//------------------------------// // 94. A Castle in Ponyville // Story: My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship // by Danieru //------------------------------// Another workday at the Iron Hammer... Star Twinkle was about to leave the workshop to end his day at work. He stretched his legs a little before he was about to head home. "I'm going home now, Steel Hammer!" He announced to his boss. "Alright! Take care Star Twinkle!" The brown coated Earth Pony replied. "Yeah," Star Twinkle said. "And you too, Twilight!" Steel Hammer added casually. It was then that the purple Alicorn princess stepped out of the workshop as well. For some unknown reason, Twilight really wanted to help the two stallions out in the Iron Hammer. Her mane was dirty and messy from all the work she had done today. Unlike Star Twinkle, however, who was glad to end his day now, Twilight looked a little surprised. "Are you sure everything is done!? There still has to be something that I can do!" She said as she looked around the place hastily. But Steel Hammer only shook his head. "I am sure. You are done for today," he assured. But somehow, Twilight did not seem to like the sound of that. She kept looking back at the workshop with a worried expression on her face. "I think I can still clean up the workshop a little bit! Also, judging from what has to be done for the rest of this week, I can make sure that everything is already done in a few hours with the help of my magic!" "Are you planning to take away my job?" Star Twinkle asked a little offended. He had to admit that he is not that kind of pony who loved his job but he was not planning on quitting it either. If Twilight would take away his work for the rest of the week, then he would surely have no reason to even come to work. "I for one love having somepony help us out!" Steel Hammer said happily. "But I'm closing the workshop now! The work is done, and I also want to go home now," he then said a little bit more seriously. But Twilight didn't seem to care about all of this too much since she already was continuing her work. "Don't worry! It won't take long, I promise!" She said before she rushed inside the workshop again. The two stallions could already hear sounds from her magic, doing all kinds of work in there. Star Twinkle only looked at Steel Hammer with a non-bothered expression on his face. "I'm still going home now..." he just said. "Yeah...me too..." Steel Hammer replied. The two stallions just walked off, hoping that Twilight would not get too overboard. She would not listen to them anyway so the best they could do was to leave and hope that the Iron Hammer would still look the same when they return... On the next day... Star Twinkle, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie all met at Twilight's castle to have a little pancake breakfast. They all enjoyed their pile of pancakes placed in front of them. They all seemed to enjoy it, with the exception of Twilight who was just sitting in front of her pile, and barely awake. The group, however, didn't notice that at first and kept enjoying their pancakes. "Mm, these are delicious, Pinkie Pie!" Applejack complimented after taking another big bite from her pile. Pinkie Pie, who also enjoyed her food judging from how her face was covered in cream, was thankful for those words. "Thanks!" She said after she liked her face clean again. "Twilight spent all night helping me pick the flavor! I kept thinking we'd found the right one, but she insisted I make even more to try. And more. And more and more and more and more!" She said while she kept stacking up more and more pancakes on her plate. "It was like she never wanted to—" "Leave?" Fluttershy added in mid-sentence. She seemed to know exactly what Pinkie Pie was talking about. "Exactly!" Pinkie Pie agreed. Star Twinkle took another bite from one of his pancakes. "That explains why there are so many of them," he said while he looked over to a huge pile of Pancakes in the middle of the table. It was actually kind of intimidating to look at. "Please don't tell me that we have to eat all of them..." In the meantime, Pinkie Pie continued. "Eventually we ran out of time so we just went with every-berry-any-chip-surprise!" She said before she whispered something to Rarity in secret, even though she was speaking loud enough so that everypony in the room could hear her. "The surprise is I lost a measuring spoon in the batter," the mare said before she spoke normally again. "Somepony's gonna get a very special pancake!" Hearing that, made Rarity check her pile to look out for said measuring spoon, hoping that she would not find it. This all sounded really familiar to Rainbow Dash. "Up all night, huh? Is that why she's so, uh... out of it?" She said as she pointed towards Twilight. The mare was sitting at the table as well, and saying "sitting" was kind of a stretch. Twilight was barely awake while sitting in front of her pancake plate, snoring loudly and being completely oblivious that everypony was looking at her at this very moment. Star Twinkle just shook his head. "Well, that's what she gets after spending the whole night working in the Iron Hammer," he casually mentioned. Applejack quickly picked up on that. "Sounds exactly like what happened the other day at Sweet Apple Acres. The girl stuck around 'til near midnight. Dug up fifty tree-plantin' holes when all I needed was ten," Rarity also had her own story to share. "She spent an entire afternoon rearranging a single gem drawer at the boutique. An entire afternoon!" She said as if she couldn't believe it herself even though she was clearly there. "You think that's weird?" Rainbow Dash said before she shared her story. "She raced me, like, a hundred times the other day. And lost every time! She just kept goin'! Best out of ten, best out of twenty, best out of a hundred! I mean, I know hanging out with me is awesome, but it was like she'd rather keep losing than—" "Leave?" Fluttershy interrupted once more. "Yeah. Who does that?" Rainbow Dash asked. Star Twinkle looked over to Twilight. She was still really messy as if she hadn't any time cleaning herself up for a long time. It was really weird that she was in a state like this, considering how well organized she usually is. "Maybe she really wants to spend time with us?" The stallion guessed. "Or maybe..." Applejack threw in. "She is avoiding telling us something," she guessed. "Applejack is right!" Rarity agreed. "As soon as she wakes up, we are gonna find out what it is!" She said, earning her the agreement of everyone else in the room. Pinkie Pie was about to add something to this as well but then began to choke a little bit. She then spat out the measuring spoon right into Fluttershy's face, who just got a little surprised in response. "I win!