Chapter 7
Daring-Do and the Griffon's Goblet
By Sebbaa
Chapter 7
As soon as Daring-Do had passed through the portal, she shrunk into the shadow of one of the supply crates scattered around the dig site and stared back at the portal, panting heavily. When she was sure she was not immediately being pursued, she ripped a sleeve of her shirt with her teeth and tore it into a long shred. She used it to bind her broken wing to her flank; her tortured whinnying was stifled by the end of the bandage she was holding in her mouth. Daring suppressed the pain and pulled the improvised bandage tight. She couldn’t afford the injured limb to hinder her during the next part of her escape.
When she was done patching herself up, she raised her head over the crate, looking around the camp, shooting a glance back at the entrance the Patriots had blown into the vault. After she made sure that nopony would spot her, she left her hiding place and headed towards the canyon's wall, scurrying from cover to cover. When she was standing at the foot of the cliff, she turned around once more, looking for pursuers. With nopony in sight she quickly began to climb the cliff, jumping from hoofhold to hoofhold, balancing herself with her one good wing. It didn't take her long to reach the top. She grasped the cliff's edge with her teeth, then swung her hooves up and used them to pull herself onto the top.
Daring allowed herself a moment to catch her breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead with a fetlock. Then she turned back to the cliff, lay on her stomach and crawled towards the edge. Letting only enough of her head protrude over the cliff so she could look back down at the dig site, back down at the portal. She bit her lower lip and waited for any signs of a pony leaving the vault, dreading who it would be. She knew that after the fight between earth pony and griffon only one would walk out of the chamber alive. She had seen it in Bulwark's eyes, had seen the murderous intent to kill or be killed. The memory made her shudder; it was nothing she had ever seen in a pony or ever wanted to see again. Still, she had to know her companion's fate, and so she waited.
She didn't have to wait for long. Voices came from the side entrance to the vault; soon a group of ponies exited the tunnel, and her heart skipped a beat. One of them was carrying the unmoving form of Bulwark on his back. Daring watched paralyzed, at how the Patriots bellowed orders through the camp, and a great commotion broke loose.
She let out the breath she didn't knew she had been holding when she saw how a unicorn, who had galloped from the main camp, began treating her companion's wounds. A relieved smile crept on her face, and she could feel her eyes water up. “He's alive! Thank Celestia, he's alive!” she exclaimed, sobbing in relief with her hooves over her mouth to muffle the sound. Yet she was puzzled at the same time, dreading what the Patriots planned to do with the colt.
Her feeling of unrest only grew when the royal blue unicorn from the labyrinth’s center walked to her companion and the mare treating him. “The President,” Daring muttered under her breath when she realized that he was giving the orders. She ground her teeth and forced herself to sit still and watch, even though a voice in the back of her mind told her to swoop down and save the day. She shifted her body around uncomfortably and bode the things to come.
After long, torturous moments the doctor finished her work and turned towards her superior. They traded some words, and even from the distance Daring could make out that the mare had a argument with the President. But in the end she gave in; she walked back towards her bags reluctantly and levitated a small bottle out of them. On their leader's command, four bulky stallions took stand besides the fighting pony and held down his legs. The unicorn mare opened the bottle in her magic field, careful to hold her distance, and hovered it under the unconscious pony's nose.
Bulwark stirred and came to his senses, coughing and retching, when the aroma from the smelling salt reached his nose. He looked around himself in confusion, and then tried to break free when he realized where he was. But the stallions holding him were too strong and he couldn’t move a hoof. “Stop struggling, or you'll open up your wounds again!” the doctor scolded him sharply, raising her voice over the commotion. Reluctantly the colt ceased his resistance and let his body slump back on the medical blanket on which he was lying.
The President raised a hoof, and slowly, the commotion around him quieted down. “Daring-Do, we got your little coltfriend!” he shouted, turning on the spot so his voice traveled in every direction.
“I'm not her coltfriend!” the young stallion protested strongly, and Daring had to smile at her companion's antics despite the dire situation.
The president ordered Bulwark to do something, but she couldn’t make out his words. The colt snapped back at him sharply and shook his head. His defiance didn't amuse the unicorn at all, and he pressed his hoof on the fighting pony's bandaged shoulder. Daring winced as her companion's pained outcry echoed through the canyon.
“As you can hear, he is alive!” the President shouted in every direction once more. “For now!”
