Daring Do Saves Hearth's Warming
"And before I leave, I would like to extend my thanks to Doctor Solomon, my expert in archaeology whose hard work has made Daring Do possible." The audience stamped their hooves, and A. K. Yearling stepped down from the podium, joining her aforementioned friend as the rest of the ponies around them mingled into their own groups.
Doctor Solomon helped himself to a plate of tofu cubes and offered some to Yearling. "That was a nice speech, Miss Yearling. Your latest book sold better than any other, if I believe?"
"Smashing records is what I do best," Yearling said, taking one of the cubes and eating it gracefully. She then leaned closer and whispered, "As well as smashing heads. Thanks for coming tonight, by the way. Hate these kind of events."
"You're are the very epitome of the young generation. Can't stand a single night of standing still and looking proper." Doctor Solomon laughed, despite Yearling's glare. "Can't you stop to rest for just one night?"
"Excuse me, Miss Yearling?" Yearling turned, finding a cloaked pony standing to her side. He was taller than her, yet sounded like a teenager, his voice cracking and shaking. He held up a folded piece of paper. "A message. For you."
Yearling raised an eyebrow, taking the letter and looking down at it. There was no sender named on it. "From who?" As she looked back up, she found that the pony was gone.
Doctor Solomon sighed. "I guess that's a 'no'. So, are you going to read it?"
Yearling studied the letter for a few seconds. "A mysterious letter, given to me by a mysterious pony who mysteriously vanish right before our eyes?" She grinned. "I'd be crazy not to."
As she opened it, Doctor Solomon put down his plate of tofu cubes and leaned closer to her. "What does it say?"
Yearling turned to him. "Pack your things. We're going to the Northern Wastes, and Daring Do's about to get her next book."
As Daring Do – now rid of her 'A. K. Yearling' disguise – and Doctor Solomon flew over the frozen wasteland in the doctor's small, steam-powered chariot, the young adventurer sharpened her daggers and the old scholar studied the mysterious letter that was their reason for being there.
"I still can't believe it. 'Santa Clause is in danger. Please help.' Hah! Santa Clause! To think, I would live to see the day that Santa Clause is proven to be real!"
"It may yet be a hoax," Daring Do cautioned, stowing her daggers and checking her flintlock. It was loaded, and she had enough powder for two more shots. She saw a flake of snow fall on the barrel and wondered how the cold might effect it. "What bugs me is who that pony was. They didn't use magic to get away, that's for sure."
"It could have been one of Santa's elf-ponies," Solomon suggested. "Hearth's Warming magic has no aura, no flash. It has to be subtle so that nopony sees it."
"A little tall for an elf-pony, wasn't he?"
Solomon simply laughed, whilst Daring Do ignored him and checked her binoculars. "Oh, how I pity your generation. Remind me to take you to an elf-pony village one of these days. They're a rarity, but I assure you, they do exist."
"… Sure, I'll keep that in mind. Now, how far to the pole?"
Doctor Solomon rubbed his chin in thought as he looked down to the map pinned to the seat beside him. "Rough estimate? Right below us." Daring Do's head shot up, and she looked over the edge of the chariot. "Wait, was I using Unicornian or Equestrian measurements? Blast. I'll have to start all over."
Daring Do sighed, but before she pulled herself back into the chariot, she saw something in the distance. Something that made her smile. "No need. It's right there!"
"How can you be sure?"
"Because there's a house over there, and a field of reindeer!" Daring Do put her binoculars to her eyes, and studied the house in the distance. "Of course this could still be an elaborate hoax, but I don't think I know anypony crazy enough to go to these lengths on Hearth's Warming Eve just to pull one over on me."
"Oh, how exciting! Oh, dear. I had a whole list of questions to ask Santa Clause but I left it at home!"
"… Stop the engine," she said, lowering her binoculars and gathering up all of their maps and documents. "Stop it and land. There's a hill nearby."
"What's wrong?"
"Whether Santa's real or not, someone needs our help." Daring Do looked up, into Doctor Solomon's eyes, her gaze stern. "Ahuizotl's there."
"That's Ahuizotl's personal chariot," Doctor Solomon said, peering through his spyglass, and then moving over to the ponies wandering about outside, corralling various, tall pony with pointed ears. "His thugs, and those are elf-ponies. Poor souls."
"They have no horns," Daring Do noticed. "So they can't use magic to fight back."
"Elf-ponies don't have horns. They channel magic through their pointed ears, but the cold here makes it near-impossible. Normally they wear special earrings that keep their ears warm, but those ruthless scoundrels have removed them!"
"Meaning that Ahuizotl didn't just happen upon this place," Daring Do surmised. "This is a planned attack. Getting in there won't be easy."
"We will need to create a distraction." Doctor Solomon moved his gaze to the reindeer, watching the scene from their pen, and looked at Daring Do to his side. "Do you think a stampede of reindeer will help?"
