The Mystery of Maredrid (Closed: Daring Do!)

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Do smiled into the empty space where once the cloud guardian had perched. Nothing she couldn't handle on her own of course, but having a tag team was kinda fun. At least until she commented.

 

“Not bad I guess. Need work on your accuracy! Ready to go in?”

 

Since when did the fearless and perilous Daring Do need to have her work scrutinized? And by an imitator of her own amazing self after all!

 

"Yep, not bad," She raised an eyebrow at the mare. "But your form could use some cleaning up." She lightened to the ground, her hooves clopping on the old and crumbling cobblestone leading to the sewer entrance. No telling what kinds of traps and monsters would be waiting down there. Spiders, filth, giant rats, snakes? Hopefully all of those and more! If they were going to get this done, might as well do it in style! The sewer tunnel would lead them towards the heart of the city and hopefully pop them up right in the middle of whatever was happening between the griffons just in time for a fight!

 

Do moved towards the sewers entrance in a cool and calculated manner. Whatever might be waiting for her she could handle it! There was still time to see if this other pony was made of stern enough stuff. She ducked her head as she entered the gloom of the ancient sewer, pushing through some wispy draping green stuff. It was going to get pretty dark in there. Thinking quickly she gathered some materials from about the entrance and had a flaming torch going within a couple seconds. You had to be fast with this kind of stuff to be as awesome as Daring Do!

 

So she was making her way down the tunnel on a walkway that ran alongside a shallow flow of stinking water. The torch guttered as she looked back and forth. She turned towards the center of the city at the first fork and kept right on trotting.

 

"GGGgrrrrragff...."

 

A sound echoed from deep down in the tunnels.

 

"Hmmmm, I wonder who's nap we're about to disturb..."

 

She muttered to herself more than to Pathfinder as she continued moving forward.

[SteelEagle]

 

Ahh, the sewers of a decaying cloud city. They were wholly different from the sewers of griffon cities or pony cities on the ground. Unlike those places which could rely on gravity holding their waste, pegasi cities had to be aware that their waste was simply going to fall upon the heads of unicorns and earth ponies below. They were therefore very vigilant in cleaning up after themselves. The greater the city, the more important it was to them. All it took was one tabloid story or rumor of a passing pegasi city leaving fields full of gifts in the picnic baskets of unlucky folk below for a city's reputation to be dragged through...well, those same gifts they had just left. So as was standard, these sewers had once been very maintained. When the city had fallen to pieces it was a refuge from the chaos up above. With active pegasi around it could be a good place even with fresh water running about. Not bad at all.

Well, the water stank. You could see bones poking out. Most were pony. Looks like they couldn't find food down here or safety from the cloud guardians. Wouldn't have been a big deal if there was a way out, but the presence of bones told Pathfinder that there were all sorts of adventure reasons why they couldn't simply just get out of the way. The first made its presence, if not location, known. A pretty sweet roar blasted across the sewers, alerting them to some cool, sweet, monster. Pathfinder clapped her hooves together excitedly as her tail played with itself in the air as she allowed Fillydelphia to take the lead. “Haha, awesome. More monsters! Hopefully there are like seven hundred bajillion gillion monsters in here. Speaking of-” Pathfinder continued before she suddenly pulled on Fillydelphia's tail.

“Stop!” she whispered furiously as she stared down and ahead. More bones. Many bones- and then nothing for a little while. Almost like something had taken care of groups of ponies at once, and the way that the bones were separated- well, this meant one thing and one thing alone. A super cool hidden trap! “See the bone distribution? Must be a trap. Witness me!” Pathfinder chortled as she picked up a bone and tossed it ahead of them. It was only a few feet before...SPINNING BLADES IN EVERY DIRECTION. The bone was chopped up and broken several times as it clattered away endlessly past.

“....YAY!”

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Do watched the bone fragments fly in every direction and heard her companion's squeal of delight at their newest challenge. Who in their right mind would bother rigging the sewers with such a well...ummmm....sharp trap? Was there something down here that someone was trying to keep hidden and protected. There were few reasons to hide and protect something one being the something is small and cute and needs to to be hidden or it will be crushed to deaths by hugs and pettings. The other reason of course was that there was some sort of treasure to hide and protect! Treasure! Now that was something Do could risk her neck for. That and showing up the mare that was currently at her side. I mean who did this mare think she was? It was charming enough to have somepony try to be you, but trying to upstage the incredible and intrepid Daring Do herself was quite another!

 

"Yep." She reached up and flicked a fragment of bone away from her forelocks. "Could have told you that without the demonstration but it was...exciting anyway." She raised her brow for a moment and then went into action!

 

Woosh! Woosh! Cork screw! Back roll! Front flip! Landing!

