Elise stared around her library, willing the book she was looking for to fly off of the shelve into her hand. She tousled her hair so black it looked purple and caught a hold of a pink strand, twisting it in her nimble fingers. She glanced around one last time before calling her assistant and friend, Spike into the room. He sauntered in, hands in pockets, his purple and green sweatshirt jumping around his baggy dark blue jeans.
"Yeah, Elise?" Spike responded. He pulled his custom Beats off of one his ears, pulling his iPod out of his pocket to pause the music. He glanced out the window to try catch a glimpse of Aria, his secret, or so he thought, crush. Elise adjusted her violet shirtsleeves and tugged at the hem.
"Spike, take a letter. Dear Princess Tia, this week I learned an important lesson in friendship. Even if your friends promise to do something, it does not mean that you can bother them about it everyday. Sometimes, they have a problem saying no. Your faithful student, Elise." Elise rambled on as Spike was scribbling furiously on a scrap piece of paper. She was going to ask him to mail it when he could when the door flew open, revealing Diana, one of the loudest, most annoying people of all time. She was also one of Elise's best friends. Diana's mouth moved at a million miles per minute, streaming babble and nonsense at anyone and everyone she met.
"Oh, hey Elise, hey Spike. Guess what? Today is Gummy's second birthday! And I am having a party this afternoon, I really want you to be there so he can have a SUPER good birthday today!" Diana gushed at her friends. She bounced up and down, her curly pink hair bouncing in time with her jumps. She had on a pink t-shirt with two blue balloons and one yellow one forming a triangle, matching her tattoo on her wrist. Her pale pink gym shorts went well with her white knee socks with two stripes of blue and yellow at the top, going into her vibrant high tops that were once white, but had been colored and decorated to look like a party. Elise frowned at her own outfit of her violet button down shirt, and dark jeans that gave way to sensible black Vans.
"Of course we'll be there, Pinks." Elise said, using the nickname for her rosy friend that was based on her clothing choice earning her a big smile that lit up her friend's face. She bounced out of the room, her little alligator pet peeking out from her hair.
Elise counted on her fingers the number of friends she had seen that day. Two, not counting Spike. So, where were the other three? Jackie was probably at her family's apple orchard picking apples with her older brother, Mac, who everyone called Big Mac, purely for his size alone. Perhaps little Bloom was helping Granny. Lute was probably with her animals, a quiet opposite to her loud, eccentric parents, resulting in her odd name. Ah, there's four out of five, but what about... CRASH! Oh, there she is, thought Elise, remembering her last friend, Dashie, as she was dubbed by Diana for her speed, was none other than Rainbow Dash, her parents being slightly eccentric, as Lute's were. Rainbow because her mother loved them, and Dash for her father's agility. She heard the familiar flow of curses as Dashie flew by in a hurry to collect her dumbbells that had fallen. Whether training for soccer, swimming, running, lacrosse, rugby, anything she could grasp the concept of, Dashie was always working out. Elise stepped out of her library home into the bright sunshine of the little town where she had lived for the past year, Ponyville. Dashie pushed her pilot glasses up on her head, and bent over to pick up her weights. She wearing a blue tank top with athletic shorts and sneakers for working out in.
"Buck it!" Dashie almost yelled. Her tattoo of a white cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt was showing on her shoulder because of her tank top. Elise grinned as she wandered over to Aria's boutique to visit. She rubbed her wrist where her own tattoo was hidden by the long sleeves of the shirt, a single, pink six pointed narrow star, surrounded by little white sparkles. She and her six friends had gone out and gotten them one night, to the prompting of Dash, Jackie, and Pinks. Lute was shocked at the idea, and hid behind a curtain of her hair before agreeing quietly. Aria squealed in delight as her turn came up to get the three blue gems on her lower back, with her name written in a curly font underneath. Elise was second to last. Lute finally got her three little pink butterflies. She was biting her lip the whole time.
Aria opened the door saying, "Good morning, welcome to- Oh, Elise! How are you, darling?" She asked in her lilting, light British accent. She was always a fahionista. Her blue-violet hair was just the trend. She was wearing a simple white dress, but she had made it look amazing. She had paired it with things Elise had no names for.