The unicorn looked around the camp until his eyes fell onto a sledgehammer. He levitated the heavy tool to his side with his magic. Even from the distance the adventuress could see the sadistic sneer on his face as he spoke up once again.
“You have ten seconds to come out from wherever you're hiding and give me the goblet, before I smash the colt's head in with this hammer!”
When he heard the threat Bulwark tried to break free once more. “Don't listen to him, Daring! Run! Get away from hmpfhmhmmf. . . .“ His words were cut off by the unicorn telekinetically shoving a rag in his mouth.
“Now you speak up! But I only need her to hear you squirm!” the President mocked and lifted the hammer high above the earth pony's head.
“Ten!”
Bulwark struggled, trying to get his hooves free, but he might as well have tried moving a mountain.
“Nine!”
Daring bit her lower lip and rubbed her face with her hooves. Her eyes darted from the President looming above her companion, over the ponies holding him and the group that surrounded them; they darted over the empty camp, over the airship and back to the President and his hammer.
“Eight!”
Thoughts raced through her head. What would happen if a pony like the President ever got his hooves on the Goblet?
“Seven!”
How much destruction he would cause.
“Six!”
How many ponies would die by his hooves.
“Five!”
Even the princess had been powerless to stop Discord's rampage until the griffons stole his goblet.
“Four!”
Would Celestia be able to stop the Patriots once they had this power?
“Three!”
Could she risk it?
“Two!”
The fate of the world and millions of ponies against the life of a single colt.
“One!”
Bulwark stopped his struggles. He shut his eyes tight and turned his face away, sending a silent prayer to the goddess that it would be over fast.
The President reared on his hindlegs, and as his hooves came down stomping, so came the hammer.
“Stop!” Daring's shout echoed throughout the canyon. The unicorn stopped the hammer just a hoof wide from Bulwark's head. Everypony turned towards the call's origin.
Daring-Do stood on the cliff’s edge, her form contrasting with the moon rising behind her, her mane blowing in the wind. Tears were gleaming in her eyes, yet she stared down with all the hatred in the world at the unicorn who had dared to threaten her friend.
“Ah! Miss Do, how nice of you to join us!” the President called to her, dropping the hammer. The tool fell to the ground and left a small crater, too close to Bulwark's head for the colt's comfort. “Now, if you would be so kind as to come down and hoof over the Goblet, then we can all have a lovely soiree!” he went on with a smug half-grin.
“Not so fast!” Daring objected sternly, raising the rim of her helmet. With a nod of her head she dropped the goblet from it and caught it on her hoof. She presented it to the onlookers below, holding it out over the edge for everypony to see. “You have to guarantee my companion's safety, or I'll drop this cup and shatter it into a thousand pieces!”
The smile faded from the President's face. “What? You wouldn’t dare!”
“Oh yes, I would!” exclaimed the adventuress. “I would travel to the end of the world, drown in a pool of mud, and burn down all of Equestria for the sake of my friend! Don't think I would hesitate one second to destroy a stupid drinking cup if I have to!” She waved her hoof with the Goblet on it over the cliff threateningly, her eyes burning with fierce determination.
The Patriot's leader below raised his hooves in a calming gesture. “Alright, alright. Your companion won't be harmed!”
Daring just shook her head at his words and raised the goblet higher on her hoof. “Not good enough!” she exclaimed sharply. “You will swear on your name and honor. You will swear that no harm will come to my companion, Bulwark son of Vanguard!” she demanded loudly. “Or to me!” she added in an afterthought.
The President ground his teeth angrily and considered her words for a moment. “Alright, I swear!” he replied finally. But the disapproving look on the mare's face, and her waving the goblet over the edge again told him she wasn't satisfied with that. He swallowed down his anger before he placed a hoof over his heart and began a solemn vow. “I, New Order, swear on my name and honor, that no harm will be done to your companion, Bulwark son of Vanguard, nor you when you give me the Griffon's Goblet.”
With this the adventuress finally lowered the goblet. Even a maniac like the President couldn’t break his vow in front of all his followers. It would ruin his credibility, so he had to keep his word, at least for now.
Daring nodded solemnly, put the goblet back in her helmet and began descending to the ground of the canyon again.
When she reached the ground, two black-dressed, burly guards welcomed her. They escorted Daring towards their boss, one of them walking on either side.
The president awaited them in the light of several oil lamps, all of his followers gathered in a half-circle behind him. Bulwark was lying nearby, still gagged and now tied up with thick ropes. Daring grimaced when she stepped into the circle of light and saw the triumphant grin on her enemy's face. When she came before him, she gave a pained, defeated smile, dropped the goblet into her hoof nonchalantly and held it out to the president. “Here you go, New Order. You win! Now keep your word!”
