Apparently, Gruff wasn’t kidding when he said something was wrong with the world. For some reason I was very calm when he told me this. I think it was because I was the centre of so much. I already had the impending doom of my own world to worry about, and also the fact that I was a calamity for Equestria just waiting to happen, heck why not add a multi-universal situation. Okay, I take that back, I didn’t say that.
In reality, the world-ending scenario actually did have something to do with me. Gruff had been talking to Death Wing Sharp and I was surprised to find that they were friends, of a sort. At least, Gruff seemed to think so, Sharp didn’t seem like the type to be friendly to just anyone but I could see it happen. Over the time that I spent away from Gruff, he had improved both his vocabulary and his understanding of the nature of reality from a scholarly perspective.
He was a budding philosopher, in between his job as a security manager for Canterlot’s nightclubs. I laughed at that, and even Luna and Twilight had looked bemused.
“Excuse me, Miss?” a gruff voice interrupted our walk. A brown pegasus with a bunch of letters in a ‘swooshing’ motion adorning his flank, greeted Twilight. “Are you Miss Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight smiled at the pegasus.
“That’s me!” she happily affirmed. The pegasus pulled a letter from his blue satchel and mouthed it over to Twilight.
“Express personal delivery from Ponyville, postage prepaid”, he remarked, giving Twilight a dip of his head to Twilight’s polite ‘thank you’.
Twilight disassembled the envelope and read the contents of the letter.
“Oh”, she said uncertainly. “Oh dear, I must be going.”
She looked at me apologetically, giving me a hug.
“I’m so sorry but one of my friends has applied to the Wonderbolt Academy and we’re holding a picnic tomorrow to show her our support, there is quite a bit to prepare, so I need to leave you here. Tell me all about it, though! I want to hear what’s so dire”, she excused herself, trotting back the way we came. I watched her disappear with a tinge of disappointment. Twilight would be incredibly useful for knowledge of any kind.
I looked at Luna.
I guess I’ll have to make do… I thought cheekily.
Luna gave me an icy glare.
“Thou weren't thinking something rude, thou saucy knave?” she growled ferociously.
“How did you-“ I began, before Luna cut me off.
“Several generations of dealing with the nobility of our country has sharpened my discerning wit”, she explained, giving a disconcerting smile.
I shuddered as she laughed it off.
“Oh come off it, young one, I only jest”, she said in response to my discomfort. We continued along the winding alley, picking up the conversation again with Gruff.
In the course of his studies he had coincidentally met up with Solid and her crazy conspiracy theory on how the world was controlled by the Tree of Harmony and other ancient and mysterious artefacts of the land. Luna gave Gruff an intense look as soon as he mentioned the Tree of Harmony but she snorted and dove into an explanation in response to my questioning tilt of my head.
Luna had dismissed the notion that the Tree of Harmony controlled anything with a wave of her hoof. Although they didn’t know much about the Tree of Harmony (which was apparently some extremely powerful magical construct somewhere in the Everfree forest), they were convinced that the Tree of Harmony was not actually controlling anything. In a manner of speaking, it is backwards, the will and strength of bearers and the nation of Equestria gave the Tree of Harmony the strength to endure.
Gruff gave a nod assent when he was told this. Luna had looked shocked that Gruff had somehow gotten his paws on such obscure knowledge. I mean, it wasn’t common knowledge, according to Luna at least, that the Tree of Harmony even existed. It was a closely guarded secret, a fable to the very few that caught wind of it.
The way that Luna explained it almost lead me to believe that the Tree of Harmony was in a symbiotic relationship with the land, which was ridiculous because how could a magical artefact like that gauge the complexities and the moods of all the ponies within Equestria and regulate that ‘emotional energy’ in some complex and powerful spell that promoted the concept of harmony?
It seemed a little far-fetched to me.
At least, when Twilight had been talking about magic, the basics seem to be founded upon some very fundamental principles that couldn’t be violated. The Tree of Harmony seemed to be a deal-breaker in terms of the Thaumic Conservation of Energy and all the jazz. I noted this to Luna and she gave me her perspective on it.
