119. A Breakthrough
“Hon, if you don’t close your mouth, your jaw will fall off.”
Hearing that comment would’ve been hurtful if it weren’t for the jovial tone in which it was said. Not to mention that in the dim light of the flashlight she kept under her wing, Daring Do couldn’t see that his mouth was crooked. The comment did, however, made Storm finally realize that for a while he’s been staring at the mare in front of him with a wide-open mouth.
“Sorry, I just…” he stuttered. Swallowing, he tried to speak again: “I didn’t expect to find anypony here, let alone, well… Daring Do!”
The famous adventurer smiled - although Storm noticed that a shadow passed her face, as her attention shifted slightly from his eyes to his mouth once he closed it - and replied: “Well, I didn’t expect to see anypony down here, either, so I suppose it’s fair. So,” Daring Do continued, trotting up to where Storm laid and offered him a hoof to help his stand up, “you know my name; what’s yours?”
Storm tried to not think that he was touching the hoof of a legendary explorer and author as he accepted her help. While he wasn’t as big of a fan of her books as his brother (and, quite frankly, he thought that a pony that wrote down her accomplishments must be a bit narcissistic) he was close from losing his cool and starting to blabber like some dorky fancolt.
“Storm…” he started to introduce himself, then stopped and coughed. “I mean, Knight Storm Clash, paladin of the Celestial Light.”
Daring Do’s eyes flashed with surprise. “I’ve heard about this new order of yours… I didn’t expect to see one of you ‘paladins’ down here, though,” she added with a smirk. “What, did you plan to preach to the Diamond Dogs?”
“Um, no, I… ugh, it’s a long story,” he replied, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. “What are you doing here?”
“Exploring?” Daring Do asked with a raised eyebrow and a smile. Storm facehoofed, realising that this was about the only thing an explorer could be doing in a place like this. “Suffice to say that I am looking for something.”
“Yeah, well… I was also looking for something, but a cave-in happen and I fell down here,” Storm replied, while thinking ‘No need to mention ‘I caused the cave-in after getting drugged by a small plant’ part.’ Turning his attention back to the present situation, he asked: “Do you know the way back to the surface?”
“Of course I do,” the other pegasus replied with a shrug, much to his relief. “I can lead you out once I’m done with my thing, it shouldn’t take long.”
“Okay,” Storm said, trying to not sound disappointed that he would have to bear with those dungeons a while longer.
“In the meantime, I think it’s best that you will come with me,” Daring Do continued, glancing around. Storm couldn’t help but notice that there was a small frown on her face. “Those tunnels have a ridiculous amount of traps, as you saw a second ago. You’d better not tempt fate and stick with me. However, I will need you to stay behind me, and don’t touch anything unless I tell you, understand?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes, ma’am!” Storm saluted, trying to hide his enthusiasm.
Finding the Eon Petal for Rarity was still his priority, but the opportunity to explore an ancient tunnel with the Daring Do was something no pony in his right mind could object. The famous explorer must have figured out what he was thinking, for she rolled her eyes with a smile before she began walking towards the passage on the opposite side of the chamber... Storm was about to follow her, when he remembered that he was still defenseless. While he knew that Daring Do was more than able of taking care of whatever trap-awakened statue they would possibly encounter further on, he didn’t want to be useless.
The spear of the statue was too big for him to use comfortably, but the blade of it was big enough to serve as a short sword once Storm had broken if off the rest. Nodding with satisfaction, he turned and flew back to Daring Do, who waited for him at the entrance to the passage.
“You know,” she started once he joined her and landed beside her, tucking the blade carefully under his wing, “this begs the question as to why are you here without any weapons. I heard that you paladins walk around in a fully body plate armors and all have some appearing-out-of-nowhere swords.”
“Oh, no, that’s just Sir Lightbringer, the Grand Master of the Order, that has a blade like that. The rest of us uses more mundane weapons,” Storm corrected her, deciding not to ponder if his Spring Binder should be considered a ‘mundane’ or not. “But yes, we do have such armors, and I just… ugh, I was off-duty when I decided to come to the Everfree Forest, so I didn’t have either it or my weapons.”
“We’re below the Everfree Forest?” Daring asked in surprise, making Storm glance at her sharply with alarm that she didn’t know that… only to see her smirking. “Anyway, we best get going,” she said, growing more serious as she took the lead. Storm, remembering her words, followed. “And if you feel like sharing why you did something so stupid, feel free.”
Embarrassment filled him as he walked behind her. Storm wanted to protest, but she was right and they both knew it. He sighed, and after uttering a short prayer to the Light so that the weapon he took would glow in the darkness - earning himself a curious glance from Daring Do that had quickly turned into a brief amazement before she returned her attention to the tunnel ahead - he figured that he might as well tell her how he had gotten into this mess. That is, after he asked a certain question first.
“This won’t get published in any of your books, right?”
“Oh, relax, hon, you think I write about everything that happens to me during my exploits? Heck, my books wouldn’t even get T-rated if I did!”
“I… wait, what?” Storm asked her, tilting his head. “What do you mean?”
