A branch came slashing towards my face.
Good news, I managed just in time to stop myself from grabbing it with magic.
Bad news, I also didn’t manage to get out of the way and it smacked me across the face and what’s worse, my horn.
I stumbled and choked out a sound of pain as I felt on the verge of passing out.
“Oh buck!” Dee Dee cursed and quickly ducked back to press her side against mine to keep me from falling, “I’m so sorry!”
“I’m fine,” I choked out, “At least I didn’t try catching it.”
“I’m so sorry! I usually do this alone!”
“I’ll be fine,” I said calmly and squeezed my eyes shut for a long moment, definitely not trying to avoid crying, “...I should have watched where I was going anyway.”
Dee Dee frowned, “Let’s rest for a bit,” she said, “We can spare twenty minutes.”
“I’m fine.”
“If we need to fly, I can’t have you pass out on me. We’re resting for twenty minutes.”
“...Yes, ma’am…” I agreed and sank down onto the ground. If I could just be rid of this accursed headache it wouldn’t be anywhere near as horrible. Also, would make it less likely for me to throw up. Because I was on the brink of it right now.
“Any idea where we’re going yet?” I asked once I dared to open my eyes again to look at her.
The pegasus nodded, “I think so, the ground is going down. If we’re lucky, we’ll find a stream or at least somewhere we can dig up some water.”
“...Sounds good.”
I raised my head and sniffed the air. It just smelled like jungle, something I had gotten progressively more used to since we arrived and especially since we… left the camp.
I slowly turned my ears, “I’m not hearing a stream,” I said after several long minutes and listening.
“Your hearing is better than a pegasus?” Dee Dee asked as she watched me.
“A bit,” I said.
“Well, keep an ear out, any warning we get to something tracking us would be good.”
I glanced around, “You think something might be?”
Dee Dee shrugged her wings, “We’re in the jungle and of the right size for a lot of things to consider dinner… and you’re a lot less ‘all powerful alicorn’ than usual.”
“Alicorns aren’t all powerful,” I said and glanced at her, “We’re simply stronger in a specific way according to our talents. Well, other than having the usual gifts of the other tribes.”
She frowned at me, “Really?”
“Really. Especially me. Sure I’m at the upper range of unicorns normally, but in the real world I’m only about as strong as Cadence. The rest come with experience and the ability to match any of the tribes,” I explained, rubbing my head just beneath my horn.
“So, you’re... Alicorn of Stories, right?”
I chanced a nod, “Yeah. Which so far mostly translates to giving moderately good speeches and being decent at dream magic.”
“And bat wings.”
“And bat wings,” I said and got back onto my hooves, “Let’s get moving.”
Dee Dee nodded, “Still, keep an ear out and get ready to use those earth pony strength legs in case you need to buck something in the nose.”
“Yep. All ready.”
Assuming I could do a movement like that without passing out, that is. I really needed to step up my non magical combat. I should ask Tempest for lessons.
I followed Dee Dee through the jungle, this time a lot more careful to avoid any more sudden branches. To be fair, Dee was a lot more careful in turn with keeping them from slapping in my direction, making sure to keep them to the side with her wing until I ducked under them.
We slowly made our way slightly down the slight downhill before Dee suddenly stopped suddenly enough that I almost ran into her, “What?” I whispered, my ears quickly turning.
“Look at this,” Dee Dee said and shifted to the side to let me look at what she had spotted and motioned what she had put her hoof on.
It was a flat stone at a bit of an angle with wavy lines engraved across the surface of it.
“This is…” I said and then looked at her.
Dee nodded, “Construction,” she confirmed and looked around for a second, “...Come on, this way.”
I moved to follow her but kept my head and ears on a swivel.
It only took a couple of minutes until we found a collapsed structure. Dee gave it a once over before she led the way along and we stepped into a slight clearing that brought us to a break in the tree cover.
Before us was a massive temple built in plateaus, to me it almost looked Aztec… or similar at least in it’s construction. It towered before us, well over thirty meters tall.
“That’s amazing,” I said and looked up towards it.
“I think we found our cover for tonight,” Dee said and spread her wings, “This is an amazing find, this is the first temple ever found this far south!”
“...You sure about that being a good idea?” I asked and finally looked away from the temple to turn to her, “Are these things usually trapped? Or is that just in adventure books?”
“Can be,” she admitted with a sudden smile, “But that’s deeper in, we’d stay by the entrance or by the upper chamber, those are usually clear.”
I eyed her for a second, “You know an awful lot about these things.”
“Hey, I’m an archaeologist,” she said with a smile, “I have seen similar structures before. Now, this thing is a bit different from any I have ever seen before, it has more layers for one thing, but any traps that are out in the open would have malfunctioned by now anyway, going by the style on this thing, I’m estimating… six… six and half thousand years from the style. I mean, look at the weathering on the steps alone, this thing is old. As in, likely pre-celestial.”
I slowly nodded, “So this might be part of what we’re looking for.”
Dee frowned and glanced up against it, “...Maybe. Doesn't look like it’s unicorn-made though. But we can check it out later, we need to find some water and preferably some food.”
