Chapter 1: Passport Rejected
Daring flexed her wings outward. She was on the edge, furious. Of course yelling wasn’t really an option when you were talking to the leaders of Equestria. She stared Celestia in the eye. Of course she couldn’t stare her down. The princess was a bit taller than most the ponies she tried to intimidate and after a thousand years of being a country leader, she probably wasn’t going to be a pushover. “Whaddya mean my passport is revoked!” Daring demanded, stomping her hoof down onto the ground, obviously not all too compliant with this. All the adventures in equestria were already filled scores of amateurs. Every time one popped up stores were suddenly out of ropes and cargo jackets. How was she supposed to do anything if she was stuck in this country!?
“I’m sorry Daring, but last time you left the country we almost went to war with the Griffon legion because of what happened.” Celestia said in a not all too forgiving tone. Daring had been a thorn in the side of equestria’s international relations with ever since her first adventure. It had only gotten worse and worse since then. Honestly, how could one pegasus cause so much trouble. Perhaps a better question was: how did she survive it all? Celestia, with Luna by her side being silent, glared at Daring. “and don’t get me started on that sapphire stone, was it really such a big deal that the locals couldn’t hang on to it?”
Daring stood there, positively steaming, “They were going to break it into a million pieces, literally!” She yelled at the alicorn.
The princess retorted, “It was their stone, it belonged to them!”
Daring couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her wings lifted her up into the air, she pointed a hoof at the Princess “It belonged in a museum! And thats where I got it! Safe and sound.” she folded her arms confidently, now looking down at the princesses.
Celestia looked at Daring incredulously “You had half of the followers of Ahuitzotl after you until you hit the border and were saved by the Royal border guardsponies!”
“In other words, I got away.” Daring smiled even larger this time ‘Besides, it was only half of them, I lost the rest crossing the quicksand fields of the northern jungle a week before then.”
Now it was Celestia’s turn not to believe what she was hearing. “Do you have any idea how furious King Quetzalcoatl was? He nearly flew here himself to take that statue back after he learned about that stunt with the quicksand! Someone could have been hurt.”
Daring’s smile didn’t even fade, “He probably would have if he hadn’t been busy dealing with Ahuitzotl himself. Everything worked out.”
At this point Celestia’s regal poise was starting to falter as she seethed inwardly. Daring had expected that, but she really hadn’t expected Luna to finally speak up. It wasn’t even in the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Celestia, Daring has made significant contributions to our equine history museums.”
“Ha! See sunshine, your sister has some sense in he-” “But I must agree, giving you a passport is a threat to international security or have you forgot about Prance?”
Daring’s mouth popped open with some hesitation, “Please, that tower looks better leaning to the left anyways. But you’ve made it clear your minds aren’t changing. I’m out.” Daring said bitterly.
This was going to make travel so much more difficult than it needed to be. What did the princesses think they were doing? Everything she did revolutionized history. Not that everypony knew she was the one that made the discoveries. After her third adventure some of the higher ups in her field had decided it was best if no pony knew that somepony was traveling around grabbing mystical artifacts and whisking them all away to one nation. “First things first. I need some travel papers still. Where’s Ox when ya need him.” Daring’s wings expanded and pumped down as she soared out the main doors of Canterlot Castle. Good, this place was boring anyways. Daring flashed a smile back at the castle and flew off towards Appleoosa. She had an old friend to visit.
Back in the castle Luna and Celestia were still talking. “I got to be the reasonable one? New, usually I get to nap.” Luna said teasingly.Her sister had lost her cool, just a bit. It was sort of exciting to have a moment of being on top.
“You don’t know her Luna, that mare stirs up a crisis every time she goes digging for something. Thousands of lives have rested on her dumb luck and tenacity. Not to mention the world, indirectly, once or twice, don’t tell her though. Her ego’s big enough as it is.”
Luna’s eyes looked like saucers. “What’s her talent again?” “Her talent is being an archeologist. Of course in her head, that means adventuring into the vast, unexplored,long lost territory of dead civilizations that had vast magical power. Ones that I would rather just leave forgotten.”
