//------------------------------// // Prologue - Another Adventure Awaits // Story: Daring Do and the Ends of The World // by Ephraim Blue //------------------------------// Daring Do and the Ends of The World By: Ephraim Blue Prologue - Another Adventure Awaits A.K. Yearling had just finished her 12th book in the Daring Do series. It was certainly a great hobby, writing books for a living. But secretly, she had another secret that she kept hidden from most other ponies. Daring Do was not a fictional character. She was as real as any other pony you might find on the planet. The life that Daring Do kept was also a secret to others. The Daring Do series was more of an Autobiography than a fiction series. Yes, you heard me right. A.K. Yearling was Daring Do. It certainly wasn't something that a pony would go out every day and tell another person that her series were real. This was something she kept hidden for three reasons. One, her enemies, like Ahuizotl, might find her easily and prevent her from foiling his life threatening plots all the time. Those plots needed to be stopped. And as long as every other pony thought her stories were fiction, they wouldn't lift a hoof to help her. Two, the fans. Her series of books were extremely popular. She moved out into the woods to get away from all of that. Everypony else knew that she was bothered a lot, but they continued to do it anyway. If other ponies found out about her secret identity, they would track her down for miles just to meet her. Three... well, she did this to keep the other ponies of the land safe. The tasks she accomplished were too much of a burden for other ponies to bear. They could get hurt because they think they might be heroes, but they really weren't. There was one time when a fan did come to ask about the book series and found out about her secret life. I'd tell you more about it, but that would be spoilers for a future story, wouldn't it? This was her life. She found an adventure, completed it, and wrote a story about it. Sometimes, her books would come out late because of lack of adventure. Other times, Ahuizotl would be harder to track than ever. But eventually, she found him, thwarted his disastrous plot, and went home to tell the story about it. There was this one time when Ahuizotl was a hard cookie to find. He had hatched his most diaboli- Oh wait. That would be spoilers for the story, right? Anyway, the journey began like it did every time. It began with the publishing of her previous book. New Scene A.K. Yearling sat in her hut in the middle of the woods. Her most recent addition to the Daring Do series had just been released to the public last week. All was quiet around her. A little too quiet, if you ask her. It was nice to live out in the woods to get away from the crowds of ponies that used to haunt her every move. But she was certain that there would at least be a few birds chirping away on the trees above her. Perhaps they all flew away, she thought. Then again, if they did fly away, what caused them to do so? Cold weather? No. It was the middle of summer. Too few insects and worms for their babies? There are trees all around her house. There were certainly enough for them to feed their young and themselves. Perhaps something scared them off. That final thought there was certainly the most likely cause of the birds to stop chirping. It was also the thought that scared her. Nopony ever came out this far into the woods. Not even her friends from the city would come and visit her. If something- or someone scared them, what were they doing out there? Slowly, she got up from the chair she was sitting in. She then, as quietly as she could, opened the door she was not to far away from. After exiting and closing the door behind her, she heard very light footsteps in the distance. She crept along the forest floor, sticking to the shadows to avoid being seen. What she saw, another would probably consider ordinary at first. But rest assured, that this was not ordinary in the slightest. She saw a small band of stallions walking down the dirt path close to her house. The carriage they were pulling made it seem like they were travelers passing through the woods. The flaps suddenly flew open when the wind picked up. Inside, the author could see an entire assortment of stolen goods and rare gems. She immediately saw the band of stallions as thieves, and slowly followed them. After about twenty minutes, they came to a stop at a fork in hate road. Instead of choosing a path, they continued going strait and vanished into the woods. Desperate to follow them, A.K. Yearling quickly followed them into the depths of the woods. She continued following them until a familiar creature popped out at the thieves. The creature was none other than the dreaded Ahuizotl himself. Ahuizotl talked with the thieves before shaking the leader's hoof with what seemed like his tail. The leader then handed the big blue monster an artifact from the cart, which was taken in return for a bag of gold. The two of them waved their goodbyes and left in their separate ways. A.K. Yearling, however, immediately made her way back to her cottage. Once there, she threw off her cloak and glasses to reveal none other than Daring Do herself. She had also made a quick note for her to remember this journey very well. Without another thought on her mind, she quickly flew out of her place she called home and chased after Ahuizotl. It didn't matter what he was doing with that artifact. Whatever it was it was almost undoubtedly not a good thing. This was certainly going to be another amazing adventure.