Treasure hunters of Equestria

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Dart
Chapter 2 - Fated
Chapter 3 - Daring Duo
Chapter 4 - Together
Chapter 5 - Preparations
Chapter 6 - The Ancient Solar Empire
Chapter 7 - Home
Bonus chapter 1 - Time shift day 1
Chapter 8 - Element of Honesty
Chapter 9 - Element of Laughter part 1
Chapter 10 - Element of Laughter part 2

Chapter 1 - Dart

((I don't know about you guys, but I like to listen to music while I read, if you're interested try this song out: DJ- MHM -Daring DO))

I stood at the entrance of a long abandoned mine shaft. The sky was pitch black, bats were screeching in the distance, every nearby tree was dead, and I was grinning at full blast. That's like home to me. That is, if home could be an unexplored dangerous wasteland, and that's exactly how I love it. The mine was full of treasure, I could just smell it in the air......well not exactly, but I had heard rumors and that was enough for me. I didn't actually care if there was treasure, as long as there was danger and mystery involved. There is nothing in the world I love more than danger and mystery.

As I was reminding myself of how awesome everything was, my attention averted to my cutie mark. It was a large treasure chest. It might be my super special talent, but I've never quite liked how it looks. Now don't get me wrong, I like treasure, there's nothing wrong with treasure, but....the treasure just isn't the reason I go on treasure hunts. Though, I suppose having a trap-door on my flank would be pretty silly, and would probably just creep other ponies out. I'm used to that though, I'm not exactly much of a social person.

There's nothing I find wrong with other ponies, it's just that they find a lot of things to be wrong with me, and I don't care what they think which makes them even more annoyed. First of all, my hooves are black. Pitch black. They weren't always that way though, it was some kind of curse I received recently in some ancient romane ruins. I'm still not entirely sure what the point of it is though, I think they kind of failed to make a good curse or something, seeing as the only thing wrong with it is that it occasionally feels funny and I wind up bucking someone in the face before I understand what's going on. It's never bothered me when I'm on the hunt though, as if it respects that I could die at any moment and doesn't want to screw me up.

--((Quick note, the more adventurous parts of the story are in present tense, so that you can get a better feeling for Dart's thoughts))--

Enough thinking though, it's time to treasure hunt. I do a quick inventory check.

Rope? Check.

Torch? Check..... do I even need anything else? I can be forgetful sometimes, so I brought a piece of paper reminding me what to bring.

Flippers? Did the mine flood or something? I can do without. No check.

Dynamite?! Why in the hay would I need......oh what do you know, I did bring some dynamite. Check.

Map? Check. I love danger and all but I've had some bad experiences where I forgot to bring a map and wound up in Germaneigh.

Compass? Check. That's the last one. I'm good to go! Nothing can stand in my way now!

I approach the entrance to the shaft, and take a deep breath. I start out at a leisurely pace, which slowly increases to a power trot, and before I know it, I'm full on sprinting down the shaft. I wish I could sprint all the time! Walking is just too damn slow! Unfortunately there are a few minor setbacks such as energy and catching my breath. Sometimes I really wish those weren't so important. Before I know it, I already have to stop due to a fork in the path. There's a sign that reads:

"Left to mine (WARNING! FLOODED!)"

"Right to the natural cave. (WARNING! CAVED IN!)"

I wonder why they even bother to write the warnings, nopony is going to be down here except me anyways. Which way was I supposed to go again? Maybe I should have brought flippers. I pull out my map, and take a look. I have arrows pointed both ways, so I guess I'll start with the right. Might as well put that dynamite to good use. I take off at full speed to the right, and pull the dynamite out of my saddlebag as I run. I don't bring dynamite often, but man do I love the stuff. Sometimes I see a corridor ahead of me that's clearly just chuck full of traps, and I head back, buy some dynamite, and blow the whole thing up! I'm not exactly very agile, and I wish there was another, more ADVENTUROUS way around those, but alas, there isn't. And therefore, dynamite. I stop in front of the cave in, it doesn't seem like much more than a pile of dirt and medium sized rocks. Two sticks should do. I lay the dynamite, and begin to walk backwards to the minimum safe distance. Actually, I prefer to go a little below the minimum. I like to be able to tell what's happening, and let's face it, everypony knows the minimum safe distance is too far so the dynamite company won't get sued. I push down the switch, (I have one of those ones with the big pushy-switch just like they have in cartoons. It's not practical but I just like the feeling of using it,) and I hear the explosion loud and clear. The entire mine begins to rumble, but the entire place is professionally built so I doubt another cave in will happen.

Sure enough, it's like the cave in was never there! It must have caved in fairly early in the digging, because as I walk down that corridor I find more and more gems stuck in the walls. The light from my torch reflects off of each gem, and the room is filled with a beautiful colored light. Most pegasi hate caves, and especially hate the notion of being underground. I can't imagine why. It's awesome down here, and the rainbow lights from the crystals make this cave AT LEAST 20% cooler than those silly floating cities. I can't even imagine what life would be like if I had listened to my parents and stayed in Cloudsdale. It's just plain boring up there. We have enough weather ponies anyways, and treasure hunting you could REALLY make a living on. Well, more or less. Every time I try to sell treasure, the ponies look at me like I'm some kind of hero for braving the ruins and recover the ancient crap. I hate that. They start telling their friends and causing some huge commotion and I wind up leaving before I can sell anything I found every time. The attic of my house is almost filled to the brim with this stuff. Regardless, I take some gems and stick them in my saddlebag. One can never have enough awesome rainbow gems.

Eventually I arrive at a dead end. Or at least, most ponies would see a dead end, but I see a trap door. It's hidden well but I can tell because I'm just really good at......Well to be modest I already knew about it from this map I found in the Canterlot archives, but I think it's still sort of impressive. I begin to feel up and down the wall, there's got to be some kind of switch or something. Just as I was about to give up and use the remaining dynamite, a small black gem came to my attention. These gems should be rainbow colored! These mines are famous for RAINBOWS OF GEMS. There is no black in rainbows! Somewhat outraged (for no real reason other than being caught up in the moment), and somewhat suspicious, I buck the black gem as hard as I can. It shatters, and magic circuits and sparks go flying. Oops, it must have been some kind of mechanism to open the door, and I guess I was supposed to pull on it. That's kind of hard to do with hoofs anyways, this must have been built for unicorns. Reluctantly, I use a stick of dynamite on the door. Now I only have 3 left, What a waste of good dynamite!

Suddenly, I hear a roar from the other side of the door. A lion? No. It was a little off, and I've dealt with lions before. This could only be.... I duck to dodge a flying spike. A manticore! The manticore is standing ready to attack on the other side of the hole I made, but I've got to beat him to it! I fly full speed at him, and both of us go tumbling into the next room. I jump off of him before his tail can hit me though, and I find myself in a large circular room with all kinds of awesome treasure and....a hole in the ceiling? I'm in the magma chamber of a dormant volcano! That's really awesome! Before I can stop to admire the sight though, the manticore shoots more spikes, and I deflect them with my awesome shiny metal hoofs. Sometimes the curse can actually be helpful. I get the feeling that those spikes would have cracked a hoof normally. The manticore sees that the spikes aren't working, and changes it's approach. It pounces on me, and I swing my torch at it, setting it's mane on fire. It starts screaming and running around the room, knocking me into a wall with it's mighty tail.

I black out for half a second then open my eyes just in time to see the manticore run into a wall the way that stupid animals do when they catch fire. A crack starts to appear, and I hear a distant rumbling.

Is the volcano going to errupt? No....I'm in the magma chamber so clearly that's impossible.... It sounded more like..... The water in the flooded section! Why didn't I bring those flippers?!

Sure enough, a drop of water appears at the crack, then it intensifies into a small stream. I'm not going to wait around to watch it though! I jump to my hoofs and make a run for it, grabbing some random treasure off the walls as I leave. It suddenly occurs to me that it was completely ridiculous for the manticore to be there in the first place, but I keep running, eventually increasing to a flight as I hear large amounts of water closing in on me. Not the deadliest of substances, but I've never been too great of a swimmer.

Finally, I reach the entrance just before the water does, and water pours out into the forest behind me as I fly away. It's around 6:30 Am by now, and the sun is rising. I land in a clearing and begin to examine the loot. A dozen of the largest most colorful gemstones I could find, an awesome amulet, and various other gold coins and trinkets found along the walls of the inner chamber. Pretty nice, but all I really care about is the fact that I just flooded a volcano.....wait a minute.

Sweet Celestia! Why didn't I just fly up! I saw the sky back in the magma chamber! I was so caught up in the moment I made an incredibly retarded decision! I curse to myself loudly, seeing as there's nopony nearby to hear, and head towards town to sell the gems and get some sleep.

((Author's note: I think it might not have been clear in the past, but the adventure parts of the story are supposed to be in present tense, I do that on purpose so that you can hear Dart's thoughts as he encounters new problems. I'm not sure if the EQD team didn't notice this, but they turned down my story due to "tense and punctuation issues" so if you just so happen to notice anything of the like while you read, it would mean the world to me if you left a comment or sent me a message on any grammar issues I can fix))

Chapter 2 - Fated

As I entered town, there were two things I immediately found to be odd. First of all, there were a lot of ponies outside, which is unusual considering how early it was, or maybe I just like to sleep in. The second thing I noticed was that they were all heading the same direction, and not paying much attention to me, which was incredibly odd because usually when I entered town with a saddlebag full of treasure I got crowded around pretty quickly. I nudged an older stallion and asked him about it.

"What's going on? Where's everypony going?" The stallion looked shocked.

"To see Daring Do of course! She just came back from her latest adventure?"

I frowned. "Daring who?"

The stallion seemed to nearly faint of shock. "You don't know DARING DO?" I shook my head. "She's famous for bringing back famous artifacts that were lost long ago and giving them to museums!" I rolled my eyes. I used to be interested in certain celebrity treasure hunters when I was a little colt, but most of them had turned out to be fake. A question came to mind.

"So how does she make a living if she doesn't sell the treasure?"

"I'm sure the museums pay a nice price, why?"

"Well I've got an attic full of this crap and I-" The stallion cut me off.

"Sorry! I'm going to be late! I've got to go!" And with that, he ran off towards the middle of town. I shrugged and figured I'd follow him.

I must say I was quite shocked at what I found. First of all, I expected she'd have some giant bag of fake treasures, maybe some bead necklaces to throw to the kids like a parade. She actually didn't seem to have any treasure on her. Second of all, she was soaking wet. And finally, she was really hot, even though her grey mane and yellow coat were completely drenched. As I approached, she had been in the middle of telling the crowd what happened.

"-and I was just about to pack up and leave when suddenly water came gushing in from nowhere. It was already flooded in the cave, so the water came by at top speeds and washed away all my loot!" The crowd gasped. It didn't take me very long to understand what happened, and I chuckled to myself.

"Hey you!" She yelled, it didn't take me long to figure out she has a pretty short temper. "What's so funny?!" I said the first thing that came to mind.

"Sorry! My bad! I've got some extra treasure if you want some!" She raised one eyebrow. I stepped up on to the stage. Some of the ponies in the crowd recognized me from when I brought huge piles of treasure to town, and began to stomp like it was a performance or something. One pony yelled: "Make out!"

"Sorry!" I repeated. "I was in that mine too, I went right at the split path."

"That's impossible" She changed her voice to the kind of tone you would use to talk to a little filly or a crazy pony. "There was a cave-in to the right, and I've checked it out before. There's nothing there." I put on my triumphant face.

"Cave-in's always have cool stuff behind them. You just need some dynamite."

"Dynamite!? Are you crazy!? I knew I heard an explosion!"

"Yeah it was awesome, I found some neat stuff."

I retrieved the gemstones from my saddlebags. Various 'ooh!'s and 'Ah!'s came from the audience. Daring fell over backwards onto her plot, a look of complete and utter awe on her face. I grinned.

"There's more. I found a trap-door that led to the magma chamber of the dormant volcano, and it was filled to the brim with treasure." At this point she leaped back up and nearly bucked me in the process, getting right in my face.

"Now that's GOT to be a lie! Who puts a secret door in a mine shaft!?" I shrugged.

"Manticores?" I suggested. She face-hoofed.

"Alright then Mr. Show stealer, where is this treasure? All I see are some rainbow colored rocks you probably found at a toy store." I was hoping she'd say that. I emptied out my saddlebag.

"This is all I could grab before I set the manticore on fire and he caused a flood." She ignored me and dove for the amulet I found.

"I was looking for this! This is the missing amulet! I was supposed to bring this back to the museum!" I blushed a little, that sparkle in her magenta eyes when she was focused on the amulet was more priceless than the trinket itself.

"You uh...you can keep it." She suddenly realized that she was laying on the ground in front of an audience, and jumped up.

"Well ponies, looks like my adventure was a success!" The audience stomped loudly.

This made me remember just where I was, and I stepped off the stage. I was here for the cute mare, not the publicity. Daring realized how bad she'd look if she just took the amulet free of charge in front of all these ponies, and called after me.

"Hey, I owe you one, alright?!" I turned around for a second, then continued walking.

"No you don't. Later."

"What's your name?" She yelled after me, but I was already too far away to hear her.

About a week later:

I had been saving this adventure for end of the year. Finally, it was hearth's warming eve, and I couldn't think of a better time. This was the most promising adventure I'd ever found. Supposedly 60 feet under my very hooves was an ancient temple to the god of chaos, Discord. Traps? Definitely. Hidden doors and clever puzzles? No doubt. Some of them might not even make sense, due to the whole chaos theme. After some walking, I came upon the entrance. A small stone door in the side of a large boulder. Anyone could have missed it while flying by, and there were no roads for chariots nearby. The temple was cleverly hidden since it was built after the age of discord's rule, when some of his underlings thought he would rise again. Of course, that would never happen. He's trapped in stone in a garden in Canterlot, that would be completely impossible. But that wasn't important. Every bone in my body told me that this adventure was going to be awesome. I skipped up to the door with delight and tried to open it. Locked, no big surprise there. I bucked it as hard as I could. The door didn't budge. I figured it was time to just use the dynamite.

I pulled a stick out of my saddlebag, and backed up slowly while laying the fuse. I had to be really careful...........bump. I walked right into something. Then, a voice.

"Hey, watch where you're.....hey! I know you!" I nearly jumped out of surprise, and turned around. It was Daring Do herself. Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten about her.

"You do?"

"Yeah! You're that guy who flooded the mine I was exploring!" Suddenly, it all came back to me. I grinned remembering my awesome adventure in the mine, then said: "Oh, yeah." Daring grinned just as wide.

"Looks like I'll be able to pay you back for that amulet! You were about to explore these ruins right? Let's search together!" I snapped back to reality.

"I uh....no."

She frowned. "No?" I nodded. "Why not?"

"Well I usually work alone and it's going to be really dangerous in there and-" She scowled at me.

"It's because I'm a mare, isn't it!? You think I can't handle myself in there because I'm a mare!"

"That's not what I said."

"It's what you're implying. You sexist son of a bitch!"

"No no no, I'm sure you'd do fine in there, I just-" Suddenly her scowl disappeared.

"Okay! Then let's go!" She started walking towards the door. She tricked me!

"Hey wait! There's dynamite set up! Back up a bit!" She stopped in her tracks.

"What is with you and dynamite!?" I shrugged. She rolled her eyes. "And besides! This is a pretty safe distance, just set it off!"

She was telling ME it's a safe distance!? She was hardly 30 feet away! She'd get blown backwards!

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea!" I called out to her, but she ignored me. Finally, I gave in and pulled the switch. BOOM. The explosion seemed to pour out a lot of smoke, but I only had a split second to think before something rammed into me at full speed. It was her of course.

"Nice catch."

"Don't mention it." She giggled, her face was completely black from the smoke. To my relief, she got off of me, and dusted herself off.

"See? It was perfectly safe! I'm fine!"

"You could have hit a rock instead of me, that wouldn't have ended well." She only grinned at this.

"Don't be silly, danger is like my middle name!....." She made a sudden realization. "And Daring IS my first name! Let's go!"

There was no fighting it at this point. It was time for a treasure hunt, annoying tag-a-long or not.

It's time for a treasure hunt! I drop my saddlebag and begin my usual routine.

"What are you doing?" She asks, like being prepared is some crazy foreign concept to her.

"Just making sure I have everything." I pull out my checklist, and she peers over my shoulder as I go through it. I ignore her.

Torch? Check.

Map? Check.

Rope? Check. I suddenly come across a memo to myself NOT to bring dynamite, as the entire temple is a historical site. Guess I blew that one. No check. Daring is trying to suppress a laugh, but doing a miserable job. I have everything, so it's time to get started. We enter the doorway without another word. I light a nearby torch and some enchantment causes all of the others to light, showing us a seemingly endless staircase. This could take a while. Daring groans behind me. As we're walking, she begins to interview me.

"Hey, I never caught your name. What is it?"

"It's Dart. Dart Dash."

"That's a strange name. What does it mean? Usually it has to do with your talent, but I can't see how Dart relates to treasure chests." Again with the treasure, such an unfitting cutie mark.

"I figure it's because I'm good at dodging traps." She nods. I guess she can relate to this.

"Hey, what's up with your hooves? Is that normal?" My hooves? What's wrong with my....oh right. I forgot about that. I wonder if that stupid curse is going to act up today.

"Oh right, I was exploring an ancient Romane rui-" As if the curse knew I had just been thinking about it, it suddenly gives me the uncontrollable urge to fall down the stairs. I comply immediately.

"Hey wait!" She yells after me, but I'm a little too busy painfully falling down the stairs to answer. Finally, I hit the bottom. However, I can't say I was expecting what I find. A pony completely garbed in a red hooded robe with strange symbols on it approaches me.

"Who dares interrupt the cult of Discord!?" I take a look around, there's at least 14 of these guys scattered around the room holding candles. This is not going to be fun.

Chapter 3 - Daring Duo

(From the perspective of Daring Do)

((If you're getting sick of the song in chapter 1: The Adventures of Daring Do song, by mandopony))

I think my would-be colt-friend just fell down the stairs. First of all, I would like to explain some things. I'm usually a lot more awesome than this, but lately I've been having some financial problems, and only kids and weird adults seem to care to listen to my adventures now-a-days. But then this guy just showed up and simultaneously ruined everything and made everything cooler. I mean, I wasn't in too great of a mood to find out he's the pony who almost drowned me, but I've never met anyone who was so much like me in my life! I've got an eye for treasure, and this stallion is worth keeping around.

Suddenly, I hear a loud thump. That must have been him hitting the ground. I can feel myself speeding up, I need to get down these stupid stairs and make sure he's ok! There's just no end to them though! I can't imagine he didn't break some bones after falling this far! I wonder what he'd been saying about those Romane ruins, Romanian things have always fascinated me. I guess that's not important right now though.

Finally, I find him. Of course, he's in a cage. There are about 10 weird ponies in robes standing around him in a circle, chanting something. It's a good thing they wear their hoods so low, because they didn't seem to notice me walk in. Dart looks hurt, he's got blood all over him and his back-left leg is bent weird. He doesn't seem to notice me, or even the ponies in red for that matter. His head seems to be whizzing about, looking all over the place. I look around myself, and suddenly I understand.

