Chapter 1

Princess Twilight Sparkle had, once again, been asked to speak at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. It was becoming sort of a regular thing, but her enthusiasm was not diminished at all by this repetition. She was loving this, sharing knowledge with the next generation of scholars. This time, she would speak on the Elements of Harmony, a difficult topic, but excellent to show many facets of magic, and the value of friendship.

"And now, to give a short lecture, Princess Twilight Sparkle!" announced the current speaker.

Twilight trotted out onto the stage, without any display this time, and saw that lovely sight, foals thirsty for knowledge.

"Hello everypony, I'm glad to be here again-" Twilight paused while the foals cheered, "-Thank you, now today we will be discussing the Elements of Harmony. Can anypony tell me what the Elements are?

An enthusiastic filly (a pink one) raised her hoof and shouted, "Magic! Laughter! Kindness! Honesty! Generosity! Loyalty!"

"Very good," said Twilight, "Notice that five of them are personality traits, while magic is a force. Why do you think that is?"

The foals generally looked confused, but one colt did speak up, rather shyly, "I thought it was the magic of friendship?"

The other foals nodded in agreement.

Twilight smiled, "It is magic. In fact, does anyone remember the magical creature we learned about? The Elements of Harmony aren't gems, they're colonies of those same creatures."

The foals were incredibly taken aback by this revelation. But many of them did understand the reasoning, and several hooves shot in the air.

One little filly said, "That's why they're in a tree!! Real gems aren't in trees!!"

"Exactly! Nice intuition!" Twilight congratulated her, "Now, we're going into some psychology here, emoto-magic. Emoto-magic is magic based on emotions. The Elements are based on very subtle emotions, those between friends.

We learned last time that the creatures can sense what we're thinking. That means they also can sense what we feel, that is, they can sense our emotions. The Elements of Harmony respond to individuals who exhibit one of five specific traits very strongly. Of course, these traits are laughter, kindness, generosity, honesty, and loyalty. It is also required that a unicorn, or alicorn, to interact with the Elements so that an element of Magic can be manifested. Understand?"

Immediately an eager colt raised his hoof and asked, "What about the spark? The spark of friendship?"

Twilight smiled, "Yes, the spark that resides in us all. The spark that melted the ice of the Windigoes. This spark is a sign that specific individuals have met the criteria to unlock the magic of friendship, which is controlled by the Elements of Harmony, composed of these magical creatures that determine who does and who does not posses these traits. This means the Elements can sense things on the other side of Equus, because the three ponies who founded Equestria did not directly posses them but still wielded their power.

When a group of friends, or even just two friends, exhibit these traits, they gain unimaginable power, the power of friendship. This power has defeated Discord, a full-powered alicorn, and the warlord Tirek. And, of course, it made me a Princess," she said with a grin.

The foal laughed at this, but calmed down as many began to wonder about new ideas. One filly asked, "So, why? Why do the Elements do this stuff?"

"We, well, we don't know. It's obvious that they only choose strong, healthy, moral ponies based on these five traits, and the power can only be used against those who have gone against these traits. Some scientists think these creatures are sentient, and make the conscious decision to fight evil and empower specific ponies. Others think these gems are the product of magical experimental long ago, created as a weapon to use against Discord, in the time of his reign," said Twilight.

Another filly raised her hoof, "How come Celestia could use the Elements by herself?"

"Well, she didn't use them alone. Luna did technically world them along with her. In Luna's last desperate act to save herself from her own jealousy, she assisted her sister in banishing her to the moon. Celestia would not have been able to do so herself."

The foals were silent at this. Not because it was groundbreaking, but because of this addition to the Nightmare Moon story. One foal asked, "So, Pwincess Luna stopped herself? Stopped the Nightmare from bwinging eternal night?"

Twilight swallowed. It was slightly uncomfortable for her to talk about the incident, due to her closeness with both Princesses, "Yes," she said, "Luna did choose her own punishment. Sh-she was never out of control, thank Celestia."

The foals were again silent, pondering the history they had been taught, until one broke the tension by saying, "Pwincess Luna's cool!", to which the other foals laughed, nodded and chatted over.

"Alright, alright, back to the subject at hand. Just to recap, the Elements are a colony of magical creatures who are dedicated to spreading friendship, capable of trumpesing all other magic, and creating alicorns. Any more questions?"

The foals didn't say anything, looking satisfied with the knowledge they had gained today.

Twilight grinned, happy to pass on knowledge, "Alright well, goodbye everypony!"

"Goodbye, Pwincess Twilight!" echoed the foals.

Twilight trotted offstage, smiling all the way. She had taught knowledge to young foals, and friendship as well. She had also cleared up some confusion surrousding Nightmare Moon, likely boosting Luna's reputation. That was what being a Princess was about, right? Teaching her subjecs, setting a good example.

It was nice to be a Princess.

Author's Note:

Any suggestions for another topic? I have no ideas

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ObeyBunny

ObeyBunny #1 · Sep 28th, 2015 · · ·

I thought the exploration on how the Elements worked could have been expanded more:

-Why are the spells it cast random? When the main six use them, they reform Nightmare Moon. They calcify Discord rather than "reforming" him. I get that you kinda cover your bases with why the elements sent Nightmare Moon to the moon: Celestia and Luna together sent Luna to the moon, and perhaps didn't think about which spell to use in the split-second decision. But the other two things?

-Why was the tree the elements spawned from crystallized? Why did the tree have Celestia's, Luna's, and Twilight's cutie marks on it? How come the tree acts like another "beacon," the way that the Crystal Empire does?

-Why do the elements of harmony start out as common stone balls in the first episode of season one?

-Why would Celestia and Luna both be cut off from the elements if Luna was the one who did the non-harmonious thing? Wouldn't Celestia still have control over 3 of the original elements?

I gave you an up-vote, but I think the concept could really use some expanding. Maybe the next topic would be "why are Celestia and Luna ageless when Cadence has been shown to age like a normal pony?"

Walabio

Walabio #2 · Sep 28th, 2015 · · ·

So far, all magical explanations focus on Unicorns. ¿What about the magic of the Earthen and the Pegasi?:

The Earthen are very strong, can project magic through their hooves leading to agromancy, bestiamancy, medical applications, the ability to climb up walls as Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie did in Filli Vanilli, and geomancy (Earthbending and Rockfarming).

Pegasi can fly, walk on clouds, and manipulate weather.

Charx