by G. M. Berrow
“I think we have to enter through its mouth.” Daring Do gestured to the spiky archway. “Under the waterfall.”
Ahuizotl’s cackle suddenly echoed across the cove, sending another shiver up her spine. “After you, Daring Do!”
CHAPTER 14
Grotto of the Moon
“Stay back, Ahuizotl!” Daring Do hollered as she steered the raft into the mouth of the stone dragon. She cursed herself for not moving fast enough to lose Vine and the others. How had they managed it? Perhaps Thaddeus had paid attention to Gallant’s magic from before and copied his raft construction. The stallion was known for stealing his colleague’s ideas after all.
“Get ready,” Daring warned her uncle. The waterfall rained down on the ponies, drenching their bodies from head to hoof, but Daring hardly had time to react. Within a moment of pushing through to the other side, she was magically dry again. She and Gallant exchanged a surprised look.
“What is this glorious place?” Rosy Thorn whispered in awe as the other raft came through and she took in the scene. “It doesn’t even seem real!” And for once, Daring Do had to agree with her.
They were now floating in an incredibly beautiful crescent-shaped grotto. Every inch of every visible surface was covered in a spectrum of vibrant flowers of all shapes and sizes, soft dewy moss, and long-armed ferns reaching out to welcome them. The sweet air alone was overwhelming—delicious-smelling perfumes battled one another for the prize of sweetest. Fireflies danced lazily about, lighting up the dusky dark with their magic.
“I know exactly where we are.” Gallant closed his eyes with a smile, inhaling the fresh air. “The Grotto of the Moon.” He gestured to their surroundings, unable to contain his excitement. “We made it! The Eternal Flower is here.”
Everypony looked around in a panic, hoping to be the one to find the bloom first. “Get out of my way!” Ahuizotl leaped onto the shore, crushing several ferns in the process. He looked left and right, then turned back around and barked at his servants, “Don’t just sit there! Find me the Eternal Flower!”
The henchponies snapped to action, leaping onto the other side. They began frantically trotting along the perimeter with their muzzles about an inch from the foliage. A red stallion stopped to inspect a large yellow bloom with a pink center. After a single sniff, he stood back up, swayed for a moment, and then fell flat on his face.
“Somnambular Bloom,” Gallant said with a shrug, still mesmerized by his surroundings. He took off his glasses, and his smile grew even larger. He whispered to himself, “Just amazing…”
“Okay, Uncle. We need to focus. What are we looking for?” Daring whispered, watching Ahuizotl scramble around the grotto, gravitating to each fancy-looking flower he saw—which was practically all of them.
Ahuizotl furrowed his brow in confusion. “We have to find this thing before they do!”
Rosy flew to the top of a large rock for a better view of the grotto. Vine fumbled to exit the raft, but his weight overwhelmed it, and he went splashing into the teal water. He clambered to the mossy ground and pulled himself up, dripping wet. It was a matter of seconds before he was dry again. He raced toward a purple flower edged in white starbursts.
Gallant seemed so calm, despite the craziness unfolding around him. “Patience, darling,” True advised coolly. He leaned in and whispered into her ear. “There’s no way to know what the flower looks like. It must reveal itself to us when it’s ready. Remember the rubrics?”
Daring thought back to their conversation on the beach. So far, the other two rules had come true—the Everleaves had acted as their compass, and they’d arrived on the island by way of dragon scales. “Do you mean”—Daring turned to her uncle—“‘to reveal the truth, examine the roots’?”
The Pegasus had no idea if Gallant responded because she was instantly sucked below the surface of the water by some invisible force. And there was no way up again.
CHAPTER 15
The Infinity Root
She had expected to find herself underwater, paddling to get back to the surface, so Daring Do was shocked to discover that she was in some sort of other dimension. A topsy-turvy pocket below the grotto. The Pegasus marveled at the peculiar sight of it. For instead of the blooms of the gorgeous flowers of the grotto above, this side was a sprawling landscape of upside-down plants. The roots were growing up from the ground in spiky, clawlike formations, extending into the invisible dirt.
