Daring Do and the Cask of Undeath

by PaddedCell

Chapter Fifteen: The Power of the Cask, and the Final Cataclysm

Loaded onto a truck once again the Cask was taken, along with the adventurers, out of Ponyville. Leaving the shocked and scrambling citizenship behind, the convoy of trucks and armoured cars trundled along through the forests and around the mountains until it began climbing a steep hill. Night was falling as the cars the crest of the incline, and the wilderness opened out before them. Desert, miles of barren desert. Or it should have merely been desert. But in the distance, a large, temporary settlement lay waiting. Nearing it, the imprisoned team could see the sole occupants of this newly erected camp to be nothing but hordes of changelings, armed and uniform in their malicious attitudes. A storm seemed to be brewing overhead, and the adventurers huddled together for warmth as a chilling wind whipped all around, tossing sand up into the air in great spirals. Chrysalis’ car drove on, speeding ahead that she might reach the centre of the settlement first, and the other vehicles followed suit. Soon, the entire convoy came to a halt at the centre. The adventurers were tossed out onto the dusty ground. The tents which were pitched about the camp bustled with activity as Chrysalis stepped from her car. The team watched Chrysalis as she stepped out from her car, greeted by reverent bows from her changelings. She retreated to a main tent near the centre of the outpost, and had the Cask taken inside to study for a brief period. The team were rounded up, and sat down at gunpoint nearby. The mood of the camp became more placid as the changelings returned to their business for the meanwhile.
“Well I’m out of ideas, for once.” Daring muttered darkly, slicking back her now-stringy and tattered grey mane. Dust looked about her at the rest of her assembled friends. Cistern stared sombrely into the sky, Fuse down at the dust below his hooves.
“Let’s try to remain calm. There must be some way out of this.” The Captain piped up, raising her head defiantly. Dust smiled, appreciating her show of spirit.
“It would be nice if there was, Rhododendron, but.. They have us at gunpoint with no means of escape whatsoever.” She corrected the Captain, who still sat thinking of a plan to somehow prevent the opening of the Cask. Dust moved over to Fuse. “Hey.. Don’t worry about it. We did our best.” She said, in a voice that bordered on pleading. “I.. I’m really grateful for that time you saved me.. On the cliff?” She smiled.
“And I’m thankful for the time you saved me from havin’ my head shot off by one o’ these clowns, Dusty.” He smirked, looking up. “I woulda died back there in Sul-Menthar if it wasn’t for you.” Tentatively, Dust reached out and wrapped her hooves around him in a gentle hug. A little surprised, he returned it.
“Maybe.. If we get out of this alive..” She blushed a little. “I, um.. I’d love to see you again sometime. Like, for a coffee or a cup of cider, or..” Fuse cut her off.
“A coffee sounds fine. When we get out of here, we’ll go and get some, okay? Just you and me.” He grinned. She could only sit there with a fluttering heart for a moment, though the grim realisation that they could die here managed to eat away at her spirit. She made a silent prayer to Celestia that they would not.
“So I’m guessing we’re all gonna die now, right?” Cistern grumbled. “Well, at least I can tell my friend Agatha that I’m sorry for spilling coffee on her diary now.”

About half an hour later, Chrysalis emerged from her tent. Behind her, a pair of changeling troops lifted the Cask carefully along. She gave the orders to have the accursed thing placed before her. The small box sat down with a thud on the sand, its legs sinking into the ground Looking over it, she called a changeling troop over at random, asking for a gun in her native, chattering tongue. The trooper obliged, giving her a pistol carefully. She turned the weapon back on him, blowing a hole in his head without even watching the action.

“The Cask, as I’m sure you’re aware, is rumoured to contain the secret to restoring life to the dead.” Chrysalis remarked, regarding the bleeding and deceased soldier crumpled on the desert sand beside her with an emotionless glance. As dark liquid soaked into the dust around his skull, the sky seemed to darken. “And now..” She motioned to a couple of other changelings, who attended each side of the unhallowed object, “We shall test this myth.” The order was given, and the changelings stooped to open the latches, cast off the chains and cut away the tar. Once these were removed, the pair grasped the handles of the doors. As they crumbled open, a thunderclap rent the sky asunder. Dark smoke drifted down, spilling slowly to the floor like oil. Imperceptible, black power glowed from somewhere within, a deep hazy colour alike to the dark hue of night shining out of the crack between doors as they slowly swung outwards, and sourceless whispers drifted around on the air like wraiths. As they opened fully, the stars in the twilight sky above began to disappear, blotted out by great, thick black clouds that billowed out from nowhere. Chrysalis gave another order, and the recently deceased trooper was lifted from his place. The quickly stiffening corpse, plagued by rigor mortis, was dumped in front of the oncoming smoke which slithered from the doorframe of the Cask. Dust felt a strange, uncontrollable mixture of terror and inability to move or think clearly. The feeling poured over her, nauseating her until she felt sick to the pit of her stomach. The dark smoke of the Cask drifted closer, and in an unexpected and disconcerting movement, the thick ashen steam enshrouded the body almost instantly. Dark colours glowed from within the body-shaped cloud on the floor, and there were occasional glimpses of flashing energy and flailing limbs. The body could be heard clearly as it shuddered, stiffened up unbearably, and then..

