CHAPTER THE FIFTH

DIGGING FOR BONES

The days at the treehouse passed by uncomfortably fast. During this time, Daring Do had been regularly administering a strange healing salve to the wound on my neck. When it came into contact with my skin, it made a faint hissing noise, which I soon found to be a good thing. The salve, you see, seemed to create scar tissue, and as a result my wound closed very quickly. After the third treatment with the stuff, the shoelace that had been keeping my throat together was finally removed. I now had an ugly, pale gash across my neck, but it was better than the makeshift stitching by far. I still had to be careful from using my vocal chords, though. They were still very sensitive, despite the best efforts of the intrepid explorer.

I'd asked her where she got the salve. Apparently there was a fantastic medical guru who had recently set up shop near Ponyville, and was a zebra, no less! Daring Do had been getting medical supplies from her for quite a while now.

I mentally added Zecora to the list of ponies I owed. God knows she deserves some recognition.

In the meantime, my progress with the Equestrian language proceeded at an almost unnatural pace, or at least it seemed that way to Daring. After one week, I'd learned how to write basic sentences and phrases, and I could now communicate again by writing in my psychology binder. My words were very simple, but I could get the point across. My host was genuinely surprised by my intelligence, and had begun asking me about myself. I answered to the best of my ability, but I couldn't really say much about it.

She knew that I'd mysteriously woken up on top of the Temple of Chaos. But the implications of such a thing made me think, and think hard.

"If something came out of there, that means Discord is back," she had stated grimly on the first day of my new life.

And if Discord was up and about, that meant I was at the beginning of Season 2. Interesting. This could probably mean that Equestria's timeframe is slightly behind Earth's. Regardless, I didn't worry about Discord too much. We all know what happens to him. The only thing I wasn't happy about was that once he gets petrified again, I won't be able to confront him. The distance from here to Ponyville, the site of his defeat, was simply too great for me to traverse in time.

Honestly, I couldn't make up my mind of whether I wanted to mount his balls over my fireplace or give him a hug. He'd sent me to a cartoon dimension, where I'd already almost died. Then again, I'd actually asked him to do it.

The major implication of Discord's eventual defeat was that I now had no known way to get back to Earth. Not that I wanted to, mind you, this place is just too mind-blowingly awesome to want to leave (and I didn't exactly have much going for me back home) but having the option to leave was always a nice thing to have.

Anyway, yesterday we were supposed to head out, but a large rainstorm kept us in the treehouse for the day. In hindsight, we probably should have seen that coming. This IS a rainforest after all. One would assume that it rains here from time to time. Plus, the nearest settlement was about a hundred miles away, much too far for their weather-team to travel to cover our particular section of turf.

Today is the big day. Once again, I rose early with the sun and did a last minute check on my gear, even though Daring and I had packed the supplies last night. A large coil of rope, a hammer and chisel, some stakes, food and water, and a first aid kit were now stuffed into my backpack. I had used some of the strips from my abandoned pants to strengthen my belt, as well. My knife was the only thing I carried with it, but it felt nice to have on. The length of shoelace that had saved my life was now loosely tied around my neck as a sentimental necklace. I adjusted my sleeveless sweatshirt, pulling the hood up over my head, a habit I'd developed. I don't know why, but it felt strangely satisfying on my ears to poke out from the slits I'd cut into it.

Daring Do had risen early as well, for the first time. We checked our gear together in the dawn for a while, until by some unseen signal we both rose and stood on the balcony.

I nodded, then pulled out a small pad of paper and a pencil that I used to write on.

Daring leaped into the air, and hovered a few feet in front of me, extending her rear hooves. I gulped, glancing downwards. The forest canopy seemed to sickeningly pull farther away. I looked back up at her, pleading with my eyes.

"Don't be such a baby, Echo. I got you up here just fine! And besides, it's not like we're flying up, we can just glide. Plus, the thermals are really strong today, so we can cover a lot of distance to the Temple by flying."

Chicken? ME? How dare she! I was not chicken! That's Scootaloo's thing! I grumpily stuffed the notepad into my backpack and gingerly grabbed hold of her rear hooves. I was probbably going to regre- WHOA HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT!

Daring pulled away from the side of the ledge, and I now dangled stupidly from her legs, my strong paws in a death grip around her hooves. We fell rapidly, the wind pushing my jowls back, until she leveled out, and began gently gliding on the warm, rising air coming from the jungle.

Bitch, you even try and fold your wings, and I promise you that you'll be dead before you hit the ground.

Many death threats later...

I silently retched up my breakfast at the base of the pyramid, slightly shaking. Daring Do had actually managed to glide on the thermals all the way here. Flying with a heavy Diamond Dog hanging by a thread didn't seem to be much of a problem. No...

