The wooden floorboards slowly came into focus as the stallion’s head stopped spinning and he came to his senses. His brain ached as he tried to remember what had taken place, and he felt the soreness of forced sedation.
Bits of the previous morning’s events and the events of the night before that filled Burly’s head all of a sudden. Daring Do, Those kids getting him to take them to Stalliongrad, CAP, the gunfight, and then...
He had been taken prisoner. Where had he gone after that? It was hazy to say the least. There had to have been some kind of chemical injection, probably against his will considering the bruises he found himself covered in and the odd sensations he was feeling. He righted himself, bringing his face away from the odd floorboards and looking around the area he found himself in. Things didn’t seem quite right, as if the ground beneath him was somehow not as omnipresent, and things were gently rocking. It took a moment for him to realize that it wasn’t a side-effect he was experiencing, but that the world around him was rocking ever so slightly.
“....Some kind of..... cave.... icy..... keep an eye on our pris......” crackled something, and Burly’s attention was drawn to the source of the noise. He twisted himself around, bound and gagged as he was and unable to move his hooves or form a sentence. He saw some kind of control switchboard, almost like the cockpit of a plane, but much grander in size. Two ponies sat in the room with him, one dressed in a white uniform and flipping controls, and a grayish mare that was stretched out in a luxurious chair, a radio set propped up against the table. It was the source of the crackling voice. Burly’s eyes wandered to the mare herself, and was surprised to make eye contact with her.
“Oh, so you’re awake,” she said, giving a false smile. Burly was already feeling negatively towards this strange pony, and her fake personality wasn’t helping to form any good opinions. In fact, he shot her a glare. He knew full well what this was all about. He was a prisoner, and she was one of the higher-ups in the Coalition group.
“Such a nasty look,” she smiled, “I almost wish I could listen to what kind of crude insults you’d hurl my way. I’m much too busy though. Perhaps you’ll find this interesting. Listen.”
Again, the radio crackled, and Burly strained his ears to pick out some of the words being said. The radio itself was barely older than a decade, and hoofheld radios were even newer. He had never even seen one before, let alone heard it.
“....around, get me something to..... for the tinder....” crackled the radio. Burly listened to the voice, and realized that it was Daring Do speaking. That raised some concerns already. Why was she speaking to CAP agents over in... well, wherever they were. He actually suspected that he was in some kind of large plane, or perhaps a modified airship.
“.... no char cloth left.... should have...” said a new voice, one that sounded just like Scootaround. It occurred to Burly that she wasn’t talking to CAP directly, but seemed to be holding a conversation with Daring herself. How was that possible, for CAP to be able to just go and listen in like that?
“You see, after capturing you, our ponies trapped Ms. Do and her cohorts down inside that dreadful place,” spoke the blonde maned pony next to the radio, “but she must have gotten out. No matter, because she has made herself useful to us. Listen, they’re already making progress. I hope she can interpret the clues aloud as well, that will save us the trouble of having to go after her eventually to snatch the evidence.”
Burly scowled beneath the canvas wrapping covering his mouth. He was a stallion of action, and he was used to doing things. In a tough situation, he would find a way to take action. At the moment, he was tied up, and was being watched. Escape seemed unlikely for now, and admitting defeat was something he hated to do. He would have to wait it out, at least until this mare wasn’t watching his every move. He would break loose then, there had to be a way.
****
“Well, I don’t know,” Daring muttered. She was bent over a pile of ashes at the center of an icy cave. She could see contours running beneath a thick sheet of ice, and she had a hunch that the pile of ashes was really part of a puzzle to grant them deeper access. If she could only ignite them, perhaps a chain reaction or some thawing of the ice would show the way.
The issue was with her inability to start a fire of any sort.
She could make a spark just fine with her flint stone and high-carbon steel striker piece. She discovered just a moment ago that her char cloth (her usual fire starting tinder) was completely out. She had neglected to make more, apparently. There was no powder of any kind, unless she were to slice open one of the bullets in the gun held by Audacity. She didn’t want to do that because the gun was the only thing keeping the CAP agent they had in tow from becoming violent. She knew they could probably take him, but it seemed unnecessary.
“Can’t you just tear off some cloth from a shirt or something?” Scootaround asked.
“No,” explained Daring, “that won’t catch from just a spark. You need something easily ignitable, like char cloth, powder, or even paper.”
“We have some books...”
“No way, those things are priceless,” Audacity interjected quickly, “I think I might have a solution. Scootaround, dig into my pocket and see if that trash is still there.”
