//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: Daring Do and the Pharaoh of Africa 
// Story: My Little Pony - The Age of Dinosaurs 
// by StrangeBehavior 
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Daring Do, treasure hunter and explorer extraordinaire, was running with a treasure from her hated enemy, Ahuizotl and his minions. They ran after the pegasus mare, traversing a large river with a semi-strong current, unaware of the ancient creature lurking beneath the depths. Daring Do wound up stomping on a stone that was actually the slimy head of a frog-like creature that was nearly eight feet long. The creature was Koolasuchus, a member of a ancient class of amphibian that lived long before the first dinosaurs appeared and still clung on to life in the Cretaceous Australia and Antarctica.

This Koolasuchus was from the same point in time the Leallynasaura were from, having been in hibernation when it arrived and was woken up by the arrival of spring, and the smell of prey. The amphibian dove down in the dark waters, and when one of Ahuizotl's minions got within striking distance, it shot up like a crocodile, snatching up one of the ponies and dragged it down, drowning it. Aluizotl and his minions retreated to the bank, with the villain bitterly glared at the escaped mare that was his enemy.

He shouted, "Daring Do! I will have my revenge! WAH-HA-HA-HAA!!!"

The pegasus snickered at a backwards glance at her arch-foe, and escaped onto a cart of anvils to her stop in Baltimare.





A day had past since that last venture, and Daring Do, under her guise as A. K. Yearling, author of the Daring Do book series, sits in front of her type writer, thinking of her latest adventure. Unfortunately, Ms. Yearling was having trouble writing her latest story, not by a writer's block, no, she had trouble because her latest adventure was too short, even with the tidbits and travels highly exaggerated. It didn't even make about a quarter compared to her shortest book, yes, it was that short. Ms. Yearling, trying to think of what to do, started in a desperate bid, banging her head on the table, the one thing that was a true surprise was that huge, carnivorous amphibian she stepped on in the river. About half a page was used to describe it, down to its beady eyes and its wide, flat head. That was when it hit her, figuratively and literally, it was so simple, how could our heroine not think of it sooner.

She proclaimed to herself, "How could I have been so stupid! I should go on multiple adventures, I've written books where I have gone on multiple adventures before. Now I have got an adventure to start!"





After some searching, she found that a priceless relic was lost in the Hayseed Swamps while being shipped to a museum in Trottingham, another explorer was sent earlier to retrieve it, but he was never heard from again after entering the swamp. She was asked by the Bureau of Equestrian History and Ideology Veterans of Explorers to find the relic and, if possible, find the missing explorer. Daring Do then heard stories of monstrous creatures that scared various residents of the swamps that turned out to be these creatures called 'dinosaurs' and had heard that some ponies were unfortunately attacked and devoured by a mystery dinosaur.

Realizing that Ponyville was a sort of 'center' of all sorts of knowledge for these dinosaurs, she wore a disguise of sorts and proceeded into the quaint little town, hoping to get more information about these dinosaurs. There were many dinosaur species in Ponyville before, but a majority of them moved on to greener pastures, leaving only the Gastonia, Apatosaurus, a young pair of Stegosaurus, Leallynasaura, and some Camptosaurus. A new species now wanders the streets, it was a curious looking hadrosaur known as Corythosaurus, a dinosaur that seemed to let out loud whooping calls that drove some of the elderly ponies a little crazy. They were curious dinosaurs and were some of the only hadrosaurs that walked up to the ponies and sniffed them, trying to figure out what they are, but they are startled easily, when a pony makes a sound to scare them away, they back off like cows to a remote-controlled toy.

One Corythosaurus, a young female, walked up to the disguised Daring Do. The pony, never seeing a dinosaur before, was astonished at the sheer size of the animal, not realizing that the hadrosaur was one of the smaller species of the large dinosaurs. The female sniffed at the pegasus curiously, making Daring Do feel a little uncomfortable at how close the dinosaur was in her personal space. An adult, under the impression that the mammal was too close to the young female, let out an ear splitting call that made the ponies cover their ears, and charged at Daring Do. Realizing that a larger Corythosaurus was coming for her, she back away quickly as the adult ran to get between the young dinosaur and the pony herself, she stared into the eyes of the Corythosaurus, a look of anger in its eyes, then the adult moved the juvenile Corythosaurus to the safety of the herd.

Daring Do was a little puzzled by the way the dinosaur behaved, but her train of thought was interrupted by the voice of someone saying, "What in the name of Celestia is going on here?"

