Chapter 1: The Tomb of the Zebra King

The hot desert air gusted past her face, the remnants of the storm from last night blowing sand into her mouth as Daring Do pulled her cart toward the lost pyramids of the Zebrican Desert. The heat and abrading sand wearing her down as she trudged onward with her helmet pulled down to protect her eyes.

Difficult to reach at the best of times the lost Pyramids were deep into the forbidding desert, where high winds and dry sand prevented a Pegasus from reaching the monuments by air. In front of her was another cart, pulled by her guide, another Pegasus by name of Mark Canary. The dull brown guide had brought Daring news that the entrance of one the ancient Pyramids had been unearthed by the recent sand storm.

That is to say he told the entire tavern back in Timbucktoo, Daring just happened to be a few seats down the bar and took him up on his story. If he was right she’d be able to see a tomb nopony had ever been inside and if he was wrong she’d be able to see the pyramids at least.

As they reached the crest of the sand dune they looked down the slope to witness the Land of Ancestors, a rocky island in a sea of sand. Daring’s guide halted on the downward slope waiting for Daring to catch up.

‘A wonderful sight, is it not?’ asked Mark Canary

‘I’ve seen better,’ Daring replied. Her guide was shocked at Daring’s disregard of the wonderful vista before them. In truth Daring did like the view and would probably be describing it in great detail for a painter back in Equestria to have it added to the gallery of vistas she’d seen.

But she wasn’t telling him that.

‘But... look at those rocks, sculpted by hoof and wind, it’s a wonder,’ Mark asserted shakily.

‘Is it any more of a wonder than the volcanic Calderas of Draconia? Is it more naturally beautiful than the singing glaciers of the Crystal Mountains? It’s certainly nowhere near as grand as the great bromeliad flowers in the jungles to the south, which hold entire lakes within their petals?’ Daring’s counter assertion completely pulled the rug out from under Mark Canary, in truth the last one was a lie but the rest were true wonders as well. She admitted privately to herself the Land of Ancestors was a grand sight, a series of monuments and pyramids on a dead island of rock in the centre of a desert; it was an anathema to life itself.

Still she did enjoy watching the guide squirm a little, it would stop him raising the price for his services when they returned to Timbucktoo.

‘When you’ve been to the many places as I have all the grand views tend to get a bit bland,’ she finished

‘If you say so Daring Do,’ he conceded

‘So which pyramid did you bring me out here to see?’ Daring asked

‘The large one to the south, the storm two weeks revealed the entrance in the wall of the island.’

‘Take me there.’

The trip took another hour as they skirted the edge of the rocky island, the sun slowly lowering in the sky. Once arriving at the Pyramid Mark started to setup camp while Daring checked the supplies in her cart, a quarter of her food and almost half her water had been used. She cursed at herself; she’d overused her supply of water and should have packed more. Mark soon declared the campsite to be ready and Daring wasted no time, unfurling her wings and taking off.

‘Mark, stay out here and keep watch, I'll be back for dinner later.’ she received an acknowledging wave from her guide and flew up to the entrance to the pyramid.

The entrance was a large archway eight pony lengths high, blocked only by a small dune of sand that left only a small gap at the top of the archway. Daring wings sang to her as she flew up to the gap, they had been itching for use over the last few days of their trip. Any pegasus flight in the desert was difficult; the lack of moisture in the air sapped the wing power out of her flight, the high winds conspired to throw her out of the sky and the sand that was caught between her feathers didn’t help either.

Daring angled her approach to fly right through the small gap, skipping off the sand dune to land inside. Shaking out her wings again Daring took a deep breath to taste the air in the Pyramid. The air was that of ancient times, musty from being contained for so long along with the underlying bite of the ever present sand. The passage Daring stood in was carved into the rock itself it continued until it reached the first of the open hallways built into the tomb.

The hall was covered in decorative carvings which lined the walls all the way to the door at the end, most ponies would just assume that the carvings were simply decoration but Daring Do had seen far too many tombs to assume that, they were traps, every single one of them. The tiles on the floor were unmarked but there would be some pattern that only the designers knew to bypass the traps.

