8-6: Rescue
They traipsed through the jungle for a bit, and it was oddly quiet. Besides the ambient noises there was only the sound of their own hoofsteps.
“Hey, Flash,” said Mayhem. “We don’t want to get too close to them until we know where they’re taking Daring. Why don’t you go up into the air and see if you can spot them?”
He nodded, saluting. “You got it!”
They paused as Flash took to the skies. He went up about thirty feet, scanning the jungle.
He came back down a short while later. “Spotted them! They seem to be headed for a structure off in the distance.”
“Then let’s follow them,” said Sweet Pea.
They walked for a few minutes, Flash going up now and again to track their progress.
“Ummm,” said Plum awkwardly. “I want to save Daring too, but do any of you have any idea how we’re supposed to do that? There’s a lot more of them than there are of us. They’re also a lot bigger and stronger too.”
“They’re not going to be expecting us to follow them,” said Mayhem. “That gives us the element of surprise.”
Flash hovered in the air and clopped his hooves together. “These ancient ponies are fond of their traps, right? I say we set up a trap of our own!”
“What did you have in mind?” asked Chocolate.
“We cause a distraction and get them to follow us, then we trap as many of them as possible. From what I saw all of Ahuizotl’s henchponies are earth ponies. I think a nice pit is in order.”
Plum smirked. “I like that idea.”
They stopped about twenty feet from the edge of the clearing that led to the temple. They couldn’t dig a pit out in the open.
While the other kids dug holes with their hooves Mayhem sped the process along by making fully formed holes in the dirt.
With some covering they managed to disguise the holes.
With their traps set up they came out into the open, throwing rocks at the ponies guarding the entrance.
Their plan worked like a charm. They gave chase as the children ran back into the woods.
“Come back here, you brats!”
“We let you get away, and this is the thanks we get?”
“Stop those kids! Bring them before Ahuizotl and let them be set right next to Daring Do!”
“Surround them! Use our numbers to our advantage and don’t let a single one get away!”
It wasn’t long before the trap was sprung, and the surprised henchponies were letting out cries of shock, the earth crumbling beneath them as they fell into holes.
The ones in the back managed to stop themselves before they fell in, only to turn to the sound of determined yells behind them.
The children swung from the tree vines, kicking the stragglers into the holes with the others.
The five kids met up, slapping hooves and cheering at how successful their strategy had been.
Twilight quietly clapped, pleased with their teamwork. She was still enjoying herself very much, even if she had to stay on the sidelines.
“That won’t hold them forever,” said Mayhem, “but that doesn’t matter. As long as the path to Daring is clear that’s all that’s important right now.”
“I think that was most of them,” said Flash, his eyes twinkling with excitement. He was having as much fun now as he did during their pirate adventure. “Let’s go rescue Daring!”
“YEAH!” the others yelled, running for the structure.
It was much smaller than the temple they had just been in. It just seemed to be one big room with a raised altar in the middle. Sunlight streamed in through various carved holes in the ceiling and walls.
In the center was what looked like a giant telescope, as well as a tall, thin covered object. Ahuizotl was standing in front of Daring Do, her chained up to a slab.
Ahuizotl looked up towards the ceiling. “Soon… very soon. When the sun is completely overhead the light will filter through the lenses and the jewels, growing stronger with each one."
“You won’t prevail, Ahuizotl!” Daring said defiantly. “Even if you defeat me someone else will stop you. Evil never wins for long.”
Ahuizotl chuckled. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
He rose up, putting his tail hand on top of the scope. “Let’s just see how long that mouth of yours will continue to run." He pulled off the top, and the area about ten feet above Daring’s head suddenly began to melt.
Daring gasped.
“Oh, Daring. Just look at the delicious terror you’re experiencing. It’s just what I’ve been waiting for.” He pulled the cover off of the tall, thin object, revealing a full length mirror, facing it towards her. “Can you see it?” he asked maliciously. “I shouldn’t be the only one to enjoy this sight.”
