My Little Spelunky

By RioGascar

The Walls are Shifting

Applebloom was waiting for her download of Daring Doo and the Quest for the City of gold to finish downloading. She was getting very impatient and decided to get some apples and drinks for the no doubt all nighter she was going to pull to finish this game and maybe even earn her cutie mark. After she got some snacks and drinks she came back to hear a satisfying click meaning the download was done. She went to her Pony Live Arcade section and clicked on the game to start it up.

Daring Doo and the Quest for the City of Gold

By Pony Yu and Ponymouth studios

With the Desert Stretching behind me

I emptied my canteen

And a cold chill took hold of me

Applebloom was met with the title screen showing Daring Doo holding a torch while bats flew in the background behind her. Applebloom hit the buttons on her controller and went to the adventure mode. The only character she had was Daring Doo and Rainbow Dash for some odd reason. She clicked on Daring and started her adventure.

Daring had paid her guide and entered the cave with her trusty whip and fedora and used a rope to descend into the darkness. As she was sliding down the rope she thought back to why she was doing this in the first place. According to the locals any pony who can brave the many dangers of these caves can become one of the wealthiest ponies in the world. She went over her journal given to her by Yang her friend who had escaped the caves by the skin of his teeth. She went over it on the plane ride over to the caves. It told of many dangers like Pony eating plants and other odd monsters. It suggested for her to bring some starting gear to help her begin her adventure. She patted her bag which held 4 bombs and 4 ropes for anything she might encounter in the caves.

After what seemed like an eternity she had reached the bottom of the rope but could still see nothing below her. She lit a torch and threw it into the darkness to shed some light on her surroundings. A large stone door with Kali and Olmec were emblazoned on it right in front of her. She wondered how she would open as she consulted her journal. It told her one who had no fear of death can enter the doors. She wondered how she would achieve that. She thought about and saw that door had the shape of hoof for a keyhole. She put her hoof in cautiously and was instantly stabbed with a small knife. She withdrew her bleeding hoof and retrieved a bandage from her bag. She wrapped it around her hoof to stop the bleeding. After she had done that she looked back at the door and saw her blood was traveling through small tubes to the statue of Kali. She braced herself for any traps that might activate when the blood reached its destination. She ran back to rope and climbed up it in case things got sticky.

The door opened and the stature of Kali turned to meet Daring.

"Who are you brave explorer and why have you entered my caves?"

"I am Daring Doo and I have entered your caves to earn glory and fortune." Daring said with full honesty thinking the statue can tell if she is lying.

"Well you may enter these caves, but those wings of you must go if you wish to enter peacefully. Do not worry they will return to you when you have escaped my caves."

"How do I know you will return my wings to me after I escape?" Daring thought as she knew flight would be her main way of traversing the caves"

"I am a god of my word and as long as you do not invoke my wraith they will return to you safely" Kali said as she opened the door to the cave"

"So Daring Doo do you wish to enter my world and defeat Olmec to gain fame and fortune? Or do you wish to turn back now? Choose now after you make your choice you cannot return"

Daring thought carefully about it she had come too far to just back out now. She went through the door and ventured into the darkness. The walls around her started to shift and she felt like she was going to pass out if it continued. She then awoke to find herself standing in a cave with all her gear except her wings on her back were missing. She still had her journal and flipped through the pages trying to find the area she was at. After skimming through the book she found she was in the mines it had many dangers like spike traps and acid spitting king cobras. Nothing she couldn't handle as she closed the journal and put it back in her pack. She got her whip out of her pouch and held it close to her hoofs. She looked around and saw a snake slithering along the ground and a bat hanging on the ceiling. Thinking them to be no harm she ignored them and saw some gold next to the snake. Her greed getting to the best her she went to collect the gold and was meet with an arrow lodged into her body at high velocity. It stung, but she pulled out the arrow and bandaged up herself. While she was doing so a slight nibbling sensation was emanating from her fedora. She looked up and saw a bat was trying to nibble on her flesh. She jumped back and swung her whip against the bat. It exploded into a fine mist of blood and guts.

