The fight that would never be made into a book.
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Daring Do and the One Buck Mare
The fight that would never be made into a book.
The fight that would never be made into a book.
Diamond Dogs. Ahuizotl had decided to employ Diamond Dogs. Daring had to admit that was a twist she wasn't expecting. Everywhere she tried to run had those mongrels rocketing out of the ground and were trying to latch onto her in this thick and unforgiving jungle. They had managed to injure her wing, making this twice in her career now that she was grounded by this monsters plans. Still she had enough in her to dart from branch to branch and in the canopy of branches, swiveling her body as skillfully as she could to escape their snarling jaws and persistent claws. They seemed to move even faster under ground than they did in the trees, making it dreadfully easy for the pack of them to corner her.
"Oh dogs, whom smell I do despise,
Why don't you pick on somepony your own size!"
Daring looked up at the sound of that oh so familiar voice to see the cloaked Zebra high above her casually wielding a staff in her her hooves. The Zebra was anonymous to Daring Do, but she had proved to be an invaluable informant when it came to the matter of Ahuizotl. She always seemed to know exactly where to look and what clues to give her to make her adventures a success.
"Who is that?" One of the mutts had croaked out of their dry throats before the staff had sailed through the air and slammed right into his adams-apple, knocking him out cold before it had pivoted back through the air to the cloaked Zebras grasp even as she dived towards the fray. Daring grinned and leaped up towards the Zebra, Rolling onto her back and using the momentum to Buck her back hoof at a Diamond Dog that tried to dive on the falling equine from behind.
The two of them pivoted in the air, dancing around each others bodies and even wielding the other as a weapon against the diamond dogs that still swarmed in even after a several of them were left dazed and unconscious the ground. As the two of them touched down two holes popped open revealing two dogs trying to grab at their legs.
In unison the two mares pulled back their hind hooves and smashed them into the offending dogs noses, knocking them out before making a run for it towards the general direction of the temple.
"You...never...told me....you could fight...." Daring grunted out as she danced around the thick roots while maintaining her momentum.
"That was information you need not see,
until the situation demand that it need to be..."
The zebra gripped her staff with her teeth and swung it strong around one of the trees they passed, sending the hiding Diamond dog tumbling backwards.
"I'm guessing you still don't want to be in the books then?" Said Daring with a smirk before jumping backwards and spiraling to land her back hooves into the faces of two of the Diamond Dogs that were nipping at their tails before continuing the racing pace with the cloaked Zebra.
"That is the agreement we share.
Now hurry, there is a cliff over there!"
"Aw come on, I hate jumping off cliffs..."
The two mares did not slow their pace even as the end of the line came up. Bunching up their muscles they took a powerful leap right off the edge down to the river far below. The Diamond dogs halted in their tracks and looked down over the edge.
"Are they dead?"
"Ahuizotl said he wanted evidence, we need to check..." An older one growled.
"Well I'm not jumping off a cliff!"
The older one smacked him over the head. "Then burrow down it imbecile!" With that he leaped into the air and dug straight through the ground until the other dogs heard only distant rumbling. They then heard the cliff base burst open as the older one flew out in pursuit of the swimming pony and zebra. The other dogs blinked in amazement at the rather smart idea for a diamond dog before following suit.
"I must admit,
These dogs just do not quit..." The Zebra commented as she paddled over to the other side just in time to see the Diamond dogs start to pop out of the base of the cliff. Daring cursed under her breath and shook off the water from her coat.
"That usually buys me some time with the tigers, these dogs are a lot more dangerous than them." She grunted out. To Daring's surprise the Zebra discarded her soaked cloak, revealing her body for the first time to the adventurer's eyes. She had a Mohawk and a saddle equipped with an assortment of vials. She reached over with her teeth to one of the vials and chucked it into the river.
Daring watched in awe as the rushing water promptly began generating dense fog that billowed out and quickly covered the land around them.
"This will help us see through the fog,
While the mist conceals our scent from the dog."
"Kind of stretching on that one." Daring quipped before taking a swig. To her eyes the fog seemed to become much less thick, but the Diamond dogs behind her were having trouble seeing their own paws.
