Sunset Rekindled

by EldritchNexus

The Lost City of al-Duroc, Part 1

Teddy, Pressure Point, and Sunflower made it to the ramp of the airship, to find Frosty being attacked and chased by a flock of Rocs. As he was being chased, Frosty fired back various spells at the large birds of prey.

"What in Equestria?!" Pressure Point exclaimed.

"What's it look like?" shouted Frosty. "Get dese guys offa me!"

Sunflower galloped forward, leapt into the air, and then beat down on the head of one of the Rocs. The bird was sent hurdling to the ground, its head buried in the sand. The other Rocs saw this, and circled the mare.

"Bring it on, boidies!" Sunflower shouted to them. "Come down and fight me, ya dumb dodos!"

The Rocs all swooped down one at a time, and Sunflower unleashed a barrage of hoof-punches in the air to knock them out of the sky. But unfortunately, the birds all dodged each blow thrown at them. In seconds, Sunflower was too exhausted to continue fighting and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

The giant birds hovered closer to her, licking their beaks ravenously. Suddenly, a flare was shot across the air, and hit one of the birds in the stomach. It burst into flames, then dropped to the ground in a burning heap. The other Rocs looked on in surprise, and saw Teddy standing at the bottom of the ramp, holding a flare gun with a smoking barrel.

"Get away from my friends!" he shouted at them. "Or else..."

The Rocs cawed angrily, then wheeled around to face their next target. Teddy rushed towards the burning Roc, and brandished a small cylindrical object from the belt he was wearing. He put the object against the fire's causing a fuse on the end to emit sparks. Sunflower's eyes widened, and she gasped when she saw what it was.

"He's got a pipe-bomb!" she shouted. "Duck n' covuh!"

She rolled away, and Teddy threw the bomb at the Rocs. But one of them managed to grab it with its talons. But Teddy wasn't worried; in fact, he was grinning. Just as the Roc started to guffaw, the pipe-bomb detonated, obliterating its left talon and knocking it off its balance. It dropped a few feet, then flew away, screeching in pain.

"Nice one, Ted!" said Frosty. "Guess you ain't useless after all!"

The remaining four weren't daunted, though. In fact, they were even angrier than before.

"I've got these four!" said Pressure Point, whose horn started to glow.

The four Rocs were suddenly clamped together by what appeared to be a brace of magical aura, which ensnared them in an "X" formation. For a second, they were suspended in the air, then they spent hurdling a circular pattern that was synced with Pressure Point's own head movements. They spun faster and faster through the air around the four ponies, until they were shot into the starlit sky, never to be seen again.

"Thank Celestia that's over." said Pressure Point, sighing in relief.

"Doc, where'd ya learn a spell like that?" asked Frosty.

"You learn a lot of spells at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns." said Pressure. "That was just one of them."

"What now?" said Teddy, still exhausted.

"Well, I think we taught dose Rocs--" Sunflower said, as she approached the first Roc as it finally pulled its head out of the sand.

She bucked it on the head, causing it to fall over with a loud shriek.

"Not ta mess wit' us!" she continued. "So since they won't--" the Roc got back up. "Try anything with us anytime--" Sunflower casually hoof-punched it in the gut without even looking at it. "I think maybe we should check on the othuhs, ta see if they need help."

Frosty looked at the Roc, which was in the process of flying away, then fired a concussive spell to knock it out of the sky a hundred yards away.

"Uhh...I'm sure they're fine." said Frosty, waving a hoof casually.

He looked at the body of the second Roc, which was still on fire.

"So...anypony wanna make some S'mores?" he said aloud.

---

Crimson Blade climbed back to his hooves, from a stone-cold floor in an endless darkness.

"Anypony else still alive?!" Daring Do's voice called out.

Crimson's horn was lit, signaling that he was alive.

"I'm okay." replied Lightning Dust, who entered the radius of Crimson's aura. "But I can't find anyone else. Not even my Megamite."

"Then you'd better stick with us." said Daring Do, who dropped to the ground with Crimson and Lightning. "First, we've got to find out where we are."

Crimson's horn glowed even brighter, revealing their current location: a street of what looked like an ancient city. Even Daring Do, who had herself visited many lost cities, had never visited one as vast and preserved as this, let alone one so deep underground. The buildings were of an Ancient Egyptian-styled architecture, and at the center of the city was a giant pyramid.

"Who wants to bet that King Nelphyn's holed up in there?" Lightning said, once they saw the pyramid.

"It's very likely." said Crimson. "But we should try regrouping with the others first. We'll need all the help we can get down here."

"How'd we get down here anyway?" said Lightning Dust, looking up at the cavernous ceiling. "I don't see any shafts of light up there."

"That means that either the crevices sealed themselves up, or we're so far below the surface that the openings are barely visible." speculated Daring Do. "If we had Nose Nip or Maud anywhere, they could probably help us find a way out."

---

Bathilda the fruit-bat was fluttering around in the darkness underneath the plateau, searching for the ponies. Eventually, she was able to detect a single life-form on the rooftop of one of the subterranean buildings. However, to its dismay, it turned out to be the Megamite larva that Lightning Dust adopted. This annoyed Bathilda, since she didn't at all trust the arthropod. But since she had no choice but to work with her, she attempted communication. She squeaked inquisitively, but the larva yielded no valuable information. Instead, Bathilda gave up, and fluttered away. Then she came back when she noticed the Megamite larva wasn't going anywhere, and picked her up. The two then flew off to look for their owners.

