Golden Oakes Library
At the exact same time...
Twilight's ear twitched. She didn't even notice it, as most ponies didn't, but Chrys and Phoenix were acutely aware of it. They were also acutely aware of her teleporting all over the library pulling books off shelves and rearranging them.
"No, no no- THIS one, THIS one is supposed to go there! And what-" she pulled up a stack of Daring Do graphic novels. "These are supposed to be in the back! What are they even doing in the foyer?!"
"Twilight," Phoenix said, approaching her from behind. He had to duck as a book flew by him. "Maybe it's time to take a break."
"This isn't how we reorganized things! It's like the entire Dewey Decimal System turned itself upside down!!" exclaimed the frantic Twilight. Books were beginning to clutter the floor of the library. This was one of Twilight's weaknesses: when there was a problem, especially one she couldn't solve, it tended to make her single-minded. Hyper-focused, might've been a better word, especially when it worked to her advantage, but now was not one of those times. Her narrow focus was making a mess of things.
She teleported, vanishing in a flash, only to reappear a second later holding a book cart in her magical grasp.
"WHY IS THIS EVEN OUT?!?!"
"Twilight," Chrys repeated. She grabbed the cart and several falling books with her own magical grasp. Gently, she lowered it down to the floor.
Twilight's ears twitched. Chrys and Phoenix both wrapped their arms around her, embracing her in a comforting hug. Definitely a bad idea to do that to Earth-based horses, but Twilight was Equestrian. Which still made it a bad idea. Instantly, she teleported herself, and all three of them to the back of the library.
"GAH!"
The back of the library, directly behind the living room, contained the bulk of the library's books. Finely hoof-crafted wooden shelves of tomes upon tomes of books by Equestria's greatest authors. Copies were available in the Library of Canterlot, but the Golden Oakes held only first editions and the original prints. There were very few, if any, duplicates because of the library's small space, but ponies in Ponyville were good at sharing and patient, as well as being voracious readers, so they never had to wait very long for a book to return. Apart from the occasional overdue book, which was even less-frequent since Twilight became a princess.
Dan's renovations had only affected the structure of the library, not its layout. The wood had been reinforced with extra material, especially sound-absorbing materials and of course, every weapons system from the Pone Depot Home Defense catalog. What had changed, very recently, was the book layout. Specifically, everything had tried to return to the way it was over three years ago when Twilight first arrived in Ponyville.
Phoenix shoved his way out of the storage closet. "Twilight, I like being organized as much as the next guy... maybe a little less, but there's no reason this has to be done now. We still have all the books. They're just... not in the right places," he said, taking a book off his head.
It was apparent now to Twilight that while the Golden Oakes Library had been shielded from Equestria's 'reset,' by virtue of it being on the moon at the time, the magic coursing through Equestria was not fully harmonizing with it. The Crystal Empire, having been protected inside the Crystal Heart at the time, had been the same way. Once again, Crystal Ponies seemed to be having difficulty with their recent memories.
So the books in the library were not in their correct places, but some were, and were rapidly teleporting themselves from one place to another. Twilight's battle was unwinnable.
"Alright I... alright. I give up. For now," Twilight announced. Shoulders slack, she abandoned the pile of books and walked back to the living room with Phoenix and Chrys.
Phoenix noticed something else on the floor. He stopped, knelt down to pick it up and was perplexed at first. It was a feather, a single purple feather. There was another one nearby, and another one by a shelf. It only took a moment for Phoenix to realize where they were coming from.
He hustled back to the living room. "Twilight, I really think you need to relax."
"Did you get shorter?" Chrys said. One hoof under her chin, she put another one over Twilight's head. It somehow seemed like Twilight was a couple inches taller last time she checked.
"Yes..." Twilight admitted. "And I'm... ha-having trouble flying. Again."
"Ohhh, sweetie," Chrys wrapped her longer legs around her. "It's going to be okay."
"Thank you..." Twilight muttered.
"Umm, we don't really KNOW that for sure-"
"Shut up, Nick."
"Yeah, Imma shut up now." (I have smart moments and I have dumb moments. That one was the latter.)
Chrys pushed away for a moment. "Your magic's just... discomboobulated."
"Discombobulated?"
"That, too. And no matter what happens, you know we'll get through it. Together," Chrys said.
Phoenix nodded. "How about we take a break for tonight? We'll start again tomorrow, work a little each day until all the books are back in the right place. On a more stable basis."
Together, Phoenix and Chrys coaxed Twilight onto the couch and sat Lyra-style with her in front of the t.v. Phoenix got the remote and turned it on, hoping to find a nice distraction for them all. Channel surfing was a good enough way to get their minds off things for the moment.
"Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse is on," Phoenix said.
"Eh, I've seen this one. The girl in the red shirt finds the marble like two minutes in," Twilight said.