Daring Do turned her head to him and winked. “Wait a couple hours until we’re out of those tunnels, and you might find out.”
The paladin stared at her, blinking. “Did she...mean…” Even before he got a chance to finish that that thought, his wings sprung open, causing the statue’s blade to fall down with a loud clank!
Daring chuckled as she resumed walking while Storm mumbled incoherently something that even he wasn’t sure what it was. He thought that he tried to say that he wasn’t interested, but he wasn’t sure how to explain why not, so he instead tried to apologize for his wings… all and all, it was a mess of a proper speech, that earned him nothing more that few more chuckles from Daring Do.
Resigning from touching that subject, Storm took a few deep breaths to compose himself before he started talking again. He didn’t mention Rarity by name, of course, and was rather vague as to how he got down here specifically, but he still told Daring most of the events that led him to those tunnels. The explorer listened with one ear attentively as they walked, her other along with her other senses working on making sure they wouldn’t trigger any more traps. Every now and then she would signal for him to stop as she checked the plates on the floor or in the walls, often telling him to fly through a part of the tunnel.
Speaking of, as Storm talked, he noticed that the passage has slowly become more ornamented as they went deeper. Not to the degree of the chamber with the statues, which, when he asked, Daring told him that served as a sort of a distance mark, but enough to become even more evident that those tunnels weren’t shaped by nature. Storm caught himself trailing off his tale a few times as he simply followed the curves on the walls with his eyes before he would snap out of it.
“Gotta give it to you, not many stallions would just rush off into the Everfree Forest to pick up some flowers mentioned in legends,” Daring Do commented once he finished. “Of course, that could be interpreted either as a compliment, or... not,” she added with a smirk as she glanced back. “Seriously, though, I think that mare is lucky to have a stallion willing to go this far just to find her a gift. But I wonder... how would she react if she could see you now?”
Storm didn’t have to ask what she meant by that; the vision of Rarity (or rather, a figment of his drugged mind that attempted to speak to him through the form of a pony that would immediately gain his attention) trying to make him turn back before he fell into the chasm was still fresh in his memory. He knew - well, hoped to be honest, but he was almost certain of it - that the beautiful mare cared for him enough that she would be mortified if she knew how often he came close to dying so far this night. But Storm also knew another thing; that he absolutely needed to give her the Eon Petals. He would need to give her something so beautiful if he hoped that she would want to be with somepony… looking like him…
He realized that Daring Do was waiting for some answer from him. “I need those flowers,” Storm said, not looking at the other pegasus and instead concentrating on the tunnel ahead.
The paladin could feel her gaze on him linger a moment longer, before she sighed and turned her attention back on looking out for traps. “Hey, it’s your thing, hon. So… I guess this means I won’t get to do any research once we leave those tunnels, hmm?”
Storm felt his wings twitch at the sound of her hum, and the sidelong glance she gave him wasn’t exactly helping him control his body’s reaction. Thankfully, after her earlier suggestive comment, he was a bit more prepared for it this time and smiled awkwardly. “Um, no, I’m afraid. That mare is really special to me. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry,” she chuckled. “No offense to your stallion ego, but this won’t exactly make me lose any sleep or something.”
“Err… I wasn’t…” Storm stuttered, embarrassed that she thought he thought so.
“Oh, relax, hon. Are all you paladins so serious all the time?”
“Not… exactly…” he replied, thinking about Tucker. Then again, he was serious with the things he talked about, so… “I suppose it depends on how you would look at it.”
“Well, I am glad that it’s somepony serious down there. Wouldn’t want you to try and impress me or something and triggering some trap that would cause the walls to try and crush as, wouldn’t we?”
Her almost cheerful tone had suddenly reminded Storm that they were in a deep underground tunnel that was abandoned for probably thousands of years and was filled with traps. He glanced nervously at the walls; there were several small holes in them. An ‘eek’ almost escaped his lips as he recalled some of the exploits of Daring Do he read, where those holes usually contained-
“We passed the trap that sets those arrows, relax,” Daring’s voice pulled him back to reality, just in time to notice that she had stopped and he was about to collide with her. He quickly backpedaled to give her more space and looked at what she was doing. Daring was brushing her chin as she stared into the floor; was there some sort of mechanism? “Hey, Storm?” she called out unexpectedly. “What was the name of that story you’d said? You know, the one from the book, the first one.”
“Oh…” he exclaimed, surprised, but then reminded himself who he was talking with. Of course Daring Do would be interested in that story. “It was ‘The battle of Forest and Wind’.”
“And the pony there was called the ‘Winged Warrior’ and the ‘Hero of the Wind’, right?” she asked, to which Storm nodded. Daring once again hummed thoughtfully. “I wonder… yes, it must have been him… especially with that second story...”
“‘Must have been’ who?” Storm asked, genuinely curious, but to his slight disappointment Daring shook her head.
“Nevermind. It’s a complicated, hard to believe story that would take a while to tell and would probably excite you to no end, you don’t want to hear it.”
