Daring Do was now in the fabled Temple of Bones. Her arch nemesis Ahuizotl was trying to uncover the cursed tome, the Necronomicon. A book of necromancy with pages covered in spells and rituals that can make the most vile villains in history empty their lunch after reading the thing. Apparently he wants to use it to raise the armies of the battle of the valley of the butterflies. It started out well enough. She was able to get through the wilderness easily enough. Only had to deal with Ahuizotl's henchmen once and that lasted all of twenty seven seconds. Traps? Classic spiked walls closing in? Easy to get past with speed. Trap doors on the ground filled with black water and rotting dead things trying to claw their way up the smooth walls to get to her? Really grose but not much of an issue when you can fly. Poison darts that shoot out of holes in the walls? Just jumped back and waited for it to run out of ammo. Not that she would tell it that way when she wrote her book. When she got to the chamber she saw a book with a multi colored stitched cover. Which to her disgust she could see cutie marks on parts of it. It also had a face with actual, albeit milky dead, eyes and teeth in it's mouth which was creepy as all hay. It has what looks like a black, mummified griffin claw acting as a locking strap to keep it closed. This is where things started going down hill. Not because she triggered a trap or awoken some kind of temple guardian, but from the book itself. It bites...hard. Thing nearly took off a piece of her leg! When she managed to shake the thing off Ahuizotl and his goons chose that moment to barge in and try to steal the Necronomicon. Don't get her wrong it was an epic fight. And she had to admit there were times she thought Ahuizotl would win. But now she was looking upon her defeated enemy as he uselessly fought against his bindings, his henchmen were no better off. Despite this, after careful consideration she decided that she would not be writing about this in her next book. Fighting against her own bindings she was able to position herself to look at the strangest chicken she has ever seen. It was walking over to the Necronomicon and picking it up in its wings. She would normally be mad that the book wasn't biting the chicken when it had bitten her. If not for the fact that it was laughing so hard she doubted it could if it wanted to.

"Curse you chicken! I shall have my revenge!" Ahuizotl shouted. Daring never realized how loud he can be when he loses, as she was always flying away when he swears revenge. Ahuizotl's outburst caused the chicken to freeze and the room went silent. The chicken then carefully placed the Necronomicon back down against the wall then started walking in a slow, menacing way toward Ahuizotl. When he was close enough the chicken then jumped at Ahuizotl and in a flash drew something from its belt and the next thing Daring saw was a handle sticking out of Ahuizotl's head. The chicken then pulled back and placed a cap on what she now saw was a stamp before placing it back in it's pouch. "What did it just do?" Ahuizotl asked as he turned to face Daring with a confused look. On his forehead were the words Property of Cluck Norris. on his face...The book was now laughing harder.

After getting the Necronomicon on its back the chicken apparently named Cluck Norris walked over to Daring and drew a tiny knife, made a cut on her rope before jumping back while sheathing its blade. It then looked straight up and started clucking as if talking to somepony before somehow being pulled up into the air and quickly disappearing. With a sigh Daring started breaking her rope binding and decided that she really needed a drink.

I smile as I drop Cluck into my room to place my new book in the magic lock box I set aside for whatever was found in that old temple. When I sent him in I wasn't expecting competition. Though I must admit it was entertaining. Still I better send some reinforcements with him next time.

"Why is everypony so quiet?" Blueblood asked in annoyance. Ever since the meeting Celly and Lulu have been working on organizing their guards to discreetly look for anything strange so not to cause a panic. At the moment they were writing away at parchments and sending them off.

"It's nothing Blueblood. We're just working on some new procedures." Celestia said in an exasperated tone. For a moment I think I see a look flash across her face like a five year old just asked her where babies come from.

"Oh is this about my room? Its about time something was done about it." He said with a firm nod.

At that moment a unicorn day guard soldier burst into the room with a scroll in his magic. "Your majesties! We have an emergency report from the lab of magic in the Badlands!" He shouted in alarm. Badlands? What are they researching that they need to be that far out?

