//------------------------------// // Rad: Fallen, Fallen is Tambelon Pt. 1 // Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) // by Barrobroadcaster //------------------------------// "We need to get to higher ground. Now!" "The other door!" Phoenix shouted quickly, his mind working as fast as it could to avoid danger. "It's seeping through!" "What is?" Rarity asked, but there was no time to answer her. "MOVE! NOW!" "Bow... boo... boh... bow..." The Smooze burbled its way into the room. The gooey substance would form eyes when it felt it needed to in order to plan where it oozed forth next. Smooze was very much alive and a singular entity, although it could manifest different, independent forms for itself. First it only trickled in a little, but quickly began pouring in. "GET OUTTA HERE NOW!" Dan was the last person through the other door, leading to the adjoining hallway before the first door busted open. Although the walls, floor and ceiling of the prison complex were made of some sturdier metal, the doors and frames were not, having been added after the original structure's construction. They began running. "We need to go up! Now!" Cap yelled. Dan unfurled the map as he ran. "Uhh... uhhh-" "Where do we go, Dan?!" Rarity asked. "Which way?" Doctor Whooves added. And behind them, taking up the gentlemanly rear were Tux and Reginald. They were the last to exit the armory, but the first to notice the Smooze following them. "Must go faster... must go faster!" Tuxley advised. "I can't read the map until we slow down!" "Give it to me!" Chris shouted. "Why? You've got a gun!" "That's not gonna help against slime!" "WE DON'T KNOW THAT!" Dan yelled. The two argued and fought over the map as they ran. "We need to upstairs!!" "How 'bout those stairs?" Cap pointed ahead. A spiral staircase was down the hall and directly ahead of them. "Yeah that'll work," Dan said. And then a wave of Smooze cut across the intersection in front of them. "WE'RE TRAPPED!" Whooves screamed. Until Dan jumped on top of him. "JUMP IT! JUMP THE SLUDGE- GO! GO! YAH, PONY, YAH!!" "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEEEHEEEE!" Doctor Whooves was still a pony. Almost all ponies, pretty much all ponies, reacted to being heeled in the abdomen with a quick jolt forward. It was similar to the reflex responses in humans and right now, it was what they needed. The Doctor leaped over the Smooze and skidded into a turn. "DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, JUST GO!" "Alleyoop, Nick!" "Wha-oh boy!" Captain America grabbed the lawyer and put him on his own shoulders. With his tremendous strength, he jumped over the rising tide of Smooze. This was followed by Rarity and Redfield, leaving only the two gentlemen behind. "Sir, may I perhaps ask for your support?" "With all due haste, Reginald, please." "Of course, sir." "Mind the vest, Reginald." "But of course, sir." Being the larger of the pair, Sir Tuxley allowed Sir Reginald to ride him. The dinosaur charged towards the sludge and took one giant leap over it. Unfortunately, they were just a bit too late. The Smooze manifested its gooey form and reached for the pair as they soared overhead. The first hand was too low and missed, but it quickly produced another and another. By the time the pair were descending to the floor, the Smooze was ready to grab them. And at the last moment, Rarity's aura appeared around the two and carried them up and over the Smooze. The sludgy creature reached out further but thankfully missed. "Good job, Rarity!" "Thank you so much, Miss." "Yes, thank you." "Up the stairs!" Dan led the others up to the second level just as the Smooze began filling the corridor. It didn't stop until it was up to the ceiling. The gang didn't stop until they were on the top floor. "This way, senor! Quickly!" At the top of the stairs, a pair of donkeys pulled the group through one by one and then slammed the door behind them. They all backed away from the door, eyes on the crevice between it and the floor. Thankfully, nothing bubbled through, this time. Apart from a few prrring foodimals, all was quiet. "Lucid! Hey, thanks for helping us out," Phoenix said. The yellow donkey offered a slight bow. "I do what I can, senor, but we are losing ground." They were all still catching their breath, including Dan, who had his hands on his knees. But still, he looked up and asked, "What's with the accent?" "Que? What accent, amigo?" "The Spanish accent," Cap said. "Broken Spanish accent," Chris corrected. Lucid shook his head. "I do not know what you mean, senors." "Wait wait wait," Doctor Whooves said, "What is your name, mi amigo?" The Doctor could do Spanish as well. Kind-of. "I am El Capitan Louis El-Cid, of the guards of the New Troy," the donkey stated with some amount of pride in his voice. Phoenix nodded to himself, biting his lip. "Captain Louis-Cid. Lu-cid." "We were duped again!" Dan exclaimed angrily. "That means those donkeys guarding the wall weren't really guarding anything!" "Then WHY did they let us in?" Cap asked. "Because!" Dan said. But he had nothing. "Because..." "Unless!" Doctor Whooves picked up where he left off and pointed, "Unless that WAS the real Lucid and YOU are the impostor, senor!" He paused. "I must apologize, senors. I have truly no idea what you are talking about." The yellow donkey looked confused, genuinely confused, while the rest of them were a range between skeptical and perplexed. Dan opened his mouth to say something, then realized he didn't know what to say. So he said, "I HATE deceptions. It makes it harder to figure out who to get revenge on later." "Either way, this isn't the time to start friction between each other," Chris said. "We need to contain this outbreak, no matter what side we're on. If we don't, this sludge will probably kill us all." "Grrrrrrrr," Dan growled, knowing he was right. But then, he said, "No." "No?" "NO! This is the PERFECT time for one of Chip Clip's spies to do us in, to toss us out and get eaten by that muck out there!" Dan said. "If we suspect ANYBODY is with him, there's no