The arrival of September brings Rouge and Knuckles on a visit.

The bat has been inspired by the stories of Tails and Cream who, upon returning, have mentioned some very special details, such as Rarity's well-stocked Carousel Boutique and the presence of a tree on which precious gems grow.

Needless to say, the words "precious gems" immediately sparked Rouge's craving, eager to add exotic jewels to her collection.

So, Rouge and Knuckles arrived in Ponyville, determined to start that tourist tour, or rather… Rouge determined to shop and steal, Knuckles determined not to let her hand get away too much.

Alas, the red echidna didn't know what awaited him once he laid the shoe in the famous Rarity's boutique, whose exclusive designs make celebrities turn their heads as well.

Rouge, enraptured by all those sequins, tried dresses on dresses, making the minutes fly like popcorn in the cinema.

"How does it fit?" she finally asks to a Knuckles in a semi-comatose state in the waiting chair, facing him with a wonderful light blue dress glittered here and there with small diamonds. Rouge is a dream, she looks almost angelic dressed like this.

Knuckles flushes, delighted and embarrassed.

"Um... Yeah, that's cute... Not that I understand much about fashion, though..." he mumbles, looking down.

"Oh, you are adorable."

Rarity, who has been watching this pretty skirmish from the dressing rooms, smiles with satisfaction.

In the afternoon, still wearing her beautiful dress paid a fortune, Rouge heads to Twilight and Amy's house, with Knuckles in tow. The two explain to the girls their intention to go and admire the wonderful Tree of Harmony they have heard about.

Twilight is dubious.

"Princess Celestia told me that it grows in the Cave of Harmony at the end of the Everfree Forest. If you want, we can accompany you, I would also be curious to see it, but among a thousand commitments I have never had the opportunity." proposes Twilight.

Rouge chuckles to herself and Knuckles waves her to lay low.

After a walk of almost two hours, the four arrive near the Tree, and the view is spectacular: the tree itself is a gigantic branched crystal that emerges from the ground, from which hang glistening flowering vines like pearls; above the trunk the Sun and the Moon are engraved, while in the center there is a giant white star.

Everyone's mouth is wide open, but none like Rouge, whose pupils literally sparkle.

"Do you see those colored stones? They are the Elements of Harmony, the scales that rule this world." Twilight explains, almost as if she were a tour guide.

Rouge can no longer resist: she takes flight and looks at them one by one: there is a tourmaline, a sapphire, an amethyst, a ruby, a topaz... and that large star-shaped diamond in the center of the plant.

The thief instinct of the flying creature takes over, and Rouge touches the tree trunk, but this rejects her violently, burning her hand and throwing her several meters away.

"ROUGE!" yells the echidna, rushing to assist her.

A strange purple mist begins to emerge from the tree, which turns to black and is accompanied by a terrifying, angry and reverberating voice:

"HOW DARE YOU?! RETURN WHERE YOU COME FROM!"

A very strong wind blows, and Amy, covering her face with her arms, tries to appease the tree's anger.

"Please don't be angry! My friend has a passion for gems, it's true, but she wouldn't have hurt you!"

"LIAR! THAT THIEF WANTED TO TAKE POSSESSION OF ELEMENTS OUT OF HER LEAGUE!"

Twilight walks up to Amy and gives her a hand:

"Erring is in our nature as mortals! Please give us a second chance."

Slowly, the wind and the fog subside.

"So be it. I'll give it to you, as long as you get out of here immediately."

"It will be done! Thank you, Your Chlorophyll! Come on, Rouge, chop chop!"

Knuckles loads a dazed and annoyed bat on his shoulders, which mutters the word "gems" and "shoes", because they slipped off her feet in the fall.

"I have the shoes, now let's go." the red reassures her, who is the first to leave the cave, followed by Twilight.

Amy has remained silent to admire the tree, which still speaks to her:

"Go, join your friends, you will need them in the future. Challenges of great hardness await you."

The pink hedgehog is alarmed; what does it mean?!

"What do you mean?" she then screams, and the Tree of Harmony surrounds her with a dense thunderstorm cloud, in the cracks of which bluish lightning of considerable brightness is hidden.

In those cracks, Amy notices excerpts of incomprehensible scenes, like Twilight angry at her for an unknown reason, screaming terrible phrases at her:

"I trusted you, instead you came to bring discord in my family!"

She sees herself as she tries to reach her but she can't.

She hears the voice of Shining Armor comforting her, she hears her cry, and then an unknown voice of girl:

"You should understand me better than anyone else, and instead you hinder me..."

What is happening? What are all those visions, and why don't those voices stop echoing in her head?

When Amy returns home with Twilight, a heavy weight descends in her heart, even as she struggles not to say anything to her friend during dinner. Only later, while both are intent on reading, the pink hedgehog decides to speak:

"Twilight, when we were in the Cave of Harmony... The Tree showed me things."

The lilac pony looks up from the book.

"It was you, very angry with me... You screamed at me that I had brought discord in your family..."

Twilight frowns.

"Perhaps the Tree of Harmony predicts the future... There was also a female voice accusing me of not understanding her..."

The unicorn is confused, but also intrigued by that speech.

"Twilight... If I were to let you down, you would tell me about it, right?"

"What are you talking about, Amy? You are a dear friend, you haven't done me anything wrong, and in any case if there were any problems we would talk about them together!" the pony exclaims, hugging the hedgehog, who smiles tenderly.

"Thank you... I'm still worried... I'm afraid that everything I've seen will come true..."

Twilight realizes that her friend from the Acorn Kingdom is suffering from a strong inner turmoil.

"After having deluded myself so heavily about Sonic, now I'm terrified of not knowing how to understand people anymore..." she explains, in fact.

The blue-haired unicorn gently strokes Amy's back, sorry for her past disappointment; after a while she breaks away from her embrace and looks straight into her face:

"Amy, I don't know Sonic nor can I know how you behaved with him; I believe that in your case there were simply no prerequisites for a story, but nobody's fault. Some things aren't meant to happen."

Oddly, being told that her love for Sonic was sadly total one-sided, it doesn't embitter Amy's soul. On the contrary, those words represent for her the key to permanently close that door.