Chapter 3.1 (The Castle of Friendship)

Dawn broke, and the birds started to chirp. "Good morning, to you Fluttershy and, oh…"

Discord gasped. "Fluttershy, who's that? Are you rejecting me again?" "Shh! Not now Discord, wait until she's fully awake. You will scare the spirit out of her!" Fluttershy whispered and scolded Discord softly. Discord moved out of the room and waited for Espie to wake up.

"Aaah" Espie yawned with a high pitched sound, which seemed amusingly adorable. "Good morning Espie." "Good morning Fluttershy," she said as she got out of bed and started walking to Fluttershy. "Oh my! Your bruise so much better now and you can walk properly again! It's so miraculous that you heal so fast! That's great!"

"Fluttershy, I thought heard someone else just now. Who was it?" she spoke while rubbing her eyes.

"IT'S ME! Hello there! I'm Discord! Nice to meet you" Discord grabbed Espie's paw, shaking her paw frantically. Espie quickly withdrew her paw and stepped back, being startled by the sudden action, went into a defensive stance momentarily, holding up her paws to Discords face, preparing to fire a spell.

"Hey! Don't scare me like that! What exactly are you anyway?"

"Ooh hoo hoo hoo! I'm a hybrid mix of animals. I was once turned into stone before but now I'm free. Fluttershy is my best friend who gave me a second chance. It's rare to see a creature like you around, Espie. What are you?"

"I'm a Light Spirit Guardian from another place. Don't ask…" she was already feeling a little tired of introducing herself repetitively.

Espie and Discord went on to talk about each other's appearance until she talked about Twilight. "Oh, I almost forgot. I'm going to visit Twilight's castle. Are you two coming with me?" "No. I'll stay here. You two can knock yourselves out." Discord declined, then pretended to diligently sweep the cottage floors.

"Fluttershy, would you like to join me?" "I'm sorry, but I'm quite tied up today. Today I'm busy with Angel, are you alright if you go yourself?"

"It's no problem. I am able to go myself. See you later Fluttershy!"

"Take care and have fun Espie!"

Espie left the cottage and headed for Twilight's castle, eager to discover what the castle had in its interior.

When she reached the castle, she entered through the two colossal front doors which were opened, seeing Twilight again. "Hey Espie! It's a surprise that you've recovered so fast. You came at the right time! I'm not busy at the moment, so let me show you around."

Twilight paused and moved forward, continuing to introduce parts of the castle to her.

"This castle has been my new home ever since my former home was destroyed by Lord Tirek. Well, the first place we are at is the Throne Room where the Cutie Map is located. Here, we wait for the Cutie Map to send us a signal, which makes our Cutie Marks flicker. When there are signals, we, the Mane Six would go for an adventure depending on the chosen locating the area in need of help on the Cutie Map."

"Wait! Could I stop you for a moment? What is a Cutie Mark?"

"Well Espie, they are the symbols located at our flanks which represent what we do, personality and specific talents. For me, mine represents the mark of the Tree of Harmony, basically symbolizing friendship." Twilight showed her side and continued moving to another location afterward. She thought while following her 'That's really weird that ponies customarily have these marks, but it's fine with me.'

"ECHO!" Espie abruptly shouted, making the echoes reverberate around the hall, astonishing Twilight for a moment. She giggled as the echoes travelled around.

"Yup, quite large and echoey... Onto the library! It's the best thing here!" Twilight led Espie into a side passageway, entering the library.

"Alright, I shall start immediately, but I will need Spike to come down from the ladder before I do it. It's going to be a little messy..." Espie requested, Spike immediately clambering down.

Twilight questioned her "So you are really going to help us with arranging the books? Be my guest!"

Espie started to be surrounded in a magic golden light, transforming into her ultimate form - the Spirit Phoenix form. She utilised her psychic powers to make books fly all over the place, sorting out books flawlessly with elegance. The books flew all over with precision and seemed like missile projectiles just missing both Twilight and Spike by a hair.

"Wow! Amazing! That would have taken hours! And you did it in seconds! It's perfect." Twilight exclaimed, amazed by the breakneck speed of rearrangement and accuracy of classifying the books.

"Well I use magic frequently so I'm actually very accustomed to levitating objects and moving them magically."

After Espie's statement, Twilight viewed Espie as some sort of a veteran wizard.

"Well, this is the last place of the castle and I guess we are done with the castle tour today. Thank you for helping us, Espie. See you on another occasion!"

"Goodbye Twilight, see you again soon!" Espie waved goodbye to them before leaving the castle for the cottage, resting for the day.