Celestia and Luna guided me to where me and Pinkie would be staying. Apparently Pinkie had begged the princesses to let her stay here with me. I was confused at first, but- well okay not THAT confused. Learning from Twilight about her antics told me not to question anything about her. Within moments, we were at the door to my room.
It was quite a sight, to be honest. There was a mirror on a dresser that had a vase with a flower in it. The bed looked like one you'd typically see in one of those fancy homes, with the bed awning on it. The chandelier hanging over the room glowed bright, and the window to my left gave the widest view of the land I have ever seen. I could even see a shoreline. A map was on the wall on the other side of the room. I snapped out of my focus, and resisted to look out the window further when I looked at the bed again. I turned to the princesses.
"Um...Just a quick question, since Pinkie is staying here. Where is she going to sleep?" I ask.
The princesses looked at each other. Apparently my question was a good one. They looked at Pinkie, who I already knew had an idea, judging by the giant not-possible-by-the-Earth's-laws-of-physics smile on her face. What she said was what I feared a bit.
"I can share his bed!" she exclaimed. This made me cringe. I bit my lip. 'Welp, no sleep for me tonight, I suppose.'
Celestia and Luna were about to leave. Before leaving however, Celestia let me know what was going on tomorrow. "Alex, tomorrow we start your training. We will have you practice channeling magic. We will see you tomorrow." I nodded, but then I delved deeper into what she just said. 'Magic?'
I was about to object and say humans cannot use magic, but they had already left. "Oh this is bad." Pinkie was suddenly in my face.
"Isn't this exciting?! Are you excited cause I'm excited..." She rambled on nonstop. 'Exactly what I'm talking to myself about.' Suddenly, Pinkie pulls out a briefcase and opens it up. Dozens of preinflated balloons flew out of it; and by preinflated, I mean the ratio of the briefcase to one of the balloons was- well I guess I should not question it.
I pulled what little I had brought with me, which were three apples, the Daring Do book I read the day I arrived, and two bottles of rainbow juice, from Applejack, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash respectively. I decided to have an apple right now. I asked Pinkie if she wanted a piece of it. She obliged, and I made an attempt to break the apple in half, to no avail. Pinkie exalted a loud laugh at my struggle to separate the apple into two halves. Suddenly, she pulled a knife out of thin air. I went wide eyed, set the apple down swiftly, and backed away as fast as I could. With a slice, she cut the apple clean in two. I shook my head. "Whoa."
She put the knife back into hammerspace, and I picked up one of the halves. She picked up the other one. I took a bite just as she did, and I looked at her awkwardly, apple still in my teeth. We both stared at each other for a brief moment, and she broke the silence.
"You got a little something-" she states, before I realize what she meant. I turn around and pick the apple from my teeth. I turn back around, and Pinkie had vanished. Looking around, I wondered where Pinkie had gone. I checked under the bed, no luck. In the closet, zilch. In the briefcase she had pulled out of nowhere, not there. 'Why did I even check there?' I inspected the room, and did not find her. 'Well knowing her she could be somewhere in here at some point. I sat down on the bed, and reread the Daring Do book.
As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step...
For the next thirty minutes, I sat there and read the book. After reading the part where she avoids all the traps, and pulls an Indy Hat Roll, I got to the part where she finally reaches the treasure.
Daring Do stood at the entrance to the central temple chamber. At last, she was face-to-face with the legendary sapphire statue!
I enjoyed this so much, I tuned out everything around me, just to go deeper into the story. I read that she scanned the room, found the pattern on the floor, and cleared it without a problem.
Daring Do carefully examined the Statue, getting ready to pick it up. She grew frustrated, however, and snatched it from the podium.
I went a bit wide eyed at that swift action. I knew Indiana Jones would have used a sandbag to keep the exact pressure on the podium to keep it from activating. I read on.
