Daring Do and the Hand of Doom

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 51: Labyrinth

The two cities could not have looked more different. Both were made of stone; one carved, and one assembled. Yet the city below had the air of abandonment, of having been an industrial center of harsh angles and strange purposes. The facility above, though, was abandoned, but would never feel that way, if only because it was so bleakly Spartan that it appeared as though nopony had ever lived there in the first place.

The halls were square and evenly assembled from stone block, occasionally interspersed with metal where it needed to be. There was no ornamentation or flair. Even compared to the columns and pillars on the outside, this looked primitive and simple. Yet it was not, and Daring Do knew this, if only on instinct. The builders of the golems on the outside had been the same who had built this cave-like place indoors.

Light was plentiful, coming from evenly-spaced crystals on the walls. Their harsh glow only made the sterile stone walls feel more cold, and Daring Do shivered.

“Okay,” said Rainbow Dash, quietly. “I hate to be the one to say it.”

“Then don’t say it,” snapped Sweetie Drops, who was watching the walls ceaselessly.

“But it’s really freaking me out!”

“Why there aren’t any traps?” asked Daring Do.

“Yeah! I finally get to go on a Daring Do adventure, and the creepy abandoned temple doesn’t even have deathtraps!” She paused. “Except…there’s something else….”

“I know,” said Daring Do. She felt it too. The sense that there were traps. Out there, waiting. And that the Exmoori did not quite seem to be the type of pony who were apt to build puzzles that could be defeated with a little wit and planning.

“Do we have a map?” asked Sweetie Drops, almost sarcastically.

“I do,” said Flock. “I’ve spent about ten times your lifespan staring at that stone. I’ve memorized everything written on it.”

“Really? That long and Daring Do figures it out in, what, five minutes?”

Flock shot her a glance. “I wasn’t JUST staring at a rock. I have a job.”

“Really?”

“Yes. An important one, even if my role was always meant to be…minor.”

White suddenly stopped. The multiple apertures of her eyes narrowed and shifted as she adjusted her perception.

“She sees something,” said Sweetie Drops. “Dang it all to heck, if only she could talk!”

“She doesn’t need to talk,” said Daring Do. “She just needs to see. White, can you lead the way?”

White nodded, and moved to the front of the line. She almost immediately leapt over one large stone block on the floor. The others did the same as well. Daring Do did not know what would happen if she were to touch it, but she did not want to find out. Scarier was that it confirmed her suspicions: the Exmoori traps were well-hidden. Even with all her experience, she could not have told that there was something beneath that block. Not on her own.

The path was largely clear. White moved quickly and without hesitation or apparent fear. When there was a trap, she would point it out, whether it be on the floor, the ceiling, or something in the walls. A few times, though, she stopped to stare, confused for a moment. Daring Do was not sure what this meant, except that perhaps it implied that there were things behind the walls that White could perceive but not identify as traps. Whatever she saw, though, she seemed to be right; if she stopped to stare but then moved on, no trap activated when Daring Do passed it.

Then, at a juncture, she stopped. The area before them had less-dense lights, and two thinner support paths moved off from the sides, each curving downward in their own ways. White stared into the darkness for a moment, and then gestured toward one of the paths. Daring Do moved to follow her, but felt a cold and bony hoof on her shoulder.

“No,” said Flock. “That way will take too long. We’re almost there. We need to go straight.”

White stared at him and hissed loudly. She shook her head vigorously.

Flock growled at her. “YOU will not tell me what to do.”

He turned and walked down the hallway that White had expressly told him not to.

“You idiot!” cried Daring Do, moving to grab him. “DON’T!”

It was too late. When Daring Do reached him, she could already see in the dim light what White had seen. Below two of the lights were two objects that were not present in the other hallways: a pair of onyx spheres.

The walls around the spheres shifted. Two long pieces of thin stone pulled themselves out, the eyes mounted on the fronts. Then the stone rectangles unfolded, their already thin pieces thinning further as they separated into legs, hooves, and heads. It only took a moment for them to fully assemble- -and then their faces turned toward Flock.

“Darn it!” cried Rainbow Dash. “They’re coming out of the stonework!”

The narrow-golems charged. Sweetie Drops lunged past Daring Do and pushed Flock down, drawing her sword as she did so. She struck at one of the golems. Although its body was flat and would be easy to cut, its outer surface was highly angular. It obliquely parried her silver blade, sending it skidding off the stone skin of its front leg. Then, with speed at least equal to Sweetie Drops’s, it punched her in the stomach.

“Bon Bon! Hold on!”

Rainbow Dash leapt forward, but the whole of the room suddenly shifted. What appeared to be stationary stone blocks on the walls and ceilings shifted, moving nearly silently on ancient and unseen bearings. The hallway closed. Daring Do was forced to jump back, and she was sealed away with White. Sweetie Drops and Flock were forced to the front, while Rainbow Dash vanished behind an especially large stone all alone.

“NO!” she cried out, pounding on the stone. “I’m missing the fight! COME ON!”

The stone did not budge. Nor was she able to hear much behind it. It was too thick.

The facility itself had contained her- -or, rather, redirected her. The room she was trapped in was not sealed; behind her, a long hallway had opened up, one that twisted in a wide spiral downward.

“Great,” said Rainbow Dash. “Stairs. Real stupid ones.” She turned back to the block. “Don’t worry, Daring Do! I’m gonna find my way around! I’ll be over there in a flash!”

With that, she flew into the air and rushed down the stairs, having no idea where she was going or if it would be better or worse than where she had been- -and not caring in the slightest.

Comments

[AppleTank]

Flock, pls

[Cold Bolt]

For such an ancient being, Flock sure isn't good at reading the room, is he? I think he spent a little too much time alone in that castle of his and forgot how to people.