While little is known about these ferocious creatures, Manticores are clearly adept hunters, willing to chase their prey to very long distances, up to a few miles… so read Twilight Sparkle in her pleasant treehouse library. Today, she had picked a selection of books pertaining to the wild and mysterious creatures of Equestria. After reading a small volume about hydras, she was now working on another volume about Manticores. Of course, she had plenty of other books set out for her to read. Twilight didn’t take reading days lightly; she planned these days with special care, and wasting their full potential was a waste of precious time.
Unfortunately for her, a knock on the front door indicated that there would be time wasted. Twilight groaned. “Yes, who is it?” she inquired, not bothering to get up and put her book down.
“It’s me, Twi,” came the unmistakable voice of Rainbow Dash. “I don’t wanna bother you too much, but I found something by your house that you probably want back…”
The unicorn groaned again, softly enough so that Dash couldn’t hear it. “Allright, I’m coming.”
A few seconds later, the door was opened and Dash appeared, hovering in place and holding a small book in her hooves. Twilight raised an eyebrow at this sight. “Oh, is that one of my books?”
“Uh, yeah, Twi; you left it outside by the treehouse. And, uh, I kinda read a little of it to see if it really was yours, and… well, it’s pretty creepy.”
“Oh!” Twilight responded happily. “Is it Chilling Tales of Ghosts and Ghouls? I lost that one a little while ago, and I’ve been looking everywhere for it!”
“Um, not exactly. It’s the, uh…” - Dash hesitated for a second, clearly feeling uncomfortable, but finished her thought afterwards - “the book you’ve been writing about Spike, I guess. Listen, I know that you obviously want to keep this private but… it’s just plain weird!”
Twilight had become very confused. A book about Spike? “What do you mean? I haven’t written anything about Spike recently.”
“Look, Twi," Dash began, wanting to end this conversation as soon as possible, "this hoof writing is too neat to be Spike’s. I know this is yours, and trust me, I won’t tell anypony, but this is seriously an invasion of privacy. But hey, it’s not my business. Let’s just pretend that this never happened, ’k? Anyway, I’m out. See ya later!” As Dash concluded the awkward dialogue, she flew off and left the book by Twilight’s hooves.
“Well, that was strange,” she said to herself, and picked up the diminutive book. A minute of reading later revealed that Rainbow Dash was telling the truth - aside from the assumption that Twilight had written it, which she most definitely had not. The book contained a very detailed description of Spike's day yesterday. It must have been his diary. How else could it be so detailed? There were two things that made her think otherwise, though: the hoof writing was incredibly neat, and the diary was written in third person. Well, there was only one way to find out the truth.
“Hey Spike,” Twilight yelled upstairs to her draconic companion, “have you been keeping a diary lately?”
“Do I seem like the kind of guy that keeps a diary?” came the reply.
“Well, no, but it seems like you have been keeping one, and you’ve left it outside the treehouse… you might want to keep it more well hidden if you don’t want anypony reading it.”
“What are you talking about, Twilight? I already told you that I don’t keep a diary. That’s girl stuff!”
Twilight gave an exasperated sigh. “Spike, I know plenty of colts that keep diaries. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Now come down and get it and we won’t have to talk about this again.”
At that point, Spike was coming down the stairs with an annoyed look on his face. “Fine, I’ll take my ‘diary’ back,” - he said the work in a sarcastic tone - “but I have no idea why you think that book is mine. Let me see it,” Spike said as he snatched the book from the table Twilight had set it on. “‘After his six hour nap, Spike woke up and began his chores…’” Spike mumbled the book’s words to himself for a few seconds, then stopped with a confused look on his face. “Uh, I guess this is my diary, but I swear I didn’t write it! For one, it’s way too detailed, and why would I write in the third person?"
“I've noticed that, but who else could have written this? Well, if you’re honest that you really didn’t write it, and I know that I didn‘t write it…" She trailed off as she became lost in thought.
“I don’t know Twilight, but frankly, we have some privacy issues if someone’s watching me this closely. Not to mention it’s incredibly creepy…”
"Yeah, I know..." Twilight was clueless. Nopony had been in the house the past day, and somepony would have had to been right next to Spike to record his every move that accurately. So… how did this happen?
Finally, Twilight thought of one last thing to try. “Hold on Spike, let me just check something. It’s the only thing left that might help us solve this mystery.” She took the book from Spike’s claws and headed outside. Rainbow Dash had found the book outside her house, so maybe the anonymous writer had left some clues.
About halfway around the library treehouse, Twilight spotted something interesting. It was a plant that she couldn’t recognize, and definitely hadn’t seen next to her house before. Upon close examination, she saw that one of the limbs had been torn off. Nothing else was out of order, but when she looked over the binding of the diary, she noticed something she hadn’t paid attention to before…
“There’s no way… I have to ask Celestia about this right away,” she spoke out loud. If her suspicions were correct, this could be a very useful plant indeed…
Reentering the library, Twilight immediately shouted, “Spike! Get a letter ready right now.”