Besides the tacky hearth's warming eve decorations, there was treasure. Plot-loads of it. From golden statues of discord to stolen artifacts from Everfree (the old capitol of Equestria, before discord fell). More treasure than we could possibly carry back! We'd have to make a few trips up and down that stupid staircase though, that won't be fun. Oh right, I've still got to save Dart. Now how am I going to do that?........ Immediately I notice that there's another of the red ponies sitting down near me. I almost scream....but upon closer inspection, he's unconscious. Without wasting any more time, I slip on his robes and walk on up to the friendly committee of discord cultists. They stop the weird chanting and one of them speaks.

"Ah! Brother! You are awake! Join us in summoning the god of chaos to burn the infidel!" I try my best to mimic a stallion's voice.

"Um..yes brother! Lead us to...um...glorious chaos!" Dart grins at me, understanding the situation fully. My stallion impression must not have been very good because one of the other cultists stopped me.

"Brother! You sound strange! Is something wrong?"

"No I um....my throat is sore." He slants his head a little in confusion.

"But it was fine 10 minutes ago!" I decide to make an assumption.

"But then I got bucked into a wall by that infidel!" I point a hoof at Dart, who grins. I can't tell if I assumed right or not. The other pony only shrugs, and returns to the circle. I follow. As they start chanting, Dart interrupts them.

"So where is this god of chaos guy? I'd like to meet him." The head cultist frowns.

"Silence! All will be answered soon!"

"But how can you expect answers in chaos?" The cultist considers this for a moment.

"The answers are implied! Now silence!" Dart looks amused. I hope he doesn't try anything stupid.

"Make me." There we go. Something stupid. The cultist throws off his hood and scowls. He's an old unicorn with dirty white fur and a red mane, and he has these HUGE purple crescents under his eyes, like he hasn't slept for days!

"Somepony silence him! We can not do the chant with these interruptions!" I decide to volunteer.

"I will!" The head cultist nods.

Maybe I can use this to help him escape somehow. Hopefully he's smart enough to work with it. He's pretty badly wounded though, so I reach my hooves through the bars so I look like I'm trying to strangle him. He simply slides away. The head cultist face-hoofs.

"Brother! Might I suggest you use the stick of pain?" He holds up a spear with his unicorn magic. Wow, real creative.

"Sure! I could always use a......stick of pain." I grab the stick of pain with my mouth, and point it at Dart. He's agile though, and simply slides around the cage, while I have to pull it out from between the bars after every jab. Hopefully he can keep this up. Suddenly, I get an idea.

"He's too agile. Perhaps we need to open the cage so that we may apply the stick of pain?" The head cultist nods again, and two of the other cultists open the cage. Dart grins, and I jab at the nearest cultist with the stick of pain. He yelps and runs for it. Dart springs to his feet (wincing in pain in the process, it probably wasn't the best idea), and does sort of an awkward one legged buck to one of the cultists who opened the door. Dart is pretty strong though, and the pony goes flying regardless. No time to swoon though, the other cultists seem to have their own sticks of pain (Wow, am I really going to call them that now?). I duck a spearhead, which rips off part of my hood, showing them my awesome face. The head cultist looks shocked at first, but then grins.

"Look here brothers! Daring Do, an adventurous hero of Equestria! And what is it we do to Heroes of Equestria again?" I'm frightened, but I try not to let on.

"Stay back or I'll stick you....with pain!" The head cultist only sighs and uses his horn to take away the stick. Now I'm completely defenseless. Dart steps in front of me, but he's standing on three hoofs, and limping on his fourth.

"What are you doing? You're wounded!" Dart just ignores me, and the head cultist gives off a loud evil laugh.

"Look here brothers! It seems Daring Do has found herself a colt-friend to protect her! Now isn't that just cute-" Dart bucks him, with both legs this time. I imagine the shiny metal hoofs really hurt, because he doesn't even try to get up. I grab his stick of pain, and point it at the remaining 7 cultists. With their hoods off, they didn't look like a very tough bunch, and they backed away.

"Owwww....." Dart is now regretting using both hooves. One of the cultists points at him.

"He's a monster! Look at his hooves!" I find myself also staring at his hooves. They ARE kind of weird. The cultists run for the staircase, I start to fly after them with my stick of pain, but Dart stops me.

"Hey! We've got treasure to loot! Get back here!"

"But they're getting away!" Dart shrugs.

"They aren't bad ponies, just weird ones. They technically didn't do anything wrong."

"Because putting you in a cage and trying to sacrifice you to the god of chaos isn't wrong?" I say in my 'matter-of-fact' voice. Dart considers this.

"Fair enough, but either way, we've hit the jackpot here. Grab my saddlebag, will you?" I toss it to him, and he catches it in his mouth, then proceeds to empty it out, dynamite and all. I guess he's got to make room for the treasure somehow.

As I was stuffing my hat with treasure, Dart walked up. His leg seemed to have healed enough to walk on, but I was just amazed that he didn't break anything. He cleared his throat, but then he talked very quietly and very quickly.

"I uh........thanks I guess."

"What was that? I didn't quite hear you." I lied.

"Thanks. I don't think I could have made it without you." I grinned. A plot (the idea kind) forming in my head.

"Want to make it up to me?" He frowned at this.

"I already gave you the pendant. Don't push it." I put on the cutest face I could.

"Pleeeeeease? I DID save your life!" His scowl disappeared. Nopony can scowl when I look at them like that. He sighed.

"Fine. What is it?"

(From Dart's point of view)

I know she saved me and all, but I really wished I hadn't agreed. The deal was that I had to appear on stage with her and help her sell the treasure we found to museums, so I could (and I quote her exact words) "Finish the adventure we started." I had tried to say no, but she just kept making that face the whole way up the stairs, and it was too much. What a load of crap though, she just wanted me to help with the after-chores. Before I knew it, I found myself on stage with her in Canterlot, standing next to her while she told about the discordian cultists and her brave rescue mission. (She bent the details a bit so it would sound more adventurous. Mostly small details like doubling the amount of cultists, excluding the part about me falling down the stairs, and completely forgetting to mention the stick of pain.)

Canterlot was really beautiful this time of year, there was snow everywhere and giant candy canes and gingerbread houses decorated the city. There was a really big hearth's warming eve tree behind us that shined all different colors.

As she was taking questions, a little filly in the front row raised her hoof. She was called upon, and asked me a question that begun a chain reaction I wouldn't soon forget.

"Mister, are you going to go on more adventures with Daring now?" I started to say 'No! Never again!' but Daring answered before me.

"Of course he is! He's my new partner! We're the Daring Duo!" My jaw dropped. This was NOT part of the deal. I tried to protest, but she was busy answering questions from all over the crowd, and pretended not to hear me. People started to yelling questions to me too. A cute mare in the back yelled:

"What's your name?"

"Dart Dash." But before she could respond to that I kept getting more questions, and some demands. Mostly things like:

"Show us your cutie mark!" (I reluctantly complied.)

"How'd you get it?" (I told the short version of the story: 'I discovered my love for treasure hunting!')

"What's wrong with your hooves?" (I ignored that one.)

"Did Daring really save you?" ('Yeah, I guess so.')

"Your leg seems fine!" (I ignored this guy too, but I wasn't too sure why that was myself.)

Finally, a question came to Daring Do from some reporter.

"Do you have anything else to say about Dart?" Suddenly, there was a brief silence. All other questions ceased. I turned towards her.

"Yeah." She said finally. "Just one thing." She stepped forward and kissed me, completely catching me by surprise.

Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea... I thought. It was definitely the best hearth's warming eve gift I'd ever received. We received a mixture of whistles, stomping, and a few boo's from some obnoxious fan-boys. Once she pulled away, I fell over backwards onto my plot, just like she had when I showed her the treasure I found when we met on the stage. She grinned widely, then turned towards the crowd.

"No more questions tonight guys! We've got adventuring to do, so we need our sleep! C'mon Dart!" And so we flew off towards ponyville, a new settlement to the south-west of Canterlot.

Chapter 4 - Together

(From the perspective of Dart)

We'd spent the rest of the night making appointments for museums to see if the treasure we found was legitimate, and the sun was just beginning to rise when Daring knocked on my door and dragged me out of bed. She didn't explain very much as we flew towards our new hide-out.

"Here we are!" Announced Daring as we landed. "It's not much, but with a bit of.... renovation, it could be our office!" I examined the moldy old building in front of me. Daring didn't lie, it really wasn't much. It was a small two story cottage on the outskirts of ponyville. The walls had cracks in them, and the door had a hole the size of my hoof in it. There was a broken mailbox, and a little path over a river. There were a lot of animals too, but they tried to stayed away from the cottage. Probably due to the cobwebs.

Without warning she took to the air, flapping her wings just enough to stay in place. "Hey, I'm going to go buy some stuff to fix this place up, wait here!" Before I could object, she gave me a wink and flew off.

.....So why was I still here? I sat on the ground in front of the cottage. I've never really felt attached to anypony before, and any mare-friend I'd ever had broke up with me because I spent more time in the library or ruins then with them. I hadn't even contacted my family in at least 7 months, but I have a lot of younger siblings and my parents were probably busy raising them. After about half an hour of waiting, Daring reappeared with a small wagon full of supplies. She tossed me a hammer and a signpost that read: "Office of the Daring Duo!"

"Get up! It's time to get working! Plant that next to the mailbox!" I yawned, and got up.

"Gah, who are you? My mother?" I regretted saying it as soon as I did, as an evil grin came upon her face.

"No, I'm the mare who's going to kick your plot if you don't get moving! Now hurry up!" I gave her a lazy salute, and obeyed.

As we worked, she began to make small talk.

"So...how did you get your cutie mark?" She asked as she was fixing a crack in the wall.

"I stole a shiny rock from a lion." I said casually as I tore the door down to put in the new one. It had a heart shaped window. I decided to ignore it.

"Seriously?" She asked. "That's kind of odd. Do you just really like shiny rocks?"

"Nah, it was the lion. I've never felt as excited as when I was running through his cave, dodging his cubs." Daring gave a knowing nod, I figured she knew the feeling. "How about you? How did you get your cutie mark?" I finished the door, and took a step back, admiring my work. She threw a paint brush at me and pointed at the wall. I sighed and obeyed.

"My cutie mark means adventure! I got it when I stowed away on a cruise ship and uncovered an evil plot (the idea kind) to commit mutiny! I warned the captain and he rewarded me by letting me stay. The cruise was pretty good too I guess." I laughed. Daring dusted away a cobweb. "So what's up with the hooves? You never finished telling me." She picked up a paintbrush and started painting alongside me.

"I don't really know, I stole a ring from an ancient Romane temple and when I put it on, my hooves turned black and metallic." She groaned.

"Curses," She spat. "The bane of all treasure hunters." I nodded in agreement. Finally, we finished painting, and entered the house.

"There's no furniture." I pointed out. She stepped back outside for a moment, and came back with an axe.

"Let's go make some! There's plenty of trees nearby to use for wood."

"And the beds? We don't have any mattresses."

"Actually I brought a mattress."

"Well then I don't have one. I'll have to go to town and get one later." She had that evil look on her face again.

"Or we could just share." I turned red.

"No."

"It's a pretty big mattress you know."

"No."

"Are you sure? We could-"

"NO." She leaned on the axe.

"Too bad. You're really missing out." I grabbed the axe from under her, almost causing her to fall, then I stormed out the door and ran for the trees.

Once I was alone gathering wood, I returned to my normal shade of orange. I began to chop down the largest tree I could find. After it fell, I decided it wasn't QUITE enough wood, and chopped down two smaller trees. This should be plenty, with enough leftover to build anything we'd need. My mind wouldn't stray from what had just happened though, why had I said no again? Wait no. I can't think like that. I HAD to say no. First off, I'm pretty bad with mares. Second, that would be really awkward. Third, I wouldn't be able to focus whenever I go treasure hunting with her.......wait a minute, who said I was going to stick around!? It's not like we're married anyways! I could leave anytime!......But it would be a real shame if these trees were just left in the woods. I guess I should take them back.

I knew I was making excuses, but I was still happy to have one. I attached a rope from my back to the logs. Normally this would be hard to haul without a cart, but I could handle it.... Actually it took no effort at all, it seemed like all the weight just disappeared in my....hooves. It's the curse! What is up with that anyways, one moment it makes me fall down the stairs and the next It makes me some kind of super pony! That is just weird!

When I returned to the office, she was waiting for me in the doorway. I blushed.

"You..your coat...?" She rolled her eyes.

"Dart, you're always naked."

"Oh...right." I gave a joking smile. She stepped out, closing the door behind her.

"All right! Let's make some furniture!"

"Aren't we going to hire a carpenter or something? I'm bad at arts and crafts." She looked at me funny.

"Nope. We're going to hoof-make these. It's getting kind of late, so let's just make a table today. I'll start on the top, you make the legs." I grabbed a saw, how hard could it be?

Carpentry was pretty hard. I looked over at Daring. She already had almost completed the table-top, I had one deformed leg. She stepped over to see how I was doing. She saw the look on my face and smiled.

"C'mon, it can't be THAT bad." Reluctantly, I held out the table leg.

"Oh." Her expression changed to a perfect poker face.

"What?" I snapped at her. She tried to make me feel better.

"It's like.....modern art!" I groaned and let myself fall over backwards.

"All right, you can do the carpentry. I'm going to go get us some food and a mattress." Daring looked disappointed. "Oh don't look at me like that, we're not a couple." She leaned in towards me.

"We could be."

"Nope. I'm going to go now! Bye!" And with that, I flew off towards the market.

"Out of mattresses!?" I yelled. "How could you be out of mattresses!? You only sell two things!" The worker at quills and mattresses shrugged.

"Want to buy a quill?" I ignored him and walked to the market. Apparently the news about last night in Canterlot got out because a few ponies crowded around me.

"Look! It's Daring's colt-friend!"

"I am not-....oh whatever. Do you happen to know where I can get a mattress? Mattresses and quills is out." The ponies shook their heads, then proceeded to ask all kinds of annoying questions about Daring. I pranced right by them and bought some apples before heading back.

(From Daring's point of view)

I was beyond relieved when Dart came back in the door, for a second I thought he had left for good, and was worried that I had come on a little too strong. He looked a little angry, but I had some news I knew could cheer him up.

"Hey, Dart! Guess what?" I said enthusiastically.

"What?" He said, not so enthusiastically.

"Princess Celestia wants to-.....hey! You don't have a mattress! Change your mind?" He muttered something about them being out. I batted my eyelashes at him. He quickly changed the subject.

"What were you saying about Princess Celestia?"

"Oh right, she wanted to see us, apparently those guys were serious about summoning Discord and she wanted to congratulate us." Dart went silent for a bit. I shuddered to think what would have happened had we not come along, and I bet he was thinking the same thing. I decided to lighten the mood a little. "Wipe off the grim face! That's a good thing! We stopped Discord!" Dart put on a satisfied smirk.

"Yeah, I guess we did."

"Yep, we're heroes. Now toss me an apple, I'm starving." He launched an apple at me with his wing, and I caught it with my mouth and ate it whole.

"The apples here are delicious! Did you know ponyville was founded by apple farmers? I love it here." I feigned being surprised.

"Oh! So you are going to stay then?" This caught him off guard.

"I uh....."

"Because I'm not going to force you to make any decisions." He could tell this was a lie, but my point was made.

"Well.....yeah okay. I'll stay for a little while." I beamed with delight, and he didn't seem too unhappy himself.

"Alright, let's get some sleep. We can plan a new adventure tomorrow."

"Treasure hunt." He corrected.

"It's the same thing really." He almost considered this, but his mind snapped back to the mattress.

"So...I guess I'm sleeping on the floor."

"Well you don't HAVE to." He looked at the cold wood. Our fire-place wasn't in working order yet.

"....Fine." I tried to hide my amusement, but I could tell I wasn't doing very well. "But we're not...doing anything, alright?"

"Aaaw, not even a snuggle?" He definitely spent a moment considering this, which was a victory in itself.

"No." He decided.

"If you say so." I kissed him, and he didn't protest too much this time. We walked up the stairs to bed. I'd like to say we snuggled or something but he must have been really tired, and was out cold within a minute. I yawned, and decided that wasn't such a bad idea.

Chapter 5 - Preparations

Chapter 5 - Mission from Celestia

(From Dart's point of view)

"Wake up, lazy." Said Daring, her face only 2 inches away from my own. The difference though, is that she was out of bed and dressed already. I am not a morning person. I was used to sleeping through the morning, getting up in the late afternoon, heading to the library, and starting my adventure late at night.

"I don't do mornings." I groaned, then pulled the pillow over my head in an attempt to tune her out.

"C'mon, we're going to find an adventure today." I looked at her like she was crazy. (Which she was.)

"That's what the afternoon is for!" I proceeded to tell her my usual schedule, but she shook her head.

"When do you eat? When do you get your chores done?" I had to think about this for a second.

"I eat when I get back I guess, and I do the chores on my break days."

"And when are your break days?"

"Sundays."

"Is that it?"

"Yes."

"You need to get organized." This was offensive! I've always considered myself very organized! I pulled the pillow off of my head to argue, but her smile took me by surprise. "C'mon Dart, it's for your own health." I guessed she was right, and I got out of bed.

"All right, Daring, where to first?"

"I thought you'd never ask. Breakfast!" It had been a very long time since I had bothered to eat breakfast, and I WAS sort of hungry.

"Alright. What do you have in mind?"

"There's a pastry shop called sugar cube corner by the center of town. Sound good?" I nodded vigorously. Pastries always sound good.

(From Daring Do's point of view)

After we had filled up on cupcakes, Dart and I decided to go by the library and search for some leads on a treasure hunt. Equestria has a lot of ancient temples and the like from many different civilizations and events, so we figured it wouldn't take long. The main thing I noticed about the library is that it was in a tree. I'm no expert but I was pretty sure trees don't work like that. As I was searching through a book titled 'Lost temples and Shrines in the Everfree forest' one of the entries caught my eye.

"Ooh! An ancient sword went missing and is rumored to be in a hidden temple in froggy bottom bog! That sounds like fun." Dart shook his head.

"I found that one last year. The sword was a bit rusty though, so I couldn't sell it. It's in my attic." I was disappointed, but I tried not to show it. I went to a nearby shelf and grabbed a book titled 'Unexplored dangers'. I opened to a random page, and began to read. It was something about a temple that had appeared over-night, then vanished. Supposedly it appears during lunar eclipses, but there wouldn't be any for a while so I kept flipping. When I looked over, Dart had already gone through 2 books. I kept searching. After about 10 minutes, It was Dart who finally found something of interest.

"A mysterious golden shrine to Celestia in the middle of the desert! Sound like fun?" His face was lit up, there's no way I could say no.

"Sounds great! Let's do it!" Dart checked out the book from the librarian, then we stepped outside. "All right." Said Dart. "We're going to have to get a map from the Canterlot archives, and see what information we can gather about the desert." This seemed like a lot of work to me.

