As quietly as Twilight had spoken the two words, they still seemed to echo from the cave walls around her.

The tree sat motionless.

"That's right!" She took a step toward it. "I'm talking to you! And don't try to pretend that you're crystalline or deciduous or anything like that! The evidence shows quite clearly that you pay attention to the whole world, not just what's happening in your general vicinity but throughout Equestria and beyond!" She stomped a hoof, a few nearby pebbles clattering. "So pay attention to this! Because you're [i]supposed[/i] to be the Tree of Harmony, and this is one pony who's not feeling particularly harmonious right now!"

She waited for the echoes to die away, but nothing on the tree so much as glittered.

"And you want to know why?" she went on regardless. "Go ahead! Ask me why!"

In the silence, her face started feeling warm. "Well, I'll tell you anyway! Stupid tree..."

Unfurling her wings, she flapped the rest of the way to the first of the tree's gnarled roots and lit her horn to better spot any reaction. "Because I just waved another two of my best friends good-bye as they headed out on one of your stupid friendship missions! And the Princess of Friendship? The pony who's dedicated her life to spreading friendship across Equestria? Where is she while that's all going on?" Twilight stomped again. "She's down in a stupid cave yelling at a stupid tree!"

It took longer for the echoes to fade this time, but the tree continued standing silent and still.

Except— A raspy sound began tickling her ears. She pricked them, but then had to let them fold, her face getting even warmer when she realized she was hearing her own panting. "And that's what it is, isn't it?" she couldn't keep from whispering. "It's me. The others have all gone off time and time again to show ponies and non-ponies alike the magic of friendship, but me?" Her head drooped. "I've gone, what, twice? I'm not...not [i]good[/i] enough at it, am I?"

The thought made her teeth clench, and she snapped her head back up to glare at the tree. "So fine! I'm not good enough! But how am I supposed to get better if you don't let me practice? What I do isn't like raising the sun or the moon, isn't always the same thing every day! Friendships form in so many different ways, and the things that draw ponies together aren't—!"

The tree burst into colors and shapes, Twilight's voice choking off to see her mark at the top of the trunk and the marks of her friends out along the branches lighting up in a prismatic display that danced over the stone walls. Just as quickly, though, the branches began to flicker, their colors slowly dimming till they went dark, only the deep purple of her own mark remaining.

Twilight stared, her throat tightening further. "So...what? The others, the branches, they spread out, but then they fade? And me, since I'm the trunk, I have to...have to keep glowing...."

She looked away, swallowed, and turned for the cave entrance. "Stupid tree," she mumbled.