She looked through a window of the top floor. No matter the times she tried, she always felt it weird to see the town entirely from her newly acquired home. It frightened her. At first she didn’t notice but the most obvious changes. Bigger rooms, fancier furniture, several floors; things that she wouldn’t object to have. It took some days for her to get rid of the numbness and start thinking and feeling properly again.
How she wished she didn’t.
The magnitude of the situation had escaped her so far. Had she been asked how she felt about her home and workplace being blown into smithereens just after the battle, she would have said ‘It doesn’t matter, it was just a library,’ promptly adding that the safety of everypony was the important matter. The most she felt that fateful day was a strange knotting in her stomach, not distant to tickles, when she opened the door of her new room, but she dismissed the feeling as her bed promised a solution to her rising tiredness.
The following day had no eventualities. Her friends were perplexed to find her holding so well (apparently) that they—
“Twilight! It’s half past six already, have you forgotten?” Spike yelled, his voice accompanied by a heavy echo. “What have been you doing up there?”
Princess Twilight Sparkle had to put down her quill, silently wishing for another occasion to write in the near future. “Uh, just doing some catharsis exercise,” she answered, “but if you don’t mind me asking, what I am forgetting exactly?”
"You know, the offer Rarity made you, you told her you were going to discuss it later at her boutique. I did not strike me as important, but I know you well enough to know you don’t usually underline trice any item in your checklist unless it is panic worthy.”
“Oh,” she said absentmindedly while she teleported outside the tree. Wasting no time she ran towards Carousel Boutique.
“Figures.” Spike opened the door and headed outside.
——
Tree equally distant knocks heralded the arrival of Twilight Sparkle. As humble as ever, a white unicorn beamed. She found the mentioned pony at the other side of the door. Despite Twilight looking stressed and exhausted, she could only smile further.
“I’m sorry Rarity, the past days have been hectic and extremely stressing. I just found the time to rest but I think I overdid it, shamefully so.” Twilight expected a scowl or a dramatic response from Rarity, but she received none. Instead she found a beaming unicorn only waiting her to finish her excuse.
Rarity invited Twilight inside.“It is fine, darling. Really. I know what you have been through and I suppose you do need to take a little rest, to have a time of ease to organize your ideas. Creativity is an expendable yet renewable resource, after all.”
Twilight silently nodded, unsure what to make of the last comment. However, as she entered the room she began to understand the reason for the demeanor of the fashionista. A huge amount of sketches and notes practically adorned the boutique. She tentatively took a note pinned to the door, only to be reprimanded after the note was returned to its place.
“Not quite there Twilight, I only want you to help me showing in the most effective way the little project of mine to you. No good can come if we spoil it beforehand,” Rarity said as she closed the curtains, leaving the place dimly lit.
“I guess so,” Twilight said with unease. She had figured what the—rather obsessed—unicorn was up to, and it was surely more than a small makeup. Her problem now was to use the correct words to say ‘no thanks’ in the most polite and inevitable way so Rarity wouldn’t had a chance to even think on blackmailing her for the foreseeable future. Why she was thinking so low of her friend, she didn’t know, maybe it was just an overestimation. It wasn’t that hard to say no. Even in the case of failure, she conceived the worst case scenario and concluded that Rarity would get over it eventually. Friendship problem resolved before happening!
She came back to her senses just in time to see a worrisome Rarity staring at her. She also found that a small stage was set up, along a floodlight that illuminated it.
“I know you are dieing to see what I have been planning, but with you just standing there with that grin, well… I can say it’s slightly disturbing,” Rarity said. “It reminds me the day you made the entire town chase a rather bad looking doll. I hope you have no plans into doing something similar, hmm.”
“I think not?” She was taken aback by the mention of that unsavory memory. “I mean, of course not! I have learnt from that experience. “ She noticed that there was a table elegantly set up with three seats along some dishware, knowing she could regain the initiative, she asked, “ what are those for?”
“It is said best deals are forged in meals. It gives you the high ground advantage,” Rarity said behind the stage. “But that is only an old saying, I was expecting you to join me at dinner today after showing you my project.” she said nonchalantly. “I expected for Spike to come too. Where is he?”
“Uh, Spike, hum, he should be… I think… Oh no,” she stammered. She had left Spike at the library.
“I wouldn’t worry dear, it was kind of expected given the antecedents. He should be on his way here right now, I think you should give him an apology later, though,” she said.
“I will,” Twilight said. “But about the dinner, I think I will pass, I ate back home,” Twilight quickly added.
“Quite a shame, I had prepared everything for the most convincing meal.” She suddenly changed her tone onwards. “Well then, let us waste no more time and get to business, for time is a crime when poorly used.” She lit her horn and several spotlights shrouded the room in light.
“Here, Princess Twilight Sparkle, I humbly present you my vision of the Twilight Castle.”
