Sweetie Belle sighed as she looked out the window of her bedroom. Another gloomy day in Ponyville. She couldn’t blame anypony though, the day’s weather was scheduled to mostly be a rainstorm. Sweetie just wanted to go outside and crusade with her friends, Applebloom and Scootaloo. They hadn’t much luck with finding their cutie marks, but Sweetie Belle was sure that they’d get them soon! They’d just need to try something different! Sweetie leaned on the windowsill and huffed, blowing a curl of lavender and pink out of her eyes.
She gazed outside, and out into the distance, through the foggy streets, through the raindrops, to the world beyond. Her eyes settled on the distant branches of the library that Twilight Sparkle lived and worked in. Sweetie perked up as she realized that she had no idea as to what kind of tree Twilight actually lived in. She switched between a series of rapidly escalating thoughts, eyes fluttering distantly as she made a variety of expressions, before finally breaking out in a wide grin.
Sweetie Belle hopped away from the windowsill and bolted out of her bedroom. She skidded down the stairs and heard the telltale signs of her sister, Rarity, crafting away at a particular dress that she had been working on for some time. Sweetie was reluctant to disturb Rarity, but neither of them really had anything better to do on this boring day. Sweetie crept from the living area to Rarity’s workshop, peeking in from the doorway, she spotted Rarity hunched over a sewing machine, muttering to herself.
Sweetie’s ears drooped, she really didn’t want to bother her sister, but she just had one question. “Um… Rarity?”
“Hm?” Rarity looked up, her glasses slightly crooked, Sweetie could spot some frayed hairs in her mane. Rarity had been working for some time now. “Sweetie Belle? What is it, darling?” Rarity clicked her tongue.
“I uh, I don’t mean to bother you… But…”
Rarity sighed and wearily smiled, “Sweetie, you could never bother me. Now, is something wrong?”
Sweetie’s ears perked up, “No! Um, no. I was just wondering… Do you know what kind of tree Twilight lives in?” She smiled abashedly at Rarity.
Rarity frowned, and quickly Sweetie felt that maybe she wasted Rarity’s time. She could’ve probably looked it up in a book or-
“Well, now…” Rarity thought, tapping a hoof on her workbench. “Hmph! I will admit, Sweetie, usually the answers to your questions are quite forthcoming. I simply have no idea as to what species of tree Twilight resides in. Perhaps you could ask her?”
Sweetie Belle sort of expected this. She was honestly hoping that Rarity didn’t have an answer so that she would have an excuse to have a mini-adventure trying to find one. She couldn’t go to Twilight and ask her now, though, she’d have to wait until tomorrow.
“Yeah… I’ll ask her tomorrow when it isn’t so rainy outside!” Sweetie grinned, feeling excited, “It’s gotta be an old tree! It’s so huuuuge!”
Rarity chuckled lightly to herself, “Yes, well, perhaps you could assist me for today? I just absolutely cannot determine which color to use for the inner lining!”
Sweetie’s face fell once more, she hated helping Rarity with all her dress stuff. It was usually pretty boring, but Rarity was her sister, and she couldn’t say no.
Rarity held up a dark maroon dress that appeared to be very light and rather revealing. “Now, the maroon is perfect, an absolutely gorgeous color, oh how it compliments the customer’s palette!” She coughed, “Anywho~ Which would complement the dress more; teal, or a dark gold?” Rarity then held up two respective pieces of fabric and laid them over the dress, she eyed Sweetie conspicuously for a moment as Sweetie put a hoof up to her chin and pursed her lips for dramatic effect.
“Hmmmmmm… I think that the dark gold color would cuh-comm- go better with the dress! Teal is nice, but it stands out in a harsher way as opposed to gold!” She beamed at Rarity, who smiled approvingly back at her.
“Oh, Sweetie… You’re irreplaceable! Quite right you are! I know how much you dislike the art of dressmaking, muchtomydispleasure, but!” Rarity breathed in sharply, “You are a very smart filly with an eye for detail, and I just know that you will be going places someday!”
Sweetie Belle soaked in the praise from her sister, Rarity was in a really good mood today! She must’ve gotten a lot of work done, and with no emotional breakdowns over the dress either!
“Why, Sweetie, I do believe I have an idea- and it relates to what you were asking earlier.” Rarity clicked her tongue.
