Dungeons and Discords

by Im Leon

Rating: everyone
Tags: Fluttershy, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Random, Discord, Alternate Universe, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Cutie Mark Crusaders
Length: 14064

In the same AU as "the Midnight Zone," Twi and the Mane six try to take down Discord

In an AU where Twilight met her friends earlier...

Rainbow never put chocolate rainclouds in the weather chart. Applejack never planted rainbow apples. Twilight never expected gravity shifts to happen.

And why are ponies turning to stone?

Published 2024-09-14 00:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-11-18 17:22:15 UTC

Prologue – The Return of Discord

Author's Note

This story is not currently finished, and probably never will be. If I ever decide to come back and rework it, this Author's Note will be replaced. :twilightsheepish:

Prologue – The Return of Discord

“I want to start our field trip here,” said Cheerilee, the teacher of the fillies who were trailing in her wake. “In the world-famous Canterlot sculpture garden! That one over there represents friendship. This one represents victory.”

“How cool would it be to have a trophy cup as your cutie mark!” remarked Scootaloo.

“Cool,” said Apple Bloom, “If you were actually victoryfull at something!”

“Victoryfull isn’t a word,” said Sweetie Belle.

“What are you?” asked Scootaloo. “A walking dictionary? Get it?”

“Kids!” exclaimed Cheerilee. She pointed to a statue. “Now this is an interesting statue. What do you notice about it?”

“It has an eagle claw!” exclaimed Apple Bloom.

“And a lion's paw!” said Sweetie Belle.

“Plus a snake tail!” Scootaloo put in.

“This creature is called a draconequus,” said Cheerilee. “He has the head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things. What do you suppose that represents?”

“Confusion!” said Apple Bloom.

“Evil!” said Sweetie Belle.

“Nah, It's definitely chaos!” said Scootaloo confidently.

“Actually, in a way, you're all right,” said Cheerilee. “This statue represents discord, which means a lack of harmony between ponies. In fact, you three have demonstrated discord so well that you're each going to write me an essay explaining it.”

The rest of the group laughed.

“Now let’s go,” said Cheerilee, “and no more fighting!”

“It’s so chaos!” whispered Scootaloo.

“Definitely confusion!” argued Apple Bloom.

“I still think It’s evil!” Sweetie Belle said.

Nopony noticed the statue of Discord casually step off his pedestal, and tip-toe away.

1 - Apples

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

2 - The Golden Oak Library

Twilight burst into the Golden Oak Library, followed closely by her friends. It was a relief to get away from the chocolate rain outside, at least for Twilight.

“Look for anything related to chocolate rain, or… weird glowing and levitation!” said Twilight.

“Hmm, glowing, found it!” called Pinkie.

“Nice!” said Twilight. “That was fast!”

“Pinkie,” said Rainbow. “But nopony cares about making glowing balloons!”

“Ohhhh,” said Pinkie. “No balloons. Got it.”

Twilight sighed, and started looking for spell books with spells about countering glowing.

“Uh-oh,” said Applejack, as she started to float.

“I got it!” said Rarity, but missed and hit a shelf of books, sending them everywhere.

“Let me!” said Twilight.

“I’m flying upside-down!” said Rainbow, flying to keep from going up. She was upside-down.

There was a bang, and only a few more books were thrown around before the Mane 6 were back on stable ground.

“I found it!” said Applejack.

Twilight took the spellbook from Applejack, and quickly removed the glowing effect. “Phew,” she said.

“I should probably go fix the Weather Factory,” said Rainbow. “And do some serious cloud-busting.”

“I’m gonna enjoy the choco-clouds when they last!” said Pinky, and Fluttershy agreed.

Applejack walked off, leaving Twilight alone in the library.

“What’s this?” asked Spike, picking up the rainbow apple.

“The apple!” said Twilight. “I forgot! Come on, I think I left the book up in my room.”

Twilight ran up the stairs and into her room. On her desk, along with a few other books, was All About Apples, the book that identified all the apples in Equestria.

“The rainbow apple,” she read, “was only seen once, back in olden pony times… oh no Spike, the books damaged!”

Sure enough, the next page was missing.

“Crumbs. Well, you can’t learn everything about apples….”

“I guess we should clean up then,” said Twilight. “We made a mess downstairs.”

“What in the world is the meaning of this?!” yelled Rainbow Dash, entering the Weather Factory. “I mean, come on we’re not scheduled for any rainfall until next saturday! And what’s with the chocolate and cola clouds?”

“Well Dash,” said Clear Skies, “we are scheduled for rainfall today. And seven inches of snow tomorrow.”

“What!?!” Rainbow shook her head. “Who in Equestria changed the schedule?”

“Nopony,” said Fluffy Clouds. “The schedule has been the same since you made it last week.”

“I most definitely did NOT schedule freaking chocolate thunderstorms!”

“What’s all this talk about chocolate clouds?” asked Zephyr Breeze, floating by. “Can you drop by my place and give me one? A chocolate rain cloud would be totally radical.”

“You don’t even work here!” yelled Clear Skies. “Shoo! Fly away!”

“Sure dude,” said Zephyr Breeze, and he floated out the window.

Rainbow stared after him, wondering how he was Fluttershy’s brother. “Um, okaaaay,” she said. “Uhm, just don’t send any more crazy clouds out! Okay? Does anypony here even care that Cloudsdale was just hit by a massive cola storm?!?”

“Changed my mind,” said Zephyr, sticking his head through the window. “I’d like a cola cloud–”

“No!” yelled Rainbow, before calming down. “Okay, I’m gonna have to ask you to, uh, leave, right now, or I’ll have to get you removed, from, the, uh–”

“Yo, chill,” said Zephyr. “I can go now.”

“Thank you,” sighed Sunshower, before turning to Rainbow. “Look, Dash, I can personally assure you that no more chocolate or cola storms will be happening.”

“Good,” said Rainbow.

“Now you can stop overstating the gravity of the situation,” said Clear Skies.

“Funny you say that,” said Rainbow. “None of you happen to have noticed any, say, gravity shits?”

“No.”

“Don’t think so.”

“Not that I can recall.”

“Nope.”

“I don’t think so man.”

“Okay, I’ll, uh…” Rainbow faltered as Zephyr floated back into the building. “Tell that to, uhm, Twiley. Bye!”

Rainbow took off.

Author's Note

Zepher you- :flutterrage:

Re-reading this for the first time in a while, I laughed so hard my chest hurt :rainbowlaugh:

3 - Book Hunting

Rainbow burst back into the Golden Oak Library. She’d witnessed first-hoof another chocolate storm, despite what Sunshower had said. Something was most definitely up–literally. The gravity shifts were only taking place and affecting ponies down on the ground; none of the ponies up in Cloudsdale had witnessed them. Rainbow was really hoping that would mean something to Twilight, and that she’d be able to stop the gravity shifts once and for all.

“Hey Twiley!” yelled Rainbow. “Can we talk!?”

“Sure,” said Twilight coming down the stairs.

"You're not to busy reading books?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. “So what do you want to talk about?”

“First off, the gravity shifts are only affecting ponies on the ground. Nopony in Cloudsdale even has any idea what I’m talking about.”

“Well that’s interesting,” said Twilight. “It should narrow my search parameters.”

“What?”

“Search parameters? Guess you wouldn’t know what they are if you don’t read a lot of books on phrases.”

“Who cares about silly phrases? ‘One rotten apple spoils the barrel’ is wrong because I know from Applejack that one doesn’t–”

“I was joking,” said Twilight.

Rainbow paused her rant. “Oh.”

“I think I found a book that might explain gravity shifts and other sorts of chaos,” said Twilight. “If only I can remember where I put it….”

“Let’s hope you can,” muttered Rainbow, glancing at the shelves and shelves of books. “Otherwise it may take a few years to find it.”

“Darling, these are beautiful!” exclaimed Rarity, showing Fluttershy a pink and yellow dress. “Look, it would match your headbands perfectly!”

“Oh it would,” Fluttershy agreed.

Fluttershy and Rarity were at Hooverds, the new shopping mall that had been erected in Ponyville. Rarity and Fluttershy had visited every week since it opened. The fact that there was chocolate rain hadn’t stopped them from having their weekly date.

Fluttershy pointed at a small department that seemed to be selling books. “I didn’t know that Hooverds sold books!”

“Let’s check it out.”

The friends walked into the bookstore, passing by the Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle) in a candy shop. As they entered the book store, it felt as though they had been transported a hundred moons back in time. The shop was carpeted in shades of red and yellow; there were shelves like a library, all filled with books; the place was lit with oil lamps.

“Why hello,” said an old pony behind the desk. He wore clothes that matched the fashion style of the time–of the rest of the place (Rarity winced), and a monocle.

“I like your clothes,” said Fluttershy.

“I like them too,” said Rarity in a slightly strained voice.

“Why thank you,” said the pony. “It’s from olden pony times. You’d be surprised how comfortable they made clothes back then.”

“Can we have a look around?” asked Fluttershy.

“Of course!” said the old pony.

Rarity and Fluttershy walked down an aisle.

“Ooh, look, they have Arctic Animals!” exclaimed Fluttershy. “I love that book!”

Rarity gasped. “Look! They have the completed works of Hoofdini’s escapes!”

“And Daring Do!”

“And Shadow Spade!”

All of a sudden there was a cry from outside: “Cheerilee!”

Rarity and Fluttershy darted from the shop and looked down on the first floor. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were staring at their teacher, Cheerilee.

Except Cheerilee wasn’t herself.

She had been turned to stone.

4 - Stone Ponies

“Cheerilee's been turned to stone?” Rainbow asked incredulously.

