"Discord?"
Fluttershy entered her cottage after a long day of reading to find the entire place inverted, with furniture on the ceiling and light fixtures on the floor.
"Oh, there you are!" a voice called. "I turned the place upside-down looking for you. I wanted to give you a small gift."
Discord floated down to the ground almost lazily, Angel clinging to his shoulder for dear life. He spun his finger and the home rearranged itself the right way up. He help out his claw and presented a crystalline object.
"Frozen fire." he said proudly. "Made it myself."
"It's beautiful," Fluttershy said, taking the fire gently in her hooves and setting it on the shelf above the mantle. "And it makes a wonderful Hearth's Warming decoration!"
"Where were you, anyway?" Discord asked, setting Angel down and lounging on the couch.
"I told you I was at Twilight's. She's been looking so hard for those six keys, she hasn't left the library in a week. I was bringing her some food."
Discord's eyes widened slightly.
"Keys?" he asked.
"I didn't tell you? I thought I did. After we restored the Tree of Harmony, a box with six keyholes appeared, as if it'd grown out of the Tree. Twilight's been looking for any sign of them ever since."
Discord paled slightly.
"No, you didn't tell me." he says.
"Is something wrong?"
"No. Nothing's wrong."
"Discord..."
"What?"
"We're friends now, and friends don't keep secrets."
Discord looked Fluttershy in the eyes and spoke.
"Fluttershy, trust me. Forget about the keys. Forget about the box. Nothing good will come out of it."
"So you know where they are?"
"Fluttershy, please. Just don't."
"Discord, if you know where they are, then we can go get them! I need to tell Twilight!"
As Fluttershy rushed to the door, the portal suddenly disappeared, leaving a blank wall.
"Discord, let me out."
"Not until you promise not to go looking for the keys."
"I can't! You know how important this to Twilight. To all of us! How can I just let something like this sit? You might be comfortable keeping secrets, but I'm not. Now please let me out."
Discord sighed and snapped his fingers. The door reappeared, and Fluttershy went with it.
"You like her, don't you?" he asked Angel. The rabbit nodded.
"Then talk some sense into her. This is going to hurt her in every conceivable way."
Angel ran out through the door, quickly catching up to the yellow pegasus.
Discord snapped his fingers once more, and a small object appeared in his claw. He sighed.
"I could stop them right here, right now. I could keep them from ever going there."
He sighed again.
"But I guess it's the villain in me that wins here: I want to know what's in the box too, and, at the risk of sounding cliche, they'll be better off because of it."
Twilight was reading the seventeenth in a long series of history books when Fluttershy burst through the door.
"Hey, Fluttershy." Twilight said. "What's up?"
"I have information about the keys!" Fluttershy said, excitement in her voice.
Immediately, Twilight closed the book, turned around and rushed to stare at her friend.
"You do?" she asked. "What? Where'd you find it? I've looked in all of these books and-"
"I think Discord knows where they are."
Twilight's smile of joy turned immediately to a frown.
"Does he, now?"
"Yes."
Twilight sighed and sat down on the floor.
"Look, Fluttershy, I know you trust him, but..."
"You don't."
"Exactly. How do you know he's not just playing a trick on us? How do you know he's just leading us into an elaborate prank, or even just giving us false hope?"
"Because he told me not to go after them."
"So?"
"Twilight, I'd never seen Discord like this. He was..."
"He was what?"
"He was serious. He trapped me in my house trying to make me promise not to go after him. It was almost like he was scared for me."
There was a long silence.
"Gather the others, including Discord." Twilight said.
"All right."
"So what's all this about the keys?" Applejack asks. "D'you know where they are?"
"No," Twilight says. "But Fluttershy seems to think that Discord does."
The others' reactions were as expected: Pinkie Pie jumped with glee, while Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all frowned in suspicion.
"I know, I know, we can't trust him. But Fluttershy says he's actually serious about this, and when Discord's serious about something, then it's at least worth talking to him about."
Almost as if on cue, Discord entered the library, Fluttershy in tow. The draconequus was frowning, a rare sight for someone like him.
"Hello, girls." he said.
"Twilight says you know where the keys are." Applejack said. "Do ya?"
Discord sighed and nodded.
"I know where they are, and I'm coming with you to get them," he says. But I'll need to talk to you first."
He grabbed Applejack by the shoulder and snapped his fingers, both of them promptly disappearing.
"What the hay do you think you're doin'?" Applejack asked. "Where are we, anyway?"
"Where I live when I'm not with Fluttershy." Discord said, gesturing to the empty white expanse surrounding them. "But that's not important right now."
"Well then, what is?"
Discord snapped his fingers and a large map of Equestria appeared on the ground below them. A small point of light appeared on the map somewhere over the northern tundra.
