It was actually one of the more peaceful days in Ponyville for a long time- no rogue magic attacks, no stray monsters, no huge town-wide problems caused by a feud between some select ponies. Instead of making a certain ivory unicorn antsy, she took it in stride, hoping to use the opportunity as long as it lasted to finish some tasks she had been intending to clean the loose threads of.

She whisked her mauve curtains to either side with a small honest smile on her face, letting a beam of sunlight pour into her room and highlight the mostly purple colour theme. The bare pale mannequins arranged on the sides of the room bore less half-made dress designs than usual, and for once the spools of thread and rolls of different textures of fabric were somewhat more organized than their usual distressing state after a long night.

Using her magic, she took a brush with herself and combed it expertly through her bouncy mane as she delicately stepped down the flight of stairs. Rarity had managed to return the first floor to a state of order after that mass of ponies two days before had mobbed the Boutique following some according press releases (which had been therefore taken care of), and she leisurely walked the length of the workroom, catching herself in the mirrors and idly rearranging some of the models.

Rarity pushed a dress rack to the side with a little skid as she carefully sidestepped a less bad tempered than usual Persian cat pretending to ignore her presence with high dignity. For once, she had nothing to say to the darling(!) creature, feeling as if the demure silence was going to last as long as she didn't interrupt it herself.

Setting her brush down and unrolling a yellow tidy checklist courtesy of Twilight (How do earth ponies and pegasi manage without magic, I simply cannot understand, she thought) Rarity brought it in front of her muzzle to study it closely. Around half of the little boxes were filled in, written in order of most important first, so she looked down near to the end to see that most of the unfinished errands were the little ones.

She hmmed to herself thoughtfully, wondering if there was time to first possibly visit the ever reliable spa first for some sort of premium hoof care before tackling her duties, and then sighed, lowering the paper to gaze into a mirror and into her own slanted eyes.
After so many days of a quiet Ponyville something was most probably going to flip her day upside down very soon, so Rarity figured that she should better go and finish her priorities first.

"Oh, but it's not as if optimum hoof condition isn't a priority though," she said prudently to an unmoved Opal, and set her list down in an available drawer.

The first task was to fix some cushion- cut clear gemstones of varying sizes into the neckline of a flowing gradient periwinkle gown to render it complete. That was an easy enough job for a mare as practiced as Rarity, and she automatically checked the seams to see if it was fitted correctly, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head as she scanned the lines in a fastidious manner.

Next was to give Opalescence the careful combing that she had been deserving. The cat sat haughtily as usual as Rarity lovingly curled the chosen comb through her long waves of white fur and complained accordingly when she affixed the amethyst bow on her head (made to match her own mane).

Then Rarity quickly made to organize her drawers (especially that specific one with the things that seemed useless but could never be thrown away), check to see if Sweetie Belle was in some kind of fix (she wasn't) and tidy up the Boutique to the last tile.

Finally she was down to handing some leftover pongee (essentially less refined and inexpensive silk) fabric for Fluttershy as she had quietly requested for most probably some form of nest for some animal or other, maybe a mouse or something. She packed the rolls neatly into her trademark white saddlebags and then took a slow, deliberate step outside into the sunshine, almost as if daring the environment to do something funny to her.

It politely allowed Rarity to continue on her business.

There was a couple of ponies milling around and beginning to become active on the cobblestone streets, some greeting the unicorn as customary who automatically replied.
"Oh, hello there, Big Macintosh, carting apples as always, I see. Nice to see you again, Carrot Top, selling carrots as always, I see. Fair weather today, isn't it, wait what was your name again Apple Dumpling..."

She walked down the road to her soft friend's homely cottage, careful to stick to the predefined path and not stray into the clingy mud lining the rest of the surrounding untamed grassy land. The trees which used to stare at her now seemed to pretend to ignore her as she grew more accustomed and less superstitious of their depths, and Rarity watched them a little scornfully back.

It always did astonish her how the timid Fluttershy was able to actually almost live inside the Everfree.

Coming up to the asymmetrical little plant- blanketed house, she noted with somewhat relief that the normal cheery yellow glow was present in the unshuttered windows and that the birds were singing and doing bird things as usual. Satisfied, Rarity returned to the red rounded door and after some adjusting the position of her mane she knocked three times in her proper manner and waited, hoisting a smile on her muzzle.

The door swung open so quickly that it slammed into the wall and rattled the cottage, shaking off some dust.
"And of course, who could it be but Rarity!"

Rarity's smile became fixed and she awkwardly lowered her raised hoof.
And this is the exact moment upon which my peaceful, productive day is shattered.

With absolutely no warning whatsoever, Rarity was poofed onto one of Fluttershy's forest green den couches and landed with a light thump, her face still frozen in that smiling position.
Next to her, Fluttershy herself winced a little, and when Rarity looked at her with a single raised eyebrow shrugged haplessly. She looked apologetic.

"Now, which other pony did she mention?" Discord tugged frantically at his ears. "Wait, that's it!"

Discord promptly vanished in a cloud of pink smoke and with an appropriate vanishing noise. Unusually, he didn't reappear instantaneously, leaving Rarity some time to attempt some kind of explanation from Fluttershy, widely known as one of the few who was rather familiar with the creature.

