//------------------------------// // Attack of Corn // Story: When Two Hearts are Daring // by Pigeonsmall //------------------------------// Chapter 10 Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, the first thing she realized, she was laying on something soft, like a pillow. In the haziness of her thoughts, she entertained the idea that she was dreaming. Maybe she was still at home on her cloud bed, sleeping the afternoon away. Something light tickled her nose and she sneezed. “A-choo!” She sat up and rubbed her eyes feeling stuffy nosed yet surprisingly clear headed as her surroundings came into focus. She lay in a room, sitting on a bed, or some kind of raised pallet. She kneaded the surface with her hooves, yes it was exceedingly soft but not in the same way as a  cloud bed. Somewhere near by there must have been a light source, it’s residual just enough to help Dash’s eyes adjust.. “Feathers?”  Her inspection showed that the pillows, while very soft, weren’t  well made.  Many small down feathers spewed from the sides of shabby stitching. Not that it mattered, by that point, Rainbow Dash was certain she was someplace she didn’t want to be. She jumped down from the ‘bed’ and went hastily, yet before she could even make five full steps, she nearly fell over when her left hind leg didn’t want to follow her any further. “What the-” she yanked and turned around, a thick metal band was clasped over her leg, she had been shackled. “You’ve got to be kidding...” she muttered. She tugged, then she yanked. She jumped up and tried to get some strength behind her wings. “Urgh! Come on!” But the chain was strong and bolted in three places in the hard stone wall. If she pulled any harder she stood a better chance of breaking her leg than actually getting free. “So it seems our little adventurer is finally awake.” said a calm voice. Rainbow Dash’s ears swiveled and her eyes darted to every corner. “Who’s in here?” she asked, her breathing quickened. “Oh nobody too important. At least, not in the vigorous get up and go exercise that is the life of the great ‘Daring Do.’” Rainbow Dash took a moment to process before she answered. “I think you’ve got the wrong pony.” she answered tersely. “You’re being modest!” the voice spoke again, it was a rough low sound but the basic inflection  seemed almost elegant. “How admirable!” The other form in the room lurched out of her hiding place, just enough for the dim light to reflect on her bulging watery eyes. She was enormous, dwarfing the pegasus easily with her girth, filling Dash’s immediate vision with pink. Her arms were laced with fish like frills attached to sharp spines, as well as the top of her head, they flared out and down like butterfly wings giving the appearance of a crown.  One bulbous yellow eye kept its focus on her, while the other drifted sideways, something else held its attention on the far side of the room. “Well little pony, if  you want my advice, you’ll drop the modesty if you hope to leave this place alive.” she said with a rolling purr coming from the back of her throat. Rainbow Dash felt her pin feathers bristle.  “Are you threatening me?” “On the contrary,” the fat pink toad chortled, “I’m trying to keep you alive, pony.” The threat was engraved into the pink toad’s voice and Rainbow Dash gulped nervously despite herself. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Liverwort, would it?” The toad’s lipless mouth curved down into a sneer. “That’s Queen Liverwort to you.” Rainbow Dash was about to speak again when the queen cut her off. “This talk has nothing to do with me and everything to do with you trotting into my domain without my permission.” Liverwort pulled something small out of the darkness and pushed it against Dash’s nose. “I take it this self-righteous egomaniac is your role model?” Dash focused down the middle of her nose and couldn’t believe what she saw. Crypt of the Dark King had been in Dumbbell’s saddle bag, which meant he was nearby, but where? “What do you want?” asked Rainbow Dash, her bold voice sounded hollow in her ears. “Several publications back your ‘hero’ destroyed our water idol. And as you may have noticed my precious home is quite dry, and that is on top of even more severe damages since the day that hooligan dropped into my pond!”  The queen paced back and forth through to Rainbow Dash it just looked like an awkward waddle.   “We were a respectable group! That Daring Do made a mockery of our kind, and to make things worse my servants have got it in their rotting brains to worship her for it!” she seethed as she stamped her fat sausage-like legs. “I swear if I ever get my hands on her I’ll...” Rainbow Dash felt the corner of her mouth twitch. "Ya know, technically the whole zombie thing is actually Ahiuzotl's fault." "Silence you worm!" The queen shrilled, her anger seemed to boil the atmosphere around Rainbow Dash as she stood there, hunched over with a sour grimace stretched over her face. "If you speak his name again I will kill you myself." Anything else Dash had to say died in her throat. The toad grunted and swapped her anger with a disingenuous smile. “Enough of that. This is why you are here, little pony. And why I haven’t strung your hide to tan in the sun.” Liverwort rolled a scrutinizing eye. “Besides your obnoxious colors, the resemblance is uncanny.” Rainbow Dash bristled. “What makes you think I’d even cooperate?” Queen Liverwort let out a brief throaty chuckle. “Because I have your friend.” “W-what?” Dash felt her heart crank up two gears. And before the thought even crossed her mind to keep up a bold front, the toad just cackled and told her in a very pithy tone. “If you want to see him again you’ll come with me and keep your mouth shut.” Just then the door slid open, and three squat frog-looking creatures swept in. They were very similar to Liverwort only much leaner, sporting pronounced musculature.  It was a sight that could have easily fell out of one of Dash’s midnight snack induced nightmares. They carried torches, giving her a clear view of their forms. Hunched over, slimey and covered in warts, she couldn’t tell if the dull red streaks were natural skin color or badly applied paint that was flecked and scratched across the surface. Their mouths hung open revealing  dark toothless maws, big enough to swallow her whole if she was on the menu. They reached in with disturbingly slender fingers, trying to touch her. “Back off!” Dash squared herself and opened her wings. “You’re only getting one warning!” She felt paralyzed, not knowing what to expect.  But certainly the last thing was for all of them to fall face first to the floor, completely flat.  It happened so suddenly that it took the pegasus off guard. “Please forgive us, Daring One!” one of them said with a quivering voice, “We didn’t want to hold you in such a lowly manner, honored one! It was orders from our leader!” the big yet lanky frog thing pleaded. Rainbow Dash assumed it was a he though there was no way for her to tell. Liverwort’s nostrils flared with wrath.“Idiots!” It seemed like something she had to do often. The point she had made about their lack of intelligence rang true. “Take our guest to the moon chamber.” “Please, this way, Daring one.” said one of the lanky toads as they lead her deep into the catacombs. Rainbow Dash sighed and retracted her wings, her feathers were tense with anxious electricity. If she could just fly, doubtless, she could run circles around these slimey mutants. The problem was she had no clue of her current location. How many walls of stone and brick blocked her from the outside? Just how far was she from the surface? The place was laid out like a labyrinth, and of course came the glaring issue of the other missing pony.   The path twisted and turned often,  and nothing about the surroundings seemed to indicate the right way to go.  On her own Rainbow Dash would have been walking in circles, the only notion she could pick up on was that they were walking upwards since the the passage ways often sloped in that direction. In no time at all the little pegasus found herself back in the massive interior of the moon chamber, from the lowest level instead of the overhang she and Dumbbell had entered from on the previous day. After a few clumsy steps over the uneven floor and she was sliding over the slick edge leading to a pool half filled with water lapping mildly from side to side. “Water?” That wasn’t right, the place had been completely devoid of it the last time she’d been here. “Yes, water.” one of the toad guards spoke to her in an admiring tone in the most broken equestrian it could manage. “Thanks be to you, for delivering the lost piece of our broken water idol!” The interior was incredibly loud, the space filled with a motion of excitement and loud rambling in a language she couldn’t begin to understand. She looked up into the higher levels and felt her skin crawl. The rows and balconies were packed with toads, like sardines to a can. There were literally hundreds of them, pushing and shoving into each other, looking for a place to sit, some spilling over the sides due to sheer volume. Each toad was painted strikingly red and blue, naked except for necklaces and bangles of feathers and bone. Every pair of  bulging eyes in the place sensed her and turned to face her. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but swallow nervously when the discordance ceased. The toad queen spoke in a gruff voice which somehow managed to be elegant and formal. “I never expected to see you again, ‘Ms. Do.’, and despite the past circumstances, I am very happy that you decided to return to us, and on such a distinguished occasion!”                                                                                                                                                                                           “But I’m not-” “Enough introductions!” The queen croaked and lunged at Dash, and in one terrifying instant, Rainbow Dash thought the massive pink toad meant to eat her, but instead she was swept up in meaty arms. With an agility Rainbow Dash never would have imagined, Queen Liverwort leapt up to one of the highest ledges in a single jump, plunking her down on a giant red frond.  