Daring Do stumbled into her study. Her burgundy desk sat welcomingly on a vibrant red carpet. The desk was covered in books, sheets of paper, and the mail she’d missed, but she ignored all that as she went straight to her goal. The chair behind her desk resembled a throne more than anything else, and the fireplace behind it burned with a cozy flame that was kept going at all hours. It was there that she dumped herself so she could finally relax. The mantle was made of the same luscious burgundy wood as the desk, and, despite the large number of awards she’d been given for her finds, was only covered with souvenirs from her travels.

The pegasus was utterly exhausted. Four months of excavating nothing but dirt, clay, and spider webs tended to do that. After all, she had spent months digging in that rainforest, only to find out the crypt she’d been looking for contained nothing but bones. Who expects to find dead ponies in a crypt? Daring Do certainly didn’t, not anymore. The past couple of decades or so had been nothing but adventure, mystery, and a tendency to almost lose her beloved pith hat. As much as she hated to admit it, Ahuizotl had spoiled her with his devious plots and machinations. She almost missed the cunning beast.

Not many ponies knew, but the only reason Ahuizotl had ever been stopped was because he was fond of a challenge. Every adventure since the first with that criminal mastermind began because he invited her to find and stop him. He had wanted to watch her squirm escaping him, and it had led to a marvelously convoluted game of cat and mouse, but all games have to end.

Daring’s last adventure with the beast had finished with his hulking form plunging into an endless abyss. Her foe had been hunting her, as always happened when the explorer snagged the artifact from under his nose. Ahuizotl had cornered her, and in desperation she had purposely activated one of the temples traps. The room’s entire floor dropped from under them, and, with a last attempt to drag Daring with him, the cunning beast had plummeted. She had waited, hovering in the air, to hear the sound of an impact, but it never came. She had thought, at first, that it was a trick. As the years went by, however, she saw neither hide nor hair of him. It seemed even somepony as strong as Ahuizotl couldn’t have survived falling down a pit that deep.

The fact that it was because of the her that he was dead left the archeologist feeling oddly empty. Ahuizotl had been the cause of untold amounts of pain and suffering, but that didn’t mean he deserved to die. Daring felt, deep down, that Ahuizotl’s actions were driven by a desire to see the one pony who didn’t run in fear at the sight of him. All he had wanted was a challenge, somepony worthy of being his adversary. She might have been the only one who could fit whatever twisted definition that beast had had of friendship, and in the end that “friendship” had been the death of him.

After finally accepting his death, the next five years passed in a blur. She went back to her old boring dig sites. The yellow mare had been left to look for mummies that didn’t talk back to you and find priceless urns that didn’t contain the vengeful souls of a long lost army. The archeologist hadn’t even run into a trap she had to circumnavigate in the last three years! The university’s tastes were just so boring compared to what she knew was out there. Daring had brushed up on her history after her last adventure with Ahuizotl. She and Ahuizotl hadn’t even finished finding half of the known historical artifacts capable of creating apocalypses out there, and those were just the boring wannabe artifacts that weren’t powerful enough to wipe all knowledge of themselves from existence.

The worst part of going back to her old clients, however, was how elitist most of them were. The University of Canterlot might pay well, but it always meant trekking through the worst, if best looking, parts of town. Some streets housed perfectly respectable families, but enter the districts where the nobility dwelled and a pegasus such as her was patronized at best, spat on at worst. Daring could count on her hooves the number of decent noble houses. She was perfectly content to be back in her apartment in the more seedy, but welcoming, parts. Here, in what the elite mistakenly call the slums of Canterlot, unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies thrived together. They couldn’t afford to be judgemental when it might cost them the sale they need to survive the month.

Sighing, Daring tried to organize the papers on her desk. Half the letters on it were from fans or her publisher demanding another book. Bored out of her mind, Daring had tried writing about her adventures, but it wasn’t the same. The readers just couldn’t understand that nothing could compare to the thrill of a real adventure, and now she was out of those.

Losing the last of her energy, Daring let her head fall unceremoniously onto the desk with a muffled thunk. The few papers that had been organized scattered to the winds. A couple even managed to land in the fireplace, little whooshes of air accompanying their incineration. The archeologist was about to let her eyes close when a particular letter caught her eye.

