//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Escape from Stalliongrad // Story: Daring Do and the Curse of the Lost Tomb // by Fedora //------------------------------// Audacity paced back and forth across the floor of the mausoleum chamber, pondering his next move. They had quickly ascertained that Daring was trapped, and that she would likely try to come back for them, but Audacity had his doubts. Why would there be a loop coming back around if the trap was specifically designed to keep ponies from coming down that way? It didn’t make much sense. But by the same logic, they shouldn’t be able to catch up with her by crossing the chasm, unless.... He had an idea. Bracing himself, he suddenly took off running. He leaped off the edge of the ledge on his side and landed smoothly on the surface of a rather slippery rock jutting out of the water. His hoof slipped on the slimy surface, but he had already jumped off again, planting himself down on the opposite side on solid stone. “Why are you going that way?” Scootaround called over, “Daring said-” “Who cares what Daring said?” Audacity shot back, “Daring’s stuck over there. I don’t think there’s a direct path to where she is, but this way we’ll be getting closer. I’m sure there’s something we could break like a wall or something to get us on the same track...” “I don’t know....” “C’mon, jump over here. Just be careful on that rock.” **** The doors to the shed flew open suddenly as ponies carrying automatic rifles charged in. Burly gasped, but there was nothing he could do to defend himself. They raised their weapons, and Burly covered his face, expecting bullets to pierce his hide at any moment. They didn’t come however, and when he opened his eyes he was face to face with another stallion, one with a grayish beard and holding a candle in the dark shed. “Why, if it isn’t Mr. Withers,” Broken Bank declared, “You’ve given us a whole lot of trouble over the years.” “And you’ve taken a big old shit all over the field of Archeology,” shot back Burly with a gritted smile. Broken Bank growled, and stiffened his lip. “I have the ability to kill you, you know that?” he returned, “Just one word and these friends of mine will open fire. You’ll be more full of holes than swiss cheese... no, I’ll go further, the legs of a changeling!” “You could try,” Burly said, “but I doubt you yourself would get out of the city. They’d find my body alright. If you tried to dispose of it rather than leaving it here, then you’ve got the Hoofiet police to deal with. I bet they’re on their way right now.” “You overestimate the Hoofiets,” smirked Broken Bank, tipping his candle into a lantern that was in the shed and casting a better light onto all of them with the larger flame, “They are very easily bribed, and I know for a fact they’re not on their way to give us any trouble.” “Now, Mr. Withers, I’m going to tell you exactly what we’re going to do,” continued the stallion, “I have a cart ready, one with a wooden cube rather than an open top. You’re going to go into there, blindfolded, and escorted by my wonderful assistants.” “Where are we going, CAP’s rollercoaster dreamland?” grumbled Burly, making a snide jab despite his lowly position as a captured hostage. “Just for that I’ll have you gagged,” shot back Broken Bank, “No, I have another facility in mind. Come along, we must be going.” Burly felt a gun barrel press into his back rather forcefully. He stood up resignedly, hooves raised in the air. He wouldn’t try to strike them and escape, there were too many guns aimed at him from every direction. He would have to think of something else. The agents led him out of the shed, and across the courtyard in the cool night’s sky. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that a few ponies were lowering themselves into a hole near the fountain. That was the last thing he saw before he was struck. He felt something dark being tied around his mouth and eyes, and a group of strong hooves kicking him forcefully. He was stuffed into a cramped space, and descended into total darkness. **** Daring was filthy. She had taken off the torn remains of her dress, and the only accessory with her was the strap around her waist, from which her coiled up whip was attached to on her right side. She also wore the pendant around her neck. Her face was covered in smudges of dirt and scrapes that had started to bleed slightly afflicted her chest. Yet she kept going. The odd sensation the pendant gave her whenever she noticed it’s presence was back, compelling her onwards. It wanted her to ultimately find the lost tomb as much as she did. It wanted to be returned. She just had to keep going. The chamber she had come upon was