//------------------------------// // Morning Mysteries // Story: Becoming Daring Do // by ThunderChaserCreate //------------------------------// I awoke groggily, finding it difficult to move very much at all after a night spent on the ground. I struggled to get proper stabilization as I stood, my stiff joints giving me a small amount of pain. It didn't take me long to realize that something was off. It was much quieter all of a sudden, and the surroundings were unfamiliar. I put a gentle hoof on Soarin, giving him a light shake. "Wake up!" I hissed, trying to let Scootaloo sleep. He groaned, trying to wave me away. He murmured something, though it didn't make much sense, and tried to go back to sleep. "Soarin, come on!" I gave him a quick jab, and his eyes snapped open. He yelled something, but I stuck a hoof in his mouth. "Shut up! Don't wake Scoots, she's freaked out enough as it is." Soarin pushed my hoof away, standing up and looking around. "Where in Equestria are we?" "That's what I was trying to figure out." I sighed, hanging my head. Soarin thought for a moment, then went for my pack. "I bet there's a map and compass in here somewhere..." "Ooh! Good thinking!" I sat beside him, helping him to paw through the sack. After emptying most of it out onto the ground, we managed to dig out a crumpled map and a wobbly compass. The map had a spot on it circled in red ink. "What's that?" I wondered, pointing to the circle. "Um... my guess would be some kind of 'you are here' identification sent from Discord. Let's check it." "How?" "Well... looks like there's mountains to the North, and there's this great big tree in the Southwest." Soarin looked as though he was trying to take off. "Erm..." "Here, give it to me." I took the compass, taking off to see over the thin line of trees in the distance. "I think that's North!" I screamed down to him. "Yup! Mountains!" "Okay, Southwest!" I scanned the tree line for anything even remotely different. "No... it's kinda... Southeast-ish..." "Hmm..." Soarin turned the map every which-way, trying to find our position. "So... are we meant to go there, then?" I shrugged. "Probably." I scoffed. "god, does Discord even have any idea what he's doing? It's like he's just making this stuff up as he goes..." "That's sort of his style, isn't it?" Soarin reminded me. "No rules, just trouble." I heard a groan below as Scootaloo came to. I landed quickly, going to her side. "Hey. Get some good sleep?" She groaned again. Scoots was many things, but not a morning pony. I cleared my throat, tossing my grey-scaled mane out of my eyes. "Alright, troopers. We're heading... er, that way." I pointed in the general direction of the circle on the map. Soarin lifted Scoots up, placing her on his back and trotting to my side. She yawned, her mouth opening wider than I thought possible. "I had a weird dream last night. Rainbow was petting a wolverine, and there was this golden banana... and Soarin had a ginormous chin, and he was an alicorn..." Her head dropped, a light snore coming from her mouth. We were silent for a while. "Is my chin too big?" Soarin stuck it out, trying to get a look at it without a mirror. I chuckled. "It was just a dream, you goof." "Yeah... what do you think 'big chin' means?" he asked, still contorting his face to look at his chin. I shrugged. "Probably something weirdly unrelated, like she thinks you're funny or something." "Hmm..." He moved his jaw to the side, peering over his snout. "Soarin, you look like a diamond dog! Quit it!" I punched him lightly on the shoulder. He frowned. "What does petting a wolverine mean, then? That she thinks you're an all-powerful critter-wrangler?" I laughed. "I wouldn't count it out. The kid worships me." "I've noticed. Why is that?" he asked sincerely. "Well, I think it's mostly the flying thing... but all of her friends have these great older siblings, and she's just got her poor mom trying to take care of her. I guess a life with me in it just... seemed better." I smiled sadly at her tiny body curled up on Soarin's back. She really was a bit of a tragic figure, and I had denied her for so long, watching from afar as she held me in such high esteem. "That's sweet," Soarin murmured. I chuckled lightly, still looking at Scootaloo. This really was her dream come true, wasn't it? She was with me as a sister, Soarin as a