Equestrian Armed Forces

Nine hundred and ninety-five years.  Nearly a full millennium and I can only find one person with the potential.  The Princess paced back and forth in her private chamber trying to think of a solution to a problem that was fast approaching.  Nearly a thousand years ago, Princess Celestia had been forced to use the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister into the only cell that could contain her, the moon.  Using them all at once had turned out to be a mistake.  With her power, as well as that of the Elements, severely drained in the process, she feared using them again.  While she reasoned that she was healthy and powerful enough again to wield their combined strength, she could not say the same for the Elements.  After each use from both her sister and herself, they had grown weaker and weaker.  When used against Sombra, we took away his material form.  Against Discord, we managed to turn him into stone, an effort I hope was not for a temporary result.  Lastly, when used against my own sister, instead of lifting the evil clouding her mind all the Elements could manage was simply relocate her ... for a period of time.

Over the years however, the Princess theorized that perhaps her sister and herself were never meant to wield these devices of great power.  Perhaps, it was merely their combined strength in magic and god-like powers that protected them.  What she needed to find now were six individuals who met the requirements to become the Bearers of the Elements.  And after all this time I have only found one!  What am I to do about the other five?  She pondered this for years now after discovering the possible bearer to the element of Magic.  Finding her was relatively easy of course, opening a University of Magic naturally attracted all those powerful and passionate in the subject.  Unfortunately, the same strategy could not be used to discover any of the other Bearers.  How would one round up all of the people who could represent Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Generosity, and Laughter?  A seemingly impossible task, it was simply out of the question.  What she needed to do now, was focus on the Bearer she did know of.

Yes, her ever faithful student Twilight Sparkle had proven herself by completing every task set before her to date.  She had studied, understood, and practiced spells in many different fields of magic.  Frequently she would pick up on a spell after just witnessing another perform it once, already understanding all of the intricacies of it without an explanation.  And she is so passionate about it too, absolutely loving every aspect of the art.  She even outshines her older brother, the youngest Captain of the Royal Guard in its history.  Of course, she has the advantage of not having to leave her studies to attend to a battalion of troops . . .  I just wish she would slow down on her studies and simply find the time to socialize and make some friends.  Come to think of it, Shining Armour seems to be socializing more and more with Princess Cade- cutting her own train of thought off, the Princess came to a brilliant conclusion.

Of course!  Celestia thought, a smile beaming across her face, if the Elements are to be used harmoniously, they must be used by six different people who themselves are compatible with each other.  It would make sense then, that these people would have to know each other and in turn cooperate.  The concept was so simple, Celestia wondered how she did not think of it sooner.  Instead of scouring the countryside for the remainder of the Bearers, with no real means on finding them, she would use her faithful student to find them for her by tasking her with socializing with people.  Celestia reasoned that Twilight should not be made aware of the task.  As faithful a student that she is, Twilight will simply try and make friends with the first five people she runs across and consider it yet another task completed.  This simply will not do with the country of Equestria riding in the balance.  Instead, she should try and have Twilight socialize and make friends naturally.

Although, I can not just have her go and socialize with everyone in the country, surely there is a way to narrow down my search.  Celestia believed that if the Bearers were to wield the incredible power of the Elements, they would have to be strong individuals, able of facing such dark forces with the presence of mind to stand their ground and fight off the evils of the world.  It was then that she sat down at her desk and noticed all of the paperwork that she was neglecting.  Oh the joys of royalty, The princess thought, If I never see another scroll from someone asking for coin, it will be too soon.  One in particular caught her eye, an expense report from the Equestrian Armed Forces.  A smile beamed across her face as she determined how she was to find her Bearers of Harmony in time.  Using her aura to grab a nearby pen, she began articulating the plan that was to save her country.[/size]