Daring Do and The Turquoise Serpent

by Time Pony Victorious

Chapter 7

VII

DARING DO

I Dream of Nightmare Moon

The journalist was a secret hero of the night? She hadn't expected that, to be honest. Daring thought that Mare Do Well was just some eccentric billionaire with a really hefty trust fund, not some quiet writer.

"You must get paid nicely," admired Daring as she looked at the computers. Over to her right were several pods that carried alternate Mare Do Well outfits. One of them had the mask in a different style; the ears were more triangular and bat-like.

Felicity chuckled, almost bitterly. "Nope. Flair had built all of this stuff from scratch, he's a bit of a genius."

Flair reminded her of Herpy. That thought only made Daring more determined to find Ahuizotl and teach that stupid cat obsessed freak a thing or two about messing with Daring Do.

"Right, so, what have you got then Ms. Detective?"

Felicity turned around and raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Detective?" she asked, slightly amused at the thought. "I'm wearing tights, I don't exactly look like a detective."

"I looked you up, or rather Mare Do Well up. And everypony is calling you 'Equestria's Greatest Detective' even better than Fetlock Holmes judging by the way you track most criminals down."

Felicity laughed, almost relieved, as if she feared the public opinion on her alter-ego. Well, it felt a little nice to become comfortable with this masked crusader. Felicity looked like a stressed out pony, and Daring's accusations of her being a thief probably didn't help.

Even if Daring didn't exactly trust her at the moment, she seemed to know a lot more than Daring, and if she wanted to find Herpy, Corkscrew, and Ahuizotl, she would have to team up.

"In regards to your question," Felicity said, turning back to her computer. "I've only got a little bit of information."

She pressed a few buttons and a molecular structure of… something showed up. Dare never did like all of this science stuff, thermodynamics and particle physics ah! That stuff confused her more than ancient ponies, gods, and giant snakes. To be honest, she has a hard time believing all of that science stuff more than mythology.

"Magic, in its simplest form, is merely matter condensed in easily manipulated nanoparticles. Telekinesis, teleportation and other forms of magic can be traced, recorded and explained with science. Having said that, magic is also very distinctive between ponies. Like a cutie mark, there are no two magic signatures; everypony has a different magical signature."

She pointed at the screen. "This is the magic signature of the ponies at the park that produced the force field."

Daring saw nothing special. It was just a blob, a dark purple spherical thing with tentacles coming out of it sporadically. But, Felicity pressed a few more buttons and another figure appeared beside the first illustration. It was a lime-green diamond shaped thing with fancy particle effects on it.

"The emerald shape is my magical signature. Notice the difference?"

The difference was very obvious, her magical signature was very structured, very neat and, well, physically stable. But the first one kept morphing and changing shapes, as if it were unsure of what form it should assume, it was excited and seemed… alive.

"What does that prove though?" Daring asked. "According to what you said, there should be an infinite number of magic signatures. What if that is just unique to this pony?"

"Two reasons," Felicity smiled as if Daring finally asked a good question, she stepped down from the computer and walked up to Dare, like a professor regarding her class. "One, if you compare that specific form to thousands of other ponies, you will find that no matter what there will be nothing similar. Magical signatures may be unique but some similarities can exist between ponies, like ponies within family sharing similarly themed cutie marks. There is no way that amongst millions of magical signatures that one deviant can exist, everything has a certain order, a certain structure."

She stopped in front of Dare, and her eyes sparkled with interest, as if this puzzle really intrigued her despite the imminent danger those ponies were in.

"And two, it wasn't one pony that produced that force field, it was several. So, why is the signature exactly the same between multiple ponies? And finally three-"

"I thought there were only two reasons."

"-This isn't regular pony magic. This is ancient pony magic."

Things were getting too complicated now; Daring's mind swam. Ancient pony civilizations, ancient snake gods, ancient pony magic; Daring wished things were simple again, where Ahuizotl was the enemy and there weren't any secret pony societies to deal with.

