About an hour later, the train rumbled to a halt outside a peaceful little town in the country. As a few ponies disembarked, one railway worker yelled down the train.

"Ten minutes before we're off again to Manehatten!"

Down in the caboose, Daring rubs her eyes with a hoof. Over on the other side of the car is Sykes, staring out at the town. Torq is fast asleep, face smushed up against the window. A small trail of drool creeps out of his mouth down the glass pane.

Groaning, Daring gets up and stretches.

"Alright, we've got ten minutes. Come on Sykes."

She trots off the train and leaps to the dirt road, leaving behind everything except her hat.

Sykes quickly follows, having to walk much faster due to his shorter legs.

"I thought we were going to Manehatten. What are we doing here?"

"To pick up an old friend, ah here it is."

In the past few moments they had walked a fair distance from the rest of the town and came to a small house overlooking the plains. It is made of red bricks and appears a bit old. The roof is a bit tilted in the wrong direction and its small brick chimney is leaning to one side. The windows are open, white shutters open. Off to one side is a little garden, which doesn't look to have been weeded recently. There are some parts of the house that look newer than the others, making the house much bigger than it originally was. Sykes noted the front door was a solid wood trimmed with metal.

As they made their way up to it, they heard an almost musical melody of metal hitting metal. Daring smiled as it reached her ears.

"Still making those then?" she muttered to herself as she knocked on the door.

The noises stopped soon afterwards, followed with the door opening. Out came a light yellow pegasus, mane slightly darker than her body with a few orange streaks in it. On her flank were two cogs, one slightly bigger than the other. She blinked when she saw Sykes, then turned to Daring.

"Oh, Daring! So nice to see you again!" she exclaimed, a smile breaking across her face.

They hugged and looked each other over.

"Arc Flash, it's been too long since I last saw you! It was that trip into the Everfree wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was! So how have you been? Still adventuring?"

They walked into the house into a small sitting room, questioning each other about what they had been doing. As they sat down on one couch, Sykes coughed. The two looked up at him.

"Um... Sorry, don't want to be a wet blanket, but remember the train is leaving momentarily."

Arc gave him a weird look.

"What? And who are you?"

She got up and circled around the smaller unicorn.

"I don't remember you... "

He rolled his eyes.

"I'm Sykes, I work as one of Daring's informants."

Still confused, Arc turned back to Daring.

"So, what's this train you're supposed to catch? Why are you here Daring?"

The pegasus adventurer rubbed the back of her neck, a nervous smile spreading across her face.

"Well, I'm going off to Amazonia within the week. I was wondering... "

"If I would come along? You know I left that kind of life!"

Daring got up and put a foreleg around her.

"Are you sure you don't want to go on one last adventure?"

"Adventure? Every other day somepony was trying to kill us! We nearly died countless times!"

"So? That's an occupational hazard."

Daring pointed out Arc's sitting room window across the plain.

"Don't you still wonder what else is out there? What other treasures are hidden just out of sight? I know you loved all those times we went out into the world!"

Arc backed away from her.

"I.. I'm not sure... It's so peaceful here... I just finished another addition... "

Daring Do sighed.

"If you don't want to come, it's fine with me."

She walked past the stunned Sykes.

"Come on, we need to get back to the train."

As she walked away from the house, Sykes picked up his pace to get in front of her.

"What was that? I thought you wanted her to come."

Daring looked up at him, still whispering something.

"... three, two, one..."

Behind them, the door slammed open.

"Alright! I'll come!"

The smile returned to Daring's face as she spun around to hug Arc.

"Then get packing! We've got a train to catch!"

*muttering softly* There's no business like show business...