Daring Do and the Stone of Agony (part 1)
Éclair Crème, a pony who all her friends consider rather fancy and petite, is sitting at a table for two at one of her favorite cafes. Her friend is sitting beside her, a pony of around twenty. She is a temp at one of the masseuse parlors and always gives all her friends discounts when she can. They met one day at a party and they both said that they liked spicy foods and have been pals ever since. Éclair’s blue hooves hold the menu from the place but hasn’t really read anything. She’s lost interest in the menu that is turning fuzzy as her mind drifts.
The problem is that she doesn’t know what she wants. Actually she does…but it’s not on the menu. Éclair has always yearned for a sense of adventure, to go places that she’s only ever read in books. Places like the southern Badlands where the changelings dwell or so she’s heard. Or the rainbow waterfalls of the Unicorn Range. Anything but 1:00 tea time. Maybe not the changelings though. They are vicious creatures after all. Still, how exciting would it be to see one in person? With a camera! And a telephoto lens.
As her friend quietly skims the menu they’ve ordered from a hundred times before, Éclair clutches the white pearls around her neck and takes a deep breath. She pushes the fancy iron chair back and stands proudly. She’s talked to herself so many times in the mirror that it is as if she’s about to make a grand speech.
“I’ve decided! I’m going to an adventure starting today!” she proclaims to the heavens. Ponies reading the paper turn their head annoyingly at the airhead standing like a teenager who doesn’t know any better about the real world before turning back.
Her friend sighs. “This is the second time this month. What’s gotten into you? You used to be more reserved.”
Éclair smooths out her dress in a shy manner. “The desire just came to me. I’m so tired of the same old routine. Adventurer Monthly had a whole new wave of trip ideas for the explorer in us all and I was like super jealous!”
Her friend folds the menu, puts it down forcefully then stands with a fiery grin. It matches the twin peppers on her flank. “Then there’s no time to wait! I’m getting you a train ticket out of here!”
Éclair’s cheeks explode in a heavy flush and she shakes her head. “But you can’t mean like right now! What about rush hour?! We’ll never make it!”
Éclair is surprised as her friend leads her (or more like drags her) away from the café and down the street. “Last time you had droned about some adventure and all you did was try a new café a couple blocks down. Is that all your daydreams ever amount to?” her friend says. Éclair nods because her friend was right. She never takes the initiative to do anything with her life and often spends so much time wishing she was somepony else doing awesome things. What a waste of a life. But still…there was a reason why she had never bought a ticket, right? She guesses that she’s going after all. Her friend can hardly be persuaded when she has her mind on something. Kind of the opposite of herself actually.
When they arrive at the station, Éclair looks at awe at the pretty engines made in the Crystal Empire, the advanced class that run on electricity. It’s so fancy! The gleaming crystal façade might as well have “adventure” written on its side.
Éclair fidgets in place until it’s their turn at the front of the ticket counter.
Her friend pulls her up. “One ticket to um…the far north!” her friend exclaims, seemingly having chosen on a whim.
“Which stop?”
She is taken aback. “I thought the Crystal Empire was the only route?”
The ticket pony shakes his head. “We have several new additions. Mt. Sorrel to the north, a new line to Trottingham to the east, and also Yakyakistan.”
“Ohh! That last one sounds perfect! She’ll take it!” her friend says. Éclair wonders why she has such a gleeful smile as if she’s the one going! She likes having the spontaneous friend but sometimes what she does absolutely blows her away. In fact, the idea makes her hair stand on end.
“What? I won’t be going to the Crystal Empire!?” Éclair says.
Her friend puts a hoof around her shoulders as they walk to where the tickets are dispensed. “It might be sudden, but this will be good for you. If you think about it, it’s not much of an adventure to just go get some hoof massage at the spas or read about yet another adventure at the library. You have to actually go and live a little! I’ll be counting on you!”
When the ticket is put into her hooves, Éclair is so worried that it shakes. On the front is a picture of some ancient looking town with huge walls beneath an admittedly pretty looking sunset. She just hopes that she hasn’t made a mistake.
The air of the Frozen North chills Éclair to the bone. Even the train seems to have trouble as it coughs and wheezes on its way higher and higher into the steep rugged terrain. In the last two years, the train system has cut its way into such far-flung territory and with friendly relations growing between Canterlot and the Yaks, ponies have had more reason than ever to go further north.
As it stops, Éclair steps outside. She realizes that in such a haste, she has no provisions. Not even so much as a saddlebag. Nearby, several wind whipped tents lay in a cluster. Two huge yaks are having a kind of competition of some sort, butting heads and grunting rather loudly. Even from here, rocks on the ground shake with every clash.
