//------------------------------//
// 08- Gehen 
// Story: The Chalk Prince and the Clover 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//

While Silverstream might’ve been just trying to help Albedo and Klee with their situation, her suggestion on what they should just caused things to end up being more confusing. Not just confusing the two siblings, who had no idea what the Tree of Harmony was, but also Twilight and Starlight based on how the hippogriff phrased her answer. For all they knew, the tree was a magical tree that held the Elements of Harmony. However, when Silverstream said that they should ‘go ask the Tree of Harmony’, she implied that it was somehow sentient. That it was somehow able to communicate and talk to them.

Though, the first one to speak after the hippogriff’s outburst was not Twilight or Starlight, but instead Albedo. “The Tree of Harmony?” he asked, before looking to where Ocellus was, “What’s that?”

“It’s… an ancient tree that’s in the cave of harmony, not far from the Everfree Forest,” the changeling did her best to answer the alchemist’s question by recalling the lesson they had on the tree in class. Though, she was a bit worried that both the headmare and the counselor would get suspicious if she said anything regarding the encounter they had sometime ago.

“Oooh, a tree? Does this tree have apples?” Klee now asked.

“W-what? No,” Ocellus shook her head, “The tree doesn’t have apples. From what headmare Twilight taught us, the tree is where the Elements of Harmony originated from-”

“Forgive my interruption, but that is the second time that we’ve heard that mentioned,” the alchemist now spoke up, “Since these ‘elements’ sound rather important, could someone explain to us what they are so that way we are at least familiar with it?”

That question was enough to have Twilight take the initiative this time, “Well, the elements of harmony are a series of magical artifacts that were bestowed upon myself as well as my friends. There’s six in total and each one represents a value of friendship and harmony; Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty and lastly Magic. They’ve helped us stop previous threats from trying to take over Equestria and they were originally found by both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna on the tree.”

This intrigued the alchemist a bit. When looking through the tome on magic he was reading earlier, he did notice a particular section regarding elemental artifacts. However, given Twilight’s sudden arrival, he did not have the chance to review that section in more detail, “So, in essence, these elements are the ‘fruits’ from that tree?”

“That’s… one way to explain it, I guess-”

When Klee heard the mention of fruit, her eyes lit up as she was quick to interject, “Ooh, Klee loves fruit!! Just as much as fish! Do these fruit from the tree taste good?”

That, in turn, had Twilight stutter for a moment as she looked back at the little girl, “W-what? No! J-just because the Elements came from a tree doesn’t mean that you can eat them. They are not actually fruit.”

Unfortunately, the headmare’s explanation did little to help in that moment. If anything, it just made Klee even more confused than before. “So there’s fruit from the tree, but you can’t eat it at all? This is making Klee’s head hurt.”

“Klee, I think it’s more of a figure of speech,” Albedo told her, before an idea came to mind about a better way to possibly explain it to her, “Do you remember when you told me about that friend of yours from Wolvendom? The one who was raised by wolves?”

“Oh yeah! Razor’s one of my best buddies,” the little girl beamed before pointing at Twilight unexpectedly, “His hair is as soft as their fur!”

“Well, he isn’t a wolf himself, but he was raised by them,” the alchemist told his sister, “Similarly, the elements that Twilight was talking about aren’t fruit, but they came from the tree they’re talking about. They aren’t exactly what you expect, but they still came from there nonetheless.”

It took a little bit in order for Klee to somewhat understand what Albedo was saying, but the comparison that her brother made was making it a bit easier for her to understand. Something that Twilight herself was rather thankful for since it meant that she had one less explanation to give. Though, out of everything that had been said, there were still a few questions that haven’t exactly been answered yet as she looked back at Albedo. “So, where were we?”

“Well, you were mentioning more about the ‘Elements of Harmony’ to try and help clarify some things that I did not really understand,” Albedo replied, “Though, what does this have to do with our problem as well as what Silverstream said?”

“To be honest, that’s something that I want to know,” the alicorn admitted, before she and Starlight looked towards Ocellus and Silverstream, “Perhaps you can help clarify a bit on what you were talking about, Silverstream?”

While the question from Twilight was rather simple, both the changeling and the hippogriff were in an unsure state right now. While Silverstream wanted to tell them everything about what she and her friends had encountered sometime ago, Ocellus wasn’t quite sure if that was something that they should be sharing. Especially if some creature just happened to be listening in on their conversation. Though, lying to the headmare was also something that they didn’t want to do either.

“W-well, there’s… a bit of a story to that,” the changeling admitted, “Remember when you gave our class that lesson on the Tree of Harmony a month ago? The one that you said we were going to have a test on?”

“I remember,” the alicorn answered, before she tried to ask a follow up question, “Though, how exactly does that relate to-?”