She looked at her.

Fluttershy winced again. "I'm-I'm really sorry, Rarity, I didn't mean for this to happen..."

Rarity felt herself melt away into a resigned state. "Oh, well, now that it's happened I suppose It can't be helped."

Fluttershy moved her hooves around fumblingly. "I- I just don' know what's gotten into him! He just appeared in the house, put me on the couch, and said something about Coco Pommel..."

Rarity gasped and a hoof flew to her mouth. "Coco Pommel?! Oh dear, I can't believe I forgot about her! What kind of a host (and friend!) am I?" She now remembered that it had been the one major job she had crammed at the top of the list in rather minuscule writing which hadn't been finished. "Oh no- to be frank, I don't believe I've seen her since Pinkie Pie's welcoming party two days ago!"

Fluttershy was now also half- raising her own hooves in concern. "Why does Discord want to bring her up?"

Rarity narrowed her eyes. "What if he has something to do with her?" She looked away suspiciously into the distance out of the window. "Come to think of it, I do believe it's very strange that she hasn't made any effort to contact me during her stay..."

"Or... maybe she's feeling a little... homesick? Or, um, jilted?" Fluttershy started. "Oh, I didn't mean to accuse you-"

"No,no, don't worry about that, dear, I'm not offended- but what if it is the case? Maybe she took me not being able to spend time with her to heart? However... I'm afraid it doesn't solve the question of why Discord wants to talk about her..."

"Maybe as a friendship... lesson?" Fluttershy offered uncertainly, fluttering her wings mildly like a flirting robin.

Rarity stiffly pursed her lips. While it was certainly true that she was now a little more ready than in the start to believe Fluttershy's claims of innocence, she was still on edge about the Tirek incident and had always been one of the more hesitant mares out of her close friends. Besides, the words 'Discord' and 'friendship lesson' simply sounded comical when put in a sentence together.

At that moment Discord reappeared, making both of the mares jump. "Got the pink one," he announced, holding the as always cheerful Pinkie Pie in outstretched hands.
"Oh! Hi, Rarity! Hi, Fluttershy! Fancy meeting you here, huh? I mean Rarity, not Fluttershy, because she lives here and all, y'know."

Pinkie was placed next to them in a similar fashion.

Discord stood and surveyed the three mares sitting side by side in a neat line on the couch with varying degrees of emotion on their faces- Fluttershy hesitant, Rarity unamused and Pinkie Pie interested.

With a snap of his talons (Rarity was beginning to become very irritated by that sound) the room suddenly turned completely dark, and then a strong beam of light clicked on and illuminated himself and the ponies who instinctively squinted.

"Now," he began, "I'm going to ask you a question and you're going to answer it truthfully. Is that clear?" he pointed to each of them in turn with a magnifying glass.

"It must be serious, because I'm pretty sure he isn't quoting something we don't understand," Pinkie said in a carrying whisper. "I think."

Rarity was feeling mostly exasperation, but at the point her friend had brought up she started to experience a little more or less concern at the perfectly clear statement Discord had just uttered. He looked completely serious as well- there was most definitely barely traces of him having a joke at their expense and it was rather unlike him to do that, which made the unicorn tilt her ears back.

Fluttershy seemed to come to this realization first, and as out of habit of living in the vicinity of animals for a large part of her life instinctively treated this change with caution and observation. And some nervous worry. "Oh, Discord, is everything..." she wilted under his gaze. "I meant, um, go on..."

Now that Rarity thought of it, he looked a little fidgety. "Well. Then. Which one of you has heard of a Coco Pommel?"

"I have! Pick me!" Pinkie shot up into the air.

"No, no, no, don't do that, just put your hand in the air-"

"I don't have hands! Also, dincha' say that we're supposed to answer it truthfully and everything?"

"Yes, yes, and you've quite obviously done enough to show you're answering- sit down!"

"I think all of here know who Coco is," Fluttershy reflected. "Isn't that.. why you called us here, though?"

With a loud smack, Discord slapped his paw to his forehead.

There wasn't any doubt about it now, he was acting very strangely compared to what he usually did- Rarity could easily see that he was much more rabbity and disoriented then she was used to seeing. The few times where Discord had been genuinely nervous like this before were when he had done something relatively major and was truly afraid of being caught.
She narrowed her eyes and raised an eyebrow with heavy suspicion. "Discord, with all proper due, I demand an explanation for this manner in which you've been treating us." Her voice was reinforced with steel and she flipped her mane back over her shoulder to emphasize her point.

Discord wilted just like Fluttershy had done. "Weeelll..."

"Um, Discord, as your friend, I think I would be a little worried seeing as you look a little...distracted," Fluttershy said. "Is there something bothering you?"

He neglected to comment.

Fluttershy then turned pleadingly to Rarity and Pinkie. Rarity was rather distrustful of the creature and did not like the way he was acting or all of his talk about Coco, but she did remember that she was supposed to be his friend and acting how she is wasn't going to help matters. "Fluttershy, seeing as you're the one who knows him the best, what do you think?" she murmured.

