After all the excitement of extracting Sunny from the prison sphere, the group split up. Sunny was pushing Starlight’s wheelchair as they followed Kendi towards the study.
Misty followed someway behind but didn’t follow them into the study. She headed further down the hallway and turned a corner before stopping and sighing. She’d wanted to check her room, but her way was blocked by a great deal of debris. Therefore, she headed back and joined the others in the study.
“Wait, Sunset decided to lift this lot?” Starlight frowned as she looked at the pile of debris.
“Indeed,” Kendi responded. “It was quite amazing, but she ended up dropping it.”
“She should have gotten help,” Starlight sighed. “She can be so stubborn when she’s angry. Wait, what’s out the window?”
“Nothing but a big drop,” Misty replied as she walked in.
“Okay, and there is nothing at the bottom?” Starlight questioned.
“I could go and take a look if you want?” Sunny suggested as she opened her wings.
“Yes please, Sunny,” Starlight smiled.
Sunny shrugged and headed towards the window. She pulled herself up onto the window ledge and took a moment to balance. She tried to open her wings but found they banged into the window frame, quickly realising she’d need to jump.
After looking down and taking a deep breath, she jumped out and opened her wings. Instantly feeling more confident as she felt them supporting her. She circled around before carefully diving downward and out of sight of the others.
“I do not understand,” Kendi frowned. “Why are you asking her to check down there?”
“Because rather than lifting this lot, we’ll teleport it out the window,” Starlight smiled.
Misty’s eyes widened with realisation. “We could have teleported all of it away before,” she gasped.
“Honestly, I only just thought of it,” Starlight said bashfully. “It would have probably saved Sunny from getting stuck earlier. So, let’s not mention it to Sunset.”
Misty couldn’t help looking back towards the corridor. Maybe she’d be able to reach her old room after all. Then, she remembered another room in that direction and bit her lip apprehensively.
It wasn’t long before Sunny reappeared at the window. She hovered awkwardly as she tried to work out how to land on the small window ledge. “T…There’s nothing down there,” she confirmed.
“Just come in through the non-existent roof,” Starlight smirked as she pointed upwards.
“Oh, yeah,” Sunny giggled. “I’d forgotten about that.”
“Incoming, Sunny,” Misty replied as she fired a beam of magic at the first beam.
It disappeared with a flash and reappeared outside the window. Sunny couldn’t help watching as it then fell into the abyss below. Clattering off the rocks as it did so.
“Okay, I’m getting out of the way,” Sunny blinked as she flew upwards.
Once Sunny had joined them, it didn’t take long for the room to be cleared of the debris. Sunny grinned as she successfully teleported the last beam.
“I think I’m getting the hang of this,” she giggled.
“Apart from everything you teleported appearing the wrong way up,” Starlight smirked.
“But there isn’t a wrong way to this stuff,” Sunny frowned.
“And that’s your problem right there,” Starlight chuckled. “You’ve forgotten about making things appear in the same orientation. Don’t worry, we’ll work on it.”
Meanwhile, Kendi had already started busying herself looking at all the objects that Opaline had left behind. As Starlight moved to help, Sunny looked around and frowned with confusion. “Wait, where’s Misty?” she blinked.
“Not sure,” Starlight frowned as she looked around. “I thought she was near the door. Maybe she went through it.”
Suddenly, there was a flash outside the window as a beam appeared. Quickly followed by another and another.
“Looks like wherever she went, she found more debris,” Starlight smiled.
“I’ll go find her,” Sunny chuckled. “She can’t be too far.”
“Don’t get stuck in any prison spheres,” Starlight smirked.
“Har, har,” Sunny responded as she walked out the door.
Sunny didn’t need to go far. In the hallway, Misty was busy clearing a path. She was so focused on firing teleporting beams; that she didn’t notice Sunny appearing behind her.
“Misty?” Sunny ventured. “What’s that way?”
Misty squeaked with surprise and gasped as a beam shot from her horn and teleported the door at the end of the corridor.
“Oh, Sunny,” Misty gasped. “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“No, no, I’m sorry I startled you,” Sunny responded. “Why are you desperate to go this way?”
“Well, the door on the left is to my room,” Misty explained. “Then the one on the right is the Bathroom. But the one at the end, that’s not there anymore, that goes up to Opaline’s room.”
“It...It does,” Sunny gasped as she looked up at the tower through the non-existent roof. “Have you ever been up there?”
