Elsewhere...
"So you see? Even though you both express it in different ways, you both enjoy the art of music!" Twilight Sparkle said cheerfully.
"Oh I guess you're right Twilight. I'm sorry I said I never wanted to perform with you Vinyl." Octavia apologized, holding out a hoof.
Vinyl Scratch didn't say anything, but her smile conveyed that she felt the same. She grabbed Octavia's hoof and pulled her into a tight embrace. Twilight smiled, seeing that her work was done. Ever since she had become the Princess of Friendship, she had made it known that her castle was open to anyone seeking resolution to a friendship problem. Most ponies came thinking that Twilight would fix everything with some kind of grand magic spell, or some sage words of wisdom only a princess would know. However they found that Twilight simply sat them down in her reading room and talked out the problem with them. Twilight had learned a long time ago that, once pointed in the right direction, ponies could solve their own problems a lot better than she ever could. All they needed was a friend willing to listen.
Vinyl and Octavia ended the embrace, smiling at each other with tears in their eyes. Octavia stepped forward wiping her eyes. "We got so caught up in our own music that we forgot about how important our friendship is. Thank you Twilight, I don't know what we'd ever have done without-"
BANG BANG BANG
Octavia stopped mid-sentence, staring at the door. The great wooden doors rattled as the pony on the other side banged on them again and again. Twilight was slightly annoyed, but it wasn't the first time one of her friends had gotten a bit overexcited. Pinkie was the very definition of overexcited on a daily basis.
"Sorry about that." Twilight apologized sheepishly to the two mares. "Probably Rainbow Dash again with some 'awesome' flying trick that I just have to help her out with. Last time my wings were cramped for a week!" Octavia chuckled as Twilight trotted down the hall over to the door. "Coming SHEESH!" Twilight yelled to the pony on the other side. Normally spike would've dealt with the visitor until she was finished, but he was on another week long visit to a Power Ponies convention. She made a mental note to schedule his vacation time a little less sporadically.
Twilight pushed open door, and was surprised to find neither Rainbow Dash nor Pinkie Pie on the other side. Instead, she saw the quietest, shiest mare in all of Ponyville... Fluttershy. Her pegasus friend looked worse than she'd ever seen her. Fluttershy was sweating profusely, tears stained her cheeks and many of her feathers were bent out of shape.
"Fluttershy what-" Twilight began. Before she could finish her sentence, Fluttershy grabbed her hoof and pulled her out the door.
"It's Discord!" Fluttershy wailed. "No time to talk come on!" She took off back toward her cottage, flying at a speed that would've made Rainbow Dash envious.
Twilight gave Vinyl and Octavia a quick apologetic wave, and then took off after her friend. As she flew, she wondered what Discord could've possibly done to upset Fluttershy this much. With the elements of Harmony gone, there wasn't much they could do if he decided to go on another chaotic rampage as he did when he first broke free of his stone prison. However after the incident with Tirek, Discord seemed truly committed to his friendship with Fluttershy. He had proven just how much he had changed, when he risked his life to save her from the changeling hive. Then again, Discord was Chaos itself, the most unpredictable being in Equestria, maybe even the universe. She couldn't put it past him to do something drastic.
As she neared Fluttershy's cottage, Twilight looked around for anything out of place or peculiar. Any evidence of Discord's chaotic powers that might explain things. Everything looked normal, the plants were green and flowering, birds chirped happily and, most importantly, the cottage was on the ground, right side up. If Discord had done anything, it wasn't obvious.
She touched down near the door, and slowly eased it open. "Discord! Where are you?" Twilight called out. She expected the Spirit of Chaos to jump out from behind her in some ridiculous getup, or pop out of her ear and nonchalantly dust himself off, complaining about all the wax he had to get through. No answer came, leaving Twilight more confused than ever.
