Daring Do and the Sacred Stones

by Revenant Wings

Chapter 6 - The Mile-High Temple

Daring Do pulled her jacket around her tighter. Already the winds were becoming harsher and colder, and Daring shivered through her jacket. The Potion of Heating she had drunk was already wearing off for her, which meant Kindheart was even worse out in this storm. If she couldn’t find either Kindheart or Shining Armor in time, she would freeze to death out here.

“Kindheart!” Daring called again. “Where are you!?”

Daring Do wandered around. She reached into her own bag and pulled out a compass; remembering that Canterlot was east of the mountain, Daring looked at the compass and tried to reorient herself, hoping to come to the edge of the mountain and use the red flags to make her way back, then she could use Shining Armor’s help to get Kindheart back.

The plan would have worked if the compass worked right. Daring took one look at the device and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. The compass needle was spinning around so fast that Daring was surprised the thing didn’t break or run off the pin in the center. The compass was completely useless.

“Ponyfeathers!” Daring spat. “I need to find Kindheart fast. I don’t care what Shining Armor says; I’m not leaving her behind. If Shining’s forces are already spread out as is trying to keep others from getting these Stones, then I’m going to need Kindheart’s help.”

Daring Do picked a direction and walked. Her hope was either to find Kindheart or a cliff face where she could carefully drop down and return to the path. She walked on for a little while before the wind got colder again and she pulled the jacket even closer around her.

Every once in a while she called out Kindheart’s name or Shining Armor’s, and every once in a while the wind seemed to calm down and the snowfall began to lighten. But after a short while the winds just picked up again. Twice, Daring was caught off guard and nearly blown backward again. Afterwards she began to find the tells of when the wind would pick up again, and tucked her wings in and braced herself for a moment before moving on again.

“Kindheart!” Daring called out once. “I’m not leaving you behind! Where are you!”

A faint voice could be heard in the wind. Daring listened for it for a while, and the voice came out again.”

“Kindheart! Can you hear me!?”

“...Daring...”

Daring hadn’t known Kindheart for long, but the pegasus was sure it was her; no other female was on the mountain. Daring called out again. “Kindheart! If that’s you, keep shouting!”

“...are you...”

“I’m coming! Just keep calling, and I’ll go over to you!”

Daring Do heard the voice calling again and again, and followed the voice into a particularly deep patch of snow and fierce winds. But Daring kept hearing the voice and so she kept following. She travelled on, further and further, until she came to a small bit of pink and a red flag visible through the storm.

“Kindheart!” Daring said. She picked up a little bit of speed as she approached the flag.

Sure enough, the little white unicorn with the pink sweater sitting by the flag was Kindheart. The unicorn looked over when Daring called her name and nearly jumped for joy at the sight, walking over to where Daring was approaching.

“Oh, Ms. Do!” Kindheart said, throwing her front hooves around the pegasus. Daring rolled her eyes at the hug, but was happy all the same at finding her. “Oh, thank Celestia someone found me!”

“Yeah, but we’re not out of the woods yet,” Daring said. “I got blown away by a wind and don’t know where Shining Armor is now. But I wasn’t going to leave you behind.” She shivered and fell over, feeling numb in her hooves.

“Oh! Your potion must have worn off!” Kindheart exclaimed. “Here, I have another one. I had a few left and used one to keep warm.”

Kindheart used her magic to steady and uncork a vial of the red liquid and poured another Potion of Heating down Daring’s throat. Almost immediately Daring felt warmer and the numbness left her hooves. She picked herself up and noticed her jacket once again was keeping the warmth inside.

“Thanks,” Daring said. “Not sure how much longer I was going to last.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find our way back to the others. I have more potions we can use, and I gave some to Shining Armor just as a precaution.”

“Well, that won’t help. But we need to find the red flags Shining Armor put down. By the way, how’d you get one?”

