Through black light
It was a sunny morning in Apple Woods, the birds sang their songs, the morning sun fell pleasantly over over the trees and everything was over the main quiet. Trees swayed and creaked softly in the wind that dragged along the woods. Daring Do however, didn’t had time to wander around and stay for some time. She went to Ponyville, or at least into that direction, with a bag on her hip. The signature whip hung at her other hip and she fixed the hat on her head. All of it just added up to the image of a great adventurer. Something she was in more than once tense of the word.
The more the mare walked through the woods, the more she was genuinely impressed by the number of apples in the forest. There was only one thought in her mind, and that was the one of the hard workers that must have spend ages to make the woods grow into that what they were today. Hard working without a doubt. But also a simple life. And that was something, Daring could never do to herself. She was a free spirit, wanting to wander around and get into trouble. Yet knew how to behave when needed.
Her ears perked themselves up as they caught voiced within the distance. To her it sounded that two ponies were heavily arguing with one another. Her curiosity struck her and she just wanted to know more about it. Thus she continued walking through the woods. Walking until she saw the huge barn with her own eyes.
There was a herd of ponies that surrounded it, all of them looking the same. Each of the ponies wore a black set of armor and there was dark chariot that stood at the entrance. Strange ponies roamed around as if they were searching for something, or somepony. But the voices Daring heard came from the barn. The wind must have stood in the right direction, otherwise Daring would have never heard them.
“What do ya want here? Ya know what fillies, ya should go home! There hasn’t been anything interesting for several years in our garden!” a old mares voice spoke. A voice that around Ponyville was known by many and all. “Ya won’t find anything other than apples!”
“We are here under orders! We will disembowel your garden until we find this mare! Take it easy and do not interfere!” an armored mare replied. A mare with a strange looking cutiemark. As much as Daring could tell from behind the bark she stood, it was the skull of a pony.
The old lady however, continued to argue against her in protest. Daring had lost the words as she almost made her get away as soon as she saw the mark of the other mare. She rushed back into the woods and tried to keep herself hidden among them. Whether they were looking for her or not, she couldn’t risk it. She pondered about her next move when she tripped on something and fell with her muzzle to the ground. Not even a second later there was a shadow that jumped on top of her.
“Well, well, well... Who is running into mah garden?” a female voice spoke up as Daring turned her head around. It was revealed that an orange coated, cowgirl hat wearing pony had tackled her to the ground. And the green rimmed eyes looked at her in confusion. But then made the connection. “It's because of yar ain’t it? That these guys terrorize us?”
“No, wait! I do not...” Daring pleaded
But her words were cut off without mercy. “Ah’m sorry, my friend. But they will cut down trees, if they will cannot find ya! And Ah shall not let that happen. Ain’t going to waste years of labour cause of some stupid mare.” Daring gained a rope around her forehooves which then was attached to her waist and wings. Much to her surprise, the knob itself was strong.
And then came the near endless drag back to the barn. The cowgirl didn’t show any sign of mercy as she was too determined to ‘save’ her family. But as Daring was dragged along, the bag managed to slip off of her body and fall to the ground. With her backlegs she tried to get a hold of it, but it was in vain. “H-Hey!”
“Easy, friend! Ah do not want my family to suffer anymore...”
“But my...”
“Just be quiet!”
When they eventually did reach the barn, the old mare turned herself around in confusion as she heard the other set of hoofsteps. Her coat was green and her mane and tail were white with a spark of gray. Much like Daring’s graybow. “Applejack! Who is this? A, a friend of yars?”
Applejack just threw her victim before the black mare with the skull mark and spoke her desired words. “That's it? Now leave us alone?”
“Oh! We express our gratitude to you! You will receive the award in the near future!” the strange mare spoke with a sinister smile on her face. But the cowgirl didn’t care, as long as they were gone she was happy.
“Just get out of here!” the orange coated mare spoke in a raised voice. But Daring could see there was something like pity in her eyes. But much time there wasn’t as more ponies in the armor ran to her.
“Hey, trespasser! What is yar name?” Applejack asked as she fixed her hat.
“My name, is Daring Do!” the tied up pony replied as she was picked up and brought to the carriage. Soon enough the door closed with Daring inside and the family was just as she wished, left alone. The Applejack's jaw was omitted.
“Hmm...strange pony began to appear. In my youth, this was not!” the old mare spoke and shocked the other.
“It can’t be! Daring Do?” Applejack gasped as she remembered that something fell from the mare. Like a storm she was off and not much later she returned to her grandmother with a bag around her hip. But the calmed down look in her eyes was gone. She had kicked herself into the highest gear and was more than eager to just leave. “Ah need to see Twilight! Ah may be late home, don’t wait for me!” And she was just, off.