 

Daring Do stood, unscathed on the other side of the blades. Nopony could outdo her amazing moves! And just to make sure...

 

"Hang on just a sec!" She reached over to the wall with a small knife she had pulled from her saddle bag. Snap! The rope that held the blade mechanisms together was severed and the rotating blades now lay useless in their hidden recesses. "Now you can come over here safely."

 

She trotted forward, aware that rendering the blades useless might have deflated the ever energetic Do impersonator in her wake. Good. Daring Do was not to be outdid!

 

RRRRROOOOAAAWWWRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

 

Another terribly cool roar sounded from just around the corner. Do took to her wings and swerved around the slime coated dripping brick wall to encounter something she had never seen before...

[SteelEagle]

 

Could have done without the demonstration? Was this mare batty in the brain? Of course she had to have a demonstration. That was how you realized how awesome cool it was. Nothing was wose than seeing the remains of a sweet trap and thinking to yourself, “Well howdy ho there little trap! I'm here to beat you!” only to discover to the rending pain to the soul that it was deactivated or destroyed. It was the worst possible thing and any real true adventurer who used adventure sauce on her adventure burger so she could adventure all day and all night before cuddling up with her adventure blanket in her adventure tent and read her adventure book while writing in her adventure journal knew that. Fillydelphia Hooves needed to get with the program, which was adventure 2.0!

She was pretty good with those traps, too. Ducked, dodged, ducked, dove, ducked, dove, and dodged her way through the spinning blades of death to the other side unscathed. Talk about skilled! All true Daries knew how to conquer obstacle courses and traps like super bosses and Filly was no newbie to it! So maybe she didn't have to upgrade from adventure 1.0 to 2.0, more like 1.5. Still not as cool as...wait...did she...Pathfinder frowned the frowniest frown of all frowns ever frowned. Why would she do that? Okay, well, next time pathfinder wouldn't tell her about a trap until Pathfinder had already beat it and if that meany Fillydelphia had to be hurt, so be it! This was supposed to be a cooperative adventure, not a solo. That was just poor etiquette. “Hey! Stop that! I could have disabled that but I was all like, 'no, she's an adventurer too and she'll love it' and there you go being all mean to me. Didn't Daring Do teach you anything? Gosh!” Pathfinder complained as she flew past, the roar distracting her for a moment.

She flew around the corner and instinctively bucked the thing with massive teeth and claws directly in the face. Whatever it was, it stumbled back and fell over, momentarily knocked for a loop. They were in for a fight- but she wasn't done! “I mean, come on. What would you do, fill up a razor pit with cement? Don't harsh our adventure mellow, yellow!” She spat before assuming combat stance against the thing.

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Wow! Do hadn't expected that sort of response. It seemed this impersonator only had two speeds, adventurer extraordinaire and short fuse mare extraordinaire. All Do had wanted was a chance to show her amazing skills without being outdone, not totally bum out her adventure companion. Well, at least she had been able to get through that big old trap unscathed. And at least she had done what she had wanted to do for quite a while and show the other mare what she could do without an attempt to be shown up in the process. Her mettle was lowering now and Do was ready to fight as part of a team.

 

She swooped in and landed in her own combat stance next to Pathfinder. "I guess that was a little...harsh. Sorry." There she said it. "Anyway, this guys looks like he could use some harsh from both of us if that's cool with you?"

 

It was pretty dark in the super cool trapped filled sewer system and Do had a hard time even figuring out what they were fighting. Two things for sure, the other mare had proved it was fightable, and it could roar pretty dang loud!

 

RRRROOOOAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!!!

 

The beast responded to the buck as it got back up on its clawed feet and moved forward towards the look alike pair. "You picked the wrong mares to tumble with bud!" She flew around the beast a couple times and got it locked on her then she flew downwards with the creature hot on her heels. As it ducked down, she landed with her front hooves and delivered a massive buck right between the creature's eyes! It responded by wildly flinging a clawed hand forward, knocking Do to the ground.

 

"Owwww..." Do had to take a breath quickly as the ting was almost on her. She rolled to the side as a sharp pain issued from her hind leg.

[SteelEagle]

 

She apologized- good! This whole adventure thing relied on danger and excitement and trying to reduce that was a huge big epic no-no the size of Canterlot. At least now they had a super cool beast thing attacking them and super cool beast things attacking you was a definitive sign that you were in the right place at the very best of times. Nopony could deny that seeing a creature hidden in a cloud city who shouldn't have been there at all was super intriguing! It was very solid and didn't seem to have a single iota of pegasi magic, so how was it all the way up in the sky? Well, that would have to be a mystery solved by mystery solving persons, none of which were here right now. Two adventure pegasi were on the roster for tonight's event! Fillydelphia got a good kick in but was knocked back, an oomph sounding oomph making the rounds acoustically. Pathfinder's turn!

