Friendship is Card Games: Daring Do and the Forbidden City of Clouds · 12:20pm Jun 12th, 2022
We go from modernity to antiquity, closing out the Berrow Daring Do trilogy. Let’s see what’s in store for the brave explorer this time.
Caballeron glowering at Daring on the cover, and the frontispiece has Daring in a hot air balloon—well, more a boat held aloft than a basket—with a Big Mac-looking fellow in Victorian adventurer garb, complete with a top hat and goggles. This should be interesting.
“To Lauren—who kept her head in the clouds so our imaginations could take flight.”
Hey, credit where it’s due.
“‘There she is!’ the ponies shouted. ‘Seize her! Giddyup!’”
To be clear, these are the first sentences in the actual story. We open on Daring getting woken up by these chucklenuts. In a rather clever turn, she’s so groggy she has to remind herself where she is and what she’s doing, which conveniently lets the reader know as well: The middle of nowhere and protecting an ancient artifact, respectively.
Also, is “Giddyup” just an accepted battle cry in Equestria, like “Charge!”?
Ah, the artifact in question is the Doomed Diadem of Xilati, referenced in “Daring Done?”, a.k.a. the one that introduced Somnambula. It’s jewel-encrusted, and that may be enough for “ruffian cowponies who didn’t know what was good for them.” Presumably this where the “Doomed” part comes in.
Xilati, for the record, doesn’t seem to crop up in any Mesoamerican mythology in our world. Even this book’s glossary doesn’t mention much about it beyond some details that may be spoilers for later in the story.
Daring can apparently see her pursuers on the horizon, but they’ve surrounded her tent moments later. Either she has lousy sight lines or G. M. Berrow doesn’t understand how horizons work, especially in a barren place like the San Palomino Desert.
Ah. This particular band of miscreants is indeed the Wild Bunch Gang, likewise mentioned in “Daring Done?” Berrow’s kind of shameless about referencing her fan fiction, isn’t she? (And yes, I am playing the part of the pot in this idiom.)
In any case, the Wild Bunch Gang is just in it for profit. They’ll steal anything from bits to ancient artifacts, so long as it keeps them in cider and their boss’s good graces.
In two pages, Daring goes from being in a tent to being in a hut, then back to a tent three lines later. Who edited this, again?
“Take my advice and save some of that giddyup to get back to your camp before Old Tex catches you and turns your hide into his new holsters!”
One, that’s surprisingly violent, though this same series has featured a stallion mutilated both body and soul by Ahuizotl. Two, holsters for what, exactly? We haven’t seen firearms smaller than a cannon in Equestria, and I very much doubt this will be the one place we see six-shooters.
Ah. The reason Daring can’t go for the aerial option isn’t because she’s broken her wing yet again, but because one of the gang members is a pegasus himself, and fast enough that she can’t lose him in the open desert sky.
The robbers demand the Diadem. Daring can’t resist explaining its history. It was the crown of the Empress of Desert Skies, and is the sister to the Tiara of Teotlale, crown of the Empress of Desert Sands. And Xilati and Teotlale are the names of those empresses, who were sisters. When Xilati was married off to another empire, Teotlale cursed the sapphires of her sister’s crown. Now if the two are kept separate for more than fourteen moons, the world will be locked in eternal night. Also, the crowns were separated thirteen moons ago.
Hey, remember those alicorn murals we’ve seen in old ruins? Someone may want to ask the diarchs about this. Threats of eternal night seem like something they’d be able to help with.
In any case, the bandits dismiss these old legends, never mind that this book allegedly happens after the return of Nightmare Moon. (Granted, news can travel very slow in Equestria.) North Star, the aforementioned pegasus, mentions a similarly unbelievable legend, “the Halo in the Sky.” I’m sure that won’t be plot-relevant.
But the real reason Daring gave that history lesson was to give the train time to approach. 
Most of the gang bumbles into one another as Daring hops the train, but the leader, Slingshot, is competent enough to pursue her.
So, Daring gets cornered dangling over a pair of tigers, with Slingshot demanding she give him the Diadem or she’ll be trapped with the cats until the train reaches the Frozen North. Then she pulls herself up, ties him up with his own lasso, and tosses him into a heap of elephant dung in the next car over. Bit of an anticlimax, but it is the second chapter of the book. We need to restablish our heroine is a capable flank-kicker before truly challenging her, after all.
(Also, I am surprised to see an explicit mention of feces.)
We cut to the office of A. B. Ravenhoof, an associate of Daring mentioned in Marked Thief of Marapore… who frantically alerts Daring that he’s in the middle of an altercation and that she needs to play the role of “Compass Rose.” This isn’t pre-arranged, but Daring’s sharp enough to pick up what Ravenhoof’s putting down and adopts a more posh persona… until the closet sneezes. At which point Daring dive-kicks it, like any rational pony would.
