The Unpublished Origin of Daring Do

by David Silver

6 - Flying is For Birds

Try as she might, the jungle was yielding nothing. Everywhere she looked, she saw little more than the tops of trees. That, and a scattering of animals watching her desperate searching. A pity she couldn't ask them, but they saw her either as a potential meal, or just a curiosity. Either way, none seemed full of the answers she wanted.

Her wings were starting to get tired again, but there was no roof. There were no train tracks. There was nothing but jungle. "How long ago..." Perhaps it had gone past too long ago, and the vegetation had a chance to grow over the roof, concealing it from a casual flying glance.

Perhaps...

She took a slow shuddering breath, considering fleeing back home, but that wouldn't do. "One, I don't know which way is home. Two, that would mean admitting I came here for nothing, that I just... can't do what I do without the museum looking over my back." She took a slightly smoother inhale.

Then she descended. She plunged through the thick foliage, branches whipping and grabbing at her, but her will and gravity were stronger forces, and soon she she felt her hooves touch the ground. It was dark. Not completely, but dim. The broad tops of the trees were blocking out most of the light, leaving her to stagger forward, eyes darting in search of trouble she knew could be hiding around any corner.

She could hear the animals of the jungle, conspiring among themselves, planning her end. She grit her teeth, shaking away her dreadful imaginations. Why would warbling birds ever conspire with cats that would eat them at earliest opportunity? The animals were only unified in the need to survive.

Much like her. Her nostrils flared, taking in the heady perfume of countless jungle plants that danced through her snout, revealing so much, and yet nothing at all. She couldn't place a bit of it, save to know that the area around her was deliriously alive. "If I die, I'll become a very pretty bed of flowers," was the weak comfort she could draw from it. "Let's avoid that..."

A snap, a crackle. Her ears strained to hear more. It was coming closer. She scrambled up the nearest trunk, putting some branches between herself and the cat that stalked into the area just where she had been. It looked left and right, nose dancing. She held her breath, afraid that even that would give her away. She could feel the rough press of the tree against her as she cowered against it, praying to Celestia herself that the cat would find something else to do.

It looked up and she could feel even her heart freeze in her chest, forget about breathing. Its slit eyes scanned as it prowled in a slow circle, a faint growl issuing from deep in its deadly form. Some part of her screamed deafening in her ear. She should take flight, flap away as hard and as fast as she could. But she dreaded moving at all more than the sweet promise of escape offered in succor. She was frozen.

The feline looked to the right suddenly, its tail going rigid and low before it darted off on deceptively quiet paws. However quiet they were, its claws impacted the wood of a branch, digging in just long enough to let it rebound off into the thick jungle beyond, leaving the area clear of predators, for the moment.

A.K.'s aching chest let out the breath she was holding and something wet hit the back of a forehoof. She reached up and realized she had started crying at some point. "Get it together..." She was a professional. She had to keep a level head. She had avoided the cat, and could proceed. "You have this..."

She slid down to the ground and moved opposite of where the cat had fled, not even really thinking about it, but perhaps that was the least likely place she'd encounter that dangerous beast. She pressed on through narrow animal trails and navigated across sudden ravines that cut across the jungle floor, with plants hanging down on either side as if the world itself were trying to heal from the cut it had received.

That worked to her advantage, allowing her to hop from one vine across to the other and scramble back up onto solid ground. "You're getting the hang of this." She put a hoof to her chest before pressing onwards. She lost all track of time. There was no sun to watch, only the perpetual gloom.

Her first hint that a specific amount of time had passed was when the gloom started to become true darkness. She thumped into a trunk, making the birds and insects cry out in complaint at her presence. Was she getting closer? She couldn't know, but she had to find it, that building. She pressed off the wood and strained her eyes to let in all the little light there was.

There, far ahead. There was faint light, but compared to what was around her, it may as well have been the sun. She hastened her steps even as she focused on trying to set them down as quietly as possible. The noises of the life around her were shifting. Day animals were sleeping. Night animals were stirring awake, perhaps wondering at the strange equine creature in their domain. She didn't focus on them. There was only the light.

