Chapter 5
Heart of Chaos
A billow of smoke erupted behind the panting and sweat drenched Daring Do as she executed a masterful roll away from whatever crashing, shooting, falling, death imposing device had been her bane just moments before. Trapped now in a dark, dimly lit room, the roar of the trap behind her, Daring panted hard beneath the organic screech of what she had just avoided, what the trap was and how she had managed to outwit or outrun its mechanisms escaping her mind just as she tried her hardest to recall them. There was a fog, deep and primordial clogging her mind; fearing that the air in this old tomb may have been laced with poisons or diseases that the civilized world may have long since forgotten she lifted a foreleg to her lips. She breathed through the filter of her own coat hoping to protect herself as many intrusions as she could.
The room, yes she recalled the room now her initial panic behind her. Daring fluttered her wings absently and looked out into the darkness, five torches along the walls lit by embers that should have burned out centuries before kept alight only by the thick magic which seemed to loom over the place. The details of the room escaped her, annoyingly so for Daring felt the archaeological urge to map and document all around her; everything needed to be charted and preserved in its original shape or even the smallest piece of history may be lost.
Beneath the dimly light torches whose flames had long since left the world appeared six massive thrones each topped with an ancient archaic symbol that Daring had, through her research when she was a child, grown accustomed to translating. Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty and Honesty. The five elements of harmony represented in those ancient symbols sat above the thrones as if casting their magical eye over the residents of the seats themselves.
With cautious hoof, still muffling her breath, Daring continued towards the dark thrones, her long black and gray tail swatting some of the dust that had fallen off of her flank. Within each of the thrones now appeared a skeleton for each, three female from the shape of the skulls and the unique bend in their legs which hung down as if still connected to a body that had persisted through time, the other two represented by male bones. Biting back the bile at these ponies forced to exist forever, their bodies seeming to never be reduced to the ash of life Daring took one more step forward and was halted by a sharp whisper.
“Daring….”
The voice teased at her, turning rapidly to follow the faintest whisper, so fast that her neck gave a sharp crack and snapped roughly with stinging pain that she had over time grown accustomed to. She followed the voice in circles faster and faster as its volume rose higher and higher the closer and faster she spun herself.
Suddenly she jerked herself still faced with a sixth massive throne, higher than the others that it faced her back to them now. High up, casting its light down upon the other five was the ever present eye the symbol for ‘Magic’. With all of her might Daring tried to break contact with that massive eye, the voice calling to her from bellow in the seat itself, all of her will focused just barely giving Daring the freedom to move her neck slightly.
Another skeleton, this one garbed in what was once brilliant and skin tight ruby armour lined with gold and fitting to every part of the body that a pony would need protecting for. Daring swallowed a ball of spit that had been forming in the back of her throat and took a deep breath that she had been unaware of holding; hesitantly she took one step forward.
As if by some unholy force the skeleton pony leaped forward its armoured hooves biting into her shoulders violently. They lashed against her flesh and bone biting like the coldest ice she had ever felt, tearing away at her stamina as if to drain the very life from her soul. The jaws of the pony split wide and from within the hollow throat came the most vicious of sounds.
“DARING!”
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“Daring!” the voice called, the hooves having bitten their way into her shoulders far more than she had expected.
Lavender eyes opened with a force like nopony had ever known as Daring lifted and kicked with her hind legs at the weight which was being pushed against her. The instant she felt a weakening in the grip on her shoulders her left hoof swung out smacking across pony jaw sending the darkened shape into the far wall in a bundled heap. Panting she kicked herself back against a wall, aiming to protect as much of herself as she could Daring took a look about the room. It was familiar now, the old dusty tomb being replaced with the scroll covered house that Desert Storm had allowed her into earlier in the day, suddenly it all seemed so surreal and foggy the past dream immediately being hidden beyond the veil of consciousness. It was at that moment that Daring remembered her rather vicious assault upon the body of the pony who had come to wake her.