Celestia quickly grabbed the scroll and read through it before sending it away with a sigh. "The researchers had an accident and there is some powerful magical pollution mutating the creatures that get to close. It will need to be dealt with immediately before it escalates out of control. Luna I'm going to need your help with this." I cock my head at Celestia's words.

"Celly shouldn't one of you stay incase of an emergency. I can go with one of you and help." Celestia just shook her head.

"No aunty. Luna and I have developed a team system so we can take care of this quickly so it won't be a problem. Besides I know how much you hate hot places." She's right, I do hate hot. Curse my fluffiness! With that Luna walked over to Celestia.

"Come sister! We ride to battle the monsters of science! And to tell the ponies working there that they shall not use the mana pools to power their Jacuzzis!...Again!" Luna bellowed as she pulled a huge hammer out of nowhere. They use something as powerful as a mana pool for that? One bright flash later and I was alone with Blueblood...Joy. Thankfully he seems content just to eat his breakfast.

Shortly after the girls left we were distracted by the sound of metal hitting the ground. Turning our heads we see that one of the guards was out like a light just snoring away. We then heard it again from another guard as the drowsy, yawning guards fall asleep one by one. I can hear it happening out in the halls too.

"What's going on here? Wake up you lazy louts!" Blueblood shouted at the sleeping guards while I checked the closest one. He will be fine. Some kind of drug maybe?

"Its not their fault Blueblood." I say as I turn to him and he toward me. "Think about it. First Celestia and Luna get an emergency that apparently is bad enough it needs both of them to leave the palace at once. Then all the guards fall asleep. Someone is removing all of the potential threats to do something big."

"...My room!" I face paw at his conclusion. He's never going to let that go till someone gets punished for it is he? "Look out!" He shouted. Looking over I see a dining knife flying at me. Quickly ducking from Blueblood’s attack which I notes after I did it wouldn't have hit me. At that time I also heard the sounds of a click, snap and a swishing sound as a crossbow bolt shot past from behind me. It flew through the spot exactly where my head was a second ago at a speed that can barely be tracked with the eye and embedded itself deep into a marble pillar. Did Blueblood just save my life!? I then move to the side when I hear something flying through the air again and zigzagged over to Blueblood and brought up a barrier around us. "Ha! You pathetic pigeon! None can strike any of the royal family!" Blueblood mocked. I take the breather to look at the attacker. He is a griffin wearing a vest covered with knives which he has been throwing. And a quiver full of bolts on his left side and the crossbow to fire them hanging from a strap on his right. He was also wearing a ski mask. Seeing the shield now up he just gives an annoyed glare before sheathing the throwing knife he was about to throw and grabbing and reloading his crossbow. Considering how deeply the first shot imbedded itself into the pillar I think it's safe to assume the weapon and its ammo were engineered to be armor piercing. So rather than taking chances, when he fires at my head again I move my head to the side. Good thing too because the bolt flew past where my head was. Taking a look at my barrier I see that instead of a pierced hole or jagged edges of it getting broken off where it was hit I see a smooth wavy hole, like acid had melted through it. And the bolts are enchanted to get through magic defenses. Sure, why not? Now that it's pointless I drop my shield causing the griffin to drop his weapon and go back to the rapid fire of his throwing knives. Not wanting to give him a chance I try to turn him into a chicken only for a talisman I didn't see before to glow brightly and leave him unaffected. My jaw drops. This guy came prepared with extremely advance and expensive enchanted items. When the knives come flying I try to catch them with my telekinesis but no those are enchanted as well. Quickly dodging and I move to a new plan.

"Lets see if your magic resistance can stand up to this!" I charge my magic and he just gets a cocky grin on his beak. He's not even attacking, he's just standing there waiting for whatever powerful spell I was going to throw at him. Obviously confident that his talisman will hold against me. With a loud thunk and the sound of breaking wood the chair that I telekinetically grabbed from behind him flew into the back of his head causing the griffin's eyes to start spinning before he fell over unconscious. All things considered I'm surprised he fell for that... Taking a moment to create a portal I call an imp to strip him of his gear till I can't detect any enchantments when I scan him and have it drag him off to my prison. I would have taken the items as well, but considering how prepared he was I wouldn't be surprised if they had tracing spells hidden in with them. I doubt that all this preparation would be used and only have that one griffin. Now I have a choice to make. I can retreat to the safety of my dungeon. Or I can defend my niece's home for them.

