Origin Story

I’ve devised an escape. The lingering effects of the couatl poison have weakened me severely; I am not certain I’ll be able to pull this off.

Either way, this is my final report. You will not hear from me again. I’m retiring. For real this time.

The Amulet of Atonement is safe, locked away in a very special magical chest – a virtue chest, whose spiritual key is infused into another object, and will only be revealed when someone with the right dominant virtue brings the key's host-object to the chest. Jua was closer than she ever knew to finding where the Amulet was hidden, but that wouldn't have helped. Remember: only the remorseful one shall find the key.

On the off chance that the Tenochtitlan Basin ever needs another hero, again read my book Daring Do and the Tree of Life. It will tell you everything you need to know about how these locks work. The very first thing I did when I came back to the Basin was to hide the key-object in Yearling Manor, a place with every window and door boarded up so tightly it would take a wrecking ball to get inside. So do as I did: think outside the box.

Farewell,
Daring Do

Final Pad Begins

Final Pad -- a rough draft excerpt from

Epilogue: Fame

Several years passed before I again had the Amulet of Atonement in my hooves. By then, my fever-dream desire to exchange myself for A.K. Yearling had been replaced with a more calculated plan. I would not allow A.K. to be forgotten or erased. Through her name, I would publish the stories of my own adventures – mostly true tales slightly retooled for the storytelling. If I could, I would make that young goddaughter of an Equestrian ambassador, that quiet mare with a love of writing, known throughout Equestria. I couldn’t give her back her life, but I could preserve her in memory.

I did not, in truth, seize upon the idea until I had a few more exciting adventures under my hat (or A.K. Yearling’s hat, as it were). But I did depart the company of my schoolmates and fellow Equestrians with the drive to find a way to make right what I could. A fire had been lit within me. I had lived an adventure like those I had loved as a filly. It was both more painful and horrifying than the carefree adventures taken when reading under the summer shade. But more exhilarating by far. Emboldened by a sense of purpose, I severed ties with my past and stepped into the jungle. I could not imagine what life lay in wait for me, but I was eager to embrace it all the same.

All I knew is that it would start with a stone.

~-------~ oOo ~-------~

Professor Underhill and Packer were bent over new charcoal rubbings and a pile of ratty journals sprawled across a stone table in the Ruins of Kaltion, quickly referencing one after another by the light of their lamps. Daring Do could hear their muffled voices as she approached through the darkened hall, limping slightly. The professor’s voice was flush with excitement, and she could have sworn she heard him shout “Eureka!” as she entered the ruins.

“So the Stone is the key?” Packer asked, looking over a few stray sheets once again. “How exactly does that work?”

“Well, it... I don’t know exactly,” Professor Underhill admitted. “But it seems clear from the writings of Kaltio that the key which opens the passageway to the Tree of Life is concealed within the Sapphire Stone. Now, we just have to find where it is.”

“Daring!” Bluebell shouted, interrupting. She galloped over, throwing her hooves around Daring Do. Bluebell hugged Daring so hard she knocked off A.K.'s pith hat.

Behind Daring, Fleetwing looked miffed that he wasn’t hugged first. “Hey, I’m the one who saved the day.”

The students swarmed around them. Professor Underhill and Packer dropped what they were discussing to attend to their returning students. “Daring Do, it is good to see you whole and well! When Fleetwing said you were captured, I feared the worst.”

Daring Do felt wobbly and not at all whole or well. She suspected she was in shock. The physical strain and trauma of the last day, piled upon the loss of her friend, was more than she was able to deal with. Without a battle to fight, or a deed to do, she wasn’t left with any adrenaline-charged distractions. The dust had settled, and now everything felt oddly numb and disconnected.

Professor Underhill pushed his way through the students and began examining Daring Do for injuries.

“Daring, you won’t believe it!" one of the other students exclaimed. "We went to the forbidden ruins out by the lake, and discovered stuff about ancient spirit magic that could hide keys as things, and one of those keys can get us to where the Tree of Life is hidden!”

Daring Do looked up at the pony, trying to remember his name. The others had their own adventure without her. One, she suspected, that involved far less arrows. She blinked, her thoughts feeling like molasses. “...I thought the forbidden ruins were... forbidden?...” she said slowly.

“Professor Underhill says we don’t have to do what the zebras say,” another of the students claimed. Professor Underhill shot him a silencing look.

“Huh?” was Daring Do’s only response.

“You need rest and medical attention,” Professor Underhill said. “We’re too far from a proper Equestrian hospital, but I’ll ask Goldentongue if he knows any nurses he can trust. Fortunately, we do have beds in easy reach, and you will start making use of one of them right away.”

Daring Do nodded.

Lowering his head and his voice, “I heard you found the Amulet of Atonement! Amazing. I’ve been on pins and needles waiting to see it. A marvelous treasure, finally uncovered.”

He held out a hoof, “Give it here, and I’ll see to it that it will be on display in the finest museum in Canterlot.” He grinned, “I think we should call this the Underhill and Do Expedition on the historical registrar. Student or not, you deserve the recognition.”

Daring Do stared at his hoof blankly.

“You... still have it, don’t you?” Underhill asked, a taint of apprehension creeping into his voice.

Daring Do continued to stare as she felt her mental fog begin to clear. “No,” she said. “Mhalifu... disappeared with it.”

That much was true. The zebra airship captain had been holding the Amulet of Atonement when she threw herself into the Orcus Pit. Daring Do said nothing of the huge, blue, dog-like monster that had crawled up out of the well. Or the silver chain she spotted dangling from something clutched in his strange tail-hand as he fled into the jungle.

Daring Do was beginning to suspect she should say nothing of that to anypony. Especially Professor Underhill.

“Then it is missing?” Underhill sounded deeply disappointed. Daring Do couldn’t blame him. No amazing museum exhibition was to crown this trip. No plaque with his name under a prize. That would have to wait, at least, until after his expedition next summer.

The expedition that he was clearly intent upon regardless of the dictations of primi ordines Jua.

“Fame,” Daring Do said softly, but firmly.

“What?” asked Professor Underhill, turning back towards her. Having heard she did not possess the Amulet, and having told her to get bed rest, her teacher had already turned his back and was almost back at the stone table when he heard her.

“Fame,” Daring Do repeated. “That’s what you really care about, isn’t it? Archaeology isn’t about history for you; it’s about making a name for yourself. This whole trip was just for you to try to get permission for your next expedition,” she said, waving a hoof as she recalled the dinner conversation with the ambassador. “And now that Jua has said no, you’re going to go ahead an do it anyway, because who cares what the zebras want?”

“Go to bed, Daring Do. Now.” Professor Underhill pointed a hoof back down the hall. Daring and Fleetwing had passed the sleeping bags set up for camp on their way in. “I don’t know what’s gotten into your head. You’ve been through a trying experience, I understand. But...”

“My value becomes greater with each who knows about me. What am I?” Daring Do repeated dully. “Fame. It was your riddle.”

Daring Do put on her pith hat, turned and left.

Final Pad Ends