“No, I… wait, what?” he asked, just now realising how she said that. She winked and stuck out her tongue, then resumed trotting. Storm quickly followed her, wondering if this was the reason why those few relationships in her books didn’t last too long. “You know, you didn’t say why you were here, Miss Do.”
“Just Daring, hon,” she corrected him. “And as for what I’m doing here… have you heard about the Diamond Empire?”
Storm’s mind went back to his first day of training, when Serenity had briefly mentioned that name. “That’s the Diamond Dogs’ Empire that ceased to exist about three thousand years ago, right?” His comment had both impressed Daring Do and surprised her. Feeling embarrassed, he explained: “One of the other paladins is from the Crystal Empire, she mentioned that.”
“Ah yes, the Crystal Empire,” Daring exclaimed. “Such a magnificent source of knowledge about the past, it would never be possible to acquire in Equestria. You see,” she explained, shaking off her daydream, “a lot of the Canterlot Archives’ collection was destroyed by Discord during his reign. Among those documents and scroll that were lost were the information regarding the Diamond Empire. As such, for the past thousand years, it was impossible to research that civilization, since we didn’t even know where it was exactly. Buuut…” Daring trailed off, smiling, “now, with the return of the Crystal Empire…” she paused to giggle. “You know, I was never too big on that part of archeological work, but the library in the Crystal Empire… just wow! I don’t think I had spent so much time in a library since I graduated… but I’m getting off topic here. The point is, among some other things, I found a few maps showing the Diamond Empire’s tunnels and outpost. Now, sadly, a lot of those had collapsed, and the Crystal Empire didn’t have the entirety of their neighbors’ domain showed on any map. It would be impossible to find a way through all those passages into the Diamond City, their capital… that is, unless I’m wrong about what I hope to find in here.”
“And what would that be?” Storm asked, holding his breath; he could see why her books earned such a success, Daring had a natural talent for storytelling.
“A stone tablet that shows the way into the Diamond City,” the other pegasus told him with excitement. “Granted, it will probably take me months to figure out how to read it, but it will be worth it!”
“I’m sure it will. So… no new books until then?”
“Oh come now, I would never disappoint my fans,” Daring replied with wink. “I am slowly writing about something that happened to me a few months back. Now, though…” she trailed off, signaling for him to stop. Storm looked ahead of them; the tunnel was ending, leading to a dark chamber, much bigger from the previous one by the looks of things. “Stay behind me,” Daring warned him as she went inside.
Gulping nervously, Storm followed her, and soon found to be speechless.
The chamber was big enough to fit about half of Everfree Abbey in it. Thanks to the light provided by his abilities and Daring’s flashlight, they saw that it was square-shaped and evenly cut. When they looked up they couldn’t see the ceiling, and Storm wondered if maybe they could try to find just fly they way out. But the most alluring sight was in the middle.
There, directly in the center, stood a small shrine on a dais, surrounded by several stone circles, each placed above the ground thanks to the columns, in between which stood… stone statues of Diamond Dogs.
“Those things are gonna come to life if we come near them, right?” Storm asked nervously, gulping.
Daring give him a sidelong glance and smiled. “Hey, I didn’t know you studied archeology!” she exclaimed, managing to disperse the dread that almost overtook him. Storm chuckled despite himself as Daring continued: “Within the shrine is a passage that leads further down into the chamber that contains the stone tablet. Now… how good you are in combat?”
“Not good enough to take on all those statues if that’s what you’re asking,” Storm replied honestly. He had no doubt that now that he had a weapon he could take a few, but…
“You won’t need to,” Daring interrupted his train of thoughts. “I will sneak in alone - good thing that Diamond Dogs had never thought somepony that can fly would try to come in here, should be easy - and take the tablet. However, then those statues will most certainly wake up. I should still make it out of there, but in case I won’t, you’re my backup plan. I’ll need you to stay above the shrine and wait; if it will look like there will be too many by the entrance for me to get out, you will have fend them off for a few seconds. Think you can do that?”
“Yeah… probably,” Storm muttered, then blinked. “Hey, wait a moment; what was your plan in case you haven’t stumbled upon a paladin down here?”
“To be honest, I didn’t expect so many of those statues,” the other pegasus shrugged. Looking around, she added: “If you weren’t in a hurry, we could also try to look around for a way to disable the trap, or-”
The rest of sentence was lost in the thundering noise that erupted from above them. Both Storm and Daring looked up in shock as large stones began falling down everywhere around them. The Light wrapped around the falling debris at Storm’s behest, protecting them from the smaller ones as they run back into the chamber’s entrance. They stayed inside of the tunnel, trembling from the adrenaline rush, while everything shook as more rocks fall down. Suddenly, both of them heard a noise that sounded like an animal’s roar, but not the one Storm had ever heard of. It was so loud that it pierced through the havoc of sounds and shook every bone in his body, and was followed by a deafening thump, as whatever it was hit the ground, creating a shockwave so massive that both Daring and he fell to their hooves.
Then things had calmed down as suddenly as they’d started. The two pegasi shared a look and quickly went back into the chamber, passing a few larger boulders to get a better look at the-
Their jaws dropped.