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed victoriously. "Huh?!" Twilight said in shock after awaking from Pinkie Pie's voice. "I'm pancake! I mean, awake..." She said embarrassed while a pancake gracefully stuck on her horn. Needless to say, seeing the mare like this really worried everypony and Applejack decided to go straight to the point. "Uh, Twilight? Is there somethin' you wanna tell us?" She asked. Rarity was already walking up to the poor mare and removed the pancake from her horn. "You know how much we appreciate all you do for us, and we simply adore having you around... but... we worry you might be... ahem... avoiding something else?" Twilight felt a little uncomfortable. "Oh, has it been that obvious?" Twilight asked concerned and a little ashamed. The girls avoided eye contact. Of course, it was obvious but they didn't want to make her feel even more uncomfortable now. Except for Star Twinkle... "Yes," he said boldly, causing him to get some glares thrown at him, much to his confusion. "What!? It was!" He said in his defense. Eventually, Twilight decided to speak up to it. She knew that her friends had a right to know what was bothering her so that they wouldn't worry themselves too much. The mare still struggled to explain it though. "I've been... the thing is... I know it's silly, but I... I've been avoiding... this place," Hearing that really shocked Rarity. "Why in Equestria would you want to avoid such a gorgeous castle?" She asked confused. "Yeah, this place has everything!" Pinkie Pie said before she walked around the castle a bit, pointing out said everything. "Big tall ceilings that make you feel tiny! Shiny new floors that are cold to the touch! Brrr! And it even has loooong empty hallways!" She screamed through the castle, causing an echo to hall through the whole castle, making it feel really empty and lifeless. Needless to say, hearing herself say all this made the mare realize what was wrong. "Okay, I get it," Pinkie Pie added in a serious manner. "Yeah," Star Twinkle said. "It must take a lot of getting used to," he figured. He didn't have many visits to this castle so far but each time he had to be here, he always got lost and felt really uncomfortable as well. It didn't take long for him to understand how Twilight must feel living in this big castle. Twilight continued. "The castle is amazing. But it just...It doesn't feel like home," she said with a frown on her face while she planted her face down on the table. Instead, of frowning along with her though, Rarity chuckled and only saw a small problem in all of this. "Oh, is that all? Why, you simply need to decorate, darling. Make this space your own!" She suggested. "It's just so daunting!" Twilight replied frustrated. "Look how big it is! I-I don't even know where to start!" But Rarity knew the answer to that question as well. "You can start by letting us do it for you. We will make this the castle of your dreams while you go to the Ponyville spa for some much-needed rest and relaxation," she explained while she looked at the mare in concern. "Rarity is right," Star Twinkle said. "You technically just moved into this castle. It is only natural that you don't feel comfortable living here. But it's not too late to decorate the place a little bit more to your liking," he explained. Twilight started to really appreciate that everypony wanted to help her and looked at the situation logically. "Ooh, I guess I do need a little help. And so does my castle. And I just know you'll do a great job because nopony knows me better than you," she said, fully believing that her friends will make this castle look a lot better so that she could feel more comfortable. "We'll make this place feel cozier than hot cider on a rainy day," Applejack announced. Rainbow Dash shot up in excitement after hearing that. "There's gonna be cider?!" She said, clearly misunderstanding what Applejack. She quickly felt a little embarrassed after seeing how Applejack looked at her funny. "Uh, I mean, let's decorate!" She then said. "Right!" Rarity agreed on before she then looked over to Star Twinkle. "And you will take Twilight to the spa!" Star Twinkle felt a little pointed out and looked confused back at the mare. "Why me?" He asked. Applejack moved closer and to the stallion and whispered something in his ear. "Somepony needs to look over Twilight. We wouldn't want her to fall asleep on the way to the spa or something," she pointed out. "Besides," Rarity joined. "It's either that or helping us decorate the place," "Which is gonna be super fun!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed happily. "But will also take a lot of work!" She casually added. It was like the word "work" is what made Star Twinkle decide his next action. "The spa it is then!" He said determined as he walked out of the room with Twilight following her closely. As they walked out of the door of the room, they could see all of their friends standing in the middle of the room, ready to get to work immediately. "And don't you worry one bit!" Applejack said confidently. "Yeah!" Rainbow Dash added. "By the time you are back, this place is gonna be the most awesome castle in all of Equestria!" She announced confidently as well. Twilight smiled after hearing that. She was really happy to have friends helping her out in times like this. Star Twinkle also smiled, knowing that Twilight was happy about this. He was ready to play his part as well, which meant helping the mare to relax from all the things that she did in recent days. She may not show it openly but she definitely was exhausted, this much Star Twinkle could tell. The two ponies were outside and on their way towards the Ponyville Spa. Ponies were looking weirdly at the two, mainly Twilight since she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open and