Rarity nodded. “We saw her with our own two eyes.”

“I do hope she’s alright,” said Fluttershy worriedly.

“I’m sure she is,” said Twilight.

Rainbow did a backflip. “Something strange is going on.”

“I think so,” said Twilight. “The weather is acting crazy. And–”

“Not just that,” said Rainbow. “Somepony changed the weather schedule to have snow tomorrow!”

“Didn’t you say it was supposed to be mildly cloudy tomorrow?” asked Fluttershy. “Or did I get it backwards?”

“You're right, it was supposed to be mildly cloudy tomorrow. Not snowy!”

“I wonder how ponies being turned to stone ties into this,” Rarity wondered.

“I wish I had that book,” sighed Twilight. “It probably would have helped us.”

“Maybe we should try to stop the ponies being turned to stone first,” said Fluttershy. “That seems the most important. And I think I know why it’s happening–”

Fluttershy was interrupted by a shout.

“Uh-oh,” said Rainbow. “I have a bad feeling about this….”

Rainbow bolted towards the shout, the others following.

Town Square was packed. The center fountain had been cracked, and a stone pony was tipped over next to it.

Two more ponies had been petrified near the first. Rainbow recognised them as Fire Flare, and Electric Sky.

“Rainbow!” said Spitfire, flying over to her. “Do you have any idea of what’s going on?! These ponies were supposed to set off the fireworks in our Wonderbolts performance in two days!”

Rainbow shook her head. “Sorry, but I’m afraid the Wonderbolts may have to go without fireworks.”

“I think that the Wonderbolts are gonna have to go not at all!” yelled Spitfire, pointing to the last petrified pony. It was Soarin.

“Soarin’s not in much position to be in your performance,” Rainbow noted.

Spitfire shook her head. “He’s not at all!” She paused. “Unless, you could play in Soarin’s place.”

“Yes!” said Rainbow. “Definitely! One hundred percent!”

Spitfire nodded. “You're on then. Five-thirty sharp tonight. Don’t miss it.”

“I thought you were gonna help me with my dress making,” said Rarity.

“And help, you know, fix all the madness in Ponyville,” said Twilight.

“I’ll fit it in,” said Rainbow. “But I can’t miss a chance to go with the Wonderbolts! I’ve been a member for twenty moons, and haven’t got a chance to perform with them!”

“I hope you don’t overload yourself,” said Fluttershy.

“I won’t,” said Rainbow. “Don’t worry! I’ll be fine.”

And with that, she leapt into the sky.

Twilight stared at the stone ponies. The crowd was dissipating, and she could get a clearer view of the stone ponies.

“It looks like they were all attacked at the same time,” said Rarity, shivering.

Twilight’s gaze was riveted on the fountain. It didn’t look like it had been cracked with a hard impact.

It looked like it had been cracked with a spell.

Somepony had been defending themselves.

Twilight cased the square. She couldn’t see much. Just the stone ponies.

“Twilight,” said Rarity quietly, and then: “Twilight!!”

Twilight and Fluttershy burst around the corner, just in time to see an opening in the bricks in front of the fountain close.

Rarity was gone.

5 - The Cutie Mark Crusade

“Woo-hoo!!” said Scootaloo, as she whipped around a bend in her raft.

“Your e-e-enjoying th-th-this?” asked Apple Bloom, as she bounced over a wave.

“You're not?” asked Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo curved around a corner, and saw a junction coming up. There were two ways to go: left, which had a sign displaying a green circle (easy), or right, which had a double black diamond (extremely difficult).

Scootaloo banked right.

“Are you outta your mind?!” yelled Apple Bloom.

Since the rafts were all tied together, Scootaloo turning right dragged the others right too. They dropped down, before zooming back up, and zigzagging back and forth sharply.

“This is awesome!!”

“This is terrifying!”

The fillies sped down a narrow stream, before entering a cave. It was pitch black at first, before they turned a bend, and slammed into a rock.

Scootaloo’s raft, being in front, took the brunt of the impact, popping, and jettisoning its rider. Sweetie Belle’s raft smacked into Apple Bloom’s, sending both rafts sideways.

Scootaloo crash landed in Apple Bloom’s raft, hitting something hard, and square. It fell out of the raft.

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom yelled. “My book!”

“Owww,” said Scootaloo, but she reached out and snagged the book.

A light pierced the darkness. Sweetie Belle had found her backpack, and the flashlight in it. “Umm, we shouldn’t be going this way.” She pointed at a sign. It had splintered, probably whilst popping Scootaloo’s raft. The message was barely legible, even with the flashlight beam directly on it.

It read: DO NOT GO ←.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were going ←.

“Uh-oh,” said Apple Bloom. “This ain’t good.”

“Not at all,” Scootaloo agreed.

“Well it’s your fault!” Apple Bloom said suddenly. “You took us down a dangerous route!”

“It didn’t seem dangerous at first!” Scootaloo countered. “And I was thinking: the more dangerous it was, the better our chances of getting a cutie mark were!”

“Wow,” said Sweetie Belle.

The flashlight clicked off, but the light level didn’t seem to dim. All around them were crystals, of varying colors and sizes, ranging from small enough to hold in your hand, to big enough to carve a small house out of. The crystals seemed to be emitting light.

There was a bang, and the moment was shattered, as the raft that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were in hit a gem, and was torn down the side.

“Catch hold!” shouted Sweetie Belle, quickly untying the rope that connected the two rafts, and throwing it to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom lunged forward and grabbed it.

Scootaloo swam after the raft, as Sweetie Belle pulled Apple Bloom up and into it.

The gems were growing sparser now, and Scootaloo was hearing the sounds of loud splashing and water movement. She strained to hear more and identify the origin of the sound–

“Scootaloo!” called Apple Bloom.

“Quiet!” Scootaloo called back. “I’m trying to–”

“Scootaloo!!!” yelled Sweetie Belle, her voice sounding distant.

Scootaloo looked forwards, and saw that the raft was now rather far away from her, and that it was heading straight for a–

“WATERFALL!!!” Scootaloo yelled. She started swimming after the raft. Using her wings to aid in her swimming, she was making good progress.

She still feared it wouldn’t be fast enough.

Scootaloo felt the pull of the waterfall yank her forwards, and she noticed a small opening to the right of the waterfall. She started angling towards it.

Apple Bloom noticed what she was doing, and started swirling the rope above her head like a lasso.

Scootaloo wasn’t going to make it to the boat in time.

The waterfall was right in front of her.

Apple Bloom released the lasso, and perfectly looped it around a stalagmite, yanking the raft towards the opening.

The raft slammed into the rock wall, and jounced back. Sweetie Belle didn't have time to react, and was tipped from the raft. The raft smacked Scootaloo, sending her underwater.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle emerged from the water, spitting and gulping down air. Scootaloo realized subconsciously that she’d lost the book during the crash. It was too late to go after it.

Apple Bloom yanked back on the lasso, and the raft stopped, before going the other way.

“We’re gonna have to ditch the raft,” said Apple Bloom, tying the lasso to the raft, and letting the raft float back towards the waterfall.

The swim to safety was long and strenuous, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders made it.

Sweetie Belle checked her flank. “No cutie mark,” she sighed.

“I have an idea!” said Scootaloo. “I bet our cutie mark is a skydiving cutie mark!”

“Yeah!” said Apple Bloom. “Let’s go.”

6 - Petrification

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 (:raritystarry:), but why not? It's an AU.

7 - Rainbow and the CMC

Rainbow tossed another book across the room. It smacked into the wall, before falling in a large pile of other books.

They’d all been discarded the same way.

Rainbow glanced up at the clock. It was ten to five. She’d have to start moving soon, if she wanted to make it to her Wonderbolts practice on time.

She still kept committing serious book abuse though.

If Rainbow Dash could locate a book on the events of what was currently happening in Ponyville, it might have some cure about how to thaw the petrified ponies.

Or, stop the gravity shifts.

There’d been a few more gravity attacks, and they seemed to stop naturally, if you could even call them natural in the first place. It was odd that Twilight hadn’t stopped them, even when she could. The whole idea made Rainbow uneasy, and gave her all the more motivation to find and stop the chaos in Ponyville.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t happening immediately.

The clock now read a quarter past five, and Rainbow had no choice but to jump into the air and fly towards the Wonderbolts Academy.

Upon landing however, Rainbow realized something was wrong. The academy wasn’t deserted; it was the exact opposite. Pegasi were rushing around, panicked, whilst Spitfire was trying to calm them down.

“IT’S ALRIGHT!!” she yelled. If there was something other than flying that Spitfire excelled in, it was yelling. “DON’T WORRY!!”

Rainbow got the sense that Spitfire wasn’t doing much to help the situation.

“Uh, Spitfire?” Rainbow probed.

“Oh, hello Rainbow. Training exercise is off. Go home!” Spitfire yelled.

“Why?” asked Rainbow.

“Look for yourself!”

Three more pegasi had been petrified. Two of them seemed to be in the Wonderbolts outfits.

“That brings the total petrification count up to six,” Rainbow said.

“Well, see you later,” Spitfire sighed. “I gotta sort out all this madness.”

Rainbow walked away from Spitfire, and flew back to the library. To her surprise, the CMC (Cutie Mark Crusaders) were standing right outside the door.

“Hey!” said Scootaloo jumping up. “Hey! Rainbow! Hey! Come down here! Rainbow!”

Rainbow landed. “Whaddya need?” she asked.

“We lost a book on our raftin’ trip.” Apple Bloom explained. “We would have just told Twiley, but we can’t find her.”

“Lemme guess,” said Rainbow, “The book you lost had something to do with chaos.”