She hadn’t seen it before, as it was tucked into a book. The book had a plain ebony cover, and was rather thin for Daring’s tastes. It also didn’t belong to her. Suspiciously picking up the tome, the yellow mare saw the cover and sides lacked a title. Upon opening the it, the archeologist found the pages bank and filled with dust. She lifted the letter and it’s gilded ebony envelope from the inside of the cover. On the back of the envelope, two words were clearly legible. “Miss me?”

Something told Daring not to open the envelope, but she could feel her hoof inexorably being drawn to the seal. It couldn’t be him. The archeologist had seen him fall to his death, but only one being had ever sent her letters like this. Daring’s heart fluttered with fear and anticipation as her hoof finally made contact with the seal. As she opened the letter, a piece of ragged blue fur fell out. Lifting the letter into the light, Daring read its contents, despite her slight shuddering.

Dearest Daring Do,
It has been so long since we last had our fun. I must admit that our last adventure ended rather poorly for me. I tossed the dice, and rolled snake eyes. As I fell into the maw of that abyss, a strange thought entered my head. Well played. I was as strong as a rhino, and as fast as a cheetah. I was as graceful as a tiger, and as stealthy as a spider. I was even as cunning as a snake. I was the king of beasts, but you, a simple pony, had outplayed me.

Only the strongest survive. Whether or not you realize it, our games were always about survival. You were my prey, and I was your hunter. Time and time again, you would slip away, but I always had faith I would catch you. Then that fateful moment came. I fell, and once and for all you established yourself as not only an adversary but an equal. Odd that you weren’t even trying to bring about my ruin, but that’s what’s always fascinated me about prey. A hunter must kill to survive. Prey doesn’t even need to lift a finger to prove itself the strongest. It merely must survive until the hunter starves to death.

I should have died. I accepted death, for you had proven yourself stronger than me time and time again, but fate had different plans. My body shattered against the water at the bottom of the void. Bones broke and blood was spilt, but somehow my mind persisted despite my screams for it all to end. I fell unconscious as water filled my lungs, but still my mind persisted. I hung in the darkness of nothing, and knew I had somehow survived. I had cheated death, and nothing enrages me more than when something cheats at the game, especially the game of life.

I know by now you’re wondering how I survived. I was unconcious, bleeding, and drowning in an underground river. I would have died, and indeed should have, if not for the surprising help of a pony of all things. Why would a pony help a monster such as me? It wasn’t kindness, if that’s what you’re thinking, but I digress for now. I wouldn’t want to give up that knowledge so freely.

Recently I’ve come to appreciate the power of knowledge. It was my knowledge as a hunter that allowed me to kill my prey. It was your knowledge as an archeologist that showed you how to evade not only the traps within temples, but also those I made to catch you. Finally, it was the knowledge that I cheated death that drove me to where I stand today.

I have found a library others could only dream of. I have found the Library of the Shattered Hymn. A library built at the beginning of time to be a sanctuary for all of history and knowledge. Every book that was ever written fills it many shelves, as do many of the books that never saw the light of day. You may wonder how this is possible, and that is the true reason I am writing to you.

The rules are as simple. I will give you twelve challenges, one at a time. You are to solve all of them within a year, while tracking me to my lair so that we will once and for all end things. If you decide not to play my game, then I assure you Equestria will pay.

Daring jumped nine feet in the air as the doorbell rang. She flew downstairs as fast as she could to see mail slot close as her mail hit the floor. She scrambled through the letters until she found the one she was looking for. It was the same black envelope. This time three words were on the back. “Are you ready?”

Daring tore open the letter with feverous abandon, and held it up to the light to read it.

What is the point of knowledge, if some try to lock it away? It may as well be invisible for all the good it will do, but I digress.

They wander through the sands of time, treading the hall I now call mine.

They run and watch, for it is all they know.

They see me, and so they bemoan

For they may never enter the library, but for them that is not necessary.

Now they are locked on the other side, and do not know what to decide.

Find the forgotten guardians.

-Ahuizotl

P.S. The game has begun. The clock strikes one.

Daring dropped the note and whipped her head around as a ringing filled the house. There was also the sound of breaking china, but the archeologist had other things to worry about than the maid dropping the tea pot she’d ordered before climbing upstairs and into this mess. Her grandfather clock had just struck one. She shook her head, trying to quell the storm of thoughts assaulting her. It was just a coincidence. Even Ahuizotl wasn’t good enough to calculate when she would finish reading the letter to the exact second.

