Really big thanks to the proofreaders.
***
Daring lifted her head from the book. Her eyelids felt heavy, and in general, her body felt just plain tired. Dang it, she thought, must have fallen asleep. She looked up, wiping the sleep from her eyes, and looked at the sky through the library's skylight. It was a musty purple and orange mix of clouds, it must've been near sunset. Had she really been out that long? She turned her head to the book; it was a new page. She flipped through a few of the previous ones. She only made it three pages before falling asleep. She took a look at the page she slept on, however, it was a contemporary illustration of the Ultima Thule. Daring smiled, running a hoof over the picture. It was an excellent looking ship with an illustrious career in Pytheas' explorations. While most pegasi were concerned with flying and the works of airships, there was always a place in Daring's heart for old fashioned sea ships. The pegasus closed the book, pushed herself out of the chair and made her way for the exit. As much as she needed that extra credit, she was sure a five page essay could wait about two weeks.
As she walked out of the library, she noted the marketplace was being torn down within the Royal Canterlot University’s square being torn down. Most of the merchants were packing up their wares and began moving on to the next bit-filled adventure. At one point in her life, Daring considered becoming a traveling merchant, but trying to understand basic economics was a bit much for her. She took flight for her cloud home just a mile away from RCU. Her home was a modest establishment, a living room, a kitchen and a single bedroom. At most, it was a simple five minute trip, and she couldn't wait to just crash on the couch and read up on the Extraordinary Adventures of Totor. Those were books she couldn't fall asleep to, mysteries, thwarting bad guys, action, all the good stuff that's required in an adventure story.
"Oh, nuts!" Imagine her surprise when she opened her door and found the place ransacked. The couch was turned over, the coffee table was on its side, the bookshelf, surprisingly, still standing but every book in it thrown to the floor. Daring made a dash for her bedroom and found it in the same state, her bedsheets tossed aside, and her desk—which was only used in a blue moon for actual work—was capsized. Daring knew the obvious, she must've been robbed. She slapped her hoof on her head. First, she'd have to figure out what they stole, then she'd have to keep the place in its sorry state for investigators to gather evidence. Before she could figure out what to do first there was a knock on her door.
"Great, as if I need visitors," Daring muttered to herself. She trotted over to the door, and opened it. Standing in the doorway was that griffon from the marketplace, Fidelis, his fedora casting a shade over his brown eyes. He was standing on his hind legs, his wings spread revealing his bags and a gun in a holster, "You- what- Why are you here?"
Fidelis answered simply, his face betraying little emotion, "Where is the model ship."
The pegasus tapped her head on the door frame. "You followed me home... to get that model ship?" Fidelis turned away from Daring for a second, sighing. She looked at him to answer, "Listen, I told you, it was a gift for a friend. I gave it away-"
"Well, where is it!?" Fidelis yelled. Daring stepped back, her eyes springing open at the suddenness of it. Fidelis took a step inside, "Listen, tell me where it is right now, or I won't be responsible for what happens to you!"
"... are you threatening me?" Daring stopped backing up.
The griffon pulled his gun from his holster. "If I have to, but I don't want to." Daring stared at the gun, a stainless steel revolver with a black grip. For one thing, she had never even seen a gun up close, much less been threatened by one. "This can all be solved trivially, if you'll just tell me where it is."
"Well." Daring stepped forward. "Why should I tell you?"
"Listen, there is a lot more going on than you think. You aren't in any place to argue, you need to cooperate with me!" Daring felt inclined to tell him, but what he said next terrified her, "Your friend, whoever you gave the ship to, they could be in serious danger!"
"Oh no!" Daring bit her hoof. "Alright, fine! I gave the ship to my International Studies professor, Professor Storm Talon!"
Fidelis sighed with relief. "Alright, where is he? Where is his office?"
Before Daring could say anything, Fidelis turned back towards the door. Daring followed close behind, but recoiled when she heard a click, the cocking of Fidelis' revolver. He looked over at some place out of Daring's sight, and gasped. Before the pegasus could ask what he saw, he shut the door. Daring put her ear to the door quickly, and heard three loud bangs in succession. Suddenly, there was a mechanical ripping as the door was riddled with holes, and the walls gave off little poofs of air. Daring ducked instinctively, yelping in surprise.