Suddenly, she heard a small clanking noise. She looked behind her, only to see a cylinder where the statue was raise up, and abruptly fall into the podium. The entire room shook, and the ceiling began to collapse. She doubled back and turned to get out of the room, but the ground began to collapse, revealing a pit of boiling lava. Daring Do ascended to where the podium stood, but the lava was rising quickly. She had to think of something. Luckily, one of the pillars fell in just the right spot for her to jump on to. She looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling, showing a way out. She jumped onto the fallen pillar and ascended. As she reached the top, she halted, and looked at the hole in the ceiling. She knew she had one shot to make the jump. She went for it, and grabbed the edge of the hole with her teeth. She climbed her way out of the hole halfway, before a blast of steam blasted out, sending her skyward, followed by a flow of lava. She hit the ground with a thud, and the Sapphire Stone landed upright in front of her. The ground shook with a heavy footstep. The creature that created the sound stood before Daring, and prepared to speak-
"Helloooooooooooo Alex!~"
I was snapped out of my reading trance with the sound of Pinkie's voice. I looked up from the book, as Pinkie held out a cake. It was well decorated with a chocolate icing, frosting flowers, and topped off with quite a few cherries. I tilted my head. "Umm, what's this for?"
Pinkie giggled. "Silly! You can't have a party without a cake!"
"Party?" I looked around the room. It was drastically different from when I started reading. "I guess I didn't really pay attention to the room. I was busy reading this." I held out the book for Pinkie to look at.
"OOH! Rainbow Dash LOVES this book!" Pinkie exclaimed. I wore a confused look. 'Didn't know she liked to read this, or anything for that matter.' Pinkie continued. "Maybe you two have something in common!"
I thought back to the day I arrived, where she pummeled me because she thought I was going to hurt someone. Knowing she had a change of heart, I decided to let the past be the past. I pulled back the book, and placed it on the nightstand.
"Actually, Pinkie, I think I'm gonna hit the hay." I said apologetically. Pinkie grew a bit of a pout. "No, no, Pinkie! It's not that I don't like parties! Really I do. But I am tired and I gotta get some sleep. We can have the party tomorrow." I mentally facepalmed. 'Training is tomorrow! I most likely bomb it anyway. I...wait scratch that...no one I know...wait a minute, scratch that too...no human on Earth can do legitimate magic.'
Pinkie gave me a quizzical look. "I know you can pass that training if you just believe!" she exclaimed before shooting through the air and onto my bed on the other side. I gave a surprised expression before slapping myself out of it. 'Don't even question it.' I reminded myself. I shook it off, got in the bed, and covered up. As I was about to fall asleep, Pinkie nudged me a bit. She gave me a puppy dog stare, and I knew why. I gave a bit of a smirk, and pulled up the other side of the blanket. She hopped right over me and laid down. Giving a yawn, her eyes slowly closed, and I pulled the covers over her. The sandman (sandpony?) got to me too, and I fell asleep as well.
I found myself just outside a jungle of some sort. I looked toward the jungle, trying to piece the location together. I tried to stand up, but fell over. I discovered I was a pony again; a pegasus to be exact. However, my wing was bandaged. I walked along the edge of the forest, and after walking about fifteen meters or so, I heard a voice from behind me.
"This must be the place."
I turned around, and I saw her. Daring Do. I shook my head to be sure I was not hallucinating, and all I remember was falling asleep, then winding up here as a pegasus. If I could try to pinch myself I would. I made my way toward her, but stopped in my tracks when I heard the "call of the wild", namely the big (and not so big) cats. I saw Daring bolt into the forest, and promptly I followed, just before the cats entered the forest. As I ran, I felt this was very familiar.
I trailed behind Daring Do, hoping not to lose sight of her. She hopped over a log on the ground. I looked behind me and the big cats were nowhere to be found. I failed to stop in time before I slammed headlong into the log, pretty much making Daring jump a little bit. I shook my head, and held my hoof to it. I looked up, and Daring Do was looking over the log at me. "Uh, hi?" I said, very shakily.
"Who are you? And why are you following me?" Daring spoke in a stern tone.