She bent down to pick up the letter, and was surprised when her hoof simply slid over it. She tried again, only to have the same results. Sighing at the finicky nature of paper on the floor, she simply tried to pick up her pith hat which had fallen when she jerked her head around. That failed too. Something was wrong.

“Mistress Daring, something’s wrong!” The maid, Tea Leaves, burst into the hallway.

Tea Leaves was a funny old mare. Usually, her coat was grey, and her face was wrinkled, but her eyes and smile gave off that sense of rambunctious energy only foals have. Right now that energy was being spent trying to lift every object she could reach in her hooves. Her eyes had a manic gleam, and her smile was forced, as every object she touched continued to fall. It was a shame, really. Tea Leave’s special talent was her remarkable sense of balance. It was the only thing that allowed the earth pony to make a living as a maid in a unicorn dominated field.

Daring didn’t bother to respond. She wasn’t listening to the maid. Right now there were bigger problems. The archeologist had developed a keen ear over the years, and she was currently listening to the chaos that was going on outside. She caught only snippets here and there as the noise was muffled by the walls, but one thing was clear. They weren’t the only two afflicted by whatever was happening.

Carefully picking up the dropped letter with her mouth, Daring walked outside to find out.

Daring walked through the chaos of Canterlot, trying to make sense of it all. “What kind of artifact would do something like this?” she murmured. As she passed ponies in the street, the archeologist took note of their condition with the detached air of somepony trying to fit a pair of puzzle pieces together.

The town was in chaos as ponies tried to come to terms with what happened. The market place was littered with dropped commodities. Ponies were trapped outside the homes they were trying to run to because they couldn’t turn the doorknobs. Only the foals seemed not to have a care in the world as everypony else panicked. They turned it into a game.

Colts were trying to score goals by kicking objects into unexpected places, and fillies were sneaking sweets from the market place. It’s not like the shopkeepers could snatch the treats back. All the devious little foals had to do was knock the sweets to the ground, and kick them to safety. What did the devious little munchkins care about a little dirt mixed amongst the sweet taste of shenanigans? It was a prime example of what the archeologist loved about kids. They could find joy in anything.

The only adults that were acting like it though were the guards. They did, however, lack their usual unbreakable stoic demeanure.

Earth pony guards tried to juggle spears like hacky sacks. They kicked and flailed their legs, until the weapon finally clattered to the ground. The more sensible ones, however, merely used their mouths as substitutes. Daring was sure they were trying to calm the populace, but there was a slight problem. Nothing says authority about shouting incomprehensible jargon around a piece of wood jammed in one’s mouth.

The pegasi messengers that were darting around trying to figure out what had happened could still use their wings to grasp things, but their grip was much weaker than normal. Things slipped through their soft feathers like butter, and only those with truly flexible wings could fashion a hold that wrapped their wings firmly around an object.

Only the unicorn guards seemed to be fully functional. They were cleaning the wreckage and helping others get inside with their magic, but seemed to have the same problem with their hooves as everypony else. Sometimes the yellow mare passed them using levitation magic to put out fires as ovens burned their precious cargo.

The overall conclusion of the archeologist was that the only thing truly affected was a pony’s physical ability to grip things, and she couldn’t think of a single reason why such a disturbance would happen. The yellow mare knew there was a connection to Ahuizotl, but she could not see what it was, or why it was there. The problem was, in hindsight, it was so obvious that ponies shouldn’t be able to grip things. They had nothing to grasp an item with, but they could effortlessly pick up objects or pull levers. Perhaps it was a passive magical ability, but that didn’t tell what Ahuizotl’s artifact was doing to disrupt only a pony’s ability to grip things. Normal anti-magic fields had a hard time disrupting passive magic, and left unicorns completely useless. What could cause such a specific disruption, and how? Ahuizotl wouldn’t go after something with such a narrow use that it only stopped ponies from picking things up, so what could this artifact do in the grand scheme of things?

Having hit a dead end in what exactly could have caused the destruction around her, the intrepid explorer shifted her train of thoughts to Ahuizotl’s first challenge. The cunning beast had always loved riddles, and she was sure his letter had been laced with hidden meaning.

The pegasus took to the sky to find the quiet she needed to think. Settling on a cloud, she looked out on all of Equestria as it spread beneath her. “Where are you, my old foe?” she whispered, as the cogs in her head turned over and over. “What did you find?”