“More specifically, Discord,” Sweetie Belle elaborated. “Lord of chaos.”

“Wait,” said Rainbow. “Lord of chaos? D’you think Discord might be behind all the strange events happening around Ponyville?”

“Maybe,” said Scootaloo, “if he wasn’t turned to stone!”

“Discord’s been turned to stone?” asked Rainbow.

“Yup,” said Apple Bloom. “We saw his statue on our field trip to the Canterlot Sculpture Garden.”

Gears were starting to turn in Rainbow’s head. “When was your field trip?”

“Yesterday,” said Sweetie Belle.

“Then I think I know who’s behind all this insanity. But there’s only one way to find out.” Rainbow turned to the CMC. “Who wants to go on another field trip?”

Rainbow Dash had never really had much incentive for wanting to visit the Canterlot Sculpture Garden. Everytime Celestia called the Mane Six to Canterlot on a mission, Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy always took the time to visit.

Rainbow usually just lounged under the oak tree in the Royal Gardens, and read a Daring Do book.

Therefore, Rainbow had never actually been to the Canterlot Sculpture Garden before. It was surprisingly big, with at least a hundred statues in it.

As Rainbow and the CMC walked down a long path hedged in by tall bushes, Scootaloo stopped.

“Why’d we stop?” Rainbow asked.

Scootaloo flipped the map over. “Just getting my bearings.”

“So we’re lost.”

“Yeah.”

Sweetie Belle snatched the map out of Scootaloo’s hooves. “This way.”

Sweetie Belle led them around the maze that was the sculpture garden for a few minutes before they arrived at an empty pedestal.

Apple Bloom gasped. “Discord’s gone!”

Author's Note

Aaaand no more exists. :fluttercry:.

What a cliffhanger.

8 - Discord (+ breaking the fourth wall)

“We gotta tell Twilight about this!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Now we know it’s Discord, Twilight should have very little issue stopping him! I mean, we were struggling before to find the troublemaker, now we know who it is!”

“No time to waste!” said Sweetie Belle. “Let’s get outta here!”

“I’ll fly up, and tell you where to go,” said Rainbow. “Hopefully we can avoid getting lost again.”

Rainbow and the CMC burst out of the Canterlot Sculpture Garden.

“When’s the next train?” asked Apple Bloom.

Rainbow checked the timetable. “Four hours–no, four years?”

“We’re all gonna be stuck here forever!” Scootaloo wailed.

A chocolate rain cloud hovered over them.

Rainbow yelled in frustration, and bucked the cloud into a fine chocolate mist.

“Hey I was lying on that!” said a voice behind them.

Rainbow whirled around, as did the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Discord was standing there, dressed in pajamas covered in tiny mini-Discords.

“How very rude of you to interrupt my beauty sleep,” Discord groused.

“Put everything back to normal!” Sweetie belle yelled.

“Bo-oo-oring.”

“Discord,” said Rainbow threateningly, “I’m warning you….”

Discord scoffed, and snapped his claws, transforming into a giant snake. “But I’m the s-s-snake!”

“Not funny,” said Apple Bloom.

“Oh come on!” Discord complained. “That joke always makes ponies laugh. Look!”

He snapped his claws again. His eyes started swirling around, as he looked at a pony on the platform. Discord was muttering some strange incantation. All the ponies on the platform suddenly started laughing their heads off.

“G-good one Discord!” one of them laughed, before falling over on the platform.

“Now,” said Discord with a self-satisfied smile, “I need to do some exercise.”

He snapped his claws again, and a treadmill appeared. Discord stepped onto it, and his feet glued on. The treadmill levitated, then started going backwards, and Discord was spun around and around.

“Ah, wonderful exercise!” said Discord. “I insist that you try it!”

Before anypony could react, Discord’s claws clicked, and they were all glued to strange backwards treadmills.

Discord got off his treadmill (somehow), and stretched out his back. “Well now, I’d best be going. Chaos awaits! Toodle-oo!” And with that Discord summoned a motorcycle and sped away.

“This ain’t good,” said Apple Bloom.

Fluttershy shuffled her hooves nervously. Twilight still wasn’t back. What if something bad had happened?

Fluttershy had been examining the petrified ponies. They all seemed to match up with the description of the–.

“Fluttershy!” Applejack exclaimed suddenly. “Ah can’t find Apple Bloom anywhere! Have ya’ seen her?”

“Oh no!” said Fluttershy. “Apple Bloom’s gone! I’m so sorry, but I haven’t seen her.”

“What ‘bout Rainbow?”

“She left for a Wonderbolt’s training exercise a while ago.”

“So Rainbow finally made the Bolts huh?”

“Sorin’ got petrified, so Spitfire wanted Rainbow to play in his place.”

“Ah. What ‘bout Twily, or Rarity?”

“Rarity fell in a hole. Twilight followed some hoofprints, and she’s not back.”

Applejack paused. “Rarity fell in ah hole?”

Fluttershy pointed to the spot where the bricks had opened up. “The bricks disappeared or something, but Rarity was standing above them. Then she was gone.”

“Well it certainly ain’t the strangest thing that’s goin’ on!” said Applejack frustratedly. “Spike was tryna send a message to the princesses! And guess what!”

“What?” asked Fluttershy.

“He couldn’t!”

“Um, what?” asked Fluttershy. “Spike can send scrolls–.”

“Not right now he can’t! He burned up all the spare scrolls tryin’. Somethin’ real fishy’s goin’ on.”

“I wish Twilight would come back,” said Fluttershy, “she’d know what to do.”

“Lemme get this straight. Rainbow took off for ah show with the Bolts in the middle of ah crises, Twiley followed some random hoofprints and never came back, Spike suddn’ly stopped bein’ able to send letters, Apple Bloom and her friends disappeared off the face of Equestria, and Rarity–fell in ah hole.”

“Well, yeah,” said Fluttershy. “That’s the gist of it.”

“WHAT ABOUT PINKIE!!”

The party mare suddenly burst into existence behind them, triggering dual party cannons, and blowing on random noise makers.

Fluttershy and Applejack screamed.

“PINKIE PIE!” Applejack bellowed. “Ah told ya’ ta’ stop scarin’ us like that!”

“So-rr-ryy,” Pinky said. “So what did I miss?”

“Well,” said Applejack. “All our other friends are gone. Apple Bloom too.”

“Oh don’t worry about them,” said Discord, popping into existence. “I just met them a moment ago! Didn’t I?” Discord quickly pulled out the script. “Well at least I think I did, I’m not sure, because Leon stopped writing this story for a long time!”

“The script’s not up to date!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Let me fix that!”

Pinkie snatched the script from Discord, and jumped into space.

“Narrator!” she called out, “your script’s not up to date!”

Really? Let me fix that… okay! You should be good!

“Thanks!” said Pinkie. She quickly came back down to earth. “Alright guys, the script is now up to date!”

“Excellent,” said Discord. “Now let’s see… oh yes! I have, Applejack, indeed seen Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom and her friends! They are all just fine, getting some exercise!”

“You monster!” Applejack growled.

“Bub-bye!” said Discord and he was gone.

“Pinkie!” Applejack said. “Check the script to see how this ends!”

NO!! If you do that, this story won’t go any longer, and everyone who likes the story will be sad!

“Ohhh,” said Pinkie. “Okie-dokie!” she put the scroll into her mane. “Can’t have those sad readers!”

“Enough fooling around!” said Applejack. “Let’s go find Discord again!”

Pinkie nodded.

“I have to check a book,” said Fluttershy.

“Be Twiley if ya’ wish,” said Applejack.

AJ and Pinkie moved towards town square.

Fluttershy didn’t. She was just hoping that the library could save the day.

Author's Note

This story was on "Hiatus." I get that most people think that just means "Canceled."

Not for me though!

This story is back!

No more sad readers!

Erm, Pinkie, please stop breaking the fourth wall?

Okie-dokie!

Confrontation

“Let’s split up,” said Applejack. “That way we can cover more ground.”

“Sure!” said Pinkie. “I’ll take this side, you do the other side!”

Applejack nodded, and turned right.

If I was Discord, where would I be?

Inside that suspiciously old house?

Applejack nodded to herself, and pushed the door open. It creaked on its hinges. There was a sudden ominous piano number.

“Discord!”

Applejack started towards Discord, who was dressed old-timey, with a red shirt with frills.

The door slammed.

Discord was playing a spooky piano number.

“Now look here, Discord,” Applejack started, but at that moment three bouncing pumpkins bounced around the piano, and surrounded Applejack. There were fuses on top of the pumpkins, burning slowly.

“What in the hay–” Applejack started, when Discord finished his piece with a flourish.

“Did you like it?” asked Discord. “I call it ‘Spooky-Kooky-Chaos.’”

“That has got ta’ be the worst name for the most generic music ah’v ever heard! Now give me back Apple Bloom, or ah’ll buck yer head off!”

“No need to be hasty,” said Discord.

“There is when–.” Applejack broke off realizing that her words were incorrect.

“Let her go!” she said finally.

“I’m not keeping her hostage,” said Discord cheerfully. “I told you, she’s just getting some exercise!”

“No she ain’t ya crazy–.” Applejack started, but broke off when Discord switched into a costume of the grim reaper (that Applejack had to admit was a little spooky) with a snap of his claws.

Applejack gulped, then noticed some spears laying against a wall.

“Hey Discord,” she asked. “Just how authentic is this place?”

“One-hundred-percent,” he replied.

Applejack burst away from the pumpkin-bombs, which bounced after her, and grabbed a spear. She threw it at Discord, who simply split his head apart, to allow for it to pass through, before making his cranium whole again.

