//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Professor Daring // Story: Daring Do and the Curse of the Lost Tomb // by Fedora //------------------------------// "The Discordian era began over 2,000 years ago, though the exact date is not known. It began with a great battle and ended with another, but the space in between was several decades of chaos and disharmony," Daring lectured. She could see that some of her students were paying attention, while some had lost interest in what was being said. She was currently teaching her last period class of the day. It was relatively early in the marking period, so they had only covered the basics of Equestrian History so far. They had started a few weeks ago with the formation of Equestria out from the three old empires. Most students had an idea of how it went, though there was also a lot of misconceptions to deal with due to the story of Hearth's Warming Eve, which tended to vary slightly depending on who was performing the pageant and was not entirely accurate. They had spent a week on that, and then had been talking about the way of life in very early Equestria. Right now they were covering the rise of Discord, which occurred several hundred years after Equestria itself was formed, and immediately before the Alicornian Era "Alright, I see you guys dozing off in the back," Daring said, "Here's an idea. Let's all stand up, right now, and be as random as possible. Come on, everypony up." The class stood up, some of them scraping their chairs and others squirming out of them sideways. There wasn't much said, for they were waiting on a signal from their professor. Daring smiled at her class, pushing her glasses up onto her face. She rarely wore her glasses outside of the classroom, though academic work at the museum was an exception. She looked quite unlike her adventuring self; the pith helmet was abandoned and instead her grayish black mane was done up in a neat bun in the back. Her khaki shirt was exchanged for one that was white, and considerably cleaner. She had a reddish bow tie around the neck of this to complete the look, and the effect was a pony that looked nothing like the one seen crawling through dungeons. "OK, now that you're all standing, turn to your neighbor and shout random gibberish at them. You've got to keep going for five minutes, so don't stop," Daring commanded, glancing at the clock on her wall. "Ready? Go!" Immediately the room erupted in a terrible ruckus. Young stallion and young mare alike were engaged in a heated match of verbal tennis. First one would say something off the wall and random, then the other would try to outdo the craziness. At first, many of the students thought it was a blast. They laughed, they said funny words, and made complete foals out of themselves. Inevitably the fun came to an end less than two minutes later. What had started as silliness had devolved into a noisy banter that was annoying, and pony's ears were ringing from the noise. On top of that, everypony was running out of material to say. By the end of the five minutes they were all ready to sit down. "How was that?" Daring asked her class, and received grumbles and moans. She lifted her head for a moment. "By a show of hooves, can anypony tell me what got on your nerves?" One young stallion in the middle of the left column raised his hoof first. Daring pointed. "The problem was that it got old. It would have been fun for thirty seconds or even a minute," he said, "but for five whole minutes was just too long. It dragged on." "Alright. Over here, in the scarf," Daring called, pointing over to a mare who wore a blue scarf around her neck that almost matched the color of her mane. "It was kind of crazy and hectic, but it just went on and on and on until it wasn't so funny." "Exactly," Daring said, and made a motion for them to put their hooves down. One mare in the back still had hers raised, so Daring pointed back to her. "Professor Do, what relevance does this have to what we're studying? I feel like a bunch of ponies yelling at each other doesn't really relate..." "Well," Daring started, pushing her glasses up, "I'm going to tell you." "The Discordian Era in our own history was started when a being by the name of Discord- the embodiment of chaos- fought against Starswirl the Bearded. Before that Discord had troubled other nations gradually. His focus seemed to shift every several hundred years or so, and we were the next on the list. Starswirl was one of the few ponies left that could keep this spirit of chaos at bay. Starswirl lost the battle of magic because Discord cheated. Because he had lost, Discord was able to impose his rule on the land and banished Starswirl for many years. The activity I just had you do symbolizes the confusion and the chaotic atmosphere that engulfed Equestria. Imagine living your lives like that for decades. You probably can't, can you?" "Professor," a student interrupted, raising his hoof as he spoke. Daring looked taken aback, since