"Hi, Aria. Any new orders?" Elise inquired. They chatted for a little when Aria suddenly gasped.
"Oh, my, where are my manners? Won't you come in?" Aria quickly said, wringing her hands as she gestured for Elise to enter. Elise politely shook her head no, explaining that she was going to go help Jackie and Big Mac with carting the apples back to the storage cellar. She bade her friend farewell, and was well on her way when a large white carriage pulled up next to her as she was on the country road, and a dark shape pulled her in, then sped off. Elise widened her eyes at the sight that lay before her. She saw her other five friends in the carriage with her, sitting stock still. She couldn't speak, for a pale hand was covering her mouth. A voice she had heard on one holiday questioned her.
"ART THOU READY FOR WHAT WE ART ABOUT TO TELL THOU?" Luna asked in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Lute flinched at the sudden noise and spoke up quietly.
"Um, Princess, if you don't mind, uh, I think you should lower your voice... I mean, if you want to... Please?"
"Ah, yes. We apologize, Lute. Our control had slipped away from us. We shall endeavor to keep our voice at a volume matching yours."
Princess Luna was the polar opposite of her older sister, Princess Tia. She had flowing raven locks, dark eyes that reflected everything with a cold inner fire, and had a moon shaped tattoo on her ankle, but on first glance nobody could tell. It was too small. Her sister was blond, with playful blue eyes, and a small yellow-orange sun tattoo, hidden by her long hair on the back of her neck. Elise had studied under Princess Tia, after being hand-picked from at least a hundred other students, to become the Keeper of The Library Of Equestria. The elder princess had banished her younger sister for a while, after turning into an evil force that nobody could control.
"Well, Princess, I- uh- I think I am quite ready to hear what you had to say now." Elise stammered as she was stared at with those cold, calculating eyes. The princess had removed her hand from Elise's mouth, and folded it in her lap with her other one. She sniffed with a royal air, as she glared down her nose at the significantly smaller girl, of only about 18 as were her friends, except Lute, who was 19. Luna sighed and rolled her eyes as she flopped her hands down into her lap in a manner most unbecoming for a princess.
"I suppose I should tell you. It all started back before you little ones were even thought of. Back when I was only but a few hundred years old, hardly even a teenager, for one of my standing." Luna reminded them with an indifferent air that she was one of the Immortals, almost a goddess. Because in Equestria, nothing is as it seems.
Luna began her tale of why they had been collected in the carriage, on their way to Canterlot, the capitol of Equestria.
"It all began back when Discord still reigned over us, using his powers of Chaos to enslave all of the people, starting with the little ones, like yourselves, then the Time Lords, and then moving on to The Immortals. At this time, I was not the powerful being that I am today. Oh, no. I was but a little girl.
I begged my parents to let me help, but they refused. I tried to get Tia to convince them that I was ready and powerful enough to fight him, but to no avail. Do you understand me, girls?" She paused to get mute nods from all of them, even Diana becoming solemn.
"I had seen what Discord could do. Everyday, when I looked out of my window at the battle torn lands, I saw smoke, missing people, and destruction so massive, it took years to rebuild. Even then, the buildings that belonged to the unlucky cities were never remade to their former glory. Ponyville is one of those places. Haven't you ever wondered why it still looks like one of the older historic towns? It was once the very center of life, trade, and commerce. Even the oldest history books do not hold that on record. Why did the more powerful beings not just fix it with their magic? They couldn't; not with the damage done. When Discord uses his Chaotic Powers, nothing can fix it. Until we found them. The Elements of Harmony. They were six powerful items. I could not tell you what they were exactly, but they were magnificent. The war had taken everything from me. My parents, my home, my people. Everything but my sister. At night, we would cling to each other and cry. Cry for the lost people, the lost towns, villages, and cities. We never cried for our parents, no, that was a pain that crying would not help. When we thought of them, our hearts and our eyes became like stone. We were very close. I had lost them as a little girl, barely old enough to try even the simplest of magic. Tia was older than me, smarter, wiser. I looked up to her as a mother, a sister, a protector, a comforter, and somebody who would always be there for me. Until one day, when she went out to the front lines to check on the troops. The brave men, and the boldest women who were fighting to protect everything they had, even if it meant dying for it. I never thought that Discord was in on our goings-ons. He launched an attack on the unprepared troops. There were no found survivors. I had the news delivered to me by a guard. I lost it then. I couldn't hold on anymore. I ran away, into the Everfree Forest. I stumbled around, lost, lonely, and not caring if Discord himself showed up to take me away, to my parents, my sister, and everybody else. I wanted him to come and show me what he was capable of. I wanted him to- to-..." Luna trailed off, as her voice broke and caught in her throat. Lute was sitting on her left, and put an arm around the broken princess, rubbing her back, in between her concealed wings, whispering comforting words in her ear as the rest sat there in silence. They were all thinking the same thing: "Why have we never heard about this? Why has it been eliminated from the books? Why?"