"Can't we just fly there and ask the locals? That's how I usually find things." Dart gave me a strange look.

"There are no locals. It's in the middle of a desert." Oops.

"Oh. Right."

"Here, I have an idea. I'll go do the research really quick, and you go to my house and retrieve the sun talisman from my attic, I think it has something to do with this temple." It must have been written all over my face how relieved I was to be done with the books, because Dart smiled.

"Sun talisman?" I asked. Dart retrieved a pen and a piece of paper from his saddlebag. He drew a quick sketch of a necklace with a sun-shaped pendant attached to it. It was probably the crappiest art work I had ever seen. He hoofed me the sketch and his house key, and I took to the sky.

"Meet me by the office in two hours, okay?" I gave a quick salute to acknowledge him, then flew off at full speed.

His house was a rat's nest. There were only two rooms and an attic. The first room, which I assume was his planning room, was completely covered in old tomes and maps. There was a picture on the wall of him with 3 younger colts and 2 younger fillies, all of which looked much like him. I assumed they were his siblings. It must have been taken a while ago because his hooves weren't black. There was another photo of him at a much younger age wearing a tuxedo, he was standing with a cute filly about his age that I could only guess was his filly-friend. She was looking at him with a slightly ticked off face. He was grinning but looking in almost the opposite direction of the camera, as if something caught his eye in the distance. How like him. I took this picture and stuffed it in my coat, I'd ask him about it later.

The next room was his bedroom. It was pretty small and mostly empty besides a poster of the wonderbolts and a closet that he probably didn't use very often. There was a pretty nice mattress but I decided to leave it there. He could get it himself if he wanted one so badly. Finally, I discovered a ladder to his attic, and was utterly amazed. It wasn't nearly as unorganized as I had expected. Every artifact had it's own little case and an index card where he had quickly scribbled the place and date he had found each one, with a brief description of it's legend. Among the artifacts was:

The sword he had mentioned,

an amulet that was supposed to make whoever wore it fall in love with the first pony of opposite gender they saw, (It was hard to just leave there.)

a round stone that was labeled as one of the elements of harmony, (Is it even LEGAL for him to have that!?)

a REALLY creepy looking statue of a monkey's head he had found in the jungle. (There was a warning that it contained the power of a cockatrice, and he had put duct tape over it's eyes.)

and finally, at the end of the attic, after various other assorted trinkets and statues, was the shiny rock he had stolen from the lion. He hadn't quite described it to me though, and upon closer inspection, this thing had to be worth thousands of bits! Each section of the stone was a different color, in such a way that it resembled a perfect rainbow. It was almost too cute that he had kept it all these years.

Eventually I came upon the necklace he had mentioned. The label read:

Sun talisman

Found by me, Dart Dash, in the ruins of the ancient solar empire, the oldest known civilization.

Said to have the powers to move the sun without the magic of an alicorn. I want to test this about as much as I want to get banished to the moon.

The ancient solar empire? I don't think I've ever heard of it, much less any ruins of it. It sounded interesting though, and I guessed he'd tell me about it as we searched this next temple, I just love the way his eyes light up when he talks about ancient treasure. I left his house and locked the door, but I still had a good half hour before I had to leave for the office. I toyed with the idea of just flying to the Canterlot archives and helping him, but I wasn't entirely sure where that is.

My stomach growled, and I realized it was about lunch time. I wondered if Dart would remember to eat something, but I knew the idea was hopeless and decided to pick him up something for him to eat on the way to the desert.

(From Dart's point of view)

As I finally arrived at the Canterlot archives, the guard gave me clearance to every wing of the library without even an inspection. I guessed that they're just used to seeing me around. I immediately headed for the maps, and eventually discovered a map of the solar desert. Sadly, it was many miles away, and we'd have to take a train to get within flying distance. I guess that would give us today to prepare though, we'd need to get the proper clothing and supplies to survive a trip through that intense heat. We'd also need some hay, or some other food that won't dry out too much in the sun.

I grabbed another book about surviving the desert. It didn't really state anything I didn't already know, and it was clearly written for earth ponies, but I gave it a quick read regardless. I began to wonder if my hunch about the sun talisman was correct. It was possible that some of the symbols found on both the talisman and the pictures of the temple in that book were religious markings of the ancient solar empire. I had to be sure though, so I would compare them in person.

Enough reading though, I needed to start flying if I was going to be back in ponyville within the next half hour.

Finally, we met back at the office. She seemed disappointed when I told her that we'd have to wait until tomorrow to go to the temple, but she usually adventures abroad so this shouldn't be any different from usual for her. I don't usually treasure hunt far from home, since the Everfree forest is so close by, but lately I've noticed that I can pretty much find my way around every tree, and the feeling of mystery is practically gone. She brought me some lunch, which was really nice of her. Two apples, one for each of us, and a salad, made of whatever vegetables she could find in the market, that we shared. (Which was sort of embarrassing for me, but I was getting used to it.)

After lunch, we had to fly all the way to Canterlot to get some heavy clothing for the desert. Daring complained that I should have gotten it while I was up there already, but I pointed out that I don't know her size so she'd have had to come anyways. She reluctantly agreed, but once we were there she was all over the place looking for something fashionable. I guess she can be a normal mare sometimes. I picked out a simple blue robe, but she made me put it back so she could find me something I look better in. After an eternity of trying on various robes she shoved in my hooves, (which later turned out to only be about 10 minutes,) she finally decided I looked best in white and red. I purchased the robe, and told her I was going to stock up on hay and water, and that she needed to stay here. She didn't seem to acknowledge me but I knew she probably wouldn't wander far anyways.

I returned in 15 minutes with a cart full of hay and water, and she seemed to have decided on her robe and was waiting for me outside. We lifted the cart back home to Ponyville, (flying with carts isn't too hard if you have two ponies), and set it outside our cottage. It was only starting to get dark just now though, and neither of us really had plans for the evening.

"Well what do you normally do when on your free days when you finish up early?" She asked.

"Usually I just read for the rest of the day." She rolled her eyes at me.

"You are SUCH an egghead."

"Alright then, what do you want to do? There's not much to do in ponyville at night." She thought for a while, then stepped outside, quickly returning with her carpentry supplies and part of the larger log, which barely fit into the house.

"You read. I'll make a bed for our mattress."

"You mean mattresses, right?" I said hopefully. She smirked, but didn't answer me. That was a no.

Chapter 6 - The Ancient Solar Empire

(From the perspective of Daring Do)

(From the perspective of Dart)

I woke up to her kissing me. It took me a few seconds to realize that it wasn't a dream, and I pulled away, gasping for air. She laughed at me.

"Don't do that ever again." I said.

"Man do you sleep like a log! It's the only way I could get you up!" I would have protested but my family used to have to dump cold water on me, so this was still an improvement. "Besides," She continued. "We need to leave like, RIGHT NOW. We're going to miss our train!" I checked the time to verify this. It was true. I jumped out of bed. We grabbed our saddlebags and raced out the door to the train station.

"Two tickets to the closest station to the Solar Desert please!" I announced to the pony manning the ticket booth. He practically did a double-take in surprise.

"Kid, do you even know where you're going? The solar desert is no place for little colts!" I pointed to Daring Do, and he didn't feel the need for further explanation.

"Oh! Ms. Do! Pleasure to see you here again, ma'am.Two tickets, coming up!" I glared at him. Does she really look that much more accomplished than me? He hoofed me the tickets, and the train arrived shortly.

(From Daring's point of view)

The train was going pretty fast, but it just wasn't fast enough for me. I just couldn't stand waiting another second to be on another adventure with Dart! Adventures had always been my hobby, but having a companion makes them about 20% better. I looked over at Dart, who was staring out the window, lost in thought. He didn't look too good, something was bothering him but I couldn't tell what. Suddenly his gaze averted to his hooves, and I begun to understand. Perhaps he was thinking about when those ponies in red called him a monster, though in all fairness if they were trying to summon Discord they don't exactly have their monsters right. I started a conversation to get his mind off of it.

"So," I leaned in close to him. "What do we know about this temple?" This cheered him up quite a bit.

"Nothing!" He shouted, a little too loud. "That's why it's going to be awesome! Nopony has explored it yet!" Enthusiasm and excitement were leaking out of every pore, this is where he truly belongs.

"Oh yeah," I remembered. "I found this picture in your house, who's this?" I dug the picture out of my vest and showed it to him. He sighed. "Is it your old filly friend?" I asked.

"No, that's my cousin, Rosemary. She moved to Fillydelphia that night, I haven't seen her since." Ooh, bad subject. He still seemed pretty psyched about the adventure though, so I brought the conversation up a bit.

"So, want to go out with me when we get back?"

He laughed at me. "NOW you're asking? Daring, you practically forced me to move in with you, I don't think I have much of a choice."

I blushed, I hadn't really thought of it that way. "Is that a yes I hear?"

He tossed his hoofs into the air to signify his giving up. "Sure, why not?"

"It's a date then?"

"Yup.....Hey, it looks like we're here." I glanced out the window to see what he was talking about. We had arrived at the frontier town of Appleoosa, at the edge of the solar desert. The rays of sun cut the sky like knives, without a cloud in the sky. The only plants nearby were cacti, though supposedly there was a small apple orchard somewhere around here. The train came to a halt, so Dart and I hoisted on our saddlebags and exited.

We didn't linger in Appleloosa, almost the moment we got off the train we soared off towards the ancient temple, donning our robes mid-flight. According to Dart, out flight would be a grueling 45 minutes long. My wings hurt just thinking about how we'd have to fly back when we're already tired from the trip. I could fly faster than Dart, but he had a lot more stamina. We had to stop every 20 minutes or so for me to catch my breath. Dart, on the other hoof, seemed completely unfazed. Sometime during the last stretch of the flight, I asked him about the ancient solar empire.

"The ancient Solar Empire is the first known civilization in Equestria, long before the days of that silly story they tell on hearth's warming eve," Dart Explained. "Nopony really knows much about it other than that they worshiped Celestia like a god. Reporters and archaeologists have tried to ask Celestia about it, but she claims to have nothing to do with it."

"Are you implying that Celestia isn't telling us everything?" I asked, surprised. He did his best to shrug while flying straight.

"Who knows? Nopony has really ever gotten much information about the history of Equestria out of here. I don't think anypony even remembers how she became our princess."

"Didn't she over-throw Discord?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Nopony is even sure where that story originated. For all we know, Discord really is just a statue." I'm not really one to believe in conspiracy theories, but it was a little odd that Celestia has never personally shared the history of Equestria with us.

Eventually, we arrived at the temple. It was a large golden pyramid shaped structure with a giant statue of the sun on top. I was just amazed that nopony had explored it yet, considering it's massive size. Dart unearthed some old maps from his saddlebag.

"According to these, it also has a large number of under-ground chambers, and traps," Dart warned.

"I'm beginning to see why it's unexplored."

"Not for long!" He rolled up the map and put it away. We entered the pyramid.

It's nothing I haven't handled before, traps, puzzles, and treasure. Upon entering, I can see that this is the very definition of adventure. The first room seems harmless enough. The light from Dart's torch is reflecting off of various shiny surfaces around the temple.

"Something's wrong," He says suddenly. I look around, I don't see anything wrong.

"What is it?"

"The light. It's reflecting off of mirrors and gold."

"Yeah, light does that."

"Maybe, but shouldn't this stuff be a little rusty?" He had a point. As far as I can tell, this temple is thousands of years old. How could the surfaces still be so shiny? This doesn't bode well. The temple is much cooler than outside, so we take off our robes. Under it I have my vest and hat. I could never go adventuring without them. As I take a closer look around, I can see that everything is booby-trapped. There's holes in the walls up ahead that I assume darts will fly out of, a few spike traps on the floor, and a GIANT trap-door on the ceiling, I can only imagine what will fall out of that. Dart and I set to work immediately. When I first met Dart I assumed he just used TNT for every trap, but I can see now that isn't the case. He hurls a rope around a spike, and tugs hard. It comes free, and he tosses it over to the platform with the dart launchers. Turns out, they're spear launchers. Large javelins go flying this way and that, and soon the trap runs out of ammo, making it safe to pass.

I'm not going to waste any time either, so I get to work. Instead of finding ways to deactivate the traps like Dart does, I prefer to get past them using my own skill. There's usually some way to turn them off at the other side anyways, and sometimes I can reach that using a lasso or slingshot from the other side of the trap. With these spike traps, however, it seems that isn't an option. I charge past the emptied javelin trap, and towards the spikes. It doesn't take me long to figure out that they go off one square on and in front of wherever you put pressure, and soon I'm racing through, by stepping on one section then jumping forward diagonally. It's an annoying process, but eventually it pays off as I reach the other side. Sure enough, there's a small lever to deactivate the spikes. I pull it, then drop a nearby mirror onto the floor of the trap to make sure. Sure enough, it shatters, but no spikes. I whistle to Dart, and he walks over slowly, admiring the ruins and broken traps as he goes.

Suddenly, something grabs me from behind, and gags me before I can scream. I try my hardest to warn Dart, but he's looking at some ancient painting. Something pokes into my skin, and I feel myself falling unconscious. I stomp my hoof once before giving in.

(From Dart's point of view.)

"Daring? Hello? Where'd you go?" This isn't good. This isn't good at all. I had been admiring an ancient panting depicting Celestia in full battle armor and a sun shaped chariot, when I heard a loud stomp. When I turned to look at Daring, nopony was there. I was already been suspicious that somepony must still be residing here when I saw the polished mirrors, but I hadn't expected them to be kidnappers. Or worst, murderers. No. I can't think like that. I'm sure she's fine, I just need to find her, and no amount of traps and puzzles can get in my way!

I make my way over to where she disappeared, hurrying but still trying to keep calm. I find her hat still lying on the ground, and pick it up. I slip the hat on, since I don't want to carry it around or wrinkle it by putting it in my saddlebag. She was right, the hat really does make you feel more adventurous. I step into the next room, and to my dismay, there's a split path. I try searching for clues, listening for sounds, and all of the like, but there's no hope. I have absolutely no way of telling whether she went left or right, but I'm wasting time here. No time for regrets, I head to the right.

As I'm sprinting down the corridor, something drops from the roof and lands in front of me. It's a..... I don't even know. I can only describe it as a blue monkey mixed with a jackal. It also has a hand on it's tail, which is kind of creeping me out.

"Hello, Mr. Dash. I've been expecting you." The monkey Jackal talks in some foreign accent, it sounds familiar but I can't quite put my hoof on it. "My name is Ahuizotl."

"Sorry, Aweezoitell, I'm in a bit of a rush, we can get tea or something next sunday. Bye!" I try to run past him but he blocks me.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll leave this temple right now."

"I can't, I've got some unfinished business here."

"So be it." He blows a cat shaped whistle, and immediately different predators from places all over Equestria appear behind him. I do the only sane thing, and run in the opposite direction, back to the split path. I go to the left this time. Judging from the map, all the passages connect at more than one point. There's a good chance that if I keep searching and running I can evade this guy and find Daring. I soon realize that this could very well prove difficult as I notice that up ahead there's nothing but traps. So many traps.

Okay, let's take this calm and collectively. First off, throughout the entire hallway are those annoying giant blades that hang from ropes and swing back and forth. Man do I hate those. At the beginning of the hallway, there's a checkerboard pattern of tiles with suns and moons and obvious shooty holes. They seem too small for spears, but too big for darts. Past that is a few statues of armored ponies with swords, I don't quite like the look of it. And finally, at the end there's a complex machine that launches and catches a single razor blade from multiple slits in the wall, the problem is that it goes fast and I have no idea where it will be launched from next, since there's at least 8 different slits I've already noticed. I can hear Ahuizotl's minions coming around the corner. It's now or never.

All the paintings in the temple depict Celestia as some god of war, so I'm going to have to go with the moon tiles on the first puzzle. As I'm running, nothing fires at me, so I suppose I'm right. I duck to dodge a pendulum blade. Surprisingly, the armored ponies don't attack me. I grab the shield off of one and use it to block the razor blade, which lodges itself into the shield. Hearing the predator cats coming, I dislodge the blade and chuck it backwards. It cuts the rope of one of the swinging axes, causing it to fall on an Everfree jaguar. No time to look back though, the broken axe set off the shooty holes (which turned out to be crossbow bolts), and it should keep the other cats occupied for a while.

The next room doesn't look so good either, it's full of very angry looking ponies with weapons. If I had to guess I'd say they're mercenaries, due to their weapons as cutie marks. Just who is this Ahuizotl guy anyways, and how could he afford this many hired arms? Either way, they don't look too happy with me, some of them are getting ready to charge me. There's nowhere to run, no surrendering, no tricks. I put my head down and prepare to charge.

Well maybe that would have been a good idea if not for the incredibly surly earth pony charging me head on. I change my mind about the no tricks thing. With a hop, skip, and a jump, I land behind him and continue running. Almost to the exit, a green unicorn blocks me and his horn starts to glow. No time to figure out what he's doing, I plow into him and leave the room. The other ponies seem reluctant to follow me.

"Get him!" One yells.

"And follow him into THAT room? Are you crazy!?"

"That THING will kill him anyways, just leave him," Another points out. I can hear their laugh echoing through the tunnel as I run. But whatever is in that room can't be worst than 15 armed mercenaries....right?

Once I cease to hear their voices, I take a break and open up my map. After this, there's only one room I haven't explored. That's the one Ahuizotl blocked me from, but this room has a back-door to that one. The upcoming room is very long, and only widens a little from the hallway. Could it just be another trap hallway? I hope so, I can deal with those.

As I enter, the first thing I notice is that it's filled with water, with a narrow wooden bridge that has very few supports and no hand-rails. The water is calm, but it's so murky I can't see into it. The room has a high ceiling though, so as long as my wings stay dry I can always escape via the air if something happens to the bridge. The moment I step out over the water, the entire room begins to shake, and the water gains a nasty current.

"WHO DARES TO INTERRUPT MY SLUMBER?" Says a booming voice from the water.

"Sorry!" I reply. "Just need to pass through here real quick, okay?"

"Pass!? NONE SHALL PASS THROUGH MY DOMAIN!" Okay so negotiations didn't work, time to go with the usual strategy, and run for it. However, before I can get very far, a GIGANTIC green sea serpent rises from the water and smashes the bridge in front of me. No time to stop, I jump, using my wings for an extra boost. I land safely at the next intact part of the bridge, and continue sprinting to the other side. "YOU THINK YOU CAN OUTRUN ME, MORTAL? YOUR IGNORANCE KNOWS NO LIMIT!" This time he rises up from under the bridge, smashing it like it was made of tissue, and looks directly at me, while blocking my way forward.

"Um....hi."

"Any last words, mortal?" I felt the need to say something witty, but nothing came to mind. Actually, something else entirely comes to mind. It's like I never thought of it, but it's there and I need to say it.

"זוז מהדרך שלי" ....What did I just say? I didn't even know I could physically pronounce that. The sea serpent looks amazed, I was kind of hoping he'd laugh or something that would give me a chance to slip by. He examines me up and down a few times.

