The Bonding Stone

by Some1Else

Chapter 9

The floor gave out from underneath her. She found herself being sucked backwards through an orange, plastic tunnel. Rarity let whatever force had her do as it pleased so long as it took her away from the golem. Her rear reached the end of the tunnel first, producing an undignified pop as it emerged from a hole. She found she could stand on something and proceeded to pull the rest of her body from the hole.

Rarity stood on a sink in front of an open medicine cabinet in an unlit bathroom. Beyond the doorway was a hospital room big enough for two patients. A monkey had been painted on the wall. It observed the patient lying in bed, who had been placed inside a body cast that ended just below their neck.

“Discord, you’re alive!” Rarity exclaimed. Tears started forming in her eyes. “I. . .I thought that maybe. . .”

Seeing him safe made her more aware of how hopeless her situation would have been if he hadn’t survived. She wished she didn’t have anything in her stomach. A tremendous thud came from above them. The lighting in the room flickered and dust fell from the ceiling. The golem was trying to dig them out.

Discord gestured for her to have a seat in the chair next to the bed. “It came closer than I would like to admit. Fortunately, the adrenaline spike gained from being in grave danger allowed me to escape to this room an instant before I would have been smashed like a watermelon on the beach in the middle of the summer. I hope you won’t be needing therapy for the minute you thought you might have been on your own.”

Rarity dried her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ll only have a few nightmares about it over the next year. How long will we be safe down here?”

“That depends on how enthusiastic the golem is. I’d save five minutes.”

“We’ll have to come up with some way to defeat that thing in four. Were you able to see anything behind its neck while you were up there?”

“Yes. The mark is where you said it would be.”

Another ear popping thud came from above them. It was much closer. Whatever reinforced the room held steady, keeping the ceiling from meeting the floor.

There had to be a better solution than the one that came to Rarity, but she didn’t have time to think of it. “Don’t try to fight the golem all by yourself.” Her lips had gone numb. “Allow me to help. Can you make yourself the same size as the golem?”

“With great ease.”

“Good. Do so and give me a ride on your shoulder. Walk up to the golem and grapple it. Increase the grip my hoofs have so I can climb the golem. While I’m busy, you will need to keep it distracted. I’d recommend bringing out your clones again. Have them keep a close eye on me since I’m certain I wouldn’t survive being thrown into the ground by that giant.”

“You just might. Twilight lived through having a piano dropped on her.”

“This isn’t a competition.”

The next thud destroyed the electrical wiring in the room. An orb of light appeared above Discord, allowing Rarity to see him. His body cast was missing.

“I like your plan, but you’re forgetting one thing. How do you intend to disenchant the golem?”

“Perhaps you could help with that. Can’t you enchant some random object with the power to stop the golem? I could carry it with my aura and use it when I’m near the sigil.”

“What an excellent idea. I have just the right item for the job.”

A knock came from the door leading out of the room. The Twilicane stepped in, wearing a doctor’s coat. It bobbed left to right in an unnerving manner as it approached Discord’s bed, trying to give off the illusion that it could walk. The coat fell off when Discord grabbed the cane.

“First, I’ll remove its current enchantment since this cane isn’t capable of carrying more than one at a time.” Discord popped the ruby from the bottom of the cane and replaced it with a chunk of blood stone cut in the table style. “Now, I’ll give it what we need.” He placed his lion paw on the gem. The red and black flecks on the surface of the bloodstone shifted as magic was added to its composition. Discord twisted the stone to the right, tossed the cane into the air, and caught it with the bottom pointed towards Rarity. “All yours.”

Rarity grabbed the Twilicane with her aura and placed it across her back just as the ceiling caved in from the impact of the golems hammer.

Discord had an overly large umbrella up in time to deflect the debris. “Follow me.”

He threw back his bedsheets, discarded the umbrella, leapt out of the bed, and ran for the door with Rarity right behind him. They stepped out into a hallway that was under construction. Safety pylons, building material, and work lights that had given out were among the details Discord had wasted energy creating for the sake of authenticity.

“There’s a staircase at the end of this hallway,” Discord said. “It will take us back up to the room we were in a few minutes ago. Some of my clones are distracting the golem right now, so it won’t be expecting us.”

