Waking up to a pink sticky cloud filled with chocolate milk isn't the best thing in the morning, though I think that Pinkie would disagree. It's also annoying when I had to eat said cloud to get rid of it and I was on a sugar high.
Wait, what? I thought in confusion, Why is there a cotton candy cloud with chocolate milk in my house? Did a spell of Twilight's go wrong or something?
I looked out my window to see even more pink clouds, raining chocolate milk. I saw a rainbow blur zoom by me towards Sweet Apple Acres, and had to blink a few times to become unstunned. I quickly jumped out the window and flew after Rainbow. Normally I'd don my pegasus form, but the chocolate rain would have been a nightmare on my fur, verses it just sliding off of my chitin.
What is going on here?
As I neared the farm, I saw that there was popcorn everywhere, giant apples randomly appearing on the trees and weighting them down, and animals with extremely long legs. Just as I landed, a large pink light covered the area, before vanishing.
"My fail-safe spell failed..." said Twilight, "What do we do?"
"Uh, give up?" said Spike.
"Spike," said Rarity, "Twilight will think up something."
"What's going on?" I asked, looking around at the complete chaos.
"Oh! Crystal!" said Twilight, just noticing me, "Is this craziness effecting your magic at all?"
"I don't think so, why?"
"Well, you do have different magic than the rest of us- Oh, that could work!"
"Huh?" I asked as Twilight suddenly teleported to my side, holding a book in her magic.
"Can you try casting this spell?" she asked, holding the book up to me.
"I usually only use levitation, but I'll try!"
My horn lit up in it's usual green, and I concentrated as hard as I possibly could. Suddenly, my horn stopped glowing, before lighting up again, but red instead of green.
"Twilight, I have a bit of a problem, here." I said as the glow on my horn continued to switch colors.
"It is effecting your magic!" said Twilight, "Here, let me try-"
Before Twilight could finish talking, a bolt of magic came out of my horn and blasted all of the pink clouds in the sky, causing them to all dissapear.
"Aw, mare!" said Pinkie, "I wanted more chocolate milk!"
"Um, was that supposed to happen?" I asked.
"No, but you did get rid of the clouds!" said Twilight, before the sky became filled with pink clouds again, "Never mind..."
"Twilight!" said Spike, "I got a letter from Princess Celestia! It says that she needs you guys in Canterlot immediately!"
"This much be related to all this chaos going on!" Twilight looked around before turning back towards us, "Come on, everypony! Let's hurry!"
We burst into Canterlot Castle to see Princess Celestia pacing nervously.
"Princess Celestia!" said Twilight, running up to her, "We came as fast as possible!"
"Thank you, Twilight. Thank you, all." said Celestia, trotting over to us.
"Is this about all of the craziness happening outside?" asked Twilight, "And why didn't my magic work? And why-"
"I know you have many questions, my student, but I need you all to follow me," Princess Celestia quickly led us into the throne room where there was large, stained-glass windows, "I've called you here for a matter of great importance. It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned. His name is... Discord."
Fluttershy let out a small whimper of fear.
"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."
All six of them... I thought.
"That sounds like it was awesome!" said Rainbow.
"I thought the spell we cast would keep him contained forever, but since Luna and I are no longer connected to the Elements, the spell has been broken."
"No longer connected?" asked Twilight, "What does that mean?"
Princess Celestia paused into front of a door that had seven sections of different colors on it.
"This is Canterlot Tower, where the Elements are kept inside since all of you recovered them. I need you to wield the Elements of Harmony once again and stop Discord before he thrusts all of Equestria into eternal chaos."
"But why is?" asked Twilight.
"Hey!" said Pinkie, pointing to a large stain-glass window, "We're famous!"
The stain-glass window depicted the seven of us blasting Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony.
"You si- sorry, seven, 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!"
The seven of us looked at each other, and we all nodded.
"Princess Celestia, you can count on us!" said Twilight.
"Thank you all, greatly," she said, turning towards the door and inserting her horn into a small hole in the center. The door glowed, and opened to reveal a a golden chest that Princess Celestia picked up with her magic, "Have no fear, ponies. I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord with these!"
