The Death of Daring Do: The Engine of Eternity

by DuncanR

Part 8: "So, should we start looking for—whoa, back up a bit there! Horrible death-curse!?"

After half an hour of slow, cautious walking, Derring-Do rushed ahead and pointed at a section of wall. "There! Look! There's a symbol here! Quickly!"

Without being asked, Rainbow Dash took a fresh glowstick in her mouth and held it over Derring's shoulder.

"Finally, some useful information. This resting place isn't just a vault or an archive... it's a cradle. A place of recovery and recuperation, but not for any living thing..."

"Maybe it's a recharging station or something? Like the kind they have for magic crystals that run out of energy."

"Exactly. It refers to a stone of some sort... a key-stone, or a star-stone..." Derring-Do looked down the hall. "And it's that way!"

She scrambled up and ran down the hallway, with rainbow Dash gliding after her. She paused every so often to glance at the walls and leave behind chalk-marks, but never quite came to a complete stop. Within a minute, they arrived at a long stone bridge. This one also spanned the facing walls of a vast, vertical crevice, but the air here was frigid. Instead of lava fountains, the walls were decorated with massive ice formations. The ceiling far above them was the glistening underbelly of a subterranean glacier. Below them was a shadowy, bottomless pit.

"Talk about hot and cold," Rainbow Dash said as she gazed all around. "This is crazy... there should be all sorts of weather problems, but the air pressure is perfectly smooth."

Derring-Do jogged across the bridge. "Come on: whatever this key-stone is, it's right ahead of us."

"Hey, whoa, hold up there!" Rainbow Dash flew ahead and dropped down in front of her. "The weather system in this place is way too weird and impossible! Doesn't that seem a little suspicious? We can't just go bumbling in there!"

Derring-Do stared at her for a moment. She finally took off her hat and gave Dash a quizzical look.

"What?"

"After everything that's happened—all the impossible, dangerous, ridiculous things we've seen today—this is what makes you hesitate?"

"Well... I mean..." Rainbow Dash looked away. "This is different. I know weather."

"I suppose it's harder to be brave when you truly understand how bad things are."

"I guess," said Dash. She took a deep breath and walked forward. "But you don't call Rainbow Dash for the easy stuff."

Derring watched her walk ahead. She shook her head, but followed after.

After they crossed the bridge, there were no corners or crossroads to choose from. The corridor led them straight to a massive circular hall, arranged like an arena or a full-circle theatre: the tiled floor sloped down like a shallow bowl and there was a huge stone pillar in the very center.

Rainbow Dash let out a long, low whistle.

"Now this is more like it," Derring said. She walked along the edge of the theatre and examined the walls: almost every section was covered with giant engravings. "These aren't just writings. They look like instructions, or... or maybe formulae. This must have been some sort of workshop or laboratory."

"Anything useful? Like an exit?"

"Instructions... instructions..." Derring walked further along the edge of the room. "Ah, directions! There's a map of the whole complex, right here. Frightfully convenient of them, I must say. It looks like..." Derring let out a groan and slapped herself in the face.

Dash flew over to her. "What? What's wrong?"

"The floor tiles!" she said. "Some of the floor-tiles are twice as large as the others... and the decorative pattern points the way to the exit. How could I be so stupid!"

"Don't be so hard on yourself. They didn't look anything at all like arrows."

"I didn't find what I wasn't looking for... serves me right." She tugged her hat tight. "No need to dwell on the past."

"What about all the rest of these inscriptions?" said Dash. "Do they explain anything?"

"It looks like they explain everything." Derring Do examined the adjoining inscriptions, speaking as she walked. "This place really is the 'City of Still Waters,' even though 'city' isn't the right translation. It's not quite a workshop, and it's not quite a laboratory... it's something in between."

"Maybe It's a university," said Dash.

Derring-Do shot her a surprised look. "You're right... it just might be! But 'School of Still Waters' doesn't make any sense in their language. The liquid-water-mystery symbol matches up, but the still-quiet-secret symbol makes no sense given that particular context."

Derring-Do quickened her pace and pointed at the next inscription.

"This passage mentions the 'key-stone' or 'star-stone'. It was stored here when not in use, but it doesn't explain what it's supposed to do... just something about limitless cosmic power, and a horrible death-curse. Nothing too interesting."

"Oh." Rainbow dash glanced around the hall. "So, should we start looking for—whoa, back up a bit there! Horrible death-curse!?"

"Yeah," Derring-do said, "just your average run-of-the-mill superstition."

Dash bolted to her side, every limb tense. "Just what sort of curse are we talking about here, anyways?"

Derring rolled her eyes. "I like how you didn't even notice the mention of limitless cosmic power."

