Part 1
Daring Do trudged across the searing sand dunes with a sullen, slouching pace. Her mane hung in straggling, sweat soaked tangles over her scowling, dirt smudged face, and the broiling desert sun glittered across the red sequins of an evening gown that was no longer quite so form fitting and daringly cut (appropriate to its wearer) so much as tattered and torn. Her wings were pinned to her sides by a length of rope that gleamed faintly with sinister magic.
At her side, a chestnut pegasus stallion with a shock of coppery mane and dark freckles dotting his cheeks was in a similar predicament, his disheveled tuxedo jacket and formerly white shirt and unbound bow tie stained with dirt and perspiration beneath his own tightly bound wings. His cutie mark depicted a rocket with a vermilion trail of flame, that seemed to sizzle in the heat waves that rose and rippled all around them.
His name was Red Glare, and the look that he cast Daring was in keeping with his moniker. "I should have known you didn't buy me that drink. As soon as I saw you sit down at the bar I shoulda gotten up and galloped out the door. Nothin' good ever comes from crossing flight paths with a dizzy, dive bombin' dame like you , Do."
The bedraggled mare sneered back. "Yeah, and likewise nothin' that would actually cost money ever comes from you, you two bit, half wit sky bum. You're too cheap to even pay attention to a gal, let alone buy her a drink. That should have tipped me right off."
Both ponies glared over their shoulders at a raspy chuckle behind them. A quartet of looming, knobby kneed figures followed close on their heels, hard featured bull camels in dark turbans and sunglasses. Three of them wore flowing black cloaks, while the forth bore a small, covered howdah strapped atop his peaked hump.
Lounging in the shade of its fringed cupola atop a silken pillow was a mustard yellow rabbit with a look of glittering malice in his beady little eyes and an ebony black spiral horn sprouting from his forehead, that gleamed with the same violet magical aura that suffused the ropes binding the pegasus mare and stallion's wings. He wore a tiny fez atop his head, and an adorable little white suit coat and tie. A mouthful of sharp fangs gleamed beneath his twitchy, fuzzy nose as he regarded his captives with a smug grin.
Daring lashed her tail and growled her defiance. "You got something to say, bunny boy?"
She flinched aside as a deadly accurate gob of camel spit kicked up a small gout of sand at her hooves. As his companion worked up another mouthful, one of the bulls snarled at her in a thickly accented voice. "You speak with respect to the great Al Miraj, and only when you are bidden to do so, pony mare."
At this the horned rabbit let out another chuckle. "It is all right, my faithful servants. The illustrious Daring Do and I have enough history with one another to dispense with trivial formalities. Although it rends my heart to hear that you did not appreciate the refreshments I arranged for you and your companion last night at the club."
At this Red Glare cast his captors a wan look. "Well, I don't normally take my sherbet with quite so much knockout juice in it."
Daring rolled her eyes and snorted. "Yeah, you generally only take it if it's complimentary."
Red huffed and flicked an ear in irritation. "Okay. We all get it, Do. I got cash flow problems. Can we please focus on bantering with the bad guys right now?"
The intrepid mare shook her head to get her sweat soaked mane out of her smoldering crimson eyes as she turned her attention back to their tormentors. "How about we move past banter to brass tacks. What's this all about, Al Miraj? You didn't drug us and drag us all the way out here just to practice your gloating, and if you wanted to bump us off you would have done it back in Marekesh."
The sinister rabbit's predatory teeth flashed more brightly beneath his twitching nose. "Oh, make no mistake, my dear, I still would very much like to 'bump you off', as you say, but perhaps it need not come to that if the two of you would perform a much desired service for me." He winked a beady eye at the pair of poker faced pegasi. "Business, as always, before pleasure."
He bobbed his twisted horn beyond a low range of mountains in the distance, their wind scoured peaks standing stark against the pale, parchment colored sky. "Yonder are the Seven Mountains of the Gods. In the foothills of the Mountain of Sekhmet, there is a cave, and deep within the cave, beyond such fiendish traps as even one such as I shudder to contemplate, is..."
Daring huffed impatiently and rolled her crimson eyes. "... a mystic macguffin of legendary power that will let you take over the world. Blah blah blah. Even dumb ol' Ahuizotl would run out of fingers tryin' to count the times I'd heard that one before, not even counting the times I heard it from him."
She let out a squawk of pain and alarm as a hurtling gob of camel spit ricocheted off her backside with a sharp report, sending her pitching face first into the sand.
Red was instantly at her side, helping her to her hooves as she snorted and coughed and spat out a mouthful of grit. Daring took a rueful look at the new stain and missing sequins on her red dress, and could already feel a bruise forming at the northeast point of her compass rose cutie mark. She glared daggers back at Al Miraj. "You're gonna pay for that, flopsy. I don't own a lot of girl clothes, and this was my favorite dress."