simply filled with bottles, urns and pots. It seemed like a storage room of sorts, though perhaps it was something more. At any rate it wasn’t her destination. She continued past it and into a squarish area that narrowed into a rather wide stone corridor. Daring continued along for a moment until her hoof struck something. She swore under her breath as the corridor began rumbling. She had foolishly not been watching her step, and in the process set off some other horrific trap. She looked behind her, expecting something like spinning blades or a boulder. There was none. The ceiling was not in any danger of falling. The corridor appeared slightly narrower ahead, but that was the only abnormal thing... Wait a second. Those walls weren’t that close before. With a sinking feeling Daring realized what was going on as the walls began rumbling. The sides were contracting ever so slowly, closing in on her. Without missing a beat, Daring took off again at full pace. She thundered down the corridor, seeing a light at the end of the tunnel that indicated a wider chamber. The walls were constricting even more, and with a sudden burst a series of sharp spikes shot out inches behind her back hoof, coming up from the floor. Yet another protruded from the ceiling suddenly, and Daring ducked and rolled to avoid it. She quickened her pace even more. The walls were rubbing up against her now, she barely had any space left. Yet she was so close, just another few yards and she’d be there! She dove forwards, sliding onto a lichen-encrusted stone floor as the corridor’s walls slammed shut behind her. She felt a jab of pain as she tried to stand, realizing that the tip of her tail had gotten squeezed shut in the stone walls. She pulled on it by trying to step forward, but her tail only stretched painfully. It wasn’t budging. Left with no other option, Daring took a step backwards to give herself a little bit of slack, and reached her head around behind her. She bit into the very end of her tail, ripping at the hairs still caught in the hopes of cutting them loose from the rest of her tail. She winced as she did so, but it was worth it moments later when she could spit the hairs out and move freely. She had lost very little hair from her tail, but the roots were now slightly sore from being tugged at. Daring took a moment to take in her surroundings. She was a very large chamber. It almost resembled a temple of some sort, an underground temple. There were pillars constructed to hold the ceiling aloft far above her head. Full-on balconies were fastened around the upper wall and lined the sides of this temple, though in places the stones had fallen of collapsed, leaving noticeable gaps. At regular intervals there were steer head sculptures protruding from the very highest spots on the side walls, their faces contorted and snorting. Their masterly carved horns swung out in a large arc to the point of looking exaggerated, yet also artistic in a way. Daring looked closely at the steer heads, comparing them to other, similar statues she had seen. It was typical for such statues to be placed inside temples during time of drought or poor harvest. Steers worked on farms alongside some of the stronger stallions, helping to establish crops and work the land. Thus they had become a symbol of the harvest across many ancient nations that were part of this area geographically. Well, not the area encompassing Stalliongrad, but the Arabian zone. That was undoubtedly where the ponies who built this were from. She could tell from the style of the construction and the odd glyphs carved into the pillars. They were of the same language as the ones she and Scootaround had collected previously. She has spent the week’s time that had elapsed since they had gone to Edgewise’s mansion reading and studying the language. By now she was familiar enough to begin translating, but something made her reluctant to. She had a feeling she was in the right place. Perhaps the pendant she had around her neck could once again be used to reveal clues, but that was not her chief concern at the moment. She needed to find a way to get back to Audacity and Scootaround first. **** Soaked and shivering, Scootaround took a moment to wring her cap out, twisting it with her hooves. Water dripped out of it and out onto the already damp stone floor. She shook her mane in an attempt to get some of the wetness out, but it did little to help. Shiver still, she placed her cap back on her head. She had fallen into the water a moment ago when she had been attempting to cross, and Audacity was forced to dive in to fish her out when she had been taken by the current. They were on the top of the ledge by now, but