//------------------------------// // 81. Ponyville celebrities // Story: My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship // by Danieru //------------------------------// Twilight Time... That is what Twilight uses to call one day of the week where she would spend time with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo in order to teach them different new things. As usual, the three fillies were searching for a special talent so that they could finally get their Cutie Marks. But one day they figured that they might need a little bit of help. They asked Twilight for that and before anypony knew, Twilight Time was born. Twilight Time would usually take place in the Golden Oak Library once in a week and today was one of those days. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all were busy learning new things while Twilight did her best to look over them and giving them advice. And the three were already at it with their new skills. "Uh, Sweetie Belle, maybe we should run through the steps another few times before you try it on your own," Twilight advised before Sweetie Belle was about to see how much she improved recently. "Nope. Ready to give it a shot!" The filly replied, confidently. "Okay then!" Twilight said, trying to not get in the way of the Sweetie Belle's enthusiasm. Only a few moments later, the tip of Sweetie Belle's horn faintly began to glow in a light green color. She concentrated magic towards a broom that was leaned against the wall next to the entrance door. Sweetie Belle tried to lift the broom above the ground using only magic. She managed to form a light green aura around it and it began to shake a little. But to get to that point alone, Sweetie Belle had to give it her all. "Can't... seem... to...!" She said while she focused on moving the broom. She clearly had a hard time pulling this off, straining and sweating heavily in the process. Eventually, this all came to an end once a click could be heard coming from Sweetie Belle's neck. "Ugh! Think I threw my neck out..." Sweetie Belle said with some slight pain coming from her neck. Her friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly walked towards the filly to cheer her up again. "Aw, you're okay," Scootaloo said. "A little more magic practice and liftin' brooms'll be a cinch!" Apple Bloom added, trying to cheer the filly up again. But Sweetie Belle was not too convinced about that. "I doubt it. That thing weighs a ton," she said almost out of respect for this broom. Then, almost on cue, Spike entered the Library, saying that he was looking for his broom. He quickly spotted it right before his feet and picked it up happily and juggled it around in the air like it was nothing. Seeing that was like hammering down a nail on a coffin for Sweetie Belle and didn't help to make her feel confident. "You call that difficult?" Star Twinkle asked who just now spoke up after watching all of that. "Look what I have to lift off the ground..." he said while he pointed towards a small bookshelf that he was supposed to lift with his magic. For him lifting that and lifting a broom was worlds apart and he wanted to make sure everyone knew it. But the three fillies were not paying attention too much and returned to their own tasks again. Scootaloo, for example, was busy putting a unicycle together with some parts that she took apart from one before. She seemed to struggle for a moment and wanted some help from Twilight. However, Twilight reminded the filly what she was really here for. "Scootaloo, I already told you I won't show you how, but I'll help you find the instructions so you can figure it out yourself," Needless to say, Scootaloo was not too excited to hear this. "Ugh, I hate research!" She said before she went to the bookshelf that Twilight pointed her towards to so that she could figure it out herself, just like Twilight said. Apple Bloom was the next one to try out something. But before she started, she couldn't help but express her gratitude to Twilight. "Thanks so much for helpin' us all learn these new skills, Twilight," she said as she walked towards her working place. "Always glad to pass on my love of learning for learning's sake," Twilight happily replied. Apple Bloom then arrived at a little brewing station. The little mare attempted to learn how to create potions like Zecora. She must have taken a liking to this after she spent some time with the zebra every now and then. Right now, she tried to create a potion that would help plants to grow faster. She seemed to be already done and only needed to pull a little lever to let a little bit of the potion drop on a plant pot beneath it. "Did you follow the magic plant-growing formula I gave you?" Twilight asked one last time before Apple Bloom attempted to start. "Well... uh... more or less," Apple Bloom replied being not really sure herself. "Well, let's try it out on this apple seedling and see how we do," Twilight suggested. Apple Bloom was a little nervous and had her doubts that it would work but she eventually decided to give it a try anyway. "Oh... I hope this works," she prayed before she pushed down the little lever, causing the brewing station to shake a little. Everypony had a bad feeling that not everything was going the way it was supposed to be. Even Twilight had her doubts that it would succeed and prepared herself for the worst. But to everyponies surprise, there was no explosion or anything too bad and there was