Out of curiosity Daring took a rock out of her pocket and placed it on an outstretched hoof.

‘Ah the rock, my favourite tool’ she said to herself, ‘only paper can beat It.’ She threw the rock along the hallway, As it landed the rock’s weight pressed down on a tile that slid into the ground as it triggered a trap, spears shot out the walls reaching their full length before stopping. There was an audible click as the spears slowly retracted resetting the trap.

‘Self-resetting trap? Not bad, very clever work there by the ancient zebra. I suppose anyzebra here to rob the tomb would have got the point.’ she grinned looking around before sighing, ‘why am I always this funny when nopony is around?’ when the universe declined to answer Daring simply shrugged, ‘well they designed this trap to stop Zebra, not a Pegasus.’ Daring opened her wings again and flew down the hallway to the door at the end.

‘Ha-Ha, denied,’ she joked as she landed in front of the door, only to depress a tile as she landed. She braced herself for the worst, but only heard a scraping sound. Turning to look at the noise she saw one of the carvings spitting out sparks, created by a mechanically struck flint in the wall while the carving next to it was drooling a glob of thick liquid out. The setup was a liquid fire trap that had clearly passed its burn-by date centuries ago. Daring quickly realized she’d nearly let herself get caught, a sobering thought.

The glob of gooey fire smelled powerful, but it wasn’t every day you get to see zebra alchemy in action so Daring pulled a jar out of a pocket in her jacket and filled it up with the out of date gloop.

The door opened into the next chamber at the press of her hooves, allowing Daring into the next chamber. It was a dark room unlike every other tomb in existence there were no mirrors or everlasting flames to light it, for the first time Daring found she needed a torch.

Daring tore a strip of cloth off her sleeve and put it to the jar of alchemical fire fuel, once it soaked itself in the goo Daring took the jar in a wing and walked back into the first room. She stepped on the last tile starting the fire trap again, Daring held the jar underneath the mechanical flint setting fire to the cloth inside.

Holding the warm jar gingerly between her feathers Daring entered the dark room. Inside was a series of pillars, each barely larger than her hoof, that reached up from a pit full of sharp looking spikes. The pillars were the only way to cross the pit where one false step and Daring would fall to her death; this test would take a lot of coordination. Using the light from the jar to guide her steps Daring slowly stepped out over the pit, shifting each hoof individually to next pillar. She travelled in a rotating movement, looking over her shoulder to guide her rear hooves then slowly turning around to move her forelegs forward.

Daring had heard stories of the incredible balance zebra could display, but this was incredible. Without a torch this room would be impossible to pass, Daring was fortunate that she had wings to hold her torch and catch her if she fell. A zebra or earth pony would have to hold a torch in their mouth and wouldn’t be able to see nearly as well.

Eventually after a dozen or so rotations Daring eventually caught sight of the exit as it came within range of her torch. Eager to leave the room Daring began to move faster, rotating herself more quickly.

The faster rotations began to take their toll, wearing Daring out and worse it began to make her dizzy. She quickly slowed down, intending to take a rest for a moment but the sudden stop only served to made her dizzy spell worse, causing her to misstep and fall.

Reflex alone saved her as her wings shot out to keep her from falling; she stopped her fall just before she fell onto one of the spikes. There was a smash as the jar she was holding in her wing fell to the bottom of the pit, the flame held on the cloth wick spread to the rest of the goo as it started to burn fiercely. The light from the rapidly burning flame revealed the exit, still unsteady Daring did her best to fly toward it reaching the door just as the alchemical fire burnt out.

She reached out with her hooves in the darkness, attempting to find a way to open the door. Eventually she simply pressed herself against the door in desperation and pushed at it, eventually the door was pushed back where it slid to the side admitting Daring into the next room.

Daring laid down on the floor in the light of the room, taking a moment to thank Celestia for the light and to thank Luna for guiding her hoof in the darkness. Daring wasn’t a religious mare, but sometimes you just have to thank somepony.

The room she found herself in was a long hallway with each wall covered in large tiles numbering eight on each side. At the end was another door with a pillar next to it and the floor was carved stone with no trap triggers.

