Horsemen and Ponies

by Dark Krystal

(D) Daring Do and the Encounter with Death

—The next day—

Among the brush of the jungle a bush slowly shuffles along an aged dirt path to the one of the many temples in the “Forbidden Jungle” only to stop after reaching a distance of thirteen feet. Minutes later, a light gold Pegasus peeks her head out to look around. Seeing the coast is clear she retracts her head back into the bush and goes further down the path only to stop.

She peeks out once more to gaze at the fortress in the distance, then looks down at the old hoofprints.

` It’s either mine or Dr. Caballeron and his goons… they do look pretty old. Never hurts to make sure though. `

She frowns and looks up, missing the out of place footprint on the side as she digs around in her bush and brings out a pair of binoculars. Scrolling the side, she zooms her vision and searches along the outside of the wall of fortress for any guards. To her surprise she finds no goons or Ahuizotl jungle cats.

` They could be inside though...`

She nods and retracts back inside her bush. Slowly she closes in on the fortress, taking small pauses in-between the journey to make sure no guard suddenly decided to show up and see a moving bush. When she finally makes it to the fortress she plants herself near the entrance of fortress's gate. She sits there for a while with ears poking out of the bush, listening for any movement of guards behind the wall.

" ................... "

" .............. "

" ........ "

Silence. She sighs and facehoofs.

` Ahuizotl wouldn’t have any henchponies or his jungle cats this soon! Stop being paranoid Daring! `

she shakes her head and quickly slips round the corner and scans the courtyard of the temple. Clear. With a deep inhale of air she dashes over to the entrance of the temple, going around the corner she quickly stops in her tracks. Guarding the temple entrance was one of Ahuizotl’s jungle cats. The most dangerous one of them all, the white cat. She retreats back around the corner when the cat turns its head in her direction.

Daring Do exhales through her nose, not wanting to make a sound within the cat's sharp hearing range. Slowly she moves her hoof to dig into her saddlebag, searching for the tool she bought in case a situation like this happened. A smirk grows on her face when she finds the object, she pulls out a big ball of pink yarn and tosses it around the corner and perks her ears up. When she hears the cat's meow she peeks around the corner to see it chasing after the ball. She chuckles as she walks around the corner and enters the temple.

` Good thing I bought that just in case! `

Daring Do smirks as she stands under the archway of the temple entrance. Excitement filling her core with a mix of worry that Ahuizotl was in there somewhere, yet the confidence that she was here earlier than he’d known and revisiting surely would catch him off guard. With that belief in her heart, she walked back into the depths of the temple.

As she walks down the temples hallway, she reaches back into her saddlebag and retrieves her journal. She flips through the pages until she reaches her bookmarked page she stops at a specific spot in the hallway where sunlight shined through one of the remaining large cracks in the ceiling to see her notes. On the page she looks over the item that made her return. Pilimtec’s Eyes.

` To think I missed such a dangerous Artifact here before`

Daring Do frowns as the thought echos in her mind.

` Pilimtec’s Eyes. To think I ignored the writing on the wall about it! To let an artifact that is able to translate any language to the wearer, If Ahuizotl manages to find it in this temple I can’t even begin to imagine the possibilities he’ll have if he can get his hands on magic books! `

Daring Do narrows her eyes and puts her journal back in her saddlebag. She quickens her pace as she goes deeper down the hall but as she approaches the end of the hallway, she remembers traps that were once in this part of the hall. She stops and looks over the stone floor. Squinting her eyes she sees the stuck of stone slab trigger in front of her. With a quick tap with her hoof on an out of place stone slab.

Once a `click!` is spills out from the button Daring Do takes a step back as the floor in front of her pulls away to reveal a spiked pit. Daring Do lets out a drawn-out whistle as she looks at the pit. “Ahuizotl sure fixed up this temple really quick. I’m impressed… then again, he does have three hands.”

She hops over the trap and continues on her mission. Carefully activating the resetted traps along the way. When she finally makes it to the last trap in the hallway, consisting of a ball and chain swung at her head level she simply brings her head down low smirks until a echoing `Clang!` rings out. Daring Do jumps in silent surprise, her wings launching open and stiffening as she jumps. She quickly spins her head around to the source of the sound and finds an the ball had crashed against an old rusted shield planted on the wall.

