1 Chapter 1 : The Adventure Begins

Chapter 1 : The Adventure Begins

As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step. If only she could escape the suppressive atmosphere and fly up into the cool blue sky. But her crash landing in the jungle had injured her wing and she was grounded for a few days. A few days. It might as well be a few months. Or a few years!

The mosquitos buzzed loudly. The macaws cried from the high trees. Yet, all of these distracting noises were not enough to cover the sound of the predators following her every step. Daring Do turned around and found her self literally face to face with a tiger.

Roooor!! Daring ducked as the tiger tried to take a bite of her. She jumped over a fallen tree and made to go further along the path to get away, but a black panther that growled at her. A lynx and a cheeta jumped out from the numerous trees as well, blocking two more paths. Now Daring could only go one way, and there was even a rustling of trees coming from that path, possibly and most likely another jungle creature to block her off for a final time, and also likely a big cat.

What jumped out at her, though, was a small, white, fluffy, cute, house kitten. Daring smiled to herself, and then lept over the cat and started running. The cat hissed at Daring, but was then trampled by the other bigger cats.

Daring ran down a steep hill that was dotted with trees, while the wild carnivorous animals ran to catch up behind her, with the tiny white cat clinging to the panther. Daring Do was dodging the trees in her path and running as fast as she could, which was an accomplishment, considering that she had spent most of her life flying to places, and her wing was now broken. When Daring Do looked forward again from her glimpse backwards, she skidded to a stop because because ahead of her was now a giant canyon.

She looked down at the vast expanse of nothing below, and then behind her at the cats. The one moment when I needed my wing to work, she thought. Suddenly, Daring spotted a vine hanging above the pit. How convenient, she thought. Daring leapt towards the vine and caught it, the force of her impact causing it to swing forward towards the other side of the canyon. As she swung, Daring saluted the big cats.

She should have been terrified out of her wits, but it's not like this was her first encounter with the wildlife of Everfree. After all, she had been there for sixty days. Safely landing on the other side, Daring finally allowed herself a moment to breathe. She turned around to find herself face-to-face with the long-lost temple that she had sought tirelessly for for over sixty days and nights!

Chapter Two : What goes around comes around

Daring walked up the stone steps to the enterence of the temple. The smell of decay and danger hit Daring Do as she peered into the dimly lit entrance of the ancient temple. She walked into the entrance hallway, which was lined with carved stone torches providing less and less light as Daring got farther and farther away from the sunlight outside.Bugs scuttled out of the way from Daring's feet as she walked, their home being disturbed for the first time in Celestia knows how long. She saw a pony's ribcage, picked clean, but chose to ignore it and instead observed all of the ancient carvings in the walls of the corridor.

Daring walked further until she was met with the feeling of her left forehoof sinking into the ground, accompanied by the sound of grinding stone. Looking down, Daring saw that she had stepped on a trap button in the ground. She pulled her hoof off of it quickly, and quickly ducked as three axes spun through the air where her head was an instant ago. So whoever built this temple must've been a clever somepony, she thought, This place is probably littered with booby traps.

I had better watch where I step. Suddenly, the floor beneath her opened up, and she jumped in front of it just in time to see a blazing inferno that could have roasted her. She looked up to see alligators hanging from the ceiling, but managed to get down and start crawling beneath them as they snapped at their out-of-reach prey.

She crawled out from under the alligators and got up to see an even bigger axe swinging with the sole purpose of creating two Daring Do's out of one. She jumped over it, and then arrows started flying from the wall opposite her and embedding themselves in the wall.

She dodged the arrows, stepping on some, and did a backflip, landing on her back hooves - right on top of a hole where a spike was about to shoot upwards. She straightened herself out of the way and jumped over it. She jumped on top of another hole, and then jumped again before the spike could have time to impale her.

She kept jumping until she saw a giant slab of rectangular cement start to block off her path. Then Daring began flat-out running, moving left and right to avoid the spikes popping up everywhere. She slid under the block at the last second and stood up facing the recently placed door and wiped the sweat off of her forehead. Daring turned around and took a step - right on another trap button.

"Aaaarrrgghh..." she grumbled. I can't really tell you what happened next, but it involved a lot of strange noises, so you probably don't want to know anyways. She came back out of the door that was at the other end of the mystery room, holding her now arrow-riddled hat in between her teeth, scraped said arrows off of it, and put the hat back on.

When she turned around, a light from the cieling struck an object that was sitting on a pedestal in the center of this new chamber and reflected off it in all different directions.

It was a perfect statue of a two-headed jackal, just sitting there, ready to be taken, and it was made out of pure Sapphire! It was the Sapphire Stone!

Chapter Three : Daring and the blocks

Daring Do stood at the entrance to the central temple chamber. At last, she was face to face with the legendary Sapphire Statue!

She made to step towards it, but drew her hoof back when she saw the different pictures on the "tiled" floor before her. Wait a minute! she thought, It CAN'T be that easy... The floor surrounding the pedastal in the center was made up of different tiles that all had a picture of a certain animal on them; and when she looked at the walls, they were dotted with holes. She looked around for something to test the floor with.She saw a rock and kicked it, where it landed on a tile with an eagle on it. Immediatly when it landed, the rock weighed the tile down and dozens of arrows flew out of the wall above the rock, embedding themselves in the opposite wall in the perfect shape of a jumping pony that could have been Daring Do herself. She kneeled down to examine the pictures on the floor.

"Hhhhmmm..." she said to herself, unaware that she was now speaking out loud instead of just in her head, "There must be a pattern here. What do all these animals have in common? Aha! These animals are all predators! Except... RATS!"

