The ocean is vast and deep. Beneath its waves there is a plethora of life and color rarely seen on land. It is from the ocean that all life is born, and it is in the ocean where some hide. Whether it be secrets, treasures, or knowledge, the ocean will hold it. In the land of Equestria, the vast oceans have yet to be fully mapped and very few can or will explore them. Because of this much of Equestria’s history is hidden below the waves. Even now the oceans hide a major secret that no one knows about, but, like all secrets, they must eventually come to light.

The beaches off of Las Pegasus are renown as a wonderful tourist destination. The water is a constant crystal blue and are known for producing some of the most optimum surf in all of Equestria. The cuisine is ocean inspired and is something anyone visiting should partake in. For those of wealth or royal blood, they often enjoy their own private and secluded sections of beach along with their own private beach homes.

For some, the beaches off of Las Pegasus are a vacation spot. For others, it was locations to the south of Las Pegasus that held their interest. Along the southern border of Las Pegasus rested the San Palomino Desert, vast miles of desolate and barren land. It was only on the western edge of the desert, where it met the South Luna Ocean, the desolation ended and signs of life could be found, scraggly looking vegetation eking out a poor living in the loose sand as sea birds nested in their fragile branches. However, it was one location in particular that often drew a wayward glance or beckoned for somepony adventurous to investigate. This location was simply known as “the Gateway”.

The Gateway was located on a small peninsula that jutted into the South Luna Ocean, ancient cliffs crumbling away as the waves threatened to collapse the entire thing at any time. There sat the lonely remnants of a civilization long forgotten. Beaten, battered, but still proud buildings standing against the ravages of time and tide with bleached murals and patchwork mosiacs still adorning their sides. Although time had long erased the majority of the images, there was still enough to see what used to be there. Images of ponies, unicorns mostly, who seemed to have had established a fishing colony on the peninsula and gave their time in the constant pursuit of greater knowledge.

However, what seemed to puzzle many was the source of the Gateway’s name. Should one go to the very tip of the peninsula they would find a large archway resting at the point where land met water. The archway was large and seemed to invite any and all to cross its threshold. Yet, to anyone who would look on it, they’d always get the same feeling. A small nagging notion that something was missing. Like the archway was just a small piece of something bigger.

Some theorized the archway was part of an incomplete building that was never finished. Others speculated that it might have been part of an ancient teleportation arch. Some even went so far as to say it was put there to honor the rising of the sun. While these all had valid explanations and supporting evidence, there was no one truly definitive answer. Archeologists often argued for hours for what the true purpose of the archway was, and many students of archeology often wrote their own interpretations of its purpose or meaning for their senior thesis papers. For one particular yellow mare with a monochrome mane, this place always fascinated her. Her name was Daring Do: adventurer, writer, historian and archeologist.

Daring would often come to the Gateway ruins to try and solve the lingering mystery of the archway, but this time she was visiting for entirely different reason. She’d recently gotten word through her network of friends and associates that her arch nemesis, Ahuitzotl, was seen heading toward the ruins with a small trunk carrying an unknown item. While Daring wasn’t sure what Ahuitzotl was up to or what the item was, she knew it couldn’t be good. She got her things and flew as fast as she could to get to the ruins before her nemesis.

“Whoa,” Daring said to herself as she arrived to the Gateway ruins. A large force of goons were already patrolling the ruins and they were well armed. “This is a ridiculous amount of backup, even for Ahuitzotl. What is he up to?” She tipped her pith helmet and stealthily approached the ruins, the shadows of sunset aiding her approach. As she got closer, she noted that this wasn’t the normal bunch of thugs Ahuizotl hired. These looked a bit more professional and fairly organized. Even their gear seemed a bit more professional: rapid fire crossbows, uniform swords and spears, and they all seemed to be wearing a unique set of dark blue and crimson red battle dress uniforms. To top it off, they all seemed to be unicorns.

The adventurer was getting worried about how she was going to get further into the ruins. This was beyond what she usually got from Ahuitzotl and the fact these henchponies were all unicorns meant she couldn’t knock one of them out and steal their uniform. She’d have to try a different approach. She watched from behind a nearby ruin piece and searched for an opportunity or an opening to infiltrate the ruins unseen.

Eventually, she spotted a few of the goons unloading a crates and supplies off of a wagon, and moving them further into the ruins. It looked like their weakest point, there were only three unicorns working to off load the supplies and one looking over the group with a crossbow. If she worked quickly she could sneak in and hide within one of the supply containers. It’d all come down to careful timing and swift action.

