Previously...

After returning home to Ponyville, Luster Dawn immediately began a search for the Elements of Harmony. Having her friends help her out, they met at the Castle of Friendship with Sunburst before setting out towards the Everfree Forest to find the elements.

Upon retrieving them from the Castle of the Two Sisters, trouble rose for the group of creatures as a pack of timberwolves passed by, threatening the progress that Luster and the group were making. Being shown a little kindness, Luster managed to hold things together, returning back to the Castle of Friendship with the Elements of Harmony.

Casting a spell on the elements, Starlight revealed a map to Luster and everyone else, including Discord, who had shown up out of thin air. Now, with her cutie mark hovering around the area of Silver Shoals on the map, Luster is shocked and confused, perplexed as to what it all means. This is where the story continues...

Luster Dawn was baffled at the sight of her cutie mark hovering around Silver Shoals. She felt something tickling her flank and turned to see that her actual cutie mark was glowing. She blinked a few times, then looked back at the map, then at Starlight.

"What's happening?" She wondered. "How is this possible?"

"Oh, it's been years since I've last seen this thing," Discord chimed, "the greatest times came from this table, wouldn't you say so, Starlight?"

Starlight nodded, "Some of them, yes."

"The whole time travel thing was certainly awesome," smirked Discord, "watching you and Twilight fight it out on top of a cloud while the past version of-"

"Oh-kay!" Starlight interrupted, raising her hoof and shutting Discord's mouth. "Nopony needs to hear about that. Besides, Luster asked a question and I think it's only fair that we offer her an answer." She pulled her hoof back from Discord.

"Well that's certainly boring," simmered Discord, snapping his fingers, "I must say, things are certainly arising if this is back in town."

"Apparently," agreed Starlight, looking towards Luster, "this is a map of Equestria, obviously. It originated from the Tree of Harmony a little bit after this castle appeared, at least from what Twilight has told me."

"That would be correct," informed Discord, "I was there."

"This map works slightly different from any regular map," continued Starlight, "it locates friendship problems anywhere within its boundaries and let's us know who would be best to tackle those problems. Since only your cutie mark is-"

While Starlight was explaining how the map worked, Orange's cutie mark started to shine and hover with Luster's around the Silver Shoals area. Starlight nodded, then looked to Discord peculiarly.

"Years of being off shows that things are slower when they're restarted," Discord smirked, "I should know since I was a stone."

Starlight cocked an eyebrow, "Aaanyway, it appears that both you and Orange are needed in Silver Shoals. I'm certain that map really needs all of you, but since the rest of you don't have cutie marks, there's no way to really-"

Again, Starlight was interrupted by the map. Now, Summer's horn was glowing red, and an image of her face was hovering with Orange's and Luster's cutie mark. Eventually, a silhouette of Midnight's face and Grutar's face joined in the circling symbols, as well as a sixth symbol. The sixth was a symbol that had a colored moon and sky around it. Luster immediately noticed the out-of-place symbol and scratched her chin lightly.

"What's that one?" She asked.

Starlight took a closer inspection of it and cocked an eyebrow. She appeared to be just as confused as Luster was.

"A better question would be whose is that?" Starlight said in rebuttal.

Discord laughed, "Ooh, this is turning out to be quite the page turner, now isn't it?!" He snapped a glass of chocolate milk which was filled from the top down.

Luster looked to Discord now, "Do you know who that belongs to?"

Discord smirked, taking out a set of glasses and putting them on, looking closer at the unknown symbol, "Looks to me like it is a cutie mark, but who wouldn't have guessed that?"

"Obviously," Luster replied, rolling her eyes slightly.

Discord noticed this and played off of it, "Well, you asked if I knew who that belonged to. It obviously belongs to somepony else that's clearly not here."

"I knew that already," Luster retorted.

"I think she meant if you knew the pony it belonged to," Midnight added.

"Well the answer to that is a clear and heavy noooooo~," answered Discord finally, taking his eyes out and rolling them around the table.

Luster sighed, wondering who's cutie mark that was. She shook her head, then focused on the task at hoof, looking back to the floating Elements of Harmony.

"There are six elements," she spoke aloud, "Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, and Magic...each element needs the others in order to work properly. As far as I know, nopony has been able to command more than one element at a time, aside from-"

"Tell that to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna," Discord interrupted, showing a small image of the former rulers of Equestria wielding the Elements of Harmony on their own.

"I was getting to that," Luster retorted, smirking slightly at Discord, "aside from them, nopony has been able to wield more than one element at a time. I wonder if that other pony is connected to this task somehow."

