Daring Do and The Turquoise Serpent

by Time Pony Victorious

Chapter 3

III

DARING

The Turquoise Serpent

Trekking through the jungles of South Amareica wasn't exactly an ideal luxury vacation. As Daring had experienced firsthand, it was considerably dangerous and not for the light-hearted. Pushing through dead ferns, the adventurer sighed as she felt her wings grow sticky with sweat. Proper wing maintenance was hard enough without all of this sweat; washing them isn't a very easy task.

The three-legged pirate, whose name was Corkscrew, had told her to find a snake in isolated ruins here. He had been kind enough to offer a map and even a little dinghy. Though the boat wasn't helpful, Daring happily accepted the map. It took half a day to fly over there and after meeting up with a few locals, Daring got herself right on track.

But, after a horrible navigation through these dense, humid forests, Daring came to the bitter conclusion that she was lost.

Pulling out the map, she tried to make sense of it. It didn't help that it was crude and illegible, but if this map was correct, Daring was right in the middle of the ruins that he marked.

She looked around. Tree, tree, tree, spider monkey, and tree. Okay, unless these were the ruins for the ancient Spider Monkeys, Daring figured she wasn't anywhere close to these ruins.

"Maybe it was a scam," Daring pondered. This entire adventure felt like a wild goose chase. Corkscrew wasn't a reputable character; he was shifty and looked nervous when they spoke. He had explained that there were several devious ponies after this snake of his and that it would be wonderful if she could retrieve it in an expedient manner.

The turquoise serpent, he had explained, was a rare treasure and an incredible mythological icon to the native ponies in this land. It was supposedly based off an ancient god and according to the mythology, upon the end of this god's life he was reduced to the stony form of a snake.

It sounded cool and the mythology behind it was intriguing, but Daring was wary of snatching a religious icon from these ponies. She wouldn't want a repeat of that incident with the wooden mask.

The humidity was nightmarish as Daring continued through the jungle; the animal cacophony was her only company and reassurance that she wasn't here alone. The sun soon dipped under the cover of the forest canopy like an elusive carrot.

Daring longed for some water and a dependable map and compass, both of which were rendered useless ten minutes into this adventure. She bit back a curse to three-legged pirates everywhere.

By the time she had made it out of the jungle, it was night-time. The cool air provided little solace to the fact that it was completely dark; like, unable-to-see-your-hoof-in-front-of-you-dark. But her luck must have been improving, because not five steps out of the jungle she had found herself before a massive stone pyramid.

"That's it." It wasn't her expertise or her vast knowledge of exotic pyramids, it was the fact that this was the biggest, and only, landmark that Dare has come across this entire adventure. It would be a silly, yet rational, notion to think that her treasure was in another set of ruins, but the day was beginning to escape her, this is literally her best guess.

She trotted toward the pyramid, annoyed again at the humidity, she tried her best to air dry her wings to no avail. Standing in front of the pyramid betrayed her previous impression of it. She had severely underestimated its size as it stood like a stone monolith, imposing and gleaming archaically at the rising moon.

The steps that ascended up the pyramid were worn down but oddly immaculate. However, for her size, each step was four times her height; she had to glide slightly to reach each step. Since there was no remarkable entrance, she had to check the top of the pyramid to find a way in.

Sweaty and tired, Daring finally made it to the top. It was a luxury to guess that there would be a perfect pony-shaped hole at the top, but Daring could barely afford luxuries like this. So, instead of a pony-shaped hole... there was only a huge gap. The more she observed the hole, the faster she noticed that the hole was not a natural formation; somepony, or something, tore open the top rather viciously.

She didn't spend too long admiring their work and flew inside. The only light to provide solace in this oppressive atmosphere was the moon shining above. It must have been the fact that she wasn't in any of the big cities, but the moon seemed brighter than usual, it glowed beautifully but unnaturally. She didn't complain as the pyramid was pitch black.

Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out a large glow stick. After lighting it up and placing it atop her hat, she marveled at this room.

The ponies that made this pyramid were geniuses of architecture. There were perfectly reserved glyphs resembling pony mythology. Daring wasn't an expert in this field, but she managed to recognize the old pony Titans, and some of the other gods that they worshiped back then. There was the pony goddess of wisdom, the god of the sea and the sky.

It looked like there was a conflict between these gods, she couldn't translate any of it but there were a bunch of the gods combating the goddess of the moon.

It was eerie because the goddess of the moon looked exactly like Nightmare Moon.

She shook her head; it wasn't a coincidence, it was a designed occurrence. Nightmare Moon was based on this goddess and dreamt up with this mythology in mind. There were no such things as pony Titans.

Reassuring herself, Daring moved on. It wasn't very difficult to navigate; the pathways were linear and consequential to each other. She wondered why that ratty old pony Corkscrew couldn't get somepony else to do this.

Then, she met her first trap.

