• Published 21st Jan 2016
  • 1,851 Views, 90 Comments

Empress Rarity's 251st Birthday - Lord-Commander



With her birthday just days away, everything is falling apart for Empress Rarity. Stolen away from her home and her ponies, can Rarity still trust those she once called friends, or will she lose everything?

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Chapter Two

Author's Note:

Welcome back everyone! I am sorry for how long it has taken to get this chapter going, lots of stuff going on in my life and also in my dear friend and editor, Autumnschild's life as well.

Thank you all so much for your support and your time to read this story of mine. I hope you enjoy it.

EDIT: "prefervid" is a word, it means "intense and impassioned".

“Welcome to Mywai Island!” Discord triumphantly crowed.

“Discord,” said Rarity with a glare. “Terrific.”

“It is terrific, isn’t it? Why I’d say it’s practically the perfect pony paradise,” he purred.

Rarity’s glare remained as she stared out at what appeared to really be a perfect pony tropical paradise.

The entire thing was like something out of a traveling advertisement from Ponies Weekly. The white sandy beaches, the near crystal clear water, and the majestic palm trees standing as welcoming hosts to the place. It would be a dream come true to visit and relax. Rarity took a deep breath and briefly closed her eyes, just imagining it all. A lounge chair, one of her prefervid romance novels she forbade Sapphire from touching, and a cold drink with one of those little umbrellas. Oh it would have been perfect.

With an annoyed sigh, she kicked out a crystal forehoof and knocked over the flimsy wooden backdrop upon which all this vacationy splendor was painted upon. The backdrop fell onto a player, dragging the needle raggedly against the record it was playing, and the sound of surf, seagulls, and slide guitars slammed to a screechy halt. Rarity stomped a hoof in pouty frustration.

Discord tsked his tongue against his mismatched teeth. “What’s the matter, Rarity? I thought you liked the beach?”

She said nothing, instead staring beyond the smug God of Chaos with a tight lipped frown at the view that stretched out beneath her. She was at the top of a ridge, overlooking a lush valley of knee high grass, occasionally interrupted by small copses of trees as the forest around slowly gave way to the grassland. A wide river lazily cut through the plains, coming from somewhere within the surrounding woods, and emptying out to the ocean in the distance. Towering over it all at the end of the valley, like a proud king in his hall, was a single snow capped mountain.

“You know, I should have suspected it was you,” she said to him, trying to gauge her bearings. “But the omelet thing was so predictable, I assumed that it couldn’t have been you.”

Discord dropped out of the air next to her with a sudden thump. “Predictable?” he demanded. “Me?!”

Rarity fought the urge to smirk. The only things predictable about Discord is that he hated being called predictable and that as soon as some pony is enjoying themselves he’d show up and make life a mess without any explanation. Or exception.

And now? Now she was stuck, Luna knows where. Away from the Crystal Empire, and away from her ponies.

Rarity sighed and closed her eyes. She’d figured out her cardinal directions, but until the sun set and the constellations came out, there was no figuring where in the world she was. She looked down once more into the center of the valley. Huge rocks stuck up out of the ground, getting more frequent towards the center until the rocks became so thick that they formed a crude looking flower.

And that something in it was calling to her.

Rarity shook her head and sat down on the cliff edge. That wasn’t quite right. Not calling, but pulling her towards it. Not forcefully, but… it was tempting. Tantalizing. Like a sale at Vêtements Cheval. She couldn’t tell what it was, just that it had a pull on her magic.

A way home, perhaps? asked the Crystal Heart.

Rarity nodded, her helmet contracting back enough to let the late morning breeze touch her face. “Maybe, darling, but getting there is the trick.”

She caught the tail end of something from Discord, and turned to face him. “Come again?”

“I said, did you hear something? It sounded like there was another pony talking.”

Rarity shot up to her hooves. “Nopony. Just talking to myself.”

How can he hear us?

Discord spun in a circle, looking this way and that. “Hello?” he asked, lifting a tree up by its trunk and examining the underside of its roots, “Is somepony there?”

