Hide and Seek part1
"I'm not playing fair? Perhaps we haven't met. I'm Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony. Hello?" John de Lancie Discord
Discord contemplated in bliss as ponies fled in horror leaving the Gala, some even getting caught on some of his pranks. Snapping his claws he makes Zipzee and Tempest's armor change from the regular gold design to a purple guard armor with Twilight’s cutie mark; looking at them with expectantly as a mini version of himself appears on Tempest's shoulder and handles her a piece of paper, she gives a quick look to Twilight, who is holding her laughter with a hoof as she gives her approval. Tempest sighs and rolls her eyes before speaking.
“Presenting , the conqueror of harmony, master of the unexpected, old ruler of Equestria, future ruler of Equestria, Lord of chaos and disharmony himself, Discord.” read Tempest reads in the most monotonous tone possible.
“You could at least try!” exclaimed Discord reproachfully with his arms before getting closer to Tempest, “If it was star-butt you would be singing her titles.” he murmured causing her to blush and widen her eyes. “Well it doesn't matter,” he said as he disappeared and reappeared next to Celestia. ”Hello Sun-butt! You look taller and more... mature since the last time I saw you! Still have a sweet tooth I see.” poking her flank with a claw.
“Discord!? How could this be possible?” said Celestia as she guard herself up.
“Oh please, you really thought you could keep chaos trap on stone?” responded Discord as he appreciated his claws. “Besides, a millennium without the power of your jewels can do the trick.”
“Princess Celestia!” scream Sunset as she teleports herself right between them. Discord stares at her for a second with a nostalgic spark in his eyes. ‘She really looks like her’ he thought before he caught Sunset on a bubble.
“Now little pony, the adults are talking go back to play with your sister,” said Discord before sending her flowing away from them on Twilight’s direction.
“Discord, I will not let you harm my ponies! Especially not my students!” Celestia says as she charges her magic making herself glow with a golden light channeling part of the sun power.
“Oh Tia, you hurt me with your insults,” Discord says as he appears on top of the ice sculpture,”I’m not the one the turns ponies to stone, or grounds her sister to her room for a thousand years,” he looks at Twilight for a moment, “or let's her students do all the work.”
“Silence!”commanded Celestia with her royal Canterlot voice shouting a beam ray that vaporize the sculpture but does nothing to Discord who just stays while wearing shorts and sunglasses and putting sunscreen lotion.
“Thank you Tia, I needed to get some color.” said Discord before he laughs to an even angrier Celestia, “now this is supposed to be a party!”
Snapping his claws he makes appear the elements inside a jewellery box, a completely surprised Princess Luna and a Cadance kissing the air, who soon realized she was no longer with Shining Armour.
“Discord!?” reacted Luna as she sees the draconequus, summoning her magic preparing herself for battle.
“Lulu!” responded teasing Discord.
“Discord?” asked an unprepared Cadance
“Princess Cadenza, is nice to meet you!” said Discord presenting some blue flowers to Cadance before disappearing.
“Don't smell them!” ordered Celestia before taking the flowers with her magic and burned them. “What are you planning Discord?”
“Well, now that all the players are here, let's start this party!” said Discord snapping his claws and appearing a banner that reads ‘Discord’s welcoming Gala!’. “First event, the royal hunt!” creating two dolls that looked exactly like Luna and Twilight he made them levitated into the air causing the real Luna and Twilight to do the same, both looked worried and confused respectively, and just before disappearing both screamed Discord’s name.
Luna appeared in the middle of a dark cave, in front of her were 3 different paths. She felt something was wrong as she couldn't feel the moon present, trying to use magic she realized her horn was missing and only had her wings. “Discord….” murmured Luna in rage as she cracks the floor stumping with her hoof.
“Now, now, little Lulu. This is a game try to enjoy it.” Luna heard Discord’s voice around her.
“Discord! returneth us at once thee evil creature!” commanded Luna searching her surroundings.
“I'm offended, princess. I'm not evil, I’m chaotic. Not the same thing. I oppose order, not good.” responded Discord appearing in front of her wearing butler clothes. “Let me explain you the rules of this game. If you are really that eager to return.” said bowing before her.
Luna knew enough better from her last experience against Discord. She needed to contain her anger and play along if she wanted to recover her power. She waited patiently for the chaos creature to continued.
“Excellent! Your game is simple, choose the path you want to discover and recover the doll of your dearest new partner.” explained Discord with a mocking tone.
“W-What!?” exclaimed Luna in anger.
“Easy, right? You can choose from 3 different points of view that will tale a story not even her knows you will see.” getting closer to Luna he presented to her options, to see her current plans, to see what she is capable to do or to see what is hidden behind her power.
Luna didn't trust Discord, but she needed to play along to return. And she was going to take advantage of what she could. She made her chose and Discord grinned evilly as she entered the path.
Twilight appeared in the middle of some kind of forest. To her surprise her powers were suppressed and she couldn't feel her stars, “Dizzy, you better know what you are doing.” Twilight said as she started to walk calmly through the woods.
“But of course, my dearest Star-butt.” responded Discord as he appeared in the form of a push-doll version of himself. “As thank you for gathering chaos for my release I will grant you the information you were looking so hard to know.”
