• Published 18th Mar 2012
  • 24,650 Views, 617 Comments

Whip and Wing - Fernin



Daring Do & Indiana Jones battle each others' enemies in a race to save their worlds and themselves.

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Ch 10: Light and Shadow

The submachine gun wasn’t far away now. Hans Jägermeister took another step forward. He stumbled over an invisible obstacle on the apparently empty floor, but kept going. Tripping again he hit the floor face-first, but one groping hand snatched up the blood-flecked firearm. The Nazi hugged it to his chest triumphantly with the chaos of screams and gunfire all around him.

Surging to his feet, Jägermeister raised the gun and screamed his defiance against the unseen horrors that Daring Do had unleashed on his unsuspecting men. For a moment he had considered simply emptying the magazine in the pegasus’ direction… but a quick death was too good for her. He was going to get the damnable creature back and drag her to Germany just like he’d planned. And then he was going to watch, enjoying every minute, as some of the Reich’s best scientists vivisected the accursed mare.

While the most important thing was obviously to recapture Daring Do and to retrieve the Medallion of Light, first Hans had to clear a path through who-knew-what invisible monstrosities. That was easy enough. Shouting with inarticulate rage, the German pulled the trigger and began spraying bullets this way and that. A few stray rounds tore through mercenaries and German soldiers too slow or too distracted by their unseen foes to dive for cover, but that was all right. They were as good as dead anyway.

* * *

Silver Trowel chuckled as the tiger and panther, two of Ahuizotl’s finest enforcers, turned to pursue Indiana Jones. The human didn’t stand a chance, and they knew it. The unicorn wondered if he should shout a warning to Indiana just to make it more sporting—and more entertaining—but decided against it.

Roars of feral joy erupted from the throats of the big cats. No… That wasn’t joy. That was pain! The felines jerked as if shaken by unseen creatures and collapsed, blood streaming from a dozen ugly circular wounds all along their bodies.

Silver Trowel started forward—but stopped just as abruptly when something hot tugged at his ear. After a moment the pain hit him. He reached up one hesitant hoof and felt the ruin of his right ear. It was as though an invisible crossbow bolt had torn away the top third of the delicate appendage. When the unicorn looked at his hoof, it was painted red with his own blood. Whatever had mortally wounded the unicorn’s allies had nearly done the same to him.

Yellow eyes stared pleadingly at Silver Trowel as the panther tried to drag itself out of danger. It yowled and reached out a paw, but Trowel stepped back out of the way. He took another step back. The panther stopped moving and lay still, too weak from blood loss even to hold up its head. It was obvious that both felines would soon be dead. Making his decision, the unicorn turned and raced out of the temple’s entryway. He held up the supposedly lost stone-walking amulet and started to fasten it around his neck. If unseen enemies barred the front door, he had other options.

* * *

The submachine gun clicked and fell silent as its magazine ran dry. Hans Jägermeister nodded in satisfaction and scooped up another from the carnage that surrounded him. Loading it into his weapon he rushed forward with a snarl. “I come for you now, Daring Do!”

Flying slowly down the passageway, Daring winced. Her recent crash and hours of tight restraining ropes had not done her wings any favors; she wasn’t going to be winning races at the Cloudiseum with speeds like this. She landed gingerly to take a short break, carefully avoiding touching any of the pressure plates half-glimpsed by her dimension-spanning vision. The pegasus turned to check for pursuit and cringed as she found herself staring down the barrel of an oncoming gun.

“Stay still, Daring Do, or I shoot you down!” shouted Jägermeister. Despite the intricate dance he was doing to avoid traps marked in with the blood of his soldiers and mercenaries, the Nazi agent’s submachine gun never wavered from its target. In the cramped confines of the long hallway, Daring knew there was no chance of dodging.

“Stay back, Hans!” Daring shouted to the crazed human. “Just let me go!”

Jägermeister was at the edge of the corpse-strewn section of the passage. From now on, it was clear sailing to the mare and her stolen medallion. He walked carefully forward, eyeing the pegasus and her surroundings suspiciously. The area had seemed free of traps when he had come here before, but the accursed creature had somehow activated cleverly hidden defenses that were as invisible as the monsters that were attacking his men in the entryway. The Nazi agent aimed his weapon carefully and snarled, “Come here, Fräulein. I am tired of chasing you now. Fly or run, and I will simply bring your corpse back to the Reich on ice.”