 

She was positioned behind the creature thanks to Filly's theatrics and she didn't waste such a good, strong position. She dove in between the beast's legs with his shaggy, ill-begotten tail in her mouth and hooves (extra leverage). She zoomed under him and the position for the beast grew tough- she had thrown him off balance and was now forcing him to fall over. He fell with a loud crash, Pathfinder more than pleased with even momentary victory. He shook his head and looked at the Daring Do lookalike angrily before letting out another titanic roar. He struggled to his feet with what looked like a solid ton of old cloud cobblestone falling off of him, revealing a new gap in the clouds that old, stale water started to fall out of and towards Equestria far, far below.

“Haha, now this is fun!” Pathfinder chortled as the beast charged at the pair of perfect adventure ponies!

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Daring Do took a moment to clear her head. When she hit the solid cloud wall it had knocked the wind right out of her! it had hurt, really hurt! She couldn't believe she had let her guard down far enough to get herself injured! The amazing Daring Do was turning out to not be so amazing at dealing with group situations...even a group of two. However, she had decided that she would learn to fight as part of a team. She needed to be able to work with others to make herself even more amazing!

 

She sat up and watched as the beast took a tremendous blow from Pathfinder, sending him crashing down and opening a section of the clouds to the world far far below! Whew, that would be a majorly inconvenient fall...a perfect place to send a foe creature.

 

“Haha, now this is fun!”

 

"Sure is! Ow..." She took a step forward and winced as she put weight on her hind leg. It was twisted. She wouldn't be able to walk for a while. No problem though, that's what wings are for! She would still kick this creature's shaggy tail, injury or not.

 

The beast came charging at them and Daring Do moved a bit forward. She flew a few little circles, kicking up her legs in the air to get the creature's attention. "Come on you shaggy bottomed sewer stinker!" She got the creature's eyes to start following her and turned quickly to wink at Filly. Then she flew past the beast in the direction of the cloud hole. "Come and get me!" Now the creature let out a roar and advanced upon her, leaving his back unprotected. Do waited, letting the creature advance further as she slowly lowered herself through the hole to hover over the dizzying heights below...

[SteelEagle]

 

 

The beast was not one of the smartest critters this side of Smartsville, and was one of the dumber residents of it's equal counterpart, Stupidopolis. It was a bundle of rage and it's lack of agility or well-being told Pathfinder that this was no doubt not a guardian or other beast formed to protect the city. It was just some weird sewer creature, likely evolved from less sewer creatures over generations of sewer monster survival. What did it start off as? A rat? Sentient waste? A rat made out of sentient waste, or how about a sewer lobster? The list was endless. She'd even seen a sewer shark before. But by golly today she was as lucky as a colt with cake to have so many cool enemies to face. Griffons, guardians, sewer monsters- it seemed to trend downward, but still fun.

Speaking of downward, that was her plan to take down this fellow. Fillydelphia flew circles around it and got it to expose it's rear to her. Ha! Nopony or no-thing displayed their rear too her without it getting most triumphantly struck. Pathfinder aimed. Pathfinder readied, steadied, and fired the most triumphant kick of her life. It slammed into the back of the creature and sent it tumbling and stumbling right back into the hole. It fell through it, getting stuck for a second in the hole with it's massive girth being the only thing between it and oblivion before that too failed it and it fell away from the city, far, far away, below the clouds and away from sight.

“Well, that guy was ugly. And stinky! Just like an adventure. Let's go on to the getting' on!”

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Do flew out of the way just as the creature made an exit stage down down down from the helping hind hooves of her intrepid partner on this adventure! She glanced at the descent for a moment, long enough to see the creature dissipate into cloud particles as it fell. That was all the better since finding a really huge, probably really dead sewer monster on a street in Manehatten or where ever might be pretty startling to normal citizens of Equestria.

 

“Well, that guy was ugly. And stinky! Just like an adventure. Let's go on to the getting' on!”

 

Do flew to Pathfinder's side and held up her hoof to her look-a-like for a super sweet hoof bump of awesomeness. Sure that monster wasn't like Guardian material or anything but the fight had still been enough to get her blood pumping.

 

"That was pretty awesome! That guy was kinda really dumb, but he was still fun to dispatch!"

 

She flew forward, noticing an opening in the sewer system not too far ahead. The bright light of day was streaming down into the stinking underworld they were now traveling through. As she got closer the Daring explorer heard a familiar sound. The kind of sound that made her hooves click together with glee!

 

"That's combat going on up there! Come on, we better go check it out!"

