We briefly encountered the mysterious elements of Harmony in first chapter. In this, we will examine them in more detail. Instead of a single tale, however, we must examine three different stories. One, that of Discord, may be quite familiar to my readers, and as the best-documented of the three, it is the longest. The other two are those of King Sombra of the Crystal Empire and Tirek the Minotaur. There are both less-known and more poorly documented and so shall be briefer. The odd story out is, of course, that of Nightmare Moon from the first chapter, which we will not repeat here.
Great Threat 1: Discord, Lord of Chaos
After the founding of Equestria and the coronation of the two sisters, Equestria flourished for many years. However, one day, a strange creature appeared at the Castle of the Two Sisters.
“I am Discord the Draconequus,” he said, “The Lord of Chaos, and your new ruler.”
“It is not so!” said the youngest sister, in a loud inflection known as the Royal Canterlot Voice, “For my sister and I are the rulers here!”
“Oh, yes, I think you would make a lovely ruler,” Discord said, and with a snap of his claws the younger sister's body turned into a wooden stick with lines on it: a ruler, in other words.
“That is not funny!” said the elder sister, in a voice less loud, but more threatening.
“Oh, I disagree,” said the Draconequus, chuckling his throaty laugh. “I think it's hillarious! You're just an old stick in the mud!”
He snapped his claws again, but the elder sister was faster and raised a shield. Mud appeared beneath her and she sank into it, but she herself was unchanged.
“No fair!” said Discord, his jovial tone beginning to break, “No unicorn can resist my magic! Wait...” he looked again at the elder sister and at the younger, who was currently a stick with wings. He snapped his claws and returned the younger sister to normal. At the same time, he shrank down and landed on her back.
“Ah, wings AND a horn!” he said, tugging on Luna's wings, “Alicorns then? How delightful! Oh, this will be fun!”
But Luna fired a blast of magic at the intruder, who vanished before it hit, reappearing between their stone thrones on a new, golden throne perched on top of them.
“Not if we can help it!” Celestia said, moving closer to her sister. With a great magical exertion, both vanished in a flash of light.
From the reports of the castle staff later, it seems that Discord was at first angry at his toys escaping his grasp, but his ever-mercurial mood soon shifted again as he declared that there were not enough toys at this castle, and with a snap he and all the residents of the castle vanished, reappearing in Canterlot in the midst of the castle there.
Thus began the reign of Discord. None ever found out where he came from, or why he appeared, but he was indisputably there. In those days, the very laws of nature were turned on their heads, and floating buildings, rains of cider, and streets of soap were the norm. It is also alleged that he made the national currency air. It was plentiful, but difficult to spend. Not that it mattered as any goods were likely to turn into ducks or the like, and most services were pointless in the shifting, chaotic landscape. Time was hard to mark, as Discord's whims made day into night and night into day in the blink of an eye, but the scholars and astronomers of the time would later reckon by the motion of the stars that it was over a year.
Over that time, the sisters made attempts to fix Discord's magic and even assault the creature himself, but whenever they made progress, Discord would undo their work. They could stop his magic against themselves, or with practice reverse it on each other, but they could not protect others. It is said that he had some means of magically controlling the populace to prevent a coordinated uprising. Shortly before his defeat, the sisters found a way to reverse that effect on some, but most of the populace was thoroughly cowed regardless, so progress was slow.
The reign of Discord came to an end when the sisters found six magic stones called the Elements of Harmony. These stones represented Kindness, Honesty, Laughter, Loyalty, Generosity, and Magic. Each sister wielding three, they combined their power and turned them against Discord. This overwhelming magic was something even he was powerless against, and so the mighty tyrant was turned to stone. It is said that his stone form stands as a statue on the Canterlot Castle grounds to this day, a reminder of that dark time.
Great Threat 2: Sombra, the Shadow King of the Crystal Empire
The Crystal Empire was a realm so ancient it predates the founding of Equestria. During the reign of Discord, its ruler, a benevolent alicorn queen, protected the city by cutting it off from the rest of the world using the ancient artifact known as the Crystal Heart. Thus, the Crystal Empire suffered the least during that time. But, when the reign of Discord ended, they lowered their barrier and sent out aid to the ravaged land of Equestria. It was during this time, when the Empire was weakened, that a dark force moved in. Belonging to a race of shadow ponies, Sombra used his dark magic to overthrow the Queen and set himself up as King. For a time, he ruled and consolidated his forces, while the Princesses of Equestria were too preoccupied to notice and stop him.