“What happens if it squishes one of your copies?” Rarity asked.

“The spell will break and my migraine will get upgraded to a cluster headache.”

“What about my hoofs?” Rarity asked. “Have you enchanted them yet?”

Discord barked a laugh. “Whoops! Wow, that would have been hilarious. Hold on. There. You could climb up a wall of ice without safety gear with those trotting gallopers.”

“They don’t feel any different.”

“Since we’re running for our lives, I felt a flourish would have been too distracting. Very well. Have it your way.” Discord clapped his claw and paw together.

Her hoofs felt warmer than normal. She looked down and found that she now wore grey socks. When she looked up, she was nearing the end of the hallway. Two ponies generated in the corner. A stallion and a mare, dressed as a doctor and a nurse.

The nurse gasped. “Look at that radiant mare with the enchanted hoofs!”

“I wish I had socks like that,” the doctor grumbled.

“You’ve made your point,” Rarity said to Discord.

“I still don’t think it’s clear enough, but it certainly will be momentarily,” Discord asked.

Discord burst through the double doors leading into a stairwell. They were on the bottom floor. There were windows, but they let in no light as an abyss lied beyond them. They climbed the stairs. Additional floors hadn’t been created. A great commotion was coming from directly above them. Discord’s clones were busy. The final set of stairs led up into a rock ceiling. Once they took the first step, stone grated against stone as the slab slid away. Light came down from the room above. The ball of light that had been following them extinguished itself.

Rainbow Dash appeared at the top of the stairs. “Hurry up, Rarity! We can’t hold the golem off forever. Nice socks, by the way.” Dash took flight and vanished from view.

“That’s not really her, is it?” Rarity asked.

“No. I figured a bunch of different clones of myself wearing kooky outfits would only confuse you and since I want you to know who is the real me, I chose a different approach.”

Rarity and Discord entered the room and faced the fray while the slab slid back into place. Duplicates of Twilight and Dash were circling around the face of the golem. It wasn’t fazed by their hijinks until Dash took a dive towards the magical seal behind its neck. The golem swatted, but Dash was already on its other side.

Discord crouched. “Grab my shoulder.”

The second Rarity completed the request, Discord began to grow. Rarity dug in, clinging to his flesh rather than his fur. She managed to orient herself before he started walking towards the golem. Her hoofs stuck to Discord like a magnet, providing her with the only sense of comfort she could salvage from the situation. The clones of her friends broke away from the face of the golem, allowing it to focus on the threat coming for it.

The sudden change in the size of its opponent didn’t have any effect on the golem. It was created to smash, so it would smash, for smashing was all it knew. Rarity’s estimation of its character was confirmed the moment it decided to lead with its hammer. Discord dodged with a deft sidestep worthy of a world-class ballerina. While in movement, he plucked Rarity with his lion paw and stuck her almost right where she needed to be.

Rarity tensed up and waited to see if the golem had noticed what Discord had done. It gave no indication that it had. Its focus was on Discord. She could hardly blame it. He flipped his eyelids in on themselves and blew a raspberry at the golem. Rarity scrambled towards the head of the golem as it charged at Discord and found something she hadn’t been able to spot from the ground. The head was sunken into its armor. There was just enough space for her to fit into the opening. A red glow emitted from the crack, likely coming from an activated sigil.

All she had ever wanted to do was make dresses. Life just wasn’t fair.

She forced herself to scuttle into the crack. A horrendous grating noise filled her ears and sent goosebumps down her body. Every time the golem turned its head, she felt it. If it could snap back for any reason, someone else was going to have to finish Ocean’s wedding dress. She knew she had to be quick, but she hadn’t quite overcome the awkwardness of her magnet hoofs. Rarity shuffled towards the glow to the best of her limited ability. Each successful step made her feel better about her odds.

Rarity positioned herself next to the luminescent magical stamp. It could almost be considered a work of art. Rarity had seen plenty of them, but none were as elaborate as the one she was about to destroy. Three intertwined rings full of symbols managed to power something a million times their size.