Quiet fool, lest we are discovered! Barked a voice inside Rarity’s head as smoke seeped into the edges of her vision.

Discord tossed the tree effortlessly behind him, and it went sailing down into the valley below. His eyes were like slits, as he stared daggers into Rarity’s eyes. “Stowaways.”

Discord began walking towards her, and she staggered back until her left backhoof found nothing but air at the very edge of the ridge. In a panic, she looked back and her heart leap to her throat at the hundreds of feet of empty air below her. And that was when she felt a curious and altogether unpleasant sensation.

Discord, who she saw lunge at her from the corner of her vision, had dropped to one knee and plunged his taloned hand into her ear, up to his scaly elbow. She let out a startled, cross-eyed yelp, almost a half laugh, as his rummaging around tickled something in her brain. With all of her willpower, she tried to focus her thoughts to cast a spell, but just as she had one in mind, out his hand went with an audible pop.

And there, struggling in his grasp, was a cursing Sombra.

“Fool! Release me!”

Discord chuckled. “What a surprise! Rarity, you keep some rather interesting company.”

Rarity really wasn’t paying attention as her world suddenly tipped on its side, and she found herself laying on the ground. It felt like her head was spinning, and she was going to throw up. She felt weak, enough that her limbs trembled as she struggled to put any weight on them. She felt two thirds full of… of everything. Passion. Magic. Anger. She’d been balancing on a knife’s edge in her own mind for so long that she forgot what it was like to be constantly balancing on it. She was thankful that he’d only pulled out Sombra. Had Discord yanked out the Crystal Heart as well… Well, some things were just best left unimagined.

But at the same time, her mind felt refreshingly clear. Free. It was hard to explain, but there was no shadow prying at her every thought. No darkness trying to overpower her. It was just… her.

That mysterious pull from the center of the island, however, was no longer a trifling sensation, like the curiosity of a sale. What was an impulse was now a need, a drive. Her heart ached to reach whatever it was that was calling to her. Rarity felt anxiety over it, and hurried to push up her own mental shielding to keep the call out of her mind. Still, her best efforts only offered a little bit of relief.

Discord only gave her a moment of interest before turning his attention back to the flailing stallion. “My goodness, how long has it been?”

Sombra responded with a growl.

“Mhmm, you don’t say?” Discord brought a paw up to his face and rubbed his chin in thought. “I remember it like it was tomorrow. You, going away on your anvil with those adorable little hammers. You made such fine trinkets, Blacksmith. Do you still take custom orders?”

“Mhrr?” asked Rarity as she sat up, woozily.

“Insufferable, cur!” snarled Sombra, smoke trailing from his limbs. “Put me back in the unicorn at once!”

“Oh, no, no, no!” explained Discord, who snapped his fuzzy fingers together to summon up a bucket full of taffy, and with a flick of the wrist, plopped the smoldering stallion neck deep into it. “You might mess all of this up!” He said with a twirl, his arms wide as if to embrace the entire island. “You see, I arranged this... little vacation just for two, not three.”

“A vacation? Just for the Crystal Heart and I?” asked Rarity, but Discord only returned a confused look. She rolled her eyes and tapped her head with a hoof, and regretted how oddly empty it felt. “Crystal Heart.”

“Ahh, well, yes,” said Discord flapping his wrist dismissively. “Magical constructs don't count right now. But you,” he said, turning his attention back to Sombra. “You do count. What were you doing in Rarity?”

“Nothing that conc—”

“Trying to take over the Crystal Empire,” interrupted Rarity, earning a swift glare from Sombra. “What? It’s not that hard for anyone to figure out. He hid on some part of the Crystal Heart, I think, and didn’t try anything until last year, and then… Well, he was stopped.”

Discord nodded. “Ah, that would explain the lock you were behind. I thought I recognized that bit of magic, one of Luna’s “Unbreakable Lock” spells,” he jeered. ”I don’t know why she doesn’t change it up from time to time. I mean it’s just ‘Luna’ spelled backwards, every immortal knows that. But… What were we on about? Ah yes! What to do about the stowaway.”

