Many thanks to Whifi for giving permission to use his “Daring Do Love Face” as the cover art for this story!
http://whifi.deviantart.com/

Part One

Slowly, you place your front-right hoof on the first symbol on an obviously pressure-plated floor. The dusty, polished marble plates had been arranged in a six by six grid, with no route around them. Once satisfied that you had determined the correct sequence of six symbols, based on constellations visible in the nights sky, you continue to make your way across, slowly and carefully trying to avoid putting your hooves on any of the other plates.

Having passed the first challenge, you find yourself against the second - a large hole in the ground, with no visible bottom, flowing down into darkness. Taking a further look around, you notice that there is a very thick tree-root coming through the ceiling - probably thick enough to take your weight. You pull your whip from your saddlebag and flick it towards the root, the leather smooth on your tongue as you hold the whip in your mouth. Giving it a quick tug to check that the root will hold your weight, you leap, swinging on the creaking leather to the other side of the chasm below.

Grunting, you pull yourself up the crumbling stone ledge, your forehooves scrabbling desperately whilst you try with all of your might to pull on the creaking bullwhip clenched between your teeth. Slowly, you manage to get your hind legs onto solid ground, and sit, gasping for breath for a few moments.

The crumbling and ruined temple you were in was supposed to be linked to the lost city of Catlantis, which was built by an ancient feline race before ponies became the dominant species on the planet. The cats had been much larger than the common domestic pets found all over Equestria, closer to the size of gryphons, and had left decaying ruins in the most difficult to reach parts of the world, untouched by the progression of society. The architecture of the place was utterly amazing, massive pillars painstakingly sculpted into scratching posts, the scent of wild catnip on the slightly musty air, and you can hear the eerie crunch of finely crushed zeolite under your hooves.

When your friend Mulus Braydee had first told you that he’d managed to find a map to the place, you had been intrigued. When he told you that other archaeologists also knew about it, you knew that you had to reach the place first to make sure that any artifacts within didn’t end up in the wrong hooves.

You had already had to deal with the young dragon named Drake in Saddle-Paulo, and grin at the thought of the authorities finding him cuffed to a lamp-post. Your other main competitor was a twenty-something year old treasure hunter by the name of Clopft, but the pistol-wielding unicorn was probably too busy living up her celebrity status. There was of course, one more mare who could show up still - the one and only Daring Do.

Do worked for a rival university, and in fairness you had been pretty impressed by her work on the few occasions her academic papers made their way into the major journals of archeology. What concerned you though, was that her publications never mentioned what exactly happened to the items she recovered; which usually meant that the artifacts were sold on to private collectors rather than donated to museums, where they belong. You had met the adventurer herself a few times, but always in the race to track down whatever mystical artifact had been revealed through ancient texts re-discovered after being lost.

As you enter the next chamber, you stop to look for traps. You see that the roof of the room is covered in a rusty metal grille, and the tiled floor floor covered in small pockmarks. Squinting, you see hair-thin wires stretched across the corridor - always a bad sign. Gripping your whip between your teeth, you flick it at one of the wires, and see a rusty iron spike slide out of the holes in the grille in the ceiling, straight down into the floor. Cutting the wires would take too long, and the spaces between them and the floor, not to mention each other, are very slim.

Thinking, you try to work out how the ancient Catlanteans would have gotten through this particular trap. They would have known what to do, and would undoubtedly have some sort of cultural or physical advantage to help them overcome it, such as being able to leap the gap you had barely climbed to get into this damn place. As the gears slowly turn in your head, you notice that the gap between the grille and the trigger wires is probably large enough for you to fit through, and you realise the advantage that the Catlanteans would have had - their claws. Realising that the slightest movement would trigger the trap, you stow your fedora in your saddlebag, followed by the ripped brown shirt you had habitually worn on each adventure.

Obviously, you don’t have claws, so the expected route of climbing the ceiling was not one open to you.

“Wow, a wire-spike trap. I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since I beat you to the... well, I beat you to everywhere. I guess you’re getting old, Doctor Bones.”

“Hello, Do,” you sigh, turning to see the grayscale-maned pegasus flapping lazily behind you, “I saw your paper on the Sapphire Stone. I expect that’s in the hooves of some damn collector by now though?”

The mare shrugs, irritating you further.

