“Spike!” Called out Twilight, “I need another notebook and some more ink!”

“Sheesh, already?!” Asked Spike as he left the kitchen and entered the supply closet.

Twilight continued to read the book in her ethereal grasp. She had finished the Beginner’s Grimoire for Apprenticing Hemomancers, and had started Under-City History Vol. 1: Founding of the Colonies to the Discovery of the Gray Seas.

A loud thumping noise coming from the table Twilight was sitting at immediately stole her attention. Twilight looked over to see that Spike had deposited five notebooks and a gallon's worth of quick-dry ink.

“Oh Spike, I didn't need more ink and I only asked for one notebook,” Said Twilight with an amused grin on her face at her assistant's enthusiasm.

What Twilight didn't realize was that Spike wasn't eagerly helping her, he was in fact fairly annoyed, “Why don't you check your inkwell there,” Suggested the purple and green wyrmling.

Twilight checked her inkwell and was surprised at what she found, “What? It's nearly empty! Spike, how did you know I needed more ink?”

Spike rolled his eyes at his sister/mistress, “Because we have been doing this for nine hours,” To say Spike was upset was like saying the sun was lukewarm.

Twilight almost spoke, but Spike continued before she could, “It is three in the afternoon, and the dishes are only halfway done. That means I haven't had a chance to get to my other chores because I have to get something for you every ten minutes. I would have left a hooffull of quills next to you, but we're almost out off supplies thanks to this month's studying binge.”

Twilight adopted a sheepish smile and blushed in embarrassment as she hand Spike a generously sized bit purse, “Would you get more for me?” Twilight laughed nervously as Spike rolled his eyes and sighed bitterly.

“The things I do for love,” Muttered Spike under his breath as he took the bit purse.

Spike walked over to the door and opened it.

Cheerilee walked through Ponyville like everypony here does every day. But Cheerilee made a point of taking detours through the construction sites all around Ponyville to take in the sights.

Several of the buildings she saw were nearly done. Businesses from Ponyville and from other places in Equestria – the whole continent, not just the nation – had reserved buildings in the developing town.

Though the whole town was talking about the construction sites Noblesse Oblige himself had reserved. Noblesse had reserved a whole third of the planned development sites for a special purpose.

Noblesse had his criers emphasize the fact that he wasn't using these pieces of land for himself, but were reserving them for others. Cheerilee didn't know if she believed that however. Every noble that has tried to buy buildings in the reserved areas have been denied. Even when Princess Luna tried to buy a building to use as a vacation home, was denied use in the reserved areas. Though Noblesse kindly showed other areas close to the town that were equidistant from the important parts of town as the reserved areas, it was very unusual for a noble to actually deny one the ruling Diarchs use of specific parts of town. Ponyville was practically in an uproar about who or what Noblesse was reserving these areas for.

Cheerilee stopped as she realized she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and realized she had no idea where she was. She had been through town enough times to know where she was just by looking around however. In regaining her bearings, Cheerilee saw that the magical hollowed out tree she was heading towards was directly across from her.

Cheerilee headed to the front door of the Golden Oaks Library and was about to knock, when it opened suddenly.

“Oh, hello Ms. Cheerilee,” Said a familiar voice.

Cheerilee looked down to see Twilight Sparkle's Draconic charge, “Hello Spike, is Twilight in?”

Spike did his best to hide how upset he was, “Yeah, I was just heading out to go get something for her. She's in the living room,” Spike went past the teacher and headed for Sofa and Quills.

Cheerilee's experience with foals had hinted to her that Spike was bothered by something, but knew that he wasn't annoyed with her.

“Did I hear that right?” Asked a familiar, “What can I help you with Ms. Cheerilee?”

Cheerilee turned to face the resident librarian and savior within the hallowed out tree, “Why hello Twilight, can I talk to you about something?”

Twilight smiled and nodded, “Of course, come in.”

Twilight led Cheerilee to her living room and used her magic to levitate two cups of tea and their saucers over to the table inbetween the seats the two mares were now sitting in.

“How can I help you Ms. Cheerilee?” Asked Twilight.

Cheerilee had to stifle a giggle, “Twilight, sweetie, we're the same age. Please don't call me Ms. Cheerilee, Ms. Sparkle.

Twilight almost spat her tea out in laughter, “Ha! Okay Cheerilee, how can I help you today.”

Cheerilee nodded and adopted a serious look, “Today in my noon time class, I tried using new material. I have never had class where the foals stayed in Public School for so long, so I was basically in the dark when choosing a lesson for today.”

Twilight nodded but didn't understand what the problem was, “Okay, so what's the problem?”

