Daring Do let out a whoop as her eyes fell on the mural she had just come across in the ruins of this half sunken ancient temple. The mural depicted a large group of all the races and creatures of Equestria kneeling before a single white alicorn with a long red mane and a golden paintbrush in her mouth, Faust the Creator. As Daring Do quickly memorized the mural, the temple beneath her shook and shattered. Remembering the active volcano that was beneath the island, Daring Do ran on towards the exit. As she got into sight of the temple’s exit, a large pillar fell blocking the way. Thinking quickly, Daring Do lay almost flat on the floor and slid through an opening where the pillar had caught on debris below.
“Take that Temple, nothing stops Daring Do so easily!” she gleefully shouted as she took to the air and left the island behind.
15 years earlier
Agatha Kristie Yearling sat in an archaeology lecture at the Equestrian Institute. The speaker was the young and prestigious Dr. Caballeron, who had recently discovered the Chalice of King Valiant. Caballeron paced in front of the students as he spoke, “Archaeology is more than a way to make bits. It is a mission to protect and preserve history for all to see and enjoy. The receiving of bribes or selling to the highest bidder is not what we are about. I am working on a large dig right now. All I can say at the moment is that it’s very exciting. I hope within the next few months to recruit the best and brightest of you to help me. Any height can be achieved with the willpower and tools, remember daring is as daring does.”
The rest of the lecture was over the different techniques of Archaeology. A.K. Yearling listened attentively while absently sketching Caballeron’s face on her paper. She had patterned herself after the stallion, extensively reading his theories and books on different archaeological wonders considered myth by most scholars (Dean Scholasticus in particular). After the lecture A.K. hurried to the Archives to pour over tomes with the wise, and rotund, Sir Julien Diamondwhisper. As A.K. entered the Archives, Sir Julian looked up and smiled.
“If it isn’t my favorite academic! Come in, come in.”, He shouted jovially clapping her on the shoulder with a large hoof. Julian led Yearling to the research table.
“I thought you might come so I took the liberty of selecting a few choice documents from the pre-classical era. I think you’ll enjoy this one in particular, even though it’s only a partial.”, Julien said pointing to a half burned manuscript titled simply “Turil’s Manuscript, copy five of seven”. A.K. Yearling quickly began reading the document.
To understand what ails the Everfree Forest, one must look back to an old and often looked over myth. Faust the Creator was real, the paintbrush was real. When a good and loving pony holds the brush their vision of harmony and peace is realized, but if evil holds the brush dark things and nightmares are brought forth. The more I study Everfree, the more I realize that this forest was a product of some evil creature or dark deed that scarred Faust’s creation. I have seen the location of the paintbrush in my dreams. It is located in the (the rest of the passage was unreadable)
A.K. Yearling flipped through the rest of the manuscript what hadn’t been burnt was descriptions of different types of flora and fauna that Turil had discovered and eventually the ravings of a madpony, though his notes always referenced “the paintbrush”. A.K. looked up at Julien and asked, “Is there a better copy of this piece?”
Julien replied with a sad sigh, “Alas only three other copies of this manuscript are still known to exist and all are badly damaged. Agatha, I have a feeling that something more sinister is at work here. That being said, feel free to visit and cross reference at my personal library on South Solaris Street. I cook a mean apple tart and I could use some company, not many ponies visit these days aside from Dr. Caballeron and Cherry Pitt. Now this next document ‘The Tale of Sombra’ is a very interesting read!”
Present Day
Daring Do flew with haste to her one of her safe houses near the Equestrian Coast. She would need to pay a visit to her old friend, Sir Julien, whose days of eating gourmet cooking and drinking cider had made him quite fat. It was thanks to his large collection of maritime records that she had even found the island temple, he had the largest maritime library in all of Equestria including (through some unexplainable means) the ship’s log of the ESS Celestia. She just hoped he hadn’t cracked open another keg of “vintage” cider, Daring Do had sworn off the stuff after waking up on the roof of Canterlot Castle with a spell of binding on her because quote “she had tried to leap from the roof of the castle to the moon”. It was a three day trip to Canterlot and Daring Do was sure that Sir Julien would be very glad to see her.
As Daring Do left her safe house and headed towards the Canterlot train, a stallion wearing a fedora and sunglasses watched from the shadows. The Boss had been very clear that he only follow her and he wasn’t about to disobey his orders. The stallion took out a small camera and snapped a quick shot of the disappearing figure. He then began weaving through the streets towards the train too, managing to get a seat two cars behind his target. This was going to be an easy job.
