Golden Oak Library

The Golden Oak Library is a stocky hollowed-out tree that serves as both a library and the home of Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Owlowiscious in seasons one through four. The aboveground portion is destroyed by Lord Tirek in Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2, and the roots are excavated and repurposed as a chandelier in the Castle of Friendship in Castle Sweet Castle, where it is first referred to as Golden Oak Library. It is called Golden Oaks Library or Golden Eagle Library in some merchandise, Books and Branches Library at a former Hub website, and Twilight's Library in Gameloft's mobile game.
The tree has a beehive hanging from a branch, a candlestick sign on the front door (sometimes an actual candlestick figure, depending on individual animation errors), a sign of an open book outside the door, and two balconies, one of which has a telescope. It contains at least two floors and a basement.
According to Lauren Faust, the Golden Oak Library was originally called "The Tree of Knowing".
==Development and design==
According to The Art of Equestria, the Golden Oak Library draws influence from the Tree of Knowledge or Tree of Life, a common motif in various real-world mythologies.
From Lesson Zero onward, the library's interior has a new texture.
==Depiction in the series==
===Season one===
In Friendship is Magic, part 1, Princess Celestia sends Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville to supervise the Summer Sun Celebration preparations. She was supposed to stay in the library during her stay in Ponyville. The library is protected from lightning by a magical lightning rod as mentioned by Twilight in Look Before You Sleep. During the thunderstorm, Twilight has a slumber party with Applejack and Rarity and during the end of the episode, a tree falls into the bedroom through the window. In Swarm of the Century, Twilight wakes up in the morning to find the library infested with parasprites. In Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow Dash crashes into the library and knocks all the books off the shelves, making Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Applejack organize them again.
===Season two===
In The Return of Harmony Part 2, Twilight keeps the Elements of Harmony in a book with hollowed-out pages in the library.
In times of difficulty, Twilight often turns to her vast library for answers. For example, in The Cutie Pox, Spike pulls out a book called Perplexing Pony Plagues to diagnose Apple Bloom's case of cutie pox.
The library also holds every entry in the Daring Do book series, as seen in Read It and Weep.
In It's About Time, when Twilight is convinced that a disaster is going to occur in the near future, she "monitors everything" in Equestria from inside the library. In Ponyville Confidential, after the Cutie Mark Crusaders spread harmful gossip around Ponyville, Twilight encases the library in a magical barrier to keep them out.
===Season three===
In The Crystal Empire - Part 1, Twilight magically rips the entire tree out of the ground, exposing its roots. When Twilight and Spike are searching for a way to eradicate the Pinkie Pie clones in Too Many Pinkie Pies, Spike discovers a horseshoe-shaped button hidden in the back of a bookshelf. Upon pressing it, a secret compartment containing the desired book is revealed.
In Magic Duel, Trixie uses her magic to flip the library upside down and shake books from it to the ground to persuade Twilight to have a duel with her.
===Season four===
 In Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1, Rarity mentions that after the Summer Sun Celebration, she and Twilight have a meeting scheduled to redecorate Twilight's loft now that she's a princess.
Her house also appears in Castle Mane-ia, Daring Don't, Power Ponies, Bats!, Pinkie Apple Pie, Three's A Crowd, Twilight Time, Maud Pie, Testing Testing 1, 2, 3, and Inspiration Manifestation.
In Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2, most of the library is destroyed by Lord Tirek when he attacks it in his attempt to take the princesses' combined Alicorn magic from Twilight. Twilight barely escapes with Owlowiscious before Tirek's attack razes the library.
===Season five===
 In Castle Sweet Castle, Twilight and Spike visit the remains of the library, still in ruins after Twilight's battle with Tirek. In memory of the library, and as a means of helping Twilight feel more at home at the Castle of Friendship, Twilight's friends dig up the tree's roots and refashion them into a chandelier for the castle's throne room, adorning it with gems containing pictures of their memories together.
In Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?, the library appears in Ponyville's shared dream. Twilight restores the library to pristine condition and summons a swarm of flying books from it to attack the Tantabus.
===Season seven===
In A Royal Problem, the library's bedroom appears in a dream of Discord and the Smooze.
===Season nine===
The library is mentioned by Twilight in The Point of No Return, as she notes that she used to live in a library.
==Other depictions==
The Golden Oak Library appears in My Little Pony: Pony Life. In Potion Mystery, Twilight causes the library to explode while trying to recreate Potion Nova's magical potions. The library appears again in Game Knight.
 In gaming, the library serves as the setting for the Discover the Difference game. In Gameloft's mobile game, it is called "Twilight's Library". To reflect the library's destruction in the season four finale, if any player advances far enough in the game to defeat Tirek, the library is automatically replaced with the Castle of Friendship. In Treehouse TV's Friendship Express Train Contest, the library is called "Golden Oaks Library". It is also featured in Electronic Arts' Hasbro iOS app Monopoly Hotels under the same name. The Club Hub area of The Hub's website calls it the "Books and Branches Library."
In Sparkle World magazine, the Golden Oak Library is featured in the stories Christmas at Canterlot!, Spooky Slumber Party!, and Winter Wonderland!
The library is mentioned in the chapter book Discord and the Ponyville Players Dramarama when Twilight sees the library set of the community musical and it brings back memories.
==Merchandise==
The Golden Oak Library is featured and mentioned in Enterplay's trading cards and collectible card game Cards #7, #78, and #ƒ25 of the trading card game refer to it as "Golden Oaks Library".
In chapter books and storybooks by Little, Brown and Company, the library appears or is mentioned in Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, Welcome to Equestria!, Under the Sparkling Sea, The Elements of Harmony, Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party!, Welcome to the Crystal Empire!, and Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare. It is also featured in the Twilight Sparkle Animated Storyteller-bundled Welcome to Ponyville and Phidal Publishing's Stuck On Stories and Golden Oak Library.
The library is featured in an 80-page manga released by Shogakukan on October 16, 2014. In one of the manga's stories, the library, sentient and capable of speech, falls in love with another talking tree.
In the Swedish and German versions of My Little Pony: My Sound Book, the Golden Oak Library is featured; the English version refers to it the "Golden Eagle Library".
==Quotes==
==Gallery==
==See also==
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==References==
ar:مكتبة كولدن أوك
es:Biblioteca Golden Oak
id:Perpustakaan Golden Oak
pt:Biblioteca Carvalho Dourado
ru:Библиотека Золотой Дуб
Category:Businesses
Category:Trees