both were completely wet and the cold was much more pronounced. Audacity looked angry about something, but more at his own recklessness. He took his fedora off and began working the felt with his hooves frustratedly. “What’s wrong with your hat?” “Felt got wet. That’s really bad for these hats, they alter their shape,” Audacity answered, shaking his head. He placed his still-dripping hat back atop his head, satisfied with his reshaping for the moment. Expensive and fine as it was, it was his fault for bringing it with him to such a dreadful place. Still, being damp as he was didn’t dampen his spirits. For a stallion who had spent much of his time in the city or in the library, this was the farthest from the norm he had ever been before, and he liked it. He felt fully alive, and in spite of the danger, the dirt and the bruises he felt eager to continue. For her part, Scootaround was trying to keep the older pony in check. Despite her diminutive size and the fact that she was much younger, the filly felt as if she had more experience at this kind of thing just because she had gone adventuring with Daring in the past. She knew what to expect. As Audacity trotted into a new chamber, she followed and tried her best to evaluate things. There was no chasm at all. That much was a relief. They were on a balcony of some sort, above a larger chamber. There were large chandeliers suspended from the ceiling by iron chains. Scootaround stepped out onto one of the stone balconies lining the walls, looking down to the floor below. She grimaced as she saw what appeared to be large spikes jutting out of the floor. They lined all of the tiles and completely covered the ground below. “What do you see?” asked Audacity, looking over the filly’s shoulder. His complexion paled and he gulped as he saw the spikes. Worse yet, in the dim greenish lighting he could still make out the form of broken bones and impaled skulls from years ago. Across the chamber on the opposite side’s balcony was an opening that led to something different. Undoubtedly it was going to be yet another chamber with a trap of some kind, or perhaps the location of the clue itself. Or both, it could be both. Audacity took a step out onto the balcony, but he was stopped by a filly’s hoof. Scootaround eyed the wall to their left, right next to where Audacity was preparing to step. “Look,” she said, and Audacity squinted to be able to see in the low lighting. The wall was tiled with stone, and lichen grew out of various cracks and covered the walls completely in places. He could make out small circular holes in the walls that were scattered about at regular intervals all along the balcony’s edge, right up to the point at which it stopped. “What are those holes?” he asked, not sure what to expect. Scootaround rolled her eyes, tossing a stone out onto the balcony. There were alternating gray and black tiles making up the balcony itself, and as the stone came to rest on one of the darker tiles it sank in by about an inch. With a sudden whoosh, sharp darts whizzed out of the holes and out into the open space, clattering to the floor below. The filly looked back up into the face of the older pony, who gulped. A trickle of sweat ran down his already damp face. “Poison, do you reckon?” he asked. She shrugged. “I don’t think it matters. Look, you can’t go willy-nilly off onto things. If I hadn’t stopped you from stepping onto that, you'dve been hit.” “Listen to you,” Audacity muttered, “Hey, it’s not that bad. I can just step on the gray tiles and not get hit, right?” As if to demonstrate, Audacity stepped out onto the balcony, pressing his hoof firmly onto the first gray tile. He looked back with a smirk, and continued to move forward. Scootaround rolled her eyes. Between herself and Audacity, the older pony was acting more like a foal than she was. He was too reckless about these things, and lacked the experience. She was beginning to realize why Daring had wanted them to remain back in Equestria: Audacity was a danger to himself in this kind of place simply because of his experience, or lack thereof. Scootaround followed behind Audacity from a distance, carefully watching where she placed her hooves so as not to accidentally strike a dark tile. Audacity moved forward much quicker, and suddenly he yelped as a dart shot out of the wall. He ducked as fast as he could and the projectile lodged itself into the crown of his hat, sticking out of the side of the felt almost comically. Scootaround couldn’t help but crack up at the close call. “That’s not funny,” Audacity snapped, “I damn near had a heart attack.” He took his hat off and pulled the dart loose, frowning at the small hole it had punctured in the