“Why so gloomy, Miss Do?” the unicorn inquired, as he levitated Griffon's Goblet from her hoof. “You should rejoice to be part of this historical moment!” A wild gleam came to his eyes as he spoke up, not only addressing her but everypony present. “This will be remembered as the crucial step in overthrowing the tyrant Celestia and bringing forth a new order!” He almost shouted the last words, and everypony but two stomped their hooves on the ground and began to cheer.
Daring raised an eyebrow. “And who will be in charge of this new order?” she inquired when the cheering of the crowd had died down. “You?”
The unicorn chuckled at his beaten foe's banter. “The Republic of Equestria will be led by an elected representative,” he explained haughtily. “But of course, I will run for the post,” he added with a growing smile. “And if my fellow citizens will have me, I will be the first president!” His voice went up at the last words, and again the crowd began to cheer loudly, until he silenced them with a raised hoof.
“And you truly believe that?” inquired Daring doubtingly. “Princess Celestia has been the beloved ruler of Equestria for over a millennium. The ponies adore their princess and worship her as the goddess of the sun. You really think they will thank you if you overthrow her?”
New Order waved off her concern with a hoof. “Of course there will be a few ponies who are in league with the tyrant and will resist the change,” he started to explain. Then his eyes went wide and his pupils tiny; a sadistic smile crept onto his face. “But they will dealt with, just as we will deal with all the mules, cattle, and other pests that have infiltrated our society. They all will be dealt with, like I will deal with the princess when the Patriots bring new order to the land!” he exclaimed, and this time his followers went crazy, stomped the ground, cheered loudly and began to chant his name.
Daring shrank away, taking a few steps towards Bulwark, her ears lowered in fear. “They are mad, all of them!” she muttered under her breath.
New Order rose on his hindlegs and threw his forelegs wide. “Now my faithful comrades. Bring me the wine! I shall drink from the goblet and take Discord's power as mine!” he announced festively, raising his voice above the crowd's fanatic chant.
“What, you just drink from the cup? No fancy magic ritual? No sacrificing of virgins and bathing in their blood to appease to your dark god?” Daring remarked, baffled.
The unicorn gave her an amused chuckle. “No, I fear it is this simple,” he said and smiled at her mockingly. “No more chance for you to snap the goblet from under my nose while I prepare for a ritual.”
Daring shuffled even closer to her bound companion, shaking her head. “Nopony can control the power of Discord. It knows only one master, the one that is bound in stone,” she uttered, her voice shaking with dreadful foreboding, but nopony heard her words. The wine had arrived and the cheering and chanting crowd drowned out all other voices. The two adventurers could only watch in horror how New Order's servant poured him and filled the Griffon's Goblet.
The President lifted the cup for a toast. “To the new order!” he said, then levitated the goblet to his lips and drank deep. When he had emptied the cup, he lowered it slowly and looked into it curiously.
The crowd had fallen silent, and everypony was looking at New Order expectantly.
Nothing happened.
Somepony from the crowd could be heard coughing, and the Patriots began to look at each other in confusion. New Order was shaking the cup with his magic in frustration, when suddenly a shock wave erupted from the unicorn. It was not one that could be seen or heard, but a shock wave of magic that everypony could feel passing through his body. Daring could feel it in her wings and fluffed her feathers involuntarily. The magic coming from New Order felt wrong; it made every hair of her coat stand on end.
The unicorn began to laugh maniacally, and his eyes started to glow in an eerie light. “Power! Infinite power!” he bellowed, rising on his hindlegs.
The eyes of the two adventurers widened, and they had to crane their necks back as they watched the form of the unicorn expand rapidly. It was no simple growth. New Order's body was contorted as the chaos burst free from it. He laughed maniacally; soon his voice was echoed by another one, and then another, until his laughter came as a chorus from countless mouths all over his bloating body. Only when his topmost head was towering above the anchored airship did his growth stop.
Daring stared at him in open-mouthed terror. Only looking at New Order's new form made her eyes hurt, her head spin and her stomach turn; it was just so fundamentally wrong. Even his most devout followers shrank away from the now towering monstrosity that was their leader.
”Oh, isn't this wonderful? Cheer, my little ponies! Be happy! Your leader demands it!”exclaimed New Order, speaking with the voices of an entire choir. He took an eager step towards the airship and stepped onto one of his ponies that had not jumped away in time, squashing him under one of his many hooves like a bug. The President Monster didn't even notice.
