(This story is going to be long as fuck. Forgive me for making it too long. Plus, this will be a story within a story. Enjoy.)

It was a busy day in the city of Canterlot, and all the ponies in the royal city were at their best in anything, even being fancy. They were pretty busy folk that they might not have any free time until the night arrives. However, at the castle, things were a little more easygoing. Queen Luna was taking a little nap, Princess Celestia had some guests to tour the castle, and Princess Twilight Sparkle was just about to tell a story to a group of colts and fillies.

"Gather around, everypony!" Twilight called out to the children, "It's about time for a story. I'll let you decide what you want me to read about and I'll give it a 'yay' or 'nay'." As soon as they heard that, they all got a book off of a shelf and presented it to her. One of the books was a Daring Do book, which Twilight said "nay". (But Rainbow Dash wouldn't.) Another book was a history book about Canterlot, given another "nay". One of the fillies of the group, still searching for a book, found something strange to her.

"Miss Twilight, what's this?" she asked as she was pointing out a strange book with strange lettering. As soon as Twilight came up to the filly, she grabbed the book. "The Cardinal Virtues? Is this what you'd like me to read?" Twilight asked, looking at the cover. There was nothing on it besides the title of the book, written in Enochian. With nothing else to say or do, Twilight gave the book a "yay", went to her storytelling chair, opened the book and began to read...

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A very long time ago, in a far away region, far away from Equestria, there were two rival tribes of ponies, the Steel Hooves and the Flaming Manes. They were bitter rivals that they would fight each other at just the mere sight of each other. It would get so bad that they end up killing each other. The kings of both tribes decided that if their folk want to fight, then they will rip each other apart at will, thereby starting a bloody war. However, what they don't know is that the son of the king of the Steel Hooves would fall in love with the daughter of the king of the Flaming Manes. The two, thankfully, would not be star-crossed lovers.

When the two had privacy together, they would talk about what was happening in their kingdoms, be it good or bad. After their meetings, they departed with a kiss. One day, the son of the king of the Steel Hooves asked if he could marry his love to help ease the warring tensions between the tribes. The king thought it would be a great idea and he accepted it. The king of the Flaming Manes, however, when he was asked the same thing by his daughter, he said, "If you dare to ever see that bastard again, I will kill you both!" She took no heed to his threat.

On the wedding day, the lovebirds and the king of the Steel Hooves were very happy to have their special day, but all of a sudden, the king of the Flaming Manes barged in the church and shot an arrow towards his one daughter, but the son of the other king defended her, catching the arrow. The attacking king laughed joyously, which was very strange. He confessed that he was testing his rival's son and that he was worthy to marry his daughter, whom he, with great sorrow, apologized to, and she accepted his apology. She and her love then married. Both of their fathers notified their armies and called off the war.

One day, the daughter of the Flaming Manes' king gave birth to twins: a unicorn filly and an earth pony colt. Later on in the year, she gave birth once again to another pair of twins: a unicorn filly and a Pegasus filly. Sadly, she had no idea what to name them, so she assigned them numbers. As the children grew up over time, they had their own personalities...

Earth pony colt: Doesn't like to fight, but jumps right in to defend someone he knows.

Older unicorn filly: She is a big thinker and comes up with wise choices.

Younger unicorn filly: She helps come up with fair punishments when her siblings get in trouble. She will also give ponies their due.

Pegasus pony: Not much of a big eater.

One day, the children and their parents were out for a good meal at a tavern. Upon entrance, they had found themselves a grand display of whatever they could eat. They couldn't really help it at all, except the Pegasus filly. After everyone had a plate of food, they went for another, but the Pegasus filly said, "I'd rather not eat too much. Though it is tempting, I'll pass." Just then, she got her cutie mark, which looked like a pony being offered a large plate of food, but rejects it. The mother was very surprised that she dropped her plate. Later on, she gave her the name Temperantia. The earth pony colt, after seeing what happened, became angered and said, "I should have gotten those first! Why did she get it?!"

Later, after returning home, the little earth pony colt went into his room and didn't come out for a while. He was envious of Temperantia getting her cutie mark and name first. He was so envious, in fact, that one day, when she was out with her parents, he trashed her room in rage. When his little sister and parents returned, the younger unicorn filly came up to them, saying, "I've bad news for my twin. My brother nearly destroyed her room. As soon as he saw me, he told me not to tell, but I used a spell on him to clean up some of what he had done." After hearing this atrocity, her parents ran to the trashed room and scolded the colt, grounding him for a very long time. His younger sister also told him that he will continue cleaning up what he made.

That night was going to be a night of events. Temperantia, having no room to sleep in, was invited to her little sister's room. She was very angry about what he did.

"I cannot believe he would do such a thing!" she cried out in anger. " Makes me want to do worse to his room as well!"

"NO!"Temperantia's little sister said. "You'll get the same from what Mom, Dad, and I put on him. I understand that he was angry about you getting your name and cutie mark first, but I don't want to do you or him to do anything horrible."

With those words, Temperantia calmed down a little.She also thought about what was being said. Thinking hard, tears were rolling down her face. She couldn't hate her brother after what he did. Just in time, he, with a face that still has anger and envy, said, "Your room's all cleaned." It was then that Temperantia ran up to him and hugged him tightly, crying and begging him not to hate her because of her achievement. Finding his grave error, he hugged his sister and gave a heartfelt apology, which she gladly accepted.

