The six ponies made their way toward the castle as quickly as they could. As they did, several noticed that there was a lack of ponies on the streets. More accurately, there was a lack of adult ponies. There were plenty of young colts and fillies enjoying the ... "snow day" for lack of a better term. They were wrapped in scarves and wearing hats, making snow ponies (ice cream ponies?) and having snowballs fight. There was one adult out, basically putting whipped cream, sprinkles, and cherries directly onto piles of the ice cream -- an idea Pinkie wished she had thought of.

At the castle, there were fewer visitors and more guards than usual. At the gate and each door, they were observed, but not stopped. The guards they came across were actually moving, turning to watch them instead of simply standing at attention. The idea of being observed so closely made Fluttershy feel nervous. Fortunately, nothing was asked, so she did not break down and confess to anything.

Princess Celestia met them in the grand hall. Shining Armor considered that it must have been very serious if she were meeting them here instead of in the throne room.

"Princess," he called out as they continued to move toward her, "we came as soon as we could. What's going on?"

"Thank you all," Celestia stated as she turned to walk. "Now, come with me. Time is rather urgent." Shining glanced back at the others before following after her.

"Tell me," Princess Celestia said as they continued to walk, "do you recall the tale of Discord?"

In light of the recent conversation, the name made Shining Armor stop. His eyes went wide as his jaw fell slightly open.

"Wait," he called out. "Don't tell me. You mean..."

"I'm afraid so," Celestia answered. "Discord has escaped."

Note to self, Shining Armor thought, have Twiley tested for a talent in augury magic.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We can't be certain," Celestia replied. "Regardless of the cause, the fact remains that Discord is free once again. And as you have seen upon your journey here, he has already started to cause mischief."

"You mean the ice cream snow?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"And chocolate milk rain in Ponyville," Celestia added, "and cola storms in Cloudsdale."

"If I may ask," Rarity said as she moved closer to the princess, "why is he doing such things?"

"Discord is about fulfilling his name," Celestia explained, "to cause chaos and disharmony. After the founding of Equestria, but before my sister and I came to rule, Discord had appeared and began to create numerous issues for the various creatures that were attempting to live here, most often the ponies of any and all tribes. One of his most used methods is to create events that are seemingly random that defy understanding. I am hoping that he is still weak from his escape and that the Elements will be able to stop him shortly."

Pinkie Pie bounced forward.

"But what will happen to the ice cream?"

"At best? It will all vanish when he is stopped. At worst, it will melt as normal ice cream and Canterlot will need to be washed to remove the sticky mess afterwards."

Pinkie Pie pouted a little. She understood that this creature was dangerous and needed to be stopped. She could even understand that having such strange weather patterns could cause a lot of trouble in Equestria even if it was not food related. Still, it kind of seemed like a waste. All that tasty sweet food...

The seven of them went to a part that most of them were not familiar with. Shining Armor had been there a time or two, but never really found much interest to it. For the other five, it was a place none of them had been to before. Along one side was a series of stained glass windows. Each one seemed to be an image of something that happened in Equestria's history. Among them was a picture of Shining Armor and his friends getting The Elements of Harmony.

"This is Canterlot Tower," Princess Celestia announced. "It has been where The Elements of Harmony have been stored since you recovered them from the old castle. Equestria needs you to use them again and stop Discord before he regains full strength and causes all sorts of trouble for the lands and its citizens."

In front of them was a door with a sun in the center of it, and a small hole in the middle of that. Princess Celestia approached the door and lowered her head. Her horn began to glow with golden energy as she summoned her magic. Taking a step forward, she inserted her horn into the hole in the door.

"Goodness," Rarity cried out as she was smacked. "Rainbow Dash, do please control your wings."

"Oh," Rainbow Dash mumbled as she blushed. "Sorry." She let out a little chuckle as she retracted her wings back to her sides. Her eyes glanced over toward Shining Armor and his horn before returning her attention to Princess Celestia, who was currently pushing it deeper and deeper.