While Audacity kept his weapon leveled, Scootaround reached a hoof into his jacket pocket, pulling out a crumpled up piece of paper that was still dry and crinkly. It would light up with a spark just fine.
“That will do nicely,” Daring said with a grin, taking the paper from Scootaround. She dug the spent ashes out of the fire pit, which had a grate beneath it. The idea was that embers would fall through still hot, igniting something below to start the reaction to open... whatever was beyond.
Producing several strips of thin bark and strips of wood from her bag’s pocket, Daring laid them over the crinkly paper. She had stowed some away during the night from the firewood supply. Bending low over the unlit fire, Daring struck at the flint with her steel piece, sending a shower of bright sparks up. She struck once, twice, three times, and then on the fourth one spark landed squarely in the center of the dry paper. The pony leaned in closely, blowing a bit of air onto the spark, strengthening it until it caught. The paper browned, and a small flame developed. It soon spread to the rest of the paper. From there, the flaming paper ignited the strips of wood bark, which began burning. The bark ignited the twigs, and before one knew it the entire pile Daring had arranged in the hole was burning cheerily.
“Here it goes,” Daring said with some excitement. As pieces of the wood burned bright and the already-burned twigs began to form small embers, several fell through the grate below. The reaction didn’t happen immediately, and so each pony was on edge waiting for something to occur.
Then, all of a sudden, something beneath their hooves began to rumble. It started low and far beneath but quickly grew in intensity. Cracks began to form in the ice, from which acrid smoke poured. Chunks fell away as the cracks formed a criss-crossing web and spread up the side of the wall. The falling pieces of ice revealed a crystalline corridor, carefully chiseled and flat on the bottom. Bits of broken and cracked ice slid into the widening trough in the center, as more smoke poured up. Daring waved a hoof in front of her face as her eyes watered. She could hear Scootaround coughing and hacking.
The smoke cleared gradually, making it easier to see the open corridor made of chiseled crystals beyond. The daylight from above sparkled and bounced off the edges, giving it a very clean and white appearance. Scootaround stepped forward, about to take a step towards the corridor when Daring stopped her.
“Hold on a second, I’ll go first to make sure the way is safe.”
“You think it’s booty trapped?” the filly asked.
“Booby trapped you mean,” Daring corrected her, “I think it is. Everything else has been so far.” She tightened her pith helmet down with her hoof before proceeding herself.
“Keep an eye on our guest, Audacity.”
“What do you think I’m doing?”
Daring stepped on the smooth surface of the corridor, only to discover that it branched into two paths not far inside. One led upwards slightly with an incline, to the right. The other path descended. She decided to go right, up the ascending passageway. The walls were slightly more cramped, and she could see that it would soon become impassable to a pony her size. She paused where she was for a moment, examining the walls and the floor. The ground beneath her was shaped oddly, being cut into square tiles of white stone rather than chiseled crystal. It was a minor detail, but one she found concerning. What was even odder was the discoloration. The one she stood on was white, but the hue of the one in front of her was slightly darker. After that, all the others were white.
That had her concerned. Out of curiosity, she stepped onto the tile. The tile sunk down suddenly, and she reared back. Almost immediately a section of the wall that had been ice rather than crystal gave way, and sharp spikes jutted out. Daring ducked underneath the row of spikes and squirmed her way backwards. She raised her head up once more, and gasped. A half-decayed corpse of a pony was impaled by the spikes, and had been revealed when the ice gave way. It was a gruesome sight of rotted flesh and exposed bone, and she had to turn away from the sight. That pony had fallen for the trap, likely centuries earlier.
“Dr. Do, what’s up there?” called Scootaround from below, starting up the corridor.
“Don’t come up here!” Daring shouted down suddenly, and the filly stopped. She backed up slowly, back into the area where they had lit the fire. Daring walked down to the junction again, deciding to take the path to the left instead. The one to the right had to be a decoy.
What surprised her was that part of the wall had been made of ice. It was difficult to discern the chiseled crystal from the chiseled ice with the naked eye. The seams where the ice had been purposely been placed to allow for traps to be placed were barely noticeable. She would have to stay on the alert.
“Follow me, but slowly and carefully,” Daring instructed the other three ponies, “Don’t touch anything.”
****
Burly’s eyes darted to different points on the diagram. He had taken to glancing at the cross-section of the airship when he knew that he could get away with it. He was paying attention to Elise’s actions out of his peripheral vision, not wanting her to notice that he was studying it. Occasionally she would turn, perhaps to look at him. He would relax his eyes and shut them, sometimes rolling his head back and feigning fatigue. Perhaps feigning wasn’t the best term, he didn’t need to pretend to be tired. The canvas covering his mouth had been stretched loose by now and his mouth was exposed, but he didn’t say a word.
