Drake held what he had managed to seize from Daring Do and her companion. The odd creature that had kicked him was more annoying to deal with than the earth pony that thought he could boss him around. Scanning the last page, Drake could make out what looked like a map of some kind.
“I can’t believe you let them get away…all of that effort for what? Not even a whole book!” exclaimed the earth pony. The stallion didn’t quite feel like himself after taking a hit to the back of the head from the monster Daring Do was with. It had tossed two unicorns with ease and freed their target.
“It was not Drake’s job to kill Daring Do, you failed, pony.” Drake replied, the hulking figure of the diamond dog remained seated still staring at half of the book. His attention was drawn away from the ruined piece of literature by the sound of a heavy wooden door opening. His eyes managed to catch a faint orange light around the handle before it vanished as a cloaked figure walked into the room.
“F-Falsemane, I didn’t expect you to be here this soon!” the earth pony stammered nervously. His four underlings visibly trembled at the sight of the crime lord. Two orange eyes glared out from beneath the hood that covered Falsemane’s head putting them on edge.
“Tell me of the mission, Drake.” Falsemane said, his voice somewhat muffled. The diamond dog held out his huge paw, the torn book resting delicately in the center. An orange light surrounded the book as it levitated towards the mysterious stallion. The pages started to turn under the influence of the orange hued magic as Falsemane walked away from Drake.
“Daring Do wasn’t alone, another creature was with her. Ponies couldn’t stop them, they tore the book.” Drake said hanging his head as Falsemane paced while continuing to gaze at the recovered half of the book. The stallion continued his pacing long after Drake had finished, ignoring the others present in the room with him.
“That is most unfortunate,” Falsemane said at last. “I had anticipated Daring Do to give you some trouble which is why I hired two unicorns, but according to your account this creature helped our friend Miss Do escape? How peculiar…how peculiar indeed.” The stallion walked over to a small table and let the book fall onto it.
“Falsemane please let me explain.” the earth pony said fearful of the deceptively calm demeanor of the cloaked stallion. The plea was cause enough for Falsemane to turn his attention towards his shaking henchpony.
“Yes, please explain how you managed to be over whelmed with magic at your disposal? The only thing you have done for me is bring shame to my name. I gave you a chance at redemption, and you failed…and you know the price of failure.” Falsemane said as he approached the earth pony.
Before he could try to explain the circumstances an orange light surrounded the stallion. His hooves went up to his throat and flailed uselessly as the life was slowly choked out of him.
“You remind me of myself, a younger, naive version of myself,” Falsemane said pacing as he continued to choke the earth pony with his magic. “You see I was desperate too, disgusted with how the upper classes do their best to hide the crime that crawls just beneath their hooves.” The unicorn continued his rant.
“Then I had a revelation, an eye opening experience that made me ask myself, if I could never best crime why not control it? The rest is quite literally history…and soon that history will reach to borders untouched by my competitors. Which is why I desperately need your help, can I count on all of you to give it your best?” Falsemane asked turning to face the choking stallion who’s flailing fore hooves accidentally removed the hood that covered the crime lord’s head.
Beneath the hood was what appeared to be a bronze mask that had cloth extensions where the neck would meet the head, trailing all the way down to the shoulders. A hole in the top of the mask allowed for a unicorn’s horn to penetrate unhindered. A fake mane adorned the mask, colored gold and silver in the spirit of vanity and greed.
The other four ponies averted their gaze as the two orange eyes staring out at the earth pony intensified. No pony was supposed to see his face, especially those that failed him. A crack echoed through the room and the earth pony stopped struggling as life left his body.
“Now what did we learn today?” Falsemane asked, still holding the other stallion in his orange aura. The other henchponies slowly turned and observed their friend’s fate.
“Don’t screw up!” Falsemane exclaimed answering his own question in a mock voice as he magically moved the mouth of the dead stallion like a puppet. The hood that had been removed was levitated back over the mask Falsemane wore, shrouding his artificial face in darkness once more.
“Now, does anypony have some good news to contribute to this little meeting?” Falsemane asked letting the deceased earth pony fall to the floor. The unsettling sight nearly caused one of the unicorns to lose their lunch.
“T-t-they’re headed to Las Pegasus…” one of the pegasi said as his eyes remained locked on Falsemane’s cloaked form.
“Las Pegasus you say? Well, I guess you know where to go then, don’t you? If you’ll excuse me, I have to fill a position that has recently been vacated by an employee.” Falsemane said leaving the room of trembling ponies, completely ignoring the corpse of the earth pony as he left.
---
“You never did say where this scepter thingy is.” Isabella said looking over at Daring Do who was carefully turning the pages of the torn book. Such a waste of history had bugged her a bit but there was little that could be done about the book’s condition right now.
“Saddle Arabia, or a part of it anyways. The air ships in Las Pegasus are our ticket to the region, that’s the easy part. The hard part will be getting to the temple and back in one piece.” Daring Do said as she tapped her hoof against her chin while examining a section of the book.
