My Little Sorceress: Friendship is Black Magic
Wisps of cloud sped past the barrier projected from the front of the chariot, members of the local Air Strike Force practiced their evasive patterns near their base above the local village, and the mid-day sun shone brightly into the eyes of Twilight Sparkle as the beat of the wings of the Guardsponies drawing her chariot slowed. They descended towards the stretch of dirt that served as the connection between this backwater and the capital. For a town so close to the heart of Equestria, this place appeared to be remarkably run down. No matter, she was not here for rest or pleasure.
No, she had a mission, a holy duty to perform for her mistress, the Goddess-Queen of Equestria, Defender of the Realm, Her Eternal Majesty Celestia. Of course, Twilight rarely thought of her instructor in those terms any longer. She had overcome that particular brand of thought the first time she had been flogged (in the absolute privacy of the citadel, at the hands of a Bound servant, of course) for attempting to teach herself battle magic. Not that it had been unreasonable, of course. She had been foolish as a filly, and had attempted to cast a Nova Burst spell, kin to that which had utterly destroyed the metropolis of Deep Harbor during the War of the Sisters. If she had succeeded, the entire castle would have been obliterated, although the defensive wards and barriers Celestia had established would likely have protected the rest of the city.
Still, from what little she had been told, the artifacts she had been sent to retrieve were even more powerful than the most fell and terrible of mass-destruction spells and summonings. The Elements of Harmony. They certainly didn’t sound like grand weapons, but who can fathom the minds of the First Ponies, those who had the glory to live in the age before the rise of Celestia and Lunamaria, when their Greatmother still resided in Equestria. All that remained of their creations were scattered ruins, and relics such as this. Nevertheless, from what Celestia had told her, the Elements somehow utilized friendship of all things as a source of power, and that the Queen herself could no longer use the Elements after she abused their power to drive her sister from Equestria. There was no doubt that the Elements would soon be needed; Lunamaria’s rebels gained new recruits every day, and there were rumors that she would soon move against outlying regions of Equestria. If war came, every asset would be necessary to repel the forces of the Lesser Sister, and prevent her from usurping the throne. If there was one pony in the land with the power to properly control the Elements and use them to shatter the rebel forces and drive Lunamaria into an even deeper exile, it was the pony who had trained for nearly a decade for that purpose. Twilight Sparkle knew, deep in her liver, that she could not fail.