The dim light of the waning sun pushed itself through the crowns of the trees, while the first snows of winter fell down to the ground. All while the forest remained quiet but for the song the wind played with leaves and branches, and for the howling of wolves in the far off distance.
One of the pack stood high upon a rock, overlooking the forest, so desolate and removed from the rest of the world. Its eyes wandered over the trees, brown things that had lost all color with the ending of autumn , now slowly covering themselves in white. Blinking, the beast watched them, but then turned its gaze as it spotted something unnatural. A gust of smoke rising from the middle of the forest.
Another creature lived in these woods, a beast unlike any bear or deer, and nothing like the beavers or hares. A creature of unfathomable intellect that the wolves had learned to fear. It controlled fire, the wild and deadly force, and was able to transport water. Looking back, the wolf saw his pack, wondering whether he should let curiosity guide him away or if he she stay.
He bellowed, signalling them that he’d need to go to look for something. Maybe food, since night was upon them. Whatever they thought he intended to do, his goal was the stranger’s lair. With graceful motions he jumped from stone to stone, down to the ground so many meters below the rock he had stood upon. He felt the strain on his legs with every jump, but took them anyway. He was young still and this was nothing. So his paws touched the snow on the ground beneath and leaves whirled up as he started his sprint towards the black smoke.
Trees rushed past him, and he felt watched during his run. That, in and of itself, was nothing special. During the night, the woods of Equestria all came alive with strange beasts. Timberwolves, who wanted to taste the flesh they themselves could never acquire; Treants, who hurled themselves at any beast or creature who dared to disturb their watch; and in the shadows things far worse than that lurked. Even a hunter like him had to be careful around these parts, careful or fast. He was fast, in fact, he was the fastest in the pack, and so he ran. Towards the beast's lair.
He reached it when the sun’s light grew ever so dim, and the layers of clouds would grow thick tonight, he new. As he stepped past another tree he saw the crossing and the strangest of sights, the thing every creature avoided.
Its unnatural form rose high above the grounds. The sides of the lair were made of wood but looked nothing like it, instead a strange color was upon them, green with plants that weren’t there, and the fact that its crown was made of straw spoke against it being a tree. It was the strangest thing and even the brave wolf, whose curiosity had driven him to this place, feared to tread out of the protective darkness. Yet, there were stones coming out of the straw and from it, the smoke rose high into the air. This was enough to get him back, he wanted to know what produced this smoke.
The lair wasn’t on fire, the beast had tamed it since long ago, but the wolf had never understood how. Slowly he approached the home of the dreaded creature, snow gathering on his back, so that as he crouched, he appeared indistinguishable from the rest of the forest. He fletched his teeth. The time to hunt was soon and he could smell the creature. Only once had he faced it, its coat had been golden and it had a mane and tail coloured in black and grey. He remembered it just as he remembered the beasts hooves smashing against the alphas jaw, teeth flying and the howling of companions. They hadn’t managed to take it on together, and if he got caught alone he wasn’t sure if he’d manage to beat it.
Yet he was the fastest runner in the pack, there was nothing it could do when it came to that. . . But it had wings, hadn’t it?
Though there was a hint of worry present, he decided to press on, crouching towards the pony’s housing, and then he heard voices. The wolf stopped immediately. There was more than one?
“Are you sure this is alright?” a voice spoke, a strangers, not the beast’s. Something was foul here. He felt it in his bones.
“I know you’re new to this, but just trust me,” the all too familiar voice answered.
He continued on his path, walking closer and closer to the window and then just before it, he took a deep breath. This might have well been the hardest part of the journey. This creature that had taken the entire pack on her own, and now there was a second. Would they discover him. . . He couldn’t even imagine what they’d do. Still, his curiosity needed to be sated. The smoke from this ragged, strange place, the ponies within. Strange beasts often hoarded strange secrets and even though he barely understood anything of what was going on, he was intent to learn.
The stars were already appearing in the sky. Right now, there were only a few, but soon a thousand more would light the dark. Tonight though, the clouds were getting thicker. It would be a dark and cold night and the snow kept falling in an unrelenting way, reminding him that this was the time where food was scarce and he couldn’t waste any time. One peek, he that was all that mattered, all he needed, and then he would return home. He turned his gaze to the glass, the strange object that was there and at the same time not, only made visible by the dust that had gathered on it.