Daring shook her head; she was getting dizzy just thinking about it.

"Wait, wait, so, what's ancient pony magic? And what is the significance behind it?" she asked, more tired than when she fought that giant snake.

"Excellent question!" Felicity beamed and galloped over to the bookshelf. After perusing the shelf for a few minutes, she came over levitating a dusty purple book. "Ancient pony magic is quite dangerous and difficult to achieve. Usually you think of unicorns with magic, right?"

Daring nodded. It was simple, unicorns had special magic, pegasi had passive magic to enable them to manipulate clouds and weather, and earth pony had passive magic to communicate with nature.

"Well, ancient pony magic allowed everypony, no, everyone to use magic. You see, that type of magic wasn't channeled through a horn like mine, but instead it was summoned through incantations and rituals."

Great, Felicity just made magic, the first thing taught to foals, complicated!

"The ponies adept in ancient magic often prayed to gods and thought that they had granted them this magic, but that's not important. That magic was so dangerous it often hurt the casters, or worse. And so, after a while, I think in the time of Star Swirled the Bearded, ancient pony magic was banned and ponies like him pioneered the magic we are all accustomed to."

"So, how is it possible for this ancient pony magic to exist if it was banned?" Daring asked.

Felicity opened the book proudly, as if she's been waiting for years for a chance to use this book; she read a few lines, dropped the book, and braced herself. A few moments later, her horn shined but it wasn't dull green like before, it was a black color.

The magic scared Daring, she'll admit. It felt like the entire thing was unnatural, like it shouldn't exist. The entire cave got colder from Felicity's magic and Dare just wanted to hide under her covers and sleep. She isn't afraid of anything, she'll fight giant snakes with no fear; but this, this unnatural display of magic terrified her.

After a few moments, Felicity's shadow literally popped off the ground and stood, entirely three dimensional, in front of Dare. Felicity panted and sweated, exhausted from her spell.

"There are still a few books out there," Felicity admitted. "But, in order to keep them out of the hooves of ponies, I managed to buy a majority of them. So far, there should be only two left in the world."

Felicity's shadow looked around, confused as to why it was brought to life. It looked at Daring with its empty black sockets, titled its head and tackled her. Daring yelped as the shadow quickly overpowered her. Felicity blasted the shadow with more magic and it melted back into the ground and returned to its rightful position.

"Sorry about that," Felicity blushed. "That shadow spell pulls all of the potential and strength of the pony it was casted on. It was a common spell back then, and was used frequently."

"In what? Wars?"

Felicity didn't answer. She turned back to the computer and studied the ancient magic's structure. "So, how does ancient pony magic lead us to Ahuizotl?" asked Daring.

"It doesn't. It shows up what we're up against. I only have a few theories, but there are only a couple of ponies and other magicians capable of ancient magic."

"Like?"

Felicity stopped typing. "W-well, that doesn't really matter, it couldn't be them…"

Noticing that Daring was just as silent as her, Felicity cleared her throat. "Anyways, we have a means of tracking them."

She pressed a few keys and a map of Manehattan appeared with a red dot in the middle of the Broncs.

"Tracking device," Felicity says, preemptively answering Dare's next question. "Flair had one built into his bowtie, in the event he was kidnapped."

"Or if the cleaners threw away his clothes." Mumbled Dare.

"So, we know where they are, let's just go ahead and get them."

"Wait, wait," Daring looked at the map a little closer. "That's like, thirty minutes from here! We won't make it any time soon."

"Oh, ye of little faith," she grinned as she pressed a button on her belt. A section of the cave opened up behind Daring, and her smile widened until it reached its physical limits.

"Oh, I can dig this."

~--~

Gliding over the city of Manehattan was an amazing experience. Sure, Daring often flew everywhere she went and being a pegasus, flying shouldn't be seen as an amazing thing. But flying this way was much cooler than anything Daring could reproduce.

