//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Mystery Mash Up 
// by W1kk3d_Mango 
//------------------------------//

Daring stared at them hard for a moment, examining them and processing what they had said. Her wings began to lower and she lifted her head up slightly. “Just…” she started, “Just answer my question.” She had finished off her statement with an unsure tone of how they would react. To her knowledge, they had just taken over the train. 

“Ah, well I think some people may be barging in soon to see what happened,” the stallion said. One of Daring’s ears twitched at one unfamiliar word.  The pegasus noticed this and started giggling. 

“He means somepony,” she said still giggling to herself. “Man, you will never get used to that.” Daring stared at the two of them, now almost fully relaxed.  The stallion tried to hold in a laugh, but failed. A glance at Daring's baffled face did not help him. “I’ll just introduce us, how about that?” The mare fluttered forward close to Daring. “My name is Derpy, and this here is the Doctor,” she said happily.

Daring looked back and forth between the two of them and determined they weren’t much of a threat. She looked Derpy in the eyes as best she could, then proceeded to introduce herself as well. She should at least offer to help the train or find out what exactly went wrong. She would still keep her guard up just in case. “The name is Daring Do, and I am on a very important quest. You two seem to be stopping me in-“

Before Daring could finished the Doctor gleefully and with a high pitched almost squeal stated, “Doctor Derpy Daring Ditzy Do!” Both Daring and Derpy looked at him puzzled. He continued to bounce and repeat it, “Doctor Derpy Daring Ditzy Do! The three of us make the Doctor Derpy Daring Ditzy Do!” His smile was wide and he seemed to bounce as he spoke the name out loud. “I very much like that, but introductions and importance of being places to find important things can wait, you must help me.”

Daring walked forward. She was still a little shocked at the stallion's mannerisms, but she shook it out of her mind; too many to keep track of at this point. She walked up slowly and stood next to the doctor examining the controls. She then turned to him awkwardly. “How did you know I was out to find something important?” The Doctor continued to look over the controls, scratching his chin with his hoof as he did so.

“Important quests, important things,” he said. “People, houses, food…” he paused for a moment, “gems.” At that point Daring took a couple steps back and tensed again. 

“Who are you!” She demanded, “Really!” 

“My assistant here already explained, Ms. Do: I am the Doctor.”

“Yes but a Doctor of what?”

“Look, are we really going to go through this? I thought you needed to be somewhere important, so why not help us look for the problem? I noticed you have wings and this train is in the middle of nowhere, so I can only assume that you haven’t flown in a while. Why don’t you fly up and locate the nearest town, at least?” 

Daring stood firm for a moment, staring hard at the so called Doctor. She spread her wings out, and arched herself into the air backwards, out of a large side window behind her. Daring spun around to level herself out with the ground, then rocketed upwards into the sky as fast as she could go.. “That Doctor won’t get me a clear answer, so I’m not going to waste my time with him,” she began to herself. “I’ll find the town, head back to the train for my things, and let those two figure the darn thing out for themselves.” 

Daring soared high into the sky. Just below the cloud line, keeping a clear line of sight around her, she slowly began to spin. To the north was rocky terrain with patches of grass which the tracks followed; and to the south, the same thing. The mountain, of course, looming over her to the east, and to the west was a strongly wooded forest. She dove back down towards the train, stopping just before impact. Looking back inside the lead carriage to see the Doctor and the conductor giving a high hoof to each other. Daring stared in shock and the whistle of the train sounded just next to her head. This was the second sound her ears had hated all within the hour. 

Daring flew to the back of the train to avoid passing the Doctor. She pushed out how they had fixed the train so quickly, chalking it up to just the press of a button somepony had over looked. But who they really were and where they were from were two of the three leading questions. The third, and most important question, captured her complete attention as she walked back to her seat. Finding the scroll on the floor where it had dropped to she examined but didn’t open it. “How does he know?” Was he the pony who had sent it? Then why would he be here? He seemed perfectly able, fit, and excited enough. 

With that she unraveled the scroll. The same message glared back at her, but then something caught her attention. Daring’s beautiful eyes widened. Something had been added to the scroll! Just below the sign off Daring saw a message with the same lettering. 

P.S. Don’t believe anypony who may conjure up conspiracy theories about the gem’s usage.

Daring rubbed her eyes thinking it was her mind playing tricks on her. But the words stayed there. She unraveled the scroll completely looking over every inch of it. Flipping it all around, twisting turning, and even holding it upside down and behind her back. Even with magic was this really possible? To just add things to a scroll. And even if there was such a spell a unicorn had, how could they know what happened. The train and the new passengers were a shock even to Daring herself. Her mind raced, leaving her off guard, making her jump at the next noise. 

“Hey!” A bubbly voice said loudly next to her. Daring seemed to jump a mile. She was going to hate her ears today. Derpy was standing next to her seat and looking at her, smiling. “Mind if we join you?” Derpy continued as the Doctor walked up beside her. Daring stared at the two empty seats across and facing her, then looked at the seat to her left with her bags. 

“I…” She began, but the two had already begun to move and sit down across from her. The doctor sat awkwardly in the seat, and Derpy gently perching herself on the side. Daring tilted her head. “Please, just tell me who you are.”