"We all ready?" Asherah asks.

Rigi lifts up his cloak and shows the many pockets on him full of things. "Check."

"I got the enchanted bag for treasure and two more for supplies that Twilight gave me," Naruto says.

"And she finished the seals to change our clothes to a different set when we change forms," Sasuke adds.

"Good. Then we are all set, but before we go, Naruto, Sasuke, show me what you have developed," Asherah says grabbing his bag.

"Alright," Sasuke says in her original female form, now wearing her original outfit before her aura started to show. "I call it Lightning Awakening," Sasuke says before her aura shifted to an electric one, making her hair lightly stand on ends.

"Cool. Anything else?" Rigi asks smirking.

Sasuke smirks and seems to disappear and Rigi barely catches her reappearing floating at his head level where she could have kicked him if she wanted before landing on the ground.

"That is so cool. Speed kills?" Rigi asks smirking still.

"And you are using an elemental ability, huh?" Asherah says, watching her as Sasuke knew he saw her move, having watched him as she moved to Rigi when no one else kept track.

"Yes. Did I do good?" Sasuke asks hopefully.

"I think it suits you," Asherah says smiling under his bandana, making Sasuke nearly swoon.

"Oh come on. Can't I have a go?" Naruto complains.

"Go for it," Sasuke says.

Naruto grins and changes to her first form and clothing as well before an orange aura appears around her. "This one is Rising Sun," Naruto says proudly as the aura seems to turn into fire around her before she punches the ground and cracks it and makes it dig into the ground. "How's that?"

"I can tell your physical strength and endurance have increased greatly and your hair…it is near fire itself in this. You're more like a human elemental hybrid," Asherah informs.

Naruto smiles. "Great. Now can we get going?"

"Deactivate them you two," Asherah reminds.

They both look to themselves and sees their auras still running and carefully dials them down and then off as they check themselves.

"So Asherah, what is yours?" Naruto asks as they start walking southeast.

"You will find out one day and when you realize I am about to use it, run," Asherah instructs.

"Run?" Rigi asks.

"Run," Asherah reiterates.

"Well…that's something…" Rigi says smiling.

After a week of walking, the group finally made it to the outskirts of the jungle that seemed to stretch for miles.

"You know, Twilight told me about those zebras and how they embraced all this. Used it for their own means and really, really grew. Can't wait to join in," Rigi says grinning.

"Well, our treasure is in there. Sasuke, can you see anything up there, especially anything shiny?" Asherah calls up to her in the air as a harpy.

"No! Nothing yet!" Sasuke yells back as she kept looking.

"Let us know if you do," Asherah calls before starting to head in, his eyes wide open, scanning the area.

Rigi chuckles. "What do you'll think we'll find? Mountains and mountains of gold? Weapons and armor? Magical items?"

"Don't know," Asherah says looking around as Naruto followed before he stopped.

"What is it? See something interesting?" Rigi asks flicking his sword up a bit.

"Can you see it Naruto?" Asherah asks.

Naruto narrows her eyes to where he is looking. "No. what?"

"There is a faint aura. Focus carefully," Asherah instructs.

Naruto tries to focus as he said, her own lightning up a bit. "Whoa. There's something in the trees."

"Go see what it is," Asherah instructs.

"Oh, sneaky way to train them?" Rigi asks after Naruto was far enough away.

"Their observation skills. Items with enough age, especially those of silver or gold, produce a faint aura, but those with craftsmanship like that silver frog you bought, a more visible one," Asherah informs.

They watch as Naruto crawls through the trees, trying to find the aura spitting out from the spot. She then crawls up a tree as she sees it coming from a branch and reaches a hand up and reaches around.

"She found something from the look of it," Asherah says.

Rigi hums as they see Naruto pull back her hand and shows a silver looking ring with engravings. "Not bad. We got another piece to pawn off."

"Into the bag," Asherah calls to the obviously happy blond.

