It was like any other day in Ponyville. The sun was shining, the birds signing, and Twilight Sparkle was shut up in the library doing a research paper.
She had stayed up the past few days, focusing on nothing but her research. Spike gave up trying to rouse Twilight (or even to get her to go to bed!) a day and a half ago. Now he just got whatever she asked for and took cat-(or rather dragon-) naps when he could. Twilight's friends had a bad feeling about what was going on, though they didn't realize the extent until Pinkie Pie went to check on the lavender unicorn.
As soon as Pinkie Pie saw Spike and the giant mess in the library as well as the huge pile of books next to Twilight (who was also a mess from stress and lack of breaks) she took off in a flash, leaving a rather confused dragon at the door. He shrugged and closed it gently. He didn't want to disturb the unicorn anymore than needed.
Pinkie Pie ran all over Ponyville and gathered the others. Once they were all assembled by the library entrance, the pink mare threw open the door and they all saw the mess inside.
There were gasps all around as Spike tottered into view, barely awake as he brought more books over to Twilight who was surrounded by piles of books while more still hovered in the air around the unicorn in a light purple aura. Twilight's mane and fur were sticking up in odd ways and her eyes were practically bloodshot as she levitated a quill over a roll of parchment rapidly while her eyes zoomed over the various pages of the hovering books.
Her friends, after a moment of stunned silence, huddled in a circle in the middle of the library to discuss the plan of action.
“Egghead sure has gone off the deep end huh?”
“Oh, look at the poor dear's coiffure! We simply cannot ignore this.”
“Ah think it's ah little worse than jus' her mane. Ain't no way we're leavin' her like this.”
“um.... but uh how...”
“How are we gonna get her away from this super duper mess? She's glued to her books, which can't be good to be glued to a book, unless you're Twilight I guess.... OH! What if we shot her out of my party cannon?” Pinkie Pie pulled out her party cannon from nowhere in the hope that it would help their book-bound friend.
“NO!” Everypony else shouted at the pink mare, who put the cannon back with a small frown and a dejected “awww....”
As the five friends realized they had just shouted rather loudly in a library, they expected to be told off by the residential library (which they were half-hoping to begin with, since it would mean that there was still hope for their book obsessed friend). Five pairs of ears flipped back when they saw that not only did Twilight not notice, but that the young dragon had tripped over his own feet and fell with the books on top of him.
“So, what are we gonna do? The bookworm hasn't looked up since we got in!”
“And poor Spikey-Wikey! He's asleep on his feet!”
“Alright y'all. Simmer down. Ah'm tryin' to think...”
“Are you sure that's a good idea dear?”
“.....”
“Oh, never mind me, darling. Please, by all means, continue.”
The four friends looked at the fifth as Applejack tapped her chin with a hoof.
“Ah got it! We'll take her on over to Rarity's and plop her in front of a mirror. Hopefully she'll see how she's gotten and then we'll spend the rest of the day making her relax, usin' our own various methods o'course.”
The others thought about the idea and nodded along.
“oh.. um... but... what about, uhm, the library?... I don't think that Twilight would ahm want to leave it... unoccupied.... maybe...” The other ponies had a hard time hearing this, but they concurred that it was a valid point.
“Oh Oh! Me me me! Pick me! I'll watch the library! I have the rest of the day off! I'll take super duper awesome care of it!” The four friends looked at each other before looking back at the pink party pony.
While it wasn't the best of ideas, no one else had the time or patience to stay in the library (not like the pink mare did, but if she was willing to put her mind to it, how could they say no?). Besides, Pinkie's method of relaxation may not be what's called for at this time.
“Alright Pinks. You can watch the place. Just don't go crazy, ok? I don't think it would help the Egghead to relax if the library explodes.”
“Okie dokie lokie!”
As one, the five friends turn towards the lavender unicorn, Rarity sparring a glance at Spike who was asleep under the stack of books he had been carrying. In a flurry of movement, the five ponies picked up the sixth and flew to Rarity's, placing the lavender pony in front of the largest mirror Rarity owned.
The orange and cyan ponies had to hold the lavender one down by the hooves since as soon as she was moved from the desk Twilight put up a weak resistance to being picked up and hustled out of the tree house.
“Guys! I was at a crucial stage of my research!” The lavender pony tried to break free of their grip but had so little energy that she couldn't budge an inch.
“Twilight, darling, just look at yourself! You have to got to stop and relax, before you absolutely ruin your health!”
“Look at yerself Twilight. Spike looks just as bad.”
“Yeah! You may be a super smarty smart pants, but getting sick because you over did it is NOT smart.”
