Daring Do and the Wrath of the Elders

"Hey! What the heck are you doing?!" As fast as she had entered the chamber, Rainbow leaped back, trying to stop the inevitable. She smashed against the door, clopped her hooves against it and yelled.

"Open! I say open this darn door or I buck it in!"

No reaction. Ooooo kayyyyy.

"Thats it!" waving herself around she took aim and stretched her hind legs. The shock, vibrating through her body let her tremble.

"You can stop it. This door wont give in." raging Rainbow ignored the voice out of the shadows and bucked again.

"You know - I tried this too." and again.

"Try to use your head instead." and again.

"Or at a second thought - better don't..." and agai... wait? What?

Now Rainbow Dash realized the figure, standing between all the statues. Golden coat, grey mane and a somewhat worn green jacket.

"Daring!", her eyes went wide in sudden awareness.

"Yeah. Nice to meet you. Uh. Who's your friend by the way?" Daring hooved trough her hair and scratching her neck.

"Derpy Hooves, Miss Yearling.", Derpy nodded her head polite, but then eager curiosity burst its way "Wow... I mean, are you really you? Uhm I mean are you really the Daring Do? In reality? Or is this just for show?"

"Yes. The one and only. But what are you doing here? How did you get here?", Daring gestured towards the two.

"We are the rescue," Rainbow and Derpy managed to say with a sheepish grin.

"Great. Then nothing can go wrong - right?" Daring Do facehoofed. Rainbow looked up and took a glance around the room.

Dark, sturdy wood, planks and beams, build to hold an entire roof. The few windows, to small to squeeze through.

"We.. have just to find another exit.", Rainbow intensified her gaze. Another door. Another opening. Anything. Derpy walked around the chamber, examining small figurines and big strange statues, cluttered along the place.

"Oh. If I just had thought of this earlier...", Daring rolled her eyes, causing Rainbow to blush.

"So... what happened anyway?", she asked Daring Do.

"I don't know. Did my research down in the library. Then suddenly a stallion showed up, said the librarian sent him to guide me to the archive. As I had asked before, I didn't think of anything bad to happen. Then - up here, the door fell shut behind me and no one was to hear. Until now I thought of an terrible mistake. But after the same guy locked you in here too..."

"Hey? Whats tha... Woah, woah, woaaaaah!", the rest of Derpys words were cut off by the sound of a hard impact.

"Oof! ... I am okaayy!", her muffled voice was heard from ... below.

Somehow Derpy had broken through the floor, while standing before this one big and peculiar ugly statue, depicting an ancient god or something.

"Derpy!", Rainbow leapt towards the opening her friend had fell through, she just got a glimpse of Derpy fiddling on another opening in the ground.

"Oh look! Here's a rope going down .... Iiiaaaaaah!"

Just seconds later the din of a falling shelf full of books emerged from deeper below.

"Seems your friend is more skilled in using her head than you." Rainbow heard Darings voice behind her with an audible smirk. Without hesitation she passed Rainbow and let herself float down the hole.

The room beneath was dark - besides a lit rectangular opening. The faint light fell upon more statues and shelves full of trinkets and archeological stuff. Dust had formed a remarkable layer - making the deep impressions of Derpys steps even more visible, which ended abrupt at the second hole.

"Nothing of interest here.", Daring glanced over a few of the objects stored. "Replicas I think."

The room below seemed actually like another library room. Shelves full of books - about ancient tools and weapons. One of the shelves had toppled over - books cluttered all around. Beneath the wooden rack one could see... another opening and Rainbow believed it had the shape of a Pegasus literally pressed through the ground.

"Derpy?", she had narrowed her eyes, expecting the worst.

"Oooooh.... Augh. Uhmm I am OK... I think. Oh. Whats this? Wuaaah!", Derpys voice sounded shocked, accompanied by an angry hissing sound and ending in another rumbling.

With no second thought Rainbow together with Daring jumped to the wooden shelf, shoving it aside, letting themselves down the gap.

The room beneath was dark and even more dusty then the other. It smelled of oily coal and tool-grease. Crates and boxes arbitrary cluttered the room. Old workbenches - last time used about the time of Nightmare Moons banishment and probably the archeological most valuable items here - lined up on one wall, together with old school-desks and other stuff-to-be-forget.

Amidst all this debris stood one table with a collection of strange cat-like statues. Beneath the table a cat - vivid and livid alike, hissed and grumbled towards the annoying intruders.

The only real light source - besides the small hole in the ceiling - was a red gloming opening on one wall. Some kind of chute - given the dirt and the color, used for coal - led deeper.

"Derpy?!", Rainbow yelled, her eyes wide in worries.

"Augh. I'm ... Okay... I think. OH! What's THAT?!"

A strange metallic din rumbled up through the coal chute.

"Well - after you.", Daring gestured smirking, and Rainbow shot down the chute leading to a small basement room.

Derpy had huddled up in one corner, staring at a row of old lockers, her eyes wide with fear.

