Chapter 4. A V.I.L.E. Family Dinner
Daring Do, her eyes adjusting to the bright sunlight, saw the famous statue of CELESTIA IN VICTORY. That brought her up short because she knew that it had been stolen from Victory Park in mid Canterlot about three years ago. Nopony was sure of exactly when it was taken. Park workers going to clean it of pigeon droppings discovered that it had been replaced by a Styrofoam copy!
Staring about, she saw a plunge. It had four so-called “Wu Dogs”, one at each corner. Daring Do knew that those “dogs” were actually lions carved from descriptions in written texts that were given to stone carvers who had never seen a lion. She knew that those “dogs” and the swimming pool that they were a part of was once inside the palace of the Golden Emperor of the Chineighese Empire. Discovering that it was gone had created a huge scandal.
The cause of that scandal was lounging at the far end of the pool. A khaki colored unicorn mare in a fire engine red bikini hit the water in a near perfect dive. She made almost no splash and shot underwater like a living torpedo to the near end of the plunge.
Surfacing at the pool’s rim like a leaping porpoise, she put both forehooves on the pool edge and pushed, turning as she did so. The infamous and NEVER caught master thief Carmen Pondiego sat only a fraction of a second before rolling to her hooves an sprinting joyfully to them.
She called out, “Adora! Blendin said that he was bringing you and two other guests to dinner! I was not sure whether to believe him or not! We are having enchiladas! I made up enough for all of us.”
Daring Do could not dodge her mother’s hug with the Gryphons watching. Truthfully, she really did not want to. As she felt Carmen’s arms about her, she felt paradoxically safe and about to panic at the same moment.
She compromised by asking archly, “Enough for ALL of us? Where did you manage to steal that much?”
Stepping back but keeping her hooves on Daring Do’s shoulders, Carmen said with mock severity, “Adora, you wound me! This was a dinner for YOU. I did not steal the ingredients.”
Blendin pulled a wry face as he revealed, “Uncle Marehem stole them. We have not seen the headlines yet, so we don’t know where he got them.
“Want to join the betting pool, Sis? The pot is up to 800 golden bits!”
While Daring Do was thinking about it, Grata and Rahak, crests up and fluttering in Gryphon laughter asked, “Is that a family betting pool or can we join it?”
Blendin instantly replied, “It is open to anypony on the island. That includes you two.”
“Right. Who do we register our guess and place our bets with?”
Blendin snickered, “Me.”
“Five golden bits each, on the northwestern region of Mexipone.” They cheerfully gave Blendin their bits.
Daring Do, squinted her eyes in deep thought and hoofed over ten gold bits herself. “Ten. I am going for the Mexi-Queso Warehouse. Uncle M always likes getting the very best!”
Letting go of Daring Do, Carmen put a hoof over her eyes. “I am shamed by my own daughter. I should have thought of that!”
Blendin suggested, “Face saving by face stuffing? It is dinner time on the Island!”
Carmen nodded and led them through corridors hung with priceless art and past pedestals with small statuary and rare porcelains. They emerged into a dining room with a table of simple, elegant design.
It was Rahak who drew a breath of admiration. “A Chipenwood table. I never thought to see a real one in my lifetime.”
Grata’s eye was drawn to a smallish porcelain vase of white, blue and green with characters of the ancient X'ibian language decorating its surface. Awed, she turned to Carmen and asked, “The Heart of Discord? It is real after all?”
Carmen smiled broadly. “Yes, the Heart of Discord. No, it is not real. Yes, that is the only one in the whole world. My daughter’s last expedition to X'ibia created it by copying the true Heart of Wisdom to mislead some tomb robbers. Eris, the female form of Discord, came when it was used but she was not bound by it. I am very proud of this deception by my sweet Adora.”
