Travels
Discord had caught up to the others, who were waiting for him.
“Hey Twilight, so did you find out anything about the book?” – Spike said, rushing to them with the pony’s bags behind him.
“Well, we found out a bit. We learned that it’s written in a language called “English”. The only person here that can read it is Discord, so he will be guiding us to find out about them.” – Twilight said, grabbing some bags to help him.
“D-Discord? H-He’s here?” – Spike said, looking around.
“Don’t worry Spike, he’s a good guy now.” – Rainbow Dash said, comforting him. “No need to be scared.”
“Me? Scared? No way. It’s just, he can’t be trusted. You know?” – Spike said, with false courage.
“Don’t worry Spike, everything will be alright, Discords a good person now, isn't that right?” – Fluttershy said softly, calming Spike down.
“Yeah Spikey Wikey, I’m a good guy!” – Discord said, before picking him up and lifting him over his head.
“L-Let me go!” – Spike wailed, flailing to get loose.
“Discord, put him down this instance!” – Twilight screamed, anger in her voice.
“Alright, jeez. Can’t you ponies take a joke?” – Discord said, putting Spike down at the ground.
“Y-Yeah, and don’t you ever do that a-again.” – Spike said, dusting himself off.
“Now, now ponies, we aren’t gonna get anywhere with y’all bickering” – Apple Jack
“Yeah darlings, AJ is right, we need to start finding out about these humans” – Rarity said, siding with her friend.
“You girls are right.” – Twilight said, lifting the book and giving it to Discord. “Read. Now”
“You could say please you know” – Discord started saying, before seeing the annoyed look of Twilight. “Alright, fine.” Discord proceeded to grab the book floating in front of him by the purple alicorn’s magic, and started to flip through it.
There was complete silence for what seemed to be 4 minutes, with the occasional “Interesting” coming from the mouth of Discord.
Discord put the book down, and stared into the eyes of the ponies in front of him.
“Well? What did it say?” – Rainbow Dash exclaimed with anxiousness.
“What did what say?” – Discord asked innocently with a hint of sarcasm.
“The book Discord. The one you just finished reading.” – Rainbow Dash responded, a look of frustration on her face.
“Ah yes, the book. Quite interesting stuff in here. I couldn't translate it all, but the most important thing the book said is that the humans live in another world.” – Discord said.
“Another world? So all this time all of this was worthless?” – Twilight called out worried. “What are we going to say to the Princesses?”
“Well, I never said it was worthless...” – Discorded piped out.
“But you said it was on another planet” – Rarity pointed out.
“Oh! Is there a big spaceship hidden somewhere ready to take us?” – Pinkie shouted out, after a long time of her being quite.
“No, but there is a portal to the planet they live on.” – Discord said, calming the pink mare down.
“Portal? Like a door?” – Apple Jack asked confused.
“Sort of. A portal is a connection between two distant places, which makes it so you enter on one side and can come out millions of miles away in a mere second.” – Twilight answered her orange friend.
“Exactly. There is one in, but it would take some time to get to it. It’s all the way in the Griffon Empire.” – Discord said, interrupting the purple mare.
“Oh hey, I have a friend there. Maybe she can help us.” – Rainbow Dash said thinking out loud.
“Gilda? I’m not sure she’d want to help after the last time we saw her” – Pinkie Pie spouted out.
“Either way, I doubt she’d know where the portal is. It says here it’s in the Cave of Crystals.” – Discord said, reading words off the book.
“The Cave of Crystals? I have never heard of this cave, does it even exist?” – Twilight asked trying to remember if she had ever read anything about it.
“I think so. It says here it does, but I’m having trouble figuring it out.” – Discord told her, searching around the book frantically, trying to find any answers to his own question.
“I don’t think we should trust him, he could be leading us to a trap. A secret cave in the Griffon Empire? Sounds very suspicious" - Apple Jack said.
“I know, but it’s our best chance at finding this new world.” – Twilight reassured her friend.
“Do you believe that there might be new species of animals never seen here in Equestria?” – Fluttershy peeked out, her voice bringing a new one to the conversation.
“There might be. It’s an entire different place. Who knows what we might find” – Twilight said.
“So you mean we could find... Zombies!?” – Pinkie Pie shouted, in a ghoulish manner, frightening her yellow friend.
“Pinkie, don’t scare Fluttershy.” – Twilight said, calming the yellow Pegasus down. “And I highly doubt we shall find zombies”
You could hear a slight “Sorry” coming from the pink mare.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get going!” – Apple Jack spouted, heading for the train.
The entirety of the gang (Excluding Spike, who decided to stay behind) had gotten their tickets, and were ready to board the train. Rarity had gotten curious, and decided to stop Twilight before she got on it.
“Twilight, dear, do you think we should trust Discord? I know the Princess’s said so, but I don’t feel like we should” – Rarity said, her voice filled with concerned for her friends.
