Daring Do and the Throne of Ouroboros

by Tolerance

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Diamond Dogs, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Adventure, Science Fiction, Daring Do, Ahuizotl
Length: 40836

Daring Do's a mare of action. So when none of her usual rivals steps up with a new plan to 'rule take over the world,' Daring finds herself desperate to do something, anything to stave off boredom. Even if it means following the faintest of trails.

Part of the Observations Universe!

Everyone knows her as Daring Do, the Adventuring Mare of Mystery, but when the revolving doors of her various nemesis' ambitions seems to stop, she suddenly finds herself with far too much time on her hooves.

Through an anonymous source curiously identifying themselves as Daring Do's Number One Fan, she receives a set of coordinates that seem to point to nowhere. Taking her chances on what could either be a trap, a dead-end, or one of the greatest discoveries in her field, Daring must come to terms with the fact that even she, an expert in the field of ancient history, might not know where to draw the lines between myth and legend on this adventure.

Published 2016-05-25 17:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-06-09 17:53:46 UTC

1: Wild Goose Chase

Author's Note

I recommend you check out the previous Observations Universe titles if you haven't already. They won't be strictly required, but they will provide a bunch of background on the 'Observations' epilogue chapters.

1: Wild Goose Chase

She paced back and forth in the run-down little shack she used as a front for her authoring gig. Daring Do didn't do waiting. It simply wasn't something she could tolerate. Any lack of action on her part meant that somepony, or someone, else beat her to some ancient artifact that would probably end up being sold on a black market. After that, it was only a matter of time before it would wind up in the hooves, or paws, or whatever, of any number of bad guys, probably ending civilization as she knew it. Every adventure of hers meant that the artifacts made it where they belonged, which was a properly curated museum.

Granted, Daring's latest trip had been one of the situations where she was forced to leave said artifact with its original owners. She'd saved the Legendary Idol of Airavata from a raiding party led by the notorious Stallion Stallióne who was harassing the Elephant nomad tribe who owned the artifact. Which meant that she'd eventually have to save them again in three or four months.

Looking at her schedule, she made sure to bump Stallióne back to the bottom of her schedule for foreseeable future. Daring reviewed the other names on the list before she double checked her next foe. "That can't be right..." she said as she double checked the bounty board. Sure enough, she'd managed to outwit all of her other adversaries since the last time she had fought Ahuizotle, some of them even more than once.

When it came to her self-proclaimed Arch-nemesis, being late was something that just didn't happen. It'd been so long since their last encounter that Daring briefly wondered if he'd finally given up his grave-robbing gig after all these years. She shook her head of that thought quickly enough. "He's got to be up to something, I'm sure of it."

A knock at her door broke her out of guessing what the blue menace was cooking up. "Hello, Ms. Yearling? I've brought this week’s fan mail.

Adjusting her disguise, Daring opened the door. "Morning mister Express. Anything from the publisher?"

"Afraid not. Why, do you have another book in the works that I don't know about?"

"Ah ah ah, that would be cheating. You know I always hoof-deliver those myself. Anyway, Thanks for the delivery, but I wouldn't want to keep you from your duties, dear. Run along now." Daring said in a matronly tone. By Celestia, she hated her alternate persona sometimes.

"No problem, Ms. Yearling. I'll see you again next week!"

Daring waved until the postal pony was out of sight before she began the arduous task of pushing the heavy box inside. "How does that stringy stallion even move these things, let alone carry them?" She grumbled as she towed the package inside.

Its contents were standard fare, mostly. Ponies asking for advanced copies of Yearling's next book, complaints about the way griffons were represented in chapter four, same old, same old. There was one item that stuck out, since it was addressed to Daring Do herself instead of her pen name. That probably meant that it was from a small filly who didn't know any better. Those ones were Daring's favorites, which meant it was one of the few that would actually get a reply. The other outcome was that it was another one of Rainbow Dash's cheesy fanfics. Either way it meant Daring had to set it aside until she was done with the rest, maybe even after she had time to psych herself up a bit.

The rest of the fan mail eventually sorted out, Daring took one last look at her nemesis list before she sank into resignation. Without any additional leads on a new artifact, which might take weeks of legwork on her end, there was no real reason for her to delay looking into her last piece of mail.

"Please be a filly, please be a filly..." Daring chanted as she began carefully peeling back the envelope.

To her surprise, there was just a single piece of paper. It contained neither the earnest scribbles of a tiny fan nor the practiced scribbles of the Element of Loyalty. Just a single folded piece of paper with 'Your #1 Fan?" written with some sort of typeset script. Unfolding the parchment, Daring saw a set of numbers that she easily recognized as set of coordinates.

Daring, of course, being an explorer at heart, quickly realized that she had no idea what this peculiar set of coordinates were supposed to be pointing to. They looked like they belonged to the old equestrian territories, before the Great Migration. Upon this discovery, Daring dug out her map of Ancient Equestria out from underneath the pile of papers on her desk.

Using her hoof, she traced the longitude to a point along the western coast, then north only to realize that the location wasn’t on the map at all. No wonder she didn't recognize them. Forced to dig through an additional heap of piled papers for her globe, she spun it around to the point just outside of the old pony-held region.

As far as she knew, 'nothing' was the only way to describe the lack of anything that had ever been in the region.

"Hmm, wait for Ahuizotle to make a move, or go on a wild goose chase?"she asked herself. But before Daring Do could mentally reply to her speculation, she was already out the door.

~~~~~

Daring Do wasn't one to ever be unprepared, always ready to travel at a moment’s notice, but after that one incident with an artifact of living flame, she was required to contact her publisher before gallivanting off anywhere, for insurance reasons. Daring also wanted to see if anypony at the archive knew anything about the mystery region. There was also the matter of securing transportation there and back. If there was one thing she'd learned throughout the years, it was that most idols and artifacts were solid, and heavy, and dragging them back to civilization was a pain in the neck.

Anyway, Daring had a pretty good idea about who to go to for a lift, so she figured that she might as well get the hard part out of the way first, talking to her publisher. While Ink Splotch was good at his job, the way he always seemed to steer their conversations towards getting her to write an official autobiography was starting to get on her nerves.

"Ah, good afternoon Ms.Yearling," Splotch said in a way that caused Daring's eye to twitch. "came to see how the last novel is coming along? I'm afraid we don't have much to update you with, it hasn't even hit the presses yet."

"No, I'm not here for that. I'm headed out again. Gotta keep up the research for the next novel, you know. If things are good to go around here, then I think I'll let you get back to work..."

"Wait just a minute, Missy. I know you live for your work, but you just got back from your last 'research trip’, you should probably give it a rest for a bit. The villain of the month could wait."

"Oh, well, you know me..."

"No, can't say I do, not really. It's not like you spend much time doing normal things. Heck, I'm sure you've got enough vacation days stacked up to hold you off until you retire!"

"Did you just call me old!?"

"I would never! It's just that, everyone needs a break now and then, even the stoutest and bravest of, well, authors..."

Daring looked down for a bit. It had been a long time since she'd done anything other than work. Hunting artifacts, defending artifacts, stealing artifacts back from bad ponies. Was that all she was? No. She shook her head. "Well, I don't actually plan on finding anything on this trip. It's really more of a wild goose chase than anything anyway."

"Who chases geese? Well, just try to stay out of trouble."

"You know I can't make any promises, right?"

"Yes, but outright saying that you should end up getting a nice long hospital stay, so that you have plenty of time about that autobiography, would be in bad taste, wouldn't it?"

"Why you-"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Yearling." Ink blotch said loud enough for his other employees to hear, breaking off any argument Daring could spit at him. "You can't just go back and decide what is and is not canon after the fact..."

"Fine. I'll just be on my way then. But I'm still not writing that!" Daring finished as she huffed out of the office, her feathers thoroughly ruffled. This was why she spent her time, far away from civilization as possible, preferably somewhere that had an unpronounceable name.

~~~~~

At least there was Curio, the curator for the Canterlot Museum of Natural History. Probably the only pony she'd ever actually opened up to, even before her interactions with the Element of Loyalty. Not that Daring would ever admit it, but the curator's enthusiasm for his field was something they'd had in common, even if she was less vocal about it than curio. She found him in the hall that housed an impressive collection of replica fossils, shouting at some underlings to position the centerpiece, some sort of hydra skeleton, just right.

"Why Hello, Ms. Yearling! These halls only ever brighten up when you're around, and I'm not just talking about all of your wonderful finds that we still have on loan, either!" Curio beamed at her, as he momentarily forgot about harrying his workers.

"Thanks, Curio, got any place we can talk?"

"Most certainly! You know the way to my office, I'll meet you there once I've finished with the exhibit."

Daring made her way to the head office, wondering, not for the first time, how Curio managed to keep his work so neat and orderly. Letting herself into his office, she didn't even have to excavate any paperwork in order to reach the coffee machine between Curio's bookshelves. Not that she much cared for the beverage, but the coffee that Curio constantly consumed hailed from someplace exotic enough to entice her taste buds, if only a little.

Besides, with as much as a perfectionist as Curio was, there was no telling how long he'd keep telling his crew to adjust every single vertebrae until it was in the correct position. Just another example of where their methods differed. She wasn't one to micromanage.

"I hope I didn't keep you too long," Curio said as he shut the door behind him. "It really is a pleasure to see you, Daring. I haven't seen you before you left for Zebrica. Shame about that Idol..." He finished as he poured himself a fresh cup as well.

"You know that it had to be that way. That tribe needs it more than the museum does."

"And you know that you'll eventually have to go back out there and save it again."

Daring sighed. "I know, but it was the right thing to do."

"So long as it's out of the hooves of the unscrupulous, I'd have to agree." Curio said as he slipped behind his desk. "So, with that idol accounted for, for the moment, what brings you to the museum? Feeling a bit nostalgic were we?"

"Pssh, no. The only dusty artifacts I want to see are the ones that aren't already behind a pane of glass. But seriously, I'm looking to see if you've got any information."

"If it's about Ahuizohtl, I'm afraid I don't have any leads..."

'How does everypony know about that?' Daring wondered. "No, nothing like that, I hope. I received a set coordinates and I just wanted to see if you knew anything about what might be buried there."

"Well, if you haven't heard about it and I haven't heard about it, then it probably doesn't exist, does it not?" Curio said jokingly.

~~~~~

"Yes, I'm positive now. Whatever you're looking for out there doesn't exist. At least as far as the record is concerned, nothing out there has ever existed." Curio stated matter-of-factually.

"On the bright side, it also means that it probably hasn't been looted yet."

"Or that there is nothing there to loot. This might be some kind of ploy to lure you away from a real threat to archaeology. Are you still sure about checking it out?"

"Somepony needs to do it, so it might as well be me. Besides, it might not be a trap. Even if that were the case, we can't ignore the letter."

"I actually agree with you, in either case. The question concerning who your 'number one fan' is, however, seems to garner even more questions. But, who am I to question the Great Daring Do? I leave this to your expertise."

"Thanks, Curio. Here's to bringing back a good haul!" Daring clinked her now-empty coffee mug against his in a mock toast before heading out to leave.

The door closed, leaving the curator alone in his office. Sighing to nopony in particular, Curion whispered "Please be careful out there, Daring." beneath his breath.

~~~~~

"That just leaves the transport," Daring observed as she made her way to the Canterlot Dockyard. She'd picked up the rest of her supplies while she made her way to the dock, switching her disguise to something less feminine, and therefore less restrictive, as she did so. The little author persona wasn't one to hang around anyplace that could be considered rough and tumble.

The particular Airship she'd had her eye on was still sitting at the pier, a dark silhouette against the otherwise golden Canterlot afternoon. Luna's official Airship, the Scarce Eclipse, was an Equal to match Celestia's own vessel, save one metric. Unlike the crew of the Eternal Radiance, the night-court sailors could keep a secret.

Eyeing the ponies running around in a metered panic whilst attempting to get the vessel underway, Daring Do located her target in the center of an ever-changing crowd, giving orders to problems as soon as they arose. Making her own way through the rushed thrall, Daring gave her spiel, "Why hello there, Captain, Sir! I was wondering if'n you might have room for a lad, such as myself, to gain passage upon this here mighty ship?"

"Aye know it's you, Darin'..." responded the ship's Captain with a heavily accented voice that seemed to hate properly pronunciating anything that might come at the end of a word.

"But how-"

"Yur hat. I'm guessin tha' your lil costume’s probably the only thing keepin the pith helme' business afloa'!" The Captain answered giving a hearty chuckle. "But as fer yer original question’s concerned, there's plenty ah room, so long as you don't mind sharin it with both some cargo and a whiney diplomat?"

"Sounds good to me. Same cabin?"

"Aye, though I'm guessin you've already got a drop off point planned?"

"Yes Sir! If you don't mind a quick little stop near Seaddle." Daring said pulling out the flight map she'd swiped from the docking office. She indicated that the area she wanted to make her rendezvous point was on the very edge of Equestria itself.

"Looking ta get yourself proper lost this time, aye? Well, it's still a bit of a stretch, but we'll make do."

"What about that whiny noble?"

"He's already a pain, a few more days won' hurt none, besides, that little dilomat's on a one way trip. Ain't neither of us have to deal with him on the way back."

"Well, then it'll be a pleasure working with you guys again." Daring said holding out her hoof for the captain.

The captain grasped the outstretched hoof. "Aye, as I said the last time, Daring, you're one of the few regulars that the boys're happy ta have aboard." The captain directed her toward the brow of the ship. "Now be off wit' ya. And for Alicorn's sake, lose the disguise, yer not fooling anyone here..."

Daring waved back as she made her way aboard. It's a good thing that none of her enemies were half as good as picking through her disguises as well as the honorable Captain McStirrup.

Finding her usual cabin, Daring Do found that the floor to her cabin was covered in random crates, taking up around a third of the room's total space. If she was to share the cabin with somepony else for a portion of the trip, she no longer wondered why that pony was cranky. Not that it bothered her any, she just hitched her hammock a little higher to compensate. Besides, trips like these were better spent on the deck.

~~~~~

Or at least they should have been, provided the weather had kept up. Not being one to bother keeping tabs on weatherpony schedules, Daring found that, for most of the trip, the rain had kept her indoors. Next to a very, irritating, yet somehow, very boring unicorn noble. If there was one thing that Daring pulled from their one-sided conversations it was that she hoped his diplomatic mission didn't strain the relations with whatever country he was being sentenced to.

When the Captain informed her that they'd reached her drop off location, she dashed back to her cabin for her things yelling something along the lines of 'Oh thank Celestia!" along the way. Without further ceremony, and without so much as stopping the airship, Daring Do bounded into the still damp the air, thankful that, even if she found nothing at all, she'd still find a way to be thankful for the sudden, absolute silence she found herself in.

To get to the Coordinates, she still had about three days of travel time with which to head North. After that, she could set up camp and explore the area for another two weeks before the Eclipse was set to make the return trip. If she missed that, then she'd probably have to wing it back to Seaddle and find another method of transportation.

But between setting up her base camp and then, Daring Do was free to do what she does best.

~~~~~

If not for the fact that the climate much colder than was strictly to her liking, Daring decided that she might have to visit the area more often. The view was spectacular, and best of all, it was remote. The only problem with that, was that there wasn't anything to see. Sure there was a scenic waterfall formed between the cliffs carved out by centuries-old glacier, and the jagged mountains and dense forest were nothing if not majestic, but Daring's canvass of the area had shown that there were no signs of anything other than naturally-formed structures here.

That didn't mean that there wasn't anything to be found, though. Daring's years of treasure hunting had left her with a knack for finding ancient temples and whatnot. There were numerous reasons why a temple might be buried, for instance, either the religion that built it was formed around some ritualistic taboo, which required them to hide their activities from prying eyes. Those temples weren’t just buried, they were built below ground from the start. Other times, a new religion sweeps the old one aside, either by force or otherwise, and instead of dismantling the often ridiculously heavy structure, it's easier to simply bury it under some dirt and call it a day.

Now that she was thinking about it, Daring Do was pretty sure she'd never been in a temple that hadn't been hidden in some fashion...

Either way, since nothing was visible from the air, she'd have to begin searching closer to the ground. She'd check a few caves she'd spotted from the air, and if nothing showed up, then she'd give the forest a once-over. If there was something out here, the adventurous Pegasus was the one who was going to find it.

~~~~~

After four days of finding absolutely nothing, Daring swore at herself for being mislead. Not that she'd had anything better to do, but she really should confirm her source before charging ahead like she did. Instead of working herself into a fit though, she decided that she did, indeed have time to take a break for once. No bud guys chasing her, no doomsday to stall, just a pegasus with nothing but wide open skies, a crystal clear lake, and nothing but time on her hooves.

A bit of aerial practice sounded like a good start. It was one of the few things that Rainbow dash had actually been right about concerning Daring's 'character,' she really needed to spend more time using her pegasus-borne powers. Not that she was entirely ground-bound but Daring Do did spend quite a bit of her time either, underground, or trekking through underbrush somewhere, so she actually didn't get to spend too much time flying. The exercise also had the benefit of taking her mind off of work, or rather, the lack thereof.

After a few climbs and dives, nothing fancy, Daring had already managed to work up a sweat, even in the chilled northern atmosphere. As it is, the lack of constant practice was probably going to make her one very sore mare tomorrow. Not wanting to end up in too much discomfort, the pegasus landed her final dive into the water, the ice-cold water zapping away any tenderness long before it could set in. The shock of the water's temperature setting in, however, promptly forced Daring to seek shelter from its near-icy embrace.

Leaving the water for the shore, Daring decided that she deserved a few minutes relaxing in the sun before she headed back to camp.

~~~~~

She let out a deep, sleepy yawn. Daring could scarcely recall the last time she'd let a nap set in. It made her feel energetic and tired at the same time.

Daring Do briefly wondered if the feeling was normal when something out of the corner of her still-bleary eyes caught her attention. Rubbing her eyes in an attempt to clear them, the pegasus was now fully awake. Now able to focus properly, she found herself eyeing the one location she she had failed to check.

"Why do I always forget the waterfalls?" Daring asked herself as she flew towards the cascading mists. When she had awoken from her nap, she'd sighted the rays of light catching the interior walls of a cave as they reflected off of the pools below. And if there was one place an ancient cult was likely to stash a secret entrance to their temple, it was behind a waterfall.

Smacking the hindsight out her own mind, Daring landed beyond the water's veil. There wasn't much room to the cave, so the sun's light filtering through was enough to light the space. It didn't take the mare long to find the symbols carved into the rock. Very clearly written in Equish were the words 'Press to open' above a small outcrop of stone.

"That's mighty convenient." Daring said, looking for the door or hatch that the device was supposed to open. There wasn't an edge she could discern from the rest of the rock wall, which would be a major pain to open if the button didn't work, a problem that none of the hidden traps inside was likely to have. Before messing with the entrance any further, Daring headed back to camp for her gear.

There was no indication as to what was beyond the door, so it would probably help to be prepared, just in case. Besides, the sun was dipping beyond the valley walls, so Daring was going to need her own source of light after she cracked this thing open.

Returning to her tent, Daring donned her saddlebags, filled with what she considered essential adventuring kit. Robe, firestarter, a compact lantern, more rope. She paused briefly to consider whether she wanted to delve into the dungeon so late in the day. She still didn't know who sent the message that brought her here in the first place, and the entrance could just be the first in a series of traps designed to entomb her there. Although, now that the sleepiness from her afternoon nap had been burned away in the excitement, Daring felt that she was more than ready to go spelunking for shinies. The mare reared up and leaped into the air. There was a reason her motto was 'Another day, another dungeon.' after all.

Back at the watery cavern, Daring readied herself before attempting to push the button, ready to flee from the cave if necessary. Not that she was too worried about traps lying in wait outside the inviting entrance. Since there was no evidence of a civilization capable of hiding anything significant in the valley above, it was likely that any surviving mechanical devices, such as one capable of opening what appeared to be a solid rock wall, would be in less-than-stellar condition. There was no sense in ending her adventuring career with a cave-in, though. Barring that, and the possibility of an early trap, it was likely that such an old mechanism wasn't going to work at all, forcing Daring to break out her pickaxe.

Daring Do pushed the button, and all but fell over in surprise when the rock wall slide back and pulled itself aside in such a fashion that she didn't recall it ever making a sound. The mechanism not only seemed to work after centuries, or however long it had been here, but it had done so flawlessly. In all her years of government sponsored grave-robbing, Daring had never encountered anything remotely like that before. Whoever these guys were, they knew what they were doing. The pegasus was just about to whistle her admiration for the builders when the note caught in her throat, silenced by what she as her eyes adjusted to dimmer light of the underground facility.

It wasn't filled with darkness, as it should have been after centuries of disuse, but was lit up by some sort of magical light fixture. Gems glowed an eerie blue-green light as they sat in little cups of liquid mounted to the walls of the entryway. Daring made a hesitant step forward onto the miraculously clean, marble flooring, where there should have been decades of dust. It quickly dawned on her that she wasn't alone. Eventually, her other senses caught up, confirming her revelation, her sense in particular. Ever since she’d first encountered it, there was always one scent she could never forget.

The smell in question could only originate from the second worst thing to encounter when looking for treasure. The first belonged to dragons, their smoky, metallic odor left no doubt as to what they'd do to you if they found you absconding with a portion of their horde. But the number two smell was ranked as such, because there was no telling exactly what would happen if you ran into what it came from. Daring Do smelled Diamond Dogs, and if she ran into one of them down here, then it meant almost two things precisely.

One, any gem encrusted, and/or themed artifact was pretty much a write-off at this point, as there was no telling how long the dogs would have had to sniff out their primary food source. And two, if she was caught, she'd end up a pony slave for however long it took her to figure out a way to escape. Neither of which was something that Daring was looking forward to.

On the upside, there was still a chance that some other kind of trinket was down here, one that was still worth taking the chance to nab. The downside, however, was that Daring still had to take said chance. One thing still bothered her though. Or rather an entire set of things, that seemed to be related. The floor was clean, for one, possibly enchanted, Daring didn't know, but was odd none the less. And two, there was no way the Diamond Dogs were coming this close to the surface just to light up the place. If it didn't involve digging up, or consumption of, gems, they usually just weren't interested.

Listening intently, her ear pressed to the ground, Daring Do couldn't hear any telltale signs of digging coming from anywhere nearby. Breathing a sigh of relief, the mare pushed her way deeper into the dungeon. At least there was a bright side to the dogs tearing through whatever semblance of ancient history was left here, any and all traps would have been disarmed by them, either accidentally or otherwise.

3: Deep Ward

Daring sat there for a moment, trying to absorb everything she'd been told. "So let me get this straight. So, one, you know who sent me the letter that basically paints an X on your little isolationist community, and two, you’re cool with that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all for not being used as slave labor, but shouldn't you be more worried about keeping a secret like that, well, a secret?"

"With your arrival, we've come to learn that our knowledge of the outside world has grown insufficient. The author's intent aside, there are more important things at stake, and I believe that an adventurer such as yourself can assist us in rectifying both situations."

"Wait, are you asking me for my help now?"

"Master Aaron has seen fit to remove your restraints, Miss Do. And not all of us agree that you will be needed, or that you will do anything but get in our way."

