The Feather of Fire

by nerothewizard

Chapter 4

Daring Do had been of the opinion for several years now that the pony film industry portrayed the professions of archaeologists and explorers like herself and Annals with an unhealthy amount of creative liberty. While it was true that she found herself in ancient ruins on a regular basis, not once had she run across any sort of primitive booby-traps or eternal beings guarding a powerful relic from olden times, protecting its secrets with tests of physical, mental, or even spiritual prowess. Not once in her short career had she ever needed to duck and roll past a series of swinging blades suspended from the ceiling, hop from one unstable stone to another over a river of molten lava, or face down a huddled mass of dark-robed cultists chanting the name of some mythical demigod of unspeakable evil power while wielding only a whip and her wits. In fact, if a film were made about her experiences in the field, she believed it wouldn't make any profit at all because the poor audience would be bored out of their skulls. The greatest obstacle that she had to overcome on a regular basis was excessive dust build-up in her lungs.

The tunnel that she and the professor were slowly walking through was no exception. The entryway was now far behind them, having opened into a narrow, cylindrical passage. Daring had retrieved portable lamps from her saddlebags and attached them to hers and Annals' pith helmets, and the small amount of light they produced was still more than enough to see that the air was thick with dust. The cloud seemed to increase in mass the further they delved into the cave. For a moment, her throat tickled, and she let out a gasping cough. From behind her, she heard Annals ask, “All right, my dear?”

Daring let out two more quick coughs, then said, “Just finding it a little hard to breathe in here, professor. You having the same problem back there?”

“I'm afraid so,” came the raspy reply. “Though I must say, I believe that the blame for our respiratory difficulties rests solely on our shoulders, or in this case, hooves.”

Daring looked down and understood the professor's implication. Her hoof looked like it had sunk nearly a half-inch into the floor, and when she lifted it up, tiny particles swirled up and joined the millions of others that already danced carefree around the two ponies. As uncomfortable as breathing was in this environment, it was still beautiful to Daring, in a strange, untamed way. This was ground upon which no pony had tread for longer than she knew, and the feelings of wonder and excitement at what awaited her further down this dark, dusty passage crept into the back of her mind and settled there like a familiar friend. Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by another fit of coughs. “Hold on, professor,” she muttered, and after a few seconds digging in her saddlebags, she found two small white masks, just large enough to cover a pony's mouth and filter out microscopic particles of dust and other unwanted contaminants. Daring and Annals affixed their masks, and with a nod to each other, continued down the tunnel, each inhalation considerably easier.

Their path had continued in a straight line ever since the entrance, and as they walked, both ponies had scanned the walls to either side for any signs of a branching passage. Not only had there been no deviations from their initial course, but as Daring paid close attention to the walls, no patterns emerged; she saw only a jagged rock face, devoid of any sort of inscriptions or carved images. A quick glance backward showed that the light from the door to the outside world had become barely visible. As the soft clip-clop of eight hooves echoed through the dimly-lit tunnel, Daring wondered how far the two of them would be venturing into the bowels of the rocky ravine.

Her answer came after several minutes of silent walking. The two ponies' helmet lamps brought the new obstruction into view: a wall of rock, matching the ones that had accompanied the archaeologists on either side of their dust-filled trek, both in composition and lack of any markings other than the same tired striation. Daring walked up to the blank obstacle. “This can't be the end of the line,” she said softly, her voice muffled by the mask but still audible.

The professor had stepped to her left, and he turned toward her quickly. “You're quite right about that, my dear. Come and have a look at this.”

He gestured a hoof, and she followed his outstretched appendage to the wall. Where there should have been just cave wall, a small hole, just big enough to accommodate a prone pony, had been carved out near the floor. Daring crouched down and peered into the opening. Her lamp caught no sign of a wall on the other side. She rose with a smile and said, “Good eye, Annals. So how about we continue this little spelunking adventure?”

Professor Annals responded with his own weak smile, barely visible behind his mask, “Not sure I'm fit enough to make my way through that tiny hole, Daring. Perhaps I ought to stay here this time.”

“Oh come on, professor,” she said with a playful hoof-punch to his shoulder. As she unlatched the strap of her saddlebags, she added, “You've come this far.”

“And it's as far as I care to go right now,” the older unicorn responded with an authoritative voice. “Please, Daring. I'm not in any shape to be squeezing down a tunnel that miniscule. Whatever's back there, it's on you to get to it, all right?”