Slowly he lifted himself off the ground, snow falling off his fur, and stared right into the room.
A fire gleamed at the side, in a remote area, but it only got his attention for a second, as he saw the beast walking in a circle, holding something in her mouth. For some reason he felt more and more intent on running, but also knew that it wasn’t the fear of the beast, but something else. This place was foul, he felt that and there was something in there that caused that feeling.
Flour was the thing the pony spread in circles on the floor, while a cerulean pony looked at a book before taking a brush and painting something on the floor.
“Isn’t this dark magic?” Rainbow Dash asked, her amethyst eyes focusing on her second biggest object of endearment, Daring Do.
The golden pegasus finished the third circle before she stood up, cracking her neck. “Yup, but don’t worry. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“Wasn’t it only luck it worked in ‘Daring Do And The Sirens Of The Silent Sea’?”
“Yeah,” Daring admitted, staring at the object in the middle of the three circles she had prepared.
This had been the third time she and Rainbow had gone adventuring together, and while most of her initial annoyment at the other pony’s presence had worn off, the constant voice of doubt was getting on her nerves.
“As I said, trust me. The last time was a gamble, right now, we have all the time we need to prepare the ritual proper,” she said, giving Rainbow Dash an encouraging smile.
It worked as intended as the rainbow maned pegasus appeared to swoon just at the sight of it. Daring rolled her eyes and then turned to the object again. A small cube of glowing red. One of the three keys to the sacred bell tower. Though she hadn’t known anything about it at the time, the fact that Ahuizotl had proclaimed to use it to take over the world had been quite enough to convince her to take it. That had been two days ago, when Rainbow Dash and her had gone off to retrieve some other treasure.
They had taken the key from Ahuizotl – which somehow had gotten his palace to collapse – and had gone off to an old zebra friend of Daring. While that one hadn’t told her much, he had given them two vital pieces: The information that the key’s were meant to be bound to the three pillars on the edges of Tartarus and secondly, that they needed to get it back there, or else the other keys would be drawn to it.
The only way to get it back was via teleport. Sadly, only ancient and forbidden magic could touch the plains of Tartarus, which was why they were here now, in Daring’s home, ruining her floor. She’d make Ahuizotl pay in gold for this damage, Daring promised herself. Still, it was slowly growing dark outside and that meant the time for the ritual was upon them.
The book they had gotten from an ancient ruin on the edge of the Crystal Empire, Sombra’s Library. Considering everything, this might just make the most epic book in her series. . . Or it’d be at least in the top five.
“If we had this much time, shouldn’t we have taken the box to Twilight, at least? I mean, she’s really good with magic?” Dash asked, causing Daring to frown.
“Listen here,” she said, trying to sound calm, “I’ve been doing this for a total of eight years now. I know what I’m doing and I don’t need the help of some princess. Despite, we might not have gotten the ritual done in time if we had gone down south.” She sighed. “Let’s finish this already, I’ve had it up till here with this cube thing anyway.”
She took the now empty bag and threw it to the corner of the room, walking over to where she had placed the package with the red candles. After grabbing them, she turned around and the face of her newfound fan/sidekick stared right back at her.
“You seem awfully tense about this, you sure we shouldn’t get, Twilight?” She asked, and Daring noted the stress pouring out of her voice.
She raised an eyebrow. “Really? I seem tense? You’re sweating a river, Rainbow.”
“Well,” Rainbow started, hovering a bit back as Daring made to place the candles on the outside of the biggest circle, “you can’t deny that this is big stuff. I mean, everypony knows about Tartarus, but not what actually is beyond that gate. There could be all sorts of terrifying demons just waiting for somepony careless to do some ritual and gobble them up.”
Daring shrugged. “They’re demons, its what they do.”
“How can you be so casual about this?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I decided to not only be the hero of my own story, but become the hero in many others’, too, Rainbow. I don’t care if its Ahuizotl, griffons or even demons, if they’re enemies I’ll defeat them and save the world before tea time,” she placed the last candle down and produced a box of matches from beneath her hat, lighting one up. “I’m the sort of person who kindles the flame in her home so others might see it burn in the dark. So, as I said before,” she allowed the candle to close in on the candle and a second later its fire lit up the dark of the room, “trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
Rainbow Dash looked at her and she got a glimpse right at her. The other pegasus had a job, a life and all the like and she still managed to look like foal. Those big eyes staring at her with the same wonder any kid would give their hero. That was another reason why she had originally refused Rainbow Dash’s help, involving others in her business wasn’t like her and far too dangerous.
