The Hunter and Their Prey

by I Thought I Was Toast

Rating: everyone
Tags: Daring Do, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Other, Adventure
Length: 17853

Daring Do, forever hunted and forever hunting.

It's been five years since Daring Do last faced Ahuizotl. She thought he was dead. She'd seen him die. So why is it that when she comes home one day a familiar gold and black envelope waits for her in her study? It seems her old foe is alive and kicking, and he's invited her to one last face off. It's time for one last hunt to decide just who is the hunter and who is the hunted.

Published 2013-03-02 03:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-11 22:17:09 UTC

Chapter 1: The Problem at Hoof

The Hunter and Their Prey

Chapter 1: The Problem at Hoof

Daring Do stumbled into her study. Her burgundy desk sat welcomingly on a vibrant red carpet. The desk was covered in books, sheets of paper, and the mail she’d missed, but she ignored all that as she went straight to her goal. The chair behind her desk resembled a throne more than anything else, and the fireplace behind it burned with a cozy flame that was kept going at all hours. It was there that she dumped herself so she could finally relax. The mantle was made of the same luscious burgundy wood as the desk, and, despite the large number of awards she’d been given for her finds, was only covered with souvenirs from her travels.

The pegasus was utterly exhausted.  Four months of excavating nothing but dirt, clay, and spider webs tended to do that. After all, she had spent months digging in that rainforest, only to find out the crypt she’d been looking for contained nothing but bones. Who expects to find dead ponies in a crypt? Daring Do certainly didn’t, not anymore. The past couple of decades or so had been nothing but adventure, mystery, and a tendency to almost lose her beloved pith hat. As much as she hated to admit it, Ahuizotl had spoiled her with his devious plots and machinations. She almost missed the cunning beast.

Not many ponies knew, but the only reason Ahuizotl had ever been stopped was because he was fond of a challenge. Every adventure since the first with that criminal mastermind began because he invited her to find and stop him. He had wanted to watch her squirm escaping him, and it had led to a marvelously convoluted game of cat and mouse, but all games have to end.

Daring’s last adventure with the beast had finished with his hulking form plunging into an endless abyss. Her foe had been hunting her, as always happened when the explorer snagged the artifact from under his nose. Ahuizotl had cornered her, and in desperation she had purposely activated one of the temples traps. The room’s entire floor dropped from under them, and, with a last attempt to drag Daring with him, the cunning beast had plummeted. She had waited, hovering in the air, to hear the sound of an impact, but it never came. She had thought, at first, that it was a trick. As the years went by, however, she saw neither hide nor hair of him. It seemed even somepony as strong as Ahuizotl couldn’t have survived falling down a pit that deep.

The fact that it was because of the her that he was dead left the archeologist feeling oddly empty. Ahuizotl had been the cause of untold amounts of pain and suffering, but that didn’t mean he deserved to die. Daring felt, deep down, that Ahuizotl’s actions were driven by a desire to see the one pony who didn’t run in fear at the sight of him. All he had wanted was a challenge, somepony worthy of being his adversary. She might have been the only one who could fit whatever twisted definition that beast had had of friendship, and in the end that “friendship” had been the death of him.

After finally accepting his death, the next five years passed in a blur. She went back to her old boring dig sites. The yellow mare had been left to look for mummies that didn’t talk back to you and find priceless urns that didn’t contain the vengeful souls of a long lost army. The archeologist hadn’t even run into a trap she had to circumnavigate in the last three years! The university’s tastes were just so boring compared to what she knew was out there. Daring had brushed up on her history after her last adventure with Ahuizotl. She and Ahuizotl hadn’t even finished finding half of the known historical artifacts capable of creating apocalypses out there, and those were just the boring wannabe artifacts that weren’t powerful enough to wipe all knowledge of themselves from existence.

The worst part of going back to her old clients, however, was how elitist most of them were. The University of Canterlot might pay well, but it always meant trekking through the worst, if best looking, parts of town. Some streets housed perfectly respectable families, but enter the districts where the nobility dwelled and a pegasus such as her was patronized at best, spat on at worst. Daring could count on her hooves the number of decent noble houses. She was perfectly content to be back in her apartment in the more seedy, but welcoming, parts. Here, in what the elite mistakenly call the slums of Canterlot, unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies thrived together. They couldn’t afford to be judgemental when it might cost them the sale they need to survive the month.

Sighing, Daring tried to organize the papers on her desk. Half the letters on it were from fans or her publisher demanding another book. Bored out of her mind, Daring had tried writing about her adventures, but it wasn’t the same. The readers just couldn’t understand that nothing could compare to the thrill of a real adventure, and now she was out of those.

Losing the last of her energy, Daring let her head fall unceremoniously onto the desk with a muffled thunk. The few papers that had been organized scattered to the winds. A couple even managed to land in the fireplace, little whooshes of air accompanying their incineration. The archeologist was about to let her eyes close when a particular letter caught her eye.

She hadn’t seen it before, as it was tucked into a book. The book had a plain ebony cover, and was rather thin for Daring’s tastes. It also didn’t belong to her. Suspiciously picking up the tome, the yellow mare saw the cover and sides lacked a title. Upon opening the it, the archeologist found the pages bank and filled with dust. She lifted the letter and it’s gilded ebony envelope from the inside of the cover.  On the back of the envelope, two words were clearly legible. “Miss me?”

Something told Daring not to open the envelope, but she could feel her hoof inexorably being drawn to the seal. It couldn’t be him. The archeologist had seen him fall to his death, but only one being had ever sent her letters like this. Daring’s heart fluttered with fear and anticipation as her hoof finally made contact with the seal. As she opened the letter, a piece of ragged blue fur fell out. Lifting the letter into the light, Daring read its contents, despite her slight shuddering.

…..

Dearest Daring Do,

It has been so long since we last had our fun. I must admit that our last adventure ended rather poorly for me. I tossed the dice, and rolled snake eyes. As I fell into the maw of that abyss, a strange thought entered my head. Well played. I was as strong as a rhino, and as fast as a cheetah. I was as graceful as a tiger, and as stealthy as a spider. I was even as cunning as a snake. I was the king of beasts, but you, a simple pony, had outplayed me.

Only the strongest survive. Whether or not you realize it, our games were always about survival. You were my prey, and I was your hunter. Time and time again, you would slip away, but I always had faith I would catch you. Then that fateful moment came. I fell, and once and for all you established yourself as not only an adversary but an equal. Odd that you weren’t even trying to bring about my ruin, but that’s what’s always fascinated me about prey. A hunter must kill to survive. Prey doesn’t even need to lift a finger to prove itself the strongest.  It merely must survive until the hunter starves to death.

I should have died. I accepted death, for you had proven yourself stronger than me time and time again, but fate had different plans. My body shattered against the water at the bottom of the void. Bones broke and blood was spilt, but somehow my mind persisted despite my screams for it all to end. I fell unconscious as water filled my lungs, but still my mind persisted. I hung in the darkness of nothing, and knew I had somehow survived. I had cheated death, and nothing enrages me more than when something cheats at the game, especially the game of life.

I know by now you’re wondering how I survived. I was unconcious, bleeding, and drowning in an underground river. I would have died, and indeed should have, if not for the surprising help of a pony of all things. Why would a pony help a monster such as me? It wasn’t kindness, if that’s what you’re thinking, but I digress for now. I wouldn’t want to give up that knowledge so freely.

Too much knowledge spoils the act of discovery.

Recently I’ve come to appreciate the power of knowledge. It was my knowledge as a hunter that allowed me to kill my prey. It was your knowledge as an archeologist that showed you how to evade not only the traps within temples, but also those I made to catch you. Finally, it was the knowledge that I cheated death that drove me to where I stand today.

I have found a library others could only dream of. I have found the Library of the Shattered Hymn. A library built at the beginning of time to be a sanctuary for all of history and knowledge. Every book that was ever written fills it many shelves, as do many of the books that never saw the light of day. You may wonder how this is possible, and that is the true reason I am writing to you.

Care to join me in a little game?

The rules are as simple. I will give you twelve challenges, one at a time. You are to solve all of them within a year, while tracking me to my lair so that we will once and for all end things. If you decide not to play my game, then I assure you Equestria will pay.

Your first challenge will be mailed shortly.

Happy Hunting,

-Ahuizotl

…..

Daring jumped nine feet in the air as the doorbell rang. She flew downstairs as fast as she could to see mail slot close as her mail hit the floor. She scrambled through the letters until she found the one she was looking for. It was the same black envelope. This time three words were on the back. “Are you ready?”

Daring tore open the letter with feverous abandon, and held it up to the light to read it.

…..

What is the point of knowledge, if some try to lock it away? It may as well be invisible for all the good it will do, but I digress.

They wander through the sands of time, treading the hall I now call mine.

They run and watch, for it is all they know.

They see me, and so they bemoan

For they may never enter the library, but for them that is not necessary.

Now they are locked on the other side, and do not know what to decide.

Find the forgotten guardians.

-Ahuizotl

P.S.  The game has begun. The clock strikes one.

…..

Daring dropped the note and whipped her head around as a ringing filled the house. There was also the sound of breaking china, but the archeologist had other things to worry about than the maid dropping the tea pot she’d ordered before climbing upstairs and into this mess. Her grandfather clock had just struck one. She shook her head, trying to quell the storm of thoughts assaulting her. It was just a coincidence. Even Ahuizotl wasn’t good enough to calculate when she would finish reading the letter to the exact second.

She bent down to pick up the letter, and was surprised when her hoof simply slid over it. She tried again, only to have the same results. Sighing at the finicky nature of paper on the floor, she simply tried to pick up her pith hat which had fallen when she jerked her head around. That failed too. Something was wrong.

Daring looked down at the letter to see she’d missed a bit of it.

“P.P.S.  How do you ponies manage to hold things with your hooves?”

“Mistress Daring, something’s wrong!” The maid, Tea Leaves, burst into the hallway.