It’s Withers, one of Caballeron’s henchstallions. After a brief altercation, it’s clear he’s come alone, and Daring’s able to bluff/shame him into retreating empty-hoofed. All because he couldn’t reach a scroll on one of the top shelves of the office. It’s honestly kind of embarrassing.
Interesting how Ravenhoof is described as “an ex-adventurer and instigator,” emphasis mine. Not sure how intentional that was.
Aw, that’s cute. Ravenhoof and Daring sometimes challenge one another to recover relics within a time limit, sometimes for bits, sometimes for fun. Though in his advancing age, he’s usually the one giving the challenges these days.
“I thought for sure that the Diadem was lost forever after the Tiara of Teotlale turned up in that gypsy marketplace by the river.”
Uh, unfortunate terminology and implications there. I’m just going to ignore it and any possible disenfranchised Roma ponies wandering Equestria.
As Ravenhoof tries to fit the crowns’ jagged edges together, Daring asks why Withers was here. Ravenhoof claims it was all in good fun, hiring a henchpony for a bit of excitement. Moreover, the scroll just contains a muffin recipe, and he just happened to keep looking up at it while Withers was here because there’s a spider he’s been meaning to shoo out of that corner.. Daring, naturally, doesn’t believe this for a second, not that she tells Ravenhoof that.
The professor also mentions Cirrostrata, the titular Forbidden City of Clouds—yes, the text capitalizes it—that Daring has conveniently never heard of. Not only is it so secretive and insular that any outsiders who enter it never return, it’s also invisible. Daring is naturally skeptical of this as well. She’s pursued enough false leads to doubt the more incredible legends.
Ah. There is one pony who went there and back again, one Brumby Cloverpatch. Certainly a name that fits that steampunk/Dickensian Big Mac. Though he apparently returned in disgrace after failing to retrieve the city’s great treasure, the Halo.
Yeah, Ahuizotl kind of has a point about adventurer archeology being a menace to most cultures. Celestia being able to dole out other species’ artifacts only highlights that.
In any case, with a witness, Daring’s determined to see Cirrostrata for herself. Also, the matter of the sister crowns appears to be settled, which is surprising given how “Daring Done?” suggested they were the central MacGuffins of this book… though they may feature more significantly in one we’ll never see.
Part of Daring’s post-adventure recovery is “a hot Epsom salt-lick bath,” demonstrating that Berrow’s willingness to horsepun vastly exceeds her understanding of how horses actually work.
“Just the notion of the treasured ‘Halo of Cirrostrata’ had the young pony making all sorts of speculations about about what exactly the item could be, and whether or not it was all that the ponies up there were hiding.”
Yeaaah, “it belongs in a museum” really rings hollow when you’re taking the relic from a place so well-hidden that it might not even exist. Bring a camera, Daring. Everypony wins that way.
“Brumby sported a shiny top hat and a striped waistcoat, almost as if he were a time traveler visiting from the early days of Equestria.”
Yes, because if there’s one article of clothing that comes to mind when I think about the Three Tribes Era, it’s a top hat. 
Oh, this is more interesting. Also part of Brumby’s outfit is a badge in the shape of a hot air balloon, which is apparently a sign of membership in a now-defuncy Aeronauts Society of earth pony balloonists. Looks like Cherry Berry has a rich history behind her passion.
Ah. Seems Daring strained something, or all of her injuries over the years are catching up to her. Either way, Ravenhoof is concerned about her bad wing.
Also, Daring really is terrifyingly like Rainbow Dash sometimes: “Daring was always more concerned about finding the object of her desire than bothering with silly logistics. Things like food and water always had a way of working themselves out.”
To be clear, she’s literally heading out to find an invisible cloud city with nothing more than Brumby’s last known address, the non-perishable contents of Ravenhoof’s pantry, some goggles, and a pack of chewing gum.
Ah, we have another father figure for Daring, though this is more a case of Ravenhoof seeing himself as one. And apparently Daring used to have a crippling fear of fish? Bizarre.
We get a brief mythohistory of the Unicorn mountain range, which was apparently ensorcelled by the Carthachs, a unicorn family who wanted to keep the place pure and unsullied by anypony else.
Or, Daring admits, it’s been a rough hike thus far and she’s still adjusting to the higher altitude.
“The soft terrain below was littered with rocky patches that would serve as excellent hoofholds on her climb.”
I know Daring’s bad wing was mentioned a bit ago, but “horse” and “mountain climbing” don’t seem like compatible concepts.
