Daring Do carefully turned the crystal box between her hooves, scrutinizing it closely through a jeweler's loupe. "Anyway," she said. "It's about what I figured..."

"And that would be?" Celestia said, carefully holding her patience.

Daring pushed aside an armload of archaeologist's tools and set the box down on the worktable in front of her. The cavern below the Castle of the Two Sisters had become quite cluttered since her arrival at the Princess' behest. "Well, yer Maj, let's start with the basics," she said, tipping her pith helmet back. "First off, we know the Tree of Harmony is an artifact predating yourself and your sister and even Discord by.. well, there are records of it going as far back as there are records. There are even cave paintings of it."

"An artifact?" Celestia's mirror-image swam briefly.

Daring nodded. "Made by who knows who--- some legends say one ancient civilization, some say another. Some say the Maker himself, shortly after the beginning of the world. But no, definitely an artifact."

"And how does one determine that?" Celestia said, both skeptical and curious. "As opposed to it being, say, a natural living thing?"

"Put in layponies' terms, The same way you know a funny-shaped rock isn't just a funny shaped rock, but a tool-- it has a handle," Daring Do said.  She held up an arrowhead dangling from a thong around her neck. "Or grooves for a handle, anyway. The Tree of Harmony may look like a tree, but the way it behaves says 'tool.' Something made to be used by ponies. It pops out six magic necklaces, then a magic six-sided box? It's as obvious as a tree that sprouts teaspoons."

Celestia nodded. "Agreed," she said. "I just felt it necessary to play the arbitrary skeptic."

Daring Do nodded in acknowledgment, back to staring at the box. "Any way, it's obvious purpose is to serve as a way to maintain and restore harmony, duh. Keeping everything in balance. That's what it's been doing for the Everfree, after all."

Celestia frowned. "I would hardly call the Everfree harmonious," she said in disapproval.

Daring Do looked up and grinned at the princess. "Really?" she said. " 'The plants grow without anypony. The animals take care of themselves. And the clouds move-- all on their own,' " she recited. "An entire forest that lives and grows and thrives, perfectly balanced against itself,  without anypony there to care for it. Think about it."

Celestia's mouth formed an "o" of surprise. "That's right," Daring Do said. "I've been all over the world, Princess; in deserts and jungles and swamps and grasslands and everything in between; places where no pony-- or any other being--- has ever been. Most of the world is more like the Everfree than it was ever like Equestria. The precipitation cycle, the food chain....there's more than one kind of harmony out there, and they have nothing to do with the work of ponies." She tapped the trunk of the Tree, eliciting a chiming note.

"Of course after Nightmare Moon, the Tree of Harmony sensed you and all the other ponies leaving, and re-started the natural ecosystem here. Since you weren't using the territory anymore, and all. When the Plunder Vines attacked, that threw the Everfree's cycles out of whack, so it needed the power of the Elements back to restore balance."

"I...see," Celestia said, fascinated. She and Luna had been foals when Discord had risen to power; all she had known was either Discord's uncontrolled chaos, or Equestria's carefully groomed order. She had known of other lands where nature was not so finely controlled, but had never occurred to her that Equestria might be the exception, rather than the rule-- or that such places might have their own sort of harmonious balance. This would bear much thinking about.

Daring Do went on. "Anyway, the Tree's purpose is to encourage Harmony all around it. I figure the Elements were designed as a sort of.... detachable tool, for 'spot-cleaning.' When a serious disharmony pops up, you take the Elements from the Tree, go find the problem, and Friendship Beam the stuffing out of it. Like you did with Discord and Nightmare Moon.

"Of course the drawback is that they're kind of crude; really broad-brush, brute-force. Point 'em at the disharmony, and they do the first thing that pops into their heads to fix that particular problem. Or.... as close to whatever pops into the bearer's heads, maybe. Like turning a chaos entity to stone and a broad-spectrum spell-undo over the surrounding area. Or... well, in your case... they probably sensed you didn't want to hurt Princess Luna or imprison her in stone, you just wanted to contain her. So it picked 'banishment' instead."

Celestia felt the need to move the conversation back to the original topic. "And... what about the box?" she pressed.

"One track mind, huh?" Daring Do said with a smirk. "Well, first off I'd say this means the Tree shows Lemurian influences in its design."

"The Lemurians?"

"The Lemurians. Or... maybe the Lemurians were influenced by the tree..." Daring shook her head. "Anyway, your ancient Lemurians were big on making powerful artifacts, devices and weapons, but they were also big on really redundant safety features. They were the first culture to create combination locks and safety triggers."