The Captain was the first to jump back, letting out a gasp of horror. The changeling sat up stiffly, bones snapping and cracking as they were forced back into movement. The air of the camp became humid and unclean as the mockery of life stood on its hooves awkwardly, staring about. It opened its mouth to speak, but a pale and glowing blue substance like the clearest water gushed from the mouth uncontrollably, only matched in colour by the disturbing blue light which now glowed from the changeling’s glazed, blind eyes. As the watery, cold liquid continued to dribble from its jaws, the changeling looked around blindly at Chrysalis. Dark blood still stained its head, dripping from the hole which punctured its skull. It mouthed a word, though only a quiet burbling of water and rasping of a convulsing throat escaped its maw.

“Murderer.”

Chrysalis’ eyes widened, and she raised the pistol she held, firing again. The undead changeling shambled back a step, a new hole smashed through its abdomen. But it recovered instantly and continued onward, moving closer and closer. Eventually, the changeling Queen used her last resort, lowering her horn and firing off a powerful spell. A flash of green energy hit the thing directly, slamming into its form and shattering it to pieces in a disturbing explosion of broken bones, black flesh and glowing liquid. Dust and the others could only watch then, as horrified as the changelings around them, as the dark smoke from the Cask and the liquid from the reanimated corpse soaked into the sand, creeping under the earth and rock and burrowing downward. A moment passed in reverent, terrified silence as thunder crackled powerfully across the sky. There was a rumbling, but not from above. The sound of shaking, cracking and scratching began to draw louder from the soil and sand below. The entire assembly, changeling and pony, jumped uncontrollably as the first bony hoof broke the surface. Within a few moments, dry and cracked skulls began to emerge from the sands, hooves wriggled free of the earth, and glowing blue eyes glared out of the dark all around. Breathless gurgles and throatless rattles penetrated the air as the dead looked upon the living, and began advancing on them. The changelings slammed the Cask shut, binding it with chains frantically in hopes of preventing the apparitions all around the camp. But there was no effect. The undead continued their slow assault, shuddering and crackling as they stomped forward to meet the changelings. Many picked up rifles and pistols, charged up spells and fired them off.. Some even grabbed grenades and started lobbing them. Explosions, gunshots and insectoid chatter cut through the noise as the battle began. Amid the confusion, there was a single crack of lightning. The bolt struck the Cask, the unstable relic letting off a shower of sparks in unison with a discordant, unearthly wailing cacophony. The accursed thing cracked, hairline apertures splitting across the surface noisily and emitting hissing black smoke and a dim glow. The ground below the box cracked also, a ravine tearing open in the ground. The Cask began to shake and teeter on the edge of the widening abyss, threatening to fall into the darkness below along with the gushes of sand which now toppled into the pit.

“Mother?! Mother, where are you?” Dust called out in a panic. The battle for survival raged, but for every undead creature destroyed by bullets, magic and fire, ten other creatures continued to spring from the sand, eager for blood. Chrysalis stood in the centre of all this, only able to watch the hellish proceedings around her with wide, panicked eyes. A good half of the changeling troops deserted the battlefield, leaving their Queen to escape by the air. But many were thrown about in the wind, and some were shot down by lightning bolts, dropping to the sand in burnt husks. Dust galloped about the camp, and finally set eyes on her mother. Daring sprinted toward the Cask, screaming out as it tipped over the edge and dropped into the gaping abyss below. It smacked into the sides of the ravine, splintering to pieces and smashing apart as it fell, letting out an unbearable, haunting screech as it was swallowed up by the dark void. Daring skidded to a stop at the lip of the aperture, leaning down to look into the pit. Dust stopped a few steps behind her. Daring made ready to jump, but stopped upon hearing her daughter’s cry. “Mother, what are you doing?!” Daring turned, tears brimming in her eyes. Emotion wracked her, despite the carnage all around.
“I.. I need it. I need the Cask, don’t you understand that?” She turned back, screaming into the dark hole below her. “I didn’t just want it for fame, or glory, or some stupid bits! I wanted to.. I wanted to bring him back.” Her voice dropped to a shuddering whimper. She tensed, ready to jump again. Dust stepped up behind her, the assault all around seeming to fade for this moment as she stood beside her mother.
“Mother, please..” She felt her heart sinking. “Mother..” Daring was ready to leap.
“I just want your father back. I want my love back.” She whispered, stepping back to take a running jump. But a warm hoof found itself on her shoulder.
“Daring.. Let him go.” Dust spoke soothingly. Daring turned to her daughter, memories of her husband flashing through her mind. Memories of him, and then.. Memories of Dust began to emerge. Her first cry at birth had been deafening. Her first word had been ‘Rock’, which she must have overheard her mother say when discussing archaeology with Scrollwing at the Institute.. A smile crept across Daring’s face as she felt her eyes connect properly with Dust’s – perhaps properly for the first time ever. She realised it then. She didn’t need the Cask to bring back her husband, she never had. All she needed to do was to see him in her daughter, to live life with her as he would have wanted.