"Who knows?" Orange responded. "But by the looks, and, uhh," he looked towards his flank, "feels of it, I think it would be best if we headed there now, wouldn't you all say?"

"That would be the smart thing to do," Starlight advised, "take the Elements of Harmony with you. My guess is that's why Twilight asked for you to retrieve them."

"We'll take good care of them, Starlight," Luster promised, accepting the elements from her.

"Good luck," finished Starlight.

With the Elements of Harmony in their possession now, Luster and the group started to follow the map towards their destination: Silver Shoals.

Meanwhile, in Silver Shoals, a unicorn was studying the starry night sky on a nearby hill using a telescope they had brought with them. Looking through the telescope, they were drawing some of the constellations on a nearby map. Adjusting the telescope's trajectory, they spotted something unusual approaching the small town down below, prompting them to pull themselves away from the telescope.

"What's going on down there?" They wondered.

Curious to know what was going on, they put the telescope away with their magic and placed it in their saddlebag along with the map they were working on. They made their way down the hill and noticed two alicorns trying their hardest to combat the mystical creature that appeared to be slowly growing over time.

"Oh no!" They shouted, now rushing down into the small community to offer her help.

"Miss," someone shouted, "get to cover!"

The unicorn heard the warning, but still pressed forward, readying her magic in case something bad were to happen. She turned a corner and found herself on the main pathway, watching the two alicorns fly around, firing their magic at the creature that was starting to block the moonlight. She shot a beam of magic at the creature, earning the attention of one of the alicorns.

"Get back!" They shouted.

"No," the unicorn defiantly responded, "the more help you have, the better!"

The unicorn shot some more magic at the creature and tried to blast it backwards. The alicorn that warned her flew down to the ground and stood in front of the unicorn, towering over her, easily doubling the height of the unicorn. The unicorn stood tall and looked up at the alicorn, letting her know that she wasn't going anywhere.

"We don't want anypony to get hurt," the alicorn said, "it's already bad enough that this thing is here. Please just get to safety. My sister and I can take this thing ourselves."

The unicorn shook her head, "No can do, Princess Celestia. I can take care of myself and I'm more worried about these ponies than myself. I'm willing to put myself in danger if it means defending these ponies."

Princess Celestia bit her lip. She secretly knew that having more help could be a huge difference, but she was also still thinking like a ruler and wanted to make sure that every subject was safe. Unfortunately, she could not change the mind of the little unicorn that she was standing before and sighed.

"It's very generous of you to offer your help," she said, "but please get to safety."

"It'll be even more generous if you accepted my help," the unicorn responded, blasting a small bit of the creature away from Princess Celestia, "Princess."

Princess Celestia cocked an eyebrow, then nodded, "Alright, if you can handle the lower half, my sister and I will take care of the upper half. Do you think you'll be okay?"

"I will do my best, Your Highness," the unicorn answered.

"What's your name, little filly?" Princess Celestia asked, flapping her wings a bit.

"Astral," the unicorn stated, "Astral Flare."

Astral moved forward and charged up another magical attack from her horn while Princess Celestia and Princess Luna continued their assault from up top. Astral moved in quick patterns, jumping from one side to the other as she shot the magic towards the creature. As for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they kept flying around, making sure not to make eye contact with the creature. They knew the risks, but Astral did not.

"Try not to make eye contact with it, Astral!" Princess Celestia called, firing off another beam of magic into the creature's left eye.

"The gaze of this creature is dangerous," added Princess Luna.

"What exactly is this thing?" Astral responded, jumping out of the way of the creature's tail.

"This is a Basilisk," Princess Celestia advised, "and they're dangerous creatures to mettle with."

"What's one doing here anyway?" Astral continued, casting a spell that shielded her from another one of the creature's tail whips.

"We are unsure," Princess Celestia admitted, "but more help should be arriving soon."

Not even Princess Celestia knew just how long it would be until the help were to arrive. She was hoping that it would be sooner rather than later, however, as the Basilisk continued to slowly gain power and grow in size.

The fighting continued for quite some time, magic beams and spells going flying all over the place from the three ponies. The Basilisk, adjusting to the seemingly chaotic attack pattern, swung its tail and hit Princess Celestia hard, smacking her out of the sky and down towards the ground. Astral noticed the falling alicorn and acted quickly, rushing over towards where Princess Celestia was going to land and focusing her magic in an attempt to catch her.