"I-"
"You aren't working with Ahuizotl are you?" She seemed even more stern with that remark.
"N-no." I responded.
Daring finally spoke softer. "Okay, but I've got my eye on you. Now stay close." She was about to continue down the path, but in her face was a tiger. She hopped over the log, as did I, only to be stopped by a black panther. A puma blocked abother way. Daring looked as if she were about to faint. They surrounded us. Luckily, the last of the big cats was a little house cat. It meowed as it hopped into the last path. I looked at Daring, who now had a smile on her face. "Come on!" she called to me. We both hopped over the little cat as it meowed angrily. It looked at us as we jumped, before looking back and noticing the big cats giving chase. We heard a loud cat meow at that moment.
We were dodging many trees, as the cats did not relent on their "purr"-suit. Daring looked back with a look that gave a hint of jumpiness. To make matters worse, we reached an abyss. We looked behind us and saw the cats getting closer and closer. I looked back at Daring. "What do we do?!"
Daring Do grabbed my hoof, and jumped. I dared not look down. She grabbed a vine and swung us both to the other side of the pit. She breathed a sigh of relief. I did too, with adrenaline coarsing through me. We turned away from the abyss, and came face-to-face with some kind of temple. It had a dog face, and ruby eyes. Exclusing that, it looked similar to an Aztec temple. I turned to Daring, who was now slowly making her way closer to the relic. "This...this is it. This is what I've been searching for for two months!" I went wide eyed, as it finally hit me.
I was in the story of Daring Do's quest for the Sapphire Stone.
She made her way toward the temple opening. I nervously followed, as I knew what I would be facing by following her. The smell of decay was overwhelming to me. For Daring however, she just smiled. "Smell that?"
"Yes, and it smells horrid. Did something die in here?"
"That's the smell of danger. Be on guard." Daring continued forward, as I watched my step. The sound of bats made me jump a bit. We slowly made our way through the corridor. Daring looked around, while I followed by her side. I was scared out of my wits here. However, she had her usual 'this isn't hard' disposition. However she accidentally set off one of the pressure traps on the ground. She immediately yelled "DUCK!" We both shot toward the ground, just as three spinning souble-sided axes flew from the wall, and embedding themselves in the other side. The lower part of my eyelids rise up, and I held my head low. Daring stared at the axes with a very nervous look. She was about to keep her cool, when the floor opened up under us. We both managed to keep our hooves on solid ground, and she and I jumped off just as flames shot out. I dove to the side, and she landed right under a ceiling of hanging alligators. She ducked under it, and motioned me to come along. We crawled under the gators to make it to the other side. A giant axe swung down. She jumped it while I dodged. I saw her navigate through an arrow trap with relative ease. I hopped through the jutting arrows. She landed in front of a hole in the ground, from which a spike flew up through. She was able to evade it. I finally caught up to her, as she started into the spike maze. She hopped off of tiles just as spikes flew out of them. At this point I was just being lucky none impaled me. Up ahead the door began closing. She dodged spike after spike. I followed behind and mimicked her moves as to not crash into one. We both slid in unison to get under the door. I cleared it, but Daring did not. I covered my eyes with my hooves as the door closed. I peeked, to see Daring standing in front of me with a confused face. "What?"
I replied with a spooked tone. "Nothing."
She took one step, and tripped another set of traps. She groaned, and I shook my head. Let's just say that things happened, traps were dodged, and I was rescued by Daring after I tripped over a Spike panel. We ran into another doorway, and it closed behind us. She was holding her hat, which is now riddled with arrows, in her mouth. She wiped off the arrows, and put the hat back on. A light shined on what Daring apparently was looking for; the Sapphire Stone. We began to move, but Daring stopped, and I almost continued walking. It wasn't until I saw the panels on the floor that I stopped, right before I accidentally stepped on one that showed a wolf. Daring kicked a stone and it landed on an eagle. the tile dropped, causing a flurry of arrows to fly out of the wall, embedding themselves on the other side. I looked at the arrows with strong worry.
