> The Unpublished Origin of Daring Do
>  by David Silver
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1 - What a Find
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"A.K.!" A stallion with a warm smile and thick glasses approached, a pipe dangling from his maw. "Such a pleasure to see you. And what a find indeed. We'll be talking about this for years."

The other stallions nodded with agreement, one of their bowl-like caps flopping to the side, forcing the pony to reach up and adjust it out of his field of view. They were in a simple ball room, all half a dozen of them standing beside a table with a large punch bowl.

Manehattan could be seen through the wall-filling windows, revealing it was well into night, but the city was far from dark, so many lights twinkling. It was a not a city known to ever truly sleep after all.

"Thank you, I was just doing what we all do," demurred A.K., adjusting her own glasses. "The hardest part was securing information and permission from the locals to commence the dig."

"And that's just it," argued a male, throwing a hoof over her back and drawing her in. "We've all hit that kind of wall before, but you broke through! You deserve a little back patting for it."

Suddenly she was getting those back pats. They all patted her cloaked back a moment as she awkwardly smiled. She let out a breath when they had their fill. "Yes, thank you." She trot up to the table beside them and reached a hoof for the ladle, pouring herself a drink. "I have to get right back out there... I'd love to sit and examine the find, but it doesn't--"

A hoof touched her, on the shoulder that time. "You don't need to remind us. There are two kinds of ponies out there. The ones who find these priceless artifacts, and the ones who examine them. Rarely do the two mix."

A.K. shot that stallion a withering look, loudly sipping from her drink before she caustically replied, "Great, now tell me why the latter make more bits, every single time?"

Another let out a weary sigh. "Because they're the ones that get to write papers about the discoveries. What would we write, 'Found something interesting, I think it's really important!' No, that wouldn't do. These things have to be confirmed and checked and compared and... We're already off at another dig site."

A.K. tossed her head, her well mannered and bonetted mane remaining fairly stable. "Ponies just don't understand how difficult our part is." She raised a hoof to her chin, a shrewd look taking on her features. "Maybe they need to be told."





AK sat down at her desk, glancing outside at the darkness. There wasn't much to see at that time of night from her hotel, just hints of lights she could have enjoyed if she got closer to the window. "No..." She turned her eyes to the typewriter, her trusty friend. She ran a hoof over it gently, a little smile on her face.

"You've been with me..." She'd taken it on so many outings. It'd seen most of the interesting places she had. "Time for us to work together like never before." She pressed down on one of its two buttons until it clicked, but nothing happened. How could it? You had to press the buttons many times before an actual stamp was made.

Such was the price for a typewriter that worked with hooves. She pressed down the same hoof, than quickly followed it up with a tap of her other forehoof, starting to type. "So you think digging in the dirt is easy," she said to herself as she wrote. "You think it's just a fun job, crawling through the graves of our ancestors, hoping desperately to find some evidence of their passing? Well, sometimes it is... We're here because we want to be, because we're passionate about unearthing the past, but is it easy?"

She leaned in on the typewriter, her writing slowly picking up speed as she got into things. "Of course not. Over time, all becomes stone. What does not become stone, is lost. What becomes stone can be hard to tell apart from the rock that surrounds it. We dredge it free, one little chip at a time, our breaths held, our eyes wide. We hope and pray and down comes the chisel, one little fleck removed. Was that part of what we were looking for? Hope not, there are no take backs."

She paused to reach for a glass of water, sipping softly as she rocked on the chair she was perched on. "It can take days, weeks... sometimes longer still, but eventually we are holding something grand and wonderful, but so weathered and weary, almost like ourselves, as if it became just as tired as we did. But do we get to hold it close, to keep and treasure? Of course not." She had to stop, a hoof clopping down on the desk in a fit of anger. "We turn it in."

"We send it away to a safe place, where it can be restored and held safely. We have to work, to keep digging and looking, but what we find goes home." She let out a slow sigh, visions of the shards and artifacts she'd managed to unearth dancing in her mind's eye. "We don't get to examine them, that's not really our job. Other ponies do that, ponies you've heard of, the ones that make big announcements about what we found. The best we can hope for is a small line. 'Unearthed by A.K. Yearling,' and that's it. Is this fair? Fair or not, it simply is. They wrote the paper, they get to decide what's in it."

She grunted as she angrily continued her paper, detailing the process from start to end, her life, condensed to a bundle of papers. "And now, dear reader, you know what it's like. I can't promise your opinion is changed at all. I don't even know if you made it this far, but I'd like to think you did, and you're wondering about it, about us, wading through the dust, climbing the sheer walls and digging holes, hoping and working. We want to understand the past, to better understand our current. If we do not know where we came from, we don't know where we're going, and ponykind deserves better than that." She hit the last key with a stroke of finality, the echo clicking through the small hotel room.

She looked up with red eyes to see bright light streaming through the window. She squinted them shut and hissed. She had been typing for so long. She reached for her glass, but it had no water, and hadn't for some time. She knocked it aside and it hit the ground, rolling away. She half-fell from the chair, her legs wobbling dangerously. "Maybe... a little too long," she barely whispered to herself, staggering towards the bed that looked so comfortable, practically calling for her. "Some sleep..."

A loud clopping knock came from the door. "It's checkout time," came a melodic female voice. "Are you leaving?"

A.K. put a hoof to herself, sagging against the bed. Had she typed that long?! "One... One moment..." She couldn't really afford to hold onto that hotel room another day. "I'm going..."

"You sound tired," came the muffled mare's voice. "We aren't full. Why don't you just go back to sleep?"

Yearling peered at the bed, so soft and inviting. She wanted to take up that offer... "No, really, I'm going. I'll be out in ten minutes, sorry for the hold up." She started sweeping things off the desk into her bag, her typewriter flopping onto the mess that had reached the bag before it. She closed it with a snap and slung it over her shoulders, her wings faintly more visible a moment, not that she used them all that often.

She emerged into the hallway to see the cleaning staff had moved on to the next door along the hallway. She turned away from the cart and started down the hallway, just to stagger and flop against the wall, breathing hard.

"Are you alright?" The maid had returned, peeking into the room she had vacated. "I'll mark you as being out on time, but are you sure you don't want to stay another night?"

"Mmfine," she managed to mumble, pushing off the wall and resuming her trek. "Just need to get home." A little smile appeared on her weary face. "I can take a nap on the train..." She strode into the carpeted elevator and sank down to her haunches. "Lobby."

The pony already sitting in the elevator tipped his hat before his horn glowed, pulling a lever back even as the gate was closed in the same glow of magic. The next thing she knew, she was being shaken likely with soft hoof presses. "Wha?"

The elevator handler inclined his horn towards the exit. "We're here, ma'am. Have a nice day."

"Oh, oh yes." She rose to her hooves, cursing that that micronap had left her feeling somehow more tired than when she had started. "Later..." She staggered out into the lobby proper. She couldn't see them, not exactly, but she could feel eyes on her. The other ponies were judging the unkempt mare that was drunkenly forcing herself towards the exit. They were thinking their unkind thoughts, imagining a wild night of debauchery, she imagined.

She left their accusing but silent stares, emerging into the street. The heat of the day washed over her and her head throbbed as if the sun were somehow baking her brain in her head. She half-fell down the steps, taking a sharp right to start slowly down the sidewalk. She could distantly hear the clip-clops of many other ponies around her, trotting energetically from place to place. At least, she thought silently, they were all too busy to pay her any mind.

"Watch where yer walkin'!" complained a pony, brushing past her with an angry grunt.

She didn't even look up, trudging to the train and collapsing on a bench there. She looked up at a clock, her ears folded back against the loud speaker announcing trains coming and going. Her train wouldn't be there for a few hours. She fell over her bag, her head resting on it and her eyes closing. An hour or two of sleep sounded pretty good, and she faded off almost instantly.

"Miss Yearling?"

She blinked open her eyes and her cheeks lit on fire. In front of her was one of her fellow dirt diggers. She sat up sharply, even if that stoked a fierce pain through her head. "Oh! I didn't see you there."

"I imagine you wouldn't, with your eyes closed, Miss Yearling." He was smiling, but it was an unsure smile, his eyes wandering over her. "Is everything alright?"

"They're fine..." She glanced up at the clock. She hadn't overslept. That was good. "I had a late night."

"You left at a reasonable hour. May I?" He gestured a hoof at the bench beside her. When she nodded, he hopped up and sat down. "Something keep you up? Do tell if I'm prying where I'm not wanted, Amy..."

A.K. could feel her blush growing more intense. Only a few people knew her actual first name. "You know I don't go by that." She brought up a hoof to cough into it. "Since you're here, actually... do you mind doing a little pre-reading?"

He hiked a brow at that. "I'm afraid my skill set doesn't really include that. I prefer to be recovering and preserving, you know the drill, sometimes literally."

She smiled a little at the professional humor. "I do, but it involves us, what we do. A peer's eyes on it would be nice." She put her hooves on her bag as she undid the clasp. "Just tell me if I'm barking up the wrong tree, as it were. I want to show people what being one of us is like, make them care... You know?"
> 2 - Peer Review
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

His lips moved, subvocalizing the words as he went over them, shuffling from one page to the next. Neither of them were unicorns, so hooves used carefully were all they had to read by. "I can feel the fatigue of the dig reading this."

Amy inclined an ear, hidden by her hat as it was. "Is that good?"

"I think it is." His eyes darted left and right, not stopping. "You paint a reasonably accurate picture of life in the trenches, working for what could be nothing, or everything..." He rolled a hoof softly. "You're a little too angry at the academicians. They're not trying to take our thunder, just doing their own jobs. I doubt they're even thinking about it, other than maybe being stressed about deadlines for their papers."

"They have deadlines?" She raised a brow, one hoof on her glasses. In her mind, visions of lazy and rich scholars enjoying exotic drinks danced.

"You think they have no responsibilities? I've met more than a few, good ponies as a tendency. The places they work for keep them quite busy, and the journals that publish them have rigorous demands and criteria. They would have a party much like we just had whenever one of them managed to get published in any journal truly worth the paper it's printed on." He flipped to the next page, still reading along. "Though it's true they take home more bits in the end, they do have to earn it."

