Twilight Sparkle was beginning to regret having ever opened Pandora's Box. Sure, the chest from the Tree of Harmony was able to manifest the friendship into magical power, but the price for doing so was almost too much.
"Now it's impossible to grow a sunflower that isn't wilted and droopy! Hasn't it occurred to you that sunflowers need sun?" Roseluck snorted.
"Yeah, yeah, I get that being a florist is important and all, but I ain't moving the Hay Burger on account of a little bit of shade on some flowers," the restaurant owner shot back.
"A little bit of shade? I would hate to see what you consider to be a lot of shade."
The two bickering ponies had forgotten they were in the very same castle they were complaining about, which also happened to be Twilight's house.
"Ah-hem," Twilight coughed, interrupting the heated debate. "Would it be possible for Roseluck to grow some sunflowers next to the restaurant? I'm sure the flowers would attract more customers."
The ponies blinked. A slight blush tinged their cheeks. "Oh. Uh." The owner of the Hay Burger pawed the crystal floor. "I hadn't thought of that. It's a good idea." To his side, Roseluck nodded, her gaze glued to the ground.
As they left, Twilight's friends swapped looks with each other from their thrones circling the audience room. Yes, ever since Pandora's Box it had been like this. Every day brought a new heap of rivalries, complaining, sheer animosity, and not a scrap of friendship to be found, all thanks to Twilight's massive, obnoxious looking castle. The stairs were too long, the glare from the sun was too bright, the shadow was too big, the area was zoned as a pegasus landing strip, the neighborhood association hated the architecture, and so on.
"Can we go now?" Rainbow Dash whined.
Friendship hearings done for the day, Twilight turned to the next arduous task: managing the new library. In the beginning this was one of her favorite things to do, since it meant reorganizing all of the new books from Canterlot along with the ones rescued from the ruins of the original Equestrian capitol in the Everfree Forest. Seeing all of the shiny new shelves lined with books was quite satisfying. Once the library was open to the public, though, it became a different story.
The problem could not have been better illustrated as it was by the three young fillies currently clamoring about a tall library shelf. Sweetie Belle kept pulling books from the top shelf with her magic, letting them flop to the floor in a heap while her two friends nosed through them. Sweetie was doing her best to put the ones they were done with back.
Scootaloo flipped a page, took another look at the text, and wrinkled her muzzle. "Nah, I changed my mind. This one's too boring. What happened to the other book from before?
"I don't know!" Sweetie Belle sat down on the floor and folded her forehooves. "If you're going to be so picky about it, go up there and get the books yourself."
Scootaloo's angry, embarrassed glare cut off whatever the unicorn was about to say next.
"And what about me?" Apple Bloom huffed. "I don't have wings or a horn. Just how do you think I'm going to get up there? Everybody knows all the best stuff is on the top shelf!" The filly kicked one of the rolling ladders and it slid away.
Not only had the library tree failed to grow ladders so earth ponies could reach any books beyond the third row, but the Canterlot unicorn craftsman guild that constructed the new ladders failed to take into account the actual weight and span of an earth pony. The ladders were totally unusable. Twilight cringed and hoped the new order would arrive as soon as possible. Apart from manipulating all of the books off of the top shelves and holding them out to display for every ground-bound library visitor, there wasn't anything she could do.
Purple aura surrounded all of the books on the shelves the fillies were assaulting. They spread out in the air and floated there in rows at eye level. The fillies didn't seem to mind. Their argument evaporated the instant they entered a debate about which historic Everfree text was the most likely to have secret tips for finding cutie marks.
The fillies weren't the problem. It was the adults who had to stand around waiting for assistance while other ponies were free to fly around or pull things out and look at their own discretion. Nobody enjoyed being waited on as if they were some sort of special problem. It was degrading, to say the least.
Twilight hoped she'd misheard the comment about "the racist library" during her visit to Clover Café the other day.
To make matters worse, the destruction of the old library was not a situation she could simply walk away from. Even though the explosive remains were cleared and the blackened debris of the explosion blown away by the wind, that still left the hull of the oak tree. The destroyed property hurt the nearby housing values. What was she supposed to do with the land now? Build a new house on it, she supposed, but it was emotionally difficult to picture just another thatched roof cottage in the place that had felt much more like home than the racist—er, the castle library.
"Come on, Twilight, keep it together," she said. She dragged her feet over the hard crystal floor. Her tired eyes reflected on its surface.
The castle was taller than it was wide, which meant the big, empty hallways were full of spiraling staircases. It was entirely too large for a single pony. Even if Spike were a fully grown dragon it would have been big. The castle contained room upon empty room of shadows. She'd attempted to fill them with whatever crossed her mind, but it wasn't as if she had a huge amount of worldly possessions after the explosion.
Maintaining her new home was a lot of work. She hired ponies to clean the place and keep the unused spaces from collecting dust. Walking past the rooms at night made her feel lonely, and sometimes a bit creeped out. If it weren't for her teleportation, living there would have been miserable indeed.
