Daring Do and the Legend of Herobrine

Chapters

Prelude
The first encounter
Den of the demon
The green devil
The surprise
Hell's gate

Prelude

Daring Do awoke to the rhythm of the ocean tide. She raised her oozy eyes, but the sunlight was too bright. Narrowing her eyes until they got used to the sunlight, she stood up and took a look around. She found herself washed up on a shore of an unknown island, but something was not quite right. She closed her eyes and rubbed them, looking up again to make sure. She was right; everything was very... blocky. Instead of a normally smooth surface, the sand looked like stairs, with distinct lines and edges.

"What.... what is this place? How did I get here?"

Then the memories came back. She remembered being on another adventure to the legendary lost tomb inside a far away land known as Minecraft, where a rumored dragon egg was hidden. Many had attempted to retrieve it, but not many had returned. Those who came back seemed to have lost their minds, mumbling something about the laws of physics and some strange creature named Herobrine. However, as the greatest adventurer who ever lived, Daring Do was determined to find this legendary treasure. She had boarded a ship and left for the mysterious continent of Minecraft. However, she ran into a severe storm that took the ship apart. Her wings were also injured when the ship fell apart, but she managed to escape in time before it sank and grabbed onto a floating wooden board. Although she used some emergency bandages to stop the bleeding on her wings, she would not be able to fly for at least a month, even had she been under proper medical attention. However, with no food or fresh water, she quickly grew weak. She had finally lost consciousness and when she woke up, she was in this strange continent.

Could this be Minecraft? She couldn't be sure, but that was not the top priority at that moment. She had become extremely weak, and she needed to find food and some sort of shelter before it got dark.

"Only Celestia knows what kind of predator could be living on this strange island" Daring thought.

She gathered up her strength and stood up. The sun was still low on the horizon, so she would probably have plenty of time to gather food and find shelter. She walked forward off of the sand and stopped on some nice, green grass. She sniffed the grass and took a little test lick; the refreshing scent told her that it was just normal grass, despite how blocky it looked. She lowered her neck and took a bite.

"Ugh! Bleh.... pleh!! What is this?" She spit out what she had just bitten. Instead of tasty grass, she had almost swallowed a mouthful of dirt. It was like the grass was just on the very top layer, and it seemed impossible to pull it out of the dirt.

"Great. Just great." Daring Do let out a long sigh. "This island is way too strange. It's like another universe where the laws of physics are completely different."

Feeling tired, she looked around and saw some tall grass.

"Jackpot!"

She would have jumped for joy had she had the strength for it. Quickly, she ran over and sniffed it. It didn't smell as delicious as the dirt, but it would do. She took a bite of it and chewed. The grass was not very juicy, and its fibers were all stiff and hard. It took Daring a while to digest enough grass to fill her stomach. It wasn't delicious, but it was still converted into energy. Daring felt her strength slowly returning to her. She did some stretches and decided to chop down some more tall grass to keep it as her emergency food.

After she filled her saddlebag with tall grass, she walked towards the forest. Her next task was to find some branches to build a shelter out of before night fall, so that she could get some rest and continue her adventure tomorrow. However, she was surprised by what she saw. The forest looked nothing like those in Equestria. The trees were mostly the same texture and size, the ground was flat and spotless except for some grass and flowers, and it was dead quiet. No bird singing, no critter chattering, just dead silence as if nothing alive was there. Daring found the unusual silence discomforting, but she had no choice but to go in.

She looked at the forest and said, "Well, if I can't find any branches, I'll just have to break down a tree." She picked a rather small tree, and aimed her back legs at the trunk. She lifted up her back legs, and gave it a heavy kick. The tree didn't budge at all, but a small crack had formed on the part, or block rather, where Daring had hit. It was as if the tree was made up of separated pieces of rock, and Daring had just damaged one of them.

Daring gave the cracked block another kick and it broke completely. It fell on the ground and Daring Do quickly moved to the side in case the broken tree fell on her.

To her great surprise, nothing happened. She closed in again and investigated. The block that she had broke off was on the ground nearby, but the upper part of the tree remain unmoved, floating in midair.

"O....kay?" Daring said as she looked at the floating tree uncomfortably. This island is too strange, but her priority was to survive. She decided to not think about physics and just pick up the piece of wood that fell down to start making wooden planks with it.

After some work, she made four wooden planks. She turned around and broke another part of the trunk off the tree. The upper part continued to remain floating. Daring broke all the wooden blocks she could reach on the tree, and then moved on to another one. Soon, she had made a nice pile of wooden planks next to her, at least two hundred of them.

"Whew, this should do the job." Daring wiped her forehead with her hooves, getting rid of the sweat. She looked up at the sky. It was about 4 pm and she figured that she would probably have another two hours or so before it would begin to get dark.