Both Daring and Felicity were standing atop a hover board, gliding well above the city. Felicity had explained, in extra special detail, about the anti-gravitational pads under the board that enable it to glide giving the illusion of flight, but Daring didn't understand any of that; all she knew was that she was flying!.. Well, without her wings, which makes it different.

Felicity held the tracker device in front of her and with that mask and hat on, Daring thought it was a different pony entirely. Mare Do Well was quiet and stoic, but Felicity was eccentric, awkward, and a little cute when she got all riled up on science. When she got excited, she talked and talked even though nopony would be able to understand her.

The two ponies may be the same, but they were entirely different at the same time and, quite frankly, Daring preferred Felicity over Mare Do Well.

Thanks to Felicity's crazy contraption, the two made it to the Broncs in record time. They stopped over a local playground, looking around, Daring didn't notice anything.

"Why are we stopping?" she asked.

Felicity pointed behind the playground which opened up to an amazing park. Under the cover of the night and the surrounding trees, Daring wouldn't have noticed them, but there they were. The several hundred ponies from the party and Ahuizotl watching all of them.

She bit her lips, everypony other than Ahuizotl's goons were on the floor, facedown.

"Calm down," Felicity said. "They're only unconscious."

She showed Daring the tracking device which read Flair's electrical activity.

"Notice his alpha brain waves, they indicate-"

"English." Daring interrupted.

"Essentially, he's sleeping."

It was startling to see how much of a difference there was between Mare Do Well and Felicity. They even spoke differently, Felicity's voice was higher pitch and livelier, while Mare Do Well was sultry, slower and deliberate.

From up here, Daring could see nearly everything. The unicorns from earlier were running around frantic, gathering a bunch of weird things and bringing them to Ahuizotl… no, it wasn't to him, it was to this statue.

The statue was of an alicorn and boy, did she look mad. Her expression was of pure hatred and if looks could kill… well...

Anyways, they were bringing things like a robe, leather necklace, and a stone amulet. Daring didn't recognize any of those things, they weren't things she would find in an equinlogical ruin, they all looked like... personal items, like things this pony owned before she was turned into a statue.

But that's impossible; nopony can be turned into a statue… right?

She looked at Felicity who, despite the mask, looked at the statue with pure fear.

"Who is that?" Dare asked.

"Let's just… go and deal with this as quickly as possible."

They landed the hover board silently and hid in a bush. Peeking their heads out, they could easily hear Ahuizotl roar at the workers.

"Fools!" he said. "That should not go there, it's over here!"

He walked over to the statue, past an annoyed pony, and placed a slipper by her right foreleg, not the left.

"Honestly, good work is so difficult to find these days." He muttered.

But Daring wasn't paying attention to him, she gasped when she saw Herpy unconscious right next to a Minotaur.

"Flair." Felicity said, voice quivering.

"Wait, Flair's a Minotaur?"

"Down!"

She pushed Dare down the bush as one of the ponies came over to investigate the talking bush. He looked at the bush with deep scrutiny, but was unable to see the hiding mares. At the last second, they pulled him into the bush and after a few seconds the rustling stopped.

Pinning the pony down, Daring glared at him, "Where's Dent?!" she asked in a hushed voice.

"What?"

"Sorry, I mean, what are you guys doing here?"

The pony smiled evilly and his horn began to shine. Lighting up the dark park, the pony began to… shape shift. It molded and changed forms, just like that molecular structure, until a black thing was underneath Dare.

It had wings, but they were the wings of a dragonfly, its horn was curved and looked much sharper than a unicorn's horn. Its eyes were the deepest shade of blue.

"Changeling?" Felicity cried.

Without warning, the changeling screeched at such a high frequency it deafened Dare and Felicity. While they were distracted, the changeling jumped, and took flight back to Ahuizotl. He screeched again, communicating what had happened. And Ahuizotl turned to the two mares, smiling all the while.