Panic broke loose in the camp; ponies screamed and galloped away in every direction. Some stumbled and were trampled by their comrades. Others ran heedlessly into tents, heaps of tools, and crates. Somepony knocked an oil lamp from its post; it smashed on the ground right next to a tent and set it on fire.
Daring jumped into action without hesitation. As soon as the guard's attention was no longer on them, she heaved her tied companion onto her back, wincing as his body pressed onto her broken wing and dashed away from the monstrosity, heading for the cover of a supply heap at the edge of the camp. There she sat onto the ground and let Bulwark slide from her back. Only then did she pull the gag from his mouth and began to untie him.
“I told you to run!” the young stallion snapped at her as soon as his mouth was free.
“Oh Bulwark, of course I saved your life! You don't have to kiss me for it!” Daring replied snippy, some of her words muffled by her trying to untie the knots on his bindings with her teeth.
The colt rolled his eyes, but he put his ears back as he spoke up again. “It's not that I'm ungrateful, but you may have doomed the world to save me,” he uttered meekly.
“It's what stupid friends do!” Daring exclaimed as she finally pulled off the rope and freed the colt's legs.
“Yes, if you put the emphasis on stupid!” Bulwark remarked, rubbing his fetlocks where the robes had chafed him and stretched his limbs.
Without warning the pegasus flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He inhaled sharply through his clenched teeth when her action put pressure onto his wounded shoulder. “Easy there on the stitches!” he muttered, squirming in her grasp.
The mare lifted her weight from his shoulder but didn't end the hug. “I thought I had lost you!” she whimpered into his mane, and he could feel her body shaking. With a sigh the young stallion let go of his anger and put a hoof around her shoulder.
“When I left you with that griffon and you didn't come out, I was sure you were dead. And then when that bastard threatened to kill you. . . ,” she explained between sobs, pouring out all the misery. “I just couldn’t. I couldn’t leave you behind. Not again, not even if it meant sacrificing the world!”
“Shh. . . . It's okay!” the young stallion shushed into her ear and patted her back, trying to calm her. At the same time he looked back at the center of the camp where the President Monster had begun a rampage among its former followers, obviously dissatisfied with their reaction to his new form. Bulwark swallowed hard as a large torrent of fire reflected in his eyes. “It's okay!” he forced himself to say again, brushing his companion's mane.
“Right then!” exclaimed Daring, ended the hug and stood up tall. “Enough with the mushy stuff. It's time to save the world!” she proclaimed, straightened her helmet and turned towards the ongoing commotion, sporting her trademark smile. Bulwark had to chuckle at the pegasus' sudden change of mood. Her perfect, heroic poster pose was only disturbed by her having forgotten to dry the tears from her eyes before she struck it.
The adventuress took a few moments to assert the situation. Most of the camp was burning by now or destroyed in some other way. The discorded monster was stomping and slashing at the ponies running from him aimlessly, bellowing in mindless rage. The Patriots were still incapacitated in mindless panic, but from somewhere Loaded Dice had emerged. The unicorn was busy ushering the survivors onto the airship. He yelled at somepony to cut the lines.
Daring strained her eyes to make out the artifact she had recently given up. Eventually she caught a glimpse of it as a light reflected on something the behemoth was holding in a tentacle right next to one of his topmost heads.
“Tell me you've got a plan!” pleaded Bulwark from where he was lying. Daring looked down to him and shot him a confident smile.
“Two plans actually!” she announced, then immediately went serious. “How are your wounds? Can you stand?” she inquired concernedly.
The fighting pony groaned as he stumbled to his hooves and almost fell over again. Putting weight on one of his front hooves sent a sharp pain through his leg. Nevertheless, he managed to stay upright. “I think I broke something!” he moaned. But he quickly pulled himself together with a deliberate breath. “So what's the plan?” he asked Daring, still clenching his teeth, but fresh resolve was shining in his eyes.
Daring-Do restrained herself from kissing him again. She hid a proud grin behind her hooves, then quickly cleared her throat and composed herself. “We have two options. The first is: we get the goblet back from that monster and drink from it ourselves, hoping that we don't get overwhelmed by the chaos and gain the power to defeat him!” she explained soberly.
Bulwark grimaced and shook his head. “Let's go with the other plan then.”
Daring nodded, and a fresh smirk spread on her face. “Okay, listen up! This is what we'll do!”