he had rudely interrupted her train of thought. The stallion grimaced once he noticed what he had done, but by now Daring would just as soon have him speak his piece. "Just say it." "Alright," he began, "You said that Discord's rule started when he fought Starswirl the bearded, correct? But in the museum, it shows some of his works from much later, a century later in fact. If he was alive all throughout this Discord stuff, and outlived it by many more years, just what did he do?" "Ah, you've guessed exactly what we're going to cover immediately after this: The Fall of Discord. We'll cover this in a bit, but I'll give you a rundown right now," Daring said. "In order to counter Discord's chaotic rule, Starswirl needed two things. First, he needed items of immense magic potential that could rival Discord's. While he and Discord were both formidable in their magic prowess, simple magic alone was not enough to defeat him. Starswirl needed to restore harmony, and to do that he would spend the entirety of his banishment searching for powerful stones to represent each Element of Harmony. He also needed to find two very powerful beings to wield their power, two alicorns of unmatched magic potential. However, I'll save that lecture for another class. Let's continue where we left off, shall we?" **** With a terrified scream Daring awoke on her bed, panting and dripping with sweat. She had been having a nightmare of some kind, filled with horrific images and a foreboding sense of dread throughout it. She kept picturing the pendant that she had taken back to Equestria with her in her dream, and in her dream it was somehow the reason for all the terrible things happening. "Dr. Do, Dr. Do!" came the high-pitched sound of Scootaround's voice. Daring flicked the lamp on next to her bed, and looked up to see the filly standing in the doorway of her room. She looked wide awake as well, and had a look on her face that showed that she was extremely worried. "Dr. Do, are you okay?" Scootaround asked, sounding worried. Daring opened her mouth to speak but she still was out of breath. She took a few gulps of air before attempting to answer again. "I just had a bad dream, kid," she answered, "It's alright though. Everypony had bad dreams every now and then." "You woke me up when you started yelling something," Scootaround persisted, "You were yelling 'take it back!' and 'return it!'." Daring paused for a moment. She didn't remember having said anything of the sort in her nightmare, but she was sure that she knew what she had been yelling about. It was the pendent. Something about it had plagued her dreams ever since returning to Equestria. It had started with an idle curiosity about its origin, but now it was full-blown terror. Something was very wrong with it, and Daring knew that she needed to act. "What time is it?" Daring asked, and Scootaround stepped out into the other room to take a look at the large grandfather clock. "It says that it's three o'clock," she stated. Daring sighed. It was much too early to try to research the pendant, but she felt compelled to. Her fatigue wasn't really present, and she felt that she could battle it off. No, she had to battle it off. Knowing was half the fight, and she needed to know. "How tired are you?" asked Daring, eyeing Scootaround. The filly shrugged. "I'm pretty wide awake right now," she said, "You did kind of scare the crap out of me with that screaming." "Watch your mouth," Daring snapped, pointing at Scootaround with a hoof sternly. "Sorry," she replied, shrinking lower and backing halfway back into the hallway. Daring thought for a moment. It was far too early to go to the museum and to try to do some research. She really should be sleeping, but for some reason she just couldn't. She needed to know just what the pendant was, and why it had been bothering her ever since bringing it back. She thought about it for a moment, and then reached a decision. "Okay kid, how do you feel about taking a little trip?" Daring asked. "Isn't it a bit early to start walking around?" replied Scootaround, raising her eyebrows. "Nah, but if it bothers you that much, you can bring your pillow. What's tomorrow?" "Sunday." "What? I thought today was Friday!" "Dr. Do, it's three in the morning. It's early Saturday," Scootaround said, rolling her eyes. "Oh, right," Daring said. She thought to herself again. Not worth it, she thought, better off waiting until tomorrow morning- well later this morning- to go. "Alright," Daring said as she got back in her bed, "I'm going to try to get some more rest. First thing tomorrow morning..." "This morning." "... right, this morning, we'll make a trip down there. For right now let's try to sleep some more," Daring concluded. "Alright. Goodnight Dr. Do," Scootaround said, a little worry showing in her voice. **** "That'll be two bits please," the mare said. She received two small coins from Professor Do, and in exchange she placed two of the thin pancake-like treats onto two separate