Twilight materialized with a zap in front of Spike's wide open bedroom door. The dragon was nowhere inside. She sighed, turned around, and proceeded to routine B, where she had to physically go through the castle to find the staircase he'd fallen asleep on.
Tomorrow would only bring more complaints about the Tree of Misery released from Pandora's Box. All of Ponyville's ill will came crashing down on Twilight's doorstep, and her friends were doing what they could to make the town the wonderful place it was before. Rarity would try to fix the way the castle looked and the glare it caused. Even the fashionable unicorn was willing to give up the gaudy chunks of crystal and the bizarre mix of Canteresque and Empire architecture for something that fit the local flavor. Rainbow Dash would be working on the new sky routes and redirecting the weather disturbed by the presence of the enormous star sticking from the top of the castle. Applejack and Pinkie Pie acted as ambassadors by settling disputes before conflict burst into the open. At least Fluttershy's concerns about the castle blocking Breezie migration wouldn't need a solution until later.
Hay, maybe they'd just cut a hole in the wall for the Breezies.
Celestia's sun greeted the morning and an unexpected surprise: a free day off school, which the fillies and colts were celebrating under a rallying cry of "tree day." Overnight a glistening blue tree root impaled the school's floorboards. The entire building was now suspended in the air.
The castle's roots liked to grow up and out of the soil and arch back down into it like some sort of misshapen sewing project. It was only a matter of time before the root chose to curve into the ground and take the Ponyville school with it. The image of the building suspended sideways with a root going through the floor and out the roof horrified Twilight and amused Discord, who insisted he had nothing to do with it when she interrogated him.
That left six frustrated friends staring at a ruined schoolhouse. Applejack bit her lip. "I was hoping this wouldn't happen Twilight, but at this rate those roots'll be causing all sorts of trouble in town."
"I know. I had hoped that the roots came with the tree when it appeared out of the chest, but it looks like the castle is a living, growing thing the same way friendship is. I don't know what to do. I told Cheerilee she can hold classes in the castle from now on. At least it will use the empty room up front."
"Aww." Pinkie Pie frowned. "I really wanted to have a balloon closet there."
"A whole room is a little bit more than a closet, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash pitched in.
Applejack ignored the banter and went straight to the point. "Even if the roots go underground and don't come back up, they're going to damage the foundations of the buildings. Anypony who has a garden is going to have to deal with the roots too. Judging from the size of that there tree, it ain't going to be no little apple seed of a problem."
Roseluck was not going to like that.
Twilight sank to the ground. "What am I going to do?"
"Well," Applejack said, "I can think of one solution, but I don't know that you're going to like it."
A purple set of claws waved in front of Twilight's field of vision. "Uh, anybody home? You've been staring at that shelf since I left."
The alicorn looked around in surprise. "Oh my gosh, how long was I out for, Spike? Nopony's here at all."
He chuckled. "It hasn't been that long. For some reason nopony decided to come to the library today. We've been getting fewer and fewer lately. Anyway," Spike picked up a stack of books. His friend had been thinking hard ever since she got back from the school. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No." Twilight planted her hooves firmly on the floor. "I've made up my mind. Spike, we're done for the day."
"But it's only a little past noon!"
Twilight paid no attention to Spike's comment as she pulled a pen from the inkwell on the library desk.
That evening, shortly before the library's usual closing time, Cheerilee made her way up the castle stairs to have a word with Twilight about the school. She did not make it past the imposing double doors to the entrance. Printed on the sign hanging over the handles was the word "CLOSED." At first the teacher thought she'd come too late, but there was a note along with the sign.
A very confused teacher walked back home and waited for the promised miracle to occur.
A few days later, the original Golden Oak Library reopened. All day ponies trundled cartloads of books back and forth, relocating everything from the castle to the sturdy oak. There were a few changes here and there. The branches didn't grow out in the same places, but overall it was the same rooms Twilight knew so well, and the same spot the library had always been.
"Applejack, why didn't you tell me your family could grow a new tree on the spot?"
"Sorry Twi, I'm here to support you, not judge what you're doing with your life. Heh. I thought you wanted to be a princess and live in a big fancy castle."
"I don't want—" Twilight stopped there. Nothing she ever said on this topic made a difference. She smiled and shook her head. "Never mind. Discord, do your thing."
"Do I have to? I was beginning to think instead of sending the Tree of Harmony back to the Everfree Forest, we could turn it into a festive little Hearth's Warming Eve ornament."
"No!" The group shouted.
"Oh alright, fine." Discord snapped his claws and the castle disappeared. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Rarity looked around, enjoying the view of the open sky and mountains off towards Canterlot. "This little town really isn't the best place for a big, glamorous castle. I'm glad things will be back to normal."
"Excuse me, Princess Twilight." A group of ponies hauling the last cartload arrived at the Golden Oak Library. "Just thought you should know, there's a castle-sized hole on the north side of town now."
Of course that feathering building couldn't go without causing one last problem.