“Me, unicorn, now,” deadpanned Sombra. “I’m dissolving.”

“And everyone is always on about the dissolving!” exasperated Discord. “Soap monsters, mud giants, that witch that lived out west, and now you. Ugh!”

“It is literally killing me.”

“Oh relax,” said Discord. “My plans are more important. In fact, you could learn a thing or two here.”

“Don’t rush on my account,” purred Rarity, who was enjoying this unexpectedly squirmy side of Sombra. “I’ll just… I’ll just start over… here,” and she trailed off as she tried to walk off on wobbly legs towards the thing calling her from the center of the island.

Discord grabbed her by her purple tail, stopping her in her tracks. “Woah there little pony, slow down those horseshoes, I haven’t finished my exposition yet.”

“Discord, what is going on here!” demanded Rarity with a pout. “What is all of this, and why is there something so alluring about whatever that is that’s calling out to me? Can’t you feel it? Why, I can almost taste it Discord!”

“It’s a game,” replied Discord, staring out across the valley. “It will be very good for you, and most amusing for me.”

“I am not here for your amusement,” snapped Rarity, pushing back against the odd call long enough to focus on what was important. “Take me back home, to my Empire and ponies, at once!”

“Did I not just say that you are here for my amusement?” asked Discord, finally looking over at Rarity. “Everything, for now, is under control. Which puts all the more pressure on you not to screw up.”

“What do you mean everything?”

“I mean literally all the things, and some of the nothings.”

“If I must die here, can I at least do so in silence?” asked Sombra.

“Everything, and nothing,” repeated Discord, ignoring him with a shrug. “It’ll make more sense, later when we have our review. Or it won’t. Who cares?! But for now, our little Empress needs to get going. Don’t want to be late for our fun day.”

Rarity blinked a few times. “So… That exposition?”

“Later.” Discord released his grip on her tail, and gave her a swat on the rump. “Giddyup!”

And she did, pulled by a force from the center of the island, pushed by rage at being slapped on the hiney by a disrespecting god, she stumbled. Right over the edge of the ridge.

Her helmet snapped into place with the rest of her armor the moment the ground rushed by, cutting off her scream. Further screaming was cut off by ‘oofs’ and ‘urhks’ as she bounced her way down from one rock to another and so on before smashing through the tree canopy with some finality, and skidding through a series of bushes before stopping face first in the valley.

“The express lane works,” muttered Rarity as she tried to stop the stars spinning around her head. Frowning at the pain that tugged at her neck, she glared back up at the cliff top. “Horrible creature. Stay up there for all I care.”

He did removed the grumpy one, whispered the Crystal Heart. But I am not a fan of the chaos god.

“I was talking about Sombra,” said Rarity, shaking her head a bit and looking around. “Though Discord is not far behind him.”

She had tumbled into some sort of forest, a small strip of trees that circled around the base of the cliff before opening up into the valley. The forest felt… old. The trees were gangly and broken, the rocks looked very worn and scuffed too. One of them almost looked like a wall.

Rarity shook her head again, she couldn’t focus well. That call, that thing in the middle of the island. It was almost physically pulling her now, like she was leaning towards it. She hadn’t felt a pull this strong since the day she got her cutie mark, but unlike those early days, she had far greater control of her magic.

She realized that she was on her hooves and walking along an old mossy path, but her hooves felt heavy and more than once she nearly stumbled from some uneven stone or rogue root. Time seemed to slip by further and further as the path did not take her right into the valley. But trying to turn away from the path made the pull unbearable, so she stayed on it. And hoped that at the end of this road would be a little bar. Maybe one that serves the drinks right out of a coconut shell.

Eventually, the path came to a fork near a small babbling brook. One trail broke itself off and twisted deeper and deeper into the forest until it was out of sight. The larger path lead towards the valley, giving an almost straight shot to where she imagined the center would be. She frowned the more she looked at it. It was starting to look less and less like there was going to be a bar at the end of this road.

Rarity let out a tired sigh and walked over to the brook, her helmet sliding back just enough to let her wash her hooves and drink from the cool water.