Tea Leaves was a funny old mare. Usually, her coat was grey, and her face was wrinkled, but her eyes and smile gave off that sense of rambunctious energy only foals have. Right now that energy was being spent trying to lift every object she could reach in her hooves. Her eyes had a manic gleam, and her smile was forced, as every object she touched continued to fall. It was a shame, really. Tea Leave’s special talent was her remarkable sense of balance. It was the only thing that allowed the earth pony to make a living as a maid in a unicorn dominated field.

“Mistress Daring, I can’t pick up anything!”

Daring didn’t bother to respond. She wasn’t listening to the maid. Right now there were bigger problems. The archeologist had developed a keen ear over the years, and she was currently listening to the chaos that was going on outside. She caught only snippets here and there as the noise was muffled by the walls, but one thing was clear. They weren’t the only two afflicted by whatever was happening.

What had Ahuizotl got his hands on?

Carefully picking up the dropped letter with her mouth, Daring walked outside to find out.

…..

Daring walked through the chaos of Canterlot, trying to make sense of it all. “What kind of artifact would do something like this?” she murmured. As she passed ponies in the street, the archeologist took note of their condition with the detached air of somepony trying to fit a pair of puzzle pieces together.

The town was in chaos as ponies tried to come to terms with what happened. The market place was littered with dropped commodities. Ponies were trapped outside the homes they were trying to run to because they couldn’t turn the doorknobs. Only the foals seemed not to have a care in the world as everypony else panicked. They turned it into a game.

Colts were trying to score goals by kicking objects into unexpected places, and fillies were sneaking sweets from the market place. It’s not like the shopkeepers could snatch the treats back. All the devious little foals had to do was knock the sweets to the ground, and kick them to safety. What did the devious little munchkins care about a little dirt mixed amongst the sweet taste of shenanigans? It was a prime example of what the archeologist loved about kids.  They could find joy in anything.

The only adults that were acting like it though were the guards. They did, however, lack their usual unbreakable stoic demeanure.

Earth pony guards tried to juggle spears like hacky sacks. They kicked and flailed their legs, until the weapon finally clattered to the ground. The more sensible ones, however, merely used their mouths as substitutes. Daring was sure they were trying to calm the populace, but there was a slight problem. Nothing says authority about shouting incomprehensible jargon around a piece of wood jammed in one’s mouth.

The pegasi messengers that were darting around trying to figure out what had happened could still use their wings to grasp things, but their grip was much weaker than normal. Things slipped through their soft feathers like butter, and only those with truly flexible wings could fashion a hold that wrapped their wings firmly around an object.

Only the unicorn guards seemed to be fully functional. They were cleaning the wreckage and helping others get inside with their magic, but seemed to have the same problem with their hooves as everypony else. Sometimes the yellow mare passed them using levitation magic to put out fires as ovens burned their precious cargo.

The overall conclusion of the archeologist was that the only thing truly affected was a pony’s physical ability to grip things, and she couldn’t think of a single reason why such a disturbance would happen. The yellow mare knew there was a connection to Ahuizotl, but she could not see what it was, or why it was there. The problem was, in hindsight, it was so obvious that ponies shouldn’t be able to grip things. They had nothing to grasp an item with, but they could effortlessly pick up objects or pull levers. Perhaps it was a passive magical ability, but that didn’t tell what Ahuizotl’s artifact was doing to disrupt only a pony’s ability to grip things. Normal anti-magic fields had a hard time disrupting passive magic, and left unicorns completely useless. What could cause such a specific disruption, and how? Ahuizotl wouldn’t go after something with such a narrow use that it only stopped ponies from picking things up, so what could this artifact do in the grand scheme of things?

Having hit a dead end in what exactly could have caused the destruction around her, the intrepid explorer shifted her train of thoughts to Ahuizotl’s first challenge. The cunning beast had always loved riddles, and she was sure his letter had been laced with hidden meaning.

The pegasus took to the sky to find the quiet she needed to think. Settling on a cloud, she looked out on all of Equestria as it spread beneath her. “Where are you, my old foe?” she whispered, as the cogs in her head turned over and over. “What did you find?”

She turned over his words hundreds of times, but couldn’t find any clue as to where the so called “guardians” might be. Nothing immediately came to mind, so she pulled out Ahuizotl’s letters for reference. A little drool stained them from having to use her mouth to grip them, but it was better than nothing. She was tempted to think he was referring to a series of landmarks or statues. Many of her previous adventures had included such metaphorical guardians, revered idols of a long forgotten civilization meant to guard their treasures, but something still nagged at her. Her fearsome foe said that the guardians ran the halls of the library they were said to guard. Statues and landmarks didn’t run. Perhaps he was referring to a running waterfall, but the archeologist was left with the sinking feeling she’d have to find and deal with the remnants of whatever civilization had built the library.

Daring was notoriously bad when it came to dealing with natives. The yellow mare had lost count of all the times she had ended up hog tied and carried to fanatical cultist leaders or disgruntled chieftains, and to make matters worse she still didn’t have a clue as to where these guardians lived.

She’d never even heard of the Library of the Shattered Hymn before today, so that didn’t help. Ahuizotl wouldn’t lie about his location. That would be cheating at their little game, but the cunning beast would give her the most obscure name for a place he could find. It was probably hidden in a single line of a nearly forgotten myth, probably from the very natives she was supposed to find, and buried at the bottom of a pile of books in the Canterlot Archives. Daring hated trudging through books to find things like that. Sometimes it took even longer to dig through the books to find a possible place to excavate than it did to excavate the place. It was like the library was trying to keep her in the dark by burying her under useless info.

Suddenly, something Ahuizotl said clicked.

“You sly little fox,” Daring said, grinning from ear to ear. “You said it right in your letter.  What is the point of knowledge, if some try to lock it away?  As much as I complain about librarians hiding what I need from me, they would never do it purposely to me. That doesn’t mean there aren’t books that are purposely hidden from me. You must want me to break into the Discordant Archives, back where it all started.”

A whole wing of the archives devoted to knowledge that should have been forgotten, the Discordant Archives were preserved by Celestia to be read only by the few she trusted would not abuse that knowledge.

Daring had been knocked off that list after she discovered the Sapphire Stone. Apparently, it was a bad idea to go looking for a gem capable of manipulating a pony’s genes to turn them into horrific beasts. It honestly wasn’t her fault. The archeologist had thought the stone’s power was an over-exaggerated myth, but then she’d met Ahuizotl. If she hadn’t stopped Ahuizotl from creating an army, her punishment would have been much more severe. As it was, Daring brought the stone back to be catalogued and stored with the other miscellaneous objects the princess had collected over the years that were capable of ending the world. Having proved its previous hiding place was unsafe, she was merely banished from the Discordant Archives instead of being banished from Equestria and thrown into a dungeon in the place she was banished to.

The princess apparently thought that would be enough to keep the archeologist from almost accidentally destroying the world. She was wrong. As the yellow mare continued to save the world from Ahuizotl, finding artifacts only the Discordant Archives would have knowledge of, Celestia became convinced Daring was breaking in. She could never prove it, considering Daring was getting her info from Ahuizotl instead of the archives, but it led to a very chilly relationship with the princess. Daring had tried to explain it was all Ahuizotl once. Needless to say, it hadn’t ended very well.

It looked like, for once, the archeologist was going to actually have to break in.

…..

Daring was glad she’d been able to convince the maid that she didn’t need a cat suit to stealthily infiltrate the castle. The archeologist wasn’t able to pull off that secret agent look.  She was puzzled, however, as to why the wizened maid had a cat suit. When asked, Tea Leaves had just chuckled and said, “Oh, you know how kids are, Mistress Daring. In my younger days I really got around. I’d tell you the stories, but then I’d have to kill you.” The yellow mare had been unable to tell whether or not her maid was joking.

As it was, Daring had simply donned her adventure gear, and set off for the palace. The Canterlot guards may have been dedicated, but they weren’t the smartest. The pegasus guards only patrolled the outside of the palace, while the unicorns and earth ponies patrolling the halls only watched in front of them. They forgot pegasi had a second option to use as ground. Daring was currently sneakily walking along the ceiling. The archeologist’s wings flapped just enough to defy gravity and hold her there, making almost no sound. It was a technique Daring had used as a filly in hide and seek, and it had carried over to her career in archeology as a way to stealthily infiltrate temples and circumnavigate traps.

The archeologist’s pith hat was currently taped to her head. It had fallen from there and activated the traps below her one too many times in the past for comfort. The last time her hat had done that, she had had to dive into a pool of crocodiles to save it. That was not a pleasant experience, for her or the crocodiles. For such a little hat, it caused a lot of trouble. Even taping it to her head had caused a headache. With no way to use hooves to hold the tape, she had had to use her mouth, a part of her head, to tape something to her head. She had ended up hogtied three times before the maid had deigned to help, lest the elderly pony end up dying of laughter.

With her hat firmly stuck to her head, however, the explorer’s trek to the Discordant Archives went smoothly. It went so smoothly, in fact, that Daring had forgotten that the wing she was breaking into was locked, 24-7. Cursing her luck, she went back a ways until she found a napping guard.

Daring then backed up about fifty feet and lined herself up with the guard for what she would have to do. The archeologist counted to five, preparing herself mentally, before she stopped flapping her wings and plummeted silently towards the floor. Twisting herself in midair to what she hoped was the correct orientation, the yellow mare opened her wings at the last second to shift all her downward momentum into a new direction. Without so much as a flap of her wings, Daring curved sharply and shot silently forward. Thankfully, she was shooting towards the guard. The archeologist shot past the guard, grabbing his keys with surprising deftness, and arched back towards the ceiling to settle herself on it again without having made a noise. The only sign she had done anything was the rush of wind as she passed the guard. There may have also been the slightest amount of drool from using her mouth to grab the keys, but that didn’t count. It wasn’t like she could use her hooves right now. The guard had been startled out of his slumber, and was muttering something about drafty halls. He cast a light with his horn, grumbling as he set off to patrol for another place to nap.  Daring grinned. They always blamed it on the drafty halls.  A castle is a castle, whether it’s in complete ruins or it’s at the peak of its occupation.