Daring Do looked up and saw the mayor of Ponyville, she was still in charge of the town and was making sure, under Twilight's request, that the ponies don't disturb or anger the mighty saurians that populate the town, under the possibility of the town being erased from the map, of hundreds of animals as large as buildings, 'strategically' spread out around Ponyville.

Twilight herself and her friends were too busy figuring out the large pterosaur that arrived about four hours ago, Mayor Mare noticed Daring Do and asked, "Hello visitor, were you the one disturbing the Corythosaurus? Because if you were…"

Daring responded, "It walked up to me and got way too close, then that bigger thing bellowed at me and nearly ran into me!"

Mayor Mare placed a hoof over her head, "Oh, it was one of those again…"

Daring looked puzzled and asked, "Again? What does that mean?"

The mayor answered, "It meant you got too close to one of the younger animals, and the adults were under the impression that you were going to attack the young. Counting you, there were exactly thirty-seven cases like that happening here in the last week."

Daring felt a little embarrassed at that statement, now it made sense to her, then she went down to business, "W-well, I'm here to learn more about them and to be perfectly honest, that was the first time I have seen one of those dinosaurs I've heard so much about. Could Princess Twilight teach me everything about them? I am an old acquaintance of her and one of her friends."

Mayor Mare chuckled and replied, "I'm awfully sorry, but Princess Twilight and her friends are currently investigating a massive flying beast that landed here some…four hours…ago? I'm not too sure how long ago it was when it arrived, but there are other ponies that Princess Celestia had assigned to Twilight to help her study the dinosaurs. The information they were gathering came from these mysterious books in a chest that appeared out of nowhere, and now they are, well, doing the things they do to transcribe the text and pictures so that all of Equestria can better learn to know its 'visitors'. The castle itself turned into a science center and headquarters of sorts to figure out what these dinosaurs are and where did they come from. I can point you in the direction to the castle, if you want."

Daring Do said in a friendly matter, "No-no, it is alright, I am very sure I can find it on my own, but thanks for the offer."

Mayor Mare agreed and trotted around to check to see if things are going smoothly, and Daring Do decided to get some food before she headed for the castle.





Daring Do was eating a sandwich she ordered on a rather pleasant day, and continued to marvel at the dinosaurs that are eating their lunch as well. She then heard the chirp-like clicks of a small dinosaur out of her line of sight, she looked down and saw one of Ponyville's resident Leallynasaura, picking at the ground looking for seeds. Daring stared at the herbivore, astonished that it was a dinosaur as well, but it was behaving in a very birdlike manner. The dinosaur looked up and stared right back at the pony, with its enormous eyes and moving its head in a VERY birdlike way.

The pegasus thought it was a very cute dinosaur with those big light-sensitive eyes, and because it behaved so much like a bird, Daring thought, Hmm…I wonder…

She tore off a piece of bread on her sandwich and held the piece on her hoof, and moved her hoof just under the Leallynasaura's chin. The dinosaur sniffed at the hoof, then at the bread, its mind telling it that it smelled like food, and that the mammal was eating it, so maybe it can eat it. It took a little piece and tasted it to be sure, then it snatched the whole piece out of Daring's hoof, and then it ran back to its clan with the bread piece in its tiny mouth.





About an hour later, Daring Do found the castle, and upon entering it, she could see why Mayor Mare said that it was like the castle was now like a science center and headquarters for all things dinosaur in Equestria…

Inside Twilight's castle were lots of scientists, veterinarians, and a assortment of others that were not only ponies, but also Griffins, Minotaurs, and other sentient magical creatures of other countries trying to solve the problems of the dinosaurs that appear in Equestria, fearing that these creatures will appear in their lands, or worse, the ponies would use them against their military. Daring walked up to a smart looking unicorn who was studying the Epidexipteryx Fluttershy found in the attic of a family here in Ponyville. The tiny dinosaur was a really interesting creature, it had a unusual appearance and seemed to behave a lot like birds. 

When Daring walked to the unicorn, she tapped his shoulder and asked, "Hello? I need to learn about these dinosaurs, specifically certain species…"

The unicorn turned and she said, "Well, you came to the right place if you need to know about these puzzling creatures we now know as dinosaurs. You said you need to learn about some specific species, what do you have in mind?"

Daring Do asked the unicorn if there was a more quiet place to talk, the unicorn lead her to an empty room in the castle that Twilight said was available. Daring Do explained why she needed to learn about them, the unicorn agreed with the pegasus.

She asked Daring, "Well, what is the dinosaur that is living in the Hayseed Swamps, any descriptions?"

Daring held her head low and answered, "Not much, only the head of this dinosaur was seen clearly, and they said it looked like a crocodile's head."

