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Fire and Reign

by Shakespearicles

Chapter 1: I Wrote This Letter

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Dear Princess Celestia,

Twilight wrote on a parchment as she had a hundred times before. She wrote it without even thinking about the words. It was simply the next step in writing a letter. Paper, ink, quill, write 'Dear Princess Celestia,'. But this was no ordinary letter. Nor was it a friendship report. She looked down at the three words on the paper. They looked back at her from the paper.

Dear Princess Celestia,

"Hmm. It seems too formal." She thought to herself. She was about to crumple it up and start over. But she decided to save paper and use it as a rough draft page. She made it a point to conserve and recycle. She did live in a tree after all. She put a simple line through the original greeting and began again.

My dearest Celestia,

"Hmm. No. That's not quite it either." She tried saying the greeting aloud. "My dearest Celestia..." she sighed, "I sound like her mom writing to her. 'My love'? 'My Sweet'? ARG! I can never find the words." She pouted. She looked out the window at the night sky. The stars twinkled against the black backdrop. The moon was a sliver of a crescent tonight, barely there at all. It was all it could do to hold back the pitch darkness of the midnight hours. Twilight's candle was halfway burned, the melted wax pooled around it's bronze base. She watched the flame lazily dance about the end of the wick. It was as though she was looking toward the flame for inspiration. A simple, little flame.

Dear Celestia,
You are the light of my heart. You set my soul aflame with passion and desire.

"A fine start." She decided. Starting was always the hardest part. So many times had she started a letter. So many times had she started the letter she had always tried to write. Where she would finally confess her true feeling to Celestia. But every time before, she would reach 'Dear Princess Celestia' and get no further. So she would end up leaving it aside to be used as a friendship report.

"Not this time. Not tonight." Twilight said with renewed resolve. She would not leave this night behind with this letter unwritten. She recalled seeing Princess Celestia nearly lost to her at the Canterlot Wedding. The moment when she was struck down by Queen Chrysalis replayed again and again in her mind. It haunted her thoughts and dreams. She had nearly lost her and she hadn't told her anything. A tear escaped the corner of Twilight's eye at the memory, her chest ached. "No!" She would write this tonight, and get it delivered to her without delay. And she had a fine start. And that was the hardest part, after all.

She forced the tears back, taking up her quill again. She poured out her heart onto the parchment. Everything she felt about the Princess, and what she meant to Twilight. She stopped thinking with her head at last, and thought with her heart. The quill moved on it's own, the words flowed effortlessly now. Soon it was finished. Everything she had wanted to tell her written out neatly and clearly, without fear of misspeaking, or stuttering nervously. Perfect. She went back and read it over.

... and that is why your the most beautiful...
is why your the most
your

Twilight shoehorned an apostrophe and an E before the 'the'. She abhorred grammatical errors. There. Now it was perfect. She went back to the top. It was a mess of greetings that were lined out. That wouldn't do. She carefully cut off the extraneous text with some scissors and laid the remainder flat. She was no artist like Rarity, but this was her finest work of art. Pure emotion, set to paper. She rolled it and sealed it. She placed it in her bag. She would send it first thing in the morning.

Twilight turned to blow out the candle. There was nothing left of it. It had burned out some time ago. She had finished her letter by the wee light of the early dawn. Twilight yawned as she tried to rise from her chair. her body and mind were suddenly very sluggish. She could not believe she had stayed up all night trying to write that. It was too late to go to bed now. She would just have to try to get an early night tonight. She made her way downstairs to put on some coffee. She got the feeling she would be needing it today.
____________________________________________________________________________

Twilight watched the sparse islands of foam swirl around on her coffee in her mug. Her mind began to whirl with conceptual thermodynamics of the convection currents of the hot coffee, and fluid dynamics of the motion of the swirling liquid in little whirlpools and eddies. She was enjoying the second wind the caffeine had gifted her.

She was back in her comfort zone of science and reason, rational thought, as apposed to waxing poetic from the heart. She eyed her bag on the floor beside her, awaiting Spike to wake up so that she could 'deliver' it at last. She was nervous about it yes, but she had made a promise to herself to do this and she was going to keep it.

"Spike!" Twilight called up the stairs. "Spike, wake up!" She was anxious to send it off and be done with it. Spike used to have a real problem waking up on time. But he had been much better about it in the past year. In fact, he had been really good about his punctuality. It wasn't like him to just sleep in like this, especially on a weekday!

"Spike!" she called out again, making her way back upstairs to his room. She pushed his door open. "Spike?" All she heard was a labored groan from under his blanket. She pulled it back, revealing and ill dragon beneath. He moaned up at her. "Are you alright Spike? I mean you're looking a little greener around the gills than usual."

"Uhhggg, I think I'm dying..." Spike said melodramatically.

"You're not dying." Twilight assured him, feeling his forehead. "You do feel warm though." she re-situated him in his bed. "I'll run downstairs and make you some soup. Sound good?" Spike only answered with a vaguely affirmative groan.

A short time later, Twilight returned with a bowl of soup. She helped him sit up and fed him a small spoonful at a time, until he had his fill. "I want you to take it easy today." Twilight told him, "I'll take care of your chores until you get well. So you just stay here in bed." he nodded in acknowledgement. "Buuut... there is just one thing I need to ask of you." She held out the sealed letter in front of him, "Would you be able to send this to the Princess? It's important."

Spike tried to take a deep breath to blow magical green flames and send the letter off. Instead, all that came out was a small puff of superfluous smoke. "Sorry Twi," he said with a raspy edge to his voice, "I don't think I'll be able to until I get better."

"That's okay Spike. You just stay here and rest. I can take it to Celestia myself."

Next Chapter: Fire Estimated time remaining: 52 Minutes
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