[SteelEagle]

 

That was a fight well won. It wasn't that tough though. A little disappointing. Something was off about this adventure, though. Usually there were small breaks so you could talk and get to know your fellow adventurer but so far this had been one fight after another separated by nothing but one breather or two. It was kind of fun but the fights could get a little boring if paced incorrectly. And this pacing was weird. One monster followed by a beat and then another. It was almost like an odd tabletop with a GM who didn't know what to do so he threw encounters with gangers and other ruffians while he tried to create a decent story. Silly game master, throw something more interesting at them! They were obviously too good for this silly stuff.

 

The prospect of combat was enticing no matter what though. “Sounds like a funky plan to me!” Pathfinder tittered in excitement, sharing the hoof bump before deciding to burst into the scene above. “That thing was pretty fun, but gosh, it seems awfully odd that these things are compounding one thing after another! Pretty awesome though. Well- here we go!” Pathfinder bellowed excitedly before kicking the sewer grate into the sky- well, how far it went before it slammed into a griffon. The griffon pirouetted in mid-air and started to fall to the ground, but was caught halfway down by a massive strike from a guardian. The griffon vanished, replaced with a cloud form of its former self, which seemed to struggle against itself for a few seconds before seemingly losing itself to the permanent transformation. It was now a guardian, and it turned to find another intruder and flew out of sight as the sounds of battle grew dimmer and dimmer still...

“This should be fun!”

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Daring watched the transformation with gleaming eyes. Wow! One wrong move and she could be a cloud pony forever. That would be super not cool. How ere you supposed to kick the fuzzy tail of foe's if you're made out of clouds and stuff? She also had to agree with her friend, it was a funky plan. Things just seemed a little bit weird around this whole scene. What in Equestria had they gotten themselves into? And all the foes had been so easy so far. It didn't really make a whole lot of sense...but at least they were getting to fight. It was never a bad day when you got to win some fights against bad guys.

 

“This should be fun!”

 

"Yep, it will be..." She glanced around. The new cloud guardian had vanished, presumably following after the sounds of battle. The fighting wasn't going on super close by and it still wasn't exactly clear what all the fighting was even about. She turned and glanced sideways at Pathfinder. It was so weird seeing another pony that looked just like her. She had seen ponies dress up like her before but this mare was so good at it, it seemed like she was as good at being Daring Do as Do herself was.

 

"We should follow that guy," She pointed a hoof as the receding figure as it darted between some crumbling buildings. She flew forward, preferring the wings since one of her legs was still smarting from hitting the wall earlier. "So, you're like the best Daring Do look a like I've ever seen...I mean I thought I was good at impersonating but you're like...you might as well really be Daring Do. How long have you been doing this? You fight just like her, sound just like her, geez, you're so good at it."

 

Why not get to know the pony she was fighting alongside?

[SteelEagle]

 

Finally somepony noticed her similarity to Daring Do and was totally positive about it! She generally just got ponies telling her to grow up and not obsess over a filly's book series but what did they know? Daring Do was for all ages! Even Princess Twilight “Brand Spanking New Alicorn” Sparkle was a fan. Obviously she was on the right side of the aisle when it came to readership, but the only time she was really recognized for it was at a convention. About darn time! She put lots and lots and lots of effort into looking this good. The body paint she used was a very expensive, slightly illegal, and absolutely toxic at a certain time blend she made herself. The clothes were hoofmade after several dozen attempts of varying success. All of that contributed heavily to the look, but that was just one part of the ensemble.

It was attitude. It was belief. It was about the self confidence that came from knowing that out there was a pony capable of accomplishing any task at any time and all you had to do was devote yourself to the ideals of being the best you could ever be in adventuring to do it. You had to have the faith that being pure of heart was going to save you, that your finely honed skills would always work out for you and even if it didn't, all that meant was that you had another chance to be incredible. Being like Daring Do was about being the best pony you could be as it was being the best adventurer you could be. Fact is for Pathfinder though, those things were the same. She didn't quite respect anypony else or find anything else all that enticing. She pitied ponies who looked down on her because in the end she was the truest, most incredible pony there was because she went ahead and tried to emulate the greatest pony of all time, fictional or not. All they could do in relation was SUCK.

“I better! I've read all of the books at least six hundred and eighty-three times, some more than that, seen all of the plays, projector shows, and notes! I've even exchanged a lot of letters with A.K. Yearling but most of the time her lawyers reply with restraining orders. I basically model my whole life after her! I adventure all the time everywhere. I try to write it all down because I've tangled with so many baddies and found so many relics that it's all pretty sweet, but it all turns into self-insert shipping fanfiction with her. Not that it's a bad thing ya know, even though my fiance thinks it's a bit off. But really, it's a good life. Adventure all day every day, no matter what the doctors say! What about you. Filldelphia? What brings you out here? THE THRILL OF ADVENTURE?!” Pathfinder grabbed Filly and shook her like an excited filly shakes a friend before a colt-band concert.

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

"Filldelphia? What brings you out here? THE THRILL OF ADVENTURE?!”