“Girl’s gotta make a living. Any idea what you’re going for in this place?” she asks, giving you a brief look over, her eyes lingering on your chest for slightly longer than you expect.

“Nope. Mulus said it was valuable though, so it belongs in a museum.”

“Wait, wait, Mulus Braydee? Didn’t he get lost in his own museum?” Daring says, laughing, “Heck, Doctor McHay told me about the time he managed to get himself captured by a bunch of gryphons.”

“McHay? The hack from the Alicorn expedition?” you ask, half-concentrating on the conversation, trying to think of a way around the trap.

“McHay, the leading expert on Catlantis and the Catlanteans on the face of the planet.” Do replies, obviously getting irritated, hooves on her hips as she continued to maintain her position mid-air... you can’t help but notice her figure in that pose, her defined yet subtle hips stirring something primitive in your mind.

“Really?” you respond, the more modern parts of your brain forcing you to think about the first book you read on the subject several years ago, “I heard that was Oat’Meall, Cartier and Buckson. They were on the scene at least ten years before McHay even got his first PhD.”

Do snorts, slightly frustrated, and you grin at her with a wink. Looking at the agitated mare, you can’t help but notice her inner fire when she’s pissed off - she’s obviously a passionate pony, and absolutely sure that she’s right.

“So, what does McHay think?” you ask, still smirking, allowing your eyes to drift over her body for just a little too long, almost as if caught in a daydream.

“Well, the evidence suggests that this isn’t the lost city at all. Probably just an outpost.” Do says, landing with a slight crunch on the gravelly floor, just behind you. “Have you considered cutting the wires?”

“Why yes,” you reply sarcastically, rolling your eyes, “But usually, that’d set of a different trap.”

“Can you read Catlantean?” Do says, smiling sweetly at you, pointing at a series of scratched letters on a half-worn away plaque. Squinting at the sign, you can just about determine that the words ‘cut the wires’ are engraved, but not all of the tablet is there.

“Y’know, I’d put twenty bits on the rest of that tablet reading ‘Do not’, as in ‘Do not cut the wires’.”

“When you’re done, I’m going to cut them.” she replies, flipping the explorers’ hat off of her head and into her mouth.

“DAMNIT DO, WAIT!” you yell as she flings the hat into the mess of wires. Diving for the floor, you wrap your forelegs around your head to protect yourself as you hear the plink of a wire snapping.

You then hear a new sound, one like rope freely running through a pulley, and look up at Daring, who was looking down at you, laughing.

“Wow, Fedora Bones, you’re one hell of a pus-”

Before Do could finish, the ground opens up beneath you, revealing that you had been stood on a stone trap-door.

Naturally, you fall.

Rushing water.

Cold rushing water.

As your eyes acclimatise to the darkness, you can see somepony in the water in front of you, and realise that it must be Daring.

“Do! You alive?” you yell at her, trying to swim with the current to get closer to her.

Receiving no reply, you wrap a foreleg around her limp body and haul her face out of the water.

“Daring, C’mon, wake up...”

“Crap.” you say to nopony in particular. Looking around, you find yourself floating into what looks like a massive underground cavern, impressive stalactites and stalagmites visible in the gloom. Spying an island in the middle of the cave, you swim towards it, floating on your back and dragging the unconscious Do in one foreleg, taking care not to let her nose and mouth slip under the icy cold water. As you kick your hind legs to keep you moving, you feel the cold starting to numb your body, and are relieved when you can feel the sand underneath you.

As quickly as you can, you lay her out on the sand, coarse under your hooves but strangely not cold like the water had been. Putting your ear to her lips, you realise that she isn’t breathing and quickly take a deep breath. Sealing your mouth around hers, you watch her chest rise as you breathe into her, before beginning compressions on the motionless mare’s chest.

“Don’t you dare die on me...” you tell her, before giving a second breath.

Suddenly, Daring splutters and coughs up a few mouthfuls of water, finally able to breathe for herself. Sighing with relief, you sit down and allow her to regain her senses.

“Whu... what happened?” she asks, still partially dazed, staring upwards.

“You almost got both of us killed. That’s what happened.” you reply, scolding her.

Even sodden with water and having almost died, Daring leaps back to her hooves.

“What are you trying to say?” she says, aggressively.

