Twilight smiled as she looked out from her open door. Ponyville was greeted by another beautiful sunrise, and birds were singing happily in their trees. Heck, they were even happily singing in her tree right now, which of course caused her to giggle a little. Many in their youth dream of living in a tree-house, but she was actually doing it, and as she gazed upwards, her smile became softer. A library. Where better for a mare like Twilight to live than here? Golden Oak was quite an oddity in Ponyville, yet she already had an affection for it. New she may have been to this place, and to Ponyville as a whole, but she already felt a connection to them both. But, as her eyes drifted downwards slightly, her wider smile returned. For within the Library, in the main room of the building, her five new friends had gathered. They were all busy helping her to unpack a number of boxes that had recently arrived for her. Other books and personal belongings, all arrived this morning from Canterlot. If she was to live here, she needed to get properly settled in. So, as she re-entered, she used her magic to close the door behind her, turning her attention to Applejack shortly afterwards.
"So, how's it going?"
Applejack chuckled.
"Not bad, Twi. But ah gotta say, does this place really need more books?"
Rainbow smirked as she too looked down to her new unicorn friend.
"Seriously! This place had enough as it is!"
Twilight giggled, entering further into the room before answering.
"Oh, I'm sure. But this place doesn't have my tomes of advanced magical spells. So they were an absolute must if I'm moving in here."
Rarity, removing several ornaments from the now-opened boxes, took a moment to look at some of the picture frames, including one wherein a young Twilight was standing next to an older colt with white fur and a blue mane.
"I say now, who is this?"
Twilight smiled as she trotted over to her friend, taking the frame into her own hoof and staring nostalgically at it.
"That's my brother, Shining Armor. I have to say, he was quite surprised when I told him I was staying here."
Fluttershy, looking up from her own box, gained a look of curiosity.
"Oh, he wasn't too upset, was he?"
Twilight shook her head.
"No. He was actually rather glad to hear I'd made some friends here. For a long time, he was pretty much the only friend I had."
"Ahem?"
Twilight looed up, seeing Spike looking down to her from the bedroom balcony above. Giggling, Twilight then gestured to him.
"Well, my only friend besides Spike of course."
Spike gave a firm nod.
"That's better!"
Looking back down to the frame, Twilight gave it one final smile before sighing and using her magic to levitate it over to the side. In that moment, she thought a bit more on what she'd just said, and cast a glance at the other mares here.
"It's strange, now that I think about it. I'd spent so long without really being around other ponies...now I have five of them."
Turning to her, Applejack put on a hearty smile, walking over and giving her a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"Shoot, Twi! We're happy ta have ya!"
The looks on the other mares' faces made it clear that they shared in that sentiment, to which Twilight of course smiled. Amusement then came to her as she then thought back to the day she met them all.
"I will say this...you threw me quite the welcome that day."
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Pinkie bounced onto the scene, grinning wildly in that way that Twilight had come to expect from her. Her voice was equally joyous as she spoke.
"Oh, you wouldn't believe what I had to do to get that party right! There was so much dust and stuff left around in here, it took all day to make it proper to welcome you!"
Though Twilight was of course grateful for the effort Pinkie had put into that party, something about what she'd said caught her interest.
"Wait...dust?"
Pinkie nodded.
"Yep! This place was, like, super abandoned before you got here!"
Twilight blinked, not upset exactly, but surprised at having learned that, and she looked to the others.
"Was...was there nopony else here?"
The others all simultaneously shook their heads.
"Nope. Nopony," Applejack confirmed.
"Yeah, the Library wasn't exactly a hot-spot here in Ponyville," Rainbow added.
"Why, before you arrived, I couldn't even remember the last time anypony came in here. Well, maybe Cheerilee when she needed a new book for her classroom, but that was it," Rarity declared.
Twilight's curiosity was well and truly piqued at this point, and she soon glanced upwards, to the aforementioned bedroom that Spike was still standing beside.
"But this place was clearly meant to have somepony living in it, so...do any of you know who that was?"
Here, there was silence, and all five of the mares turned to one another, fully expecting one of them to have an answer. When it became clear that they had no answer, a sense of confusion gripped them.
"I...don't think I actually remember who used to live here," Fluttershy whispered.
"I think they might have perhaps moved away somewhere, but for the life of me I can't recall their name," Rarity considered.
Twilight nodded. It was disappointing that her friends didn't know anything about her predecessor here, but that was probably fine. It wasn't vital information after all, just a simple curiosity. But, before she had the chance to move onto some other topic, she was interrupted by the sound of Spike upstairs.
"Hey! What about this?"
Looking up to him, all mares saw that he was holding up what appeared to be an old book of some sort. From the looks of it, it seemed to be some kind of journal or diary. Raising an eyebrow, Twilight spoke.
"Where did you find it?"
Spike cast a glance back over his shoulder.
"I found it in one of the drawers of the bedside table."
He took a moment to flip open the pages.
