Welp, it looks like I am going to include the "Power Ponies" episode into this story, for pretty much all of you want to see my OC team been thrown into that world. I do get the sense you mostly want to read what form I have given them. XD it's going to be fun, but for now:
This chapter happens a week after the last and made after the episode "Daring Don't."
You've asked and I deliver. Enjoy.
It's a bit foggy, so the mail pony has to be a bit careful when flying up to the cloud houses. When reaching the location, the mail pony knocks on the door and a small grey griffin appears. "Uh, is there a Mister Sniper here?" The mail pony asks. An older and reddish griffin with black spots appears and the mail pony hands him the letter.
Sniper takes it, blinking of who has written to him. "Thanks, mate." He tells the mail pony and heads inside the moment he has signed that he got the letter.
Inside, Sniper opens the letter, and the frown deepens the more he reads. It's clear he's expertise is needed and from what the writer told, this is quite serious. "Gabby," Said griffin child looks up to him. "You'll stay at Engie's house for a while." He tells her and begins to pack his stuff.
It's clear Lawrence will be heading out and it must be serious if he does not want to bring her along. "Where are you going?" Gabby asks.
"Remember the pony that hired me back when we first met?" Gabby nods, Sniper grabs his bow and the quiver. "She needs me again."
"Can't I come along?"
"No, it's much too dangerous this time around." Sniper tells her and with: "I'll be back as soon as I can." he heads out. Gabby drops her head in disappointment but does not follow this time around as it was pretty clear he meant it would be too dangerous. So instead, the young griffin does as told and heads to Engineer's place.
**A couple of days later**
Up in a tree, Fluttershy is teaching three just fledged doves how to fly. Thanks to her gentle patience, the three soon are flying, though not fully ready to move around like their parents but Fluttershy is confident they soon would—
"Four more months, four more months, four more months!" Rainbow Dash chants to herself as she speeds around, confusing both doves and yellow pegasus, more so when Rainbow Dash grabs Fluttershy and asking quite enthusiastic, "I bet you're excited, huh?"
Not sure what she should be excited, "Oh, my. I, uh, I could be excited." Fluttershy flies a bit away, nervous what all of this is about. "I don't really know. I wasn't really think—"
The distance between them is closed instantly, for again; Rainbow Dash is at the timid pony's face. "Come on, you gotta be excited!"
"Oh, well, I guess maybe I'm a little kinda sort of excited." Fluttershy admits.
"I thought so!" Rainbow Dash beams, not at all taken down when her friend asks what she should be excited about? She is going to tell her what! "Because the next Daring Do book is coming out exactly four months from today! That's how exciting it is!" She loops around in the air, just to show how pumped she is about this fact. "So what amazing, incredible, awesome adventure do you think Daring Do will have in her next book, huh?" She asks Fluttershy, flying all over her, unable to fly still in her excitement about the thought of a new book and not seeing where she is going. Rainbow Dash crashes into the nearby tree.
Worried, Fluttershy lands before the crashed and current disorientated blue pegasus, musing to the three doves flying around Rainbow Dash. "Oh, I'm not so sure she's gonna last another four months..."
**later**
"WHAT?!" Rainbow Dash exclaims in sheer horror of what Twilight Sparkle has just told her. "Two more months?!" She asks in disbelief and already out of it, "I've been waiting so long already! I don't think I can take another two months! I'll never make it!" she collapses onto the ground.
Twilight stares not all amused at Rainbow Dash's behavior of this news, though Fluttershy's kind yet dry comment: "Yeah. I can vouch for that..." did make her smile.
Looking up from the ground to the bringer of bad news. "Did they give a reason?"
"The publisher just said the author; A.K. Yearling won't be able to finish the book for another two months." Twilight explains, yes, it is disappointing but not the world's end. "She is probably dealing with a bit of writer's block. Happens to everypony."
