VI
Year 1000, Celestial Era
Celestia looked at the letter and hesitated. She paced, rustled her wings, bit her lip. Everytime she tried to send it, she just...couldn't.
It had been already written out, ready to go. When Twilight's letter had arrived, she picked it up, gotten ready to send it, then dropped it right on the floor.
Now she stared at it like it was a poisonous snake, coiled and ready to strike.
My dearest and most faithful student, Twilight.
It had to be done. There was no other way, or at least, none that she hadn't already tried. Celestia's mind traveled to the village where Cadence had lived. All those ponies killed. For nothing. The element’s wouldn’t even connect with the stupid, useless-
She hadn’t known. She hadn’t known what it would do.
It would just be one this time. Just one pony.
She still couldn't send the letter.
You know that I value your diligence and trust you completely.
She couldn't get the picture out of her mind, of Twilight, her bright, curious, capable Twilight, of all the life being slowly drained from her. It would take years, the process, starting almost unnoticeably and then building and building until everything just- stopped. The Elements were powerful, too powerful, and Twilight would be right in crossfire.
Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, they were different, gentler. Magic was the channel, focusing all that raw energy right through the body of it’s host, literally stripping their life from them.
Just one time channeling that much magic would catch up to a mortal, even a powerful one, within years. She had seen that for herself, a long time ago. More would just make it go faster.
It would not be a pleasant end. She knew that firsthoof too.
But you simply must stop reading those dusty old books!
It didn't matter. It couldn't matter.
This was the whole reason, after all, her entire purpose for taking in, training...caring for...Twilight. Her sole motivation for taking a personal student. It was for this, every single thing was for this!
The others had been carefully nudged into being in the right place at the right time. Everything was ready.
Still she hesitated.
There was another possibility...If Twilight wasn’t mortal, if she was-
No. That came with a price, a steep one. Making someone immortal had consequences, that power had to come from somewhere.
Someponies, really
Her way was a simple trade off. One for one.
One was an acceptable loss.
She tried to tell herself, at least.
My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying...
Celestia felt ill. Good ponies didn't use other ponies. Good ponies didn't fashion other ponies, like chipping out a form from stone, piece by piece, into their pawns. Into sacrificial lambs. She had believed she was a good pony, long ago. She didn't any more.
It was for Luna, she reminded herself. For Luna.
Celestia had tried not to let herself get too attached to her student.
Until this moment, she had foolishly thought she had been successful.
...so I'm sending you to supervise preparations in this year's Summer Sun Celebration location: Ponyville.
A celebration fashioned to honor her mistakes. Funny how things worked out that way.
Would they be so proud of their ruler if they knew what she had done, what she was about to do?
Celestia doubted it.
Would Twilight still love her if she knew?
Yes. That was the worst part.
If at that moment, she ripped up that letter, teleported to Twilight, and told her she would have to sacrifice herself to defeat Nightmare Moon, Celestia held no uncertainties that she would be met with a brave face, and an even braver nod.
"What do I need to do?" She would say, with a look of pure determination in her eyes, and Celestia wouldn't be able to meet them. Not once. Somehow, paradoxically, it would be easier to lead her unknowingly to her demise, than look her in the eyes right then.
She took the letter in her magic and regarded it, blank-faced. This was the price that she had to pay to get her sister back. The price that somepony else would have to pay, really. If Celestia could do it in her place, she would! In a heartbeat! In an instant!
That changed nothing though, because she couldn't. That weight rested on her conscience like the moon. The moon and a village full of ponies plus five twice, and one, one little unicorn.
All her fault.
And I have one more essential task left for you.
The letter disappeared, and Celestia let out a soft breath.
Sometimes life as a ruler required her making tough decisions. It had been banish her sister, or let the land be covered in eternal night. Before that it was turn an old friend to stone, or risk the kingdom being turned into a sump of madness. Before that, it was make an unthinkable sacrifice, or let a pony she had come to love die. She wondered if she had made the right decision, all of those times, often.
This choice however, was the hardest she'd ever made.
But really, in the end, it was simple. To get her sister back, the Elements of Harmony had to be used, and to use the Elements...
Make some friends!
Twilight Sparkle had to die.
So that was a reaaallly long break. Hopefully I should be getting more free time to write now though, so fingers crossed.
Thanks so much for reading! -and for your incredible patience 
Super giant thanks to my awsome editor theGECK, seriously, you rock!