Thus, after some time, King Sombra made war on Equestria. However, his plans for a sudden sneak attack were ruined when his scouts were discovered. Gathering what forces they could, the sisters took the Elements of Harmony to the Crystal Empire in the far North. Though Sombra's dark magic kept the Elements from destroying him entirely, they nonetheless succeeded in sealing both him and the Crystal Empire away. And so, the once-great empire has slept for nigh-on a thousand years, while Celestia prepares for the day when the seal will fail, and the Empire and its dark King shall rise again.
Minor Threat: Tirek the Centaur
Far, far away lies the Kingdom of the Centaurs. When they learned of the Kingdom of Equestria and its great riches, they sought to trade with this land. The two Princes of the kingdom set forth as the head of this overture. The younger prince was kind-hearted and held his brother in awe, while the older prince was cruel and selfish. Unbeknownst to the Centaur King, his eldest son sought to use the embassy as a way to steal the magic of unicorns. When the younger brother found out, he was dismayed, for on the journey he had come to respect the ponies of Equestria. Not knowing what else to do, he informed the princesses of his brothers plans in secret. So, before the elder brother could act, the princesses harnessed the elements of harmony and sealed the older brother away in a place called Tartarus, that they had prepared as a prison for some of the more monstrous creatures of the land. The younger brother, saddened, returned home, deciding that their two lands were not yet ready for closer relations.
Analysis:
Now seems a good time to note that the dialog in the first story is a bit speculative, derived from Celestia's account of the events.
No one knows for sure where Discord came from. Some say he is a primordial force of nature, the deity of Chaos. Others say that he inherited the mantle of Lord of Chaos from someone else, perhaps by finding the theorized “Elements of Disharmony”. A variant is that he became Lord of Chaos from such a means, but that he was the first. Relatedly, some suggest he was originally Starswirl the Bearded, who vanishes from history between the founding of Equestria and the reign of Discord. The exact date is unclear.
Starswirl had long been fond of going off on expeditions for long periods of time without warning, so it was a long time before anyone noted that after one of these, he never returned. Furthermore, according to an entry in the Canterlot Archives, he had developed some sort of time travel spell, so it is possible he vanished into the future or past. Some claim he will turn up in the future at some point. Others say he went to the past and possibly became Discord. This is due to persistent rumors regarding Discord's relation to the Alicorn civilization.
The Alicorn civilization, as mentioned before, vanished suddenly, leaving a nearly-empty city behind. As related last chapter, Celestia and Luna were the only inhabitants when Starswirl found them. One hypothesis has it that the Alicorn civilization sealed Discord away, and with their disappearance, no one was left to maintain that seal, and so he emerged. This may never be answered unless Discord returns some day. It is very unclear whether even being turned to stone was enough to put an end to him for good.
Two points with regards to Magicology are important here: Discord's magic and the Elements of Harmony. I caution that this is necessarily not my specialty, but I have collaborated with enough of my unicorn colleagues to at least have a working knowledge. Discord's magic seems not to follow the rules of Unicorn magic. He could instantaneously transform ponies with little effort, for instance, while all known unicorn magic transformation spells require great concentration and time. He was also able to 'hang' spells, such as floating buildings and, by some accounts, twisted, non-Euclydean architecture, without continuing to exert effort, and these spells seemed to remain constant with time. By contrast, imbuing spells into objects for such purposes as flying toys or audio recording have a distinctly limited timeframe. Now, it is possible that he was using the same sort of magic, but was simply that much more powerful, and his spells WOULD have faded eventually. The claw snapping, rather than horn glowing, could be chalked up to differing biology.
Here we find a point that I, and many other, sorely wish we had more information on. Did Discord's magic create significant 'magic leakage'? Unicorn magic is nearly always accompanied by either a glow or a flash of light. This represents a wasting (or 'leaking') of magical energy, but seems to be unavoidable. There is no mention of such effects, but then most ponies do not comment on the 'unicorn glow', since that is what they always see. In fact, this would not even bear mentioning were it not for the unusually powerful nature of his other magic, as well as a clever researcher named Residue thinking to ask Celestia some seven hundred years ago. This was still several hundred years after the fact, mind you, but closer to it than we are now. Celestia had other concerns on her mind during Discord's reign, of course, but to the best of her knowledge she saw no signs of 'magic leakage'. That is, his magic was strictly conservative in a way that it does not seem to be possible for unicorn magic (or indeed alicorn magic) to be.