"No, seriously. What's up with this curse?"

"The inscription says that some sort of horrible, terrible curse will all on anypony who attempts to use 'key-stone' or remove it from it's rightful resting place. But it's all just superstitious clop-trap, designed to frighten grave robbers and plunderers."

Rainbow Dash stamped a hoof and glared at her. "We can't take it, and that's final!"

Derring-Do blinked at her for a moment. "Okay."

"What? Really?"

"I doubt we'll need to take it anywhere. All we need is to take a look at it, search for clues, and be on our way. All things considered, we should leave the ruins just as we found them."

"Well... great. Good." Rainbow Dash rubbed her nose. "So, how do we find it?"

Derring Pointed at the vertical pillar that ran through the very center of the hall. "There should be a switch of some sort on that pillar... but the tiles on the floor are all pressure-plates. They might be traps, or just a part of some enormous mechanism... either way, we can't afford to trigger the wrong tiles."

"Huh... so how do we get across?"

"Why don't you take this one yourself?" Derring-Do said and gave her a pat on the back. "I think your unique talents are up to the task."

"Wow, really?" Dash grinned at her and issued a salute. "I won't let you down, Derring. I'll figure this out if it's the last thing I do!"

"Well, it shouldn't be that—"

Rainbow Dash ran to the edge of the floor tiles and hunkered down, examining the patterns. "Lets see... one, two, three, four... there's eight unique patterns in total. Half of them are made of straight lines, and the other half are curvy..."

"Dash? You're overthinking things a bit."

"No-no-no, I got this." Dash stood up. "The pillar is covered with tiles, with all the same patterns... so stepping on a tile must affect a different part of the pillar in some way."

Derring-Do walked up beside her. "Dash. Think before you think."

She stared at the pillar. After several long seconds, she bopped herself in the nose. "Right... right. Silly me." She spread her wings and flew over to the pillar.

"The switch should be near the bottom," Derring called out. "It'll be a push block... not hidden, but very plain looking."

"Here we go," Dash said and hovered lower. "I only see one of them."

"One less decision for us to make, I suppose. Go ahead and push it in. Gently."

Rainbow Dash nudged the stone block and pushed it into the column. The sound of heavy, grinding stone filled the air, and a section of the wall opened wide and bathed the theatre in a cascade of colorful light.

Rainbow Dash turned in midair, gawking at the countless beams of color shining against the walls and ceiling. "This is amazing!"

Derring-Do galloped along the edge of the room and ran to the freshly opened alcove. "Dash? Something tells me you're going to want to see this for yourself."

Dash flew to her side, and the two ponies gazed in awe at the source of the light: a large, triangular prism sitting on a tiny stone altar. The prism was perfectly clear, like diamond, but a beam of light from above made it glow like a thing of solid energy. It was the size of a loaf of bread.

"So is this a key-stone, or a star-stone?" Rainbow Dash whispered.

Derring-Do leaned closer, examining the inscriptions along the tiny altar. "Lapis Philosophorum... I don't believe this. It's a philosopher's stone."

"You mean the secret to immortality?" Dash stared at the prism, slack jawed. "Do you think it's the genuine article?"

"Whoever built this place certainly must have thought so," she said, "and it looks exactly like the one Prince Gallium used for his alchemical machine."

"Yeah, but super-sized." Dash squinted at the stone. "The philosopher's stone of legend could be used to make three different substances: Alkahest, the universal solvent that could corrode any substance... Azoth, a medicinal substance that could cure anything... and Gold, the rarest and most precious metal of the ancient era."

"And we know for certain that Prince Gallium's crystal can be used to make medicine. There might just be some truth to this old chestnut of a legend." Derring turned to look at her. "Wait... how do you know all that?"

"Book twelve of the expanded universe," Dash said. "They go looking for the Philosopher's stone to save Gearbox's life. He used to be a villainous smuggler, but now he's her bad-boy love interest. One of them, anyways."

Derring glowered at her. "You're just spouting what you got out of a fictional novel? I should have guessed."

"After I read the book, I was so curious that I did some research about the 'real life' philosopher's stone. It never really existed, of course, so all those ancient legends about it were fictional to begin with. I guess you only hate modern make-believe stories."

Derring-Do looked away.

"Look, forget I said anything. Are there any clues about how to get out of here?"

"Yes... yes." She looked back at the center of the theatre. "There's a combination of numbers and symbols here. I think if we hit the right tiles in the right order, something should happen."

"...Something?"

"Something useful," Derring said. She pointed at an inscription inside the alcove. "This word translates to 'evacuation' or 'escape'."

