//------------------------------// // 7. The Elements of Harmony - Part 1 // Story: The Legend of Friendship - Harmony // by Danieru //------------------------------// Canterlot Castle... Canterlot...It was home to many rich and royal ponies because of its status as the capital of Equestria. Many would love to live there and some ponies would absolutely refuse it because of the snobbish attitude of some of the residents there. Indeed, some ponies who lived there believed that they were better than some "country-living-ponies" who lived in other towns. This was because a lot of citizens were either very successful in some kind of business in Equestria or because they were simply born in a rich family. But what might also be a reason was that among them the most important pony in all of Equestria lived. Visible from far away, one could see the huge castle that was towering almost above the whole city. It was home of none other than the pony who ruled over Equestria for many many years now, the pony that would raise and lower the sun and the moon every single day, Princess Celestia. She was the only publicly known Alicorn in Equestria, a pony that shares traits from all the pony races, like wings of a Pegasus and a horn, like the ones that Unicorns have. In this very moment, the princess looked worried about something as she silently walked through the castle until she eventually arrived at a balcony and looked up at the night sky, at the moon to be precise. She would often do that but this time she looked especially concerned about something. The more she looked at it the more she seemed to be in thoughts, it was as if she was hypnotized. Soon, she moved her head towards the distance, far away from Canterlot. In the direction she was looking at was one little town. It was Ponyville. She had her sight focused on this direction for a while before she turned around again and returned inside her castle. She most certainly had planned something, but that something had to wait for the next day... The next day in Ponyville... It was quite a nice and beautiful day in Ponyville, so much that Summershine, Brilliance, Crash, Happytrade, Lightbeam, and Nightsky decided to spent it outside with a picnic on an open grass meadow. Right now, they were still setting everything up for it by placing some plates and food on the blanket. "Oh no, don't tell me..." Happytrade said in a nervous tone as she was looking inside the picnic basket to look for something. "I forgot the plates! Of all the things that could happen, this is the WORST POSSIBLE- Oh! There they are!" She then said happily once she found the plates inside the basket and put them on the blanket. The rest of the group was already enjoying this picnic, even though it didn't really start yet. "It really is a beautiful day today, isn't it?" Lightbeam said as she looked up at the clear sky while she stretched herself a little. "It sure is!" Crash replied happily before he sat down next to her. "I just hope nothing happens to interrupt our picnic now," he added. "Me too," Summershine said. "I would like to spend a day with all of my best friends without worrying about something for once," he shared with his friends, who were agreeing with him on that. Brilliance, however, had to point out something. "Not all," she simply said. She was referring to that not all friends were complete at this moment and that there was still one missing. This quickly made the mood drop a little in the group and most of them began to frown. "So much for ruining the moment," Nightsky threw into the round while he scratched his head a little. Summershine was the only one who didn't get sad or anything. "Come on, don't act like that now," he said to his friends with a smile on his face. "We should see him again soon. He has to see his parents too sometimes. And it's not like we can never see him within that time," he added before he looked over to Canterlot, the place where his last friend was at, at this very moment. Hearing that, made all the others look over to Canterlot as well, but with a smile on their faces now. As Summershine was looking at the Capital, however, he could see something flying towards them. It was a golden flying chariot. "Somepony is traveling to Ponyville, I guess," Nightsky figured. "Probably," Happytrade added. "You know those snobbish ponies from Canterlot, they always have to make a big show," "You are just saying that because you probably want a chariot like that too," Nightsky guessed jokingly. "Maybe..." Happytrade admitted while she looked away with some embarrassment on her face. While the others were trying to find out what somepony from Canterlot wanted in Ponyville, Summershine kept his eyes focused on the chariot. He could swear that he saw the exact same chariot before. It looked much bigger and fancier decorated than your regular every day chariot, not that Summershine knew much about that to begin with but it still stood out a little. Once the chariot came closer, however, Summershine figured out why it stood out to him that much. "Isn't that..." he said once he got a better look before he finally realized who was riding in this thing. "Princess Celestia?" He said confused but still a little bit casually. What wasn't casual, however, was the reaction of his friends once they heard that name. "Princess