The Elements of Harm(ony): Why the US Army is the Best at Friendship · 4:40am Mar 31st, 2017

“You contacted the most powerful being in Equestria to help a pony in need without any thought to what you would gain from it, Sunset.” Crystal Clear beamed at her. “That’s called generosity. And that’s called kindness. "

This quote, from Novel-Idea's story "Grading on a Bell Curve", reminded me of something I noticed something a while back. In the Army, we have this set of principles called the Army Values. They've existed for a long time, 30-odd years if I'm not mistaken; and every Soldier is expected to live by them. Well, it just so happens that the Army Values line up almost exactly with the Elements of Harmony. There's seven Army Values, so there's an odd one out- but considering that Loyalty is both an Element of Harmony and an Army Value, it seems like a pretty solid match to me. I've figured out corresponding Elements/Values for several of them without a doubt, but the others I'm less sure of.
Loyalty, of course, corresponds with Loyalty, which the Army defines as "Bear[ing] true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit and other Soldiers." Honor, "Liv[ing] up to all the Army Values", is clearly Magic, which "makes it all complete". Honor is the "summary" of all the Army Values, just as Magic only appears when the other five are in play. I'm pretty sure that Generosity lines up with Selfless Service- "Put the welfare of the nation, the Army and your subordinates before your own"- since that's pretty much what applied Generosity seems to consist of. Honesty corresponds with the most oft-cited Army Value, Integrity, which is defined as "doing what's right, legally and morally". Simply saying the word "integrity" in a chiding manner is typically enough to prevent lies. Laughter was the most difficult one, but S1E2's song by Pinkie Pie illustrates that it's just a more friendship-oriented version of the Army Value of Personal Courage, which means "Fac[ing] fear, danger or adversity (physical or moral)." So that's five. And of the remaining two Army Values, Duty (Fulfill your obligations) and Respect (Treat people how they should be treated), the latter sounds pretty similar to Kindness, IMO; this leaves Duty as the odd one out.
So, in summary, the United States Army is the best at the magic of friendship, even if we probably would have tried a few less friendly methods of dealing with Nightmare Moon.