A History of Friendship Is Magicby Snow StormChaptersThe Origins of PoniesThe First FriendshipDragon SlayersHeroesThe Origins of PoniesPlanet Earth, 2698: A terrible war has been raging on the surface for so long many have forgotten what peace is. What was once a diverse and rich planet now lays in apocalyptic ruin. Every last piece of flora alive on the surface withered and died long ago, and what few are left of the animal population have been altered to become monstrous creatures which roam the smoking ruins, picking off soldiers who happen to be unlucky enough to stray across their path. Entire races have been destroyed, and those who remain are in such diminished numbers that an encounter with the enemy could easily result in extinction. Of course, technology has advanced dramatically since the dawn of the basic microchip, and governments had power over large sections of our galaxy until the war began. To increase space for humans on Earth, almost all farming had been outsourced to planets far from here, but surprisingly, the entire human population remained on Earth, having built a city across the entire planet to cope with the ever increasing population. This was the downfall of the human race: as populations seemed to increase exponentially, space was becoming limited despite government’s best efforts, and with every race allowed to live anywhere they liked, there was large amounts of friction between many residents. All at once it erupted into the largest war the planet had seen, and entire countries worth of the city were laid to waste overnight. We thought that this was impossible at first; all of the governments of the world had vowed to join together to create a harmonious place in which to live, and each said to have stopped their production of weapons. We now know that this is far from the truth, as they simply created more and more weapons in secret. Once the war had taken hold, nearly every remaining resident of earth was equipped with weaponry, and thus began a generation of war, and ultimately, the destruction of Earth. As soon as the war began, the governments cancelled the less important farming programs, keeping only essential ones. Many planets that were used for holding large mammals such as giraffes, ponies, lions, elephants, and others that could not be eaten were left without human interference for many years, and despite the best efforts of humans beforehand, ‘survival of the fittest’ quickly reverted these planets back to naturality. The plants that were once carefully pruned began to take back the landscape, and soon, all evidence of human activity was buried deep in thick forests. Hidden deep under the surface around the area that was once the United Kingdom, and now one of the main government bases of the north-western territories, there is a laboratory. Large pieces of machinery are positioned around the centre while endless test tubes, chemicals, and other equipment cover tables around the edge of the room. One of the walls is taken up by, or rather is, a giant cabinet full of drawers and compartments holding thousands of research papers and other items of some scientific importance, probably. At the centre of this chaos was a woman. Wearing a coffee stained white lab coat with a security pass fixed to the top pocket. It read: Dr. Amy Hopkins, Lab-162, Access: Limited, Security: 03463883. She was frantically adjusting some cables inside a large machine whilst looking back at a crumpled piece of paper on the table next to her. Making one final addition to the spaghetti of wires, she closed the compartment door and rushed around to the front of the machine. “Are we ready to go now then doctor?” A figure appeared in the doorway on the opposite side of the room. He had the same urgency that had been evident in Dr. Hopkins’ actions. “Yes, that should do it”, she replied with a sigh of relief. “Good, I will get everyone on position”, he replied whilst turning to return through the doorway. High above the laboratory, higher than the military base that is built upon the surface, a small plane is flying. Out of range of the radar, it cuts its engines and begins its descent. The plane travelling at terminal velocity towards the base reaches its destination. The explosion is devastating. It tears through the base easily, throwing its millions of tonnes of reinforced concrete and steel high into the atmosphere. In the lower levels there is chaos. Flashing red lights, alarms and terrified people fill the corridors. Wounded people from the devastation above attempt to reach the lower levels before the emergency doors close to protect what little of the base is left. “What the hell was that?” Dr. Hopkins stood up and rushed to the door, crashing into the man from earlier. “Doctor, we have to do it now, go!” “What’s going on?” “We’re under attack. We’ve lost the first 30 levels, but the others are sure to fall soon too!” “B-but...” “Now, Doctor!” Dr. Hopkins rushed to the machine and began pressing a series of buttons. The machine began to make a whirring noise and lights lit up around it. “I’ve waited a long time for this”, Doctor Hopkins said to herself as she carefully retrieved ten gemstones from a nearby shelf. Taking each one out individually, she placed them gently into corresponding places in the machine. Once all of the gems were in place, she pressed a series of buttons and stepped onto a platform in the machine. “Good luck Doctor”, the man said. “Thanks. You know what to do right?” “Yes, I’ll get to it now”, and with that the man hurried off through the door. With that, Dr. Hopkins pulled a lever and the machine began to work. The machine took Dr. Hopkins and began to extract her innermost being: her emotions, feelings, judgements: her humanity. The gems in the machine had begun colourless and clear, but now filled with colour as she was extracted into them. As every last part of humanity was taken from her body, it slumped down and fell, lifeless, out of the machine. But Amy Hopkins was not dead, her basic elements had been taken and put into ten gemstones, and she was still very much alive. The man returned and almost tripped over Dr. Hopkins’ body. Shocked at what he saw, he almost forgot what she had told him. Not entirely convinced, but still loyal to the Doctor, he took out the gemstones from the machine and hurried back through the door, not wanting to waste any time as the enemy were already closing in on the base. He could already hear gunfire and explosions in the floors above, and as he rushed through the door, another explosion knocked him off his feet. “Start the countdown!” he shouted into the adjoining room. This was the heart of the base, deep underground in a vast cavern, and towering above all of the workers who remained stood an intergalactic rocket. “T minus ten seconds”, a female voice echoed around the cavern. The man holding the case of gems had reached midway up the staircase surrounding the rocket. “Nine...Eight...Seven...” Suddenly a huge explosion ripped through the wall of the cavern and enemy soldiers began to rush through, letting out short bursts of gunfire. Many of the workers fell, but the man with the gems ran on up the stairs. “Six...Five...Four...Three...” With but a few seconds remaining, the man opened up a compartment on the side of the hull and placed the gems inside. “Godspeed, Doctor Hopkins”. With an almighty roar, the rocket’s engines ignited, instantly destroying all of the remaining personnel and attacking soldiers on the ground floor. The entire complex, weakened by the initial blast of the attacking plane, began to crumble around the foundations. The rocket increased in speed as the surrounding building fell, claiming all those who were inside. Soon, the rocket had reached the surface, and the complex finally gave in, sinking into the lower floors and leaving a large, smoking crater. All of the equipment, research and experiments were surely destroyed, save one. Everything that it meant to be human was safely aboard the rocket. Humanity was safe. The rocket tore through the atmosphere at great speed, but something was wrong. Strong wind currents high in the Earth’s atmosphere had buffeted the rocket side to side, and had put it off course. Without ground control, there was no way of correcting its path, so it flew onwards. Leaving Earth far behind, its new course was now headed directly for one of the isolated farming areas, and more specifically, the solar system that held the planet of ponies. The pony planet was not unlike Earth, although perhaps smaller; it had the same general climates, atmosphere and moon. The rocket, pulled by the gravitational field of the planet, moved closer to the outer atmosphere as it joined the moon in orbit around the planet. With thrusters still at full power, the rocket entered the atmosphere and drew a fiery streak across the sky. As it approached the ground, chunks of the ship flew off due to the ever increasing speed caused by the thrusters. Fiery debris and molten metal traced a line behind the rocket as it flew through the clouds and finally reached the ground. The explosion was cataclysmic. The engines and fuel tanks hit first, igniting instantly in the heat of the metal. The massive momentum carried by the rocket was transferred into the ground, and the forces tore apart rocket and planet alike. During the explosion, the gemstones were thrown out of their compartment and into the full blast of the energy released. The explosion turned every colour of the rainbow, and a there was a flash of light that was so intense that it lit up the entire planet. In that single moment, all of the emotions and feelings that were held in the gems were released into the world. Amplified by the explosion, humanity itself was released and filled the hearts and souls of the animals inhabiting the planet. Since each gem held different elements of humanity, each coloured beam held that single part: orange held honesty; pink, kindness; purple, generosity; red, loyalty; and blue, laughter. The other five gems held elements of humanity, but since to be human is to be imperfect, these gems held the counterparts of the other five gems: dishonesty, cruelty, greed, disloyalty, and spite. At the very height of the explosion, the intense energy separated the two groups of five. In the case of the harmonious elements, they bonded together and created a sixth element: magic. The counterparts, however, being unstable in their nature could not bond, and instead destroyed each other. Although their elements had already been released into the world, this meant that harmony would always triumph over discord. Soon, the explosion fell silent, and the world of the ponies became peaceful once more. The ponies looked at each other. Something was very different. The minds of every mare, filly, zebra and other animals which lived on the planet were infused with the humanity that was released during the explosion. All of the ponies’ coats had turned different colours, and they could feel thousands of new impulses running through their bodies and minds. Confusion. Not the usual animal, instinctive confusion, rather a