Éclair literally gulps down her fears and walks over to the main tent with a more peaceful Yak sitting behind a blanket spread out and covered with traveler’s objects.
“Oh, my! That’s all very useful things for an adventure!” she says.
“You pay bits now!” the yak shouts. Saliva drips from each of his massive pointy teeth. She can’t see his eyes as they are hidden under matted hair. As he speaks and snorts, clouds rise around him, making him look more mysterious than he already is.
“Certainly, um…we’ll I might have misplaced my wallet,” Éclair says, patting her body down. She is rather embarrassed at what would be a significant social faux pas back home. The yak’s temperament doesn’t worsen at least and he peers closer at her.
“I can do trade! Give me pony clothes for my stuff!”
Éclair doesn’t think she has much of a choice. Unless she wants to go back empty hooved, she is going to have to make compromises. After all, an adventurer is a pony who knows how to barter. The magazine says so. She parts with the dress and even the necklace, seeing them shoved into some old trunk in the tent. The giant yak gives her a ton of stuff in return, typical hardware of an adventurer. The top of a sleek leather hood folds over her eyes at times and she has to push it upward as she walks away. The heavy material isn’t that comfortable on her body but she’ll have to make do with it out here. A canteen, pickaxe, whistle, rope harness, and so many other things clank and clatter together. She wishes that somepony would take her photograph but there isn’t anypony around. Oh well, she thinks. Her adventure into yak country has officially begun!
Her jewelry is worth enough bits to get her a ride through the mountains which is pretty good since it looks rather impassable. The yaks aren’t exactly creatures of comfort though and gladly go headlong into even the roughest of patches. By the time the first day is over, Éclair’s flanks are super sore and her nose is runny. She has to sleep on the hard ground but at least in a tent where she can warm up soup on a hot plate. It’s better than nothing and it gets her dozed off in no time.
One of the Yaks peaks his head through the narrow slit of the tent. “Morning time! Pony wake now!” Is it morning already, Éclair thinks, her body stiff and cold.
She sits on one of the lumbering creatures and lets the early rays of the sun warm her up. When it’s noon, the yak city comes into sight. Éclair is stunned by the solidness of the place, its impressive ramparts, the wooden wall itself, and the tall gate hinged with golden plates. The party passes past two giant statues keeping watch like sleepless sentries over the icy land. The entire time, Éclair snaps pictures of the place with a cheap camera she bought on the train, her hooves resting on the wide hump on the yak’s back. He flaps his ears as if the snaps are as annoying as a mosquito’s buzz.
“Whoa. We’ve arrived! Thanks, yaks!” Éclair says excitedly. Her energy wells up in her legs and she leaps off the yak. Over at the gate, she waltzes in, expecting nobody to make a fuss. Yet, as soon as she’s two hooves in, two massive guards stare her down. They look very similar to the travelers outside except they are clad in black armor instead of colorful ceremonial costumes.
Éclair gulps and doesn’t make a move, eying the huge axes hanging on the wall inside a guard’s room. “Uh, hey there, yaks.”
“Ponies visit Yakyakistan…must be searched!” the guard says.
Suddenly, a small yak about her size comes into focus. He passes by the two guards and smiles. He has pretty blue marbles for eyes, cute little horns and a body as huggable as a stuffed bear.
“Hello, pony. I’m Little Freddy. Can I do a search of your belongings?” The cute yak with his fuzzy fur cap and his swishing tail makes Éclair smile too and then nod.
“Alright,” she says.
“Thank you. It will take just a second,” Little Freddy informs her graciously. He takes his slender hoofed limb and pats her body and searches her bag and pockets. The touching makes her giggle. Stuff spills out and he yammers apologies over and over again until the search is over. After, Éclair gathers the things back inside the bag. The guards step away and talk by the guard’s room, now satisfied apparently.
“Are you here on vacation?” Little Freddy asks.
“No, I’m on an adventure. Although, what I’m here to find, I can’t say.” Éclair slings the bag over her back. “Where would you recommend a visitor go in this city?”
“Well, it depends on the visitor. If you like adventure, we have bars where interesting yaks like to drink and talk and stuff. I don’t really go in there since all the big yaks like to roughhouse. I’m not nearly old enough for any of that.”
Éclair looks at him sympathetically as she assumes that like in any culture, it peeves a child like him to not be included. “But you are old enough to talk to outsiders and search them?”
Little Freddy nods. “Yes, because I’m small enough so that you won’t be afraid. Plus, I have good speech like you do. So every now and again, I will come and talk to ponies who come by here. I get a few bits too.”
