Colour flowed slowly back into Daring's mane, and then on through her body. Into her head, hanging down, almost but not quite touching the upward-pointing spikes on the floor. Into her wings, tied to her barrel with a dozen layers of rope. Into her hooves, all four tied together with a single rope, the other end tied to a ceiling beam.
...something glistened on the tips of the spikes, some potion that had been applied. Possibly a deadly poison. They were in a zebra shaman's hut; so there was no telling what the stuff on the spikes did.
Escaping would be easy; Daring could swing back and forth to evade the spikes. Slip her hooves out of the rope at the right moment. Crash to the floor, over there, near the table. Grab the knife, to use as an impromptu weapon – and free her wings, if possible.
Escaping would be easy, if it weren't for the fact that the zebra shaman was sitting a few feet away, with a loaded crossbow pointed directly at Daring's head. Daring couldn't help but notice that the tip of the crossbow bolt glistened.
These two had apparently gone to a lot of trouble, just to have the stallion read a book at her for several hours.
Daring would simply have to wait for the zebra shaman to fall asleep, and then escape. And once she escaped, she could return to hunting... down........
Daring blinked rapidly, several times. “Did... did I just try to kill a filly?” she asked.
“Eeyup.” said the stallion, looking up from the book.
The zebra put down her crossbow, smiling for the first time since Daring had first seen her. “Ah, Daring Do, student of the past.” she said. “It is good to meet you – at last. For the trap, please accept my contrition. But I'm sure you understand our position.”
“Yeah.” said Daring. “What did Tirek do to me?”
“Tirek has taken Discord's abilities.” said the zebra. “Losing to him carries certain – liabilities.” With one hoof, she pushed the platform of spikes away from under Daring's head. “Would you like aid in the chore of returning your hooves to the floor?”
“Nah, I've got this.” Daring looked up at her hooves, and wriggled the left front like so while twisting the right rear... and all four hooves promptly slipped out of their bonds, leaving her to fall the short distance to the floor where the spikes had been.
“It's the same thing he did to the Royal Guard, isn't it?” asked Daring.
“Eeyup.” said the stallion.
“They've got no more choice about following him than I did?”
“Eenope.”
“But you know how to fix it?”
“Eeyup.”
“How?”
“Mah sister had it once.” said the stallion. He closed the book, and sat up. “Ah'm Big Mac.”
“Zecora is my name,” added the zebra, “defeating Tirek is our aim.”
“I see.” said Daring. “And the two of you – you're the real Cutie Mark Crusaders? The ones who've been inspiring all this resistance against Tirek?”
Big Mac grinned, just a little. “Eenope.” he said.
Zecora raised her voice slightly. “Enter, girls,” she called, “and take a seat, Daring's cure is now complete!”
Daring looked up at the door, and saw three underage fillies trot in.
“Hi!” said the earth pony. “Ah'm Applebloom, an' this is Scootaloo, an' Sweetie Belle. We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”
Daring stared at the three of them, and then sighed and raised a hoof to her head. “I am going to have to edit this chapter,” she muttered, “my editor would never believe...”
“Eeyup.” agreed Big Mac, wryly.
“You three.” said Daring, frowning at the fillies. “You three are the last hope that stands against Tirek? Three small fillies that have accomplished acts of sabotage from Las Pegasus to Baltimare?”
“Weeeeellllll... not exactly.” admitted Sweetie Belle. “You know all those newspaper articles about things we did?”
“Yes?” asked Daring.
“We really just wrote the articles.” admitted Applebloom. “We were kinda vague at first.”
“I wrote our jingle.” said Sweetie Belle.
“An' then ponies started writing in to the paper,” said Applebloom, “saying they wished they could help. We mailed them potions back. You know, sleep potions, sudden plant growth, one that turns flowers carnivorous...”
“Or told them about other ponies in the same city that also wanted to help.” added Scootaloo. “Turns out there's way too much paperwork involved in running a resistance.”
“Yeah, that part was mostly Zecora's idea.” said Applebloom. “We were jus' gonna build a trebuchet an' assault Tirek's castle.”
Daring shook her head. “Not a good idea.” she said. “If the Canterlot Crossbow couldn't do him in, a mere lump of rock is unlikely to inconvenience him in the least. There'd need to be some way to drain him of his magic, first.”
The Crusaders grinned. “Oh, we think we know how to do that, now.” said Applebloom. “We'll just need your help fetching one of the things we'll need...”
“A Wonderbolts badge.” added Scootaloo. “I can tell you exactly where it is.”
Daring sighed. “In some hidden temple, buried beyond ancient traps and guardians?”
“Nah.” said Scootaloo, shaking her head. “It's in a house, in Ponyville. No traps, no guardians.”
Daring raised an eyebrow. “And you need me to get it, because?”
“Cloud house.” said Applebloom.
“Oh.” said Daring. Then, when she realised that without her natural pegasus magic, she could no more walk on clouds than an earth pony, she added “Oh.”