.oOo.
The President was still rampaging around his own camp, but by now almost everypony of his former followers was either dead or had boarded the airship. And so it was the starting vessel that provoked his ire. Pegasi were still busy lifting the last stragglers onto the gondola, and every unicorn aboard struggled to keep a magic shield up to repel the monster's attacks. Torrents of green flame scourged against the glowing fields, rocks struck them, and shadowy tendrils whipped with thundering cracks. One by one the shields broke and shattered like glass, and the unicorns who had cast them sunk with exhaustion to the ship's floor. Only one of them was left standing, his coat shining, his face contorted with the effort to hold his spell, when suddenly a stone hit the back of one of New Order's topmost heads.
“Oi! Why don't you pick on somepony your own size?”
The monster turned around, clutching the place the rock had hit with a slimy tentacle. He didn't even notice that this limb had been the one he had used to hold onto the Griffon's Goblet and that the disturbance had made him drop it.
Behind him stood Daring-Do in the middle of an open space among the wreckage of the camp, grinning mischievously and juggling another stone in her hoof. Just as the President turned towards her she threw it at one of his faces as hard as she could. Her aim was true, and this time her attack took out one of the monster's eyes. The President didn't notice the bright clinging of a cup hitting the ground besides him as he roared in startled agony.
The monster lashed out at the adventuress with half a dozen limbs. She quickly leaped to the side and avoided being smashed by a giant hoof, then backflipped as thorny tentacles grappled for her legs. The mare was slowly driven backwards, but with quick reflexes and nimble acrobatics, she averted every attack the monster threw at her by a hairsbreadth. This infuriated the creature even more, and it redoubled its efforts to smash the pony. All of the President's attention was taken by the pegasus as he stomped after her, bellowing in rage.
He didn't notice that Bulwark was sneaking behind his back. With his teeth the earth pony grabbed the goblet from where it had landed and made back for the shelter of some crates. When he was well in cover and had set down the cup, he grabbed a large stone and threw it into the air. Keeping the back of the monster in his sights, he wheeled around and hit the falling rock with a mighty buck. It was kicked high into the air, and it followed a high arc and crashed into the monster's back, exploding into pieces on impact.
The President staggered and bent his back in torment, trying to reach for the maimed spot with a giant arm. He turned around, snorting furiously, but his attacker was nowhere to be seen. New Order huffed and spat a wide jet of violet flame, scorching the entire area before him. A satisfied grin spread on his faces when he had incinerated everything he could see. Even the very stone had been reduced to smoldering lava. When he turned back to where he had last seen the mare, his smile faded again; Daring-Do was nowhere to be found.
The pegasus joined Bulwark in his hiding place. He shot her a worried glance when she arrived, his face illuminated by a brand new lava river flowing not ten steps from where he was sitting. The cursed artifact was standing on the ground right before him, seemingly aglow with the foreboding of certain doom.
“It didn't shatter when it hit the ground?” Daring asked, biting her lower lip.
The colt shook his head. “Not even a scratch,” he uttered baffled.
The mare stepped forward until she was standing right before the object. With a furious grimace she raised her hoof over the goblet and stomped on it with all her strength. The hoof hit the cup with an echoing clop.
Daring raised her leg tentatively and shook it absentmindedly to drive away the pain. She made an unhappy frown when she saw what was underneath it. The cup was still shining in polished luster, not a dent, not even a scratch on it.
“Let me try!” Bulwark exclaimed, his jaw tensing. Daring took a wide step backwards as the earth pony reared above the artifact. He came down with a mighty stomp, putting all his weight on his one good hoof. With a loud, metallic clang steel horseshoe hit silver chalice. Bright sparks flew, and the ground beneath the cup cracked under the impact.
When the fighting pony lifted his hoof, both travelers felt their hearts sink. Hammered into a small crater in the ground lay the Griffon's Goblet, its unimpaired finish reflecting the red glow of the nearby lava as if it was mocking them.
“What now?” Bulwark asked, staring at the artifact in blank despair. He swallowed a lump in his throat. “Drink from it?”
Daring-Do looked at the goblet for long moment with wide, twitching eyes, grinding her teeth. “Not yet,” she finally muttered, and she slowly came back to her usually self, sporting a tough smile. “We are not that desperate yet!” she exclaimed, and she looked up from the cup towards her companion. Bulwark slowly raised his gaze. When he saw her eyes, his face lit up with new hope.
