Daring Do and the Ruby of the Blank Village is the third book in the Daring Do Expanded Universe, written by Gusty Lulamoon. This book is notable for unwittingly launching what would become known as the Tinker's Series, thanks to its introduction of the Blank Village and Greyhoof. Lulamoon dedicates the book to her equinology lecturer Donitz.
Short Summary
While Daring and Storm Talon are with a group investigating ruins in the Everfree Forest just outside Ponyville, they find a village where nopony has a cutie mark. Two of the party are killed for having cutie marks, and that is not even the village's deepest secret.
Daring Do and the Ruby of the Blank Village contains examples of:
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Ascended Fanon: To Story of the Blanks; when The Cutie Pox aired, many fans of Story of the Blanks began speculating that a Cutie Pox outbreak may have been behind Sunny Town's hostility towards those who bear Cutie Marks. - Beware the Quiet Ones: Starlet. Calm and reserved when we first meet her in flashback, insanely quick and Ax-Crazy when it comes to chasing down Ruby.
- Big Damn Heroes: Daring's rescue of Sunset from Nightmare Starlet and the bone fiends.
- Call It Karma: The entire town is cursed into becoming Nightmares for what happened to Ruby.
- Crapsaccharine World: Sunnytown.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: Albeit in a different sense. Ruby's magnifying glass cutie mark, based on her knack for finding things, triggered the village into killing her.
- Death by Irony: Starlet dies moments after getting a cutie mark that represents her talent for sacrificing other ponies. Then Roneo gets his for irony appreciation.
- Died During Production: Lulamoon was working on a sequel when she died in the Everfree in mysterious circumstances. Her death remains yet unsolved, but there are signs of violence.
- Enchanted Forest: Everfree Forest.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: The Nightmares are walking corpses. Crosses with Our Zombies Are Different; they're intelligent, they're born from a curse, they can feign life, and in their real form, they're blackened skeletal creatures.
- A Fête Worse than Death: A subversion. The townsponies never intended to kill someone during the party, but Ruby's Cutie Mark appearing forced their hooves. The arrival of Daring's party of explorers forces their hooves again.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Nightmares and Ruby, although the latter is a red herring.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: It's heavily implied that every year the town's last party is acted out as it happened then, and everypony (except Mitta) just pretends that nothing is wrong in order to entice new visitors in.
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Part of the terms of the agreement with the dark power of Sunnytown is that the memory of their past was to be suppressed. When Mitta starts to feel remorse for betraying Ruby, she also starts to remember. Greyhoof has her killed immediately.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: In the flashbacks, only Mitta and Greyhoof remember anything substantial of their lives prior to the founding of Sunnytown beyond the plague. Greyhoof's reaction indicates that not only was he responsible, but he was scared that the information might spread.
- Lost World: Sunny Town.
- No Man of Woman Born: Near the climax, Ahuizotl taunts Daring after she steals the artifact that the Nightmares will not listen to "Those who would bear the Curse Marks". Completely nonchalant, she passes it to Professor Storm Talon.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: While the others fear Cutie Marks because of their experiences with the Plague, Starlet seems to hate anything sentient that isn't a blank Earth Pony. While the others killed their victims and burned their bodies to prevent the spreading the disease, Starlet took pleasure in cutting off their horns and wings while they were still alive.
- Stealth Pun: Roneo's cutie mark, resembling an clothing iron - see Death By Irony above.
- Stepford Smiler: Greyhoof was pretty brutal in suppressing Gladstone and Three Leaf's memories.
- These Hands Have Killed: Mitta holds herself personally responsible for Ruby's death due to her failure to intervene and prevent the other townsponies from killing her.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Sunny Town, of course.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: With the exception of Starlet, none of the Blanks pay any attention to non-ponies like Storm and Ahuizotl.
- Vanishing Village: The village is little more than ruins most days of the year. Only days and nights of the full moon does it reveal itself, leading to speculation that Nightmare Moon was involved in its creation/cursing.
- Welcome to Corneria: In the modern time, Gladstone and Three Leaf always repeats the same static dialog. It's unnerving.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Greyhoof and most of the villagers are acting out of fear of a Cutie Pox outbreak.