She pulled the Twilicane from her back and used its head to strike the sigil in the center of its design. Glass shattered. One of the rings separated itself from the other two and the sigil vanished.

“Rarity, brace yourself!” the clone of Dash shouted.

Dash’s double nabbed her and flew out of the crevice a mere second before the golem began hitting itself in the back of the head trying to shake out what was crawling around behind its head.

“What’s going on?” Rarity asked. “Did that not take care of it?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Dash replied.

In Puppeteers, Adder disabled a golem with a bolt of magic carrying a powerful disenchantment spell. There were other details, such as the antagonist being talented enough to take manual control of the golem for a second round of smashing, but none of them fit the debacle in front of her. More work was left to be done. Golems weren’t given life for it to be taken away so easily. Two rings remained and they weren’t going to be in locations that were easily accessible.

On the brighter side of the matter, the golem had lost all interest in Discord and was now far more concerned with Rarity. Its fiery blue eyes followed her in the air. Rarity jerked, momentarily uncertain if she still had the Twilicane in her aura. She looked to the right and saw the Twilicane sailing through the air next to them. Dash’s rescue hadn’t broken her concentration. She sighed in relief and tucked it under a foreleg.

Two trails of blue fire shot from the eyes of the golem into the air at its moving targets. Dash and Rarity both screamed, but Dash managed to avoid being burnt to a crisp and slid in between the twin streams of fire. The golem crossed its eyes and the walls of blue fire closed in on them. Dash held Rarity closer to her body and made a break for the head of the golem, intending to fly over its head and get behind the aggressive statue.

Anticipating the intent of the fly in front of it, the golem shut off its flamethrowers and brought the hammer in front of its face. Dash had a millisecond to correct her course. Discord’s copy of her couldn’t have been closer to the original. Dash sailed upward, seeking to get over the hammer. Rarity’s hind leg scraped against the stone hammer, pulling a squeak out of her. She drew her limbs in, but didn’t have to scrunch up for very long. They soared above the hammer at an angle, completely dodging it.

Rarity strained to look behind them and saw Discord moving in. Dash turned around, giving her a better view of the action. The splat the golem had been hoping for hadn’t happened, which left it confused and vulnerable for a few precious seconds. Discord shoved the golem. It was a childish retort, but if he could have punched it without breaking any bones or struck it with an object that dealt damage, he would have. The force of his push got the golem to stumble backwards and fall to the ground. Unfortunately, it managed to keep its grip on its trusty hammer.

The copy of Twilight appeared next to them. “A red sigil featuring two circles has appeared on the wrist of the golem’s left hand.”

Rarity tugged on Dash’s arm. “There’s no time to waste. We need to smash that sigil before the brute can get back on its feet. Hurry, take me down there now!”

Dash swooped in behind the golem with an alarming amount of speed. She dropped Rarity two steps from the wrist, broke away to the right, and sought cover behind a pillar. The surface Rarity stood on moved around much more than the one she had previously scurried across. Her brain told her she was going to fall off, but her hoofs stayed glued to the golem’s body. She crouched down and took a few nimble steps towards the wrist of the golem as it stood back up.

The sigil was nowhere to be found. It had to be on the other side of the hand, across from the golem’s palm. She shimmied to the right, not daring to raise any of her hoofs any higher than necessary. A glowing red mark appeared. As she inched closer to her goal, she noticed the golem had stopped moving its arm. She could feel a set of eyes watching her wiggle furiously across the stone skin.

Against her better judgment, Rarity turned her head and discovered the golem was looking right at her. With a pitiful whimper, she went back to what she had been doing. It took every ounce of her resolve not to panic. Tears and sobs had surpassed her ability to suppress them. Never had she been closer to an untimely demise.

The golem held its arm very still as it rose its hammer into the air. Even the slightest tap would put an end to her. Discord appeared behind the golem and grabbed the arm ending in the hand carrying the improvised fly swatter. He made a great deal of noise as he pinned the arm behind the golem’s back. It was much stronger than him. He wouldn’t be able to restrain it for very long. Rarity took advantage of the opportunity given to her and slammed the Twilicane into the sigil. Glass shattered again and the sigil vanished.