“Well…. That wasn’t there before…. Uh oh…” Right on cue her ears pick up movement from above. Looking up here eyes shrink as an upside down Ahuizotl looks down at her from the ceiling with his gross toothy grin. Daring Do surprise turns into annoyance as she looks at him.

“Ahuizotl!” She shouts out to him who keeps his grin and jumps down from the ceiling to land a few feet away from Daring Do, towering over the little pony.

` He made an alarm trap!? That’s new and I reeeeally don’t like it! `

Daring Do takes a step back as she glares up at the beast.

“Hahahaha! Daring Do! I have been expecting you!” Ahuizotl says happily.

“Really now, Ahuizotl? You miss me that much? If you weren’t so ugly, I’d blush!” Daring Do smirks to hide her unease.

Ahuizotl frowns at the insult briefly before grinning again. “Insult me now, but soon it’s going to be the last time you do! I have learned new things! New things that will finally let me revenge for all you have done!” Daring Do’s eyes shrink at that declaration.

` No way! Did he get his grubby hands on Pilimtec’s Eyes already! `

Daring Do had no time to ask him about it as Ahuizotl lets out a roar and lunges at her. Daring Do jumps and flies out of the way of his lunge before flying further down the hallway.

“Too slow!” Daring Do yells as Ahuizotl gets up and gives chase after the Pegasus.

“Daring Dooooooooooooo!” She hears him yell from behind. The two play a game of cat and mouse, Daring abusing her ability to fly and speed vs Ahuizotl’s large size and slowness. Eventually Daring Do finds herself in to an underground Sanctum, in center was a pit with a pillar in the center was strangely empty. Around the Sanctum she sees closed off stone doors, some having weird pony statues above them.

“Oh no...” Daring Do mumbles as she looks around and realizes she landed herself in a dead end, she turns around only to find Ahuizotl there blocking the entrance, he smiles and slams his hand onto a hidden button along the wall that closes the stone door behind him.

` This is bad. Very bad... extremely bad but I gotten myself out of pickles like this before, I can get out of this. Just need to find one of those buttons! `

Daring Do prepares to move when Ahuizotl speaks up. “Miss Do, allow me to show you one of the things I learned after you left!”

` Uh oh. `

Ahuizotl stands on his hind legs and raises his arms in the air. “Guardian-goyles rise!”

“Guardian-what now.” Daring Do raises a brow.

The statues that stood above the doors suddenly have a glow cover them and the sounds of stone breaking fills the sanctum. Daring Do looks around at the statues as they slowly start to shake of their stone shells and come to life.

“Oh crude.”

“Attack!” Ahuizotl yells as he points at Daring Do. Daring Do lets out a “eep” and dashes as the Guardian-goyles races after her.

` How did this go from bad to worst!? When did Ahuizotl learn magic!?`

“Gaaaaaaaaaaah!” Daring Do lets out a frustrated yell.

` I should’ve gotten it the first time I was here! `

In the corner of her eye she notices a Guardian-goyles attempting flank her. With a quick dive she makes two of them crash into each other. The one on her end closes in on her and opens its sharp perfectly carved jagged teeth, a quick rise into a gliding dive makes the Guardian-goyle miss its bite and crash into the sanctum's walls. She floats in the air for a bit to catch her breath but when the previous two Guardian-goyles starting charging at her again she goes back to being chased.

Meanwhile Ahuizotl stood on the side with arms crossed admiring his plan. If he was his old self, he would've been fine with this but the new him knew that Daring Do would either find a button to escape or destroy the Guardian-goyles. He looks at the ground and swings his tail hand down on a button in the shape of a floor tile, a wall pulls away from one of the closed doorways in the room.

Daring Do dodges one of the Guardian-goyle dive-bites and looks around the sanctum for something–anything to get her out of this deathtrap of a room. Her ears perk at the sound of moving stone. She spins to look at the source and finds an opened passage way, she couldn't care less on why or how it opened she just needed to get out of this deathtrap. With this hope in sight Daring Do flaps her wings and dives down into the passageway with the Guardian-goyle racing after her.

Once she is out of sight Ahuizotl lips quivered before he broke out into a wide smile. “It’s working! Finally, one of my schemes will work! Kahahahahahahaha!”

