I'm not sure if Yorick or anyone has thought of this, but what does everyone think happened to the Elements of Harmony? Its obvious that the current bearers have forsaken their virtues, but that doesn't mean new bearers won't appear, hardship has a way of bring out character traits. So what does everyone think?

1365430 It's hard to say. Although I would point out that Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash have stayed loyal to their Elements in some way, shape or form.

Pinkie went from making random ponies laugh to being the involuntary founder of a RELIGION that makes ponies laugh.

AJ sacrificed her eye to gain the ability to judge the honest intentions of others.

Rainbow Dash demands loyalty from her troops, but to the point where moments of weakness or fear are considered cowardice, and the wings of said pegasi are removed.

1365438

They may be true to it, but they've also corrupted thier element.

*Abstains from my thoughts on the conversation*
Sorry, Spoilers.

1365466
Agreed. If something really, really, really bad were to happen I'm pretty sure the Elements of Harmony would just the them to "Screw off,look what you ponies did to this place! Seriously! You numbskulls flooded Ponyville!"

Plus Pinkie is dead so I'm not sure that can work either.

In any case the Elements have probably become corrupted in a similar way to the Ashbringer from World Of Warcraft, tainted, angry, cruel, judgmental, and insane. Somebody call Tirion Fordring, he needs to use his magic Light powers to purify the Elements of Harmony.

Maybe the elements could work again if perhaps they found new bearers or if something were to say just utterly smack around the the mane six and the house forces until their all having "Sweet Celestia. What have I done?!" moments that knock them back to their senses.

1365430 Too depressing to think about, Abandon thread

Ha ha ha last post was amusing, I'm amazed how quickly you guys responded. Personally I think that new bearers of the Elements should eventually appear like in FOE.

1365480
And we mustn't tell spoilers, if we do, we'll lose friends' trust --

(Source)

1365508
That might be true, but I'd like to point out that even if Pinkie Pie is dead I am fairly certain that the Laughing Mare herself is linked with the Element of Laughter.
Perhaps Laughter, being one of the most open and easily identifiable of the Elements, is also the one most blatantly shown to be corrupted. The Cult of Laughter does seem to have a great appreciation for dark humor

Well, I have a couple of theories on this. I feel that they're still connected to the Elements of Harmony, but the elements themselves are corrupted beyond all reason. Laughter is used for necromancy, the foulest of magics. Generosity has become greed. Magic is used to oppressed. Etc. They still embody aspects of the element, but they've been... altered.

With that being said, I like to think that the 'regalia' the physical manifestations of the elements of harmony, have reverted to an inert state. Just like how the gems of Celestia's time became stone orbs, I think that the necklaces and tiara have became equally worthless.

I think new bearers and regalia will arrive when worthy ones are found and joined together, just like how the mane 6 met.

1365466
An of course, corrupting their Element =/= Losing the Element.

The only thing I'm curious about with the Elements is where the jewelry itself is.

1366648
Like that the power comes from with in the mane six themselves and that the jewelry focuses and directs the power?

1366961

No, the physical location of the necklaces and tiara.

New Bearers perhaps? But you also have to remember that the original Elements have been absolutely corrupted to the point where they are the complete opposite of what they originally stood for.

I suppose new elements could appear, but they'd probably be more relevant to the War-Torn Equestria that has regressed to the Middle Ages, than the Turn-of-the-Century-esque Equestria of Canon. And i'm also wondering how the six (or seven, or five) would actually meet; they'd have to at least be sane enough to not kill anything that looks different on sight.

Just for the hell of it, here are my own ideas for the New Elements:

The Element of Heroism-Cheerilee.
The Element of Caretaking (taking care of the Dead)-Inkie Pie.
The Element of Valor-Truffle Shuffle
The Element of Mercy-Pirate!Pipsqueak.
The Element of Diligence-Wraith!Dinky.
The Element of Compassion-Hayseed Turnip Truck.

1366972
oh.

No idea.

