Daring Do and The Turquoise Serpent

by Time Pony Victorious

Chapter 9

IX

DARING DO

See Dare Run

Good news was they had an audience. There must have been at least a hundred or two ponies watching, there was even a news crew watching and police ponies came as well. Bad news, Danus's army seemed inexhaustible, they charged the police pony and engaged in all-out war.

More bad news, the egg was starting to hatch.

Felicity tossed Daring a pair of glasses to see well in the solar eclipse; they weren't really her style but she put them on.

"I'll go high," said Felicity.

"I'll go low," responded Dare.

A heartbeat later, the mares charged Danus. Felicity jumped, as expected, and bucked at her head while Dare went for a tackle. Her force field was erected and was going to deflect both of them, but Felicity's horn glowed and the force field shattered.

Surprised, Danus took a kick to the mouth as Dare tackled her legs, bringing her down. The changeling and Pegasus wrestled while Felicity began to fly over them. She pressed a button on her belt and a thin wire was produced; great, she was going to hog-tie Danus and Dare together.

"ENOUGH!" Danus's voice was like a shockwave and lifted Dare up and off the pyramid, Felicity's rope broke from the force and she was pushed back as well. Taking flight, Dare glided over to Felicity.

"This isn't working," remarked Felicity.

"Awesome input."

"Look." Felicity pointed at the skies that began to glow blood red. Lightning streaked the skies and thunder rumbled, shaking the entire pyramid. Looking at giant egg, it began to shake and crack, an eerie red aura was emitted from it shooting up to the sky. It was hatching.

"I'll deal with the snake, you distract Danus," ordered Felicity.

"Wait, distract? How? And how will you deal with a god?" But Felicity didn't answer and began to fly off toward the egg.

Great; she wondered if Danus liked tic-tac-toe.

Danus unfolded her wings and leapt with incredible strength; Dare raced to intercept but she wouldn't make it in time. Turns out, she didn't need to help, Felicity pressed her belt and her hooves began to glow. She somersaulted mid-air and kicked downward at Danus's head. The force was jarring and shook Dare's teeth.

Super strength! Felicity somehow harnessed all the powers of an alicorn; wings, magic, and the super strength of earth ponies! A kick like that should have easily shattered a pony's skull, but Danus must have been particularly hard-headed.

She shot downward, into the pyramid, and crashed through it completely demolishing half of it as a result. She broke through some of the top floors and ended up on the twenty-third floor!

"You wouldn't happen to be unconscious princess?" Daring called.

In response, Danus roared as loud as Inti.

"Just checking."

Dive-bombing down the changeling-shaped hole, Dare found herself in a nice corridor. This hotel was really nice! Dare thought should stay there next time she's in Las Pegasus. The carpet was so lush and soft under Dare's hooves, the chandeliers shimmered in a kaleidoscopic manner, and the light fixtures were beautiful!

Some ponies had left their rooms to investigate what was going on, they saw Daring standing next to a very angry changeling. Some took pictures while others hightailed it, promising to write a bad review.

"Come on," Dare coaxed. "I'm right here princess."

"You will regret this pegasus. I will have to teach you how to conduct yourself in front of royalty."

Fighting Danus wouldn't work out; Daring had learned that the hard way. After a few exchanges, Danus got really mad and began that "I-can-shoot-fireballs-from-my-horn-run-little-pony" thing that forced Dare to make a quick exit.

Running through the corridors, Dare had to dodge fireballs being shot on either side of her. She considered taking the elevator, but being microwaved wasn't on Daring's to-do list. Rolling into the stairway, Dare galloped as fast she could down the flight of stairs hoping that it would slow, or even inconvenience, Danus.

The stairway exploded and Danus came in, flying, with her eyes glowing and her horn burning with magic. She spotted Dare, grinned, and four fireballs came at her.

