The Legend of Archenold

The Legend Of Archenold

An original fanfiction by IBaBrony/IBMrYanshu

Prolouge

Two ponies are headed through a jungle, one being a rather tan Pegasus with black hair that fades into white in the midsection. Her mane is rather spiky at the tips. She is wearing a green shirt and is equipped with a whip. Her cutie mark is a compass revealing she has a talent in exploration. She has a few wrinkles showing she is starting to get a little old.

Her companion is a blue stallion with blue hair darker than his body. His mane is spiky as well, but the hair on the back of his neck is short. Some of his hair hides his purple eyes. He is equipeed with quite a bit more than the tan pegasus. He has a long rope, a steel knife attached to a knife holster on the leather strip rapped around his body holding both the knife and the arrow quiver full of razer sharp arrows. His cutie mark is a golden bow and arrow to show his talent in archery.

He searches through the heavy vegetation before looking to the tan pony to ask a question.

"Find any clues yet, Daring Do?" The stallion inquires in a rather deep voice. Daring Do continues investigating a specific bush, holding up her wing to indicate she is on to something.

"Got it." Daring Do concludes wipping her head up facing the blue stallion, cracking a smile. "Right here under this huge leaf is a big rock with some carving on it." She informs as she lifts up the vegetation to reveal the inconspicuous stone. "This means we're getting closer to the temple, Archenold." Archenold nods in acknowledgment looking ahead for a second before turning to the stone to examine it.

Examining the stone, he sees a the image of a target and some ancient text on it. "Hey, did you notice the text here?" Archenold inquires. Daring Do nods yes.

"I'll decrypt it." She declares, reaching into her shirt pocket to pull out a small notebook completely filled with writing. She flips a few pages before examining the text. Glancing back and forth from the notebook and the text, she decrypts the meaning of the text. "It says, "Thou who hath cometh upon the temple must hold thy sacred skill. It thou destined to pass, thou shalt be blessed. If not, thou shalt certainly perish." The rest is illegible. Probably due to erosion over time." Daring Do confirms, closing her notebook and replacing it in her pocket.

Archenold walks in small circles pondering for a second.

"Hmm. Seems as though we're going to find out what that sacred skill is for once." He stops walking in circles and faces Daring Do. "Also, do you have to decrypt into the language of old?" Archenold inquires with  an arched eyebrow and a small smile. Daring Do chuckles to herself.

"It makes it sound dramatic!" Daring Do jokes. Archenold rolls his eyes and faces the direction of the temple.

"Well, we should continue. We don't want the Russian Mafia to get to that relic before us." Archenold warns. "I'm still surprised they found about our expedition." The two adventurers press on.

"Remind me again why we're doing this again, Archie. I don't want to mess around with some ancient relic told to have untold power of an alicorn for the wrong reason." Daring Do demands with a hint of fear in her voice.

"Because who wouldn't want to see a relic filled with power beyond all imagination?" Archenold replies excitedly.

"Well, there's me. I mean, sure I love a good artifact, but this one has power to chose whether the explorer lives or dies. Who knws how gruesome the death is? And the worst part, no pony survives even if they run away from it. Not even magic can stop this thing." Daring Do warns extremely. Then, she gets a thought. "This... This doesn't have to do with when I took you in as a colt, does it?" The smile on Archenold's face drains completely as he stops dead in his tracks. He lowers his head in sorrow and sighs.

"OK fine." Archenold starts beginning to confess. "The main reason I want this relic so bad is because of the power it holds. Untold power. This may have the the ability to give me a vision of my past. I need to know what happened to my father. You and I both know that mom died at my birth, but dad, he was murdered. His murderer still remains a mystery." A tear starts to form in Archenold's eye as he recalls the traumatizing event. Daring Do walks up to Archenoldand lays a hoof on his right shoulder in attempt to console him.

"You're really going about this then aren't you? I know this is a hard subject to think about, but will it really be worth it in the end?" Daring Do puzzles.

