//------------------------------// // Daring Do and the Legend of Free Fall // Story: The Legend of Daring Do // by The Red Parade //------------------------------// After work I head for the library as fast as I can. I practically kick down Twilight’s door in anger before telling her what happened with Redblood/heart. I pace the room back and forth as I talk. “I just don’t get it, Twi. What does any of this mean?” Twilight sighs, rubbing her chin in thought. “Well, first of all I think it’s clear that Daring must have based the characters in her book on ponies she knew in real life, like we saw with Dr. Cobble Iron. But since Redblood is a hero in this story, I think it’s safe to say the two definitely shared some sort of relationship.” Twilight takes the book out of my saddlebags. “It makes me wonder who the other characters are. Come to think of it, Minute Maker sounds awfully familiar to me.” I throw my hooves up in the air. “But why would Redheart just deny knowing her?” “I don’t know, Rainbow,” Twilight answers. “But it sounds like Nurse Redheart might have just been caught off guard by your questions. I mean, it has been three years since the accident. Maybe she hasn’t moved on yet.” I shrug. “Maybe. I’ll talk to her later if I can find her.” “That might be good. Are you ready to continue?” Twilight asks.  I nod, and Twilight opens the book, lighting up her horn. She clears her throat before speaking. “Your party leaves Spark City far behind and sets off once more, headed to the airborne city of Skyfall.” The library fades away, and this time I find myself standing on an old dirt path. There are hills and mountains reaching up to the sky all around me, making for a pretty awesome scene. An old wooden fence follows the road on both sides to keep ponies off the grass. Clouds fill up the sky in small groups, letting the sun shine through to light up the area.  My ear twitches as I hear a few wingbeats. I look up to see Daring descending, a cloud in tow. “Alright gang,” she says as she lands. “We’re headed up now. Remember, Skyfall City is going to be a bit difficult to navigate for you two, but Rainbow and I should be fine.” Minute Maker nods, taking the cloud in her magic. She casts a quick spell and a blue aura surrounds her hooves. “Right. Nothing a cloud-walking spell can’t handle.” Minute shoots a quick glance to Redblood. “You sure you don’t want one?” Redblood shakes her head. “Nah. I’ll take things my own way.” She presses a button on her hoof console, and her battle armor whirs and clanks before two large metal wings shoot out from the sides. Daring raises an eyebrow and lets out a low whistle. “Wow. I take it you’ve been busy then?” Redblood shrugs nonchalantly. “Little bit. What are we waiting for?” “Nothing, I guess.” Daring takes to the sky, followed by Minute who levitates the cloud with her magic. I spread my wings and follow, with Redblood right behind me. As we fly up, I glance at Redblood, remembering my earlier conversation with her real life counterpart. I slow down a bit to keep pace with her. “Hey, Redblood?” She grunts in response. “I was wondering, why do you care so much about my sister?” I ask. “Is that going to be a problem?” she replies defensively. “No! Hay, I know loyalty when I see it. It’s just… you seem really protective of her. I was just wondering why.” Redblood closes her eyes and draws a deep breath. “Look, your sister… is a great pony. But she doesn’t see it in herself. She used to say that she just felt lost all the time. That she didn’t know what her purpose was, or what she was meant to do. She always joked that it was ironic since her special talent was finding things.” A small smile appears on her face. “I tried to look out for her. Talk some sense into her when she got carried away, to pick her up when she fell down.” The bliss leaves her face pretty quickly after that. “And of course, I failed in the end.” I’m not really sure how to respond to that turn. “Hey, it wasn’t your fault, but I guess I know how you feel. I beat myself up pretty badly after she died too.” Redblood sighs. “Maybe.” She turns to look me in the eye. “I might not like it, but right now she needs you more than she needs me. You better not let her down.” “I don’t intend to,” I reply. In front of us, Daring calls out, “There it is! Skyfall City!”  