Growling annoyed, Rainbow Dash comes up with her own idea to why the book is delayed. "The new book is obviously delayed because she needs help dealing with whatever everyday nonsense is distracting her from spending her every living breathing second writing!" She explains, tapping her hoof for emphasis on her words. "So I–" She quickly corrects herself, "I mean, fans like me, can get to read the new book ASAP!" Twilight rolls her eyes; surely she must understand the importance of this. "Think about it!" Rainbow Dash steps over to the now alicorn egghead. "We could help her with her laundry, buy her groceries, cooking her meals, whatever!" and asks Twilight, "Now, who wouldn't appreciate that?"
Twilight is not so sure. "Hmm, I don't know... what she probably wants most of all is respect for her privacy." She points out, but Rainbow Dash is clearly not interested in such things.
"She can always just say no."
Turning to Fluttershy, the yellow pony shrugs and Twilight, although very reluctant, agrees on Rainbow Dash's plan in finding out what is delaying A.K. Yearling. It takes bit of research, but she figures out the author's address and with a very exciting pegasus taking the lead, she and Fluttershy accompany Rainbow Dash on this quest of hers.
**several miles from Vanhoover**
Practically being out in the middle of nowhere, Twilight is more convinced this is a bad idea and she voices this to Rainbow Dash, "You see what I mean?" she asks the constantly scanning the area for the author pegasus. "Why would she live in this remote part of Equestria except to keep folks from intruding on her privacy? We should respec—"
"I think I spotted the house!" Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaims and incredibly excited, she pushed both Twilight and Fluttershy towards the spot. "We're super close! This way!"
Twilight tries to argue this is a terrible idea but gets on other thoughts when spotting a ransacked house. "Oh no. What happened?"
"Apparently somepony has intruded on her privacy pretty hard already..." Rainbow Dash points out, now worried if the author is alright. She and the two others carefully approach the spot, Rainbow Dash knocks on the door, but that only makes said door fall over. Looking inside; the whole place is a mess, clear signs that somepony has been looking for something.
Walking slowly inside and worried at this horrid sight, "Oh my, I sure hope A.K. Yearling's alright." Fluttershy muses, turning to Twilight when the purple alicorn exclaims horrified of the thought that struck her: "What if something terrible happened to her?"
"I know! There might be no more books!" Rainbow Dash starts searching the many papers lying around for clues they might be scrip for the new book. She stops when noticing the disapproving stare coming from Twilight. She smiles sheepishly, "Uh... but, of course, I'd be worried about her, too."
"What are you all doing here?" A new voice asks, making everyone in the room, rainbow-haired pegasus especially turn around. Rainbow Dash starts stutters when a light gold pegasus with different shakes of grey hair walks inside. She looks exactly like Daring Do on the covers! Well except for the glasses. "D…D-Daring Do?!" She exclaims, eyes beaming that she is looking at THE Daring Do.
A.K. Yearling rolls her eyes, "Of course not, she's just a fictional character." She points out and walking inside, she asks these intruders. "What have you done to my house?" and worried they— or whoever did this might have taken what they found. She trots inside, ignoring the purple pony's: "We didn't do this, Ms. Yearling." Nor the yellow pony's. "We're awfully glad to see you're alright." Way more focused on finding the book where she hid the artifact, never thought it would bring so much trouble…
Still trying to see if any of the papers hold the clue to a new book, Rainbow Dash only stops when A.K. Yearling trots over to her. She whistles innocently and when this Daring Do looking pegasus starts rummaging through a pile of books, she sees an excellent opportunity to speak. "Okay, clearly this isn't the best time, but I've just gotta say how much we all really love your books..."
Again not bothering with these ponies, who seems like harmless fans. She is way more worried about the artifact— Aid Keen spots the book and snatches it underneath this blue colored pegasus. "Good, it's still here." She sighs in relief and unlocks this unique book. Out from it, a ring they found two days past appears, "It's safe." and hides it under her cape. "Now where did I put…" She muses to herself, searching the house for the scripture they found alongside this ring.
Watching the trotting around author, Rainbow Dash sees another opportunity and steps over to A.K. Yearling, who is skimming through possible scrip for the new book. "Maybe now would be a good time for me to ask her how we can help move the new book along a little faster." She pushes a writing machine over to the rummaging author and clapping her hoves together ."Chop chop!" A.K. Yearling sends her an annoyed look before walking over to another pile of books. Before she can speak up again, Twilight Sparkle's magic surrounds her, with said accented unicorn speaking, clearly annoyed: "Rainbow Dash, a minute please!" Fluttershy follows them.
