Treasure hunters of Equestria

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))