felt. As he returned the felt to his head he began leaning down, tensing up his back hooves. Scootaround looked at him curiously, wondering what he was up to. She realized with a start as he leaped off the balcony and into the space between the walls, directly over the floor of spikes. He grabbed ahold of the iron chain holding the chandelier aloft, and the great object swung slightly under this new momentum being transferred to it. “C’mon, Scootaround, this way’s faster!” called Audacity, leaping off the chandelier and onto the opposite side. **** Daring was startled to see both Audacity and Scootaround tumble down from the upper level down into the chamber she was in. The startled pony took a jump back as they landed on the stone floor with a big THUMP. “Ouch, you didn’t have to bowl me over like that,” muttered Audacity, “The least you could have done is jump off onto the stone part...” “You were in the- hey look, Dr. Do!” Daring stood by and watched them speechlessly. She opened her mouth to try to say something, but was set upon by a filly as she leaped at her in a tight embrace. Scootaround gripped her in a tight hug, and any reprimanding speech she had been about to give was forgotten in a wave of gladness that they had made it this far relatively unscathed. “You’re all soaking wet,” Daring said finally as Scootaround released her, and she looked up to the hole in the top of the wall they had tumbled through. “Woah, is this it?” Scootaround asked, just then taking in the magnitude of the temple chamber, with its towering pillars and the stone steer’s heads on the wall and the altar. Despite the weeds and the grass growing up through cracks in the floor, the area was relatively clear of debris. “Yeah, this is it alright. See the markings?” Daring pointed out, running her hoof along some engravings on the column to her right. It was one of four columns that had glyphs etched into their surface, but she hadn’t set to work translating them yet, having been concerned with finding the other two. “Hold on, I’ve got the book here,” Audacity said. He dug into his wet bag, and produced something that was wrapped in plastic to prevent it from getting dirty or wet. As it turned out that had been a remarkably useful foresight, and had prevented the book from getting a drop on it at all. Daring was noticeably concerned with the treatment of the book, even though it was wrapped, but she held her tongue. “I was actually trying to translate from my head. I studied the language a bit,” she said, “but then again, If you have a reference it makes things easier.” Audacity offered the book to her, and Daring took it from his hooves gladly. She stepped around the pillar slowly, eyes moving back and forth between the glyphs and the text in her book. She occasionally had to switch pages, but in a minute she had a working translation of the pillar’s text. “Do not believe the lies you’ve been told,” she read, “the stories have been twisted. Stories? What stories?” “This pillar’s marked with a numeral for ‘two’,” called Audacity, pointing to a pillar. Daring moved over to that one, and began translating it actively. “Ok, so this one says.... hold on,” began Daring, “The sultan was a leader good... no, good leader, my bad. Erm... hold on, I need a second.” She reread a page slowly, taking in the meaning of the different symbols. She did this repeatedly to make sure she was getting the correct definition. While he was waiting, Audacity began pacing about the temple chamber. He noticed that things were slightly brighter now, and that the dim lighting wasn’t as oppressive. Was it getting close to dawn? Come to think of it, if there was even a dim lighting down here at night time, that meant that there was ways for the surface moonlight to be reflected down. That implied a rather complex series of reflective surfaces, or at the very least a hole that ran from the surface down. The latter seemed much less likely, as there had been no such holes. Whatever broke the surface was likely a smaller opening and the light was being amplified by mirrors or something. He had studied that kind of thing, it was common in underground places. There had to be vents in the ceiling anyways for air. He thought he could see a few of them looking up, small pricks of slightly lighter areas among the dark stone of the ceiling. Dawn was approaching quicker than he thought. “Alright, so what I’m getting here is that the ‘false legend’ was propagated by a sorceress,” Daring called over. Audacity and Scootaround looked closely at where she was, standing by the fourth pillar. She had translated each one of them in turn, and had put together a basic meaning. “It warns that the sorceress