Daring Do stood at the end of the long furrow I'd ploughed into the ground on impact. She let out a low whistle, and complimented it. "Hay, Echo, you've got to land on your feet, not your face."

I am not ashamed to admit that the crash had pretty much scared the shit out of me. Seriously. I almost lost bowel control there for a second. Things could have gotten messy.

She didn't get the joke, but it at least made me happy. After I'd sufficiently recovered, we began climbing the long staircase to the top. Ah, stairs. My greatest enemy. All around us, I could see the trees pull away as we ascended higher and higher. It seemed like hours by the time we reached the top, and Daring was covered in a thin layer of sweat, while I was panting like crazy. I could not, for the life of me, control my tongue from hanging out of my mouth, such was the extent.

We had a quick snack from my pack, more oatcakes for her and small ruby for me. For your information, it tasted like watermelon. While we ate, Daring began investigating the stone container I'd originally woken up in. That was the only thing up here, besides that, the top was a perfectly flat square.

It was made out of a gray stone, and appeared to have Equestrian written on it. Daring read it out, clearly confused.

The Sun burns bright
The Moon shines at night
The Oceans swirl around
While the Earth remains the ground
If you want in, just press down.

Here lies a poor dog who took a deal
Who dared to chose to spin the wheel
Did he win?
Did he lose?
It's up to the mangy mutt to choose

You've got to admit, this guy might be a troll, but he's got quite a flair for what he does.

"Celestia's mane, this guy is random. Echo, you said you woke up in here, right?" Daring asked me, peering closely at the rhyme. "Are you the 'poor dog' it mentions?"

"Yes." I wasn't sure how much I could tell her. It's one thing to be an unusual member of a species, but another thing entirely to be an alien. I resolved to be as vague about this as possible, as I didn't want to drive her away. I was going to need her help again if I ever wanted to leave the Great Southern Rainforest on my journey of exploration.

Luckily, she didn't seem to interested in my role in this. "I wonder... every temple has a way to get in, but this stumps me. There's no door anywhere in sight."

"If you want in, just press down."

She frowned, and looked around the ground, brushing away dust from the stones. "Yeah, but press down where? On what?"

Hmmm... I took another look at the coffin, walking around the outside. The surface, aside from the carvings, was completely smooth. Then, I had an idea. I peered into the coffin itself, where I'd lain in complete darkness. It had a flat bottom, the same material as outside. On closer examination, though, I found a hairline crack running around the edges, and from it came the faint smell of a cold, dark place.

I poked Daring on the shoulder from where she was busy eyeballing the stonework, then motioned her over to the coffin.

She got a determined look in her eye, and hopped into the container. Rearing up high, she slammed her forehooves down into the ground with considerable force. There was a faint exhalation of dust from the crack, but nothing else. The explorer than repeated the process about a dozen times, each strike harder than the last, but no dice. She eventually fell against the side, exhausted.

I gently patted her on the shoulder, and pointed my thumb over my shoulder, indicating that she should get out.

I stared hard at the coffin floor. It would take quite a bit of force to move this thing. This was probably a good time try and experiment with what I could do with this new body. I was pretty heavy, so maybe I could hit it from above.

I took a few steps backward, and ran toward the coffin, putting one foot on the edge and jumping up as high as I could. I twisted mid air, eyeing my target through narrowed eyes. With a slow spin, I cocked my fist back around and streaked toward the ground. Just before impact, I whipped my arm out as fast as I could and solidly punched the bottom, combining my considerable momentum along with my increased strength and density.

The first being that my meaty fist, traveling with the force of a small freight train, shattered the stone like glass, revealing a dark hole below.

I tumbled through the air for at least eight seconds. I know that, because in that strange time when everything just slows down, I bothered to count them out.

In the blackness, I eventually came to a screeching halt, landing face up on some hard, flat surface. Ow. Major Ow. This hurt worse that that time I participated in the Running of the Bulls. Drunk. Bulls and booze. Shockingly, they don't mix well.

Wait, how the hell am I alive? I pondered this for a few seconds, before realizing that my body was probably a lot more durable than before. Still, it hurt like a bitch.

"ECHO! YOU ALL RIGHT?" came the faint yelling of Daring Do, peering down from a tiny speck of light far, far up above.

That's what I'm talking about. I complied from my position on the ground, slamming my mitts together with enough force to send a ricocheting blast of sound straight to the top.

"OKAY! I'M GOING TO COME DOWN! CLAP ONCE IF I CAN FLY IN THERE, OR TWICE IF IT'S TOO DANGEROUS!"

There was a pause, and then from the hole I'd punched in the ceiling, I could barely make out the figure of the explorer, clutching a torch in her mouth as she slowly descended. The light from the torch faintly touched the sloped walls higher up, but the farther down she got, the light receded as well. It seemed that the entire pyramid had been hollowed out. How it was even possible to build one like that, I had no clue. Then again, this was a temple dedicated to a god who made it rain chocolate milk that exploded. I should have seen this coming.

