Nightmare Moon stood above the three laughing wickedly. All Twilight, Smarty and Reina could do was just stand there with their mouths open at what had just happened. They just couldn't believe their eyes, why would Nightmare Moon come back at a time like this. Princess Luna herself swore she'd never turn into Nightmare Moon again from her jealousy, but to help protect Equestria.

Nightmare Moon stopped her dark laughter and focused on the three of them with a sharp, angry glare. Smarty, Twilight and Reina slowly backed up when she made given them that face. Her horn charged brightly, bringing out a beam of magic onto the ceiling of wherever they were. Twilight gasped, the ceiling was about to collapse.

Reina was just about lucky enough to have grabbed both Smarty and Twilight by the time the ceiling above them was collapsing. The parts of the beam-hit ceiling collapsed onto where they originally stood and they had scooted across the ground, with little scrapes done.

All three of them got up off the ground to the sound of hooves nearby and they gazed upon who it was before them. Princess Celestia! She seemed to have a bit of a sad look on her face when she came into the room… or was she in the room the whole time?

Nightmare Moon trotted slowly out of the smoke of the once-was ceiling, standing there in a confrontation with her own sister. Celestia flew up into the air, looking down at her sister. But Nightmare Moon wasn't going down without a fight. She fired a beam towards her elder sister, who narrowly dodged to the side, breaking open another part of the ceiling, revealing the clear full moon.

Celestia landed on her hooves and stood in another confrontation with her younger sister. This was the time for the three of them to stop this fight. All three of them blocked Nightmare Moon's path.

"Princess Luna! What are you doing?!" Reina called out. "This isn't you right now!"

Smarty shouted "Think of how long you were banished to the moon for! Doesn't that ring a bell for you?"

"We might have to send you back there again if you don't stop and realize what you're doing!" Twilight shouted, trying to snap some sense into Nightmare Moon.

"Luna! I will not fight you!" Princess Celestia angrily shouted, seeming to have not looked at the three figures in front of her even once. "You must lower the moon! It is your duty!"

Nightmare Moon just chuckled in joking to what her sister said. "Luna? No! I am… NIGHTMARE MOON!" She shouted, surprising Reina. "And I have only one task to do… TO DESTROY YOU!" and fired another dark beam of magic towards Celestia.

Celestia reacted quickly to this and flew upwards, dodging the beam thrown towards her. Nightmare Moon began to take pursue, following her sister into the skies. Smarty and Twilight opened their wings and began to fly after the two, Reina just ran through the castle, keeping an eye on what was happening.

Smarty took off faster than Twilight was going, he needed to put an end to this fight now. With the plants growing around, this is even worse situation. Nightmare Moon was charging a beam straight for Celestia's chest. Smarty knew he had to do what had to be done and went in front of Nightmare Moon.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He shouted, with the beam going straight for him, but passing through him like it was nothing.

The beam had hit Celestia and the sun princess had let out an injured scream, stopping her flying and falling towards the castle ground. "CELESTIA!" Twilight shouted, flying towards the fallen princess. Nightmare Moon just chuckled in the clear moonlight, being victorious in destroying her sister.

Twilight flew down towards the lifeless body of Celestia. "No…" She softly spoke out, not seeing the princess moving. "Why would Princess Luna do this? Why now?" She softly began to cry, releasing tears from her eyes. Smarty and Reina stood by the sidelines, tears filled their eyes as well, saddened to see the death of a leader in the wrong time. What seemed to be that all hope was lost… became a quick change in the moments after.

Celestia rose up from the top of the ground, bruised around the chest from the magic beam, looking up at her own sister. Twilight stopped crying and did a happy gasp. "You're alive!" She cheered, but Celestia didn't turn to look at her. "Celestia?"

After a few moments, Celestia turned towards a piece of stone ground. "Oh dear sister, you give me no choice… but to use the Elements of Harmony!" She cried out, pulling back that piece of stone. Behold, the six original elements were shining brightly.

Twilight, Smarty and Reina covered their eyes briefly when they were revealed. "The Elements? But that's what they looked like… in the past." Twilight said quietly to herself.

All three of them began to watch the events on Luna's banishment unfold when Celestia took the Elements, ignited them in a battle with Nightmare Moon. The beam of the Elements covered Nightmare Moon and sending her to the moon. It had placed her symbol onto the moon itself.