"I think he's done something and now he's panicking about it," she confided.

"What kind of thing?" asked Pinkie in a real whisper.

"I can't tell unless we ask him," she said softly.

"For you sake, darling, I hope it isn't something too terrible," Rarity said quietly. She remembered how Fluttershy had been when he had proven to have metaphorically stabbed her in the back a long time ago, and that incident proved to be the basis for Rarity's distrust towards him.

The pegasus tapped her hooves together morosely.

Pinkie was the one to offer words of comfort. "Discord's acting like he did the whatever on accident, so it doesn't mean that he isn't sorry and I'm pretty sure he's going to stay on your side, y'know, after everything and all. Do you get my point?"

"I think? Thank you, Pinkie..."

"No problemo," she said cheerfully.

"Like you said, though, we won't find out unless we ask," Rarity said finally. They all turned back to Discord, who had been watching them carry out their whispered conversation in a huddle, and then Rarity dutifully spoke up.

"Discord, do correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that we're correct in guessing that you've done something you aren't proud of?

He winced. "When you put it that way..."

"You can always tell me," Fluttershy said. "It's always better to share your burdens with somepony else so that they can help you, and I know you can trust Pinkie and Rarity too."
Rarity looked a little hesitant and bit her lip, but glanced once at Fluttershy's earnest expression and relented as Pinkie nodded energetically and assumed an encouraging expression.

He only looked doubtful.

"Come on! It's not like you banished somepony to another dimension or something!" Pinkie said.

Discord promptly dropped the magnifying glass and chuckled nervously. "How did you come to that conclusion...?"

The effects were to be expected. Fluttershy looked shocked, as if somepony had offered to flatten her rabbit with a shovel, and Pinkie Pie said screeched, "Wait, you banished somepony to another dimension?!".

Rarity felt herself lock up- had Discord somehow managed to send the unassuming Coco Pommel to somewhere out of her comprehension? His rather roundabout way of asking about the pony and his mannerisms all seemed to line up when she thought about it.

She felt a tic start to go on in her eye. This was about the rudest thing she could imagine doing to somepony who simply came for advice and a little help. It felt like the end of the line for Discord and his constant messing up- couldn't there ever be an instance where he was well- behaved or at least a little restrained and didn't manage to turn some poor pony's life on their head?

She realized everypony was looking at her and Rarity let out a breath, gritting her teeth. She was doing this for Fluttershy. And if he could put Coco there, then he could most probably bring her back. "I digress. Discord, why?"

"It's not as if I meant to, even I wouldn't stoop so low as to that!" he said hastily. "It just... happened!"

Pinkie twirled her hoof in a 'go on' gesture.

Discord proceeded to give the longest honest explanation that wasn't filled with nonsense and enough tricks to overfill her Boutique (although it did have a lot of moments which seemed to be fabricated due to their ridiculous qualities- Coco telling horrid jokes?). It was really rather unlike him- he did seemed somewhat truly distressed by the events that had taken place which did give Rarity some fresh heart.

After he was done, there was a quiet sort of lull as the mares pondered over what they had heard. "I certainly would never have thought that I would be hearing this kind of story in my entire life," Rarity said drily. "And as for what a 'Patapon' is, I don't believe I should ask."

"Do you think it's my fault?" Pinkie asked presently. "I mean, I was the one who told her to go take a break and look what happened-"
Fluttershy and Rarity were quick to dispel her fears. "No, no, of course not, darling! Nopony could have possibly foreseen these turn of events," Rarity said.
"You only told her to go and relax a little, Pinkie." Fluttershy offered. "You never meant to do this to Coco."

She realized that she had been indirectly making the situation sound worse for Discord than it already was. "I didn't mean to say anything against you, Discord, " Fluttershy said to him. "Like Pinkie, you didn't mean for this to happen, and I think you want to fix it, right?"

He seemed to be about to say something but scrapped it and nodded, a little more quiet than usual.

"You should still be more careful about taking these kinds of risks, though. It sounded like you knew what could have happened, but were a little too overconfident." she said carefully to avoid offending him. Overconfidence was definitely a good part of Discord's personality.

"You don't understand-" he began, but then once again seemed to cut it off in favour of being silent.

"I think an important question to be asking right now is how to bring Coco Pommel back," Rarity said, taking the whole situation rather well. This was a bit of a normal thing that happened these days, and she had somewhat known that it was possible to visit other dimensions, or at least timelines- the battle between Twilight and Starlight had shown this to be fact if one was powerful enough.

They all looked at him expectantly. He had been around for a long while, so he would certainly be able to know some way to pull their friend out of wherever he had sent her to.

"...I don't know."

Rarity couldn't help it. She shrieked, "What?!"

Before the other two could start, he hastily put in, "Not so fast! Maybe I simply can't remember? I don't believe I could be able to call to mind-"

"Then maybe we could ask Twilight?" Rarity said desperately. "Or Celestia? It can't be that she's just stuck there forever! This is-"

"The worst possible thing!" Pinkie finished, starting to look distressed as well, which was a change from her usual sunny attitude. "What if- what if she's eaten by monsters? Or what if she's taken captive by some weird aliens? Or- what if she's just stuck in the middle of nowhere and there's nopony to-"

"Girls, girls!" Fluttershy said quickly. "Panicking won't help us find Coco!" She then turned to Rarity. "We could ask Twilight-"

"She's called off by the cutie map," Rarity reminded her miserably.