Trixie was busy studying the books on illusion magic. She wanted to learn destruction but her new employer insisted on her mastering her special talent first. Every now and again she would look at the other pony in the library. She didn't know why but something about Vinyl just rubbed Trixie the wrong way. She said nothing about it as she didn't want to lose out on what she can get here over a gut feeling. She also didn't want to risk another punishment Rin would give her for it. Trixie gave a slight shiver remembering last night.

(Last night)

Trixie was not to happy with sharing a lair with another pony and was less so about the décor. But the décor will haft to wait till she can get something to decorate it with.

"Ok here is how things will work" Trixie said to Vinyl in a commanding tone. "You are going to move your morbid bed over to that side of the room and we'll split it down this line." Trixie said as she put some tape on the floor giving herself 75% of the lair. Then Trixie pulled out a large stack of papers. "And you will need to sign the Roommate agreement." Vinyl just cocked an eyebrow and sat down on the ground on Trixie's side of the line, much to Trixie's annoyance. "That's Trixie's spot." Trixie said with an annoyed glare. Vinyl just grinned at Trixie just before she felt a pain on the top of her head like someone whacked her with a stick. Turning her head to glare at the culprit she had to look up, and up, to the now much bigger than her Rin. Rin had her cheeks inflated as she looked down at Trixie before snickering into her paw.

"Wow, considering how we first met this is perfect." Rin said as she then brought her paw down on Trixie's back and crushing her with enough force to kill her only for Trixie's mouth to open wide and give out a squeak. Looking at her back and seeing the seam running along her side as well as noticing the material her skin is now made of she came to a horrifying realization.

"Trixie is a plushy!" Trixie wailed only to be further surprised at her high pitched and squeaky voice. This just got a laugh out of her new boss and that disrespectful pony before she was lifted up in the paws of Rin and squeezed forcing her to give off another squeak. "Stop this! You can't do this to Trixie. Change her back now!"

Rin just cocked an eyebrow with a big grin on her face. "I told you I would punish you in ways that chip away at your pride if you make me. And yes I can. When you became my employee you became my subject over Celestia's and Luna's so I have last say in punishing you." Rin said as she gave Trixie another squeeze. "And I say your punishment is to be a toy till the affects of this transformation ware off." Rin then threw Trixie up in the air causing her to give of a startled squeak scream till she landed in Rin's paws with another squeak.

An hour, Trixie didn't change back for an hour. Her magic didn't even work till she changed back leaving her at the mercy of her employer. Trixie took a moment to look at the paper Vinyl was writing on before turning back to her book. Apparently Vinyl was working on a new trap design called a bass cannon. Suddenly with a flash of toxic green Trixie found herself in a strange full body suit. And by that she meant only her eyes were exposed. Looking over to Vinyl she saw that the other unicorn was dressed in the same black getup. But she didn't react much other then placing a bookmark in the book she had to the side of her papers and just sat back waiting for something. Trixie was about to ask her what's going on when Vinyl just shot up in the air and disappeared. Trixie was a little scared now as she looked around the room in hopes of seeing something that would give her a clue as to what's going on. Suddenly she felt a pull lifting her off the ground and the next thing she knew she was laying down in what can only be described as a giant minotaur's hand right next to Vinyl.

"What's happening!? Where is Trixie?!" Trixie yelled as she looked around. She seemed to be flying over the dungeon. The area around her was black and white while slightly transparent like the land itself became a ghost world.