---

There was a flash of white light, sending the three of them into another flashback. They were in a completely outdoor environment with crickets chirping in the dark and the pond plants singing. They looked upon the crystal-like oak tree there. What was that tree?

"The Tree of Harmony. So it exists after all." A voice called out behind them. All three of them turned around, it was both Princess Celestia and Luna.

Smarty looked upon the tree, studying it carefully. It seemed to have Celestia, Luna and Twilight's cutie marks on the trunk, but there was one in the shape of a heart with two crossed objects… His cutie mark.

"Are you sure this will work?" Princess Luna asked in a soft, worried tone while they gathered the Elements from the tree.

"We can use the Elements in order to defeat Discord by any means. As long as the Tree remains, it'll possess a greater magic than will defend Equestia without the Elements in its possession." Celestia said behind Twilight, talking to Luna.

---

Everything began to flash white again and Reina, Twilight and Smarty were back in the real time. They shook the flashback juice off of them and took a look at their friends who seemed rather surprised. Reina stared back at her three other sisters with a really confused look as to why they were looking surprised.

"Why are you all looking at us like that?" Smarty said, breaking the silence.

"It's just that…" Applejack spoke out first. "You had all of us worried for the three of you. You were all murmuring and not to mention the crying from Twilight."

Discord appeared behind Twilight. "I for one found it kind of funny. You should really do an entertainment like that for a living." He said, with Twilight rolling her eyes.

"But did you manage to find out whose flank we need to kick?" Rainbow Dash said, mimicking some fighting moves.

"Well…" Smarty said, remembering what he saw. "There isn't an evil plot going on. But from what we've seen, the Tree of Harmony is in danger."

"The tree of… what now?" Pinkie asked, curious about it.

"According to what we've seen," Reina told them. "This is the tree that first formed and created the Elements of Harmony." Discord listened away while eating from a small bag of popcorn.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go save the… tree!" Applejack said, pointing towards the Everfree Forest.

All eleven of them ran off towards the Everfree Forest, ready to begin another adventure. Discord stayed behind, giving them a bit of a friendly wave to give them good luck. Then he realized there was no more popcorn. He just guffaws and says "I'm going to need more popcorn."

---

The eleven of them faced the entrance of the Everfree Forest. The vines started to flow throughout the trees of the forest, covering throughout most of the forest. By the state the forest was in, it didn't seem like it would be surviving soon enough as well.

"I remember this path…" Fluttershy said in her soft voice. "It was when we were first finding the elements of harmony."

"Wasn't mine different?" Smarty asked, facing Fluttershy.

"That was when you were fighting the Changelings during the wedding of you and Twilight." She told him, beginning to trot forward onto the path. Twilight was leading the way.

---

The eleven of them journeyed into the forest, the sky starting to grow darker by each step that they took into the crooked bushes. The path seemed to go on for what would only feel like it was just like the beginning of the Element hunt.

"I found something!" Twilight called out, bringing the others closer. It was a very small pond with rocks to hop across for the rest of them. Most of the water seemed to be green most likely because of the black plants growing from below. Twilight took a small rock and threw it into the water. The rock floated to the top before melting away which was something rocks never did.

"Come on, we can cross." Twilight said, jumping onto the rocks. "I'll go first."

Twilight hopped each rock with only a few stubbles, nearly almost falling into the water. She could fly, but seeing all the vines, she'd most likely get captured by the vines if she flew.

She made it across the rocks and looked across to her other friends. Each of them went one at a time to cross the dangerous rocks. By the way the color of the pond was, it would seem dangerous for the others if on contact.

Twilight moved across the bushes to think about the plant situation. Where did these things even come from anyway and why were they trying to invade? Surely the Tree of Harmony would have defended the land of Equestria with its powerful magic and kept it from doing so.

Suddenly, a spray of gas came in through the bush she was behind. The smell of the air began to make her cough slowly. She had this same air come to her before and knew it by the smell. It was a toxin that the plants were bringing out now that she was alone. Giant plants rose from behind the bush, spraying her with the toxin. Twilight was continuing to cough while getting sprayed by the plants.

Her body and mind began to feel both weak and tired. The plants were spraying her from each corner, that it was pretty much the only things that she was able to see. "Smarty!" She called out, sounding like she was in danger and was sleepy. She tried to move back to the bushes, but would be blocked by one of the crab-plants. Finally, her body just gave out of all its strength to the toxin, having her fall to the ground. She had fallen unconscious.

