“Pardon me, but I seem to have lost my tour group.” Discord stuck his head through the door.
Once he noticed the group all gathered together, he opened the door and walked the rest of himself into the room.
“Isn’t this amazing, the princesses’ royal bedroom – oh won’t these pictures be perfect for my scrapbook.” Discord danced around snapping pictures of pretty much everything in the room. He even took a couple pictures of the floor itself. “Can’t have enough floor shots – especially in the unfortunate event that I misplace my own again.”
Rainbow Dash glared up at him. “Discord, can’t you see we’re trying to celebrate how awesome I am.”
“Oh, I’m so very sorry, Rainbow Dash. It’s not every day I get to sneak a peek inside Canterlot Castle,” grumbled a not so happy to see her Discord.
“It’s actually a good thing you’re here,” added Twilight. “We were just about to come looking for you.”
“And why would that be?” Discord put away his camera and popped into a frilly ball gown dress. “Did you want to try and invite me to another frou-frous charity event?”
“No.” Twilight deadpanned her response before Discord made the dress disappear. “We found your elements and wanted to give them back so we could all go home.”
Discord got a huge smile on his face as he clapped his talon and paw together. “Wonderful! I’m not sure how you did it, but I can’t wait to have my dear elements back. Let’s have you all line up so we can make sure they’re all here.”
The ponies all came around to stand in front of Discord. The gemstones sparkled and glowed as the powers contained within them fought to break free. Celestia and Luna stood to the side hoping fervently that everything ran smoothly.
Discord hopped down the line, touching each gem as he went. “First, we have lies. Then, sadness, envy, greed – and doesn’t Fluttershy here look simply adorable with her element of malice?”
Discord paused a moment as he got to the last pony in line – Twilight.
“Now wait a moment. Where’s your element, Twilight?” He pinged his talon against the empty vessel atop Twilight’s tiara.
Twilight gritted her teeth as she replied, “Don’t tell me there’s a sixth element you didn’t tell us about.”
Discord chuckled. “But of course there is, Twilight. It’s the most important of all the Elements of Disharmony. You of all ponies should know what it is.”
Twilight heaved out a deep sigh. “Let me guess – magic?”
Discord laughed out loud at her response. “Of course not you silly filly – whatever gave you that idea? The Elements of Disharmony cannot be bound together by a simple -magic- glue. They require a special kind of magic – a Dark Magic.”
“So in order to bind the Elements of Disharmony to be able to return them to you, we have to track down the element of dark magic?” Twilight sounded tired again by the end of her sentence.
“That’s right,” grinned Discord. “And I may even know where you should start looking for it.”
Celestia rose up and interrupted him, “Discord, I don’t like where this is headed.”
“Princess Celestia, I think you should tell the story – you always do a better job at it than I ever could. Please, regale us with your golden tongue.” Discord bowed to Celestia and stepped aside.
The ponies all looked up toward Celestia. Twilight sent up the questions:
“Princess, what is he talking about? Do you know something about the bearer of the element of dark magic?”
Celestia got very serious. Her mane flared as she shook out her tail. “This is not easy for me to speak of as the nightmare was very recently brought back to mind. I do know something of the -former- bearer of the element of dark magic – it is time you did as well.”
“Story time! Horray!” Pinkie Pie flopped herself down on a giant pillow and pulled a box of popcorn out of nowhere.
The rest of the ponies got comfortable as Celestia prepared to tell them the tale.
She began:
“A thousand years ago, we faced the nightmare of the ages. Three events that changed the course of history for all of Equestria. I have lived with the knowledge of this alone to this day. Not even my dear sister, Luna, knows the full extent of the events of so long ago. You must forgive me for keeping it from you, but I believed it was for the best.”
Celestia bowed her head to her sister and to the other ponies. Luna put a hoof on her shoulder and encouraged her to continue.
“The first part of my tale you may remember given the relationship you already have with him. It was a thousand years ago that my sister Luna and I entrapped Discord in a prison of stone. His chaotic madness had grown too much to bear and we sought to contain him. Our plan backfired.”
Discord grabbed some of Pinkie’s popcorn and ogled up at Celestia. “I love this part right here.”