The journey inside the carriage was not the most pleasant one. For the guards tried to find out where the statue was hidden. What Daring could answer them? She didn’t not knew it herself. With the passage of time they brought her into a building and from room to room, from one pony to the other pony. And all of them asked the same questions. Then she was brought to the big office in the Gothic style. At the table sat a black mare with that sinister smile. "Black Skull." Daring said as she came up with a nickname for her. “Once again, the statuette stayed in the temple! I dropped it when I found the scorpions!” But Black Skull was not even paying attention to her. “Whether or not you are going to interrogate me like the others?”
“What for? You said all that you could say. I mean, all that you could think of! The driver of the wagon passed you! The statue was with you when you got to the Apple Acres! And I'll have to tear out each tree with the root, if you don’t tell me where you hid it!” the other mare spoke in a hissing tone as her eyes got fixed upon Daring.
But then there was a pony in the dark armor that entered the room. “Orders, miss!” he cleared his throat and began to read the scroll. “I have heard reports that you have caught a suspect without evidence. I order you to release him immediately!.” He closed the scroll and laid his eyes on Black Skull. “There is another secret order for you and your friends. This mare came to take her!” he finished and straightened his back again. He was waiting for orders. The black pony became even blacker and it caused a lot of confusion for Daring. Not just the appearance, but the words as well. “M-My...friends?” she asked but never got any response.
“Lucky...well, get out! But I’ll see you soon!”
Without a question Daring stood up and gave a glare of suspicion to the mare behind the desk which was followed up to the guard. He nodded and opened the door for her. The adventurer slowly left the room yet was still unable to believe that they let her go so easy. The two ponies stayed in the room and Black Skull smirked like the devil she was. They had planned something for certain.
Daring walked up the stairs, trying to remember what a friends she had in Ponyville. But she more worried about a question she had heard the entire time in the building, where the statue? And what is it? Most likely she have to go back to apple farm for her answers.
Finally her attention was drawn to the voices of protest in the lobby and hurried to see her savior. “You are wrong! Do you know who she is? You're even half not as good as she is! Release her! Immediately!” A pony with a rainbow mane had taken hold of the guard who blocked the way for her. It wouldn’t have been long before she had beaten him to a pulp as she saw her subject of interest. The mare who came down from the stairs and the pegasus let go immediately of the guard. The looks in the eyes of the cyan coated mare looked as if she was about to faint on the spot. “Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh!” She just rushed to Daring and tackled her down to the ground. The magenta red eyes went all over her before she spoke again. “Wow! It really is you! Just like in the books! Cool! Awesome! Unbelievable!!! I like you so much! Every one of your books! Every story! This is great! Thou hast made all these tricks? And how you kicked ass to these guys! What happened with your companion after Death Canyon?”
“I…I am…” Daring could not even breathe because the mare hugged her too tightly.
“Come on, Rainbow Dash! Yar acting like Pinkie Pie!” Applejack said with a soft smile. “Hey, Daring Do! Ah'm glad they didn’t do anything bad to you! Incidentally, this is Twilight, our friend.”
Another pony came from the other side. A unicorn with a mulberry coat and different toned purple mane. “Hello! I'm Twilight Sparkle, a student of Princess Celestia. I am very glad to meet you in person! Your books are incredibly interesting!” she spoke up with a gentle blush.
Daring was still lying on the ground and looked at the trio of ponies as Rainbow had finally released her. Then she spoke her words with a smile on her face. “Okay, Rainbow, I like you too. But, why does this remind me of a prison to begin with?” Rainbow wanted to hug her again but managed to contain herself. Instead she gave off a broad smile of utter glee. “Thank you, friends. But why? Why did you set me free?”
“Ya just do not look like a criminal, sugar!”
“O-Oh, thank you, I guess, Applejack. But….oh no! Applejack! Where the bag? They're going to cut a whole your forest until they find it!” Daring exclaimed as she got back on her hooves.
“W-What?” Applejack spoke in confusion before an angry face grew on hers. “C’mon, Rainbow! You’ll help me with this! You’ll see your Daring Do later! C’mon! Daring… you stay with Twilight for the time being. She’ll tell you something interesting.” Applejack just grabbed the rainbow tail and dragged the pegasus unto the street if she wanted it or not.
Twilight gave off a gentle smile and spoke one simple world under a light giggle. “Hey!”
Daring quickly made friends with the nice unicorn mare. It turned out that she reads a lot and knows a lot about magic, it was something that came over the years though. Twilight told her that they hid the statue in an old mill that was located on the outskirts of Everfree Forest. Though it was dangerous to leave this treasure without supervision, so they decided pick it up the very moment. Of course the words weren’t spoken inside the prison but on the street between the mass of ponies.
“You know, no one goes there for a long time. This mill is so old that was about to fall apart! The fillies and colts came up a story, that a ghost lives here, so...they don’t even come close! It was working in a time long ago though. But now the water level so low and it just stands there on top of the hill which is dubbed ‘Mills hill’.”