With just enough time to spare, Astral caught Princess Celestia mainly with her magic, though she was positioned under her for support, being hit by her body. Astral collapsed from the excess weight, but managed to keep Princess Celestia from hitting the ground. Princess Luna saw this from above, but forced herself to keep fighting the Basilisk, afraid of what it could do if it was left unchecked now. Fighting it on her own though was now an extremely difficult task.

"Little help, please!" Princess Luna called, flying out of the way of another tail whip from the Basilisk, barely managing to do so.

Astral tried lifting herself up, but felt dazed as well. She tried using her magic to lift Princess Celestia off of her, but found that she was too tired to do such a thing right now. She was helpless, since Princess Celestia was knocked unconscious from the hit and could not move. She tried calling back to Princess Luna as well, but couldn't do that since her voice was muffled slightly, thanks to Princess Celestia and Astral's own positioning underneath her.

Suddenly, the Basilisk swung at Princess Luna with its tail again. The tail, coming from above Princess Luna now, forced her out of the sky and down towards the ground. She let out a painful yelp, colliding with the ground nearby Astral and Princess Celestia. Astral looked up towards the Basilisk again and tried getting up from underneath Princess Celestia, but to no avail.

The Basilisk, having defeated the ponies in its way, started moving closer towards the town, leaving the ponies in the ground. Astral called over to Princess Luna to see how she was doing.

"Princess," she called, "are you okay?"

"The Basilisk is growing and nearing the town," Princess Luna responded, "I'm fine, but I fear that the ponies in the town won't be in a few moments."

"What can we do?" Astral wondered.

"How's some help sound right about now?"

Astral looked up and saw a unicorn towering over her. The unicorn held out her hoof and offered to help Astral up. Astral looked at the hoof, then at Princess Celestia's limp body.

"Who are you?" Astral asked, taking the unicorn's hoof and pulling herself out from her current predicament.

"Luster Dawn," they replied, "and we're here to stop that Basilisk."

Luster turned around and revealed her group of friends to Astral and the collapsed princesses. With Astral by their side now, Luster focused her attention on the large Basilisk that was nearing the town. She turned to Astral and asked what had happened.

"That thing," she sighed, "it was too strong for them. I saw it from up on that hill and came down to help, but my magic in addition to the magic the princesses had was still not good enough. I'm not sure what can stop that thing now."

"These can," Luster responded, pulling out the Elements of Harmony.

Astral stared at them. "What are those?"

"These are the Elements of Harmony," Luster stated, "and they're the key to stopping that Basilisk."

"How do they work again?" Orange asked.

Luster blinked a few times, looking at the floating elements in front of her, "I, uhh, I'm not too sure...Princess Twilight never explained that to me."

Hearing the conversation, Princess Luna struggled to stand on her own hooves. She planted a couple of them onto the ground, trying to force herself up, only to end up falling back down. Luster noticed this and immediately ran over to check on the fallen princess.

"Are you okay?" Luster wondered, noticing the wings and horn that Luna had. "Princess Luna?"

"Forget about me right now," Princess Luna replied, coughing a bit, "you need to put an end to that Basilisk before it gets to the town."

"But how do we activate the Elements of Harmony?" Luster protested.

"When the time comes," Princess Luna began to answer before collapsing completely on the ground. She had become unconscious like Princess Celestia.

This left Luster flustered, slightly panicking again. She was on her own now with her friends against a Basilisk that was slowly growing in size and nearing an invasion of the nearby town. She looked back to her friends and wondered what they could do now.

"Yak tough!" Grutar declared. "Yak take creature on."

"Yeah," added Midnight, "I'm sure if we combined our efforts, we can totally beat that thing up!"

"Where do we begin?" Summer wondered.

Luster looked back towards the Basilisk and nodded, "I have a plan."

With the Basilisk slowly approaching its destination, Luster and the others charged in, preparing themselves for a fight. Astral and Luster prepared to fire a joint magic beam at the creature while Grutar and Orange used their strengths on the ground. Meanwhile, Summer allowed her anger to take control of her, transforming her into her nirik form and using her newfound power to attack the creature. As for Midnight, she proceeded with an aerial assault on the Basilisk.

Things were going well for the group of creatures for a while. Luster and Astral continued their assault with their magic, dodging any incoming attacks that the Basilisk had in store for them. With its frustration mounting, the Basilisk let our a roar that pierced and echoed throughout the sky, stopping Luster and her friends in their tracks as they covered their ears, trying to muffle out the loud, piercing sound.