“Well, that’s great. If you want a few more, then how about carrying my things? I am staring to get weary,” Éclair says. She is hoping he’ll agree because she doesn’t know her way around the yak city and besides, it will lessen any problems to have this little communicator go with her at all times. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a bright faced cutie.
Little Freddy chuckles and lifts his head proudly. “I can do better.”
He was right, Éclair thought. He can do much better! As he pulls the cart where Éclair is sitting, she takes in the many old storefronts with huge wooden doors. Many places have long tattered scrolls hanging from banisters, railings, hinges, poles, and many other things, bearing a language that she can’t read. She had previously expected that the yaks wouldn’t have had much in the ways of civilization but many places look centuries old. Even their decorated paper lamps hanging under roof awnings could be more ancient than Canterlot! She hopes she isn’t exaggerating its age in her head but the whole place is just vibrant in its history.
The roads are cobblestones, wet and slippery, but Little Freddy never loses his footing as he canters at a swift pace. He passes between groups of yaks like it’s nothing until they reach the shadow of a huge longhouse made of logs with a glaring bronze eagle attached to the top. Ropes tied from one side of the building to the other are weighed down by dozens of metallic trinkets, bangles and other things.
“This is it, the Yakovka,” Little Freddy announces. He takes off his harnesses and sets the cart down before going and opening the cart door for her.
“What was it again?” Éclair says.
“It means, ‘Yak water’ or ‘Yak drink’,” he says contemplatively. “I mean, we drink mostly water in our country but our drinks look like water even when it isn’t so we kind of have the same word and the same phrases too. I hope I am clear.”
Éclair winks. “Crystal clear.”
Inside the place, she breaths in the musk of Yaks, the rust of old armor and smoke wafting from pipes. It’s so thick, even Little Freddy coughs.
“Oh, boy…my first bar,” Éclair murmurs. She nods as some lone Yaks turn their heads and glance at her. A few look enveloped in a game of dice.
“Never been in a bar either,” Little Freddy says.
“But you’re little.”
“What’s your excuse?”
“I guess I just prefer coffee and I have drunk but only at social outings and then only white wine.”
“Don’t think we yaks have that.”
“What do you have?”
He turns and grins while looking at the shabby but fully stocked bar front. “Yak water.”
Éclair gazes down at the swirling clear drink in her tiny glass. The bartender had poured it out of a huge jug covered in a kind of cloth adorned with beads and pewter jewelry. It cost ten bits which she thinks is expensive but she doesn’t say anything. She is well off after all and can easily buy some. She turns to Little Freddy, who is sitting on a stool beside her and eating what looks like some kind of dried berries.
“What are those?” she asks.
“Holly,” he answers. “It’s a delicacy.”
“That’s fascinating.” Éclair sniffs her drink which makes her nose crinkle from the burn it carries.
“Don’t drink much?” an amused voice says from her right. She turns to see a figure slumped over the bar, a pony who has already downed two shots of Yak water from the same bottle that had been shared, the glasses face down on the scratched up wood surface. She is wearing a faded wide brimmed hat the color of sand. It puts her face in shadow.
“I guess not. Where are you from?” Éclair is interested to see another pony here and she tries to get a sense of who she is at first glance. The pony looks like she’s been through a lot. Her clothes are stained and torn in places. On her golden coat, a bold compass cutie mark stands out. Somehow, she looks so familiar but in what way? Such a strange thought crosses her mind but she tries to dismiss it. It couldn’t actually be her, could it?
The mare shrugs. “I’m just from around Equestria.” She signals the bartender to give her another drink and the yak reaches down and opens a new bottle. This time though, the bottle is crystal clear and looks fancy.
“I just want the regular stuff,” the mare says firmly.
“You’ll like this kind. It’s special!” the bartender insists, pouring the glass and pushing it towards her quickly.
That mare is so awesome, Éclair thinks. She decides to drink the Yak water, sort of knowing subconsciously that she wants to look cool, but it makes her silently retch as it is so strong. She manages to hold it in somehow and in the process, starts seeing double for a second.
The mare opens a pocket and lets a scorpion out and onto the table. She lets the thing sip the drink and in a moment, it falls down dead. She then lifts her head and Éclair sees a powerfully determined look in her eyes.
“The King wanted you to kill me, huh? Not on your lives.” She jumps off the stool as the bartender takes out a machete and swings it at her.
“The King will have your head, Daring Do!”
Daring Do laughs and picks up the stool in a defensive posture. “We’ll see about that!”
