The wind roared like a wild beast through the peaks of Foal Mountain and Daring Do wondered if this was how the Windigos of legend sounded like. She adjusted her karpa and kept climbing the icy side of mountain, jumping from rock to rock with care not to slip and fall down. Again.

The goat assistants she hired earlier made it seem so easy but they have abandoned her long ago, fearing the dragons and creatures that could be hiding so high the mountain. Daring didn´t had the luxury to abandon like them, she had to reach the top before the Princess decided to laid down the sun.

Daring almost tripped on a loose rock but luckily she got her security rope well tight. “Just a few more pushes”, she told herself, clinging to the rope with both hooves and teeth. She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally reached the rock she lassoed early, finding a safe spot on the steep landscape.

Daring found a cave and got inside it, taking off her hoodie and goggles. Always a prepared explorers, she took out a lamp and ventured inside the dark cave. Two steps in, she almost screamed like a little filly, when she trip over a rock she mistook for a school. She chuckled and turned over, only to scream for real when she ran into the skeleton remains of...something.

Daring winced and kept walking, getting deeper into the mountains. Her efforts were rewarded when she reached a wide cavern, filled with broken statues of dog headed figures.

“Well, how about that?” Daring said to the empty air, hanging the lamp into the nose of a statue to get a better look. “Definitely Diamond Dogs remains. probably a leftover pack before they headed south for the Appaloosan mountains, although that didn't worked for them either…”

Daring Do had an habit to talk to herself while exploring. While that looked good on her novels, providing her readers with necessary exposition, in real life, that made her vulnerable to a club to the head.

Daring woke up a few minutes later, with a severe headache and dizzy eyes. She shook her head and realized she had been tied up and there was somepony else with her on the room, searching through the ruins.

“Bad luck, pal. This place is deserted, won´t find anything useful here,” she said the cloaked figure. “Bad news for your boss Ahuizotl…”

The silent stranger removed his cloak, revealing himself to be a zebra. A male zebra with a red, orange  and yellow pattern and fiery blood red eyes.  

“You are not one of Ahuizotl´s goons…”

“Name is Braze and I have no master,” he answered with a deep, booming voice. “whereas you my questions shall answer.”

“Now Braze, I like attention like any girl but you could have at least asked me on a date first..,”

“Enough! I will not tolerate your jokes!” the zebra shouted. “You will answer my questions since it´s useless to attempt escape, tied by those ropes!”

Daring realized this zebra wouldn´t be as easy as Ahuizotl to distract. He certainly had a fiery temper but was smart enough to keep her close by instead of just tossing her into a death trap and forget about her, giving her plenty of time to escape.

“You know, it will help to know what exactly do you want to know about?”

“Do not take me for a fool, Daring Do; for you have come for the same treasure as I do!” Braze said, taking off a scroll from his cloak. “The Eye of the Star Spider, a treasure like none other…”

“What do you want with it?”

“What else but own its power?”

The zebra smiled, showing all his sharp piranha-like teeth. Daring winced again, this guy meant trouble and he couldn´t let him put his hooves on the magic jewel.

“Okay. I´ll tell you what I know but first, care to lose these ropes? They are pretty tight…”

“Ha! You take me for what you will call a sucker?”

Daring watched him smile and then gave him a hard headbutt.

“No, just needed you to get closer. Hey, that rhymed...and hurt too…”

Daring quickly regained her hooves, did a somersault and rolled next to a spear she saw earlier. “Hurry, hurry”, she said, trying to cut the ropes before Braze could recover. Once he got up, Braze roared and created a whip made of fire, lashing it at Daring Do who managed to escape just in time, taking flight upwards.

Braze roared again and tried to catch Daring with his magical whip. Daring managed to avoid every hit but soon discovered she got little room to maneuver, forced to go back to the floor.

“Hey, how come you didn´t used that flamy weapon before?” she asked and then noticed the whip was a lot shorter than when they started fighting. “Oh I see, it´s so cold up here that your fiery weapons don´t work. Guess that means you won't chase me out there on the snow…”

“First you must get over my head…”

Daring adjusted her goggles and smiled.

“...that won´t be hard trick to pull, my dear friend.”