"This is where the keys are." he said. "But I need to make you an offer first."
"An offer?" Applejack asked. "What kinda offer?"
"If you go there, horrible, horrible things will happen to you and your friends. I know this for a fact. One of you will even die."
Applejack gasped. another point of light appeared on the map, somewhere in the Tenochtitlan Basin.
"There are six keys here. They do nothing, but it'll be a fun adventure for you and your friends to go on. You'll find the keys, try them, see that they failed, and I'll just tell them that I found the wrong keys. Nobody will be the wiser, and your friends will be safe. Or..."
"Or what?"
"Or you could lead them to where the real keys are and all of you will undergo the most physical, mental, and emotional pain you've ever felt ever, knowing all the while that it's all your fault."
There was a long silence.
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"Ah ain't lyin'."
"Why?"
"Because Ah'm the Element of Honesty."
"That's not a good enough reason. You don't just sacrifice a pony's life just because you're the Element of Honesty."
"What else d'you want? No matter what, my friends deserve the truth. Even if you're tellin' the truth and they're gonne get hurt, even if you're tellin' the truth and one of my friends dies, I could never live with myself knowin' exactly where the keys are and leadin' everypony in the wrong direction."
Discord sighed and, smiling, snapped his fingers. A small, crystalline key appeared and dropped into Applejack's hooves, with a small note attached.
Test their Honesty.
"Wait, what?"
"I was given instructions." Discord said.
"So all that bad stuff's not gonna happen to us?"
"No, all that 'bad stuff' is still going to happen. That and much, much more."
"Are you still coming with us?"
"Of course. I was given instructions."
"Ah thought you didn't like instructions."
"These ones were special."
"Y'all ready?" I ask.
"You bet!"
"As I'll ever be."
"Certainly."
"Yes."
"Let's go already!"
I smile as my friends line up behind me, ready to follow Discord and I to the place where the keys are.
"You ready?" I ask Discord, who's been floating by Fluttershy's side ever since we left the white place.
"Not at all." he says. "But, then again, what fun is there in being ready?"
As we walk through Ponyville, I slow down a bit so that Twilight is right next to me. The rest of the group goes on ahead of us, heading towards the train station.
"Anythin' yet?" I ask her.
"I've got some ideas." she says. "The use of 'their' instead of 'her' seems to indicate that the writer of the message didn't know ahead of time who the key would end up with. This means the message was most likely written before we found the Elements of Harmony. As for the writing on the letter; it's too neat to be written by hoof. That means that either somepony was using magic to hold the quill, or somepony typed the message out on a typewriter. But it's not typwritten. The Os, Ss and Es are different shapes, which would suggest that the message was written by magic. But I ran a magic detection spell on the thing, and it came up negative for any kind of magic except the typical unexplainable magic that always hangs around Discord."
"So he wrote it himself." I say.
"Not exactly." Twilight says. "It's much too neat to be written with a paw or a claw, even if Discord actually cared about handwriting. I have a theory, albeit a crazy one..."
"Nothin's too crazy right now." I say.
Especially not considerin' what we're about to go through.
I'd told the others about what Discord had said to me, omitting the more vivid details, but I'd passed off Discord's claim of one of us dying as exaggeration. They had to know what they were about to go through, but there was no need for them to worry too much about it. But still, I couldn't shake the feeling that Discord's warnings were more than just bluster.
"The message could have been written by a human."
I stop for a second at that. Twilight had told us all about the strange world behind the mirror, but I'd almost forgotten about her adventure there. It had been a few moons since she'd gone, after all, and the mirror was closed for the next two and a half years. There had been more practical things to think about.
"If the message was written by a human, then how come Discord's got it?" I ask, resuming my steady trot.
"I'm still trying to figure out what he is, let alone how his magic works." Twilight says. "For all I know, he goes there every other Tuesday to play cards."
I chuckle at that, and look at Discord, who'd gone to float next to Fluttershy. Every now and again, she glances towards him with an odd expression on his face.
"She's worried about him." I say.
"He hasn't been himself since we left." Twilight says. "I've never seen him this serious."
And there it is again. That sinking, persistent sense of dread, the feeling that maybe, just maybe, Discord meant what he'd been saying.
The feeling that maybe, just maybe, it'd have been better if I'd lied.
"There's the train!" Rainbow Dash calls, and Twilight and I trot faster to catch up to the rest of the group.
As we get off the train and breathe in the crisp, winter air of the Crystal Empire, my doubts are eased a bit. Surely an adventure that starts off this well couldn't go wrong, could it?
We trace the border of the forcefield that keeps the ice and snow away from the city until we reach a certain point.
"If Discord's leadin' us right, the place is straight ahead."
"I am." Discord calls from next to Fluttershy. "There's a small shrine about five thousand hoofsteps from here. Can't miss it."