Brumby’s last known location was the town of Alto Terre, which apparently sits on Mount Monoceros. I’m going to assume it’s the highest peak in the range, because nothing else in the Unicorn Range should get to be called Unicorn Mountain. Its cottages spring from the steep slopes in ways that make Canterlot’s rocky shelf look like reasonable city engineering.
Brumby also left explicit instructions not to try to find him and to let him and his deeds be forgotten in his last letter to Ravenhoof. Yeah, that definitely won’t stop Daring.
Daring’s not exactly blending in. For one, she’s the only pegasus in a predominantly unicorn village. For another, the locals are wearing “decorated sashes, furry boots, and floppy caps.” I’m really not sure what Berrow’s going for here. Also, each local’s mane, tail, coat, and even outfit are very close to one another in hue. No word on eyes, but I have wonder if this sort of thing is a sign of slightly less severe inbreeding than the Hooffields and McColts.
I have to appreciate the presumptuous semi-redundancy of a shop called “Mount Monoceros Iters of Fancy for Fancy Ponies.”
Hmm. Callback to Mooncurve the Cunning, who apparently wore bells on the edge of his cape like Starswirl. Possibly a more general sign of arcane power and accomplishment?
And, of course, Daring managed to duck into the shop run by the very pony she’s looking for. Sweet, sweet narrative convenience. Also, I do love how Brumby fled to one of the most remote towns in Equestria but couldn’t bear to part with his signature top hat.
I can’t help but think Chapter 6 ended a paragraph early. The moment Daring reveals that she knows Brumby’s true identity, he tackles her and demands to know who sent her. I can’t help but think that A. K. Yearling mapped a bit of her own reclusiveness onto the character when adapting the adventure to prose. That or all adventurers get this jumpy after a while. Either way, he isn’t talking, and Daring only lets him know she’s an associate of his old friend as she leaves, after trying to pressure him into telling her everything she knows.
Yeah, there’s a reason this mare usually sticks to exploring ruins and solving puzzles. Other ponies aren’t exactly her area of expertise.
Name-dropping Ravenhoof is enough to arrange a meeting… on a different mountain. Brumby really doesn’t want this getting out.
She finds Brumby on the slopes of Mount Equuleus—unicorns naming mountains after constellations does make some sense—inflating the envelope of the tiny airship from the frontispiece. (And yeah, I guess it is an airship; a ship body held aloft by an envelope. It’s just smaller than any seen on the show.)
“Daring Do had read about airships in her Encyclopedia Equestria, but they were rare these days."
You want to try that one more time, Gillian?
So… Brumby says he’ll take Daring to Cirrostrata on the condition that she deliver a letter or, if she can’t get it to the intended recipient, destroy it. At no point does he say who that recipient actually is.
Huh. The secret to finding Cirrostrata feels like finding an optional town in a Final Fantasy game. You have to fly around Mount Equuleus twenty-two times. (You might think Brumby could have just told Daring that, but he genuinely wasn’t sure whether it work or not if done intentionally. Last time was completely by accident.)
“Right in front them was a beautiful sky park with grandstatues, rain fountains, and fluffy cumulonimbus trees. Everything was balanced on a sprawling, iridescent cloud that appeared to be almost a mile long.”
I have many questions, especially regarding those trees.
The local pegasi apparently have lop ears and three vertical lines under their left eye. The latter is probably a tattoo, but the former…
Well, see what I said earlier about inbreeding.
Oh good, now Brumby’s given Daring a name for the letter, one Dew Point. If he ever sets hoof in Cirrostrata again, “there would be severe punishments.” I’m going to assume execution’s on the table, or at least life imprisonment. There are only so many possibilities when none who seek the place ever return. He is able to supply Daring with some fake ears and a few lines from a grease pencil to help her fit in.
Brumby’s airship is named the Reflector, and it turns out that its silvery envelope renders it nigh-invisible when airborne. Certainly explains why angry pegasi with spears haven’t shown up yet.
The statues are mostly of military heroes, though there is at least one noblemare. And in lieu of placards, focusing on a statue will cause the wind to whisper its name. I have to love unnecessarily extravagant magical touches like that.
Oddly enough, one statue looks exactly like Caballeron. Daring isn’t sure whether she saw it move. Considering that the statues are five times her size, this is especially concerning. (My question is whether or not the Caballeron statue has wings. After all, this is a cloud city.)
Every step makes the cloud rumble and gives the sound of crumbling stone, yet the park is pristine. Say what you will about Berrow’s writing—goodness knows I have and will—but she could probably make a great D&D campaign.