The lapine mastermind's ears were laid tight back along either side of his fez, and a scowl darkened his fuzzy little features. The pillow beneath him glowed an eerie purple and floated up off of his hench-camel's howdah, darting forward to bring him into fierce eye contact with Daring as his voice came out a rasping hiss. The needle sharp tip of his horn hovered between her wide, crossed eyes. "I am being more than generous allowing you meddling half-portions of jackal meat to continue drawing breath, do not squander my precious mercy with any further insolence."
The pegasus mare swallowed hard and gave a nervous bob of her head. "So... uh... this d-doodad you want us to get for you..?"
Al Miraj's lips compressed into a tight line as he spun his cushion and levitated back to the howdah with a flick of his soft cottony tail. "Yesss. The Amulet of Kaboo." He reared up and curled his fluffy little paws skyward in a paroxysm of megalomania with a maniacal gleam in his eyes." It is written that to hold it in two paws and speak its name is to be granted boundless power."
Daring snorted and lashed her sand crusted tail. "And you want us to be the ones who put it in your paws, huh?"
The villainous rabbit chuckled, his sharp toothed smile returning as he settled back onto his pillow. "If it's not too much trouble."
Red set his hooves with a pugnacious look settling on his freckled face. "And what if it is too much trouble?"
Al Miraj's smile tightened at the corners. "Then your wretched carcasses will vanish among the sands, until such time as perhaps many years hence a pony of Miss Do's alleged profession might chance across your bones and return them to Equestria to be mounted in a museum."
Daring wheeled with a huff and started walking again. "Heard something like that before too, and I haven't wound up in an exhibit yet."
She cast the coppery maned pegasus stallion a look and jerked her head toward the distant mountains. "C'mon, Red, lets get a move on before our brains cook in our skulls like eggs in a couple of frying pans."
Red scowled over his shoulder at their captors as they set out once more. "Y'know, we could get this over with a lot quicker if you'd just untie our wings and let us fly there."
Al Miraj flicked an ear as a smirk compressed his fuzzy yellow cheek, then bobbed his horn at one of his lanky minions. The ruddy pegasus stallion let out a yelp and ducked as a small gob of spittle grazed the top of his head between his laid back ears. "HEY! It was just a suggestion!"
There was an edge menace beneath the fiendish rabbit's purring tone. "I suggest you insult my intelligence no further, pony. Now keep walking, and only where I tell you to."
~~~
A few hours of stumbling over dunes, followed by a few more hours of stumbling over rocks as the ocean of sand washed upon the stony shores of the Mountain of Sekhmet's foot hills, found the party of captors and captives standing before a rock formation that vaguely resembled the roughly carved head and forepaws of a gigantic stone lioness.
Daring collapsed to her knees on the stony ground, parched and panting. "Whelp... This... is the... place... isn't it?"
Red flopped forward onto his belly at her side. "'Course... it's the... p-place... Why... hide... your treasure... in a... boring old... normal... cave... when you can... hide it... in one... that... looks... like a... loopty... loopin'... lion. Nopony would... ever... think... to look... there..."
The bedraggled pegasus mare cast him a wan look. "You... wanna... keep... lookin'... sport?"
The prostrate stallion waved a feeble hoof. "No... this is... fine..."
At a nod from Al Miraj, one of the bull camels fished beneath his cloak and produced an oilcloth water skin, which he tossed between them with a perfunctory thud. The black horned rabbit gave them an oleaginous grin. "There. Refresh yourselves and rest a moment before we press on."
Daring and Red licked their parched lips and cast a wary glance at the vessel, then at each other, and then back at their captors. Al Miraj rolled his glittering, button like eyes in exasperation. "I assure you that this drink isn't drugged. I need your speed and cleverness, Miss Do, and your speed, Mister Glare..."
At this Red's face mirrored his surname as he drew himself up indignantly. "Hey!"
The sinister rabbit gave a huff and continued. "... for you to lead us safely to the chamber where the amulet lies."
Daring reached out with eager hooves and grasped the water skin, yanking the stopper free with her teeth and drinking the precious liquid inside in huge, profoundly thirsty gulps.
Red turned his attention toward her with further indignation as the vessel's oilskin sides began to collapse. "Hey!"
With that he yanked it from her hooves and greedily gulped down his share after pausing a moment with a blush flitting across his cheeks to wipe the spout on his tattered tuxedo sleeve.
Daring pulled her gaze away and turned a weary scowl at the villainous rabbit as she climbed painfully to her feet. "Okay, so what now, Al Miraj? Secret key? Magic Spell? Password? Riddle?"
Her diminutive lapine foe let out another rasping chuckle. "An apt question. Ever the professional, Miss Do, whatever that profession might be."
She tossed her head defiantly. "Archeologist! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!"
The horned rabbit rolled his beady eyes again, then turned his attention toward the rock formation. "A password is the order of the day."
With that, Al Miraj reared up on his haunches and spread his adorable paws wide with a flourish. "Open Sesame!"
