Chapter 6

Celestia did not know how long they flew over Equestria. She watched with growing apprehension as the forests and rolling hills gave way to a desert that seemed to stretch on forever before her eyes. In Discord's left hand, Luna shivered as she threw scared looks in Celestia's direction. Celestia wanted to say something comforting, but she too was fearing what Discord had in store for them. He talked almost constantly as he flew.

"To your left you'll see beautiful, sunny Las Pegasus," he was saying. "It's a wonderful place I am told. I took a vacation there for a weekend last year. I woke up in Baltimare with seven bits and a carton of chocolate milk." He seemed to find this incredibly funny, but then, Discord seemed to find most things funny. After nearly every sentence he would burst out laughing, and Celestia was beginning to think that he wasn't in his right mind. If that was true, then she and her sister were in more danger than she originally thought. So as the desert stretched on, Celestia was desperately searching for an opportunity for herself and Luna to escape from this creature.

Unfortunately, before Celestia could try anything, Discord suddenly went into a controlled dive and began skimming the desert floor. In the distance a large rock formation rose up. He came to a stop at the rocks so suddenly that it nearly turned Celestia's stomach. Though she was quite capable when it came to flying, Discord's patterns were so irregular that it made her nauseous. The rocks he had stopped at were three huge obelisks. Aside from there peculiar placement in the middle of a desert, there seemed to be nothing strange about them at all.

Discord snapped his fingers, using his tail as an extra hand, and a wooden door appeared on the side of one of the rocks. He opened it, and took the princesses inside. It was pitch black after the door had closed behind them, but with another snap of Discord's tail, flaming torches appeared on the walls. There was nothing inside the room except a staircase heading downwards. Discord immediately headed for it.

As he walked down the stairs, Discord continued talking. "This is my secret lair," he said proudly. "No pony knows that it exists, unless they are brought here like you both were. It's necessary to have something like this, you see, if you are hiding something, like I am." He paused, looking at Celestia expectantly. When she said nothing, he said, a little impatiently, "Well, go on! Ask me what I'm hiding!"

"What are you hiding?" Celestia asked uneasily. By now they had reached the bottom of the stairs, and a doorway opened up into a large room.

"I am hiding," said Discord happily, stepping into the room and holding up the two alicorns so they could see, "these."

In the dim light of the cave's torches, Celestia and Luna could make out shapes in the darkness, as their eyes adjusted, they realized that the shapes were unicorns.

Hundreds of them.

Young and old, male and female, unicorns of every shape, size and color were crowded into big steel cages scattered throughout the chamber.Some of them were sleeping, but most were awake and looking around nervously. All of them looked half-starved. It was like a massive dungeon.

Luna, who was openly trembling now, put her hooves to her face. Celestia was fighting panic as she sought some way- any way- to escape this horrible place, but she could find none. The only door she could she was the one they had walked through. Since they were underground, there were no windows to fly through. Judging by the looks on the faces of some of these unicorns, they had given up trying to escape long ago.

They were trapped. Trapped like rats.

As if sensing their thoughts, Discord said, "Now, don't try to get away. I may not look it, but I am always aware when one of my precious unicorns attempts an escape, so I'm always present to thwart it. Heh heh. Thwart. I love that word."

"Discord!" a voice suddenly rose up out of the darkness. "Is that you?" A pony stepped forward. He was an earth pony with a grey coat and dark grey mane. He was extremely old, but his yellow eyes still held a spark of life in them. His cutie mark was a big pink brain.

"Tinkie, old friend!" said Discord jovially. He held the girls down so they were level with the pony. "Girls, this is Tinkertoy. He's the friend I told you about. Tinkertoy, these are-" Discord suddenly paused. He stared blankly ahead for a moment, then said, "Huh. I never did get their names." He looked down at Celestia. "Well? You've got names, don't you?"

"C-Celestia," the scared princess stammered, "and my sister, Luna." Tinkertoy stared at the two fillies. His eyes quickly moved from their wings, to their horns, and back again. He then looked up at Discord.

"Are these ponies your creation?" he asked.

"Nope!" answered Discord. "That is what is so exciting! Apparently, they're from another land, and they're highly magical." He put special emphasis on the word magical and winked.