Daring began explaining her plan, gesturing wildly with her front hooves. The colt nodded several times, then interrupted her and started arguing, but she swatted his concerns away with a hoof. The mare recited her words, patting the ground with every one and finally pointed at her chest. “Okay,” the colt said, finally giving in.
The mare laid a hoof on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eye. “One more try. It's do or die now!”
The colt nodded, his lips pressed to a thin line. “Let's do this.” He exclaimed soberly.
The two friends looked at each other for a few more seconds, then embraced in a solemn hug. They briefly patted each other on the back and separated. Daring picked up the goblet with her mouth, and the two ponies dashed out of their cover.
.oOo.
The President stood in the middle of the burning camp, looking after the airship vanishing in the distance. There was nopony around anymore, nothing on which he could vent his anger. As the leaves of a tree turn towards the light, so did the monster turn towards Canterlot, letting out a low grumble. He took a step forward, and as his bloated body set into motion, it began to grow wings.
Just as the creature of chaos was about to jump into flight, a heavy rock crashed into his back, smashing one of its wings. The beast roared in anger and turned around. He puffed black smoke from his nostrils when he saw his assailants. Daring-Do and Bulwark stood among the remnants of the camp. The colt had a pickax resting at his side, the mare a machete tucked under her good wing. They were grinning at the President mockingly; the wind made by the fire ruffled their manes, and the flames were shining brightly in their eyes.
“Leaving already?” the mare shouted. “The party has just begun!”
New Order roared, his voice a cacophony coming from a dozen throats, and rose to the adventurers' challenge. He leaped towards them and lashed out with a thorny wrecking ball that grew on a thick, scaly arm. The two ponies took up their weapons and leaped to the side, barely averting the crushing impact of the giant flail.
When their hooves touched the ground again, they retaliated immediately; they charged towards the beast, hacking and slashing at his outstretched limb as they went. The monstrosity screamed in pain and retracted its assailed appendage before it could be turned into mincemeat. Still the two ponies were galloping towards him as he lashed out at them with a swarm of black, slimy tentacles.
The two adventurers dashed left and right, ducked, jumped, and rolled to avoid the tentacles, all the while slashing away at any that came too close. Crisscrossing over their own paths of attack the two ponies hacked themselves a way through the dark appendages.
Bellowing in rage, New Order pulled his tentacles out of their reach and raised one of his hooves for a stomp. It came down with earth-shattering force and made the ground tremble.
Daring and Bulwark averted the impact deliberately only by a step. Chips of rock exploded from under the monster's hoof and showered the adventurers in a hail of sharp stones. But even as the mare took a bleeding cut to her face, and a sliver split one of the young stallion's ears, the two didn't falter in their attack.
“Now!” yelled Bulwark, dropping his ax. He dashed towards the monster's body ahead of the mare, came to a sliding halt a dozen steps from her and crouched down. Daring took a running start and jumped onto his back. With a primal roar the colt strained his muscles and sprang up like a trampoline as the mare jumped again.
Empowered by her companion's aid she soared in a high arc at one of New Order's heads. It just stared at her in startled wonder as she flung at it, swinging the blade in her mouth in a wide half-circle. And it still wondered when it tumbled towards the ground.
The beast thrashed about itself, roaring in mindless agony and flailing all of his grotesque limbs aimlessly. Bulwark dashed away from the monster, his head craned back to look at his friend's descent. He sidestepped wildly as the ground around him was plowed by the creature's fury. He lunged into a desperate jump, when Daring came down and caught her in his hooves. The two ponies crashed to the ground in a rolling heap, and a forest of malformed limbs battared down right behind them, tearing up the rock in vain. The adventurers were out of reach.
New Order was foaming in rage with each of his remaining heads, while one neck only spurted black blood. He retracted all of his arm and tentacles, puffing dark smoke from his nostrils.
Daring and Bulwark felt the ground beneath them shake. When they looked up from the heap they had landed in, they could see the monster approaching with big, stomping steps. They quickly untangled themselves, stumbled to their hooves and faced the beast, barring their teeth in defiance.
The President stopped a few steps from them. This time he didn't lash out with his arms, but instead he began inhaling through his every mouth, bloating up like a balloon.
“Here it comes!” Daring hissed to her companion, and Bulwark stepped in front of her. Now hidden from the monster's vision, the adventuress quickly raised the brim of her helmet and dropped the Griffon's Goblet from her head onto the ground. With the artifact in position she made ready to bolt away, but held her position for the moment.