Above us I see a city carved into the clouds, with towering buildings that rise up into the air. In the distance pegasi fly in and out of the city, headed in every direction. A few airships dot the horizon as well, mixed in with some hot air balloons and zeppelins. The sun’s almost right above it right now, throwing light all over the city. As we get closer, I realize how similar it is to Cloudsdale. I guess it would make sense for Daring to base the city around Cloudsdale since we both grew up there. Skyfall does seem to dwarf Cloudsdale in size though, and it probably has a population triple the size. Soon we arrive at the edge of the city, landing near what looks like the port. The port’s pretty crowded, with pegasi flying around loading and unloading ships. A few griffins are mixed in with the crowd as well, flying between ships and calling out to each other. I even spot a yellow and red maned unicorn, trotting towards an airship that was headed to… a place called Freeport according to the sign. “Alright,” Daring says, “let’s try and keep a low profile. Skyfall Port isn’t really forgiving to newcomers.” The others nod, and we head off, cutting a path through the crowds. A few pegasi give us some odd glances, but nopony really says anything. All of a sudden, Daring stops and we all crash into each other. A group of ponies suddenly step out of the crowd, surrounding us. A few of them have eye patches and peg legs, but all are wearing the same black jacket with a weird symbol over the heart. The patch seems to depict some sort of weird looking animal. It looks like a cross between a monkey and a dog. Whatever it is, it’s got a dark blue coat with lighter blue fur over its stomach, and a hand sticking out of its tail. It honestly looks like something a filly would draw, if that filly maybe had four sugar cookies and a gallon of soda. “Well, well, well,” says the lead pegasus, who’s got the same color coat as the monster thing. “If it isn’t Daring Do.” Daring growls. “Arizotyl.” “Your group runs into the infamous Arizotyl, the leader of the group known as the Valkyries,” Twilight narrates. “A gang of air pirates who terrorize airships and pegasi alike. They are ruthless and deadly, and know no limits when it comes to robbery.” Arizotyl steps forwards, scowling. “Don’t think I forgot how our last encounter ended,” he spits. “How could I forget throwing you off the edge of Skyfall,” Daring shoots back. That seems to upset Arizotyl’s henchponies. They rustle their wings in impatience, growling and shooting daggers out of their eyes. Daring scans the area, probably looking for a way out. If it was just us we could probably get away, but Minute and Redblood are too slow. Looks like we’ll have to fight our way out. “Look, I’ve got places to be, so if you idiots want to fight, then let’s fight,” Daring says, flicking her hooves outwards. “But if anypony wants to spare themselves humiliation, I’d leave now.” “That’s it,” Arizotyl shouts. “You’re dead meat!” The group charges at us, brandishing knives in their teeth.  A large black pegasus is on top of me in seconds. He swings at me with his knife, but I’m able to duck underneath it. I give him a good kick in the stomach but he recovers quickly. He throws a punch at me that narrowly misses my jaw.  I hit him again, knocking the knife out of his teeth. As I go for another hit, he blocks it and drives his front leg upwards into my stomach. I stumble backwards in pain when he throws another punch, smacking me in the side of my head. I fall to the ground, clutching my jaw in pain. I move it a little to make sure everything still works and get to my hooves. “Okay, that’s it,” I grumble. Turning, I throw another punch with my left hoof, which he blocks. While he’s distracted, I swing my other hoof at him with all my might, hitting him right in the jaw. He lets out a cry of pain and stumbles backwards before falling onto the cloud. I take a few breaths, wiping some blood from my mouth and looking around. A huge crowd’s formed around us now, cheering and yelling at us. Nopony else seems interested in helping. I see Redblood taking on two pegasi easily, sending one flying into a stack of crates. The second one attacks from behind her and tries to choke her. Redblood bucks him forwards, knocking him onto his back before slamming a hoof into his face. On my left Daring is facing off with Arizotyl, who’s got a sword of some kind in his mouth. There’s a clang of metal as their blades lock, punctuated with grunts of effort from both ponies. Daring swipes at him and narrowly misses, cutting a chunk out of his mane.  