Naruto smiles as she rushes over and puts the ring into his bag. "Anything else?"

"Not yet. But keep your eyes open," Asherah says before continuing onward, scanning the area for any hint of aura.

Rigi smiles as he keeps following. "Geez, keep this up and we might be rich off of these alone."

"Unless we want to keep them," Asherah says as Sasuke comes down to check what happened.

"How far are we going to go?" Sasuke asks, looking between all of them.

"As far as we can," Asherah says.

The four trek through the jungle. Every few days, Naruto using the ring to practice her Divination and keeping them on the right track.

"So…did Twilight mention anything to you about anything bad?" Rigi asks after a while.

"Uncharted, remember?" Asherah asks, sitting atop of a large boar, slicing the meat off of it before tossing it to either Naruto or Sasuke to cook on the fire.

Rigi hums as he keeps a lookup on a high branch. "Well…at least some good is coming from this. We are out of the house and getting some adventure."

"While you are free, check the bag for all the four still in there," Asherah calls.

Rigi hums as he digs into his bag, looking for the pieces and sees all four of them. A small gold jaguar, a silver fish charm, the silver ring, and a mosaic piece.

"We almost ready to eat?" Asherah asks.

"Yep. Just about," Naruto says drooling.

"You can come down if you want," Sasuke offers.

Rigi hums. "Nah. Enjoy it guys. I'll stay up here and keep watch."

"Come on Asherah, you too. Come down and sit with us," Sasuke instructs.

"Very well," Asherah says jumping down and hands her the knife to clean and put up.

Sasuke smiles as she starts to clean and Naruto gives him some of the meat as she takes some of her own and bites in.

"So the verdict of this boar?" Asherah asks looking to the caved in the skull of it.

"Well…Naruto did help hold it and I and you were able to damage, you can't deny that Rigi punched it straight on," Sasuke says smiling.

"I meant the taste," Asherah says.

"Dead on good!" Naruto cheers getting more.

Sasuke smiles as she sits next to Asherah and takes a piece. "So they coming?" Sasuke asks.

"They are out there, but they aren't com…" Asherah stops before unleashing some of his killing intent in a direction before continuing. "Aren't coming to us," Asherah finishes.

Sasuke looks worried to him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am fine," Asherah says leaning down to her and touches his forehead to her's.

Sasuke smiles and nuzzles him slightly. "You are amazing."

"And we still have to train after dinner," Asherah reminds, taking some of the meat and eats it under his bandana.

Sasuke smiles and leans against him as she eats as well. "At least it's becoming more fun."

"Naruto, remember training after you eat. We are starting with sword training," Asherah informs.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto says with her mouth full.

"Come on Naruto. What would Rarity say if she saw that?" Sasuke asks snickering.

Naruto blushes a bit as she tries to keep eating.

"Cut her a little slack. We aren't living the high life out here," Asherah says, patting her head.

Sasuke sighs in relief. "That feels good."

"Day thirty-six. We have been exploring the jungle for a while now. Encountering many monsters and found a few treasure. But we only have four so far and no sign of where they came from yet. My thought sometimes goes to our home and what is waiting there for us," Sasuke says writing in a little notebook.

"You gave her that diary for this reason?" Rigi asks, walking by Asherah.

"That was Twilight. She wanted someone to document our trip," Asherah says stopping.

Rigi stops with him. "But her?"

"I wasn't going to bother and you and Naruto said no," Asherah says bringing out the two smgs and points at the ground ahead of them. "Die," Asherah says before starting to fire.

A loud screech was heard and the ground explodes as a few hairy legs came out before they stop moving as Rigi sees it's a spider. "I hate spiders."

"End," Asherah says before focusing on the head and all the bullets start piercing the skull and filling it full of holes until it drops to the ground, blood flowing everywhere from the head.

"We have to find a way to save bullets," Rigi says thinking on it.

Asherah says nothing as he puts the guns away and starts walking again, seeing the spider was truly dead.