The pegasus snorted. “Fine. If that's how you want it.” She handed her bags to the professor, stepped past him, and dropped to the cave floor again, ready to poke her head into the entrance of the new passageway. Just before she did, she felt a hoof on her haunch. She turned to look up at Annals' face, and his sad eyes softened her own gaze. “Don't worry, professor,” she said compassionately. “I'll be careful. I promise.”

“Please do, my dear. I'd hate to have to come in there after you.” His mask couldn't conceal his smile.

Daring chuckled, flashing one last grin at Annals before turning to face the opening. With grunts of effort, she worked her front hooves through, then her helmeted head, and her torso, making sure to keep her wings tucked close. The light from her helmet lamp flickered around the crawlspace, casting fleeting illumination around her cramped confines. She started to worm her way forward slowly, using her outstretched front hooves to assist in pulling the rest of her body. The rocky floor scraped the underside of her body, and the rough roof didn't do any wonders for her back either. It was certainly a tight fit, but she found that if she kept her breathing regular and her pace slow, she didn't experience any claustrophobia. While she hadn't been struck by the fear of small spaces before, this point in time seemed like a very bad moment for it to rear its ugly head. Finally, her entire body was wedged inside, and her rear hooves soon disappeared from Annals' view.

Each movement was an exertion as Daring inched her way forward. Sweat began to dribble from her forehead as she continued her slow crawl. Her mind began to drift slowly toward panic as the reality of her situation weighed on her, no matter how she tried to shake it off. An old fear crept into her already fragile thoughts: What if something goes wrong? She tried not to think about it, but that was becoming quite impossible. You'd be buried under a desert, in the middle of a country far from home, and nopony would ever find you. Daring gritted her teeth and pressed on, her eyes watching her hooves as they stretched out in front of her, then let her body catch up, then extended again. She dared not look up at the ceiling which was only inches from the top of her head...the ceiling that contains hundreds of tons of solid rock that could crush you in an instant. All it takes is one little slip and you're a goner. Perspiration soaked her brow now. She felt herself becoming a little dizzy. Perhaps just a moment's rest and she-

“No,” she whispered. The voice in her head fell silent. Exhaling, she lifted her eyes and looked down the narrow shaft as far as she could. Her heart skipped a beat when she glimpsed what appeared to be an opening. She scooted forward as quickly and carefully as possible, and to her great delight, her suspicions were confirmed after a few more yards. Her hooves gripped the ledge at the end of the tunnel, and with one more heave, she pulled her head out of the crawlspace and breathed a great sigh of relief. Finally, after several deep breaths, she lifted her head and began to investigate.

The floor was only a foot or so below where her hooves now dangled, so with a few more wiggles, Daring managed to extract herself from her narrow prison and was soon standing in the new room. Her light flickered around the room quickly. This room was large and circular, and the ceiling was taller than it had been in the main tunnel. The walls appeared to be featureless again, but something struck Daring as odd. After a moment, she realized what it was. While the sides of the entrance tunnel had been rough and rocky, the circumference of this room looked smooth; it almost seemed polished. She turned to the wall behind her and felt it with a tentative hoof. There didn't seem to be a single blemish anywhere on the surface of the stone other than the entrance to the passage that had brought her to this room. Then, she noticed that the floor was the same way: perfectly flat, almost like a roller rink. She leaned closer to the wall with her lamp. There was no color that she could see in the rock face, only a pitch-black that seemed...unnatural, somehow. In fact, everywhere she looked – walls, ceiling, floor – was that same deep black. She felt as though she had been swallowed by some horrific dark beast and was now sealed within its stomach, awaiting her imminent digestion. Daring shuddered at the thought, then began to scan the room again. On her second pass, the lamp caught something in its glare. She stopped moving and focused her gaze.

An object appeared to be floating, suspended in space in the center of the chamber. Daring gasped, then stepped toward it slowly, her hoofsteps echoing through the wide open space. As she drew nearer to the floating thing, she saw that it was, in fact, resting atop a thin, cylinder-shaped platform; she hadn't spotted it before because its color and sheen blended perfectly with the rest of the room. She glanced backward and was relieved to see that the hole she had crept through was still in the wall. Her means of return confirmed, she turned toward the mysterious object and inspected it closer.

Her breath caught in her throat. On the black cylinder that rose from the floor sat a tiny model of a pony, specifically a standing pegasus with its wings outstretched and its head raised in what looked like a proud stance. What Daring noticed most of all, though, was the material it was made of. The entire figurine was transparent like glass, and as her light shone on it, the inside of the pegasus seemed to glow with a brilliant, white fire. It did not reflect the light, however; the figure almost seemed to absorb it. Daring reached out a hoof to feel it. To her surprise, it was not hot or even warm, but rather cool to her touch. Slowly, delicately, she reached up and extracted it from its resting place in the center of the room. It was heavier than she had expected, but she was able to tuck it under her wing without too much strain. With a satisfied grin, she turned back toward the tunnel opening.