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5241037
5241042
Fixed super chapter derpiness, sorry bout that
Wow...
This has taken quite an interesting turn.
BTW, Celestia is a total bitch.
5241054 Yes, yes she is.
So, this is a flashback? Oh, so the Elements drain the life energy of the users?
I'm getting a bizzare Chessmaster Dumbledore vibe here.
To get what she wanted for selfish reasons, Twilight Sparkle was raised and manipulated by Celestia with the 'correct' mindset to sacrifice herself.
To get what he wanted for the 'greater good', Harry Potter was raised and manipulated by Dumbledore with the 'correct' mindset to sacrifice himself.
5241084 well to be honest i have been thinking that you cant use something as powerfull as the elements without some kind of drawback, yeah some will say that meeting the qualifycations to use them negates this, but my answer to that is quite simple meeting the qualifycations only lower the side effects from using em, on another note i haver always believed that celestia arranged for the ponies with the highest chance of becoming element bearers to gather and stay on ponyville for one reason or another
Holy fuck this is getting darker and darker
The fact that this story's premise requires not merely Celestia to secretly be tragically corrupt (implausible, but eh), but also that the Elements be inherently something awfully similar to black magic (quietly drain life force to power superweapon without warning up front? SEEMS LEGIT) is making this more and more dubious.
........... if there is one issue with this idea of what the elements do, its the tree of harmony itself. it would not let the ponies whose bond was so powerful, their connection so great, that the elements themselves took on shapes that represented their new bearers. the tree has agency.
not to mention the fact they were empowered with the very magic of the tree itself. they were not channeling the elements, the tree had given some of its power to them to defeat tirek and start a new stage for equestria's future.
not something world breaking but it seems unlikely that whatever occured that cost the lives of tiwlight's friends, teh tree would not have actively mitigated.
5241124 always thought that the tree was behind this. though rather than create some destiny schlock it created an environment that could produce those who could bear its elements.
think about it. the zap apples themselves are rainbow colored, and came from the everfree forest too. the tree has some form of agency.
think though that the difficulty of finding all of the right candidates would be a sufficient setback to the power. we are not just talking about five ponies who represent theri elements in a unique way, we are talking about them becoming emotionally connected to each other as well.
........ and even if they did have such a stern drawback, i do not think the Tree would allow it. it is clear that there is something more to the tree, some mind or will behind its actions and behavior. even if it has no emotion, the mane six transformed its elements into shapes resembling their cutie marks, and the remained this shape after they returned. it could not let those so worthy for its power to pass, not if it could stop it.
5241297
Without revealing too much, the tree of harmony as well as the element's drawbacks will be elaborated on in the future
As of the moment, the story is going to be divided into three main parts, the second of which will be going pretty into depth on Celly's past before the events of the show.
immortal body mortal mind never a good combo.
What the f
Celestia?
Um...
DAFUQ??????
So Celestia really IS a bitch!!!
Oh I ask thee great and powerful autor are the amounts of Bitchlestia going to increase, or decrease as the story continues?
Please answer my plight!
No for real, the explanation of Twilight's sour mood towards Bitchlestia was believable, but I still have one tiny question,
Can the elements of Harmony, being harmonious and all that stuff, only being used by inmortals then??
Oh and that Bitchlestia thing from the top...
Great couple of chapters!!
So now I'm wondering if Sunset Shimmer was somehow tied up in all of this too. Maybe Sunset was originally going to be the sacrifice, but ran away when she found out what Celestia was up to. Maybe she even helped Twilight figure all of this out. Hmm...
THE PLOT THICKENS
shirtscope.com/images/products/123405/123405_d.jpg
She could always have paid the price herself and axed her omnicidal sister. Sacrificing an innocent to repair her own mistakes and cover up Luna's choices is rather evil.
5241084
Less drain, more.. The Element of Magic burns out it's wielder. The draining came in when Twilight was Alicornized: Her friends paid the butcher's bill so she'd have eternal life. All because Celestia is a selfish, selfish pony.
5241736 Think you're being a bit unfair with the Tyrantlestia bit-- Love is madness, as they say. Her love for Luna set the stage for using Twilight, who would have agreed even with full disclosure. Her love for Twilight set the stage for the death of the Elements, and I don't think Tia would be blind to the fact that when it comes to immortals, the truth will eventually out. It's not just Celestia bad, Twilight good. It's family and being unwilling to live without someone, even if they hate you. Twilight is, in a way, doing the exact same thing: Moving mountains for those she loves and cannot manage without.
