Daring gave me a confused look. “Okay John, we give up. Seriously, what have you found?” Daring asked as I continued to swish my hoof in the clear water.

“What happens to water when it sits still for a long time?” I asked and Daring looked around as she thought to herself.

“It uhh… uhm… it stagnates?” She asked in reply and I clapped my hooves. “I don’t get it John…” She trailed off and I splashed her with a bit of water. “Aah, John!” She scowled and I face-hoofed. Goddess she was thick skulled.

Daring stopped for a moment as she recalled what just happened. “Wait a minute… is that water… clear?” She asked and I nodded in a stupid manner with crossed eyes. “So that means… that means that somehow the water is circulating.” She stated and I nodded then clapped my hooves. “Yeah… okay John we get it. You’re a genius.” Daring muttered as we both stood up.

I stretched my back. “Question is: where is the entrance and is the entrance big enough for us to get out of?” I stated and Daring sighed. “Yeah, I’m with you. Better stay positive.” I told her to ease her nerves.

We began to fan out in search of the water entrance. Hopefully it wasn’t deep underwater or too small for us to fit through. I began to wonder if this was what Black Mane wanted us to find and if so then why? I mean yeah he probably wanted to kill us off but it seemed a little less than effective.

After several minutes of searching, Elijah called out to us. “I think I found something.” I looked over to him. Damn that was fast. We all trotted over to him and he pointed over to the cave wall that was surrounded by water.

Brixie focused her magical illumination spell on it and we spotted an opening, though the rest of it was underwater. There was enough room that a pony could keep their nose above water but not much else.

I let out a deep sigh. “Well… guess we have to give it a try huh… Elijah, would Bear go?” I asked, curious if the dog would follow us despite the circumstances of what we had to do.

Elijah nodded. We all dipped into the water and began to swim over to tunnel way. Elijah went first and Bear went right behind him. Billy was followed by Brixie then both Daring and I proceeded into the tunnel.

There was actually a lot of room in the tunnel but it was flooded with water. I held my eyes shut and my nose above the water line as I felt my way down the tunnel. It was somewhat difficult to keep my breath as only a little bit of oxygen could get through my nostrils at a time. I usually burned through the oxygen quite quickly as I paddled along.

After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, the tunnel funneled out wider and I was able to stick my head above water. I began gasping for air. Finally I caught my breath. The others were a little further ahead of Daring and me.

After a few more feet, the tunnel’s ratio of air to water changed. Now there was more airspace then water so we could trot along through the water.

“John…” Daring trailed off and I looked to her. “I love you so much and I never want to lose you… back in the cavern, when that creature grabbed you… I thought you were going to die and I would never be able to tell you ‘I loved you’ again.” She told me. I smiled and kissed her damp face briefly.

“I love you too… and don’t worry. I plan on dying many years from now of natural causes.” I assured her. She smiled then stopped. I stopped close to her and she quickly lept up to her hindlegs and pinned me to the wall as she kissed me with a furious passion.

I pulled back from the kiss. “Kind of a bad time… don’t you think?” I asked. I really hated to have to end this moment of romance but I was right. Right now wasn’t really the time to be doing this.

She sighed and fell back down to all fours. I felt bad but I knew it wasn’t the time. “Tell you what…” I began and she looked up to me. “When we get out of here, which we will, I’ll do whatever you want. Hay, even if it’s right outside the mine entrance for Celestia’s sake.” I told her and her face brightened up from the comment.

“Promise?” She asked and I nodded. We hadn’t actually spent a passionate moment together… well none that we got to finish anyway. They always seemed to always get interrupted.

Finally we reached the end of the tunnel and entered another cavern. The funnel dropped off into deep water but about thirty yards in front of us there was another rock shoreline. We all swam over then took a brief rest on the solid shore.

This was pushing it. I really hated water. If I never saw another large concentration of water again, I’d be a happy stallion. I looked around in the room to see an entrance to another tunnel but this one had no water to have to swim through.

I pointed over to it and after we all had our rest, we got up and began to proceed down the tunnel. It wasn’t necessarily crammed but it wasn’t really spacious. Again Elijah and Bear took lead with Brixie and Billy following and Daring and myself in the back.

After not even two minutes of trotting, Elijah called out to us. “We have a problem… a big one.” He called out to us and we all crammed up to him. In front of us was twenty feet of quicksand then what looked to be a steel door with a small opening viewport.

“Daring… see if you can’t fly over there and open it.” I told her. She nodded and immediately flew over. She fidgeted with the door for a few moments before returning.

“It’s weird. The door is locked from this side but the key hole is on that side and… it’s small. The keyhole is probably the size of…” She trailed off for a moment as she tried to think of something to compare it to.

She came up with a quick thought then pulled out a .45LC round. “Hold your horses…” She trailed off then flew back over to the door. After fidgeting for a moment she called back to us. “A forty-five round fits perfectly into the slot but… I can’t seem to apply enough force to… push back the lever inside the lock.” She told us.

“Pull out your gun and just shove the barrel to the lock and shoot.” Billy called out. Daring took out her pistol and tried to line it up but never fired a shot. She flew back to us and sat on her haunches.

“I can’t. The lock is too far down and I can’t line the pistol up with the lock.” She informed us. Brixie looked to Elijah.

“Elijah, give her a stick of dynamite and Daring can simply blow the door down.” She told him. Both Elijah and I chuckled. Brixie raised an eyebrow, “What is so funny?” She asked.

Elijah answered. “That’s a good plan but you risk bringing the whole cave down on us if you tried that.” Elijah informed her. We all sighed in defeat and tried to think up possible ways to do this.

Daring spoke up. “What if… some-pony used their pistol to shoot a round through the view port, ricocheted the bullet off the wall and had the bullet slam into the lever inside the lock.” She told us. Elijah, Brixie and Billy all looked at her like she had fallen off her rocker. I had to admit, that did sound pretty ludicrous.

