Silence has overcome the both of you as you trek further and further into the dense, humid jungle.

Your tiredness combined with Daring’s (hopefully temporal) hatred of you and what she got herself into has left nothing to be said. You didn’t want to make her agree with you by keeping her in the hole, but you really want to go home, and that was the only way to make sure she said ‘yes.’

Even if she said ‘no,’ you still would have saved her, though. But she probably didn’t realize that at the time.

You really want to say something to her, despite all this. The sounds of the jungle creep you out, so not having to concentrate on that for a while would be great.

You clear your throat. “Thanks, Daring. For helping me out and all.”

“Eeyup. I am a mare of my word,” she replies simply and quietly, not looking at you.

“I can tell. So then, where is it that we are going exactly? Should we be trying to find civilization?”

“No.”

You scrunch your face in thought. “What? Why? If I’m trying to get back home, then we should probably-”

“I know that, and we will do that. As I said, I am a mare of my word. But first, I have real business to attend to. I didn’t come all this way and travel in this forest for a week just to turn around because some monkey told me to.”

“Some monkey?”

“This is a business trip. I’m here on business.”

“But you said you would get me home.”

She nods. “Correct. I did say that. I swore it, and by Celestia, I’m going to do it. But not this very second. I need to finish what I’m doing here, then I’ll get you back to wherever the hell you came from.”

“No, no, that wasn’t the deal. I said-”

“You said that I need to help you get back home. That was it. Then you pulled me out of the hole and that was the end of the conversation.”

Shit. She’s right.

“Then when will I get to go home?!” you ask/shout.

“I told you. When we’re done here, I will get you home. You have my word.”

You sigh.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

==========

“Do you really think it will take long to find my house?” you ask, dreading the idea of spending an unknown amount of time in this forest.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Why? The world is only so big. It couldn’t be that difficult to find my house, and I’m sure I’ll remember my address soon enough.”

She sighs. “I doubt that. If I was you, I would be a little more grateful of me helping you out in the first place.”

“Grateful?”

“Yes. Grateful.”

“Why should I be? You haven’t done anything for me.”

“I told you that I will.”

“Promises mean nothing unless you can keep them.”

“And I will! Stop questioning me! You don’t realize how lucky you are!”

“Lucky? Me?! Are you kidding?!”

“No!” she shouts, facing you, looking angry. “I’m not kidding! Why don’t you just think about it for a second? Your hairless ass ends up in a forest with not even the slightest idea of how you got here! Then, somehow, you find me! And with the good, decent soul I have, I decide to help you. But all you have done is bitch and complain and get in the way!”

“Excuse me for wanting to go home!”

“You have caused me so much trouble! If you didn’t follow me in the temple, I would have been thinking clearly, and I wouldn’t have set off any traps or dropped my saddlebags in that damn hole! Now we have no supplies! None! They’re all at the bottom of that hole!”

“Which I pulled you out of!”

“Yeah! By making me promise to help you or you were going to let me die!”

“Bullshit!” You definitely would have gotten her out of there, regardless, but she clearly doesn’t see that.

“The only reason I haven’t ditched you is because I still managed to grab the Elephant of Norsu before it fell, so this hasn’t been a complete waste just yet.”

She pulls the small elephant statue out of her vest to show you she still has it.

You shake your head, not wanting to argue anymore.

==========

“What’s your name, anyway?” she asks, after another few long minutes of walking.

You don’t answer. You can’t remember.

“Hey.” She pokes your side. “Name,” she says slowly, like that will help you understand. “I told you mine, so the polite thing would be to introduce yourself as well.”

You take a deep breath and look at her sadly. You just can’t remember. You even forgot something as simple as your name!

“Come on. Out with it.”

“I can’t remember.”

“... you can’t remember?”

You nod.

She snickers. “Ahem, sorry. That’s not funny.” She smiles and tries desperately not to laugh, but she just can’t hold it back. “Ha ha! That’s hilarious!”

“Whatever,” you sigh. “Jokes on you. You’re the one who has to get me back home. A deal’s a deal.”

“A deal’s a deal,” she says quietly, imitating your voice in a childlike fashion. “I should have took a vacation.” She sighs.