“That you’re an amateur, sweetheart!” you yell back, “You should have been more careful!”

“Oh please! How many times have I beaten you? How many times have you escaped someone like, I don’t know, Ahuizotl?”

“Ahuizotl!?” you reply with a laugh,

“Yeah!”

“I’ve never had to escape from that jackass, sweetheart, because I shot him the first time he even tried to mess with me!” you scream, obviously shocking Daring.

“You shot him!?”

You had indeed. Ahuizotl himself had tried to block your exit from a small town just south of Mairo, using some fancy martial art and putting on something of a display. The gentlecolt in you would have gone hoof-to-hoof against such an opponent normally, but you had eaten something that disagreed with you the night before, and were suffering quite badly from “The Trots” - so, you shot him in the chest. The townsponies had applauded you briefly for such an action, and then ran you out of town.

“This isn’t a game, Kid.” you eventually tell Do, who had began chuckling to herself over the demise of her old foe, “You still made a school-filly mistake that could have killed us both. You’re a damn fool.”

“Yeah?” she asks, taking a step or two towards you, “Well maybe if you didn’t suck at disarming traps we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“I. Was. Working. On. It.” you tell her, taking a step closer.

“You’re such a plothole, Fedora Bones.” she replies, her face inches from yours, still fuming with anger, “and what’s worse? You’re the kind of stallion who thinks he can just swan in, all rugged and brave and have anypony he wants!”

“Anypony I want!? PLEASE, Sweetheart! You’ve got skills, but you’re not that good. Maybe you should just stay in the damn library.” you reply, gazing into those deep fuschia eyes.

Daring slaps you, knocking you to the ground, before pouncing on you and locking her lips with yours...

Part Two

With Daring Do latched to your face, you find yourself pinned against the curiously warm sand. Her flavour is smooth, like caramel, but with her on top, it feels completely wrong. Leaning up slightly, you try to get into the right position to roll with her, to allow you to take the lead.

“Nuh-uh. You’re staying down there, Fedora.” she says, recognising your actions, pushing down on your shoulder with her hoof, the fire in her voice still present, “Don’t ruin this for me.”

“Oh yeah?” you reply, before rolling again, but this time pinning Daring underneath you, “What if I think you need to be put in your place?”

She struggles as you lean down and kiss her neck slowly, nibbling at her, making her occasionally groan with pleasure, interspersed with deep breaths blown against your neck. Slowly, you begin to feel her hind leg rising between yours, brushing your inner thigh and causing you to give a sigh of pleasure of your own, before she jerks it upwards, kicking you somewhere incredibly delicate.

Yelping in pain, you pull back with a jerk, taking the weight off of the mare in your hooves. Daring grins and pushes you away, winking at you as she pulls herself back up, erect wings pointing straight upwards towards the roof of the cavern.

“Wear the hat,” she says, “I always thought you looked hotter with it on.”

Laughing, you pull the sodden fedora from your saddlebag, place it back on your head and then tackle her, hooves finding her proud, strong wings easily, and you pull them around the pair of you as you roll in the sand, fine grains flying in the dark. Eventually the roll comes to a stop with you on top once again.

“Nice try, sweetheart,” you purr into Daring’s ear, “but this is my show.”

You start to rub her wings, and find Daring in ecstasy, yet still actively struggling as she slowly responds to your kisses and gentle rubs, trying to get back on top.

“Don’t make me bring the whip out.”

“Mhmm...” Daring half-moans, “What about the whip? That could be fun...”

Suddenly, you feel the ground beneath you start to shift, and assuming that it’s simply Daring Do’s attempt to get you under her once more, you press down on her again, still feeling the movement even through her toned, slender body pressed against yours.

“Wow, you’re really getting into this, huh?” you ask between kisses.

“Wait, that’s not you?” she asks, pushing you back, a confused look on her face.

“I’ve made the earth move for mares before, but no, that’s not me.” you tell her with a grin, your eyes locked with hers.

The ground shakes again, and you begin to hear a bizarre whirring coming from something deep beneath the sand. Quickly, you and Daring get back to your hooves and brush yourselves off as the tip for a massive drilling machine bursts through the sand, shining red with heat, lighting the scene briefly before the machine stops after having completely surfaced.