walking in a straight line. It was at this moment that Star Twinkle understood why the girls wanted somepony to accompany Twilight. Who knows where she would have landed on her own. Star Twinkle had no choice but to lend a hoof to the mare. He made her lean a hoof on his shoulder as they slowly walked in direction of the spa. By now Twilight felt a little embarrassed about the whole situation. "I'm sorry for all this inconvenience," the mare apologized. "Don't worry about it," Star Twinkle replied. "Just try and tell us next time whenever something like this happens again," "Yes," Twilight said sheepishly. On their way, there was a short silence between the two before Twilight would say something again. "Then again, you all are there help me so I guess I'm fine," she said happily while still being a little embarrassed to say this. "That's what friends are for, right?" Star Twinkle said. Twilight chuckled to herself. "A while back, I would have never imagined you to say that," "Thanks...I guess..." Star Twinkle replied. "Sorry," Twilight then apologized. "This was supposed to be a compliment," she then added shyly. "No, I get it," Star Twinkle replied. He was agreeing with the mare after all. "But then again," Twilight then started. "Right now, you are probably thinking that bringing me to the spa is really annoying," she said with a smile on her face. Star Twinkle felt as if he should deny that. "I wouldn't exactly say-" "And..." Twilight continued, ignoring Star Twinkle. "You probably only agreed to this because you thought this would be easier than helping the girls with the castle," "No!" Star Twinkle replied in his defense. However, Twilight was looking at him with a smug smile. "Okay, yes..." the stallion then admitted. It was horrible that Star Twinkle was thinking this way and he knew that too but Twilight didn't seem to be disappointed or mad at him for that. "You like to have us as friends but sometimes you just wish that we wouldn't cause too much trouble for you," Star Twinkle widened his eyes in a mix of surprise and some shame. "I'm an open book to you, huh?" Twilight chuckled. "The fact that you still do all of this though just proves that you are a good pony. We all realized that long ago. And looks like we were right," she said smugly. "You talk a lot for somepony who was sleeping with her face in a pile of pancakes just five minutes ago," Star Twinkle smugly replied. The mare smiled in response. "Yeah, you're right," she said before she began to let out a healthy yawn. "Maybe I should take things a little bit easier...and get some rest...I'm really tired after all...and..." The next thing that Star Twinkle saw was Twilight falling to the ground. She fell asleep again. Some ponies looked at the mare in shock and concern. Some of them even laughed at the poor state of the princess. Star Twinkle walked up to Twilight. He looked a little embarrassed because of all the ponies looking at her, and soon him because they all would find out that he was associated with her. "Maybe this is gonna be harder than I expected," Star Twinkle figured as he looked at the mare who was sleeping on the ground right in front of him. The stallion picked Twilight up and carried her on his back, slowly carrying her to the spa. He could feel how the mare was rubbing her face on his neck in her sleep, making Star Twinkle widen his eyes in embarrassment. He decided to ignore that though and just continued his walk so that the pony on his back could get a well-deserved rest. Later at the spa... Star Twinkle already prepared everything for Twilight's stay. He bought her a rather long, and expensive mane treatment. The spa ponies were already starting to treat her while Star Twinkle was sitting nearby patiently for her to be done. One of the spa mares walked up to him. "Are you sure you don't want treatment as well?" She asked nicely. "No thanks. I just keep her company," Star Twinkle replied. "Very well," the mare said before she walked away again. As Twilight was getting her mane done, she slowly but surely looked a little bit worried. Star Twinkle noticed that as well. "What's wrong? Do you not enjoy it?" He asked. "I do!" Twilight replied. "It's just...I don't know it just doesn't feel right that my friends work hard while I sit here and enjoy myself," "Oh, I get it," Star Twinkle replied as he walked closer to the mare now. "But don't forget that the reason you are here is that your friends wanted you to relax. So you don't have to be worried about all this," he explained. "Still..." Twilight said, not being really convinced by those words. "Besides," Star Twinkle started. "You helped all of us in the last days so it is only fair that everypony wants to repay you for it. It's our way of saying thank you in a way," Twilight rubbed her chin and thought about those words and quickly understood. "Well, if you put it like this..." she started before she started to smile again. "Alright, I will not let everyponies gratitude go to waste!" She said determinedly. The mare that was taking care of her was then about to go the next step of her treatment. "We have to put this on you for a while if you don't mind," she said while she readied a hairdryer to put on the mare. "Not at all!" She said happily before her head was covered by the dryer. "There we go!" Star Twinkle said happily before he walked back to his seat, waiting for Twilight to be done. He had to admit that he was pretty happy how he managed to convince Twilight to let loose. "I guess the hard part is over," he said before he relaxed as well. He thought about taking a nap while Twilight's treatment was ongoing. However, someone rushed into the room, much to his surprise. It was Spike who was looking really nervous and in a panic. The little dragon quickly saw Star Twinkle and Twilight. "There you are!" The little dragon said in a panic as he walked towards Star Twinkle. "Hey, Spike," Star Twinkle greeted. "What are you-" But before the stallion could finish his sentence, Spike came running to him with a nervous expression on his face. "It's the castle! It looks horrible!" He said in his panic. Those words left Star Twinkle a little confused. "We are kinda working on that so," "No!" Spike exclaimed. "I know all about what you and the others are doing!" Again, Star Twinkle was confused. "Then