"You bear the marking of the hero." What marking, my cutie mark? Somehow I feel like treasure doesn't represent heroes. I make sure I heard him correctly.

"I bear.... the what?"

"Be careful, hero. If you stray from your path, the blessing shall become a curse." Curse..Is that what this is about?

"You mean my hooves?"

"No, I do not recognize that enchantment. Whatever is inside your hooves is currently dormant. I'm referring to the amulet." I retrieve the amulet from my saddlebag. I sure am glad I brought it. It seemed to have become shinier while residing in my bag, and is now giving off a golden light. "Hold on to it, hero. The amulet will guide you to what you seek, as long as it is within your reach." And with that, the serpent ducks back into the water, and the room stops shaking. I shudder to think what would have happened had I forgotten about the amulet, though I suspect the idea to bring it along popped into my head the same way that weird language had. I slip the amulet around my neck. If it's going to guide me, now would be a good time. Sure enough, the light concentrates on the doorway ahead of me. I could have figured that one out by myself. Time to get a move on.

(From the perspective of Daring Do.)

I wake up to a massive earth-quake, that shakes the entire temple. I'm stuck to the wall via some sort of chains and cuffs, and my upper legs are really starting to hurt from being stuck above me.

"You're finally awake, Daring Do." Ahuizotl stands in front of me. I should have guessed.

"Ugh. I knew you'd be back. You're annoying like that."

"Now now, do be polite. I even left your colt-friend unharmed." Another tremor shakes the room. "Though my sea serpent pal causing a ruckus up there might not have the same philosophy." I glare at him, but he pretends not to notice. I need to escape and help Dart before Ahuizotl's minions get him! But how....?

"What are you doing in the middle of the desert anyways, Ahuizotl?"

"If you must know, I've been looking for an ancient sun talisman, and it just so happened that you walked in while we were investigating this temple. It sure provided a nice chance for revenge, I hired some mercenaries but your colt-friend was enough of a distraction that I didn't even need them!"

"You'll pay for this, Ahuizotl." As suddenly as they began, the tremors stop. Ahuizotl chuckles.

"It looks like the serpent has gone back to sleep. I suppose your friend has been....disposed of." For the first time, I feel worried. What if it really did get Dart? How can I live with myself if he dies after I pull him on this stupid adventure? No. I have to find him and make sure of it myself. I need to break these chains, somehow!

(From the perspective of Dart)

The next room is empty. Completely. But I know better, empty rooms are the best places to hide things. The talisman shines it's light on a tile in the corner of the room with a sun marking on it, I stomp it as hard as I can. As I expected, a section of the ground slides away, revealing a stair case.

Guarding the entrance to the final room, Ahuizotl's two remaining cat minions, a lion and a snowy white tiger getting ready to pounce on me as I enter. I dodge the tiger, but the lion hits me, knocking of Daring's hat, and we go rolling backward, I jab him with my right hoof, then kick him off with my back legs. While the lion recovers, the tiger pounces again, but I'm ready for him and buck him into the lion with perfect timing, rendering them both unconscious. The sun talisman's glow increases, and I know that Daring is in the next room. I retrieve the hat, then slide my ear up to the door, and I hear a bit of their conversation.

"-my revenge has taken it's toll Daring. Once I find it, you'll be left in this temple to rot with the remains of your colt-friend. Such a fitting ending for an annoyance like yourself."

"Celestia will find out, Ahuizotl, and you'll answer to her!"

"Celestia? I do not fear Celestia! That old mare hasn't moved from her throne in 50 years!" I've heard enough. I slam the door open, nearly breaking it against the stone wall of the temple.

I had expected Ahuizotl to be frightened, and Daring to give me her usual smile, but the opposite is true when they see the talisman around my neck.

"Foolish stallion! You have delivered me the talisman I seek!" He grabbed a spear, and pointed it at Daring. "Give me the talisman and you can both leave alive," He offered.

"Bite my plot," Was my answer. He had put the spear a little too close to Daring, she clenches it with her teeth, and before he could try to free it from her grasp, I tackle him to the ground. Unfortunately, Ahuizotl is much larger than me, and throws me off fairly quick. He grabs the spear, and points it at me.

"Looks like I'll have to deal with you first!" He lunges, but I duck and the spear impales itself through Daring's hat. Realizing that I can't beat him in a fight, I take the amulet off and hold it my mouth.

"Giving up, are we?" Ahuizotl taunts me as he removes Daring's hat from his spear head.

"Hardly." I throw the talisman on the ground, and smash it with my hoof. I'm not really expecting any big opening or anything, but it's at least worth it to see his reaction.

"You....YOU SHATTERED THE SUN TALISMAN!" Before I can respond, the entire temple begins to shake, causing Ahuizotl to drop his spear. I grab it, and use it to break Daring's shackles. I think I can hear the sea serpent freaking out on the floor above, but there's no time to worry about it. Daring grabs her hat and saddlebag while we flee the room, a look of shock still on Ahuizotl's face as a falling piece of the temple lands between us.

This entire place is going to collapse if scaly up there doesn't calm down, which I sort of doubt will happen. So much for the mark of the hero. We race up the stairs, and return to that fork in the path where Ahuizotl had blocked me, dodging falling bricks and pieces as we go. Back at the entrance, I get my rope and lasso the picture of Celestia in battle armor as a reminder. After all, how can I leave without taking any treasure?

Back outside, we took a moment to rest. The adventure had ended, and it was time to head back to Appleloosa. I sat down in the sand and dug out my water bottle. I took what I thought was a quick sip, but when I looked down it was empty. I guessed I had been thirstier than I thought, how long had I been in that temple? Daring casually sauntered over to me, and sat down. Her hat had a big hole in it from the spear, and her mane was messed up. I couldn't imagine that I looked any better. She gave me a quick nudge with her elbow.

"Hey, you saved me back there. Thanks."

"Yeah, I suppose I did. What's with the monkey guy?"

"You mean Ahuizotl? He's an old rival of mine. He's always after the craziest ancient artifacts."

"Ya think he's dead?" She shook her head.

"Doubtful. He always finds some way out and comes back with more cats." I leaned back until I was laying down on the sand.

"So.....How about that date?"

Chapter 7 - Home

(From Daring's point of view)

Unfortunately, Dart and I got back at noon the next day, and we didn't have much time left to get to our appointment with Celestia for stopping the cult of discord, which meant the date would have to wait. We only had time to stop by the office and wash up before we had to get going.

Before long, we'd arrived at Canterlot castle. The guards ushered us in, and there was a small crowd there to celebrate. I guess she just wanted to hand us our medals and get us out, but Dart had other plans.

"Step forth, Daring Do and Dart Da-....what is that you're carrying?" Dart set the portrait he had found on the ground in front of Celestia, the ponies in the crowd gasped.

"I found this in the ruins of the ancient Solar Empire, what do you think it is, Celestia?" Celestia showed no sign of distress.

"It looks like a portrait of me in armor. But now's not the time for this, we're gathered here to celebrate-" Dart cut her off.

"Now why would they have a painting of you like this? I thought you only rose to power after the defeat of Discord."

"If you wish to ask questions, meet me privately at a later date. Look, you've scared the ponies in the crowd." Dart took a look around, and his intense expression lessened to a smile.

"Oops. Sorry, didn't mean to raise suspicions or anything, I'm just curious." Celestia shot him a quick glare.

"As I was saying, we're gathered here today to celebrate these two heroes who stopped a second rise of Discord.I hereby reward you with these medals of valor." Celestia used her magic to put golden medallions around our necks. I'm not going to go into detail about the rest of the celebration, it was pretty boring and I had to shake hoofs with 6 dozen random canterlot ponies before we could leave. Celestia left after giving us the medals, which were bare of any decoration except a star in the middle. Overall the whole thing took one grueling terrible hour in which my only entertainment was watching Dart awkwardly shake hoofs with a bunch of fancy ponies.

Once we were within the privacy of our own home, Dart yawned and slumped back into his chair. I forgot how much he had been through to save me back at the temple, and how tiring it must have been.

"You look tired, Dart, get some sleep." He sat up.

"What about our date?"

"Date's are for the night-time anyways, let's take a nap." He didn't argue, or even make a comment about how we need a second bed. He just quietly walked to bed, rolled up in the blankets, and started snoring. I could feel all the hours I had spent flying recently weighing down on me, and soon followed in a deep sleep.

(From Dart's point of view)

At about 7:00 PM she woke me with her usual method, giving me a kiss then making faces at me until I got out of bed. I decided not to protest this time, seeing as we were about to go out and I had just slept through most of the day. I jumped out of bed, and slipped on the only articles of clothing I own, a suit vest, a tie, and a collared white shirt. Daring giggled at me.

"You didn't have to put on a suit, I was going for something more casual." I pretended to not be embarrassed.

"Maybe I just like to be fancy sometimes." She ignored me and put on her usual hat (which she had gotten sewed together after it was impaled by Ahuizotl) and vest.

"Alright Dart, where do you want to go?" She asked. I shrugged in response.

"You asked me out, you pick a place."

"Let's go find a nice place in Canterlot then."

"Oh? I thought this was going to be casual."

"Everywhere is casual for me," She responded playfully. This was true, she did have a way of making everything more laid back.

"Can't argue with that. Let's go!"

After walking the streets of Canterlot a bit, Daring decided on a fancy restaurant called 'La Luna'. It was a huge silver and black building with all kinds of expensive looking paintings of nightmare moon.

"Can we even afford that?" I asked.

"Dart, we're treasure hunters. We can afford a lot of things."

"Oh, right." I wasn't used to actually being able to sell what I find instead of just stashing it in my attic. Being with Daring certainly had it's benefits. The inside of the restaurant was even more impressive, with 2 or three sapphires bigger than I am carefully sculpted into the silver decorations along the pitch black walls. We were immediately seated, and the waiter welcomed us as "'Ms. Do and Mr. Dash.' It was weird being called Mr. Dash, and ever weirder to know that a lot of ponies I've never met know my name now. I scanned the menu. It was one of those annoying menus where the names are in french so you have to read the descriptions of every single item before you can make a decision.

"I can't decide," Announced Daring. This probably meant that she couldn't read the french either, "What are you having, sweetie?" I don't think I'd ever been called Sweetie before, and it was just plain strange.

"Please never call me Sweetie ever again." She laughed so much she almost fell out of her chair.

"Not even when we're alone?"

"Do I look like a sweetie to you?"

"No, but I love to see the look on your face when somepony shows you some affection." I'd had enough. I quickly changed the subject.

"I'm going to order pasta. Most fancy places have pasta right?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, I've been trying to find a good looking sandwich but I've never even heard of the plants they're filled with." I let out a hearty laugh, and Daring joined in.

"Look at us, trying to be fancy ponies. If it's all the same to you, let's just go back to sugar cube corner."

"Yeah," She agreed. "That sounds great."

And so we flew from Canterlot back to Ponyville with the moon over our heads. She was beautiful in the moonlight- I mean it. It was beautiful. The nighttime view that is. But I guess she wasn't half bad either.

When we arrived at Sugar cube corner, a young married couple named Mr. And Mrs. Cake greeted us, and we ordered a few cupcakes. It was hard to imagine how any fancy restaurants could beat cupcakes.

"So, any ideas for a new adventure?" I asked between cupcake bites.

"I was thinking somewhere cool, I've heard about an ancient seapony temple made of ice that becomes rainbow colored at a certain time of the day."

"That doesn't sound very adventurous." She grinned.

"Actually, the entire thing is under water and full of sharks and other awesome sea creatures, not to mention a good bit of treasure," She explained as if danger was just a casual matter.

"Count me in!"

"I thought you'd say that. We'll head out on Thursday the 14th." That seemed like a pretty long time to wait.

"Thursday? What's so special about Thursday the 14th?"

"It's a pretty special day, I'm finding it hard to believe you forgot."

"Is it your birthday? you know I'm bad with dates."

"No, but it bothers me that you already forgot my birthday."

"Sorry. Can I have a hint?"

"Think about it. What special days are on the 14th? It's not this month."

"Labor Day?" I guessed.

"No."

"So it's in February?" She nodded. "What's so special about February the fourtee-...oooooh." It was hearts and hooves day.

"I know it's a long time away, but I want it to be special." As long as we could do other adventures in the meantime, that was fine with me.

"O.K., got anything for our next adventure? I was thinking the ancient Romane colony in the jungle."

"Sounds great, as long as you do the reading." She finished her cupcake in one bite, then leaned back in her chair. "So, will you be my very special somepony?" She had a smug look on her face as if she already knew the answer.

"Sounds like an adventure to me."

By the time I woke up, Daring had rolled over on top of me in her sleep, this had been the first time I woke up before her, and I gently rolled her off of me. I began to wonder if she had been doing this every night, and I was just too much of a deep sleeper to notice. She seemed pretty peaceful and we had nothing planned for today, so I let her be. Just as I stepped outside for a quick flight to stretch my wings, the mail-mare arrived holding a sealed golden envelope addressed to Daring Do. I thanked her, and opened the letter as she flew away to deliver more mail.

Dear Mrs. Daring Do,

I have recently noticed strange behavior emitting from both Discord and Nightmare moon in their respective prisons, and would like to secure the elements of harmony as extra protection. Unfortunately, as a final act of treason before I banished her, my sister, Nighmare moon, hid the 6 elements of harmony in hidden temples to her throughout equestria. I would require somepony of your particular skill set and talent in order to secure the elements and return them to me. Should you choose to accept, any reward in my power shall be granted to you, within reason of course.

Respond ASAP,

-Princess Celestia

From the way the letter was written you'd think she was bat-mare or something. It didn't seem to be too urgent, just some suspicions, so I figured it could wait until she wakes up. I'd never thought that nightmare moon was real though, but it didn't come as too big of a surprise. After all, the moon has her face on it. I set the letter back inside on the table, and stepped back out for a quick flight.

Bonus chapter 1 - Time shift day 1

Bonus chapter 1 - Time shift ((I usually only write about the explorations in present tense, but I wanted to try it for this entire side-story just to get the feel for it, I apologize in advance if it sounds awkward, and I'd love to know if I make any grammar mistakes, so leave a comment or something. Also, please note that this has no place in the story, and the chapter after this returns to the original story. The continuation of this will be labeled as Bonus chapter 2.))

(From Daring Do's point of view)

A few days back Dart and I had received a letter from Celestia about how recently a team of pony archaeologists had uncovered a new section of the ancient castle in Everfree forest, and legends tell that inside is an artifact that will allow time travel. Dart shrugged it off as a simple legend, but I've seen my fair share of artifacts with weird powers, and I wanted to check it out. We didn't need to gather information or anything, since both of us had been through the Everfree before.

As we enter the chamber, it certainly gives off the impression of being time related. There are clocks and sundials of various sizes all about the room, and in the center is a round platform with a picture of an hourglass carved into it. All the clocks seem to be broken or out of magic because they are all stuck on different times. Dart stood on the platform, using his usual method of standing in the center of the room and turning his head until he finds something of interest. I never really understand why he does that, since I like to be closer to whatever I'm examining. Dart seems to have taken interest in some sort of ancient clock, but something else catches my eye. A shiny gold rod is standing up at the other side of the room. I stroll over to it, and try to pick it up. It doesn't budge, and after moving some clocks and things around it's base, I realize it's a lever. I give it a tug, and suddenly all the clocks come to life, spinning at ridiculous speeds. As abruptly as they started, all of the clocks soon stop at the same time. Without turning my head, I call Dart over.

"Dart come over here! It's some kind of lever that controls the clocks!" .......Dart doesn't answer. "Dart! What are you-," I turn around and see that Dart is no longer standing on the platform, but somepony else entirely.

24 year and 525,942 minutes later. (About six minutes less than 25 years)

(From the point of view of......Rainbow Dash! [Who I'm going to assume is 19 years old for the sake of the story, since she's old enough to live alone and have a job])

I'm not sure why I had agreed to come along with Twilight when she entered her full egg-head mode. Somehow she had managed to get ME, (the coolest pony in all of Equestria!) to help her explore some ancient....room. The conversation had gone somewhere along the lines of:

Twilight: "Come with me on an egghead adventure!"

Me: "No, that sounds lame."

Twilight: "We're going to ancient ruins Daring Do has been to before!"

Me: "Daring Do is a character from a book."

Twilight: "No Rainbow, Daring Do is an actual pony."

Me: "Whaaaaaat."

Twilight: "She goes by a different name now and she's retired."

Me: "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat."

Twilight: "Also Rainbow Dash is the coolest pony ever."

Yeah it definitely went like that.

Anyways, before I knew it we were hiking through the Everfree forest on our way to this stupid clock room. It's kind of hard to see anything Daring Do would have possibly been interested because all these freaking clocks are in the way. I like to stand in the middle of things, so I can get a better view of everything, so I stand on a platform conveniently placed in the center of the room. Before long, I see something glimmer in the corner of my eye. It's a shiny rod-like thing.

"Hey Twilight, what's that?" I point a hoof at it. She saunters over there, and gives it a tug with her magic. Without warning, the clocks begin to turn backwards in unison, like Twilight's setting them or something, but she looks just as confused as I am so I guess that's not what's happening. A weird light begins to form around the thing I'm standing on, but I can't move and I'm sort of freaking out. The lights become blindingly bright. I try to call out, but I can't even hear myself, let alone any answer. Slowly, the lights fade and I'm back where I was.....but something's different.

(From Dart's point of view)

All I can think about is how badly my head hurts, and those weird lights that caused it. I think I can hear somepony trying to talk to me, but my mind is kind of fuzzy and I can't really hear them. After a minute or so, I can think straight.

"Hey....Are you okay?" Who said that? It didn't sound like Daring, but nopony else is here. I turn around, and a purple unicorn is giving me a concerned look. I try to respond but it just comes out as:

"Owwwwwww."

"Oh my gosh! Do you need medical attention? Should I get help?!" She seems to be over-reacting a little, I'd better say something so she'll calm down.

"I'm fine." She lets out a sigh of relief, but still seems confused.

"So where's Rainbow?"

"Who?"

"Rainbow Dash. The pony who was standing there before you were?" Had she been in the ruins with her friend before I was? Maybe I fell unconscious and Daring is outside somewhere waiting for me to wake up, and this filly was here before us but her friend went missing so she came back to check for her, that had to be it.

"Sorry, I have no idea where she could be." The purple unicorn made a frustrated groaning noise.

"How is that even possible!? How could she be here one second, and I turn around, and you're there instead!" There goes my entire theory of what happened. Oh well, I still need to find Daring.

"Have you seen a yellow pony with a gray mane and a hat?"

"I don't think so.... what's her name?"

"Daring."

"Daring who?"

"Daring Do." The unicorn's eyes widen.

"You mean THE Daring Do?"

"I take it you haven't seen her then. Would you mind pulling that level again? I think I'm a time traveler and I really need to get back." The unicorn nods and pushes the lever back, then pulls it again. Nothing happens. That's just great.

"It's no use," Says the unicorn, "whatever happened, it only works once." The unicorn mare also frowns. I guess her friend is stuck in the past...or is it the future? What year am I in anyways?

"Hey uh....what year is this?"

