[Canterlot Castle]
The four ponies were led through magnificent rooms, each differing in one small detail. The first room had several paintings of Princess Celestia and her sister, Princess Luna. The next room showcased a grand display of crystal sculptures of Princess Celestia herself, each sculpture composed of a different gem from rubies to sapphires to emeralds. Even the statue of the embodiment of chaos, Discord, sat in the corner of the sculpture room. The next room had another display of art and the next room with another. Unfortunately, they did not have too much time to gander at these magnificent pieces of art as Princess Celestia and the guards quickened their pace on their way to the throne room. Princess Celestia walked at the front of the four ponies. A cold and intimidating look lay upon her eyes and her mouth almost froze in place in the same snarl she had when she first confronted these adventurous troublemakers. Her graceful body walked with uncharacteristically heavy steps that could be felt throughout the many rooms that they were walking through. To the right of Princess Celestia was Princess Luna. Unlike Princess Celestia, Luna had a much less intimidating face, but rather more of a worried face. Her eyes were constantly locked onto her feet and her head was slightly tilted downwards. Her mouth drooped down slightly and even through that dark blue coat, small circles could be seen underneath her eyelids. Every step she made was very soft and graceful. Every once in a while, she would look up to Princess Celestia then droop back down just as she had before. Surrounding the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Cheerilee were 8 guard ponies, 4 on each side. The front four shone a brilliant white coat and wore shining gold armor. Each of their armor sets had an opening on the side in order to let their wings out. Their blue manes stuck through the rectangular opening in their golden helmets, giving them a small Mohawk, which was essential in the Canterlot Royal Guard. The back four all had a stunning silver coat and also wore the official Canterlot Royal Guard uniform, blue mane and Mohawk and all. The only difference between their uniforms were that there were not any openings for wings, but rather one hole in the helmet in order to place the precious horn.
After a series of rooms, they finally stepped upon the throne room. Compared to the other rooms, this was much much larger. The room itself stretched across the same length of the barn at Sweet Apple Acres, maybe even more. The grand lavender walls were studded with diamonds lined up neatly on the top and bottom trims. The same stained glass windows found in the tower were evenly placed along the walls. Beyond the windows Apple Bloom could see the black night sky and the full moon shining directly into the room. Blue tiles sparkled on the floor, each polished so well that a clear reflection can be seen on every single tile. White marble columns stood on the floor, rising up and touching the seemingly sky high ceiling. A long red carpet decorated the path to the giant throne that was at the end of the bright red road. With every step, Apple Bloom could feel the smooth silky carpet rubbing against her hooves. A cold air filled the room and made each step towards the throne just that much more intimidating. The look Princess Celestia had sent a large shock down Apple Bloom’s spine as she kept walking closer and closer to the giant throne that sat in the far side of the room. The monstrosity of a throne was a pure solid gold carved in a very cubic format. Each armrest had 6 gems engraved into it, one blue, one purple, lavender, red, orange, and green. The back of the chair had half of a sun and half of a moon carved onto it, the top half being the same sun found on Princess Celestia’s cutie mark and the bottom half being the full moon. Surrounding the shape were ancient carvings of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna circling the said sun-moon. Bright purple curtains flowed behind the throne ever so gracefully. The throne room was so beautiful in any way imaginable that Apple Bloom could not believe that she was coming here for a punishment.
The four ponies walked until they were a small distance away from the throne itself. Two Pegasus guards stopped and spread out their wings in unison, blocking the group from advancing any further. Princess Celestia slowly trotted up the small set of stairs that led to her throne. Her wings opened up with grace as she jumped up to her seat. She turned around slowly, finally facing the four for the first time since they started going towards the castle. Apple Bloom could finally see the full context of the goddess’s face. Her stirred and disrupted brow and glaring eyes showed no signs of the great peacekeeper who has watched over all of Equestria for the last millennium. Silence fell upon the room. Apple Bloom and her companions looked up in fear as they faced the ruler of Equestria face to face.
“Sweetie Belle!” Princess Celestia boomed. Her voice echoed across the entire room, louder than she had ever been seen yelling before.
“Y-yes, Princess?” Sweetie Belle replied with hesitation and nervousness. She looked Princess Celestia in the eye with her head drooped down and a large frown stretched across her face.
“You were the one who casted the group teleportation spell, correct?” Princess Celestia said with an obvious anger in her tone.
“Y-yes, Princess.” Sweetie Belle murmured. She looked as if she was going to cry at any second.
“And despite the guard’s warnings you did it anyway. Correct?” The Princess continued with her interrogation.
“Y-yes, Princess.” Sweetie Belle mumbled while choking up.