Whatever the case, Discord's powers were too much for the alicorn sisters to handle unaided, and his mind influencing magic made an organized resistance difficult. Celestia has been unable to fully articulate exactly what his mind control entailed. There are, of course, unicorn spells to manipulate both emotions and memory, though in most circumstances it is illegal to cast such spells on intelligent beings. True mind control has never been successfully done with unicorn magic, though that may just be that the obvious ethical implications have limited research efforts in that area. It IS known that Discord's manipulation was not true mind control either, but it induced a sort of practical apathy. Celestia has mentioned at interview that the counter spell involved awakening the victim's memories in some way, so it is likely that some form of memory manipulation was involved in Discord's spell.
This leads us to the Elements of Harmony. For security reasons, Celestia has never divulged where they were found, or their current location. It is known that their location was communicated to them by Starswirl the Bearded prior to his disappearance. It is also known that they take the forms of stone spheres when inert, or gemstones when in use. The sisters each controlled 3 of the elements, with Luna responsible for Laughter, Honesty, and Loyalty, and Celestia for Generosity, Kindness, and Magic. According to Celestia and surviving records, the Elements of Magic looked like a star when in gem form, while the others looks like a pointed variant on the “emerald cut” often used for jewelry. That is, there were only 2 short sides on top and bottom, coming to a point, where a traditional emerald cut would have an additional side on each of top and bottom, running perpendicular to the long sides.
Of these elements, 4 of them, Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, and Generosity, are personality traits or virtues. Laughter and magic do not seem to fit this theme, but that could be a translation problem. Laughter and magic per se are not inherent virtues, but can be good or bad depending on how they are used. But, if we suppose 'laughter' is supposed to mean “inspiring happiness”, laughter often being a sign of good times and/or happiness, then it fits with the others. This does assume that the element names were originally in some other language. Lacking knowledge of where they, or even their names, came from, there is little more we can say. According to Celestia, the names came with them, but it is not clear if she means that the names were magically conveyed to the wielders, or if they or Starswirl read the names somewhere. As for magic, it is a force of nature, not a personality trait or virtue. But, in an archaic usage, magic was sometimes used to mean something like “divine creation”, or possibly “possessing an ineffable supernatural/spiritual quality.” What we mostly call magic now was generally called sorcery in the early Equestrian era and earlier. In this case, we might say that the Element of Magic was “The element of divinely (or spiritually) inspired creativity”. That is only a virtue if the modifier is inherently good, so for a modern rendering I think “divine creativity” would be best.
The elements themselves, like Discord, seem to have powers transcending ordinary unicorn magic. Again, it is possible that they are simply very powerful unicorn magic, stronger than Discord's, but they seem to function fundamentally differently. The first usage of the elements produced an effect that does not seem to have been specifically intended: the sisters wished to neutralize discord, and the elements caused it. Apparently, they also safely reversed most of the physical damage and mental manipulation he had done. Unicorn magic generally requires specific direction and intention, especially at higher levels. Admittedly, at higher levels that is at least partly a safety measure, to prevent an uncontrolled explosion, but then the elements, with little direction, did not produce an explosion. The other two definitive uses of the elements, against King Sombra and Nightmare Moon, had more specific intention behind them, especially Nightmare Moon, but we will get to those in a moment.
An odd point is that two sisters wielded three elements each. One might ask, why 6 elements, then? Why not one element per sister, or one wielder for all 6? Now, at the time, the sisters were still working as a team, but after Luna became Nightmare Moon and was banished, the elements went inert, so there seems to have been some practical link. It IS possible that that was due to the trauma inflicted on Celestia's psyche by the experience, but I will leave consideration of that hypothesis for others, as without a deeper insight into either the elements or Celestia's psyche, anything further said on the matter would be pure speculation. The other theory is that the elements would normally correspond to 6 individuals, but as Alicorns the sisters could wield three each without damaging them: one each for the Pegasus, Unicorn, and Earth Pony traits they possess. This would suggest that, were the elements to re-emerge and re-bond with individuals, there would be 2 elements to each type of pony. Sadly, until and unless something of the sort occurs we cannot be sure.