The unicorn bit her lip and said, "Well that sounds like a type of spinosaur, unless we get a better description, I can't identify the specific species." Daring then said, "Anything helps…"





Daring Do, out of her disguise, is on the edge of the Hayseed Swamps, she let out a few deep breaths, she learned just how dangerous these dinosaurs really are, and she was nervous from it. She took her first step inside and plunged deeper inside, with the calls of the ancient animals joining the natural ambiance of the swamp. Daring Do had noticed that the air in the swamp was much warmer than it was originally reported, and that it was also richer, breathing was much easier than before. She found that more plant life, some of which appeared from ancient times, is why it was easier, they were producing more oxygen in the atmosphere in the world (or at least in this area). The source of the heat were unusual cracks in the ground that were spewing up smoke from the molten sea of magma that the entire planet's crust floats upon.

Daring Do then sees the first dinosaur dwelling inside the Hayseed Swamps. Fortunately, it was a gentle herbivore, a medium-sized sauropod that was grazing on the soft plants of the swamp, one distinguishing feature it had was a flat muzzle with a row of nearly seven hundred peg-like teeth.

Daring studied the animal closely, and said, "Short neck, flat muzzle, it must be one of these oddball dinosaurs I've heard about. What was it called? Oh, I remember, Nigersaurus. Despite the rather ugly look of its head, I think it's actually a little cute, like a bulldog…"

The Nigersaurus was a female and just casually hoovered up some more plant matter, while mooing like a cow. Daring Do chuckled at the plant-eater walked past the pegasus to some more soft plants in a bog across the path.

Daring Do followed a herd of iguanodont dinosaurs she has learned are from Africa, wherever it was, called Oronosaurus. They looked like Iguanodon, but had a large sail on their backs. Daring Do learned back at Ponyville that large herds of herbivores, like Oronosaurus, often are protected from dangerous predators, like whatever spinosaur lives here in the Hayseed Swamps. The pegasus walked closely with the Oronosaurus, seeing some other creatures along the way, she identified one of them as the scavenging abelisaur, Rugops. Many birds, both modern and prehistoric, flock among the trees, either communing peacefully, or fighting over territory.

Eventually, the explorer drifted away from the Oronosaurus as they started to drift away from the general area she was looking for the treasure in. Daring Do rummaged through the thick swamps, looking for the priceless treasure, she found her first clue that she was close, and regretted finding it. What she found was the torn remains of one of her old foes, Dr. Capebara, with a look of sheer terror on his mauled face. The brave pegasus held back the urge to vomit at the gruesome scene, of around fifty rotting carcasses littered about, twenty of them were ponies. Among the bodies, Daring Do found large, conical teeth embedded in a few of the larger bodies, she first thought they were the teeth of a crocodile or alligator, but remembered that these 'spinosaurs' have the same tooth design.

She said quietly, "I guess this means that this mystery spinosaur is the culprit for these kills, or it simply ate after something else caused this…carnage…"

She stopped when she was staring in the eyes of another Rugops, and it stared back with meat in its jaws. In terms of strength, Daring was much stronger than the scavenger, despite it being three times her size, Rugops is a natural born scavenger, it rarely hunts live prey, if it ever does. Daring Do smirked slyly, at the thought she was actually stronger than this carnivore she was having a stare contest with. The Rugops cautiously walked up to the explorer, afraid of what this creature can do to it, then Daring Do made a mock charge and shouted a random word that sounded like a roar, it was enough to make the abelisaur flee in a slight state of panic. The Rugops backtracked a few steps and grabbed a chunk of flesh, then proceeded to sprint away further into the swamps, leaving a snickering Daring Do behind.

The pegasus then felt footsteps of a large animal, like dragon-sized large, she hid behind the carcass of what appeared to be what's left of a giant fish. The creature was the one she was worried about running into, but was confused at its overall appearance.

Daring said quietly, "Is that…?"

The animal is a dinosaur known as Spinosaurus, the largest terrestrial carnivore to ever live, the twenty-nine foot tall carnivore is iconic for the large sail on its back, which makes the predator look even larger, but something was off in Daring Do's radar.

She said to herself, "That is definitely this dinosaur species called Spinosaurus, but, the picture of Spinosaurus I've seen in that book is drastically different, the sail, and the short legs, they're not on this guy. Wait, could it be, a new species? That book did say that there are species completely unknown to science, whatever it truly meant by that."

