Daring Do and the Hand of Doom

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 38: The Fourth Phase

Caballeron turned out to be correct. Daring Do had inadvertently trapped herself into an inescapable path. There was only one fork in it, and the choice was inconsequential: the path she did not take led upward past where Caballeron’s temporary office had been set and eventually to the path that Caballeron and Absence had rapidly encircled. The path she did take led nowhere.

Daring Do did not realize her failure until it was too late. The path narrowed and suddenly stopped, blocked by a thick and ancient pile of rubble through with a small stream dribbled through. On a good day, it might have been calming to see such a charming little cave-stream. On this day, though, the appearance of a blocked passage nearly conjured inescapable panic.

“No, NO!” she cried. “There has to be another way!”

“I don’t think we have time to find it!” shouted Rainbow Dash. She gestured behind her. Although they were soft, the sound of hoofsteps and voices was audible echoing through the ancient hallways.

“We have to push it!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, putting her hooves on a rock five times her size and struggling against it with all her might.

“That’s not going to work! We can’t unstick it!”

Flock, who otherwise looked disinterested, suddenly seemed engrossed by his surroundings. “I know this place,” he said, quietly. “I know where I am…”

A voice sounded from down the hallway. Even echoing heavily, Daring Do recognized it as that of the henchpony Rogue. “Boss! They’re this way! They took the dead end! There’s no way out!”

“Celestia’s hairy ears,” swore Daring Do under her breath. She turned toward the only exit. “Looks like we’ll have to fight them.”

“All of them?” asked Rainbow Dash. Daring Do could not tell if the younger mare was frightened or excited.

“No. Half. You take the right. I’ll take the left.”

Flock sighed and stepped between them. “Firstly,” he said, reaching into one of his waistcoat pockets, “don’t pray to your ridiculous false-god in my presence. Your superstition makes you look even more stupid. Second, I don’t see a problem here.”

“Because you can’t render proper eyes!” snapped Daring Do. She pointed at the rocks. “It’s a dead end! So either get behind us and hide or, even better, get ready to fight!”

“I don’t fight,” said Flock. “That’s a job for disposable ponies. And we’re not trapped. That’s just your primitive brains insisting this world can only be rendered through finite dimensionality.”

He withdrew the object he was searching for. He opened it, and for a moment Daring Do thought that it was a large pocket watch. On closer inspection, though, she could see that it was most certainly not a clock of any kind. It contained a great many incredibly detailed and incredibly complex gears, all assembled from a peculiar white metal the likes of which Daring Do had never seen before. In its center sat a perfectly set crystal of pure white moonstone.

The device shifted, opening and twisting as it exposed the gem inside and as the numerous gears set themselves to the proper positions. Flock stared at the process hungrily.

“I had wanted to avoid this,” he said. “As I don’t know what effect it will have on your biology. My guess is that it may hurt. Perhaps tremendously.”

The raised crystal suddenly dropped into the center of the gears, and the mechanisms snapped and whirred about in an instant.

The sensation was something like falling, as if the floor had been pulled out- -or, rather, as if the whole of the world had suddenly been turned upside-down. Daring Do cried out, or would have if the process would have allowed for it. A tremendous wave of nausea and pain swept over her, like an amplified version of the pain she experienced when using teleportation or portals. Before she could even scream, the sound was stopped in her throat by rising fluid. She bent forward and spilled her oats.

Except no oats came out. Just a thick, black-red fluid that tasted severely unpleasant- -along with several long, thin silver items that resembled segmented metal cables. Cables that quickly began wriggling and jumping under their own volition.

Daring Do recoiled, feeling one of the ones that had not left her crawling back down her throat. The world seemed to swim, and she suddenly felt hooves on her shoulder. Terrified, Daring Do cried out and nearly tackled whoever was touching her- -only to stop herself just in time when she realized that it was just Rainbow Dash.

“Daring? Daring, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” sighed Daring Do, wiping her mouth. “I’m fine, I’m…” Her eyes suddenly widened when she saw Rainbow Dash. “DASH! What happened to you?!”

Rainbow Dash looked down at herself. Her mane and tail had been completely shorn away, and one of her temples was marked with a tattoo in a strange, vicious language that Daring Do could not read. Much of her body was covered in new and old scars. In some places, metal glinted just below her sallow skin.

“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash. “You don’t look much better.”

Daring Do reached for her head and realized that her mane had been shaved away as well. She was also somehow sure that she had a very similar code tattooed on her head as well.

She stood up furious and turned to Flock. “What in the name of CADENCE’S BEARD did you do to us?!”

Flock turned to her. He looked different as well, but not in the same way. His whole body seemed to have grown darker, to the point where he resembled just a shadow with eyes. “Nothing,” he said, calmly. “This is just what you look like in this phase. They seem to have taken a particular liking to the rainbow-pony. You, though, seem to be of little concern.”

“And what about you?”

“I don’t exist in this phase unless I choose to.”

“Phase?”

Flock gestured around them. Daring Do turned to look and gasped. They were still in the cave hallway- -or almost were. Instead of a cave, though, or even an ancient arcade carved millennia before by Pegasi, they were in a strange and perfectly formed underground tunnel. The walls were smooth and formed form an unidentifiable material that was neither stone nor metal. The walls were lit by strange geometric growths that shed pale white light, and the hallway continued in both directions.

“Where…where are we?”

“Such moronic questions. We’re exactly where we were. We haven’t moved.”

“But we weren’t here!” protested Rainbow Dash. “We were in a cave! And now…” she shivered. “I…why do I feel so cold?”

“Anemia. And we haven’t moved. We’ve changed phase. It’s not complicated.”

“But then…”

“Look.” Flock walked forward and pointed at the space just before them. “See? They’re right there.”

