The air was hot and hanged heavy with humidity. Beams of sunlight shone through gaps in the canopy illuminating the dark jungle floor below. High above monkeys and birds swung and flew from vine to vine hanging between the tall ancient trees. All around the sounds of the jungle rang through the dense foliage. An orchestra of wild animals, dripping water, and other natural sounds of undetermined origin played a symphony of noise, disrupted only by the sound of a very annoyed Daring Do who was pushing her way through the underbrush.
“It has to be close”, she thought as she used all her force to cut down the jungle brush before her.
With a swish sound, she sliced at the thick foliage with the machete in her mouth. Her brown jacket and explorers hat was damp with sweat from days of trekking in the jungle. The Forbidden Jungle was one of the most dangerous places in all of Equestria, next to the Everfree Forest. Many ponies think that the jungle is a bright and welcoming place, in reality it’s filled with dangerous creatures, mosquitoes, and ancient traps at any turn. Daring had traversed the jungle many times in her adventures and knew to be weary whenever she traveled through this dangerous region. After a few more swipes, Daring stopped her offense against the jungle plants and dropped the machete. Sitting down upon a large tree root she slowly rubbed her sore hooves. All over her body ached. Her neck, her legs, even her tail felt like it was in pain.
“I wish I could fly instead of trot through all of this.”
Images of being free from the jungle’s green grasp and flying high above the canopy among the clouds entered her head. Seeing the world from a bird’s eye view, free from the ground, free from the jungle, and more importantly, not feeling like she has been fighting a losing battle for two weeks. But what she is searching for can’t be spotted from the air but from the ground, as the jungle hides it from probing eyes. With that thought, however, she turned to her back and stretched her wings
“Ahhhh…”
She let out a sigh of relief as they extended to full length. What helped even more was a sudden breeze along the jungle floor that blew through her feathers.
“I need to remember to take a long…break after this.”
She continued to remain seated on the tree root enjoying the little respite from adventuring, nothing but the creatures of the jungle keeping her company. But in the back of her head, the weight of the quest at hoof still lingered and the need to keep going pressured her. Begrudgingly she retracted her wings and stuck her muzzle into the saddlebag on her back. Rummaging through the bag she pulled out a rolled up piece of parchment. The parchment was very old and made a crackling sound as she slowly unrolled it, unveiling its confines. An ancient map, written during the time of Starswirl the Bearded, which told of the great civilization that once resided in the Forbidden Jungle. It marked the locations of all the great temples and cities that now laid in ruins, many of which Daring herself had discovered. The most interesting thing about this map, though, was among all the locations, one had been scribbled away, like somepony tried to erase it. The location was the deepest part of the jungle where nopony had ever gone before. A warning in Ancient Equestrian was beside it saying:
Ye who seek to find the Great Temple will bring nothing but death and destruction to the land.
Daring had gone through ‘a lot’ of trouble to acquire this map and she had heard plenty of ancient warnings during her adventures; she was not going to let another one stop her. She skimmed the map looking at its intricate design. The Ancient Equestrians loved making maps that were beautiful and emphasized landmarks at the expense of accuracy; a tradition, sadly, that is still prevalent in the modern day.
“Is there not one good cartographer in Equestria that can make a map that shows distance?”
From the beginning she has had to ‘eye-ball' how to get to the Great Temple, using landmarks and other features as her guide. A water fall, a strange looking boulder, an ancient marker, anything to gain your bearings as to where you’re going. It is a skill that every adventurer should know. When first reading the map, it showed the only way to reach this ‘Great Temple’ was to find an ancient road that lead straight to its location. But this road had long been abandoned and reclaimed by the jungle. This was what she was looking for. To find the road Daring had to start at the very edge of the Forbidden Jungle and find the headwaters of a river which passed by not far from the road; at least it looked not far from it. It had been easy going up to that point until she had to divert from her watery guide and press into the foliage. For the last few hours she has hacked her way through the jungle with little to show for except a sore body. The map made it look like it wasn’t far but as fore mentioned, Equestrians don’t make the best maps.
“It has to close! I couldn’t have passed it! Could I?”
Letting out a sigh, Daring neatly rolled the map up again and placed it in her saddlebag. She jumped off her tree trunk perch and onto her hooves while rolling her shoulders in preparation of walking again.
“Well I won’t find out if I dillydally any longer.”