Daring finds an inscription at the hooves of Duchess Precipita… written in a script she doesn’t recognize. Which raises all kinds of questions about just how long Cirrostrata’s been around.
Ooh, neat detail: The statues are in fact made from hyperdense cloud, what the story calls “cloud marble.”
Daring spots a golden monocle on one statue and… “The way the light shone onto it practically begged for it to be pilfered.”
Wow. Wow. Not even pretending her sticky hooves have any noble pretext here.
Landing on the statue’s withers triggers an intruder alert, a caustic mist, and a cloudy clone of Brumby… who tells Daring to take the monocle. I’m getting some mixed message here. Especially since the monocle lets her see the rest of the city. So much for the whole “five times her size” thing. I like a good city of illusions as much as the next guy, but some consistency would be nice.
Hmm. A thick band of golden light encircling the city. I’m sure that won’t be relevant later on.
The gates are apparently made of cloud iron. Look, I know pegasus engineering is incredible, but you’re straining my credulity on this one. Contrast that with the “sky lilies,” which raise interesting questions.
Thankfully, most Cirrostratans are “dressed like regular Pegasi,” whatever that means given a nation with no nudity taboo. You’d think the pith helmet would make Daring stand out, but for all I know, they can make similar gear from those cumulonimbus trees. Instead, the major difference is that everypony else is slightly aglow. Daring directly compares them to crystal ponies, which really emphasizes the whole “maybe tell Luna about the eternal night problem” issue.
Meanwhile, three uniformed ponies are tailing Daring based on the intruder alert. More on them soon, I’m sure.
So, there’s a park with a statue of Duchess Precipita holding a stone cloud serving as a fountain, with the cloud producing raindrops. They took clouds, compressed them into a stonelike substance, shaped that into a cloud, and then had it rain.
This goes from enjoyably extra to absurd.
… Oh come on. There’s a mare selling apple fritters by said statue. Where did she get the apples? Oh, Appleoosa, no big deal. Except how does that supply chain even begin to work!? It’s a mysterious lost city with its own script unlike anything else on the planet, the city itself unknown to all of Equestria… except one frontier town that was founded a few years ago.
Seriously, you’re telling me Braeburn is keeping a secret that would revolutionize Equestria as we know it. Braeburn. (Yes, I read Estee’s work. Shut up.)
Oh. Or that may have been a test by a canny fritter salesmare to suss out a pony who’s not from around here and is happy to help her lose a tail or three. Also possible… though that still raises questions about how food production works for a secret cloud city. Yes, I’m overthinking this, but unlike Daring, I actually care about logistics.
Grandmare Clement, said fritter mare, also has what she calls a “Tent of Fate,” complete with a Future Crystal, which is apparently a thing that Daring’s encountered before:
Future Crystals were the most rare of enchanted items and could not be controlled with Unicorn magic. They required a bloodline—in order for the orb to work, it had to be given to a mare by her mother. In fact, they were rumored to all have been destroyed except for the Crystal Sphere of Khumn.
Never mind that the Sphere is supposed to heal those it touches rather than foretell the future, to say nothing of any associated bloodline almost certainly being lost by now.
Apparently a Future Crystal will offer two truths and a lie in response to a question, with no way of knowing what’s what. Certainly a useful storytelling device.
Hmm. The ponies tailing Daring were “Agents of the Crown,” the personal army of Count Cumulonimbus. Now, there’s a statue of him in the park—he was the one wearing the monocle—but it’s unclear if it’s the same stallion or an inherited title. What kind of time span are we looking at here?
Ah. The duchess is the count’s daughter. Moreover, Brumby fell in love with her while here. Lovers don’t get much more star-crossed.
(Also, Brumby was apparently th very first pony to penetrate the gates of Cirrostrata… though given how it’s presumably just invisible, not orthogonal to reality, I have to imagine somepony’s crashed through an invisible building or two and nopony likes to admit it.)
Oh. The wind whispering names isn’t a universal feature. Congrats, Daring, you get to be a Chosen One in this book. Specifically the Keeper of the Halo of Cirrostrata. It even comes with a rhyming prophecy: “The wind will speak to the pony from the peak. She’ll be devoid of fright through her circle of light.”
Interestingly, the Keeper of the Halo is supposed to “[keep] our world invisible from all those that wish to destroy us.” I sense a corrupt leader keeping their personal empire hidden from anypony who might tell them it’s safe to come out.
Huh. We cut to the next scene before seeing what the Future Crystal has to say. Interesting choice there. Instead, we have Daring taking the scenic route to Castle Cirrostrata to avoid the Agents’ attention, much to her own frustration. “It was like somepony had clipped her wings and she could no longer fly.”