Celestia!?" Everypony said in unison, highly confused. Soon all of the ponies looked towards the chariot and saw none other than the ruler of all Equestria heading into their direction. She must have something really important to attend to if she was coming to the little town of Ponyville. There certainly was not much going on in this town after all. The six ponies decided to watch the princess as she was about to fly past them and towards the town. However, that is not exactly what happened. Princess Celestia noticed how she was looked at and smiled at the ponies. After that, she ordered the Pegasus ponies, who were pulling the chariot to land next to them. "Is she landing here?" Brilliance asked confused yet calmly. "What!?" Happytrade exclaimed in shock totally contrasting Brilliance's reaction. "You're kidding me, the princess is about to land here!? I should have put on something fancier, I look terrible right now!" She said worriedly while she grabbed her head in frustration. "You look good, as always," Lightbeam then said in order to cheer her up again. It worked like a charm. "Aww...thanks," Happytrade said touched by those words. Moments later, the princess's chariot was landing right in front of the group. Princess Celestia stepped out of the chariot and the two Pegasi, who pulled it stood in attention as she walked past them and head right towards the six ponies, who by now all bowed down to her. The princess looked over her subjects and smiled before she looked directly at Summershine now, who was not realizing that at the moment, due to having his head bowed down to her. "Rise, my little ponies," she then said in a gentle voice, causing everypony to do as she said. "It's good that I came across you. I was looking for you, Summershine," "You were?" Summershine replied confused, wondering for what reason that could be. The princess nodded. "I have a very important task that I want to give you," she said before she looked up at the sky with a worried expression on her face. Summershine was wondering what that task could but he decided to be silent until Princess Celestia continued, which she eventually did. "Do you know the tale about the Mare in the Moon?" She then asked while she looked back at him. Summershine lowered his eyebrows and began to think. The name certainly rang a bell but he couldn't quite put it at first. It was eventually Brilliance who spoke up from the back. "Nightmare Moon...your sister," she said casually, causing the others to react in surprise and some shock after hearing that. "Sister?" Summershine asked confused. As soon as every eye was directed at her, Brilliance felt as if she should explain why she knows that information. "I read that in a book..." she replied. Of course, she would get that knowledge from a book, as usual. Princess Celestia nodded. "Yes, allow me to explain..." she said before she prepared herself to give everypony some more details. "Long ago, my sister and I raised the sun and the moon together, unlike now, where I took both of those responsibilities upon me. Due to some events, my sister was consumed by hate and turned into an evil pony called Nightmare Moon, who wanted to take over Equestria by creating an eternal night. I was forced to stop her before the ponies of Equestria would suffer under her rule..." she said before she looked up at the sky one more time with a concerned look on her face. "...by imprisoning her in the moon..." "That's why the moon looks like that," Summershine added, referring to the mare that was visible if you look closely at the moon. "Yes," Princess Celestia replied. "But still...even after all those years, I have the feeling that her banishment might have not changed her. This will be a problem once she comes back..." "Comes back?" Nightsky asked confused in the name of everypony else around. Princess Celestia explained. "I fear that sooner or later, the seal that traps her on the moon, will break and when that happens, she needs to be stopped, again. To do that, very powerful magic has to be used. The Elements of Harmony," "So somepony just has to use the Elements of Harmony and send her back to the moon? That sounds easy," Crash figured happily. But judging from Princess Celestia's reaction, that did not seem to be the case. "I'm afraid it is not that easy," she said before she further explained. "The Elements of Harmony lost their power after I used them against Nightmare Moon and were permanently turned to stone," "Of course..." Happytrade added frustrated after hearing that. But Princess Celestia continued. She looked over to Summershine. "When it comes to magic, there were few who came close to your talent back in the school for gifted Unicorns, Summershine. I thought you would be the best to not only find the elements but also find a way to revive them," Summershine had mixed feelings after hearing that. He felt honored that Princess Celestia was putting so much trust into him but he also felt pressured too. She was giving him such an important task, that could decide the future of all of Equestria after all. "I'm sorry, Princess Celestia but...don't you think that somepony else would be better suited for that? I mean, what about your student? Wasn't she even better when it comes to magic?" Princess Celestia smiled after hearing that question. "I