Bringing her right now infuriating privacy breeching friend outside, and letting her go, Twilight points out, "A.K. Yearling has made it pretty clear that she wants to be left alone. We need to respect her wishes!"
Rainbow Dash sulks for just a moment about what Twilight said, then she notices three earth ponies, all jumping through a window into A.K. Yearling's house. "Tell that to them." She points, right as the last one goes inside.
Meanwhile, Aid Keen has just found the scripture, "Got it!" she smiles and turns to head out, but stops when three thugs have suddenly surrounded her. She backs away nervously.
The leader of this group laughs menacingly, "Not so tough without your companion are you?" not seeing a shadow moving around from above. "Now give us the ring and we won't harm you," The smirks widens, "too much."
Scared out her mind but not going to give this up willingly. "N-Not a chance!" She exclaims hard, but does winch in fright as one of the goons gets a tad too close.
Rainbow Dash and the two others are about to get inside and help but before they can though, Sniper jumps right onto one of the goons, to then get into a scuttle with the two others. He gets pinned down by one of them. "Get outta here, Keen!" He calls and she takes the run for it. One of the goons tries to reach his employee, but Sniper grabs his newly acquired whip, catches that earth pony's legs and trips him with a hard pull. He scratches the bigger one over the face and leaps over to where Aid Keen is standing, "You have to get through me if you want the golden ring ya bloody bogas!" Sniper sneers that these hooligans.
The leader of the group narrows his eyes at the griffin. "I admit, you're not like other griffins Mr. Daring."
"Wait, did that guy just call Sniper Daring?" Rainbow Dash asks quietly from the door, her eyes wide of what that must mean, "Oh my gosh…! Sniper IS Daring Do" and squee at that sheer thought, so much in a fangasm that it didn't cross her mind to help out.
Even Twilight Sparkle must admit that this came as a surprise and suddenly, something made sense in the latest book, "So that must mean the potion Daring Do retrieved from the Arachne temple is the potion of sights…" and will admit; "my mind has been official blown."
Unaware of the audience, the leader of these thugs continues to the one he only knows as Mr. Daring, all thanks to Aid Keen. "You really should've taken my offer when I gave it to you. Now, all the payment you will be getting;" The three ponies surround the griffin and grounded pegasus. "is a ticket to the other side."
"Nah, I gotta decline the offer." Sniper smirks and that's the only warning, for next, he is once again in a fight with these ponies, sure these guys can hit really hard due to being earth ponies, but he's used to dealing with a slippery spy so these guys aren't a major threat. One of the goons does get the ring they found inside those tricky ruins, but he quickly received it again and with it in his right claw and on his hind legs for extra intimidation. "Bugger off before I going to use your hides for decoration." He warns them in a low sneering voice. It makes the three earth ponies hesitate, looking at each other and silently questioning if they should dare an attack.
She can't take it anymore! "Sniper!" Rainbow Dash cries.
Hearing his partner's voice, Sniper's focus on the goons break but before he can scan the house to where Rainbow Dash is, the three earth ponies use his slight distraction to jump on him. He is swift to put up a fight, but they overwhelm him as they had pushed him into a corner. Pinned down, the leader of these goons claims the golden ring. "Many thanks,
Mr. Daring. You have been more trouble than worth, but it pleases me to know that you did make our job much easier when it comes to retrieving this." He lifts the golden ring now in his hoof. "I wager it will make a good profit."
'Where the bloody hell is Dasher?' Sniper wonders, for it's not like her to stay out of a fight like this. No matter, he can search for her when done dealing with this moron. "If the prophecy is true," He tries to get free from the henchmen, but they have him firmly pinned down. "you're a bloody moron Caballeron. You're going to throw this entire area into eight centuries of unrelenting heat for a bundle of money!" and being one who grew up in Australia, Sniper sure hell knows how that sort of heat feels.