"I see..." She didn't, not entirely, but the hint had been given. "Writing isn't... easy, I suppose." She shook her still throbbing head from her night's binge of 'easy' writing. "Maybe I should rewrite this."

"You could, but most of it is good. Don't redo the whole thing." He tapped at the paper with a hoof. "Just tone down the vitriol towards the paper pushers. Without them, we wouldn't even get the bits we do get to keep doing what we love."

"I thought the... They cover that?" She put a hoof to her temple, rubbing at where the pain was coming from. "I'm a little tired, so I may be just forgetting a thing or two, but that feels wrong."

"They do not pay us directly," he assured, reaching to pat her shoulder. "But the ponies that do are doing so because they hope those same ponies will get to write something new and profitable. Princess Celestia reads those, and rewards the organizations when notable things are discovered, which then empowers those same organizations to pay us." He set the papers down to spread his hooves wide. "We are both cogs in the same machine."

Amy's eyes widened slightly. "Do you think she'd read this? Maybe she could... insist a larger portion of the credit, and bits, went to us in the field. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"It would." He nodded softly, reaching to finish up the papers. "My train will be here soon, but I'm glad I ran into you. Yes, this is good stuff. Do send me the second version."

"I'll do just that." She took the papers from him when he offered them and tucked them away securely into her bag. "Thank you for giving me your view; it's really transformed my view on it. I'll have to do some more research before I put this out."

"And now you're getting a feel for what they have to go through. It's always easy to say the other pony's job is simpler." He hopped down to his hooves and started to trot away. "Travel well, Miss Yearling."

She waved one last time before turning her vision to the clock. Her own train would be along shortly. Grabbing its handle in her teeth, she slipped from the bench and made her way towards the platform it would arrive on. "Home... Sleep... More work," she sighed out to herself.

Amy hadn't even noticed she was sleep until she was waking up, ponies pushing past her to get on the train. She joined the crowd and jostled her way aboard, and to an available seat to crash on. "Conductor?"

"Ma'am?" He tipped his hat politely towards her. "We'll be moving in just a minute."

"Yes, thank you. If you would, let me know when we reach my stop. I am going to sleep." She surrendered her ticket to him. 

He looked at it just for a moment before handing it back. "Go on and enjoy your rest."

With a weary but thankful smile, she sagged against her bag and closed her eyes, surrendering to the siren's call of sleep.





She stepped from the train with a faint hint of a smile. "It's good to feel alive again." Sure, her sleep schedule was mildly ruined, but there was plenty of time to really get in some solid sleep on the way home. Amy trotted away from the platform, retreating towards her trusty cottage. "My old home..."

It wasn't often she got to sleep there, she thought. She would usually be out on a site, not there. She had the door open, not that she had bothered to lock it, and tossed her bag to the side. Her home was a bit of a mess, but it usually was. "It's hard to get excited about cleaning a place you won't be in for long," she sighed to herself. "You really should stop talking to yourself." She kicked the door shut and made for the kitchen. "Maybe after getting some tea going."

She had the pot over a little fire when a knock came from the door. "Who is it?"

"Ah ha, I did see you," came a young male voice from outside. "Paper, Miss Yearling!"

Amy rolled her eyes and strolled to the door. "How is it you always spot me coming and going?" She grabbed the knob in her teeth and pulled the door open to reveal a colt with a paper held in a wing. "Today's?"

"Of course." He held it towards her. "I know you aren't always here, Miss Yearling, but I keep an eye out so you get your subscription's worth."

"You are simply the best." She leaned forward and took the rolled paper in her teeth. "I'll go read this and be happy that I'm still a subscriber." She set it aside for a moment. "That does raise a question. Do you have other ponies on your route or am I it? There aren't a lot of other houses around here."

The colt rubbed behind his head as he looked left and right. There certainly were no houses to be seen there. "My route's kinda... big. I get about twelve ponies all together, and I fly a big circle, looking for them. A lot of them are recluses like you, um, ma'am. Sometimes they're not home, and they don't like it neither none when I pile the papers in front of their door."

"Neither none," she repeated with a faint smirk. "Well, thank you. I wouldn't be happy with a pile of papers on my step either." A shrill whistle caught her attention. "Would you like some tea? The water's just ready."

"Thank you, ma'am, but I really should keep going or I won't catch the next pony who's ready for their paper." They traded a little salute before he took to the air, flapping away with his bag of papers swaying, slung over his shoulder.

Amy kicked the door shut behind her, returning to the kettle and getting a proper cup of tea created. With tea and a newspaper, she settled at her little table. "I'm starting to feel like a real pony again..." She unfolded the paper and began to read it as she sipped carefully from the hot cup. Her favorite team won an away game, that was nice...

Weather, looks clear, always good...

Princess Celestia cuts the ribbon on a new art museum, how lovely...

Doctor Caballeron making splashes in archaeology.

She tilted her head. That was not a name she knew. "Who?" She leaned in for a better read.



Doctor Caballeron, freshly crowned with his title, took on the head of digging at the famed Tutanhoofen site, where it is said that all who disturbed it are cursed for a thousand moons. "I am not scared of local old mare's tales," he told our reporter. "I will see this dig to the end! We will unearth all the treasures of the pharaohs! We will be rich!"

When pressed about becoming rich, he quickly demurred, "I mean, we will turn it over to the museum for study, of course. We diggers are on the front line of archaeology!"



With a roll of her eyes, she flipped to the next page. "Another young hopeful that doesn't realize what he's stepped into. I hope you enjoy your wakeup call." Which brought her mind back to her own papers. She pushed the newspaper aside for a moment and left her cup on the table, going and retrieving her stack of papers. One more trip had the typewriter sitting on her table beside the cup.

"There's work to do." Sure, she wasn't entirely recovered from that night full of working... "Let's set a timer this time." She reached for a clock and gave it a twist, setting the alarm. "Go to bed, young filly!" she nagged herself in a concerned parental tone of voice. "You sleep responsibly or I'll ground you, don't you test me!"

With the alarm set, she got to the task of re-writing a portion of her fiery tempest of a work, bringing down those fires she had directed at the scholarly sorts. "You're right," she muttered to herself, leaving most of it alone. It was a perfectly reasonable depiction of their life in the field. "I don't need to drag others down while I'm saying this..." She clicked and clacked at her typewriter busily, working the binary that created the letters and punctuation she needed.

"And they made fun of me. What does a field archeologist need with a typewriter?" She leaned in, watching the words appear under her efforts. "Why would one need to know how to type decently? Why not just use a quill like everypony else?" She wrinkled her nose at her imaginary detractors. "Look who's laughing now..."

She had to type the entire thing over again, of course. She couldn't just magically erase the parts she wanted to change and add the new parts to the paper as if they would spill over somehow onto the next page. How absurd. She typed the entire thing from start to end, with her new parts and edited parts done in.

A loud ringing bell brought her upright with a start. It was her alarm, reminding her to go to bed on time. She wasn't quite finished. "Almost..." She almost shivered in place, wanting so badly to complete it, but she sagged and sighed. "No, not twice. Alright, alright, to bed." She turned away from the typewriter.

"I'll get this done tomorrow, then..." She began going through the motions of putting herself to bed. "Then..."

What did a pony do once they were finished writing something they wanted everypony to see?

It only hit her then that she had no real clue. Sure, she had the vague notion that she wanted it 'published', but how did one actually go about doing that? "Then..." She kept repeating the phrase, as if she could force her thoughts forward past the block, to find the answer that had to be there.

She slipped into bed, pulling the covers up  and blowing out the flickering light. "Then I sleep. It'll make more sense in the morning." She hoped, but she didn't add that part out loud, instead closing her eyes and willing herself to sleep.

Alas, it rarely worked that way, and she had spent a good portion of the day sleeping. Getting to bed at the right time came far more slowly, but with enough tossing around and mumbling, eventually she found at least that respite.
> 3 - Take a Number
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

AK sat on a comfortable little sofa. She didn't feel comfortable at all. It was a little before noon, and the sun blazed brightly through the window onto her. At first it had been pleasant, a nice warmth, but she'd been there a while and the appeal had worn away.

But what else would she do? She looked across the room where a secretary  spoke on a headset draped over head her ears with a small microphone dangling alongside her snout. She was typing away busily even as she spoke. A secretary's job was not a simple one, but it didn't seem to be getting Amy any closer to where she needed to be.

And yet, what was the alternative? She glanced nervously over at her bag that held the finished manuscript and took a slow breath, trying to calm herself. She had to sell her book. Sell her book. What a world, where she had to sell her work to one pony before a single other got a chance to see it where they might buy it.

"Miss Yearling?" That secretary was looking up at her. "They'll see you now."

They? AK slid to her hooves and trotted towards the desk, her bag swaying where it was strapped to her. "Where to?"

The secretary pointed the way. "Double-door at the end. Good luck." Her eyes fell back to her typewriter and she resumed whatever task she had.

Amy considered for a brief instant. "Who's... there?"

"You forgot the starting line of that joke." She didn't look up, and she didn't pause her typing. "They're waiting for you, Miss Yearling."

AK dipped her head. "Yes, of course. Thank you." She threw an arm over her bag, holding it close to herself as if for protection as she advanced, trying her best to look determined, instead of nervous.

'Conference Room B,' read the plaque to the side of the door, ornate embossed wood and metal. Very professional. "I'm a professional," sighed out AK, taking a slow breath before righting herself fully. She thrust out a hoof and opened the door firmly. "Thank you for seeing me," she declared as if saying it with conviction was the secret to getting the answer she wanted.

There were three of them. Two stallions and a mare. The mare was in the center of the formation. They all wore formal suits on their fronts, perhaps their back ends too, but those were hidden by the table. One of the stallions gestured at the one seat across from them, a simpler looking one that was just a little shorter than theirs.

Dominance was established, just like that. "Please, have a seat, Miss Yearling," he invited as his horn glowed, plucking out a single sheet of paper and laying it on the table.

AK's movements were stiffer than she'd like, each hoof feeling like it was coming straight down on the floor, as if her knees had simply given up on the game, but she advanced despite it, pulling herself up onto the chair and setting her bag in her lap. The chair wasn't large enough to sit on her haunches, meaning her legs were dangling off, producing the lap the bag rested in. "I'm... very proud of this--"

The mare held up a hoof. "Non-fiction. Always a difficult field to break into. The topic, archaeology. What are the numbers?" She glanced to the right.