 

Wow! There really was a lot to this look a like mare. She wasn't just a fan...she had turned the life of Daring Do into well...it almost saddened her a little bit...more than it actually was? Was that really true? Do had always imagined she lived the most exciting, the most adventurous, the most awesomest that any pony ever lived but well...this pony's emulation of her was almost better than it actually was to be the one and only Daring Do. It was a sobering thought really, more introspective than Do really cared to be...ever. It was true she went on awesome adventures and found relics and fought with baddies and monsters all the time but still, she was always found a little bit wanting. Perhaps it was that one thing Pathfinder had mentioned, fiance. She had spent so much time in love with all the cool and amazing stuff she did that she had never really found another pony to love.

 

Do lifted her pith helmet as she was being shook and swept her forelocks back in thought for just a second. Then she clamped the hat back in place and assumed her regular stance on everything. She was adventurous, the most adventurous. She was daring, the most daring of all! She was hard core, and no pony was ever going to outdo her! She pushed everything else out of her mind. The mare narrowed her eyes confidently and gave a wild and dangerous grin!

 

"Oh ya! Adventure! Thrills! Fighting bad guys!" She flew forward, trying to catch a gimps of the receding griffon they were trying to follow. "And of course figuring out mysteries, like this is turning out to be." She looked this way and that, then choose to round the side of a crumbling building. "Ya, Daring Do is my life inspiration!" Up ahead she could see a congregation of griffons forming. She flew towards them.

 

"What's going on up there?" She asked her companion as they came closer to the scene.

[SteelEagle]

 

Pathfinder was really super awesome at most things in life as long as those things included and revolved around adventure. She was proud of that and she was even more super proud of it when she could get other people to recognize it. Ponies needed to see that she really was super cool, and no doubt it took another equally Daring Do obsessed- err, lifestyle enthusiast. Fillydelphia had to readjust her helmet because of all the raw incredible greatness that was Pathfinder. Please everypony stand back, there was a Pathfinder coming through! But yeah, there were biggr frish to fry than how cool Pathfinder was and how her awesomeness was blinding Fillydelphia. There was a fight and some mystery to be solved and Pathfunder was sure she had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Time to clue her friend in!

First, she had to follow. Filly had shot out ahead and was now into the city once more, out of the sewer. Good. Sewers stunk! Pathfinder followed and they were soon in a better position. The sky was momentarily free of cloud Guardians and there was indeed a grouping of griffons gathering. As Pathfinder drew closer she could see the slighter wings of two pegasi in the middle, and the whole group seemed to be conversing. Through the legs of the taller griffons, Pathfinder saw a bit of color- aha! That was all she needed to identify that one. “Oh, that makes sense. It's Rolling Thunder! He's been after the Heart of Maredrid for a lon g time. This has to be the third or foruth time he's tried this. What does he think he can do abot the Seven Speares of Maredrid, or The Heart, or the Infinite Tunnel? Tssk tssk. What a silly bird!”

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Do looked in the direction of the gathering as Pathfinder identified one of them. Yes indeed, what did Rolling Thunder think he was doing? The Heart of Maredrid was going to be the property of Daring Do in a short amount of time. Really this guy was just wasting his time.

 

"Yep silly for sure! That Heart belongs to me! I mean...us." Not really but hey, Filly had been good company and she was actually starting to really enjoy her time with the Daring Do impersonator. "Speaking of the Spears and the Tunnel and all that stuff, we need to get going if we're gonna find the Heart before all these guys. So what do you think? Should we just slip around them for now? Problem is I don't really know where to go from here."

 

The explorer flew forward a little, keeping out of eye shot of the gathering up ahead. "Too many for us to take down this time. Not your sewer monsters and cloud guardians but still there's a lot of them. How do you know Rolling Thunder? I've never heard of him actually?"

 

She spoke as she moved from cover to cover, routing around the group. They needed to be the first to find that Heart! "I mean, I guess we're going in the right direction. The middle of the city is still ahead of us and I guess that's where the Heart would be."

[SteelEagle]

 

Good questions were good questions. Despite not being as totally awesome as Pathfinder, Fillydelphia Hooves wasn't too far behind the right ball as it were. She would make a bang-up adventurer one day for sure. More importantly they were on the right track. That track was adventure and it had different ways they could go ahead and select. So what to select? Fighting them was fun, but this wasn't one of those bawdy punch stories. This was an adventure story! And those had fighting but more traps and investigations. So maybe it was best to not have another fight so quickly after...one big one and two small ones for Pathfinder, and maybe just two for Filly. Pathfinder could fight all day but it was time to fulfill the wonderful, always fulfilling contractual obligation of an adventurer's day to day life. “Hmm...let's sneak 'round them. I wouldn't mind more scraps but if all we do is fight then this is just some dimes tore novella, not high class Daring Do adventuring,” she whispered her answer to Filly, slithering away through some shattered buildings far away fro their foe.