Dashie fluttered her cyan wings a little, stretching them out in the cramped carriage. She was always one to become nervous and on edge around strong emotions such as these. Lute also had a pair of butter-yellow wings, hidden nicely by both her hair, and the turtleneck shirts she wore, regardless of the weather. Aria and Elise had small horns, mostly concealed by their hair, only the white tip of Aria's and the light purple one of Elise's showing. Diana and Jackie were the only slightly normal ones in there. Luna also had a horn of a deep navy color. She, like all Immortals, had both wings and a horn. Luna had calmed down considerably by now, and started her story up again, interrupted only by small sniffles.
"I had wanted Discord to show up and kill me. I didn't want to keep on living, knowing that everyone I loved was gone. It was then that I found the tower, the holding place of the Elements of Harmony. They were locked up in an old tower, in an old castle. I felt pain in my heart, because this was the castle where we had spent summers, my parents and Tia and I. We had stopped going for the past few years because of Discord and his Chaos. I guess it was also at that moment that I had started my slow transformation into my evil self. I didn't realize it then, but afterwards, I knew. Anyway, back to the Elements. There they were. On top of a pillar. I don't know how I knew, but I knew that these could help me avenge my parents and Tia. I had never noticed them before.
I always knew that I would never be better than Tia at anything. She was older, stronger, wiser, better at magic, everything I wasn't. She could be nice and kind one second, and become as hard as a boulder covered in steel the next. But this, this was my chance to get back at Discord and stop him once and for all. I picked each one up in my magic and levitated them right in front of my face so I could examine them closely. Then, I heard steps coming up form behind me. Heavy steps, like somebody bigger than me was coming up, not even trying to mask their footsteps. I dropped the Elements onto the table in front of me, and turned around slowly, my hands clenched into fists. My eyes were squeezed shut and I opened them in a flash to see the smiling face of my big sister, Tia right in front of me.
I yelled, 'Discord, stop this right now! I know it's you! Why do you torment me this way? You've already taken everything from me. There is nothing else you can take but myself. Then the joke will be on you. I'll be with my family, then.' In response, I got two arms wrapped around my shaking shoulders and Tia's voice whispering to me that no, it wasn't Discord, but her in the flesh.
I cast a tear-streaked face up at her, and saw that it was her. Not a trick of Discord's. She was back! I could barely contain my joy, and my sorrow. I told her the entire tale, starting when I heard that she had died. I left nothing out, nothing was left unsaid, no tears that I shed remained unheard of. She was rubbing my back, stroking my hair, hugging me and rocking me back and forth like our mother used to do. When I got to the part where I found the Elements of Harmony, she looked shocked for a moment, but nodded to let me know to go on. She was silent for a while, then told me this:
'Luna, my little sister, my baby sister, you have found the Elements of Harmony, my dear. I had hoped that I would have had the chance to tell you about them before now. But I couldn't, not when you had run off. Why did you not wait for me? You know that I would never ever leave you. The only way I ever could was if Discord used his Chaos directly on me. But he didn't. I'm fine. Never worry again.' She had spoken too soon."