Daring immediately went to work. She started placing the wooden planks down. Row by row and layer by layer, she soon built a small hut in the middle of the forest with three walls and no ceiling. Remembering her strange experience with the tree, Daring decided to try to build the ceiling. She placed down a block on the top and sure enough, it didn't fall.

"It appears that gravity has no effect on any blocks."

Daring quickly filled the top of her little hut with wooden planks, and her shelter was done. The hut had three walls and a ceiling, and the opening was facing the forest.

It was getting dark. The sun was disappearing behind the horizon, and the forest was slowly fading into shadows. Daring decided to find some stones to build a fire, but her hooves were too soft to dig up cobble. To help with this, she made a pickaxe out of wood. It wasn't very strong, but she thought that at least it was better than her hooves. She quickly gathered some cobble and returned to her hut. She built a small furnace and started a little camp fire at the front of the door. It was bright and warm, and as Daring got comfortable, she felt sleepy. She laid next to the fire and grabbed some fresh tall grass for her dinner. After her stomach was filled, she laid down in her shelter next to the fire and fell into a very shallow sleep.

The first encounter

Daring woke up in the middle of the night by the sound of a long, deep groan. With a shovel, she quickly picked up a piece of charcoal from the remains of her campfire and attached it to a wooden stick. After attaching the charcoal, she lit the torch, brandishing it as a weapon. Exiting her hut, she took a look around her. The forest was completely dark, and the trees were blocking the moonlight. The only source of light for Daring was from her torch, and that was barely enough light to see even ten feet in front of her.

"Who's there?" Daring yelled loudly, but there was only silence as a response.

Suddenly, she heard another loud groan. It was much closer this time, and Daring turned towards the direction from where the noise had come. She could see a distant figure slowly approaching her, but there was not enough light for her to clearly see.

Is it friendly, or is it a predator? Thoughts popped up into Daring's brain like bubbles. As the shadow approached, Daring could hear its loud groans and the sound of its hoofsteps.

Could it be... a zombie? Daring took a step backwards. She had heard about these foul creatures of the undead who would attack any living thing in sight. She grabbed her saddlebag, held onto the torch with her teeth and ran in the opposite direction of the zombie.

But then she heard the same groan in front of her as well. From the light of the torch, she saw another shadow approaching her slowly from the front. She ran to the right, but yet another groan stopped her.

She was surrounded. Daring slowly backed off to where her hut was, and she evaluated her situation. She was surrounded by three unknown, most likely hostile, creatures. There was no way to escape, and her only weapon was the torch that could go out at any second. She continued to step backwards as the groans grew even louder, and the shadows of the creatures slowly melted away as they entered the torchlight.

They were standing on two legs and holding out their two front hooves. Their eyes were empty, and their skin was green and disgusting. Daring could smell the scent of rotten flesh coming from them. They did not look like ponies at all; their faces were flat, they didn't have a nose or a muzzle, and they didn't have a mane or a tail.

The circle slowly closed in towards Daring. She looked to the left and the right; the only thing she saw were more zombies.

She decided to make a run for it. She lifted up the torch and hit the nearest zombie. The zombie jumped back from the flame and grunted. Daring sprinted right past him when he was stunned, and ran straight into the forest. She could hear the angry groans following her, and she kept running until she couldn't hear them any more. She found a tall tree with vines on the side, climbed up and decided to spend the rest of the horrible night up there.

She didn't sleep very well. With the sound of zombies around her, she woke up every few minutes to make sure that she was still safe. By the time the noise disappeared, it was almost dawn. Daring got up from the tree top, feeling extremely exhausted. She rubbed her eyes and looked around; that's when she noticed a strange shadow standing on top of another tree.

Was it a zombie? Daring stared at the shadow. It looked like a zombie, but it was not making the same dreadful noise. It was also wearing something different, and its skin was much darker. Daring rubbed her eyes to make sure that she was not hallucinating, but by the time she opens her eyes again, the strange creature was gone.

"Hello?" Daring yelled, but there was no answer.

Maybe she was just too tired, Daring thought. She looked around the tree. There were no zombies, only the wind and the tide. She carefully climbed down the tree and moved forward.

"The forest is too dangerous at night," she thought. She would have to find somewhere else before sun down. She thought that a cave would be the best choice. Before she did that, however, she needed to collect more wood for a source of light. She packed all of the tools she had made into her saddlebag, and started breaking off wood from trees as she walked through the forest. She had already taken a look at the geography of the landscape when she had been standing on top of the tree, and she had noticed a small hill not far from where she was. She decided to make her way there and see if there was anywhere safe.

The forest was smaller than she had imagined and soon she had reached the foot of the hill. The hill was not very steep, so Daring climbed it without too much trouble. However, to her great surprise, she saw a wooden plank placed on top of the hill.

