Chapter 1
Curiosity let out a sigh as he looked over the crime scene. The forensics team had nearly finished documenting all of the relevant evidence, but there was still a lot of work to be done. On the surface, the burglary of the Vanhoover Historical Society certainly seemed to be a fairly straightforward matter. Somepony had wanted money, they’d learned that an exhibition of several items from the Royal Treasury had been recently installed, and they’d broken in and stolen some of those pieces for the purposes of resale on the black market. Simple enough. And yet...
“Don’t know why they’re wasting time on a bunch of old crap when there’s a real problem that needs to be solved.”
Curiosity sighed as his train of thought was broken by an older stallion who was apparently unaware that he was speaking out loud. The detective did his best to push this out of his mind, but with limited success. Truth be told, the reddish-brown earth pony would very much have preferred to focus his energies on the “problem” that his critic had alluded to. In fact, as a native of Vanhoover, he’d volunteered for this job hoping it would lead to an opportunity to help out, but as an agent of the Royal Investigation Bureau, local crimes were outside of his jurisdiction unless the local police specifically requested RIB assistance. Disturbing as the recent string of disappearances might be, there was still no reason to think that any crimes against the Crown had been committed, as none of the missing ponies were government employees, and none had been near any of Celestia’s property holdings when they were last seen.
On the other hoof, stealing items of jewelry that belonged to Princess Celestia was a royal crime, even if Celestia hadn’t worn them in centuries, which was why he’d been dispatched to the rainiest corner of Equestria. To be fair, he was under orders to divert his attention to the disappearances if the local police asked for help, but it seemed that quite a few officers were wary of his presence. Stupid institutional crap, Curiosity thought to himself as he tried to refocus on his job.
Truth be told, there were some rather odd things about this robbery. For one thing, the most valuable object in the exhibition, an ornate ceremonial peytral that had been studded with rubies and sapphires, had been completely ignored by the culprits despite being displayed quite prominently. Instead, they’d taken several pendants and medallions that had been on display in the corner of the room, all of which were considerably less valuable than the more obvious prize. Then again, Curiosity thought to himself as he stared at the peytral, undisturbed beneath its glass case, it’s possible that they just assumed that there would be tighter security for this piece. One didn’t manage to make thievery a career by taking unnecessary risks, after all.
No, what made this robbery puzzling was what else the culprits had taken: some sort of stone glyph from the Vanhoover Historical Society’s own collection of pre-Celestian artifacts. Not only would this have been much more difficult to sell than the jewels, but it had been on permanent display in a completely separate wing of the museum, which suggested that the burglars had gone out of their way to make sure they left with that particular carving. Indeed, it seemed possible that the jewelry had been taken to disguise the thief’s true purpose... except that meant accepting the notion that somepony who was smart enough to devise such a plan would also be dumb enough to steal royal property for their red herring. The RIB had far more resources than most local police departments, after all, which meant to invite their involvement ran counter to the rule of avoiding risks.
Naturally, there were other possibilities; perhaps multiple culprits decided to pool their resources since they both wanted to break into the same building, for instance. To be sure, that sort of thing was unusual, but Curiosity’s instincts were already telling him that there was something unusual about this particular incident.
In any case, his first task was to start interviewing anypony who could possibly have something useful to say. Unfortunately, the security guards weren’t all that helpful; all of them had regained consciousness a few hours after midnight, but none of them had any idea how they’d been knocked out—in fact, if they hadn’t remembered waking up, they might never have realized that they’d been knocked out in the first place. This suggested that magic was involved, but as about one-third of Vanhoover’s residents were unicorns, it wasn’t much of a starting point. Ponies who lived in the area around the museum weren’t much help either, because most of them were asleep when the crime was actually committed.
