//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Who Are You? // Story: Downed and Daring // by 8thekhip //------------------------------//         Erik ran. A thick, palpable darkness surrounded him, pressing in on him, slowing him down. Fear, deep and primal, sent his heart into a galloping frenzy, fueling his muscles as they pushed him forward.         He knew that something was behind him. It wasn’t why he was running, though. He didn’t remember why he was, and he didn’t want to, either. Anything that could make him brave the crushing darkness was something better left forgotten. That was why he didn’t look to see what was behind him.         If he did, he would remember.         So he ran. Ran for hours through the malevolent, suffocating darkness. The thing behind him made no sound, did nothing to alert him to its presence, and yet he felt it there. Following him. Calling out to him.         He tried to deny it. Tried to escape it. It wanted to make him stop running. It wanted him to remember. To remember why he hurt so much.         As he ran he began to think. He remembered a peaceful place. A drop to lucidity. To pain. He could have given up then, been at peace forever. Why hadn’t he? He had been warned of what consciousness would bring. He had known there would be pain. He had known there would be… loss. Even if he tried to convince himself that it would be worth it.         Why hadn’t he stayed?         He tripped in the darkness, seeming to fall in slow motion towards the smooth, obfuscated floor. By reflex, he turned to see what he had tripped over. A camera made its way into his sight. He realized too late the other consequence of his action. He saw the thing that was behind him. A small plane, hovering in the air. As it flew towards him, the darkness parted, revealing his surroundings. He stood in a small clearing surrounded by a thick, humid jungle.         The memory began to play out before him, heedless to his protests. The plane shuddered in midair, then it began to shake violently, tilting to one side.         An object fell from the plane, and while he couldn’t tell from this distance, he knew what it was. A door. It was followed quickly by another object that could only be him. As the shape of his body disappeared in the canopy, the plane continued forwards, it’s flight degrading rapidly as it began to slam into the tops of trees.         It burst through into the clearing, leaving its tail in the canopy and slamming hard into the ground, it’s already battered form forfeiting many of its pieces, which were torn away and scattered on the ground around it.         It came to a rest beside him, allowing him to look straight into the passenger side. He tried to look away, to close his eyes, to do anything to escape what he knew was in there.         But he couldn’t. He saw, sitting in that plane, the reason for his flight through the darkness. He stared into the plane. Marge’s dead eyes stared back at him.         Suddenly, a voice sounded. “Who was she?”         Erik would have responded, but his entire body was suddenly wracked with blinding pain. The jungle began to fade from his vision.         He barely heard the muffled voice through his pain. “And who are you, lost one?” --         Erik awoke with a start, perspiration clinging to his body, breathing heavy, ragged breaths as the pain slowly faded. He was laying on something soft and comfortable, but he was in no state of mind to register that fact. Something touched his shoulder, prompting him to flinch and attempt to roll away.         The thing that had touched him held him down firmly, but gently. He began to panic, the image of Marge’s blank stare burned into his vision. He couldn’t escape it, it would follow him everywhere, it would - it would—         “Hey, easy there. Calm down, Erik.”         Erik stopped thrashing around. That voice was familiar.         A different face came into view, cutting through the image of those eyes. It smiled at him, and Marge’s visage slowly faded from his vision. He calmed his rapid ventilation as he remembered where he was and whom he was with.         “There we go.” Daring said. “Feeling better?”         Erik nodded, swallowing heavily before replying with a hoarse voice. “What happened? After, you know, Ahuizotl?”         “We ran back to my cottage after giving him the slip. Then you decided to black out. I spent a bit of time patching up that arm of yours after that.” She winced guiltily. “I should have noticed how much blood you were losing sooner.”         Erik waved a hand at her dismissively, sitting up. His head swam as he did so. “No problem. Without you, I’d still be out there in the jungle. And probably dead, too.”         “And I’d be dead without you,” Daring responded, “So it looks like we’re even.”         Erik nodded at that, looking at the far wall. There was a bookcase there, its shelves lined with tomes and knickknacks. They both just sat there for a while, lost in contemplation. Erik’s thoughts actually remained linear, for once, as he reflected on all that had happened.         