What exactly do the Elements of Harmony do?

[Callisto 1,877]

All we're shown in the show is just a big blast of rainbow. It's been to used to turn things to stone, and to un-corrupt ponies. Can they just do anything, or are there limits? What do you think?

[Hazel-Beam 88]

A big blast of rainbow, haha 

 

My guess is they have unlimited functions, depending on what the main characters need them to do.

 

...Kind of like a sonic screwdriver.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Hazel-Beam

[NeverAgain653289he32 285]

Hello!

 

    Honestly I believe that the Elements of Harmony can do anything that the ponies please, but the target of the blast would have to be a corrupted or evil individual who is in need of reformation. 

 

Example: The Mane 6 can't just go up to Derpy and turn her into stone or shoot her with rainbow beams of pure awesome just because the muffins she made were a bit burned. She is not corrupted so the Elements of Harmony could not be used to 'reform' her because she didn't do anything wrong (She does not know what she did wrong because she didn't do anything wrong ).

 

~RD4

[The Pulse 210]

I personally think that the Elements of harmony (I'll call them EOH) channel the elements of each pony. In other words  I think the mane 6 already have the power inside them, It just takes the EOH to unlock them to their fullest potential. This is shown by how the beams come from the EOH at thier chest and come together to create the "big blast of rainbow".

 

I justify this by saying if they didn't already have the power in them, they wouldn't be able to use the EOH in the first place. Like how it was said Rainbow Dash IS the element of loyalty.

 

Now I think it is possible to 

 

 

  On 2013-05-24 at 11:06 PM, Rainbow Dash The Fourth said:

go up to Derpy and turn her into stone

but the inherent goodness in all of the main 6 would prevent that from happening. plus there would probably be repercussions for doing something that goes against harmony... like the inability to ever use the EOH again. 

Edited May 24, 2013 by The Pulse

[Nature's Spell 526]

I agree with the ponies above that they can do anything the Mane 6 need done. It's like the Staples Easy Button. :-) It just works. It's also one of those things the writers will never assign rules too.

[Thunderchild 875]

It's probably kind of like a reset button-whatever corrupted the character they are trying to reform is canceled out, or like in Discord's case, rendered harmless. As others have said: the elements cannot be used for anything but harmony and good-as the very motive would nullify the harmony aspect of the elements.

[Rainbow Dash Loyalty 1,275]

I think it's more like a type of 'weapon' against evil/corrupted spirits. You can't really use it all willy nilly on whoever you want like civilians because that's like abusing the weapon and will cause chaos instead of harmony. And being chaotic is like rejecting your element, rendering the EoH basically useless.

[Silverhoof 2,844]

Apart from, making pretty colored lights that act as an all purpose villain disposal unit...

 

The primary purpose of the elements are to bring 6 ponies together and justify the "Friendship is Magic" meme.

[verycreativeusername 1,800]

Used to unite together to use an overpowered rainbow explosion to do whatever to the villan so that that the episode will end quicker.

[Blue Moon 6,342]

It shoots a big rainbow. Not much else to it.

 

 

 

Woosh. Defeated villain. Let's eat cake now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But in all seriousness, I will have to agree with some of things posted above. I believe the Elements of Harmony are basicially artifacts that will stop any corrupted/evil being and restore harmony in any way possible.

 

 

Or, for literal explanations, you could say the Elements of Harmony are six talking miniature technicolor horses. I would explain each of them, but I don't think that is necessary.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Blue Moon

[NavelColt 22,883]

'Harmony' is obviously a massively powerful force of high magic in Equestria. As we've seen, not only the elements, but also branches of harmony, such as positive feelings (love, for example, when Shining Armor and Cadence used theirs to send Chrysalis and her army packing) are very potent to anything that is very inharmonious or evil. It's my personal opinion that Discord becomes turned to stone when hit by the elements (as opposed to becoming reformed like Nightmare Moon), because he's the living, breathing manifestation of chaos, and that won't change, regardless what personal alignment he decides to be. Thus, when the elements hit him, his own chaos magic is cancelled out by the harmonious magic, which petrifies him.

 

The Elements are not a weapon in of themselves; they're amulets that focus and magnify the power of positive emotions, personalities and thoughts. To a villain, this is naturally a trump card against them because, regardless what the outcome is (turned to stone, reformed, etc), the elements will 'stop' them, in whatever way fits most naturally. Nightmare Moon was still Luna, who was good, on the inside, so the Elements were able to strip off her evil coating and destroy it. Discord is pure chaos, harmony's polar opposite, even more than evil, so by simply hitting him with the elements, he's rendered immobile. So on and so forth.

[Sergios117 192]

My guess is that the elements are some sort of spell amplifier that increases the power od the spell a hundred times. When all elements are brought together and the bearers are pure, the element of magic will cast a spell and draw energy from the other elements to create a mega spell.

 

As we have seen in the show, the elements have more than one purpose (rock transformation, moon banishing, redemption etc.), and since the elements only work when bearers are pure, we can only guess there is so much more that they can do but whatever they cast will be a spell that is used to create goodness in the long run and not cause harm.

 

Also my guess is that the elements are smart enough not to work on those who are not evil.

[~Luminiferous Ether~ 107]

I reckon it's like an all purpose magic generator, it can do anything, the opportunities are endless, but you have to do it, and you can't have any cognitive dissonance about it either

[Princess Periwinkle 3,775]

  On 2013-05-25 at 7:20 AM, ~Chaotic Discord~ said:

'Harmony' is obviously a massively powerful force of high magic in Equestria. As we've seen, not only the elements, but also branches of harmony, such as positive feelings (love, for example, when Shining Armor and Cadence used theirs to send Chrysalis and her army packing) are very potent to anything that is very inharmonious or evil. It's my personal opinion that Discord becomes turned to stone when hit by the elements (as opposed to becoming reformed like Nightmare Moon), because he's the living, breathing manifestation of chaos, and that won't change, regardless what personal alignment he decides to be. Thus, when the elements hit him, his own chaos magic is cancelled out by the harmonious magic, which petrifies him.

 

The Elements are not a weapon in of themselves; they're amulets that focus and magnify the power of positive emotions, personalities and thoughts. To a villain, this is naturally a trump card against them because, regardless what the outcome is (turned to stone, reformed, etc), the elements will 'stop' them, in whatever way fits most naturally. Nightmare Moon was still Luna, who was good, on the inside, so the Elements were able to strip off her evil coating and destroy it. Discord is pure chaos, harmony's polar opposite, even more than evil, so by simply hitting him with the elements, he's rendered immobile. So on and so forth.

 

 

Woah. I had never really thought about this before but that's by far the best explanation I've seen.

 

Effect of the Elements varies based on what it's hitting... Makes me wonder why Sombra was "Turned to shadow and banished to the ice of the Arctic North."

 

Maybe the shadow was all that was left of what was good in him? (*cough cough used to be Celestia's student cough cough*)

 

My main question is: Why did the Elements banish NM to the moon when Celestia used them? Could it be that when she initially transformed she was too far separated from her former self for the Elements to be able to reform her?