"Yeah, I'm grateful for that and all," Daring said as she stretched out her wings to their fullest extent, "but I kind of have to agree, I don't see what I can bring to the table that you guys don't already have. I mean, no pony'd suspect you of being able to use magic, for starters. I'm a pegasus, not a unicorn. So, yeah, what's this whole plan of yours again?"

"We certainly don't require your physical, or indeed magical, abilities, Ms. Do. We need your knowledge. You said that you often go searching for artifacts and dungeons in order to remove them from the workings of all manners of shadowy organizations and shady evildoers, but you've never done so without doing at least some research before you set off on an adventure. You said so yourself, when you said that you weren't expecting us to be here, and that other sources pretty much confirmed our nonexistence before you'd arrived. The kind of information I'm interested in should be right up your alley."

Daring mulled it over for a bit. "Alright, but what's in it for me?"

"The gratitude of my people?"

"Yeah, that might sound good and all, but I can't trade gratitude for, you know, anything. So you're going to have to up the ante a bit."

"How about we let you live?"

"And then you'd be back to square one with being stuck in a hole in the ground. What do you think, that just anypony would be able to just adventure their way in here like I did? Even if that were the case, do you think that the little ghost-writer of yours would be willing to send anymore ponies to their dooms? If you were planning on killing me you'd have done it already. Celestia knows you've had ample opportunity. So, that leaves me with two options really. Do whatever it is you need me for, with nothing but the promise of freedom afterwards, or do the same thing but the promise of freedom and treasure."

"And what do you suppose would keep us from simply keeping you here?"

"Oh, I don't know, how about the thousands of fans suddenly worried about their heroine's disappearance?" Daring lied. Sure a few people would wonder what happened to A.K. Yearling, a few of them were even influential, but none of them would send an army out for a rescue operation. "I'm kind of famous, you know."

"Enough." Aaron silenced the two. "How about we leave the reward on the table for now, at least until after we've discussed what you are needed for." Aaron stood up and motioned for the others to follow.

"Where are we going?"

"To the Eye."

~~~~~

Leaving the gardens, Aaron led the group back through the maze of corridors. Not that it would have mattered to Daring Do, who still had no frame of reference concerning her whereabouts anyway, but the trip was almost as lengthy as the one from her cell to the dinner table. Eventually, they came upon a small platform that acted as a divider between the normal walkways and a new tunnel that had rounded edges, even on the floor. Suspended from the ceiling of this odd tunnel was a metal railing of some sort.

Daring's guesswork as to what the whole setup was for was soon answered when a set of interlinked coaches arrived, each seeming to envelop the metal rail as it passed through their upper machinations.

Once aboard, Daring observed the seating next to the ornately inlaid windows. "Nice train." She stated.

"Guess that means that your kind has progressed to at least the industrial age since our last encounter. But your definition is a little lax, while similar to a train, this method of locomotion is referred to as a mono-rail." Aaron answered matter-of-factly.

The group fully boarded, the carriage gently eased itself into motion, quickly leaving the lit platform behind. While the interior of the cabin was lit, the tunnels from here on out were not. Daring was about to ask why they even had windows, it all they could see is more rock, when the monorail left the confines of the tunnel and opened up into the rest of the settlement.

"Welcome, Daring Do, to the Deep Ward!" Sahni exclaimed once she saw the awestruck reaction of the mare.

What Daring saw was a veritable metropolis, which sprawled out beneath her, filling up almost every inch of space inside the massive underground chamber. The valley, for one could call it nothing else, was likely a match for the valley above in size alone. Daring had suspected that the pack was larger than normal, but there seemed to be enough room to accommodate thousands.

The streets were all lined up around a few circular grids surrounding the slanted pillars that spanned from the floor to the ceiling. In between buildings, foggy green lights offered visibility and revealed the presence of several gleaming, no doubt industrial, buildings scattered about. Each of them far larger than even the grandest of airships, and many of them connected to lines much like the monorail the group was using now.

The walls of the cavern were covered with crystals of all sizes, some of them a match for the buildings below. Overhead, a massive transparent bowl extended below the chamber’s ceiling, the waning light of the sun still barely visible as it cut through the water above and refracted through the crystalline walls. The whole city had been built beneath the inlet. Daring had no idea what level of engineering was required the dogs to pull the 'skylight' off without flooding the place, or even how they figured out how to build something like that at all, but she had to admit it was impressive.

"So what do you think?" Aaron inquired.

For the first time in recent memory, Daring Do was speechless.

~~~~~

The speechlessness lasted all the way to their destination. Several buildings that, with exception of their curved frame, were built in a style similar to ancient pony government buildings. Three of the pillared buildings surrounded a central domed structure.

As the group entered the main building, no small amount of canine stares found themselves focused on Daring Do. The pegasus flattened her ears against her skull. Daring may have been a mare of action, but there was a reason she was content to stay out of the limelight herself. If she didn't know better, and honestly she didn't at the moment, she could swear she was being led to a cage. Either so they could experiment on her, or so that she could be an attraction of some sort. Neither option sounded appealing, but Daring forced the feeling down and instead queried her captors. "What is this pace?"

"Ah, it's the, um... Sahni?" Aaron attempted.

"Kahsso Arkerros, Master."

"Okay..." Daring accepted, even though it did nothing to explain what the facility was for. "Wait, don't you run things here? Shouldn't you at least know the name of a special building like this?"

"Heh, I suppose you are right. As is turns out, I'm actually terrible with names. The only reason I remember Sahni's name is because it sounds like Sunny!"

The Priestess looked both proud and downright embarrassed to have her master remember her name due to such a mnemonic trick. Not that Daring was going to press the issue just yet. It was already obvious that Sahni preferred to remain close enough to her Master that any accidental 'brushing up' was bound to happen. Often. And even though Daring preferred not to antagonize the dog, an evil smirk crossed her muzzle. ''Sunny' it is,' she thought to herself.

Cruel thoughts of teasing stowed away for the moment, the distraction was enough to pull Daring away from her own predicament, and the increased attention had rapidly dwindled to manageable levels. The group continued through what appeared to be a library of some sort, and had then began to head deeper into the bowels of the structure.

After leading them down almost six basement levels, Aaron instructed the group to stop before a large smooth wall. Steadying himself, and placing a paw against the surface, a uniform piece of stone wall folded into itself in a strange, mystic silence. After ordering the guards to remain outside. Aaron escorted Daring and Sahni inside before sealing the wall up behind them.

As she entered the central chamber, Daring Do found herself speechless once more.

4: The Eye of Canis

Daring found herself speechless, but not because she was wowed by what she saw, as impressive as the machine occupying most of chamber's space was. The three canines who worked the machine had rushed to her and started asking so many questions, simultaneously, that the mare couldn't get a word in to answer them.

Seemingly unperturbed by Daring's presence in their realm, the larger of the three started the rapid-fire questioning. "Oh! Please, little pony, tell me, what is your position on the rising number of ponies with a magic level of 7 Clauncy's and above. Surely the rapid increase in powerful archtypes is going to prove troublesome when negotiating with rival species, yes? Is it true that these archtype ponies possess the capabilities of all three pony classes, and if so, do they act as mediator between your different factions or are they merely tools of a ruling party as some form of strong-arm bargaining chip?"

Next up was the only male of the group. "Speaking of rival species, what do you think your leaders intend to do about build ups on, what I assume is, the griffon borderlands. Is it due to the failed hostile invasion of one of your major cities a few years ago, or is due to some shift to their socio-economic paradigm?"

Not to be outdone by her larger peers, the last dog fired off her questions even faster than the other two. "How about your own transit systems, what is the carrying capacity of your ground-based locomotive? Does it use the same energy source as your aerial transports? If the machines are powered by unicorn magic, is the energy filtered in any way?"

The tirade was silenced a wave of Sahni's claw. "How do you expect the pegasus to answer such questions in such short order?"

"Oh, of course, you are correct, Our apologies, little pony. It is rare that we get guests. We apologize for our outburst."

"These three operate the system here." Sahni motioned towards the dogs in the order they spoke earlier. "This is Blissa. She's specializes in magical theory for the project. Ro here is in charge of analysis, and Pana deals with the mechanical operations of The Eye."

"I'm Daring Do, I guess. I was just a bit surprised, is all. As for your questions," Daring pointed to Ro first, "The griffons empire is barely getting back on it's feet, and the only thing I know about the economics of that, would be that if anyone claims to know exactly what to do about the situation, economically, they're wrong." Then to Pana, "I'm not an engineer or a unicorn, sorry. I specialize more in ancient history." And finally to Blissa, "And I'm afraid I don't quite understand what it is you were asking."

Obviously not getting any additional input to their queries, Ro and Pana turned to resume their work, ears lowered and spirits fallen. Daring felt a little bad about that. It wasn't like they were being jerks to her, after all. She'd have to make it up to them somehow. In the meantime, Blissa was attempting to rephrase her question.

"Right, so. Do you know what a Clauncy level is?"

"That is exactly where you lost me..."

"Oh, my, yes. How thoughtless of me. Your terms must be different. How do you ponies measure the magical energy levels of everything?"

The blank look on Daring's face prompted Aaron to move the conversation along. "I think it might be best if you start by showing Ms. Do what it is you three do down here. Their terminology might not be the only barrier to understanding."

"As you wish, Lord Aaron. Right this way, Miss Do, was it?"

"Just Daring is fine."

"I think it will be best if I show you." Blissa said as she motioned for Daring to approach a platform that was suspended over an open area of the machine. "Pana, if you would, bring up the raw stream?"

The machine stirred to life on all sides of the platform. Slender, almost invisible, geometric pillars began to rise from the floor and descend from the ceiling directly in front of the platform. Unlike the transparent sides of the crystalline structures, the ends were dulled, and when the rods met in the middle, a sphere was created from their collective ends. The pitch from the various components changed into an angry-sounding whir as dim lights began to dance upon the inverted spheres 'surface'.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Daring asked as she watched the display.

"Give it a minute to warm up. The Magical Targeting and Tracking Ecumenical Record, or what is sometimes called The Eye, takes a while before it is ready to display the entire spectrum."

The tiny lights continued to dance upon the surface, each little light becoming more and more focused until individual pinpricks of light were visible in such a way that Daring might have mistaken them for stars in the night sky. Upon closer inspection, however, she could see that some of the brighter ones were moving, ever so slightly, across the surface. Taking in the larger picture, however, and a smile of both recognition and confusion spread over her face as her mind worked through the image she was looking at.

"That- That's a map of the entire world! I mean, I'm not sure what the lights represent, but these clusters? This one's Canterlot, That one's Manehatten, and over here, this one's Cloudsdale! But how? I thought you guys never left your caves here? How did you get this?"

"Now who's bombarding who with questions?" Sahni observed.

"Every one of those lights represents a flow of magical energy." Aaron explained. "Ever since certain events a few hundred years ago, the energies that once flowed out of this world became circular. Trapped in a loop. This device taps into that loop and displays the various signatures that interact with them."

"Quite right, Lord Aaron. It was the Great Clauncy that discovered how to read the energies when she discovered the basics of canis geomancy."

"I remember you mentioning the word 'Clauncy' before. But wasn't there a number attached to it or something?"

"Yes. The Clauncy scale is a classification methodology that we use to differentiate between different energy levels. Ro, if you would be so kind, can we get the rank 1 Clauncy bracket?"

"One moment." was all Ro said before rotating some dials. The brighter dots disappeared from view as the greater multitude of lights came into focus.

"The Clauncy scale is logarithmic in nature. Rank 1, what you see before you, is a representation of a the simplest forms of life. We used this to generate the basic structure of the world's features. Rank 2? " Blissa continued as Pana increased the scale once again, replacing the lights with a smaller number of brighter ones. "Rank 2 coincides with the non-sentient flora of the world. Ranks 3 through 6 represents everything from lower fauna to sapient creatures. Rank 7 is reserved for creatures of exceptional power."

"Rank 7 is the one you were asking about right?" Daring asked.

"Yes, only a few decades ago, your species only had one Rank 7 in their midst. Since then the number has grown to at least 5, with a few surges here and there. A worrying trend perhaps?"

Daring looked at the displayed lights. Sure enough there were two in the region of Canterlot, one near the town of Ponyville, and two in the crystal empire. It made sense that they lined up with the Alicorn in those areas. Well, except for their being an extra one in the Crystal empire, anyway. She still didn't know why she was being shown such a device, and she didn't want to dwell too long on how creepy it was that the Canis had their eyes on everypony. And everygriffon, and everydragon... 'how long had they been doing this, anyway?' she thought to herself before speaking up. "Okay, so what does any of this have to do with me."

"Ah, asking the important questions." Aaron answered. "There exists a rank above 7. Rank 8, "Aaron gestured as Ro tended to his dials once more, " I believe, is of far greater significance than any of the others presented here. I have no other means to make this as apparent as this: As far as we have observed, there is no Rank 9. Unlike the other ranks, however, nothing you see here is alive. Every item with 9 Clauncy's of power is a powerful artifact, and as I'm sure you know, they are very dangerous if left in the possession of dangerous people."

The pegasus was a little taken aback. Not only could the machine locate every person on the planet, it could also point out every single artifact she had ever sought out.

"I'm sure you recognize the significance of what you are looking at here, don't you Daring Do? To someone in your position, this is the literal Holy Grail."

Daring wasn't sure what a Holy Grail was supposed to be, but this machine was, well, beyond words. It was... It was downright cheating! She didn't become an adventurer to just skip to the end! Researching, travelling, searching, discovering. All of it was important to her.

"I can see that this information troubles you in some way. That isn't entirely unexpected, I suppose. And suffice it to say, that nothing you've learned here can leave this room."

"T-then why..."

"Please set the filter to show only items H dash 01 through 04, if you would, please." Soon only four dots appeared on the sphere. "What do you know of a major event that occurred six years ago? Specifically one involving the moon?"

"You mean the return of Nightmare Moon? She was stopped by the Elements of Harmony almost as soon as she arrived. She turned out to be Celestia's sister who had been banished to the moon for a thousand years after she let evil control her. She's doing alright now though, why?"

"Well, these four items were the keys to her release."

"'Four stars will aid in her escape...'" Daring quoted the verse that everypony had learned since the event.

"Yes. Before the event, all four ‘stars’ had been located in that region you called Canterlot a few moments ago. We believe that it was the original Rank 7 equine who used them at the time. Since then, the four items have fallen back down to Earth, scattered in just about every direction."

"And now that they're here, you want my help finding them. Why should I help you do that if these things are so dangerous?"

"I think you misunderstand Daring, we don't want you to find them for us, we have the machine for that. We want you to determine why they've started moving."

"You mean-?"

"Yes, someone, or something, has also been looking for the stars, and worse still, they've had some success in finding them.“

5: The Scarce Eclipse

"There's still time to turn back you two." Daring prodded in a vain attempt to rid herself of her entourage. She knew why Aaron was coming along. On top of the recovery operation, he'd been saying something along the lines of seeing if the world was ready for a new breed of Diamond Dogs, but even Daring could see that there was something else, some other reason for the Canis's leader to leave the den he'd so tediously built.

"We told you, Daring, this mission is too important to leave to a lone pegasus. Even as one as talented as you claim to be." And then there was Sunny. At least her motivations were easy to pinpoint. There was no way in Tartarus that she was going to let Aaron leave the den without her, and not just because she thought the pack needed him. Too bad for her, that Aaron seemed to be completely ignorant of her affections.

“Yeah, okay. just try to leave the talking to me. As you can imagine, Diamond Dogs aren't really known for their, um, talking, I guess..." Daring finished, resigning herself to her fate.

"Oh, yes. that reminds me." Aaron chimed in as the Airship came into view over the horizon. "Come here for a minute, Sunny."

Daring had to stifle a snicker. After only a few days, she even had the Master calling the poor Canis by the pet name. Looking toward the approaching aircraft, the pegasus thought back to the events over the last few days. Two of the Stars were already in the hands of someone, they still weren't sure who, but if they could keep at least one of the Stars away from these mystery actors, then it was probable that the incomplete set would be essentially useless.

According to Blissa, the stars seemed to contain the same properties as another set of artifacts that were used almost immediately after the stars were used, making the set an all or nothing deal, just like the other artifacts. Daring, of course, knew that these other artifacts were none other than the Elements of Harmony, but even with the other topics that were discussed over the last few days, information regarding the Elements and their bearers was not something Daring was willing to divulge just yet.

It was likely that the canines already knew what the elements had become. And they definitely wouldn't need any help finding those ponies were they to start searching for them. But even with how she's been treated thus far, initial contact notwithstanding, Daring just didn't trust the dogs enough to tell them everything.

"Um, Lord Aaron, sir? What are you doing?" Sunny questioned with a hint of embarrassment in her voice.

Suddenly losing interest in the slowly approaching airship, Daring looked over to the duo just in time to see Aaron finish messing up Sunny's fur.

"There we go." Aaron declared with a satisfied nod before disheveling his own coat. "Oh, and no titles, Sunny. we want to maintain our cover don't we?"

"What cover?" Daring asked incredulously as she approached the two.

Sunny nodded in agreement, having not been briefed on such a cover identity before.

"Just follow my lead." was all Aaron could say before the boarding lines were dropped and some of the deckhoof ponies repelled down them, ready to secure mooring lines if needed.

"Hey Daring," The airship captain greeted as he swung down one of the hanging ropes. "Find what you were looking for?"

"I guess you could say that..."

"Woah, get a load of these two." Captain Mac Stirrup started as he caught sight of the two Canis. "I didn't know you were one for picking up strays, Daring."

"Umm they’re not exactly-"

"We help pony dig! Much help!" Aaron excitedly interrupted with the largest of grins plastering his face.

Both Daring Do and Sunny fixed the grinning Aaron with a withering glare. Daring, because she now had to pretend like she was toting around a couple of dumb tag-alongs, and Sunny because she had to act like one of those dumb tag-alongs. Aaron would pay for that. Eventually.

"Well," Stirrup said as they eyed the would-be passengers, "I suppose if they've got Daring Do watchin’ over em, then they can come aboard. Just don't be scratching the paint, you understand? You start causing a raucous on my ship and ya’d best be learnin to fly!" He let out with a chuckle. "Now do we have an understanding?"

"Both Canis quickly nodded in agreement.

"Great! Then help the lads tie up Daring's cargo and we'll be off!"

Aaron and Sunny did as they were instructed, the deckhooves all too happy to have a pair of claws or two to help tie lines with, if only temporarily.

"So Daring, got any new tales about fending off a horde of ancient curses or sumsuch feat? I'll say you're bringing up quite a bit more than normal this time."

"Yeah, about that..." Daring started as she explained to the Captain her intentions.

~~~~~

"Sorry about the accommodations, big guy." Daring said, keeping her voice low while she eyed the open-air deck that Aaron would be using as a bedroom for the next few days.

"Well, what with our supplies and Sunny taking up your cabin, I can afford to camp out a little."

"Yeah, well I don't know which upsets Sunny more, leaving you out in the cold or the fact that, with her bad case of aviophobia, that she can't do anything about it. Although, speaking of supplies, what is all of that stuff? I don't really care if I'm not going to be carrying any of it, just curious."

Aaron did a quick mental inventory. "Gems mostly. Can't adventure on an empty stomach. And a few tools. I'm sure you've seen the steelstone staff that Sunny's toting about."

"Yep, it was kind of hard to miss. That stuff creeps me out."

"Yes, well, it has its uses. Anyway, what did the captain say about our detour? The sooner we stop whoever it is from collecting these stars, the better."

"Captain says he can take us as far as Dodge city. Any farther and they'd never be able to catch the tradewinds back to Canterlot." Daring reported.

"Fair enough. If what you say is true, and that is the sole transit lane in that direction, we should be able to head off our artifact abductees before they can slip back to their lair. And if worse comes to worse, we can follow them and look for an opportunity to abscond with the rest of the stars."

"Well, until then, you've got the deck. Got any plans for the rest of the day?" Daring asked. She was supposed to be keeping tabs on them, after all.

"I suppose I should check in on Sunny. After that, I think I'll try sneaking into the crew study for a bit. I'm a little out of date and could use some study material."

"Yeah, well, just don't get caught. Not if you want to keep that ploy of yours anyway."

"Don't worry about me. If there's one thing you'll learn on this trip, it's that I always have a trick up my sleeve." Aaron declared with a sly smirk.

"You're wearing a vest..."

"Sorry, old human figure of speech."

"And I think you'll have to tell me about that sometime. But I think I'll get out of your fur for a bit. All of that time underground has my wings feeling cramped, so I'd like to get some flying in before dinner." Daring stated as she stretched her wings out for emphasis.

"Alright then, see you later then."

~~~~~

Aaron knocked on the door to the cabin that Sunny and Daring shared. "Are you still in there Sunny?"

"Aaron S-?" Sunny cut herself off, suddenly remembering the request to drop all titles.

Pushing the door open, Aaron could at least see that Sunny was no longer bed ridden. "How are you feeling?"

Sunny held her Steelstone weapon, still in its basic ‘staff’ configuration, in both claws, evidently in an attempt to focus on connecting to it rather than the ship around her. "I- I am not- Do you require my assistance, Aaron?"

"It's alright Sunny, just relax."

"I don't see how you can be so calm in the air. I'm not sure I-" She said before the airship lurched, ever so slightly beneath her, forcing her to redouble her focus upon the earthen elements of her weapon.

"See, you're too focused on where we are. You're forcing yourself to acknowledge that we are no longer on the ground."

"What would you have me do instead?"

"You must learn to forget that we are in airship at all. Instead, it would probably be better if you think about the situation differently. Realize, that this craft is perfectly safe, like a building set in stone. The floor moving is only a trick that you must ignore, like a trick of the light. Now come on, take a deep breath, and try it.

Taking Aaron's advice, she did as instructed. Deep down she doubted that she'd ever be able to fully ignore being suspended hundreds, if not thousands of meters above the ground, but she would try. Thinking to herself, 'the walls are the same as those of the den,' was not particularly difficult to imagine, she supposed. The wood grain felt drastically different beneath her paws than what she was used to, but it wasn't entirely unknown to her. Everypup had, in their youth, toured Aaron's personal chambers at some point, and her more so than others. Liking this cabin to those spaces was, she thought, sort of calming.

The ship rolled once more, nearly thrashing her thoughts aside, but she managed to hold onto that tiny sliver of calm that she'd worked so hard for. Taking another deep breath, she focused on ignoring the movement of the ship around her. 'The room is not moving. I'm just a little dizzy maybe? Yes, that is it. The floor is not moving, I just think it is.' Sunny suddenly noticed that she no longer grasped her steelstone quite so tightly. Cautiously opening her eyes, she saw Aaron standing near the door with a smile on his face.

"There we go, feeling better?" he asked.

"For now, Aaron. Thank you." she admitted.

"Good. now how about you walk around a bit, hmm? Can't have you trapping yourself in her for the whole trip."

"But-"

"No excuses, Sunny. You wanted to come with me on this trip, and I'll not have you wasting away on the first leg."

"As you wish, Aaron." Sunny said as she stood up shakily. She had been crouched for quite some time. Maybe a walk was not out of the question.

"Easy does it. You don't need to visit the deck or anything, just walk around for a bit. Making a mental map of the rest of the ship should be exercise enough for the day, don't you think?"

"If you believe so, Aaron." Sunny answered, somewhat unsure that leaving the safety of the cabin was a good idea. Comparing it to Aaron's chambers in the den had done wonders for her constitution, after all.