"That'll help, but I was thinking about overheating that engine over there." Daring Do pointed to a steam engine in the distance, where a group of thugs were huddling nearby for warmth. "It'll get their attention, and they'll have to drop everything to save their comrades."
"Then we'll divide our efforts," Doctor Solomon said. "Two distractions will improve our chances of making it inside." Solomon turned around, gasping and falling onto his back as the sight of a great, big polar bear filled his heart with terror. "M-Miss Do!"
Daring Do turned around, gasping too as she reached for her flintlock. The bear roared, and then suddenly froze. Daring Do raised her gun, but waited. The bear fell before the two, and Daring Do saw an arrow in its back.
"That sedative is powerful enough to knockout even an ursa minor with one shot," a new voice announced, one which put the two on their guards even moreso than the bear. "I would dissuade using the gun, Miss Do, lest you alert your presence to the entirety of Ahuizotl's army."
"So, you're involved in all of this," Daring Do looked up at the pony standing on a small, elevated plot of land behind the bear, "Doctor Caballeron."
Caballeron bowed, and then looked over to Doctor Solomon. "My old friend."
Solomon felt his blood beginning to boil. "We are not friends. You betrayed me, you, you-" Solomon clutched his chest, coughing a few times, and Daring Do rushed to his side.
"You should be more mindful of your health," Caballeron said, planting his spent bow into the snow beneath him before approaching the two. Daring Do drew a dagger in her free hoof, and he stopped. "You're welcome, for me saving your lives."
"One good deed does not erase your bad ones," Daring Do said. "So, why don't you tell me why you're here? Clearly you're not with Ahuizotl on this one."
"Indeed. He did come to me for my services on this one, but I turned him down, telling him that I was already in the middle of another job."
"But now you're here. Why?"
Doctor Caballeron sighed. "I'm no monster, Miss Do, despite my career choices. Ahuizotl plans to destroy Hearth's Warming. The use it to promote hatred, rather than love, and provoke the windigos to attack Equestria. In all of the chaos, he will make his move."
"Not like you to care so much for your country," Daring Do said.
"Normally, I would think about how I could profit from such an event, and yet… my niece would be crushed, if she woke up to violence on Hearth's Warming, rather than that new train set that she'd always wanted. That I went to such lengths to acquire legally."
Daring Do raised an eyebrow. "Niece…"
"I heard your plan, and I like it, but Doctor Solomon is in no condition to venture alone."
"I'm fine," Solomon said through gritted teeth, before wincing and clutching his chest even tighter. "I… I…"
"Besides, we will need somepony to stay with the chariot to keep it safe, and ready to evacuate us once Santa Clause is saved." Caballeron reached into his saddlebag, and pulled out a small radio. "Its range is weak, but it should serve us well for our purposes here. Let us call a truce. For Hearth's Warming, if not for ourselves."
Daring Do stared at the radio for a few moments, before sighing and taking it. "You go free the reindeer and spook them so that they'll rampage. I'll blow the engine, and then we'll both meet once we're inside." Daring Do gave the radio to Doctor Solomon.
"Always have to take the explosive route, don't you?" Caballeron stated with a grin. "Well then, I wish you the best of luck." With that, Doctor Caballeron moved away from the group, sneaking down the hill and approaching the pen.
Doctor Solomon turned to Daring Do with a concerned stare. "I don't feel comfortable about this. For starters, his niece-"
"I know," Daring Do said. "But we don't have many options here. Besides, if he wanted to stop us, he would've taken you hostage by this point." Daring Do frowned, her gaze falling to the ground. "Sorry I brought you along. I should've been more mindful of your condition."
"No, Miss Do. I would have insisted anyway. I will keep an eye on him and-"
"No. Hide, watch out for Ahuizotl's thugs, and if you and the chariot are discovered, fly away." Daring Do saw the doctor about to argue, and she gave him a reassuring smile. "If it comes down to it, I can find my own way out and we can meet back together at the border."
"… Then I will trust you once more, Miss Do. Just make it out alive."
"Always do." Daring Do turned and ran through the snow, rounding the hill and finding a nice, steady slope that made its way down to the engine. With an excited grin, she cautiously made her way there. "Alright boys, time to make an entrance!"
As Daring Do climbed through the window of the wooden house, panting and coughing and slumping onto the floor, she wondered if maybe she had been just a little too enthusiastic. She knew that the answer was 'yes' when she had to pat her wing to put out the fire that had caught her feathers.
"Well, at least it worked," she whispered to herself.
She ducked behind a barrel as two thugs marched through the room. "Don't worry, Boss!" one of them shouted. "We'll find out what all that noise i- Great Celestia! Get those things under control and put out that fire!"