She opened the box, to reveal that there was nothing in it. Princess Celestia dropped the box in surprise, and we all let out a gasp.
"The Elements!" said Twilight in shock, "They're gone!"
"Discord must have taken them!" said Princess Celestia, "There's no other reasonable explanation!"
"Reasonable explanation?" asked a disembodied voice, "Of course you would want one of those, Celestia!"
"Discord! Show yourself!"
There was a flash of light on one of the many stained-glass windows, and an odd-shaped creature appeared. At the exact same time, Princess Celestia and Twilight both turned towards me and zapped me with their magic. I felt a tingling sensation, and then it faded away. Looking at myself, I saw that looked semi-transparent, and realized that they were trying to hide me from Discord.
"What's the matter?" said Discord, "Don't you miss me? I missed you. It's quiet boring lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn't know that, would you, because I don't turn ponies into stone!"
"Enough!" snapped Princess Celestia, "What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?"
"Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while."
"You'll never get away with this, Discord!"
"Oh, I'd forgotten how grim you can be, Celestia. It's really quite boring."
"Hey!" shouted Rainbow, "Nopony insults the Princess!"
"Oh, you must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her loyalty, the Element of Harmony you represent."
"That's right! I'll always be loyal to the Princess!"
"We'll see about that."
"I can't believe we're wasting our time talking to a tacky window." said Rarity
"The beautiful Rarity, representing the element of generosity, if I'm not mistaken?"
"So you know who we are," said Applejack, "Big deal."
"Oh, I know much more than that, honest Applejack."
"You seem to know our strengths too." said Twilight.
"Yes, Twilight Sparkle, and yours is the most powerful and elusive element, magic. Fluttershy's is kindness and Pinkie Pie's is a personal favorite of mine - laughter!" Discord let out a cackle, which caused Pinkie to giggle
"Laughter is really fun!" said Pinkie.
"Pinkie!" said Twilight, "Don't encourage him!"
"Stop stalling, Discord!" said Princess Celestia, "What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?"
"Oh, so boring, Celestia," said Discord, "Though, I do find it funny that you put a fake Element in the box, and even put a Changeling on the picture you made! A Changeling!" he let out another laugh, and I had restrain myself from jumping at him, "Fine, 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." Discord vanished in a fit of laughter.
"Can we go home now?" asked Fluttershy with a whimper.
"And how come Crystal is semitransparent?" asked Rarity.
"Discord believes that Crystal's Element is fake," said Princess Celestia, "So it is best that he doesn't discover Crystal exists. For now, you must find the Elements!"
"What do you reckon he meant?" asked Applejack, "Twists and turns and ending back where we started?"
"Twists and turns..." muttered Twilight, pacing around, "Twists and turns... Twists and turns! That's it! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace labyrinth!"
"Good luck, my little ponies," said Princess Celestia, "The fate of Equestria is in your hooves."
"Thanks, Princess. We won't let you down."
The labyrinth we stood in front of was extremely tall, and also very foreboding.
"D-do we have to go in there?" asked Fluttershy nervously.
"Don't worry!" said Rainbow, "Discord forgot that we can just fly in! I'll back in just a few seconds with the Elements!"
Rainbow was about to fly into the maze when her wings suddenly vanished. At the same time, Fluttershy's wings, Rarity's horn, and Twilight's horn all vanished. I quickly backed away from the rapidly growing invisible line that continued around the entire labyrinth. The four began panicking, and I realized that it had to be Discord. There was a puff of smoke, and out from it came none other than Discord. He looked just like the image in the stained-glass window, except less pointy.
"You–You should see the looks on your faces!" said Discord gleefully, "Priceless!" he burst into laughter.
"Give us our wings and horns back!" demanded Twilight angrily.
"You'll get them back in good time! 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?" asked Rainbow angrily.
"The second rule is everypony has to play or the game is over, and I win! Good luck, everypony!" Discord vanished in another puff of smoke.
We all stared blankly at the hedge maze looming in front of us until Twilight finally spoke.
"Okay..." she said nervously, "Crystal, you can come over here now."
"The invisibility spell will dissapear if I cross the line."
"What line?" asked Applejack.
"The line Discord must have drawn around the maze to remove any magic spells, along with our wings and horns," said Twilight, "But he left, so it's fine."
