Daring Do And The Ethereal Statues
The corridor was dark; the faint smell of musk heavy in the air as she walked slowly down the stone hallway, her only source of light was a torch she carried in her right hand, the other carrying her brown notebook. She squinted trying to read to words as her hoof steps echoed in the narrow passage. She wasn’t lost, but that didn’t mean she could tell exactly where she was, all she knew was whoever had built this temple wanted to hide its idol as far into the mountain as they could. Her goal was simple; find the golden griffon statue of Isfahan located in the temple of Vespira, hidden in the majestic mountain ranges of the county of Saddle Arabia, just one of the three pieces she had set out to find nearly two months ago. While the other two’s location remained a mystery to her she hoped to get some clues as to where they were when she found this idol.
History and legends surrounded these statues, some claimed they held the key to immortality, others said that they were they key’s to Tarturus themselves. Regardless of what they were, she knew she couldn’t allow them to just sit there and wait for the wrong pony to come and take them. Three statues, three temples each spread out across the world and she only knew of one so far, but that wasn’t going to deter her, this was to be her life goal, her claim to fame, the thing that was going to get her name known everywhere; and that name was Daring Do.
Slowly found herself trudging further as a small shimmer of light came into view a great distance away from where she was. A faint smile came across her face; the first part of her journey was nearly at an end. Her pace quickened as her heart raced with excitement and she now found herself nearly running towards the light with new found vigor taking heed not to burn herself with the torch. The light got closer and brighter with each step and soon she was overcome by it making her close her eyes in order to adjust to the new luminosity. Opening her eyes she found herself now on the edge of a cliff overlooking a large domelike room inside, a large temple standing proudly in the center with many buildings surrounding it laminated by the sky above shining through a large crevice in the ceiling which had long vines hanging from its opening. All around she could see birds flying in the cave unaware of the mares presence, water could be heard similar to that of a natural waterfall from what she could tell might be located behind the temple. This was her favorite part of the job, seeing old structures and artifacts for the first time in centuries that not even the princesses had seen since the civilization that lived there died out. She must have been smiling like a little school filly as she examined the large structure and all its features.
Looking down she found herself on a large wooden platform with a staircase consisting of stones and wood jutting from the wall not far away which seemed to spiral down slowly till she couldn’t see them anymore. With a small nod she began her decent down the staircase balancing herself carefully ready to catch herself with her wings at a moment’s notice if she should stumble. Sure she could have flown down but that took away from the experience and thrill the temple gave her, and she wasn’t about to ruin that. Rounding the wall she spotted the source of the water sound; a large majestic waterfall cascading out of the wall and creating a nearly crystal clear body of water beneath it, the stairs passing underneath the fall not too far away. Her pace quickened as she felt herself growing more and more excited to reach the bottom and explore this temple in its fullness, to explore its rooms, to bathe in its waterfall, this was what she lived for, what made it all worth it in the end.
After what seemed like hours she found herself on the ground floor of the large room merely a speck in size when compared to the buildings around her. Letting out a small scream of joy she took off and ran towards what she guessed to be the center of the temple spinning around to try and look at all the structures at once. “I made it!!!” She yelled to no one in particular listening as her voice echoed of the walls around her making her giggle. Taking another moment to look once more at the buildings around her she once again removed the journal from the back pocket of her short khaki shorts and looked at her notes. “Now if I were an old tribe, where would I keep my god?” she mused to herself flipping some of the pages which contained her notes and several doodles which did nothing to assist her. Looking at the buildings she took note of the largest of the buildings; the temple itself which stood tall over all the others. “That’s a good start.” Daring said to herself putting the notebook back in her pocket and walking towards the large structure taking time to look at the buildings around her marveling in wonder about how the city used to be thriving, and what happened to make these people just leave; but that wasn’t why she was here, besides, she hated bookwork.
Upon reaching the large staircase she slowly began her ascent upwards towards the entrance using the idle time to comp template any traps that may have been set for adventurers such as herself. “If these guys are anything like the tribes back in Manesia, then there is going to be pressure plates in the idol room, maybe a spike fall or tripwires.” Daring said to herself recalling previous temples that had been around the same time period; as to why these traps were as intricate as they were was still a mystery to her, all she knew was there were going to be a lot of them bent on taking out anypony unfortunate enough to walk in; unicorn or pegasus alike, and she wasn’t about to be one of its unfortunate victims, although she liked to experience the temple for all its glory she wasn’t about to walk like an idiot to avoid pressure plates when her wings could just as easily fly over them.