The Tree of Harmony was an enormously complicated construct. It was an extension of the primeval magic that flowed through the land. Generations of ponies caretaking the land had resulted in the spontaneous growth of the Tree, resulting in a mutually beneficial magical reflux. I guess, in an analogous way, it was how we managed to gradually shape our environment to our liking, building buildings, making machines and creating clothes so we could have convenience, with the proper application of science.
The Tree of Harmony was a physical manifestation of generations upon generations of pony magic seeping into the lands, willing peace and cooperation between each of the tribes and each other.
Gruff had agreed with Luna’s and my own assessment of the Tree of Harmony but he lifted a claw at a point that we had just made.
“The Tree of Harmony is responsible for the powerful magic that the ponies possess. The constant recycling and reflux of the Tree has lead to higher thaumic background accessibility”, Gruff explained. I nodded. This meant the ponies could utilise more powerful magic as long as they were within Equestrian borders.
If I could recall, the Crystal Empire had a similar device, called the Crystal Heart. It basically did the same thing, take in the emotions of the ponies within the Crystal Empire and let it wash out again, renewing their magic and increasing magic flow throughout the land.
Luna gestured for him to continue.
“The Tree of Harmony is safe… for now”, Gruff clarified waving a claw in the general direction of Ponyville. “The danger comes when the Tree of Harmony comes in contact with you.”
Gruff pointed a finger at me, a worried grimace twisting his features.
I was confused, we already knew that, but it wasn’t as if I was going to go up to the Tree and hug it. In fact I was probably as far as I could be from the Tree itself.
Gruff grunted in exasperation.
“The Tree takes emotions and the magic of the ponies and recycles it!” he repeated impatiently, giving me an irritated look. I threw up my hands.
“I know this! I’m not even near the Tree, how can this be a problem?” I asked, a little petulantly.
Gruff growled.
“You touch a pony, you touch the Tree!” he stated, crossing his arms.
“I-“, I started, but I stopped, thinking about what he just said.
Oh.
“Yes”, he continued, pointing at Luna. “You have touched the former Bearers and the newer Bearers and already a drop of magic throughput has spread throughout the land!” he exclaimed, rubbing a paw to his face in exasperation.
“You did not know of course, I can’t blame you”, Gruff grumbled. “But we have a serious problem.”
Luna had perked her ears when she heard a passing comment from Gruff.
“You say magic throughput has dropped?” Luna queried, trying to get a feel for her magic, it felt the same.
Gruff nodded.
“Solid and few of my unicorn contacts have begun testing”, he replied, stopping at a nondescript door. He knocked on it in a complicated series of taps and scrapes. Oh, must have been a code, interesting…
The door wordlessly slid open, a massive minotaur giving us a friendly nod as we came inside. I edged around the bulky female, as she slid the door closed. Never thought I’d see a minotaur up close. Gees, they’re massive, a few heads taller than me.
I heard a crash and some pony cursing.
“Pony feathers! Horse apples! Bucking buck!” a familiar feminine voice screamed from within the kitchen area.
A suspiciously smoky Solid crawled out of the kitchen on all four hooves.
“Stupid cooking, how does juice catch on fire?!” she yelled back at the rapidly spreading flames in the kitchen. A panicking unicorn stallion brought buckets of water to quickly douse the flames.
“Keep that madmare out of the kitchens!” he screamed indignantly as the fires died down. He slammed the door to the kitchen with a resounding thud.
Luna was having trouble keeping her laughter in and I felt the tug of a smile at the corners of my mouth. Gruff just folded his arms and rolled his eyes, glaring at the sodden, blackened mess that was Solid Evidence.
Lightning and Hardy entered in from the side.
“And I said to the mare, I’d mare-y you any da-“ Lightning chortled, then paused, assessing the situation.
Smoking Solid, check.
Royal Princess happens to be in the same room, check.
Fire due to some fault of Solid’s, check.
Strange null being responsible for the end of the world, check.
“I can’t deal with this right now, you guys sort it out”, he muttered, making his way to a couch and flopping down. Hardy joined him.
I couldn’t contain it anymore. I cracked up.