Ahuizotl raises up on his hind legs and raises his arm up in the ceiling to evilly laugh even longer before getting back on all fours. He cups his chin in thought as he slowly goes to the opened corridor.

“What excuse can I make that will satisfy my “comrade”? Hmmm...”

Daring Do flies through the barely lit corridor with the Guardian-goyle quick on her tail. Her eyes scan along the walls for any sort of opening, only to focus on the cursed luck that was in front of her. A dead end.

` Right when I get out of a sticky situation I get thrown back in as usual! `

She curses under her breath as she slows down into a glide and land inches away from the wall. She turns around and finds herself cornered by the three Guardian-goyles. The snarl at her and open their maws, ready to bite into her delicate flash. Daring Do starts to look everywhere but the Guardian-goyles, in search of something-anything to get her out of this.

` Come on, come on! I know dead ends here aren’t actually dead ends! `

A Guardian-goyle steps closer and prepares to pounce on the Pegasus making her start to panic and back up against the wall. She scans even faster until she sees a sunken in tile in the floor. Drawing at the straw of hope that it was a hidden button she slams her hoof onto it, the tile sinks further in and she could her a small `click`.

She smirks at the Guardian-goyles only for it to vanish as the wall behind her suddenly disappears. "Ah." She lets out as she starts to fall backwards.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” She screams out as she starts to fall down the spiral staircase its wall once stood, the Guardian-goyles wince together as they listen to the loud `thumps!` made by the falling Pegasus. Ahuizotl comes up from behind the Guardian-goyles with a satisfied look as he hears Daring Do’s pain.

“Do not pursuit her any further, lets wait for our “comrade” to clean up now... Kehehehe...” Guardian-goyles nod and look at the hole in the wall.

---

“Ough!” Daring Do yelps out as she lands at the bottom of the stairs. For a bit she lays there letting out pained groans before slowly getting up.

` Who in their right minds put a spiral staircase behind a hidden entrance!? `

She looks back to see if any of Guardian-goyles followed after her, seeing the staircase and hearing no sounds of stone scrapping along the walls or stairs she lets out a sigh of relief and looks forward. Her eyes widen when she notices the large pair of corroded bronze doors in front of her. On both sides fire pits resided with ember remains filling them, giving a small light in the area, Daring Do’s eyes sparkle as she looks at the entrance.

“Classic signs of something important behind a door...!” She smiles as she walks up to the door and places a hoof on the corroded metal.

“Eugh..” Her face scrunches up as she feels the warty texture of the corrosion, she pulls her hoof back and searches along the walls for any symbols or message of what this room was or any curse that would befall her if she opened it.

“…. Nothing? Really?” She raises a brow and look up at the ceiling then down to the floor.

“Huh. Guess I’m going in blind...” She shrugs and flies up, putting her forehooves on the door she slowly opens the door. Light engulfs her eyes and blinds the Pegasus for a bit until her eyes adjust. Her pupils dilate when she sees the room before her, a large circular room filled old stone pony-made shelves that nearly reached the ceiling. In the center of the room, she could see a corroded bronze chandelier hanging from the ceiling filled with old strange darken wax lit with green flame.

“Woah...” Daring Do whispers to herself as she slowly lowers herself onto the floor within the room letting the doors behind her silently close. Her Eyes gazing over the shelves of the room as she approaches and notices the numerous scrolls stored on top of them.

“Scrolls?” Daring Do bites the scroll and drags it off the shelf, she takes a step away from shelf and gently puts the scroll on the floor.

“Whatcha got in here for me?” She grins as she unrolls the scroll and starts reading its contents.

Jua linakuja, mwezi Δ unakwenda. Muda unaenda ∞, kifo kinapanda na ⌛︎ hakishuki, atakuja kwa Σ miungu siku moja. Anapofanya hivyo, tunachoweza ₹ kufanya ni kusali tupate ❍︎ rehema .

Daring Do keeps her grin as she stares at the scroll before raising her head up.

` What did I just read...? `

She closes the scroll and puts it back on the shelf with an annoyed huff.

` To think two years of my life spent studying Ancient Ponhuati would finally fail me... `

Daring Do couldn’t help but let out an annoyed laugh as she looks down at the row of shelves. “On my biggest discovery yet...” The words set in a bitter taste in her mouth as her expression changes that to annoyance.