The moment was cut short as the pit widened, struck over again with lightning. Sand poured in with a tremendous rumbling and sifting, and the bodies of the dead, dying and undead dropped into it alike as it stretched wider to swallow the camp. Daring and Dust, along with the rest of the adventurers, dashed out to the outskirts of the settlement. Commandeering an armoured car, they turned and fled the place. The last thing that Dust saw as she looked back at the sandstorm-ridden, thunderstruck settlement, was the silhouette of Chrysalis. Lightning struck a final time, and she could see the insectoid Queen as she was grasped by a thousand flailing, dead hooves, and pulled silently below the ground. As the car crested the hill and left it all behind, the supernatural hurricane surrounding the camp subsided, leaving no trace of its existence. The Cask, the changelings and their Queen were swallowed up ravenously by the sand, never to be seen or heard from again.

One month later, Dust sat across the desk from Daring at the Institute. Both leafed through pages of their respective books, and both occasionally made notes – Daring’s notes scrawled and barely legible, and Dust’s flowing and remarkably neat.
“I’m glad I have you.” Daring said, cutting into the silence. Dust lowered her book, but Daring continued reading. She smiled, watching her mother’s eyes flick across each word in her book in quick, unrelenting succession.
“And I feel the same way about you, mother.” She returned. But scarcely a moment passed before Daring shut over her book, looking her daughter in the eye and slipping a hoof across the table to take hers.
“Can you honestly forgive me? All those years I neglected you? The fact that I was willing to leave you behind and chase the Cask down into that pit, all to find..” She choked up a little, but Dust just smiled a warm, knowing smile.
“I forgive you. I will always forgive you. We’re sometimes so set on our path that we get blinded to what we already have. But now you remember that you have me, and that makes me happiest of all.” She spoke softly, as the golden sunset filtered through the murky panes of the office window, the day dying away into peaceful slumber.

Comments

[Night_Moon60606]

here, again, i see the same problems u had in MDW Everfree...that ending was...well, lack luster in the extreme. i wasnt even going to read this fic because Everfree was such a disappointment, but i did and i gotta say, u had ur good points here, like with Everfree, but it felt a little like u were trying to rewrite and meld together aspects of the first three Indiana Jones movies. the cask was like the Ark, the guardian monster and the temple is protected seemed quite a bit like Temple of Doom, and u had elements of the Last Crusade as well...

[FluttaShift]

i liked it. good book. sequel pwease. good work.

[PaddedCell]

3525821
I can't help being an Indy fan. Sorry 'bout that. Besides, I do try with these fics, you know. I'm quite aware I'm not the best with endings, but I'd basically come to the end of the story. If people want me to rewrite the ending, I will. But I don't see why a short-ish conclusion was so bad.

[PaddedCell]

3526155
Thank you so much for your support throughout this. You've been fab. And I can tell you as a matter of fact that I have some ideas melding together for a sequel, so I hope I can start that soon.

[PaddedCell]

3525821
There. I've fleshed out the ending a little, so it's not quite so brief. But it's remaining as it is now. Apologies if you don't like it, but that's just how I wanted to end it.

[SomeRandomMinion]

Well, that was....nightmarish.
I knew the Cask would backfire on Chrysalis, but I didn't expect a "Dragged off to Hell" fate for her. Oh well, Daring and her daughter are reunited, the Cask is destroyed forever, and hopefully the Changelings will get a less psychotic ruler with Chrysalis gone.

Excellent work!

[FluttaShift]

3527350 Did I not reply to this? Sorry. Yay! Sequel! Can't wait to read!

[GearShift77]

I haven't read this yet, shouldn't this story be under the Daring Do group?