Princess Celestia flew across the early morning sky in regal majesty, gliding on the subtle warm currents of the wind. A veritable sea of trees and other foliage passed beneath her as she flapped her wings to gain altitude, passing over a cluster of rocks jutting out above the Everfee Forest. She wondered if the little outcropping of rocks had been a part of Everfree Castle many years ago, or if her memories of the area had started to grow fuzzy as time took its toll on both her mind and the land around her. She hefted the satchel bag that was on her side up a little higher with her magic, as she tried to find a more comfortable position for it around her midsection. She saw a great ruin just below her; it was standing on a small cliff face, with a river passing underneath the edge. Erosion had taken its toll on the land near Everfree Castle, and the only part of the structure that remained standing was the chapel like room which had contained the Elements before they had been moved to Canterlot. The Princess slowly descended by flying in large circular arcs, until her golden horse shoes clanked against the rough stone floor of the small chapel.
She began to think to herself as she slowly approached the pedestal which had held the Elements. It had been nearly three hundred and seven years since she had imprisoned her sister’s essence on the moon, and it had been a little over five years since Starswirl had passed on. He had never really bothered to write a last will and testament for himself, so he had conveyed all of his last wishes to her personally.
“I don’t have any money, and I never really owned any land,” he had said, “So that makes that portion of things rather easy to manage. I do, however, have two gifts for you.” The old unicorn had offered her an egg that was colored bronze and red.
“What is it?” she had asked.
“That is a phoenix egg. In about a week’s time, it will hatch. They are frightfully intelligent creatures, and since they are immortal in their own right, the hatchling will keep you good company over many millennia.”
He had also produced a crystal sliver from his cloak, “This shard is a unique physical manifestation of the place where I am going to go after I leave you. Just hold on to it, and think of me occasionally.”
The Princess had smiled, “I promise.”
“I do also have two last requests.”
“Name them, and they’re yours, old friend.”
“I have family in Baltimare. I’d like you to provide for and look after my last descendant, my great-grandniece Clover.”
“I’ll take her under my wing, as if she were my own child.”
“It will be good for the both of you,” he had smiled peacefully.
“What is your last request?”
“I’d like you to mail my journal through regular postage to Clover.”
The Princess was mildly confused, “Why not just have me send it by Royal Courier? It would be much safer and quicker in the end.”
“Because history demands that my journal disappears for a time. It will be lost, stolen, and lost again for many centuries, until it ends up in the right set of hooves.”
“Whose hooves?” she had asked.
“I’m unsure, but I can tell you this; you will see my journal again when the pink and purple mare, who is three in one, appears.”
She still had no idea what he had meant by any of that strange request or prophecy, but she had fulfilled his instructions to the letter; she had mailed the journal to Clover, but just as Starswirl stated, she had never received it. Princess Celestia had taken Clover back to Canterlot with her for a time, and the young unicorn mare had become her first student. After her studies under her had finished, Clover had left to travel just like her uncle Starswirl had, and she did many great things for all the races of the world. She had even picked up her own title; Clover the Clever. Before she had left Canterlot, she had gotten married and drug her husband along behind her to follow in her wake. Though the family name was now Sparkle for Clover, she was definitely the mare of the house, figuratively speaking. The egg that Starswirl had given to the Princess had hatched as he said it would, and she greeted into the world a newborn phoenix chick that she had later named Philomena. It was wonderful to have a pet that she could talk to, and who would never truly leave her side.
The world is beginning to be put in order, the Princess had declared to herself. She would continue training up students to go out and be her hooves in the world. Her subjects, rather than greeting her with fake smiles, were beginning to look at her with genuine joy, and she knew that the majority of them were happy at last. There was only one last thing to take care of.
The Princess slipped the satchel around her midsection off of herself. From out of the large bag she pulled the six Elements of Creation, and she placed each of them on their appropriate pedestals with due reverence. The vibrant, perfectly spherical gems pulsated in the growing morning light.
“I know your power,” she spoke to them, “and while I never used you apart from sealing away Luna, your power is too great for any one pony, even an alicorn like me, to wield.”
Light twinkled off the surface of the gems.
“I cannot allow it to be possible for somepony like Nightmare Moon or any one pony to be able to harness you.”
She almost thought she saw one of the gems shift in response to this statement.
She continued, “Perhaps this is what Starswirl would have me do. Perhaps it isn’t. I have faith, though, that all things happen for a purpose, and that this decision will turn out for the best.”
