//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Library of Discord 
// by Chinchillax 
//------------------------------//

Princess Celestia stared at the stone statue of Discord. “It’s exactly what I anticipated would happen,” Celestia sighed. “Thank you for taking care of this so quickly, Twilight.”
“It was no problem, Princess Celestia.” Twilight responded. “We saw Discord start rampaging as we knew he would eventually. It’s a good thing we were able to fix the problem so quickly.”
“I don’t see any effects of his spells still lingering, what exactly did he do?” Celestia asked.
“What didn’t he do? Let’s see... he turned almost every single blade of grass in Ponyville into bananas. At the same time he swapped the bodies of every single animal near ponyville — beavers were now squirrels, birds were turned into snakes — no animal stayed the same. And then Spike turned into a giant dragon with huge wings. And everypony in ponyville turned invisible, except for at night. Then Discord made it so there was a night and day cycle twice a second to the point everypony felt like they were under a strobe light.
Twilight sighed, “It was tough day.”
“Any other problems?” Celestia asked.
“It took us a while to get Fluttershy to use her element of Harmony. She had made a promise not to, but there was no stopping him and Fluttershy saw to reason eventually.”
“How did you reverse Discord’s spells?”
“We didn’t. Once we turned him to stone all the spells stopped.”
“Perfect. That sounds like a great report. Thank you Princess Twilight.”
“You’re welcome, Princess Celestia.”
“One last thing. Is everypony accounted for?”
“Well… everypony, yes, but it has been a while since I last saw Spike. I think he got lost somewhere while he was turned into a giant dragon. I was searching for him but I came when I heard word you had arrived. The others are still out looking for him.”
“How long have they been searching?”
“About 5 hours now, but I’m sure we’ll find him soon.”
“Twilight, I’m going to try to send a letter to Spike. He’ll be able to respond with where he is and you can rescue him faster.”
“Great idea!” said Twilight with gratitude.
Celestia procured a piece of paper and started to write a letter to Spike, asking him to respond with his location. Celestia’s horn glowed as she cast the spell that would send the letter out of Spike’s mouth. Halfway through the spell, the glow around Celestia’s horn flitted out and the letter fluttered to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” asked Twilight anxiously.
“I can’t deliver the letter. This has never happened before. The only way this could happen is if…” alarm crossed Celestia’s face. “No, it couldn’t be. Discord is evil, but he would never kill anyone.”
Dread flooded Twilight’s face, “What… no, that can’t be the case. Spike isn’t… there’s no way!”
“No, I don’t believe Discord capable of killing anyone” Celestia assuaged, “but Spike isn’t here. He is no where in this world.”
Twilight was in shock. Spike was missing. Completely missing. Not even a letter could reach him. What did that even mean? How far had Discord taken Spike as to leave Spike incapable of receiving letters? One thing was for sure though. “We need to wake up Discord. I have to confront him about what he did with Spike.”
“No, Twilight.” Celestia stated calmly. “It’s not safe to unleash Discord from his stone prison. I’m not sure what Discord did to Spike, but we don’t want to give him the opportunity to do it again.”
“Then… what can we do?” asked Twilight sadly.
“I must consult with my sister, Luna. She has experience entering the dreams of ponies. Maybe she would know how to enter the mind of Discord while he is still stone.”

A few hours later, Princess Luna had arrived, and Twilight sent word for her friends to gather at the library as soon as they could.
Before they arrived, Luna was presenting a small magic lesson for Twilight.
“I have been analyzing Discord’s mind and have been trying to figure out the best way to get inside of it,” Luna began. “Minds can be very, very complicated, and Discord’s is one of the most complex I’ve ever encountered, but I think I’ve found an entrance. Now, to use this entrance I will need to send you there personally. I would prefer to teach you how to enter minds so you can understand the mechanics better, but we’re running out of time and we need to know what Discord has done to Spike.”
“So what do I have to do?”
“You need to know how to leave a mind. You already know a part of the process as well.”
“Really? What is it?” Twilight asked.