"Is everything alright Twilight?" Smarty called out behind the bush, trotting into the bush. He gasped at the sight he had saw when the crab-plants surrounded her. One of them was about to take a bite out of most of her.

A giant lasso grabbed hold of that plant and distracted the other plants to turn to the others. Applejack and the others took the fight to the plants, while Smarty ran to help out Twilight.

"Twilight, wake up!" Smarty said, seeing that she thankfully wasn't dead. "Come on, you can wake. I believe in you."

Twilight still was unconscious, but was starting to move a bit. "Come on Twilight, get up." Smarty softly spoke, gently placing his gentle lips onto her soft lips, giving her a gentle kiss.

Twilight groaned tiredly after Smarty let go of the kiss. Smarty's smile grew when Twilight slowly opened her eyes. "Wha- What happened?" She said in a confused tone.

"Those plants attacked you and tried to eat you when you were knocked unconscious." Smarty said, gently stroking her cheek. "I was really worried about you when this happened."

"Don't worry Smarty. I'm alright now." Twilight said, holding onto Smarty's hoof while he helped her up off the ground.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's finish this." Rita said. "I want these plants gone by now."

Twilight and Smarty nodded to their friend, agreeing. Both of them trotted towards their friends to continue their journey to the Tree.

---

The eleven of them finally made it to the ruins of Celestia and Luna's old castle, the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The plants were now starting to grow very out-of-control, and it was to the point they were stomping on the vines to keep them from attacking.

"Alright, we've arrived." Rose said, looking at the castle. "Now we must find where the roots of all these plants are."

"Wouldn't there be one though for these things?" Sara asked.

"Very true." Twilight said, curious about the speedy growth of the plants and their vines. "From what I see, they must have one root all together by the looks of it."

"Guys! Look!" Smarty shouted, pointing out the small hole where all the huge vines were coming out of. "That must be where the Tree of Harmony is!"

"You're right Smarty, but… how do we get down there?" Reina asked.

The sound of Pinkie falling was heard, each of them turning to see Pinkie falling down a flight of stairs to the bottom. "Take the stairs silly!" She shouted out.

They took the stairs to the bottom, below the ruins. They came forward towards the hole, gasping at what they saw. The Tree of Harmony itself, covered with the black plants. The color that the tree originally was had been faded, turning stone gray.

"I think it's dying!" Fluttershy said, worried about the tree.

Twilight trotted forward towards the tree and studied it carefully. The vines on the tree were moving all about the special tree, trying to crush it. A majority of the vines were around the trunk, choking it from getting the magic and air it needed. A vine approached Twilight and grabbed her. She gasped when it took a hold of her front right leg and used her magic to sever the vine off of her. Then, the idea struck her, reflecting on what Celestia said.

"I think what we have to do now." Twilight said, approaching her friends and husband. They took a look at her carefully knowing that it sounded like the only solution to the problem. "We have to give the tree the Elements of Harmony."

Everypony was in complete shock by this statement. Give up the Elements of Harmony? That would be like selling their pony soul to Tartarus to have. Rainbow Dash didn't look so willingly to give away her element of Loyalty.

"Whoa whoa… If you do that, then how are we supposed to turn Discord to stone just in case?" Rainbow Dash said, disagreeing with her idea. "The elements have always been connected to us."

"And many times, the evil have tried to destroy the Elements of Harmony. I mean, take a look at Black Darkness. He tried to kill me, but we had to change him back to Star Shine thanks to the Elements of Harmony." Smarty said, placing his hoof on his chest.

"They always will be connected to us, no matter what." Twilight said. "But if we do not act fast, we still may be too late in helping the Tree."

Rarity came forward to Twilight, saying "I'm with you Twilight. With Discord reformed, I believe he might not cause any more trouble. So I guess we just have to rely on our friendship with him." Everypony nodded in agreement.

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea." Rita said. "Just keep them in case Maleficia finds a spell that returns her to this world."

"No worries." Twilight said. "The spell the elements did at the time was to seal her off in that world. She won't be able to come back."

"Well I do believe you Twilight." Reina said. "But you should give the Tree back what it needs to survive, or these plants will cover us."

