If there was one thing you could say about Twilight Sparkle's new castle, it's that there was enough room in there for anypony to do, quite literally, anything. That was the thinking today, as both Rainbow Dash and Applejack were busying themselves with a game of catch, tossing a bright red ball from one side of the entrance chamber to the next. Both mares displayed an impressive array of jumps and acrobatics in their seemingly-endless quest to avoid losing. And while others from their inner circle, most notably Pinkie Pie, were keen to keep watching with awe, others, like Rarity and Fluttershy, had long ago moved on, though it was not from a lack of caring who won, but from the very basic fact that the game had gone on for as long as it had. As for Twilight herself, she was simply sitting on her throne, reading one of the many magic tomes she had at her disposal, ignoring her friends' game. Even Rainbow and Applejack were growing tiered at this point, as evidenced by their increasing panting, which was saying something, given how energetic the two were known for being.

Nevertheless, the two kept on going, stubbornly refusing to admit defeat. And so, with her last ounce of strength, Rainbow hurled the ball towards Applejack, hoping that this would be the moment she would catch her out. For a moment, the cyan Pegasus grinned as she saw that her friend did not seem to be moving fast enough to catch the near-sonic-speed ball. However, that smile soon faded as she saw that the ball was instead heading towards the open door of the castle, wherein a hapless earth pony stallion, pulling a large and heavy cart, was about to enter. The stallion noticed only at the last second that the ball was coming, and stopped walking immediately, just in time for it to slam into the ground in front of him. From the gasp he let out, it was clear that he was shocked from the experience. The other mares looked on with worry at what was almost a needless accident, and Rainbow, feeling guilty about having almost hurt the guy, flew down and landed on the ground beside him, bearing a greatly apologetic look.

"Sorry, Mister! I didn't see you there!"

The stallion took a moment to compose himself, before bearing a very nervous smile.

"Well, er...think nothing of it, Miss. I was, er...is the Princess home?"

Rainbow nodded and turned around. Sure enough, Twilight was flying over to the stallion, so the young pegasus stood aside for her, instead picking up the stray ball before moving off. As for Twilight, she landed in that same spot before smiling and addressing the stallion.

"Welcome to the Friendship Palace! Can I help you?"

The stallion nodded at that before turning towards his cart. Following his gaze, Twilight looked on to see, to her delight, that the cart was fully laden with books, many of which looked quite old. She knew what the presence of so many books at her palace meant, but nevertheless remained silent as the delivery pony began to explain things.

"Special delivery from Princess Celestia, your Highness. Oh! And I was supposed to give you this as well!"

Twilight looked down as the stallion reached into his pocket and brought forth a small envelope. Using her magic, Twilight levitated it out of his hoof and began opening it, revealing the letter within. As the stallion began to walk further into the castle, Twilight remained where she was, reading the letter out loud.

"My dearest student. I have been doing some work going through some of the older sections of the Canterlot Archives, and I came across a number of tomes that I think you would be interested in. They're a touch older than the literature you're used to, but they contain a number of fascinating experimental spells and studies from many of the city's brightest magical minds. I have read them myself many times in the past, and I feel you should now be privy to them also. Feel free to use them in whatever capacity you wish. Yours sincerely, Princess Celestia."

Twilight smiled warmly at the letter. Even after so much has happened, she thought to herself, Princess Celestia always tries to help me improve myself. Turning, she looked upon the cart, which her friends were now looking upon with interest. The stallion had begun unloading the tomes, placing them in neat piles on the ground. Pinkie Pie had taken one of the books herself, regarding it carefully before taking a deep breath and blowing off a century-old layer of dust. Unfortunately, this dust then went straight into Rarity's face, promptly causing her to cough for a while, after which she glared angrily at her pink companion. Putting on an innocent face, Pinkie smiled in response to this, which Twilight couldn't help but chuckle at. Walking over, she looked over several of the covers of the books that were now hers. Studies of magical creatures. A record of failed spells and incantations. Encyclopaedias of magical items, both real and legendary. There didn't seem to be anything aspect of magical study that wasn't covered by at least one of the books here. Needless to say, the young Princess broke out into quite a wide smile from this.

"All these books...it'll take me ages to get through them all!"

