"I'm so glad you three were able to make it!" Twilight certainly looked happy, she was practically bouncing as she led the crusaders into one of the library's side rooms. The room had been set up with several chairs, all placed in a semi-circle around a blackboard. There were already a handful of names and dates neatly written upon the board.

"We didn't really have much of a choice," said Scootaloo, as the three fillies each chose a chair and sat down, Scootaloo on the right, closest to the door, with Applebloom on her left and Sweetie Belle next to her. Scootaloo checked the clock on the wall, noting the time was 3:30 in the afternoon. I sure hope this doesn't take too long, she thought to herself.

"Oh, Cherilee told me all about your trouble paying attention in class, but rest assured I will do my best to make this as entertaining as possible," Twilight said confidently as she moved to stand in front of the board. "Are you ready to begin? Good. *Ahem* Let's start with the rise of common currency in Equestria, when all three races started using the bit, around 687 AFE when..."

* * * * *

About twenty minutes had passed with Twilight happily scrawling more names and dates on the blackboard when the slight banging noise she had barely registered finally grew in volume enough to break her concentration. Right in the middle of her pun too. "Now with these new developments, the Equestrian bankers began to suspect they had 'bit' off more than they could chew, heh, when... what is that noise?" Twilight turned to find Scootaloo softly banging the back of her head against the wall while Applebloom was staring vacantly at nothing, and Sweetie Belle was actually falling asleep.

"Are you three okay?" Twilight asked. Scootaloo stopped giving herself brain damage, while Sweetie Belle and Applebloom both shook themselves out of their stupor, blushing slightly in embarrassment. "I'm really sorry Twilight," Applebloom apologized, "its just- I mean-"

"She means that this is the most boring lecture we have ever had!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "I'm sorry Twilight, but this is not going to help us pay more attention in class."

Twilight felt her heart drop for a second then realized her mistake, turning a little red herself. "Sorry girls, I guess I wasn't thinking too much about my audience. Hmm..." Twilight thought desperatly for a minute. Cherilee was counting on her to reach these kids and teach them how interesting history could be. She needed to think of something... of course!

"I have an idea girls, how about a story instead?" Twilight turned to walk back into the main library, where she grabbed a book off the shelf with her magic and walked back into the room. "A story?" asked Sweetie Belle. "What kind of story?" Twilight gave a small smile.

"The oldest story, more of a legend, one that has affected all our lives in countless was."

Twilight moved one of the other chairs from the semicircle in front of the girls and showed them the book. It was an regular looking book, brown with gold on the binding. A gold unicorn with saphire eyes was embossed on the front, and gold letterings on the side read The Book of Harmony.

"The Book of Harmony?" Applebloom asked. Scootaloo read the binding unimpressed. "Doesn't look that interesting to me." she quiped.

"This book is very important. It was where I first heard of the Elements of Harmony and how they were connected to Nightmare Moon. If I had never read this book, I would have never learned of the Elements, and my friends and I would have never saved Equestria and both of the Princesses."

The three girls looked at the book with a new appreciation. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to hear just a little of it," Sweetie Belle said, and the others nodded in agreement.

Twilight gave a little smile, then slowly turned the cover, and began to read.

* * * * *

Before Harmony, there was Chaos. And not the kind of chaos that you or I have seen with our own eyes. Discord's powers were great, but even his chaos was nothing but petty tricks and pranks compared to the Chaos that came first.

In this Chaos there wandered tortured souls, lost and afraid. And it is with one of these souls that our story begins. This soul had wondered for as long as he could remember, but he could never try and remember, for the Chaos was too much for him to think. As he floated over the surface of the world, every moment was different. One second it would be a freezing snowstorm, chiling him to the core and slowing his endless journey to a crawl. The next he would be in a great ocean, sinking quickly beneath a tumultuous wave, to fall to the sea floor that then turned into a scorching desert that seared his thoughts beneath blinding darkness.

For in this Chaos, there was no light, and he had lived his entire existence in the darkness of Chaos. Not even his mind was his own, as the Chaos forced upon him every emotion he had ever known, happiness, sadness, boredom, grief, joy, constantly changing moment to moment.

It was then that he found hope.

As he wondered aimlessly, searching constantly for something, something he could not place, he felt something new. He recoiled from the strange sensation, but just as quickly, he lunged after it, grabbing it and pulling it close. It was a sensation that he could never explain, but imagine if you have never felt anything in your entire life that was not forced upon you. Then you discover that there is something out there that can make you feel for yourself, it is something that we can never truly understand.

So he grabbed onto this new sensation fiercely, not slacking his grip, even when she (for of course it was another soul) cried out in surprise and fear. 'Please,' she said, do not let go!' 'I won't' he replied, as they held each other tightly in the Chaos. They were swept along by the wave of chaos, battered by the constant change.

'Are you real?' she asked. 'Or is this some new torment to torture me with.'

'Trust me, I am just as real as you are,' he replied.

The storm of Chaos became great, tossing the two souls around and bashing them on the sides of montains, drowning them in lakes of lava, gusting them through between snowy peaks. As he held tightly to his new friend, he could hear and feel the pain she was enduring. So he wrapped himself around her completely, shielding her with his own essence, giving her the first moment of peace she had ever know. She floated for an eternity in a moment, relishing the freedom she felt until she realized the pain her friend was in.