Daring was first to recover, but judging by how her voice shook she, like Storm, also had problems believing what she was seeing.
“-or, you know,” she said weakly, continuing her earlier sentence, “we can drop the Ursa freakin’ Major on top of them…”
Storm nodded absentmindedly as he also stared at the gigantic purple bear, visible despite the dust that rose from the impact with a transparent fur that looked like the night sky laid unconscious were the shrine and the statues used to be…
...cough, cough…
His eyes grow wide as he heard a pony’s cough, and he could see Daring having the similar reaction. They started into the direction where the noise came from, which happened to be upon the Ursa Major’s head. The dust had gradually cleared…
At the sight of Sir Lightbringer sitting on the Ursa Major’s neck, bearing two blades in his forehooves and leaning them against his shoulders, and, what’s more, with a relatively relaxed expression on his face, something broke in Storm’s head.
A few moments earlier…
Al’ar’s disapproving caw echoed Matthias’ thoughts perfectly as they stood near the entrance to the cave.
“Yeah, well, you’re not the one going in there,” he told the Phoenix God. “All you have to do is wait here while I’m very likely going to fight for my life in there.”
The phoenix did a motion as if he was rolling his eyes and turned to observe the forest around them. Matthias watched him for a moment, wondering what was going through his head, before he trotted over to him and touched his wing gently.
“I’m thankful for all that you did for me tonight,” the paladin said as Al’ar looked at him sharply. “I ask that you only wait here a little while; it’s not like something here poses a threat to you.”
The ruby eyes narrowed as Al’ar regarded him, before he nodded and looked back into the forest. Feeling some of the phoenix’s resentment dispersed, Matthias turned towards the cave and walked into it.
He definitely did not like the idea of going back there. Matthias still remembered how he, Twilight, Shining Armor and Bran had to run from there while Ursa Major was - thankfully - sleeping. The memory of what let them into those tunnels - the floor of the Project Eclipse’s facility collapsing under Twilight, almost killing her - was like a nail piercing his heart, but he shrugged it off as he marched into the cave. Matthias had read the reports regarding this place; while the guards sent there had mostly concentrated on the facility itself, they did explore the tunnels underneath it. They mentioned in their report that the spells they used to scan those tunnels had indicated that they went much deeper underground, but since they were part of the natural terrain formation and not pony-made, and there was an Ursa Major sleeping by the entrance to them, they didn’t explore them.
And now Matthias had to use them to find Storm Clash and bring him out of there… all because he was searching for flowers.
Putting the absurdity of this situation out of his head, the paladin concentrated on staying quiet. The glow emanating from the Ursa Major has been visible for some time now, and grew brighter the deeper he went.
A wonderful sound reached his ears: snoring. Matthias smiled as he crept closer. Hopefully he could go in and out with Storm without waking up the Ursa Major.
By now the body of the gigantic bear was clearly visible in the darkness of the cave. The Ursa Major curled up as it slept, but unfortunately his head was still turned to the path Matthias had to take to reach the lower tunnels. Swallowing nervously, the paladin began trotting quietly over. He glanced at the Ursa Major; the ursine head with a star on the forehead still had closed eyes, as air went in and out through the massive nostrils-
His hoof kicked a pebble.
Matthias snapped and jumped to catch the small rock before it made too much noise while the sound of it rolling away resonated throughout the cavern. The paladin pressed his hooves on it and glanced sharply at the Ursa Major… and found himself staring right into it wide-open eyes.
Luckily for him, the bear was probably too surprised to find a pony in its cave to react properly at the moment, which gave Matthias enough time to back away from within his reach. Unfortunately, as the Ursa Major, with his throat thundering with an angry roar, began to stand up, it blocked the way to the lower tunnels.
“Storm is going to clean the entire Abbey for months once this is over!” the paladin thought as he fought hard to not panic.
Swallowing, he looked the Ursa straight in the eyes, and opening himself to the Light, he tried to reach out and calm him. “I did not mean to awake you from your slumber, great one,” Matthias spoke in a calm and respectful voice; such powerful creature had to have a certain level of intelligence. Maybe he could talk his way out of this? “Please, forgive my intrusion-”
The Ursa roared with anger as it lunged towards Matthias.
“So much for talking…” the paladin thought bitterly as the beast struck faster than he could move away, forcing him to wrap himself in Light’s protection.
The Ursa Major’s paw hit him with such strength that it hurled him high across the cave through the air. The Light still protected him from taking damage, but it dispersed as he was about to collide with the cavern’s wall. Grunting, Matthias twisted in the air to turn around to ‘land’ - if such term was possible to use when clashing with an almost vertical surface - on his hooves, and took the split second before he bounced off it to look at the Ursa. The great animal was charging after him, with a clear intent to eat the pony that disturbed his sleep.
“If I weaken it enough, I should be able to use the Light to put it in a state of meditation,” Matthias thought as he jumped right back at it, the Holy Avenger appearing his right hoof and brandishing Spring Binder from its sheath that was strapped to his back with his left.
