Ahuizotl sat alone in a room inside a hidden temple. He was looking out a window at the setting sun, watching as the many shades of orange and pink swirled together in a beautiful masterpiece before fading into a dark purple. If he looked closely enough, he could make out a few stars beginning to shine on the horizon. They were just barely visible with the sun still hanging in the sky, but they were there. Not that it mattered; Ahuizotl's thoughts were elsewhere.
At his last battle with that accursed Daring Do, she had said something that got him thinking. But it couldn't have meant anything, right? They were enemies, and that was how they would stay. So why did it hurt to think that? Why did it hurt to think about that one time when Daring wasn't alone and he failed because of it? Because of what she had said. The way she said it made it sound like a joke, but it stood out more than anything else she had ever said. It actually mattered to him, for once, what his nemesis had said and done. He hated it.
As the last rays of sun faded out of existence entirely, Ahuizotl stood and moved away from the window. It would do him no good to think about her any longer. He had barely survived when the fortress collapsed after that last battle, and he had to find another way to take over now that the rings were destroyed. Here, in this hidden temple, was the best place for that. No others knew of its existence, and if they did they could never find it. It was invisible to all but him and the few minions of his that had survived, for he had granted them the ability to see the temple as he could.
Now, with the night closing in, Ahuizotl left the room and headed towards the main room of the temple. He wasn't sure what his next move would be, but if he didn't come up with something soon he had the chance of being stopped before he even began his plan. After all, it was only a matter of time before Daring found this temple. There was no doubt in his mind that she could find someone to make the temple visible. So why didn't he care?
The answer was simple. Everything circled back to what she had said before he gained the ring to bring eight hundred years of relentless heat. He knew it was supposed to be a joke, and he kept telling himself that, but it didn't matter. Her raspy voice could have held all the sarcasm in the world, and it still wouldn't have mattered. Because he believed what she had said, and it confused him all the more. Even if he hadn't believed it, or even if she had meant it, it shouldn't have mattered. It only mattered because she hadn't meant it, and it struck a chord deep within him.
It hurt, to think that she hadn't meant what she had said at all. He tried to push it aside, pretend it was nothing, but it couldn't be done. For once in his life Ahuizotl couldn't lie. And it was all because of her. Daring Do, the pony he considered to be his greatest foe, had now gotten him so confused he couldn't even plot his revenge. He couldn't lie, couldn't think about anything but Daring. He tried constantly to avert his thoughts, but they would always swerve right back to that day and those words. That one sentence composed of exactly eighteen words. He had counted them once, when the sentence wouldn't stop running through his head.
Of course, that sentence still ran through his head multiple times a day. If there was even a momentary lull in his thoughts, that sentence would play. Her raspy voice, and the words she said would run through his mind relentlessly until he let himself begin to think about her, about Daring Do. And it hurt him so much to know that she didn't mean what she had said, but he couldn't figure out why for the life of him. At this rate, he would probably die before he figured it out, and that fact made him hurt even more. Yet he still didn't know why.
When he looked up, he saw that he was at the doorway of the main room. With a deep breath that was released as a sigh, he stepped into the room. From an opening in the ceiling shone the moon, bathing the room in a silvery light and highlighting the ancient writing along the walls. For what must have been the hundredth time, he began to read the glyphs, though his mind was still otherwise occupied.
I - Let the Adventure Begin
Daring Do and the
That was as far as she had gotten. With a groan, Daring stood from her desk and typewriter. It had been six months since her last book was published, and her fans were at least expecting an announcement about her newest book. She knew, because sitting on her desk behind her typewriter were at least a dozen letters from Rainbow Dash, her self-proclaimed biggest fan and one-time adventure assistant.
Those letters were just a reminder of a day she'd rather forget. Every time she thought back on it, one thing stood out. That one sentence kept popping up no matter what she thought about. At the time, it was meaningless. But now... now she wasn't so sure. If it actually held some truth, and there's nothing to say it didn't, then that could mean the end of Daring Do. Her fans were definitely not going to be happy about that.
Sighing, Daring trotted upstairs to her bedroom. If Ahuizotl wasn't going to make himself known, then she'd just have to go find him herself. Her fans couldn't wait forever for another Daring adventure, and neither could she. She made her way over to her dresser, her hat resting on top. Picking up her hat, Daring placed it on her head and looked into the mirror. "If Ahuizotl has gone into hiding, I'll find him. He should know better than to try and hide from Daring Do."
With a determined look, she turned from the mirror. She would find Ahuizotl and stop whatever it was he was doing. Sure, it wasn't much of a plan, but she mostly made it up as she went along anyways. With the exception with that last adventure and a few others, of course. And there her thoughts went again. She just couldn't stop thinking of that adventure no matter how hard she tried. Or, more specifically, that one sentence. Those stupid eighteen words. And now they were in print, so she definitely couldn't run from them.