After a brief moment, Daring quickly opened the door, and was nearly crushed by Fidelis. He fell over onto the floor, writhing in pain. Daring looked out the door and saw several winged figures. griffons and hippogriffs most likely, with larger guns than Fidelis', and that familiar looking crate.
"They have the ship!" Daring quietly said, so as not to alert them. Thankfully, they immediately flew off from the scene. The pegasus looked back at the wounded griffon. "Oh my goodness, are you okay?" Fidelis coughed in response, spitting some blood onto her cloud floor. He was gravely holding his chest which was doing some good at keeping him from bleeding to death on spot, "I'm guessing you're not okay." Fidelis opened his beak, but all that came out was a wheezing. Daring looked around. "Uh... listen, I'll get a surgeon here as quick as I can-" She was interrupted by Fidelis grabbing her and pulling her close. He shakily reached into his bag and pulled out a small brown book, no bigger than his hand. He forced it into Daring's hooves. "What- What do I do with this!?" He held out his hand, barely wheezing out something, before going completely limp, "Wait, don't die yet! What are you telling me!?" Daring shook Fidelis, but he did not respond.
***
"Do you happen to have a description of these..." Sergeant Traveller of the Royal Guard looked over to the doorway of Daring's cloud home, the familiar light of the afternoon casting through. The floor in front it was still stained with Fidelis' blood, a guardspony taking one last picture of it as evidence. Daring was sitting on the now righted couch, Professor Storm Talon next to her, fiddling with a distinct chip in his prosthetic leg. The Professor had given his testimony, that a band of miscreants led by a hippogriff had assaulted him and stolen the ship in the crate, and that he had been shot at. Daring was only wrapping hers up. Sergeant Traveller was taking her testimony. "... thugs?"
"Well, I got a good look at the hippogriff." Daring violently nodded. "Grey eyes, brown feathers on his face like a hawk, yellow beak, and a bowler hat."
The guardspony unicorn, a gray mare spoke up. "I gotta say, this is a lot harder without cutie marks." she was currently performing her duty as the sketch artist. She turned the paper over to Daring, showing a sketch of what she described. "Is this the hippogriff you saw?"
Daring tapped her chin. "Yeah, that looks like him," the unicorn nodded. Traveller stood up, the unicorn with him.
"We'll post the description of Ptolemy up in town," Traveller said, absently pawing at the floor. "But I doubt we'll catch him, most know Celestia isn't kind to those who bring guns to Equestria." he shuddered at the thought.
"Wait." Daring held out a hoof, her eyebrows quirked. "What about Fidelis, is he—"
The unicorn smiled. "He's fine. he's in a coma. Punctured lung, but we got our best doctors on it."
"We were able to deduce that machine guns were the likely cause of Fidelis' woundings." Traveller looked over at Storm Talon, who merely shrugged in response. "Gryphonian tech."
Storm Talon nodded slightly, chuckling a little. "Calico Model 1921 Submachine Guns. A lotta criminals use 'em, call 'em choppers." Traveller nodded vaguely. The unicorn nodded violently, her curiosity seemed to have been piqued. "Fidelis' gun is a Redbeak .327 Magnum Revolver, very reliable. Fun fact, it's one of the few revolvers out there that can fit a sound suppressor, I'd imagine it's popular with saboteurs and such."
Traveller rolled his eyes. "Yes, of course. Well, we shouldn't take up your time, we'll be going."
The unicorn frowned, but stood up as Traveller did. "We'll let you know if we catch them, but right now, it's not likely."
Daring nodded. "I understand, thank you, Sergeant."
The guardsponies made their way for the exit. The unicorn more carefully than Traveller, that cloud walking spell was rumored to be slightly unreliable. The guardsponies called for the two to stay safe and left the two in the cloudhome. Daring left the couch and proceeded up to her room, Storm Talon turned about towards her. "Daring, if ye need uh... any consultin' or somethin', I understand watching someone get ventilated can be quite traumatizing,"
Daring continued, as she said. "No thanks, Professor. I already know what I'm going to do." Storm Talon began following Daring up to her room. The pegasus was already in her room, proceeding to pack what essentials she had: maps, a few books, food and water. Storm Talon stood confusedly at her door, tapping at his beak absentmindedly. "I'm gonna pack my things, head to Gryphus."