"Who could it be?" Daring wondered. "Planks are not naturally created, so somepony else must have placed it here. Could it be another adventurer from before me? But why would she, or he, leave only one plank behind?" Daring looked around the plank, but she didn't find anything useful.

Or... could it be a marker? Daring decided to give it a try.

She broke open the plank, and immediately exclaimed in joy, "Aha!"

Beneath the plank, there was a skinny tunnel going straight down. Daring picked up a torch, lit it up and threw it down the hole. However, as she released it, the flame on the torch went out. She had no way of knowing how deep the hole was.

Daring quickly built another small shelter around the hole and then she made some ladders with wooden sticks. She carefully placed a ladder down on the wall of the hole, and another ladder beneath it. After about 20 ladders down, she finally reached the bottom. She lit up another torch and took a look around.

In front of her was a seemingly natural cave. It was extremely dark, and Daring could hear strange noises that would make one's hair curl. She held the torch firmly between her teeth, and adjusted her hat with her left hoof. Without further hesitation, she started down into the darkness of the cave.

Then suddenly, she saw something standing in the middle of the cave near the edge of the torchlight's reach. She immediately prepared herself for combat, but the thing didn't move at all.

Daring approached with caution until a corner of the object was visible.

She gasped. It was a wooden sign.

Daring walked up with great joy, only to see that there was just one word written on the sign.

"STOP."

"Could this be a warning from a previous adventurer?" Daring thought. But it seemed unlikely. If there was danger ahead, they would have plainly written it on the board, such as "Dead end" or "Traps ahead." This sounded more like a threat; it was more like a warning to everyone who was about to enter somewhere.

Somewhere, meaning most likely the legendary lost tomb!

Daring was extremely excited. After all these years of searching, she finally found a clue that could point to the real thing. How could she not be excited? She quickly held up the torch and kept moving, soon running into another sign. This time it said, "TURN BACK NOW".

Daring took a look at the sign and immediately noticed something strange. The sign was made of plain wood, and the words were written in ink. Confusingly, the sign looked new. The wood was fresh and not rotten. Daring rubbed her hoof against the words and they immediately became blurry. The sign was fresh; it had been written and placed no more than 2 hours ago as the ink was still wet. Daring immediately looked around. Somepony must be following her, and that somepony certainly wanted to scare her off.

"Whoever you are, I have already found you! Show yourself, or I will attack!" Daring threatened, but no pony answered her.

"It's probably another adventurer who wants to get to the treasure before me," Daring thought. She went on with her exploring, but with extreme caution, readied for anything that might jump out at her.

However, nothing happened. Daring reached the end of the cave safely, and she saw a small 2x2 tunnel in the wall leading somewhere.

Daring quickly theorized what the tunnel and cave could be for. It was rumored that there was once a great empire called Minecraft somewhere out in the sea. After the king died, a lot of craftsmen were gathered to build a tomb for the king. However, the Royal family decided to murder all the craftsmen after they finished with the tomb. They had wanted to keep the location of the royal tomb a secret from the world, so when the tomb was done, they shut the heavy stone door and trapped the craftsmen inside. However, the craftsmen had already realized the Royal family's actions. When they were building the tomb, they had also built a secret passage so that when they were trapped, they could use the passage to get out and escape. Daring thought that this 2x2 tunnel right in front of her must be the secret tunnel leading into the tomb, and the wooden plank up on the surface must have been placed by a craftsman to indicate the location of the exit, so that someday they could come back and raid the fortune of the king!

Daring was so excited. She check her saddlebag to make sure that she had collected enough food for another week or so. She adjusted her hat, licked her lips and grinded her teeth together tight. She prepared herself, and entered the tunnel with extreme caution.

Den of the demon

Daring occasionally lifted her torch high up in the air and turned around to check behind her, but she continued to see nothing as she went deeper into the tunnel. The tunnel was long. Very, very long. She had been trotting for at least fifteen minutes, until finally she heard the sound of water flowing down like a stream.

"The exit!" Daring yelled with excitement. The empty and quiet tunnel had made her quite nervous, and she would love to have been somewhere more open.

Sure enough, a dim light showed up at the far end of the tunnel. Excitedly, Daring picked up her pace and trotted towards the light. But as she got closer, anxiety slowly replaced her joy and questions began to arise. The light wasn't coming from the sun or the tomb; it was coming from another torch. And instead of the ordinary bright and warm, orange light, the torch was emitting a weak, crimson-red light.

"What is this?"

Daring walked up and took a closer look. The torch was placed against the upper part of the wall with its lit tip pointing up at the low ceiling. Instead of coal, the tip of the torch seemed to be covered in some kind of red powder, and the powder was glowing.

"But... I don't understand."

Daring started pacing around, quickly thinking about the abnormality. Why would there be just the one lone torch in the middle of the tunnel? Had somepony run out of wood and have to resort to this as a source of light? If so, then why was it left behind instead of being taken along? Unless...

