//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 - 1/2 
// Story: Daring-Do and the Griffon's Goblet 
// by Creative Charmer 
//------------------------------//

	Daring-Do took a second to catch her breath after opening those heavy doors. She then looked up to see where she had entered.
The room contained several types of furniture, all of which was crudely made from either wood or stone. However, the room was also filled with many pieces of griffon-related objects, such as statues, carvings, and even some drawings. "This must be where Griison lives. Definitely not what I expected, though."
As she wandered around the room more, she could see that each of the different griffon paraphernalia looked different from each other; except that most of the art in the room resembled Griifious. "Wow, Griifious was even more full of himself than I thought. And it looks like his family was, too."
Daring looked at more of the art, and that's when she noticed something. Out of all the griffon artwork in this room, there was not a single piece that resembled Griison. "That's strange; I wonder why Griison doesn't have any art of himself here? It looks like everyone other member of his family had at least one piece made for themselves. Very odd..."
She then came upon a door on the other side of the room from where she started. "I wonder where this goes?" She peered through the doorway, and could see a staircase going down and then twisting to the left. "Hmm..."
Daring pondered for a bit, but then her eye caught an item that lay on an adjacent table to the right of the doorway. The item was a rolled-up scroll, and Daring picked it up to read it and see if it said anything of interest.
On the scroll, it said:

For all my future offspring, let it be known to you that the doorway that stands on the right side of this room in my elegant domicile will take you down a tunnel that will bypass each and every trap that lie within my grand mountain, attaching the mountain entrance to this room, thus making it so none of my future kin will be harmed, and shall stand guard over my mountain for the remainder of their own life, until the next griffon in the line shall take their place, so my mountain will always have a griffon of my own bloodline to watch over it, as it shall for all time.

-The High and Mighty Griifious

Daring lowered the scroll down, having a combination of a blank and perturbed look on her face. "Looks like that's another thing that figures for me. I know I said I like adventures when they're not easy, but sometimes I think easy wouldn't be so bad," she sighed pensively.
She tossed the scroll back onto the table. "Well, I guess I shouldn't let myself get too upset over this little impediment. After all, I made it, I'm here, and it's high time that I find what I came for."
Daring began to search around for the goblet, although she wasn't sure where to begin. She thought to herself, wondering what Griifious would have done with an object so precious to himself. "Hmm...if I were Griifious, I would have placed the goblet in an area that would be befitting to an object of such vast importance. A place that shows everyone that the vast and incredible grandeur of the goblet. So I would most likely place it on a pedestal."
With these new thoughts in her head, Daring-Do started searching around the room for the goblet or a pedestal. After looking the room over for several minutes, Daring came up empty-hooved.
"Where could that goblet be? I've looked everywhere in this room!" she sighed as she walked over to the wall. "Griifious must have really went all-out to hide his goblet. He's even stumped me!"
Daring leaned against the wall with her hoof to think more about what to do, when she felt herself unexpectedly budge, and she heard a clanking noise. She looked to see a square piece of the wall had been pushed in from where she had placed her hoof on the wall. More clanking noises were head, so Daring backed away from the wall to see what was happening.
Part of the wall next to the switch lifted up, revealing an upwards staircase behind it. Daring looked up the staircase, seeing it went a long ways up.
"Of course, why didn't I think of this before? With an object so valuable, Griifious would definitely want it hidden from prying eyes. Too bad he didn't count on my eyes prying a bit harder," she confidently began to ascend the stairs, curious as to what she would behold ahead.

As Daring-Do reached the top of the staircase, she came upon yet another tunnel, but this one was different from all the others she had seen. It was much shorter than the other tunnels, and the end could easily be seen, with a light shining through the doorway. The walls were adorned with torches, and the architecture of the tunnel was of an superb quality, with columns up against the wall, and arches connecting the tops of each of the parallel facing columns. Daring scanned the whole of the tunnel. "With something so fancy, I doubt Griifious would want any traps in here to ruin it," she laughed to herself, but still she proceeded with caution down the tunnel.

After passing through the tunnel, with no complications whatsoever, Daring-Do finds herself on a walkway—on the outside of the mountain. She could not believe her eyes as she looked around.
"You're telling me that I didn't have to go through all of that to get to the goblet? That if I had just flown higher I could have found it easily? Why would Griifious do such a thing??" Daring slumped down and placed her hoof on her face in humiliation.
After a few seconds, she uncovered her face, looking quite peeved. She then proceeded to look around at the surrounding area. First she looked down at the base of the mountain, and could see she was up quite high. Next, she turned around and looked up at the top of the mountain, which was very close to her position. She then situated herself back into her upright position to get her thoughts together.
"Well, from what I know about Griifious, he must have placed the goblet out here so he could easily leave to go use it; and for a goblet with such magnificence, he would want it to be placed in the one location that was best suited for it; namely, a pedestal on a ledge on the outside of the mountain, so the beauty of nature would increase the magnificence of the goblet to even vaster amounts. He also must have thought that nopony would ever fly up this high, since the valley ponies are afraid of even getting close to the mountain, let alone investigating it. It was the most perfect spot he could have found—but that still doesn't change how aggravated I am to find all of this out!"
Daring let out a sigh of frustration. After just sitting and feeling mad for a few seconds, she looked at the goblet again. "Well, even though I'm still annoyed for finding the goblet in this easy-to-get-to spot, at the same time I'm glad because it means I'll be able to leave with it without having to go all the way back down through the mountain, even if I could just use that secret tunnel. Although, I'm not sure why there would be a doorway at the bottom of the mountain when Griison could just use this area to fly in and out, but there's no time to figure it out now. I have to retrieve the goblet and get the hay out of here before Griison gets back."
Daring slowly started to walk along the walkway. It took only moments of her to reach the pedestal sitting on the ledge at the end of the walkway. Finally, Daring-Do was face-to-face with the golden goblet, marveling at its incredible magnificence. It looked more incredible than she could have imagined, the light reflecting off its gold surface and many jewels encrusted within its body. "I can see why Griifious cared for this goblet so much; it's so beautiful," she seemed mesmerized with the chalice, unable to take her eyes off of it.
While Daring-Do had all her attention focused on the goblet, she was completely unaware of the large shadowy figure that had just appeared at the entrance to the walkway. Slowly and silently, the figure began sneaking up on Daring, its footsteps complete inaudible. As the figure stepped out of the shadows, its full form was shown, showing it was none other than Griison. As Griison got closer, he began to stand up on his hind legs as he walked, also raising his arms into the air. He went completely unnoticed as he stopped behind Daring-Do, raising his large arms high into the air, preparing to strike the unknowing pegasus...