“Desert!?” She called panicked as she moved to get up on all floors, the body she had removed from her own having crashed into one of the scroll shelves fairly collapsing it in on itself.
With a blood splattered cough Desert dislodged himself from the ruins of what was once his room, a fabric covered leg wiped some of the blood away from his mouth which had become slightly exposed by the violent strike. A flash of orange beneath.
“That’s one hay of a left hook you have.” He said as he shook his head to clear away the stars that danced before his vision; those hard eyes taking her in. “No need to apologize, I’m quite sure it was beyond your control at the time.” He said cutting Daring off before she could make up a million and one excuses to her violent outburst. Desert rolled his shoulders and threw Daring an outfit much like his own of the purest black. “Put this one, we leave in ten.” Desert said seriously moving past Daring to go upstairs and make sure she had not dislodged any of his teeth with that blow, his tongue a little numb from the attack feeling as if it had been caught in the crossfire.
Daring looked down at the robe like clothing for a moment before looking up the stairs where Desert had disappeared. Daring sighed deeply and ran a hoof through her hair before taking her clothing into her mouth to removed it into her satchel bag so that she could move on to redressing, knowing that just beyond the door would be the most harrowing part of her journey as of yet. The expanse into the heart of chaos.
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“Desert, I’m ready!” Daring called up the stairs outfitted now in the garb he had provided for her. Wrapped in shadows her hair seemed a pale comparison to the robes that were draped over her body, turban like in how the folds wrapped about themselves. Having opted to keep the hat portion of the body suit down around her neck and keep dawned her hat there was enough of Daring between the large tan hat and the black neck of the suit that she felt comfortable. Her brilliant wings poking through slits that Desert had undoubtedly cut into the back, causing Daring to wonder if Desert had known how uncomfortable tight clothing over wings would become for a Pegasus like herself. Just as Daring moved to the stares and put a tentative hoof down to begin a journey up to visit her host his roughly foreign voice called down.
“Coming.”
And so he did, appearing at the landing before her in a matter of seconds if he had been at all fazed from the blow he had received earlier it had long since pasted; a feat that Daring acclaimed, her swings were not for the weak.
“We’ll be going as far as we can tonight.” Desert said, confirming what Daring had assumed, though there were no windows for her to view the outside city somewhere inside of her that inner clock had informed her of the twilight hour. “If we’re lucky we will be able to reach some cover before the sun rises.”
“Yeah, some shade when it gets really hot out would be nice!” Daring said giving her wings a stretch and a flap; arching her back into an upside down “U” cracking some of the bones which had become weary from the floor.
Desert offered the Pegasus a incredulous stare before shrugging and walking past Daring to the large circular portal which was the door to his marble home. “I suppose some shade from the sun would be nice too.”
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Daring panted hard into the cold desert night as she glided low to the ground, her hooves occasionally breaching the almost liquid surface of the seemingly black sand resting a foot beneath her. The biting cold lashed at her like the harshest winters she had ever experienced causing an ache in her wing joint which had just recently healed. It had taken Daring by surprise that the pitch blackness of night would haunt the desert, transforming the barren sea of sand into a bitter tundra, it was all she could to gallop as much as she flew to keep the creeping weakness out of her muscles. Desert, much too Daring’s chagrin seemed to be unaffected by the cold and flew down beside the speeding pony to question him on his seeming immunity to the bitter cold.
“Oi Desert,” Daring called to the galloping pony, pulling herself up to his right side her hoof splitting the sand like a knife as she lowers to be level with him. “Why doesn’t the cold bother you?” She asked, a tone of curiosity itching its way into her voice against her will.
Desert chuckled, the sound gurgling in his throat like a case of bad phlegm it made the sound seem unnatural and foreign to Daring, it took her a second to actually realise that the sound he uttered was not in fact a death gurgle but a ‘light-hearted chuckle’. “When one lives in the desert for so long, one becomes accustomed to pretending the weather is something else entirely.” He said from beneath the thick black robes of his outfit, picking up his pace. “Silence now,” he ordered voice losing its ‘light-hearted’ tone to one of dangerous command. “Keep your mouth shut to conserve energy, you don’t want to dehydrate any faster than you already will when the sun comes up.” With that his voice cut sharp as if someone had turned off a recording or the device playing hit had been destroyed mid-sentence, nodding Daring set her hooves down not losing any stride as she switched from her low flight to a full on gallop.