“...Yeah, let’s keep going.”
“This is a good sign though,” she said and smiled at me, “If ponies lived here once, that means there is likely to be water somewhere around here. Let’s see if we can find it.”
At some point page is going to realize he's picked up that world's equivalent to Indiana Jones and all the baggage and cliches that goes with that
And so the two explorers have found some ruins of their target. Hopefully they can find needed supplies before they continue to get back to base camp.
...Unless Murphy decides to pull another surprise...
10436785
Cadance: "Discord, reign in your cousin!"
Discord: "What, my cousin murphy? He's just causing some perfecrly timed chaos."
Cadance : "NO no no you see by separating page and putting him with the explorer cliche type, HE'S CREATED AN ENTIRELY NEW BRANCH! HE'S MESSING WITH MY SHIPPING! They're both authors they both have chemistry, THIS IS MY TERRITORY DISCORD, MINE, not you or Murphy are going to interrupt And yes I know that's his thing, for something to go wrong at the exact worst time."
Damn Page head will need days at best up to weeks with bad luck to be back to normal...
Since Alicorns have a second growing cycle perhaps they in there foal/teen stage at the time?
As i understand it they get a upgrade on there body if not a hole new body resembling there old one...
Anyway neat to see they found a clue
Ones this expedition is saved and restarted there is mutch to do.
Amazon mares to be explored , marehoods to be conquered
Seeding of the next generation of a endangered sub-species
I say 30 amazon Thestrals to improve general numbers, add his waifus in general to get raised with his help and we are up for a great start
You know, I have been thinking on applications of "Stories" and have thought of some potential uses. *Sets down teacup*
First off is, when you get down to it, MEMORY is just a story with the person in question as the protagonist. It makes me think... Could memory magic be a potential usage of his domain?
Second, is the concept of bringing stories to life or manifesting part of one for a short time. I could see this being draining but if Libromancy is possible... Imagine pulling an Inkheart situation.... And it TOTALLY inst to have Daring Doo in the flesh meat her book counterpart... Because. while her being faced with the potential differences and similarities would make it rather funny to watch, it would be a completely irresponsible thing to do even if Rainbowdash's head would probably pop from there being two daring doos and Twilight would go nuts with begging for her favorite characters to be brought out so she could meet them.... Totally for none of those reasons....
Next is probably one of the scarier possibilities politically (and could potentially help him with the bat pony issue). Propaganda. Propaganda is stories told to engender certain feelings in the target audience, to make one feel a certain way and nudge them towards thinking a certain way. If he were to begin working on propaganda and possibly even stories that highlight the negatives of discrimination he could probably begin changing minds with some effort.
Lastly is something I don't think I have seen him do with his domain. Teaching. Parables, fables, and almost any old folktale have a moral to them, a lesson to be learned. If done right he could use that old parable style to bring about lessons or even use the greek style riddle stories to make one think and come to conclusions as a way of teaching. Probably would be more round about than a direct lesson plan but also potentially more engaging.
*Picks up Teacup and sips* Ah, but there. Glad I got those thoughts out there.
My idle thoughts on applications of the domain of stories that may be possible. I have zero expectation that I am anywhere close to the mark on any of these but here you go. *Sips Tea*
10436795
The Shipping is Strong in Cadence. Do not deny her cause Darth Cadence is a whole different WMD that few in their right mind tries to mess with.
Besides Chrysalis.
10436825
Like that?
Totaly calling dibs for 'pirates of the caribbean'
What do Unicorn-made temples look like? Hell, what would temples from each of the tribes look like?
MEANWHILE...TWO SHIPPERS ARE LOOKING BORED...
Shining Armor: What's wrong?
Cadance: Nothing is wrong and that's the problem! Page has been left alone with a mare for the past few chapters and there is no chemistry. NONE. ZIP. ZERO! I feel nothing...even Tempest made me feel something! This is frustrating.
Discord: The comment section hasn't ship these two together either and they ship ANY CREATURE with four legs with Page!
Shining Armor: Well...You know *cough cough* you can focus on a different *cough cough* stallion for the time being. You can build his herd with some beautiful mares~! *wink wink*
Discord: ....Nah. Not feeling it.
Cadance: Wait...Shining might be on to something...
Shining Armor: Yes??
Cadance: Discord! Let's go check on Big Mac!
Shining Armor: OH COME ON!
10436827
derpicdn.net/img/2015/11/27/1031279/medium.jpeg
10436831
Could you be specific on what bit of that you were replying to? *Sips Tea*
Dangit, Dee! You just had to go and say it!
10436911
Hey Shining Armor, ACCESS DENIED!!!!!!!
Dee dee... Daring doo? Cant believe it took me this long...
10436940
Its less than a minute long... Here we go:
There are so many layers to this that makes this 36 second videoclip perfect as example. It builds a brilliant short narrative. You have the contrast between the
-two men exploration/scout ship that is fast and agil.
vs.
-the pirate multi crew ship of bigger size and more weapons/durrability.
The change from slice of life of the everyday challange to the life & death struggle between two ship crews.
