Whenever ponies came to that side of the castle, the side with the statues and the portraits and the detailed biographies, they all saw the same thing. Proud and courageous heroes with their heads held high, who put their lives on the line for the sake of Equestria. Glittering stained glass, which poured out warm and loving colors that pooled over the little foals faces, puddled around their hooves and painted them in the shadows of the friendliest ponies to ever live. They all heard of accomplishments, of magical powers beyond normal equine understanding, the fairy tale adventures of the past... All of those ponies who took tours in the Castle of Friendship saw its Princess at the end, a lavender, gorgeous alicorn who embodied the happiness which bound all friendly lives together. They saw her stature, and they saw her crown.
All of them. Every single one of them. They all saw a half-truth.
Not a lie. Not close to one. But... but the thing is, they would see that half-truth, and they would think it was the whole truth, and they would think they knew everything about Twilight and her friends. But they didn't. They weren't there to see it. To experience it.
Maybe they thought they knew, genuinely actually believed that. Those ponies saw Twilight as some all-knowing Goddess, and her late friends as these larger-than-life heroes out of books. They stared at what remained of their history, through colored glass and the perky narration of a teenager reading off of a card. And from that, they got the word 'legend'.
But really...
Spike chuckled as he walked downstairs. Even now, Twilight was still at it. Asleep on a pile of books, drooling all over her own hair, while her guards stood around and argued about how they were going to move her. Apparently, last time she had panicked and almost poked an eye out with her horn. And the time before that she'd nearly turned one of them into a smoking crater.
Spike laughed again, and waved off the guards. He was a big dragon now; he could carry Princess Twilight just fine! Plus, his scales could handle any spell that she threw at him in her sleep... or at least he hoped... Aw, he would be fine!
He picked up Twilight and carried her to her room. When she mumbled something, he tucked a book underneath her hoof, which she snuggled into with a sleepy sigh.
Spike smiled at her again.
... they were just ponies.