Far Away in a Desolate Castle in Equestria

"To win this battle we need to destroy the elements."

"Well why don't we, you have them don't you?"

"Yes, but we can't only destroy these, we have to destroy each of the bearers."

"Why?!"

"Because, if we don't the elements will restore themselves."

"How does that work?"

"I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with them representing the elements."

"You mean... like us?"

"Exactly."

"How do we conquer Equestria if the elements are in our way?"

"Well, we just have to wait for an opening, and then, we begin our attack. Remember the Princesses aren't much of a threat, but they do have Discord on their side. That might be a bit of a struggle, so we'll have to take him out before we target anypony else."

"Right, this will be a snitch!"

"What did you expect?"

The pony left the room.

"Are you ready Twilight Sparkle? Because I can't wait! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

Back in Ponyville; Twilight's POV

It had been almost two months since the run in with The Elements of Chaos or whatever. I had been paranoid about them claiming Equestria for themselves, they even had the elements! I hadn't written to Princess Celestia yet, although Rainbow and Spike said I probably should. Part of it was because I was still convinced it was all one big nightmare and nothing really happened. That was why today was so important, I had finally written a letter to the Princess and I called all the girls to come over.

"So Twilight, what's so important that you had to stop me in the middle of practice!" Rainbow smiled.

"I'm going to tell the girls that the elements are..." I gulped, "gone."

Rainbow's smile dropped and she cocked an eyebrow. "Did you wri-"

"Yes." I interrupted. "I have the reply ready to read once everypony processes what happened."

"Well that's good!" she smiled again, "I'm sure Celestia knows what to do."

The truth was, that was why I was telling them, in the letter I had received from the princess, she had wanted me to tell everypony and go to Canterlot immediately afterwards.

...

I sat in my chair and saw everypony staring at me.

"So Twi, what'd you need? I hope it's important cause' I was in the middle of fixing up our water shoot, don't want any of the water to go to waste!" Applejack chuckled.

"Yes dear, you see I have a very important order from Sapphire Shores that I absolutely must finish!" Rarity added.

"Don't worry, it's um, well... you guys deserve to know." I stuttered.

"Spill it Twilight." Rainbow urged.

"It's about the Elements of Harmony." I said.

"What about em'?" Applejack asked.

"They're sort of gone." I closed my eyes. I heard everypony gasp.

"WHAT? OH NO!" Pinkie yelled.

"What do you mean gone?" Fluttershy persisted.

"I mean they're missing, no clue where they are, and it's aLL MY FAULT!" I exploded.

"Whoa, calm down there, I'm sure they couldn't have just grown legs and walked away!" AJ said. Trying to comfort me.

"They were kind of stolen." Rainbow piped in.

"By who?" Pinkie asked.

"That's what we don't know." I said, "but I have a letter from the princess, here's what it says."

I skipped the part that said to tell them about it first.

"Meet up at my castle in Canterlot Twilight. I always knew this day would come.
Please don't blame yourself dear Twilight, this was always meant to happen, if you
would please come and see me, I might have a plan, since you opened the vault
two months ago we still have time to locate them before they try anything."
Love,
Princess Celestia

"Vault?" AJ questioned.

"Who's them?" Rarity asked.

"I'll explain everything on the way to Canterlot, but it looks like we have another mission!" I said with confidence.

"Twilight, can I come too?" Spike pleaded.

"Of course you can, Spike!" I giggled.

...

I told them everything that happened on that day, with Rainbow over emphasizing some of the parts. It took almost the entire train ride.

"Why in Equestria didn't you tell anypony this two months ago?" AJ asked stunned.

"I guess because nothing was happening." I tried to sound convincing.

"Oh come on Twilight! That can't be your only reason!" Rarity spoke up.

"I really don't know why I didn't tell, I guess maybe I thought it was just a horrible nightmare... No, I wanted to believe it wasn't real because... because I'm scared guys. I'm terrified. I just didn't know what to say, I thought whatever it was, was gone." I replied.