An array of fungus and vine grew freely throughout the chamber, with the mysterious aura of the glowing stone appearing to have played a part in the explosively large growths that covered the walls. “I hope you are enjoying your few minutes of fame, little pony.” she said with a gruff chuckle. Rainbow Dash was hardly listening, too busy trying to swat away the strange lively tendrils of vine that creeped towards her from the crevices. “Look I’ve been trying to tell ya, I’m not who you think I am!” she protested as another snake like vine tried to wrap itself around her middle. “I mean, I think it’s cool and all that you think I look like Daring Do, but...” Rainbow Dash hovered in front of the queen to display full sincerity. “You’ve made a mistake!”  To her disappointment, the pink amphibian didn’t seem to register her words. Instead, what she got was a very impassive stare. Below them the muted croaking and chatter suddenly ceased, jolted by the quiet, Rainbow Dash turned around to see what was happening below her. “What the- !” The site below her brightened with the soft powder glow of  moonlight, like slowly turning up a lantern flame in a pitch dark room.  Only a small amount but enough to be noticeable. A beam of it funneled in from somewhere via a hole in the roof, it was the only possible explanation.  Rainbow Dash scanned desperately but saw no clear opening. Even the ceiling was choked with plants and roots.  But what she saw below shocked her more, the giant idol stood where she had last seen it, now enshrined  in the funnel of moonlight, started to glow on its own, bright and golden, acting like a flashlight illuminating the area below it. Under the idol she saw Dumbbell laying on his side on top of a suspended platform. It hung precariously over a dark pit in the floor. Rainbow Dash saw his body jerk once before he opened his eyes, he flinched when the light hit him. He stood slowly, almost drunkenly, and the onlookers wailed in excitement. “Dumbbell!” Dash’s cry echoed back once before it was swallowed by the tumult. Rainbow Dash skid to a halt next to the pit and ran over to Dumbbell who seemed to barely register the goings on around him. His ears were pulled back, nostrils flared, and his eyes looked unfocused like he was coming off of a drug. He turned and saw her and tried to move but they both quickly saw that that wasn’t possible.  Just like Rainbow Dash had been, he was chained to the teetering platform by his forelegs and neck. “Are you alright?” she asked hurriedly as the stallion pulled at the chains. “No I’m not. What’s going on?” he asked. Then the world around him finally came into focus, he heard and saw the multitude and balked.  “Seriously, what the hell is happening?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I don’t know, just-”  She watched the stallion’s bewildered face contort into one of terror. “Watch out!” His warning was all she got,  and that saved her life.  The large tip of a broadhead spear whistled past them both at an alarming velocity, she felt the point graze against her mane, taking a few strands with it as it went past.  The Gully-Wugs cheered, leaving both ponies stunned. ‘What’s going on here?’ Rainbow Dash thought to herself. ‘They’re enjoying this.’ “Daring Do, Daring Do, Daring Do!” came the chant, with each repetition Dash felt the heat in her face rise.                         “Shut up! How many times do I have to say it? I’m not Daring Do!” But none of them listened. They were stupid in their undead state, or at least, stupider than usual, and chanting now as the toad queen smiled knowingly.  Rainbow Dash saw that and growled. “You know that I’m not.” she said. Their fat queen had no intention of telling the truth. Dash seethed and turned to Dumbbell who himself seemed too preoccupied. In all the excitement, none of the toads seemed to notice that the old chains they had used to subdue Dumbbell, had come loose of their boltings. Not completely but he was working on that with diligence. “I can get outta this!” Dumbbell said more to himself than to Rainbow Dash, after another strong tug pulled another rusted bolt just slightly out of its hold. “Distract them.” “How? What do they even want?” Rainbow Dash shouted with her head low, half expecting another wayward spear, much to her dismay another came, and another, the last crashed onto the tiny platform and clattered against her hooves. “We love you, Daring one!” several Gully-Wugs shouted, bouncing up and down with their chant, ‘Daring Do’’ over and over. "What are they saying?" Dumbbell frowned, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "They think you're who?" "Just ignore that," said Rainbow Dash. "That isn't what's important right now!" “Well they seem to like you.” Dumbbell growled, holding his head low to dodge any more incoming spears. “Distract them, entertain them, sing a song, I don’t know, something!” he pulled at the chain some more, each movement forced the platform to sway dangerously over the dark pit. Dash saw the moonlight reflect boldly on the still surface and gasped. It was the sacrificial well. Rainbow Dash groaned and looked around, oh stars, most of the toads were waving spears like banners. She took to the air again, knowing she had a much better chance of dodging the deadly things than Dumbbell did. ‘Too bad Pinkie Pie couldn’t be here.’ she thought to herself. ‘Because this definitely looks like a wild party.’ Rainbow Dash grabbed the spear that had fallen close to her and flew for the moon beam, as she’d hoped, this gained the desired result. Everyone went completely still, it seemed they were waiting for her to speak.. Now she needed to start talking, fast. “Okay you overgrown toothless barbarians, listen and listen good.” she pointed the spear at them like a general. “Cause I’m only gonna say this once!” The silence kept, that was good, with a deep breath Rainbow Dash put on her best performance. “You low-life cannibal good-for-nothings are really something, you know that?  I know it’s been a  long time but as I’m sure you all know, I didn’t leave this place on the most peaceful of terms, right, not that you gave me much choice. And what have you pathetic lot been doing with yourselves this whole time besides counting the warts on your backs, huh? Have any of you made it past five yet?” Some of the toads seemed to actually consider this, mumbling densely to themselves. Rainbow Dash didn’t give them time to answer. “But this is a certainly a surprise.” She felt a devious smile spread across her face. “I honestly had no idea you would miss me this much.” The outer rim silence was broken by croaked hollers of adoration. The little pegasus could hardly understand it. At some point after being vanquished, though Dash could only assume, a part of their cold derelict brains switched from seeing Daring Do as an adversary to a kind of idol, but they were distracted, and she needed to keep up the ruse. “You all like having your back sides handed to you so much, then this is how this will go down. Challenge me if you think you’re tough enough, and after I beat your skulls in twice over, I’m getting my partner and be on my way!” There were no arguments and no counter terms, though in all honesty, Rainbow Dash assumed if she lost she might fall into more trouble than she was now, foolishly misplaced adoration or not, but she felt confident, in fact a part of her knew she could handle these savages without too much of a sweat. After a moment to  parse out her challenge, the toads seated on the highest row belched out one word. “Corn!” “Huh?” Rainbow Dash could have tripped in mid air, the stranger answer took her off guard. Corn, what about it? “Daring Do will Fight Corn!” they droned, and a few seconds later they had all fallen into the chant. Bewildered, Rainbow Dash simply figured they were all collectively brain dead, when a heavy shriek blasted across the length of the chamber like a siren. It was hard to make out the source in the dim light, until by chance, she caught the dull glint of talons and fierce eyes. The bird seemed to break from the wall, small bits of rubble and sand falling off the feathers in cascades.   “Is...is that?” Rainbow Dash hardly managed the muted question as she felt nearly every muscle in her body lock in place. It took an extra effort to keep her wings moving and below, she heard Dumbbell cursed as Corn took flight across the pit, casting over them a long dark shadow.   Maybe this was a mistake. The fire red  bird, though it was so ferocious looking it could have been mistaken for a small dragon, circled around; its beak went straight for Dash like a harpoon. With a shout of surprise she dodged just in time, Corn dipped and came back with a grace and speed she didn’t anticipate, she flew back as he screamed, keeping the dangerous beak a safe distance. Then she realized her first mistake too late, before she could take into consideration just how smart the animal could possibly be, she felt it’s wing, of course it was massive, come down against her back, and she didn’t have enough strength to stay up. Thwack, and like that, Rainbow Dash wasn’t in the air anymore. She hit the shallow water with a splash, the impact wasn’t enough to knock her out but she was stunned. She thought this must be how a fly after an ill fated encounter with a swatter must feel. Her eyes opened and everything was cold, grey and muted. The water level had risen already in such a short time, the well’s capacity reached, and now the entire chamber was rapidly flooding. Dash’s chest burned and clawed ferociously for relief and she kicked for the surface until she could breath again. A large wave of water smacked into her side, sending the pony into a tumble. Vision and sound faltered as the ever growing waves crashed over her ears. Corn was in the water too, watching her.  