One ship/crew will survive wile the other...
Turning a encounter into a underdog story like one reads right out of a storybook.
The 'agressive negotiation' from one that didn't want this to happen in the first place and the aggressor.
MAGNIFICENT what is conveniently in less than 1 minute converted to the observer.
10436825
it gives him an excuse to be a halfway decent politician, makes it easier to write, also he apparently can put a lot of people to sleep (though in his current age lacks the actual power to do that) and can mind-flay you in your dreams without any effort
so at some point he's gonna be capable of just putting anyone to sleep and drive them insane without any difficulty, have massive charisma, and
also father the rest of the alicorn race10436843
gold, mostly gold, unless its silver. That's my silly headcanon but its not too far off from actual mlp lore given how quickly rarity started turning everything into gem encrusted gold that one time
10436972
Coat and mane colors were mentioned in her introductory paragraph; Hiver then went on to telegraph it harder and harder with each successive chapter.
Dee dee the Pegasus archeologist huh...
good one. i didnt realize it was Doo till this chapter
With her being an archaeologist and how she acts I'm hoping that Page calls her Indie at some point.
So I can assume that Dee Dee is a certain.... Character? Now many want to bet that we will get a twist and it's not who we all think it is. XD
10437087
We also have her coloration and cutie mark. Hiver is not subtle; we're just waiting on our viewpoint character to put two and two together. Given how much he likes fish, it should probably have happened by now.
10437017
Ah, I see now. Yeah, that clears things up.
10437031
Yeah, and the "fun" thing about politics is a lot of it runs on rumors and lies.... Both of which would be right up in the domain of stories.
Page, through heavy leverage of his domain if nothing else, could probably be a fairly terrifying politician if he tried. I could see his domain let him spin rumors to turn enemies against each other and then bluff his way through most situations.
10437188
And I can't wait for Page to accuse her of plagiarizing the Indiana Jones series.
10437417
Then realizing that she's actually retelling her own adventures, then realizing that celestia by extension is inadvertantly supporting the very bad practice of plundering artifacts, because I can't believe that celestia isn't aware of daring doo, though like the character Indiana she is a real archeologist and in some portrayals she's only stealing things because A) they're a hyper powerful mcmuffin and B) she's stealing from the plunderers
either way Page might want to have a word with Celestia about the difference between 19th century archeology and late 20th century archeology and try to prevent much of the damage the first caused, if he's aware of the issues, its not a particularly widely taught issue even though it should be with particularly rich people still feeding the trade in plundered artifacts
10437589
I tend to think of those temples as just simply old board games and challenges Luna and Celestia played with each other, complete with traps, magic mcguffins (that don't really do anything, but sound scary and dangerous), and were mostly all built just before the NMM incident.
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c3bf87cb-c460-4721-af26-80876c193834/d6wrn16-cff37bcf-60cd-49b3-a014-4ea8ff12af52.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvYzNiZjg3Y2ItYzQ2MC00NzIxLWFmMjYtODA4NzZjMTkzODM0XC9kNndybjE2LWNmZjM3YmNmLTYwY2QtNDliMy1hMDE0LTRlYThmZjEyYWY1Mi5wbmcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.AY3po0GFrNOXZMnxzFEYDbL2Wz_ru8bFoexw2f82_nk
Think about it: what else would immortal sisters do to pass the time with each other?
Only for a bunch of fool mortals like Daring Do & Dr. Caballeron and Ahuizotl end up fighting over things that are essentially worthless monopoly tokens.
Sooooo "Dee Dee" is Daring Doo, right?
10438057
What?! No no, nonono nooooo...
(signs point to Fing Yes.)
10438113
While the sarcasm is warranted, it still hurt my feelings.
every time i hear DeDe i think Dexter's Laboratory. I know its Daring Do but i keep waiting for a high pitched squee and walking destruction.
10438057
How did I not catch that?! :D
10966010
You're not alone, it took me to the beginning of this chapter to figure it out too. I was kicking myself when I realized.
10437603
Imagine ahzuloti or Dr callabron won and tried to threaten Luna or celestia
"Are you seriously threatening me with a fancy monopoly token?"
10437603
Lmao is that Archduke Ferdinand? That comic is implying that their goofing off plunged the world into war.
Heyyyyyyyy, wait a minute. Dee Dee. Usually does this sort ot thing alone. Has plenty of experience exploring apparently....
Whould she happen to be orange with a gray mane?
Why did it twke till the ENTRANCE OF THE TEMPLE for me to realize "'D'ee 'D'ee" is actually 'D'aring 'D'oo........
11301691
When she showed her cutie mark for me personally
10436911
Agent1: No shipping? That’s an anomaly…
?: I’m not concerned. Most folks are simply to exited about Dee Dee being Daring Doo to care.
Agent1: Talking about that, how do we know all of this?
?: We don’t ask that question!
There is a hidden entrance in this Tempel, it's common if I am not mistaken.
Where are all the needy Amazon Thestrals?
Maybe they found a secret treasure... a time chamber like in 'Soul Reaver'/'Legacy of Kain' perhaps