Meanwhile. Daring was making her way to the train station. By air of course, the only way to travel for a pegasus. She quickly made her way across the town and landed at the station. she briefly wondered how many times she had started an adventure here. These rails had carried her all through out Equestria when she was just a small filly.
"Railroads closed for the day, royal decree" she heard come from the speakers, her jaw dropped. Was Celestia really that serious about her not leaving the country? This station was probably slated to carry hundreds more ponies to who knows where before the end of the day!
Looking back at the castle with a glare, Daring looked off into the distance, spotting the small town of Ponyville. If she flew there fast she could probably catch some train before it left the station. Hopefully one to Appleoosa. Ox's favorite place to stay whenever he wasn't wrapped up in something. She quickly trotted to the edge of the station and took flight, angling herself so that most of the journey would be gliding. It was going to be a long uneventful flight. “Thinks she can stop me from getting out of here? No chance. I don’t care if you’re the prin-...she is a princess.” Daring paused. “I don’t care if you’re queen of...something, Equestria doesn’t have queens, so...dang it!” At least she had something to think of along the way.
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“I don’t care if...ugh!” Daring yelled out. She hadn’t thought of a single thing over the entire flight here. To Ponyville. City, well, village of, erm, quaintness and not-overly-impressiveness. Yeah, that about fit the scene. She looked about the station. No pony here, great. She trotted over to a bench and took a seat. Her wings hung limply by her sides instead of folding them neatly. She wasn’t really that tired, but she was embittered by even having to fly here in the first place. Who did Celestia think she was telling Daring Do what to do? She jumped up and trotted towards the time chart.
“And the next train for Appleoosa leaves in...hours. Glad I flew here in a hurry.” she said, looking back at Canterlot. Time to, ugh, wait.”
Chapter 2: Overnight Delay
So Daring waited, for a few minutes at least. She wasn’t made for sitting around. “Okay, what do I have to do? Erm, find a place to sleep, eat...supplies! I need supplies, that oughta keep me busy for awhile” She said, jumping into the air for a moment before she got a sudden reminder of how she had gotten to this station “No more long distance speed flying unless I’m gonna die, new rule.” she muttered, plopping back to the ground and giving both her wings a once over.
They were pretty sore, she had rushed here thinking she could make it in time for a train. But no such luck. But she had something to do now! She trotted off into ponyville with determination. The most important thing to have was a knife and a whip. Though the whip was more for personal preference than anything. Not to mention it made that cool snappy song. The knife however was actually important, Daring always kept one in her front pocket, except when she left Canterlot with none of her luggage, including any of her shirts, because she was in a hurry for what turned out to be no reason. Daring sighed, she never had been one for patience.
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Once she reached the town square she took a good look around. A library, useless to her, but still pretty neat. Who knew a tree could be a house, err, library? There was a clothing shop nearby, bit fancy for Daring though. She would just have to wait until she got to Appleoosa to gather her real supplies. But what could she get here then? A whip maybe. Food? Would a town like this make the sort of food that could stay good for more than a few days?
Time to face facts, coming here had been a total bust. Other than maybe, maybe, a whip and it wasn’t like she couldn’t get that on her way out of the country. The real problem would be finding a solid way out. She wondered just how bad the princess didn’t want her leaving. Surely she wouldn't go as far as to issue a no fly order on the magnificent Daring Do. The national unsung hero. Of course...if what she was looking into really was such a big deal, it must be essential to history itself. Which meant that Daring couldn't give up on this. Pssh, what was she saying. Daring Do never gave up, no matter what! She never had and that wasn't going to change because she would need to shift her travel plans to less...legal ways.