"It should be close to here," spoke a male voice imperiously. "Why have you not found it already?!"

"We'ze lookin', boss," came a deeper voice.

That there were voices at all made Amy's ears twitch with confusion and excitement at once. Were they friendly faces in this hostile jungle? She accelerated, breaking into a full trot before the ground beneath her gave way without a hint of it coming. She slid and yelped along a steep embankment, in that instant seeing that she had stepped on thick but weak vines that had fallen under her weight, allowing her to hit the incline and careen down it.

She saw a sharp rock coming up and fought her way up just enough to slam down her hoof on a flat portion and half-jump/half-fall over the top of it instead of dashing against it, rolling and tumbling down the hill until she slapped against the soft but firm enough ground at the bottom. Dizzy and breathless, she felt her head swimming.

"What is this?" The first voice was coming closer. "A random doer of derring do?" She focused on the pony speaking. It was that stallion from the newspaper she saw not that long ago. Caballeron raised a brow high. "Dressed like an archaeologist, which is to say very poorly for the jungle, do you not think?"

"You heard da boss," barked a louder, deeper voice.

"What's yer deal?" demanded a third, the second of the two that seemed to be stooges of Caballeron.

Could her fortune be turning? And was it for the better or worse? She pushed up to her haunches. "Evening, gentleponies." She reached for her dropped hat and popped it back on her head. "I imagine you're here for much the same reason I am."

"Is that so." Caballeron leaned forward. "That being the case then, why should we let you take what we saw first?"

"Because you haven't seen it yet," she retorted with a faint smirk, the dizziness fading mercifully. "We're both here, now. Let's work together and get something worth taking home."

"We can find it on our own," he spat back. "Why would we need your help?"

"I... already know how to deal with the local wildlife," she nakedly lied, though she had a cocky smirk on her face, playing it off. "Wildcats are all over this jungle. I saw them twice, but I'm still here, aren't I?"

"She has a point," noted the reedier of the two, a slender stallion versus the big brute of the other. "I toldja about that."

"It is true, you are still being here." He rubbed his chin with the flat of his hoof. "I don't recognize you, fellow history seeker... What is your name?"

She could have given her proper name. She almost did, but bit it back. She was in the middle of nowhere on an unauthorized journey. A little discretion with a complete stranger was perhaps in order... "I am..." She remembered what he had said. "Daring."

"Perhaps so, but your name?"

"Daring," she repeated, brushing off her front and legs with sweeps of a hoof. "Daring Do. And you are Caballeron, archeologist, up and coming."

"You know me?" Surprise turned to smug satisfaction. "Of course you would. They know I will shake the world." He cleared his throat softly. "But never have I heard of you."

"Did you memorize all the archeologists around?" She lifted her shoulders. "That seems unlikely."

"This is true..." He turned in place, frowning softly. "Very well, if you want to make yourself useful, find the blasted temple. It should be right around here." He waved a hoof around. "And yet, we do not see it. Miss Daring Catchaser Do, where is the temple?"

"That's because it's obviously..." She had no idea where it was, using the time she spoke to look around in the gloom. Only the torches the goons had were providing any light, which made her clop her hooves together. "--hidden in the dark. We should set up camp. I was just looking for a spot when I saw you giving away your position."

"Giving away out position?" Caballeron frowned at that. "We have done no such thing."

She pointed at each torch in kind. "I found you. The cats will find you next. We should set a proper camp." Were cats attracted to or repelled by fire? She was no expert on it. Sounding like she was seemed more important in that moment. "Let's get out of the open and somewhere defensible."

"Defensible... yes, yes, I like where you are going." He smiled as he strode purposefully. "This way. I will find us a place to wait for daylight, then we find the temple and claim what is rightfully mine!"

