Elements of Harmony (D)

**Location/Status:** | At the Tree of Harmony

The Elements of Harmony are six supernatural artifacts representing subjective aspects of harmony. They are six: Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty and Magic. They have been wielded on rare occasions, particularly during events marked by danger and anarchy as a last resort to restore and enforce the balance of peace and order. However, the effects of their use are generally temporary and non-lethal, usually a form of banishment or imprisonment.

## Physical Appearance

Before starting being used by the Main Six, the Elements of Harmony taked the form of gems, with the Element of Magic taking the form of a star. After the Main Six used the Elements to defeat Nightmare Moon, they took the form of their Cutie Marks, except the Element of Magic which already had the form of Twilight's Cutie Mark.

### Element of Honesty

The element of honesty is as a gold necklace with an orange apple-shaped gem that looks like the apples in Applejack's cutie mark.

### Element of Kindness

The element of kindness is as a gold necklace with a pink butterfly-shaped gem that looks like the butterflies in Fluttershy's cutie mark.

### Element of Laughter

The element of laughter is a gold necklace with a blue balloon-shaped gem that looks like the balloons in Pinkie's cutie mark.

### Element of Generosity

The element of generosity is as a gold necklace with a purple diamond-shaped gem that looks like the diamonds in Rarity's cutie mark.

### Element of Loyalty

The element of loyalty is as a gold necklace with a red gem shaped similarly to the thunderbolt in Rainbow Dash's cutie mark.

### Element of Magic

The element of magic is a gold tiara studded with sapphires and a magenta star-shaped gem reminiscent of Twilight's cutie mark. After Twilight becomes an alicorn and a princess, the crown is shaped differently. It is a lighter shade of gold, no longer has sapphires, and rests horizontally, not vertically, on Twilight's head.

## Powers

* **Detecting atributes**: the Elements of Harmony have a special magic that can only work if wielded by one who possesses the corresponding trait and if all six are used in conjunction.

* **Reforming**: the elements were use to defeat Nightmare Moon, who was turned back to Princess Luna who becomes repentant for what she did.

* **Imprisoning**: with the elements, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were able to defeat Discord, imprisoning him in stone. Twilight and her friends were able to do the same to him and also release him.

## Overview

### Background

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.

To stop Princess Luna, who had became Nightmare Moon, from bringing the eternal night, Princess Celestia, reluctantly, 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 (when Applejack tells Twilight to let go from the ledge Twilight is clinging because she is safe, what was true because she was caught by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy during her mid-fall and carried her to safety), kindness (when Fluttershy calmly approaches a manticore and removes a thorn stuck in the manticore's paw, calming the beast), laughter (when Pinkie Pie laughs and makes funny faces at scary trees, causing the faces on the trees to vanish in pink smoke with sparkles, explaining that they can conquer their fears just by laughing at them), generosity (when Rarity sympathizes with a sea serpent, who is upset about his ruined mustache and agitating the waters of the river the mares has to cross, and cuts off her own tail to repair his mustache, what makes the grateful sea serpent helps them cross the river), and loyalty (when Rainbow Dash is invited to join the Shadowbolts as long as she abandons her friends, but a tempted Rainbow ultimately declines the Shadowbolts' offer and ties the bridge, letting the others cross). 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.

When Discord is freed from his stone prison, Princess Celestia says to Twilight and her friends that she and her sister are no longer connected to the Elements and it's up to them to stop Discord. 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 friendship 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.

Under the orders of Princess Celestia, the main six 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.

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 transforms into an Alicorn. Her element, different from the others, then becomes her crown and she becomes a princess.

When 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, 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.

### *The Rise of Sombra*

In "Putting the Plan in Motion", they are seen when Sombra goes visit the Tree of Harmony.

## Appearances

The Rise of Sombra

Legends:

* Y - Appears and have an active role
* N - Do not appears and is not mentioned directly by the characters.
* B - Appears, but have a passive role or his or her appearance is implicit
* M - Mentioned directly by the characters.