They had finally managed to get some breathing room between them and the Diamond dogs when they stopped to catch a breather.
"So...Now that I see you without your cloak, are you going to tell me what your name is now? I won't put you in the book I promise."
"Zecora is my name,
Now we must hurry,
Before we lose this game."
"What is so different about this time? We've managed to thwart Ahuizotl every time so far, and you've never shown up to fight along side me like this."
"This instance is different you must understand.
Ahuizotl must not achieve what he has planned."
Daring didn't like how nervous her informant sounded at all. She was always so calm and collected about the whole situation but here she clearly thought the worst was near. The adventurer steeled her face and nodded before they continued to the Pyramid. They had managed to avoid the Diamond Dogs during the rest of their dash towards the large temple, but when they got there they both saw an unfamiliar face.
It was a simple gray pony with a straight cut purple mane hidden under a camouflaged helmet. She was languidly inspecting a broken piece of the ruins with a magnifying glass and...sniffing it. Zecora and Daring looked at each other and approached the odd mare, she seemed to have a strange aura about her.
"Excuse me miss...what are you doing here?"
"Examining the bricks of the ruins..." the mare deadpanned without even looking up at them. She gave another sniff slowly "Its for my Rocktorate. I want to write a paper on how they used common materials to build structures that lasted longer than modern designs."
Daring gripped the near lifeless pony and put her muzzle to hers "Have you seen anything strange going on here? Did anypony else come?"
"There was a blue creature with a monkey paw on his tail that came here with some diamond dogs earlier. I don't think they noticed me when they went inside." The dispassionate voice of this infuriating mare told them.
Daring's eye twitched "And that didn't seem strange to you?"
The mare gave an almost imperceptible shrug. "Oh look...more dogs..."
Zecora and Daring turned around and saw the pack of Diamond dogs they had gotten away from pour out of the forest and surround them. Daring braced herself for combat, as did the Zebra.
The quiet pony just blinked.
Wordlessly the Zebra and Pegasus leaped and clambered up the pyramid to the entrance, desperate to get to Ahuizotl. The Diamond dogs chased after the two of them, though Daring could of sworn she heard the sound of one of them yelp and the sound of something flying very fast into the distance reach her ears. With practiced hooves they managed to avoid the traps that sprang up in the wake of their sprint, causing them to be triggered on their pursuers instead.
"Why are they chasing you?" Daring almost jumped out of her skin as she noticed the rock obsessed pony next to her. She hadn't even realized the mare had followed them.
"What are you doin..." Daring watched as the new mare calmly tapped one of the slobbering dogs that tried to bite her and watched the things face seem to collapse as he flew backwards into his comrades, taking them down like bowling pins in a perfect strike.
"Who are you again?" She squeaked out.
"I'm Maud. I like rocks."
Quickly the descended into the depths of the pyramid as Daring caught up the ridiculously strong and quiet mare on what was going on. She had no clue who this Maud was, but whenever the Diamond dogs closed in on them it took only the barest minimum of effort for the blank faced college student to swat them off. It was both impressive and a bit humbling since both Zecora and her were having so many problems with them. For every one they took out, Maud took out a dozen without even trying.
She wasn't even sure she would of made it this far if it hadn't of been for her. This is coming from a mare that normally didn't accept help on the field like this.
Before they knew it they had crashed into the ritual chamber where Ahuizotl was waiting for them. He was much larger now and brimming with energy as he looked down at the three mares that entered the expansive chamber.
"YOU ARE TOO LATE DARING DO! I HAVE FINALLY ACHIEVED MY ULTIMATE POWER AFTER ALL THIS TIME!"
"Ahuizotl!" Daring growled as she tried to rush him. He swatted her away with a wave of his claw and made her hit one of the pillars inside the expansive chamber before flopping into the hooves of Zecora.
"I'm afraid the worse has come to pass
Ahuizotl's strength is now in its own class..." Zecora rhymed in fright.
Ahuizotl laughed at the two mares at the pillar. "I'll relish taking over this world now, Finally my true power has manifested within me."
Only one mare that was there didn't look fazed by the situation at all.
Maud Pie.