just a little drop coming out of the station that landed directly on the plant pot, causing a little smoke cloud to appear. After the smoke disappeared everypony kept their eyes on the seedling in the pot. Again, much to everyponies surprise, the seedling began to move. But...it looked a little bit unhealthy, judging from how heavily it was coughing. This caused everypony to giggle, even Twilight who tried her best to hold it in but eventually couldn't resist either. The seedling just kept continuing coughing, much to Apple Bloom's dislike who already felt defeated without seeing that. "Layin' it on a little thick there, aren't we, pal?" She said towards the seedling who shortly after, finally stopped coughing. Needless to say, the potion wasn't much of a success and Apple Bloom figured that she either did something wrong or that she still had something to learn about potion brewing so she went back and looked into the manual that Twilight gave her, even if she wasn't looking forward to doing more research. Star Twinkle, again, watched the whole thing. He knew the Cutie Mark Crusaders and he figured that they would soon try something else to find their Cutie Marks which is why they weren't looking forward to doing research in the first place. But maybe he was wrong and they were actually interested in this stuff but had problems learning and thought that it was boring. He couldn't blame them, he wasn't much of fan when it came to learning too. Of course, with Twilight being in the same room, pretty much every one paled in comparison when it came to the eager to study. Twilight noticed how Star Twinkle was not practicing his magic right now so she reminded him why he was here again. "Aren't you supposed to practice as well?" Twilight said towards the stallion like a teacher who just spotted a lazy student. Star Twinkle quickly felt pointed out and then got back to his task. "Alright, alright," he said before he walked to the bookshelf before Twilight would scold him or something. He placed himself in front of the bookshelf that he was supposed to lift with his magic, took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. Once he opened them again, a horn appeared on his head and he was ready to give this a shot. But...he had a strange feeling behind him that kept him from continuing. In fact, he felt as if he was watched by somepony. When he turned around his head, he instantly noticed how the Cutie Mark Crusaders kept staring at him with wide-open eyes of excitement. "What?" He asked after he was unable to ignore the eyes of those fillies looking at him. "That's so cool!" Scootaloo said in awe to which the other two girls quickly agreed to. "Didn't you see me transform before? You are still not bored with it?" Star Twinkle asked surprised. "Are you kidding us?" Apple Bloom replied. "I wish I could transform into a Unicorn or a Pegasus any time I wanted too!" She expressed almost jealously. "Does it have a name?" Sweetie Belle then asked. "A name?" Star Twinkle asked confused, not understanding what Sweetie Belle meant. Sweetie Belle explained. "Like, if you turn into a Unicorn, you could say, Horn Mode activated!" She said while she struck a dramatic pose. "Or..." Scootaloo said, getting into all of this as well. "When you grow wings you could scream, Pegasus Form Ready!" She said while also striking a pose. Of course, Star Twinkle would never say something like that because it was way too childish. He couldn't even imagine what those fillies would do if they had the ability to transform like that. The stallion didn't try to think about those words too much but eventually, Apple Bloom asked a question that actually got his attention again. "Can you transform into an Alicorn too?" The filly asked, excitedly awaiting an answer from Star Twinkle. "You can make a horn and two wings appear, right? Can you make all of that appear at the same time?" She asked further. This question got Star Twinkle thinking. Growing a horn and a pair of wings separately was no problem anymore so theoretically making both of them appear at the same time should be possible. At least that's what Star Twinkle thought. Again, Twilight noticed how some ponies were slacking off and asked them to go back to their tasks. Once the three fillies walked away from Star Twinkle, he said his thanks to Twilight to get those curious fillies and their questions away from him. After accepting his thanks, however, Twilight formed a little concerned look on her face. "You don't consider what Apple Bloom asked, do you?" She then asked while she decided to take the stallion to the other corner of the room so that the fillies wouldn't hear what they were talking about. "You told me that after your more recent transformations, you get too exhausted. Back then in Manehattan, Rarity told me that you even felt unconscious after you teleported through the whole city. And then there was that incident with the Tatzelwurm where we found you unconscious as well. If Discord wouldn't have stopped that thing then who knows what would have happened..." Star Twinkle was well aware of all those things already. He figured that the longer he was staying in any of those transformations, the more exhausted he would end up being at the end. This was actually one of the reasons why Star Twinkle wanted to improve his magic. If he could only stay in this transformed state for a short time without being exhausted, then he had to make the best of it. The