It was as if the entire grotto had been flipped over.
Daring Do looked at the ground. Her hooves were solid on the surface of the water, like it was a wavy glass window. Daring Do could see the bottom of her uncle’s raft and the land surrounding the pool. Daring trotted over to the land and found Ahuizotl and Vine scrambling around the flower beds. She followed the action, hoping that they wouldn’t discover anything while she was stuck in this nothing place.
What exactly was she doing down here? Then Daring remembered that right before she had been sucked down, she had spoken the last rubric aloud. That was it! Daring Do needed to “examine the roots”!
As Daring walked along inspecting the various roots, she began to feel hopeless. The garden of vines provided little variation from one another. But when Daring Do finally saw it, the illustration from her uncle’s diary flashed into her mind. Curved, a pattern of lace, the symbol of forever—the roots of the Eternal Flower itself. “The Infinity Root!”
The pony approached the specimen in awe, noting that though the roots were quite spectacular, the flower attached to it on the other side was quite ordinary. A modest white bloom with five white petals, situated between an indigo hibiscus and a fuchsia rose that was the size of Daring’s helmet. It was a single plain Jane among a mass of showstoppers.
Daring Do felt a jolt, and her body lurched forward. She came up, gasping for air. The fragrance of the grotto hit her nostrils again, and she knew that she was back. It was as if nopony had noticed her absence at all! Not even Gallant True, who was still waiting patiently for some mysterious event to occur.
“Gallant! I’ve seen it! I know,” Daring hissed. She quickly glanced around to make sure nopony was listening in. “I know which one is the Eternal Flower.”
“How?” Gallant replied, grabbing her shoulder with his hoof. “Did it happen? Did you see the roots? I knew it!”
“At long last, I’ve found it!” Ahuizotl bellowed, leaning down to a patch of blossoms. “Now I will experience the glory of everlasting life!” He threw his head back and let out a deep, victorious laugh. When Daring Do saw where he was standing, her heart skipped a beat. He was right next to the Eternal Flower! Had he miraculously figured it out as well? Or was it just a lucky guess?
“Prepare to bear witness to this historical event!” Ahuizotl announced. “Watch closely, Daring Do.” Rosy Thorn and Thaddeus Vine hung nearby, watching in bewilderment. Daring readied herself to pounce, just in case he actually chose the right one.
With a flourish, the beast reached down and touched the indigo hibiscus to his lips. And then the formidable Ahuizotl shrank down to the size of mouse. “NOOOOOoooooo!” he called out in defeat, the richness of his voice shrinking along with him until it was not much more than a tiny squeak.
Thaddeus Vine laughed in triumph and leaned down to the minimonster. “How silly of you, Ahuizotl. Do you not know a Poison Joke Flower when you see one?!”
Ahuizotl responded with a series of angry squeaks, shaking his tiny fist at Vine. The two terrified henchponies, who were now both awake, trotted over and scooped up their leader. They ran back to the raft and headed toward the waterfall, looking back at the grotto as if it were about to eat them up.
“Guess it’s just us against you now, Vine.” Daring sneered. She leaped onto a nearby rock, maintaining high ground right above the flower. “And something tells me that you have no idea what you’re doing.”
“Wrong again, Daring.” Thaddeus’s mustache curled up at the ends, forming a mischievous expression. “I know that
one of these two flowers here is the one.” He gestured to the fuchsia rose and the white flower.
Daring Do didn’t let the fact that he was right register on her face. “What makes you think that?”
“Because I watched you two as Ahuizotl made his selection.” Vine raised his eyebrows. “There’s no way you would have gotten nervous if he hadn’t been close.…” Thaddeus hunkered down on his hind legs and leaned into the rose. He inhaled deeply, yanked the flower from the ground, and drank from the center.