The leader pony snorts, "That's emdoctor/em Caballeron to you." he corrects this griffin, who looks more than ready to throw further insults at him. Brushing that off, Caballeron admits smugly. "With the money Ahuizotl is going to offer me, I can retire and live life in splendor."
"In exchange of throwing this entire valley into hell." Sniper throws back, reminded to why he hates to been called a merc. They have no standards.
"One must make a few sacrifices for the sake of profit." Caballeron tells this unlikely griffin who is not swayed by money. Putting the ring over his head, "You could learn by example." and with "To the market, henchponies!" he runs off with his goons close behind.
Sniper tries to follow, but a sharp pain from his left hindleg reveals that one of the henchmen got him good. He grunts in pain, but still tries to move.
Aid Keen, who has been forced to watch that whole scene from the sideline, now with the danger over, trots to her companion and offers him to fix up his perhaps broken leg. "I am so sorry. I… I didn't know they would follow me." She apologizes while bandaging him. She honestly hadn't expected that group to be so tenacious to get that old ring from the temple. But now that it seems that prophecy might be true… which means her father's oldest tale wasn't just a story. "We have to stop them."
Sniper agrees on that one, though it's not part of the paycheck he and Aid Keen agreed on. It was only to receive the golden ring. "It's going to cost you extra." He remarks but does get up and starts limping after the thugs.
"Of course." Aid Keen smirks and follows, does stop when those three mares are standing, somewhat awkwardly outside. She frowns at this, more so when that blue pegasus says like an annoying fanmare: "Oh my gosh, you're really THE Daring Do! That is so cool!"
Sniper is not amused, he's not even flattered by what his partner said. "The bloody hell were you doing while I got my leg bursted by those thugs?" The three winches in embarrassment, Rainbow Dash more so, but that look reveals why she didn't help him: too caught up in her excitement about this "find." Sniper growls in annoyance, "If you can't focus on the job, bugger off," he puts back his hat and limps past the three. "and let me work. I don't need bloody detractions."
Aid Keen follows, quietly wondering how her griffin comrade knows those three ponies, but it's not important right now.
When partner and A.K. Yearling has disappeared into the forest, Rainbow Dash snaps out from her huge embarrassment and exclaims to her two friends. "We've gotta go help!" She needs to help Sniper— she might end up in the next book!
But Twilight Sparkle can see the same problem their griffin friend saw, "You heard Sniper, all we're doing is distracting him. We should leave them be!" she exclaims to Rainbow Dash, confident that Sniper can handle whatever he's going to do on his own.
But this pony is not going to drop the subject that easily and points out to Twilight. "How can we just stand by and do nothing? You know what's at stake here! Ahuizotl has been trying to gain control of the Tenochtitlan Basin by gathering the Rings of Scorchero since book three!" The golden rings of that temple have shown up once and a while throughout the book series and now, it seems that old enemy of Daring Do— her partner is soon doing an epic face-off "And he finally got it!"
Twilight ponders about that argument for a moment and mentally projecting the past books. "True, but the Rings were scattered to the four corners of Tenochtitlan, and without them, the Tenochtitlan Basin is only a bunch of ancient ruins."
"Only if you assume that the Rings have yet to be retrieved," Rainbow Dash argues back, like Twilight, knows every plot of the past books by memory. "and the ring Caballeron just stole isn't the last to completely restore the dark tower and its cruel hold on Tenochtitlan! Did you ever think of that?!"
Most of that went straight over her head but must admit. "Um, I'm not sure about all of that," Fluttershy speaks up, making the two others turn to her. She sheepishly stares down to the ground but still continues voicing her thoughts on this whole discussing. "but Sniper is our friend and he is strong and all, but he's hurt…"
Fluttershy makes a strong point, and Twilight hates to admit it, but she did let her own excitement that the Daring Do books are real, making her forget the important part: Sniper. "You're right, we should help him, but" She turns back to Sniper's partner. "it sounds we're way, way, way over our heads." Unlike Sniper, none of them have much experience dealing with exploring inside old and booby trap-filled ruins. And therefore, "We're going to need a plan in how we best can..." but Rainbow Dash, rash like always, flies off and yelling loudly: "I'm coming partner!" Twilight facehoof and quite miffed cries after the rainbow-haired pegasus, "That's not a plan!" but she doubts Rainbow Dash heard her.