It wasn’t until Curiosity expanded his investigation to a nearby suburb that things started to improve. The recent disappearances had left many ponies feeling quite paranoid, and in the case of one homeowner, this paranoia had kept her awake most of the night. Around three o’clock, she thought she’d heard something coming from the dense forest that began at the edge of her property. Naturally, as she was worried about disappearing, she hadn’t bothered to check it out for herself, but instead she’d checked all the locks on her doors and cowered under a blanket with a cast-iron skillet between her hooves for protection. When morning did arrive, she managed to convince herself that she had just been hearing things, but as this was the closest thing Curiosity had to a lead, he decided to check out the area for himself.
At first, it seemed like another dead end; if an escaping thief had been in the area, they’d certainly made sure not to leave any clues like hoofprints on the ground. He was just about to leave when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a sapling that had been snapped in half. A closer look revealed that the wood was still green. Somepony was here last night, he thought to himself. He began a second, more careful search of the area, and soon he was rewarded by a glint of sunlight off of a cut gemstone peaking through the dirt.
It was a sapphire pendant from Celestia’s collection. Apparently, the culprit had dropped it at some point during the getaway—most likely whatever accident had caused the sapling to break—and in the commotion and darkness, its absence had gone unnoticed. In all likelihood, the thief wouldn’t have even realized that the oddly-shaped rock they had trampled into the ground was part of their ill-gotten collection.
Curiosity briefly considered recruiting some local officers to help him further, but given how standoffish they’d been before, he decided against it. By all rights, then, he should have sent a message to Canterlot asking for another agent to assist him, but that could mean letting the trail get cold as he waited for this new arrival, and he wasn’t going to risk that now. Instead, he decided to send the pendant back to town to be stored with all of the other evidence while he went further into the forest to see if there was anything else to find.
This was a mistake. Within fifteen minutes, Curiosity realized to his distress that even though the forests of northwestern Equestria weren’t nearly as dark as the Everfree, the conifers and hardwoods were still quite dense, and as spring had only recently transitioned into summer, the noonday sun was dazzling him with bright greens all around, getting him very quickly disoriented and utterly lost. As he strained his ears for sounds of civilization that seemed to have been completely absorbed by the foliage, he idly wished that he’d had the assistance of a pegasus who could fly above the forest’s canopy to get some bearings.
Once he’d determined that he was, indeed, lost, Curiosity’s first idea was to do the sensible thing and stay put to make the eventual search party’s job easier. Surely he couldn’t be the first out-of-towner to get lost in these woods, and there were probably locals who specialized in retrieving fools like him. No doubt he was in for a lot of embarrassment when he returned to town, but things could be a lot worse.
Thirty minutes later, things got a lot worse, as the formerly sunny day was suddenly darkened by a massive raincloud. Curiosity could have kicked himself for not thinking to check what the local weatherponies had scheduled for the day. It was summer, for Celestia’s sake; of course it was reasonable to expect afternoon thunderstorms—especially in Vanhoover. As there was really no way for him to know how much rainfall was actually planned for the day, Curiosity was faced with the quandary of choosing to stay put (and possibly getting absolutely drenched) and trying to find civilization again—or at the very least, some sort of cabin or cave that would provide more protection than the forest’s leaves.
However, as the first rumblings of thunder filtered through the trees, Curiosity heard something else. He couldn’t tell if it sounded more like a bark or a shout, but it certainly wasn’t weather-related. In any case, wet or dry didn’t matter, because there was also a strong chance that that noise had been made by one of his suspects, and he wasn’t about to let something so trivial as being lost and alone get in the way of his job. Luck proved to be on his side as he strained his ears, because he heard the noise again—fainter this time, but still noticeably different from the gathering storm.
He cautiously moved towards the source of the noises, keeping his eyes peeled for anything that might look like a clue. The sounds grew louder and more distinct as he made his way through the undergrowth; they seemed to have all the rhythms and cadences of speech, though he’d never met any pony who sounded like that. Some light drops of rain began to fall through the canopy, but Curiosity ignored them; all of his instincts said that this was far more important. Still, after ten minutes, he was beginning to wonder if he was simply imagining the noises which were now almost completely drowned out by the falling rain, when suddenly, they spiked in volume.
“That’s the wrong one!”
