Dear Princess Twilight
I request you at Canterlot Castle immediately to discuss something of great importance. Do not bring anything except yourself as you will have time to pack later, and don't bring or tell anypony, this is something you must do alone.
Your fellow princess
Princess Celestia
Twilight reread the letter a few times before rolling it up and incinerating it with some fire magic.
"What'd it say Twilight?" Spike asked.
"Sorry Spike, I'm not to tell anypony, not even you. I'll let you know more when I get back." Twilight said.
"Oh... okay."
Twilight flew out of her castle and headed for Canterlot.
"You wished to see me Celestia." Twilight asked as she flew through the window, since she was a princess now, she had dropped the formal title.
"Twilight, I'm sending you around Equestria on peace negotiations." Celestia said.
"Really, with who?"
"The Blood and Bat empires, The Everfree Changeling Hive, and the Cave's of your kingdom where a particularly disobedient pony has lived for years."
Twilight groaned at the mention of a changeling hive. "Explain."
"The Blood Empire is a small empire near the other side of the Everfree. You are to speak with Princess Blood Flame. DO NOT speak with her father, King Flaming Death, as it was Blood Flame who requested the negotiations. Oh and don't try any of the food offered unless you feel that you can trust Princess Blood Flame."
"May I ask her secondary princess status?"
"She is the Princess of Fear."
"Okay."
"The Bat Empire is home of the batponies, such as the Lunar Guard, most aren't too friendly to non batponies. You're going to meat first with the librarian/scientist known as Blade Wing. He'll give you something to help you blend in with the locals as to not spike any suspicion. Afterwards you'll meet with Princess Red Fang, she'll discuss the idea of peace with you."
"What of her parents?"
"Both dead, she just prefers the term princess."
"Got it."
"The Everfree Hive is very well known and not for good reason, it's Chrysalis' hive. You'll be speaking with Princess Shadow Mind behind her mothers back. When you get there, expect to be captured as Shadow Mind doesn't wish to draw suspicion from her mother. Shadow Mind will use some of her magic to give you the appearance of a changeling princess and wishes you try to refrain from revealing yourself."
"Do I HAVE to go into the hive of my worst enemy?"
"Yes. As princesses we're to accept any request for peace negotiations and Shadow Mind specifically asked for you since changeling magic isn't something that most ponies can handle being forced onto them. As the Element of Magic, she believes you're more than capable of handling it."
"I don't think I'm particularly interested in being manipulated by changeling magic."
"Not many would be, but it is necessary."
"Understandable."
"The pony I spoke of is named Midnight Heart, she is a powerful unicorn that actively studies all of the forbidden arts. she requested you bring some armor for an unspecified reason."
"What are the forbidden arts?"
"Black Magic (what Sombra used, though his was intermingled with two other magics), Dark Magic (the magic mostly found in the Alicorn Amulet), Changeling Magic (which is expressively forbidden for unicorns and alicorns alike), Necromancy (I shouldn't need to explain that one), and Nightmare Magic (what Nightmare Moon used) are the most common. Lunar and Solar magic are also forbidden to any unicorn or alicorn other than me and Luna."
"Oh." Twilight turned and headed off, but was stopped when Celestia called her.
"Two more things. One do not ever try any of the magics I've specified. Two, if you find a pony that looks exactly like you except with the primary mane and coat colors swapped and a cutie mark of a hexagram with the symbol of the Elements of Harmony at each point, then tell her I said hi. Also she is allowed to come with you."
"Will do Celestia."
Twilight flew back into her castle in the Friendship Rainbow Kingdom, formally Ponyville, and went to her room to pack for what she suspected would be one long trip.
"Where you going Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked as Twilight came back into the throne room.
"I have some peace negotiations that I need to attend to and I'm not allowed to identify them." Twilight said as she started writing a checklist of everything she would likely need.
