The Bonding Stone

by Some1Else

Chapter 3

The barrier sealed itself automatically once they were on the other side.

“What we’re looking for is around here somewhere,” Discord said. He stopped moving. “As a matter of fact, there it is now. To your left, Rarity.”

She gazed into a large hole covered in white webbing. Her heart started beating so hard her molars shook. Rarity looked down at the ground and discovered she stood a mere inch away from more webbing.

“Shall we see if anyone is home?” Discord stepped on the web.

Rarity had no time to ask if she had a choice. A noise like dry leaves scratching across each other in an autumn breeze came from the hole. Then the cave tarantula appeared. In addition to being grey and very hairy, it sported fangs that were nearly the size of her body. Thankfully, it wasn’t after her. The tarantula came within half a second of striking Discord when he paralyzed it with his magic, leaving it completely at his mercy. He flicked the fang poised to bite him and his opponent turned into a chicken. The chicken managed two steps in its new body before it laid an egg and fell over, shaking violently.

“Stay out here and keep Many Legs company while I check to see how clean her burrow is before we start harvesting her silk,” Discord said. “By the way, you’re welcome. What a good friend you are, Discord.”

Rarity looked away from the spasming chicken and at Discord as he headed into the burrow. “Yes, this is awfully generous of you. I could actually make good use out of that silk, so long as it’s clean.”

“How clean are we talking here?” Discord asked.

“What do you think? Would you want to wear a cardigan made from something one of your own kind had met their end in?”

“So long as you’ll give me a good discount for it.”

The sound of a vacuum hose having difficulty sucking something up came from the deep burrow.

Discord emerged with a metal rod slung across one shoulder. At the end of the rod was a giant wad of spider silk. “I didn’t find anything distressing in that hole. The webbing is fresh. She must have just started, which explains why this area isn’t covered in it. If my math is correct, which it always is, this should be enough spider silk to make two dresses with. Use it wisely.”

The silk presented her with a unique opportunity for Rain’s dress. Rarity had only worked with it once before, having bought it a spindle at a time until she’d gathered enough material available to pop out a scarf, which she had kept for herself. It was still one of her favorites. Sporting an entire wedding dress made from spider silk would be extravagant. Unheard of. Heads would turn. Photos would be taken. Rain and all her friends would become regulars at her shop.

“I’ll put this where it won’t get lost.” Discord dropped the saddlebag he had been carrying, opened it, and stuffed the rod into it.

“Are you going to restore this hen to her original form?” Rarity asked.

Discord chuckled. “This presents us with an interesting moral dilemma, doesn’t it? Turning that hen back into a spider would be the right thing to do. We feel that way, but whatever it catches in the future certainly won’t.”

Rarity used her aura to help the hen stand on its feet. Once she released her hold on the hen, it fell over again.

“Do you know how many ponies go missing every year in national parks?” Discord asked. “While some of these disappearances can indeed be attributed to supernatural hijinks, most of them are due to more practical reasons. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. How about I give it to Fluttershy and tell her it’s a rescued animal?”

“Will it adapt to its new body?” Rarity asked.

“Certainly. She won’t just stop eating food. She isn’t sick.”

“Are you expecting me to make this decision?”

“I am. No answer is right. They each have their own consequences. Choose wisely.”

Rarity sighed. “Give Many Legs and her egg to Fluttershy, then.”

“Her name is Doodle. I’ll carry her in my own bag.”

A portal appeared above Doodle without warning. A purple vine covered in thorns snatched Doodle and the egg from the ground and pulled them inside wherever it was Discord kept most of his stuff. He started walking down the tunnel. Rarity followed him.

“The original tunnel leading down into the spot rife with celevite suffered a cave-in about ten years ago,” Discord said. “To get there quickly, we need to be at the precise spot we will reach by the time I’ve finished this sentence.”