Rarity barely had enough time to blink before Dash came to the rescue. She confirmed she still had a magical grip on the Twilicane before checking to see what was new with the golem. As expected, it still functioned. Ignoring Rarity for the time being, it reached behind its back and grabbed the hand of the arm Discord had pinned in order to gain some control over it. The golem pulled its pinned arm down, raised its right leg above Discord’s dragon foot, and stomped it. Discord yelped and lost his advantage. The golem used its free arm to elbow Discord in the face and broke away from his hold. It swung its hammer at Discord’s skull and knocked off a chunk of his antler before he teleported to safety.

Discord teleported into a corner. He held his lion paw up against his mouth. White light emitted from it. A healing spell. He had been hurt, but the golem still wouldn’t consider him the bigger threat.

Another copy of Rainbow Dash appeared from nothing in front of Rarity. She carried a copy of Rarity, who blew a kiss and winked at the real Rarity. Something was off about Rarity’s twin. The clone had two diamonds on her hip instead of three. It was time to start worrying. Discord didn’t have much magical energy left. Another pair of copies appeared before the golem turned around in search of them. The display caused the monster to freeze. It couldn’t determine who to attack first, which gave everyone a chance to scatter in different directions and find cover.

“The final sigil is on the heel of its right foot!” The clone of Twilight had taken a cue from Luna, using the royal voice to alert the real Rarity without giving away her position.

Instead of finishing what it had started with Discord or taking down the clones one by one, the golem took up a defensive stance. Rarity knew it wouldn’t let them escape from the room. It also wasn’t taking any more chances.

All she and Discord had to do was trick it into stepping on the Twilicane. It wouldn’t make it easy for them. Running around in circles with the Twilicane held high and hoping it would be dumb enough to step on them seemed like an idea that would end poorly. They needed to cheat.

A flash of inspiration struck Rarity. “Hey. Clone of my good friend Rainbow Dash. If I tell you something, will Discord also hear it?”

“Yup. What’s the plan?”

“He and I should go beneath this room so we can get underneath the golem’s foot. Once there, he can create a hole right below its heel and I will send the Twilicane through it directly into the sigil.”

Dash had vanished. Discord was holding her. “That’s brilliant. Let’s finish this.”

They fell as if they had lost the ability to remain levitated. Rarity knew it was for show, but couldn’t stop herself from instinctively balling up seconds before they hit the floor, which drew laughter from Discord. The spot they landed on immediately flipped over to the other side, putting them beneath the room. For a moment, the rules of gravity still applied to them and Rarity was certain she was going to fall into the void. She felt something in her head pulse and could suddenly accept that down was, in fact, up. Her socks also hadn’t vanished, which brought her an additional source of comfort.

Discord led the way and motioned for her to follow. He pointed to the only structure in sight rising from the stone floor. “We’re going over there.”

She spotted broken windows and recognized where they were headed. He hadn’t yet gotten rid of the hospital they had been hiding in. Rarity took off in a gallop.

The golem’s footsteps echoed through the floor. They would be within striking range before they reached the building Discord so desperately wanted to get to. The second she finished processing the danger they would inevitably be in, the ground shook, knocking her off her hoofs and sending her face first into the cobblestone.

Pain clouded her vision, but she could see Discord kneeling with his lion paw touching the ground. The force traveling through the cobblestone should have sent them flying into the air. Their quest would have been over before they hit the ground since the shock wave would have pushed their lungs through their spines. Absorbing the blow was another testament to Discord’s power. But he shouldn’t have had to do it.

“Why is at after us again?” Rarity asked. “What happened to our decoys?”

The look he gave her was one she hadn’t seen since before he had been reformed. “Get to the structure, Rarity!”

His anger spurred her into action. Instead of following her, Discord remained where he was. This hadn’t been part of her plan. He had altered it without consulting with her. Discord’s plan needed to be the best one in the history of everything. If it wasn’t, Rarity would spend about four days falling. Her final thoughts wouldn’t cease to remind her how good a cucumber sandwich and a cup of green tea would taste.

