In the Golden Oak Library...
One pony was walking around the library, looking at the bookshelves and scanning her eyes across all the books inside of them. The pony was a Unicorn mare with a purple coat, a dark purple mane, light blue eyes, and a light blue book as a Cutie Mark. She was also wearing black glasses. Her name was Brilliance and she was a librarian in Ponyville who lived inside the Golden Oak Library, which was, as the name might suggest, a library inside of a giant oak tree.
Of course, being a librarian, meant that she was taking an interest in books and Brilliance had a lot of them which meant that she always had to make sure that every single one of it was in the right place and easy to find. This usually was taking a while and Brilliance was not too worried to do it carefully and precisely, just like today.
Brilliance was right about to finish her daily routine to check if every single book was in the right place. She, of course, knew in and out, where every book was at and where to find it, making it easy for her to finish her inspection. The problem was just, that it was just barely after morning...
Once she was done, the mare positioned herself in the middle of the room. She aimlessly looked at the bookshelves in front of her and thought about what to do now only to be interrupted by somepony knocking on the door of the library. She opened the door and saw two of her friends standing in front of her, Summershine and Happytrade.
"Hey there, Brilliance!" Happytrade greeted cheerfully. "Summershine and I decided to go shopping and I thought you wanted to come with us," she asked with a smile on her face.
However, Summershine looked over to Happytrade. "Decided? More like you forced me to go with you," he pointed out.
Happytrade pouted in response. "Well, going shopping on my own is boring!" She replied before she looked back to Brilliance again. "So how about it?"
But Brilliance shook her head. "Sorry...I'm a little busy...I need to make sure that the library is all cleaned up..." she explained.
Summershine and Happytrade both looked at each other for a moment before they moved their heads to the side to look at the library, behind Brilliance. They were looking for things that needed to be cleaned up but they didn't notice anything right away and got a little confused.
"Looks clean to me," Summershine said.
Brilliance quickly replied. "You can't be too sure,"
Happytrade sighed and shook her head after that response. "Brilliance, what did you do so far, I mean today?" She then asked with a slightly worried tone in her voice.
Brilliance answered. "Sorting the books in the bookshelves..."
"Right," Happytrade replied. "And what were you about to do once we would leave?" She then further asked.
Brilliance answered again. "Sorting the books in the bookshelves..."
After hearing that answer, Happytrade couldn't help but get a little frustrated. "That's what I thought. Seriously Brilliance, why not join us? I know you like your books and this library but don't you think that you should do something different for once?"
Right about now, Summershine felt as if Happytrade was just assuming things and was going a little too far to confront Brilliance like that. "Well, Brilliance does have different hobbies, so..." he started, trying to defend Brilliance.
But Happytrade ignored those words. "You really need to get out of this library for once!" Happytrade suggested, towards Brilliance.
"To do what?" Brilliance asked confused.
Happytrade looked over to Summershine for an answer but he just shrugged his shoulders confused. "I don't know!" She then said before the awkward gap between her answer would get even longer. Happytrade was now grabbing Summershine's shoulders and whispered some words to him, in order for Brilliance to not hear them. "Listen, Summershine, I think it's not healthy for her to spend every day in here. She needs to find some more hobbies!"
"Aren't you going a little too far with those assumptions? She doesn't seem sad or anything if you ask me," Summershine pointed out.
"Maybe, but don't you think that it should be better if she spends time with her friends rather than staying in here all day and trying to find something to keep her busy?" Happytrade asked.
"I don't know," Summershine replied with some second thoughts.
"Come on!" Happytrade replied. "We are just asking her to join us spending the day outside! It's not like were are forcing her to travel around the world with us or something," she pointed out.
"Well, if you put it that way," Summershine replied in his realization.
"Then that's settled!" Happytrade then said happily, getting out of that secret conversation all of the sudden and walked towards Brilliance. "You will come with us, Brilliance!" She demanded.
Brilliance didn't show much enthusiasm. "I would like to but...somepony has to take care of the library. I mean, what if somepony wants a book and I'm not around?" She asked.
