Songs of Innocence

Chapter 23: Avian Ambience

The Castle of Friendship's library

"So, still nothing on my Element?" Sun said to Twilight with a disappointed sigh. It was more of a prediction-based statement than a question, because she already knew what the answer would probably be. 

"Well, she's trying, Sun." Spike chimed in.

"Yeah, I kn-- Wait, who are you again?"

He scoffed, "What? You don't know me? I'm Twilight's main assistant, Spike." His explanation was met with a deafening silence. "Remember? Princess Blue Moon Quartz was going to rip my wings off?"

"Ohhhhhh... Yeah, I remember that. Anyways, how's the research going, Twilight?" Sun basically shoved Spike out of her focus (figuratively speaking) to focus on why she was here.

"I'm still looking." Twilight admitted, scanning her vast collection of books for anything that could possibly have anything on the subject. She telekinetically picked one of the books from one of the highest shelves, and levitated it down, wasting no time to flip through its contents. "Let's see... Where's the index... Ah! 'Sub-Elements'-- Oh, no. That's not 'Sub-Elements', that's 'Submerged Elements'. My mistake." She continued to magically flip through the pages, looking for anything related to a "Seventh Element" or "Additional/Other Elements". 

Then, she found exactly what she was looking for. "Here it is! 'Minor Elements'! Hmm..." She began to read a passage from the section. "'It has been theorized by many that Elements exist beyond the six discovered ones, and can be somehow grown by the Tree of Harmony. This belief stemmed from the idea that the Elements of Harmony, much like literal friendships (as opposed to its magic), can be complex, and almost impossible to fully understand. As of the modern day, this theory has yet to be debunked, but no evidence points towards it being true.' Wow..."

"That makes sense." Sun commented while Twilight briefly paused. The alicorn was ecstatic, and was grinning ear-to-ear. 

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!" she yelled loudly, completely uncaring of her volume in her pure elation. Sun and Spike grinned along with her because of how palpable the alicorn's utter excitement was. She zipped towards Sun, and basically yelled in her face, "THERE'S MORE ELEMENTS!" Without even pausing to breathe, she zipped towards Spike while dragging the unicorn with her, and yelled "AND WE CAN BE THE ONES WHO DISCOVER THEM!!" She grabbed Spike too, and hugged them both extremely tightly.

"That's g-great... but can you please l-let go of me?!" Sun groaned with discomfort. She'd probably be a lot more excited if she was allowed to, instead of having the life squeezed out of her by Twilight. Spike arguably had it worse because of his tinier body. 

"O-oh... Sorry!" Twilight chuckled nervously, releasing the two from their behooved death sentence. 

Sun hacked up a lung before asking, "Uh, did it say what my Element is, though?"

"Well, since there aren't any, the book actually gives some of its own ideas. So, take your pick, Sun." Twilight pointed her hoof to a part of the page that listed off some words that could be used to name new Elements if they were to be discovered. None of them caught Sun's eye, or even really sounded related to the idea of friendship. The original six Elements were, of course, Honesty, Generosity, Loyalty, Laughter, and finally, Magic. But most of the hypothetical Elements listed in the book were only vaguely related to the idea of a social virtue, unlike the actual Elements. This wasn't a huge problem, but made it a little harder for Sun to pin down which one she thought she represented.

"Gravitas, Humility, Temperance, Tolerance, Wisdom, Passion, Freedom, Courage, Unity, Ambition, Honor, Inspiration..." Sun listed off the Elements, and stopped upon noticing one called "Forgiveness".