Arizotyl goes low, forcing Daring to use both blades to block the attack. After a few seconds they disengage again, backing up and staring each other down. Then I see Minute, who’s been forced to the edge of the cloud. There’s a crowd of three pegasi around her, trying to dodge her spells. She clips one Valkyrie’s wing and he crashes to the ground. I move to help her when out of the corner of my eye I see another pegasus flying up from behind Minute. “Minute, watch out!” She whirls around and fires off a spell. It hits the pegasus, but doesn’t stop him. He body-slams her and knocks her off balance. She tries to recover but can’t control her momentum. Before I can do anything, Minute’s falling from her cloud, headed straight for the ground. “Shit!” I burst forward, knocking two of the pegasi out of the way and diving after her. She’s already pretty far down, but I can probably reach her-- Before I can finish my thought I see another streak of light below me. Another pegasus has already dove after her. A light blue pegasus with a white-gray mane’s jumped off the cloud after her. She maneuvers under her and catches her with ease. A few wingbeats later the pegasus sets her back down on the cloud. “Geez, when I said we should hang out more, this wasn’t what I had in mind,” the pegasus jokes. “Thanks, Free Fall,” Minute says as she regains her balance. “I owe you one.” Free Fall then turns around to face me. She’s wearing a pair of goggles that obscure her eyes and a bandana over her face. The pegasus’s also wearing a black unzipped trench coat with some straps going around her waist. “She one of them?” “No, she’s on our side,” Minute says. One of the Valkyries dives towards us, but Minute knocks him out of the air with a spell. He falls to the cloud with a surprised grunt, and Free Fall advances on him. She stomps hard on his foreleg, making him drop the knife in his teeth. He wirths on the ground in pain until she knocks him out with a slam to the head. Another three Valkyries follow suit, attacking from above. Free Fall spreads her wings and charges at them. I see a glint of metal on her and realize she’s got some sort of blade attached to them.  She slashes out at the closest Valkyrie, her wing blade leaving a deep cut across the mare’s face. The Valkyrie screams and falls to the cloud, clutching her face. Free Fall doesn’t show any mercy, punching her in the stomach a few times.  Seeing his friend fall, the second Valkyrie falters, eyes widening in panic. Free Fall takes advantage of this and punches him in the face, knocking the knife out of his mouth along with some of his teeth. She slashes at him with her wing, leaving a deep gash across his chest. He tries to fly away, but Free Fall seizes his rear leg and drives an elbow into the joint, breaking it. The third pegasus then attacks from behind, trying to get her in a choke hold. Free Fall rams her elbow into his stomach, making him cry out in pain. She whips around and puts two more punches into him, sending him falling to the ground, landing on his stomach. Free Fall flies up into the air and dives down on top of him as he tries to get up. The pegasus whimpers in pain and tries to crawl away before he gets a hoof to the eye. I turn my attention back to Daring, who’s finally disarmed Arizotyl and has a blade to his neck. Redblood flies over to us. “Minute, you alright?” “Fine, thanks to Free Fall,” she answers. “But I’d rather not do that again.” “Works for me,” Daring answers before turning her attention back to the cowering pegasus under her. “You’ve wasted enough of my time already. Now get lost!” Arizotyl scrambles to his hooves and flies away. The Valkyries that are still conscious take flight after him, glaring at us as they leave. Daring huffs in annoyance and readjusts her pith helmet. Her face lights up again when she sees Free Fall. “Hey, you! You got my message, I take it?” Free Fall nods. “Sure did. And I think I know where you’re talking about.” The crowd around us starts to disperse, losing interest now that the fight is over. “Oi!” a voice suddenly shouts out from somewhere in the back. “Port Authority! What’s going on here?” A group of badged pegasi in yellow and black jackets are flying towards us. Free Fall jerks her head towards them. “Looks like we overstayed our welcome. Let’s get out of here.”  Daring nods, and we all take to the sky, leaving the port behind us. The Port Authority ponies shout at us but don’t follow, concerning themselves with the injured Valkyries instead. As we fly, I shoot a look at Free Fall. I can’t quite place what I’m feeling, but I think I recognize her from somewhere.