The both of you continue to walk through the jungle, carefully avoiding the never ending vines and listening to the sounds of the insects around you.

An unknown object flies right in front of your face and lands on a branch above you.

“Shit, that was close,” you say. “That thing almost hit me.”

“That ‘thing’ is an Azure Jay,” Do says, pointing at it. It’s head and upper chest is black, but the rest of it is totally blue. “Pretty common in this area.”

“Huh. You know your birds.”

“Well, after travelling as much as I have, you learn a couple things. I’ve never been the biggest fan of reading, but I’m always up for learning something about the places I have to go to."

“So you do this sort of thing often?”

“Not entirely.”

She leaves her answer at that, refusing to elaborate any further.

The both of you resume walking through the jungle. Unfortunately, it seems that no one ever comes out here to hike or explore very often, so there is no trail to follow, which sucks for you. No trail makes it very difficult to move faster than .3 miles per hour.

“So what is that you do, exactly?” you ask, not satisfied with her earlier response. You still don’t know why she is in this jungle. You don’t know why you’re here either, but it’s not like you chose to be here. Daring, on the other hand, seems to be here for a reason. ‘Business,’ as she has been calling it.

“What I do?” she asks.

“Yeah. Like, why are you here? And what’s that elephant in your bag?”

She smiles proudly and stands up straighter, puffing out her chest a little. “You can call me a lot of things, but most ponies think of me as an adventurer. And the elephant I got is a very old, very powerful magical artifact that belonged to Paskapaa the Wise hundreds of years ago. This relic has more magical potential than 500 unicorns combined! And when combined with the other two artifacts we’re after, they might even be more powerful than the Elements of Harmony! Pretty cool, if you ask me.”

You have no idea what she’s talking about, but she’s really excited about it, so you just pretend that you do.

“That magical potential could be devastating if it falls into the wrong hooves, or claws, or paws, or whatever. So I need to get all three before any of my enemies or competitors do.”

"There are three of these things?"

"Yep!" She pulls out the elephant again to show it to you. "There is the blue elephant, the red donkey, and the white eagle. We already have one of those, so we are one-third of the way there."

"And all of these things are in buildings like the one we were just in?"

"I think so. I'm not entirely sure, but from my research, I assume all three are in various temples that haven't been used for centuries. But we need to hurry or my competitors will get there first."

“So, you’re a graverobber.”

Since when do graverobbers have competitors?

She looks back at you with a blank, bored expression. “Did you not hear anything I just said? I’m a treasure hunter! An explorer! A-”

“Graverobber.”

She takes a deep breath. You know you’re pissing her off, but you’re not going to stop. If she’s gonna make you go with her to find more blue elephants or whatever then you’re going to make her pay.

“No,” she says slowly. “Graverobbers don’t explore like I do. Go on adventures like I do. Have enemies like I do. And especially don’t have to put up with as much shit as I do.” She points an accusing hoof at you for a moment before walking again.

“OK then, let me get this straight... you break into temples, right? Like the one we were just in?”

“Right.”

“And in these ancient temples, there are old, valuable relics and medallions and stuff. Right?”

“Yeah.”

“And why do you think there are such valuable pieces of jewelry and decorations that are unreasonably heavily guarded in these temples?”

“...” She doesn’t say anything. She just looks at you and waits as you make your way through the dense jungle terrain.

“I’ll tell you. It’s because, long ago, someone very important and very rich died. And when they died, they were buried.”

“Really?!” she asks, sounding excitedly sarcastic. “You mean, when ponies die, they get buried?! That’s incredible! I didn’t know!”

You scowl at her.

“And I was thinking that common sense eluded you.”

You shake your head and continue. “Anyway, these temples were built, and their bodies were put inside, along with all of their personables.”

“Yeah. So? Why are you even telling me all this crap like I don’t already know it? This is a very large part of what I do for a living. You clearly don’t know who I am.”

You ignore her. “Then graverobbers and petty thieves, such as yourself, break into their tombs and steal their stuff.”

“That’s not true at all! Graverobbers are just lazy thieves looking to make a quick buck by digging some poor bastard up and stealing their clothes or watch or something. I don’t do that.”