"This is the boss's hand. It lets her move us and anything she owns around and can pull us out of danger if she thinks we can't win." Vinyl said with indifference as she just rested in the giant palm, waiting to get to wherever they were going. They were jostled a little as the hand moved in a scooping motion and a chicken with sunglasses landed on Trixie's head. Before she could shake it off the hand tilted and all three started sliding toward a hole with crystals around it that she had seen Rin use as a portal earlier. Vinyl was sliding next to her with her fore legs raised in the air while she cheered like she was on some big slide.

After thinking about it I decided against using any undead or Timberwolves. One will only cause unwanted problems if they get out into public and the other was weak without the woods to draw power from. With the chosen minions floating out the portal I close it behind them. "Alright troops!" I said in a mock general voice. "We have a situation. We have a well organized infiltration of the Canterlot royal palace. The sisters are out dealing with an emergency and I assume most of the guards on duty if not all are out cold. We have no idea how many have infiltrated but they must be after something important. Trixie you're with me in the middle. Vinyl you're guarding the back while Cluck takes point." Two of them moved into formation but I frown as Trixie was standing there with panic in her eyes. Right... Trixie should get more training. But I might need her abilities for this. "Trixie, I wont force you on this. But if you stay close to me and I promise that we will protect you to the best of our abilities. But you have no training yet so if you feel you're not ready I'll send you back." Trixie looked at me in fear for a moment but shakily trotted over to me. Looking at her as she practically snuggled up to me in fear causing me to frown deeper. She's not ready... With a sigh I open a portal for her. "Go back. You're not ready." Trixie's eyes open wider at this.

"No! Trixie wants to help." She said with wide eyes. You mean you want to be a hero. Two wars taught me to see the difference.

"I see I made a mistake in bringing you in without training. But I will let you stay if you want to see this through. But do as you're told and don't leave my side. I wouldn't be allowing this if I didn't think Vinyl, Cluck and I couldn't protect you." This caused her to stop shaking and glare at me a moment. Apparently not liking being protected by a chicken based on when she reacted. I gave Trixie a look that told her not to argue. Thankfully she relented with a nod. Hopefully I'm not making a mistake. If things get too bad I'll just use my hand to send her back

With that taken care of I turn to Blueblood. "There should be a place where important items are kept. Anything dangerous that can't be allowed to be taken. Can you take us there." Blueblood just gave untrusting looks to the two ponies and a confused look to Cluck. But then he took a look at the guards before sighing.

"Yes but keep a close eye on your, guards. I don't trust them." He replied, drawing angry looks from the three before turning and heading toward the door. As we moved through the corridors we saw that the guards inside and what we can see outside were all out cold. I hope whatever did this to them didn't get any flying Pegasi. Vinyl was staying away from the windows to avoid the light. Soon a strange foul smell filled the air. Quickening our pace we came to a door that Blueblood opened quickly and rushed inside. We followed to see the chamber beyond the door to see...

"Blueblood, is this your room?" I ask in exasperation.

"How did you know?" He asked in confusion. I face paw.

"Because your face is on everything in here." I reply in annoyance. Honestly I should have seen this coming. Before we can do anything else the sound of hoof falls approaching. Giving quick nods we moved into defensive positions while facing the door. Moving some furniture to act as cover, much to Bluebloods annoyance. The smell growing stronger as the clip clop of hooves grows closer.

In a military style march ten earth ponies in pure white, highly decorative armor and four unicorns dressed just like Starswirl the Bearded used to, only without the bells, marched up behind them. And they were all wearing gas masks. They quickly took up formation outside the door but the sound of the loudest hoof steps were still ringing off the walls. But that soon ended when a giant ball of blubber of an earth pony walked up to the door. It was obviously a he from the scruffy facial hair. But he wore his hair in pigtails and tail in a ponytail with a rainbow of colorful glitter randomly spread throughout both. He was wearing a pink loincloth that looks like a girl in kindergarten tried to use it for an art project. He had a blue coat with red hair. But despite all of that the most obvious thing about him is the indescribable smell. This guy had such a disregard for personal hygiene that he had some kind of fungus growing from the folds of his fat. I think I just found this world's version of the bio demon.