She then noticed something caught in its huge claw on its powerful arm, the treasure she was looking for, the pegasus was nervous, she read about how powerful those arms are, she grimaced at the thought of a fully grown dragon being ripped apart by the Spinosaurus. The massive, African predator was walking to a large clearing that trails along a large river that flows out to the ocean. Daring Do spotted in the clear waters of the river, what looked like giant saw fish swimming upstream. They were the prehistoric, Onchopristis, the favorite food of Spinosaurus.

Daring Do quietly thought, Jeez, was everything from where these dinosaurs come from giant, or are there normal animals where they're from…





For an hour, the explorer quietly watched the Spinosaurus fished the giant saw fish. Catching one, eating it a little, and go catch another, repeating the process. Another Spinosaurus, this one matching the pictures Daring saw, swimming along with the Onchopristis, the swimming Spinosaurus hissed at its evolutionary cousin, and it growled viciously back, bearing its conical fangs and having its arms spread wide open. The swimming spinosaur was a young female, while the land-dwelling shoot-off of the evolutionary branch was an elderly male, his bright colors dulled by age. The male then made a charge into the river, making the young female pickup speed and swam away from the mystery Spinosaurus that was chasing her away.

Daring Do said to herself while scratching her head, "Heh…must be an old grump, like the Museum Curator in Manehatten."





She decided it was now or never to try and remove the artifact from the Spinosaurus, as in the burning midday sun, he decided to nap as the fish meat digested in his stomach. She got real close to the torn remains of one of the Onchopristis, she shuddered at how big it really was, the barbed extension on its head was easily bigger than her whole body. The dinosaur's deep breaths were loud, with an occasional soft growl as it snored, the explorer of a pegasus was much too close for even a human would dare to try.

Compared to the sixty-three foot long predator, the nervous mare looked like a tiny tree frog next to a fully grown Saltwater Crocodile, and Daring Do has several reasons to be quite nervous of the North African native. She was just a foot-and-a-half from one of those reasons, the powerful clawed arms of the dinosaur that can rip human car doors open with ease, they can make short work of a four-foot long pegasus mare. Daring was, in the mind of anyone else, either really brave or really stupid to try to take something from a powerful dinosaur like the sleeping spinosaur, without waking it up.

She found the treasure lodged on the upper portion of the creature's left arm, which was three feet long alone. She then heard the massive dinosaur let out a hiss loud enough to make the pegasus flinch in shock, she saw the piscivore's six foot long jaw open, with several small birds flying in and pecking off the scraps of meat lodged between his teeth. Daring remembered seeing this thing happening with crocodiles, and assumed its mind was similar to crocodile's too, so she really hopes the spinosaur does not wake up.

As if the universe decided to play a horrible trick, the pegasus cut herself trying to slip off the artifact, the wind suddenly blew hard from behind, making her jump in surprise, and she landed on a dry twig, making an extra loud *SNAP*.

The pegasus silently cursed, "Crap…" and afterwards, the old Spinosaurus' eye shot wide open, his gaze on the mammal staring with eyes filled with fear. He got up and the footsteps of the eleven ton colossus made Daring tense up with every thud as the Spinosaurus turned to face the mammal. The massive beast was terrifying to the pegasus, he would dwarf all but the largest dragons, the spinosaur snarled loudly, like the hiss of an especially large crocodile or alligator.

His eyes narrowed at the mammal pest that disturbed his pleasant nap, and the dinosaur's jaws opened wide, revealing around fifty, crocodile-like teeth. He roared loudly, Daring Do not wasting any time to not become the carnivore's next little snack, fled to an especially tall tree to escape from the spinosaur. However, the Spinosaurus was expecting the mammal to flee in panic, like all the others. Daring stopped when she realized he wasn't chasing her, she looked back to see the old male going back to sleep.

She said, "Huh? Why isn't that thing chasing me? It's like he has no interest in me…What gives?"





The spinosaur was not the one responsible for the carnage several hundred feet back the way Daring Do came, it was the handy work of another large predator, and the guilty party walked to the corpses of the ponies and other animals, the scavenging group of Rugops fleeing in panic as the large dinosaur picked up the remains of one of the ponies and swallowed it. The carnivore sniffed the air and realized there is an intruder in its territory, it snarled as its gaze found the intruder, sleeping soundly several hundred feet ahead.





Daring Do heard a loud growl that sounded like a large tiger snarling, and spotted the real killer of the ponies, a healthy male Charcharodontosaurus, the shark-toothed lizard, charging at the now awake Spinosaurus. The spinosaur stood up and growled at the carnosaur that roared at him.