Desert was there to guide her and she would follow his advice as they moved as quickly as they could under the cover of darkness; even now however, looming on the horizon was a haunting sun which would soon devastate this barren land of death with its fiery wrath.
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The vengeful sun of Equestria’s skies hammered down on the desert of Calimare like a weapon smith forging a blade, each second brought waves of excruciating heat down upon the heads of all who would dare enter the desert. After only two minutes of the sun breaching the horizon Daring found a stagger in her hoof as she now struggled to keep up with Desert who was moving almost at the same pace as he was before. Daring had travelled beyond the deepest seas and into the harshest of frozen tundra, she had flown across the most deadly of chasm and had swung along vines in the hottest, wildest of jungle so buried within the heart of darkness that nopony would ever know their secrets, but this heat, this almost unnatural heat… it was like nothing Daring had ever experienced before. It tore at her hide and feathers as if to rend the flesh from her bones, and more than once she felt as if the very skin holding her together was preparing to melt off. It continued for countless hours, so long that it felt to Daring that she might truly die, suffocating within her own body from the raging heat. Try as she might she was finding it harder and harder to keep her mouth shut, panting in exhaustion to keep up with Desert.
Desert, for all his worth as a ‘desert stallion’ showed little signs of weakness other than the occasional fault in his step as he galloped through the sand with seeming ease. If Daring could focus long enough through the repetitive strain of existing under so angry a yellow sun she may be jealous, envious, angry at the guide for not imparting his lifetime of wisdom into her to make this journey bearable.
The first and only beautiful piece of salvation came from a slightly risen dune which was casting the most beautiful looking shadow that Daring had ever seen. Moving quicker then she thought that she ever would be able to again, possibly pulling ahead of Desert himself, she wasn’t quite sure the world blurred so suddenly, almost as if she broke the sound barrier with an explosion of light and sand.
The sand was the coldest thing that Daring felt she had ever known and as she flopped down into it, rolling like a school filly experiencing her first snow fall she truly appreciated the horrors of the desert and the wrath that the ponies of Calimare would have to deal with if the water exit of their home was ever cut off.
Panting Daring felt sanity begin to leave her, without the constant strain of the run she found herself unable to focus on a though the world spinning quickly.
“Here…” a voice called out to her from the distance, had she heard that voice before? It rang through Daring’s ears like the long lost call of a dead pony who’s lungs had, decades or centuries before become nothing but bones. Warm liquid forced its way down her throat and the world snapped into a distorted focus, looming over her, forcing the liquid into her throat was that skeleton… the one that had been there waking her up in the early morning.
Yelling in panic, fear striking at her heart she pulled away but a strong, skeletal hoof bit into her skull forcing the liquid down into her throat as the image cleared, the more of the liquid that went into her the stronger she felt. Until soon it was Desert standing on top of her pouring a flask down her throat. The stallion stopped and pulled away (not far enough to exit the shadow though) from Daring giving her room to breathe.
Coughing she sputtered up some water and bile feeling terribly weak. “What in the hay is this…” he panted, her entire body shivering and shaking out of her control.
“The sun has been baking the salt out of your blood and you’re going into shock.” He said calmly. He pulled out a square object from his leg saddle which was buried within the folds of his robes. “Four licks then a sip.” He ordered and Daring followed.
She licked the salt block and winced as it burned, taking four then a small sip to wash it all down, slowly replenishing the salt that had been baked out of her body; the shakes subsiding after a good ten minutes.
Just as Daring was about to thank him, feeling some strength returning to her as the sun began to poke away at their shade did a massive, thundering rumble shake the sand beneath them. There was a shift in the atmosphere between them; Desert seemed to tense up and sharpen his senses. Walking past Daring, almost as if the mare wasn’t there, Desert climbed up the ridge and looked out across the flat lands of hell.
