A fluffy cloud drifted lazily over the Everfree forest. Like most clouds, it was lazy by nature, drifting about here and there, nary a goal in sight, as though it were reflecting on its life. Were it gifted with the capacity to do so, it might have wondered why those odd little meat beasts were disturbed by it. Is it really so frightening that water should condense outside of a factory, or that these drops should fall from the sky without getting bounced upon by these creatures? Needless to say, it wondered none of these things. It was, after all, a cloud.
If the light gold meat creature in the forest could hear this cloud's thoughts, she would likely be in a hospital for the disturbed. In the unlikely event that she'd broken out, and concealed herself from the authorities in the most dangerous forest in the vicinity, she'd hear the cloud wondering what that creature was doing, fighting a manticore, instead of running for help.
Daring Do could hear no such thing; for all her talents, she does not hear clouds talk, and for all their talents, clouds don't talk. As for the manticore, Daring Do is fighting him because that's what Daring does.
The beast roared, spittle flying from its hoof long fangs, as he raised a hefty paw for a mighty blow. He could have just killed his prey, but, like any cat, he liked to turn his meals into a game of "chase it around for a bit, then smack it around until you're bored enough to just eat it already," and so, the claws remained sheathed.
As his paw swung down, Daring Do skipped back daintily, avoiding the blow.
"All according to plan," the manticore thought, "now it turns and runs!"
Turn and run Daring didn't. Daring Do sprang forward, and dug her front hooves into the soft floor of the Everfree. Her momentum carried her haunches around, pivoting 180 degrees. With expert timing, she unloaded a fierce bucking to the Manticore's chin.
The manticore yowled, as its smaller feline bretheren so frequently do when some unthinking brute sets hoof on their tails. "ROOOOOWWR!!!!!" Fortunately for the manticore, having an armored scorpion tail, it had never had that experience. Unfortunately, it remembered it had an armored scorpion tail just as Daring landed on his maned head.
THWAP!!
The manticore roared angrily, murder in his eyes. He was immune to his own poison, but it still hurt, dammit! What's more, the little monster had the nerve to quip at him!
"Ooh, that must've stung!" said a smirking Daring Do. "Well, much as I hate to turn tail and run..."
"RAWWWR!" The manticore's paw came down again, narrowly missing Daring Do. She turned and flew off. The manticore unfurled massive bat wings, and took off after her.
"Wassamatter, too catty?" Daring shouted to the beast, as she slalomed between the trees.
Were Daring gifted instead with the ability to hear cats talk, she would, worldly as she was, likely have blushed at the stream of obscenities flying from the great cat's mouth. Not having this ability, she only heard "RAAAAAAAAAAAAWWRR!"
"This's been fun, but maybe you better... BUZZ OFF!" As Daring passed a tree, she kicked out with one of her back legs. The hornet's nest she'd spotted promptly dropped directly onto the Manticore's snout.
There was a crack, and a sharp blow.
There was a stickiness, and the sweet taste of honey.
There were wasps. There were many wasps.
When a pony's home is spontaneously destroyed, he is, needless to say, upset. It is, therefore, easy to understand the hornets' position.
They were pissed.
"HURAAAWR!" The manticore's cry was now all panic. How had his day ever gone so very wrong? He flew off, pursued by a cloud of volatile vexed vespine vagrants.
Daring do smiled, took off her pith helmet, and wiped sweat from her grey streaked mane. Having flown frantically through the forest, Daring Do had lost her position. She could get her bearings easily enough, but she needed her exact position. Daring Do had a goal in mind.
Daring Do flew carefully to the tree canopy, and poked her head out. She didn't dare fly too high, she might get spotted by another manticore, or, Celestia forbid, the same manticore. Turning eastward, she spotted the crumbling towers of the castle of the two sisters. "There we go..." she said.
Between Daring Do and her destination was a break in the trees... perhaps a path, or, more likely, a river. There weren't many paths, ponies didn't come into the Everfree too often, particularly not so deep. Most ponies had only ever heard of timber wolves, manticores, and star spiders. The clouds were enough to keep them away.
Daring Do wasn't frightened by the clouds of the Everfree. Spending most of her life outside civilization, condensation didn't bother her, nor did water falling completely unbounced upon. She certainly wasn't frightened by rivers, but then, most ponies weren't.
Most ponies, however, hadn't explored the Everfree, owing largely to stories of wooden wolves, huge hydras, and cumulous clouds that drifted lazily across the sky unescorted. If they had, rivers might frighten them, for reasons other than their not being made of breathable gases.
The waters of the Everfree were fortunately not home to the Piranha Daring Do was used to seeing. Fortunate for the piranhas, at least, because their mouths were too small and weak to harm the massive alligators, crocodiles, crocogators, and moustachioed sea serpents that inhabited the Everfree river; doubly so since all of these would find piranha a delicious, albeit small, hors d'oeuvre.
And so, as Daring Do hopped from stone to stone, avoiding the water and all that might lurk within, she was caught completely off guard by the sudden wave.
Naturally, waves are very large, and a difficult thing to be caught off guard by. Of course, when one suddenly appears behind your back, miles from the nearest ocean, they can be known to startle.
FWOOOSH! The wave easily swept Daring Do off the stone, as a tremendous snake-like figure rose from the waters. Water dripped from his immense form to the river, as he opened his mouth in a gaping "HRAAAAAAAW!"