"I guess that means Caballeron's inside, too. I suppose I had better find him." Quietly, she crept through the house. As she did so, she admired the Hearth's Warming decorations displayed everywhere, the superb craftsmanship of the walls and the furniture, and she studied the photographs lining the walls.
One wall contained a line of photographs that eventually descended into charcoal drawings, all of which were of Santa Clause, but all of which were distinctly different in each way. The first one had said 'Santa Clause LVIII', and the last one down the line said 'Santa Clause I'.
"I see. So Santa Clause passes his title onto successors. I wonder if he ages and dies just like everypony else, then?"
As Daring Do entered another room – one which seemed to be a kitchen – she saw Doctor Caballeron pointing a crossbow at a thug who hooves were in the air and whose back was to a wall. Behind him, another thug was sneaking with a knife in his magic.
Daring Do extended her wings and flew out, tackling the pony to the ground. The startled Caballeron turned around, offering his target the chance to knock the crossbow away and grip the doctor's neck with his hooves.
Swiftly, Daring Do rounded the doctor and kicked the thug in the gut, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to fall to his knees. She delivered a chop to his shoulder to knock him out.
"It seems that we are now even for the polar bear earlier," Caballeron said, approaching the thug that had attempted to sneak up on him and reaching for the knife nearby. He held a hoof over the thug's mouth and drew the knife across his neck, ending his muffled screaming just as soon as it had started.
Daring Do glared daggers as Caballeron wiped the knife clean and pocketed it. "Why kill him?!" she whisper-shouted, looking around to ensure that there were no more ponies, just waiting to ambush them. "You're a psychopath!"
"I'm a realist, and realistically-speaking, killing him was the safest bet," Caballeron said. "Case-in-point: how many times have you almost died because you spared me?"
"How many times have I saved you because you spared me?"
"Ah, but you had always had something to offer me at those times. These two ponies are simply background characters, hired by Ahuizotl to protect him without even knowing what his plans are."
"If you are quite finished trying to justify yourself," Doctor Solomon said through the radio, "Perhaps you should be stopping Ahuizotl. Now, I noticed a sleigh parked behind the house before we landed, so perhaps they will be somewhere in the back?"
"I've already found them," Caballeron said, looking to the thug that Daring Do had downed. "Before we were interrupted, this one told me that Ahuizotl is in the workshop, which is indeed in the back of the house."
Daring Do stood between the thug and Caballeron. "Let's go check it out, then."
Doctor Caballeron shrugged, chuckling under his breath. "Lead the way, Miss Do."
Ahuizotl cackled maniacally as the last of the elf-ponies to put up any resistance were defeated and dragged outside. "In just a few hours, we will be ready to destroy Hearth's Warming for all of Equestria, and spread hate and disdain across all the pathetic ponies that inhabit that country! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
"You'll never get away with it!" Santa Clause shouted, struggling in his rope and wincing as the it burned his fur. "And give me my clothes back!"
"Red looks better on me than you, anyway," Ahuizotl said as he donned the hat to complete his costume. "The only thing left is for you to tell me how your sleigh works."
"I'll never tell you! You're on the naughty list!"
"Ah, and now comes the part where I remind you that all of your precious little elf-ponies are my hostages." Ahuizotl laughed as Santa's face darkened. "YES! So far, I have been merciful and killed none of them, but for every minute that ticks closer to Hearth's Warming and I don't know how to fly your sleigh, another elf-pony will lose their life."
"You heartless- FINE! The sleigh is pulled by my reindeer, who fly only during Hearth's Warming, but the sleigh itself projects its own magic to move quickly enough to cover the whole world in one night, and stay invisible to everybody else."
"Yes yes, I know all of this, but I don't know HOW. Perhaps it runs on dead elves?"
"NO! Just, stop, for one second. Alright? Here's how it works…"
"Glad to see Ahuizotl hasn't lost his marbles," Daring Do remarked as she observed the workshop from above. "Five guards. I can take 'em. Can you free the hostages?"
"… I think that should be manageable." Doctor Caballeron offered his radio to Daring Do. "Use this and tell Doctor Solomon to signal me when Santa is free."
"But first," Daring Do began, "Tell me what you're really after."
"I told you, my niece-"
"You don't have a niece." Daring Do not Caballeron's look of surprise, and explained. "You're one of my top enemies. I've done extensive research on you and your background."
"Impressive." Caballeron chuckled beneath his breath. "Let's just say that I have my reasons, and leave it at that. The clock is ticking, Miss Do, so let's not dally."
Daring Do hesitated, but then nodded. After taking the radio, she fluttered gently down into the workshop, staying inside the shadows as she stalked her first victim.
Once she had her chance, Daring Do covered the thug's mouth and smothered him until he passed out. She then moved to her next two victims, who were both inspecting one of the machines that was loaded with unfinished toys.