The ground beneath their hooves began to shake as a deep rumble filled the air. The mouth of the stone lioness opened with majestic slowness as small chips of rock cracked loose and tumbled down the sides of its roughly chiseled muzzle. The camel bulls took a step back, gaping in awe as Red tossed aside the water skin and scrambled to his feet.
Daring shot Al Miraj a deadpan look as the rumbling died away, leaving a gaping stone maw with stalactite teeth, open into the dark depths of the earth. "Open Sesame? Really? What is this, 'A Thousand and One Arabian Neighs'?"
The rabbit mastermind gave a shrug in reply. "Most of the time the ancients wouldn't bother to change it." His fuzzy, horn bedecked brow furrowed over a vicious grin. "I assure you that this is nothing compared to the perils that lie within'."
Daring flicked an ear. "Of course. An simple lock on a scary door as a 'keep out' sign, keeps the casual passers by away, then save the gruesome stuff for anypony nosy enough to ignore the warning."
Red gave her a sidelong glance. "You sure you're an archeologist, Do? You sound more like a tomb raid... OW! GEEZ!"
She cut him off with a swift kick to the shin, keeping her focus on Al Miraj as the red headed pony glared at her and rubbed the new bruise on his fetlock. The sinister rabbit gave a nod toward the maw of the cave and spoke in a voice that would brook no argument. "Now... if you two would kindly take the lead so that we can proceed."
Daring and Red exchanged a glance, and then with drooping tails began to walk forward. As they passed beneath the stony teeth of the cave mouth, the chamber filled with a yellow-orange light, issuing from a large, bulbous lantern hanging from the roof of a tunnel entrance roughly seven pony lengths away. Further lights flickered on in the eerie silence of the passage beyond.
The two pegasi stopped, glancing about warily, and Red leaned in to murmur to his companion. "Uh... should I be nervous that that lantern ahead of us kinda looks like a big ol' uvula?"
She whispered back. "I'm more concerned about the bunny and his goons behind us. Gimme a second and follow my lead, okay?"
Their eyes met, and the red headed stallion gave her a curt, subtle nod and whispered back. "You are such a pain in the flank."
They stopped a short distance into the cave, and Daring glanced up at the jagged, teeth like formations above, then back down at the gloating rabbit and his servants, who now stood directly beneath them. "So, uh... I got a question here, Al Miraj."
The horned bunny flicked an ear and waved his fuzzy paw in mock magnanimity. "Ask away, Miss Do."
A slight smirk came to her dirt smudged face as she glanced up at the cave's stony jaws. "What happens if somepony says 'CLOSE SESAME !' ?"
Red grabbed Daring tightly in his forelegs and hurled them toward the floor deeper into the cave.
A blank look washed across Al Miraj's twitchy little face as the deep bass rumble from the depths of the earth filled the air once more. One of the camel bulls let out a full throated "AIEEEE!" as he and his brethren spun on their heels and scrambled for the outside with their knobby kneed legs flailing and stumbling. The stone lion's mouth slammed shut with a thunderous, shattering crash.
~~~
Al Miraj let out a feeble groan and struggled out from beneath the hump of his largest hench-camel and the smashed wreckage of his howdah, after the panicked bull tripped over his ungainly feet in a mad flight from the collapsing cave mouth and then tumbled tail over teakettle down the rocky slope outside to finally come to rest on his back with his feet in the air, lying in a hollow with particularly pointy stones . Overall, the experience had been similar to lying on a road and being run over by a caravan of wagons.
All around them the other three humpbacked thugs were milling about uncertainly as their diminutive lord and master reared up half dazedly on his haunches and numbly dusted off his suit coat with his fluffy paws. He reached up and patted behind his horn where his fez normally was perched, and then cast about for it in dull panic after finding only his bruised, fuzzy scalp. He spotted the tiny red hat just as it was crushed beneath the heavy tread of one of his servants, who leaned down with a solicitous look on his pendulous face. "Are you all right, effendi?"
A crackling purple glow appeared around the startled camel, lifting him a hoof's width into the air and then tossing him aside to smack into one of his comrades, knocking them both sprawling. Al Miraj woefully examined the flattened fez, which burst into violet flames and ablated into wisps of ash as a beat later the blackest of scowls twisted the sinister rabbit's features. "That mare..."
His ears drooped as a look of sick realization washed across his face, to be instantly replaced by an even blacker expression of wild eyed murder. "THE MARE!"
He scampered up the rocky hillside and came to a stop at the leonine rock formation, hopping furiously on his hind legs and shaking his fluffy little paws in fists of rage. "OPEN SESAME! OPEN SESAME!" He glared wildly over his shoulder with red rimmed, gleaming eyes at his stunned cohort. "GET UP YOU HALF-WIT SONS OF JACKALS! GET IN THERE! GET THEM! MAKE THEM PAY FOR THIS INSULT IN PAIN! IF THEY ESCAPE YOUR OWN SUFFERING SHALL BE TENFOLD! GET THOSE PONIES!"