Empress? Rarity felt the Crystal Heart brush up against her mind, as if it was trying to scoot closer to her. Empress, I believe we are being watched.

Rarity brushed at her dirty muzzle with an armored hoof. It was just one frustration after another around here, and no closer to getting home.

“I know, darling,” replied Rarity. She had not come out of the forest alone. Something was following her.

She could feel it, whatever it was. She could feel its eyes boring into the back of her skull, like it was studying her. Due to the connection with the Crystal Heart, and the emotional power it controlled, Rarity could feel the curiosity and excitement from whatever was spying on her.

This thing was waiting for something, perhaps an opening to strike or more of its kind to take her down. It unnerved her, but for now, Rarity made no motion to let it know she knew it was there. The only thing she did do was the occasional pulse of magic, making sure it was the only thing following her.

So far it was. But it was clever too. She had yet to catch a glimpse of the creature following her. It would stay just on the edge of her detection pulses, and well out of sight. She wondered if it was somehow immune to the pull from the valley’s center, or -more worryingly- if it was using it as a trap to lure her to certain doom.

Rarity let out a sigh. She wasn’t experienced in this sort of thinking, and unfortunately knew a certain pony that was.

“We’re going to have to get him back,” said Rarity, taking another sip of water. “You know that right?”

The grumpy one?

Rarity nodded. “We need him, and Discord will eventually get bored of him. Or forget that he even has him. Sombra is too dangerous to be left in the outside world.”

Maybe Discord could keep Sombra here on the island, it carefully replied. Safe, out of the way.

“A perfect place for an innocent pony to stumble upon a trapped dark king, and unknowingly release him into an unprepared world?” She shook her head. “No, darling, I won’t take that risk. It’s better to watch over him. Besides, his core is still in me.”

It could be... removed.

“Either he’s not a part of the living anymore, or we’re getting him back.”

* * *

“Fascinating,” whispered Twilight as she backed into the bushes she had been hiding in. Or as she called them, ‘Sparkle Base Gamma’. She picked up her quill pen and notebook, titled An Unexpected Journey of Twilight Sparkle, and quickly documented the results of her observation. “Subject continues on possible patrol pattern. Unknown if subject is capable of communication or friendship. Observation continues.”

This day had become an interesting one, to say the least. First it had been looking like a long series of boring meetings, throne sitting, and that dreaded talk with Cadance about going to the Crystal Empire to see her. But instead Discord canoes through her throne room, and poof, she’s on some strange island.

At first she was absolutely livid that Discord had just plucked her out of Canterlot, without her tea, and dropped her somewhere else, without her tea. The only explanation he bothered to give was “Wait here, I forgot the ice cube” before exploding into confetti.

And wait she did. At first. But after the first hour or so, and the third attempt at alphabetizing the local flora, she decided she’d had enough, and tried to teleport back to Canterlot. Key word here, tried. No matter how many times she had tried to go back, either through means magical or mundane, she always ended up back on this island in the middle of nowhere.

But then she realized that nowhere wasn’t in Canterlot. It wasn’t in the Crystal Empire. It probably wasn’t even in Equestria. Nowhere was somewhere else. It was an unplanned vacation away from the duties of the Crown and responsibilities that constantly stalked her.

And no one could blame her for the actions of the God of Chaos, right? Boom. Free vacation on an island that she was being magically prevented from leaving. Most likely some sort of containment rune or something in the center of the island. An old one, if the oddly fluctuating pull of nearby ambient magic towards the center of the island is anything to go off of.

Twilight made a mental note to thank Discord some time in the far future, when it would look less like they had colluded on this whole affair. After that it was a simple transfiguration spell to her crown and other royal regalia, for some safari gear, and she was off to explore! She felt like a filly again, happily clapping her hooves together and flapping off in a fit of the giggles to document the island.

She had visited a few interesting, but rather mysterious and unmarked ruins, sketched a few Morpho butterflies, and had been in the middle of documenting a rather odd looking red version of poison joke when it showed up.

Twilight was still having a hard time getting over it. She had found some sort of ancient and dirt-encrusted, crystal golem pony... thing.

