Daring Do: the Legend of the Algae Photis
by Wanderer D
Chapter 14: The Greater Good
When Twilight, Alejandra, and Daring Do walked into the hall where all the guests were, silence immediately fell. Hippogriffs turned to look at the trio with expressions ranging from surprise to distrust.
"It seems some of them still buy into the theory that we kidnapped Sky Beak's daughter," Daring Do whispered as they made their way to the center of the room.
"It's moronic, Queen Novo knows that's not the case," Alejandra hissed.
"Friends!"
The trio looked up as a young hippogriff giddily skipped across the room. All hippogriffs bowed to her as she did, although her bright eyes never strayed away from them.
"That is Princess Skystar," Daring said to Twilight, who immediately smiled at the boisterous young princess and bowed slightly in greeting.
"Princess Skystar," Twilight said, "a pleasure to meet you."
"Oh, the pleasure is mine!" Skystar said taking Twilight's hoof and shaking it before walking over to give Daring Do a hug. "How nice to see you again auntie!" she said, then stepping back she grinned as she studied Alejandra up and down. "And wow! A Griffon! I have never met one before!"
"Um. Nice to meet you?"
"Oooh, your accent is so exotic! Do all griffons speak like that?"
"No…"
"Skystar," Queen Novo called, emerging from the back of the room with her royal escort around her. "You need to give our guests some space to breathe."
The princess didn't stop smiling as she bowed. "Oh, I will! I mean, I intend to. I mean… I'm not cutting off your breath, am I?"
"No, Skystar, you're fine," Daring Do answered with a chuckle. "It's good to see you too, kid."
"My daughter may have already broken protocol, Princess Twilight Sparkle," Queen Novo said, glancing around her as she emphasized Twilight's title, "but please allow me to introduce Princess Skystar of Mt. Aris, my daughter and heir to the throne."
"Still a long time for that, mom!"
"It is an honor, your majesty," Twilight said formally, "thank you for your kind invitation to join you and your other guests for dinner."
"The pleasure is mine, Princess," Novo said, her right wing opening to encompass the room. "Drink and be merry, for tonight we dine as friends, may this be the first step in a long-lasting relationship of mutual benefit."
This both made Twilight smile and the hippogriffs around to whisper, but soon she was following Queen Novo to the main table. It seemed that, for now, her attempt at friendship had worked.
Tempest didn't pay attention to the hippogriff guards as they were taken down systematically by her minions. Next to her, keeping pace as they advanced deeper and deeper into Mount Aris' secret rooms, Ahuitzotl kept unusually quiet, even stepping off on occasion to study ancient hieroglyphs on the walls, more than one representing several interesting-looking items; weapons, gems, monsters… the whole wall was some sort of ancient storyline.
"Yes… yes, this makes sense," Ahuitzotl said motioning with his tail at the wall. "You see here, my dear Tempest Shadow, the Hippogriffs were not the original dwellers of Mount Aris."
"That's a lie!" Sky Beak exclaimed angrily trotting up to him, "I might have no choice but to help you now, but I won't let you spread lies on top of it!"
Ahuitzotl back-slapped the hippogriff. "Fool. I am not talking to an ignoramus idiot like yourself. I'm talking to her."
Tempest had stopped. "Why is this relevant?"
"Because!" Ahuitzotl laughed, "there is a lot more to the Pearl than these miscreants know. The Pearl was carried away by ancient harpies—the ancestors of the current tribe of parrots that now populate most of Fleece—in order to protect it. It is part of a much bigger design… a design that I believe Daring Do is aware of… for why else would she have brought that despicable Twilight Sparkle and her crew here?"
This had drawn Tempest's attention. She signaled her minions to guard the room, then approached the wall, her eyes now trying to discern what Ahuitzotl had learned. "Explain."
"Didn't you wonder why Daring came here?" he asked, "If her mission is in Fleece like Sky Beak informed us… why not stack up in Klugetown and head straight there?"
She ignored Sky Beak, who was now standing up and glaring at Ahuitzotl. "The thought crossed my mind. I assumed they needed additional information."
"Daring Do knows most of Fleece like the back of her hand, and our information said that she hired a local for help. No, Daring Do knew about this…" Ahuitzotl glared at Sky Beak. "She had been here before. In this room. With the Pearl."
Sky Beak clamped shut his beak.
"Well?" Tempest asked.
When the hippogriff didn't answer, Ahuitzotl chuckled darkly. "There is no need for you to tell us. I can see right here. The Pearl was tied to Mount Aris… and the volcano under it." He pointed at the beginning of the wall, far back. "But it needed to be activated with a ritual involving the sea and the sky... " his hands traced another part of the wall. "Your people wouldn't know how to do this, but Daring Do?" He smirked. "Daring would know."
"Interesting." Tempest drawled.
"Oh, it is!" Ahuitzotl said. "And especially of interest to you, my dear Tempest." He motioned with his hand at the wall. A grand display of a room with several gemmed columns depicted a flaming sword of some sort, the pearl above it… and something under, but that part of the wall had crumbled away to time. "You see… the Pearl is an integral part of the Algae Photis."
Tempest raised an eyebrow.
"The Algae Photis can cure any illness…" Ahuitzotl explained, and his many rows of sharp fangs were revealed when he smiled wickedly at Tempest. "And heal any wound. Restore any limb."
Tempest's eyes widened and she approached the wall even more, gazing at the device. "How?"
"It has immeasurable magical properties, but it is only reachable with the Pearl's power."
"So what you are saying is that Twilight Sparkle was brought here by Daring Do… to obtain the Pearl?"