As her friends continued to chastise her, Twilight got a good look at herself (especially since Rainbow Dash's hooves were forcing her head to look at the mirror).
Twilight began to notice what her friends saw at a glance, tired bloodshot eyes, complete mess of a mane and coat, slight twitch of her eyes and hooves and things her friends guessed at but couldn't tell; hungry, mentally tired, stressed out... Twilight sighed and her friends all went silent, hoping they got through to the lavender mare.
“Alright, I see what you mean. Yes, I could do with a break. But I can't just leave the library alone! Spike's most likely in a similar shape to me and wouldn't be able to do much at all.”
“We've already got that covered Sugarcube. Let us take care of everything while some of us show you how we relax.” Applejack said as Rarity stepped forward and took the lavender unicorn by the hoof.
“Come with me darling. We've off to the spa, where a pony can relax AND look fabulous!” Rarity lead the way to the local spa, wanting to fix the mane and fur emergency as soon as possible.
The others trailed away, heading to their various homes to get ready to show Twilight how to relax while still doing some of their daily chores. Meanwhile, Pinkie hopped back to the library, pleased to be doing something so important for her friend.
As Pinkie Pie stood inside the tree library, she shook her head at the mess.
(Ah Twilight. You're the cutest pony ever, but where would you be without us? Having nervous breakdowns and not a drop of fun in sight, that's where! Oh, she'd probably crack under all that pressure and run away from home and be living in the streets with an old brown cloak, muttering about Equestrian history to nearby trash piles and ponies would think she's crazy and throw tomatoes at her and oranges and baked bads and GASP! We mustn't let them throw the cupcakes! We have to make sure she never gets that bad off ever again. I, Pinkie Pie, do accept this mission...) and so the party pony rambled to herself as she picked up Spike and put him to bed before starting to clean up the piles of books all over the first level of the library.
As she cleaned, Pinkie Pie continued to imagine Twilight's fall from grace (who the hay is Grace? And why is she pushing ponies?). Since her mind was occupied, she wasn't paying attention to how she was putting the books back and ended up putting them back by color. She wasn't thinking of the Librarian way of organization and cleaned like she would have at her house, by colors and sizes. Once she got the floor cleared, she noticed the clashing books (the ones on the shelves not being color coordinated) and started all over including the ones already on the shelves. She didn't want things to be half-organized, that would just drive the lavender unicorn even more crazy.
Once that was done (Twilight now had a gathering of trash piles to whom she gave roaring speeches) the pink mare noticed the mess of quills, ink and paper. She decided to put all the extra supplies away in the nearby drawers. While Twilight was leading an uprising of trash piles in the great purge of the Academy for Gifted Unicorns, Pinkie Pie didn't see one of the full ink wells tipping over.
Just as Twilight's world was getting dark (the uprising was met with resistance) Pinkie became aware of the ocean of ink flowing across Twilight's research paper.
Pinkie Pie gasped and tried to save the paper but it was too late. Her ears flipped back as she mopped up the mess. She tried to read any of the scroll in an attempt to save it but the only thing not covered in ink was the title; “The Life of Star Swirl the Bearded and His Accomplishments”. Considering how long the scroll had gotten, Twilight had been near the end of her research.
The earth pony's eyes darted around the room, she couldn't remember what books Twilight had out to read from. She looked at the shelves and realized that she didn't put the books back right at all and she couldn't remember what section was where originally (the local librarian liked to re-shelve often, making it a little difficult to memorize the proper placement of books)....
Pinkie Pie decided to start over from the bottom up, with re-doing the books first then finding this Bearded pony. After another hour of sorting (nopony has come in wanting any books, is that normal for a library?) Pinkie had the library back in order by alphabet. She then started on the research paper, but she was having a hard time finding anything on this Bearded Star (he he, silly star! How'd you grow a beard in the first place?).
(No wonder Twilight was looking all crazy, this pony's harder to find than a cupcake without icing in a baking contest! Who would make a bald cupcake anyways?How can I fix this paper without the right book? And just what is with stars growing beards?) The party pony thought as she tapped her temple with a hoof.
“Ah-ha! If you can't find a book in a library, go to the next best thing! A book store! Luckily the book store is open. I'll be back in a jiffy!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she zoomed out the door.
However, luck was not with the energetic pony that day. The pony at the store had no idea who 'Star Swirl the Bearded' was and all of the history books had only small mentions of him along with some 'Clover the Clever'. The one good news was that there was a HUGE book store that might have something on that topic. The bad news was that it was in Canterlot. Pinkie figured she may be able to run the whole way there and back before Twilight's relaxation time was up (it would be faster than using the train).