choice." "Dan, darling, realistically-" "Duct tape," was Dan's only reply. Captain Louis El-Cid, or Lucid, was tied up and propped up next to the door. It was against his own protests, and they were pretty sure he cursed them in Spanish at least a few times. But they tried to do it as kindly as possible before continuing on. They were partly down the hallway, just outside of Lucid's sight before another group of guards came running for them. "Hey! Hey, it's you guys!" Except they weren't donkey guards. They were humans. "Oh, great. How in the hell did you guys get here?" The Imperials from the Appleloosa stadium approached them. Kelsan, the officer, was the first to greet them. "Same as you, I presume. By train." "When we were underground, you rain," Phoenix said. "In the opposite direction. And there was only one way out." "We doubled back around." "And who are those guys with you?" A pair of black armored troopers were behind them. Like the Imperials, they had met Dan before. "Hi." "..." "That guy doesn't talk?" Dan gestured. "Not really, no," Dollars said. Phoenix looked at Dan, shyly grinning. Rarity, Captain America and Doctor Whooves all did the same. Dan sighed. "You are ALL lucky I'm out of duct tape." The Imperial officer smiled. "How charming. Might I suggest we deal with the apocalyptic accumulation of grime before it swallows the planet?" "Yes, please, lead on," Captain America said. "I'll make sure Dan does not duct tape any of you." "You can't make that promise, Stevie." Dan was actually grateful they had the troopers to lead them; the whole place was a maze. Although it was a prison, it still had aesthetics that made it seem like a castle or a palace, as could be expected in Equestria. Even fortresses and bunkers had some decor in Equestria. They passed multiple busts, statues and portraits of various figures. As they kept going, they began to see more and more of them, until they turned a corner and found themselves in what looked like a gallery. A different kind of gallery. "A villain's gallery," Dan remarked. He nodded. "Not too shabby. That's not a bad idea, actually." "A rogue's gallery," Chris Redfield said. Stretching all the way down the corridor and lining both sides were statues of villains. Except, they weren't statues. Dan slowed down and walked up to one of them. "Wow! Hey Nicky, get over here!" The lawyer joined him. "Look who it is!" A statue of a mare seated on an ornate chair looked outward with a sly grin on her face. Behind her glasses were a pair of cunning eyes, eyes that held their own level of smugness. The mare sat with her legs crossed, human-like, forelegs on each of the forearms of the chair as if waiting for something. Her wavy mane matched her tail, and draped over the cloak that itself draped over the back of the chair. At the base of the statue read her name: Amber Afterglow- aka The Darchivist. "Is that... is that really the Darchivist?" Phoenix asked. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Okay, this IS kind of cool." "What are you talking- oh!" Rarity stopped. "Oh- my, it really is her! If only Rainbow and Twilight were here." "Or Daring Do," Dan said. And they all nodded at that. Amber Afterglow had been the royal archivist of Canterlot, the predecessor to Sunset Shimmer and one of the most respected unicorns in Equestria. Unfortunately, her love of knowledge led her to seek forbidden knowledge, including the Alicorn Amulet and other cursed artifacts. The legendary bronze mare became one of Equestria's most nefarious villains, adopting the moniker of the Darchivist, collector of dark artifacts, until she was stopped by none other than Daring Do. The main antagonist of Daring Do and the Dangers of The Darkest Archive, Daring Do and the Race to Rampart's Ruins, Daring Do and the Secrets of the Sunken Shadows and finally, Afterglow: A Daring Do Story, it wasn't until the end of the second book that her identity was revealed as the Darchivist. But before that, the most shocking revelation had already been revealed, but not yet realized; Amber Afterglow is Daring Do's mother. "I don't think this is exactly the best time to wake her up and ask for an autograph," Captain America advised. " Keep it moving, back there. The power generator is one level above us," Kelsan said. "We have a few Engineers keeping it working, but it hasn't been easy," Dollars said. Neither he nor Dan knew that Dan still had his shotgun. "We were dealing with a riot before the Smooze broke out. Honestly, I'm not sure which I'd rather be dealing with right now." Phoenix was listening, but he was also looking. Seeing one villain was enough to peak his interest. "Does this remind you of anything?" (Definitely something recent.) "This looks like the museum under Appleloosa," Rarity said. "The one that had a picture of my boutique. My home." Doctor Whooves patted her shoulder, comforting her but encouraging her on. "It's almost like these places were built by the same ponies," Phoenix mused. "Or... the same pony." "Or people. Or person," Dan said. "But that one had exhibits. This one has... bad guys." Tuxley adjusted his top hat. "My... our museum. THE museum, is quite similar. Both the arena and this prison have a similar layout, as does the Castle of the Two Sisters." Dan nodded. "And the back storeroom of that Tesco." "Why would they all have the same construction?" Rarity asked. "Why would someone design so many different things with the same principle in mind?" "The same reason you're fond of the Carousel Boutique- love," Phoenix Wright said. He touched one of the statues. "These statues are the prisoners." An eclair foodimal along with the hot dog one appeared at the foot of one of the statues. They looked up at Phoenix with innocent eyes. "Whoever built these places, who collected all these things, all these ponies and everything, they did it with... love," Dan said, matter-of-factly. And that was all he said before moving on. Back at the other end of the corridor, further back than any of them could see, one of the foodimals picked at the duct tape. It had been ripped apart and left behind.