Returning to her goal, Daring drifted to the ground. Inserting the key into the gate was somewhat awkward. Her face was pressed forcibly into the bars as she turned her head to turn the key. She was really beginning to hate Ahuizotl messing with her like this. This was all clearly meant just to slow her down.

Pushing the gate open, the archeologist moved silently down the hall leading to the inner part of the wing. She was, however, not alone. A voice bounced through the hall as she moved further down it.

“No. No. No. No!” it yelled. “This doesn’t make any sense. What’s causing this? Why did it happen now? Why did I never see that it doesn’t make sense for a pony to pick up things with their hooves in the first place? If I had researched the phenomena, then maybe I’d know what to do, but I didn’t see what was in front of my face!”

It was impossible to trace because of the wing’s design. The maze like halls of the place were shaped to carry sound in such a way that it seemed to come from all directions and left Daring wary. She’d have to try and avoid whoever was in here.

A second voice joined the first. “Calm down, Twilight. It’s not going to do you any good if you panic.”

The first voice gave a nervous laugh as she responded. “You don’t think I’m calm, Spike? I’m perfectly calm.” There was more nervous laughter. “It’s not like the princess is going to expect me to deal with this. She won’t call me down to ask for a solution. She won’t be disappointed when I have none because no pony ever thought to question why the hay we can pick up things with our hooves. She’ll understand and let me try to figure it out on my own.”  The voice cracked. “Then she’ll send me to magic kindergarten when I fail, and I’ll end up staying there for the rest of my life! How am I supposed to solve this?”

The pony was completely lost to hysterics at this point. Daring, however, had seen no sign of the rambling mare, and the archeologist had almost reached the point of the archives she was looking for. Then the yellow mare slipped on, of all things, a scoop of ice cream. She tumbled forward through the door she’d been trying to reach, and landed right in front of the pony she’d been trying to avoid.

“We’ve been compromised!” screamed the purple unicorn before Daring. With a burst of magic the unicorn grabbed a baby dragon, who was struggling to hold onto the tub of ice cream that must have been the source of her little slip. “Get back!” yelled the manic unicorn, before jerking the dragon’s tail like a switch. “I’ve got a loaded dragon, and I’m not afraid to use him!”

“Wait!” Daring yelled. “You’re about to burn the-”

Green fire burst forth from the little beast’s mouth, consuming all the books piled around them. The fire billowed about the room, igniting the books on the shelves, the tomes on the table, and a particular explorer’s tail tip as she dodged to the side.

“-books!”

The realization that she had just burned about fifty irreplaceable and priceless tomes made the unicorn do what any decent scholar would do.  She screamed in horror, throwing the source of the destructive fires into the wall. The little dragon was left dazed as one last gout of fire burst forth, accidentally burning the couple books he had missed.

“No!” Daring yelled as the research she needed was burnt away. It didn’t matter if dragon fire transported items instead of destroying them. Daring had no way to know where those books would show up. The dragon might know, if he had a destination in mind, but the little beast was currently too disoriented from the hysterical unicorn in front her.

Daring was interrupted from further lamenting losing valuable research as her currently burning tail tip brushed against her leg causing her to yelp. The archeologist tore the hat off before the rest of her was also set on fire, and quickly batted out the flames. Then, with a single fluid motion, she threw her hat like a frisbee towards the manic unicorn.

Dazed though he was, the little dragon’s protective instincts kicked in as he tried to shoot one last flame at the pony now assaulting the only parent figure he ever knew. It went wide in his disoriented state, and hit the hat instead.

The hat burnt away in a blast of green flame just before it hit the unicorn, only to greet the lavender mare with the sight of Daring charging at her. The unicorn couldn’t react fast enough, and Daring rammed into her at full strength. They both tumbled to the ground, and the archeologist quickly jabbed one of the mare’s pressure points controlling the flow of magic through her body. Once disabled, the explorer easily restrained the unicorn.

“Keep quiet, and calm down if you want to be able to help me stop this,” Daring whispered with deadly intent. She had no intention of harming the lavender mare, of course, but she had learned from Ahuizotl how effective intimidation could be.

The dragon was still dazed, and could only watch on with wide terrified eyes. Daring was furious that he’d burnt her hat, but knew with a little egging she could find out where he’d sent it. Right now she needed to focus on calming the scholar in front of her.

The unicorn struggled briefly in terror, but eventually she calmed down. It was the type of calm that only the truly helpless can feel. The archeologist had seen it on many of the faces of Ahuizotl’s other victims, and flinched.

“Look, kid,” Daring murmured. “I’m not going to hurt you. If I was, I would have done a lot more than simply disable your magic for a few minutes. I just needed you to calm down. I’m going to slowly release you now, so please don’t do anything to make me restrain you again.” The archeologist backed off, and the unicorn slowly rose to her feet.

The shaken mare took a shuddering breath to try and compose herself. She probably needed it considering how she looked. The unicorn’s mane was purple with a single pink and violet strip.  It was unkempt, with small strands poking out at awkward angles, and her tail fared no better. Opening her eyes to look at her attacker, the unicorn let out a gasp.

“You’re Daring Do! Oh my gosh! I never thought I’d meet you. I’m Twilight Sparkle, one of your biggest fans!” She almost squealed the archeologist’s name.

Daring felt a sheepish grin creep up on her face. “Yeah, that’s-“

“Aren’t you supposed to be banned from this section of the library?”"

The grin slid from Daring’s face. “Yeah, that’s me,” the archeologist muttered. “I have a good reason for being here though. I wasn’t lying when I calmed you down. You can help me stop the chaos going on outside. You see, I have a lead we can use.”

“You know what we need to look for!” Twilight was hopping in excitement. “Show me!  I know almost every book in this wing! The only ones I haven’t read at least three times through are the ones on dark magic. I promised the princess I’d never go near those.”

The dragon, who had been trying to stand in his disoriented state, fell over at this. He tried to say something, but only managed to groan quietly at how the world was spinning. Neither of the mares heard him.

“Is that what you were looking into when I got here?” asked Daring, cocking her head.

“Yes,” muttered Twilight dejectedly. “It was the only thing I could think of that might do something like this.”

“Oh, why did you have to throw me so hard,?” groaned the dragon, louder this time. Daring had almost forgotten about him. The little guy had finally gotten up, and was nursing a headache. “Twilight, didn’t you promise me that you would never use me as a flamethrower again?”

Twilight grinned sheepishly. “I might have.”

The dragon rolled his eyes at his keeper’s poor attempt at evasion. “Whatever. I don’t care right now. We’ve got bigger fish to fry. You do know how dragon fire works, right? You send a letter to the princess every week. Anything I burn gets sent directly to the princess if I’m not thinking about where it needs to go. You just sent who knows how many tomes of dark magic directly to the princess.”  The dragon couldn’t help but smirk slightly. “Nice job.”

Twilight paled at the implications of what she’d just done. A couple more hairs burst from her mane at awkward angles. Daring sighed. She’d just calmed the lavender mare down, and the dragon wakes up only to rile Twilight up again. The archeologist turned to tell him to stop being such a smart mouth when she realized something.

Her hat had been burnt by that dragon fire.

A couple of the black and grey hairs in the explorer’s mane broke off as the alarms went off in the castle. Her eye twitched a couple of times before she sighed.

“This is why I make sure I never lose the hat,” Daring muttered.

Chapter 2: Curiosity Kills More Than Cats

The Hunter and Their Prey

Chapter 2: Curiosity Kills More Than Cats

“What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?” Twilight had relapsed into another panic attack. Daring was trying her best to think of a way out of this, but between the alarms and her companion’s breakdown she couldn’t think straight. She shoved her hooves in her ears to quiet things down.

The archeologist knew they would most likely get caught and that she wouldn’t get another chance to break into the archives after today. The princess certainly wasn’t going to tell her anything, so that left her two options. Daring could try and read frantically through as many books as possible until captured, or she could figure out some way to get the books out of the castle to read if she survived a meeting with the princess.

The castle was on lockdown, and that meant the protective enchantments on the Discordant Archives were starting to rise.

Unlike the rest of the library, the Discordant Archives did not face the problem of  circumventing guard patrols. Its contents were too precious to possibly allow somepony infiltrating the guards to gain access. Instead, it was filled with layer upon layer of spells designed to activate upon detecting an intruder. The way the defensive mechanisms determined there was an intruder was by a spell cast on every item in the archives. When a pony touched anything in the archives, a brief scan of their thoughts revealed what they intended to do with the knowledge they gained with the item. If any malicious intent was discovered, the defenses would activate. How many defenses activated depended on how great the malicious intent was. The most common defense was as simple as the text of a pony’s scrolls censoring certain info from them, after all it was hard to find a completely altruistic pony.

They were currently facing the other end of the spectrum.

Given that they didn’t have to worry about the safety of guards, the enchantments and traps used to stop hardcore threats had much more freedom in the lengths they went through to stop intruders. One of the first things to come online was an anti-magic field. Unlike normal anti-magic fields, this one was meant to hamper with passive magical effects as well as active ones. To do this, however, it had to slowly leech magical energy from the area. This meant only higher level spells were blocked at first, but eventually any intruders were left at the mercy of the other enchantments that activated as the magic leeching spell fueled them. The worst of these other enchantments was a spell meant to subtly change the layout of the library continuously. It would start by distorting a pony's sense of direction, confusing them about where they were supposed to go. After a while, however, it began to quietly suggest where to turn in the archives to a pony, purposely leading them to other traps that slowed them down even more. Finally, after fully charging, it would implement actual physical changes to the library, sealing it off from the world until deactivated and entombing the intruders.

Once this happened intruders were doomed to starve since it took weeks to reset the enchantments. Any intruders who actually managed to escape would probably walk straight into the hooves of the guard. Even if they didn’t, they would be almost completely drained of magic and easy to pick off once the guard found them.

Daring had run into a similar trap before, but it had lost its strength with age. She’d had a full day to get to the heart of the temple and escape that time. Based on the tingling sensation in her wings, the archeologist estimated they had fifteen minutes to get out of the archives. Fifteen minutes wasn’t anywhere near enough time to find what the yellow mare needed. They would have to find a way to get books out of the archive. Carrying them was out. It was too risky with the chance of being caught. Teleportation spells were high level, and thus were probably already blocked by the anti-magic field. That left only one option.

