My Marefriend, the Book

by Harmony Split

A whole new World

Previous ChapterNext Chapter

Chapter Two: A whole new World

Rainbow groaned, her heart beating a mile a second. Something happened once she read the first line of the book, she felt a strong pressure that pulled her somewhere. Now she wasn’t in her cloudhome anymore. She felt cold dirt on her cheek.

Opening her eyes, they immediately went wide. She was in some kind of forest with ruins spread around, and the moon hung low in the skies. Slowly, she got to her hooves and tried to find out where she was, but to no avail. Everything seemed so foreign. She wasn’t even sure that she was in Equestria anymore.

“Damn, I can’t get through there.”

Dash ducked low as the silent voice of an unknown mare washed over her. She somehow knew the voice. It was rough, full of emotion. She had imagined the voice a hundred times in her life. Well, ever since Twilight had introduced her to her most favourite hobby besides flying. She just had no idea how real that voice would become.

Daring Do?

Rainbow had a hard time keeping her cool. Everything inside her screamed for her to jump forward and meet her idol, but the expression the light gold pegasus showed was enough to stop her dead in her tracks. Daring looked worried as her gaze went over the old parchment map to her hooves.

“Why can’t it be easy for once?” Daring groaned, shaking her head to loosen a few strands of her black and grey mane from her face.

Rainbow watched as the rose eyes of her idol scanned the parchment, before resting on a spot, “This could actually work. A secondary cave off to the side, huh? Guess they weren’t big into securing this place after all,” Shuffling the map around with other documents, she groaned again, “Aargh! These maps are so old, this is all assuming that the cave hasn’t collapsed, if it’s even still there!”

Daring collected the maps she needed as well as several canteens of water and grabbed a torch in her mouth as she prepared to leave the camp. Kicking dirt over her small fire to smother the the flames and smoke, she dredged off into the darkness of the jungle.

Rainbow followed as silently as she could through the dense underbrush. Despite her best efforts, in order to keep up with the archaeologist she had to forgo some stealth. Leaves rustled and twigs cracked as she tried to keep the glow of Daring Do’s torch in sight. Suddenly, the light went out. Dash made a bee-line for where the light last was, and was met with the edge of the jungle opening into a clearing at the mouth of an ancient city. Ruins towered above her with no sign of the explorer in sight.

Tentatively, Dash stepped into the clearing before taking wing towards the buildings. Any hope she had of catching Daring Do was lost if she couldn’t find her again. Taking off into the darkness and looking for the warm glow of Daring’s torch, she completely missed the vines that had been strung between the nearest two buildings.

Rainbow ran muzzle first into the first of the vines, causing her to blink in confusion as her wings and body quickly became entangled in the trap before her. Falling to the ground with a huff, she struggled to get free, but couldn’t shake the vines from her body.

She was suddenly bathed in the warm glow of a fire. A lit torch clattered to the ground in front of her as Daring Do stepped forward into the light.

“Who are you, and why are you following me!?”

Rainbow Dash looked up at the light golden pegasus bathed in the flickering light of her torch. Her trademark pith helmet perched atop her head completed the image Dash had imagined time and again.

“Well? Who sent you!”

Rainbow Dash stared blankly as her mind tried to process the situation. Okay Dash, play it cool!

“Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh! You’re Daring Do!”

Smooth, Dash, real smooth. She mentally facehoofed.

“Well, duh,” Daring rolled her eyes, “Now, stop trying to fool me and tell me who sent you after me!”

“Nopony! Oh my gosh, you are my idol!”

Daring Do blinked, “What?”

“You are my idol! I read every single one of your adventures!” Rainbow continued to squeal.

“Okay kid, keep it down,” Daring quickly shushed her, “I have no idea what you are talking about, but you should leave. This isn’t a game.”

“You’re on an adventure, this is everything I’ve ever dreamed about! Discovering old treasures at the side of Daring Do, mastering traps and riddles in the deepest unknowns of Equestria!” Dash squealed.

Daring shook her head before she pulled out a knife and cut the vines holding Rainbow, “Kid, go home. This is not a place for somepony trying to get an easy kick. This is business, and I plan on doing it right, without having to watch out for some amateur pony who can’t keep up.”

“Can’t keep up?!” Dash jumped to her hooves, “I’m the Rainbow Dash! Fastest pegasus in Equestria. I can pull off the sonic rainboom!”

Daring Do looked Rainbow Dash square in the eyes, “Never heard of her,” she deadpanned.

“That’s me! I can show you!” Rainbow glared before trying to speed up into the sky.

She didn’t get far. Daring bit down her tail and yanked her back, “Are you bucking insane? If what you say is true, you will alert everypony around if you do that now!”

“So that means I can come with you?” Dash grinned.

“No!” Daring growled, “I work alone! I don’t need fans, or somepony else following me and ruining everything I work for.”

“You know you can’t stop me from following you, right?” Dash smiled.

“I could. But I guess since you’re not after me, that would be a waste of time. Just don’t expect me to keep looking after you! If you’re following me, you do so at your own risk,” She paused in thought, “And stay out of my way!”

Daring Do stomped off into the night after picking up her torch, headed for the mountain on the other side of the city, where she hoped to find the second cave leading to her treasure. Rainbow Dash let out a small squee before trotting after her.

***

After what seemed liked hours of searching, and with the glimmer of the sun on the horizon, Daring Do let out an exasperated sigh, “Aagh! This is exactly what I was afraid of! The jungle changed. The city fell. The entire area is different from when the map was made!” She stomped the ground in frustration.