A slope leading down into the darkness appeared in front of Rarity. She was sliding down it and gaining speed before she had enough time to realize what had just happened. Discord had gotten rid of her caving gear as well. The slide stretched on farther than she could see. Discord was handling the cave as if it were clay and had been thoughtful enough to suppress the noise generated by his work. All Rarity could hear was her hoofs sliding down the smooth limestone floor and the wind blowing through her ears, which was preferable to the deafening noise earthquakes made.

“Rarity, stalactite! Lean right!” Discord shouted.

A stalagmite much taller and wider than her was coming up fast. Rarity bit down on her tongue and leaned to the right. She was covered in Discord’s magic, which helped her maintain balance and made her feel even dirtier. The stalagmite sailed passed her with a whoosh that tore through her mane. Had she not dodged the obstacle that Discord clearly could have taken away, she would have been going home in a mayonnaise jar. Rarity caught herself before she slid into the wall and looked over at Discord, who was on a snowboard and dressed appropriately for the activity.

“Are you trying to get me killed?” Rarity demanded.

Discord laughed at her. She would remember this day when her frown lines were out in full force.

“Here comes the loop,” Discord said. “Bend your knees.”

Refusing to follow his instructions and demanding to be let off the wild ride would get her nowhere. Betraying his expectations could also result in a horrific injury, so Rarity did some bending as the narrow loop came into view. Discord slid in next to her, knelt, and wrapped his lion paw around her body. She knew screaming would tickle him pink, so she kept her mouth shut.

By some miracle, nothing bad happened and they cleared the loop.

“Do you know how many ponies are seriously injured each year because they were goofing around with magic?” Rarity demanded.

“But I’m not a pony,” Discord replied.

“That is beside the point!”

“Here comes the jump!”

An unavoidable ramp was ahead of them. She searched for something to grab and could only come up with Discord’s body. It would have to do.

The impending calamity triggered the memory of something Twilight had said to her. I know you’re busy, Rarity, but I think it’s something you should consider looking into. You’re capable of more than just basic magic. I’d be happy to mentor you myself, if it’d make you feel more comfortable.

Rarity didn’t see anything ahead of them when they hit the ramp. She wrapped herself around Discord and clung to him for dear life, popping his back. His musk was overpowering. She held her breath and turned her head to the side so her face wasn’t buried in his fur. Discord fell straight down. The pit they had dove into was deep enough to help them achieve terminal velocity.

Then they weren’t in a pit. They were in a classy elevator. “Candelabrum” by Songbird Serenade was playing through a hidden speaker. Rarity spotted two mirrors on either side, a poster advertising Kittens signed by Mazurka Waltz and another poster promoting the Blue Stallion Troupe. The sound of the gong drew her attention to the numeric display above the doors. Hoopla Hoopla was engraved beneath it.

Rarity used her magic to open an emergency access panel beneath the floor buttons. A phone was inside. “Your attention to detail is commendable.”

“I take pride in my work,” Discord said.

B3 was their currently selected floor and they were coming up on it fast.

Rarity looked at the poster of Kittens. It was from a few months ago. “When did you stay at Hoopla Hoopla?”

“I went while you fillies were thwarting Glim Glam’s social experiment.”

“What’s your game? Roulette?”

“That’s a good one, but I enjoy being asked to leave blackjack tables a lot more. What about you?”

She smiled. “Point me in the direction of the baccarat table, please.”

A pleasant chime ended their conversation. The elevator door slid open, revealing nothing but darkness.

Discord used his eagle talon to pry out a button from the selection panel. “Need a light?”

The button morphed into a ball of fire that Discord flicked into the cavern beyond the door. It found its way to the ceiling and illuminated an entire chamber rich with celevite.

Rarity stepped out of the elevator and gaped at the display in awe. She had expected to see the gemstone, but not in such a vast quantity. “How marvelous!”

Celevite was almost the same color as Twilight’s coat. It could easily be confused for several other gemstones. Just to be sure, Rarity scooped a stray pebble into her hoof and cast an identification spell on it. Doubt evaporated. Certainty flooded in. Trusting Discord would have saved some energy.