“I was blown over by a particularly strong gale. But I grabbed one of the flags that Shining Armor was carrying and held on as hard as I could. I’m lucky I didn’t lose it in the storm, otherwise you might not have found me.”

Daring Do and Kindheart took up the red flag and started walking side by side, keeping the flag between them and huddling together for warmth. Daring explained her plan of finding a cliff or the flags and Kindheart agreed almost immediately. They walked for a while and took turns calling Shining Armor’s name to conserve their breath. But as long as they walked there was no sign of Shining Armor or the guards.

But presently, they came across a strange black shadow looming over them.

“Hey, Ms. Do,” Kindheart said as they looked at the shadow. “What do you think that is?”

“I don’t know,” Daring answered. “I’m just hoping I’m not going delirious.”

But as the two walked forwards, the winds seemed to calm down and the shadow came into focus. They approached closer and found a small stone structure. The walls seemed to have pictures carved into them but they were worn away by snow and ice and neither could make out what they were. It also appeared to get fatter the further back it went, and was covered in torch sconces where the fires had gone out.

Daring Do and Kindheart walked around the structure for a little bit and soon found a large pair of stones that looked like a door. The two went to them and pushed them aside with a loud creaking and scraping sound. They opened the door just enough to get inside and slipped in, Kindheart placing the flag outside the front door in case Shining Armor was nearby looking for them.

It was only after the flag was planted that Daring got a good look at her surroundings. She and Kindheart were in a small room with a stone fireplace that had a pile of logs and some twigs and kindling in it; Kindheart was already busy trying to get a fire started. There were more carvings on the walls, but Daring couldn’t see much of them in the dimmer light.

At the far end were two statues that looked like two alicorns. One seemed to have Celestia’s mane and cutie mark, and the other had a similar mane with many small holes and the cutie mark of a moon. Both sat astride another door with writing on it. Daring approached it, and looked at the writing.

“Can you get that fire started?” Daring said. “It’s cold, plus I’d like some light to see this.”

“Just one second,” Kindheart said. “I think I got it.”

A few seconds later, there was a small crackling fire in the fireplace. The fireplace was significantly sheltered and thus even the howling wind didn’t put it out. Kindheart carefully picked up a decent-sized stick and went to one of the torches nearby and tried lighting it. The torch eagerly accepted the flame; Kindheart put the stick back in the fireplace and moved over to the door where Daring stood.

“There’s writing on it,” she said. “What does it say?”

Daring took a quick look at it. “It’s the clue to the temple,” she said. “Ravenhoof showed me one gained from the Castle of the Two Sisters, where the trail of the Sacred Stones was supposed to begin.”

A snowy peak stands tall above the sunny fields;
A cold air and violent blizzard protects and shields.
Though it's close to throne of pony royalty,
Admittance is gained by value of one’s loyalty.

As soon as Daring finished speaking, there came a sound like an unlocking door. Not long afterwards, the doors opened all by themselves, causing Daring and Kindheart to jump backwards in surprise. Behind the door was dark and nothing could be seen further than the door itself.

“Daring...?” Kindheart said, voice small and trembling. “I’m scared.”

“So am I,” Daring said. “But we ought to go in. If the Sacred Stone is here, we should at least see if we can’t get it.”

Daring Do went towards the door and motioned for Kindheart to follow her. Kindheart moved the torch in front of Daring with her magic and walked behind the pegasus, the two approaching the doors and squeezing through the gap in the stone. First the torch entered, then Daring, then Kindheart.

Daring and Kindheart found themselves in a small stone room with a staircase leading up to a small pedestal on which sat a grey sphere. Daring and Kindheart walked up the stairs side-by-side and approached the pedestal and the stone. On the stone was engraved a mark in the shape of a cloud with a thunderbolt coming down from it; the thunderbolt had three lines that looked like they were colored at one point but the color had faded away.

“This must be the Sacred Stone,” Daring said. “This looks like the one Shining Armor told me about.”