… Hey, yeah, you’d think a pegasus city would make a lot more use of the z-axis. You know, like Cloudsdale. No indication of that. Instead Berrow’s description indicates… two-dimensional thinking. Though I suppose some of that is trying to keep the city in a shape that’s easier to hide.
Ah. The predictions came a few pages later than expected, is all. (Dew Point will betray somepony. One will be imprisoned. You will protect the Halo.) Also, Daring recorded them on a scrap of papyrus, so I suppose they have reeds and maybe even a river up here.
I thought Dew Point was an alias for Precipita, but now, apparently she’s the duchess’s best friend, and the only one who can get her to smile since Brumby’s exile.
And we get “a group of gypsy ponies.” Seriously, this is not okay. This needs to stop.
“The milky marble castle shone like the griffon’s goblet.”
I have several questions there, not least regarding the singular possessive.
Daring plays up the bowing and scraping as guards escort her to Dew Point… at one point making her monocle fall off and her false ears slip. Somehow the guards don’t immediately arrest her, even after she “reattaches” her “severed” ear. In their defense, they barely remember the protocol for guests to the castle. Intruder protocols have definitely fallen by the wayside.
Daring’s briefly entranced by a stained-glass window portraying the Halo, because as been established by now, she is an equinoid magpie and it is both shiny and portraying something even shinier. 
Speaking of: “Daring noticed Dew Point’s silver mana and instantly understood why the ponies of Cirrostrata spoke of it. It was as shiny as a barrel of diamonds after a rainfall.”
… Yeah, that comparison doesn’t really work, does it? Though the thin yellow streaks that occasionally sparkle like little lightning bolts raise a number of questions.
Yes, Daring, mention the most infamous stallion in the entire city directly in front of your guard escort. Great plan. At least Dew Point shut her up.
Ah. Dew Point takes pride in being the only pony who attends the duchess. I’m growing concerned. Especially as she takes Daring to a secret, completely soundproofed room.
Oh. Or it could be time for more exposition. The Halo is indeed the golden band around the city, crafted by the unicorn wizard Comet Tail the Starry-Eyed after he spotted Cirrostrata through his telescope centuries ago. He hid it from the world to preserve its beauty, and it seems unicorns do a lot of that, don’t they? The item shown in the stained-glass window, connected to the Halo, is called the Half-Gilded Horseshoe. (Side note: A self-contained city protected by Halo. Where have I heard that before?)
Brumby, meanwhile, charmed even Count Cumulonimbus when he arrived, despite the count’s hatred and mistrust of outsiders. (Why? Unclear.) But the count forced him to choose between love and wandering the world in search of adventure, and Brumby picked the latter.
And Dew Point sealed Daring in the soundproof room. Well, that’s the prophecies settled… or a bait and switch.
Daring tries to view her escape as a puzzle. Then she gets distracted by the room’s molding, which is actually a long, tiny frieze depicting the entire history of Cirrostrata. In a metahumorous moment I truly didn’t expect, as Daring follows it to the end, staring at the fourth wall, a depiction of her looks back. Apparently the events carve themselves as they happen. I can only assume less relevant ones get subsumed while only the major events are preserved for all time.
And, as announced by the frieze, here’s the Duchess. Also, there’s a bounty on Daring’s head now. This escalated quickly.
Ah. Part of the letter was the truth: Cumulonimbus forced Brumby to leave. This revelation would probably be a lot more dramatic if it wasn’t correcting something mentioned a few pages ago.
And Precipita just has the Horseshoe. And knows Daring wants it. Not because Dew Point told her, mind you:
”How did you know?”
“There is a lot I know that others do not. It is the curse and privilege of royalty.”
That’s not an answer.
… Oh. And apparently Comet Tail is still alive and has built a Harmony-elemental super-team to protect great magical items, “the Magical Counsel (sic) of Ancients.” Which could potentially include Daring. Berrow is throwing a lot at the reader late in the story here. And hey, remember how terrible immortality was back in Eternal Flower?
(Also, one of those guardians is named “Rosewater the Cheerful,” which is funny for various card game reasons.)
Daring’s understandably hesitant, but apparently she’s been doing the Counsel’s work for a while. Several of her previous finds are part of the Sacred Twenty-Two Enchanted Artifacts of the Ancients. (I find myself wondering if there’s going to be any tarot symbolism.) Apparently, to join this cross-temporal antiquities department, she has to find each of those artifacts and touch them, just to show that they’re safe and accounted for. Given that, she’s in.
Boy, I sure hope Ahuizotl wasn’t looking after any of them.