“Hold it,” she hissed to Bulwark between clenched teeth. “We only got one shot at this!”
For a few more seconds New Order inhaled deeply. He held in the air for a moment, looking like he was about to burst, then he spat a torrent of violent green flame down at the two ponies.
Only when she was sure the monster had no more way of averting his attack did Daring spring into action. “Now!” she shouted and dashed away from the goblet to the right, and Bulwark did the same to the left. They galloped as fast as they could, pumping their legs with all the strength they had left, desperately trying to get away from the flames.
The blazing onslaught hit the ground with a deafening roar, and in the center of the inferno stood the Griffon's Goblet. For a few seconds it withstood the avalanche of the unbridled power of chaos, shining brightly. The lightning bolt on the cup began to glow bright-red, and the artifact started to vibrate. Faster and faster it shook, until a high-pitched shriek was emitted from it. Still New Order continued his attack, determined to reduce his enemies to nothing but hot ash.
With a deafening bang the goblet burst apart into a thousand pieces. The fragments melted in the raging flames and were finally blown away by the hot wind.
And suddenly the fire coming from New Order's heads stopped. For a moment all of his faces looked confused, then his eyes widened in terror and his form began to deteriorate. His eyes bulged and he let out startled gasps as his bloated body shrunk in on itself.
In mere seconds it was over, and all that was left of the one-time leader of the Patriots, the self-proclaimed President who wished to bring forth a new order with the power of Discord, was a tortured body, its eyes staring into nothing.
.oOo.
Heat, smoke, crackling fire, the taste of blood, pain: these were the things that Daring noticed when she came back to her senses. She groaned as she tried to rise, every fiber in her battered body protesting and sending hot needles of pain to her brain. She clenched her teeth, forced her limbs to obey and rose to a sitting position. The mare heard the blood rushing in her ears; her head hurt with a vengeance, each beat of her heart sending a new wave of pain through it. She lifted a hoof to rub her temple and blinked several times to clear her spinning vision. She looked down at herself and around the canyon. The pegasus briefly noted that her tail was singed and that she was covered in soot. Her coat was torn and bleeding from several places. To makes things worse her helmet was gone and nowhere to be found.
But the monster that had once been New Order was nowhere to be seen either. The adventuress let out a relieved sigh, but her comfort was short-lived. With a shock she remembered her companion and she started to look around frantically, trying to rise to her hooves. “Bulwark! Bulwark, where are you?” she shouted. She listened intently, her ears turning and twitching, but to her terror, even after long moments the only sound to be heard was the crackling of flames. “Are you alive?” she yelled desperately.
The mare staggered to her hooves and started to drag herself to where she had last seen the earth pony. But her hooves stopped before a glowing pit of molten rock, where the monster's attack had hit the ground. She walked around it and started searching among the rubble of the camp. She walked through burning tents and heaps of ash. “Bulwark, are you alive?” she called out again, starting to sob.
“I'm alive!” A strained call came from further away, jolting her out of her oncoming despair. The mare dashed towards the sound, swaying and nearly stumbling as she ran. Her eyes lit up with new hope when she saw a pony rising behind a pile of debris.
Daring crashed into the earth pony before he could even fully stand up, and they both went to the ground again. The colt let out a startled “oof” as he was tackled. He moaned and looked up in surprise when he found himself entangled in a tight hug.
“Ugh, careful please! I'm kinda wounded here!” Bulwark was just as dirt-covered, singed and cut up as Daring, but his pained complaints told the mare that he was very much alive. She quickly let go of the young stallion and got back on her hooves.
“You okay?” she asked meekly as the fighting pony stumbled to his hooves, groaning.
Instead of answering he returned her hug as soon as he was on his hooves. Daring could feel tears welling up in her eyes and returned the embrace. The relieved sobbing she felt from her companion told her that he was faring no better. For few moments the two friends just stood this way, relishing each other's presence and the simple fact that they were still alive.
When they had calmed down enough to stand on their own they began searching through the side of the battle. They finally found New Order's dead body and stood over it, looking down at it with a mixture of relief and regret.
“You can't imagine how glad I am that your plan worked!” Bulwark muttered with a heavy sigh.
Daring nodded. “Discord's power made the goblet, so it was the only thing that could destroy it,” she explained soberly.
They stood for a few more seconds, then Bulwark turned without a word and walked away. Daring quickly followed and walked by his side.