Their parents saw what was going on and were happy that their son was making up to Temperantia. On that exact moment, the younger unicorn filly got her cutie mark, which looked like a pair of hooves shaking each other, and there was a scroll behin Her mother then named her, for giving her siblings their due, Iustitia.

The next day, when the family was out for a walk, Iustitia was keeping an eye on her older brother to make sure he wouldn't cause anymore trouble. "Mom and Dad told me that if you do anything bad," she began, "it would be my responsibility to dispose judgment on you." He agreed to what she had to say. A few minutes later, the two saw a group of teenage colts teasing a trio of fillies for having "lame" cutie marks. The oldest of the fillies tried to tell the bullies to stop, but they wouldn't listen. Instead, they pushed the three over, laughing at them.

"HEY!" Iustitia's older brother shouted. "You guys have some nerve teasing those fillies like that!"

"What're you gonna do, small fry?" the oldest of the bullies sneered. This made things worse. Just then, Iustitia's older sister ran up and told her brother not to get violent. "Let me handle this," she said, approaching the bullies. She was asking them why they were harming the three fillies, and their responses were that their cutie marks were lame. She examined the bullies' flanks and found that they had no cutie marks at all. "Is it really that wise to tease someone about something you all don't have?" she asked them, telling them that they were envious of the three fillies. The bullies, feeling awed and ashamed, left silently, doing nothing else. The older unicorn filly then turned to the other three fillies and asked them if they were okay and who they were. "I'm Faith," the oldest filly, a purple colored pony, said. She then pointed to her younger sister, a blue colored filly named Hope, and the youngest filly, a white and red swirl pony, named Charity.

After greetings and introductions, Iustitia's older sister got her cutie mark, which looked like a pony thinking hard, its brain being shown. She was very excited to have gotten her cutie mark, but she couldn't leave Faith, Hope and Charity behind. She let them come with her, letting her brother and Iustitia follow behind the three fillies. When they all returned home, Iustitia introduced her sister's new friends and showed her older sister's cutie mark. Her mom was very happy of her daughter's achievement, yet wondered why her children were getting their cutie marks very fast. Besides that, she gave her the name Prudentia.

Later that night, the little colt had been thinking what he could do to get his cutie mark. He thought hard for an hour, but got nothing. "I feel jealous that my sisters have their cutie marks and I don't," he said to himself. Looking at his sisters, he began to think that he may not get a cutie mark. He was beginning to think that he may be a blank flank. He did not want that to happen at all, so when everyone was fast asleep, he snuck out of the house and went out into the town, seeing if there was anything he could do to get his cutie mark. He went all around the town, but had no luck at all in finding his talent. Just as he was about to give up, he heard a scream in a nearby alley. Looking for where the sound came from, the little colt found a mugger trying to rob a mare of her belongings.

"Nobody should be doing something like that!" the little colt said. He then ran towards the mugger, who successfully robbed his victim, and kicked him down. The mugger hit his head on the ground so hard, he passed out. Time was short, so the little colt grabbed what was stolen and returned it to the victim of the robbing. "Thank you so much, little one!" she said, giving him a kiss on the head, and walked away without another word. Just after that, the little colt brought forth a pair of night watchers to subdue the mugger, who was regaining consciousness while getting arrested. Just then, the little colt got his cutie mark. It was a shield with a flaming heart in the center. He was very excited, yet tired at the same time, so he decided to return home to sleep.

The next morning, the little colt told what happened last night to his parents and sisters. He also showed them his cutie mark. They were all concerned why he went out into town late last night to find his talent. Nevertheless, they were happy for him and his mother then gave him the name, Fortitudo. Afterwards, it was time to go to church, but it wasn't going to be a service. Instead, it was going to be the recognition of Fortitudo and his sisters, yet they didn't know it until they were called up by a priest.

This is what he had to say: "During our lives as young colts and fillies, we have wondered what our special talents would be and what our cutie marks would look like. Never in my life have I seen four young ponies get cutie marks in virtues. Their commitment has paid off well to being well with their virtuous talent, and I, along with my little girls, Faith, Hope, and Charity, would like to mark these four little ponies into history as they will forever be known as The Cardinal Virtues."

It was a happy day for these four little ponies because ponies will be talking about them and go by their virtues in their daily lives. Faith, Hope, and Charity were especially happy with their newest friends, they gave them big hugs. And the four lived happily and virtuously.

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After reading the story, Princess Twilight put the book away and saw that her crowd was pleased with the storytelling, especially the little filly that picked out the book. "That was pretty long, but a very good story, and I hope you all enjoyed it," Twilight said. Just then, the door opened and the parents of the crowd were calling out for their children to return with them. Every one of the little ponies left, except for one, who happened to be the filly that chose the book for Twilight to read. "Thank you once again for reading that book for us," she said, giving Twilight a hug. "I'm glad you liked it," the purple pony responded, smiling and hugging the filly back. "I appreciate it a lot."

The End.

(Once again, forgive me for making this way too long than it probably should have been.)