Ahuizotl looked at her with his eyes that pulsed with energy and cocked an eyebrow at the aura emanating off of her. It seemed...limitless in his gaze.
"Are you the one who made the Diamond Dogs attack these two?" Maud asked calmly as her voice echoed throughout the chamber. Zecora and Daring looked at her with terrified expressions. Didn't she see the danger before her?
"You don't understand filly, that guy will crush you where you stand, get out of here!" Daring yelled out to her. Maud didn't react to her at all as she stared up at the giant and muscular god Ahuizotl. The creature sneered with its weird mouth and called out to the simple looking pony.
"I didn't think I'd run into someone whom could prove to be a challenge to my new found power so soon. Before we begin, how about we exchange names? I am Ahuizotl, the returning ruler of this world."
"I'm Maud, I like rocks."
Ahuizotl laughed at that and stood up with his new found form. Loving the unbridled feeling it gave him. He felt like he could smash an entire planet beneath his claw if he so chose.
"For the longest time I've had my true power kept from me..." he intoned as he walked down the steps to meet this pony with the strange aura. "Thwarted by so many over the years, kept so agonizingly close yet so far away from the greatness that is my true nature. My sun has been taken away from me by your kind, and it has been made dim and placated because of it. My sun was a furnace in the sky that blotted out all but the strongest beings whom could sustain themselves in its unforgiving gaze. It was a truly glorious time that I wish to return to this lovely planet."
He stopped just in front of Maud.
"And no PONY is going to stop me ..."
Maud lightly leaped into the air and tapped his chest, swiftly sending Ahuizotl's body back and slammed into a structural pillar, generating a plumb of dust and debris in the wake of the impact.
Daring and Zecora dropped their jaws in awe at the casual might of this strange pony as she lightly landed back on her hooves. Maud turned around and looked at the two of them.
"You might want to get to the surface now."
"Yes ma'am" Daring said before darting down the hall. She knew when she was out of her league, and this was one of those times.
"Did you see the strength in that mare's buck?
To think running into her brought this much luck!"
Ahuizotl peeled himself off of the pillar as his long time rival made her escape. He would get to her eventually, now was the time to deal with this freakishly strong pony.
"I like the sun how it is thanks..." Maud told the creature as the dust settled and he got to his feet on the ground.
"You think you've bested me little pony, this is only the slightest fraction of my power." He growled at her as his gaping wound where her hoof had struck him began to heal.
"Okay..." She said with a shrug.
With a sharp intake of breath he crossed his arms and doubled over, causing his magical aura to broil around his body as it increased in size. His teeth grew sharper, spikes grew out of his spine, and his muscles expanded to impressive proportions. His once thin tail increased into something resembling the trunk of a tree with a powerful fist at the end of it.
Maud just impassively stared at him as his energy made wind course throughout the chamber and shake the pyramid to its foundations.
"Its TIME!" He roared out before speeding towards the simple looking mare with the full intent on squashing her like the insect he thought she was.
The ground was ripped to shreds as his feet pounded onto the stones on his blinding sprint towards the mare. However his careening fist and momentum was entirely halted by Maud.
She had just casually raised a hoof and it had blocked all of the power behind the blow, letting the shock wave dissipate into the air instead of crushing her body. It had shocked him how effortlessly she had pulled it off but quickly recovered.
Rapidly he fired off a series of punches, and each one of them was casually brushed aside by her same foreleg. She wasn't even trying with him. It pissed him off. He had not gone through over a thousand years of setbacks just to be thwarted here.
He put a lot more energy into this punch from his tail, managing to land a direct blow on her chest and sending the mare flying across the room. Ahuizotl followed swiftly behind the pony sailing through the air before regaining her control and simply running backwards as she impassively stared at him with that unchanged expression. They darted about the entire chamber, Maud running along every surface from walls to ceilings as the fallen sun god tried to strike her down. Each blow from him felt as ineffective against her as the last, even though it caused massive destruction from the shock-waves of the impacts.
This Maud seemed almost entirely invulnerable.
They both bounded off pillars on the opposite ends of the expansive chamber before sailing towards each other, Hoof meeting fist in the collision.
Maud landed on her hooves unfazed, while Ahuizotl's own limb had been taken clean off at the elbow. He felt dumbfounded at this, he never recalled ponies being this strong before.