"Ah, Ms. Do, lovely to see you." He purred, relishing this opportunity to beat up Dare again.

"Sorry to say that the feeling isn't mutual," she shot back.

"I'm afraid you're too late.”

"For what?”

Felicity wasn't in the mood for this back and forth and threw a boomerang at him. Deflecting it with his tail, he laughed.

"You might want to tell your friend there to calm down." He advised, snickering.

"You used changelings. To impersonate me and get Dare off your trail right?" Felicity deduced, a little faster than Daring, which kinda annoyed her.

"Your reputation certainly precedes you," he gestured to a random unicorn who shape shifted into Mare Do Well. "But yes. I had hoped to throw Daring off the trail by sending her to you."

"That obviously failed when you set up your entire operation here, I happen to live in Manehattan you know?" Felicity shot back.

Ahuizotl shrugged. "I'll admit, it wasn't the best laid out plan. But, as mentioned before, you're too late."

Nodding toward another changeling, his horn began to glow until wisps of magic surrounded the entire park. The magic began to surround each of the unconscious ponies, and Flair, and began to go back to the stone statue.

Felicity wouldn't have this. She threw two more boomerangs at the changeling, but his buddies deflected them. Daring rushed him, but was intercepted by Ahuizotl, who slammed downward at her. Rolling out the way, she took out her whip, tied his legs and tripped him up.

Jumping on his body, she used it as a springboard and leapt up to the statue and the changeling. But before she could knock his block off, a force field pushed her back.

Ahuizotl laughed. "Too late! You lose!!"

Felicity, having taken care of the two changelings, turned to see the wisps of magic completely being absorbed into the statue. The ground rumbled and a shockwave was emitted from the statue. Felicity knew what was coming next; her heart dropped as the statue began to crack, revealing a powerful light of magic.

It cracked and crumbled in a matter of seconds, but whoever was in the statue was impatient to wait. Before all of the pieces could fall, the statue exploded.

“I LIVEEEEEEEE!!!!”

Her voice echoed throughout the park and heck, probably throughout all of the Broncs. What stood before them was not an alicorn; it was another changeling.

She was tall, fully grown, and wicked. Unlike the angular bodies of ponies, her body was very smooth and curvy. Her ears were kind of like bunny ears, as they were much larger than any of the changelings around here. She was pure black with a blue hue. Her wings, like other changelings, were like ones of a dragonfly. And she had holes all over her legs. Her mane was long and almost elegant as it was done up in curls, it was a deep purple and glowed with power. Even her tail was fashioned beautifully; in fact, she would have looked beautiful, the most pretties of changelings if it hadn't been for her horn.

It was jagged and cut at the top, as if someone cut her horn in half. Her eyes, a dark blue, had an unseen fire in them, she was enjoying being back to life not because she was happy to see all of her changeling cousins, but because she has been waiting and planning this for… eons.

Daring could see it in her eyes, her patience, and her calm but destructive nature.

All of the changelings assumed their original form and bowed before her. She regarded them calmly before stepping down from the stand; everypony was dead silent, even Ahuizotl didn't bother to gloat.

Finally, this changeling turned to look at Daring and smiled as if they were sharing a joke.

"You are my savior, no?" she asked, turning to Ahuizotl who bowed and groveled like a professional.

"Yes, Princess Danus. I have released you from you prison and-"

"Who are these foals?" she asked, pointing at Daring and Felicity.

Daring stepped back nervously, why was she so afraid of Danus? She couldn't bring herself to say something witty, or do anything; she just wanted to grovel like Ahuizotl.

"Heroes from Celestia?" wondered Danus. "It has been eons since I have tested my mettle against Celestia's best. Tell me, who are you?"

Daring managed to swallow her fear; she ran forward and did the craziest thing in her life. She charged the changeling princess. Jumping up, she executed a perfect dragon kick. "My name's Daring Do! And I don't care for who you are, so shut your mouth!"