Daring walked to the end of the hallway and tried the door, it was heavy and refused to move even when she gave it a hard buck. The room was obviously some kind of test that she would have to pass before she could continue.

Experimentally she gave one of the tiles on the wall a kick, the tile slid into the wall and spun giving Daring a view to a complex mechanism as it turned. The other side of the tile revealed a picture of the sun drawn in a stylistic swirl. There was a loud crack from the pillar by the door as sand began to flow from the roof above in a pot on the top of the pillar. The slowly filling pot pushed down on the pillar and it begun to sink into the floor, Daring quickly realized It was a timer for the puzzle.

‘That’s new...’ she said to herself

She gave a buck to the next tile; it slid in and spun revealing a crescent moon. After a second the two tiles turned around again and slid back out, the wall returning to its original form while the timer continued to sink.

‘It’s a memory match puzzle’

Daring ran down the hallway to buck another tile which moved back and spun, revealing another picture of the sun. Daring ran back to the first one and hit that as well, the pair now revealed remained as they were. Daring continued the process with the other eight tiles on the wall, matching up the moon, a pyramid and a star. The door still did not open as the timer continued to sink.

Daring Do looked around for an answer as the timer continued to slide into the ground, the pressure starting to get to her before she realized.

‘The other wall...’ Daring facehoofed before bucking the tiles on the other wall twelve or so times, once the puzzle was completed the flow of sand into the timer stopped and the door slid open.

The final room contained a vast number of carvings surrounding a single object in the centre, a sarcophagus that contained the body of the long dead zebra king.

Daring struck a pose with her wings flared out and flipped her helmet, ‘Another day, another Dungeon.’ Celebration complete the archaeologist began to analyse her prize, the sarcophagus was slightly larger than a pony and carved in the likeness of its occupant; a Zebra stallion of advanced age with a wispy white beard.

‘Unusual,’ Daring remarked to herself, ‘typically images in tombs depict their subject in the prime of their life, this guy must have had a very active old age.’ she braced herself against the floor and slid the sarcophagus open, inside was a treasure she’d never thought to find.

The body of the stallion was smaller than average, wrapped in alternating black and white bandages, but what was truly impressive was what surrounded him. Scrolls, hundreds of them made from ancient papyrus and probably preserved through the same zebra alchemy as the body itself.  Daring opened one of the scrolls; it contained what appeared to be a recipe or instructions that Daring couldn’t understand. The Zebrican language is difficult for anypony who isn’t a zebra to understand, the language’s lyrical and rhyming structure made it difficult to translate at the best of times and ancient forms of it would be even worse.

These scrolls must contain a significant amount of knowledge in the field of Zebrican Alchemy, much of which may have been lost to history. She could already see the expression on the curator’s face back at the museum when she dragged this in.

Daring searched around for anything else, finding only a lever on the wall at the back of the tomb, she gave the lever an experimental pull. The lever opened a hidden passage in the wall leading out to daylight on the other side of the pyramid.

‘Well that makes this easier,’ Daring remarked

As Daring Do turned back to her prize, she almost swore she saw something black and white on the sarcophagus. When she reached it she realized it was just the body of its occupant still wrapped in the alternating black/white bandages, it was still dead like it had been for thousands of years.

Ignoring the Zebra, Daring closed the lid of the sarcophagus; she would have to come back for it later with the cart to move it.

It was a quick flight back to the camp and Daring wasted no time in telling Mark Canary to pack up the camp. She had a prize to take back home and spending the night here would achieve nothing more than delaying their return home.

Canary nearly refused to move at all, it was late in the day and night was approaching. Daring on the other hoof was all too eager to return to civilization her prize. She wanted to get a message off to Canterlot the moment she got back to Timbucktoo where somepony would pay handsomely for the zebra and his collection of scrolls.

The guide grumbled constantly as they pulled their carts up to the exit at the back of the pyramid while Daring ignored him completely.

‘Hard to believe that there would be a backdoor like this,’ Mark said staring at the back entrance to the pyramid.