plates. Daring picked up one of them and gave it to Scootaround, while she took the other. After thanking the mare working at the crêpe stand she and Scootaround sat down at one of the cafe tables on the side of the cobblestone road. "So what is this thing, Dr. Do?" asked Scootaround, prodding at the pancake curiously. "It's a crêpe," Daring answered after taking a gulp of what she had been chewing on, "They're very popular in Prance. Of course everything that's popular in Prance is also popular in Canterlot too, don't you know?" "Why is that?" "Well, I think it's pretty obvious that everypony in Canterlot thinks of themselves as a little bit fancier than your average Equestrian. Prance is just one of those places that's looked at as 'fancy', that's all." "Oh," Scootaround remarked. She didn't really seem all that interested, but was perfectly happy to chow down on the crêpe she had been given. There was a container of confectioner's sugar on the table that she reached over and shook onto her crêpe generously. This made Daring choke on her own meal for a moment as she tried not to laugh. "What's the matter?" Scootaround asked, looking at Daring with a tilted head. "Oh nothing," Daring said with one final cough, "I just choked on my bite. Got enough sugar there?" "I don't know, do you think I should put more on?" asked Scootaround, which almost caused Daring another fit of laughter. The crêpe on the filly's plate was already completely white with sugar to the point that none of the actual pancake was showing. "I think that's plenty, kid." For the next two minutes the pair of ponies sat and ate their breakfast. Not a word was spoken about what had transpired during the early hours of the morning. Daring was dressed up in an odd cross between her professor's clothes and her adventuring clothes. She wore her khaki colored shirt with a blackish bow tie, but her shirt was crisp and clean rather than wrinkled and encrusted with her own sweat. Her mane was not done back in a tight bun, but was combed back and topped off with a grayish black fedora. When it came time for them to continue they loaded up their garbage and placed it into a trash bin. Together the two ponies went further down the cobblestone street until they had reached the Museum of History at Canterlot. It was a large building that was constructed in an elaborate way to resemble royal spires. In a way it fit in with many of the other buildings in the city while retaining its own charm. Daring went to place a key into the door, but was surprised to find that it was already unlocked. Pocketing the keys, she entered the museum's front entrance with Scootaround in tow. "I think Dusty's probably here," Daring said to herself, peering up. The first chamber of the museum was a great hallway that almost resembled the inside of a castle. It had two different wings to it, one wing for natural history, and one for Equine history. Daring's main domain was in the Equine history wing, and that was also the larger of the two sections. Much of the museum was dark still, and the only light came from windows that were high up on the sides of the walls. There was a light on, however, in the natural history section. "Looks like Dusty's over in natural history," Daring noted, "Let's check on him first." The two traveled over to the other section of the museum, passing many of the items on display. Scootaround had been through this section only a few times due to the fact that she usually went straight to Daring's office after her school released her. Because of this she still looked up at the skeletal remains of creatures in awe. There was an impressive display of a Tyrannosaurus standing fully erect with its tail dragged on the ground behind it, poised ready to strike at another skeleton of a small sauropod rearing back on its hind legs. The bones seemed frozen in time to the filly, as if the animals had been stopped right at the crucial moment and had remained there ever since. Of course this wasn't true, but it still made little Scootaround gaze in wonder. "There you are," Daring called over to the museum's curator. Dusty Shelves glanced up and smiled at the mare, giving her a curt nod. "How goes things, Daring? I thought today was your day off to grade papers." "Pretty good, all things considered," she replied, "I got that done last night. I'm actually trying to do a little research, but I wanted to check in and see what you were doing first." "Oh," Dusty said, and pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up on his grayish blue face. "Well you see this skeleton here?" he said, making a motion to the display he stood in front of. Daring glanced at the label, which read Velociraptor Equestriensis. "This is a Velociraptor?" she remarked, tilting her head while looking at the skeleton. Daring didn't claim to be an expert in paleontology- that wasn't her field- but she seemed to remember that Velociraptors were much smaller than the skeleton on display. This skeleton was at least