Daring Do and the Mystery of Humelat (Part 1/3)

An adventurous pegasus. A mysterious note. A lot of trepidation. This was all that was needed to spark one of the more... interesting... editions of the Daring Do saga. One she would likely not be publishing.

A letter left at her cabin in the woods asked her to attend a special ceremony a distance off, in the town of Humelat. The letter was formal and informative; she could bring a +1, she should pack for a week's stay not counting what she'd need for the trips there and back, and she should not bring anything she didn't wish to lose - thieves apparently ran rampant in this town. (She had no worries about being robbed, but better safe than sorry.)

After some mental debate, she decided to go, if only to see what this ceremony was about; they had been rather vague. She wrote to a recent friend of hers, Rainbow Dash, inviting her as her +1 (mostly because showing up without one might look suspicious, and she didn't know many ponies who weren't always out to get her). She included a copy of the original letter and said for her to meet her at the cabin when she was ready.

Of course, this was Rainbow - she was probably ready before the letter even arrived. An invitation? From Daring Do? To come along on what sounded like the makings of another adventure? Sign her up! She wrote back to Daring as soon as she finished reading the letter and the invite that came with it. She was quick to pack a bag for a week away and, after an explanation and goodbye to her friends and a request for a week's leave from Wonderbolt duty, Rainbow made the long flight to Daring's cabin. She knew where it was - she's not a creepy stalker, I swear - so the trip was short, and decently uneventful. A few close calls with thunderclouds due to being lost in fantasy world notwithstanding.

Finally she found the place, landing at the front door and giving a few knocks. Daring opened the door, smiling; she already had her usual adventurer's outfit on of a dark green vest, over an even darker green long-sleeved shirt, and some shorts to match her vest. Her own bags were packed, three total; one of supplies for the trip, one of clothing, and her usual backpack of emergency needs. "Hey Rainbow! Ready to head out?"

Rainbow herself was dressed in what she hoped was some practical gear; she had on a black vest over her grey t-shirt, matching black cargo shorts on her waist. She herself had two bags, one of clothing and one of toiletries and other supplies. She gave her friend a nod and grin. "Heh, you know it! Thanks for the invite, Daring, seriously. First time we can hang without my stumbling up on you in the middle of a quest for once."

"Yeah, instead you're there from the start." She smirked and flapped her wings. "Let's get going. The note had a decent enough map."

She snickered and nodded, spreading her own wings wide. "Alright then, lead the way!" She took off into the air behind Daring, trying to contain a squeal; she was going on a full-fledged adventure with her personal hero! This was going to be awesome!

...eventually.

The first thing she discovered was that adventures - or at least the parts that weren't all dungeon-crawling and mystery solving - were boring. They flew for almost a full hour before Daring motioned for them to land. Not because they were there; just for a rest. Well... the adventure had to get interesting at some point, right? When Daring said to land, Rainbow looked down, seeing they weren't anywhere near civilization right now and instead were heading to a clearing in the middle of a forest. An hour in and they didn't seem be anywhere near there? She had to hold back a groan as they landed.

Daring smirked. "Don't be so impatient. If all the cool places were easy to get to, I'd have explored them all already."

Rainbow sighed a little bit to try and calm down, nodding. "Yeah, you make a good point. Just not used to flying for this long, is all."

Daring chuckled, and folded her wings as they landed. "We're not too far. A little under halfway there. We can make it without another rest stop. Now, be careful about the flora in this area; not much of it is deadly, but they can have... unusual effects."

"Unusual effects? Like what?" Rainbow looked a bit worried. "Because if there's poison joke around here, no way can I get near the stuff. My wings get a mind of their own!"

"Poison joke? Nah, that's Everfree Forest-exclusive." She shook her head, offering a canteen of water. "There's a few poisonous plants here and there, but they only do anything if you ingest them. The main ones I'm worried about are Denjuri Daisies. They don't do anything against fur, but they melt fabric so fast you'd swear they were doused in acid."

The rainbow-maned pegasus took the canteen, having a sip of the water, "Seriously? Well, what do they look like?" No way was she letting any of those things touch her! Of course, while she did look around the clearing, she failed to check directly behind the log she sat on.

"Let's see... well, imagine a daisy, and now imagine it having a stem that gradually gets red closer to the ground. All there is to it." Daring sat on the same log on the opposite end. "The only other unusual thing around here are Memory Trees. Being near them slowly makes you lose your short term memory. Takes five minutes to forget the last ten minutes, but it doesn't get any worse than that... and don't worry, there aren't any near her. They're really easy to notice. When you get close to them, their leaves start to turn black."

Rainbow sighed in relief, nodding as she allowed herself to relax, rear sliding backwards a bit on the log. However, the result of this was the seat of her pants dangling right over a small patch of what appeared to be daisies, their stems slowly turning red closer to the ground...