"Hey, you, come over here!” Daring barked, turning her predatory eyes on the dragon.

The little guy flinched at the archeologist’s tone, and reluctantly turned towards her. “Who, me?” he asked.

“Yes, you, we’re going to need you to burn as many of the books here as you can while we escape the archives,” Daring said.

“You’re leaving me here?” the little dragon asked angrily. “I’m more than just an assistant or tool to be tossed away. I have a name, you know. It’s Spike, and I count just as much as you or Twilight. What gives you the right to order me around?”

Daring felt like she’d been bucked in the face. Why did her companions always question her motives? There was just too much on the line to risk somepony backing down from an order. The yellow mare walked over to Spike and bent down to look him in the eye. The dragon, for his part, stood fuming.

“Listen, Spike, I know we just met, but you’re going to have to be able to completely trust me in this. I need your help. I’m not coming back here anytime soon, and that means I need you to get me as many books as you can. If you do exactly what I say, then you’ll be safe and sound before Twilight and I are even out of the castle.” Daring’s eyes had a haunted look as she spoke to the dragon. “Please, just trust me when I say I will never leave you or anypony else behind.”

Spike started to settle slightly as Daring continued. Even Twilight had quieted from her panic attack to listen to the archeologist. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but you sent those books to Celestia with my hat. The princess might believe you two caught me and let you off the hook, but I can’t guarantee that. Even if she does let you off, it sounds like you’re both going to be asked to help with the situation anyways, and the only one getting information from Ahuizotl is me. That means you’re going to be working with me, whether you’re a fugitive running with me or a spy keeping track of me. It’ll be for the best if we start cooperating and trusting each other now.”

“And what if Celestia would tell me I have to stop you?” Twilight rubbed her temples in an attempt to process everything being thrown at her. “If she really has enough of a problem with whatever you’re doing to make me spy on you, she probably wouldn’t even want you doing it in the first place.”

Daring shrugged. “She probably will have an issue with what I’m looking for, but I can just bet she won’t want Ahuizotl hanging on to it. I know the types of things Ahuizotl goes after, and no offense, but you’ll never find what I’m looking for on your own.” She smiled inwardly at the spark of curiosity that went into Twilight’s eye’s at that statement. She knew that spark well. “It’s such a shame, really. I figured any esteemed scholar worthy of access to the Discordant Archives would love the chance to find a library that-”

“Library?” The unicorn latched onto the word faster than Ahuizotl could pounce on his prey. Her pupils widened in excitement, and she took a couple steps towards Daring. “What kind of library?”

Daring chuckled. “The kind of library that makes the Discordant Archive look like a poorly drawn children’s book.” She couldn’t be sure that was true, but it was a safe bet knowing Ahuizotl.

A small shudder climbed from the tip of Twilight’s hooves to the top of her head, and the smallest of smiles flitted across her lips.

“Of course she’d claim it was a library...” Spike sighed. There was no way Twilight would let an attempt to find something like that pass her by.

After taking a couple of seconds to control her excitement, Twilight finally responded. “That sounds incredible, but I’m afraid it’s not enough.” She shook her head at the incredulous looks Spike and Daring shot at her. “Don’t get me wrong. If there is a library like that, I will be looking into it. How could I not? That doesn’t mean, however, that I should help you escape from here when there’s a reason you were banned in the first place.”

“Let me guess. You can’t stand disobeying even the tiniest ruling made by Celestia.” Daring stomped her hoof in frustration. “Good for you! Did you know Celestia banned me because I saved the world?! I disobeyed the one thing she told me not to do, and that led me to saving the Sapphire Stone from Ahuizotl. I think I shouldn’t even need to escape, but what do I know? She’s the god of ponykind after all! Well, let me tell you, kid. Read up on your ancient history, because you’re going to find that being a god doesn’t mean squat in the end. The gods of Roan died as flames burned it to the ground. They were killed by the very barbarians they conquered out of a sense of superiority. The Nhorse gods froze to death during Ragnarok, despite knowing about its approach for centuries. For Celestia’s sake, Nightmare Moon’s return happened only a couple of years ago! If those Elements of Harmony hadn’t come to the rescue, Celestia probably would be dead right now along with the rest of us.”

Twilight looked like she’d been slapped, and Daring mentally kicked herself for letting her personal feelings get the best of her. She kept tossing around ideas on how to fix this in her head, but there was only one particularly distasteful option left, one that might not even work given past indications.

Daring sighed and pulled out Ahuizotl’s letters from her shirt pocket and spat them on the floor. “Look, Twilight. I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. It’s just that I really hate how most ponies blindly follow the princess around. She probably is the best thing that ever happened to Equestria, despite what I sometimes think. I just have some bad experiences with her.”

Twilight didn’t seem to respond, so Daring continued.

“Let me make it up to you. If there’s anything that’ll convince you to help me instead of turning me in it’s those.” The archeologist chuckled. “I hope you’re not one of those fans who thinks Ahuizotl’s just a fictional character I used to liven up the stories of my adventures, because, if so, you’re about to get a shock.” She shook her head as Twilight finally began to approach the letters. “The truth is Ahuizotl’s real, and, believe it or not, he actually writes to me. He invites me to try and stop him like it’s some sort of game.”

Twilight picked up the letters, and, as she read them, her brow furrowed.

The explorer couldn’t help but notice Twilight mouthing over a couple of the more distinctive sentences in Ahuizotl’s handy work. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg too. Imagine a whole slew of letters just like those slowly leading me to one artifact after another that I knew almost nothing about. Don’t you think it would have been nice to have access to a library like this to make sure I knew what the hay I was doing?”

“I- I don’t believe it...” Twilight stammered.

“Twilight, what’s in those letters?” asked Spike.

Daring gave a hollow laugh as she scooped the letters up before the dragon could grab them. They were rather personal after all. “Wouldn’t it have been so much more convenient if I wasn’t left blindly fumbling with items capable of destroying the entire planet?”

“Why didn’t you show these to the princess?” The unicorn almost demanded. “I’m sure she would have let you back in.” She was hyperventilating slightly.

“I tried that once, and let’s just say that, with what happened afterwards, you’re lucky I was desperate enough to try showing them to you.” Daring’s tone brooked no further discussion on that particular subject.

“Fine...” Twilight relented after a couple seconds. “I won’t turn you in, and I’ll work with you to find this library, but I still have to talk to Princess Celestia about this.”

“Figures...” grumbled Daring to herself.

It wasn’t worth trying to convince the unicorn not to talk to the princess by this point. She had made her devotion to the princess clear.

“I guess I can live with that,” Daring’s grimace turned into a smirk. “You should know, however, that that means you’re going to have to help me deceive her, right? I can’t just walk into Celestia’s throne room after this, and I sort of want to listen to your talk myself. She’s bound to know something on this. Near endless knowledge is one of the perks of immortality.”

Twilight gave a nervous chuckle. She hadn’t thought of that, but she’d already committed herself. “Well, I suppose I could disguise you as somepony else. I’ve been experimenting with illusion magic ever since the changeling invasion, but I need somepony to turn you into, and I don’t know many of the other ponies who have access to here very well.”

“That would be suspicious anyways,” muttered Daring. “It’s a good idea, but, if you can’t tell me how the pony your disguising me as acts, I’d be caught in seconds. No, I have a much better idea for who to disguise myself as.” Daring turned to Spike, and found him glaring at her. “It even gives me a way to evacuate some of the books I’m going to need, but I have a question first.”

“What do you two actually know about dragon fire? More specifically, did you know that dragon fire can transport living things?” Daring pointed at Spike. “That’s why I wanted you to stay behind. I need you to burn as many books as you can, sending them to the place I specify.. About ten minutes after you start, I need you to burn yourself, sending your body to the same place you’ll be sending the books.”

“Wouldn’t that hurt?” asked Twilight.

“Of course not.” Spike’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “It simply tickles.”

“Actually, I’ve seen dragons travel by dragon fire before,” Daring said nonchalantly.

“You’re saying it’s actually possible?” asked the dragon. “I thought we were fireproof.”

“It totally works,” assured Daring. “And it doesn’t hurt much from what I’ve seen. At least, I don’t think it does. The beast certainly didn’t seem to be in pain as he was blasting boring old regular fire towards me.” The explorer flashed the others a grin. “The best part here is that dragon fire is an incredibly powerful form of natural magic. It relies on the dragon’s internal magical capabilities instead of the natural magic energy saturating the air, so it’s one of the last things the anti-magic field will affect..”

“What anti-magic field?” Twilight asked. She tried to teleport herself, only to have her horn sputter for a few seconds and die.

“That anti-magic field,” said Daring. “Would you two please stop interrupting me now, or are you going to ask me about the other part of archive’s defensive mechanisms currently trying to trap us in here alive?”

There were hesitant nods. She decided to assume they were for the first question.

“The point is that you can stay in here longer than us, Spike.” The archeologist rubbed her wings as they started to feel slightly numb from the anti-magic field. “Celestia will be none the wiser. It will take weeks to reset these enchantments and see what’s gone, and by then we’ll have found the info we need and discreetly sent the books back.”

The dragon heaved a sigh and nodded reluctantly. “Fine, just tell me where to send everything.”

Daring replied without thinking. She had long ago discovered how useful it was to have a number of safe spots to teleport items of importance to in emergency. “Send everything exactly fifty-two strides west, ninety-six strides north, and thirty-five and a half strides up from the bottom of the street sign at the intersection of Mane Street and Bridle Way. The room is ten by ten strides squared, so stack the books accordingly.” Spike was left speechless. He never thought he’d see the day when somepony gave him an order more meticulously than Twilight.

For her part, the archeologist just cocked her head before adding as an afterthought, “I’m also the only one who can open the door. If we’re not there by noon tomorrow, it probably means the princess fried us on the surface of the sun. Feel free to burn yourself out by dragon fire to wherever you want. Might I suggest Mexicolt? I hear it’s an excellent place for creatures on the lam to hide.” The yellow mare flashed a grin at the mortified dragon, before turning to Twilight who was struggling not to panic.

