Twilight breathed heavily as she prepared to go on camera. For the past 9 years of her life, this had been her home. These studio walls had contained some of her most favorite life stories ever created, both scripted and unscripted. The preparations for the 9th season of Friendship is Magic were through. The sets were all built, the scripts all written.
Yet, the building carried an empty air about it, even though all of her friends were there watching. She was haunted by the memories of everything that had happened there. She remembered how she was a nervous wreck on the first day of filming and had to be carried to the local animal hospital after fainting dead away. She remembered the party that they had for the show's 100th episode, with Pinkie Pie providing the most delicious cake she had ever tasted. But most of all, she remembered meeting her fiancée, Flash Sentry, on set. They had never had a romantic angle on television together, but off camera, their romance bloomed and was a wonderful experience.
Knowing that this would be the final season of the show was bittersweet. It was bitter in that she would never, ever see these walls or these sets ever again. But it was sweet in that she had helped spread friendship to so many people around the world. That was what she wanted to do. That was why, when the government experiment that gave her the ability to speak ultimately failed, she auditioned for the role of Princess Celestia and ended up getting the protagonist's role under her own name.
Now she prepared to go on camera and give a message to the viewing audience out of character. She knew this had to be perfect. It was the only proper way to send off a show beloved by millions, both young and old. She looked around and saw all of her friends there. She was even friends with the ponies and people who played villains on the show. She swore she saw Lightning, the stallion who played King Sombra, shed a few tears.
She was given the thumbs up by the stage manager and she walked onto an all-white set and sat down. She waited until the director said, "ACTION," and launched into her prepared speech:
"Hello, everyone. My name is Twilight Sparkle. It may seem odd to you to see me without my wings or my horn, but trust me, it's me. As we embark upon the final season of Friendship is Magic, I want to say something on behalf of my fellow cast and crew. Thank you for inviting us into your homes each subsequent week. Thank you for allowing us to help shape and mold the minds of the youngest among you, and even maybe the older ones among you. I'm talking to you, Bronies and Pegasisters.
In fact, that's a special group to all of us who work on the show, and it's who we wanna thank in particular. Every time I walk the streets of Los Angeles or back home in Knoxville, Tennessee, I am met with happy people who tell me what a difference our show has made in the lives of, not only their children, but themselves as well.
In our age of radicalized politics and people constantly at each other's throats over simple disagreements, I hope that our little show has brought some element of joy and happiness into your lives. Filming it has certainly brought those things into our lives, and seeing the smiles and the differences that we have been making has made all the work worthwhile. This is something that we never thought would get off the ground when we started, but it has exploded into something much bigger than we ever anticipated.
I was part of a failed government experiment that attempted to create people out of ponies. Unfortunately, you can't change something like that, so I was left with a human voice and not much else. Now all of my neighing and whinnying sounded unfamiliar to me. Oh, sure, we ponies had ways and means of communicating, but actually hearing what we were saying translated into the human tongue was very odd to me. I never thought I would ever end up acting or being well known. I thought I was a total freak of nature.
So imagine my surprise when news vans and the press showed up at my farm one day, asking to see the 'incredible talking pony.' I couldn't believe that people actually wanted to see me. They shoved cameras and microphones in my face, but I was so nervous that I didn't say anything. They angrily turned to my owner and called the whole thing a giant hoax. So I decided to save my owner by saying something. All I said was, "hello, everyone," and they all came roaring back.
From there, everything grew for me, especially when I found out other ponies had been taken in and given the same treatment. It failed with all of them, but they had voices as well. One way or another, we all ended up out here in Hollywood. I met Pinkie and Rarity when we played extras in the Disney film Secretariat.
Soon, my agent got a call from this girl named Lauren, and they wanted me to audition for the new My Little Pony show. So I auditioned for the part of Celestia, but they decided I wasn't quite fit for that role. Instead, they gave me the protagonist's role, and I'm glad they did because nobody, or should I say, nopony, could pull off Celestia's role like the wonderful veteran mare actress Queenie. I arrived on set and met the other ponies who had been part of the failed experiment. We all had voices now, so we had each decided to put them to use to try make our lives better and the lives of the people and ponies of the world; and, for the past 8 seasons, we've been doing our best to make good on that philosophy.
So again, we say thank you to everyone who has ever supported us or watched our show. It's been so much fun filming it and we certainly hope that you've enjoyed it as much as we have. Don't worry, though. We're not going anywhere. There are some big surprises coming down the pike. But as for this show, this is its final hour and we want to go out with a bang. So keep watching. You never know just what may happen next. You have all of our love and all of our thanks. Keep dreaming, keep making friends, and keep being awesome. Thank you."
She got up and walked off set. The director yelled, "CUT," and a bell rang, signaling the end of the shoot. She fell into Flash Sentry's embrace and he kissed her. "That was gorgeous, baby," he said, "I knew I made the right choice when I asked you to marry me." She smiled and kissed him back. "Thanks, Flash," she said.
Suddenly, she was surrounded by her friends. They were all in tears. "I'm sure gonna miss this place," Rainbow Dash said, choked up. "We sure had a good run here," Applejack said sadly, "but it's just time for us to be movin' on. It's time for Generation 5 to take over." Twilight nodded as she looked at her friends. "You know what?" She said, "it doesn't matter. We've all met each other through this show and we're all gonna stay friends outside of it." Her friends all chattered their agreement as they came together in a group embrace. Twilight smiled and thought to herself, this is what the show was all about. It's all come together in this moment. This…is the magic of friendship.