Daring observed the group and planned out her approach. Two of the unicorns left to bring supplies into the ruins, she made her move. Grabbing a small rock, she approached the wagon. She tossed the rock and it soared through the air with impressive precision, striking a wall behind the unicorn looking over the trailer. He turned and went to investigate. This left the lone unicorn in the wagon off loading the last two crates of supplies. She flapped her wings and put herself into an accelerating flight. The last thing the unicorn saw was a yellow blur slamming into his head and knocking him unconscious.

After righting herself from the flying knockout, Daring stashed the unconscious unicorn’s body into a crate, then quickly hid herself within the other. Then she played the waiting game. Soon enough she felt her container being lifted in a light green aura and moved. It felt like only a few minutes before Daring’s container was put down and the light green aura dissipated. She waited until she heard the sounds of hooves walking away before taking a cautious glance outside of her hiding spot. She looked to be in a small campsite on the other side of the ruins. There were tents set up around the area and there seemed to be only a small group of unicorns idly talking about seemingly random topics. One thing she did notice was that the group seemed fairly content with throwing around tribal slurs. She caught a few referring to pegasi that ruffled her feathers, but she ultimately decided that ruining whatever plans they and Ahuizotl planned to enact would be payback enough.

The adventure made her way out of her hiding spot and made her way behind a nearby tent. She’d go after Ahuizotl soon but first she was going to find out what these tribalist horn heads were up to. She ducked behind a few more tents, staying out of sight. She’d ended up picking up pieces of the plan from a few passing guards. “So... What’s this freak doing here again?” one of the guards had asked another.

“Apparently, it likes to ‘collect’ artifacts. Thinks it can take over the world,” the second guard chuckled wryly. “It has an artifact we need and us something it wants. Once we have what we need, we’ll kick that unholy abomination out on his hand-tailed ass.” The two guards shared a chuckle at Ahuizotl’s expense. “Who is Ahui dealing with?” Daring thought to herself, “And what do they have that he wants?...Probably nothing good.” She ducked away and began her stealthy sweep of the camp searching for the leader of the bigoted unicorns and her nemesis.

After searching the majority of the camp and resisting the urge to punch a few unicorns into unconsciousness, she came across the archway for which the peninsula got its name. There she saw Ahuizotl standing next to a cloaked figure. Both were under the archway and seemed to be talking. Then she noticed something particularly odd. She noticed a large sack next to cloaked figure. Daring assumed it might be the item the group was going to trade, but the idea disappeared when she saw it move several times. The cloaked figure saw the sack move as well and gave the sack a quick kick. “Okay... What are you up to Ahui?” She needed to get closer to eavesdrop on the conversation but there was no cover for her use. If only she could make it to the archway. But how?

“Oh wait... wings, duh” the adventure scolded herself, remembering the two appendages on her back. She used the shadow of the archway to keep her hidden and perched herself in the cracks of the crumbling structure. She angled her ears toward the two figures below her and caught part of the conversation they were having. “- then we can conclude our business together. Now... do you have the artifact?” the cloaked figure asked, his voice deep and gravelly.

“Ah, but of course... so long as you have what was promised,” Ahuizotl responded with a devious smirk and a suave tone.

The figured let out an annoyed sigh and produced a golden ring from under his cloak. Daring’s eyes widened as she recognized it as one of the rings of the Temple of Tallecron. Now she was doubly worried for who this group was and how they managed to collect something that should be near impossible to find. Worse, she had a good idea on what Ahuizotl was planning to use that ring for. She only hoped he didn’t have all of them.

“Ah, glorious!” Ahuizotl said in amazement. “Your collection network is truly impressive. Where did you find this?”

The cloaked figure let an indignant snort, “Questions weren’t part of this arrangement. Unless you have your part of the deal, we will leave.” The figures threatening tone immediately got Ahuizotl’s attention. He reached into his satchel with his tail hand and produced a small rune etched collar. Daring looked at produced collar. She was too far away to determine what it was exactly, but the runes she could see on the collar were vaguely familiar. She’d have to make a note to take it, the ring, and maybe that sack when she had the opportunity.

“Here is what you asked for. Now... the ring,” Ahuizotl demanded with an outstretched paw.