initially planned on sending her to deal with this matter but...there is still something that she is lacking, something that you already possess," she explained. "And what is that?" Summershine asked curiously. But instead of giving an answer right away, Princess Celestia just looked over the rest of Summershine's friends, who were waiting for an answer as well and smiled. In the end, the princess decided to avoid this question and smiled at the stallion. "Anyway, I am confident that you will find them and that you will find a way to restore their power. There is still enough time left so don't worry. But knowing you, you would probably find a solution very early," she said being confident in Summershine's abilities. But even after saying that, Summershine couldn't help but feel pressured by that. The princess of all of Equestria asked him to take care of something this important after all. There was no way that he could not not worry. But despite that, Summershine took a deep breath and gave a reply. "Yes, Princess Celestia. I will do my best to not disappoint you!" He then said with a determined tone in his voice. Princess Celestia was happy to hear that. "That's what I was hoping to hear," she said before she walked back to her chariot. Shortly after, she was already gone again and left the six ponies, who still couldn't believe that they just talked with the princess. Summershine released a big sigh once the princess was out of sight which was not unnoticed by his friends who walked up to him. "Talk about pressure..." Nightsky said as soon as he saw Summershine's current state. "Yeah..." Summershine simply replied with some frustration in his voice. Lightbeam on the other hoof seemed rather excited about all this. "Well, I for one think that it is great that the princess trusts you so much that she gave you such an important task," she said as she bounced over next to Summershine. "Yes..." Happytrade said frustrated. "A task that, if he fails, will most likely put all of Equestria in danger," she brutally honest said without thinking. As soon as those words were said, Summershine began to get a little pale in his face and started to shake, causing Happytrade to react in shock. "I-I mean don't worry! I'm sure you will find a solution that will prevent that!" She corrected hastily. "Of course he will!" Crash said confidently. "After all, he has all of us to help him out!" He added with a grin on his face. Hearing those words seemed to calm Summershine down again. He looked at all of his friends who smiled and grinned back at him as if they were prepared to do whatever it would take to make sure that he would succeed. Seeing his friends like that highly motivated him again. "Thank you all," he said in appreciation while putting on a smile. "With your help, I'm sure that we will restore the elements!" He said determined to make those words true. The rest of his friends cheered in excitement and were ready to start now. However, Nightsky realized that there was one problem. "So...where do we find those elements?" This question left quite some confusion in the group. They just now realized that they had no idea where to start looking for them. Later, at the Golden Oak Library... "There it is..." Brilliance said after she spotted a book that could help the group out a little. The mare levitated the book out of the shelf and gave it to Summershine. It was a red book with a golden pony head on the cover. "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide," he read out loud so that everypony could hear it clearly. "There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now...the Everfree Forest!?" He said in surprise after reading the last sentence. "Oh, come on!" Happytrade said in frustration once she heard the location of the elements. "Not that creepy forest!" She said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable just by the thought of it. Unlike Lightbeam who seemed rather excited. "The Everfree Forest is not that bad," she pointed out. "It's full of beautiful plants and animals! Sure, some of them try to eat you or something but...um...I don't know where I wanted to go with that..." she said with a smile on her face as she rubbed her neck. Summershine was fully aware of all that but his decision was already set. "It doesn't matter. If what Princess Celestia said was true, then having Nightmare Moon return will be even worse. So I have to get the Elements of Harmony, the princess is believing in me. But I can understand if you don't want to go there so I might as well do it-" "No, you don't!" Crash interrupted. "The Everfree Forest is dangerous so there is all the more reason for us to help you now!" He said with a determined expression on his face. Brilliance nodded after those words were spoken. "Yeah," she said casually. Even though Happytrade wasn't particularly happy, she eventually agreed to come too. The six ponies wasted no time to get this task over as quickly as possible and went to the Everfree Forest. It was really close to Ponyville but many citizens were afraid to enter it. Rumors said that there were monsters inside of it. It was quite a dangerous place, which is why most tend to avoid entering it. But with Princess Celestia giving Summershine such an important task, he had no choice but to go into it. He just