Daring Do and The ring of dusk

Night was approaching as the sun’s rays dimmed from the horizon. The great pearl moon peered from the horizon and the stars slowly began to reveal their dazzling light. The cool breeze flowed through the great city of Canterlot, the capital of Equestria. The bright city lights combined with the breath taking night sky, truly embraced its night beauty.

Thomson, an antique store owner was busy reading the paper. Business was slow that day since every anthro was busy preparing for the arrival of Princess Cadence of the crystal empire as well as Princess Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville, who would be visiting for a few days. The sound of the bell made Thomson pause for a moment as he looked at the door. A light brown mare entered the store. She wore a snow-white silk dress that revealed her perfect curves that would drive any anthro crazy. She also had a white sun hat to go with her dress and also dark shades

.

“Are you still open?” she asked.

“Oh, yes.” Thomson said beaming with excite on seeing yet another customer as he put the paper aside, “How may I help you?”

The mare walked around as she looked at the various artifacts on display. “I’m looking for something that has a rather interesting history to it.”

“Well everything here has a history behind it.” Thomson said as she grabbed his walking cane that laid on the wall and slowly made his way towards the mare, “If you find anything of interest, please let me know.”

The store was full of artifacts from ancient times. Books, jewelry, clothing, scrolls, fossils you name it. Whether it was from the unforgiving depths of the Everfree forest or the dangerous castle of the two sisters, they were there. One flaw about most of those artifacts was that they were just replicas and that was something the mare could easily notice. The brown mare let out a sigh as she quickly lost interest in the place since that antique store was like every other, full of fakes. But then she spotted something that really caught her eye and changed her whole opinion.

They were a bunch of scripts that were written in old Equestrian language. The scripts had a very light brown color. Its crumpled look as well as its slightly torn edges gave away its age as well as its originality. One of the scripts had a sketch image of what looked like an ancient gate that really fascinated her.

“What are these?” she asked picking them up.

“Those are the scripts of the ‘Ring of Dusk.’” he said, supporting himself with the cane, “The scripts state that the ring was created by the dark mare Nightmare Moon.”

“Nightmare Moon? Wasn’t that Princess Celestia’s sister when she tried to cover the whole of Equestria with endless darkness?” she said looking back at him.

“Correct. When Nightmare Moon was being defeated, she cast her final spell that sealed all her dark magic into a ring that was stored in a hidden island.” he added.

“Why would she do that?”

“I’m sorry to say that no one knows the answer to that.” he shrugged.

“So, what would happen if one was to wear the ring?”

“No-anthro knows what the ring does since none of them have even seen or found the ring.”

At that point a quite important question popped into her mind. “Well, if no one has ever seen or found this ring. How are there scripts about it? It might as well just be an old tale.”

“I knew you would ask that.”  He said with a slight chuckle as she walked to his desk, the brown mare following him closely, “Those scripts were written by Sarack Jan Boles, one of the greatest adventurers known to walk the earth. During his adventure for the ring, he decided to write all the amazing things he was seeing and encountering but all he wrote, mysteriously turned into riddles and symbols.”

Daring looked back at the scripts. Her mind was filled with the thrill of a new adventure waiting to take place. An adventure that would test her limits to the max. That was a perfect opportunity to show what she is worth. She was electrified by the thought.

“How much for it?” she asked.

“250 bits.” he said, “But for you, I can give you a 50 bit discount.”

“So, 200 bits,” she asked raising her eyebrow, “That’s a bit high, don’t you think?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t go any lower than that.” he said.

She exhaled as she pulled out a small sack of bits from her pearl-black, leather pure. “This should be enough.” she said handing it out to Thomson.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” he said as he kept the sack in his inner left jacket pocket.

The mare rolled the scripts and tied them with a small red ribbon she had, before keeping them I her purse.

“Have fun in your adventure.” Thomson said when the mare grabbed the door handle.

Her hand remained on the handle as she became immobile for a moment. Her heart racing abruptly as a quiver of fear, rushed through her spine. She looked back over her shoulder at Thomson, who smiled warmly and waved at her. She walked out and entered her rather expensive, grey saloon car, which was a few meters away from the store. She placed her purse at the back seat before grabbing the steering wheel and taking a deep breath. She looked back at the store as the lights went off; signifying that Thomas was closing for the night.

“How could he know what I’m planning to do? Could he know who I am as well?” she asked herself as she thought of what he said. She decided to ignore her thoughts. She looked at the wide highway of asphalt, ignite her car and drove off.

The grey car stopped at a biscuit brown house on the outskirts of Canterlot. It was in a slightly quiet vicinity, few houses scattered around the place. The place was perfect for any anthro that needed a place to relax, away from all the racket and hustle of the city.

“Oh it’s good to be home.” the mare said as she got out of the car.