Reaching into her saddlebag, Daring Do pulled out a tube and a couple of darts. She loaded the first and then took in a deep breath. She fired the dart, and as it landed in the first thug's neck, he passed out with a gasp. She loaded and fired the second dart quickly, before his partner could alert Ahuizotl.
The final two thugs were too far away. She would have to reveal herself to even reach them, but if she did that…
"Solomon," she whispered into her radio, "Are the hostages free yet?"
"Yes," Solomon replied, "But I've not seen Caballeron leave the house yet. I'm worried."
"… As long as they're safe."
Daring Do drew six knives – three in each wing – and jumped out from her hiding place. Ahuizotl growled, surprised an enraged by her sudden appearance. "Daring DOOOOO!"
"You know it!" she shouted, flinging her daggers at the two remaining guards. They impaled their legs, causing them to cry out in pain and fall to the floor. "Just you and me, Ahuizotl! Now let… Can't believe I'm saying this, but let Santa Clause go!"
Ahuizotl composed himself, laughing quietly for a moment, and then exploding as he pointed to the pegasus. "Surrender now, or all of his elves die!"
"Sorry to break it to you, but that card's been spent."
"… Come in, guards! Any of you, I don't know your names!" Ahuizotl crushed his radio's microphone and smashed the device with his fists, howling in rage. Then, he drew his sword and pressed it to Santa's throat, causing Daring Do to freeze. "Then I will just have to kill THIS one!"
A bolt flew by, knocking Ahuizotl's sword aside. Daring Do turned to see Caballeron approaching them. "Sorry to disappoint you, but that card will not work, either."
"CabALLeron!" Ahuizotl slammed his fists against the floor, stamping his feet and wailing the entire time. "How DARE you betray me?!"
"Betray? My good friend, our relationship is that of clients with mutual interests. Purely professional."
"I will remember this the next time we meet!"
"I'm sure you will, and I'm sure that you will see past it, as you always do."
Daring Do charged towards Ahuizotl. He leapt back quickly and sneered, before turning around and fleeing the workshop. She gave chase, only to stop when she saw that Caballeron was heading towards Santa. "Hey, what're you-" She frowned, and made sure not to move. She could feel the eyes on her. "I see. So you had your own crew, ready to storm the house at any moment, but then you saw me."
"Precisely," Caballeron said, approaching Santa Clause, who was still struggling against his ropes.
"You are also on the naughty list!" Santa declared, before turning to Daring Do. "Oh, but you're on the nice one. Good job."
"However, I underestimated the dangers of this land and by the time we arrived, we were vastly outnumbered. Which is why I needed your help." Caballeron reached for Santa's neck, where a key was hanging from a chain. "The Master Key, capable of opening any lock in the world. Think of what a thief could do with such an item…" Caballeron raised his hoof, revealing a lump of wet clay smeared across it, and pressed it to the key. As he pulled it back, the clay had formed a mould of the key. "And now, it is mine."
"That won't work! This key runs on elf-pony magic, and-"
"Yes, I know. And this clay was forged through elf-pony magic." Santa's face fell, and Caballeron turned to Daring Do, a victorious look on his face. He raised his hoof, and Daring Do got ready to respond. He lowered it, and nothing happened. "In the spirit of Hearths Warming, I will let you go."
"… This'll be one of those times that letting me go will cost you."
"Oh, but Miss Do, if you don't stay behind and help out Mr. Clause, then Hearth's Warming will be late, and so many children will have to miss out. You wouldn't want that, would you?" Her glare was the only answer that he needed. Without another word, he turned and fled, leaving Daring Do to free Santa Clause.
"I'm sorry I couldn't stop him," Daring Do said, to which Santa shook his head, and gave a warm, reassuring smile.
"That's not what is important right now. What's important, is ensuring that the spirit of Hearth's Warming is upheld. And we don't have long."
"I'll help in whatever way I can."
"The elf-ponies and I can finish the remaining toys and load up the sleigh if I cut milk-and-cookie time to a minimum, but the problem is that my reindeer are too spooked to fly."
Daring Do's ears twitched. She could hear that reindeer still stamping about and rampaging outside. "Eheheh… S-Sorry about that, but we had to distract the guards somehow…"
"Well, I think I have an adequate solution… Daring Do, will you fly my sleigh tonight?"
Daring Do took a step back, and then, her mouth curled into a grin. "You betcha."
And so, with Daring Do flying Santa's sleigh, Hearth's Warming was on time that year. That day, little fillies and colts rejoiced as they opened their presents, families gathered around and shared in the spirit of the holiday season, and although Caballeron had won, Daring Do did not feel defeated at all.
She could always have another shot at him, but for the time being, she protected this day – a day of love, and togetherness – for all of the ponies of Equestria. And for that, her victory trumped anything that Caballeron was cooking up.
