Twilight had it all. She was a powerful, beautiful princess among princesses, ascended like none before after completing the most amazing spell created by the most amazing unicorn. She was learning about herself and studying hard to be the best princess she could ever be. Celestia was counting on her…
Or so she thought.
While rearranging furniture in the castle, she had dropped a bookshelf against one of the walls. The crystal cracked and a chunk fell off, and Twilight saw something strange behind it. Beneath the veneer of shining, colorful crystal, there was dark circuits, hidden beneath the exterior. Lightning sparked through it, and the crystal healed itself soon afterward, growing over it, but Tiwlight was sure of what she had seen. So sure that she broke it again to check. She was right. Circuits, the likes of which she’d only seen in texts but never in person, were hidden beneath.
Twilight needed to know why.
She hunted through texts, searching for something about the Tree of Harmony and its abilities, but such information was scarce and hard to find. There was precious little in her own library, and so she went to Canterlot to peruse the books there. Still, she found nothing. Until Celestia found out what she was doing.
The princess of the sun walked regally into the library. A glow preceded her as she strode up to Twilight, wings partially outstretched as the afternoon waned. “What are you looking for, Twilight?”
“Oh! Princess!” Twilight said, a little embarrassed. “I’m… trying to learn more about the Tree of Harmony. The castle seems… strange, and I’m trying to understand it.”
“Oh? What seems to be the trouble?”
“I broke one of the walls while moving some bookcases, and underneath the crystal, there seems to be circuits.”
Celestia’s eyes widened. “Circuits?’
“Yes.” Twilight nodded. “It sparked and regrew the crystal I broke almost immediately. If the whole castle is made of that, what is it?”
“And you think the Tree of Harmony is the same?”
“It might be. That’s why I’m trying to find out.”
Celestia breathed deep and moved forward. She wrapped a wing around Twilight and pulled her away from the books. “Well, I’m glad you’re interested, but come have supper while you’re here. I’m told you’ve been in here since lunch.”
“But—”
“No buts, Twilight. You need to rest sometimes. Just come have supper, and we’ll talk, then you can come right back.”
“…okay,” she reluctantly agreed.
Twilight was studying when Spike screamed.
“Twiliiiiight!” he yelled as he panted into the room. “Please don’t be mad! I broke something and it sparked and I didn’t mean it! Please don’t be angry!”
“Calm down, Spike.” She waved a hoof placatingly. “Show me what you broke. I’m sure it can be fixed.”
He took her to the bedroom, where it looked like he had been testing a model, probably from one of his comics. The model was broken, but when he pointed to a spot on the wall, his claw drooped, searching but not finding something.
“That’s weird, there was a big chunk of crystal missing!” He looked at the floor, then ran over and picked something up. He waved a chunk of cracked crystal at her. “See! I did break it! But… it’s gone?” He looked at the wall, searching for a hole. “It was missing, and there was something weird behind it, and then lightning came out! It was crazy!”
Twilight laughed and patted him on the head. She grabbed the crystal in her magic and looked it over. “Well, whatever you did, it didn’t do any lasting damage, did it?”
Spike stared queerly at the wall, still looking for damage but finding none. “I could have sworn…”
“Don’t worry about it Spike. Come on. Let’s get ice cream, and I’ll help you fix your…” she looked at the model. “…whatever it is.”
“Okay!”
But Twilight worried about it, despite her words to Spike. On the crystal he’d picked up was a piece of some unidentified metal. His comments about lightning and the wall fixing itself had her concerned. She searched through all her books for answers, and went to Canterlot to hunt through theirs. Celestia came to meet her in the library when she found out Twilight had been in there since lunch. She strode in regally, wings partially furled to represent the afternoon setting sun.
“Twilight, what are you doing in here?”
“Oh, hello Princess. I’m searching for information about the Tree of Harmony.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, there’s something about the castle that’s bothering me and I’m trying to figure out what it is.”
“Why don’t you tell me about it, maybe I can help.”