confusion accompanied by thoughts and other complex feelings. A few even managed to turn their confusion into a human thought process and the first words of the ponies were spoken: “What in the hay is going on?” The First FriendshipBefore the rocket had struck the planet, a small group of ponies were happily grazing on tufts of fresh grass in the early afternoon sun. They barely noticed the orange streak high above them as the rocket entered the atmosphere, but once it had orbited the planet and began to tear through the sky toward them, the group scattered into the nearby forest. Now, with their newly found curiosity amongst everything else, they slowly began to emerge from their hiding places. A brilliantly white pegasus mare cautiously moved toward the edge of the forest and was met by a dark blue unicorn colt who was tentatively moving through the undergrowth. The white mare meant to let out a startled whinny, but the sound that came out of her mouth ended up more of a squeaky scream. The mare surprised herself at this strange noise and reflexively exclaimed “What?” At this, the blue colt became intrigued and searched his newly acquired knowledge for an answer. “H-hell-llooo”, he formed slowly with his lips. “Hell-llooo, hellooo, hello!” He began to jump around the white mare shouting ‘hello’ at the top of his voice. “Hmm. I wonder what other things I can say”, he thought out loud. “Wait, I’m speaking now!” “How are you doing that?” the mare replied, instantly confused by her ability to speak as well. “This is amazing! Lets go and tell the others!” The blue colt skipped past the mare and ended up standing in front of a pale green unicorn mare who had just emerged from the undergrowth. “Hello!”, he greeted the mare with excitement, and began jumping up and down on the spot. The mare looked startled, but soon saw that these were her friends despite the colour change, and joined in the joyful dance with the blue colt. The white mare had been thinking to herself, and a sudden realisation came over her. “Names! We don’t have names!” “How do we not have names?” The blue colt stopped his dance and stood in genuine confusion. “We shall have to give ourselves names”, the white mare exclaimed decidedly whilst stamping her hoof into the grass and raising her wings. The other two ponies gave approving stamps and nods. “I shall be Morning Mist, since it fits the colour of my coat” “I want to be Midnight Sky” the blue colt replied. “Then can I be Emerald Leaf?” “Of course, Emerald” smiled Morning Mist. Emerald Leaf smiled back at her, and then turned to Midnight sky who had rushed off to greet the three remaining members of their group as they approached. Excitedly he introduced them to Morning Mist and Emerald Leaf: “This yellow mare is called Amber, and of the two colts, the grey pegasus is Rain Cloud, and the red pony is Rose Bud”. Short, excited greetings were exchanged between all of the ponies, as in turn, they showed off their colourful coats and manes. The greetings of the ponies lasted long enough for them to forget the events of earlier in the day, until Morning Mist glanced across the plain and saw a bright glow on the horizon. Remembering the incoming rocket and the explosion that shattered the air for miles around, she used her new abilities to understand what had happened. “Hey, listen everypony!” The laughter stopped as the group turned to face the pony, who flew gracefully to the top of a nearby rock. “We all saw that thing that fell from the sky, but does anypony know what it was?” Intrigued murmurs spread across the group. “Maybe it was a dragon”, Amber nervously said. “Oh Amber don’t be silly, you know that dragons stay on their own planet”. Morning Mist became confused again at her own knowledge of a creature that before lunch, she had never even dreamed of. Emerald Leaf had not spoken much to the others, but her mind had been working ever since it gained the ability to think beyond simple animal instincts. Suddenly, a vague recollection of a rocket being built underground came to her. “It was the rocket!” she gasped. “What rocket?” All the other ponies turned to her in anticipation. “I...I don’t know. I just felt something. As if from a long lost dream...I don’t remember...”, she trailed off as the other ponies turned back to Morning Mist. She was about to begin when Midnight Sky jumped up onto the rock and pointed into the distance, “What are we all waiting for then! Let’s go and find the rocket!” “But wait...”, Emerald Leaf tried to remember, but her thoughts were drowned by the stampede of excited hooves and shouts of adventure. The group of six ponies galloped across the open plains, giggling in the afternoon sun. As they crested a rolling hill, they saw the impact site for the first time. They stopped and fell silent at the top of the hill, and stared down at the empty expanse which used to be serene plains and forests. The crater was immense, stretching from the edge of the mountains in the East to the great river in the West. In the North, it had broken the banks of the lake, and the water had begun to gush out. The grass around the ponies feet was blackened and swept back, and in the distance they could see large chunks of twisted metal lodged firmly in the ground. “Maybe we shouldn’t...”, Emerald tried again, but her voice was so quiet, or the others were so taken by the sight before them, that nopony took any notice of her. Midnight Sky snapped the ponies out of their awe when he realised that they were meant to be fearless adventurers and started to gallop into the devastation that lay below them. “Come on! Last pony to the middle’s a rotten apple!”. With that, the ponies began to giggle and galloped off after Midnight Sky. As they drew closer to the centre of the wreckage, the ground beneath their hooves became warmer and the pieces of metal that stood firmly in the blackened earth were too hot to approach. At the very centre of the impact site where the explosion had torn through the rocket, there was no wreckage. As the ponies approached, they noticed six gemstones arranged in a pattern as if placed there by somepony. Carefully, they circled around the gems, making sure that they did not touch them. Emerald suddenly gasped, “I remember! These are some of the gemstones! There are only six though, where are the others?” The other ponies watched in confusion as Emerald began to dig around the other gems with her hoof. None of them said anything, but listened intently to Emerald’s frequent concerned expressions as she dug in the earth. Eventually, Morning Mist came over to her side and put a gentle hoof on Emerald’s shoulder. “Why don’t you tell us what you know about these gems? You’re the only one who seems to know anything about what is going on”. Emerald stopped digging and sighed, “I don’t know why this is happening, but my memory keeps getting interrupted by other memories; ones that I know are not my own. They seem to be related, but I can’t quite be sure since they are very clouded, like a distant dream. From what I understand so far, is that these gems came on a rocket and they are very important. There used to be ten, but now there are only six, which is why I was looking for the others”. “Woah, so these gems are from outer space!” Midnight Sky looked closely at the gems in awe. “Do you think we should touch them? I mean, they might be dangerous” “Oh Amber don’t be silly, look, they are only gemstones”. Confidently, Rain Cloud reached down and touched the blue gem. A suddenly a blue aura surrounded him and lifted his hooves off of the ground. The other ponies looked on, their mouths agape. Rain Cloud looked down at the others in terror as his legs and wings flapped aimlessly at the air, but then a strange warmth enclosed his body. He felt contentment like never before, and happiness spread from his hooves to his tail. When he returned to the ground, his eyes sparkled with a newly found joy as he jumped around in circles giggling and laughing until falling over and laying on his back, smiling up at the sky. “Rain Cloud, are you alright?”, Morning mist said as the ponies gathered around the joyful figure. “I’m fine! In fact better than ever! I feel as though something has been added to my life that I have needed for a long time. I feel complete!”. “I just remembered some more!”, Emerald burst out excitedly. “Each of the gemstones was filled up with something, err... I can’t quite remember...”, her brow became furrowed as she reached deeper into the memories. “Ah yes! That’s it! They were filled up with the basic elements of the mind and soul, five were positive and five were negative.” “Well it seems like Rain Cloud got a positive one, given the state he is in”, laughed Midnight Sky. “Emerald”, Morning Mist began, “Do you know what each of these elements are?” “Yes, at least I think so. That blue one that Rain Cloud just touched was laughter. The red one is loyalty, orange is honesty, pink is kindness, purple is generosity, but I fear that I do not know what the last one is. I don’t recall it being a negative element since they had little colour, and this one is as bright as the others.” “So what do we do now?” Midnight Sky did not get an answer to his question, as all of the ponies were thinking the same. Eventually, the silence was broken when Morning Mist turned back to the elements and announced, “We should each choose one”. “But how will we decide? What if we get it wrong?”, Amber looked concerned as Morning Mist put her hoof up to her mouth in thought. “You are the element of kindness, since you are concerned for other ponies safety. Emerald, you can be honesty for explaining to us the truth about these objects.” The two ponies trotted towards their corresponding elements and touched them as Rain Cloud had. As before, they were lifted up by colourful auras, and filled with their element. For the first time since the greetings, Rose Bud spoke. He seemed older than the others and had a gentle, yet deep voice. “I do not mind having the mystery element, for I would rather have something bad happen to me that to any of you.” “Well then,” Morning Mist said. “You shall be generosity for your willingness to put others above yourself. That leaves loyalty and the mystery element.” “As honesty, I think that you should be loyalty, Morning Mist,” Emerald began. “You have guided us all and helped us to make all of the decisions along the way.” There was a general murmur of agreement across the group. Morning Mist and Rose Bud each took their elements and then turned to Midnight Sky. “Well, I guess I’m going to have to do this”, he gulped. Midnight Sky walked slowly towards the final element that was resting on the floor. It sparkled a bright magenta in the late afternoon sun. Cautiously he extended his hoof towards it as the other five ponies watched anxiously from the edge of the circle. The instant his hoof touched the gem, his body was enclosed in the aura that was brighter than the others, and his body was lifted off of the ground. Around him, his friends also became enclosed in their own auras and each element glowed brighter than the sun. The elements were now