"It's settled then. I'd go with you, but I need to peruse the crew's study for a bit. They might have something useful to us."

"I can help wi-"

"Not unless you can read Equish as well as speak it, Sunny. Besides, it will be harder to explain ourselves if we are both caught in the study."

Sunny understood that Aaron was right, of course. Speaking the pony language was one thing, but the den only had a few Equish words to relate the spoken language to. It was that reason alone that the dogs had been forced to develop their own written language to communicate with. Unlike the pack, however, their Master was not bound by such limitations.

So, tucking the weapon under her pack, Sunny resigned herself to exploring the ship on her own.

"That's the spirit!" Aaron exclaimed as he led her into the hallway. "Don't come back to the room for at least an hour, okay? Oh, and you might want to avoid looking out the portholes, just in case."

"I understand, sir."

"That's a good girl. I shall check on you later, then." Aaron said as he walked in the opposite direction.

6: Solutions

Sunny initially began working her way to the front of the ship, where she envisioned the ship's control room was located. Only, when she got to the forward-most bulkhead, she found an overhead access to the main deck instead. Backtracking through the forward cargo holds and back into the crew's quarters, her only other option was to search the rear compartments.

Her next guess at a location for the control room would be directly above the engine room, which would make her little exploration that much shorter. She briefly wondered if Aaron would forgive her is she snuck back into the cabin she shared early, if only after she'd explored the rest of the ship. It wasn't like it would take her a whole quarter hour to traverse every deck anyway.

Before she could reach her destination, Sunny was interrupted by an intriguing smell coming from somewhere nearby. It was definitely some sort of pony food, no doubt, but it smelled very different from the things that Aaron had cooked before.

Stumbling into the deserted crew's mess, the canine made her way to the serving counter, beyond which existed a certifiable bustle of activity. Ponies worked diligently to prepare a host of food for the crew in time for the next meal. Fresh bread, Fresher salad, and some sort of yellow soup with bits of green scattered inside.

"Dinner's not going to be ready until-" One of the cooks started before realizing they weren't talking to a hungry crewmate in search of a snack. "Oh, hey, you're one of them Diamond Dogs I heard about! Gimme a second." The pastel blue pony said before throwing another pan of rolls into an oversized oven. His immediate work finished, he walked through the tiny door adjacent to the serving counter and approached Sunny.

"Well I'll be, the deckhands weren't pulling my chain after all. Never thought I'd see a Diamond Dog up close!"

"Um..." was all Sunny could say as the pony got a little too close.

"Oh, where are my manners, the name's Blueberry Biscuit, but you can just call me Blue. Nice to meet you...um."

"Sahni."

"Like I said, nice to meet you Sunny. What brings you to the mess decks?"

Sahni flattened her ears at hearing blue mispronounce her name. "Um, something smelled good?"

"Right, yeah. Dinner's still in the works, but I'm not sure I have anything that you guys can eat, sorry. All you guys eat is rocks right?"

"Gems. We eat gems." Not that she wouldn't mind tasting a few new things, however.

"Yeah, I definitely don't have any of those. Sorry. I feel kinda bad not having anything for you. Maybe we can ask the captain to pick something up at our next stop or something?"

"No need, we brought food with us."

"Wow, really? That's a relief."

"Um, do you think I can try pony food?"

"Yeah, no. I reeeaally shouldn't. The crew'll start showing up any minute now, and they get first dibs. That, and they're very angry if they don't get their food on time. If you come back after the meal though, I'm sure there'll be something left over."

"Oh." Sunny said as she turned to leave. She doubted she'd want to leave her cabin again after her little walk was over, no matter how good the food smelled.

"Come on, don't be like that." Blueberry said before Sunny could walk away. Looking back at the oven, he confirmed that he still had some time before he had anything else to do. "Here I'll make it up to you." Reaching back behind the counter, the pony pulled up a couple of glasses and a bottle with a picture of a piece of fruit on it. "Have you ever had this stuff before?"

Sunny very much doubted it, but took the bottle anyway. The fruit was mostly round with a piece of stick and a leaf poking up from the top. It wasn't like anything in Aaron's garden. "I have not."

"Then it's your lucky day! Grab a seat while I pour us some."

~~~~~

Aaron was glad he set up this version of his avatar with a universal info parser. The last one hadn't needed it, thankfully, but it never hurt to be prepared. Besides, it felt awfully good to be using a physical medium every now and then. An initial inventory of the documents available in the crew’s study included, but was not limited to; an incomplete atlas in regards to anything outside of Equestria, some basic operations manuals, three particularly lewd novella, stashed behind said operating manuals, and an assortment of light fiction. Beyond that, there was a book titled ‘The Chronicles of Starswirl’ as translated by one Twilight Sparkle. Aaron briefly wondering who was in charge of setting up the ship's reading list before making a mental note to read the tome later, anyway. Even with the book about an old acquaintance, what interested Aaron most about the whole collection was that it included what appeared to be a complete set of Daring Do books.

Looking at the back cover, Aaron noticed the photo of the author, who was wearing a particularly concealing outfit, at least as far as what he'd seen of them so far. Upon closer inspection, he could even believe that this A.K. Yearling was a spitting image of the Daring he was familiar with. A sister perhaps? Then there was the fact that they seemed to be published as a work of fiction, and not as some sort of episodic biography.

"Most curious. I can see why the Chaotic One chose her."

A sudden commotion came from the passageway. Not wanting to be caught in the study, Aaron made for the exit, only to have an airpony nearly barrel into him.

"What's the commotion?"

"Oy, you haven't heard? You're mate's causing some trouble in the mess hall!"

Leaving the 'mate' thing as some sort of sailor jargon, it was impossible to mistake the fact that the pony was referring to Sunny. ‘What could she have possibly gotten herself into in only a few minutes?’ Aaron thought to himself before addressing the equine, "Show me."

"Come on then, this way!"

~~~~~

Sahni wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but, but it had to be because of that fruity pony. No, wait, the fruity pony’s drink. Maybe? Sahni's head hurt. She remembered pushing the pony away when the drink burned at her insides. Then she fell to the floor, and she tried pulling herself up to the table, but now she couldn't find it.

She thought she heard other ponies who were shouting something, but she couldn't understand them. That's never happened before. Maybe if her head didn't hurt so much, she could listen. She pushed these other ponies away too. Sahni didn't want anything more to do with them or their funny liquids.

Then she heard something she did understand. At least she assumed she did. It sounded like her Lord Aaron. Had he come to rescue her from this crazy place?

She turned towards the barretoned siren's call. She struggled to focus on the figure supplying the voice. Sahni didn't think it looked like a pony. The figure stepped closer, almost muzzle to muzzle, close enough that Sahni could catch the figure's scent.

"Sahni?" Aaron asked once more.

It was him! Sahni was so happy to hear him calling her name. So, so happy. Closing her eyes, she licked his muzzle and inched closer into a kiss. Oh, how she'd wanted to do that. Why hadn't she done that sooner? Sahni almost didn't care.

But something was wrong. Well, more wrong. The kiss. There was something wrong with the kiss. Sahni opened her eyes once more, finally able to focus somewhat.

What she saw shocked her to her core. She had, indeed, kissed her Lord Master, but the most shocking part of her actions was that he wasn't kissing back. Sahni couldn't understand. Why he would be so mean? Did Aaron not feel the same way?

"I see." Aaron said, as he attempted to hold her upright. "You've lost your self-control, Sahni. Oh how I wish it would never come to this. I'm sorry, Sunny."

"Sorry for, for… Aaron?"

"Sorry that I must now take what you have lost." Aaron grabbed Sunny by the scruff of her neck, his other claw keeping her muzzle facing his own. Staring deep into his eyes, Sunny found that she didn't like this Aaron, but she couldn't turn away. Aaron forced his will into his gaze until, eventually, the smaller of the two no longer offered resistance. Her arms dropped to her sides, the sparkle in her eyes drained into a sullen light. "Sleep, Sahni."

And she fell, unconscious, into her Master's arms.

Aaron picked Sunny up and began carrying her to her cabin. Turning to one of the bystanders as he left the galley, "See to your wounded. And send for your Captain, I wish to speak with him."

The two diamond dogs gone, the pony who received the orders was the first to snap out of the collective reverie. "Well, you heard him, get this sorted!"

Blueberry Biscuit, holding his battered side, only asked, "What the buck just happened!?"

~~~~~

Aaron had managed to tuck Sunny in as the Captain arrived with a cohort of surly ponies in tow. "I don't suppose ye got an explanation as to why my mess decks are a literal mess now, would ye? Cause as far as I'm concerned it is well within my authority to throw ya both overboard!"

"I doubt that such drastic measures will be necessary, Captain Stirrup. But I too wish to get to the bottom of this course of events. Do you mind if we both head back to the galley?"

"And what about the little miss there? It was her that caused all of this, wasn't it?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Besides, she's in no condition to talk, at least not as long as-"

"Aaron!? What happened to Sunny? I just landed and everypony's acting like-" Daring Do interrupted.

"Well, Miss Do, I'm positive that Sunny will be thrilled to learn of your concern. She will be fine, albeit incapacitated, for the time being. Captain?"

Captain Mac Stirrup motioned for the two largest ponies to guard the door while the other two moved to either side of Aaron.

"I believe you should follow us, Daring."

The walk to the mess decks was a short, but tense one. The remaining guardsponies eyed Aaron closely, as though his every move were somehow a hidden threat.

"Wow... Sunny did this?" Was all Daring could say as the group reached the trashed compartment. Most of the debris had been moved so that nopony would trip on anything while the injured were treated, but other than that, everything looked the way it did when Aaron had first arrived.

"I should start by apologizing, Captain. We haven't been entirely forthcoming with you. Sunny and I are not exactly the same kind of Diamond Dogs that you might be used to. In fact, we don't even use the same moniker. We are known as Canis Sapiens, and for the last millennia or so, we have hidden our culture away from the prying eyes of ponies. That very solitude, I believe, may be partly to blame for our little incident here today."

"How so?"

"Well, Sunny's actions were not what I'd consider her normal behavior. Her inhibitions were lacking, so much so that she would let any small sway of emotion control her. Ah, here we go," Aaron said, pulling a destroyed bottle of AppleJack Daniels from the remains of a trashed table. "I detected a hint of alcohol on her breath during our encounter."

"Do ya honestly think I'll believe that this was just some sort of drunken episode?"

"Frankly Captain, I don't care what you believe."

"Not helping, Aaron..." Daring whispered.

"Yes, as I said before, we've been secluded for a long time. All the while our genetic makeup has been forced to undergo some otherwise drastic changes. Those changes might very well have altered the Canis's ability to safely absorb alcoholic beverages, for instance. Since our diet consists mostly of gems, which don't exactly ferment, there's no way to have seen something like this before hand. And unless Sunny regains her composure and a repeat performance is allowed to take place, there's no real way to confirm."

"So you mean to tell me that your kind doesn't know what alchohol is or what it does to ya, even though you seem to know exactly what this stuff is?"

"I'm not exactly the same as the other Canis. It's rather difficult to explain, but suffice it to say, I do know what booze is."

"So what then? I'm just supposed to believe every word you say? If it weren't for Miss Do here vouching for you I'd have already tossed you lot over the side!"

"And I apologize for whatever issues that may have been caused by my friend's actions. Still, while I can't backup my words with proof at the moment, at least let me make up for it with something else." Aaron faced the nearest tables and summoned his energy, forcing it into the metal components of the broken mess equipment. Soon the tables and chairs were floating in the air, slowly untangling themselves from each other and correcting any bent or dented sections. Before long, the mess was almost back to it's original condition, with the exception of anything made of wood or cloth.

"H-how in the name of Celestia can-?"

"Trust me Captain," Daring Do interjected. "I think we should just take his word on this."

"Is that the same magic you used on the lass? The spell you used to put her to sleep, I mean?"

"Wait what? You did what?" Daring asked in sudden confusion.

"Yeah, he used some sort of mind control on her. dropped the girl like a sack of potatoes, without even lifting a finger, I might add.

"Oh, that. No. That is something else entirely, something more, personal, I guess. It can only be done under certain conditions, and I'm sorry Captain, but I don't know you well enough to divulge what those conditions are."

"Is that so?"

"Um, Captain Stirrup, Sir?"

"What is it?"

"The other dog was getting a little, um, well, intimate before he dropped her, sir..."

"Fine, I won't press the matter. For now. You're just lucky that Petty Officer Biscuit feels partly responsible for what happened here, but Mark my words, Canine, one more wrong turn, and I will see if the two of you can fly."

"As you wish, Captain."

The Captain and his cohorts left Daring Do and Aaron to themselves as they needed to get the meal schedule back on track.

Daring turned to Aaron, "What's this I hear about intimacy?"

Aaron coughed. "Hmm, what do you mean?"

7: Port Call

Daring stared at her still sleeping cabin-mate. With the exception of a few minutes of wakefulness to maintain her well-being, Sunny had been kept under some sort of sleeping spell that wasn't a sleeping spell.

A knock on the door broke the silence. She been expecting it, of course. Aaron was nothing if not punctual, and if their sleeping comrade was any evidence, he was many other things as well. "Daring? Are you awake?"

"Yes. Come on in."

"How's Sunny doing today?"

"Same as always, I guess. I've been meaning to ask you about, um, whatever it was that you did to Sunny. And listen, I know you told Captain Stirrup that you weren't going to talk about it, but I think I'm entitled to this information if we're going to be doing this adventure thing together. I mean, is she going to stay like this forever or what?"

"Oh, no. Most certainly not. My Influencing was quite strong, but it should wear off soon. The effects vary between canines so there's really no way know how long it takes exactly."

"D-did you do that to me? I mean, before, in the den."

"I thought I made it clear that it only worked with the canis?"

"Oh-h. Right. Um, just checking is all. I suppose... So how does it work, exactly? Was the kiss a requirement, or did it just require the whole staring thing?"

"So you did hear about that."

"Yeeeah...."

"Needless to say, that came to be a bit of a shock, but it was likely do to her apparent inebriation. The focus on eye contact just has to do with something buried deep inside dog physiology. Dogs are very keen on reading cues, Daring, they've been that way since longer than you could possibly know."

"So what kind of message were you sending Sunny then?"

Aaron was suddenly pensive. "I-" he stopped, sighing "It’s a bit difficult to describe, but, if I had to put it into words, I made her see myself as her master. In more than just a title."

"Oookay... That's... wow..."

"Yes, Sunny literally can't do anything without explicit orders to do so. My orders. To be honest, I loathe myself for doing that to someone. No one should have their free will removed."

Daring thought it over for a moment. "I suppose that explains why she's just been sleeping this whole time. Instead of making Sunny suffer through any of that, you've basically minimized the time she has to deal with it."

"But I," Aaron stopped for a moment, "I'm still not sure I should have done even this much."

"Oh, please. I saw the state of the mess deck. Sunny did a number on more than just the furniture, I might add. If you hadn't shown up when you did, who knows how many more crewponies might have been hurt. You said it yourself, she didn't have any control over her actions. At least this way her ‘lack of control’ is under control. By you, I might add, the one she seems to respect the most."

"Then I hope she leans towards forgiveness once my Influence wears off."

"Yeah, I don't think you'll have a problem with that." Daring said whilst thinking about Sunny's actions before their flight. There was no way that kiss was 'accidental'. “From her perspective, you can do no wrong.”

"Let’s hope that she respects herself a little more than that when she’s awake, shall we? Anyway, back to business. I'm told we only have a few hours before we reach our destination. So, Sunny. Time to wake up."

Immediately Sunny's eyes opened and she sat up.

"Even so, that’s not going to stop creeping me out anytime soon."

"Just a few more days..." Aaron said to himself.

~~~~~

After the Scarce Eclipse had departed, their stop just long enough to unload the group and their gear, the trio found themselves a few miles outside of Dodge Junction.

"Alright, so now what?" Daring asked. "Do we even know what one of these stars looks like?"

"Well, no. But we're not entirely out of options. Sunny do you remember the plans for the antenna?"

Sunny slowly shook her head 'yes'.

"Are you able to set an antenna up right now?"

Again, Sunny nodded in confirmation.

"Great, then, while me and Daring set up our little base of operations, I need you to sink the antenna over by that reddish rock. There should be plenty of raw materials to work with.

Daring watched sunny slowly walk over towards her indicated worksite before returning her attention to Aaron. "Okay, so what are we doing for our camp? Because I really don't feel like sharing my only tent."

"Psh, look who you're talking to." Arron reminded daring as he summoned a couple slabs of rock from the ground at perpendicular angles to one another. In a matter of seconds, the Canis had a rather large structure which was probably stronger than most pony dwellings.

"Showoff..."

"So, will you need assistance with setting up your own sleeping arrangements or...?

"If there's one thing I don't need with, it's help setting up my own stuff. Why don't you scavenge up some firewood or something. Or do you have a geomancer trick for that too?"

"There's probably a spell or two that might be of some use in that area, but if there is I don’t know them off the top of my head. Just keep an eye on Sunny while I'm gone, alright?"

Daring waved him off before unrolling the tent and scattering her stakes. Setting up the tents was one of her least favorite activities, mainly because it meant that she'd eventually have to put everything away. And it was damn near impossible to stuff everything back in its packaging. She looked back at the dog's structure for a moment. There's be plenty of room for the three of them in there. The pegasus briefly wondered if she should abandon her own tent, and ask Aaron if he felt like sharing, before she shook her head at the prospect.

Having even a little bit of alone time from her travelling companions would be nice for a change. Not that there was anything wrong with the Canis. She'd only known them for a few weeks, but Daring was a loner at heart. If anything she was definitely not used to all of the attention she was suddenly getting.

Spotting Sunny off in the distance, drawing some circles in the ground with her staff, Daring sighed. Even for one in Daring's line of work, there was only so much weirdness a pony could take. Snapping the hollow poles together, the pegasus got back to work on preparing her tent. Thinking back to it, this was probably the most normal thing she's done since stumbling into the dog's den in the first place. Then, there was the whole geomancy thing, the complex Canis observatory place, and now the Canine mind control. Daring wasn't sure this trip could get any weirder.

Tying a string to the forward pole, Daring stacked the lanyard to the ground and adjusted its length, pulling the line taut until the forward part of her tent was propped up. The next part of her grandiose quest involved searching for some supposedly ridiculously-powerful artifacts, whose very existence, lest she forget, may threaten not just Equestria, but the world itself. That, was something she knew how to deal with. Even if no-one knew what the stars looked like, or who was even after them, but none of that mattered in the end. Capturing the stars was a good, simply defined goal.

Raising the rear pole of her tent, Daring staked it in place before moving on to the lines attached to the four corners of her tent. The stars were supposedly used to free Princess Luna, then called Nightmare Moon, from her thousand-year slumber. If that was true, then who, if not Celestia, knew how to use them? Had the stars always existed, or where they created at some point? Before seeing them move through the recordings that were stored within the Eye of Canis, Daring had always assumed that the stars were some artifact of Celestia's imprisonment spell, not physical objects used as a catalyst. What an odd set of things to leave laying around for anyone to find.

Daring moved around her tent, tightening the canopy lines until the tent canvas was trim. Satisfied with her work, she set about gathering rocks and building a ring for the campfire. Sure, Aaron or Sunny could make trivial work of that task too, but it wasn't like the pegasus had anything better to do at the moment. Thinking about it though, Daring realized that the Stars weren't even the biggest mystery here. Aaron, the defacto leader of what she originally thought was the Canine's religious sect, he was a real mystery. It was obvious that he never told the whole truth if he could help it. He fit right into the role of a guardian/adviser with little to no effort at all. Honestly, Aaron kind of reminded her of either Celestia or Luna in that regard, even though neither one of the sisters was a Canis, or, well, male.

Now that she thought about it, was Aaron an immortal too? Since that first dinner together, Daring had a rough idea who had sent the letter which landed her in this situation in the first place. If it was Discord, the spirit of Chaos, was he known to Aaron because of the Eye?

No, the Eye wouldn't tell them that he liked to prank like nobody's business. Discord had to have had a run-in with the dogs at some point in their history, and yet, it seemed as though Aaron had actually met the draconneque himself. The Lord of Chaos's latest reign likely wasn't long enough for his influence to spread that far, which meant that they could only have met over a thousand years ago, during the original reign of chaos.

Staring intently at her circle of rocks, Daring shook the tumbling thought train out of her head. That whole line of reasoning was a little convoluted, wasn't it? She supposed she could just ask Aaron about it, but when does a conversation ever veer towards 'hey are you some sort of living god?'

Her immediate tasks complete, Daring looked back towards Sunny's worksite, only to see the poor dog slumped over in unconsciousness.

"Oh, pony feathers!" The pegasus exclaimed as she rushed to Sunny's side.

The dog was breathing, at least, but Daring couldn't work out why she'd collapse like this. It didn't look like she'd exhausted herself doing whatever she was doing over here. Inching Sunny's staff to the side, Daring nudged herself underneath the dog's much heavier frame. She was going to have to drag Sunny back to the camp.