"Very cautious, were they?" Celestia said.

"Eh, you have to know your Lemurs. Paranoid little primates." Daring Do shrugged. "The Elements? Very Lemurian design mentality. Think about it: a harmony super-weapon that requires at least two to six bearers who embody the six principles encoded in the gems. All of them have to be in agreement for it to work, and if any of the Bearers tries to use their Elements against another Bearer, they cease to work for those Bearers permanently. That's a lot of safety features.

"And from what your apprentice Sunset Shimmer tells me, on the other side of the scale there was even an emergency fallback. If one of the Elements was separated from the others-- say by taking it into a pocket or parallel dimension, or by one of them being deactivated somehow--- it would unlock certain default abilities that the Bearer could use. She says that's why she came back to Equestria. She was planning on stealing the Element of Magic, to use back in that world. There are other ways to trigger those independent abilities I'm sure, but once she went back through that magic mirror, it would be totally separated from the others and would unlock its emergency backup powers for her." She shrugged. "Since it was the Element of Magic, it just opened up a generic magic booster. The others probably had Element-specific special abilities, but no telling, now that they've re-merged with the tree.

"And this this box? That just screams ancient Lemurian influence." Daring nodded confidently, holding the box in one hoof.

"How so?"

Daring Do turned the box. "I made a few preemptive attempts to open the box... before rethinking it, that is... and learned a few things. Six pre Greco-Roamin thaumatic style locks, each with a different key. Pick-proof. Internally aligned so that all six keys have to be inserted, and turned simultaneously. Those are the kind of safeguards the Lemurians put on their most powerful and dangerous artifacts. As powerful as the Elements of Harmony were? Safe to say, whatever's in this box is most likely an upgrade."

"More powerful?" Celestia said faintly, alarmed.

Daring Do  looked at the box apprehensively. "Something that the Tree's maker figured needed six simultaneous locks... six MAGICAL locks,... just for safety's sake." She snorted. " I figured that out when it shocked me and shattered my lockpicks; the short nearly blew my fillings out. Smartened up after that and gave it another once-over instead."

Celestia stared at the box through the mirror and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "There's power and there's power," she said. "It can't possibly be any sort of tool of destruction."

"Maybe," muttered Daring Do. "I know what happened the last time the ancient Lemurians used one of their widgets that had six keys."

"What?"

"The continent of Lemuria sank." Daring Do said grimly, adjusting her pith helmet. "Not often I've had to do an archaeological survey in a diving helmet."

"So," Celestia said. "Any clue as to how we unlock it?"

Daring Do stared at the co-ruler of Equestria, her eyebrows tabled. "I get the feeling you're not hearing half of what I'm saying," she said flatly.

"Have a little more faith, Miss Do," Celestia chided, amused. "The Elements proved themselves to be unremitting instruments for good. Whomever created the Tree and all the hidden wonders within it would not replace them with something harmful." She shifted on the divan she lay on. "This is the crux of the matter; do you believe that this box is dangerous?"

Daring Do chewed her lip. "My paranoia wants to say 'yes,' but.... No," she said, finally.

"And why not?"

"Because while its safety features say 'Lemurian,' everything else says 'Not,'" Daring admitted. "While the Elements were powerful, they were still absolutely benevolent. Friendship Beam, remember? They seemed explicitly designed to avoid doing genuine harm, no matter how aggressively used... I read the friendship letters they sent you; they certainly weren't holding back against Nightmare Moon or Discord-- and the Bearers were really cheesed at Discord. Lemurians weren't quite so nicey-nice about what their artifacts could do." She cocked an eyebrow. "Hence, the sunken continent..."

"No, I think the box is... a refinement." She waved a hoof. " 'Like... an upgrade. You've learned to use the simple tools, kid, now let's break out the more advanced stuff.' I know of a couple of master-apprentice traditions that kept their apprentices' "graduation tools" in ornate crystal boxes. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw it."

"A more advanced version of the Elements?" Celestia proposed.

"Heh. Something a bit more than that, I'd guess," Daring Do said.  "See the shape? Irregular polyhedra. Hexagon on top and bottom, six quadrilateral panels around the top, FIVE quadrilateral panels around the bottom, and one triangular(1)--- but see that last panel on the bottom? The odd one out, shaped like a triangle? what what happens when I flip it over." She rolled the box over and flipped it between her hooves.

Celestia blinked. "The triangular panel... it moved!"