“Really now? And where exactly are we them?” asked Twilight laughing little unable to take serious her friend with such adorable form.
“Try, when.” answered smirking the push-doll Discord, causing Twilight’s eyes to open widely. “That’s right, I will take you through a quick trip on the history of Equestria in the best way possible. By experience it with the safety of not causing damage to the timeline.” snapping his claws making appear the push doll version of Luna he promised to give it to her after the show.
“If you include this adorable version of yourself too, we may have a deal. We may even willing to forgive you for disconnecting us from our children.” responded Twilight smiling slyly at him.
“It's a deal then, Showtime!” said Discord as he snapped his claws and battle cries starting to be heard in the background.
Back at the Gala, everypony was in shock as Luna and Twilight disappeared. The first to react was Celestia, she tried to attack discord but he with a simple snap of his claws placed her and Cadance inside a crystal ball, making sure anypony that was about to attack stop.
“Now, now, this is a game and no-pony is getting hurt, probably.” said Discord while looking at every creature that remained present. “They should return once they clear their event. As for the rest of you, it's time for the second event!” presenting the elements to everypony “The Equestria treasure hunt!”
“Discord! Realize Princess Celestia!” commanded Sunset, trying to control her magic as her anger raised.
“Of course, after you ponies complete the event,” responded Discord playing with the crystal ball, snapping his claws the elements flew into the sky and disappeared, looking at everypony his eyes started to glow brightly red intimidating all of them. “To retrieve your missing elements, just make sense of this change of events. Hide and seek are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where they were born.” before his eyes returned to normal, he waved to then with a smile and disappearing together with the crystal ball containing the princesses.
Nopony moved, they couldn't believe the princesses were taken just like that and quite easy by Discord. Sunset was the first to react, she used a scanning spell for the elements magic, but she couldn't sense anything in Canterlot. Tempest, Moonflower, Zipzee and Skystar felt strange. They normally could feel Twilight through their connection of the blessing anywhere no matter the distance, but now they felt empty. It was like she wasn't anywhere on Equus. In the night sky, the stars started to twinkle and shine as brightly as they could, they were looking everywhere for their master, their mother. Soon after Shining Armor entered the party hall followed by dozens of guards, they were searching for Candace ever since she disappeared when Discord summoned together with Luna. Unfortunately for the guards she was not the only princess taken by the new menace. They soon decided to take actions, the guard led by Shining Armour would make sure everypony was safe during the time Discord was still on the loose. Sunset and her friends made their first priority to locate the elements in order to be able to fight against Discord, but before anypony could ask for help from Tempest and the others, all four of them Disappeared while everypony was deciding what actions to take.
Ambassador Catrina came out of her hiding place as soon nopony was around, she knew Equestria always had to deal with crazy situation and foes. After her kingdom was rescued by her dear friend and supporter, she really hoped for nothing similar to happen again, to any of their allies. Now the Equestrian rulers were taking hostage, she needed to act quickly. Her Queen needed to know, and preparations needed to be taken now that even their dear friend was missing.
All around Equus things began to look strange, all started with the stars going crazy upon the night sky, soon the day time started to change randomly between night and day in a matter of minutes. But no matter the time of the day in the sky, the stars were still going nuts to even moving around.
On Hippogriffia, Queen Novo got the alarming news of Discord escape, she soon made sure her hippogryphs were aware of the situation and prepare for any upcoming battle. The same preparation was being made on Abyssinia, their Queen got the news thanks to her loyal friend and ambassador, but the only difference was that her forces were getting ready to attack and save the princesses of Equestria.
Unaware of the situation every creature in Equus was going through, Twilight was experiencing the history lesson of her life somewhere between time and space.
Hours after Discord disappeared, Sunset and the girls were inside the Archives looking for any clue or hint that could tell them where the Elements came from. No even Moondancer was able to assist them with that kind of information as only Princess Celestia or Luna knew where they got the elements from. With Twilight out of the picture, even Moonflower was missing, no pony knew where they went. To make things worse for them, Discord was causing many kinds of events in every city of Equestria.
“This is getting ridiculous,” exclaimed Sunset closing another book.
“Like seriously! Why can't the princesses have like a book or a note on where they got the elements!” said Rainbow Dash
“Oh I found something useful!” said cheerfully Pinkie as she bounced around the table with a book on her hooves.
“You found the location?” asked Sunset
“No silly, but I found a clue.” responded Pinkie, as she showed to her friends the cover of the book with a sticker of Discord’s face with the word clue below its neck.
“You gotta be kidding me,” proclaimed Sunset, taking the book and looking at its content. It was about magical potions made by shamans from Zebrica. One in particular was marked on glowing red, “Memory Potion”.
“So all this time we could have been looking for a clue instead of just reading books!” said annoyed Rainbow Dash.
“Now darling, we didn't know what we were looking for any way,” said Rarity to her, “we should be grateful that Pinkie found something.”
“So sugarcube, we just have to go make this potion?” asked Applejack
“No really, we need Zecora help, and from their we may know where to look for the elements.” responded Sunset.
“S-so we need to go to the Everfree Forest?” asked Fluttershy afraid of the answer.
“Yes, is the closest we have been to locate the Elements,” responded Sunset as she placed the book on her saddlebag. “Alright everypony, we got some princesses to save.”