“So you think your friends are going to be out there when we get through this?”

Daring Do's made the observation as she carefully moved her hooves around the multicolored floor tiles of the large room. Twilight Sparkle was doing the same; ancient Mare-potamian religion had strict color-coding, and she didn't want either of them to step on the color for...well...

“They'll be there... They always have before, haven't they?”

Twilight moved one hoof, Daring moved another, back and forth as they inched their way towards the exit.

“Yeah, though I don't know why you stay ponies like that. There's too much chance for betrayal, for them to leak secrets and get you into trouble.”

Twilight stopped for a moment and stared at Daring.

“Are you saying that's how you got here? Somepony blabbed?”

Daring affected a smug smile.

“No comment.”

They continued on for a little while in their intricate dance until they reached the end of the room. Twilight sighed in relief as her hooves rested on sandstone paving instead of ceramic tile, and she turned to look back at the ordeal they had just conquered.

“You know, I could've just flown out of there and...”

Twilight smirked and shook her head at Daring's words.

“We had to work together, it's part of the legend the trap was based around. I'm pretty sure that we primed the trap in this room when we first touched the floor tiles, and...”

“If I had tried to fly, the room would have sealed itself and we'd have been goners.”

Daring shook her head ruefully.

“We actually do make a good team, don't we?”

Twilight started back down the hallway to what they knew was the exit to this tomb.

“Maybe you should have been nicer when we first met. But then, you don't care much about anything except being an adrenaline addict.”

Daring gave her a hard look.

“I do care about other things, Twilight. Like where that artifact is headed.”

Twilight looked at her saddlebags and then at Daring.

“It's going to ponies loyal to Princess Celestia.”

Daring didn't say anything and rolled her eyes as they continued to walk.

Soon they were outside, in the clearing that used to be an entrance plaza for the underground complex. Grass and moss covered many of the paving stones and ruined pillars, and a thick forest surrounded the place, moonlight shining through the holes in the canopy.

“Twilight, are you all right?”

A quartet of stallions, a pegasus and three earth ponies stood ready at the far side of the clearing and, even as Dr. Cabelleron gave her a knowing smile, Daring narrowed her eyes at the sight.

“It looks like your friends [i]have[/i] arrived...”

Twilight let a little smirk enter her smile, even as she began to head to the others.

“Sorry, Daring. We'll be taking the artifact with us now.”

Daring looked like she was taking a moment to process that, while swallowing something else at the same time.

Outrage? Humiliation?

Then Daring raised her head, a cold grin on her face as at least a dozen black-clad ponies burst into the clearing. Twilight could feel her blood run cold at the sight of the Night Guard and what that meant.

“You...?”

Daring nodded at Twilight's question, as the elite soldiers approached.

“I've come to see the value in the magic of friendship myself. Or at least, convenient alliances.”

Twilight took a moment to look up at the brilliant white moon that now held a different mare on its face and a rainbow around it like a shawl. Then she looked back down at the mare who had been her hero at one time.

“Why...?”

“I don't care about politics, but I do care about where artifacts like the one you have wind up.”

Daring took a moment to point in the direction of Cabelleron and his party.

“I have no intention of letting ponies like them get their hands on anything like that artifact. Now hand it over or things get ugly.”

Twilight wanted to resist, but she heard a sigh behind her.

“Give it to her Twilight. We can spar with her another day.”

Twilight hesitated, looked at the soldiers with their armor and fierce demeanor, and relented.

But even as she used her magic to levitate the artifact to her now-enemy, Twilight repeated a promise she'd made to herself before.

[i]I'll beat you, Daring Do. Me and my friends, we'll beat you.[/i]