The Young Six Element Match-up · 12:18am May 24th, 2019
It's clear that the Tree of Harmony has a special connection to the Young Six, but it's debatable which Element goes with which character. This makes me wonder if the Elements evolved into new virtues, similar to the way the Elements developed from the Pillars of Light. Just for fun, though, I'm going to attempt to pair the students with the current Elements. Two of the choices seem to be universally accepted among bronies, but my other four picks might be controversial.
Laughter: Silverstream
With her positive attitude and bubbly personality, Silverstream is the obvious inheritor of the Element of Laughter.
Kindness: Yona
Nocreature has shown more kindness than Yona. She pampered her mother to get her to sign her permission slip in “Uprooted,” and she passed her test by befriending the spiders in “What Lies Beneath.”
Magic/Friendship: Gallus
This is my first decision that could cause contention, but hear me out. Even though Gallus is not the most overtly magical of the six, he is the most like Twilight in the ways that count. For example, Gallus is the only character who had to use his intellect to solve a puzzle for his test in “What Lies Beneath.” And creating a museum was an extremely Twilight way to memorialize the Tree of Harmony. Out of the Young Six, Gallus is the one who shows the most initiative and ingenuity. For these reasons, I've thought for a long time that if the Student Six had a leader, Gallus would be the natural fit. Granted, I suppose there's no rule that the Bearer of Magic has to be the leader, but Star Swirl and Twilight did set a precedent.
If you still doubt that Gallus would be linked to Magic, keep in mind that Twilight is not the Princess of Magic, but the Princess of Friendship. The show's lore makes it abundantly clear that friendship is the most potent source of magic in their world. There's no reason Gallus couldn't understand friendship better than other Young Five.
Loyalty: Sandbar
These last three were tricky, but I'm going with Loyalty for Sandbar. I keep using “What Lies Beneath” as the basis for assigning the Elements to the Young Six, because it has such good character development. In that episode, Sandbar had a test of loyalty. He had to choose between helping his teachers and finding his friends, which was not a decision he took lightly.
Honesty: Smolder
Her test in “What Lies Beneath” was being true to herself and admitting a truth that embarrassed her. Smolder cares what other creatures think about her, but she's still direct and open about most things, and I can't think of a time when she was deceitful, which is more than I can say about some of her friends. Smolder also called Sludge on his lies when nocreature else would, and she's become a reliable, if blunt, source of dragon information for Spike.
Generosity: Ocellus
While she doesn't seem more generous than her friends, she does give of her considerable shapeshifting talents without hesitation. And her deepest fear is returning to the days when changelings had to steal love instead of exchanging it willingly. Admittedly, this feels like I'm pairing Generosity with Ocellus by process of elimination, but it's the best I can do.
I think this looks good. Another idea I've had floating around is that the force of Harmony can connect to any six bearers without necessarily needing to assign each an individual element. Also, when Celestia was talking to Twilight after her ascension, she said that she "displayed the charity, compassion, devotion, integrity, optimism, and of course, the leadership of a true princess." So in that case, "leadership" is associated with the Element of Magic, meaning that Gallus's natural leadership would make him a good fit.
Wow, these were all my exact same matchups and reasonings. Get out of my head! It's spooky in there.
5063425
I hadn't considered that possibility, but it would be a good failsafe in case one of the Six can't use an Element. And a lot of the Young Six seem to fit more than one Element.
And I had forgotten that Celestia mentioned Twilight's leadership as one of her strengths as an Element bearer. I think Gallus could show good leadership skills if given the opportunity.
5063464
Wow! I guess great minds think alike.