Derring-Do and the Lost Kingdom

by Eh

Chapter One

Location: Royal Canterlot Museum of History and Science
Time: 2:33 PM, March 5th, Five Years before Nightmare Moon's Return

Penworthy trotted up the steps to the museum, her saddlebag rustling with her recently completed manuscript. It only took her about four hours to do, but a Gryphonian typewriter, combined with the fact that her latest work is a children's book meant that she could've finished it in two hours if she hadn't stopped for lunch. Regardless of speed or directed audience, she was genuinely proud of it, as she is in all of her works and in books in general (except for the ones written by her less-than-savory brother Lemon Lime.)

Penworthy was a unicorn mare, violet coat, fluffy purple mane, nothing too significant. Her cutie mark, unsurprisingly, was a cross made from pens with a paper forming the background. Fits for pony with writing as a special talent. Her blue eyes looked upon the museum with awe, something she can't help despite visiting every other day. Her good friend worked there, and she wouldn't be surprised if it was for the building.

The Royal Canterlot Museum of History and Science boasted great white walls of marble, intricately carved with delicate designs of plants and animals into the walls. The building itself was huge, nearly four stories tall and half a hoofball field's long. Great white columns held up the arch over the entrance, the columns themselves decorated with vines with white flowerings blossoming in the spring. The arch itself, triangular, had carvings of Celestia's long lost (banished to the moon) sister, Princess Luna, a well known scholar in her time when she wasn't raising the moon. Even the doors were gilded with shining gold around the edges, and they themselves were carved from naalwood exclusive to Tanith, which were priceless considering their rarity. One could conclude that those who built the museum went a bit overboard with making it look nice, but when your principal funder is, of all people, Prince Blueblood, it might be expected.

Penworthy walked into the museum. She spied small groups of nobleponies walking around spying the exhibits. She also took notice of an earthpony leading a group of fillies and colts along on some sort of tour. The colts in particular were attempting to touch the large fossilized skeleton of a Chrichtosauros, (a fierce apex predator of it's time, huge and with a skull harder than dragon scales, unfortunately driven to extinction by the first Hearth's Warming Eve.) much to the annoyance of the Royal Guardsponies. She continued walking through, eventually there stopped being exhibits of pre-historic animals and science experiments and soon became offices for the museums employees.

She stopped at one in particular, the door holding the name of it's current owner in the window:

Derring-Do
Cartography and Navigation

She magically willed the door open, then noticed the lights were off except for the one closest to her desk. What's more, her giant table that's usually taking up the majority of space in the room was now sitting on it's side against the wall. She then noticed the audience, shrouded in darkness but clearly silhouetted against the light. Finally, she spotted her friend, Derring-Do, currently writing something she couldn't understand on a chalkboard. Penworthy decided to enter in quietly, sitting down next to an earth pony with a cherry coat and a matching cherry and white mane. Derring turned, spied her friend and gave her a quick wink, then began.

"Good evening, my name is Derring-Do, you all know me as the museum's chief cartographer. Now, some of you may or may not have heard of the mythical civilization of Thule." Derring quickly flew over to her desk, grabbing a few papers and books then floated back to the center of attention.

"Now, Thule is an interesting subject mind you, it is said that long before the Princess's reign, pre-history mind you, Thule was very advanced." Derring showed a picture, an illustration specifically of Thule. A bustling metropolis, not unlike Fillydelphia or Manehatten.

"Before unicorns learned magic, they had renewable energy like electricity." She showed off a picture of a carving of a grid, punctuated by strange letters, presumably of the Thulite alphabet.

"Before earth ponies learned how to farm, they had advanced medicine." She showed off another picture of a carving

"And even before pegasi learned to control weather and fly properly, they had powered, heavier than air flight!" She held up an illustration of an artist's impression of a Thulite flying machine, a chrome, smooth with no edges, bird shaped (even including the bird's head with open beak) flying machine.

"Impressive ain't it? But now you're probably thinking, why did Thule disappear? Well, a great cataclysmic event shook the planet, possibly driving Thule underground. The continent that the civilization and city of Thule once stood upon is now probably underground." Derring-Do put the pictures back on her desk, now insisting on lifting an iron and extremely heavy shield from one side of the room and onto center stage.