Applebloom looked at the screen and could not believe her eyes at the pixelated blood. This was the first game she had ever played with any rating higher then Foal and up. She wondered if she should continue her little adventure into the caves, but then after remembering she spent her saved up bits on this game. She pressed on more determined than ever to finish the game. She gazed at her health it read 1 HP. She wondered why it read that. She had only taken damage from the arrow and the bat she should have 2 HP not 1. She saw the snake was getting close to her and activated her whip. The snake exploded into a fine mist of blood just as the bat did. Applebloom was wondering what might happen if Applejack caught her playing a game like this. Seeing as how she was in the Cutie Mark Crusaders Tree House and Applejack rarely ever visits here she figured she would be safe. She then noticed that the game was still going and mist had surrounded her and the sound had slown down to a creepy foreboding tone. She looked at the clock in game. It read 3:56 and was blinking red. Applebloom thought she might have run out of time and decided to step up her pace and hurry up and finish the level.

Daring Doo looked around her and saw small amounts of mist in the air. She then felt a cold chill go down her spine. This place was given her the creeps and she wanted to leave it behind as soon as possible. She jumped down the pit and landed on the ground. She then looked behind her and saw the scariest thing she had ever seen in her life. A ghost was floating in the air and it was coming straight towards her. She went into a sprint and was met with an arrow to her face. As it hit her she could see the world collapsing all around her as she fell into the darkness.

Applebloom could not believe her eyes she had killed Daring Doo. She felt like crying when she remembered that this was nothing, but 1 and 0s in a video game. She had not really killed Daring Doo just a digital copy of her. She sighed with relief and saw that she had died by an arrow trap. She was about to press the continue button to play again when the door to the burst open.

"Hey Applebloom what are you playing?" Scootaloo asked as she closed the door to the tree house and saw Applebloom playing the Pony 360 that they all had saved up the bits to buy.

"Oh I'm playing a new game I just bought, but I don't think you should play it" Applebloom said as she exited to the title screen

"Why is that oh you don't think has blood in it do you?" Scootaloo asked as she brought a small bean bag chair to sit on

"Yes it has blood in that's why you can't play it" Applebloom said as she went to the game shelf to get out Pony Party.

"No way it has blood come on Applebloom you did spend bits on it the game why not play it?" Scootaloo asked as she dashed to the shelf blocking Applebloom from the games.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble we will be in if my sis caught us playing a game with blood in it"

"Exactly my point Applebloom it's fun to be risky and dangerous so what is the game called anyway?"

"It's called Daring Doo and the Quest for the City of Gold, but we are not playing it why not play some Pony Party or Super Smash Pony a fun nonviolent game?"

"Applebloom every time me or Sweetie Belle comes over we play those boring games and SSP is a violent game we hit each other"

"Come Applebloom let's just play the game no pony has to know about it can be our little secret" Scootaloo said as she made a puppy dog face hoping to convince Applebloom to let her play the game"

"Fine, but if we get in trouble I blame you for everything"

"We're not going to get in trouble just play it cool"

"So how do you play it even what are the controls?"

"Let's play the tutorial first okay and then we can play Coop"

"Why play Coop when maybe we can battle to the death" Scootaloo said as she imitated a gun and pretended to make Shooting sounds.

"Because coop is more fun and could even get us our cutie mark" Applebloom said as she munched on a snack.

"A cutie mark for gaming sounds awesome let's play this thing" Scootaloo said as she pulled a fedora out of the drawers of the cabinet.

A/N Well the first chapter is done. Just for mental note taking the story jumps from Daring's perspective to Applebloom's perspective. Also would appreciate any comments to help improve this story. Also please tell me who you want the damsel and Shopkeeper to be. The damsel will switch each chapter and will be one of the Mane 6, but the Shopkeeper can be any pony and it will be permanent so choose wisely who it will be.

Final note I think this might be the first ever fan fic of Spelunky. So if you think I'm making some mistakes along the way let me know in a constructive way.