~~~
Daring shook off her daze from the shock of being tackled to the floor, and found herself in Red's embrace. A fierce blush stole across her features, that quickly abated as he groaned and began to stir. She shoved him away and leapt hastily to her feet, casting a searching look around the chamber that was now much dimmer with only the illumination of the glowing lantern.
Red huffed and shot her a wan expression as his voice dripped with sarcasm. "Great plan, Do. Now we're stuck in here."
She replied with a grin and a wink. "Relax, hotshot, I don't get 'stuck' in tombs, catacombs, or dungeons. We'll find a way out somehow. The whole point was to get rid of that cottontailed creep and his drooling torpedos."
Both ponies blinked in consternation as the room started to rumble and a crack of daylight began to slowly widen behind them. Red looked back over his shoulder as the sound of shrill, shrieking threats of horrible torture and doom began to squeak through the crack over the deep bass of the cave's maw opening. He gave Daring an alarmed look. "Looks like we didn't get rid of them for long. We'd better move!"
With a nod, they both fled at a gallop toward the corridor beyond, with the intrepid mare shouting "CLOSE SESAME!" over her shoulder to buy them a few seconds more time. The fanged cave slammed shut with a resounding crunch once more, with frantic cries of "open sesame" mixed with vile curses seeping muffled through the thick rock face.
They made their way down the rough hewn stone tunnel at breakneck speed, screeching to a halt at what appeared to be an impassible dead end. The tunnel opened over the cliff face of a deep chasm lined at the bottom with a spiky floor of jagged stalactites. It was about two pony lengths across, an easy jump for a healthy pegasus even without their wings, if there were only somewhere to land. All there seemed to be across from them was a flat, vertical stone wall decorated with an intricate geometric pattern of radiating lines. Two more softly glowing yellow lanterns hung from the ceiling above.
Daring and Red shared a brief, smug grin, and backed up a few paces. The copper maned stallion made a flourish with his fore hoof. "Ladies first."
She gave him a wry smirk and pointed at the spike pit before them. "Aren't you gonna toss your coat down for me so I can walk across?"
He snorted and shook his head. "Can't. It's a rental."
Daring rolled her eyes and leapt forward with a hop, skip, and a jump, with Red following close on her heels. They both landed easily on the polished stone platform across the chasm, then cantered down the hall beyond until it dead ended at an enlarged section of the pattern on the wall they'd left behind, illuminated by another lantern that perfectly matched the glow of the ones over the spikes. Without further ado they ducked down the concealed tunnel to the right and made their way deeper into the cave.
The builders of the catacombs had created a flawless tromp l'oeil using a simple trick of perspective to make the wall over the jagged stalactite pit appear flat and featureless, but they had not counted on a pegasus' uncannily sensitive depth perception, let alone their instinctive feel for air flow. A creature without these abilities, or even one with magical powers who could exhaust their reserves searching for an illusion spell, would be fooled.
Which indeed they were, as in a patter of broad, two toed hooves the quartet of bull camel thugs and their raging lapine master came to a clumsy stop at the cliff edge Daring and Red had just vacated.
Al Miraj skittered to the edge beneath his minion's long, knobby legs and glared across at the impossible seeming barrier, grinding his fangs and hopping with rage as his twisted black horn shot purple sparks. "AGH! A THOUSAND CURSES UPON THEM! WHERE HAVE THEY GONE?!"
His hench-camels stood nervously, not daring to move or even breathe too heavily as the furious rabbit crouched at the lip of the chasm and fumed, his white hot rage lapsing to sullen fury. Finally, the bravest of them spoke meekly to the seething little creature between his hooves. "E-effendi? Pardon this foolish one's ignorance, but what would you have us do now?"
Al Miraj let out a weary sigh and spun on his heel, stomping back toward the cave mouth with a sour look scrunching up his twitchy little nose. With a casual flick of his glittering horn he shoved the camel thug who'd dared to address him headlong over the ledge, where the screaming, flailing bull was saved at the last moment from gruesome impalement on the stalactites below by one of his brethren lashing out with his long neck and painfully clamping his falling cohort's tail in his teeth and pulling him back to safety. They lay in a tangled pile of gangly limbs and necks, panting and trembling with terror.
They stared after their diminutive master as he flicked his cotton tail and waved a paw, not even looking back at them. His rasping voice echoed down the hall. "Outside! We will wait in ambush!"
His brow darkened beneath his black horn as the anticipation vile revenge percolated through his evil little bunny brain. "Knowing those two they will make their way out of the catacombs eventually, and we will be there when they do."
~~~
Red cast a wary look down another corridor that stretched ahead of them. "Well, Do? What do you make of this?"
They faced a worked tunnel, wide enough for two ponies to walk side by side. The floor was covered with polished tiles, each with a bright flower adorning the center. At the far end, an equally cheery mosaic of a pale she-camel with a succession of beaded necklaces around her neck, which bent down to bring her nose to an ornate bloom. These lovely touches were offset by dark grooves in the sandstone walls, which were marked with darker stains that both ponies didn't want to think too deeply about.