"Oh, well, how about we send a letter to Princess Celestia? She would probably-"

And then there was a resounding snapping noise as they (along with the couch) were transported right in the middle of the throne room, complete with glass mosaics, red carpet and all.

"-know something about...um," Fluttershy looked around blankly.

Unfortunately, Princess Celestia was nowhere to be seen, and after some debating on the part of the mares on whether or not it was wise to traverse the castle without express permission they started off together to seek out the library.

"But what about the guards?" Rarity asked worriedly.

"Pish, tush, I'm with you," Discord said, waving his paw. "And you're the Elements of Harmony anyways, it's practically royalty status."

Rarity had to restrain herself from grinding her teeth to nubs at Discord's insolent response. He just sent somepony to an unknown, dangerous dimension and he did not seem to be bothered by that in the slightest anymore! The glaring fact that she was a sensitive, sweet young mare used to having all of the creature comforts associated with an urban life made Rarity feel more disinclined towards the impudent creature.

She watched his back as if she was attempting to set it on fire. It's all because of his massive ego, he most probably believes that there's no way he can fail, she thought ominously and then shook her head. I have to think that way too- I need to believe whole-heartedly that we can rescue Coco from wherever she is trapped in...

She attempted to distract herself by her turning her head to study the walls, and found it hard to refrain from commenting on the decor of the hallways and instead filed away information for how she could incorporate the medieval setting into her dressmaking.

As Rarity had anticipated, they did meet up with some guards and as Discord had assured they were allowed to walk through oddly uncontested. Rarity did allow herself some admiring glances in their direction, watching their golden armour and their disciplined movements.

After some walking and peering into random opened rooms ("I honestly cannot believe you also forgot the way to the library...") Pinkie finally voiced her concerns. "I'm not saying this isn't fun or anything, but we're supposed to be serious and all, so... why don't we just ask the guards or something?"

The library turned out to be in the opposite wing of the castle. While Rarity wasn't as moved by the sight of books as Twilight would have undoubtedly been, she was rather impressed all the same by the size of the room and the sheer amount there seemed to be.

Pinkie Pie looked to be back to her energetic self even though she had been walking for an hour and immediately darted up to a shelf and began to read the spines so fast that she to run to keep up with herself.

Fluttershy was a little more practical. "What kind of book should we be looking for?"

"Well, preferably something that includes 'inter-dimension- in it's title," Discord said.

"Why don't you just magic one up?" Rarity asked in an undertone.

"I would absolutely love to, but I have no idea what we're looking for as I've been imprisoned in stone for quite a long while and thus am not up to date on new publications," Discord answered quickly.

Rarity thought that this felt contradictory and was therefore irritated, but before she could reprimand him he scooped up Fluttershy and disappeared into the maze of bookshelves (presumably, as he just simply ceased to exist before her eyes without some sort of flashy gimmick for once).

Rarity walked up to a bookshelf rather unsurely. These were immensely tall and there was a large amount of them as well- how they were supposed to find what they were looking in a day escaped her. She fastidiously began to pick out the tomes with both hoof and magic all the same.
I'm doing this for Coco, Rarity thought.

It was more difficult than anticipated to find a book on the subject, as magic needed for opening a dimension was very complicated and very powerful- one needed to know which dimension exactly, as there were multitudes, and other long and trivial things which simply served to feed Rarity's frustration.

She figured that Discord had simply crafted some kind of excuse to talk to the yellow pegasus alone, though for what she wasn't able to guess- most possibly to confide something to her that he hadn't shared with Rarity or Pinkie, simply as they knew each other better.

She scanned the cover of Magic and their Properties which simply turned out to be a textbook detailing spells none of which were coming close to the scale of power needed for traversing dimensions. She frustratedly but still neatly slotted it back and turned only to squeal and leapt backwards when greeted by two blue eyes set in a violently pink face. "Boo!"

"Pinkie Pie! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Your face! Anywayyys, so have you found it?"

Rarity sighed, turning back to the rows of shelves and resignedly plucked another promising looking one. "No, not yet... There's just so many of these books in here, it's simply impossible to be able to..." The unicorn trailed off into mumbles as she searched Notable Theories of Dimensions of Magic, grumpily flipping a page back and forth a little aimlessly with her hoof.

Pinkie was still standing there on the tips of her hooves looking expectantly smug. "Sooo... Didya find it now?"

"I don't think it's possible to find it in less than a dozen hours," Rarity said drily.

She put it back and picked up another one.

"How about... now?"

"No."

Rinse and repeat.

"Welll... Maybe, if you asked somepony..."

Rarity faced Pinkie, flatly raising an eyebrow in bemusion. "I wonder who that someone who could be?"

"Maybe she could standing riiight in front of you..."

"Pinkie, have you found the correct book?"

"Welll..."

"Pinkie, can you tell me if you've found the correct book please?"