Suddenly, from behind her, she heard a loud grinding sound. She turned quickly to see that the now-empty pedestal was rapidly sinking into the floor. Her eyes widened as she watched it disappear into the smooth blackness and become part of the seamless room. She quickly placed a protective hoof over her eyes and turned her head away, crouching down as all her worst expectations flooded to the forefront of her mind. She gritted her teeth and awaited whatever terrible thing she had unleashed.

All was silent in the chamber.

After almost half a minute, Daring cracked open one eye. She was still in the black room; her helmet light still flickered atop her head; her new discovery was still safe beneath her wing. A breath she didn't realize she'd been holding escaped her in one long sigh. “Don't know what I was so worried about in the first place,” she muttered as she trotted back to the crawlspace, stealing one last glance at the empty black room before deftly stuffing herself into the narrow passage once again. Her spirits had been lifted by the discovery of the treasure that now lay securely pressed against her body by her wing, and the return trip through the claustrophobic tunnel seemed like it took almost no time.

Her hoof had no sooner poked through the opening on the other side when it was grasped by the vermilion hoof of her unicorn friend, and with a huff, he helped to pull her out of the crawlspace and to her feet. As he hooved Daring's saddlebags back to her, he said, “It does my heart good to see you come out in one piece, my dear. I must admit, I had my concerns when you didn't return right away.”

Daring furrowed her brow as she refastened the strap of her bags to her body. “What do you mean, professor? I couldn't have been gone that long.”

“Oh, you weren't,” he responded quickly, “but that certainly didn't stop an old pony from worrying.” As she chuckled, he continued, “That's quite enough from my end, I think. Tell me, was it worth the harrowing journey?”

She smiled wide enough for it to show behind her mask. “Let's head back to camp. I can tell you about it on the way.”

The two ponies trotted back down the main tunnel as Daring recounted her experiences in the crawlspace and the room beyond. When she reached the point where she discovered the figurine, she carefully extracted it from beneath her wing and held it up in her hoof for the professor to see. His eyes widened as he drew his face closer to the miniature pegasus, which quickly regained its glow as Annals' light shone into it. He whispered, “Exquisite.”

Daring smiled and said, “Couldn't agree more, professor. I can't wait to inspect it-” A noise from the door to the outside interrupted her. She and Professor Annals turned and saw several shadowy shapes heading their way down the tunnel. As they drew closer, Daring recognized Tectonic Shift and other members of the expedition. “Back so soon, Tec?” she quipped. “Thought you would've had some lunch and a nap before hiking back up here.”

“It was a quick lunch, and a cat nap,” he responded with a humorous tone. With a quick nod to the professor, he asked, “You two find anythin' in here?”

Daring nodded her head toward the tiny pegasus, which she still held in her hoof. Tectonic, much like Annals, leaned close to inspect it further, and he reacted much as the professor had with a one-word appraisal: “Nifty.” The other ponies that had accompanied the geologist down the passageway maneuvered themselves to get a better look at the entrancing figurine that Daring held.

“'Nifty' indeed, my boy,” said Professor Annals. “Daring and I look forward to studying this particular find with gusto and fervor, as it were.”

Tectonic stood silent and blinked twice, then said, “Yeah...sure. Yo, Daring,” he said, “where'd you find that little thing anyways?”

“Oh, I just work with him,” she responded with a wink and a nod toward Annals. Tectonic let loose a quick laugh, which Daring soon joined; even the professor cracked a smile at the ribbing. Daring continued, “The entrance is just down here. I'll show you.” She tucked the figurine gently into her saddlebag and began to walk back to the rear of the cave. Tectonic motioned the other ponies to follow him, and the group trotted behind the pegasus, Annals trailing behind.

It only took a minute to reach the back wall of the tunnel. Daring turned back to Tectonic and pointed with her hoof toward the wall. “It's through there. You might want to send one of your smaller associates, though, Tec...not sure you'd fit through there unless you started laying off the sweets.”

Tectonic smiled and walked to where Daring had indicated. His look quickly shifted to one of confusion. “Uh...Daring? 'm I missin' somethin' here?”