` First I fall to Ahuizotl’s dumb alarm trap, then chased into an arena filled with weird guardian-beasts, and now I discover a room filled with ancient stories, spell, or even secrets that I can’t read! One of these could even clue me in to where Pilimtec’s Eyes are! `

She grits her teeth and starts to look around the room for any clues of scrolls written in Ancient Ponhuati. Her frustration growing as notices none of the scrolls have any sort of symbol on them, only just being pure blanks on the outside, even highest shelf all the scrolls were the same.

“Come on give me a hint...” She growls as she walks over to another section. “There has to be some...” Daring Do looks down at the end of the section and freezes in place. Down the row she sees... something all black except for its hands and head, but even then it’s... mane ? Whatever it is. Was also black too and short, reminding her of cats fur somewhat with how fuzzy it looked. As she starts to focus solely on the creature she notices two things immediately. One, it was reading one of the scrolls. Two, it was wearing Pilimtec’s Eyes.

“Oh!” She says aloud and instantly regret it. The creature turns its head to look at her and for a while the two stare at each other, its expression was unreadable.

` Today is really is not my day... `

---

Death blinks as he looks down the section at a tannish gold Pegasus dressed in classic modern stereotypical adventure garb. His purple eyes staring into the oversized moderate rose eyes of the Pegasus, silent confusion entering his mind.

` How did... a pony get in here? Ahuizotl was supposed to keep things out of here, that failure of a guardian beast. Then again, he did tell me he was terrible at his job any... I guess I should’ve lowered my expectations even more. `

Death sighs as he closes his scroll as he stands up, putting his scroll back on the shelf and then turning to face the Pegasus. Slowly he removes the stupid glasses off his face and run a hand over his hair with his other hand, his stoic expression never changing as he looks down at the unsettled Pegasus.

“Who are you?” He says begrudgingly.

“....................” The Pegasus stares up at him in a mixture of shock and awe, most likely because of his height. His eyes narrow and he snaps his fingers. “Answer.”

The Pegasus takes a sudden step back at the demand then straightens themself up, for a minute or two the Pegasus takes a moment to think before speaking up. “I’m Bravely do! I um... Work for Ahuizotl as his henchpony!” The Pegasus gives a confident smile and sticks their chest out.

“I see...”

` A classic "I work for the guy who let you in" lie. How tiring, I should just stop it— wait. Pony. `

Death stares the Pegasus who keeps her smile but the longer he stared the more uncomfortable she felt.

` A Pony, smaller build than earthen horses, multicolor body and hair. Fits the description the scrolls hinted of; and the wings make this one a Pegasus. The scroll gave me the foundations of Equestrian history as... Cryptic as they were I gained a basic understanding of the land. Now the opportunity to get a modern understanding of the land arrived. If I play along with this ruse, I can extract fresh information from her no... `

Death sighs once more and puts his arms behind his back and speaks up. “Ahuizotl sent you down here?”

Her eyes widen for a moment then quickly return to her normal confident demeanor. “Oh uh... Y-yeah!”

Death narrows his eyes as he cups his chin. “Strange though... Ahuizotl never mentioned you to me, would you mind filling me in on why exactly he decided to hire you... without my permission?”

“Oh, he didn’t tell you!?” She looks at him in mock surprise. When he nods, she snaps herself out of it and resumes her normal expression. “W-well... he needed someone to help him with setting up traps and feeding his cats.”

“I see... He is bad at setting up traps. Still to hire you without going through his boss first... I’ll have to talk to him about that.” Death looks to the door with smallest frown on his face.

“A-ah...” She follows his gaze to the door, thinking for a moment. “Yeah. It does sound pretty messed up, if I say so myself.”

“Mhmm, combined with his normal incompetence I feel the need to see if you really are qualified to work under me, or to be more precise him.” Death’s eyes return to meet her eyes.

“Eh?” Slips out her mouth. She looks at Death with shrunken eyes. Death doesn’t answer to her instead walking a bit away from her to sit down on stone floor with crossed legs and arms resting in the center. She stares at him before taking the hint and sitting back on her haunches across from him.

` Let see how well she can keep up this ruse and how much information I can extract from her without using my hands. `

“So Bravely Do, what was your previous occupation?”

“Oh um...” She looks down then around the room to avoid his judging gaze.

