The air is fresh, the wind is plenty, and the pegasus was sleeping in the cargo hold. With her pith helmet over her face and her backpack as a pillow, she rode on a ship currently on the Celestial Sea towards her next destination; a place called Melee Island. It was a recently discovered island that has been around long enough to build a port there. The island had a plentiful amount of bananas, coconuts, and other sorts of fruits to harvest for trading. Word has it that the island was once inhabited by natives at one point long ago.
That's where our snoozing pegasus came into play. Her name was Daring Do, a light gold mare with a mane full of various shades of gray. She's a pony that lives up to her name by the daring acts she performs to get things done from her to-do list. A bit reckless at times, but these acts of rashness have helped her nab rare and ancient artifacts throughout the world. She's an historian that studied old trinkets to keep alive the dead cultures from where it derived from, and now she seeks to find a forgotten culture that once lived on Melee island.
The sound of the boat's horn suddenly made her jolt forward. Daring rubbed her moderately rosy eyes as she looked at what's happening on deck. She covered her eyes from the setting sun to make out that she had finally made it to the island. The mare gave a yawn and stretched to get the cracks out of her body; she's been cooped up for too long on this rickety ship.
Daring took note of the small port she's heading to. About half a dozen buildings faced towards the sea; declaring that they're either an inn or a bar. Scanning along the side showed warehouses holding cargo waiting to be transported. Behind the strip of buildings was the main attraction, the jungle. Dense, thick, and exceedingly hard to see through the trees. They blew to the ocean wind and the setting sun was casting an orange shade among the many hills of trees.
Nothing was too extravagant from what she was expecting, but there's something that seemed a bit off to her. At the docks were docked trading ships, but one of them seemed more like a 'taking' ship. The boat had a few cannons off on its sides and displayed three masts to catch as much wind as possible. It seemed slow, but the sheer size of it looked like it could tear whatever poor ship apart that floats in front of it.
"Competition?" wondered the pegasus.
In Do's line of work; obtaining artifacts was more than just simply digging. It's about beating other archaeologists at reaching these treasures before they do. At times she was lucky in finding some of her loot without any trouble, but the majority of the time she had a few rivals to deal with; and they'd make certain that nopony would get in their way.
She took no chance at the thought and headed back down to get her backpack. Daring rustled through the contents inside; pushed the aerial map of the island aside, nudged the compass over, and pulled out a set of clothes. Within minutes, she slipped out of her explorer's vest and into an attire fitting for sailors. Stripe shirt, neckerchief, suspenders, and a dixie cup hat made up her new appearance.
"Whether or not they are, it's best if I hide my identity." The horn blew once more, signaling the ship has reached the docks. Daring shoved her vest and salacot into her backpack and went back above deck.
Do jumped off the boat and landed on the wooden dock; her first order of business is to gather up some information. She headed to this island without any leads on a specific relic, all she heard was that this place had a culture at one point and that was good enough for her. Like many of her adventures, Daring liked to swing by the bar to hear the latest news on what's happening. This method of gathering info has been done to death, but nothing can spill the beans more than having to make small talk and where better on the island then the only place where you can get a bite to eat.
It's best to keep things fresh, and as she headed toward the hangout; Daring tilted her head down and began to wonder, "What should my personality be this time? Should I be a sailor that talks in pirate lingo? Maybe one that gives off the impression of a tough gal?"
As Do thought this over, her ears suddenly flicked to a series of voices that she heard before. Talking amongst themselves as they walked along the port are four ponies. One of them is wearing sunglasses, another wearing a baron hat, A giant one with sideburns, and one with a horseshoe mustache.
"They're Caballeron's lackeys!" The ponies were walking towards her as she walked towards them. She had to play it cool, a sudden change in direction could raise suspicion. She pulled her hat down before pushing the sideburns pony, "One side, Wolverine!"
As she continued walking, the pony she pushed looked back at her and the gears in his head were starting to turn. "Hey guys,"
Daring began sweating, believing her cover was just blown.
"I think I'm in love."
But she would've preferred being found out if it meant not hearing those words.
