"You stole the Elements from her."

It all fits! The stories of Discord's era said that Queen Harmony gave her life to help what could have only been the pony princesses and seal Discord! When the chaos ended, and search parties tried to find her, they were told that she died and that the Love Crystal and the Elements were scattered... it didn't matter, since as long as there was that Spark of Love, even if the Elements' physical vessels had been turned to dust the Spark that resides with every being would restore them - should they find a worthy Bearer.

Or do something weird like being passed spiritually or whatever it is that magical constructs of untold power do when their flimsy physical bindings are set loose.

Countless changelings sought them, looking for them the world over. None succeeded, obviously, but left a legend...

But if they were stolen by ponies, then no matter how hard we looked for them, they would not appear. They simply aren't there to react to anything.

The Love Crystal... I don't know, that one was different. Maybe it did get destroyed.

My accusation was like dumping a pail of ice on them. I can feel a tingle of static combined with the bite of frost that comes from shock.

Before the explosion of feeling could even start, Celestia hung her head low, which I guess made the others think something was amiss.

"What happened that day?" I ask. I admit that I am still quite surprised myself, feeling strangely numb to emotion.

It faded quickly, though.

"Hey there-"

"What happened?" I ask again, feeling how the liquid in my veins began to boil. I think Applejack was the one who spoke. "Did you kill her for them?!"

"No!" Celestia staggered back slightly, and from the shearing cold of fright she was giving off I could at least tell she was sincere about this. "She gave us the Elements..." She trails off, and I can tell she's burdened by the memory... but I'd have to be stupid to not realize she's still hiding something.

"How did it happen?" The chains hold back my neck... I would try to bite her otherwise. "I don't care what happens to me now, I need to know!"

"Uh... princess?" Twilight looked at both of us in turn, and I could tell from her emotions -rather, their absence- that she still hadn't processed what she was hearing. "W-what is happening? Iridescence, what do you know about the Elements?"

Celestia closed the door, and I think she cast a spell to silence what was said inside the room. Curious how I never noticed when the doctor left our company.

"The Elements are six." I say, trying to ignore the pain from the cracks in my chest. I can't! I have to lay back down... ugh. "Trustfulness, Empathy, Positivity, Charity, Unity and the most important one without which the others don't exist... Love."

Twilight mumbled... 'Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty and Magic.'

"Love and magic are the same thing, regardless of whenever or not you are a changeling." I say, tugging my one good foreleg in an angry and fruitless attempt to vent. And my wings are starting to burn from the effort of trying to spread them... stupid reflexes, like I could intimidate anything in my state. "The Bearers do much more than embody their Element; they inspire it and instill it in others. They are the most potent and beautiful magic constructs ever crafted by changelings."

"Liar!" Shining Armor yells and jumps next to my bed to yell some more. I am not going to let that happen, even as the hate is burning me from the inside.

So I spat at his face. It's black in color, which is never a good sign.

He rears up, fully intending to strike me. The golden aura that surrounded him the next second had a different idea, though.

"Shining Armor. I ordered you to stop." She says as she drags Shining away. There are many emotions in Celestia's voice, the major one being annoyance , with sadness thrown in as well. I am going to focus really hard on her - if she keeps lying, I'll know. I hope.

I-I feel the vile rising, but it's still stuck inside of me. With my horn blocked, there is only one way out for it. I might not withstand his next outburst.

"But... how can they be changeling magic?" The white one... Rarity asks.

I... I just close my eye. What kind of story has Celestia fed them? I am tired, but I can't just sleep yet - not until I know everything. Until they know everything.

"How can they be anything but changeling magic? They react to emotion, for Pit's sake!" I can feel the anger inside me... I need to do something or it'll hurt me. I hear shuffling. Whatever. "They are just like us, only attuned to a specific aspect, and without any limit in distance or reach. You can't hide your feelings from the Elements."

"But... why can ponies use them?" Uh... Pinkie asked. I blink. Celestia hasn't told them anything, but to think they don't know this?

"Ponies can feel things, no?" Seriously, it's the stupidest question. The finer workings of magical objects escape me but I can at least tell the young what a Focus does! Well, Earth ponies don't have much use or interest for like... nearly anything magic related, but I know there are things out there! "It doesn't matter what you are, as long as your soul can truly feel the spirit of the Elements within itself, they will react."

"That's why the six of us were chosen?" I- what?! I'm in the presence of the Bearers?! All six of them at once?!

"Yes." I respond pretty much automatically. I-I can't even think about what this all means. This must be what they felt when I accused their beloved princess of stealing from the dead. I must endure, though.