“What’s that?” She cocked her head to the side, curious.
“How about you and your friends try to identify the trees in Ponyville? I guarantee that you three have not tried to crusade for your tree identifier cutie marks! Besides, it would be a productive way to pass the time!” Rarity tilted her head upwards, as if to take pride in the idea.
Sweetie nodded, “That sounds like a great idea, Rarity! I’ll talk to Scootaloo and Applebloom about it tomorrow!” Sweetie then began to rush back upstairs, eager to get the day over with so that she could hang out with her friends faster.
“Just do not be upset if it does not work out!” Rarity called after her, “I know how you get when something has not gone your way!”
“I wooooon’t!” Sweetie called back as she swept herself into her bedroom, it was already almost completely dark outside, so she could go to sleep soon and get up really early tomorrow! It would be the perfect day! A day spent outside with her friends, figuring out what Twilight’s tree really is, and maybe some other trees too! Sweetie hopped onto her bed and started to settle down for the night, worming her way into the warm sheets and blankets.
“Cutie mark crusaders treeologists yay…” She whispered to herself before she quickly dozed off to sleep, thinking about all sorts of trees that they might find. Maybe they’ll find a tree that nopony has ever even heard of before! Those exciting thoughts began to quiet down, settling herself into a restful slumber in the comfort of her bed.
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It was a bright and early morning the next day, and Sweetie Belle was all for it. She practically inhaled her breakfast as Rarity admonished her for not being ladylike, as if Sweetie cared about stuff like that. Sweetie Belle was out the door quicker than a thestral eating a mango. No rain, white puffy clouds in the sky, and everypony in Ponyville was out and about after the long rainstorm the day before.
She quickly rushed over to the cutie mark crusader’s treehouse, saying hello to everypony on the way as she usually does. There she found Scootaloo and Applebloom laying down on the floor, looking over a notebook. They hadn’t noticed her yet, too busy wrapped up in whatever they were doing to hear the clip-clop of her hooves on the ladder.
“Ah don’t get it, Scootaloo! We’ve done tried pretty much ev’rything!” Applebloom sounded exasperated, throwing her hooves up.
“Ummm… What about rock farming?” Scootaloo looked up from the notebook to an increasingly disgruntled Applebloom.
“You…! Just ‘cause I’m an earth pony don’t mean I wanna be a rock farmer!” Applebloom stuck her tongue out, “No thanks!”
“Yeah…” Scootaloo grumbled, crossing that off the list. “Figured you’d say that…”
“Hi girls!” Sweetie Belle greeted, but the other two crusaders were still all caught up with themselves.
“Oh, I know! What about cloud moving?” Applebloom smiled and gazed at Scootaloo with hopeful eyes.
Scootaloo sighed, “You mean like the time the three of us tried to move a rain cloud by blowing air at it? When it was hundreds of hooves above us? That was embarrassing! Everypony else at school laughed at us for days!” She buried her face in her hooves. “We’ll never get our cutie marks.”
Applebloom looked down at the floor as well, her bow somehow sagging too. “Maybe, but ah still think we need ta keep tryin’...”
“Girls?” Sweetie tried again after their little exchange, not wanting to interrupt.
Scootaloo and Applebloom perked up and looked to Sweetie. “Oh hey Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo started, “Didn’t see you there!” Applebloom finished.
“Uh, yeah, never do that again.” Sweetie looked at them, concerned. Applebloom and Scootaloo just looked at eachother, confused, before bursting into laughter. Sweetie couldn’t help but join in the camaraderie and laughed as well.
Sweetie Belle wiped tears from her eyes as the laughter left her, she was glad that they could laugh, even if they’ve had a hard time getting what they want most. She cleared her throat in a semi-authoritative way and stood proudly, displaying herself.
“Girls! How would you like to become treeologists?!” Sweetie looked at both of them, noticing the confused expressions on their faces. “Like, studying trees? Finding out what trees are what? You know…?” Sweetie deflated as she circled a hoof to punctuate her questions, they didn’t get it.
“So we’d go ta mah sister’s orchard and say to the apple trees ‘Hay! Yer an apple tree!’.” Applebloom snorted, “Ah think trees know that they’re trees, Sweetie.”