In a certain story of mine however I did create sort of a parallel for the Elements of Harmony. Much more aggressive ones to say the least. Combative elements focused on war, Elements of Battle if you would.

Six in total; Courage, Cunning, Camaraderie, Honor, Hope, and Victory.

All of them critical but without anyone of them the rest are useless. Camaraderie was lost so everything fell apart. Honor committed suicide in shame of the loss, Hope fell into despair, Courage became a berserker who perished far away unmourned and friendless, Cunning became a reclusive puppet mastering shut in and died alone, and Victory became a tyrant who was overthrown and disgraced.

The Artifacts that channel the powers of the Elements of Battle are lost and forgotten.

Odds are the Elements of Harmony are locked away some where either each in the keeping of their respective Element or all locked up in Canterlot and under heavy guard.

I have a feeling that the inheritors of the Elements of Harmony could be Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. Especially if each received two elements.

Applebloom-Honesty, Magic (not the Magic magic but the Spark of Friendship magic)
Scootaloo-Loyalty, Laughter
Sweetie Belle-Generosity, Kindness

2423067
I like this idea.

Still it could be a bit better, for drama purposes:

Scoots, Sweetie and AB could inherit the elements of Loyalty, Generosity and Honesty from their no longer fit to bear sisters (and whatever RD is to Scootaloo, really.)

BUT...what to do with the elements of Magic, Laughter And Kindness?
What *I* would consider...

Flutters with good intentions obviously was responsible for Everfree's expansion by placing her own element at the center of the Tree of Harmony, thus corrupting it. The Liege takes over. No way to retrieve it unless dealing with the tribes. New story arc right there, people.

Pinkie being, you know, dead. The Cult has her body and broken element as a AA Battery to fuel the Laughing Mare. No way to retrieve it unless dealing with the Cult. New story arc right there.

Twilight, with her House being as disruptive as ever has her ... crown thingie. Tried to use it for her transformation attempts, failing miserably. Powerless without the other elements, it could corrupt her as much as Sunset Shimmer (using EG moments as reference leaves bad taste in mouth). Still, not gonna give it up easily. No way to retrieve it unless dealing with all unicorn might and her House. Story Arc and conclusion. The War is Over, folks. Play "Friedenshymne", roll credits.

Well, I've always been of a mind that the elements would no longer work for the mane 6 even if they could band together against some common foe (difficult, considering Pinkie Pie is otherwise indisposed).

What I am convinced of, is that the six Elements of Harmony are synonymous with the six 'Pillars of Joy' described in one of Yorick's journals about the Laughing Mare. It might also be that the elements are not truly the elements of harmony unless they are linked to a pony with the correct qualities. I've thought about the motivations of the mare, particularly Yorick saying that she wasn't completely evil but that, to quote him, "THE MARE IS A BITCH".

Reading some of these comments made me wonder if the whole point of the Mare's activities was to give ponies a foe against which they would band together, and hopefully make the elements resurface in other ponies so that metaphorical 'laughter' would return to Equestria, not some Spirit from the Astral Plane. Set herself up as a legitimate bad guy so that good guys would spring up to stop her.

Then again, that very journal entry says that the Laughing Mare is "hell-bent on crossing the borders between the planes", so we might be better off ignoring that last idea as it is. Still, I'm convinced that the elements = pillars, which may make the cult's immediate objectives a bit more concrete than just being the setting's token psychopaths.

2426468

2427055

Well the only way I see any of the factions falling apart is if their mane 6 champion dies. Really, only Rarity is thinking of a line of succession.

Yorrick's 'canon' ending with all the various astral plane entities involved seems too inconclusive. Though of the Mane 6, only Twilight and Pinkie Pie are the overtly 'evil' type and I constantly see the other Four ganging up against them.

2427167
Pinkie Pie's already dead, I suspect that if her corpse is destroyed the spirit using her will find a new vessel. Also Rarity's not the only one with a potential heir, Applejack's still got her entire immediate family (well, those alive at the time of the show) remember?