"So, how've things been? Heard you got into the Wonderbolts." Daring smirked. Neither of them noticed the daisies seem to reach slowly up to Rainbow's shorts, though just barely making contact; as it was, all their proximity did was slowly eat away at tiny patches of the fabric of her shorts. She didn't even realize it, but then Daring didn't notice the patch of them behind where she was sitting; if she just moved back a little bit, the same would start happening to her.

For now though, Rainbow gave a grin and nod. "You know it! Officially a full-time member of the team! Means a lot more work at HQ, but let me tell you, it's totally worth it!"

"Heh, bet it's the perfect life for you. You love the spotlight so much it's gotta be unhealthy." Daring gave her a playful nudge, grinning.

She snickered, nudging her back. "Hey, look who's talking; maybe you stay out of the lime light, but you clearly love writing about all the awesome stuff that happens to you. Speaking of, think anything book-worthy might happen during this?"

She snorted as she scooted back a bit, unintentionally placing her rump over the daisies - and a fair bit closer to them than Rainbow's was. "Maybe. Seems like some ponies just want the honor of an adventurer like me attending their village ceremony. Unless we get attacked or there's some mystical artifact hanging around there, this seems almost blandly straightforward."

Just like with Rainbow, the daisies gravitated toward Daring's shorts. However, unlike Dash, they managed to brush right up on the fabric, though not enough to be noticed, the fabric almost immediately starting to dissolve. The other pegasus snickered a bit. "I don't know; knowing you, something that seems simple is bound to take a turn for the amazing."

"Pfft, yeah, let's just see how amazing." She rolled her eyes. "Seems like lately, most of my adventures have had some... bad moments... that I've needed to edit out of the stories."

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow and scooted forward, pulling her rump away from the daises and saving her shorts from being fully dissolved - 'fully' being the key word there. "Well, now I'm wondering; just what happened?"

Daring sighed. In contrast to Rainbow, who now was only missing a roughly hoof-sized portion on the butt of her shorts, she scooted back even more... and off the log, to lay casually down in the flower patch! "Alright, did I tell you about my first encounter with a Memory Tree?"

Rainbow didn't notice the flowers either, but kept herself on the log and out of reach of the daises, shaking her head. "Nope, but I got a feeling it's gonna be good."

"Okay, now keep quiet on this one! Don't let anypony else know! Basically, I went up to one, not sure what it was. Spent a little bit wandering around. Kept leaving it and coming back, always forgetting I had already seen it. Finally I encounter another mare, who has some sort of spell on her; probably a resistance spell for the tree's magic. She tries explaining it to me, but of course, I keep forgetting. Apparently she decided to have fun with me, because..." She blushed, coughing awkwardly. "...she pantsed me. I was so shocked, she was able to push me out of my shorts and grab them up. So I just had my vest and these purple panties with little flower patterns on them! I ran after her, but she was fast, and she led me in a circle back to the tree... and then I forgot I had been pantsed, and that I was missing my pants at all..."

Dash put a hoof up to her muzzle, snickering madly as she listened. "W-Wow! When did you finally realize you lost 'em, them?"

"Well, I realized when I finally left the tree, and a few minutes later noticed there was a breeze. I just put on some new shorts... memories of what happened didn't come back for days." She blushed brightly and sighed. She didn't notice that, by now, the daisies had completely eaten the back of her shorts, vest, and shirt... and were even beginning to eat at the sides.

Rainbow giggled openly. "Oh man! Well, at least it didn't happen in a public spot, huh?"

"Heh, yeah, could've been worse!" She laughed. "Hoo boy... think we're ready to head out?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm feeling set for the last leg of this!" She hopped up, grabbing her bags... however, when Daring stood up and inevitably turned away from Dash, she gasped slightly at the sight of the dissolved clothing before her... and the underwear on full display! The brave adventurer had on bright pink underpants, decorated all over with little bunnies of various colors... and a little cotton tail, to boot. While some of the stereotypically 'nerdy' underwear additions, such as a name on her waistband or days of the week, were absent, she did have a red bow right on the back of her waistband. And she was completely ignorant of this - even when she whirled around to unfold her wings, and the front of her outfit pieces fell to the ground just as she looked up and took off into the sky, briefly letting Dash see her matching bra!

"W-wait, Daring!" she called up, but the pegasus was already airborn, making Rainbow follow after her. Of course, she didn't realize there was a hole in the back of her own shorts, exposing a nice patch of her deep-blue panties patterned with lily pads and smiling cartoon turtles. Still, it was little compared to Daring's new situation; cute as her underwear was, Dash couldn't let her fly all the way to the town without clothes on!