**nearing evening**
Sniper checks the ground for tracks and must say "They are making this easy." and follows this track even a toddler could follow. Noticing a light not far off, he signs to Aid Keen that talking is no longer allowed. She nods and, after she'd written down a few notes, carefully follows him. Near the spot, Sniper removes several branches from a bush, giving him a better view of the scene about those four thugs. They are eating from a small bale of hay.
"Looks like they decided to have an early dinner—" Sniper is really close of letting go in his surprise and warn those four, but in the last second stops himself and now pissed, turns to glare at Rainbow Dash. She giggles embarrassingly and says weakly, "Maybe they want a full stomach before making their way back down the hill to the marketplace in town?"
Sniper groans annoyed and with the branches back in place, he turns to his current fangirling partner and signs her to be quiet, she blinks, nods and he walks over to another spot of the camp. Perfect, it's in their blind spot. He checks his still sour leg, but the fast healing this world has granted him has already removed most of the pain. So that means he can risk a fight. He prepares himself to jump at them, but of course… "Oh, I see. You're gonna ambush them like in book four at the Horavian caves!" Rainbow Dash starts her fangirling… "Or maybe, that neat trick you did in book three, where you swoop in and knock three guys down with one swing! Or maybe—"
"We got company!" One of the thugs yells and all four are ready for a fight.
Sniper facepalms while Rainbow Dash laughs sheepishly, a glare from the griffin and she lands and backs away, telling him in a hushed tone. "Just watching very quietly, heh."
Sniper rolls his eyes and since a takedown on all three is out of the question— thanks to his unfocused partner, he instead speeds inside, tackles the bale of hay into the fire. As hoped, it creates a bunch of smoke, giving him a bit of an edge. He grabs the whip and swings it at Caballeron, catching that sleazy pony around the neck and with a solid pull throws the leader onto the ground. Has to let go of the whip so he can jump out of the way from the goons. Sniper jumps into the air and lands on the bigger one, piercing his claws into the skin, the earth pony tries to buck him off but it only makes him dig the claws deeper into the flesh. The whole fight does stop when a loud roar echo through the area. The thugs freeze up for a moment, then utterly ignoring him in exchange of fleeing the area. Sniper gets thrown off the goon he stood on and jumping back on his feet, turns to whatever is fast approaching. A huge dark blue creature looks like a mix of a weird dog and a monkey from the trees.
"Caballeron!" This creature roars, proving to be sentient. It turns its eyes at him right as Sniper snatches the golden ring. "The ring! Give it to me griffin!"
"I'm not giving you a thing you bloody piker!" Sniper sneers back, jumping back when the creature roars and slams its fists after him. He throws the ring over to Aid Keen, who makes the cheeky comment to this creature: "Now, Ahuizotl, I know you love me, but I can't give you the ring 'til I've properly proposed." Revealing that is the guy her old man fought years past. Well, now he is going to help the daughter to finish the job her old man started. Sniper readies an arrow, aiming it at Ahuizotl, "We're going to turn your temple of doom into a big ass pile of rubble."
From the sideline, Rainbow Dash is snickering at how her partner and the author gave the main villain in the books some good cheek.
Ahuizotl snarling demeanor changes into confusion for a moment, then he smirks and straightens up. "Ah I see my old rival got himself a successor, though I never expected it to be a griffin." His beady meet Sniper's intense staring eyes. "Very interesting. So, new adversary of mine, let my friends here give a proposal you shouldn't decline." He snaps the fingers from the hand-tail, a lynx, a panther, a cheetah, a tiger and a small house cat appear, all snarling at Sniper.
Rainbow Dash, still in her fan-stupor is sweating bullets at how Sniper is going to get out of that situation.
