Daring Do and the Doppelganger's Deception

by Ookamithewolf1

Chapter 1: How Daring was arrested, and how much trouble it put her in.

Daring Do and the Doppelganger’s Deception

By Ookami The Wolf 1

Chapter 1: How Daring was arrested, and how much trouble it put her in.

The land of Ponisia was a mystical, ancient land. It was located on a large continent southwest of the land of Equestria. It was a desert land. Its buildings were made from clay and sand with tiled roofs shaded in palm trees. It was a land where water was worth its weight in gold, and the gold, well, it was valuable beyond all imagine. Especially here. Being an ancient culture it had a lot of ancient secrets that usually unearthed themselves as hidden tombs filled with gold or forgotten temples swallowed by the desert’s ever-shifting sand.

Daring Do had gone over her notes a hundred times. She had discovered an old map in a book in the Canterlot archives. It (along with weeks of research) had led her to discover the route to a lost treasure. The clues were a little vague and required further research. Suddenly a shrill whistle blew indicating that the ship she was on had docked. She folded her map and stuck it inside the rim of her hat. She threw on her saddle bags and waited for the crowd near the gang plank to thin before she disembarked.

After spending an entire week on a steamer ship, Daring Do was glad to be back on solid ground. Its not that she didn’t like sea travel, and the S.S. Celestia was anything but cheap, but she longed for a change of scenery from the endless ocean and the decks filled with tourist playing shuffleboard. Also (and she would never admit it) she would sometimes get severe sea-sickness, and Dramamine is not fun to take.

The docks were crowded with workers unloading crates from the steamer. They weren’t being very gentle with the 70 pound wardrobe trunks they were unloading. She had learned long ago never to send anything in the cargo hold. At least as long as she didn’t want it damaged in some unconceivable way. Of course after 2 years of world travel she had learned to pack very light. She kept personal items in one saddle bag and her tools in another. She always hid her most precious documents in her hat. Today she was going to learn just how good it is to travel light, since she was about to loose everything but her hat.

Daring made her way through the twisting streets to her hotel. ‘The Arabian Arms’ was not one of the best hotels in the city, but it was the best one that wasn’t full of tourist taking photos of everything that looked even remotely exotic. If you haven’t caught on yet, Daring is not fond of tourist. She walked up past the bell-boys dressed in red with big fez hats and up to the front desk.

“The Name is Daring Do. I have a reservation.”

“Lets see.” Said the mare behind the desk. But instead of looking at his log books he starred at her for a very long moment, suddenly his eyes grew as wide as saucers.

“Is there a problem?” Asked Daring.

“Uh, err, no. Not at all. Here’s your key M-Miss Do. Room 21.”

The clerks hand was shaking as he handed her the key.

“Okaaaay. Thanks.”

“Boy that was a little weird.” Thought Daring as she walked towards the stairs. She looked back to se the manager making a phone call. He seemed almost frantic.

“It’s probably nothing.”

Daring’s room was at the top of the stairs. She used her key and walked into the room. It was a small room with a double bed, a dresser, and a vase of flowers on an end table. She threw her saddlebags on the floor and walked out onto the minuscule balcony. Looked out onto the busy street filled with vendors and tourist reminded her way she traveled. Culture. Interacting with as many cultures as possible was at the top of her ‘Things I Love’ list. She turned back into her room and collapsed onto the bed where she started to fall asleep.

“The warm breeze…feels…so… (Yawn) good.”

Suddenly her nap was interrupted when her hotel door came crashing down and several ponies dressed in blue uniforms poured in. they were all wielding night sticks, and one of them threw a net over Daring Do.

“What the bloody hell is…” Was all she got out before a club made contact with her head and everything went black. This wasn’t how she planned to fall asleep, but it sure was effective.

Several hours later Daring woke. Her head was swimming from the blow she took from the blackjack. Moonlight shone through the window, indicated that she had been out for at least six hours. The first thing she noticed was that she was sleeping on a bed that was so lumpy it couldn’t be a hotel bed (even a cockroach couldn’t fall asleep here). If that wasn’t bad enough the next thing she noticed were bars on the window.