"Even though my true power is finally unleashed, you still are able to keep up..."
"Yes... You are pretty strong as well..." Maud said as she turned around to face him. She didn't look like she had exerted herself at all after the entire ordeal that had just taken place.
Rage filled Ahuizotl, and he charged at him once again with his remaining arm, firing off hundreds of punches in the mares direction. Each one of them was calmly brushed aside as the battle reached a new crescendo. He came after this Maud with everything he had at every angle he could, bounding off the floor, ceiling, and pillars alike as he brimmed with energy all focused on destroying this infuriating mortal. Each and every attempt was either completely negated or managed to land but was entirely ineffective.
He had to admit the challenge kind of excited him. So long had he been relying on minions to do his bidding, he now finally had the power to fight his own battles. Even if that fight was being met with by a seemingly indomitable force before him.
Ahuizotl landed a powerful blow on Maud, sending her crashing through several pillars until the momentum finally died down and allowed her just to imprint her body on it. She didn't even grunt at the impact. It looked like she felt no pain at all.
The monster god charged his aura and flew into the air, bringing his legs in and smashing them into the pony like a rocket. They plowed right through the stone pillar with an explosive force of fire and lightning, but Maud was already on the move again like he hadn't done anything to her at all. She galloped up one of the massive pillars as he flew after her, Ahuizotl's aura on fire as it propelled him through the air and tried to smash her with his persistent fist.
They kept going higher and higher, smashing through ceiling after ceiling as she deflected every one of his blows until they had smashed outside of the pyramid itself and landed on either end of the ancient structure.
"Even in my glory days, no being has ever lasted against me this long when I was in my prime like this. I'm impressed." Ahuizotl said as his adrenaline pumped through his veins.
Maud said nothing and stared impassively at his glowing body. He was drawing more of the magic out of him by the second, loving the thrill of having this glorious power back in his body once again.
His magic shot into the air as he drew more of it out and aimed a beam of it straight towards the still mare whom dared to be unimpressed with him and fired off the beam.
Off in the distance Zecora and Daring watched in awe as the structure exploded with a burst of blue energy that sailed off into the sky, followed by fire erupting from the ancient structure. They had to shield their eyes and they really couldn't make out what was going on at all.
Maud brushed off the rubble from her clothes, entirely unaffected by the blast, though she did have the tiniest bit of annoyance in her face if you knew her well enough to spot it.
"You're destroying a perfectly good pyramid."
"It MY Pyramid! They made it for me! I'll do what I want with it thank you! And how are you not dead right now!?"
Before she could answer he disappeared and flashed behind her, thinking she was off guard enough to have her head taken off. The blow was enough to clear out all the smoke that had built up and make the sky clear blue once again, but Maud was still standing, though she was looking off to the side from the blow that had struck her cheek.
"You are a worthy opponent, but you are out of your league when it comes to me. I am the God Ahuizotl, risen back to the peak of my true power once again. All bowed before me when I had ruled this world under the searing rays of my red sun, none could stand against my unbridled power until that Tree of Harmony had taken it away from me. Even this wound you have given me is nothing!"
He gestured to the arm that had been taken off earlier in the fight and made it grow back good as new once again.
"I will keep regenerating and growing stronger, while you mortals will only grow weak and tired. You will fall no matter how..."
"Stop talking..." Maud interrupted him. Her face had become dark and serious in a way that he hadn't seen in this entire struggle. "...You ruined my term paper... I was going to write about this pyramid and you destroyed it...."
Ahuizotl's eye twitched. After all this, it was her TERM PAPER that she was concerned about? She was facing a god and all she was concerned about was what her grade was going to look like? At least Daring Do TRIED to be in the damn moment!
He clenched his body tight and drew out his magic faster than he had this entire fight. He was not going to be so thoroughly insulted by this mortal.
"You know WHAT! F*CK This PYRAMID!" He yelled as he rushed forward faster than he ever had need to in his entire existence, smashing his fist straight into her and sending her flying as the massive structure began to buckle under the weight of their fight. He bounced her around in the air, smashing elbow, knee, foot and fist into every part of the mare as she seemed to just remain still and take it. She wasn't even trying to block him now as he was hitting harder than he ever did, and yet she still didn't look the least bit injured.