Daring jumped right on time to avoid the whip, then bounced on a wall and landed right on the head of Braze. Smirking, Daring did another somersault, heading for the door. Braze gave a final roar and make a final hit at Daring, managing to trap her left leg. Daring screamed at the wound left by the fire-whip and fell down on the floor. Braze tried to got up but Daring pulled all her last strength to move towards the exit. Luckily, they were close enough that the snow and cold made the flame disappears.

Daring wasted no time and just jumped downhill, remembering to spread her wings to keep herself steady but unfortunately, the snow covered them very quick and Daring ended up rolling and making a giant snowball on her way down. She rolled for several minutes before finally hitting a tree in a rather comedic way. Luckily, she had no severe injuries, aside from her hurt hoof. The goats watched her fall and came closer to help her.

Daring smiled and looked up the mountain, unable to see the cave due to the snow and wind. She squinted, part from the pain, part from wondering what that zebra wanted with the Eye of the Star Spider.

****

Twilight Sparkle was occupied with her latest experiment, carefully levitating the flask and glass tubes, filled with colorful liquids that had a tendency to explode when combined so she had to be very careful not to let one drop too many hit the potion…

“Twilight!!”

Rainbow Dash came crashing through the door, passing right next to Twilight and landing on a bookshelf. Twilight held her breath, using all her concentration to not let the glass tube fall. A few secodns of thensio nalter, she sighed, having avoided a crisis.

“Twilight!” Spike said, poking her on the side.

Twilight yelled and dropped the glass tube, that fell right into the boiling flask, all exploding in a purple cloud and leaving them both covered in black.

“Are you okay?” Spike finished his questions.

“Is everything okay here? We saw Rainbow falling down like a short sighted eagle!” Applejack said, walking in algon with the rest of their friends.

“I´m fine Applejack, but Rainbow just ruined two weeks of research,” Twilight complained, while Rarity levitated a handkerchief to clean Twilight and Spike, Fluttershy and Pinkie helped Rainbow out of the pile of books.

“Forget about your egghead stuff, Twilight! We have an emergency!”

“Gremlins on the clouds again?” Applejack asked.

“Worse!”

“Another parasprite infestation?” Fluttershy asked.

“Worse!”

“The Wonderbolts cancelled the performance you have tickets for that you waited for five hours on the line of the Cloudsdale Stadium?” Pinkei asking without taking a single breath.

“That would be a disaster Pinkie, not an emergency..and no, this is almost as bad as that!”

“Well, what is it then?” Spike asked

“The second worst possible thing…”

“What?” they all asked.

“Daring Do book is delayed again!”

Rainbow fell through the ground crying, while her friends all looked each other with an arched eyebrow.

“Seriously?” Applejack said.

“What you mean, seriously? This is the worst news I ever heard!”

“Rainbow darling, I know you are a big Daring Do fan…”

“The biggest Daring Do fan!” Rainbow said, interrupting Rarity.

“Yes quite, but this is hardly an emergency.”

“Didn't this happened before? The book was delayed and Rainbow was so worried we travelled to a. K. Yearling´s house who turned out to be Daring Do and then we helped her recover the Rings of Scorchera before Ahuizotl could sue them to doom the valley to eight centuries of unrelenting heat? “ Pinkie Pie asked, again without taking a breath.

“But this time is different. The Official Daring Do Fans magazine just reported that A. K. Yearling is hospitalized!” Rainbow said, taking the magazine out. “She got injured while doing research for the book and she´s said she will stay there for at least four weeks!”

“Mmh, that is quite worrisome…” Twilight said, rubbing her chin.

“Whatever do you mean, dear?” Rarity asked.

“Well, before when A. K. Yearling announced a delay for health reasons, we wouldn't have thought much about it. But now we know that she and Daring are the same person…”

“You think she got injured while doing some of her missions?” Applejack finished.

“All the more reasons to go visit her! The Magazine says that she's staying the Veterans Hospitals, near Hollow Shades! Let´s go!” Rainbow said, shoving the magazine on Twilight's face.

“We should at least make sure she´s doing well…” Fluttershy said, always the concerned one.

