Standard disclaimer: If I owned FiM, this would all be canon instead of just headcanon. So be thankful that I don't own it.

A/N: This chapter is set well before any events referenced in the series proper, aside from the obvious.

A/N II: Most stuff in this fic is an alternate explanation for various things in the series, for instance the origins of Celestia, Luna, and Sombra. Yes, there are things that look like they diverge from canon. I swear they only look that way; part of the idea of this fic is that the in-canon sources of history aren't telling the entire truth and some of the characters (such as Discord) are putting on personas.

In the cottage, there was a table. On the table rested a bowl. Although it was a common bowl, and an empty bowl, it was still a subject for discussion.

"Now, supposing one were to slice this bowl into an infinite number of parts, with each slice parallel to the table's surface, we would have an infinite number of circles. Similarly, if we were to stack those circles on top of one another and fuse them together, we would have a bowl."

Starswirl's apprentice nodded. "Right. And the Amniomorphic Spell stacks spheres 'on top' of one another outside the standard three dimensions to produce a 'hyper-bowl'?"

"Not quite. The Spell instead stacks n-spheres 'above' one another in n-plus-one-space. I trust you understand why this is useful when dealing with summons?"

Clover closed her eyes, visualizing the possible uses of something like that. "Well, when dealing with a 4-plus-dimensional summon, you could use it as a shield, that only exposes its opening when you want to cast through it. Or, if I understand our talk about Conceptual Artifacts from last week, you could contain a summon in the 'bowl' while you prepared a binding. Is that the project?"

"Yes. From what you tell me, the Fires are simply too dangerous to have unchecked."

Clover remembered very well. The Fires of Friendship were, in fact, dangerous. They were able to melt almost anything: ice, stone, a pony's identity, lesser elder horrors... And they were quite possibly the only Outer Power that could be invoked accidentally. She could only hope that the warning she had left for the Court would not be misunderstood.

A week later, they were still discussing what would have to go into the binding.

"A constructed realm, so that they can't melt the binding itself."

A former statue of a figure* combining the various species of Equestria nodded and made a note. "Or we could go with a failsafe spell on the artifact, to reconstitute it whenever it does get destroyed. Ought to do that anyway, since the realm will open if the 'key' breaks."

"Right. Almost forgot about that. And we'll need some kind of safeguard, to keep them from melting the spell itself."

Starswirl blinked in surprise. "The Fires can do that?"

"Given enough time, probably."

"Right. We'll have to divide it, like an arcane critical mass. And probably allow for it to 'leak' at regular intervals."

The former statue nodded. "Got it. A Type XVI resonance filter, combined with a sustaining matrix." Its nature as an intrinsically magical being granted it certain insights into spell design.

"Uh, right. That should work. Now how many pieces to break them into?"

A month later, they were making the final preparations. The statue read off from a list as the two unicorns carefully examined the circles they had drawn on the floor.

"Six gems, so that the aspects form a pentagram around the core."

"Check."

"Self-sustaining resonance filter."

"Check. Currently dormant; it'll activate once it has a power source."

"Conceptual link failsafe."

"Check, and it's tied to the emotions most likely to invoke the Fires with the artifacts broken."

"False invocation array."

"Check."

"Amniomorphic bindings."

"All seven of them."

And an hour of checking and two minutes of casting later, the Elements of Harmony came into being.

*The artist had named the statue "Discord", but when Clover had come into his tutelage, Starswirl had decided that she needed a familiar far more than he needed a vaguely species-ist piece of sculpture.** And so he had animated it.

**Especially since he had no idea why his aunt had bought the thing, or why she thought he would appreciate it.