He’d survived a plane crash, stumbled around like an idiot in the rainforest, discovered that he was on an alien world after having a conversation with a magical pegasus, found out that his best friend was… was dead. Then he’d picked a fight with a pack of big cats and an evil blue feline simian hybrid, punched a tiger in the face, then nearly bled to death on the floor of the magical pegasus’s cabin.         Laying it all out like that… put things in perspective. It felt like so much had happened in such a short time, but really, not much had. The things that had happened were fantastical, ridiculous and horrible, but in the end they could be summed up in a few short words.         Erik had heard that confusion came from having too many things going on at once. This was only somewhat true. In his experience, confusion also came from thinking that too many things were going on at once.         With the situation suddenly seeming much clearer, if still incredibly farfetched, Erik stood. There was something that needed to be done before he went looking for any more answers.         “Daring,” he said as he stood, drawing the attention of the pegasus, “I –” he faltered. “I have to…” He trailed off, unable to find the words to say what needed to be said. He opened his mouth again, but Daring nodded wordlessly in understanding.         He closed his mouth, thankful to be saved from having to explain, then, after gathering the necessary tools, he followed Daring as she led once again led him out of the house and into the jungle. --         It wasn’t a funeral, exactly. No words were said, and no family or friends aside from Erik attended. The only sounds were shovels striking the ground as the graves were dug. Once that was done, the bodies were extracted from the plane and wrapped in white sheets. Daring then helped Erik lower them into the holes and refill them.         The gravestones were simple wooden planks, which Erik had carved a few words onto. After he finished placing them in the ground, he sat back and stared at them for a while. Daring sat off to the side, leaving him to his silent grieving. Henrique Balboa 43 Pilot. 1971-2014 R.I.P         Erik frowned at the gravestone. He’d found the man’s information in his wallet, but he knew so little about him. He felt guilty for his thoughts directly after waking up. He couldn’t know whether or not he had been a man of integrity, nor would he ever. The fact that he had immediately distrusted the man being alone with Marge was wrong, and it weighed heavily on his conscious.         He sighed, resolving to make it up to the dead man. He would try to be a more accurate judge of character in the future. It was all he could think to do to redeem himself.         He then looked at the other “stone”, feeling a weight grow in his chest. Marge Featherstone 26 Researcher. Friend. Sister. 1988-2014 R.I.P         While he had carved the words onto it, to sit back and actually read what was on the plank of wood struck him deeply. Memories leapt forth into his mind. Fun, games, laughter, fighting, crying. He had known Marge his whole life. To have her leave it was like parting with his thumbs.         No, that wasn’t right. It was like being decapitated. Of just being a disembodied head, staring off into the heavens, unable to ascertain his location. Lost. Alone. Unable to function.         He shed no tears. He desperately wanted to. Wanted to sob, and scream, and rant, or do anything to get rid of the terrible sense of hollowness within him. He realized his head wasn’t the only thing missing. So was his heart. At that moment, staring at the fresh graves, he felt only apathy. He couldn’t bring himself to care. There wasn’t anything to care about.         Something gently touched his shoulder. He continued staring, empty.         “I’m sorry,” Daring, the impossible winged horse, said.         Erik once would have scoffed at the idea of being consoled by a talking horse with wings, but now…. Now he just couldn’t bring himself to be bothered by how crazy this situation was. To be honest, he’d accepted it right after he’d learned it wasn’t a dream. No point in continuing to delude himself. He grunted to let the pegasus know he had heard her.         “I, uh…” the pegasus began tactfully, “you want to talk about it?”         Erik furrowed his brow, angry. His best friend just dies, and she, a complete stranger from another planet, thinks he wants to talk to her about it? Who did she think she was, anyway?         Daring sighed. “I guess that’s asking a little much. Sorry. Either way, you probably have some questions for me, right? I’ll answer whatever you want.”         Erik took a deep breath in, calming himself. Hadn’t he just resolved to be a better judge of character? Well, Daring had gone out of her way to both save his life and confront the one who had killed Marge. She’d shown him nothing but respect thus far. Well, aside from when she had thought he might have been in league with Ahuizotl, but that was perfectly justifiable.         