//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: Scootaloo's Dilemma 
// by PonyvilleDJ 
//------------------------------//

	A week later, Scootaloo woke to the sound of the local mailmare, Ditzy Doo, trying to land. While flying straight and landings weren't her strong suit, she had little trouble with simply walking, nor did she struggle with take-offs. However, the sounds were enough to wake the sleeping filly. As she stuffed her bedding away, she heard a knock at the door. Crossing the room, she stopped just to spread out a few of her pictures she had been working on the previous week. She didn’t want it to look like she was there for no reason. Opening the door, it was in deed Ditzy Doo. Her eyes were looking at several things before focusing on Scootaloo.

“Mail call!” the mailmare spoke up. Reaching into her mailbag, she presented a simple, brown paper package, tied with twine. Setting it down, she pulled out clipboard with a pen and paper on it, holding it in her mouth. “Now I juss need a signader fum an adu’t.”

Thinking fast, Scootaloo grabbed the clipboard and ran inside the clubhouse, shutting the door.

“Hey!” Ditzy shouted, thumping her hoof on the door. “That’s not the delivery!”

A moment later, Scootaloo opened the door, handing the clipboard back.

“Sorry, Derpy,” she said, having heard Rainbow Dash call her that. She had taken the clipboard inside and scrawled out an illegible scribble. In her mind, that’s all that cursive writing really was.

As Ditzy looked over the ‘signature’, she shifted her gaze between Scootaloo and the clipboard. Glancing back and forth a few times, she seemed satisfied and smiled.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she said to Scootaloo. “Enjoy your package.”

As Ditzy was about to leave, a loud ringing noise came from her mailbag. Reaching back into it, she removed a small alarm clock that had gone off.

“Oh no!” she cried out. “The Republic NEEDS me!”

Making haste, she spread her wings and took off, eager to finish her deliveries. Turning her attention to the package, Scootaloo bit down on the twine holding the paper over the box. Pulling it open, the paper fell away and revealed her order. It was a book released alongside the new ‘Daring Doo’ book. It held several pictures and passages written in a language that could only be deciphered by ordering the second book. Also, as a promotional gift, the first two hundred orders also came with a replica of the titular jade fan of the empress and a ten centimeter figurine of Daring Do herself.

“Sweet!” she exclaimed, pulling out the contents of the package.

“AW YEAH!” a familiar voice rang out. Glancing across the sky, Scootaloo saw Ditzy Doo up at Rainbow Dash’s cloud house. Clearly she had gotten her package as well. Walking back inside the clubhouse, Scootaloo sat down with her new book. Opening the pages, she pulled up her copy of Daring Do alongside it.

“Daring Do had made it into the terracotta hall of the tomb of the Empress,” she read aloud. “After nearly nine days of searching, she was finally surrounded by the legendary army of terracotta ponies. Sparing a quick glance, she noticed how every pony, while dressed in similar guard uniforms, were each different and unique…”

“Amazing,” Daring said, looking over the fine details. “It must have taken weeks just to do a single one; but a whole army?”

As she walked down the aisle, flanked on either side by the statues, she approached to door to the stairway that would lead into the tomb. With every step, it seemed as if the statues were watching her, their eyes following her every move.

When she finally reached the door, Daring saw the text written on the wall. Reaching into her saddlebag, she produced the Journal of Yerfillag. Scanning through the pages, she found what she was looking for and put the tome away. Taking a breath, she spoke the words.

Scootaloo looked at the text written at the bottom of the page. After finding the page number, she saw what it said. 

“In my darkest thoughts…” she took out a notebook and began writing it down. “I walk in eternity…”

Taking a breath, she spoke the words.

“Gjara’Vont, Thia’Lyliet.”

As she spoke, the room began to shake and the door before her slid down into the floor. She didn’t need to be a unicorn to know that powerful magic lay down the stairs ahead. Steeling her nerves, she began her decent into the dark tomb below.

“…Into the dark tomb below… Blah, blah, blah…” Scootaloo began flipping pages, looking for the next block of text to translate. As she scrolled through the book, finding the symbols, she meticulously wrote down the translations into her notebook, keeping it as a secondary reference. By the day’s end, she had filled nearly five pages with the translations, having used both sides of the papers.

It was kind of funny, but she couldn’t help but realize how much she had been missing out on without the translation book. Sure, she hadn’t needed it to understand the main story arch. But now that she had it, she was learning all sorts of things regarding the tomb, the culture of the people who served the Empress, and had even caught references to past books in the series. No, you didn’t need the second book, but it sure made the first one all the more enjoyable.

As the sun set over the western horizon, Scootaloo prepared for bed. She lifted the floorboard where her stuff was hidden and began laying out the blanket. As she was reaching for the pillow, a soft noise came from outside. It sounded like someone was flying overhead.  Daring a glance out the window, Scootaloo saw nothing. She looked up, down, left and right enough times to get thirty lives, but there just wasn’t anything around.

Warily, she pulled the curtains closed and set up for bed. With one last look to her Daring Do figure, she closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep. Her dreams were filled with terracotta pony statues and tombs lined with strange glyphs that seemed to make no sense. Yet at the same time, they were perfectly clear in their messages.