We know from the season premiere that there are 6 Elements of Harmony, but does a 7th one exist, perhaps linked to Sunset Shimmer or any other pony?
I am asking this because in Secret of My Excess, for a only a second, one can see an element encased in stone among the various random items in Spike's stash. I'm curious if there is any indication to a 7th element.
I had to actually re-watch the episode... and I must say: Very well spotted! There is indeed a stone resembling one of the "petrified" Element of Harmony in Spike stash.
You can see it for a brief second soon after Spike discovers that his voice has changed.
comparing it with Season 1 episode 2:
that is the same shape/asset, reused in this episode.
That said, I don't think it should be given any importance: it is probably just an error the animating staff made. Every scene that show the stash before shows a strange red sphere (which someone may recognize as one of the bowling balls from the S02E06 - The Cutie Pox episode) in its place, so sake of simplicity suggests that the assets just got switched in that single clip (I would even go as far as saying that probably they have a library or round stones and inadvertently used one in place of the other). Probably there is nothing more to be seen into that.
or at least, until you notice the colors of that red/orange sphere and then get on head-canon tour about the sphere begin a reference to Sunset Shimmer and to the alleged 7th element.... :P
.... which is obviously totally unsupported by the show canon so far.
It is also worth noticing that while we don't really know what those stones actually where in Season 1 (where those the actual old Elements Celestia used, now turned to stone? does that mean that the "current" Elements are a new set - at least at a physical level?) it isn't actually possible that the stone in the stash is one of the same stones we saw in season 1. Nightmare Luna smashes the five original stones, and the sixth one (bearing a different symbol, Twilight cutie mark to be precise) only appear when the true nature of the Elements is revealed. At the same time, the stone fragments turns to the Element necklaces we can see in the future episodes. No stone seem to have survived the morph.
Thanks to Ellesedil for pointing me to notice that.
I think you’re right about that Element stone in Spike’s stash belonging to Sunset Shimmer, and that she does represent the 7th Element of Harmony! Considering what happened to her in the first two Equestria Girls movies, she used to be a selfish villain who wants power and runs away from Celestia in Equestria to the human world to gain popularity and respect from the Canterlot High students (in both the Equestria Girls and The Fall of Sunset Shimmer)!
But near the end of the movie when Sunset was defeated by Twilight Sparkle (and the Human Five) using her Element of Magic, she was distraught at what she has become of herself and what she’s done to get this far. And slowly through the end of the first movie, and through the entire second movie, her friends forgave her for her actions and by the end of Rainbow Rocks, everyone in Canterlot High forgave her as well!
My theory is that the stone in Spike’s stash is the Element of Forgiveness and when Sunset possesses her Element of Harmony, it will transform into a necklace with a stone in the shape of her cutie mark as shown here:
If you look closely at the first episode of season one, you will see six elements of harmony encased in stone of the high round thing, yet the sixth one is hidden. What if Spike took the seventh one, because Twilight left Spike in bed, but he may have woken up, and being spike would not have just stayed there. Princess Celestia could have gotten Spike to take it as it may be sunset's element,so sunset does not back, realise it is hers and take it .Spike probably went back to bed and thought it was all a dream, and still had it in season 2 episode 10,or he could represent the 7th element.