“What, afraid of the booby traps? Shoot me and you’ll have to come over here to get the Medallion anyway,” Daring Do retorted. She weighed her chances of attacking now that the human was close enough to catch off-guard even with her lowered speed. She could get there, but she’d probably be heavier by several dozen bullets and lighter by a lot of blood by the time she did. Then the pegasus’ eye fell on a certain spot in the floor, wavering indistinctly in the image of the Temple of Shadow superimposed on the Temple of Light. Oh, yes. She remembered that trap.

Hans glared, but knew that Daring Do was right. He took a cautious step forward, watching the pegasus’ eyes for signs that he was walking into her trap. He lifted his leg and brought it forward, setting it down slowly. The creature’s dark pink eyes widened slightly, and the Nazi agent reacted by shifting the foot quickly to the left. Her eyes narrowed again, and he chuckled and took another step forward.

Daring Do held her breath as the human moved even closer, his foot narrowly missing a trigger for several blow dart traps. He was only a few paces away. It was now or never. Daring looked the human straight in the eye. “Hans, stop now. Last warning.”

“Threats, Fräulein? Don’t make me laugh.” Jägermeister took another step forward, his long stride taking him over the pit trap he couldn’t see. “Perhaps when our scientists are done with you, they will let me take over. I think I’ll start with your wings. Or perhaps your tongue.”

Flipping her pith helmet off her head, Daring Do gripped it between her teeth and lobbed it like a discus. It landed right in front of Jägermeister. Hans laughed. “And what was that supposed to do?”

The pegasus heard the distant click of a pressure plate in the Temple of Shadow. A long, thin blade plunged down from the ceiling. Its transparent edge dropped through Jägermeister without so much as a whisper, sliding through his shoulder and down through his chest with only the slightest change in its lethal velocity. It erupted from the German’s pant leg, jabbing down to the floor with crimson lifeblood dripping down its length.

Hans shook with effort as he tried to take another step forward. Something was wrong. He had the most intense pain in his shoulder… his groin too. What was happening? He opened his mouth to speak and made inarticulate choking sounds as blood dribbled out of his mouth. “H—kh…. Hrkkh…”

Daring Do could feel something hot and wet on her face. She reached up with a hoof and wiped at the liquid, leaving rust-colored streaks on her golden pelt. She shuddered and took a step back from the transfixed Nazi. He was finished, but the twitching man didn’t realize yet that he was dead. He was still too dangerous for her to avert her eyes from the gruesome sight.

“Dhrrkk… Hrrkk…” Jägermeister gurgled, glaring at the pegasus. It was so dark. Why was it getting so dark? The German raised his submachine gun to threaten Daring again, but his arm moved with agonizing slowness. The weapon clattered to the stone floor as it dropped from fingers devoid of strength and slick with blood.

Finally there was a quiet click. The long, red-stained blade slid rapidly back into the ceiling. Hans found himself pitching forward, crumpling onto the floor like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Daring Do stared down at him, her muzzle flecked red with blood—his blood. Jägermeister reached out with one hand to grab for the pegasus, but everything was going dark. The last thing the German saw was a long, charcoal-colored tail as his victorious adversary turned and hurried down the hall deeper into the temple.

Daring shuddered as she heard the wet sound of her foe’s body settling to the floor behind her, but she didn’t turn back. Groaning, the pegasus forced already strained flight muscles into action and hurried up the hallway. She was far behind Indiana Jones now, but at least she knew where she was going. It shouldn’t take too long to catch up. Hopefully.

* * *

Indiana Jones stared at the inner sanctum and felt his stomach lurch. Starfire had mentioned a ‘conjunction’ between Indiana’s ‘Spirit Realm’ and the pegasus’ world. It had sounded like more of the same liturgy of insanity from the one who had come up with, ‘attack our god to prove that we’re worthy.’ But what had seemed like simple cultist mumbo-jumbo in the entryway was fully realized here in the innermost chamber of the temple.

Instead of one world transparent and superimposed over the other, the two seemed to shift together. The morning light streaming in through the skylight in the Temple of Light fell on the claustrophobic subterranean chamber of the Temple of Shadow. The thick, almost stalagmite-looking pillars of the Temple of Shadow seemed to be supporting the high dome of the Temple of Light. At the center of it all was a single pedestal on a dais, an island of stability in a world of swirling change. And on the pedestal rested the dark half-disc of the Medallion of Shadow. The artifact seemed almost to glow in the strange, shifting light of the two temples.