My opinion, anyways!
Who's disliking all the comments? Anyway, I like to see where this goes...
Disagree with this concept of the Elements. The tree restores Harmony. How can it be harmonious to kill your user, understandable if you did it like Celestia did against nightmare moon but when you have two or more. No, just no. and Event the tree rainbow powers should have healed any damage done by Twilight becoming an alicorn. Need to really rethink this route.
Nice chapters!! I'm thinking we'll be getting more of Celestia's perspective soon. That said...I gotta admit, I'm in Twilight's camp on this one. I, in all honesty, Believe Twilight, however nuts she's become, has earned her independence. Straight up, Celestia fucked up, and in trying to correct or mitigate her mistake, she made an even bigger one. And worse, she's now hounding Twilight, when she should know damned well she burned that bridge for good. Honestly, even if this fic goes the way I think it's gunna go, it's not going to matter. In my eyes, the White Alicorn made her move and it's all come down to that. Everything else she's done is just digging her hole deeper. Luna...I think she's in the cross-fire, but showing she's in Celestia's camp, means she has lost Twilight as well.
At the end of the day? I'd say she lost her faithful student the moment she brought up the Alicorn plan. After that...well, in this instance, only logical when Twi found out, it'd be over.
Celestia is a bitch
5241979
You ever hear the phrase "too much of a good thing"? I think it applies here. Life, by its very nature, is inherently chaotic. Cells constantly multiplying and dying, actions taken garnering reactions, molecules rearranging constantly, and so on. In other words, Movement = Chaos. If one were to channel pure Harmony, as Twilight does through the Element of Magic, without proper precautions or a body that can regulate such things, the Harmony would force her body towards Order. Order would most likely manifest in the solidification of every molecule of her body, if it hadn't already stopped her heart from beating (on the assumption the process of Harmonizing would cease upon death and accept the end of the body's chaotic life functions as Order, otherwise her corpse would still solidify).
tl;dr Life requires Chaos and Harmony. Force out the Chaos with Harmony and Life stops.
5241838
I don't think Celestia could take the hit. As it's been stated, Celestia and Luna lost their connections to the elements and therefore, she would be unable to break Luna out of her madness. Also, in regards to killing Luna in her madness a thousand years ago, that option didn't appear to be available, as seen in the Season 4 opener. Further, the Elements don't seem to have adjustable settings. They just do whatever they want to do with any particular case.
I also don't think NMM vs. Celestia in a legitimate life or death battle would have been a wise choice. Both are Alicorns of similar power levels, ergo, the collateral would have been absolutely devastating.
NOOOOO!!!!! ANYPONY BUT FLUTTERSHY!!!! Wait....
5242182 I can understand too many times in a short span would be bad but even then the Rainbow Powers should have healed that.
So this is interesting, from the get-go Twilight was supposed to die. But that didn't happen. Why? Is it simply because Twilight is THAT powerful on her own? Or did Celestia misjudge the elements?
And so why did Celestia revisit the decision to make Twilight an alicorn later? Why was that necessary?
And what exactly happened to Twilight's friends? Was that simply a dream, a metaphor for what happened, or did that actually happen? Why couldn't they become alicorns as well, if the process was so arbitrary as being chosen?
It doesn't look good for Celestia, any way I see it.
5242369
Twilight was supposed to die, but Celestia made her immortal before that could happen.
5242182
Harmony is not the same as order; harmony has complexities far greater than order. To quote another fic "A monotone...cannot form...A HARMONY!”
I think The-Pony-Librarian is taking the interpretation that harmony requires balance. If great power is channelled, then that power must be taken from somewhere else. If someone becomes immortal, then something (probably life) must be lost somewhere else.
I don't see this going well for Celestia, and the more Luna interferes, the more Twilight is likely to start hating her more easily as time goes by.
Somepony needs a hug.
C'mere, Twilight!
5242483
Order is a...I want to say subsection or ingredient in Harmony. I wasn't making that very clear in my statement on my view of Harmony as an overarching Intangible Concept. The way I see it, Concepts build into each other. Order builds into Harmony, Time builds into Chaos, Hate builds into Evil, ect. Of course, there's more than one 'ingredient' in each Concept, but that should give you the gist of the way I view things.