"Why didn't I volunteer to look for firewood?" Daring grumbled as she nudged their combined mass towards the tents.

~~~~~

Just as Daring had finally reached the stone structure, Sunny began to stir.

"You doing alright up there? Figures you don't wake up until after I drag your butt back to camp."

"Mikosem tamma, monei toron linnu kimtenem..." Came the groggy reply.

"Yeah, well, just hold on for a little longer, we're almost there." Daring grunted, eased the dog onto the nearest stone bench before continuing. "How are you feeling?

"My head..." Sunny said whilst attempting to shield her eyes from the shaft of light that sailed in behind the pegasus.

"I'll bet. I've got to say though, you're already looking better than when we were on the ship."

It was only then that the Canis realized that the ground wasn't actually moving beneath her. "W-where's Aaron? I need to-"

"'You need to' nothing. Aaron'll be back after he collects some firewood. What you need to do is recover."

"Ugh, what happened?"

"That depends, what's the last thing you remember?"

Thinking back, Sunny suddenly found that her recent memories were obscured, as though she were looking at them through an extremely dirty glass. "We were on the ship..."

"Yeah, and... Anything else?"

"There was this blue pony who wanted to try some of this funny-smelling fruit drink he had. He was being nice because he didn't know we could eat some of the pony food he was making-..." Sunny stopped, everything after that was in a jumble. Things stopped making sense and then Aaron-"What happened to me!?"

"Whoa, there, slow down. I'm sure Aaron can explain it a bit better, since I wasn't there at the time. But from what I understand, you lost control of yourself. Aaron thinks it was the booze, but we're not one hundred percent sure what caused it." Daring sat on her rump next to the earthen cot before continuing, "You pretty much wrecked the place though, knocked that Blueberry guy and a few others around before Aaron showed up and-"

"And what! Tell me, I beg of you. Please tell me I did not strike master Aaron as well!?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say you struck him, but I hear you gave him a smack, all right."

"What do you mean?"

"Yep, right on the lips. And the nose. I'm pretty sure there might have been some tongue action, but needless to say, I'm a bit surprised you had it in you."

Sunny curled up into a ball, her tail covering her face in embarrassment. The revelation matched the hazy glimpse of events that she had in her mind, as well as the memory of Aaron's face when it finally resolved itself in her mind. After all of their time together, all the times she'd spent being everything that her Master could ever need or want, were her feelings that one sided?

Daring noticed the tears welling up just before the dog started sobbing. 'Crap. Looks like I took it too far...', "Oh, Sunny, don't be like that. So I might have been pulling your leg a bit on the whole 'tongue action' thing, but it's not like it's the end of the world or anything."

"But it is! I-when... Look, we trusted each other, and- and when I did that to him, I violated that trust, don't you get it? Aron probably hates me now..."

"Hey! I know for a fact that whatever you two had going on before is still there. It might not look like it, but I can tell that he still cares for you. Granted it may not be in the, um, romantic sense, but Aaron's probably not the kind of guy to really show it if he were, you know? Besides, when he used that Influence thing on you so that you'd calm down and stop attacking everypony, he told me that he hated having to do that to you. He hated that he had to take away your free will, even if it was only temporary. And do you want to know why? Because he values you for who you are. Some leaders only care about their subordinates only so far as they can be used as tools. Trust me, I’ve met some of them, but with Aaron? He genuinely likes for and cares for you Canis, doesn't he?"

"Y-yes... you're right..." Sunny said amidst the sniffling.

"Of course I'm right! Now buck up and get yourself together before he gets back!"

Unfurling herself and wiping away her tears, Sunny inhaled deeply in order to clear her senses. The fresh air helped tremendously for clearing her head, both of her tumultuous feelings and her torturous headache.

"There we go! Feeling better now?"

Sunny slowly nodded in agreement, "Mm-hmm," She said, before taking another deep breath.

Daring turned for the exit, "Yep, now you stay there for a bit, while I go find Aaron. He's going to want to know that you've woken up."

"Thank you, Daring..." was all that the pegasus could hear as she vaulted away from the stone 'tent,' still unsure of what to think of the display of emotion only a few moments ago. Letting in a sigh of her own, Daring wondered, not for the first time, just what she'd managed to get herself thrown into...

8: The Cistern Chapel

By the time Daring returned with Aaron, Sunny had returned to unconsciousness.

"You're certain she was awake?" Aaron inquired as he checked the sleeping canine's vitals.

"I wouldn't have flown around looking for you if I wasn’t."

"Of course, my apologies. I assume her current state is probably due to her fatigue catching up to her from these last few days. Once she's fully rested, Sunny'll be back to her old self."

"You're sure? How could she still be tired after all of that sleep you've ordered her to get?"

"Well, for starters, It's likely that that wasn't true sleep, no dreams and the like. Besides, she was able to answer my orders even from that restful state, so the argument could be made that she wasn't fully asleep to begin with."

Daring contemplated that for a moment. She was used to getting limited amounts of sleep every so often, but those were usually done on her own terms. Even though, she doubted that anyone could go without restful sleep for too long. “Well, as long as she's no longer under your Influence, or whatever, I suppose she can have a nap. What are our plans in the meantime?"

"We'll need some direction. Do you know if Sunny finished the antenna?"

Looking towards the area where she'd recovered the dog in question, Daring failed to see anything, "Um, what antenna? I don't see anything."

"Actually, that's kind of the point. If you could see it, it wouldn't work."

"I don't follow?"

"Unlike the antennas that you may know, the ones that transmit signals through the atmosphere, our signals are transmitted through the earth itself, ergo, the antenna is buried. Good thing too, since anything above ground would give away the den's position."

"So what do you need it for?"

Aaron started digging around his pack before pulling out a small cube-shaped device. "Here, hold this for a second, while I check Sunny's work."

Catching the small machine with her wings, Daring nearly dropped it when she noticed that the case was constructed with that creepy steelstone stuff that the Canis were so fond of. The rounded pinkish cube had a small gauge on the front, a button on either side, and a connector of some sort on the bottom. Setting it between her shoulders Daring followed Aaron to the center of a circular divet that Sunny had carved out of the rocky soil.

"Looks solid to me," Aaron said as he wiped away some dirt from a small steelstone disk embedded in the ground. "Can I get the cube, please?"

"Sure, what is this thing anyway?"

"A compass mostly. Set it on the dais like so, and, there we go!" Aaron said excitedly as the dial on the device began to move on its own accord, eventually settling on a single orientation.

"I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your compass doesn't point North." Daring stated flatly after double checking her sense of direction.

"I suppose if I wanted it to point North, we'd have to be south of the Star now, wouldn't we?"

"Wait, this thing is telling us which way the Star is compared to our position?" Daring said as she followed the needle's indication and looked off in the distance. It didn't exactly point towards town, but it was fairly close. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you guys were cheating."

"Yes, well. so long as the Star doesn't move, we'll be able to find it."

"And if it moves?"

"Then we either come back here and resync, dig out another antenna, or hope we spot it as it's rolling downhill or whatever. Either way, we have to wait for Sunny to recover, then we'll top this scouter off before heading out."

"Can't wait, " Daring started before letting out a yawn, "but I gotta say, I think Sunny's got the right idea this time.”

~~~~~

Daring Do, double checked the group’s position from her bird's-eye view. Much to the pegasus's relief, their course did not have them passing through town. If their previous interactions were any indication, any further meetings between random ponies and her entourage should be done under more controlled conditions, or at least kept to a minimum. Now, safely beyond the city limits of Dodge, they were making decent headway towards the marker, even though the landscape from here on out seemed to be of the barren wasteland variety.

Noticing that her ground-bound companions were waving her down, Daring pulled into a dive, flaring her wings at the precise moment she needed to bring herself to a controlled hover in front of the duo. "What's up?"

"We're here."

Looking left, then right, Daring only saw the dried desert clay with maybe a hint of flora attempting to push its way through the cracked earth. "Here where? I don't see anything." She said seeing no sign of anything remotely like an artifact.

"It's below us, obviously." Sunny quipped.

"Well then, I guess it's a good thing you two are here to, and I quote, 'Help pony dig!'" Daring said in jest, while patting Aaron on the head. "How deep is it?"

"Just a moment." Aaron replied, brushing aside Daring's forehooves and setting his compass so that it’s face was at an angle perpendicular to the ground. He stepped a few measured paces away, and repeated his measurement, before double checking his angles. A quick few scratches on the ground later, and he had his answer. "It looks like the star is buried somewhere between 60 and 80 meters down."

"What!? That's insane. How the hay did it get so deep?"

"And how, exactly, would we know?" Sunny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I- you know what, who cares? Just start digging already?"

Sunny gave Aaron a questioning glance. "May I, Sir?"

"Go ahead and slot an Earth gem." came her master's reply.

Reaching into one of the pockets on her vest, Sunny removed a gem that was a milky brown color, which she then inserted into the head of her staff. Content that the gem was secure, she started walking off into the distance.

"Where's she going? I thought the Star was below us."

"Quite right, but if there's something I've learned from all of my time with the pack, it's that one never digs straight down."

"Why is that?"

"Well, for starters, there's no guarantee that you know what's under you. Also, we don't have wings, so it may prove to be quite difficult to escape from whatever pit one might find themselves in."

Daring pondered that little bit of advice before catching up to Aaron. "Huh, I guess you can learn something new every day. So what's that gem for then?"

"It allows for better control of one’s geomancy, provided it's slotted into some Steelstone."

"Like a magic focus? But you said she could use an earth gem, are there other types?" Daring asked, briefly wondering why none of the unicorn mages used such things.

"Yes, each of the basic elements are covered its own family of gemstone."

"So, there's one for fire?" Daring asked.

Aaron nodded in acknowledgement, pulling out a gem from his vest pocket and showing it to her. "This fire opal shares the same properties of fire magic, as I understand it."

"Okay, so then why didn't we use that for a fire last night instead of all of those scraggly sticks? It took us hours to find enough for dinner and breakfast!"

"I suppose that would have saved some time, but the nature of geomancy which lets us alter the properties of things other than the earth itself, means that we only have a few uses out of each gem. That, coupled with the fact that our supplies are limited, and I'm hesitant to use them when not required."

"Are we ready to descend, Aaron?" Sunny asked after locating an ideal location.

"You may start when ready, Sunny." Aaron replied before turning to the pegasus once more. "I recommend that you not fall too far behind, Miss Do. I don't expect we'll run into much, but the underground is not a domain meant for ponies."

"Pssh, you're talking to the only pegasus who actually chooses to delve into dungeons, remember?"

"'Another day, another dungeon.'" Aaron quoted before catching a weird look from Daring. "Oh, yes I'm quite sure I know who I'm dealing with, Miss ‘Quite Famous’ Heroine." He finished before giving Daring a cheeky smile.

"When did you-? Damn! You must have gotten to those books on the ship!"

"The whole set, I'm afraid. You will have to tell us about these adventures you've had sometime, Daring."

Daring just gave Aaron a speculative glare. He'd known exactly who she was for a few days now, and had kept it to himself? Who does that? After briefly wondering why he didn't seem to be treating her any different, Daring began to wonder if the Canis even had a concept of 'famous'. With a sigh, she stopped before stumbling into the now stationary dogs.

Sunny had reached a point far enough away so that her hole wouldn't be too steep for their descent. Focusing her power into her staff, she angled its tip towards the ground before unleashing her magic. The ground, seemingly liquefied, flowed in a cyclic torrent away from the canine's staff. A moment later, the earth re-solidified into a perfectly rounded perimeter, leaving a circular hole several meters deep, that matched the angle of Sunny's upheld instrument. "We descend." was all that she said before the disappearing into the depths below.

Aaron gestured a courteous 'after you' to Daring Do, and soon, they too left the wide open world for the confines of the tunnel.

~~~~~

Were it not for the warm breeze being pulled from behind everytime that Sunny created a new void in the Earth, Daring feared she'd shudder slightly every time the unnaturally smooth not-quite-stone touched her hooves. Why did every bit of Canine magic have to be creepy?

"How much farther?" Daring asked.

"We've yet to travel more than two dozen meters, I'm afraid." Aaron's replied, since Sunny was focusing on her work.

Despite her bravado, she had to admit that there was a distinct difference between dungeon diving and simply being stuck in a hole in the ground. To Daring they might as well have traveled an entire league beneath the surface.

When Sunny suddenly stopped in her tracks, Daring found herself excited to have a change of pace. "Problem?"

"Come have a look at this." Sunny said stepping to the side, allowing enough passage for the other two.

Aaron took a close look at the blue-gray stone that was now obstructing the path. "Masonry? Down here? Curious."

"Old too, very old. Either first era or earlier, if I had to guess." Came Daring's analysis.

Sunny eyed the stones incredulously, "You can tell all that from just a few bricks?"

"I am an expert.” Daring scoffed. ”But something buried this deep? Definitely rules out and third age and most of the second. No tool marks rules suggests at least first age. I'd need some more artifacts to get a more accurate dating, but it's safe to say that this place is older than most of Equestria."

Sunny suddenly stiffened and motioned for the other two to quiet down. "Wait a minute. Do you two hear that?"

Ears perked up in the direction of the stonework itself. "Water!?" they replied in unison.

"Great, looks like we have our answer as to how the Star ended up down here. Probably washed into this ancient aquifer during the a recent rainy season!" Daring said with a little bit of distress in her voice.

"Maybe, it doesn't sound like it's up against this wall, and this section here doesn't seem to be load bearing. Let's take a look at what's on the other side. Sunny?"

"Please step back a bit, sir. You too, Daring."

Following the polite suggestion, Daring and Aaron took position behind Sunny whilst she raised her rod to the stone.

~~~~~

The sudden splash of water during the Geomantic spell-casting raised the group’s collective heart rates a little, but when they realized it was only a trickle and not a torrent, they found that, despite their newly forming puddle, the structure was largely intact.

They found themselves in a hallway lit by clumps of vegetation set into the walls at regular intervals, fed by a tiny aqueduct system set into the wall. The cool greens of the fluorescent moss and the blueish-purples of the large, equally fluorescent fungi ensured that the ambient lighting was oddly soothing.

"Huh, that's new. I don't think I've ever seen fungus used to light up a dungeon before," Daring said upon observing their new discovery, and the newly dissolved aqueduct that was still pouring water onto the floor. "and we've already managed to break it."

Sunny rolled her eyes before bridging the gap with a trough of summoned rock. "Happy?"

"For the moment. So, O Great Compass Bearer, how far are we from the Star?"

"It's still somewhere below us, but the indication is stronger down this passage." Aaron stated whilst pointing down the right side of the hallway. "Shall we?"

Daring tilted her head a bit. "Towards the sound of a massive amount of rushing water? Might as well."

Heading down the oddly lit hallway, the group fell into a deep silence as the deafening roar increased in volume until the hallway split into two directions, one of which was decidedly louder.

"Let me guess, towards the tumult?" Daring asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Yeah..." Aaron said after conferring with the compass once more. "At least I hope this is the correct way. We still haven't reached the Star's depth yet."

That last part went unheard over the din of moving water. The trio suddenly found themselves on a platform overlooking an immense chamber. Waterfalls spanned the entire circumference, save for a few additional outcroppings similar to the one on which they now stood.

In the center of the roaring chamber was a brightly lit dais, fitted with white, polished stone bridge that connected it with the wall beyond it. The entire room was light by a upside-down fluorescent mushroom hanging from the ceiling, centered above the platform.

Regardless of how old the structure actually was, this room was of some ceremonial importance to whoever had built it, that much was for certain. Daring was squinting at the stone carvings that adorned the side of the dais, in a vain attempt to discern their purpose, when she sensed motion at the edge of her vision.

Towards the edge of the platform's bridge, mostly veiled behind the nearest portion of the waterfall, Daring noticed a light moving against the current, as if it was headed up a concealed, recessed staircase. She nudged the canines until they spotted it too.

The staircase zigzagged behind the waterfall, but every time it crossed the area nearest the bridge, they caught glimpse of male earth pony hauling something up the stairs.

Doing there best to identify the stranger, and his cargo, Daring decided to hover over and get a closer look. The Stallion was a muddy brown, but Daring couldn't see his cutie mark from this distance. The sack he was hauling up the stairs was shaped like a large, heavy bowling ball, the bag letting out a glint of light every time it hit another stair.

"Is that the-" Daring began to wonder just before the stallion spotted her and started bolting up the stairs. "Hey!" She started before realizing that Aaron and Sunny were still stuck on the platform.

"What's the matter?" Sunny asked, yelling so that she could be heard over the background.

"I think that pony has the Star!"

"Then chase after them!" Shouted Aaron. "We can't take the chance of the Star getting away!"

"But-!"

"Don't worry about us, we'll find a way to catch up!"

And with that Daring darted off in pursuit.

9: On Track

Daring do found herself momentarily blinded by the sunlight when she finally reached the surface. A secluded gully hid the entrance to the underground structure well, nopony would have found it unless they were right on top of it. Worse yet, it also meant that her potential thief was nowhere in sight. There were, however, two sets of hoofprints betraying her quarry's position, one entering and one leaving, but both heading down the northernmost end of the ravine.

Doing what a pegasus does naturally, Daring Do took to the sky, hoping for an aerial glimpse of the stallion. She didn't see him.

"Where'd he go?" Daring said, speedily coming the area. She didn't think he could have gotten far dragging that bag around, but the stallion was apparently good at hiding.

A little too good, it seems, as Daring's only indication of his location came from behind her, the mystery pony having dislodged some rocks into an otherwise silent crevice.

"Oh no you don't!" Daring yelled as she swung around towards the sound of the disturbance, only to catch a glimpse of her target as he disappeared, yet again, beyond some scraggly brush.

The game of cat and mouse lasted for a good five minutes before she was interrupted by the presence of Sunny and Aaron.

"Any luck?” Sunny asked with a shout.

"He's around here somewhere! Damn stallion's got a knack for hide and seek!" Daring double checked the last place she'd seen the pony in question. Noting the tacking course that the pony had spun she gave another report, "I’m pretty sure he's heading towards town!"

Before anyone could contemplate why the possible thief would head towards the sparsely populated town, they were interrupted by a shrill whistle in the distance.

"The train!" They all shouted in unison as the brown earth pony began his mad dash towards the station.

They had to stop him before he could make the locomotive, that much was fact. Daring dove for the stallion in hopes of breaking his stride, but to no avail. For a pony of his size, and carrying such an uneven mass, he was pretty agile on his hooves.

In mere moments, he’d already reached the outskirts of town. From then on, the suspect stuck to the closest side-street, and sped towards the train station.

Two more whistles sounded off in short bursts, the train was about to leave the station.

It became obvious that the two canis, even running along on all fours, were not going to catch up with the stallion in time. They needed a miracle.

Aaron gave a commanding nod to the priestess, who, in one motion, whipped her staff from its position on her back, fitted it with a gem, and struck the earth with her geomancy. Leaving a crater in the street, the energy surged in a shockwave around her staff, easily outrunning their quarry. With a mighty heave, a rock wall pushed up from the street in front of the stallion.

Much to everyone's surprise, the Earth pony simply jumped over the mound of earth, luggage and all. He made it look easy, much to thier collective disbelief.

"No way!" was all Daring could say from her position above. Noticing that the dogs had not lost their momentum, they appeared to also be readying up another attack. Taking that as her cue to move, Daring set herself into another dive.

The train was close enough now that they could see it begin its trek along the tracks. The train’s velocity was steadily increasing.

Another surge of geomancy and another wall rose to the sky, but just as the stallion prepared for his jump, Aaron’s geomancy sunk the whole street beneath him with such a force that the pony suddenly found itself airborne.

Enable to directly alter his vector, the Stallion surprised everyone once more when he hit the wall with much less force than expected. Surprised for only a moment at his own reaction time, the pony then started to run along the wall.

He moved no more than a single step before the full force of Daring's plummeting tackle sent them both into the depths of Aaron's earthen pit.

Before the dust could settle, the train finished it's departure.

~~~~~

Daring and the stranger were still fighting each other down in the pit when the dogs arrived. Navigating the blinding, billowing dust with practiced ease, Sunny attempted to apprehend the would-be pony plunderer, only to find that there were now two Daring Do's.

Confused for only a moment, Sunny simply grabbed both ponies by the scruff of the neck and held them at a fore paw’s length. Their limbs still flailing at each other until they realized their new predicament.

"Put me down! That one's a changeling!" Said the one on the left.

"I'm the real Daring Do here! Stop copying me, Changeling scum! My face is protected by copyright!" Said the one on the right.

"That's exactly what a changeling would say!" argued Left Daring.

Sunny closely scanned the pony in her left claw, then the one on the right. "What's a changeling?" She asked after her scrutiny.

"A race of vile insects that can copy the forms of others to steal their love!" Said the Pegasus on the left.

"They haven't been welcome in Equestria since they attacked Canterlot a few years ago!" Continued Right Pegasus.

"So put me down and lock up that changeling!" The two Daring Dos said in unison, whilst gesturing at each other.

Sunny dropped the one on the right and pushed the other daring against the wall.

"What!? B-but I'm the real Daring D-" The pinned pony pronounced.

"You smell like a bug..." Sunny interrupted.

"O-oh, right. In that case-!" The prisoner started, suddenly pulling violently against Sunny's iron grip. The Changeling dropped its disguise in a flash of green magic and started to transform into something else. Something its prisoner loved, hopefully.

The green flash died off, the changeling suddenly found that it couldn't copy the form it had found with its magic.

"Oh, what's the matter? Changeling can't turn into a Diamond Dog?" Daring teased once she'd dusted herself off. "I should tell the Royal Guard, they'd pay out the nose to get their hooves on anti-changeling guard dogs. Maybe we should send them you as a parting gift!"

Reverting to it’s changeling form, a rather small female, the prisoner continued to struggle against her captor. "No, please! I need to get the thing-"

Aaron coughed, interrupting the rest of the group. "I believe we should continue this elsewhere. Our cover is dissipating." He said pointing up.

Already a crowd had gathered to witness the commotion that had altered their street so dramatically. Some murmurs of magical Diamond Dogs, and whispers of whatever frightful rumor a pony could tell, and still be believed, were reaching panic levels.

All would be disappointed, however. Just as suddenly as the walls and hole appeared, the ponies of Dodge soon found the structures reverting back to normal. Once the abnormally thick dust had settled, there was no evidence that anything had happened in their town at all.

~~~~~

"Please, please let me go with the thing. I-I promise I leave pony, and dogs, alone." The changeling said. It's language broken and chittering when not filtered through its transformation magic.

"And I keep telling you that Master Aaron decides your fate." Sunny replied dryly, for the sixth time.

"But why? You are smart, for dog. You make smart-t decision."

Sunny slapped her paw to her forehead. "And I don't have time to explain to you all of the reasons why that logic doesn't work." She mumbled. 'It was Aaron's idea to bring the changeling along in the first place, so why was she stuck guarding the prisoner?' Sunny questioned herself.

It wasn't long before she heard Daring Do and Aaron discussing something outside.

"You sure about this? These bugs are as dangerous as they come."

"The situation has changed. Besides, there was a time you could have said the same about us."

"But you are still dangerous."

"You should see me when I'm not playing by the rules. Anyway, you of all people should know how good I am at this sort of thing."

"Fine. Have it your way."

Aaron entered the room, set into the ground behind their camp, which acted as a holding cell for the prisoner. "I'll take it from here Sunny."

"Of course, Sir Aaron. I shall be right outside if you need anything."

"Thank you, Sunny, but that won't be necessary. I just want to talk is all." Aaron waited until the other canis had left before he turned to the changeling. "Come closer, please. I'd like to get a good look at you."

Seeing no reason to not comply, the changeling moved closer to one called ‘Master Aaron’. "You the b-boss dog? You let me out?"

"Fascinating. Your exoskeleton structure is quite remarkable. With all of the holes it's a wonder it maintains such structural stability. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Yes. I guess I could be considered the 'Boss Dog'. You may call me Aaron. Do you have a name, miss?"

"Worker drone do not have names. Only queen have name."

"Hmm. That's not very good. Don't you have some way with which you can refer to each other?"

The little changeling thought about it for a while before answering. "Oh, you mean with the s-scents! Everyling has a special scent."

Aaron laughed a bit. Of course they would use pheromones as part of their communication. "Ah, that doesn't really help me either. And we certainly can't call you by the alias of the pony whose image you stole earlier. So how about I give you a name?" After receiving no objections from the changeling, Aaron continued, "Let’s go with something simple, yet still describes you a bit. Can't go with anything bug related, that'd be too easy. Swiss and/or cheese is right out the window. Hmmm, what to do..."

The darting eyes of her captor's leader were starting to make the changeling a bit uncomfortable. Just what was this dog up to?

"Aha!" Aaron shouted, causing the changeling do retreat to the rear of her cell. "I've got it! I'll call you Patina!"

"What? Why?"

"Because of your shell. It's obvious you take pretty good care of it, the way it shines, so you'll be Patina, after the way your shell gleams. Will that work?"

Thinking it over, The changeling was a little confused about the whole naming convention. After all, she was no queen. Although, Patina did have a good ring to it...

"Okay, I acc-cept that name." Stated the newly named insect.

"Great! now then, Patina, on to business."

"I leave with the thing?"

"Do you mean the Star of Earth? The artifact you were sneaking out of that underground structure?"

"Yes. S-star thing for queen. Queen need it or-r else."

"I see. Why does your queen need the Star? Does she know what it is? How to use it?"

"Patina only drone! But Blue-tail say bad things happen if queen not give him S-star thing."

"Blue-tail? Who is that?"