Daring did look into the mirror, not liking what she saw there. She looked so pathetic.
Ahuizotl laughed spitefully. “Oh, you do seem to be enjoying it. I just saw the hope draining from you.”
Daring couldn’t stand his taunting. She began to struggle, arcing her back and trying to escape, but she quickly stopped, panting.
“Just look at you. Is that really all you can muster?”
Daring growled, her eyes closing for a few moments before she jerked herself back to alertness. “Darn it! I don’t have any strength.”
“Wonderful!” He clapped.
A bead of sweat came down her face, but even if her body couldn’t do anything her mouth still worked. “You went through all that work gathering the jewels, and for what? A tiny little beam two inches around? Some doomsday weapon.”
Instead of looking annoyed Ahuizotl began to laugh uproariously. When he got himself under control he reached inside a bag tied to his side. “You fool!”
Daring gaped as he pulled out three jewels of red, yellow, and blue. “W-wha-”
“Magnifying the sun’s rays is easy with a few lenses, but if that was all it was I wouldn’t need the jewels.”
He pushed one of three buttons on the side of the telescope, and a panel came out with an indentation in the shape of a jewel. He placed it inside, then pushed the button again, causing it to go inside.
The intensity of the beam magnified several times over, melting Daring’s hat. The hat split into two and fell on either side of her as it continued melting.
“And that is with just one jewel,” Ahuizotl said with dark amusement.
Daring was panting heavily. Not just from fear, but from the heat as well.
Ahuizotl seemed to grasp this after a few moments, as he placed the cover back on the top of the telescope.
He casually threw the other two jewels into the air and began to juggle them as he looked skyward to a hole in the ceiling. “Just a little longer before this will be at maximum strength. When the sun is completely overhead and combined with the power of the three jewels this whole place will become nothing but a smoking wasteland.”
He hit the second button and placed the second jewel, then continued to throw the remaining jewel up and down before catching it.
“How does it feel, Daring Do? To be so helpless… so powerless? How does the taste of defeat feel?” He saw Daring’s head drop. “Oh, did you pass out again? I hope you’re not going to be asleep for the finale.”
“I… I may have lost,” Daring said weakly, “but I still believe.”
Ahuizotl’s eyebrow rose. “You believe? Believe what?”
“I believe in those that will come after me. Your kind will always be stopped in the end.”
He rolled his eyes, slamming a fist into the third button. “How boring! I would hope your final words would be a little more interesting.”
He threw the final jewel into the air one last time as he prepared to put it in. He lifted his hand and closed his fist, only to feel empty air. “Huh?” He opened his fist to confirm it wasn’t there. He quickly looked around the ground, knowing he hadn’t heard the sound of it falling.
He heard a laugh above him, and looked up to see Flash flying above him with a stupid grin as he held up the jewel. “YOU!”
“Me,” said Flash, letting out mocking laughter.
Ahuizotl jumped at him, only for Flash to fly higher out of his range.
He heard the sound of clopping hooves approaching, and turned to see the other children. They used their whips to grab his legs and trip him to the ground.
“Y-you guys,” Daring said in amazement. “W-what are you doing here?”
Sweet Pea chuckled. “It’s just like you said. You believe in the ones who come after you. That’s why we’re all going to fight to save you.”
Daring gave them a cocky smile. “Go for it!”
Ahuizotl got up with a roar. “I have waited too long for this, and I’m not going to have my revenge ruined by a couple of brats!” He stomped on a tile, and a panel at the bottom of the altar opened, shooting out a net towards them.
Chocolate sensed the trap coming and threw himself in front of it to protect the others, but the momentum knocked him backwards and it grabbed all of them.
Flash gasped. He lifted the jewel up high. He knew he needed to help the others, but once he got near the ground it would risk Ahuizotl getting the jewel. He had to smash it.
“I wouldn’t do that!” Ahuizotl said with barely contained rage.