“Even so, we can't just get into an hospital without reasons. Especially not for a famous artist liek Yearling, the hospital is most likely not allowing visits,” Twilight retorted.

“Good luck then we have a Princess on our side,” Rainbow said, nudging Twilight.

“Rainbow, I´m not going to use my status as a Princess to grant us access to her room!”

****

“Behold, Princess Twilight Sparkle!” the Royal Guard announced, clearing the hospital hallway.

“I can't believe you talked me into this…” Twilight complained.

“It worked, right? Now let´s go check on Daring!”

“Shh, Rainbow, keep it down!” Twilight ordered her. “Remember than Daring uses a pen name for a reason. Her adventures are kept mostly fictitious so ponies won't go looking for those dangerous artifacts.”

“So should I get rid of this Get Well, Daring Do banner?” Pinkie asked, whining sheepishly when they noticed the huge amount of presents and balloons all shaped like Daring Do she was carrying.

Once they finally got in the room, they found Daring stuck on bed wit her leg hold by a sling. “Hey girls,” she said, taking off her glasses in their presence.

“Yearling!” Rainbow said, rushing to her idol side, forgetting so fast about the delayed book that her friends couldn't help but smile at this. “Are you okay?”

“Nah, just a strained hoof. The docs are being a tad exaggerated, if you ask me,” she said, winking at Rainbow.

“What happened, Yearling? The magazine says you fell down the side of Foal Mountain,” Twilight asked,

“That I did but it wasn´t entirely my fault. You see, I was trying to get away from some no-gooder who´s after the same treasure I am…”

Daring told the girls the story of her encounter with Braze and Rainbow reacted with rage and flapping wings.

“That Braze guy again?”

“You know him?” Daring asked.

“Yes, not long ago he tried to stole the Half- Gilded Horseshoe and tried to use its power to control the Spirit Circled,” Twilight explained.

“Wait, hang on! He found the Half-Gilded Horseshoe? That thing has been lost for centuries!” Daring asked with visible surprise.

“Well, you see. The story goes like this…”

Twilight resumed the story how Rainbow Dash´s attitude got so cocky she started a series of dares that ended with them all going to the Everfree Forest to recover the Horseshoe, not knowing they will actually run into a theft that tried to use it to get massive power.

“I see. So this Braze character has been going around from quite sometime. That´s quite a story Twilight, I might need to talk with your friend Zecora later…” Daring said, while Rainbow pouted, not too happy with her portrait on that tale. “The important thing right now is stopping Braze from getting the Eye of the Star Spider.”

“Pardon me, Mrs. Do uhm Yearling…” Applejack asked. “But what is this Eye of the Star Spider you keep talking about?”

Daring looked at Twilight before explaining but the Princess looked just as confused as her friends so, Daring sighed and began “Legend says that the Diamond Dogs were excavating in search of jewels when they stumbled upon the biggest and shiniest of them all. A jewel so big that you could buy an entire kingdom and still have money to spare.”

Rarity made one of her classic exclamations upon hearing this but the other ponies ignored her.

“Problem was that, when they tried to get the jewel, they discovered it was attached to the head of a humongous Star Spider. As big as an Ursa Minor…” Daring continued and Fluttershy gasped at this image. “It is said they fought it for several days before finally managing to trap it under some rocks and took the jewel away. But the Diamond Dogs didn't get to enjoy it for much since it was stolen from their caves by a greedy griffon gang…”

“And then what happened?” asked Rainbow Dash, so entranced on the story like she was reading a Daring Do novel.

“The griffon gan lost the jewel on Saddle Arabie when trying to sell it and since then, it is lost in the pages of history…” said a suave, gentleman boice.

They turned around to see the visage of Dr Caballeron, walking in.

“What is he doing here?” rainbow asked, ready to fight and the other girls were just as wary of the old pony.

“Young girl, I´m just here to present my best regards to a fellow explorer,” Caballeron said, handing some flowers to Daring.

“As if!”

“Rainbow, calm down. Caballeron has turned page…” Daring said, much to her and the other girls surprised.

“As you may recall from our previous encounter, I had every intention of giving up on my life of scavenging and return to my first love of archaeology…”

“Where you should return to it´s prison! After all you put Daring through on book four!”