The unnatural obstacle course Discord had created would lead determined miners lacking arachnophobia directly to the chamber Rarity now stood in. She turned around and looked at the ceiling, searching for the elevator shaft Discord had constructed. There wasn’t one. The cave had rebuilt itself. Nothing Discord had done had been permanent. In some odd way, it was comforting.

A pick-ax was embedded into the floor in front of her. Rarity grabbed it with her aura. The orange saddlebag from earlier fell to the ground next to her with the Wriggler button pinned to it. She turned around to find Discord resting in an egg chair that hung suspended from the ceiling by a chain made of the material they were after.

“Start digging,” Discord said. “You’ll want at least two pounds of ore. I’ll let you know when you’ve gathered that much.”

Rarity gave him a grin. Using her magic, she scanned everything within her range looking for something that didn’t take long to find. She approached the wall containing the flaw she uncovered. The spot was up higher than she could reach. She levitated her pick-ax to the weak point and gave it a light tap. The whole wall came crumbling down beside her. She spotted two large chunks of celevite that weighed more than the amount Discord had suggested. Rarity held her head high and looked at Discord expectantly.

Discord held a bag of popcorn kernels in his lion paw. He swallowed some of them. “Color me surprised. You can’t teleport, but you can do that.” The kernels popped inside his stomach. “Did you find that spell difficult to learn?”

“No. I wanted to be in and out of mines as fast as I could. All this darkness isn’t good for your skin.”

The two chunks of celevite fit into the bottomless bag, causing a strange reaction to occur. All the items hovered above the void, but they were much smaller. About the size of stamps. She needed to see if she understood how it functioned. Rarity reached into the bag, intending to grab the mirror. It came out. She happened to catch her reflection and noticed she resembled a mare at the end of a horror-themed play. Rarity put the mirror back and grabbed the rod with the spider silk attached to it. She pulled it out halfway before she concluded she knew how to get items out of the bag.

Rarity put her saddlebag on. “Well? Is that two pounds or do I need more?”

“You have what we came here for.” Discord stepped out of his chair. “Shall we go home?”

Rarity scoffed. “Do you really have to ask?”

Pebbles vibrated on the cave floor as Discord gathered his power. Rarity took a step closer to him to lessen the energy required to use the spell. He offered her his lion paw. Her face scrunched up so hard that her upper lip blocked her nostrils.

Holding his paw would be the safe thing to do. Rarity gave him her hoof. “Don’t get any funny ideas. I’m only doing this to increase the odds of a successful cast.”

Discord gave her a wink. “Sure thing, sugar booger.”

If she ignored his insincere advances, he might quit the moment they stopped making her skin crawl, which wouldn’t be for quite some time.

Rarity flicked her tattered mane back in an admirably desperate attempt to display pride. “You know, you really should show this side of yourself to Fluttershy more often. I’m sure she’d find it positively refreshing.”

Discord leaned in and gave her a smile that showed all his teeth. “I’m getting there.”

A rumbling noise filled the cave as the power needed to make the jump back to Ponyville reached its peak. The hair on Rarity’s coat stood on end. Discord snapped the talons of his eagle claw together. As usual, a bright flash accompanied the beginning of the spell, which finished in an instant. They didn’t pop out on the other side at their intended destination. Instead, Rarity saw only a road of silver energy in a space where nothing else existed. Enough light radiated from the narrow road to allow them to see each other.

Rarity tore her hoof away from Discord. “What happened?”

Discord looked troubled. “I think it’s obvious. The spell failed. Like I said before, it’s been a while since I’ve had to use this much power. I’m out of shape. Peace has made me weak. I’ll check to see how bad everything is.”

A pentagram appeared in front of him. There was a way to read the symbols in the circle. Unicorns learned how to do so in elementary school. She had many memories of school, but few of them highlighted what she had learned.

Discord pointed to a symbol in the pentagram. “There’s the problem. Insufficient energy. That doesn’t seem right, does it?”