“I see.” The Princess replied. “You four have made a fatal mistake that can cause all of Equestria to fall.” The goddess walked down her seat and started pacing back and forth. “The tower of the Elements, the tower that you have disturbed, is the final resting place of the Elements of Harmony. After the holders of the elements were to pass away, the elements themselves are to be kept in a hidden location due to their unstable nature. The explosion from the tower is one of the powers that the elements have in store. The original reason for the creation of the elements was to contain the power that was once spread across the land. Ponies far and wide were able to use ancient magic that would seem like fantasy today if they have enough of any of the five main elements, with magic being an exception. For example, anypony who is extremely honest, good or evil, is able to cast spells that correspond with that element. This is the why we sealed it!” Princess Celestia started raising her voice. “We sealed it in order to stop something like the Crystal Empire from ever happening again! We did it to stop FILLIES like YOU from endangering the world and causing the end of all ponykind!!”
“Please calm down, my sister.” Princess Luna interrupted calmly.
“But the magic has escaped, the magic that plagued the world back then!” Princess Celestia screamed infuriatingly.
“My sister… please, let me handle this situation. I will tend to these four.” The dark blue alicorn suggested. “You should go rest as you have had a long day. Don’t worry, as always, I shall watch the night.”
Princess Celestia looked out the window, not noticed how much time had passed by. “Fine. Give these four what they deserve.” The once peaceful guardian of Equestria stomped away to the door in a very aggressive manner. With a small glint of her long alicorn horn, the doors to the room opened up and the goddess left the giant room. The doors glowed yellow once again and with a thundering slam, Apple Bloom and her friends were once again contained in this royal prison.
“I apologize for my sister’s…. rude behavior.” The ruler of the night started. “She has been like this since her faithful student passed on.”
Apple Bloom knew exactly what Princess Luna was referring to. The night that changed everyone’s life, even the ruler of Equestria’s.
“There was much more to that night than what you four had witnessed.” Princess Luna started
Apple Bloom looked up in surprise. “Do you mean there was something going on while this was happening, Princess?”
“No, not during. The cause of the accident is what I shall share with thee.” The Princess’s ancient Equestrian started coming back again for some reason. “Do you four remember how the day was beforehand?”
“It was really sunny and not a cloud in the sky was found.” Scootaloo answered. “The Pegasus weather reports said that there was not going to be any chance of rain that day.”
“Correct, young Scootaloo, and the cloud that Twilight fired her magic at. Magic of that caliber would dissipate the storm quite easily.” Luna went in more deeply.
“Yeah, but the magic bounced right off the clouds.” Sweetie Belle continued.
“Wait! So it was a cloud that nopony expected to appear and it wasn’t affected by Twilight’s magic?” Apple Bloom yelled with enthusiasm.
“You are correct, my little ponies. So, if you were to put the points together…” Luna started.
“Then it wasn’t a normal storm at all.” Scootaloo continued.
“It must’ve had some magic in it.” Sweetie Belle finished the statement.
“Indeed. The storm that happened that night was an unnatural phenomenon that was caused by a disturbance of magic.” The goddess of the night started explaining. “A magic that is stronger than what thy and Celestia can conjure. The only magic that is that much stronger is the power of the Elements of Harmony.”
“Wait, so the Elements of Harmony was what caused the storm?”
“Not just the Elements of Harmony, but disrupting them during one of two circumstances. Either when chaos is not eminent, or if the holders of the elements are no longer on this world.”
“So… Wait, so why didn’t we cause a storm to happen?” Cheerilee raised her voice after keeping quiet behind the three crusaders.
“Removing the Elements while the holders are still of this world causes unnatural events centered on one certain part of Equestria, in the last case it would be Ponyville. Removing the Elements after the holders have passed causes the once natural events of the entire world to start again, which would be the reappearance of Harmonious Magic, Spells that can be casted by anypony who has an embodiment of one of the six Elements of Harmony, whether that pony is using that harmony for good or evil.”
Princess Luna walked down the carpet and stopped halfway between the door and the throne. She turned around and faced towards the four in a regal pose. She spread out her wings as wide as the carpet itself. The end feathers of the wings started to glow bright red, one at a time. Small red clouds started appearing at her sides, one for each wing. The small clouds stared swirling with great velocity
“Behold the power of the Element of Loyalty.”
She flapped her wings forward with a small thrust, but what came out was nowhere near as natural as a normal pegasus’s flap. The swirling clouds shot towards the four ponies and opened up. What were once two spinning clouds now resembles a bright red crescent moon headed towards the crusaders and lightning fast speeds. Strong winds pushed Apple Bloom and her friends back, making it near impossible to dodge the attack effectively. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo looked with great fear in their eyes, knowing that this may be the last sight they ever see. Inches away from contact, Apple Bloom could feel the wind pushing upward. The red crescent shifted ever so slightly up, barely missing them. The attack slowly scattered into small red particles of magic, sprinkling all over the room. Apple Bloom and her friends were in total shock. Not only were they almost killed, but the magic that they had just witnessed was one of the strongest spells they have ever seen.