"Big guy. He show up and t-then soldierling listen to him, but not queen. Only w-workers listen. Patina listen to queen. Blue-tail say he want queen to get Star thing, but that queen must stay. So Patina and other workers go find things."

"So, you're only here because you were told to? Where are the others?"

"Patina not know. Patina was in hurry."

"And why is that?"

"Because Patina hear Blue-tail say some very mean things to Queen. Patina can't not bring thing or else-..." The changeling started sobbing.

Aaron was pretty sure he had a fair grasp of what was going on now. Granted, he didn't think his day would end with making a little bug cry, but at least now he knew she was only being used as a tool by whoever this blue-tailed guy was. "Alright. Calm down. What if I told you a little secret?"

This seemed to calm Patina down a bit. "S-secret?"

"Yeah. If you help us, we might be able to get rid of the guy threatening your queen. Would you like that?"

"Yes..."

"Good. All you have to do for now is wait in there until we're ready to go. I know you'd rather be anywhere than here, but for this plan to work, I'll need you to play along. Okay? Then, tomorrow, we can start heading to your hive so we can scare away Blue-tail. Can you do that."

Patina nodded in confirmation.

"Great. If there's anything you want to ask in the meantime, go ahead and ask."

The changeling thought about it for a bit before asking. "What are you?"

"Hah, that is a very good question!"

~~~~~

After his conversation with the prisoner, who was now sound asleep. Aaron left the holding cell only to be confronted by Daring Do.

"Oh, so you tell the bug exactly what kind of mythical creature you are, but not me?"

"You never asked."

"Yeah, but how was I supposed to know to ask?"

"And how was I supposed to know that changelings can sense 16 different kinds of love? Besides, it isn't as though it hasn't been hinted enough."

"What, the statue at the den entrance? Still though, you could have just told me. I thought we were friends?" At this the conversation quieted as the two made their way towards the fire Sunny was tending.

"We are." Aaron said solemnly. "Just up and shouting what I am, especially for my own gain, isn't playing by the rules, you know? The more people who know, outside of the den, the harder it will be for me in the future."

'The Future? What could Aaron be thinking up now?' Daring thought to herself before continuing. "Is it true what she said, that she can't read you?"

"I suppose she wouldn't be the first, not by a long shot. But that's not exactly what she meant, was it?" Aaron sighed. "So, what else did you hear?"

"Only that I might know who this 'blue-tail' guy is. Ahuizotle."

"Ahuizotle?"

"Yeah, guys a real piece of work. And he's not above foalnapping if it means he can get his claws on a powerful artifact. Though he usually targets stuff that has a specific use. I don't know what he could want the stars for."

"All the more reason for us to keep them out of his hands, er, claws then."

"Great. Let me guess, we now have to break into a changeling hive, free the queen, thwart Ahuizotle's plans and steal back the other two Stars?"

"Three Stars." Sunny answered as the other two approached. "While you were busy, I double checked the compass readings, Master Aaron. The Third Star is already on the move."

"Oh, and it just keeps getting better." Daring called out sarcastically. "Then I guess I'm off to bed. No sense in letting our inevitable capture and/or death get in the way of a good night's sleep. I’ll see you both in the morning."

"She seems tense." Sunny observed.

"And she has every right to be."

"Don't we all..."

~~~~~

"Ugh! Why did I have to be the one to do this again?" Daring exclaimed at the prospect of having the changeling use her magic on Daring once more. " I mean, I know you have issues with the whole Diamond Dog, or Canis form, or whatever, but why use me, specifically?

"Because you're the only one who has any emotional connection to another pony." Patina explained, happy to once again be able to communicate through her magic as she began the transformation. "And since Aaron isn't allowing me to steal a form, I need to borrow one from somepony's connections in order to build a new form. Then there’s the fact that, besides the Pragma coming off of the Sunny dog, finding love connections with any of you is proving to be difficult. You're all pretty much loners aren't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, nopony asked for backtalk, grub! Just hurry up and get it over with..."

"Almost, there..." the changeling said as she pulled on the last threads of emotion she needed. With a green flash of magical flame, Patina's appearance began to change. "There we go. How do I look?"

"You look exactly like my cousin." Daring said in disdain.

"No I don't. The fur is obviously darker. And If you remembered your cousin the way you think you do, you'd know that her cutie mark isn't made of a bunch of blueberries."

"Blueberries? Where'd that come from?"

"I don't know. I think I pulled it from one of Sunny's emotions. She has got to be the most emotionally confused individual I've ever met."

"Huh, never thought I'd agree with a bug about something. Well, whatever. Now that you're presentable, let’s go and see if those two managed to secure us some train tickets."

~~~~~

It wasn't difficult to find Sunny or Aaron, as they were surrounded by a small herd of curious townsfolk. It wasn't often that friendly Diamond Dogs would ever visit a pony settlement, let alone purchase a train ticket.

After Daring pulled Patina through the crowd, she was finally able to get the duo's attention. "So how'd it go, did you get the tickets?"

Sunny was the first to speak. "Pony bargaining is weird. A day's worth of snacks is apparently worth as much as the train."

"And despite our trade for only a single private car, I fear we may have over-saturated the gem market around here for weeks to come." Aaron said apologetically. "Had I known earlier, I would have started negotiations with a smaller amount."

"Don't feel too bad about it, the private cars are worth every bit. When do we leave?"

"Within the hour, but I'm told we can board at anytime."

"Why wait?" Asked Daring as she glared at the crowd before heading towards the carriage. The others soon followed.

~~~~~

"Is this all of your guy's stuff? How are a bunch of gems going to help you help the queen?" Patina asked after they had boarded their car. "And what did you do with the Star? You know, in case your plan doesn't work, whatever that is..."

"Hey, you're pretty funny for a changeling." Aaron laughed, "The gems have nothing to do with the plan, if that's what you’re asking. As for the star, I buried it nearby. If the plan fails, I'm sure you changelings can find it the same way you found it last time."

"Okay, I guess. So what's the plan exactly? I think I'd like to know more than: go to the hive and save everybody. Especially if you want me to help with it."

"Of course. Well, the first thing we're going to do is...."

Daring only half-heartedly listened to whatever it was that Aaron was going on about, and leaned closer to Sunny. "Hey, I've also kind of been wondering about where the Star went during our scuffle. He didn't really bury it did he? Doesn't that that seem a little too, well, careless for Aaron?" She whispered.

"Hah, so you do know Aaron better than that. I'm surprised you didn't notice."

"Notice what?" Daring asked quizzically

Sunny revealed an amulet that was mostly hidden behind the tuft of fur on her chest. Made of steelstone and gold, it was shaped into four snakes encircling each other until eventually their own tails rested behind their fangs. On the head of each snake sat a gem, one of which glowed with a faint green hue.

"How?" Daring started before realizing how loud she was. Sunny tucked the amulet away before it could draw the attention of their guest "I mean, the thing was bigger than my head!" Daring finished with hushed tone.

"Aaron could probably explain it better, but he built this device to regulate the Star's energy. Every Star, if we can manage to get a hold of them. I believe he knew someone who theorized that matter and energy were proportional to one another, and that in this case, the matter takes the place of the energy that the Star no longer contains."

"So the Star is weaker than it was when the changeling had it?"

"No, the energy is still there, I think. It's just not there there. I'm afraid I don't understand the specifics as well as I would like. You'd have to ask Aaron if you want to know more."

"I just might." Daring replied.

"... and that's where you come in, Patina. If we stick to the plan, everything should work out all right."

And with that, the train made its final call for departure. The next leg of their journey had just gotten underway.

10: The Devil's Anvil

"We're nearly there, I can smell it!" announced Patina to the group.

After their four-day-long trek from the nearest station, and with it, any semblance of civilization, Daring was willing to believe anything so long as it meant she didn't have to walk and/or hover anymore. But even she had to admit that the sulfurous odor that had begun to permeate the air was exactly what she thought a hive would smell like. Granted, she'd have known that ahead of time had she just flown there, but the risk of being spotted by a patrol was just too high.

"So now what?" Asked Sunny.

Aaron thought about it for a bit. "I think we should stop here and do some recon. Get our bearings first and make our move after we're rested. Daring and Sunny, you two stay here and make camp, but try to minimize any evidence that might suggest we're here. We should also get a reading on the Stars' locations, Sunny, so we'll need another antenna."

As the others got to work setting stuff out, Patina asked. "What about me?"

"You're going to show me the way into the hive. After that, we'll come back here for dinner. How does that sound?"

"Ugh," was Patina's reply. She had tried some of the so-called ‘food’ that the diamond dogs had brought, and to be honest, she was not impressed. Between that and the fact that Daring wasn't about to share any of her pony food, Patina could really use a bite of love. She could totally go for some Eros right about now. "I don't see how you can eat that stuff. Rocks are gross. Can't I just have a little love instead? Pleeease..." Patina begged.

"Maybe. It depends on how good your info is, I suppose."

"Don't give into her pleading, Aaron!" Daring chided. "Once they get a taste, they won't stop until they suck the life right out of you."

"Oh, so like a normal wife then?" Aaron laughed at his own joke, only to be met with antipathetic glares from both Daring and Sunny "Ooh, tough crowd. We'd better be off then, Patina, lest I melt from the stares!"

Patina merely shrugged. "Whatever you say, boss doggy."

~~~~~

Observing from the crevice that fed into their campsite, Aaron quickly learned that there was no hidden approach that led to the hive. Centered in the middle of numerous sulpher-laden pools sat a massive rectangular block of stone. A rocky maw, which opened up underneath the boulder, led into the depths of the hive itself.

Even from this distance, Aaron could swear he felt the ground vibrating with the combined insectuous motion of the changelings below. but whether it was just a figment of his imagination or not, he couldn't tell.

"They, I mean the ponies, call it The Devil's Anvil. Although I have no idea who, or what a devil is, now that I think about it. But to us, it's home!"

"So are there usually guards outside? I thought you guys would want to remain hidden if you didn't want ponies spotting you? They don't seem to like you guys very much..."

"I told you that wasn't our fault, but there's not going to be any-" Patina started before looking closer, "what are they thinking!?" She nearly shouted before running out to correct the blunder.

Aaron held the changeling back. "No, you can't give away our location, Patina."

"But what about the plan? There weren't any guards when I left, I swear!"

"Calm down, Little Changeling, we didn't get this far on luck alone. We'll think of something. Let's head back before those guards decide to do their jobs and spot us, hmm?" Aaron said as he turned back into the small canyon.

"O-okay..." Patina sighed before following him, wondering what other setbacks Blue-tail had in store for them.

~~~~~

"So they've stepped up security? That might be a problem. Any idea why?"

"I'm not sure, this whole thing is kind of unusual. I'm sorry I can't find out more without checking the hive out myself, but If I do that, there's a chance they won't let a worker like me leave again so soon."

Aaron acknowledged the changeling’s concern. "Don't worry about it. We'll just have to wing it. Anyway, did you get the antenna set up, Sunny?"

"Yes sir. I've already taken some readings, and I believe that, at the rate the readings are changing, that the final Star will have made it's way into the hive by morning."

"Should we try to intercept it? If we know if, when, and where it's coming, won't we have the advantage?"

"Yes, but only if we wanted to lose our chance to grab the other two artifacts that they already have. It's likely that they've stepped up security due to our scuffle with Petina. If we strike the next transport, the hive is likely to raise their security even more. Moving in tomorrow may be the only chance we have at thwarting the whole operation."

"Alright then, what's the plan for getting past the guards?"

"It's simple really. The new plan, is pretty much exactly like the old plan. We simply walk through the front gate."

"But the guards aren't just going to let you waltz in there. This isn't some pony village, it's a natural stronghold. With guards!"

"Exactly! That's where you come in Petina. Now listen closely, and we'll have this whole thing in the bag..."

~~~~~

Early the next morning, the group found itself in front of the changeling guards near the entrance to the hive.

The lead guard challenged in their native, pheromone-driven language after spotting Patina through her disguise.

Everyone except Patina was tied up in one of Daring's ropes. Patina claimed proudly.

The younger guard scrutinized the offerings.

the older guard stated.

The newer guard eyed Patina suspiciously.

the elder guard interrupted.

Patina signalled sheepishly.

the older changling said in a commanding tone.

exclaimed the younger one.

Patina said before heading past the guards, tugging on the rope lead as she went.

The older guard shouted after her he shook his head in annoyance.

The younger said rolling his shoulders.

~~~~~

"Well, that was easy." Daring whispered once they were out of the guards' earshot. "What were you guys talking about?"

"I didn't catch all of it, but at one point, I'm pretty sure you called us snacks." Observed Aaron.

"But it worked didn't it? Now come on, before anyling gets suspicious." Patina said before leading the still-bound group deeper into the hive.

Despite the hive's location in the middle of what was essentially a desert, the air was surprisingly damp. The air itself seemed to be marred by a constant musky odor that continually wafted through the tunnels. Clinging to the damp walls was a fluorescent green, waxy substance that provided just enough light to see by, but did nothing to alleviate the the inherent creepy feeling of the cave.

Other than the two guards at the entrance, the caves were surprisingly devoid of changelings. "I thought this was a changeling hive, shouldn't there be more, you know, changelings?" Daring Do asked.

"You probably shouldn't be complaining about that." Patina stated a little shakily. The pegasus was right though, there should have been more worker-ling in the tunnels. "Whatever, we've come far enough. The scent order is telling me to imprison you here, so if I go any farther, someling might catch on." She said as she untied the ropes. "I'll stay here and try to buy you time. Just stick to the left tunnel there and take any of the left branches that descend deeper. The central chamber will be on the right, you can't miss it."

"Thanks, Patina, you're pretty good for a bug." Daring admitted.

"Umm, thanks I guess? Just keep a nose out for sudden shifts in scents, there won't be any clue anyling is on to you otherwise." Patina warned as she dropped her disguise "Other than t-that, all I can say is-s, good luck."

"Same to you Patina. You've been a great help." Aaron said as the group split ways. They were on their own now.

~~~~~

Delving deeper into the hive, Daring couldn't help that feeling that she was missing something. She thought that it was because they had yet to run into any changelings, despite having descended a few more levels into the cave system. No, there was something else, the nagging tingle that ran up her neck, almost as if she were being watched. Seeing nothing behind her however, Dating shrugged off the chill and tried not to let the creepy cavern get to her.

Having made it to their destination undiscovered, they finally discovered the reason why the caverns seemed to be mostly uninhabited. What must have been the entirety of the hive was filling the central chamber that Patina had directed them to. But changelings weren't the only creatures present.

"Ahuizotle..." Daring whispered to the other two. "I'd recognize that mug of his everywhere." Confident that she had the culprit identified at last.

"Well we can't just barge in there, we need a plan." Aaron stated urgently, their position in one of the upper balconies wouldn't go unnoticed for long. Quickly taking in the surroundings, it didn't take him long to formulate something. "Sunny, take the amulet and tunnel into the wall behind us. Burrow until you're directly beneath that podium over there." he said pointing towards one of two stone platforms near a larger, upright stone ring, "It looks like that's where two of the Stars are. Wait there until the third one's in place, and grab it when I send the signal. You'll be on your own, and we'll have to seal the wall behind you, but once you've got the other three Stars, you get the heck out of here, you got that? It's imperative that these artifacts stay safe. Daring and I will catch up with you when we can."

Sunny nodded her acknowledgement, and with a serious look on her face, she lodged an earth gem in her staff and melted the stone wall enough to afford her access.

"Good luck." Daring do said before the hole sealed up behind Sunny. "Why do you make Sunny do all of the heavy lifting anyway?"

"Now is not the time nor the place, Daring. Suffice it to say, I have my reasons. Now onto the important task. This Ahuizotle person, how does he fight."

"Don't worry about him, Aaron. I can take him."

"No, Daring. I know you've fought him before, but I need you to observe the situation carefully. If there's even a hint of something wrong, I need you to let me deal with him instead."

"What, why? Shouldn't you take care of the, I don't know, hundreds of changelings first? I think I even see a few of Ahuizotle's pony lackeys down there."

"I'm serious, Ms. Do. Look carefully."

"Fine." she sighed. The pegasus edged out closer to the balcony's edge. Nothing looked out of the ordinary about her blue nemesis, who appeared to be giving out his standard evil monologue to the troops. The changeling queen stood behind him and to his right, holding the third orb within her magic. The changeling and pony pawns were all standing at rapt attention, nothing Daring hadn't seen before.

Glancing over to the main stage, where the ring and platforms were situated, didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary either, and yet, deep down, Daring could sense that something was off. She scanned the chamber again. Ahuizotle, Queen, minions, Ancient, possibly evil alter of some sort. What was missing?

'The cats...' was all Daring could acknowledge before she and Aaron were suddenly onset by guards from both directions.

Surrounded and surprised, Daring and Aaron suddenly found themselves in a very tight bind.

11: The Throne of Ouroboros

"So, did you see anything out of the ordinary?" Aaron asked.

"Really you’re going to do this now?” Daring complained as she struggled against the ropes tying her down. "This is the second time I've been tied up underground this month!"

"Just answer the question, please."

"Yeah okay. I didn't see Ahuizotle's cats. They're super loyal, and never leave his side, so it’s a little odd that they aren't here now."

"Alright then, I suppose you should just leave him to me."

Lifting her head up until she could see Aaron and asked him a question under her breath. "Why, what are you going to do, use some of your freaky geomancy to break us out of here?"

"Nope." came Aaron's simple reply.

"What do you mean no? You're supposed to be a living god, or something, and yet you don't have the magic necessary to get us out of here?"

"Well, for one thing it's not yet time for us to act." He whispered, nodding towards the queen, who was carrying the third star towards the platform. "Then there's the fact that I don't know of a geomancy spell that can untie knots. Besides, why would I resort to magic when these guys forgot two very important things?"

The artifact now in place, Ahuizotle bellowed an order for his minions to find the final piece. "Like what?" Daring asked.

"Oh, like the fact that they tied my paws up with rope far too close to my claws, which I remind you can cut through stone like a warm knife through butter."

"And the other thing?" Daring asked while chanting and magic filled the air. It was only a matter of time before they discovered where Sunny was hiding.

Aaron simply dangled the rope between his recently freed paws. "It must be really hard to tie a decent knot with just hooves and teeth."

With a great surge of power, the entire chamber floor erupted at a slope, sending most of the inhabitants flailing towards the wall opposite the platform.

Untying Daring, Aaron directed her towards the queen, "I think that one's yours." he said, before leaving to deal with the recovering blue menace.

"Yeah, whatever, just watch out for his- " Daring started before Aaron was forced to dodge out of the way of Ahuizotle's third hand, "-tail..." she finished.

"Shouldn't you worry more about yourself,?" the queen yelled as she charged directly at Daring Do.

Ducking below the first assault, Daring remembered what the purpose of the engagement was. Keeping everyone away from the platform until Sunny could steal the Artifacts was her top priority. "Why? Is that all you've got. Queen Chrysalis almost captured Canterlot, but you can't even hit a single pegasus!" She taunted.

The only reply from the Queen was an angry screech before she threw herself into the fray once more. "You should not mention that wretch's name in the presence of Queen Copiphorinae!" she yelled out in third-person. "What we will accomplish here will make that assault look like a walk in the park!"

Daring just kept her distance. The queen was surprisingly agile, but not more so than a pegasus as active as herself. She glanced at Aaron in time to see him summon cloud of dust to surround her former nemesis in, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sunny approach the platform from the newly formed hole beneath it. All she had to do now was keep the chase up until the heist was complete. "Aww what's the matter, does Queen Copy Cat feel left out? You'll never be as strong or as powerful as Chrysalis at this rate!"

At this, the queen quickened her pace, actually forcing Daring to focus on the fight. Dodge, buck, roll, dodge. They kept pace with each other for a while, but the other changelings were starting to wake up. A battle of attrition was not one that Daring expected she would win.

Then, something changed. The entire cavern filled with a bright blue light, it's source centered on the stone ring. Sunny held the amulet to the second platform, which Daring suspected was the control console for the structure.

"What are you doing Sunny!?" exclaimed the pegasus.

"Heh, your friends aren't as smart as you think. With the throne active, we can finally break through the magic that keeps the entirety of Tartarus at bay. I don't know what you and your idiotic friends were trying to do, but with the gateway opened, you have all failed!"

"Aaron!?" Daring asked in alarm. "What do we do?"

"Daring, I've got my hands full. You'll have to stop Sunny!"

"But what about-"

"Just fly straight, I'll take care of the others." Aaron shouted as more dust sprouted from every surface, quickly filling every portion of the room except the narrow passage between Daring's position and Sunny's.

Without hesitation, Daring charged. She wasn't sure what the dog was up to, but she'd worked too hard to see their work fail now.

Colliding into the Sunny at full speed, the pair went flying, the amulet skidding to a stop between them. Sunny was the first to rise, seemingly uninjured, and she simply continued towards the amulet to pick it up as though nothing had happened.

Shaking the impact off with a grunt, Daring dove towards the canine once more. "Sunny, stop. What are you-!?" she started to shout before getting a look at her friends face.

Sunny's eyes were dull, vacant. The canis was unconscious.

In addition to her odd behavior, the pegasus found that she couldn't loosen her friend's grip on the amulet. Even as the struggle continued, Sunny inched forward, getting closer and closer towards the gateway.

"Aaron! Something's wrong, I can't stop Sunny, and she's not responding to anything. What do I do?"

Aaron's answer cut through the dust, barely audible through the strain he was experiencing. "Think, Daring. It's up to you!"

Answer's however, were not so forthcoming. The only ability she had over the canis was the ability to fly, but there was no way she'd be able to carry Sunny anywhere. With the dust filling most of the room, there wasn't enough space to get up to speed for another tackle, so what else could she do.

Out of options, a tiny voice sprang into mind. '-only when they respect the one doing it.' It was a silly idea, but what else did she have? The gate was getting closer by the moment.

Daring pushed herself into her friend's line of sight, inching close enough that their snouts nearly touched. "Sunny. Look at me. I need you to wake up, Sunny. Please."

She was missing something again. It wasn't just the attention she needed, or the words. She needed to use her own influence. "Sunny. Stop this at once. I order you to snap out of it! Wake. Up. Sahni!" Daring screamed with every ounce of might she could summon.

Just a few feet from the gate's event horizon, Sunny stopped.

12: Harm's Way

The Amulet clattered to the floor, skidding only a short distance from the pair.

"Daring Do, Sir?" Sunny simply asked.

"What were you doing Sunny? You were supposed to get the Stars and get the hay out of here!"

"Yes, Sir. I was getting out of here as ordered."

"By walking through the portal? We don't even know where this thing goes."

"I wasn't going through the portal? I was- I was-..." The canis hesitated. "I-I'm sorry, Sir. I don't seem to know why I-"

Before she could finish, they were interrupted by a startling screech coming from the veil of dust. A few of the changelings had broken through Aaron's geomancy, Queen Copiphorinae leading the charge.

On instinct, Daring shoved the dazed canine out of their path while simultaneously diving towards the Amulet in the same motion. Time seemed to slow as she approached it, but the queen had gained too much momentum. Even if Daring reached the artifact first, she'd never escape the queen's advance as well.

Mere inches away from the Amulet of the Stars, time stopped.

~~~~~

[Pause Command confirmed. Local area run-time temporarily frozen.]

