Elements of Harmony/Role in the MLP:GoH AU Collection

## My Little Pony: Guardians of Harmony

The Elements of Harmony are first mentioned in the first episode's prologue. The narrator tells that once upon a time, the sisters Princess Celestia and Princess Luna co-ruled the land of Equestria. The eldest, Princess Celestia, used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn, while Princess Luna brought out the moon at night. But over time, Princess Luna grew resentful of their subjects who played in the day but slept throughout the night. One day, she refused to lower the moon and her bitterness transformed her into Nightmare Moon. She vowed to shroud Equestria in eternal night. Reluctantly, Princess Celestia used the magic of the Elements of Harmony to defeat her sister and banish her permanently in the moon. Only then was Princess Celestia able to restore harmony to Equestria.

Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's pupil, discovers that Nightmare Moon is set to return "on the longest day of the thousandth year", which is in two days' time. She sends a letter to Princess Celestia warning her of Nightmare Moon's return, but the Princess tells her to "stop reading those dusty old books" and sends her to Ponyville to see to the Summer Sun Celebration preparations and to "make some friends". Twilight Sparkle does as she is told and inadvertently befriends five ponies, but is still confused about the Princess's insistence on friendship.

At the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration, Princess Celestia goes missing and Nightmare Moon shows herself, declaring her return. Twilight discovers that the Elements of Harmony, the only source of magic that could possibly defeat Nightmare Moon, are located in the ruins of the "ancient castle of the royal pony sisters" in the Everfree Forest. During the dangerous journey, Twilight's friends each demonstrate a noble quality in the face of adversity, namely, honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, and loyalty. When they reach the castle ruins, they find five stone orbs that are supposedly five of the Elements of Harmony. Nightmare Moon confronts Twilight Sparkle and smashes the orbs.

When all seems lost, Twilight realizes that her friends embody the Elements themselves. As she describes how each friend represented an element, the shattered orbs turn into gem-studded necklaces that link themselves around the ponies' necks. Twilight herself represents the element of magic, which only appears when the other five elements are present. The Elements, wielded by the friends, create a rainbow-colored blast of magic that vanquishes Nightmare Moon and returns her to her original form of Princess Luna. Also, Rarity's tail, which she cut off during their journey, is restored by the Elements.

It should be noted that the Elements of Harmony appear different in the prologue and the scene where the friends use the elements. In the prologue, the gems are red (loyalty), orange (honesty), green (generosity), blue (laughter), pink (kindness), and purple (magic). When the friends use the elements, there is no green gem, a new magenta gem represents magic, the purple gem now represents generosity, and the other gems are unchanged. However, when the Elements appear in the flashbacks in Princess Twilight Sparkle (Part 1), they are represented by six gems, red (loyalty), orange (honesty), purple (generosity), blue (laughter), pink (kindness), and a sixth magenta gem (magic) in the shape of a six pointed star.

In *The Return of Harmony*, Princess Celestia tells the Mane Heroes (then called by made-up fans the "Mane 7") that long ago, she and her sister used the Elements to turn Discord into stone. She says that she and her sister are no longer connected to the Elements. When she retrieves a box from a chamber that she believes only she can open with her magic, the ponies find that the Elements are missing. Discord hypnotizes the friends into acting contrary to each element they represent. When the Elements are eventually recovered, the friends cannot use the Elements' magic.

When Twilight reads all her old life lessons that Princess Celestia send back, she is convinced that she must harness the power of friendship. She casts a memory spell on her friends, restoring their former personalities. The friends, united, turn him to stone with the magic of the Elements and restore Equestria to its normal state.

In *Keep Calm and Flutter On*, under the orders of Princess Celestia, the Mane Heroes free Discord from his stone prison so they can reform him. As precautionary measures, Celestia casts a spell to protect the Elements from Discord's magic, and the six ponies wear them at all times in case he turns on them. Discord schemes to make Fluttershy remove her Element and never use it against him, which she does willingly as a sign of trust and friendship, ultimately swaying him. As a final precaution, Celestia decides to leave the Elements with Twilight in Ponyville.

> "From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled."
>
> - The unfinished spell

> "From all of us together, together we are friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end."
>
> - The finished spell

In *Magical Mystery Cure*, Twilight casts an unfinished spell written by Star Swirl the Bearded that switches her friends' cutie marks and destinies. To revert these changes, the friends use their talents to help each other out, thereby remembering their own destinies and regaining their cutie marks.

After all the cutie marks are fixed, Twilight finishes writing the spell that caused it. The elements come alive and zap Twilight to a "dream world", where she encounters Princess Celestia. In Celestia's Ballad, Celestia tells Twilight that the time has come to fulfill her destiny. They return to Ponyville, where Twilight permanently transforms into an Alicorn. Her element, different from the others, then becomes her crown and she becomes a Princess.

In the second part of *Princess Twilight Sparkle*, it is revealed that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna found the Elements of Harmony embedded in a tree called the Tree of Harmony in the Everfree Forest. Each element is embedded in one of the tree's branches, with the element of magic in the tree's center.

The tree and the elements were discovered during the reign of Discord thousands of years before the events of the episode, and were the only means the princesses had of defeating him. According to Celestia, the tree controls and contains all that grows in the Everfree Forest and will continue to do so even without the elements in it.

During the two-parter, it is discovered that the Tree of Harmony has lost all of its magic. Its loss of power allows Discord's plunderseeds to grow into malevolent, vine-like organisms all over the Everfree Forest. At the climax of Part 2, Twilight and her friends give up the Elements of Harmony and return them to the tree, recharging its magic and returning the forest to normal. Afterward, the Tree of Harmony generates a flower containing a locked box.

In *Twilight's Kingdom (Part 2)*, when six of the Mane Heroes open the mysterious chest at the base of the Tree of Harmony, it triggers an outburst of power from the six Element jewels. Initially, violet energy is seen spreading from the central gem of magic and then triggering all the other five elements. Later, after the defeat of Tirek, each element gem shines with power before the chest is launched out of the grotto of the Tree of Harmony to its new location in the foundations of Twilight Sparkle's new castle in Ponyville.

In the second part of *Shadow Play*, the Mane Heroes take up the Elements of Harmony again and, together with the Pillars of Old Equestria, use their power to banish the Pony of Shadows to limbo after he is accidentally released.

It is revealed that each Element of Harmony is a reflection of a similar element represented by each Pillar:

* Honesty (Applejack) – Strength (Rockhoof)
* Kindness (Fluttershy) – Healing (Mage Meadowbrook)
* Laughter (Pinkie Pie) – Hope (Somnambula)
* Generosity (Rarity) – Beauty (Mistmane)
* Loyalty (Rainbow Dash) – Bravery (Flash Magnus)
* Magic (Twilight Sparkle) – Sorcery (Star Swirl the Bearded)

In *The Mean Heroes*, Queen Chrysalis creates artificial clones of the Mane Heroes in order to seize control of the Elements of Harmony, rebuild her hive, and destroy Starlight Glimmer. However, the Tree of Harmony recognizes that the clones are fake and destroys them to protect the Elements.

In *The Beginning of the End*, the Mane Heroes use the Elements of Harmony to defeat King Sombra when he resurfaces and reconquers the Crystal Empire. His defeat is revealed to be a ruse, however, and when the Mane Heroes returns the Elements to the Tree of Harmony, King Sombra destroys it, and the Elements shatter with it.

The shattered Elements are briefly seen while King Sombra gloats over tricking the Mane Heroes, with Twilight desperately trying to piece the Element of Honesty back together.

In *Uprooted*, during the song The Place Where We Belong, the shattered remains of the elements of kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty, and honesty are briefly seen.