough. In that case we won't get to say goodbye. I find that while a letter can sometimes be a poor substitute for actually having your friends nearby, it is much better than nothing.

I did not expect to enjoy working with you. However I have come to think that we share the same pleasure in a plan organized and executed correctly. I of course did not enjoy the battle, but as you so bluntly put it, war is hell. I could never see myself in your line of work, but now I think I might understand how you enjoy the planning part of it.

- - -
So, Twilight has been silent for ten minutes so far. What she means is that she dictated a letter while I wrote it. Hi! I just wanted to say thanks for showing me your awesome war machines, and for keeping Twilight, our friends, the Princesses and the Kingdom safe. Good luck with your other missions!

-Spike
- - -
I have learned much about friendship in the past years. I try to learn about friendship from my experiences. My friends here already taught me that those with different outlooks can still be your friends. As much as that seems to be the lesson here, I think there is more to it.

I could not do what you do as a job. However I am very glad that you and your friends were here to help us. Maybe we did not always see eye to eye, but I can now imagine the situation in which I would be relieved to see your company march into town. Is it awful of me to not want to see that situation arise again? Princess Luna told me that you once referred to your machines as rampaging monsters to be unleashed when all other options had been spent. As relieved as I am that you were here to help, I hope we never need you again.

That makes me sound like I would never want to see you again, which is not true now. In our quieter discussions, I could see you as a friend but I could not see past what you called a profession. In the chaotic moments of fighting, I despised the bloodshed but I began to take comfort in your experience and leadership. Perhaps if you had not been summoned by a titan cult the issue of your profession would have never come up. However, I learned to appreciate how being good at your profession was something we could benefit from specifically because of the frankly horrific circumstances of your arrival. I suppose the lesson there is that different situations can bring out different strengths in your friends. I didn't like how we met, but I am still glad we met, and if we had not met that way I might not have liked you. I feel the subject requires more research.

Thank you for helping to save the kingdom. I hope that if we do meet again, we have more time to talk of nuclear physics over tea.

Your friend,
Twilight "Archmage" Sparkle