Daniel Book Four- Zebrica

"Whoa! Ha ha ha!" Daniel cried out. All four of the quest were now sliding down natural slides in the earth. Suddenly Ditzy collided with Daniel, and they were sliding down together, and something similar happened to CC and Gilda. They all went their separate ways, the groups now switched around once more. The twists and turns curved around like a water park. Suddenly they were all ejected into the air, and in that moment of weightlessness, none of them could have felt any giddier. but just as soon as they were in the air, they had been put back on slides.

"W-whoa, I do not feel comfortable about this," CC said as she was launched into the air switching slides once more.

"Are you kidding? This is awesome!" Gilda cried out with a laugh. She was launched over to the area

CC was in, and landed directly in front of her. Daniel wasn't listening, only enjoying himself as he too was rocketed towards Ditzy, and almost fell on her as he landed backwards in front of her.

"Hello love," They said simultaneously, just as the two groups split up, and were dumped in different spots rather far away from each other. Daniel found himself under Ditzy.

"Ugh, I think you broke something," Daniel grunted, and pulled a carrot broken in two out of nowhere. "Oh."

"Sorry. I just don't know what went wrong there," She replied as she got off of the other alicorn, "Now, the question is, where are we?"

"The Cave of the Crawlers," A deep and dangerously suave voice sounded, after which came a series of clicks. "The only reason you both are still alive, is because our oracle wishes to see the boy." Another series of clicks. Daniel suddenly went pale, and Ditzy tensed up when he did so.

"Daniel, what is it, what do you see?" Ditzy asked gently. She had never seen him this scared, as she sent to touch the fifth, she found that he was shaking. All he did was point a finger at something behind her. Ditzy slowly turned around, and saw something that made her lose her footing from surprise. In front of her, was a spider, slightly taller than her. and was a gross mix of black and red.

"Odd, I smell fear on only one of you, but I cannot tell which. Tell me, do you have a fear of spiders?" The spider asked, a smile forming on it's face that would make a nun faint. And apparently Daniel.

*   *   *

"I think I'm going to throw up!" CC said, and she was looking a little bit more sickly than usual.Gilda laughed, then realized that CC was directly behind her.

"Oh no, make sure you do that on the side." Gilda threatened.

"Whoa!" Daniel and Ditzy exclaimed as they dropped. The other two barely noticed, as they hit another jump, and landed on the other side and went into a corkscrew.

"Oh no, I can't hold it in any- Blarge--" CC let her lunch fly off to side. "Ugh, nasty." She said as she shuddered slightly, just as they reached a steep drop, going down, faster, Faster, FASTER, FASTER! Then suddenly they found themselves in the air, flying upwards, and landing in a large tunnel. CC rolled off of Gilda and neither said a word about it. CC went and sat near the wall. "Just give me a moment, at least until the wall in front of me stops spinning. After a few minutes of deep breathing and trying not to throw up again, CC got back on her feet and looked around, and found the cave lit by the red gem it was made out of. CC gasped, and then took a slow gulp.

"What? What is it?" Gilda asked getting into battle formation.

"This is no ordinary cave. Keep your eye peeled for anything unusual, especially if it's, creepy, if you see something slither, close your eyes immediately." CC replied dangerously. "Also, if you see giant spiders, don't kill them. In this case, they are an ally. Is this understood?" Gilda promptly nodded,

"Ah, but alassss, no arachnid will passss into my cave." Came a silky smooth female voice, followed by an unnerving rattle. "They find me rathher sssscary." Gilda felt something cold and clammy slide against her leg, and she immediately dropped in a faint.

"Well, at least she won't open her eyes. Now as for you, I know that not many things kill your kind, and I currently have in possession none of these items, but that doesn't mean I can't knock you out. This is your one warning, leave now, or face the consequences," CC snarled as a green fire melded her eyelids shut in a creepy changeling way.

"Ha ha ha ha you and what army, young shape shifter?" The golden voiced snake asked, finally coming into the light, it was long, about twice the length of manticore, and one point five times taller. CC had a fearful look, but she got into fighting stance.

*   *   *

"--does have a tendency to scare most folk. I've told them to stay outside. He should be nice, safe, and okay, oh, and he's awake." A male voice said. Daniel opened his eyes and looked around. He was in side another cave, only this one was lit by torches on the walls. the cave walls had paintings on them, many many paintings, some looked old as Celestia herself, and others looked so recent that the paint is still drying. the walls were colored and filled with many things: civilizations falling, ponies evolving, swords being crafted, creatures brandishing armor, and as Daniel studied this, the paintings began to move, showing a great batlle against a darkness, in that Darkness he could see nothing, and the ponies on the battlefield were still marching towards it, save for the many that were running away before it even started, and at the front of this battle was not a pony, but a man, leading them all into battle they went forward and into the darkness, and then--

"Daniel! You never told me you were scared of spiders!" Ditzy said with a giggle, snapping Daniel out of his daze. He looked at Ditzy, and then back at the wall, which once more, just depicted many ponies gathering around in a field.

"Young one, your eyes had glazed over, did you see anything?" A zebra asked, walking up. The zebra was black with yellow stripes and had the cutie mark of a moon, but it was done in such a way, that it reminded Daniel of Zecora's cutie mark. Daniel nodded.