Recognising the symbol of a white circle containing a black crescent against a scarlet background on the side of the massive mole machine, you dash for cover, dragging the still heavily-aroused pegasus with you. From behind the stalactite and with a hoof firmly over Daring’s mouth, you watch as massive flood lights on the side of the vehicle illuminate the scene.

With a squeak, a door begins to open on the side of the cylindrical part of the mole-machine, and thick black smoke flows from the portal, followed by several ponies in uniforms collapsing out, and then by one who is obviously their leader.

“Jackboot!” he screams, in a heavy Mecklish accent, directed at a unicorn coughing and spluttering on the sand, “Befestigung des Bohrers, oder ich werde deinen Kopf zu haben!” [Fix the drill, or I will have your head!]”

“Ja, kommandant.” he replies, flipping a pair of goggles over his eyes and using his horn to levitate a set of welding gear from a storage compartment on the outside of the vehicle.

You know the stallion giving the orders. You know him because of his lust for power, and sheer outright insanity. He is Einen Hoden - leader of the New Lunar Republic, a radical political movement seeking to see Princess Celestia overthrown, and Princess Luna as the new ruler of Equestria.

You had first met Einen at the Grand Galloping Gala - a year or two after Princess Luna had returned. The earth pony had been incredibly enthusiastic about the old fashioned princess returning to rule, but had been publicly ridiculed when Luna herself revealed that she had no interest whatsoever in overthrowing her sister.

Einen had been outcast from the Canterlot nobility in his shame, and had become obsessed with ancient artifacts and occult nonsense that he believed he could use to change the royal mare’s mind. His end-game plan was to convince her to take over the rule of Equestria from Celestia, a being that Einen clearly believed to be a tyrant, and to convince Luna to lead the nation in a glorious new technological and magical era as a legitimate ruler put in place by her subjects.

The thing that you found most interesting was the accent that he was using; It was clearly meant to be Mecklish, but your own research into the insane billionaire suggested that he was from a simple town outside of Fillydelphia.

“The crazy ones are only a problem when they have either money or power - if they’ve got one, then they’ll certainly get the other, and then you’re in trouble.” your father had once told you - and he’d never even met Einen. It was funny how the old Shetlander's words often rang true, and you honestly wish that he'd been able to get out of Canterlot University's Library and tag along on more of your adventures.

Looking to Daring, you raise your free hoof to your lips, urging her to stay quiet and watch, the bright lights in the gloom making her even prettier than she had been when the two of you had been wrestling in the sand, moments ago. You release her, and she peers around the stalactite with you, before prodding you frantically, noticing her hat bobbing in the water between you and the NLR soldiers.

Daring tries to make a move, and you grab her tail in your mouth, hauling her back behind the stalactite before any of the unwell-looking soldiers or their commander notice. Seeing her blushing deeply, with an odd smile on her face after you yanked her tail, you stifle a laugh as Einen leaps to his hooves to try and rally his troops.

“Hengste! [Stallions!]” Einen declares, making the still gasping and partially asphyxiated ponies before him snap to attention, “sind wir sehr nah. So sehr zur Erreichung dieses Zieles zu schließen. Ich bin mir sicher, dass die verlorene Stadt hier ist, ist es lediglich ein Fall von den Anweisungen folgen, die uns von diesem charmanten jungen Drachen im Austausch für seine Freiheit.” [we are very close. So very close to reaching our goal. I am certain that the lost city is here, it is merely a case of following the instructions given to us by that charming young dragon in exchange for his freedom.]

The mention of Drake gives you a pang of guilt, knowing that Einen and his stallions would have beaten the information out of him - made worse when you see Do look at you, mouthing Drake’s name.

“Kommandant!” you hear Jackboot yell, from inside the mole, “I’ve fixed it, sir, but we will need a new clutch when we have secured the city.”

“Gut.” Einen says, seemingly to himself as he surveys the now well-lit area around him. As his eyes move around the cavern, your heart sinks when the stallion glances towards the stalactite that you are hiding behind, and you motion for Daring to get ready to run.

Slowly, Einen walks to the edge of the water, staring at something that you find to thankfully not be you. Hooking a dark brown hoof around Daring’s hat, the stallion lifts it out of the water and examines it, before turning back to his soldiers.

