A Daring Duo

From far away, it looked like just another sand dune. As they got closer, they could see that it was much taller than any of the surrounding sands. Daring realized first what they were really looking at, and she began to trot faster. Rainbow wasn’t sure why she had perked up so suddenly, but picked up speed to match her stride.

It wasn’t until much later that the shape of the temple started to come into focus and Rainbow Dash realized just how close they were. It was tall and crafted out of stone. In fact, it must have been taller at one point, because large parts of the structure had fallen off and still rested half-buried in the sand where they had fallen.

They stopped a good distance away from the temple to let Daring scan the entrance with her binoculars.

“Oh yeah,” she said, “They’re waiting for us.”

“How many?” Rainbow asked.

“About six griffins and twenty gnolls. Theseus is out front, and he's brought two manticores with him.”

“Yikes.”

“And yet I expected more.” Daring smirked. “He must be feeling really confident.” And he had every reason to, not that Daring would reveal that to Rainbow Dash. She just hoped that they could get in and out without giving him the chance to play his ace in the hole.

“We can't go in from the front,” she continued, her gaze drifting upward, “But there are more holes in that thing than swiss cheese. If we're careful, we can fly right into one without being noticed.”

The two changed direction and circled around the temple until they were standing directly behind it. Daring finally took back her coat and hat, much to Rainbow's relief. A quick glance through the binoculars showed gnolls patrolling the edge of the entire temple. They would have one shot to do this without getting caught.

“Are you ready for this?” Daring asked.

“You can’t be serious!” Rainbow cried, “They’ll catch us for sure.”

“Nonsense! I’ve gotten through tighter situations before. Or are you starting to doubt yourself, Dashie?”

“Not a chance!” And Rainbow Dash readied herself to charge forward.

“Alright,” Daring said, “On my mark… get set… go!”

Using their wings to propel themselves, the two took off at breakneck speeds towards the temple wall. They stopped just before hitting the wall and changed direction, flying upwards until they found the first hole in the wall. It wasn't until they had slipped inside and made it to the ground that their hearts settled down to normal.

“Well that wasn't so bad, was it?” Daring asked nonchalantly, looking around the darkened room. There was a soft white light coming from one direction. “We go that way then,” she said, “But slowly. We don't know what traps we might be facing.”

Rainbow Dash heard her, but she couldn’t help but feel a little giddy. This was it, finally, the part she had always dreamed of when she stayed up late at night reading these books: exploring old temples, outsmarting deathtraps, finding some long lost treasure. Who could blame her for feeling excited?

But she remained quiet and slowly followed Daring, or more specifically her silhouette, towards the light. She couldn’t see anything, but she kept glancing around, hoping for just a peak at some sort of ancient writing lining the walls, or a faded painting of ancient gods tattooed across the ceiling. She saw nothing, but the thrill kept her staring intently at the narrow walls around her.

So distracted was she that she didn’t even notice that Daring Do had stopped until she bumped right into the other pegasus.

“Careful,” Daring grumbled. The light was just a little brighter now, and Daring still had to squint to make out what she was seeing in front of her. A series of small holes lined the walls at different heights. Daring had seen enough dart- and fire-traps in her life to know what to look out for. She scanned the area, searching for a trigger, but could see nothing on the floors or walls. There was no switch or tile that she could accidentally hit to start the reaction.

Frowning, Daring glanced up on the ceiling on the off-chance they had rigged it from above somehow. But the ceiling itself was as smooth and unbroken as the floor, save for one straight seam that extended from wall to wall. That worried Daring. What was she missing?

Daring felt Rainbow brush past her. The pony was walking forward, right into a trap!

“Rainbow, no!” she cried softly, reaching out to stop her companion.

Dash stopped and began squinting at the empty air, moving her head from side to side. For a moment, Daring could only watch her in confusion before Rainbow Dash said, “Come look at this, Daring. But be careful. It’s hard to see.”

Puzzled, Daring slipped a little bit closer and looked at where Rainbow Dash was focusing.

“I don’t see anything,” she said.

“Squint,” Rainbow told her, “It helps you see the glare.”

Daring squinted and began moving her head from side to side. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized what she was looking at. Even with the small amount of light they had available, Daring could see that it was reflecting off of something right in front of her nose, creating a small glare. It took her a moment to realize what it was.