Cheerilee sighed and an embarrassed blush started to creep onto her face, “Well, the lesson didn't go too well. It went right over their heads. And too make matters worst, I forgot that one of the students who transferred here was from the Cloudsdale Flight School.”

Twilight flinched as she realized how much that must have hurt the passionate teacher, “Ah, I see. How can I help you though?”

“It occurred to me that you have the most advanced education in all of Ponyville, if not the country,” Explained Cheerilee, “And I know that you often help some of the foals from my classes study. So I was hoping that you could me set up lesson plans for my older students.”

Twilight put her teacup back onto it's saucer. She had spent so much of her life learning that she didn't put much thought into anything else. Since coming to Ponyville, Twilight has learned that you don't need books or lectures to learn, but just interacting with others can teach you more than any book ever could. She also realized how much she loved teaching the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the other foals that came to her for help.

Twilight could feel the smile creeping up on her face, and Cheerilee could see the sparkles in her eyes. Twilight had keep herself from bouncing around the room like when she became Celestia's student, “I would love to help you Cheerilee!”

“Oh thank you Twilight, you've saved me!” At that moment, Cheerilee realized something that could make Twilight rethink her answer, “There's just one thing though.”

“Oh? And what would that be?” Asked Twilight, excitement gave way to curiosity as the Unicorn wondered what could possibly make Cheerilee act so hesitantly.

“We'll have to spend the weekends working on lessons, schedules, and the like. You won't mind will you?” Cheerilee was somewhat scared that this fact would chase the purple unicorn away.

“Pfft- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Twilight started laughing hysterically.

Cheerilee watched in shock as the mare in front of her laughed so hard that she fell out of her seat. Cheerilee actually had to get up and use herself as wall to keep Twilight from rolling into the table and knocking the teacups into the floor. Twilight was going to enjoy this much more than she could have ever dreamed.

“I'm not opposed to the idea,” Started Noblesse Oblige, “But why would Dame Sparkle help us look at rocks? Surely she has better things to do.”

“Nah,” Answered Ruby Pinch, “Nopony ever goes to the library for the books. It's either foals looking for help with their homework, Ponies looking for Twilight to deal with a catastrophe, or Ponies asking Twilight out on a date.”

“Does Twilight have a coltfriend?” Asked Rumble.

“Not that I know of,” Answered Ruby, “She only goes out when Equestria is in danger or if her friends are doing something together.”

“What does she do otherwise?” Rumble simply couldn't imagine staying inside all day every day.

“Experiments,” Replied Dinky.

Rumble and Noblesse stopped at that answer, “Come again?” Asked Noblesse.

Pipsqueak poorly suppressed giggles at his new friends' reactions, “Twilight is always messing with things in 'er basement. Alchemy, Chemistry, and who knows what else she does in that basement lab of hers.”

Noblesse and Rumble looked at each with mutual concern on their faces. Then Rumble noticed something peculiar in the distance behind Noblesse, “What is that?” Rumble lifted a hoof and pointed at whatever had caught his attention.

The other foals traced Rumble's hoof to a large tree with windows and a door installed into it, “I believe that is our destination,” Said Noblesse.

Rumble stood flabbergasted at the sight before him. When his brother told him that the Golden Oaks Library was a tree, Rumble assumed that he meant the architecture had a tree motif, never in Rumble's wildest dreams would he have thought that the library was an actual tree.

Everypony laughed at Rumble's confusion.

“This surprises thou?” Asked Noblesse, “I would've thought that a Pegasus would be used to eccentric architecture.”

“What do you mean by that?” Asked Dinky.

“Pegasi are known for designing 'unique' buildings with the malleable clouds that they use for construction,” Explained Noblesse, “Dame Dash's massive cloud palace? That is tame compared to what most Pegasi make their homes into.”

“Huh, there was nothing like in Irrigation Square,” Replied Rumble.

“Oh,” Noblesse just realized something about the effeminate colt before him, “So you're from Cloud Spire?”

Rumble nodded while the other foals gave the Unicorn colt confused looks, “What's special about Cloud Spire?” Asked Ruby.

“Cloud Spire is what is known as a 'Unity City,'” Answered Noblesse, “Unity Cities are cities that were founded shortly after Equestria's founding to celebrate the new union between the Pony Tribes. These Unity Cities are meant to have the best of all worlds for all types of Ponies when their locations and architecture were decided upon.”

“So how does that differ from the Pegasi Cities?” Asked Pipsqueak, not sure what Noblesse's seemingly vague words meant.

