//------------------------------// // Epilogue - The Letter // Story: On Your (Cutie) Mark... // by Scantrel //------------------------------// The sun room was one of the most peaceful and serene chambers in the castle. Located in one of the eastern towers, the room was tall, with elaborate stained-glass windows set into the stone on three of the walls. Daylight streamed into the room, bathing the entire chamber with a rich spectrum of colors. The only furnishings were a small table with two pillows around it and a serving cart laden with pastries, tea, and coffee. The perfect place for a morning retreat. Princess Celestia was seated inside on her favorite pillow, sipping a cup of tea as she gazed at the light of the newly risen sun through the easternmost window. The calm of the moment, however, was interrupted by knocking at the door. Levitating her tea cup back down onto the saucer, Celestia used her magic to open the door. An officer of the Royal Guard stood outside at attention, a parcel tucked under one wing. "A thousand pardons, your Highness." he apologized. "A parcel from Ponyville marked urgent arrived for your attention. Normally, I wouldn't have bothered to disturb you at this time, but..." Celestia merely smiled. "At ease, Lieutenant. You did well to bring this to my attention so promptly." The pegasus relaxed visibly and held out the package, which Celestia levitated over and set down on the small table in front of her. "That will be all, Lieutenant, you are dismissed." With a respectful bow, the Guardpony said, "By your leave, your Highness." He then turned and left to resume his post and Celestia used her magic to close the door behind him. Levitating her tea back to take another sip, Celestia read over the letter again that had arrived the night before from Twilight Sparkle. Dear Princess Celestia, I am writing to let you know I will be sending you a package first thing tomorrow, marked urgent for your attention. The contents are a book that you had sent to me to study, which I had previously returned to the Canterlot Archives. Recent unusual events have led me to retrieve that book and I am returning it directly to you so it can be stored in your private library. It is my recommendation that you secure this tome to prevent any future mishaps. I will also be including a letter written by three fillies, they have all learned a valuable lesson from these events and I asked them to share their discoveries with you. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle Celestia giggled quietly to herself. What Twilight considered "unusual" certainly would prove to be interesting. Setting down the teacup, Celestia levitated the package and opened the wrapping, taking care to separate the neatly folded letter from the leather-bound book. A quick glance at the book's title gave Celestia pause. "The Neighcronomicon." Celestia set the book aside to deal with later and brought the letter in front of her, unfolding it with her magic. After pouring another cup of tea, Celestia started to read. Dear Princess Celestia, My name is Sweetie Belle and I'm writing this letter along with my best friends Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. You may not remember us, but we were the flower fillies at Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance's wedding. Of course, you know our sisters Rarity and Applejack as well as Scootaloo's honorary sister Rainbow Dash. Celestia smiled again, she definitely remembered the trio. They had quite a reputation for being rambunctious as she recalled. We are known in Ponyville as the "Cutie Mark Crusaders", since all three of us haven't gotten our cutie marks and we are on a crusade to find our special talents. We recently got a little carried away with our quest and some not so good things happened, but Twilight helped us fix everything. She said we should write you to tell you what we learned. It all started when we were trying to earn our cutie marks as spies, we found a book that you had sent Twilight that was hidden in the library. I was trying to read from it and accidentally triggered a really old spell. The spell granted us our greatest wish, or so we thought. We all got our cutie marks and they were the same as our sisters! Scootaloo wants me to write that we thought this was 'totally awesome'. But we soon discovered that the spell hadn't made us find our own talents, it had taken away our sisters' destinies and made them ours. Celestia paused her reading and set down her teacup again. Was that why Twilight had sent her the tome? Celestia made a mental note to follow up with exactly what Twilight had discovered. At first, it was a lot of fun to be able to do the things they could do. We didn't feel like blank flank losers anymore. But then our sisters got sick because of what we had taken from them. It was very scary, seeing somepony you care for so much and depend on fading away. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and I haven't really talked about it, but that was one lesson I learned. It's not easy watching your loved ones becoming a shadow of who they are and not being able to help. I know everypony grows old (Almost every pony except you, Apple Bloom says) and someday Rarity will start to fade. I guess this made me think about that and not be in such a hurry to grow up. Celestia knew this very well. When you had lived as long as she had, there had been many ponies that were dear to her that had faded away over time. Howdy, Princess, this is Apple Bloom. I asked Sweetie to let me write a bit, she seemed to be getting upset or something. When Twilight asked me what I'd learned from all of this, I had to think about that. There was the obvious, of course, that we shouldn't have gone poking around in something we weren't meant to see. But for me, there was something else. Part of fixing things required we visit some sort of magical resanace resonance or something and undergo a challenge to give back to our sister what we'd taken. For me and Applejack, that meant seeing our parents, or what looked like our parents and having to choose between staying with them or coming back. I learned that memories of those you love are very strong and should be cherished but you can't live in the past. And I think Applejack learned a bit about that also. If anything good came from all of this, it would be that I feel closer to my big sister and I understand more how much she misses our folks. Celestia couldn't help but smile, she knew how close-knit the Apple family was. I'm going to let Scootaloo finish the letter, she's getting all jumpy waiting her turn. Dear Princess, I'm Scootaloo, and I guess we saved the best for last. I learned that flying is totally awesome! I can't wait for Rainbow Dash to finish teaching me so I can fly again. Someday I'm going to be the best young flier just like her. We also discovered that Rainbow Dash and I share a common ancestor. So we really are related at some point which is very cool. I'm getting some dirty looks, so I guess I should be more serious. Like Apple Bloom said, I think we all learned we shouldn't do any crusading that invades somepony's privacy. But while I had Rainbow Dash's destiny, I think I learned a few things about loyalty. I can totally see why that's her Element. I learned how important it is to be somepony that others can depend on to always be there for them. Somepony that won't back away from her friends in the face of danger or trouble. Somepony that will do anything for those she cares for the most. Oh, I also learned I don't like swimming. I'll give the letter to Twilight to send to you now. Signed, Your loyal subjects, Sweetie Belle Apple Bloom Scootaloo Celestia set down the letter on the table. It seemed the three fillies had all learned some valuable lessons indeed from their adventure. Celestia stood up from the table, levitating the Neighcronomicon to go take it to her personal library. She would remember to speak to Luna that evening, to ask her to watch over the Crusaders' dreams for the next night or so, just in case.