With only her hat, her bags, and her undies to cover herself, Daring flew along, oblivious to her exposure. An explorer like her would only make such an amateurish mistake once in a blue moon, lying in a patch of flowers without checking what they were, but that certainly didn't mean those kinds of mistakes didn't happen.

"Daring, hold up!" Dash called out, making a grab for her companion... and accidentally grabbing the tail on the panties, making the backside ride down and expose half of her flank, making Dash yelp and blush brightly.

Daring groaned. "Dash, you were all impatient wanting to get going, then you want us to wait- ack!" She felt a breeze that definitely wasn't supposed to be there, and quickly reached back, fixing her undies. She then felt around for her shorts... and felt none... and her torso felt a bit bare too...

Rainbow stopped, letting Daring fix her panties before quickly coming to a realization of what happened. "Y-yeah..." She gave a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of her head, "Looks like you miiiiight have sat in a patch of Denjuri Daises..."

Daring's face went bright red, and she quickly descended to the ground again, very paranoid about trees and flowers as she landed. "O-okay... just need new clothes..." She pulled her clothing bag off and sorted through it as Rainbow landed beside her. Slowly, Daring's face took on a relieved look, as she pulled out a new vest and shirt, pulling them on. "No talking about this, got it?" she asked, eyeing Rainbow with a scowl as she searched for shorts.

She put up her forelegs. "Whoah whoah, my lips are sealed, promise! I wouldn't even want to say anything about this!"

"Good. I'd write you out of the book otherwise." She smirked, still keeping her eye on Rainbow as she pulled out her shorts and quickly pulled them on, covering the bunny print back up.

Rainbow snickered a bit. "Well, wouldn't want that!" Once Daring had the shorts on, she brought her wings back out, the two making their way back into the air after Daring recollected her bags.

"Right, so, back on topic!" Daring chuckled, flying beside the other pegasus and not noticing the hole her shorts sported. "So this town, Humelat. I did some research, but all I learned is they do things... pretty differently from other places. For one thing, apparently the kids of the town? They more or less run the place. They make the rules, the adults enforce them."

"Huh, seriously?" Rainbow looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. "Definitely never heard of anything like that before. Still, probably nothing you wouldn't expect from kids; things like no bed time and desert being mandatory after every meal." She smirked.

"Probably. It didn't go into much detail, but this celebration we're going to is some sort of yearly event, and it's being planned and run mostly by the kids. Just try not to be too blunt or rude, okay?" She chuckled. "I'm not good with kids myself, so just follow my strategy: use as few words as possible when talking to them if you're not sure what to do." She checked ahead of them to make sure they weren't about to collide with anything, then turned to keep talking. "There are other rules and traditions relevant to us. Visitors have to obey the children, without limit. Only if they want us to do something dangerous can we disagree - otherwise, it's 'defilement of their order'. I don't get it, but frankly, I've seen weirder."

"Heh, just gotta keep the kids happy huh? Should be easy enough," she said with a grin. "Worse comes to worse, I can do a few tricks to cheer 'em up." She looked forward as well, finally seeing what looked to be a town looming over the horizon.

"Yeah, but be careful. They might not be used to your pegasus tricks, so if you're too liberal with it, they may start wanting you to... well... never stop." She smirked. "Even your wings would get tired eventually." She gestured for them to land, just a short walk from the little town itself.

She nodded, flying downward with her. "Gotcha, tricks only if necessary. Well, here's hoping things don't get too hectic."

And of course, knowing fate, she had just jinxed them both.

As they walked up the curving path through what remained of the forest, only now did Daring get a glance at her companion's backside. She snorted. "Hey, Dash... you like turtles?"

"Huh?" she looked back at Daring. "Well, I got a pet tortoise back home, and he's pretty cool, but turtles are a close second. Why?"

"Huh... maybe they're tortoises after all. I can't tell. Let me get a closer look." A mischievous smirk on her face, she suddenly grabbed Rainbow's shorts, and tugged them down to the ground!

Rainbow gasped, looking down and yelping as she tried to cover up. "H-hey! What the heck, Daring?!" Her panties were on full display now, showing the explorer that her name was written across the back of the waistband! Needless to say, her cheeks lit up bright red as she immediately tried pulling her shorts back up.

"You saw mine, only fair that I saw yours!~" she singsonged; she didn't get to play tricks like this, but it was so fun when she did! "Plus, the daisies didn't just get to me. Check your shorts before putting them back on."

"Huh? What are you-" she started, looking down at her shorts and gasping as she saw the hole burned into the back. "Aww, ponyfeathers... guess it's a good thing you saw that here at least. Don't need little kids giggling at my panties. Hang on for a sec." She reached into her clothing bag, sifting around and eventually pulling our a pair of jean shorts and sliding them on.