The echoing of armored hooves snapped Twilight out of her train of thought. She peeked out of the bushes again, just in time to see it trot down another trail in the valley below. Quickly, she filled a note on its resilience before flying up into the canopy and onto a branch strong enough to perch on. From her vantage point, she could see the golem slowly make its way across the valley.

With excitement, she opened her notebook again and flipped to an earlier section when she had first spotted it in the forest.

Stone golems existed only in the myths and fairy tales of ancient Unicornia, created by Grand Mages for protection and manual labor. If such a thing could have been made, the knowledge and sciences required to do so must have been lost for hundreds of years before the founding of Equestria. Any attempts at remaking them, including her own, had been abject failures... Or worse.

She frowned and wrote a note to herself in the margins to figure out what ever happened to her doll-golem, Nighttime Nanny. Her own infamous attempt at finding a way to patrol the realm of dreams and prevent nightmares. Unfortunately, the entire thing backfired, absorbing all of the nightmares and mutating into an ever-changing engine of fear. Ironically, the doll felt the fear of the nightmares itself, and vanished without a trace.

But here before her was an actual, factual, working golem. Not only that, but this one was a crystal golem, one shaped out to look like an armored unicorn and fully capable of using magic too.

She had to find out where it was going. Maybe back to its creator, or a ruined workshop. Maybe she could find the long lost knowledge of golemancy. Such discovery would generate leaps of advancements in the fields of magic, society, even technology. She caught herself about to drool, at the thought of the research papers she’d have to write and review should such a future come to pass.

“Today’s going to be great!” said Twilight with a little squeal. She took a deep breath, and then several more. Once she had calmed herself, she spread her wings wide open, and glided from her tree branch to another, following after this strange creature.

* * *

Rarity had been horribly mistaken. From her vantage point on the ridge, she had assumed that the valley was scattered with rock outcroppings.

But these weren’t just rocks. These were ruins. This was a city.

Her realization came with pause as she stumbled upon the first thing that she could recognize as a building. Holes for windows. An empty door frame. Tattered scraps of what was once wall-to-wall green shag carpeting. Clearly, these homes belonged to beasts and savages in their hayday.

Rarity looked behind her at the rubble she’d passed before. Sure enough, she could make out the telltale signs of civilization even on what was little more than stepping stones beneath her armored hooves.

The buildings here were still standing, although terribly ravaged by time and the elements. Ahead, they were just stone foundations, cement walls, and that dreadful shag carpeting as far as the eye could see. Small, rusted bits of rebar poked through the crumbling walls at certain places like bones.

“Rebar?” She walked closer to the building to inspect it. Rebar meant that whoever once lived here had knowledge and resources to make steel. “But what happened to them?”

Rarity let the question hang in the air as she looked where the trail forked to the right. The path wandered away from the valley and continued downward into another forest. The buildings became more and more frequent until they eventually became so thick that they choked out the trees, and the smaller bushes and grasses fought for what space was left. Tall towers, twisted forms of metal and stone rose in the distance beneath dark clouds.

It gave her the chills ‘something fierce’ as Applejack might say. She was standing bones deep in a forgotten city of ghosts.

But to her left, towards the west, where the clouds gave way to blue sky, the middle of the island sat undisturbed in the morning light. But the more she looked at it, the more it looked like…

A temple, finished the Crystal Heart.

Rarity nodded in agreement and walked in the midmorning sun, pulled onwards by the unknown magics that demanded her attention. She walked, ignoring the watchful eyes behind her as best she could. As she got closer, it looked far older than any of the other buildings. For one, the giant stone slabs that made up its exterior walls looked as if they had been slowly chiseled to get their form.

At one time, the temple must have been a truly wondrous marvel. She could faintly see symbols and pictures once carved into the old stone, worn nearly completely away by time. Plants and vines grew out of whatever crack they could find. Large trees and bushes had already fought their wars for space and grew on any surface that could support them.

Rarity climbed a few steps that lead to what she guessed was once the temple’s front door and paused under the archway to look around.