Daring wasn’t the one he should be directing his rage at, anyway. Ahuizotl was the one who had killed Marge. And he needed to die.         Besides, answers were something he desperately wanted right now. He paused briefly as he realized his cloak of apathy had been lifted from him. He gave a small, almost imperceptible grin.         “Yeah, some answers would be nice.” He glanced back at the graves one last time, smile falling from his face as he felt a spike of hatred for the monster that was responsible for putting them there. He turned to Daring. “But maybe we could go back to your house, first?” He didn’t want to stick around any longer than he had to. He had information to gather.         Daring nodded, offering him a hoof to help him to his feet, which was somewhat laughable considering that she was half his size. He took it and stood, then followed her back to the cabin.         Soon both the pegasus and the man were seated next to the fireplace, which wasn’t lit, of course, due to the ambient heat of the jungle. Not to mention the fact that it was so humid the air was likely to boil if they started it.         Erik looked Daring right in the eye, not bothering with small talk. “So who is Ahuizotl, and why did he bring me here?”         Daring let out a small sigh. “If I knew that, then I would’ve already told you. The only thing that I can tell you for a fact is that if Ahuizotl did it, it’s bad news.”         Erik frowned at the unsatisfactory answer, then stood and began pacing. “But what could he gain from it? What could he possibly gain from killing…” He trailed off, growling from deep within his throat.         Daring looked at him with concerned eyes. “Calm down before you work yourself up again. I’d rather not be subjected to the same beating you gave Ahuizotl.” She paused. “Nice job with that, by the way.”         Erik grunted, but nevertheless stopped pacing. “Is there anything else you know? Anything at all?”         Daring nodded. “Yeah, I actually managed to get a few words from him before things started going downhill. When I ran into him I seemed to be interrupting some kind of trade between Ahuizotl and another pony. I didn’t get a good look at him, but he ran off with a bag of gold, and Ahuizotl did say something about selling an amulet…. I’d bet my own two wings that had something to do with how you got here.”         “So what,” Erik asked, starting to pace again. “Our only lead is some kind of magical amulet which is in the hands of somebody you didn’t even see?”         “Hooves of somepony” Daring corrected, holding up one of her hooves for reference. “No hands here.”         Erik rolled his eyes in exasperation, but couldn’t stop a small chuckle from escaping his lips at how matter-of-factly the pegasus had said that. “Right. Somepony.” He said, before he paused, halting his pacing once more to look at the pegasus. “Wait a second, aren’t you horses? Because, y’know, your fully grown.”         Daring gave him a strange look.         “You are fully grown, right?”         Daring’s strange look persisted. “No, we’re ponies. Horses live in Saddle Arabia.”         Erik blanched. “Wait wait, how old are you? You’re not like, eight years old or something, right?” He chuckled awkwardly. “Right? You’ve got grey hair, so of course you’re not, because this would be waaay weirder if you were. But you are, because you said that you’re a pony, and not a horse. So this is kind of awk—”         He was cut off by the sound of Daring’s facehoof, which looked really painful, considering the fact that it was pretty much the same thing as hitting herself in the face with a club. “No! Of course I’m fully grown! ‘Pony’ is the name of our species, not something that refers to our age. Honestly, how would you even draw that conclusion? And how would you even know anything about ponies or horses, considering the fact that you’re apparently from another dimension or something?”         Daring suddenly stood, looking at him suspiciously. “Wait, just how do you know that? Are you a spy?” She took a step towards him.         Erik took an involuntary step back, cowering beneath the scrutiny of her intense gaze. “No!” He said, though it came out much more quietly than he would have liked. Maybe a bit higher, too. “Of course not! We had horses back on my own world, and you kind of look like a horse, so I drew the connection!”         “Oh?” Daring said, not so quick to abandon her suspicion. “And why should I believe you? How do I know that you haven’t been working for Ahuizotl this whole time? It would make sense. He knows that I wouldn’t be able to resist getting answers, and I haven’t configured my protective warding to block your species from entering my house.” She began moving forwards, one step at a time.         Erik backed away at the same rate, cowering more and more. “I’d make a terrible spy! I can hardly focus my attention on something for more than two minutes!” Suddenly, he stood up taller. “Besides,” he said, practically growling, “I hate Ahuizotl. And I can swear to you right now that I’m going to make him pay for what he did.”         