“Morbid jokes aside, we need to leave now,” Daring said, her grin vanishing. “There’s probably only a little more than six minutes left until I can’t even fly. There’s only about three until you can’t cast magic anymore, although any spells cast on you at the time will last a little longer. Do you happen to know a spell that lets you walk on walls?”

Twilight shook her head no, not trusting herself to speak right now. The anti-magic field was almost suffocating to a unicorn of her skill level. She could almost feel the vacuum of magic it created in the air, and it was unnatural. She didn’t want to send herself into another panic attack.

“Fine,” Daring grumbled, pulling some suction cups from her pockets, “we’ll do things the old fashioned way.” She tossed them to Twilight. “It’s time to go get my hat back, hopefully without the princess catching us.”

…..

"Why do we need your hat again?” asked Twilight, stumbling along the ceiling with the suction cups attached to her hooves. Thankfully, her levitation magic had saved both her and Daring most of the hassle of trying to put them on with their mouths.

However, every step made a horrible squelching and squeaking noise that caused Daring to flinch. She was glad they weren’t trying to be stealthy right now. They’d been running through the halls for about three minutes, going along the ceiling to avoid any ground-based traps. Once again the shortsightedness of the earthbound races helped immensely, as the unicorns who had enchanted this place never considered to change their perspective.

“Well, part of it is I tend to keep important documents inside it,” Daring yelled back as they ran. “Luckily, that letter from Ahuizotl was in my shirt pocket, but I still have my reasons.”

“What reasons?” the lavender mare shouted, desperate to keep her mind off the strain of what they were doing.

“I would say it’s a handy tool if you know how to use it right, but the real reason is the darn thing tends to always cause trouble when I lose it.” Daring gave a quick bark of laughter. “I’d say it was cursed if I hadn’t dealt with the real deal when it comes to those. As it is, I think I’ll go with saying it’s hexed.”

Twilight found enough humor in that to roll her eyes, barely.

The enchantment locking them in the archives couldn’t physically change the environment until it was fully charged. At the moment, it only nudged their sense of direction. It made them want to choose every wrong turn until they were out of time; that was what had almost cost Daring her life the first time she’d faced a trap like this. Unless you knew of the spell in advance, it was almost impossible to fight. Last time she had only escaped because the spell was defective. She had been left with the smallest hunch she was going the wrong way.

This time the archeologist knew what she was dealing with. Their strategy was simple. Whenever a turn presented itself, they immediately turned the way they didn’t want to go.

Right now, Daring wanted desperately to turn back and go another way. It was beginning to physically tax the yellow mare. Minutes crept by as they ran desperately through the halls, bookshelves that all looked the same flashing by. The two were breathing heavily, and the only reason Twilight hadn’t turned back before was because she’d been following Daring’s orders. Now Twilight was too tired to care and blindly followed the explorer, despite her brain screaming at her to go back.

They had less than a minute left, but they were close. Daring could feel it. The archeologist was furiously pumping her wings to stay on the ceiling, as the power of flight left her little by little. They rounded another turn, and she barely noticed the distortion in the air before every part of the yellow mare’s body screamed at her to turn around.

It was a completely different feel than the gentle nudges the archives had been using to try and stop her so far. The trap had the pegasus facing a full on magical assault against her mind. She was only cognizant of this for about a second before her head was flooded with doubts and fears she hadn’t felt in years, and all of them were telling her one thing. It was a mistake to go this way.

Daring’s hooves tried to grind into the ceiling. Her wings tried to flap backwards, and her head was trying to snap around to show her what a mistake she’d made. She’d failed. The minute she’d asked for the trust of her new companions she’d failed. They were all going to die because of her, just like the others. Daring Do, ponies called her. The yellow mare was nothing more than a daring dunce. That didn’t mean she couldn’t fix this. She still had time. The archeologist had a whole ten seconds. It was just that last turn, nothing more. All she had to do was turn back and go the other way. The archeologist couldn’t take it anymore. She stopped to turn around.

Then Twilight stumbled into the yellow mare, having failed in her fatigue to see that Daring had stopped.

The archeologist lost her concentration, and dragged Twilight to the floor. They rolled forward, and Daring knew she had lost her chance to fix things.

“Daring, look! It’s the exit!” Twilight shouted.

For a split-second, Daring thought she heard another voice, and a memory flashed through her head.

…..

“Daring, look! It’s the exit!” shouted one of Daring’s companions.

Ahuizotl’s beasts had pursued the three of them almost relentlessly through the labyrinth. They were almost exhausted, but, at the sight of the exit, all the three ponies put on an extra burst of speed. All they had to do was break through that threshold, and the rundown airship waiting for them on the plateau outside would whisk them away to safety.

They ran for the lives, but, just as they got to the exit, Daring heard it.

“Yes, enter the maw of the beast,” a silky voice purred from the shadows.

Daring had heard that voice once before, and it sent a tingle down her spine. She froze in fear for a second just under the exit, and that’s when the trap went off. Spikes descended from the ceiling like teeth, and she could only watch as they plunged towards her.

At the last second she felt herself get pushed out of the way, and heard a scream that was quickly cut off. Looking back, one of her companions had pushed her out of the way.

The little guy was barely more than a colt. His tan coat pale and uneven from years of poverty and malnourishment. She’d found him getting surrounded by a gang of griffins. His father had apparently swindled them in an attempt to get food for the family, making the the gang come out for blood. After a quick rescue, and a hasty retreat, he’d just sort of followed her and her partner as they hunted for the Griffin’s Goblet, like she was some sort of hero.

She wasn’t a hero.

And now he was dead because of her fears, because of her doubts.

She stared at the body for what felt like hours before her other companion nudged her away from it.

“Come on, Daring...” he murmured. “We need to get out of here.”

Daring didn’t respond. She just continued to look at the body.

The burgundy earth pony had to drag the explorer all the way to the airship while Ahuizotl laughed unseen from the shadows. “Such a weak and pitiful thing,” the beast crooned from the shadows, “the foal was prey even to other prey. His was a low life indeed, and thus he didn’t deserve to live it. At least he was the one who choose not to freeze. Learn from his death and tread carefully, my prey. For, if you continue to freeze in the face of danger, you will prove yourself even more unworthy than he was.”

…..

She had learned from it.

Daring sprang into action, the pain from her memory briefly giving her the willpower she needed to cut the wave of doubts assaulting her mind. “Wait!” She shot forward at a speed she didn’t know she was capable of. Twilight was right. The exit was right in front of them, despite what all the doubts filling her mind said, but there was more to it than that.

The unicorn was about to walk through the exit, but she didn’t see the trap door about to open under her. It was a simple trap, but whatever mind affecting spell was in the first trap Daring had triggered should have left a pony too disoriented to even notice. It was a miracle Twilight had the willpower to even fight the first trap, considering it had almost completely incapacitated Daring.

The explorer jumped as the trap door opened, revealing a pit of spikes at the bottom. Daring went flying over the gap, grabbing Twilight just as she began to fall, pulling the scholar to safety. Her momentum sent them flying through the exit and out of the Discordant Archives into the castle corridors.

The explorer gasped in pain as all the emotions and doubt she’d been feeling shattered. She’d been so close to failing again. All those doubts had been real, even if it was the enchantment that nudged them to the front of her mind. She had buried them so deeply since her last journey that not even an archeologist of her skill should have been able to dig them out. A couple of tears fell to the ground as Daring let her new companion catch her breath.

“You were wrong,” she said quietly to herself. “He wasn’t weak... None of them were.”

Finally burying her emotions again, the yellow mare began to consider the situation. The guard would be mobilizing, so if they were going to get out of here without being caught they’d need to talk to the princess, get her hat, and leave soon. She turned to her companion. “Please tell me you have enough magic to cast that illusion spell.”

…..

Daring’s disguise was implemented just in time. The guards arrived only to find an exhausted Twilight and Spike gasping for breath.

“Twily, is that you? Where’s Daring Do? What happened here?” asked the captain.

“We couldn’t stop her from escaping,” Daring wheezed between breaths. The illusion on her made even her voice match the dragon’s. “Once we realized she tricked us into bringing her into the archives, we tried to capture her, but she got away. All we managed to get was the hat.”

The captain shook his head. “Twilight, how did you not know Daring Do was banned? I find it hard to believe you didn’t check the access list for something as important as the Discordant Archives. You’re the one who double checked your teacher’s records as a filly because you were convinced they weren’t qualified to teach when you thought class was too easy.”

Twilight’s pupils dilated slightly. Hopefully the guards would interpret it as nervousness over failing rather than having to lie. “I did check, Shining, but then she showed me Ahuizotl’s letter and said she’d been granted temporary access. I was just so happy to be helping the famous Daring Do with research that I assumed the access list hadn’t been updated yet.”

“Twily-“ The captain sighed. “No, Twilight Sparkle. This is a big mistake, even for you. The princess is going to want to see you.”

Twilight cringed at the use of her full name, causing Daring to wonder what the scholar’s relation with the captain was. Things could get complicated get complicated if the captain knew Spike well enough to see through her disguise. Luckily, there was little conversation as they walked through the halls.

Most of the guards accompanying them moved off after a while. That was what the explorer was hoping for. The fewer witnesses the better. It was clear Twilight wasn’t going to run, and Daring was acting the part of a loyal dragon assistant who would never leave his caretaker in distress. Eventually, only the captain and a small escort remained when they arrived outside the throne room.

The doors towered above Daring. She had forgotten how intimidating they were. Their royal purple varnish was inlaid with intricate gold patterns. The handles were as large as a small foal and were merely for show. Each door depicted one of the diarchs in all their glory.

As the doors opened the guard parted to the side to let them in. On the other side stood the princess stood smiling warmly by a hastily set up tea table. “I’ll leave you to it then,” the captain said, nudging the scholar forward. “Good luck, Twily.”