"In the words of that insipid pony commanding my sun right now, Why don't you write your damn term paper, ON THE MOON! B*TCH!" With those last words he slammed his knee into her belly. Maud flew off into the sky. She kept flying from the force of that blow until she crashed into something hard. Maud opened her eyes and saw before her....the planet. The mare got up from the crater she had made and looked around at the soundless environment. The guy had literally kicked her off the planet. She held up one of the moon rocks and gave it a sniff before casually putting it in her pocket next to Boulder her pet rock, before buckling her legs and rocketing off the surface of the moon back down to where she came from.
"F*cking TERM paper! Who does she think she is! Gah I can't wait till I have this whole..." He clenched his chest and staggered. All of that power he had planned on using over his new reign over the planet was already feeling depleted. He had done so much to gather that power and now he was already out of breath and hurting after a bout with one mare. Still, at least he had banished....
There was a crash behind him in the rubble that had once been his pyramid. His eyes grew wide and his pupils dilated as Maud got up from her landing and cracked her neck.
"I think I will write it about the moon now...thanks..."
Words could not describe the sound of rage that issued out of the god Ahuizotls mouth as he roared out in frustration and clawed at his scalp.
Observing from a distance Zecora leaned down to a thoroughly frustrated Daring Do.
"I don't think your reader's will buy
An earth pony falling from out of the sky.
After a punt like that, any other pony would of been splat.
If you write this amazing lark.
I'm afraid ponies might think you are jumping the shark."
Daring chewed her hoof in frustration as she rolled on the ground " I know! I can't use any of this even though its so amazing! I'll need to work on a whole new ending now. Bucking Tartarus!"
Ahuizotl roared and charged at Maud. He didn't care about his reserves now, he wanted nothing more than to end this whole pony's existence right then and there. He rushed her from every angle he could, used every technique he had, and still none of it even remotely fazed her.
And then Maud threw the second buck of the entire fight. He let out a gasp as he felt the power of it warp through his entire body and threatened to tear him apart to his most basic components. He careened back and barely got his footing as he coughed up blood. She didn't even look like she hit him that hard, but to him it felt like getting impaled by a mountain.
"I am a GOD!"
A flurry of hooves filled his vision, and his body exploded.
If it weren't for his magic he would not of been able to pull himself back together from a blow like that. He snapped his liquefied pieces back together again and reared back for one final assault. If he couldn't have this planet, NO ONE WOULD!
"You and all you ponies can go STRAIGHT TO TARTARUS!!!" He roared as he pulled out every last shred of magic in him and held it aloft to smash into the planet. He didn't care anymore, He was going to win one way or another.
"Serious Buck," Maud said calmly as she punched the beam that fired towards the planet. Ahuizotl's eyes went wide as he watched all that power he had worked to achieve buckle under the might of a single buck out of this mare, and felt his entire body desintegrate under the force of the shock-wave that rushed up to meet him.
Half way across the world, the clouds were still being cleaved apart by the blast of Maud's hoof.
The charred remains of Ahuizotl flopped to the ground. He had no magic left inside him, and he was far to injured to recover from this.
"Did...did I lose...?"
"When you threatened the planet and my family... I had no real choice." Maud intoned. "Still, you are quite strong if you are still alive after that."
Ahuizotl rasped out a laugh before his body floated away into dust.
Daring Do rushed up to Maud and looked at the disintegrating pile that was her rival. "You killed him?! Oh dear Celestia how is this going to work with my story now? I had been working this whole thing up and now it has such an anti climatic ending. UGH! I'm going to need to find a new arch nemesis and everything! Bucking LUNA!"
"What the pegasus means to say
Is thank you for your heroics this day." Zecora said before running off to console the distraught author.
Maud pulled out the moon rock from her pocket and looked at it, giving it a sniff before walking back to Manehattan to write about the wonders of the rock formations on the lunar surface. What a productive day.
Author's Note
The Maud vs Ahuizotl fight was based on the wonderfully epic battle of Saitama vs Boros from One Punch Man.