bonded to living beings and had somewhere to channel their power. The Elements of Harmony were brought together for the first time in the history of ponies. The friendship between the six ponies was powerful, and now the sixth element, magic, could be released across the land as the other elements had. Midnight Sky felt a powerful energy move through his body which ended at his horn. Horns on the unicorns, like wings on the pegasi were specifically bred by the humans before their demise, and served little purpose. Over time the pegasi learnt to use their wings, and they became proficient fliers, but the horns seemed useless. Now, as the magic of friendship built up inside Midnight Sky, his horn was the channel for this magic. Suddenly, his eyes glowed as bright as a star, and the magic was released. It took the form of a wave of magenta that was picked up by other unicorns, their horns used as ‘receivers’, and their bodies were each filled with varying degrees of magic. Across the land, unicorns had been infused with magic, but the release of this magic did not just affect the unicorns. In far corners of the land, mythical creatures that were the result of human experiments became not just intelligent, but now magic as their myths had described. Griffons awakened in the far east, cockatrices, manticores and other strange crossbreeds roamed the deepest forests, and in the north, windigoes flew around the icy mountains. The six ponies did not know about these creatures that they had awakened, but they did know about one. From the mountains close to the crater which they stood came an almighty roar. In the distance, an immense red dragon walked slowly out of a cave on the slopes of the mountain. With another roar, the dragon let out a belch of fire and ash high into the sky. The ponies stood watching in terror. Midnight Sky was the first to speak. “Um, oops?” Dragon SlayersThe dragon did not look happy. Awakened from a deep sleep in its cave, it now stood near the top of a mountain flexing its wings. Every so often flames erupted from its mouth as it took in its new surroundings. “Mist, I thought you said that there couldn’t be dragons here!” Amber was now in a terrible state of fear, and the other ponies weren't doing much better. “What do we do?” “How am I supposed to know! I didn’t think dragons could be here!”. Emerald recalled another small memory; a long time ago when she felt younger, a news reporter announced the story of how a dragon colony had left the dragon planet and flew into space looking for a new home. “They can be here. They must have flown here through space from the dragon planet when a group of them migrated. That was a very long time ago...” “Thanks for the history lesson, but what are we going to do?”. This came from Rain Cloud who was flying backwards and forwards above the group nervously. Another roar came from the dragon, and it started to beat its crumpled wings. Slowly at first, the dragon managed to lift its colossal weight from the mountainside, and once it was airborne it circled the mountain searching for the source of the disturbance. Once the dragon began to fly, the ponies stopped worrying and started to run. Still attached to their elements, each one floated near to the ponies in their auras as the ponies galloped across the blackened earth of the crater. They did not stop at the edge, and continued their stampede across the grassy plain where they began their journey. Only did they rest once they had crashed into the forest and lay down in exhaustion. Away in the distance they could hear the dragon still roaring and belching fire. “Do you think we’re safe?” Amber was terrified at the thought of the dragon roaming the skies just above the relative safety of the canopy. “I’m sure we’ll be alright for the moment”, Morning Mist tried to comfort her, but another roar made Amber jump and hide behind a nearby bush. Mist turned and surveyed the rest of the group who were huddled together trembling in the centre of the trampled clearing. A sudden realisation came over her as she frantically looked around the clearing. “Midnight?! Where’s Midnight Sky?!” The whole group suddenly jumped up and searched the nearby bushes calling his name. “He must be back on the plain, don’t worry I’ll go and find him”, Rain Cloud darted upwards through the canopy as the other ponies shouted after him to wait. “No, stop! It’s too dangerous!” but Rain Cloud ignored Mist’s cries and flew onwards. He flew at top speed through the sky whilst searching the floor beneath him. Eventually he found Midnight Sky on the opposite side of the crater galloping towards the mountain where the sleepy dragon was still flapping its great wings. Rain Cloud flew into a dive and landed in the path of Midnight Sky. “What are you doing!” he cried out as Midnight skidded to a halt in front of him. “Where are you going?” Midnight Sky looked down at his hooves and kicked at the floor. “It’s dangerous here! What if the dragon sees us? We need to move! Come on!” Rain Cloud began to push against Midnight to get him moving. “No!” Midnight exclaimed as he shoved Rain Cloud away. “I woke the dragon. This was my fault. I’m going to fix it.” “Oh so you’re going to walk up to the dragon and then what? Apologise and then become friends again? Think about it Midnight. That dragon will kill you!” “It’s the only choice I have... Let me go!” “What do you mean the only choice? You should have run with us! If we kept moving we could have left the dragons territory by now.” “No Rain Cloud. I picked one of the bad elements. Emerald said it herself, and I woke the dragon up with it. This is what’s best for all of us.” “No! I won’t allow it!” “Move aside Rain Cloud.” Midnight could feel something building up inside of him like when he first touched the element. “No!” Suddenly Midnight released his grip and a dark blue wave erupted from the end of his horn. It struck Rain Cloud on his side and he flew back through the air before landed on the ground, unconscious with his wing scorched by the heat of the wave. Midnight Sky was shocked at what he had done. He quickly ran over to where Rain Cloud lay and began to shake him awake, but to no avail. “Oh no. What have I done?” he tried shaking harder as tears began to run down his face at the sight of his friend lying broken at his hooves. At the sound of the magical outburst, the dragon high above them began to fly down towards the two ponies. Luckily for Midnight Sky, its attacking roar snapped him back into the moment, and he ran towards the mountain drawing it away from Rain Cloud. The dragon released a torrent of fire towards Midnight Sky, but he was galloping fast enough for it to miss. Behind the scorching wall Midnight glanced at Rain Cloud before he was obscured by the flames between them. At least he was safe from the dragon. Midnight ran on, eventually reaching the slopes of the mountain, but the dragon was still in pursuit. He managed to pull himself up the steep slopes, jumping behind boulders and outcrops in order to stay away from the frequent bursts of flame. Back in the clearing, the other ponies were getting worried. Rain Cloud had been gone for a long time now, and they could hear frequent roars in the distance. After convincing Amber to come out of her bush, they cautiously pushed their way out of the forest. In the distance they saw the dragon circling the mountain belching its fire frequently onto the rocky slopes. Morning Mist gasped, “They must be up there! The dragon is trying to kill them! Come on everypony, we have to save them!” The four ponies broke out into a full gallop directly towards the mountain. Once they were near the base of the mountain, Amber noticed the body of a pony lying on the ground in the distance. As they approached, Emerald let out a gasp and ran forward, “Oh no! Its Rain Cloud!” The other ponies gathered around as Emerald put her head down to his blackened chest. “Its alright, he’s alive, but injured. He should be fine”. All the ponies let out a sigh of relief, and Rain Cloud began to stir. “E-emerald? Is that you?” “Yes, it is. What happened to you?” “It was Midnight. Be careful!” “Midnight?” “Yes. He used some kind of magic to hit me.” “Where is he? What about the dragon?” “He said he came as a sacrifice to save us from it. He said that he got a bad element.” The ponies looked at Rain Cloud in shock as he stood up and painfully flexed his burnt wing. “What are we going to do?” Amber asked quietly, still looking up in terror at the dragon. “We must go after him”, Mist decided. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing. Come on! We don’t have much time.” The five ponies began the climb with Emerald and Amber supporting Rain Cloud, who was still in pain. As they climbed, Emeralds memory of her past life grew, and the events leading up to the creation of the elements were quite clear now. The only thing that confused her was the name ‘Dr. Hopkins’, which she remembered frequently, but did not know who it was. She now knew what the other five elements were; the opposites of the elements of harmony: unfaithfulness, dishonesty, evil, spite and greed. Despite this knowledge, something didn’t quite match up. The element that midnight had touched was a deep magenta in colour, and the bad elements did not have colour, but were varying shades of grey. Also, the actions of Midnight were not those of a pony touched by anything evil, as he was willing to sacrifice himself to save his friends. As the ponies neared the summit of the mountain, they caught a glimpse of Midnight in the distance who was peeking out from behind a large rock. The dragon had lost track of where he was, and now began circling high above again searching for him. Midnight took this opportunity and broke out into a gallop across the mountainside, heading directly towards the dragons cave. All of the other five ponies all called out at once: “Midnight! Stop! Come back!” Midnight must have heard them, since he turned to the group hiding behind a boulder and slowed down slightly. Then, as he turned back, Midnight tripped over an outcropping rock and fell to the ground. Emerald and Mist both jumped up immediately and helped him to his feet. “This is madness! You have to stop now!” Mist was not happy at all. As Midnight began to form an answer, it was pierced by a scream of “Dragon!”, from Emerald. The dragon had seen the three ponies standing in the open and began to fly directly at them, building up a jet of flame inside its stomach to scorch them out of existence. Emerald Leaf, Midnight Sky, and Morning Mist stood frozen on the mountainside as the dragon pulled back its head and opened its huge jaws. The wave of fire erupted from the dragons mouth and engulfed the three ponies as Amber, Rain Cloud and and Rose Bud stood watching helplessly from behind their boulder. An immediate shock hit them as they watched in horror at the roiling sea of flames that washed over the spot where their friends had been standing moments before. Amber began to whimper softly, and buried her head into Rose Bud who was standing strong and silent, but his face showed an expression of deepest sorrow that words could never capture. Rain Cloud looked on in disbelief, and was about to turn away from the fire when he saw a glint of colour amongst the flames. The dragon seemed satisfied after the flames had crashed down upon the ponies, and beat its heavy wings until it reached the peak of the mountain where it sat, surveying the lands below. As the smoke cleared, Rain Cloud could make out a purple shimmering in the distance where the ponies had been. Intrigued, he left the other two to their sorrow, and carefully picked his way over the blackened rocks. As soon as he realised what the purple shimmering was, he let out a shout of joy, “Amber, Rose Bud, come quickly! It’s a miracle!” The two ponies quickly rushed forwards to join Rain Cloud. “Look! They survived!”