father, and for once in her life she could do what pegasi were born to do: fly. "I kinda hope we never have to leave," I whispered. "But I know that if we stayed here forever, like this, there'd be so many things to be sad about." "I'm just glad we have the chance," Soarin replied. "I mean, how many ponies do you think get to live out their dream like this?" A bug flew in my ear, and I jumped a bit, twitching as it tried to find its way out. "Yeah, it's not all sunshine and happiness." Soarin laughed. "That's true. I could do without the humidity and the threat of death." Scootaloo snored loudly, waking her self up. "What's goin' on?" she slurred quickly, looking around through half-closed eyes. "You really awake now, kid?" I asked. She blinked a few times, finally opening her eyes all the way. "Yeah!" "Good. Maybe you could give old Soarin a rest, then." She chuckled sheepishly, realizing her position, and hopped off. "So, where're we going?" "Not quite sure. There was a circle on the map, and it's not too far, so we figured we'd give it a shot," I explained. "You think it's a temple? You know, one with lots of booby traps and pits and relics and stuff? Or do you think it's a villainous stronghold, like with the tents and the camp and stuff?" She bounced up and down, her little wings fluttering a bit to slow her descent. "Could be anything, Scoots. I sure hope it's the hilt of that dumb dagger, though." Soarin sighed. "That'd be nice, but so far this story has been confusing, to say the least. I doubt we'll get off quite so easily." I grumbled complaints under my breath, throwing in a curse word or two just for good measure. I hoped to Celestia that Discord had heard me. Soarin checked the map again, using shaky, flickering magic to hold it in front of him. "Uh, could somepony help me figure out how far we've gone?" I flew above the trees once more, using the compass and map to pinpoint our location. "That is so bizarre..." I muttered. "What was that?" Soarin called up to me. "Well... it looks like we're here!" I yelled back. Soarin looked around. "I don't see anything!" I floated back down to the earth, packing up the map. "We're definitely here." Soarin stomped his hoof angrily. "That is so frustrating! What is the point of a red herring like that? What entertainment value does this hold, watching a bunch of ponies wander around, lost?" I shrugged. "It is a bit ridiculous. Maybe we missed something..." "Hey! Over here!" Scootaloo called us over, standing on a patch of ground that was a bit lower than the rest. She bounced up and down, the ground moving with her. "The ground's all springy!" "Huh..." There wasn't any sign of a pit trap, no leaves or seams in the ground. I stood on the spot with SCoots, feeling the ground give just a tiny bit. Then Soarin stepped onto the patch. Instantly, the ground crumbled away and we were falling... but not into a trap. No, it was much too deep for that. We just kept falling... We all screamed for a bit, but the lack of impact eventually made us stop. "Darn pegasus bones..." Soarin grumbled. "It's okay." I patted him on the shoulder. The weightless feeling was strange, and there was no kind of light anywhere. Just darkness, and the forms of SCootaloo and Soarin on either side of me. "This is kinda cool." Scoots said. I laughed. "Yeah, it is!" "How are we still together? We all weigh different amounts--" "By a lot, apparently," I joked. Scoots chuckled. Soarin cleared his throat. "Well, we all have vastly different terminal velocities. We shouldn't all fall at the same speed." "Meh." I shrugged. "Discord." We all gasped. "Discord!" we yelled in unison. "This is his fault! He forgot about us, didn't he?" Scootaloo realized. I sighed. "Typical." "He still hasn't thought of what he wants to put here." Soarin complained. "Well, to be fair," boomed the body-less voice of Discord, "I didn't think you'd figure it out quite so quickly. I was relying on at least a few hours..." We were silent, not knowing exactly what to say. "Oh! I've got it!" Suddenly, the gravity changed, and we began to fall the other way. We soon smashed our way into an equally dark new area, our sounds of pain echoing on forever. I fumbled with my pack, finding a match and lighting our lamp. "Cave." I said simply. "Yup." "God, Discord, sucks..." I remarked. The lamp went out. "Oh, real mature."