Such a shame we thought, we didn't get the chance to torment the others, oh well, there's still today's meeting with the elements.

Though Twilight never mentioned such a meeting we were sure that she wouldn't leave her friends out on all the fun that would soon ensue. We searched the castle until the sleeping form of Twilight Sparkle was within our incorporeal gaze. She looked so peaceful in her bed, her mind drifting through the land of dreams where the worries of the world could not harm her.

We would have to fix that.

"TWILIGHT! WAKE UP!"

"DAAAH!" Twilight screamed as she tumbled out of bed with her blanket and man pillows in tow. "What's happened? Has Discord turned on us again? Have the changelings invaded? Has someone awoken the Dead Queen?". It took a few moments for her to calm down. "Oh it's just you Animad, you really shouldn't startle me like that,"

"Dead Queen?"

"A unicorn from Germaneigh that discovered a school of magic based around manipulation of life energy and raising the dead known today as necromancy, " she explained. "A few centuries ago she conquered Germaneigh ruling as its Queen for 30 years before she was dethroned and put into magical stasis, I would have expected someone who is 'older than all' to have known about someone as legendary as her,"

"Not much happened after Luna's imprisonment that caught our interest so we went elsewhere, but we’ll retain that information for later use" we replied. 'Twilight',

"Yes Animad?"

"Does Equestria have anything resembling religion? We remember there used to a major one brought here by the first Equestrians from their homelands but we haven't really seen a trace of religion anywhere,"

"Well," Twilight began "We could always check the archives if you want,"

"We would appreciate that,"

"You seem to be a lot less annoying than you were yesterday,"

"Oh we haven't changed, we will still bring divine retribution on anyone that calls us Annie," we replied with some attempt at false anger.

We made our way to the archives with nothing out of the ordinary occurring.

That is until we introduced ourself to the archive's guards.

"What happened here?" Celestia asked in absolute shock at the scene before her. Seven of her unicorn guards were unconscious with broken horns, the Archive door was a burning pile of debris and there were boulders and swords embedded into the walls. Not to mention the 10 foot hole the had been blown through the outer wall to reveal ten more guards who had fallen from the palace into the smoldering remains of the stores below.

"We introduced ourself to the guards, it did not go well," we explained "They thought we were disguising ourself as Twilight whom they attacked so I had to...Incapacitate them,"

"Incapacitate them? You destroyed most of the financial district!" Twilight yelled "I don't care how much older than civilization you are. Fix.This.Now!"

"If it will make you stop whining then we will," with a thought and a pulse of magic we watched as time seemed to reverse, the unicorn's horns reattached to their heads the boulders and swords moved out from the wall and vanished and the rubble in the stores rose up with the guards in tow back to where they originally were though slightly disorientated from the earlier fight. When we had finished repairing the damaged hallway we added a layer of polish on everything, including the guards much to their annoyance.

"There we fixed everything, now may we enter the archives?"

"In honestly don't think we would be able to stop you even if we wanted" said on of the guards.

We'll take that as a yes,

"After Equestria's founding there was a religion that worshiped alicorns known as the Celestial Temple, after the Age of Chaos when Celestia and Luna were crowned as the rulers of Equestria they became the main objects of worship in the temple. Eventually the faith fell apart after the Lunar Rebellion caused a schism in the temple between those that supported Nightmare Moon and those who opposed her, this combined with the faith losing popularity due to its association with worship of Nightmare Moon eventually led to the Temple being disbanded,"

Twilight had spent the last few hours telling me about the history of Equestrian religion while we had been searching for more tomes to see what interesting events we had missed between the Luna’s rebellion and her return. After some searching we found the book we were looking for.

‘Dragon Faith Structures and Religions’ an interesting read on the history of Draconian religions throughout the millennia , some even dating back to before the Great Winter drove the Equines from their homeland.

”Twilight, have you ever heard of the Cult of the Ancient Lords?”

“Them? Oh it’s an old Draconian faith based around the worship of beings they called ‘The Ancient Lords’ who they claimed created the sun , moon and stars as well as the rest of Equus, the original beliefs and teachings of the faith and most knowledge of who these Ancient Lords were supposed to be were lost with the Age of Chaos . But don’t expect to find anything interesting on the modern cult, the entire faith now days is built around the belief that dragons were the superior race and provide them with an excuse for them to enslave other sentient races,”

”And how exactly did you come to that conclusion?” we inquired.

“Their holy book claimed that dragons were created by an Ancient Lord called Sator Ni’Mad the ‘Father of Dragons’ and ‘Bringer of Nightmares’ to rule the skies and all things below it, if that isn’t dragon supremacy then I don’t know what is,”

”The book does describe an old temple in Draconia that’s been abandoned for centuries, we should go there,”

“That sounds like a great idea I bet its lack of visitors has nothing to do with it being situated in the middle of Lands of Screams or anything,” Twilight replied sarcastically. We were about to conjure another boulder when we remembered what she had told us about how it wasn’t nice to hit ponies with large chunks of rock so we decide not to. We hit her with the Condensed History of Equestrian Magic volumes one through twelve.

“I would really appreciate it if you stopped doing that,” the pile of books, or rather the pony within the pile of books said.

After Twilight had dug herself out of and reshelved the books that had almost become her grave she went on her way to the train station to meet her friends while we waited observing the morning court. The nexus of politics where the common pony was able to voice their concerns in the hope of making their nation a better place. Sadly for them the common pony usually didn’t live in Canterlot so the nobles were left to petition the crown. Oh the things that nobles would petition the princesses for. Especially after Twilights ascension.

“For the last time Blueblood we are not going to make you an alicorn, there is honestly no good that could possibly come out of it,” said Celestia.