The dome of the temple partially collapsed some time ago, everything was like the outside, overgrown with plant life. The inside was a wide courtyard with four intact spires pointing up from each corner and angled towards a raised platform in the middle. Some sort of altar sat before it and a large stone ring on top. The courtyard itself held six stone spheres upon pedestals, eerily reminding her of magic cores. When she passed the archway, the drive in her heart, that ceaseless siren song pulling her ever closer to the center of this blasted place, ceased. And for the first time in what was likely hours, she could think clearly again.

As she walked across the stone floor, she began to notice ruins and arcane circles carved within, and massive metal rings circling the platform. However, she lacked any means to correctly read them.

She cautiously made her way forward and climbed the wide stairs until she got to the top of the platform, and looked at the altar. Altar was perhaps not the right word for the thing she was looking at. It was more like a sketching table, slanted at a gentle angle, and held a lip on the bottom to prevent anything from falling off.

“Another pedestal,” observed Rarity. This one was much grander than the other ones spread around the courtyard. She placed an armored hoof into one of the six impressions carved into the table, all of them arranged in a circle, another arcane circle which no doubt matched the giant one scribed on the courtyard floor with exactness. “Are these for keys?”

"Strange," she whispered, as she continued to trace the lines on the pedestal until she felt the thing that was following her get closer. But now that she wasn’t distracted by that dreadful pull, she noticed something curious about whatever was following her. It was definitely a pony. And it was definitely familiar.

Rarity looked up at the archway she had walked through and called out to the fidgeting shadow hiding behind one of the pillars. “Hello?”

The fidgeting stopped, and a tall pony moved forward. Rarity gasped when she saw the pony’s hair bandy about her long purple horn. Her royal regalia might have been gone, replaced with what a more charitable Rarity would call a rather smart safari ensemble. But that stride, that imitating smile of peace, those blasted purple wings. They could only belong to one pony.

“Hello, my name is Twi—”

“Twilight Sparkle!” seethed Rarity. She felt her armor plates thicken and her height increase as the alicorn strolled forward with much more care and caution.

Twilight nodded, her horn glowing faintly with magic. “Y-yes, that’s my name. How do you know me?”

“What in the name of all that is good are you doing here!?” demanded Rarity as she marched her way over to her former friend. “You put him up to this, didn’t you? This is all your fault, isn’t it!”

“My fau— Wait, what?”

Rarity gritted her teeth and stomped a hoof into rock, cracking the ground. “Don’t you play with me, Sparkle! That beast of yours, Discord, I know he answers only to you and Cadance. I have been pulled from my home, my ponies and cast to this desolate place. Why!?”

Twilight blinked a few times, her Princessly mask completely gone. “I-I don’t know. I was taken and placed here too. Do I know yo—”

“Discord,” snarled Rarity. “Where is the vile cretin?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know that either.”

“Wonderful. Brilliant!” Rarity stormed away from the confused princess. “Here I am, stuck with you of all ponies!”

The alicorn frowned. “Do I know you?”

“Twilight, it’s me!” The helmet slid back down along her neck, and her purple coiled mane bounced free of its confinement. “What a—”

“Rarity? What are you doing here?” demanded Twilight, her safari costume poofing away in an instant, only to be replaced with her own magical battle armor.

“I asked first, and it’s Empress Rarity to you!”

“Excuse me, Empress,” snapped Twilight. “And as I told you, I have no idea! Why are you dressed like a golem?”

“Dressed like a-a what?” Rarity looked down at herself and then glared back at Twilight. “It’s armor, darling, surely you can figure that out!”

Twilight bristled at the jab. “And you just walk around in armor?”

“When I’m whisked away by a petty god and sent to some long dead island for reasons unknown, I do,” snapped Rarity. ”Apologies, I didn’t know that cavorting around in some Daring Do getup and stalking mares in the forest was the style this season!”

Rarity readied herself for a feisty return but was met with Twilight’s head buried in her notebook instead. “How do you make the crystal move so freely? How do you control it? That’s amazing!”