The sun on the door lit up with a glowing white light. The light spread out, tracing along six lines that separated the door in equal sections and moving out toward the frame. As the light faded, the door opened, revealing a stand with a jewelry box on it.

"Oh my," Rarity gasped out, eyes wide as she stared at the container.

Princess Celestia took a hold of the box and lifted it out.

"I believe that the six of you will be successful in your task," she said as she opened the box to reveal--

Nothing.

The box was empty.

"What?" the princess gasped out, dropping the box onto the ground. "But my most powerful spells protect the door. I placed them all myself. This doesn't make any sense."

A chuckled echoed through the room, causing Shining Armor, Rarity, and Applejack to jump. All seven looked around, trying to find the source of the sound.

"Make sense?" the voice asked. "Now what fun is there in making any sense?"

"Discord!" Princess Celestia shouted. "Show yourself!"

Another chuckle came, but this one did not seem to echo as much. The seven of them all followed the sound, turning toward one of the stained glass windows. The image displayed Celestia and Luna with The Elements of Harmony. When the group had arrived, there had been a strange looking creature in the middle, looking like it was being struck by magic from The Elements.

Now the creature was closer to the bottom, leaning against the stained glass image of Celestia.

"Hello Celestia," the figure said. "Although now I suppose I'm supposed to call you --" he made air quotes "-- 'princess' now." The word "princess" had a lot of bile put behind it.

"I guess I should congratulate you on it. Did you miss me? I missed you. Then again, I missed a lot of things. Being trapped in stone can do that, you know?"

His eyebrows shot up as he brought his front limbs to his mouth, letting out a small gasp of surprise.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess you wouldn't since... I don't turn ponies into stone!" He placed a forelimb on the stained glass Celestia, which immediately turned into stone and fell from the window.

"Enough!" Celestia snapped, stomping a hoof. "What have you done with The Elements of Harmony?"

Discord let out a sigh and gave a shake of his head. Turning, he walked from one window to the other, now standing in the picture of Shining Armor and his friends.

"You know, Celi," he said in a casual tone, "you really need to learn to relax more. All the stress can't be good for you. Especially with your age and weight.

"Besides, your oh so precious Elements of Harmony are safe for the time being. I can't do anything to them... yet... So I've just..." he waved one of his limbs in a circle as he let out a small humming noise, "...'relocated' them for the time being."

"You'll never get away with this," Celestia growled. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at the stained glass Discord.

Discord sat down on the head of the stained glass image of Fluttershy, tilting his head back and let out a long, pained groaned.

"I have forgotten how grim you can be, Titi," he groaned out. "It's soooo booorrrring."

"Hey," Rainbow Dash yelled, flying up toward the window. "No one insults the princess like that." She raised up her hooves, holding them like she was ready to punch with them.

"You must be Rainbow Dash," Discord said, "the bearer of The Element of Loyalty."

"That's right," Rainbow responded, puffing out her chest, "and I'm not going to let the likes of you keep talking that way about The Princess."

"Rainbow," Shining Armor called out, "calm down. I'm pretty sure he's trying to get a rise out of us."

"Ah," Discord said. He moved across the window and up to the stained glass image of Shining Armor. "Shining Armor. The oh so wonderfully skilled student and bearer of magic. Tell me, how is that little sister of yours?"

"Twiley?" Shining asked, turning to face the glass fully as he glared. Before he realized it, Applejack was holding him back and Fluttershy was on the other side pressing against him. "How do you know about my sister?"

"Well," Discord said in a very slow voice, "it turns out that when you're stone, you can still sort of see and hear everything going on around you." He grinned, sitting up and clapping his forelimbs. "Oh how you and she would play and talk in the garden. So loving, so caring, so... sickening." He brought a finger toward his mouth and made a gagging noise.

"E-nough!" Celestia snapped, stomping her hoof. "Stop stalling and tell us where The Elements are this instant."

Discord let out a groan and flopped back, lying there a moment as he stared up.

"Soooo boring," he whined before sitting up. "Fine. I'll tell you, but I'm doing it my way."

