Daring Do and the Dependable Delivery
From within a small cottage in a small clearing in a large forest in the furthest reaches of Equestria, a giant ruckus was ensuing.
Thuds, bumps, crashes, smashes, and all sorts of other sounds emanated into the forest, yet from the outside, the appearance was that of a plain old cottage, with nothing untoward going on.
At once, that changed, as the door of the cottage burst open, slapping back against the outer wall so hard it nearly broke off its hinges. From within, a mud-yellow-colored pegasus pony burst forth, holding her helmet atop her head with one foreleg and securing a satchel around her neck and barrel with the other. She shot into the sky, wings buzzing, and rocketed through the forest canopy, leaves fluttering off their branches in her wake as she took to the skies.
"That was close," Daring Do uttered to herself, checking that the satchel and its contents were tightly and securely strapped to her side. She hadn't a moment to waste, though, and especially not with unnecessary commentary or ruminations. So silently she poured on the speed, the boughs blurring below her as she hustled towards Vanhoover.
Daring tried not to think of the territory that was unfurling beneath the canopy she flew over. Besides her own property, the Unclaimed Lands, and the rest of the forest, the Serpentine Swamp, Bonfire Brook, and the Meadow Hills rolled past, each with their share of risks and dangers. That was why she was up in the sky, zipping along at her best possible pace, leaving most everything behind.
She checked that the satchel was still there - again - and kept up the speed, going as fast as she could manage without hurting herself, by overstressing her wings or running out of breath - either by exertion or the brute force of the wind buffeting her face. Just a bit further, she begged her body. Then you can rest.
If only I'd called on the kid - she has the speed to get this done with room to spare, Daring thought. But no - this treasure was too precious to trust to anyone else. That wasn't a dig at Rainbow Dash - one of the most trustworthy ponies Daring had ever seen - but a testament to how important the package was.
"Just... another few... minutes," Daring grunted. The edge of the forest was visible now on the horizon. Past that was the beginning of the plains, and not far into the plains was a railroad track. On that track Daring could see the train, stopped at the rest station, allowing its crew to catch a breath before the push over the mountain range into the valley that led to the coastal city.
One hoof edged down to confirm the satchel was still firmly closed.
Onward Daring Do flew.
Far below, the conductor of the train checked his watch, then glanced at the locomotive. The pony there tossed a wave in his direction, indicating he and his fellow unicorns were replenished magically, and the earth ponies had their legs underneath them again, break time over.
"Okay ponies, next stop Vanhoover," he bellowed out to the passengers who'd gotten out to stretch their legs or wings. "Alllll aboard who's goin' aboard!"
He watched the passengers mill about, walking back to the open train cars. He'd deliberately called the boarding a few moments early, because of how busy the train was. A full train meant longer boarding, and if he was going to get into Vanhoover on time, he had to get out of Bridle Plains on time, and to get out of Bridle Plains on time, he had to get these ponies on the train, even if it meant they had their rest stop cut short by a few minutes.
The conductor waited patiently for an elderly mare to board, then a quick glance in each direction confirmed there were no more passengers off the train. He stepped inside the car, then turned around and bent down to pick up the step stool the older lady had needed. As he ducked and gripped the stool's handle in his jaw, he heard a whoosh and felt a breeze go over his head. Then there was a THUMP behind him, and something fell past his vision.
He recoiled back in surprise, pulling the step stool inside the car. The train crew, watching for this, triggered the door-closing mechanism, and the doors began to slide shut. At the last second, a leg shot past from behind the conductor, reaching out and snatching up whatever had fallen past his face. As the hoof withdrew, he found it clutching an off-white pith helmet, which it pulled inside the car just as the doors snapped shut.
Over his shoulder he looked, to see a pony settle the same hat on her multi-hued grey mane, offering a sheepish grin as an apology. She held up a monthly pass for the train, clutched in her teeth, the other forehoof tightly held against a bag she was pressing to her barrel.
He shook his head, rolled his eyes, and stood, straightening out his uniform before he turned to walk the train car.
Daring stood amongst dozens of other ponies crowded into the train car as it made its way towards the city. For what felt like the millionth time, she moved a hoof subtly to confirm the satchel was still there.
She was comfortable staying 'out of disguise' this far out in the wilderness, so to speak - ironically, a crowded train car kept her more inconspicuous than if there were only a hoofful of ponies on board. Once they got to within a few stops of the city, she'd get out her shawl and glasses, and tuck the satchel underneath said shawl, and trot on into town with nopony paying her a second thought.
Yes, she'd sneak into the corner by the conductor's cabin, extract her disguise from the satchel, and all would be well.
Her hoof met her barrel and she scratched it absently.
Wait.
There should be something in between hoof and body.
Her foreleg scrambled around in a panic, though the rest of her body - except her pinprick pupils - didn't betray her worry to her fellow train riders. True enough, to her dread, the satchel was nowhere to be felt.
She scanned the crowd urgently, at the same time thinking back to when she had last noticed the satchel, and any encounters she'd had since then. In a flash, she identified a young punk of an earth pony, with blue coat and spiky white mane, who had gently nudged up against her as he'd traversed the car. Probably he only moved her enough so that she wouldn't feel him undoing the buckle on the bag.
The shock of white hair was easily spotted at the other end of the car, as the pony prepared to open the end door and traverse between their car and the next one. As he got to the door, he made the mistake of risking a look back-
-and staring, across the sea of ponies, into the blazing red eyes of the pegasus pony he'd picked the pocket of.
He yanked at the door, taking three tries to force it open against the crush of bodies, not bothering to look back again and see that the pith-helmeted pony had disappeared, ducking low to hurry through the crowd towards him.
