Daring Do and the Gryphon's Goblet

by Sir Squidfish

Chapter 3

Daring Do had found a frog. From underneath a rock in a small crevice the large specimen, Litoria Platycephala, peered unblinkingly up at her. If there had been anyone else within miles they would certainly have found it an odd sight: The pony, appearing totally haggard and on Pluto’s very doormat, squinting through the intense sunlight to make out the reptile- calm, cool, and composed- huddled comfortably in its small nest of sandy earth. A frog… such a simple organism on the surface, yet she knew it truly to be an unimaginably complicated piece of existence, unaccountably able to survive in this hostile environment of sand and sun. She found herself silently rambling and wishing, not for the first time, that she too could subsist in this sort of natural inferno.

It was never like this in Indianapples… Although, she added, darkly humorous to the end, If I’d just waited five more minutes, it just might have turned out to be… Five minutes was just what she didn’t have right now, and she mentally kicked herself for every minute of her life she had ever wasted. Wasted…This whole escapade was a waste. A waste of time, of energy…
Of Life.

If only she had never gone for that walk…or opened the package…or tried to handle the results on her own. She wished none of these things had ever happened to her. If her life had remained as it was, even as much as she hated it, she would never trade it for this.
Or would she?
Why had she felt such a great yearning for the outdoors after so much monotony? Why was it that she would take such precaution in opening a simple parcel? What was it that drove her to investigate by herself rather than let the authorities handle it as anypony else would have done? And how was it that, stranded in the scorching heat of the desert with only a hat and a frog, she knew just what to do? There could be but one answer.

She was Daring Do, Explorer, Archaeologist, Adventurer.

***

Daring Do peered intently through the microscope lens at the slide she had newly prepared. At one in the morning, the light of the lab she occupied was the only one in the building that was still on. She didn’t care-- she felt she was on the verge of an investigative breakthrough. For hours she had strained her eyes on the samples of hair and saliva she had found in the box, but until now she had had no luck.
She suddenly found herself revived with new energy as she compared the cells on the hair sample to a textbook illustration of cells from a Neighbian’s mane. They were identical, she was sure of it! This meant that whoever had packaged the bomb must have been a foreigner, a citizen of Neighbia by birth. Since Neighbians were an absolute rarity in any part of Equestria, and even more so in Indianapples, this meant that the assailant would be easy to spot in any crowd.
Daring Do let out a sort of sigh coupled with a relieved neigh. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath for the past minute. With this latest breakthrough, she felt she had a chance.
Not that I didn’t have the situation well in hoof from the beginning… She lied silently, comically hoping that she would believe herself. After all, she had the most innocent eyes…

She looked at her reflection in a nearby beaker and laughed. Her eyes were bloodshot (again!) from hours of poring over microscopes and dusty old textbooks in her investigative frenzy, her mane was even more frazzled than usual, and her lips were curled into something approaching a maniacal grin.
Or… not so innocent.

She shrugged and began packing up her work. Unlike most young mares, she didn’t really give a buck for fashion or keeping up a perfect appearance. While she rated personal cleanliness as a very important virtue, when it came to style, a plain vest and hat were good enough for her most days. She was a schoolteacher, a rugged explorer, not some anorexic model. Keep it simple had been her motto, and so far she had found nothing wrong with it.

She finished wrapping up all her findings and slipped them into her satchel for future reference. She cleaned up the lab, put everything back in its place so that NEAT FREAK Chemist Guy would have nothing to complain about next time she asked to use the laboratory, put away a few things she had not taken out just for good measure, and walked out the door with her bag in tow and a massive headache from another late night playing detective. She turned off all the lights and headed home.

---

The next day dawned bright and clear, and Daring Do was up with the rooster as usual. She toddled over to the mirror and surveyed the wreckage that had been her mane. She sighed and ran a mounted comb through it until she was satisfied with the results. Now her mane looked messy; before, it had needed only a tape border to complete it as a confirmed disaster area.
She completed her toilet and morning exercises and then headed over to her desk away from the window to organize her day. After contemplating the blank parchment before her for a few moments, she picked up a pencil in her mouth and began to write:

Item one: Review notes from last night and copy all pertinent information on suspect.
Item two: Question the neighbors and shop owners in this vicinity. They may have seen suspect around.
Item three: PROCEED WITH CAUTION. This is no foalish prank I’m dealing with. Treat it with all seriousness.
Item four: Think before I confront suspect. In the name of Celestia, THINK. Now I’ve got him, what do I do with him? Foals rush in where alicorns dare to trot.

She paused. She felt there was more to think about, much more, but she couldn’t think what she could have missed. It was all pretty simple, really. Review, Interview, Preview before proceeding. RIP.
Oh, lovely…
She faced the mirror again and straightened her vest. Right. Hat on. Saddlebags securely fastened. Notebook, pen, pencil, hoofkerchief, blackjack, bag, rope… Good. All the usual geedunk in its nest. Time to get it done. After reviewing her notes and taking some new ones, she decided to go talk to the locals first. She’d get most of the clues she needed from what they had observed.

---

“No, can’t say I have.”

“Sorry, can’t help you.”

“Not really, just the usual I guess.”

“And what was it you were selling again, dearie?”

Such were the responses Daring garnered at nearly every door on which she knocked. The others- the ones who didn’t have totally inane replies for her- just weren’t home. She was getting discouraged and a little annoyed. Come on, ponies, have you no EYES? Do you notice NOTHING? Why was it that the more magic and technology advanced, the less anypony felt the need to use her brain? Princess forbid that technology should ever entirely replace free, organic thought, but some days it certainly seemed close to it.

After checking at nearly every home in her neighborhood, the mare decided she should have started at the local businesses. Since she couldn’t go back in time and un-waste her morning, she did the next best thing: She started walking to the nearest string of restaurants, the ones right across from her house.

As she plodded from eatery to eatery, she found the patrons and management to be about as helpful as that one guy who always yells “Did you fall?” as you lie on the ground thinking about how many cadaver teams it will take to recover your innards-- in other words, they weren’t. Helpful. They weren’t helpful. She almost decided just to call it quits for the day and go home to crash, but she stuck to the principal of the thing and tripped up to the last building in the row, a smallish diner called Al’s Greasy Nose.
Must attract a lot of customers with a name like that…
She walked through the door and marched straight up to the stallion tending the bar. The barkeep was always in the know-- this she had learned from extensive experience and a lot of old mystery novels.

“Excuse me, but have you seen a Neighbian with a black mane, black tail, or black mane and tail in here recently?”

The bestubbled specimen behind the counter took a moment to consider the question, and then recognition dawned on his features. Daring Do held her breath and waited for his reply. It was not long in coming.

“Hey, you’re that teacher from the Indianapples system, right? Great job on your speech last Sunday at the Museum…”

While Daring was pleased at being remembered, she was in no mood for idle chatter, even if it was compliments-- something she didn’t get every day. She coughed.

“The Neighbian?”

“Oh, yeah, that. Nah I ain’t seen one.”

Daring Do ground her teeth together. Another dead end.

~~~

Hey ponies, me again. Sir Squidfish, I mean. OK, I know I owe you guys an explanation/apology for some of the incorrect scientific fruitcake in this chapter; don’t worry, you’ll get it at the conclusion of chapter 4. Thanks for putting up with my schedule and everything else; you, Reader, rock.
--Squiddy out!

Comments

[Random as pinkie]

that was great!!!!

[Sir Squidfish]

>>random as pinkie Is this historical fiction?