Rarity blinked a few times, caught off guard by the sudden compliment and change in attitude. “It is amazing, isn’t it?” she carefully asked, raising and lowering her armor on mental command. She made it a two piece. Rarity turned it into a gown. An apron. A smartly bedazzled pantsuit. Twilight clapped her hooves appreciably as her pen wrote at the speed of thought in the notebook floating next to her.

“Can you teach me to do that?”

Rarity stopped. “Err. I don’t think so. I think it’s something to do with my fusing with the Crystal Heart.”

“Ah.”

Rarity smiled back. “I suppose having such vast responsibilities has to come with some benefits, yes?”

Twilight nodded with a goofy chuckle, and Rarity felt her heart weaken. Her chuckle was something Rarity hadn’t heard in a long time and hadn’t realized that she missed it. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts. Now was not the time for a trip down memory lane. She needed to get back to the Empire.

She stood up and turned around. “Twilight, I need to get back to my ponies. But I can’t leave the center of this island until I figure out what was pulling me mindlessly towards it. Can you help me?”

Twilight nodded and looked around for the first time. Rarity watched her as she got that glazed over look that meant she was seeing things no pony was ever meant to see. Something to do with ley lines and veils. It was all very hush-hush magic mumbo-jumbo. But, it more often than not did the trick.

Twilight gasped.

“What?” demanded Rarity. “What is it?”

“The Elements…” said Twilight in a whisper.

Before either of the two could say anything more, a hearty laugh echoed through the chamber.

A coiling shape slithered its way through the steel ring, like a wave of living metal. As it passed the pedestal, a familiar form, lithe and sinister emerged. “Ohh, that was something. Bravo, you two, bravo. I must say, Rarity, I’ve enjoyed your trip here the most. Especially the whole, face-to-ground thing back at the cliff.”

Twilight stood with her wings spread, and her horn lowered. "Discord, what is going on? Where are we?"

“Weren’t you listening at all?” The draconequus simply tisked and leaned back. “Cadance is right, you are rude. We’re going to play a little game, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Surely you can’t be serious!” balked Rarity. “Discord, we went over this before. I have things to do. Ponies to look after, and responsibilities that can not be ignored like this!”

“Pfft!” Discord waved his paw around in disinterest. “Trust me, the only important thing right now is this. Fair or not, now is the time for games.”

Twilight’s horn started to glow with an ominous green light. “Take us back, or we’ll force you to.”

“You could do that, but it won’t help you leave,” said Discord folding some paper. “You felt the enchantments, the arcane seals that hold you to this island won’t let you leave until you break them, and you can only break them if you play the game. So, are you in or in?”

“It seems we have no choice,” grumbled Rarity.

“Excellent!” said Discord, as he threw the origami duck aside and scooped the two up into a crushing hug. “Oh, this will be exciting!”

Discord snapped his paw, turning off the lights and dropped the two onto an oversized beanbag chair. Rarity missed the bag though and smacked into the rocky ground with a dull thunk. The stage in front of them lit up with lights, revealing Discord wearing a tacky tuxedo.

“Welcome to my island,” said Discord, throwing his hands into the air. “Welcome to Mywai!”

The curtains behind him exploded into a storm of confetti, revealing the island's name boldly displayed in hundreds of tiny bulbs and neon lights.

“Mywai?” asked Twilight.

“Long story,” scoffed Discord as he waved a taloned hand around in disinterest. “Anyways, the point being, you two are going to be playing some games! I had wanted to call this something catchy, like ‘The Friendship Games’, but there are some copyright issues or something. We have a specialist working on it.”

“Could we get to the point already?” said Rarity, as she climbed onto the beanbag chair.

Discord groaned. “Look, you two have an issue. One that, normally, I’m all about.” He slithered up and settled himself between them. “But honestly, what sort of friend would I be if I let my two closest, dearest, and so gosh darn incredibly oldest friends fight like this?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. “So instead of talking to us, you made these… Games?”

“Sort of,” said Discord with a wave of a gloved hand. “You won't believe how cheap this island was. It was practically a steal! Okay, I stole it.”

