Daring Do Returns

SSSHHLACCK! Daring couldn't get enough of that sound as her loyal machete hacked through a group of vines in her way. Venturing on, the brush seemed to be getting thicker and noticeably darker. Sheathing her knife for a break, she sat down and sighed.

I can't believe it. I swore never to go on another stupid adventure, yet here I am. Dumb cutie mark destiny…

Digging into her saddlebags, she produced an apple and took a bite letting the sweet juice flow over her tongue. A quick swig from one of her canteens and Daring Do was soon chopping again and had a sneaking feeling she was about to add one more discovery to her list. Her grayscale mane and golden tan coat eventually became soaked in sweat as one more swing penetrated the thicket and a ray of sunlight beamed through into the shadowed wood.

An accomplished smile creeped it's way onto Daring Do's face as she pried the vines apart and with no energy left to spare, she simply tumbled into the clearing and let her fatigue finally take over as she fell into deep treacherous sleep.

~                    ~                    ~

Flying at full speed, sheer terror and adrenaline fueling her, Daring was racing out of a dark chamber hall, not even caring that she was setting off every trap hidden in the temple. She wanted out and she wanted it NOW!

A dart whizzed towards her head piercing her ear and joining a party of the steel pins stuck in her body. Her hat was lost when she initially took off and along with it, her primary head protection. In pain, she slammed her eyes shut and gave a pained grunt but when she saw again, it was the ceiling with free-hanging chains was she headed straight for!

Crashing into the swinging chains, they wrapped around her as if having a life of their own and entangled the terrified mare. Desperate to get out, she thrashed with all of her might just as a fly in a spider's web would, only entangled her further.

Then her real nightmare began.

She heard the horrible creature drawing nearer, it's scuttling feet across the ancient chipped sandstone slabs that layered the floor. Her eyes widened further and she squirmed for all she was worth to get free, but the chains held strong, rubbing her skin raw.

A shot of pain ripped through Daring Do's back and she screamed in agony as she looked back and saw a rusty chain had dragged across her back and tore a bloody gash through her flesh. Tears flooded her eyes from fright and pain as she hung there still thrashing to get out, the rusty chain digging further into her free-flowing wound.

Her movements slow and the slow realization dawns on her: the darts are poisoned. Then she saw it. The horrific monster emerged from the pitch black corridor and the pegasus let out a final echoing scream into the deep depths of the chamber.

~                    ~                    ~

Waking up in a cold sweat, Daring hugged herself tight and soon found herself crying. The monster has haunted her mind ever since nearly a decade ago. She closed her eyes and by some miracle of Princess Luna herself drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

Sunrise came and the night slowly subsided for Celestia's day. Sleep slowly lifted off of the mare and with her eyes still closed, she rolled onto her back and felt the cool grass on her back and the sun warming her belly, giving Daring a content smile.

I must've passed out in Berry Punch's yard after another one of her parties, Daring thought to herself. "Hey! Lyra! Colgate! Bon Bon! Roseluck! Anypony still here!?" No response.

Groggily opening her eyes, Daring looked around for anypony. Tree... Tree... Tree... Oh horsefeathers...

As she snapped up suddenly, wave of green flooded her vision and she remembered what happened yesterday. "CELESTIA DAMN IT!!!"

Her sudden outburst offset her balance and falling over, Daring covered her face with her hooves and cursed herself. Laying there for who knows how long, she heard leaves brushing behind her head. Not bothering to get up, she rolled over and looked towards the rustling.

Oh, great joy, she thought. The hole she cleaved through the vines were mending themselves at an alarming rate- the same ones from the Forbidden Northern Jungles. (Of course Daring ignored the namesake though.) The vines aren’t anything to worry about, they’re just annoying and from experience, Daring knew they get harder to cut the more you do so.

