Twilight Sparkle stood in her uniform outside of Ponyville watching as Changeling workers and pony construction workers went about clearing land and removing dirt in the back of large dump trucks so that the sub levels of her castle could be built eventually.

It had been a couple of weeks since her visit with the Royal Sisters where she told them she was pregnant. After finding out that they had been fully aware of her and Chrysalis’ relationship for decades now the conversation had shifted to where her castle should be located. In the end they had all agreed it should be near Ponyville as that was where Twilight had lived for most of her life and frankly she didn’t want to live anywhere else even if she was going to miss living in her library she at least would still live in the town, well sort of.

After it had been decided where to build Celesta and Luna had suggested Twilight help plan the castle itself as it was to be her home. It had been Twilight’s decision to also allow Chrysalis to help plan since she would be living there as well.

It had taken them about a week of working with the Royal Contractor; one would be surprised how often the castle of an alicorn needed to be repaired structurally, before the design of the castle was finalized. Most of that time had been spent arguing with the contractor as the mare kept wanting to build a castle like the one in Canterlot or the Crystal Empire’s but Twilight just wasn’t having it.

While she liked aspects of both castles she simply would not have hers like that. In the end it had been a mix of both castles with many other additions.

The Throne room would be much like the one in Canterlot, though shorter and the windows set high into the walls with another set down lower rather than large bay windows leading up to a raised dais that her throne would sit on with an archway behind it leading to a door that could be used to escape if need be. Along the walls, only half the room was going to have the lower windows would be small alcoves with doors in them leading to small rooms that she planned to have soldiers in in case there was trouble.

Each hall of the castle would be some narrower than the other two castles with choke points strategically placed to allow for easy defense, there would also be passage ways between the walls to allow her to move around the castle unseen should she choose to. Her bedroom was going to be near the top of the castle, which was more of a single tower really surrounding by a high wall and would have several large windows to allow natural light in but also have blast shutters that could slam down to block any attack, actually all the windows were like that as well as every hall having a series of such blast doors.

There was going to be a balcony a lot like the one the royal sisters had off there to allow her to go out and enjoy the view from time to time as well as whatever else she wanted to do while on very high vantage point and not far from her bedroom would be her officer that she would run the EDF from as well as take private meetings, while she liked the one in the basement of Golden Oaks library she had to face facts that she wasn’t going to live there anymore and would need to find someone to take over running the place. That would take some time as she wasn’t going to let just anyone take over the library.

The dining hall was like the other two castles in that it was a long room with a table and a door that lead to the kitchens that would be large enough to seat a good number of people. Not far from the dining hall was a large ballroom that she could host parties, meeting or whatever else she chose to do with the room.

The base of the tower was larger than the rest of it as the upper floors mostly consisted of bedroom and storage while the lower floors housed the dining hall ketches ball room and throne room as well as other places such as barracks, a gym, large swimming pool, just because she couldn’t swim didn’t mean other couldn’t enjoy it, as well as other rooms any EDF base had.

Between the castle and the wall was going to be a running track, obstacle course and a shooting range and a helipad along with a motor pool and onsite storage.

The basement of the castle was going to consist of a bunker and command center that would let her link up with all over EDF bases and act as a sort of Command Bunker should she not be able to reach EDF High Command in an emergency, one of Chrysalis suggestions had been to also have an access to the hive as well and frankly Twilight figured she would so the Queen could come and go to it as she pleased and it would help keep the hive hidden if the entrance was under her castle.

The past few weeks Twilight had noticed the Changelings acting weird around her, they had always shown her respect as the leader of the army but something about it now seemed different and the way they spoke to her was different, it was still professional but there was this underlying thread of devotion and reverence as well as anytime she did something one would ask if she needed help or if she was alright, Twilight would need to ask the Chrysalis about it.

The outer wall of the castle was going to stand about forty five feet tall and be made of normal stone brings over reinforces concrete and be allowed out much like a bunker in of itself. Along the lower section of the wall would be gunner ports to allow for deployment of machinegun nests and half way up the wall would be mounted large anti-tank cannons while at the top of the wall would sit both anti-air cannon and surface to air missile launchers that would also be onto of the central tower itself to deter an air assault.