On the far side of the pedestal hung Flint, tied to a large board as though about to be tortured. Indiana Jones hurried forward. “Flint!”

The brown-furred canine looked up. His stubby tail started to wag immediately and the ropes creaked as he strained against them. “Indiana! Indiana came for Flint!”

“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Indiana said. He started working on the diamond dog’s restraints. “Silver Trowel told me the cultists grabbed you. You okay, mutt?”

“Silver Trowel?! Indiana! Trowel here? Trowel bad! Working for Owwie… Owwiesot… That bad ape-dog thing!” Flint flailed, waving his arms worriedly as he tried to put his concerns into words.

“Ahuizotl?” Indy asked, trying to saw through the sturdy ropes with his knife. He should have guessed, as hard as it was to conceive of the ridiculous little pony creatures being as devious as the archeologist’s usual foes.

“Yes! Trowel bad! Trowel…” The diamond dog trailed off, his head cocked slightly and his ears perked. “Indiana hear something?”

Still working on the ropes, Indiana grunted in satisfaction as he finished freeing one of the diamond dog’s paws. Working on another limb, he asked, “Hear what?”

“Like… hoofsteps,” Flint replied, looking around. Suddenly he gaped. “Indiana! Look out!”

Indiana Jones grunted and dropped to the floor, dazed, as a high velocity stone bounced off his head. He pushed himself back to his feet, turning to see who had thrown the rock—and glared. “Silver Trowel! Heh. So you didn’t lose that necklace going over the falls.”

The centerpiece of Silver Trowel’s stone-walking amulet ceased to glow as he finished stepping through the wall. The unicorn’s horn flared still brighter, and suddenly Indiana Jones found himself lifted into the air. Trowel nodded. “You’re right, Doctor Jones. I know I said I had, but I’ve said a lot of things. I said I was simply an archeologist passing through the Ridgebacks when I had really been sent here to retrieve the Medallion of Shadow for Ahuizotl.”

Silver Trowel paused for a moment, trotting forward to the dais in the center of the room. The Medallion of Shadow seemed to drink in even the light of Trowel’s magic as he lifted it up and examined it with a slight smile before tucking it into one of his saddlebags. Looking back at Indiana Jones, the unicorn continued his mocking litany. “I suggested that Flint or Starfire might have been through your things when I was the one who’d stolen the artifact with my ever-so-useful stone-walking amulet. I said that Flint had found the Medallion of Shadow only to get nabbed by the cultists while not saying that one of my colleagues was the one he took it from. Shall I go on?”

“Trowel bad pony! Trowel very bad pony!” Flint barked, struggling against his remaining restraints until the unicorn stallion enveloped the diamond dog in a sparkling magical field and slammed the creature’s limbs back into immobility on the board.

“Doctor Jones, quiet your cur, please,” requested Silver Trowel. Flint simply growled.

Trowel turned to Indiana and smiled, levitating the man’s pistol free of its holster and bringing it across the room. He turned the revolver, examining it admiringly. “I’ll just take this, thank you… These are quite rare in Equestria, you know. Not exactly worth what the Medallion of Shadow will be, but it’s certainly a nice bonus.”

“Silver Trowel give that back!” shrilled Flint, struggling against his magical and physical bonds. Trowel ignored him.

Indy glared at the unicorn from behind the shimmering cloud that was holding him aloft. “Why are you working for Ahuizotl, Trowel?”

“I hardly think that’s important, Doctor Jones,” said Silver Trowel, waving a dismissive hoof. “You’re an archeologist, too. Surely you understand the need to secure valuable artifacts.”

“So you aren’t giving it to Ahuizotl?” Indiana scoffed. He peered at the doorway hopefully. Daring Do should have been here by now. Where was she?

“No. I’m going to sell it to him. Obviously. But first, I have to tie up a few loose ends… My reputation is already bad enough in archeological circles without somepony telling tales. Now, let’s see…” Silver Trowel’s eyes narrowed in concentration and the revolver turned to point at Indiana Jones. Despite being across the room, the muzzle looked huge as Indiana stared into it.

“No! Bad pony! No hurt Indiana!” yelled Flint.

“You know, there’s always somepony around to ruin the moment,” Silver Trowel sighed. The pistol turned to aim at Flint. “Down, boy.”

The revolver fired. Flint’s angry snarls turned into pained whining as blood blossomed from his shoulder. Nodding in satisfaction, Silver Trowel turned back to Indy. The pistol followed. “Hmm. Pulls to the right a bit. Well, now I know. Now where was I…?”