Speaking of the villain of the day: “Rolling Thunder is the name of the famous Cloudsdale super-rich playboy, Blazing Saddle. Well, real as in that's what he calls himself when he's doing something illegal. He works behind shell corporations, so few ponies know who he is. More importantly, he can subtly alter his appearance thanks to a special tonic, and tends to work with hired Griffon mercenaries. What does matter in the end however is why he does what he does, and I think he's trying to collect all the old Maredrarian artifacts to power a climate control machine. Sounds kooky and spooky to me, but there you have it. I could be wrong, but unless he wants to usurp control of a city and invite the wrath of Celestia, I'm having a hard time thinking of something else. Doesn't help that he and his friends write only in code. And mind you I can decipher code pretty dang well, but he's really good,” she said, following Filly as they ducked from cover to cover, moving deeper into the city and slightly further away from Thunder and his cronies.

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Do's eyes narrowed as her adventuring companion mentioned that Rolling Thunder wanted to get his hooves on the Mareatonian artifacts. There was no way that was going to happen. Those artifacts were already property of Daring Do. She had a place on her artifact shelves all cleared out for them. That did bring up the point of who was actually going to get the artifacts they were after. This mare she was with might just think the artifacts belonged to her. Ha! They could be friends but there was no way she was sharing the prize at the end. In fact...she was probably the reason some of the jewels and artifacts she had been after over the years had gone missing! There would be time to figure that out later.

 

They continued to sneak from building to crumbling building, giving the gathering of griffons a wide birth. She was right, no reason to deal with those guys. If they could get to the treasures first there was no reason to fight those guys.

 

"So, you have a sweet treasure collection from your adventuring?" Do asked casually once they were far enough away from the pack. Do looked out over the small rise they found themselves on. Below was the bowl area that made up the center of Maretonia. Lots of crumbling buildings, smoke rising from some of them. In the center of the city was a tower. It was pretty spectacular looking even in it's burnt out and run down condition.

 

"I wonder where those artifacts would be? Probably somewhere near that tower. Let's go take a look." She conditioned on her way, eyes peeled for trouble.

[SteelEagle]

 

 

Treasure collection? Pathfinder never saw the point to them. Most so-called artifacts didn't do anything cool and she never understood why ponies got so up in arms about them. It struck her as the ultimate form of nostalgia. To each their own and all, but that wasn't entirely Pathfinder's gig. Now if it did something cool, she was game. If it looked really pretty, she was game., But it wasn't what attracted her to them in the first place. It was the least important element of all elements in the adventuring element tree. Pathfinder giggled a little. It felt naughty to say this, considering the value other adventurers placed on relics and such. “Oh, I keep a few. But I sell most of them, and I give my Snowfall a few more. I'm not really in this for the artifacts. I'm in this for the adventure! It could be a hay sandwich at the end of a dungeon and I'll go through that dungeon as if it was to save the world. Adventure for the sake of adventure is all I'm after!” Pathfinder replied as the two made their way deeper into the city, inching towards the tower.

“Yeah. They're in the tower itself! It was how the leaders of the city used them to their own ends. It corrupted them at some point and the city went downhill fast. The whole place was off limits to any interaction. Celestia even had a royal guard task force assigned to guard the edges so nopony entered it, but it eventually drifted off over the eastern ocean. Came back just a few decades ago. I wonder if she knows? She probably does. Anyway, that's when ponies started making an actual grab for these artifacts. Even if somepony wants them just to keep it safe, it's dangerous. It corrupted those who led the city, and those that play with evil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword,” Pathfinder said, parroting a phrase from one of the Daring Do books as the duo made their way closer to one of the separations in the city.

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Even if somepony wants them just to keep it safe, it's dangerous. It corrupted those who led the city, and those that play with evil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword.

 

Do continued to be impressed by this pony at her side. She didn't care to hoard the treasures she collected? That was like the weirdest thing ever? Why would she not want to keep them for herself? Sure, even Daring Do had given away a few of the relics she had collected over time but she kept most of them. They were reminders of her awesome adventures. They gave her the muse to write more adventures. Maybe that was why it was different for Pathfinder, the Daring Do impersonator didn't write her own novels. Thought her first love was the adventure itself, Do wrote to put bits in the bank. It really wasn't a big deal either way if a pony kept all the trinkets she collected.

 

Then there was the quoting of her work. She wondered again what this pony would do if she found out the pony she was adventuring with was in fact the true Daring Do! At this point, Do doubted she would flip out. Pathfinder had as much adventure in her as the real Daring Do herself. As she continued this trip, Do felt less and less like proving herself. This particular adventure was abut more than that!