Over all Twilight was very pleased with the design of the Castle of Friendship as it was going to be officially called since she was the Princess of Friendship after all. Chrysalis had said shouldn’t it be more inviting with a name like that and twilight had promised her they would paint it in nice inviting colors and hang some banners along the wall as well as whatever else you needed to make the place look inviting and friendly.

Chrysalis had just sighed at her answer for some reason.

Twilight had the entire layout of the castle planned out right down to her throne and interior decorations and what would go into each room, everything had its place. Except she still had no clue where to put Chrysalis. Her mind went back and forth in giving her the room right beside Twilight, or them sharing a room. And that was where her planning unraveled as her mind fought over this.

While her and Chrysalis has spent the night together sharing a bed and such that wasn’t an all-time thing. But if she had the Queen in her room then it would make things….different between them, Twilight wasn’t sure what it would be exactly. They were both going to be parents to their foal, that was a fact, but she had no clue what they would be as throughout the years they had always just been friends who slept with each other on occasion, nothing complicated.

Now though everything was becoming beyond complicated and filled with unknowns that Twilight wasn’t sure what to do, she hated that feeling as she always knew what to do till this point.

Twilight was drawn from her thoughts when one of the changelings workers walked up to her. “Are you alright…?” He asked with some concern, Twilight noted the slight pause at the end of what he said as if he wanted to say more but didn’t.

“Yes, just thinking and planning out my castle.” She said and the changeling nodded before turning and heading back to work. Twilight noticed several of the other workers glancing in her direction from time to time or watching her as they worked. Defiantly going to have to ask Chrysalis about this.

Taking one last look at the site where her castle would soon be built the mare turned around and headed back towards Ponyville, she needed to clear her head and she knew one place she could do it.

<<>>

The line between what was considered wilderness and what was the Fluttershy Animal Refuge was not marked in anyway, in fact one could cross between the two and never know as the only fence was the original one that sat around the small cottage at the center of the refuge.

As Twilight walked up the road towards where one of her closes friends had once lived the alicorn took in the scene before her. Fluttershy’s cottage still stood exactly as it had been, the place never seemed to change no matter what advancements were made as Fluttershy had never had much interest in the new technology, the only piece she had was an old phone and she only got that do to her age as visiting friends was difficult.

The chicken coop was still in place but was now much larger to accommodate the larger number of chickens and beside it was a covered shed used to bath animals that needed it. Across from that stood a storage building that held all the food for the refuge needed for the animals and beside that stood the medical bay, it wasn’t hard to figure out what that was used for.

The six person staff lived in the cottage much like Fluttershy had, in that they were surrounded by the animals do to the same reason they worked at the refuge, they wanted to follow in Fluttershy’s hoofsteps. Originally it had just been a sort of live in aide for when Fluttershy wasn’t able to get around as easily as she used to but slowly it grew as more people heard about the place and what she did and slowly more people showed up to help. And they simply never left after she passed away and continued to run the place as if she was still there. Twilight wouldn’t have it any other way.

As Twilight neared the first of the buildings a lightish-red Pegasus mare with a blue mane stepped out of the building with a bag of dog food on her back humming a tune Twilight knew very well as Fluttershy used to always hum it, she swore it was like the yellow Pegasus had never left do to how the place was ran. The mare glanced over at Twilight as she neared and perked up. “Oh hey Commander, come by to visit the animals?” She asked with a smile.

“Yeah something like that.” Twilight said and the mare nodded before heading off towards a part of the refuge that had a little over a dozen dogs of different breeds sitting patiently for their lunch. Twilight fell in behind the mare.

“Been, what, about a month since your last visit?” The mare asked. Her name was Calming Breeze and she was the unofficial head of the refuge in that it was her that dealt the most with other people, the refuge didn’t really have any leader as everyone knew what to do and just did it.

“Yeah around there.” Twilight said as she took a seat to watch the mare expertly pour the food into the bowls.

“Also I wanted to thank you again for the generous donation last week, it really helped us out.” Breeze said without looking up from her work, due to the fact none of the employees technically worked the refuge relied on donations of anything and everything, Twilight was one of the biggest donators of bits, food, medical supplies, whatever the place needed really as she kept careful dabs on the place.