The airship had much more space inside the living compartments than he had thought. There was even room for cargo, as well as four small aircraft. The diagram spread out before him on the wall showed all the different access points: ladders, ducts, ramps on the exterior. In his head he mapped possible escape routes from the cockpit. He was willing to bet that the craft were equipped with weapons of some kind, and were already fueled up and ready. If he could get down to the hangar and into one of them, he could be on his way in no time.
Elise shifted in her seat, and Burly resumed his fatigued look, leaning his head forward as if asleep. This time, the mare spoke to him.
“Quite exciting, isn’t it?”
“What?” he growled, saying the first words he had said in a while.
“Haven’t you been listening? The radio!”
Burly tuned his ears in to the radio, listening to the noises blasting over the tinny speaker. He heard grunts, crashes, and a female voice yelling “Go Go GO GO GOGOGOGOGO!” It was Daring and company alright, and they sounded like they were in trouble. There was some kind of scratchy sound that sounded like static. No, that wasn’t static. That was the sound of stone scraping against stone.
“....walls closing in..... MOVE IT!”
“......ot much.... there’s the door....”
What was going on down there?
****
Daring shoved Scootaround under the closing stone doors, less than a meter from the ground. She ducked and rolled under herself, striking the bottom with her head. The pith helmet popped off from her head, and she reached back underneath to pull it back through with seconds to spare.
The four ponies sat in a heap on the other side, absolutely exhausted from the mad dash they had just made. Upon entering the corridor, the crystalline walls had begun to slide in. In addition, the exit had a door that slid shut from above, albeit slowly. Audacity and his captive agent had gone through first, then Scootaround, and finally Daring. Daring had almost not made it at all. Now that they were through, each pony thought of the same thing: what next?
Each of the other locations that had come before were loaded with death traps. The first was mostly destroyed, so perhaps the chamber that had closed them in was the only one left standing. The second had collapsing tunnels as well, and spinning blades! So far this had had more traps than the previous two combined, and Daring was worried that more lie ahead.
She looked up to take in the area they were now in. The walls were cut a little more uniformly out of the rocks, crystals, and ice sheets. They were not as chaotic and jagged as previous. The hall was spacious, and had a dead end. There was no door, no area on the ceiling, no depressions to press down, nothing. What the chamber did contain was a set of troughs, filled with some kind of ignitable black powder. There was a center trough and four branching troughs at equal distances from each other. At the end of the branches were circular grates. The chamber also contained several stone statues of ponies. Each statue was the same shape: a hooded mare with a wild look in her eyes, reared back and with an opened mouth. It was actually a little creepy looking.
“Dr. Do, do you see any way out?” asked Scootaround. She was dusting herself off, and so was Audacity and the CAP agent. Audacity had the gun pointed back at the agent again, though kind of half-heartedly. He knew there was nowhere for the pony to run now.
“Well,” Daring began, “This one looks tricky. I don’t see any kind of door or switch. The floor’s made up of stone tiles, why don’t we look and see if one of them has the answer?”
It was unlikely that a regular old tile would trigger whatever hidden mechanism revealed a passage, and Daring knew it. She hoped that in the process of getting everypony to look carefully, one of them would notice something. As the other ponies set to work, she took a moment to examine the statues. There were four, and two were facing to the right, while two faced to the left.
She turned her attention to the trough. Dipping a hoof into it, she discovered the powder.
That’s it, she thought, that’s significant.
“Daring, I don’t think these tiles do anything,” Audacity called over from the other side of the chamber. Daring nodded.
“Yeah, I think you’re right. Look- flammable powder.”
It was then that she noticed the branching segments, with grates. Four grates in all.
Wait a minute. Four grates, four statues. Daring gasped to herself. That was it!
“What is it?” Scootaround asked, hearing her gasp.
“Get over behind that statue,” Daring said, motioning to one that was about a meter away from the grate that Scootaround stood atop. The filly complied, circling around the great stone form.
“Push it to where you were just standing.”
Daring circled around behind the statue as well, giving the filly some needed help in pushing the heavy statue. It slid across the stone tiles on the floor with some resistance, making a terribly loud grating noise. With a sharp THUNK it stopped, and Daring could push it no more. It somehow became rooted at the bottom once it was over the grate. Interesting.
“The statues go over the grates?” exclaimed Audacity, clapping his hooves together. Daring nodded.
