//------------------------------// // Chapter I // Story: So very Daring // by ShinobiPony //------------------------------// “OK, for real, how did we get into this mess?” You say from your spot bound on the ground. You look around at the pygmy zebras happily milling about, not even sparing you a glance. “Oh I don’t know, maybe because you punted one of the locals? No couldn’t be that.” A voice from the side you snarks sarcastically. You turn your head to see a beige pegasus just as bound as you are looking at you with less than amused magenta eyes. “Well Daring, that little bastard shouldn’t have jabbed me with his spear” Daring just rolls her eyes and resumes looking for a weakness in her bindings. You look down at your own Lilliput like restraints, ropes tying you to the ground along with another rope wrapped around you, restricting your arms. You sigh, this seems hopeless. Maybe you shouldn't have kicked the small equine after all? It would certainly have saved you a lot of trouble. But then again, that little spear of his was really sharp, and damn if it didn't hurt. You think about how to get out of the situation. Then a rather appetizing smell catches your attention. You sniff the air, confirming the aroma as something delectable. “Say Daring, what’s cooking?” The mare blows a bit of her gray scale mane out of her face before looking at the center of the small village with widening eyes. ”Anon? I think we are in a moment” she says with a gulp. What’s got her so worked up? You look at the same spot that she is and see that the pygmy zebras have set up a large cauldron and a pair of spits over a large bonfire. What in the world are they?..! No. They couldn’t be… “Erm Daring? I thought zebras were vegetarians?” you say with a bit of panic creeping into your voice ”Yeah well, these deep tribals can be pretty backwards…” Hell no. Not today. With strength fueled by adrenaline, you struggle against the ropes with every bit of your might. The pygmy zebras pay no mind, obviously confident that you couldn’t break the rope or otherwise get out. Slowly but surely however the ropes holding you down come lose. With a final burst of strength, you raise yourself up free of the ropes, the stakes holding them into the ground flying up and out. A plethora of gasps ring out as you rise up to your full height, four times higher than them. Even with your arms still bound, you must look pretty scary escaping the initial layer of ropes. You stalk up to the large group of pygmies tending to the fire. All of them stare up at you, petrified. Here you are, about to make a huge statement to an entire settlement. Make it count Anon. With a moment of thought, you know what you must do. “Hashtag YOLO!” The instant that the words leave your mouth you raise a leg and kick over the cauldron with a metallic “CLANG!”, sending the boiling hot contents all over the ground, where pygmies scrambled about with a medley of cries, trying to avoid being burnt. Turning and running as fast as you could, you make it to a shocked Daring. Stooping over, you grab the ropes wrapped around her and pull her free from the ones holding her down. Still biting her bindings, you run as fast as you could with the awkward arrangement, carrying the pony with your teeth seeing as how your arms are still not free. Angry whoops and war cries sound behind you as dart like arrows rush past, missing you and Daring by inches and embedding themselves into the tropic foliage around you. Yep, this is one of those days you should have just stayed in bed. Finally finding a place you could stop, you set the pegasus in your teeth down and take a breather, leaning back into a tropical tree. Taking a few haggard breaths, you look down to Daring who looks rather shocked at what had just transpired. "Well" you stop take another breath, damn this jungle air is humid "I think we *hah*lost them." "As happy as I am that we are not going to end up someone else's lunch, were still sort of stuck in these ropes Anon, and here in the jungle that cannot end well." Daring tells you with a deadpan expression, her shock dissipating quickly. Well shit, she had you there. Okay, next course of action, getting the out of these ropes. "Any bright ideas?" She thinks to herself for a moment, before proverbial lightbulb lights up over her head "I've got a pocket knife in my front pocket, it's not all that sharp but should work for cutting through these nasty ropes." You give her a flat look. Almost a minute passes while Daring looks at you with a raised eyebrow. "Well?" "Daring, don't take this as offensive but I’m sure you fucking reek and I'm not putting my face anywhere near you again." Her jaw drops before her expression transforms into pure rage, her magenta eyes lighting up like the fire that threatened to cook you not even 10 minutes ago. ”Well of course I don't smell all that great! We've been out here in the humid jungle for Celestia knows how many hours now, you act like you smell any better, unless you have a better idea then by all means share it." She finishes with a glare. You sigh and weigh your options. You could either get a face full of pony stink and be out of here immediately, or you could say and try and find a better way with the possibility of being jumped by something crazy in this god forsaken jungle. A sigh finds its way out of your mouth, time to man up. You kneel down to Daring's level dejectedly, feeling jungle muck make its way through the knees your pant legs and just plain making this worse "Fine, where is it?" She nods her head down at the only pocket on the front of her shirt not covered by rope, where the beginning of the small, red handled knife protrudes, just low enough that she couldn't get it herself. This is going to suck. You lean forward and open your mouth just enough to expose your front teeth, no need touching this thing or being closer than you really need to be. To your immense surprise the horrible smell that you are expecting is absent. Maybe these ponies just don’t take long to air out? Then again, Daring here is the only one you really interacted with so you can’t be sure. Whatever, you just want to get out of here and get back to somewhere that has even a hint of civilization and rest before any more shenanigans can befall you or your equine companion. Gripping the knife with your teeth, you pull it out exposing the dull and scratched up blade. Bending