Aid Keen and Sniper back away from the four large cats, with Sniper staying in front to defend his employee. With the tension high, Sniper snaps at the large cats. "Come at me!" The panther took the invitation and went at him. Sniper swiftly fires his arrow, hitting it straight in the face and the cat is knocked out. The remaining hesitates, then the tiger goes at him. It's coming in too fast, so dropping the bow, Sniper flies over the pouching feline, making it miss the target and returns the favor by pouching right on its face. With that one settled down, he tackles into the cheetah and catches the lynx as it jumps at him, making him lose his hat.
The house cat goes at Aid Keen, and did leave a few scratches over her face but the author quickly gets it off and throws the hissing feline away. She watches the scene of Lawrence fighting the other cats for just a moment before quickly leaving the area, so her father's biggest rival won't use her as a meat shield.
Noticing that Sniper dropped his hat, Rainbow Dash gets it and completely forgetting this is her partner, she makes the stupid mistake of calling/asking Sniper. "I've got your hat! You want me to toss it?"
Holding the panther's teeth away from his face and in disbelief in how idiotic his partner is acting, "What the bloody hell— forget the hat and help me fight these—" the other cats jump at him and after a quick struggle, they got him tied down. Still in her idiot phase, Rainbow Dash runs over, not at all thinking about her own might. "Don't worry! I'll help you!" This made her a perfect target for Ahuizotl which catches her and waves her around, signifying that if he tries anything, his partner will get hurt. Sniper growls but does not try and struggle against the ropes, nor the tiger carrying him away.
With that one secured, Ahuizotl tosses this bystander aside and walks smugly back to the Tenochtitlan Basin.
She gets back on her hooves and Rainbow Dash calls as she takes flight "I'll—" but it is interrupted by an angry Sniper: "Piss off!" The griffin avoids her gaze, growling, "I'd say you've already screwed this mission up plenty." Rainbow Dash lands on the ground, in disbelief of the harsh words but it does snap her out from her fangirling and realizing how much she has messed things up. Because of her, her partner might not survive this mission…
**Later**
Finally catching up to Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle mistakes the pegasus's depressive behavior as her being wounded and asks, "Quick, where does it hurt?" about to prepare the healing spell Medic taught her, but it turns out there is no need. For where it hurts on the speedster pegasus, well, it's only something Cadence can help with.
"In here."Rainbow Dash puts her hooves on her chest and heartbroken explains her two friends. "The dreaded Ahuizotl has captured sniper and the ring, and it's all my fault."
The two gasps, after a moment of silence, Fluttershy says ."I'm sure you did everything you could to help."
But she didn't! In fact, it's her fault this happened. "No! I am the one who put Sniper into this in the first place." She sighs in defeat, "He's right, I shouldn't be here… only get in his way of being the real-life version of Daring Doo…" getting up on her hooves, Rainbow Dash starts to leave. "Let's just go home… before I mess things up further."
Twilight walks after the down in the dumps Rainbow Dash. "Look, it came as a surprise for me as well to find out that Sniper is the griffin that inspired the Daring Do character, but we shouldn't turn our backs on him." She steps up in front of the blue pegasus. "You less so, Rainbow, you're his partner."
"He does not want my help." Rainbow Dash argues and besides… now that she knows the truth. "I always thought it was awesome Sniper was sorta like Daring Do, but knowing he IS Daring Do… no," She shakes her head. "he is way better off without me."
"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash but…" Fluttershy walks up beside Twilight Sparkle. "This isn't like you."
Twilight nods in agreement, "It's fine to look up to somepony— or griffin, but you've put Daring Do so high up on a pedestal— your own partner— you can't even see your own worth anymore!" Twilight calls out to the trying to leave pegasus. "Sniper knows you will be there for him when it counts, just as you know you can count on him. Rainbow, he might be the inspiration to Daring Do, but he is still Sniper, our friend, your partner of the Elements." That made Rainbow Dash stop, hopefully she got through her, if not well... they still have to go and help Sniper. "We gotta help. So, are you with us, or not?"