“Everypony, get to a statue. Those two over there go to each of the grates on your side,” Daring ordered. The CAP agent was noticeably unenthusiastic.
“What are you on about? How is moving some stupid statues gonna get us anywhere?” he complained. Audacity glared at the agent, and made a threatening gesture towards his holster.
“Alright, alright, I get it,” he shouted, throwing his hooves into the air in resignation. Audacity smirked.
Daring and Scootaround moved the second statue into place on the left side, while Audacity and the CAP agent struggled. Audacity was able to get his to slide with some effort, and slid it into position shortly thereafter. The agent was still struggling, perhaps on purpose. The remaining three ponies joined him in pushing, and the last of the statues slid over the grate.
The chamber sat in silence for a few moments. Some strained their ears, listening for the tell-tale rumbling of ancient machinery being set off. They heard absolutely nothing.
“Jeez, what good was that?” stammered the agent.
“Quiet, you. Don’t get too talkative,” Audacity jabbed.
Daring bent over the trough, once again producing her flint and steel kit from her bag. Carefully and purposefully she struck the two together. Sparks flew and were quickly extinguished. She tried again, and this time one of the sparks landed in the black powder. The effect was explosive. The powder erupted in flame immediately, causing Scootaround to leap back with a startled shriek. The flames spread through the length of the trough and down each of the four branches, right underneath the statues. There was a pause, then a rumbling sound as each of the statues shook.
“What’s happeni-”
The mouths of each statue became flamethrowers, casting a cascade of fire towards the crystalline walls. The crystals glowed brightly in the orange light, and the sections that were really made of sculpted ice began to lose their form, melting slowly and becoming wet puddles of water on the ground. The flames continued to spit from the mouths of the statues, growing slightly shorter gradually before eventually petering out. What was left in the chamber was a thick cloud of black smoke, great puddles of water, and four coughing ponies.
As the smoke cleared, the contents behind each of the former sheets of ice became apparent. Three had inscriptions in them, one had a passageway. As much as she wanted to go down the passageway immediately, and she was sure the others did as well, Daring felt obliged to examine the inscriptions.
“Audacity, gimme the book for a sec.”
****
“What’s the story behind your hat?” Elise asked, picking the worn-out hat.
“Excuse me?”
“Your hat, what’s the story behind it? Where did it come from?”
“Why would you care?” growled Burly, “All you care about is money.”
“I think you’ll find that most of us are motivated by those gold bits, but not entirely by gold bits alone. Come on, I’m curious to know.”
“That hat,” began Burly with some minor annoyance in his voice, “that hat was given to me around 1912. Around then, only a few years before I went off to war against the Gryphons with all the other young bucks my age. I guess the experience hard-boiled me. I went through a-a stage shortly afterwards...”
“You were a criminal.”
“I had little regard for rules. Anyways, the hat was my trademark. I wore it everywhere, even on afterwards once I decided to come clean and work an honest living recovering artifacts. That hat has been with me around the world.”
Elise nodded. There was static on the radio, and so she continued making small talk. Burly was a bit confused about why she wanted to know about him. Perhaps she needed to know something about his connection with Daring, something she could exploit, to use against her. He suspected that much.
“So you’re a free-lance archaeologist?”
“Not even. Treasure hunter.”
“Grave robber?”
“No, not exactly. If you’re talking digging up coffins to steal the valuables, no. That’s bad.”
“You hesitated though...”
“Well, I have gone into places, sacred sites to long lost cultures, and reclaimed things. Always for institutions or museums. Knowledge is something that’s meant to be shared, not hidden away. That’s my philosophy.”
“A grave robber, essentially.”
“Ugh, no!” stammered Burly.
“You and Daring are alike. You have little regard for long lost cultures and what is sacred to them. You just want to get that paycheck from the acquisition department.”
“You’re wrong!” Burly snapped, fuming.
“Oh?”
“We’re different, but what we have in common is the quest for knowledge. We learn about how the world used to be, and by bringing items back for display, other ponies can too! Besides, I wouldn’t be talking about ‘just wanting a paycheck’ if I were you!”
The last comment seemed to hurt Elise, as she bit her lower lip, not knowing what to say. They sat in silence, not looking at each other for some time. The silence was broken only by hisses of static from the radio, until it crackled and came in more clear.
“....looks like they match.... earlier.....”
“.....wha....but the tex.....”
“....sorcerer’s fault...... king wasn’t actually greedy.....”
That caught Burly’s attention. Daring had found something, some kind of clue! The king wasn’t greedy after all? That meant the tale was false, or warped in order to put a spin on things. What really happened?