"So you're the freak that thinks she can challenge our strength. Your nothing but a bug to us you vile worm." Oh great, he's monologuing." Know my name and tremble monster! For I am the mighty Strong Heart! Named after the great hero and trained in his fighting style and techniques!" That explains a few things actually. "Now you have the honor of being crushed by my mighty um... might!" I can practically see the sweat drops on everypony's heads.

"Ok time out." I say causing the attackers to give me confused looks and falter out of their fighting stances. "Before anything I would like to say that I knew Strong Heart. He and I share the same homeland before moving to Equestria all those years ago." I say sweetly before glaring and covering my nose with a paw. "So I can tell you he knew what soap is!" I say that last part with disgust. Oooh he looks mad.

"Hay! It's hard to wash with this body shape ok! Now shut up! We're here to destroy you. Now let us kill you evil monster so we can go home!" He shouted in anger. Wait, they came specifically for me? What did I do? Strong Heart 2 lifted his right foreleg up in the air. "Vroooom!" He then hopped up onto his hind legs to lift the other. "Vroooom!" He then lifted his head to look straight up. "Vroooom! Pony bolder!" He shouted as he quickly leaned forward while kicking himself forward and turning himself into a giant bowling ball rolling straight at us! I try to redirect him with telekinesis but apparently he has a magic resistance talisman too. "Scatter!" I shout as I grab Trixie in my tails and dodge to the side as the others get out of the way as well. Come on! They can't all have magic resistance! It takes too much time and energy to make one and they wear out after taking a certain amount of spell power. Wait, all he was wearing was a loin cloth so where is he even keeping it?.... UG! No! I did not need to visualize that! I cringe at the thought as the pony ball bounces off the wall and starts rolling toward another wall that he bounces off again like a pinball. While we're playing dodge ball I hear the sound of magic charging up and risk a glance to see that the knights are standing guard at the entrance ready to attack any that got too close to the door while the unicorns behind them were readying to throw spells at us.

"No!" Trixie yelled while riding in the grasp of my tails when she saw this too and flung her own faster charged spell at them creating an explosion of colorful fireworks in the middle of their ranks causing them to panic and scatter. Hmmm they ran from it. And I didn't see any distortions in the area the illusion took place in... So the underlings don't get magic resistance talismans. I needed to dodge to avoid the giant ball again. Looking around a grab several pedestals from around the room that didn't get smashed already and pulled them together before positioning it and waiting for him to start rolling in the right direction.

"Everypony help me push!" I shouted as a get the pedestals behind him and redirect him towards the door where the ponies that came with him were getting back into formation. The talisman's effect nullified my hold on my makeshift shuffleboard stick up to a little past the halfway point but I still held on as I pushed him forward with all my might. I soon feel Trixie and Vinyl add to the push and even Blueblood, though I think that was just to get the discussing wrecking ball out of his room. Faster and faster he rolled toward his underlings. Who seeing what was happening got back to scrambling out of the way. Unfortunately for a good chunk of them they were even more disorganized during their second try causing the unfortunate ones to be rolled over by their leader before the giant ball collided with the wall opposite the door creating a ball shaped hole in the wall. A moment later a groaning Strong Heart wobbled out of the hole before steadying himself and glared at me.