what is the problem?" He asked. Spike explained. "The problem is that the girls made a total mess of the castle! There is no way that Twilight will like it the way it is now! And the girls don't listen to me! You have to talk to them!" He pleads in his frustration. Star Twinkle was having some doubts that the situation was this bad but seeing Spike like this was making the stallion worry a little bit. He was trying to think how badly the girls could possibly mess up the castle and nothing came to mind. But being the paranoid pony he was, Star Twinkle decided to not ignore what Spike said. Fortunately, Twilight didn't seem to have noticed that Spike was here yet since her head was covered by the dryer. Star Twinkle still whispered the next words to Spike to make sure that she wouldn't hear. "You stay here and make sure that Twilight stays here. I'll go and check for myself," the stallion said before he left the spa and headed back to the castle, leaving Spike with Twilight now. Whatever was happening in the castle, it couldn't hurt to check it. A little later... Star Twinkle was walking towards the throne room of the castle. So far, the entrance hall looked normal, unchanged even. He was wondering why Spike was freaking out so much in the first place. He last saw the girls inside the throne room, the room with the huge table in the middle so he decided to check there. But he was not prepared for what he was about to see once he opened the door to the throne room. "Sweet Celestia!" Star Twinkle said in complete shock after he laid eyes on the room. It was a complete mess. The was hay laying around, trophies, tapestries just laying around in random places, confetti scattered around the room, and that was just to name a few. Some of the things looked normal but considering how all of this was mashed together randomly, it looked really really bad. The girls quickly noticed how Star Twinkle was standing in the doorway with his mouth open in shock. "Star Twinkle!" Rarity said. "Are you and Twilight done already?" She asked. "No..." Star Twinkle replied. His eyes were still glued at all the stuff in this room. "What is all of this-" POOF! Suddenly, confetti came flying from out of nowhere right into his face. "What was that!?" He asked after he recovered from this shock. Pinkie Pie explained. "Those are just the confetti cannons that hid around the place," the mare said casually as if this was the most normal thing to do. "Hid? Where!?" Star Twinkle asked. The mare tipped her chin and began thinking. "I don't remember," she then said. Star Twinkle face-hoofed in response. By now, the girls looked a little nervous to hear some feedback from the stallion. "So...how do you like it so far?" Applejack asked, though looking at her nervous facial expression would indicate that she already knew the answer. Star Twinkle didn't reply right away, mainly because he saw the worried expressions on the girls. He didn't want to hurt their feelings and made all their hard work, which probably went into all of this as hard as that was to believe. At the same time, though he wanted to help Twilight, and having her castle ruined is not gonna help at all so the only way to help now was to be truthful. "It...really doesn't look good," he said bluntly. The stallion prepared himself to look at some frowns and some sad faces as a response but much to his surprise, the girls all sighed in relief. "Thank goodness somepony said something!" Fluttershy said. "It's pretty bad, right?" Rainbow Dash agreed. "Yeah," Applejack added as she looked around the room as well. "This place looks like a mishmash of knickknacks," "Hmm, I suppose it is a little cluttered," Rarity said. It was good that the girls actually admitted to their mistake so that Star Twinkle didn't have to be the bad guy. Still, Pinkie Pie was the only one to disagree. "What are you guys talking about? I think it looks super fun!" She said cheerfully. Then, almost on cue, another hidden confetti cannon got triggered and blew some confetti around the place, scaring some of the critters inside the room. In their confusion, the animals ran around the castle, knocking things over and destroying stuff in the process. Star Twinkle had to dodge multiple things that were flying towards him in all of this mess. Of course, Fluttershy was the one who tried her best to get those animals under her control again, with limited success. "Oh! Oh, no! Please don't do that! If you all just take a deep breath and calm down-" It didn't work too good and the animals continued to create havoc, messing up the place even more than it actually was before. In this mess, Rarity almost got a heart attack once she saw how two animals were climbing on some curtains. "No! That bunting is embroidered by hoof! Don't you move one more paw!" She warned. But it was too late and the curtain ripped once the animals were sliding down, causing the mare to get really angry. "Everypony, stop!" She shouted across the room, managing to put a hold to all of this. The animals calmed down again and noticed their mistake but sadly, the damage was already done. "Okay, now it's a mess," Pinkie Pie realized as she took a look around the place, accompanied by another confetti cannon that exploded right after. "What're we gonna do?!" Rainbow Dash said frustrated. Star Twinkle began rubbing his head. "Well, it's not like as if it looks much worse than what they did with this place..." he thought before he came up with a plan to deal with this situation. "I make sure that Twilight won't come back for a while. How about sunset? Is that enough time for you all to fix this place?" The girls agreed that this was okay so Star Twinkle trusted them to take care of everything, even if it was a pretty rough start. He walked outside of the room hoping that his trust was put in the right place. POOF! Another confetti cannon went off right next to his face as soon as he was outside of the room. "And remove those cannons!" He said angrily from outside the room, which caused the girls to look at Pinkie Pie, who could only smile nervously in response. As Star Twinkle walked in direction of the spa again, he had to think about how the girls messed all of this up in the first place. It was a huge mess, considering how they tried to make this castle more comfortable for