She turned over his words hundreds of times, but couldn’t find any clue as to where the so called “guardians” might be. Nothing immediately came to mind, so she pulled out Ahuizotl’s letters for reference. A little drool stained them from having to use her mouth to grip them, but it was better than nothing. She was tempted to think he was referring to a series of landmarks or statues. Many of her previous adventures had included such metaphorical guardians, revered idols of a long forgotten civilization meant to guard their treasures, but something still nagged at her. Her fearsome foe said that the guardians ran the halls of the library they were said to guard. Statues and landmarks didn’t run. Perhaps he was referring to a running waterfall, but the archeologist was left with the sinking feeling she’d have to find and deal with the remnants of whatever civilization had built the library.

Daring was notoriously bad when it came to dealing with natives. The yellow mare had lost count of all the times she had ended up hog tied and carried to fanatical cultist leaders or disgruntled chieftains, and to make matters worse she still didn’t have a clue as to where these guardians lived.

She’d never even heard of the Library of the Shattered Hymn before today, so that didn’t help. Ahuizotl wouldn’t lie about his location. That would be cheating at their little game, but the cunning beast would give her the most obscure name for a place he could find. It was probably hidden in a single line of a nearly forgotten myth, probably from the very natives she was supposed to find, and buried at the bottom of a pile of books in the Canterlot Archives. Daring hated trudging through books to find things like that. Sometimes it took even longer to dig through the books to find a possible place to excavate than it did to excavate the place. It was like the library was trying to keep her in the dark by burying her under useless info.

“You sly little fox,” Daring said, grinning from ear to ear. “You said it right in your letter. What is the point of knowledge, if some try to lock it away? As much as I complain about librarians hiding what I need from me, they would never do it purposely to me. That doesn’t mean there aren’t books that are purposely hidden from me. You must want me to break into the Discordant Archives, back where it all started.”

A whole wing of the archives devoted to knowledge that should have been forgotten, the Discordant Archives were preserved by Celestia to be read only by the few she trusted would not abuse that knowledge.

Daring had been knocked off that list after she discovered the Sapphire Stone. Apparently, it was a bad idea to go looking for a gem capable of manipulating a pony’s genes to turn them into horrific beasts. It honestly wasn’t her fault. The archeologist had thought the stone’s power was an over-exaggerated myth, but then she’d met Ahuizotl. If she hadn’t stopped Ahuizotl from creating an army, her punishment would have been much more severe. As it was, Daring brought the stone back to be catalogued and stored with the other miscellaneous objects the princess had collected over the years that were capable of ending the world. Having proved its previous hiding place was unsafe, she was merely banished from the Discordant Archives instead of being banished from Equestria and thrown into a dungeon in the place she was banished to.

The princess apparently thought that would be enough to keep the archeologist from almost accidentally destroying the world. She was wrong. As the yellow mare continued to save the world from Ahuizotl, finding artifacts only the Discordant Archives would have knowledge of, Celestia became convinced Daring was breaking in. She could never prove it, considering Daring was getting her info from Ahuizotl instead of the archives, but it led to a very chilly relationship with the princess. Daring had tried to explain it was all Ahuizotl once. Needless to say, it hadn’t ended very well.

It looked like, for once, the archeologist was going to actually have to break in.

Daring was glad she’d been able to convince the maid that she didn’t need a cat suit to stealthily infiltrate the castle. The archeologist wasn’t able to pull off that secret agent look. She was puzzled, however, as to why the wizened maid had a cat suit. When asked, Tea Leaves had just chuckled and said, “Oh, you know how kids are, Mistress Daring. In my younger days I really got around. I’d tell you the stories, but then I’d have to kill you.” The yellow mare had been unable to tell whether or not her maid was joking.

As it was, Daring had simply donned her adventure gear, and set off for the palace. The Canterlot guards may have been dedicated, but they weren’t the smartest. The pegasus guards only patrolled the outside of the palace, while the unicorns and earth ponies patrolling the halls only watched in front of them. They forgot pegasi had a second option to use as ground. Daring was currently sneakily walking along the ceiling. The archeologist’s wings flapped just enough to defy gravity and hold her there, making almost no sound. It was a technique Daring had used as a filly in hide and seek, and it had carried over to her career in archeology as a way to stealthily infiltrate temples and circumnavigate traps.