"Ah." Phoenix changed the channel. SpadHouse, or Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse was a variety show hosted by t.v. star and janitor, Stanley Spadowski. Known for his upbeat and determined outlook, you never really knew what you were going to see. The show aired on U-62 in several universes, including Earth and was currently in its twenty-fourth season and was entirely unpredictable. At times, Stanley would do entire episodes on the street that would go on for two and three parters and other times, he would spend an afternoon at a mini-golf course or other location. Episodes typically lasted an hour and the show was immediately followed by Town Talk with George and Teri Newman.
Phoenix continued channel surfing. "We could just watch cartoons. Might be something new on."
"There's too much CG-stuff in new cartoons," Twilight said. She flipped upside down on the couch. "I dunno. I'm just kinda... feeling blegh."
Chrys carefully flipped her up. "Well, try to relax for us. Please."
"Oh, here's something relaxing- it's the news." Phoenix found the channel I broadcast on and it just so happened my evening show was running.
"Is there any indication when future talks might be planned?"
"We have not heard anything from the secretary at this time, Barro, but it does appear the princess is ready to continue the current meeting."
"Well, the princess may not have issued a statement, but it appears the griffons and zebras have. The Equestrian embassy in Verticia has been informed the griffons are not pleased by the apparent snub from Princess Celestia. Neither nation has released official statements at this time, but the fact they weren't invited to the summit appears to have hurt international relations."
"What?" Twilight got up. "Why wouln't she..." Neither Chrys nor Phoenix knew what to say; this was above their paygrade.
She turned aroud. "The griffons and Gust helped us out a lot. Their fleets helped defend and rebuild Ponyville."
"They did try to loot it first, but yeah," Chrys reminded her.
"And the zebras..." Phoenix started. "Uhhh... well, the griffons are still our allies."
An explosion appeared in front of the room. The flash was so bright and abrupt that it caused me on the television to nearly lose all my teleprompter notes. And those notes are important because our teleprompter was built in like the 70s. Vintage. Anyway, it was Princess Luna.
"Could you PLEASE use the door next time?" Chrys asked. "I mean, umm... if that's okay. Your highness."
Luna turned her gaze to Chrys. Chrys really wished she hadn't. Even though she was the smaller mare and the smaller of the two sisters, Luna was the intimidating one. Despite Celestia's immense power, and the fact Luna had been defeated before, the question over which was the most powerful still came up in late night bar discussions. Celestia had to use the Elements of Harmony, after all to defeat Nightmare Moon.
"I apologize," Luna said, in a voice that made it clear she was being truthful, but also very serious. The kind of voice that said "I get it but you need to shut up."
She turned to Twilight. "There's something you need to see." Luna put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "I'm going to teleport us both, okay?"
"Okay," Twilight said. It's clear Luna telling Twilight before she did something was her attempt at improving her social skills. They exploded in a flash again and the two were gone.
Phoenix sighed. (Sometimes, I wish the magatama could do things other than just help me break psyche-locks.) He turned off the television.
"It's late," Chrys announced. "Does it feel like Dan and Spike have been gone for kinda long?"
"Yeah. They'll be back... eventually. Same with Twilight."
"Yeah," Chrys said, looking away. "Wanna order a pizza?"
"Sounds good." And then there was a knock at the door.
*knock knock knock knock knock*
"Wow, somebody actually knocked. You wanna get that- I'll do the order."
"Sure," Phoenix said. "Wings too? Boneless? With ranch?"
"Fine, but you have to take responsibility. I'm not listening to Dan's boneless wings speech again."
"He'll be fine. As long as we save him some." Phoenix went to the door. Dan typically ranted about boneless wings not actually being chicken wings every time it came into question. In fact, most boneless wings were in fact chicken breast nuggets and not made with wing meat at all, which made them a bit healthier usually. Dan, being a bit of a purist, didn't like the deception. Unless he had the right sauce to go with them and/or everyone agreed to call them "really big chicken nuggets."
Phoenix opened the door, the thought of hot, delicious boneless wings and a slice of pizza on his mind. Fluffle and Fuzzle would get their own pizza covered with ham and also ham with stuffed crust. The stuff in the stuffed crust would be ham, as would the rest of the pizza and the box it comes in. They'd have to order nine.
Zen Zeal was on the other side of the door. "Good evening, Mr. Wright."
"Hey," Phoenix said. And then his eyes went wide.
"Who is it, Phoenix?"
"I-d-d-d-d-ba-ba-ba-aahhh-d-j-j-gaaaa," Phoenix stammered, backing away from the entrance.
Chrys, phone to her ear entered from the kitchen and saw General Zeal. Her jaw dropped, followed by the phone.
"I apologize for the late hour... and uninvited nature of my visit. I wish to speak to Princess Twilight Sparkle. Is she available?"