//------------------------------// // Hot Pursuit // Story: Daring Do and the Goggles of Shipping // by CoffeeMinion //------------------------------// The cave eventually brought them to a narrow space at the bottom of a deep ravine. Daring Do and Discord flapped side-by-side as they ascended its sheer face. Daring Do paused about halfway up, cursing under her breath. “I can’t believe this. Look.” She moved closer to the stones and grabbed what at first looked like just another bit of foliage. But as she pulled it out into the light, Discord could see it was actually a thin but tightly-wound length of cable. She tossed it back against the wall. “How did I miss these when I flew down here?! Caballeron and his goons must have rappelled down and set up their ambush well in advance. He didn’t just drop in; he was playing me all along!” Discord furrowed his brow as they began flying upward again. “That’s hardly the worst of it. I’m the spirit of Chaos, and he played me like a fiddle.” He shook his head. “Poor Fluttershy. Somehow he knew I’d come as soon as somepony grabbed the goggles.” Daring Do looked downcast. “I don’t feel much better. He knew you were a threat. I was just a… distraction, to buy him time to get away.” Discord shook his head. “If he’s that prepared, he’ll probably expect some kind of ambush. What I did back there was only good once; if he ‘ships’ us again, I won’t be able to undo it.” Daring Do frowned. “But we have to take him quickly; he’s probably arranged to meet some other kind of transportation nearby.” The light intensified as they reached the top of the ravine. Discord turned in midair, taking in the sight of a nearby thicket of gnarled, leafless trees at the end of a few hundred yards of dry, cracked earth. The sun hung low and red behind the thicket, silhouetting ten tough stallions heading toward it. Daring Do grabbed him and pulled him to the ground. “Quiet! There they are. We have to think of something, fast!” Discord bristled at her rough treatment, but paused and scratched his beard as an idea began to take shape. “I say we walk right up to them, say hi, and try to grab the goggles.” “What?!” “Seriously, think about it! The last time he saw the two of us, we were about to… you know...” “I remember.” “Well, as far as he knows, we’re happily ‘shipped’ and ready to start popping out foals. Wouldn’t it seem natural to thank the pony who made that all possible for us?” Daring Do sighed and shook her head. “That... might work, if it doesn’t blow up in our faces. You are aware that all the concerns we just talked about apply to this plan too, right?” Discord grinned. “He’ll never see it coming.” She stood and set off toward the stallions. “Let’s pray to Celestia that it works.” Discord levered himself up on wobbly legs, resisting the urge to take a shot at old Sunbutt. It was still difficult for him to move normally without the steady trickle of Chaos magic to fuel his efforts, and he struggled to keep pace with her. “What’s taking you so long?” she called back to him. He chuckled. “Well, you know, I feel it adds a certain air of authenticity to, ah…” He waggled his hips as he greatly over-emphasized his struggle to keep walking. Daring Do rolled her eyes. “This isn’t helping us catch them.” Discord tossed his head imperiously. “Well, fine; if this is too much of a pain in the flank…” With that, he raised his claw to his mouth, and whistled. Daring Do gritted her teeth and raised her forehooves to her ears as he continued much longer than she expected. She turned to look at Caballeron’s distant henchponies, and deepened her grimace as she noticed them staring to turn around and head back toward them. Daring do lowered one hoof to the ground and grabbed his chest with the other. “Kiss me.” Discord flicked his eyes toward the stallions. He hesitated. She wasn’t the pegasus he wanted to hear that from... She rolled her eyes, raised her head, and pressed her lips against his. The experience was nothing but mechanical at first; worse, it made him feel sick, like he was betraying Fluttershy. Yet Discord couldn’t deny it felt invigorating to share a kiss with another being. His pulse quickened. He tried to block out the sensations, but Daring Do’s lips softened and pressed harder. Despite himself, he closed his eyes and— The sound of hooves snapped them out of the moment. Discord blinked, cleared his throat, and took a brief look around the milling circle of henchponies that had formed around the two of them. “Ahoy, mateys! Sorry about the lip-lock. I know, ‘get a room,’ right?” He jumped at the feel of being pinched near the base of his tail. He turned a look of shock at Daring Do, who was lowering her hoof slowly, leaving no doubt about who pinched him. She winked at him, and it was every bit as suggestive as he could hope for. “Daring Do, you are the last pony I expected to be seeing so soon.” An opening formed at one point of the circle, revealing a space not too far away where Caballeron stood with a hoof up near his face, ready to drop the goggles down over his eyes at a moment’s notice. “Perhaps our fine Draconequus was found… wanting?” Daring Do played with her mane. “Not at all, unless you mean ‘wanting’ more.” She tittered, and Discord’s jaw fell upon seeing how well she could play the lovestruck filly. Caballeron’s laughter did not touch his eyes. Sweat formed at his brow as he studied Discord. “Please, spare us the details… except to tell us why you have returned?” Discord collected himself. “I’ve got this one, dear. Dr. Caballeron… can I call you Dr. Caballeron?” “But of course.” “Dr. Caballeron, I’ve been dreaming of finding a special somepony, and thanks to you…” His thoughts drifted from the stolen kiss with Daring Do, back to the poor mare he’d left alone and in danger. “Dr. Caballeron, I created the goggles. I know secrets about them that nopony else does.” He swallowed. “If you’ll let me see them for a moment, I’d be happy to show you one of them.” Caballeron scratched at the stubble on his chin. “Master Discord, you will forgive me if I maintain a healthy skepticism about surrendering my prize to anypony; especially you.” Daring Do moaned as she sidled up to Discord and began running her forehooves over his torso. “Oh, come on, Doctor, please? He insisted that we take a break until he showed you something. Please, I don’t know how much longer I can go without him…” Discord shrugged, and laughed. “You know what they say about the size of a Draconequus’ horns, amirite?!” Caballeron frowned. “If what you say is true, then first please humor me by making short work of my associates; then we will talk about this ‘secret.’ I fear, though, that you may have broken the connection between yourself and your creation; in which case, my stallions will make short work of you while I make my escape.” Discord looked at Daring Do and jerked a thumb at Caballeron. “This guy is seriously way more prepared than I could have expected.” Caballeron smiled. “Daring Do is not the only one to spend long hours researching you, Master Discord. Now, if you’ll…” “That’s the cue!” Daring Do shouted, leaping toward one of the stallions. The others charged a split-second later, clearly set on their back hooves by Daring Do’s sudden attack. Discord whirled on a brown one to his left, elbowing him in the chest and shoving him to the ground. He heard hooves from behind, and whirled around at high speed, using his body’s length to whip-crack a whitish stallion in the face. There was a commotion to his right, and Discord watched as Daring Do plowed her forehooves into a blue-coated henchpony with a bright yellow mane. The stallion went down, but two more rushed in from behind. She anticipated them, and used her wings to get high enough to land strong kicks into their heads. “Get Caballeron!” she shouted, before turning back on three others trying to gang-up on her. Discord turned from side to side, scanning the trees, trying to pick up any trace of where Caballeron had rushed off to. He cursed under his breath as he realized the barren trees offered just enough visual interference to make the job truly difficult. He then looked up, feeling that a bit of lateral—or vertical—thinking might be in order. He rose skyward with a few powerful flaps of his mismatched wings, and resumed his search from the superior vantage that they offered. He tried not to focus on Daring Do, who was snarling and shouting as she did everything she could to keep the trio of henchponies at bay. Discord was off and flapping in Caballeron’s direction from the moment he first noticed movement down in the trees. Caballeron was still heading west, perhaps to meet up with the group’s unseen transportation; Discord couldn’t tell, given that he had to squint to block out the light of the setting sun. He rose still higher and tried to pick up speed as he saw Caballeron heading toward a less dense section of trees. His back ached from the effort of holding himself aloft without any magical assistance, but his anger felt still more pressing. Anger at having to leave Fluttershy at the very moment he was going to tell her how he felt, and anger at leaving her feeling like she didn’t matter to him. Discord did his utmost to compress that anger into a tiny, smoldering ball. Then he folded his wings close to his body and let gravity rocket him down toward the stallion’s back. After a forceful, jarring impact, the two of them tumbled end-over-end for several yards before smacking into a downed tree. Caballeron came up first, barely managing to stand, but close enough to his adversary that he didn’t need to do much to get his forehooves around and strike at Discord. For his part, Discord lost several moments battling his own disorientation as much as Caballeron. “So what they’ve written of you lately is true,” Caballeron said, connecting a solid hit with Discord’s gut. “I trust my sources, but I wanted to believe they were wrong.” Discord hissed as two quick jabs caught him in the face. “To think those six mares could have tamed you…” Discord grappled with Caballeron’s forehooves. “I’m not tame!” Caballeron headbutted him once, twice, three times. “What do you call it, then? I hear you are reduced to fawning over one of them, seeking her approval to initiate romance.” Discord’s grip slackened, and Caballeron resumed pummeling him. “Why go through such niceties, when a creature of your power could have any mare who he desires? Tell me; is that simply how you like to lead the dance of love?” Discord’s claws came out. He headbutted Caballeron with the force of a hammer, then followed-up with a pair of slashes that carved deep lines into Caballeron’s side. The stallion cried out as Discord pinned him to the ground. “You know nothing about love!” Discord shouted, bringing his dripping claws around to take another cruel slash at Caballeron. “You, who willingly bring the goggles back into the mortal world!” A fourth slash. “I was going to tell her how I felt about her!” A fifth. “But now—” Discord stopped as a strong hoof held his paw back. He whirled, snarling, to see a different orange pony with gray hair. “It’s not too late,” Daring Do said. She was far more banged-up and disheveled than he’d last seen her, but there was a look of pleading intensity on her face that caused his rage to slowly recede. “She’ll understand why you had to come stop him, but she wouldn’t understand if you keep going.” Discord spared a glance down at the pony underneath him, and felt… revulsion. He loosened his hold on Caballeron, and the stallion trembled, clutching at long, open wounds. Discord stood and looked back at Daring Do. “I… I’m sorry…” “He’ll live,” she said. “Now, for the goggles…” She stooped, flipped Caballeron’s saddlebag open, and fished them out. “Give them to me,” Discord said. She looked up at him. “What are you doing?” He tensed. “Just… trust me. Please.” Daring Do raised them, tentatively. Discord snatched them from her hoof. He grunted as his paw and claw clamped down on them. Long moments passed before a faint cracking sound split the silence. Glass tinkled as it fell upon the dusty ground. Discord offered them back to her. “They’ll make a better museum piece now that they aren’t dangerous to anypony.” She sighed and looked back down at Caballeron. “All right, Doctor, we’ve got someplace to be, so here’s the deal: I’m going to bandage you up, and you’re going to tell me how you were planning to get back to town. Got it?” Discord looked at her. “Thank you.” Daring Do smiled. “You didn’t think I’d turn down an adventure with the spirit of Chaos himself, did you?” Discord scratched his chin. “I’ll get a telegraph to the princesses once we get to town. One of them should be able to make a portal...” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re on speaking terms with the princesses. That’s so cool.” He smiled back at her and started thinking about which princess to try first. He needed one who wouldn’t be too busy to help. And he’d prefer one who wouldn’t laugh too much at him in his down-powered state. “Definitely not Celestia, then,” he muttered to himself.