In Canterlot Castle, the Princess of the Sun was anxiously pacing, a gloom of worry that was not without merit around her when….
“Princess Celestia!”

She looked to the double doors and saw her little ponies coming, Twilight saying, “We came as fast as we could!”

“Thank you, Twilught,” Celestia welcomed them solemnly, “Thank you all for coming.”

“Is this about the weather?” Thunderlane asked.
“And the animals strange behavior?” inquired Fluttershy.
“What’s happening out there, why isn’t my magic wor-” Twilight tried to ask when zipper formed and shut her mouth, and she glared at the guilty party.

“Let her talk, for Faust’s sake!” Midnight sighed in exasperation.

“Thank you, Midnight. Now follow me everypony,” Celestia bade them.

She led them to a tower, going down a hall of stained-glass windows, depicting various historical events. During so, she had subtly flared her horn, igniting another dawn of realization in the blue unicorn but he kept his silence as she stated, “I have called you all here for a matter of great importance. It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned.”

Fluttershy was suddenly drawn towards one of the stained-glass windows, Celestia saying,” His name… is Discord.”

Seeing the abominable monster the window depicted, Fluttershy squealed in fright and hurried over to Big Mac as Celestia continued.
“Discord is a sadistic spirit of disharmony. Before my sister and I stood up to him, he ruled Equestria in an endless cycle of strife and misery.”

She directed their attention to a window depicting Discord holding puppet strings over three ponies of each kind, “Luna and I saw how miserable he made life for earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns alike. Once we discovered the Elements of Harmony, we defied his wretched rule, and, with our combined powers, we imprisoned him within stone.”

“You go, Princess!” Thunderlane cheered, looking at the window of a stone Discord but Celestia couldn’t take the time to appreciate his praise.

“I thought the spell we placed on him would jail him forever,” she went on, “but since Luna and I are no longer connected to the elements, the spell has been broken.”

“What do you mean, no longer connected?” Twilight asked.

“This is Canterlot Tower,” Celestia explained where she had led them all, right to an elaborate door that appeared to be locked, “where the Elements are kept inside since all of you recovered them. I need you to once again wield the Elements and vanquish Discord before he subjects Equestria to eternal chaos!”

“But why us?” Twilight inquired, “Why don’t-”

“Hey look! We’re famous!”

They all looked and saw Pinkie Pie gazing up at a window depicting the six mares and three stallions.

“All of you showed the full potential of the Elements by harnessing the magic of your friendship to overcome a mighty foe!” Celestia explained. “Although Luna and I once wielded them, it is you who now control their power therefore it is you who must defeat Discord!”

Emboldened by Celestia’s passionate pep talk, Twilight and Midnight nodded in agreement, as she said, “Princess Celestia, you can count on-”

“Hold on a second!!” Pinkie butted in, “Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys, chocolate rain!”

Midnight narrowed his eyes and his horn glowed, making another zipper, this time shutting Pinkie’s mouth as he said to the princess, “Ignore her, Your Highness, it would be our honor to wield the Elements once more.”

Celestia walked up to the vault and inserted her horn into keyhole, channeling her magic into it. The sun emblem and creases flared with mana, as did the door as it slowly opened to reveal a jeweled chest.

“You can keep the elements,” Rarity shuddered, “I’ll take that chest!”

“Take heart, my subjects, for I have the utmost confidence that you will defeat Discord with these,” Celestia assured when she levitated the chest over and opened it to reveal… nothing?!

Everypony gasped, Celestia dropping the chest in shock, and silence fell throughout the hall.

“Oh well! If anyone needs me,” Pinkie said all perky as she trotted off, “I’ll be outside with the chocolate puddles and a giant swizzle straw!”

“Get over here!” Midnight aggravated as he pulled Pinkie back by the tail, ignoring her pouting.

“The Elements, they’re gone!” Twilight and the others gaped at the empty chest.

“But that chamber is protected by a powerful spell only I can break!” Celestia fretted, “this doesn’t make sense!”

At that moment, a mocking chuckled echoed through the hall from an unseen source as the air suddenly felt heavy and tense.

“Make sense? Oh what fun is there in making sense…?”

“Discord!” Celestia snapped angrily. “Show yourself!”

The laughing continued, “Did you miss me, Celestia?”

Hearing it the voice, they all looked in its direction and saw the image of Discord over the miserable ponies glaring mockingly back.
“I’ve missed you.”

They watched as he vanished at the edge of the window and appeared in the stained-glass window to its right, where he settled upon an image of the Elements of Harmony, “It’s quite lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn’t know that, would you, because I don’t turn ponies into stone!”

“Enough! What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?!” Celestia demanded.

“Oh you mean these pretty little things?” Discord asked as he held one of the image’s Elements, “I just thought I’d hang onto them for a while…”

Then he snapped his fingers and they all vanished from the glass.

“You’ll never get away with this, Discord…” Celestia warned as the image-Discord simply lounged in the window.

“Oh I’d forgotten just how grim you can be, Celestia. It’s really quite boring…”

“Hey! Nopony insults the princess!”

They all looked as Rainbow charged the window, but the image-Discord vanished and she crashed into the window itself, which must’ve been magical as it didn’t’ shatter and was more like flying into a wall. As Rainbow un-splattered herself from the window, a bigger image-Discord appeared.
“Oh! You must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her Loyalty, the Element of Harmony you represent.”

“That’s right! I’ll always be loyal to the princess!” Rainbow declared.