When she walked a little further into Fluttershy's home, she could hear the distinct sound of crying coming from another room. Twilight followed the sound, carefully making sure not to step on any of the small animals that tittered and squeaked throughout the cottage. After walking through several rooms, Twilight found herself at the door to Fluttershy's living room.
She swung open the door to reveal a shocking scene. In one corner of the room, Fluttershy was bawling her eyes out, her head in her hooves. On the couch was Discord. Or, what had once been Discord. A statue of the draconequus sat on the couch, similing and holding a pink tea cup, the pinkie of the eagle claw up in polite fashion.
Anger immediately swelled in Twilight. She walked up to the statue and stomped her hoof angrily. "This isn't funny Discord! Can't you see what you're doing to Fluttershy? If you really care about her, turn back right now!" The statue didn't respond.
"I- I already tried that." Fluttershy said crying through her hooves. "We were just having our Tuesday tea like usual when all of a sudden he just turned to stone! If this were a joke he- he would've stopped by now. T- Twilight, I think something's really wrong with him! He's gotten sick before, b- but... oh what if I never see him again?!" She collapsed into tears once again.
Twilight was also worried. Not just anything could do this to a being like Discord. In fact, the only things that he had ever really seemed scared of were the Elements of Harmony. She pushed those thoughts aside and laid a comforting hoof on her friend. If she panicked, Fluttershy would only feel worse. She had to remain calm and levelheaded. "We will fix this Fluttershy. Princess Celestia will know what to do. She imprisoned Discord before, and I bet she can get him out now." Twilight assured.
Fluttershy wiped the tears from her eyes. Twilight's suggestion had given her hope, which was exactly what she needed. A look of steel determination replaced any lingering sadness. "You're- you're right Twilight. There has to be a way to fix this. Discord, if you can hear me, we're going to get you free. That's a pinkie promise. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" As Fluttershy stuck a hoof gently in her eye, Twilight heard knocking outside.
She followed Fluttershy out of the tea room over to the front door she had just entered through. Fluttershy opened the door revealing a disheveled Rainbow Dash, and an exhausted Starlight Glimmer. Well, at least her first hunch had been proven half right.
"Phew, thanks goodness I found you both! Something seriously bad is going on!" Rainbow Dash said as she brushed her feathers back in place. "You weren't at the castle Twi so I was worried something happened to you too. Lucky for me Octavia was there with Vinyl and she told me you'd ran off in a hurry with Fluttershy!"
"And lucky for me, I ran into her... well more that she flew straight into me while I was galloping full speed toward the castle..." Starlight said, panting.
"What happened? What's going on?!" Twilight asked, her chest slowly filling with panic again.
"I was over in Griffinstone hanging with Gilda on a patch of cloud I rigged up, and all of a sudden she just... turned into stone!" Rainbow Dash said frantically. "I just barely managed to stop her from falling and shattering into a zillion pieces!"
"I saw the same thing! Trixie and I were practicing some stage magic, just simple stuff no really powerful spells, and all of a sudden she just kind of... froze up, and turned to stone. I tried everything I could think of: anti-petrification spells, tranfiguration... I even tried to communicate with her spirit but I got nothing!" Starlight added worriedly.
"This can't be a coincidence." Twilight tapped a hoof on her chin. "The same thing happened to Discord, which is why Fluttershy called me here. Let's head back to the castle. Discord's statue should be safe enough here for now. My library might have the answers we need."
After a quick flight back, Twilight and her friends immediately galloped to the castle library. Quickly swinging open the door, Twilight immediately found herself snout to snout with Pinkie Pie. She jerked backward in surprise, tripping over her wings.
"Heya Twilight!" Pinkie bounced up and down excitedly. "So so you're probably wondering why I'm here. Well it all started when I was just a little filly..."
"Uh Pinkie, ah think you'd better just cut to the chase." Applejack said from the room behind Pinkie.