Rumble decided to pick up where Noblesse stopped, “Since Pegasi can fly, they don't need conform to the same building requirement as the other Tribes do. The Unity Cities were made with all three Pony Tribes in mind, so even the cloud sections of the city are built like Earth Pony or Unicorn structures. I remember that few 'buildings' in the Cloudsdale Flight School had floors in them and everything that wasn't framed were inside of built-in draws inside of the walls themselves.”

The two Unicorn Fillies and the Earth Pony colt had to ponder that for a moment, buildings without floors? It made since of course. Modern Pegasi culture evolved from a military dictatorship, and to this day they value physical fitness over most other aspects of a Pony's character..

Rumble started twitching slightly. While he was disdainful of Pegasi culture and made a point of being different from your typical Pegasus, Rumble could hardly sit still and do nothing for more than five minutes, “Well come on, lets go!”

Rumble started shoving Noblesse with his head, an act that the metallic colt found amusing instead of insulting.

As the small group of foals approached the door, they could hear laughter. Rumble opened the door to the Golden Oaks Library. Since it was technically a public building, Rumble didn't think he would have to knock during business hours.

The foals entered the building and nopony was sure what to think of the sight before them. Cheerilee was doing her best to get Twilight to stop laughing as the color of Twilight's face had changed from a powdery purple, to a dark blue.

Cheerilee quickly turned to the Crusaders with a scared expression on her face, “I can't get her to stop laughing!”

Noblesse started thinking about how he could improvise the spells he knew to help while the fillies and Pipsqueak were hastily reading through the books on the shelves at random for anything useful. Rumble also started scanning the bookshelves, but with a different idea in mind. Rumble grabbed a large tomb from one of the ceiling high shelves and dropped it directly onto Twilight's stomach.

“HAHAHA-gack!” Twilight had the wind taken out of her and was groaning in pain, but she was actually breathing now.

“Rumble,” Cheerilee started speaking in a lecturing tone of voice, “I would normally admonish you for hurting somepony else, but your plan actually worked.”

“Thanks,” Wheezed Twilight as she started to get up.

Most of the people in the room winced as they noticed the dark purple bruise on Twilight's stomach, “I'm sorry about, but I couldn't think of anything else to do.”

Twilight took a minute to catch her breath before speaking, “Don't worry about. It's like Cheerilee said, I'm alive and I have you to thank for it.”

“What are you five doing here?” Asked Cheerilee now that the crisis was over, “You do know that we don't have any projects do this week.”

“We actually came 'ere for a Crusade,” Explained Pipsqueak.

“Why are you with them Noblesse?” Cheerilee was not so excited to have new students that she didn't notice Noblesse's Cutie Mark.

“It's an excuse to spend time with friends,” Said the gray Unicorn plainly.

No one else in the room caught it, but Twilight noticed something peculiar about Noblesse Oblige. Namely his eyes. While everypony noticed how the whites of his eyes had turned pink, no one noticed his pupils. The years Twilight spent on studying molecules with microscopes, the stars with telescopes, and insects with magnifying glasses, had allowed Twilight to see that Noblesse's pupils had become ovals instead of perfect circles.

Noblesse was still by the door when he found Twilight's gaze in his own. When no one else was looking, Noblesse raised his hoof to his mouth as though he was shushing someone. Twilight nodded her head in acknowledgment as she understood Noblesse's message: stay quiet.

“So how can I help you foals today?” Asked Twilight, curious as to what shenanigans the Crusaders were going to get themselves in today.

“We were wondering why the gems found in the old quarry grow on their own, like Everfree plants,” Answered Dinky Doo.

“Oh!” Twilight was surprised at the Crusaders. Normally they're Crusades involved something ridiculously dangerous or just plain illegal, so Twilight was only to happy to help, “I have a book or two on magical gemstones.”

The Crusaders had taken out only a tenth of the books on the shelves in their frantic search for ways to help Twilight. Twilight herself removed another eighty percent of the books from their shelves while looking for the books she was looking for. All the while Cheerilee stood aghast at how Twilight took out books without rhyme or reason.

“Ah, here it is,” Said Twilight when she found Gold Vein's Appraisal Guide for Magical Gemstones.

“If you want, we could go on a field trip to the quarry and examine the stones there,” Offered Twilight.

Twilight smiled as all of the foals happily took Twilight's offer, “Would you like to come with us Cheerilee?”

“That sounds lovely, I would love to come,” The teacher was only too happy to take a chance to see her students happy, especially since she made them miserable earlier today.

Spike walked into the Golden Oaks Library with his arms full of groceries and his tail pulling a small cart full of other groceries. Spike dropped everything – literally in this case – when he saw the mess Twilight left behind this time, stacked on top of his other chores that he was already behind on.

“TWILIGHT!!!” Spike screamed out so loudly that the library and other nearby structures shook under the wyrmling's auditory assault.