Origin Story

Crap. I messed up badly and now I’ve been caught. Not on purpose this time either, although I think I’ll be able to turn this to my advantage. The rank-and-file are looking at me like they want to turn me into a bloody smear, but they won’t. Once she hears that I’ve been captured, Jua will want to interrogate me herself. We have history.

Still, I shouldn’t have been caught. And I should have been able to take this squad of Legionnaires down on my own with one wing tied to my side. What happened to the Daring Do that could take out whole armies of bad guys with just her bare hooves and an attitude?

She got old, that’s what. Archaeology is a young mare’s game. (As is, let's be honest, treasure hunting.) I abandoned it for a reason. But sometimes, the past just won’t stay buried, no matter how deep you dug the grave.

A younger Daring Do would have already reclaimed the Amulet right out from under Jua’s nose, and been back home by now. Without it, Jua can scour the Tenochtitlan Basin until the end of the war and beyond, and it won’t do her any good. But my bones ache, my reflexes are slow and the Legionnaires’ beating hurts more than they used to. This Daring Do might not pull it off on her own. And if this goes down bad, it will be up to you lot to find the Amulet of Atonement before she does. Or, if she gets it first, fight your way to the center and take it back.

The Amulet of Atonement is locked away where not just anyone can get it. A little trick I learned from the Tree of Life. Those of you who read Daring Do will know it was a long time before I found that Tree. Book Ten, to be precise. Remember this:

“Only the remorseful one shall find the key.”

You know where I left it. Think outside the box. Good luck, RD’s speed, and may Celestia be with you.

Fifth Pad Begins

Fifth Pad -- a rough draft excerpt from

Chapter 4: Airship Attack

While there were several students who merited the privilege to join Professor Underhill’s summer travel study, I only formed clear memories of two of them: Fleetwing and Bluebell. The understandable reason for this is that they were the only two to choose to accompany me on the flight back to Mwanzo Mpya.

A deal had been struck, allowing the rest of the students to stay and continue their summer studies abroad. Only I was required to depart the country. Nor was I to fly back to Equestria un-escorted. I was grounded, under surveillance by a Legion guard. Rather, the flight back was aboard the airship Uasi, a zebra dirigible piloted by Mhalifu – an associate of Goldentongue whom, I was told, was one of the few pilots brave enough to dare the skies over the Tenochtitlan Basin.

Packer insisted that it would be improper for me to make the journey without an adult and representative of Baltimare University. However, Professor Underhill insisted that he could not spare the unicorn. They got into quite a quarrel, but that stopped when Bluebell stepped forward. I remember her words clearly. They were strong, defiant and utterly bewildering to me. “You aren’t sending Daring Do home without sending me too.” Bluebell stood with me. And a moment later, to my even greater shock, Fleetwing did as well.

The professor had to relent when Bluebell and Fleetwing insisted on joining my exile.

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

Fleetwing was seething. Daring Do watched him cross the deck -- back and forth and back and forth. The pegasus had landed just so he could pace.

Daring Do stood in the shadow of an armored zebra, her Legion-appointed warden, and stared over the bow of the Uasi. She had never been on an airship before, despite Baltimare having more than Fillydelphia and Canterlot combined; but she would still rather be flying, and was in no mood to enjoy the novelty. She hated being grounded.

Worse, she was on her way home. She’d been in Bahari Soko less than a day and had gotten to see almost nothing. Her entire summer was ruined... and that was hardly the worst of it. People had been hurt because of what she had done. She thought she was saving a creature from imprisonment. She thought she was being so clever. And instead, the sphinx had gone on a rampage. Before Daring Do boarded the airship, primi ordines Jua saw fit to tell her the sphinx had been “put down”. Not that Jua needed to. Daring Do had felt it when she heard the sharp crack of thunder. She had wondered what kind of monster the zebras would need a blunderbuss for. Now she knew.

The lush canopy of the Tenochtitlan Basin stretched out below and before the airship, an undulating wave of green broken by gouging ravines and the sporadic, upthrust shapes of ancient temples and obelisks, ziggurats and fortresses. The basin was bordered on one side by the sharp, craggy peaks of the dragon mountains, on the other by the dazzling blue of the ocean. North, on the far side, beyond the jungle, was Mwanzo Mpya. Daring Do felt she had just left.

Daring fished something out of a pocket and looked down at it, trying to focus on the one small bright point in all of this. On her hoof, she held two golden chains; clasped to each was one half of a broken coin – friendship necklaces, each bearing half of a whole. “At least I’ll be able to visit with…” Daring Do stopped. The young pegasus grew alarmed when she realized that, just for a moment, she had forgotten the name of Goldentongue’s goddaughter. Even though she had bought the necklaces while thinking of her, it took a forceful moment to remember. “…A.K. again.”