Daring looked up. The block right above the torch was stone as well, but something was not quite right. Daring held the torch between her teeth and put her hoof on the stone. She immediately noticed that the texture of the stone was slightly different. Instead of the completely smooth surface of normal stone, the stone block in question looked like it had been artificially crafted using several stone blocks.

"This must be a door leading to the secret tomb. And the torch must be a switch!" Daring thought. She went closer to investigate the torch once more, but she couldn't find anything else unusual. She held out her hoof and placed it around the torch. She applied some force in all directions to see if the torch would move. However, it did not budge.

"Come on, you stupid... thing!" Daring said with frustration. She jiggled the torch around, adding more force each time. And suddenly, with a loud crack, she accidentally pulled the torch off the wall, completely.

"Oh sna...."

Daring immediately heard the sound of mechanics moving and took a few steps back. What she heard was moving directly above her head, and she thought, "This can't be good." She tensed up her muscles and was ready to run at any time.

However, the noises abruptly stopped. Everything became quiet, so quiet, that Daring could hear herself panting and the beating of her heart.

"Is it over?" Daring thought, as she walked back to where the strange stone was. She took a look around, but nothing had changed. It was still a boringly long tunnel leading into darkness.

However, before Daring could have a chance to catch her breath, she heard noise coming from behind her. She quickly turned around and was shocked by what she saw. The tunnel was getting brighter and the light was coming... towards her?

She rubbed her eyes and checked again. It was as she had thought. There was light at the end of the tunnel, and it was coming closer and closer. Daring began to feel heat coming from the same direction. It was as if somepony was holding a torch and running towards her. But as the light got closer, she realized that it wasn't coming from a torch.

The walls of the tunnels were disappearing. There was lava behind the stone, and it had started to flow into the tunnel. Daring could feel the heat of the lava, and if she didn't quickly find a way out of there, then she would be consumed by it too.

She quickly turned around and started to run, but she stopped almost immediately. The same thing was happening on the other side.

She was trapped in the middle of a tunnel with lava coming at her from both sides. Daring looked around her eagerly, looking for a way out. Then suddenly, her eyes caught on the strange block right above her.

"All right."

Daring grinded her teeth together tightly. She took out her pickaxe and immediately started waving it at the strange stone block. The block seemed quite strong, but a small crack had soon started to form on the surface.

"Come on... COME ON!!!"

Daring felt the temperature rising and her heart jumped. She waved the pickaxe even faster and finally, with a loud crack, the strange block broke and some red powder fell down. Daring held onto her hat and held her breath in case that the powder was poisonous. She took a look around and saw that it was a flat surface.

"YES!"

She took a step back from the hole and placed a block of wood right underneath it. Then she jumped onto the block. The heat was slowly becoming unbearable, but finally Daring jumped again and caught onto the edge of the flat surface. She climbed up and looked down seeing that the lava had just reached the wooden block, which she then saw immediately catch on fire and disappear.

"That was a close one."

Daring took off her hat and wiped the sweat off of her forehead. She had lost her torch during the whole mess, but luckily she still had some stone and wood. She quickly built a furnace and made more charcoal to make another torch. With her newly made torch, she flooded the room with light and took a look around.

"Whoa..." Daring could not believe what she saw. She saw the red powder all over the floor, forming a huge web. Daring took a step closer and noticed that all of the powder was made into lines connected to each other.

"Could it be?" Daring took out the strange red torch that she had broken off earlier and held the tip up close to a line of red powder. The powder immediately lit up as the torch approached it, and it transferred the light through the red powder next to it, lighting up a small portion of the huge web. She immediately heard the sound of mechanics from far away, noticing that it was the same sound that she had heard when the lava had started to fill up the tunnel.

"This must be the trigger to the trap," Daring thought.

She held up her normal torch and started to explore again. She saw streams of the red powder leading in the direction of the tunnel, and suddenly she noticed a single line of the red powder leading to the other side of the room.

"Ah hah!"

Daring quickly followed it. The line of red powder was different from the others. One end was connected to a huge mechanism, and the other end led off into the darkness.

Daring walked down the path of red powder. The trail was relatively difficult to track, since sometimes it disappeared into the wall or went below the ground. However, Daring still managed to stay on track. She finally reached the end of the cave and saw that the red line disappeared underneath a door made of wood.

Daring took a look around. This was the end of the cave, and there was no other place that she could go. She quietly walked up to the door and took a quick peek inside. It was a large, dark room. Daring raised her torch and allowed some light into the room; she saw that there was a dark tunnel on the other side of the room, opposite to where she was standing.

To her great surprise, as the light of the torch passed through the room, she saw a shadow moving and quickly disappearing into the darkness of the other tunnel. Even though it was just a glance, she noticed that it was the exact same creature that she had seen the earlier that day on the top of the tree.

