Treasure hunters of Equestria

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."