“It's thread,” she murmured, stepping back and looking at the holes in the wall, “Thread as thin as spider's silk, extending from one hole, crossing the gap, and ending in another.”

“Precisely!” Rainbow exclaimed, looking quite smug, “You’d have missed that if it weren’t for me.”

“I’d have figured it out eventually,” Daring replied, not with pride but matter-of-factly. She had turned her attention back to the ceiling. That crack she noted earlier must have been the real trap. No doubt it was supposed to open and let something fall out of it once a wire had been snagged.

Fortunately, the strings were mostly fairly low to the ground, coming up only to about chest height. Quietly blessing her wings, Daring extended them, stepped back, and leaped, brushing her ears against the ceiling, only to land safely on the other side of the trap entirely.

“You’re turn,” she called back to Rainbow Dash.

But Rainbow was hesitant. What if she couldn’t jump high enough, or far enough? She could be killed in an instant.

“Come on, Dashie,” Daring said, “You wanted an adventure? This is it. This is the kind of thing that makes it an adventure.”

Daring was right, and Rainbow wasn’t going to be called a coward by her idol. She stepped back and extended her wings. Closing her eyes, she gulped and thought briefly of her wide-open skies. What she wouldn’t give to be there at the moment, safe and comfortable.

Rainbow’s eyes shot open. No, this was the kind of thing she lived for. After all, she’d done much more dangerous stunts before. Without giving herself another second to think about it, Rainbow Dash leaped into the air, only to hit her head on the ceiling.

She came crashing down at Daring Do’s hooves. It took her a moment to realize that she wasn’t being crushed by a ton of rock. Shaking her head to get rid of the stars she saw, Dash looked around to see that she had, in fact, made the distance over the trap.

“Not the most graceful landing,” Daring admitted, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, standing up, “Please tell me there aren’t more.”

“Not much,” Daring replied, finding herself smiling once more at Rainbow’s sense of humor.

As it turned out, the light they had been following was not emitting from any kind of torch. When they reached the first room, they found it to be quite an impressive sight. In the middle of the room was a giant diamond sitting on a large pedestal. It was easily the largest diamond either of them had ever seen, larger than a pony's head. And it was emanating soft, magical light in every direction.

That is, except for one ray of light that it gave off. Positioned on the far wall were four incredulously large gemstones arranged in a column: an emerald, a ruby, some orange stone, and a sapphire. A powerful ray of light, so bright that it almost hurt to look directly into, was beaming from the diamond and straight into the red ruby.

“It's like an oven in here,” Daring commented from the doorway. And indeed it was- the amount of energy that the diamond was giving off was incredible.

“But what's it for?” Rainbow asked.

“I'm not sure,” Daring said, investigating the floor for clues, “It seems unlikely that the civilization that built this would sacrifice such large gems for what amounts to a very poorly-built heat lamp.”

She was eyeing the diamond. What would happen if she removed it? Was that a trigger? And what of the floor? The large tiles were all marked in what seemed to be random ancient symbols. She didn't know off the top of her head if any of them were dangerous to step on. How could she tell? Was there any danger in just flying through? What if, by cutting off the beam of light from the diamond to the gem on the wall, they accidentally triggered something? And why was it only directed at the ruby... unless it was capable of changing direction to point at any of the other gems?

All of this raced through her head at the speed of a cheetah. It was almost involuntary, she had been doing it for so long. It was almost like a cute little puzzle that you ask a schoolfilly to solve. You just had to look at it from the right angle and it became... well, elementary.

But Rainbow Dash did not have Daring Do's experience, and, as she continuously mentioned, she was not an egghead. She hadn't the patience for such puzzles, and this room seemed to mock her by how insidiously it was arranged. Finally she gave up and laid down in the hallway, waiting for Daring to figure it out. This was just one aspect of adventuring she wasn't all that excited about.

“I got it!” Daring cried softly, a twinkle coming to her eye.

“Cool!” Rainbow said, getting up and eagerly looking towards her, “what do we do?”

“We don't,” she replied, leaving Dash more confused than before. She explained, “Judging by that last trap, the creatures that made this didn't count on any intruders being able to fly.”

“Yeah, who did you say made this place again?” Rainbow asked.

“...zebras,” Daring replied, looking stunned at the question. How could Rainbow Dash not have known that, considering where they were? But she continued, “The tiles on the floors are all marked with symbols that correspond with the different seasons.” She pointed at each of the gemstones in turn, listing off “Spring, summer, autumn, and winter. It's summer now, so the beam is pointing at the ruby. That tells the trap to activate if any of the tiles not matching the summer theme are stepped on.”