"No problem!" Happytrade replied happily. "Summershine will take care of the library while we are gone," she explained.
"I do!?" Summershine replied confused.
Happytrade then walked over to Brilliance and practically dragged her outside of the library. It was not like Brilliance was actually resisting but it was probably the case that she didn't like to be forced to go with Happytrade. Still, Brilliance did not say anything and just went outside with Happytrade, leaving only Summershine inside the library.
"You got this, right?" Happytrade only now asked after pretty much decided for Summershine what to do.
"Do I even have a-" Summershine tried to reply but in the middle of the sentence, Happytrade slammed the door shut and went on her way with Brilliance.
"Well, then shall we go?" Happytrade asked highly excited.
"To where?" Brilliance asked confused.
"Wherever you want!" Happytrade replied. "What would you like to do now?" She then asked excitedly.
Brilliance didn't really need much time to think about the answer to that. "Reading..." she simply said.
But Happytrade denied that answer. "No, Brilliance, we are here to find you some other activity. But don't you worry, I'm sure we will find something that you will enjoy," she added determinedly.
Of course, Brilliance didn't share the same enthusiasm as her friend but she just went along and followed her anyway to wherever she wanted her to go.
Later...
As expected, Happytrade dragged Brilliance all around Ponyville. One place after another was visited by them with Happytrade enjoying every minute of it. Unfortunately, Brilliance seemed rather unimpressed by everything that they visited and was pretty much just silently accompanying her.
Right now, the two mares were inside the Ponyville Spa and laid and enjoyed being massaged by the two Spa Sisters who owned the place. Happytrade, of course, felt like having the time of her life but Brilliance, despite feeling really good getting a massage like that, still felt as if something was missing.
Happytrade noticed how Brilliance was not enjoying this as much as she did so she began to think, in order to find something else to do.
Once their time in the spa was over, the two walked outside of the building and Happytrade instantly addressed how her friend didn't enjoy this time as much as she did. "Wasn't this massage nice?" She said with a fake smile on her face. "I don't know about you but I feel completely refreshed now!" She added as she stretched her legs happily.
But Brilliance had a deadpan expression on her face. "It was okay..." she replied.
Obviously, this was not the answer that Happytrade wanted to hear now. "Okay, okay...it's obvious that this wasn't too much to your liking...but I won't give up!" She vowed.
Again, Brilliance's expression didn't change much but she didn't refuse or made it clear that she was bothered by it so she just continued to go with what every Happytrade still had in store for her. She obviously was showing a lot of patience for her friend but at this very moment, she was a little worried about where her patience would lead to, especially since Happytrade seemed very determined.
Later, inside the library...
Summershine did as he was told and took care of the library in Brilliance's place. He desperately tried to find something to do but unfortunately, the library was in top condition. The books were all sorted perfectly and just taking out one from its shelf would feel like ruining a perfect painting.
Once Summershine realized that there was nothing to do, he started to understand why Happytrade wanted Brilliance to find some other thing to do. If this was what Brilliance's days usually looked like, then it was probably for the best to go with Happytrade today.
Thankfully, someone knocked on the door, giving Summershine actually something to do now. He walked up to the door and opened it. In front of the door stood one of his friends, Crash. "Hey, there Brilliance. I'm just here to get a book abou- wait a minute, you're not Brilliance," Crash said excitedly before he realized who was actually opening the door for him.
Summershine explained. "Brilliance is out for a while. I take care of the library until she comes back." Crash decided to just accept that with a smile and shrugged his shoulders. "You said you wanted a book?" Summershine then asked trying to offer his help.
"That's right," Crash replied. "I'm looking for a book about magic tricks!"
Summershine lowered his eyebrows after hearing that. "You are interested in magic?" He asked, considering that Crash was an Earth Pony, which was mainly the reason why he was confused.
"I like to widen my horizon!" Crash replied, smiling happily.
It was not really up to Summershine to question that so he just went on ahead and walked to the other side of the room, towards the bookshelves to get something. "Let's see..." Summershine mumbled as he scanned his eyes across the bookshelf in front of him. There were no signs or anything above the shelves which made it a little hard to tell if the books were sorted by genre or name or something else. Brilliance probably wasn't in need of any of that because she knew her library in and out but for him, it was actually a problem since he didn't know where to start looking.