Flash was going to just ignore him until he heard the gasping breath of Daring. He turned and saw that Ahuizotl had his tail hand around her throat.
“Give… me… the … jewel,” he said slowly. “NOW!”
“D-don’t!” Daring wheezed out. “Pro… tect… E-ques-tri-a!”
Flash hovered there indecisively, the jewel still high above his head.
Off to the side Twilight was biting her hoof. Things were reaching a precarious point. How were they going to get out of this? Was Ahuizotl finally going to triumph? Was Flash going to choose Equestria over Daring?
Daring was starting to turn blue from lack of oxygen, and Flash lowered his raised legs, coming down to the ground. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t just sit there and watch Daring Do die.
When he saw Flash approaching he moved his hand a bit to allow Daring to breathe, but still kept it firmly against her throat.
Daring gasped in breath for a bit as Flash climbed the stairs.
Mayhem was trying to slice through the ropes just like he did before, but these ones were made of a much tougher quality than the ones before. He could only slowly saw through it a little bit at a time.
Flash approached, and Daring had gotten her breath back enough to say angrily, “What are you doing, kid? I told you to smash it! I’m not worth more than all of Equestria.”
“You’re too important to lose,” Flash replied. “I couldn’t abandon you when you put your faith in me.”
“Faith isn’t going to do squat when he destroys me anyway. At least if you smash the jewel you’ll limit the damage he can do even if he gets me! Now do what I tell you and break it!” She groaned as he pushed against her throat again.
“That’s enough out of you!” said Ahuizotl.
“Here!” said Flash. “Just stop.” He threw the jewel.
“At last!” he said, releasing Daring as he grabbed it out of the air.
He went up to the telescope and placed the jewel inside. “You stalled just long enough. Now it all ends!”
Just as he was about to take the top off the telescope it began to spark like crazy. “What? What’s going on?
“Did I put the jewels in the wrong order?”
He hit the button on the bottom. The panel with the blue jewel came out, electricity flying off it and shocking him.
He let out a howl of pain, falling to his knees.
“He he!” laughed Flash, holding up another blue jewel. “You’re not the only one who can pull that trap.”
“The fake!” said Daring with a chuckle. “It goes off a short time after it’s held. Too bad he was so quick to put the jewel in, but that had to have done some serious damage to the machine.
“Good work!”
Mayhem finally finished cutting through the ropes, and they all gathered on top of the altar in front of Daring. “You lose, Ahuizotl!”
He rose with a long, frustrated yell. “Enough! I don’t care anymore! Even if I can’t conquer the world I can still conquer my hated nemesis! You won’t be able to get Daring out of her restraints before I can direct all it’s power at you.”
“He’s right!” said Plum. They only had seconds before Ahuizotl would take the top off. They wouldn’t be able to get to him or the machine in time.
“The mirror!” Daring said urgently. “Use the mirror!”
They grabbed the base of the mirror and pulled it in front of Daring before spinning it around towards the machine just as Ahuizotl popped the top off.
The magnified sun rays reflected back at the machine, frying it to cinders.
The quick destruction of the machine was the only thing that stopped Ahuizotl from being completely fried as well, though he did receive some burns.
“Curse you, Daring Do!” he cried out as he looked at the destroyed telescope. “I will have my revenge on you one day! I swear it! You and your little cronies!”
With that he hobbled off.
“Wait!” said Chocolate.
“Let him go,” said Daring. “We won.”
With a little bit of effort they were able to get Daring out of her restraints. “All of you were amazing today. You’ve done a great service to Equestria. I always knew I could count on you.”
Stars twinkled in their eyes. “Thanks, Daring Do!”
“I’m sorry. I hope you didn’t take it seriously when I said all those horrible things about you.”
“No worries,” said Plum. “We know you just said what you had to in order to protect us.”
Flash grabbed the surviving jewel and held it out to Daring. “Would you like to do the honors?”