Another blow from the hammer shook the floor around her, but its impact had been focused behind her. She turned to look and couldn’t find Discord. Her eyes returned to the road ahead. He stood near their goal, having teleported to safety once again. Thunderous footsteps rained down from above as the golem moved forward.

When Rarity reached Discord, he pulled her into a teleportation spell. After popping back into reality, Rarity faced the structure again from a different angle.

Discord knelt and held her steady. “Wait. Quietly.”

The golem hesitated for what felt like an eternity until it began coming right for them. As it took a step forward, Discord caused the structure to fall into oblivion, creating a hole. The golem’s foot went right through it. A tremendous commotion filtered through the floor as the golem completely lost its balance and collapsed.

Rarity couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes! Good work, Discord!”

The area around the foot of the golem turned into blue glitter glue, which hardened immediately. Rarity’s next view was from on top of the golem’s heel after Discord finished another teleportation spell. The final sigil spun silently in front of her. Its red glow had diminished and the speed it rotated at had quadrupled. Since the golem could only move its foot a mere smidge, Rarity had no trouble bringing the head of the Twilicane down on the sigil. Once again, the sound of glass shattering accompanied the destruction of the sigil as it broke apart and vanished.

Another teleportation spell from Discord placed them back in the room with the golem. Enough magic remained for it to take a break from attempting to pull its foot free of the trap and glance over at the pair that had defeated it. The fire in its eyes burned out and it finally stopped moving.

Rarity tossed the Twilicane aside. “Adder, eat your heart out.”

The opportunity to say a really cool line after such a harrowing encounter provided her with the satisfaction the demise of the golem had failed to deliver. It didn’t crumble into pieces like it had in the novel, most likely because it could still be salvaged in its current state. She turned to address Discord, who had been reclining in a chair while munching on popcorn throughout the whole affair.

“Rarity, I have to tell you with complete honesty and zero sarcasm that I’m truly impressed. That was quite something.”

“I appreciate it, but I don’t think now is the best time to be relaxing. Hasn’t an alarm been triggered? Something worse than the golem might come after us if we don’t hurry.”

“True, but I think we have enough time to play around for another minute now that it’s possible to cast all forms of magic on the golem.”

A magical explosion engulfed the golem. Once it cleared, the hole was all that remained from the battle. Discord presented a miniature statue of the golem to her. Its hammer lied on the ground next to it after having been discarded to allow use of both its hands to try and free its foot from the hole.

“Would you like this?” Discord asked.

Rarity turned slightly to look away from the statue. “The curios I collect don’t fall into that category.”

“Suit yourself. I’m going to keep it on my living room coffee table. If you ever want to borrow it, just let me know.”

“You might want to add ends to it. The figure won’t sit flat with its foot coming through the bottom.”

Ends grew from the corners of the figure.

“You think of everything,” Discord said.

“Please, you would have realized it yourself the moment you set it down. Now, can we get out of here? Adventure time is over. I need a bath and a comb to help me pick out whatever has gotten tangled up in my mane.”

Discord reached behind his back and produced the orange saddlebag as if he had been carrying it the whole time. He stuffed the Twilicane and the golem statue into it. His face contorted in pain as he retrieved the cube. Whatever alert they triggered hadn’t been called off. They were still in trouble.

The cube shook in Discord’s grasp. He hissed after completing a turn. “I was able to get in a few moves while we were busy. This shouldn’t take long.”

“If you tell me what to do, I’ll help.”

“If you touched this little devil with as hot as it is right now, you would instantly pass out.”

“You can rest for a minute if you have to.”

“If I put this thing down now, I’ll need a whole day until I can pick it up again. Besides. . .” He held the cube in front of him. “It’s finished. Put on your saddlebag.” Discord tossed the cube aside, abandoning it where it fell.

Rarity slipped the saddlebag on with the aid of her aura. “Will you ever be able to come back here if you feel the need to after what we have done?”

He smiled. “You’re so sentimental. I’m not sure. There’s something about this place that has always been good at disposing of delinquents. We had to have thrown it for a loop, but it will know what I’ve done unless I figure out how to trick it. Would it make you feel better if I came back in a few months after I’ve had a chance to recover from all the fun we’ve been through together and see if I could still wander into the dimension my parents created?”