"That's a strange thing to say coming from you. You always think its worth it when you go on your adventures." Archenold replies semi-agitated.

"Because my adventures are just for the fortune. Not lust for power. But think about this. What if there are things in this world that should never be discovered in the first place? Things would go very badly if your heart is in the wrong place. It could unleash chaos ten-fold or even hundred-fold." Archenold shrugs Daring Do off.

"Well this I HAVE to know!" Archenold growls with his sorrow replaced by anger. "It's tearing me apart inside! I need to knw what happened to my father or it'll kill me! I vowed to avenge his death when I witnissed his murder and I swear to Celestia his death will not go unavenged." Archenold finishes, taking deep breaths to cool down.

"And all this because you think the relic could possibly have pshycic abilities." Daring do reflects. Archenold yes slowly . His face starts lighting up.

"Not only that, but I could also use its power to finally become something great. Just think! The power of an alicorn, it could give me the ability to use magic, let alone fly! It could let me find the murderer! It could give me fortune so that I never go hungry! It could... it could..." Daring Do interrupts.

"It could reject you and kill you. Those stories say it choses who it wants to be with. If you get to it and it doesn't accept, you will certainly be killed." Daring Do warns for the last time.Archenold just pushes her aside and moves on.

"That's a chance I'll have to take." Archenold replies ignorantly. Daring Do follows not too far behind.

"You're too hungry for power, Archenold. That's what worries me." If Archenold heard daring Do, he showed no sign of it. Instead, he just kept trotting forward.

Soon enough, the ground started become harder with cobblestone as they approached a huge structure made of stone. "Well here it is!" Daring Do concludes cracking a smile. The two stand there examining the structure. It seems like a primitive version of a stone skyscraper. The building is very wide, but due to erosion very time, there a cracks and holes in the side of it. Looking at the base of the temple, there seems to be no door.

"Well, that's great. How are we going to get in?" Archenold puzzles himself as he examines the place further. Daring Do immediately comes up with a plan. Still staring at the temple, she explains.

"I could fly up to the open cracks in the structure that are big enough for the both of us to fit in. I could pull you up every time until we reach that giant hole in the top there." Daring Do turns to ask what Archenold thinks when she sees he is missing. "Archenold?!"

"Relax! I can just climb up there grabbing onto these crevices." Archenold explains almost a quarter of the way to the hole in the wall." Daring Do sighs in relief as she sees him climbing with ease. Daring Do wips out her wings and takes off into the air to fly up to the hole. When she lands, she helps Archenold up as he is just about to slip off. "Gotta be more careful." Archenold says to himself in a note-to-self kind of way. Getting up, they both look into the new room taking in their surroundings.

They find themselves by a wall in a small room full of old pottery and stone tables. Some of the tables are split in half while the others are surprisingly still standing. There are two doors, both leading into seperate rooms. One doorway reveals a hallway to get to the next room.

As Archenold looks for something to lead them into the correct room, he spots Daring do peaking her eyes into the clay pots that aren't completely smashed to bits. "Still in it for the treasure, I see." Archenold concludes with a small chuckle. Daring Do whips her head up facing Archenold with smile holding three gold coins in her mouth, fluttering her wings in slight joy.

"Heck yeah!" She responds as she places the three gold coins in an empty pocket in her shirt, wings relaxing at her sides. Archenold just rolls his eyes. He travels by the wall to the nearest door to look through when he lifts his left hoof, looking down to the ground as he felt something move underneath him. He jumps back in surprise as the door slams shut. Daring Do looks over, sighs, then gives Archenold an upset look.

"Well, shit, Archenold. Looks like we won't be getting the treasure over there." Daring Do scowls. Their attention turns to the next hallway as the floor in it suddenly lights on fire and steel pendulums sharp enough to slice through bone cleanly swing alternately in rhythm inside the hallway. Daring Do glares at Archenold as he shrinks back nervously.