“O...Only once, a really long time ago,” Misty stammered before teleporting the last of the debris.
“Okay, well let’s go and see what’s in there together,” Sunny smiled.
Misty hesitated as Sunny walked carefully forward. Squeaking, she hurried to catch up as Sunny reached the door and started heading up the curving staircase.
As they reached the top, both were surprised to find the roof within the bedroom hadn’t collapsed. The curtains were drawn which made the room dark and gloomy as a result. Misty suddenly froze as her eyes widened and her breathing got quicker.
“Misty?” Sunny said carefully. “Are you okay?”
“Y...Yeah,” Misty gasped. “It’s just, this one time when I was little. I woke Opaline up and she was really, really mad. That was the only time I’ve ever been in here. I...I never had the courage to even look in here after that.”
Sunny put a hoof over Misty’s shoulders and pulled her close reassuringly. “It’s okay Misty,” she reassured. “She’s gone.”
“I...I know,” Misty sighed. “It’s silly, she can’t do anything to me now.”
“Misty no, it’s not silly at all,” Sunny responded reassuringly. “Take your time.”
They stood quietly for a while before Misty took a deep breath. With a determined look, she took a step forward into the room. As she did so, her horn lit up and the room was suddenly flooded with light.
They both looked around the room with awe. There was a huge bed, and fabric drapes hung down from the ceiling to the four corners. These, along with the bed sheets, were purple with dark blue edges.
There was one window, and the curtains were similar colours. Sunny moved towards them, grabbing both with her magic and drawing them back. Misty smiled and cut her illumination spell before heading towards the large dresser on the other side of the room.
Above the dresser was a huge mirror. A mane brush sat on top along with various bottles of liquids. Misty frowned as she recognised some of the bottles, realising that Opaline had made her fill them in the past.
Carefully, she pulled open one of the drawers. Gasping, she found a set of fetlock guards. They were a different style to those Opaline normally wore, with inlays of gold and red. With widened eyes, she closed the draw and looked towards Sunny.
Sunny meanwhile had moved over towards a bookcase. She pulled out a couple of books, gasping at the covers and titles. However, disturbed by its neighbours disappearing, another book fell to one side which caught her attention. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of the cover.
Misty walked over as Sunny placed the first two books down. She lifted the book that had fallen and looked at the cover with astonishment. In the centre was a familiar six-sided star, surrounded by a golden horseshoe.
“Isn’t that...” Misty gasped.
“Twilight Sparkle’s Cutie Mark,” Sunny said with wonder.
Carefully, Sunny opened the first page. Her eyes widened further, and she gasped as she read the first paragraph. Her hoofs shook with excitement.
“What is it?” Misty asked with concern.
“It...It’s a journal,” Sunny gasped. “It’s Twilight Sparkle's Friendship Journal.”
“What are these purple bookmarks?” Misty breathed.
“I’m not sure,” Sunny replied. “I...I think we need to take all these books though. I think they are all detailing Equestria’s history.”
“But, why would she have these?” Misty gasped. “I don’t remember her ever talking about Equestria’s history. She barely mentioned her past in any detail.”
“No, she did mention something,” Sunny frowned. “Playing the good pony game or something. Maybe these are memories of that which she couldn’t bear to get rid of.”
“Maybe,” Misty replied unsurely. “There is a lot of dust on them.”
Misty looked around the room again. Suddenly spotting a large purple and blue chest in a corner. She walked over to it and found it was locked. Frowning, she studied the lock and noticed there was no keyhole.
“Urm, I think we need to take this chest too,” Misty said unsurely. “I can’t see how to unlock it. It could be locked by magic. Whatever’s inside could be important.”
“Okay,” Sunny said as she placed the journal in her saddle bag. “We’ll take everything. But first, didn’t you want to check your room?”
Back in the study, Starlight groaned as Kendi continued to study every item she found carefully.
“You realise we can study everything back at the Brighthouse,” she complained. “There will be plenty of space on the Marestream. Zipp will make as many trips as needed.”
“Oh, of course!” Kendi gasped. “I am sorry, I am so used to only being able to bring so much back with me. Although, what do you make of this?”
Kendi lifted a strange six-sided chest that had six keyholes. Starlight frowned as Kendi set it down before her, grunting with effort.
“Twilight mentioned something about a chest like this once,” Starlight explained. “But, it being here makes no sense.”
“In what way?” Kendi asked.