'Why do you do this for me? I can feel the pain you are in, why risk yourself for me?' she asked.

'Because you are my friend,' he replied, 'and I will give anything to make my friends happy.

The Chaos seemed to hear them, and redoubled its efforts against them, assailing them with horrible feelings and emotions, pushing harder at their tumbling souls. He began to shake from fear and rage and sadness, when he heard a strange new sound, the sound of laughter.

'Why do you laugh in the face of such adversity?' he asked her.

'Because you are with me, and as long as you are with me, all I feel is joy' she laughingly replied.

The great storm seemed to subside slightly at these words, then picked up stronger than ever. He began to feel weak and helpless to protect his new friend. He turned to whisper to her,

'Can you promise that even when I weaken, you will not leave me?'

'That's an easy promise,' she replied, 'for I know you will never let me go.' .

Suddenly the storm stopped, and all they could feel was each other. They looked at each other surprised by the silence. Wonderingly he asked her,

'Why would you show such kindness to me, a stranger?'

'Because you showed it to me first,' she replied without hesitating.

This was the birth of true harmony in the world. Suddenly, the Chaos began to retreat from them, as the harmony the shared with each other gave shape to themselves and the world around them, and a pale light filled the air as they saw each other for the first time. The stood upon a grassy hill under a dark sky and-

*BANG* The door to the library burst open scaring all four ponies inside. "Applebloom! Applebloom where are you?" Applejacks voice came from the entrance.

"I'm right here sis, you just about scared me to death!" Everyone else relaxed except for Applejack who came rushing in and grabbing her sister by the shoulder. Applejack turned to Twilight with a determined look in her eye that caused Twilight to rear back a bit.

"Twilight I'm really sorry to have to tell ya this but I can't have my sister suffering. You history lessons are awful Twi, I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away, but I didn't wan't to hurt your feelings 's all." She whipped around to face Applebloom. "And Applebloom, I am so sorry I wasn't there when Twilight came by, Grannie Smith was the one who said you could go and by the time I heard about it I-"

"Applebloom gently pushed her big sister away. "It's all right sis, Twilight was just telling us a story, a good one too." Scootaloo and Swietie Belle were snickering behind their hooves.

Applejack could only stand there with a confused look on her face. "Wait a minute," she said, "Y'all aren't suffering through a horrible lecture?"

"Wow Twilight, that must have been a horrible lesson you gave." Scootaloo smirked at her. Twilight's whole face had turned beet red, and her ears were drooping with embarrassment.

"I guess it really was. You could have told me though Applejack, that's what these young girls did, and they had a nice story time instead of a boring lecture." Now it was Applejack's turn to change colors as she dipped her head in an apology. "You're right Twilight, I shoulda known you could handle the truth, I just didn't want to hurt a friend's feelings."

Twilight smiled at her friend graciously. Turning to look outside, she saw that it had already become dark outside, and the pegasus were already putting the fireflies in the lampposts outside. Closing the book she stood up and stretched herself before turning back to her class.

"Well girls," she said, "looks like thats it for today, but we can continue the story later if you want."

"Oh, alright Twilight, I guess it is pretty late," said Sweetie Belle. "Just so long as we will finish the story."
"Of course!" Twilight answered with a smile. Applejack shuffled awkwardly for a moment before speaking up. "Well if y'all are done here, I guess I'll take y'all home. Come on girls, grab your things." The three girls scrambled to grab their stuff, saying goodnite to Twilight on their way out.

Twilight turned to start cleaning up when Spike came through the front door. "Hey Twilight, I brought the medicine to Rarity that you made for her, those burns were clearing right up when I left." He walked past Twilight on his way to start dinner. "So, how'd it go?" he asked over his shoulder.

"It went very well, thanks for asking, though I think this might be the last one I do, at least for a while. I just don't think that anyone is interested in coming anymore." The sound of pots and pans banging from the kitchen sounded throughout the library for a moment, then Spike's voice came floating down from the kitchen.

"That's too bad Twilight, but at least your last one went well, right?"

Twilight gave a slightly sad smile. "Right Spike. Don't worry I'm not too upset, I can't force people to be interested after all."

Later as they were cleaning up from dinner, there was a knock at the door. Twilight left Spike to finish up and went to answer it. To Twilight's suprise it was Cherilee.

"Hi Twilight, I just came to check on how things went."

"Oh, things went very well, all things considering. At least they didn't fall asleep." Cherilee gave Twilight a suprised look, than quickly tried to cover it up. "Really? Oh, uh, well that doesn't surprise me at all Twilight, I knew you could get the job done." Twilight gave her friend a grateful smile. "Thanks, Cherilee," she said, "and I hope they pay closer attention in class from now on."

Cherilee returned the smile. "Oh, if this works out, I should be the one thanking you Twilight. Have a pleasent evening." Cherilee turned and walked away, leaving Twilight to watch the last rays of the sun dwindle. "Today wasn't such a disaster after all," she said softly, closing the door gently and heading back upstairs.

Author's Note

Comments and criticism welcome as always. Also, I will be taking a Hiatus from posting this story at least until the end of season three. (After all todays episode could make this whole story meaningless!) I just want to keep this backstory as true to the canon as possible. thanks for reading

Update:Revised the ending, hope it's better. I should really stop writing at 2:00 in the morning.