‘Most tombs have them actually, it’s how they put the stuff into them once the traps are ready,’ Daring explained, ‘can you imagine carrying so much treasure the long way every time?’

‘Makes sense, I guess’

Daring brought her cart into the tomb, parking it next to the sarcophagus as Canary started to ask a question.

‘A dead zebra king and a lot of scrolls,’ Daring replied pre-empting the guide’s question.

‘So the stories of King Imzohtep’s lost scrolls are true.’ Mark Canary said as he pulled out a pair of metal potion containers, he stood in the doorway holding the containers in his wings, ‘My master will be ple—’

‘Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal,’ Daring deadpanned while rolling her eyes, cutting Mark off before he could start the standard evil monologue. ‘Ahuizotl wanted you to bring me here didn’t he?’

‘What, how did you know?’ Mark squawked

‘You just told me. It’s not the first time he’s tried this, I didn’t fall for it the first time so I'm not going to now.’

‘Hard to say for somepony trapped in a tomb.’ he brought the pair of canisters to his mouth and he pulled the pins out, ‘try your luck with these,’ he gloated as he threw the potion canisters forward into the tomb coming to a halt around Daring. Instead of doing anything the canisters sat on the ground doing nothing.

‘What? Those were supposed to release sleeping gas!’

Daring laughed at the pathetic attempt, ‘I found those on our first night out in the desert, I emptied it all into the storm’s wind.’ Daring grinned, ‘well not all of it, I used a little of it so I could sleep through your snoring.’

Canary’s composure shattered into nervousness, slowly backing away from the pony that had hired him as a guide.

‘Oops, no backup plan? Well that works for me.’ Daring shot forward, building up speed with her wings as she flew toward Mark.

‘No wait!’ Mark broke into a run out of the tomb, forgetting his own wings in his panic. Daring flipped herself bringing her rear hooves forward as she struck the traitorous guide right on his cross marked flank. The impact knocked Mark off his hooves and onto the sand where Daring seized him by the scruff of the neck. She quickly dragged the struggling Canary across to his cart, repeatedly slapping him across the head to keep him disoriented as she pulled a rope out of his cart to tie him to it.

It was the work of mere moments for the experienced Pegasus, satisfied with her hoof work Daring returned to the tomb to load the sarcophagus into her cart. Canary eventually returned to his senses after a few minutes and struggled against his bonds until Daring returned with the loaded cart.

‘Do you intend to leave me here to die?’ Mark Canary asked Daring Do as she returned,

‘No I intend to leave you here while you chew through the rope, by the time your through it I'll be long gone.’ Daring drank from the water bottle out of Mark’s cart, drinking as much as she could talk spilling most of the contents on the sand as well.

‘You’ll also be wanting more water before you follow me, last time I checked the records on this place they said there was supposed to be an oasis in the centre,’ she smirked, ‘ I thought it was weird you didn’t know that, have a nice time with that rope Mark, I probably won’t see you again.’ Her business concluded Daring Do set off toward the sunset in the west.

‘Wait, Daring Do, how will you get back to Timbucktoo without me?’ Mark called out, Daring barked out a harsh laugh in reply, turning her flank toward the guide tapping her compass cutie mark.

‘I always know where I'm going Mark, it’s a talent of mine.’ she turned and continued walked away with her prize in tow ignoring the cries of her guide.

‘Curse you, Daring Do!’

‘That was awesome,’ Rainbow Dash declared, hugging the pages to her chest, ‘it was a little short though, I kinda expected more.’

Twilight Sparkle smiled in response, ‘that was just the first chapter Rainbow.’ She brought another pile of pages out of her saddlebags’

‘YES! More!’ Rainbow made to grab for the pages but Twilight shifted them out of reach.

‘You know Rainbow; I’m supposed to give the publishers feedback on what I think of the book. Did you have anything you wanted to say about that chapter?’ Twilight asked

‘Yes, it was great and I want the next one’

‘Okay Rainbow, lets continue.’ Twilight gave Rainbow the second stack of pages from the unbound book, ‘I'll make sure the author knows it’s appreciated,’ Twilight said with a smile.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Mysterious Timbucktoo Estimated time remaining: 57 Minutes