The stallion there sat forward, raising a hoof to adjust his tie. "Less than 2%, Ma'am."

The mare fixed her eyes on AK. "No one knows what archaeology is beyond 'that thing where ponies dig in the dirt.' Moreover, they have no interest in finding out."

The other stallion tapped the lone paper on the table. "It's nicely written."

AK's teeth clenched together, but she looked towards the second stallion. "I did my homework, and really tried to draw the reader into our horseshoes. The... public may not know what--"

The mare raised a hoof for quiet. "You have talent, but it's not for this." She inclined her head faintly. "What ponies want is excitement."

"Adventure," added the first stallion, nodding softly.

"Maybe a little magic?" threw in the second.

"Not dusty diatribes on the plights of dirt-digging ponies." She pressed her hooves together, leaning towards AK. "Aren't there ruins with far more... flavorful obstacles than a hot day or long hours? Focus on one of those and you may have something."

"Opinions would change." Amy sat up with a little frown. "That's the point of the book, to tell ponies about something they didn't think about."

"They won't change if they never read it." The first male gave a dismissive wave of a hoof. "Miss Yearling, do you know how expensive it is to publish a book?"

"... No?" It couldn't be that bad... right? "How much?"

The mare shook her head, sitting up. "That's for us to worry about, but suffice it to say that it is considerable. We must choose what books we publish with great care. Your book is not educational--"

"--But teaching is all it does!" Amy threw a hoof up and to the side, sweat dotting her brow.

The second stallion nodded. "Oh, yes, I learned a thing or two, but it's not a book you'd use in a classroom."

The mare nodded towards him. "Precisely. It is not a textbook. I'm sorry, Miss Yearling, but this book has no future." With a glow of magic, the lone sheet on the table was plucked up and dropped into the trash. "But you may."

AK sagged in her seat. She felt as if it were her that was just tossed in that trash bin. "But..."

The first stallion extended a hoof. "Trust us, you're not the first writer to look like that in this office. But not all of them are told they have any potential at all."

The mare nodded lightly. "We would like to turn your efforts elsewhere, but, with some refinement, I feel confident we could get something out of you worth putting our name on."

Amy perked an ear, blinking. "Wouldn't it have my name?"

"Oh, it would." The mare pressed her forehooves together. "Written by A.K. Yearling, published by Headtrot Incorporated. Both of our names are on the line, which is why we want a success, for the both of us. Thank you for submitting your transcript."

That last bit felt like a dismissal. Amy started to slide to the ground, but awkwardly stopped halfway down, dangling from the chair. "The transcript is still mine. I could go to another publisher."

All three frowned at once. The second lifted his shoulders. "You could, but they'll probably say about the same thing, Miss Yearling. Besides, we're the biggest publisher this side of Equestria. Unless you think minotaurs will be interested in your pony non-fiction--" All three chuckled softly at the idea. "--we represent the best chance you have."

The mare looked towards a box, a click sounding from nowhere. "Send in the next, thank you."

"Of course, Ma'am," came the voice of the secretary.

A.K. was dismissed. That much was clear. She slipped the rest of the way to the ground. "Thank you, for the time." With a heavy swallow she forced herself to walk towards the door with as much poise as she could manage. She jumped when she closed the door harder than she had planned, ears folding back. "Sorry," she weakly peeped, imagining she wasn't even heard past the door.

The secretary turned an ear as Amy came along. "They didn't like it? That's too bad." She didn't look up, and didn't pause. "Better luck next time."

That was just a common occurrence, Amy realized. She was one reject out of a pile. She veered for the exit, wanting to be anywhere but there. The moment the noise of the city began to greet her, she slammed down a hoof and shouted at nothing and everything. A few ponies glanced towards her, but kept right on walking. They all had places to be, things to do.

They were getting things done, unlike her. She turned her blurry vision towards her bag where the transcript rode with her. "Someone will like you..." She ran a hoof over the bag gently and sank to her haunches there on the steps of the publisher. "I just have to... rethink this..."

Amy retreated home to reconsider things and lick her wounds. A letter awaited her there, from the museum she worked for. She set it down and got some tea going before she settled to open the envelope and take a peek inside.



Good Afternoon,

Miss Yearling, your work with us has been nothing short of exemplary. You've brought us so many artifacts of the past, we haven't had the time to sift through it all. We have a full team of ponies working on it, but, at this time, we simply have no need for further field work. You are not being terminated. We will be happy to resume your work as soon as we've worked through the prodigious backlog you've created for us.

Expect future communication within a few moons.

Best of Luck,




It was signed with the ornate scribble of the head mare. It was official, she was as close to fired as not being fired could get. Amy went limp, her head slapping against the hard wood of her table. The pain lanced through her from the impact, but that very real pain felt, somehow, better than the shapeless other worries that chased after her. "Great, no job, they won't publish your book. You're a hobo, Amy. Congratulations."

She rolled to the side, flopping off the table to the floor. "Alright, let's be logical here." She tapped her forehooves in time with her spoken thoughts. "You're not so poor you're going hungry today, or tomorrow. You have skills. You... know how to identify lost artifacts. Maybe they'll let you join the team in cleaning things up?"

She imagined herself seated behind a desk, meticulously dusting off the things she had excitedly extracted from the ground. There would be no discovery, just dusting, so much dusting, then writing about what it all meant, just to get back to looking at the next tiny bit and... "No..." That wasn't what she wanted. It was the act of finding that drew her.

Amy sat up with a frown, glaring at the bag that held the collection of papers, hidden in the bag she had carried. "You were supposed to fix this..." She stood up and grabbed a thick book in her teeth, dropping its soft back onto her table where it flopped open, revealing countless numbers and small advertisements. "Hellow, Brown Pages. Now will you be better at solving things?" She put a hoof to the thin paper and began leafing through one at a time, then several at a time, jumping towards the Ps.

"Party planners, seriously? Printing, Producers, Publishing!" There was a one quarter page ad for the very publishing firm she was rejected from, the three ponies looking at her disapprovingly. Well, they were actually smiling, but she couldn't help but imagine their judgments, harsh and unforgiving.

They weren't the only  thing listed on that page. They were the only one that paid for a big advertisement picture. The others were little more than a name, an address, and not always a phone number. Perhaps some day everypony would have a phone. That day was not arrived yet.

They looked equally as hopeful, and hopeless, as each other, so she closed her eyes and slapped her hoof down on the page. Daring to crack her eyes open, she could see a publisher just above her hoof. "Let's... give them a try."
> 4 - Random Penguins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This feels familiar." There she was, on a couch, in the sun. The couch wasn't as plush, or as new. There was a secretary, but they were a bird, a penguin to be specific, slapping at a keyboard with its fins. Someone had trained a bird to do what a secretary did?

The phone ringed and the penguin jumped before leaping at the phone, knocking it off its base and emitting a loud buzzing honk into it. A.K. couldn't hear what reply came if any, but the bird buzzed and warbled a different noise, nodding. There was a pause, then it honked and hung the phone back up.

The bird returned to its seat and resumed slapping at the typewriter as if that was entirely normal. Had that been a pony? Did they have any idea what was being said? A.K. inclined her head, one ear skewing a moment before folding back into her mane. "Busy day?"

The penguin nodded softly, but didn't look at her, occupied in its slapping.

A face peeked in from just behind the penguin. "Send in Miss Yearling." It was a stallion of bright whites and deep blacks. Their coloration wasn't that far off from the bird that worked the desk.

The penguin looked up to Amy. A single and simple honk was all it had to offer.

A.K. slid to the floor, her bag bouncing a little with her trot towards the door the face had vanished back into. "Wish me luck." A single honk with a warbly pitch being the only response she got before she was through the door into a small office with papers everywhere.

Behind a simple desk was that po... that was not a pony. He was a hippogriff and it become easier to see they had other colors.  She blamed it on boredom that she had just jumped to conclusions. He had bright yellow stripes in his mane going backwards and his claws, hidden by the desk the first time, were also bright yellow. At the moment they were holding a thick collection of papers, her papers.

"Miss Yearling," greeted the hippogriff. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Mister Wing. But you can call me Ping Wing if you prefer." He tapped the desk with the stack of papers, clacking softly with paper against wood. "I was reading over your book again."

"Good day, Mister Wing." She hopped up onto a seat facing the desk and settled down. It was wider than the last, allowing her to sit properly. "Enjoying it?" she asked hopefully, a forced smile on her face.

"Fascinating! Random Penguins would love to publish this."

"But?" She could hear a but in that statement, lurking just under the surface.

"But we haven't done a non-fiction before." He tilted the collection of papers left and right. "Not that we don't want to, but I didn't think it would be fair to make you a test case without you knowing that. We've done how-tos, adventures, romances, mysteries, even biographies, but this isn't any of those at all." He set the stack down on his desk, tail lashing as he looked towards Amy. "Do you understand?"

A.K. could feel her smile deepening. That wasn't a no. It was a yes, a timid yes. A shy yes, but... "So you will publish it then?"

"We'll certainly give it a try." He nodded softly as he waved at the collection. "I'll reach out to stores, see which are the right place and we're on the case. We have your number, Miss Yearling. We'll give you a call when it's on a shelf. Expect a few moons."

A few moons?! She sat up tall, coughing. "A few moons? It... takes that long?"

"Oh, yes. We have to negotiate with retail locations, and print the book." He tapped at the collection of papers. "Nicely typed, but this isn't laid out to be a book just yet. You don't have a cover either. Don't worry, we'll cover that. Ha, a joke. I wasn't even trying for that. Either way, an artist will have to make the front and back covers and re-do the entire thing for book format. Then we have to get the printing press set up for it and produce the first run to sell."

"I... see." It made sense, in hindsight. They couldn't just copy her collection of papers and sell that. And she hadn't drawn a cover. She was a writer, and barely that... "Thank you. This is... exciting." But slow! So slow... But it was moving!

Ping seemed to see the warring emotions on her face, his own smile far more easy. "We'll move as quickly as we can, but there's no hurrying quality, Miss Yearling."