Two other yaks charge Daring but she flies up to the rafters in the nick of time, as the two collide violently. She dodges a couple errantly thrown spears and smacks the bartender with the stool, smashing it and knocking his head into the Yak water jugs behind him. The alcohol looks like a waterfall.
Éclair is frozen stiff in amazement the entire time. Daring lands and wipes dust off her clothes.
“And now, I’ll take my leave. Thanks for the kind of workout.” She heads out the door.
“Wow…that’s so cool. I’m going to go after her and see what’s she’s doing!” Éclair says.
Little Freddy almost spits out his berries. “But why? Looks like danger follows her around and that’s not normal, even here.”
Éclair rushes for the door, her mind made up. “Yeah, but this is Daring Do! She’s full of adventure! I got to see what she’s up to.” Little Freddy lets out a tentative groan and follows.
By the time Éclair goes outside, she barely catches a glimpse of Daring’s black and grey tail going into an alley on the other side of the street. She’s pretty fast, Éclair thinks. She runs after the mare but soon finds herself at a dead end.
“What the? Did she fly away?” Éclair says, frowning.
Little Freddy sniffs around. “I don’t think so,” he says cautiously. He stops at a huge woven basket full of dirt and pushes it out of the way. Under it is a narrow opening going downward.
“Wow, a secret passage!” Éclair says, giggling. Her eyes light up at the mystery of something that reminds her so much of the old novels she used to read. And down there perhaps a very real adventurer in the flesh! She tries to rush in but is stopped by Little Freddy.
“Don’t be too fast. It can be unsafe in here,” he warns her.
“It’s alright. I may not know her personally but I don’t think she’s a bad pony,” Éclair says. It’s a guess but one said with enough commitment that the young yak acquiesces and lets her enter without further argument. They don’t go far before they reach a narrow room with a cot at the far end. Daring Do is transfixed on several maps and charts taped to the wall. She doesn’t seem to care about their intrusion.
“Whoa, what’s this place?” Éclair says.
“And more importantly, why does the King want you dead?” Little Freddy butts in, his tone having less awe and a lot more concern.
After a brief series of introductions, in which Éclair could barely contain her glee, Daring has them sit on the cot as she explains things. What they had stumbled on is a vast and so far mostly uncovered secret tying together the King of the Yaks and a threat against all of Equestria; a dangerous weapon that has been rumored to have fallen in the hooves of the Yaks. The picture of the King, a powerful black creature wearing the legendary white fur of a mountain beast, is tied to other pictures via long strings. Notes haphazardly placed about indicate questions about the greater picture. To anypony else, it might be an utter mess.
As Daring mentions names of the various business leaders and clan members, Little Freddy squirms, his posture more uncomfortable by the second.
“The King wouldn’t go to war for no reason. He had accepted peace from a recent Pony-Yak delegation!” he says. His outburst is accentuated by a long yak snort which still sounds cute like a pony blowing bubbles.
Daring is unpersuaded. “I’ve spent the better part of a solid month investigating these Yaks. Being undercover in such a tight knit place isn’t easy and I’ve not uncovered that much. I think there’s more here than meets the eye.”
“Like what?” Éclair says.
“I got a few rumors that the King goes on retreats to winter palaces in the mountains. I think there’s something going on but the route is kept secret so I don’t know the way. I think only a yak would know exactly how to reach it.”
“Well, yeah,” Little Freddy says annoyingly. “It’s a royal place. Not just anybody gets to know where to find it.”
Daring sits down and opens a box of crackers. “Well, do you know the way? Assuming you even want to help, I need yak assistance getting to the royal palace.”
“I’ll go,” Little Freddy says. “I’ve overheard the route many times. But only because I’ll show you that the King is good and you are making a mistake.”
“What is the King supposed to be like?” Éclair asks.
“He’s mighty and regal, the leader of Yaks who can kill a snow monster in one thrust of a bronze spear.” She can tell that with every word in admiration out of his puffy cheeks, the yak child proves an inherent loyalty that every Yak is taught to have and hold close to their hearts. She guesses that it’s not that different than the veneration pony kind grants to their princesses.
“We’ll eat then pack up. By dawn, we’ll depart from the city. By then, you better have your minds made up, especially you.” Daring looks at Éclair. “Coming here for adventure is one thing but going on this trip is another matter entirely.”
Éclair blushes. “Well, before today, I thought that you were just a legend but I’ve learned so much about what is and isn’t real that I can’t help but want to know more, even if it’s dangerous.”
“I respect that,” Daring says, nodding slowly. They eat the crackers in peace after that then they get some shuteye.