“No,” you begin. “A graverobber, by definition, is someone who steals valuables from graves or crypts. IE, you.”

She turns to face you, scowling and growling and points a hoof at you again. “Don’t you start telling me what the definition to anything is! And stop talking like you know this stuff! You can’t even remember where you’re from!”

“I’m trying!”

“You’re failing!”

“At least I’m not some petty graverobber!”

“Petty?!” she shouts, stopping in her tracks, sounding even more angry than she was moments before. “Do you have even the slightest idea of how much this thing is worth?!” She holds up the ancient relic you both stole merely an hour before. “This baby has been missing for over 700 years! And I spent the past 15 months tracking it down, and now it’s mine! Hell, I could go to the nearest city right this second and sell this puppy for millions of bits! Millions! I could choke an orphanage with all those bits!”

You’ve never heard that expression before.

You quirk an eyebrow. “Then why don’t you?”

She puts the relic back in her saddlebags and begins walking again. “It’s not mine.”

You resume walking by her side. “Well, technically it’s not anybody’s. It belongs to whoever that dead guy is inside that temple.”

“Pfft. What use could this baby have to some dead guy? It doesn’t belong to him anymore. This is now property of Princess Celestia.”

“Who?”

“Princess Celestia?”

“Yeah. Who’s that?” You’ve never heard that name before. You guess this strange, jungle-ish land you’re in is ruled by this ‘Princess Celestia.’

“She’s the ruler of Equestria,” Daring explains. “It’s where I’m from.”

“So, we’re not in Equestria right now?”

She laughs. “Oh hay no. Equestria is, maybe, just a little more habitable than this place.” She laughs again, as though she is telling some joke. But you don’t get it, so you don’t laugh. You just watch.

As she laughs and her attention seems to be taken elsewhere, you observe Daring. Not just her face, but her whole body.

Her shirt and vest are cut up nicely, evidence of her masterful evasion skills. It surprises you that she didn’t get hit by any of the darts or arrows fired at you from inside the temple. And it surprises you even more that you didn’t get hit. You didn’t know you were a ninja.

A dart is sticking out of the back of her pith helmet, but you elect not to tell her about it. It looks kind of funny. She’s lucky that it was just a dart, and not an arrow. If it was an arrow, she would probably be dead.

Everything else about her seems as normal as it should be. Her bandaged wing is still bandaged. Her grayscale hair is still all gray. Her yellow-ish fur still looks like mustard. You can see the compass-shaped tattoos on either of her hind legs because she dropped her saddlebags. Her eyes are still red as they have always been. The red stain on her leg is... still... what?

Red stain on her leg?

“Do! You’re bleeding!” you shout, just now noticing, even though you got out of the temple an hour ago.

She smirks. “Thanks, doc! Didn’t know that ‘til you told me.”

“Daring, stop,” you command, stopping yourself.

“Oh no. If you want me to help you get to wherever the hell you’re from, you gotta keep up. Naptime is still hours away, little buddy.”

She starts walking again.

It’s strange that she called you ‘little buddy’ considering that you are probably two feet taller than she is.

You take off your plain white t-shirt.

“What are you doing?” she asks, sounding confused, looking back at you.

You walk over and bend down to wrap the shirt around her semi-fresh wound, using it as a makeshift bandage. Daring may have had bandages with her, but everything fell out of her saddlebags and into that pit, leaving you both with no supplies and no money.

“What are you doing?!” she asks, jumping back and away from your assistance.

“I’m stopping the bleeding, what does it look like?” You approach her again.

“I don’t need your help. It's barely bleeding. I’m fine.” She starts walking again.

“Do, stop!” You reach out and stop her with a hand on her shoulder.

“I said... I’m fine.” She shrugs off your hand and starts walking.

Your hospitality shall not be refused. Daring is going to be healed whether she likes it or not, damnit!

You jog in front of her and bend down.

“I said, I’m-”

She tries to jump away from you, but before she can, you grab her foreleg. Unfortunately, you grab the wrong foreleg, and accidentally put a lot of pressure on her wound.

