The Golden Oaks Library had sat completely unused and undisturbed for almost two months now. A thin layer of dust had accumulated in that time, blanketing everything in the home and filling the air with a stale, musty smell. Nothing inside had been moved from where it had been left last. The last vestiges of sunlight peeking through the organically circular windows painted a few spots with orange light, the glow of which allowed much of the rest of the interior to just be visible in the waning light.
The scene was abruptly disturbed when the front door swung open, creaking gently. The displaced air kicked up a few particles of dust in front of the entryway, while the whole interior was lit up with the glow of sunset. The large square of light cast by the door was partially obscured by the shadow of an alicorn, a pegasus, and a baby dragon as they walked in. The door quietly swung shut behind them, locking with a quiet click. The baby dragon walked somewhere else in the room. There was a click, and a lamp next to a chair flickered into life, filling the room with light.
Twilight blinked and looked around at it all with a thoughtful look on her face, examining the alcoves that had been carefully dug into the walls and filled with a large number of books on a wide range of subjects. She slowly trotted forwards and began to go around the outer edge of the room, her eyes tracing over every single book on the shelves near her eye level. Rainbow and Spike just watched her from the side, curious to see how she’d react.
Spike’s face contorted with mild disgust when he noticed that the dust was thick enough for Twilight to leave prints on the floor. “Uh, sorry for all the dust,” he suddenly spoke up, although Twilight didn’t pay him much mind. “I don’t normally let things get this bad, I swear.”
“He’s right,” Rainbow nodded along in agreement. “He’s pretty on top of things when it comes to tidying up after us and cleaning up the house. We’ll, uh… we’ll deal with that once you’ve-”
“Ssh!” Twilight lightly shushed them, causing Rainbow to clam up. She continued to quietly trot around the edge of the central room, occasionally pulling a book off a shelf to a examine it before putting it back. Eventually, when she was on the other side of the room from Rainbow and Spike with her back turned to them, she came to a stop. She looked the books in front of her for a few minutes before turning around to look at her housemates with an enormous, giddy grin. “It’s perfect!” she declared in delight.
Spike and Rainbow both mentally sighed with relief.
Twilight then began prancing along the edges of the room, her horn lighting up with magic and pulling several books off of the shelves to hover around her while her excited eyes looked each one over. “Wow, I had no idea I had so many books in my house! I could read these for weeks! Oh, I don’t know what to read first! Should I read history or science? Magical theory?” she brought a certain fiction book to float in front of her eyes. “Daring Do and the quest for the sapphire stone?”
“Oh, definitely that one!” Rainbow instantly suggested as if there were no other choice. When Twilight gave her a questioning look, she just shrugged. “Hey, you introduced me to Daring Do. It’s a great series, and you need to unwind.”
Twilight grinned and let out an excited giggle while running in place. She put a few of the other books back as she did so. “Are there any more books in here?” she asked while looking at Spike and Rainbow again.
Spike perked up and nodded. “Oh yeah, loads. A lot of them are upstairs and in the basement. Want me to show you?” he asked, already able to predict the response.
“YES, PLEASE!” Twilight all but shrieked, bouncing up to him. Spike chuckled under his breath and gave Rainbow Dash a playful wink.
“I still know her,” he mouthed before waving at Twilight for her to follow him. He then turned and headed for the bedroom. “Right this way,” he called over his shoulder, and Twilight happily ran after him, her wings standing wide open from her giddiness. Rainbow watched them go with a soft smile on her face. One they had vanished into the loft, though, she sagged, dragged herself over to a chair, and flopped down into it with a loud and relieved sigh. Oh, it felt good to be back home.
She had missed this chair so much. She had missed this house, this town. She was seriously considering hugging the chair despite the dust and taking a nice long nap right there until something lightly thudded against her thigh. Opening her eyes and looking, she caught sight of a photo album sitting there against her leg, having fallen off the armrest from her landing.
Curious, she lifted set it in her lap and opened it to the first page. Her face twisted with shock and confusion when she saw the photograph of their whole group when she and Twilight had first moved here after defeating Nightmare Moon. The picture was exactly as she remembered it, save for one notable exception.
The big red ‘X’ that had been drawn over her face.
She stared at the photo for several moments, trying to figure out what it meant. Her considerations were disturbed when Spike wound up coming down a few minutes later, a smugly satisfied grin on his face while he wiped his claws off on each other. “Well, I think she likes it here,” he stated the obvious before looking down at Rainbow Dash. “So, Rainbow, what’s the plan-” he froze when he saw the photo album, and the picture Rainbow was looking at. He came down a few more steps, looking very apprehensive.
Before he could say anything, though, Rainbow just smiled at him and shook her head. Spike looked at her in confusion for a moment before she used a hoof to show off her ponytail. Spike blinked, then smiled and nodded in response. No words were needed. The message was clear.
Whatever had prompted Spike to cross out the mare in the photo did not matter anymore. Rainbow was no that pony anymore. She had grown. She had changed. She was better.
Twilight came speeding down the stairs with even more books following her in her magic, her excited expression having only grown in intensity. She came to a screeching stop in front of Spike and began talking at him in one long uninterrupted stream of words that, for a moment, reminded them of Pinkie Pie. Spike looked at Rainbow in a silent plea for help, but his requests went unanswered.
Rainbow just watched Twilight talking, not really hearing what she was saying. She didn’t need to know the words. At that moment, all that mattered to her was that Twilight was smiling. Twilight was happy. Rainbow closed the photo album and set it aside.
If Twilight was happy, then so was she.