"Yes," Ahuitzotl said. "There might be other, smaller reasons… but if Daring helped Queen Novo to save Mount Aris, then she must know more about the Pearl, and at least what's mentioned here." He growled. "They must be after the Algae Photis! It's the greatest treasure of ancient Fleece! Magic never seen since! Power that that idiot king of yours doesn't even comprehend!"
"Careful," Tempest said, a warning tone to her voice as she glared at the creature. Nevertheless she considered his words. "The Storm Kind is plenty powerful."
"Is he?" Ahuitzotl asked, "Why? Because he has an army and hostile intentions? If he were that powerful, why does he need to steal magic? Why does he need to inflate his own ego constantly and show off empty victories?"
"He just needs more power to achieve what he wants and fulfill his pledge to me," Tempest hissed.
"Tell yourself what you want," Ahuitzotl said with a disdainful sort. "But he thinks the Pearl is a trinket that will give him "power". He doesn't even know what that means!" he snarled. "Power! How vague can he get? Power how? Energy? Magic? What kind? To what purpose? He clearly has no idea what the pearl can do at all." He crept closer to her and leaned in to whisper, "But you… you know what you want that power for exactly, and you I'm willing to help… because if you get what you want… then I get what I want too."
Tempest glanced at him. "And what do you want?"
"Revenge."
Tempest was quiet for a few seconds. "Come. Let us get that Pearl… and plan our next move."
Ahuitzotl's smile never lessened. "As you wish."
"I insist, your highness. I mean no disrespect to our esteemed guest, but we have handled things so far without incident. The Storm King is not enough of a threat to request external assistance!"
Alejandra watched Twilight's ear twitch.
"I couldn't agree more, General, I understand that you are capable enough to prevent the Storm King's victory, but again, Queen Novo did not request my assistance; it is something I offered, as a friend and someone interested in seeing our friends secure rather than at risk. I'm not offering to do anything other than support you in pushing the Storm King back, in fact—"
"So," a voice next to her made Alejandra blink, and she turned to face Daring Do, who had walked up to her. "You really only have eyes for her, don't you?"
Alejandra shot her a look, but Daring didn't back down and so, she simply sighed. "Fine. Yes." She turned to look at Twilight once more. "She's such a strong woman, Daring. I don't even know how I can begin to deserve being her companion."
"Mare," Daring corrected. "At least in this world, that would be the correct term." She grinned at Alejandra's annoyed glance. "I know, but you need to be able to mix a bit more with other species, and they would be confused by words like everyone, anyone, or woman."
"Yeah, yeah," Alejandra growled. "Galahad said the same thing."
"She means a lot to you, doesn't she?" Daring asked.
Alejandra grumbled under her breath. "I'm here, aren't I? I could be back home, fighting the good fight, but this w—mare, the moment I heard she was going away I was ready to drop everything to go with her, no matter where." She lifted a claw and gazed at it. "I even gave away my humanity… and it barely crosses my mind." She shifted a little, glancing around, but noone seemed to be paying too much attention to them at the moment.
Twilight was taking the spotlight.
"I met Gabby through her and now… I'm torn about my place in my world, in her world… in Gabby's world," she confessed. "I feel that I'm doing the right thing, but not just for myself, but others… here we have a real chance at helping Sunset Shimmer, and she is far more useful to XCOM than I am." She glanced over at her pegasus companion and shrugged. "I'm just a sniper, and mostly a rookie by XCOM standards. My contributions in combat over there are much less impactful than my support here."
Daring Do patted her on the shoulder. "The greater good is not going to make you necessarily happy."
"Maybe not, but… I've met… me as a young griff here. And I'm with Twilight… I think that's all I need."
"Twilight needs time," Daring said after a moment. "She knows how you feel."
Alejandra licked her beak. "I—"
Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by an argument outside of the hall, which drew their attention, and then the doors to the banquet were smashed open and a young hippogriff, flanked by Rainbow Dash and Galahad rushed in.
"Silverstream!" Skystar shouted, flying up to embrace the young hippogriff. "You're back!"
"What is the meaning of this?" Novo's voice carried over, and soon the mass of guards that had followed the trio in, and the nobles already in the room, stepped to the side to allow the queen to join her daughter and niece.
"Rainbow Dash and the others saved me, auntie!" Silverstream said quickly, "but not before Tempest Shadow forced my daddy to help her!"
Novo's eyes narrowed and she looked around . "Where is Sky Beak?"
"Auntie…"
Alejandra had made her way to stand protectively next to Twilight when Silverstream spoke next.
"They forced him to take them to the Pearl."
Novo and Daring Do stared at each other in horror.
"Guards!" Novo roared. "To me! We must protect the Pearl!"
"Come on, everyone!" Twilight shouted, dashing after the Queen and her guard. "If that traitor is involved, I want to be there to take her down!"
Alejandra joined the others on the mad dash across the palace and then outside the main building, running around and down into caverns protected from outside view by the large cliffs around them. It only took them a few minutes to reach a large, circular, ancient-looking slab of stone, which had been pushed to the side to reveal several structures within.
In the middle of the floor, right next to the entrance were several unconscious hippogriff guards, but other than a couple of guards, no-one slowed down until they were much deeper in the caverns, where a pedestal rose within a domed, empty room.
Empty, except for the bloodied body of a hippogriff.
"Daddy!" Silverstream screamed as she dove down to hug him. Several guards rushed to help, but Alejandra noticed that Novo's eyes were not on her brother, but rather on the empty pedestal.
"Well, crap," Daring Do muttered. "The Pearl is gone."
End Chapter 14