She sighed and said, “I swear, Tec, you wouldn't recognize your own hooves if they weren't attached. It's right...” Daring followed the perplexed gaze of her earth pony companion. “...there?” The word almost died on its way out of her mouth as she stared at the wall. The hole was no more. All that met her gaze was a solid mass of rock. She whipped her head back around to face the other ponies. “But I just...not even half an hour ago...”

Tectonic raised one hoof in a shrug. “Not sure what you're talkin' about, Daring, but I sure as oats don't see nothin' there 'cept a wall o' stone.”

Daring's voice was raised as she responded, “But there was a hole, and a tunnel! I crawled through it!” Her gaze caught sight of the professor as he caught up with the rest. “Professor! You saw me go into the crawlspace!”

He trotted up, his face bearing a look of concern. “Of course, my dear. Whatever is the problem?” She pointed again, more vigorously this time, and his eyes widened as he finally saw what everypony else already had. “Well now, that is very interesting.”

“You saw it too, professor?” asked Tectonic. Behind him, the other ponies muttered softly among themselves.

“Indeed I did, my boy,” Annals responded softly. “I didn't go through, though...only Daring did.”

“Well, I dunno what t' tell ya,” said Tectonic slowly, “but there's no hole there now, and just by lookin' at it, I don't think there's ever been one in this wall. Be almost impossible to make one and have it be safe, anyhow. You two are sure 'bout what ya saw?”

Daring practically shouted, “Yes!” while the professor merely nodded his head, his eyes fixed on the spot where he had seen Daring enter the rock face and re-emerge some time later.

Tectonic waved his hoof defensively. “Look, I ain't sayin' I don't believe ya, but I gotta go on what I see in front o' me. Now, me an' th' others here are gonna look around, and maybe we'll find somethin' 'bout a hole, maybe we won't. We'll let ya know if we do, but right now, I think you two should head back, maybe get some food or somethin'.”

Daring opened her mouth to object, but felt the professor's hoof on her shoulder. She turned an indignant face to look at him, but he was facing the geologist. “A capital idea, Tectonic,” he said in a voice that sounded too cheery. “Come along, my dear, I am rather famished.” He started back toward the cave entrance, his firm hoof nearly pushing the pegasus in front of him.

After they were separated from the group, Daring wheeled around to face the unicorn. In a hushed but fierce tone, she hissed, “What the hay was that, Annals? We can't leave now, not after what just happened!”

“On the contrary, Daring. I believe it to be our most prudent course of action at this juncture.” His voice had almost as much bite in it as hers, and she was silenced by his retort. He saw the confusion in her eyes and continued, “Think for a moment. Gaining access to this cave in the first place requires clever problem-solving; then, we come upon a passageway to another chamber, a rather odd-looking chamber from your description, whereupon you discover a brilliant artifact that nopony's probably glimpsed in thousands of years. Upon your return, the wall which had previously played host to said passageway suddenly reverts to solid rock, and nopony – not even you or I, who found it in the first place – can see even so much as a trace of evidence that there ever was a hole. None of this seems at all mysterious to you?”

Daring opened her mouth, paused, then finally said, “It's completely mind-blowing, that's what it is. What do you suppose we should do about it, professor?”

Annals stroked his chin slowly. After a moment of pondering, he said, “It is my sincere belief that this entire sequence of events hinges on the item which now rests comfortably inside your saddlebag, my dear. Any questions that have arisen concerning this rather curious state of affairs may be solved if we examine it very, very closely.” His stomach rumbled loudly, eliciting a rather sheepish grin from the unicorn. “That is, of course, after we acquire some sustenance.”

Daring's own stomach followed suit, and the two ponies laughed briefly. She said, “Sounds like a great idea to me, professor. Let's get back to camp.” She sighed, then added, “Maybe we can make sense of this whole thing.”

“I sincerely hope so.” Professor Annals gestured in the direction of their exit. “After you, my dear.”

Comments

[Grazy Polomare]

The idea is amazing and the story is well-written. Your choice of vocabulary fits each situation the character is in. Not much else to say. Keep writing and I look forward to future updates!

[Relevant Heavy Metal]

I Am The Law - Anthrax

[Zelda Spectrum]

Hmm, maybe that wall being sealed was supposed to be part of the trap after taking the figurine. Though it's weird that the wall sealed itself when it did if it was part of the trap. Oh well, onto the next chapter!

[Borg]

So . . . there's a fair amount of magic to this place. What does it want? Is the chamber superfluous now, or does it just not want to be found by Tectonic? And did the last chapter really mean "at the same time," or did those burglars steal that pegasus statuette?