Precipita gives Daring the Horseshoe and tells her to leave the city with it, draining the Halo and revealing Cirrostrata to the world. Precipita herself plans to finally elope with her beloved. As for how a cloistered city reacts to being exposed to the world around them, especially given how they’re ruled by a xenophobic count who has received precisely no comeuppance for lying to his daughter and people for years?
The story’s over and Daring’s flying off to her next adventure.
But what about—
The story’s over. Shut up.
(And yes, the Caballeron statue was a complete red herring, to say nothing of any deeper meaning to Withers.)
This is definitely an interesting adventure, but it feels like a summary of an entire season of a TV show. Compared to the relatively more focused and coherent other entries in the trilogy, this feels like Berrow learning she wouldn’t get to write any more of these and cramming all of her ideas for the series into 190 pages. Little things like the consequences of ponies’ actions don’t matter nearly as much as having as many of those actions as possible. Especially near the end of the story.
This was fun, don’t get me wrong, but Berrow needed to kill a few more darlings to really make it sing. Let’s see what I can make of it all:
Aeronaut Pioneer 1W
Creature — Pony Artificer
Aeronaut Pioneer enters the battlefield with a flying counter on it if you control another creature with flying.
Other ponies have always longed to know the freedom of pegasi.
2/1
Giddyup 1W
Instant
Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Hoofcraft — If you control three or more Ponies, Pegasi, and/or Unicorns, untap all creatures you control.
Riding down your enemies is actually easier when no one’s riding you.
Ravenhoof, Veteran Explorer 1W
Legendary Creature — Pony Advisor
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn.
Choose a Background (You can have a Background as a second commander.)
“If you can’t be careful out there, at least be clever.”
2/2
Halo of Cirrostrata 3WW
Legendary Enchantment
Other permanents you control have ward 3.
If you or a planeswalker you control would be dealt damage, prevent 1 of that damage.
Exile Halo of Cirrostratus: Until your next turn, your life total can’t change and you gain protection from everything. All permanents you control phase out.
Cirrostratan Emigrant 1U
Legendary Enchantment — Background
Commander creatures you own have flying, ward 2, and “This creature can block only creatures with flying.”
When the Halo faded, you were among the first to see what the world outside the city had to offer.
Jungle Piranha 1U
Creature — Fish
Jungle Piranha can’t attack unless defending player controls a Forest or Island.
They’re equally happy in a muddy stream or open ocean, so long as they have something to devour.
3/2
Passing Resemblance 1UU
Creature — Illusion
Flash
You may have Passing Resemblance enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it has “At the beginning of the end step, return this creature to its owner’s hand.”
0/0
Crystal Reading 3U
Instant
Look at the top three cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the other into your graveyard.
The crystal always tells two truths and a lie. The trick is convincing reality which is which.
Alto Terre Gossipers 2B
Creature — Unicorn Citizen
Whenever a player casts a multicolored spell, that player loses 1 life for each of that spell’s colors.
The out-of-towner’s garish contrast fed the town rumor mill for moons.
3/2
Grandmare Clement 3B
Legendary Creature — Pegasus Warlock
Flying
T: Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of permanents that were put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Choose a Background
2/4
Rough Flunky 3B
Creature — Pony Rogue
Rough Flunky can’t be blocked if a player has one or fewer cards in hand.
4/1
Shakedown B
Sorcery — Adventure
Target player discards a card. (Then exile this card. You my cast the creature later from exile.)
Lucky Discovery R
Sorcery
Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card. Until the end of your next turn, you may play cards exiled this way.
After twenty-two loops around Mount Equuleus, Brumby chanced upon the impossible.
Brumby, Paranoid Pilot 2R
Legendary Creature — Pony Pilot
Ward — Pay 3 life.
Whenever Brumby crews a Vehicle, that Vehicle get +3/+0 and gains menace until end of turn.
Choose a Background
3/1
Precarious Village 3R
Sorcery
Create three 2/1 red Unicorn creature tokens with haste. At the beginning of the next end step, if fewer than three creatures died under your control this turn, sacrifice creatures equal to the difference.
Alto Terre offers sweeping vistas and the chance to experience them firsthoof.
Wild Bunch Gang 3R
Creature — Pony Rogue
First strike
Myriad (Whenever this creature attacks, for each opponent other than defending player, you may create a token that’s a copy of this creature that’s tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. Exile the tokens at end of combat.)
3/1
Gulch Rattlesnake G
Creature — Snake
If you control a Desert or there is a Desert card in your graveyard, you may cast this spell as though it had flash.
Deathtouch
“At least it isn’t a fish.”
—Daring Do
1/1
Curse of the Carthachs 2G
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
At the beginning of enchanted player’s upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature with flying.
In the wilderness of the Unicorn Range, it can be hard to tell hypoxia from ancient malice.
