//------------------------------//
// EPILOGUE 
// Story: Dear Faithful Student 
// by Muramasa 
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EPILOGUE:
DEAR FAITHFUL STUDENT
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE / SUNSET SHIMMER / STARLIGHT GLIMMER / PRINCESS CELESTIA




There was one day of the year where I wasn't a princess.

One day of the year where I could forget the world and spend time with the ponies I love the most. One day a year where I can quit making schedules and jotting down notes and running across Equestria to stop some would-be threat. Hearth's Warming Day was my favorite day of the year, and after all the madness that had occurred in the past few months, this one was shaping up to be the best one yet. 

Hot chocolate was my drink of choice on such days, and the warmth of it as it coursed down my throat matched the warmth of the fire I was sitting right next to almost perfectly. I was currently engrossed in the latest issue of the Canterlot Sun -- which still ran on Hearth's Warming Day -- mostly to see how their coverage of this whole incident had gone down.

Celestia had declared that the day exactly two weeks before Hearth's Warming would be dedicated to the guards in service all around Equestria. We'd kept it a bit on the down-low exactly what had occurred, but the public knew that an intruder had broken into both the Crystal Palace and Canterlot Castle and had slain a number of the guards working at both places. The semantics (and the fact that it was two intruders after Melody had entered Canterlot Castle the second time) were kept a secret for now, but Celestia informed me she would probably release the details of the incident somewhere down the line. The public wasn't worried, partly because guards had been the sole ponies affected to their knowledge, but mostly because they were used to this sort of thing happening after the first changeling invasion and the return of King Sombra. Regardless, they would be curious at one point or another.

I heard some hoofsteps behind me, and although it could have been a number of ponies, I knew who it was. My mother always walked with heavy steps, and I could hear her from rooms away growing up.

"Anything new?" she asked. Sighing, I levitated the paper, folded it, and neatly placed it onto the table next to me. 

"Nope," I replied. Same old stuff. Hopefully, it stays that way." 

When I looked up, my mom was gazing at me with a warm smile. Slowly, she trotted over and put a hoof up to my cheek, inspecting my face as I looked back to her.

"I can't believe that monster did this to you," she said, placing her hoof at the base of my scar. "And for that changeling to take you in the night like that... " I shrugged my shoulders and waved a hoof in dismissal as she put her own back down.

"If not Zephyr, it would have been someone else," I told her. "You can barely see it, anyways. And if anything, it's a good reminder." My mom tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes.

"What do you mean by that, sweetie?" she asked me. I felt over it one time, feeling it as my hoof ran across it before I answered.

"I have a great group of friends," I told her. "And I'm the princess of the group and everypony is used to me playing hero, but this time... I wasn't. And this scar can always let me know that while I'm trying my best to do what's right, I have great friends around me who can do it just as well when I'm down for the count."  To my surprise, she raised an eyebrow and gave me a wry smile.

"You already knew that," she teased. I leaned back into my chair as I rolled my eyes at her.

"Yeah, I did," I admitted. "...But it's always nice to be reminded." 

I didn't get to be too comfortable, though, because I heard a knock at the door, and I hopped up from the chair with a jolt and strolled over to greet the first of my Hearth's Warming guests. When I opened the door, I was greeted with the sight of Trixie Lulamoon with an aloof grin plastered on her face.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived!" she stated, rolling her tongue unnecessarily on the last word. "Where shall she put her great and powerful presents?" Suddenly, a myriad of wrapped gifts appeared behind her when she ignited her horn, and I couldn't help but chuckle as I stepped aside and pointed towards their destination.

"By the great and powerful Hearth's Warming tree," I told her. She trotted in with a springing gallop, and once she saw the tree in the living room, she dropped them one by one in an orderly fashion under it. Satisfied, she turned to me with a smile that had faded from arrogant to soft.

"...Thank you for inviting me, Twilight," she said. "Trixie is excited to celebrate with you all. Where is your brother? Is he late to his family's own festivities?"

"No!" came a muffled voice from upstairs. That got us both laughing, and just as it was dying down, my mother and another quartet of steps came in from the hallway.

"Ooh! Hello, Trixie, I'm glad you could make it!" Fluttershy's soft voice managed to carry over the fire, and she floated into a quick embrace with the showmare. My mother headed straight for the kitchen to check if the batch of cookies she was baking were ready, so it was just the three of us standing together by the living room fire.

"Any word on Starlight?" I asked Trixie. She nodded quickly.

"She's doing whatever it was she had planned before she takes the train here. Should be a few hours. Trixie has been her best friend for quite some time now and she still gets left in the dark." I shrugged my shoulders: Starlight could do whatever in Tartarus she wanted to after saving Equestria. Before we had too much time to ponder on it, Fluttershy interjected with more info.