A seafoam green aura grabbed the collar and levitated toward the figure, while a similar aura floated the ring toward the dog-like creature. Right as the two objects crossed each other the crack of a whip and the two objects flying upward caused both the Ahuizotl and the figure to look upward only to see Daring clutching the collar and the ring. “Sorry boys, but I think you’re both just too sketchy to have either one of these. Especially you, Ahuizotl.”

“Daring Do!” Ahuizotl hissed in annoyance and anger.

“You were followed!?” the figure yelled in equal parts annoyance and anger at Ahuizotl. “You incompetent mongrel!” He turned toward the camp and yelled for reinforcements. Daring took this opportunity to nose dive at the hooded figure and land a solid punch to his head. The impact was more than enough to silence the hooded figure for a bit. She turned to grab the sack and run, but she soon found herself being rammed into at full force. The hit was enough knock Daring to the ground and drop her whip. Daring found herself being pinned to the ground by Ahuizotl. He looked his usual style of pissed and he was making a multiple attempts to get his mouth around her throat. Daring managed to avoid her nemesis’ snapping maw and got in a decent head butt that got the jackal demon to back off and nurse his now bleeding muzzle. As she scrambled to her hooves, she caught a glimpse of a mass of unicorn guards bearing toward her, many with spells charged to blast her.

Daring had little time. She coiled her whip, grabbed the sack, and prepared to take off toward Los Pegasus; however, she found the sack much heavier than she had expected. Thankfully, a near miss from a stun spell gave her the additional adrenaline she needed to heave the sack into the air. She wasn’t able to obtain the height she desired and the additional weight was making it difficult for her to strafe. This unfortunately meant she got blasted in the wing causing her to drop the bag and fall into the ocean below. For a moment, she found herself disorientated from the fall and also the shock of the cold water hitting her body. Worse the weight of her gear was dragging her below the waves. Daring thought this was it... the moment she’d experience her last adventure, but the feeling of something grabbing her from behind shook her of these thoughts. Whatever was grabbing her pulled her away from the magical bolts, which she was thankful for, but it was also pulling her deeper into the water. She struggled against the thing pulling her down, but an odd sound filled her ears causing her to stop. It was like a squeal of sorts but deeper and there was this odd clicking that followed. She wondered what the odd sound was, until she realized that she was nearing the end of her held breath, and was slowly beginning to black out. She fought to hold onto the fleeting light of consciousness, but soon found herself succumbing to the darkness. She assumed, in her final thoughts, that she was going to die.

Daring awoke sputtering water from her lungs. Her lungs burned for air and each cough seemed to remove more of the liquid that she had involuntarily inhaled. After a small fit of coughing and hacking she found herself able to breath normally. As she worked to clear her lungs, the sound of water being disturbed grabbed her attention. She turned in time to see something go beneath the waves of the beach she was on. Daring made an attempt to catch a glimpse of what had taken to the water, but she could already see it moving away from the shore line at an impressive pace. She wasn’t sure who had just left... but she was really curious why they had gone into the water. “Who was that?” Daring thought to herself. Before she could question who or what had gone into the water, she noticed something odd. Next to Daring was a vibrant glowing neon blue dot and the word “touch” written in the sand.

Daring wondered if whoever saved her had left this behind. She checked her surroundings and prepared for a trap as she tapped the dot. The moment her hoof touched the dot a series of words shot up and began to aline before the adventurer.

To the yellow mare, I wanted to thank you for saving me. However, I can’t stay. That group is going to be after me and I need help. If you’re willing to help, come back here tomorrow evening after sundown. If you can’t help, send somepony who can. This is serious! Many lives are at stake besides my own. - Tide

After a few minutes, the words vanished into the air, and were no more.

“Tide, huh? What kind of trouble are you in?” Daring got to her hooves as the words vanished into the air. She shook off the sand on her coat and made sure she had all her-
“Wait, where’s the ring!?” She checked all over but the Ring of Tallecron she had taken was gone. She was relieved to find the collar she swiped, but the ring was missing. Daring assumed Ahuizotl must have swiped it when he shoulder checked her earlier. That damnable tail-hand was always a problem. Well, at least she had the collar. It was a good starting point to figuring out what was going on. Daring prepared to take off, but a resurgence of pain in her wing and side kept her grounded. The adventurer let out a sigh before heading off toward, what she assumed, was Las Pegasus. She had some research to do, and some letters to write.

Author's Notes:

So I was in a pretty depressed place for a bit, but I came up with this idea. I'm pretty sure most of you will figure out what Tide is, but until then I encourage critisim and any errors you see in the comments below.

Take it easy.