For a moment, it seemed that the pony was unaffected by the bloom. Gallant True winked at Daring. Be patient, he mouthed. Watch.
“Thad!” Rosy Thorn screamed, her pretty face contorting in horror. “What’s happening to you?” Her brother’s face was beginning to puff up like a balloon. His cheeks expanded, his eyes bulged, and his monocle popped out. Thaddeus floated up into the air, another victim of the grotto.
Rosy spread her wings and took off after him. The blue Pegasus looped her arm around him, and the two disappeared into the orange sunset, a diminishing blur of blue and green on a cloudless sky.
“Tsk, tsk.” Gallant True shook his head as he watched them fly away. “I’m surprised dear Thaddeus didn’t recognize that as a Southern Swelling Rose. Never did study enough, that pony. Always cutting corners with his research.”
“I think he’ll always remember it now!” Daring chuckled, taking a place by his side. She nudged her uncle. “Shall we?”
Gallant True nodded. He and Daring Do gingerly stepped forward and approached the Eternal Flower from either side. This was the moment they had been waiting for. The old professor’s eyes filled with tears of joy as he knelt down. He caressed the flower with his hoof. The petals sparkled, lit by the young moon and the reflection of the fireflies.
“Aren’t you going to collect it?” Daring Do asked her uncle.
“It was wonderful to see,” said Gallant True. He stood up, brushed off his sweater, and cleared his throat. “But let’s go home, Darling Do.”
CHAPTER 16
The Treasure
The plump Unicorn waitress magically set down two steaming plates of corned carrot hash and potatoes in front of the old professor and his niece. “Can I get you ponies anything else?” she asked with a flip of her curly brown mane. The mare’s cutie mark was a set of salt and pepper shakers, and her smile was warm. “More cider for you, sir?”
“Yes, please!” Gallant True held up his empty stein. “Thanks, Pepper Mill!”
“You got it,” she replied with a wink, and sashayed off to the kitchen. It was nice to be seated at a cozy pub in Horseshoe Bay enjoying a hard-earned meal. It had been a long journey back from the Isles of Scaly.
“There’s one thing I still don’t understand, Uncle Ad.” Daring Do took a big bite of hash and continued speaking with her mouth full. “Why didn’t you want to bring the Eternal Flower back with you to Equestria?”
“It’s a funny thing, Daring.” Gallant looked down at her through his glasses, which meant he was being serious. “Sometimes you spend a lifetime chasing something, then when you get it, you find out that it was really the chase you loved all the while.”
Daring breathed a sigh of relief. “So you never wanted to become immortal?”
“Heavens, no!” Gallant laughed through a large bite of food. “Nopony or beast should live forever, my dear. What an awful curse to have upon one’s head!”
Daring Do shook her head and frowned in confusion. “But even if you didn’t want immortality, I thought you wanted to study the Eternal Flower’s magical properties.” She lifted her cider stein to her mouth. “Why did you leave it? You even destroyed the Everleaves and your diary! Now you can never find it again.”
“After seeing the way Thaddeus and Ahuizotl acted, I realized it was too dangerous to be found,” Gallant explained.
“It pains me to say this where a priceless treasure is concerned,” Daring said, lifting her cider into the air in salute, “but I think you made the right decision.”
“I know.” He smirked and leaned in. “Besides, I’ve found something much better to study: regenerative plants! Remember, on the island, how the plants had evolved to grow back after being burned in order to coexist with the dragons? I saved samples and will study them and figure out how they do it. It’s so thrilling! And it’s going to make me a hero of the Botanical Society, possibly even a hero of Equestria. I think I am going to call them Phoenix Flora. Maybe I could publish a paper on it in Flora and Foalna.…”
And so, with the secret location of the Eternal Flower once again secure, ponykind was saved from its unwitting curse, thanks to Daring Do!