"It's called: The wonders of magic," Crash then informed with a smile on his face.
Summershine was confused about how Crash already knew the name of the book but he was thankful for his help and looked back at the bookshelf to start looking for the book again. Unfortunately, he didn't have much luck in finding it even after hearing how it was called.
"In the second shelf, third row, sixth from the left," Crash further informed.
By now, Summershine interrupted his search and looked back at Crash. "If you know where to find that book, why didn't you say so in the beginning?" He asked in a slightly annoyed tone.
But Crash smiled in response. "I thought you got it," he said, even though that was clearly not the case.
Summershine decided to not say anything to that and just went to the place that Crash told him before. The book was actually there, much to Summershine's surprise. He pulled the book out with his magic and gave it to Crash.
"Thanks a bunch!" Crash replied happily. "I still need three more books," he then added, much to Summershine's dislike, who already had problems finding one book.
Still, as long as Brilliance was out with Happytrade, he had no choice but to do her work. He just hoped that the two weren't gone for too long.
Meanwhile...
After having not too much success in the spa, Happytrade tried something else. They visited the Ponyville theater and decided to watch a performance. Or rather...Happytrade decided it would be best to watch one since Brilliance was just following her. Brilliance didn't even bother to remember the performance's name or even paid attention.
The same was actually true for Happytrade who was snoring in her seat pretty much as soon as it started. Of course, that didn't sit too much with some other ponies in the theater, who were all complaining.
Brilliance, while sitting next to Happytrade actually wasn't bothered by that but she still decided to grab her friend and dragged her out of the theater before she would end up facing the wrath of ponies sitting around them.
The two were now both outside and Happytrade was starting to wake up again as soon as she was placed on the ground by her friend next to the entrance. Realizing that she was outside of the theater now, made the mare feel a little confused. It took a moment until she remembered how she was inviting Brilliance to the theater.
"Wait, is it over!?" She asked as she was looking around in order to figure out why she was outside.
"No..." Brilliance replied. "You fell asleep and ponies started to get angry because of your snoring so I dragged you outside of the theater..." she explained casually.
Happytrade was more than embarrassed to hear that and slapped her forehead in frustration. "Well, whatever," she then said, deciding to forget it for now. Obviously, Happytrade was really bored and fell asleep but the important question was if Brilliance enjoyed her time.
Once the important question was asked, Brilliance replied without the need to think about her answer. "It was okay..."
Happytrade grunted in response. Another idea of her didn't work, meaning that she had to figure out something else. But Happytrade was not a pony that was known for giving up that easily so of course, she continued to find that one hobby for Brilliance now matter how long it would take.
Later...
The next stop was a little pet shop. Happytrade figured that if Brilliance had troubles finding a new hobby then maybe she needed something else that would get her mind off from her library. With that in mind, a pet was the best solution to keep someone busy.
"Aww, this puppy is just adorable!" Happytrade said as she was hugging a little puppy in her hooves before looking over to Brilliance to see how her experience was with some pets were.
The Unicorn was surrounded by kittens who were either sitting on her back and head or sleeping right next to her hooves. It was truly an adorable sight, even though Brilliance had her usual emotionless expression on her face.
"They are cute..." Brilliance said.
"Right?" Happytrade replied, witnessing a glimmer of hope that this visit actually paid off. "So which one of them do you want to take home?" She asked.
Brilliance looked down on the kittens in front of them, all of them lining up and looking at her, waiting for which one would be picked.
Brilliance gave a quick answer. "No one," she casually replied, much to the shock of the kittens and Happytrade.
"What!?" Happytrade replied in shock. "But you just said they were cute!" She pointed out.
"Yes," Brilliance replied. "But I'm still not interested to take care of a pet," she explained.
As soon as those words were said, the kittens walked away with frowns on their faces after realizing that their chances to be taken home by her were zero.