"Gryphus?" Storm Talon crossed his arms, leaning in the doorway. "That's in Gryphonia!"
"I may be failing International Studies, Professor." Daring gestured to Storm Talon, her face barely betraying a giggle. "But I know Gryphus is the capital of Gryphonia,"
The griffon rolled his eyes. "That's Laconia, not Gryphus."
"Oh." Daring forced a smile on her face. Storm Talon walked inside, looking at Daring's saddlebags. The bags looked just as haggard as the professor, mostly because they saw a lot of use in Daring's various escapades.
"Well, why are ya headin' to Gryphus then?" Daring held out the small brown book, Fidelis' book. Storm Talon took it and flipped through the pages. "Daring, this is evidence ain't it? Why didn't ya show it to the guardsponies?"
"'Because, Professor." Daring clasped her saddlebags shut. She walked over to her closet. "The book looks irrelevant to their investigation." it was true. The pages all consist of masterful sketches of things barely relating to each other, landscapes, airship designs and some surreal pictures of strange animals. Storm Talon turned to the first page, a humble looking storefront with a sign right above the door in big letters: STEAM ENGINES. There was another sign in the window, going out of business. Of course the steam engine was going out of business, as far more efficient alternatives had been discovered not too long ago: the internal combustion engine and electricity. Below the sketch on the street was the labeling of Gryphus. Daring continued her explanation. "But, Fidelis gave me that book, so there must be something important going on."
"And ya figure you have to investigate this?" Storm Talon looked over to Daring, who simply nodded as she put on her olive shirt. "Well, why? Was Fidelis some kinda spy or somethin'?"
"Yes, actually." Daring walked over to Fidelis, who simply looked at Daring incredulously. she put a hoof on the picture of the storefront. "I studied up on some spy tactics earlier in the year."
"That ain't part of yer curriculum."
"I know, anyway, one thing spies would do to gather intelligence on a particular area was to sketch. They'd hide classified and detailed information in larger and completely irrelevant pictures which would be unassuming to the average soldier. Now, what I believe is that Fidelis is working with the OSS."
"The OSS?"
"Office of Strategic Services, the Gryphonian spy agency, that stuff."
"Okay, but what does this have to do with that ship?"
Daring sighed, throwing her saddlebags on. "Haven't figured it out yet. Perhaps there's some kind of pattern that I'm just missing." she absentmindedly pawed the floor.
"Or, ya know, we just been on the wrong end of a robbery, Daring." Storm Talon put the book into Daring's saddlebag. "Maybe ye lookin' into this too deeply."
"Maybe I am, but I have a hunch—"
"Oh, ye have a hunch, this oughta be good."
"Hey!" Daring knocked Storm Talon's arm. "When have my hunches been wrong?"
The griffon briefly pondered on it. "Well, there was that one time—"
"Doesn't count."
Storm Talon placed a hand on Daring's head. "Listen, Daring, I'm just tryin' to dissuade ye from hurtin' yerself. I mean, can ya imagine what'd happen to ye if you're right?"
She took Storm Talon's hand out of her grayscale mane, then walked back to her closet to retrieve her most important thing.
Storm Talon raised an eyebrow, "Is this about yer sister? Ye tryin' to prove somethin'?"
"I'm not trying to prove anything!" Daring shuffled through the closet of spare clothes, looking for it. "and I thought I told you not to mention my sister!"
Storm Talon responded, "Well, sorry but this is dangerous work! Ye could get killed! Or worse!" Daring came back out of the closet, bearing her most prized possession in the world, her pith helmet.
She put it on. "Ah, I'll be fine. I always make it through." She smiled at Storm Talon, who could only muster some much as a frustrated sigh. The pegasus took the griffon in a hug. "Ah, don't worry. it's not like I'm joining the Gryphonian Foreign Legion or anything,"
"Perish the thought." Storm Talon returned tit, turning the simple gesture into a bone-breaking bear hug. His bone crushing hug was going to break every bone in her body in a minute, but she simply could not resist. "Alright, I won't worry 'bout ya! Just 'bout yer grades maybe."
"Yeah—" Daring felt the air getting sucked out of her lungs. "-grades!" Thankfully, he put her down, allowing her to breathe normally once more. She couldn't help but give a wide smile. It's not everyday you get hugged by Storm Talon, regardless if you live to tell about it.