As they walked in the guards didn’t follow, but closed the doors behind them. Daring craned her neck to look for the other guards sure to be there, but didn’t see any. There was no cover to hide behind. They simply weren’t there.

The archeologist was astonished. The realization that her companion was trusted enough to not only see the princess without a guard but to also see the princess without a guard after what just happened was rather disturbing. The explorer was going to have to find out more about her new companion before she took her charging off into who knows what. She did not need to end up leading one of the princess’ closet allies to their deaths. The last thing Daring wanted was to give the princess an actually legitimate reason to banish her to the moon.

When the doors closed Twilight’s reserved demeanor broke, and she ran to the princess, falling at her hooves.

“Princess, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”

Daring had a hard time telling how much of Twilight’s actions were sincere and how much were just part of the act they’d planned. Her eyes scanned the throne room for her hat, but it wasn’t there. Perhaps it was in Celestia’s study.

Celestia smiled wryly. “It’s okay, Twilight,” she said, before extending a wing over the scholar to comfort her. Daring felt her jaw almost hit the floor at that. Luckily, the princess wasn’t watching, because even the illusion on her couldn’t hide that little slip up.

“It seems Daring Do got the best of both of us, from what the guards said,” Celestia whispered. “Just calm down and tell me everything you know.” As Twilight composed herself, the regal mare turned to the explorer who silently prayed for her disguise to hold. “As for you, Spike, you must be exhausted from your ordeal. Why don’t you go to the kitchens and grab some emeralds for yourself?”

The explorer sighed in relief before realizing she had just been dismissed. If she left now she’d probably end up being watched over by the kitchen servants until Twilight was done here, and any attempt to sneak away might cast suspicion on Twilight. She tried to think of some excuse to say, but she didn’t know the baby dragon enough to know what he might say here. Dragons had a notorious sweet tooth for gems, and anything less than what the real Spike would say would have Celestia instantly smell a rat.

Thankfully, Twilight came to the rescue. A small bead of sweat on her brow showed just how stressed the scholar was at having to lie. “Actually, princess, I was hoping you’d let Spike start back up on the research I was doing for Daring. If I can figure out what she wanted, then we should be able to find and catch her. It’s the least I can do for letting her in.”

The princess sighed. “I suppose that might help, but I have my suspicions it won’t.”

Twilight cocked her head. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that I have strong reason to believe I know what she’s looking for. If I’m right, there’s only one book that will help her, and that book was stolen about a month ago,” the princess said, shaking her head.

Daring felt her eye twitch. She had had Spike stay behind to get her research material, and it might have been all for nothing. Once again she had put somepony’s life in danger when there was no reason to. She felt those buried emotions try to claw their way up again, but she shoved them back down. She couldn’t afford to get emotional right here and now.

As Daring collected herself, Celestia continued. “I desperately hope I’m wrong, however, and your account of events is the only thing that might persuade me otherwise. Twilight, what was Daring looking for?”

“I- I’m not sure,” Twilight stammered. “She only made passing references to it, and I only saw the letter explaining it all briefly when she convinced me to bring her into the archieves.” The nervous glance the lavender mare shot towards Daring reminded her that she hadn’t actually had a chance to tell the scholar the specifics of what she was after.

Unfortunately, Daring didn’t know any specifics. All she had right now was a name.

“I think she said something about a library,” Daring said, scrunching her illusion’s face as if struggling to recall something. “She kept muttering about it as she was reading. The Library of the Shattered Hymn I think she called it.”

Upon hearing the library’s name Celestia’s face raced through a range of emotions, finally settling on anger. “No,” she muttered. “This can’t be happening again. I won’t allow it to happen again.” The princess’ calm demeanor was gone. Her body was tense with barely constrained anger.

Daring and Twilight watched on, unsure of what to do. It was rare for the princess to show her anger, and this was unlike anything they had seen before. Celestia looked as if she would bolt into flight at any moment. Her wings were unfurled and twitching.

The princess turned a hawk-like gaze on Daring. “Spike, go to my study, and bring the book on my desk here.”

“I- I thought you said the book we needed went missing,” stammered Daring. The intensity of Celestia’s gaze made the archeologist flinch. She had to forcibly remind herself that she was currently disguised as Spike so she wouldn’t duck for cover.

“Yes, but the thief very kindly left another book in it’s place.” The bitterness in Celestia’s voice was hard to miss. She took a deep breath as she continued. “They left it as a message, a sign. They left a book from the very library Daring, and now you two, will be looking for, but no pony should be able to find the Library of the Shattered Hymn without the book they took. If you bring me that book, Spike, I can give you two a better understanding of what we’re dealing with here.”

The archeologist turned to bolt for the door. She did not want to mess with the princess while she was in that mood. Besides, she had a feeling she knew who had left the book.

The princess turned to Twilight. “In the meantime, Twilight, I need you to finish your account of events. I’m going to show you both what we’re dealing with here, and then I need you and the other Elements of Harmony to capture Daring Do as fast as possible. We cannot let her get to that library. I can count on one hoof the number of ponies I trust not to abuse what’s in that library, and Daring Do is not on that list.”

Daring stumbled at the words Elements of Harmony. She’d expected Twilight to be somepony important, but she was not expecting her to be on the level of national hero.

The explorer caught one last snippet before she left. “It all began with Daring Do showing up at the library asking for help with some research. She showed me a letter from Ahuizotl, and said that he had somehow survived their last encounter, and that he had found something big…” With a large clunk the doors closed behind the explorer. She really hoped her new companion knew what she was getting into. Any slip up in her story at all could be fatal, and with the princess’ current mood she didn’t think it was a good idea to test any boundaries.

…..

Celestia cut Twilight off as the door closed. “Twilight, you can stop now.”

“W-what?” stammered the scholar.

“I know that was most likely Daring that just left.” The princess forced a chuckle. “You know as well as I that Spike wouldn’t have let a free snack get away from him without some sort of snarky complaint.”

Having been caught Twilight did the only thing she could think of. “Please don’t hate me, princess!” The scholar ran and prostrated herself before the princess. “I only did it because Daring said you would overreact to her.”

Celestia spread a wing over Twilight to comfort her. Her body was still tense, but it lacked the anger it had held a moment ago. Instead the princess seemed nervous now. “I know, Twilight, and if I had caught you doing this a month ago I would have overreacted. As it is now, I’m simply worried. You see, my most faithful student, I made a mistake dealing with Daring Do.”

Twilight looked up at her mentor. Her face had several small tear stains, and she sniffled as she tilted her head in confusion. “W-what did you say?”

Celestia sighed. “I messed up, Twilight. I grew frustrated with Daring because her adventures reminded me that there are some things I cannot control. You know I am willing to do anything and everything for my subjects, but Daring was one of those ponies I failed time and time again.”

The princess gazed mournfully at the door Daring had gone through. “Her adventures with Ahuizotl changed her, Twilight. When she first returned with the Sapphire Stone she jumped at every shadow for about a week. Her neighbors reported screams from her house waking them in the middle of the night, and her maid confirmed she was waking from night terrors. Something happened in that jungle that didn’t happen in the books you love so much, and it was something that scarred Daring deeply.”

Twilight’s eyes were wide at what she was being told. Celestia pulled her closer, and Twilight could feel a slight tremor in Celestia as she continued. “That was why I banned Daring from the Discordant Archives. I thought it would protect her from whatever had happened. I was wrong. Daring went on adventure after adventure, and each time she came back a little harder on the inside, a little more brittle. As she had fewer and fewer nightmares, I began to worry more and more. She was bottling up whatever happened, and refused to worry anypony with it. One day she was back to the friendly, brash, and lovable mare that set out originally, but I could always feel a slight tension around her.”

Celestia shook her head. “I tried everything I could to keep her from her adventures, and in the end she lashed out at me like a cornered animal. She told me how Ahuizotl had been the one informing her of everything, and that she had to stop him because no one else could. She said that Ahuizotl would have ruled the world ten times over by now if he hadn’t been obsessed with trying to beat her, and the worst part was that she thought only she could actually beat him. It wasn’t brash bragging or daring denouncements of others with which she told me that, but the haunted look in her eyes as she recounted everything that beast had done to the few friends she’d made or taken on her journeys, the few unlucky souls who never made it through her journey, or into her books. She was the only one who ever survived in the end.”

“Oh, princess, I- I’m so sorry,” muttered Twilight. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Yes,” said Celestia. “Daring doesn’t trust me anymore, Twilight. She views me as a threat, and I think you might already guess the lengths she’ll go to avoid those she deems as such. I wasn’t lying when I said I don’t trust Daring to enter that library, but I know she has to enter it, if only to get the closure with Ahuizotl she needs. I need you to work with Daring and foster the trust she’s decided to place in you. When the time comes and she finally finds what she’s hunting for, I need you to convince her not to use it for any reason. Can you do that, my most faithful student?”

Twilight smiled. “Of course, you can always count on me, princess!” All she had to do was make a new friend. How hard could that be?

Princess Celestia, however, cringed on the inside at her student’s enthusiasm. “Good. Now, why don’t you fix yourself up for when Daring gets back. You’re going to have to look the part.” She paused for a second before deciding to take the plunge. “There is one more part to my request, however.” Twilight’s smile fell as she saw the look on Celestia’s face.

“Yes?” the scholar asked.

“If you can’t convince Daring not to use the artifact, you’re going to have to stop her from using it by any means necessary.” As the words left the princess’ lips that warm bubbly feeling Twilight had been getting about making friends with Daring Do fizzled and died. She didn’t like the sound of that at all.

…..

It took Daring three trips to the kitchen where she had to refuse buckets of gems she couldn’t eat, two trips to the barracks that scared the stuffing out of her until she remembered her disguise, and one very awkward trip to the little colts room to finally convince her to ask for directions. When she finally reached the study, she slipped inside to find it was littered with papers.

Much like Daring’s own study, the room was cozy and full of various knick knacks to remind its owner of the more meaningful moments in her life. A lot of them were pictures of the various students she had mentored through the ages, although there was an enormous portrait of the first time Luna raised the moon after her banishment had ended. There was a large desk in front of a roaring fireplace, and upon it the explorer saw an old and dusty tome. Even more important was the pith hat sitting atop it.