was self centered, egotistical, and overall a not-nice mare,” she said, “and that she cursed the King and his family out of jealousy. He was well-liked by his subjects for being benevolent and generous, so she sought to destroy him. Apparently she was scorned.” “So wait,” Scootaround and Audacity said in chorus. Scootaround shut her mouth, and let Audacity continue. “You mean to tell me that the whole story of the King’s greed is false?” he gasped, “The spirit who was disguised was the bad one, not the king?” “That’s what it says,” Daring answered, “but I’m concerned about this ‘curse’ it warns about. Basically, the story as we know it was twisted to make the king look bad to future generations. It was all invented by this sorceress... wait a second, that’s supposed to be male, my bad. Yeah, the sorcerer was jealous or something, so he decided to curse the royals and create chaos in the society, which led to it’s downfall and disappearance.” She paused for a moment. “You know,” she said, speaking slowly as an idea processed through her mind, “I sometimes wonder about these stories of ancient societies being lost to chaotic rule. It seems to happen once in the history of every great society, they get afflicted with chaos and either overcome it somehow or fall. I wonder if....” “Didn’t Equestria go through the same thing over a thousand years ago?” Scootaround piped up. Daring nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I was about to say. Each culture has had it’s own ‘Discord’ moment, so I’m wondering if he just hopped around the world, stirring up trouble across history until the old Alicorn sisters stopped him. Makes you wonder, huh?” “Intriguing,” said Audacity, “but it doesn’t say anything about the location of the next clue.” “I think I know why,” Daring commented, “Look at the altar.” They turned to look at the altar, which seemed slightly brighter than the rest of the chamber. The rising sun’s light was reflected down onto that very spot, and it seemed to be getting illuminated in an eerie glow compared to everything else. The brightening chamber also had a map of the globe carved into the wall, still inaccurate in the western hemisphere but otherwise spot on as a representation of the world. It was massive, spanning the entire wall behind the altar. Silently, Daring approached the stone cube that was the altar itself. It was shaped perfectly, with tightly cut edges and a smooth surface. The very top of it had a circular indentation and a crystal in the center of it. Daring looked at this curiously, before recognizing the shape. The pendant! The item that plagued her sleeping hours and continued to trouble her spirit! She took it off from around her neck, taking the gold chain off and placing it down into the slot on the altar. There was a faint hum filling the temple chamber now. It was eerie and rumbling, and it caused the three ponies to look about. Daring backed away from the altar slowly, realizing that it was the source of the noise. The beams of light from the rising sun grew more intense and seemed to focus on the top of the altar, more specifically the spot that the pendant was now fastened to. The brilliant gold item cast an amber sheen on everything, shortly before the light focused in on the emerald in the center. Daring’s eyes widened as the emerald center began glowing brilliantly, casting another beam of light at a slanted upwards angle towards the map. It landed on the map in a very specific point, in the far north. On that very spot was something else, embedded in the stone. The shaft of brilliant green light grew in intensity, filling the chamber with it and forcing the ponies to squint. The edges of Daring’s mouth turned up in a great smile as the display reached it’s climax, focusing on that very spot with almost blinding intensity. It began fading back down to a single shaft of light that was focused in on the northern spot. “I know exactly where that’s pointing!” Daring exclaimed, “There’s a city that belonged to the pegasi of old that crashed onto a very high mountain, and got stuck there. I’m willing to bet that that’s the next location! It makes perfect sense, there was a lot of pegasi from all over the globe that collaborated to build that city, thousands of years in the past! It’s pretty massive, too. We haven't even been able to explore all of it yet...” “So it’s in the frozen north of this continent?” Audacity asked. Daring nodded excitedly, a huge grin on her face. She was in a great mood, she knew where to go next, and there was nothing that could dampen her spirits... Nothing except the voice she heard next. “Thank you so much, Daring Do!” came the voice of a mare, a mare Daring