The stained glass image of Discord vanished before returning to its original spot. A great shadow covered three of the windows. One looked like a bird talon on one side, another looked like some sort of paw on the opposite, and in the middle was the rough outline of what looked for the most part like Discord's head. The shadow started to shift, the pieces of the stained glass window moving with them.

"To retrieve your missing Elements," Discord's voice said -- once again seeming to come from every direction -- "just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find The Elements back where you began."

Another laugh echoed through the chamber, slowly fading away. The windows reverted back to their original appearance -- except for the hole in one where Celestia had been turned to stone -- as the shadows vanished from sight.

"'Back where you began,'" Shining Armor repeated to himself.

"What do you reckon he meant?" Applejack asked. "With that, twist and turns, and back where we began business?"

"I don't know," Rainbow Dash grumbled, "but if I get my hooves on him, I'll--"

"Easy now, darling," Rarity said, placing a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "We shall all deal with him." She shifted. "That is, once we find out what he is up to."

"Can we go home now?" Fluttershy asked.

Shining Armor's eyes shot wide. He grinned as he turned to Fluttershy, giving her a hug and getting an eep of surprise.

"Fluttershy," Shining Armor said with a grin, "that is exactly what we're going to do."

"What?!" Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all cried out.

Shining Armor let the shy pegasus go and turned to Princess Celestia.

"I'm sorry, Princess, but we have to get going. If we leave now, we should be able to catch the next train back to Ponyville." With that, he turned and started running, heading out the door. Before he could reach it, Rainbow Dash shot up and blocked the doorway.

"Woah!" she snapped as she stopped the stallion. "Wait a minute. You want to run away? Have you gone insane or something?"

"We're not running away," Shining said. "The last part 'find The Elements back where you began?' I believe that he means he took them back to where we first found them. So we have to go back to Ponyville to get them."

"Back where we found them?" Applejack asked, taking a step forward. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"You want us to go back to Ponyville and travel through The Everfree Forest again so we can reach The Castle of the Sisters and get The Elements of Harmony back," Pinkie Pie said, all without seeming to pause for a breath.

"Exactly," Shining responded with a grin. "Now come on." He stepped around Rainbow Dash and started running again. The others soon chased after him, hurrying to get back to the train station, Ponyville, and thus be closer to reclaiming the once again lost Elements of Harmony.

"Good luck, my little ponies," Celestia whispered as she watched the six of them leave.

"Well, well," Discord's voice said, causing Celestia to jump, "it seems that I may have underestimated your student. He's closer to the truth than I had expected." He let out a sigh. "I had hoped that he would go out to the maze, but it would be boring if I was actually able to predict what would happen, now wouldn't it?"

"They're going to stop you," Celestia stated. "Just like my sister and I did over a millenia ago."

"We'll see," Discord replied. "Anyway, I really must get going. Chaos to create, ponies to play with, you know how it is. By the way, I left you a little gift. I do hope you enjoy it. Ta-ta Tia."

The room turned silent, this time, Princess Celestia was certain that she was actually, truly alone.

The silence was interrupted by the sound of hooves echoing across the marble floor. Turning toward it, the princess found a member of the kitchen staff running toward her.

"Princess," the staff mare said as she came up, panting, "Princess..." she took a deep breath. "The cakes have come to life and are attacking everypony in the kitchen. What should we do."

Princess Celestia's eyes narrowed as she raised her head and straightened her shoulders. Her wings flared out behind her.

"I shall personally see to the issue," she stated, and started heading for the kitchen. It was her castle, her ponies, and her kitchen, that were in danger. At times like this, it was the obligation of a princess to do what she could, even if it meant sacrificing her royal waistline and flank.

Author's Notes:

After hearing the riddle in the series, the conclusion that Shining Armor came up with is the same one that I did, and for the same reason. "Then find the elements, back where you began" made me think that he had taken them back to the castle. Admittedly, I wasn't right, but I was close.

The end part about the cakes was added in at random for humor.