The conference room had a crisp and clean feel to it. As Daring stepped into it, she could tell that she was in a well-maintained area. Of course, she was familiar with the tidiness of the office building that the curator used for the museum staff. Dusty Shelves was actually a bit of a neat freak, despite what his name implied. The navy-colored pony had an obsession with keeping all of his artifacts in order, which seemed to carry over into how he kept his work space.
"Glad to see you, Dr. Do," greeted Dusty, who sat in a chair on the opposite side of a wooden conference table, and adjacent to a blackboard. He didn't make eye contact with her right away, as he was shuffling through a stack of papers. As soon as he had finished and had the correct report on top of his stack he placed the papers down and looked at Daring. He motioned for her to seat herself, which she did.
Daring was dressed more like how one would expect a "Doctor" to dress. She wore wire-rim glasses, and had her blackish hair tied up in the back. She wore a whitish lightweight button-up vest rather than her pickle green one, and wore a red bow tie around her neck. This was how she dressed when representing herself officially, and to her credit an unsuspecting pony might not realize that the same mare was one who could trudge through thick jungles and enter tombs filled with years of decay without flinching.
"Dusty, we've known each other since I was fourteen," Daring remarked, "You don't need to call me by my title."
"I know, I know... but it rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Dr. Daring Do..."
"Dusty!"
"Well, I guess I'll get right to it," said Dusty Shelves, looking over the report. "Not only did you recover the artifact, but you only gave them five out of the thirty thousand we allotted for the exchange. That leaves us with twenty-five thousand bits. Now, we had planned on spending much more on retrieving the artifact..."
"I may have... omitted the twenty five from the transaction, sir," Daring admitted.
"It seems I'm out of washers, though." Upon hearing this, Dusty coughed, not sure whether to be angry or to laugh. He regained his composure a minute later, however.
"Well, we already took the money out of the budget," said Dusty, sliding a paper over to where Daring sat. Daring looked at the paper quizzically. On it was typed some basic information about flights and deadlines, scheduled for the following week.
"What's this?" asked Daring, "I think you gave me the wrong paper. These are flight plans, not a budget sheet."
"I'm aware, Dr... I mean Daring," Dusty said. He stood himself up, pacing about the length of his office. He spoke as he did so, and Daring listened intently.
"We already pulled the funding out and made necessary arrangements, so we might as well put the extra to good use. We've got another trip ready for you, Daring. That is, if you're up to it," Dusty Shelves said, turning to face Daring as he finished the last sentence. Daring nodded her head emphatically.
"Of course!" exclaimed Daring, furrowing her eyebrows while grinning. "I'm always up for a challenge! What's the deal with this one?"
"Well, I want to know what you know about a couple of things first," Dusty continued. He went towards the blackboard, and raised his hoof up. Above the blackboard was a set of maps, and he pulled one down. Daring recognized it as the European continent across the Anterlic ocean from Equestria's East Coast. The countries were all the ones she had learned the names of many times over. Prance, Gryphony, Carpathia, and many more. Her attention was drawn to Gryphony as Dusty pointed a hoof at the country.
"What about Gryphony? Are you asking me about their history?" Daring asked. Dusty shook his head.
"Then you mean the current political situation?" asked Daring. This time Dusty nodded in the affirmative.
"Alright," Daring started, tapping her forehead as she thought. "I know that the treaty that ended the War had provisions that would keep Gryphony unified in a fair political system that was rule by popular vote. But last year the population voted in Guenther, and then they wanted to make him the emperor and throw out the democratic system."
"They succeeded," said Dusty, shaking his head. "I'm afraid to think of this, but I think we're going to have to watch out for the Gryphons."
"You mean the ones from Gryphony, right?" Daring said, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course that's what I mean. The ones that live within Equestria got their citizenship fair and square. No, I'm just afraid of what this new government across the pond might..."
"Jeez, Dusty!" Daring exclaimed, shaking her head and laughing. "Calm down. Nothing's gonna happen. They're just trying to get back on their hooves after being knocked down like the rest of us... or would that be claws?"