But image-Discord just vanished, darkly challenging, “We’ll see about that…”

“I can’t believe we’re wasting our time talking to a tacky window,” Rarity scoffed.

“The beautiful Rarity!”

She jumped and looked to see image-Discord in the window she was standing near.

“Representative of the Element of Generosity, if I’m not mistaken.”

“So ya know who we are, big deal,” Applejack sniped, image-Discord enlarging to the full size of the window.

“Oh I know much more than that, Honest Applejack,” he smirked as he looked down on them all.

“Obviously, since you appear to know which Element each of us represent,” Twilight said with narrowed eyes.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle and yours is the most mysterious element of them all, Magic,” image-Discord noted. “Fluttershy’s is Kindness and Pinkie Pie’s is my personal favorite, Laughter.”

They then noticed Pinkie stifling her giggles, Twilight scolding, “Pinkie!”

Pinkie just let it out, “He’s dancing on your head!”

Image-Discord was indeed, standing and dancing on the head of Twilight’s image in the window.

“Don’t tell me you’re forgetting us, Discord…” Midnight spoke up with a challenging look.

“Oh of course not, Midnight Blaze,” image-Discord assured in a condescending manner. “You represent the most annoying of the elements, ‘Faith’.”

Midnight noted that Discord seemed to hold some kind of animosity towards Faith when Discord kept going.
“And not only that, you serve alongside Big Macintosh and Thunderlane as the Guardians of Harmony.”

“Is that what we are?” Thunderlane asked Big Mac, the farmer just shrugging.

“Stop stalling, Discord!” Celestia stepped back in, “What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?”

“Oh so boring, Celestia, really!” Discord scoffed. “Fine, I’ll tell you but I’ll only tell you my way…”

Discord’s image danced through all the windows, not just the stained-glass as he eyed the ponies mischievously.

The image of Discord resettled to where it had originally been, the spirit’s mocking laughter fading in echoes.

“Can we go home now…?” Fluttershy asked hopefully as she stood nervously by Big Mac.

“Whattya reckon he meant?” Applejack asked. “Twists n’ turns and endin’ up back where we started…”

“Twists & turns…” Twilight pondered as she wandered towards a window. “Twists & turns.”

Looking out she gasped, “Twists & turns, that’s it! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace labyrinth!”

“Hold on, hold on, hold on!” Midnight stepped in. “Isn’t that kind of obvious?”

“Where else could it be?” Twilight asked.

“We have to consider the whole riddle,” Midnight insisted, “not to mention we’re dealing with a spirit of chaos, a trickster! A labyrinth is kind of an obvious conclusion and we have to expect the unexpected. I’m just saying we should give this more thought.”

“Well my instincts are telling me the labyrinth is where the Elements are,” Twilight debated.

“And if you’re wrong?” Midnight inquired, “You could be walking into a trap!”

“We have to take that risk, for the sake of Equestria!” Twilight was beginning to argue.

“I just think we should consider this more carefully,” Midnight maintained but before Twilight could argue more, Celestia stepped in.

“Perhaps you both are right,” Celestia reasoned, “and perhaps only one or both of you are wrong. But arguing is not going to help.”

“Well, I’m not going to look for the Elements in the one place I know they’re not,” Midnight stated and walked out the hall, Big Mac and Thunderlane looking between him and the girls.

“Go with him,” Celestia urged them, “None of any of you should venture anywhere alone.”

“Good luck, everypony,” Thunderlane wished them before flying off.

Big Mac held Fluttershy’s hooves and whispered to her, “Stay close to the girls.”

She nodded nervously and watched him leave.

As Midnight made his way for the train station, he felt a little bad. He hadn’t said anything to the girls, that he literally knew Discord had not hidden the Elements in the maze. But he had to get the Elements and he hoped the girls would distract the trickster long enough for him to get them. He was playing a dangerous game, and hoped it would turn out alright.

“Midnight!”
“Haystack!”

He looked and saw his two best friends gallop up to him, and he sulked a bit.
“Thanks for coming.”

“Sure thing, brony,” Thunderlane said, and he held out his hoof. Big Mac placed his against Thunder’s and Midnight did the same.

“I just hope Twilight and the others will be alright,” Midnight hoped.

“Don’t worry about them,” Big Mac assured, “them girls can do great things t’gether.”

“So Midnight, you don’t think Discord hid the Elements in the maze,” Thunderlane gathered, “So where do you think he did?”

“Discord said find the Elements back where you began,” Midnight reasoned. “We just have to figure out where he means by ‘began’.”

“A hospital?” offered Thunderlane, “Almost everypony’s lives begin in hospitals when they’re born.”

“I kinda doubt it,” Midnight debated. “It feels more like…”

Midnight froze up and pretended to stare out into space. But Big Mac and Thunderlane didn’t know that.
“Haystack?” Big Mac waved his hoof in front of Midnight’s face.
“Midnight, Equestria to Midnight, come in!” Thunderlane said a tad loud.

Midnight shook his head and gasped.
“The library!”

“What?” Thunderlane looked at him.

“I… I had a vision,” Midnight said, making this up on the fly. “Discord said ‘find the Elements back where you began’. We first set out to find the Elements after we read about them in the library back on the Summer Sun Celebration, that’s where he hid them! In Twilight’s library in Ponyville! Come on!”

This is gonna be a little trying, partly because Midnight is going along with the story but at the same time he's not.

He didn't have a vision he pretended to, to convince Mac and Thunder to come with him to Ponyville. Let's see how that turns out in the next chapter...

The Stained Glass art is courtesy of Hoodwinked MCShelster