The kick would've connected with Danus's head, but her force-field shot Daring back and slammed her into the ground.

"They don't make them like they used to," mused Danus.

Felicity looked at Danus, she was much taller than her; Danus was at least as tall as Celestia. And, if that display of power wasn't enough, she is probably as strong as her.

Corkscrew came up to Danus, holding the turquoise serpent in his hooves, and as he bowed to give it to her, he shape shifted into a changeling. Okay, the pieces are coming together.

"Here, my princess, a gift," Corkscrew said.

She looked at the serpent and smiled darkly. "Excellent! You have done well!"

Felicity took her chance; she rushed Danus, horn glowing with magic, and jumped to tackle her. Ahuizotl got in the way and swiped at her. Teleporting, she ended up above Danus who smiled at her.

"You are impressive, I'll grant you that, but," Danus's magic shot out and collided with Felicity who crumbled to the ground. Her insides felt like they were burning, the pain was so intense she couldn't think straight. "You are still no match for me, posing as an alicorn, humph, a worthy disguise. But shall we see who is under that mask?"

"My princess," Ahuizotl said suddenly upon the sound of police sirens. "More are coming. We should make ourselves scarce."

She turned back to Ahuizotl, her expression contorted into anger. "We? My dear, there is no we, only myself and my changelings!"

The changelings growled with joy at that as they slowly began to surround Ahuizotl.

"I have no further use for you. Actually…" her horn glowed again and a green wisp of magic emerged from Ahuizotl's mouth and straight into Danus's. Ahuizotl's eyes rolled back and he passed out. "Another soul wouldn't hurt the cause."

She then looked down at Felicity, who writhed in pain. "Consider me merciful, if you still draw breath after tonight."

With that, Danus and the other changelings teleported.

Thankfully, Daring, who was playing possum, recovered fast and managed to get Felicity away from the scene as the police arrived. When Felicity snapped back to reality, they were in the subway. Daring had taken off Felicity's outfit, so she wouldn't be awkwardly dragging an unconscious Mare Do Well into the subway.

When she woke up, her head was on Daring's lap. Daring was messing with one of Felicity's boomerangs, but when she woke up, Daring looked down and smiled.

"Ah, she awakens!"

Felicity sat up, head pounding and her insides felt like somepony microwaved them.

"What happened?"

Daring explained everything past Felicity's attempt to stop Danus. The news deflated her confidence.

"B-but, those ponies kidnapped by those changelings are still alive! I checked, they wouldn't wake up but they were still sleeping. The police probably have them now." Daring said, trying to cheer her up.

"Changelings are creatures that feed off of the emotions of ponies. The easiest to obtain - and the most potent - being love. But, Changelings can also simply take the soul of the ponies. It gives them less power than love would, but it is quantity over quality."

"They had gathered one hundred ponies!" cried Daring, piecing it together. "To take all of their souls. All of that would be at least the same quality of a love-struck pony, right?"

Felicity nodded. "All of those ponies were enough to revive Danus."

They sat there, mulling over those news. A powerful changeling princess who is as strong as Princess Celestia is rampaging over Equestria with an army of changelings and a stone serpent.

Daring's head snapped back up. "What about that serpent? What do you think they're doing with that?"

Felicity thought about it for a few seconds. "The serpent is in the same vein as those changelings. Ancient and powerful, the magic of that serpent is probably equal to those changelings. And... think about the mythology behind it. It was formally a god that, before his demise, was transformed into its stone prison and has been that way for centuries."

"But, so what, it isn't like there is a god in that snake. I mean, that's…" she wanted to say impossible, but Daring just witnessed a changeling pop right out of a statue like the serpent's.

"Point is, whatever they plan to do with that serpent isn't going to be to throw a party." Felicity tried to stand up, but her legs felt like jelly, she would've fallen if it wasn't for Dare.

