Twilight felt a tightness in her chest as she made her way through Ponyville alongside her friends. Just on the edge of town, she paused. Although the smoldering wreckage and scorched earth had long since been cleared away, the empty plot of land before her reflected the hole in her heart. Where once stood the Golden Oak Library—her first home in Ponyville—now only a vacant field of grass remained.
Applejack trotted up to Twilight with a shovel slung across her withers. “You okay, sugarcube?” she asked, placing a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.
Twilight sighed and levitated a small box from her saddlebag. She carefully rotated it in midair, examining the carvings adorning each side. None of the carved pony figures were alike, each with subtle but significant differences. Some were tall, some were well-built, and each had a unique cutie mark. But what stood out the most to Twilight was that each of the three tribes were equally represented. Celebrating and dancing amongst one another with flowing vines and young saplings growing between them.
“My, the level of detail is exquisite,” Rarity chimed in, leaning close with sparkling eyes. “Maybe if it had some sapphires to compliment the—no wait, emeralds!”
“Yeah yeah,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes, as Fluttershy started to inch closer to get a better look. Rainbow flexed her wings, flying just above the rest of the group. She hovered above Twilight, peeking her head just over Twilight’s shoulder. “So, what’s in the box?”
Twilight cleared her throat and used her magic to nudge Rainbow off to the side. “It was a gift,” Twilight said. She looked at the box again, losing herself in the complexity of the carved figures. A small smile crossed her lips. “A gift from Ivy Bramble, the elder of Peacegrove Village.”
Twilight opened the box, revealing a seedling lined with intricate golden veins and a protruding sprout. It teemed with a familiar magic signature, one that filled her with nostalgia and hope. She slowly trotted to the center of the field. Though long gone, she could feel a faint aetheric imprint left on the land. Just like the Castle of the Two Sisters, she thought.
Pinkie Pie suddenly materialized right next to Twilight, leaning in super close to the box. “Oooh, is that the special thingy you were talking about?” She squeaked out rapidly.
“It is,” Twilight said quietly. Her smile grew a little wider.
“I guess this is kind of like its birthday! We’ll have to throw a party later!” Pinkie said, hopping in place.
Twilight gave Applejack a knowing look, who nodded and gave the shovel to Twilight. With a mighty thrust, Twilight struck the earth. She tore into the dirt and piled it to the side, methodically digging a hole just right for the young sapling. Removing the seedling from its container, she held it above the hole. Sure enough, she could see the magic along the swirling gold mingling with the Golden Oak Library’s remnants in the soil. “So the story was true…” she muttered.
“You say somethin’?” Applejack cocked her head.
Twilight glanced away, brushing a tear away with a wingtip. “Do you remember the story Ivy told us about the colt who fled Peacegrove?” Applejack nodded. “I thought the connection was too good to be true. But from what I can see,” Twilight motioned toward the seedling, “the sapling she gave us is a relative of the library. My library. It came from the Silverglade after all!”
Applejack grinned. “Fancy that! So it ain’t all a bunch a’ hooey after all!” She took the shovel from Twilight’s magical grip and stood over the hole. “Now let’s do right by it and make some new memories.”
Surrounded by her friends, Twilight planted the sapling, giving Applejack space to gently pack dirt around it. Twilight watched as magic flowed from her hooves and into the soil, illuminating the growing roots underground with flashes of soft, purple light. She found herself lost in the sight, unaware if a minute had passed or only seconds, but then a faint glow caught the corner of her eye. Wispy trails of aether emanated from her friends, flowing toward the sapling. Although not strictly earth pony magic, it was still a shared moment between her and her best friends. The sapling shuddered as it sprouted out of the earth, blooming with a small, gilded flower.
“Thank you, everypony,” Twilight said, feeling a warmth spread over her body. “It means a lot to me that you came with me.”
“Oh, Twilight, you know we wouldn’t miss something like this for the world,” Fluttershy said from behind her mane. “I know how you felt when… Well…” Her face trailed off and she looked down, digging her hoof into the ground.
Twilight hugged Fluttershy. “I know. We all lost something that day, but what’s important is we didn’t lose each other, and we never will.”
“You said it!” Spike piped up, leaping up onto Twilight’s backside. “I like my new room in the castle, but I still sometimes miss that old library. So cozy!”
“It’s a shame I never got to see it,” Starlight said dejectedly. “Unless…” She put her hoof to her chin with a wicked sneer.
“No!” Twilight shouted, her wings extending in a panic. “No time travel!”
“I know, I was just kidding!” Starlight snickered with a smug grin. Twilight felt her heart pound in her chest, but soon found herself laughing alongside her friend.
“It’ll be a long time before it grows to be the same size as the original, but it warms my heart knowing future generations will be able to study and learn in a safe haven like I once did,” Twilight said. She sighed contently and gazed at the sapling in silence, reflecting. “Come on, girls. Let’s go home.”
Twilight sat at her desk, her notes neat and orderly—for once. She carefully shuffled through a large stack, slipping colored tabs into key sections for reference. Dominating the upper shelf of her desk was a copy of the tribal diagram. She looked up at it with a smile. Her long journey had started with this simple drawing, and now it would end in kind.
She glanced out the window. The sunset hues of orange and gold dominated the sky, a new night beginning as the shadows lengthened. It’s twilight. The thought relaxed her, sharpened her mind. Finally, she would have time to herself. Setting down the sorted stack, she stood and slowly walked toward her map of Equestria. Colored pins marked her journey, each one representing a new experience. Images replayed in her mind: the glittering caverns of Amethyst Hollow, the majesty of the Golden Oak, and the unstable ruins of the Cloudsbane. Her satisfaction grew as her gaze alighted upon the Tree of Harmony.
She found herself looking further southward, toward the edge lacking all but the roughest of details. A slight unease pricked at her mind as the dark images from the aetherstream returned. If I’m going to be a true princess of Equestria, then I need to learn more about how the world works. How friendship manifests itself between dragons, between griffins, between all kinds of creatures. She pursed her lips. No, I have to experience it. And I think the best place to start is…
The lands to the south, across the ocean, were not as well documented as Equestria and the surrounding kingdoms. The words “Storm Empire” were spread across a wide swath of land.
Twilight knew that in ancient times, these lands had not been the dominion of an empire, but contact with the region had been suppressed for centuries.
One day, she thought. She pressed her hoof gently on the map, and as she focused, she could swear just for a moment that she felt the pain and darkness that gripped the people of the fallen Empire. For now, though…
She shook the thoughts away and returned to her desk. The urge to record her experiences and conclusions down to paper gripped her. It was borderline intoxicating, which for most ponies would have been unusual. Not so for Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. The final step of her journey was a simple report, one that she had been longing for since the first night those three words had come to her.
“Seek…
…Learn…
…Know…”
Twilight perked up. She could swear that the familiar voice had called to her, but all she heard now were the curtains blowing in the breeze. Using her magic, she closed the window and returned to her work before her. This research will be for the betterment of all living creatures all over the world, she thought. With a quick dab of ink on a fresh quill, and a smile on her face, she took to the blank parchment before her.
“Thaumaturgical Ocularity, or Magisight: The visual phenomenon of magic at its most fundamental level. A first-hoof account by Princess Twilight Sparkle.”