"You're always going for the ones that can kick your plot." said the one in sunglasses, "Come on, Caballeron is waiting."
All of them returned to their path and Daring turned back watching them. This was the break she needed.
She knew Caballeron from her past adventures. He's a pony who's in archaeology only for the money and does dirty tricks to make a profit out of it. If he's here, then maybe he's got something to go on; some kind of relic that she could beat him to.
Daring Do hasn't even been on the island for more than five minutes and it seemed everything was going by very quick and smoothly for her...... she didn't like that. That was usually the first sign of trouble for her, whether it was the cause of somepony in general or fate's twisted sense of humor, it usually would end badly for her.
She cautiously began to follow the henchponies from afar and safe distance.
The moon was rising when Daring Do reached the ponies destination, a warehouse. A large simple design made up the structure with a large door meant for big shipment was open showing its interior. The pegasus peered inside; towers of barrels were stacked on top of one another to form what could be considered a jungle of barrels.
Daring scanned her eyes around and spotted the pony she was expecting. A wooden cart with a gambogeish gray earth pony was sitting in the driver's seat, Dr, Caballeron. He seemed peeved while tapping his hoof on the cart with the other hoof supporting his head up. He sits in a cart with a lit lantern, watching his henchponies acting like idiots.
The pony wearing the sunglasses was giving orders to the other three while they tried to push a barrel up into the cart. "Okay more to the left. No, no, your left."
"Who's left? My left, Rogue's left, or Biff's left?"
"Biff's left."
"So that means I turn left."
"No you turn right."
"U-turn? I thought we were trying to get it on the cart."
"Come on, hurry up!" shouted Caballeron, "We should've been there hours ago."
"Yes boss." all of them said.
"Okay, now turn left..... NO BIFF'S LEFT!!!!"
The doctor planted his forehead on the edge of the cart in frustration.
"It's not like Caballeron to do something simple like trading goods." Daring thought, "What's he up to?" Getting answers from him won't be easy, so she'll have to get creative. She looks around the room and notices two barrels close by the stallions, most likely they're going to be placed on the cart as well. "I got an Idea; I'll see where they're taking these barrels by hiding in one."
The golden pegasus slowly began to tiphoof around and dove behind some steel barrels. She peered over and rolled over to some blue barrels. The mare laid up against the keg and spotted some text written on it. She jerked back reading 'flammable'. In fact, a lot of barrels here were flammable; oil and fuel kegs were everywhere.
Do gulped and slid to a stack of wooden barrels that were the closest to the two barrels. Daring noted that the casks are labeled with a unique mark on them. She looked around to find if any barrel shared the same design, but none bare the image on its exterior. "Looks like I'll have to take one of them, remove whatever is inside, then hide in it."
The stallions finished loading the first barrel and picked up the next one. With them busy, she quickly pulled the other barrel behind a stack with stealth. She would have to act fast for this plan to work.
Daring grabbed the top metal ring that sealed the round container and began pulling. She put all her might into it, but it just wouldn't come off. The mare looked around, agitated to find something that could help and spotted a metal tool with a curve that could slide between the ring and wood. She shoved the curl tool between the metal and wood. She raised her back leg and took careful aim.
"There, that's all." one of the lackeys said.
Caballeron looked at the barrels, "There should be three, where's the last one?"
With a fierce strike, she knocked the hoop clean off, but accidentally launched the keg at a tower of barrels she was hiding behind. The wooden structure comes toppling down, banging and rolling across the floor, attracting everypony's attention towards Daring Do.
"Restrain her!" Caballeron ordered his stallions and before she knew it, Daring's hooves were soon tied with rope. She struggled to break free, gritted her teeth in discomfort and glared at them for the advantage they had over her. "Wait, I know that scowl anywhere." The doctor walked closer, slowly seeing through Daring's sailor disguise, "Daring Do, This is most unexpected. Here to cause trouble for me?"
"Perhaps," she puts on a cool demeanor despite the position she's in. "What's in the barrels?"
"Nothing you're interested in, just goods we gathered in the jungle for a buyer."