"Whoa there, you look terrible, you should rest."

Felicity shook Dare off. "We need to track Danus, who knows what they'll do."

Daring stepped in front of her. "How? We don't know where they're going."

She smiled, and levitated the tracking device in front of Daring. "Yeah, we do."

"You're good. Mare Do Well gambit, you think of everything huh?"

But, Felicity was more tired than she put on. She nearly collapsed right there, Daring caught her and had to drag her to the train. According to the tracking device, Danus was heading west, to Las Pegasus. They would need a ride.

They took the train over to the Grand Middle Terminal, and got tickets to Las Pegasus. Felicity was unconscious the entire time, man the mare could sleep, she only woke up when they were on the overhead train.

Felicity sat up and gasped. "Where's Danus?!"

Daring had to calm her down before they got kicked off. "Fleece, we're in Grand Middle Terminal. We're going to be following Danus, all right? She's headed to Las Pegasus."

Thankfully, she calmed down and focused on Dare.

"Las Pegasus… why would she be headed there..."

Daring wanted to answer but yawned. Felicity sat up and got a good look at Dare, she looked exhausted.

"You should sleep."

"No, I'm fine." Dare insisted.

"I know a sleep spell, don't make me use it."

Felicity looked serious about the spell, so Daring didn't argue. She leaned her head against Felicity's shoulder and feel into a deep sleep.

Her dream was… well, certainly abnormal than most of her dreams. She was standing in a temple ruin, with a bunch of dancing ponies. The place was built like a fortress, made entirely out of obsidian; it gleamed a wicked purple against the moonlight. The ponies wore black clothing with the simple of the moon where their cutie marks should be.

When Daring looked straight on at these dancing ponies, she could see right through them, but when she looked at them through her peripheral vision, she could see them just fine; they were ghosts.

Creepy! Dare backed up from the dancing ghosts and into a brick wall. Turning, she saw Nightmare Moon.

Wait, Nightmare Moon?!

Jumping back, Daring yelped and prepared for a fight. But Nightmare Moon just stood there, smiling sincerely at her. Her image flickered, like mist, and she could see Princess Luna this time. It was like the ghosts, if she didn't focus on Luna, she could see her perfectly with Nightmare Moon behind her like a hologram.

"Princess Luna?" she asked, bowing instinctively. "You... This isn't real, is it?"

"RISE FAIR DARING- oh, whoops," Luna giggled, embarrassed. "I mean, rise, fair Daring Do."

After Daring's ears recovered, she asked, "You aren't really here, this is a dream right?"

Luna looked at the dancing ponies; they ignored Luna and Dare and just continued to dance eternally. "Yes, and no."

Oh great, another complicated explanation.

"Being princess of the night, my power is at its strongest when the moon is out; consequently, I am able to appear in the dreams of ponies."

"Right…"

Luna laughed at Dare's obvious frustration. "It may sound complicated, but it is quite simple. Just think of me as the Sandmare."

"Okay, well, where is this place? What's with the ghosts? Why have you appeared before me in a dream? What's going on?"

Luna gestured toward the ghosts and the ruins. "This is the Temple of Nightmare Moon. You've been here before."

Daring looked more carefully and recognized the ruins, except, last time she was here it wasn't as… lively.

"Though, quite frankly, this is simply my summer home. The ponies here, bless their hearts, converted the place into a temple to worship Nightmare Moon. These are the ghosts of those worshippers."

The dancing ghosts looked so sad and empty; even though they were all dancing none of them looked like they enjoyed it.

"Right, dancing ghosts," Daring's legs quivered, these ghosts made her nervous, not as much as Nightmare Moon though. "Okay, but why are you here? I mean, no offense Princess Luna, but I don't want to be dreaming about ghosts."

Luna considered the thought for a few seconds; behind her, Nightmare Moon was looking down on Dare, licking her lips as if the tasty prospect of an adventurer was too much for her.