 

They were nearing the tower now.

 

"I wonder if there are still any guards around here. It doesn't look like it from here at least." Do mused quietly as they scoped out the situation. There was a door to the tower ahead of them. It looked like it was barred shut at the moment. However a pegasus didn't really need a door leading to a set of stairs to get into a tower. She inched as little closer to see if there were any other ways in.

 

"So, who's your Snowfall?" She asked the question out of the corner of her mouth as she continued to scan the scene.

[SteelEagle]

 

Pathfinder followed Fillydelphia closely, keeping just the right amount of appropriate spacing. She got a good look at the cutie mark. A very faithful adaptation of the greatest heroine of all time's very own cutie mark, though it wasn't perfect. She didn't get the texture right! It needed to gleam just a little more, on account of the sweat that glistened off of her body after a hard day's work. It was part of the outft, duh! Bit Pathfinder had an eye for detail. Nothing never ever escaped her falcon-esque sight, no matter how small it was. And that was why se had won the last seventeen cosplay contests she had entered as Daring Do. She'd give Fillydelphia some pro-tips on the great art of cosplay after they were done being super great adventures today.

But on another topics, Snowfall! She didn't know who Snowfall was? Geez, talk about a sheltered soul!
“Whaaaaa you don't know Snowfall?! I mean, I can understand not knowing her position and all because its so cool but c'mon filly, she's a really super big deal! Well, maybe she isn't as big as I think she is. That's a possibility, but improbable. Anyhooves, Snowfall is the CEO of Northern Storm Industries, which does a lot of tech stuff and has a board and blah blah blah all the stuff we don't care about. But she isn't stuffy at all! Not one bit! She is really adventurous and brave and super pretty. And she cuddles like a champion cuddler! I'm gonna marry her and we're gonna have like fifteen foals and I'm gonna name them Bravado, Valor, Noble, Grit, Seeker, Archer, Rover, Trailblazer, Venture, Crusade, Hub Bub, Gallant Gallop, Daredevil, and, of course, Daring,” Pathfinder rambled on as they approached the tower. No door, no problem. She hovered up to the remains of a window and looked inside- dark. She, while going over the names of her future children, looked through her saddlebag and brought out a small orb looking thing. She slammed her hoof into it and it lit up. She then tossed it inside.

“See anything, Filly?”

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

The adventuring mare couldn't help but let a thin smile cross her muzzle as Pathfinder began to list off the names of her future foals. It must be nice to have thoughts of a family of one's own. Do considered that even she would one day have a family. But  not when she was a full time writer and adventurer. When she did have foals of her own she wanted to be able to stay with them, at least long enough until they were old enough to adventure with her. However, the thoughts of a family were usually kept at bay by her many adventures...and of course her writing. Her marketing executive had been hounding her over the past few weeks to turn in the manuscript for her next Daring Do book. It wasn't that she didn't like writing, she did. It just took a lot of time. Time she would rather spend out on the field. Still, this current adventure might be shaping up to take a place in a Daring Do book at some point. She would have to wait to see how things turned out.

 

“See anything, Filly?”

 

She squinted her eyes and looked in, flattening her ears in concentration. At first all she could see was the small glowing orb that had been tossed inside, then her eyes slowly adjusted. Who was that?!

 

"I think there's someone in there..." She muttered out of the side of her muzzle. Then she looked closer. "Never mind."

 

It wasn't a pony or a griffon. It was a banner with a depiction of a griffon on it. The room had a few banners though most were shredded and tattered. The ceiling was high, it couldn't be seen in the light from the orb.

 

"Come on." She spoke softly as she edged her way through the broken window. She hovered on her wings, taking in the room. It was dust covered and looked like it had been ransacked at one point but before that time had been really nice looking. The banners, the vaulted ceilings, the marble flooring. It was a mess now. There was a double stair case leading up from the room they were in.

 

"Looks like a grand hall or something..." She nodded. "There's a way up...but I wonder if it's up or down we want."

[SteelEagle]

 

Pathfinder squinted her eyes as well. Not that she needed to. Despite what some said, her eyes were in super prime tip-top shape. She didn't need glasses or corrective magic, nope. Well maybe. But it didn't matter now. She was so happy to say that she knew everything there was to know about adventuring and no, no thank you, she didn't need your help in the matter. What may have been a nondescript banner to some spoke volumes to Pathfinder. And by volumes she meant history, not the volumes of fanfiction starring Daring Do and griffons she had written while recovering from the shattered, weakened wing she had been given by griffons when she recovered the Helm of Commander Hurricane. She squinted and the relief came into view, much to the relieving relief of all pegasi everywhere this was not a griffon banner where they showed the sort of delicacies they preferred of the winged variety.