"Sunset and AJ won't be here, of course, but Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow are coming soon. Shining said something about Sakura coming, too, but he wanted to make sure she was feeling good enough to come. Is Silver going to be here? I thought you said something about that." I tried to hold it off, but I felt my lips curl into a slight smile.

"Silver will be here very soon," I told them. "But she's at the castle right now. She's had something she's needed to do for a long time."



I'd been to Manehatten once. I'd taken a train.

When Cobalt was your friend, though, you didn't need a train. Celestia had a few airships in the guard fleet around Canterlot, and she had graciously allowed Cobalt to pilot one of them and take us to the Empire City for our Hearth's Warming vacation. He still had his piloting skills in him, of course, and when we came upon the city, Cobalt stopped the ship in air and motioned for us to come to the side railing.

It was incredible.

Manehatten was a living, breathing machine. The titans of skyscrapers that littered it amazed me when I had visited the first time, but seeing it up in the air was something else. I could see the lights and trees that adorned the city for Hearth's Warming Day, flashing and swaying among the winter breeze in a perfect counterplay to the city's sprawling metropolis. I didn't come for my own reaction, though: I came for Cobalt and Violet's. 

Violet looked as if she'd seen a ghost. She held a hoof to her mouth in complete and utter shock, and I knew a mix of terror and awe was coursing through her like a raging river. Cobalt, too, was in disbelief, his jaw unhinged to the floor and his eyes darting along each and every skyscraper. 

"Sunset," Cobalt whispered. "This... this is... " He simply couldn't finish, so his marefriend finished the sentence for him.

"'Tis wondrous beyond anything I hath seen," Violet said, turning to me. "I cannot thank thee enough for bringing us to this place. Thou truly are my greatest of friends."

I felt a single tear coming on at that last remark, but I mangaed to wipe it away as quickly as it came. I was about to reply, but the two of them were already looking back out to the city and paying me no heed. I took in the view, too, darting between the city's steel mammoths and their curtain walls for a few seconds before trotting back to the other side of the ship.

Applejack was looking over the opposite railing, taking in the sights by herself. I went to go to her, but she must have heard my hoofsteps, and she turned around and met me halfway at the middle of the ship. She pointed behind me with a raise of her eyebrows, and when I turned back, I was greeted with the sight of Violet burying her head into Cobalt's left shoulder as they gazed upon the city together.

I don't know how long I watched them with a swell in my heart, and I don't know how long Applejack let me. Eventually, though, I spoke through a dumb grin.

"You told me that the only thing we could do while they were here was to make sure they were safe. Make sure they were happy." Applejack seemed to want to let me talk, so I did.

"And here they are," I continued, "And they look like they're the happiest they've ever been. Applejack, I... I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know that they're all here to stay. It's wonderful, isn't it?" Applejack chuckled, and she stepped forward to observe them as she replied.

"Yeah, it sure is. Thank you kindly for invitin' me, Sunny. I actually think I kinda missed this place." I wrapped my own hoof around her in a hug, and she gladly returned it before we broke apart. Her eyes narrowed, though, and I knew she had something on her mind before she opened her mouth.

"Hey, uh, you chat with Star before we headed off at all?" she asked me. "I just wanna make sure that mare is right. She's been through Tartarus an' high water these past few moons." I nodded slowly, and I kept my eye on Violet and Cobalt as I spoke.

"She's been recovering from the fight, but she's had a lot of mental healing to do, too," she answered. "I haven't spoken or written to her. She went back to Ponyville to chill out at the castle while Twilight was getting her Hearth's Warming party in Canterlot set up. She'll be there, but... Trixie told me she had something to do. She hasn't told anyone what it was, apparently." Applejack stayed silent, but after a moment or two, she spoke up.

"It's funny," she said. "We're all used to Twi savin' the day or cookin' somethin' up to beat the bad guys. And I'm sure it was mightly similar for you on your side of the mirror." I nodded quickly in acknowledgment, not wanting to take any more credit than I needed to. Applejack turned to look at me with a grin of disbelief.

"And we had both of y'all here, and it was Starlight saved our flanks. A year or two ago, that mare wanted to kill us." I chuckled at that, thinking back to all times I'd ever teased her. 

"I think she still does," I quipped, and that drew the laughter out of Applejack. And just like the day Zephyr had come to the castle, we sat there laughing for what could have been a lifetime, but this time, the ponies I'd been so worried about losing were right in front of us, safe and sound.

...And they were also locked in a kiss that appeared to have been going on for quite some time. 

"Hey, lovebirds," I called. That broke them apart rather quickly, and although Cobalt looked plenty smug, Violet held a hoof to her face as she flooded red. "Save it for tonight. We're gonna miss our landing time if we don't bring this thing down, and Violet really wants to see the Statue of Friendship." Violet's eyes shot open at the mention of it, and she immediately turned to Cobalt and began to shake him rapidly.