second reason for Star Twinkle to improve his magic was because of his encounter with the Witch of Equestria, Grace. Star Twinkle and Twilight stood no chance against her, so if they would meet her again things would end badly if their magic didn't improve up until this point. Twilight was always learning new spells and practiced her magic so there was no problem with that but Star Twinkle on the other hoof had still much to learn. He had to make sure that he was well prepared for the next encounter. Twilight, again, advised Star Twinkle to reconsider trying to transform into an Alicorn. "If you get exhausted by transforming already, then who knows what happens if you transform into an Alicorn? I don't even want to imagine..." she said in worry. But Star Twinkle smiled after hearing those words. "Hey, don't worry about it. Why would I need to transform into an Alicorn anyway? If I need to fly, I grow a pair of wings and if I need magic, I'll grow a horn, no reason for me to do both at the same time, right?" He said, causing Twilight to form a relieved smile again. And just like that, Twilight left Star Twinkle so that he could finally practice his magic. Nothing more happened after that. Star Twinkle mostly practiced his levitation spell and tried to figure out how long he could stay in his Unicorn Form before he would feel exhausted. He found out that, while using magic, his limit to stay in this form was only a few minutes...which was not much. Still, practicing a little bit was better than nothing. After "Twilight Time" was over and Star Twinkle was on his way home, there was still one question that bothered him. "Can I transform into an Alicorn?" Star Twinkle wondered. He guessed that it was in the realm of possibility to do that but then again, neither him, Twilight or anypony else knew anything about this transformation so maybe it wasn't possible. And if it was, then he should probably not attempt it if he gets exhausted by just transforming into a Unicorn or a Pegasus. As he said before to Twilight, there was no real reason for him to transform into an Alicorn anyway. So with that in mind, Star Twinkle decided to not bother with it and just focus on practicing his magic for now. One week later... Just like the week before, Star Twinkle and the Cutie Mark Crusaders decided to visit the Golden Oak Library for some more "Twilight Time". Star Twinkle was already inside of the library and did some practicing while Twilight looked over it and gave him advice. "You are getting better each time," Twilight said after she watched the progress that Star Twinkle had made. "Well, that's the least after coming here every week for practice," Star Twinkle replied. "Thanks by the way...for looking after my progress," he added, thanking Twilight for the time that she invested for him. "You're welcome," she happily replied with a smile on her face. "I'm just glad that I can help in any way possible." Shortly after knocking could be heard from the door, grabbing Twilight's attention. "Looks like the girls are here, I'll get the door," Twilight said before she walked to the door to welcome the three fillies. "Hey there, guys! Come on in!" She said once she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing in front of her. "Princess Twilight!" Then suddenly a pair of voices said in a squealing tone. Hearing this grabbed Star Twinkle's attention so he walked to the door and tried to find out what was going on. He then saw two fillies who excitedly jumped up and down in front of Twilight. Star Twinkle knew those ponies. They were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, two classmates of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. He could swear that those two were not exactly friends of the Cutie Mark Crusaders so he wondered why they showed up here as well in the company of the three fillies. "Oh, it's really her!" Diamond Tiara said excitedly. "Oh, my gosh, I don't believe it!" Silver Spoon said in the same kind of manner. Star Twinkle walked towards the door and stood next to Twilight, the later one looking confused at the stallion who didn't know what was going on as well. "Uh, you brought guests. Great!" She said confused but she didn't seem to mind too much either and welcomed the two in her library. "Princess Twilight, it is such a thrill and honor to be here! You have no idea," Diamond Tiara said happily before her eyes wandered towards Twilight in awe. "Oh, my gosh, who dyes your tail?" She then asked. "I so have to get that done," Silver Spoon said after she took a glance over that tail herself. "Actually, it's not dyed. I've always–" Twilight tried to explain but the two mares just couldn't be stopped in their excitement and began to admire almost everything about Twilight. "Are those books in there?" Diamond Tiara said after she looked inside the library. "What a bold design choice!" She added before she walked inside, followed by her friend. "You should so do that, Di!" Silver Spoon suggested while she followed Diamond Tiara inside. The two ponies were kind of confused by those visitors so Twilight walked up to the Cutie Mark Crusaders to get one message across. "Listen, I'm all for helping as many ponies as I can, but maybe we should keep these weekly visits just between us, hm?" She said, causing the three to nod in reply as a sign that they understood. Whatever their reason was for bringing those two, Twilight wasn't mad or anything and just went along with it for now. "Okay, which one of you wants to practice first?" She asked the three fillies. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were a little confused hearing that, if not even shocked. "Shouldn't they go first?" Sweetie Belle asked confused. "No, silly!" Twilight replied with a smile. "I set up Twilight Time especially for you. Apple Bloom, go ahead. Let's see how your plant potions are coming," she said. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon overheard that and had a pair of smug smiles on their faces. They expected Apple Bloom to fail miserably so that they could make fun and laugh at her. And of course, she did...just like the rest of her friends after that. Star Twinkle figured that it was a lack of research that caused the three to constantly fail with their activities. The stallion found himself watching the three fillies without making any progress himself. Granted, he had already practiced his magic before the five fillies arrived and was about to take a break but he figured that if he slacked off, Twilight would approach him again. Luckily, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were next to him not learning anything themselves. In fact, after getting tired watching the Cutie Mark Crusaders they focused their attention on Star Twinkle. But unlike the Crusaders, those two only had judging expressions on their faces. "What?" Star Twinkle finally asked after he felt a little awkward receiving those stares. Diamond Tiara wasted no time addressing what she was thinking. "Who are you anyway? And how did you manage to get Princess Twilight spending time with you?" Diamond Tiara asked bluntly. "You know...I already knew her before she became a princess..." Star Twinkle replied a little annoyed. Of course, he didn't mean to sound like as if he was bragging or anything but the way Diamond Tiara asked him actually got to him a little. The little filly, however, didn't seem to be too impressed. In fact, she just remembered seeing him before. "Wait...aren't you that one pony who is still hanging around with the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" She asked. "Yeah!" Silver Spoon added. "The one who with no Cutie Mark!" She said, causing the two fillies to chuckle beneath their breaths. "Now those are the charming ponies that I remember..." Star Twinkle thought after seeing the usual behavior of those two. Star Twinkle almost wanted to turn around and show the two his Cutie Mark but he didn't want to go down to this kind of behavior and just ignored the two by going back to his practice. This time, Twilight asked of him to levitate multiple things at once. She already explained how to do it earlier and placed a few books on the ground in one corner of the room. All Star Twinkle had to do was remembering what she said. But first, he had to transform in order to use magic of course. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and shortly after, a horn appeared on his head and he was ready to go. That is if he didn't suddenly felt like as if he was watched by somepony. The stallion turned around his head and saw something similar then like one week before. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stood there and looked at Star Twinkle with their jaws dropped. "What?" Star Twinkle asked. "Did you...just turn into a Unicorn?" Diamond Tiara asked confused. "How did you do that?" Silver Spoon asked. Star Twinkle was actually rather surprised that they were reacting like that. They were still young so it probably made sense that they got surprised by things that they didn't know about even if they believed that they were Superior then anypony else. "It's a long story..." Star Twinkle replied, not trying to get into any detail. "Actually it's not..." said Spike who nopony was aware until now that he was even in the same room. "He learned that after helping me fighting against an evil Unicorn king who tried to take over the Crystal Empire," the little dragon casually said while he was cleaning some bookshelves. "Yeah...right..." Diamond Tiara said, not believing what Spike said one bit. "No, it's true," Twilight then said after overhearing that conversation. "He bravely defended the Crystal Ponies and the Empire and is now considered a hero. He is probably as popular as Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor over there," she explained proudly. While it felt good that Twilight was talking about Star Twinkle like that, at the same time he felt a little awkward, especially after Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were now looking at him in a completely different light. "Oh my, I had no idea that I was talking to a celebrity!" Diamond Tiara said in a more amazed tone this time. "Of course, I should have known that Princess Twilight would only hang around with the most important ponies and not some normal folks who have some kind of boring job or something," "Yeah, like a carpenter Pony," Silver Spoon said followed by some chuckles by her and Diamond Tiara. "That hurt..." Star Twinkle thought after the last sentence. Twilight Time went on normally after that. The only exception was that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon kept their eyes on almost every little thing that Twilight and Star Twinkle did. They noticed how the two ponies talked casually with each other and were fascinated by it for some reason. As soon as Star Twinkle was transforming the two fillies kept watching him while he practiced his magic, making him feel a little uncomfortable. But before everypony knew, Twilight Time was over and everyone went home again. A few days later... Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo asked of Star Twinkle and Twilight to meet them in a local restaurant so that they could invite the two ponies. Star Twinkle just came back from work so of course, he was hungry and happy that the three fillies were inviting him. But apparently, Twilight was even more excited to grab something to eat. The stallion instantly noticed that after he saw how Twilight was stuffing one hayburger after another inside of her as if there was no tomorrow. Star Twinkle was almost shocked watching this picture and stopped eating for a second. "Relax...nopony is gonna eat something away from you..." Star Twinkle said after he watched Twilight stuffing more and more food inside of her, seemingly unaware that some ponies in the restaurant were already looking at her. But the mare didn't seem to mind and happily munched away. "Sorry, I didn't realize how hungry I was!" She said with her mouth still full. "I'm so glad you asked us to join you here today...I'm so honored!" She said before she cleaned her messy face with another hay burger before she ate it away in one fast bite. "You are?" Sweetie Belle asked confused. "Me too," Star Twinkle said. "It was really nice of you to invite us," he added happily before he took a bite from his own hay burger. "We thought that this was the least we can do to say thank you for teaching us all this new stuff," Apple Bloom explained. "Oh don't mention it," Twilight replied happily. "I wouldn't even have considered this if Star Twinkle didn't come to me for his magic practice one day," she added, grabbing Star Twinkle's attention. "Oh yeah, that's how it all started, right?" Star Twinkle replied. "One day, I told the three how I was practicing my magic and they asked if you could help them improving some of their skills as well," the stallion remembered. "Exactly," Twilight replied with a nod. "When you first asked me to help you develop new skills, I thought, 'Working with young students so devoted to the joy of learning purely for its own sake? What could be better?' You all remind me of myself when I was your age!" Twilight said touched. The three fillies seemed to receive those words with mixed feelings. For a moment it even looked as if they were nervous. "Yes, well... we feel the same way," Sweetie Belle said. "That's why we invited you here," Apple Bloom added. "All because of our love of learning!" Scootaloo added. While they said those nice words, Star Twinkle couldn't help but see how they were a little nervous about something. He mostly figured that out after they had those huge nervous grins on their faces. But then again, maybe he was imagining things. However, once Scootaloo began to randomly strike some poses with a smile on her face, he knew that something was wrong. "What are you doing?" Star Twinkle asked after he saw the filly doing stuff like that out of the blue. "Um...I'm just stretching a little!" She said nervously while she continued with her posing. The stallion found that this was more then weird and tried to figure out what it meant but then he noticed how there were some flashes behind him as if somepony was taking pictures with a camera over and over again. It didn't take long until Twilight also noticed that which is why she turned her head around. "What in the world is going on out–" she said before she stopped in mid-sentence after seeing a bunch of young ponies outside of the window looking at her and Star Twinkle before they ducked to not get spotted by the mare which was obviously too late, however. The two ponies then got up from their seats and walked outside to investigate. Once they stepped out of the restaurant, there were maybe twenty fillies and colts standing in front of them, looking at them with wide-open eyes. Star Twinkle smiled and slowly moved his head towards Twilight. "What's the meaning of this?" He whispered to her. "I don't know..." She whispered back at him with her teeth closed as she grinned at the crowd of ponies in front of her. There was only one way to find out what this was all about so Twilight quickly asked the ponies directly. "Can we... help you?" She asked. But as soon as she opened her mouth the ponies all broke out in excited screaming and walked towards the two, surrounding them completely. "Get my picture with her!" Diamond Tiara while she placed herself in front of Twilight. Star Twinkle figured that they were probably more interested in Twilight so he already planned to sneak away but with so many ponies focusing their eyes on him, it was a little hard to do exactly that. In fact, their eyes were glued on him as much as they were on Twilight. "Can I have an autograph?" Then one filly asked towards Twilight. "Me too!" Another filly asked before multiple more ponies then joined in and demanded Twilight's autograph as well. Of course, Twilight was really confused about that. "You seriously all want my autograph?" She asked before she looked over to Star Twinkle who could only reply with a confused shrug. "Okay, if that's what you want," she replied before she began signing some papers for the excited ponies in front of her. Again, there was an opportunity for Star Twinkle to leave. The fillies and colts were obviously interested in Twilight so he mind as well could