. The purple shimmering began to falter, and suddenly it dissolved into the air. Midnight Sky collapsed at their hooves, and a very shocked Morning Mist and Emerald Leaf stood behind. “How...?”, began Rain Cloud, but stopped when he saw that both Emerald and Mist had no idea either. “Come on, we have to get back to safety”, Amber said whilst looking cautiously up at the dragon. “It’s not over yet if he sees us”. They carried Midnight to behind one of the larger rocks and he slowly awoke, despite looking completely exhausted. Rain Cloud begun, “Midnight, why don’t you tell us what in the hay is going on? How did you do that?” “I...I don’t know. It just sort of comes from within. When I get angry or scared it just happens, like when you touch something hot you draw your hoof away without thinking.” “But that means you can do magic! That’s amazing! It must have been because of the elements!”, exclaimed Amber. “Amber! You’re a genius!”, Emerald began. “When the other five elements were joined together in the explosion a sixth must have been created. That sixth is magic!” “So you mean it isn’t a bad element?” “No, Midnight, you have a very special element that I’m sure you can use for good.” By now Morning Mist had regained her composure, and realised once more the situation they were in. “I don’t mean to be rude, but there is the small matter of the massive fire breathing dragon that wants to kill us all sitting on the top of the mountain!” The ponies all looked at each other for an answer of what they were going to do next, but nopony spoke. Then, an unexpected voice broke the silence. Rose Bud, the large, gentle colt begun in his deep but quiet voice, “I have an idea.” Heroes“So you really think this will work? I mean dragons are very strong”. Rain Cloud was not convinced about Rose Bud’s idea. “Well it’s the only thing we've got, so we may as well try it”, Mist said peering out from behind the boulder where they had taken cover. The dragon, satisfied with it’s fiery blast, had retreated back to it’s cave. “So why can’t we just leave it in it’s cave and run away?” said Amber, who was still shaken from the whole experience. “It will wake up soon”, Mist said, “and then what will we do? This is our home, and we need to take it back”. “Alright then, let’s go!” Midnight jumped up enthusiastically, happy with the realisation that he could do magic, and the relief of not having a bad element attached to him. “Everypony in position? You all know what to do. Lets get rid of this dragon!” With the final word from Mist, the ponies scattered from behind their boulder. Rose Bud and Amber descended the mountain until they found where some plants were growing. They selected some long, thick vines and began to chew through them. Midnight Sky and Morning mist instead went up the mountain further, circling around to the opposite side of the cave. When they reached the top, they took position above the mouth of the cave and waited for the signal. Meanwhile, Rose Bud and Amber had returned to Rain Cloud and Emerald Leaf with the vines. They carefully tied each vine around the waists of the two ponies. They then tied the other ends to large rocks. Rain Cloud and Emerald looked at each other nervously, and began to walk slowly towards the cave. Once they were in position, Emerald knocked her hoof against a nearby rock three times. The taps reverberated around the mountain and Midnight and Mist knew that that they were ready. Emerald and Rain Cloud stepped nervously onto the platform of rock outside the cave. Slowly, they made their way to the entrance. Looking into each other’s eyes for possibly the last time, they began shouting and stamping their hooves against the floor. From inside the cave, a weary dragon stood up looking even more angry, having being woken for a second time in one day. It saw the two ponies at the entrance and charged directly at them. The two ponies at the entrance waited until the last second before turning and running directly at the cliff behind them. As soon as Midnight saw them turn, he built up his anger against the dragon inside his chest. As soon as he felt that he had built up enough power, he released his grip and a dark purple beam erupted from his horn, aimed directly at the top of the cave. A large crack snaked across the rock reaching the entire width of the cave. Mist saw that the magic was not quite enough, so she flew at the rock and gave it a powerful kick. With that, the roof of the cave gave way. Emerald and Rain Cloud reached the edge of the cliff. Without looking back, they jumped into the open expanse of air. The dragon followed them, which was followed a large mass of rocks sliding down the mountain. Emerald and Rain Cloud fell for a few seconds, but then they reached the length of their vines, and swung out to safety. Behind them, the dragon was desperately trying to grip the mountain with its claws. It got caught up in the rockslide, then the dragon and rocks fell with an almighty splash into the lake. All the ponies cheered as they saw the dragon hit the water. They watched nervously from above as it dragged itself out of the water. It gave one last look to the mountain, and walked off in the opposite direction, grunting and flapping its wings to try to dry them out. The ponies cheered again and then they helped to pull Emerald and Rain Cloud up from dangling above the cliff. “We actually did it! I can’t believe it!”, Amber was jumping around squealing with delight. She ended up nestling into Rose Bud’s side with whispers of “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”. All of the other ponies had collapsed onto the stony ground for a well earned rest. “Well, we wouldn't be here without Midnight. His quick thinking and magical powers have saved us all from a terrible threat”, Mist congratulated Midnight. They smiled at each other and then embraced. “I can’t take all of the credit, Mist. Without your leadership, we would all at a loss of what to do. Rain Cloud gave a disapproving cough, “And of course the plan would not have worked if it were not for Rain Cloud and Amber’s amazing bravery!” Midnight quickly added with a somewhat embarrassed expression on his face. “Oh, it was nothing”. Rain Cloud turned away from the group, but couldn’t keep the act up for long. He turned back with a large grin on his face and laughed “Come on, we should go back down the mountain. We need to find a place to stay for the night”. They were about to leave the mountain top, when Emerald heard something from inside the dragon’s cave. She turned around and cautiously approached the cave, the other five waiting further back. “What are you doing Emerald?” Midnight called over to her, but she simply signalled for them to be quiet. Upon reaching the mouth of the cave, she abandoned all caution and trotted inside. The others were about to follow, when she emerged holding a small purple object in her mouth. “What is that?”, Mist asked, and Emerald simply dropped it at her feet. Mist suddenly jumped back once she realised what it was. “That’s a baby dragon!”, she exclaimed, falling over Amber who was standing behind her. “It must have only just hatched. We can’t just leave it here. It will never survive without its mother”, Emerald explained to the rest of the group. “Is it safe?” Amber asked nervously. “Of course it is. Just look at it”. All of the ponies gathered around the small, purple reptile. It was lying on its back looking up at each of them, whilst sucking its claw. “If we raise it as a pony, it won’t know how to be a dragon”. Reluctantly, they group agreed with Emerald, who put the dragon on her back. “Lets get off of this mountain”. As they trotted down the steep slopes and across the plain, they were rewarded with Rain Cloud’s account of the entire battle with inputs from Midnight where he thought appropriate. The others of course knew the story, but a mixture of joy, relief and exhaustion stopped them from protesting. He had just got to the part where they were about to get into position for the final plan, when they reached the edge of the forest and a flustered looking mare burst out of the trees. “That was incredible! I have never seen so much bravery in all my life!”. She was joined now by a large group of ponies, and more were coming out of the trees and surrounding the group. They immediately recognised her as one of the leaders of the herd that they were part of before the eventful day. It had been a magnificent herd that grazed upon vast areas of land stretching from the mountains and the lake to deep in the forests. More and more ponies kept emerging from the undergrowth, and eventually the entire herd was crowding around the group trying to get a look at their new heroes. The herd leader continued before the six had a chance to reply: “Let’s have a cheer for our heroes, and the new leaders of this herd!”. An immense cheer and stamping of hooves erupted from the crowd, and the small group of ponies stood in amazement. “But we can’t be the leaders of the herd! You have been the leader for as long as I can remember!” It had finally sunk in to Mist that the leader was being serious. While the others were basking in their newly found fame and Rain Cloud was being treated for his broken wing, Morning Mist was trying to argue with the leader of the herd. “How are we supposed to lead it? We don’t know anything about this!”. “Mist, you must remember that nopony knows what has happened over the past day. We have changed as an entire race. Our needs will be different from what we needed before. You can lead us into a new age of prosperity, and as a group, you will be much stronger than I could have ever been. You have already proven that. Now go and get the others. We must announce this to the herd.” Reluctantly, Mist trotted back to the other five ponies and explained what the leader had said. Still in their heightened state of mind, they simply went along with it while waving to the crowds. They all followed the leader up onto a fallen tree, where she addressed the herd. “Fillies and gentlecolts. As it will not have escaped your attention, we are in the presence of heroes. These six ponies have showed great courage in the face of a foe that even the entire herd ran in fear of. They have proven themselves to be worthy of much more than I can offer, but, as a token of my sincerest gratitude, I hereby pass over my leadership of the herd to these six ponies.”