The mill looked awful. It was black, rusty and the water wheel had fallen off a long ago. It stood on a cliff, and below was the rapid flow of the river. When Daring stepped on the first step, it broke in two pieces. Twilight just shrugged at it, almost as if she was shaking it off. It was a dangerous place but certainly one of the best for hiding. They carefully went inside the broken building and upstairs to the second level of the place. But by one of the steps they took, as they almost had reached the top, broke and Daring fell down to ground level.
The adventurer shook her head a couple times as she released a couple swears to herself. But then her eyes looked out of the window. “Oh no! Seems that we have company!” For outside on the field stood a herd of black armored ponies. Black Skull was among them and she gave orders inaudible for Daring. Twilight knew what she had to do and galloped up the stairs, praying it didn’t break under her weight.
The armored ponies sped up but ran carefully. The door was broken down by them and they poured in. Hooves clattered on the stairs but then a loud crash and obscenities diversified a palette of sounds played out. What happened was, they destroyed the whole staircase that led over to the second level.
Twilight ran to the chest and pulled out a bag. In all of the commotion of the broken stairs, Daring managed to go up it again and found the unicorn in the room. She forced her to flee with her but they had no way of escaping with the exception of the windows. “See ya, pal!” Daring smirked as she waved all of the armored ponies off that stood on the ground level.
“Umm…Daring?” Twilight called up and the mustard coated mare turned her head toward the broken stairs. There were ponies whose very horns shone, ready to fire a magical beam.
“Twily! Hold on!” Daring took hold of her friend and struggled to a wall of the mill. The wall was broken in half like it was nothing due to age and a huge chunk fell into the water down below. But due to the impact, Twilight and Daring fell out of the hole as well. Twilight used her magic and soften the blow and Daring landed on all four hooves. They landed on the suspended broken wall that acted like a raft for the both of them.
“Behind you!” Twilight shouted as from coast the outbreaks of magic came their way. Twilight reflected them all with a simple spell. She was defending Daring with everything she got. But the further they sailed, the darker it got. The makeshift raft entered a forest. A forest they knew all too well. “Everfree forest…” Twilight said with fear in her voice. But there was no time to have fear. From the coast there was a pony that jumped right on their makeshift boat. But the attempt of boarding was quickly nullified by a kick from Twilight and the pony fell into the water.
Meanwhile, the speed of raft increased significantly. “Good work, Daring! We are sailing much faster!” Twilight said with a smile.
“B-But it’s not me…” Daring replied as she noted the fog. A fog that could be seen dead ahead. Two guards, who had landed on the raft without them even knowing looked there too, then looked at each other and jumped into the water as if they were scared for it.
“Twilight, get me out. Get me out! Get me!” Daring exclaimed as it became apparent that she was stuck in the stone. Twilight rushed to the Daring and took her by the neck. “You'll tear off my head like that! No! No!.
But then it hit them, the freefall. The fog wasn’t any natural fog, it was from a waterfall. And on the bottom they waited, the sharp stones just ready to cut their flesh open. The feeling was soon to be replaced fear. The raft turned over on itself and Twilight fell off of it. She was flung away from the raft which did made an enormous crash against the rocks. And then, she lost her consciousness.
Twilight moaned a bit as she could feel the sand between her hooves. She managed to open one eye and the other slowly followed up. Daring Do herself, stood in front of her with a frown. She made strange slowly movements forward and then backward.
“Daring? What do you ...?” But the adventurer looked at her and laughed.
“I’m still stuck, Twily! Ha-ha-ha!!!” she replied. It was true that the raft had shattered, but not every single piece had broken itself. The part around Daring’s hooves, was one of them. So she rocked in the sands back and forth. It was pretty funny and Twilight laughed a little bit as her brain kicked back in.
“You never told me about the statue!” Twilight spoke as she rubbed her head a bit.
“Oh, yes! Sorry! I've studied it, but I could not understand what it was. I compared the writing on the statue with ancient dialects. I can not translate, but the dialect refers to the ancient era! Pegasus and unicorn had a war in that time! I read in a book on the temple of those time, and you know? The closest temple is not so far from the continent!” Daring spoke as she tried to break free. “So sail?”
“There is no point in returning to Ponyville. If I show up there, they’ll caught me! Sorry Spike... Yes! We are gonna sail!” the unicorn looked down then sighed a bit.
“Great! I’m glad to see you as my companion! As far as I can remember...ruins must be there, then Dodge City! There we can take a cart and get to the Horseshoe Bay!” Daring spoke as she still struggled.
“Wow! You got a great memory! Let’s do it! Twilight replied with a smile
“Last question though,”
“Yes?”
“Can you get me out of this board?” Daring asked with grinning smile on her face as she held the tied hooves before Twilight.
But high above them on the ridge of the waterfall stood a black mare who just stared at them. “Guard!” she spoke up.
“Yes?” the armored guard asked as he joined the mare on the ridge.
“Send a letter to Luna! Say that the trap worked and we have a right way!”
“As you wish...miss Blacklight.”