Applejack seized another spear in her teeth, and swatted the pumpkin bombs away. Two went rolling, but the third had reached the end of its fuze. It exploded into smoke with a boom.

Applejack was coughing. “What are those things?”

“Smoking Pumpkins!” Discord said. “Cool, aren’t they?”

“Not at all!”

Discord’s smile vanished, as Applejack charged out of the fog, spear raised. Discord spun around like a ballet dancer, swinging his scythe like a maniac, and forcing Applejack to slide across the ground. He obliterated the wooden support beams as if they were popsicle sticks, and the second floor wobbled. Discord casually snapped his claws, and the roof immediately stopped creaking.

Applejack ducked another swing of Discord’s scythe, and jabbed at him with the spear. The spear tip snapped off upon touching Discord.

“What the–.”

Discord threw the scythe hard at Applejack, who rolled as the blade impaled itself into the floor besides her.

Discord waved his paw around, and was soon holding a round red Hearth’s Warming bauble. “Never too early to have Hearth's Warming for Nightmare Night!” he crowed, tossing the ornament at Applejack.

Applejack tried to jump out of the way, but the ornament struck her directly in the snout. She froze, as her entire body was encased with ice.

Discord waved his paw again, and in it this time, was a small winged creature that looked an awful lot like a chicken.

Applejack tried to ignore the numbness spreading through her body, as she focused on the creature. Hadn’t Fluttershy told her about something that looked like a chicken?

A cockatrice, Applejack thought, before the numbness became absolute.

Pinkie gasped. Standing before her was–.

A cake. A single layer, undecorated cake. With white frosting.

Pinkie winced at the cake, just as an old shaking voice whispered behind her, “Do you like my cake deary?”

“Oh!” said Pinkie turning around to see an elderly draconequus with a hunched back standing there.

“Well…” said Pinkie. “It could be more decorated I guess? But it's still really good!”

“Try a piece,” said the old draconequus. “You’ll like it.”

“You’re offering me cake?” said Pinkie. “Can’t say no to that!”

She pulled a cake knife out of her mane, and cut a fat slice of the cake.

“Mmm,” she said. “Wow, that’s good. A bit of….” Pinkie’s eyes suddenly started swirling. “Raw sugarcane, nice touch. And–vinegar, yum yum. Oh and paper! Mmm, paper… and glass! You shouldn’t have!”

Discord summoned his cockatrice.

Pinkie suddenly started gagging, and spit out all of her cake.

“Ew, ew, ew! What was that? Glass, paper, and VINEGAR?!?!?! You dare put VINEGAR in a cake?! You evil draconequus!” She cut a slice of the cake with her knife, and hurled it at the old draconequus.

Discord suddenly dropped his disguise, and with a snap, made the cake loose all its velocity, so it splatted to the floor, covering the cockatrice’s eyes in frosting

“Discord?!” Pinkie gasped. “It was you the whole time? You were the old draconequus?!”

“Yes I was!” Discord said with an evil laugh, before a flying piece of cake splattered on his face.

“Hey!” he growled, and snapped his claws, cleaning himself while also changing into a police outfit. He pulled out a megaphone. “You are under arrest!” he said. “For throwing cake at me, I sentence you to four-thousand years on the moon!”

“Hey,” said Pinkie, “I thought the judge was the one who gave out sentences?”

“Huh?” said Discord. “Oh right.” he snapped his claws, and his outfit became a brown suit. He also had a curly white wig on, for whatever reason.

Discord cleared his throat. “You are now under arrest for–.”

“But arresting ponies is what the police do!” said Pinkie.

“Whatever!” snapped Discord, and he pulled out his gavel. With a quick snap of his claws, it was sixteen times bigger.

“Uh-oh!” said Pinkie, jumping out of the way, as Discord tried to whack her with the hammer.

“Over here!” she called from under the table. “You missed me! That wasn’t even close! Your score’s got to be negative!”

With a frustrated yell, Discord whacked down so hard, that the head snapped off his gavel, and that the table and Pinke were flipped over.

“He-he,” said Pinkie weakly.

“No more of this!” Discord snapped. “As judge, I sentence you to being turned to stone!”

The cockatrice rubbed the frosting out of its eyes.

“Help!” Pinkie yelled. “Police! There’s a phony judge! I want a lawyer!”

And then Pinkie Pie was stone, and all was quiet.

Discord smiled to himself. If I can ambush Fluttershy at the library, then all the Mane six will be stone!

Discord looked up at the sky, as lighting randomly flashed. And no one will be able to stop me!

Fluttershy burst into the Golden Oak Library. It was a mess. Books were haphazardly piled up in towers, and more were thrown in piles. Fluttershy moved towards the back of the library, towards the section on animals. Thankfully, whoever’d ruined the front part of the library hadn’t touched the section on animals.

Fluttershy grabbed a book on mystic animals, and flipped to the page on cockatrices.

The Cockatrice is a rather small monster that has the head of a white chicken and the body of a teal dragon. The Cockatrice is capable of flight and has a frightening stare that can turn any who look directly into its eyes to stone.

This was it. The creature that had been petrifying everypony! The only problem was that Fluttershy didn’t know where the cockatrice could be found.

She sighed. “Where in Equestria could that cockatrice be?”

“Glad you asked,” said a voice from behind her.

Fluttershy spun around to see a draconequus standing in the aisle next to her.

She gasped.

“No?” said the draconequus. “That’s it? No ‘why hello Discord, Lord of Chaos,’ or anything?”

“Well I don’t know who you are,” said Fluttershy. “Maybe you could tell me that?”

“Oh yes, I’m Discord! Lord of Chaos!”

“I’m Fluttershy.”

Discord scratched his head with his one clawed hand. “And?‘

“Just Fluttershy.”

“Well Fluttershy, Just Fluttershy, let me show you a magic performance!” Discord exclaimed, giving her a silver ticket. The ticket had a Discord face in the middle.

“Ticket?”

Fluttershy looked up to see a whole magic stage set up. Discord was dressed up in a tuxedo, asking her, “May I see your ticket, Fluttershy, Just Fluttershy?”

“Um, okay?” She handed Discord the ticket.

“I’m afraid your ticket is invalid,” said Discord.

“Oh that’s okay,” said Fluttershy, “I was busy anyways.” She turned to leave.

“Where are you going?” asked Discord. “Shouldn’t you be going towards the stage?”

“But you said my ticket was invalid–.”

“Yes, yes, of course! What did you expect me to say? Now, hurry along, the show starts in fifteen years!”

“Fifteen years?” Fluttershy started to say, but Discord snapped his claws, and a treadmill began moving Fluttershy towards the stage.

“Time’s-a-ticking!” Discord said, showing Fluttershy a big gold pocket watch. There were (to Fluttershy’s count) thirteen hands, each a different color, spinning around in different directions at different speeds.

The conveyor belt stopped in front of a seat. Fluttershy got into it.

Discord snapped his claws again, and he was teleported to the stage, now outfitted in a magicians outfit. “Come one, come all!” he said dramatically. “To Discordant Magic!”

Laughter and applause came out of nowhere, and Fluttershy added a soft, “yay!” into the mix.

“Thank you, thank you, you’re too kind!” said Discord. “For my first trick, I will pull a killer rabbit out of my hat!”

“A killer rabbit?!” said Fluttershy, horrified.

Discord waved his wand around, pulled off his hat, and tapped it. The hat exploded, as hundreds of crazy white rabbits went flying everywhere. They had red eyes.

Fluttershy gasped.

The rabbits were tearing the whole library apart. Paper and book spines went flying everywhere, casualties of the killer rabbits rampage.

“Stop!” said Fluttershy.

The insane rabbits halted.

“I know how you must feel, after being packed into that tiny hat for so long,” she continued. “But is destroying the library really the right way to vent your stress?”

The rabbits all suddenly exploded.

Fluttershy screamed.

“Oh don’t worry,” said Discord. “There’s a seventeen to the negative four power over sixteen-point three percent chance the rabbits all explode. Now they’ll live forever happily, in a world of chaos.”

“That–” Fluttershy started, but Discord cut her off.

“For my next trick, we will be turning apple cider into liquid nitroglycerin!” Discord exclaimed, dramatizing it way too much.

“First,” said Discord, “the cider.” He reached his paw towards his claws, and they seemed to pass through a portal or something similar, just cutting off. He drew his paw back quickly, and a trail of cider followed it. Discord clicked his claws, and time froze.

“You froze time?” asked Fluttershy.

“Do not break my focus!” Discord exclaimed. He summoned a glass cup out of thin air, and caught all the cider in it. Then he snapped his claws and time unfroze.

The glass hit the stage and shattered, spilling cider all over.

“Excellent!” said Discord. He then pulled his wand out, twirled it around, and said, “Abra-cadabra! Hocus-pocus! Bipity, boppity boo!”

The spilled cider yellowed slightly.

Discord hovered his claws over the shattered glass. The cup reformed, and the cider poured back into it.

“And there you have it!” Discord exclaimed. “Nitroglycerin! A literal bomb!” Discord threw the cup at the ground.

The whole Golden Oak Library was instantly incinerated. Fluttershy put her hooves to her soot covered face.

The books were all charred or destroyed. The top was gone, nowhere to be seen. There was nothing left besides the stage and seating.

“What have you done!?” Fluttershy gasped.

Discord ignored her. “For my final trick, I will be transforming a chicken into a dangerous beast!”

Fluttershy growled, and started towards Discord, but he waved his paw, and Fluttershy was buckled into her chair with a five-point seat belt.

“For your own safety,” said Discord. He snapped his claws (Fluttershy was starting to get annoyed by the repeated clicking) and a fancy wagon was dragged across the burned up detritus of the library. It tipped over, and a business pony jumped out of it and scampered away, before the wagon exploded into fireworks.

