"The next few trials tested Ikan's quick wit. Where the big stallions tried to get by with force, Ikan needed to rely on his reflexes and his smarts in order to succeed," read Daring. She placed the book back into her bag, shaking her head.
"A whole lotta good that will do me," Daring said. She paused for a moment, raising an ear and listening. She thought she had heard something, a voice or some kind of yelling in the far distance. She doubted it, though, as there had not been any ponies here in the past few centuries at least.
Ahead was another tunnel, this time more smooth and circular rather than sharp and angular. It seemed more like a worm's tunnel or a cave than any kind of a corridor used for travel. It was flat for the most part, as far as Daring could see. She trotted down the tunnel, hooves striking the cold stone and making a reverberating sound that echoed. The light was getting dimmer, and Daring had to squint to try to see where the tunnel turned.
It turned out that she didn't need to squint after all. What she had thought was a trick of the light actually was just another huge boulder. This one was almost as wide as the tunnel itself. The written form of the legend had not been very specific on this part of the trials, and so what her next action should be was anypony's best guess.
As there was nowhere else to go but backwards, Daring pushed against the spherical boulder, and after a few strenuous heaves it gave, rolling over the edge and down the tunnel. Daring followed it, slowing down as the tunnel sloped and then leveled off. This turned out to be a good thing, as the tunnel turned sharply to the right, and a large circular hole prevented her from turning the corner.
Daring rolled her eyes. It was a distance that could be jumped by an earth pony or a unicorn, and as a pegasus it was no big threat at all. Flapping her wings, Daring cruised over the pit and landed on the other side.
"That wasn't so hard," she remarked, and took a step forward. A sudden rumbling made her pause. The tunnel sloped downwards once again, and there were no big weights poised above her. The pony turned around, and saw only the empty pit behind her. Shrugging, she continued forward.
The rumbling sound increased in intensity, and at one point even seemed to be right beside her, and then right above her, before sounding as if it was above and behind. At this point, Daring looked back again, and gasped. There was a slope above her head, and the looming form of the boulder grew larger and larger, poised to drop down on top of her.
With no time left to think about it, Daring began rushing forward. There was a loud thud as the boulder landed directly behind her, and a rumbling that only grew louder as the huge rock picked up momentum.
Daring sprinted like she had never sprinted before, bolting ahead and down the tunnel. As it sloped downwards still, she felt her hooves slip as they struck the rocky floor, but she paid it no mind. She had to go FASTER.
Daring glanced back, teeth clenched. The boulder was bouncing off from imperfections in the tunnel, still bounding towards her at a frightening pace. She turned her head back just in time to see a set of sharp spikes shoot out from the bottom of the tunnel where a series of holes had been a moment before. Daring leaped up and over these spikes, and kept going. She heard the crunching sound of the boulder rolling over them less than a second after she had jumped. It was getting closer.
A wide pit lay before her now. On the other side was safety: a flat surface and a door that lead to the next chamber, albeit closed. There were vines crossing back and forth above the pit, and the other side seemed very far away. Almost as soon as she saw it all she was out of space to run, and so Daring did the instinctive thing anypony would have done in her situation. She jumped, hoping that she could land on the other side. The boulder crashed into the sides of the pit and fell, disappearing into the darkness. Daring cried out as she too fell. Though she had spread her wings to fly over, a vine had gotten caught on her back leg, and she found herself dangling dangerously over the edge of the pit.
Daring gulped, and kicked at the vine. It didn't give. At the moment she was caught in it, not falling but without any way of touching the opposite side. She was suspended in the middle of the open pit by the vines.
With her free hooves Daring rummaged until she had produced a knife. It was in need of a sharpening, but it would do in this situation. She clenched the handle in her mouth and brought the blade up to the vine, slicing into the plant's fibers and freeing her hoof. As soon as she had done so, her wings took over, keeping herself aloft and flying herself back to the top, where she landed on the other side of the pit.
"I hate boulders," Daring remarked, "Not as much as snakes, but boulders are starting to get to me."