Daring rubbed her chin thoughtfully, and looked up toward the ceiling. There were more warmly glowing lanterns, their light made hazy by a drapery of cobwebs that hung from what would have been a difficult to see network of tripwires, or in this case flapwires. Clearly the builders of these traps hadn't completely discounted flying intruders. That was a moot point right now, however, as both ponies' wings were still bound.
She squinted as she peered down the hall at the mosaic, mouthing the words chiseled beneath it to herself, and then turned to her companion with a wan look on her face. "Well, my Ancient Ponecian is kinda rusty, but I think it says 'Stop and smell the flowers.'"
Red furrowed his brow. "So is that supposed to be helpful?"
She gave him a shrug as she ruffled her wings in their bindings. "Dunno. I guess we'll have to see."
He pursed his lips and jerked his head toward the foreboding passageway. "Uh... Ladies first?"
Daring glared back at him. "I think we'd better go together, so that neither of us has to watch the other make any fresh stains on the walls."
Red nodded. "Okay. You ready?"
She nodded back. "Yeah. Lets go."
With that, they stood side by side and stepped out onto the first tile.
So far so good. They exchanged a skittish glance, then took another step.
On the third step they felt a click beneath the tiles. All their instincts screamed to take to the air, as they felt a breeze and a blast of dislodged dust come from the grooves in the wall, but their wings strained uselessly against their bindings. Daring tensed all over, looking in every direction. Spinning scythes or saw blades, she guessed, from the characteristic whirring. Poison darts were more of a New World thing, and generally came with a puff of compressed air or the twang of a spring.
She let out a squeal as Red turned and shouted at her, a look somewhere between revelation and panic on his face. "STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS! SMELL THE FLOWERS!"
He shoved her head toward the floor with a rough hoof, banging her chin on the florally decorated tile, as both ponies' spines stiffened beneath huge scimitar blades that spun out from the wall and barely cleared their withers. They came from both sides, screeching and clashing in the middle and raining sparks down on them. The two pegasi stared with wide, goggling eyes as a third spinning blade shot up through a slot between the tiles in front of them, missing the tips of their snouts by a hair's breadth.
They stayed with their heads bent down, as if they were grazing, while the whirring blades retracted. With a shaky laugh Daring looked over at Red and leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek. "Good going, Red. If I'd been standing up straight I'd never get to wear my pith helmet anymore."
He blushed and stammered his thanks with a coy smile. Both pegasi felt a chill run up their spine as the sound of something mechanical clacked in the walls behind them. As they watched in growing horror, staring past their fetlocks, two metal panels covered with short spikes extended out from the grooves in the wall, then pivoted upright on an iron axel at their midpoint, blocking the hallway. This barrier then proceeded to slowly advance toward them at a slow trot's pace.
Red glanced sidelong at Daring. "Hold that thought."
She looked back with tension furrowing her brow. "Only if we can keep our heads down. Move!"
The pair started walking at a brisk pace down the hall with their snouts to the floor as the spiked panels trundled along the grooves behind them. At random intervals, they'd stop when they felt a click beneath their hooves, waiting with the sweat beading on their foreheads as blades met above their backs and then popped up in front of their noses while the sweeping wall got ever closer to their backsides.
Finally, after what seemed like an excruciating series of starts and stops over the flowery tiles, with slicey doom waiting them if they straightened up their aching necks or surged forward to quickly to avoid the trundling spikes behind them, they came to another drop off, a mere pony length across, with a clear, spacious platform on the other side.
Daring and Red only spared a cursory glance below, averting their eyes respectfully from the broken skeletons of those who hadn't been able to keep their head in the deadly corridor behind them.
The copper maned stallion grinned over at the disheveled mare at his side, and darted his head sideways to plant a peck on her cheek before leaping across to safety.
Daring stood stunned, leaping with a yelp as one of the spikes from the panel goosed her in the rump. Her hooves clattered on the rough granite of the other side, and she wheeled and decked Red with a right fore hoof cross with an angry blush on her face.
The sweeping wall rotated back to a horizontal position at the end of the flower corridor and retracted smoothly into the wall as the clacking died down. Red struggled to an upright position on his belly and snarled at her with his hoof pressing the sore spot on his jaw. "What the hay was THAT for?"
She glared back at him with her legs braced, pointing at the spot on her cheek where he'd kissed her. "What was THIS for?"
He lashed his tail as he climbed to his feet. "Hey, you did it first! It was for luck, I guess."
She hiked her own tail higher as her wings strained against their bindings. "You don't HAVE any luck to spare, bozo!"
He faced off with her. "Well maybe I wanted to borrow some more of yours!"
She stepped in closer. "Well work on your loopty loopin' timing! I got jabbed in the tuchus thanks to you!"
He pushed closer as well. "You'll get a swift kick back there too if you don't step off!"
She snarled in his face, their snouts nearly touching. "Just TRY it if you got the hailstones, bucko!"