“So we can just fly over this?” Rainbow asked, irritated that she had waited so long for an anticlimax.

“No. Tell me, do you see a door?” There was, indeed, no doorway but the one they were standing it. Daring told Rainbow, “Give me a moment. Once all the correct tiles have been activated, the door should open.”

“And if you make a mistake?”

“Then I die.”

She said it so flatly that Rainbow Dash wasn't able to comprehend her meaning immediately. Death was a constant threat, she knew, but to be so plain about it? It didn't seem natural for somepony to brush off something that could kill them so easily. But before she could say anything, or for that matter think of anything to say, Daring had stepped out onto the first tile.

As soon as she did, the symbol on the tile lit up with an eery red light, and the ruby on the wall began to pulsate lightly. Taking the time to observe all the surrounding tiles carefully, Daring chose her next move and stepped to an adjacent square. As soon as her hooves touched it, the symbol on that tile began to glow as well. She was moving slowly, considering every move thoroughly in advance.

This continued for a while, Daring stepping on new tiles and causing them to glow. In some spots, she seemed almost stuck, but her movements never betrayed any sense of uncertainty she might have felt. Rainbow Dash would have impressed if only the sight of her walking around was the slightest bit interesting. But even though she knew the stakes, this scene held no tension for her, and her mind quickly wandered.

And then all of a sudden there was a rumbling. Rainbow Dash initially panicked, sure that Daring had made a mistake and that they were both about to die. But the tile Daring was standing on glowed red like all the others, and she was, in fact, looking at the wall where a slab of stone was sliding away, revealing a new doorway.

Once it had opened, the tiles stopped glowing and Daring smiled. “Piece of cake,” she lied to herself. In fact, it hadn't been very easy. Some of those symbols she knew had double-meanings, and they could have referred to more than one season. She had tried to go with only the obvious ones for as long as she could, but when it came down to the last few tiles it was all she could do to keep from quaking in fear.

She was going to relay this to Rainbow Dash, but a quick glance at the cyan pony's expression told her that she had no concerns for the difficulty of this puzzle. She was just finally happy to be moving on, and had already begun to make her way to the new door.

Daring was left to give herself the words that she wanted to hear. “Good job, Daring,” she muttered under her breath, “You're bravery and intellect are always appreciated.” They were words she heard often enough from her fans and employers, but they had no idea what she really went through. Maybe it was just the loneliness of her job getting to her, but she didn't like how Rainbow Dash, who saw the kinds of things she went through firsthoof, just shrugged it off- nay, seemed outright bored with the whole thing.

Not saying a word, she followed Rainbow Dash into the dark corridor and quickly took the lead. With the source of light now behind them, the two were headed blindly in what Daring Do hoped was the right direction. Without any indicator of where they were and with no other choice but to follow the straight line, her special talent was pretty much nullified.
If they were only allowed to follow one track, how did her ability to find the correct path, to make the tough decisions, even come into play? What was the point of free will at all? The designers had ensured that anyone who entered these halls would play their game, by their rules, by not offering a choice in the matter. It troubled her deeply, for more reasons than she wanted to think about.

“Daring?” Rainbow asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing wrong, Dash,” she replied. But, realizing how cold that sounded, she softened her tone and said, “I'm just thinking.”

“About the traps? Or about the Minotaur?”

“Neither,” she replied, though both were true in their own way. Theseus had proven that he cared as much about free will as the designer of this maze had. And the way he had hurt Daring was far worse than the way this place had.

“What then?” Dash prodded.

Daring Do sighed, and then asked, “Where you come from, Rainbow Dash... who... how do...” she struggled to find the right words, “If your parents had forbidden you from leaving home, would you have stayed?”

Rainbow Dash stopped, shocked by the question. “My parents...?” she trailed off, “Oh! I... I suppose not.”

“Really? No matter what they said?” Daring demanded.

“Daring, what's this about?”

Daring Do didn't answer right away. When she did, she sounded tired. “Nothing,” she lied, “It's nothing. I just wondered if... even though my life has been everything I wanted of it, it still sometimes feels like I'm being led around on a leash.” She brushed her hoof against the stone wall, “Being here doesn't help, I suppose.”