Rainbow Dash took to the air and hovered over the thousands of floor tiles surrounding the pillar. "Then what are we waiting for? Just tell me where to step!"

"All right... it uses a system of latitude and longitude. There should be one tile with a plain triangle on it, right near the pillar. Hit that one once."

Dash hovered side to side for awhile, then dropped down to step on one of the tiles with her hind leg. It sank into the ground, then lifted back into place when she let go. "Hey, it's all springy and stuff!"

"All right, now... with your back to the pillar... go three tiles to the left, and then twelve forward."

"Right... right... three, twelve..." She stepped on another tile. "Done!"

"Now, go eight tiles to the left, and go backwards—towards the pillar, that is—until you find a tile that looks like a... like a little bird or something. It'll look upside-down to you."

"Like a humming-bird, you mean?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

Rainbow Dash pressed the third tile and something under the floor began grinding against something else. There were a series of long, drawn-out clicks, and the sound of gravel trickling down. The pillar in the center of the room rotated in place, and a tight beam of light shot out of the prism and shone against it's surface.

"Now that's what I call 'something'," Dash called out. "What now?"

"Well... I guess we wait. Maybe there's an elevator or something."

They looked around the room for a while. The deep, mechanical noises continued to rumble through the floor, growing ever louder.

Dash's ear twitched. "...Did you hear that?"

"What was that?" Derring-Do shouted back. "Did you say something?"

"It sounded like..." Dash looked at the entrance. "What did you say this place was called?"

"The something-something of Still Waters. Why?"

"And what was Prince Gallium using his prism for?"

"An alchemical... distillery."

"So," Dash said, "we've got lots of underground halls, with a lava-crevice on one side..."

"...and a glacier-crevice on the other," Derring finished.

They both stared at the theatre's exit. Gradually, a roaring rush of water began to drown out the mechanical chaos. They snapped to look at each other, eyes wide. "We're in a still!" they shouted together.

A tidal wave of frigid water poured into the room and splashed into the bowl-shaped depression around the pillar, seeping in between the pressure plates and filling up the room.

"We gotta get out of here!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "We've got five seconds, tops!"

"Right!" Derring-Do swiped the prism out of the alcove and tossed it into her saddlebag. "Lead the way, Dash!"

"Aaah no the horrible death-curse!" Dash shouted. "Why did you even do that? What is wrong with you!?"

"That's my problem now," she said as she ran along the edge of the room. "You just worry about getting us out of here alive!"

Rainbow Dash flew directly over her. "Here! Grab my hooves!"

Derring-Do jumped up and hooked her ankles against Dash's, and promptly pulled her to the ground like an anchor. Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth and flapped her wings, with no success.

"Jeez, you weigh a ton!"

"Well excuse me! I've never had to be buoyant or aerodynamic before!" Derring yelped as the water lapped against her boot. "Do something do something do something!"

"Okay, just hold on... and brace your hooves as hard as you can!"

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings, flying forward instead of up, and dragged her along the wet, slippery floor. She swept low over the deluge of incoming water, and Derring-Do's rubber-soled boots skipped over the surface like clumsy, awkward skis. Dash and Derring skimmed against the current and came to the bridge across the chasm: the icy buildup was collapsing all around them, and the belly of the glacier above groaned and creaked. Dash struggled to keep Derring in the center of the bridge before the water swept her over the edge. Several flat chunks of ice landed in their way and Derring managed to stamp her hind hooves firmly against one of them, standing on it like a surfboard

"The lights!" Derring shouted. "There's beams of light all through the crevice!"

"No time to worry about that!" Dash shouted. "we gotta... oh-geez-you-gotta-be-kidding-me!!"

As they zoomed back through the maze of corridors, the deep shadowy alcoves burst to life: narrow beams of white-hot light shot out of and into each set of alcoves, filling the corridor with tripwires at various heights. Whenever the water splashed against the beams, they seared with bubbles and steam.

"Aaahhh jump jump jump!"

Derring kicked off of her icy surfboard just as a beam slipped beneath them, burning the very tip of her tail to a crisp. She planted her hooves back onto the ice. A second later, she let go of Dash's forelegs and flattened herself against the ice just in time for a beam to pass above her, missing her helmet by a matter of inches.

"Left!" Derring shouted. "We gotta take the next left! Follow the tiles!"

"We don't even know where we are!"

"We have to go somewhere, don't we!?"

Rainbow Dash tilted to the left and pulled Derring-Do as hard as she could. The slab of ice swerved around the corner and smashed against the stone wall, breaking a chunk off the side.

"Now right!" Derring shouted.

Rainbow Dash heaved to the right, but the rushing rapids were too powerful. The deluge pulled them straight ahead and into unfamiliar territory.