She yelps in pain, and reflexively moves closer to you to stop the discomfort.

You want to apologize, but before you can, you need to take your chance. You wrap your shirt tightly around her leg and tie it off so the knot is behind her foreleg and not on top of her wound.

“There, there,” you say, rising to your feet once more. “It’s done. Are you alright? I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

She holds her injured foreleg up a few inches above the ground for a few moments, her eyes tightly shut. A scowl overcomes her face before she takes a deep breath.

“Yeah,” she breathes. “I’m fine... Thanks.”

She glances at you for a split second then turns her attention towards the direction you’re supposed to be heading in. Without another word, she begins walking.

That ‘thanks’ you got will probably be the most endearing words she will ever say to you, so you take it. You allow a small smile to grace your face before following her again into the jungle.

==========

The sun is setting and the jungle is becoming slightly darker, though the chirps of the crickets seem to be as strong as ever.

You and Daring have been walking for hours now.

It hasn’t gotten all that much darker, though. The canopy of the trees block out the sun regardless of the time of the day, so it always looks like late evening in here. But Do said night was approaching, so you better find a decent place to make camp.

That is what you are doing now. Trying to find a small clearing of some sort that will provide enough room and comfort for the both of you to fall asleep. Some place with water and some food source would be preferable.

Daring considered flying above the trees to look for a clearing, but you were against that. She is hardly of any use to anyone of she further damages that wing of hers.

She agreed with you, and now you’re both simply walking, just as you have been all afternoon.

“You hear that?” Do asks, her ears standing up.

You listen closely for any sounds besides the thousands of insects that are getting laid all around you. But you can’t hear anything. “Nope. Why? You hear something?”

She smiles and looks up at you. “Oh ho, you bet I do!” She scampers off further into the jungle. You quickly move to catch up to her.

You lose sight of the vest-wearing mare almost immediately. The only thing you have to go on now is that she ran in one direction, so you follow in that exact direction.

After only a few panicked moments of running, your foot gets caught on a root and you fall into a bush. The needles and pricks scratch your skin in a painful way, but it’s not the worst thing you’ve experience thus far today.

You crawl through the bush and spit, attempting to remove the needles and twigs and dirt from your mouth. “Blech. Ugh. That’s some nasty shit, I swear.”

You make your way to your feet and look forward. Sitting directly in front of where your standing, is a clearing. The clearing you’ve been looking for for the past half-an-hour... But this is no ordinary clearing. The sight is... breathtaking, to say the least. Especially after all you’ve been through.

On your left is a large patch of grass. No trees. No bushes. No vines. Grass! Just grass! Soft, luxurious, non-prickly, ordinary, everyday, god damn grass! You never thought you would be so excited to see something so simple. But it is what lies to your right that truly makes you smile.

A pond.

A legit, semi-clear pond! There’s even a small waterfall at the opposite end of it! Sweet Jesus, you can finally bathe! And you can drink! You’re so damn thirsty!

You rush over to the edge of pond and dive in. Well, belly-flop in, but whatever. The important thing is you jump in the water disregarding the clothes you have on and the contents in either of your pockets.

The water is too shallow to dive head first into anyway. It’s only about 3 feet deep, but that’s more than enough.

The cool water offers much relief to the hot and humid atmosphere that the jungle has forced upon you. You could cry you’re so happy, but you don’t.

You come up for air and immediately start smiling and laughing and splashing the water at nothing in particular.

“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” you shout excitedly, not really sure why. “A-ha! I’m so happy!”

You put your arms out to your side and fall straight back, allowing the water to catch you and you go under. The cold water surrounds you once more and your laughter resumes. Quickly losing air, you easily rise back to the surface, but remain on your back, and look up to the sky. You haven’t seen the sky in a while. It’s really pretty.

The sun has almost dipped below the horizon, which you cannot see, but the dark red color of the sky implies the time of the day.

You hear a throat clearing from next to you.

You look over and see Daring Do standing at the edge of the pond.

She smiles and gestures around herself with a hoof.

“Welcome to paradise!”

And it was.

Author's Notes:

Thank you for reading chapter 2! I'm very grateful.
Please leave any feedback you have to offer in the comments below.