When Saturday came, it started relatively normally. However, the sign that Discord had escaped soon made itself evident as cotton candy clouds came to the town, raining chocolate milk. Maestro, Twilight, and the others were all summoned to Canterlot shortly afterwards, and made haste. When they reached Canterlot, they followed Celestia to the vault with the Elements inside it. She pulled out the box, but when she opened it, it was empty. Maestro huffed in irritation. “This’s why you should have let me enchant them a little further! Now Discord has hidden them somewhere. Thanks a lot for that.”
Then, they heard a cackle from the stained glass. “Ooh, I do love messing with ponies!” The attention of all was drawn to the window of when Discord was defeated. His picture started to move as he spoke. “How nice of you to not listen to him! This wouldn’t have been possible without you! For that, I thank you.” His figure moved to the stain glass window of the victory over Nightmare Moon, and thought pensively. “Though, I must say… seven Elements of Harmony? Last time we tussled, there were only six… How’d that happen? Did you and your sister miss one when going up against me? Inspiration… what a wonderfully chaotic word! Acting on a whim by what strikes you… that’s my kind of power!”
Twilight stepped forward, a smirk on her face. “So, Discord. I guess you won’t tell us outright where you’ve hidden them. After all, that’s just not chaotic enough for you, is it?”
He blinked, and an eyebrow raised. “Well, yes. Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of Magic… you seem to know more than you let on…” He shook his head, chuckling. “No matter. I’ll just give you a hint and be on my way. *Ehem*!
“Twists and turns are my master plan,
“Then you find yourself back where you began,
“But more trouble I’ll cause for you,
“Your friendship torn asunder before the day’s through,
“To mend it’ll be an arduous task,
“In Elemental Glow you must bask.”
Discord smirked deviously. “Alright, I think that’s quite enough of a hint enough for you, isn’t it Sparkle? But if you don’t figure it out, don’t feel bad… you’ll have a new life in my world anyway…” he laughed as his stain glass window avatar ceased to animate.
Twilight bit her lip a bit. Part of Discord’s hint sounded like the riddle he’d given them in the last cycle. Yet, the rest of it was new to her. Twists and turns probably still referred to that maze that wasted their time last time, but she wasn’t so certain that finding themselves back where they began still meant for them to go back to her library. For all she knew, that could be a trap, considering the line that immediately followed. He intended to break them apart, and it was up to her and Maestro to ensure that didn’t happen. Problem was, she was uncertain how to puzzle out the rest of it. She turned her attention towards Maestro. “I‘ve got some inkling as to what this riddle means, but I’m not certain on what some of it might mean. What’s your take on it, Maestro?”
A nod from his direction towards the hedge maze. “That over there’s where he wants us to think the Elements are- likely to separate us, perhaps even twist us into some dark mirror of who we’re supposed to be. He said it himself, after all: ‘Twists and turns are my master plan’. He’s trying to fool us. The next line is a double entendre. The first meaning obviously’s to lead us back to the library; the place where we began the day. I’ll get to the second meaning later. The trouble he intends to cause intends to do as he says in the very next line: ‘Your friendship torn asunder’. He sees us as a threat to his aims, and’ll likely stop at virtually nothing to break our friendship apart. The ‘arduous task’ is us finding the Elements, something he intends us to fail. To defeat him, we have to ‘bask in their glow’ as he puts it. Now, as for the second meaning to finding ourselves back where we began comes in here as the solution. We go back to the Everfree, where our friendship began to truly form. He won’t make it easy on us, though.”
Applejack voiced her doubts. “What if yer wrong? We might be off the mark if’n we go there. Discord could easily mean something else!”
At that, Maestro shrugged. “Well, that might be true. But it’s the best lead we’ve got right now. So, are we ready?” a round of nods came in varying hesitation, and he smirked. “Alright then. Back to the Everfree it is, then.” He turned towards Celestia, and she lit her horn to send them off to the Everfree.
Once there, they were all on guard. The Everfree was even more chaotic than normal, if that was even possible. They kept together best they could, navigating through the constantly shifting foliage and avoiding the rabid beasts of the forest. The trees looked far more sinister, and the clouds above looked like darker pink cotton candy- and they rained down strange unidentifiable liquid. The trek to the castle was harsh, but they soon reached the chamber where they first got the Elements. But when they reached out to grab them, Discord appeared before them. “So, you figure out my riddle. Congratulations! Even so, you won’t win. I won’t let you!”
He snapped his talon, and a pulse of energy went across the room. Twilight and Maestro managed to push off the effects, but the girls were not looking as colorful. Just as discord was going to gloat, Maestro touched the Elements to their respective bearers as Twilight used a spell to break Discord’s hold on them. Surprise lit on his face as the Elements started to glow. Maestro smirked. “Alright girls, let’s do this!”
They lifted into the air as Twilight and Maestro led the charge. Discord yelled in surprise as the rainbow light twirled around him. “No, not the statue again! I can’t go back to that insufferable state!”
However, that was not the aim. Twilight and Maestro psychically reached out through the Elements to the others, convincing them that was not what they should do. Some took a bit more convincing than others, but all soon agreed. The light went inside Discord, and he started to shimmer. For a while he convulsed a bit, but it eventually died down as the light did. Celestia arrived on the scene, and panicked. “What is he still doing here! He should be stone again, seeing as his chaotic changes have left!” Celestia turned towards Maestro, an angry look on her face. “What is the meaning of this?”
Maestro shook his head, and pointed towards Discord. “Look at him. He doesn’t seem as malevolent now, does he?” Celestia obliged, and when she looked at him, she saw that he still used his magic; but the effect was far less powerful. He managed a small cloud of cotton candy, but it soon dissipated. Celestia turned back to see a smug look on Maestro’s face. “His magic will remain weakened until I feel he’s learned that what he used to do was wrong. To that end, I will recommend that Discord spend some time out of each day getting lessons from each of us. It will take a bit of time before his powers are back to full strength, so in that time I hope to have him see the errors of his ways. I hope you can see that in this state he is of little harm, right?”
She looked to see Discord trying a bigger chaos spell, and failing. She sighed, and looked back to Maestro. “Fine. I’ll have some guards keep an eye on him, though. If you think all he needs is a bit of tutoring, then so be it. All of you can hash out who he visits and when.” She shook her head. “I’ll be getting back to Canterlot now. Just know that you’re treading on some very thin ice, Maestro Spectrum.”
Celestia left, and Discord crossed his arms as he rolled his eyes. “Oh, goody. Now you’re holding my magic hostage until I reform, eh? I’ll play your game, painter boy. Just don’t expect it to be easy. I’ll stick around in the Everfree, though. Feels more like a home than anywhere else. Now, off with you. I’ve got to make myself at home.”
Twilight and friends were escorted to the Celebration in Canterlot that unveiled Maestro’s stain glass window for the occasion. Celestia even let Maestro enchant the Elements of Harmony further so their theft wouldn’t happen again. They may not see eye to eye, but they certainly knew how to put on a good performance for the audience. The day ended when they back got to Ponyville to rest.