Giving the vines an annoyed look, Daring lifted herself up and looked around, surveying her surroundings. The clearing she was in was flawless. Blades of green grass accompanied the perfect white daisies that were all over on the small hill and now looking, an intricate pattern the vines were woven into looked obviously unnatural, so she did the logical thing. She picked a few batches of flowers.

A few strokes of her graceful wings lifted her hooves off the soft field and gave Daring a bit more of a view. Pulling out her compass, she took a glance towards her comforting home in Fillydelphia, but quickly went back to looking for any sort of oddity in the seemingly infinite living forest.

Nothing came of it.

Floating back to the ground with a sigh of resignation, the pegasus took one more look around and-

Who put that arch there?

A perfect curving doorway in the vines stood where Daring looked not twenty seconds ago, revealing another sunny clearing she should’ve seen from the sky. Caution and suspicion were the first things on the mare’s mind while gingerly stepping through the newfound opening.

Shock quickly replaced her caution as she stuttered, “Wait- how does... what? Why didn’t I...”

What she saw, she simply could never comprehend.

A village. A burning village.

It was a sizable settlement, maybe a couple hundred yards across. The houses were rather huts woven from thick grasses and branches from trees, but they were all destroyed. Fires were set to some homes, ashes blowing across the wouldbe beautiful field.

What really stunned Daring is the fact that she didn’t see this when she did her aerial scout. The smoke from some of the still-smoldering houses would’ve been an obvious signal of anypony being there. The eerie quiet was bothersome too. Slowly, Daring began to walk into the ruins, still pondering the hidden clearing when a wrong turn took her to the villagers.

It was a small town of zebras and they were everywhere. Some had angry faces and were holding spears, a few had confused looks, but most of them looked surprised.

But they were all the same.

Dead.

This, however was a tragedy dulled down to a resigned sigh in the daring mare’s mind. Things like this were unfortunately common on her explorations, however.

I hate how bands of gangs, bounty hunters, or even native tribes would destroy anything or anyone getting in the way of their goal, She thought absentmindedly. Taking homes, loved ones, even lives for something they only get to keep until death. Is it really worth that much to them?

It’s that thought again, and she only had hatred for it. Though she was world-renowned Daring Do: Explorer of the unknown, she ventured to take things ancient ponies did for their precious beliefs. The real question was: was she really just another raider?

Was Daring Do any different?

Scowling, she put the thought away and kept trekking through the town. The zebras had been shown no mercy. The whoever, or whatever did this almost seemed to enjoy the slaughter...

The silence was making Daring’s mane twitch and she gave a small hum just to calm her nerves and make sure she could still hear. Looking around, she picked a hut at random. It wasn’t anything special, it was just a small place, maybe twenty feet in width.

Inside the huts was the real gruesome sight. The villagers had been dissected and strewn all around the place, then pinned to walls like bloody decor. The rest of the home had been seemingly pillaged for anything of even minor value.

Stepping out she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Somewhere behind her, a small crash met her ears and whirling around, a little cloud of ash told her where.

Trotting over to the thinning cloud, she looked for what fell over. There wasn’t much. Just a bed, three-legged table and a painted sitting in a little crater of ash. That’d be it.

Flying above the village just high enough to see to the edges, there was no sign of life. Maybe the rock just fell off the-

FFF-TING

Her thoughts were interrupted by a dart whizzing by her head and bouncing off her pith helmet. Her eyes met the origin. A small equine figure in a brown cloak was running towards the edge of the village, but Daring wanted to meet the attacker.

Dropping like a hawk out of the sky, she was upon the mystery mare in moments. Pulling up, the wind blew the cloak right off and revealed a sad sight.

A young zebra mare. Cowering with eyes filled to the brim with sheer terror and trembling, scared for her life. She was cut up and bleeding in several places, but nothing too major. Then the dam broke. Her tears came streaming non stop, falling and wetting the fallen ash at her feet.

Putting on the softest voice she could muster, Daring said, “Hey, it’s going to be alright. What’s your name?”

At which point the poor thing simply couldn’t handle anything else, so she just fainted.