"Don't lie to me. You're the get-rich-quick kind of pony, this job is beneath you."
"I'll admit that it is a little bit unorthodox, but our buyer is paying us handsomely for this cargo to arrive and every minute conversing with you prolongs that arrival!" he stomped his hoof to express his frustration. "I tire of this babbling; you took the barrel, didn't you."
Daring stayed silent, showing no change in her expression.
"Where is it?"
She psyched herself up for anything to happen.
"Are you going to tell me or are we going to have to beat it out of you?"
Daring gave a smirk to get on Caballeron's nerves.
"Oh, it's on!"
As the doctor raised a hoof, the fallen barrels suddenly blasted apart. Everypony looked over to the blast and they saw a creature getting up. It rotated its shoulder and cracked his neck. He stood up straight at nearly eight hooves on his two legs, holding his fists up in the air to stretch out its muscles. "AAAWOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!!!" He began to pound his chest along with a cry; acknowledging his freedom. He flexed and revealed himself to be a brown furred gorilla. Swaying in the air, Do noticed that the only piece of attire he had on was a red tie with the letters 'DK' on it printed in yellow.
Barrels slowly rolled past everypony as they stared at the kong. "Oh horsefeathers," said a henchpony. The ape grabbed a huge barrel and lifted it over his head, "HE'S ESCAPED!!!!!"
They scrambled as the gorilla hurled the barrel at them. "Stop him!" Caballeron commands, "Rogue, the cargo!"
Caballeron's lackeys went to surround the ape while Rogue galloped to the cart with the cargo and began to escape with it; leaving Daring Do alone. She shuffled her hooves to break free from the ropes that bound her.
The gorilla on the other hoof was being wrapped in ropes, but he didn't seem to mind much. The ponies were trying to restrain him, and he just chuckled. The kong grabbed the ropes and flung the stallions across the room.
The ropes on Daring were starting to loosen and she slowly succeeded at sliding one of her hooves out. The sound for broken glass grabbed her attention back to Caballeron. He's stood outside with a wooden cart in front of him that began to catch on fire from a broken lantern.
"HENCHPONIES, VÁMONOS!"
The doctor kicked the cart into the warehouse and it rolled by the stallions as they headed for the door. Daring Do escaped from the ropes and rolled to the side; nearly avoiding the fiery collision as it rammed against the explosive barrels; inflaming the wooden containers. "It's been a blast seeing you again, Daring Do." He pointed over to the chains for the door and she noticed a barrel. Her eyes dilated when she read the imprint 'TNT' on the lit barrel. "But I think it's time we put our confrontations to a close." The keg exploded; breaking the chains and the door between the two of them came slamming down.
The pegasus galloped to the door and tried to lift it up, but it's too heavy. "CABALLERON, YOU SNAKE IN THE GRASS!!! YOU BETTER PRAY TO CELESTIA THAT THEY CAN IDENTIFY YOU BY DENTAL RECORDS!!!!!" Though the same could be said for her.
Daring Do was trapped, with little time to think. She was starting to cough from the toxic gas filling the building and the flammable barrels in here could explode any minute; blowing the whole warehouse to Tartarus.
The gorilla on the other hand was looking around the room for an exit. He saw a skylight glass window above him and started grinning. Daring suddenly feels something grab her entire torso and is lifted up off the ground within the gorilla's hand. He grabbed an empty barrel and shoved her inside. The ape pulled his arm back as he looked to the window.
"HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY APE SHI-AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!" Daring Do screamed as she was thrown spiraling towards the glass window.
The wooden container protected the pegasus as the barrel shattered through the glass and fell right into the ocean. The barrel bopped up from the water and Do took in a breath of fresh air while she witnessed the warehouse exploding. Barrels went flying everywhere and Daring saw a creature leaving behind a trail of smoke as it rocketed out of the blast straight towards the night sky.
"OOOO-HOOOOOO!!!"
As she witnessed the silhouette of the gorilla posing in front of the moon, she knew there that she was going to eventually meet up with that ape again.