Daring Do and the Arimaspi's Labyrinth

by aprilshowers45

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Other, Gilda, Adventure, Daring Do, Main 6
Length: 1341

Back when Griffonstone was famous, Arimaspi tried to steal the Idol of Boreas. Those griffons stopped him... but there were more. That wasn't the end.

When Griffonstone had ponies coming from far and wide to visit, it still had the Idol of Boreas, the god of wind's blessing. But when Arimaspi tried to steal it... he didn't get to keep it, but the griffons lost it, and they thought there wasn't going to be any more trouble. But there's one thing they didn't know...

Published 2015-07-25 01:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-07-25 01:10:01 UTC

Stomping?

Over in Griffonstone, things were looking up. Gilda was having fun, for once. Spreading friendship was both easier and harder than she expected. Hr and a friend were just hanging out, trying the new and improved griffonscones, taking a walk around town. They were planning on changing this money bags, selfish, no singing no cake no party store dump into a place better than it ever was before. They didn't need some silly chunk of gold to do that.

Well, I mean, things were looking up. Until a thumping began. THUMP THUMP THUMP. It started getting louder. And louder. And louder. Gilda and the rest of Griffonstone could hear it. They began to worry. Of course, they gathered up all their money until the thumping stopped. It soon quieted down, although that thumper started going in a different direction, the sound waves going across the water, like a stone skipping over the waves. And a particular cloud with a bolt of red, yellow, and blue lightning began to thump as well.

A friend in need

That cloud of lightning was on Rainbow Dash's flank. As soon as it happened, she went to Twilight's castle and bolted into the room with the map and everypony's thrones. She thought some other pony would be there as well. Like... everypony else. But, like before, the cutie mark went over to Griffonstone. Her and Pinkie had gone there last time... "Am I supposed to go there alone?" she asked herself. "I think I do need some help. But where can I get help?"

The cutie mark then moved over to a different spot. "A forest? How is a forest supposed to he-" Rainbow began. But something came out of that forest. A compass. Maybe that could help.

A doer, not a dreamer

Rainbow Dash carefully walked through the forest. At any moment something freaky could jump out at her. You never know.
But she managed to calm herself, and she got to the cottage where A.K. Yearling -A.K.A. Daring Do- lived. She knocked on the door, and a more friendly-looking pony than before came out.

"Hi, Rainbow Dash! Why are you here?" she said. Rainbow told her all about the cutie mark thing, and a problem in Griffonstone, and that she was told to get Daring Do to help her. "Sure!" Daring said cheerfully. And they had a race, to see who could fly to Griffonstone faster.

Arimaspi's back...?

Once the two reached Griffonstone, they grabbed Gilda and followed that thump that had quieted down but had still been going all day. The followed it for a while... until they met a goat cyclops thing. Gilda stepped forward, her eyes narrow, and stomped as well. "Ayes. A griffon."
Rainbow Dash zoomed over to warn the other Griffons and described that monster. They all knew what she meant. They gathered over behind Gilda and Daring Do, in dead silence. "Arimaspi..."
Inside, G's mind was going crazy. Arimaspi? That's impossible! I saw his lifeless skeleton back with Dash and Pinkie! Did he come back to life? "What are you doing here?" someone asked. "You came back to life?"
"Oh, no. You see, I'm not the very same Arimaspi who tried to take your lost idol or Boreas. I don't really like wind. But I have it. Although, in order to retrieve it, get it back, you have to pass a test. You must show me you really deserve it. You will have to go through my labyrinth.

desserts = stressed

Everyone looked up at the giant. "Okay, okay. You passed. But that's just the first bit." he told them. He took them back to his place, which nopony could recognize.
"Your next task... you will have to make a potion." They all zoomed over to some other place. An odd lab, spiky vines all over the walls and the edges of the floors, smelled weird, and a bunch of potion ingredients, a cauldron in the middle.
On a table was a scroll. It had a recipe for a potion, and what looked like the ingredients were all there. But you had to put things in a certain way, in a certain order, and it was quite difficult.
After a lot of tries, they were out of sugar. But who puts sugar in weirdo potions? Anyway, no sugar, no go. "Ooh, looks like you can't make that potion. I guess you shouldn't get that idol." the Arimaspi said.
But Daring Do reached into her pocket... and there was a griffonscone in there, that Gilda had given her. Pinkie had told her to add a bit more sugar, so that could help them.

And so, they managed to make that potion, and passed the second part of the test.

The last leg

"Okay. This is the last leg of this. I have the water of the river Acheron I got. You will have to fetch your chunk of gold. It won't melt, don't worry. You'll have to build something to get to it."

Over behind them, there was some wood and other things. After some work, those ponies had made a bridge. Rainbow carefully dropped in a hook, and tried to scoop it up. She got it, but somehow, it got blown away. It fell through a portal... into Abysmal Abyss... and was never seen from again. So you can go back to Griffonstone, and you could never guess what happened.

The Maze Runners

While Rainbow was chickening out, warning her friends, Daring Do and Gilda stepped forward. "Bring it." they said simultaneously.
"Oh, I'm so scared!" the one-eyed goat said in his best girly voice. He walked over to a plain, flat, peaceful bit of land, like a park. Everyone else following, Daring and G in the front, a big bunch of walls started coming out of the ground. The two got trapped in a maze, and it was tilting. And they didn't know that there were giant boulders coming at them, until they saw one. They tried to fly... but no luck. "We better stick together, so we can get to the middle at once." Daring Do suggested.

The three bolders going around, following the two brave ones, eventually they got to the middle, but there were three ways out, and each was blocked, by a boulder charging at them.

But then, out of nowhere, a sonic boom. A sonic RAINBOOM. It broke through the magic barrier and swooped right it. that "Rainbow Dash" grabbed the two ponies and stopped in the middle, not scared of those giant rocks that could crush them... Because they also crushed each other. The boulders were so big that it left a bit of room underneath, where they didn't meet, enough to cram two ponies and a griffon. Those giant spheres broke themselves in half, and everyone got out. The maze and everything went back into the ground...

Tricky

It was a trick. "You didn't really think I was just going to give the lost idol of Boreas right to you after you did only that, did you? You'd have to make me king!" Cackled the Arimaspi.
He just started to babble on about how gullible they were. Not even noticing... That out of the sky, came five necklaces, a crown, and five ponies. "Did you really think it would be that easy to get away?" Twilight asked. "Take em' down!"

Daring Do and Gilda pounced and grabbed his arms, pushed him down, and stood on his legs. The other ponies did their thing.
The elements of harmony! He turned to stone... Stuck to Daring and Gilda. They had to break his arms and legs off... And out came a puff of black smoke. "Thanks..." It said, sounding just like that Arimaspi. Quickly, Twilight zapped it... And stuck him in the waters of the river Acheron.
But the fortress began to crumble... And they had to run. And now that one eyed goat monster is bathing eternally in the river of pain.