This confirmed Daring's guess. Somepony was definitely following her, and he was clearly familiar with this place. The questions going through Daring's mind were: "Why would he do so? Was he guiding her to the treasure, or leading her into a trap? What did he want from her? Could he be the ghost of another adventurer, who came to lead her in order to finish the job that he hadn't been able to finish? Or could it be the guardian of the tomb, set out to murder everyone who dared to set their hooves in this sacred place?"

The green devil

The room was much bigger than Daring had thought. Even with the torch, Daring could not light up the entire room. She thought about checking each corner to make sure there weren't any traps, but the fading hoofsteps reminded her that her enemy was getting even further away. Daring stood and thought for a second; she decided to ignore the darkness and pursue the unknown enemy. She wanted to get to the bottom of the this.

She dashed towards the tunnel through which the strange shadow had disappeared into. However, she suddenly heard the sound of moving mechanics. Looking up ahead, she saw that the entrance to the tunnel had been sealed shut with stone. Not able to stop herself in time, she slammed into the wall.

She took a step back and shook her head to make her thoughts clear again. She punched the wall with her hooves.

"Damn! He got away!"

Then suddenly, she heard a hissing sound coming from right behind her. She quickly turned around and saw a green creature. Before she could even think about what to do, the creature flashed with light and exploded. The shockwave threw Daring into the air and smashed her against the wall. Daring fell to the ground, feeling like all of her bones had been pulled apart. However, she still managed to stand up.

She looked at where the creature had been. It had been completely blown up from the inside, leaving nothing behind. There was a huge hole on the ground, and lava was flowing underneath. Daring was lucky. She was far away from the creature and she was barely injured. However, if she had been just a little closer, she would have been blown to pieces.

She quickly lit up another torch and looked around. The room had been lined with creepy, red torches and Daring saw that a few new holes opening up in the wall, revealing a strange box inside. The box was on fire and it had something moving inside. Suddenly, with a puff of smoke, another green creature appeared next to the box. It walked around a little, but went straight for Daring once it saw the light from her torch.

Daring looked to the left and saw the exact same thing. At least eight of the exploding creatures were silently approaching her. She slowly moved back, but her path was blocked by the enormous hole created by the explosion. Daring looked behind her and saw that the hole had already filled with lava. On the other side there was a small space between the stone wall and the hole seeming to connect to a tunnel, but the gap was too wide for her to jump over.

"What to do?"

Daring formed plan after plan in her mind, but was quickly turning them all down. She was trapped between a lava pit and a group of exploding creatures who were slowly approaching her. Sweat ran down Daring's forehead as she saw the creepy smile of the approaching monster. She back off even more, half of her back hoof already off the edge.

And then a crazy idea hit her. It was so insane, that even Daring had to think it over. She looked around her once again, but saw no other options. The circle closed in even more and Daring didn't have a choice.

Daring put a hoof on top of her hat to push it on even tighter. She bit the wooden hoofle of the torch between her lips and then decided to go for it.

She suddenly dashed forward and caught onto one of the monsters. Before it could react, Daring pulled the creature towards her and hugged it tight. She turned around and jumped off of the edge.

All the green creatures gave a loud hissing sound and immediately began to flash. Daring could feel every movement of the monster in her arms, expanding and contracting every second. Daring flew through the air, but as she had thought, her velocity was not enough to bring her across the entire pit. She started falling, not even half way across. But at that instant, she turn around so she was on top of the monster. She let go of the monster, put all four of her hooves on top of it and bent her knees, riding it like a skateboard. Then, before the creature exploded, Daring sprung, like a compressed spring, and jumped. The monster let out a loud hiss when Daring kicked it into the center of the lava pit, its body expanding like a blown up balloon.

Daring got a second boost from the midair jump, but it still wasn't quite enough. She held out her front hoof as far as possible, but the edge was still out of grasp. Daring missed the other end of the pit by about a foot and she started falling, down towards the lava.

But then.

The creature that Daring had taken and kicked finally exploded. The air was pushed back in a shockwave, creating a wind so strong that it lifted Daring into the air. She flew over the pit and landed on the other side... upside down. Her head slammed against the hard, stone ground, and her back was thrown against the wall. However, given that she wasn't trapped among a group of exploding monsters or get burned to death, Daring was lucky enough that she was at least safe for the moment and still in one piece. She stood up and looked back at the rest of the monsters standing on the other side of the pit, hissing at her with anger. She grinned with victory and waved goodbye to the angry monsters. She picked up her hat which had fallen off during the epic jump, put it on and then walked towards the tunnel that she had seen. Using the pickaxe, she broke the stone that was blocking her path, and then quickly ran down the dark hallway.