The Origins of PoniesPlanet Earth, 2698: A terrible war has been raging on the surface for so long many have forgotten what peace is. What was once a diverse and rich planet now lays in apocalyptic ruin. Every last piece of flora alive on the surface withered and died long ago, and what few are left of the animal population have been altered to become monstrous creatures which roam the smoking ruins, picking off soldiers who happen to be unlucky enough to stray across their path. Entire races have been destroyed, and those who remain are in such diminished numbers that an encounter with the enemy could easily result in extinction. Of course, technology has advanced dramatically since the dawn of the basic microchip, and governments had power over large sections of our galaxy until the war began. To increase space for humans on Earth, almost all farming had been outsourced to planets far from here, but surprisingly, the entire human population remained on Earth, having built a city across the entire planet to cope with the ever increasing population. This was the downfall of the human race: as populations seemed to increase exponentially, space was becoming limited despite government’s best efforts, and with every race allowed to live anywhere they liked, there was large amounts of friction between many residents. All at once it erupted into the largest war the planet had seen, and entire countries worth of the city were laid to waste overnight. We thought that this was impossible at first; all of the governments of the world had vowed to join together to create a harmonious place in which to live, and each said to have stopped their production of weapons. We now know that this is far from the truth, as they simply created more and more weapons in secret. Once the war had taken hold, nearly every remaining resident of earth was equipped with weaponry, and thus began a generation of war, and ultimately, the destruction of Earth. As soon as the war began, the governments cancelled the less important farming programs, keeping only essential ones. Many planets that were used for holding large mammals such as giraffes, ponies, lions, elephants, and others that could not be eaten were left without human interference for many years, and despite the best efforts of humans beforehand, ‘survival of the fittest’ quickly reverted these planets back to naturality. The plants that were once carefully pruned began to take back the landscape, and soon, all evidence of human activity was buried deep in thick forests. Hidden deep under the surface around the area that was once the United Kingdom, and now one of the main government bases of the north-western territories, there is a laboratory. Large pieces of machinery are positioned around the centre while endless test tubes, chemicals, and other equipment cover tables around the edge of the room. One of the walls is taken up by, or rather is, a giant cabinet full of drawers and compartments holding thousands of research papers and other items of some scientific importance, probably. At the centre of this chaos was a woman. Wearing a coffee stained white lab coat with a security pass fixed to the top pocket. It read: Dr. Amy Hopkins, Lab-162, Access: Limited, Security: 03463883. She was frantically adjusting some cables inside a large machine whilst looking back at a crumpled piece of paper on the table next to her. Making one final addition to the spaghetti of wires, she closed the compartment door and rushed around to the front of the machine. “Are we ready to go now then doctor?” A figure appeared in the doorway on the opposite side of the room. He had the same urgency that had been evident in Dr. Hopkins’ actions. “Yes, that should do it”, she replied with a sigh of relief. “Good, I will get everyone on position”, he replied whilst turning to return through the doorway. High above the laboratory, higher than the military base that is built upon the surface, a small plane is flying. Out of range of the radar, it cuts its engines and begins its descent. The plane travelling at terminal velocity towards the base reaches its destination. The explosion is devastating. It tears through the base easily, throwing its millions of tonnes of reinforced concrete and steel high into the atmosphere. In the lower levels there is chaos. Flashing red lights, alarms and terrified people fill the corridors. Wounded people from the devastation above attempt to reach the lower levels before the emergency doors close to protect what little of the base is left. “What the hell was that?” Dr. Hopkins stood up and rushed to the door, crashing into the man from earlier. “Doctor, we have to do it now, go!” “What’s going on?” “We’re under attack. We’ve lost the first 30 levels, but the others are sure to fall soon too!” “B-but...” “Now, Doctor!” Dr. Hopkins rushed to the machine and began pressing a series of buttons. The machine began to make a whirring noise and lights lit up around it. “I’ve waited a long time for this”, Doctor Hopkins said to herself as she carefully retrieved ten gemstones from a nearby shelf. Taking each one out individually, she placed them gently into corresponding places in the machine. Once all of the gems were in place, she pressed a series of buttons and stepped onto a platform in the machine. “Good luck Doctor”, the man said. “Thanks. You know what to do right?” “Yes, I’ll get to it now”, and with that the man hurried off through the door. With that, Dr. Hopkins pulled a lever and the machine began to work. The machine took Dr. Hopkins and began to extract her innermost being: her emotions, feelings, judgements: her humanity. The gems in the machine had begun colourless and clear, but now filled with colour as she was extracted into them. As every last part of humanity was taken from her body, it slumped down and fell, lifeless, out of the machine. But Amy Hopkins was not dead, her basic elements had been taken and put into ten gemstones, and she was still very much alive. The man returned and almost tripped over Dr. Hopkins’ body. Shocked at what he saw, he almost forgot what she had told him. Not entirely convinced, but still loyal to the Doctor, he took out the gemstones from the machine and hurried back through the door, not wanting to waste any time as the enemy were already closing in on the base. He could already hear gunfire and explosions in the floors above, and as he rushed through the door, another explosion knocked him off his feet. “Start the countdown!” he shouted into the adjoining room. This was the heart of the base, deep underground in a vast cavern, and towering above all of the workers who remained stood an intergalactic rocket. “T minus ten seconds”, a female voice echoed around the cavern. The man holding the case of gems had reached midway up the staircase surrounding the rocket. “Nine...Eight...Seven...” Suddenly a huge explosion ripped through the wall of the cavern and enemy soldiers began to rush through, letting out short bursts of gunfire. Many of the workers fell, but the man with the gems ran on up the stairs. “Six...Five...Four...Three...” With but a few seconds remaining, the man opened up a compartment on the side of the hull and placed the gems inside. “Godspeed, Doctor Hopkins”. With an almighty roar, the rocket’s engines ignited, instantly destroying all of the remaining personnel and attacking soldiers on the ground floor. The entire complex, weakened by the initial blast of the attacking plane, began to crumble around the foundations. The rocket increased in speed as the surrounding building fell, claiming all those who were inside. Soon, the rocket had reached the surface, and the complex finally gave in, sinking into the lower floors and leaving a large, smoking crater. All of the equipment, research and experiments were surely destroyed, save one. Everything that it meant to be human was safely aboard the rocket. Humanity was safe. The rocket tore through the atmosphere at great speed, but something was wrong. Strong wind currents high in the Earth’s atmosphere had buffeted the rocket side to side, and had put it off course. Without ground control, there was no way of correcting its path, so it flew onwards. Leaving Earth far behind, its new course was now headed directly for one of the isolated farming areas, and more specifically, the solar system that held the planet of ponies. The pony planet was not unlike Earth, although perhaps smaller; it had the same general climates, atmosphere and moon. The rocket, pulled by the gravitational field of the planet, moved closer to the outer atmosphere as it joined the moon in orbit around the planet. With thrusters still at full power, the rocket entered the atmosphere and drew a fiery streak across the sky. As it approached the ground, chunks of the ship flew off due to the ever increasing speed caused by the thrusters. Fiery debris and molten metal traced a line behind the rocket as it flew through the clouds and finally reached the ground. The explosion was cataclysmic. The engines and fuel tanks hit first, igniting instantly in the heat of the metal. The massive momentum carried by the rocket was transferred into the ground, and the forces tore apart rocket and planet alike. During the explosion, the gemstones were thrown out of their compartment and into the full blast of the energy released. The explosion turned every colour of the rainbow, and a there was a flash of light that was so intense that it lit up the entire planet. In that single moment, all of the emotions and feelings that were held in the gems were released into the world. Amplified by the explosion, humanity itself was released and filled the hearts and souls of the animals inhabiting the planet. Since each gem held different elements of humanity, each coloured beam held that single part: orange held honesty; pink, kindness; purple, generosity; red, loyalty; and blue, laughter. The other five gems held elements of humanity, but since to be human is to be imperfect, these gems held the counterparts of the other five gems: dishonesty, cruelty, greed, disloyalty, and spite. At the very height of the explosion, the intense energy separated the two groups of five. In the case of the harmonious elements, they bonded together and created a sixth element: magic. The counterparts, however, being unstable in their nature could not bond, and instead destroyed each other. Although their elements had already been released into the world, this meant that harmony would always triumph over discord. Soon, the explosion fell silent, and the world of the ponies became peaceful once more. The ponies looked at each other. Something was very different. The minds of every mare, filly, zebra and other animals which lived on the planet were infused with the humanity that was released during the explosion. All of the ponies’ coats had turned different colours, and they could feel thousands of new impulses running through their bodies and minds. Confusion. Not the usual animal, instinctive confusion, rather a confusion accompanied by thoughts and other complex feelings. A few even managed to turn their confusion into a human thought process and the first words of the ponies were spoken: “What in the hay is going on?”