She leaned down and picked up her machete from the ground in her mouth and turned to a nicely thick bush along her path.
“Back to it.”
With a turn of her neck the offensive on the jungle foliage began again. Sometime later, Daring’s body was in pain again. With every swing of her machete she could feel the muscles in her ached with pain. She was sweating profusely from both the heat and intensive labor that her jacket and hat were all soaked again. Even her teeth was in pain as they grind against the wooden handle of the machete.
“You can’t stop now Daring! You got to keep pushing!”
She kept saying to herself in her head. The mission before her was too important to let the pain, the heat, or the exhaustion bring her down. Despite it all she kept pushing deeper and deeper into the foliage, which seemed to increase in density. Putting all her energy in every swing she attacked it. Slash! Overhanging vines fell from above to the ground bellow. Slash! Bushes were mowed down along her path. Slash! Trees lost their limbs to the metal blade. Despite all the slashing, however, the jungle would not yield. For every vine, bush, or limb cut down two more seemed to replace them along the path.
“Celestia damn this jungle!!!”
Daring cried aloud. She was racking with pain and all she wanted was to be free from the green menace. With a burst of energized fury she unleashed her anger on the foliage, declaring a personal vendetta on the jungle. Even though she knew it would only drain her energy more, she was finally feed up after weeks of walking.
"Where is this stupid Roooo…”
Before she could finish her internal thought her hoof caught on an unforeseen rock. Her whole world went weightless as she went body-over-head. In her rage she had failed to notice that the ground before her had started to decline as she head towards a deep holler. Daring tumbled down the steep slope hitting every bush, vine, limb, and rock cutting and bruising her body. All the while she loudly cursed along the way.
“I…”
Snap!
“…HATE…”
Crack!
“…THIS…”
Thwack!
“…JUNGLE!!!”
After tumbling for what seemed like forever, Daring finally landed rear first on the hard ground. The aching she had complained about before now wracked her all over. Her head felt hot, her legs felt sore, and her body felt broken.
“Merver frekcin spelivered…”
Daring muttered unrecognizable gibberish in anger as she pushed herself back onto her hoofs. Throbbing pain attacked her all the way in her effort. Once on her hoofs she turned to inspect the damage. To her surprise it wasn’t all that bad. Her knees were scrapped and bruises & cuts covered her legs but nothing else looked in serious shape.
"I’ve been through worse,” she thought.
“At least I didn’t break my wing again.”
Memories of one of her previous adventures made her turn to her wings and give them a good flap, sighing in relief when not greeted by a wave of pain. She was also happy to see that during the fall her saddlebag had managed to stay on. Her machete on the other hoof had flown out of her grasp during the fall. She looked up the incline she came down and saw the thick underbrush she fell through.
“I’m not going back up that.”
Wanting to make she was in good condition she slowly trotted back and forth. She flinched at the pain but after a few paces it slowly died down. In a few minutes Daring barley felt a thing and a sense of calm returned over her as she relaxed to the clip clopping of her hoofs on the stones beneath.
“Wait"
Daring stopped in her tracks.
"Clip Clopping?”
She brought her right forehoof up into the air and slammed it back down onto the ground
Clop!
She did it a few more time
Clop! Clop!
Looking down she noticed that instead of the soft jungle dirt she was standing upon hard stone rocks. But these rocks weren’t the usual jagged, scattered jungle rocks, they were nicely smooth and were placed neatly next to each other as if somepony had placed them together like that. Daring slowly realized where she was as she finally took in her surroundings. Before her laid a path of well laid stones that trailed off into the distance into the jungle.
“The road!”
Daring smiled with glee at finally discovering the ancient road. She was so happy she almost wanted to kiss the beautiful rocks beneath her. Instead she began to trot along the age old highway which would lead her to her main goal, the Great Temple. While trotting down the dark stone path Daring noticed how little the jungle had grown over it. Despite being abandoned for thousands of years not one plant had broken through the rock. The stones had been placed so close together that no vine or root or sprout could break them apart. Either their creators had been very skilled masons or great magic had been used.