It took a moment for her to realize, one of the lockers shook and rumbled remarkably. As if someone ... or SOMETHING was about to burst out.

"Wwwhats that? WHO'S THERE?", she mustered her courage, taking a defensive stance to be prepared for whoever might jump out of that locker.

Moments later Daring Do landed right besides them. Looking at her two companions, shaking her head, she strolled over to the locker and gave the old rusty padlock a good kicking, splitting it into two.

The door blasted open and a mummy stumbled into the room!

"HEY you raggedy mummy! You think you can scare me?!", Rainbow was about to attack, when Daring stepped between the two.

"Since when do mummies plead for help?", Daring said, giving Rainbow Dash pause. She listened, and the terrible groans of a living dead monster turned out to be the mumbled sounds of someone, absolutely not happy with the situation.

Soon they were occupied with removing bandages and ropes and a towel over the muzzle to reveal a very distressed and disheveled Earth Pony stallion - about the same color as Daring do, but with brown frazzled hair.

"Flynn Coltson?", Daring Do exclaimed.

"Very nice to meet you, miss Yearling. Why are you full of coal dust?"

Rainbow groaned. "That's not important! HOW do we get out of here?!"

"Ah. Very good question, indeed.", the stallion hooved around in his pockets.

"Skeleton key. They didn't bother to search me before they tossed me in here. I already had a plan to escape. Unfortunately, those pesky restraints turned out to be more problematic than anticipated."

* * *

The late afternoon sun painted the chamber, cluttered with maps, trinkets, figurines, interesting rocks and many, many books in a cozy golden light. Tea cups, balanced on a small table - the only really free spot in Flyn Coltsons study. A fire in the open fireplace kept the cold outside the old tall windows, overlooking the western side of town.
However the atmosphere was everything but cozy and comortable.

"So, now tell me, Miss Yearling... what have you been after, that someone would go to this lengths to stop you?", the librarian looked looked Daring Do square in the eyes. "You didn't tell me the truth yesterday, did you?"

Rainbow Dash was about to interfere. Nobody had the right to talk to Daring Do this way! But she was surprised when the archeologist suddenly shifted her eyes upwards, inhaling.

"You are right", she began. "It wasn't research for a new book. Look,...", Daring grabbed a heavy looking, thick disk, covered in incomprehensible symbols that might be some kind of writing. "... this is called the 'Eldritch Compass' I learned Ahuizotl is after it, so I went to fetch it before him. I succeeded and now I try to find out, what it's all about. He is after something big. That far I know. I also have learned, that the compass can navigate - somehow - to some ancient places, which may hold incredible power, or dangers. But I don't know for sure, if Ahuizotl has other tricks up his sleeve."

Coltson mused for a moment rubbing his chin. "Ancient sites you say. Some ancient compass... and other tricks? Well... you may know that half the archeological society is going crazy, right now. Somepony a certain 'von Marstall' a scientist from Germaneigh has asked a lot of questions, sometimes in a pretty rude manner. Regarding the Technochlitan Basin, regarding some kind of 'Cult of Tlaloc' maps, keys, foci of Tlaloc... But I am not sure what any of this means. Tlaloc is some ancient... very ancient godlike creature. Said to have existed and vanished long before Discords reign of Chaos... Not like we have many reliable sources from that time..."

"Well... if Daring has this Compass... then all we have to do is to stop Ahuizotl from getting it. Right?", Rainbow chimed in.

"Probably.", the librarian answered, lifting his cup of tea. Still looking a bit absent minded. "But this Manefred Pommel, that took my place and locked you... us up didn't try to get this compass from Miss Yearling, did he?"

A sudden knock on the door interrupted the heated talk.

"Mr Coltoson. We found this down in the library. We believe it belonged to that strange stallion from before.", one of the campus aids handed a crumpled piece of paper to the librarian. It turned out to be a flyer for the Cloudsdale Arts and Culture Exhibition - a festival where the flying city traveled to a few key places in Equestria opening its gates for everypony interested in the awesome feats of bravery, exploration and adventure the Pegasi of Cloudsdale achieved in their past.

"Isn't there an ancient Map from the Technochlitan Basin in the the 'Commander Hurricane Collection' in the Cloudsdale Museum?", Derpy had perked up. "It...", turning red, due to the looks Coltson and Daring Do gave her, "... it has been mentioned in one of the books of Haggard Rider - you know, the author of Quatermane. The map I mean."

"Ooooooh. That isn't good.", Daring realized after a short moment.

"Sorry.", Derpy turned away.

"No.. Not you! You are completely right.", Daring Do was quick to explain, letting Derpy exhale in relief. "But... when this Pommel works for Ahuizotl - and I am sure of that; AND has a brochure for this exhibition; AND there's a map that seems to point to the same mystery as the compass..."

"Ahuizotl will try to steal the map?", Rainbow jolted up and was already half the way to the door. "We have to stop him!"