Carmen disappeared into an adjoining room. There was an encouraging clatter of dishes from the room. Carmen emerged, having managed the trick of changing into her near trademark form fitting red dress and tinted glasses. She was carrying a big silver platter piled high with enchiladas. She set it onto hot pads on the table and returned with a second tray, only a little smaller than the first. This one got placed between Rahak and Grata.
The other guests entered the dining room. As they sat, Daring Do realized that her biological father, the alicorn Baron Von Nighthoof and Carmen were presently getting along well. He was at Carmen’s right hoof, but not before he had seated her like royalty. The glint of gold at her neck showed that she was wearing their copy of the Golden Necklace of Pharow Underrock that the Baron had given her.
Daring Do was seated at Carmen’s left hoof. Grata and Rahak were down table from Daring Do. Blendin and Kiros, the odd looking wolf hybrid with his black hair, horns and dragon like wings and tail, sat opposite them. At the foot of the table, in his usual place, was Daring Do’s uncle Marehem, a blue Misfortune Changeling with orange hair.
As soon as all were seated, Carmen tapped the side of her glass (a rare Stuborn glass, Daring Do noticed) to get attention. “Marehem, my dear, the betting pool is all here. Where did you obtain the ingredients for our dinner?”
He ran a blue hoof through his pumpkin colored hair. “Um, could I have the guesses?”
Blendin nodded and pulled out his list. “To make things easiest, they are all in Mexipone.
“Baron Von Nighthoof thought that you went to Mexipone City because the place is such hodgepodge that nopony would miss them.
“Carmen guessed Ox-Huaca valley somewhere.
“Kiros thought perhaps, Casa Nquesa.
“Our two Gryphon guests suggested northwestern Mexipone.
“Adora was specific. She said the Mexi-Queso warehouse because you wanted the best.”
Marehem smiled wickedly. “Adora, you should put aside all of your problems with Carmen. You would make a fantastic agent! You hit it on the head. Technically, I did not take it from their warehouse. I got it from their aging cave about an hour before it was due to go to the warehouse to be packaged and labeled.”
Grata’s eyes were darting from object to object in the room. She ventured, “I have seen some of these in the Imperial Museum. The reproductions are excellent.”
With considerable pride, Carmen replied, “Indeed they are. That is why the originals have not been missed! These are the originals.”
Grata paused in deep thought. “Then it is not a coincidence of names. You are Carmen Pondiego, reputed to be a Master Thief unexcelled in history. Since Daring Do is your daughter, so we have been hearing, then the origin of her astounding skill at locating and recovering ancient artifacts is well explained.”
Carmen nodded sadly. “That is true. I wish that she could see it that way.”
Acidly, Daring Do retorted, “I do. Don’t worry about that!”
Marehem, seeing the enchiladas getting cold, as a family battle heated up, called cheerfully, “Food! Now that I have your attention, there is a huge pile of enchiladas here, just waiting to be eaten! The bet has been settled. ANYTHING else can wait!”
Grabbing serving tongs he snagged FOUR of the big enchiladas and a healthy serving of salad. Blendin got the message and joined in. For a moment, the serving tray resembled the main course at shark feeding frenzy as they all dived in!
When all of the plates were loaded, Carmen looked at the tray with satisfaction. “Looks like there will be plenty for seconds or more. I thought that I made enough.”
Rahak was whispering to Grata. She retorted, “If the Imperial Museum hasn’t noticed, why should WE tell them? Besides, the originals are perfectly safe here. Use your eyes. This whole place is a museum in its own right. I will bet that every item here is perfectly documented.”
Blendin nodded emphatically. Swallowing a bite of enchilada in haste, he agreed. “Keeping the catalog of mom’s acquisitions keeps me hopping!”
Grata raised her cup and toasted, “To Carmen Pondiego! A mare of discernment and taste!”
Daring Do only thought for a second before joining in. After all, it was perfectly true! “To Carmen Pondiego!”
At the last, there was only one lonely enchilada left on the silver platter, now easily seen to be a priceless Pony Revere.