2427976

Yes Applejack does but she doesn't seem to be specifically grooming any of them to take over. So far as we know. Applebloom is an engineer and Big Mac is a General, Not too sure they will be able to have the same amount of clout or character to keep any factionalism under the lid.

Wow! This threads still active? I thought for sure this query would petter out. Nice to know you guys still have an opinion on this.

In all Honesty( pun not intended...at first), I agree with what some others have said, in that the Elements have returned to slumber, having judged the Bearers and found them wanting(they've done so for less, after all). Well, except for Magic, which is Friendship, and cannot exist without the others. That, combined with how far Twilight has strayed, means that the first time she tried to put it on after her idealogical conversion meant it rejected her a touch more violently than the others. And by "a touch more violently", I mean it exploded. Twice. They're still working to fix that wing of the Castle...(nopony died, of course; the Elements have never killed). Twilight, of course, thinks it a part of her "test".

3729738
And by slumber, I guess you meant returned to the "Tree of Harmony" where it belonged? I like how you put that the elements rejected their bearers because of the fact how corrupted they are now, and resulted in magical explosions. Now we know what killed Pinkie, corruption had already been sown before the war had even begun!

3731297 Actually I meant like what they did when they rejected Celestia(only this time, it's a reason most people would agree with!). And yeah, while I believe the ritual went wrong because of intent and source, the fact that Twilight betrayed her Element by swearing vengeance on AJ and bullying Pinkie to take her place may well have been a major factor.

3731975
Wait, how come I didn't think of this before? Where did the Elements of Harmony go after Celestia banished Nightmare Moon? Did it reject Celestia right after she banished Nightmare Moon? Cause' a thousand years on the moon to your friends isn't the best thing you could do for them, let alone your own sister!

If that's not your case, then what did you mean by 'rejected Celestia'? That phrase never crossed my mind before, and I'd like to know where you've heard or seen it.

3732104 As far as I understand it(I do not remember if the S4 opener showed that part of the conflict), Celestia used the Elements to banish Nightmare Moon, and the Elements turned into the stone ball things, except for Magic/Friendship, which vanished outright. I presume that the Elements judge their users far more harshly than those they're used against.

3732184
I really love your canon for this! And yes, to wield great powers would require greater responsibilities. The elements would've to judge their owners so they itself won't be corrupted, am I right? That gave me an idea, are the elements sentient? Do they resonate with their bearers? Do they live in their bearers' body?

3732213 I think the Elements are sapient, yes. As for the Elements(not the Vessels or Tree of Harmony) are truly ancient, in a "Discord's an infant compared to me" sort of way. They are the bedrock of the world, on which silly, ephemeral things like Time or Matter are built. They want to help, but they cannot directly affect the world, the same way you can grab your shadow off the floor. The physical Elements, as well as the Rainbow Power, allow them to align their power with mortals who properly embody them, giving them a foothold against those threats mortals cannot deal with on their own.

This actually makes a lot of sense, it would explain why the elements of harmony where not used during ANY of this. Good job Zealous, more ideas, more stories, more creativity, = more fun in my book. Tough i think that, since pinky pie died during one of the rituals (third one) , and i believe your right, i don't think the elements of harmony would try to KILL one of them, and during one of them, Rainbow Dash got severely burned (hence why half her face is scarred), all this might mean that the elements of harmony where not used during the rituals at all, and they were maybe used and lost after the first one, since things started going bad before then, the ponies where already getting curropted, and that's the only reason none of them got hurt, during the first ritual, the elements prevented it but had to leave the unworthy bearers. But with them gone, things started falling apart even faster, and then the rituals got dangerous. Applejack noticed this and ran away, twilight not realizing this, chose Pinky to help her instead and caused pinkies life, breaking twilight even more then she already was. Now maybe, the elements await new bearers, tough who they might be, i like the idea that King of Malta came up with, where the cutie mark crusaders might be the next ones, and one day they might stop all this chaos, since each one was influenced in one way or another by all six of them. But some of the elements are more noticeable in one of them compared to the others. It was also shown that two ponies can have all 6 (Celestia, Luna), hence why cant 1 of each have 2 elements? I like this idea a lot actually.