**Tenochtitlan Basin**
Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy hurry towards the temple, on the way, they encounter A. K. Yearling and that pony is not pleased to see them. "Oh great, haven't you fillies caused enough trouble?" She asks them in a hostile tone, yet the hint of fear is noticeable.
"We didn't mean to…" Fluttershy muses weakly and Twilight says in agreement: "We weren't aware that there was truth in the Daring Do books nor that Sniper is the one who inspired—"
"Sniper?" The author raises a brow in confusion and still frowning, "I got the sense you knew one another, but Lawrence isn't much of a talker. How do you know him?"
Oh, that is easy to explain, "Lawrence— well, we know him as Sniper, he's a friend of ours." Twilight tells Miss yearling and now onto the subject of their griffin friend, "We're here to rescue him."
Aid Keen snorts, "If it weren't for that blue pegasus, he wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place."
"We're here to fix that." Twilight replies and begins to move, asking the author of the books, "Do you know where they possibly have put Sniper?"
"I got an idea." Aid Keen replies somewhat reluctantly, unsure if these younger mares are trustworthy but she's kind of desperate to save Lawrence.
Inside the temple, Sniper finds himself restrained to a wall, staring down at water below which is filled with piranha. Ignoring those for now, he looks up to with smug-looking dog-monkey thing. "When I get out, I'm going to tear your three hands off and feed them to a crocodile and put that ugly head of yours on a wall!"
Ahuizotl laughs and will say, "Oh, it's such a pity I'm not going to hear more of your laugher-insults. They are rightfully much better than your predecessor." He shows this short-lived rival the last ring, telling the griffin. "Now, I must leave to commence the ring-placing ceremony to unleash eight hundred years of unrelenting, sweltering heat!" Laughing loudly, Ahuizotl leaves the griffin to be fed on the flesh-eating fish.
Water starts fossing in, increasing the water and thus the piranha gets closer to him. Sniper begins to struggle against the chains and manages to get the panels holding his claws and paws trapped free but they are heavy and from how quickly the water is rising. Sniper knows he only got one chance. With the last panel holding him in place, Sniper prepares himself and right as he got it free, begins to flap his wings. The panels still stuck to him are heavier than expected and Sniper can't fly away fast enough for the water. However, right as his tail is about to get chewed on: "Gotcha!" Rainbow Dash grabs his shirt and begins to pull him up. Sniper is quite surprised to see her, but quickly recovers and with the extra wing-power from her, they both get on where Ahuizotl was not long ago.
"Whew, close one." Rainbow Dash turns to her partner, "almost like when you went after the Sapphire Stone."
Breaking the panels off his claws and feet, "That wasn't me." he replies his partner, who has, more or less gotten over the fangirling. "It was Aid Keen's father."
"Oh, so…" Rainbow Dash looks around as if expecting the stallion who inspired Daring Do would appear. "where is he now?"
"Dead."
Rainbow Dash winches, and right as her partner break the last rock panel. "Okay, so how long have you been doing this?" Sniper gives her a look and she exclaims; "Come on, give me an idea which of the books were you!"
Rolling his eyes, "If it helps you to fucking focus on the mission: the book with the bloody giant spider was me."
Ohh so it's only recently, still cool though, anyways, back to business. "Come on partner, let's show Ahuizotl nopony messes with us!" Sniper smirks and they both hurry out to stop the ceremony that will turn this valley into a huge oven.
Deeper inside the temple, Ahuizotl and his lackeys dressed like Aertex are preparing to put down the last ring, thus activating the temple's dark powers. They do get interrupted when Aid Keen commands them: "Drop the ring or face the consequence, Ahuizotl!"
Ahuizotl snorts and commands his lackeys to place the ring along with the rest at the pillar, before they can though, Twilight teleports over and snatches the ring from them. Enraged Ahuizotl commands, "Get it!" and the Aertex ponies go at the trio. Twilight throws it over to Aid Keen, who kicks it away from a pony trying to catch it, and flapping her wings rapidly, gets just high enough to catch it. Aid Keen quickly takes the run for it, but gets tripped by a spear. The goon grabs the ring but when throwing over to their leader, Fluttershy catches it in between and she flies as fast as she can away, not wanting to be caught by the dog-monkey creature. Right before Ahuizotl gets his hands on it, Twilight takes it by the horn, and she speeds right past. Two goons jump at her, but they end up hitting one another as she teleported away.
