All the torch sconces in the chamber suddenly burst into flames. Daring Do and Rainbow as well as Rainbow’s friends looked around in fright, frantically searching for the source of the voice and flames.
“Whoever else is here,” Daring called out into the chamber, “you better show yourself now!”
That is when they heard the sound of a set of hooves echoing out of the tunnel at the opposite side of the chamber.
Standing at the tunnel entrance was a massive Zebra stallion. His eyes were blood-red. His cutie mark was a similarly colored Zebra symbol called a hye won hye. It kind of looked like a butterfly. An earring hung in his left ear made from orange and yellow phoenix feathers. The stripes across his ashen body were red and orange, unlike the typical Zebra’s black and white. The Zebra’s mane and tail were colored red, orange, and yellow, giving him the overall appearance of a raging inferno.
Rainbow narrowed her eyes in anger. “Braze!”
“Braze, as in the Zebra who stole the Half-Gilded Horseshoe from your friend Zecora?” Daring asked.
“The very same,” Rainbow answered.
“Daring Dash, so good to see you,” Braze coldly greeted. “I knew our paths would cross anew.”
“Daring Dash?” Daring asked in confusion, but also a hint of unease at hearing Rainbow called a familial-sounding name.
“Long story,” Rainbow responded tersely, not noticing Daring’s unease. She pointed an accusatory hoof at Braze. “I’m betting you’re the reason the Blue Moon Medallion isn’t here.”
“No need for you to be corrected,” Braze answered, “for the Blue Moon Medallion I indeed already collected. In my search for the Spirit Circle, I found it by chance. I knew, by taking it, my plans could advance.”
“You might as well forget whatever your evil plans are and hoof it over,” Rainbow told Braze, “because I beat you once before and I can beat you again!”
Braze cackled. “You err in your conclusion,” he replied snidely, “for the Medallion is no longer in my possession.”
“Then where is it?!” Rainbow retorted.
“The Medallion was a gift to a friend, with whom I share a mutual end,” Braze answered.
At that moment, two Earth pony stallions stepped out of the shadows of the tunnel and joined Braze at each of his sides at the opening. The first pony was a large blue stallion with a brilliant gold mane. A splash of orange warpaint covered the top of his face. There were two feathery bracelets around the fetlocks of his forelegs. He was festooned with various golden ornaments and wore four earrings in his left ear.
The second pony was a red stallion with a grayish-blue mane. A splash of ashen-gray warpaint covered the top of his face. His fetlocks were also similarly decorated with feathery bracelets. Their manes and tails were identically styled with headbands and ties about their tails.
Both ponies had almost identical cutie marks--a kind of squiggle with half a step pyramid at the end. It was a symbol common among the ponies of the Tenochtitlan Basin. The blue pony’s cutie mark was gold, while the red pony’s was just plain white. It was quite plain to see by his size and his ornaments that the blue pony was the one in charge of the two. The red pony was merely a peon.
Daring and Rainbow gaped at the appearance of these two stallions, for they knew exactly who they were. Daring knew them from personal experience. Rainbow knew them from reading of Daring’s adventures.
“Nopal. Ahuizotl’s chief henchpony,” Rainbow stated as she looked at the blue pony. “And Copal,” Rainbow looked at the red pony. “That other henchpony.”
Copal looked like he was about to say something but a look from Nopal silenced him. Copal just scowled at Rainbow.
Daring looked between the two henchponies and came to a conclusion. She looked Braze dead in the eyes with deadly seriousness.
“You’re working with Ahuizotl.”
Twilight gasped at this revelation. It certainly did not bode well for them to have the Zebra warlock who had once kidnapped her and her friends in an alliance with Daring Do’s chief adversary.
Pinkie, meanwhile, was now standing next to Twilight, joyfully munching on a carton of popcorn that she had produced from somewhere.
Pinkie turned to Twilight. “This is getting good.”
Brazed chuckled evilly. “Ahuizotl is indeed that friend, who has generously taken me as his second.”
“His second? His second-in-command?!” Daring was actually surprised by this admission. Ahuizotl was the most selfish creature she had ever encountered. He rarely worked together with anypony or any creature for that matter for any extended period of time. To have him make this Zebra his second-in-command meant that Ahuizotl needed Braze for something.
“It’s not just the Blue Moon Medallion Ahuizotl’s after,” Daring said with confidence. “He’s after something bigger.”
“The Medallion is indeed a means to an end,” Braze answered. “Beyond the Medallion, our true prize does extend.”
Braze took a closer look at Daring. Something about how she was suddenly taking the lead in this conversation reminded him of something his malevolent master Ahuizotl had told him. In fact, the colors of her coat and mane and the way she was dressed also sparked something in his memory. “So many questions from this golden pony. I admit, I did not get the name of your crony.”
Daring gave the fiery Zebra a hard look. “I’m Daring Do.”
Braze smiled with malevolence. She was indeed who he thought she was.
“Ah, my master Ahuizotl has told me much about you, the meddling and troublesome Daring Do.”
“If he’s told you about me,” Daring retorted, “then you know you should just quit while you’re at it. Because, I’m the pony who’s going to end everything you know!”
“Nice one,” Rainbow said Daring. “So awesome!”
Daring nodded at Rainbow with a smile in thanks but then turned back to stare down Braze.
Braze looked back at Daring with disdain. “It would be best to curb that gall, for such arrogance will be your downfall.” Braze held his head up high and stuck his foreleg into the air. “For with I at my malevolent master Ahuizotl’s side, our victory will not be denied!”
“Bold words,” Daring responded. “But words won’t save you.”