3733866
I thought Pinkie died after the first ritual.

AJ ran away because of her new-found belief of magic being no-good.

3734635 If i remember correctly, I read somewhere that AJ ran away after the first ritual, probably realizing how dangerous they can be. Then since it doesnt specify exactly where, Rainbow dash got burned in one of them, however nobody else was hurt, so if the AJ one is true, id say its probably the second one, since she would have chosen someone else, maybe believing she was the right one since of her loyalty. Its only during the third one that Pinkie pie had died, where its stated that nobody know how or why the third time was fatal to someone when Rainbow dash and AJ where able to make it out alive (albeit Dash had been severely burned, but alive) atleast if what i read was correct, but if Pinkie had died during the first one, theres no way AJ or Rainbow dash would have agreed to do it the second or third time.

Of course this is basing it on the fact that one was used during each ritual, and not Pinkie and dash during the second and third, where the second one had no problems and the third one did. Which is a possibility. but i think Pinkie dying in the first one would have stopped anybody else from trying to help twilight. And might be why twilight never got a 4th try until like 30 years later (Yorick stated she did it a 4th time in the future in his world) since there was nobody else willing to help her after such an incident.

- at one point it seems as if the three ponies will actually merge and create actual alicorn, but a sudden burst of uncontrolled energy going through Twilight's horn severes the connection and blasts the three of them into the ground;

- the results are horryfying – Pinkie's dead and her body is horribly burned and maimed, Rainbow Dash survives, but the right side of her face and neck is all melted, she's quivering in pain; Twilight seems to not be affected at all; Rarity mortified by the sight of her friends horrifically scarred and dead manages to mutter only one sentence to Twilight: „You're a murderer.” before she runs off in terror.

3735962
It is stated that the participants of the first ritual are as following:
survived unscratched.
got burned.
died.
didn't participate the ritual.
got crystal cancer from being there.
... where's ? Probably already in the forest I guess.

The other two times were participated by somepony else, but not her friends that's for sure!

3736780 Wow ok noted, I'll keep that in mind. I thought 3 rituals, 3 different ponies but ok. Thanks for the info. Maybe its BECAUSE the elements of harmony were there that it was so bad? They weren't suppose to be used for such purposes and so it backfired, a lot. Even if the elements meant no harm, it could be that with whatever ritual Twilight was doing the damage was unavoidable.

3739294
Maybe the Elements were Light as oppose to Shadow. Maybe the Light is to be used with White magic, while the Shadow is to be used with Black magic.

Wait, what if the elements were DESTROYED or VANISHED after the first ritual?

If the Elements were the most powerful Light magic in Equestria. Would there... would there be a Shadow equivalent of it...?

3740410 If there is a shadow equivalent then it be the ones of: harshness (kindness), greed (generosity), Treachery/disloyalty (loyalty, i prefer treachery since it just sounds more unique but i don't know if its the right word in this case.) Deceit/Deception (Honesty, either or, or if both dont work, backup word is Dishonesty, but i don't like using words that sound the same as the original), Sadness and Reality(only word i could find thats the opposite of Magical/Magic. but still seems fitting in this case.)

3743537
What if in the end, our Mane Six became the bearers of the Elements of Chaos ?
I'm definitely not going to say the Elements of Discord 'cause that' will take this the whole other way.

From the Element of Friendship to the Element of Hatred
From the Element of Honesty to the Element of Deceit
From the Element of Loyalty to the Element of Treachery
From the Element of Generosity to the Element of Avarice
From the Element of Kindness to the Element of Cruelty
From the Element of Laughter to the Element of Sorrow

I changed Magic to Friendship because, well, there can still be Harmony without Magic. Take our own world for example, it would've been more chaotic if magic were to be real! I found back then somewhere in the Internet by which someone said "Magic" is "Friendship". Duh, the title of the show is "Friendship is Magic", so Magic is Friendship. I face-palmed myself from the realization, how didn't I figure this out by myself?