“See?” said Discord. “You never know when having a seat belt on could save your life!”

“But if that pony had been wearing his, he would have been seriously injured by those fireworks!”

“Exactly!” Discord exclaimed. “Now do you want to see the rest of the magic show or not?”

“Not,” said Fluttershy defiantly.

“Fine!” harrumphed Discord. “Time for you to go then!” He waved his paw, and his hat reappeared. He reached into it.

And pulled out a blindfolded cockatrice.

Fluttershy gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

Discord chuckled. “I’m afraid so. Bu-bye!”

Fluttershy squirmed out of her seatbelt, and rushed for the exit. Discord shot something at her.

“Is that a missile?!” Fluttershy gasped.

The missile triggered early, and pineapple-bombs went flying out. They rolled all over the place, exploding when they hit something, and sending out pineapple slices.

“Ack!” Fluttershy yelped as one slice hit her. She was almost at the perimeter.

Snap.

Balloons floated up, pulling bouncy walls up.

Fluttershy hit the wall and bounced comically back.

“No!” she said softly.

Discord snapped his fingers, and his outfit changed to a general’s. He took out a sniper rifle, and started taking shots at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy rolled, as the “bullet” hit the ground, and burst apart into Nightmare Night candy.

“Fluttershy, Just Fluttershy, stop moving so much!” Discord said.

Fluttershy grabbed a book spine that wasn’t too charred, and poked the bouncy wall. It popped, sending bits of rubber everywhere.

“Hey!” Discord growled, shooting at her.

The cockatrice, disturbed by the loud bangs, suddenly took off, and the blindfold slipped off.

“Come back!” Discord wailed.

The cockatrice had no interest in listening to Discord, and instead sprinted into the Everfree Forest.

Fluttershy changed direction, towards the forest. She stopped at the entrance.

Fluttershy had recently entered the Everfree Forest, heading to Zecora’s after Rainbow had gotten hurt.

That time she’d had a distraction.

That time she’d had a location to head to.

This time she was alone.

But if she ever wanted to change that, she’d have to get the cockatrice.

So Fluttershy took the first step.

Everfree

The forest was darker than Fluttershy remembered. Wild vines and branches creaked, and Fluttershy had the creeping sensation she was being watched. More than once she turned around, only to find that she was alone.

Fluttershy soon reached Zecoras. She was relieved, but when she knocked, no response came.

“Zecora!” Fluttershy called softly. “Are you in there?”

The lack of a reply told her everything she needed to know.

Fluttershy continued forwards, on the one path that led further than Zecoras. It was covered in weeds and vines. Fluttershy suddenly tripped over a vine. She hit the ground.

“Oof!” she said getting up.

She glanced back at the vine. It was black–and coiling for a second strike.

Fluttershy dodged, as the thick black vine slammed down next to her. She stumbled, and the vine wrapped around her neck.

Fluttershy desperately tried to get free but it was no use. She was getting strangled.

The vine suddenly released Fluttershy, and she scampered away, before spinning around. There was nopony there, but she heard what sounded like hoofsteps coming towards her.

She ducked behind a tree.

As the sound loudened though, she realized that they were too dispersed to be hoofsteps.

Then someone spoke.

“Have you seen a cockatrice around?” asked Discord.

Fluttershy held her breath.

Discord humphed, before turning around. “I guess it left.”

Fluttershy released her breath, and snuck away from the deadly vine. Thankfully, It appeared to be the only murderous vine around.

Fluttershy considered what Discord had said. Sure, the cockatrice might have left, but it seemed more likely that it was still in the forest. Once you entered Everfree, straying from the path was essentially a death sentence. Apart from the occasional plant that tried to murder you, there were timberwolves, huge wolves made out of logs and sticks. They would easily enjoy a cockatrice as a midnight snack. Even if the cockatrice had managed to petrify one or two wolves, timberwolves moved in packs, so the cockatrice was doomed if it ran into them. That meant that the cockatrice had not strayed from the path, and as Fluttershy hadn’t run into the cockatrice, it was still in the forest.

There was a sudden loud caw.

Fluttershy stopped dead.

The cockatrice strutted out from behind a tree.

Fluttershy had been right: the cockatrice had been in the forest. It was also looking straight at her.

Fluttershy felt herself losing sensation in her hindquarters.

“You! Just who do you think you are, going around turning others into stone?” Fluttershy’s words seemed to distract the cockatrice, which gave a dismayed squawk.

Fluttershy pressed her advantage. “You should be ashamed of yourself! I have a mind to find your mother and tell her what you've been up to, young man! Now you go over there and turn my friends back to normal, and don't ever let me catch you doing this again! Do you understand me?”

The cockatrice gave another dismayed squawk, then nodded, and ran deeper into the Everfree forest.

Then Fluttershy felt herself start to glow with a purple aura.

She smiled, before the teleportation spell finished, and she was gone.

Author's Note

Yes I coppied some text from the transcript. :twilightblush:

Sorry about that, hope it didn't detract much overall.

ps: I might get a few more chapters today, as I have a few ideas.

Meeting

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA HAPPENED TO THE LIBRARY???!!!” Twilight practically screamed at the top of her lungs.

Since all of her friends had just been un-petrified, and then teleported, Twi’s scream was exceptionally distorienting.

“Well,” said Fluttershy softly. “Discord made a bomb.”

“HE MADE A BOMB?!” Twi screamed. “HE MADE A FREAKING BOMB!?!?”

“Twily, sugar,” said Applejack softly. “Can ya stop yellin’ your head off?”

“DISCORD BLEW UP THE LIBRARY, AND YOU EXPECT ME NOT TO?!?”

“Maybe, darling, to just have a little more consideration for your friends?” Rarity suggested.

“Right,” said Twilight. “Sorry. But the point still remains: DISCORD IS A FREAKING MANIAC!!”

Pinkie covered her ears. “Um, Twilight, you’re yelling again….”

Twilight blinked. “Uhh… sorry?”

“Pshtt, don’t worry about it!” said Pinkie enthusiastically.

“Thanks for getting me off that treadmill,” said Rainbow. “I thought I was a goner.”

“What ‘bout Apple Bloom?” asked Applejack. “Was she with ya Dash?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yup. I’m sure Twi got her and the rest of the Crusaders off as well.”

Twilight blinked.

Rainbow blinked.

Applejack yelled, and charged Twilight.

Twilight gasped as Applejack knocked her to the ground.

“Oww!” she yelped. “Get off me!”

“Not until ya bring Apple Bloom and her friends back!” said AJ, pushing harder.

“Ow! Okay, geeze, I was already gonna bring them back….”

Applejack humphed, before releasing his lavender friend.

Twilight lit her horn, and in a flash, the CMC were standing in what was left of the Golden Oak Library.

The CMC stumbled around. Scootaloo tripped over her hooves, and fell face first into the ground. Sweeting Belle walked into a bookshelf. Apple Bloom bonked into Applejack, who immediately embraced her.

“Oh, h-hey AJ!” Apple Bloom mumbled.

“They’re all in terrible condition!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “Somepony go get nurse Redheart!”

“Gotcha!” Rainbow said, before dashing away.

Twilight looked around at the destruction of the library.

“This is terrible!” She sighed. “How could Discord do this?”

“He’s pretty powerful,” said Applejack. “More than we thought.”

“Really?” said Twilight.

“He has pineapple bombs,” said Fluttershy, “and a few other tricks.”

“Why does he have so much randomness?” Twi complained. “Couldn’t he, just, ya know, get a bit more organized?”

“Doubtful,” said Applejack.

“We have to stop all this!” said Spike determinedly. “Equestria’s doomed otherwise!”

Rainbow shot back into the library.

“What is it?” asked Rarity at Rainbow’s worried face.

“Urgent letter,” said Rainbow, hoofing the letter over to Twilight.

Twilight read over the letter. Her eyes widened. “We have to get to Canterlot immediately! Princess Celestia wants to see us!”

“How are we gonna get there?” asked Rainbow. “I mean, I can fly, but it’s gonna be hard for the rest of you. Especially since Discord got rid of the train.”

“Huh?”

Rainbow pointed up. The Friendship Express was circling around Town Hall, upside down.

“That might be a tad troublesome,” said Applejack.

“Me and Twi can cast teleportation spells,” said Rarity.

“To be fair,” said Rainbow. “Last time Rarity tried a teleportation spell, she wound up in the fountain.”

“Well, it’s significantly harder to accurately teleport ponies than silks and needles!” Rarity said defensively.

“And how accurate was that teleport?” asked Rainbow.

“Well I was aiming for the boutique….”

“That’s like–,” Rainbow started, but Twilight cut in.

“Not accurate enough,” Twi finished. “I doubt I’ll be able to teleport all of us at once, and I probably don’t have enough energy to do four teleports.”

“Four?” asked Pinkie. “Ohh, I get it.”

“We’re wasting time!” said Twilight, and it seemed she was on the edge of a freakout.

“Bet Celestia could do the teleport,” Spike sighed. “Too bad Discord’s Chaos magic is mixing with my dragon magic.” He paused. “Actually I have no idea why my ability to send letters stopped working.”

They paused for a moment, thinking hard.

Rarity broke the silence.

“Ugh, not another gravity attack!”

Rainbow inverted herself, but the others began floating up.

And this time, there was no roof to catch them. Just Rainbow.

Rainbow quickly zipped up, and caught each of her friends, putting them under a tree.

“Phew,” said Pinkie. “Thank’s Dash!”

“No prob-lemo.”

The gravity returned to normal.

