Daring Do and the Hand of Doom

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 49: Plateau Tower

It arose from the center of the jungle: a stone plateau, the remnants of one of countless unnamed mountains which had been mutilated by time and the passing of endless glaciers long ago. It was as wide as a city and extended upward in a concave, sheer cliff on all sides for several hundred meters.

At first, this was a dismaying puzzle. Flight was the obvious solution, but Daring Do knew that in this case the obvious solution would be the most catastrophic. She could not see turrets or defenses, but knew they were there, hidden by the trees- -trees that served just as much as a defense as the zebra mutants and machines that lay within them.

Her second thought was that there might be a way to climb using the foliage of the jungle. Walking around the edge, it was apparent that vines had grown up the stone in several places. Over the thousands of years- -perhaps tens of thousands- -that they had grown, their trunks had grown massive and hoary. In many cases, though, the dripping thorns of the vines betrayed poison, or the mouths on the epiphytes that accompanied them forecasted painful bites. Daring Do would have risked either, but she was unsure if the vines even went all the way to the top.

The group pondered this for some time. Rainbow Dash continually recommended flight, while Sweetie Drops suggested that a climb up the sheer surface might be possible- -or possibly deadly. Flock did not provide any input, as he had already reverted to a murder of crows and ascended to the top. It seemed that as the practicality of his one major power grew, its mystique had lessened greatly and grown quite annoying.

Of the four remaining, though, it was White who found the solution. While the others discussed, she- -being unable to discuss, as her vocal cords had been severed- -scouted forward, moving swiftly around the base of the mountainous plateau. Just as the argument between Sweetie Drops and Rainbow Dash had started to grow heated and as the latter threatened to bite the former, White reappeared, smiling.

“You found something?” asked Daring Do.

Indeed, she had. White led them about a mile around the edge of the mountain. The rocky terrain made it difficult to move that far, but none of them questioned her. Then, suddenly, she stopped and stared upward. Daring Do stared at well, and at first saw nothing.

Then her eyes caught a slight glimmer. The shine of a single drop of water as it descended in a straight line, dropping onto the leaves below that had grown up toward it. Following the course of the drop, Daring Do saw what looked from her angle like a deeply cut but mostly dry stream bed. As she looked closer, though, she saw that it was in fact a narrow path, spiraling upward.

Daring Do laughed and clapped White on the back. White, being both very light and not expecting it, was nearly knocked over.

“Point for White! Ha, at this rate I should try working on a team more often!”

The three Pegasi reached the edge with ease, and Daring Do was pleased to find that it was wider than it had looked from below- -but only marginally. Sweetie Drops took a bit longer. By the time she had climbed to the top, she was pale and weak.

“Here,” she said, removing the amulet she had borrowed and giving it to Rainbow Dash. “I can’t…Celestia’s unshorn fetlocks, I can’t carry this thing.”

“Um…okay?” Rainbow Dash took it. “It weights, like, an ounce. Which I guess is heavy for a necklace, but- -”

“It’s not a necklace and the weight doesn’t matter. It’s the magic. It’s draining.”

Rainbow Dash put the necklace on. “I don’t feel anything.”

“Because you have no idea what it is, let alone how to use it.”

“Well…if you taught me those cool spells…”

“You’d put yourself into a coma trying to blast a basket across the floor. I can only get away with it because I’m an earth pony.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. The amulet fell against the dial implanted in her chest and jumped wildly as if recoiling. “Fiiiine…”

They began the slow march up the hill. It was not an easy path. At points it narrowed, and at others it vanished completely, requiring the ponies to leap over expanses. The only one who it was a real threat for was Sweetie Drops, but every time Daring Do jumped she could almost feel the enchanted eyes of turrets turning toward her, wondering if it was time to shoot again. Granted, the darts could not poision her- -but she was not sure that every turret contained just darts.

Rainbow Dash caught up to her easily. By the time Daring Do was out of breath, Rainbow Dash had only seemed to warm up. Part of it might have been the machine that had taken control of her vital functions, but Daring Do felt a tinge of jealousy, remembering the way it had been in Flock’s phase-word. Where she had been the strong one out of the two. The thought only persisted for a moment, though, before she forced it and the shame that accompanied it out of her mind.