Daring faltered in her advance, taken somewhat aback by the vehemence present in the human’s speech. After a brief moment, she nodded, chagrined, and backed down. “You’re right, I’m being ridiculous. Sorry about that.” She paused. “Though, you wouldn’t believe how incompetent some of the ponies I fight are, so a terrible spy wouldn’t have been surprising in the slightest.”         Erik sighed, attempting to calm himself down and focus on something other than that stupid, idiotic, jerkfaced, evil, moronic, pitiful—he stopped himself. Yeah, not exactly the best way to calm himself down. He took a deep breath in, then let it out.         “No problem, Daring. I don’t hold it against you. To be honest, I have no idea what I would’ve done if our situations were reversed. I might have just left myself to die out there in the woods. Then he muttered under his breath. “Probably would’ve been better for everyone.”         Daring’s sensitive ears flicked as they picked up the quiet words. She scowled at him. “Don’t be an idiot. After all you’ve been through, it’s a miracle you’re not an incoherent, rambling mess, and yet you saved my life just yesterday.”         He snorted. “Yes, it’s always better to be a coherent rambling mess, isn’t it?”         Daring grinned. “There we go, now you’re getting it.”         Erik allowed himself to relax. This situation might not be what one would call ideal, but he might as well make the best of it. Besides, the small lead he’d gotten concerning his arrival was better than no lead at all. And he’d need every advantage he could get if he was going to go after Ahuizotl and find a way home.         That decided, Erik figured that there was no harm in small talk. He flashed a wide, mostly sincere grin at his mysterious mustard matron. “Now that we’re both done being suspicious and confused, why don’t we sit back down?”         Daring nodded, and soon they were both seated in front of the fireplace once more.         “So,” Erik began, “you have a lot of enemies, right?”         Daring pursed her lips. “It’s in the job description.”         “Right, before I ask you what job that might be, I’ve just got to ask—why the heck to you live in the middle of the woods, in a house that could, according to my estimations, not withstand the entry of a pack of angry raccoons?”         “Well, for one I don’t live next to a pack of angry raccoons, and for another, my cottage is magically warded.”         Erik rolled his eyes. “There goes that ‘M’ word, again. It’s like you could explain anything just by putting that word in front of it. ‘How can you live in the middle of a deadly rainforest?’ ‘I’ve got a magical house’, ‘How could an aircraft from another world be teleported to said deadly rainforest?’ ‘A magical amulet.’ Seriously, everything here is magical.”         Daring rolled her eyes. “Yeah, just figuring that out? Magic’s a natural force, like gravity, or wind. There’s a field of magic across the whole world, and therefore everything in the world is saturated in it.”         “Well, I’m not.” Erik said indignantly. “We don’t have any of this ‘magic’ nonsense back where I come from. We just use the word for entertainment, like in storytelling and stuff.”         “Wait, so there’s no magic where you come from?” Daring asked, incredulous.         “Of course not. It’s not like we need it, anyway.”         “Okay, how do you light your buildings?”         “Electricity.”         “Wait,” Daring said, “like lightning? It’s not like you can use that as a consistent light source.”         Erik held up a finger and waggled it. “Don’t be so quick to dismiss new ideas, my fine, feathered friend. I assure you that electric light bulbs do indeed work.”         Daring groaned. “You’re doing it again.”         “Doing what?”         “Alliterating! I thought that it would stop once you came to your senses.”         Erik rolled his eyes. “Alliteration is fun. It’s fantastical fun for the whole family. So is rhyming. Really Daring, stop staring.”         Daring clutched her hooves to her ears as Erik continued on. “Sto-op!” She moaned. “Please, make it stop!”         Erik broke into a hearty fit of laughter at the pegasus’s reaction. “Okay, okay, I’ve stopped. Really, though, what do you have against poetic devices?”         Daring straightened herself out, glaring at him. “You try wandering through an ancient maze in search of a deadly magical artifact with a hyperactive zebra talking your ear off the whole time. It’s pure torture.”         “Sapient zebras, huh?” Erik mused. “Hey, Daring, just what is it that you do? I mean, you live in the middle of a rainforest like some kind of hermit, have no end of enemies, and apparently pick through ancient ruins on a frequent basis. Not to mention that you called yourself ‘Equestria’s number one adventurer’ a while back.”         Daring nodded. “Technically I’m an archeologist funded out of Canterlot—that’s the capitol of Equestria—but really, most of what I do involves risking my life to recover dangerous magical artifacts before they fall into the wrong hooves.”         “Huh. So what kind of things do you do? Aside from wandering through mazes with intelligent zebras.”         Daring rolled her eyes and stood up, walking over to the bookshelf that Erik had noticed earlier. “Calling Zax intelligent is a bit of a stretch.” Daring said, tracing a hoof across the spines of the books on the shelf, before selecting one. She grabbed it in her mouth and brought it over, spitting it out on his lap. “That’ll give you a pretty good idea of what I do.”         Erik frowned as he looked down at the book, noting that it was slightly wet from where she had bit it. “What is it with you and picking things up with your mouth. It’s really unsanitary, you know.” He said as he turned it around to look at the cover. Then he frowned as he read the title.         “‘Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone’?” He asked, realizing that on the cover was a picture of the mustard yellow pegasus. “‘By A.K. Yearling’?” He looked up at Daring. “Do you have a ghostwriter or something?”         Daring shook her head. “No, I wrote that book. I write about my exploits in the form of an adventure series. It doubles as an autobiography.”         Erik began to leaf through the pages, then began to shake, his face growing red.         Daring, somewhat concerned for Erik’s well being, decided to evaluate his sanity by waving a hoof in his face. “Hey, Erik, you okay? Hello-o?”         Erik, unable to hold it in anymore, released an explosive burst of laughter from his mouth.         “Hah! Heh heh hah! You—heh—you write about yourself—*snort*—in the third person? Like, you just sit down and start talking about yourself in the third person? Have you ever slipped up in real life?”         Daring’s cheeks turned a rosy color beneath her fur as she recalled the numerous occasions when she had done just that. Ahuizotl had laughed so hard that she’d been able to just grab the Idol of Truth off the ground and run off with it. No matter how embarrassing it might be to slip up in front of your friends, it was absolutely mortifying to do so in front of your sworn enemies.         “D-Daring—I mean, I admit nothing!” Daring stammered.         That sent Erik into another round of laughter that lasted so long that he came within mere seconds of asphyxiation.         By the time he finally finished, tears of mirth were streaming down his cheeks, and he was pretty sure that he’d cracked a rib. “What I wouldn’t give to be able to refer to myself in the third person without people assuming I’m crazy. No fair, Daring.”         Daring let out an indignant harumph, blush fading from her cheeks. “Yeah, laugh it up.” She muttered.         “Come on, Daring, there’s nothing to be all embarrassed about. No, the true meaning of embarrassment is lost on most people.”         “And why’s that?” Daring asked, still somewhat cross.         “Because they weren’t there on my tenth birthday.”         Daring raised an eyebrow, now generally curious. “Oh? What happened on your tenth birthday?”         Erik was about to open his mouth so as to regale Daring with all of the spider filled piñatas, er… details, when his stomach preemptively interrupted him. He winced at the sudden spike of pain.         “Perhaps we could discuss it over dinner? I haven’t eaten in about two days….”         Daring facehooved. Erik wondered briefly if she felt pain when she did that. “You know,” she said, “you could have told me that sooner.”         “I got sidetracked.” He said defensively. “Discovering that you’re lost in an alien world can be a rather jarring experience.”         “Personally, I think I’d find it exciting,” Daring said. “Who knows what kind of things you’d get to see? Either way, what do you want to eat?”         Erik grinned. --         It appeared that Daring Do really liked pancakes. At least, that’s what Erik would assume, given the fact that she was shoveling them into her mouth with extreme vigor.         “Y’know,” she said around a mouthful of pancake, “I never would have believed that the alien that showed up on my doorstep could make such good pancakes from scratch!”         While normally Erik would have commented on her bad table manners, or the fact that he had most certainly not willingly appeared on her doorstep, he opted to hold his tongue, satiated by the fact that yet another had fallen to his culinary prowess.         Their prior conversation resumed shortly after that, and for a time Daring’s house rang out with the sounds of conversation and laughter. Neither Erik nor Daring said anything profound or important, yet by the time they retired for the day, they both felt a great deal better than when this who situation had begun.         Even the pounding headache that developed after the meal was easy to forget as he allowed himself to truly relax for the first time since he had come to this unforgiving place. He would worry about things again tomorrow.         Because that’s when he was going after Ahuizotl.