as tall as she was. "No, it's a subspecies. Equestriensis. They found fossils a year or so ago when they broke ground for some of the outposts down south." "Interesting," Daring remarked, and looked at Scootaround. She was looking at the bones in awe. "Well, I suppose I'd better be off to researching," she said, but Dusty still had something to say. "You know, there was actually a family that was vacationing down in the very south, around Haysead Swamps. They got close to the badlands, and they reported seeing monsters or something in the woods. Their description was similar to this species of Velociraptor. I wonder if..." "Dusty," Daring interrupted, holding up a hoof, "That's ridiculous. That's like the ponies that say there's Manticores in the forests outside of some of the more rural towns. It's all superstition and urban legends." "I don't know," Dusty thought aloud. Daring rolled her eyes. She had better things to do than argue over scaly legends. She had a legend of her own to worry about. Leaving Dusty to continue working on replacing labels, Daring made her way over to her office. **** She had been spending hours in the library, looking through books. She had Scootaround flip through books as well, looking for an illustration. In three hours, neither of them had found anything. The frustration of unsuccessful research was showing, and Daring could feel herself growing more and more impatient with every book she placed back on the shelf after finding no entries that were relevant. She had placed the pendant on the table in the center of the library. In the depths of her memory she knew she had seen the pendant before in an illustration, and she seemed to recall that there was also an entry for it. Whatever the pendant was was of some importance, but it was also relatively unknown and undocumented. "Alright, we've got absolutely nothing in Jewelry of Ancient Arabia," Daring announced, frowning. Scootaround was pouring over a large book that was way beyond her reading level. Not that that was saying much, since a regular fiction novel was also beyond the filly's reading level. "What've you got over there, kid?" Daring asked, calling across the room to Scootaround. The filly blinked and raised her head, looking over at Daring. "I've been looking at the pictures and the drawings. I actually think there's a picture of it in here, but it's a bit small." Daring was over there next to her in a snap. She glanced at the spine of the book, which read: Legends and Stories of the Ancient East. Was that a reliable source? "Where'd you say you saw it?" Daring prodded, and Scootaround flipped back a few pages and pointed with her hoof at the illustration above the chapter heading. It showed a tubby stallion with a beard-like growth on his neck. He wore three accessories: a crown, a cape, and a necklace-like pendant that.... It was the pendant. "Woah, this is the exact same thing!" Daring exclaimed, bringing the pendant over. Indeed, it did match the illustration perfectly. The ridges having odd edges, the emerald in the center, even the appearance of the outdated script on the sides. But what was the significance of this image? "Let's see," said Daring, "This is the story of the Greedy King. Oh great, so it's from a fable." "What's that mean?" "It's from one of those made-up stories. Like the Giant Beanstalk or something, one that's meant to tell you a story that teaches a lesson." "Okay," Scootaround remarked, looking down at the book, "Can you tell me about it?" "Well," began Daring, "Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a very rich stallion. He was the King of all he saw, of a vast empire in the middle-east. He considered himself to be a fair and a just ruler, but he was not." "His greedy side far out balanced his conscience, and so he would order unspeakable things in order to keep his empire running and keep rebellion down. Ponies were enslaved, some were even executed if they dared to disagree. First all of the wealthy citizens were taxed heavily, and then when they were no longer wealthy, everypony living under his rule had to bear the burden of the king’s greed. One day, while walking through a street, the king demanded food from a lowly vendor. The vendor agreed, but asked for some kind of compensation, for he had no money to support his family." "Outraged at the very thought of a lower pony asking him to give them money, the king ordered the execution of this lowly pony. As it turned out, this pony had been a magical spirit, almost like a genie of some kind. And when the king went through with this, the spirit inflicted a terrible curse." "Uh oh," Scootaround interjected. Daring continued with the story. "He had three months left to live, and he was made aware of it. All of his accumulated wealth that he took from others would become deadly to anypony because of the curse. If he changed his course of life and became generous, he could live. But he didn’t. He spent the remaining time ordering the construction