Twilight let out a tiny sigh as she prepared to do this… plan from Spliced Genome.

If the mare was right, then she would have so much to do to make things right for Spike. If not, then Spliced and Twilight would have words.

“Twilight, are you okay?” Spike asked her, causing the mare to blink in confusion. “You’re grinding your teeth.”

“Oh yes, I’m fine,” she said, forcing herself to sound distant and uninterested to Spike as part of her plan. “Spliced needs some help with improving the lab.” That was genuine; it irked Twilight to hear another pony dismiss her laboratory as foalish at best and a haphazard dangerous accident waiting to happen.

“Oh, neat, I guess we’ll learn some stuff from her-”

“There is no we, Spike, I have some duties to attend to,” Twilight said sharply, walking away from her son, hopefully fast enough so he would not see her tears at her harsh actions.

You’d better not be lying or I will make you regret it, Twilight thought angrily to herself, her blood still hot in her veins.

Spike stood there for a moment, hugging his tail as he was dumbfounded at how cold Twilight was acting.

Turning around, he made his way down the stairs to where Twilight kept her, and now Spliced, lab. As he reached the landing, he saw a frowning Starlight next to a growing pile of what had to be Twilight’s equipment.

Starlight gave him a look and rubbed her hooves together, “I don’t think you should go in there-” She suddenly threw herself to the ground as a beaker crashed above her head.

“Either help or stay out of my way, but do not send away those who actually want to be useful!” Spliced snapped as she strode out of the room, glaring at Starlight before looking at Spike. “She has been here for hours, lecturing me as if I don’t know what I am doing and offering no help!” Spike blinked at this and was about to ask Starlight why when Spliced shot him a look and tossed him several diamonds..”Here, down payment and there will be more afterwards.”

“I-”

“Whatever, I’m done here,” Starlight snorted moving to leave but not before taking two of his diamonds away. “I’m taking this as payment for having to deal with you, Spliced.”

Before Spike could say anything to this, she had stalked off, while Spliced Genome dropped several heavy pieces of scrap into his arms and waved him off to his journey. They were so heavy that he had to make more than one trip for them and she seemed to always have more for him to take as well as things to complain about.

“Seriously, what is her issue against putting wires together?” Spliced growled as she used her magic to hold the different wires Twilight had for her machines, the ones she hadn’t thrown out, as she started to adjust them, making them nestle next to each other and placed off to the side where somepony couldn't step on them. Despite her whining, it did make sense and she had made it so that they did not spark anymore.

“I don’t know, I just work here,” Spike said.

Spliced snorted, shaking her head as she looked around the room that had a few machines left in it. “A good start today Spike,” she told him bluntly. “Go get some rest; we will be working early in the morning.” She then placed another set of diamonds into his claws.

“Thanks,” he said, letting out a yawn, not realizing he had been working for so long. “I will see you the morning?”

“Yes; we have a lot of work to do,” Spliced spat as she strode past him, heading up the stairs. “Go get some sleep. We’ll be working early in the morning.”

Spike blinked at this, wondering why everypony was being so short with him today. He hadn’t done anything wrong!

Walking up the stairs, Spike made his way to his room, when Twilight appeared in front of him and looked at the diamonds in his claw.. “Good, I need them,” she said taking almost all of his diamonds with her telekinesis before walking away, leaving Spike even more confused.

Seriously, what was going on here?

Taking his remaining diamonds and crawling into his basket, he placed them under his pillow before curling up and falling asleep.

Twilight peered through the door, hating how worried, confused and hurt Spike looked but this was all supposed to be helping but...

“And what is that‽” Spliced hissed at her, the mare’s eyes fixed on thing Spike was sleeping in.

“It’s his bed!” Twilight snapped back quietly, not wanting to wake Spike.

“That’s no bed, it’s a basket!”

“Yes, but it’s not like it was my idea! It grew with the castle!”

“Grew?” Spliced sounded doubtful. “Grew‽”

“Yes! This entire castle grew from a magical box we got from a very special tree; most of the furniture and other things came with it.”

Spliced snorted. “It may have come with the castle, but that’s no excuse for not getting him a proper bed.”

“Believe me, we’ve looked, but we haven’t found one he liked yet.” Twilight looked almost chagrined. “He’s been happy with this one since we got it, the only time he ever showed any interest in a full bed was that time he was keeping me busy outside the castle for a day so our other friends could redecorate it for me.”

Spliced raised an eyebrow.

“Long story.” Twilight looked embarrassed. “It happened not long after I got this castle… and I was still missing my old home.”

“And the reason you don’t go back and visit is…”

“For a very good reason.” Twilight turned and headed for the stairs. “Follow me.”

Curious, Spliced did as she was told, and was led into a room with six large crystal thrones emblazoned with the Cutie Marks of Twilight and some of her friends, and a smaller unmarked one next to Twilight’s throne, all around a large round table. Hanging above it was what looked to be the oddest chandelier Spliced had ever seen, made of wood instead of crystal like the rest of the castle, though it had several strings of crystal hanging from it. She could see images embedded in the crystals, with Twilight and her friends recognizable in them.

“Interesting decoration,” she commented.

Twilight nodded. “It is… and that chandelier? It’s all that’s left of my old home,” she said.

Spliced looked at her in astonishment. “Wait, what?”

“After the Golden Oak Library was destroyed, and my castle grew here… I missed my old tree so much.” Twilight’s eyes went misty. “But my friends… they knew how to keep the memories alive. So they dug up what was left of the tree and turned it into this chandelier, adding all those photos of our special times together. All so I’ll never forget where I came from, and be inspired to make new memories.”

“Right,” Spliced dragged the words out of her mouth before shaking her head. “Look, this is actually helpful, him sleeping in a picnic basket.”

“It’s not a bucking picnic basket!” Twilight swore, grinding her teeth. “It’s his-”

“I’ll call what it is and you can call what you think it is but look, if you do what I say this will be a good way to keep him on track,” Spliced said as she told her what she thought they should do as they changed her lab.

“Are you nuts‽” Twilight growled at her. “Spike would be overjoyed to realize this, I thought that this was the entire bucking point!”

“It is and we need to make sure he has the right mindset before he realizes,” Spliced rolled her eyes, letting out a sigh of annoyance. “If he catches on right away, then it will more than likely not stick and we’ll be back where we started, only worse as he will know why we are doing this to him and this won’t work anymore!”

Twilight glare at the mare hard before snorting and shaking her head. “One week and then this whole experiment is over. If Spike does start to mature, then I will apologize. If he doesn’t-”

“I’ll apologi-”

“You will explain your actions to Spike, my friends and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” Twilight watched with satisfaction at the fright in the mare's eyes at this thought. “And you will have to explain it to Dragon Lord Ember and her father Torch… and while Ember is my size, Torch happens to be almost as big as this castle and both are very close friends of Spike.”

Spliced looked less than enthused by that. “Right.”

Twilight nodded. “Good night then.” Heading for the stairs, she paused for a moment and looked back at Spliced. “Oh, and the being who destroyed my old home, and attacked so many ponies and others, including Spike, before we stopped him? We locked him up in the prison realm of Tartarus for what he did.”

And then she trotted off to her room, leaving Spliced to look contemplative.