Indiana took a deep breath as the hammer drew back. The idea that he would end his days at the wrong end of his own weapon had occurred to the archeologist before, but it seemed almost funny that the enemy pulling the trigger would be a small green unicorn. “Just do it, Trowel. I don’t have all day.”

Silver Trowel pulled the trigger. The hammer came down hard—and clicked on an empty chamber. The confused unicorn pulled the trigger again. Still nothing happened. Scowling, the pony shoved the empty pistol roughly into one of his saddlebags. Horn still glowing, he took a deep breath and a rumbling sound filled the air. “Don’t think you’ve gotten away so easily, Doctor Jones. You have simply traded a quick death for a slow one.”

* * *

Daring Do grinned as she caught sight of the doorway leading to the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Light. Ignoring the complaints of much-abused flight muscles, she sped up—and pulled up short with a yelp of surprise as the open doorway suddenly disappeared under a massive pile of stone and earth.

“No, no, no! Not now!” Daring snarled, glaring at the newly blocked hallway. She looked around urgently, trying to find a place where the rubble left an opening she could crawl through. There was none… And then she saw a panel sliding open in the wall and an indistinct, shadowy head poking cautiously out into the hallway.

* * *

Sprocket, junior engineer of the Local #405 Deathtrap and Ancient Ruin Defense Maintenance Union, winced as the walls of his maintenance tunnel shook again. Somepony out there was really making his life difficult. First it seemed like all the traps in the Temple of Shadow were being set off in sequence despite nopony actually falling into any of them. Now they were practically bringing down the roof! Why couldn’t anypony just leave well enough alone and let a trap maintenance pony do his bucking job?

The unicorn’s tool bag clinked as he set it down and cautiously opened the secret door. Unknown to him, a similar door opened in the Temple of Light next to a distraught pegasus adventurer. He coughed, waving away the billowing dust, and squinted into the half light of the hallway. “Oh, for Celestia’s sake…”

Some foal had somehow managed to tear down an entire section of the passage, blocking the route to the temple’s inner sanctum! The trap maintenance pony sighed and crawled out into the hallway. “Will you just look at this? This is going to take a week to clean up! You can bet your flank I’m going to bring this up at the next Local 405th meeting. I mean—whoah!”

* * *

The spectral figure of the unicorn pony spun and fell as Daring rushed past him to enter the dusty and disused passageway he’d revealed. Incredibly, the tunnel seemed to exist both in the Temple of Light and the Temple of Shadow. Waving a hoof in front of her face to knock down the thick cobwebs, the pegasus began to crawl forward through the maintenance ducts. Inching forward in the tunnel, the adventurer made a mental note: if she ever got back home, she and that pony were going to have words.

* * *

Indiana Jones winced as the last few stones fell. In the shimmering light of unicorn magic and the wan and guttering illumination of a few sparse torches, Silver Trowel examined his handiwork and nodded happily. “There we are. Just think, Doctor Jones. In a few years I can come back here and find an amazing relic—the remains of a previously unheard-of species, entombed here with his diamond dog companion! Perhaps it might even rehabilitate my reputation with the Equestrian Society of Archeology. Or at least net me a few dozen bits for your bones from some curio collector.”

“We’ll see,” Indy growled, his eyes shooting daggers at the unicorn. Muscles burned as he struggled uselessly against his arcane restraints.

“Heh. Well, Doctor Jones, I must say it’s been a pleasure working with you. But I really must be going; the medallion isn’t going to deliver itself.” Smiling with infuriating smugness, Silver Trowel turned to go. When he neared the rough-hewn wall through which he had come, the gray stone around his neck began to glow. The unicorn’s laughter cut off, muffled by the rock wall as he stepped slowly into it as easily as if it had been water.

The moment Silver Trowel’s head dipped into the rock, the shimmering magical field around Indiana and Flint winked out. The archeologist exploded into motion, rushing across the room with his bullwhip already in his hand. The whip lashed out—and looped around the departing unicorn’s back leg, pulling taut.

Silver Trowel gasped as a line of pain encircled his left hind leg. Wrenched from the dark embrace of the stone wall, he turned—only to meet Indiana Jones’ fist coming the other direction. The pony’s head cracked back and the aura of magic around his necklace winked out.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Indy snarled, swinging again and aiming for the unicorn’s ruined ear.