"uhh...sorry?" Daring Do does a face hoof when a section of the wall next to the archway leading to the hallway of doom falls off revealing some more ancient text. "Looks like there is some more work for you." Archenold points out. Daring Do trots over to the encryption with Archenold following. Pulling out her small notebook again, she translates.

"He who hath..." Daring Do starts when Archenold interrupts.

"Daring!" He scolds. Daring Do sighs in annoyance.

"OK fine. If you made it this far, you must only go one way. The path behind has been blocked off. Obviously." Daring Do shoots a quick glare at Archenold again. "If you hold the sacred skill, then the path shall become easy. Let that pony be purified." Daring Do finishes.

"What the buck is all that supposed to mean anyways?" Archenold wonders impatiently.

"I don't know..." Daring Do starts as she lowers herself to the ground spreading out her wings wide. "But I know how I'm getting across." Daring Do jumps up and flaps her wings to hurdle herself through the hallway, dodging all of the steel pendulums yet just getting past the last one for it to cut off a small portion on the tip of her tail. "Shit. That was close." Daring Do concludes after examining the missing bit in her tail. "I'll try to find a way to stop these traps." Daring Do. informs Archenold.

"All right. Make it quick though." Archenold watches as Daring Do disappears behind the walls of the next room, only for her disappearance to be followed by screaming shortly after as the floor in the next room opens up. "Daring Do! You okay over there?!" Archenold inquires frantically. Soon enough, a splash is heard to relieve Archenold. Then the response came.

"Yeah." the distant voice starts. "I just landed in a huge pool of water. I can't fly. The water makes my wings too heavy." Archenold starts to look for a way to get across the hallway without getting burned or sliced into pieces. Then Daring Do speaks up again. "I... I think I saw something in the room above as I was flying over. Is there some sort of image in the wall?" Daring Do inquires curiously. Archenold looks across the hall to see an image of a target cut into the wall of the next room.

"Yeah and guess what. It's a target." Archenold informs. Noticing a hole in the center of the target, he takes off his bow and stands on his hind hooves to get in an archer's position. He readies an arrow, pulling it back on the string of the bow. Taking a deep breath, he let's go of the string propelling the arrow forward. It flies majestically past some steel pendulums, spinning as it flies forward increasing the accuracy of the shot. As it flies towards the next room, it gets sliced in half by the last steel pendulum. "Bucking stupid little..." Archenold launches another arrow, this time getting it past all the pendulums and into the whole. A small click is heard followed by violent quakes. As Archenold falls to the ground, he notices the fire subsiding and the steel pendulums going back to their original positions to stop swinging. "I'm coming, Daring Do!" Archenold replies.

"Better hurry! The quaking seemed to have brought some "friends" out of their homes!" Daring Do shouts with urgency. Archenold hurries through the hallway, staring down into the massive water pit to see something moving towards Daring Do. "Toss your knife down!" Daring Do orders with a hint of fear in her voice. Archenold upholsters his knife and tosses it down for Daring DO to grab it in her mouth by the hilt and using it to stab something as it launches itself at her. Daring DO just killed an alligator. "Quick! There's a tree branch up there that can..." She stabs another alligator. "That can lead us to a room above!" Archenold looks up quickly to see the branch. Seeing it, he takes his rope and quickly ties it onto an arrow. "HURRY UP, CELESTIA DAMN IT!" Daring Do cusses with impatience and fear.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Archenold shouts back as he gets into the archer's position again and launches the arrow, hitting the branch. He drops the rest of the arrow down for Daring Do. She grabs onto the rope with her hooves and starts climbing up, grabbing the knife with her wings to help fend off any alligators jumping up at her. Archenold also hurries and climbs up to the upper room hoping the tree branch would support them both.