Pinkie Pie ran at lightning speeds, a pink blur to any passing ponies who may have had a glimpse of her in her travels.
(Heh heh! I should show Dashie how fast I can really be! She'd be so surprised, her jaw would drag across the floor and be able to eat a whole cake! Ah ha ha ha *snort* ha ha ha)
Soon enough the pink pony reached Canterlot and began to search for the store. After the fifth pony she spoke with (who walked away quickly afterwords, disturbed by the pink mare, much like the first four), Pinkie Pie got directions to the store and popped up next to one of the staff, startling them.
“HI! Do you have anything about Star Swirl the Bearded? It's super important!” Pinkie asked in her rapid fire way.
The staff pony was a light brown unicorn with dark blue short mane and tail. He wore a black tie and had small reading glasses on his nose (black, of course). He blinked slowly at the hyper pink mare and responded just as slowly, hoping that the mare would take a hint and act properly.
“Star Swirl? Well, nopony really wrote just about him. But there are a lot details about him in 'A Reference Guide to Obscure Unicorn Historical Figures', along with a few other noted historical unicorns. I believe we have it in stock, actually. Would you like a copy?”
“Would I ever! Thank you so so much!” Pinkie yelled as she gave the staff pony a big hug who grimaced at the contact.
Once everything was settled the earth pony took off like the wind. She had to make a stop for cupcakes to keep up her energy for the trip home however, just to make sure she made it back with enough time to try and redo the report.
Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, Spike woke suddenly with a yell.
“I've got the books!”
He took a moment to look around himself as he noticed that he was in his bed and Twilight was nowhere to be found. Spike was confused at first as to why he was so nervous, then he remembered the past few days. The research paper. Spike hopped out of bed and made his way downstairs. He noticed on the way down that it was much later in the day. He worried about how the unicorn was going to react to his sleeping in and the mess that was the library as he had last seen it.
Once he got downstairs, he stopped in his tracks, shocked. The library was clean, all the books were put away though he noticed that they weren't put away according to the newest shelving order, the quills and ink was put away and so was the extra parchment. Though there was some kind of mess on the desk where Twilight's …. research …. paper …. was .......
Closer inspection showed an inky mess of scrolls that looked familiar. After reading the only thing not covered in ink, Spike ran back up the stairs and hid under Twilight's bed, terrified of what had happened and what Twilight's reaction would be.
After what felt like eternity (but was really ten minutes) Spike heard the door open and close quietly. Had it been loud, he may have thrown himself to Twilight's mercy, but it was quiet so he wasn't sure what was going on. Quiet hooves on the stairs made him shiver in fright. The door opened slowly and then suddenly shot open as a pink mare gasped and shouted “Where'd he go?”.
Spike relaxed a little and was contemplating coming out from under the bed when after spinning in a quick circle Pinkie Pie zoomed over to the bed and looked Spike straight in the eye.
“Found you! That was fun! It is my turn to hide?” Spike stiffened at the sudden rush of hyper words before rolling his eyes at the mare before him.
As Spike crawled out from under the bed, Pinkie backed up as well to give him space. Then they both took a seat next to the bed, looking at each other, one with a confused face and the other a smile at having found the young charge.
“What's going on Pinkie? Where's Twilight? Did she... did she finish her report?” The young dragon asked as he twisted his hands together, not quite looking the pink pony in the eye but watching her at the same time.
He wasn't too happy to see blue eyes shift around downwards as she scrapped a hoof along the floor.
“Wellllll... I came to check on you guys and I saw that Twilight had gone crazy with her research so I got the others and we ponynapped her and we showed her how crazy-wazy she was getting and now they're forcing her to relax, is being force to relax relaxing?, and I would watch the library in the mean time and I thought it would be a good idea to clean up the books and quills and inks but then some ink spilled and ruined Twilight's report and I couldn't find any books on the bearded star and had to go to Canterlot to get one that had information about him and I was just coming on check on you and I thought that I messed that up too since I couldn't find you but then my Pinkie Sense told me to look under the bed and -” at this point, Spike got over his shock of the high speed explanation and put a claw over Pinkie's muzzle to silence her rant.
He put his other claw to his forehead as he sorted through the high speed speech. Once he got the jest of it, his eyes went wide and he looked at the pink mare who was tapping her hooves together nervously, glancing at the dragon then looking downwards nervously.
“Where's this book you bought?” Spike asked slowly as he removed his claw from the pink muzzle.
Pinkie Pie gave a small grin and pulled out the Reference Guide.