The surprise

The tunnel was dark, and very quiet; Daring held her torch between her teeth as she sprinted as fast as she could down it. She had to catch up to the strange creature and get to the bottom of the mystery.

Suddenly, Daring heard something approaching her at great speed from just ahead. Years of adventuring had given Daring quick reflexes. She immediately moved to the side and pushed her face against the wall. The flying object went right by her cheek, leaving a long, bloody line. Daring rubbed her cheek and felt the pain. She looked at her hoof and saw blood dripping down. It had been an arrow.

Daring heard another arrow flying right down the relatively small tunnel. She could hear the arrow tearing through the air as it was making a loud hissing noise. She then heard a third one, then a fourth one. Daring barely dodged them all, but they still came close enough to leave a few cuts on her. Then suddenly, she heard the noises of an operating machine. Looking to the far end of the tunnel, she saw a cloud of arrows flying right at her.

It was a trap! Daring quickly pulled out some wood and “blocked” the tunnel. (Author: Haha, get it? Blocked? Because it’s Minecraft? Ah buck it, never mind.) She could hear the sound of arrows sticking into the wood, and she was afraid that her defense wouldn't last very long, so she placed another row of wood to make sure. Finally after a few minutes, the arrows stopped. Daring carefully broke two of the top wood blocks she had placed, making a window, and took a small peek. The tunnel was quiet once again.

“Damn it, that bastard!” Daring slammed her hoof into the wall. She had lost yet another chance to find out about the mysterious creature. She was sure that it couldn't be a pony. She saw the creature running on two legs. Could it be a human? Did humans actually exist?

Daring broke open two blocks to create a door in the wooden wall. She walked back through and took a look. There were hundreds of arrows stuck on the other side, and they fell to the ground when Daring broke the blocks that they were stuck to. Daring picked up some of them and put them into her saddlebag. Then, using the wood she had and strings she collected from the spider webs before, she made a bow and held it around her shoulder.

She listened for a while. There were no more arrows and the tunnel was dead quiet.

Then suddenly, Daring heard an angry groan coming from right ahead of her. She turned her neck and froze in place. In front of her was a huge mob of all kinds of monsters. There were zombies, skeletons, spiders and the exploding green creatures from before. The skeletons raised their bows, aiming directly at Daring.

“Oh sna-”

With another groan, the arrows were fired. Daring dashed through the door and hid behind it, dodging away from the arrows just in time. She took a little peak around the corner and saw the monster who had probably commanded the attack. It was a skeleton on the back of a huge spider. It raised its hand high up in the air, groaning like a warrior. He then pointed at Daring and groaned; the mob of zombies began to move forward towards Daring.

Daring hid behind the wall and thought about her options. She could go back the way she came and run away. With the new bow she just made, she could easily dispatch the exploding monsters and escape. That would mean she would have to give up the treasure, the legendary dragon egg.

Daring was facing a dilemma. Should she risk her life, or should she retreat and find another chance? She took another peek through the door. The zombies were significantly closer. Another second or two and they would be close enough to break down her wooden wall and attack.

Daring made up her mind, quickly blocking the door with wood.

The zombies reached the wooden wall within seconds. They groaned and started waving their green rotten arms at the wall. Soon, small cracks started to form on the wood, and the block seemed about to break.In just a matter of seconds, a hole had appeared in the wall, and the zombies went right through it. However, they looked around and Daring was nowhere to be found.

She had escaped! The zombies groaned in anger. The commanding skeleton waved his arm forward again, and the entire mob started moving forward, bent on chasing Daring.

Soon, the entire army had passed by the broken down wall that Daring had put up. The commander was the last to walk in, his eyes looking forward, searching for Daring. He groaned deeply again, urging the army to keep moving forward after Daring.

Suddenly with a loud crack, the wall on the side of the tunnel broke. Daring hadn't run away. She had barely had enough time to dig a hole into the side of the wall to hide herself inside. She closed the entrance with cobblestone, which had a different texture from normal smooth natural stone. However, there being no source of light, the monsters didn’t notice.

Daring remembered a story she had heard when she was young. A long time ago in a faraway land, there was a famous adventurer named Leroy Jenkins. He had been a strong and fearless leader; nothing could stop him. His tales were Daring’s favorite when she was a filly, because he never gave up. One time, he faced an army of flaming hawks and evil hydra. He ran in without hesitation, yelling his own name. The monsters were initially frightened by his courage, but they soon regrouped for an attack. It was a furious battle, and it lasted for hours. unfortunately, the monsters were too powerful. Leroy was slain. However, his courage had moved the goddesses. He was crowned the spirit of bravery and courage, and would bless any adventurer who had the guts to do what he had done.

As Daring thought about his story, she felt a burning fire of determination in her chest. She sat quietly in the dark hole, waiting for the commander. She held an arrow tightly in her hoof, ready to strike him down. And when she heard him groaning right next to her, she knew the time had come.