He growled back. "You're just lucky a gentlecolt would never lay hooves on a lady."
She snorted. "You ain't no gentlecolt."
He sneered. "YOU ain't no lady."
They lapsed into furious silence, her crimson eyes glaring into his blue grey ones as their foreheads touched and steam came in puffs from their nostrils.
A beat later they embraced in a passionate, hungry kiss.
After a few minutes they parted and wheeled away from one another, gasping for breath.
Daring looked sheepishly over her shoulder, her cheeks a bright red against her burnt-orange coat. "Um... L-look, Red. I'm... I'm sorry about that, I was just kinda wound up from... well... all those ways we nearly just died right now and... well, I needed to let it out. I'm..."
Red looked over his own shoulder, rubbing the back of his head and not quite meeting her gaze as a blush blossomed behind his dark freckles. "Uh... yeah... I know what you mean... I guess... I mean... I'm sorry too... Wasn't thinkin' straight..."
Both pegasi's wings settled in their binding ropes as Daring scuffed at the floor with a hoof. "Yeah. Both of us kinda said... and did... things we didn't... um... r-really mean to do."
He gave her a lopsided grin and a shaky chuckle. "No real harm done. I hope you... uh... got that little bit of your luck back... y'know... from... from... that... y'know..."
She let out her remaining tension with a relieved laugh of her own. "Well... if... um... if you didn't you can keep it for now 'til we get out of this..."
Red nodded carefully as he extended a hoof toward her. "We'll call it an i.o.u. then, to be collected at a later date."
Daring reached up and took it and gave it a firm shake. "Sure sure. Any... anytime. If we make it out alive, I mean."
His gentle smile edged into a wry smirk. "And just to be safe, I'll keep an eye on your rump so nothing else bad happens to it."
She rolled her eyes and turned away to conceal a resurgence of her blush. "How 'bout you keep an eye out for trouble instead, meatball."
The intrepid mare nodded toward a corridor leading off to their left from the platform, lit with more warmly glowing lanterns. "C'mon. This way."
Red stole a furtive glance at her hiked tail as she turned, murmuring under his breath with a smile. "What do ya think I'm doin'?"
Daring paused at the door and flicked her ear. "What was that?"
He fell into step beside her. "Nothin'. Lead on, Miss Archeologist."
~~~
After a long, twisting path through natural stone passages with occasional alcoves lit by the magical lanterns, they came to another worked chamber, its floor a grid of tiles decorated with different plant designs. Beyond was an archway leading to a darkened space beyond. Here and there, huge blocks of rough hewn granite were embedded in the floor in crumbling piles. A glance upward, lit by the light of a single lantern in the center of the ceiling, showed gaps in a larger stone grid where they'd come from. A glance at the base of one of the piles, with a set of bony hooves of indeterminate species sticking out from beneath, told the grim story of their purpose.
Daring stood and scrutinized the floral images on the tiles, half talking to Red and half thinking out loud to herself. "Mmm. Another old school trap. I've seen it so many times all over the world that I've gotten in a few arguments with Thor Neigherdahl at the Globe Galloper's Club over whether it was carried to the New World by colonists from the Old World or just originated spontaneously in different cultures."
The chestnut pegasus stallion nervously tapped his hoof on the stone floor outside the tiles, prompting a cautionary glare from his companion that stilled his pawing. "So what's it do?"
She bobbed her head toward the different designs, then at the remains sticking out from beneath one of the huge blocks. "Well, this kind of setup has two basic kinds of tiles, that I call 'whew tiles' and 'uh-oh tiles'. If you can figure out which are which, you can get across safely without winding up like poor old mister pancake over there."
He nodded thoughtfully in return. "Okay, so which are the safe ones and which are the dangerous ones here?"
She looked at the tiles, then at him, then back at the tiles, then back at him, then gave a shrug. "No loopty loopin' idea. Best guess, you're supposed to step on weeds and not step on the flowers, but I don't really know too much about gardening and they all kinda look the same to me." She wiggled one of her bound wings as she gave him a sheepish look. "Pegasus, y'know?"
Red pursed his lips as he glanced around the cave. "Yeah. Same here. So how are we gonna cross this room then?"
Daring let out a sigh. "Well, one of the big perks of being a pegasus is kinda unavailable right now so... I guess run really fast?"
Her companion rolled his eyes skyward. "LIke I keep sayin', Do... yer nothin' but trouble."
She rolled her eyes right along with him. "No, what you keep sayin' is: 'Can I borrow five bits 'til next Thursday?"
He huffed and flicked an ear. "Well, if we want to make it to next Thursday we'd better run as fast as we can."
Daring gave a soft snort and craned her neck back to unzip the tattered remains of her red sequined dress and let it slip to the floor, stepping out of it with a rueful last look. Red's wings strained against their bindings, and he hastily looked away and proceeded to shrug out of the wreckage of his tuxedo, letting out a sigh as it dropped to the ground. Daring's gaze lingered for a moment before she turned her attention to stretching her legs.