“I better be able to get into the summer expedition next year,” Fleetwing growled as he strode towards her. Somewhere northward, the clouds over the basin rumbled with thunder. “If you’ve screwed up that too…”

Daring Do stared into Fleetwing’s face. “You didn’t have to come back with me. Neither did Bluebell. You could have been in Bahari Soko right now.” Why in Tartarus did he come back? Of all the students, Fleetwing had seemed the most excited, the most eager for this trip. “And it didn’t sound like the Professor’s expedition was likely to happen with or without an excuse for the primi ordines to say no.”

“But you gave her one anyway, didn’t you?” he snapped.

“By saving everyone’s lives,” Daring snapped back. “All I remember you saving was luggage.”

Fleetwing took a menacing step forward and looked ready to throw a few hooves, but a brisk voice snapped the tension. “No roughhousing aboard my ship. Save it until after the trip.”

Both Fleetwing and Daring turned to see the zebra, Mhalifu. She was a sturdy-looking mare who spoke Equestrian with a thick accent. A nasty scar ran up the right side of her face to where her right ear had once been; and she wore a bandoleer of knives, a black pith hat, and a lasso on her flank. Daring Do glanced around and noticed several of the deck-workers were also wearing lassos, although Mhalifu was the only one lethally armed.

“At least, not until my crew all gets...” Mhalifu said with a smile that the scar made crooked and ugly, “...the chance to size you up and place bets.”

Fleetwing’s contempt for Daring gave way to that incessant curiosity that he had displayed over dinner at the ambassador’s manor. “I heard Goldentongue say you were one of the only airship captains willing to fly from Bahari Soko to Mwanzo Mpya. Is that true?”

Mhalifu snickered, “The last anyone told me, I was one of only three.”

“Why’s that?” Fleetwing asked. “What’s so dangerous about the Tenochtitlan Basin?”

Like Daring Do, he had taken note that they had traveled to Bahari Soko by boat over the ocean, taking the long way around the jungle. Professor Underhill had pressured Goldentongue to arrange a faster transportation so that Packer, who had chosen to chaperon the three of them back to Equestria’s nearest train station, could rejoin him and the other students as soon as possible. Daring Do wondered if it was because the professor needed Packer’s assistance with his work, or because he didn’t want to have to handle that many students all by himself. Granted, if it was the latter, after recent events, Daring couldn’t exactly blame him.

Mhalifu’s smile vanished. She seemed to appraise Fleetwing and Daring, as if determining whether to give them the same “Pray you don’t find out” answer that Daring had gotten when she asked one of the deck workers that same question earlier. But something about one or both of them ignited a twinkle in Mhalifu’s eyes, and she decided to be more forthcoming.

“The Quetzalcóatl Empress, a dark and evil spirit who seeks to rule the jungle. Zebras are right to fear it.” Mhalifu told them. “Her cultists scour the basin for means to break her prison. Tenochtitlan Basin will suffer if she’s risen.”

“And no one’s stopping them?” Daring Do gaped.

Mhalifu scowled. “The efforts of her cultists do not go uncontested. Yet few are daring enough to stand against the Empress.”

Daring Do recalled the metal clasp on the assassin’s cloak: a feathered serpent. “They were the ones who attacked us on the docks, weren’t they?” Mhalifu nodded. “What were they after?”

Before she can answer, a zebra voice called for Mhalifu; she turned away, barking orders. Then strode across the deck, leaving the two pegasi alone again.

After a few moments of silence, Daring Do finally asked, “Why did you come back with me?”

“It wasn’t for you,” Fleetwing grumbled. Daring Do looked at him questioningly. Then followed his gaze across the ship. Bluebell was borrowing the telescope of one of the deck workers, gazing out at the dark shapes of the temples under the cloud-mottled evening sky.

“Huh?” Daring asked blankly. Then it clicked. Fleetwing and Bluebell? Fleetwing and Bluebell. They were more than just friends, Daring Do realized. They might even be going steady. “Oh.”

“You saved her,” Fleetwing said bluntly. “She wasn’t going to let you get kicked out alone. And I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy this trip worried about her.”

Daring Do reflected on how Bluebell hadn’t seemed as curious as she or Fleetwing, although she had treated the trip as an adventure. Daring had heard of ponies who, upon falling for another pony, changed their interests to match the other's. She suddenly suspected Bluebell had done just that.

“Oh,” Daring said again. She watched as Bluebell swung the telescope upwards, looking at the clouds. Something she said caused the zebra to snatch back his telescope rudely. Daring Do could sense Fleetwing’s mane bristle a little.