She pointed her horn at the nearest Element, it was Topaz colored. “I bind you to only be usable to those who are Honest at heart.” The sphere lost its colorful and crystal-like nature, and in only a few moments it became as common looking and gray as any other stone surrounding the chapel.
She next pointed at the Element colored Ruby, “I bind you to only be usable to those Loyal to their friends.” This Element also became lusterless and dull grey.
One by one the Princess locked away the powers of the holy, life giving relics, until there was only the very lonely Amethyst left. Here the Princess wasn’t sure how to proceed; Starswirl had only ever taught her five excellent attributes. As she thought more and more, the answer slowly seeped into mind, and she smiled softly. The lessons she had learned, all she had become with Starswirl’s help, would have never been possible had he not been her friend. Friendship, she thought to herself, is what can truly define and change the world forever. Through those we share our love with, through those who laugh and cry with us, through those who stick by our sides in the thick of life, but who will also tell us honestly when we are in the wrong.
She looked down at Amethyst, and she said, “I bind your power to unify all the other Elements together. Only through you, you who represent the magic of friendship, can the others be summoned. Without you, the other Elements have no power at all.” The sixth Element of Harmony then dissolved into an uncountable multitude of particles which floated into the air and settled onto the other five Elements. As the dust of the sixth touched the five, the grey orbs glowed purple for an instant, and then became still.
Satisfied in her work, Princess Celestia turned and walked away from Elements. As she walked past a destroyed stained glass window and large section of broken wall, she heard a sharp cracking sound underhoof. She momentarily stopped as she looked down at the shards of glass her golden horse shoe had stepped on. It was an image of the sun. The Princess looked down at the golden orange dust that surrounded the broken glass, and then she looked up to the window from which it had come from. The frame of the window still held the half broken image of her and her sister, as it showed that they had ruled over the land, and made things right through a balance of authority.
What will it be like in seven hundred years? She wondered to herself. When Luna comes back, will we be able to reconcile? I’ll be somepony else by then, but she will be just like she was; still angry. Still vengeful.
She sighed deeply as she wrapped her now empty satchel around her midsection, and took off into the awaiting skies above.
I miss you so deeply, sister. I hope that I can make things right by you some day.
It was the dawn of a new beginning for Princess Celestia and her influence in the world. With each new student she taught, she learned even more about what Starswirl had been trying to teach her. Her students varied in many ways over the years. She taught unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. In several instances, she had even had opportunities to teach those of other races; zebharans, minotaurs, even the occasional griffon. Each pupil brought something new to her, whether it was their personality, their perspective, or simply their past experience. Years passed like days, and it wasn’t all that long until it would be time for Nightmare Moon’s release from her stellar prison. Plans had been created many years before; contingencies were accounted for in as many ways as there were conceivable.
It was two years before the appointed thousand year sentence was complete, and Princess Celestia had been taking an idle stroll around the castle, when she had had her first experience with her next student. The youngest of the Sparkle family, a little filly named Twilight, had been taking a test to join her School for gifted Unicorns, when her body’s magical reservoir had nearly overloaded. Had the Princess not been there, she was sure that that entire tower of the castle would have magically detonated. The little filly did hold great promise though, so she had taken her as her student. As she had taught her student new kinds of magic, Twilight Sparkle had eagerly devoured the knowledge she gave. She had tried to subtly coax her student into taking up opportunities to make friends with other students, and some of the residents of Canterlot. The little filly, however, had missed the forest for the trees, and she was so focused on her magical studies that she only interacted with others out of necessity.
As one last desperate act, on the eve of Nightmare Moon’s release, Princess Celestia had commanded Twilight Sparkle to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Festival. She could only hope that the kindly spirit of the town of Ponyville would be able to affect her student in the best possible way. If the situation became as dire as she believed it could turn, she would intervene. She truly hoped that she did not have to resort to her last plan, but she would if it became necessary to protect the world. All her hopes were now bound up in the brilliant little filly who was now leaving for Ponyville.
Mother, she prayed, help guide my student’s and my destiny. Help us to find the best possible solution to this conundrum. Elements, if you are out there still, give me strength.
Finished with her plea, the Princess cast a spell of invisibility and intangibility on herself, and she began the flight to Ponyville directly behind the flying chariot that was carrying her student.
Equestria would never be the same after that fateful day.
That tale, however, is for another time and place.