She smashed through the cobble and jumped out, going straight for the skeleton riding the spider.

“DARRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

It happened so quickly that the monsters didn’t even have any time to react. The commander barely had time to turn around before the arrow went right into his skull. The monster screamed in pain and the spider he was riding jumped upwards in fright. Daring held onto the commander, seeing that the he had a diamond sword on his belt.

“Yes!” Daring dearly thanked Leroy for his blessing. She grabbed onto the hoofle of the sword and kicked the commander off of the spider. She held onto the sword as he fell to the stone surface of the tunnel. Quickly putting the sword onto her own belt, she jumped off of the spider. She rolled on the ground from the impact, and started running towards the other end of the tunnel, away from the mob army.

She heard angry groans exploding behind her like the sound of cannons as the monsters recovered from their shock. They came right after her, but Daring simply kept running. Where she was going, she did not know. She just hoped that the tunnel wouldn't lead to a dead end.

Hell's gate

Everything lit up as if somepony had flipped a light switch. Daring looked around her and realized that she had run out of the tunnel. The monsters chasing her were not nearly as fast as her, so she finally allowed herself a moment to breathe. She turned around and found that the light was coming from numerous torches. She narrowed her eyes and saw a dark shadow behind the torches, so huge that she had to take a few steps backwards to be able to see the whole thing. When the huge building came into focus in front of her, her entire body froze.

Finally, after all of the danger, Daring had reached her destination. She was face to face with the legendary tomb that she had been searching for, for so long. There was a road in the middle leading to the tomb, covered with glowing yellow stone shining like the sun. On both sides of the road, there were statues made of solid gold looking down on any pony who dared to enter.

Daring ran down the path of glowing stone. She knew that there would be plenty of traps inside the tomb, but the approaching footsteps and groans behind her didn’t allow for any other choices. She jumped and landed on the road towards the tomb, but noticed that the tomb was surrounded by a deep ditch. There was a bridge that seemed to be the only way in, so she had wait for her chance to get inside the tomb.

Daring noticed another sign in the middle of the road. She trotted up and read it. The sign was freshly made. The ink was still dripping down the sign.

“This will be your doom.”

Before Daring’s mind was able to process the meaning of this, she felt the ground beneath her crumble. She tried to jump away from the shaking floor, but it was already too late. The glowing stone she was standing on broke, and she fell downwards. She felt heat coming up from below her.

Daring quickly reached to her belt and pulled out the sword. She held it tight in her hooves and stabbed it into the stone wall to halt her fall. The sword made a nasty sound as it slashed through the hard rock, and Daring prayed for it to not suddenly snap in half. Daring eventually managed to stop herself from falling down further more. Her hind legs were so close to the lava that Daring had to curl them up to avoid touching the burning liquid.

“Of course…” Daring thought as she looked down at the pool of lava. It was so close to her that it felt like her mane was going to light on fire. Her saddle bag flipped open and some cobble fell in, vaporizing in an instant with a loud “tszzzz” noise and some black smoke.

Daring climbed onto the sword and stood on top of it. Fortunately, the diamond sword was incredibly strong. It remained stuck into the stone surface despite Daring’s weight on it. Daring pushed herself against the wall and looked up. The edge of the glowing stone was not that far away, so she jumped upwards and grabbed it. But as she pulled herself upwards, she heard groaning coming from in front of her.

“Oh snap.” She looked up and saw that the monsters pursuing her had reached the entrance. They saw Daring hanging onto the edge, and a nasty groan of anger and revenge erupted from them.

Daring quickly pulled herself up over the edge. She then reached down and grabbed the sword with her hooves. She tried to pull it out of the wall, but it was stuck.

“Come on… Come on!” Daring thought as she saw the approaching zombies and skeletons. Finally with one strong pull, Daring pulled the sword out of the crack. She put it to the side and quickly grabbed some rope. She attached the rope to an arrow and put the arrow on the bowstring. She held up the bow, aiming up high at one of the statues on the other side of the gap. She pulled the string of the bow back to the corner of her muzzle and shut one of her eyes. She ignored the monsters that were just a few steps away from and concentrated on the shot.

“Go!” Daring released the hoof on the bowstring. With a loud hissing noise, the arrow flew towards the statue, rope attached. It was a great shot and the arrow lodged right into the statue, leaving only about a quarter of the arrow sticking out.

“Perfect!” Without missing a beat, Daring grabbed the sword with one hoof and the end of the rope with the other. She took a step back towards the zombies, and then started sprinting towards the statue. When she was nearing the edge, she jumped and swung on the rope over the gap. She looked back and saw the angry monsters behind her, groaning with extreme anger.