---

Golden Sun and Nose Nip were climbing up the chasm towards the opening created by the falling rock.

"It's a good thing you had this climbing-equipment with you." said Golden Sun, who was hanging onto Nose Nip's back.

"Don't go..." Nose Nip grunted. "Anywhere...rocky...without 'em."

He stopped on a ledge and let Golden Sun off for a moment.

"You know, you're kinda heavy." Nose Nip panted. "Ever thought of going on a diet or something?"

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with my eating habits!" said Golden Sun, narrowing his eyes but scarcely raising his voice. "This is all baby-fat you see."

He tapped his chest with his front-left hoof.

"Well, whatever you wanna call it." shrugged Nose Nip. "But I guess it's not the most uncomfortable experience I had carrying stuff. I remember when me and my cousin Double Diamond were camping in the Smokey Mountains. He forgot his snowboard, so I had to carry the stupid thing up the mountain for him. Kept bumping into stuff, and almost lost balance climbing a few times."

"Did he at least say 'Thank you'?" asked Golden Sun.

"He said, and I quote:" Nose Nip continued in a stereotypical surfer type of voice. "'Totally gnarly, dude! Gotta shred some slopes now, dig?' So...no."

Golden Sun chuckled.

"Well, you wouldn't have to worry with me, because I travel light." he said, before adding: "When I can help it, anyway."

"Well, professor..." said Nose Nip. "What do you think we should do? Go back to the Summerstar? I bet that the others are probably already there, mourning us there by now."

Nose Nip and Golden Sun climbed up the chasm and finally reached what remained of the camp. There were cracks and signs of landslides every which way. A few weapons laid on the ground, but there were no bodies.

"Actually, it seems that the plateau gave way more than we could've anticipated." said Golden Sun. "This is only speculation, but it's possible that the ground may have collapsed in on itself, perhaps even burying the others several...meters underground."

"So you're saying we should find a way underground and dig them out?"

"It's certainly a recommended option." said Golden Sun. "But I must confess...umm, I really am not a digging kind of pony."

He shuddered.

---

Sunset Shimmer and her group looked around the chamber they were in. There were four large equine statues in Ancient Egyptian garb standing in the corners of the room. In the middle was a pedestal. There were also three doors: One on the Northern end of the room, and two on the Western end. Sunset got out her enchanted black cloak and passed Trixie her own.

"You've got to be kidding me!" exclaimed Radiant Dawn, as he galloped around the chamber, checking all the doors. "All the doors are shut tight!"

He tried to fire a spell to blast the doors open, but a strange humming emitted from all around them, and the statues' eyes glowed red. Radiant Dawn strained himself as hard as he could, but nothing emerged from his horn.

"Magic's not working!" said Radiant. "What gives?!"

"My horn isn't working, either!" said Scarlet, whose horn was glowing but no spells were being cast.

"Great." sighed Sunset. "Here we go again."

"What a despicable room!" said Trixie. "Whoever bans the illustrious magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie will--"

"Everypony, calm down!" shouted Sunset, whose voice echoed throughout the room.

The others became silent.

"I don't know why our magic isn't working." Sunset said, as calmly as possible. "But it should be clear that we're supposed to find a way to escape this room without our magic. Now does anyone have any ideas?"

Trixie scoffed, and put up her cowl.

"Trixie has none." she said, still mildly annoyed. "If I had know that I--"

She tripped over something in the dark, and hit the ground with a loud CRASH!

"Who leaves a perfectly good statuette on the floor like this?!" she grumbled as she staggered back up.

"Statuette?" repeated Scarlet.

She illuminated Trixie, and noticed that there was what appeared to be a small statue-like apparatus on the floor near where Trixie fell over.

"Hey, maybe that's what we need!" Sunset said, beaming. "Trixie, you're a genius!"

"Oh, joy." snarked Trixie.

"Maybe if we put this statuette back on the pedestal, the doors will open and we can get out of here!" said Sunset. "That's how it works in the Daring Do books!"

"Well...duh!" said Trixie, rolling her eyes grabbing the statuette in her hooves.

She went up to the pedestal with an annoyed look on her hooded face.

"Wait, Trixie!" Sunset said quickly. "You should be careful when--"

But it was too late, and Trixie already put the statuette back on top of the pedestal. The whole room fell silent for a few seconds, but nothing happened.

"Sunset, you're my friend and I certainly like you..." said Trixie. "But the Great and Powerful Trixie thinks you need to rel--"

Suddenly, there was a deep growling all around them, and Trixie panicked and ran behind Sunset. The statues with the glowing red eyes were now moving!

"Well, this is going to be a pain." said Scarlet.

Comments

[00RaiserGundam]

After bringing Starlight Glimmer into this story, making Double Diamond Nose Nip's cousin is something I could believe.

[Lord Nopony]

Sorry for my late review! Great chapter! Loved it! Typical cliche traps! LOLZ. What next?! A giant boulder?

[JimmyHook19]

"Well, this is going to be a pain." said Scarlet.

I agree with Scarlet on that.