sneak away before he ended up in something weird. But as soon as he tried to walk away, there were a bunch of ponies standing in front of him as well. "Did you really save a whole empire!?" One filly asked with wide-open eyes. "Can you really turn into a Unicorn!?" One colt asked excitedly. "Or a Pegasus!?" Another colt asked. "Is that what it is all about?" Star Twinkle wondered. What followed were some demands of him to transform. Of course, Star Twinkle thought that once he would do that, the ponies would eventually leave him alone again so he did what they asked for and quickly grew a pair of wings. "Pegasus Mode Ready!" Star Twinkle said while he struck a silly pose in front of everypony. Twilight couldn't help but chuckle after that sentence. "What was that?" She asked amused while she continued to give more autographs. "Nothing!" Star Twinkle quickly replied embarrassed. Strangely enough, the ponies in front of him looked at him as if they just saw the most amazing thing in their lives. He couldn't blame them really, this transformation seemed to be a thing that nopony else knew anything about in Equestria so for a bunch of fillies and colts it must have been something even more amazing. "Wow, to think I've been to the Hay Burger so many times, never knowing it's a regular hangout for ponies like you!" Pipsqueak asked who Star Twinkle remembered from way back at Nightmare Night. "Well, actually we only came here because we were invited by them," Twilight explained while she pointed at Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo who just walked outside of the restaurant and probably wondered what this was all about as well. The little colt couldn't believe what he just heard and seemed very surprised. "You mean, you decide where it's cool to go based on where they go?" He then asked in awe much to the three fillies' surprise. After Twilight was done giving autographs, she decided that it would be a good idea to go now. "Thanks, guys, this was fun!" Twilight then said before she spread her wings and flew away from the crowd. This was the perfect opportunity for Star Twinkle to bail out as well. "Yeah, I need to go too," Star Twinkle quickly joined in as he followed Twilight. Fortunately, he was already in his Pegasus form so he had no problems catching up with her. "What was that?" Star Twinkle then asked towards the mare confused. "They were all really excited to see you..." Twilight smiled back at the stallion. "You mean us," she corrected. "Seems like the news of me being a princess and you being a hero of the Crystal Empire must have just gotten to the little ponies," she guessed. "But that was all a little while ago already..." Star Twinkle said, thinking that it was a little weird why they were just now approaching them. Unless they were watching the two for a long time now. Just the thought of that made Star Twinkle feel weird. "No thanks...I already think that the attention that I get from the Crystal Ponies is too much. I could really live without that happening in Ponyville too..." He expressed with some worry. Twilight only chuckled, much to Star Twinkle's dislike. "I'm sure that this was just one thing only," she said with a smile on her face. "I hope you're right..." Star Twinkle said with some concern in his voice while he followed flying beside Twilight. He definitely knew that he wouldn't like something like that to happen again because it looked like a lot of trouble... A few days later... Once again, it was time for Twilight Time. Star Twinkle, as usual, practiced his magic while Twilight kept an eye on his progress. This time he practiced his teleport spell. He was supposed to teleport from the second floor to the first one along with Twilight. They both closed their eyes and focused their magic and soon disappeared from the second floor. Twilight popped up in the middle of the room on the first floor and looked around confused. "Star Twinkle?" She asked after she figured that Star Twinkle was nowhere to be found. "Over here!" Star Twinkle replied. Twilight then found the poor stallion walking out of the bathroom, with his body soaked wet. "I think my aim is still a little off..." he figured before he took a towel to dry himself again. Twilight giggled after seeing the stallion in this poor state. "At least you made it to the first floor, like intended," she then said amused, trying to cheer Star Twinkle up a little. "You do practice your magic in your free time do you?" She then asked. "I do, really," Star Twinkle replied after his mane and his coat were dry again. "But the little progress I make seems a little too small...it's a little sad that this is still the best that I can accomplish..." he said with a little frown on his face. "Oh, Star Twinkle, don't worry about it too much. Little progress is still some progress!" Twilight said as she put her hoof on the stallion's shoulder to cheer him up again. "Don't forget that you are an Earth Pony. It's already impressing that you can transform into a Unicorn, let alone doing magic at this level. That's something that some Unicorns don't even accomplish," Star Twinkle had to admit that those words managed to cheer him up a little. "Thanks, Twilight," he replied with a smile on his face. "You're welcome," Twilight replied with a smile herself. Shortly after, a knocking could be heard from the door. "That must be the girls," Twilight said before she walked towards the door. As soon as she opened