of a great tomb, and filled it with his worldly possessions. Worried that it would become lost, he used his connections to arrange for a series of clues leading to his tomb to be left, and even crafted the pendant." "This pendant?" asked Scootaround. "Exactly, or so the story goes. When he died and was put into the tomb, not a word was spoken. As soon as his sarcophagus was in place, a terrible sandstorm enveloped his empire. Ponies fled to escape, and many did, but his palace, temple, and most importantly his treasure-filled tomb were completely buried by the sand, negating all of the work he had put into making the location known. The tomb has been lost for millennia, and many scholars question its existence, believing the story to just be a fabricated fable to warn of the dangers of greed." The story sank in for a few moments as Scootaround tried to make sense of it all. She looked up at Daring and blinked a couple of times. "So this guy was so greedy that a genie or something cursed all his stuff, and then he just tried to hide it all away for himself? Sounds like he's a big meanie." "Well," Daring said, "To the story's credit, there actually is some evidence that there really was such an empire. It used to exist in what is now Saddle Arabia, but nopony knows what happened to the civilization." "Sounds like they got buried in sand," Scootaround remarked simply. Daring frowned. She didn't think that all fables should be taken at face value, but here was an artifact before her very eyes that was supposedly an integral part of one. She felt inclined to dismiss the whole matter as stuff out of a bedtime story, but the way that the pendant had made her feel terrified in the night (and her urge to find where it belongs and return it) compelled her to dig a little deeper. Suppose that there really was a Lost Tomb of some kind? Her thoughts were interrupted by a very angry sounding Dusty Shelves bursting into the room. His usually pale complexion was now tinted a deep red, and he seemed furious. "A Disgrace to Archaeology everywhere! They'll ruin the name of all good archaeologists, mark my words!" he ranted. Daring gave him a quick glance over the top of the book. Dusty was clutching something in his hoof, and he had the appearance of somepony who needed to rant. "Alright Dusty, what's got your goat this time?" Daring asked. "Well, I just received a telegram from a friend of mine," he started, "There's a group of self-proclaimed 'archaeologists' that are going around places and looting artifacts. Then they go an sell them on the market for a profit. It's a total disgrace to the entire field I tell you!" "That's horrible!" Daring muttered, looking almost as distraught as her colleague. "Sorry for that little intrusion," Dusty said, taking a deep breath, "I guess I just got a little worked up. It's just.... I don't see how they can call themselves archaeologist when they're not much more than glorified grave robbers. Anyways, rant over. What have you got going on here?" "Well," started Daring, glancing over at the stack of books that were dragged out, "I came across this pendant, it was given to me by a friend of mine in Gryphony. If I'm not mistaken, it's the pendant from the Greedy King tale. The old Arabian Empire of legend." "What?" Dusty remarked, in semi-disbelief, "That's just a bedtime story. An old tale told to foals to teach them not to be greedy. Well actually..." "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" "The Black Forest ruins? On the edge of the badlands?" "It's just speculation, nopony's actually been there to scope it out. We just know that the ruins exist," "What are you two talking about?" Scootaround finally interrupted, looking incredibly confused. Her head had been bobbing back and forth between the two and she looked completely lost. "There's a possible lead on one of the four locations from the legend. Of course, it's probably just speculation, but..." "You know Daring," Dusty remarked, "I believe that you have the first half of the next week free from classes at the University." "Yeah?" "Yes. Plus, the ruins in question have been on the list of possible sites to send a team to. Of course, we'd need a preliminary scouting of it." "Are you saying you want me to go down there and check it out?" Daring asked. She and Scootaround exchanged glances. "Why not? If on the off-chance the legend is something a little more than a bedtime story... just think of it! What a tremendous discovery!" Dusty exclaimed. He paused for a moment, his mood turning somber. "There is one thing though," he said, "The ruins are only a few miles away from a failed town on the edge of the badlands. I'd suggest not going there." Daring raised an eyebrow. Shrugging, she replied to Dusty's earlier challenge. "I'm up to it. Even if it's not from the legend, it's still a piece of the history of this area, and it's worth documenting," Daring said, placing her hoof down on the table. "That's the spirit!" Dusty remarked, smiling.