The Basilisk took advantage of the situation and used its tail once again to knock down everyone at the same time, succeeding in doing so. It started to use the magic that Luster and Astral were using to attack it and tried to cast a poisoning spell on the fallen friends before moving on.

Luster looked around at her friends and then towards the Elements of Harmony. She started to feel tears forming in her eyes and wondered why they would not work.

"What are we doing wrong?" She said, wiping away some tears.

She felt a presence behind her and looked towards them. She saw Summer and Midnight looking at her, still with determined looks on their faces. Summer, back in her kirin form, reached out and helped Luster up.

"I don't understand," Luster stated, "how are you both still okay after failing so quickly?"

"We stand together as one," Midnight replied, "and we fall together as one."

"We're friends, Luster," added Summer, "kind, true friends. When we stand together, nothing can defeat us."

"Creature got lucky shot," Grutar claimed, "Grutar make creature pay for hurting friends!"

"I've seen some things in my life," said Orange, "but this, when we succeed, will be one of the happier moments of it."

Astral felt touched, "I've never seen such a diverse group of creatures act this friendly towards one another. It makes me feel happy to know that there is such a kindness in this world."

Luster smiled softly, wiping away her tears again, "And I've never seen a pony like you be so generous as to offer to help us out. We only just met, but you truly are one selfless pony."

As if on cue, Luster and all of her friends began to glow. The glows were the same as the Elements of Harmony and, without any aid, one element flew towards one creature. Once the element was near a creature, a bright light had engulfed each of them, replacing the shard with a necklace around each of their necks. Luster, feeling slightly dazed, rubbed her eyes and noticed the necklaces on each of her friends.

"Whoa," she gasped, "that's incredible."

Each of Luster's friends looked down and noticed their necklace. They looked between one another and wondered what they were, looking back to Luster for her answer.

"Are these-?" Orange asked before stopping. He found that finding the right words was hard.

"They're the Elements of Harmony," answered Luster, "Princess Twilight told me they used to look like these."

"Okay," Astral butted in, "cool moment aside, we have a Basilisk to defeat."

"But how do we do it?" Midnight questioned.

"Together," Luster insisted, "I think we have to do this together."

Traveling together to meet with the Basilisk, Luster and the others stopped just outside the main portion of the town, looking up at the creature. The Basilisk glanced down and locked eye contact with each creature, expecting them to fall back down and feel the venomous magic that it had. When Luster and her friends failed to fall back down, the Basilisk roared again, angered by the unsuccessful venomous magic. Luster noticed this and smirked.

"Looks like we finally evened the playing field," she chuckled, reaching out to her friends, "let's do this while we have the opportunity!"

With a magical sensation filling their bodies, Luster felt herself be lifted up off the ground. She looked to her friends and noticed something similar happening to them. She nodded, then reached out for Orange's hoof and Summer's hoof.

"You guys trust me?" She asked them.

They nodded in response, following Luster's lead and reaching out for the creature next to them. When they were all joined together, Luster felt the magic in her body peak, flashing her eyes a very bright white color. She had trouble containing it and blinked her eyes, unleashing a blinding white light in the nearby area, forcing the Basilisk backwards and draining it of its power. Luster smirked, then felt the magic inside of her strengthen and blast the Basilisk away.

Friendship is magic, I suppose, she thought to herself as the blinding light was joined by a loud ringing sound.

When the light finally disappeared, Luster found herself on the ground once more with her friends. She felt seriously dazed by the rush of magic that ran through her body and wondered what had happened. All she could remember was seeing the blinding light and nothing else. She looked around to her friends and noticed them struggling to get up.

"What happened?" Midnight asked.

"An impressive feat has happened," somepony else said.

The group of friends looked to where the voice had come from and noticed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna standing nearby. The two princesses approached the group and spotted each necklace that they were wearing. They then noticed the cutie marks of Luster, Orange, and Astral glow once more.

"I guess that settles that," Princess Celestia smiled, looking to her younger sister, "wouldn't you say so, Luna?"

"I couldn't agree more, sister," Princess Luna replied.

Astral noticed her cutie mark glowing again, "I guess that explains that? Maybe? I have a lot of questions about this."

"We'll explain things to you later," promised Princess Celestia, pointing to the necklaces, "it appears that you've managed to figure out how to use them after all."

Luster blushed slightly, "It was nothing honestly. I'm just happy I had my friends along with me while I did this."

"And that's what I like to hear," another pony said.

Luster looked to this new pony and saw that it was Princess Twilight. Overcome with excitement, Luster ran over towards her mentor and embraced her with a hug. She felt very proud with what she and her friends had just accomplished and thought that Twilight felt the same with her.

