//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Another Day, Another Dungeon // by 00Pony //------------------------------// “Hey Daring! You miss me?” And being brave was a lot easier said than done. Velvet had found very quickly that bravery was a hard thing to come by when you were on your own, in an unfamiliar place. But, it was something that had to be done, and she would do it, to the best of her ability. The Unicorn could only hope that she wasn’t making an even bigger mistake than any that she had made before. For several minutes, she had crawled through the underbrush, keeping as far as she dared from the spirit and his feline entourage. Had she been better versed in the field of magic, above the basic spells that foals learned – such as levitation – Velvet might have tried a different approach. But with things as they were, her being none to skilled in the more advanced spells, and her teleportations being few and far between – and not to mention they were not entirely in her control – she had to do things differently. By sheer luck, Velvet had managed to remain unseen for the entirety of the way. Eventually, Ahuizotl and his felines took a turn, and when the spirit pulled away a shock of vines, Velvet’s heart once again filled with even more doubt than it had been before. The spirit was taking her friend into another temple like structure that looked like it had been dug into the side of a mountain. Now, not only was she going to have to find a way to get Daring out, but she had to make it through a potentially trapped temple. And of course, avoid Ahuizotl’s detection. Taking a deep breath, and slowly letting it out, Velvet waited until Ahuizotl and his entourage had vanished inside the temple’s doorway. As soon as they were out of sight, she stood and slowly made her way over to the entrance. The Unicorn took a minute to steel herself against what she might encounter within, before finally buckling down and taking her first, tentative step through the vine cover. The scent that struck the Unicorn mare’s nostrils this time around was just a musty, old and stuffy scent, curiously devoid of decay, unlike the Sapphire Statue’s temple. Of course, this temple – which was more like a dungeon when she thought about it – probably didn’t have a lot of openings for the scent to escape to. Taking as deep a breath as she dared, Velvet continued onwards, “Alright, I’m inside… Next order of business, find out where the heck they’re keeping Daring.” She whispered to herself. Once again, it was a task that was easier said than done. She wasn’t a dungeon crawler by any means, and in all reality the entire reason that she had even gone into the original temple was because she was with Daring Do. The Pegasus could be arrogant, yes, but that confidence had given Velvet confidence of her own. But it was up to the writer to produce her own confidence now. Unlike the temple, this dungeon didn’t really seem to be trapped in any way, shape or form. There were cobwebs, dust and insect life throughout the interior, but it was curiously devoid of the skeletons from the first one. All the same, Twilight Velvet doggedly continued onwards as quietly and carefully as she could, lest she actually somehow triggered a hidden trap, and meet her demise. For what felt like hours, but very easily could have been minutes – for she had no means to keep track of the time, alongside the stress of her situation – Velvet searched through the dungeon, and she encountered little in the means of obstacles. The interior of this structure was less like a maze than the first one, and was better lit. Velvet allowed herself a brief second to speculate that this may very well be the place that Ahuizotl called ‘home’. Why he would keep his prized treasure hidden away in a separate structure, and not with him at all times, baffled the Unicorn. She shrugged it off as the fact he was a spirit, his actions need not make sense to a pony. Her string of good luck in finding no traps only lasted for so much longer. Just when she had begun to feel confident that there was not too much to worry about, she had begun to tread much bolder than before, and that proved to be a mistake in many ways. No sooner had Velvet moved in such a manner, than she triggered what may have very well been the only trap in the entire structure. It wasn’t terribly obvious at first. Velvet had gone forward a full five feet before its activation became known. The first hint she received was the familiar sound of some mechanism turning within the walls, and before she could react in any way, she felt a sharp, stinging pain enter her side. The initial shock from it had caused her to collapse, and it was just as well. Several more arrows pelted the wall behind where she had stood, just inches above her head. A few that had followed after the first one had grazed across her back as she fell. Though tears of relief, pain, and fear had sprung to the mare’s eyes, she had mercifully managed to keep from crying out. Gritting her teeth as she turned her head to face her side, Velvet found that one arrow had come out faster than the rest, and it was now embedded up to the fletching in her side. Velvet counted her blessings. She was able to tell that the arrow had at least missed any sort of vital organs. But that did not stop it from hurting worse than any other pain she had felt before. As was to be expected, she was bleeding from the wound in her side and the more superficial