recognized and swore under her breath upon hearing. Elise’s voice echoed around the temple chamber from seemingly nowhere. Daring noticed that there were small ventilation holes, just as Audacity had noticed earlier during her translation. Her heart began beating rapidly. Had CAP been listening in on the whole thing? She had expected them to be coming after them down in the chambers, not listening from above them. “Yes, thank you ever so much for doing the dirty work for us!” Elise called down with a giggle. Daring glowered as she yelled up to the ceiling. “We’ve been busy containing that brute of a pony, Burly Withers,” she continued. “Yeah, leave it to you guys to make me do it! Not wanting to get your hooves dirty?” “No, we simply didn’t want to get trapped down in such a terrible place like yourselves!” cackled Elise’s voice. Daring’s heart sank as she heard the word ‘trapped’. That wasn’t good. “What, you didn’t know the entrance had been re-sealed? We checked, there’s no way to open it. Even if there was, CAP’s made sure that that fountain isn’t budging anytime soon,” Elise continued, “You know it’s funny Daring. All your life you’ve been digging up old sites and looking for artifacts. Very shortly you will become the very thing you seek- an artifact in an old, forgotten place. Lost to the world! Who knows, maybe somepony years from now will be exploring this area again, and they’ll dig you up!” “Ha ha ha haaaa....” Daring feigned, “dammit.....” “Well, I’d love to stay and chat with you, I’m sure life as an artifact must be really interesting, but I’ve got an airship to tend to. Have a nice rest, Daring Do!” “YOU WON’T GET AWAY WITH THIS!” shouted Scootaround angrily, before Daring clapped a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, but we already have!” With that, the spots of light began vanishing as CAP purposely began plugging the vent holes. Not that they would have done any good anyways, they were too small for an entire pony to fit through. Daring’s mind began racing as she thought of possible ways to get out, but she sat there calmly in the center of the temple chamber. Audacity and Scootaround, on the other hoof, were freaking out. “This is bad, oh so bad,” jittered Audacity, pacing about in a frantic panic, “We’re trapped, they’ll never find us, Burly’s been captured, nopony else knows where we are, we’ll be dead within the next couple of days from starvation, and then what? And then nothing, no future, no Hooflet performance, nothing!” “Audacity!” commanded Daring, “Calm down!” “Sorry, but how can I be calm at a time like this?!” “Did you say Burly? Burly Withers?” asked Daring, trying to change the subject. “Yeah, we hired him to take us here. He has a plane waiting at the airfield, but it’s no good to us down here.” “Huh, I know Burly. Friendly competitors, him and I, though I think there was one expedition where we were working alongside each other. What do you think of him, as an adventurer?” “H-h-he’s not an archaeologist,” stuttered Audacity, “He’s just a gunslinger. Totally reckless, just like me for coming here. I should never have disobeyed your warning! I’m sorry!” “It’s fine, get a hold of yourself.” “It’s hopeless. We’re as good as dead already.” “For Celestia’s sake, pull yourself together Audacity!” “Why?” “We’re not gonna die here,” Daring said calmly, “and as soon as you can control yourself, I’ll explain what we’re gonna do.” **** The ponies leaped across the chasm of rushing water quickly, using the slippery stones as steps for those who didn’t have wings. They entered the the mausoleum chamber again, which was just a tad lighter in the morning than it had been during the night. Daring quickly set to work, looking at the various coffins and flying about in an almost agitated manner. “What are you looking for?” Audacity asked, but she shushed him quickly. “Wait and see, one moment,” Daring called down. She examined the different types of coffins. The ones closer to the ground on the first few rows were boxy and rectangular. This type of coffin seemed to be the most often used form, and was useless to her. She needed a casket of some kind, something with a deep, rounded bottom. There! Apart from the others was a casket that had its own distinct location to the side. It was a tad larger, deeper, and almost cylindrical. The edges were more ornate, and it no doubt belonged to an elder of some sort instead of a regular pony. She approached it quickly, overturning it and sliding the skeletal remains out onto the lid. Audacity and Scootaround recoiled, both gasping at the act she had committed. “Daring, you just....” “I know, it’s totally against the rules of archaeology. I’d feel worse about re