"Princess Luna what is the matter?" Shadowfall, Luna's personal pegasus pony guard, looked at his princess with concern. The dark grey Stallions day had started off strange first his helmet flew ahead of him to Breakfast. Now the powerful Princess of the night was shacking like a leaf.

"We are alright, and we thank thee for thy concern." Luna took a deep breath to calm her "Discord has escaped!"

"What!?! Impossible! You and Princess Celestia defeated him! You've got to be joking!" Shadowfall shouted before remembering being in the presence of royalty. He held his breath for the swift retribution of speaking like that to a princess.

Luna didn't seem to notice his outburst or chose to ignore it. "Alas, it was Celestia who held the element of laughter not us" she pointed Shadowfell to the window "Surely thou have noticed strange events this morning. Or has such things become common place."

Shadowfall looked out the window and gasped. The skies held cotton-candy clouds that rained chocolate milk and a group of the palace animals were playing poker in the courtyard. Here and there Sorrin was chasing an apple pie through the air at dizzying speeds. The bizarre scene made him fall back on his haunches. "Why hasn't anything like that happened in here?" he thought to himself.

"It's taking all of our power to prevent him from entering this room, but we do not have the power now for a full confrontation. We fear his target is the new bearers of harmony before he turns his full attention to us." Luna somehow answered his thoughts.

"But why now Princess?" Shadowfall asked out of the need to look away from the window rather than curiosity. He stared at Luna as she made her way to a group of cushions in her chambers. She sat and motioned for him to sit as well.

"We do not know, perhaps the spell has weakened over time. Much the same as when we were imprisoned in the moon."

"But you and Celestia beat him before, can't you do it again?" Shadowfell sat on a large blue cushion and looked hopefully at Luna.

"Perhaps, if we were at full strength our hopes now lie with the new Bearers of the Elements. Only they can wield the elements and defeat Discord once and for all." She said in a hushed tone. Very different than her normal royal Cantorlot voice Shadowfall was used too.

"How did you defeat him?" he asked Luna as the sun and moon seemed to repeatedly change places.

"Ah! We are glad you asked!" Luna smiled. "It will help take our minds off of our current inability to help. Please listen closely"

Luna cleared her throat.

"It was over fifteen hundred years ago, discord was the unquestioned master of all Equestria he would make a family into a field of turnip or turn a pony inside out if it struck his fancy. That is until Celestia and I were born. We were normal unicorns then. Long had we watched discord antagonize our little ponies. We could do nothing. But one day we found a scroll by Starswirl the bearded, it told of the location of the Elements of Harmony. The most powerful magic he had heard of. Only those who held the six virtues of friendship could unlock the Elements, We did not know if we were worthy but we had to try. We could not stand by anymore, no matter if it cost us our lives we would stop Discord. Through a series of trials we had made it to the location mentioned in Starswirls scroll. Imagine our surprise as we were deemed The First Bearers of Harmony. With our new power we set out to stop discord.

We first tried to reason with him but that ultimately failed. For fifteen days and nights we fought Celestia attacked during the day and I at night. On the dawn of the sixteenth day we laid beaten and tired as Discord seemed only to get stronger. He stood over us and began to gloat.

Celestia seemed to take the defeat the worst and she spat in Discords face and said that as long as ponies are alive in this world, we will never give up. That's when Discord started to laugh and music filled the air.

That is when Celestia and I saw our chance and we united our power from the Elements. We could not destroy him; we fear that he is as much a part of Equestria as we are. Instead the elements turned Discord into stone. He had been so distracted by his song that he did not notice it at all. After his defeat the Ponies of Equestria tried made us their queens but we could not truly accept. So we only held on to the title of princess instead."

Knock Knock Knock

Shadowfall jumped at the sound from the door. He made his way to open it before he could ask Luna to elaborate on becoming an alicorn. Ready for anything that might be out there. As soon as the door was opened he bowed deeply. Standing before him was a tired looking Princess Celestia with a large saddle bag of scrolls.

"Sister I need your help." Celestia walked past the bowing Shadowfall and went straight to Luna "I fear discord has corrupted Twilight and her friends."

"Of course sister, we will help. What will you have us do?" Luna replied and got to her feet.

"I need you to mask my spells so I can send twilight help." Celestia said quietly

"How will scrolls help Twilight? Are they powerful magic spells?" Shadowfall piped up despite his best efforts to keep quiet.

"No these are much better than any magic," Celestia smiled warmly and Luna followed suite. "They are memories."

The song is words words words from Candide
Bernstein's Version