Rigi hums as he starts to pick up some of the spent casings on the ground.

"Was that it?" Sasuke asks as she and Naruto had watched.

"No. That was just a weapon he picked up along the way," Rigi informs.

"So it only does that?" Naruto asks.

"Yes," Rigi says as they continued onward, hoping to find something else.

After a few more hours of walking, they saw something. "Looks like we found something. Shall we take a look?" Asherah asks, already scanning the area.

"What did we…?" Naruto stops as they see a small military outpost with a tattered flag waving from it.

"Looks like an outpost or hunting station," Asherah saw, walking towards it.

"Are you sure we should be here? There might be something that will kill us if we get too close," Rigi points out.

"Long been abandoned," Asherah says, starting to examine a wall. "An old sword hole here. Looks ancient and no one ever repaired it," Asherah points out to all of them.

"Wow," Sasuke could only say as they step inside.

"Hold on," Asherah says looking at the ground and everyone followed to see the dust had been disturbed recently. "We aren't alone."

Rigi sniffs the air. "Sweat. And not ours," he says, taking a few more whiffs. "Female too."

"You want to come out or do I have to come get you?" Asherah asks, looking to the right.

"You have good eyes," they hear a female voice call out.

"First or second option pegasus," Asherah says.

"And those are?" she calls out.

"Come out or I drag you out," Asherah says in his neutral tone as Sasuke facepalmed, thinking she had made more progress than this.

The female sighs before stepping out from around a corner of a pillar and shows she is a golden yellow pegasus with gray and black mane and tail, wearing some green explorer shirt and pants with a pith hat. "I'm here," the mare says as her eyes widened as he was looking directly at the place she was hiding.

"Who are you?" Asherah asks.

"Daring Do," she says, trying to figure out how he knew.

"Oh, I know her. Twilight told me about her when she was teaching me a few things," Naruto says.

"Oh yeah. What is she like?" Rigi asks as he kept an eye on her.

"She is a famous explorer looking for ancient and lost artifacts and stuff like that," Naruto says.

Daring blinks as she looks between the yellow and red headed girls. "Um…yeah. You two are strange." 'What a rack on the blond and the redhead is so cute. I wonder if I will get some action from them?'

"She must be looking for the treasure like we are," Asherah says turning to his group.

"Then we should hurry…or…we can grab her and beat whatever she has on it out of her," Rigi suggests.

"We aren't thugs, besides, if she is a pro, she can be helpful," Asherah points out.

Rigi shrugs. "Your call."

"From the way you're acting, someone or something is hunting you, right?" Asherah asks getting a nod. "Then how about we work together. We will protect you and we all get a share of it?" Asherah asks.

Daring hums. "That sounds like a good deal? How much?"

"Ninety percent," Asherah says.

Daring frowns. "Fifty."

"Ninety," Asherah informs.

"Fifty," Daring presses.

"Ninety," Asherah says unbudging.

"Sixty," Daring growls.

"Eighty-five," Asherah says.

"Sixty-five," Daring says raising an eyebrow.

"Eighty-four," Asherah says.

"That's not even a real change!" Daring yells at him.

"Eighty-six," Asherah responds.

Daring growls as Rigi places a hand on his shoulder. "Neither of you are going to budge. Take fifty and be done with it. At least she won't bother us a lot."

"Seventy percent and what little things we find along the way are our and you can trade for them for a percent or two of your share. Final offer," Asherah says.

Daring frowns heavily at that before groaning. "Fine. Remind me to call you next time I am negotiating a contract."

"Then we have a deal. Naruto, Sasuke, you mind grabbing those partially hidden things in the collapsed furniture?" Asherah asks.

They both look to him partially confused and moves to a ruined couch and looks behind it. Seeing a cup and monkey jewel and holds it up to them to show it off. "These?" Sasuke ask.

"Bingo. They are ours now," Asherah says, making Daring's eyes bulge. "You didn't think I would find them?"

