They landed on a cold stone floor with no light anywhere.
"Are you alright?" Discord's voice came out of the darkness.
"Yeah," Twilight answered, "and you?"
"Peachy keen."
"Well then... what happened?"
"This must be the royal vault."
"Why are you whispering?"
"For spooky effects." he said.
"Well stop it, it's already spooky enough without any light."
"I can fix that." he blew a short stream of fire which momentarily illuminated the room. Then it was dark again.
"Did you see that torch on the wall?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'll get it." He stood up and felt his way along the wall to where the torch was. There was a metallic bang. "OW!"
"What happened? Are you alright?"
"Uh... yeah. I forgot how tall I was. Here, just let me light this first."
The torch ignited and the room now had constant lighting. Now that they could see clearly, they noticed that the ceiling was sealed so they wouldn't be getting out that way. The only thing in the room other than the torch was a large door with a circular hole in it.
"Well we don't have any snortle noses to open that." Twilight remarked.
"No, that hole is too big for a snortle, it looks more like... a hoof. You should try it."
She approached the door. "Are you sure?"
"Oh yeah, what's the worst that could happen?"
She put a hoof in the hole and there was a sound of chains moving. The door in front of her wasn't opening because the sounds were coming from the floor. It was opening beneath their feet and they fell again into another pit below. The floor of this one was scattered with bones.
"What was that about?" she demanded.
"Well, I think it didn't recognize you as a royal authority so we were dropped in here to die."
"Oh, great! Why did you tell me to put my hoof in there?"
"I don't know, maybe there's still a way out. See that writing on the wall?"
"What writing?"
"Look behind you."
She turned around and saw a message written in ancient pony.
"I've never been much good at that stuff." Discord said. "So I hope you can figure out what it means."
"Well, I did read a book on it, but I'm not that good. So... let's see. Those who want to enter the vault... must pass a test see if they are worthy to reach it."
"Great! What kind of test?"
"Uh... physical and mental challenges that are potentially... deadly."
"Death traps? This will be the best game ever!"
"I'm glad you think so, because I'm frightened to death."
"Ha ha! Let it begin!"
As if the room could hear him, spikes began slowly coming out of the walls towards them.
"They say it's what's on the inside that counts, but I'm not sure I'm ready to see it for myself." he joked.
"THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR HUMOR!" she shouted. "DO SOMETHING!"
He snapped his fingers, but nothing happened. "Hmm... the place is magic proof? Ooh, that's good..."
A hidden door suddenly opened on the far side of the room.
"Twilight, do you trust me?"
"Uh... can I think about it for a while?"
"I'll take that as a yes." He picked her up and threw her across the room and out the door to safety, but he couldn't get himself out in time. She watched in horror as the spikes closed in on him. As they touched his body, they dissolved away.
Once the room was filled with metal dust, he walked out of the room to her.
"But... HOW?"
"Why so surprised? I'm immortal, remember? You're the only one we need to worry about."
"So it didn't do anything to you?"
"Well, it did hurt a little..."
"I don't believe you." she gawked.
They entered the second room to see what the next challenge would be.
"Ooh, it's a rising pool of acid." he said. "How lovely... Anyway, we should get going." He picked her up again and jumped in, holding her above his head. "Okay, now that actually hurts a lot. Ahh!"
The acid was still rising and it went above his head. His arms were still out and holding her only inches above the surface. Then at the end, he jumped out. Twilight backed away from him because he looked awful.
"Are you alright?"
"Oh, I've never felt better." he responded. "Just don't try to hug me until this dries."
"You do realize you could have used your wings." she reminded him.
"Hmm, I guess you're right... Anyway, on to the next room!"
In the third room they found a table with many different keys on it.
"Oh, so this is one of those mind tests where you have to figure out what key opens the door." he said.
"And I'm guessing if we use the wrong one, we die..." continued Twilight, "... or at least I will."
The keys were of all sorts of different colors, weights, sizes, shapes and materials. They didn't know where to start, but then they noticed a diagram on the wall. There was a crossed out sun.
"Ok, so none of the glowing ones work." he concluded. Twilight removed all glowing keys from the pile.
"Now there's a crossed out tree. So... no wooden ones?" he guessed. Twilight removed those too.
"Next there's a hexagon. So it must have a handle in the shape of a hexagon." he continued.
Twilight removed all the keys with handles of a non-hexagon shape. "We still have seven left." she said.
"Alright, this last step is a bit tricky. It's a scale next to a line with an arrow pointing towards the center. Do you have any idea what that could mean?"
Twilight thought about it. "The scale must mean the weight of a key, and that arrow is pointing to the center. So the key that works will be the one that's in the middle, it's not too heavy and not too light."
"Great job!" he beamed.
They spent the next few minutes, testing the weight of each key and making sure that they were ordered correctly. The key in the center was made of sparkling emerald. It had to be the only correct one. There were key three heavier and three keys lighter than it.
Discord grabbed the chosen one and ran over to the large door. As expected, the key worked and the door opened. They cheered and moved on to the next hall.
It was a very long and winding cave. Some rocks in the walls glowed red from the magma behind them. They cautiously made their way up to the final door. It was made of metal and had a mysterious lock on it that was glowing and emitting weird mist.
"Oh, a magic lock." Discord said. "But how in the world do they expect us to break it if we can't use magic."
Twilight smiled.
"What is it?"
"I can use magic!"
"Then why can't I?"
"Because I'm a pony! I'm sure the royal family would only want a pony to be able to enter this vault, and a powerful one at that."
"But are you sure you can break that?"
"Of course! I represent the element of magic! It might be a little advanced for you, though. After all, you are just a Draconequus."
With the burning force of friendship alive within her, her horn glowed, and so did the lock. The room was filled with brilliant white light so strong and beautiful that Discord was amazed. The lock burst into millions of white sparkles and then the door opened, and the magic faded away.
Neither of them could speak as they looked into the vault. It was huge and filled with more treasure and artifacts than they could have imagined. Shiny golden coins were mounded in piles dozens of feet high and many jewels of every kind of color were scattered throughout the room. Books and fine clothes were stacked and hung around the cavern. It was the most spectacular view they had ever seen.
But out of all the wonderful things in the vault, one of them stood out the most. It was a stuffed goose, antique, and once loved a lot. It was staring at them from across the room. Twilight stepped forward carefully, her hooves sliding around in the gold covering the floor, and then she carefully lifted the fragile toy up from its pedestal. It was their prize, their goal, and their quest was over.
Discord shouted for joy and a hole broken open in the ceiling. Above them they could see the moon and thousands of shimmering stars.
He picked her up and they flew away. She wrapped one arm around his warm body as they soared out of the castle, out of the volcano, and up above the mountain where the sky was clear for as far as the eye could see. And they laughed and they cried together.
They landed on a cliff overlooking the dead city in the volcano, lightly glowing red from the magma. And all around the mountain were trees, their canopies reflecting the moonlight, and to their left, the vast, deep blue ocean. Twilight was still holding the goose with one arm, but she didn't want to go home. She didn't want to leave this wonderful world she had discovered, and she certainly didn't want to leave him.
Discord was also looking at the beautiful view. His eyes were reflecting the moonlight and were full of the hope for his freedom. He noticed Twilight was looking at him so he turned to see her. A few tears were building up in his eyes. "Thank you so much, Twilight. You did it!"
"No, we did it." she corrected him.