The First FriendshipBefore the rocket had struck the planet, a small group of ponies were happily grazing on tufts of fresh grass in the early afternoon sun. They barely noticed the orange streak high above them as the rocket entered the atmosphere, but once it had orbited the planet and began to tear through the sky toward them, the group scattered into the nearby forest. Now, with their newly found curiosity amongst everything else, they slowly began to emerge from their hiding places. A brilliantly white pegasus mare cautiously moved toward the edge of the forest and was met by a dark blue unicorn colt who was tentatively moving through the undergrowth. The white mare meant to let out a startled whinny, but the sound that came out of her mouth ended up more of a squeaky scream. The mare surprised herself at this strange noise and reflexively exclaimed “What?” At this, the blue colt became intrigued and searched his newly acquired knowledge for an answer. “H-hell-llooo”, he formed slowly with his lips. “Hell-llooo, hellooo, hello!” He began to jump around the white mare shouting ‘hello’ at the top of his voice. “Hmm. I wonder what other things I can say”, he thought out loud. “Wait, I’m speaking now!” “How are you doing that?” the mare replied, instantly confused by her ability to speak as well. “This is amazing! Lets go and tell the others!” The blue colt skipped past the mare and ended up standing in front of a pale green unicorn mare who had just emerged from the undergrowth. “Hello!”, he greeted the mare with excitement, and began jumping up and down on the spot. The mare looked startled, but soon saw that these were her friends despite the colour change, and joined in the joyful dance with the blue colt. The white mare had been thinking to herself, and a sudden realisation came over her. “Names! We don’t have names!” “How do we not have names?” The blue colt stopped his dance and stood in genuine confusion. “We shall have to give ourselves names”, the white mare exclaimed decidedly whilst stamping her hoof into the grass and raising her wings. The other two ponies gave approving stamps and nods. “I shall be Morning Mist, since it fits the colour of my coat” “I want to be Midnight Sky” the blue colt replied. “Then can I be Emerald Leaf?” “Of course, Emerald” smiled Morning Mist. Emerald Leaf smiled back at her, and then turned to Midnight sky who had rushed off to greet the three remaining members of their group as they approached. Excitedly he introduced them to Morning Mist and Emerald Leaf: “This yellow mare is called Amber, and of the two colts, the grey pegasus is Rain Cloud, and the red pony is Rose Bud”. Short, excited greetings were exchanged between all of the ponies, as in turn, they showed off their colourful coats and manes. The greetings of the ponies lasted long enough for them to forget the events of earlier in the day, until Morning Mist glanced across the plain and saw a bright glow on the horizon. Remembering the incoming rocket and the explosion that shattered the air for miles around, she used her new abilities to understand what had happened. “Hey, listen everypony!” The laughter stopped as the group turned to face the pony, who flew gracefully to the top of a nearby rock. “We all saw that thing that fell from the sky, but does anypony know what it was?” Intrigued murmurs spread across the group. “Maybe it was a dragon”, Amber nervously said. “Oh Amber don’t be silly, you know that dragons stay on their own planet”. Morning Mist became confused again at her own knowledge of a creature that before lunch, she had never even dreamed of. Emerald Leaf had not spoken much to the others, but her mind had been working ever since it gained the ability to think beyond simple animal instincts. Suddenly, a vague recollection of a rocket being built underground came to her. “It was the rocket!” she gasped. “What rocket?” All the other ponies turned to her in anticipation. “I...I don’t know. I just felt something. As if from a long lost dream...I don’t remember...”, she trailed off as the other ponies turned back to Morning Mist. She was about to begin when Midnight Sky jumped up onto the rock and pointed into the distance, “What are we all waiting for then! Let’s go and find the rocket!” “But wait...”, Emerald Leaf tried to remember, but her thoughts were drowned by the stampede of excited hooves and shouts of adventure. The group of six ponies galloped across the open plains, giggling in the afternoon sun. As they crested a rolling hill, they saw the impact site for the first time. They stopped and fell silent at the top of the hill, and stared down at the empty expanse which used to be serene plains and forests. The crater was immense, stretching from the edge of the mountains in the East to the great river in the West. In the North, it had broken the banks of the lake, and the water had begun to gush out. The grass around the ponies feet was blackened and swept back, and in the distance they could see large chunks of twisted metal lodged firmly in the ground. “Maybe we shouldn’t...”, Emerald tried again, but her voice was so quiet, or the others were so taken by the sight before them, that nopony took any notice of her. Midnight Sky snapped the ponies out of their awe when he realised that they were meant to be fearless adventurers and started to gallop into the devastation that lay below them. “Come on! Last pony to the middle’s a rotten apple!”. With that, the ponies began to giggle and galloped off after Midnight Sky. As they drew closer to the centre of the wreckage, the ground beneath their hooves became warmer and the pieces of metal that stood firmly in the blackened earth were too hot to approach. At the very centre of the impact site where the explosion had torn through the rocket, there was no wreckage. As the ponies approached, they noticed six gemstones arranged in a pattern as if placed there by somepony. Carefully, they circled around the gems, making sure that they did not touch them. Emerald suddenly gasped, “I remember! These are some of the gemstones! There are only six though, where are the others?” The other ponies watched in confusion as Emerald began to dig around the other gems with her hoof. None of them said anything, but listened intently to Emerald’s frequent concerned expressions as she dug in the earth. Eventually, Morning Mist came over to her side and put a gentle hoof on Emerald’s shoulder. “Why don’t you tell us what you know about these gems? You’re the only one who seems to know anything about what is going on”. Emerald stopped digging and sighed, “I don’t know why this is happening, but my memory keeps getting interrupted by other memories; ones that I know are not my own. They seem to be related, but I can’t quite be sure since they are very clouded, like a distant dream. From what I understand so far, is that these gems came on a rocket and they are very important. There used to be ten, but now there are only six, which is why I was looking for the others”. “Woah, so these gems are from outer space!” Midnight Sky looked closely at the gems in awe. “Do you think we should touch them? I mean, they might be dangerous” “Oh Amber don’t be silly, look, they are only gemstones”. Confidently, Rain Cloud reached down and touched the blue gem. A suddenly a blue aura surrounded him and lifted his hooves off of the ground. The other ponies looked on, their mouths agape. Rain Cloud looked down at the others in terror as his legs and wings flapped aimlessly at the air, but then a strange warmth enclosed his body. He felt contentment like never before, and happiness spread from his hooves to his tail. When he returned to the ground, his eyes sparkled with a newly found joy as he jumped around in circles giggling and laughing until falling over and laying on his back, smiling up at the sky. “Rain Cloud, are you alright?”, Morning mist said as the ponies gathered around the joyful figure. “I’m fine! In fact better than ever! I feel as though something has been added to my life that I have needed for a long time. I feel complete!”. “I just remembered some more!”, Emerald burst out excitedly. “Each of the gemstones was filled up with something, err... I can’t quite remember...”, her brow became furrowed as she reached deeper into the memories. “Ah yes! That’s it! They were filled up with the basic elements of the mind and soul, five were positive and five were negative.” “Well it seems like Rain Cloud got a positive one, given the state he is in”, laughed Midnight Sky. “Emerald”, Morning Mist began, “Do you know what each of these elements are?” “Yes, at least I think so. That blue one that Rain Cloud just touched was laughter. The red one is loyalty, orange is honesty, pink is kindness, purple is generosity, but I fear that I do not know what the last one is. I don’t recall it being a negative element since they had little colour, and this one is as bright as the others.” “So what do we do now?” Midnight Sky did not get an answer to his question, as all of the ponies were thinking the same. Eventually, the silence was broken when Morning Mist turned back to the elements and announced, “We should each choose one”. “But how will we decide? What if we get it wrong?”, Amber looked concerned as Morning Mist put her hoof up to her mouth in thought. “You are the element of kindness, since you are concerned for other ponies safety. Emerald, you can be honesty for explaining to us the truth about these objects.” The two ponies trotted towards their corresponding elements and touched them as Rain Cloud had. As before, they were lifted up by colourful auras, and filled with their element. For the first time since the greetings, Rose Bud spoke. He seemed older than the others and had a gentle, yet deep voice. “I do not mind having the mystery element, for I would rather have something bad happen to me that to any of you.” “Well then,” Morning Mist said. “You shall be generosity for your willingness to put others above yourself. That leaves loyalty and the mystery element.” “As honesty, I think that you should be loyalty, Morning Mist,” Emerald began. “You have guided us all and helped us to make all of the decisions along the way.” There was a general murmur of agreement across the group. Morning Mist and Rose Bud each took their elements and then turned to Midnight Sky. “Well, I guess I’m going to have to do this”, he gulped. Midnight Sky walked slowly towards the final element that was resting on the floor. It sparkled a bright magenta in the late afternoon sun. Cautiously he extended his hoof towards it as the other five ponies watched anxiously from the edge of the circle. The instant his hoof touched the gem, his body was enclosed in the aura that was brighter than the others, and his body was lifted off of the ground. Around him, his friends also became enclosed in their own auras and each element glowed brighter than the sun. The elements were now bonded to living beings and had somewhere to channel their