The zebra turned the telescope upwards, staring through it only a moment before spinning and shouting. The strange zebra words were quickly echoed up and down the ship, shouted from one zebra to the next as they rushed to that side of the ship and stared upwards.

Daring Do heard her guardian Legionnaire grumble and detach his spear from its holding brace on his armor.

“Not good,” she moaned and turned her head to the skies, looking at the clouds that were visible beyond the curving canvas of the Uasi’s balloon. Almost immediately, Daring Do spotted several large, dark shapes moving towards them through the clouds.

Creatures burst from the cloudy concealment – huge beasts the size of manticores with wings like bats and faces like monkeys. “Ahools” the Legion guard said as he set his spear. On the ahools’ backs road cloaked figures.

The zebras deck leapt into action, using lassos to try to catch and bind the ahools as the creatures swooped towards the deck. Daring Do crouched, her heart pounding. She was ready for action.

Fleetwing stumbled backwards, crying out, “Bluebell, look out!”

Bluebell spun, her eyes going wide, as five ahools dove between the deck of the Uasi and its balloon above. Bluebell threw herself behind cover.

One of the great beasts’ wings snagged in the rigging. Daring Do winced at the painful snapping of wingbones. The monster plowed into the deck, scattering zebras and throwing its passenger.

The ahools bore huge claws, easily the size of newborn foals and wickedly sharp. They cut into the zebras as they flew overhead. Daring Do’s readiness to fight evaporated, leaving cold shock at the sight of so much blood. Beside her, Fleetwing panicked and flew. She saw Packer cringe and toss up a magical shield as one of the ahools cut a swath towards him. The monster’s claws tore through the shield like it was made of leaves. Packer fell, blood spilling from the side of his head.

The zebras lassoed two of the ahools out of the air. With practiced speed, they bound the creatures’ wings and claws while others fought to subdue the riders. The ahools’ claws may have been sharp enough to make quick work of rope, but they lacked the manual dexterity to free themselves without causing egregious self-harm. One tried to anyway, gouging great bloody tears in its wings as it slashed apart the lassos binding them.

A thought flashed through Daring Do’s mind: the ahools could easily tear the Uasi’s balloon to shreds, but their riders were directing them to attack the deck. They wanted to take the ship in one piece. But they definitely had no use for the crew. Intuition told Daring Do that the riders were after something, and they thought it was aboard the Uasi.

The ahool with the broken wing started to claw its way across the deck. Two more zebras attempted to stop it, catching it about its head with their lassos; but the beast knocked them back with a flailing sweep of its unbroken wing.

Daring Do’s heart was pounding as the ahool lumbered towards her. For the second time in a day, she was in mortal danger. Her paralysis broke, adrenaline surging through her body. Daring Do took to the air, flying out of its reach on the side of its broken wing, keeping the rigging between herself and the monster.

It kept moving across the deck, and Daring Do saw that she wasn’t its prey. It was moving towards where Mhalifu was fighting the cloaked zebra that had been thrown from its back. The zebra cultist fought with a mouth-held cutlass, Mhalifu with only a knife. But Mhalifu was the more seasoned fighter, and the zebra had not landed well and was struggling with a limp. After moments of furious clashing, both blades were sent spinning across the floor. The ahool stumbled closer.

Daring Do caught sight of the ropes trailing behind it, the lassos still around the ahool’s neck. She dove for the deck and caught the ropes in her mouth. She landed behind the huge beast and pulled. The ahool jerked to a stop with an enraged howl.

“No, your Empress will not win the fight,” Mhalifu spat as her right hoof slammed into the cultist’s muzzle. “When her secrets are exposed to light.” Mhalifu’s left forehoof slammed into his chin, the uppercut sending the cultist stumbling back. Mhalifu spun to deliver a hard buck to the zebra cultist’s exposed stomach, driving the wind out of him.

The monstrous ahool struggled towards its prey, even with Daring Do trying to pull it back. Her hooves slipped and slid in the warm blood coating the deck.

“You… fools… will expose... nothing!” the cultist gasped, curling up on the deck as the shadow of the ahool fell across him and Mhalifu. “…we have… your sacrifice.” The cultist spat. “…and soon… we will have the Amulet…”

Daring Do flew upwards, straining as the ahool clawed its way within arms reach of the Uasi’s captain. The ropes tightened around the beast’s neck.

“No, you won’t.” Mhalifu seemed oblivious to the ahool, now within claws reach, struggling to strike while it struggled for air. The zebra captain’s attention was completely locked on the cultist. She scooped up the fallen scimitar. “In Ahuizotl’s name!”

Fifth Pad Ends