“....sorcerer of chaos..... I dunno.....”
“....aybe Discord or.....”
Discord! But of course! It was a well-held theory that Discord had run amok in the world long before Equestria was formed, as each culture had undergone a ‘chaos’ stage at one point, and at different times. Had the disappearance of the old Arabian ponies from millennia ago been caused by Discord?
“...one with thi....go...the next chamber....”
****
The passageway was long and low-ceilinged. Daring wanted to lead the way, but paused before she entered. Intuition and prior experience told her that there was something wrong with the passage. She could clearly see holes in the wall at regular, tight intervals. Every now and then there was a set of mirrors, reflecting a solid beam of light from a hole burrowed through the ceiling. It was getting rather sunny out compared to before, and the light beams stood out against the dim atmosphere. The shaft of light bounced from mirror to mirror in a zig-zag, covering the top half of the corridor in blue brightness. That made her skeptic.
“C’mon, what are you waiting for, move!” said the agent, pushing Daring forcefully from behind. The pony fell into the chamber face first. Her eyes were momentarily blinded as her head cut through the lit area, and she heard a sharp WHOOSH above her head just as she face-planted into the cold, lichen-ridden stone floor. There was a high pitched shriek from Scootaround, and a surprised curse from Audacity. Daring’s eyes were closed tight, and her teeth were clenched. After a moment she opened them, and saw nothing but the stone floor in her face. She knew there was something above her, and so she tried scooching herself backwards. Something tugged at her helmet, not wanting to let go.
“The spikes missed your head by inches, stuck all the way through the helmet though,” called Audacity. Daring then felt a jarring motion as her helmet was wrenched free from her head. The long spikes retracted back into the wall, and the helmet clattered to the floor, punctured all the way through on both sides.
“That’s why you wait for Daring,” Audacity said coldly as the adventuress gather herself together, retreating back into the safety of where the others were.
“Ok,” she started breathing heavily, “did they come out both sides?”
“They overlapped!” Scootaround chimed in. Daring frowned. How were they supposed to get past if stepping on the tiles triggered a reaction? The spikes had jumped out just after she had struck the limestone floor. Unless...
“Let me try something,” Daring mumbled. She bent down low, poking her nose just barely inside the corridor. She lifted a hoof, and placed it down onto the tile she had hit. Applying pressure, she tried to press it down. Nothing happened at all. No whoosh, no spikes.
“That’s odd, the spikes didn’t come out,” Daring wondered, standing up. Her eyes were struck by the bright light from the mirrors, and she covered it quickly. There was a sharp WHOOSH, and she leaped backwards with a startled sound.
“It’s the light,” Scootaround suggested, “The spikes came out when you stuck your head in the light!”
Daring shook herself, blinking as her vision gradually returned to normal. Whatever the mirrors did to act as a sensor when interrupted, it was also harmful to the corneas. There was a big distorted blob of color in the center of her sight that was slowly fading, from when she had looked into the light.
“If you interrupt the beam, it sets off the trap!” Daring pondered a solution. The simplest was obvious: duck under the beam. That was a little hard to do, given how low the ceiling was. Perhaps if they went totally prone and scooted along on their bellies they would have a better chance?
“One question,” Daring asked, “did ALL the spikes jump out, or just the ones closest to me?”
“All of them,” confirmed Audacity. “I think I know what you’re thinking. If one of us hit the light by accident, we’d all be toast.”
“Better to go one by one, yeah,” Daring agreed.
“I’ll go first, I’m smallest.” Scootaround volunteered. Daring shook her head adamantly.
“No, I’m going first. I’d rather stick my neck on the line than any of yours. Here’s the plan: take hats and stuff off, especially you Audacity. That crown is incredibly high. Then, crawl through on your stomach. Keep as low a profile as possible. If just a tiny bit of you interrupts the beams of light and sets off whatever they used to sense it, Whoosh. That’s it. Over like that.”
She took her pith helmet off, bent down and rolled it along the stone floor of the corridor on its side. It came to a halt just shy of the opening to the chamber beyond. Excellent.
As Daring Do got onto her belly, she felt a bit of trepidation. Her heart beat steadily in her chest, but each thump felt like a bass drum being struck. The stakes were high, and the littlest screw-up would mean the end of her life. She was used to that kind of situation, in all her years of dungeon-crawling in pursuit of knowledge, she had risked her life more times than she could remember. Yet each challenge that assumed the possibility of death intimidated her afresh. This was no exception.
