Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Silver Spoon, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, found themselves in an saffron yellow town. The stars glistened in the indigo sky.
Twilight was a little nervous. She knew what awaited her here. She sweated a bit.
“You okay, darling?” Rarity said.
Twilight said, “I’m fine.”
They saw a white earth pony in front of a saffron yellow mansion and the gates. Her turquoise mane and tail was tied in a way the evoked fish tails and she wore a headband with goat horns on it. She was busy organizing some pebbles in front of the mansion.
“Um,” Twilight said, “Hello?”
The white earth pony looked back and saw the ten ponies there. “Ah, visitors. Good thing I’ve cleaned my house this morning.”
“Let me guess,” Rainbow Dash said. “Your name is Capricorn, right?”
The earth pony said, “Close, its actually Capricornus. Why do you ask?”
“Lucky guess,” Rainbow Dash said.
“So,” Twilight said. “Is there anything I can do?”
Capricornus said, “Oh my gosh! I haven't organized the library yet. Please wipe you hooves on the mat.” She galloped inside her mansion. Twilight and her friends wiped their hooves on the welcome mat and followed Capricornus inside.
The inside of the mansion was expansive. The staircase was in pristine condition, the golden and indigo floor tiles were polished to a shine, and the wall were similarly cleaned. There was a large goat with the tail of a fish inside the corner, but only Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy noticed. They went to check out the animal.
Twilight Sparkle and the other ponies were inside the library. It looked bigger than even the Star Swirl the Bearded wing at Canterlot Castle.
They saw Capricornus reorganizing some of the books. “No no no, this should go with the non-fiction books.” She picked up a book about sparkling vampires. “This should be in the Horror section.”
Twilight Sparkle said, “Um, I can help you with the books.”
Capricornus said, “You can?”
Twilight nodded. “I know a lot about where the books should go. And I live in a library.” Thought she noticed that the mansion library was bigger than the Golden Oaks Library back at Ponyville.
Capricornus said, “Okay! I’ll be back to check on the library in four hours. I have to go do some grocery shopping. Those oranges are a week old. I can't eat week-old oranges. Oh and don’t wake up Amalthea. She gets irritable when her sleep is interrupted”
Twilight began sorting the books.
Applejack said, “Well we’ll check on Pinkie and Fluttershy.” The other ponies left the library.
Twilight began sorting out the books. She saw a Supernaturals book next to Daring Do and the Griffin’s Goblet.
“That book shouldn't be here,” Twilight said. She took the Supernaturals book and placed in on another shelf. When she returned to where she found the book, she saw that the shelf had changed. The Daring Do book had been replaced with various cookbooks and Slumber 101: All You Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties (But Were Too Afraid to Ask).
“Huh?” Twilight said. She took the slumber party book and placed it with the other help guides. But she saw Daring Do and the Griffin’s Goblet on a nearby shelf. She went to pick up the book, but she heard something creaked. She looked back and saw that the shelf where she placed the Slumber 101 book was gone.
“Something’s going on here.” Twilight said. She continued with the organizing.
Two and a half hours later, Twilight was ragged. She spent the last two and a half hours looking for misplaced books, searching for missing shelves and returning books that she had already organized.
She saw the Supernaturals book. This time, between the Secrets of the Everfree and Slumber 101 books. She felt tired, but she also felt compelled to put these books in their proper places.
She began thing about what would happen if Capricornus or her friends saw this library was as disorganized as ever. She worried that the latter group would cease becoming her friends if they saw this mess, or that the former would fail her and they would be stuck inside the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ minds forever. She took all three books and went to find their places.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Silver Spoon went to check on Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.
They saw the two ponies admiring the sea-goat.
“That must be Amalthea,” Rainbow Dash said.
Fluttershy and Pinkie were talking about the sea goat.
“Ooh,” Pinkie Pie said. “Maybe it can breath underwater.”
“Pinkie,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t think so.” She was a little nervous. But she wanted to find out more about this strange pet.
“Let’s wake it up and ask it,” Pinkie Pie said. She suddenly had a loud pair of cymbals on her hooves.
Applejack heard Pinkie’s sentence and tried to stop her, but it was too late. Pinkie woke up the beast.
Amalthea woke up and saw the nine little ponies. It’s eyes were crimson from rage and general tiredness. It was bigger then Fluttershy and Pinkie had thought.
The fillies, scared by the appearance of the beast. let loose a loud scream as Amalthea prepared to attack the ponies.
Twilight Sparkle was still trying to organize the ever changing library. It has been three hours and fifteen minutes since she started this task and she had already managed to organize the fantasy, horror, and reference books. She was about to organize the Romance novels when she heard a loud scream coming from the house.