"Of course! I mean, thank you, truly... This is..."

"Are you in need of an advance?" He reached into his desk and drew out a small bag of bits. "Seems safer than usual, seeing as you've already done the writing. Do you understand how advances work?"

"In theory?" she admitted, one brow raising. "What are we advancing, exactly?"

"What I pay you now comes out of your royalties later, until they become even, then you start getting royalties. It's a great way to bridge the time between starting writing and us selling. In your case, between submitting and us selling. It's a token of, mmm, trust, from us to you, that your book will sell and make this money back."

"O-oh! Thank you. I'm sure it'll sell." She wasn't sure it would sell. She had no idea! She had but hope.

"We hope so too." He reached into the bag and dug out a handful of coins he set down on the desk. "Here you are. That should let you wait without worry until we begin."

She reared up to scoop the money with one run of her arm over the desk, knocking it all over into a waiting bag. "Thank you. Does... this make me an author?"

His hand was suddenly on her head, right on her bonnet, petting her like a little foal. "That it does. Congratulations, Miss Yearling. I'll call you when there's an update."

She was too happy in that instant to complain. She instead trotted for the door. "I'll leave you to that. Thank you for seeing me."

"Take care."

A honk brought her attention forward to the little penguin she was about to bump into the chair of. "Oh, sorry. You have a good day too." A honk was all she got back, or really expected. She swerved around and made for the door, a big smile on her face.

So it wasn't the largest publisher. It was still a publisher, and they had even paid her! She stepped out onto the streets of Baltimare and let out a little breath, a hoof at her chest. She felt something drop onto her arm and blinked, peering at the drop of moisture. Oh.

She wiped her eyes clear of the tears she hadn't realized. "Don't go getting silly. They haven't even sold a single book. The whole thing could be a terrible flop..."

But she was paid! She was solvent. "For now..." What would she do with the money? She considered going home and hiding under her bed until the book began to sell, but that wasn't why she had written it to begin with. She wanted... to be out, digging, exploring, and finding.

She sat down on a train bench she only just dimly realized she had boarded, having almost slept-walk right onto a train and plopped herself down. Where was she going? She waved down a conductor. "Pardon me, this will sound quite silly, but where does this train head?"

The conductor ran a hoof over his beard. "West, towards Canterlot, Ma'am. From there, you can get almost anywhere you want. All tracks lead to Canterlot, you know."

"Yes, of course." Her eyes wandered, finding a map of the tracks. The conductor really wasn't lying, as they all seemed to go to Canterlot. she could get home with a transfer at Canterlot.

Confident that she was at least going in the right direction, she settled in her seat and closed her eyes, thinking things through.

"Tough day, huh?"

Amy popped open an eye to see who was speaking to her. A bright cyan unicorn mare.

"Don't even get me started," continued the unicorn without prompting. "Have to come to this strange city without my bestie, pfft, just to find out I came the wrong day." She was sitting oddly, as if the bench were too small to lay on, but there was plenty of room for two ponies to lay at once. "And here I am without my favorite talking partner."

A.K. smiled just a little. "And I'm the replacement?"

"If you don't mind. I'm Lyra, by the way. Lyra Heartstrings." she put a hoof to her chest, then reached out with the same. "You are?"

"A.K." She reached out and up, touching hooves with the mare. "Charmed. Are you heading home then?"

"Yeah... But I didn't get done what I wanted." She rolled her shoulders softly, looking Amy over. "How about you? Headed home?"

"I planned to..."

"Get things done?"

A.K. smiled a bit more. "I did... a publisher accepted my book."

Lyra gasped loudly enough to turn heads. "Congratulations!" She thumped down a hoof on either of Amy's shoulders. "That's big! Ooo, what did you write?" She was leaning in so far their noses were scrunched against one another. "A murder mystery? A sci-fi epic?!"

A.K. withdrew, but Lyra was perfectly happy to advance into the made space, keeping them connected. "It's a book about archeology and the process of those in the field," she explained, trying to distract herself by describing her story. "A tale about dirt, digging, and discovery."

"Oooo." Lyra finally sat back, clopping her hooves together. "I've heard of that. Oh wait, are you one of those?"

"I... yes, actually I am," confessed A.K. "I'm not digging right this moment, obviously."

"Obviously," merilly agreed Lyra. "Wow, you've made this whole trip suddenly worthwhile."

A.K. sat up, considering Lyra quietly a moment. "You really seem excited... for me."

"Who wouldn't be?" gushed the unicorn. "I bet you're going to be famous for books one day, and when that happens, I'll get to say 'I was there. I knew her when she was just starting.' A.K. right?"

"Yearling. A.K. Yearling," carefully pronounced Amy as she nodded gently. "You're being far too kind... To be honest, I really want to get back to that digging more than writing."

"So why don't you?" Lyra rolled a hoof in the air. "Oh wow, you've probably seen all kind of crazy things. Oh! I'll get your book for sure. Um, whenever I see it. But why not go dig if you want to dig?"

"I... don't have an assignment?" she lamely explained, feeling silly for saying it.

"So do it yourself." Lyra shrugged softly. "You have four hooves and a dream. If you just published a book, you did that other job too, so why not?"

"Because..." A.K. trailed off, thinking it through. Why couldn't she go exploring on her own? True, she'd basically be working for nothing, but it was work she wanted to do, and she had the bits to live for a while. And hiding under her bed didn't sound nearly as interesting. "Because... I didn't think of that. Thank you, Miss Heartstrings."

"Just call me Lyra." She suddenly grabbed Amy's hoof between both of her own, shaking it vigorously. "You go do archaeological stuff, whatever that really is." She suddenly frowned a bit. "Guess I need that book of yours to find out. When's it coming out?"

"In... a few moons." She retrieved her hoof and coiled on herself, producing a quill and paper. "If you give me your number or address, I can contact you with where to get it."

"Oh this is great." Her horn glowed as scribbles began to appear. "I can't wait then! Let me know."
> 5 - Into Jungle Deep
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yearling tapped a hoof to her chin as she looked over a large map of Equestria. So many potential places, but she couldn't just go anywhere. Hay, she could just go into her backyard and start digging and hope to get lucky, but the odds would be against her, and she'd feel silly too...

No... "I need a promising place..." Somewhere she couldn't normally go. The museum had specific rules and regulations it followed about what sites it pursued, but she wasn't working for them at the moment. She was a free agent, free to wander where her hooves carried her and free to fail without anyone but herself being upset about it.

It was as terrifying as it was liberating. She reached for a phone and soon had a friend on the line.

"Hello?"

"Sharp Eye, good to hear from you."

"A.K.? A delight," replied the other archaeologist on the line. "To what do I owe this rare pleasure?"

"So here's the situation. I'm a free agent--" He interrupted with a soft affirmative noise. "--and I want to dig." Another uh-huh emerged. "And I can dig anywhere, since no one is telling me I can't." A third agreement. "So where would you dig, if you were in my horseshoes?"

"That's a hay of a question," rumbled the stallion. "I can see why you called me about it." A.K. knew Sharp Eye had worked alone in the past. "Let me cut to the chase. Do you want safe?"

A.K. blinked softly at that. "Safe? Digging usually isn't overly dangerous."

"Do you want safe," he repeated, each word said solidly. "There are two ways for a free digger to go. You can find a nice quiet place and just get to digging, or you can go to where the museums wouldn't dare to send their people."

Her mouth felt dry, and licking her lips did little to aid the situation. "What... kind of places would those be?"

"A.K... Amy, we're friends, right? I'd rather you just found a quiet patch of dirt, to be honest."

"You've already dangled that apple in front of my face." A.K. sat up tall, holding the phone's receiver against her head. "I may never be a free agent again. I want to hear more."

A soft muttering was all she could hear for a moment, some shuffling papers? "Look, I'm still recovering from my own trek, so I can't go here, but if you want to, I have a firm request before then."

"That depends on what you're asking?" Her mind filled with odd images of being told to do terribly illegal things as favors.

"Don't get hurt."

She slumped, feeling bad for doubting her friend. "I'll try my best, promise. Is it really that dangerous?"

"It can be. There's a reason the museums shy away from it. Anyway, here." He began to describe a place. "--in the jungle, hot, wet, filled with bugs, toxic critters, and maybe a little slice of history. A  hot-air baloon spotted what could have been the stone top of a building. That's your target."

"A whole building?!" Amy squeaked. "Why aren't they already tearing that apart right now?"

"That jungle is a no-pony's land. Did I not just mention the hostile fauna? The flora's not too friendly either. If you get to the building, you will almost certainly be alone, and what you find will be yours to do with as you please."

A.K.'s eyes shone with wonder at the idea, but her giddy smile faded a little. "But here you are, telling me, instead of going yourself. Are you alright?"

"No," came the frank answer. "I'm laid up, as I said. I'd be running off towards that right now, if I could... The way I see it, I'd much rather know you got to it first, rather than some stranger."

Her cheeks warmed a little. "That's... really sweet of you, now that I think about it. Thank you, Sharp."

"Just be careful, Amy. I don't want you to rush to join me in being bedridden, right? Go in, grab something nice, and get out." There was the briefest of pauses. "Say, you're a pegasus, aren't you?"

She glanced back at her ill-frequently used wings. "In theory."

"Fly then. Probably safer. Dress light, keep the sun off your face, and move fast." Without even waiting for a bye, or giving one, she heard his receiver click, and the call ended.

She set down her own receiver. "Fly, yes..." It wasn't as if her wings didn't work, or that she didn't know how to use them. It was a fairly good bit of advice. "First..." She began to get dressed in light clothes, with a nice cap to keep the sun off perched on her head.

She looked like an archaeologist, which made sense, being one. But she was a rogue agent. No archaeological orginization knew where she was going, when she was going, or what she would find. Not that she was a thief. Whatever she found, she'd examine it delightedly, then turn it right over to experts to do what they do with artifacts.

Was there a book for that? Someone should write that... A.K. shook her head softly. "I did my side of things." She envisioned her future book, an indistinct cover on it in her mind. What would that cover become? Only time would reveal that mystery. She grabbed a bag and slung it over her shoulder, hanging so that the flap was at her side. "Supplies."