"Queen Harmony was the greatest heroine in our history..." I say, all the while my anger had been replaced by... nothing. Nothing. There is just a hole left behind. I squeeze my eye shut. "Discord's chaos was affecting all sentient life and made it incapable of love - he was killing us. Drones are the body's last attempt to preserve itself; if the shortage continues, then they just starve and die. Discord's influence was so bad, we were almost wiped out."

"She was a heroine... and it's all a lie." I open my eye again and see she's... feeling guilty? She's trying to disguise it, and if she were just three paces back I wouldn't be able to tell.

"Why did she give you the Elements?"

"I-I- she was injured, already at death's door."

"Go on, speak. Thousands of years have passed, so I'd like to think we deserve to know; the Bearers just as much as us." I am being rather curt to the pony that just minutes before nearly scared me to death, but I find out I don't care about her anymore.

"You... you are right. If color relates you... then you are of her house, and I should have remembered sooner." I... I still want to hit her, but I have to know!

"Discord did not lay your queen low." She at least had the decency to look me in the eye. "One of his more dangerous..." She shuddered. "... creations performed the foul deed."

*****

"Well, that was entertaining!" Discord laughed, peeling off what looked like the charred remains of his skin from his face, his features completely untouched underneath the blackened cover he had torn off. "I admit you are quite fun to play with! You keep getting smarter, more creative! But you'd better go to school and practice some more if you want to go anywhere."

The white winged unicorn gasped for breath and shakily laid down on the ground, next to her dark-colored sibling. The two of them had hit him with everything they had... and it hadn't been anywhere near enough.

"Well, there are a few mountains that are just asking for a mustache -maybe a beard- or maybe polka-dot lipstick? In any case, see you once you get better at fighting! Maybe in a thousand- no, two thousand years!"

*****

"Sister, do not focus so much on his words." Luna -then, just 'Luna'- laid a wing over me.

"We gave our best, and our best was not even an inconvenience." I said, recalling the events that happened seventy-three days ago... each of which had had a length numbered in minutes. We had been traveling with no set destination for some time already - not that direction mattered much right then. My ears perked and swiveled about when I heard the sound of magical bolts being thrown.

We both looked up. A flash of rainbow colors blinded us momentarily, and the earth trembled as a wave of colors and a sound not unlike an explosion traveled over us... leaving us feeling better. Not quite a hundred percent... but better.

The rush of air and shaking earth tried to send us down, but we kept our balance easily enough.

When our eyes cleared, I saw an enormous silhouette fading like ashes to the wind. I recognized it moments before it vanished forever, and could not believe somepony had the magic to slay such a beast! It had to have been magic, of course.

"Sister!" Luna took to the air and called me with urgency; I was unsure as to what could have caused such agitation, but I had -and still have- complete faith in my sister, and so I spread my wings.

As I followed, I suddenly became very aware of the land surrounding me. There was nothing remarkable about the forest.

It was a boring, normal forest.

The trunks of the trees were bark and wood, instead of candy; their leaves green and lush, instead of feathers.

The forest floor was concealed by undergrowth, instead of serpentine paper strips.

*****

"... and I noticed the land around us was restored as I took flight. My sister was of the opinion to investigate, she had seen something fall from the skies as I had identified the... behemoth that was struck down by your queen."

"What kind of beast it was?"

"One of madness and hate, that is all I will say. None remain; they could not survive outside the sick, distorted world Discord made of ours."

*****

Luna and I spotted the fallen figure with ease. A dot of black and red amidst brown and green. Trees had been toppled by the fall, and the body had scored the earth somewhat.

We landed, and the figure snarled at us. She was of a similar build to ours, but she was a smooth, glossy black all over, and her horn was very sharp and twisted around itself instead of curving gently like ours. Her eyes had slits like those of a cat's, and were of a striking red color... so was her hair, and a section across her barrel. Her hooves had holes going through them, and so did her hair, tail and insectile wings otherwise not unlike a dragonfly's. She had a pair of sharp fangs...

... and she was lying on her side, blood pooling around her.

Even as she threatened us, I could not help but feel the need to do something.

"Why feel something for a stranger?" She said, her voice reverberating as if two had spoken inside a cave, before she coughed blood.

"You are injured." I said, trotting over to her side. "We cannot ignore the plights of others."

The black creature chuckled.

"Do not move." Luna said, fearing she would aggravate her state. I tried looking over her with magic...

"It is only by the power of the Crystal that I still draw breath, making the love of my pe- Hack! people course through me, sustaining me." She laid her head on the ground, coughing slightly, and I was too focused to see the crystal she spoke of. "It cannot last for long, not with Discord still roaming. I will die failing to even face him."