it, however, she was greeted by far more ponies then she expected. Star Twinkle could see the surprise on Twilight's face and walked up to the door as well to see what she was so surprised about. "I guess, the three brought some more guests again?" He asked before he walked to the door and found out that he was not too far off with his guess. There were maybe over thirty little ponies standing in front of the library Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, who stood right in the middle of this crowd were probably the reason for that and tried to explain everything. "Twilight, we can explain," Sweetie Belle said nervously. "We know you said we should just keep Twilight Time to us!" Apple Bloom added. "We didn't mean for so many other ponies to be here! Honest!" Scootaloo apologized. While Star Twinkle thought that this was a little heavy, Twilight didn't seem to bother. "Oh, don't be silly. I only meant that for your benefit so you could get the most out of our time together. But if you want to share your time with others, that's fine," she assured happily, much to the surprise of the three fillies. "So you're not mad?" Scootaloo asked confused. "Of course not!" Twilight replied. "Come on in, everypony!" She said, asking the ponies to all come inside the library. Star Twinkle just watched the crowd of ponies walk inside and didn't know how to feel about it. He actually liked that little group that he was part of to practice but now he had to share that all with so many ponies, some of them who already asked Star Twinkle a ton of questions and kept him from his magic lessons. Twilight, as usual, didn't want anything to go out of control so she decided to split everypony into groups based on what they wanted to learn and everypony followed what she said. That was probably because she was a princess and everypony just loved being around her. "Thanks to all of you for taking time out to come to learn new things," Twilight said, causing everypony to immediately cheer as soon as Twilight opened her mouth. "Thank you, princess!" Diamond Tiara cheered back. "We love you, princess!" Silver Spoon added. They were not the only ones who thanked Twilight, basically, everypony in the room thanked Twilight for spending time with them. "If you want to thank anypony, thank the Cutie Mark Crusaders for so generously sharing this time," she then said pointing towards Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo who seemed a little nervous to be put in the center of attention. "It was nothing, really. We just felt it was the right thing to do," Sweetie Belle replied with a nervous grin on her face. Twilight was then turning her attention towards Pipsqueak who approached the mare in his quest for knowledge. "And what would you like to learn, little one?" She asked. "I want to learn how to become a Cutie Mark Crusader!" He replied. "And why do you want to become a Cutie Mark Crusader so badly, hm?" Twilight asked curiously of the little colt's answer. However, the answer that she got confused her but at the same also gave shined some light on the whole situation. "Because then I could get all my classmates to do me favors and stuff because I'm friends with famous ponies!" "Aaand now it makes sense..." Star Twinkle thought after he looked after the situation a little closer. Now it was no surprise that so many ponies suddenly were interested in him and Twilight. Twilight quickly gave the three ponies a suspicious look who was now more nervous than ever. She then walked over to them to get an explanation. "Is this true?" She asked in a more serious tone now. Sweetie Belle then took it upon herself to explain. "We wanted our time together just as a way to be with you and learn new things. Really and truly!" She said in all honesty. Twilight Sparkle only knew one answer to give to that. "Prove it," she said while she raised her head, much to the three fillies confusion who was even more nervous now. "If it's true, then I'm sure you've all been practicing your skills over the past week. Show me how much better you got," she demanded. "Oh! This is gonna be amazing!" Diamond Tiara said before she began to laugh amused, completely unaware of how Star Twinkle was looking at her in disappointment. "Uh, well, uh... we... can't," Apple Bloom replied. "Yes! We kinda rushed over and forgot to bring our stuff," Scootaloo added. "Hm, I see," Twilight replied disappointed before she walked away from the three. But Sweetie Belle felt a little bad so she decided to take things in her hooves. "No, wait!" She said before she grabbed her two friends and put herself and them in the spotlight. "Hey, everypony, you're in luck! You came to learn, but instead, you're getting a show! Get ready, 'cause we, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, are about to lay on you the amazing skills we learned in Twilight Time!" But everypony in the room was confused and waited for what was about to happen next while the Cutie Mark Crusaders prepared some things that they wanted to work with...by improvising. Since Scootaloo didn't have her unicycle parts, she instead had to take apart one of the other ponies scooters from outside, much to Pipsqueak dislike who was that unlucky pony. Apple Bloom then grabbed an apple from the kitchen in order to use a potion on it since there was no apple seed to be found. By now, Star Twinkle walked over to Twilight and asked her a question. "You didn't teach them to do things with