"We shall gaze upon the large metal pony!" she shouted. "I must learn its secrets!" Cobalt rolled his eyes with a laugh, and he began to trot over the airship's controls at the front of the vessel. 

"They were planning to build that thing when I kicked the bucket. I'd like to see it, too. Brace for descent!"

With a press of a few buttons, the airship began to sink towards Manehatten's port. They called it the city that never slept, but surrounded by the ponies I'd gotten to know so well over these past few hectic months and the Hearth's Warming cold gently caressing my coat, I finally felt like I could.



I remembered the way, of course. I knew from the moment I left I wanted to go back, and so it was really just a matter of retracing my steps after I locked the way there into my mind.

The brook I'd had to maneuver around during my technically-unsuccessful attempt to escape a pack of Timberwolves was swimmable, but I didn't plan on getting my coat wet. Just as I did last time, I teleported to the other side in a second, and just like that, I was in front of the quaint wooden cabin I'd ventured into the Everfree Forest to find.

I probably shouldn't have -- not yet, anyway. I should have been reclining in a chair and letting my wounds heal on this Hearth's Warming Day, but since it wasn't snowing (though it was still very cold), I decided today was going to be the day. The fact that it was Hearth's Warming didn't matter: I was ready to do this.

Or at least I thought I was.

I walked up to the door, I stopped. It shouldn't have been daunting -- nothing about this should have been daunting -- but here I was, inspecting every grain in the wood to buy myself time. I let out a long sigh and adjusted the red scarf around my neck, and with a nervous clearing of my throat, I knocked on the door.

And I waited. The seconds could have been years.

Maybe she isn't home.

I was going to force myself to wait for her, though, and sure enough, the door creaked open after a millennium had passed. Chrysalis obviously wasn't expecting visitors, but when she saw my face again for the second time in the past few weeks, her eyes grew wide and her brows raised to match. She stared at me for a bit, and I stared back, waiting to see if she would say anything with a mare who she considered one of her greatest rivals coming to her doorstep voluntarily. She didn't, though, but I had a feeling she knew what I was going to say before I said it.

"She's gone," I told her. "I wanted you to know."

At first, she didn't say anything. A wave washed over her when she looked to my wounds and realized what I meant, but I didn't quite know if it was relief, fear, or a mixture of both. She just stared at me even still, so I turned around and began to walk back down the steps.

But Chrysalis always had to have the last word, so I knew she'd say something.

"I must thank you for taking care of her," she started, "But this does not mean we're friends. I'm going to get you, Starlight Glimmer, whether it takes a day or a lifetime." 

I stopped at the base of the stairs. I never thought Chrysalis was going to wrap me up in a hug and spin me around, but I at least hoped for some sort of gratitude that extended beyond a throwaway phrase. I sighed loud enough for her to hear, and without turning around, I replied.

"You're the second changeling to tell me that," I told her. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Chrysalis." 

Chrysalis had to have the last word, but when I continued walking away from the cabin, I heard nothing but silence.



I poured through them like a fine wine.

In a way, they were. I hadn't read them in ages, but time had only made them better. Circumstance, too, of course, but it had been years since I last pulled out my old friendship letters. Violet's were a chore to read in this day and age, but I still treasured her bubbly optimism and wise resolve as it coursed through the paper. Sighing with memories, I moved the one I'd just finished to the edge of the table in my study and reached into the envelope sitting neatly in front of me to pull out another one.

This one was the first one I'd seen from Cobalt amidst a sea of Violet and Zephyr's. 



Dear Princess Celestia,

Today was a whirlwind, I'm sure you know. I'd entered Liverpony's New Inventor's Competition with all the swagger in the world, but I found myself quite lacking in that confidence as the time came to present. I thought of downing a few pints to ease my nerves, but my friend from Ponyville who went to your school with me, Courtland, came to visit me! It was rather unexpected, and we got to talking of old times and memories. By the time the curtain came up and it was my time to walk out, I'd almost forgotten I was even nervous.

I guess the lesson here is that friends will always be with you, and they'll come to support you even when you least expect it. Courtland talking about his life on the farm and asking about all my inventions was almost as brilliant as the golden, gleaming trophy I was handed by the judges.

Almost. Friendship doesn't look nearly as good in a trophy case.

~ Cobalt Aegis



I found myself laughing. Cobalt was always so good at that, and no matter how many times I would berate him for ruining his friendship letters with a snide mark to the contrary, I knew he always valued his lessons dearly. I put it back carefully, and in the spur of the moment, I picked up a quill.

I didn't know who I was going to write this to. It was a force of habit, really, and maybe one of them would see it eventually, but I was getting that overwhelming urge to put words to parchment I'd seldom felt in a long time. I wrote the first line carefully, watching as the ink spill on to the page, but right as I was finished with it, I heard my door open and a quartet of footsteps echo behind it.