As she reached the top she took note of the large stone griffons on either side of the large archway that was the doorway positioned with their beaks wide open and in a battle ready pose. Daring gulped swearing their eyes were on her ready to stop her from entering the temple. “Okay Daring their just statues.” She said composing herself clutching her torch all the tighter in her hand as she entered the archway going a little slower as she gave the griffon statues a final look before they disappeared from her view as she went further. She slowed her breath waiting to inevitably end the idol room at the end of the dark passage.
As she kept moving she could see the large room she had been waiting for; a great distance away she could barely make out the small gold idol waiting for her a stone pedestal. As she made her way towards the room she felt her hoof step in something completely different than the usual stone. Looking down she found that is was in fact sand, a light layer of it covering the floor all the way to the idol hiding the floor beneath it. Reaching the edge of the hallway Daring got down on her knees and lightly reached down and began to wipe away the sand revealing a much different floor underneath. Inlayed in the dark grey stones were brown diamond shaped stones about a hoof’s length apart from the next one.
Guessing they were pressure plates, Daring looked towards the walls seeing two large stone murals with weird iconic holes spread all over. Leaning as far back as she could Daring lightly applied pressure to the closest diamond hearing a small “Whoosh” come from one of the right wall and connect to the opposite. “Pressure plates.” She said getting up and looking at the rest of the room. “Rooms that have pressure plates are for earth ponies and the absent minded unicorn, what do you have for Pegasai?” Daring said squinting trying to find something that might indicate traps meant for a Pegasus. Crossing her arms in contemplation she leaned against the nearby hallway wall going over the list in her head. She could always navigate through the maze of pressure plates before her using her wings as a sort of fan to blow away the sand and clear a path, odds are the old tribe wasn’t expecting a Pegasus such as herself to make that decision. Besides, odds were there were trip wires or something stretched above her to prevent her from just flying over the traps.
Getting off of the wall Daring took a final breath of courage and made her way to the edge of the sand flaring her wings out to their full length and pushing them forward sending a large gust of wind over the flat sand blowing large waves of sand further back revealing the stone floor beneath; the brown diamond shaped stones inlayed in the gray ones.
“One for the money.” Daring stated inching closer to the death trap before her. “Two for the show.” Another inch. “Three for the glory.” She took a breath through her teeth. “And here I go.” She took the first step, placing her right hoof right in-between the visible diamonds then the next hoof soon after inching ever closer to the idol that laid before her stopping only to flap her wings to clear the path before her. Looking up she could barely make out the faint shape of trip wires that had been stretched from wall to wall; the trap that had originally been made for the Pegasus in mind. Suddenly she felt herself begin to shift; sand that hadn’t quite been cleared shifted beneath her and her hoof began to slide as she began to move again taking her by surprise. Out of reflex her wings flared out and beat once beneath her, not enough for her to leave the ground but just enough for her to gain her balance once again and steady footing right back to where it was before. “Okay, that could have been bad.” She mused looking around to make sure there were no other patches of sand nearby that could cause the same problem, inching ever closer to her goal.
It took a good fifteen minutes and several close calls to finally reach the steps that lead up to the idol. With the last of the pressure plates behind her, Daring slowly approached the golden griffon which shinned brilliantly in the faint light, the ruby which it held in its claws seem to be calling out to Daring begging her to take it from its pedestal. Walking up to the idol she knelt down at eye level, she knew this was rigged to protect the idol but she just didn’t know how. There was always the classic giant boulder that would chase her and make her backtrack the whole temple but she considered that to be too easy; if this tribe lived up to its legend than the tribe would pull out all the stops to make sure that whoever took their god didn’t leave alive. She licked her upper lip bringing her hands up to grab the idol and make a dash for it; if she could fly low enough to the ground to avoid the trip wires she should be able to get away from whatever it was that was going to try and stop her.
Suddenly Daring felt her arms pulled behind her making her yelp in response only to find a gray hand covering her mouth to muffle the scream. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you Miss Do.” The stallion said twisting both arms making her clench her teeth in pain.
“Wind Waker, how did you get here?” Daring asked her voice full of malice and hatred for the stallion.
“I’ve been following you ever since you’ve got here.” He said matching her tone. “I suppose I should thank you really, It would have taken me hours to clear a path through those pressure plates.”
“Get out of here Wind Waker, you know I was here first.” Daring snapped.