Daring looked at the rat panel closest to her, and then then looked for any more rocks. There were none. Well, here goes nothing, she thought. Sweating, Daring slowly and carefully stepped on the rat panel.

Nothing. Another swipe to clear more sweat from her forward, and she started looking for the next one. She jumped on it, then the next one, then the next, and the next, almost losing her balance at the next, the walls remaining motionless throughout, did a couple of tricks during the last few, and then she was there.

Looking back at the still-silent tiled floor of death, she smiled to herself in celebration of the task of completing the gauntlet. Then her attention was again focused on the Stone. She walked up the steps to the top of the pedastal ang gazed at the glittering, beautiful, completely sapphire replica of an animal that most likely didn't exist and was just another object of worship from another ancient marean tribe.

Of course, there was bound to be one last trap guarding the stone. Daring walked around the small rock pillar, looking for anything that might have a grudge against her. Sweating again, she nervously rubbed her hooves together, and then- casually grabbed it in her mouth and turned to leave. Just like that.

She took off her hat, stowed the Stone in it, and put it back on. Suddenly, there was another grinding-stone noise, and Daring turned around to see a small cylinder rise from the spot where the Stone just was, and then drop back into the hole.

Of course. Daring made to go back the way she came, but the tiled floor of death broke apart and fell into a pit of lava that was under it. A flame rose from the pit and almost licked her hoof before she pulled it back. The temple was now falling apart, columns and pillars were falling and the pieces of the roof were breaking off and falling into the now-growing pit of fiery orange liquid beneath the pedastal.

Daring lept up the steps to avoid being engulfed, and was at the top where the Stone was when she watched two pillars that were near her fall over each other right near a hole in the cieling that was already there. Bracing herself, she jumped. She landed the bottom of the pillar and ran to the top of it. The hole was relatively close, but with no wings to help, she would have to rely on complete horse-power. Once again she braced herself for the longer jump she was about to make. Then she jumped the jump she had braced herself to jump.

As soon as her hooves left the pedastal, it was swallowed up by the ever-rising lava. She barely caught the edge of the hole in her mouth, and used her front hooves to pull herself halfway out. She only made it halfway out, though, because just then a burst of steam erupted from the hole she was in like a volcano, shooting her into the air as lava actually started seeping out of the top, exactly like a volcano.

Daring Do rose very far into the air, and on any other expedition this would have been fine, but on this one her wing was out of order, so when she landed, it wasn't the light, controlled landing you would expect from pegasus. It was more of a loud, jarring, painful thud. Or to sum it up in one word: WHAM! The Sapphire Stone landed about a foot in front of Daring, but she had managed to snag her hat and put it back on.

She was in no condition to move, of course, but she tried to grab the Stone anyway. Especially since a four-toed blue foot had just landed next to it. Attatched to the foot was an animal that had four more of those feet, along with a long tail with a four-fingered hand at the end of it, and a jackal's head.

His face, though, eyes and everything, was all at the end of his long snout. He had a lot of sharp teeth jutting out of his mouth, and was wearing golden earings, leg bracelets, and necklace. It was Ahuizotle.

Chapter 4: The Daring Within

You thought you could evade me and capture the relic for yourself, but you were sadly mistaken, Miss Do... And now, you shall meet your doom!" Ahuizotle said. His voice sounded like he was gargling marbles, or for a better reference, he sounded like that new Batmare, from Batmare Rises.

He took out a small whistle in the shape of a cat, and blew on the tail. Out of the mouth of the whistle came the sound a cat makes when it just got stepped on, and suddenly, the big cats from earlier (minus the small one) jumped out from the bushes, this time holding ropes and weapons.

And then the small one came out from behind the tiger's leg (oh, there it is!) and rubbed itself up against the tiger purring as Ahuizotle started doing the evil villain's evil laugh and holding up the Stone. He did have a very good evil laugh. Must have been practicing.

Daring Do was tied up on a table in another little temple, surrounded by five cats and a jackal.

"You won't get away with this, Ahuizotle!" she said defiantly.

"Oh, but I already have," he purred, before walking over to a lever in the wall and pulling it. Suddenly the cieling started collapsing around her for the second time that day. Dang. Luck is not one of Daring's finer points.

"Aaauuugh! Not again!" she huffed. Ahuizotle waved at Daring and ran out of the room, followed by his cats. Then spikes shot out of the walls on either side of her and started moving towards her.

Then spiders scuttled out of the holes where the spikes were, snakes slithered from a hole in another wall, and then quicksand started pouring into the room! As I said, luck was not one of Daring Do's finer points.

"Quicksand!" Daring said and started struggling against her bonds.

"HURGH!" She grunted with the effort of struggling.

"It feels like the harder I struggle, the tighter the ropes get!" Her position was getting worse and worse, and Daring's hat fell onto her lap. Suddenly, looking at her hat, and then at the lever, and then at her hat, Daring got an idea. She pulled the hat back using her back hoof and mouth, and released it, where it started ping-ponging against the walls.

The quicksand reached above Daring's head and she had to hold her breath when the hat reached its final destination: the lever. It hit the bottom of the lever, causing the lever to swing upwards and the trap to work in reverse, sucking back up the quicksand and pulling back the walls. Daring broke out of her bonds and put her hat back on.

"Another day, another dungeon," she said as she straightned her hat.

Back outside, Ahuizotle was stroking the white housecat and chuckling.

"With Daring Do out of the way," he said whilst admiring the Sapphire Stone he was holding in his tail, "the world will suffer my duty at my hands. I AM VICTORIOUS! HAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He had his eyes shut while he was laughing, which was a mistake, because suddenly Daring Do swept from the sky in a grayscale streak and snatched the Sapphire Stone right from Ahuizotle's tail-hand.

"I'll take that!" she yelled she was swinging on a