Daring Do slowly descended, her torchlight playing havoc with my eyes, which had already seemed to adjust to the darkness, and eventually touched down a few yards away. She quickly spotted me and helped me to my feet, where I unsteadily stood. Two major crash landings in a single day took a lot out of me.

She shivered slightly from her position next to me, eyeing the blackness warily. It stretched on in all directions with no end in sight. There was absolutely no sound whatsoever, apart from us. The compass dangling around her neck was spinning wildly. "This place gives me the creeps..."

She nodded. "Bravery is doing something even if you fear it. Stupidity is not being scared of anything. Makes you reckless, makes you slip up. And in this line of work, well..." She glanced around. The light from the torch seemed insignificant, a stain on the perfect blackness. "It pays if you don't slip up."

Wise words, indeed. I would have said I was afraid as well, but oddly, the dark environment seemed soothing to me. Perhaps this is because Diamond Dogs live underground? Regardless, I made the best of the situation, and began rummaging through my backpack, which I'd landed on in my fall.

Some of the food was crushed flat, but it was still edible. One of the metal water canteens had ruptured and was now useless, so I exercised my strange eating abilities and had myself a quick snack. It was tough and stringy, kind of like jerky, and again I was reminded of how much like bread that metal tasted. The rest of the gear was perfectly fine, although my pack, along with myself, was a little worse for wear.

She looked around. "I agree. The sooner we get out of the open, the better. I don't like being surrounded by nothingness."

She gave me her torch, and we began to make our way forward. We had no particular direction in mind, and we couldn't even tell if we were walking in a straight line. But, progress is progress, even if it's not much.

At one point, I had decided to leave a line in the ground with my free paw, running a thin scratch over the stone floor. After we took a break, I followed it back a dozen yards, only to discover that the line suddenly vanished. If I'd been calm before, that shattered any amount of tranquility this place provided me. The darkness now looked unfriendly, even hostile. We needed to get out, or get through. But how?

The single pinprick of light that I'd created high above had never moved from its position, despite the amount of time we'd been traveling. Daytime should have ended a while ago, yet the tiny point never once faltered. Daring looked to be in no condition to fly me up to it, though, if anything she looked exhausted.

We called it quits after another few minutes of walking. For a while, we sat around a small campfire. If it weren't for the lack of trees and the eerie silence, I could have sworn we were out camping somewhere.

Daring finally spoke up. "Why do I get the feeling I've bitten off more than I can chew on this one?"

I thought for a moment. "Greatness never won easy. Hope keep strong." My grammar was atrocious, but I'd only been using this language for a few days.

"I guess... but I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. This takes the cake completely. I can't help but think that we might be digging our own graves here. Maybe we should try and head out tomorrow?"

I shook my head. I wanted answers, and this place was the best place to look, if any. With Discord himself soon to be defeated, my only option to learn more about my position is the place of his worship. But... Something she said had sounded oddly stirring.

"If you want in, just press down..."

I absentmindedly scratched at the floor with a claw, leaving a large score. My claws could probably cut through this stuff easily. Wait a minute.

I stood up, and looked around eagerly. I had another idea. Daring watched my movements with interest, clearly noticing the new spring in my step.

I extended my claws and sank a paw into the ground. Sure enough, I literally ripped out a chunk of rock like it was melting snow. Daring's eyes widened in realization. Smart girl.

And with that, I began digging, frantically tearing out paw-fulls of stone and setting them aside for the mare to kick away. I was hauling up pieces of rock and rubble that would have filled an entire wheelbarrow every time I struck the ground. I think it's safe to say that I've discovered one of the Diamond Dog's unique talents.

I dug straight down, a narrow, well-like shaft that I rapidly had to widen so that I could move around. It got to the point where I'd dug so deep that my head was soon below the surface, despite my height. And still I went on. I didn't tire, no, the action of digging actually seemed to give me more energy, as if I was tearing power from the earth itself with every swipe of my paws. Debris soon fell in a shower outside the pit, and Daring had all but abandoned moving the debris, unable to keep up with my pace, which had exponentially increased. I don't know how long I kept it up, but once I'd dug about twelve feet down, and cleared a hole that was at least my arm-span in radius, I hit the bottom.

Smiling, I brushed some rubble off the bottom of the pit, clearing away my prize. Daring fluttered down into the pit to see what I'd stopped flinging boulders up for.

We stared at it dumbly together for a while. "Is that what I think it is?" she finally said.

I gently grabbed the doorknob and opened it up. Just as I thought. I honestly should have seen this coming from a place of chaotic worship.

After five minutes of packing up, we once again found ourselves descending into the darkness. Hopefully, we wouldn't descend into madness, either.

The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog

by Rust

(5) Digging for Bones