Daring Do and the Doppelganger's Deception

by Ookamithewolf1

Chapter 6:How Daring found the island, and solved the riddle.

Chapter 6: How Daring found the island, and solved the riddle.

It took about a day of lazily flying around before daring came across her destination. It was a large deserted island. The island was tropical and was covered in a thick jungle. The Island was of volcanic origin, which Daring figured out when she saw the 1000 foot volcano smack-dab in the middle of the island. It is also worth noting that the volcano was active.

Daring landed on the beach and took a look around. She wasn’t sure exactly where to go. Since she was pretty sure that Petty had lost her way (that is assuming that she survived.) Daring decided that she deserved a vacation. It took her only a few hours to weave a hammock out of some vines and gather a pile of fruit.

“Now THIS is a relaxing vacation.”

She spent the next few days just lounging on her beach, working on getting a perfect tan and swimming in the warm crystal clear water. On one of her flights around the island she came across a small port town. Well, town is a bit of a stretch. It was just a rest stop for passing ships and was comprised of a warehouse next to a dock and a giant inn/ bar. The entire place was abandoned probably due to the smoking volcano. This gave her an unlimited amount of free wine to make her vacation even better.

On top of all that she discovered a large hot springs in the jungle. It was her where she was now bathing. She slowly sunk down into the warm steamy water and looked around at her surroundings through half-lidded eyes. The large natural springs were surrounded by round water-polished rocks and was filled with the clearest water Daring had ever seen. Palm trees skirted the edge with vines hanging down into the water. Tropical birds flew around and iguanas lounged on rocks. Nothing could move the intrepid adventurer from this spot.
Except an earthquake.

She should have seen it coming. The iguana’s slithered into the underbrush. The birds squawked and flew away. The water started to ripple. But Daring was so relaxed that she was oblivious to her surroundings. Now, however, she was wide awake.

“Great, it looks like this island is going to blow sooner than I thought.”

Daring got out of the pool and was finishing getting dressed when an aftershock knocked her from her feet. It also knocked loose some boulders from a nearby cliff face revealing a cave. As a born explorer, the drew her in like a magnet to a steel bar. The cave was warm and dark, but a glow in the distance pulled her onwards. Soon she came across a river of lava. Daring’s eyes grew wide.

“Oooooooo.”

She followed the river but soon realized the floor was extremely smooth.

“This part of the tunnel was created by Ponies. The floor is clear and the walls are painted. I wonder where this leads?”

Daring continued along, hurrying as tremors shook the cave. Slowly the cave sloped upwards, and Daring wondered how far up she was. Suddenly it opened up into a giant cave. Light hit her, temporarily blinding her. Once her vision returned she realized that the far end of the cave was opened and looked over the island, with the village off in the distance. In the middle of the cave was an alter. The alter had a spot on it where it looked like a round item set into it. Below it was writing similar to the writing from the underground city.

“Lets see, If I translate this it comes out to… Oh my gosh! It matches the writing on the scroll. Maybe the potion bottle fits in on top!”

Daring removed the bottle from her saddlebags and slowly placed it in the indent. A moment later a ‘click’ could be heard and the front of the alter slid down to reveal more hieroglyphics and what appeared to be two buttons.

“If…if you had a choice of one,” read Daring as she translated, “which is the choice of the pure. Would you save a drowning soul, or rescue him even at the cost of loosing the secret of immortality.

“I guess this is what they mean by pure of heart. Obviously id save the poor pony from drowning.”

Daring pressed the left button. The entire alter shook and sank into the ground. Suddenly another one appeared in its place. On top was a plaque and above it was the most decorative crown Daring had ever seen. It was sold gold and lined with pearls and rubies. In the center was a giant topaz surrounded by opals. It was amazing. The plaque below cleared up all mysteries surrounding the potion. It read as follows;

‘We of the city of the unicorns congratulate you. Through trial and trepidation you have reached the end of your journey. We offered ones hearts desire only to the purest of ponies. While we eluded to the chance of immortality, this is wholly unobtainable. Even alicorns do not survive forever. This crown was owned by our ruler, an alicorn who watched over us for over 1500 years, who suffered a mortal blow in a great battle. Our city dying, she requested us to set up this elaborate test so that she may grant a life of comfort to hopefully one worthy pony. This crown was the most valuable item in our kingdom, and is valuable enough to grant one anything they want. The potion within the flask, while not an immortality potion, will give you added vitality, vigor, and stamina. Congratulation.’

“Ha! Petty would be furious if she read that.”

Daring drank the potion and put the crown in her saddle bags. It could fetch millions of bits at auction. Suddenly the whole cave shook violently and Daring was swept from her feet. A crack formed in the floor and warm fatter started spraying out. At the same time part of the cave collapsed, closing off the opening to the outside. The water (having no place to go) started flowing down the passage that had brought her there. The tremor wasn’t stopping. This was it! The volcano was on the verge of erupting!

“Not good not good! I can’t get out in time. It took me an hour to get up here. Plus, once that water hits the lava river this place will fill with steam and I’ll be cooked alive! Unless…I beat the water!”

Quickly, Daring ran for the tunnel and jumped into it. Her flank hit the floor first and she started to slide. The water made the polished floor nice and slippery, and a moment later DD had picked up a good amount of speed. In fact she caught up with the edge of the water flowing down, and managed to keep her speed steady so that she was just inches from the edge of the river of water. It was better than any water park she had ever been to. She sped past the lava river and down to the cave entrance, where she was unceremoniously dumped head first into the hot springs. She made for the port at fast as she could. The whole place island was tearing itself apart. Daring opened the warehouse and grabbed a crate of food. She dragged it down the docks and pushed it into a deluxe steamer Chris-Craft.

“That’s odd. I could have sworn there was a fishing boat docked here too.”

Daring powered up the boat and took off as fast as she could, and it was none-too-soon. As she sailed away she could see lava rushing down the face of the mountain. It engulfed the town and flowed into the ocean, sending a large cloud of steam billowing into the air. But for her, everything was ok. It was a close call, but she had seen worse. She could have always flown home. The boat was just easier. The volcanic eruption was just a part of nature. It was even picturesque. She made sure to snap a picture. Her boat had a little cabin and some navigation equipment. She figured it would only take a week to reach civilization. Even if she had no food or water, she could still last that long. Plus she got out of it with a big crown thingy. Overall her island vacation was “Pretty good.”