While those three kept the ring away, Sniper and Rainbow Dash arrive. By his sign, Rainbow Dash follows her partner over to the pillar with twelve more rings, one bigger than the other. Here, Sniper tells her. "If we remove all of the rings, the temple will collapse." She nods and begins to help Sniper remove them while their friends keep the bad guys busy.
While removing the increasing heavy rings Rainbow Dash asks, the griffin. "How do you know about the rings?"
"Aid Keen is an archeologist." Sniper replies through the heavy lifting they both are doing, "She only needs me for protection or the heavy lifting-" adding as they go down for the last ring. "for the record, it was her who decided to nickname me Mr. Daring before those wankers." It was a bit annoying, but nothing he can do about as it stands now.
"You know," Rainbow Dash grabs the last ring, that one is ridiculously heavy. "I always knew you'd make a great Daring Do." Sniper hums in response and together they lift the ring, the temple starts trembling the further away from the ground they get with the ring.
Noticing the two and worse, that griffin somehow got free, Ahuizotl shouts, "Stop them!" the goons run over to do so.
Several spears get a tad too close to his legs, Sniper kicks them off and turning to his partner, who is lacking behind in altitude. "Flab those wings Dasher!" She does and they get the ring over the pillar.
As Sniper said, the whole temple begins to break down on itself, even though they are thugs, Rainbow Dash still warns everyone. "Run! This place is going down!" Friends and enemy take the run for it, Ahuizotl still tries to get them, but she and Sniper fly off with the biggest ring, leaving him in the collapsing temple.
The creature is fine though, only a few scratches and very pissed at this new adversary has bested him where the former couldn't. "You will pay for this griffin, you hear me! I will have my revenge!"
"Sounds like you got yourself a foe to deal with." Rainbow Dash remarks at what Ahuizotl shouted at her partner and much to her amusement, like a badass Sniper is, he merely said: "Then he better get in line."
Dropping the large ring, shattering it, Sniper turns to his partner with a smirk. "Better late than never, you got your head outta the clouds." Rainbow Dash laughs embarrassingly and although she did cause some issues. "But I'm glad you came, couldn't have done it without you partner." Rainbow Dash beams and next, she breaks his personal space with a hug. Sniper allows her for a moment, only pushes her away when it gets too awkward.
They fly down to the others, here Aid Keen and Sniper exchange a nod with one another, and the griffin turns to the three other mares. "You'll go on ahead. My contract with Mrs. Yearling is not yet complete." They nod and each group goes their separate ways.
**A week later. Ponyville**
The moment Sniper returned he got pounced by Rainbow Dash, who is once again in her fangirling mode. "You gotta tell me everything! Oh, oh, will I be included in the book?" He shrugs and continues walking with: "Not a clue. I did my job, nothing more."
"Oh come on Sniper, tell me at least you put in a good word for me?" Rainbow Dash whines and not making it better that her partner barks a laugher at her torment. Well, if he is going to be like that. "Whatever, I'll see when the book comes out." She flies off and back at her home, grabs the shared journal she has with her friends. Thanks to that unexpected adventure, a life lesson was learned.
"I just had the coolest adventure with my partner. Sniper had his cool moments, but now I know he's waaay cooler than I ever thought! But I got so wrapped up in how awesome he was, I almost forgot about how awesome I was. Good thing I got friends to remind me that awesome ponies— or griffins, are still, well, like anypony else. And with my head back in the game, it gave me a chance to show my partner that I got his back, just as I know he got mine."
She finishes it up and satisfied closes her first journal entry, before going back out to pester the real-life version of Daring Do about when he will go on his next adventure.
Not sure about you, but I like the thought of Sniper being the new Daring Do, especially when he never will tell anyone about it. He'll leave that to Rainbow Dash.
If you have any ideas to a new adventure, then feel free to suggest it. Though I think it only will appear in the sequel.
