//------------------------------//
// CH 4: The Survivor's Plan 
// Story: Galloping Grand Prix 
// by Jet Edge 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 4: The Survivor's Plan
All the ponies had started walking through the now stoney land of Equestria, passing by statues of the others who Discord had turned to stone.
"How could this have happened?" Applejack said out loud. "We should have listened to Twilight after we left Canterlot yesterday, she had the suspicion of Discord and Chrysalis being out in the open."
As the ponies had been walking through the land, they saw somepony off in the distance moving towards them.
"Who could that be? Discord, is that you!" Rarity yelled angrily.
"Iron Will is NOT Discord! Iron Will is Iron Will!" The voice yelled back to them.
Fluttershy had remembered Iron Will and raced towards him,
"Iron Will? Why aren't you stone?" she asked in a confused manner.
"Hey, Iron Will remembers you, your the pony who wasn't satisfied with Iron Will's service and got it for free! Good to see you again! Iron Will sees you aren't as angry as Iron Will remembers."
"Yeah, thank you Iron Will." Said Fluttershy to the minotaur. At that moment they heard a loud, evil cackling coming towards them. They all tensed up and saw Discord along with Chrysalis, Trey, and who appeared to be Celestia, although she wasn't her usual height and she didn't have a horn or wings, she just looked like a normal earth pony, and she was not happy, but sad, along with that she was in chains. Discord floated towards the ponies, and minotaur, and grinned evilly at them.
"Ah Fluttershy and friends. How's it going? You like what I did with the place? Personally I like my handiwork!" He chuckled, looking over the group. "Hmm, your missing some ponies, where's your leader, oh what's her name? Ah yes, Twilight Sparkle." He said casually.
"Discord? What have you done? I thought you accepted the power of friendship and wasn't going to be evil anymore?" Fluttershy said to Discord.
"Yes but that's no fun! Have you ever tried being chaotic? It's really fun!" Discored clapped his hands together as he said this, showing he was pleased with himself.
Rainbow Dash had flown up to Discord's face and said to him, "Discord! Do you really think this is gonna work? We beat you before, what makes you think we won't just use the elements of harmony to beat you again?" She said, thinking they had the upper hand.
"Oh because Rainbow Dash! I have your princess!" He chuckled again evilly.
"That's Celestia!?!?!?" they all exclaimed.
The new Princess Celestia gave out a very weak cry for help, as she fell to the ground again with lack of energy.
"Looks like your faithful and fearless leader is tired from the walk!" Discord teased.
"How do you know that we won't just sneak attack you with the elements of harmony when you are distracted?" Rainbow Dash retorted.
"Well two reasons actually. The first is that you don't have Twilight Sparkle to help you, and the second is, you can't use the elements of Harmony, if they don't work anymore!"
"What do you mean 'they don't work anymore'?" asked Rainbow Dash. That's when the elements of Harmony appeared in Discord's hands, and he used a magic spell to destroy the elements.
"NO!!!" The ponies yelled as they watched him destroy the elements.
"Okay, since I'm such a nice, new Equestrian ruler, I'm gonna give you all 60 minutes to run, once that time is up, any living creature I see will be exiled to a cold, stony prison for eternity." Discord said, with his face aglow with another huge grin.
All the ponies, and minotaur, ran off and started thinking of a plan.
"Alright everypony, we need a plan!" Said Rainbow Dash, slamming her hooves on the table in the Library back at Ponyville.
"What if we use magic to get Celestia to safety?" Spike suggested.
"No, what if he just turns her to stone when we try." Rainbow Dash said rubbing her chin with her hoof.
"I still have the keys to the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, maybe we can use that as a distraction." Flim brainstormed.
" Hmm, that may work, but we need a backup plan."
"Well, Iron Will noticed that all the potion vials Iron Will passed by were not in stone."
"That's it! We can us the potions to our advantage! Everypony show me your lists of potions!"
Everypony in the room had presented their lists to Rainbow Dash, then they had started to devise a plan.
"Well Cadence and Shining Armor, you two have a potion to change our cutie marks and a potion to become what we desire most. Iron Will, you have a super speed potion. Trixie, you guys have a potion which enables ponies to fly. And Flim, you have one that splits a pony into two. I have one that we have no idea-" She stopped as she looked at her list again to notice that it is different than when they first saw it. "The ingredients number is lower than before, and it says that it won't be good if we put too much ingredients in there. Maybe we can use that to our advantage!"
"Uh, Rainbow Dash, I have an idea. If we can get ahold of the other potions and lists, we can have more to our advantage over Discord." Shining Armor Suggested.
"Okay then." said Rainbow Dash. She pored a little bit of the Splitter's Brew potion into a cup and drank some of what was in the little cup, then saved the rest for later. She then split into two, then she had herself and her clone both drink what was left in the little cup, and became four Rainbow Dash's. "Okay, I'll be back in a little bit!" Said all four Rainbow Dash's who proceded to dash out the door. About five minutes later the four Rainbow Dash's returned then combined back into one." Okay I got the other stuff. It turns out that the Diamond Dogs' brew wasn't good, as it was unevenly measured, so I didn't bother with that, instead I just grabbed their list. Apparently if you make it right, it stops time. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had one that helps your flying accuracy. And The Wonderbolts had one that makes animals do your bidding."
"What do we do next?" asked Trixie
"Well actually I need you next."
"What? Me? What for?"
"Do you know any spells that can rid something of stone?"
"Well yes, but it's still fairly weak. Why?"
"Well, we're going to need to make the shapeshifting spell, I need you to make the ingredients in the forest usable again."



They had returned later with the ingredients, plus the ingredients for the stopping soda.
"Now that we have this stuff, let's make the potions!" Exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "Okay Trixie, now, do you know a spell to read minds?"
"Sure, that's beginner's stuff, although there has never been a way to do it without being to close to the target."
"Great! Take the Magical Mane's Elixer and turn into something that will allow you to get close enough to Discord!"
"Are you sure that's gonna work?" Trixie asked.
"OF COURSE it will work! just do it!"
Trixie drank some of the potion and turned into a tiny moth. 



Trixie the moth had arrived near the three villains, they had the Earth pony Celestia still unconsious and out of enegy lifted up using magic. Trixie had used her magic to read Discord's mind, Discord was thinking all about how he had outsmarted Celestia and gotten an improved version of his powers back.
"I am quite the smooth talker! Not only have I defeated Celestia, but I also got Trey! One of her senior royal guards!" As he thought on and on, he had thought the potion ingredients and the age spell's name and how to learn it. Trixie had returned to the others and told them everything, so they all set off to Zecora's home.
At Zecora's home, they had searched for the ingredient's to the ultimate potion, but they couldn't find them because Discord had anticipate their plan and recovered the ingredients himself.
"Great, now what do we do!?" Screamed Rainbow Dash, frustrated.
"Well what if we use the potions against Discord in an organized matter, to ultimately defeat him..." Said Cadence with a sly look in her eyes...