And with that, another attempt of Happytrade was for nothing, causing her to find something else again.
Later...
This time, Happytrade set up something more special. She somehow managed to get her hooves on two hang gliders that she and Brilliance both brought on top of a mountain that was close to Ponyville so that they could fly over the town with them.
Happytrade had to admit that she was a little nervous to stand on top of the mountain wearing that hang-glider, ready to jump off any second but with Brilliance standing next to her, she put on a brave face.
"There! Look at the view. Isn't it beautiful?" She asked while she pointed at the buildings of Ponyville in the far distance.
"It is pretty," Brilliance replied with a deadpan expression on her face.
Hearing that made Happytrade really happy. Still, she was shaking a little once she realized how she was about to fly over the very town that they were looking at now. "Just so you know...I don't really know what to do once we jump...but we should be alright...right!?" She asked with some doubts and fear in her voice.
But Brilliance remained completely calm. "Yeah..." she said.
It was almost shocking how Brilliance wasn't even fazed by this one bit. Not only was the sight of her friend being completely fearless surprising her but it also helped her to find her own courage to do this. She slapped her own cheeks to get a grip on the situation and then stood ready to jump.
"Okay, Brilliance! We will jump on three, got it?" Happytrade said before she made sure that her hang glider was ready to carry her now. Brilliance stood right next to her friend ready to jump as well. Happytrade then started counting. "One...two..." she slowly counted, taking her sweet time before she then quickly screamed out the last number. "THREE!!!"
Without thinking much about it, Happytrade jumped off from the mountain with closed eyes, hoping that nothing bad would happen. It took quite a while until she opened her eyes again but once she did, she was baffled by the sight and the realization that she was flying in the air.
"WOAH!" She screamed in excitement. "This is amazing! So this is how the world looks like from the eyes of a Pegasus!" She said as she looked all over the place, feeling the wind blowing through her face. She almost forgot to ask how Brilliance was feeling in this very moment but she figured that even she would admit that this was something truly amazing. "What do you think about that, Brilliance!?" She asked as she was looking all around her to see where the mare was now. Unfortunately, she couldn't spot her anywhere. "Brilliance?" She then said confused, finding herself all alone in the air above Ponyville.
Later, in the Golden Oak Library...
It was really quiet inside the library. Summershine was bored like he never was before in his life. There was not much to do for him. All the books were in the right place, not many ponies visited the library so that he could help them out and time was just not passing. He read through a few books but spending the whole day reading was something that he just couldn't do. He found himself in the middle of the room, sitting on a chair and looking at the ceiling out of pure boredom.
"I really hope the two of them come back soon," he said, obviously referring to Brilliance and Happytrade, who were still gone, leaving him in care of the library. The stallion almost didn't even realize how the door to the library was slowly opening but once he saw how Brilliance was the one stepping inside, he began to let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank goodness that you're back!" He said as he walked over to the mare before he looked behind her. "Where is Happytrade?" He asked after he was unable to see her anywhere.
"Flying over the town...probably..." Brilliance replied.
Without any context of the situation, of course, Summershine didn't know how to respond. "Okay..." was the only thing he could respond before he asked about her day.
Brilliance explained. "We tried a lot of things," she simply said.
"And...did you find anything that interested you?" Summershine asked out of curiosity.
The answer came really quickly. "No..." Brilliance said before she walked to her bookshelves to see if everything was still in place. "Thanks for taking care of the library by the way," she said with a smile on her face towards Summershine.
"Yeah, no problem but...what about the whole thing to find a new hobby?" Summershine asked.
"Well," Brilliance said before she explained things, however, as soon as she started her explanation, the door to the library was slammed open.
The two Unicorns looked over to the entrance of the door and saw a very angry Happytrade, who was breathing heavily because she probably ran all the way to the library as fast as she could. Seeing, the mare like that actually sent down some shivers on Summershine's back because he feared that he would in some way get caught up in her anger.
"I knew that you were back here!" Happytrade said before she stomped towards her two friends and kept her eyes glued on Brilliance. "What was that about!? You just left me up there!" She exclaimed angrily.