Rainbow, who was not quite as enthused as her friend, picked up one of the nearby books from atop the pile and began reading through it. At first, she seemed incredibly bored by it all, but after a few more moments, she stopped and squinted her eyes at a particular passage. Shaking her head to make sure she hadn't been imagining things, she looked at the book again before reading aloud it's contents.

"How to make your perfect coltfriend?"

Twilight turned to her Pegasus friend and began opening her mouth, ready to respond to the clear confusion Rainbow had displayed. However, before she got the chance, a bright white blur shot past her and slammed into Rainbow, knocking her out of the way. The book flew from Rainbow's hooves and into the open and eager hooves of Rarity, who, oblivious to the annoyance of her friend, stared at the book with an almost hungry look.

"GIVE IT TO ME!!!"

Although taken aback by the behaviour of their fashionista friend, the other mares all looked at each other for a moment before chuckling out loud, even Rainbow, who had thankfully recovered from the attack. Rarity, however, was staring intently at the book, reading passage after passage. And it was here that she came to an important understanding.

"I...don't understand any of this."

Twilight rolled her eyes a little before making her way over, using her magic to levitate the book before her so she could get a look at it herself. After glancing through a few of the other pages of the book, she gained a knowing look upon her face, after which she turned to Rarity, who was eagerly awaiting some kind of explanation.

"I've heard of this book before. This is a list of magical experiments from a few decades back, mostly ones that either failed or never got finished."

Looking back to the book, Twilight returned to the page Rarity had been obsessing over.

"As for this one, it says there was apparently a large number of mares and stallions at the time who had pretty much lost the nerve to ask others out, so they banded together to make a project that would, in essence, create their perfect mate."

Rainbow and Applejack glanced at each other before the latter raised an eyebrow at Twilight's words.

"Um, no offense, Twi, but ain't that a little...ya know...odd?"

Before Twilight could respond, she was interrupted by the meek squeaking of Fluttershy, who had been silent during all of this.

"Um...I think I could relate to them...I mean...I think I could."

The mares looked from her to each other, and Twilight mused on that thought for a while. It stands to reason that there have been other ponies out there who are nervous like Fluttershy, she thought. If there were a lot of them at one point, it kinda makes sense that a project like this might come about. After looking back at the book, Twilight read a few lines before hearing the sound of somepony clearing her throat. Looking up, she saw that it was Rarity yet again.

"Begging your pardon, Twilight...but does the book happen to mention whether this little project was...well...successful?"

The young Princess stifled the urge to giggle at her friend's unspoken implication, and instead looked back to the book. However, after reading further, she looked back to her friend with a somewhat down face.

"I'm sorry Rarity. It seems the experiment was abandoned before they found out if it would have worked."

Rarity's ears dropped after hearing that, after which she spoke with a somewhat annoyed tone.

"Let me guess. There was some kind of controversy about creating ponies from magic, right?"

Twilight shook her head at that.

"Nope. Turns out that everypony working on the project actually fell in love with somepony else in the project and, well, they all lost the need to finish it."

Rarity let out a grunt of annoyance.

"Typical! The one time love-at-first-sight decides to strike!"

Twilight rolled her eyes yet again at that, at which point she noticed that Rainbow had walked closer to her.

"So, Twilight, you're our resident egg-head. Do you think this thing would have worked if they'd finished it?"

Although annoyed at the return of her old nickname, Twilight nevertheless indulged her friend by returning to the old notes. After reading them over a few times, she let out a sigh before looking up at Rainbow.

"From what the old unicorns had figured out, it seemed that, to create a life like this, they'd have to have access to magic far more potent than that of a regular unicorn."

At first, Rainbow seemed to be just as disappointed as Rarity after hearing that, but after a while, she simply shrugged her shoulders and walked off. Indeed, the general feeling on the matter, as Twilight looked around to gauge her friend's expressions, was that interest in this little diversion had been well and truly exhausted. As such, the young Princess magically levitated the book over to the pile it came from, at which point the rest of her friends resumed what they were doing before, with Applejack and Rainbow going outside this time to resume their ball game. Twilight, instead, got back into her throne and began reading one of the other tomes the Princess had given her. From the smile she wore as she was reading it, it was clear that her interest in this book at least was alive and well. And so it was that the six mares all carried on spending time with one another, generally enjoying their evening as a group. But, as with all days, it eventually came to an end, and the sun began to set beyond the horizon. One by one, Twilight's friends all waved goodbye to her, ready to make their way to their own homes. Twilight, in turn, waved back happily to them, until eventually, she could no longer see them.