"Aaah! Other right! Other Right!"

"I can't!" Dash said. "It's too—"

They both stared, aghast, at a whole wall of light-beams directly ahead: They closed off the entire corridor like the bars of a prison cell, packed much too tightly to fly between.

"Whelp, I'm officially outta ideas," said Dash.

Derring-Do pursed her lips for a moment, then took the enormous prism out of her saddlebag. "Stay behind me." She braced herself for the onrushing wall of light. Just as they approached, she leaped forward and held the prism in front of her: the translucent object touched the beam and instantly redirected it back against the wall, where it cut through the stone like a hot knife through butter. The beam sizzled out, and Derring-Do dove through the tiny gap like an olympic high-diver. The top of her helmet was scorched and blackened but she slipped through in one piece.

Rainbow Dash slipped in behind her easily. The chunk of ice shattered and melted completely, and Derring landed in the water. Dash tried to grab hold of her, but the waves pulled her back and forth too randomly to keep track of.

"Hold on, Derring! I've almost got you!"

Derring’s face broke the surface of the water, and she gasped for breath. "The stone! Take it!"

"You've still got that thing? Let go of it!"

"No! I can't! I won't!"

"It's just a chunk of rock!" Dash shouted. "It's gonna get you killed!"

Derring sputtered as she was pulled under the waves. Dash's eyes flicked over the dark, glacial water, searching for the faint yellow flicker of her glowstick necklace. She caught sight of a shape thrashing about, and dove into the waves after it. The frigid liquid sluiced straight through her coat and sent a shiver through her bones, but she managed to grab hold of Derring-Do's sopping wing.

Sorry, Derring, but I think this is gonna hurt...

She dove up and out of the water like a salmon leaping upstream, and heaved with all her strength: Derring-Do broke the surface with a gasp of air and let out a visceral scream of pain as Dash dragged her along by her crippled wing. A moment later, the water swept them into a vertical shaft and engulfed them both completely. The flow was powerful enough to surge upwards: it was all they could do to cling to each other and hold their breath as the current carried them up through the mountains like a waterspout.

Eventually the water swept them sideways, then down along a curved slide. They gasped for breath and winced in pain as daylight blinded them: they slid down along a snowbank and skidded to a halt on the rocky outcropping where the expedition had set up camp. After some hacking and coughing, they both looked up to see a semicircle of grim, uniformed security stallions, all pointing huge metal crossbows with rotary loading mechanisms. The weapons clicked menacingly as they were brought to bear.

Professor Walski stepped out from the semicircle. "Miss Do?"

Derring-Do scrambled to her feet. "No wait! I can explain everything!"

A thunderclap sounded across the mountainside and the ground quaked under their hooves. Two of the smaller mountain peaks behind them collapsed completely, and a mile-long jet of volcanic steam and ash spewed into the atmosphere. The entire eastern side of the mountain gave way to a titanic avalanche.

The armed guards all turned to stare at the catastrophic damage, slack jawed.

Professor Walski turned to Derring-Do. "So. I've heard you can explain everything."

Derring-Do glanced left and right with a nervous little smile. "Well okay, but we found the Philosopher's Stone."

Walski frowned at her. "The what?"

"No, really!" Derring-Do held up the clear crystal prism, completely undamaged by the escape. "There was a—"

A metal claw shot forward and clamped around the prism. A spool of chain immediately yanked it back before Derring could react: A black stallion in a black longcoat hefted an enormous grapple-grabber-gun and passed the prism to Walski.

"Hey! That's our prism!" Rainbow Dash leaped up, but settled down as the security guards all readied their rotary-crossbows. "...That you can totally borrow, no big deal."

Professor Walski examined the prism for a moment, then passed it back to the black stallion in the black longcoat. "Take this to my office in the Imbrium. I'll examine it later."

"I'm terribly sorry we ruined your ruins," said Derring, "but at least you've got a prism thingy to show for it. And that's a good thing. Right?"

Professor Walski fixed her with smoldering glare. "Oh, don't you worry...I know exactly what's going to happen to the two of you."

Dash and Derring glanced at each other.

---

Half an hour later, after a warm bath and a bowl of hot soup, Rainbow Dash slammed her suitcase shut and left her quarters. Derring-Do joined her in the hallway and a pair of stern guards escorted them to the docking hangar where their airplane was stowed. Professor Walski was already waiting for them as they arrived.

"Since there are no more ruins for my expedition to survey, the Imbrium has set course for the next potential site." She nodded to their Goldfinch tilt-rotor airplane. "You're in no condition to pilot, so I'm sending one of my own officers to escort you directly to Canterlot. There will be no other stops along the way. I am giving him a hoof-written report to deliver to the university, after which I am quite certain the dean will have a conversation with you that you will not like."