Twilight's the first to leave the forcefield, her horn glowing as a small globe of warmth and light starts to extend from her.
"I'll lead the way from here." she says as we all step into the small circle of magic.
We start walking. I mentally count the hoofsteps as we go along.
Fifty-five. Fifty-six. Fifty-seven...
We keep walking.
And walking.
And walking.
And walking.
Twenty-five twenty-two. Twenty-five twenty-three. Twenty-five twenty-four...
And walking.
And walking.
The wind's blowing too hard and too loudly to make conversation. Twilight's beginning to show some strain. It must be tiring keeping the spell up in this big of a blizzard. Despite the wind, she's sweating heavily, and her knees are starting to wobble. I trot faster and pick her up, letting her focus entirely on the spell.
"Thanks!" she yells over the wind. I nod.
Forty-five eighty-seven. Forty-five eighty-eight. Forty-five eighty-nine...
At five thousand, three hundred and sixty one hoofsteps, Rainbow Dash calls out.
"There it is!"
Sure enough, half-buried in the snow is a dilapidated shack with a single door set in the middle of the front wall. We all rush inside, grateful for the escape from the wind. I gently lower Twilight to the ground, where she stands up shakily.
"Thanks, Applejack. I've never held a spell for that long, or under such harsh conditions."
"Girls..."
"You're welcome, Twi." I say. "You sure you'll be all right?"
"Girls, something's wrong..."
"I'll be fine. I just need to rest for a bit, recover some energy. Why don't we stay the night here?"
"Girls!"
We all turn to see Fluttershy, standing near the entrance, a worried look on her face.
"He won't come in, no matter how much I ask him to." she says, gesturing to a figure standing outside.
"I already told you." Discord says. "I can't come in."
"Why not?" Rainbow Dash asks. "When we left, you were all for coming with us. Don't tell me you're getting cold hooves."
"My hoof, singular, is actually quite toasty at the moment." Discord says, rolling his eyes. "I was given instructions to bring you this far and nothing more. Once you six go deeper into the shrine, I'm going to go back to Ponyville, or maybe back home."
We set up camp just inside the entrance. Twilight uses a simple spell so start a small fire, fueled by some firewood I'd brought from home. Pinkie quickly sets up a pot above the fire and starts cooking up some turnip and carrot stew. The savory smell fills the small shrine until all our stomachs are growling. Pinkie Pie sings a happy tune as she stirs the pot.
"Cooking is so fun... Cooking is so fun... Now it's time to take a break and see what we have done!" she sings, a wide grin on her face.
She lifts the lid of the pot and dips a small silver ladle into it, taking a tiny sip of the stew and throwing the rest of the ladleful into the fire.
"It's ready!" she calls in a singsong voice.
As we crowd around her and get our soup, I notice a certain somepony's absence. Sighing, I take an extra bowl of soup and walk to the entrance of the shrine, setting the bowl down next to Fluttershy.
"Thanks." she says.
"Look, Fluttershy, Discord's gonna be fine out there. Heck, for all we know, the snow's like a blanket to him."
"It's not the cold I'm worried about." she says. "It's him. He's been different this entire trip. Sad, almost."
She turns to me and looks me dead in the eye.
"What exactly is down there?"
I sigh and look away.
"All Ah know is what's gonna happen to me. And Ah don't even have the heart to tell you that much."
The next morning, I wake to see Rarity, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie all standing around and stretching, so I go to wake Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash up. Rainbow Dash groans and turns over when I poke her with a hoof, so I go out into the snow, make a snowball, and drop it over her open mouth.
"I'm up! I'm up!" she cries, swatting the ball of snow from the air before it can land in her mouth. "Geez, Applejack. Haven't you heard of sleeping in?"
"Nope." I say cheerily.
I walk over to where Fluttershy's curled up next to the entrance to the shrine.
"I'm awake." she says as I get near her. "Woke up a few hours ago. He left."
"Ah dunno what's up with him." I say. "But what's done is done, and if he wants to leave, there's nothin' we can do to stop him."
"I know. But I can't shake this feeling that I have that maybe he's right to be worried."
As we go deeper into the shrine, we come to a large circular room with a high ceiling. Three paths branch off from the room; one set into the wall, near the ceiling, one set into the floor with a stairway leading down, and one going straight ahead. Next to each passageway is a picture of a pony.
"Judging from the pictures, each passage is for a different type of pony." Twilight says. "Obviously, the highest one is for pegasi, and according to the signs, the one leading down is for earth ponies, and the one leading straight ahead is for unicorns."
"We'll need to split up." Rainbow Dash says.
"Be careful." Twilight says. "This place could be booby trapped."
We all nod, and Pinkie and I start climbing down the stairs.