After a few moments, Storm Talon mercifully let her down. "I'll send word to an ol' war buddy of mine, he can get ya to Gryphus easy," Storm Talon stated, a slight smile on his face. "Do take warning though, Gryphonia, and possibly the rest a' the world, it's quite different from Equestria."
Daring nodded and made her way for the door. "I'll be fine, I'm not taking your class for nothing you know?"
"You're failing my class."
"Still."
Storm Talon chuckled. "Well, I'll look after yer place then. Head down to Trottingham, my boy's got an airship ready. Safe travels, Daring."
Daring nodded and she left the room. She spread her wings forth then took flight from her home through the roof, she can patch that hole up later. To Trottingham she went, then onto Gryphonia and adventure.
***
"You shot him!?" The Baltimare Dock was usually quiet in the late evening, but not so when Ptolemy had his patience tested. The two hippogriffs he had exploded at, Coryphe and Parados were scratching their heads at why he was having a fit. "Wait, wait, not shot, that implies you have precision and thus some actual intelligence. You ventilated him!"
"'Ey, we got the bloody ship din't we?" Coryphe jabbed Ptolemy in the chest, using his other arm to gesture at Parados holding the crate. "an' like ya said, 'We really need that bloody friggin' griffon outta the picture.' Now he's outta the picture and ye throwin' a fit at us for taking a little initiative, ya daft magpie?"
"Yes!" Ptolemy began walking towards the pier. Tis associates followed him. "Of all the times you two choose to be competent, you choose now! Not when we had Fidelis in Zebrica, not when he had Fidelis in Laconia or Gryphus or Talos, not when you had the assistance of a bloat of angry savage hippos! You didn't even loot his corpse!"
Coryphe spoke up again, "Oi, we ain't you, we don't rob corpses and graves."
"I don't rob corpses and graves, Coryphe, I am an archeologist!"
"Whas the difference?" Ptolemy stopped and quickly turned to slap Coryphe. Coryphe held his cheek, muttering something under his breath.
"The difference, is that I am an educated, intelligent, intellectual who studies the past and applies reasonable theses as to the life of those who came before. The scientific method simply involves having to dig through temples and very old cemeteries and catacombs to analyze artifacts and key literature that may or may not have survived. That, Coryphe is an archeologist. A grave robber is none of those things!"
Coryphe rolled his eyes as Ptolemy shook his fist at him. "Wha'ever, but at least the piker is dead innit?"
"All you told is that you shot him up while he was standing outside some taffy's house. That does not tell me he's dead." Ptolemy sighed, letting himself relax as he leaned on a support for the pier. "Heck, he's probably gonna come right out of those clouds and threaten us to give back the ship."
The three hippogriffs turned to the clouds simultaneously. After a minute, nothing happened. Coryphe scoffed. "Can't believe I fell for that. Anyway, why exactly is Fidelis bein' dead such a big deal, he figure out something ye din't?"
"Ah, my gullible friend, you underestimate me." Ptolemy patted Coryphe's shoulder, the same one that held the strap to his Chopper. "Don't worry about it, I'll figure something out." They turned towards the water near the pier. From the average viewpoint, the black silhouette would appear as if a monstrously giant horseshoe crab was about to invade Equestria. They knew however what exactly it was. It was their ride around the world, and the only that can evade the authorities consistently. The water broke as it rose, letting a small part of the black utilitarian top be exposed to the surface. The three hippogriffs flew down to it and sat down on its shiny and somewhat slippery top.
Air escaped with a hiss, forming a noticeable square large enough for the three hippgriffs to stand side by side. The square opened, revealing itself as a hatch, and down went the trio. Coryphe shut the hatch behind them, and twisted the valve on it tight. At the end of the hall was an earth pony stallion. "Ptolemy, did you get the ship?"
Ptolemy nodded, smiling, "Tell Captain Terror that we indeed have the model ship." Coryphe brushed past them, lifting the crate up for extra room. The pony nodded, stoic in expression. "Inform your Captain that we also need to set a course for Gryphonia, I need to consult the archives there."
The pony raised an eyebrow. "You sure? We're wanted in Gryphonia. You should see the bounty for the Captain. It could pay off a small nation's national debt."
Ptolemy stifled a laugh, scratching the bottom of his beak. "I am sure, send the word, we're going to Gryphonia."