Divested of everything that would slow them down except for the sinister, unbreakable magic ropes immobilizing their wings, they stepped up to the edge of the tiles and shared a look, both blushing slightly in spite of themselves.
She lashed her tail and tried to cover with a smirk. "How about the loser buys the winner lunch at Pita's Falafel Palace back in Marekesh?"
He grinned back. "I think we'll both be winners if we make it across alive."
She let out a chuckle. "We'll go dutch."
He extended his hoof. "Deal."
She took it and gave it a firm shake. They looked into each other's eyes, both leaning tentatively forward to maybe kiss, thought better of it, and both turned their attention toward their goal across the broad expanse of potentially fatal hoof falls. They dropped into starter's positions, their wings tense against their sides.
Daring nodded. "Ready?"
Red set his hooves. "Set."
They both reared up as one, kicking their fore hooves in the air as they cried out in unison. "GO!"
~~~
Al Miraj crouched sullenly in the shade provided by one of his hench-camels, waiting and watching the gaping mouth of the lion shaped rock. His other minions were positioned nearby, waiting to rain loogies of doom on the ponies that vexed their master so.
One of the villainous rabbit's long ears perked up at the deep, distant sound of thunderous rumbling coming up from beneath the ground. He gave it an irritated flick and laid it back alongside the other, letting out a low growl and muttering to himself. "I swear by the deepest burrows in Tartarus that I will slaughter those stupid ponies if they let themselves get killed down there."
~~~
It was pitch black, and Daring coughed and spat out a mouthful of dust. "Those... those... lousy prehistoric JERKS! There was nothing but 'uh-oh' tiles back there! That's not fair at all!"
A muted groan sounded at her side accompanied by some shifting gravel. "Mmmn. You're pretty amazing, darling... uh... Daring, noticing that kind of detail while you're running for your life."
She shrugged in the darkness. "It's a survival instinct. Too easy to blunder into dart holes or lurking ceiling crocodiles otherwise."
Her voice cracked a little. "So you alive, Red?"
The clop and scrape of hooves groping could be heard. "Yah. Close enough to it. How 'bout you, Daring?"
She reached out until she felt him, and they pulled one another into a tight embrace, their wings shifting across their backs. "Yeah, still here... Wherever here is."
They disengaged and Daring could hear the rustle of Red rummaging under his wing, followed by his low voice in the stillness. "Hang on a second. Got my lighter here. Gonna spark it up. Here's hopin' theres still some fluid left."
With a soft *flink* sound a yellowish flame appeared, filling the space around them with an intimate glow. The two pegasus ponies looked at each other in the dim light and smiled. They were both bruised and battered, disheveled and weary, but they were both alive.
Daring glanced at the silvery square of the lighter adhered by a minor tactile binding to his fore hoof, it's face emblazoned with the image of a mare giving a saucy wink through an upturned horseshoe. "I didn't know you smoked, Red."
The stallion gave a firm shake of his head and a grinned. "Naw. Filthy habit, and too expensive anyway. This is for firecrackers n' sparklers."
He looked around with a rueful look on his face. "And for emergencies."
The archway was a few paces away, completely blocked by crumbled stone blocks and other detritus. Otherwise, they were in a small, rounded cave, with no apparent exits in the smooth stone around them. In the center of the chamber, which was perhaps four pony lengths in diameter at the most, was a low, rough hewn pedestal with a small chest sitting atop it.
Red bobbed his head toward the chest. "Would it be asking too much for that to have the all powerful macguffin thing in it?"
Daring looked back at him past shrugging shoulders as she crept over to it. "Could be another trap."
He brought his flickering lighter over to help her examine it, and let out a rueful sigh. "Well, if it is that's fine with me. Better a goner now than a goner in however long it'll take us to run out of air or starve in here."
Daring brushed a hairpin from her mane and plucked it up off the stone floor in her teeth, leaning in to fiddle with the chest's latch. She gave him a wan, sidelong glance as she worked."You're a real barrel of laughs right now, Red."
He held the lighter close so she could see what she was doing. "Well, normally I'd be running in little circles and screaming my head off 'cause I am kinda... well be honest, I'm really claustrophobic." The little flame glinted in his eyes. "But I'm tryin' to keep a lid on it 'cos I wanna make however long we got left as good for you as I can manage."
Her lips tightened on the hairpin as a soft blush bloomed on her cheeks. Her eyes glistened a bit at the corners as she turned her head to meet his gaze.
A beat later a soft click came from the chest's latch and it popped open. Daring spat out her impromptu lock pick and traded a glance with Red, then turned and pushed the lid up with both fore hooves. The coppery maned stallion leaned in with his lighter and let out a whistle as his eyes caught the glint of gold on a mouldering pad of red velvet.
Daring picked up a plate of gold roughly the size and shape of half a saucer, a hemisphere with a zigzag edge on its right side. An inscription in ancient Mareabic shifted and merged into modern Equestrian letters spelling out the word "KABO" on it's face.