Daring was so relieved to have found her hat that she almost dashed forward to pick it up. She noted idly that the illusion on her was so perfect that, even though she picked her beloved hat up with her mouth, the dragon she appeared to be picked it up with its claws. It was a little disorienting to taste the hat in her mouth but see it grasped in little tiny claws at the same time.

After it was back in its proper place upon her head, it melted into the illusion Twilight had crafted. The archeologist decided to return her attention to the other reason she was here. The book was incredibly thin, and its binding was a bland sandy yellow. It didn’t look like much, but that was before she saw the title.

The Life and Times of Dandy Do.

The explorer stopped breathing for a moment as she read that.

Dandy Do was the name of her stillborn twin brother.

There was no way it could be about her brother. She was sure of that. No one outside the family and their closest friends even knew about him, and there were bound to be other Dandy Do’s in the world, but that didn’t stop the nagging feeling of curiousity that filled Daring’s mind. What harm was there in taking a precursory glance?

The archeologist slowly nudged the book open with her muzzle, and found that only the first page had any writing besides a page number. That was all it needed to send her thoughts into a swirling storm.

…..

I was born only to die.

A stillborn’s grave is where I lie.

There my body rests forgotten.

Even now I feel it rotting.

It is here that I am left to wait.

It is here I mourn my bitter fate.

…..

All thoughts of returning to Celestia momentarily put to the side, Daring very carefully nudged her way through the book. The massive amount of dust caused her to sneeze every now and then, and the rough pages riddled her snout with paper cuts, but she had to figure out who this book was about. After a couple minutes of careful scouring, she noticed a couple of pages that were stuck together. Unwilling to damage the ancient-looking book by prying them apart, she continued on. When she found nothing else she returned to clump to study it again.There was nothing odd about a couple of pages being stuck together in a book this old in and of itself, but the archeologist couldn’t help but be suspicious about the fact that the page numbers continued evenly. The entire clump of pages started on page 42, but the page right after the clump ended was page 43. Upon closer inspection, the clump of pages appeared to actually be an envelope of some kind. Somepony had carefully glued a page of similar material and wear to the back of page 42 to conceal an item inside it.

Once again, she found herself cursing whatever Ahuizotl had done to everypony’s hooves as she tried to figure out how to separate the pages without damaging what was inside. After a few minutes of searching the room, she settled on carefully using Celestia’s letter opener with her mouth.

Cutting slowly through the seal, the explorer prayed she didn’t damage what was inside. Upon completing her cut, she tipped the book over, only to find the last thing she wanted to see come sliding out of the book. It was a black envelope inlaid with gold, and upon the center of the letter eight words mockingly stood out. You never told me you had a brother.

Daring approached the letter cautiously. The letter opener trembled as she cut a jagged opening in the envelope to pull out its contents. When the letter had finally been released, she slowly began to read it.

…..

Dearest Daring Do,

I believe it’s customary at this point for me to offer my condolences, but we both know how insincere they would be. The weak perish, and the strong survive. Such is the way of life. I made that very clear every time your companions died, so why would it make any difference this time? I believe a better question to address is the one that little voice in your head keeps whispering. Do I really know one of your deepest darkest secrets? Do I really know that you had a brother, and that you can’t stand the injustice that only one of you got a chance at life, or am I just up to my usual mind games?

The answer is yes to all three. I am playing mind games as usual. I know you feel guilty, because I see it in you whenever your weak little companions die. I also know more than one of your deepest, darkest secrets now, like where you really got that whip you sometimes carry around. It’s quite fascinating what you can learn at the library.

Who am I, however, to simply make a claim of knowing? I’m sure you’re still distrusting every word I say on this particular matter. You are so paranoid about being deceived, after all, and I haven’t given you a single shred of proof other than a book that has no right to exist in the first place. As a sign of good faith, I will prove to you this isn’t all a hoax.

If you’ll turn back to page 42 of your brother’s delightful biography after reading this paragraph, you’ll find it contains all the proof you need.

…..

The archeologist tore her gaze away from the letter to look at the book still lying on the desk. It was still open to page 42, but the page was no longer blank.

Before Daring’s eyes, glowing gold letters began to scratch themselves into the paper.

See the truth of what could have been, had you not lost your next of kin.

As Daring read the words, the air seemed to get heavy. Her head began to pound, and she sank to her knees.

Memories the explorer shouldn’t have had began to assault her. There were images of a pegasus colt and filly playing in the streets. She saw that same colt flying through the air in a Wonderbolt costume going hunting for candy with a filly wearing an oversized pith hat and binoculars on Nightmare Night. She saw them again, heading off to the university for their first day of college, and smiled at how happy they looked.

Both of the two had yellow coats and black and grey manes. They exuded confidence, charisma, and character. There was no doubt about it in the archeologist’s mind. She was seeing first hand who her brother could have been. It was too good to be true.

Then the images of them on her adventures came. Daring knew it had been too good to be true. She tried to stop the stream of knowledge, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to see it anymore. He was going to die. Her companions always died, she couldn’t stand the idea of finding out what happened to the brother she’d never known but always wanted.

The explorer waited for the dreaded moment to come, that moment where her entire team had been killed by Ahuizotl on their hunt for the Sapphire Stone and she’d escaped with nothing more than a broken wing. She watched as the beasts under her nemesis’ control swarmed the camp, cutting apart anypony in their way, but she didn’t run this time.

The archeologist watched, amazed, as new events unfolded. She and her brother rallied the other ponies, chasing the beasts back into the wild. There were survivors! They didn’t wander the jungle for days like she had before. They weren’t near delirious or grievously injured when they found the temple.

It was incredible. Daring watched a whole new world unfold before her. Her brother lived. Her companions lived. All of the ponies she had ever cared deeply for lived. There were casualties to be sure, but she had friends to support her. She had a brother who loved her. It was everything she could have wanted.

Finally, the images stopped. The letters had stopped glowing, and appeared like normal ink. The archeologist blinked a couple times in an attempt to bring the images back, but the letters had gone inert. Her heart raced with an odd mix of joy at what she’d seen, fear about what could possibly give Ahuizotl the power to show her this, and anger. She felt so much anger that he would dare taunt her with the greatest and most painful gift she could ever receive, an answer to every what if question she’d ever asked herself.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm herself, Daring turned back to the letter.

…..

Oh, Daring Do, I do wish I could see your face right now. I know it’s incredibly impolite to make assumptions, but I just know you looked. You never could resist that wonderful feeling called curiosity, that lovely itch in the brain that leads so many to their doom and so few to power. It truly is an excellent way to weed the world of its lesser links. The best part is that curiosity only begets more curiosity. In the end the weak always bite off more than they can chew.

Have you bitten off more than you can chew this time?

If not, let me give you one more question to push you over the edge. What would you think if I told you I not only have the power to show you the truth, but also the power to make it whatever I desire?

Am I lying? Maybe, but I’m not going to show you the truth of that. Ask the Princess if you want to know. She’s the one who almost destroyed the world with the Inkwell of Eternity last time.

Anyways, I do believe that’s enough mind games. It’s time to get down to business.

I assume that if you are reading this you successfully infiltrated the castle. I regret to inform you, however, that the book you are looking for is in another castle.

Was it a castle? I might have put it in a warehouse. I can’t really remember which stop is last on the little scavenger hunt I arranged for you, but I’m sure you’ll find it eventually. I’d hate for you to fail before even getting past the first challenge.

The point is it’s time for your second hint. Your first one came in the mail, but I doubt you want to wait for it to be delivered this time. Luckily for you, I hid it somewhere else in Celestia’s study the same day I stole the book you’re looking for. All you have to do is go on a second scavenger hunt!

I kid, of course. I’m not that cruel.

That doesn’t mean, however, I’m going to tell you where it is. If you really don’t know me well enough to know where I hid it, there really isn’t any reason to play this game anymore. You can’t possibly win without knowing me to a key this time, so show me.

Can you think like a predator?

-Ahuizotl

…..

Daring snorted, almost crumpling the letter in frustration as she tossed it to the side. Ahuizotl was toying with her. There was no way he had that kind of power. Who in their right mind would create an artifact that could rewrite truth and fact? An artifact meant to divine truth and see other possibilities was one thing, but the ability to rewrite fact would be going too far. Such an item would be too unstable for it to exist for any length of time. Any one owner could undo anything the previous had accomplished, and the resulting chaos and paradoxes from any changes of significance were not something the explorer wanted to contemplate.

Of course, it would explain the sudden loss of the ability to grip things with hooves. It would only take a tweaking of the small number of truths and facts that were the core of the explanation to how the phenomena worked to accomplish its eradication, but that couldn’t be the answer.

The archeologist shook her head. It was too far-fetched. She wouldn’t believe it until she had more proof, but at least her nemesis had mentioned the artifact’s name. The Inkwell of Eternity had a nice ring to it. It was a little overdramatic, but what artifact worth its salt didn’t have at least one name like that?

The explorer turned her thoughts to the more immediate concerns the letter raised. She should have known Ahuizotl would drag her along like this. She had hoped that at least the first challenge would be a bit easier, but that just wasn’t Ahuizotl’s style.

Daring glanced around the room, looking for potential hiding spots. There were a lot of little places that cunning beast could have hidden what she needed, but none of them felt right. There were jewelry boxes, and drawers, and a thousand little nooks and crannies to hide things, such as those among the elegant rafters above her head, but the archeologist ignored them. Those were the hiding spots of prey. Ahuizotl was a predator. He wouldn’t use anything he considered on the level of prey. Her nemesis would think such places were beneath him.

“Think like a predator,” Daring muttered to herself. “If I were a predator, where would I hide?”

The archeologist continued to turn about, and finally it hit her. She was approaching this wrong. Predators don’t hide from others, or at least they don’t see it as such. They stalk all who would dare hide from them. A hunter crouches unseen solely to make their prey’s final moment of terror all the more satisfying.