“Hengste! Sie ist hier. Wenn Sie sie sehen, sie zu töten. [Stallions! She is here. If you see her, kill her.] he says, carefully looking around the cavern once again, making you thankful for the tall and thick stalactite formed over thousands of years ago.

“Was ist mit Fedora Bones, was sollen wir tun, wenn er hier ist auch, Sir? [What about Fedora Bones, what should we do if he is here too, sir?]” one of the younger soldiers asks, receiving a glance of disgust from the other troops for speaking in Mecklish.

“Bringt ihn zu mir lebendig, privat. Ich will Rache für seinen Spott von mir in Gegenwart von unserer Königin haben. [Bring him to me alive, private. I will have revenge for his ridicule of me in the presence of our Queen.]” Einen replies, making Do mutter under her breath about your recklessness.

“My recklessness? He asked me to introduce him to her, sweetheart. It’s not my fault that he’s batshit insane!” you hiss back, “Are you able to do anything other than take cheap shots?”

Daring smiles, and turns, planting a kiss on your lips with a cheeky wink as she brushes her forehoof against the sensitive area she kicked earlier, making you blush.

“How about we discuss that when we’ve got the goods?” she replies, quietly, into your ear.

Eventually, and to the joy of the soldiers sat on the sandy island, the mole-machine’s engine starts up once more. They quickly stand up again, and file back in with Einen Hoden taking up the rear, who then closes the hatch and deactivates the flood lights. You hear the lumbering machine move in the now pitch-black, and assume that it’s travelling forwards into the far wall of the cavern, and it bores through into the rock, leaving you and Daring Do alone in the dark once again.

After a few minutes without the bright light, your eyes are finally able to see in the dark once more, focussing on the Daring Do’s rear end as she picks up her hat, that Einen had carelessly thrown to the ground after examining it.

“So, what do you think, do we follow them?” she asks, flipping her hat back to it’s rightful place on her head.

“They must know something if they’re drilling directly there, and it definitely beats trying to work our way through traps.” you reply, “Especially with you setting them off and nearly getting me killed.”

“You know,” Daring replies, with a saucy glance, before she begins to walk towards the tunnel, “I am totally going to get you for that, but we need to stop them first.”

“Agreed. Let’s go uncover this priceless relic, then I’ll plunder your hidden treasures later.” you say, following her.

“Hidden what now?” Daring replies, looking back at you with a subtle flick of her tail - grinning again.

Part Three

“That machine is fascinating...” Daring says, leading the way down the dark tunnel, the rumble of the drill far ahead, probably around five-hundred meters, you guess.

As you walk with her you begin to realise that the grooves left by the drill feel odd under your hooves and wonder if it’s simply the lack of light causing your senses to heighten as the pair of you move through the dark. You can feel the incline of the tunnel, and soon realise that you are moving in an upwards spiral, and that the rock is still curiously warm, similar to the temperature of the sand that you and Daring had had your ‘interlude’ on before Einen and his soldiers had arrived.

“Yeah. He’s always got some sort of crazy mechanical thing.” you reply, thinking about the warmth of the rock beneath your hooves, “He even tried jetpacks once.”

“So... why haven’t you shot him then?” Daring replies, obviously trying to tease you, the tone of her voice putting across the body language that she’d been giving you so far.

“Honestly? I don’t know,” you reply, chuckling slightly, “He’s never directly tried to kill me, it’s always been ‘Bring him to me alive’, that sort of thing. Part of me wonders if he’d actually do it, if he was given the chance.”

The tunnel rumbles, and suddenly light can be seen spilling around the gentle curving incline of the tunnel, which you assume to mean that the drill had finally reached it’s destination.

“Huh.” Daring says, taking a closer look at the wall of the tunnel, “Do you see this, Fedora? They’ve cut through a massive vein of what looks like... well, I think it could be a foundation, but the way it’s catching the light... I don’t know of any building material that catches the light like that.” Daring says, pointing at odd flecks in the foundation that appear to reflect all the colours of the visible spectrum, tiny rainbows reflected over your coat as you hop over the exposed structure.

“Yeah, we should really move faster,” you tell her, starting to worry about what, if anything, the NLR would find at their destination, “I don’t want to get there and find the drill heading back down this way. Let’s go.”

As you peek out of the mouth of the tunnel, you find the mole machine abandoned in a large and ornate hall, but far more technologically advanced than anything pony-kind has ever seen before.