Slowly but surely, she began scooting herself forwards. Hoof over hoof she dragged her body along behind, pressed tightly against the cold limestone. Lichen and dirt drenched to form mud after the ice melted stuck to her adventurer’s shirt, and she could hear bit of the fabric tearing. It was of no consequence, and she continued. The spike holes stood by, ready to shoot out at any moment. Despite the cold a drop of sweat rolled off her forehead, landing somewhere on the damp floor.
After what seemed like an eternity of carefully crawling along with only her front hooves, Daring made it to the next chamber. She stood up in the relative safety, scooping her helmet up and placing it crookedly atop her head.
“Alright, next pony! Be very careful!”
****
The next area was grand and spacious compared to the tight, cramped area they had been in before. A sheet of solid ice blocked a squarish passageway into the chamber beyond. There was a definite pattern here, melting ice to reveal places.
As Audacity came through last, Daring set to work looking for a way to melt the ice. The chamber had iron spears lining the wall, but they were more like decoration. Old banners lay tattered, some still hanging in place though the color had faded to nothing. Torch containers lined the wall periodically, though there were no torches inside them. A great pedestal stood in the center, and Daring thought it was a support column at first. The top did not seem to reach the icy ceiling. That was odd, who would put a 20 meter tall pedestal in the middle of this chamber?
On the floor was a circular depression, with veins branching off as if the floor had been cracked. The cracks seemed to branch out in odd directions, but congregated once again by the ice sheet. Perhaps the powder seen in previous chambers was meant to be lit, and it would spread over there to melt the ice?
There was a problem with that idea: there was no powder. There may have been, but the basin was blackened and empty. Used up long ago. Daring furrowed her eyebrows, scanning for something else that was possibly ignitable. The tattered remains of the banners? She took the the air briefly, hovering by one of them. She reached out with a hoof to try to tug one of them down, but recoiled upon touching it. It was slimy, cold, and damp. It wouldn’t light if she tried.
Audacity leaned up against the pillar, resting himself for a moment. He didn’t have the gun trained on the agent, who was cooperating for the most part. He didn’t have anywhere to run anyways. The pillar grumbled and tilted slightly as he leaned on it, causing him to step back in alarm. It was very unstable!
“Wait a second,” Daring noted, “The pillar’s not rooted!”
“Yeah, and that’s really dangerous. Imagine that thing falling on top of you!” Audacity called up to the flying pegasus.
“You’re on to something, Audacity.”
“I am?”
“Yeah, there’s nothing to burn. But the pillar....”
She swooped over to the top, landing neatly on the grimy surface. The chamber’s floors looked much farther below her than she thought. The height was very apparent.
“Out of the way!” called Daring. She pressed her weight forward, guiding the humungous pedestal towards the ice sheet. The three other ponies scrambled out of the way, into the corner on the opposite side.
Daring tried rocking it again. With her assistance it tilted a small bit, but didn’t continue to swing. It simply rested at an awkward angle. She took flight again, circling around to the back. This time she gave the pedestal a swift kick, and down it went. The great for pitched, and toppled over into the wall. It not only shattered the ice sheet with a great crash, it also broke through the stone wall, leaving an incredible gash and a sizeable pile of rubble. Dust and dirt hung in the air, and Scootaround coughed.
“How was that?”
“It got the job done,” Audacity muttered. They climbed up and over the pile of rubble, placing their hooves carefully so as not to cause a shift or collapse. The group slid down the other side, arriving in what appeared to be the final chamber.
There was a hole in the wall on the upper level, where skylight poked through, giving a bright blueish illumination to the entire scene. The balconies were intact, and so was one set of spiraling crystalline steps leading to the upper level. Down on the lower level was a large diamond, perhaps one of the largest diamonds Daring had ever laid eyes on. It was dazzling, beautiful, and somewhat distracting. As the other ogled over the stone, Daring looked at what else was in the chamber.
Two sloped ramps were in the front corners, reaching rather high up the wall before plateauing. At the tops were two chariots. The slopes led down to the center of the chamber, a circular area carved into the stone. At the very front wall was the carved form of an alicorn, hooves outstretched. In the chest of the graceful pony was an empty slot, several meters wide in diameter. Perhaps the diamond was meant to go there?
“It’s so... well polished,” Audacity noted, still examining the diamond.
“It’s pretty!” Scootaround cheered, “I can see my reflection in it!”
“Worth quite a bit, I’m sure of it,” mumbled the CAP agent, “Oh how I wish I could take it with us.”
“It’s not going anywhere, It has a purpose,” Daring said, “look!”
She pointed at the empty slot in the alicorn statue.
“Just the right size for this hefty thing. Anypony want to help me move it?”