Rainbow Dash winced, thinking about how Daring Do was, in fact, still nothing more than a storybook character. She was still bound to the whims of the writer.

Wasn't she? So far, Rainbow Dash's knowledge of the books hadn't really helped her. She knew a bit of trivia, but the real Daring Do was so much more complex than anything the books had ever let on. They went into a few details, but the many complexities of Daring Do's personality and her history seemed glossed over in comparison to what Rainbow Dash had seen personally.

And was this even a case where the writer had control? The book had been created by magic, not written by hoof. And she hadn't even been all that specific in what she wanted. If anything, Rainbow Dash herself was the one responsible for putting them into this situation. And yet, she didn't feel like she was in control at all. At what point did the book end and the reality of this universe actually begin?

And even if there was somepony out there responsible for writing this, what did that mean for Rainbow Dash? Were her own actions just decisions of the writer, or did she actually control what she did? Or, since she had inserted herself magically, would she even have showed up on the page at all? What if, as soon as she left, this world reverted back to normal, without any indication that she had effected it at all. Daring wouldn't even remember her or anything she had done. It would have become meaningless. And the only thing worse than that was if she couldn't leave! If she forever became a tool for the mysterious writer for the rest of her life.

And suddenly Rainbow Dash was very, very afraid.

“Is something wrong?” Daring asked, mirroring Dash's own question from earlier.

“No,” Dash lied in return. She didn't know if anything she had thought up had also crossed Daring's mind. After all, Daring knew what she was, or at least what Rainbow Dash thought she was. If she was really feeling like she had no control, didn't that mean she must be considering who did?

And suddenly neither wanted to be alone with their thoughts, because they began conversation right away after that.

“Tell me a bit about the jobs you did after you left home,” Daring told her.

“Well, the first place I went to was Vanhoover, where I spent several days carting around manure.” Daring chuckled, but Rainbow went on, “I spent two weeks in that city, trying various jobs. As it turns out, I make an awful secretary, worse bodyguard, and a pretty bad journalist. Besides, all I really wanted to do was train, so I quickly packed my bags and, bitless, made my way south to Humcolt, down by the ocean. And I tell ya, the first time flying over the ocean...” Tears welled up in her eyes over the beautiful memory, not that there was enough light for Daring to see that.

“Unfortunately," she continued, "I didn't do very well there either. I tried getting onto several sports teams, but they insisted that I was too ill-tempered.” She stomped her hoof against the ground in anger, showing her disbelief in their conclusions about her. “I needed more money to keep going, so I spent a few weeks delivering newspapers. In fact, the Wonderbolts performed while I was in the city, but I couldn't afford a ticke-”

Rainbow Dash cut off when she realized that she had stepped on a tile and caused it to sink into the floor. Immediately the corridor lit up, the walls lined with glowing red symbols. And not only was it bright, it was hot. The runes were actually giving off tremendous amounts of heat.

“Uh oh,” Daring said, before taking off down the corridor. “Come on!” she cried back, “We have to get out of here before we burn!” Rainbow Dash followed quickly, already sweating through her coat. She was already scolding herself for what she did, but insisted, not unfairly either, that there was no way for her to have known about the trap.

The runes grew brighter and the hall grew hotter, until it was almost impossible to keep from panting. Finally Daring stopped, having reached what appeared to be a dead end. Rainbow's heart skipped a beat, but Daring was reading the lettering on the wall, and recognized it as a puzzle. Rainbow Dash was beginning to see spots, but Daring ignored the heat and stared at the wall, trying to deduce it's meaning. Finally, she found what she needed, placed a hoof against one of the symbols, and let out a sharp bark of some kind from the back of her throat.

And all at once they were in darkness. Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly sure what Daring Do had done, but the trap was off. Granted, the heat didn't go away. Rainbow Dash was so close to passing out that she didn't even hear the door sliding out of the way, or feel Daring pull her through and into the next room.

It felt like a while before Rainbow Dash noticed the temperature change, or the fact that they now had a little bit of lighting. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to see that the room they were in was large and empty and to make out Daring Do's silhouette. The light itself was coming from several torches scattered about the chamber, and not, thankfully, any large diamonds.

The far wall was featureless, and the one to the right had a large doorway leading into another corridor illuminated by more torches. The two pegasi had apparently stepped out of a hidden side-corridor, blocked off by a doorway that could only be opened from one side. But it was the wall to the left that caught their attention right away.