"Nightmare Moon's power grows every night," Luna said finally. "In the winter months, night is much longer than usual, which gives her more time to increase her power and gives her more opportunities to whisper in the ears of ponies."

"Princess," Daring interrupted. "What does that have to do with me? You may have been away for a long time, but things out here aren't great either. The changeling princess Danus is causing chaos out there and she has an ancient artifact that may-"

Princess Luna put up her hoof to stop Daring. "I know this already. And, believe it or not, my problem with Nightmare Moon and yours with Danus are interconnected."

Just then, Daring became entirely transparent. She looked at her hooves but was able to see through them! Glancing back up, she noticed that Luna was transparent as well. Just then, the two mares began to float up to the night sky.

Like flying, this floating sensation was also pretty amazing but terrifying at the same time. Usually, when Dare flies, she is able to control every aspect about it, how fast she's going, where she's going, etc., but in this instance everything was controlled by Luna.

They passed Inti the dragon, trapped in his starry prison. Dare felt obligated to wave or something, but he must have not noticed her as he just roared in excoriating pain. Ten seconds later, they were on the moon.

Landing on the surface, Dare wanted to ask why they were there but Luna simply gestured forward. At first, she couldn't see it; all she saw was the gray surface of the moon. But, like those ghosts from before she wasn't able to see it until she unfocused her eyes.

Dare nearly jumped out of her ghostly skin from what she saw.

On the ground in front of her was a huge black mass that took up three miles, stretching out much farther than she could even see. Her eyes couldn't even see where this mass ended and the moon began; no, she could see it now. The black mass had strange white bracelet-like things at the ends of it that shined so bright she was even able to see one a mile away.

The more she looked at it, the more she saw it for what it really was. The black mass wasn't a mass entirely, it was a pony. Its right hoof was in front of Dare while the head was farther north; the pony was struggled and was trying desperately to get out, as if the moon was sucking it inside.

"Is that…" she breathed finally, for once, she didn't want an answer.

"Nightmare Moon's true form," Luna answered. "Her chains are the stars themselves."

Luna pointed at the monster pony's body, showing a huge chain roped around its body that glowed so intensely that even in ghost form Daring could feel how hot it was. And just to make a point, Nightmare Moon roared in pain and agony and shook the entire moon, Dare wouldn't be surprised if that roar could be heard on Equestria.

"Every passing second she spends trying to break those chains," explained Luna. "I have been able to keep her from breaking free for now. But, I fear that there are those who wish to accelerate her escape."

"Danus," carefully enunciating her name, Daring couldn't believe the scale of things now. Danus wasn't just some pouty princess, she wanted to release this monstrosity. "But, wait, if Nightmare Moon is released, wouldn't you be as well? You can control her."

Smiling, Dare realized just how similar Luna was to Celestia, she may not be as tall but they had the same smile, the same "oh-silly-little-mare-when-will-you-learn" look in their eyes.

"I'm afraid not. Remember the legends; when Nightmare Moon first appeared it took advantage of my jealousy and insecurity and I lost control of it. Nightmare Moon is uncontrollable and too powerful to deal with alone. Though, she and I are one and the same, in theory if Nightmare Moon is released I should be as well."

That gave her a little bit of hope, it might be as Luna says in that she can't control Nightmare Moon, but you can't underestimate the power of a princess.

"We'll have to stop her before then," said Dare, anxious to sock that changeling. "And hey, if push comes to shove we have you on our side."

Luna smiled, but it was a forced one, as if she were withholding something. She looked like she wanted to say it. "Good luck on your journey fair Daring Do. You and Ms. Peridot are our hopes."

The dream faded; the last thing she saw was Nightmare Moon's angered expression, like she looked forward to the coming events.

Comments

[redmar]

If they wish to realease Nightmare Moon they're rather stupid she's not one for gratitude towards changelings or towards Ahuizotl. Neither of them are doing this out of loyalty.