"Oh yeah I guess you're right." Pinkie stopped bouncing and stood aside, revealing Applejack and Rarity were inside the library perusing books. "So I was heading over to bring you some of those delicious zap apple muffins I made this morning..." Pinkie licked her lips dreamily. She grabbed her head with her hooves and shook it up and down. Twilight could swear she heard lose change rattling around in there. "Sorry, anyway, I saw you and Fluttershy flying really fast toward her cottage, as if something was really wrong! So I used all the pony power my hooves could muster and I brought AJ and Rarity with me back here, in case you needed help. Rainbow wasn't around but hey it looks like you found her! Hi Dashie!"
Rainbow Dash nodded at Pinkie, but then hung her head dejectedly. Twilight could tell losing one of her childhood friends was having a big effect on her.
"So something is wrong then!" Rarity said in a concerned tone.
"Something terrible is happening to- why do I hear a buzzing sound?" Twilight asked. The buzzing was like something vibrating, and it was coming from somewhere in the library.
"Twilight I think it's that book!" Starlight pointed at a book in the far corner bookshelf. It was glowing with magic, and was the source of the vibrating noise.
"Is that...?" Twilight wondered as she levitated the book over. The sinking feeling of panic grew worse. Everypony gathered around her as she inspected the book. It was a simple brown leatherbound journal, with a distinctive image of a blazing sun. This was the journal that her friend, Sunset Shimmer, used to communicate with her from the human world. When they had first met, Sunset Shimmer had been a selfish villain who lied and manipulated just to get her way. However since Twilight had managed to defeat her with the aid of the human counterparts of her friends, Sunset had reformed her ways, and had since become a good friend of Twilight's. Looking at the journal, Twilight felt a little guilty for neglecting to talk to Sunset for the past few months. Since the reform of the changelings she had been tasked with maintaining diplomacy with them, doubling her work and cutting her free time in half. Between that and solving friendship problems, Twilight barely had time to keep up her friendships here in Equestria, let alone with another world.
Nervously, Twilight opened the journal to read the latest message.
This is an SOS to Princess Twilight Sparkle in Ponyville.
Twilight if you are reading this, something terrible has happened to Sunset. We were having a sleepover at my house, when all of a sudden she froze up. Her body literally froze in place, and she hasn't moved for 2 hours. We've already taken her to the hospital. They've never seen anything like it, but they said by some miracle she's still alive. They're trying every medicine they've got, but she's still catatonic.
Please, we don't know if this is magical or not, but we have nobody else we can ask for help. If you have anything that can help her, any magic at all, we're even willing to sacrifice if need be. Contact us through the journal if you know why this is happening or how to help Sunset.
-Applejack
Twilight wrote back a message stating that the same thing was happening to other ponies across Equestria, and that she would consult Princess Celestia about it. She told them it was a form of petrification, and Sunset wasn't in danger of dying. Thus she advised them to get Sunset away from the human hospital before they tried something drastic like surgery.
"Sunset Shimmer too?" Starlight asked. "How could the same magic simultaneously affect so many ponies, even ones in different worlds?"
Before Twilight could answer, she heard somepony knocking at the castle door again. She knew there were more important issues at hand, but seriously what was with all the knocking today? Twilight galloped to the door, followed by her six friends. "Sorry the castle is kinda closed, we're dealing with an important situation right now. We'll work on your friendship problem some other time I promise."
"Actually I'm just a mailmare your Highness. Urgent letter from Canterlot." said a mare with a thick city accent. Twilight saw a letter slip through the postal slot onto the floor.
She quickly levitated it and read aloud, "Princess Twilight Sparkle, your presence in Canterlot is respectfully requested by Princess Mi Amore Cadenza due to unfortunate cirumstances..." Twilight trailed off, unable to read the rest out loud.
"What's it say Twi?" Applejack asked with a hint of worry.
"Twilight?" Starlight nudged gently.
Twilight felt her heart become a river of emotions. Her whole world was collapsing around her, so many of her friends gone in one day, just like that. And now this. In a thin, dry, emotionless voice Twilight said, "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have turned to stone too."