“After Twilight and her friends unlocked the chest, her castle of friendship grew from it,” Starlight explained.
“Grew from it?” Kendi repeated looking confused.
“Yeah, it’s a long story,” Starlight sighed. “It’s from before I knew them too. So, I’m not completely sure of the exact details. Certainly, I’ve never seen the chest they mentioned, but this looks like the one Twilight described to me.”
“So, this could be that one or a completely different one,” Kendi replied.
“Exactly,” Starlight confirmed. “We have no way of knowing.”
“This is the best part of archaeology,” Kendi grinned. “Finding items and then trying to identify their historical significance. Like you say, let’s get everything outside so it can be safely loaded.”
“Sure, but where are Sunny and Misty?” Starlight asked. “We’ll need their help. I’m not going to be much help with carrying right now. I mean, I can lift stuff fine but actually moving with it will be difficult.”
As if on cue, Sunny and Misty appeared in the doorway. Misty had a saddle bag strapped over her barrel.
“Sorry, we were getting some things from my room,” Misty explained.
“And checking out Opaline’s tower,” Sunny added. “We’ve got lots to move from there too, let’s get to it.”
Emptying everything from the ruins of Opaline’s castle took some time. Misty was quite insistent that they should collect everything from the storeroom. Despite a lot of it looking like dried plants.
Eventually, the majority of the group remained at the Brighthouse. Kendi chose to stand guard at the castle and prepare items to be transported. Meanwhile, Misty, Sunset and Zipp travelled back and forth in the Marestream, loading, and unloading at either end.
The rest of the group proceeded with the task of tidying the Brighthouse. However, they started by moving some items up to the Crystal Chamber. Where they would be safe given the holes and lack of a door.
Therefore, as he headed down the ramp, Hitch gasped as he spotted a familiar face at the doorway.
“Phyllis,” he smiled. “What brings... Oh, wait I remember. You were coming to assess what needs doing to repair this place.”
“Y...yeah,” Phyllis gasped as she looked around. “I have to admit, this is worse than I expected.”
“You should have seen it before we started tidying up,” Hitch chuckled.
Phyllis blinked as she looked around at the piles of objects strewn around the entire bottom floor. “Is it as bad as this upstairs?” she asked worriedly.
“Oh no,” Hitch grinned. “The battle never got up there. Only the bottom floor got trashed. A lot of the stuff here is actually from Opaline’s. We’re slowly getting it moved elsewhere.”
“Oh, okay that makes more sense,” Phyllis admitted. “Hold on, where’s the kitchen?”
“Over there,” Hitch pointed to the pile of destroyed cabinets. “Yeah, Sunny kind of got thrown into it like a wrecking ball.”
“I’m surprised she wasn’t hurt then,” Phyllis gasped as she looked at the scene before her. “Wait, that means you have no way to cook!”
“Nope,” Hitch replied. “Looks like it will be eating out or takeouts for a while.”
“Oh no, we can’t have that,” Phyllis responded. “A new kitchen will need to be a high priority.”
“What? Along with a new set of doors and repairs to two walls,” another voice said. “I’d say it’s all high priority, Phyllis.”
Hitch turned to see a large grey Pegasus standing in the doorway. With a red mane and a cutie mark depicting a brick with a trowel. He was holding a large tablet device which he was tapping away on.
“Hitch, allow me to introduce Cobalt Blocks,” Phyllis smiled. “My new business partner.”
“Pleased to meet you, Sheriff Hitch,” Cobalt smiled. “Don’t worry, my team will have this place as good as new in no time.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Hitch smiled. “So, I assume you’re the practical one and she’s the business brain?”
“You got it,” Cobalt laughed. “I’m an excellent builder but I’ve always failed when it comes to the actual business side of things.”
“Which is where I come in,” Phyllis grinned. “I win the work, keep the customers happy and the accounts in order. After seeing the work Cobalt has done in Zephyr Heights, I can assure you the Brighthouse couldn’t be in better hoofs.”
“Excellent,” Hitch smiled. “So, what do you need?”
“Oh, not much,” Cobalt smiled. “Take some measurements, make a list of works that need completing, that sort of thing. Then we’ll start as soon as everypony is ready.”
“Sounds great,” Hitch smiled. “Why don’t you make a start on getting that whilst I get Sunny? This is still technically her building after all, despite her saying it belongs to all of us.”
With that, Hitch hurried upstairs whilst Phyllis and Cobalt started making their plans.