“I sure would!” Daring replied, taking it and flying into the air, then hurling it down. It smashed into a million pieces. She wobbled a bit, still weak, and Flash flew up to stabilize her until she was back on the ground.
“Sorry. I’m still a little shaky, but at least the power of the jewels can’t be misused ever again.”
She reached out and hugged them all. “Thank you, all of you, for coming with me. I know it was dangerous, but I couldn’t have done this without your help. I’ll never forget what you did for me.
“You’re all incredible.”
Warmth went through the children as they returned her hug.
They closed their eyes, enjoying the sensation and the magnitude of their achievement.
When next they opened their eyes they were back in the castle.
“Oh, wow,” said Flash with a calm smile. “I think that adventure was the best out of all of them.”
“I agree,” said Plum. “That blew my wish out of the water.”
“Mine too,” said Chocolate.
“That was perfect,” said Sweet Pea. “It was everything I could have wanted out of my wish and more.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” said Mayhem. “I had a lot of fun too.”
It was quiet for a little bit, then Flash got a somber look on his face. “Well… that was four wishes for four ponies. Does that mean it’s all over now?”
“For today,” said Twilight, rubbing his head. “But there’s always next time. I’m planning on making these wish granting scenario’s a weekly thing.”
“So we can all come back next week and do this again with new wishes?” asked Sweet Pea with a bright expression.
Twilight nodded. “I can’t always promise it will be you, though. There’s nothing wrong with having a set of very close friends, but I want to expose Mayhem to all kinds of ponies.
“Today was an experiment to see how he would handle himself, and things went very well.”
“Why wait a whole week?” asked Plum. “Does it take that long to recharge his magic?”
Twilight shook her head. “Not at all. The issue is that there needs to be a balance between play time and work time. Him getting bored is bad, as it slowly brings out the tiger in him, but him having too much of a good thing is equally bad.
“I don’t want him to get greedy with his magic. He needs to show that he can have enough restraint to not have play time whenever he wants it or he’ll start to grow spoiled.
“It’s also a matter of time. As princess I have a lot of royal duties to attend to, and so I can't be spending every day or even every other day playing around. Mayhem means well, but right now I’m too afraid to let him do this on his own.”
Chocolate gave her a searching look. “After how he acted today why don’t you trust in him?”
“That’s not just my feelings. It’s his wish also.”
Mayhem nodded. “After what happened the last time I’d really prefer if she’s always there to supervise. I need someone bigger and smarter to let me know if I’m going too far.”
“Hurting his friends made it clear to him how potentially dangerous his powers can be. That is why we both agree on this matter.
“I mean, just think about what might have happened if I wasn’t there when you asked him for a Power Ponies adventure. He was completely out of it, and that might have caused his powers to do things he didn’t want them to.
“It’s not that I think he’ll definitely harm someone if I’m not here, but neither of us want to see him harm someone else. It’s just safer for all of us if someone is there to supervise.”
They accepted that answer and didn’t fight her on it anymore.
Mayhem went to each of them and gave them a big hug. “Thank you for playing with me. I had a lot of fun with all of you, and I enjoyed your wishes.”
Flash grabbed him in a headlock, giving him a noogie. “Same to you! That was totally awesome!”
Mayhem chuckled. “Today was really just what I needed. I really haven’t been using my magic at all since last week since I was kinda scared of it, and I was starting to feel a little cooped up. Now I feel all better.”
“Glad to hear it,” said Plum.
Twilight and Mayhem walked the children home. Mayhem did feel a bit of sadness as he said goodbye to all of them, but he knew he’d see them all again next week.
Once they dropped all the children home Mayhem sat on Twilight’s back as she teleported to the castle.
He nuzzled her cheek as he hugged her neck. “I love you, Twilight,” he said in a dreamy voice. “Today was just so magical. There were a few little hiccups along the way, but I’m really glad everything worked out in the end.”
She nuzzled him back. “Love you too.”