She raided the fridge, grabbing packets of dry food and bottles of water. She always made it a point to have both. They were useful when on an assignment, even free agent ones. She stuffed her bag about half full of them. With a flap of her freed wings, she launched herself out of her home, locked the door, and took off, towards adventure, she hoped.





"Is there a frequent roller program?" she asked a conductor.

He tipped his hat at the adventurous-looking mare. "There is, in fact. Would you like to sign up?"

"I would like that." She accepted the form he came back with and soon was a member. A free ride after every four paid ones? And she got a stamp for the ride she was already on. "Why didn't I get this moons ago?" She tucked the card away and turned her attention to the map of the rail lines.

The train would only get her so far. It did not push into the jungle, nice as that would have been."It's up to me," she muttered to herself, disembarking at the closest station. Being an archaeologist, she spent most of the time right on the ground, getting personal with the past. It was not a traditionally 'pegasus' calling. "A day's fly away..." Assuming she flew without stop for an entire day... She wasn't quite feeling that confident.

She watched the train roll away, a lazy trail of smoke pointing back towards her. There would be no other train for 2 days, so rarely was that stop visited. 

That didn't stop her from taking to the sky for the first leg, er, wing of her journey. The vegetation grew frighteningly dense beneath her in no time at all. The hot air baloon had spotted a stone slab in the mess of trees. She figured if she could spot the same thing, that would tell here where to land and begin exploring. Hopefully, she'd never have to actually land in the jungle proper and deal with its hostile inhabitants.

The calls and cries of the jungle natives began to become clear in her ears. Exotic bird warbles and chirps danced with soft hisses and great roars of some terrific jungle predator that could make a snack of her if she wasn't careful. "When I get tired," she said to herself. "I will rest on a tree." The ground felt especially unsafe at that moment.

Would that she could give Sharp a call. What a different would it would be in, where a pony could make a call while flying over a jungle. Seemed more like a unicorn thing, some sort of magic item. Maybe such a thing existed? She'd never heard of one, but became fascinated with imagining what one would look like and how it would work.

Her vision was suddenly obscured. There had been a sharp chorus of a cry, then things were flying all around her. The swarm of whatever they were were managing to steer around her perfectly, leaving her stunned and shocked, but unharmed as the carpet rolled over her. 

Amy's eyes darted around, but she could see almost nothing, even the sun blocked by the thick covering of the whatever-they-weres flying past. She could hear their wings flapping and their alarmed cries.. As the last of them flew past her, she could see they were some kind of birds, flying in a thick flock. They were fleeing danger, and had no interest in a random pony. That was just as well, she figured, resuming her trek.

With a loud roar, something jumped at her from the foliage. With sharp teeth and sharper fangs, a great cat was attempting to make a snack of  her. Amy squealed with terror and flapped backwards and upwards, its claws scraping one of her hooves, but not finding purchase. It fell into the jungle below, leaving her to heave for stolen breath, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. "Top... of trees... not safe..."

She was getting tired, despite that. Where could she hide for a safe little recharge? She rubbed the scratched hoof with her other forehoof as her eyes darted around, looking for something, anything. She could hide in a cloud? Surely few things would bother her there. Most things that could get to a cloud were aiming for prey much smaller than a pony to grab.

Amy craned her neck back to look skywards and a strained laugh escaped her. The rainforest had no shortage of clouds to select from. She quickly gained some altitude towards one and landed gingerly on its fluffy... soggy... surface. She skewed an ear in confusion and tried taking a few steps. The cloud supported her, but she could hear and see water squelching under each step.

This cloud would offer no dry soft bedding. Only sogginess. Still... maybe that was better than risking having some wild beast chomp her as she took a breather.

She sank down onto the wet mess on her belly and closed her eyes, trying to will herself to calm. "Thank you, dear friend." She could feel the sun bathing her, and felt glad she had been told to put on a hat, keeping it off her head and out of her eyes. "If I survive this, I admit I will be unsure whether to hug you or give you a kick." Perhaps both would work?

The soft ache of well-used wings slowly ebbed. She felt ready to take flight again and stood up. Peeking over the edge, she realized another small error on her part. The cloud hadn't stayed still at all. No properly managed cloud, it was wild and with a will of its own. It had drifted in some direction over the jungle, leaving her thoroughly lost.

"Well..." She bit back the foul word she had been dreaming up. "Let's stay calm and rational.... You didn't know where you were going. This changes nothing, in the end." She nodded, increasingly sure in her own logic. "So... Stone roofs. That's all I need to find."

She launched out in the late afternoon sky and resumed her search, eyes roaming the thick canopy for even a hint of some kind of anything that wasn't yet another tree or something that wanted to see how delicious she happened to be that day.
> 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.
> 7 - Goals Revealed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She awoke with a prodding of a hoof into her side. "Mmm?"

"We'ze goin'," informed the larger of the goons. "You comin' or not?"

Given a moment, she could make out the light spilling in from outside. It wasn't bright, the jungle didn't allow that, but it wasn't the dark of night either. Day had clearly come. "Yes, of course." She quickly scooped up her bag and trotted outside in as dignified of a trot as she could manage.

"There she is! You were right." He made a grand wave of a hoof towards the right. "Behold, the lost temple of the kirin. Their ancestral home countless aeons ago before they migrated for reasons unknown. A find that will convince the others that I understand how to unearth the past." He began to laugh with victory, his stooges joining in after a moment.

It had been hidden by darkness alone, so obvious it was jutting out of the thick foliage were great slabs of stone, though no obvious entrance in sight. A.K. considered it with a soft hum and began circling around it. "We need to get inside if we're going to convince anyone that we've been here at all. Still... look at it. It's wonderful."

"Truly breathtaking," agreed Caballeron. "And think of the treasures hidden within. You are correct, we must get inside." He pointed at the closest wall. "Why not go directly?"

A.K. came to a sudden halt. "Are you serious?"

"Why would I not be?" He shrugged softly, seeing no reason at all not to attack the wall.

"One, noise is our enemy. Two, you could damage something on the inside tearing down a wall. Three... do you even have those tools?" She tapped her right forehoof on the ground with each number. "There has to be an actual entrance to this."

Caballeron grumbled softly at her admonishment. "We would have been careful," he groused as he turned to the side. "Go on, find that entrance!" he boomed in command, thrusting a hoof forward. His two lackies saluted and charged off in search of it.

The lines of the stone were clear in portions where vines hadn't grown over them, the way they sloped downwards had her eyes following them. Downwards? She frowned a little. Had they done that on purpose, or... She followed one line down until it hit the ground and hoofed there a moment, digging just enough to see the line continued. "It's sinking." The building was lowering into the soft ground of the jungle. Perhaps, some day, it would be entirely submerged.

Caballeron snorted, coming up towards her. "Well then, Miss Smartedy pants, what if the entrance is already underground?"

"It might be," she easily allowed. "Doesn't mean we shouldn't look for it. A window or a chimney might also work as an entrance in a pinch." She spread her wings. "I'll look from above." With quick flaps, she ascended, leaving Caballeron behind.

He glared in the direction she had fled. "You think you know it all? Hmmph." He stomped off with his own plans in mind.

A.K. landed lightly on the tilting side of the building and began trotting up along it, her wings holding her steady on the precarious angle as she ascended carefully. "They didn't just make a big stone cube," or so she hoped, eyes darting for clues.

She brushed a cluster of vines aside, revealing cold stone beneath. Some roots revealed wonderful carvings of strange curved horns, but no entrance. A patch of webs she hesitated in front of before taking a slow breath. "I don't see any spiders..." She reached in and brushed the dry webs aside, revealing darkness. An entrance!

Filled with excitement, she scrambled through what seemed to have once been a little window, now turned into a serviceable door. She landed with a dusty puff on the stone floor. She was inside! She set her bag down and dug out a flashlight, clenching her teeth around it to click the button and summon light into the area.

There was no giant spider about to eat her. No sleeping cats or bears or something even more horrible were lunging for her. Her mission was proceeding smoothly. She turned back to the window and poked her head out. "I found a way in," she shouted out to anyone that could hear her. That was only fair, right?

Her duty complete, she slung her bag onto her back and got to pressing deeper, poking he head out of the room she had fallen into to see a narrow hallway going left and right. The walls were alive with frescoes of pronking kirin. Oh, if only she could take them all. She hadn't brought a camera. Those things were big and heavy and she never really learned how to use one. Usually, she had a photographer with her on site, but she was her own crew... The best she could do was a rubbing.

She set the flashlight down and got out some paper. "I can at least do that." Somepony besides herself deserved to have some idea of the art she was seeing. She began dutifully rubbing the paper with a smudge, causing an imprint to form on it where it was pressed against the carvings behind it, allowing her to capture a crude imitation of it. "Not quite the real thing... but better than nothing," she consoled herself, folding it carefully and slipping the paper away. "My first treasure." Not her first, precisely, but the first she found entirely on her own.

"What were they like?" Not that she'd ever seen a kirin in the flesh. Did they still exist? She wasn't even sure of that. She didn't even know the temple was theirs until she'd been told earlier that day. "I will try to be respectful." Slinging her bag into place, she followed the dancing kirin on the walls. "Where are you leading me...?"

A soft click reached her ears and she recoiled as rods thrust out from either side of the wall. They hadn't come out where she was standing, making no attempt to impale her. "Don't be silly. Why would they trap a random hallway?" Her eyes swept along the walls, looking at where the rods met those walls. The carvings showed kirin mid-bounce over the rods. "A test?" She stepped from one hoof to the next. "I can do this..."

She hopped forward over the first, but the next picture showed it leaping under the next bar and over the one after that. She bounced up and the dock of her tail thumped against the bar behind her. Suddenly she was standing at the start of the hallway again. "Alright... so there is a penalty for messing up," she admitted as she shook her head, dispelling the dizziness of the sudden relocation. "It's just a little test, probably something they did for fun."

She tried to dispel her worry, to take the test in the spirit it was likely there in. Hop over, Hop under and over. Hop hop hop. She was progressing slowly but surely forward. Right back to the start. She let out a little chuckling sigh. "Oops." Back at it she went, hopping and ducking her way forward.