A sudden extremely strong wind picked up in the center of the castle as it seemed to draw on the magic of the Elements of Harmony, pulling in each aspect and morphing them. As the whirlwind of magic died down, an alicorn matching the description Celestia had given stood up. The pony's coat was the main color of Twilight's mane, her mane was light purple with the two stripes that Twilights had. Her cutie mark was a hexagram with the six pointed star that was the Element of Magic at the top point, a butterfly symbolizing the Element of Kindness was at the point immediately to the right of the top one, followed by a balloon, diamond, apple, and lightning bolt at the rest of the points going clockwise and symbolizing laughter, generosity, honesty, and loyalty in that order. Her eyes were an unnaturally bright gold color.
"Good morning Elements of Magic and Loyalty, may I ask your names?" the pony asked with a respectful bow.
"Who are you huh?" Rainbow Dash asked as she shot to right in front of the pony.
"I am Tranquil wind, guardian of the spirits of the Elements of Harmony. I don't know any of you, but I could tell each of you your element." Tranquil said.
"Forgive Rainbow Dash, she a little untrusting sometimes. I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship." Twilight said.
"No need for formal titles around me, the last Elements of Harmony were ALL princesses and princes and all alicorns."
"Okay, oh... Celestia told me to tell you that she says hi."
"Tia? Are Cad, Somb, Woona, Chrysy, and Nighty still around as well?"
"Who?"
"Oh you don't know their nicknames. I meant Cadence, Sombra, Luna, Chrysalis, and Nightmare."
"Why are you asking?"
"Because them and Celestia are the former Elements of Harmony, they defeated Discord together."
"But... I've seen the past and it was only Luna and Celestia that defeated Discord, and Nightmare Moon was just an evil spirit that took over Luna."
"You must have seen the temporal lie that they set up for safety, so how are all of them?"
"Um well, Cadence is the current ruler of the Crystal Empire, next to my brother Shinning armor. Sombra turned evil and is, I think, dead. Luna and Celestia are ruling together in canterlot. Chrysalis tried to invade canterlot a few years ago and resides in her hive. and Nightmare Moon was defeated by me and my friends a few years ago."
"You really don't know the truth do you?"
"What truth?"
"Simple." Tranquil said as her horn lit up in a rainbow colored aura that matched perfectly to the rainbow effect the elements created when being used together. A series of images following what Tranquil was saying started forming. "Cadence, Celestia, Sombra, Luna, Nightmare, and Chrysalis are the former elements of Laughter, Magic, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, and Kindness respectively. They are all siblings, and all alicorns. Chrysalis is considered an alicorn because the definition of alicorn is a pony with a horn and wings, it doesn't specify unicorn horn and Pegasus wings. Nightmare is Luna's twin sister and they're the oldest of the siblings. Nightmare got trapped inside Luna after a little accident involving their magic. Celestia and Sombra are also twins and often act as light and dark respectively. Cadence is the second youngest while Chrysalis is the youngest of the siblings. Something nopony knows is that Clover the Clever and Starswirl are the sibling's parents. I actually have a spell that I can use to free Nightmare from Luna." Tranquil smiled when she saw that Twilight was listening to everything said, even rainbow dash was listening.
"Continue please." Rainbow Dash said.
"I do know some things about each of you as the most resent Elements of Harmony. Each element has a side trait or ability that was set by the first ponies to ever wield them. For magic it is usually extreme resistance to magical side effects making all magic mostly safe to be used on them. for Loyalty it is the legendary Sonic Rainboom, which is always what connects the newest element bearers, because of this there have only been a few cases where the Element of Loyalty wasn't a winged being. For Laughter it is a natural defiance of the laws of physics and rules of reality."
"That's me." Pinkie Pie said after jumping out of Tranquil's mane. "I'm Pinkie Pie and OHMYGOSH I need to get a welcome party ready." Pinkie added before vanishing into thin air.
"Anyway, I'm use to it after over one thousand different groups of the Elements of Harmony. For Generosity it is a slightly unusual obsession with gems and crystals. For honesty it is the ability to TELL weather somepony is lying or not. For Kindness it's the legendary eyes of fear, an ability to force ANY creature into complete submission and, if used with extreme practice, can kill. By the way, what are the names of the other elements?"