"It's E.Q, 589. Where are you from?" I went forward 25 years? I guess that's not TOO far, maybe I can find Daring somewhere, or my little siblings.

"I'm from 564. Would you mind showing me around a bit?" Her frown disappears.

"You really are a time traveler! I knew it was possible but as far as I've seen it was only for a minute and you couldn't go back much further than three days! Does it feel weird? How did it happen? You really know Daring Do? I'm Twilight Sparkle by the way." Too many questions. I decide not to answer any of them, and just introduce myself instead.

"Nice to meet you Twilight, I'm Dart Dash." Twilight's eyes widened again, and she nearly faints this time.

"Dart Dash!? As in, Daring Do's lifetime partner Dart Dash?!" Lifetime? Even by this time I should have known her for 25 years, it's not like we were childhood friends or something.

"Yeah that'd be the one. I'm kind of hungry, Ponyville is still nearby, right? Can we go there?" Twilight smiles.

"Sure! I'm sure it's changed a lot since you've been there though. C'mon!"

(From Daring Do's point of view, 25 years ago.)

I'm not entirely sure how I got into this. Where Dart had just been standing, a rainbow colored filly appeared, and now she won't stop talking as we fly over the Everfree. I'm pretty sure out conversation went something like:

Me: "Hey, who are you?"

Her: "ow my head....oh my gosh is that Daring Do?"

Me: "yeah, where's Dart?"

Her: "Oh my gosh! I'm rainbow dash and I'm from the future and Daring Do is the coolest pony ever!"

Yeah that sounds about right.

She keeps trying to tell me about the wonder-bolts and how they're almost as cool as me, but no matter how many times I tell her that I know who the wonder-bolts are, she doesn't listen. My main focus right now is trying to figure out what happened to Dart, so we're currently heading to the office to see if Dart picked up a book about the ruins. Rainbow Dash tries to talk to me about one of my adventures, something about a sapphire stone and a broken wing, but I tell her it hasn't happened yet and I'd prefer not to have any spoilers.

"You look really different from how I imagined you from the books!" This catches my attention.

"There's books about me?"

"Yeah, I especially like the one about the solar talisman and the desert temple!" Now THERE'S an adventure I recognize.

"I remember that. Though how could the writer have possibly gotten Dart to talk about it for more than 5 minutes?" Rainbow dash blinks.

"Dart? Who's Dart?"

"My...erm....partner. The books don't mention him?" Rainbow shakes her head.

"Not even once." That's not too much of a surprise, Dart hates publicity.

"Alright, we're here. Make yourself at home, I'm going to see if Dart had a book about those ruins that might give us a clue."

"Hey, this is Fluttershy's house! Just without all the chicken coops." I unlock the door, and we enter to the usual mess of papers and books of various ancient ruins scattered around the wooden furniture. "This is your office?" Asks Rainbow Dash. "I imagined it to be a little more neat, or with maps of foreign places and ancient artifacts you've found, not just a bunch of books." I shrug.

"I usually sell that stuff to museums, and anything they won't take goes to Dart's attic."

"You keep mentioning this Dart guy, does he live here with you?"

"Yeah."

"Then how come there's only one bed?" Uh-oh.

"Dart....likes to sleep outside! Under the stars!" It was a pretty obvious lie. She gives me a suspicious look, and I offer her an innocent enough smile. Better change the subject. "Well looks like we didn't get any books on the ruins, I guess since they seemed harmless enough to us at the time. Let's go check the library!" Rainbow dash groans.

(From Dart's point of view, 25 years later)

"Hey! There's the office!" I take off towards the familiar cottage I had fixed up with Daring, it looks pretty much the same with the exception of a ridiculous amount of animals and animal houses/coops/nests/pens. Daring had told me she wanted a pet, maybe she had gone a little overboard. It didn't really matter to me either way, as long as I could see her again. Twilight calls out after me, but I'm already at the door. I give it a quick knock, and the door opens slowly. To my dismay, Daring is not the pony who opened it, but instead a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane.

"Um....hello." Her voice is so quiet I have to listen really closely to hear it over the birds chirping in the background.

"Oh...sorry. Wrong cottage I guess." Twilight catches up with me, and smiles when she sees the yellow mare.

"Fluttershy, this is Dart. He's from the past and we're trying to get him back."

"Oh um....that's nice. Um....if you don't mind me asking, what's wrong with your hooves?" I laugh at how shyly she asked the question, but that turns out to be a bad idea when she flinches like she thought I was making fun of her.

"This is a curse I got when exploring some ancient Romane ruins, it's harmless though." Her eyes widen.

"Do you mean this is THE Dart Dash? As in super-treasure-hunter-and-partners-with-Daring-Do Dart Dash?" Twilight nods. I hate publicity, but it's looking like I'm going to be pretty famous.

"That's the one." She responds.

Fluttershy dashes forward to me, nearly knocking Twilight into the river.

"What's is like being with Daring? How come you aren't in any of the books? Could you sign my copy of 'Daring Do and the Solar Desert'? How'd you get your cutie mark? What does your curse do? Is it bad? I don't think I could live with being cursed. I-" Twilight cut her off, though she had done nearly the same thing earlier. Are all mares like this in the future?

"Well Fluttershy, Dart and I need to go find a way to get him back home, then maybe he could send Rainbow Dash back to us in the future."

"Rainbow Dash is missing? Oh I hope she's ok." Fluttershy looks concerned, and I pat her head lightly with one hoof.

"She'll be fine! She's only with THE most amazing mare ever!" This cheers her up quite a bit.

"Ok then.....good luck."

Once we arrive at the library, Twilight immediately begins to search for a book on the ancient ruins, but with no luck.

"I just KNOW there's a book about those ruins! I saw it in the library records the other day! Spike! Come here!" She calls, and a baby purple dragon appears in the doorway.

"You called, Twilight?....Who's this?"

"Spike, this is Dart. He needs a book about the hidden room in the Everfree ruins, could you check the records to see who borrowed it?"

"Alright, I'll have it in a jiffy!" Spike leaves the room and soon returns with a large dusty book labeled 'Library records'. He opens it up and begins frantically turning the pages. "Hey, Twilight, you're not going to believe this!"

"What?" She questions.

"It was borrowed and never returned 25 years ago by... Daring Do! Isn't that the adventure pony rainbow dash is always talking about?" I face-hoof.

(From the perspective of Daring Do, 25 years ago)

Sure enough, the library contains a book on the ancient ruins, in-fact, the solution is so simple that it's rather silly. Rainbow grumbles something about eggheads as I read the passage. According to legend, it was more of a time switching machine than a time travelling machine. First of all, you have to wind all the clocks back before using it, which must have been why it wouldn't bring Dart back. Once you wind the clocks and pull the lever, it switches with whatever is on the platform next time the clocks are wound the opposite direction and the lever is pulled. The problem is that Dart needs to figure this out too. I guess I'll take the book and put it in the office so he'll find it 25 years in the future. I probably shouldn't tell the librarian that I don't plan to return it, but it's sort of an emergency so I'm sure it's alright.

"C'mon Rainbow, we're going back to the ruins." Rainbow dash jumps out of her chair, and barrel rolls through the air over to me.

"About time! I thought I'd die in here!"

"We've only been here for 10 minutes."

"10 ENTIRE MINUTES!"

I sigh. "Let's just go."

After a really REALLY long time of winding clocks back, I explain the deal to Rainbow Dash.

"Alright," I started. "Here's the problem, if you stand on that platform, you could be sent to pretty much ANY TIME in the future if your friend and Dart don't figure this stuff out. Are you sure you want to try?"

"What? I'm leaving already? But we didn't get to go on any adventures!" It's kind of cute how she admires me so much, but Dart is gone and until he's back I just don't give a buck.

"Sorry, if somepony else activates this thing while we're out adventuring, you miss your chance to go back."

"...Okay. Let's do it then. It's been really great meeting you, Daring!" I smile, and shake her hoof.

"Likewise. Now stand on the platform when you're ready." Rainbow dash doesn't hesitate in the slightest, and jumps onto it.

I give her one last wave, and pull the lever. All the clocks spin to life, and a blinding blue light starts forming around her. I have to close my eyes to avoid going blind........then it disappears.

I open my eyes, hardly being able to wait to see if it worked as the smoke clears, and standing before me is...

A very confused Rainbow Dash.

(From Dart's point of view, in 25 years.)

I can't believe Daring would do that! I mean, I'm sure she needed the book so she could send Rainbow Dash back, but did she really not think to return it?! I love her and all, but sometimes I feel like she could really use a bit more common sense.

"Cheer up, Dart, maybe we can track down Daring Do and ask her where it is," Says Twilight. It looks to me like she's the one who needs cheering up though.

"Ok, where do we start?"

"Well.........." She goes silent.

"No clue, huh?" Twilight shakes her head. I guess I shouldn't have really expected much. This officially marks us being out of ideas, and I let myself slump down onto the ground. My stomach growls.

"Maybe I'll think better on a full stomach. Hey, is sugar cube corner still standing?"

"Yeah, c'mon, I'll take you there." I jump to my feet, and my metal hooves make a loud clanking noise against the wood. It sucks that I'm stuck in the future and all, but there is ALWAYS time for cupcakes.

Sugar cube corner looks pretty different. The entire building seems to have turned into a ginger bread house, before it looked more like a diner. The future is weird. Upon entering the building, we are greeted by a very bouncy pink mare with a mane like cotton-candy. Standing beside her is an orange mare with a cowgirl hat and a cooking apron.

"Hi Twilight! Aj is helping me bake today! Who's this?" Says the pink one.

She gasps, as if something really surprising and distressing had happened right in front of her. "I've never seen you around here before! I've got to throw a party!"

"Maybe later, Pinkie," Says Twilight, who struck me as all too used to this. "Actually, we're here for cupcakes, have any left?"

"I'll fix you up a batch lickety split." Says the orange mare, who then returns to the kitchen.

"So what's your name?" Says Pinkie, she doesn't wait for an answer. "I'm Pinkie Pie, I've got a welcoming wagon but it's not with me, though I could go get it if you want!" I turn my head to Twilight to see whether I should be excited about or scared of the welcome wagon, she shakes her head. No welcome wagon then.

"My name's Dart, and I feel welcome enough already, I can do without the wagon."

"Okie dokie lokie! Tell me if you change your mind!" At this point the orange pony returns from the kitchen holding a large batch of delicious looking cupcakes.

"Eat up, there's plenty for everypony!" She's right, while they do look like good cupcakes, I didn't even know anypony could make that many in such a short amount of time. I take a bite, and immediately fall in love with the taste.

"Wow, these are delicious. I've never had a cupcake this good," I comment.

"Aw shucks, Sugarcube, you're too kind, and besides, you just haven't had Pinkie's baking yet." Pinkie smiles at the mention of her name, and she looks like she's about to say something but the orange pony quickly resumes talking before Pinkie can get a word in. "And if you don't mind me askin', what's yer name?"

"I'm Dart Dash, it's a pleasure to meet you mrs....?"

"Applejack, and the pleasure's all mine. So where are ya from?" Twilight intervenes when she sees I don't know how to explain it.

"He's from the past, him and Rainbow switched places and now we're trying to switch them back." Applejack looks stunned, but doesn't question it. Pinkie pie doesn't seem the least bit surprised.

"Well I wish I could do more for ya, but that science-ey stuff is Twilight's thing." Twilight groans.

"I can't make heads or tails out of it! One second Rainbow is standing there and when I turn my head Dart just takes her place." Applejack thinks this over for a minute, and Pinkie cuts in.

"You should ask the princess! I'm sure she knows all about these time magics!" Twilight stands up,

"Pinkie! You're a genius! If anypony will know about it, it's got to be her!"

"No I'm not, I'm a pastry chef!" Twilight's moment of excitement ends.

"Yes, I suppose you are." Twilight magically acquires a pen and paper, and begins to write frantically.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Recently, Rainbow Dash and I were exploring an ancient room hidden in the Everfree forest containing powerful time magic, and she was sent back 25 years, and a stallion you've likely heard of by the name of Dart Dash appeared in her place, without a clue what happened. If you have any idea how to reverse the spell, or any theories I could work off of, please let me know.

-Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle

"Is this okay, Dart?"

I shrug. "You're askin' me?"

"Good point. We'll send it when we get back to the library, let's go!" She turns towards her two friends. "Bye AppleJack, Bye Pinkie."

"Seeya later alligators!"

"Take care, Twilight. You too Dart, don't try any dangerous spells!" AJ warns.

"Hey, I'm not the one with the horn! I'll see you later, maybe!" I reply, then leave after Twilight.

(From Daring Do's point of view, 25 years ago)

Well I guess the book was wrong, because Rainbow Dash is still in front of me, and not Dart. I turn towards the clocks and see that they didn't even finish turning, and are all stuck on different times. The only explanation I can think of is that this thing ran out of power, but I don't really know what to do about that. I fish the book out of my bag, and start reading the most helpful looking passage.

The time portal is powered by an ancient battery known as the star ruby, which contains the magical power of an alicorn. The ancients who used this machine were rumored to have similar gemstones powering their other amazing devices, such as the infamous rainbow factory (contrary to the popular legend that the ancients ground up fillies and colts, now that's just silly). While having a lot of power, incredible spells like the time portal are known to drain them out of power eventually.

Great, so it's just out of juice. Now what? Ask princess Celestia to power it? No, that would drain her power away, and I don't think anypony wants that. The only other option is to find a makeshift power source. But what could I use? The pegasi won't let me just borrow the core of the rainbow factory, so the only option is to look for one of their other ancient power sources.

"Well Rainbow," I decide. "Looks like we will be going on an adventure after all." Her eyes seem to sparkle the moment she hears me say the word 'adventure'

"Really? Where to?"

"To the temple on mount Everfree, I bet we can find a power source there."

"Wait, so we're not going to the library and doing planning this time?"

"Nope, that's Dart's way of doing things, and he's not here today."

"Alright! Let's go!"

I retrieve a map of Equestria from my vest, the mountain is far north of ponyville, and by the looks of it that would be a 12 hour train ride and then a full day of flying. This is going to be one heck of an adventure, it's a shame Dart won't be here for it.

(From Dart's point of view in 25 years)

As Twilight hoofs her letter to Spike, who sends it away with his fiery breath, I notice the sun beginning to go down and a question comes to mind.

"Twilight, where exactly am I spending the night again?"

Twilight's face pales. "Oh horse feathers, I completely forgot. There's no room in the library since we got rid of the extra bed....Maybe we can track down Applejack! ...No wait her family is in town for the Apple family reunion....maybe..."

Twilight continues to mumble to herself, so I plop down on the sofa while I wait for her to think of something. Judging from Spike's un-amused reaction, Twilight probably does this a lot. Twilight's train of thought is cut short by a gentle knocking on the door, but she's upstairs going through a list of ponies in ponyville looking for someone who might have a spare room.

"Dart, could you get that for me?" She pleaded.

"Alright."

The knocking may have been gentle, but it didn't stop. It's like whoever is knocking is just trying to say 'I'm really nice, but I know you're in there so don't keep me waiting.' I open the door to a beautiful white unicorn with a well kept blue mane, who is looking down at a dress she's carrying instead of at me.

"Twilight I got your dress all stitched up like you asked, sorry to deliver it so late but-" She looks up, and notices me for the first time. "Oh, I'm sorry, where's Twilight?"

At the sound of her name, Twilight rushes down the stairs to meet the visitor.

"Hello, Rarity! Thanks so much for fixing that for me! It looks great!"

"Oh it was no problem Darling. So who's the handsome stallion?"

Handsome? I don't think I've heard that one before. "My name's Dart Dash," I offer. "I'm visiting from out of town." She doesn't seem to react to my name, so I guess I'm not THAT famous.

"Oh!" Exclaims Rarity. "So you're the one that Pinkie is throwing a party for. My name's Rarity, and that reminds me, Twilight, Pinkie wanted me to take you to the party."

Twilight shakes her head. "Sorry, I'm a little busy. I'm doing a study on time travel right now and I need to finish it soon."

Rarity looks disappointed. "If you say so, just make sure you take a break every now and then. Can I take Dart with me?"

"Actually," Says Twilight. "Dart needs a place to stay tonight, you don't happen to have an extra bed do you?"

"Of course! There's always room for a friend in my boutique! It would be my pleasure."

"Great, you two go to the party, and I'm going to finish my studies."

With that, Twilight nudges me out of the door, and closes it behind me. As we're leaving, Rarity notices my cutie mark.

"A treasure chest? Oh I can just tell just by our cutie marks that we will get along wonderfully!" We are already walking at this point, so I resist the urge to look at her cutie mark to avoid the awkwardness of stopping and staring at her plot. Noticing the look on my face, she just tells me what it is. "It's 3 diamonds, to represent my love for things that catch the eye."

"Actually, our talents are very different," I point out. "Mine stands for treasure hunting and the thrills that come with it."

Rarity looks at me like I'm completely insane. "Treasure hunting? That sounds...well I just hate getting dirty." It isn't hard to imagine that, but I pretend to be surprised. She continues. "And I didn't know there were any treasure hunters left since Daring Do retired." There it is again, what could possibly make us retire in 25 years? I just can't imagine it.

"Well, as far as I know, I'm the only treasure hunter left, but that doesn't make any problems, there will ALWAYS be plenty of treasure in Equestria." Rarity considers this a moment, then changes the subject.

"By the way, we need to get that black polish off of your hooves, nightmare night is later in the year."

"Actually, I don't think that'll work. This stuff doesn't come off."

"Oh don't be silly! There's nothing some hoof polish remover can't fix!"

I shrug, not really wanting to explain the curse. "Well, you're welcome to try."

When we reach her boutique, I have to try incredibly hard to resist laughing at some of the ridiculous outfits on the mannequins scattered around. Future fashion sure is weird. Rarity attempts to remove the blackness from my hoofs with all kinds of hoof polish removers, but as I expected it doesn't make any difference.

"Sweet Celestia Dart, what did you get on your hooves?"

I can only shrug, and Rarity sighs in response.

"Oh right, I forgot to mention that my little sister and her friends are having a sleep-over here tonight, you like children, don't you?"

"Sure, I love kids." That was sort of a lie. In all truth, I'm terrible with kids, but kids love me. They always want me to tell them stories about treasure, and I always give in to their cute faces, and I'm bad at enforcing rules, since I never have to follow them myself. All in all, something always manages to catch fire when I'm around children.

"Good! You can be in charge of watching them, since I have work to do. We're going to pick them up from the party."

Rarity dons one of her ridiculous dresses, and offers me a suit that looked about my size. I pass. If this is the same Pinkie I met earlier, this party will be anything but formal. On the way to the party, Rarity makes a very large deal of avoiding anything that could possibly stain her dress, and I follow along quietly.

As we arrive at sugarcube corner, we're greeted by a very bouncy Pinkie Pie, carrying a very large tray of cupcakes.

"Hi guys! I'm so glad you could make it! I mean, what kind of party for Dart would it be without Dart? Hey! Where's Twilight?"

"Hello Pinkie. Twilight is a little busy tonight so she won't be joining us," Explains Rarity.

