My little pony belongs to Hasbro I dont own anything besides Rose and Kalaha
Thanks to rainbowstorm1001 for permission to use their character
Chapter 4
《At the forbidden jungle 》
It wasn't a good day for Daring Do. As soon as she seen the article on the artifact she wanted to acquire it before any bad guys could, but that wasn't the cause of her sour mood oh no, the cause had been a recent emerging of a new rival who, unlike Ahuizotl, could hold her own against her. The worst part was that based by her suspicions, she is using all sorts of artifacts to create something very powerful, Daring has spent the past 3 months trying to at least get some sort of a lead on her but she always had a plan to vanish from her trail.
Now Daring narrowed down the artifacts location to the forbidden jungle, she has to be quick if she is to arrive without interruption from her new nemesis. She focused back on her mission, cutting trough the rich vegetation with her machete
"There you are" she said as she was greeted with familiar architecture of the ancient ponies
As she took notice of the obvious look of Ahuizotl's thugs near the entrance she was almost grateful to not be dealing with her again
"Let's get to work"
《3 hours ago, POV Rose》
"Weird, I should be able to sense a dimmed spot in magic if that artifact was that powerful, but the whole damn jungle is that way!" Kalaha said with an annoyed tone
Rose could relate, they were at it for an entire week now and it was just because of this that it taken them that long
"!" Rose quickly moved to hide herself from view
"you heard that?" She whispered
"yes"
The two beings peered through the bushes to see the source of the voice
"Alright boys listen up!" The voice happened to belong to the creature Ahuizotl "Brawl! Strike! You guard the entrance"
""Yes sir!"" Said the two stallions
"I have a plan" said Rose before proceeding to share it with Kalaha
"Okay, time to make it work"
Both friends proceeded to announce their presence to the unique creature and his goons "Well hello Ahuizotl, care share what you have here?"
"Do I know you?" His goons already taking defensive positions around the temple
"Let's say Daring has a knack for making rivalries" Rose said with a sinister smile "I was thinking since we both came looking for the same thing how about we take out our dear archeologist together, of course for a price "
"Hmmm I'm generously offering 150 bits "
"Two hundred, we won't take on an enemy like Daring on top of helping you take the item for that low"
"I'll give you 170 paid upfront, that's my final offer"
"Then deals a deal" I said, grinning as as I took the money to my bag, after this we prepared to enter the temple "Sanny, you can guard the entrance with these gentlecolts" she would be infinitely more helpful than this blue opossum, unfortunately the nature of the artifact denied her entry without changing back
"Okay"
As we entered I immediately felt the effect of the amulet take place, ensuring I was stuck in this form until further notice. The first trap we encountered was in the form of a door and three bowls of clay, the inscription in glyps roughly translated to "Face the fruits of your creation"
"We have to create something from this clay, but I'm unsure what happens next"
"Uhh we knew that"
As Ahuizotl and his goon stopped trying to force the door open they began to shape their clay I walked to my piece
'That seems weird, I better make something that can't really be lethal in any way'
while I made something that resembled a flower others were less subtle about their taste. Ahuizotl made a figure of himself while his bodyguard predictably made a clay version of a gold ingot.
As the three placed the clay back into the bowls the pedals began to rumble Rose's flower shifted to a bigger form and then died as it tried to find some soil to feed from, the other two however weren't as lucky, Ahuizotl's statue grew into a size similar to him, then the gold ingot proceeded to fly over to the statue turning the already hardened clay to gold
"That wasn't meant to happen" said Ahuizotl with fear at the thought of fighting a solid gold statue of him. Unfortunately he wasn't left with much of a choice as the now alive contraption began to charge at him
As the statue slammed into Ahuizotl knocking him out it turned to me
I began rummaging through my bag trying to find something to take this thing down or at least make it easier to deal with
"That should do" I chuck the vial of liquid silver metal onto the statue while narrowly dodging the strikes from the hands and tail, it begins to quickly dissolve but not without the last punch at me, landing it on my stomach which caused me to fly to the other side of the room
'Ow, if I was a normal pony that would be a fatal blow, I have to be more careful' I thought as the wound began to regenerate, after a break I plunged deeper into the tomb
~POV Daring Do~
As i caused the branch of my hiding place to break falling onto and incapacitating the two guards I began to make entrance to the tomb but just as I was entering I felt a slight pressure coming from the air, jumping to the side my suspicions were validated for just a split second later the spot was hit by what appeared to be an arrow made of light
"Who-" I didn't get the chance to finish my sentence as I was forced to dodge another arrow
"Now Daring leaving already? We didn't even get to properly introduce each other"
Turning to the voice I saw a projection, as it was definitely a magic projection "Then who am I speaking to?" I said keeping an eye for any sources of light which could indicate the arrow's origin
"I am named Sanna, or Sanny if you choose, you don't have to introduce yourself, Daring Do" Sanna said as I noticed a faint shimmer in one of the trees
"And you're what? A mercenary hired by Ahuizotl to take me down?" I asked as I prepared to lounge at the light
"Heheh much more than that I assure you" was the only thing I heard from the voice before sidestepping the shot and flinging myself at the real attacker
"Uh!" Knocking them down I proceeded to deal a knockout blow
WHAK! only to be met with the polished marble of the bow
'That's gonna leave a mark' I thought while quickly recovering
"I didn't expect you to work out my position THIS quickly Miss Do, tough I admit I underestimated you a bit after our last meeting " She said, offering a slight bow of respect
This confused me for a moment 'When did I meet her' I thought before I noticed what exactly it was she was holding. It was a simple looking bow, the only difference being that it was made of marble instead of wood, the most distinctive part was an inscription in ancient unicorn runes translating to "May the arc of abundance grant you plenty" it wasn't hard to link her to the cloaked pony who accompanied her new nemesis to seize this artifact for herself
"I see you recognized our latest acquisition a fine item if I say so myself" she said before pulling on the string, an arrow forming immediately
I started dodging the arrows trying to find an opening to move closer, unfortunately the stream of well aimed projectiles was proving it to be extremely challenging
~POV Kalaha~
Slightly disappointed at not having the chance to show off the more unique features of the bow I continued to shoot at the slippery eel that was my opponent. I then felt a slight flicker of the anti-magic field before it disappeared completely
'Seems like Rose found the Artifact'
Knowing it won't take long for her to return I created an opening on my right hoof side. Predictably Daring quickly took advantage of it, ricocheting off of a tree to land a blow. Unfortunately for her I sidestepped and while she was clearing distance between us I whispered "twenty"
The arrow on my bow grew much brighter, disorienting and possibly for a short time blinking Do, I released my hold on the string and watched as the arrow made 20 perfect copies of itself
~POV Daring Do~
Daring was momentarily shocked at the display of the power of the so called arc of plenty but she wasn't where she was without seeing her fair share of suprises, as the arrows raced to her position she quickly flew over the trees and began to dive to avoid being shot out of the sky by Sanna
At this time she saw Aphra emerge from the only entrance of the tomb, probably with the stolen artifact stashed in her enchanted saddlebag
*pant* *pant*
"Well hello again Daring Do, I gotta admit holding your own against the arc is impressive but don't fret, the artifact has been donated to a good cause" she said with a smirk
"Oh that's what you call stealing now Aphra? I won't let you take it"
"Like you have a choice. Sanny?"
She then felt the dizziness of forced teleportation, after a brief moment of recovery she realized where they sent her, at this moment she said the only words which wouldn't be included in the book but nevertheless accurately described her situation
"Oh buck"