Grunting and rolling with the falling blows, Silver Trowel lashed out with his rear hooves. The human yelped and went down as the pony’s sharp double kick knocked his legs out from under him. Dropping on top of the unicorn, Indy grabbed the creature’s head and started slamming it repeatedly into the floor. Trowel gasped in agony with each teeth-rattling impact.

“Get—oof! Get off!” Silver Trowel’s horn flared, its light almost blinding Indy. A silver cloud snapped over the struggling archeologist and jerked him up, trying to pull him away from his opponent. With a growl Indiana wrapped the fingers of both hands into Trowel’s dirt-smeared white mane, dragging the creature into the air with him. The unicorn panted and strained, but finally gave up. The magical field winked out and the two combatants collapsed to the floor again.

Indiana Jones rose, fist cocked to deliver a jaw-crushing blow. A rock slammed into the side of his head like a silver-tailed meteor. Dazed, the human found himself prone on the floor. He pushed himself up just in time to catch a hoof to the side of the face. Indy’s teeth clacked together and he crumpled once again.

“I… have had… just… about… enough… of you!” hissed Silver Trowel, eyes blazing with arcane energy as he battered his foe with rock after magically thrown rock. Indiana curled up, sheltering his head as the stones crashed into his bruised flesh. For a moment, the rain of missiles stopped as the two archeologists gasped for breath.

Silver Trowel spit out blood and ran his tongue over a painfully loosened tooth. He was winning against the human, but only just. Beating Indiana to death was an attractive option, but with the diamond dog out of commission and the only way out blocked, the creature was as good as dead anyway. It was time to go.

“Well. This has been very fun, but once again I take my leave, Doctor Jones,” the unicorn wheezed. The dull stone around his neck started to glimmer once again as he turned towards the wall. He glanced back. Indiana was still curled protectively as though expecting another barrage. Hmph. Silver Trowel chuckled to himself and stepped into the wall.

Indy’s iron-hard grip snatched at the unicorn’s tail. The human dragged Silver Trowel back slightly. Trowel rolled his eyes—but then Indiana wrenched the saddlebags from the pony’s back.

“Oh,” Trowel hissed, “That is not acceptable!”

When Silver Trowel wheeled and dove back out of the rock, hooves pawing at the air, Indiana was ready. One hand smacked into the unicorn’s barrel chest, cutting short his charge. The other seized Trowel’s throat as Indy surged to his feet, dragging the pony onto his hind legs.

With Silver Trowel off-balance, Indiana shoved him backwards. Stone rippled like water as Trowel’s head passed through it. The unicorn’s flinty hooves swung blindly at Indy’s face as the human grabbed the shimmering necklace around the pony’s neck and pulled. In the darkness of the rock, Trowel’s eyes opened in horror as he felt the mountain solidify around him. If it were possible, he would have screamed. Instead, he could feel the cold, unyielding weight of stone in his mouth, his throat, his nostrils…

Indiana pulled his hands out of the wall, panting with exertion. The necklace in his grip shone for but a moment more and went out. Silver Trowel’s dark green hooves and lower body jutted out of the wall like some kind of grotesque decoration. The unicorn’s limbs flailed in panic and his chest heaved ineffectually. The pony’s frantic efforts slowed and finally stopped entirely as the creature suffocated.

Stomach roiling at the sight of the partially entombed unicorn, Indy turned away and leaned heavily against the rock wall that was now Silver Trowel’s grave. His breath came in wheezing gasps as he tried to draw life from the stuffy air. With slow, deliberate movements the archeologist re-wound his whip and hung it on his belt.

Claws clicked hesitantly on the stone floor. The archeologist looked up to see Flint. Finally free of his bonds, the diamond dog lumbered over to Indiana, pain in his emerald eyes and blood still streaming down from the wound on his ruined shoulder. “What now, Indiana? Feel… funny.”

Indy looked at the rubble covering the doorway out of the sanctuary. If they didn’t get that cleared out soon, they were going to die from lack of air. The traitorous pony entombed in the rock behind him had simply gotten a head start. “We have get out of here before we run out of air, Flint.”

“Huh?” The diamond dog was swaying slightly, head drooping. As Flint looked up again, his legs gave out and he tumbled to the floor. Blood from his shoulder dripped into a crimson puddle at Indiana’s feet. Swearing, the archeologist knelt down and tore a strip out of his shirt, wrapping the wound as best he could. The blood flow slowed a bit, but did not stop.