Daring could hear him gulp.
He slide back down to her and Daring for all her courage was hesitant to climb up and see what he saw; swallowing as hard as he did she forced her way up. The wall of sand reached up beyond the heavens and swirled across all of her vision like a menacing end to the universe. The entire colour began to drain out of Daring as she saw her aspirations for the armour disappear in the all-consuming storm. “What are we going to do…” she whispered quietly to the wall approaching and the rumbling thunder of its tirade.
“We aren’t going to do anything.” Desert said looking at Daring with his sharp deadly eyes. “I’m your guide and I’ll get you through this, but you have to do as I say.” He was moving quickly now, like a busy bee he had tasks to complete again. He pulled off the pouch from his leg and strapped it to hers using hoof and mouth, pulled a compass off of his neck; it had the oddest dial of anything Daring had ever seen. “This will guide you to your destination, you should be only a few hours away from it now…”
“Where will you be…?” Daring clued in, fighting the fog in her mind and the horror in her bones, noticing a trembling in her muscles that caused hate to flow through her. Daring hated being weak.
“This storm is not natural.” Desert said looking up to the wall which was approaching quickly, a sharpness to his eyes that Daring had grown to appreciate, those brilliant almost slit like orbs taking in the wall as a challenge.
“I’m going to go and deal with whatever is making it and you are going to run do you hear me?” he ordered and though every part of Daring wanted to fight back against those orders she found herself nodding in dulled acceptance.
The storm was almost upon them, Daring could feel it lifting up the ground just on the other side of the ridge that they were hiding beneath.
“Desert…” she said, softly almost inaudible beneath the raging of the storm. Not quiet enough to go unheard for the guide pony looked to her, waiting for her to finish her statement. “I’ll be expecting to meet you at the tomb. I’ll need a way back to Calimare of course. You’re not allowed to get yourself killed till after that.”
She could not be one-hundred percent sure but Daring was almost positive that he smiled to her underneath all of that clothing.
“You got it boss.”
Then the storm was on top of them.
Daring forced her hooves into the ground as hard as she could, feeling as if she had been picked up by the god of all updrafts, her wings jumping from her back under the straining of the air almost jerking her off the ground. Using every ounce of power she could muster Daring pulled herself back to the ground biting back tears of agony and breathing in the sand which was swirling around her like crazy. It was the most painful experience that Daring had ever known as the wind picked and kicked at her again and the thunder which seemed to be all around her at once concussed her body viciously.
The dark figure of Desert was standing before through barely open eyes, his head moving up through the storm as if looking for the cause; the earth pony having no problem as far as she could tell staying grounded.
Then it happened, the silence. There was a moment where all the thunder and sand went silent and all that Daring could hear was the frantic racing of her own heart and the steady flapping of something truly massive.
Chaotic darkness, as if spawned from the void itself appeared through the raging storm claws of vicious black reaching down towards the two ponies. It was all Daring could do to breathe and remember to keep herself grounded at that spot. Deep within the heart of that darkness Daring felt a heat emanate, a magical surging that reached out to poison the air around the beast and paint Daring’s soul with unconquerable fear. The tears flowed uncontrollably in the moment of silence as the mighty beast lowered itself through the singing storm of mayhem, its outstretched talons wrapping the form around Desert.
With a retching yank the beast was gone into the sky again, hidden beyond the swirling of the storm and as quickly as the silence had come it had gone returning with it the lashing winds and raging thunder into the momentary vacuum that she had entered. Almost instantly it all died and Daring felt her muscles explode from the strain as there was suddenly nothing to fight against.
A rain of sand was falling gently to the ground all around the desert, blocking the sun, but the wind and the thunder were long gone.
With that, Desert was gone and Daring found herself alone, staring at a compass telling her to run north by north east…to run as fast as she could. The frightened mare all too happy to oblige the flight instinct now that her limbs would allow it.