Silent tides.

"Life is full of surprises. They occur everyday, its just that we prefer to ignore them. They never fail to sadden us, make us feel alive or shock us. Either way, they are always there and we get them everyday, its just that we prefer to ignore them. Remember that and you won't go far wrong..." Twilight mulled over that thought. She remembered her brother telling her that when she just before she left for Ponyville. She had always cherished those words of wisdom, and today was one of those days- a day when she had found a surprise. I mean, its not every day that you find your former adversary on your doorstep who only has a year to live.

After eventually finding a spare bed somewhere in the tree, Twilight had managed to gently lay Trixie down on the bed and get a proper look at her nemesis sinvce they had last met.

The first thing that Twilight had noticed about Trixie was her eyes. The normally bright and energetic violet eyes had lost their life and remained as blank as the flank of a filly without a Cutie Mark. Then, she noticed her body. Her once full and healthy torso was now skinny and bare to the point were the ribs were showing while her face looked different. It had lost its brash, outlasting nature and had become more blank and desolate while a pair of black rings had formed under her eyes from the lack of sleep. Twilight couldn't help but think back about her eyes again. They almost seemed to have the expression of someone who had seen the worst the world had on offer.

Twilight left the room and continued down the corridor towards the window. By it stood a solid oak table with some quills and paper on. Owlowiscious, suddenly interested, flew down from his perch with a soft,

"Hoo?" and landed on the corner of the desk, his eyes never wavering from his mistress.

"It fine Owlowiscious. Just a late night letter to the princess. Nothing more, nothing less." Twilight replied as she stared out the windows at the stars. From here she could see all the constellations. Orion, Aquila, Scorpio, Leo, Draco, Crux, Hydrus and Cancer. She mulled over the last one, Cancer. She considered the situation she was in and now how she could see it in the sky and began to wonder whether it was some kind of sign, a sign of the weeks ahead. But then she came back to reality and focused on the task in hand.

"Dear Princess Celestia.

I guess its not every day that you find your former nemesis on your doorstep who only has a year to live. I guess these things have a way of going full circle. HMM... I should stop rambling on. Anyway, the point is, I don't know what to do. Its not like I was expecting this or anything and I'm still trying to process whats happened. All I want to know is, what do I do? I've already taken her in and I guess I can use the magic of friendship to help get our relationship back on track. I mean, she is my cousin after all, and things haven't exactly been going according to plan in terms of family love have they?"

She stopped writing for a moment and paused to think about the time they had had together. Twilight had managed to land herself with Celestia while Trixie had ended up down and out with no money and no hope. "If only it hadn't gone so badly wrong..." she wondered before going back to the letter.

"... I don't want to say this to her face but... I missed her so much. I mean, we were so close as filly's and then the gulf between us got bigger and bigger until we became rivals. I never wanted any of this. I didn't ask for it either... but thats life isn't it? It has a tendency to throw surprises at you when you least expect them.

Anway, I hope this reaches you in dear time.

Your Faithful student

Twilight Sparkle"