A.K. arrived at the last rod, but it left her perplexed. Both sides of the hallway showed what seemed to be a kirin with their hoof reaching out towards the other side of the hallway. "Is this... meant to be done as a pair?" She didn't have anyone else there to do it with.

She'd have to cheat, a little. She hopped up and down in place, testing her timing. "And..." Forward she bounded, turning in the air and thrusting her hooves out as she hit the apex, tagging both sides of the hallway where the carvings seemed to want to be tagged before she fell on the other side of the rod and tumbled awkwardly. "Made it!" she declared boldly to herself, gathering herself up. 

She was in a larger room. Pews of stone seemed to lead towards what easily appeared as some kind of altar or speaking platform. That it was a gathering area seemed obvious. Visions of dozens of kirin all doing that jumping test in a great flocking mass danced in her mind, some getting yanked back to the start but there were so many of them there were still others to jump and pronk with them. "There should be..." She saw it, a simple lever. She grabbed it in her mouth and pulled it gently and it almost fell forward once it was past an inch, the rods withdrawing. "They'd need some way to turn them off for the last person if there was an odd kirin out." She nodded with confidence, turning away from it to take in the room. "What wonders..."

She trotted to the raised platform, ascending the stairs and circling the altar. There was a dull golden statue of a kirin sitting on their haunches with a little smile. Amy returned its smile as she gingerly picked it up. "You are gorgeous." Certainly it needed some heavy cleaning to bring back its original luster. "You belong in a museum, where everyone can admire you." The craftsponyship was exquisite, bringing into sharp relief just how alien kirin were, with their scaled backs and odd horns. They had tufts of fur along their tail and the back of their back legs. They were such strange creatures, but wonderful in the same breath. With due care, she tucked the little statue in her bag, visions of who she'd turn it over to for cleaning dancing in her head. "Even if I find nothing else in here, it's already worth the trip!"

Her issues with wild cats were basically forgotten in her mind. She had made a find, a real find. She was an archaeologist! "What else is there..." The altar was wonderful, but also made of stone, and rooted into the stone ground with the force of gravity. An entire team would be needed with heavy machinery to hope to extract it. No, more likely it would be the subject of study right where it started. Risking damaging it by moving it would be outrageous.

She shook her head, turning in place to look at a tall statue that loomed over the altar from behind. "Was this your god? Some primitive spiritual being?" It was a great almost-kirin. Flames wisped from its eyes and a scowl was on its face. Some kind of angry god? Before it were the remnants of things. She couldn't even make out what they had once been. "Sacrifices? Incense?" They were naught but smudges on the ground at that point. "Did you pray to this for protection? Mercy? Invigoration before trotting out to battle?" There were so many possibilities, but the statue did not speak. It would not tell her those secrets.

Some things would remain forever shrouded in the fog of time. She let out a little sigh, but her smile couldn't be entirely defeated. She pointed to a hallway she picked basically at random and trotted towards it. "I feel lucky." Surely there were more treasures to be found, rescued from obscurity in the sinking temple.

The hallway was short, leading to what seemed to be a little closet, where things were kept. She pocketed a few little curious stone implements, but there didn't seem to be much interesting in there... at first.

She stopped and squinted. The lines in the walls were mildly suspicious to her. She reached up and felt at the wall. They were little holes, not just dark pigment. They were just large enough... She drew out one of the things she had just pocketed and slid it into one of the holes. A soft click was the answer.

"It's a lock!" she boldly declared to herself, gently sliding it right back out. "If I can figure this out, maybe it leads somewhere amazing..."
> 8 - What Treasures
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She pulled the pieces out with a frown. They all fit in, but nothing opened. She examined them intently, taking mark of their patterns and the wall before slowly putting them back in with a new configuration and trying to match the wall behind them.

Nothing.

She began plucking each back out with a soft sigh. "I will not be defeated by an ancient lock." Back in they went. She went for the opposite method, clashing as much as possible with each piece she put in.

A new click sounded. A panel fell open revealing a round but damaged shield. It had a copper rim on the outside, but the inside was far more interesting. It depicted a light colored kirin in mid leap in a circle, a stick with budding flowers clasped in its jaws. Opposite it was some dark creature with bright white eyes, with a blue mane and wisps of flames. It was hard to make out all the details with the dust and restoration it obviously needed taking care of. "But it is a fine catch," she sighed out, reaching for it carefully. "We will preserve your history."

With the shield tucked onto her back, she started to consider leaving. Even if she found more things, she wouldn't be able to carry it all through the jungle, in one piece, without becoming dinner. Ah! Caballeron and his goons were surely valid hooves to help carry more. Maybe they'd even found other wondrous things on their own. She got to trotting out of the closet.

Behind her, she heard the pieces she'd inserted get pushed out onto the ground, raining down in a soft clatter of stone against stone. The panel sealed itself with a soft rolling grind. She considered collecting the bits of that key. "Mmm..." Back around she went, scooping them up. They were small and interesting and into her bag they went.

"There you are!" Caballeron stood at the entrance to the small closet. "Taking as much as you can carry, without us, I see."

"I was just looking for you." A.K. folded her left wing over the flap of her bag. "Have you been looking around? This place has more treasure than we can even bring back."

"More treasure than you can bring back, perhaps." He snorted softly, leaning to the side to peer at the closed flap of her bag. "What is it you have already found?"

"A little statue, a battered shield," she casually downplayed. "Some bits of an ancient key. The historical value should be considerable, in the hooves of a proper researcher."

"Pah. Where is the gold and silver?" He turned away, walking into the room with the altar. "Like that." He pointed at the great statue looming over things. "That would surely sell for a small mountain of bits."

Amy frowned at that, emerging from the closet to look once more. It reminded her of the shadowy figure on the shield, she realized. Perhaps it was a dark god, something feared? But if they feared it, why erect such a large statue in reverence to it? So many questions she wanted answers to... "You may damage it trying to move it. It's very large."

"That is why you bring large help." He clopped his fore hooves together and his goons came rushing in. "I want to see that outside!" He thrust a hoof at the statue. "Yesterday!" As they hurried, he glared at A.K. "And do not think you are getting a share of this."

"That one is entirely yours." She silently hoped it wasn't damaged in the effort as she began wandering away down a new hallway. "I'm going to keep looking around."

"Maybe you'll find something better than beat up things," he taunted as she left, a smirk on his face.

A.K. kept her own smile hidden until she was around the corner. Let that goon struggle with that huge statue. The little one she had was clearly worth more, and she'd get it where it needed to be instead of... What was Caballeron even doing? She shook her head softly, putting him out of her head for a moment. "I have enough, maybe I should--"

Her words were cut off when the ground beneath her quaked violently, throwing her to the ground. She could hear something massive crashing, back in the direction she had just come from. Scrambling back to her hooves, she hurried back to see a great hole beneath where the statue once was. Caballeron was nowhere in sight, but his goons were there, peering into the great hole in the thick stone floor.

"What happened?" she gushed out as she joined them in peering into the depths.

"Yeah, the boss saw somethin'." The skinnier one pointed into the air. "Went climbin' fer it an' the whole thing came down with 'im."

She slapped her right hoof to her face. "This is an ancient temple, not a jungle gym." She coiled on herself and pulled out a rope from her bag. "Do you see something to tie this onto?" The larger of the two rushed forward, grabbing the end of the rope in his mouth and soon attaching it to one of the stone pews. "Very good." She flicked her head, tossing the rope into the dark. "Caballeron, can you hear us?"

The skinnier of the two suddenly jumped down, grabbing the rope in their teeth along the way and sliding rapidly out of sight. The larger one shrugged. "Gotta go after 'em." And down he went as well, leaving Amy behind.

She considered her option. Caballeron seemed like a questionable archaeologist, at best, still... Leaving a hurt pony like that wasn't a good thing, right? She heaved a suffering sigh and descended as well, plunging into darkness. After a short moment of sliding, she thumped right on top of a pony. The larger goon? She got out her flashlight and clicked it on.

There he was, just under her, and now looking up at her. "Do you see the boss?"

"Over here!" The skinnier one was seated on his haunches and tossing bits of stone aside.

Amy's heart sank, realizing at last one of those heavy rocks was what was left of the grand statue, now pulverized in the fall. "Is he alright?" She hopped down from the larger of the two. The statue wasn't alright. It never would be...

A pained grunt came from the pile, the pinned doctor climbing free when enough rocks were moved. "That was most unexpected, but I have good news!" He reached a hoof into his shirt and pulled out something that glinted in the dim light of her flashlight. "Worth it!"

Worth it? Amy cringed at the idea. "Are you alright?" she repeated. "That was quite the fall."

"It will take more than that to take down Doctor Caballeron!" He dusted himself off, though it didn't help as much as he had wanted, covered in the dust of the destruction he had helped cause. "Still, I thank you for bringing my stallions to me."

"That's her rope, Boss." The skinny one pointed to the dangling rope. "How we got here so fast."

"I could hear you." He casually bopped his lackey on the head. "Even if I couldn't move. Now, this is a new room. Get out your torches and let's begin searching.

Amy shied back, leaving her rope behind. As the two lit their torches, she turned her light away and vanished down a new hallway. Her interest in being around the doctor worn thin.

"Where are you going?" His hoof came down on her shoulder. "This temple is quite dangerous, as I just proved. We should not separate. What if you somepony is pinned again, or worse? Do you wish to be alone when that happens?"

She tensed before sighing. "You have a good point there. I suggest we look a little more, get what we can, and get out of here with our hides intact."

"I thought you were Daring Do. That is not being of the very brave of you." He turned away, barking a command at his minions before glancing back. "If you wish to run away, I will not stop you."

She lifted a hoof only for it to fall again, her steps halted, frozen.  She wasn't a coward! How dare he say that! But there she was, ready to run away with her tail between her legs, happy with what she got and leaving an entire temple to sink into the ground, never to be seen again.

A low growl rose in her throat, stepping from hoof to hoof as she shook her head. "Alright! Alright." She trotted back into the room she had just left, turning her eyes to the rubble and what was around it. "The odds that you fell into an empty room are low. What did you land on?" She dusted the lighter stones away, kicking up dust in a small cloud as she worked forward slowly. "Let's find out."

"Now you are speaking more of the sense." Caballeron nodded. "Help her. Let us see what there is."