Twilight. His guess was that decorating a castle was probably not as easy as he thought but still. For now, all he could do was to make sure that Twilight would not see the castle for a while. Back in the spa... Twilight's mane was about to be done any minute now. Luckily, Star Twinkle managed to be back in time for that. Spike was the first one to see the stallion back however and took the opportunity to ask him how things in the castle look like. But Twilight noticed how Star Twinkle was back and greeted him first. "Star Twinkle, you're back! How do I look?" She said before she removed the dryer on her head and revealed her new styled up fancy mane with a smile on her face. "Great!" Star Twinkle replied with Spike agreeing happily. The little dragon could kinda tell how Star Twinkle wasn't saying this with much confidence. Twilight, however, did not seem to notice that because she was inspecting her mane a little. "And more importantly, how does the castle look?" She asked. "Um...great?" Star Twinkle replied in a hesitant tone. By now Spike was slowly walking closer to Star Twinkle. "Really?" He whispered to him while Twilight was not looking. "No," Star Twinkle replied quietly while he was shaking his head in frustration. "The girls need more time," he added. And of course, the one thing that both of them not wanted to hear right now was coming out of Twilight's mouth. "I can't wait to go home and see it!" She said excitedly. "No!" Both Star Twinkle and Spike replied at the same time gracefully suspicious. "I mean...uh..." Star Twinkle said while he tried to come up with something to prolong their stay at the spa. He eventually had an idea popping up in his head. He began stretching while making a face filled with fake pain. "Oh! I suddenly feel how my bones hurt a little bit, I think I need a massage," "Yes!" Spike agreed. "Me too! And I'm sure you could use one as well!" He said while Star Twinkle was nodding in agreement nervously before he grabbed a little piece of paper with a list of several massages on it. "We were really hoping to get, uh... this thingy!" He said while he randomly pointed at one thing on the list. Twilight took a look at it herself. "The 'Extra-strength-hot-stone-deep-tissue massage'?" She asked confused. Star Twinkle kept smiling nervously but he was still confused to hear that. "The what now?" He said. Spike also just now realized what he was getting them into and looked at what he picked. He gulped. "Yep!" He said nervously after realizing that there was no going back anymore. Whatever that massage was, Twilight was agreeing with the idea to stay a little bit longer, which in the end, was the only thing that counted. "I think I'll just have a traditional massage, but you guys for it," she said. Star Twinkle only looked back at Spike with an angry look on his face because of what the dragon had brought upon him. But before he could say something, one of the spa ponies walked inside the room. "Did somepony order massages?" She asked. CRASH! "Yeah!" What followed was a huge stallion bursting through the wall right into the room. It was Bulk Biceps, the white-coated really muscular Pegasus Pony that Star Twinkle had some chances to meet. He got really scared after he realized that he might be the one doing the massage for him and Spike. Once the big Pegasus stallion locked eyes with Star Twinkle, he was shivering in fear. "Oh, no..." he said quietly in shock. "Let's do this!" He said excitedly before he picked up Spike with his chest muscles and Star Twinkle with only one of his hooves. "Help!" Star Twinkle screamed before he was literally pulled away from Twilight with Bulk Biceps literally walking through a wall as if it was not even there. One of the spa ponies could only shake her head after watching this behavior from Bulk Biceps. "Oh, I hate it when he does that," she said in disapproval before she looked over to Twilight with a smile on her face again. "Come with me, princess," she then said, bringing the mare to her massage. Later outside... After their time in the Ponyville Spa, Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Spike were walking through town and on their way back to the castle. Twilight was looking as if she was reborn. "Great suggestion, you two. I feel totally relaxed," she said happily after a great time in the spa. The same couldn't be said about Star Twinkle and Spike however who both were limping behind her with pain-filled expressions on their face. The massage that they received was definitely not something that they would like to do ever again. It was definitely true to its name as well. "Glad that you liked it," Star Twinkle said while he slowly followed her. He could hear every single joint in his body cracking but he tried to hide it in front of Twilight. Still, he had enough strength left to complain. "I have pain in some places that I didn't even know where places!" He mumbled under his breath. Spike didn't seem to be in any better shape, he was walking around as if he was about to break into pieces any time soon. Eventually, Twilight noticed that as well and looked really concerned. "You both look really bad. Maybe we should go back to the castle," she suggested. As she said that, both Star Twinkle and Spike looked at the sun. It was not sunset, meaning it was too early to go back yet, meaning that they had to keep distracting Twilight some more. Knowing that though, was pretty hard on them since they were not in the best state. But that is just something that they had to put up with. With snapping bones and joints, they walked up to the mare. "I was hoping we could take the scenic way back," Spike suggested. "Yes! Going on a walk surely will be really refreshing!" Star Twinkle added. But Twilight had her doubts about that. "I don't know," she just said in response. "Come on. Walking is good for post-massage circulation," Spike said. "Totally!" Star Twinkle agreed while he could still feel pain all over his body. Again, Twilight had a hard time believing that. "Really? I've never heard that theory," she pointed out. "Well, you learn something new every day," Star Twinkle said while he dragged Twilight with him, far away from the castle. By now, Twilight was looking at the stallion with a weird look on her face. She was most likely guessing that something fishy