‘That sounded like the fillies.’ Twilight thought. She wondered if they were alright. She looked back and saw that the shelf behind her changed from cookbooks to romance novels. She heard some more noise coming from the other side of the mansion.
Twilight knew that her friends might be in danger. She went to find the source of the noise.
Fifteen minutes later, Twilight Sparkle went into the room where the noise came from. She saw that Amalthea was rampaging around the room. The sea-goat swam around the air like it was water. Rarity tried to temper the beast’s anger as she rampaged around the room, while Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack tried to defend themselves. Fluttershy, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Silver Spoon were hiding in a corner of the room.
The beast flung Rainbow Dash to the walls. She saw Twilight Sparkle. “Hey Twi. Did you finished with that library?”
Twilight new she had to help her friends. She said, “That’s not important right now! What happened?”
Rainbow Dash stood up and pointed to Pinkie Pie. She was trying to stop the beast with an array of musical instruments.
Twilight went into the fray. She cast a small force field spell to block the attacks. She fired some magic purple beams at the beast but her blasts were ineffective.
Amalthea saw Twilight Sparkle and lunged at her. Twilight teleported away, but not before seeing that Amalthea’s eyes were pinkish. She knew that she had to had been awake somehow.
She saw Fluttershy sheltering the fillies from harm. Twilight said, “Fluttershy, can you calm her down?”
Fluttershy didn’t know how to calm the sea-goat down. She said, “I-I can try.”
Applejack had tied up Amalthea’s midsection, but she struggles to keep the sea-goat from breaking the rope. Rarity and Rainbow Dash tried to hold Amalthea back by the tail. Fluttershy went in front of the cranky sea-goat and sang, “Hush now, quiet now...”
Fluttershy’s lullaby was calming down Amalthea, but she still tried to break free of the restraints. Fluttershy continued singing until soon, Amalthea was asleep in the center of the room.
The ponies sighed in relief, until they saw the mess their fight caused. There was only ten minutes left until Capricornus returned. Everypony tried to clean up the messy room.
Ten minutes later, Capricornus returned. She held out some bags full of fresh oranges. She went to in the room where Amalthea slept. She was a little surprised to see the ponies were in the room, and that it had been cleaner than when she left.
Twilight Sparkle and Rarity were finishing up when Twilight saw Capricornus. She felt like panicking but kept a cool demeanor.
Capricornus said, “Hiya, so is the library organized?”
Twilight didn’t know what to say. She knew that only a few sections were organized and that the shelves would eventually become disorganized by forces she cannot control. She sighed. “No. I was about to finish but the books and shelves kept showing up in different places, and had I had to help my friends calm down Amalthea and--”
“Wait, wait,” Capricornus said. “How did Amalthea wake up?”
Pinkie was a little embarrassed. “That was my fault, sorry.”
Capricornus said, “Maybe we should continue this back at the library. You’ve probably know how cranky she can be.”
The eleven ponies went to the other side of the mansion. There Capricornus saw that the horror, fantasy, and reference sections were neatly organized, but the non-fiction, science fiction, and romance section were a huge mess.
Twilight Sparkle was worried about her test.
Capricornus said, “So you mean to say that you went to help your friends with Amalthea instead of organizing the library in the last hour?”
Twilight said, “Yes.”
Capricornus said. “Well then I have have no choice...”
Twilight shivered in fear. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to do better next time.”
Capricornus said, ”...than to let you pass.”
The ponies were befuddled. “What?” Twilight said. “But the library wasn’t fully organized.”
Capricornus went out of the library. “Last I checked, you offered to help with the library, not to completely organize it. I’ll meet you outside soon. I have to talk to Amalthea.”
Twilight felt relieved. Though she knew that there are only two trials left. But she also knew that there are only ten ponies in they were to be tested. She wondered what the last two trials were.
The ponies left the saffron yellow library.
A hour later, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Silver Spoon were outside the mansion. Capricornus walked out her mansion with Amalthea. The sea-goat was now docile.
Capricornus talked to Twilight, “You’d proven that you would place your friends over your goals. And help them in their hour of need. For that I grant you entry into the next trial.”
Amalthea begrudgingly swam toward the gates and became indigo dust particles. the indigo dust formed the sign for Capricorn (♑) on the gates.
“I’ll see you soon,” Capricornus said. “I have to finish organizing the library.”
Silver Spoon wondered if they would be able to find Diamond Tiara through those gates. The Crusaders however wondered what would happen after they awaken.
The ponies entered the gates.