All four ponies joined in, pressing hard against the back of the great diamond. It slowly grumbled over the damp floor, grinding to a halt over the circular depression in the center. With a groaning creak the depression sunk down. Daring looked up in alarm as the chariots sprung into action, blades fully extended at the front. They hurtled down the ramp, right towards them.
“Hit the deck!” she yelled, tackling Scootaround as the other two dove out of the way. The chariots crashed together in the very space they had occupied moments before. The blades fixed on them snapped loose, embedding themselves in the cracks between stone tiles. Daring released the filly once things settled, though she was still on edge.
“Alright, let’s try that again,” she said, “Keep your eyes peeled for anything more like that, everypony.”
The diamond was very near to the alicorn statue now, and the next step would be to slide it up and into the slot in the chest. Daring considered how to tackle the problem. None of them was a unicorn, so levitating the object was out. It seemed to slide in from the side that currently faced upwards. They would have to lift from the bottom, then flip.
“On the count of three,” Audacity counted off, making eye contact with the other three ponies gathered around.
“One, Two, THREE!”
With a grunt, Daring lifted as hard as she could. Everypony had a contorted look to their face as they struggled to lift the huge diamond. Audacity’s face flushed red and his eyes seemed to be bulging out. Daring gritted her teeth and tried to get beneath it and push up. With shaky starts and stops the diamond progressively was tipped up and onto the correct side, aligned with the hole, and slid into place. There was a collective sigh of relief and relaxed shoulders once the diamond held. The ponies watched as the statue of the alicorn shook and rumbled. The arms lifted, revealing a semicircular hidden chamber behind the statue, connected at each side. One could enter under one arm and exit out from another. What was more, there was an unlit torch. Daring gladly set to work to light this, casting a reddish glow on the stone with the flame’s light.
“Look, here’s more text, and a map,” she noted. The map was just of the Arabian Peninsula, with a spot located clearly on the edge of the sea. There was text engraved below it as well. A great deal of text.
“Hold on, let me get the book,” Audacity said as he dug around for the large volume. He flipped it open, holding the book up to the light of the torch so that Daring could read. He too focused on the words. Even little Scootaround was tightly grouped with the others. In fact, just about everypony was trying to crowd into the side-room except the CAP agent, who simply stood off to the side, fumbling with some squarish object hanging off his belt loop.
“The legend to regard... to see I guess.... the legend to watch? No, to know. I think,” Daring murmured she began translating.
“Read on a bit.”
“...lies in the shadow of the oasis. Heed the warnings left by .... by something. This symbol is odd...”
“I think it’s ancestor,” suggested Audacity, “Look on page 304.”
“So you’re right,” Daring said after glancing at the page, “Heed the warnings left by ancestors, that the curse may not recur. Avarice brings about..... brings about a terrible fate for the rapacious souls that visit the lost city.”
“Wait a second, so it’s saying that if you’re greedy, then the curse will affect you?” Audacity wondered skeptically, “I know plenty of greedy ponies, and they’re not cursed.”
“No, I think it means that there’s some kind of curse on the remains of the society. The warnings, well, we haven’t encountered warnings yet. It’s telling us to be on the lookout for warnings, to keep ourselves safe... at least that’s how I interpret it.”
“Wait, what does ‘av- av-a-rice’ mean?” asked Scootaround, having to sound the word out slowly.
“Desire to have material possessions,” Audacity answered, “pretty much concentrated greed.”
“But I thought the king wasn’t greedy after all? Isn’t that what it said in the mausoleum in Stalliongrad?” the filly wondered.
“Yeah,” Daring said, “I wonder that too. It doesn’t have to mean he was greedy though, despite what the story says. It’s saying that something bad happens if you visit with those intentions. I think.”
“Wait a second...” Audacity started, looking suddenly very upset. Daring was about to ask what was the matter, but then she heard it. It was a terrible high pitched squeal, like somepony in agony. The sound was cut short by a sharp mechanical hiss, and a choking sound. Then there was silence.
“I’ll check it out,” Daring said grimly. She exited the side chamber, heading for the low passageway they had entered through, from which the terrible noises had come. The CAP agent was nowhere to be seen at all. She hurried along quickly, reaching the opening and peering down the chamber to see a grisly sight. Daring recoiled from the sight of such gruesome carnage instantly, and perhaps it is best not to describe exactly what she saw.
“Dr. Do? What happened to him?” called Scootaround.
“Oh sweet celestia...” Daring muttered, backing up into the larger chamber and wrenching her eyes away from the terrible scene.
“What happened?” Audacity asked this time, approaching Daring.