“I assume you are in shock of what you had just witnessed, am I not correct?” Luna asked, breaking the silence.
“So what you’re saying is, if this Harmonious Magic was still here when Twilight Sparkle and the rest were still alive, does that mean that Rainbow Dash would be able to do something like this?” Scootaloo replied.
“Actually, young Scootaloo, the holders of the Elements were already able to do feats like this on a much smaller scale.” Luna answered. “Take the famous Sonic Rainboom for example. It was once called impossible to do and was only seen in ancient lore. That is because this was one of the spells of Loyalty before the magic was locked away in the Elements of Harmony. Since Rainbow Dash was the holder of the Element of Loyalty, she had access to much weaker magic and was able to do the art. To be honest, the attack I just launched was a work in progress by Rainbow Dash herself. She was able to create the clouds and shoot the crescent, but was unable to keep it intact for long enough. With the Magic of Loyalty, I was able to do such a move successfully without much practice.”
“How is the magic released when you said it was locked inside the elements?” Sweetie Belle noticed. “If they were locked in the elements, they should not have come out in the first place.”
“Like I said before, the elements are fairly unstable after their respective owners have passed on.” Luna explained with a grim look on her face. “Although the magic is still sealed within the elements, some of it had leaked out during the explosion of the tower. As the elements stay intact, only the most pure embodiments of the Elements of Harmony are able to use this magic and I can only assume that the closest of kin to the actual elements are already naturally gifted enough to learn this type of magic.”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged looks. The two ponies put on a small grin, already knowing the message behind Princess Luna’s words. Scootaloo looked down in slight jealousy. Despite being so close to Rainbow Dash and being treated as if she was her sister, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were in no way blood related, let alone being “the closest of kin”.
“I suppose you would want to know the true reason for my sister bringing you all the way up here.” Luna said quietly.
“You mean she didn’t want to punish us?” Scootaloo replied with fear in her voice.
“If I hadn’t taken her place, I would assume that she would have… but after all you have done in Canterlot and the threat you have put upon the world, do you supposed that some responsibility might have to be put on your shoulders?” Luna said softly, trying not to sound as demanding and fearful as her sister was earlier that night.
The three ponies looked at each other and smiled. Cheerilee stepped back and shook her head with an equally large smile on her face. Apple Bloom stepped forward. Her eyes striking with confidence and her mouth shaped into a small but noticeable grin. “Ah understand, Princess. We’ll get those elements back and stop the evil uses of Harmonious Magic.” Apple Bloom yelled.
Princess Luna closed her eyes and gave off a smile fit for a goddess. “Then you should get prepared. The longer you wait, the further those three other ponies get away.”
Apple Bloom flinched at the thought of this. “Umm… where exactly are they going?”
“Ah, yes.” Princess Luna started, noticing that she had forgotten to tell them how to start their quest in the first place. “My apologies for such forgetfulness, but I can only assume that they are going to destroy the Elements of Harmony.”
“What? Destroy them?” Sweetie Belle yelled in reaction.
“Yes, but they cannot be destroyed on their own. Despite looking fairly fragile, they cannot be destroyed by anything… except the core of the lighthouses where the Elements were created.”
“The lighthouses where they were created?” Scootaloo asked.
“Yes, each element was made in a different lighthouse. The elemental lighthouses were once the source of all of the magic of the world until Princess Celestia and I sealed the flow of magic from each lighthouse and compressed them into the small necklaces that you know of today. The only way to release that magic again is to throw it into the core and rekindle the magic that rested.” Princess Luna explained. “The closest lighthouse from Ponyville is located in the Crystal Empire, not too far north from Canterlot.”
“Do you mean The Crystal Empire that Twilight and rest saved from that King Sombra pony?” Apple Bloom blurted out.
Princess Luna sighed and looked down with sadness for a few seconds. She then looked back into the crusaders’ eyes with a false smile “Yes, the land that Twilight Sparkle and her friends saved.”
“Thank you, Princess. Ah guess we’d better get going now.” Apple Bloom yelled, noticing the time of night.
“Yes.” Princess Luna said calmly. “Retrieve the elements, and save the world, my little ponies.”
The four started to head out the door slowly. Apple Bloom lagged behind the rest, who were eager to return home and prepare.
“Princess Luna?” Apple Bloom asked one last time.
“Yes, Apple Bloom?”
“That pony with the mask at the tower.” Apple Bloom remembered the red lock of hair and the brown coat that she knew from back when she was a filly. “W-was she?”
“Yes, Apple Bloom.” Princess Luna said softly. “That pony… was your cousin, Babs.”