"Ours," corrected A.K. "We'll share. There should be more than enough for the both of us. I have some contacts that could have the pieces properly examined if you don't."

"Examined..." He vanished into some vines, but his head popped out an instant later. "Here is a cave. We sleep here. Come."

The larger of the goons stepped forward to enter the cave, but A.K.'s hoof came down on his shoulder. "Stop."

"Mm?"

"Your torch." She pointed to it with her other forehoof. "It could light the vines on fire."

Caballaron scowled at him. "You heard her, put those out! We can start a fire inside the cave if we want. Now hurry!"

Suddenly it was very dark. Both goons had snuffed their light. All four ponies scurried into the relatively safer cave. A.K. nosed into her bag and drew out her own firestarter. With several loud clicks, she had a spark that soon turned into a comfortable little bonfire with some quick stone gathering and fuel assembling from the goons.

With light, she could see the cave was little more than the den of some animal, hopefully one that had long since left. It wasn't terribly large, but it was enough for them all to sit comfortably, and any deadly animal would have to come at them from one specific direction. "Let's rest."

"Yes, rest." Caballaron let his saddlebag slide to the ground and reached into it with his hooves, pulling out a canteen that he chugged from before getting out other bags. "Dinner time."

The two goons did not reach for what he had, instead getting out their own, separate, food and water supplies.

A.K., also known as Daring Do, checked her own bags, ensuring nothing identifying was in sight as she pulled out some supplies for herself to sip and chew on. She had survived the first day, and she felt good about that. Surely the next day would turn out even better.

She hoped.

Author's Note:

Slow update today, but I got it done! Enjoy A.K.'s adventure. Daring Do is born!

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Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Caballeron raised a brow high.

Begging yer pardon, but how do we know who he is? Or rather, how does she know who he is?

[badninja]

Not a bad start. I wonder how she will be living this down when they become enemies in the future. Still she is learn fast all the tricks of the trade and learning quickly as one bad step and she will not get her happy ending.

[Emtu]

10016879
In the part where she gives her name, she recognizes him as an up and coming archaeologist.

[Venerable Ro]

10016936

Well yes, she's seen him in that newspaper article, but I don't believe that she's ever heard his voice. Here he's identified before she ever lays eyes on him. it just scans weird for me.

[Booster Spice]

AK has the relative position of the Temple and the Engine shed?

[David Silver]

10016941
I am confused, he was standing in front of her to see.

[Venerable Ro]

10016954

Ah, was he? I'm sorry, the passage makes it difficult to tell what she's looking at.

She saw a sharp rock coming up and fought her way up just enough to slam down her hoof on a flat portion and half-jump/half-fall over the top of it instead of dashing against it, rolling and tumbling down the hill until she slapped against the soft but firm enough ground at the bottom. Dizzy and breathless, she felt her head swimming.

"What is this?" The first voice was coming closer. "A random doer of derring do?" Caballeron raised a brow high. "Dressed like an archaeologist, which is to say very poorly for the jungle, do you not think?"

"You heard da boss," barked a louder, deeper voice.

I read this as her being prone with the wind knocked out of her, listening to a gaggle of unidentified voices. There's no moment of wossname, recognition, you know?

[David Silver]

10016965
The moment I used the name was when she actually looked at him. Oh, that guy from the newspaper! Apologies if that wasn't communicated well. Let's edit!

[PonyJosiah13]

I find it amusing that the Daring Do we know is an unstoppable, supremely confident badass who faces down armies and monsters on a day to day basis, and her origin story starts with her essentially wandering around the jungle, completely lost and in over her head.

Basically:
media.giphy.com/media/xDQ3Oql1BN54c/giphy.gif

[Eroraf86]

Ah, Caballeron. Was wondering when he’d show up. Now all we need is either Ahuizotl or some backstabbing. Or maybe both?

[David Silver]

10017114
Even the mightiest have to start somewhere. Unless you're Hercules, then go ahead and strangle snakes as an infant. You do you.