The archeologist’s pith hat was currently taped to her head. It had fallen from there and activated the traps below her one too many times in the past for comfort. The last time her hat had done that, she had had to dive into a pool of crocodiles to save it. That was not a pleasant experience, for her or the crocodiles. For such a little hat, it caused a lot of trouble. Even taping it to her head had caused a headache. With no way to use hooves to hold the tape, she had had to use her mouth, a part of her head, to tape something to her head. She had ended up hogtied three times before the maid had deigned to help, lest the elderly pony end up dying of laughter.

With her hat firmly stuck to her head, however, the explorer’s trek to the Discordant Archives went smoothly. It went so smoothly, in fact, that Daring had forgotten that the wing she was breaking into was locked, 24-7. Cursing her luck, she went back a ways until she found a napping guard.

Daring then backed up about fifty feet and lined herself up with the guard for what she would have to do. The archeologist counted to five, preparing herself mentally, before she stopped flapping her wings and plummeted silently towards the floor. Twisting herself in midair to what she hoped was the correct orientation, the yellow mare opened her wings at the last second to shift all her downward momentum into a new direction. Without so much as a flap of her wings, Daring curved sharply and shot silently forward. Thankfully, she was shooting towards the guard. The archeologist shot past the guard, grabbing his keys with surprising deftness, and arched back towards the ceiling to settle herself on it again without having made a noise. The only sign she had done anything was the rush of wind as she passed the guard. There may have also been the slightest amount of drool from using her mouth to grab the keys, but that didn’t count. It wasn’t like she could use her hooves right now. The guard had been startled out of his slumber, and was muttering something about drafty halls. He cast a light with his horn, grumbling as he set off to patrol for another place to nap. Daring grinned. They always blamed it on the drafty halls. A castle is a castle, whether it’s in complete ruins or it’s at the peak of its occupation.

Returning to her goal, Daring drifted to the ground. Inserting the key into the gate was somewhat awkward. Her face was pressed forcibly into the bars as she turned her head to turn the key. She was really beginning to hate Ahuizotl messing with her like this. This was all clearly meant just to slow her down.

Pushing the gate open, the archeologist moved silently down the hall leading to the inner part of the wing. She was, however, not alone. A voice bounced through the hall as she moved further down it.

“No. No. No. No!” it yelled. “This doesn’t make any sense. What’s causing this? Why did it happen now? Why did I never see that it doesn’t make sense for a pony to pick up things with their hooves in the first place? If I had researched the phenomena, then maybe I’d know what to do, but I didn’t see what was in front of my face!”

It was impossible to trace because of the wing’s design. The maze like halls of the place were shaped to carry sound in such a way that it seemed to come from all directions and left Daring wary. She’d have to try and avoid whoever was in here.

A second voice joined the first. “Calm down, Twilight. It’s not going to do you any good if you panic.”

The first voice gave a nervous laugh as she responded. “You don’t think I’m calm, Spike? I’m perfectly calm.” There was more nervous laughter. “It’s not like the princess is going to expect me to deal with this. She won’t call me down to ask for a solution. She won’t be disappointed when I have none because no pony ever thought to question why the hay we can pick up things with our hooves. She’ll understand and let me try to figure it out on my own.” The voice cracked. “Then she’ll send me to magic kindergarten when I fail, and I’ll end up staying there for the rest of my life! How am I supposed to solve this?”

The pony was completely lost to hysterics at this point. Daring, however, had seen no sign of the rambling mare, and the archeologist had almost reached the point of the archives she was looking for. Then the yellow mare slipped on, of all things, a scoop of ice cream. She tumbled forward through the door she’d been trying to reach, and landed right in front of the pony she’d been trying to avoid.

“We’ve been compromised!” screamed the purple unicorn before Daring. With a burst of magic the unicorn grabbed a baby dragon, who was struggling to hold onto the tub of ice cream that must have been the source of her little slip. “Get back!” yelled the manic unicorn, before jerking the dragon’s tail like a switch. “I’ve got a loaded dragon, and I’m not afraid to use him!”

Green fire burst forth from the little beast’s mouth, consuming all the books piled around them. The fire billowed about the room, igniting the books on the shelves, the tomes on the table, and a particular explorer’s tail tip as she dodged to the side.

The realization that she had just burned about fifty irreplaceable and priceless tomes made the unicorn do what any decent scholar would do. She screamed in horror, throwing the source of the destructive fires into the wall. The little dragon was left dazed as one last gout of fire burst forth, accidentally burning the couple books he had missed.

