//------------------------------//
// Epilogue : Dear Princess Celestia... 
// Story: Mark of the Hourglass 
// by Starsong 
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	Dear Princess Celestia,

Forgive me for writing out of turn, though I believe there may be something to report by the end.  It is another rainy day and I can't stop thinking of the last storm.  I need not remind you and I don't think I could bear to think it.  We all mourned the loss of our neighbor.  Yet I am filled with a great sadness I can't understand, a blank spot in my mind that I cannot seem to fill no matter how hard I try.  But I cannot ask any more of you in terms of this.  

My friends are helping me every day.  Applejack brings me fresh greens and tells me about the things Applebloom is getting into.  Her last adventure involved the girls trying to get their 'bee keeper cutie marks.'  Suffice it to say, I had to look up an ointment for stings.  Hopefully they'll stick to more tame ideas for a while!  Pinkie keeps planning for Spike's birthday, which we're all looking forward to.  Rarity asks me for my opinion on her new work all the time, even though she knows I'm not that good at it.  Fluttershy showed me a Roc the other day!  It was an incredible beast, and we even got to fly on it.  Let me tell you, I don't like being up there without the balloon.  Brings back bad memories, I suppose.  Rainbow Dash is.... still Rainbow Dash.  I suppose that should be enough to brighten anyone's day.  She probably has the right idea.  Cried at the funeral and the very next day she was back to her usual antics, but twice as hard.  Something tells me that she just cranks it 'to eleven' (whatever that means) whenever something shakes her.  She says she knows it's not her fault some pony stayed out in the weather, but I'm not sure if she believes it.  We're all trying our best.

If I take anything away from all of this, I suppose it's that your friends will always be there in your time of need, and help you heal and move on.  I thought I was there, myself, but something strange occurred yesterday.

It may have been my eyes playing tricks on me, but for a moment I thought I saw him in the streets.  A strange yellow colt with eyes like sapphires.  But he had his mark.  A very strange one.  I've seen ponies with the hourglass mark before, all a little different.  The sands in his were like diamonds, and I could swear that they were actually flowing!

I must still be tired.  But he was laughing with other strangers and he smiled at me like some kind of scamp before he disappeared into the crowd.  Maybe I'll see him again.  Maybe I won't.  But I'd like to think that he'd been given that joy, somehow.  I think somehow we all will, in time, and I hope you do as well.

Your student,


Twilight Sparkle