“Huh? Did you find out about the di-”
“Just get a letter! I’ll explain later, but I need to ask Celestia about this first.”
“About what? Ugh, fine, but I want to know what’s going on.”
Once Spike had scroll and quill at the ready, Twilight began reciting her letter.
“Dear Princess Celestia - I’ve just found something that could drastically the future of writing and science. Rainbow Dash found a book earlier today by my house, and it was what looked to be Spike’s diary. It was incredibly detailed, and no one, not even Spike, could have written that accurately about his day. I was perplexed, since it seemed that nopony could have written it. However, upon further examination of where Rainbow had told me the book was, I found a plant I’d never seen before. I compared the book to the plant, and that’s when it hit me. I believe that the book had grown from the plant itself, and it recorded Spike’s day on its own. I have no idea if I’m right about this, as I’ve never read anything about a similar plant, so I’m simply asking if you know anything about this. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Got that, Spike?”
“Yep,” the dragon said as he rolled and burned the letter with magical fire. “And, whoa, seriously? A book that grows books about people? How cool is that?”
“I know! This could be a perfect way for ponies to create biographies or autobiographies, among other things! What if we planted one of these plants in the Everfree forest? We’d find out so much about creatures that are too dangerous to study ourselves!” Twilight was jumping up and down in excitement. “This could change science and writing forever!”
“Hey, don’t get your hopes up yet,” Spike reminded her. “Until Celestia replies, we don’t know anything that’s completely true.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Twilgiht replied, her excitement dying down a little. “I just hope she sends a letter back soon. I want to know so much about this new plant…”
“Well,” Spike said as he felt something in his stomach, which in a second came out of his mouth, “I guess we don’t have to wait too long.”
“Ooh, let me see!” Twilight almost tackled spike in her frantic grab for the scroll. “ 'Dear Twilight Sparkle - I do know what plant you’re writing about. First of all, it’s called a Bookwood tree, and what you hypothesized about it is true. The tree records information about nearby creatures and happenings, and this information is stored in the books that it grows. The sapling you’ve found had recorded Spike’s daily routine yesterday. You probably noticed how small and thin the book was. That’s because it was only growing for a day, and only recorded a day’s worth of information. If the book had grown for a week, it would have been much larger, and seven days of Spike’s actions would have been recorded."
"If you’re wondering where the sapling had come from - well, you’re treehouse itself is a Bookwood Tree. You’re library contains many books that the tree grew itself. Being many years old, there were hundreds of books that had grown from it, recording information from miles away. The larger a tree gets, the farther it can record information, by the way. Of course, I’ve taken away some books from your library, as they contained private information about some ponies. Not all the book are from the tree, either, as the tree can’t record fiction, since fiction doesn’t actually exist. Bookwood trees are limited to factual information only. "
"Anyway, though I have no doubt you would be very eager to grow a tree yourself, I cannot let these trees become commonplace. I had placed a growth stunting spell on your library tree that effectively freezes its growth cycle, but evidently the spell has worn off. The tree will produce acorns until I recast the spell. I cannot let Bookwood trees exist anywhere other than your own, as the private records in theses trees’ books could be used to ruin other ponies’ lives. I hope you understand, but I must not allow you or anypony else to grow their own tree. I trust you, Twilight, but I can’t trust everypony in Equestria, and if a book from your own tree was to be misplaced or stolen, another pony’s social life could be ruined. I’ll come to your house later in the day to take care of this situation. I will see you then. Signed, Princess Celestia.' "
“Oh, ponyfeathers!” Twilight shouted. “Think about the things we could learn from a tree like this! I know Celestia is doing the right thing, but to cut society off from a way to completely change science? There has to be another way besides getting rid of all the Bookwood acorns and stopping the tree from reproducing.”
“I dunno Twilight, but I’d rather not have other ponies’ reading about my private life. For all I care, it’s better to get rid of these trees. Anyway, I‘m beat. Time for a nap,” Spike said, yawning, and walked out of the main room.
“Great help you are,” mumbled Twilight. “I can’t just let Celestia do this… there’s too much wasted potential…”
Well, I suppose I could keep an acorn hidden away and plant it later, she thought. I don’t like disobeying Celestia like that, but… I can’t let this opportunity go to waste. What harm can it do anyway? If I keep the tree hidden in my house, nopony will know about it. And I wouldn’t dream of invading somepony’s privacy. I’ll only read the books about the environment that it grows. With her decision final, Twilight went outside, found a fresh acorn on the ground, and hid it in her bedroom dresser when she went back inside.
A few hours later, Princess Celestia arrived at Twilight’s treehouse. With a powerful spell aimed at the base of the tree, the princess once again stunted the growth of the plant. She also searched the perimeter of the tree for any stray acorns or saplings. After that was done, Celestia bade farewell to Twilight and flew away back to Canterlot. Once a solid fifteen minutes had passed by, the unicorn retrieved the last remaining Bookwood acorn from her dresser and planted it into a pot of soil. As long as no one finds out about this, it’s completely okay, Twilight reassured herself. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
