Daring Do and the Soluna Stone:
Chapter 3
15 hours later...
After almost a full day of flying, the group finally makes it to Saddle Arabia. The group looks out the window and see- SAND, SAND, and more SAND! Other than a small local village and what appears to be the dig site, the zeppelin begins to land right outside the little village. The group gets ready to land, but as they do, Daring hands the group many robes and cloths.
"Why do we need these?", questions Trixie.
"We need to wear these robes so we can cover our bodies from the intense heat, and to prevent sunburn.", says Daring
"I refuse to wear such, awful rags! I must fix this solution!", shouts Trixie.
Trixie's horn glows and points at her clothes. The clothes then flash and change color to be more bright and blue. Trixie smiles and puts her robes on. The rest put their robes on along with Daring, who then puts her trademark hat on afterwards. The only one to not put their robe on is Spike. Daring sees this and raises a brow.
"Why aren't you putting your robes on Spike?", asks Daring.
Twilight then speaks up, "Since Spike is a dragon, he can handle extreme temperatures, like bathing in a pool of lava."
Daring Do is awed by this little piece of info. Just as this happens, the zeppelin has finished landing. Jarvis then walks out of the cockpit with robes on him as well. He proceeds to open the door, then the group is met with a wave of heat.
"Good luck Daring, I'll be in town to set us up a place to stay at.", says Jarvis.
"Thanks Jarvis, we'll be back at nighttime.", says Daring.
The group then leaves the zeppelin and see that some ponies have gathered around the aircraft. Daring then goes to the group of ponies with colts and fillies approaching them. Daring happily greets the crowd surrounding them. Trixie pushes her way through and approaches the crowd.
"Aha, a crowd to start my world-wide show!", says Trixie as she smiles and waves at the crowd.
"Ponies here barely have any visitors., especially one's who're unicorns and pegasi. They especially love to help travelers and archaeologists.", says Daring.
"Well then, I suppose they won't expect this!", says Trixie as she uses her magic to levitate some sand.
As she does, the ponies are being awed of this rare sight of magic being performed. Trixie then weaves the sand around one spot as the sand is starting to come together. As the whirlwind of sand ends, in its place is a sand statue of Trixie, of course. The Arabian ponies then cheer at this spectacular sight as Trixie then takes a bow for her performance. Even Twilight and the others cheered for her performance, but they have to cut it short for the job they came to do.
"Alright Trixie, now that you did one trick, we need to head to camp. Remember why we came here.", says Daring.
Trixie then frowns and says, "Oh well, I guess good talent can be saved for later.", huffed Trixie.
Daring then starts putting her bags on her back.
When she does, she says to Twilight, "Twilight, I hope you brought something to write with?".
"I made sure to pack that first on this trip.", says Twilight.
Twilight then levitates a notepad and quill out of Daring's bags. Twilight is already starting to take notes on the environment, the natives, culture, etc.
"I make sure to write anything I can come across to study and to help you in your search for the Soluna Stone.", says Twilight.
"Okay then. Let's get to camp now before sunhigh, otherwise we'll be in for a huge heatwave.", says Daring.
Trixie is looking around and sees nothing. "Where is it? I don't see the camp.", says a confused Trixie.
" The camp is north of town. We landed on the outskirts of the northern part of town. We keep trotting north for about 20 minutes, so keep your canteens close and conserve your water.", says Daring.
Trixie then groans knowing this will feel like an eternity to her.
"Better get used to trotting girls, and Spike. There's going to be a lot of this.", says Trixie to the others.
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-20 minutes later-
Daring leads the others through the harsh desert, with the heat bearing down on all of them. Trixie has and is still complaining the entire way, even during the first few feet leaving town. Also, she wasted her canteen within 2 minutes. Daring thought ahead with a spare canteen and gave it to her, but this time, Daring only gave it to her in small amounts to try and teach her how to conserve water in the desert.
Within time like Daring said, they finally make it to camp. The camp is gathered in a huge group next to the ruins. The ruins are mostly buried in sand and shows its age with weather and sandstorms. The most notable feature is a huge sand dune with a spire sticking out, and a very small opening just barely noticeable by the naked eye. Ponies are scattered all over the place and are either at camp resting, or by the ruins checking them out.
Daring wipes her head and heads down to the camp.
Spike speaks up and says, "Finally, I get to meet the author of Daring's books!"
Twilight stands next to him and says, "Remember Spike, these stories are exaggerated. So don't say anything to upset somepony. More importantly Daring."
Spike agrees and moves forward with her. Trixie drags behind and is moaning and groaning on the sand.
"Finally! Hope to have a fan and some water with a comfy sofa to lay on.", Trixie moans.
Trixie then heads down the sand with the rest of the group and enter the camp.
The group now enters camp and inspect the many stallions and mares working on artifacts or other items found in those ruins. Daring is inspecting the camp, and at the same time getting greetings from the ponies she knows or worked with. Daring is leading them to a big tent, which is suspected to be the center of camp. They all enter the tent and are finally being cooled off from the heat. As they enter, Daring is caught off guard by a mare giving her a hug. The mare has a short tan mane, with a brown coat and grey eyes. Her cutie mark is that of a sand hill with a shovel and magnifying glass crossed together. She's also wearing the same clothing as Daring, minus the hat.
"Oh, Daring! It's so good to see you again!", says the mare.
She is giggling while continuing to give Daring a hug. It takesDaring a second to register what's happening, then finally responds with a hug back.
"Hey Sandy, it's good to see you again.", gleefully says Daring.
The others respond surprised of the realization that the mare hugging Daring, is her best friend Sandy. Sandy finishes hugging Daring and goes to introduce herself.
"Hello everypony. My name is Sandy Shores. I'm the leader of this expedition and best friend to explorer, Daring Do!"
The group awes at this announcement, especially Spike, who is looking at the author of the books he is reading.
"So, Daring Do, it's an honor to see you again.", says another voice in the shadow of the tent.
The group looks in the direction of the voice and sees a large figure. It walks out of the shadow and its appearance is shown. It has blue fur and resembles a large monkey, but its tail has a hand at the end of it. It also is wearing various jewels on his fingers (tail hand included) and a business suit with a chain leading to its suit pocket. Spike and Daring both gasp at the realization at who it is.
"Ahuizotl!", they both say.
Daring Do's most hated enemy is standing straight in front of them!