“Saddle Arabia? That’s really a thing? Let me guess, you guys have Hoofington as a city or whatever as well right?” Isabella asked barely able to contain a giggle at the name of the country they were now headed to.
“Yes why?” Daring Do asked looking up from the book puzzled by the human’s odd reaction to the name upon hearing it. There was nothing funny about it to the pegasus, Saddle Arabia was a noble nation that had close ties to Equestria.
“No reason, just kind of similar to a location in my world is all.” Isabella replied with a smile. The sun was starting to set, or as Daniel had explained it, being lowered. Most of their trip had been spent in an awkward silence with only the occasional question between the two of them.
“What is your world like, if you don’t mind me asking?” Daring Do asked putting the book away. Even she needed a break from staring at pages for hours, trying to look for any hidden meaning or cryptic messages that others before her might have missed.
“Well its round and mostly composed of water. Most of the places I’ve been to have been pretty humid, but there are some cold spots in my world. There were a lot of fights between my kind before I left. It’s refreshing being in a place where conflict is hard to find.” Isabella replied.
“There’s conflict in Equestria, it’s just not as pronounced as it might be in your world. I’ve had to deal with criminals at almost every turn in my career.” Daring Do said looking out the window as the sun steadily fell below the horizon while the moon slowly rose in the opposite direction to take its place.
“I guess so, I wasn’t expecting this place to be all sunshine and rainbows Do, but it’s pretty close.” Isabella said stretching out in her seat as if it were a bed. She sighed as she threw her legs up in an air waving them back and forth in a childish manner.
“So where did you learn to move like that back in Ponyville?” Daring Do asked watching the human’s legs kick back and forth in the air.
“My dad enrolled me and my brother in a martial arts course. It was mostly because of my brother at first, since he wanted him to join the army, but I thought it was fun and it’s come in handy a time or two. That dog thingy didn’t seem fazed at all when I landed that kick to his head; it was like he was made out of rocks or something.” Isabella said her face twisting into an adorable pout.
“You mean the diamond dog? They’re thick skinned by nature, but that particular one seemed a bit larger than normal. At least they aren’t the brightest creatures in the world.” Daring Do said stretching her wings out before jumping out of her seat and slinging the saddle bag over her back.
“Did I bug you too much?” Isabell asked sitting up in her seat, slinging her legs onto the floor in one fluid motion to stand up in the train car. She wasn’t absurdly tall like her brother; the train car was just high enough to hold her without her head hitting the ceiling.
“No I was just going to find a bunk car is all. You might want to consider going to bed soon too, I plan to keep moving once we get to Saddle Arabia. The airship flight will be the last part of our little trip where we have to move at somepony else’s pace.” Daring Do replied with a grin.
"Good point. Not much we can really do right now I guess." Isabella said following Daring Do. The train car across from them had a few ponies in it that stared awkwardly at Isabella as she walked by. She did her best to ignore them but sighed when they started whispering, she managed to bite her lip before her mouth got the better of her.
"Sorry about that." Daring said as she opened the door to the bunk car. Inside were rows six eights rows of what could only be described as bed shelves. While originally built to accommodate smaller statured beings the pegasus was confident they could hold a human.
“Sorry for what? The stares and whispers? It’s to be expected, me being the new thing on the block…world…whatever. Truth be told I find you guys a bit weird sometimes, I call bottom by the way.” Isabella said sliding into a bed shelf.
Daring Do chuckled as she flew up to the top bunk above Isabella. The pegasus removed her hat a slid off her top. They did little for her in terms of style, but they were associated to her profession and she had developed a certain fondness for them. Her hat in particular had gotten her out of sticky situations before.
Daring Do slipped under the covers and sighed at the feeling of the soft bed against her back. The ambiance of the train was oddly calming and soon the pegasus was drifting off to sleep, until she heard Isabella stir beneath her.
“Hey Daring…you awake?” Isabella whispered.
“Yeah why?” Daring Do asked in an equally hushed tone.
“Do you think there will be traps in the temple? I’ve never ran into traps before…well there was an odd case once. Still, think there will be any?” Isabella asked.
“Probably…” Daring Do replied sleepily.
“Hey Daring…” Isabella said staring up at the bunk above her.
“Yeah?” Daring asked with half lidded sleepy eyes that gazed out the window as she rolled over.
“Are the ponies in Saddle Arabia nice?” Isabella asked closing her eyes.
“Mmhmm.” Daring Do replied as she shifted in an attempt to get as warm and cozy as possible.
There was a long period of silence in the car much to the relief of the pegasus. As she started to drift to sleep images from the book and theories slowly left her mind and gave way to a peace that could only be found in-
“Daring?” Isabella asked.
“Mmm?” Daring replied.
“I can’t sleep.” Isabella said.