Rainbow Dash understood the imminency of the danger, yet still, for a few precious seconds, her wings and legs lacked coordination as she continued to reel half senseless. She looked in time to see the nine foot monstrosity take another step towards her in the pool, it’s dark eyes peering down at her curiously as if she were a fish. Rainbow Dash felt for the bottom of the pool and pushed off with her back legs. With hard desperate flaps she pulled herself out of the water just when Corn’s serrated beak went in after her. It came away with nothing but a few strands of her tail.  Rainbow Dash flew up into the vines as the onlookers hooted and applauded, still rapt in the performance. Rainbow Dash knew she couldn’t run and turned to face her adversary. “Yo! Daring!” At that moment, Rainbow Dash noticed Dumbbell again. He had freed his forelegs from the chains and managed to pry the shackles off of his hooves with a broken spear tip. In all that had taken at least ten minutes, but that still left the heaviest chain still around his neck. “Here, use this!”Dumbbell swung the sturdy chain and tossed it over head. Rainbow dove to catch, and had to fold her wings and drop like a stone as Corn’s razor sharp beak snapped shut just above her head. She pulled out of her dive with a burst of speed and turned  back when there was enough distance, twirling the chain  as fast as a gyro propeller. “Come on, ya big pin cushion, show me what you’re made of!” she howled, swinging the chain aloft like a cowpony ready to wrangle a hog.  In one powerful movement, the bird flew like an arrow and she bravely met the charge. Corn’s form nearly enveloped her completely when she lashed the chain out like a whip, they collided but the chain held fast. It was both pure luck and enough time watching Applejack work her magic down on Sweet Apple Acres, the length of chain wrapped cleanly around Corn’s beak and hooked into one of the sharp edges. The good news was his dangerous beak was shut tight; the bad news, she couldn’t let go, and was being dragged. Rainbow Dash flopped through the air and whipped over Corn’s head. The strain on her foreleg was excruciating but she held on for dear life, knowing that if she lost her grip, a second chance may not come. Dash grit her teeth and held fast, pressing her body  against the top of the great bird’s fiery red head, her dogged determination to stay in place didn’t come easy, Corn made sure of that. She screamed when he lurched side to side, going into a ferocious spin. Rainbow Dash bit into the plumage in a desperate bid to not be thrown into the walls. “You...need to cool it...right now!” Rainbow Dash growled and yanked back as hard as she could. Corn’s head lurched backward and his body twisted in rage, unable to do anything about his loss of control, all he could do was thrash. He fell onto the stands, and Gully Wugs weren’t fast enough. Many of the barbaric creatures screamed in surprise when half of Corn’s  body barreled into them, his wing swatting them into the water with little effort or crushing them as he skid along the rocks. The violent impact stopped Corn’s momentum completely. Dash took this opportunity and jumped up, the chain still in hoof and in a blur, wrapped it even tighter around Corn’s beak, locking it in place. “There, that oughta keep you quiet!” shouted Rainbow Dash victoriously before another violent movement threw her into the stands. “Ugh!”  Falling head first into solid rock was never a desired event for any pegasus, she saw stars , pain shot up her nose and traveled to the top of her head like a fracture vein that threatened to crack her skull in half, but she got up and scrambled clear, determined to fight against her injuries. She ducked an on coming swipe of a wing, opting to run towards the head and not get anywhere near the claws. Corn heaved and stone cracked, he was in the air again and went around madly,  trying to remove the chain. In his frenzied efforts, he failed to keep track of his location in the chamber and his bulk crashed into the supports  that held the small platform above the well aloft. It strained and collapsed, ripping stone and brick from the ceiling in a crumbling deluge, and in the chaos, Rainbow Dash could only watch as Dumbbell fell into the mouth of the well.   “No...” she heard the dull splash as the stallion disappeared into the murk, just below all the shrieks,croaking, and crashing sounds of destruction. The walls were crumbling along the weaker sections and started to fall inward, at any point the chamber might collapse, but that wasn’t the fore running thought of Dash’s mind. She flew to the well’s opening, completely ignored by everything else, and peered down. The chain, he was still stuck to that piece of rock when he fell. Not good, not good, not good. The surface was black and  still, there was no sign of movement, how deep was the thing? Not Good! She leaned forward and hesitated, she could see nothing below the surface. ‘It’s so dark...’    But there was no other choice, hardly time to think, she plunged.