The tree branch starts to snap as he nears the ledge in the upper room. "Daring, I gotta get on this ledge! It'll help you get up here faster." Archenold informs as he jumps off the rope grabbing onto the ledge with his forehooves. He hangs there waiting for Daring Do to get up. As he waits, one of his hooves slips. "Shit!" He looks down to see Daring Do is already up. His last hoof slips, only to be grabbed by Daring Do. He helps himself and Daring Do out by climbing up the ledge as Daring Do pulls him up. "Thanks." He says gratefully as he plops down onto the floor with his heart beating in shock and relief. "damn. I'm not doing that again." Daring Do chuckles.

"Here's your knife back." Daring Do drops the knife out of her wing onto the floor next to Archenold.

"Thanks." Archenold picks up the knife and puts it back in his holster. He takes a minute to relax before getting back up. He then asks Daring Do a question that surprises her somewhat. "So, You were holding the knife with your wing. Pegasi are able to do that?" Daring Do raises an eyebrow.

"What, you never knew?" Archenold shakes his head no. "Well... We pegasi can hold objects with our wings. we can bend them to our will allowing them as some sort of fifth and sixth limb. Haven't you ever hung around Twilight? She'd know." Archenold shrugs.

"I'm not one to hang around nerds." Archenold take in a deep breath then helps himself up. "Right, so next..." Archenold notices something behind Daring Do. "Wait, how come you never told me about the wing thing?" Archenold inquires with an upset tone. Daring Do blinks.

"I thought you'd pick up on it sooner or later." Daring Do replies. Archenold gives a mad face.

"What so you just wanted me to figure it out? All this time for about 10 years and you never wanted to tell me? Why so secretive?" Archenold fights.

"Why so serious about something that shouldn't even matter?" Daring Do replies with annoyance.

"Well first off, you know how I don't like it when ponies hide secrets from me, you poverty stricken son of a..." Daring Do glares at Archenold intensely, clutching her teeth in rage, raising her wings in an offensive gesture.

"Don't you dare bring up my wealth in this!" She snaps.

"OK fine." Archenold replies as a slight rumble is felt. He walks past her through a doorway that wasn't there before, flicking his tail at a stone brick with an image on it, leaving Daring Do still furious, yet confused and curious. She trots up to the stone brick to see a detailed image of two ponies fighting.

"Wow, Archenold. Just like the damn unicorns that helped build this temple, you are such a troll." Archenold looks back to Daring Do with a wide grin.

"You mad?" Daring Do roles her eyes as her anger and confusion dies down along with her wings retracting to her sides again.

"I gotta keep you off the internet more." Daring Do concludes as Archenold starts laughing. As Daring Do takes her eyes off Archenold to look at the room in front of her, her jaws drop. "holy..."

The room before them is a large cylindrical room with a broken bridge in front of them that is impossible to cross and a massive drop down to lava. The ceiling he some openings for a skylight. The pillars curving to the center of the roof forming the skylights are covered in vegetation and vines hanging down from them. In the center of the room is an alicorn statue with six arms. It seems to be sitting down. The bottom-most four arms are in a position to make it look like the alicorn is praying and meditating at the same time. The other two arms are raised above the head to provide a platform with a diamond and emerald chest sitting there on a pedestal just waiting to be opened. "That... That statue. It's a statue of the ancient Hindu pony goddess, Jhoenay. She was said to have ruled over the land by Saddle Arabia. She..." Archenold zones out as Daring Do goes into a long explanation.

Meanwhile, Archenold scopes out a way to get to the chest. "Many said that maybe her heart is..." Archenold interrupts Daring Do impatiently.

"Sorry, but as interesting as that is, we have to get a move on. How're those wings of yours?" Archenold inquires. Daring Do flaps her wings a few times, but cant take off.

"Still wet." Daring Do reports irritably from when Archenold interrupted her.

"OK, no problem. I'll just hoist you up onto the crevice above the entrance here then help myself up. We'll make our way to the roof where we'll swing from the vines to the chest. Got it?" Archenold plans. Daring Do nods in confirmation. Archenold then gets on his hind hooves right in front of the doorway into a sitting position holding out his forehooves together at waist level. Daring Do steps onto his forehooves to be helped up, yet still pushing off to get more height. She then reaches up and grabs onto the crevice above the door, dangling as she waits for Archenold to grab on and get up.

