Books!
Books were wonderful! Books were filled with all kinds of wonderful things! Books that were big! Books that were small! Books that could teach you how to make delicious pancakes! Books that talked about becoming a princess, or how to go inside a book using Haycartes' Method! Books on how to be the Best L.S.B.F.F. (Little Sister Best Friend Forever of course!), or books about Star Swirl the Bearded and his many magical adventures, or even-
BOOM!
OW OW OK OW THAT WAS NOT WONDERFUL THAT HURT
"Twilight!" Wait, it was her B.B.B.F.F.! (Big Brother Best Friend Forever, of course!) He'd make the hurt go away! "Are you alright? There's a crazy amount of magic all over the place!"
"Shiny! My horn kinda hurts..."
"I know Twily, it's going to be ok. We'll figure out whatever's going on together. I promise."
"Thank you B.B.B.F.F...." As her Big Brother Best Friend Forever pulled her into a hug, the pain really did go away. Not only that, her horn suddenly felt really nice. Friendly, even. Like she could be Best Friends Forever with anypony...
Neither sibling noticed the glow of a six-pointed star Cutie Mark appearing on Twilight Sparkle's blank flank.
“Anonymous!”
If picking myself up from the ground was going to be a running gag, I'd like to opt-out of fillyhood.
Christ on a cracker, everything ached. My horn felt sorer than any kind of foreplay a virgin could only dream of in their depraved fantasies. Speaking of fantasies, any hope that this was all in my imagination had been taken out back behind the shed and told to imagine the bunny rabbits.
Actually I didn't like that metaphor for some reason. Maybe I'd used it before giving myself brain damage.
“Wake up my little mystery, please, are you alright?” Or maybe this wasn't real after all, I shouldn’t be hearing that voice here.
“Dad? Is that really you?”
“Oh thank Celestia you’re alright!”
That sounded like my actual dad, but it sure as hell didn’t look like him. Instead of a based middle age human male, I saw an admittedly based looking unicorn stallion with what looked like the Google Chrome Incognito Mode symbol on his butt. Seriously Haber?
When I remembered that I was trying to bullshit The Magic of Friendship™ before nearly accidentally killing myself, I turned to look at the observers who were whining about my singing earlier.
Woah, holy shit, did someone Allah Akubar Celestia’s School? The chairs and desks were all gone, the examiners had their clothing served extra crispy, and I’m pretty sure the wall behind me just fell over.
Every single one of the examiners were frozen at the site of all the destruction. Thankfully they all looked fine, aside from their clothing, but they were all looking towards something in absolute shock. It wasn’t very comforting that whatever it was they singled out among the destruction, it was a bit off to the side of me. Since I wasn't reborn as a cat, I decided it was best to look at whatever they were gaping at instead.
I saw legs. Tall, slender and white. No face though, always a tragedy when that happens. Then I followed the legs as well, and wished I'd just flunked the damn exam instead of whatever the hell I accomplished today. The face of one Princess Celestia herself was gaping at little old me. Something must really be going around, because all I could do is gape right back. Two gapeful beings, locked in a perpetual state of gaping combat.
“Princess Celestia, where’s the-OH SWEET YOU I TOLD YOU IT WAS AN EXPLOSION!”
Okay, I didn’t recognize that loudass voice. At least not at first. I gaped my gapeful gaze away from Princess Goddamn Celestia to gape at another character I’d recognize today. The golden unicorn looked older than me, yet not as old as she looked on the show. But there was no mistaking that yin-yang sun on her butt.
A young Sunset Shimmer stood there, looking around the entire room. Well, at least she wasn’t gaping as well. Even Celestia managed to stop gaping for a moment to compose herself. See people, with your generous donations, you too, can fight gaping.
“At ease Sunset, there is no emergency here. Mystery seems to be quite the accurate statement here, however, mister?”
“Anonymous.” “Incog Nito, your highness.” An awkward pause. Now my (new? old?) dad and I were gaping at each other. Also, seriously? You ponies split incognito into two words? Still, I’d better suck it up and accept the magically mandated gender reassignment.