Jumping over the railing, she felt the heat of the fire on her wings; any closer and she would be on fire. Falling straight down the stairway while it catches on fire was invigorating, but Dare's life didn't flash before her eyes; she didn't receive any existential wisdom from the great beyond, no, the only thought in her mind was, "AHHHH!!"

At the fifth floor she opened her wings but was coming in too fast. She hit the floor hard and crumbled to the ground. Her body was aching so much that laying there was an incredible temptation, but Danus's evil laughter snapped her back to reality.

Getting up, Dare opened the door leading to the lobby. Despite the chaos in the pyramid and the eclipse, there were actually a good number of ponies relaxing here, happy that there isn't a rampaging changeling here to ruin their day.

Dare had a knack of ruining expectations.

"Get out of here!" she cried, galloping into the lobby. "Come on, all of you ponies need to get out!"

They all looked at her strange and she couldn't blame them. Her clothes were singed, her mane was black and had the texture of a forest after a fire, and she smelled really bad.

But, before security could throw her out, the door to the stairway burst into flames and Danus jumped out into the lobby. Screaming, the entire lobby fell into chaos as ponies everywhere tried to make a quick escape, nearly trampling Dare along the way.

Danus reared and slammed her hooves where Dare used to be. Dare managed to back-flip away from it, but the impact was so strong it dented the floor and its resounding aftershock pushed her back into the main desk.

Danus laughed. "You pathetic foal, how much of a threat do you think you are? You are a mere pegasus! No match for me! At least your little friend is clever, I will enjoy destroying her."

Just then, the air pressure dropped incredibly fast; Dare's ears popped and she got goosebumps. Thunder rumbled inside the lobby and a bolt of lightning lined the floor with flames and hit Danus straight on.

She flew across the lobby and outside the hotel. Dare looked at the lightning-hurler to see Felicity there, electricity surrounding her body like so many arms.

"Whoa!" Dare cried, ecstatic at Felicity's sudden power-up. "How are you doing that?!"

Felicity looked at Dare and even though she was wearing a mask, Dare know she was smiling. "Ancient pony magic. Really powerful and dangerous stuff, but that's not important, I've got good news and bad news."

"Bad news?"

"Yeah, the egg hatched."

"WHAT?! Fleece, that isn't bad news, that's catastrophic!"

"Good news, I know how to stop him."

"Oh, well, uh, why didn't you say so-"

"More bad news, I need to touch Danus at least once to do it."

"Great…"

The doors exploded, debris flying everywhere and nearly hitting Dare but Felicity's electricity zapped it to particles.

"Lightning Blitz!" Danus declared. "You poor mimicry, you copy Lightning Blitz's technique so slovenly!"

"Lightning Blitz?" Dare asked.

She could almost see Felicity rolling her eyes. "Remind me to give you a copy of Obscure Pegasus History after this. Lightning Blitz was a Pegasus, no, the pegasus that managed to pioneer and master lightning manipulation. She was able to do it with her hooves freely with powerful magic, magic only seen by unicorns at that time. But, the technique proved to be too dangerous for other pegasi, as a result her spells were locked away."

"I remember Lightning Blitz," chimed Danus. "She was the one who did this to me!"

She pointed at her broken horn with an anguished expression. "But, no matter. For it is I who got the last laugh. Embarrassing the princess by damaging her horn, hmph, well, she felt the same embarrassment when I plucked her wings off.”

A shudder went down Dare's back. This changeling was dangerous and crazy! If she could take down and torture someone as amazing as Lightning Blitz, she didn't want to think what she would do to Dare.

Maybe, in a few hundred or so years when ponies are retelling the Legend of the Turquoise Serpent and they recount about the brave Felicity being on par with an alicorn when they talk about the reckless Daring Do they won't mention how her wings were pulled right off.

She blinked. Wait, she thought there might be a way to be on par with these ponies. I don't have the magic of a unicorn, or the superstrength of an earth pony but…

"Fleece," she said, a bit nervous with her decision. "I'll get you close to her. Just… keep up, okay?"