Thus, I was approaching the reason the Elements were harmful to Twilight from which 'ingredient' has the most obvious potential to adversely affect life if found in extreme excess. Like how it's the peanuts in a PB&J sandwich that will cause an allergic reaction to those allergic to nuts, and not the jelly or the bread, even if they are considered a single unit constructed from those smaller things. I apologize for any confusion.
5242295
What do we truly know about the Rainbow Powers? Other than they run on the same juice and come from the same place as the Elements, we know next to nothing. What would lead you to believe they had healing powers? In fact, it could be supposed that since the power is no longer focused solely on Twilight, the Rainbow Powers could have been slowly killing all of them, except Twi in her Alicorn state.
Edit: Also, does anyone know if the events of season 4 took place in this timeline?
Loving this fic!...but, the fact that the author broke the fundamental rules of the Elements of Harmony makes it so this fic needs an Alternate Universe tag. The elements have always been very cookie-cutter power ups, on the plus side they drive the darkness in the targets mind/heart away on the flip side they require worthy bearers to be used and because of the way they work, makes them inadequate in situations where they are faced with pure evil/darkness which results in banishment/imprisonment or being completely useless.
5241736
Nowhere is it stated it the story that that twilight used dark magic or necromancy. In the chapter where Celestia and Luna find the book, it is implied that Celestia had used the book one or more times to bring the Elements back just so they can be martyred to save Equestria or for some other purpose. It also also stated, in the same chapter, the Luna ended up becoming Nightmare Moon because she found out the truth and blamed Celestia for the deaths of the past incarnations of the Elements.
To make a long story short, Celestia has been a royal screw up and has had this messed up, sacrifice a few for the good of the many, thing going on long before even Nightmare Moon happened. This new info only makes Celestia seem slightly worse the she already is.
5242843 the fact that the elements restored Rarity's tail and then there's Nightmare Moon and Sunset Shimmer.
5243588 that wasn't so much a heal as it was a data backup. if we think of magic as a type of signal causing atoms and other forces of nature to bend around some ones will the nightmare moon incident was nothing more then a update reset. sunset shimmer was uncorrupted and rarities tail was just a re-upload. nothing that was physically wound healed as much as reapplied from a previous file version. magic isn't force of nature as much as a form of science they don't understand like a monkey hitting the side of a nuclear warhead because it likes the sound it makes. have you seen how physically tough the ponies are? remember the pinkie episode when twilight surrenders to the pinkie? that was an excellent example of primitive species not fully exploring the vastness of the evolution to manipulate the biochemical signal that is defined as "magic" you could say that something similar is available to humans we define luck and good fortune as complete positive chance when instead in should be defined as something beyond are scope of understanding until later.
5243816 even a data backup means a reset. thus again blows through the concept of this chapter. Again I could by being used to often in a short amount of time on the actual elements but since the rainbow powers are now a part of them and they only used that twice by story it shouldn't be enough to cause death. I'll continue reading but this is a serious flaw in the story and the author should rethink it.
5241979 I'm sure someone else has told this too you, but too much of a good thing becomes bad. Think of harmony as bleach. A substance that reacts with stains to get rid of them. Now consider that life is in nature chaotic and that bleach is also known for killing microbes and insects it comes into contact with. Before, Twilight was an insect and would slowly die from bleach poisoning but Celestia elevated her to another level, more of a mouse or small mammal. Rarely does a drop of bleach kill a mouse. But the mass that the mouse is made of had to come from somewhere so she used other insects to build up this new mammal otherwise she would break the law of conservation of mass, which is a big no-no. Seems to make more sense like that to me.
5244441 again the rainbow power would cancel that out for it's now a part of them.
5243588
NNM nor Sunset were healed in any way. Actually, Sunset looked pretty dinged up when she crawled outta the crater she made. Further, growing hair can be done in any number of ways and hardly counts as healing. The Elements could have just as easily have an anachronistic property, thusly reverting Rarity's tail to the way it was before she lopped a bit of it off.
In addition, in the instances where the Elements are used, it is shown that their use takes a toll on them. In the case of when they first used them, and in the EQ movie, they were briefly knocked unconscious from the strain. Since Twilight is the focal point, it follows to reason that the toll extracted on her is greater than that of her friends.
Edit: If the Elements do cause a reversal of time, to do so to heal the damage they do, would cause an infinite loop of them using their power to rewind time, because each time they activated, they would harm the user, then rewind time to fix it, then rewind again to fix that instance, and so on.