hoped that the Elements of Harmony were still in the Castle of the Two Sisters, which was supposedly inside of this forest. Even after stepping inside the forest for a few minutes, the group already felt nervous, if not even scared in some cases but they had to be brave if they didn't want to disappoint the Summershine. Unlike him, the others were following him because they wanted to support him and didn't have to go through this scary forest but of course, as his best friends, they would never do something like that and just had to put up with this for a while. But that didn't stop them from sharing their thoughts. "I can't believe a scary forest like this is right next to Ponyville," Happytrade said as she walking right behind everypony and kept looking around to see if there was nothing jumping out of the trees or bushes. "I'm just glad that it isn't dark..." "Yeah," Crash added. "Imagine how scary it would be if we came here later," he said in an excited tone. Nightsky looked at the stallion and realized the excitement in his voice. "You almost sound like as if you want to do exactly that," he said, only to get a smile back from his friend, which pretty much answered that question. Brilliance seemed to be the only one who wasn't creeped out at all. Either that or she didn't show it as clearly as everypony else. "I read once in a book that there are quite some monsters in this forest..." she said, causing Happytrade to look over to the mare with a nervous expression on her face. But Brilliance didn't seem to notice that and just continued. "Like, manticores, sea serpents, hydras, Timber Wolfs..." "Alright, alright we get it!" Happytrade exclaimed in a panic. "This forest is dangerous! Who would have thought!" She added. Summershine almost didn't seem bothered by how his friends were acting and just led the way even though he didn't really know where he was going to and where to find the Castle of the Two Sisters. Until he had an idea that would make things a lot easier. "Nightsky, Lightbeam, could you two fly up and try to find the castle? It would probably be a lot easier for us to find it if you could spot it from the air," he suggested as he stopped on his track for a moment. "Got it," Nightsky replied while already spreading his wings and preparing himself to fly up at the sky. "Yeah..." Lightbeam said a little hesitantly. "I think I will stay down here with the others," she said, obviously being a little bit scared by this forest. Nightsky understood and took off into the sky and left the group for a while. "I hope he will be back soon..." Lightbeam said in concern as she looked up. "Yes," Crash added. "Still, it was pretty brave of you to stay here in this forest with us, even though it is filled with monsters and you would probably safer up there in the sky, far away from this place and-" "Wait for me, Night!" Lightbeam shouted after her brother before she jumped up into the sky to follow Nightsky. This only left Summershine, Brilliance, Happytrade, and Crash on the ground. They decided to stay right where they were so that Nightsky and Lightbeam would find them again. The two should come back soon after all. Summershine and Brilliance waited quietly and patiently but Crash was rolling around in the ground in his boredom and Happytrade was the only one to keep her ears peeled for every noise around her, turning around each time when she heard something. "Don't worry, Happy, we will be out of here as soon as we find the elements," Summershine said in order to calm the mare down again. Happytrade was about to throw back some sassy comment to prove to him that she wasn't scared but as soon as she heard something coming from the bushes next to her, she jumped right behind a very calm and collected Brilliance. The group then looked at the bush where the noises came from and noticed some movement, causing especially Summershine to get a little more cautious now. "Maybe it's Nightsky and Lightbeam?" Crash asked. "From the bushes!?" Happytrade replied, indicating that the two Pegasi would most likely come back from the sky. There was more and more movement coming from the bushes until something actually popped out of it, causing Happytrade to hide behind Brilliance in fear. But that fear was quickly gone once a small white rabbit was revealing itself. "Aww...it's just a cute little rabbit..." she said once she realized that her fear was for nothing. But then suddenly, something else popped out of the bushes, a more intimidating thing than a rabbit. Something with a big body that was half tiger and half goat, with a snake tail. It had three heads, one was the head of a tiger on the right side of its body, one was a goat head on the left side of its body and one was a snakehead at the end of the tail. "A chimera," Brilliance said as soon as she saw this creature. "Sorry, forgot to mention those," she apologized casually. "That is not the problem right now!" Happytrade exclaimed at the mare annoyed. The Chimera slowly walked up to the four ponies with a menacing look in all of its three faces, having clearly some bad intentions in its mind. "Looks like our trip outside of the swamp was worth it," the Tiger head said excitedly. "Yeah," the Snakehead added before hissing in excitement. "Then what are you waiting for? Get them!" The Goat head said in