A step had decompressed and hissing assailed her as the all too familiar sense of fear ambushed her. Dodge rolling forward, instinctively; she felt the wind of a dozen arrows fly over her hat. As she landed, another step decompressed and she swore as the floor before her opened up revealing a lava pit underneath.

That trap was too easy to avoid, she simply flew over the lava pit but as she took flight she hit a trip wire which released a thick gas from the ceilings. Temporarily blinded, Daring tried to navigate but the gas got into her body and she began coughing, losing altitude consequently.

Something else was released and Daring folded her wings and rolled to the ground. A giant axe swung over her in a perfect pendulum, nearly nicking her wings.

The exit was only few feet away, so close. Suddenly, the walls on either side of her began to close in. Galloping, Daring raced to the exit. She couldn't afford flight as her flying speed was inadequate. Two feet away and the walls began to scrape against her wings; she dove and nearly got her tail stuck at the enclosing wall behind her. It sealed behind her and Daring soon found herself in some sort of mausoleum.

It was twice the length of the Canterlot library and three times the height. For some reason, as she stepped inside the glyphs carved in the walls glowed green. Magic, Daring decided. This place was probably charmed centuries ago, but the fact that the charm, and death-traps, was still operational was disturbing. Just how good was the magic of these old ponies?

In the middle of the room stood a huge shrine with (of course) huge stone steps leading up to the top. More glyphs were on the steps themselves and there was a large stone snake wrapped around the shrine and had its massive mouth open at the top where, Daring presumed, the turquoise snake lay.

"Okay, easy now," she said aloud.

The climb up wasn't as grueling as the initial one outside, but it wasn't any less tedious.

When she reached the top, she set her eyes upon the important, life-altering relic that will change the course of her life… a small, four inch stone snake, wrapped within itself, sat in front of her. Daring stared at the snake for a few seconds, to make sure that her eyes weren't fooling her. Yep, it's a puny snake. Nope, she isn't going crazy.

It didn't look valuable, heck it wasn't even turquoise! It was stone! It looked like it would shatter in Daring's mouth if she picked it up.

She glanced at the larger snake wrapped around the shrine and wondered if she could take that instead.

After an internal debate, Daring settled for the small fry. Taking the snake in her mouth, she deposited in her hat and started to head down the shrine. The entire room rumbled, nearly knocking Daring off her hooves. Turning to the source of the minor earthquake, the huge snake decoration began to shake and untangled itself from the shrine.

Perfect.

The snake's head was free and it stared at Daring with a curious expression, like, "Why is this puny pony stealing my brother?"

She didn't want to stay for a conversation, so, she jumped. Falling forty feet to the ground is fine if she was in the open sky, but this was a windless room. She wouldn't be catching any air soon, so she extended her wings and flapped.

Managing to create some wind with her passive Pegasus magic and with a little luck, she cushioned the fall slightly but still had that nasty gravity to deal with. Looking behind her, the snake had freed half of its body at this point and wasn't impressed with her flying. The head glowered toward her and snapped.

For a big snake, it could move fast. Daring only had a second to dodge - and it was a stretch to call it dodging instead of awkwardly falling to the ground.

She fell like a stone snake, and barely missed the guardian’s fangs. It wasn't poisonous but that didn't matter, he had the jaws that could swallow this whole pyramid whole if he wanted to.

Daring crashed to the ground, rolling at the last second to save her legs from being snapped like twigs. The snake having more than enough time to recover decided to unravel himself from the shrine entirely. He looked at Daring and hissed darkly, it sounded like a hundred snakes hissing at her at once.

Its eyes were of a dull green and glowed, just like the glyphs. Great, it was a magicsnake.

It lunged at her but she jumped, landing on its right eye and used its momentum to springboard higher. Her speed was excellent if she wanted to splatter into the wall like a bug. Extending her wings, she steered herself toward the exit the snake swiftly at her tail feathers. Gratefully, the doors were magically opened when she grabbed the turquoise snake.

She made it to the door before the snake; it was much too low for its incredible heights and would break apart upon attempting to muscle through.

The door broke like wet paper and the snake hissed again, filling the formerly noiseless corridors with the sound of a thousand tires going out at once. Unfortunately, the traps she had activated before seemed to be inactive, it would've been nice to use them against her pursuer.

She flew desperately through the maze of hallways. She knew there wouldn't be a proper exit but she had a 20 ton battering ram at her disposal. Daring flew into a dead end. The wall was absurdly tall and as thick as the snake. She wouldn't be able to open that even with a dozen ponies helping. Stopping at the wall, she turned around and watched the snake slither to her with incredible speed.

It was a simple plan; bait the snake into rushing into her, roll out of the way at the last second, the wall is then broken down and the snake is either destroyed or damaged. However, simple plans don't go along with Daring Do. Firstly, she miscalculated how fast the snake was moving. In her theoretical situation, the snake was traveling at a measly ten miles per hour. But in real life, he was moving at a startling forty miles per hour.