"Okie dokie lokie!" She whipped out a relatively dusted purple leather-bound book tome with bluestitching and the embroidered words, Dimensional Magic and their Properties.
Well, I never...

Rarity took hold of it with her magic and cracked it open. Surprisingly, it didn't seem as old as the other books she had pored over; there was no archaic writing or strange calligraphy, but there were drawings and carvings printed instead of the more modern picture.

"Over here," Pinkie Pie said, outlined a passage with her hoof and began to read it aloud.
"In ancient times, blah blah blah, whatever, unicorn- oh, here it is! 'For reasons described in more detail before in the earlier chapter, artifacts are usually used as anchors for tearing portals and one specifically crafted for such a purpose is'..."

"Is?" Rarity asked eagerly.

"'Lost to time'," Pinkie finished. "But wait- 'it was once found in the somewhat prospering regions outside of Equestria owned by other races and exists or may have existed in several pieces, a theory for which has been proposed as follows, each kingdom contains their own shard due to following the notion of equality that had existed between before the war sprung by the- "

"'However as no creature has been proved to be capable of harnessing it's power they have been neglected and the castles they were once kept in are ruins, and as there has been a two thousand and forty years of an approximate period of time having been passed the laws of possibility follow that they have been destroyed, lost, or collected by other beasts'- oh!" Rarity said, bringing a hoof to the side of her face in worry. "How- how awful- the one thing which could save Coco is as obtainable as- well, unobtainable!"

Pinkie unhappily blew on a party blower she extracted from her curly mane, creating a pathetic little sound.

"Rarity, Pinkie?" Fluttershy called out from the bookshelf in front of them. "Where are you?"

"Right behind you, dear," Rarity sighed dejectedly. This artifact object was like a carrot on a string that had been sucked away at the last second. "Well, this can't be the only one! It mentioned that powerful magical artifacts are used as anchors, so there must be another..."

She frowned and started to pace in concentration. "That means that we have to find enough powerful artifacts to be able to power a portal back, but before that we have to open it in the exact multiverse and near enough to Coco- Discord should know that, as he- Discord!"
Rarity suddenly stamped her hoof on the floor in anger, making Fluttershy (who had come around the front and joined Pinkie in watching her go back and forth) jump.

"This is all his fault! If he hadn't gone and done such a rash thing we wouldn't have to be in all of this bother int he first place!" His careless voice came back to Rarity and made her feel as if she was going to grind her teeth into nubs. "Really! I don't know what you see in him, Fluttershy, because whatever it is it's something I clearly am not able to fathom!"

Fluttershy took a step back. "Rarity, I'm sure he didn't mean to..." She paused here, expecting her friend to cut in, but she simply stared, " He did tell us that Coco really, really wanted him to do that, and they both didn't know the consequences."

"But he's Discord! How exactly are we supposed to pick out the truth from the lies? He could have simply been embellishing it to look in his favour, I wouldn't put it past him!"

"You're his friend, you should trust him now not to do that," Fluttershy replied placatingly.

Rarity very nearly said, 'You trusted him and looked what happened with Tirek' but she stopped it at the very last moment so that the only thing that came out was a "Yeh-!" The thought of the magnitude of what she was about to blurt out made Rarity stop, collect herself and cool down.

She dusted invisible specks of dust off of herself and took her time to breathe a little, checking her mane. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you, Fluttershy."

"It's alright..."

"I just can't understand how you can be so patient with that creature! Like I said, this is all his fault in the first place...

"Well, we've certainly been due for an adventure for a long time now! Right, girls?" Pinkie offered and drew them both together.

Fluttershy blinked. "Ad-adventure?"

Pinkie told her what they had discovered. "So that means we have to find a bunch of powerful magical things to power a portal and get Coco back!" She suddenly drooped. "I really want to get her back..."

"So do we," Rarity comforted. "Still... an adventure? Isn't there some way for Discord to bring us all of these required items?"

"Well, even if we knew what we needed, they're going to be protected with very powerful magic," Fluttershy told her.

"I'm afraid I am not exactly the kind of unicorn to do research on portals- if only we had Twilight with us-"

"I thought it was obvious?" Pinkie said, confused. "We need to find the six shards of the super powerful magical artifact thingy!"

"That's been lost," Rarity said.

"See, it was some kind of very powerful thingamabob, so then the rulers of the places where the bits are must have taken care of them so that they can use it for stuff," she said.

"It states that no creature has been found that can harness it's power," Rarity said. "And even if this was true, then we can't walk up to them and ask to have it, it would sound very suspicious anyways!"

"Oh. Maybe if we asked really nicely? 'Please, mister griffon, can we have your shard piece and use it for opening an portal to get our friend back'?"

"I don't think that would work..." Fluttershy mumbled.

"What if we just take it for a little while without them knowing?"

"That's downright thievery!"

"We won't break it and we'll give it back! They don't need it anyways!" Pinkie shouted.

"Pinkie! What's gotten into you?" Rarity asked, taken back.

She slumped. "I'm s-sorry... I'm just so worried about Coco!" She snatched the book and shook it up and down mildly as if shaking out crumbs with a bit of a vexed expression.