Daring frowns to him. "Fuck you."

"The truth is you won't be able to hide such things from me," Asherah says.

"I found them first so it belongs to me," Daring argues.

"And what little things we find along the way are ours and you can trade for them for a percent or two of your share," Asherah repeats.

Daring groans out loud. "I regret meeting you."

"Naruto, Sasuke, we are not alone," Asherah says as Rigi tilts his head in a certain direction.

"Who the heck is chasing you?" Rigi asks as he takes out his sword and takes off into the air.

"A rival of mine is after the same thing and hired a company of mercenaries," Daring admits.

"Lethal or non-lethal force?" Asherah asks, withdrawing his.

"They might have something. How about keeping one?" Rigi suggested, looking out a window.

"The client's call," Asherah says looking to Daring.

Daring kept frowning at that. "No killing."

"Maiming?" Asherah asks.

"Slicing tendons would do that," Rigi advises.

"Once again, the client," Asherah says.

"Just don't kill them," Daring orders.

"You heard her. Naruto, Sasuke, stay with her in case any of them slip by us," Asherah says.

Sasuke looks worriedly to him as Naruto pulls her to Daring.

"Let's take them," Asherah says walking with Rigi.

Rigi smiles as he puts away his sword and cracks his knuckles. "Been wanting a fight for a while."

"So…um…are you mercenaries yourselves or what?" Daring asks as the sound of fighting started to erupt outside.

"Somewhat. We are training and getting ready," Naruto says smiling to her.

"Who is training you?" Daring asks looking over the blond bombshell more.

"Oh. Both of them and a friend back home," Naruto says pointing to where Rigi and Asherah went.

"I see. So are you with one of them?" Daring asks, trying to pass it off as curious.

"No. But she is," Naruto says, pointing to Sasuke.

"Which one?" Daring asks.

Naruto smiles. "The one you negotiated with."

"Really? What do you see in him? He seems devoid of emotions," Daring says.

Sasuke blushes and smiles. "Not entirely."

'I guess everyone likes different things,' Daring thinks as the sounds of fighting soon stopped.

"All clear!" Rigi calls.

'Must not have been many,' Daring thinks, heading out to see twenty stallions sprawled on the ground hurt.

Rigi cracks his knuckles as he walks around. "So…? Anyone else?"

"No. Looks like they sent these ones ahead to scout," Asherah says before going through what they had.

"Which means there might be more. Best prepare or get the fuck out of here," Rigi says digging through the bodies as well.

Daring looks around amazed. All twenty of these armored ponies were taken down by two. Though with a dragon, it was believable.

"So…which way should we go now?" Rigi voices.

"Did you find any cl…" Asherah stops and walks past Daring to an old pot sitting next to the outpost.

"What did you find?" Rigi calls as he kept digging through the stallions.

Asherah opens the lid and reaches in and pulls out a silver mask with yellow sapphires for the eyes.

"How…?" Daring tries to ask.

"Those eyes of yours seen it again, huh?" Rigi asks smirking, walking over to see it.

"Especially helpful," Asherah says putting it into his bag.

"Explain that to me. How did you find that?" Daring asks.

"My nen," Asherah says simply.

"Nen?" Daring asks.

"My eyes see the world differently from you," Asherah informs.

Daring was just confused at that.

"Trust me, it is hard to understand," Rigi says.

Daring scratches her own head still.

"Let's say it is a form of magic not widely known to your country," Asherah says.

"Best not to question. Pack up guys. We have to get going before the rest of them realize that this group is not coming back," Rigi says, grabbing his bag.

"So Daring, what can you tell me about the flags up there?" Asherah asks.

Daring shrugs. "No idea. Just thinking it's the native's flags."

"Well, they sure are different. One is white with a red barbed cross and the other is a lion standing over a crown on a dark blue one," Asherah informs.