Curiosity hadn’t expected to suddenly hear a perfectly clear sentence being shouted above the rising din of the storm, and his surprise was enough for him to trip over and exposed tree root, sending him tumbling over an embankment and creating a massive amount of noise of his own as he slid down a steep hill, finally coming to a stop in a stretch of silty mud next to a small pool of water. He got up as soon as he could and looked around. He couldn’t see any sign of anypony—or of anything else capable of speaking Equestrian, for that matter—but then again, if someone had actually spoken, they probably knew he was here now. Steeling his nerves, he decided to try pretending to be a lost hiker, which wasn’t exactly a lie.
“Hello?” he called out. “Is anypony there?”
No response came, or at least none that was audible over the sound of raindrops hitting leaves.
Curiosity turned around, searching for anything that might help him. “I... I think I might be lost. If anypony is around here who can help, I’d certainly be grateful.” It was then that he noticed the hoofprints in the mud, and lowered his head to investigate.
Two seconds later, he heard the roar.
Three seconds later, blackness.
———————
“Name, please.”
The gold-brown pegasus seemed startled by the request, largely because she had been lost in thought, trying to figure out whose attention she needed to get. In retrospect, she should have expected Canterlot Castle to have some sort of receptionist. “Oh, um, sorry,” she said as she nervously ran a hoof through her slightly disheveled, black-to-white gradient mane. “Anna Kronos Darling. I, uh, need to speak with the Princess.”
The receptionist glanced over a list of names for a minute or so before looking up. “There’s nopony by that name scheduled to meet with Princess Celestia today.”
“I... I know. This is kind of short notice, but I really need to talk with her.”
The receptionist let out a somewhat disdainful sigh; apparently, she’d grown skeptical of ponies who “needed” to see the Princess on short notice. “The Princess has a full schedule this afternoon, but if you wait outside the throne room, she may have time to see you at the end of the day.”
“Oh. Uh, okay.”
The receptionist scribbled out a note and stamped it with an important-looking seal. “Take the corridor to your right. The waiting area is at the very end, though the door to the left of the large double-doors. Give this to the guard posted just inside.” She slid the note to the pegasus, who picked it up nervously. “Have a good day, Ms. Daring.”
“Um, actually, it’s Darl—”
“Name, please,” the receptionist said to a pony who’d just entered the area.
The pegasus sighed as she stuffed the note into the pocket of her olive green shirt and trudged down the hallway. Anna Kronos Darling hated her name. Not only was it a mouthful, but “Anna” was fairly unusual as far as pony names went, which was why she normally went by “A.K.” when she was with her friends—all four of them. At least, I hope it’s still four, she briefly thought before banishing the idea from her mind. After all, the only reason she’d taken the trouble to come up from Baltimare was because there was a chance that Curiosity might still be alright, so there was no sense in being negative.
Of the four ponies that A.K. felt comfortable calling “friends,” Curiosity was her oldest one—the only one who’d actually known her before she began studying archeology at the University of Baltimare, in fact. The two of them had been the smartest foals in their school before going their separate ways after graduation, though they’d made a point to keep in touch. A.K. had always gotten a vicarious thrill whenever he’d recounted how he’d puzzled his way to the solution of a seemingly unsolvable case, largely because it usually involved doing the sorts of things she was too nervous to do, like walking up to complete strangers and asking them tons of questions. She much preferred solving the mysteries of the past, where one only needed to consult largely non-judgmental books, combined with occasional field research to dig up relevant artifacts.
Like most of the ponies who knew Curiosity personally, she had been troubled by his apparent disappearance on the job one month previously, but unlike most of them, A.K. hadn’t spent her time lobbying government agencies to expend more resources on their search (well, not until today, at least). Rather, her instincts led her to delve into the folktales and traditions of the area around modern-day Vanhoover, though at the time, she wasn’t sure why she’d thought this might prove useful—though by now, she was convinced that she must have had some distant, half-formed memory of something that was relevant, because she could never have imagined that her research would be so successful.