“Oof!” gasped Rarity, before seeming close to tears. “My dress! My beautiful dress! It’s ruined!!”

“Is she okay?”

Rainbow and Twilight spun around to see a lilac unicorn standing behind them. She had a purple mane, with a lighter blue stripe running down the center of it. Her cutie mark resembled a kite.

“Rarity?” asked Rainbow. “You must not be from around here. What you're witnessing is–not the worst thing we’ve sat through.”

The mare turned towards Rarity, who was being comforted by Fluttershy and Pinkie.

“And you're still all friends?” she asked suspiciously. “She seems different from the rest of you.”

“Of course!” said Twilight. “Rarity’s positives greatly outweigh her occasional tantrum. I couldn’t imagine a life without her!”

“Well, okay, I guess. Anyways I’m just wondering if you’ve seen an orange unicorn. White hooves. Frizzley dark orange mane. Often wears a cloak with stars….”

Rainbow and Twilight shook their heads.

“Sorry,” said Rainbow. “We haven’t.”

The mare scoffed. “Oh well. Guess he’s not here then.”

“Is he missing?” asked Twilight.

“I don’t care anyways,” the mare continued, as if she hadn’t heard Twi’s comment, “it doesn’t matter. Maybe I’ll find him in Canterlot.”

“If ya don’t mind me askin’, how do you intend to get there?” asked Applejack coming up behind them.

The mare jumped. “I’ll just teleport myself, thank you very much. I’m probably better than anypony at the spell.”

“Applejack!” said Pinkie. “Where you been buddy?!”

“Ah’ve just been gettin’ Apple Bloom an’ her friends over ta Nurse Redheart,” said Applejack.

“Ooh!” Pinkie exclaimed. “When they get better, I’ll throw them a huge: ‘you didn’t die of dizziness’ party! It’ll be massive, with games like pin the tail on the pony, and a seven layer double-chocolate and strawberry cake and–.”

“Lemme guess,” said the unicorn sarcastically, “you’re all friends.”

“How’d you know?” asked Pinkie.

“I just took the most different ponies and assumed that they were all friends.”

“We’re not all that different,” said Rainbow. “My sonic rainboom got all of us our cutie marks at the same time!”

The unicorn narrowed her eyes. “Cutie marks,” she said spitefully. “That explains it.”

“Hang on a second!” said Spike. “You said you could do teleportation spells really well! Maybe you can get us to Canterlot!”

The mare scoffed. “Look, I’ve just barely met you, I’m not about to–.”

“I betcha aren’t as good as you claim,” said Rainbow suddenly. “I’ll bet you aren’t even as good at teleports as Rarity.”

The mare looked affronted. “I’m better than I claim! I’ve spent my whole foalhood practicing that spell!”

Rainbow shot her a superior smirk. “Prove it.”

“No way this works,” AJ murmured.

The mare growled and lit up her horn.

A moment later, the Mane Six felt themselves tingling, before the teleport finished.

Twilight felt herself spinning very quickly, and she was just feeling as if she might throw up, when the spinning stopped, and she felt her hooves hit solid ground.

She was in Canterlot.

The lilac unicorn shot Rainbow a smirk, before turning away and getting lost in the crowd.

“We’ve got to get to Celestia!” said Twilight. “Urgent, remember?”

Rainbow nodded, and they turned towards Canterlot Castle.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm foreshadowing :coolphoto:.

Stolen

The royal guards waved Twilight and her friends into the castle. One of the perks of being the princess’s personal student, Twi supposed.

In less than five minutes, Twilight and her friends were in Celestia’s office.

Celestia and Luna had clearly been awaiting their arrival, because Luna gave her sister a curt nod.

“Princess Celestia,” Twi gasped. “We came as fast as we could.”

“Thank you Twilight,” said Celestia. “Thank you all.”

“Is this about the crazy weather,” asked Rainbow impatiently. “Have you found a way to stop it?”

“Are you kidding?” asked Pinkie. “Who wouldn’t like chocolate rain?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t found a way to stop the weather,” said Celestia, causing Dash to give an annoyed groan.

“However,” Luna said, “what we’ve called you here for is directly related to the chaos you’ve been experiencing.”

Celestia nodded. “It appears an old foe of ours, someone we thought had been defeated long ago, has returned. His name… is Discord.”

Rainbow snorted. “That freak? Can you guys just, I don’t know, smite him?”

The royal sisters seemed taken aback.

“You already know Discord?” asked Luna.

“Yup,” said Applejack. “That nutjob tried ta kill me multiple times!”

“Perhaps we can still explain some to you,” said Celestia. “Discord is the mischievous spirit of disharmony. Before my sister and I stood up to him, he ruled Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness. Luna and I saw how miserable life was for Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns alike, so after discovering the Elements of Harmony, we combined our powers and rose up against him, turning him to stone.”

“Let’s go princesses!” said Pinkie.

“We thought the spell would keep him contained forever,” said Luna, “but since we are no longer connected to the elements, the spell has been broken.”

“No longer connected?” asked Twilight.

“We need you to wield the Elements of Harmony once again and stop Discord before he thrusts all of Equestria into eternal chaos,” Luna told them.

“But why us? Why don't you–.”

“You six showed the full potential of the Elements by harnessing the magic of your friendship to beat a mighty foe. Although Luna and I once wielded the Elements, it is you who now control their power, and it is you who must defeat Discord!”

“Princess Celestia, you can count on–.”

Pinkie suddenly spoke. “Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys. Chocolate rain!”

“Don't listen to her, Princess. We'd be honored to use the Elements of Harmony again.”

“Have no fear, ponies. I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord with these!” Celestia opened the case that held the Elements of Harmony.

It was empty.

Author's Note

I just sorta went dead zombi mode when writing this chapter. I'll try to make the next one better.

Missing

“The Elements!” Twilight exclaimed. “They’re gone.”

Everypony was reacting with various levels of shock. Rarity and Fluttershy were gasping, Applejack was looking around, and Rainbow was throwing hooves at the air, as if she was hoping to hit an invisible pony.

Pinkie was just… chilling.

Twilight glanced at Pinkie. “Er, Pinkie?” she asked. “Aren’t you shocked about this?”

“Nope,” said Pinkie. “I have the script, remember?”

Pinkie reached into her mane, but didn’t pull out the script, because THAT STUPID SCRIPT WAS MESSING UP HER REACTIONS!!!

“Huh?” asked Pinkie. “Wonder where the script went?”

“This doesn’t make sense,” said Celestia. “The elements were surrounded by a powerful spell that only I can break! It makes no sense!”

“Make sense?” said a familiar voice suddenly. “What fun is there in making sense?”

“Discord!” yelled Rainbow furiously. “Show yourself!”

Discord claws his fingers, and materialized in front of Rainbow.

“I suspect you're fretting about your elements?” he asked.

Rainbow charged Discord, who casually snapped his claws. Rainbow smashed through a window.

Twilight gasped.

“Now as I was saying before the–interruption,” Discord said, “your elements are missing! Wonderful, am I right?”

“Enough!” Celestia yelled. “What have you done with the elements?!”

“Oh I just borrowed them for a teensy little while,” Discord said innocently.

“You’ll never get away with this Discord!” Luna said.

“Oh I’ve forgotten how boring you are, Luna,” Discord tutted.

“Hey!” yelled Rainbow, zooming back in through the window. “Nobody insults the–.”

Discord snapped his claws, and Rainbow fell to the floor giggling.

“And then Oatmeal threw the whole fifteen-layer cake out the sixteen story window!” Rainbow laughed. “And then Pinkie said: ‘Oatmeal are you crazy?!’ And then I said–.”

“And now that element of Loyalty, Rainbow is out of the way–.”

“Whaddid ya do ta’ her?” Applejack yelled.

“And you must be element of Honesty Applejack,” Discord said.

“She is!” Rarity yelled, pulling Fluttershy forwards with her. “And we’re going to–.”

“Generous Rarity and Kind Fluttershy,” Discord said. “How lovely.”

“Wait what?” asked Rarity, blushing.

“Just stop this madness, Twi,” Spike said. “Blast this maniac to Griffinstone!”

“And Spike, the number one, and tragically element-less, assistant!” Discord to Twilight. “And element of magic Twilight.”

Spike growled, punching a fist into his other hand. “I might be element-less, but you’re ‘bouta be headless!”

Discord snapped his claws, and Spike was flattened by a cake. “Which leaves the element of Laughter, Pinkie Pie, my personal favorite, by the way. Do you spell that with a ‘y’ or an ‘ie’?”

“The second one!” said Pinkie.

“Jumper!” said Discord suddenly.

“Who?” asked Pinkie.

“Yes,” said Discord.

A loading circle showed up above Pinkie’s head, as she tried to process the information.

Discord doubled over in laughter.

“And then, Oatmeal threw a chair at me!” Rainbow snorted. “And then, this super crazy secret-agent calling herself Bon Bon showed up and arrested Oatmeal! And then Pinkie said: ‘Super-spooky-and-a-little-intimidating-secret-agent are you crazy?!’ And that’s how me and Pinkie stopped an international terrorist!” Rainbow finished and sat up.

“Okay!” snapped Celestia. “You’ve had your fun, now tell us where the elements are!”

“Fine,” Discord sighed, “I’ll tell you. But I’ll only tell you my way. To retrieve your missing elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the elements back where you began.”

“What the–” Rainbow started.

“Can we go home now?” asked Fluttershy.

“Ciao!” said Discord, and snapped his claws, teleporting away.

“What do you reckon he meant?” asked Applejack. “Twists and turns and endin' back where we started?”