The Ursa opened his mouth with a roar, giving Matthias a rather interesting sight of a row of fangs which each was bigger than him. The paladin once again twisted his body in the air, passing by the lunging bear’s jaw and slashing with the swords. The Ursa Major howled in pain and anger as one of his fangs shot out of its mouth and a shallow - for a beast such as it - cut appeared under cheek.
Matthias didn’t plan to wait for the bear to retaliate. With a creature as big as it, he could practically cut it anywhere, and would not have to be afraid of killing it, so as he was still falling down, he plunged both swords into the Ursa’s shoulder. The momentum he gained let him leave a long, deep cut, before he slowed down, as the warm sticky blood poured on him from the wound. Seeing the right paw raised and ready to squash him, Matthias pulled out the blades and - wrinkling at the metallic smell of blood that assaulted his nose - fell down, dispelling the Holy Avenger and landing on three hooves.
Empowered by the Holy Light - and mentally promising that he was using its power to end this fight quickly to avoid inflicting too much harm on the animal - Matthias galloped under the beast and headed for its hind legs. He did so for two reasons; the first being that if he wanted to force the Ursa Major down then he would need to damage its legs, and the second to have the bear’s attention focused on what was under it rather than above.
For a second, he feared that the latter part was about to be foiled, as the beast pulled itself up on its hind legs and rose to an astonishing height, but Matthias relaxed slightly as he saw it attention was still on himself, its front paws, even the one with the wound on its shoulder, raised…
“Oh, shit!” Matthias screamed mentally as he realized what the Ursa was planning to do, and sped up.
As the gigantic bear put its entire strength to hit the cave’s floor, Matthias lunged in between its legs - and found out that it happened to be a male - and, Holy Avenger once again in his hoof, slashed both hind legs’ tendons just a heartbeat after everything started shaking around them.
The bears painted cry was followed by a loud thump as it rear end collapsed, while Matthias fought to keep his balance. The cave was still shaking from the Ursa’s bash, which caused a lot of cracks to appear on the floor and many stalactites to fall down from the ceiling, perfectly visible in the light of…
Not having expected the amount of damage the cavern had just received, Matthias eyes widened as he watched the giant hammer of pure Light that he had summoned descend on the Ursa Major’s head, wondering if the cave could withstand more.
It couldn’t.
The hammer hit the Ursa and the force of the impact hurled the beast against the cave’s floor as Matthias had planned, but the damaged cavern broke. With a loud noise, the ground beneath them gave in, collapsing.
Matthias turned around in the air as they fell down, wondering how far down was the next solid stone. He wrapped himself in the Light’s protection as he tried to land on the Ursa, who was thrashing around a little under him. He didn’t worry about the bear; being so big, such fall would merely knock him out, which would gave Matthias a perfect chance to put his mind into a stasis. He also didn’t worry about what would happen to the Ursa Major, as he read in one of Twilight’s books that they were excellent climbers; which he found odd at the time, seeing as they were practically the size of mountains and didn’t seem to use that skill much.
The paladin neared the creature’s back and began to use its fur to climb up to its neck. Once Matthias reached his destination, he sat down, leaned his swords against his shoulders as if sitting in a meditation pose, and opened himself to the Light further, reaching out the the Ursa once more, letting Its calmness fill them both.
In mere seconds before they collided with the ground, the bear had stopped its frantic movements.
Daring cleared her eyes, thinking that her mind was playing tricks on her, but no, once she looked again, the stallion was still there, still sitting on the neck of an Ursa Major with two long swords.
“S-sir!?” Storm shouted out in shock beside her.
She glanced at the other pegasus to see that he gotten a hold of himself much quicker that she. He unfolded his wings and flew over to the pony, which, at the sound of his voice, looked in their direction as Storm approached him.
“‘Sir’…” Daring Do repeated in her thoughts what Storm called him. “This must mean that this is this ‘Sir Lightbringer’ he mentioned, the Grand Master of the Order…”
Mentally kicking herself for not paying a precise attention to what was happening in Equestria the past couple of months, she rose to her hooves and trotted towards them. This stallion, as unbelievable as it sounded, had just hurled an Ursa Major through the cave’s ceiling. Daring had never thought something like that would be possible, let alone that she would see it with her own eyes. And on top of all that, he was an earth pony! He must have used just his strength… or this ‘Light’ she heard about, however it worked. It was… unthinkable!
As she drew closer to the two stallions, paying little attention to what they were talking about, Daring got a good look at him. Unlike what she had expected, he was clad in a light armor made mostly out of fake leather. It made sense, considering that above was the Everfree Forest, and this type of protection was better suited for it. Half of his body was splashed in blood, which, as she realized with a jolt, was the Ursa’s - he himself hadn’t even been wounded!
Where there was no blood, Daring saw a coat of white so pure as the snow, and mane bright golden. His voice, while he currently spoke sternly to Storm, had a pleasant note to it. Daring gaze lingered a moment on his broad shoulders before they moved to his eyes - as she was close enough by then to see them - and saw that they had a quite charming blue-green color, immediately linking them to the color of the sea.
