The Tree of Harmony was a standing yet hidden beacon of peace and hope for the ponies of Equestria, inspiring harmony and friendship with its very existence. It was something that, even to the Princesses of the Sun and Moon, seemed to be ancient and unknowable.
Until now.
The crystalline structure of the tree creaked and groaned with the occasional shattering sound reverberating though the caverns as chips and shards of the glistening material fell to the cave floor. The branches slowly curved up and inward as the roots tore themselves from the earth, more and more chunks breaking off. The massive trunk began to sway back and forth before falling with a resounding crash, a cacophony of crystals breaking and tinkering across the floor.
The great tree laid there, its roots and branches moving weakly, fractures covering its form.
To an outsider, it might seem like a bleak image, the heartbreaking death of a noble entity.
They need only watch a little more to know they were wrong.
The branches furthest from the floor moved closer together, joining into a mass. The appendage moved and shook as it took form, a head taking shape, with a snout longer than a pony, yet not narrow enough to be a hound and the skull too rounded to be a dragon. Its lower jaw still unformed, it could only let out sounds like echoing groans and whimpers.
At the same time, the branches and roots closest to the ground formed into limbs as well, curling and shifting about one another at each of the four "corners" of the Tree. The hind legs were thick and strong, but the forelegs started out even more so with the branches being much larger and thicker than the roots. Part way into forming the limbs, the crystals broke down the middle on both front appendages, splitting them into two smaller legs, flexing them apart as the crystal-skin healed and smoothed over.
It lay there, moving its feetless legs and mouth-less head about, as if trying to fix a dislocated limb, its trunk much too bulky for its developing appendages.
Without warning, the Tree started thrashing and bouncing itself wildly about with loud, screech-like pants of breath. With a the sound of a thousand shattering windows, its body shifted as two great crystalline wings unfolded from the trunk, leaving it with a torso that was more fitting of the new limbs.
With that much done, the harmonious entity that was quickly becoming NOT a tree slumped to the floor in exhaustion. If it had been flesh, its stillness might imply death. But since it was a crystalline spirit, that was hardly the case. As its semi-formed head rested against the ground, the many broken pieces of its body began to slide and roll towards it. Like a malleable puzzle, they began to form together into a lower jaw, slipping together and fusing wherever needed.
It raised its front most left leg, shards racing up to form the last of the limb. Even as the eyes still took shape, it brought the paw closer to its head to observe the new addition to its body. It was like a dragon's, almost, only with four fingers and two opposable thumbs, and more rounded at the end than claws would be. With a whimpering groan, Harmony brought the appendage down with a resounding thud as it pushed up its large body, moving into a sitting position.
It shook the cobwebs from its new head briefly as it took in its form, still unfinished. Footlees, mouth still unformed, and it was too big. Unless it had no sense of size and dimensions, getting out of the cave would be a bit of a squeeze when it was done forming.
That and the ponies and all other similarly size life forms would probably be scared by a creature of this height. It wasn't even going to ponder how long it might take for it to grow enough crystal to form five more proper feet.
Looking towards its right and staring at the wall for a moment, it decided to go with the slightly idiotic idea of smashing itself against the cave wall. To its delight, its body seemed to know its intent, shedding a layer of its body, shards falling to the ground before moving to the stubs of its limbs. It would have hummed, if it knew how, as it watched its other front hand form from the spare pieces it had shed. It also would have scowled as it found one finger missing, the longest of the six to be exact.
Harmony could definitely fit out the door now, but was still too big for its taste. With a roll of its neck, it slammed itself against the wall twice more. A few minutes of shards reforming themselves and it now had all four front legs with hands. Still, two appendages left and that was no guarantee it'd be happy with the size. For good measure, it slammed into the wall twice and hoped to have at least one foot done with by the end.
It watched as its hind feet formed, less material needed for the increasingly smaller proportions . They were curious things: flat footed without opposable digits, the toes a bit longer than it had expected. This time, there were only five toes for some reason and they had a sharper edge to them. Its body was still bigger than Celestia's highest head point when standing on all fours. Its head didn't rise above the shoulders as much as a pony's would. It wanted to get a bit smaller still, but wasn't sure where the pieces would go.
Putting that aside for now, it decided to experiment with something that Harmony had never done: Walking!