Daring looks up and sees the flag poles near the sides on top of the fort and sees the tattered flags waving from it. "Huh. How did I miss that?"

"You recognize them?" Asherah asks.

"That's Engband…" Daring says pointing to the blue one, "and that's Rien," she says pointing to the other flag.

"Any significance?" Asherah asks.

"They were both major empires in their days and those are the colonial-era flags around the time they discovered Equestria," Daring informs.

"Huh? I thought it was the three tribes," Rigi says, raising an eyebrow.

"No. This continent to the east of us," Daring says.

Rigi looks to Asherah. "Twilight is going to be pissed."

"I doubt it," Asherah says.

"But why are there no mentions of the encounter with the natives in their records?" Daring asks, flying up to the flags to examine them more.

Rigi hums as he looks to the land around them. "Could be anything."

"The seven twenty-six and the four thirty-one?" Daring asks eyes widening.

"Huh?" everyone asks.

"These two are lost expeditions of those empires and from the looks of it, the Rien occupied this outpost first then the Engband came in and captured it from them, putting their flag over the Rien one as a symbol of victory like they did whenever they beat them," Daring says.

"So what were they searching for?" Rigi asks.

"I think I can answer that. They don't fit the design of this place, as such, if she is right, they probably fought the natives for it and won before Engband showed up and defeated them for it," Asherah says.

"So the question is, what were they looking for here?" Rigi asks himself.

"I bet the same thing we are," Asherah says.

"That is quite possible. There were many stories of great wealth in the part of the world this was originally from," Daring says.

"Well then it's a good thing we have this guy helping along," Rigi says, leaning against Asherah.

"Back up. What do you mean originally a part of?" Asherah asks.

"The lands of Equestria have been changed. Like territories and environments were swapped from different parts of our world, this jungle, I would venture to say it was from way south of the badlands. The southeast also is now a huge desert, ruled by someone just as powerful as the princess. We also now have a large island nation off the eastern coast as well," Daring informs.

"So what did it look like before and what does it look like now?" Rigi asks curiously.

"I'd need a map to show you what it looked like before, but now we are still putting that together," Daring says.

"Good to know," Rigi says looking to the side.

"Trying as in not having much luck?" Asherah asks.

"Yes. You see, many new nations a part of the continent, each with an army and wants to self-rule," Daring says.

"And many of Equestria are used to all of it being under one rule, the princess, right?" Rigi asks.

"Correct," Daring says still thinking.

"And the reason that this territory hasn't been claimed is because of the monster, right?" Asherah asks.

"Many monsters," Daring explains.

"So the situation has to be very tense then," Asherah says.

"You mean with them suddenly being neighbors after never knowing the other existed or had little diplomatic communications, to begin with?" Daring asks sarcastically.

"The sarcasm wasn't necessary," Asherah replies.

"Crazy, isn't it?" Rigi asks.

"You will find out after you start trying to travel," Daring says.

"Then let's get going. I don't want to be seen here anymore after what we did to those guys," Rigi say, jerking his thumb toward the knocked out stallions.

"They will either die or be shipped out of here after that," Asherah says looking to Daring for the direction.

Daring pointed to what looked like mountains. "There are some patches of the forest we can use to hide and get closer to where they thought the treasure might be."

"Naruto," Asherah says getting out the mask and tossing it to her.

Naruto grabs it and looks it over. "What's this for?"

"You know what to do," Asherah says before she gets it and turns into her kitsune form.

"The fuck…?!" Daring calls shocked.

Naruto's eyes light up again and point to the mountain.

"Does this mean what I think it means?" Rigi asks frowning.

"Both say that way so it must be the right way," Asherah says starting to walk and Naruto puts the mask away.

Rigi shrugs as he hefts his bag and follows with the rest. "Which means we have problems."

"Let's just get there and stake the claim on the treasure before my rival does," Daring says.

"No argument here, but we get most of it," Rigi reminds.

"I know," Daring growls.