Both saluted and joined in clearing out the debris of the smashed statue. What they found were equally pulverized portions of tables. Between two of them, a box. Caballeron shoved the larger of his goons out of the way when they found it. "Yes!" He reached for the top to throw it open, only to hesitate. "On the second thoughts, why don't you?" He looked to A.K. with a bright smile. "This was your idea, was it not?"

Her ears danced. That felt nicer than he had been up to then. "Thank you. We'll share what we find though." She jostled her bags as she approached. "I have almost as much as I can safely carry anyway." Examining the box, she could see where falling debris had bashed and chipped at it, damaging the frescoes that had graced it. Like the tables, it was damage that was unlikely to be undone.

Still, what was inside could be safe, sheltered by the stone of the box. She reached for it and ran a hoof along the lip, feeling where one stone touched the other. Amy lifted it an inch, the hinges squeaking, but still turning. "Nicely made," she complimented as she carefully slid it--

She staggered back, an arrow protruding from her chest. Why would they put a trap on a random box?! The indignity of the thought did nothing to stifle the pain as she fell back, breathing raggedly. She could dimly hear the others. They were not tending to her. They were looting the box, taking whatever was inside. She couldn't focus properly through the pain, and soon she was alone with only the light of her dropped flashlight for company.

She brought up her hooves, both shaking and clopped them in on either side of the arrow. Clenching her teeth firmly against the pain, she began to jostle it carefully, working the arrow out as carefully as she could manage through the blinding pain without tearing herself any more open than she already was. Tears streamed down her face and she wanted to scream, but who would she scream at, or for. Caballeron had shown how little he cared about her pain.

With a last pull, she let the arrow fall to the ground, glinting with her own blood. "That was... bad..." She was certain she needed to be seen by a doctor. No, not that doctor. A real one, in a hospital preferably. Playtime was over. The expedition was over. Brushing away tears that refused to stop flowing, she grabbed her flashlight and lifted into the air, ascending up along her rope even as her chest throbbed with agony with every flap. She had to get somewhere safe. Archaeology could wait. 

What was the point of learning of the dead if she rushed to become one of them, perhaps buried in one of their own buildings alongside them?
> 9 - Tactical Repositioning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The moment her hooves could reach, she grabbed onto the edge of the broken floor and scrambled up onto the next floor. That brief moment of struggle managed to hurt less than her wings. "Figures..." The arrow must have struck one of her wing muscles directly. The pain was ebbing to a low roar as she kept them firmly folded to her sides.

She couldn't hear Cabellaron, or his goons. They were probably off somewhere else, she figured, looting everything that caught their eye. She still had her prizes and they hadn't thought to take them from her. A little smirk spread on her lips as she started to walk. Her little white lie had done its job of downplaying what treasures she had secured.

"One piece." That was all she needed, to get out intact. She considered going back the way she came, but that led to a window, and just imagining flying down from there sent an pained shudder through her. She squinted at the floor instead, looking for hoofprints and starting to follow them backwards.

Those goons had to come in, and they didn't have wings. Where they came in, she could get out, or so she hoped. Her own clip-clops echoed off the hard stone around her, judging her. "I'm preserving you," she muttered under her breath. She wouldn't sell to the highest bidder, the impression she was rapidly getting about her new 'peer'.

A soft click reached her ears and she dove forward with wide eyes. Her hat was driven off her head, but she never heard it hit the ground, instead hearing something smash into stone. She sat up, huffing for breath as she reached up for where the hat had rested, so close to her head as it had to be. "How did those fools not run into that?"

She saw her hat, pinned to the wall. An arrow was thrust through it, its heavy stone head plunged an inch into the stone of the opposite wall. Amy cringed as she carefully worked the arrow free. "Today is not my lucky day for arrows." But she did get her hat free, even if it had a new hole. Back onto her head she set it. "Maybe I'll take this slower." As much as she was ready to go home, she had to get out first without getting into more trouble.

Was this what her friend went through regularly? Was that how he'd ended up in a hospital? Independent archaeology was far more dangerous than she would have assumed. A distant noise reached her, then a faint yelp. What trouble had the three gotten themselves into? "Not my monkey," she muttered as she resumed following the trail they had left behind. Thankfully, they hadn't been trying to be subtle. She wasn't sure if subtle was a word they even knew.

A small part of her hoped they'd do something stupid and get hurt, but she lashed out at that part almost instantly. "Be better than that! You don't want anypony getting hurt, even if they are a jerk." The part argued that if she was so sincere, she'd go check up on them. "... No, there are limits." She would not wish pain and death on them, nor would she lend a hoof to those who left her for dead.

The temple would determine their fates, combined with their own lust for treasure. It was the fairest way she had at her disposal right at that moment. 

That was when she found the hole. A great uneven hole right in a wall, destroying the artwork that had been on it. "On the other hoof," she growled, imagining how it had happened. It led right outside. This was how they got in, by force. They had damaged the precious historical site before they'd even poked their ugly faces into it. Some archeologists they were! "Did they bring explosives?" Had they mentioned that? She couldn't remember precisely through the pain.

Either way, that was the exit. Freedom was right in front of her. She walked up at an angle, sliding up just at the edge of the hole in the wall and peeking out. There were no animals in sight. She could hear the sound of jungle life. She would be tradining temple dangers for jungle ones, and she wasn't sure which was immediately more lethal.

And she wouldn't have wingpower to sail over things. It was forward or back, only two options really. A.K. drew a soft breath before trotting out, leaving the temple behind. The dead would wait, she could not.





"You've looked better." There was her friend, visiting her in the small clinic she had dragged herself to. "But you're in one piece, all we can ask." He trotted to her bedside. "I told you it was dangerous... But I also told you where to go, so--"

"--This isn't your fault." She sat up a bit, wincing at the pain flaring up in her chest. "I'll get better. Besides, I did get some things."

His ears went erect. "I saw the shield." His horn glowed, gently picking up the shield and bringing it over. "Wonderful craftscreatureship. Hardly worth getting your pretty hide punctured over."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Amy huffed as she raised a hoof to point at her backpack. "Bring that over here." The cheating unicorn did that without moving, floating it into her grasp. She soon had the small statue free. "It needs cleaning, but..."

His breath caught. "Oh... yes, that is different." His magic glowed around it as he lifted it closer and began to spin and turn it, examining it intently. "Very nice! What else was hiding in there...?" He set the statue down and looked ready to peek into her backpack.

She drew it closer to herself. "Ask a mare before you go shoving your snout where it doesn't belong. I'll turn over everything as soon as I'm out of here, but, for now--"

"--for now, you rest." He raised a hoof towards her, but it fell without a word. "You sure you're alright?"

"The doctor was quite clear, no lasting damage, just plenty of pain." She cracked a little smile. "I'll be back on my hooves soon, promise. No broken bones, just an arrow in the--"

"An arrow did that?!" he suddenly blurted, cutting her off.

"It only grazed me," she lied. "Imagine if it had gone right in like that? I'd be trying to get home with an arrow poking out of me."

"Don't even joke about that," he fretted, working his hooves against one another. "Look, I'm just happy you came back. Next time you ask for a tip, I'm keeping my big mouth shut. It'd bad enough when I risk my--"

"--It's my life." She leaned forward as much as she could without the pain getting past the point she could endure. "Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?"

"You gave the tip." She waved a hoof at the statue laying on the bed next to her. "You had a hoof in my finding that. I'll be sure to give you credit."

"We can argue finding credit another time." His hoof came up and nothing stopped him from setting it on her and nudging her back. "Right now, you need to lay down and get some rest."

"Sure thing, Dad." She rolled her eyes dramatically as he recoiled. "I'll be fine. Now go away and let me do that sleep thing you say I need so much."

"I'll do that... just... be careful, alright?" He slipped from the room, leaving her in quiet.

She could hear ponies walking around, perhaps a nurse or two, or a busy doctor? She tried to put it out of her mind and closed her eyes. Sleep. Sleep meant healing, and she could use some of that.

She was running, soft and yet somehow thundering paw-steps behind her. It was closer, so much closer. She could feel hot breath on the tip of her tail as she ducked to the side, tumbling through branches and thorns grabbing at her.

She awoke with a yelp, the pain in her chest like a fresh stab wound. She had sat up when she awakened, triggering that pain. With a muted grunt, she sank back down, taking slow and measured breaths. "Sleep." She needed it, but would she get it?

Visions of that jungle, eager to add her to the food chain danced behind her closed eyes. If she never saw another hungry cat ever again, it would still be too soon.

She was falling, plummeting towards jagged spikes below. She could hear cruel laughing and knew without seeing them that it was her 'fellow' archeologists, taking no pity in her plight. She tried to flap her wings but to no avail, that only brought pain. "Help!"

And help arrived. Catching her mid-air, Luna brought A.K. smoothly to the ground and set her gently to her hooves. "This is a dream," she informed.

And so Amy knew that it was, blinking. "A dream? You mean you can do that?! I thought that was a wild rumor written up to sell trashy magazines."

"Neigh." Luna shook her head gently. "Your troubled dreams called to me, and I came to offer succor. You are injured."

Amy glanced down at her chest and saw  her wound was far more pronounced in the dream world. Red leaked through her clothes. With an alarmed squeak, she ripped open the jacket with strength she did not normally have, revealing she had a hole right through her body.

She sank with a shivering gasp. "That's--"

"--a dream," reminded Luna. "Calm yourself, dear subject." With soft feathers, she banished the injury back into the mental space it sprang from. "Tell me what has brought this injury to your mental form. Do you bear this wound in the waking world?"

"It was an accident." Amy could feel her breath slowing. Why did she have to breathe in a dream?

"Because you expect it," answered Luna.

"I... didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to." She set a hoof gently on Amy's nose. "We are in your thoughts. You seem better."

She was, a little... "I made a questionable professional decision that had... obvious downsides. I'm in a hospital. I'll be fine, just need to rest and heal, which is what I'm trying to do."

"Then I will help." She brought in both wings, cocooning her subject in warmth. "Sleep, and recover. The night is for rejuvenation."

"Reju..." Her eyes sank closed, lethargy overwhelming her. "G'night..." She fell over, but never struck the ground. The dream faded away and she was left with a deep dreamless slumber.