“Not sure Rarity, but he’s the best lead we’ve got. I just hope Celestia didn’t make a mistake...” – Twilight said, reassuring her friend, before both of them getting on the train.
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On the train, everypony had trouble getting sleep. Each of them was up late, thinking about the potential wonders or dangers Earth would have to offer. The one with the most trouble was Rarity. She was already having problems, as she had recently started developing feelings for a friend of hers, and she didn’t know how to tell her, or how she would react when she found out. All Rarity could do was wait, for the right time, to tell her...
“Rarity, wake up we’re here!” – A joyful, brashly voice woke her up. She had trouble opening her eyes, but once she did she saw that the pony who had woken her up was none other than Rainbow Dash
“H-Here? What do you mean here?” – Rarity yawned out, barely awake.
“The Griffon Empire, where else?” – The cyan mare said, flying above her.
“Here? So early?” - Rarity said, taking her bags whilst getting out, before being blinded by the sunlight.
“Early? What do you mean early? It’s the middle of the day Silly!” – Pinkie Pie shouted out, scaring Rarity, who gave out a big scream, attracting the attention of ponies around them.
“Pinkie, what have we discussed about scaring Rarity?” – Apple Jack said, trying to hide the embarrassment of being looked on by ponies around them.
“Oh, sorry” – Pinkie said, lowering her voice down to that of a whisper.
“If you ponies can stop talking, I need to think, so mouths shut, brains up” – Discord said annoyed, looking at the book.
“You know Discord, you could be a bit more nicer next time” – Rainbow Dash said, annoyed at him as well.
“Yeah, Discord, just because you know this language no-one else knows, that doesn't mean you can behave however you want to.” – Twilight spouted out.
Discord hadn't even noticed them talking, as he was too into the book, trying to figure out the new challenge before him. It said something about a path, but he couldn't figure out anything on where it was nor if it was still sturdy enough to pass through it.
"Well, there seems to be a bit of a small problem" - The ancient God said, stroking his would-be chin.
"And what problem would that be?" - Fluttershy asked worried.
"Well, it seems as if the cave is exactly over there" - Discord said, and at the same he pointed straight towards a ginormous castle.
Everyone was in awe, the castle was amazing! It has huge and the color of a bright white. It was almost blinding to look at, as it shined as if it was made out of pure gold.
"Oh my! I have never before seen something of such grandeur before! It's something glorious to behold, something fit for royalty!" - Rarity said gushing about the massive castle in the distance.
"It should be, that's where the queen lives" - Discord responded to the excited white mare.
"The Griffon Empire doesn't have a queen, does it?" - Apple Jack asked in confusion
"Gilda never mentioned her." - Rainbow Dash said, trying to be helpful.
"Queen Zar." - Discord responded the two ponies in front of him.
"Zar? That sounds like a boy's name!" - Pinkie blurted out, attracting some ponies and griffons around her.
"Hehe, sorry for our friend. She's a bit... slow" - Rarity said, making a swirling motion with her hoove near her head.
"Hey, I'm not slow" - Pinkie said infuriated.
"Girls, stop fighting, this is getting us nowhere" - Twilight said calming both of them down.
"Well, Pinkie was right, it should sound like a boys name. From what I have gathered, female Griffons who want dominance tend to chance their names into something more buff and scary sounding" - Discord said, motioning with his hands what appeared to be a lion.
"Well, what are we waiting for? We should get there as soon as possible!" - Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flying straight to the castle, the other ponies straight behind her.
After a few minutes of walking and flying, the entire gang was just in front of the castle. It looked glorious so close up, the walls where whiter than anything else, and it shined like millions of stars. It was perfect, not one scratch, not one dent, nothing wrong about it. The edges of it were engraved in gold, and the size was huge. There were two big towers, each with a different flag, representing peace with other nations, with various guards on top of them. The guards themselves seemed bigger than any other Griffon they had seen while they were traveling here. The gate was huge, seemed to be pulled by two big, heavy chains. Once they got near it, two Griffon guards were guarding the entrance.
"Who are you?" - One of them asked, his voice low and booming.
"W-Well, I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, and these are the Elements of Harmony" - She said, pointing at the ponies behind her.
"What do you want from us?" - The other guard spoke up.
"We courteously ask permission to see the queen in terms of peace" - Twilight responded.
The guards exchanged looks and went to a big lever like thing, and started pulling on it. In a few seconds, the gate was opened, with a large CREAK sound.
"There, you may go inside." - The guards said in unison.
"Thank you" - Twilight said. The six ponies and Discord bowed down, and ran inside, the gate closing behind them.
The inside of the castle made the outside seem worthless. There were emerald columns running up and down the entire hall, which had a velvet red carpet going through it. It was beautiful and huge. There were guards inside here as well, but so much more. There were at least three at every doorway, to ensure the maximum safety of the queen and the rest of the staff.
"Well, well, well. Who do we have here? A bunch of lost colorful ponies?" - A familiar, tomboyish, rebel voice came out from behind them, causing everyone except Discord to freeze in their tracks.