"We should do something instead of standing around, reading and arguing," Rarity said while Pinkie shook the book in frustration. "It's obviously not doing any of us a favour. Fluttershy, where did Discord go?"

She flinched. "Oh, he said he would be back..."

"Wonderful..."

"Rarity, Fluttershy!" Pinkie thrust a large floppy sheet of paper between them. Apparently her incessant shaking of the book had managed to bring something out- a worn yellowed map with comical little figures drawn at the edges and long lines over everything.

"Look at these little fairies!" Pinkie said, point to the funny- looking winged ponies at the edges with what was meant to be wind coming out of their mouths.

"Those are Breezies," Fluttershy admitted. "They're drawn to show the direction of the wind."

"Fabulous," Rarity intoned and put a hoof on her forehead. "Let's get out of this library at least, I'm going to puke if I have to look at another book..."

They managed to find their way out into a large, prim garden of vines, flowers, and hedges fashioned after various animals. Fluttershy in particular was very nervous about strolling through the palace unchecked as if they owned the place and was distracted only by the various species of butterflies that were resting or flitting around the many large open flowers.

The mares discussed their next course of action. Rarity was resigned to the fact that they were adamant on going to search for the artifact. She protested against this, stating that they had a very vague idea of where they were, didn't know how to get them or were even sure that they existed.

"But the map says!" Pinkie said excitedly. They stopped in a pathway lined with lavender and Rarity unfurled the map with her magic and levitated it in front of them.

Unlike most maps, this one had only detailed and named a few locations, with all of the others simply different coloured blank spaces. There was Griffonstone on an off-white triangle, the Dragon Lands situated in a spiky off-white basin, the Castle of the Two Sisters shown in a bumpy off-white square that was presumably the Everfree
and Yakyakistan shown in the brighter white north.
Each of the locations had a sort of little diamond above them, except for one blank space upon which there were two. "I believe from the positioning that that place is the Tenochtitlan Basin," Rarity said. "But we can't be too sure..."

"If it is Tenoshatitle Basin, then boy is that one crazy coincidence!" Pinkie Pie said cheerfully.

"How..?"

"It's where Daring Do has her adventures and finds other powerful artifacts! It's the perfect place for one of those artifacts thingydoodles!"

"Oh, right..." She hadn't read the books for some time now and had briefly forgotten the premise.

"I guess it makes a little sense." Fluttershy said thoughtfully.

"So we're all set!" Pinkie said eagerly. "When will we go? Tomorrow? Today? In the next hour?"

"Slow down, Pinkie!" Rarity exclaimed, looked a little perturbed by the idea. She still wasn't entirely sure that they were actually going to go to all of these far-off foreign places to look for the remnants of some sort of artifact- it felt surreal, like a vague idea or something out of one of Rainbow Dash's adventure books (given justice by the Basin).

Fluttershy voiced her thoughts. " Are you all sure we can't just find some other way? Remember when Midnight Sparkle tore so many holes in our dimension and the other one Twilight had visited?"

This time it was Pinkie who was the voice of reason. "Yeah, but that one and ours are really closely linked- both have a good connection and aren't really all that different, y'know? Buuut the one that Discord-"

"Oh, don't remind me..." Rarity muttered.

"- sent Coco into- the Pittapat lands or something- are way different from here."
All of a sudden she broke into tears. "A-And that means she's all alone! And scared! And she doesn't have anypony with her! That's just so sad!"

"We can find her!" Fluttershy said confidently, and she lay a wing over her back. "We've done lots of things like this before, remember Rarity?"

"Oh, how can I ever forget?" she said a little fondly.

"And we're friendly with all of the lands that are on the map!" Fluttershy added. "Remember the time we went to Yakyakistan and it was so cold?"

"You left Discord alone that once, and did you see what happened?" Rarity asked raising her eyebrows. To be fully honest with you, dear, he does seem awfully ...clingy...

Fluttershy looked sheepish for a moment, then drew herself back up. "It was very good for him to make some new friends other than only me for once."

"Of course, dear."

"But I never said I needed any other friend than you, did I, dear Fluttershy?"

Rarity squealed as they were all suddenly swept into the air and crushed by a (in Rarity's case) a suspiciously overly-happy Discord.

Completely unused to this sort of treatment, she cried out, "Discord! Unhand me at once, you- you fiend!"

"Well, somepony's glad to see me," he said sardonically and dropped Rarity none too gently, who at once scooted away, struggled up indignantly and began to fix her mane, snarling under her breath.

"You're glad to see me, aren't you Fluttershy?" he then said to her friend as if to prove a point.

"Of course!" she replied. "But, um, y-you shouldn't have dropped Rarity..."

"Aw, no love for Pinkie?"
She was also promptly dropped.

Rarity had managed to stand up properly and pointed the rolled up map accusingly at Discord. "Where exactly have you been?"

"So where'dya been to?" Pinkie asked in a less aggressive tone, so he addressed her instead of the unicorn who was becoming increasingly aggravated with him the longer he existed.

"Places and others," he said vaguely, waved her question away with his hand until his arm fell off and then gently placing Fluttershy down on the ground.

It was possible that he was going to say something else as well, but Rarity (whose eye was twitching) cut in quickly. "How about you do something useful and tell us what this is?" She shoved the map out at him.