“Ha! See you later, shit lords! Daring away~” Daring yelled and saluted as she safely landed on the other side, smiling in victory. She dodged a few arrows that were shot at her and disappeared down the burial chamber.

The tomb was enormous beyond Daring’s imagination. It looked like the emperor had put an incredible amount of time and effort into this. The entire mountain had probably been pretty much dug empty, leaving only a thin shell enough to keep it standing. After he died, all of the nation’s treasure seemed to have been collected and stored in the king’s room. Could that be the reason why the land of Minecraft fell not long after the king’s death? Was he so greedy that he could not stand sharing his wealth with anypony else? Did he do it to take his nation with him?

Daring looked around her. Everything was shimmering with gold, gems and diamonds, but Daring didn’t take them. In fact, she barely paid attention to the expensive decorations. Her whole heart was set on the legendary dragon egg, being her one and only goal.

She proceeded further down the chamber, careful with each of her steps. She used a little wooden stick to poke the floor tiles before stepping on them to make sure each was safe to move onto. However, to Daring’s surprise, there were no pressure plate traps. In fact, she had not heard the monsters pursuing her either. Maybe the tomb was too sacred, and the monsters did not dare to enter. Or maybe there was something even more dangerous in the burial chamber.

But no matter what stood in her way, Daring would not back down. She continued through the quiet chamber, checking corners every time she turned around. However, the hallways were silent and empty.

The tomb contained at least four rooms, each filled with all kinds of treasures. Daring looked through all of them, but she couldn't find the dragon egg. Finally, she walked into what looked like a throne room at the end of the chamber. The room was dark, compared to the other ones. Daring looked up and saw another glowing stone hanging on the ceiling, emitting a ray of light on the throne.

"This looks like it," Daring thought, "The throne is a symbol of power and strength. It would be reasonable for the king to put his most treasured possession, the egg, next to his throne." Daring walked up, but suddenly saw movement. She quickly moved to the side and hid herself behind a pillar. She then turned her neck a little and took a small peek.

There was a strange gray creature next to the throne. It looked like a rat, but it looked like it was swimming on the ground, waving its tail and it had spikes all over its body.

"Whew." Daring felt relieved. "Maybe this is some kind of pet for the king," Daring thought as she moved into the light. The little animal screeched at Daring, looking uncomfortable with her presence. Daring shoo’ed it away, but it didn’t leave. Instead, it moved towards Daring. It wasn’t scary at all, since it was probably the size of Daring’s hoof, so Daring lowered herself and held out a hoof, showing that she hadn't come to harm him. To her great surprise, the creature jumped up and tried to bite Daring. Had she not stepped back in time, the creature would have gotten her.

“Why you little…” Daring turned around and kicked the little creature. It flew backwards through the darkness and hit the wall somewhere, making a splash noise. The creature wouldn't be a problem, so Daring walked up the stairs leading towards the throne. She stepped into the light of the glowing stone and was surprised to see that there was no egg. Behind the throne, there was a frame made of strange material floating in midair. Daring knew that the law of physics did not apply here, so what amazed her wasn’t the fact the frame was floating; the material looked like it was connected to another dimension. Daring lowered her neck and looked below the strange frame, seeing that there was only air and stone. However, when she looked at the frame of strange material, it looked like the hole was extremely deep.

“What is this sorcery?” Daring trotted around the frame. Could it be a mirror? Daring raised a hoof and held it above the frame. But there was no reflection. Then suddenly, she heard the screech from the strange little creature again.

“Grrr, what now?” She turned around and saw the it crawling slowly towards her.

Daring said to the creature, “Look, I don’t want to hurt you, so don’t make me! Go away!” but it continued to move towards her.

Suddenly, a second creature appeared, looking exactly the same as the first one.

“Wha…?”

Before she realized, the stone pillar in the room had disappeared. Daring placed coal on the tip of an arrow, lit it on fire and shot it to the center of the room. She saw a huge group of the strange creatures slowly moving towards her. The pillar behind which she had been hiding was being broken down from inside. Each time a block broke, one of those little grey creatures would appear and start moving towards Daring. She shot another fire arrow in another direction, but all she saw were more hostile creatures. They were not fast, they were not deadly, but there were too many of them. Daring backed off a bit more into the ray of light, sweating at her situation.

The circle closed in even more. Daring felt sweat beginning to flow down her cheeks. She backed up towards where the strange frame was, and suddenly, she felt the air moving. She moved her hooves next to the frame and felt it again. The strange material making up the frame was sucking air into it.

“Well, there is no other way.” Daring climbed onto the frame and looked inside. The space was shimmering with every color of the spectrum, and it looked mysteriously and extremely deep.

“Here were go!” Daring worked up the courage. Without any further hesitation, she held onto her hat and jumped in before the strange creatures reached her. Everything turned dark, and Daring felt herself falling into the infinite darkness, straight to hell.