The high, dark ceiling is covered with moving dots, representing what you come to realise is a magnificent stellar map, recognising patterns from constellations you had been taught by your father as a foal, on a dig in a vast and beautiful desert - spending the long and cold nights around the fire with the diggers, being taught local dialects via song, and which of the local flora were edible.

In the corner of the hall, Daring finds a set of steps leading to the ornate mezzanine floor above. She touches something on what looks like a desk, and you hear her gasp as inch-high glowing letters drift out of nothingness onto a sheet of glass acting as a window overlooking the hall itself.

“Oh... oh wow! Fedora! Get over here!” Daring yells, her eyes wide in amazement at the Catlantean words that she had coaxed into appearing by pressing seemingly random buttons.

“Damnit Do, be quiet! What is it?” you call out in a hushed voice from below, looking for the NLR ponies and realising that they’d obviously carried on searching the place on-foot.

“Well, let’s put it this way. We haven’t found the lost city, but I know where it is!”

“But this place is huge! How can this not be the lost city?” you ask again, cursing how loud the attractive mare was being as you quietly move up the stairs, your hooves making a gentle clopping noise on the polished steps.

“I told you, it’s probably just an outpost, but Fedora, you really, really need to read this. I hate to admit it, but I don’t know all of the words...” Daring says, thankfully much more quietly, as you approach her from behind.

“I’ve got most of Oat’Meall’s notes memorised, what are you reading?”

“It’s an account of how they came to Equestria! This is going to be huge! You and me? We’ve hit it big time!” she says excitedly, shuffling on the spot, giddy as a school-filly.

“Do,” you say, pulling her face to yours, her eyes trying to keep following the letters, “Tell me what it says.”

“They were nomads, refugees, from a war. Two factions of a religion, fighting over... I don’t know, something about hats, hot dogs and doughnuts...” she says, frequently pausing to consult a battered, leather-bound book pulled from inside her own hat, “but it could be that I’m translating it wrong... anyway, upon leaving their home, they were guided by a list of directions given to them by somepony named Cloister the... the stupid?”

“McHay’s notes, right?” you say, interrupting with a smirk despite your own notes confirming her translation by giving you the same result.

“Who, from what I’m getting,” Daring says, obviously ignoring you, “was a powerful being ‘frozen in time’. The Catlanteans found our world, and... Whoa.”

“Whoa?”

“They... Fedora, they gave the gift of sentience to our early ancestors, after they took pity on our world. They taught us their language, helped early ponies understand the world around them, explained things like fire...”

“Carry on,” you tell her, still looking around, again worried by the apparent absence of Einen and his soldiers.

“It also makes reference to a star chart, apparently our world was in a really weird decaying rotation around the sun, and they introduced a guardian to protect the planet by magically correcting our orbit every... hmm,” she says, pausing with a confused look on her face and consulting the journal once more, “I’m not sure about the math, they have a different calendar to us, but I think it’s in July, around the time of the Summer Sun Celebration.”

Curious, you take a look at the scratchy text, floating on the pane of glass and then at Daring’s journal, double checking her work.

“When the sun is at its closest. Definitely sounds like the Summer Sun Celebration to me. Do you think this means...”

“Yeah.” Daring replies, interrupting, her mouth hanging open slightly, the two of you together, sides touching as you both read and translate.

“So, where’d they go?” you muse out loud, your hoof scratching your rough, rugged chin.

“They only stopped here for a few hundred years, before continuing their search for a planet called Fuchal.” she says, before waving a hoof towards the screen, causing a new and vastly different series of symbols to appear. You gasp, recognising them as the sequence you hopped over when working your way through the traps, before Daring had found you.

“What? What’s wrong? Daring asks.

“That sequence. I didn’t understand it until now, I knew they were important, but it’s their promised land... this is amazing, Daring.”

“Y’know, we’ll never see it.” Daring says, laying her head on your shoulder.

“No, we won’t. But someday who knows, maybe one day ponies will take to the stars, maybe they’ll make it to Fuchal and find the Catlanteans.” you reply, placing a kiss on her cheek and making the adventurous mare blush in surprise.