He raised one bushy eyebrow as he picked up his arm and screwed it back in. "I thought it was obvious. It's a map."

"That is not what I meant! Is there actually absolutely no other method through which we can free our friend?" And may I remind you who you dumped into the netherworld and for who you obliviously have absolutely for no care for?!
While she did not say those words, it was subtly implied and Rarity felt as if she was going to burst like an overfilled pillow if this kept going on.

She tapped the cobblestone path dutifully. "I still believe it doubtful that we have to traipse across Equestria like this is telling us to all of a sudden!"

"So you're not willing to 'traipse as across Equestria' for your friend, but you're certainly more than fine with standing and arguing with some innocent bystander- or dare I say friend? Rarity, I'm disappointed in you..."

She didn't exactly know what to say, as so many things wanted to come out at once- don't patronize me, you're uncaring, you have no right- but the thing that came out was, "Of course I would...!"
She flattened her ears against her head in distress, and then straightened up again determinedly. "I simply find that it seems a little too fanciful that we have to go and search for these pieces of artifact like- like eccentric Daring Do fanatics!"

"Ahh, but you're wrong right there-" he spread his hands with the purple words 'pieces of artifact' appearing between them,"-it isn't pieces of one relic, it's multiple joined together-"

The map unfurled before their eyes and they saw that instead of off- white little diamond shapes above the names of the lands they were supposed to hiding in there were all of these pictures now drawn in instead.

Pinkie Pie immediately recognized one. "That's the Idol from Griffonstone!"

"And this appears to be a phoenix ruby-"

"Phoenix ruby?"

"Like a fire ruby, but much larger and more beautiful and with actual fire inside of it- oh, I've always wanted to obtain one, but I'm afraid I can only dream of such a thing... It does make sense that the dragons are in possession of it."

"This looks like a crown," Fluttershy pointed out, touching the section named as Yakyakistan. "Is it... Prince Rutherford's?"

"Attempting to take that is going to prove to be troublesome," Rarity muttered, fidgeting a little. There was something on her mind that she was trying to find the words to say.

"But what about these grey square things in the Teknockadil Basin?" Pinkie said. "Do we have to retrieve some really boring crackers?"

Fluttershy looked questioningly up at Discord, who said confusingly, "You'll know when you see it."

"If you can make those appear on the map then you must certainly know what they are," Rarity told him severely. "And, if you know what they are, that means you can simply teleport them right here for us and we won't have to go scuttling across the land like a group of lunatics!"

"I can't-" He held up a finger to stop Rarity from interrupting furiously, "- because it isn't that simple. They're being guarded by other touchier spirits. It's considered rude to try and snatch something from under their noses when you know that they can and will crush you like a gnat." He clapped his hands together loudly on a mosquito that came between them.

"The book said that they've been neglected and the castles that they were put in are just rocks now! Boring old rocks, not the farm kind," Pinkie added.

Surprisingly, it was Rarity who answered her. "They've been neglected as powerful artifacts, darling, not as objects. And just because the castles are in ruin doesn't mean that they are as well- the book said that they have likely been taken by other beasts from their original positions, and you know that's true at least in the crown and the Idol's case."

She wasn't looking at them, but at the map, rubbing a hoof under her chin with her eyebrows drawn together.

"Weren't you furiously arguing about the ludicrousness of adventures exactly five minutes and forty-three seconds ago?" Discord asked matter-of-factually.

"Well..." Rarity paused, thinking hard. It was true that it still felt inane that out of the blue they had found an old map detailing the location of magical items they were supposed to retrieve, she was feeling more and more pragmatic about the situation on a whole. "Well..."

She decided to answer with the other question she had been turning over in her mind. "It only seems to be a... preposterous notion that with all of your powers, Discord, you cannot do anything about this whole situation."

The three mares all looked at him in tandem and Discord folded his arms and assumed an superior expression. "I already explained quite clearly that I'd rather keep myself out of bodily harm than attempt to do such a thing."

"Still, it'll be a great help having Discord come with us," Fluttershy reasoned with her friends. "We won't want for anything and we can also get there pretty quickly, you know, if you wanted us to," she then said to him.

"You're banking on the idea that I'm coming with you," he said loftily.

Fluttershy blinked. "Y-You're not? Oh, um-"

"There's no need for that- as if there was a question in the first place-"

"But I thought there was, because you just said..." Pinkie intervened.

"-of course I'm coming with you, seeing I can't refuse the uncontested support," he said with the same tone.
Pinkie and Rarity looked at each other, with the unicorn raising an eyebrow. "Yes, please do come with us Discord," Rarity muttered, and then added in an inaudible undertone, "as long as you keep the talking to a minimum..."

"Yeah, because from who else would I get an unlimited supply of cupcakes?" Pinkie Pie said happily. "I mean, I don't think there's a good bakery anywhere in the Tenodiddle Basin!"

"It seems that we've decided," Rarity said a little defeatedly, trying to search for any more questions she could think of. "Well, just let me bring some-"

And then she was back at the doorstep of the Carousel Boutique, with everything exactly as how she had left it. It was if nothing had ever happened and it was all some sort of daydream (daymare, she thought moodily) she had thought of just before leaving for her friends house.