The journey along the road was the easiest that Daring had done in the last few weeks. With no more jungle in her way she could enjoy making fast and unhindered progress. While having left the road alone, the wildlife had grown wild above and along the path. Compared to her trek so far, the canopy was denser with barley any light being able to break through the impenetrable pergola of green. This made the path ahead difficult to see as it was nearly pitch dark, but Daring didn’t mind, she would much rather deal with the darkness then the plants. It was difficult to tell what time of day it was due to the lack of light and it was even more difficult to deduce how much progress she was making now she was breezily trotting down the road.
“If I found the road, the temple can’t be far away.”
Daring’s suspicion was soon confirmed as after a while of trotting the jungle began to recede. Light began to break through the canopy again and the trees began to open up. Up ahead there was the light of a clearing at the end of the dark path.
“That must be it!”
Daring Do’s mind filled with anticipation. She began to quicken the pace as rush of energy ran though her. Thoughts of the possibilities flooded her mind. The ancient artifacts she could find, secrets sealed away eons ago, the trove of treasure and knowledge that could be obtained. As she got closer she speed faster and faster until she was in a full sprint, unable to contain her excitement.
“This has to be it! This has to be it!”
Faster and faster the clearing inched closer to her as she speed down the road. Her heart was beating with excitement. Nothing but the Great Temple was in her mind as her hooves clacked against the stones. Even her wings were beginning to beat with anticipation causing her hooves to not even touch the ground some of the time. She could tell she was nearing the end as the stone road began to disappear bellow her and a massive clearing opened up before her.
“After all the toil I have gone through this is it! This is it! Its…”
She burst into the clearing at full speed, sliding in the dirt as she came to a halt. She looked at the sight before her.
“…a dump.”
Excitement was replaced with disappointment as she finally saw the 'Great Temple'. She was standing in a small clearing covered in grass, surrounded by the jungle on all sides. All along the ground were broken and scattered stones and boulders, evidence of an ancient plaza which has managed to prevent the growth of trees. Before her was a poor excuse for a temple. A simple stone structure of only about 50 hoofs high lay at the opposite end of the clearing near the edge. The jungle had done its worse to it as the trees had grown up along the foundation breaking it up. A short flight a stars, covered by massive vines lead up to a crumbling doorway which looked like it could collapse any minute. It was nothing like the temples that Daring had explored before which toward above the canopy and were decorated with carvings and held a vast array of rooms and corridors. This “thing” barley even broke above the tree line and looked only big enough to house a small shrine through the crumbling doorway. From the map this 'Great Temple' sounded to be imposing and to hold something of significant value within, enough that others were hunting for it too and tried killing her in the process. Daring’s disappointment at building up her expectations turned to anger.
“After all the pain and dangers I have gone through THIS is what I get!”
Her face flushed red with anger. She wanted to scream at the top of her voice at all the time and effort that she felt had been wasted looking for this temple. Thankfully her reasonable side took over.
“Calm down Daring. There is more to this then what it seems.”
She thought back to the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Why would the ancients build a 'temple' and a road in the middle of the jungle, unless it had some importance? Why would the jungle map’s creator try hiding the location of this place if they didn’t feel as if there was something of danger? It wasn’t unlike the ancients to try hiding things behind something unexpected to deter thieves, they might have tried it here. With her temper calmed, Daring took a deep breath and slowly approached the base of the temple.
It was at that moment that something caught Daring’s attention. All the while she had been ‘blowing up' over the destruction of her built up expectations she had failed to notice the utter silence. Not a bird or a monkey or any other creature was making a sound; the jungle was all but quiet. She stopped in her tracks upon realizing this.
“It’s quite. It shouldn’t be quite.”
Snap!
The sound of a twig break caught her ear. Before she could react a large panther pounced at her from the jungle edge, letting out a large roar.
RAAAWWW!!!
Daring blasted herself backward with a flap of her wings, barley dodging the cat’s swiping claws. She landed a good distance away and spread her wings out ready for action.
“Great, I was hoping not to deal with any creatures today.”
The large cat that landed where Daring stood just moments before quickly turned to face her, snarling and bearing its teeth. It gave a low growl as it leaned its huge body down on its front legs readying to pounce on Daring Do again. Daring leaned back in a fighting stance ready to counter the big cats attack in a heartbeat. The two stared at each other, the panther continuing to growl in its pouncing stance and Daring ready to meet it. The thought of taking the initiative against the ferocious feline crossed Daring’s mind but before she could act upon it three new sounds came from behind and beside her. From the jungle more large cats jumped from the darkness. To the left and right of her a lynx and a cheetah leaped from the underbrush followed by ferocious tiger effectively boxing her in along with the panther. All four growled and roared as they slowly circled around her, making sure she had nowhere else to run.