Daring Do looked where he was pointing. At first, there was nothing- -but then she saw the world distort slightly. Dull spectral figures were visible moving through the suddenly dark hallway. She saw Caballeron, as well as a white Pegasus and a zebra.

“W- -WHAT?!” screamed Caballeron. His voice sounded distant, as though it were being spoken through a great deal of earth or across a great, windy distance. “But- -but it’s a dead end! They couldn’t have gotten out- -NO!” He ran to the edge, and Daring Do saw the ancient pile of rubble. Caballeron clawed at it. “NO! NO NO NO! They can’t have gotten away! We were so close!”

“Can…can he see us?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“No,” said Flock. He stuck his hoof directly through the zebra’s head. It phased through harmlessly, although the specter shivered slightly. “As I said multiple times. We’re out of phase. Still in your world…somewhat…but not quite. I shifted us.”

“And why didn’t you do that BEFORE?!”

Flock paused. “Look around you,” he said, pointing. “What do you see?”

“Walls. Ceilings. Little red dots,” said Rainbow Dash.

“The dots are in your eyes, those aren’t real.”

“Walls,” said Daring Do, quietly. She turned to Flock. “Walls that somepony built.”

Flock smiled slightly. “Yes,” he said. “How clever of you. Yes. Somepony built them. But not me. We escaped them…” he pointed to the fading specters, one of whom was now screaming pony obscenities. “But this is by no means a safe place. In fact, it is far, far worse.”

Daring Do did not need to wait for an answer. They appeared, is if out of some unseen mist- -except that they had always been there. When they saw Daring Do watching, they looked up from their work. Their eyes were wide and their faces incredibly gaunt. Although seeing them directly was almost impossible, Daring Do interpreted them as immensely tall and deathly thin alicorns.

“What are they?” she whispered.

“Dagon worshippers,” said Flock, not reducing his volume. “Beyond that, I don’t know. Look.”

He pointed at where the alicorns had converged. There, Daring Do was able to see the distant, ghostly images of the ponies she had just escaped from. The specters, though, were more solid- -and different. Daring Do gasped and had to look away when she realized what the alicorns were doing to them.

“We should move,” said Flock. More of the alicorns were staring to stare, and several began to move forward toward them. They neither walked nor flied, but rather seemed to drift. “They don’t normally notice me, but they seem to be reacting to you.”

“Agreed,” said Daring Do, preventing her voice from shaking only with great effort. “Come on, Dash.”

“Right,” said Rainbow Dash, clearly trying to sound brave but coming across as sounding quite relieved.

They began walking down the long and dark hall. It was wide, and occasionally Daring Do would see eyes or shadows passing down it. The alicorns were always present- -and a few had elected to follow them- -but not always to the same extent.

“They’re not in phase either,” reasoned Daring Do.

“No,” confirmed Flock. “If they ever are, that is very, very bad.”

“Then this isn’t their world.”

“No. It’s not anypony’s world. Or a world at all. It’s a phase. Between two worlds. Ours, and theirs. The Realm of Dagon.”

“And what exactly is there?”

Flock shook his head. “I don’t know. I cannot reach it. By definition. The curse that keeps me alive prevents me from opening ways to other realms. This is as far as I was ever able to reach.”

“Which is probably a good thing,” said Rainbow Dash, sounding oddly winded as she spoke. “I mean, after what happened in ‘Daring Do and the Sea-Foam Flower’? I mean, those guys were Dagon worshipers, right?”

Daring Do shivered, recalling glaring, unblinking mutant faces. “Yeah. That wasn’t good.”

“Your language is not precise,” muttered Flock. “Your definition of ‘worship’ is too broad.”

Daring Do did not understand what Flock meant like that, and did not ask. Rainbow Dash seemed to have a more pressing question.

“Are they…you know…dangerous? Because I’ll fight one. If I have to. Or I would. But I think something’s wrong with the air here. I feel really bad.”

“I feel fine,” said Daring Do. “Actually…” She paused and lifted one of her hooves, and stretched out a wing. She gasped when she realized that she had not even noticed that her arthritis was gone. Every pain from every injury she had sustained in her life had seemed to vanish entirely. There were other pains, but they were mild. “In fact, I feel thirty years younger.”

Flock raised one of his hooves, projecting a pale yellow circle in front of it. Several complex runes trailed by, spinning and repositioning as he held the translucent disk near Rainbow Dash.

“Well, that explains why,” he said, closing the spell. “They’ve already taken one of your lungs and deactivated a ventricle. I’m somewhat surprised you can still stand. I’d avoid strenuous effort here. Also, I believe that answers your question.”

“W- -what?”

Flock turned to Daring Do. “I had wanted to avoid this. Stay close, but know that if they choose to act, there is nothing I can do to stop them. And if I have to, I will leave you behind and find the Hand of Doom myself.”

Daring Do nodded. She understood the danger of the situation, even if it came in a strange way. After all, the source of it was visible and surrounding them and staring back with eyes that may or may not have been linked to sentient minds. If she listened, Daring Do could hear them whispering in a strange language that no living being should be able to speak.

More importantly, though, Flock had let slip a piece of information- -perhaps intentionally, and perhaps not. He too, it seemed, was on the trail of the Hand of Doom. And he needed Daring Do to find it.

Comments

[AppleTank]

the hell?

[Thought Prism]

Well, this certainly solidifies the events of Four Yellow. I'm a bit conflicted. Part of me appreciates the catharsis of knowing the truth, but at the same time it also undermines one of the key conflicts in that story (whether or not Diamond Tiara was hallucinating).

[Brony4Lyfe]

The way I screamed when the alicorns and phasing were mentioned! I cannot stress enough just how much I love learning about the worlds you create! So extremely happy to see them in another fic!