"You seemed to have fun..." Brilliance replied casually as if she was normally talking with her friend.
"That's not the point!" Happytrade exclaimed. "This whole trip today was supposed to find you something else to do besides sitting here in this library all day with nothing left but to read your books! You didn't even seem to have fun with anything else!"
Summershine really wanted to say something to calm Happytrade down but at the same time, he feared to face her wrath as well. He knew that once Happytrade was like that, it was really hard to stop her again.
Despite being yelled at like that, however, Brilliance wasn't shaken at all and calmly replied. "I had fun," she simply replied.
But Happytrade didn't believe that at all. "Lies!" She exclaimed. "If that was the case then why is everything you ever think about books!?" She asked in her frustration.
Brilliance, by now, wanted to make Happytrade understand something. She did that by asking her one question first. "You like to trade, right?"
Happytrade was confused to be asked that question but she answered regardless. "Yes, of course, I do," she replied.
Brilliance continued. "You like it more than anything else, right?" She then asked.
Happytrade replied again. "Yes, I love it more than anything else!" She said.
While Summershine listened to the two of them, he slowly figured out what Brilliance wanted to get across but he decided to keep quiet to see what Brilliance's next question would be. He had a good guess what her question would be.
And as expected, Brilliance was asking that exact question. "What if somepony came along and tried to take that away from you?"
Happytrade had a quick answer for that. "Well, I would be pretty mad!" She replied offended. "I would feel devastated if somepony would take away the thing that I love doing the most and..." Suddenly Happytrade's eyes popped open and began to hit her. "Ooooh," she added in her realization.
Once Happytrade began to calm down again, Brilliance took her chance to explain. "I really liked trying to do new things and spending time with you but the truth is just that I enjoy spending time in my library reading books a lot more,"
"But doesn't that get boring at times?" Happytrade asked. "Don't you want to try something else?"
Brilliance got a quick response. "I could ask the same thing about you and your trading,"
Happytrade scratched her chin in response. "Now that I think about it...I don't think I have a lot more hobbies besides trading..." she said before she let out a sigh. "Oh boy...I'm such a hypocrite..." she then realized.
As Summershine watched this conversation, he began to smile once he saw how Happytrade was realizing her mistake and decided to cheer her up. He put a hoof on her shoulder and smiled at her. "I guess we just have to respect that everyone has different things that they like, even if we think that it is nothing special,"
"Yeah..." Happytrade said with a frown on her face. "And I was so stubborn and tried to take that away from one of my friends...Some friend I am, right?" she said, feeling deep regrets to make Brilliance go through all of those things today.
But Brilliance shook her head and smiled as she walked over to her friend, letting her know that she was not blaming her for anything. "It's okay," she said much to Happytrade's surprise. "You just wanted me to be happy, right? You were worried about me. That's why you did all of this,"
Happytrade actually had good intentions in mind but she completely overlooked to think about Brilliance's feelings, which made her feel even worse. It made it even harder that Brilliance was so understanding of the situation and wasn't mad or anything.
"I'm sorry..." Happytrade said as she lowered her head in front of her friend.
Again, Brilliance shook her head and smiled. "Don't be. It felt nice, knowing that you were worried about me. I know that you had good intentions. You are a very kind pony after all,"
"Awww," Happytrade replied touched by Brilliance's words before she jumped over to the Unicorn to give her a big hug, which caused Brilliance to get caught off guard a little. "I don't deserve such a good friend,"
"I'm pretty sure you do," Brilliance replied as she pets her friend's head.
It was a really touching moment between the two of them and Summershine was happy to see the two of them like that. It was good that this whole situation didn't escalate any more than it should.
Summershine felt like he was ruining the situation with his next words but he said them anyway. "So...just to wrap it all up...today...was basically a waste of time for everypony?" He said, hinting at that he had to watch the library for nothing.
"Pretty much," Brilliance agreed brutally honest.
"Well, not exactly!" Happytrade disagreed. "At least, I learned that you should accept someone the way they are. Forcefully changing someone even though they are happy the way they are, could end up worse than you think," she shared with the group happily.