Red whispered to her in an awestruck voice. "Is that the Amulet of Kaboo?"
She pursed her lips in thought. "I... guess? It says 'Kabo' here."
He cocked an eyebrow. "Like down on the coast of Mexicolt? They have this awesome bar down there with amazingly cheap umbrella drinks..."
Daring gave him a wan look. "Not likely, Red."
His attention shifted to the chest. "Wait, there's another one in here." He reached in his free hoof and pulled out an identical plate, this time with its zigzag edge down its left side. The mystic letters on its face shifted to read "OBIE"
Red's brow furrowed. "Obie?"
Daring held out her plate and lined it up with his. "They look like they fit together."
With a pensive nod he brought the piece he held and touched it to hers, the two hemispheres forming a full circle. They both read the singled word formed by the halves. "Kaboobie?"
At that moment Red's lighter sputtered and went out. Daring grumbled in the pitch blackness. "Aw Ponyfeathers."
A moment after that the cave was filled with a gleaming corona of golden light, and both ponies let out a cry of alarm as a boom of thunder nearly deafened them. Even if they had been deaf, however, they would have heard the mighty, deep bass voice that echoed far over their heads. "OH HO HO HO HO! SALAAM AND WELL MET, MY LITTLE PONIES!"
Daring and Red willed their eyes open to behold an amazing sight. The tiny chamber they'd been trapped in had suddenly ballooned into a huge, vaulted cavern as big as Canterlot Castle. Towering over them was a gigantic, golden brown bull camel with huge, tawny wings sprouting from either side of his hump. A dark goatee jutted from his chin beneath a broad smile, and a black topknot trailed from the back of his head, bound by a gold clasp. His only other adornments were a large gold hoop earring in one of his ears and a set of bronze bracers girding his forelegs.
The intrepid pegasus mare shook her head to clear it, and turned to gently shove her stallion companion's jaw closed, then faced the overwhelming apparition and spoke to him in a shaky voice. "Um... Hi. Who... who might you be... uh... sir?"
The giant camel gave them a deep bow. "I AM KABOOBIE, GENIE OF THE SUNDERED AMULET AND SERVANT OF THE SEERESS OF THE SEVENTH MOUNTAIN. IT IS A PLEASURE TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTANCE, DARING DO, AND YOURS AS WELL, RED GLARE."
She blinked. "You... know our names?"
Kaboobie let out a rumbling chuckle as he shrank himself down to merely loom over them instead of towering. "Well, I do work for a seeress, plus... you know... genie."
Red finally shook out of his shock and awe. "Wait. So... if you're a genie, do... do you grant wishes?"
The winged camel gave him a warm grin. "Oh ho ho. I am not a charitable foundation, nor am I the government, my young pegasus. I do not grant wishes. Although I would be willing to exchange a certain number of them for services rendered."
He chortled as they exchanged a puzzled glance. "Ho ho ho. I'm sure that you are heartily sick of cryptic riddles, having bravely or foolhardily made it all the way down here, so I shall make it plain."
He pointed a broad, two toed hoof at the gleaming plate in their hooves. "It is not given to me to touch the amulet or work my magic upon it, but I would see it returned to its rightful owner."
Kaboobie gave them a mirthful wink. "Therefore, if two young ponies of fleet wing would carry it to the seventh mountain in this chain, known in these days as the Mountain of Ra, and deliver it to the current seeress, one Henna Baba, who lives upon its peak, then I would gladly make three wishes come true for them."
Red blinked up at him. "And... these two ponies would be us, right? Ow!"
He turned and glared at Daring and spoke to her in a harsh whisper as he rubbed his bruised hock. "Geez! Sorry if I'm slow on the uptake. I'm a little freaked out right now, okay?"
The intrepid mare ignored him and cocked a thoughtful eyebrow up at the genie. "Um... so just to make sure we're on the same page, could we wish for you to send us to the Mountain of Ra with the amulet in hoof?"
Kaboobie let out a booming laugh and shook his head. "OH HO HO HO HO. I'm afraid not, my clever little mare. I cannot perform the service in payment for performing the service. The paradoxical magical feedback would flood the deserts in chocolate milk, and for that matter it's hardly proper business practices."
He met her gaze with a twinkle in his eye. "I can, however, aid you should you run into trouble on the way, and I'll even be a mensch and get you out of this cave and suited to travel for free, so you don't have to use up any wishes on that."
Daring and Red shared another look, shrugged at one another, and turned back to face the tawny winged camel.
She gave a nod. "Yeah, I'm game."
He nodded too. "Sure. Sounds like fun."
Kaboobie threw back his head with a mighty laugh, as he expanded to gigantic proportions and billowing trails of crackling smoke flowed from beneath his wings. "OH HO HO HO HO HO HO HOOO! EXCELLENT! LET US BEGIN, THEN, MY LITTLE PONIES!"