Somehow, after a few more button presses, Daring manages to pull up a map of the ancient facility. Several areas of the building appear cross-hatched with red, obviously meaning that they’re not safe. The pair of you notice a green blip, somewhere in the middle of what looks like the room that you’re stood in, with several other green blips moving towards yours via a corridor. As the sound of hooves on rock gets louder, you come to realise that the blips were obviously representative of yourselves and the NLR soldiers you had followed. Daring soon catches on, and she grabs you whilst diving to the floor behind the console.

Whilst she’s sat straddling you, you can’t help but grin like an idiot, feeling the attractive young mare’s perfectly toned body wrapped around you, one delicate sandy-coloured hoof over your mouth with her mane tickling one side of your neck, her breath feeling lovely against the other side. As she looks into your eyes, you see her blush, and she quietly shifts to stop herself rubbing against a particular part of you whose interest had been piqued. Glancing upwards, you notice that the lights on the console had thankfully gone out again, but you can now hear muffled conversation from the soldiers on the floor below.

Noticing her wings beginning to rise, you nod towards them, and she turns her head, turning pale with fright as the tip of her half-erect left wing-tip pokes just over the console - probably visible through the window behind it to the ponies now below.

Without hesitation, you grab the errant appendage and tug it sharply down towards you, making Do whimper, her eyes shooting closed and her perfect teeth biting her lip at the sensation as she stifles a moan.

Realising that she obviously enjoyed the sensation, you play with her wings a little more, making her buck against you slightly, forcing your bodies closer together. Again, a stifled moan is whimpered into your ear, and you smile a little more, with her hoof still covering your mouth. Slowly and carefully she pulls back, scowling at you, her eyes giving a distinct “Not now”, but the struggling wings under your hooves definitely giving a message of “Oh my, yes, please now”.

Sighing, you resign to keeping still with the mare on top of you - her grayscale mane in your eyes, stopping you from seeing anything.

She freezes on the spot as you hear the click of a safety catch being disengaged.

“Nicht Bewegen! Dreh dich um, langsam ab. [Don’t move! Turn around, slowly.]” you hear the gruff and tired voice of Jackboot say as he points his weapon at the pair of you...

Part Four

“So... not only have ve captured Fedora Bones, but ve also seem to have found Daring Do.” Einen Hoden says, as Jackboot binds your hooves and the other soldiers pointing their weapons at you, “Herr Jackboot informed me that he found you in quite zhe compromising position , I was unavare that the pair of you vorked together?”

You stay silent, scowling at Einen as he laughs, noticeably not joined by his cronies. As he continues talking, you can’t help but notice the horrific forced accent he was using, and wish you could reach over to slap him stupid.

“Tell me, Doctor Bones, vhat exactly are you searching for before you vere... caught vis your pants down?” Einen croons, gloating about your capture, “Ve came looking for veapons, und a device, a device vith zhe power to re-avaken zhe Nightmare Moon und bring our glorious revolution.”

“Nightmare Moon? I thought you wanted Luna?” You ask, worried by his new infatuation with the alter ego of the Moon Princess, trying to coax the re-awakening of a deity that you had read about as a student, one filled with malice and anger, spreading the thick velvet of starless nights over the whole of Equestria, if not the known world. You remember reading that not even the might of the gathered nations of the planet had been unable to defeat Nightmare Moon in combat, and that it took Celestia close to the brink of her own destruction to banish her sister even with the Elements of Harmony in play.

“Oh, mein simple simple treasure hunter. You know yourself zhat Luna has spurned mein advances. Zhe Nightmare vould value mein efforts at giving unto her zhe throne of Equestria, und zhen zhe vorld. She destroy Celestia und vould become a queen, und I vould be her king.”

“You’re insane, the Elements of Harmony-” Daring says, cut off by Einen.

“ZHE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY VOULD FAIL.” Einin screams, his face turning red with fury, “Zhe veapons here vould vaporize zhe silly little mares in an instant! Ve seek to bring zhe full potential of zhis city unto her Majesty’s arsenal, und viz it, we shall destroy any pathetic opposition from Celestia.”

“So that’s your plan? To start a war? To kill thousands, if not millions, just so you can couple up with a mare who would plunge the world into darkness? Daring was right, Einen - you’re insane.”