After this was all cleared up, Happytrade decided to leave to no longer bother Brilliance, even though she didn't say or do anything to make her think that way. This only left Summershine and Brilliance in the library.
"Thanks for taking care of the library," Brilliance said in gratitude.
"Oh, it was nothing," Summershine replied happily, intentionally leaving out how bored he was most of the time. Brilliance returned to the bookshelves at the end of the room and Summershine was about to leave but then he stopped in front of the doorway. There was something that he was thinking about and that was slightly bothering him. "By the way," he said, causing Brilliance to turn around to him. "I don't completely disagree with Happytrade about one thing,"
Brilliance was confused to hear that. "What do you mean?" She asked.
"Well, about finding another hobby," he started before he explained what exactly he meant. "I mean, it wouldn't hurt to look for something else to do. I know you love spending your time reading books here but I think it wouldn't hurt to have options, especially if you spend it with others,"
Summershine had no idea if she was taking that advice or not but he could swear that he noticed her thinking about it at least.
"Maybe," Brilliance replied as she turned her head towards her books again. Summershine figured that this was as much as he could get off a response from her so he decided to leave without any more words.
The door of the library closed again and Brilliance was the only one left now. She scanned her eyes over the bookshelves to see if everything was in the right order but for some reason, she had trouble concentrating. The words that Summershine said before he left seemed to be stuck in her head and it wouldn't leave for the rest of the day.
The next day, at the Ponyville market place...
As usual, Happytrade could be found at her usual spot, selling stuff to others in the marketplace. It was a busy but also relatively quiet day compared to any other day. The reason for that maybe because she was still thinking about the day before. She still felt bad that she was forcing Brilliance to find another hobby, especially after realizing that she wasn't any different. When it came to her friends, Happytrade was always trying to do her best to make them happy or help them out but somehow that made her not see what was actually going on. Realizing that, made her still feel bad now.
She let out a sigh. "First I was wondering why there are not that many customers as usual..." she said as she looked around the marketplace to see how most ponies walked past her without even sparing a glare at her. "But now I know...with this frown on my face, nopony would probably be interested in my wares," she figured as she leaned her head on her counter in frustration. "But how can I be cheerful after finding out how I'm the worst friend ever!?"
"You're not," Brilliance then said, revealing herself to stand right next to Happytrade now.
Hearing the voice of the dear friend she was thinking about now, quickly made the mare raise her head in surprise. "Brilliance!?" She asked in shock. "Um...what can I do for you? You here to buy something?" She asked while rubbing her neck, feeling still a little awkward to speak to her.
Brilliance shook her head and quickly got to the point. "I was wondering if we could do something after you are done here. Like finding something that we both could do in our free time,"
Those words certainly confused Happytrade. "You mean like a hobby?" She asked, which caused Brilliance to nod in response. "But what about yesterday? We tried out some things and it didn't work out that well," she pointed out.
"We can still try out more things," Brilliance casually replied.
"Huh?" Happytrade replied in a state of confusion, especially since how the last the went.
Noticing the confusion in Happytrade's face, Brilliance figured that she should explain what exactly she had in mind. "Even if we don't find new hobbies, I just thought that we could spend more time with each other from now on, to have fun, if that is enough reason,"
A wide smile started to slowly form on Happytrade's face as soon as she heard those words coming out of her friend's mouth. "Yes! Of course!" She said happily, causing Brilliance to smile in response. "In fact, I will close my stand right now!" She added.
"Are you sure?" Brilliance asked, mainly pointing out that she would not be able to make any money for the rest of the day.
"Yes, I am! Let's spend the day doing something fun right now!" She simply said while she already prepared to put everything away again..
"Okay," Brilliance said with a smile on her face, appreciating that Happytrade was leaving everything because of her.
And just like that, Happytrade closed her stand and left the marketplace with Brilliance. They were still not sure what they wanted to do on this day but it actually didn't matter that much. What was important was that they could spend time with each other. And even after all the things that happened yesterday, they both had the feeling that they ended up closer to each other. Knowing that was definitely what made them happy the most.