Scootaloo looked at Applebloom like she had just thrown a brick through a shop window. “What? Do you have apples for brains? She’s talking about… Like…” Scootaloo looked back to Sweetie Belle, perplexed, “What are you talking about again?”
Sweetie sighed and facehooved. “Like figuring out what kind of tree Twilight lives in. You know, rare trees. Things that maybe haven’t been discovered yet.” She looked up and realized the comprehension on both of her friend’s faces, “Are you guys interested?”
The other two fillies look down at the list they had made. Scootaloo shrugged with her wings, “Well, it’s not like we’ve tried it before.”
“Yeah! Maybe we’ll get treeologist cutie marks!” Applebloom grinned widely, vibrating with energy.
The three cutie mark crusaders silently came to a decision together, and together declared their intentions to the world.
“Cutie mark crusaders treeologists yay!”
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Later that day, the cutie mark crusaders were walking out of Twilight’s library, baffled.
“Who knew that Twilight’s tree was just a huge oak tree?” Scootaloo shook her head.
“Coulda had me fooled! Dang trees ain’t ‘sposed to live all carved up an’ the like!” Applebloom spat.
“It’s probably magic, besides, she let us borrow this tree identifying book!” Sweetie held up the large bound book in her levitation and looked at the cover. “Guess it isn't a treeologist, it’s a dendrologist that studies trees.” She muttered, reading the cover again.
“Twilight almost popped her cork when she told her we were gonna be treeologists.” Scootaloo snickered behind a hoof. “I thought she was gonna blast you right there.”
“Yeah? I ain’t seen you knowin’ if it were treeologist or den…Dendruh… Dumbologist!” Applebloom sputtered out.
While Scootaloo and Applebloom bickered outside of the library, Sweetie Belle opened the book to a random page, wondering what sort of trees were inside. She quickly paged through it- oak, mahogany, teak, pine… All normal! Frustrated, she flipped rapidly, but not before dropping the book on the ground. Sweetie muttered to herself about being more careful with the book, and looked down at it to pick it up, but stopped when she noticed what page it was on.
“I’ll tell you what, Applebloom, you call me a chicken wing again I will shove apples so far down your throat you’ll need a plunger just to get them-”
“Girls! Look at this!” Sweetie Belle interrupted the argument that she hadn’t been paying attention to. Scootaloo and Applebloom pulled away from their argument, much to their chagrin, but obeyed Sweetie Belle and came to look at what she had found. They found themselves looking at a very odd tree, or an old photograph of one, at least.
“It’s called a Dragonsbloom! It looks like it’s all twisted up with huge red vines with spikes all over, but the book says that in the late Summer the spikes open up and shoot little jets of flames along with the seeds!” The girls oohed and aahed at the very gnarled looking tree. It hardly looked like a tree, it had numerous red spiky branches or vines with no leaves that twisted and contorted all up and down the plant, but it was astonishing to the crusaders.
“The book says that they can sometimes be found in the Everfree!” Sweetie Belle bounced up and down, “Girls, it’s August, which means it’s late Summer! And the Everfree is just outside of town! It isn’t too dangerous in the morning, we can go look for it!”
Normally, Scootaloo and Applebloom would be wary about heading off into the Everfree, alone, with no supervision, but they were tired of being ragged on by the other ponies for being too irresponsible or destructive or annoying or… This list could go on, really, but the other two crusaders simply jumped up and down with Sweetie Belle, eager to find the Dragonsbloom tree.
The crusaders quietly snuck out of town, after all, they’d only be gone for a few hours at most, nopony would miss them for that length of time. The three of them then began their journey, walking along the trail over the rolling hills just outside Ponyville, and entered the Everfree forest.
Sweetie was right, it wasn’t dangerous this early in the day. Birds were happily chirping as they walked deeper and deeper into the forest, the trailhead no longer visible. The forest got slightly darker as they migrated inwards, but it was of no consequence to the crusaders. They were used to a little danger and darkness by this point. Nothing could possibly go wrong with trying to find a cool looking tree.
They had been walking through the Everfree for quite some time now, and Sweetie Belle was worried that they might not find the Dragonsbloom after all. The midday sun shone overhead as they passed through a lighter section of the forest, and it was clearly not morning anymore. Scootaloo and Applebloom had started to get more anxious along with her, they couldn’t hear the birds chirping anymore, and the forest was eerily silent.