“I used to work as a stoneworker in Dodge city?” She meets his eyes as she says to search for any doubt. He simply blinks back at her.

“Dodge City? Apologies but I’m unfamiliar with that place.”

“Oh? It’s a small-town northeast from here... Also, can I ask a question?”

“No.” Death says with no hesitation.

“Well, it’s abou— Huh?” She freezes up and looks at him with surprise.

“How much experience do you have with dismantling and reassembly booby traps of all types such as, deadfalls, snares, pits, shooting, and melee swingers?”

“I... But I wanted to ask... if—” She looks at him with confusion and unease.

“Answer.” He demands in a casual tone.

“But I... Uh... w-well... I’ve had three years of experience with those types of traps...” She answers with an honest tone in her voice and eyes challenging the incarnation.

“Good.” Death nods.

` Accepting her lie seemed regained her confidence, good. Now for bigger questions... `

“Can I ask som—” She speaks up.

“Which Princess do you fall under?” Death interrupts.

“Mn!” She stifles her annoyance with a pout. “What do you mean by that?”

“Forgive me if I’m wrong, but you’re under the ruling of two Princesses, correct?”

“Well yeah... but if you’re asking if I work for one of them then I don’t. I don’t go anywhere close to them.” She answers with some confusion in her tone but still carries the honesty.

“Ah so you don’t live anywhere nearby... mn... forgive I can’t seem to remember the exact name of their residence.” Death scratches his hair as he looks away.

“Canterlot, you mean?” She answers.

“Yes, yes Canterlot. That’s good, I can assume you live close by then?” Death looks back at her.

“Yes! You can expect me to come early or as soon as possible if given a call!” She smiles to hide her gritting teeth.

` Dodge City, and Canterlot. New locations to remember but now I know where exactly those two are. Dragon and now a pony has confirmed there is a duo leadership for this land. Though I need to fish out if what the scrolls say about their strength are also true... `

“Sorry if that question caught you off guard, I just made the assumption that ponies would fall under princesses that represent day and night.” Death puts a hand on his chest and gives the smallest of bows.

“Ah it’s fine! It’s err... reasonable to assume that... kind of well, old Equestria used to have something like that if I think. I know the guards do that with them having solar and lunar departments last time I read about them. “ She says the last part with some uncertainty.

“Because they can control the sun and moon, right?” He raises a brow.

“Mhmm, yeah.” She nods.

` Shit. `

Death hides his displeasure with his silence. He looks at her and seeing her unchanged expression he realizes she really was telling the truth on that one.

` So they can move this worlds sun and moon, and if their images right then they are a combination of Unicorn, Pegasus, and normal pony traits. It's reasonable to assume they have to be as strong as Lucifer, or perhaps even higher... Maybe God even equivalent in power due to their representations. I could speak with them but if things were to go wrong then I’m not sure if I could hold off one, much less two... `

“What are yo—” she says with small lean towards him, eyeing the glasses in his pocket briefly.

“Are you familiar with this building's layout?” Her eye twitches and her body freezes up. She sits still for while then slowly stands up on all fours and slowly inhales, she looks at him with her regained composure only to look at the artifact partially out of his pocket again.

“I... I... oh to Tartarus with this!” She yells and dashes forward, snatching the glasses out of his pocket. Her wings unfold and flap to launch herself forward towards the door.

` Rude, I guess I'll have to do this the easy way... `

Death sighs and reaches behind him, grabbing the Pegasus’s right hind leg and yanking her back from her launch. He slowly stands and looks at her, meeting her glare with his uncaring gaze.

“Do you really want to do this?” Death asks her with a bored tone. She looks at him then looks away to bring a hoof to her chin in thought.

“Let mw thonk abowut it...” She says with the artifact in her mouth. She looks away with a thoughtful expression for two seconds then looks back at him with a smirk. “Thonht abomut it, ye I do.” She says with such confidence the Death almost frowned in annoyance. She looks back to the door and spreads her wings and thrusts herself forward.

“See wah!” She shouts as she flies forward. Mouth gripping the glasses tightly between her teeth. Death narrows his eyes and ever so slightly tightens his grip on her leg.

`Pop! `

---

Ahuizotl stands outside the door with Guardian-goyle trio, listening for any sounds of struggle or battle but hearing none. His brows furrow and teeth grind against each other.