a bossy tone. Those words certainly put the group at the edge, except Crash who still remained calm. "Hey, if one of you reads a book, do the other heads know it's content?" He asked casually. "That would be interesting to know..." Brilliance said with some curiosity in her voice. Right now, Happytrade was more annoyed by her friends then she was afraid of the Chimera, the later one didn't take it too kindly for not being taken seriously and charged right at the ponies. But Summershine was right there and jumped in front of his friends. He used a teleport spell to get his friends out of there in time and caused the Chimera to hit its head against a tree. Summershine and his friends appeared again, a few steps away from the Chimera and the stallion was ready to deal with the monster on his own. "I'll take care of this!" He said with a determined look on his face. "Do you have a flute, a chair, and some cheese?" Brilliance asked. "No?" Summershine replied confused, not being sure what that had to do with anything now. At this moment, the Chimera was recovering from the hit against the tree and looked angrily at the four ponies and was ready to charge right at them once more. Summershine instantly looked over to his friends. "Can someone distract that thing for a second?" He threw into the round, knowing that what he was asking was quite dangerous. But despite that, somepony volunteered. "Oh! Me! Me!" Crash said excitedly while jumping up and down on the spot. "...Okay..." Summershine replied a little puzzled and not sure why his friend was showing so much enthusiasm for this. Crash was charging towards the Chimera at full speed, running right past it, much to the creature's confusion. Then suddenly, the stallion was on the Chimera's back and began riding it. "Yeehaaw!" He shouted happily, causing the Chimera to try knocking him off of it's back but the stallion was keeping a good grab didn't fall down. "Over here!" Summershine shouted, asking for Crash to lead the Chimera towards him. Crash noticed and jumped off from the Chimera on his own while jumping away from it and towards his friend. The Chimera followed close behind and Summershine waited on the same spot until the Chimera was close enough. The beast was coming closer and closer but Summershine was not moving an inch. "Now!" He then shouted all of the sudden, which was a signal for Happytrade and Brilliance to pull a vine that was wrapped around some trees. The Chimera didn't notice how it was set up for this and fell down after tripping over the vine. It got even angrier after this and was ready for some payback but unfortunately, it couldn't move after it was getting up again because while it was on the ground, Summershine decided to wrap its snake tail around a tree. "That should take care of it," Summershine said after they were out of danger with the Chimera being tied up to a tree now. "Yeah but let's get out of here now, just in case," Happytrade added, still being a little afraid that the Chimera could break free any moment. All the Chimera could do was to watch how the four ponies walked away, which made it even angrier and more desperate to do break free. However, Summershine made sure that this wouldn't be too easy. "Well, so much for our little trip outside of the swamp. Should have really stayed there," the Tiger head said annoyed by this situation. "Ah, shut up," the Goat head just added annoyed as well. In the meantime, Summershine, Brilliance, Happytrade, and Crash were out of reach for the Chimera now and walked slowly to a random direction. They couldn't stay at the same place where they wanted to wait for Lightbeam and Nightsky because of this beast waiting there for them. They just hoped that the two would still find them like this. "There you are!" Then suddenly Lightbeam's voice could be heard from afar, who was flying towards the four ponies with her brother next to her. "Did you find the castle too? You are walking in the right direction after all," she asked. Realizing how they were close to their destination, the ponies listened to what the two Pegasi had to tell them and followed their lead to the castle so that they could soon leave this place again. A bit later... After venturing through some bushes, Lightbeam and Nightsky both waited at a certain spot to show the group the castle. "There it is!" Nightsky announced once the others arrived at a spot from where they could clearly see the place that they were all looking for. The group took a moment to take in what they saw not too far away in front of them. A giant castle, destroyed and covered by plants and trees that grew all around and even from inside of it was there standing in the middle of this creepy forest. If they didn't know that this was supposed to be a castle, then they certainly would have trouble identifying it as one. But this must have been it, Summershine was certain of it. Without many words being wasted, the group walked up to the castle, intimated a little bit by it, especially since they knew that two very important ponies used to live inside there, probably the two most important ponies in all of Equestria. Judging from how some of the walls were damaged, the group could only imagine how a battle was going on between Princess Celestia and her sister. Thinking about that made some of the ponies