“Well, this happened during one of our study sessions with the rest of our friends,” Ocellus replied, “While we were studying, we heard something in the back of the room and went to go check it out. When we went to investigate, we found a crystalline root that led into the caves under the school.”

“We have a cave system under the school?” Starlight now asked, hearing about this for the first time as she looked towards Twilight, who was equally surprised by the revelation.

“Trust us, every creature was just as surprised when we found out,” Ocellus answered back, “When we went down, we saw what appeared to be Headmare Twilight. However, when we saw her, she didn’t exactly recognize us and saw us as ‘not one’ with friendship. So, she split us all up and gave each one of us a test for us to complete. When we got back together and found what we thought was Headmare Twilight, we learned that the pony we were talking to was actually the Tree of Harmony itself, whose roots had extended to under the school. They had just used their power to conjure a physical form to resemble some creature we all recognized and her tests helped each one of us overcome doubts that we had inside of us. Though, before we could ask her any other questions, she brought us all back to the library. Almost like nothing ever happened.”

To Twilight, that was a lot of information to take in. Especially since what Ocellus just shared about the Tree of Harmony was new information to her. Not just because of how far the roots of the tree actually stretched out, but because of the extent of the tree’s power. Especially since it had been some time since she had last visited the tree herself. 

To Albedo though, he thought of what Ocellus said a bit differently. The way that Ocellus and the others had described both the tree and the elements, plus the information that he had already read about, led him to come to one possible conclusion. That perhaps the extension of the tree’s roots led to the creation of some of Equestria’s ley lines. While there wasn’t a lot of evidence on that part, he was confident in the possibility.

There was only one way to know for sure though. “Ocellus, you said that where this tree was is close to a forest, correct?”

“Yeah, the Everfree Forest. Why do you-,” before Ocellus could finish her question, her eyes widened. Realizing what Albedo was possibly thinking as she shuddered in place, “O-oh no… You’re not thinking-”

“Given how we do not have any other options to go off of, I say that your friend was right in suggesting that we go pay this tree a visit,” the alchemist replied.

“The Everfree is a dangerous place though,” Starlight spoke up, a bit surprised by Albedo’s response and unsure if he should follow through on it, “It’s full of monsters like Timberwolves and Cragadiles! Surely, you don’t mean to go on your own now, do you?”

“Why of course not,” Albedo reasoned, “Ideally, it would be best that two of you accompany Klee and I. Preferably someone who knows where the tree is located and one of you who has met the tree’s physical form. As for the monsters, I’m sure that they are no different from the ones that Klee and I have handled before.”

The last part of that sentence had all the equestrians stare at him with looks of shock. To them, they thought that what Albedo was suggesting was crazy. Yet, to his little sister, Klee had a much different response, “We’re going on an adventure, big brother? Can I bring Jumpy Dumpty with me? Please!!”

It did not help that when Klee was looking towards Albedo, Twilight and every creature could see that she had eyes of desperation. Like if a puppy was begging to have dog treats. At first, the headmare wasn’t sure if this was the best idea. Though, considering everything that they have discussed and the very limited amount of options that they actually had, it seemed as if there was no other choice.

“If this is the only way, then I guess we have no other choice.”

“Yay!!” Klee proclaimed, “We’re going to have SO much fun!!”



When Twilight and Ocellus originally arrived at the Everfree Forest with Klee and Albedo, the two of them weren’t sure what to expect. For some reason, the monsters in the Everfree  had been rather active after what happened at the School of Friendship a week ago and seeing them venture too close to town had been a common occurrence over the last few days. Not only that, but Twilight was unsure what exactly the two siblings were capable of. She had been told that they possessed abilities unlike that of magic, but had yet to see them for herself.

Yet, just as they were starting to traverse their way through the forest, the group stumbled upon an all too familiar creature. Timberwolves, beasts of living wood that hunted in packs and were rather active during Zap Apple season. One such pack blocked the road forward as three of them, including an alpha, stood in their way.

At least… temporarily.

“Jumpy Dumpty, GO!!”

When Twilight originally saw Klee toss out the Jumpy Dumpty, she thought that it looked like a rabbit that was inside a red linen sack. However, as it hit the timberwolves, it exploded on contact, before scattering a series of smaller rabbit-like balls with a red clover stem. They exploded shortly afterwards as the wood on the timberwolves began to catch fire, forcing the beasts to frantically panic and scatter into the wilderness. Just before they happen to explode as well.

“Yay!! No scary beasts will make Klee run away!!”

In the aftermath of the small encounter, Ocellus and Twilight just stared at Klee in shock. She looked so young and innocent, yet had so much power to make an entire pack of timberwolves run away in fear. Not only that, but she saw all of this as if it was a fun game that she loved to play. Just… how was this somehow okay?

Unfortunately, they did not really have the time to answer that as they heard Albedo speak up. “Let’s keep going. I’d doubt that those monsters were the only ones in here.”