“Grrr... I hear nothing! Either Daring Do is having a lovely little tea party with that... that monster! Or Quetzalcoatl’s library has sound proof doors!” He hisses out as he throws his arms in the air.

“Surely, she couldn’t have evaded my grand scheme, right!?” Ahuizotl looks down at the Guardian-goyles, they look to each other first before all making a synchronized head shake.

“Exactly It’s impossible! But... she does have a knack for making the impossible... Actually possible!” He clench's his fists at the possibility that she evaded this.

“Let’s check to see if there are any hidden exits around he—”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!” A scream rings out from inside the library. Ahuizotl yelps and throws himself against a wall while the Guardian-goyles petrify themselves in fright. After a minute of uncomfortable silence Ahuizotl stares at the door, ears perked and ready for any more sudden screams.

“.................” He slowly removes himself off the wall and stares at the door, processing what he heard before a smile breaks out on his face. By the time the Guardian-goyles break out of their own petrification they are forced to witness their master/creator do the running man dance.

“Go me, go me! Go, go, go me! Yeah! Yeah! Go me!” Ahuizotl sings to himself as he dances in celebration. In the back of his mind he wonders if he has gone too far this time, sacrificing Daring Do to a monster of unquestionable strength... but then his mind flashes to all of the humiliation she had put him through and all the schemes to stop her from stealing his artifacts.

“To Tartarus with Her! Kahahahahh!” He joyful yells out. The Guardian-goyles stares at their master/creator with tired looks before all shaking their heads together.

---

Daring Do is roughly thrown to the floor, bouncing on impact and then sliding across the floor. Her body shakes in pain and her breath hitches. Her eyes dart downwards at the source of her pain; her right hind leg. Her heart freezes as she her leg’s cannon bone knocked out of place with bruise marks that correlate to creature's hand. She grits her teeth as she tries to move her leg only for pain to shoot up.

“Augh!” She yelps out before gritting her teeth and catching her breath, her chest heaving up and down rapidly as she tries to recover from the wave of pain.

` What the hay is that GRIP!? It felt weak at first and then just turned into me being chained down to a steel beam! Ahuizotl’s grip doesn’t even hold a lantern to this thing! `

She looks further down and glares at the stoic creature. It slowly starts to walk over to her, seeing it slowly approach hermelts her fury into a pool a liquid fear. She feels adrenaline shoot throughout her body, her senses suddenly growing alert and the pain starting to feel numb. Her eyes dart over to the right and spot Pilimtec’s Eyes then back to the approaching creature.

` I need to get it but... but... but! `

Her eyes focus on its face and a shiver travels down her spine. Maybe it was because how easily it harmed her or maybe it was because how expressionless its face. Whatever it was about it, her brain sense danger and sent an instinctual thought in to her head.

` If I don’t run right now This thing’s going to kill me! `

Hyperfocused on that thought Daring Do rolls on to her stomach and gets back up on all fours. Her panicked state ignoring the growing pain in her right leg. She opens her wings and quickly takes flight, dashing down the secion and going around the corner.

` Hidden exit, Hidden exit, Hidden exit, Hidden exit, Hidden exit! There has to be a Tirek-damned hidden exit here somewhere! `

Daring Do’s eyes dart down the sections of shelves, eyeing the main doorway first then the walls. When she hears soft footsteps behind her she looks back to see the creature steadily walking towards her, she couldn’t tell if her mind was exaggerating it in her panicked or if its walking speed alone was fast enough to slowly gain up on her despite her flying at a decent speed.

` How fast is this thing!? Come on! Give me anything but that door! It’s way too obvious of an exit that creature will 100% intercept my tush faster than I can escape Dr. Caballeron terrible traps! `

Daring Do speeds up and takes a sharp left down one of the sections, hearing the footsteps at a further distance gains some relief to her mind

` To Tartarus with hidden exits! If I loop around at the same speed or even faster, I can get to the door before it can intercept me! `

Daring Do rushes to the end of the section and takes a left. She turns body slightly to take a sharp U-turn. Her iris’s shrink as she turns the corner and see its hand reaching towards her face. Her brain draws a blank for rational thought instead drawing from her more feral side. Her wings give a heavy flap and thrusts around from its grab but at the cost of flinging her against the wall, she grits her teeth at the sharp pain that shoots throughout her body, a small grunt of pain escapes her lips.

