When I woke up the next morning, I was startled to be on the hill. You see, I forgot that I had decided to sleep outside. I looked around and was surprised to see the sun already up in the sky. I usually wake up around dawn to feed the animals and now it must have been almost noon already! Oh, and what about Angelbunny? He must still be asleep since the only time he will wake up is when I bring him breakfast.
I looked down and there he was, still snuggled against my roots. Roots? I tried to crane my neck to see myself but I couldn’t. Then I tried to reach down to wake Angelbunny but all I could accomplish was a slight rustling of my branches. Branches? I didn’t understand what was happening yet. But if I couldn’t crane my neck, how could I see Angelbunny? I could see him through one of my branches that was hanging over him. Huh?
What was happening? Why did I have branches and roots instead of hoofs and wings? Why couldn’t I move? How could I still see? I didn’t understand. Was this what it was like to be a tree? Wait, was…was I a tree?
I remember thinking those things and then I caught sight of my reflection in the morning dew on one of my leaves (my leaves?). I looked into the reflection and what looke back was…nothing. Nothing was looking back, there was nothing in that reflection but a tree. A tree? That hit me with a jolt. I was a tree!
Yay!
It was as if I was just truly waking up. It just all hit me at once, I was so excited. So this was what it was like to be a tree! It was nothing like I imagined. I could think, I could see, I could hear, and I could feel. Who knew trees experienced so much? Eventually, I came to realize that a tree’s memory is even better than an elephants! I once met an elephant while I was still a pony and he told he could remember all the way back to when he was a child. Well, I guess I was never a sapling but I can still remember what happened ever since I became a tree and before the miracle too and since trees get much older than elephants…Will I really be able to remember hundreds of years?
Sorry, I got a little sidetracked.
Where was I? Oh! How was I able to see and hear? It was so overwhelming at first but it turns out that a tree can feel, see, and hear everything around it. From the base of my roots underground, to my furthest reaching branches, a tree perceives through its bark and to a lesser extent, its leaves. I found out the longest I can still listen (communicate?) to a leaf is until it dies. For me, that would probably be somewhere between 1-2 hours before one of my leaves die after it detaches from a branch.
It is very interesting to see the world as a tree. It is like my head is a little squirrel that climbs up and down the tree and looks out. But I think that is because I am still pretty new to this. There are times in which I feel like I can see everything and hear everything around me all at once and it is really scary. It is overwhelming and I usually retreat back into my bark for a while until I calm down.
Sorry. I’m just so excited that I can’t think straight right now. I keep getting distracted and I want to share with everyone everything about being a tree. I’ll get back to where I left off. There will be plenty of time to describe being a tree later once we catch back up to the present.
Um, okay. So after I realized I was a tree and figured out how to direct my senses (I think that’s the right phrase), I tried to figure out what kind of tree I was. My, I had never seen a tree that looked like me, I must have been a new species! It was so wonderful. I was my own tree.
The other trees of Ponyville had nice healthy shades of browns and greens and the trees of the Everfree forest has an older look to them. They grew without restraint and have lived for a long time. Their barks were thicker, darker and they reached higher than most trees in Ponyville. The Ponyville trees were tamer and organized so they would not be a hassle to the other ponies living there. Even the trees in the park were different than me. Those trees were usually skinny and did not grow very tall. They had grey bark and were able to grow closer together than most trees.
Compared to other trees, I seemed very…light? I probably had the lightest shade of brown for my bark. It was almost orange with tinges of yellow peeking through. But I was still a tree so it was still brown. My leaves were also a lovely shade of green but I guess those were pretty normal colored. I wondered how old I was because I just became a tree, I mean, it is not like I grew from a sapling. Was I at my maturity or was I still growing? I guess only time will answer that question.
I may not know how old I am but I know a healthy tree when I see one and I was healthy. The sheen of my leaves were bright and my bark, full of life. My bark was nice and smooth and the girth of my trunk must have had a, um, radius of maybe nine or ten inches! Oh, and how tall I was! If I were planted next to my cottage, I could easily peek into my highest window and my leaves went even higher than that! My branches would also reach out in all directions, like they were trying to comfort and hug the world. My longest branches must have been three or four ponies long. They made such lovely shade all around me and it was the perfect kind of shade. I mean, the leaves were thick but not too thick and just the right amount of sunshine could sneak through.
I was the perfect tree that I had always imagined.
Oh, I was so excited about finally being a tree that I forgot all about Angelbunny! I only remembered that he was there as he started waking up because his little feet always give a little kick right before he wakes up. It is sooooo cute. I wondered what he would think of me being a tree or if he would even know it was me?
I stood there watching him wake up, wondering what he’d do but was still unprepared for what he did when he woke up…