Amy was sitting up, most of her pain gone. She was healing nicely, and she had a newspaper to read.



Up and Coming Archaeologist Goes Rogue!!



The story explained how the exploration of the kirin's temple had been forbidden, but an archaeologist had gone in anyway and lost their license in the process. Amy licked over her dry lips as she read on, realizing fairly quickly that had been the same temple she was just in. Cabelleron wasn't an archaeologist anymore, and if she told anyone she was there, perhaps she wouldn't be either. A protected site, in the middle of the jungle?!

Ponies were crazy, but laws were laws. Still, if he had followed them, the further damage to that precious site could have been avoided.

She glanced aside at her statue, then perched on her bedside table beside her backpack. If she brought it in, she'd have to answer where she found it. If she said where she found it...

She drew a slow breath, teeth clenched. "You deserve better than this," she whispered to the statue. "The world should see you in full shine, and know a piece of your history..." But how would she do that without getting thrown behind bars?

Had her friend known about that?! She suddenly thumped the bed with a hoof. Some tip!
> 10 - Taking Stock
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amy was sitting before her table, in her home. Perched on that table were the trinkets she had found. There was the jeweled kirin, and the puzzle pieces and the shield wasn't far, propped up against the wall. They were each worthy of discovery. They each needed to be properly cleaned and restored.

They would each make a fine display in a museum somewhere.

They were each a sign that she had broken a law.

On top of all of that, sitting there on her table, not a single one of them would help her pay her bills. She lost, the world lost. Everyone involves lost. With an unhappy grunt, she stood up, marching to the window with an agitated lash of her tail. "I have to do something..."

Her phone suddenly hopped into the air, its bell chiming with a sudden sharp noise that made her jump just as well as it had. She raced over and grabbed it up. "A.K. Yearling."

"Hello," spoke a faintly familiar voice. "We had a chance to show your book to some test readers."

It was the publisher! Amy sat on her haunches with a hopeful smile. "And?"

"They really like your style! But they were hoping you could expand on it, get personal. Following a specific pony instead of speaking broadly about them all."

Amy inclined her head faintly. "Would... that be for the next book?"

"Oh, yes! Sorry. This book is fine, but for the next one, really get in an archaeologist's head so we can follow them around. This system-wide peek isn't what pony's want."

Thoughts tumbled through her head as she turned in place. "A specific pony... right..."

"With specific finds, specific problems, and specific triumphs," further explained the penguin-shaded pony on the other end of the phone. "Specific."

"Specific," Amy echoed. "Got it. So... about the book I already wrote?"

"Love it."

"Does that mean I'll be getting more bits for it?" She glanced over at the bag that held her reserve of bits, growing thinner by the day.

"Huh? Oh, of course. You'll get royalties as it sells. Speaking of that, the book is being printed and distributed. Want a copy? Most authors like having a copy of their books, I found."

She looked to her cluttered shelf with a wry smile. "Sure, why not? Thank you. Is there anything else?"

"That's it! Congratulations, Author."

She heard the click of the other person hanging up and gently set her own receiver down. "Author."

Amy was one of those. She was an author. "Author." She tasted the word, felt how it rolled off the tongue. "A.K. Yearling, Author."

Authors didn't break laws doing their job. She'd really have to mess up to manage that. She sat down and pulled her typewriter over with a growing smile. "I can be that..."

She just had to write. Something personal...

"About a specific archaeologist... Who finds something..." Her eyes strayed to the statue without a proper home. "Their challenges..."

She sat back, stroking her chin softly. Caballeron had never seen the statue, and she had given a fake name anyway.

A name... "Daring Do." The name had come partially from Cabelleron. He had inspired the monicker. She began to type, at first slow and hesitant depressions of her hooves, describing Daring's approach to the jungle.

Daring would not be Amy, A.K. decided as she went. Daring was a trained field agent. She never worked with others! She got into trouble all the time, so she knew how to deal with it. She was everything Amy wished she had been when she was busy being scared to death in that jungle.

Daring dodged from tree to tree, narrowly avoiding the scouting patterns of the hungry cats below. Examining their tracks and hints had revealed to her exactly which way they'd be going, so she could outsmart them.

What, lost? Of course not. She had never gotten lost. She was going for that temple specifically, with the tip of a friend she didn't bother naming. No reason to get them in trouble, even if it was all wrapped up in a thin layer of fantasy. 

Ah, yes, the temple. One of the last great monuments to the kirin before they vanished. She had fooled Caballeron, making him waste time as she snuck in through the trapped window, that she outsmarted of course. To say nothing of the deadly jumping puzzle!

Then the statue, huge and glowering and... also alive. She had to fight with it, barely dodging and jumping out of the way before she found out how to put it back to sleep, causing it to hulk over the room. She snatched up the little statue, her best find of the day, just in time for Caballeron to show up.

She traded barbs with him, and he foolishly tried to take the very statue she had just managed to lull back to sleep.

While he did that, she discovered a puzzle and was engrossed with that to find a magic and glowing shield! Of course, Caballeron got into trouble, and a huge crash had her rushing out to find he had fallen into a hole. Silly Caballeron. Rolling her eyes, Daring had gone down to save her fellow adventurer and got him out. When he wandered off, she looked around and found a box.

But she didn't just open it up, of course not! There were traps! She sprung it from afar, sending an arrow flying. Phew! That could have been painful!

Amy sat back with a little sigh. She glanced towards the window and saw it was getting dark. She'd spent all day writing about Daring Do. She was hungry and tired. But also... satisfied. "The adventures of Daring Do can wait a moment." She rose up to her hooves and moved to get something to eat. "I should take more time to describe what I saw... Really draw the reader in." Those ancient frescoes and patterns, likely lost to the foreseeable future.

"I can at least share them, this way..." She nodded with building confidence as she slurped up some noodles. "Like a museum tour hidden in an adventure book."

Her belly no longer trying to gnaw its way free of her, Amy resumed typing with one hoof. She dedicated several pages to the walls, the ceilings, and the floors. She described the smell in the air and the sounds of her hoofsteps. She would have to re-write the entire thing to work all those details in, but a book without revisions was hardly a book!

She described the amazing pictures of the leaping kirin and the flaming forms she had seen. She noted the damage Caballeron had caused, but she left out that she knew exactly who had done it and why. She fluffed up the traps, added a few more for taste. Some even caught her, if briefly. Daring Do wouldn't go down to a trap, ha! That would be silly.

It struck her that she wrote about the climb up, and the pain, but Daring Do hadn't been injured by the arrow trap. Oops. "Tsk tsk, already plot holes." Amy got another page in the machine and got to writing up a new scene, describing how an intense new trap had clipped her wings, oh no. Not a lethal blow by far, but she'd have to walk from then on forward. It was amazingly dastardly, not some random arrow in a chest. No super amazing pony like Daring Do would fall for that.

Ha...

It had drawn late by the time she had that out. With satisfied fatigue, she nudged everything aside and started blowing out the lights. Soon she was collapsed on her bed, surrendering to sleep.

Maybe she'd see...

Wait.

She sat up sharply. "Luna?" She hopped right back to her hooves and hurried for her bookshelf, starting to yank them down with reaches of her wings. There. Ancient tales. She flipped it open and began nosing through it. Luna was the sister of Princess Celestia, banished to the moon. "But..." There was not a mention of dream-related powers or abilities. She was the mover of the moon.

That was all.

Her dream had put in an ancient, and banished, figure from Equestrian history in the middle of things. She huffed, closing the book. "Imagination, you need to cut that out. There's no way ancient history literally..." She trailed off, setting the book back on the shelf as a huge yawn escaped her.

"Sleep first." And into the bed she returned, flopping and passing out almost instantly.

She had a story to finish. She had lost artifacts to consider how in hades to get to where they needed to be without getting herself into trouble. All of that could wait to see how much sleep she could manage.

A soft thump roused her. Something had hit her door. With a sleepy grunt, she slid to the floor and trotted over. "Who is it?" But none answered. She opened the door and there was a newspaper. Her delivery foal had dropped it off, apparently detecting her presence somehow.

She smiled as she took it in her mouth. "Good colt." She headed back inside and unfurled it. "Maybe I could claim I saw it in a garage sale somewhere. Who says I have to specify exactly where it really came from?" Even as she said it, she felt that lie wouldn't work. Proper artifacts needed to have precise origins. The more precise, the more useful information could be gleaned from them. 'found in a yard sale somewhere' is about as close to zero of that information. Sure, it would look nice in a display somewhere perhaps, but its history would be forever lost and tarnished.

"I can't do that..." She glanced over at where the artifact stood in silent accusation. "But I have to do something." She reached with a wing and popped the hat on her head. Soon she was dressed not as Amy, but as Daring Do. "Let's go!"





She flew the short distance from building to building, landing on the roof of the museum. There she was, about to sneak in, not to steal anything, but to smuggle something in. Tucked into her backpack were several bundles, each with an artifact each, and a specific location and time they were found.

She carefully peeled up the window skylight, peering into the gloom below. "This isn't that hard..." How had ponies not taken a dozen things from the museum? Sure, she was sneaking things in, but that didn't change it much. She dropped down, wings catching the air and bringing her to a smooth stop.

The lights suddenly clicked on, blinding her. She heard hoofsteps. "Hold it right there," ordered a male voice that seemed familiar.

Blinking her vision back, Daring focused on the pony that was speaking. Dressed like a professor, she drew a soft breath. It was a fellow archaeologist, one of the team that'd be cleaning, polishing, and writing all about her finds. "I can explain."

"You can explain why you're breaking and entering into the museum? I doubt that, but, please, give it a try." He gestured with his head towards the front. "The police are already on their way."

Daring took a step back, her wings doffing her backpack to the ground. "I came with a donation, here. Take it." She had planned on a far more glamorous way to find them, but it'd have to do. She snapped her wings wide. "Sorry for the trouble." And she was in the air, flapping towards freedom as quickly as she could. The stallion was an earth pony, so he couldn't chase her, or grab her with magic.

"Was... that?" He shook his head, watching the skylight close behind the intruder. He advanced on the backpack and carefully pulled it open. He'd have a lot to explain to his managers come the next day. But, for the moment, he had new artifacts to examine.