As the two stallions neared the end of their discussion, Daring pondered how to approach this Sir Lightbringer, feeling a bit hot and weak in the hind legs. It wasn’t exactly everyday you meet a pony that blasts around Ursa Majors, who is also so handsome…
Suddenly, Daring Do had realized just what in Celestia’s name was happening to her. For the first time in years, she had a crush on somepony!
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Goddamn why does the light have to grant such a massive bonus to swagger
Awwww isn't that cute?! Daring Do...has a crush!
lol, competition time for Arthus? this will be amusing
we're on chapter 119 and i have yet to thumb up, wow im late
Things just got real! And awkward. Really Awkward.
3783123
A Rectangle more like a Hexacontagon
Arthas and Daring, sittin' in a tree! R-U-T-T-I-N *SMACK*
Er, ignore that...
*laughs* This is Epic!!! Keep up the great work!!!
Is Arthas a monk? Cause he got Swagger!!
Really bad joke, my apologies.
Well, Matt certainly knows how to make an entrance, and his love life keeps becoming an increasingly complicated polyhedron.
that was not what I was expecting with the chapter title.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
That last part killed me!
Also, I'm curious as to what Arthas was saying to Storm while Daring was observing him.
Now Daring Do has the hots for him. His love life keeps getting stranger and stranger. How will Rainbow Dash react when she finds out Daring Do is real and interested in shagging with her rutt buddy. Twilight will probably react.... Poorly.
A good chapter and I'm happy to see it.
Well, that was badass. Accidental, but still rather badass. Go Matthias! fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/308/0/6/daring_do_clap_clap___by_xingyaru-d6t0c4f.gif Come to think of it, that badassness is probably part of the reason Daring now has a crush on Matthias. As an adventurer who raids ancient temples and tombs, it's probably extremely rare for Daring to encounter somepony whose just as awesome/badass as her. Which means that Matthias' love life has potentially gotten even more complicated. Poor Matthias, Rainbow and Twilight are going to freakout a tad bit. Rainbow because of her immense love of the Daring Do books, and Twilight because of possible jealousy.
dude that was ........ well sort of expected then again your tossing pegisi at an earth pony next we know its either pinkie dash or apple dash or will it be mac and dash hmmmmm but ya twilight just found more compatition well ok arthus found it twilight has to deal with it oh by the great ones this is funny well hope you update soon but till next chapter may your mind never dull
Oh dis getting gewd~
But yes this shall be a right funny bit of comedy and I shall be ever so happy to see the next chapters. For the facile matter is about to hit the ventilation unit in the near future if I do say so myself.
Daaayyyyymmm, Daring has hots on the Matthias now!
Soo, who's next?
rofl rainbow is going 2 flip when and if she find out about daring do and i can see daring might come 2 the abbey and try 2 hit on him that would be so funny for 2 reasons he will catch hell from twilight and rainbow will go insane from being star struck and for daring 2 have the hots for him the possibilities r endless hehehehehehehehehehehehe i'm getting glittery just thinking on how the next chapter will go rofl
Hate to be a kill joy but I think those last two words are 'crush us' not 'crash as'. Otherwise loving where this is going
Now I gotta wonder if Discord might fall for mathias for how much chaos the poor ex-lich kings love life is getting.
Awww yeah! Is this because I said I wanted this updated?
Oh god, Twilight and RD have some competition!
Nice chapter, you got me there with Daring Do!
Yeah, Mathias meeting Discord would be pretty interesting
But... Mathias is too perfect In my opinion. He's turning Mary Sue'ish more and more. Every mare falls for him? Gimme a break! I know who he was/is and him being perfect is more suitable for this story than in others but still...
I like where this is going...
Keep being awesome!
Awesome chapter!
And hopefully Daring's crush on Matthias will cause Twilight to get down to earth and hook up with him
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/357/c/0/fave_by_comeha-d6z0jqh.png
Being a paladin must give swag +100%
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/308/0/6/daring_do_clap_clap___by_xingyaru-d6t0c4f.gif fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/363/1/e/clapping_pony_icon___twilight_sparkle_by_taritoons-d5pkpl8.gif fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/363/c/f/clapping_pony_icon___applejack_by_taritoons-d5pkxsu.gif fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/363/2/f/clapping_pony_icon___rainbow_dash_by_taritoons-d5pkzrg.gif
Did I miss any?
3783114 Beacuse it grants +10 swagger when in present of female pegasi and unicorns
Wonder how inadequate Matt feels after seeing the Ursa's "wrecking balls".
I ship it.
HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAA..... Daring has a crush lol
The only thing that would have made that entrance even better, would have been if the first thing Matt said after the dust settled was "Roadhouse"
3-way with Rainbow and Daring?
This gets better and better with each chapter
Yanno, the thing is this is the kind of shee-ough Arthas would've done in Azeroth had he not been seduced by the dark side. It's half of what we were expecting in Warcraft III. Blizzard's little inversion of the traditional formula wasn't bad at all and a nice change, but sometimes it's just plain fun to go back to the old fashioned ideas.
THE PINK ONE IS PLEASED.
You may continue. 