Blendin spoke up, “Part of the reason that I brought the Gryphons here was to see if you could put them near the site where the Gryphons originated, Uncle M.”
Marehem shook his head, “No, I am afraid not, Blendin. The time span is no problem. There is no way to use the equipment safely anywhere near to the mangled spells and random magic fallout from the Circle and Crescent Lake blasts at the end of the second Nightmare War. That whole area is deadly for a fifty year span.”
Blendin inquired, “Deadly, M? How so?”
Dryly M pointed out, “If you can not get back, the effect is the same. If we try to use our temporal displacement engine anywhere near that magical fallout region, all connection to the present will be severed.
“For you, the effect is the obliteration of your timeline. You cease to exist the instant that you land anywhere in that danger zone.”
Rahak, crest up, turned to Blendin and said, “We thank you for at least checking on a possibility for us to see what happened. It appears that we will have to track that weather and see if we can find the proper place where our kind originated.”
Daring Do observed, “Your legends actually do offer a lot of help. Your place of origin is set with the TWIN FIRES OF CREATION east of the eagles.
“Assuming that the Twin Fires of Creation are the Mage blasts that created Circle Lake and Crescent Lake, that would indicate a place in the Sunset Mountains on the western edge of Equestria. Add in the tactical weather data and we should be able to get pretty close to it.”
With a slightly predatory look, Carmen inquired far to innocently, “What do you hope to find, Adora?”
Daring Do looked up alertly, “Nothing of real value in any monetary or aesthetic sense, Mother. We hope to find physical remains of some of the earliest Gryphons. If their legends are to be believed, they started as hippogriffs and became the Gryphons that we know now.”
Kiros, a hybrid himself, suggested, “That makes perfect sense. Gryphons could not have come from an unforced mating of lions and eagles. Both are competitive carnivores and the size disparity is against it too.
“Eagles and pegassi are a lot closer, a better mating size match. The intelligence would have come from the pegasus but so would an herbivore digestive tract. Normally, that would doom the cross from malnutrition. With a lot random spell recombination in the fallout, some of the fallout might have caused survivors that hatched to force morph to a carnivore diet and hindquarters.”
Daring Do stared at him in surprise. “I did not know that you were interested in Gryphon origins, Kiros.”
Laconicly, he pointed to his horns, dragon like wings and tail along with his wolf like features. “I am not. I am interested in Hybridization. Any guesses as to WHY?”
Daring Do nodded as she helped herself to the last enchilada, “I see. Thanks for the dinner, mom. I am afraid that we have to be going, now though.”
Blendin nodded, “Might as well, the food is all gone! I’ll see you to Mom’s door to the Great Library. We will just connect it straight across to the Canterlot Main Door.”
As they were strolling through the halls and colonnades to the massive steel doors of the Great Library, Carmen caught up to them. “Blendin, dear, I need to dig up a bunch of clues for the Green Ruby of Cashin. Is it OK if I tag along?”
“Sure, Mom. No problem.”
Daring Do looked surprised. “The Green Ruby is your next target?”
Carmen managed to look both affronted and amused at the same time. “Of course not! All those clues I give the Gumshoes? I am NEVER after that thing. If I get it, great! If not, who cares? I ALWAYS get the thing that I AM after.”
Rahak’s crest shot up, rippling laughter. “Misdirection! I love it.”
Grata nodded, her own crest showing the ripples of amusement.
They came to the massive steel doors of the Great Library. Blendin inserted his ID into a spell reader and said, “Daring Do party to exit at the Canterlot main doors. Carmen Pondiego and I to research room nine.”
Carmen said, as the steel faded to mist, “Do come back, Adora. It was lovely to finally let you see our home.”
Walking through the steel mist, Daring Do and her companions emerged inside the Royal Library. As they strolled toward the street, shaking her head, Daring Do said, “Carmen Pondiego has her OWN door to the Great Library? That explains SO O O much!”