"I guess..." said Dusty, biting his lower lip. He didn't seem at all eased.
"Anyways, the Gryphons have a team down in South Equestria looking for Zenith. Are you familiar with Zenith?" continued Dusty.
"What self-respecting archaeologist isn't?" Daring joked, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, connected with the legends of the ancient civilizations, right? It's supposedly the place where a bunch of ponies would compete whenever one of the kings died, and they had to choose a new one."
"The Gryphons seem to think that Zenith actually exists. They're running around all over the place down there, with excavations and armed escorts and..." started Dusty, before Daring cut him off.
"Woah woah woah, hold up," said Daring, holding both of her hooves out in front of her. Dusty looked at her, raising one of his eyebrows this time.
"Do you mean to tell me they're going back on the military limits and sending in troops along with the diggers?" asked Daring, flabbergasted. "That's in direct defiance of..."
"That's the thing," Dusty remarked. "They're intent on finding Zenith, to the point where they've breached international treaty. Now, I know nopony wants to risk getting into another conflict, but I think it's in our best interest to find Zenith first. After all, it is pony history and not gryphon history buried there."
"So you want me to find Zenith?" said Daring, looking pensive. Dusty nodded, and motioned towards the paper that he had given her only a few minutes earlier.
"That's the information for when flights leave," said Dusty. He looked about him, suddenly remembering something important that he had forgotten. It was funny to watch how he behaved when he forgot something. He'd blush a little bit. For him it was a matter of pride to have things in order and to know where things were. When he did lose something, and if you were watching him, he'd get more and more frantic to find it the longer it remained lost. If he had to look for more than a minute he would get really worried, and begin to look in the same places twice in a desperate attempt to find what he had lost, and he might even have started groaning in frustration.
Fortunately for Dusty Shelves' pride, he found what he had been looking for rather quickly. He had two black and white photographs in a manila folder, which he slid out and placed in front of Daring. Daring looked at the photos carefully. She saw a stallion wearing what appeared to be a campaign hat and uniform from the World War era. He had an appearance about his eyes that made Daring believe that he was middle aged, perhaps a veteran of some kind? The other wore a brodie helmet over his head, and his eyes were obscured by a pair of large goggles.
"Who are these two?" asked Daring, looking at the photographs and cocking her head to one side. She hadn't met either of these ponies before.
"That's Sergeant Trenchoof, and that's Engineer Hammer. They're both veterans that work for the museum," Dusty answered, nodding his head as he spoke.
"They're down in South Equestria right now, I'd like you to rendezvous with them as soon as possible. They've been there for several months now, I'm sure they'll be able to give you information on Zenith based on their discoveries."
Daring listened. She had made up her mind long ago that this was something she had interest in. She had gotten her doctorate in archaeology, and Zenith was one of those places that was caught up heavily in several different ancient cultures of the region. Indeed, stories of the underworld and by extension Zenith were a major part of the mythos of the ancient pony civilizations she had studied extensively.
"I'll do it!" said Daring, accepting the mission. She was in for some more pay, and an expedition down to South Equestria's wild jungles sounded like just the change of scenery she needed from the gloomy mood of economic strife.
****
The street lamps cast a shimmering light on the road as the current of water ran downhill. The rain drove down in thick sheets, splashing against the already damp sidewalk and surrounding Daring with the sound of a deafening spatter. She counted the numbers on the houses on Wither's Terrace. The street overlooked another section of houses down below, and looped around to meet them on both sides. Right now she was reaching the flat area on top of the hill, where the houses had been constructed on both sides. Her house was number 9.
Through the driving rain, Daring squinted to see the number on the house to her right. A small "7" was nailed near the door. She knew where she was now, her house would be the next one on the right. She would have known it instinctively had it not been for the down pouring rain obscuring most of her sight.