“No!” Daring yelled as the research she needed was burnt away. It didn’t matter if dragon fire transported items instead of destroying them. Daring had no way to know where those books would show up. The dragon might know, if he had a destination in mind, but the little beast was currently too disoriented from the hysterical unicorn in front her.

Daring was interrupted from further lamenting losing valuable research as her currently burning tail tip brushed against her leg causing her to yelp. The archeologist tore the hat off before the rest of her was also set on fire, and quickly batted out the flames. Then, with a single fluid motion, she threw her hat like a frisbee towards the manic unicorn.

Dazed though he was, the little dragon’s protective instincts kicked in as he tried to shoot one last flame at the pony now assaulting the only parent figure he ever knew. It went wide in his disoriented state, and hit the hat instead.

The hat burnt away in a blast of green flame just before it hit the unicorn, only to greet the lavender mare with the sight of Daring charging at her. The unicorn couldn’t react fast enough, and Daring rammed into her at full strength. They both tumbled to the ground, and the archeologist quickly jabbed one of the mare’s pressure points controlling the flow of magic through her body. Once disabled, the explorer easily restrained the unicorn.

“Keep quiet, and calm down if you want to be able to help me stop this,” Daring whispered with deadly intent. She had no intention of harming the lavender mare, of course, but she had learned from Ahuizotl how effective intimidation could be.

The dragon was still dazed, and could only watch on with wide terrified eyes. Daring was furious that he’d burnt her hat, but knew with a little egging she could find out where he’d sent it. Right now she needed to focus on calming the scholar in front of her.

The unicorn struggled briefly in terror, but eventually she calmed down. It was the type of calm that only the truly helpless can feel. The archeologist had seen it on many of the faces of Ahuizotl’s other victims, and flinched.

“Look, kid,” Daring murmured. “I’m not going to hurt you. If I was, I would have done a lot more than simply disable your magic for a few minutes. I just needed you to calm down. I’m going to slowly release you now, so please don’t do anything to make me restrain you again.” The archeologist backed off, and the unicorn slowly rose to her feet.

The shaken mare took a shuddering breath to try and compose herself. She probably needed it considering how she looked. The unicorn’s mane was purple with a single pink and violet strip. It was unkempt, with small strands poking out at awkward angles, and her tail fared no better. Opening her eyes to look at her attacker, the unicorn let out a gasp.

“You’re Daring Do! Oh my gosh! I never thought I’d meet you. I’m Twilight Sparkle, one of your biggest fans!” She almost squealed the archeologist’s name.

The grin slid from Daring’s face. “Yeah, that’s me,” the archeologist muttered. “I have a good reason for being here though. I wasn’t lying when I calmed you down. You can help me stop the chaos going on outside. You see, I have a lead we can use.”

“You know what we need to look for!” Twilight was hopping in excitement. “Show me! I know almost every book in this wing! The only ones I haven’t read at least three times through are the ones on dark magic. I promised the princess I’d never go near those.”

The dragon, who had been trying to stand in his disoriented state, fell over at this. He tried to say something, but only managed to groan quietly at how the world was spinning. Neither of the mares heard him.

“Is that what you were looking into when I got here?” asked Daring, cocking her head.

“Yes,” muttered Twilight dejectedly. “It was the only thing I could think of that might do something like this.”

“Oh, why did you have to throw me so hard,?” groaned the dragon, louder this time. Daring had almost forgotten about him. The little guy had finally gotten up, and was nursing a headache. “Twilight, didn’t you promise me that you would never use me as a flamethrower again?”

The dragon rolled his eyes at his keeper’s poor attempt at evasion. “Whatever. I don’t care right now. We’ve got bigger fish to fry. You do know how dragon fire works, right? You send a letter to the princess every week. Anything I burn gets sent directly to the princess if I’m not thinking about where it needs to go. You just sent who knows how many tomes of dark magic directly to the princess.” The dragon couldn’t help but smirk slightly. “Nice job.”

Twilight paled at the implications of what she’d just done. A couple more hairs burst from her mane at awkward angles. Daring sighed. She’d just calmed the lavender mare down, and the dragon wakes up only to rile Twilight up again. The archeologist turned to tell him to stop being such a smart mouth when she realized something.

A couple of the black and grey hairs in the explorer’s mane broke off as the alarms went off in the castle. Her eye twitched a couple of times before she sighed.

The Hunter and Their Prey

by I Thought I Was Toast

Chapter 1: The Problem at Hoof