“Uh, sorry Princess Celestia, dad. What’s going on, exactly?” Nailed it, charisma roll 20. Hell yeah. Or maybe I rolled a one, because for some reason that awkward feeling wasn’t going away, even when Mister Nito spoke up.
“Well, your highness, I was in the waiting area for parents when I felt my daughter explode! So I ran over here to see if she was…well, alright, thankfully.”
“I exploded? What the fuck did I-?"
“Anonymous! Where did you hear that word!” Uh oh, now I was thinking out loud. Had I been doing that this entire time?
“I-I overheard some adult at the village say it! I thought it sounded cool.” Surprisingly, I’d meant every word of that. I was actually remembering some random village I'd never been to. Trippy. Was this what the weebs tagged mind break?
“Do not speak that word in front of the Princess, young filly! My sincerest apologies for that outburst, your highness, but I must ask, what happened to my daughter?”
Princess Celestia had no idea what she was realistically expecting when she decided to teleport to the source of the surge of Harmony. Perhaps a student's research project had gone haywire. Though how said student would have managed to tap into Harmony itself, even she was at a loss.
A curious, foul-mouthed little filly trying to pass her entrance exam by using Harmony as an explosive was not high on her list of expectations. Still, no reason to be rude about it, Celestia thought, as she gave Miss Anonymous a gentle smile.
"That is what I would like to ask as well. Anonymous, was it dear?" A small, nervous nod was given. My, did she get rather sick of seeing little foals get so fearful in her presence. "Do not worry little one, despite how today appears, I guarantee you that that surge of magic would not have harmed a single pony here today." She supposed that with no true focus or target to send the traditional rainbow light towards, the power would simply surge wildly. Granted, every one of her little ponies here in Canterlot would remember feeling that ‘explosion’ for quite a while. "It seems you've had quite the entrance exam. May I ask what it was you've done here today?"
The filly did not reply immediately, preferring to look at the examiners higher up on the exam room desks. Said examiners were still rather flabbergasted at her own presence, it seems. Anonymous only sighed.
"Okay, I just sort of, uh, sang a little bit, I guess..."
"Oh? That sounds wonderful, dear. What kind of song was this?" Could it really be that song?
"Uh, you know, it was a catchy song. Like this." Reluctantly, the little filly began to whistle.
It was the song of Harmony. The same one the Tree had played when she and her sister first took the Elements. The same song that played when they stood against Discord.
The song that never played when she used them against Nightmare Moon. She thought she'd never hear that song again.
"That's a lovely song. Wherever did you hear it?"
"Oh that? It just, sort of, came to me at the moment?"
"Harmony." Oh, it seems that the examiners were now ready to report their observations.
"Yes, Miss Hidden Potential? You say that young Anonymous sung of Harmony?"
"Y-yes your Highness. She kept singing that over and over again. As she was singing, she began to glow."
"I was glowing? Kinda had my eyes closed."
"I-indeed Miss Anonymous. When you opened your eyes again, t-they were pure white."
Anonymous seemed rather dumbstruck by this revelation. Indeed, such a surge of magic was rare in young Unicorns, even among those that were recorded to have such high levels of magic. The last time such a surge had occurred was-
"What the buck is going on?" Ah yes, the day Sunset Shimmer had become her pupil. "Princess Celestia, you cannot be suggesting that this-" Quite the hoof pointing she had these days. "-filly triggered a Surge State by singing!"
"What's wrong with singing? Also, what the buck-as in bucking dad-is a Surge State? Aside from the one I just did somehow?" Anonymous interjected.
"You signed up for CSGU and didn't bother looking up something as important as a Surge State?"
"Does it look like I needed to know that Sunbutt?"
"SUNBUTT!"
"Sunset Shimmer," Celestia began, "do not attempt to belittle Anonymous' achievements. Anonymous, please do not insult your fellow ponies. And do mind your language, young filly."
"Yes, Princess Celestia."