It was a risky gamble. It could probably backfire entirely or maybe it'll work probably and she'll just destroy herself doing it. But hey, she was in a casino, maybe Fortuna would be looking over her at this moment.

Dare placed a hoof in one of her pockets and pulled out a tiny little amulet, something she had deemed worthless so long ago but is now depending on it to save her life.

She pulled the amulet over her neck. "All right, come on, let's go!"

The amulet glowed, filling Dare's body with warmth and power, like she could run a million miles. Without warning, Daring appeared in front of Danus in less than a second, moving so fast that she kicked her right in the jaw, slamming her into the ceiling. She moved so fast Felicity didn't even notice her moving until Danus crashed back into the ground.

Danus coughed and stood up; man she was sturdy!

"Arion the Swift," Danus remarked bitterly. "I never would have thought I would experience his superspeed again."

"Whoa, you have Arion's amulet?! Wait, why didn't you use it earlier, we could've got here a lot faster than-"

"Fleece, we're kind of on a schedule here."

Danus laughed. "You foals are too late. Xiuhcoatl is already on the move."

On cue, the entire building shook and began to break apart. The roof was torn off, revealing the eclipsed sky and a sun overhead. No, that wasn't the sun. It was a huge vortex! It was sucking up the entire building and right around the building was…

Oh, ponyfeathers.

A snake coiled around the vortex, it was so big that it eclipsed the entire sky. She could hear the snake hiss, it sounded like a massive thunderstorm overhead. Dare ran to the door but began to get sucked up by the vortex. Felicity flew to Dare, tackled her, and teleported away.

They reappeared right outside the building; well, at least the spot where it used to be. The Luxhoof Hotel was gone.

Xiuhcoatl uncoiled himself and began to fly away. "Oh, that's it?" asked Dare.

But she ate her words immediately; Xiuhcoatl began to fly up, higher and higher, until he was at the sun.

"No…"

Even from this far away, they could see Xiuhcoatl grow bigger and bigger until the sun was a gumball to him. He opened his mouth… and swallowed the sun.

The entire world darkened instantly, the only light was from the moon which was depressingly low. It would be impossible for the moon to shine, but it did, it glowed like a small nightlight in a densely dark room.

"Still think your little plan is gonna work?" asked Dare, naïvely trying to hide her shaky voice.

"Y-yes," Felicity cleared her throat. "I mean, yes. I just need to touch Danus and it'll be fine… hopefully."

"Well, that's all I need to hear, try not to slow me down Peri."

Felicity snickered. "Same goes to you Bird Brain."

"You still cling to your naïve hope?" Danus asked, appearing in the darkness as two glowing spheres, no, those were her eyes. "You lost. The sun is mine, and the moon is next. It would be best for you if you simply lie down, maybe then I'll forgive your impertinence."

"Well, there's one thing you gotta know about us." Felicity stepped forward, as confident as ever. "She's very impertinent, I'm very stubborn, and the two of us? We don't lose."

Dare ran forward at the speed of sound and tried to tackle Danus, unfortunately she must have fought (or dated) Arion a lot because she saw her maneuver coming. It didn't matter how fast she was going, Danus side-stepped and kicked Dare. Her momentum sent her sliding through the hot desert ground at the speed of sound.

But it didn't matter, the plan worked.

While Danus was distracted, at the half-second, Felicity teleported behind her, electricity surrounding her, and she pounced on Danus. The electricity burned Danus but didn't seem to bother her as the two wrestled and rolled around until Felicity finally jumped away.

"Got it! Now, keep distracting her please, I'll be back!" Without an explanation, Felicity ran off.

She didn't know what Felicity did, if she mugged Danus or tickled her, but whatever she did must have been important because Danus was steamed.

She glowered with such power; she looked like she could incinerate Felicity with a thought.

Dare ran in front of her and pawed at the ground threateningly. "Sorry princess, gotta deal with me first."

"So be it."

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