lacerations upon her back. She tried to shift position, but became paralyzed when an agonizing pain lanced through her entire body. Lying still for a minute, waiting for the pain to subside, Velvet tried to remain calm. It was difficult to do, but she had managed, somehow. Once she was able to move again, the Unicorn mare shifted, much slower this time, eventually moving far enough away from the wall that she was able to see her other side. To her dismay, Twilight Velvet had discovered that the arrow had penetrated the entire way through her body. The writer gave a small, muffled squeak of fear. The wounds she had sustained hurt incredibly, and she possessed little to no medical supplies to patch herself up. But as much as she wanted to just keep lying down and cry herself into unconsciousness, Velvet knew that she could not afford to. Instead, she decided to look on the small bright side that she could find, “The arrow’s gone most of the way through… that means that if I break off the section with the feathers, I can just pull it out the other way, no problem,” she swallowed fearfully, “That will remove the obstruction though, and disturb whatever blood clotting had started. I’ll start bleeding even worse then.” She was talking out loud to herself, but Velvet didn’t really care. That had always been something that had helped calm her down through her younger years, and though the habit had died out as she grew older, she found some comfort in it here, “Wonder what Felicity would say if she ever hears about this? Wonder if she’d believe me…” Velvet speculated. The mare knew that she was stalling. She didn’t care. Her situation was incredibly frightening, and despite knowing what she must do, Velvet did not want to. But it was something that must be done. She couldn’t keep going through here with an arrow in her side, and the longer she waited, the more it would hurt coming out. There was one thing that she could be thankful for. The time it had taken her to follow Ahuizotl, sneak her way around here, and lie here procrastinating, her magical reserve had begun to replenish. Not enough for her to be able to do any sort of spectacular magical feat, like her two incredibly lucky teleportations, but it would at least be enough to make her job easier here. Shutting her eyes tightly, Twilight Velvet reached out with her magical aura, and clutched the arrow. It was incredibly hard for her to focus with the pain she had been experiencing, and she was struggling to maintain the magical field, but she had managed. Velvet tried to break the arrow right away, but found that it was too deep in for it to be that easy. Her consequence was another spasm of pain that caused her magical aura to implode. Velvet had to take a couple seconds to regain her composure before she was able to grip the arrow once again, “Okay, so you’re going to have to pull it out a little this way to break the feathery bit off… And then I can pull it out,” Velvet says, taking a deep breath and holding it. Keeping her breath held until she had the arrow in her grip once more, Velvet slowly let her breath out as she pulled the arrow out by a few centimeters, “Alright, that should be enough.” She sighed, blinking away the tears that had sprung to her eyes. Steadying her breathing, Velvet snapped the feathered end of the arrow off. The reverberations could be felt, but mercifully were not enough to send her into a fit of paralysis, “Alright, now comes the really hard part.” She muttered. Taking just one more breath and slowly letting it out, Velvet pulled the arrow from her side. Sure enough, the action had broken any form of clotting that had started, and removed the obstruction of the arrow’s shaft, thus causing the warm, sticky liquid that was blood to run down her sides once again. Fighting to stay calm, Velvet tossed the arrow aside and quickly focused her magic on stemming the blood flow. With enough concentration, a Unicorn could make their levitation field somewhat solid, and that was enough to plug a hole, be it in a wall or a body. It worked as an impromptu bandage, but kept her from moving. And now that she was no longer worrying about the arrow, she found her worry going back to something that actually needed it: Daring Do. She had nearly forgotten about the Pegasus with her own predicament, as horrible as it felt to admit such a thing. But now she had little distractions. Velvet would be lying if she said that the thought that she had already wasted too much time, that by the time she found Daring, it would be too late, didn’t pass through her mind. The Unicorn mare promptly shook such a thought from her mind, “I refuse to accept that.” She growled to herself, standing slowly. Taking a few tentative steps forward, Velvet found that she could move without a lot of pain, so long as she moved slowly. Likewise, she would not disturb her somewhat mended wounds. Releasing her magical focus, Velvet waited a few seconds for the bleeding to start again. She was relieved to find that none came. A few more steps forward and she found this was still the case, much to her pleasure. And so, Twilight Velvet was on her way again, going much more carefully now, after her painful reminder that she was still in a hostile environment. But if there was one good thing to be gleaned from her misfortune, it was that she was .probably getting ever closer to her quarry She forced a smile, and kept going. It didn’t take her much longer to find what she had