“Wait a minute. Bad mattress… bars on window…crap.”

Daring looked around to find herself surrounded by bars. It wasn’t the first time she had been arrested, and usually the matter was cleared up quickly or a fine paid. However this was the first time she was taken by force. She got up and started walking around her cell. Her head was still a little fuzzy but after about 10 minutes she was back in full control of her faculties. It was then that she noticed it.

Across the hall from her cell was a bulletin board covered in wanted posters and government propaganda. Right in the center was a rather bad picture of her with a nasty look on her face. Above it said ‘Wanted’ and below it said ’For Robbery and Attempted Murder’.

“Oh this is not good. Not good at all.” Said Daring, shaking her head.

A few minutes later a bailiff came and opened the door. He grabbed Daring and half dragged / half threw her down the hall. Daring tried to ask the rough pony what was going on but got nothing but an evil stare. He put her in a bare room with nothing but a chair, table, a large mirror, and lots of lights. It was an interrogation room, and not the cleanest one at that. The bailiff ordered her to sit down and when she did he handcuffed her to the table. He left and as he did turned on all the lights. There were enough bulbs lit to fry an egg.

She knew what was happening. She knew that the hot lights were to soften her up. In Equestrian the police were trusted mares who used evidence and protocol to try and convict criminals. She was even friends with a few. But she wasn’t in Equestrian. She was about as far away from Canterlot as one can get. The cops here take their first suspect, force out a confession, and then get a commendation. Bribes were common…and so was torture. That last part bothered her. There was no way she had enough cash to bribe her way out of a robbery/murder charge. But what got robbed? Who did it? And most importantly why was it HER face on the wanted poster!

A few minutes later two ugly looking ponies came in. One was wearing a uniform and another wearing a cheap, ruffled brown suit with the world’s ugliest tie. He spoke first.

“I’m the head detective here. Confess and you might get life without parole…if you’re lucky.”

Daring thought for a moment.

“You’ll have to forgive my confusion,” said Daring, “I just arrived in this country today and don’t really know what’s going on.”

“What do you mean?!” Said the Detective somewhat surprised.

“At 15:00 I arrived off the steamer from Equestria. At 15:30 I find myself being kidnapped and beaten. Now I’m being interrogated. All I know is what I saw on a wanted poster with a picture of someone who looks like me.”

“You lie! You robbed that army depot with your goon squad and wounded 4 guards. One was a friend of mine.” Raved the detective.” According to your passport your name is ‘Daring Do’ and that you’re an archeologist. Confess! Where did you hide the Army digging equipment you stole?”

“Digging equipment?”

“One Steam excavator, 500 picks & shovels, and 1000lbs of dynamite.” Said the uniformed officer as he read off a list.

“She knows what she stole, moron!” Said the detective.

“Why do you think it was me?” Asked Daring.

“This is all the evidence I need” Said the detective as he threw a dozen pictures down on the table.

Daring’s eyes quickly darted back and forth as she looked on in disbelief. The photos showed a group of mercenary ponies raiding an army base. They were led by a pony that looked exactly like her! The mane was her color, as was her fur. She was wearing the same explorers vest and pit helmet. But even more amazing was the fact that she had the exact same compass-shaped cutie mark!

Even though it wasn’t her she knew that nothing she said would convince them otherwise. It looked bad, really bad. She started to think fast. The steamer company would have her ticket on file but those files were 8000 miles away in Equestria. Only the year was stamped in her passport and Ponisia didn’t require visa’s. She started to think up excuses when her thoughts were interrupted by a lead-filled baton swinging across her jaw. Her head snapped sharply right and she noticed a fresh spot of blood on the wall. Apparently she had ‘zoned out’ a bit too long and had missed one of the short fused detectives questions, at which point he had decided that it would be easier to beat out a confession. She was sweating profusely from the lights and now required stitches across her lower lip which she knew she’d never get. The detective walked around the table and gave her a hard punch to the gut. She reeled over and fell off her chair. It was hard to get up since she was still handcuffed to the table but she somehow managed. The detective put a scroll on the table along with a quill and some ink.