" -essentials- ah..." she looked around, blinking and feeling discombobulated. "Well," she sighed to nopony in particular (except maybe her cat who she was napping on a pyramid of fabric rolls). "I guess this really is it..."

Rarity hasitly wrote out a letter for each of her absent friends and the other ponies who deserved to know of her going away. She checked that she wasn't booked as well, not wanting to disappoint and deprive anypony of her designing.

She started to tuck everything she believed she needed into a variety of suitcases and bags, adding to list as she went as she thought of more things she should bring. Scarves and other assorted items of clothing flew about as she sought for the ones that would best match the occasion (in case they would run into somepony who would notice these kinds of things) and took her time to watch herself mirror to judge.
"Oh yes, this is going to fit well if I add it with this," and so on and so forth.

As she was stuffing some more 'essentials' into a suitcase and try to prevent it from popping open, somepony knocked hard on the door. "I'm coming, I'm- oh!" Everything that she had tried to push into the overfull container suddenly burst out all over the place, the air thick with fluttering scarves and flying hats embedded with faux flowers.
"Oh dear- hold on, don't break the door!" she said as the knocking continued even louder.

She abandoned the pursuit briefly and opened the door with a blue glow, careful not to see whoever it was glimpse the mess inside. "Pinkie?"

"Rarity! What's taking you so long? It's already six!"

She stared at her blankly, and then whipped her head to look at the clock on the wall. "Oh? B-But I'm not finished..."

Pinkie craned her neck around her to see what she was hiding. "Why are ya packing all that stuff? You know Discord can just poof it up, right?"

"Oh, I can't simply ask him all of the time, you know how he is- he either wouldn't do a thing or mess it up in the most horrendous way possible!" she fretted, appearing rather flustered.

"So how are you going to carry all of that?"

Rarity looked back at the small mountain she had constructed. "Well..."
She looked from Pinkie to her possessions. "But I need all of them!"

She let the pink pony inside doubtfully. Pinkie came up to a pile of soft slippers Rarity had put aside to tackle and picked one up critically. "If you take one of these they'll get ruined!"

Rarity thought of all of the slimy, algae-ridden mud they were gong to have to wade in. "They'll protect my hooves from all of the dirt!"

"And what if they get dirty themselves?"

"Oh, um..."

"And why do you need all of these scarves and hats? I dunno, I don't think any of the monsters would appreciate it as much as you might think..."

"Well, what if we run into somepony along the way?"

"Then you'll just flip your mane and dazzle them with your natural beauty! I bet that there isn't a single unicorn in Griffonstone or Yakyakistan who's as pretty as you!"

"There aren't any unicorns there in the first place."

"So you'll definitely be the best looking, then."

Rarity looked mollified. "Oh, well, if you say so... but just one hat please? To keep the sun out of my eyes!" she added hastily.

"Of course! You can take as many hats as you want and wear 'em all on your head at the same time- that way you can carry them easily!"

Rarity decided not to comment on that (though there were at least three things she wanted to say) or visualize fifty hats on her single head, but instead reluctantly sorted away her clothes with her friend's help. She glanced at her sides where her saddlebags hung. "What are you taking?"

"Just some of this and a bit of that and three cups of stuff," she said brightly. "I left Gummy with Fluttershy."

"You do know that Fluttershy's coming with us?"

"Yep!"

Rarity looked worriedly at the white cat dozing gracefully in the corner. "Should I take Opal? Don't you think she'll miss me?"

Pinkie came readily with the answer as Rarity asked this every time she was going somewhere for a while. "Opal really hates traveling because there won't be so many of the things she's used to. She could get all scared and lonely like a straw without a juice box."

Rarity briefly contemplated waking her up to say her tearful goodbyes but ultimately chose not to- it would cause her discomfort to be forcefully awakened and she would be in a bad mood for the entire day. "I suppose you're right about that as well."

It was seven at night as the two walked down to Fluttershy's house after everything was put away and Rarity had been satisfied. She surreptitiously angled the pink sun hat on her head to stop it from riding up against her horn and look better in general. "What's Fluttershy doing?"

"Animal things. Y'know, feeding them and stuff. Imagine you had twenty Opals that you all liked the same and then you'll kinda get it."

"Twenty Opals is a bit too much for me- one cat is just enough as it is..."

They both opened the door to her house which was empty for the time being and Rarity seated herself on one of her couches. "Do you think anypony will worry about us going?" Rarity asked Pinkie, looking for some of her optimism.

"Nah, they would probably be jealous."

"Don't you think they'll miss you?" Rarity said, referring to the rest of her closest friends.

"Of course, but we won't be gone that long! This artifact finding would be easy-peasy especially with Discord with us!"

Rarity fiddled with her hooves. It did seem to be the case that the whole expedition (Rarity decided to call it a hike, as it sounded much better) wouldn't actually be as long or taxing as the others of it's kind she had made to bear.

I'm going to have to survive being with Discord for however long first, she thought darkly, and that will certainly be one of the harder things I've done... If it's possible that I can do it.