"Seems it was used by the old librarian. Her name was...Gentle...Gentle Quill!"
Realisation came to Rarity's face.
"Oh, of course! Miss Quill! Oh, I haven't heard that name in years!"
All eyes were upon her, and she giggled briefly before explaining.
"I remember now. She was friends with my Mother. But after a while she retired from being the town's librarian and moved out. I think it was perhaps Baltimare she went to, but don't quote me on that."
Smiling, Twilight looked back up, and used her magic to gently levitate both Spike and the book down to their level. Though taken aback by this unexpected transport, Spike soon re-composed himself after making landfall, handing the book over to his carer. Twilight graciously accepted it from him and began to look through the open pages herself. This was indeed a journal of miss Quill's time here, the days of her spending time with her friends, or just generally enjoying her work. There had to have been years worth of stuff in here, Twilight concluded, and after a moment, she flipped through rapidly, getting to the final entry. Squinting to look at the somewhat faded writing, she spoke it aloud.
"My time here in Ponyville has been a joy, from start to finish. But, all good things must come to and end, and I feel the time has come for me to move on."
All the others had begun to share in Twilight interest in this matter, and so began to gather around her, looking to the pages themselves while she continued to read them.
"I've managed to put all my affairs in order, and while I'll miss all the wonderful friends I've made here, I'm sure my life in Baltimare will bring me just as much joy. This place has been good to me, and I hope that, whoever comes to live here afterwards looks after it just as much as I tried to."
A pause, and Twilight looked to the next paragraph.
"And after thinking on it, I'll be leaving this journal here. Why? Well, I think it'll be good for other ponies to know of all the good times I had here, and all the amazing things that this old tree has seen while I was its librarian. I may not have had a spectacular adventure here, but it was a good life all the same."
Twilight's eyes looked down to the final writing.
"This is Gentle Quill...writing for the last time."
There was silence for a time, and Twilight flipped that final page, just in case there was anything else written on the back of it. Instead, she and the others saw something drop from the book. It was a photograph of some sort, and before it reached the ground, Twilight caught it with one of her spells, lifting it up so all could see. It was a collection of about five mares, but there were only two that Twilight recognised. The first was Mayor Mare, or at least a younger version of her, standing on one side and smiling to the camera. The second was a younger version of Mrs Cake, one of the proprietors of Sugar Cube Corner. Leaning to get a closer look, Applejack's eyes widened.
"Wait a minute! That's...that mah Ma!"
She pointed to another mare in the picture, an earth pony with an orange curly mane. Rarity too pointed to the photo soon afterwards.
"Indeed. And there's my mother as well! I knew they were friends!"
The mare in question was pink with a purple mane, and it wasn't long before Pinkie added her voice to matters.
"Hey! That's Mrs Cake!"
"But...who's that one?" Fluttershy asked.
She, along with all the others, was looking to the mare in the centre. A unicorn with mostly blue colouring who wore a thick pair of glasses. She too was smiling, looking like she was the happiest mare in the word. Twilight smiled also, for understanding had come to her.
"I think that's our Miss Quill."
Then, she noticed something. A few words had been written at the bottom of the photo, and after squinting at them, she read them.
"...My very best friends."
The others smiled as well, and after a long pause, Rainbow chuckled before pointing to the photo as a whole.
"You know...that's a pretty fun-looking group."
Twilight nodded.
"Yeah...it is."
Slowly, all the mares looked to one another. Nopony said anything, but all of them felt some measure of contentment at having learned all this. But, the silence did not last forever, and soon, Twilight let out a sigh.
"Well, thank you all for helping me out today, but I'm sure me and Spike can handle the rest. Besides, you've probably all got stuff you need to do."
Rarity nodded.
"Oh, indeed! I've got this new design that I've been itching to finally get around to making!"
Rainbow scratched the back of her head nervously.
"Yeah, I was kinda supposed to be on weather patrol so...see ya!"
With that, the pegasus zipped off, leaving five very amused-looking mares behind. Applejack, after just a moment, gave a big smile to Twilight.
"Ya know, if y'all ain't busy tomorrow, ah got some apple-pickin' ah need some help with. Ya'll in?"
Twilight smiled back.
"I'd be delighted, Applejack."
The farmer gave a quick tip of her hat, and then promptly made her way out, followed shortly by Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy. Both Twilight and Spike gave them all waves of goodbye, and after watching them leave for a moment, Twilight closed the door at last. There was quiet now, save for the sound of Spike going back upstairs, and as she found herself all alone now, Twilight once more looked to the old journal. Her horn lit again, and she carefully lifted it up. With great gentleness, she set it upon a table to the side, almost as if putting it on a pedestal. After just a moment or two, she smiled sweetly to it, giving it a quick pat before finally speaking.
"Don't you worry, Miss Quill..."
She turned, again looking to the rest of her new home. A home she had already come to love.
"...I'll be sure to look after the place for you."