She laughed. "Heh, guess we're both wearing stuff we'd rather not show off, huh? Never took you for the type!~"

She gave a slightly nervous chuckle as they kept walking. "Well, what can I say? There's just something about a cute pair of panties. You must get it, right?"

"Well, duh, of course I do! Just makes you feel all tingly inside to know you've got 'em on." She smirked, before quickly putting on a straight face as they approached a large wooden town gate. A single guard stood by the gate, having not seen the two pegasi before they came around the corner (thank Celestia for that).

He looked up at them, and Daring silently held out the letter; he took it, looked at it, looked at Rainbow, looked at Daring, then nodded and knocked three times on the gate. A moment later, it slowly opened, unveiling the... rather pleasant, almost modern, town behind it. At first glance, it looked almost like Ponyville.

"Huh... was kinda expecting something a little more old time-ish," Rainbow said, keeping her voice low so only Daring could hear as they stepped inside, taking a look around. From the ponies that were out, even their clothing seemed pretty modern. Really, all that seemed to be unusual was the gate and wall around the place.

"It's a bit behind compared to Ponyville," Daring replied quietly. "No electricity. Besides that, it's about on par. The protection might just be something the kids wanted to feel safer." Speaking of which, they soon found themselves approached by a young filly.

The young filly, despite her age, was actually dressed rather properly, in a spotless, beautiful yellow sundress. She had an immaculate teal coat and sandy-brown mane and tail, both groomed quite nicely. She looked up, smiling at the duo. "Hello there! You must be Ms. Do and her +1. My name is Sea Foam, and it's a pleasure to meet you at long last!"

"Hi there, Sea Foam." Daring smiled; she had been torn on her expectations between power-hungry brats, and confused scared tykes, but this was... almost normal. Besides being better dressed and well-spoken, it was like talking to a filly from Ponyville. She crouched down to be more on eye level, trying to be respectful. "That's right; you can just call me Daring, though. And this is Rainbow Dash. This is a nice town you have here."

Rainbow got down as well, nodding to the filly and giving her a wave of her hoof. "Hi there."

"Charmed; we've heard a lot about you too actually, Ms. Dash," she said with a smile, looking between them both. "It's an honor to have such famous ponies in our town! However, I'm afraid even ponies of note aren't free from our customs and traditions." Her eyes traveled downwards, landing on their shorts, "And I'm afraid one such tradition forbids mares from wearing pants inside the village grounds." Of course, there was no such tradition; they may be old fashioned, but not THAT much so. Of course, these two newcomers didn't know that.

Daring looked shocked. "W-wait, what? Seriously?!" She quickly tried to regain her composure, and speak more respectfully, also quickly trying to silence Rainbow with a raised hoof before she could say anything. "U-um... I'm sorry, Sea Foam, but... a-are you sure about that? We, um... I don't see any other mares not wearing pants... is it a visitors-only rule?" Great, now she gave her an out.

Rainbow didn't say a thing, but she was definitely looking nervous; she hadn't brought any dresses or even skirts along, and she doubted Daring had, either! And Sea Foam seemed to be hoping for that as she nodded to Daring. "I'm afraid so, Ms. Do. If you don't have anything else, we can surely find you both something, but it might take a little while."

"...we don't, actually..." Daring sighed. "W-we will respect your traditions. Come on, Rainbow..." She nudged her, as she reached down and slid off her own shorts, face as pink as the panties she revealed.

"Oh, r-right." Rainbow nodded, her own cheeks lighting up red as she slid her shorts down, stepping out and stuffing them in her bag.

Of course, Foam had to fight back a constant stream of giggles as she eyed the panties on both of them; she hadn't expected to see such heroic mares in panties that she might own! Still, she kept composed enough to clap her hooves and summon over a nearby guard. "Pine Root here will be happy to take your bags to the guest house we have set up for you."

Daring blushed as she saw not only the filly, but also this new guard trying to hold in their laughter. Pine Root, a mare in an official-looking black suit, held out her hooves, and Daring quickly gave her their bags. Only Daring's backpack remained, and Pine nodded. "Sea Foam, do you plan to give the tortoise and the hare here a tour?" The small gathering crowd erupted into snickers at the nickname.

She snickered and nodded, "Why, yes I do. And I was just about to let them know that." She looked to the small crowd and smiled. "Now, I'm open to suggestions; where should I take them first?"

A chorus of suggestions came out. "The playground!" "The town hall!" "Somewhere to eat!" "Ooh, playground sounded good!"

Sea Foam giggled. "Playground seems like the popular choice; come along, please. We'll start there and work our way around town." She beckoned for the two pantsless mares to follow.

The circle of ponies opened for them, many of them wandering off, but of course many were taking shortcuts to the playground, so they could hide in the best spots to see what would happen. It certainly wouldn't be a forgettable day.