been looking for; to a degree, at least. The familiar sound of Ahuizotl’s voice, though the words were unclear, could be heard sifting through the hallways towards her. The spirit’s voice sounded arrogant, so sure that he had won, just as it had before. Velvet smirked to herself, despite the rising tension. That spirit’s arrogance was something she could be thankful for. He hadn’t noticed a trap being set off, and still thought that he had triumphed. He was far from the truth in that assumption. Then there was another voice following the spirit’s own. One whose sound made Velvet’s heart jump with hope, “You won’t get away with this, Ahuizotl!” That was Daring Do’s voice! Twilight Velvet had to stop herself from doing a small leap and shout of joy. Her friend was still alive! Granted, she was captured, but she was still kicking, and that was good enough for Velvet. Ahuizotl’s voice followed Daring’s once again, and this time, his words were clear and understandable, “But I already have.” He said in his ever arrogant tone. The sound of it disgusted Velvet. What followed next galvanized Velvet back into action. There was the sound of another mechanism being activated further down the hall, and a horrible rumbling sound echoed through the passageway. And it didn’t stop. Above it Velvet was barely able to hear Daring say something else. It was unclear what, but Velvet speculated it would be something of irritation. Moving as quickly as she could, Twilight Velvet made her way towards the sounds, which let her know she was getting closer as they increased in volume. Soon, she came to a closed fork in the hallway. On one side, it led to an even darker hallway. But on the other, it was slightly illuminated. Going with instinct, Velvet went for the lit path. She nearly stopped and turned back when the sounds grew quieter, but she decided against it and continued on. It seemed to be the right choice. She came out onto a balcony, leading out into a room which was lit by a plethora of hanging chandeliers. And down below that, in the center of the room on a table-like object, was the Pegasus adventurer, Daring Do. Velvet bit the inside of her lip uncomfortably. Daring was tied down, and the walls on either side of her were covered with deadly looking spikes, and were slowly closing in on her. To add to the already horrible way to die, sand had begun to fill the chamber, and from a strange bust picture on the wall, snakes had begun to drop down. Daring was struggling against her bonds, but to no avail. The Pegasus, obviously in a panic, had not noticed Velvet’s arrival. The Unicorn was not entirely sure what she should do. Jumping down was out of the question. If she had not been injured, she might have considered it, but with things as they were, landing would only send her into more pain than before, and by the time she recovered, both her and Daring would be finished. There was a switch on the far side of the room, which was obviously the control to this elaborate chamber. Velvet was unable to reach it with her magic, however; for while some had come back, it was still too depleted to be of that much use. But it seemed as though Velvet would not have to rely on her magic alone after all. Daring had provided another means of reaching the switch. In her struggles, the Pegasus had knocked her hat loose and onto her chest. Velvet followed the adventurer’s gaze, and her mind put things together quickly. Daring was going to try something that only she would. Maneuvering her hat from her chest and flexibly bending one hind leg up, she hooked the headwear over her hoof, and bit down on one edge. For some inexplicable reason, the hat stretched as she applied pull with both her mouth and hoof, before she let go. The hat sailed forward, and bounced off the wall before Daring – the one below Velvet’s balcony – only to begin to drift to the floor again. The sand that had been quickly filling the chamber was now spilling over top of Daring Do, the Pegasus taking one last breath of air before going completely under. Velvet stood with her forehooves on the edge of the balcony, mouth open in a wordless shout. It was not wordless from shock, but merely from realization. She saw a way to get Daring out of this in the Pegasus’ hat. The apparel had drifted within the Unicorn’s magical reach. Taking hold of the hat in her light magenta aura, Velvet twirled it about until it had reached the desired speed, and she let fly. The hat sailed downward like a Frisbee, ricocheted off the surface below the switch and struck it. Velvet’s ears twitched. She hadn’t really thought that through. How would the hat activate the switch…? “Oh, right. This is an arrogant spirit’s temple-dungeon thing,” She said to herself, “Don’t question the architecture.” The lever had been so sensitive, that the hat’s force was enough to knock it into the ‘off’ position. In response, the walls slowly began to retract to their original position, the snakes fled and the sand drained into valves that had opened into the floor. As the golden granules of earth rolled off of Daring, the Pegasus burst upwards, taking in a deep breath of air into her lungs greedily. She struggled with a renewed strength until her bonds fell away, and she was able to sit straight. She coughed a few times, before taking in yet another deep breath of air, before looking up at Velvet, and giving a small wave. The Unicorn grinned and gave an emphatic wave back, calling, “Hey Daring! You miss me?”