Aaron sighed. "Cutting it a little close there weren't we?" He said to no-one in particular as he settled the dust. Several changelings were still airborne, fighting the restrictive dust that no longer obstructed their advance.

"You know, in hindsight, I probably should have just summoned a wall instead of flinging everyone across the room." Aaron nodded in hindsight. "Yeah. That was probably the better way to go."

There were far too many things hanging in the air, literally, for him to waste any more time criticizing his own strategy, so Aaron got to work. His console already summoned from his earlier command, Aaron wrote a quick script to force a sleep state on everyone present. "Let’s see, one daring pegasus; one loyal canis; nearly three hundred changelings, including the queen; fourteen various ponies, one Ahuizotle, I guess; and one, oh, that is interesting..."

Just as he finished getting everything in order so that no-one would be injured when he restarted things, Aaron moved to recover the Amulet of the Stars. Stooping down to the artifact, Aaron froze, a sudden chill raising the fur on his neck. He'd missed something.

The portal was still active, the whorls and vortices of the event horizon's surface still churned with motion. In front of it stood a figure that defied the laws of physics, simulated as they may be.

A cloud of misshapen blots filled out a general, nondescript form, as if the light-absorbing shapes were swarming over an invisible surface.

In one swift motion, Aaron summoned his staff and swept the artifact off the platform before placing the staff between himself and the intruder.

"Another user?" Aaron asked as he browsed the logs from his console. The only entry was his own. "No. It can't be... What are you!?"

"What are we, is us?
Was there once a time we knew?
A time it mattered?
No.
This one your kind sought,
whom humans almost destroyed,
without second thought."

"Great, riddles. If this ends in a song and a dance, can we please just get to point?"

"One asks for the point?
Such an interesting thought,
that a man would care.
No.
We exist here, now,
to rid the universes,
of those who wear thin.
Yes.
We have many names.
Humans only know of one.
We exist as Harm."

"Well, I have to give it to you, whatever you are, you've got the evil monologue thing down, but-"

The shadow called Harm struck first, but only long enough to grasp Aaron's staff. Then it stopped.

"What's the matter? Not what you were expecting?"

"No magic? No plan?
Just a poor execution,
wherever you stand."

The next attack was aimed at Aaron's head, but this time without the earlier element of surprise. Breaking his own staff into two at the midsection, Aaron used one of the pieces to deflect the next attack as it passed just short of his ears. Even so, the mass that Harm was wielding seemed to defy physics as well, sending the seemingly larger dog sliding back a few feet.

Aaron jumped back on reflex before the next hit could land. He couldn't afford to take too many more of those, simulated avatar or no. Wherever Harm struck, a viscous black substance stained the surface. Harm's origins and make-up aside, Aaron did not want to find out what coming into contact with the residue would do to him.

Harm seemed to realize this too, as it switched from powerful blows to faster, whip-like strikes. Aaron did the best he could to fend Harm off, but the consecutive hits quickly began to prove too much, one of the blows even managing to knock the weapon from his left paw.

Distancing himself once more, Aaron was slowing down considerably, the black substance seeming to do more than just slow down his avatar. Even during the focused fight, Aaron could feel his mind being pulled elsewhere, apart even. While he could resist to a degree, it became quite obvious that Harm would win this battle of attrition. Disconnection would save him, but all of the others left behind were still vulnerable, all because of his own actions. He couldn't even entertain the thought of abandoning his friends.

"You seem to be one for talking, how about we do that?" Aaron stalled.

"What have you to say?
Readying your dying breath.
We hear, but care not."

Harm gloated as it gathered itself up for the final blow.

"Yes!"

"No!" Aaron shouted back. "I pity you, honestly. You think you've won." Harm froze in place, "Ha, you do want to know what you've missed, don’t you?. Well that is really funny, honestly. Even if I believed that you've been on a mission to exterminate humans for however long, you still can't see it can you? Why you'll never win? Well here it is: Humans, as a species, will never surrender." Aaron willed up the last of his strength and hurled the last part of his spear at what appeared to be Harm's center of mass.

The steelstone baton passed cleanly through the creature, who offered no resistance as dark particulate simply flowed around the projectile.

"A futile effort.
Now we can end t-"

Harm vanished as though he was being ripped towards the gateway, Aaron's weapon having shattered the control pedestal into numerous pieces.

"Yeah, I thought you might say that." Aaron said as he caught his breath. "I can't believed that worked!"

It also seemed that, with Harm's connection severed, the black sludge's effects were also greatly diminished. Upon closer examination, the sludge looked more like some sort of random code that was trying to force its surroundings to behave in a more uniform fashion. The code itself, however, was the exact opposite. It didn’t even appear to be the same between puddles, almost as if each portion was different from the rest, but was also acting in concert to accomplish a single task. It would simply be a curious conglomeration of computer code if wasn't for the fact that that task seemed to be influencing his avatar's movements.

With the immediate threat gone, Aaron started purging his avatar of the gunk before he started seeing it everywhere. An idea struck him, and he made his way back to where the Amulet had fallen. Gently picking it up by the chain, Aaron could see that the three Stars that had recently been added were filled with the errant programming, likely embedded during whatever ritual the changelings and Ahuizotle were doing to them prior to Sunny acquiring them. If it was able to influence actions, then it might even explain Sunny's recent behavior.

Who knows, maybe some of the others' behaviors were also under it infections influence.

Either way, now that he knew what he was looking for, Aaron had a lot of work ahead of him. This entire area, and all of the entities in it, would have to be scrubbed of the errant code before the Sandbox could resume operations.

13: Out of Sorts

"...and with Ahuizotle fleeing from the scene of his defeat, his words faded into the distance, 'I'll defeat you yet, Daring Do!'" Having finished the last paragraph of the chapter, Sunny put down the last loose page from Daring's latest book. "It's looking great so far, Daring, but why did you alter so much of it?"

"Well, it's not like I'm embellishing anything, Sunny. If I just explained to everypony exactly what happened for every minute of every day, they'd get bored before the second chapter."

"No, that is not what I meant." Sunny rifled through the pages of the previous chapter until she found what she was looking for, the last few months of studying the Equiish language really paying off. "Here, just before the queen jumps you after you get the Amulet of the Stars. You said that Aaron summoned a rock wall as a latch ditch effort..."

"Yeah, and in the process, he destroyed the command console, breaking off the Throne's link to Tartarus."

"I don't remember there being a rock wall, though."

"You were still under my Influence back then, maybe your memory is still a little fuzzy."

"But, even afterwards, when I woke up, I don't remember there being any evidence of a wall. Rock or otherwise."

"Then how else would Aaron have destroyed the console, hmm?" Daring asked with an un-amused tone.

"I suppose an earthquake is possible, or an avalanche, but both would be extremely risky in that situation. Whatever it was, though, it wasn't a rock-wall."

"Fine then, if you're so sure about it, we can just ask him. I have to deliver something to him anyway."

"I-I'm not sure I'm ready to go back yet..." Sunny said solemnly.

"Are you still worried about that?"

Sunny's ear's drooped a bit. She still didn't know what had convinced her to disobey Aaron's orders. Worse still, she found that she was susceptible to more than just Aaron's Influence. Not that she blamed Daring Do for doing the right thing, but ever since then, she'd felt as though she'd lost something important. "A little bit, I guess..."

"So what? I guarantee Aaron opinion of you hasn't changed. He still values your input, as both an adviser and a friend." Daring tried to comfort the dog. At least Sunny had toned it down a bit since they’d left the hive.

Sighing, Sunny had to concede the pegasus's point. "I suppose you're right. But I did spend my entire life believing that I had to worship Aaron with all of my being. Now that I know that that's impossible, and that it isn't even what Aaron wants, I- I just need some more time to figure things out."

"You'll get plenty of that out here when I'm gone, then." Daring observed. “Just don’t mope around too long, or I’ll be tempted to charge rent.”

Glad for a change of subject, Sunny perked up a little. "Say, what are you taking to the den anyway?"

"I'm not sure." Daring said as she pulled an plain ivory envelope from under a sheaf of paper on her desk. The only adornment was the red wax seal emblazoned with the Crest of the Royal Sisters. "All I know is that Celestia wants this hoof-delivered, and I'm the only pony she knows with the connection to make that happen."

"That sounds important."

"I agree. What I can't figure out is, how Celestia knows about you guys, specifically, in the first place? Even the ponies on the airship couldn't tell you guys apart from diamond dogs until you wrecked the mess hall."

"Thanks for reminding me" Sunny said in a dejected tone. "Maybe she contacts all of the Diamond Dog packs, and mine just wasn't on her list yet?"

"Guess I'll find out when I get there."

"Don't forget to ask about the earthquake thing during your visit!" Sunny exclaimed as Daring turned to leave.

"You mean the rock-wall?" Daring Do shot back.

~~~~~

When Daring had left, she'd originally intended to deliver the rough draft to her publisher, but the more she reflected back on her conversation with Sunny, the more she started to doubt her own memories of the incident. The last thing that she remembered clearly is that she was on a collision course with the queen. Neither an earthquake, nor a hastily summoned wall of stone, would have stopped that, and Daring sure didn’t feel like she’d collided with the giant bug when she woke up.

The few days she had spent in transit did nothing to alleviate these doubts.

After reaching her destination, both Daring and the Airship crew were surprised to find a new, and fully-functional airship mooring sitting out in the middle of nowhere. Aaron had been busy since their departure, it seemed. Despite this, and the fact that the den was still hidden, Daring had no trouble securing a meeting with the Canis's supreme leader.

"Daring Do! It's a pleasure to see you again." Aaron exclaimed as he waived the pegasus into what she believed was his office. It looked more like a random assortment of experimental labs had intermingled until it became hard to discern what each section was supposed to be for. "I don't see Sunny with you, how's she holding up?"

"Oh well, you know. Sunny's being Sunny, I guess..." Daring stated nervously.

"That bad huh? Well, I'm sure she'll work things out in time." Aaron observed as they made their way over to his desk, the only clean piece of furniture in the room. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well, two things actually..." Daring pulled the message out from underneath her helmet, and handing it to Aaron. "I'm supposed to deliver this to you personally. It's from the Royal Sisters, Celestia and Luna. I don't know what it's about though."

"I might have an idea..." Aaron answered, to which Daring tilted her head in curiosity. As far as she knew Aaron didn't even know who the Royal Sisters were, let alone what they'd want to talk about. "But first, I think it's time to address something else. You can come out now!" Aaron spoke loudly to the area behind the pegasus.

"What are-" was all Daring got out before whatever Aaron was referring to began to reveal itself.

"I was beginning to wonder how long it would take you..." said the Draconiques as it materialized "Oh well, hiding from the shadows isn't really my 'thing' anyway."

"Discord!?"

"Who else?” The creature in question answered as he slithered around the pegasus. “Oh don't give me that look, Daring Do. You of all ponies should know who and what I am."

"Care to explain why you're still shadowing Daring, Discord? Your answer better be good, I'd hate to have to remove you."

"Oh, please, we both know you'd never go through with it. Heavens forbid you actually disrupt the natural order of things. Besides, what makes you think I'm following her and not just spying on you?"

"Because you haven't followed me since that thing at the Devil's Anvil."

Discord shrank back a little. How long, exactly, Aaron had known about his spying? "Fine. I guess the jig is up." Discord said suddenly donning a pair of striped overalls. "Lock me up and throw away the key. I don't deserve to dwell in your excellent company."

"Don't let his theatrics fool you, Daring." Aaron said to the pegasus attempting to shy away from the strange visitor before he turned back towards Discord. "Alright then, out with it. I don't have all day."

"You don't? Well, whatever. It's not like I'd like to be doing anything else. I was only tasked with keeping tabs on the pegasus for a certain someone, if you must know. 'A little push here and a nudge there if needed.' She told me. Celestia didn't want any of her ponies to come to any harm, but it's not like our little adventurer was in any real danger here, was she?

"So it was you who sent the letter!" Daring shouted accusingly.

"And what if I did? Your little 'enemy of the week' bit was already getting stale, wasn't it? If anything, a little chaos in your life is exactly what you needed." Discord stated matter-of-factly. "Besides it came with the bonus of disrupting our little pooch's paradise. So it's win-win-win really."

"How does everyone know about that?" Daring mumbled to herself.

"I'd suggest you keep your 'urges' to yourself Discord, but if this letter is what I think it is, you might just get what you want after all."

"Ooh, let me see!" Discord said as he snatched the document out of Aaron's paw. Donning a pair of reading glasses, he had broken the wax seal and started reading before anyone could stop him. "Hmm.. to the leader of blah... invite yadda, yadda... wish to discuss... boring... Ugh, this couldn't be more cordial if Celestia dotted her I's with hearts." With a snap of his talons, the letter was back in Aaron's grasp. "I fail to see how this is the slightest bit chaotic, oh Great Orderly One, unless whatever you've been working on in the meantime has something to do with it."

"What, is throwing trade markets into disarray not exciting enough for you?" Aaron asked out of curiosity.

"Please. Prices go up, prices go down. What do I care? Let me know when they start going sideways and then we'll talk." And with another snap Discord was gone.

Aaron eventually broke the silence that filled the vacuum Discord left in his wake. "Well I suppose that's one way to appease the guardian of chaos."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think I'd need to get my head examined. Was everything these last few months really caused by Discord?" Daring asked in confusion.

"I'm sure he only nudged things along. We did stop Ahuizotle from stealing the Stars after all, so despite what Discord represents, his actions did have a positive outcome." Aaron pointed out. “This time, anyway…”

Daring mulled it over for a while. "Okay, I suppose I can see that. But do you mind clarifying something for me before we get interrupted by anything else?"

"Sure."

"Why the hay is the Amulet of the Four Stars being used as a bucking cupholder!?" Daring exclaimed while pointing towards the artifact in question.

"Oh, right. Although I think the technical term is 'a coaster'."

"I don't give a buck! I only let you hold onto it because you said you could keep it safe, not just let it sit here, out in the open, like some piece of everyday furniture!"

"Well, for one thing, it does an excellent job of keeping my tea warm. Speaking of which, would you like some?" Aaron said as he made for the teapot in the corner. Without waiting for her reply he began pouring two cups of the beverage anyway. "Besides, only a few even know what it looks like, and Discord may even be one of them. Seeing as how he didn't try to swipe it, he either doesn't realize its significance, or he believes that the article in front of you is a fake used to distract would-be thieves." Aaron continued while placing the cups, saucers, spoons on a tray. "Which brings me to point number three. I can sense when it's being moved now, so I suggest you put it back." He finished as he turned around to see Daring gently placing the artifact back on his desk.

"Fine.” She said, a little ashamed that she’d been caught. ”At least tell me that you haven't been using that ‘Throne of Ouroboros’ thing you recovered to decorate the halls of that Deep Ward University or something?"

"Funny you should mention that..."

"No! You're kidding...!?"

14: By the Numbers

After Aaron revealed that he was in possession of the Gateway, Daring demanded to see it, unable to believe the Canine's insistence that the artifact was, in fact, secure.

Taking the same rail system that they'd employed during Daring's last visit, only this time without the guards, Aaron approached Daring's side of the otherwise empty car.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"You just did, didn't you?” Daring quipped. ”What's up?"

"What do you think of this world? Of it's people?"

"Like, something specific, or in a general sense?" Daring asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Just humor me."

"Oookay... Well, I mean, what's not to like? The weather's fine for the most part, even when you leave the cultivated cloud zones. The people are friendly enough amongst themselves, I suppose. Sure there are a few bad apples here and there, and as you've witnessed they can try to end the world as we know it on a seemingly constant basis. But you know what? They never do. Not just because they suck at being evil or whatever, but because there'll always be a pony, or a griffon, or someone who will eventually stand up for what's right. Although, if I think about it, if nothing bad ever happened, I guess I'd be out of a job, more or less, so I'm even grateful for the bad guys in a twisted sense." Daring thought back to all of the adventures she's been on, and in the end, she felt that her words mirrored her feelings exactly. "There's a sort of balance to the world, so you have to take the good with the bad."

Aaron contemplated the pegasus's speech. "Well said, my friend."

"What's with the solemn expression then? Does this have something to do with the throne?"

"In a roundabout way, I suppose. Discovering what the throne is, and how it functions, is only one small piece of the larger game I've been mulling over as of late. A much, much larger game..."

Daring stared down at the gleaming walls of the Deep Ward as they passed by below, their full majesty revealed with the rays of direct sunlight passing through the gems above. "Well, whatever it is you're working on, don't let it weigh you down too much, okay? If you ever feel like talking about it, you can always come to me, or Sunny, you know that. Besides, Sunny'd have my head if I let you get all gloomy while she was away."

"Thanks, Daring. Really. I appreciate your perspective more than you know, and depending upon how the meeting with your leaders goes, maybe more than you'll ever know." Aaron finished cryptically, which, at this point, didn't phase Daring Do in the slightest.

The rest of the trip was filled with silence, until eventually, the cart slowed to a stop, their destination now within walking distance.

Forced out of her own thoughts, Daring was once again reminded just how different her own society was from the Canis. But not because of the differences she'd noticed the last time she stood before the Deep Ward's University, the Kahsso Arkerros. This time there was a very noticeable addition of changelings moving about while assisting with a multitude of tasks.

"Umm, Aaron?" Daring pulled Aaron close. "What. Are. They. Doing. Here." She whispered forcefully. The bugs weren’t even trying to hide.

"Oh, right. Remember that game I mentioned earlier? These guests are a part of the pilot program."

Daring Do suddenly felt that, whatever plan it was that Aaron was cooking up, crazy would not even begin to describe it.

"Wait, you're not planning to, I don't know, invade anything anywhere are you?"

"One day, you might wish that you'd have phrased that question differently, Daring. You don't know how accurate, yet wrong, that assumption may be." Aaron said whilst shaking his head, a predatory grin occupying his face.

"As enigmatic as ever..." Daring observed.

~~~~~

Reaching their destination with minimal distractions, Daring found herself standing on the ground floor of one of central university wings, staring at none other than the striking display of the very artifact that very nearly endangered everyone only a few months ago.

"But-"

"Ah, don't start that now. The actual Throne is located below. As is what's left of the Beta Console that was used to activate it. This is a replica we made of it. The subtle intricacies of this device are inspiring to look at in my opinion, so I resisted the urge to keep it, well, entirely hidden." Aaron paused for a moment. "That is what one of your museums would do, is it not?"

"Well, yeah, I guess." Daring replied, relieved that Aaron was at least being partly serious for once. "Does that mean you've discovered what the throne is for?"

Aaron motioned for the pegasus to follow him as he made his way deeper into the research wing. "It is as the changeling queen explained. The Throne is more or less a gateway, but it doesn't connect to anything local. And it certainly didn’t connect to Tartaru as she was led to believe."

"Then where?"

"The answer to that particular inquiry is a bit more difficult to explain. This world is but one of many, just as the Unicorn, Starswirl, predicted. From what I can tell, once upon a time, these gateways were initially used by humans from different domains to travel here from some very vast distances. There’s likely one on every one of the other worlds as well."

"So Ahuizotle was trying to reconnect with a human world?"

"Not exactly. This is where the Beta console comes in. It's existence is far older than this world. How they uncovered it, I'll never know, but regardless, it was never supposed to exist after the world was created, let alone actually used. Even more disturbing is the fact that the Four Stars were able to both, remotely power, and override, the console's security, thereby activating the nearby gate, which has similar architecture."

Aaron escorted Daring Do past security and into the chamber that housed the actual Throne. Unlike the Eye of Canis, there were far more dogs working on, and around, the gateway. All holding onto some small hope of discovering its secrets.

Daring walked to the fragmented slate that Aaron had called the Beta Console. Its surface drained of all magical power, only a set of fractured, undecipherable runes remained. "Wait, where'd you get that info? Were you able to translate this?"

Thinking of how to avoid the question, Aaron scratched his neck in discomfort. "Remember how I said that you may regret asking some questions. This is one of those."

"And you don't think I deserve an honest answer?"

"It's not that. If it's any consolation, I'd like nothing more than to tell you outright. It's just that, well, there are a great many things that cannot be communicated without substantial changes to your worldview. Some things no-one has discovered a term or a concept which would help you understand. Other things just aren't comprehensible unless you decide to forget everything you know about how your world works. I'm sorry, Daring, but until the people of this world reach the next era of their civilisation, I'm just not comfortable with sharing that info just yet."

The meaning of the words 'just yet' rang inside of Daring head. Simply put, Aaron would eventually tell her everything, just not at this very moment. That didn't mean, however, that she wouldn't try to pry something out of him. "Fine then. But come on, can't you give me a hint, or something, at least?"

Aaron thought about it for a minute. "Well, maybe there is one thing..."

"Please? Pretty please?" Daring pleaded.

"Okay, fine! Just stop doing that thing with your eyes." Aaron picked Daring up and turned her towards the stone ring. "Did you ever wonder why they referred to this gateway as the Throne of Ouroboros?"

To be completely honest, Daring hadn't really thought about it. Most artifacts had names that only referred to the power of some lost god in an ancient, lost language. If anything, she'd thought that the 'Throne of Ouroboros' was just mistranslated by Ahuizohtle. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd managed that. "Not really, why?"

"Because the entity that controls all connections that used this kind of gateway has terrible taste in avatars." Aaron said in a serious tone.

Daring just laughed. "Okay fine, don't tell me. But mark my words, Aaron. I'll get the truth out of you someday."

"If you say so. In the meantime, I say we leave this to the experts. The Throne is only a small piece of the greater game, after all."

As Daring followed Aaron out of the room, she glanced back at the destroyed console. Suddenly remembering her conversation with Sunny, she noticed that the fracture pattern of the pieces all radiated from one central location, as if the console itself was stuck with something at that one particular spot. Neither a rock wall, nor an earthquake, would have caused that damage.

What she asked next drained every ounce of elated mood that the Canis's leader had built up that day. And for the first time since she could remember, Daring was truly sorry that she had asked.

Observations: 15: Resolution

Celestia let out a soft yawn. It wasn't that the explanation as to why Equestria needed to enact trade tariffs on the griffon scone industry wasn't fascinating. It wasn't. Normally, she'd never reveal any outward sign that she was tired, or bored. She relished in her ability to remain resolute when facing her little ponies. It was what she believed they deserved.

Today, however, was a different story. "Oh, my. My apologies. I recommend we resume this at a later date." Celestia signaled that the meeting was over. "Ms. Raven, please see to it that the rest of the Day Court petitioners are rescheduled for tomorrow's session." She said while the ponies leaving their session were still within earshot. Best not to hurt their feelings, after all.

There were, of course, no other ponies awaiting their moment in front of the princess, Celestia had seen to that beforehoof. There were far more important things that needed to be done today. After securing a sugary snack from the royal kichen, the white Alicorn made her way to the depths of the castle.

"We see that the diet of yours is still in full effect." Luna stated sarcastically as she emerged from the shadows.

"Leave my diet out of this, Luna. Besides, we've still got a sizable distance to travel yet. Or would you prefer to suffer the sound of my stomach as we make our way into the Crystal Caverns?"

Instead of further antagonism, Luna simply turned and opened the large steel door that marked the boundary between castle and cave. "Are you sure about this, Celestia? We can still back out. " She said, turning to her sister once more, the previous subject abandoned.

"We shall proceed, Sister. In all honesty, I believe this meeting has been a long time coming."

"What did you expect when you made Discord your courier?"