"Hmm, there must be a pattern here..." I heard Daring utter. She examined the tiles. "What do all these animals have in common?" As she said that, I examined the tiles as well, though I pretty much had the story memorized. Before I could say anything, Daring Do spoke. "Aha! All these animals are predators..." I finished her sentence.
"Except rats!" Daring Do turned her head to me. She actually gave me a genuine smile. She turned back to the tiles, and nervously placed her hoof on the rat tile. Nothing happened. She let out a sigh of relief as she fully stepped on the rat tile. She craned her head to me.
"Follow my lead!" I nodded and as she jumped to the next rat tile, I hopped onto the one she just got off of. We both hopped from tile to tile, thankfully not setting off any traps. In due time, we made it to the pedestal where the statue stood. Daring Do stared at it as she climbed. She reached the top, and gave it an approving gleam. I smirked, seeing how I actually MADE it this far. She took her hat off and took a good look at it up close. Quickly putting it back on, she gave it a good look, similar to how Indiana Jones inspected the treasure. After a few seconds. I saw her wear a bored expression, and she simply plucked the statue from the pedestal. My smile was broken once I saw her wield it. Looking back at the pedestal, I see what I hoped not to see. A cylinder rose up from the pedestal. I pointed toward it, and Daring caught notice of my pointing after she put the statue in her pouch. She turned around to notice the cylinder rise up, then fall back in, leaving a hole where it was. The entire room started shaking in that instant. Stone fell from the ceiling. Daring motioned me to follow her, but the ground collapsed revealing a pit of lava. We backpedaled onto the pedestal steps, rising by one to keep the lava from reaching us. Eventually, we both were on top of the pedestal itself, barely having enough room to stay on.
I noticed a support beam of some sort falling. "Look, Daring!" I pointed at it, and Daring thought of a risky plan. She looked toward the falled support, and a hole in the ceiling. She grew an angry-determined face, and jumped onto the support. "Come on!" she yelled. I nodded and jumped as hard as I could, just as the pedestal became engulfed in lava. We ascended the beam, toward the hole. Unfortunately, the beam did not reach the hole. We both got to the top of the support due to the rising lava, and she jumped toward the hole, grabbing the edge with her teeth. I followed suit, narrowly catching the edge the same way. Steam shot out of the tower, ans sent the both of us flying. While we both were mid-air, we looked back to see the relic flowing with red-hot lava. Now the tricky part: landing. Daring faceplanted the ground, and the statue fell out of her pouch, landing upright. I fell back first to the ground, and felt a bit dizzy. I shook it off, and we both heard a pound on the ground. We looked up to see a four legged creature that looked like it had a hand on it's tail. It prepared to speak.
"Helloooooo, Alex! Wake up sleepyhead!" Pinkie Pie spoke. I stirred a bit, and opened my eyes swiftly to see Pinkie standing on me, with her face close up to mine. I was a bit spooked by her being so close, but I calmed down.I slowly got up, and I remembered the dream I had.
"Oh Pinkie. I had a dream where I went on adventure with Daring Do. It was awesome." I turned my head to see Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, who somehow wasn't standing on me anymore despite just being there. Rainbow Dash gave me a wide smile, and Pinkie had her usual dispositional smile. "Pinkie, what's going on?"
"Ooh! I heard you talking in your sleep! I heard you mention Daring Do, so I hurried to get Rainbow Dash! Good thing she was doing her nighttime practice!" Pinkie finished without even needing a breath. I turned to Rainbow Dash, who then turned to Pinkie.
"Umm, Pinkie, could you leave the room for a bit?" she asked the pink hyperball. Pinkie nodded, and left the room. Once the door was closed, Rainbow Dash made her way to me. "Do NOT tell anyone about this or I'll pound you into jerk cider." she stated, before rearing up and giving me a hug. I had a surprised face, then smiled. I hugged her back. After a few seconds, we let go of each other, just as Pinkie burst back in, boasting a party cannon. I didn't even duck in cover this time. Things might not be so bad after all.