When Daring entered her home, she was relieved to feel the dryness, relieved to be inside from the drenching precipitation. She was aware that she was still dripping, and so she hung up her coat on a hanger in the mudroom of her small house, and made her way over to her bathroom. Daring opened one of the cabinets, and reached inside to pull out a large cotton towel. She wrapped it around herself, rubbing it over herself to mop up the wetness. She rubbed it into her mane, in turn making it spike up in odd places. It was still wet, though at least now that she had patted it down it wasn't dripping. Daring picked up a comb and ran it through the front of her mane, flattening the random hair spikes and making it look more normal.
Once she felt dry, Daring walked into the main section of her house. She flicked on a light switch, and her living room was illuminated with bright lighting from overhead fixtures. She felt tired, as if her legs had given all they were capable of giving and she couldn't stand on them without being cruel to herself. She sat down on the maroon carpeting, gazing at the papers she had strewn across the floor. Daring wasn't much of a neat freak, and her office at work was proof of that. However, she had taken the time to organize the stacks of paper before she had left for Los Pegasus the previous night. It was a long train ride both ways, and she was lucky she had been able to make it to the conference rooms earlier that evening to return the artifact. Now she had several stacks of work to grade, from the students she taught classes to at the University. Professor Daring Do, they'd call her. She'd insist that they just refer to her as Daring, and some of the students did. But there were still several that refused to be informal with a professor, even if she was the youngest professor the college had ever had on staff.
Daring peered at the top of the nearest stack. The paper was titled "European Civilization in the Dark Ages" Daring frowned. She had expected that there were going to be several students who had chosen to do their reports on the medieval times, opting to take the easier route and do less research.
Why was she looking at the student's papers? She was in no rush to get them back. Besides, she wouldn't be at the University for several days. She had an expedition to go on. Daring slid the stack of paper off to one side of the living room as she supported herself with her other front leg. After getting the papers out of the way, Daring stood up onto all fours. There was the soreness again. She'd be quick, though. Daring had a set of maps lying on top of a nearby wooden coffee table. So much for organization. She spread the map out onto the carpet, and peered over to look for the location she was going to. The continent looked odd to her, tapering southwest and bulging at the end, with another protrusion branching off to the south. This wasn't South Equestria, she had grabbed a map of Europe!
Daring hastily swapped her European map out with one for South Equestria. Contrary to uninformed belief, South Equestria was not a part of "Equestria" the nation. Many foals had difficulty distinguishing from "Equestria" the pair of northern and southern continents and "Equestria" the nation that took up most of the northern continent, and the one that they resided in. Daring couldn't say she blamed them.
Spreading out the map, Daring referenced the sheet that Dusty Shelves had given her. She was to land in a city called Falabella by plane and then travel north all the way to Marchador City. She would rest there for a day, and then take transport to a specific village, whose name was not on the map of South Equestria. Daring shrugged to herself. She had some more time the following morning that she could try to pinpoint where she was heading.
The map of the continent had some areas on it that were circled. Daring had clipped scraps of notes to the map awhile back, and they cluttered it up. Indeed, the map was also covered in markings and paths drawn onto it by Daring herself as she had mapped out several expeditions in the area. The oldest marking dated to around 1925, which she had done in between semesters as a student. The most recent markings were around the eastern coast, where Daring had gone to find a statue made out of sapphire that had had been threatened by a gang of criminals. Ahuitzotl had given her a lot of trouble over the past year or so, since they had first crossed paths back in 1932. Just last year she had discovered his plans to pervert the usage of some ancient relics to meet his crime ring's needs and to bring himself more power. She sure hoped that he was going to stay away from this expedition to Zenith.
It seemed that the expedition was set in an area near the center, but branching off from the main river. The rain forest was something Daring didn't mind, in fact she enjoyed being out in the elements more than she enjoyed walking the streets of Canterlot. Out there she felt... alive and free. Nature didn't care what the economy looked like. It was a constant, ever-present force that Daring could appreciate. The pony sighed, and rolled up her map. She would have to look at it later. Perhaps her journals and other notes would give her something useful to ponder, but for now all Daring really wanted to do was to doze off...