That being said, once she’d realized where her research was actually taking her, A.K. soon found herself hoping that she was completely and utterly wrong. She had been sorely tempted to abandon her studies on the spot, but once she’d cross-referenced with everything that the public had been told about Curiosity’s disappearance, she realized that she couldn’t risk the possibility that she was right. The only sensible thing was to bring it to Celestia’s attention... well, for the broadest possible meaning of the word “sensible,” in any case.
A.K. reached the end of the hallway and gave the slip of paper to the guard.
“This seems to be in order,” the guard said as he glanced over the note. “Right in here, Ms. Daring.”
“It’s ‘Darling,’” A.K. replied with mild annoyance.
“The note says ‘Daring.’”
A.K. rolled her eyes and let out a soft groan. “Fine, it’s ‘Daring.’ Do whatever you want. Can I sit down now?”
Fortunately, the guard seemed to be used to dealing with irritated supplicants. “You certainly may. If a spot opens up, an official will arrive to inform you.”
“Thanks.”
The guard smiled. “Have a nice day, Daring Do.”
A.K. would have responded, but the guard had already returned to his post, leaving her with a bemused expression on her face. Daring Do? Seriously? That’s even worse than my real name!
———————
Celestia let out a sigh as the fifth supplicant of the day left her throne room. It was days like today that made her question the centuries-old tradition of allowing ordinary Equestrians to bring their problems to her attention. At the moment, she had quite enough things to worry about as the head of state: the griffons were engaging in aggressive grandstanding (again); a new pack of Diamond Dogs was causing problems for rock farmers; and labor negotiations at the Weather Department had become much shakier thanks to a disagreement over hazard pay. Compared to that, listening to local merchants’ requests for exemptions from assorted regulations seemed rather petty. Of course, she only had herself to blame—it was widely known that Celestia had instituted this tradition herself, and unlike many “widely known” facts, this one happened to be true, though few would have guessed that it was Luna who had actually come up with the idea.
Luna... Nightmare Moon. Generation after generation of Celestia’s subjects only knew of her sister as nothing more than legend, a boogeymare from stories told to misbehaving foals. Few would ever guess that the Mare in the Moon really was going to come to get them, regardless of whether they respected their elders or cleaned their plates. In truth, this was the real reason Celestia had found ruling to be more stressful lately: less than twenty years remained before her sister’s scheduled return, and she wasn’t sure if Equestria was ready. True, she had recently taken on a very promising apprentice, but something felt... off about her; Celestia couldn’t seem to figure out if Sunset Shimmer was motivated to learn for the sake of learning, or whether she viewed her education as a means to a still-murky end.
However, dwelling on an uncertain future wouldn’t clear her present schedule, so Celestia decided to get back to business. “Send in the next supplicant.”
“Ah, Your Majesty,” replied her chamberlain, “that was the last supplicant scheduled for today, though I’ve been told that there are several impromptu petitioners who have also requested an audience.”
Celestia groaned. “I really don’t want to deal with this today.”
“We can dismiss them,” the chamberlain suggested.
For a few moments, Celestia briefly considered taking up the offer... which she did. “Yes, I’m sure they can wait until tomorrow. Have the guards tell them to schedule official appointments.”
“As you wish, Your Majesty,” the chamberlain said with a bow of his head. He turned and walked towards the entrance to inform the remaining petitioners of their misfortune. The guards were just about to open the massive doors for him when Celestia spoke up again.
“Wait,” she said as she thoughtfully stroked her chin with her hoof. “If any petitioners came here from outside Canterlot, let them in.”
“Your Majesty?” the chamberlain said, confused.
“Chalk it up to royal whimsy if any locals are offended,” Celestia replied. In truth, there was a little bit more to her her order than mere eccentricity; after all, anypony who undertook a significant journey to discuss some humdrum, everyday matter would likely have made the effort to schedule an appointment in advance. Residents of Canterlot, on the other hoof, were far more likely to spend a free afternoon waiting for an opening to discuss something mundane, since they didn’t need to worry about travel expenses and finding accommodations. Sure, the idea might not work, but that was her best bet at producing something out of the ordinary, and right now, something out of the ordinary seemed like just the thing to divert her attention from Luna, if only for a short while.