"Move!" Daring urged, fighting her way through the dozens of ponies filling the train car. She tried not to shove or push too many people - she wasn't a rude pony, but she needed - no, needed - to get that bag back.
The door between cars was closing when she looked up, so she assumed the thief had gone through. Getting through to the door, she wrenched it open and ran through the gap, hoofing open the next car's door and barging into the throng of ponies within.
The shouts of indignant ponies further up the car told her all she needed to know about where her quarry was, and she surged forward through the crowd.
Daring popped out of the door in the third car and startled the ponies therein. Clearly they had not encountered a fleeing thief.
Cursing, she turned around and opened the door again, stepping onto the catwalk between the two cars. As she looked into the door of the second car she'd been in, however, there was no indication that he'd doubled back. Despite the crowd, she was relatively sure she'd have spotted him.
Suddenly, something in her mind made her look up.
This shtick again, Daring said to herself tiredly as she gained her footing on top of the passenger car. She'd done this twice before, in her quest for the Peregrine Phantom, and on the Caneighdian Caper. Both times, obviously, she came out on top.
And here she was, on top, again, staring down some foalish wanna-be gangster who thought he would be able to make a quick score.
"Give it up, kid," Daring growled. "You have no idea what you've got there."
He laughed as he strapped her satchel around his own barrel. "Somethin' you must figure's worth somethin', lady," he sneered. "I'll bet I can make a quick hundred bits on any corner for this!"
Daring sighed irritatedly and just broke into a gallop, rushing the punk. He yelped, turning and running away, towards the back of the train.
One thing this kid's got going for him, he can run, Daring said to herself. She was gaining on him, but not by much. He leapt over the gap onto the next passenger car, and she crossed it herself seconds later.
This process repeated itself four times, until the thief ran out of passenger cars, and instead jumped onto a flatcar with random freight piled onto it. Footing was much trickier on this car, and two-thirds of the way along it, his back left hoof caught on a cargo strap, shooting out to the side, and sending the rest of him following.
He managed to grab the side of the rail car, clinging on to it for dear life and praying to Celestia that he'd renounce his ways and do good things forever more if she'd just get him back on the freaking train!
A shadow loomed over him, and two pony-lengths away, towering over him, was the pegasus he'd taken the bag from. In one hoof she held ... a whip?
"Help me!" he shrieked. A tunnel (naturally) was coming up, and in moments he'd be brushed off the side of the train like a nuisance fly on a pony's backside.
"Throw me the satchel," she yelled over the noise of the wind, "and I'll throw you the whip."
"Give it here!" he shouted, voice cracking from the panic. He lifted a trembling hoof off the edge of the rail car to reach out to her.
"Throw me the satchel," she said evenly. "And I'll throw you the whip."
He reached down with his free hoof, his back legs scrambling for purchase where there was none, and tugged on the satchel's strap. For a moment, Daring had a vision of him dropping the satchel, and her heart leapt up into her throat. Then, before she could even lose her breath, let alone catch it, he flung the satchel at her, and she lashed out with the whip, snaring the strap and hauling in her prize.
Once she had the satchel firmly and safely attached to her own body, she kept her promise, and cast out with the whip towards the thief. He wrapped it around both his forelegs several times, and Daring hauled him up onto the flatcar with minimal effort, just in time for the car to be plunged into the darkness of the tunnel.
"Thank you, thank you," he blubbered, unwinding the whip from his hooves and falling to the deck of the car. "Please forgive me, I've learned my lesson!"
There was no response.
"P-please?" he stammered.
The train erupted out the other end of the tunnel into the Vanhoover Valley, and he was alone on the flatcar.
"Stupid punk," Daring muttered, flying high over the train, watching him stumble to and fro, trying to find out where she'd gone. "Almost made me late."
She flapped her wings and accelerated past the train, resigning herself to going the rest of the way under her own wingpower. She'd arrive tired, but at least she had control over everything around her when she was in the sky.
Five minutes passed, then ten, and then finally she was over the city. She looked urgently for a place she could land and change, and found the city just as busy as she expected. She was almost at her destination when she realized exactly what she could do.
"Yeah, that'll work," she mused, and turned to intercept the tall building which was her ultimate stop.
Daring Do had landed on the roof of the building, but A. K. Yearling stepped through the roof access door into the stairwell and descended. Her destination was on the sixth floor, so she had three flights of stairs to descend and get her pulse and breathing back to normal. Or at least normal for someone who supposedly just climbed five flights of stairs.
At the sixth floor landing, she made one last check of her satchel, tucked under her shawl. It contained both the prize and her helmet, which had been replaced on her head by a grey, unassuming sun hat.
"Here goes," she said under her breath, and pushed open the door of Random Horse Publishing.
"Oh! Miss Yearling," the receptionpony said with a smile. "It's a pleasure seeing you. I must say, we didn't expect you."
"Well," Yearling said with a smile, "I do have a deadline to keep, of course."
"Yes, but we would have sent a courier, you know."
"And I always would respectfully decline," Yearling said, reaching into her satchel. She pulled out a sheaf of paper bound with several loops of string. "This is much too precious to me to entrust to somepony else."
"I understand completely," the receptionpony nodded, taking the pages in her hoof. She read the cover page with an awe-filled tone. "'Daring Do and the Canyon of Calamity'. Oooh, sounds exciting, as usual. I do have to ask, where do you get your ideas?"
"Oh, you know," Yearling grinned, giving a shrug. "Same as everypony else - I get my cues from everyday life, and eventually the stories just write themselves."
END