“Twists and turns... twists and turns... twists and turns!” Twilight’s eyes lit up. “That's it! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace labyrinth!”

“Good luck, my little ponies,” said Celestia. “The fate of Equestria is in your hooves.”

Author's Note

Discord: Jumper

Pinkie: Who?

Discord: Yes

Pinkie: *confusion*

Me: Jumperwho!

(ps. I'm sorry, the joke was just to good to leave out:twilightsheepish:)

Labyrinth

“Is it just me?” asked Rarity apprehensively. “Or is the hedge maze… bigger?”

“It seems bigger,” said Twilight. “Discords work, probably. Trying to give us more of a challenge. But no worries! As long as we stick together, nothing can stop us!”

“We–we have to go in there?” Fluttershy quivered, staring wide-eyed at the labyrinth.

“Nah,” said Rainbow, fluttering her wings. “Discord forgot about these babies! I’ll just do a quick flyby, and we’ll have our elements back in no time!”

At which point, Rainbow’s wings glowed in a bright rainbow aura, before disconnecting, and dropping in a box.

“WHAT THE BUCK–.”

Fluttershy screamed, as her own wings vanished.

“Girls, stay CALM!” Twi’s reassurance died quickly, as her horn vanished. “STAY CALM! STAY CAAAA–”

Rarity glanced up at her (lack of) horn, and fainted.

A cackling laugh resonated, spooking several birds out of a tree.

“You should see the looks on your faces!” Discord snorted. “Priceless!”

“Enough ah this!” Applejack snorted. She pawed the ground, facing Discord. “Give em back their wings an horns!”

Discord snapped his claws, and Applejack teleported a few hooves above the ground, before falling. Her hat fluttered down on her.

“They’ll get them back in good time,” said Discord. “I simply took them to ensure there's no cheating. You see, this is the first rule of our game: no flying, and no magic.”

“The first rule?” said Rainbow skeptically.

“The second rule is everypony has to play or the game is over, and I win. Good luck, everypony!”

Discord clapped his paw and claws, teleporting Twilight and her friends away.

This is going to be easier than I thought.

Applejack looked around. She was standing in a dead end of the maze. Her friends were standing all around her, and Rarity had been revived.

“Stay calm everypony!” Twilight said. “We might not have our horns, or our wings, but we still have each other!”

“And we can do anything when we work as a team,” said Rainbow, extending a hoof. “I’m in!”

“Me too!” said Pinkie, putting her hoof over Rainbows. “Friendship rocks!”

“I know, that even when the going gets tough, that, I’ll still have my friends, to help me along the way,” said Fluttershy, putting a hoof in.

“This’ll all work out, so long as we work together y'all,” said Applejack, extending a hoof.

“I do have complete faith in the magic of friendship,” said Rarity, extending the final hoof.

Twilight nodded. “If Discord thinks that he can stop us by trapping us in here, then he’s wrong! Nothing can stop us! Not losing our wings and magic, because friendship is magic! Now let’s beat this maze and get our elements back!”

Hovering invisible above them, Discord shook his head. Time to make things interesting. He snapped his claws.

“Ahh!” yelled the Mane Six in unison, as hedge walls sprang up, separating them.

“Stay calm y’all!” Applejack said. “Head ta the middle as quick as ya can!”

“Moving out!” said Rainbow.

“See you darlings in the center!”

“Last one there’s an un-iced cupcake!”

“Um, I’ll try.”

“Okay, hopefully we can meet up quickly. Also, look for the elements!”

The Mane Six moved out.

Discord watched them go. His gaze settled on Honesty Applejack. Let’s see what you're made of.

Applejack turned another corner. She’d long lost sight of which way the middle was, and was beginning to panic. How long was she taking? Where were her friends? Where were the Elements of Harmony? Where was the Lord of Chaos himself?

And where was she?

Applejack rounded another corner, and found herself in the most interesting place in the labyrinth. Instead of the monotonous green, there was a clearing, with a shallow pond in the middle. Three piles of apples were lying around it. A light red pile, a dark red pile, and a green pile. As soon as Applejack got close, the piles animated, almost as if they were being pulled up by strings. They had taken the shape of ghosts, if ghosts stayed on the ground and were made of apples. They began laughing creepily.

“Wha?” asked Applejack, stumbling backwards. “Who are y’all?”

“Welcome to the Grove of Truth,” said the apples in unison.

“You may ask us… one question… past, future, or present… but be warned… that the truth… may not always be pleasant….”

“Alright,” said Applejack. “This place is called the Grove a’ Truth. Ah suppose I’ll ask what’s gonna come outta this whole Discord thing. I never did get ta see the script.”

“For the answer you seek…” the apples started, gesturing towards the pond. “Go ahead… take a peak….”

Applejack turned towards the pond. It was reflective, and still. And then a single rainbow-colored droplet hit the center of the pool, sending out ripples. And then, an image slowly came into view….

“I hope I never see any of you again!” Rainbow yells. “I hate all of you!”

Rarity stamps a hoof. “Not as much as I hate you Rainbow smash! I hope the Wonderbolts kick you out!”

“None of you ever cared about me!” Fluttershy sobs. “I don’t think I even want to make friends again!”

“None of you even cared about my parties!” Pinkie yells. “You big jerks! I hope you all get banished to the moon!”

“Your parties, were STUPID!” Twilight yells. “And Rarity, I wouldn’t let a convicted murderer wear one of your new line of dresses! They look awful!”

“You never truly felt me!” snapps Rarity, walking away. “I do not wish to associate myself with such… barbarians any longer.”

“Me neither!” Pinkie rages. “I’m going to find someone who actually appreciates me!” She turns and goes in a different direction from Rarity.

“Well you can go buck yourselves for all I care!” Rainbow spits. “I’m cutting ties, to go focus on the Wonderbolts!” She flies away

“I don’t even wanna see you anymore!” Fluttershy sobs, turning away.

“You know what?” Twilight says angrily. “I’m done being the glue that holds this group together. I’m out!”

The Mane Six walk away from each other, all in different directions.

The viewpoint shifts, jumping to a larger and larger picture, until eventually all that's visible, is Discord laughing, the Elements of Harmony, broken at his feet.

Hypnotics

Applejack felt so woozy. The only image stuck in her mind was that of her friends all going in different directions, and Discord standing over the broken elements.

“No…” Applejack pleaded. “No, this isn’t happening… our friendship… is… un… breaka….”

Applejack slumped to the ground. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly.

And then she stood up, and brushed the dirt off herself.

But she wasn’t herself. Applejack’s coat had gone gray, and her eyes had lost their hue.

Discord snapped his claws as he heard hoofsteps coming towards him, and the apples tumbled to the ground.

“Applejack!” Twilight gasped in relief, coming into the clearing. “Thank goodness! I thought I heard voices over here. Who were you talking to?”

“Uh– nopony. Nopony whatsoever.”

“Huh? But I heard voices–.”

“Probably just one ah Discords tricks,” said Applejack very quickly. “Come on sugarcube. We'd best be movin’.”

Huh? Thought Twilight. Did Applejack just...? Come on, Twilight! Applejack wouldn't lie.

Pinkie Pie turned another corner. She was starting to lose track of time. How long had it been since she and her friends had left the start of the maze? She didn’t know.

She came into an intersection. A quick look around showed her that there were five ways for her to progress.

“This is the hardest maze I’ve ever done!” said Pinkie, trying to decide on which way to go. “Oh well. Here’s hoping!” She went down the path that was directly ahead. The path twisted and turned. Then opened up into a clearing.

The clearing was as large as the Golden Oak Library’s first floor. Looking around the unexpectedly large clearing, Pinkie realized it was full of rabbits. They were white with red eyes. There were also several tables with balloons tied to them.

“Aren't you cute?” said Pinkie, moving towards one bunny.

It exploded. Pinkie screamed.

Several more rabbits exploded into confetti, causing Pinkie to scream louder.

There was a sudden outburst of laughter.

Pinkie spun around, but there was nopony else in the clearing, and the rabbits weren’t laughing. The only ones that could be laughing were the balloons, which made no sense. Pinkie decided that Discord had done one of his tricks to make the balloons laugh.

“Hey what gives?” asked Pinkie, feeling a little confused as to why the balloons were laughing at her.

There was a little pop behind her.

“What's the matter, Pinkie Pie?” asked Discord. “I thought you appreciated a good laugh.”

“This is different!” said Pinkie. “They're laughing at me.”

“Hardly different,” said Discord. “Your friends laugh at you all the time.”

“They laugh with me, not at me!”

“Oh really?”

The balloons were laughing harder than ever.

“Hey!” Pinkie snapped. “Stop it!”

“I thought laughter made you happy,” said Discord, before swinging a pocket watch in front of Pinkie’s eyes. Pinkie's eyes started swirling, and her bright pink coat faded to gray. She wobbled, before crashing to the ground.

And then she stood up, as if nothing had ever happened.

“Laughter?” she scoffed. “Make me happy? I don’t think so!”

Discord chuckled, before teleporting away.

A moment later, Twilight and Applejack burst around the corner.

“Oh Pinkie!” Twilight said, relieved. “Are we glad to see you!”

“Oh really! Need a good laugh! Huh!”

“What?” said Twi.

Pinkie huffed, and stormed away.

Twi turned to Applejack. “Notice anything strange about Pinkie?”

“Uh- no! ‘Course not, no! Ah didn’t notice anythin’ strange ‘bout her.” Applejack rushed after Pinkie.

Twilight blinked. “Maybe I’m the one who the stress is getting to?”

Rarity trudged along one long stretch of hedge. “I was expecting an audience with the princess, not outdoor sport, ugh! This is ruining my dress!”