"Can I have a cupcake?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

"Of course!" Says Pinkie, happily tossing me a cupcake. I catch it with my mouth then remove the wrapping with my hoof. While I'm happily munching on it, Pinkie grabs me by the hoof and drags me to the middle of the room.

"Hey! Everypony! This is Dart Dash! He's staying in ponyville for now!" In return, I receive various 'Hi Dart!'s and 'Hello!'s from around the room. Some ponies look surprised, which I can only guess are the ones that have heard of me.

"Hello Everypony, it's nice to meet you all."

Suddenly, a new voice calls to me, this time a loud filly with an orange coat and purple mane.

"Hey! You're that archaeologist who fell in love with Daring Do!"

"I-I am not! That's a different Dart Dash!" I stutter a bit at the beginning of the sentence. Also, I'm not an archaeologist.

"Yeah right!" Replies the filly. "And just how many ponies are there named Dart Dash with black hooves and a cutie mark of a treasure chest?"

So much for hiding the fact that I'm a time traveler, and as far as I know I'm the ONLY pony with a treasure chest for a cutie mark. Fortunately, before I can think of something to say to get everypony's eyes off of me, the orange filly's friend, a tan filly with a red mane and a large mane-bow, brings up an argument.

"But Scootaloo! You told me that Dart Dash is like, 50 years old! How can he be that young?" This took the attention away from me, and the other ponies returned to their conversations and activities, though some began to ask me the usual questions about my cutie mark and stuff, which I answered to the best of my ability. The fillies kept arguing though.

"I bet he found some kind of special treasure that youngered him!"

"Youngered isn't a word!" Says a small white unicorn with a mane that is all different shades of purple. She sort of reminds me of Rarity, and I assume this must be her little sister.

"What are you, a dictionary?" Responds the one I now know is Scootaloo.

"You don't have to be to know-"

"Hey!" Says the red maned one. "That gives me an idea! We could get our cutie marks in treasure hunting!"

"Yeah!" Replies the white one enthusiastically. "We could be Cutie mark crusader treasure hunters!"

"Well what pony would be better to ask than THE Dart Dash?" Exclaims Scootaloo.

"Good idea!" Says the Red maned one. "Hey! Mister!"

"Yes?" I respond as if I hadn't been listening in on their unbelievably loud argument. It's hard to think that such little ponies could have such large voices.

"Could you show us how you got your cutie mark?"

"Yeah!" Yells Scootaloo. "We want to explore hidden temples!"

"And find lost artifacts!" Adds the red one.

"And...and....Yeah! What they said!" Says the white one, it's almost too adorable.

"Well I suppose I could- wait. You wouldn't happen to be Rarity's little sister would you?" I ask the small white one. She nods.

"Yeah! My name's Sweetie Bell! This is Scootaloo and Applebloom!"

"Hi!" Says Scootaloo.

"Howdy!" Says Applebloom.

"How do you know my sister?" Asks Sweetie bell.

"I'm staying at your house tonight, since I don't have a place here in ponyville."

"Awesome! I get to spend the night with Dart Dash!" Yells Scootaloo.

"How do you know so much about Dart anyways?" Applebloom asks Scootaloo with one eyebrow raised.

"Well I asked Twilight for all the Daring Do books that Rainbow Dash loves, and she also gave me this entire life story of Daring Do's treasure hunting days," Explains Scootaloo. It's more than tempting to get a look at that, but knowing my own future is probably not such a great idea. I spot Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity sitting at a table together out of the corner of my eye.

"Well it was nice meeting you fillies, but I'd like to go talk to some friends before the party ends."

"Aaaw," Says Applebloom. "But you were gonna tell us about treasure hunting."

"Don't worry," I assure her. "We'll have plenty of time to talk about it at Rarity's place later, you're the ones who are sleeping over, correct?"

"Yessir!" Says Scootaloo, saluting. She seems to have way more respect for me that I do myself. Maybe in the future I get to do something really impressive. I head over towards Rarity's table, and the three ponies wave me over.

"Is this seat taken?" I ask, not actually caring but still asking to be polite.

"Go ahead and sit down, sugar-cube, we were just talkin' about ya." Replies the only pony who could possibly talk like that. I grab a glass of punch from the nearby counter, and sit down between Rarity and Fluttershy, and across from Applejack.

"Let me make sure that I understand this correctly," Says Rarity. "You're a time-travelling treasure hunter who's in love with the pony from the books that Rainbow Dash reads, and you've switched places with dear Rainbow somehow?"

"Yeah," I respond. "That sounds about right."

Before I can say anything else, something get's shoved under my nose, but it's so close to my face that I can't actually tell what it is.

"Um," Says Fluttershy. "Could you sign my book? That is....if that's ok with you."

Upon close inspection, (or further inspection, since I had to move my head back a bit to be able to read it,) it is indeed a book titled: "Daring Do and the Solar Desert". The cover depicts Daring herself standing in front of the giant sea serpent that had blocked my path. But that's not quite right....

"That's odd, I'm the one who saw the serpent, not Daring. Does anypony have a quill?" Rarity uses her magic to float a quill within reach of my mouth.

"Really!?" Exclaims Fluttershy. "But you aren't in these books at all....."

"Well that makes sense actually, I don't really like publicity. Being famous just doesn't appeal to me."

"We are COMPLETE opposites, you and I," Points out Rarity. Applejack chuckles.

"Tell us some more that we couldn't hear from the books, Dart. I'm mighty interested in what a treasure huntin' pony from the past like you could say."

It takes me a second to think of what to tell them, but a good story comes to mind.

"Have you ever heard of the elements of harmony?"

To my surprise all three mares laugh loudly, but Applejack is the first to respond. "Sorry about that, we've had some adventures of our own involving the elements. What were ya saying again?"

"Well I was going to tell you about how I discovered the element of loyalty in the deepest part of some ancient Romane ruins, but your story sounds more interesting, would you care to tell it?"

"Twi could tell it much better than I, but I'll give it a shot," Decides Rarity. "You're familiar with The Mare in the Moon, yes?"

(From Daring Do's point of view, 25 years ago)

When our train arrived in the northern town of Neigshe, Rainbow and I decided to stay in a nearby motel for the night, due to an intense blizzard all around the mountain. Now we're just sitting in our room, and Rainbow is bouncing a rubber ball off of the wall from her bed, it's actually kind of impressive.

"So, Rainbow Dash, did your parents live in Ponyville? Maybe I know them."

"Well," Said Rainbow. "I'm pretty sure I was born in Ponyville, I don't remember it too well. My parents travel a lot and I had to beg them to let me go to flight camp instead of going with them."

"Really? What are their names?"

To my surprise, Rainbow Dash simply shrugs. "I'm not actually sure, they always referred to each other as 'Darling' and 'Sweetie', y'know, lame stuff like that. I always just called them 'Mom and Dad' and my aunt, the only pony who I remember ever visiting us called them 'Mr. and Mrs. Dash.'" As she talks I can feel her get less and less interested in talking about her own past, and eventually she asks to hear about mine. "Hey, I've read the books, but it would be pretty cool if I could hear about one of your adventures from you in person, would you mind telling me one? I need to get my mind off of this boring room."

That sounded like a pretty good way to pass time, so I agree. "Alright which one do you want to hear?"

"The coolest one you can think of, obviously." She says as if it was ridiculous for me to even ask.

"Okay, this was the first adventure I had after meeting Dart, my partner. I'll skip the boring details at the beginning, but basically he fell down a long staircase and landed in front of a group of Discordian cultists."

"Discordian cultists? Oh man, I met Discord once, it wasn't fun."

"You've met Discord?" I ask. She must have dreamed it or something because I can't imagine Discord ever coming back under the watchful eye of Celestia.

"Well yeah, me and my friends sort of represent the elements of harmony, but I do all the awesome fighting!"

"It looks like we've both got some neat stories for each other then."

Rainbow Dash's bored expression fades away, and she sits up straight.

"What were you saying about the stairs and the cultists?"

(From Dart's point of view, in 25 years)

I arrive with Rarity back at her boutique with Sweetie Bell, Applebloom, and Scootaloo in tow. Rarity shows me to the room me and the fillies will be in, which is actually just Sweetie Bell's room with some sleeping bags on the floor. It's a pretty nice place though, and I can't imagine a filly ever needing a bed that large, not to mention some of the hats she keeps around her room, those things are just gigantic. Rarity asks if I could watch the girls while she works, and I accept since it's the least I can do for her since I'm staying in her house without pay. The girls are pretty excited about this, and shout a few things about being "Cutie mark crusader treasure hunters!" Rarity rolls her eyes.

"I simply CAN'T thank you enough for watching the girls. Just make sure they don't do anything.....dangerous, okay?"

"Alright, I'll keep a close eye on them."

"We'll behave!" Assures Sweetie Bell, but Rarity ignores her.

"You're sure you can watch them? Because I could call Fluttershy..."

"I'll just tell them some stories and send them to bed, don't worry."

"If you say so.... I'll see you in the morning, and don't disturb me unless it's an emergency, I hate to be rude but I do need to finish some dresses tonight. Good night, Dart, Sweetie, Applebloom, Scootaloo."

"Goodnight Rarity!" Chirp the fillies in unison.

"Goodnight, and thanks again for letting me stay at your place."

"Oh it's no trouble, anything for a friend."

And with that, Rarity leaves the room, and also leaves me to deal with three hyperactive fillies who just had a lot of cupcakes and are looking at me like they're going to have the adventure of a lifetime. Hopefully a story or two will calm them down a bit.

"Okay," Announces Applebloom. "What's the first thing we have to do to be treasure hunters?" It takes me a moment to think of an answer. Get a rope? Nah, I don't want them tearing up the place in search of rope. Leave home? Maybe they wouldn't realize I'm joking and actually try to leave.... Oh, wait, duh.

"Obviously, you need to decide what treasure you're looking for." I say with pride.

"Obviously? But it took you like, a whole minute to think of that." Says Sweetie Bell. I ignore her.

"So what would three fillies like you want to search for?"

"Something we can sell!" Says Scootaloo.

"Something neat!" Says Sweetie Bell.

"Something lost that we can bring to a museum!" Says Applebloom.

"Those are all good answers," I divulge in the most professional voice I can manage. "But I usually look for something neat that I can sell to a museum." Applebloom and Sweetie bell face-hoof, but Scootaloo seems genuinely interested.

"You can sell things to a museum!?"

"Yeah, I didn't believe it either until Daring told me."

"So you really DO know Daring Do!" Accuses Applebloom.

"Well....yes." I admit.

"So you youngered yourself!" Claims Scootaloo, Sweetie Bells shakes her head, but remains silent.

"No. You see, actually, I time traveled. I'm from 25 years in the past." I probably shouldn't say anything about Rainbow Dash being trapped in my time.

"Really?" Says Applebloom in a suspicious voice.

"Really!?" Says Scootaloo, amazed.

"Wow!" Exclaims Sweetie bell. "I thought the only pony who could time travel was Twilight. How did you do it?"

"Well the details aren't important, but what matters is that you three want to be treasure hunters! Now, as I was saying, first you need to pick something specific to search for. So what would three fillies like yourselves be looking for?"

"Ancient ruins!" Yells Applebloon.

"No no no, it's what's IN the architecture, we should be looking for priceless artifacts!" Says Sweetie Bell.

"I just want treasure!" Scootaloo informs us.

"Good." I tell them. "Now where would you find those things? Specifically, do you know any places?"

"Of course not," Says Sweetie Bell. "Why would three normal fillies like us know where to find hidden treasure?"

An idea enters my mind, tomorrow I could take them to a small buried temple in one of the safer areas of the Everfree forest. Hardly any dangerous creatures live in that area, and the temple itself only has a few traps. It would be like a little field trip, and a good way to waste time here while I wait for Twilight to find a way back to the past. Maybe one of the girls would even get a cutie mark, though none of them really strike me as the treasure hunter type.

"I'll tell you what, I know of a buried temple we could visit tomorrow, if you really think you could get a cutie mark in treasure hunting, it would be a perfect place to go." All three pairs of eyes seem to light up.

"You really mean it?!" Asks Sweetie Bell enthusiastically.

"Of course. But in the mean time, since we're cooped up in here, would you be interested in hearing a story?"

"Tell us about the island of the manticores!" Demands Scootaloo. It sounds like a good story, but she must not have remembered the years in Daring's biography, because I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened yet.

"Tell us about your cutie mark!" Says Applebloom. I don't think I could tell that one either, Rarity probably doesn't want me putting crazy ideas in their head that a lion will help them get a cutie mark.

"I want to hear about you and Daring Do!" Says Sweetie Bell, her tone changing to the kind of voice you would use to mock a sibling or best friend about their filly friend when she says Daring's name.

"Alright, I like that one. It all started late at night in an abandoned mine shaft........"

After two straight hours of telling stories to mesmerized fillies, I manage to convince them that they need to get some sleep before the treasure hunt tomorrow, and I finally get some time to myself......which is a short lived feeling due to the fact that there's nothing to do around here. I wish I had been wearing my saddlebag, I had a few books with me that I was still reading, but I guess Rainbow Dash can have them now. I guess the fact that Twilight had called me.....what was it? Daring Do's partner for life? Either way, it probably means that I find my way back....somehow. And that means that I should enjoy my time here while I can. After all, not many ponies get the chance to go to the future without taking the normal slow way! It's sort of an adventure in itself. Daring would love an adventure like this!........I miss her already.

((I know this chapter was kind of uneventful, but the second part to it will be entirely adventure, I swear! This was just setting up for it!))

Chapter 8 - Element of Honesty

(From the perspective of Daring Do)

I woke up at noon to Dart entering the room and sitting on the bed next to me to read a book. He didn't notice that I was awake yet, so I rolled over to him and said good morning, but it was muffled by my dry mouth and the pillow that I forgot to remove from my face.

"Good morning, Daring," He replied in a monotone without looking up from his book. "Oh yeah, you got a letter from the princess. It's downstairs on the table."

"The princess? What does she want?"

"Something about finding the elements of harmony because Discord could break out, nothing too important." I sighed.

"I guess we'd better do that, huh?"

"Ayup." Dart still wasn't looking up from his book. I took a closer look at the cover, it was titled: 'Sherlock hooves and the red diamond'. Just another one of his lame mystery novels. I got out of bed and retrieved the letter from downstairs. As I had just finished reading it and was preparing to write a response, Dart descended the stairs and got himself a bowl of cereal, then sat down next to me.

"Hey, don't you have one of those elements in your attic?" Dart grinned as if he was remembering old adventures.

"I sure do. I found it the same day I was cursed in those ruins."

"You were cursed by the element of loyalty?

"No, I was cursed by a ring in a box next to the element of loyalty. It baffles me to this day why they were next to each other in a temple." I pondered this for a moment. It was odd that the ancients would do that. I began to write a response to the princess while Dart ate his cereal.

Dear Princess Celestia,

With the help of Dart, I will reacquire the elements as you have requested. Do you have any suggestions as to where I could start looking?

-Daring Do

I licked the envelope and sealed it, then stuck it in the mailbox and put up the flag. I returned to Dart as he was washing his bowl in the sink and humming loudly.

"So, what should we do today while we wait for advice on where to find the elements?" I asked.

"Actually, I'm a little busy today."

"Busy? What did you plan?"

"I'm going to visit my cousin Rosemary in Fillydelphia today, I'll be back sometime tonight."

"The cute filly in the picture?"

"That's the one."

"Can I come?" Dart pondered this a moment.

"No offense Daring, but I haven't seen her forever and I don't want her to feel like a third wheel." It seemed reasonable to me, so I let him go.

"That's understandable. So when are you leaving?"

"Right now actually. Try not to burn anything while I'm gone, okay?" I grinned.

"Not even a little?"

"See you later, Daring."

"Alright, later." He waved one final time, then left and closed the door behind him, leaving me all alone. I meandered back to bed and rolled up in the blankets, assuming the rest of the day would be uneventful. I would soon figure out just how wrong I was.

(From Dart's point of view)

I soon arrived by train in Fillydelphia, the third largest city in Equestria. Supposedly it had a lot of Earth pony history behind it, since it used to be the capitol of Equestria during the great changeling war, but not many ponies know about that stuff, and it's now famous for the statues that remain around the city from ancient times. I was looking forward to seeing them almost as much as I was to seeing Rosemary.

Rosemary is my father's sister's daughter, and the closest thing I had to a friend throughout my colt-hood. She was always the only filly who had the patience to at least try to not lose track of me when I wandered off to go explore whatever caught my eye. Occasionally, she was even known to follow me on one of my crazy adventures, and was present when I got my cutie mark.

As I exited the train, I already noticed one of the many famous statues of the city, a depiction of two earth pony settlers back-to-back, holding pitchforks. One was looking over his shoulder with glaring eyes at the other, who was staring into the distance. This was probably to signify that he was a changeling. Despite all the large buildings and pavement, they do a pretty good job of keeping the city green, and I noticed a lot of large patches of grass, usually with a bench or two in them. I was supposed to meet Rosemary in the central park in 10 minutes, so I took to the sky and flew towards the center of the city.

I was surprised to see how much Rosemary had grown when I spotted her from the sky. She was almost as tall as me, though besides that her tan fur and green mane were exactly the same. Her cutie mark portrayed an actual piece of rosemary over a cooking pot, to portray her culinary talent.

"Hey! How late am I?" I asked as I swooped in from the sky, coming to a landing right next to her. She looked down at her watch.

"6 minutes and 23 seconds, which by your standards is on time!" We shared a quick laugh then sat at the nearest bench and began to talk about our recent lives.

"Anything new with you?" I asked casually.

"Well nothing too extraordinary, life's been quiet without you always dragging me to the darkest corners of Equestria. I've got a job cooking at a nice restaurant on Mane st, and I've become pretty wealthy. How's your treasure hunting business?"

"How'd you know I was making money off of treasure hunting?" She shrugged.

"I can't imagine you working a day in your life."

"Fair enough. The business is going great though, and along with the money it got me a nice filly-friend as well."

"You!? With a mare? I never thought the day would come!" Much to my embarrassment, she started laughing hysterically.

"You could as least PRETEND it's not that surprising...."

"Sorry, it's just funny to see little Dart all grown up."

"I'm older than you!" She ignored me and scooted closer to me on the bench, then leaned over so her face was in front of mine.

"So? Who is she? Do I know her?"

"Oh, I think you know her." I tried to act cool about it but on the inside I couldn't wait to tell her.

"What's her name?"

"Daring Do." I was expecting her to be impressed, but instead she just stared at me for a split second to make sure I was being serious, then laughed so hard she fell off of the bench. I groaned as I waited for her to finish.

"Ha! For a moment there I thought you had actually taken some time away from your adventures to talk to a mare! But you picked out a mare that can just go with you!" I blushed a bit, she had me completely figured out.

"But that's a good thing, right?" I felt the need to make sure.

"Yeah, 'cause no other mare would put up with you." I rolled my eyes at her.

"I'm hungry, let's go get lunch."

"Alright, I know a good place not far from here."

