Origin of The Elements of Harmony
The Elements of Harmony have existed since the beginning of recorded history and are thought to have existed long before this. It is not known who or what created the Elements or what their original use was. As the Elements of Harmony began to appear in ancient scripture so too did the beginning of a harmonious change in Equestrian history. It seems as though the Elements are what changed our ancestors’ mindsets about one another and brought the very beginnings of peace. This eventually created the Age of Harmony which still continues today.
Oddly, even the oldest cave writings and carvings always describe the Elements being found, not made. Nothing discovered so far has ever described or related to the creation of the Elements. Our Pre-Harmony ancestors too knew little about the Elements. Ancient writings only describe how they discovered the Elements' uses and how foals born after the discovery began expressing deep connections with them. It seems as though the Elements even then were mysterious and ancient relics.
A group of cave writings was recently discovered during an archaeological dig near the Canter Mountain Range. These writings tell an even more mysterious tale of discovering the Elements. A tribal herd of ponies witnessed a strange flash or glow of light and a large party went to see what had occurred. When the party reached the location of the glow they discovered the six Elements. Amazed, they wrote that these objects came from powerful deities. It is unknown what kind of deity or magical spirit would have created them or where they have gone today. The Elements might have been so powerful and strange to the ponies that they believed only gods could create them when it could have been something completely different.
The Crystal Heart of the Crystal Empire has a very similar back-story and functions in a very similar way. This ancient relic was discovered by the Crystal ponies' ancestors once again when a strange phenomena of glowing light occurred. The Heart helped form the Crystal Empire and protected it by using it's powers to shield Crystalians from the ancient evils that presided in the Arctic North. Originally the Crystal ponies believed the Heart was a gift from the gods because of the great power it had. The heart used the citizens hopeful, happy, and harmonious spirits to produce it's great powers, this in turn creates harmony and peace, not only in the Crystal Empire but throughout Equestria. When the power is activated it produces nearly the exact same rainbow phenomena as the Elements of Harmony do. The Heart continues to bring Harmony to our world today along with the Elements. If these two relics are connected, which seems very possible, it could prove the theory that the Elements tap into the wielders' spirits to produce their power.
Strangely enough both of these stories are eerily similar to an old pony myth of a much lesser known relic. The myth of the Star of Power tells us that long ago a herd of ponies witnessed an object descending from the sky in a glowing beam of light. The object glowed red and was made of a strange black metal shaped like a star. Once the star like object descended to the ground the leader of the herd put his hoof upon it. His body was filled with power and he was said to be the most powerful pony in the known world. With this power though, came a price. Herd members began to notice the glow of red within his eyes and his fur began to turn black. He became crueler and crueler until he was no longer himself and seemed to be controlled by the Star and evil, this they described as "corruption". This Star was worshiped as a god of sorts and it is said that it would speak to its corrupt follower. One day though a pony with an unknown name was destined to stop this. This pony was said to have a strange cutie mark that not even she could understand. With unknown power and aid, she was able to stop the herd leader and decide the fate of the Star. Some believe that the Elements of Harmony and maybe even the Crystal Heart helped defeat the Star and aided this hero. Instead of destroying the Star she split it into six pieces and stashed them across Equestria. She did this because she believed that one day we would be able to better understand and control the Star. This story first appeared around the time of the discovery of the Elements of Harmony and the Crystal Heart.
The similarities of these three stories and their inceptions are uncanny and some believe the Elements and Heart were created to stop the Star of Power. Although this story is a myth and should not be thought true with no evidence of the Star existing, it along with the Crystal Heart can tell us about the Elements of Harmony. Even though the Star of Power is just a story it seems to be based off accounts of discovering the Elements, after years of re-telling the two stories may have melded together and now feature elements of both. Standing out in all three stories are the strange lights correlating to the appearance of the relics, deity like aspects of them and the similar powers produced by them.
Once again there are multiple theories on whom or what created the Elements. Magic sometimes does very strange things and some believe the appearance of the Elements was a random act of this. The flash or beam of light may have been energetic magic particles forming together to create the relics. In Pre-Harmony times many tribal ponies worshiped magic as a god or gods because they could not explain what else could cause such life changing events. Many Unicorns even believed that the magic they wielded was a special gift from these gods. The connections of wielder and Element were also thought to be a connection to the gods. This theory says that magic for unknown reasons intervened and brought peace to our world. This is the second part of the Magic Theory mentioned in the previous chapter and can also be connected to the Spiritual Theory. At this point the Technology Theory splits in two. The first theory tells us that the technological relics were produced long ago in a time before our race was sentient. An ancient and very advanced society produced these relics with knowledge far beyond our own. After this civilization was somehow lost our race discovered the Elements that they created. It also tells us that the beam or flash of light was a way to help us find them. The ancient race may have known their civilization would be lost and wanted their greatest works to be discovered. Some even go as far to say that the Elements were created so our civilization would not experience a similar fate. The deity aspect is explained by a technologically produced message that was given to the first ponies that discovered the Elements. The ponies watched a video or something similar of one of these ancient beings telling them what the Elements of Harmony were. Although there is no proof of a message this could explain the ponies being spoken to by a mysterious deity. The other theory tells us that these pieces of technology were produced by an advanced space faring civilization. The beam or flash of light was either a way to transport the Elements to the surface of our world or once again to get our ancestors attention. This can explain certain stories telling of sky gods with strange powers giving the Elements and Crystal Heart to the ponies. It is not known why an advanced race would want to intervene in our advancement or for what reason they created the Elements for us. Both of these theories can also connect to the Combination Theory. The space faring or ancient civilization might have discovered a way to extract power from the spirit of a living being and re-emit it as power. Being advanced, they also knew how to harness magic, which was used to power these objects just as we do today with more mundane objects. The space faring or ancient civilization might have also discovered a way to produce the mysterious connection between wielder and Element or this connection was somehow already there.