was going on. "You are acting really weird today, you know that?" But Star Twinkle only grinned nervously in response. He was well aware that he was not acting normally towards her but as long as that would buy them all some time, he was fine with it if she thought that he was weird. The three walked around Ponyville pretty much aimlessly. Twilight was not sure where they wanted to go or what they wanted to see and just followed them. She was walking behind the two of them so Star Twinkle and Spike could whisper to each other without her hearing anything. "You think the girls are done by now?" Spike asked. "I dunno. It looked really bad when I arrived there and even worse after," Star Twinkle honestly replied. Needless to say, the two looked really suspicious and Twilight wondered what they were talking about. She was about to sneak up on them to make it out but then stopped once she realized that all three of them were approaching a very special place. Star Twinkle and Spike also just now noticed where they were walking to and for a moment, they forgot about all the trouble with the castle. They were standing in front of the Golden Oak Library, or rather what was left of it. The library got destroyed while Twilight was fighting Tirek a while ago. Though she and the rest of the girls managed to defeat this villain for good, the library was still left destroyed. Seeing their old home like this made Twilight and Spike feel quite nostalgic. "I really miss this place, Spike. We had so many wonderful memories here," Twilight said with a sad tone in her voice. "We did, didn't we...?" Spike said sadly as well. There were even tears running down his cheeks, much to Twilight's surprise. "Oh, Spike, I'm so sorry," the mare then apologized after she realized what was going on. "Of course losing the Golden Oak Library was hard for you too," she said before she invited the little dragon into a hug to comfort him. Star Twinkle, while not living in this place, could understand that losing your home must have felt really bad. Maybe he should have said something at this moment but he figured that he should not interrupt them and stood there silently. Letting out some tears was probably the best thing that they could do now. Eventually, the hug between the two came to an end and Twilight began to smile again. "I've got an idea. Why don't we have the girls add some things to make the castle feel more like your home as well?" She suggested. "Really?" Spike asked. "Yes, sounds like a great idea!" Star Twinkle agreed on with a smile on his face. Spike was really happy to hear this and was looking forward to this. Twilight was about to head to the castle to ask of the girls for this but it still wasn't sunset so Star Twinkle was kinda worried. He had to make sure everything was fine. "In fact, I will go to the castle and tell the girls about this! And in the meantime, you two can go and look for something that Spike would like!" Twilight raised her eyebrows confused. "I actually thought we could go back together and-" "No! That's a great idea!" Spike interrupted after he realized what Star Twinkle was planning. "I actually thought of something that I want!" "Oh, okay. What is it?" Twilight then asked, not suspecting anything. "It's a... well," Spike said after he realized he had not come up with anything and just went along with the plan. "I want a... it's... I kind of need a... a bed!" He then said. Twilight looked a little surprised to hear that. "I thought you said you sleep like a baby in the castle," she remembered. "Everypony knows babies are terrible sleepers. Let's go!" He then said as he grabbed the mare to follow him while Star Twinkle was heading in the other direction to take make sure the castle was ready. "I'll see you later!" Star Twinkle waved as he watched how the two were walking away. Once they were out of sight, however, he began running towards the castle. "Please don't be a mess. Please don't be a mess. Please don't be a mess!" The stallion repeated over and over again as he ran towards the castle, hoping that the girls managed to get everything ready after their first failed attempt. It didn't take too long until he was standing in front of the throne room door. He was pretty exhausted since he was running the whole way. He took a good long breath, but not because of his exhaustion but because he was praying that once he opened the, he would not find a huge mess again. Eventually, he pulled himself together and opened the door quickly. He took a good look at the room. The good thing was: there was no mess, the bad thing, however, was that there was literally nothing else in the room. All the things that the girls put in the room were gone again and now there was nothing. Star Twinkle stood there with a grin on his face since he could not compute why that was the case. "What happened!? Why is there no decoration!? Or...anything!?" He asked in a confused tone. The girls looked at each other. They knew the answer to that after they thought about everything carefully. "Well, you see..." Rarity started. "At first, we thought that the castle was a little cluttered," she said, something that Star Twinkle felt was a huge understatement. Fluttershy then continued. "So we planned on taking out one thing each," "But then!" Pinkie interrupted. "We all thought that Twilight would not like most of the things that we put in here so we took out one more thing!" She said as she bounced up and down on the spot. "And then another thing," Rainbow Dash added. "And another thing," Applejack continued. Star Twinkle could see where this was going to. "I see...but the problem now is that once Twilight comes back, it looks like you did absolutely nothing!" The girls were already well aware of that and lowered their heads. As if this wasn't enough, Rarity took a look outside a window to see that they were running out of time as well. "I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but it's almost sunset. Star Twinkle is right. If we don't figure this out soon, it's going to look like we didn't lift a hoof to help her!" Rainbow Dash could not believe that this was happening right now. "Why is this so hard?! We're Twilight's best friends! This should be easy for us!" She said in her frustration. "She said it herself," Applejack said while she took