"You're Starswirl the Bearded?!" exclaimed Twilight. "How did one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria and controller of the Elements become such an evil, manipulative jerk?!"

"The bearded?" asked Starswirl, scratching his un-bearded chin. "My beard froze off long ago, along with my wings."

"Me and Shining Armor will go address the townsfolk and find your friends Twilight." said Luna as she trotted out the door.

"I still can't believe I'm in the presence of the great Starswirl the Bearded.", squealed Twilight. "I have read all of your books, even the ones in backwards, upside-down latin. Will you sign my books?"

"Sorry, I don't do autographs." said Starswirl.

"Why not?" asked Twilight

"The more things I sign, the more my signature goes down in value."

"Oh I understand. Sorry for troubling you." said Twilight sheepishly.

"Twilight Sparkle. Tell me about your friends. Who are they?" asks Starswirl.

"Well, there's Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie."

"What?! How are there 6 of you?! There are only 3 Elements." said Starswirl in surprise.

"No, sir. There are 6. One for each of us. Is that not how things were when you were in power?" replied Twilight.

"Great, now I have 3 extra ponies to deal with." said Starswirl grumpily. "What is taking Luna so long?" No sooner had he said that had Luna and Shining Armor burst through the door, trailed by 5 mares.

"What the hay is going on here Twilight?" exclaimed a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane.

"We heard ya' needed our help, sugarcube, and we got here in a Manehattan minute." said an orange pony with a Stetson hat.

"Are you throwing a party?!" said a pink Earth pony with a mane resembling cotton candy. "Twilight you can't throw a party without telling us! If I would have known I would have brought balloons. Oh and streamers. And cupcakes!"

"Relax, darling. I don't think Twilight is throwing a party. She isn't dressed up or anything." responded a white unicorn, her voice filled with class.

"Um… Twilight?" said a yellow pegasus in the back of the group. "I don't mean to rush, but Angel asked me to fluff his tail and I have to get back to him. If you don't mind."

Starswirl looked, turning his gaze from the blue pegasus to the pink Earth pony to the yellow pegasus , giving all 5 of them a good look up and down. "You are the new users of the Elements, aren't you?", he said. They nodded. "I thought so. Well, I will introduce myself. I am-" he began

"We know exactly who you are Sombra!" said the rainbow maned pony. "We defeated you before and we'll do it again!"

"Is my appearance really that distracting?" said Starswirl, irritably. "Very well. I'll change back to my original form." His horn began to glow and his body doused in white light.

FLASH!

The library filled with a bright light. Nopony could see their hoof in front of their face. Slowly, the light began to subside. Vision began to return to the library. Once the ponies could see again they saw Starswirl had changed. His once black and greasy mane became a navy blue. His crimson eyes became a deep midnight blue and his coat became a lighter blue. His cutie mark was a large hollow star with 3, smaller stars swirling inside.

"Is that better?" he said, "Good. Let's start over. Tell me your name, your Element, and a little about you."

"I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest and most awesome pony in Equestria. I am the Element of Loyalty." said the rainbow mane.

"Howdy, I'm Applejack. I'm an apple farmer. I'm the Element of Honesty. I am pretty darn dependable in a pinch." said the pony with the Stetson.

" Hi I'm Pinkie Pie but wait who are you you aren't that meanie King Sombra are you of course not you don't look like a meanie pants Sombra was so mean he attacked the Crystal Empire for no reason Twilight stopped him though well technically it was Spike well technically it was Princess Cadence. I'm the Element of Laughter by the way. I just love to see ponies smile!" said the cotton candy pony, super fast and without pausing.

"Pinkie Pie?" said Starswirl, "Surely that's not your real name."

"Well, my birth name is Pinkamena, but nopony calls me that after what happened to my parents" she said with a smile.

"What happened to your parents?" said Starswirl tenderly.

"I don't know. The author didn't write it yet." she says.

"Alright." said Starswirl skeptically. "Who are the rest of you?"

"Well, I am Rarity, resident fashionista and owner of Carousel Boutique, where every dress is chic, unique and magnifique!" said the white unicorn, "I am the Element of Generosity."

"Good enough." said Starswirl, eager to begin. "But wait. What about Twilight Sparkle and… what was your name again, dear?" he said, directing it towards the yellow pegasus.

"I'm Fluttershy " she said, barely audible.

"Come again my dear?" said Starswirl, his patience running thin. Why me? he asked himself Why do I have to deal with these ponies?