Using her magic, she began closing the great doors of her palace, at which point she began walking past the great table of the main chamber, ready to head on up to her bedroom. However, as she passed the table, she glanced to the pile of books, on top of which lay that same old tome that had interested her friends so much. She stopped, staring at it for a few moments, her mind mulling over certain possibilities. However, she soon let out a laugh at the whole thing, thinking over what such an action would mean. Please! Making a coltfriend out of magic? Ridiculous, even by the standards I've come to expect from magic. She looked to the tome and gave it' surface a gentle sweep to get rid of some of the dust, if only because of her general respect for books as a whole. Besides, she continued to think, it's not as if I actually need a coltfriend anyway. I mean, sure, I've never actually had a steady relationship...or even gone on a date...or had any stallion show an interest in me...or even discussed colts with my friends or...

After those thoughts sank in just a bit more, Twilight shook her head, a look of annoyance crossing her face. It's ridiculous! It's stupid! Again, I don't need a coltfriend! I mean, what would I even do with one? What possible use could I have for having a colt my age hanging around me? Having us share secrets with each other and going on long walks in the moonlight, or...or snuggling me when I'm lonely or...other...stupid stuff. Yet again, she shook her head, albeit more violently this time. Nope! Not gonna do it! I mean, aside from the idea of magically creating life just being plain weird, it couldn't even happen! They said it themselves, no unicorn could do it! However, as she thought more on that particular point, she began to remember something incredibly important. Although...I'm not actually a unicorn. So, maybe...I could actually do it? She turned, looking upon the book once more, and hesitantly, she reached forward a hoof and began to open the book, turning it to the desired page. Sure enough, the older unicorns from all those years ago had left instructions behind on how to go about it, even though they themselves didn't know if it would work.

Well, Twilight thought, I suppose as a dedicated student of magic myself, it's kind of my duty to make sure whether a spell really works or not. I mean, we can't have unanswered questions, right? Despite the obvious forced reasoning there, Twilight nevertheless began looking over the book's instructions, in particular the notes that clearly stated that some kind of pony physical imprint would be needed. Something like an eyelash, or drop of blood, that sort of thing. Feeling uncertain, Twilight looked over to her left, at a stray strand of her mane that had fallen into view during this. After a few more moments of doubt, Twilight took a deep breath before using her magic to pull the strand out of her head completely, causing the expected wince of pain that came afterwards. Staring at the hair, she carefully placed it upon the ground and began to stand beside it. She turned, reading a few more of the book's passages. This is still ridiculous, she thought. But then again, if this fails then I will have proved that it's officially a dud spell and we can all move on. Well...I can move on at least.

Letting out an annoyed groan, she instead began to close her eyes and concentrate, pouring a good amount of magic into her horn. She replayed the passages of the book over and over in her mind, creating in her mind's eye the spell she wished to use. A spell that, until today, had never been tried. The lifeless strand of hair began to glow along with her horn, levitating off the ground slightly. All around her, there was a slight gust of wind encircling both her and the strand, despite there being no open windows anywhere. More and more she concentrated, feeling the spell come forth. The incantations and equations were being spoken repeatedly in her mind, and before long, her magic began to make itself known. The hair strand began to glow even brighter than before, and now, so too did the words in the book, as if it and Twilight's magic were working in perfect harmony together to make this one great thing happen. Twilight strained against the great magic she was conjuring forth, with beads of sweat rolling down her face. Eventually, she felt the apex of her spell, and thus, let it
loose.

In an instant, there was a blinding flash of light, and Twilight couldn't help but shield her eyes from it. As the moments passed, the light died down, and there was a distinct smell of something burning, which was often the smell left behind by particularly powerful magical spells. As the light finally faded, Twilight kept her hoof over her eyes, and in her mind, she kept on thinking the same thing. There's not going to be anypony there. There's not going to be anypony there. There's not going to be anypony there. Slowly, she finally lowered her hoof, after which she also opened her eyes. And when she did, they soon snapped open with shock. Because, despite her half-hearted wishes, there was indeed somepony there.

"Hello."