power. The Elements of Harmony were brought together for the first time in the history of ponies. The friendship between the six ponies was powerful, and now the sixth element, magic, could be released across the land as the other elements had. Midnight Sky felt a powerful energy move through his body which ended at his horn. Horns on the unicorns, like wings on the pegasi were specifically bred by the humans before their demise, and served little purpose. Over time the pegasi learnt to use their wings, and they became proficient fliers, but the horns seemed useless. Now, as the magic of friendship built up inside Midnight Sky, his horn was the channel for this magic. Suddenly, his eyes glowed as bright as a star, and the magic was released. It took the form of a wave of magenta that was picked up by other unicorns, their horns used as ‘receivers’, and their bodies were each filled with varying degrees of magic. Across the land, unicorns had been infused with magic, but the release of this magic did not just affect the unicorns. In far corners of the land, mythical creatures that were the result of human experiments became not just intelligent, but now magic as their myths had described. Griffons awakened in the far east, cockatrices, manticores and other strange crossbreeds roamed the deepest forests, and in the north, windigoes flew around the icy mountains. The six ponies did not know about these creatures that they had awakened, but they did know about one. From the mountains close to the crater which they stood came an almighty roar. In the distance, an immense red dragon walked slowly out of a cave on the slopes of the mountain. With another roar, the dragon let out a belch of fire and ash high into the sky. The ponies stood watching in terror. Midnight Sky was the first to speak. “Um, oops?”
Dragon SlayersThe dragon did not look happy. Awakened from a deep sleep in its cave, it now stood near the top of a mountain flexing its wings. Every so often flames erupted from its mouth as it took in its new surroundings. “Mist, I thought you said that there couldn’t be dragons here!” Amber was now in a terrible state of fear, and the other ponies weren't doing much better. “What do we do?” “How am I supposed to know! I didn’t think dragons could be here!”. Emerald recalled another small memory; a long time ago when she felt younger, a news reporter announced the story of how a dragon colony had left the dragon planet and flew into space looking for a new home. “They can be here. They must have flown here through space from the dragon planet when a group of them migrated. That was a very long time ago...” “Thanks for the history lesson, but what are we going to do?”. This came from Rain Cloud who was flying backwards and forwards above the group nervously. Another roar came from the dragon, and it started to beat its crumpled wings. Slowly at first, the dragon managed to lift its colossal weight from the mountainside, and once it was airborne it circled the mountain searching for the source of the disturbance. Once the dragon began to fly, the ponies stopped worrying and started to run. Still attached to their elements, each one floated near to the ponies in their auras as the ponies galloped across the blackened earth of the crater. They did not stop at the edge, and continued their stampede across the grassy plain where they began their journey. Only did they rest once they had crashed into the forest and lay down in exhaustion. Away in the distance they could hear the dragon still roaring and belching fire. “Do you think we’re safe?” Amber was terrified at the thought of the dragon roaming the skies just above the relative safety of the canopy. “I’m sure we’ll be alright for the moment”, Morning Mist tried to comfort her, but another roar made Amber jump and hide behind a nearby bush. Mist turned and surveyed the rest of the group who were huddled together trembling in the centre of the trampled clearing. A sudden realisation came over her as she frantically looked around the clearing. “Midnight?! Where’s Midnight Sky?!” The whole group suddenly jumped up and searched the nearby bushes calling his name. “He must be back on the plain, don’t worry I’ll go and find him”, Rain Cloud darted upwards through the canopy as the other ponies shouted after him to wait. “No, stop! It’s too dangerous!” but Rain Cloud ignored Mist’s cries and flew onwards. He flew at top speed through the sky whilst searching the floor beneath him. Eventually he found Midnight Sky on the opposite side of the crater galloping towards the mountain where the sleepy dragon was still flapping its great wings. Rain Cloud flew into a dive and landed in the path of Midnight Sky. “What are you doing!” he cried out as Midnight skidded to a halt in front of him. “Where are you going?” Midnight Sky looked down at his hooves and kicked at the floor. “It’s dangerous here! What if the dragon sees us? We need to move! Come on!” Rain Cloud began to push against Midnight to get him moving. “No!” Midnight exclaimed as he shoved Rain Cloud away. “I woke the dragon. This was my fault. I’m going to fix it.” “Oh so you’re going to walk up to the dragon and then what? Apologise and then become friends again? Think about it Midnight. That dragon will kill you!” “It’s the only choice I have... Let me go!” “What do you mean the only choice? You should have run with us! If we kept moving we could have left the dragons territory by now.” “No Rain Cloud. I picked one of the bad elements. Emerald said it herself, and I woke the dragon up with it. This is what’s best for all of us.” “No! I won’t allow it!” “Move aside Rain Cloud.” Midnight could feel something building up inside of him like when he first touched the element. “No!” Suddenly Midnight released his grip and a dark blue wave erupted from the end of his horn. It struck Rain Cloud on his side and he flew back through the air before landed on the ground, unconscious with his wing scorched by the heat of the wave. Midnight Sky was shocked at what he had done. He quickly ran over to where Rain Cloud lay and began to shake him awake, but to no avail. “Oh no. What have I done?” he tried shaking harder as tears began to run down his face at the sight of his friend lying broken at his hooves. At the sound of the magical outburst, the dragon high above them began to fly down towards the two ponies. Luckily for Midnight Sky, its attacking roar snapped him back into the moment, and he ran towards the mountain drawing it away from Rain Cloud. The dragon released a torrent of fire towards Midnight Sky, but he was galloping fast enough for it to miss. Behind the scorching wall Midnight glanced at Rain Cloud before he was obscured by the flames between them. At least he was safe from the dragon. Midnight ran on, eventually reaching the slopes of the mountain, but the dragon was still in pursuit. He managed to pull himself up the steep slopes, jumping behind boulders and outcrops in order to stay away from the frequent bursts of flame. Back in the clearing, the other ponies were getting worried. Rain Cloud had been gone for a long time now, and they could hear frequent roars in the distance. After convincing Amber to come out of her bush, they cautiously pushed their way out of the forest. In the distance they saw the dragon circling the mountain belching its fire frequently onto the rocky slopes. Morning Mist gasped, “They must be up there! The dragon is trying to kill them! Come on everypony, we have to save them!” The four ponies broke out into a full gallop directly towards the mountain. Once they were near the base of the mountain, Amber noticed the body of a pony lying on the ground in the distance. As they approached, Emerald let out a gasp and ran forward, “Oh no! Its Rain Cloud!” The other ponies gathered around as Emerald put her head down to his blackened chest. “Its alright, he’s alive, but injured. He should be fine”. All the ponies let out a sigh of relief, and Rain Cloud began to stir. “E-emerald? Is that you?” “Yes, it is. What happened to you?” “It was Midnight. Be careful!” “Midnight?” “Yes. He used some kind of magic to hit me.” “Where is he? What about the dragon?” “He said he came as a sacrifice to save us from it. He said that he got a bad element.” The ponies looked at Rain Cloud in shock as he stood up and painfully flexed his burnt wing. “What are we going to do?” Amber asked quietly, still looking up in terror at the dragon. “We must go after him”, Mist decided. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing. Come on! We don’t have much time.” The five ponies began the climb with Emerald and Amber supporting Rain Cloud, who was still in pain. As they climbed, Emeralds memory of her past life grew, and the events leading up to the creation of the elements were quite clear now. The only thing that confused her was the name ‘Dr. Hopkins’, which she remembered frequently, but did not know who it was. She now knew what the other five elements were; the opposites of the elements of harmony: unfaithfulness, dishonesty, evil, spite and greed. Despite this knowledge, something didn’t quite match up. The element that midnight had touched was a deep magenta in colour, and the bad elements did not have colour, but were varying shades of grey. Also, the actions of Midnight were not those of a pony touched by anything evil, as he was willing to sacrifice himself to save his friends. As the ponies neared the summit of the mountain, they caught a glimpse of Midnight in the distance who was peeking out from behind a large rock. The dragon had lost track of where he was, and now began circling high above again searching for him. Midnight took this opportunity and broke out into a gallop across the mountainside, heading directly towards the dragons cave. All of the other five ponies all called out at once: “Midnight! Stop! Come back!” Midnight must have heard them, since he turned to the group hiding behind a boulder and slowed down slightly. Then, as he turned back, Midnight tripped over an outcropping rock and fell to the ground. Emerald and Mist both jumped up immediately and helped him to his feet. “This is madness! You have to stop now!” Mist was not happy at all. As Midnight began to form an answer, it was pierced by a scream of “Dragon!”, from Emerald. The dragon had seen the three ponies standing in the open and began to fly directly at them, building up a jet of flame inside its stomach to scorch them out of existence. Emerald Leaf, Midnight Sky, and Morning Mist stood frozen on the mountainside as the dragon pulled back its head and opened its huge jaws. The wave of fire erupted from the dragons mouth and engulfed the three ponies as Amber, Rain Cloud and and Rose Bud stood watching helplessly from behind their boulder. An immediate shock hit them as they watched in horror at the roiling sea of flames that washed over the spot where their friends had been standing moments before. Amber began to whimper softly, and buried her head into Rose Bud who was standing strong and silent, but his face showed an expression of deepest sorrow that words could never capture. Rain Cloud looked on in disbelief, and was about to turn away from the fire when he saw a glint of colour amongst the flames. The dragon seemed satisfied after the flames had crashed down upon the ponies, and beat its heavy wings until it reached the peak of the mountain where it sat, surveying the lands below. As the smoke cleared, Rain Cloud could make out a purple shimmering in the distance where the ponies had been. Intrigued, he left the other two to their sorrow, and carefully picked his way over the blackened rocks. As soon as he realised what the purple shimmering was, he let out a shout of joy, “Amber, Rose Bud, come quickly! It’s a miracle!” The two ponies quickly rushed forwards to join Rain Cloud. “Look! They survived!”