“This scroll is a complete confession. All you have to do is put your name on it. We’ll be back with some ‘persuasion’ tools. If you know what’s good for you’ll sign it before we get back

The two officers left and turned out all the lights. That was to her advantage. With the lights out Daring could see that there was no one on the other side of the one-way glass. She had at least a good ten minutes. Now the only thing left for her to do was break out of police Headquarters. It was a puzzle all right. Fortunately she was very good at puzzles.

The handcuffs were nothing. She pulled out a bobby pin she kept in her mane just for this type of situation. The cuffs were off in seconds. Now she needed to get out of the police station without being spotted. When she was brought into the interrogation room she had caught a glimpse of the layout of the main station. There was a massive squad room with offices lining one wall and locker rooms on the other side. Across from her was the entrance, but it was a good 75 feet and she’d have to wade though 50 cops who had all been staring at her photo for at least a week.

“The locker rooms! Of course. I might just be able to get there, get a disguise, and get out of here!”

Daring Scribbled out something on the scroll and slowly peaked out of the door. The cops hadn’t locked it since they figured the cuffs would hold. She was only a dozen paces from the lockers. Fortunately a few of the lights had blown out so she could stick to the shadows. Most of the cops were seated at their desks intent on their endless paperwork. Daring was about to leave when she saw the two cops walking back to her. The ‘tools’ they were carrying were, well, I’m not even going to describe them, they’re so bad. Then Daring eyed the uniform officer with the detective. He was about her size. Then a large smile grew across Daring’s face.

She quickly sat down as the officers walked back in. They locked the door behind them and put the torture tools on the table.

“Have you signed the confession?” Asked the Detective.

“I have. I decided that my frail body couldn’t take a beating.” Daring almost giggled as her melodrama escalated.

“Damn.” Said the Detective. “Well, I suppose I could always loosen my fist on your…What the!”

The detective had noticed that instead of Daring’s signature on the confession note, she had written ‘Detective, go buck yourself. PS, your suit sucks.’

With that Daring stood up and flipped the table over onto the Detective. He fell over backwards. She jumped on him and hoof-stomped his face. Daring’s punch was enough to knock him out. The cop was shocked for a minute by suddenly seeing his superior KO’ed. It was enough. Daring spun around and kicked the cop with both of her rear legs. He slammed back against the wall. Daring grabbed his collar and gave him three hard rights. That and a kick in the nuts was enough to knock him out. She quickly stripped the cop of his uniform and donned her new disguise. She was lucky in that no one had heard the short scuffle. She still had her pit helmet which contained her research notes but all her tools and luggage had been impounded. She decided it was too risky to search for them.

She grabbed a whip off the table, walked out of interrogation 1 and started for the exit. She swiftly picked up a file off of a desk and held it up like she was reading it, conveniently hiding her face. As she neared the exit an alarm sounded. The cops had evidently discovered the two counts of assault she had left behind her. D.D. picked up the pace and went through the rickety revolving doors. She haled a cab

“Police emergency! Drive!” Daring barked to the driver.

“Where to?”

“1000 Rue De Sud. And step on it!”

It was the only address she knew in town. It led to an old bookshop that specialized in antique books and scrolls. The shop had moved and she knew it, but the police might trace her back through the cabbie. 10 minutes later she was there. She hopped out of the cab and ran into the ally pretending to go around back to foil a robber just to sell it to the driver. It worked as he shrugged it off and left. Daring kept running through the ally and out to the next road. The book shop had moved nearly 20 blocks and she had to hoof it all the way, but the sooner she was off the street the better. Because the sooner she was safe the sooner she could discover just what was going on.

Comments

[abandoned2123]

Good concept and good writing, but I would recommend working on your descriptions and dialogue. As is, the characters feel somewhat wooden with the blunt way that they're speaking. Try to pepper the narrative with some imagery involving their mannerisms and subtle actions. That will allow for them to breathe and seem less mechanical.