“Uhh, Daring?”

“What!?”

“Just. I mean. Looking at the map, I think the entrance to the cave you want might be this way,” she said gesturing a hoof back the way they had just come from.

“We already came from there!”

“Yeah, well, the weather around here seems to have a mind of its own. With no pegasi control, that means storms and mudslides would happen completely at random. But if you take the weather into account with crossing over the mountain, the water would actually slide off in the opposite direction. So if that’s what hid the cave, we’re looking in the wrong place.”

“That’s,” she hesitated, “Pretty clever, actually.”

“Well, I don’t have my head in the clouds all day. And I know a pretty smart unicorn. Guess she’s rubbing off on me,” Dash shrugged with a smile.

Daring shook her head with the tugging of what seemed like a smile. Maybe that filly is not that bad at all, “Alright, kid. Let’s see if it’s there.”

Flying back in the direction they came, Rainbow looked for any hidden signs of old rock slides or shifting in the ground, “There!” She pointed a hoof at a shift in the texture of the side of the mountain. It looked as though a river had flowed down, smoothing a path that was lined on both sides by rocks of all sizes. With the sun starting to illuminate the landscape, the color variations were plainly visible to Rainbow.

“Good eye, Dash.”

Ohmigosh! I just got a compliment from Daring Do! “Heh, thanks, I guess. Let’s see where it goes!”

Following the flow to the bottom, they spied the remains of an old trail. It had been decades, maybe even centuries since it had been used, but the distinct difference in both the size and density of the foliage gave credit to the fact that there was likely a path there in the past.

A path that appeared to end straight in a pile of rocks at the base of the mountain.

“It looks like it collapsed. I guess the second way isn’t always the best alternative,” Daring muttered, looking over the stones.

“They look wrong,” Dash replied.

“What?”

“I don’t know why, this just looks wrong. I’ve seen rockslides before, and this just doesn’t look right,” Dash shrugged.

Daring cocked her head, but took a closer look at the stones. Dash was right. A mudslide usually contained stones of different sizes, shapes and even some broken. The stones in front of them were way too cleanly cut, like directly out of a mountain by hoof.

“You’re right. Those stones are way too clean. They are hoof-made.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Daring grinned, “These were hoof-carved by a stonemason; the stones were put here to block the entrance. No mudslide.”

“Maybe they can be cleared somehow?”

“Usually these tunnels were meant as a way for builders to leave after they were finished with the traps in the main entrance so they could get out and leave only a few smaller ones here. After they were out, the cover was meant to be nearly permanent. But if they ever did need to get back in, they wouldn’t want to make it permanent. There should be a master stone that, if we move it, should open up a path for us, or cause everything else to clear away.”

“How do we find it?” Dash asked.

Daring’s grin only widened, “Look for a stone with a unique marking or color. Knock on it. Hard. The one that moves the easiest is the stone that can be removed.”

“Than sounds surprisingly easy.”

“It might not be,” Daring just replied before starting to inspect the stones closer, “Even if we find one that is loose enough to move and it happens to be the right one, there’s likely to be a specific way we have to move it, or we’ll set off a trap.”

“Or, we cause a real avalanche since this is like, what, thousands of years old?” Dash asked.

Daring blinked, “Huh? Yeah, you’re right!”

“Not just a simple, cloud-kicking pegasus, huh?” Dash asked with a grin.

“No, I guess not,” Daring smiled, “Guess I put you into the wrong box at first, Dash.”

Well, I’ll be damned, she’s smarter than she looks. Not that that’s saying much. She doesn’t look like she’d be ‘all there upstairs’ with that sleek frame and toned flank. Way too athletic and— Wait, what the heck am I thinking? Daring shook her head and went back to trying to find the master stone to the entire pile.

After twenty minutes, several stubbed hooves, and two-dozen curse words later, Daring yelped, “Ah hah! Dash, I think I’ve got it!” The cyan pegasus jumped over to where the rugged explorer was pointing. A stone a slightly paler shade of gray was jutting out from the rest and had a small sun engraved into it, “Now we just have to figure out the right way to move it without bringing the entire thing down on top of us, or setting off any crazy traps.”

Daring looked at the stone for several minutes while Dash waited nearby, bored. Finally, struck with an idea inspired by one of her best friends, she approached the stone. Turning around and rearing onto her front legs, she bucked it with all her might. Daring narrowly jumped out of the way in time as a large section of stone crumbled away, leaving an entrance into the cave beyond.

“Rainbow Dash! What the heck was that?!”

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders, “Eh, a trick somepony back home taught me. When in doubt, just give it a good buck.”

Daring peeked around the ruble and into the cave. Re-lighting the torch and tossing it in, there were no obvious signs of danger or any traps plainly visible, “Well, despite being stupid, reckless, and completely dangerous, it actually looks clear from here.”

Rainbow Dash pumped the air with her hoof in victory.

“Well? Are you coming or not?” Picking up the torch and stepping into the cave, Daring was slowly surrounded by darkness save for the gentle bob of the torch in her mouth.

Stupid, reckless, and dangerous. Pft. Who does she think she is? Just because she’s got brains with a flank to back it up— Dash realized she was staring at Daring’s compass-rose cutie mark as she disappeared into the darkness. Shaking her head, she galloped after the golden pegasus, “Wait for me!”


Author's Note

This will now be on hiatus for a bit.
I finish Music and Moonlight before coming back to this.
Still, have fun :twilightsmile:

Next Chapter