Celestia continued:
“It is true that we were able to trap him in stone, but our use of the Elements of Harmony was not done in the true spirit they were meant to be used in. Our spell trapped Discord, but fractured the bond he held with the Elements of Disharmony. Luna and I were quick to act and were able to contain the five base elements before they escaped into the wild. The sixth element – we weren’t so lucky.”
Celestia paused as she tried to fight back her tears.
Twilight called up to her, “It’s alright princess. Please tell us what happened to the sixth element.”
Celestia wiped a hoof across her eyes as she drew away the budding tears and spoke again:
“The sixth element – the element of dark magic – fell into the hooves of the worst pony possible. A pony so wicked that when the dark magic bonded with him it made him the ultimate source of evil in all the land - King Sombra.”
The ponies gasped at the revelation. The only other sound you could hear was the munching of Pinkie Pie as she gulped down hooffull after hooffull of her delicious popcorn treat.
The first one to venture to speak was, of course, Rainbow Dash. “I thought we defeated King Sombra when Twilight recovered the crystal heart. So -- what happened to his dark magic?”
Luna replied to Rainbow’s question while Celestia continued to compose herself. “Actually, Rainbow Dash, the element of dark magic was removed from King Sombra long ago. Celestia and I used the Elements of Harmony to extract it from him.”
“Luna is right,” added Celestia. “We were able to harness the power of the Elements of Harmony to remove the element of dark magic from the king. However, we didn’t act quickly enough. Sombra fought back and before he was overcome, he was able to enact a dark curse upon the entire Crystal Empire. His dark magic enveloped the city and devoured himself and every pony within. We only barely were able to withdraw the element before they all disappeared.”
Luna broke in, “I thank the stars that the city wasn’t lost to us forever.”
Applejack spoke up, “So that’s why that whole place just up and disappeared just ta reappear out ‘a the blue.”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “Let’s let the princess finish, girls.”
Celestia cleared her throat and continued, “Luna was magnificent in her handling of the element – carrying it all the way back to the castle and the waiting Discord. We did our best and together managed to restore the elements back within their intended caretaker. He was, however, still trapped in stone – so the process wasn’t exactly easy.”
Celestia began to tear up again. “This is the hardest part for me.” She choked out the words. “I feel, even now, that I failed in my duty to protect my dear sister, Luna.”
“Sister, all is forgiven. You mustn’t dwell on the past.” Luna continued to console the teary Celestia.
Celestia took a deep breath and continued once again, “the elements would not join up easily. We had to put all our effort into the spell. I didn’t think we would make it and I began to falter. That’s when Luna reached out and thrust the elements into the statue completing the spell. I still have no idea how she was able to do it, but I am proud of her nonetheless. The only problem was that she must have absorbed some of the dark magic and a portion of the base elements themselves in the process. It wasn’t long after, that she became the creature you all know as – Nightmare Moon.”
“I had a feeling that is what had happened as well.” Luna stroked her chin. “Being driven by the elements to do such terrible things was certainly something I wanted to put behind me. I had completely forgotten about that part.”
“It is something that I too would rather put behind us,” Celestia said as she bowed her head one more. “I fear that with the element free again, we must act quickly before another tragedy befalls Equestria.”
“It’s that a coincidence.” Discord hopped up from his pillow next to Pinkie Pie and dove back into the conversation. “I can sense that the element of dark magic is once again waiting for us in the Crystal Empire. Won’t Princess Cadance be so happy to see all of you – especially her favorite sister-in-law, Twilight?”
“If Discord is correct, then there’s no time to waste.” Twilight addressed the group with a feeling of total authority seeing as she felt it was up to her to retrieve the final element. “Let’s get moving!”
She had barely laid her own hoof to the ground before she realized another gently laid hoof had landed on her shoulder.
Princess Celestia had a few more things to say about that. “Princess Twilight, it may be wise to prepare ourselves before we charge off in search of this particular element. Might I suggest we take some time and review my journals from the previous encounter and then take the morning train North tomorrow?”
Twilight looked somewhat crestfallen as she contemplated her mentor’s counsel. They really had no idea what to expect, but time was also of the essence. Every moment they waited before beginning their journey could potentially put them in further peril. Twilight finally agreed. Princess Celestia was right – they should prepare themselves as best they could before venturing into the unknown once again.
She replied, “Alright princess, let’s have a look at those journals.”
The rest of the ponies nodded in agreement as well and immediately got to work with their own preparations.