Daring Do and the Black Mare

by UnidentifiedFlyinPegasus

Chapter 2

Daring awoke with a headache and a rope binding her arms and legs together. It wasn't the first time this had happened.

The room was large and dimly lit with torches. Guards stood at attention, placed periodically around the room to ensure that there was no escape. The walls were made of a dark stone that glimmered where the torchlight hit it.

"It's been so long." A voice echoed from the darkest corner of the room, where there were no torches to illuminate the mare's face. Daring could tell that it was the black mare, though, the one that had been chasing her ever since she'd arrived in Saddle Arabia.

"So long since what?" Daring growled. "Since you tried to kill me? I don't think it's been that long."

"You really don't recognize me?" The mare stepped forwards into the light. "Take a closer look."

Daring studied the mare, the color of her coat, the way she carried herself. None of it seemed familiar. Then she noticed the eyes; one blue, one pink.

"No." Daring whispered. It couldn't be.

Memories began to flood through her mind. Two pegasus fillies playing together, one white, one tan. Playmates. Best friends. Sisters.

"Bold Wing?" Daring said quietly. The black mare took a step back.

"I haven't gone by that name in a long time." The mare said harshly.

"What happened to your beautiful white coat?"

Bold Wing turned away. "Ponies can change, Daring."

"But why have you been chasing me? What did I do to-"

"Quiet!" Bold Wing spat. "This isn't about you! Not everything is about you, you conceited little filly!"

Daring fell silent.

"Bring me the map." Bold Wing said to a guard through gritted teeth. He nodded and left the room through a small archway, returning quickly with the map that had previously been in Daring's pocket.

"You can read these hieroglyphs, can't you?" Bold Wing held the map in front of Daring.

She glared at her older sister and refused to answer.

"Of course you can." Bold Wing continued. "Daddy would have made sure you could. Ironic, really." she chuckled. "I probably would have learned how to read them if I'd stayed."

"But you didn't." Daring said. "You left because of your cutie mark."

"Yes, I did." Bold Wing smiled and glanced down at her cutie mark, a robber's mask that was just barely visible on her dark coat. "I knew that my destiny was in the art of theft and trickery, not in archeology and exploration." Her eyes fell on Daring's cutie mark, a compass. "I see you take after our dear old daddy."

A dark brown stallion raced into the room and muttered something to Bold Wing. Daring noticed that he had a scar curving around one eye.

Bold Wing turned back to Daring, grinning maliciously. "Get ready, sister." She said sister in the same way somepony might say filthy mutt. "In the morning, we're going to find the lost treasure of Mindalin Ramidad."