“Let's get away from here!” the colt exclaimed tiredly while they headed for a part of the camp that was not as charred as the rest. He let his head hang and dragged his hooves over the ground. Daring too felt dead tired. But they both knew that they had to get away from this place to find any rest.
In the few remnants of a tent they found some supplies. They quickly wiped their sooty coats with a wet cloth, then addressed each other's wounds as best as they could. They packed water bottles and canned food into sacks they fashioned from blankets, then they were on their way.
As they walked through the almost completely burned down camp, Daring suddenly stopped and glanced at a pile of ash. She walked over to it and poked into it with a hoof. A sentimental smile spread on her face when she pulled a round object from the debris. She blew the ash from it and brushed away some dirt with her hoof. Her pith-helmet was now even more dirty and dented than ever, and the brim was burned off at one side; she still sat it onto its place on her head with great satisfaction, greeting it like an old friend. “And with this, we are ready for another adventure,” the pegasus muttered to herself, and she turned back towards the waiting colt.
As they left the canyon, a new day dawned, and the rising sun warmed their backs.
“So, what do you want to do now?” Daring asked her companion, feeling a little of her spirit coming back with the first light of day.
The young stallion shrugged. “Head for the next tavern! I'm dying for a mug of cider, or ten!” he exclaimed. The mare shot him a wide grin, and he went on. “Maybe find those gorgeous zebra twins again and. . .uh. . .”
“Rut them like a wild animal!” Daring finished for him. Bulwark blushed, and both broke out in relieved laughter. They quickened their steps, their hooves feeling lighter, as if they were magically drawn towards Maredria.
Many thanks to Halcyon for editing and skrav for proofreading. Thanks to Lunafan1k, jcel4569 and JohnPerry who helped me out with the first chapters.
This concludes The Griffon's Goblet. Writing this story was an adventure in its own right, and I think I have learned a lot from it. I hope you all had fun reading about Daring's and Bulwark's adventure. If you did, please like and let me know in the comments bellow.
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Sooooo... now a side story about Bulwark rutting the zebra twins like a wild animal...
Foolish President. He forgot the first rule of true chaos: It cannot have a goal. Only owe who comprehends the utmost bounds of chaos and revels in madness can ever drink of Discord's power... *grins evily* I wonder who that might be...
I played the Indiana Jones music for a bit at the end. It was awesome.
Out of all the Daring Fic's out there this is by far the best one in my opinion!
) and overall just awesome! I realy realy realy realy realy realy hope you make more Daring Fanfics, cause knowing this is over makes me a sad Panda !
Funny, Exicting, Sad, Dirty (
Cue obligatory indiana jones theme music inside my head :D
'twas a good story cheerio. A wonderful read
921782 922191 That's the spirit.
Daring even has her own soundtrack made by mandopony
921812 Thanks. But I will write something else before I consider doing another Daring-Do fic. But it will be in the same spirit as the Griffon's Goblet and at least 20% cooler!
923518 thanks
I absolutely loved this story!
I really hope you make more Daring Do stories!
I do say i love this story
i can't w8 for a new one
Well done.
Silly New Order! Everypony knows that the goblet only givs you infinite power if you fill it with chocolatemilk from the top to the bottom and drink the goblet around it!
Rocken story! I can see why RD liked it.... but I sure hope the hospital makes certain that this isn't mistaken for a book to be read by the little fillies and colts that come through.... that could be awkward.
Daring Doo = Chris Hansen in, to "catch" a predator *wink* *wink*
Full of action-packed adventure, ancient secrets, and seat edging thrills on the edge of every seat! I'm serious, this was so amazing, it had me refreshing the page in the off chance you would have multiple chapters lined up, which admittedly wasn't very likely, but oh well! It's like they say, you go the extra mile for the things you love! That includes obsessive refreshing and impulsive comment writing!
Really, though, keep up the good work, this was an amazing story, and I can only hope you write more like it!
Reading this on my Kindle, I totally forgot that it was a fanfic and just thought of it as a fantastic Daring-Do novel. Absolutely amazing, and I look forward to whatever your next story is.
Absolutely fantastic read! I think you captured Daring's character perfectly and would love for you to write another in the future!
Make more please
I enjoyed the story enough to give a few crazy transformations that could match the one that New Order went through.
Tell me, which one fits New Order's transformation the best?
A good read, still a few typos and grammatical mistakes but few enough to be forgivable.
Am i the only pony to think of hary potter when i looked at the title of this series?
I love it
its really good thx for the idea 
Wonderful read!
Thoroughly enjoyed it!