(From Daring Do's point of view)

The sound of knocking boomed around the walls of the cottage. I groaned and lifted myself from bed, then shuffled down the stairs to the door. The knocking did not cease up until the very moment I opened the door to see two royal guards accompanied by princess Celestia herself.

My jaw dropped. She didn't wait for greetings, but immediately began to explain.

"The situation has become dire, it seems that somepony is chipping away at Discord's prison, and he will be free by April. You need to begin the search, now." I grabbed my hat from the coat hanger by the door, and slipped it on.

"I'll get to it right away, where do you suggest I begin?" The princess magically materialized a scroll, which unraveled itself in front of me, and she began to read aloud.

"The element of Magic is hidden in the Everfree ruins,

The element of Laughter is deep in the southern jungle,

The element of Generosity is on the tip of the tallest mountain in Equestria,

The element of Kindness was entrusted to the sea ponies of old, I do not know where it could be now,

I've heard the element of Loyalty is within your own care already,

and finally, the element of Honesty is buried under the modern day city of-"

(From Dart's point of view)

Fillydelphia, the city of delicious pizza and soft pretzels. Rosemary and I were seated soon after entering a restaurant simply titled 'Pizza and pretzels', and what did we order? Pizza and pretzels of course. As we were waiting for our pizza and pretzels, Rosemary began to tell about her life here.

"-so that's when I found out it was Susan who had eaten all of the icing."

"Uh-huh." I pretended to be interested, but she saw through it.

"Okay, so what have you been up to?" I got excited just talking about it, recently life hadn't had a dull moment.

"Well I fought a manticore, met my filly-friend, saved the world, became a legendary hero then broke the prophecy, and destroyed an ancient temple."

Rosemary sighed. "I miss those adventures."

My eyes lit up and an idea hit me. "Why don't you come with me on one? You might miss a day or two of your job but the treasure will pay it off."

"Oh, I couldn't do that. Your adventures have become a little too dangerous for me. Besides, you'll be with your filly-friend, and I don't want to intrude."

"Daring wouldn't mind! I'm sure you two would get along great!"

"I don't think I could-"

Without warning, the door slammed open and the mare in question herself, Daring Do, rushed into the restaurant.

"Has anypony here seen an orange pegasus with black hoofs?"

"Daring!" I called out. "I'm over here!" She let out a sigh of relief.

"I thought I would never find you! This city is ginormous! Oh! Is that your cousin?" Rosemary raised an eyebrow at me.

"Your cousin?"

"Huh?" Said me and Daring in unison.

"Wait," Said Rosemary. "You told her that I'm your cousin?"

Daring sat down and glared at me. "You mean she's not your cousin?"

I turned questioningly at Rosemary, I was just as confused as Daring. "You're not my cousin?"

"You really thought that I'm your cousin?" Said Rosemary, her jaw agape.

"You're not my cousin!?" I repeated.

"Well that explains a lot." She almost lost herself in thought.

"You told me we were cousins!"

"I said we were LIKE cousins! Who's daughter did you think I was?"

"My aunt, I always saw you with her!" She shook her head at this.

"Your aunt was my foalsitter! I can't believe you thought we were related!"

"Are you serious!?"

"Wait, that means that the one time that I asked you-" I instantly knew what she was about to say.

"And I said no because we're cousins!"

"But we're not cousins!"

It was at this point that Daring got fed up with this and cut in, slamming her hoof on the table.

"Sorry to interrupt you two, but what the hay is going on?!"

"I uh....she's not my cousin I guess." I responded awkwardly.

"Come on, Dart. We're leaving now," She declared, then left the building.

I turned towards Rosemary. "I'll uh, be right back, Rosemary." She gave me an understanding nod, and motioned for me to get going.

Once we were outside, I began to interrogate Daring.

"So what are you doing here? What happened?"

"Well it just so happens that Discord is going to be back a little ahead of schedule, and one of the elements of harmony is somewhere below Fillydelphia."

"And how ahead of schedule is that?"

"He's expected to be back by April."

"Well, no time to lose then. I'll go get Rosemary."

"Huh? Why her?" Daring seemed to be a little unnerved by Rosemary, but I choose to ignore it.

"She knows her way around the city, she can lead us to a library or something." Daring groaned.

"Another library? Can't we just check the sewers or something?" I shook my head.

"The sewers and underground tunnels expand throughout the entire city, we'd have no idea where to begin." Daring tried her hardest to think of a reason to not read more books, but to no avail.

"Fine. Go get your mare-friend."

"Daring, YOU are my mare-friend."

She rolled her eyes. "Just go get her out of the restaurant and we'll figure things out from there," She said, almost coldly.

After explaining the situation to Rosemary and leaving the restaurant, Rosemary tried to strike up a conversation with Daring while walking to the library.

"So how's Dart been treating you?" I wasn't entirely sure what she meant by that, but Daring treated it as a perfectly normal question, and her mood lightened a little.

"Oh he's great, but he can be a little annoyingly shy."

"I'm right here you know," I reminded her. The two of them ignored me.

"Shy? I've never seen him care about anypony's opinion before! This I've got to see!" Rosemary enthusiastically responded. Daring nodded.

"Here, watch this," She turned to face me. "Dart, give me a kiss." My face turned red.

"What? Here? Now?" Instead of pestering me or making faces like I had expected her too, Daring and Rosemary both began to laugh hysterically. I started to realize they had been making fun of me. I will never understand mares.

"Oh that's nothing!" Rosemary bragged. "Just wait until you hear about the kind of stuff he's done back in school." I groaned.

"You're only going to tell the embarrassing stories aren't you?"

"Of course!" She smiled.

Just as she was finishing up the story about how I went to the forest looking for treasure and came running back in less than 5 minutes with a baby timberwolf that had bitten my leg and refused to let go, we arrived at the library. I had had enough of these stories, and was relieved to finally have some work to get done to escape from hearing them again. Daring, on the other hoof, had listened intently and laughed loudly to each and every one of them. At least they were getting along. I ran into the library, and grabbed the blueprints for the tunnels and sewers under Fillydelphia. While I was searching for any oddity, Daring and Rosemary continued to talk to each other loudly about me, and I ignored them. Finally, I discovered something that seemed incredibly out of place, and interrupted their chat session.

"-And that's when Dart threw up in the middle of science class," Finished Rosemary. Daring giggled a little.

"Sorry to interrupt you girls, but I've found our destination." I think it was actually pretty clear that I wasn't sorry. I didn't wait for them to respond.. "Look, the sewers curve upwards here like they're trying to avoid something. I have a hunch that if this thing is underground it's got to be right there." Rosemary nodded.

"That is odd. We'll have to check it out."

"Wait. What do you mean WE?" I questioned.

"Well you offered for me to go on an adventure with you, now that you're here I think it would be the perfect time," She explained. I turned to Daring for help, but she pretended not to notice.

"But it's dangerous! We're looking for the elements of harmony! Last time we ran into somepony who was trying to resurrect Discord, they had spears!"

"Well you had better protect me then."

I continued to beg and plead Rosemary to stay behind, partly because I was worried for her well-being, but mostly because I was sick of re-hearing those stories, and it was weird being around her knowing that we were never really cousins. No matter how much I attempted to persuade her to stay, she remained firm. Daring seemed to be neutral on the idea, still a little annoyed about earlier for whatever reason, but also wanting to hear more of those stories. I gave up.

"Fine," I reluctantly allowed.

"Oh don't be like that, it'll be fun!" She assured me.

(From Daring Do's point of view)

It was pretty clear when Dart gave up that this adventure would be run by Rosemary. I felt a little bad for the stallion, but Rosemary really wanted to come along, and if she was coming, it was pretty clear that Dart would just follow us quietly, as he had on the way to the library.

I must have underestimated Dart's sense of adventure though, because as we arrived in the sewer tunnel, Dart immediately seemed to forget our very existence as he began to search around excitedly for some way into the hidden chamber. It was Rosemary, however, who found it in the end.

"Dart! Daring! Over here!" She pointed a hood towards a rusty old lever covered in cobwebs. Dart was skeptical though, and responded without even looking at her.

"That's probably just part of the sewer systems, it wouldn't be so obvious." Rosemary rolled her eyes.

"Sewer systems? What kind of sewer systems would need a big lever? Sewers are just big pipes."

"Oh.....I guess your right. What are you waiting for then? Give it a pull."

Without wasting any more time, Rosemary gave the lever a hard pull, which took a few seconds because it was so rusted. Sure enough, the stones in the wall behind the lever began to slide back, and then to the side, revealing a spiraling stair case. It reminded me of the stair case Dart and I went down on our very first adventure. Much to my annoyance, it was only wide enough for two ponies to walk side by side, and somehow I got stuck behind Rosemary and Dart, and was forced to listen to their conversation on the way down.

"It really feels like old times, right Dart?" Asked Rosemary.

"Yeah I guess it does. It took me a while to get used to treasure hunting without you. I always forgot to bring supplies, and I constantly found myself without torches or ropes. Boy, that was a nightmare."

Rosemary giggled. "Somehow I don't have any trouble imagining that. I used to bring the things I told you to bring because I always knew you would forget."

"Yeah, too bad you didn't earn a cutie mark in treasure hunting. You could still be helping me out."

"Oh don't talk like that, it's only because of our treasure hunts that I got my cutie mark!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

Rosemary's eyes narrowed. "You forgot about that day?"

Dart was quick to correct himself, as if this was a big mistake. "No! I mean....of course not! I just forgot that one detail, that's all."

"Honestly Dart, you'd forget your own hooves if they weren't attached to your legs. Speaking of which, why are they black now? Is it some new weird Canterlot fashion?"

Dart laughed, then proceeded to tell the same thing he told me. "I got cursed in some ancient Romane ruins, it still doesn't make much sense to me."

Rosemary didn't seem very surprised, but more annoyed. "A curse? I leave you to adventure alone for less than 2 years, and you've already gotten yourself a curse?"

"Hey! It was in a really big shiny box! How could I have resisted?"

Rosemary ignored him, and instead slowed down a bit so she was side by side with me.

"So, I didn't have time to ask Dart, but I want to hear your side of the story first. How did you two meet?"

"Well first he almost drowned me, then he made me look like an idiot in front of an entire crowd of ponies, then he left without even telling me his name." I shot him a glare after that last part.

"Wow," Said Dart. "I hadn't really thought of it that way."

"Okay," Said Rosemary. "Now you tell me the next part." I perked up, wondering how Dart would tell it.

"Isn't that kind of a weird way to hear the story?"

"No, it's way more fun this way."

Dart sighed. "Well," He started. "We met again by coincidence in the middle of nowhere, then I fell down a long flight of stairs and got captured by Discordian cultists. Daring appeared about 4 minutes later, and tried to stab me with a spear-"

"I was saving your life!" I interrupted.

"With a spear!" He exaggerated. "Anyways, she saved me with a spear and then we returned to Canterlot and in return for saving me she forced me to be her colt-friend."

"Forced?" Questioned Rosemary.

"Oh c'mon, it's not that bad," I commented.

"It's not," He agreed.

"Alright Daring, you finish off the story," Ordered Rosemary.

"Okay, I see some the stairs ending up ahead so I'll make it quick. We moved in together to a nice place in ponyville, decided on the solar desert for an exploration, met up with my arch-rival Ahuizotl, then Dart wrecked a temple and we went on a date."

"Man," Said Dart. "It is really weird to hear that out of context."

"Don't worry," Said Rosemary. "I'll make sure to pry every last detail out of you later."

After a little bit more of descending the stairs, we entered a pitch-black chamber.

"Rosemary, you didn't happen to bring any torches, did you?" Asked Dart innocently.

Rosemary groaned. I didn't know about Dart and Rosemary, but all I could think at that moment was: 'There is no way I am climbing and descending those stairs again!'

"Don't we have ANYTHING?" I asked hopefully.

Dart stamped a hoof in frustration. "Sorry Daring but it looks like we forgot to-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Dart's hooves begin to glow eerily, then suddenly the intensity of the glow increases little by little until it forms a blindingly bright beam of light in front of him, like a flashlight.

"Well that's new," He comments. I let out a sigh of relief. Curse or not, I don't care as long as we don't have to go all the way up and down the stairs again. Dart looks like he was about to say something else, but then decides not to. As I examine the room around me, I notice a whole bunch of ancient Equestrian designs and writings all around us on the walls and ceiling. To this day, ancient Equestrian language hasn't been deciphered yet, and princess Celestia herself claims to never have known the language very well. It all just looks like a bunch of scribbles to me. Dart, on the other hoof, seems fascinated. He quickly shines his light on the writing (much to the annoyance of Rosemary who is now left in the dark) and begins to study it. Something seems different though, he usually doesn't take nearly this long. I examine it myself. It looks something like: עבור שמאלה, ימינה היא מלכודת

At one point he even seemed to flicker to an angry expression, then returned to his normal adventurous grin.

"We have to go left up ahead, the right is a trap," He suddenly declares.

"Huh?" Rosemary and I ask in unison. He repeats himself.

"But how do you know that?" I ask.

"I uh....deciphered part of this."

I give him a skeptical look. "Dart, nopony has been able to read ancient equestrian for years, don't tell me you just suddenly, magically figured it out."

He shrugs, not really knowing how to respond to that, and leads the way down the passageway, and sure enough, there's a fork in the path. Without hesitation, he heads down the right corridor, and Rosemary and I follow quietly. Something is definitely wrong with him, usually he likes the way with the traps.

(From Dart's point of view)

The voice in my head began to bug me a little after the lights started coming from my hoofs. It has been giving me all this stupid advice about the dungeon that I've been trying to tune out. I've been trying to disregard it, but I can hear it's advice loud and clear. The first thing it did to tick me off was surprise me. I almost made a fool of myself by calling out to it, but then noticed that Daring and Rosemary hadn't seemed to have heard anything, so I kept quiet and let the voice talk. Then, it turned out to not even be the curse in my hoofs! It's calling me the chosen Solar hero just like that stupid serpent had, and it keeps deciphering symbols on the walls for me, ruining all of the fun of the adventure. It seems like somehow the powers in that stupid amulet I smashed have made their way into the very hoofs I used to smash it.

Adventuring is just no fun when you know where every trap is from reading ahead, and knowing what they do just by looking at them. It has the same feeling of reading a mystery novel where you already know the culprit, or playing battleship without the screen that stops you from seeing the other player's board. Either way, it's just boring. I HAVE to get this thing out of my hoofs before it causes some serious damage to my entertainment. Apparently it can read my thoughts because it responds to that.

Why so sad, chosen one? Is this guidance not what you seek?

Not even remotely. An arrow flies at me, but I was warned about it earlier, and block it with my steel hoof.

I apologize, but when the chosen one wears the talisman, he must have my guidance.

Well first of all I don't really want to be the chosen one. Second of all, I'm not wearing your silly talisman.

"Dart, are you okay?" Asks Daring. "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine," I reply. "This adventure is just too easy. Let's finish it up quickly."

"Well it wouldn't be easy without you magically knowing where the traps are! How are you doing that?"

I don't want to sound crazy, so I lie. "These traps are just obvious." Daring looks at me strange, but doesn't respond.

Suddenly, the entire dungeon flickers to life and all sorts of new traps I've never even imagined would work appear everywhere. Traps such as a poisonous bat cage that releases the bats when you go near, and machines that rise from the ground and throw razor blades. Daring, Rosemary, and I retreat to the last hallway, which is just as safe as we left it.

You shouldn't have lied, Says the voice. You have angered the element of honesty. Not even I can guide you through this new maze.

Awesome. Now this might actually be some fun!

I do not understand you, hero, but your end will come soon if you continue to act this way. The lights on my hooves turn off and the voice vanishes. Alone at last, albeit the room just got a good bit darker. There are a few light enchantments coming from further down the road, so we can still see fairly well.

"Dangerous enough for you NOW, Dart?" Asks Rosemary. My new found excitement vanishes. Maybe it would be fun for me to navigate this new dungeon, but could Rosemary and Daring find their own ways through?

"Eeyup." Is the only response I can manage. I grab a large decorative staff off of a nearby wall, the hallway is full of all kinds of symbols and treasures I had ignored due to that stupid voice. I figure having a poking stick would be handy to get through the traps, as sometimes I can't find a way to get past the traps without setting them off. I'm about to run into the maze headfirst when it occurs to me that Daring has been strangely quiet. I turn back to face her, and for the first time I see that she looks kind of freaked out. Rosemary looks equally scared, but trying hard not to show it. I calm down a bit, and realize that I have a lot of time and don't need to just charge in there right this moment. I sit down on the floor in front of them.

"Are you really going in there, Dart?" Asks Daring.

"Yeah, I've got to get the element. Why don't you stay here with Rosemary? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Daring shakes her head. "You're the one scaring me Dart, not the traps."

"Huh? What did I do?"

Rosemary cuts in."You look really distressed, it's kind of freaking us out."

"That goofy look you always get on your face when you go adventuring is gone," Agrees Daring.

It occurs to me that I've begun to think of this entire adventure as more of an annoyance, and I've hardly been looking around at all the cool stuff on the walls around me. It's time I had some more fun with this, I'm here on an awesome adventure with brand new traps and my two favorite mares in the world. I put my 'goofy look' back on, and Daring grins in return.

"That's the spirit! Now let's do this!"

"Actually," Interrupts Rosemary. "I'm allergic to razor blades, so I'll stay back here."

The maze wasn't all that bad, but it did take a while and a lot of traps so I'll abridge the story a bit. We must have been in the maze for at least 2 or 3 hours, as both Daring and I both have a terrible sense of direction, and found ourselves in dead ends more than often. On the other hoof, dead ends also meant treasure rooms, and we stuffed our saddlebags with all sorts of neat stuff. Every so often I had to find a new trap-poking stick, as mine was constantly cut in half, smashed, and even once stolen by a really big bat. All-in-all both Daring and I got through mostly unscathed, though I obtained a large cut on my back right leg from an arrow that came a little too close for comfort. It was amazing to think that this entire labyrinth was below Fillydelphia, maybe some day I would come back and explore it more thoroughly. Since we would occasionally find some sort of sign that meant we were going the correct way to the element and there were many other symbols I could only guess the meaning of, I imagined that there must be much more to the maze then we were seeing.

Eventually, our saddlebags were too full of treasure, and we decided we needed to stop exploring the interesting side routes and follow only the ones with the symbol of 3 apples, as so far those passages had led us forwards. I enjoyed Daring's company, though for the most part we only talked to say things like: 'Watch out for that spear!' or 'Hey, check out what I found over here!'. Slowly but surely, we found our way to the element of honesty, which was placed atop a pedestal in a well lit room surrounded by statues of old Earth pony royalty. Despite all the legends about the elements of harmony being powerful gems, and just like the element of loyalty, it was just a round stone with a carving of a jewel in it, and no obvious powers besides being heavy.

"It looks.....useless," Commented Daring when she saw that it was no different than our other element.

"Yeah," I agreed. "They might as well be called the bowling balls of harmony."