“Are you sure?” Kindheart asked. “It doesn’t look like much.”

“It’s the same size and has an engraving on it. And with it being up here in this snowstorm, I doubt anyone would try and make a fake one to put here.”

Daring pulled out the Transport Sack that Shining Armor had given her and placed the stone inside. It fit perfectly, and when Daring closed it she found the bag glowed for a second and stopped. When she opened it up again the stone was gone and nothing remained.

Daring Do and Kindheart were about to leave the pedestal when Kindheart stopped.

“What?” Daring said impatiently. “Is something there?”

“Yeah,” Kindheart said. “It looks like another poem.”

Daring went up and found Kindheart taking out a pencil and paper and beginning to scribble the writing down on her own little notepad. Daring Do went over and looked at the verse engraved in the pedestal below where the Sacred Stone once rested.

In south deserts dry, a community stands.
Two separate species shall have to shake hands.
To abate these creature’s ferocity,
One will have to show their generosity.

“It’s as cryptic as the first,” Daring Do said. “But if that’s what we have to go off of, then we ought to see if we can’t research.”

“We could always go to Prince Blueblood,” Kindheart said. “He knows a lot about maps and Equestrian geography. Maybe he would know something about it.”

“Sure, if we can get him to cooperate,” Daring said. “I’ve heard he doesn’t look too kindly on city ponies.”

“Maybe he would help you if you told him it was royal business,” Kindheart suggested. “He couldn’t deny an order from his aunt.”

“Well, we can try it,” Daring said as they exited the small room and went back to the fireplace. “But first we have to figure out how to get down from this mountain.”

“That won’t be so hard.”

Daring Do and Kindheart both looked to the entrance of the building where the voice had come from and found Shining Armor trudging in with the two guards. They all looked worn out but none showed signs of freezing and they all hurriedly came over to the fireplace.

“Thank goodness we found you!” Shining Armor said. He raced over to Kindheart and threw a hoof around her, who returned the gesture. “We were getting more worried and considered going back down to tell Celestia, but then we saw the flag outside the building here and found our way here. We heard you speaking inside.”

“Are you alright?” Daring asked. “What happened after I blew off in the gale?”

“Not much. We used our flags to try searching for you and heard you calling out, but you started going farther and farther away. We tried searching a little farther but couldn’t find you; it was like the snow was creating a wall between us and you. So we started looking for the temple.” Shining Armor let go of Kindheart and looked around the room. “Seems like you found it ahead of us.”

“Yeah,” Daring said. “We found the Sacred Stone and used the Transport Sack to send it back to your place in Canterlot. And we found a poem that looks like it could be the next clue on the trail.”

Daring recited the poem to Shining Armor and the guards. They were attentive listeners as Daring repeated it, and soon the guards and Shining Armor were all nodding their heads.

“That certainly sounds like the next clue,” Shining Armor said. “Celestia told me it would probably be in verse. Where did you find it?”

“Under the Stone,” Daring said. “By the way, the Stone had a thunderbolt-looking mark on it. Do you have any idea what it stands for?”

“No idea,” Shining Armor said, shaking his head. “I can ask Celestia to see if we’re on the right track, but I can’t give you any information off the top of my head.”

Kindheart finally spoke up. “I’m sorry, Captain Armor, for getting lost like that,” she said.

“No need to apologize to me,” Shining Armor said. “I was going to count it as a loss, but it was Daring’s idea to go and search for you. Turns out that was the right situation in the end. I should apologize to you for nearly leaving you behind.”

Kindheart nodded. “I’ll forgive you,” she said, “but perhaps it’s better I’m going with Ms. Do.”

“You know,” Daring said, “you can just call me ‘Daring’. I hate ‘Ms. Do’; it sounds too formal.”

Kindheart nodded happily.

“Now,” Shining Armor said. “We’ve placed flags in a path down. Why don’t we head down to Canterlot, regroup, and figure out what our next step is?”