off her hat in frustration. "If anypony should be able to make her feel comfortable in her new home, it's us," "But if we can't do it," Fluttershy added with a frown on her face. "Then Twilight will be stuck living in a castle that makes her feel... sad!" She said, the last word echoing throughout the whole castle to make the situation feel even more depressed. A few minutes later, the six ponies found themselves walking around in circles in the room, trying to find an answer to this situation. But the time that was left only put pressure on them and as if that wasn't bad enough, Pinkie Pie decided to have a freakout. "What do we do? What do we do?! If Twilight comes home now, she'll be like "What did you guys do?" And we'll have to be like "Nothing!" And then she'll be like "I was counting on you! Some friends you are!" And we'll be like..." "Yes, Pinkie, we are all aware of that situation, thank you..." Star Twinkle said while he still tried to come up with a solution. Pinkie Pie calmed down for a moment and replied. "No problem!" "Calm down, Pinkie," Applejack said as she walked up to the mare. "We just need to figure out what we did wrong so we can make it right," Rarity quickly got offended by those words. "Well, I didn't do anything wrong!" She said proudly. "I did exactly what I would do if this were my home!" "But it's not your home," Rainbow Dash pointed out. "It's Twilight's home!" "Where she keeps all her Rainbow Dash trophies?" Rarity shot back annoyed. "Touché," Rainbow Dash admitted. It was then that Fluttershy realized what the problem was all along. "Maybe we're all a little guilty of making ourselves feel at home instead of Twilight," she said with a frown on her face. Star Twinkle picked up on that. "Then all we have to do is think about what Twilight would like in her home. It can't be that impossible to figure that out," the stallion figured while he kept thinking about a solution. Applejack fully agreed on that. "Star Twinkle is right! Come on, y'all. We just need to think about Twilight. What was it she'd loved about livin' in the Golden Oak Library?" She asked into the round. "Oh, everything!" Fluttershy immediately answered. "The books, the smell of books, the joy she felt from organizing books..." "Remember that time I crashed into all those books attempting my sonic rainboom after you guys just cleaned up?" Rainbow Dash said before she started laughing after remembering this moment. "That was good times," "Yeah, for you, maybe," Applejack replied with a glare on her face. But Rarity kept the good memories train going. "Oh, and Applejack, remember when we were stuck having a sleepover there? That turned out to be so much fun!" Then it was Pinkie Pie's turn. "Remember the time it got blown up to smithereens?!" She said happily until she realized what she just said and how everypony frowned after she mentioned it. "Wait, no, that was the worst," she the corrected with a frown on her face. Star Twinkle had to remember back as well. "The Golden Oak Library is where I saw the girls for the first time, after Nightmare Moon's return," he thought. "Who would have thought that a building was connected with so many memories. Even if we would change this castle, the memories would still not come back..." Thinking about this then gave Star Twinkle an idea that might work, or at least he hoped it would. "I think I know what we can do. I need all of your help though," he said before he determinedly walked out of the room to get to work. The girls looked at each other confused. Of course, they wanted to know what Star Twinkle was coming up with but he walked already outside. Applejack was only shrugging her shoulders confused. "What do we have to lose?" She said to the rest of the girls before they all followed Star Twinkle to go along with his plan. Meanwhile... Twilight and Spike were inside a shop to buy a new bed for the little dragon. Having to deal with Spike deciding on one specific bed was starting to really annoy her. "How's that one? Too soft? Too hard? Too lumpy?" Twilight asked. Spike was laying on a bed in the meantime and looked out of the window for a moment to see if the sun was finally setting, which was actually about to be the case. "Just right! I'll take it!" He said. He was actually glad that he no longer had to stall Twilight. Needless to say, Twilight was even more relieved. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought you'd never find one you liked! Let's find a salespony and get out of here," she said. "Sounds good to me," Spike replied before he took a look outside one more time. This time he saw his friends walking around equipped with shovels. Rainbow Dash noticed Spike and gave him a sign that he needed to buy some more time for them so Spike had no choice to keep going with his stalling. "Did you hear that?" He said as he placed his ears on the bed he was sitting on. "Too squeaky! Better keep looking!" He said before he walked away to find another bed. Of course, Twilight was not happy at all to hear this and groaned loudly in annoyance. Meanwhile... Star Twinkle and the girls all stood in front of the Golden Oak Library. By now, the girls already knew his plan and were fully dedicated to giving it a try. "And you really think that this will work?" Applejack asked with some concern in her voice "It's the best I can come up with now," Star Twinkle honestly admitted. "I'm sure it will, darling. I can see it!" Rarity said with a positive attitude. "You, Applejack and Fluttershy stay here. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, you come with me. We're going shopping! We'll meet back at the castle," "Right!" Star Twinkle agreed on before he used his shovel and began digging the ground in front of the destroyed library. "We all tackled this in the wrong way. Twilight doesn't need any new things in her castle. The reason she is not happy is not because of how the castle looks but because it isn't filled with the same memories as her old home. So all we have to do is bring some memories to her new home!" The stallion explained. The six ponies all put the plan in action and hoped that Spike would buy them all some time until they were done with the castle. Later inside the castle... The group of ponies were putting all their work into the castle for the past hour and were actually done by the time Twilight and Spike arrived. Spike was just nervous as closer as he got to the castle similar to how nervous Star Twinkle was before returning to the castle. Twilight opened the door to the castle. "Hello? We're home!" She announced. She was then greeted by all of her friends in the middle of the hallway. "Welcome home!" They all said with happy smiles on their faces. Twilight did not expect that anything was going wrong so she just followed her friends around the castle to excitedly see what they did with it. But she quickly noticed that there was no change in the whole hallway much to her confusion. "Oh, I, uh... love what you've done with the place. You did such a good job of... preserving the integrity of the original design," she said, trying to hide her disappointment. Spike was not too good about hiding that, however. "Aw, come on! It looks exactly the same! Do you know how hard it was to keep her from coming back here?! I never want to see another dust ruffle as long as I live!" He complained. "Wait. Keep me from coming back here?" Twilight asked. Giving this away was not the best thing that could happen now but it didn't make any difference anyway at this point so the girls decided to be honest. Rarity was the one who explains after laughing nervously. "It took a teensy bit longer than we thought," she explained. "Yes," Applejack said. "But then we figured out that what really makes home feel like home isn't what it looks like. It's the memories you make when you're there," Star Twinkle then opened the door to the throne room. "So we decided to bring all your happy memories to this castle," he explained as he pointed at the middle of the room, at the ceiling to be exact. There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling made out of the roots of Golden Oak Library. There were some gems hanging from the chandelier all in different colors. Fluttershy flew up to one of the gems. "The ornaments on the chandelier are reminders of all the fun we've had together," she explained. Pinkie Pie also got closer to one of the gems. "That one shows your party at the Golden Oak Library welcoming you to Ponyville!" "Or the time we shared donuts after the Grand Galloping Gala!" Fluttershy said as she looked into another one of the gems. "We were hoping that being able to look at your beautiful old memories would inspire you to make new ones," Rarity explained. "And the best part of it is, it's made from the roots of the Golden Oak Library, so you'll never forget where you came from," Applejack added. Twilight was looking at the chandelier in awe and didn't reply anything in a while. Of course, her friends wanted nothing more but to know what she was thinking about this. "So...do you like it?" Star Twinkle then asked nervously. The mare then turned around to look at them and it was then that they noticed that her eyes were filled with tears. "It's exactly what the castle needed. And I am ready to make new memories here," she said as she walked up to the group and shared a big group hug with them. "Then let's start right now with a new memory cake!" Pinkie Pie suggested before she wheeled in a huge cake from out of nowhere. "Seven layer what's-that-flavor mystery surprise! These might be chocolate chips or they might be super-spicy black beans!" She said as she pointed at some chocolate chips on the cake. "Let's go to the dining room," Twilight said. "It's a little sparse, but at least there's a table and chairs," she said as she led the way opening the door to the room. However, once the door was open she was really surprised by what she saw. "Whoa! What happened in here? Last I checked, this place was empty!" She said confused. She was referring to how well decorated the room was all of a sudden. She was not the only one who was surprised though, the only exception was Rarity who immediately admitted that it was her. "I couldn't help myself! It was just begging for the personal touch!" She said a little embarrassed. But she wasn't the only one. Applejack was next. "Truth be told... I couldn't either. Your kitchen might have some rustic farm decor, Twilight," she said. "And there may or may not be some Daring Do posters up in your library," Rainbow Dash admitted. Fluttershy could not help herself either. "And some stuffed animals in your bedroom," POOF! "What was that?!" Twilight asked after she saw confetti flying past her all of the sudden. Applejack sighed. "One of Pinkie Pie's confetti cannons," she explained. Pinkie Pie smiled. "What? It's not my fault I hid them so well!" The group only laughed. Twilight was really happy to hear that everypony contributed something to the castle. "Did you decorate a room as well?" She then asked Star Twinkle. But Rarity was explaining before Star Twinkle could. "Actually, it was Star Twinkle who had the brilliant idea with the chandelier," Twilight was looking back to Star Twinkle with a happy smile on her face, causing the stallion to get a little embarrassed. "It was just an idea that popped into my head," he said humbly as he rubbed his neck. The mare smiled after hearing that. She knew that Star Twinkle was thinking about her when he came up with the chandelier and really appreciated it. She just decided to not ask any further since she knew that Star Twinkle would feel embarrassed. All that mattered to him now was that Twilight was happy now. A little later... After the group finished celebrating, they all went home. So did Star Twinkle. On his way back, however, he stopped in front of the place where the Golden Oak Library used to be. He took a moment looking at the now empty spot and remembered back what his memories of this place were. He felt sad. Not only for Twilight. For some reason, he himself was sad about the destruction of the library. He could not put why that was the case, however. After he was done looking at the library, he turned around and walked away. But not without looking back to it for a moment. It was then that, for a little moment, he could swear that a mare was standing at the empty spot. Of course, Star Twinkle shook this off as some kind of hallucination caused by exhaustion or something. There was no one standing there after all. "I need some rest...must have been the massage..." he figured before he walked away and went home.