“That’s… insane!” Billy commented. Elijah also stated about the same thing but more bluntly.

“Well… if you guys have a better idea?” Daring asked. No-pony said a thing. Daring looked to the viewport then to her pistol. “I’m not exactly a crack shot with my pistol. Any takers?” She asked and Billy shook his head as he looked to the Luger in his hooves. Brixie was kind of already out of the question, not really being a fighter. Elijah didn’t carry pistols and the machineguns he carried weren’t meant for accuracy.

Daring looked to me. “I kind of figured it would be you to volunteer John.” She said with a wink. I pulled out my M1911 and thought for a moment. The .45ACP and .45LC were pretty similar but I needed to be sure.

“Daring, see if one of my bullets will fit in the slot.” I told her. Just before she went to fly off I stopped her. “Take me with you. I need to know where the hole is.” I told her and she gulped.

“You’re kind of heavy so don’t move around or squirm too much.” She told me. She hefted me up and flew us over. She lowered me down and I reached inside the view port and felt around until I found the lock. It was about two and a half feet down past the viewport and the hole was in the middle. I slid a .45ACP round into the slot. It fit but just barely.

I let out a sigh. It would be close, no doubt in my mind, and I wasn’t a good of shot with Colt Peacemakers as I was with my M1911.

“Okay Daring… fly me back.” I told her. She did as I told her and set me down by the edge of the quick sand. I knelt down and took a breath before doing some mental calculations. I fired my first shot and heard the round ricochet but I had this feeling it didn’t work.

I tried again… and again, and again. I kept trying until I was on the second last round in my magazine. Jeeze this was depressing. In my frustration I kind of forgot that we were trapped in a cave system.

Daring placed a hoof on my shoulder. “You can do it John… I know you can.” She whispered to me. My mind seemed to become razor sharp with focus. My line of sight zoomed in and everything but my target just seemed to zone out.

I pulled the trigger and the handgun let out a BANG, as it fired a round. Again it ended in failure. “Buck!” I hissed to myself. I had plenty of extra rounds but this was driving me nuts.

I zeroed everything out again but then I thought of something else. I didn’t focus on trying to ricochet the round. I just focused on shooting the gun. Like it was an extension of my body.

I felt the smooth grips of the pistol in my hooves. The golden holy cross that was engraved into the handle pressed into my hoof. I pulled the trigger back.

BANG!

As the shot rang out we heard the door whine and creak as it slowly swung open. The quicksand in front of us dissipated and was replaced by a sliding slab of stone floor. We all trotted across it and passed the door.

“Damn John… that was a superb shot!” Daring commented and I blushed modestly.

“Uhm thanks… it was nothing really.” I said shyly and she laughed.

“That’s the John I love. Shy and timid.” She giggled as she grabbed my left foreleg and nuzzled her head against my side. We continued on down the passageway. We soon spotted a yellowish light at the end of the tunnel and eventually we exited the tunnel and entered a vast room.

It looked like something from… ancient times. Gnome maybe… maybe further back than even that. There were sphinx and god looking statues everywhere. Our mouths hung agape.

Daring’s perspective:

The place was lit by torches that somehow kept burning. Water splashed out from a small water spout tunnel and into a canal that led to a small drainage hole. This place looked like it had been built by an ancient civilization many millennia ago.

“Wow.” Was all I managed in a whisper. John and Elijah trotted over to a tunnel way then called over to us. “I think we found the way out. I see natural light at the end of this tunnel!” John called out and I nodded.

I trotted along with Billy and Brixie as we observed the ancient artifacts. “This is… incredible. We have to tell Ray. Get a research team in here…” I trailed off as I continued to look at the mountainous statues.

John trotted over to me. “What do you think Black Mane wanted us here for?” John asked me and I shrugged. John just sighed and trotted over to a big pyramid then began to ascend up a side staircase.

I began to observe different statues when John called out to us. “Hey guys… come check this out… I think I found what we were looking for.” John called to us. We all rushed over to the pyramid and ascended up it.

At the tip of the pyramid stood John on a somewhat large platform. In the middle there was a small brick table with a locked casket on it. We all trotted over to John’s side and he walked over to it. He poked at the lock then looked to Brixie.

Brixie nodded then cast a spell that opened the lock. So that’s how John got into my room onboard the Lunar Titan. John opened the casket and we all gasped at the sight of the shiny gold billons inside.

“Wow… that stuff… must be worth a fortune!” Billy gasped and Brixie nodded.

“It doesn’t matter what it’s worth, we have to bring it to a museum. This is the sort of thing that should be on display about ancient history.” I told them and both John and Elijah chuckled in perfect unison. I looked over to them. “What’s so funny?”

Elijah spoke first. “The Equestrian Civil War didn’t happen all that long ago you know.” Elijah stated and I scrunched my nose.

John chuckled again. “Those… ten or so gold billons, belonged to famous generals in the war.” He informed me. I looked at him curiously.

“And how would you know?” I asked. He picked up the casket.

“Well for starters, they have the initials of several of the generals inscribed onto the bottoms, along with their ranks. And...” He trailed off as the brick table slid down into the pyramid roof. “Uhm…” John trailed off his sentence.

The tunnel way that led out of the cavern system was sealed by a sliding stone wall. The spouts began to splash water out at an alarming rate and my eyes widened. John groaned. “Yeah… this is probably bad.”

Author's Notes:

Jeeze... they just can't get a break huh? Yeah well that's enough for tonight. It's quarter to ten at night where I live and I gotta get up early for work tomorrow... hmm I didn't eat supper tonight... (Sighs deeply) my life is a mess. Oh well time to have some icecream.