I love the new update! Also, I'm sort of speechless as to what happened, and it is funny to see that Daring Do is getting a crush on Arthas, lol
But, I do wonder the two were talking about while Daring was taking in the appearance of Sir Lightbringer. 
Keep up the good work!
Really good chapter, we love this badass moments where people understand just how aweßome your characters are. I think daring could be a good match for arthas, she is an adventurer, she understands that they may not see each other all the time since she is often gone herself, and she's awesome.
fuck yes. Mathias, master of the sacred art of being a ladies man.
Awesome story! I binged from start to finish because I just couldn't stop reading and I have to say I loved reading it. The story, the lore, the mix of the worlds and all the plot hooks and revelations? Awesome.
Yes, there were grammatical errors and etc. but I quickly got over that with how much thought was put into the story. I think what I like best about it is that despite so many things going on, it develops naturally, if a bit slowly. Like a slice-of-life thing where everything happens and everything is important.
Even if everything that happens is awesome. And there are just so many badass moments that I can't help but cheer every time one of them comes up. Rock on.
Great update.
I wonder how Rainbow Dash will feel when she finds out she might be missing a three way with Daring and Mat.
And really looking forward to seeing Mats reaction the D Dogs statues.
Hmmm, I just have one problem whit the story, and it’s the fact that Mattias is becoming a Mary Sue. I mean, I can understand all the others things, but... Fighting and beating an Ursa Mayor in a close space like a cave? You just dont have enough space to dodge continuously something that big (dude... we are talking about a thing that makes adult dragons looks like little dogs to a T-rex), in a place where the terrain can fuck your every move. C´amon, an Ursa Minor can destroy houses whit one strike, and that animal is a baby compared to an Ursa Mayor... Mattias didn´t got hit directly by it, but the sheer force that did send him flying to the cave´s walls would pretty much smash him like a bug (and then he appeared totally unharmed to Daring and Storm W.T.F). And the fact that Mattias did enough damage to the bear... that too... even if the weapons of the protagonist where good enough to actually cut the pelt, it wouldn´t do damage at all, it would be like an ant trying to kill an eight feet human, even if the little ant could do something to our skin, the damage would be almost unnoticeable, hell, some of the hairs of the Ursa should be biggers than Mattias. The fact that he beated such thing whit odds like that is umbeliable, and whitout being the protagonist damaged a little is... well, even if we are talking about fantasy is umbeliable.
The author should be careful about this, it´s good to make your protagonist look badass and strong, but overdoing it, it makes the story boring.
3795399 He didn't "beat it" per se. He survived being swatted by the thing because he bubbled in time. Whatever damage he inflicted was pretty much like getting bitten by a red ant. It hurts like hell, but there's no real damage done. In the end, what "beat" the Ursa Major was the fact that the ground couldn't handle it's colossal weight, and Matt used the fact that the Ursa was stunned after the fall to pacify it.
The Ursa isn't dead or even defeated. It's just sleeping. But Daring Do doesn't know that and is now sporting a wingboner
3796372 Hmmm, dude, let me tell you about some of the things here:
As I said, he never got hit by the Ursa directly, but, it is said in the story, that the bubble disappeared after that, that means that Matt resisted without being heavily damaged the collision against the cave´s walls, a collision that should have squashed him like a bug. No buts and not if, the Ursa Minor can destroy houses whit one strike, his "father" would be a lot worse, even if it is only kinetic force.
It should be like this, as you say or I say, buuuuuuuut the story says otherwise:
There is a few things that are pretty bad whit this part, but first, let´s address your point:
Whit his swords Matt cutted the tendons of the Ursa, that is in no way a "little cut", for something like that, you need to cut really deep, something impossible for matt swords, first cause even if they have a really good edge (that I am sure that they have) he would need to almost dig in the Ursa for a few meters for even reach the part in question. For a feat like that, Matt would need a really huge sword, not the ones that he used.
The second part about that that is wrong is the next:
LOLWUT cutting both of his hind legs tendons in a heartbeat? Of what are we talking about here? A little crocodile? Something that big would have a distance between his legs so big, that would be impossible for Matt to do such thing fast, not only cause he don’t have the necessary equipment, but thanks to the distance too.
And even if he cutted one at time, for the moment he made it to one, the Ursa would have been already spotted him and would try to crush him whit his foots or whatever thing he tough to do.
Do not take me wrong dude, I like this story, the fact that I have readed it till now is the prove. But I can´t help but notice that, Matt is becoming more and more a Mary Sue.
3797173 The Ursa's might is certainly impressive if it can shatter a spell that supposedly makes the user impervious to all damage and hurl him across the room, but it is not that incredible that the spell would have absorbed the brunt of the blow so that Matt wouldn't have slammed against the wall with that much force. Rainbow Dash herself has had much worse in the show.
And in respect of the "killing blow", slashed =/= cut. Striking with an Legendary-quality blade at a very sensitive location would at least cause a knee-jerk reaction even if no permanent damage is caused. Again, when you get bitten by a red ant you will probably whip your hand and yelp in pain but, trust me, your hand is fine. Also, he finished slashing a heartbeat after the cave started shaking, not in a heartbeat. You bolded it out yourself.