I realized it too, that magic was the magic of friendship, which allowed her to use her magic. Took me about the entire first season to see it :|

I had this idea of maybe an evil group working together or something, its mostly very vague and nothing in particular yet, im not sure if its really fitting for ED or if i should leave it out for another story i might write one day or another.

as for the elements names....wow... Avarice, never heard of that word, very fitting and sounds like an element and so i like it, and good point with Friendship/Magic, its hard to find the opposite of magic except for reality.

Now for them having the elements of chaos, i feel like, that would only happen if one of them falls completely into their evil side. Right now all of them are down but their not completely out. Applejack is still honest when she doesn't need to lie unless required 100%, Rainbow Dash is very loyal to the princesses and to her faction, Rarity can be deceiving and greedy but at the same time, i think if she could, she would still share what she can spare. Fluttershy is still kind, she just looses it when things she cares about are hurt, shes now willing to fight back, but if its not an enemy shes extremely kind and caring and pinkie, well pinkie is dead right now soooo... yea. Only twilight lost hers simply because she lost her friends, but i think if given the time and the right moment they could all become friends again. it'll just take many many years before it can happen. If ever, but it IS possible. So i would say that they wont be the bearers of the elements of chaos, and if so, its only when one of them falls straight down and hits rock bottom. If not tough it would be cool to see the...anti version of them all, they would be different characters but like, with personalities opposite of their own. I'm thinking about it and will probably talk about it later when the idea finishes in my mind.

3745265
In my canon, Pinkie's still alive somewhat. I mean if she could be resurrected like we discussed in the other thread, then she should be technically, alive. Maybe her soul became part of the Laughing Mare, similar to how Nine-Tails was part of Naruto, or vice versa? So Pinkie still have her laughter, in a way. For Twilight, years passed and surely she didn't go all machiavelli. She might have some friendliness left for her friends.

Two of the possible endings for EQDV would either be the Elements got corrupted to the core. Twilight hates everyone. Earthborn becomes Whitegold-y. Stormwing betrays the Griffons instead. Whitegold rips everyone off. The Everfree engages in both a war with civilization and civil war against their own. Lastly, the Cult of Laughter becomes a depression cult. Cupcake Cult

The other is the elements returned to their good selves and realizes what they had done to Equestria. They would unite and pacify any who is a threat to peaceful coexistance. What do you think, the alternative futures of EQDV?

3746739 Tbh the ammount of twist and turns ED could take is ridiculous, next thing you know it a whole new evil faction pops up and all the factions band together to stop it (with the exception of the cult, which in my vision/version/world/idea/story/whatever you want to call it, would have been defeated at this point). Maybe the changelings destroy Earthborn? Maybe twilight finally finds out what shes missing, what she needs and tries to reunite the factions. Maybe they find out what happened to the princesses (if yorick had continues then this would have partially happened, tough i find that a key part of ED is not knowing what happened to them. so id rather think it never happens.) and start to try to find them? Maybe this, maybe that. Make of it what you will, maybe the elements of harmony never left? Maybe their gone forever, for all we know the crystal empire could invade randomly and take out a large part of Equestria. For all we know some magical pony from another dimension comes in and saves the day (if you want to have a deus ex machina ending, which im against so dont think you'll ever see that in my story). Thats what i like about ED, its so open ended, theres so much we can do, so much we can think of. Just the subject of the elements of harmony has oppened up so many ideas and options.

For me i find that new factions start to appear, two of which in my head are especially bad, mixed with the cult and the changelings aswell, the other 5 factions start to work together, slowly finding their friendship again and realizing how powerful their friendship was. Maybe they help Pinkie break free of the laughing mares control?

Another ending would be more of a peace in equestria, were after many wars where fought and many had died, eventually there was a treaty that ended all wars. At least for a time, this treaty would eventually be forgotten, and the descendents of the factions Would only remember the hatred that each faction had for one another. And it would all start again, with only a selected 6 who have found out how powerful friendship could be (the new mane 6 in the future of ED maybe? the new bearers of the elements of harmony?)