With an angry snort he then charges at me once again hopping up onto his hind legs again. "Gum gum, gatling!" He yells out as he starts wildly flailing his forelegs spastically. I'm amazed that he's able to run so fast on his hind legs but when I dodge to the right I see he's just as bad at turning while doing that as he is while rolling forward. Worse actually as he doesn't bounce around when he hits the wall. He just crashes and falls down. Vinyl who now had her fore hooves wrapped in sheets took advantage of his prone form and charged over and started wailing on him. Even with her vampire strength she only did so much damage with all of his fat cushioning the blows. He groans again and gets up before hip chucking Vinyl into a wall. Now looking enraged beyond any rational thought. "I've never lost to a monster and I'm not starting now! Destructo disk!" Wait what?! No way he can simulate that! He then reached behind him and pulled out a buzz saw blade. No! Don't pull anything out that makes me wonder where you keep them! With a mighty heave he flings the saw at me forcing me to move again. Unfortunately the saw cut through the air quickly and made a large gash in my foreleg. I grunt in pain and quickly cast the heal spell on myself. After finally getting a shot in Strong Heart 2 gave a feral grin but went back to scowling when he saw me heal myself. Having about enough of this I telekinetically grabbed the parts of the wall he smashed through earlier and flung them at him. Seeing he can't avoid all of them Strong 2 covers his head with his forelegs and takes the rocks that collide with him, bouncing off of his fat. But regardless of his blubbery protection the damage was piling up. When the bombardment stopped he uncovered his head but was unaware I saved one large rock which I kept floating over his head until I let it go. With that last rock he finally fell to the ground. I hope those talismans aren't a common thing. That's going to get annoying if there are more of these guys.

Looking over I see that Cluck has disabled the rest of his backup. Blueblood walked over and glared down at the Strong Heart rip off. "That will teach you to defile my room you ruffian! And you're going to pay for wrecking it to!" I just gave him a curious look. "What? Who else would be so disgusting as to relieve themselves in my room! I mean just look at him, he's filth...He's doing it again!" Eww...well whatever. Maybe this guys punishment will get him to shut up about it.

(Later that day)

When the girls returned they were very concerned. After rounding up my attackers and I gave them the griffin as I wasn't sure if he counted as one of their subject or not. They immediately wanted answers and went in to do the good cop bad cop. A few hours later Celestia and Luna had just walked out of the integration room and up to me. "They are surprisingly stubborn. Most just kept silent and the ones that did talk just kept saying things like break out of it or you're stronger than her or let your light break the chains of darkness." Celestia said with a troubled look in her eyes.

"All one said to us is I'm sure you tried your best." Luna said with hostility. "What was that suppose to mean?!" she said with extreme annoyance.

"I'm more concerned by their efficiency. I'm glad the guards were just put to sleep. I think the incident at the lab was no accident. It did look bad but nopony was hurt and it was all already contained when we got there. It was just designed to look like it was a threat." Celly said as she look me up and down. "Aunty are you ok? Maybe you should have a checkup just to make sure you're not hurt." She said with concern.

"Don't worry Celly I'm fine. That's what the heal spell is for." I try to reassure her but it has the opposite effect.

"You had to use your heal spell?" She asked in worry.

"Yes but it's fine it was just a scratch." I tell her but she's unconvinced. "It's ok I don't need a doctor." I insist but they just give each other a look and a nod before turning back to me. Wait, they aren't, they are! That's cheating! Not that, not the puppy pout! No! I won't!... I won't!

I look up in annoyance as the checkup room door opened revealing an earth pony mare in a doctor's coat. "Good evening lady Rin. My name is doctor Ouchy Begone. Are you ready for your checkup?" She asked cheerfully.

"About as ready as I am to take up work in a sewage treatment plant." I say with as much excitement as a man on death row.

"Oh come now it won't be that bad. Princess Celestia hoof picked me as hers and princess Luna's personal physician. Besides there's no reason to be shy. We're both mares so you don't have anything I haven't seen before... I think." She said as she looked me up and down. Then took out a large rubber bag that she then pulled tightly over one of her front hooves, then releasing it with a snap. "Now I'm going to need you to bend over for me so I can check inside." Taking a moment to look threw a drawer before pulling out what she was looking for. With her jar of popsicle sticks in hoof she turned back to her patient. "Now say ahh and open...wide. Lady Rin?"

"Nonononononononononononononononononononono!" Looking at the source of the noise Luna saw her aunty Rin barreling toward her from down the hall. She was about to call out a greeting but was flipped upside down when her aunt ran under her legs leaving Luna on her back. "Nonononononononononononononononononono..."

Author's Notes:

You all might be amused to know that when I was writing this chapter the cat chased a wolf spider up my leg and into my pants...Ya, fun. I was dancing like Twilight on a sugar rush that would put Pinkie to shame.