The Tree of Teamwork chest is first seen in Prince Komodo - Part 2 after emerging from the Tree of Teamwork. The chest requires fourteen keys to open.
Depiction in the series[]
Prince Komodo - Part 2[]
When the Tree of Teamwork regains its magic, a flower sprouts at its roots. The flower blooms to reveal a chest with fourteen locks. Princess Marillia discloses that she does not know where the keys are but assures Lief and Komodo "...it is a mystery you will not be solving on your own".
Castle Night- Marina[]
The chest is briefly mentioned in the beginning of the episode. According to Komodo, no information on the chest and its contents exists in Hub City.
Lief Life[]
A blueprint of the chest hangs on a wall in the Library of Lief's castle.
Betty's Pretty Pimple[]
The same blueprints as in Lief Life are seen again in Betty's Pretty Pimple.
Lief's Destiny - Part 1[]
With the looming threat of Dr. Maniac, and at the prompting of Dain, Lief redoubles his efforts to find the keys to the Chest. However, he is unable to find any clue in the library of the Castle of the Royal Ballerina Sisters. Once again following a clue from Dain, Lief decides to check the journal in which he and his friends are recording their lessons in the magic of teamwork and friendship. Dain has bookmarked thirteen events that included fundamental tests of his friends Element virtues and led them to teach these virtues to other Hub characters. The Hub Squad bring the thirteen gifts they received as a result of these adventures. When Dander accidentally knocks Spiney against the mysterious Chest, the toy transforms into a key. All the other gifts do the same.
Lief's Destiny - Part 2[]
With Dr. Maniac threatening his friends if he does not surrender, Lief chooses to give up his magic rather than see them harmed. Much to Dr. Maniac's surprise, he includes Dain in his bargain despite his having betrayed them all. A chastened Dain gives Lief a medallion that Dr. Maniac had given him as a false sign of friendship, telling Lief that it is a sign of his genuine friendship. Seeing the rainbow shimmer on the medallion, the friends realize that this is the last of the keys. They rush to the Tree of Teamwork where it transforms into the fourteenth key. The friends turn their keys simultaneously and the chest opens, releasing a rainbow-like blast of power that transforms them, giving them new magic and rainbow-marked clothes, hairs and tattoos.
Dr. Maniac arrives but even with the power of every Hub character in Hub Island behind him, he is unable to penetrate the combined shield of the fourteen empowered friends. A blast of rainbow light strips him of his stolen power and returns him to the computer world. The friends then unleash a rainboom-like wave of power that restores the magic, speech, and superpowers to all the people, animals, and ponies of Hub Island.
After Dr. Maniac's defeat, a large rainbow from the Tree of Teamwork carries the chest and its keys to Hub City, where it sinks into the ground and the grand Teamwork Rainbow Kingdom castle rises from where it came to rest.
Keys[]
Following the time of the chest's discovery, Lief and his friends each come into possession of objects of assorted value. The Hub characters acquire these objects after facing situations that challenge them to live up to their respective Elements of Teamwork and, upon embracing their element, inspire others to do the same. Prior to the acquisition of these items, each Hub character has a moment of clarity relating to his/her element that manifests as a rainbow-colored glow in his/her eyes. The items themselves emit the same glow soon after the Hub characters receive them. In Lief's Destiny - Part 1 and Part 2, the objects manifest as the keys shaped like the Hub characters' elements' shapes needed to open the chest once they come into contact with it.