"No. If what I'm told is to be believed, this Aaron has been living in our world for some time now."

"And because of this character's secretive nature, this meeting has been difficult to set up until now, I'm guessing?" Luna concluded.

"If our current surroundings are any indication, then yes, that is at least one of the reasons for such a delay." Celestia acknowledged. "There are others, of course, but if Ms. Do's report is any indication, our mystery guest may leave our world for long periods of time."

"Then I suppose that means that this meeting will go smoothly, then."

Celestia paused for a moment. "Oh? How so?"

"Because that means that this Aaron person and I seem to have at least one thing in common." Luna teased.

~~~~~

The two sisters traveled in silence for most of their journey. The last time these caves had been occupied, they were not used for anything remotely pleasant. Celestia shivered at the prospect of being trapped in a cocoon again. Thankfully, her thoughts were quickly forgotten when she felt herself passing through an invisible barrier of some kind.

One minute she was walking through the cavern, the next, she and her sister appeared to be in a catered dining room of sorts. They were still in the Crystal Cavern, but whatever magic they had passed through had kept this particular place hidden from sight.

"Welcome, Alicorn rulers of Equestria." Said the slightly grayed canine standing beyond the table. "I am Aaron."

"The pleasure is ours." the elder sister said with a polite dip of her head. "I am Celestia, and this is my sister, Luna."

"Charmed." Luna said copying her sister's gesture.

Celestia eyed their guest carefully. He looked very similar to a diamond dog at first glance. On top of that though, something was off. It quickly dawned on her what it was, once she recalled her discussion with Daring Do. Aaron had no discernible Aura. He had no magic.

"I suppose the rumors that you aren't what you appear to be are true after all."

"And I take it you can read the flow of magic to a degree, then. Although I am not a Canis, myself, I do intend to represent them here."

"We were informed of some your magical feats. How then, can you not possess any magic?" Inquired Luna. "Does your form hide your Aura?"

"Not precisely. I'm almost certain that my true form would fail to express whatever it is that you are looking for. Humans have never possessed magic. I haven't a clue what this 'Aura' you seek even looks like."

"Then how are you able to wield this Geamancy?"

"Oh, but we are getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we? Please, sit. The food is still warm, and I'm sure you'll enjoy at least some of it." Aaron said while gesturing towards the spread. "We can discuss such things after we have eaten." Aaron finished with a warm smile.

Celestia did her best to ignore the smug 'bet you wish you hadn't eaten that cake now' look her sister was giving her, and made her way towards the plate holding some sort of cheese-stuffed peppers.

The food smelled and tasted as delicious as Daring Do had described it to them. Spices and herbs that had either split from their cultivated siblings some time ago, or were downright wild in origin, but whose altered flavors had been expertly used to season the array of dishes before them.

The elder alicorn eventually regretted having that snack before departing. Her own chefs were experts in the field of cooking, but whoever prepared this was an artisan.

"Enjoying the meal?" Aaron asked, to which he received in answer, two thankful nods. "Now imagine what I could do with access to ingredients outside of the ones I keep in the Den's Garden."

Luna choked back a bit of her desert at the proclamation. Celestia momentarily wondered if her sister simply had not been paying attention to that part of the brief. Putting down her own, freshly cleared dessert plate, Celestia properly thanked her host. "So you did make this? I think I speak for both of us when I say that you've done a marvelous job. Though, I must ask, how did you prepare all of this?"

"I might explain that little trick later. For now though, I'm pleased enough just hearing that you've enjoyed it."

After she was sure she wasn't going to choke to death on a sugary berry topping, Luna cleared her throat. "These are all made with ingredients from your own garden? I commend you on your work, Sir Aaron. This is likely the closest I've come to food that tastes as I remembered it."

"Luna isn't a fan of modern, processed foods, I'm afraid." Celestia interjected in an attempt to change the topic away from her sister's banishment. "You were saying something about acquiring new ingredients? Is that something you intended to discuss with us today?"

"That's certainly one of the topics I want to cover, yes. I think that it would be a good start, opening up trade between the Deep Ward and the rest of Equestria. Despite pony-kind's past transgressions against us, these last few months have proved that your kind has matured a bit since that dark era."

"Thank, you. I- We've worked hard to make Equestria, and its ponies what they are today. But I'm not certain such an agreement needs this level of seclusion." Celestia said gesturing towards their immediate area.

"That brings me to my other topic." Aaron said, his face hardening in seriousness. "The reason for this secrecy, is that no-one outside of this field is ready to learn about what I'm about to show you."

"Then shouldn't the other Alicorn be present as well?" Luna asked. "Surely Cadance and Twilight, at least, should bear witness to something of such importance?"

"I understand your reasoning, Ms. Luna. But there is a very specific reason I agreed to meet with just the two of you. You're not the same as the others, are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that this Cadance and Twilight, two of the other three or so Alicorns living among ponies, were born naturally."

"Are thou implying that-" Luna snapped her hoof down at the table, only for it to be caught in Celestia's magic before it could strike the table.

"Calm yourself, Luna." Celestia said soothingly before turning back towards Aaron. "I urge you to choose your words carefully, there are precious few who are privy to that kind of information, Mr. Aaron."

"I know that you both are what I've come to term as a Guardian. You are two of the beings that were created to assist with this world's upkeep. The hows, and ultimately, whys of needing beings such as yourself are not yet fully understood, but here you stand. You two aren't the only two guardians, either. I know of at least a few more of them, some of them a little more than I'd like to, honestly."

"Then why choose to contact us, specifically."

"Because, out of all the guardians I know I can contact, you two have a history at being the most stable. Once Deep Ward is officially revealed to the world, I can attempt to contact a few of the others, but for now, you two are the most logical choice to start sharing this information."

The two sisters looked at each other before coming to a decision. "That's a terrible explanation, but we will listen to whatever it is you have to say."

"Now, what I'm about to tell you will, no doubt, be difficult to believe. This world still lacks the progress needed to even develop the terms that I need to express the situation with any clarity." Aaron explained. "And while I know that I'm asking you to accept what I say as truth, without sufficient proof or evidence, I'm not above making it worth your while."

"In what way?" Celestia asked.

Aaron pulled out a pair of bracelet-sized objects and placed one in front of each princess. "Have you seen one of these bangle's before?"

Picking up the jewelry with her magic, Luna noticed that the gem started changing color, ever so slightly. While the silversmithing of this piece was unfamiliar to her, she did recognize the gem. "Yes, I have seen a few of these before. A few of the petitioners were wearing them to Night Court."

Celestia noticed the gem changing color as well. "I take it there's something imbued into the gem? Or do you simply mean to bribe us with fancy trinkets?" She said with a teasing, questioning glance.

"This, ladies, is the solution to Equestrea's Changling problem."

"How so? I fail to see how, whatever enchantment these gems possess, will be able to thwart an attack. "

"For starters, you are thinking about the problem from the wrong angle. Changelings attack only when their hive exceeds their food supply."

"Which, need we remind you, is stolen from whatever poor creatures they can trick!"

"Exactly. The reason you two can even see the enchantment, is because you share a bond. These are marketed towards young couples as a sort of 'commitment' item. the stronger the love between ponies, the more the gem changes. The development and marketing teams have done a great job, by the way. But, unlike the changelings, which are content to sap every ounce of love out of a few targets, these gems can do so in a much more subtle way. Using economies of scale, the minuscule amount of love these gems collect, will accumulate in such quantities that a hive will never go hungry again. And when word spreads among the other changeling hives, your attacks will be a thing of the past."

Setting the trinket down, Celestia noticed that the gem ceased to glow. "If this is indeed the solution you claim it to be, then I would have no qualms about listening to your claims with an open mind."

"I agree." Said Luna. "Please, divulge to us your tale."

"I could not ask for anything more at the moment." Aaron said in a cheerful tone. "For starters, though, I need to ask how much you know about Starswirl and his theories, specifically the ones involving multiple worlds."

"An odd question." Stated Celestia, who, while having kept a close eye on the stallion in question, back in the day, had not seen some of his later works as important as his achievements in standardizing unicorn spell-casting.

"Shortly after the initial disappearance of the Crystal Empire, and all of its inhabitants, Starswirl theorized that the whole city must have gone somewhere. He believed that the city had been transformed into energy that was then relocated to mirrored region on another world. His later experiments involved tracing the energy and looking for a way to transport himself between the two zones, if I remember his published journal correctly. It is theorized that he actually managed to complete his experiments, which led to his abrupt disappearance in the late Classical Era." Luna finished, surprising both her sister and Aaron. "What? Am I not allowed to look into the past exploits of a friend? His journal has been published for years now."

"Right. Well, yes, those are the basics of his theory, that there were other worlds that mirrored this one. For the most part, Starswirl was correct, there were, in fact, countless worlds that were nearly identical to this one. What his theories lacked, however, were the hows and whys. His final experiment was more concerned with breaking through the structure of this world in hopes that he'd make the same journey as that Empire, but without knowing its exact coordinates, or even how to properly move through the Void, the chances of him ending up there were slim. To top it off, his method nearly destroyed this world."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Because he told me as much when I rescued him." Aaron said proudly, to the looks of cynicism that both princesses were wearing. "Well, to be honest, there wasn't too much to do, and I had already been in the area, but his lack of knowledge is what I hope to teach you about today." Aaron snapped his fingers and the table started to vanish. Emptiness oozed into the space the table once occupied until the it was gone, then it spread to the floor and finally consumed the area within the force field until nothing surrounded the trio but a shapeless void.

"What kind of spell is this?" Asked Luna.

"This is no spell. I've just altered the instance we were in for a demonstration." Aaron stated before centering an image of their world between them. "This is the world on which your version of Equestria resides." Suddenly their world was surrounded by a sea of similar-looking worlds scattered in every direction. "These are just a few of the alternate worlds that existed in what we call the Sandbox. I won't go into too many details just yet, but suffice it to say that all of these worlds existed in a universe that lies beneath, or rather inside, the one I am originally from."

"Existed? As in they don't anymore?" Celestia inquired.

"Correct. When it was discovered that beings such as yourselves could break free from their worlds, as Starswirl once did, a plan was enacted to essentially restart the universe."

"T-That's horrible. Why would you do such a thing!" The two sisters said in unison.

"I agree, for the most part, but you must understand this event from Humanity’s perspective. Even though I know you are you, that your little ponies have families, and hopes, and dreams, et cetera. My brain constantly tries to convince me that you are all just a figment of my imagination, that you are all following some clever set of instructions that make you appear to be people. To the system, and Humanity in general, it was these sets of instructions that were destroyed."

"Then why was our world spared."

"Because I've come to call this place my home, for the most part. Despite what my brain tries to convince me of, I believe that you are all people. My interactions here have altered my perceptions of you in such a way that I believe it would be beneficial if you all survived."

Each sister was now deep in thought. Aaron had already revealed so much, but deep down they both realized that they still didn't know the reason he would reveal any of this. "Why inform us of this now?" Luna asked.

"And more importantly, how can we be sure what you're showing us is the truth?"

"It's true that I haven't really given you a reason to trust my reasoning just yet. But before I give you one, let me explain why I'm revealing all of this to you. We've already established that this world is essentially all by itself, which brings me to my next topic. I've witnessed, and encouraged, the development of the people here. I may be partial to the Canis myself, but I can't say I haven't noticed that there are at some aspects of other cultures that have started to advance, rather quickly, I might add. What that means is, all cultures will eventually struggle to compete for territory, and more importantly resources. It might not be next week, it might not even be a thousand years from now, but it will eventually happen. There just isn't enough room on this little world for all of the Sapient species to thrive."

"You can't possibly mean for us to-" Luna started to outcry.

"No, Luna. Sir Aaron is correct." Celestia interrupted.

"Sister?"

"Long before your," Celestia coughed, "recent return. I petitioned a group of scholars to look into Equestria's resources. A safegaurd to determine our survivability if another episode like yours were to repeat itself." Luna sat quietly in concern, her sister did not bring up Nightmare Moon's actions lightly, especially not in front of a strange guest. "I tried to keep myself detached from the project, but in an effort to please me, the group went above and beyond what I'd asked of them. This was a few hundred years ago, but they'd managed to predict our current population and basic technological needs for some time to come. They had also managed to predict the exact decade for border skirmishes with both the dragon clans and the griffon kingdom. From what they'd uncovered, our races expansion was more or less exponential in form. The best course of action would be to colonize unpopulated, yet resource rich regions, before the other races could, and hope for a technological stalemate once all discovered resources were claimed. After that, the only hope for continued coexistence would be to discover some way to colonize another planet, or radically change the way all species operated. The former option might continue the trend of progress, but the other..."

"If there is one things humans have discovered, it is that stagnation, as a species, is a death sentence." Aaron finished.

"Then there are other species in your universe that have failed to leave their world?"

"Sadly, yes. Humans were the only ones to make it past our original star system. Which brings me to my dilemma. This world was never designed for anyone to make it even that far. The system was designed so that no species ever moves beyond their initial system."

"And you intend to change that?"

"Essentially, yes. I wish to relocate this world's population into a suitable world within my universe. If it were requested, I could even separate the races and distribute them among whichever world they chose. The infrastructure is already in place for the most part, but..."

"But there is a catch, isn't there?"

"As magic does not exist in my world, no race will have access to it in any form."

"Is there no way around that limitation? There are many who could not live without access to their inherent magic."

"There is literally nothing I can do about it. The laws that govern our universes are too different. If there are those who refuse to learn, they may stay behind. I will not force the choice on anyone. Others may even be able to return, eventually. I'm still hashing out the return protocols."

A world without magic. It was madness under normal circumstances, but every so often, there had been those who had shunned the advantages that magic gave them. Magical abilities have even caused strife between the Pony races on more than one occasion, but even then, nopony had ever lived without any magic whatsoever. No-one except Aaron, anyway.

"What do you gain from all of this? Does humanity benefit, in some way, from uplifting other races?"

"Sometimes, I wish we could have. In truth, our universe lies mostly barren, no other species could ever be fully uplifted to sufficient levels until now. Granted, there are a slew of rules devised in case we ever found potentials, but I feel as though I can disregard them for now."

"Is it wise to reject the rules set up for just such an occasion. Do humans not hold themselves to their ethics?"

"Had I not already broken the first law concerning no contact when I arrived here, maybe. Since then though, I've realized that I'm the only one still playing by the rules. Not because of some moral high-ground I hold myself to, but because there is no-one else left to hold me accountable. Humanity is functionally extinct, and has been for some time now." Aaron said sheepishly. "Even now, calling myself human would stretch the definition a bit. What do I get out of this, you ask? I get the possibility that some piece of humanity carries on into the future. I get to see some semblance of humanity survive through you and your people!"

The two sisters were dumbfounded by this revelation. It was Luna who finally broke the silence. "Is it true? Are you the last of your kind?"

"As far as I know, it is the truth. When I came to this world originally, it was so that I might find a clue, some vain hope that might save my kind. What I found instead was the hard truth. Humankind's time is over, but for as long as I live, I must work to see successors take our place. " Aaron said, his ears swept down. "That is the only thing I have left to work towards."

"You've obviously suffered through much to reach this point," Celestia observed after a moment of silence, "and while it pains me to say it, I am not sure if we can assist you. Even if ponies decided to live in a world without magic, what of their children? Could they even bear children? Most of our technology, medicine included, has some element of magic involved. If we were to go through with this, would all of that progress you speak of, be reset?"

"What you are forgetting is that, the longer you wait, the harder the transition will be. This meeting is just my way of showing that I'm playing by the rules. If I willed it, I could force you all into my world without so much as a 'hello'. I'm not asking you to make a choice, here and now. I only ask that you seed the idea of transition into the minds of your ponies. Let them discuss the outcomes of such a life. Let them make the choice for themselves." Aaron said in earnest. "Besides, at least one pony has already made that decision for herself, from what I understand."

"She?"

"Yes. A small lavender unicorn who I believe has a strong connection to the magic of her world."

'Wait a minute.' both sisters thought as they conveyed their realization to each other. 'Does he mean?

"Lavender Unicorn?"

"Strong connection to magic?"

"Yep. She even managed to steal my ship in the the process. Why, do you know a pony like that?"

"Umm...."

"Well, Uh... I mean, how could we? This pony lived on another world, did she not?"

"Oh, I suppose you're right. Probably for the best anyway. I'll have you know that Grand Theft Starship is a very serious offense." Aaron stated in all seriousness. "I really liked that ship..." He whimpered.

"There, there, I guess?" Luna comforted. "I'm sure that, that pony, had a good reason for doing what she did."

"Well then, I suppose we've all gained a great number of things to think about." Celestia added, eager to change the topic once more. "What's say we call this meeting adjourned? Yes?"

"Of course, of course." Aaron said, returning the three to the cave system. "Do you think our next meeting will be so secretive?"

"That depends on if you are the one doing the cooking." Luna answered, while grabbing another dessert from the reappearing table. "I'm not sure if I want to share."

"Yes, well, enough teasing. Luna?" Celestia asked as she turned to go. "I think she means to say that our next meeting should be in an official capacity. After that, who knows?"

"And what my sister means to say, is that she wishes she could also have another piece of cake!"

"Luna!"

"Goodbye Aaron! Let us meet again!" Luna sang as she deliberately passed her second helping in front of her sister's nose.

"Yes, well. If you ever need somepony to talk to, you know how to get in touch with us." Celestia said before chasing after her sister.

"I look forward to it." Aaron called after them. "but don't wait too long." he whispered to himself. Once the Royal Sisters had left the area, Aaron opened his console. "Bookmark current location, and take me home."

And with that, the Crystal Cavern was empty once more.

Observations: 16: Ouroboros

"Welcome back, Doctor. I take it that your mission was a success?" The slightly transparent avatar asked as it greeted Aaron.

"In a way. You were right, Sentinel, there was a pattern to the attacks." Aaron said, sporting his original, human, form. "It calls itself Harm."

"Then we are on schedule?" the snake-like apparition asked with a hiss. "Or can I resume the simulations?"

"Continue construction on the facilities, but prepare a patch for the other worlds before you reset them. We'll need to remove the Beta consoles from their source code before this Harm can establish any more connections. And what did I tell you about using that Avatar?"

"Our apologies." The AI stated before reverting to a more reasonable form. "Were you able to procure a code sample from the Harm entity?"

"No. Unfortunately, what little I observed, I was forced to delete. I believe that the code itself is virulent, especially when it can establish a connection with its source. Keeping a sample without proper containment would be dangerous."

"I believe this world has caught up to the same time frame as our little escape's before she left. Whether her doppleganger exists or not, I was unable to ascertain. If she does exist, it's likely that her timeline has divulged away from repeating events. A shame, really, if her skillset was even a portion of that unicorn, she could prove useful. Either way, we'll keep this world open for observation. Keep a look out for that attack pattern, and notify me if you detect it again."

"And what of the rogue entity?"

"Start work on overriding the comm relays. We’ll flood all channels with a request contact message asking for her specifically, but use her given name, not the identifier you used before. In fact, I’ll send you the exact message package I want sent. If she's been looking for what I think she is, then shel won’t be able to resist contact when the relays start up again."

"You wish to bring her here?"

"She's got the only other world with an access point that Harm might be able to use. I don't know exactly what she did to partition her part of the simulation, but we can’t take the chance that it may be subverted, or worse."

"Was your interactions with this harm entity really so dreadful? You expressed far more concern regarding this entity than what we would quantify as normal."

"Can't argue with you there. I think, deep down, a part of me worries that I finally found what I was looking for."

"A way to help the human race?"

"No. The reason for our decline..."

~~~~~

Sentinel fully occupied, Aaron migrates his consciousness to a very special room. A single hardline connection lies between the station's servers and the cold room, tucked away between server cooling towers of a disused corner of the facility. Easy to miss given the gratuitous size of the Station, especially if you didn't know what to look for, not even the AI knows the full details of the rooms existence. A single unconscious form inhabits the space, locked in a sealed pod kept near absolute zero.

Aaron examines the body, his body, through the local interfaces. If he wanted to, he could leave the digital realm and upload his mind into his cranial implants, and return to the real world, but that is not the reason for this visit.

Medical scanners come to life, simple hologram interfaces show a complete replica of his body outside of the pod. A few simple commands later, and Aaron has filtered out all of the unnecessary information. The holographic representation of his form is riddled with several dark patches. Corruption.

A quick summary is given. The corruption has spread, if only a little bit. An impossibility given the conditions, but Aaron has seen this before. It is why he believes he is the last of his kind. Once the disease reaches the implants, death is certain.

Aaron has always known that his time was limited, now more so than ever. But now he knows the source of the corruption.

Harm.

Securing power to the scanning equipment, Aaron retreats through the encrypted system. There are things that must yet be done. Things that can't be accomplished while worrying over the body of a single, dying man.

Humanity must live on, after all.

Author's Note

I present to you:
DDatToO- Observations: Ex: Episode & Knuckles!

I appear to have come full circle. Twilight (world A) aimlessly speeds through the universe in search of the species that created everything she knows. Finding only empty space, time and time again, mystery abounds when the Ancient relay satellites lite up with an even more mysterious signal: Return home, Twilight Sparkle, you missed one. p.s. I want my ship back. - Dr. Aaron Marrok

2: Top of the Food Chain

Daring Do hovered through the hall, since the clatter of her hooves along the immaculate floor would only serve to give her position away. After the entrance hallway, she found herself in which had dozens of statues lining its walls. Oddly enough, every one of the figures resembled a diamond dog, all of them standing guard over the room's centerpieces. The first of which held a massive amber gemstone, the size of which was unlike anything the mare had ever seen in all of her adventuring. Even with the astounding mineral present, the other pedestal held something even more interesting.

While her initial theories resolved around some sort of religion that involved the worship of Diamond Dogs, for some reason, the larger statue told a very different tale. There were four figures carved from a single piece of ivory-colored marble. Daring couldn't make out what the affixed plaque was saying, she didn't recognize the inscription, but looking at the statues, she didn't think she needed to. Three of the figures were Diamond Dogs, and each seemed to be performing some action for the bipedal creature in the center. Of the dogs, the tallest, a male, looked to be pushing aside a boulder, the smallest, another male looked as though he were rushing around the biped. The third, the sole female, was ascribing something to a tablet.

Daring was amazed at the level of detail present in the figures. They practically came alive to such a degree that Daring believed she could actually make out the forlorn look in the eyes of the female. The connection between the three dogs was still somewhat of a mystery, but it was obvious that the central figure was on highly esteemed by whoever built this place. Even so, her new theory was bordering on absurd.

To think that Diamond Dogs were capable of the organisation to build such a place, let alone design the door mechanisms, or even pick up the aptitude for art that filled the room, was insane. Then there was the mystery figure, which Daring assumed was male. It didn't look like any mythical, or non-mythical creature she knew of, but for some reason, it did looked vaguely familiar, even if she couldn't quite place where she'd seen one before. If the whole thing was revered as much as it seemed it was, then it was just one more piece to the increasingly bizarre dungeon she'd wandered into.

The Pegasus was so caught up in her thoughts, that she almost didn't notice the shadows creep up behind her. Moving on reflex, honed by many years of trusting her instincts, was the only thing that saved her from the weapon that suddenly tore threw the space she had just been occupying. A quick twist of her torso brought Daring rotating around the weapon as she faced her attacker. Her secondary, reflexive kick was thwarted by the guard swinging the other end of his staff into the way of Daring's hooves, pushing the two away from each other momentarily.