Indiana slapped the diamond dog’s muzzle a few times. “Hey! Stay awake, Flint. Don’t go to sleep on me, you mangy mutt.”

“Flint… not… mutt,” the diamond dog muttered, trying to push himself up to his paws. Finding the effort too strenuous, he whined in pain and settled back to the floor.

Grinding his teeth, Indiana limped to the rubble pile and started clawing at it, tugging down stones a few at a time in a futile attempt to clear a hole to the open hall beyond. Every stone removed simply resulted in more rubble falling to fill the gap.

“Hey, Indiana!” Daring called, pushing open the door a secret passage in the wall. Indiana Jones ignored the voice and kept digging. He had to get some fresh air in here; he was already hearing things.

“Jones!” Daring tried again. When that failed too, the pegasus’ headache-inducing double memories came to the rescue. “Hey! Junior!”

Indiana wheeled, glaring. “Don’t call me Jun—Jesus Christ! Daring!”

“That’s me,” Daring Do agreed, grinning ear to ear. “So now what, now that we’re both here?”

Clambering off the pile of rubble, Indiana rooted through Silver Trowel’s discarded saddlebags. His empty revolver went back in its holster. He held up the Medallion of Shadow triumphantly. “I think I’ve got it, Daring: the way to get us back where we belong.”

“You want to join the medallions at the pedestal like when we started this whole adventure?” suggested Daring, fishing out her half of the artifact from under her pith helmet.

“Indiana...? Who Indiana talking to?” mumbled Flint, struggling into a seated position.

Daring spared the diamond dog a glance and raised one eyebrow enquiringly. “Flint?! What’s he doing here?”

“You hired him on, and I did the same,” Indiana said, giving Flint a comforting pat on the diamond dog’s unbandaged shoulder. “I had my doubts at first, but the mutt here actually did a pretty good job.”

“I did what now?” asked Daring, blinking in puzzlement.

Doctor Jones’ hand paused mid pat. His expression soured. “You didn’t hire him to help keep you informed of what was going on at the inn?”

“No! I tried, but I gave up. He’s dumb as a box of rocks!” Daring exclaimed. “Isn’t he?”

Indy chuckled. “Apparently not. Just get him some medical help if this works. He’s been shot and he’s still losing blood.”

“Sure,” Daring said with a nod.

Head still tilted in confusion, Flint blinked as Indiana pushed a few more of the heavy golden coins into his paw. “Here, you earned this. Daring Do will get you some help.”

“Indiana leaving?” Flint’s ears drooped as he regarded the archeologist sadly.

“Hopefully. See ya around, kid.” Indiana Jones followed Daring Do to the raised dais.

“Anything I should know about what’s going on over there?” Indy asked the pegasus.

“Um… Brooks was working for Jägermeister. Both dead now. That’s about it over here,” Daring Do commented. “What about over there?”

“Most of the cultists are dead, I think. And Silver Trowel was working for Ahuizotl,” Indy replied.

Daring’s eyes flicked to the dangling corpse. She quickly turned back to Indiana Jones, somehow looking a bit green despite her golden pelt. “Yech. All right then. Let’s do this.”

Human and pegasus pony approached the pedestal from opposite sides, holding out their halves of the artifact. The room seemed to swirl and writhe as the two approached one another. Finally, they pressed the medallion halves together. For Indy and Daring alike, the world exploded in a flash of brilliant white.

Squinting ineffectually against the searing glow, Indiana nodded to Daring Do. She grinned and winked in acknowledgement. There was a sudden sensation of movement—but this time, the two were being pulled apart. Each watched the other recede into the distance. There was another flash of brilliant light, and then nothingness.


A/N: THE END! *rolls credits*

Just kidding, one more chapter to go. I don’t play that April Fools stuff.

You know, the villain deaths here were my absolute favorite bits of the story to write. Man, those were fun. I was a little worried about how quickly Indy and Daring go back to their own worlds- felt like you could see me the writer behind the scenes going, "SHOO! SHOO! BACK TO YOUR PROPER PLACE" and waving an inter-dimensional broom at them. But hey, all my pre-readers said it was fine so I guess I'm just being paranoid.

Finally, I hope everyone enjoyed the triumphant return of the TRAP MAINTENANCE PONY, alluded to waaaaay back in Chapter 1. Initially I was going to have him show up when Indy first got to the Temple of Shadow, but this was a MUCH better idea.