She would just have to call in a few favors starting tomorrow with Ox. She needed some sort of papers, if not to get out of Equestria, then to get into Zebrica and its many small countries. “Okay so what can I actually do here? Maybe-“ she stopped, catching a glimpse of just what she needed. “A tavern!” She exclaimed before running in. Even a town like this must have somepony passing through right? Well, sorta right. It wasn't empty but it sure was a dead zone. No pony was talking, or rather, no one was talking. Not the griffon in the back corner playing darts by himself, not the pitch black behemoth of a pegasus at the bar, not the white unicorn on the bar’s corner wearing a cloak and not the barkeep. An earth pony mare who was sleeping on the job. It was better than nothing. “Hey barkeep, hit me up!” Daring shouted, startling the lazy mare and gaining some glances from the other occupants of the humble tavern. “Give me something magic.” The barkeep smiled at her “Oooh, I never get to use that stuff.” she said before running off into a back room. Daring turned to the cloaked unicorn “So, come here often? Any neat rumors, local legends?” she was met with silence for a few moments before the pegasus spoke up. S
She swore the he had two stones grinding against each other for vocal chords. “Nothing you haven’t heard of” Daring looked at the brute of a stallion “So you’ve heard of me, I see my name has been getting around.” , “Yeah, if you mean that every bounty hunter from Las Pegasus to South Amare-ica wants your wings on their wall. Ahuizotl’s cult put out a nice bounty on your head Miss Do.
“B-bounty?” Daring said frowning and sizing up the pegasus. He was big, but if she could get behind him she might be able t- “Don’t worry about me Miss. Daring, I’m just a local and don’t see the point in trying to take down the mare who escaped King Quetzalcoatl's army and stole the Sapphire Stone, single hooved, right from under Ahuitzotl’s nose. But between you and me.” He said leaning closer to her, “You’ll probably be dead by next week.”
“Scribe!” Celestia yelled as she paced across the throne room “Take a letter.” she said firmly, the small scribe pony ran off into a room quickly with her tie flapping to one side and then hurriedly returned with an inkwell, quill and large scroll. Celestia began speaking “To the current leaders of Zebrica, I urge you to end my banishment from Zebrica. There is an approaching danger that calls for my immediate visit.” she sighed, knowing that her efforts would be in vain.
She frowned, she just had to convince the numerous leaders of Zebrica to let her intervene. It didn't help that many were still sore that Celestia and Luna had been the ones to take control over the sun and moon. Anansi even claimed to have made the sun and moon or Jua Anangi, an extremely powerful being, runner up to controlling the sun in fact and his close relative Mwezi runner up for the moon. They were two of the founders of the Kupatwa alliance. The one which had banished her, Luna and attempted to banish even Discord himself. Of course Discord hadn't been free long enough to test it out since it was made. Of course celestia had never tried it out either, but considering the ritual magic they had used, it was probably too much for even her.
“Sister?” Luna questioned as she entered the room.
“Yes Luna, what is it?” The elder sister replied, exasperated.
Luna looked at her curiously as she walked down the carpet way of the throne room. “Did you sleep last night? Your sunrise seemed....sloppy.” Luna paused for a moment before realizing that Celestia hadn't noticed her blunder. “You rose the sun on the wrong side of the sky...we had an unscheduled partial solar eclipse.”
The elder princess seemed stunned at first, her mouth slightly agape. She then closed her eyes and brought a hoof up to her forehead. “I’m sorry Luna, I wasn’t paying much mind to the sun, there were more pressing matters at hand.” she paused and then looked at her dear younger sister. “Have you looked into what happened after you were,” she said the next word carefully, “banished?”
Luna seemed surprised and, despite Celestia’s attempt to be delicate, took offense. “Yes, didn’t we already talk about the Nightmare Night incident? I told you that I was now completely up to date on social norms and how one shouldn’t summon clouds and lightning when angry and th-”
Celestia cut her off, “No, not those things sister. Did you look into the historical archives?” the answer was pretty obvious, especially with Luna’s inquisitive gaze backing her assumption “I didn’t think you would have, but its time you learn. I’m going to tell you a story Luna, it’s time you learn what I did in the years following your banishment.”