purposing a burial casket like this if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.” She flipped the now-empty base back up the correct way, and positioned herself at the end of it. She stood on her back legs and pushed hard with her front, moving the empty casket from the back of the chamber right up to the edge of the rushing water. Audacity blinked. “You’re kidding,” he said, “You’re kidding right?” “Got any better ideas?” Daring asked. Both ponies remained silent. “Good, now get in.” Without arguing, both Audacity and Scootaround climbed into the empty casket, grimacing. They seemed uncomfortable getting into something meant to contain dead bodies, but given the circumstances they didn’t complain. Daring heaved, and pushed the casket off the edge and dropped it into the water with a great splash. Daring swooped into the air, coming down to land inside the open casket, which floated on the surface of the rapid moving water with a similar buoyancy to a canoe. It was a tight fit, but it worked. “Hold on!” Daring called back over the rush of the water. The casket moved quickly out from under the chamber, through a system of caves and tunnels that the river flowed freely through. The ceiling was very low above them, and so the ponies kept their heads as low down as possible. Water splashed up into their faces as they hit a rock jutting out and came back down. It hadn’t damaged the casket. “This is archaeology?” cried Audacity over the sound of rushing water, whooping with excitement. “This isn’t archaeology, this is living!” Daring called back, “Whoohoo!” They exited the underground section of the river, and the rapid-moving water settled as it flowed into the Pollga river. From the center, they could see the city of Stalliongrad in the morning sun on both banks. The casket bobbed up and down slowly in the river’s current. Daring threw her head back and laughed, stretching her legs out and resting her head on the side. Behind them, the palace shrank away on the left bank as they continued to flow right. Audacity dipped his hooves into the water, splashing some onto his face to wash the smears of grimy dirt off. He then began scooping water past the edge of the casket. “What are you doing?” asked Scootaround, peering at him curiously. “Paddling, I suppose. When you push the water past, it makes the boat, I mean the casket, move. See?” He made a sweep with his hoof and the casket turned in the water, towards the shore. “I’d recommend against putting ashore. It’ll be easier to reach the docks by river,” Daring suggested, “Faster too.” “Thanks Daring,” Audacity said, “but I’d like to get out of this thing. As fun as going down those rapids were, paddling in a coffin isn’t my idea of a swell time.” **** Tired and filthy, the three ponies walked up to gates of the airfield. Audacity’s clean chin was now speckled with stubble, and their clothes had a worn-out look to them. They were wrinkled and stained, having been soaking wet and then dried out in the sun. Daring was the only exception, having taken her gown off inside the ruins. Scootaround had wrung her hat out once again, and was otherwise clean. They had taken the chance to wash the dirt and grime off in the water. “Who are you?” asked a mare wearing a blackish cap on her head. “Withers, Mr. Burly Withers,” lied Audacity, “I’m here to get my plane up and running. These two are with me.” “Number?” “Two two four, six seven,” recited Audacity, recalling the information that Burly had been given. “Alright, enjoy your flight, Mr. Withers.” The three trotted out onto the airfield, and sitting on the tarmac was the plane belonging to Burly. They reached it quickly, piling into the squat aircraft. Daring sat in the pilot’s seat, Audacity in the copilot’s seat, and Scootaround in the back. Looking back to make sure the filly was safe, Daring was delighted to see a pith helmet and a pickle-green shirt. She beamed at Audacity for having the foresight to pack it with him. “Yeah, we thought of everything,” he said with a smug look on his face. He blinked for a moment. “Everything except Burly getting captured. What do you think they’ve done with him?” “Well,” started Daring, “I think CAP wouldn’t be stupid enough to murder him. Not yet, anyways. Not in some urban area. No, they've probably got him captive on whatever they’re using to get north.” “The airship?” “Who said anything about an airship?” “That pony did, the one who was taunting you,” “Elise? Wait, how did CAP manage to get a hold of an airship?” “My point is,” Audacity stated, “He was the one who knew how to operate this plane. Do you know how?” “Er... no, not really,” Daring replied sheepishly, “but how hard can it be, right?”