I cautiously walked across the line towards my friends, and I felt the spell wear off me as I crossed the line. The line vanished from my view, and I felt my wings and horn vanish.
"Whoa, it feels so weird to have holes in my legs and no wings and horn," I commented, "So, Twilight, what's the plan?"
"We need to find the Elements in the maze," said Twilight, "As long as we have each other, we can overcome Discord!"
"Yeah!" said Rainbow, "Like Twilight said, there's nothing we can't overcome if we all stick together!"
"All right, girls, let's do this!"
We all stood side-by-side and took a step into the maze. Suddenly, all around us came up hedges, separating us from each other.
"Is everypony okay?" called Twilight.
"Yes!" we all called.
"Stay calm, girls! Everypony head to the middle as fast as you can, and we'll regroup there!"
"Moving out!" called Rainbow.
"See you in the center!" said Rarity
"Yee-haw!" said Applejack.
"See you guys there!" said Pinkie.
I heard the others gallop off, but I heard Fluttershy quivering from the hedge beside me.
"Come on, Fluttershy!" I called to her, "The faster you go, the sooner we meet up again!"
"Um, okay..." said Fluttershy extra nervously.
I heard Fluttershy's nervous footsteps before also taking off into the maze. There were so many twist and turns, that I wasn't even sure that I had left the start.
I hope Discord doesn't find me in here...
I ran into an area that was filled with buckets of paint and canvases everywhere. I heard Discord laughing from somewhere near me,
Aaaaand I jinxed it.
I started to back out of the area when a hedge abruptly popped up in the entrance and the exit, blocking me in the area.
"Wow!" came Discord's voice from behind me, "Just wow! I can't believe that you're an Element of Harmony! I should have know that Celestia wouldn't have placed a fake one in the box or a fake image on the wall, but you actually got me!"
I walked carefully into the enter of the of the area and stood firmly in place.
"Discord!" I said angrily, "What do you want?"
The paint floated up out of the buckets and began swirling around me. I could have sworn that I saw Discord's face somewhere in it, but I wasn't sure.
"Oh, nothing!" came his mocking voice, "I just wanted to see what you were up to!"
"You're just trying to make me cheat and lose the game!"
"So maybe I am, and maybe I'm not. How can you be sure?
"Go away, Discord!"
"Aw, you're such a brave little pony! Oh, my bad! I meant Changeling!"
"So what if I'm a Changeling?"
"You're a love leech!"
"I'm am not a leech!" I yelled angrily, "Nopony sees me that way!"
"Well, of course you aren't! You store your love, don't 'cha?"
The paint came closer to me in the shape of Discord and hooked a talon around the thin string around my neck. I completely froze as her pulled on the string, pulling a bright red gem out of my mane.
"Ooh! A collecting crystal, is this? Very special!"
"Don't touch that!" I snapped, taking a step back from the paint-Discord.
"But of course, you've so scared without it or your friends. What are you do to?"
"I'm not scared of you."
"Oh, but you're scared of not having you precious crystal, aren't you?"
I froze again as Discord toyed with my crystal and he suddenly looked deeply into my eyes.
"You maybe be brave, but not anymore! I think it's time that you should be fearful!" he pause for a moment, "But of course, I'll make sure you can keep your precious crystal. I'm not heartless!"
All of the art supplies vanished and I stood still. I didn't notice the gray tint that washed over me, and I didn't notice the yellow glow that magically reinforced the string around my neck, and then tucked my crystal back in my mane. The hedges blocking the entrance and exit then vanished, and Twilight and everypony except for Rainbow Dash walked up.
"Crystal!" cried out Twilight, causing me to flinch in surprise, "I'm so glad to see you, this maze is making everypony act so strangely!"
"What? It is? Am I acting strangely?" I asked in a panic.
"Huh?" asked Twilight.
"I didn't do anything!" I cried, lying down and putting my hooves over my eyes.
Twilight stared at me.
"Okay... We need to get to Discord!"
"DISCORD?!?" I cried out in fear, "NO NO NO!"
I turned away from Twilight and sprinted through the maze, Twilight and the other following me.
"Crystal!" yelled Twilight, "Crystal!"