Tinkertoy's expression immediately changed. He gave a wide smile and said, "Well, then, let's bring them straight to the artifacts!" He turned and headed for the center of the room with Discord close behind him.

As they walked, Celestia plucked up the courage to ask the question that had been at the forefront of her mind since they entered the chamber. "Discord?" she asked. "Why do you have all these unicorns in here?"

"Well, you see, kid," explained Discord as they walked, "I had an agreement with an associate of mine. One of those You-Scratch-My-Back arrangements. King Sombra was his name. He said that if I eliminated all the unicorns of Equestria, he'd give me a present! Unfortunately, he'd assumed that I knew by the word eliminate, he had meant kill. But killing is not very fun, especially when the things you're killing have so many other uses. For instance, did you know that magical power can be a very valuable commodity? It's true! You can do anything with magic. I would know, I happen to be an expert on the subject. So, while I tricked Sombra into believing I was destroying all of them, I decided that instead of killing the unicorns, I could bring them here, to help me with my experiment."

"Experiment?" asked Celestia.

"Yes, my experiment concerning the present Sombra gave me in return for my cooperation. Well, it was more like the present I requested, but anyways-" Discord stopped talking as they got to the center of the room. There were some steps leading up to a circular dais. On that dais was a table, and on that table were six gems. Each gem had a different color, those colors being red, pink, green, blue, orange, and purple, but the colors looked grey and faded, as though they had been lit by an internal source which had gone out long ago. The purple gem also appeared to be slightly bigger than the others.

"These," said Discord, patting them affectionately, "are simply known as The Elements. They are gems that hold inside them massive amounts of magical energy, if you know how to tap into it. That's where all the unicorns come in. Tinkertoy here has been researching The Elements, looking for the type of magic necessary to unlock their power, but he has had no luck. So, we've just been trying unicorns at random. That's why I needed so many."

"They're known as the Elements of Harmony, Discord," said Tinkertoy flatly. Discord stuck out is tongue.

"I hate that word," he said sourly. "I'll sort out those elements when we get them working. They'll be the Elements of Chaos! Now that's a name I can get behind! Very marketable!"

While Discord continued rambling, Tinkertoy turned to Celestia. "No hope of escape or rescue for either of you," he sneered. "Discord has set up magical barriers to keep ponies in. If you want to leave, you're going to have to cooperate."

"If we do," asked Celestia, "will you let us go?"

"Of course," said Tinkertoy with a completely unconvincing smile.

"And the unicorns too," piped up Luna. "You have to let them go."

"When I am finished with my work," answered Tinkertoy, still smiling. "Now, you, the white one, step forward."

Celestia walked up to the gems. They stared blankly back at her.

"Have you ever used magic before?" Tinkertoy asked.

"A little," answered Celestia nervously.

"Stare at the elements," instructed Tinkertoy. "Let them take over your entire mind. Think of nothing but them." Celestia looked at the elements and tried to concentrate, but the days events, as well as the uncertainty of the future, played on her mind. For a full minute she just stood staring as Tinkertoy and Discord watched.

"Now focus," said Tinkertoy. "You must draw the magic from within you, and let it flow." The irony of being taught magic use from an earth pony was not lost on Celestia, but she did as instructed, focusing her mind. For a long while she stood there, trying to gather up magic, but finding nothing. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she gritted her teeth and strained to make something- anything- come forth, but nothing happened.

After a few minutes Discord turned to Tinkertoy and said, "Nothing's happening."

"Are you sure these creatures are magical?" asked Tinkertoy, annoyed.

"Yes!" said Discord. "I got it from a very unreliable source that I have no reason to trust. So of course I'm sure."

"Well, I can't stay here all day, I've got work to do," Tinkertoy said. He put his hoof to his chin and thought. "Maybe we could try something to force the magic out. Something a little unorthodox." He suddenly reached down and plucked Luna off the ground. Wrapping his front leg around her neck, he turned to Celestia.

Looking the startled alicorn in the eye, he calmly said, "Create the magic I want or I will kill the little dark one."

Author's Note

Will Celestia be able to bring forth the magic she needs? Or will she and Luna be lost forever in this dungeon? Stay tuned!