“It could be. Maybe if you hadn’t turned that cave into an amusement park we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”

“Come, now. This could have easily been much worse. The road we’re on is connected to our destination. We’ll just have to get there the old-fashioned way.”

“By walking? Are you serious? How long will that take?”

“Longer than you think. Don’t panic, though. Time works differently here. A day in here is only an hour in the real world.” Discord walked down the silver road.

Rarity followed him, but kept her distance. “This is preposterous. How could someone like you fail a spell?”

Discord turned around to face her, causing her to stop in her tracks. “Even I am not immune to the consequences of goofing around with magic. If anything, you should be happy. After all, you were right. I’d suggest you pipe down and chew on that for a while since we have a long walk ahead of us.”

“There’s nothing you can do to make this any easier?”

“Not a single thing. Magic won’t work in here. Don’t try to prove me wrong. The consequences could be dire.”

Rarity refused to accept what was happening. She scrambled for an explanation. “Wait a minute. Teleportation does not fail like this. I distinctly remember Twilight saying all sense of time stops for the caster if they make a mistake.”

Discord spoke without looking at her. “Yes, that’s one thing that might happen if the spell fails. Spells can fail in several ways. Some are more common than others. Also, I wasn’t using that weak formula you ponies use. I have my own way of performing teleportation and this happens to be how it fails.”

He had to be lying. There was no way he’d admit to a mistake so readily. She decided to call his bluff. If she didn’t, she would wind up walking all the way back to Ponyville. Rarity summoned her magic since Discord was bound by his oath to save her if any dire consequences were to occur. She used her aura to grab a small chunk of celevite out of her saddle bag and tossed it at Discord’s back with all the force she could muster. Discord spun around and caught it with a catcher’s mitt that suddenly appeared over his lion paw. Smoke spewed out of the folds of the glove.

Discord’s grin spread across his face slowly. “You know, Rarity, I think we complement each other better than most creatures would imagine. Don’t you agree?”

“You have ten seconds to get me out of here before I start screaming.”

Two ear plugs materialized above Discord’s head and inserted themselves into his ears. “Purr for me.”

She was about to tear the plugs out of his ears with her aura when the sound of a horn honking off to her right caught her attention. She looked and saw nothing. When she returned her gaze to the path ahead, a door had appeared ahead of Discord. He opened it for her, stepping off the narrow road and hovering over nothing. Rarity could see Applejack’s hat on the other side. For whatever reason, Rarity was looking down on her. From above.

“Does this dress make my rump look big?” some mare asked.

“If you’re worried about that, you might want to try a different outfit,” Applejack replied.

Smooth.

“Applejack, it’s Rarity. I need you to move out of the way. I’m coming through.”

Applejack looked up and gasped. “Rarity, is that you? What has Discord done to you?”

Rarity expected to land on her face the moment she walked through the door, but Discord adjusted it at the last second so that her head popped out of the floor. Rarity pulled herself up onto the floor of her shop. Her only customer came out of the changing room. It was Misty Aqua, a loyal patron from out of town who had been working very hard on getting her coltfriend to propose to her. Misty did a double take upon seeing Rarity.

“Do you like that dress, Misty?” Rarity asked.

Misty extended an arm and admired the sleeve covering it. “I do. This one is a whole lot better. What do you think, Applejack?”

“I’d say you have a lot less to be concerned about in that one if your rump bothers you that much.”

Misty had an infectious smile. Rarity levitated an elegant red box with a white bow out from behind the cash register counter and dropped it in front of Misty.

“You can have it for free,” Rarity said.

Misty’s eyes lit up. “Wow, how generous of you!”

Applejack stifled a laugh. Rarity ignored it and stuck a sign to the front window declaring the store was closed for the remainder of the day.

“Think nothing of it. I’d like to politely ask you to leave, if you don’t mind. I’ve got some urgent matters to attend to.”

Misty flipped the box into the air with a hoof. It landed on her head and remained perfectly balanced. “No problem! Thanks a million, Rarity.”

Applejack leaned in. “That bad, huh?”