Really now, Matt didn't need to be in this fic to be an overpowered badass. Even before he was the Litch King Arthas faced down unkowable demons, ancient dragons and gigantic undead monstrosities regularly.
3797932 Dude, I know what Matt did and did not, I have played Warcraft. And I am not mistaken when I say that he never faced a moving mountain. And more importantly, the strongest enemy that he had faced "alone" was Illydan (and even then he was being empowered by Ner´zhul and Frostmore). Illydan was badass, but he is not a mountain.
And even more, when Arthas was human, he never faced a really strong enemy alone, he was always whit his army backing him up, just "maybe" Malganis, and even then, he had Frostmore.
Arthas as human was strong, but he was not in the same level as other heroes like the Stormrage brothers, Grom Hellscream or Tichondrius.
3798238 Emphasis on "was". Let´s just say that, even if he's no longer super-charged with Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination, he's got a few more levels under his belt. And again I stress that Matt hasn't "killed" or "defeated" the Ursa. He knew full well that such a thing was nigh-impossible. He's just used magic to convince it to not reduce him to paste, and the only reason it worked was a several story fall the Ursa caused itself. And if you've ever tried to grapple a hamster or another small-yet-nimble critter, you'd know that getting to a small, fast moving target that does not want to be caught can be quite challenging.
3798294
Let´s put it this way; a cockroach can outrun a human? No. Why is that? Cause we as humans, we are a lot larger than a cockroach, that means that we can close a lot more space in less time that the insect, not only that, but dodging a thing that can close more space than you and it’s a lot bigger would be a nightmare.
And not that alone, Matt is not only facing something colossal, but the terrain that he is in, it’s the worst possible for a warrior, he not only need to be careful for the strikes of the Ursa, but of not getting trapped against a wall, or the uneven ground, and all the other shit that you can find there.
3798389 No, it cannot, but once it gets in between our legs stomping it is a lot more difficult because we lose line of sight to the target. And we're natural bipeds, bears are not, so it had an even worse angle to strike. And once it starts climbing up your legs it's even worse, even more for a bear with it's relatively short forelimbs, and it's humongous size would make it comparatively ponderous. That's why flies are natural trolls. What you think is a swift strike the fly sees it more like a slowly advancing wall of doom. Essentially, it's size works against it once Matt gets that close.
And about the terrain, the cave must have been absolutely massive if an Ursa Major can fit inside, move around and go in and out, and the terrain would be completely flattened every time it rolled in it's sleep, so although getting cornered is a very real risk, the battlefield would be mostly clear and getting trapped is something that can be avoided through tactical acumen and situational awareness.
Again, Matt was saved by his badassery and a very healthy amount of luck.
3798455
For some kind of reason, this part made me laught xD
It is hard to imagine a cave that big, not that I am saying nothing against your tough, just that is hard to imagine something that big in a even bigger place. Hard to comprehend.
Lady luck just dont get tired of smiling at him xD
But in all seriousness, that´s the problem right here, Matt seems to have some kind of plot device for everything. He seems to overcome everything whit ease (only the fight whit Sombra seemed changeling, and even in that fight there were some big BS, like the time he was impaled and then walked it off), and that is a problem. If the character just keeps advancing no matter what you throw at him, then the story becomes boring because you literally don’t have anything capable of making it slow down.
3798529
Speaking of changelings, Chrysallis found Matt challenging, but in the end she soundly kicked his flank. In fact, his own badassery worked against him that time in that it put the Queen on edge to Shining and Cadance's trump card, and had he not pulled a Fordragon at the last minute the story would have ended then and there.
And I again stress: He hasn't won, he's just successfully aborted combat. Even him cannot hope to win against a mountain-sized opponent on his own and without his armor.
3798560 But that fight was obvious that would end up like that, I mean, Matt overpowering a being that has already overpowered Celestia? That would have been bad.
But again, I have no troubles whit the early stage of the story. The Mary Sue thing started to be noticeable at the start of the Cristal Empire part. Since then, Matt looks like a train without breaks.
3798647 Matt hasn't had a decent opponent since Sombra, who almost killed him. He pulled through because paladins have INSANE staying power thanks to their healing and defensive spells, but after that? He used Fluttershy to avoid a confrontation with A'Lar, which he wasn't sure he could actually win and even if he could he couldn't afford the collateral damage, his sparring match with Wind Reaver was relatively even (though Matt didn't use his magic), the Windigo was mostly Storm Chaser's fight, and now he had to pacify the Ursa in order to avoid being stomped flat.
He is INSANELY badass, but I don't think he's a Marty Stu. Yet.
3798751 I like how we are the only ones talking about something of the story, even if it is something like power levels xD
The only other one that commented said something so random that I didn´t even bothered in trying to understand.
We will see, but in the end, I hope to be wrong, I mean, I like this story and I would hate to turn out like this, even more after all this time. But you see, I am not the only one who think this way:
That is a few comment below mine.
But well, we have to wait and see.