And i could go on and on and on about all the ideas i can come up with, from dark endings like the elements corrupting to them reuniting. From worldwide catastrophes to a common enemy. ED is literally a universe waiting for us to make of it what we will. That's why i cant wait for you and others to start making/continuing/finishing your stories, however they end, it will most likely make sense and add a new twist to the ED universe.

3763390
Equestria Divided = Brave New World , the possibilities are endless.

The fact that no one knows what happened to the princesses, and how war-twisted this alternate universe is, is what makes all these interesting! For now, let's focus on filling up the present, then we determine the past, then predict the future.

To me, they've been kept by their former users, but are no longer workable as they've betrayed themselves.

I've created another set of Elements called the Elements of Friendship which are the following: Freedom, Justice, Liberty, Honor, Valor, Serenity, Forgiveness, and Hope with Love and Leadership being lost Elements of Harmony.

Now then, I've created two fates for those sets: In the upcoming Equestria Divided Chronicles, the Elements of Friendship are still workable though they require the Elements of Harmony to use for full power though they can still work without the Elements of Harmony, but they appear later and have their role to play. In the Equestria Chronicles Equestria Divided, they're never found as the intended bearers never found them.

3766153
If Magic is Friendship. Would the Elements of Friendship be the subsidiaries of Magic?

3767496
Well when I made them, the role they fill is that they're a secondary set created as fall back elements should the Elements of Harmony not work, but they would somehow give who used the Element of Magic very vague clues to the users of the Elements of Friendship hence why in one fanfiction, Twilight thinks the users of the Elements of Friendship are still alive despite an event happening that left them presumed dead.

Subsidiaries, what are you talking about?

3767788
Well, since I'm not quite sure how to explain this in sentences, I'll show it like this.

Element of Magic
- Freedom
- Justice
- Liberty
- Honor
- Valor
- Serenity
- Forgiveness
- Hope
- Love
- Leadership
Thus is why I called them [the elements of the element] 'subsidiaries' because it's the only word I could think of.

That's how I saw it when I read your list. By the way, forgive my choice of words, I was very tired when I typed that.

3767866
You're forgiven mate, but in my Equestria Chronicles (both the normal timeline and the planned spin-off Equestria Divided Chronicles), I still have them as a separate set of Elements independent from the Element of Magic.

3769643 So like, a backup plan? If the original 6 couldn't fix something or something like ED happened, then the new elements appear to assist them? And then new bearers appear, using them and helping the original elements of harmony? At least that's what i got. Or like, the original 6 get hints to help them find the bearers of the elements of friendship, and all together they stop whatever is threatening them? You don't have to spoil anything if you don't want to, just curious, i like new characters, new groups and such, and having a new secondary main group would be cool too see. Especially if each members represents an element of their own.

Also Equestria Chronicles... you made your own fanfiction and/or universe for the normal Equestria? id like to see it one day. And if so, is Equestria Divided Chronicles connected to the original in any way or is it like a "what if" scenario if things went south like they did in ED?

3776524
Equestria Chronicles is the Sequel to Vandread GA (GA is for Galaxy Adventure), it tells of how five Vandread characters along with Pyoro and three OCs that end up being sent to Equestria at the beginning of the cannon timeline. The three OCs are Arthur R Hanson, Bella Malone-Garsus, and Brian De Gras.

They end up getting the Elements of Friendship which I later plan to have another Vandread character and her husband who's also and OC join in in which Arthur gets the Element of Leadership fully as for a bit, he duel uses that and the Element of Freedom. The first chapters of the Equestria Chronicles have who will get what if you want to see and I'm open to new ideas.

Equestria Divided Chronicles is a spin-off of the series much like Dimensional Rim (Crossover with Pacific Rim), that initially starts during the canon Season 3 of MLP FIM before it fast forwards to the present day in which the second one called Reclaimer (the first one is called Hellfire) picks up in the current Equestria Divided timeline.

Link: http://fujin777.deviantart.com/gallery/48898196/Equestria-Chronicles