Daring Do nodded. "This is a polychoron," she said, holding it up and peering into one of the keyholes. "A folded four-dimensional shape. Last time I saw one of these it was in a collection of artifacts of nigh-cosmic beings; a genie's bottle." She looked up at the mirror and grinned. "Which means it's bigger on the inside. Way, WAY bigger. And as the vertices are all hinges--- ALL of them, which makes no sense except for a four-dimensional object-- I'm guessing it's designed to completely unfold when activated, sorta like a self-inflating raft." She set the box down on the worktable again. "Nice thing is, whatever's inside a four-dimensional box is perfectly safe, even if the container is destroyed. You coulda smashed that genie's bottle to dust and the genie inside would come out totally unharmed. Bigger than life, mad as hell and with all his furniture piled around his ears, but unharmed." She gave a disgruntled snort. "Of course this thing is a trifle tougher than your typical genie bottle. Found that out just poking at it.

"Either way, I'm not sure anypony but the, er, Alicorns of Harmony?" Daring Do pondered the name; Celestia shrugged as if to say 'good a name as any other.' "Well, I don't think anypony but the Alicorns of Harmony can open it. Six locks means six keys.... but I don't recall you saying any keys popped out of that tree with the box. "

"Plus... see these engravings around the sides? This particular repeating pattern? I've seen this in a few tombs and temples in my time-- it generally indicates something like 'test of character.' " She rubbed her chin. "But there's no actual puzzle or riddle on the box itself. So, considering how the Elements were 'unlocked...'

"I wager the new Princesses all have to undergo some sort of epiphany about the virtues they represent. Something to indicate they've reached the next level of enlightenment, or whatever. At which point the latent signature of the Elements still on them will make a key manifest. At which point they have to all come together, insert the keys, and unlock this little party favor to get the crunchy goodness inside."

"Ah, excellent," Celestia said. "So, how long do you think it will take you to circumvent it?"

Daring Do's eyebrows went up. "What? Uh, sorry, Your Sunshinyness, and I know I already sorta jumped the gun a little, but don't you want the new princesses to get the benefit of whatever lesson..."

Celestia interrupted her. "Miss Do, I'm sure you've wondered why I specifically hired you for this particular job. Tell me, at the Temple of the Lesser Sun, how did you get past the accursed locks sealing the sarcophagus?"

"Uh, a bundle of dynamite?" Daring Do winced a bit. She'd gotten an earful about that from the museums; they didn't appreciate her launching chunks of priceless stonework into near orbit.

"And what of the deadly riddle doors in the Maze of Mysteries?"

"I flew over the maze."

"How did you deactivate the Minotaur King's killer golem without the Minotaur crown to control it?"

"It was forty below outside, I just poured water in its gears and let the freeze wrench it apart."

"The cursed plaque of Nunhotep?"

"Sledgehammer... okay I get the point," Daring Do grumbled. "You were looking for a particular kind of problem-solving skillset. But that doesn't exactly answer my question. You REALLY don't mind me trying to crack this thing?"

Celestia gave a sigh and a rueful chuckle. "Miss Do, I recently learned a lesson the hard way," she said. "I learned it takes a real jack-flank to make ponies dance and beg and jump through hoops for something they urgently need, especially when the one playing the game is nothing more than another flawed, finite, limited being like the rest of us. I was so fond of being the mentor, that I forgot that mentors aren't automatically supposed to be cryptic.

"And I find I don't appreciate being made to jump through hoops myself, either. All of Equestria was imperiled more than once because whoever made the Tree and the Elements and the ponies who wrote Prophecies decided to be a cryptic ass about it; I'm not going to tolerate that sort of thing any more.(2) The Mane Six, Equestria itself is going to need whatever is in that box. If we are not 'worthy' of it, then we will simply have to beg the Maker for forgiveness and do our best. These long-dead mystic sages want to play chessmaster with us? Let's see how well they handle it when we switch to kickboxing."

Daring Do gave a dark chuckle. "I like how you think, Princess," she said. "Okay, I'll put my lateral thinking skills back to cracking this box open. Of course there's one thing I'll need..."

"Of course. What?"

Daring Do held up a fifty pound mallet with a shattered handle. "Spare sledgehammer budget. Kinda lost my temper at the thing when it zapped me."

(1) Yes, I looked it up. Remember the blueprint on the wall of Twilight's library?

(2) She wasn't joking. Shortly after the debacle with her number one student, she had passed a few quiet royal decrees. The Guard were now under instructions to take any pony making poetic-sounding prophecies into custody and bring them to the castle where large, unfriendly looking stallions would inform the would-be Nostradamus that they had WAYS to make them talk coherently. Next Chapter: Chapter 32 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 4 Minutes