“You can’t steal an island. Can you?”

Discord chuckled. “Weeeeell, not all at once. I’ve had bits of this place for centuries, it’s like my own junk closet, but for other pony’s junk. You won’t believe how many socks I’ve found here.”

Rarity shot up to her hooves, falling out of the beanbag chair with a thud. “For crying out loud, Discord, tell us about the games!”

Discord cleared his throat and read from the teleprompter. “The games are meant for two friends who are falling apart. Who would rather break each other down, than build each other up. I am not the architect of these games, but the facilitator; the game master. The games themselves were devised by four very special ponies. Each game is a trial of sorts, based on their lives and the elements that brought you all together. You might have heard of them; Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, and Laughter.”

Rarity slid out of the beanbag chair mid-climb back into it and laid on the ground in something approximating shock. Twilight on the other hoof, bolted up as if she had been hit by lightning. “You… They knew we would need help. They asked you to help us. You’re helping us!?”

Rarity could feel the amusement and joy radiating from the draconequus as he spoke to Twilight, about it all. But it made her feel sick inside “Of course!” she heard Discord say.

“No.” Rarity shook her head. “No, thank you. I will not be hearing any more of this nonsense. I’ve changed my mind. I have an Empire to get back to. I will not be spending my busy time with a nosy draconequus. Take me home at once!”

“Hmm, can’t,” said Discord, fiddling with dirt under his talons. “Perhaps you didn’t hear me correctly. You’re stuck here. Both of you, until that little gate over there, is activated. That only works by collecting the six gems and rekindling your friendship.”

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of!” said Rarity as she trotted to the other side of the beanbag chair. “Twilight, stop this nonsense. We have enough magic between us that I’m sure we can undo whatever he has set up. We must go home this instant!”

“Rarity,” said Twilight, sliding off the beanbag chair and standing before the Empress. “We have to do this.”

“You’re taking his side, typical.”

Twilight shook her head “No. I’m taking our side. For us. It’s what the girls wanted.”

“And you believe him? Just like that? Twilight, how many times has Discord told us a half truth? How many times has he told us a boldfaced lie?!” Rarity glared at the alicorn for a few moments before looking back at Discord. “I cannot stake everything just on his whims!”

Twilight nodded her head. “I wouldn’t. Discord has been known to be untrustworthy in the past.”

“Hey!”

“But,” said Twilight, shooting a glare at Discord. “We’re not placing anything in his hooves. We’re placing everything in each other.”

Rarity glared at the alicorn before finally letting out a sigh. “Fine. How long is this nonsense going to take?”

“Not too long. A century at the most,” said Discord. “It’s dangerous, and pretty difficult if I do say so.”

“A century?!”

Discord shrugged. “I dunno, maybe you want to do everything the hard way and crawl on your belly from place to place, I’m not a mind reader.”

Twilight interrupted with a question of her own. “What’s the best case scenario here?”

“Best case? You’re out before dinner.”

“Somewhere between a few hours and a century. Okay, it can’t be all that bad,” said Rarity

“Oh you should see the island at night. It really, comes alive,” said Discord with a wicked grin. “I must warn you, don’t underestimate what we’ve planned here. Each trial is deadly in its own right. Each one RIPE with peril and mayhem! So, of the four different friendship trials which one would you like to start with fir—"

"Kindness," said Twilight flatly.

"Yes, gods yes. Absolutely,” said Rarity, nodding in agreement. “Kindness first."

Discord gave them both a look of annoyance and snapped his fuzzy fingers. In an instant, the three of them were back in the temple. Discord pointed out the archway and up at the tallest mountain on the island. “Fine. Kindness. It’s in a cave up there.”

“All the way up there?” balked Rarity. “Aren’t you going to give us supplies? Provisions?”

Discord shook his head. “Of course not. Everything you need is out there. Literally, I scattered everything out there for fun. Like a giant, deadly scavenger hunt.”

“What? Why!?”

“Because it’s more entertaining for me,” said Discord. “Now, off you go, you two, and remember that you’re here to make up. So, let’s see those smiles, girls!”