It was a beautiful day in Ponyville; the birds were singing, ponies going about their business all happy like, and nothing stood of the ordinary...well, except for the Gummi Ship that was parked just outside of town. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy had arrived early to get some training done, as advised from Master Yen Sid himself, but Sora wanted to visit Twilight first. Since their last visit, they didn't get to see any of the sights, due to the recent attack of Heartless and Plundervines a few days ago, so Sora wanted Twilight and Spike to help him get his bearings about the new world before he went head first into training.
Sora turned to his friends, "Okay, guys, I'm gonna head inside the library see what Twilight's up to."
"I'll go to Applejack's and see if my magic can help her on her farm." Donald suggested.
"H'yuck! And I'll go to Rarity's and see if she needs any help with her dresses!" Goofy said.
"Don't you mean, 'trash her dresses'? Especially knowing you?"
"Cut it out, Donald, Goofy's not THAT big a klutz, besides, he's helped us many times before." Sora interjected.
"You're right. I'm sorry, Goofy."
"It's alright, Donald, I know yer just teasin'." Goofy waved off.
"In any case, I'll go with Sora," Jiminy said, "I'll need to chronicle anything in my journal and you two can tell what you've been through afterwards."
"Okay. See ya later, Sora!" Donald said as he and Goofy waved him and Jiminy goodbye for now.
He waved back in his pony form and headed for his destination. After he entered the library, he noticed Twilight concentrating on a book she was reading. Deciding not to bother her, he took a seat against the wall far from Twilight. After reading the book from start to finish, she picked it up in her telekinetic hold and tossed it away.
"Ugh!" she groaned in annoyance.
Little did either of them noticed that Spike was dusting and the book that was thrown smashed into his feather duster, partially destroying it.
"What's wrong, Twilight?" he asked.
"Agh, I've gone through every book in Ponyville, Spike," she began as she lifted another tome, "and there isn't a single mention of the mysterious chest that came from the Tree of Harmony, nor anything about keys to unlock it!" she put the book down and turned to Spike, "But something tells me that opening it is pretty important."
"So that's why you were so focused on that book." Sora said.
The two jumped at his words, swiftly turning their heads in his direction, "Sora!" Twilight gasped, "When did YOU get here!?"
Sora put a hoof to his chin, "Hmm...I think about five minutes ago."
Twilight blushed in embarrassment, not noticing him come in earlier, "Ah, heh-heh..." she shook off her blush and flew up to a tall stack of wobbly books, "Anyway...I hope Princess Celestia has some ideas. If the library in Canterlot doesn't have anything, I don't know where else to look."
"Ahh!" Spike yelled as the wobbly book stack landed on him.
After he dug himself out, he burped a plume of green fire and out came a scroll from Princess Celestia, which Twilight grabbed with her telekinesis and began to read,
My dearest Twilight,
While it would be perfectly lovely to have you in Canterlot once more, I have another option in mind much closer to Ponyville. As you know, the ancient castle that I once shared with Princess Luna is mostly in ruins, deep in the Everfree Forest. But if you look carefully, you may find a book that could prove helpful to your research, hidden somewhere in what's left of the castle library.
"Road trip!" Sora declared, making Twilight and Spike giggle at his antics.
And so they did; the group of three headed out of the library and travelled through the aforementioned Everfree Forest, arriving at the castle and making their way to its library. Once there, Twilight gasped loudly at all of the books that lay on the shelves and scattered around the floor.
"Wow! Look at all these ancient books!" Twilight said, excitedly, flying up to the shelves, "It's a veritable gold mine of information! I can't believe it! Whoo-hoo!"
Spike, on the other hand (or hoof), wasn't as excited as Twilight, he looked the area, scared and nervous to the point where he didn't notice a spider web in his path until it was too late. He walked right through it and caught himself off guard, stumbling and falling to the stone floor, closing his eyes from the pain. After opening them, he was face to face with a stone statue of a giant horse and yelped as it startled him.
Spike laughed nervously as he brushed off the webbing, "So, uh, Twilight, Sora, eh, ready to head home?"
"Are you kidding? This place is PERFECT!" Twilight cheered as she dove into a large pile of the ancient books.
"Yeah, I'll see you guys later, I'm gonna see if this place has some kinda old training area I can use. See ya!" with that Sora waved to them and began to scour the castle, looking for a place where he can train.
Meanwhile, Spike, curled up in a ball, looked around fearfully as spiders with six eyes, eight legs, and star marks on their thoraxes crawled around him, making him even more scared, as if he was fear itself.
To Be Continued...