“O- Okay, I’ll trust you.”
Daring gave her younger companion another smile and finished up lighting the rest of the candles up. Now the only remaining light in the house was the one emitted from them and Daring looked at it once more.
Three circles of white, all surrounded by symbols of ancient crystal langue, painted in red. Just having to paint that in her room made her feel uneasy, to say the least, Sombra wasn’t the kind of stallion who was remembered the with kindness and his exploits beyond the enslavement of an entire nation were the stuff of legend. Horrible legends they were, but they existed and Daring Do was quite happy that there wasn’t any need to sacrifice newborn foals in this sacrifice. A spell to send something right into the depths of Tartarus seemed to be fairly low-tier and due to the nature of the magic, even a non-unicorn could pull it off. Basically, everything was looking splendid.
Except the ominously red glowing cube standing in the middle of her room and the fact that she was now going to open a gateway to hell.
“Definitely wednesday,” she muttered under her breath.
“Did you say something, Daring?” Her companion asked.
“No, it’s nothing.”
With that, she got to the book and placed it by one of the candles, opening the page to the ritual.
“Okay, let’s do some spellcasting. Stand back for this RD, considering this is one of Sombra the Shadowking’s spells there’s a good chance that he didn’t write everything down.”
Like the way he tricked Starswirl, urgh. . . Mum, why would you tell a child about that? She opened the right page and then made sure that Rainbow Dash had heeded her warning. When she saw the other pony standing by the window, where she thought for a second to see something else, the pegasus decided the moment was right. The sun had gone down.
Daring Do stared at the page before her, looking at the words she needed to recite. She had expected some gibberish sounding stuff or old equestrian, but as she looked upon the runes in the book they seemed to change into proper equine. Darn magic books, if only the modern ones were that convenient.
“Listen, my whisper
Listen, my cry
Hear me, my words
And hear me, my echo
I am she who brings the gift
to the fade and to the rift
I am she who offers gold
to those who were once sold
Hear me out, o silence of Hell
For I bring you, the key to the bells.”
Then, nothing happened and silence drowned out every other noise in the room. Daring couldn’t even hear her own breath, as she stared on the page and then at the circles, which remained in position. Did she do something wrong? Had she gotten the moment right? Suddenly, her mind was racing through the possibilities and what outcome it would have if they wouldn’t manage to get the cube back tonight, but there were too many factors undisclosed, so she couldn’t grasp an answer. It would probably end in the worst possible outcome.
It always did.
“Daring. . .,” she heard Rainbow Dash’s voice, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
It sounded distant, the voice, but she could hear the anxiety, the fear, like filly who had just lost her mother. Daring sighed and lifted her head. “Come on, it’s not that b. . . bad?”
Her eyes widened as she realized not only the red tint the room had taken on but also that the red was whirling all around her, cutting her off from the rest of the room. She stepped back from the circle and the book, looking forth and back, trying to figure out what was going on. Was this part of the ritual? Was this the part Sombra had left out? Daring clenched her teeth, grinding them as her mind raced to find a solution to this problem. There was a reason for this sudden whirl.
“Rainbow? Can you hear me?” she shouted.
“Y-yes,” a voice came back.
“No matter what happens next Rainbow, don’t get close to the circle,” she commanded.
She stared at the box, which glowed brighter than before, and Daring felt the wind against her mane. It was a hot, dry wind, that felt like it dried up her throat almost instantly. A terrible heat, like the blaze of the sun. Like the fires of Tartarus, she thought behind a nervous grin. Yet the raging storm lasted only a few seconds, before it vanished, blowing out the candles in the process and leaving her in the darkness of her own room, with only the cube emitting a faint light still.
“Daring?”
“Don’t move,” she said with a soft voice, herself not buckling an inch, eyes fixed on the cube.
A second later the white of the circle closest to the cube began to light up in a crimson tone, with the runes starting to echo in a distant voice. Then, the second set of runes started to echo, the second circle started to glow, filling the room with its dreadful light. Daring couldn’t help but stare as it unfolded, listening careful to the sound, yet her mind seemed as if it had stopped working and all there was was the third circle lighting up, letting the world outside know what sort of dreadful ceremony was taking place within here.