“More company, even more perfect.”
Daring kept her head on a swivel trying to watch all three for any sudden movements. She was surrounded on all sides, with no other way out except up. Seeing that the odds were not in her favor she tried giving diplomacy a shot.
“Alright you fur balls, I don’t have the time or patience to deal with you so I am giving you one warning, back off!”
All she got was more growling.
“Well it was worth a shot.”
The panther tried to take a swipe at her which she easily dodged.
Looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way.
Hisssssss!
What?
From behind her she heard the hiss of a small cat. Taking a quick glance from the four predators before her, Daring spied a small little white house cat, standing underneath the tiger. It was trying to be just as intimidating as its larger feline compatriots but was failing on all accounts but there was something familiar about him.
I’ve seen that cat before.
A sudden realization came to her at that very moment and her realization was confirmed as a deep voice came from the direction of the temple.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
The voice was of somepony that she knew far too well.
“Ahuizotl.”
In the ancient doorway a tall dark figure appeared from out of the darkness. The first feature to come into the light was a huge set of smiling razor teeth, almost like a crocodiles. They were attached to a large elongated head out of which two yellow eyes stared at her. Two furry ears, like a dogs, protruded from its head. This was followed by a large upper body covered in blue fur with two muscular arms like that of a gorilla with clawed hands. This narrowed down into two paw padded hind legs and a long blue tail on which another clawed hand resided. All over he was adorned with jewelry in the style of the ancient jungle civilization: a pair of gold earrings, a large gold necklace around its neck, and three gold bracelets, one for each arm and its tail. Daring had encountered Ahuizotl before when she first started adventuring. He was a mythical creature, who is suspected as once having lived among the civilization that resided in the Forbidden Jungle. Nopony knows where he came from or even how old he is but what was known was that he sought the destruction of the world and Equestria, searching the crumbling ruins of the jungle to accomplish his goal. The two have crossed paths more than once and Daring had stopped his plans more then she could count.
“Looks like it’s going to be one of those days,” she thought.
“Daring Do,” responded Ahuizotl, his tone filled with irritation.
“What an unexpected surprise.”
“I can say the same for you,” Daring replied back.
She stayed in her defensive stance as Ahuizotl briskly walked down the temple step to the ground, keeping an eye on her all the way.
“Why is it that every time that I search for a means to destroy your world, you always show up to stop me?”
He slowly passed around outside the circle of predators surrounding Daring, his gaze kept fixed on her.
“I don’t know. Coincidence? Luck?” Daring responded in a playful manner as she kept both Ahuizotl and the four big cats in her sights.
“Or maybe because you keep inviting me.”
“Oh, whatever do you mean?” Ahuizotl replied, pretending to be oblivious to her statement.
“Sending Dr. Caballeron and his goons to attack me in MY home, ring any bells?”
He stopped in his pacing.
“Yes I do remember him and his fellow employees.”
Ahuizotl turned to look Daring straight on.
“But I remember plainly that I told them explicitly to dispose of you, not to invite you to find me,” he said with obvious irritation.
“Send better goons then,” Daring responded nonchalantly.
“The ones you keep sending are bumbling morons. I sometime times wonder how you’re so skilled in finding the dumbest ponies in all Equestria to work for you."
“Why you…”
Ahuizotl’s face flushed red with anger and he reared his arm to take a swipe at the pestilent pony. Daring readied for his attack with a sly grin on her face. But before he could take a swipe Ahuizotl’s sense returned to him. He took a deep breath and slowly dropped his clenched hand as he returned to his former clam demeanor.
“Dr. Caballeron IS one of the most incompetent ponies I have ever meet and has always been a nuisance to work with but that won’t matter soon as his ‘services’ will no longer be required.”
Daring’s ears perked at this.
What plans has Ahuizotl have now?
“I wouldn’t say that just yet," she responded, "You’ll still need a greedy pony like him to help you with your next evil plan once I stop this one.”
Ahuizotl looked at her unamused.
“As much as I am 'enjoying' this conversation,” he said as he turned back towards the temple.
“I have more pressing matters to attend to. Matters that don’t require ‘your’ presence.”
Ahuizotl began to make his way back toward the temple staircase.