“I admit my behavior was nothing short of reprehensible but, I´ve changed my ways and only intend to have a humble retirement. I even have a recommendation letter from Princess Celestia herself,” Caballeron said, taking out said letter. “Well Daring, I wish you a speedy recovery.”

Rainbow glared Caballeron all the time while he exited the room and then crossed her arms and said “Can´t believe that guy got away.”

“Believe it or not, Caballeron used to be one of top archaeologist of the kingdom, before he let his greed got the best of him. Maybe he's finally getting on the right track…” Daring said, wincing at the pain of her injury she previously dismissed.

“Speaking of Princess Celestia, we should send her letter, telling her to alert the rulers of Saddle Arabia to take care. Braze must be heading their way…” Twilight said.

“No need for that! We can warn them ourselves!”

“What?” all the ponies and a dragon said.

“Rainbow, what are you…”

“Don't worry Daring. You just sit down and take care of your injury while your biggest fan takes care of everything!” Rainbow Dash announced.

“Rainbow, you can´t just barge in into Saddle Arabia with some crazy story about a zebra trying to get a magical jewel! They will never believe you!”

“Good thing then that I happen to know a Princess who is good friends with the horses of Saddle Arabia,” Rainbow said, nudging Twilight.

“Rainbow, I´m not going to use my status as a Princes to get you in a ride to the other side of the world!”

*****

“Woah, that´s big!” Pinkie Pie said, looking at the luxury zeppelin that was made ready for the six of them.

“I can't believe you talked me into this…” Twilight complained.

“Relax, your Highness! Princess Celestia said it was fine!” Rainbow said, patting her on the back.

“She also told us to be careful…”

“Is the six of us, what could possible be a danger for the ponies who wielded the Elements of Harmony?”

“Many things! The Elements of Harmony are the most powerful magic known to ponies, but there are more than ponies out there, Rainbow dash!” daring Do said, approaching them on a wheelchair and disguised as A.K. Yearling.

“Daring, it will be fine, I tell you. Daring Dash and her friends can take care of themselves!” Rainbow said, showing off her costume who was a rainbow pattern version of Daring´s costume.

“I admire your enthusiasm kid, I do; but truth is, you don't have the years of experience I have. I have been all around the globe and see things you wouldn't believe, things I didn't dare put on my books.”

“Please, why is everypony so worried? We have dealt with Discord, Chrysallis and King Sombra. We have travelled to the moon, being pirates and superheroes. Twilight here even travelled to a weird world filled of strange scary creatures with wiggly things instead of hooves!”

“Those wiggly things are called fingers!” Twilight said, pushing Rainbow away. “And humans are not scary creatures, they are rather nice!”

“Wait, you say humans?” Daring asked.

“Umh yeah, I met them after I went through the mirror on the Crystal Palace. It's quite a story, you see, I landed in a place called high school and…”

“The Crystal Mirror? The mysterious artifact not even Starswirl could discover its purpose? You traveled through it? To another world? That's amazing! I have been trying to study the mirror for years but Princess Celestia always refused saying it was too dangerous! You need to tell me all about it!”

Daring basically shoved herself over Twilight, showing an enthusiasm and curiosity that will make the Cutie Mark Crusaders seem tame.

“Nevermind that,” Daring said, shaking her head and coming back to her senses, sitting back on her chair.. “There's more to the story that I haven't told you. Apparently, the jewel was more than ornament for the Star Spider. It was keeping her under control. No idea who put it on its head but stories told that the Diamond Dogs used the jewel to repel star creatures, the magic of the jewel so powerful they could even control an Ursa Mayor.”

“But that means that however posses the jewel…” Twilight began.

“Could possibly become the most dangerous creature of the world!”

Rainbow Dash stopped hovering and landed next to Daring. “Daring Do. Brze won't get his hooves on the Eye of the Star Spider. I promise.”

The sudden seriousness of Rainbow let even Twilight surprised but Daring quickly smiled and shook hoofs with the young pegasus.

“All right, everypony!” Rainbow shouted, dashing to the deck of the zeppelin “It´s time for adventure!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 Estimated time remaining: 32 Minutes