“Hey,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Is there something you need?”

“I just wanted to know how you did that cool magic stuff. You know, with your hooves.”

“It’s a simple spell. It’s not that impressive.”

“But you’re not a unicorn! Unless…” Rainbow Dash gasped. “Unless you ARE!”

Daring Do stared at her, not sure if she was joking. She ran her hoof through her graying mane, sowing the fact that her forehead did not in fact contain a horn. “Just a Pegasus.”

“Well, then…maybe your mother was a unicorn?”

Daring Do winced, and so did Rainbow Dash, realizing she had mentioned something she was not supposed to. “Maybe. I don’t know. I never got to meet her.”

“I’m sorry. I’m stupid, aren’t I?”

“No, just blunt. Which isn’t a bad thing.”

“Then…”

Daring Do sighed. “You don’t need to be a unicorn to do magic. Not little magic at least. All ponies have some magic. I believe the Tirac incident should have proved that well enough.”

“Did he get you too?”

“He got everpony. Except maybe Flock, who apparently didn’t care.”

“I don’t think he’s a pony anyway,” whispered Rainbow Dash.

Daring Do looked up. A crow was staring back at them with jaundiced eyes. “Not anymore. Not for a long time, I think.”

“But then how did you do the spell?” interrupted Rainbow Dash, unable to contain her excitement any longer. “Come on, I have to know?”

“It’s zebric.”

Rainbow Dash appeared confused. “Where did you learn zebra-spells?”

Daring Do blushed slightly. “You’ve read ‘Daring Do and the Heart of Stripedness’?”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Only seventeen times! It’s my eighty-sixth favorite!”

“And you remember the part with the zebra mareservant Zavenport- -”

“Who actually turned out to be the shaman Zularael, keeper of the ancient Mask of Recalcitrance!”

Daring Do chuckled and blushed slightly more. “Yeah. He was the one who taught me.”

Rainbow Dash once again looked confused. “But that part wasn’t in the book…”

“There are a lot of things Zularael taught me that didn’t make it into the final book.”

Rainbow Dash stared at her, and then suddenly darkened to the shade of an especially ripe apple. “Daring Do- -that night on the Jagged Mountain- -you didn’t- -”

“Let me give you some advice, Dash. Advice I’d give to a daughter, if I had one. I might even tell White when she gets a little older. There is no stallion like a zebra stallion. If you get the chance, take it. And don’t let him go.”

Rainbow Dash blushed even harder. “But- -but- -Celestia DARN IT, why do Quibble’s fanfictions keep being RIGHT?!”

White suddenly appeared beside them. She put one hoof on Daring Do’s shoulder and pointed with the other. Daring Do looked to where she was pointing, and felt her spirits fall. They had just turned the mountain so that the forest was visible before them- -and a vast swath of ash led by endless flame before it.

“They’re burning the forest,” said Daring Do.

“Who?”

“Caballeron.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes went wide. “But- -how? There’s no way he could have found us! The map- -there’s no way- -”

“He found a way,” sighed Daring Do. “He always does. The mutants said that he was on his way. They’ll do their best to slow him down, but they can’t hold him off forever. We need to hurry.”

“Caballeron’s an earth pony,” said Sweetie Drops, walking up behind them. “How good is he at rock climbing?”

“He was a champion athlete in university. He can climb.”

“Well, I was raised by warrior-priests. And I couldn’t climb this rock without this path. So…”

Sweetie Drops landed a thunderous earth-pony kick on the path. The stone cracked and crumbled, causing a chain reaction through the fracture that had been made by centuries of a slow trickle of water seeping by. Several meters fell away, and it continued until the bottom of the path was no longer even visible due to the turn of the pass.

“There.”

“You know there’s no way for us to get back now, right?” snapped Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah. I know.”

Daring Do sighed. “It’ll only slow him down. He has the others. The white Questlords. And they’re probably wearing armor.”

“Probably. But I’d bet my tail that they didn’t share any. If they fly, the darts take Caballeron out. And if I know Caballeron, the way to get to the Hand is completely and entirely in his head. They won’t risk losing him. Not unless they absolutely have to.” Sweetie Drops pushed past Daring Do. “And if that happens, then I’ve solved both our problems.”