feel quite uneasy. "I can't imagine how bad it must feel to fight your own sister," Lightbeam said as she thought about the events that must have taken place here. Brilliance was the one who shined some light on the whole story. "According to the book that I was reading, there was an older and a younger sister, the older one took care of raising the sun and the younger one took care of the moon. Princess Celestia is the one taking care of both those duties now, as we all know. The younger sister became jealous because all the ponies back then were playing outside while the sun was out but slept while the moon was up," "And then she turned into Nightmare Moon, right?" Nightsky figured which caused Brilliance to nod in reply. "And now that Princess Celestia is the only one taking care of those two duties, you figured that Nightmare Moon was her younger sister? And that she was the one who defeated her?" Summershine asked. Brilliance nodded. "The book didn't state any name because it was quite old but that is most likely what happened. Princess Celestia herself admitted before that it was her sister too," she pointed out as further evidence. "That doesn't really make the situation any better," Lightbeam said. "It's still sisters who were fighting against each other. That's terrible!" She said while frowning just thinking about it. "I'm sure Princess Celestia feels that way too," Nightsky figured. "The princess probably didn't see any other way to deal with her sister. She also had to think about everypony else in Equestria. It was probably very hard for her to make that decision to send her own sister to the moon," Hearing Nightsky talking about this certainly dropped the mood of the group as they were approaching the castle. "Now I feel kinda bad that the princess wants you to deal with Nightmare Moon, once she comes back..." Crash said with a frown on his face. This only further dropped the mood of the group. Not only was Summershine tasked to protect Equestria from Nightmare Moon, which in itself was pretty big alone but he was also supposed to stop a fight between two sisters. Summershine was fully aware of that and began to get second thoughts about all this. The fact that the princess was trusting him with all of this did put a lot of pressure on him. Sure, he was like Princess Celestia said very gifted with magic but was that enough to take care of all those things? The stallion turned around and saw how his friends were slowly following, they seemed to have second guesses as well. It was a pretty royal problem that they all got involved with after all. Summershine then took a huge breath and began to smile. "Don't worry," Summershine said, much to everyponies confusion. "Princess Celestia wanted me to find and restore the power of the Elements of Harmony. Maybe if we find them, we can use them to bring Nightmare Moon to her senses," he suggested. But his suggestion was met with some disbelieving. "You think the Elements of Harmony can do something like that?" Happytrade asked confused. "Well, they are really powerful, right?" Summershine replied. "They were able to imprison Nightmare Moon for a thousand years now, I'm sure they will be able to do something like that," he said with a confident tone in his voice. What he was receiving though was silence at first. His motivated tone wasn't jumping over to them, the way he expected. "Maybe," Lightbeam replied then all of the sudden. "Yeah!" Crash added. "I mean, out of all ponies in Equestria, the princess trusted you to take care of her own sister!" "Yeah!" Happytrade said, now in a happier tone. "Your abilities in terms of magic are something that most ponies don't even come close to! If there is anypony who can use the Elements of Harmony like this, then it is you!" She pointed out. Summershine smiled after hearing that. "Exactly! So it's settled! Once I get the elements, I will try my best to make Nightmare Moon return to normal!" She vowed with a determined expression on his face. The group's mood quickly went up again. This would be a result that everypony would certainly like to see. It also made them forget the pressure that was put on them. "Then what are we waiting for!?" Crash excitedly said. "Let's get those elements as quickly as possible!" He said before he jumped towards the castle. "Yeah!" Lightbeam said in excitement as well. "Now I can't wait for you to save all of Equestria!" Summershine laughed as he watched those two walk up to the castle. It helped him get his own mood up as well. "Yes!" He simply said as he and the rest of his friends walked up to the Castle of the Two Sisters too. The elements were supposed to be there so all they had to do was going into the castle, get them and then try to restore their power. Getting through the forest was probably harder than this, at least that's what Summershine was telling himself as he was getting closer to the castle. Unbeknownst to those seven ponies though, from inside the forest, somepony was watching them. Someone had his eyes set on them and made sure that he wasn't spotted. He watched them going inside the castle and slowly walked up to it as well, planning to follow them inside. Whatever that pony was planning to do, he did not want to get caught at all so the real question was, what was he really after? To be continued...