Braze snorted in contempt. “Enough with this endless chatter! It is time for me and my slaves to scatter.”
“We’re henchponies, not slaves,” Copal added under his breath.
Braze turned to Copal. “Be silent!” Braze roared. “Before I become violent!”
Copal responded with a derisive snort.
Braze turned once more to Rainbow Dash. “My little Daring Dash, mark my words, for they be always true.” He proceeded to walk around the dais and then stood before Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. “I will be the end of you and your little friends too!”
Suddenly, Twilight and her friends were surrounded by a lavender shield. Twilight’s horn was alight with magic. She stared grimly back at Braze.
Braze just chuckled. “Save your alicorn magic. To duel with me, the results will be tragic.” Braze turned back to Rainbow and Daring. “Daring Dash and Daring Do. I bid the pair of you, adieu.”
With that, Braze burst into a cloud of dark-red smoke. The cloud flew over their heads and into the dark of the tunnel Braze originally came through. The two henchponies galloped after the smoke cloud into the darkness.
Once she was sure Braze was gone, Twilight lowered her shield.
Rainbow Dash leapt into the air, intent on giving chase to the Zebra villain. Applejack hopped on the dais and grabbed Rainbow’s tail in her mouth, holding her back. Rainbow strained against the force of Applejack’s jaws clamped around her tail.
Rainbow grunted. “Let me go! Let me go, Applejack!” Rainbow swung her forelegs before her as if she were fighting an imagined opponent. “He threatened you guys! Nopony threatens my friends!”
Twilight flew up and hovered in place before her. “Rainbow, you just can’t run after him like this.” Twilight pointed at the tunnel behind them. “You don’t even know where that tunnel leads or if he has more henchponies to back him up. If we were to go after him, we’d need a plan of attack.”
“I do have a plan. Attack!” Rainbow fired back.
“She’s right, you know,” Daring said as she also flew up and hovered next to Rainbow. “I’ve been in the adventure game long enough to know that going after a pony like Braze without thinking things through never ends well.”
Rainbow took a few deep breaths. She calmed down significantly as she hovered in place. Once she was sure Rainbow was completely placated, Applejack let go of her tail. She also spit out a few rainbow-colored strands that got stuck in her mouth.
Now relaxed once more, Rainbow turned to Daring. “Okay, what do we do, then?”
“First, figure a way out of here,” Daring began. “Then, we figure out what Ahuizotl is after that he’d need Braze and the Blue Moon Medallion first to get it.”
“Oh my gosh! The nightmares!” Twilight cried.
“What?” Daring responded, confused.
Twilight turned to Daring. “The Blue Moon Medallion allows a pony to walk through dreams just like Princess Luna can.”
“Yeah,” Daring said.
Twilight continued. “Dreams often hold a pony’s most secret desires and knowledge. Ahuizotl could be using the Medallion to tease out a pony’s secrets out of their dreams. Doing so though would manifest itself as nightmares.”
“Just like the ones the professors from Celestia’s School have been having,” Daring said.
“Exactly!” Twilight proclaimed. “Ahuizotl is using the Medallion to find out something they know.”
Twilight smiled with pride at being able to come to this conclusion. Her eyes immediately widened though when she realized the implications of this conclusion. “I’m going to need to send a letter to Princess Celestia right away!”
“I don’t think you need to,” Daring said. “I’ll bet you anything Princess Celestia gave you this assignment because she already knows Ahuizotl has the Medallion and wanted you to find out yourself.”
Twilight cocked a suspicious eyebrow at Daring. “How do you know so much about how Celestia does these things?”
“That’s not important right now,” Daring replied curtly. “What is important is getting out of here so we can look through those files and find some clue as to what Ahuizotl is after.”
Rainbow looked up at the ceiling, hoping there was some means of egress she had not noticed before.
She found none.
“It doesn’t look like we’re flying out of this,” Rainbow said.
“Ooh, ooh! Let me try,” Pinkie declared.
Pinkie began to walk around the circumference of the room, looking intently at the bricks in the wall. Twilight, Rainbow, and Daring settled once on the ground and watched in wonder as Pinkie looked for an exit.
Once she had circumnavigated the chamber, Pinkie slowed to a stop halfway between the chamber’s two tunnel entrances. Various parts of Pinkie’s body began to twitch and spasm. “Ear flop! Eye flutter! Knee twitch!”
Daring looked on with marked confusion. “What is happening?”
A smile crossed Twilight’s face as she realized what Pinkie was up to. “I think Pinkie is using her Pinkie Sense to find a door out of here.”
“Pinkie Sense?” Daring asked, befuddled.
“Pinkie can sense vague events that occur in the immediate future,” Twilight explained.
“But how?”
Twilight shook her head. “Believe me, I’ve tried to figure that out, but it defies empirical explanation. The only rational thing I could do was just accept it.”
Daring nodded in agreement. “I could accept that.”
Meanwhile, Pinkie was waving her hoof over the bricks in the wall to determine over which one her Pinkie Sense was strongest. Her hoof then came to a stop over a brick. Pinkie pressed the brick with her outstretched hoof and it receded into the wall. A section of wall next to the brick slid open, revealing another narrower cylindrical alcove with a flight of stairs spiraling up the walls.
Pinkie indicated the door with a flourish. “Ta da!”
Pinkie’s friends hooped and hollered at Pinkie finding the way out. Daring, on the other hoof, just shook her head in resignation, accepting that Pinkie may be one of the most unexplainable ponies she had ever encountered.
Pinkie Pie hopped through the secret door and started making her way up the stairs. She was followed soon after by her friends and Daring.