We made our way back to Rosemary, using traps we'd already set off as a guide to where we've already been. Instead of Rosemary waiting for us as we expected, instead we found a note stuck to the wall written in blue pen. Daring walked up to read it first, and I figured it just said that Rosemary had gotten tired of waiting, but Daring looked angry, and threw the note to the ground, and stomped on it. I walked over and read what remained of it after Daring finished her tantrum.

If you want the mare back, bring your elements of harmony to me in Appleoosa on the first day of February.

-Ahuizotl the great

I could feel myself falling forwards to my knees. How could I have let Rosemary get kidnapped? It was all my fault, I had suggested that she come on an adventure with me, and I had put her in danger.

Daring noticed my distress, and attempted to comfort me, rubbing her hoof on my back.

"We'll find her, Dart. I promise."

"Buck yeah we will."

Chapter 9 - Element of Laughter part 1

(From Daring's point of view)

Me and Dart didn't talk on the way back to Ponyville, just by looking at him, anypony could tell that he was completely miserable. On the train, he just stared out the window gloomily, blaming himself for everything. I just didn't know what to say to him, it was almost as miserable for me just seeing him so sad, especially since he had just gotten his sense of adventure back. The sun had already long set by the time we returned to our cottage in Ponyville, and neither of us were in the mood to do anything, so we just went to sleep without a word.

Dart was still sound asleep when I woke up, but his rest had taken away his gloomy expression, and as he slept it was almost like he had never been sad in the first place. Though I knew that as soon as he woke up that would change completely. I descended the stairs, knowing that I needed to get my mind off of Dart for a bit if I wanted to keep my sanity. Once I was outside, I noticed another letter from the princess in our mailbox. I reluctantly opened it to find some distressing news.

Dear Daring Do,

The situation grows more dire each minute, and I can feel Discord growing in power as I write this. I forgot to tell you when I listed the elements' locations that the other 5 elements are needed to summon the element of magic, so seek them out first.

-Princess Celestia

Nothing had really changed with this letter, I had been planning to start with the elements that would be the most difficult, which put the element of magic last on the list. And as far as danger goes, that would make the element of laughter next on the list. I looked up at the sun and realized that it was almost noon, and I should probably wake up Dart to get started on research.

I woke him up with a gentle nudge, instead of the usual method which just didn't feel appropriate after the events of yesterday. He didn't grumble at all, and just rolled out of bed silently. I explained the situation to him, and he agreed that we needed to start with the element of laughter, hidden away in the southern jungle. We spent the next 2 hours packing for 3 days in the jungle, which would have taken longer had we not decided to pack lightly so we don't have to lug heavy saddlebags around, plus to leave room for a little treasure.

While we waited for a train to a town on the outskirt of the jungle, Dart finally said something.

"I...screwed up pretty bad didn't I?" He asked.

"Dart," I pleaded. "It's not your fault, don't be so hard on yourself."

"But it is! If I hadn't agreed to take her along she wouldn't have been kidnapped!"

"It doesn't matter! Ahuizotl is the one that kidnapped her, not you! All we need to focus on right now is saving her!"

I gave Dart some time to take that in, and finally, the train arrived. We sat down, though instead of sitting across from him as usual, I sat next right next to him.

"Now cheer up a little," I ordered. "We're going to a huge jungle temple, and recovering one of the elements of harmony! Doesn't that at least sound a little fun?"

He flickered a smile for about half-a-second. "Yeah, that does sound like fun."

I leaned on him a little. "And we'll be completely alone, just you and me, it could be romantic."

To my annoyance, Dart choose this time to finally let out a chuckle. "Yeah sure, just you....me....and like, a thousand mosquitoes."

"Hey, I can dream, can't I?"

After a long pause Dart spoke swiftly and quietly. ".....[size=8]Thanks for cheering me up.[/size]"

"What was that? I didn't hear you."

"Thanks for cheering me up, Daring. I'm glad I have you around."

I was pretty sure he had never seriously thanked me before, even when I saved him from the Discordian cultists he wasn't all too sincere about it. I pretended to not be nearly as flattered as I actually was, and looked away from Dart so he couldn't read my expression.

"It's no big deal....but you owe me one."

"One what?"

I turned back towards him, and let myself lean in even further until he was holding the majority of my weight. "Whatever I want, but I haven't decided yet."

Dart yawned. "I don't know, last time I paid you back for something I got a bit more than I bargained for."

"And look how that turned out! Do you really have the right to complain?"

"I'll stop complaining as soon as we get a second mattress."

"Which will never happen." I pointed out.

"Exactly." It was relaxing to hear Dart cracking jokes again. After a moment, though, his expression darkened again and I could tell he was worried about Rosemary. "So....you're the expert on Ahuizotl, do you think he'll.....hurt her?"

I shook my head energetically, hoping to reassure him. "No! Ahuizotl likes to think of himself as a bit of a gentlecolt. She's probably having tea and cookies right now, don't worry!"

Dart let out a sigh of relief, this must have been a huge load off of his mind, and he put on a determined look.

"We will save her," I assured him. "I promise."

"Of course we will," He decided. "From now on, there's no reason we won't or can't."

Once we arrived at the closest station to the jungle we possibly could, and arrived in a small trading outpost simply called: "The Marezico jungle outpost.", ((I just couldn't think of any pony puns using south American cities or countries, sorry.)) Dart and I began to search the market stalls for important supplies. After an hour or so of searching, we bought nothing more than a refill on our water canteens, and a terribly smelly fruit that supposedly would repel insects. But we had little time to spare before nightfall to start travelling, so we soon flew out of the town and headed towards the jungle. Marezico is a strange place, because the further south you go the less desert you see, and the air quickly becomes more moist as you begin to see more and more vegitation.

We set up camp for the night at an oasis towards the southern end of the desert, meaning that we were only 2-3 hours away from the jungle itself, but the sun was setting and we knew better than to traverse the jungle at night. Unfortunately, when I had been packing my saddlebag, I completely forgot about sleeping, and we instead choose to rest on a cloud above the oasis where we had left our saddlebags (since they would have fallen through the cloud). I had been on the verge of falling asleep when I began to wonder about the jungle, and forced myself to wake up just enough to talk to Dart.

"Dart."

"Yes?" He answered groggily.

"What do you think we'll find in the jungle?"

"The element of laughter, maybe some traps, nothing new."

"No not the temple, I mean the jungle itself, aren't there dangerous creatures in there?"

"Well.....yes I've heard it's like the Everfree forest but bigger. Why, are you worried?"

"I was WORRIED that this would be BORING! But I guess if we run into a manticore or two it will be fine."

"Well trust me, you won't be disappointed. Good night, Daring."

"Good night."

(From Dart's point of view)

I woke up before Daring, which is something that didn't happen often. I briefly played with the thought of waking her up with some sort of prank, but not the love shenanigans she would use to wake me up. I ultimately decided not to mess with her, but instead glided down to the oasis below to wash my face. I landed by the water and peered at my reflection, and immediately noticed that my red mane had some mud in it, but something didn't seem quite right about that. I then saw that my reflection was grinning widely. Was I still grinning at the idea of pranking Daring? No, that didn't sounds quite right. I was still half-asleep and my mind didn't quite register the fact that my face in the reflection was looking a little....blue. I splashed some water at my face, and my eyes widened as I realized that I was not looking at one face in the water, but two. That of my own and that of a very blue muddy creature with a sharp toothed grin hiding in my reflection. I leaped backwards in surprise, and the creature leaped out of the water and tackled me to the ground. The water must have been deeper than I expected, because a full size naga (A strange race of feral amphibious ponies, also carnivorous) was holding me down with all four of it's scaly hooves.

"Erm....would you mind getting off of me?" I asked at the creature, who was dripping all over me. It growled in response. It may have looked like a pony, but in retrospect, talking to it was not such a great idea. It took a tight hold on me, and pulled me into the water, where it could move much faster than me. It lashed out at me with it's sharp teeth, and I kicked it off of me, and scrambled to the surface and out of the water. I took a quick glance up at Daring, who was still sound asleep on her cloud. The naga pulled itself out from the pond and got ready to charge at me, bowing it's head down in the way ponies do when they're getting ready to run. I did the same, not really knowing how else to combat it. We ran at each other, and I flapped my wings with perfect timing to hop over him, and bucked it in the face as he turned around, rendering it unconscious. I dusted myself off and flew up to Daring, who was lying with her face in the cloud.

"Wake up, Mrs. Do. We've got to get going."

Daring flopped over to face me and rubbed her eyes a bit. "Why are you soaking wet and covered in mud?"

"No reason in particular."

Chapter 10 - Element of Laughter part 2

(From Daring Do's point of view)

When the jungle finally came into view after another hour of flying, I began to see that flying to the temple was out of the question, since the trees were tall and aplenty. Dart and I landed in front of the jungle, and he got out his idiotic check list, which didn't matter at this point since we weren't going all the way back just because he forgot the rope. (Which he did.) I've attempted to explain to him that he needs to do his check-list before he leaves many times, but he just never listens. The flight had dried him off quite a bit, but he was still had mud all over him.

"Tell me again why you wouldn't wash yourself off at the oasis?"

"I am NOT going in that water."

I decided not to question him as we came to a landing and entered the jungle. I could feel the temperature drop as we got out of the piercing sun and the trees became more and more common. The air became more humid as the sounds of the jungle creatures became louder and louder. We did not immediately encounter any predators, but we could hear them everywhere. And not just the large ones either, the buzz of potentially poisonous insects filled the air, and I began to hope that disgusting fruit Dart made me eat would work to repel them.

Eventually, we came to a large patch of strange bubbling mud in our path, it stretched on in every direction past our field of view. Just as I was about to take to the air and fly over it, Dart put a hoof on my shoulder.

"Wait, I don't like this."

"Oh relax, it's just mud. We'll be over it in no time."

"Maybe, but this is a jungle, not a swamp. Jungles have soil, not bubbly mud."

"Actually I'm pretty sure the mud in swamps doesn't bubble either."

"You're not helping."

"Okay okay, but what else could we do? Go around it? "

"Normally, yes. But we're pretty short on time here, so all I ask is that you be careful, alright?"

"Hey! We're professionals! I think we can deal with some mud."

At this point Dart was starting to annoy me with all of his worries, he wasn't usually like this at all, but I decided to cut him a little slack since Rosemary was captured and he probably just doesn't want something to happen to me also. And what can I say? I'm just too awesome, nopony could ever bear losing me. I took to the air, and slowly hovered out over the mud, and as I expected, the mud did not grow arms and strangle me. Dart reluctantly followed, and we began to fly at a speed not much faster than when we were walking, taking care to avoid branches and the like. I was careless, however, and a branch that had barely missed my head knocked off my hat. Luckily, it fell onto a large, brown, mossy log that was half submerged in the mud, so my hat didn't get too dirty. I landed on the log, and bent down to pick up my hat. Just as I was about to put it on, the log suddenly slid out from under me, and I landed in the mud. Dart swooped down and grabbed me just before four gigantic brown snakes rose from the mud, but they were unnaturally large, and very similar looking. Almost like the heads of a-

"Hydra!" Yelled Dart, letting go of me as soon as I began to flap my wings. We both began to fly as fast as we possibly could, and we could hear the hydra roaring behind us. Just as I thought we had escaped and I began to calm down, the roar of the hydra began to echo around the jungle and another of the scaly beasts rose from the mud in front of us, this time with six heads.

"We're in a hydra nest!" Yelled Dart over the mass roaring. We veered to the left, and I noticed that another one was about to lash out at Dart from the mud.

"Heads up!"

Instead of dodging the hydra as I had hoped, Dart simply looked back at my while we flew.

"Daring, that pun was just b-" He was cut short by the monster, which knocked him down into the mud.

Dart struggled to dry his wings enough to fly, but every time he dodged one of the hydra's lunges, he became more engrossed in the mud. Just as another hydra rose out of it's nest to attack Dart, who was almost completely submerged in the mud, he flapped his wings as hard ans fast as he could. He quickly generated enough momentum to launch him up from the mud, and then back down on the head of the hydra who had narrowly missed him.

Not wanting to fall back down into the mud, Dart grabbed onto the hydra's neck and grips with all of his might as the hydra swung him around like a bull in a rodeo. Every time I attempted to dive in to save him, a hydra or two would snap at me, forcing me to keep my distance.

"Daring! Throw me the rope, I can't fly with this mud on my wings!" He yelled to me, still riding the hydra.

"I can't! You forgot the rope!" I said while dodging a hydra myself.

"Aw horse-feathers."

A large 12 headed hydra then joined the fray, causing some of the small ones to back down. With every step of his foot, the ground shook and even the other hydras seemed to cower in fear. With a mighty roar, the beast leaped on Dart and the hydra he had been riding. Dart jumped, narrowly escaping one of the monster's mighty heads. In mid-air, he finally managed to get his wings just dry enough to provide him with an extra boost, and made his way just within reach of my hoof. I held on to him tight, and together we flew above the trees, out of view and reach of the reptilians waiting below.

Just as I thought I could catch my breath, the twelve heads burst through the canopy and wrapped their necks around Dart and I. It used it's neck to bring me closer to one of the other heads, which was brandishing a toothy smile. I shut my eyes tight, but even that couldn't stop my life from flashing before me. I was entirely convinced that the end had come at the hooves of this monster, and then, there was silence and darkness.

Silence except for the sound of mosquitoes and my own exhausted breathing. I opened my eyes to investigate the reason for my well-being, and found that the hydra seemed to be staring strangely at Dart, who was being held upside down and had a look of utter annoyance plastered on his face. Suddenly, the hydra did something nopony could have expected. It spoke.

"Bah! He carries the curse! He is bad eating!" Said one of it's heads, this one looked angrier than the others.

"I sssay jusssst kill him." Said the head wrapped around Dart.

"Wait," Said the head in the middle. "Perhaps they could be of assistance to us."

"They?" Said the head that was holding me. "Does this mean I can't eat the mare?"

The middle head ignored him. "Your name is Dart Dash, correct?"

"Correct." Said Dart. "Would you mind holding me the right way?"

"You heard the stallion!" Barked the angry head to the one holding Dart, who reluctantly obeyed.

"Ssssorry. There issssn't usssually any complantssss."

"We're afraid that we need your help, Dart Dash." Said the middle head.

"And...just curious. Why, exactly is it, that we should help you?"

The hydra used some of the heads on the sides to imitate a shrug, which was sort of funny to watch.

"Because we'll eat you if you don't. Any other complaints?" All of the heads grinned at this.

"Well," Said Dart. "I guess I'll remain open minded. What can I do for you....fellows?"

"In case you haven't noticed by now, this isn't a nest. It's an outpost. We're at war, Dart. And we need your help to end it!" Explained the angry one.

"With who? What in this jungle could possible stand a chance against a hydra?" I asked, no longer fearing death since Dart agreed to help.

"The naga." Said the middle head.

"And what threat do the little snake ponies have to you?"

"Normally? Nothing." Said the head who over pronounces the letter 'S'. "They plan to sssssink our jungle right into the ssssea. This is mosssstly imposssible, however their queen has reccccently dissscovered an artifact of great powerssss. Sssshe controlsss the sssstorm."

"Since we can't exactly swim, it's up to you two to stop the jungle from sinking. And if we know anything about the Daring Duo," Continued the middle head. "it's that retrieving artifacts is your specialty."

"How do you know who we are?" I asked the middle head. It only grinned and ignored me.

"And if you successfully retrieve the artifact and come back, our people will be in your debt. Now go, you can find the ocean palace of the naga right off of the shore to the east of here. Good luck, my little ponies. You will need it against the naga."

And with that, we were dropped back on top of the mud, and each and every hydra began to sink back below us. Needless to say, we didn't wait around very long.

(From Dart's point of view)

After flying east for just a few minutes, we arrived at a shoreline with crystal clear water, and a dark blue palace could easily be seen in the distance, partly above the water due to the low tide.

"So," I told Daring. "I guess we'll have to fly further over the mud this time."

"What? Aren't we going to the naga castle?" She said, surprised.

"Well, unless you have a way to get us in there without drowning, I don't think that will work."

"Well we could just fly. Part of it is above the surfa-" Daring was cut off by the sound of distant thunder, but not as distant as I'd have hoped. A dark cloud loomed the area surrounding the castle, and the storm was far too intense to fly through.

"That doesn't seem to be an option. The hydra mentioned they control the storm, remember?"

"Okay we can just use a boat." Daring said casually.

"No. Absolutely not. I will not take a boat out into the ocean over hundreds of sharp-toothed serpent ponies."

"I thought you enjoyed danger, Dart. What's wrong?"

"IIIIIII'm afraidoftheocean."

Daring must have gotten used to how I mumble things that embarrass me, since she understood me without asking me to repeat myself like usual.

"But you said we would go to the sea pony ruins on hearts and hooves day!"

"I didn't want to disappoint you!"

Daring sighed and rolled her eyes simultaneously. Then, after a moment of thought, grinned. "Well Dart, there's only one way to cure a stallion's fears."

"Never speak of them again?" I asked hopefully.

"No. By facing them with a smoking hot mare at your side!"

Before I could protest, I found myself being shoved into the water, and landing face first in the ocean. When I attempted to get up and run for it, Daring blocked my path.

"I'm going to go find us a boat, and you're going to stay here and get used to it. You'd better not leave the water, okay?"

"Oh come on! We don't have to do this, Daring! The hydras will never know!" I pleaded.

"Yes we do, Dart. Didn't you hear them? A corner of Equestria is going to sink into the ocean! Besides, I want that artifact, and this is no different from an average treasure hunt." She spoke sternly, yet still with a smile.

The way her eyes gleamed when she said treasure hunt was enough to make me nod my head, and she flew off into the sky with a wave and a wink.

It wasn't until a few moments later that I realized she had told me to stay like I was her dog. I stood up, but with my hooves still in the water. Before long I remembered that I was standing in the ocean, and that the ocean is full of giant monsters and fish poop. I scrambled to the shore, and almost climbed back onto the sand when Daring's words echoed through my head. With a loud sigh, I sank back into the water.

After an hour of pacing up and down the sea shore while making sure to keep my legs in the water, Daring returned with what must have been pretty much the shittiest boat ever. It was a small wooden rowboat meant for Earth ponies who can't use clouds to fish, but it was so old it looked like it could break any minute. Not to mention it was meant for one pony, so it would be quite a tight fit.

"Daring, you have lost it." I decided after inspecting the vessel.

"I haven't lost anything! But I did FIND this great boat, and it was only 10 bits!"

Despite her enthusiasm 10 bits seemed like a fitting price. The boat didn't even have oars.

"Okay look, maybe I could have faced my fears on a regular day, but this is insane!"

"Insane is what we do for a living. Get in the boat."

"But-"

"Do you want to save Rosemary?"

"Of course! But-"

"Get in the boat."

Finally I could see, there was no more delaying it, and Daring seemed pretty peeved. Needless to say, I got my plot into the boat.

((Quick Author's note: Sorry for the massive delay! I had to visit my family around the world over the summer, then my computer broke, then school started. This chapter was supposed to be a lot longer but for the sake of just getting it out to you guys I decided to cut it short. I didn't get anyone to proof read it so if anyone notices a grammar or spelling error just let me know.))