“Hmm… I said I’d make you part of my family, but what does that make you? Aunt Twilight? Cousin Twilight?”
“I consider all my friends like family, but I don’t have any special titles for them. You don’t have to give me a family title unless you wish to.”
“Well, if it’s all the same to you I like just calling you Twilight. After all, we don’t need special titles to know we’re family, right? It’s just something you can feel in your heart.”
“I agree with you there.”
He floated off her back, kissing her on the cheek before hugging her from the front and nuzzling her again. “Thank you for giving me a second chance, Twilight.”
Twilight felt warm as she hugged him back. “It’s for moments like these that I give those second chances.” A tear came down her eye. “Seeing someone embrace that chance and watching their progress always makes it worth it.”
They released one another. “Well, I’m gonna go home. I went to tell Mommy all about today.”
“Alright, then. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
Just before Mayhem snapped they heard a frantic knocking on the front door of the castle.
“I wonder who that is?” asked Twilight. “As hard as they’re knocking there’s not a lot of weight to it. Sounds like a child.”
Mayhem stuck with Twilight as she went to answer the door. He was curious. Maybe one of his new friends had come back needing something.
Twilight opened the door. On the doorstep was a blue pegasus filly about Pound and Pumpkin’s age. She was panting heavily and looked in a state of panic. “H-help,” she gasped out.
She tried to speak, but she was so out of breath she couldn’t get another coherent word in.
Twilight took a quick look around to make sure there wasn’t any immediate danger in the area before she directed her attention back to the child. “Take a moment to catch your breath. I'm not busy, so there's no need to rush.”
The filly ignored her, still doing her best to speak despite her condition.
Twilight was afraid the child was going to make herself faint if she kept it up, and said meaningfully, “Mayhem.”
Mayhem looked up at her, then at the filly, feeling he knew what she wanted to ask.
With a snap the filly felt the pressure on her vanish, able to breathe regularly again. She took in a few breaths, already feeling amazed. If he could do this that easily for her then maybe...
“Alright,” said Twilight. “Now that you’re better tell me what it is that’s got you so worked up you couldn’t take a moment to compose yourself first.”
She looked tearfully up at Twilight. “I… I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t too late.” She looked down at the ground, shaking. “Maybe it already is. I… I just really needed to come here.”
Twilight sat down. “Are you in danger?”
The filly shook her head. “I came here for him.” She pointed at Mayhem.
“Me?” asked Mayhem, surprised.
She nodded, tears coming down her eyes. “I…” Her lip quivered. “I want to ask for a wish.”
HA HA! You thought this would end so simply? Well, think again. This arc is going into overtime! We're only halfway through the fun.
Who is this child? How does she know about Mayhem? What does she want to wish for?
Well, Delta? Is this unexpected visitor the thing you thought might come into play?
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So I wonder what her wish is going to be?
No, not at all. But I am intrigued. And possibly concerned. I hope her wish isn’t something...extreme I guess would be the word. Like bringing someone back to life, or asking to speak to someone who’s dead.
Huh. I wonder who this is...
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Man, all three of you just focused on the cliffhanger in your comments. Did you enjoy the conclusion of the Daring Do wish?
9906361 I did.
9906361
It was good. Just that twist at the end took us by surprise.
9906361
Absolutely. It was a lot of fun....its just the cliffhanger was really intriguing.
9904846
Whether you have an arc where Mayhem separates from Discord or not, it doesn't mean it can't be part of Draconequus lore. And it makes sense that children wouldn't consider a danger sense as a superpower, since children view super powers as being flashy. Equally, it doesn't have to be a super power to be flashy. Iron Man, Hawkeye, Batman, The Joker, none of them Actually have super powers. They're either pure skill, technology, or just insane.
When Flash gave back the gem, I figured that maybe he had already taken one of the gems from the telescope. And I suppose I was right. I just didn't consider that it would've been replaced by the phony gem.