"Oh, and Archenold..." Daring Do starts as Archenold looks up to listen. "Be careful what you touch down there or later on I'll kick your flank to the next adventure we go on." Daring Do threatens. Archenold chuckles as he grabs onto Daring Do's  hind hooves. Daring Do reaches out her wing to grab Archenold's other hoof to help him up further. Getting to the same height, Archenold grabs onto a crevice nest to Daring Do. "Good. I'll lead." Daring Do informs taking authority from there.

They start climbing from crevice to crevice heading towards one of the pillars in the room when they comes across a huge gap that would have been impossible to climb to. "Alright, here's what we do." Daring DO notices a vine hanging out from a stone brick hanging out of the wall. She jumps off the crevice towards the vine, grabbing onto it and using the momentum to launch herself towards the next crevice letting go of the vine. She keeps going on from there.

Having doubt in making it across from noticing the brick loosening a bit from Daring Do's jump, Archenold gathers the courage to attempt himself. Just as he is about to let go of the vine, the brick falls out causing Archenold to fall to his doom. "ARCHENOLD!!!" Daring DO shouts in worry. Archenold reacts quickly, grabbing onto a ledge in his path with the difference in inertia causing his upper arms to shriek in pain.

"Celestia damn, that hurt!" Archenold shouts in his pain. Daring Do lets out a sigh of relief when she sees Archenold is okay. She then heads towards the roof going from crevice to crevice again, Archenold doing just the same.

When they get to the ceiling, They grab onto a nearby vine and start swinging to the next vine towards the center. They land with ease onto the statue with the chest right in front of them.

"Oh my god... This is it!" Daring DO exclaims in half excitement and half worry. "Well... Not turning back now." Daring DO impatiently goes to open the chest when Archenold stops her.

"wait a second." Archenold examines the chest, front and back to spot a small wire running from the chest to a hole in the statue. "there. You see? Have you not learned from previous adventures that the chest can be booby trapped as well?" Daring Do rubs her main with a weak smile, chuckling nervously. "what else you got in that pocket holding the notebook?" Daring Do searches the pocket to dump out a small tube with a cap on both ends of it.

"Epoxy from when you rushed me out when I was trying to fix the dining room table after you crashed into it when trying to escape from the Black Hooves." Daring Do reports. Archenold smiles.

"Perfect!" Archenold grabs the epoxy and opens one end of the tube to squeeze out the primer onto the hole. He then closes that up and opens the other end to lay the epoxy on. After waiting about five minutes, the epoxy hardens making the trap disarmed. "OK! Lets open up this seapony!" Excitedly, Archenold busts the golden lock off by shooting it with an arrow at point-blank range and opens up the chest.

"Holy shit. The legends are real!" Daring Do Exclaims in awe of the sight before them. Inside of a glass case inside the chest, levitating inside of it is a Jade Heart that seems to pulse with a white light. "Right before us... A relic that hasn't been touched for nine thousand and one years, never seeming to ever be uncovered, and yet here it is right in our hooves." Daring Do swallows in nervousness, yet still captivated by its white pulse. Archenold hesitantly raises his hooves to take the glass cover off. Once he does, the Jade Heart starts rotating in a fixed position.

It starts rotating faster and faster until it starts rising into the air. It keeps rotating faster until at an impossible speed. It then shoots towards Archenold striking him in the head and disappearing inside of him. Archenold, feeling raw power surging through him, clenches down as he feels the white light surging through his veins sending an icy chill through his entire body. Daring Do just stares in fear and confusion as she witnesses Archenold's veins pulsing white faster and faster until they remain white. After a couple of seconds, The light disappears along with the feeling of ultimate power in Archenold as he collapses to the ground. The last thing Archenold remembers before passing out is Daring Do Screaming in fear as she sees him drop, then a bang, then the feeling of a feathery wing on his back. Then everything goes black.