. The purple shimmering began to falter, and suddenly it dissolved into the air. Midnight Sky collapsed at their hooves, and a very shocked Morning Mist and Emerald Leaf stood behind. “How...?”, began Rain Cloud, but stopped when he saw that both Emerald and Mist had no idea either. “Come on, we have to get back to safety”, Amber said whilst looking cautiously up at the dragon. “It’s not over yet if he sees us”. They carried Midnight to behind one of the larger rocks and he slowly awoke, despite looking completely exhausted. Rain Cloud begun, “Midnight, why don’t you tell us what in the hay is going on? How did you do that?” “I...I don’t know. It just sort of comes from within. When I get angry or scared it just happens, like when you touch something hot you draw your hoof away without thinking.” “But that means you can do magic! That’s amazing! It must have been because of the elements!”, exclaimed Amber. “Amber! You’re a genius!”, Emerald began. “When the other five elements were joined together in the explosion a sixth must have been created. That sixth is magic!” “So you mean it isn’t a bad element?” “No, Midnight, you have a very special element that I’m sure you can use for good.” By now Morning Mist had regained her composure, and realised once more the situation they were in. “I don’t mean to be rude, but there is the small matter of the massive fire breathing dragon that wants to kill us all sitting on the top of the mountain!” The ponies all looked at each other for an answer of what they were going to do next, but nopony spoke. Then, an unexpected voice broke the silence. Rose Bud, the large, gentle colt begun in his deep but quiet voice, “I have an idea.”
Heroes“So you really think this will work? I mean dragons are very strong”. Rain Cloud was not convinced about Rose Bud’s idea. “Well it’s the only thing we've got, so we may as well try it”, Mist said peering out from behind the boulder where they had taken cover. The dragon, satisfied with it’s fiery blast, had retreated back to it’s cave. “So why can’t we just leave it in it’s cave and run away?” said Amber, who was still shaken from the whole experience. “It will wake up soon”, Mist said, “and then what will we do? This is our home, and we need to take it back”. “Alright then, let’s go!” Midnight jumped up enthusiastically, happy with the realisation that he could do magic, and the relief of not having a bad element attached to him. “Everypony in position? You all know what to do. Lets get rid of this dragon!” With the final word from Mist, the ponies scattered from behind their boulder. Rose Bud and Amber descended the mountain until they found where some plants were growing. They selected some long, thick vines and began to chew through them. Midnight Sky and Morning mist instead went up the mountain further, circling around to the opposite side of the cave. When they reached the top, they took position above the mouth of the cave and waited for the signal. Meanwhile, Rose Bud and Amber had returned to Rain Cloud and Emerald Leaf with the vines. They carefully tied each vine around the waists of the two ponies. They then tied the other ends to large rocks. Rain Cloud and Emerald looked at each other nervously, and began to walk slowly towards the cave. Once they were in position, Emerald knocked her hoof against a nearby rock three times. The taps reverberated around the mountain and Midnight and Mist knew that that they were ready. Emerald and Rain Cloud stepped nervously onto the platform of rock outside the cave. Slowly, they made their way to the entrance. Looking into each other’s eyes for possibly the last time, they began shouting and stamping their hooves against the floor. From inside the cave, a weary dragon stood up looking even more angry, having being woken for a second time in one day. It saw the two ponies at the entrance and charged directly at them. The two ponies at the entrance waited until the last second before turning and running directly at the cliff behind them. As soon as Midnight saw them turn, he built up his anger against the dragon inside his chest. As soon as he felt that he had built up enough power, he released his grip and a dark purple beam erupted from his horn, aimed directly at the top of the cave. A large crack snaked across the rock reaching the entire width of the cave. Mist saw that the magic was not quite enough, so she flew at the rock and gave it a powerful kick. With that, the roof of the cave gave way. Emerald and Rain Cloud reached the edge of the cliff. Without looking back, they jumped into the open expanse of air. The dragon followed them, which was followed a large mass of rocks sliding down the mountain. Emerald and Rain Cloud fell for a few seconds, but then they reached the length of their vines, and swung out to safety. Behind them, the dragon was desperately trying to grip the mountain with its claws. It got caught up in the rockslide, then the dragon and rocks fell with an almighty splash into the lake. All the ponies cheered as they saw the dragon hit the water. They watched nervously from above as it dragged itself out of the water. It gave one last look to the mountain, and walked off in the opposite direction, grunting and flapping its wings to try to dry them out. The ponies cheered again and then they helped to pull Emerald and Rain Cloud up from dangling above the cliff. “We actually did it! I can’t believe it!”, Amber was jumping around squealing with delight. She ended up nestling into Rose Bud’s side with whispers of “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”. All of the other ponies had collapsed onto the stony ground for a well earned rest. “Well, we wouldn't be here without Midnight. His quick thinking and magical powers have saved us all from a terrible threat”, Mist congratulated Midnight. They smiled at each other and then embraced. “I can’t take all of the credit, Mist. Without your leadership, we would all at a loss of what to do. Rain Cloud gave a disapproving cough, “And of course the plan would not have worked if it were not for Rain Cloud and Amber’s amazing bravery!” Midnight quickly added with a somewhat embarrassed expression on his face. “Oh, it was nothing”. Rain Cloud turned away from the group, but couldn’t keep the act up for long. He turned back with a large grin on his face and laughed “Come on, we should go back down the mountain. We need to find a place to stay for the night”. They were about to leave the mountain top, when Emerald heard something from inside the dragon’s cave. She turned around and cautiously approached the cave, the other five waiting further back. “What are you doing Emerald?” Midnight called over to her, but she simply signalled for them to be quiet. Upon reaching the mouth of the cave, she abandoned all caution and trotted inside. The others were about to follow, when she emerged holding a small purple object in her mouth. “What is that?”, Mist asked, and Emerald simply dropped it at her feet. Mist suddenly jumped back once she realised what it was. “That’s a baby dragon!”, she exclaimed, falling over Amber who was standing behind her. “It must have only just hatched. We can’t just leave it here. It will never survive without its mother”, Emerald explained to the rest of the group. “Is it safe?” Amber asked nervously. “Of course it is. Just look at it”. All of the ponies gathered around the small, purple reptile. It was lying on its back looking up at each of them, whilst sucking its claw. “If we raise it as a pony, it won’t know how to be a dragon”. Reluctantly, they group agreed with Emerald, who put the dragon on her back. “Lets get off of this mountain”. As they trotted down the steep slopes and across the plain, they were rewarded with Rain Cloud’s account of the entire battle with inputs from Midnight where he thought appropriate. The others of course knew the story, but a mixture of joy, relief and exhaustion stopped them from protesting. He had just got to the part where they were about to get into position for the final plan, when they reached the edge of the forest and a flustered looking mare burst out of the trees. “That was incredible! I have never seen so much bravery in all my life!”. She was joined now by a large group of ponies, and more were coming out of the trees and surrounding the group. They immediately recognised her as one of the leaders of the herd that they were part of before the eventful day. It had been a magnificent herd that grazed upon vast areas of land stretching from the mountains and the lake to deep in the forests. More and more ponies kept emerging from the undergrowth, and eventually the entire herd was crowding around the group trying to get a look at their new heroes. The herd leader continued before the six had a chance to reply: “Let’s have a cheer for our heroes, and the new leaders of this herd!”. An immense cheer and stamping of hooves erupted from the crowd, and the small group of ponies stood in amazement. “But we can’t be the leaders of the herd! You have been the leader for as long as I can remember!” It had finally sunk in to Mist that the leader was being serious. While the others were basking in their newly found fame and Rain Cloud was being treated for his broken wing, Morning Mist was trying to argue with the leader of the herd. “How are we supposed to lead it? We don’t know anything about this!”. “Mist, you must remember that nopony knows what has happened over the past day. We have changed as an entire race. Our needs will be different from what we needed before. You can lead us into a new age of prosperity, and as a group, you will be much stronger than I could have ever been. You have already proven that. Now go and get the others. We must announce this to the herd.” Reluctantly, Mist trotted back to the other five ponies and explained what the leader had said. Still in their heightened state of mind, they simply went along with it while waving to the crowds. They all followed the leader up onto a fallen tree, where she addressed the herd. “Fillies and gentlecolts. As it will not have escaped your attention, we are in the presence of heroes. These six ponies have showed great courage in the face of a foe that even the entire herd ran in fear of. They have proven themselves to be worthy of much more than I can offer, but, as a token of my sincerest gratitude, I hereby pass over my leadership of the herd to these six ponies.”