She stared down at her dress, and when she looked up, she was surprised to see that the walls were stone.

“Huh? I never noticed the walls change to stone.” She sighed. “Oh well. I suppose I should stop fretting over my dress. Perhaps the stone is the middle?”

She turned another corner, and found herself facing the–. “Largest diamond I’ve ever seen!”

She rushed towards it, but stopped herself. Her friends, or the diamond?

Well surely they can manage without me, thought Rarity. But what if they can’t? What if they need my help, and I can’t give it to them, because I’m too busy fawning over this diamond? But surely the diamond would be worth a lot of bits, probably enough to move to Canterlot permanently. That’s my dream, and all I have to do Is take this diamond and… abandon my friends?

“No!” said Rarity, turning away from the diamond, which was really just a boulder that Discord had bewitched to look like a diamond. “I will not abandon my friends!”

“I think you will,” Discord growled, stepping out from behind the boulder. “You're nor the element of loyalty.”

Rarity spun around, and Discord bopped her on the head. She tumbled to the ground, eyes swirling, coat graying.

And then, just like Discord predicted, Rarity stood back up, and practically bowled him over in her haste to get to the “diamond.”

Discord laughed, and stepped through the stone wall.

“Rarity!” exclaimed Twilight rushing around the corner after Applejack and Pinkie. “Are we glad to see you….” She gave an exasperated sigh. “And why are you pushing a massive boulder around?”

“What do you mean, "boulder"? This big beautiful bedazzling rock is a diamond! And it's all mine. Keep your envious little eyes off it! I found it and it's mine fair and square!”

“But it’s just a boulder–.”

“Ah dunno Twi,” said Applejack. “Looks an awful lot like ah diamond ta me.”

“Ahahaha!” Pinkie laughed. “What happened Common-y? Lost your sense of ‘fabulousness?’ Think that stupid boulder is pretty? Well guess what? It isn’t! Ahahaha!”

“Well you are an insensitive jerk, Pinkie Pie-in-the-face! Go sit under one of your chocolate clouds while we do all the work!”

“Girls!” Twilight said. “Calm down, please–.”

“We’re all as calm as a zen garden!” said Applejack. “Ah think you're the one actin’ crazy sugarcube.”

“But I’m perfectly calm–.”

“Ha ha ha!” guffawed Pinkie. “Twilight-crazy-Sparkle can’t even tell when she’s losing her mind! Ahahaha!”

“I’m not losing my mind!” snapped Twilight. “And we are finding the Elements of Harmony even if it’s hard! Come on!”

Twilight grabbed Applejack and Pinkie, dragging them further into the labyrinth. Rarity followed, admiring her rock.

Discord laughed as he watched the scene unfold beneath him. Oh it is going to be hard. In fact, I think it’s soon going to be impossible.

Fluttershy passed a muddy puddle, and turned a corner. She was so lost, and had no idea where she was.

All of a sudden she thought she heard hoofsteps. She rushed in that direction, taking turn after turn, and ended up at a muddy puddle. The same one?

She sat down against the hedge wall and started taking deep breaths. “Okay Fluttershy, you can do this! Oh a butterfly!”

Fluttershy extended a hoof, and the butterfly landed on it. “I’m sure this is all going to be okay.”

The butterfly nodded. It asked if Fluttershy needed any help.

“Well,” said Fluttershy. “I could use some help finding my friends. Twilight is purple, Rarity is white, Applejack is orange, Pinkie is pink, and Rainbow is light blue.”

The butterfly nodded again, and flew off.

Discord suddenly materialized out of thin air. Fluttershy jumped.

“Well, Fluttershy, Just Fluttershy,” said Discord. “Looks like your ‘friends’ have abandoned you, huh?”

“Oh no. I’m certain they are looking for me as we speak.”

“Well, it must be so upsetting to know how weak and helpless they think you are?” Discord said.

“Not at all. I am weak and helpless and I appreciate their understanding.”

Discord was starting to get annoyed. He tried one last time.

“Yes... Well, surely it burns you up... I mean, that they're always pointing out your flaws, right?”

“Not really. In fact, I think I'm awfully lucky to have friends who want me to be the best I can be.”

Discord growled. “Oh, for goodness sake! You've been kind for far too long, my dear. Time to be cruel.”

He swayed the pocket watch in front of Fluttershy’s eyes, and she slumped against the wall, coat fading, eyes swirling.

Then she stood up.

“Arrivederci!” said Discord, and teleported away.

Twilight dragged her friends around the corner.

“Oh Fluttershy,” she gasped. “You have no idea how happy I am to see a friendly face. Our friends all think I’m crazy!”

“Aw, boo-hoo-hoo!” Fluttershy mocked. “Why don't you wave your magic little horn and make everything alright?”

“Um….” Twilight started, but Fluttershy cut her off.

“Oh that’s right– you don’t have one!”

“Ahahahaha!” Pinkie snorted. “How does it feel to be just like me Twilight! Not so high-and-mighty without magic, are you!”

“I never said I was– ow!”

Fluttershy had intentionally slammed Twilight off her hooves. Twi hit the ground hard.

“Oh sorry about that,” said Fluttershy. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Don’t worry sugarcube,” said Applejack. “We’ll getcha to a hospital soo–.”

“I don’t need a hospital!” Twilight yelled, getting up angrily. “I’m not a mental patient!”

“Yes ya are,” said Applejack. “An’ righ’ now yer actin’ outta your mind!”

“Ahahahaha!” snorted Pinkie. “My best friend is a mental-patient, this is sooo hilariously funny–.”

“Oh yeah!” yelled Fluttershy. “I’ll punch your teeth down your throat if you don’t close your yapper!”

“Oh, I’m sorry if I offended you, Fwuddershy–.”

Fluttershy socked Pinkie in the jaw, before tackling her to the ground. They crashed into Rarity.

“You hooligans!” yelled Rarity. “You're trying to vandalize my diamond! Well I won’t let you!” Rarity jumped into the tangle of limbs.

Applejack tumbled to the ground, laughing her head off.

“What is happening to my friends?” asked Twilight in shock. “They’d never do this!”

Rainbow Dash charged around a corner, and found herself at a dead end. “Darn it!”

“I can see why you like these clouds so much. Very plush.”

Rainbow looked up to see Discord sitting in a cloud.

“Get off there and put 'em up!” yelled Rainbow, raising her forehooves. “Come on! Let's go!”

“Hey!” said Discord. “I’m just here to deliver a message!”

“Yeah right.”

Discord cleared his throat. “Listen closely, this is important. A weighty choice is yours to make: the right selection or a big mistake. If a wrong choice you choose to pursue, the foundations of home will crumble without you.”

And as he said this, Rainbow saw the most storm clouds she’d ever seen at once, moving in. Moving towards Cloudsdale.

Rainbow gasped. “Cloudsdale? Crumble... without me? No!”

“This box contains your wings.” said Discord, showing Rainbow the box. “You can take them and leave the game, or you can carry on aimlessly wandering this maze. Your choice.”

Rainbow stared frozen at Cloudsdale, thinking hard. There’s no way I can stop those clouds myself, even the Wonderbolts probably couldn’t. And if I go, there won’t be a sixth element bearer, so Discord will win. But I can get the Elements of Harmony, and defeat Discord. That will save Equestria, and then we can repair Cloudsdale.

Rainbow turned back to Discord. “I’m wandering aimlessly. I’m looking for the elements, and when I find them I’ll defeat you and fix Cloudsdale.”

“Seriously?” Discord groaned. “You’re choosing your friends over all the pegasi in Cloudsdale?”

“The Cloudsdale pegasi are trained for just this kind of situation. They’ll be fine.”

“Whatever!” growled Discord. “Time to flip you. Arrivederci!”

Discord pulled out the pocket watch, and waved it in front of Rainbow’s eyes.

Rainbow had faster reaction times than any of her friends. And that reaction time was what saved her from getting hypnotized. She whipped up a hoof and punched the pocket watch. The glass face shattered, and the chain snapped.

Discord took a step back, as Rainbow threw a punch that connected with his midsection. None of Rainbow’s friends had fought back, and Discord hadn’t been expecting Rainbow to be any different. His big mistake.

Rainbow jumped on Discord, knocking him to the ground. Discord flung her off him.

Discord could have ended the fight right there, but he wanted to hypnotize Rainbow as well. Another mistake.

He tried to bop her on the head like he’d done to Rarity, but Rainbow rolled out of the way.

Discord pulled out a freezing ornament, and threw it at Rainbow, but she easily dodged it.

Rainbow clocked Discord on the head, and he wobbled. He whacked Rainbow in the stomach, and she crumpled to the ground.

“You didn’t think you could beat the Lord of Chaos, did you?” asked Discord.

“Of course not,” said Rainbow. “I just needed to get away.”

Rainbow turned towards the exit and started running, taking Discords chance of hypnotizing all of the Mane Six with her.

“Wait!” called Discord. “What about flightless Scootaloo?”

Rainbow froze.

“Scootaloo’s up in Cloudsdale right now!” said Discord. “She can’t fly, and isn’t trained to survive storms like this!”

Rainbow’s will shattered, and she turned back to Discord. Scootaloo wasn’t related to Rainbow, but they were as close as sisters. Scootaloo had even founded the Rainbow Dash Fan Club. There was no way Rainbow was going to let her die in a storm.

“Wings,” she said to Discord in a business-like tone.

Discord smiled, and snapped his claws. Rainbow flexed her wings, and flew off towards Cloudsdale.

Then Discord snapped his claws, and Rainbow’s coat faded.

He had won.

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait, had some stuff happen IRL. Anyways, enjoy a double-lenght chapter!