However, the ancient spirit forgot one thing. It had seen creatures that walked on four legs, two legs, three legs, and even one or no legs...but it had never seen anything that walked on six. Well, at least not with legs set up like what it had now.
As a result, it quickly found itself crashing to the floor...and losing another layer or two of itself in the process.
Its body had, apparently, decided that it needed nostrils at this point since it did manage to let out of a sigh of annoyance as it rose itself back up and hoped the very strong intent in its mind to NOT shed more crystals would make them harden again. Carefully moving each set of front legs in sync, Harmony managed to get to a nearby pool in the cave. Looking at its reflection, it noticed several things.
First, its body was still the same shades of blue it had been as a tree. Not surprising, but good to check.
Second, its head was surprisingly like a predator's. Not that it mind but it expected it to be more equine, or at least herbivore shaped.
Third, some of its broken shards had elected to form into a set of deer horns. It wasn't sure it liked that, to be honest, but it would live with it for now.
Fourth, the featureless eyes were done, but the mouth seemed to be sealed shut. Maybe it had to break open its own jaw?
Fifth, after failing to determine by its own face, it looked down and deduced that it was, currently, genderless. Maybe the voice would lean one way or the other.
Sixth, Harmony couldn't see the elements.
Seventh, after a quick glance around, it saw that it had a lithe tail now- but who the buck cared, WHERE THE HAY WERE THE ELEMENTS?!
There was something oddly comedic about a six legged crystal creature suddenly becoming so alarmed that its jaw snapped open to mutter in worry, "Where are they, where are they!? I didn't drop them in the water, did I? Please don't tell me I broke them!" It yelled to itself as it searched around the cave.
Eight, its voice was also androgynous, one female and one male echo behind a young voice that could be either.
Just as it was about to give up in despair, it blinked as it found exactly what it was looking for. Buried inside the front most left hand was the Element of Loyalty! "How did I miss tha-...Oh, right, I shed lots of layers," Harmony remembered in embarrassment as it stared at the objects with a frown. It really didn't like the elements in its limbs. While it would take a god-class spirit to kill the former tree, any upper-tier magic user could theoretically blow its hands off.
Cocking its head, the crystalline beast curiously unfolded its wings and brought the hand to the "feathers" of its aerial limbs, really just a solid wall of crystal designed to look like feathers. With a soft glow, the wings were now tinted with the Red of Loyalty. Harmony's mouth couldn't quite grin yet, but it would have at its tribute to the hotheaded Pegasus. Getting back into a sitting position, it found that the right front palm had Magic in it. The left middle had Honesty with Generosity in the opposite. On the hind feet was Kindness on right and Laughter on left.
Harmony glanced back at its tail, a thin yet graceful thing that was almost like a cat's, except with a small puff-shape at the end. It blamed Discord for that influence, but it wasn't complaining- the only other non-pony tails that came to mind were scorpions and reptiles. The graceful, nonthreatening tail was a much preferred appendage for the spirit. Deciding to be a bit funny, it pressed Honesty to the tail, coating it with a faint trace of Honest orange; a jesting way of saying it had Honest Tails to Tell.
With a chuckle, and a giggle in the echo, Harmony looked to the Elements in the back most legs, wondering how to get those. Deciding to try the obvious, it pressed an empty hand to the Element of Kindness. To its relief, the butterfly shaped gem switched palms with a brief glow. With a brief thought, it pressed Kindness to its chest, a small pink shading now adorning it. Where else was it supposed to put Kindness but in the heart? Reaching down again, it transferred Laughter before putting it to its gut, it's Belly-of-Laughter now a lighter shade of blue-it personally hardly noticed a difference, but shrugged nonetheless.
That left Magic and Generosity. Magic was easy, to be honest, but Generosity was a bit tricky. Then it blinked, wanting to face-palm but not wanting to lose another layer. It pressed the Star of Magic to its forehead, almost feeling a tingle as the magenta color flowed over its face and head. With all other limbs empty, it gently grasped together its four hands into an odd ball as the rich dark purple of Generosity spread over its six legs.
With that, Harmony let out a self-echoing sigh. It felt good now, even if it didn't have a gender to call itself and could still feel its insides shifting about. Looking itself over, it was happy to say it liked the color scheme. The colors blended well at the edges, leaving it a very colorful looking creature.
It glanced back at the quiet cave it had known all its existence. It was kind of sad to be leaving it, but it was exciting too. Having a new form and actually able to speak, to talk with everyone?
