So this is part 3, and I'm not going to be continuing this, so enjoy while it lasts!

- Nerdyredhead

When Stratus dashed out of the library, the sky was filled with an odd glow. There was a loud boom, and the glow receded. Sparkler pointed to a gully that had a staircase leading into darkness. Stratus felt almost pulled to the spot, as if someone or something was wanting him to go there. He nodded to his team and led them into the darkness.

The group came into an underground cavern that was glowing silver .

The oddest thing about it was the tree. It wasn't the average leaves and bark, but silver base and bulbs glowing in the dark. There were odd markings on each branch of the tree, but the 5 seemed to be faded. The other in the center, was shimmering and glowing. The other two, a sun and a moon, were glowing brightly and humming.

Sparkler took in a breath.

"OH, wow, it's the Tree of Harmony." They all stared in awe at the godly tree. A small moan interrupted the silence. The bulk of the pegasi and a few unicorns were crowded around a certain spot by the base of the tree. Sparkler, CloudBurst, and the rest of team 2A pushed their way through the crowd, and Stratus followed.

"Hey make way! I'm trained in healing y'know!" Sparkler shouted.

Nightcloud was in the center, moaning and rubbing her head. Stratus felt horrible for her and wanted to make sure she was ok. She had always been really nice to him and he was really fond of seeing her at the monthly meetings. His cheeks flushed when she said his name.

"Stratus?'I-I can't see." Nightcloud got up but fell on her flank. She opened her eyes and all the ponies gasped. Instead of their normal auburn, they were rainbow.

"What is everypony looking at?" she said quizzically.

" Oh! I can see now. That's good." Sparkler gestured to Stratus.

"Can I talk to you for a second?'

Oh sure." Sparker whispered in a hushed tone.

"She isn't ok. We need to go back to Ponyville NOW." Stratus nodded.

"OK everypony. After this, I have decided that we will abort the mission and head back to base camp."

"But I'm fine! There's nothing wrong with me!" Nightcloud retorted. She wobbled on her hooves, flapping her wings. Stratus looked back at her pouty face and sighed.

"I'm sorry, but we have no choice." The brown bat dropped her head, tears filling her eyes.

"Ok. Let's go." She trotted past him, not saying a word. Stratus was afraid he had just lost her friendship.

The large group slowly trekked through the forest with the books in carts and ponies silent, except for some muttering here and there. Then it started to rain, and they had to pick up the pace.

"Come on guys, the books will get wet!" Stratus yelled. The buff earth ponies hustled and sped to the front of the group. An hour later they arrived in Ponyville and the first thing Nightcloud did was fly up into the clouds and laid down, hidden from view. The cloud turned grey and started to rain.

Stratus looked up and sat down. What have I done? He asked himself.

"Hey Stratus! How was the trip?" Solar Flash asked.

"Oh it was great." Stratus said.

"OK! I'll go say hi to Sparkler." he said, zooming off on his little wings. He was always so happy.

I flew up to the cloud and sat down.

"Uh hey." Stratus edging forward.

"Go away." Nightcloud said.

He stopped moving.

"I want to be alone." she said intently.

Stratus wanted to go, but a part of him said no. Instead, he flew off and grabbed a cloud to sit on above her. He stuck his face through the fluffy cloud and watched her.

Nightcloud was sad, that's for sure, but he didn't know why. All the others had gone inside and were going over the evidence.

She sniffled again, wiping her eyes. What had happened back in that mysterious cavern? He thought. Stratus knew he was going to find out. But first, he had to get Nightcloud to a nurse.