"Please, do not say that!" Luna spoke gently and with a smile on her face, even as her eyes filled with tears. "Discord will fall, and all shall live without fear! There is always hope!"

"There isn't, not for me." I looked at Luna and shook my head - too much inside her had taken damage, and only the magic she spoke of made her lungs fill with air and not blood. "But if there is no hope, then nothing is lost by trying."

She looked at us in turn. "If you truly wish to bring him down, for the sake of love and peace... then take the jewels I carried. They are the Elements of Harmony, from which I take my name."

She closed her eyes, her horn glowing a soft pink.

"Hear me, oh Mother of All. I return to you my Spark. I am Harmony, Queen of the changelings. Let love be felt by all the same as I feel it."

*****

"Her horn began to glow, and she recited... something that might have taken me too long to understand." Celestia shook her head. "There was a bright flash, and both knowledge and strength flowed into us. Not much, but we knew what to do with it. When we laid our eyes back on her... she was still."

"So she did give her life to help you. She used a memory spell and recited the prayer herself with her last breath." I mutter, the void inside of me growing a bit more.

"Prayer?" Shining asked, and at least he's not hating any more.

"Do you not say some last words before sending your dearly departed to their final resting place?" I say... I did not intend to sound hurtful, but these redundant questions are starting to bother me. "You have yours, we have ours."

"We then knew that the jewels did. One represented and drew power from those who are dependable, true to their word and to themselves."

"Honesty, and y'all call it 'Trustfulness'... Ah get it." Applejack said. Which reminds me of how hard Queen Morphosai is taking the current events, and with this invasion thing added to the pile, I imagine that she's yelling Chrysalis's ears off.

"Another from those who concern themselves with others, and themselves draw their strength from it for the sake of others, putting them before themselves."

"Umm... Kindness... and changelings call it Empathy, right?" Fluttershy said... explaining why she felt such pain when I told her about drones. Queen Flitter is also... hey! Their names are similar!

"One for those who fill hearts with hope and happiness, helping them when they are distraught or unwell."

"Positivity, and then Laughter!" Pinkie chimed in. Even with all of this going on, she still smiles... reminds me of Queen Joy.

"One for those who give something of themselves to those who don't have it to call their own."

"Generosity, and Charity." Rarity said... I hope Queen Laque is alright, she might rule house Charity, but she's still very young.

"Then one for those who stand by their ideals, and the forces binding them to one another."

"So... Loyalty... yeah, I guess I can see why you call it 'Unity'." Dash scratched her head as she spoke. Queen Chrysalis was always good at gathering changelings to support her.

"The last one was less defined, but we could feel it was both the binding force and the source of the others... we named what we did because we felt it was the source of all magic."

"Love... is Magic." Twilight had a pensive look on her face, and I can't avoid tearing up thinking about Queen Concordia.

*****

"Hmm? Back already?" Discord said, raising an eyebrow with the sound of rubber put to glass.

"We are better prepared this time." I said.

"Oh Celestia, so delightfully naïve. You don't get it, do you? I have more power than you, and as such, you should just let me have my fun." He chuckled. "Maybe if I were to put it to song?"

He struck a pose, but before a single note had escaped his throat, the Elements had engulfed him. We knew what they were doing - probing, testing his heart... they found only insanity. Had there been a piece of good inside of him, no matter how repressed, they would have drawn it forth.

They did not find anything. He refused to change his heart, despite wielding powers pertaining to change itself, and so the Elements punished him by making his body the same as his heart.

Cold, unfeeling stone.

I know it was that same... effect? Quality? It was what saved Luna. They found her kind heart, and made it surface, shattering the armor created around her body the same they did the one around her heart.

*****

"... the same as his heart. Cold, unfeeling, unchanging stone."

"What happened to the Love Crystal?" I ask, fearing that the answer will be...

"It is lost to us." ... that one. There is more, but I think that can wait - the Elements are more important.

"But why lie to the changelings?" Fluttershy asked.

"It took us long... far too long... to truly understand the Elements, and until then we feared that they might turn on us wielding their power. But mostly because we feared their reaction to finding them bound to us, instead of one of them."

"What." I say.

For a moment, I don't understand why everything is blurry, but then I find out I'm shaking with rage.

"Quick, restrain her with magic before she hurts herself!" Fluttershy cries out.

"Celestia! You imbecile!"

*****

The changeling prisoner shouted with all of her strength, then threw up a black slime and promptly lost consciousness.

Author's Note

Celestia's POV parts are her recalling the events for herself, with conveniently-modernized dialogue, before speaking out loud.