"Huh... oh, Apple Jack is the Element of Honesty, Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness, and Rarity is the Element of Laughter. Why are you only now showing up?" Twilight said.
"Usually I show up only a few months after the elements are once more wielded, but for some reason all of you abandoned what your element stood for at the same time and so I had to wait until you were all once more fully tuned to your elements." Tranquil said.
"Oh, that must have been when Discord manipulated us after escaping."
"Likely, where is he anyway?"
"Right here, and I'm reformed so no worries." Discord said after popping into existence.
"He really is so you don't need to attack him. Discord this is-" Discord cut Twilight off.
"Tranquil Wind, it's been a long time."
"Not long enough Discord, I wont ever forgive you for what you tried to do to my home." Tranquil hissed.
"Oh are you STILL mad about that, well I'll have you know that my Blunder Seeds did eventually grow and that I helped fix the problem."
"Somehow I doubt that."
"Actually he did help a bit, we actually had to give up the elements to save the Tree of Harmony." Twilight said.
"Then I guess I owe you. And good, I wasn't actually that happy that Celestia and her siblings took the elements from my home and left them in a castle for one thousand years." Tranquil said.
Discord popped out of existence again as Luna flew in. "Hello again Tranq." Luna said.
"Hi Luna, how've you and Nightmare been?" Tranquil asked.
"We're fine, though Nightmare still wants out, especially after what she did while under the influence of Nightmare Magic."
"Actually, I was needing to see you both regarding that very subject. I made a spell to reverse Nightmare's mistake."
"That would be nice. I'm getting tired of having two voices in my head." Luna said, barely holding her excitement.
"Hold still." Tranquil cast her spell and a purplish mist exited Luna's body before reforming into Nightmare Moon, but she looked a lot more like Luna. Nightmare's mane had stabilized to match her twin's, she was the same size as Luna, and she was wearing the royal clothing that was hers.
"Thank you so much Tranq!" Nightmare said loudly before tackling Tranquil in a hug.
"Next time don't try to perform a strong spell without having others put up anti spell shields around them for protection." Tranquil said with a faint giggle.
"I will, thanks again." Nightmare said before her and Luna teleported off.
"Um... so, Celestia said that you could come with me while I conduct peace negotiations, Chrysalis' hive is on that list, though she doesn't know it." Twilight said.
"That'd be nice, I can also keep her distracted." Tranquil said.
"Hey why do you look so much like Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Oh. I'm merely an entity created by the Elements of Harmony, because of that I don't actually have my own appearance, so instead I base it off the Element of Magic at the time. My entire appearance and even my species changes based off the element of magic. Once I was a changeling because the changeling was the Element of Magic. The only things that aren't completely based off the Element of Magic are my gender (I'm female and always will be) and my cutie mark (it keeps the hexagram and the element of magic, but the other elements change appearance based off the the elements of that time) The elements (except magic) always base themselves off the cutie marks of the ponies chosen, why do you think Twilight didn't get her cutie mark until your Sonic Rainboom, and thus not until she was chosen as the Element of Magic. Another interesting fact about the Elements is that each one has an ability that is activated by the element of magic charging them. for Honesty, it makes the ponies in the area willingly speak the truth, though they don't have to speak at all, weather they knew it was the truth or not. For Laughter, it makes the ponies in the effect radius happy and giddy. For Generosity, the ponies in the effect radius are willingly generous. For Kindness, it makes those in the effect radius kind towards each other (this could be used to help solve problems based around miss understanding). For Loyalty, those effected are loyal to each other and stay that way when around the spirit of the Element of Loyalty (This could help ponies get over trust problems). Once an element is charged, then the effect radius exists around both the physical embodiment of each and the spirits of each, though with practice a spirit of an Element of Harmony can learn to turn off this effect for themselves and their element."
"Cool, I guess you two should get going though."
"We should, so where to first?"
"The Blood Empire." Twilight said and the two headed off.