Well, it knew exactly where to start!
"To Ponyville!" Harmony declared as it ran to the exit- or tried to, falling at the exit. Thankfully, nothing broke this time, "Hopefully I can learn to walk by the time I get there," It murmured, face still against the floor.
Timeskip
"Six legs, why did it have to be six legs?" Harmony asked itself as it walked through the forest. Most creatures seemed strangely yet pleasantly relaxed around it. Good, it liked giving off pleasant vibes. Though, some of the predators avoided it and the Timberwolves just walked on by the crystalline beast, 'Timberwolves are made from the pieces of dead trees in the Everfree. Does that make them my cousins or something now?' It pondered to itself.
It had taken a few more falls, but Harmony was finally walking straight…even if its palms were walking all over each other half the time. It was tempted to try flying, but...well, a large crashing mass of crystal is more than a little dangerous.
As it cleared the tree lining, the spirit got the feeling it would have needed to squint and adjust to the brightness if it had been flesh and blood. As it was, it smiled and somehow felt breath it didn't need hitch in its mouth, drinking in the sight of a place it knew so well and yet so little. There was Ponyville, peaceful and tranquil next to the foreboding forest of the Everfree. Fluttershy's cabin, Sugarcube Corner, Carousel Boutique, Rainbow's little cloud house, Apple Acres, and...Friendship Castle. And beyond that, in the distance, was proud Canterlot on the mountain side.
Can eyes of a crystal beast that used to be a crystal tree representing harmony shed tears of love and awe? Unfortunately not.
Sensing them had been one thing, but seeing this place with its own eyes was something truly wonderful. And to think, it had helped them all get here. Was that pride and joy in its gut? It thought it was.
With a smile on its new face, it began its trek towards the town-
-and was promptly stopped by a rainbow blur, "Wow, wow, wow, wow buddy! Hold it right there!" Rainbow ordered as she put a hoof on the creature's face as she floated at its eye level, giving it a stern look, "Where do you think you're going?"
Harmony smiled as it looked at the Pony of Loyalty, "I was hoping to meet with Princess Twilight Sparkle," It answered politely, resisting every urge to hug this mare.
Rainbow blinked, relaxing a little bit, "Good, you can talk. Sorry about that: See a strange creature come out of the Everfree and it's best to think the worst upfront," She apologized, eyeing Harmony curiously, "So...what are you exactly?" She asked with a head tilt.
"Hmmm, I don't actually have a name for what I am," Harmony answered, a bit more coyly than it intended.
"Seriously? How does that work?" Rainbow asked skeptically.
"You ever see anything like me before?" Harmony asked with a grin, unfolding its wings and holding up all four of its fronts legs in a shrugging motion.
Rainbow let out a small whistle, taking in the form fully, "You look like a really weird runaway statue from the Crystal Empire," She commented thoughtfully.
"Heh, I suppose I do, don't I?" Harmony agreed with a laugh and giggle, "So, may I pass?" It asked hopefully.
"You know, you look a bit intimidating," Rainbow cautioned.
"I know, I'm working on that," Harmony assured to Rainbow's confusion.
"What do you need to see Twilight for, anyway?" Rainbow asked, a protective edge in her voice.
Harmony smiled fondly, "I have waited a long time to meet a lot of ponies, but Twilight Sparkle is one of the top."
Rainbow eyed the creature oddly, looking at the different colors its body faded to and from, "...You try anything and I'll send you back into that forest," She warned, her words lacking any real bite to them.
"I expect nothing less, Rainbow Dash," Harmony said with a smile of shiny, jagged teeth as it passed on by.
"...When did I tell him my name?" Rainbow commented to herself in suspicious confusion as she trailed after it, blinking as she realized something else, "Hey, I never got your name!"
The crystalline creature stopped to look over its shoulder with a coy smile, "Oh? You forgot already?"
Author's Note
Beta: Dragon_Wizard91
Well, there we go! The first chapter about the bucking Tree of Harmony getting its own walking, talking body to live amongst the ponies with. And oh boy, when they figure out what It is, their reactions will be glorious.
Speaking of which, yes Harmony is an It for now. It will get a gender eventually, but for now,Harmony is an It.
Not much else to say, as this is mainly a prologue. Hope all enjoyed Harmony's rather....unique form that I made up. And yes, it will change some more, both on its own and by Harmony's design.