"Now..." Derring kind of struggling with the weight.

"Many civilizations and nations have agreed that at some point, Thule may've existed and have attempted expeditions to find it. For example, this Gryp-" She gently let the shield down, catching her breath for a second.

"This Gryphonian Shield has runes around it's circumference in the old Griffinish language. The rune's say, "Thule may be found, but only with the Journal." She slid the shield out of view.

"The Journal in question, is actually Clover the Clever's journal, a book long lost from the archives after the Lunar Rebellion some thousand years ago. The Journal provides detailed explanations of the workings of Thule, and most importantly, how to get there. Mares and Stallions, I've already plotted a route that will take us to where, I believe, the journal now currently resides. With the journal, we can find Thule, and bring it's knowledge here to us. I'll take your questions now." Derring flew up to the lights and pulled a cord with her teeth, the light's came on.

Revealing her audience to be a class of foals and their earth pony schoolteacher. All of whom were asleep. Penworthy nudged the teacher awake. The earth pony quickly came to in a fit.

"Oh! Excellent presentation Miss Do! Absolutely enjoyed it!" She put on a nervous smile, her bright green eyes quivering with being put on the spot.

"Was no trouble Miss Cheerilee, always love rehearsing a speech in front of a willing audience." Derring said. She knew the foals were asleep, but she caused no ruckus over it, she wasn't that mean. Besides, sleeping foals were cute. She tapped the floor with her hoof, rousing the sleeping foals.

"Well, good luck with your presentation then Miss Do, hope you find what you're looking for! Come along children!" Cheerilee walked out the door, her foals excitedly in tow, eager to touch the Chrichtosauros. Penworthy sidled up to Derring.

"Well Derring, I think that was great! That expedition is a shoe-in!" Penworthy said.

"Thanks Penny, so what are you here for?" Penworthy quickly took out her manuscript from her bag and placed it down on Derring's desk. Derring floated over to it curiously, quickly spying the title.

Daring-Do and the Quest for the Saphire Stone
By Penworthy

"Well first off, you spelled my name wrong." Derring quickly said.

"Oh that's just for the fillies and colts. It's to give the character that sense of-" Penworthy quickly reared up into an actiony pose, barely convincing Derring, "spirit, bravado, a touch of derring-do."

Derring rolled her eyes. She quickly shuffled through the manuscript, noting that she was apparently some adventurer archaeologist who'd saved the day by retrieving priceless artifacts and keeping them away from some evil-doer named Ahuizotl (who literally was an ahuizotl.) She was bemused by the fact that her friend would write a book about her, just not exactly amused by how exaggerated it was.

The description of Derring (Daring) was spot-on, sandy yellow coat, grayscale mane, compass rose cutie mark, even wearing her father's famous safari helmet. She didn't understand however, why Daring would sneak into an ancient temple, steal some museum piece and trigger every trap that results in the temple's destruction. That sounded completely inefficient and wasteful to her. The kind of character Daring was, to Derring, just a glorified tomb raider. Bluntly put, she didn't like it.

"So... why would you base a character off of me Penny?" Derring asked curiously. Penworthy was still doing her sloppy action poses.

"Because you're awesome! I mean..." Penworthy sat down next to Derring's desk, "You're an excellent template for that dashing, brave hero that all kinds of fillies and colts could use a role model."

"I'm just a cartographer, and a navigator occasionally."

"Oh you're just being modest." Penworthy willed the manuscript back into her saddlebag, "So do you approve Derring?"

"I guess..." Derring really did not want to send the wrong message about what archaeology actually entailed, "just, is it going to be just this one book?"

"I'm planning a trilogy!" Penworthy smiled as she trotted out the door, Derring smashed her face onto her desk in frustration. At least it's just a trilogy, she thought. Suddenly, a ring came from the telephone on her desk. She quickly answered it with a well rehearsed:

"Derring-Do! Cartography and Navigation!" On the other line was Secretariat, the museum receptionist. Her crisp and cheerful voice was instantly recognizable.

"Hi Derring, calling to let you know, your presentation for the board of directors has been moved up from 4:00 to 3:00 sharp." Derring quickly looked at the clock, which just recently struck 3:30.