Daring said as she watched, "Those big bruisers are going to fight each other, and something is telling me it is going to possibly be a bloodbath very soon…"

She was interrupted by the sound of creaking and realized the branch she was on is breaking off. Daring Do plummeted as she heard the carnivorous dinosaurs already fighting each other viciously. Under normal circumstances, Spinosaurus and Charcharodontosaurus would leave each other alone and can coexist, but the tightly packed swamps limited how much space there is, so these massive predators will fight for space. Charcharodontosaurus has the more lethal bite, with its knife-like teeth, but the Spinosaurus is larger and stronger than the carnosaur. The carnosaur bit the spinosaur's left arm and when the spinosaur shook the carnivore loose, the artifact was dislodged from the Spinosaurus, and dropped to the ground. The Charcharodontosaurus spun and shoved the Spinosaurus into the path of a dazed Daring Do. The explorer cleared her thoughts, only to be right underneath the two carnivores violently biting and clawing each other.

She shouted with the growling drowning out most of her words, "Why do I…always…myself…these positions!"

The growling and fighting between the two predators got really intense, to the point where they sound like two large dogs fighting over a toy. The Charcharodontosaurus let out a loud bellow that sounded like an elephant trumpeting, trying to scare away the Spinosaurus, but he let out his own roar that seemed to shake the bones of Daring Do, who has crouched and covered her ears.

Some ponies near the Hayseed Swamps heard the loud bellows of the large carnivores, and they shuddered at the thought that some unfortunate creature was the victim of the predatory dinosaur living in the swamps.

When the Charcharodontosaurus charged again, the Spinosaurus swung his right arm at the large predator, and horribly maimed the left side of the carnosaur's skull. The Charcharodontosaurus landed in a great thud to the ground, dazed by the powerful swipe, and trapped Daring Do by pinning her tail under his skull. The massive carnosaur quickly got up and stared at the snarling Spinosaurus for three seconds, and then it fled, knowing now that this old dinosaur is still fit enough to put up a nasty fight. Fortunately for the Charcharodontosaurus, it will survive the nasty injury it received, and it will heal, where if a mammal received the same injury, it would die in seconds.

The Spinosaurus let out a triumphant roar that caused a lot of birds and small pterosaurs, the species being Rhamphorhynchus and Alanqa, to flee in sheer terror. Daring Do saw the Spinosaurus pant with exhaustion, as it slightly limped to the river to drink, and then she saw that the item she came to retrieve is no longer stuck to the arm of the super-predator, which was bleeding and looked limp, at least temporarily. She found the item, put it in her bag, and started to head out of the swamp. She took one last look behind, and saw the Spinosaurus lying down as it continued to pant, like a dog in summer. She felt a little sorry for the old male, as it groaned in pain, it made her sympathy for the dinosaur much stronger. She pulled out a leather pouch filled with an ancient healing elixir and coated it with Onchopristis blood and very potent smelling fish oil, and then she left it where the spinosaur can catch the scent and left. Lucky for her, the smell was enough to attract the attention of the Spinosaurus, as it limped to the elixir…





After avoiding getting eaten by the giant prehistoric crocodile, Sarcosuchus, bucking a Rugops it the face, and befriending a single species of stegosaur identified as Dacenturus. Daring Do followed a herd of giant sauropods called Paralititan out of the Hayseed Swamps, she exhaled hard after the trouble she went through and really didn't want anything else to happen.

Unfortunately, a voice commanded her, "Daring Do! Give me the Hyailian Bracelet of Strength, Now!"

It was Aluizotl with his gang of thugs ready for a rumble, she growled as she calmly walked to her nemesis.

Aluizotl suspected she was giving up as he said, "Well?"
Daring Do pulled her enemy to her face and said in an annoyed tone, "Listen Aluizotl! I have had a REALLY FRUSTRATING few days! I'm tired, I have a headache, and I was almost lunch to a super croc! I was almost flattened by two giant predator dinosaurs that would dwarf dragons in size in a fight between them, and I am in need of some rest and a shower! I don't have the time or patience to deal with you or your cronies today! Now shut up, and leave me be… UNDERSTAND!!!"

Aluizotl had a look of fear in his eyes as he slowly nodded in compliance.

Daring then said firmly, "Good. Now GET LOST!" Aluizotl and his cronies got away from the pissed off pegasus as she trotted to the designated location to deliver the artifact to.





Several days later, Daring Do, as her alter ego A.K. Yearling, had finished typing the last paragraph of her latest story. She smiled at her work and piled all the pages and clipped them together as she headed out to the publishers. The title, Daring Do & the Super Predator of Africa…