A History of Friendship Is Magic

Before 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?”