“Aw Miss Do, and here I thought we were friends.” Removing something from his pack Daring felt rope being bound to her writs wrapping around each several times before a knot was tied tightly at the top. Suddenly she was lifted to her feet and led her to the statue. “Now Miss Do…”
“Daring” She corrected still obviously annoyed.
“Daring.” He corrected himself. “I appreciate your help retrieving this, I’d love to say that I couldn’t have done it without you, but then I would be lying.”
“And I would love to say that you’re a caring stallion and will one day live happily ever after with the mare of your dreams, but then I too would be lying.” Daring stated struggling to untie her bonds making the white stallion behind her chuckle.
Wind Waker had been a long time rival of Daring’s. She had met the all gray Earth pony with the black mane not long after her quest for the sapphire stone. Like her he was a treasure hunter but was more into the freelance work and selling things to the black market than finding things for museums and making them visible to all. Granted she planned on finding the three statues for personal gain but she only did it some of the time where as Wind Waker did it all the time.
Now tied up in the corner, Daring watched as the stallion began examining the pedestal just as she had before bringing his hand up to his lip in contemplation. Although he had taken her knife from her she was still able to work part of the knot loose, not enough to completely get it loose but just enough to where one more pull would do it. If she could just get him away from the statue she could grab the statue and bolt for the exit without the chance of him grabbing her, she just had to get him to walk away for a second.
“You going to take it or are you wanting to buy it a dress?” Daring called.
“Just getting to know each other Miss Do, besides I’d much rather like to see you in a dress. You would be quite the looker in black satin.” Wind Waker stated taking his journal from his knapsack. Daring blushed at the comment quickly shaking it off as she tried to think of something to distract him again. “In all seriousness Miss Do, what kind of trap do you think they’ve set?”
“Considering that I’m tied up watching you take my statue from me, why would I tell you what I think?” Daring stated making the stallion look at her with that smug look and raised brow making her roll her eyes in annoyance. “As cliché as it sounds I was thinking a giant boulder or something.”
“That was my first though too but there is no ramp on the ceiling, and with no hole in these walls I highly doubt that there is another dart trap here.” He got up from his kneeling position and ran a hand through his long mane. “Nice to see you cooperating by the way.”
“Yeah well at this point if you go down, my statue goes with you. I figure it’s better to let you have it now so I can steal it from you later.” She said with a smile making the stallion smile again looking around for any indication of a trap he was missing. Looking down he began to examine the floor kneeling down and running his hand over the cracks between the stones. Slowly he began to move tracing his hand along the line between the stones.
Realizing her chance Daring pulled her ropes loose and then quickly bolted for the statue taking the earth pony by surprise and unaware. Jumping over the pedestal she grabbed the statue headfirst grabbing it in her arms, rolling as she hit the ground and using the momentum to take off and glide just above the rigged floor and land safely on the other side. Wind Waker immediately looked at Daring with a look of shock as suddenly she heard the pedestal that the statue was on suddenly fall and with it the temple began to shake violently. Wasting no time Daring bolted towards the temples exit hearing Wind Waker running through the rigged floor behind her the bolts firing out of the walls immediately after another. Part of her was worried for Wind Waker, although he had been nothing but a tease getting humor from making her blush; he wasn’t a bad stallion, he didn’t deserve this. But what could she do? It wasn’t like there was time to go back; if he got out she would make an extra effort to apologize to him later.
Rushing out the temples archway she could fell the rock beneath her begin to crumble, thankfully she had been fast enough to remain ahead of the trap and by the time she had made it in the open she took to the air holding onto her hat as she flew towards the exit as fast as she could the statue tucked away under her other arm and with the same speed she flew out of the dark cavern not wasting any time to look back at the crumbling temple still flying until she was sure that the trap would no longer get her.
Looking back she watched as the top of the temple began to fall inwards, the once beautiful temple was in the process of destroying itself and it had been all her fault and while Wind Waker was to say the least annoying, he didn’t deserve to go out like this, but what could she do. Turning her back on the crumbling temple she dashed for the exit as fast as she could hoping silently that the stallion would make it out okay.
Dust filled the room creating a heavy makeshift smokescreen like atmosphere; the temple had finally managed to crumble completely leaving nothing but the once huge stone blocks now reduced to the ruble that now covered the floor. A small cough emitted from somewhere amidst the smoke screen as a young figure blindly made way towards where he guessed the exit was. “Well *cough* that could have gone better.”He said trying to fan away the dust from around his head with his hand. “Well Miss Do, I have to hand it to you; you can bring down the house when you want to.”
