Daring-Do and the Griffon's Goblet

by Creative Charmer

Chapter 6

After the door had shut, Daring-Do began moving down the tunnel and further into the mountain. "All right, Daring. You're in. Now you've just gotta find out where that goblet is," Daring said as she snuck through the tunnel, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Daring then came upon a section of the tunnel that split into three more tunnels. Daring looked down each tunnel, unsure of which one to take. "Hmm..." Daring thought for a moment, and then she decided to go down the left tunnel. After only walking a few feet, Daring walked into a thin, barely-visible wire she tripped and fell down towards the ground. But, right when she tripped on the wire, metal spikes came out of the ground, right where she was falling. Daring opened her wings and stopped herself right before she hit the spikes, thanks to her lightning-fast reflexes. Daring hovered for a few moments, staring at the spikes right in front of her face. She then flew up off the ground, away from the spikes, and back down onto the ground. "Looks like I underestimated Griison. I never would have guessed there were traps built into this mountain. I will have to be on my guard while I'm here," Daring then looked up ahead of the spikes, and could see the tunnel actually led to a dead end. "I guess Griison didn't want anypony cluttering up his usable tunnels. I'll have to go back and find which way is the right way to go," Daring then turned around and went back to where the hallways separated.

When Daring-Do came back to the hallway intersection, she looked at the two remaining hallways, again deciding which to take. "Hmm...I can't see anything distinct about either of these other tunnels, so I'll just have to check them out myself," Daring then walked into the tunnel that was across from where she was. As Daring walked through the tunnel, she kept an eye out for anything that looked like a trigger for a trap, and she also looked ahead to see if the tunnel was a dead end as the first one was. As she walked along, Daring suddenly stumbled on her right front leg. She looked down to see she had stepped on a switch disguised as a stone tile. Daring then heard a noise coming from above her, and looked up to see part of the ceiling open up right above her, and rocks started falling out of it down towards her! Using her lightning-fast reflexes once more, Daring opened her wings and flapped them forwards, propelling herself backwards, right before the rocks crashed onto the ground where she just was. Daring skidded to a stop, and then she looked at the pile of rocks on the ground. She paused for a moment. “…well, I guess that means the last tunnel is the right one. That figures,” Daring then turned around and went back to the intersection, and she went into the last tunnel, although she was still wary of any traps that might appear along the way.

As Daring-Do continued through the mountain, she came across many more tunnels, with many more traps inside them.

In one tunnel, Daring had stepped on another stone switch, causing the floor to open up underneath Daring. Daring fell into the hole and down towards a bed of spikes. Daring began flapping her wings and stopped herself just before she hit the spikes. When she opened her eyes and saw where she was, she went "phew" in relief. She then flew up and out of the hole to try another tunnel.

A short time after that, Daring-Do went into another tunnel, where after walking for a short time, she saw the end of the tunnel. But then she stepped on a wire, and three spears shot out of holes at the end of the tunnel. with all of them heading straight for Daring! Daring looked frightened when she saw this, and immediately turned around and ran back towards the tunnel entrance. When she got to the entrance, she quickly moved to the right and pressed her back flat against the wall next to the tunnel entrance. The instant Daring had moved out of the way, the three spears flew out of the tunnel and impaled the wall opposite of the tunnel. Daring stayed still a moment to catch her breath, and then she wiped some sweat from her forehead and tried another tunnel.

A while later, Daring went down another tunnel, and was surprised to see that it ended with a statue of Griifious that was facing Daring-Do. The room that statue was in had an opening in the ceiling right above and behind the statue, with light shining through it and onto the statue. The statue of Griifious was on all fours, with his wings folded backwards. Daring looked perplexed, as there seemed to be no trap this time. She looked around to see if there was a door or switch to open a secret door, but saw nothing. Daring kept looking as she walked further into the room, and closer to the statue. Just as she walked in front of the statue, she stepped on a switch, but this switch didn't go down until after she had taken her hoof off of it, so she hadn't noticed that she had stepped on anything. Daring stopped and looked around, and then turned around with her back facing the statue. Right then, the wings on the statue started to move. The part where the wings attached to the body slowly began to spin around counterclockwise, with the ends of the wings about to be swung down like axes onto Daring-Do! Daring heard no noise whatsoever, but she did see something. When Daring was looking at the ground, she saw two shadows moving behind her. Rather than taking the time to turn around, Daring-Do quickly bent down towards the ground and rolled out of the way, just narrowly avoiding the wings axing the ground where she just stood. Daring got back up on her hooves and looked back at the statue. "Very clever, Griifious," she then went back down the tunnel and continued searching for the right exit.