Exotic Explorer 2G
Legendary Enchantment — Background
Commander creatures you own have “Whenever this creature attacks a player, if no opponent has more life than that player, this creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of nonbasic lands that player controls.”
Menagerie Express 4G
Artifact — Vehicle
Trample
Whenever Menagerie Express deals combat damage to a player, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
Crew 4
7/6
Self-Carving Frieze 2
Artifact
Whenever one or more cards are into a graveyard from anywhere but exile, you may exile one of them. If you do, return each other card exiled with Self-Carving Frieze to its owner’s graveyard.
T, Sacrifice Self-Carving Frieze: You may cast a card exiled with Self-Carving Frieze and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast that spell.
Cirrostratan Statue 3
Artifact
Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city’s blessing for the rest of the game.)
T: Add C.
Cirrostratan Statue is a 4/3 Pegasus Golem creature with flying as long as you have the city’s blessing.
Lens of Cirrostrata 3
Artifact
T: Add one mana of any color.
1, T: Until end of turn, your opponents and permanents your opponents control with shroud and/or hexproof can be the target of spells and abilities you control as though they didn’t have those abilities, and you may pay 0 rather than pay ward costs.
The Tiara of Teotlale 3
Legendary Artifact
You may play Desert cards from your graveyard.
T, Sacrifice two Deserts: Create a 5/4 colorless Elemental creature token.
The Empress of Sands left a lasting impact on all she knew.
Skymirror Airship 4
Artifact — Vehicle
Flying
Skymirror Airship has hexproof as long as it’s a creature.
Crew 2 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 2 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
4/2
Faust, Author of Reality G(gw)W
Legendary Planeswalker — Faust
If one or more tokens would be created under your control, those tokens plus a 2/2 green Pony creature token are created instead.
+1: Create a 1/1 white Pegasus creature token with flying.
-5: Draw a card for each creature target player controls.
3
Mocking Mists 1UR
Sorcery
Target player reveals their hand. You may choose a creature card from it. Create a token that’s a copy of that card. It gains haste until end of turn. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. If no tokens were created this way, return Mocking Mists to its owner’s hand.
Arbonimbus 1GU
Creature — Elemental Plant
Defender, flying
Graft 3 (This creature enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may move a +1/+1 counter from this creature onto it.)
Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on Arbonimbus.
0/0
Xilati, Empress of Skies 2GW
Legendary Creature — Pony Noble
Partner with Teotlale, Empress of Sands (When this creature enters the battlefield, target player may put Teotlale into their hand from their library, then shuffle.)
Each creature you control without a +1/+1 counters on it has outlast (gw).
Each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it has reach and vigilance.
2/3
Daring Do, Relic Warden 3WU
Legendary Creature — Pegasus Scout
Flying, ward 2
Artifacts and enchantments you control have hexproof.
Whenever an artifact or enchantment an opponent controls becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, that permanent gains indestructible until end of turn and you gain control of it for as long as you control Daring Do.
3/3
Old Tex, Wild Bunch Boss 3BR
Legendary Creature — Pony Rogue
Menace
Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, that player may sacrifice a nontoken artifact or enchantment. If they do, create X Treasure tokens, where X is the sacrificed permanent’s mana value. Otherwise, Old Tex deals 5 damage to that player.
5/4
Teotlale, Empress of Sands XBG
Legendary Creature — Pony Noble
Partner with Xilati, Empress of Skies
Teotlale enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.
BG, Remove X +1/+1 counters from among creatures you control: Return target creature card with mana value X from your graveyard to the battlefield.
0/0
Cirrostrata, Forbidden City
Legendary Land
T: Add U.
Channel — 4U, Discard Cirrostrata, Forbidden City: Up to three target creatures phase out. This ability costs 1 less to activate for each legendary creature you control. (While they’re phased out, they’re treated as though they don’t exist. Each one phases in before its controller untaps during their next untap step.)
Weathered Arch
Land — Desert Gate
When Weathered Arch enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
T: Add C.
“Even as a colt, Ponymandias loved his toys. He’d probably be pleased to know the sands have taken them from everypony else.”
—Princess Celestia
Skipped reading most of this, as I haven't yet read any of these Daring Do books (let's just say they're… tricky to find). I did read what's available on most eBook preview sites, which cuts off after the first two chapter, just covering the "establish Daring gets up to tense adventures all the time" prologue. It's tense and likeable, but geez, was the editor on vacation? Props for avoiding the whole "injured wing" issue, anyway. It does point out the difficulty in designing any kind of action conflict when your lead can fly, consciously project magic, or both.