"Sorry, Princess Celestia. If I can ask, what did I do when I sung about...Harmony." The word seemed fitting, coming from Anonymous, somehow.
"Harmony, eh? Of course you'd show off your favorite book." Mister Nito's interjection had caught her off guard, however.
"Oh? Does this book happen to be about the Elements of Harmony, Anonymous?"
"It uh, may or may not be?" Oh dear, they would have to work on the little filly's nervousness.
"Not to worry my little mystery, I'm still holding on to it for you." Indeed, Anonymous' father pulled a very familiar book out of his satchel. It was a rather worn out copy, but still looked perfectly intact. Intact enough for both Anonymous and Sunset to recognize it. "This, Princess Celestia, is the first real book Anon here has really learned to read. She makes me read it to her every night for her bedtime stories."
"Well then, it seems you are familiar with the Elements of Harmony, dear Anonymous?"
"T-that's impossible." Sunset interrupted. "T-those Elements are just a bunch of little foal's tales!" And yet, it seemed that Sunset was beginning to realize the truth of these tales. After today, a lot of ponies would, it seemed.
"Well, I am little." Anonymous replied with a wide smile. "I've always been a fan of these stories. Ahem. The Elements of Harmony are as follows: Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, Mag-ick!" Oh? Now Anonymous absolutely had her attention. Had she managed to uncover the Sixth Element, lost to time and unknown to all but her? "M-Magical explosions?" Hm. Curious. And she was so confident, too.
"You seem uncertain young Anonymous. Do you have some theories on what the lost Sixth Element could possibly be?"
Anonymous looked towards the wall next to her. Or what was left of it, anyways. "Just a thought your highness. I think that maybe, if you brought all five together, it would be rather, magical?" A pause. "I guess that wasn't quite right, was it?"
"On the contrary, little one. I believe you've uncovered something long lost in these tales." Celestia could not help but smile at at the young filly. Perhaps it was time to form some new interpersonal relationships...
"Princess Celestia, did you only bring me here to talk about the Elements of Harmony?"
"Not quite dear Sunset, but it seems to be turning out that way. Perhaps a shift in topics is in order, however. Do you remember our conversation before Anonymous interrupted us?"
"You..." Sunset frowned. "We were talking about books. The knowledge they contained and what knowledge can be learned if it was shared. Did you want to share the knowledge of the Elements with me?"
"Ah, it seems you understand where I'm going with this after all."
"I don't know about this Princess Celestia, what could these stories possibly teach me about magic?"
"Before I say the f-word again, where are you going with this?"
"ANONYMOUS!"
Dear her, this little one was quite blunt, wasn't she? "Sunset Shimmer, Anonymous, how would you like to become research partners in studying the magic of the Elements of Harmony?"
"WHAT!" Luna would have appreciated the projection of those yells. Every voice in the room seemed to have been amplified by yelling together. Must have used their diaphragms. Oh the days of the Royal Canterlot Voice...
“Princess Celestia, I’ve already told you my own studies take priority-“
“Surely you don’t mean to make my daughter your pupil as well-“
"Princess, you taking on multiple pupils is unprecedented-"
“Is this because I blew up the school because it’s really just a silly little story-"
"ENOUGH!"
The entire room now appeared to be gaping at Celestia. Oh dear, her wings were out. How embarrassing. "Ahem. Now then, I believe this is going to be an unconventional situation for all of us. Sunset Shimmer, I believe you have much to teach Anonymous as she has to teach you. I know this for you have taught me much about myself since I first took you under my wing. Mister Nito, I do indeed intend to make your daughter my pupil as well as Miss Sunset. Hidden Potential, I believe a new precedent must be set under these circumstances." Not the least of which being those of my sister.
"And finally, for the last time dear Anonymous, you did not blow up the school intentionally. Rather, you spread a wonderful, lost magic I feared would long be gone from the lives of my little ponies. I believe there is much we can teach each other, if you are willing to learn alongside Sunset and I."
"Well, Anonymous? Do you wish to become one of my personal students?”
"Fuck."