During the darkest night, when the sun celebration commencing
six ponies took up the mantle of champions
when their Beloved Princess Celestia entrusted them
with the legendary and fantastic Elements of Harmony.
What they did not know, was that the use of the Elements had awakened
far greater terrors than merely Discord and Nightmare Moon.
Ten years had passed since Discord was vanquished and Nightmare moon was converted. Ten years of relative peace, no enemies threatening the kingdoms, no disasters, no wars. Just peace. During those peaceful years, not much attention was paid to the six friends who had saved the land of Equestria. Nopony seemed to care about them.
Ten years later, three young mares were visiting a certain Zebra in the Everfree forest. Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, and Applebloom were on their way to see Zecora, out of boredom. When they arrived, Zecora was outside with an unusual sight. A Zebra with a Unicorn horn, with a coat of midnight blue and stripes of cyan; stood laughing in a deep, rich voice.
"Ah! Now you see! I bring to you these fillies three. Your tales they seek, though they may not be for the weak. Let me introduce the man in my yard, he is my cousin; Succaeros the Bard."
I laughed again and spoke. "Such fanciful names. I am a hybrid, a Zebricorn, rare and fanciful creatures. We delight and specialize in telling tales, stories from old times. We are magic users, but our talents are more specialized towards the entertaining of ponies. Applebloom looked at the me and then glanced at her friends. He seemed alright to her, and she was quite interested to hear what kinds of stories he knew. "Well," Applebloom said, "What kind of stories do you tell"
I laughed. "I am a bard, one who specializes in the archaic, arcane, and unusual. I have stories on everything from the first day in Equestria, to something a little more familiar. I have quite a few tales on the endeavors of those six majestic friends, who vanquished the embodiment of chaos Discord and the fiend of the night, Nightmare Moon."
Scootaloo jumped up and said, with her usual look of obsession, "Do you have any tales of Rainbow Dash?"
I pondered her for a few moments. "I have many tales, tales of valor and of loss, tales of tragedy and tales of triumph. I think I know which you will be pining over. But wait, do I sense somepony coming?" He turned to look at the edge of the clearing, as Twilight Sparkle wandered into view, stopping dead at the sight of the Zebricorn.
"Uhh... Zecora, Who is this?" Twilight asked, confused. She had never read about or seen a zebricorn before, and was quite confused.
Zecora looked at Twilight, and riddled her an answer. "Twilight, you showed up at the perfect time! My cousin here was about to rhyme! He's a poet from a distant land, listen and learn from the tales at hand. If you stick around and listen well, you just might have tales of your own to tell. For you who are smart and bright, are featured in these tales tonight."
The three young ponies looked at Twilight with astonished looks. "What?" she responded, a slight grin on her face. "You didn't think I was a socially awkward egghead bookworm who never got out and had cool adventures, did you?" When she only got sheepish looks, she responded, "... Did you?"
I spoke up, "Twilight, you may know me by my royal name, The Ethereal Chronicler." I smiled at Twilight's sudden look of recognition. "I was the one entrusted with your adventures when you served as Royal Champions to Princess Celestia. This little one," I motioned to Scootaloo, "Was inquiring if I had any stories of a certain cyan pegasus. I was going to grace her with the Tale of the Woes of Strife. Is this acceptable?"
Twilight nodded, smiling at the memories I had just drummed up for her. I shook my head, then settled myself into my story-telling position.
"Alright, then. Let the story begin. This is the Tale of the Woes of Strife. It all began when the Six Companions were summoned by Princess Celestia to Canterlot on urgent business..."