“Girls… Ah think we should go back. We ain’t findin this tree, and it’s gettin’ darker.” Applebloom sighed defeatedly, kicking at the dirt trail with a hoof. “Looked real neat, too…”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. C’mon, Sweetie, I think this one’s a bust.” Scootaloo agreed with Applebloom, maybe they weren’t meant to be dendrologists.
“I’m sorry I wasted your time girls, I thought it could’ve been a-” Sweetie Belle trailed off as she heard the sweetest sounding tune in the air. It was faint, but she could pick it up. It was as if the very wind was humming a melody. “Do you hear that?” Sweetie lifted her head, trying to discern where the song was coming from.
“Ah don’t hear nothin’. Let’s just go home.” Applebloom declared matter-of-factly, stamping a hoof into the dirt.
“No, yeah, I hear it too! It’s a song!” Scootaloo once more got excited, ears searching for the source of the music.
“Wha- But- Oh, wait! Yeah! Somepony’s hummin’ a tune!” Applebloom, just like her friends, tried to search for the source of the sound.
“I think it’s coming from the castle of the royal sisters!” Sweetie shouted gleefully. “C’mon, if we can’t find a tree we can at least find a song!”
All three of them ran through the trail, the song on the wind growing louder and louder as they approached the direction of the castle. They came across the rift where the old bridge used to be, now replaced with a much more sturdy bridge. They crossed it, and could hear the music very clearly now. It quite literally sounded as if the wind were playing an orchestra of strings, but it sounded almost… Echoing. Despondent. Unnatural. Sweetie couldn’t place the word she wanted to use, but she was sure it would come to her.
They began to approach the castle, when they immediately noticed something that wasn’t there before.
A tree, directly in front of the castle.
“What kind of tree is that!?” Scootaloo pointed at the extremely tall branch that jutted out of the ground.
“I dunno, but hooo-wheee is it ugly!”
Sweetie stared at the tree. It had a very dark… Trunk? She thinks it was a trunk, it didn’t look like the tree had bark on it. It was almost like it was a solid texture, the whole thing. It stuck out of the ground, almost twice the height of the other tallest tree near them. Applebloom was right, it didn’t look very good. It was like someone took a singular tree branch, gave it a claw, and stuck it into the ground!
“Yeah… It’s one special tree, alright.” Sweetie mused.
“Special? How is it special?” Scootaloo cocked her head at Sweetie, “I mean c’mon, look at the thing!” She pointed a hoof to make her point.
She could still hear the tune, and it was obviously coming from the tree. Somehow. Sweetie wasn’t sure how, but magic worked in very strange ways sometimes. She couldn’t feel any magic radiating from the tree, though.
“Well, it’s singing, or playing a song. That kinda makes it special, don’t you think?” Sweetie pointed out, looking at the tree from a distance.
“Mmmm sure, I guess.” Scootaloo grumbled, hanging her head.
Sweetie hummed to herself along with the tree’s tune and opened the book of trees that she had been carrying all this time. She flipped through page after page as Applebloom and Scootaloo talked amongst themselves, but couldn’t find anything. Sweetie looked through the index of the book, and gallery, but still found nothing! This tree wasn’t even in the book, and it was right in front of one of the most famous monuments in Equestria! It’s like the tree just decided to pop into existence one day and started singing a song!
Her inner monologue was erupted by Applebloom proudly declaring, “Ahm gonna go buck it!”
“Huh-wha-wait! Applebloom!” Sweetie called after the earth pony filly as she galloped towards the special tree, but it was too late.
Scootaloo began to run off after Applebloom as well, “Scootaloo! Stop!” Sweetie shouted in a squeaky voice, “That thing might be dangerous!”
Scootaloo briefly turned with a sideways glance, “Pfft, it’s a tree! How dangerous could it be?” Then continued to chase after Applebloom.
Sweetie bit her lip and then quickly made the decision to follow after her friends, galloping to them at the base of the tree. It was positively massive compared to their small pony forms, and towered over them like an oppressive monolith. Sweetie realized that Applebloom was already rearing up to buck the tree, “Applebloom, don’t-!”
Again, it was too late. Applebloom let out a “Yeehaw!” as she slammed both of her back hooves into the thick dark trunk of the special tree. “Sing ‘bout that one, tree!”
The tree stopped singing.