There was only one pony who was allowed to do that.

"You used to knock at one point, Lulu. What happened to those days?" When Luna met my side, she did so with a sly grin as she looked around my desk. When she saw what I had written, she rose an eyebrow and turned back to me.

"Who is that for?" she asked, motioned to the letter with her head. I paused for a second, trying to come up with a convincing answer, but I found my mind drifting elsewhere. Looking up to the ceiling in thought, I shot a question to Luna that had been eating away at me for weeks.

"Luna, why do you think Melody didn't capture Starlight?"

She reeled back, but after a few seconds, it seemed like the question had got to her, too. While I was looking to the ceiling, she drew her gaze to the floor, and when I didn't get response when I looked her way, I continued talking.

"Melody knew a lot about Starlight. She probably read my journal entries, or Twilight's," I started. "She had to have known how good Starlight was, and how much she loved to fight. So why would you leave her alone, especially when she was already weak? It's... it's been on my mind quite often. I don't understand it." Luna nodded along slowly as I spoke, and she began her answer the very same way.

"...Melody was very troubled," she said. "Starlight has told me that she battled with her love of you and her hatred of Chrysalis, and that fact that you made her feel something she did not understand. And so she cooks up a plan that essentially involves traveling through time that requires her death, but it works. And then she tries to break into the most fortified castles in the world, and it works. So she reads about a mare who stood up to a princess, captures her, beats her, and it works. But then she leaves her alone when everything seems to fall into place." I found my eyes narrowing with every word, and at her final one, I leaned into her in disbelief.

"Luna, you're not implying that Melody... that she--"

"Wanted to lose? No, I am not. I'm merely saying it is one of many possibilities. Perhaps instead she truly did think herself vastly superior to Starlight Glimmer, and she meant to use her as an example for what would happen if anypony resisted her. Perhaps she grew tired of using underhooved tactics to capture all of us and felt like she needed to earn some part of her victory. I don't know, Celestia." Luna looked out toward the window, eyeing it down for a second before she concluded.

"Stars pray we never find out," she concluded.

We stayed silent for a moment, ignoring the elephant in the room. I was unhealthy to dwell too much on the past -- especially after what we had been through -- but Luna's words were biting far more than mere conjecture. I knew my sister hated silence, though, so it came as no surprise to me when she broke the stillness.

"I came to update you on Starlight, funnily enough," she told me. "She still requests we talk in her dreams every night. I know it is therapeutic for the mare, but... I cannot help but think she is using me to stave off nightmares. She has some ways to go before her world goes back to the way it was." 

I leaned back in my chair and nodded once again, and I felt a small sigh escape my lips. What Starlight Glimmer did to save us all was far more than remarkable, but she'd been through Tartarus and back a thousand times over in the last month and a half compared to the two days of terror I'd experienced at the hooves of Melody. I initially requested that Luna check up on her for the first few nights, but it was looking as if Starlight was relying on my sister to get herself through them. 

"...Thank you, Luna," I told her. "I may have to have a discussion with her sometime soon." To my surprise, I felt her wrap herself around me, and once the slight shock wore off, I gladly returned the hug I'd been given. She didn't dally long, though, and she broke off the embrace after a few seconds before looking to me with a warm smile. 

"I'll leave you to your letters. I cannot imagine they speak fair of me, anyway." We both shared a quick laugh, and Luna glided out of the room just as gracefully as she'd entered. 

I watched the door close, and after staring at it for a few seconds, I turned back to my letter. As I picked up the quill with my magic and was inches away from putting it in ink, though, I heard a series of knocks at the door.

I felt my eyes narrow as I whipped back around. It couldn't have been Luna -- this pony was far too polite and she had just been here -- and it was almost unheard of for a guard or a servant to request entrance to my personal chambers unless it was an emergency, in which case they would simply open the door. 

"Come in!" I called. Slowly, the door opened, and I was greeted with a very familiar pair of bright red eyes and a quartet of tattoo sleeves that spiraled up the mare's legs. Silver Jubilee always carried a tranquil air about her, but right now, there was a very subtle shake in her as she called out to me.

"Hello, Celestia," she said with a very awkward formalness. "Um, there's something I want to talk to you about. It's, uh, something very important to me. It might take a while, if you aren't busy or anything."  

I found myself reeling back a bit. This seemed to be weighing heavily on Silver's mind, and I felt my stomach drop as I thought back to the day when I woke up in this castle and my faithful student disappeared. It was a conversation that would probably be a bit heavier than most on Hearth's Warming Day, but I made sure to give her the widest beam I could as I pulled up a chair next to mine with my magic.

"I'm never busy when you want to talk, Silver," I told her. "Come take a seat."

As she walked toward me, I glanced back to the letter on the desk and let its first few words run through me one more time before I moved it aside.



Dear faithful student...