“You simply teleport outside of it. Even though minds may seem incredibly large and complex, your physical location is inside someone’s head. By teleporting a meter or two in any direction you should be able to leave any mind safely. What makes this spell complicated is that there is a companion spell that needs to be cast at the exact same time as the teleportation spell. Even as a unicorn you were able to properly cast multiple spells at once, but now that you are an alicorn the process should be second nature to you.”
“Now, “ Luna continued. “The second spell helps make sure you don’t damage the mind in the process of abruptly leaving. Leaving a mind the wrong way can have bad side-effects on both the mind being left and the pony casting it.”
Luna taught Twilight the softening spell that would allow her to leave a mind with no damage to herself or the one whose mind she would be leaving.
“Now, we must put this into practice” Luna announced. “I’m going to summon you into my mind, and you will have to leave exactly as I have explained.”
“Okay.” Twilight agreed as the Princess of the night summoned Twilight into her mind.
Being in Luna’s mind was like floating in dark blue space. Twilight would have felt scared at the darkness, but the blackness here was actually incredibly calming. There were stars that covered the darkness and a beautiful waning crescent moon. It was a soft, peaceful place. It felt like a wonderful spot to stop and think, which it did a fantastic job of doing. It was, after all, a mind.
“Now, try to teleport, Twilight,” Luna thought inside of her mind, which Twilight heard distinctly.
Twilight would have liked to have spent more time there, but she coordinated herself to teleport two meters backwards and cast the softening spell at the same time. Instead of moving inside the mind backwards, she was brought back into the Ponyville library once more.
“Good job, Twilight. You should be able to leave Discord’s mind just as easily once you get there.”
“Wait — what are y’all doing!?” Applejack interrupted as she trotted in through the door of the library. She was followed by Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy.
“Listen girls,” Twilight started to explain. “Earlier today, Celestia tried to send a letter to Spike, and the spell to send the letter failed. We don’t know what that means, but at the very least Spike is gone.” 
They all looked at Twilight with concern in their faces.
“The only one who knows completely what happened to Spike is Discord,” continued Twilight. “I’m going to enter Discord’s mind and confront him about Spike.”
“Uhh… Twilight? Are you crazy!? That’s a terrible plan!” Rainbow Dash complained, “Who knows what you’ll find in Discord’s mind?”
“That doesn’t sound very safe,” Fluttershy contributed.
“I know it’s a long shot,” Twilight countered, “but it’s either that or release Discord again. We’re leaving that as a Plan B, which is why you all are here. If something goes wrong and we need to release Discord, I’ll leave his mind and we can free him. But plan A is for me to talk to him first.”
“I still don’t like the sound of that, dearie.” Rarity disagreed.
“It’s… “ Twilight struggled to find the right words to say. “It’s what has to be done. I have to know what happened to Spike, and Discord is the only one that knows.”
“As long as we’re coming with, I’m up for it!” Rainbow Dash asserted.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” Luna explained. “Only the highest level unicorns or alicorns can safely leave a mind. I could send you there with her, but then you would be stuck there.”
“I’m sorry girls,” Twilight agreed, “but I need to do this, and I need to do this now.”
“Wait, now!?” Rainbow protested.
“Yes, now!” Twilight argued. “Just stay here, I should be out soon.”
“And if ya’ aren’t?” Applejack questioned.
Twilight hesitated. “If I’m not back in 4 hours, Luna, please try to rescue me. If that doesn’t work…” Twilight trailed off trying to think.
“You can’t use my element of Harmony without me, but maybe you can get Celestia to try to use my Element of Magic. Maybe then you could free Discord and find out what happened. But don’t worry! It won’t come to that, I’ll talk to Discord and I’ll be back soon.”
Twilight paused and looked around at each of her best friends one final time. One of them was missing. The one she cared about more than all of the others, and she had to find him.
“Ready Twilight?” Luna asked.
“I’m ready,” Twilight confirmed.
An aura of night from Luna’s horn enveloped Twilight as she disappeared from the Ponyville library and into the statue of Discord.