"Aw, but you shouldn't feel afraid, I mean we've defeated tons of villains before who were really strong you know! Like Tirek, and Discord, and Sombra, and Chrysalis, and Nightmare Moon, and uh, well, I guess those guys are the only ones who wanted to take over Equestria huh." Pinkie explained.

"Hmm, I don't know Pinkie, for some reason this specific villain gives me a bad feeling, I don't know what it is about them, but something tell me that they're going to be way stronger than anypony we've ever face before." I said worriedly.

"Don't worry Twilight! Even if things do go a little haywire, you'll always have me to show them what for!" Rainbow laughed.

...

We were escorted to Celestia's throne room by the royal guard and when we entered all of the princesses were there including myself.

"Cadence! Why are you here?" I inquired.

"Twilight, would you and your friends like to take a seat." Celestia sounded serious.

Sure enough, surrounding the table were seven empty chairs, they had even included one for Spike!

"Okay." we all sat down.

"So, why is everypony here?" I asked.

"This is an extremely important issue that must be discussed immediately." Luna said.

"Oh." I hadn't a clue what was so special about it.

"Twilight, did you inform your friends on why you could not tell them about this quest?" Celestia asked curiously.

I hadn't told them the truth, but I had told them something, "Um, kinda." I decided.

"You did not tell the truth then, I assume." Luna raised an eyebrow.

"You were not told because we gave Twilight very strict instructions not to mention it." Celestia said.

Everyone was shocked, even Rainbow and Spike who were with me on that fateful day.

"But why?!" Fluttershy asked.

"Because we had to wait until they made a move to inform anypony about this." Cadence said.

"Okay, but why did you have to wait?" AJ questioned.

"Until they made a move we couldn't be certain they were plotting anything, or if they were gaining any power, it also gave us time to try and locate their base. We think we might have an idea where it might be, as for gaining power. They definitely are, and the move that they mad e absolutely proves it." Cadence explained.

"What was their first move?" Rarity gulped.

Celestia sighed, "I'm afraid they had decided to target Discord first," there was a long pause and Fluttershy almost burst out of her chair, "they've turned him to stone and I'm afraid the elements can't undo this one."

"WHY NOT!?" Fluttershy shouted.

"The elements could only break the spell if they were the ones who cast it, in this case it was the Elements of Disharmony." Luna reasoned.

Fluttershy looked as if she would break into tears at any moment. It all seemed sort of strange. Why couldn't we free Discord? We should be able to, right? Why did the Princess want to wait to meet with us, waiting for them to make a move, that's so stupid! We were just sitting ducks waiting for them to attack, what if they had just destroyed Equestria, what with them gaining power and everything. I was getting angry, angry at the princess for waiting, at Discord for allowing himself to be turned into a statue, but mostly I was pissed off the most at myself. I hadn't told my friends, we should have done something sooner.

"So, how do we get Discord back?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, we don't know, but we're certain you must force the, um..." Luna didn't seem to know what to call them, "the... other elements to transform him back."

"Well how in Equestria do we do that?!" Pinkie questioned.

"We have to start with a plan, a plan to destroy the..." Celestia didn't know what to say.

"OH FOR PONIES SAKE! Why don't we come up with a name for them already!" the irritation in my voice must've been obvious because everypony was staring at me like I was a psycho!

"You know, so we don't get confused, haha." I giggled nervously

"Alright, then we shall call them The Chaos." Cadence said.

Celestia started over, "To defeat The Chaos, we will have to take out each of their element bearers, one by one. Similar to how The Elements of Harmony would be destroyed. Of course this might be a bit much for you to handle because it does involve... executing other ponies."

I gulped, "You mean we'll have to actually... kill them?

"Yes, but heath this warning Twilight Sparkle, it will not be easy, and you very well could be killed yourself in the process." Luna added, creating more butterflies in my stomach.

"But have no fear Twilight! Because we will be at your aid!" Cadence piped in. That made me have hopes knowing that the princesses would be fighting right alongside us! It also seemed to have comforted every other pony too, because my friends' faces relaxed, that is, until...

"Really? You will? I don't think so." Everypony froze.