“Aw, but I was enjoying our lovely chat,” Daring said sarcastically.
He let out a fake chuckle while still keeping his back to her.
“While I would love to dispose of you personally," stopping bellow the temple steps ", I am needed elsewhere. But my feline friends wouldn’t mind turning you into next week’s kitty litter.”
Without turning he spoke to his cat minions
“Deal with her.”
The hand on the back of his tail snapped its fingers.
Uh oh.
In unison all four cats pounced in the direction of Daring Do. Without a second thought, Daring put pressure into her hind legs and propelled herself straight up into the air. The four big cats collide into each other, letting out a mangle of roars and hisses. Daring smiled to herself at the scene bellow as she hovered high above the clearing.
Stupid cats.
She quickly turned to her main target, Ahuizotl, who was continuing heading up the stairs into the temple.
Oh no you don’t!
From in the air she flew straight towards him, flapping her wings at full force to get maximum velocity. She flew like a bullet straight towards Ahuizotl who was oblivious to the chaos behind him. At the last second he turned to catch a glimpse of the destruction of his foe only to be greeted by Daring’s fore hooves making contact with his face. Ahuizotl flew backwards from the unexpected punch and crashed into the side of the temple. His body left an indent in the wall which crumbled around him as he pulled himself from the rubble.
“You’re not getting away that easily,” Daring cried.
Ahuizotl was soon back onto his feet and his face was flushed red in fury. It almost looked as if fumes was coming from his nostrils and fire was in his yellow eyes. Daring couldn’t help but enjoy the sight of her furious foe. But it wasn’t to last as Ahuizotl lashed out at her giving a loud roar.
“RRRAAAAAWWW!!!!”
“Woah!”
She had underestimated his speed and was barely able to dodge his first clawed swipe. After the first swipe he went into a full clawed offensive, taking swipes this way and that trying to dice the little Pegasus. Daring had to put all her flying skills into dodging each and every swipe. They came so close to her sometimes that they made a whistling sound as they flew passed. A level of terror, adrenaline, and enjoyment all came from the rowel they were having.
“WHY DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING MYSELF,” roared Ahuizotl, not letting up on his offensive.
“As I said before,” replied Daring while dodging one of his swipes.
“Get better goons.”
Ahuizotl’s razor sharp teeth snapped at her in response.
“Well that was rude.”
He snapped at her again.
“STAY STILL YOU FLYING PEST!”
“Not on your…whoa!”
From behind, another unforeseen swipe grazed her wings as a new foe had entered the fray. While the two had been fighting, Daring had forgotten the pack of cats that had surrounded her before. During the fight they had managed to get out of the tussle they were in and take position around her and Ahuizotl, waiting for a chance to join the fray. The two had finally managed to get close to one of them, the tiger, and it had taken the opportunity to help his master. Only her wings managed to be grazed but it had thrown her off balance and she wasn’t able to block Ahuizotl’s next blow. His clawed hand struck her in the side and sent her spiraling into a tree.
Crack!
The full force of the blow sent pain throughout her body as she hit the trunk. Falling to the ground with a thud, the whole world spun around her.
Ow…
Her legs wobbled as she got to her feet and she almost fell over trying to get back into a fighting stance. Across the clearing Ahuizotl and his minions just watched with sly smiles at the dazed Pegasus. This just made her more angry.
“Come on,” she cried out.
“This fight isn’t over!”
Ahuizotl just chuckled with his arms crossed.
“Actually it is.”
The hand on his tail snapped its fingers again. A ‘phft’ sound came from the jungle and Daring felt a sudden sting in her neck. Taking her fore hoof she raised it to spot and felt a small dart protruding from her skin.
“A poison dart. Now that’s just…just…”
The poison quickly took its affect as she began to feel light headed and her legs wobbled even more. Her eyes felt sleepy and despite all her efforts to keep them open she just couldn’t. In a blink she was soon back on the ground the whole world spinning even more than before. In another blink Ahuizotl was standing above, his razor sharp teeth smiling from ear to ear.
“You desperately want to see what my plans are do you Daring?”
His voice was slightly distorted from the poison but she heard him clearly. She tried uttering some witty remark but upon attempt all she could make was a gurgling sound.
“Then I’ll be happy to show you.”
With that final remark Daring could no longer fight her drowsy eyes and the whole world went black.