this stuff, right?" He asked in some worry. "Nope..." Twilight replied, patiently awaiting how this would all end. Sweetie Belle ended the explanation by telling everypony that she was about to levitate a broom in front of her and after that, the "show" began. Everypony waited for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to show off their skills. Scootaloo already took apart the scooter piece by piece and attempted to put it together again. Apple Bloom was busy brewing her potion and Sweetie Belle concentrated her magic and tried to lift the broom in front of her. Scootaloo actually managed to put the scooter together again and happily drove around the room with it...before it fell into all its pieces shortly after... Sweetie Belle couldn't manage to lift the broom and it quickly dropped to the ground again... And Apple Bloom's potion...kinda worked...the apple that she used the potion on quickly grew in size...and it didn't stop doing so for quite a while until it eventually grew as big as the whole room itself. Star Twinkle didn't like where this was going and advised everypony to take cover. "Duck!" he exclaimed in a panic. What followed was an explosion that now covered everypony in the room with apple pieces and juice, leaving the whole library in a complete mess. "That didn't turn out quite how I had hoped," Sweetie Belle said while she rubbed off some apple pieces from her face. Star Twinkle and Twilight cleaned their face again and figured that this was enough for today. "Looks like Twilight Time is over," Twilight said. Diamond Tiara felt that she actually had to add something to this situation. "And look who's not the princess's entourage anymore," she said causing some "Oooh's" to fill the room by the other ponies. "Guess they didn't come here to learn after all," Silver Spoon then added to the three ponies misery. But Star Twinkle felt as if that was enough of their commentaries so he decided to make them go quiet. "Just like you all," he simply said. Those words seemed to be enough to make the two, as well as everypony else, leave the library in disappointment. This only left Star Twinkle, Twilight, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. "Well, this is gonna take some time to clean..." Star Twinkle said in an attempt to remove the awkwardness of this situation. But of course, things had to be addressed and Sweetie Belle was the one who took that part. "We're really sorry, Twilight. We made a huge mistake," she apologized. Apple Bloom also joined in. "And we really and truly did enjoy learning new skills with you," she said with regret in her voice. "Guess we'll have to just keep on doing it without you now," Scootaloo said as she finished putting the scooter together, this time without it falling apart. "Thanks, Twilight," she said before she walked away. In the meantime, Apple Bloom quickly brewed one more potion and used it one another seed, making a little flower growing out of the pot, "Thanks..." she then said in regret. Unfortunately, the little flower wasn't strong enough to stand up which is why Sweetie Belle used her magic to remove the flower head and levitated it to Twilight and stuck it into her mane. "Thanks..." Sweetie Belle said in regret. The three then walked away ashamed of what they had done. But Star Twinkle and Twilight both saw that the Cutie Mark Crusaders regretted what they had done and couldn't be too mad at them. They obviously did prove that they practiced their skills so what they said must have been true. "I think they learned their lesson," Star Twinkle said towards Twilight who had to agree and nodded with a smile on her face. "Sweetie Belle?" Twilight then said, causing the three fillies to turn around again. "Remember a moment ago when you asked me to give you a chance?" "So you forgive us?" Scootaloo asked surprised. "Yes," Twilight replied. "But only if you learned something out of this," she added. "And if you stop using our names to get an advantage from others," Star Twinkle added further. "We promise!" They then said in unison. After that, Twilight had one more idea. "I guess you should write this all down in our journal then," She, of course, referred to the journal that she and her friends were writing for a while now. The Cutie Mark Crusaders heard about that as well and were happy that Twilight trusted them to write something inside of it. The three did as she said and actually spent the rest of the day to do some more practice after it was just the five of them again. Star Twinkle was happy that things didn't escalate further and returned home after Twilight Time was over. He didn't know why but the question that Apple Bloom asked a little while ago suddenly popped up in his mind again. "Can I transform into an Alicorn?" He asked himself while he laid on his back and looked at the ceiling. Being the pony who could not just continue while a question bothered him like that, the stallion got up from his bed and just gave it a try. He did remember how Twilight was told to not try it but he just had to know if it was possible. He closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could... ... But nothing happened... "Well, there is the answer to that..." Star Twinkle simply said before he laid down on his bed again. "Was to be expected of course. I mean what am I? A prince? Of course, it wouldn't work..." he said before he scratched that question off of his mind and continued with his day normally.