Startled by this sudden burst of speed, Daring rolled to her left as quickly as possible. The snake, not having time to turn, crashed into the wall as planned but here is her next miscalculation. She figured the snake would be destroyed, or at least damaged, in the impact, but when the smoke cleared the snake glared at her with no so much as a chip out of place.

"Oh come on!" Daring was covered in dust, her legs ached and her wings were sore, but the snake looked like it could go 12 rounds with her!

She raced to the snake's body, jumped on it, and ran up its neck. The snake, not having any of this, turned and lunged at her. Daring flew over the snake's head and dove for the exit.

The night air was thick and humid. The wildlife in the forests were much louder than before, as if the excitement of a giant stone snake combating a puny pegasus made all of them make rushed bets. Daring had a feeling that the odds were stacked against her.

The entire right half of the pyramid exploded as the snake pushed its way through. Daring could get a better impression at this snake's size in the light of the moon; it was just as tall as the pyramid.

"Why did it have to be a snake?" Daring wondered.

The snake tilted its head, opened its mouth, and a column of fire shot out of it.

Its aim was bad, or it was deliberately trying to intimidate her. The fire hit the forest canopy above her and lit the world on fire. Daring had to dodge a few falling flaming branches, but was otherwise okay in spite of how low her morale was.

"Fire-breathing snake, what's next? Acid?"

Sometimes, Daring felt she should seriously keep her mouth shut. The snake tilted its head to the other side and when it opened its mouth, a blob of green mush fell out of its mouth. There was enough of it to fill two swimming pools, and it was headed right for Daring's eyes.

She flew to the right and decided to try outrunning the snake. Racing through the forests, she had to weave to avoid trees and angry spider-monkeys. But flying in the dark while a giant fire-breathing, acid-spewing snake chases after you isn't optimal working conditions.

A wall of fire exploded to her left and she fell out of the skies, crashing through a dead tree. Looking up she noticed that she was surrounded by fire. Okay, she'll just fly up...

The snake's head mischievously popped up in the tree line.

Ah, ponyfeathers.

There was no escape. Surrounded by fire, facing down a giant snake much faster than her, there was nothing she could do.

Dare flew toward it at full speed. The snake opened its mouth, preparing to belch out some more fire. A massive fireball found itself between Daring and the snake. The heat was so intense; closing her eyes wouldn't keep it from blinding her. Her mane felt like it was going to burst into flames, it felt like standing right next to the sun.

Desperately, she flew up and over the fire. Her entire body screamed in pain as she maneuvered over the fireball. Finally, she had cleared the fireball and was tumbling toward the snake. She extended her leg out for a kick, "HYAH!"

Her hoof clinked against his eye, uselessly.

But she wasn't trying to harm, she was getting his attention and boy did she have it.

It opened its mouth again and Daring jumped off and landed on its back. The snake prepared another volley, but instead of fire the acid came out like a nasty snotball. But that was exactly what she wanted.

Rolling for all she's worth, she fell right off the snake's back just as the acid hit - and instantly dissolved - the snake's body. The acid reached up to the snake's head and destroyed it as well. The entire stone body didn't even have time to crumble to the ground properly; it just evaporated in the air, like mist.

The jungle was dead silent, save the crackle of the forest fire and the occasional chirp from the lone insect. Daring had beaten the odds again.

Standing up, Daring's legs were killing her. She quickly examined herself, to see that her clothes were slightly singed; her mane, tail, and even wings were black. Other than a few bruises and cuts, she felt fine.

Removing her hat, she looked at the stone snake. Grimacing at the sight of this simple statue, Daring wondered what was so valuable about it. It felt brittle, like it could break right in her hooves. She didn't know anything about the mythology behind these ruins and the statue, so its relevance was lost to her.

But, she did understand one thing: she had a bone to pick with Corkscrew.

Daring placed the statue back in her hat and turned toward the still burning forest. Perhaps Herpy could be bothered to look up some information about this statue; it was, after all, his job.

A whistling noise cut through the night and before Daring could react, a boomerang-like projectile pierced her hat, pinning it to a tree. Looking toward the attacker, she couldn't believe who it was. To be honest, she couldn't take this pony seriously; the giant snake looked more worthy an opponent.

She stood atop a rock, with the moon behind her, illuminating her entire body. She wore a form-fitting outfit comprised of dark colors; purple, and navy blue. Her cape billowed in the cool air, and her distinctive hat partially concealed a glowing unicorn's horn.

"Why do I always attract the weirdos?" she muttered to herself. "Listen, I'm sure you didn't mean anything by attacking my hat. So, because I'm a nice pony, I'll drop it, okay?"

This mysterious mare was either hard of hearing or simply didn't care. She leapt from the rock, unfurled her wings, and kicked at Daring. Expertly dodging, Daring found herself going hoof-to-hoof with this masked weirdo.

"Fine, have it your way."