Twilight could now see hoofprints, leading away from the fountain. They had been imprinted in flour, spilled from a bag. “These must have been what Rarity was investigating,” she said. “We should follow them.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “You follow them, I can, just, just, stay here, you know, just in case, Rarity, comes, comes back out.”

“Alright,” said Twilight. She wasn’t too enthusiastic about going alone, since it was possible she’d find the monster. Her magic probably wouldn’t do much, since both Electric Sky and Fire Flare had been unicorns, and they’d both been petrified.

Still, she followed the hoofprints. If worse came to worse, she could teleport away. Also they were hoofprints, and Twilight doubted that a pony was capable of turning her to stone.

So Twilight followed the hoofprints. They led around the flour shop, before the flour no longer preserved the hoofprints. Twilight didn’t have much trouble figuring out where her target was going however, because the path changed to a gravel one. Of course, it was harder to follow the prints in the gravel, because so many ponies walked through the path.

Twilight cast a spell that allowed her to see the most recent prints and followed them. She strained her ears to try and pick up any sounds of the pony who’d made the prints. didn’t hear anything.

Twilight turned off the main gravel path, and into a dark alleyway. The buildings on either side made it so little sunshine shone in it. Twilight swallowed hard.

There was a dark figure at the end of the alleyway. She was wearing a dark cloak.

As soon as Twilight approached the figure turned, and Twilight attempted to put up a shield. She stared at the figure, who had gold eyes.

“What do you want?” Twilight and the other pony asked at the same time.

“Leave me alone,” said the other pony.

Twilight gasped. “Li–”

A loud caw echoed suddenly through the alley.

The pony at the end of the alley yelled, and flew into the sky revealing her true nature as a pegasus.

There was a second caw, and the pegasus slowed her ascent, before falling to the ground. Twilight froze, but didn’t flee, realizing that she had a shield up. “Show yourself!” she demanded.

Twilight suddenly felt as though her hind legs had just gone numb, and tried to move them to no avail.

“Show yourself!” she demanded again, a little less confident now.

Twilight suddenly realized that she had no control over her body.

Because it was stone.

Twilight had no idea when her shield spell had failed, or if she’d ever put one up in the first place. She’d thought she had, but then she realized that there was no purple force field in front of her.

Twilight tried to teleport, but had no idea if she made it or not, because she’d lost sensation in her hooves.

Rarity looked around her surroundings. She’d landed in some cushions, after the bricks had suddenly folded out from under her.

The room around her was dimly lit; the only light came from some cracks in the roof.

“Hello?” Rarity asked. “Anypony here?”

“No one,” replied a voice from across the room. It was muffled, as though being spoken through a cloth. “At least, nopony”

Rarity walked across the room. As she entered the main living space some lamps flickered on. There were two small tables: one with a lifelike statue of a rooster on it, the other with a snowglobe. There was one painting on the wall: a portrait of a draconequus in an artist's beret, holding a paintbrush. Rarity thought it might be a picture of Discord, but she couldn’t be sure.

Rarity’s gaze flickered over to the snowglobe. As she realized, the snowglobe only had a faint glow surrounding it, rather than glass. Inside of it was Ponyville. Rarity recognised something odd about it: there were chocolate rain clouds hovering over the town. Rarity watched, transfixed, as the clouds were shot out of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory.

“Ah, you’ve found my model of Ponyville!” said the voice again. Rarity looked around to see the painting draconequus move. She reflexively took a step back.

The draconequus stepped suddenly out of the painting, and snapped his fingers. The beret and paintbrush vanished.

“Let me show you how it works,” he said.

Rarity said: “First, tell me who you are!”

“Ah, yes, yes, how rude of me. My name is Discord, you may have heard of me?”

Rarity chose to not acknowledge Discord.

Discord’s face fell. “No? Such a pity, but no matter! Let me show you how my snow globe works!”

Rarity looked at the globe.

“You see,” said Discord, “whatever I do to the globe, happens in real life! I believe the proper word is: ‘simulacrum.’ So, watch!” Discord reached into the globe, and grabbed town hall. He promptly flipped it upside-down.

Rarity heard a faint rumbling from above her, and she realized that discord had just flipped town hall.

“Put it back!” she demanded.

“Well where’s the fun in that?” asked Discord.

Rarity felt herself losing feeling in her body. “Discord?” she asked weakly, because she already knew what was happening. “What’s happening to me?”

“Oh,” said Discord casually, “just a security measure.”

Rarity cast a teleportation spell, but as she hit the ground, she lost all sensation.

Author's Note

Ok, Rarity's freaking buffed in this AU (), but why not? It's an AU.