` How!? What!? Huh!? `

She figured its walking was above average but... for it to get to the end of this section. It must’ve run the moment she turned! No... if it did she would've heard it! She didn't have time to figure out what happened! She couldn’t afford to make another mistake like it. Flinging herself off the wall she quickly dives past all the sections to take a sharp turn when she makes it to the end, going along the wall she goes back to the main walkaway only to see the creatures block her path, standing there and watching her.

“AAH!” She lets an internal scream slip out her mouth as she presses her back against the wall.

“Stop running, it’s pointless. You can't escape from me.” It says to her in a bored tone. He slowly approaches her; she quickly rushes to right and go along the wall.

` Okay this thing’s speed is absurd! Can... Can I actually escape!? `

She feels her intestines tighten up, and her heart pounding against her chest. She races along the wall to the end of the section, her eyes dart towards the main door and fly towards it without hesitation. She didn’t even care if the moment she got out she’d have to deal with Ahuizotl again she just needed to get away from this creature. With all the strength she could muster she puts it into her wings and thrusts forward, her surroundings turn into a blur.

` Got to make it! Please Celestia, Luna, any other god help me get out of this room right now! `

She is barely able to make herself stop in front of the door due to her speed, having to do a small u-turn to put herself in front of the door, she quickly bites down on one of the doorhandles.

` Yes! I’m outta her— `

Right when starts to pull on the handle the candles blow out. Her body freezes up as her brain processes the sudden darkness and chill in the air. Her breath catches in her throat and her adrenaline-fueled strength starts fades away.

“I believe I figured out what happened here...” She hears the creature speak up from a few feet behind her.

“You’re the one who’s been taking Ahuizotl’s artifacts and I guess he decided to use me... “

` W-what!? No way... but it makes sense! The alarm the chase... the s-sudden open the door... N-no way! Was this all a scheme for this... maybe... I can’t think about it deeply for now I have to get out of here! `

Daring Do starts pulling on one of the doors handles as hard as she could, her fading strength made the doors feel heavier than before. She squints her eyes in the darkness in attempt to see the details of the door while leaning her body back to use more of her weight in pulling.

“Normally I dislike being used... however I used him so just this one time I will play along. “ She feels sweat drip along her cheek as she pushes, desperation in her heart as she pulls. The sound of the creaking door serving as her last bastion of hope.

“I won’t kill you, so far you’ve shown to have more “modern” knowledge that I need, however... I’ll make sure you’re no longer going to be able to resist.” He says it so coldly she felt a shiver travel down her spine to her tail bone.

` Please, please, please! `

She sees the lighting from the firepit embers through the peek through the crack of the door, a desperate smile growing on her face. When the doors open suddenly, she feels tears in her eyes start to form as hope fills her chest.

“Hah! See Yaaa......” Her eyes widen as sees the reason why she was able to open the doors all of a sudden. It was because on the other side Ahuizotl opened them up for her. His large body blocking her escape to freedom, his arms holding the door open but also serving as a way to prevent her from flying straight ahead. Past Ahuizotl, she could see the three Guardian-goyles standing there staring at her blankly before getting into fighting stances.

` Ah... `

She looks up Ahuizotl who is looking down at her in surprise until he hears a footstep behind her and looks. “Good Timing.“ The line echoing throughout the room as she feels tears start to drip down her eyes. Ahuizotl looks back down at Daring Do and... smirks.

“It’s finally over Mrs. Do...” Ahuizotl says with relief in his voice, his face changing into a look of happiness as if he finally received a trophy for all the hard work he's done over the past year.

She feels the creature’s hand grab her, her head turning around only to see nothing but two glowing purple orbs staring her. Its hand wasn’t even the same anymore. All she saw was black ghastly-like smoke taking the form of an arm. She shivers as the coldness of its touch finally hits her. It felt like a frozen corpse had grabbed onto her and even then, she could feel the strength of it. She couldn’t break it even if she gave it her all.

“Vanquish any hope you have about getting out of here, from now on.” The creature says so coldly that she could physically feel her hope shatter into pieces.

“You’re mine.”

Author's Note:

You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget. - Joseph Conrad