“Don’t go over there,” she stated simply, “it’s not pretty.”
“What happened to him?”
“He tried to make a run for it or something. Figured he could regroup with the other CAP cronies. Didn’t make it far.”
They trotted back over to the alicorn statue, where Scootaround was sitting, fiddling around with some kind of grey box.
“What is that?” Audacity asked, “it looks like a radio.”
Daring was about to speak when the radio itself interrupted her. Scootaround cried out and dropped the speaking box hastily.
“A two-way radio, as a matter of fact,” said the voice, unmistakably that of Elise Stiflehock. Daring Do gritted her teeth angrily upon hearing her voice. She picked the radio up with one of her free hooves, and spoke into it while holding the transmission switch down with her over hoof.
“Have you been listening in the whole time?!”
“Why yes, and I commend you on your translation. I heard everything. I even wrote it down, want to hear it?”
“You don’t have the location, though!” Daring retorted confidently, “No location, no finding the final clue.”
“Oh no, I have the location, edge of the Thoroughbred Sea. That narrows things down a little bit. You see, our agent picked up on that detail and relayed it before making his escape. I’m surprised you let him get away. With any luck he’ll be out before you.”
“You’ll be disappointed then, he’s met a grisly end I’m afraid. Didn’t watch out for the spikes.”
“Aww, that’s a shame.”
Audacity took the radio, speaking into it heatedly and forcefully. His temper had reached a boiling point listening to this mare’s snide commentary.
“Listen, what do you want with us?!”
“Mister Audacity, I assure you that we want little to do with you at all,” Elise stated with a shrill giggle. Audacity fumed.
“However, your... group, or what-have-you, you ponies have willfully destroyed our property, and even murdered several of our employees. That’s more than enough reason for us to detain you. The way we see it, you folks are downright dangerous.”
“Detain us? Yeah right,” Daring laughed. She motioned for Audacity and Scootaround to make for the stairs.
“We’ll see who gets the last laugh,” Elise said coldly. The radio went silent. Daring’s heart sunk. She had something prepared for them. Was she hoping to get through to them inside this chamber, only to kidnap them?
“Let’s get out of here, fast,” she suggested. She felt that something was very wrong as the three remaining ponies sprinted up the stone steps on the side of the chamber, and rounded the corner of the balcony to exit through the relatively small opening near the ceiling.
Daring caught a faceful of snow on her way out, and shook the cold stuff out of her face with a shiver.
“Let’s get down the hill fast. I’m sure we can hunker down in the village before they figure out where...”
CLICK
A gun snapped sharply as an agent loaded a round into her chamber. Several other identical clicks echoed around them. Daring’s eyes widened as she took a look at the six armed agents surrounding them, dressed in wool jackets and black hats and toting automatic rifles. She moved quickly to shelter Scootaround behind her, and Audacity reached for the gun he had taken earlier. The CAP agents moved in quickly, causing him to promptly drop the weapon and raise his hooves in the air.
“Dr. Daring Do, archaeologist and adventuress extraordinaire,” came a voice, belonging to Broken Bank. The older stallion paced behind his line of armed agents, smirking from beneath his tightly wrapped scarf.
“You can’t do this!” Audacity shot at him. This caused Broken Bank simply to tilt his head back and laugh.
“I think you’ll find that I can.”
“But I’m an Equestrian!”
“Shut up,” one of the agents growled, poking the muzzle of his gun right between Audacity’s eyeballs. The pony gulped, eyes crossing as he stared down the barrel of the gun.
“Daring Do, there is proof that some of my agents were murdered by a member of your little group here. I know what you’re going to say, ‘he shot first’, but the only evidence available is bullets found inside a corpse back in Stalliongrad and a matching set found on Mr. Withers. I think you’ll find that it’s more than sufficient reason for me to detain you, all of you, until we return to Equestria.”
“The charges are monstrous and outright lies!” Daring retorted.
“Tell it to somepony who cares,” chuckled Broken Bank, “Besides, I have a treasure to find, and this way we’ll be able to keep you out of the way. I’m only a few steps from greatness. The world will know that Broken Bank put the clues together, and discovered the remains of Lost Arabia! There’s no way I’m going to allow you to spoil my moment of glory, Daring Do.”
The Airship descended low enough for a set of steps to descend. The gigantic blimp filled Daring’s field of vision and a grayish mare stepped out to greet them with a deceitful grin on her face. Even Daring let out a low growl this time upon seeing Elise.
“Withers is in his cell, and there’s plenty of space for these three. Shall I take them there, Captain?”