After wandering through the different corridors of the mountain for a long time, going up many staircases, and triggering so many traps, Daring-Do finally came upon a tunnel that was much longer than any of the others she had come across. Naturally, Daring was suspicious. "Either this is another trap, or I may have finally found the end tunnel," She looked off in the distance, where she could make out the faint image of a door at the end of the tunnel. "Looks like there's only one way to find out."

Daring-Do began her careful pace down the tunnel. She was moving as slow as possible, ready to move if she felt the slightest sinking of her hoof or the touch of a tripwire. After walking for only a few moments, Daring stopped."Hold on a second...why don't I just fly there? I'm less likely to trigger any traps that way!" Daring placed her hoof on her face. "I should have been doing this the whole time. Ugh..." she slid her hoof off her face, stretching her face along with it. "But, then again, it wouldn't have been as much fun. But now is the time the fun ends! I'm going to get to the goblet right now!"

Daring-Do stomped her hoof one step forward. But when she did this, the stone she stepped on lowered, activating another trap!

Daring looked down at the stone switch. "...of course. It's never that easy for me—just the way I like it!"

At that point, the walls around Daring started to slowly close in on her. Daring looked at the walls, then at the door. She tilted her had forward, and she flew for the door as fast as her wings could carry her. The tunnel was long, and the walls kept getting closer, but Daring did not hold back; she continuously flapped her wings, enduring the great aching and pain coming from her weary wings. But she kept on enduring, confident that she would be able to fly past the walls in time.

But, Daring's confidence was soon shattered, as at that moment, the walls had closed in enough to where they could touch her wings. The moment her wings struck against the walls, Daring plummeted towards the floor. She landed hard on the ground, scraping up the bottom of her body as she slid across the ground. Despite this new predicament, Daring did not give up. She quickly got back on her hooves and made a run for the door. The walls progressed closer, and the space for Daring to move in was growing ever tighter. Still, Daring kept moving.

She looked and could see the end of the tunnel was only 15 feet away! Instead of attempting to run the rest of the way, Daring used the rest of her strength and made a leap for the end of the tunnel. But, to Daring's dismay, her leap was not far enough and she landed hard on the ground, but then she began sliding across the ground towards the tunnel end.

With her speed decreasing and the tunnel tightening around her body, Daring felt like she was not going to make it. Then, Daring opened her wings straight upwards and flapped them both backwards, giving her a slight boost in speed that was enough to get her past the walls!

She slid to a stop at the end of the tunnels just as the walls closed in on each other. She looked back at the walls, then stood up, with a quite smug expression on her face. "Ha! Not a scratch on me!"

Unbeknownst to Daring, however, the walls had closed in on the tip of her tail, which was now stuck in between the walls. She stood up and began to run towards the door, but in doing so, she ripped the hair on the tip of her tail from pulling it out of the walls.

"Ouch!" Daring instantly came to a stop when she felt the pull of the hair on her tail. She looked back and saw some of her tail hair still caught in the wall, and some lying scattered along the ground.

"Well, maybe one scratch..."

Daring then faced the doorway once more. She was glad that she had finally reached her destination, but also feeling a pang of nervousness, as she was still unsure as to what lied ahead. Was it going to be easy? Hard? Were there more dangers or was her quest finally going to come to an end? She stared at the doorway with these thoughts racing through her mind. Whatever lied ahead may or may not be easy, but Daring-Do was an adventurer, and it was her duty to find the treasure that lay beyond the door.

She took a deep cleansing breath, and took a long, hard look at the double doors. "Well, here we go," Daring-Do walked up to the doors and pushed against them, which proved to be harder than she thought as the doors were quite large and heavy. Still, she continued pushing against the doors until she heard the creaking of the doors moving. As the doors slowly opened wider, light began shining through the space between the doors, covering the doorway with light as Daring-Do passed through to the other side.