"What!? But-"

"Oh yeah! They also told me to tell you, since you were absent for about a half hour, they've moved to reject your proposal. Have a nice day!" Secretariat hung up. Derring-Do's eyes widened at the news, and her emotions flared from angry, to sad, to confused-

"THEY CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!", and quickly back to angry. She flew up out of her office, scattering papers and knocking the large table on its side back into its proper position.

* * *

Four nobleponies walked out into the main lobby of the museum, all dressed in the most luxurious suits. Chief among them, was Prince Blueblood.

"I swear, if I ever hear the word "Thule" again, I'd sooner throw myself off a cliff," one of the nobles said, to laughter from the rest.

"I'll push you!" One of the nobles said, to even greater laughter. The laughter immediately ceased when they saw the familiar sandy coat of Derring-Do.

"Prince Blueblood! Wait!" Derring-Do shouted. She quickly flew after the now fleeing nobleponies, all of whom ran in different directions, except Blueblood who opted to run for his carriage outside.

"Guards! Stop her!" Blueblood shouted. Two pegasus guard ponies quickly flew in between Derring and the now escaping Blueblood. They braced themselves for any assault Derring could throw at them. Derring-Do quickly took to her wings and simply knocked them out of the way through sheer speed. Derring flew outside into the now increasingly cloudy day and immediately spied Blueblood entering his carriage.

"Wait!" Derring had smacked into the side of the carriage, closing the door for Blueblood. She quickly recovered, but before she could explain herself, Blueblood had poked his head out the window.

"Derring! I know what you're here for, and I'm going to say this clearly!" The unicorn prince scowled at Derring, who quickly shrunk under his gaze, "This museum funds expeditions based on scientific facts and evidence! Not folklore and mythology!"

"But sir, I have new evidence-"

"That is purely speculative in nature!" That quickly shut Derring up. Not because of the tone, but also because he was right. Her only evidence of Thule's existence was based off of theories and cited from rather off-the-wall historians who can't understand geology (one of which adamantly believes in the ancient aliens theory which she admits is stupid.) "Driver! Get me out of here!"

The carriage quickly pulled away from Derring, but she was not just one to give up after a brief lecture. she quickly picked herself back up and flew after the carriage. She managed to catch up to the carriage quickly and flew alongside the window.

"But sir! I have new evidence!" She reached around for a map, realizing she never bothered to pick one up, "It's in Gallia! Off the coast of Gryphonia! I'm sure of it this time!"

Blueblood quickly pulled the curtains, shutting out Derring. This didn't last long however, as Derring simply busted through the window.

"Sir! I'm sorry it has to come to this! But..." She presented a small letter sized piece of paper in her teeth, "This is a letter of resignation! If you do not fund-"

The carriage quickly hit a hard turn, knocking Derring out of the window. She quickly picked herself back up and screamed:

"I'LL QUIT!" She sat there, and to her great delight, the carriage stopped. It then backed up to Derring, Blueblood popped his head out of the window.

"I mean it sir, if you don't-" She was cut off by her resignation letter being pulled out of her hooves and into Blueblood's grip. He closed the curtains, and the carriage was off. Derring simply sat there, shocked at what just happened, letting the events sink in. She had now partly resigned and been partly fired from her job, her expedition to Thule was left dead in the water, and it was going to rain.

"Horseapples." was all she could say.

Comments

[Pony Sigma]

Just started reading... you might want to work on your tenses.
"
Penworthy trotted up the steps to the museum, her saddlebag rustling with her recently completed manuscript. It only took her about four hours to do, but a Gryphonian typewriter, combined with the fact that her latest work was a children's book meant that she could've finished it in two hours if she hadn't stopped for lunch. Regardless of speed or directed audience, she was genuinely proud of it, as she was in all of her works and in books in general (except for the ones written by her less-than-savory brother Lemon Lime. )"

Other than that, it looks nice so far! I'll be waiting for the next update!

[Eh]

394516
Thanks for the tips on grammar and I'm very much glad that you like it.

I'll try and maybe get at least one or two updates out this week before I fall into the slump known as the United States education.