The front door opened, nearly hitting Misty in the face. Discord stepped in and forced Misty out with a telekinetic push.

Misty could not help but exclaim in glee while in the grip of Discord’s magic. “Whee!”

Discord had the swab of spider silk slung over one shoulder. He lowered it over Applejack’s hat and pulled it off her head. Applejack clicked her tongue, reared up, and snatched her hat from the silk.

Applejack dusted off her hat. “What is that gunk?”

“Spider silk,” Rarity replied.

“No kiddin’?”

Discord lowered the spider silk over Applejack’s mouth to keep her quiet. “Are we still on for tomorrow then, Rarity?”

Spike deserved the gem they would make. When all of this was over, she could look back on it and laugh. Perhaps fate would no longer pick on her after she finished surviving the obstacle courses Discord had in store for her. She would retire from adventuring and spend the rest of her days making dresses and eating chocolate. Maybe she would get a set of wings, too.

Rarity wanted nothing more than to call the whole thing off, but she couldn’t. There were only two more ingredients left to gather. Spike would be so happy. She had to keep going.

“I don’t suppose you would be willing to tell me what I can expect, would you?”

“More fun than you could possibly imagine. What else?”

Applejack started bucking wildly to break free from the spider silk.

“I’ll go to bed an hour early,” Rarity said.

“A wise choice.”

Discord allowed Applejack to break free from the bundle of spider silk. She rolled backwards into one of the dressing rooms. Applejack appeared a moment later, dressed in an outfit Rarity had designed specifically for racquetball.

Applejack tore off her headband and threw it on the ground. “Sometimes I wish you would go evil again just so I could take you down a notch.”

“Please. Only in your dreams, Applejack. I’ll let Luna know,” Discord said.

Applejack’s face started turning red. She even snorted.

“What?” Discord asked. “I was offering to do you a favor. You wouldn’t be able to defeat me by yourself. It took all six of you to take me down last time, remember?”

Rarity needed to defuse the situation. She’d had enough excitement for the day. “You’ll have to excuse him, Applejack. He’s in a bit of a mood today. Why don’t you join me on a trip to the spa? It will be my treat. I really need to get my mane and coat cleansed. A massage wouldn’t hurt either.”

“You’re not going to play with your silk?” Discord asked.

“I’ll have plenty of time to do that later.”

A plastic jug appeared over the spider silk to keep it from sticking to something. Discord set it down on the floor. “Don’t spend too much money at the spa, Rarity.”

“And just what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“Hmm. I wonder? Remember, ten in the morning. Same time, same place.”

Discord turned to show them his side. He turned again, but vanished from the room.

“Ahh, yes,” Rarity said. “The old 2D trick. That’s not played out in the least, is it, Applejack?”

“You know how you can get seasick on a boat and airsick on an airship? I think you can get random sick by bein’ around him too much.”

“I agree completely.”

Now that Applejack had mentioned it, they could say the same thing about Pinkie Pie. Though Discord and Pinkie Pie couldn’t define restraint to save their lives, Pinkie’s randomness had the notable advantage of always being in good taste.

“I guess you got the celevite?” Applejack asked, to which she received a nod from Rarity. “I’d like to see it.”

Rarity levitated a large chunk of the rock in front of Applejack, who didn’t look impressed.

“You sure that ain’t just charoite?”

“Beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

“I guess I was expectin’ somethin’ a lot fancier. You had better lock that up in your safe. Dragons can’t smell that stuff, can they?”

“They can, but I doubt he would know what it is. I’ll just have to tell him I’m too busy and I don’t need any help if he stops by to keep him out of the store. Anyway, are you ready to get pampered?”

“I think I’ll have more fun watchin’ them fix you up. You look like a steer that fell into a ditch while tryin’ to outrun a thunderstorm.”

Rarity’s smile couldn’t have been tighter. “Oh, Applejack. You always know just what to say.”

Comments

[Foggy Dreams]

Dialogue, people! This story is wonderful at it.