“I am beginning to grow impatient vis your... disrespect, Doctor Bones. Herr Schnitzel, kill zhe mare.” Einen says, grinning as another one of his soldiers readies his weapon, aiming at Daring. You begin to feel like the world is slowing around you as your mind tries in desperation to find some way of stopping him, and part of you wonders if your time with Daring had been more than just lust.

“Einen, stop! I need her!” you yell, watching Do’s eyes widen with fear as Schnitzel readies his weapon, a gryphon-made firearm adapted for use by ponies, similar to the paintball markers you had seen other ponies playing with, pretending and acting through their own little wars in specially crafted environments.

“Und vhy vould I vant to do zhat?” Hoden replies, raising a hoof and signalling for Schnitzel to stop.

“She’s the only one who understands the language. We were working together, you were right,” you lie, looking at the ground, trying your hardest to look ashamed.

“I still fail to understand,” Einen starts, lifting your head level with his, “vhy she is important.”

“You... you want access to the city, right? Have you noticed that none of your soldiers can operate the panels? It all works for her. I don’t understand why, it doesn’t work for me either! We found a map-”

“We?” Daring says, cutting in surprised.

“Fine. She found a map.”

“Zhat ist more like it. Herr Schnitzel, bind her wings. Jackboot, you vill guard the good doctor whilst we search for this map. If he tries to escape, zhen kill him.”

You watch as Daring tries to fight being pulled with them back to the control room, whilst subtly wriggling your hooves against your bindings. Several minutes pass by, and they reappear with Daring still putting up a fight, and you wince as one of the soldiers smacks her in the face to subdue her. They walk down the stairs dragging the unconscious mare and Einen grins upon seeing your reaction to their mistreatment of her.

“Don’t worry, Doctor Bones; vhen we are done vis her, you vill get your turn.”

Once the group are out of view, having carried Daring Do down a corridor on the ground level of the room, Jackboot sighs and retreats briefly into the mole machine. Struggling a little more desperately, you keep an ear out for the return of your captor and stop moving when you hear a loud clang and a stream of cursing from within.

When Jackboot returns, he is carrying a heavy-looking toolbox in his mouth and has an acetylene tank levitating behind him. Not fully paying attention, the stallion sets about fixing some minor damage to the outside of the mole, occasionally throwing you a cautious glance through the welding mask strapped to his face. As he welds, you feel the ropes around you begin to slacken and are soon able to slip loose from them. Once his work is complete the mask is removed and Jackboot levitates a cigarette from a carton in his toolbox and lights it with the pilot flame of his welding torch.

“You smoke, herr Bones?” he asks, offering you the packet, held using the magic of his horn.

You accept, and let Jackboot place a cigarette between your lips using telekinesis. He then turns around to try and find something to light the little white stick with, and you rise as silently as you can. As he turns back to you, you pull up onto your rear hooves and punch him in the face.

The engineer reels, falling backwards, and after getting back to his hooves he then launches himself at you. You feel your ribs take the brunt of the impact from the flying enraged stallion, and tumble back towards the massive steel cone of the mole. Despite the aching in your side, you get up again in time to punch Jackboot in the face with an impressive left-cross. You feel the tingle of magic enveloping you, and are hurled across the room by Jackboot, who was obviously used to lifting heavy equipment using his magic. Narrowly missing the sharpened tip of the transport, you grit your teeth and get up again as Jackboot walks up behind you, with his heavy toolbox raised over his head.

With your last bit of strength, you throw your rear hooves into his chest, powerful leg muscles forcing him backwards like a rag doll into the tip of the mole machine with a crunch mixed with the clanging of tools as he drops his toolbox. Curious as to what the crunching noise was, you turn around and your eyes widen with shock at discovering Jackboot’s fate as his body slumps off of the machine and falls to the ground, his cigarette falling from his open mouth.

Catching your breath, you realise that Daring is still in the hooves of the NLR, and immediately rush to the control room, pounding at random buttons until the map is once again displayed. You raise a hoof to the floating monitor, and run the tip around the maze of the city until you reach the dots that you assume to represent Einen, Daring and the soldiers. When your hoof touches the room that they are in, you see some of the now familiar scratches of Catlantean text appear, indicating that you had touched the “Drone Control Room”.

After placing your fedora on your head, and re-attaching your whip to your saddlebag, you scribble the directions to the Drone Control Room on the inside cover of your journal, and run after Daring and the NLR.