Applebloom’s ears drooped, and she backed away from the tree slightly. “Uh. Sweetie, maybe yer right…”
Sweetie felt odd, like her fur was suddenly being tickled all over, but not- It was static electricity, her mane began to stand up, curls becoming undone. She looked over to her two friends, whose manes began to become affected as well. “Girls, I think we need to go, now.”
Before the others could agree, they were all astonished when the tree MOVED. The tip of it bent down, all the way to the ground, and settled there. The three of them were about to react, when bolts of lightning began firing from the tree.
“SCATTER!” One of the crusaders shouted. Sweetie couldn’t tell if it had been Applebloom, or Scootaloo, or hay, maybe herself! She was so terrified that she just started to run in a random-
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A flash of white light. A forest. Screaming, so much screaming. So many flashes of white light. Ponies, things, stretched horrifically. They were endless. The special trees were everywhere. Above. Below. Side to side. So many trees. How long has it been already? Days, weeks, months, years? Centuries? Sweetie couldn’t tell. Sweetie couldn’t make sense of anything. All she heard was screaming and screaming and screaming and it wouldn’t stop and-
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Sweetie Belle was back on the ground in the clearing outside of the castle, groaning and disoriented. She felt like she was waking up from a very long dream, but that didn’t make sense, she must’ve just tripped and fallen as she was running away from-
THE TREE!
Hyperventilating, Sweetie looked around the clearing, and saw the very same tree a small distance away. She also noticed her friends beginning to wake from their respective slumbers as well, neither of them were injured, which was good, because they needed to leave NOW.
“Get up, get up, get up! Girls, the tree is still here!” She shouted at the other two, the tree wasn’t bent over anymore, it had stood straight back up, but it wasn’t singing. The tree seemed less mysterious and unnatural than it did uncanny and horrifying, and Sweetie wanted no part of it. She didn’t want to be a dendrologist anymore.
Applebloom and Scootaloo rapidly came to their senses, and dashed towards Sweetie Belle. The three of them huffed and puffed as they ran through the forest before stopping on the trail, some ways away from the tree. They all breathed in and out heavily, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The tree stopped singing, bent over, then the lightning, then… Fear. The only memory was an overwhelming sense of fear. Something like this didn’t belong in the Everfree, let alone Equestria.
“We… Gotta… Tell… Zecora.. ‘Bout this one…” Applebloom got out between gasps of air. She was right, if anypony would know what to do about the tree in the Everfree, surely Zecora would know! She could get rid of it!
“Yeah. Yeah! We gotta tell Zecora! She can cook up a brew and throw it on the tree… Or something.” Scootaloo waved her hoof in the air, rolling her eyes.
“We should do it now, it’s a lot later than I thought it was, Rarity’s probably worried about me!” Sweetie became nervous, looking up, she noticed that the sun was indeed going down. Surely they hadn’t been out in the Everfree for that long, right?
“Oh. Yeah. Applejack’s gonna tan my hide fer sure.” Applebloom looked dejected, but perked up. “Least we get to help other ponies comin’ through the Everfree!”
Yeah, that’s a good way to look at it. If you really thought about it in a certain way that definitely wasn’t convoluted at all, what they were actually doing was helping more ponies avoid the special tree that shot lightning.
“Let’s go find her, I wanna go home.” Sweetie pouted and began to walk down the trail. She really did want to go home now, but she agreed with talking to Zecora about the tree.
The shaken up fillies trotted through the Everfree forest, taking many of the familiar twists and turns that they had grown accustomed to, and quickly found themselves at Zecora’s hut. The lights were on inside, which meant that Zecora was home! The three of them rushed up to the door of the Zebra’s hut, and began pounding on it, shrieking her name.
“Zecora! Zecora! There’s a really awful evil tree in the Everfree, we gotta get rid of it!” None of the crusaders could tell who was shouting, but the general message got through. Soon enough, the door slammed outwards, causing all three of the crusaders to jump back.
“Ah! How wonderful to have visitors of the night, though it’s quite a shame to see you three in such a state of fright!”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened, as did Applebloom’s, and Scootaloo’s.
“W-who are you? Where is Zecora?” Applebloom shakily asked, her fear letting her accent fade away.
“Whatever do you mean, my friend of the divine? Could you not recognize Zecora the Cervine?”