1) Bon-Bon: Honestly, I don’t know whether to go along with this or stick to the truth. They’re both winding up pretty funny!

Lyra: It’s not the truth!

2) Well, a princess would have martial training, wouldn’t she? I’m sure she can do more than just toss a toy.

3) Bon-Bon: Not in the traditional sense, but going to go with a yes.

Lyra: What does that even mean?!

4) Speaking of things with cryptic meanings… You mean the Everfree Forest? What about it? There’s always things to beware from there.

5) It’s easy to focus on the bad in the world. I try to find something positive to think about instead! Like children learning! Or how happy everypony is on payday!

Of course, you could try to take up a cause and fight for change. But you shouldn’t feel like you have to. Those can be long battles that you may fight your whole life for and never win. It takes a special kind of pony to do that. Sorry to say that I’m not one of them.

I see no reason to believe anything will change, especially not immediately.

I’ve yet to see any indication that she’s become anymore powerful than she already was. Not that flight is any small feat, but she could already self-levitate. Everypony in Ponyville already knew she was Princess Celestia’s student. If ever she called out, everypony in town already listened and was ready to act when necessary. It might seem different, but ask yourself what’s really changed.

The biggest adjustment for anypony to make will be for Twilight herself. Her personal identity has been altered. We’ve always known who Twilight was, even if only subconsciously. She’s the one that’ll need to come to terms with who and what she really is.

If you’d told me two years ago that Twilight Sparkle was going to become an alicorn, and somehow convinced me you were telling the truth, I’d have been irate. The notion that somepony born into a well-off family, with all the opportunity in the world and little hardship, would be rewarded with such a prestigious gift would have left me frothing at the mouth like a rabid animal.

I’ve watched Twilight for quite some time, wishing I had her life. That I could have been born with such potential. That surely I wouldn’t squander it with pointless study in mundane arts like turning an apple into an orange or growing facial hair.

But after all that I’ve witnessed, I’ve begun to understand that I’m not meant to hold such power. For all the magic at her disposal, Twilight has a level of restraint that can only be matched by an alicorn.  Were it me, I would have used it to right every wrong I’d ever witnessed. And I don’t think that would have ended too well.

Information on alicorns are a secret even I’ve never had access to. Maybe nothing’s really changed. Maybe Twilight always had the characteristics of an alicorn, just not the appearance. Maybe the spell she completed was the very spell that transformed her, and required a very specific series of circumstances and relationships. Maybe this isn’t the first time it’s happened, just the first time it’s happened this way.

I’ve digressed a bit, but what I’m trying to get to is that I’m happy for her. I still wish it were me; that I could have been given such a reward for the ordeals I overcame. I can’t help that. But she lived the majority of her life in near isolation and learned more about the magic of friendship in a very brief period of time, than anypony else has in their entire life. And that’s a trial I wouldn’t want to undertake.

So here’s to you, Princess Twilight! You deserve everything you’ve achieved and I can only look forward to what you’ll accomplish next!

Just don’t expect me to call you Princess very often.