This one in particular was from Talonopolis, from the older portions of the city. She would know- she'd been there not so long ago. Lots of lava and secrets and fun times there. She should go back. Get Gilda. Have fun! Back on point. This made sense. Maredrid was an ancient pegasi military power and it was the sort of thing that would happen often. Take a banner in battle, post it where everypony could see it. No doubt Maredrid's banner was flying in Talonopolis as well. It happened all the time, especially to the ancient floating cities that couldn't rely on Equestrian protection. Pathfinder followed Filly in, taking a good, hard intake of air as she came to a fluttering stop. The grand hall was certainly more solid than other parts of the city and that was good because the Heart was located in the structure, and it would be a terrible thing if that had fallen. Well not terrible. Exciting. Terribly exciting. But troublesome.

“Ooh, cool. This must have been where they stuffed all their public war trophies. Talonopolis, Cloudsdale, Barbaneia, Stalingrad, and some other ancient cities. No Acroneighos though. Darnit. I want an ancient Acroneighis banner! They never lost until they ran up against a Kastrot and Saddle Arabian coalition at the Battle of the Seven Rings. Did you know that was the largest battle outside of Equestria until the recent Caribou invasions? Cool stuff,” Pathfinder said as she looked around, then took stock. “Right. Well, the Heart is likely at the top. No entrance from the outside, and public access supposedly stops on the third floor. This is the only place in Maredrid you can't fly around...explains why some can't get up! Alright, let's hop to it!”

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Alright, let's hop to it!

 

"Sounds like a plan!" Do moved forward to the staircase. She decided to just start flying up as far as she could. Eventually however this wasn't possible. The hallway narrowed and there seemed to be some sort of dark clouds blocking a lot of the stair well. "This stuff is weird!" She peered into the cloud substance and noticed she couldn't see through it. She shrugged while in the air and landed on the stairs.

 

"I guess we trot up from here..." Something didn't feel quite right. She was getting that feeling she got when it was almost time to fight. It felt great! "I'm feeling a fight coming on...how about you?" She glanced at the other mare as she continued up the stairs. One of the stairs sunk down a little as she placed a hoof on it.

 

CLICK

 

A solid wall of stone dropped down from above and blocked off the rest of the stairs. There wasn't any way to get around from where they were. "What do you think? Can we break this with our combined amounts of awesome?"

[SteelEagle]

 

Pathfinder was pretty happy to follow Fillydelphia Hooves around for a bit. Given what Pathfinder knew of herself, it was good to see what her companion could accomplish leading from the front! After all, this may have been Pathfinder's story but that didn't mean that Filly shouldn't have her chances to shine. She needed them! That way when she was in the greatest of danger and Pathfinder saved her it illustrated how super cool of an adventure Pathfinder was, just like everytime Bravado got involved with Daring. Why, for all of his dashing good lucks, charms, intense skills, and equally impressive history, he seemed to serve the function of fluffing up Daring whenever he got involved. And if there was one pony who couldn't be fluffed enough it was the soft and fluffy Pathfinder, or at least when she was about to visit Snowfall. Speaking of, Pathfinder needed to get her mare a gift! Probably something from the vault.

They flew for a bit before a trot took over, and they trotted for a bit before adventure took over. The black clouds presented some interesting insight- a deep breath of it was enough to tell her that it wasn't necessarily poisoned. Soon after a stone slab fell in front of them. Well, if that wasn't the coolest thing since the last cool thing that had happened! And good news, everypony- Fillydelphia Hooves didn't freak or anything. Good! She wasn't gonna have to put the Filly on her back and carry her across the ENDLESS FINISH LINE OF ADVENTURE. But now was not the time to take stock of her companion. That was later. After she secretly compiled an endless list of valuable intelligence, all of which would boil down to how much like Daring Do she operated.

Okay. So. Adventure!
The air seemed to shift ever so slightly. She sniffed, Hmm. Air pressure change. She looked at the slits that passed as windows in the staircase- nothing useful there. Hmm...actually, they were getting smaller ever so slightly. And what was the shifting under her hooves- ever so slightly? And that air pressure? Pathfinder used her tail to grab a small rock off of the ground and tossed it at the stone slab. Instead of cracking against it, it was absorbed...slowly. As that happened, the slits finally closed in lightning fashion.
“Oh, this is-”
The floor suddenly shifted. The stairs folded into the ground, forming a smooth surface that caught Pathfinder unprepared. She fell, smacking her noggin against the floor. Behind them, the black clouds started to move up, as if trying to envelop them...and the air pressure continued to change! Pathfinder rubbed her chin as she held what little jagged pieces of rock hung off of the wall.

“Preeeeetttty clever trap! Can't kick our way out and when that cloud comes back, it'll smother us- and push us into the absorbtion stone! Ha, not bad!”