Derring took off her scorched helmet and kept her eyes down. "Yes'm. Sorry ma'am."

"Not as sorry as you should be, young filly. I cannot imagine what your parents would think of this debacle." Walski's voice softened somewhat. "...Gods rest their souls."

Derring stared at her hooves.

Walski turned to Dash. "And what about you? Anything to say for yourself?"

"We coulda both been killed back there, you know."

"Of course you could have. Because you wandered into a hazardous, uncharted area without asking for permission, or even telling anypony you were leaving. You're not a child anymore. Take some responsibility for your actions. And for goodness sake, stop filling poor Miss Do's head with such irresponsible nonsense: she had a perfectly rational head on her shoulders before you came along and filled it up with childish fantasies."

Rainbow Dash ground her teeth together, but stopped when she heard a slight sniffle from Derring-Do. She took her by the shoulder and helped her into the plane. As soon as they went inside, Derring-Do trudged to the folding bench on the wall and flopped on her side. Dash watched her for awhile, and occasionally glanced at the map on the wall.

"I'm sorry I got you into all this," she said. "We almost drowned, or froze, or whatever. I just wanted to visit some real-life ruins, and we ended up blowing them up. I never meant or any of this to happen."

Derring-Do sighed. "You've sure been apologizing to me a lot, lately."

"Yeah, well... it seems like I've been messing things up a lot, lately. I guess I like to fly by the seat of my pants, taking life one day at a time. But I guess that doesn't work for most normal ponies."

They watched each other for awhile.

"I'm glad I came here," said Derring-Do. "It was fun. In a way."

"You... can't be serious."

"We found a priceless artifact in those catacombs. A real, honest-to-goodness ancient treasure. It's the sort of find that only happens once in a lifetime... and it was you and me that found it."

"Yeah, well, Perez is the one who's gonna go down in history for it." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and sat at the tiny, fold-out kitchen table. "You even gave her all the notes you took in the ruins. She'll get credit for everything."

"It was her dig, and it was her discovery to begin with. But that doesn't matter." She rolled onto her back and stared at the roof of the plane. "I still got a chance to touch it... to carry it... even for just a few minutes."

Dash smiled at her. "So... what now?"

"I just want to go home... maybe stay in bed for a whole week straight."

Rainbow Dash stood up and went to the cockpit, but both of the seats were empty.

"Hey, where's the pilot? I thought Perez wanted us out of her mane as fast as possible."

Derring-Do mumbled something, already half asleep.

Rainbow Dash walked to the side door, but the lever refused to open. "Hey, how do I open the..." Her voice trailed off as she glanced through the window and caught sight of a black stallion standing by the gantry, dressed in a long-black coat. He was standing by a panel of heavy switches, smiling... it was a smarmy sort of smile, the sort ponies wore when they were laughing too loudly at their own bad jokes. He looked up at her, gave her a brief little wave, and pulled one of the switches.

Dash yelped as the floor gave way beneath her. She slammed up against the ceiling and slid towards the front cabin next to where Derring-Do had landed in a panic. Dash looked up into the cockpit and saw white skies all around, with the shining silver zeppelin growing ever more distant with each passing second. The plane tumbled about wildly as it plummeted to the ground far below.

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

It's a philosopher's stone."

SHIT where Voldemort?

Damn another cliffhanger!

[BeauZoe]

This... is... AWESOME! Things are picking up for sure... but I can't seem to find the brown colored fan I was carrying... oh yeah, I left it behind when the GIANT ASS DISTILLERY ACTIVATED. oops... found it again as I we all begin falling to our doom! Your love of writing translates into my love of reading. Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!

[MrAskAPirate]

2380941

SHIT where Voldemort?

Or the Elric Brothers?

[Sypher]

"And we know for certain that Prince gallium's crystal can be used to make medicine.

Gallium

"Right!" Derring-Do swiped the Prism out of the alcove and tossed it into her saddlebag. "Lead the way, Dash!"

Prism shouldn't be capitalized

"Off course you could have. Because you wandered into a hazardous, uncharted area without permission.

Of course

Wait, was that a murder attempt? Who even thought of doing that? There's pretty much no reason for anyone to want Rainbow and Derring dead, from what I can see.
Well, if it is a murder attempt, I hope we get to see the horrible death-curse reach those responsible.

[jszellmer]

I guess you only hate modern make-believe stories."

Touché.

[Biker_Dash]

"We're in a still!" they shouted together.

The alcoholic in me cheered way too much