Sombra of the Crystal Empire seemed to also possess a magic fundamentally different from Unicorn magic. Records indicate it had an eerie glow, different from the unicorn magic glow. He also allegedly possessed some form of mass mental manipulation, though records are sparse enough that the citizens of the Crystal Empire may have simply been afraid of him. Further, his magic seemed to deal entirely with illusion and manipulation, though that may have been his own personal predilections.
Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony for the second time recorded time against King Sombra. In this case, they had the goal of neutralizing Sombra, but it only partially succeeded. According to Celestia, Sombra still wanders the northern wastes in a shadowy, ethereal form. It seems that he cannot leave them, perhaps due to a ward created by the Elements and/or Celestia and Luna, or perhaps his present form cannot withstand direct sunlight. At any rate, he has never been spotted outside of the northern wastes. At the same time, the Crystal Empire vanished due to a fail-safe spell Sombra had cast. It has been hypothesized [“Lost Locations”, Zap Weir] that restoring him to physical form would restore the Empire, but the wastes are vast and that would leave a re-empowered Sombra to deal with.
Tirek the Centaur is considered a minor threat, though his actual threat level is unknown, since his plan was never put into action. It is unclear if the Elements of Harmony were actually used against him. It is a possibility, but the best guess is that they were not. In fact, there have been suggestions that Celestia alone dealt with him. This was very shortly before Luna's banishment, so it would not be unexpected for the sisters not to have worked together for a relatively minor threat. This may, in fact, have turned Luna even further against her sister, if she were not consulted on this. There are few contemporary sources, given the relatively minor nature of the incident, and Celestia has been reluctant to talk about it, claiming unclear memory of the incident. It might again be due to the incident being relatively minor, or it may be that as I suggested earlier the incident was linked to Luna's banishment. If, however, the Elements of Harmony WERE used, then we would have another example of them effectively imprisoning an enemy without destroying them.
The final known use of the Elements of Harmony was, of course, to banish Nightmare Moon. In this case, Luna having been taken over, Celestia alone used all 6. Whether because of this “overloading” of six elements on one alicorn or because of Celestia's state of mind, the Elements became inert, turning into stone spheres. It is also unknown whether the supposed 1000 year time limit was Celestia's intent or whether it was related to the mishandling (in one way or another) of the Elements. In any case, this is the final data point we have. In all cases, then, the Elements of Harmony do not destroy, but imprison. The preferability of this is a debatable moral issue in most cases, but they seem to be powerful enough that it is reasonable. After all, none of the threats they have imprisoned have emerged in over or about one thousand years.
Regarding the fate of the Elements, which I have mentioned in passing earlier but include here for completeness, after they were rendered inert following the banishing of Nightmare Moon, they are not mentioned in history after this point. One possibility is that they reside in the castle in Canterlot, hidden by Celestia's orders. It is indeed only by her word, and the fact that they have never been used again, that we know that they were rendered inert. Another possiblity is that they are still in the Castle of the Two Sisters. The place was abandoned the same year as Nightmare Moon's banishment. It is, however, unknown if it was immediately afterward. There is, as was mentioned before, a ward around much of the Castle. it is possible that this was placed as part of Luna's banishment, though it is unclear why this would be so. The other possibility is that Celestia sealed it when she left, perhaps not wanting the bad memories, perhaps to protect explorers from its traps, or perhaps to protect the Elements of Harmony. She did permit some attempts to break the ward, as stated in the first chapter, but if the Elements are there, perhaps she planned to retrieve them, or perhaps there is some further ward around the elements themselves. Or maybe they are in Canterlot after all. Since their location is a national secret, the truth will likely only be known if and when they are used again.
I wish to end with one hypothesis on the Elements that I intentionally omitted from my earlier discussion of their nature. While even Celestia does not know their true nature, some have speculated [“Fundamental Magic” by Fairy Tail] that they either represent or come from the source of our world's magic. According to a popular theory, the original magic is Love. In a related theory, Divine Love is sometimes said to be the font of all Creation. If, as hypothesized earlier, the Elements each represent a virtue, then this would tie together nicely. This is all highly speculative, of course, but it seems a good note to end a chapter on.
Next chapter: The Tale of the Sonic Rainboom.