The chamberlain’s bemused expression suggested that he would have preferred Celestia to voice some of this internal monologue rather than leaving him to speculate on her motives, but that was no reason to deny his princess her whims. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
———————
“Daring Do of Baltimare.” The herald’s exclamation bounced around the cavernous throne room, taking several seconds to fully dissipate.
A.K. couldn’t help but wince as the doors shut behind her; literally everything in her introduction was factually incorrect. Still, none of that was particularly important, at least not when compared to what she had to say. According to the pamphlet she’d read over several dozen times while waiting her turn, she was supposed to advance to the center of the room and bow, so she made to do exactly that.
However, the moment she stalled on the carpet, Celestia interrupted. “You needn’t bother with formalities, Daring Do,” she said as she waved her hoof dismissively. “It’s nearing the end of the day, and I’d like some personal time before setting the sun. Please, come to the throne and present your petition.”
“Oh, okay,” A.K. replied as she walked the rest of the way up the room’s central carpet, stopping at the base of the staircase up to Celestia’s throne. “Uh, well, first of all,” she began, “my name’s not actually Daring Do, and I’m not from Baltimare. There’s been a lot of confusion today, and I guess I decided that it wasn’t worth making a fuss over.”
“Indeed?” Celestia asked as she cocked an eyebrow. “So, to whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”
“My name is Anna Kronos Darling, and I came here from Baltimare because that’s where I’m studying for my archeology degree, but I’m originally from Vanhoover.”
“I see.”
“I’m a close friend of Curiosity. I don’t know if you know who he is, but—”
“If you are referring to the missing Royal Investigator, then yes, I am aware of his recent disappearance, though I have never met him personally. Are you here to request that more resources be devoted to finding him?”
“Not exactly...”
Apparently, this was not the answer that Celestia had expected, as she wrinkled her forehead and flared her nostrils slightly in a quizzical expression. “Please explain.”
A.K. let out a sigh. “Once I learned about Curiosity’s disappearance, the first thing I did was to get in touch with my family to find out what was being done about it. From what I understand, both the Royal Investigation Bureau and the Vanhoover Police Department are taking different approaches. The RIB seems to be assuming that Curiosity found whoever it was that stole your jewelry and disappeared after a confrontation, while the VPD is treating it as just the latest in the series of similar incidents that have been happening over the last few months.”
“And you have a third idea?”
“Not really,” A.K. said.
“You believe that the museum robbery and the disappearances are related, then,” Celestia suggested.
“Honestly, I have no clue what to think there,” A.K. admitted. “I mean, I started out thinking that the RIB was probably right, but since then, I’ve done some research on my own, and, um... I think the results... well...”
“Take your time,” Celesia said reassuringly.
“Okay, well, you know how the robbers also took some sort of artifact from the museum during the robbery? I did some checking, and it turns out that it was a stone glyph from the pre-unification period. I made a sketch of it for you to see.”
A.K. pulled out a folded sheet of paper from one of her pockets, and Celestia levitated it up to her eye view. Not being particularly familiar with the artistic tendencies of ancient cultures, it took a few seconds for her to pick out a familiar-looking shape. “It vaguely resembles a cragodile,” Celestia said.
“Actually, it’s a cipactli; according to legend, it’s some kind of aquatic reptile with an extra mouth at each joint, and it exists in a permanent state of ravenous hunger. When I did some more research into the disappearances, I learned that all of the victims were last seen near rivers or lakes. When I later learned that Curiosity’s trail disappeared near an isolated pool of water in the forest, well... I couldn’t risk the possibility that it’s a coincidence. I... I think they might be dealing with a genuine monster out there.”
Celestia took several moments to ponder this theory. “Why couldn’t it be a more mundane creature? After all, alligators and crocodiles are known to occasionally attack ponies.”
“Only when they’re sick or abused, or if they live in someplace like the Everfree Forest where animals don’t listen to ponies. Besides, when they do attack ponies, there’s usually something left behind, which hasn’t been the case so far. From what I can tell, the VPD ruled out the possibility within a week of the first incident.”