“Yes, that would make me feel rather nice.”

“Your dream is my command. We’ll go out the way we came. And we had better be quick about it.”

Not needing to be told twice, Rarity burst into a full gallop, dodging the debris left behind by the fight. A room made of whipped cream and clouds came into view through the destroyed entrance to the arena. Rarity pushed herself harder as her hoofs touched jelly beans. It would be fitting if something delayed their escape the moment they reached the exit.

Rarity stopped in front of the ordinary door leading into a dimension she was far more familiar with to make sure she didn’t leave Discord behind. He entered the waiting room on a skateboard and had to be feeling better than she thought as he had neglected to put on any protective gear. Rarity opened the door, fully aware that they could be stepping into another dangerous situation.

The porch light cut through the darkness. Thousands of tiny spider eyes weren’t peering up at her. Gardenias were next to the door and the welcome mat was made from a different material. The door had spawned somewhere underground. A tunnel dug through the soil of the earth was ahead of her. Lanterns were set into the walls at fixed intervals, but none of them were in use. Before investigating further, Rarity waited to be sure Discord left first. He did a kick flip before crouching down to clear the door frame, which allowed Rarity to see that the bottom of his skateboard featured her cutie mark. She darted into Equestria, slamming the door behind her. A bolt latched, locking them out.

Discord didn’t bother with the lanterns since light filtered in from further down the trail. He led the way silently in case they were in danger. Rarity followed his example. A peculiar set of smells entered her awareness. Cotton candy, funnel cakes, and popcorn. The burrow was inhabited by a character with a sweet tooth. It didn’t set Rarity at ease. Sweets could be used to lure in victims, just like fairy tales warned.

Rarity followed Discord a short distance until they both came across a green, beaded curtain. The room passed it was full of disco balls, wrapping paper, pinatas, and a giant slide that led up to a trapdoor.

Rarity knew where they were. “Discord, this is Pinkie Pie’s party planning cave.”

A rustling noise drew her attention to an inconspicuous cardboard box sitting next to a table full of wrapped gifts. Pinkie burst out of it.

“Hey, Rarity! Hey, Discord! You two must have slammed that door at the end of the tunnel. Wow, that gave me quite a scare. Nothing has ever come out of there before.”

“We didn’t mean to startle you,” Rarity said.

“How was it?” Pinkie asked.

Rarity tilted her head. “I’m not quite sure what you’re asking.”

Pinkie laughed. “Your time inside that crazy place, silly.”

“Have you been in there before?”

“Yeah!”

Discord chuckled. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Did you find the room with the swimming pool full of tapioca pudding that never runs out no matter how much of it you eat?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Why, yes. In fact, that was our destination.”

Pinkie’s expression relaxed as she remembered her time in the vault. “When I go to heaven, I hope it has one of those.”

“I’m sure it will, if only for your sake,” Rarity began heading towards the slide. “I’m afraid this is about all the time I can spare today,”

“Nah, I get it. You two look like you really had it rough in there. Rogue Damsel may help hide running for your life, but it doesn’t improve your posture. Just let me ask one more question before you hop on my slide. When will you be able to turn in Spike’s birthday present?”

Rarity laid down at the bottom of the slide, popping her back. “Tomorrow. I’m afraid I---”

“Couldn’t find the Fire Ruby and Discord said he’d help you make something better if you didn’t search for it?”

“There’s no fooling you, is there?”

“Not when the answer is that obvious.”

Rarity got up and began shimmying up the slide. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a bath to take, grunge to pull out of my mane, and a bottle of cider to help drown a certain truth in the pool of my mind.”

“What truth is that?”

She stopped and looked back at Pinkie. “Sooner rather than later, I’ll have to go adventuring again.”

Discord chuckled behind her. “In another life somewhere across this grand expanse of our existence, she’s an actress.”

“Really? What about me?” Pinkie asked.

“You’re always the life of the party.”

“Aww. I’m so glad you’re reformed.”

“Me too.”

Rarity didn’t have to turn around to know they were hugging.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Nice three chapters! If only they knew the door to Discord’s world was also located inside Pinkie’s party planning cave..