“So your saying that you’ll allow a filthy commoner to become royalty but you won’t even entertain the idea of doing the same for your own nephew? What kind of princesses are you?”

”The kind who know not to put you in charge” we whispered into his mind.

“Who said that?” Blueblood asked as her looked from left to right in a futile attempt of locating me.

”Oh don’t bother trying to find us, it will merely be a waste of your oh so finite life”

“You can’t just invade my mind!” Blueblood exclaimed much to the concern of the court. “Who do you think you are?”

“We do believe that we are the chosen rulers of Equestria, what do you believe us to be nephew?” Luna replied with that detached air that only the old Unicorn Kings could have replicated.

“Not you, the voice,”

“Voice? You’re hearing a voice in your head? Blueblood are you feeling well?” Celestia asked clearly concerned for her nephew’s mental health.

“You don’t believe me do you? Well I’ll prove it, voice speak to the princesses,”

”You have no evidence we are anything more than a figment of fractured psyche Blueblood,”

“You can’t just wash your hooves clean of me like that! Speak to them voice, speak to them!” at this point the court was begin to become distressed and Luna had called for the castle’s medical staff to take him away.

“No! You can’t do this to me! I’m a prince you hear me, a prince! I’m telling the truth the voice is real!”

”Don’t worry Blueblood, we’ll tell Rarity to come visit you later,”

“I’ll get you for this voice! I’ll get-” and whatever else he planned to say was drowned out by the sound of the throne room doors closing.

We’ll have to check on him later, maybe cause a little more trouble for the poor fool we thought. For now we must prepare for the element’s arrival.

Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy had clearly not slept, but few do when they are visited by the Bringer of Nightmares. Rarity’s left eye twitched at random any site of a remotely rock shaped object brought nervous spasms through her being, Applejack merely seemed tired with heavy dark bags underneath her bloodshot eyes, her hooves methodically moving one in front of the other as if it took all her willpower not to just pass out on the spot. But Fluttershy…

Fluttershy was a nervous wreck.

Her usually slightly curled mane had devolved into a mass of split ends and tight knots, her body shook with barely restrained fear and her eye’s constantly darted from left to right as if searching for some invisible threat.Most likely because of us we thought. Nice to know we haven’t lost our touch though. If it was any consolation for her, Discord was with her probably to make sure she didn’t see her own shadow and bolt back to her little cottage by the forest.

Also Spike was there, though that hardly mattered. He would probably disappear by the end of the conversation.

“Now everypony,” Discord and Spike raised an eyebrow each “and dragon and draconequus,” Twilight continued “there’s someone I’d like you to meet, he’s not exactly what you would call ‘normal’ though”

“Twi’ we’re *ahem* ‘friends’ with Discord” Applejack said, making sure to add the air quotes “It doesn’t really get any weirder than that”

”Oh you may find me to be of a different ilk to your draconequus friend,”

“Oh you’re…Here sort of,”

“Twilight dearest could you please explain to us why there is a disembodied voice speaking to us?”

“He’s who I wanted you to meet. Girls meet Animad, don’t call him Annie he assaulted Cadence with a boulder when she called him that, ”

“How exactly can this disembodied voice of yers move a boulder let alone attack Cadence with it?” Applejack asked.

”The same way we can do this,” we levitated her hat away.

“Mah hat!” The we made her mane disappear then replaced her hooves with orange taffy.

“Oh I’m starting to like him,” said Discord as he watched the events unfold from his reclining armchair with a popcorn at hand. “Speaking of which, have we met before?”

”You may have met us when we ruined your little dream picnic last night,”

“That was you? You’re the one who made Fluttershy a jittering mess?”

”I’m sure she’s fine, see? Fluttershy, BOO!”

“AAAHHHH!” Fluttershy screamed finally recognising the dragon from her nightmare, she ran straight to the courtroom door. Directly into the courtroom door.

”Looks like nurse Red Heart will be having a new patient today” we chuckled as we sent yet another pony to the castle’s medical ward for a concussion.

“Animad,” Twilight groaned as she massaged her temples “what did I tell you about harming ponies? And of all the ponies to do that to why Fluttershy?”

”Not to attack them with boulders and because she’s got weaker sensibilities than a wet tissue made of tapioca pudding respectively,” we replied ”Which has nothing to do with the current situation, and it’s not like we only gave her nightmares, there was also Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie,”

“Why in the name of harmony would do that to another pony?”

”Don’t act like you would even be capable of understanding, besides it’s not like we simply created your nightmares, we simply built off your pre-existing fears and anxieties, Applejacks fear of everything her farm failing for the last time, Rarity and her inability to truly accept what she is capable of becoming, and Discord. Poor, lonely Discord, a being feared by all except one, the only one you have ever called a friend, and for that fleeting moment you felt true fear,”

“I’m…Going to go check on Fluttershy in the medical ward,” and with a snap of his talon Discord was gone.

”Coward,”

“Hey Animad, you replaced my eyes with a hornets nest, what does that represent?” Pinkie Pie asked as she bounced around imagining the possible meaning behind it.

“Absolutely nothing, we just don’t like being called Annie, ”

“Well that makes as much sense as anything else,” Spike said with a shrug.

”Now that we are done with introductions I think it’s time we went to Celestia and Luna,”

“Whatever for Animad?”

”We have an…Idea we wish to share with them”

So the element bearers minus Fluttershy made their way through the courtroom doors towards the Princess’ chambers.

Author's Note

A new chapter done! And just before the first day of the new school year (WEEPS INTERNALLY)
I would appreciate it if you would point out any grammatical errors in this chapter