Edit 2: I was asking about the Rainbow Powers, not weather or not the Elements had healing properties.
5244461 The rainbow power being part of them is ever worse, because it is in a sense a manifestation of harmony and would be continually poisoning them. A person can overdose on ANYTHING and if goes the same for ponies. Anyways, after I wrote that comment I read the comment string that yours created and I have to agree with the "Rainbow power only acting as a backup loader" theory and even if a backup Twilight is loaded, the fact that the elements are ever used would counteract the 'before they got poisoned' backups by the sudden dose of harmony. And without that as a factor, there's still lots of time between each element use, giving the poison time to work.
5244489 But Sunset was nolonger a she demon and Luna nolonger NMM so I call that healed. and yeah they elements can exchuast them which is why I would by being used too much in a short amount of time. But again by this story the Rainbow Power has only been used twice and the power is restoritive.
Still curious to see where this goes, but agree AU. The EoH being toxic in this regard is like, way out of canon. They don't represent capital O-Order, they represent Harmony - which does not mean No Chaos. Perfect Order is not harmonious either. Perfect order would be an eternally unchanging state of orderliness, a white oblivion instead of a black one.
5243035
Actually, we've been having a discussion on this very thing. Feel free to join in.
Also, I personally believe that the Elements do not drive out Darkness. I think they beat the target over the head with what they've done wrong (as well as driving out demonic influences when at full power). So in the cases, like Discord, they turned him to stone because he didn't give a rat's rear end about what he was doing to those around him. Or in the case of NMM, since they weren't at full power, as they were being wielder solely by Celestia, they were unable to rid Luna's body of the Nightmare, and were forced to banish her to the moon until someone could come along and get them back to full power.
I think this because Harmony is the opposite of Discord. Harmony is not the opposite of Darkness. Ergo, Harmony would be unable to exterminate Darkness, because Darkness can be very Harmonious. Therefore, it would fall outside of the Element's purview unless the Darkness was in direct Discord with something that was Harmonious.
As for why it would banish Demons, it wouldn't be a stretch to consider that the Host and the Demon would be at odds with each other, ergo, in Discord with each other.
Following this logic, you can see why the Elements and even the Rainbow Powers worked in each instance.
1.) NMM: Was possessed and therefore Luna was in Discord with the Demon.
2.) Discord: His entire being is literally Chaos and Discord. Therefore he was in conflict with everything around him, and thus the Elements, (Probably not powerful enough to properly slay Discord) removed him in the form of petrifying him.
3.) Sunset Shimmer: Sunset was actually in Discord with the Elements themselves, trying to pervert their magic and becoming a monster in the process. Further, she was in conflict with Equestria and her school.
4.) Tirek: Was in Discord with the Natural Order, by creating a Vacuum of Magic. He was also in conflict with Equestria in general.
5244509
That is, again, a reversion to a previous state of being. Something that can easily be done through time manipulation. To be considered healing, new tissue must be formed without extreme temporal interference. We can't prove weather or not new tissue has been created nor if time has been manipulated, ergo, this is a moot point.
Also, if it was healing and the Element were capable of healing NMM, then why did they banish her to the Moon to begin with? In addition, as stated by the comics, Luna was possessed by the Nightmare Force. Therefore, a simple removal of that possession would achieve the affect of reverting Luan. That would require no healing or time manipulation whatsoever. Such as what happened when Rarity was infected by the Nightmare.
As for Sunset's stint as a "Demon", that was brought on by a perversion of the Element's power. Thus, it is easy to assume her body mutated like that from an overdose of Discorded Magic. When that Discorded Magic was balanced out with Harmonious Magic, she reverted to normal. I wouldn't be surprised if a doctor's exam directly after the fact found at least some tissue damage, outside of the scratches and bruises she had when she crawled out of the crater.
Edit: If you are using the fact that the Rainbow Powers restored the Magic to everypony, then there are two possible theories I have.
1.) The Rainbow Power simply encapsulated the Magic that was stolen and then redistributed it.
2.) As Tirek was creating a Vacuum of Magic, it is easy to assume the Rainbow Power simply filled the Vacuum with Magic of its own.
Well, in retrospect of Celestia's exposition I'd say Twilight maybe hasn't made such a rash choice after all in her actions. Though, what consequences it might have I dare not contemplate.