"Hey! What was that for?" Daring yelled, as she got a look at the canine for the first time. He was taller and thinner than most Diamond Dogs she was used to, and his armor and weapon seemed to be made of some sort of stone. The fact that he wielded his weapon with no small amount of skill was not lost on the mare, and once she saw the piercing gaze on the other side of his face-plate, she suddenly knew why. Of all the types of dog she could have ran into, this was probably the worst one. Her attacker was an alpha, and a skilled one at that.

The dog gestured to Daring with the end of his staff. "Phegaci, aremkernu tess ikahstolliil Kahni." he said.

"Oh, well then, "Daring feigned understanding, "terribly sorry about that. So, um, yeah, I'll just be on my way then." She said as she tried to inch around the dog.

Shaking his head, he barred her path with his weapon. "Phegaci aremhass nuaey."

"Crap." Daring said sheepishly before darting into the air, she was at a disadvantage being weaponless, but as long as she maintained her maneuverability, she could still chance an escape.

Attempts to dart around the dog from above were met with far more difficulty that Daring expected. The canine was surprisingly agile, jumping into her path and forcing her back with his staff. The back-and forth went on for a few attempts before Daring switched methods. She dove behind one of the statues, and attempted to circle around the guard using the statues as cover. The dog, however, had other ideas.

The guard simply ran up the wall, sinking his claws into the stone and braced himself into a position that completely cut off her approach. Instead of barreling into the dog, Daring instead forced her momentum into the nearest statue near it's head, forcing the carving to teeter precariously. Flapping her wings in long, forced, gusts, Daring intended to finish the job, only to be interrupted as the guards staff flew by, nearly grazing her head.

'That made him angry,' she thought as she changed tactics once more. Without his staff, she could make a bee-line for the exit.

Zooming out of the room before the guard could return to the ground, she heard him shout, "Illoo teneruem un Phegaci, kim nua meyemeyem arlinnukernu!"

"Yeah, you know I don't understand you, right?" She shouted back before turning focusing on her escape, only to stop mid-air as she found more dogs blocking her path. "Oooh, something about reinforceme-" Daring started before turning back around to find another exit, only to stop once more as voluminous amounts of dust started to flood the hallway from every possible surface. 'That one's new!' was all she could think before the dust itself slowed her motion, essentially freezing her in place. Before she could yell out in alarm, the dog with the bow staff returned, walking through the dust unimpeded.

"Arnoltooem, Phegaci." the guard calmly stated before rendering the mare unconscious.

~~~~~

"Uuuuuuugh..." was all Daring Do could vocalize as she started to regain her senses. Her skull throbbed with pain from the knockout blow she was dealt earlier, and the bright light source located somewhere up above wasn't helping any. She attempted to bring a fore hoof up to block the light, but quickly realized that she couldn't move either of them. 'Oh, right. A damned dog got me.' she thought as she brought a wing up to shade her eyes instead.

Daring still felt as though she covered in fine dirt, which, after her little run-in with whatever that Diamond dog trap was, probably meant that she was still covered in dust. Another grumble erupted from the pegasus. Didn't the dogs know how long it took to preen a set of wings? She was going to be trailing dust for weeks before she got rid of it all.

Scrunching her face up, Daring attempted to open up an eye. Even with the wing in place, she winced at the initial sliver of light that seemingly wanted to scorch her retina. After a few moments of steeling herself against the pain, daring was finally able to see a bit of her surroundings. Her fore hooves were bound to the table with the same metallic rock substance that the guard dog staff had been made of. She couldn't find any physical locks holding the solid bindings in place, or any movable piece for that matter. As far as she could tell the table and her restraints were one one in the same. Daring wasn't sure how they managed that trick, but she doubted the dog standing just along the edge of the light was going to let her fiddle away at a lock anyhow.

Daring glared at the dog, who just silently stared back at her. "What, not even a gloating 'Oh, I see that our guest is awake now.' shtick?" Daring taunted to no avail. She was about to try another jeer, but stopped once she caught a glint of light on the guard's eyes. It wasn't the same as the dog who attacked her, but from the look in his eyes, he was an alpha too. Either her earlier experiences with Diamond Dogs was seriously misguided, or she'd hit her head harder than she thought. No pack would have alpha-level members guarding a single prisoner.

"So, how long are we going to pretend that this isn't awkward for both of us?" Daring asked jokingly.

The guard didn't budge. If Daring didn't know any better, she could have sworn he was another statue.

Another dog stepped into the light at the other end of the stone table, a female. This one was also alpha-level, but of seemingly higher standing than the guard if clothing was any indication. Her robes reminded Daring of some sort of priestess, adding another level of mystery to the whole situation. From the canine's demeanor, and the setup of the room she was in, it was obvious that Daring was in for some questioning of some sort.

"So how's an interrogation supposed to work if none of you speak Equus?"

"Not all have forgotten the old tongue." the priestess dog answered. Her inflection was somewhat archaic, but understandable, at least to somepony of Daring's profession.

"So who are you supposed to be? And what is exactly is up with this place anyway. Nothing here makes sense."

"You trespass on our home and then ask questions of us? It appears as though pegasi truly are as boorish as the stories claim."

"What do you mean? What stories?"

"There you go again, trying to take without giving." The dog said in rebuke, pausing for a moment before continuing. "But since it is obvious that some information must flow, I will tell you. It is known by all who inhabit the Deep Ward, that this was not our original home. Long ago we were chased from our den by a group of pegasi who meant to destroy our pack. In the end, they could not surpass our Lord Master. We escaped to this place where we have thrived ever since."

"But I've never heard of anything like that!"

"And why would you? These events occurred over a millennia ago. Until your intrusion here, we remained hidden from the outside world."

"About that. I didn't know you guys were here, or whatever. I thought I was just going to find some ruins or something, certainly not anything alive. So can I leave if I promise to keep my mouth shut? "

"That is not for me to decide. This situation must be dealt with very carefully. We must know how you came across our home, for starters. Do any other pegasi know of us?"

"No, that I know of. But I don't think you guys are as hidden as you think you are."

"How so?"

"Well besides the whole 'push to enter' thing behind the waterfall, someone sent me a message telling me to search this exact area."

"What message?"

"I don't know. All it was was a set of coordinates that pointed me here."

"I don't believe you."

"It doesn't matter if you believe me or not." Daring started before looking around in obvious distress. "Just take a look for yourself. I left the note in my saddlebags, wherever you put them."

"If you insist." the dog said as she turned from the light. She returned moments later, with the letter in hand. "Is this it?"

"Yeah, there you go, that's it. So can I go now?"

"And how are we supposed to believe this paper supports your story? A cunning forgery, perhaps? For both the answers to that, as well as your fate, we are forced to wait, however."

"But why? I've told you everything."

"That may very well be, but as I said before, I am not the one with whom your fate lies. And it takes time to summon the Master..." the priestess revealed before disappearing back into the shadows.

~~~~~

"This is one fine mess you've gotten yourself into, Daring Do." the mare said to herself, no longer caring what the guard could understand. The wasn't the first time she'd been captured, of course, but she'd always had a way out, or a backup plan, or a backup plan that involved being captured in the first place. But now? The unknowns and mysteries were piling up high enough to need a zoning permit.

For starters, she was still essentially welded to the table somehow. Then there was the light, which seemed to consist solely of sunlight funneled in from the surface. If that was true, then she'd been unconscious for at least a night, but it also kept her from being able to accurately judge the room’s dimensions. And since the dogs took all of her stuff, she didn't even have her beloved pith helmet with which to throw at the guard.

And then a new problem arose when soft rumbling noise tore through the silence-filled room, only for Daring to realize that it was her own stomach that was violating the quiet atmosphere. It even caused the guard to move a little bit, as he left her sight for a moment, though the mare wasn't looking forward to whatever that meant. He returned to his position in no time flat and immediately resumed his glare.

Daring still wasn't sure where the door was.

A few moments later though a knock came from behind the guard, who moved aside as a new dog came into view. A male, possessing a slight tinge of grey fur and sporting a pair of glasses that didn't seem to contain any glass. "Ah, you must be the pony that everyone's talking about!"

"Are you the Master that that other dog was going on about?"

"Oh, my. Who would go and stick a grandiose title like that on the likes of me? Perish the thought. Why I'm just a humble garden tender," he said as he pulled his cart out from behind him and into the light. "and I've brought your lunch."

The pegasus eyed the dog questioningly. "You have, and tend, a garden?"

"A relic from older times, I'm afraid, but a decent sampling of the surface if I have anything to say about it. Anyway, we assumed that you wouldn't be able to eat our normal rations, so I figured I'd drop by. You are hungry aren't you?"

Daring stomach answered for her.

"Well then, I suppose that answers that question has, now doesn't it?" The dog motioned for the guard. "You can go now, I don't think the lady here is going anywhere whilst still strapped to the table as such."

"Iloo kunem, Meicitah. Kimeiey kahss kom kernu linnuem kimoo." The guard replied in a hushed tone.

"Oh please, look at the poor thing. What's she going to do hold me hostage with a piece of spinach?" the gardener proclaimed as the guard focused on him and then at Daring, and finally back to the gardener before finally acquiescing.

"Now that it's just the two of us, let's get a good look at you."

"Um, I don't-" Daring said pulling away from the dog as he approached.

Seeing her discomfort, the gardener drew his claw across her bonds, causing them to open up along their hidden seams. "There we go, is that better?"

Daring answered with a pensive, "Yeah, a little." At least he wasn't interrogating her.

"They really did a number on you by the looks of it." He said looking a little closer than daring would have liked. "Are you injured?"

"Not unless you count the headache. Other than that I’m just a little dirty, I guess."

"I'll say, let's take care of-" He said as he reached a claw out to her snout.

Daring instinctively jumped back. "Whoa! What are you doing?"

"Oh, sorry. It's just that you were subdued with some geomancer spell weren't you? I was just going to do the same thing to remove all of the dirt. If you don't mind, that is."

"You can do that?"

"Well, to a degree. I'm afraid you'll have to be still if I'm going to get it all. You might also want to splay your wings out a bit."

"...okay." Daring said as she performed as instructed. She was no stranger to magic, but she'd been around enough of it to know that stuff was finicky at best. But she didn't quite feel like pissing off the one dog who didn't seem to be mad at her. "Like this?"

"That should be fine." he answered as he stepped to her side. Touching the index claw to her nose, he closed his eyes in concentration before he dragged the digit up along her snout, and over her head. Daring suddenly felt her nose itch and she suppressed a sneeze before the tickling sensation drifted further back, following the trail that the gardener had made. Ever so gently, he continued pulling the back of his claw down the side of her neck, under her wing and back towards her flank, every move guiding the wave of sensation along her coat. As he pulled his claw off of her cutie mark, the last push of magic flowed off of her skin, pulling with it the trail of particulate that had permeated her fur to an icky degree.

With the spell finished, the gardener made his way back to the cart as Daring involuntarily shivered the last bits of magic out of her feathers. "Wow, that was... that was something else. Geomancy was it?"

"Oh, it's nothing special. So did you want to talk all about that stuff or did you want to eat?"

"Food first, please." Daring said as she made her way back to the table.

The gardener placed a tray in front of her. "I'm not sure what you'd prefer, but I suppose some carrots would do for now."

"Why are they purple?" Daring asked as she poked at the suspect vegetable.

"They're supposed to be, aren't they? What color do you think they should be?"

"I've only ever seen orange ones."

"Now that's just silly. Who ever heard of an orange carrot? If these were good enough for the ‘old master’, then they're good enough for you, aren't they?"

"I guess so..." Daring surmised as she took an exploratory bite. Tasting it for a moment, her chewing slowed down dramatically. 'By Celestia! She'd never eaten such a delicious carrot. So what if they were purple!' Bite after sweet delicious bite, she downed the produce until nothing was left, she briefly feared that the sudden hole in her palate would never be sated with regular carrots ever again.

"My, my you were quite famished weren't you? Well then, I best be off. Now would you be so kind as to place your hooves back into the restraints before the guard returns. There'll be no hearing the end of it if he sees you like that while I'm here."

Daring hesitated for a moment. This might be her one chance at freedom. 'Ugh, why did he have to be so nice?' She thought to herself as she started throwing together escape plans.

"If you play nice, I'll be sure to prepare something even better for dinner." The gardener replied in earnest.

'Oh, come on, that's not even fair!' She exclaimed mentally. After the ravishing her taste-buds had received from the scrumptious, albeit raw, root vegetable, to think that there might be more, neigh, better foodstuffs? All thoughts of escape evaporated on the spot. For now, anyway. "Fine, you win." She said resigning herself to her position at the table.

After placing her hooves into the grooves, the gardener reapplied whatever magics that sealed the restraints. After that he grabbed his cart and headed for where she finally suspected the door might be located.

"Hey, before you go, what's your name?" Daring asked tentatively.

The dog simply smiled teasingly as he turned to knock on the door. He pulled his claw to his muzzle in a 'shushing' gesture before winking and mouthing the word 'later.

Daring had to strain to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

~~~~~

The lighting overhead had waned for a bit, indicating that it was, indeed, funneling sunlight into the room, before it was changed to the artificial green that she had seen earlier. Besides that event and the exchange between the guards as their shifts changed, Daring could only sit there, strapped to the table.

"Some vacation there, Daring Do..." she mumbled before letting out a yawn.

Shortly thereafter, the priestess returned.

"So, what's the word? Free to go? Slave? What?"

The dog shifted uncomfortably for a bit before answering. "Your presence has been requested by the Master. He wishes to speak with you personally."

"Alright, show him in then. In case you haven't noticed, you’ve strapped me to a table!"

"That is what I have come to address. You are to accompany me to his quarters for the evening meal. Orders have been given to remove the restraints on your legs."

"Why do I get the feeling that there's a 'but' coming on?"

"Because, in lieu of the leg restraints, we require that a band be placed upon your wings as a precaution. This is not a request, but I am obligated to tell you, that, should you indeed attempt, or even manage to escape somehow, the restraints cannot be removed without our geomancy. You would essentially lose your ability to fly, Pegasus."

Daring thought about that for a moment. She was sure that the princesses could help her remove whatever it was they placed on her, one of Elements of Harmony was supposed to be a genius of the magical variety. But with as much of the Diamond Dog's magic as she had seen in her short time here, it could be years before the bonds could be safely removed. Who knows how that kind of impairment could affect her career.

"Geez, you guys play hardball. I promise won't try to escape during this meeting with this 'master' of yours."

The priestess motioned for the guard to approach with band made of, you guessed it, the same material as they made everything else out of. Daring was really starting to dislike the ivory-metallic stone. The guard affixed the band around her midsection and magically sized it to fit a little too snugly, not enough to cut off circulation, but enough to keep the thing from slipping off.

While Daring was being fitted with her new restraint, the priestess began to inform the mare about the next course of events. "That's another thing, You must be on your best behavior in front of the Master. While there would be no small amount of entertainment to be gained from your demise, I wish both, to not have to clean up the mess, nor sour the Master's mood."

"Sounds like he's a pretty powerful guy then, huh?"

"Comments such as that would be considered an insult, Pegasus! The Lord Master is far more than just 'pretty powerful' he is the most powerful being in existence!"

"Even more powerful than combined magic of the Alicorn Princesses?" Daring asked in jest.

I do not know of these alicorn you speak of, but the Lord Master cannot even be compared to them, of that, I am sure." The priestess said as she motioned for the guard to undo the leg restraints. "So, follow closely, Pegasus, and remember to show nothing but respect for the Master, or I may be forced to suppress you before he decides to simply remove you from existence."

"Okay, got it." Daring said as she was led through the door. "By the way, I do have a name you know. It's Daring Do, and I'd probably entertain the idea of being cordial with your local deity if you referred to me by it."

"If you insist, Daring Do. I am called Sahni, keeper of the Master's Will. Now hurry along, we must not be late."

~~~~~

Daring Do was escorted through corridor after corridor of similar looking passageways, all sharing the same style as the entryway she had used to get herself into this mess. Polished stone floors, gold-tinted moldings, and the blue-green crystal lighting that steadily replaced the failing, funneled sunlight.

Other than the guards, both ahead and behind her, and the one called Sahni, Daring noticed that the other pack members were being kept away from her current route. Not surprising, if they were the staunch isolationists that they claimed to be. But if Daring's experience with such types were correct, she'd have already been tied to a pole set into pile of dry brush with a lit torch, ready to turn her into a sacrifice by immolation. With the exception of the weird devotion to this Lord Master of theirs, the dogs didn't seem too zealot-y, so hopefully the trial by fire wasn't on the menu. On the other hoof, however, these dogs seemed, well, competent, and with her wings literally pinned to her back, she really hoped that things didn't turn out any worse than they already were.

Eventually, the passageway opened up into a much larger room, larger than even the memorial she'd broken into. The cavern here was a seemingly well-kept garden that, while it didn't seem to contain anything exotic, the curation of flora was enough to make any royal groundskeeper week in the knees. If Daring didn't know any better, she'd guess that the dog's garden was at least as old as the Canterlot Gardens.

The rear guard stayed at the entrance as the group pushed on along the winding path into the garden's interior. Daring Do briefly wondered what was worth guarding in that direction before her train of thought was interrupted by her arriving at their destination.

A long, carved stone table sat in a clearing near the path. Sahni directed Daring to a position on the side of the table near one of the ends, when it became evident that there were no cushions, or chairs, to mark where one should sit. Both the pegasus and her escort, sans the guards, sat on the grass on either edge of the table.

"So... what now?" Daring asked of her charge.

Sahni silenced the pegasus with an upheld claw, as other canines brought out a few serving containers. Three loaves of bread were placed on plates, one each for the two already sitting at the table and one other placed at the end of the table. Between the three positions was placed two bowls and small bottle. Finally, three quartz glasses were filled with water before the caterers left the pair alone.

Daring looked at the spread eagerly, and wondered what the gardener had prepared. One of the bowls contained a spinach salad with shavings of those purple carrots and the bottle contained what the mare's nostrils assumed was a raspberry-based dressing of some sort. The other bowl held some sort of creamy red soup that smelled strongly of tomatoes and some mysterious earthy tones. There were also a few trays filled with garnishes and seasonings to fit personal tastes, but there didn't appear to be any bowls. It took Daring a minute before she realized that the bread loaves were fashioned to be hollow, the void intended to be filled with the soup instead.

Daring thought that the gardener was actually going to follow through on his promise of treating her to something special for dinner, but something was still nagging at the back of her mind. "I thought Diamond Dogs only ate gems?"

"Just because they provide our main source of sustenance, does not mean that there is nothing to be gained from a meal such as this. You should feel honored, Daring Do, not many get to share a table with the Lord Master himself." Sahni declared before rising to her feet, indicating that Daring do the same. "Quickly, he has arrived." She finished.

The Master's arrival was met with a salute by the guards as he made his way between them on the path entrance. Or, at least Daring thought that the figure was male, since much of his form was shrouded in a thick, black cloak that masked most of his features. Silently, the third party sat at the end of the table before Sahni and Daring could resume their seats.

Gesturing to the food spread out before them with an upturned claw, the master indicated that the three enjoy their meal before he pushed his bread aside and prepared himself a small salad. Only after he had began eating did Daring and Sahni make for their own plates. While Sahni went straight for the soup, Daring decided that she'd get a bit of the carrot-adorned salad, for reference, before diving into the heavy-looking soup.

From there, the meal continued in utter silence, save for the simple ambient noise generated by the three enjoying their food. Daring had to admit, the food was pretty good, far more than she'd expected from the dogs, anyway. She wondered where they learned to cook before she realized that some of the ingredients required to bake bread did not, in fact, grow from any sort of plant. The pegasus wasn't a cook by any means, but even she knew that you needed eggs and milk.

The Master gave a signal and Sahni leaned closer, enough so that whatever he said, only she could here. The lead dog must have noticed Daring's confusion at how so many mystery ingredients could taste so good.

"Is the food to your liking, Ms Do?"

"Oh, yes. It's pretty good. Compliments to the chef and all of that, but..."

"Yes?"

"But why? Why are you guys doing all of this?" Daring asked as she gestured to the whole setup, raising her voice as she went. "I mean, I get why you would want to go into hiding, I think we can all agree that's reasonable given the circumstances." Sahni began to stand when a silent command from the master stopped her. "And I get that you didn't like it when I found your hiding spot. Again, totally understandable. But what I don't get, is why you seem to be going out of your way to make me both comfortable, and uncomfortable at the same time!" Daring exclaimed while emphasizing the ring around her torso. "The things you do and the things you say don't match up at all!" She continued as she angrily stared at where she assumed the Master's shadowy face was hidden. "I can either be your prisoner or your guest, but I can't be both, so just pick one already and get it over with already!"

Daring got close enough to finally see the Master's eyes, and what she saw caused her bravado to drop considerably. His eyes were smiling. With that, the Master stood, towering over the ground-bound pegasus and threw back his hood. The Gardener from earlier, the one who cleaned her up and had fed her, was again standing before her, but the difference in how he was carrying himself between the two points in time was staggering. No longer was he the persona of the frail, aging groundskeeper, here, there was no doubt who was in charge.

"Y-y-you!" was all Daring managed before dropping to her knees in a sense of self preservation. Was everything she'd experienced earlier an act. If this Master was as powerful as Sahni made him to be, what would have happened to her had she actually gone through with an 'acquire a hostage' plan back in the room? If that was a test, then why the change here?

"There, there, little Pegasus. You'll be happy to know that you are in no danger here. Why does everyone do that? Come on, get up. Now, Pegasus, I do have some questions for you to answer. Are you up to it?"

Sahni made her way around the table and helped Daring up. "Master Aaron has asked you a question, Daring Do. You must answer." She said whispering the last part into the mare's ear.

Coming to terms with the whole situation, Daring finally let her lungs resume operation as she regained her composure. Clearing her throat, she looked back at the one called Aaron, "Yes, I- I suppose I can."

"Good, then let’s start. Sahni said your name was Daring Do, yes?"

Daring nodded in agreement.

"And you are an adventurer by trade?"

Rubbing her right hoof behind her head, Daring asked sheepishly, "I don't suppose you'd believe I was a best-selling author, would you?

Sahni elbowed the pegasus in the ribs.

"I mean, yes." Daring corrected.

From his sleeve, Aaron pulled the letter that started this whole mess. "Then I have to ask what sort of motivation would compel a pony such as yourself to follow such a shallow, fraction of a clue, such as this. I understand that you don't even know who sent this."

"That's correct. To be honest, I only came because, well, none of my adversaries seemed to be up to anything at the moment, so I was technically free. And for someone like me, that means boredom, usually. I didn't really care whether the letter was bogus or not, the worst thing that could happen was I didn't find anything," Daring left off the 'or I run into a pack of weirdly advanced Diamond Dogs...', "which was still sort of a vacation, I guess."

"If it is of no consequence, then I shall leave it at that."

"Wait, you know who sent it don't you?" Daring accused.

"Oh, most certainly."

"Then who was it?"

Aaron mulled it over for a moment. "Since you have not figured it out, I'll leave it a mystery for the time being. Despite his constant attempts to throw a wrench into my designs, I will not stoop to a prank such as this."

"I'm sorry, did you say prank?"

"I fear I've said too much..."