Twilight pulled the chunk of crystal out of her saddlebag and held it up. Celestia took it and looked it over curiously. “Well this is interesting,” she said.
Twilight nodded. “I’m trying to figure out what the extra stuff on it is. It’s—”
Celestia interrupted her with a wing over her back. She gently directed Twilight out of the library, leaving the books behind. “Why don’t we talk about it over supper, okay? You can tell me how you found it, what you think, and we can enjoy a nice meal before you come back.”
“Well, okay.”
Twilight was with Rarity and Applejack on a trip to Vanhoover. She hadn’t technically been invited by the cutie map, but she needed to research something and she figured she could leave them to their work and finish finding what she was looking for all on her own. Trouble was, she had finished what she needed to finish but Rarity and Applejack were still struggling with their friendship problem. They were doing well, but it had been a full week already. No friendship problem went beyond a few days at most. She was starting to worry she’d completely ruined it by coming. Her worries were made worse when she started feeling ill. She tried to hide it, but they caught her moping about the inn they were staying at. She was sent back to Ponyville alone.
She was better within a day of being at her castle.
Rarity and Applejack came back to report on the friendship problem with mixed results. They discovered a friendship problem, and they fixed it, but Rarity was convinced there was another and they fixed the wrong one.
“I’m telling you, the problem was with the hatmaker and his wife, not the fishmonger and his neighbor,” Rarity claimed at the table.
“And ah’m sayin’, the fishmonger and his neighbor were havin’ way bigger problems. Business-related issues trump family issues in scope all the time!” Applejack countered.
“That’s ridiculous, darling. A broken family is a much bigger tragedy than a simple business dispute. No businesses are ever going to get along.”
“Which is why they need friendship-related advice!”
“That’s not at all comparable! Businesses are supposed to compete!”
“Girls, girls!” Twilight shouted. “The cutie map said you resolved it, right?”
“Well, yes,” Rarity admitted.
Twilight pointed at the map. There were no longer floating cutie marks on Vanhoover. “Then you did it right, right?”
Rarity nodded and sighed. “I suppose so. Loath though I am to admit it.”
Applejack, thankfully, didn’t look too smug about it. “The problem ah have is that we go to these places without knowin’ what or who we’re even lookin’ for. Ah feel so blind. Does the cutie map just assume we’re gonna find it by magic?”
“Well, it is magic, darling.”
“Yeah, ah get that. It’s just plum messy s’what ah’m sayin’.”
“Well,” Twilight said, interrupting them, “you did a great job on this one, even with me being ill. So good work, girls! Now we get to wait for the next one.”
“Indeed. I’m glad you’re feeling better Twilight,” said Rarity. She stood up from her chair and picked up her bags, heading for the door. Applejack followed soon after.
“Y’all make sure you get better, okay, Twi? Have a good ‘un!”
“I will!”
They left and Twilight was alone in the castle with Spike again. She went to her library started work on some other research. Life was normal again.
Until she traveled to Detrot. She tried not to make her trips last more than a week. Celestia’s advice was that she not spend more than a week away from her royal duties. She tried to make sure and follow that advice, and was never gone for long. She understood why Celestia said it because every time she got back there were duties and orders and requests piling up one after another, but she needed that book.
It was a treatise on the kirin and their biology, which Twilight had never really studied much before. A local bookstore owner had found it in Saddle Arabia among a pile of others and immediately had bought it. He was supposed to be returning with it soon, but hadn’t yet arrived. She was desperate to see it!
But she got ill.
One week to the day after leaving Ponyville, she began feeling lethargic. She didn’t understand. When she went to visit Canterlot or the Crystal Empire this never happened. Was the city life just too much for her? She was exhausted all the time, her eyes were heavy, her head was pounding, and she couldn’t even bring herself to keep her wings out of the mud on the streets. She tried to tough it out, but after nine days away from home, she couldn’t even leave her bed. The last thing she remembered was a group of ponies rushing into her room, followed by a bright light…