And off that concluding point of having way too much content for a 190-page book (with child-friendly font size, at that)… yeah, chucking in all your ideas you'd planned to separate across several entries, because you've only got one to work with now, that's a thing. And not a very wise thing. If Berrow had known she'd end up on the show (timeline-wise, she's already written the script for "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" by the time this trilogy was released, but even if she'd gotten that gig already, she couldn't know she'd get other episodes, especially off her first Daring Do episode idea getting sensibly rejected - it was bad), perhaps she'd have sensibly scrapped idea here for such a future episode? Then again, what can be done here is far more liberating than what can be done in an episode, both for rating reasons and the obligation to involve some of the Mane 6…
Wonder which chapter books are next on the docket for FiCG? If sticking to release order, I'm guessing the rest of the "main" series (that's the Discord, Lyra/Bon Bon, Starlight and Trixie ones). Or possibly the Princess quadrilogy, released concurrently alongside it? Consider, even if we ignore novelisations, there's also 6 Ponyville Mysteries books, a Junior Movie prequel and three Movie-continuation books… yeah, the eighteen of these left (more if looking at EqG) should provide mucho content, especially if (wisely) keeping them spaced out at one a month!
It just occurred to me that Unfinity retroactively justifies the random smattering of silver-border you've used in this wider series.
I recently reread these. But I find it's hard to find anything much to say about them because it falls out of my brain as soon as it goes in. I had entirely forgotten the wild west cold open in this one.
All in all I found this one to be the worst of the trilogy, less a story in itself than setup for sequels that never happened. In this book Daring Do hears about a thing and goes to see it, but... is there an actual adventure anywhere in there? It all feels very unmotivated and arbitrary, things just happen to no greater point or purpose. And the villain on the cover isn't even in the book
But some of the peripheral things stood out to me a lot more than the main story. I recently reread some of the other Berrow books as well, and I began to notice a few strange details. It seems like Berrow was kind of sort of building up her own little corner of lore and worldbuilding that we only got to see the smallest fragments. This book ends with Daring Do being invited to join a parallel Elements of Harmony sestet, promising many adventures we never get to see. The group's leader and Element of Magic is a sorcerer called Comet Tail the Starry-Eyed, and I noticed the same guy was mentioned across several of the other books - and the mentions are quite striking. He's the guy who cursed the town of Bales to be forgotten in The Forgotten Books of Autumn, and he's known in Cirrostratus, another forgotten and invisible city, as well. He's also mentioned in Starlight Glimmer and the Secret Suite as the source of a dangerous curse that destroys a unicorn's magic.
It seems like, much as Star Swirl the Bearded is notorious for dealing with his problems by banishing them to another dimension or sealing them away for someone else to deal with in a thousand years, Comet Tail is notorious for dealing with his problems by cursing them to oblivion
I wonder what might have been if Berrow had kept developing that.
No, see, they're Gypsy Vanners, a breed of horse that's short, stocky, and well-suited to pulling the sort of carts a nomadic lifestyle entails. Given how easy it is for ponies to live off the land, they never bothered settling down with the rest of the tribes. They were never disenfranchised; being wanderers was their franchise from day one. ...Seriously, though, yeah, that's awkward. On another note, I wonder if there are different pony types/breeds like there are in the real world, completely separate from the tribes.
One Daring Do story I'm writing has her going after the artifact of the week, discovering there's still a civilization around it, and going, "You know what? I'll just ask nicely if I can look at it." (And she means it, it's not an excuse to get close and swipe it.)
"The meter on that is terrible."
"Linguistic drift. It's beautifully poetic in Old Cirrostratan. I think this got translated by an overworked, underpaid intern. We're probably lucky it rhymes at all."
Seriously considering a characterization for Daring where she's a genuine kleptomaniac and "dynamic archaeology" is her outlet for it.
Horizons are like space. We're all always in it when you really think about it.
No Egypt in this word, so wouldn’t that be somny marketplace?
Oxford is sometimes referred to as the City of Dreaming Spires, which is capitalized that way, if memory serves. I think it’s okay if it’s an alternate name rather than a description.
When a pony doesn't need clothes, can eat ordinary grass, and can kick water out of clouds, luggage just slows them down.
If that’s a thinly disguised reference to the Cathars, that unicorn family did not end well.
Sounds like traditional Basque clothes, so yeah, this is probably lifted from regional Pyrenees culture. That would make the Cathar thing make perfect sense. I’m assuming Berrow wrote off a European vacation because of this book.
All old adventures are paranoid.
Don’t worry, all that will be in the sequel. Oh, wait.
5664162
Or made this book so she could write off a European vacation. Would explain the general incoherence if storytelling was just an excuse.
I really loved him in Doctor Strange.