“But what makes you so certain that the glyph has something to do with the disappearances?”
“Aside from the fact that Curiosity was trying to find whoever stole it when he disappeared, nothing more than a hunch,” A.K. admitted. “Look, I really don’t know what to do about this. That’s why I wanted to tell all of this to you. I mean, you’re supposed to be the wisest pony in Equestria, right? I figured you’d know what to do.”
“You flatter me,” Celestia replied with a smile as she sat back to consider her options. Obviously, this young mare’s theory was somewhat flimsy, but that, in itself, was no reason to refrain from taking action. For one thing, if there was a long-forgotten creature terrorizing her subjects, it was likely that she would eventually be called on to deal with it anyway. True, she rarely got involved at such an early stage, but since there was a chance that a crime against her Crown was also involved, she could easily use that as justification. Secondly, a change of pace of this sort might be able to keep her from dwelling on her sister’s return for several days as opposed to a few minutes.
But perhaps most importantly, it was her longstanding policy to encourage talented ponies when she found them, and this young pegasus seemed rather promising. All Celestia needed was some evidence to back up her instincts, and she knew exactly how she wanted to gather that evidence.
“Well, I can’t say that I’m fully convinced,” Celestia finally said, “but I do believe it warrants a closer inspection. We shall head to Vanhoover tomorrow.”
A.K. let out a sigh of relief. “Great. If you send somepony to the University of Baltimare, I can hand over my research for you to use.”
Celestia looked confused. “Why go to the trouble? If I have questions, I’ll just ask you.”
“But... you’ll be in Vanhoover. Won’t it be inconvenient to have those kinds of conversations through the mail?”
This seemed to perplex Celestia for a moment, before a look of comprehension appeared on her face. “I see... you misunderstood me. When I said that we would be going to Vanhoover, I wasn’t using the majestic plural. I meant that I will be going to Vanhoover, and you will be coming with me.”
“What?!”
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A new story by the marvelous Kwakerjak? Count me in for this ride!
Daring Do and Big Sunny? I'm there! :pinkiehappy:
This promises to be very interesting indeed. Definitely looking forward to more.
Always nice to see Celestia do things.
So does this story occur before the Season 1 Opening?
7761388 - Very much so. it takes place about ten years before the Mane 6 get their cutie marks.
7761394 And before Daring Do got her career as an explorer/adventure author?
Gaaahhh
Curious situation.... And speaking of which, I was half waiting to hear that Curiosity had been killed by a giant cat.
I see that this one isn't so vast that it ate the gods' attempts at Creation as soon as it began, and wasn't killed so its corpse could be used to support the earth, underworld, and more than 10 different heavens.
Although it would be pretty awesome if they were actually tiny cipactlis inside of the Cipactli.
You've piqued my interest. You present an interesting take on both Daring Do and Celestia that I find refreshing, and it's not often that we get to see an adventure story with Celestia herself as the protagonist!
My only real criticism so far is that the pacing on the first part with Curiosity was a bit too fast: you skimped badly on worldbuilding and exposition, and it made that part rather dull and uninteresting right up until the end. I would've suggested expanding that part greatly and perhaps making it a chapter of its own. But the rest of the chapter makes up for that!
I look forward to more.
Oooo, more Daring Do. You have my attention, sir.
Daring is very well characterized. Celestia's characterization is also pretty good. All in all, I think I'll be coming along for the ride.
Thought that was Hoofington.
That assistant must be a fairly close confidant for Celestia to drop her serene mask so completely. Perhaps a young Kibitz.
Clever.
*and now a sneak peek into the thoughts of my mind as I read the first line of this chapter...*
"Heeeey, nice use of imagery and the personification of an inanimate concept of idea and state of being to describe the mood of a scene and...
...oh wait. That's the name of a pony not...you know...actual curiosity. Hm."
That was seriously what first sprang to mind as I totally misread that sentence.
Also, there's a whole bunch of things about Daring Do that break one's suspension of disbelief besides just her name, but we need not get into that.