"I'm Fluttershy " she repeats.

"Oh for goodness sake! Her name is Fluttershy and she is the Element of Kindness." said Twilight. "And I'm the Element of Magic."

"At least my Element remained the same." said Sombra. "Magic is the only one out of the 6 that existed in my time. I guess the Elements of Love and Tolerance got split."

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you" said Rainbow Dash, "But you still haven't told us what is going on. Or why we moved Ponyville to the other side of the planet."

"Ok. How do I explain this without hurting your tiny, little brains?" said Starswirl condescendingly. "Alright. Back when me, Tia, and Luna had the Elements, I had to move the stars everyday. It was hard work. I had to use dark magic which turned me evil. After Cadence defeated me, Tia locked me in a dungeon to try to get me to renounce the evil magic. Earlier today I agreed. I expunged the magic, Tia got in the way and now she is the evil Queen Solaris who is hell-bent on killing anypony who stands in her way, me and Luna especially. I need your help to kidnap Solaris and drain the magic from her. The only reason I am asking you is because you are honor-bound as the Elements to help the princess.", he said slowly to make sure they understood. "To simplify things immensely, let's just say I need the Elements. Where are they?"

"They are recharging" said Twilight. It was common knowledge that the Elements need to recharge every now and again. "So, we need another plan. We can't just sit here or Princess Celestia will attack us. Or the citizens of Equestria. Or both."

"We can't operate during the day," said Luna, "As Solaris can see whatever the sunlight touches. We need to wait until it's night over Canterlot for us to attack."

"But that is hours from now." said Shining Armor, speaking for the first time. "The more time we waste, the more time Solaris has to plan."

"Well do you have a better idea?" said Starswirl

"Give me a second to think." said Shining as he trotted upstairs.

"Well, let's overlook what we have to work with." said Starswirl, "We have two pegasi. Their aerobatics will come in handy for-"

"Actually, Fluttershy doesn't really fly." said Twilight.

"So I have an earth-bound pegasus. Fantastic. Well the Earth ponies are most likely going to be useless. One is delusional, thinking 'honesty is the best policy' and the other is a stupid, naive little filly who is stuck in the fantasy that this is a story of some sort. At least we have 3 able bodied unicorns. Between me, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity, we should be pretty powerful."

"Firstly Starswirl, that was a horrible thing to say to Pinkie and Aj." said Luna, who was feeling a little pissed at Starswirl right now, "I expect an apology. Second, Rarity does not practice combat magic. She is a basic unicorn. And third, why does it sound like you intend to leave me behind?"

"I have a unicorn that is worthless at magic? Beautiful." said Starswirl with sarcasm. "Oh, and you are being left behind Luna. We can't afford to lose you. You are the second most important pony in this room."

"What?" shouted Luna in outrage, "I can take care of myself Starswirl."

"What could you do Luna? You were never exactly the best at the academy." Starswirl said.

"Wow. One of the only ponies I look up to is a total jerk!" said Twilight, disappointed upon meeting Starswirl.

"Well, never meet your heroes Twilight Sparkle." said Starswirl grumpily, "You will be disappointed."

"What could I do?" asked Luna, "What could I do! I could blast the fuzz off a peach at 1000 yards away! I was the first of us to master teleportation! Discord asked me to rule if anything ever happened to him! Obviously I refused. The list goes on of things I could do! I am a master at divination. I am fluent in Latin, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and German. Oh and if you don't remember: Ich in den Arsch getreten, bevor und ich werde es wieder tun. Just like old times" And she walked off to go prepare herself for the mission.

"What was that last sentence?" questioned Twilight.

"It was German." said Starswirl slowly. "She said, 'I kicked your ass before and I'll do it again'."

"What?! When did you guys fight?" said Twilight frantically.

"When I agreed to date her if she could beat me" said Starswirl, embarrassed.

"Are you done arguing with your ex?" said Shining Armor, climbing down the stairs he was holding a dozen sets of shackles using magic, "Because I have a plan" he said.

"Well what is it?!" yelled Starswirl, ready to get this over with. In answer Shining merely jingled the shackles. Starswirl looked at him, puzzled. Then realization dawned on him. "Shining Armor. That plan is going to be risky, hard to pull off, dangerous and down-right insane." he said, "And it is brilliant! This is the best plan since you threw your wife at me!" said Starswirl genuinely.