"A, a battle. between a dark cloud and those ponies." Daniel said grimly. The zebra nodded, the fire casting menacing shadows across the wall, as the zebra's eyes seemed to have a veil go down them, and he stepped towards the wall, and pulled a brush from nowhere, and began painting. When he was done, he put the brush down, and it disappeared. On the wall, was now the darkness that Daniel saw, and the ponies were all turned, looking into it fearfully, and the man, was in the middle, gazing upwards.

"What does it mean?" Ditzy asked. Both Daniel and the zebra shrugged.

"My name, is Zeekial, and I have been waiting for you for a long time, Great Fifth, please allow me to give you news both disturbing, and possibly hopeless." Zeekial said. Daniel exchanged a glance with Ditzy and shrugged.

"Go for it, I guess," Daniel replied hesitantly. Zeekial nodded.

"I will start at the beginning, once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there came an age, where a group of unicorns, who were very adept at the arts of magic, created a relic of power, and it was good. Among the unicorns, the creators names were Sombra, Starswirl, Bane, Tenebrae, and calvarious. Each one was skilled in a specific art involving magic, and had put there best work into this relic. Sombra, who was skilled at the darker arts of summoning, put into the great artifact, the power of shadows, Starswirl who was advanced in the pure arts of arcane magic, put into this ancient item, the power of true magic, Bane, who was great in the arts of weapon conjuring, put into this item the power of weapon mastery, Tenebrae, who was deep in the wonders of the mind, put into this the power of sight, and calvarious, who was the first to discover the horrid art of necromancy, put into the ancient relic, the power over the dead souls still onthe plane of the living.

"This item started off as a great wonder, kept safe by the creators, but one by one, they started to want the powers themselves. It started with Bane, for she wanted what she could not have, and so inflicted this upon others, creating hatred, and jealousy, she was the first to become corrupt, and tried to take it. She found that now, the power could not be touched by her, and so she was sent away as a different being.

"Next, came Sombra, he tried as well to take the power so he could betray his kingdom, but was fought off by the original two alicorns, and banished to the shadows, but he took the crystal kingdom with him.

"Finally Calvarious, decided to corrupt the instrument of power itself, believing that if he did so, nobody would wish to receive it, but he was wrong, later came another after the cursed item. His name, was Nicoladine. He came in, and said, he was merely seeking knowledge, and they allowed him to observe the artifact. But they were deceived, and Nicoladine reached to obtain the powers in the mysterious item, and a battle ensued, in which Calvarious had died, and he had been cursed. Nicolidadine retreated, and vowed to return.

"It was then that Starswirl and Tenebrae realized that the item must not fall into the wrong hooves, and so broke it apart and hid it. There are many pieces across the land known as Zebrica, and one that you already have."

The room had darkened, even though none of the torches had gone out, and Daniel found himself facing Ditzy and Zeekial. Daniel swallowed, and spoke. "What is this item that you say I have?" Daniel and Ditzy both felt a fear in the pits of their stomach, a fear that neither were able to explain. It went deep, and felt as if they were alone.

"Your sword. it is known as Deadstrom, the sword of souls. Every corrupted soul that has been felled by your blade, has at least passed through your sword. It gives you power, whether you know it or not. But now is not the time to talk, for your other two friends are facing a deadly foe, one that you were meant to kill."

*   *   *

"No eyessss, no eyessss. However will you ffind me?" The basilisk hissed gently at CC. CC in turn fired a bolt of magic in the direction of the voice, but it hit nothing but the reflective walls, and bounced around. until it hit the ground next to CC. The snake just laughed, and whipped her tail around, but CC heard the shift, and grabbed onto the tail, and begun to get flung around. She then magically attached her hooves in the serpent, and began crawling upwards, and finally arrived at its back, and proceeded to grow sharp bone-like spikes out of her hooves, and slamming them into the creature. Which just hissed, and shook both the pain, and CC off.

"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought," CC muttered.

"Maybe not!" Daniel called, jumping towards the large basilisk, and swung his sword. The snake turned, and caught him by the leg, and slammed him into the ground. "Ouch." CC took this moment to go at the serpent's soft underside with a slice of her spike, causing it to yell.

"Ssso, you have ffriends? All the more ffood for me!" She cried out in crazed glee. She then turned around, and stared at Daniel, who stared right back.

"No Daniel! Don't let it look you in the eyes!" CC yelled. But it was to late, and Daniel was... swinging his sword?

"What! No!" The basilisk cried out with sudden terror, just as her flat slithering tongue was cut in half by Deadstrom. Blood that was a dark green spewed out, as Daniel rolled over to the right, and proceeded to jab and slash randomly at the snake.

"Ha ha! With the help of Tenebrae, nothing is impossible!" Daniel yelled as he grew out his wings, and with one powerful flap, he launched himself far up into the air, right before his head hit the ceiling, he flapped once more, and dive bombed at the snake, and stabbed it with his sword yet again, just as Ditzy came through with her eyes shut blasting incinerating blasts everywhere at random.

"Everybody get down!" She yelled, the cave was in chaos, Ditzy's powerful spells firing everywhere, and Daniel's sword cutting the snake, while CC went at it with her own hooves. The snake was writhing about in pain and panic, just as daniel came, and stabbed it in its left eye. She screamed once more, as Daniel threw the eye to the ground and then stomped on it, squishing it with a disgusting squish. The green blood was everywhere and the snakes innards were beginning to seep slowly out of its gashes on the underside to the point of just being seen. Finally Daniel came down, and began stabbing it in the head. and Ditzy came up, and fired a blast of burning ice into the holes, and the head fell off, the snake had been beaten.

And Daniel once more, passed out.