Twilight nodded in agreement, igniting the magic on her horn to take the element jewels off of her friends and Smarty. The four humans and the rest watched as Twilight flew up with the elements close to the tree.

Twilight spun the elements all around her at once, ready to place them back. The vines on the tree became aware of Twilight's presence and began to coil around her like a snake. Using her magic, she moved the other elements first into their rightful places, then focused on Smarty's element of love, placing it into the trunk. The vines just about covered her completely when she inserted her element into the middle of the tree.

The Tree of Harmony started to spring life back into its trunk, lighting up back into its original crystal-like color. It powered up everything that every element gave it, and then fired away with a big blast. The vines around the tree became vaporized by the blast of the tree's power and was vaporizing by every single one around Equestria.

A group of the vines uncovered two large amounts that they had captured, and with a shining light, vaporized the last of them to see what the two were. But it was not a what, but who. It was none other than Princess Celestia and Luna.

Twilight was really happy to see Princess Celestia and galloped forward towards the two alicorns, throwing forward to give them both a hug. "I knew you could do it Twilight." Princess Celestia said, proud of Twilight for having to do what had to be done.

A spark alit in Twilight's eyes, the Tree had begun to power again, spreading a long rainbow like root down its trunk and onto the soil. A little small sprout came out of the tree, and Twilight and the other princesses approached. Her friends and husband also needed to see this.

The sprout opened up fast, revealing from a large amount of light, a box. But not an ordinary box that they've ever seen before in these parts. Reina approached and began to observe the box; she hadn't even recognized this from Equestria's history books either. But it had seven firm locks on it.

"Seven locks… seven keys." Twilight said, observing the box. "But where's the keys? How can we open it if there are no keys known to be found?"

"Well, I think this is something you won't be solving alone." Princess Celestia said. "I trust you'll have a time searching for it."

---

All eleven of them were coming out of the Everfree Forest, starting to think about what was in the mysterious box. But they were surprised by the sudden appearance of flags, and applause that Discord himself had created.

"Congratulations to all of you! You did it! You all saved Equestria once again!" Discord said, cheering. "Did you all blast the beastie with your Elements of Harmony and bending skills? Hey wait a minute…"

Discord teleported to Applejack and shrunk down to see something was missing. "Now where are those elements of harmony, your true weapons to defeat evil?" He asked.

"…Gone." Applejack said, sounding a bit sad to have let go of her element.

"Gone?" Discord said, surprised by this. "Gone…" His claws were placed together, as if he was up to something.

"But we're still friends." Fluttershy said. "And unless you want to lose all these friends, you'll stop doing what you're thinking of doing and help clean up the town."

Discord scowled and said "Oh fine." Then he snapped his claws, putting a maid costume on him. "But I don't do windows."

Smarty watched Discord start to walk off and turned to Twilight, saying "One thing I'm curious about is how the plants even appeared in the first place."

"Hmm, that's funny." Discord said, stopping. "I could swear that those seeds I planted should have sprung eons ago."

"What did you say?!" Twilight shouted at Discord who just about hinted that he planted them.

"Oh why should I tell you when you could see it for yourself?" Discord said, giving her the potion that brought her into flashbacks.

Twilight sighed in annoyance. She just wanted to get this over with, so she took a drink and let the flashback take her to when Discord was about to be first turned into stone.

---

"Playtime is over for you Discord!" Celestia shouted to Discord, when he was evil.

"Oh I doubt that!" Discord said, conjuring up the black coal-like seeds. "Hungry?" Loads of the seeds landed onto the ground and dug themselves in.

"Well, seeing that my original plan wasn't working out, I had to go straight into Plan B. The plunder seeds were supposed to capture the princesses a thousand years ago, but the magic of the Tree of Harmony still remained strong."

---

Twilight exited the flashback now that the truth had been revealed to her. "You do realize that this is information we could have used an hour ago?!" She shouted again, realizing he might be wasting their time.

"And I rob you of being a princess? What kind of friend do you think I am?" Discord said, causing Twilight to roll her eyes.

"Well, you don't have to worry Twilight. We're all safe now." Smarty said, approaching her and placing his hoof around her.

Twilight just smiled at her husband. He was right after all, and it was time for another mystery to solve with him and the rest of her friends. The box was still in her mind after all.

What was in the box that was so important? Well, it seems like it'll be another adventure for the Mane Seven.