Twilight wished she had her notebook to write about what she was seeing, she really needed to vent her anxiety. Her entry would be something among the lines of:
Calling the object a miniature would be a funny thing. It’s height surpassed that of a young tree, requiring some adjustments to the ceiling of the building housing it. It’s detail was awe inspiring, despite being only a model, it looked like it was made with the actual materials. Compared to the real castle, the model received several improvements. It had several new towers, a new design for the facade, furniture and lighting for every room. The overall style was also changed. Gone was the sharp edges of its crystalline nature, replaced with more curvy, nature like decorations. The unveiling was no small thing too, the artisan had made sure drama was an ingredient of the piece without it being represented physically. One question remained…
“Do you like it!?”
“It’s good. It even has animated ponies buzzing inside of it.” Twilight tried to make the best out of the conversation.
“Yes! I figured it would not be an accurate representation without including those who will take care of it. No building can remain beautiful without proper care, the Everfree Castle being a most fitting example.”
“You are implying I should hire ponies to wash the floors?”
“Well, perhaps not right now. But certainly not only cleaning services in the long run! After all you own a castle now. I’m not sure, but I think you are the landlord of this entire zone by that mere fact. We might be as well as paying you rent. Also castles are known to be busy with ponies, what is a queen without her kingdom?” She made a pause and finally asked, “want to make it real?”
It was unmistakable, Rarity was making that ‘Please agree with me or I won’t forgive you’ face. But Twilight was firm in her opinions. “I’m sorry to disappoint you Rarity, but I don’t think it does any good thinking about kingdoms and castles at the moment, you said it Rarity: In the long run. I’m not even sure I own this land—"
“Yet.”
Twilight tried her best to ignore the last remark. “Or if have the rights to use gubernamental funding, because this looks expensive. Even if I did own the land and had enough bits to afford building and running the place, I’m unsure of the political and social consequences that would cause. As I see now, it is impossible to do presently.”
“I understand.”
Twilight almost slipped a ‘You do?’ out of surprise. “I… I didn’t expect you be so understanding. I’m mean, you were practically obsessed just some moments ago.”
“Some dreams are better left in the back burner, waiting for the right time to be. I can wait Twilight.”
The two mares hesitated to look into each other’s eyes to continue the dialogue, and thus some seconds lapsed in silence. There was a knock on the door, it must be spike, they both thought. Only then Twilight dared to speak, “I think it is settled then, I promise you I will inform you if a little renovation is needed, ” she said. “I will open the door.”
“Alright,” Rarity said, almost sad. She opened the curtains and turned on the lights slowly enough to make her mood apparent. She saw Spike coming inside.
“So what were you two talking about?” Spike felt uncomfortable saying that, but he had to ask.
“We were discussing some adjustments that could be made to her Castle?” Rarity took seat in her favourite couch.
“That doesn’t seems panic worthy at all.”
“I know right.”
Twilight immediately noticed how downcast Rarity looked. Even knowing her, she couldn’t avoid feeling guilty for making her friend sad, but she was also determined to avoid any potential problem. ‘Just say goodbye and walk away.’ Twilight tried her best to follow her mental plan, but unfortunately she succumbed to Rarity’s manipulation skills.
“Rarity, if you want you can make changes to some of the rooms in the ground floor, just to see an example…”
Rarity jumped from her couch and said “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I won’t disappoint you! It might be my first time doing this kind of work at this scale, but nothing a lot of work and ingenuity cannot solve. Expect me later at the tree, I will be doing some measurements.”
“Haven’t you done that already?” Twilight said, recalling the past Wednesday.
“Oh that, not really. Those were just the general dimensions. I will now do the apportioning and furniture distribution. Don’t worry dear, it is really quick. But I will need to send some letters after. I can be good at design and textiles, but I know little about woodworking or stonemasonry. Might as well contact a civil engineer to make sure I won’t be making something that will fall on our heads… ” Rarity said while she put herself to work.
“I think we are leaving, Rarity.” Twilight said. She could picture spike saying, ‘Wait, is it over already?’ but found him staring at the castle model.
“Have a nice day,” Rarity said as she flicked through an address book.
——
Ever since exiting, Twilight felt an urge to barge in Rarity’s house and yell, ‘No, thank you!’ But she couldn’t, she had lost fairly, and she was at her mercy. She only hoped for Rarity to have more common sense than other occasions.
“I don’t know what are you concerned about, it looked fantastic!” Spike said. “It had basically everything one could think of. She is basically working for free too, maybe she is just trying to give you a nice huge gift.”
“You may be right Spike, perhaps I am overreacting, ” she said.
They approached the tree, seeing its height from ground level. Twilight slowed down and let her mind wander, not in frustration or despair, but in some type of melancholy. ‘How I got into all of this’