"See what friendship can do to Equestria?" Princess Twilight smirked, winking at Luster.

Luster blushed again, "I guess it is important."

"When creatures make friends with one another," Princess Twilight explained, "it makes Equestria stronger and a more safer place. The more creatures learn about friendship, the better the world will become in the long run."

"This sounds familiar," Princess Celestia giggled, nudging Princess Twilight slightly, "almost like you had a good mentor."

"Friendship is a lifelong journey," Princess Twilight insisted, "and we all have to start somewhere." She looked towards Princess Celestia, "Even if we have to be pushed into it, it is all for the better in the long run."

"Agreed," nodded Princess Celestia.

"How did you know I'd be able to do this, Princess?" Luster wondered.

Princess Twilight shook her head, "I didn't, Luster, and I think Princess Celestia can say the same for me when I was once in your hooves. We don't know everything, but our experiences have aided and guided us into feeling when something spectacular might happen. Celestia once told me she knew of a special group of ponies prior to when I moved to Ponyville. Needless to say, I had the same feeling about your friends."

"Even me, Your Highness?" Astral asked.

Princess Twilight smiled, "I knew you traveled across Equestria with your studies, so when this started unfolding, I had a good feeling about your generosity. You just proved me right. Besides, I had a feeling that your personality would fit extremely well with each of theirs."

Astral blushed and hid behind her mane slightly, pulling her beanie down a bit, "Th-thank you, P-Princess."

Luster looked around once more at the necklaces, then fixated her views back on Princess Twilight, "And I suppose these will have to go back where we found them?"

Again, Princess Twilight shook her head, "Not now, Luster. We never know when they might be needed again. I am trusting you to oversee these elements now, just like Princess Celestia trusted me long ago. Just don't cast any spells that alter them in any way, okay?"

Princess Celestia giggled to herself, prompting a look from everypony. She looked back at Princess Twilight, then at the others.

"It certainly has been a long while since something like this has happened," she mentioned.

"It was nice to get some action again," Princess Luna added, "sometimes retirement can get a tad boring."

"You said it sister!" Discord shouted, appearing from behind a nearby tree before snapping himself a pair of sunglasses and a straw hat.

Luster rolled her eyes playfully, then looked back towards Princess Twilight, "What do we do now?"

"I want you to keep studying friendship, Luster," Princess Twilight advised, "and please, do report to me weekly with what you've learned. They will definitely help out with your studies." She winked at Princess Celestia, who winked back.

"Thank you, Princess," Luster smiled, feeling her eyes form some more tears, "for your help and wisdom."

"I only guided you, Luster," Princess Twilight exclaimed, "what you do is of your own accord. I'm just here for advice if you need it."

Tears in her eyes now, Luster hugged her group of friends and smiled happily. "And it's all thanks to you all."

A week later, Luster found herself inside her room back home in Ponyville. She had just finished reading another book of hers and decided to write to Princess Twilight as she promised. She grabbed a paper, quill, and some ink and started to write.

"Dear Princess Twilight," she began writing, "I'm still amazed that my friends and I managed to defeat the Basilisk using the Elements of Harmony. To be honest, I'm surprised that we were chosen to wield them at all. Nonetheless, I still have a lot to learn about this whole friendship thing.

"I'm actually preparing to meet up with Astral Flare, Summer Breeze, and Grutar later today to help Orange plan a surprise party for Midnight. Her birthday is coming up shortly and we felt that it would be a good idea to surprise her with a party. I can't wait to tell you how everything went and how Midnight reacted when all of it does happen.

"I also can't wait to see what other adventures my friends and I will experience next. It was fun to do something heroic but it felt even better to know that my friends were by my side the entire time, fighting alongside with me. I imagine that it was something similar when you and your friends did this long ago and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us all.

"Needless to say, I think I'm going to have fun exploring and studying more about friendship than prior. Thank you again for talking me into giving it a try and showing me where it all started for you. I don't know what I would be doing had you not shown me the way.

"Oh, I gotta get going! We gotta beat Midnight to Sugar Cube Corner if we want to plan the surprise party. It was fun writing to you today. Your faithful student, Luster Dawn."

Rolling up the scroll, Luster placed it in the small capsule that Princess Twilight had gifted her and pushed a button, sending the letter to her immediately. She grabbed a pad of paper and a few quills, making her way downstairs and heading out to Sugar Cube Corner, smiling along the way.

Thank you for showing me the start of the true path, Luster thought to herself as she happily trotted along the road.