The act of hiding for such a creature is only to advance their greater purpose of finding prey. Their thoughts always circled back to one thing and one thing only. Where is the prey?

With that outlook a whole plethora of other hiding places appeared to the archeologist. What were ponies to Ahuizotl except yet another form of prey? Every picture of a pony, every little stuffed toy from Celestia’s former students, every tiny thing that looked like a pony in this room took on a new light.

That wasn’t enough, however. There was only one prey Ahuizotl had ever sought that had eluded his cunning, speed, and tenacity. Daring turned to the mirror. She saw a little dragon, but she knew that wasn’t what she was supposed to see.

It really did fit Ahuizotl to a key. His prey would turn to the mirror and see themselves tired and bedraggled from infiltrating the castle. Always on the run from him yet never truly escaping, when they saw yet another sign of his presence and power a feeling of inevitability would overcome them. They would gaze into the mirror and see what had become of them, and then they would give into the hopelessness of it all.

Chuckling, Daring smashed the mirror in, and grabbed the piece of paper that fell from it. He really was overdramatic sometimes. Ponies might panic and flee for safety. They might run and hide when the going got tough, and they might even abandon their friends in the heat of the moment, but they would never truly give up and simply wait to die. None of the friends she’d lost over the years had, despite Ahuizotl’s best efforts, so she certainly wasn’t going to.

“I can’t believe he told me I need to learn to think like he does when he still doesn’t get the reason I keep going on,” Daring said, still chuckling as she looked at the paper. “He really needs to learn that a cornered rat fights back just as ferociously if not more than the cat that hunts it.”

…..

What is the point of a legacy? No matter if it’s a story, an empire, or simply the tomb you lie in, everything will face a predator it cannot match in the end. Stories warp and fade with time. Empires starve as they grow too large to sustain. Even a heart of stone falls prey to the mighty rage of the ocean and the cunning cut of the wind.

…..

The archeologist glanced at the mess she made and shook her head. “Now, how am I going to explain this to Celestia?”

…..

Twilight paced the throne room impatiently. Her stomach was still roiling from what her mentor had asked of her. The idea that the princess had even the smallest doubt about Twilight convincing Daring to do the right thing was unnerving to say the least. It didn’t help that Daring was taking such a long time to return, leaving the unicorn’s thoughts time to go in all sorts of crazy directions.

“Where is she?” the lavender mare snorted in frustration. She looked to her mentor. “Could the illusion spell have dropped? I wasn’t very careful when I cast it. What if it decayed and now she’s stuck in some dark and musty corner of the palace because of the guards? It’ll be all my fault.”

“Take a deep breath and relax, Twilight,” said the sovereign of the sun. “I’m sure Daring is all right. In fact, I’d be more worried about the guards if she’d been discovered than I would about Daring. Her adventures have left her just as fit as any of the guards, if not more, and ten times as crafty.” Celestia smiled ruefully. “No, my most faithful student, I suspect Daring has found something in my study. From what I’ve gathered about him, Ahuizotl is very fond of playing mind games with your new friend. There’s sure to be at least several things he left for her that I didn’t notice from his incursion into my personal study. I only found the book he left for her because the book you two need is a personal favorite of mine. It’s actually one of yours too, if I remember correctly.”

“What?” asked Twilight. She had stopped pacing momentarily at the odd statement.

“Do you remember your favorite series of children’s stories, The Bewitching Ballads of Bashful Baritone the Bard? I read them to you every day before you left your studies for home. It was the only way I could bribe you to head home for dinner.” Celestia chuckled at the priceless look on Twilight’s face. The scholar’s head looked like it was tilted simply from her left eyebrow arching so high in the air that the rest of her face needed to compensate. Celestia continued with the smallest hint of a smile. “Whenever any of my most faithful students needed a little nudge, I’d read those stories to them. I just conveniently forgot to tell them the sad tale of where those stories came from in the first place.”

The princess cut off Twilight’s next question with a wave of her hoof and a grimace. She knew what her student would ask. “I hardly even think about it myself. I force myself not to, because the truth of what it might mean scares me. There’s a reason so many of the creatures in those stories are thought of only as myth. It’s the same reason you could never find a copy of them in the bookstore.”

Logic would dictate that the most likely reasoning to that statement was that the aforementioned creatures simply went extinct. It would suggest that they perished in a cataclysm caused by whatever artifact Ahuizotl found, and that these stories were the last echoes of that forgotten time. Twilight would normally have assumed as much herself from the evidence given, but something in how Celestia said that last sentence gave her pause. There was a hint of bitterness to it that she had never heard from her teacher before. She was going to ask what had happened, but they were interrupted by the doors starting to open.

“Princess, Daring Do is still in the castle!” The pony in question burst into the throne room. She was still in her disguise, so it took Twilight a second to realize that it was Daring herself who was yelling at the top of her lungs.

The unicorn didn’t know what Daring was playing at, so she decided to simply quietly play along until she could say something safely without blowing Daring’s cover or the fact that the princess saw through Daring’s cover.

The archeologist slowed her pace as she got closer, dropping the items she held precariously in her wings as she purposely stumbled a little to make her illusion appear exhausted.

“Sh- She must’ve followed me to the study or something, because the minute I stepped inside she knocked me out!” Daring faked gasping for air between words. “When I woke she was tearing the place apart looking for something. When I yelled for the guards she bolted, but I think she already found what she wanted.” She pointed to the book and papers she’d dropped. “I didn’t stop to take a look at them since I was running here, but I think those papers are from Ahuizotl. They match the style of paper of the letter she showed us before.”

Celestia levitated the pieces of paper towards herself to look them over. “What about the book?” she asked. “Did you find it?”

“I think so,” answered Daring, putting a hint of a question into the statement. “I assume this was the book you wanted, but I couldn’t be sure with all the books littering the floor. It was the closest book to your desk, and its title was just so weird given the situation that I thought it was the one you meant.”

Twilight had an inkling about what Daring might be doing now. The archeologist must have found something like the princess thought, but the study had been wrecked up in the process. Rather than risk the blame falling on Spike, she invented this cover story to feed the princess. It was sort of brilliant, actually. Now they would get Celestia’s input on what she’d found, as well as what Celestia thought Daring would do with whatever she found. With that they could formulate a plan and conveniently avoid whatever traps Celestia set for them. It was perfect, except for the fact that Celestia wouldn’t be laying traps for them so they would be needlessly circumventing problems that didn’t exist.

The unicorn couldn’t tell Daring this, however, so she levitated the book over to herself. “The Life and Times of Dandy Do? Spike, this is just a biography. Why in Equestria did you think this was the book the princess wanted?“

“Actually, Twilight,” the princess said, “that is indeed the book I asked for. It doesn’t look like much, but that’s because you don’t know who it’s about. Why don’t you read what’s inside?”

Twilight opened the book. Her eyebrow started to arch as she read the first and pretty much only page of text in the book. That arched eyebrow became a tilted head as she began to flip through the rest of the pages, and that tilted head became manic searching leafed through again and again, trying to figure out what exactly she was reading.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” the scholar cried in frustration. “This book goes against everything a biography is supposed to be. The only thing in here is a single poem and a completely unrelated line of text 41 pages later!”

“You’re looking at it the wrong way, my most faithful student,” Celestia said. “You think a biography needs to be filled with all the wonderful stories that come from a life rich in experience, but some lives aren’t that lucky.”

“What do you mean by that, princess?” Twilight asked. “There’s no point to writing a biography if there is nothing to be learned from it.”

“From a reader’s standpoint, you’re probably right,” Celestia agreed. “However, the library you’re looking for wrote that, and it doesn’t have the capacity to think about something not be worthy of recording.”

“What do you mean the library is the one who wrote this book?” Daring asked. “Last time I checked libraries didn’t really have hooves.”

Celestia chuckled. “The Library of the Shattered Hymn isn’t any old library. It contains books as old as the universe itself, and constantly fills itself with more all the time. It has books filled with knowledge no pony has ever dreamed of. The artifact within, the Inkwell of Eternity, is forever writing new books for the library’s collection.”

Twilight had a dreamy look on her face at what she was hearing. This library sounded like paradise to her.

“There are complications that arise from this, however.” Celestia’s voice took on a slightly ominous tone. “The Inkwell of Eternity records anything and everything it can about the universe. This includes writing a biography for every creature that has ever lived. The book you see here is one such biography, and details the very short life of stillborn foal.” Daring flinched at that. “I would guess he was a relative of Daring’s from what I know of Ahuizotl’s rather sick sense of humor, but I can’t be sure.”

Celestia sighed as she continued. “It’s one of countless other biographies detailing things even as strange as the life of every blade of grass that graces the world. No piece of information is too mundane for the Inkwell to record. A pony can go mad navigating the endless shelves of books looking for what they want, but they can always find it if they’re lucky.”

“You’re saying this artifact sees and records everything anypony does, but that doesn’t explain how Ahuizotl disrupted everypony’s ability to grasp things,” Twilight said. “Does that mean there’s a second artifact involved?”

Daring silently thanked that she didn’t end up having to ask this part herself. She hadn’t been able to come up with a good way to ask about that. It just felt too suspicious to ask it out of the blue as a baby dragon, and she’d already said she hadn’t read the letter, so she couldn’t bring up what Ahuizotl had said.

Celestia appeared to be lost in thought, and was silent for a while before she answered. “All I can say is that the Inkwell of Eternity sees all, and that it only writes the truth. Ahuizotl could have another artifact, but if he does I have no knowledge of what it is.”

The solar princess’s horn lit up, and the light of the torches extinguished to be replaced by the soft light of dawn.

“What I do know, however,” Celestia stated with calm authority, “is that time is of the essence, and explaining all this is giving Daring an even larger lead on you two. I believe it’s time you round up the other Elements of Harmony.”

“W- Wait! I still have more questions!” Twilight stuttered.

“I know you do.” Celestia smiled. “You always have more questions, Twilight, but right now is not the time. Think of it as a test of your powers of deduction, and, if you really need an answer to something, you can always write to me.”

The dismissal in her voice was gentle but clear.