“Hey you guys needed a new roof, couldn’t have you getting rained on now could I?” Twilight asked with a chuckle.

“Well no I suppose not but either way thank you.” Breeze said placing the bag back on her back. “Feel free to walk around Commander and if you need help the others would be happy the help.” She said before heading back towards the storage area to get more food for other animals and Twilight nodded.

Once Breeze was gone Twilight watched the dogs enjoy their meal and took a deep breath, of the air, even the air smelled the same as it always had, some things would just never change.

Twilight sat there watching Breeze and the rest of the staff go about their business of taking care of the animals and the grounds. It was always interesting to see what animals were here as it was always changing, once she had actually found a manticore here, just napping among the rest of the animals, its leg in a splint as it had been injured and somehow made it to the refuge, all the animals seemed to know that this was a safe place that would take care of them.

After an hour a grey unicorn stallion with a purple and yellow mane walked up to Twilight. “Will you be staying for lunch Commander?” He asked politely. Twilight tilted her head in through before nodded and the Stallion smiled before turning and heading for the cottage, Twilight following behind him. Once thing this place did that was like no other was that though she was the leader of the army and a Princess now, they treated her the same as everyone else, it was nice and relaxing as though they called her by rank they treated her like she was just a normal pony off the street. Was refreshing from time to time.

As they entered the cottage twilight removed her cap and sunglasses and they disappeared into her pocket dimension, she could already smell the soup being cooked as it seems they waited till lunch was almost ready to come and ask if she wanted any. Though she couldn’t help noting there was a seventh place set at the table already.

Smiling at that Twilight took her seat at the table and was soon joined by all of the staff except for the Calming Breeze and the one helping her cook. There was the stallion that had come to get her as well as another Pegasus mare, an earth pony stallion and a changeling, that means the one helping in the kitchen was the second changeling that lived and worked here.

“So Commander, how have you been since your last visit?” The Pegasus mare asked, she was light orange with dark green mane by the name of Gentle Sunrise.

“I’ve been good, no worse off than I have ever been.” Twilight said politely.

Sunrise nodded. “Been up to anything interesting?”

“Just the usual, running the army and such.” Twilight said and the other mare nodded.

A moment later Gentle Breeze and the other changeling came out of the kitchen, a large pot of soup resting on a small cart that was wheeled beside the table and the changeling picked it up in his magic before placing it in the center of the table.

Once it was placed the two of them took their seats at the table. “Lunch is served everyone, enjoy.’ Breeze said happily and everyone at the table took turns filling their bowls. IT was just a simple vegetable soup and though it lacked a key ingredient Twilight enjoyed a lot it was still one of the best tasting soups she had ever had, still there was one pony’s soup it would never compare to but it was a close second and a good substitute since she wouldn’t be able to have the other mares soup again.

As the group ate they chatted about the day and how the refuge was doing and what still needed to be done that day. Twilight was asked question about how she was doing by the two changelings and if the soup was to her likening, this wasn’t off from these two changelings but they seemed to ask them a bit more often than they usually did.

After lunch Twilight offered to help out with things but like every other time she offered the others told her she was a guest so they would handle the cleanup. Once the table was clear the staff all made their way out to continue their work.

Twilight decided it was time for her to head out as well as she had work to do back in her office. As she donned her hat and sunglasses one of the changelings approached her with a sealed bowl held in his magic. “Will you be alright heading back to town on your own?” He asked.

Twilight looked at them and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine, not like I haven’t made the same tripe hundreds of times before.”

The changeling nodded his head and then held out the bowl. “Some left over soup for in case you get hungry.” He said and Twilight blinked before taking the bowl in her magic.

“Thanks.” She said a bit uncertain, that was new.

The changeling nodded his head a bit deeper this time. “Stay safe Commander.” He said before turning and heading back to the kitchen to finish whatever he had been doing.

Twilight defiantly was going to have to talk to Chrysalis as this was just getting weird, but that could wait till after her work was done.

With the bowl of soup vanishing into her pocket dimension the alicorn headed out the door the make her way back home.

Author's Note

well we got to here what the Princess of Friendships "Castle" is going to look like and how friendly it will look

also got to learn about what happened to Fluttershy's cottage as well as meet some of the people now living there.