THE END
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A. K. Yearling’s adventure novels starring the fearless Daring Do have been recognized as the bestselling series in Equestrian history. Yearling holds a degree in literature from Pranceton University. After college, she briefly worked as a researcher at the National Archives for Equestrian Artifacts and Ponthropology in Canterlot. During that time, she wrote an essay based on her findings of the griffon territories, entitled “What Was the Name of That Griffon Again? Or, Beak and Roaming Studies Recalled.” It was published by the University of Equexeter’s journal, Pegasus, last year. She enjoys quiet time alone at home and long trots on the beach.
G. M. Berrow loves to explore exotic locales around the globe, through both the stories she writes and her escapades in real life. Berrow is overjoyed to have collaborated on these adventures with her very own golden idol—A. K. Yearling herself! She adores shiny things, but she thinks the best treasure of all is a book.
Other books by A. K. Yearling
Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone
Daring Do and the Griffon’s Goblet
Daring Do and the Abyss of Despair
Daring Do and the Razor of Dreams
Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny
Daring Do and the Trek to the Terrifying Tower
Daring Do and the Volcano of Destiny
Daring Do and the Marked Thief of Marapore
Daring Do and the Eternal Flower
Daring Do and the Forbidden City of Clouds
Other books by G. M. Berrow
Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell
Pinkie Pie and the Rockin’ Ponypalooza Party!
Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare
Rarity and the Curious Case of Charity
Applejack and the Honest-to-Goodness Switcheroo
GLOSSARY
Ahuizotl (Ow-whee-ZOH-tul): A giant, evil beast who will stop at nothing to gain riches and power. He is Daring Do’s biggest foe.
Curse of the Pegasus Tzacol (ZAH-cohl): An ancient myth that foretells of a great storm, brought on by the actions of a curious Pegasus named Tzacol, who entered a sacred weather temple when he was forbidden to do so. He later became a protector of the sky.
Dr. Caballeron (Cab-uh-LAIR-on): A rival treasure-hunting pony. Ever since Daring Do refused to work with him as partners, he’s made his bits by doing Ahuizotl’s dirty work.
Equestrian Botanical Society: An exclusive club for botanists and environmental science scholars in the land of Equestria.
Eternal Flower: A magical flower believed to grant whoever drinks its nectar immortal life. It changes its physical appearance each time it is found, rendering it extremely difficult to locate and recognize.
Everleaf: A preserved leaf specimen plucked from the Eternal Flower. Gallant True theorizes that the two leaves together will lead to the current location of the flower.
Flora and Foalna: A monthly scholarly journal of the Eques
trian Botanical Society.
Gallant True: Daring Do’s uncle, fellow thrill seeker, and plant scholar, whom she affectionately refers to as Uncle Adventure. Gallant True spent years exploring the Frozen North, researching plants and searching for clues about the Eternal Flower.
Grotto of the Moon: An oasis found behind a waterfall on Octave, one of the Isles of Scaly.
Infinity Root: A distinct, curved root that is the only unchanging element of the legendary Eternal Flower. All other characteristics of the bloom change each time the flower is seen by pony eyes, rendering it nearly impossible to find.
Isles of Scaly: A group of five islands. Each is shaped like a dragon’s claw and is home to a separate tribe of dragons.
Knuckerbocker (NUK-ur-bok-ur): The Octavian dragon that Daring Do once saved from an imprisonment enchantment. Forever in her debt, he then aided in the recovery of the Radiant Shield of Razdon and gifted Daring with a relic of Scaly—a summoning shell to use whenever she needs assistance.
Madame Willow Fern: A member of the board of the Equestrian Botanical Society. One of the foremost experts on unique flora and saplings. Three-time nominee and two-time winner of the Botanist of the Year award, primarily for her work with Wakeful Blossoms.
Octave (AHK-tayve): The largest island and dragon tribe in the Isles of Scaly, and home to Knuckerbocker.
