//------------------------------//
// Unwrapping Winter 
// Story: Letters from an Irritated Princess 
// by Tired Old Man 
//------------------------------//

My faithful student,

I'm delighted to hear that you participated in an Earth pony tradition. No, really. You not using magic is the best news I've heard since the Parasprite Infestation. 

However, the hidden talents bit worries me because that makes it sound like you discovered a hidden talent you didn't know you had.

You do know that adds another mark, right? It's called the Hidden Mark, and it can show up anywhere on your body. And I do mean anywhere. Even on the liver of an ale guzzler, which is how a doctor found out it existed in the first place. There can even be more than one.

Don't go looking for it, though. Luna's still looking for hers, and I stopped after the... ugh, fool's gold thing from before. And don't share this with your friends either. I don't want to hear about Rarity checking her eyes for needles or anything. 

But in regards to your friendship lesson, about how that and teamwork can accomplish anything? I can expand on that a little.

You know I have Royal Guards. They are not royal, occasionally stink of mead or hard cider, are questionable guards at best, and glorified messenger colts at worst. While their loyalty remains undaunting, their work ethic is a crapshoot.

They're not all friends. And I've heard arguments that suggest some of them never will be. But they're co-workers, and even though they might not like each other, they'll put up with each other enough to at least do a serviceable job most days. 

But if my life is on the line, you bet your arse their petty differences are set aside in favor of surrounding me in a phalanx. That is not solely friendship that surrounds me; that is camaraderie, and no stronger force exists than that of unspoken trust and friendship between your comrades.

I don't like the look some of them give Luna, though. Like, they'd catcall if I wasn't near  her. That kind of look.

I'll need to address that issue. Remind them of whose arse they catcalled first.

Oh, before I forget about Rarity, I would have you issue a formal apology to her on my behalf. It turns out she DID send the Element after the second reminder that she still had it, but it had been lost in transit for a while because of some wall-eyed mailmare that broke one of my stained glass windows today delivering it.

The apology is for me chucking a rock at her Boutique after reading your not-a-friendship-report report. Yes, from Canterlot.

Love,

Princess Celestia

P.S. Also extend my apologies to Applesmack. I missed my first throw. Badly.