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// Prologue: Stone-Cold Thinking 
// Story: Deeper than friendship? 
// by TheDiscontent 
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Once again, Discord Found Himself Trapped in stone by the Famous Elements of Harmony. He was absolutely Furious by This, although his position on the pedestal Celestia had him placed upon spoke more of a position of Pure Shock. But it wasn't false, at the time Discord was Caught completely off-guard by The Main 6 showing up no longer under his influence, while the first time they attempted to turn him to stone without the Element of Loyalty Present was almost a guaranteed failure on their end, It gave Discord a sense of Security that even with Rainbowdash present they would have failed anyway. They were at the time, only attempting to get rid of him to ensure they never had to speak to one another again after all, But he never expected Twilight to Break his influence over her and her friends! 

So One can only expect to see his shock once the Fabled Rainbow had lurched out and onto him. So here he was, Turned to stone once again, and while his old position in stone wasn't the most comfortable, this one was FAR worse! Not to mention the effect it was having on his reputation, it portrayed him as a coward doing anything he could to avoid the inevitable. And The End Result Was him in an extremely Uncomfortable pose until the next age of Elements when he would finally be able to Escape his Prison once more, However, It would seem he wouldn't have To wait that long as he noted the Upcoming invasion by Queen Chrysalis and Her Changeling army, They wouldn't succeed, if anything the Elements could have been fetched and done them in the same way they had him. But, Their Presence and invasion mixed with the harmonious event of a wedding seemed to be just what he would need to earn a "Get out of Stone Free!" Spell.

And so, Discord Found himself using what little magic he had left to view other parts of Equestria in his Stone Prison, he Watched as the ponies moved on with their lives after all of his beautiful chaos had been wiped away by Those Accursed Elements! Though he found himself viewing the Element Bearers more often than not as time flew by. He watched them, Studied them, searched for anything that could have Helped them get by his Magic and back to their old selves again, But he also searched for weaknesses or flaws that he could use against them in the future.

While Discord was a Rather Goofy Draconequus, he wasn't stupid and was very precise when he had to be, he caught every little detail every movement of each Bearer hoping to come across some sort of flaw that he could use against them until It hit him, it was When they were attending the Royal Canterlot Wedding between Princess Cadence and Shining Armour. Even though he had Seen when The Changeling queen had replaced Cadence and knew the entire time that the ponies were being led on. It didn't stop him from realizing the obvious, The Elements of Harmony were Powered by Love and Friendship, Twilight and the others powered them Using The Friendship portion, But what of the other?	None of the Mares had Come Close to Looking at a stallion that way and so far a few were even actively avoiding it to prevent being slowed down or Taken away from their friends. Making it the Perfect Plan Discord would take the Elements and Alter them in some way so that only with Love could they be activated! The Thought of this made Discord want to barf, however, being a statue spared him of doing so. 

But His merriment was short lived as Discord Realized to Fatal Problems to the Plan.		The First was that he Couldn't Alter The Elements of Harmony as far as what they were in such a way. If he had them, he could turn them into anything really, but they would still be able to activate, no matter what he did to them.		His Second Problem was getting out of his imprisonment. Which he already had covered thanks to the Wedding Fiasco The Changelings Had Planned. Weather the Elements were still held by the same Bearers or not, that would still be more than enough Disharmony to tip things just enough to let him sneak out almost undetected. While A small Sense of the magic would probably Give warning to the Element Holders, it would be extremely small with his current escape plan, and with all the things that were to occur, he doubted they would have known it was him they were being warned about if it hit them like he had slapped them himself!	That however still left him with His main Problem, Getting rid of the Elements before they could be used to Turn him to stone once again.	

His Plan was Perfect! Oh So Perfect! But utterly useless unless he found a way to distort the Elements themselves enough so that he wasn't changing them as far as their powers and such went, but would only activate through love rather than simple Friendship.He could turn them into Wedding Rings Perhaps? No, Even if they were implied as those they could still be used by the elements as if they were simple Rings, Weather on a unicorn horn or simply dangling off of a chain necklace.

But then a thought Struck Him, The mares Haven't found themselves with stallions which was what was keeping them at bay in his plan. If he could just make things work with Stallions... Stallions! Thats it! It was all so Clear to him now! He would use his magic to Turn the Elements into Stallions!

It would take a lot of his magic to Turn something such as the Elements into Living Creatures, but he would recover, and this was probably his only Chance left. 		And so he Waited, Waited until The Changelings Would Unleash The Peak of The Chaos they were bringing into motion, once this happened, Discord would be Free and The Changelings Defeated Eliminating his Opponent as Far as Ruling Equestria, and While The Bearers were Celebrating Discord Could Go and do The Deed with The Unguarded Elements, at least, Unguarded by anypony that could hope to stop him.