Sure, she didn’t have to go out looking for Ahuizotl. He’d probably show up in time if he had survived that collapse, which she was sure he had, and she could always just make up an adventure if need be. She’d been on plenty of adventures, so it wouldn’t be too hard. It just didn’t feel right to give her fans a truly fictional piece after all of her other adventures, though. It would lack the true feeling of adventure: the adrenaline coursing through your veins as you battle enemies, the sense of triumph as your quest draws to a close with you on top. It just wouldn’t feel the same, writing actual fiction instead of reliving her own adventures.
That was why she wrote after all, to relive her own adventures. Once they were in print, she could relive them again and again. Sometimes, all it took was a single sentence for her to relive an entire adventure. Of course, that was a curse as much as a blessing, for now she couldn’t stop reliving her last adventure. And it was all thanks to that one. Stupid. Sentence!
Shaking her head to clear it, Daring made her way back downstairs. That sentence would continue to haunt her, but for now it was pushed aside. She could worry about it later; finding Ahuizotl was much more important than whatever meaning there might be behind those eighteen measly words. At the bottom of the stairs, she paused to look around the room. Furnished simply with a table, a single chair and a desk, it was clear the house was only used by one pony, and not very often at that. Once again, she’d be leaving the cottage for who knows how long on another adventure.
She still hadn’t replaced the broken mirror, though she had had plenty of time to. Her books were back on their respective shelves, however, and any loose papers that had been strewn across the floor were either part of the blanket of manuscripts covering the table, shoved into a book or mixed with Rainbow Dash’s letters on the desk. As for why she didn’t replace the mirror, she really had no idea. It just didn’t seem all that important to her. Having a mirror, that is. The reminder of the adventure was important, though she may not know it, and the memory wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
After putting out the roaring fire in her fireplace, Daring set out into the forest. It was winter, and she could certainly tell by looking around at the leafless trees and snow-dusted bushes along the path. The sky above was a dismal grayish-blue, announcing another snowstorm on the horizon. Daring could even smell the coming snow in the air. The crisp, cold wind stung her skin, even underneath her fur and her vest, but she didn’t care. It was her favorite part of the season, after all.
The frosted ground crunched softly underhoof as she made her way through the trees to where the Fortress of Talicon had stood six months prior. Her instincts told her Ahuizotl was free, that he hadn’t fallen with the fortress. That could be considered a blessing on her part, she supposed. If Ahuizotl was still alive, it meant she no doubt had something to write about. At least it helped her set aside some of her worries and focus more on the task at hoof.
The few worries she could set aside were minor, though, and paled in comparison to her speculations about the meaning of that sentence. You know I love you, Ahuizotl, but I can’t give you the ring until I’ve properly proposed. It was playing through her mind as she walked through the snow-dusted trees, distracting her. She tried not to let it get to her, but the fact that she didn’t know the meaning behind those words anymore kept her from focusing entirely on her mission. Maybe that was why she wasn’t completely surprised when she walked right into a wall of rock.
She stepped back and shook her head to clear it. She must have been greatly distracted not to even notice where she was, let alone the fact that she was about to run into a rock wall. So, Daring was now in the clearing where she had battled Ahuizotl and his cats for the ring. A battle she would have easily won had it not been for Rainbow Dash distracting her, and all for a stupid hat.
Her mind was clear for roughly a minute before she was bombarded with images from that battle. How a cute little kitten could be so vicious she still had no idea, but that wasn’t the main thing that bothered her. Once again her thoughts turned to the ring. You know I love you, Ahuizotl... She tried to shake away the thoughts, to no avail. You know I love you, Ahuizotl. I love you, Ahuizotl.
“No! There is absolutely no way that’s possible! Do you hear me? I am not in love with Ahuizotl!” she screamed. But there wasn’t even enough feeling behind the words to convince her. “I don’t love him. I can’t. We’re enemies. That’s how it’s always been, how it will always be. There’s nothing that can, or will, change that.”
She sighed in defeat, hanging her head and turning back to the path. At the very least, she could now push away the thoughts of that battle without trouble. It helped her keep her mind clear for the upcoming adventure. Sort of. Now her mind was swirling with multiple other thoughts that she was trying to keep at bay. Daring could have cared less at that point, though.
All she felt now was hurt at the realization that she and Ahuizotl could never be. Why? She didn’t know. She had never even considered them being together, for she had always known it would never happen. She had never even thought about finding someone to spend the rest of her life with. She was an adventurer, and would always be. But saying out loud that she and Ahuizotl could never be together killed her inside, as much as she didn’t want to admit it. So, she bottled it up and went on to the ruins of the Fortress of Talicon.