your neck down to Daring’s side, you set to the slow task of cutting through rope with a knife that should have been replaced years ago while Daring watches carefully. While doing the repetitive work, you think back to when you first met the adventurous mare only a few short days ago. Really it was a normal day your house, blowing off your college lectures and other work in favor of sitting at home playing some blaring music and vidya. Then abruptly your radio cut out to some weird sounding news station. Thinking it was some sort of error you were about the switch the station back before your whole stereo set up started flipping out, sending out sparks and more than a little bit of smoke before the whole thing simply imploded on itself. The next thing you knew, you are in a dank tomb with the horse version of Indiana Jones staring down at you while holding a glowing, magic necklace in her mouth. And that signaled the start of your adventure in the land known as Equestria. Daring Do, as you later learned what her name is, a famous adventurer, archaeologist, and author in this land had felt it to be her responsibility to look after you since her playing with the magic necklace is what brought you here in the first place. You had to admit, life in a Tomb Raider adventure sounded very appealing, plus you really had nowhere else to go so you accepted her proposal with little fuss. Now you're just wondering what the hell you were thinking. But still, the whole "finding lost treasure." and "discovering ancient secrets." thing could turn out to be very profitable as well as exciting…If you live long enough to make anything of it that is. Fucking pygmy zebras... The sound of rope snapping pulls you from your thoughts as Daring stretches her limbs out of the now limp rope with a pleased expression. "Ahh, much better." she says with her somewhat scratchy voice, stretching the kinks out of her legs and wings. You clear your throat loudly, the knife still held in your teeth. She realizes that she completely forgot about you with an embarrassed blush. ”Err, my bad Anon." she says with a sheepish smile "Mind giving me the knife?" She asks as she stretches out her neck with her mouth slightly open. You look at her with a raised eyebrow. She raises one of her own in response "Well? Give it here, and don't even think of dropping it down the ground." she says with a distasteful glance at the mud covered forest floor. How the hell did she want you to give it to her? Wait, did she just want to take it straight from your mouth? Wow this is going to be awkward. You hesitantly bend down to her level and offer the small weapon as best you could. She leans up the rest of the way and takes it in her teeth, her lips brushing against yours for the briefest of moments as she did so. Daring realizes what she did and turns away from you the instant she has the knife, her cheeks a bright pink. You feel your own cheeks sting some from the unintended contact before you shake your head violently. No Anon, she's the wrong species. Daring clears her throat and turns back you “W-well I guess we should get you out of these ropes, huh?" A simple nod is your answer as you stoop down and let Daring cut the ropes on you. It seems ponies have much stronger neck muscles than humans as she saws through the rope in hardly half the time it took you to cut hers. She places the knife back into the front pocket of her shirt and looks up at you with her magenta eyes ”Come on, we might want to get out of here before it gets dark, that's when the real baddies come out" the beige mare says as she looks at the slowly sinking sun. "I hear that" you say dispassionately, not really wanting to see what sort of dangers this backwards world had to offer at night. That being said you and the beige pegasus trek through the humid jungle in search a road, hoping to find an easy route to a town. While fighting through the underbrush, a thought comes to you. "Say Dare, I thought that you said that Equestria is a tame country, why the hell is there jungle here then?" She looks back at you, not slowing her pace “Well Equestria proper with the exception of Everfree Forest is pretty safe, but out here on the fringes right by the border, things get a bit more risky” ’Risky? Try outright hostile’ you think as you swat a mosquito the size of a small bird that was flying around you to the ground before you stomp on it with a wet ‘squish’ ”Finally!” Daring says as you come to a road through the thick forest land. You roll your eyes, she could be so impatient as you learned early on, you and she were only walking for about 10 minutes and already she was almost ready to complain. Walking along with her, you spy the small unnamed border town that you and Daring had passed through right before your unfortunate encounter with the pygmies. Sun beginning to set below the horizon, you and the famous mare walk into town, passing by many other species milling about, getting last-minute things from the market or just heading home. You remember the first time you had seen all this. Just seeing Daring was almost enough to make you think yourself crazy, but all this had almost sent you over the deep end. Ignoring that however, you and your companion walk to the local inn run by a gruff looking middle-aged griffin. Opening the door of the somewhat small and dingy establishment, you let Daring in first, who offers you a smile in response. You cough some at the wall of stale and bitter tasting air of the place as Daring trots up to the black plumed griffin running the inn. ”Hey Beck” Daring greets the griffin front desk who is looking over a stack of papers. ”Ms. Daring" he responds a deep voice, not looking away from his papers "I assume you and your... unique friend would like a room for the night?" He asks. ”Yep” Daring says "20 silver bits a night for both of us right?" Beck simply nods. Daring digs in her pockets and produces a pair of 10 bit coins before tossing them to the griffin. Still without looking up he raises his talons and snatches the 2 coins out of the air. ”Enjoy your stay, the 2 pony rooms are down the hall” he says simply. Daring motions for you to follow her after the transaction. Following her down to the rooms, you both enter a single room containing two beds. Unceremoniously, you walk up to one flop down, out like a light as soon as you landed on the too small mattress.