****
"Do you have a big enough shard?" asked Trenchoof, as he backed his chair towards Elise. The blonde pony nodded, gripping a jagged piece of glass with her teeth. She bent her head in close, and put pressure onto the rope holding Trenchoof's hooves to the chair with the sharp edge of the glass shard. She moved her head back and forth, working the sharp glass like a knife until it had cut through the first piece of rope. From there, she cut down a little lower on the same knot, until the rope gave way and Trenchoof's hooves were free. Elise stuck her head out, as Trenchoof turned around. The stallion stuck his out, too, and tenderly took the shard by his teeth.
After having transferred the piece of glass Elise turned around, and it was her turn to be freed. The two ponies worked like this for the next few minutes. First Elise had freed Trenchoof's front hooves, then she had her front hooves freed. She then freed his back legs, one at a time, and he returned the favor. After several more minutes each of them had also freed the other around the midsection, and they could both move freely.
"Alright, so we're free," Elise remarked, "but what's the plan for getting out of here?"
"Well," said Trenchoof, picking up his campaign hat off the ground and dusting it off reverently, "The gryphons are sending most of their diggers out now, and I'm willing to bet that their armed guard is going to go with them. That'll leave them with a minimal armed guard here to be watching us." He paused to place his campaign hat back atop his head, brushing his mane out from around his eyes.
"What about the ones right outside?" asked Elise, "I don't think they'll just happen to look the other way while we dash for the jungle."
"We will have to lay low for a bit," Trenchoof noted, nodding his head, "But If we can go under and out from the back side I think we'll have a better shot."
****
"The book said that there were a few trials that tested Ikan's wit," Daring said to herself, re-reading the passage, "That's gotta be more then two, but way less than five. Three trials? Four?"
She had completed one of the vague ones already, having a narrow escape from a great boulder. Daring entered the next chamber through the door (which slid aside at the press of a stone switch) only to see an area that looked like it had been reclaimed by the forest. Part of the ceiling had fallen in, and bright sunlight illuminated most of the chamber. Grass, vines, jungle flowers, and even some medium-sized shrubs and bushes grew up all around the chamber, hiding the architecture underneath a blanket of green. Bright scarlet macaws had made their nest in a corner, while a snake was slithering near Daring's hooves.
Upon seeing the snake, Daring recoiled instantly, crying out in alarm. Though it was a common snake and likely not poisonous, her heart began racing. She felt very anxious around snakes in general, and she didn't really know why. It was an irrational fear perhaps: a phobia.
"G-g-get back!" Daring warned, even as she did the same by taking several steps away from the snake. The reptile hissed, causing Daring to cry out once more. She clenched her teeth, knowing that the only way to get past the creature was to jump over it. She felt terrible, however, almost nauseous as the little serpent slithered it's way closer to her.
Daring jumped, leaping right over the snake and then not stopping until she had reached the opposite wall. She could see that there was a way out of the chamber, where some of the wall had fallen away. She looked about the area she was in once more, her heartbeat subsiding. There was some kind of large shape in the center, which looked circular and wheel-like. It was flat against the ground, and it seemed to have spokes sticking out of the side. Daring glanced at the area where the wall had fallen away. There were chains stuck up in the ceiling, and beyond it proceeded like a new corridor.
"Whatever this trial was meant to be, it isn't anymore," Daring remarked. The trial had likely had something to do with turning the wheel or whatever was in the center in order to lift the wall aside and reveal an exit. Since the area had collapsed and no longer served as an obstacle, Daring was able to pass without much trouble. Not too bad of a break, right?
Daring entered the next corridor, hoping and praying that there wouldn't be some kind of falling weight or boulder behind her to force her to run at breakneck speed once more. As she walked her muscles tensed up, ready to go full throttle at the slightest indication of another trap.
The trap never came. Daring entered the next area and was greeted by the sight of a massive snake's head made out of stone, sitting above a circular stone ring and a log that stood straight up. Daring consulted the book once again, and to her surprise it did have something to say about this trial. Apparently there should have been something in that last corridor after all.
"Ikan noticed that the total number of competing stallions began to dwindle. As he reached the next trial, his ability to find alternate solutions helped him out. Where other stallions tried the most direct approach, Ikan took the time to take everything in before setting to work. In the end it was him who was able to light the pillar aflame." read Daring.
"So, I've got to light that log on fire somehow," Daring noted, "Good thing I've got a piece of flint and some steel. Now all I need is some tinder and kindling..."