An Expected Travel: A Traveler's Tale

Letter to My Daughter

My darling Lilac,

It's so odd to write this to you. You're so used to bedtime stories with my voice. You are used to being happy with us, surrounded by your large family. To cuddle beside your sister, to have your father standing protectively by the door, to your aunt being a ridiculous voice alongside mine.

As I'm writing this, it's been four months since I turned 200. You're only ten years old. It's so hard to believe sometimes. I can remember how I found you in a crater in my backyard, warm from the flames of entry. Though the memory is foggy, dreamlike, as if through the eyes of someone else.

I can remember when you were four and we moved to Ponyville. You ran into my arms, excited at the idea of new friends. Lilac, you filled a hole in my heart that I didn't know was there.

These last few months have been trying on all of us. It was devastating to our family to lose your aunt, Darcy, so long ago. I told you of her deaths (and subsequent resurrections) before. The time she fell into a fan, the stabbing, the most recent one was decapitation. The last one put much strain on my heart. My stomach is turning at the memory.

I had discovered my people. The humans with powers like mine. The Reality Walkers, or 'Travelers'. The people that can walk into realities of fiction. In rare cases, the nonfiction. (Tell no one, but I'm the one who made the 'cherry tree' rumor. All of history was at stake, though. GW had to be elected!)

The Travelers leader, a man named Dominic Chamberlin, was no friend to our family. There are many wrongs I have committed in my long life, Lilac, many things I have regretted. To Dominic, my crime was being born. He threw your aunt and I into the dungeons. He threw you in cells, like you were a pet at the pound. He told me he planned to kill you.

After hearing of our upcoming executions, your aunt put herself in my place. She died. It broke my heart.

The next few hours were not my best. I hurt a lot of people to get to Dominic. To make him feel the pain I had felt when I lost Darcy.

Another regret of mine was when you walked in and saw.

Another regret of mine was the cautiousness you had with me after. That you had been scared of me.

Another regret was that I thought I had lost you forever.

My people saw it as a 'trial by combat'. I won the title of leader. Crowned Princess of the Travelers. They saw me as a savior. I don't feel like one, Lilac, even after all this time.

On our sixteenth Human birthday, nine months after her death, I brought Darcy back again. It was a complicated spell. I had to pull out all the stops to drag her into the land of the living. (Let's just say it involved a voodoo necklace and a doll then leave it at that)

There was a lot of things that needed tending to after her return. She wasn't the only new addition to our family. There was my boyfriend, and your sister. Our people needed time to adjust. Myself more than any. Our family of two became a family of five in a few short weeks. It was a struggle for you too.

You didn't take well to all the new family. I can remember you being so nervous around your sister. It took some convincing, and now that girl thinks of you as her hero. It was no better with your father. When you met him, you wouldn't stop glaring! I know you don't want to hear this, but you were adorable!

I love your aunt. I know the madwoman like I know my own mind. She's my twin, so I should know her best. She's an adventurous sort. She loves to move. She loves to fight. If I don't shut her up soon, I'm going to kill her again.