"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."