And the sounds became louder and louder.
“They’re screams,” Daring announced, keeping the dread out of her voice as good as she could. She was the hero of this story and she wouldn’t falter. “Screams of the tormented souls.”
She had already prepared herself for something creepy to happen and this was basically just what she had expected. Her throat felt dry, though and speaking the words came hard to her. The sooner this would be over, the better.
Not a second of rest was given to them, as suddenly a loud howling echoed from the room the ground beneath the cube tore itself open, the thing falling down immediately. Daring stared at the fissure and what lay far into its depths. Dark and darkness with a horrible light at the end, a light that told of torture and pain. Tartarus, Daring thought, not noticing something moving in the lights shadow. Suddenly a claw erupted from the ground and grabbed the pony by one of her fore-legs, dragging her towards the rift.
She reacted instinctively, flapping her wings as hard as could and trying hit the claw with her other hoof, but to no avail. Daring saw Rainbow Dash move and suddenly her mind went over the entirety of the situation. A magic ritual which revolved in a claw at the end. Hadn’t she just now commented on how this ritual didn’t involve any sacrifices.
She clicked her tongue in annoyance, before she shouted over to Rainbow Dash, “I told you not to move!
“But-”
She fought against it, though she knew it was impossible. “It was dumb of me to assume there wasn’t a sacrifice necessary when opening a gate to hell itself. Don’t worry, it’s fine. I. . . I guess I lived a fulfilled life!” Except that I never got to that Sugarcube Corner place. They’re supposed to have the best milkshakes in Equestria and I never got one.
She suddenly felt Rainbow Dash grabbing her from behind. “Yeah, I’m not going to let you get dragged down there.”
“Rainbow, stop. You’re only getting yourself in trouble. I said it’s fine,” she bellowed. This is why Daring Do works alone.
“You seriously think I’m going to let the best author in the world die at the hands of some claw-thingy?”
Daring felt the sharp ends of the claw digging into her leg, blood dripped on the floor and the pain was far more intense than she had thought it’d be. Still, she clenched her teeth and bit the pain away.
They were on the edge of the hole, and if Rainbow Dash didn’t let go, then. . . She needed to figure out a solution.
“You can’t help me, not like this,” she told her friend, still fighting against the claws strength, feeling the hot winds playing with her mane as she was forced to bow down, looking into the depths. “Ahuizotl’s still out there, and your friends. Don’t give up just because I didn’t get a happy ending. I’m not going to let my best fan die here!”
She made a decision and threw her left arm up, ramming it right into Rainbow’s face. The punch came so sudden that Rainbow let go immediately, falling backwards. Daring gave one last smile before she let herself be pulled down and only the heat remained around her. The moment she was gone, the rift closed and the circles dispersed in one last gust of wind, leaving the cerulean pegasus in the empty house.
Rainbow Dash herself laid on her back, blood trickling down her nose and her eyes fixed on the darkness above her as she tried to process what had just happened. Around her was only the dark and nothing else, Daring Do was gone. She felt tears falling down her cheek.
“This can’t be real,” she muttered, gritted her teeth and took a few deep breaths.
The pony knew that she had to calm down and ask herself the one obvious question, because now that Daring was gone, there was only one: “What now?”
A few moments passed as she simply lay there, the wood beneath her still remaining warm, and her then her gaze went over to the fireplace, where the last embers were about to fade. They were the last light against the dark, weren’t they? With that thought, almost immediately Rainbow Dash allowed a smile to form on her face as she realized a way to deal with this situation. It probably wasn’t the sane thing to do, but if her time with Daring Do had taught her anything, than that anything was achievable if you put yourself into it.
She forgot the presence of a door as she jumped right up and started through the window. Southeast, to where the Gates of Tartarus stood. And Rainbow Dash never noticed the lone wolf who had watched the entire affair from the window, now thrown onto his back as the pony broke through the glass and as she went towards the horizon he could do nothing but stare at the blackish grey of the clouds.
The snows of winter were falling unrelenting and the forest was quiet but for the song of the wind and the branches and the howling of his pack in the distance. Whatever he had witnessed here, he was sure to tell every other creature in this forest to stay away from this foul place where demons stalked. And not only that, no, the night was also growing darker still, and colder.
Whatever was going to happen next, those were things he was sure of.