It was bare, except for a large stone door that stretched to the ceiling; it was of an entirely different stone than the rest of the temple. It looked as if there was writing near the bottom, and as the two came closer they could make out two rows of five symbols each. Daring looked over them for a minute to make sure she knew what she was doing, and then stood on her hind legs to place her front hooves over two of the symbols.

When she began speaking, it was in the same arcane language of her magic. They were harsh sounds, each one like a mix between a gasp and a hiss, or a hiccup and sneeze. Rainbow shirked away from Daring, only to stop and stare in amazement at what happened next.

As she spoke, Daring began to move her hooves from one symbol to the next. Every time she raised a hoof, the symbol she exposed began to glow with a brilliant light. Dash counted every color in the spectrum, reds and blues and greens and black and white. It all seemed so random- the words Daring spoke, the order of the symbols she touched, what color each symbol expressed- but the look of concentration on her face suggested a very methodical approach to the puzzle.

Finally there was silence. Daring stopped speaking and dropped to the ground. Every symbol was lit up with a different radiant color. When she saw her handiwork, Daring smiled and said, “For a moment there I thought it wasn't going to work.” She turned and told Rainbow Dash, “I was able to guess the combination from the clues on the disk, but I was afraid that, without the middle piece, I might have gotten it wrong.”

“And then we'd die?” Rainbow asked tentatively, remembering what had been said earlier.

“Well, I imagine it wouldn't have been pleasant,” Daring replied, before turning back to the wall and using one final word. It was barely more than a cough to Rainbow Dash, but it resonated within the chamber for about thirty seconds. And as soon as she said it, the all the symbols stopped glowing and returned to their blank state.

This was immediately accompanied by a low rumbling sound. The entire chamber began to shake as the door started to slide inward.

Daring called out over the noise, “You have magic like this where you come from?!”

“Not like this!” Rainbow replied, stepping back in concern.

From inside the hidden room came a great flash of light, and when Rainbow could see again the door had vanished, exposing the way into the next chamber.

It was small, and when the girls entered it they found it to be completely empty except for a small pedestal in the center. Lying on the pedestal was a small, black, finely cut gemstone.

“Is this it?” Rainbow asked, looking around for more.

Daring just walked right up to the stand and picked up the gem in her hoof. Looking carefully at it, she deduced, “Melanite. Curious.” It looked like a small, black diamond. Rainbow Dash scooted closer to get a better look at it. It was shiny, but it looked... wrong, somehow, like it was hiding something. Still, Rainbow couldn't help but feel disappointed in their find.

“This is it?” Rainbow Dash asked, “This is what we came here to find?”

The two jumped as a new voice answered, “Indeed it is.”

Entering the room was a minotaur and a pegasus. At the sight of that white hide and the vase that was it's cutie mark, Daring clutched the gem tighter in her hoof. Though the newcomer's delicately shaped mane and tail looked tattered from months of hard traveling, she flipped the deep red strands out of her dark blue eyes with grace and poise. Her gaze locked onto Daring's own, and both ponies looked ready to kill – one from anger, the other for the sheer joy of it.

Rainbow Dash saw two gnolls enter behind this pair, each one wielding an axe large enough to cleave a pony in two. The Minotaur glanced over at Rainbow Dash only momentarily, long enough for her to see the burnt side of his face and his blind eye.

“Boys,” Theseus said calmly to his foot-soldiers, “How about you each take a girl and follow me upstairs. I'm sure they'd love to attend our... barbecue.”

The pegasus who accompanied him gave off a haughty laugh at his joke. There was the sound of something hitting the ground and Rainbow looked over to Daring Do. She had dropped the black diamond and was standing with her head down. Her hat covered her eyes, but Rainbow could see her struggling not to cry.

Before she could do something, Rainbow Dash felt one of the gnolls grab her by the leg. She struggled, but the beast quickly grabbed her other leg and pinned her against its body. She could feel it's rancid breath against her neck. It had her wings trapped, and she couldn't bat it with her legs.

Rainbow watched helplessly as the other gnoll picked up Daring Do, who didn't even put up a struggle. It heaved her over its shoulder and began walking out, letting Theseus swoop over and pluck the little stone from the floor where it lay.

“Daring...” Rainbow said. She could only watch open-mouthed as the story unravelled before her eyes and her hero did nothing to resist it.