Chapter 1: Derpy delivers a plot device.

Rainbow Dash lay in her fluffy bed, the first book she had ever read propped against her hoof. The adventure swirled through her imagination, enthralling her in its spell. Daring Do was currently weaving her way through the temple, dodging traps and solving deviously dangerous puzzles.

Daring Do was about to enter the final chamber holding the Sapphire Stone when Rainbow looked up from the book at the window. There was a faint purple light shining from the window. She tried to remember what time she had lain down to start reading and drew up a blank. Regret crossed her mind for a moment and she stared longingly at page, debating whether or not to continue.

Sighing, she closed the book with a rainbow cord stuck between the pages. She'd been lying there since... She looked up at the window and rubbed at her eyes.

"Is it..." a pale purple light was beginning to filter in through the window, "Morning?"

She lay back with her eyes closed for a moment, thinking over the night of imagination and adventure she’d had with Daring Do. The adventure ran rampant through her imagination again, a blur of words and images all strung together; and she loved it!

She’d lost a night’s sleep though, even though there wasn’t any cloudbusting scheduled for today, she was still going to be groggy. Well, it was a good book and, even after another read-through, still difficult to put down and well worth the lost sleep. She smiled to herself as she got out of bed and got ready for the day.

Later, still smiling, she trotted out onto her patio to look down on Ponyville and the rising sun just beginning to crest over the horizon. From light purple to brilliant red-gold and finally brilliant blue, the day dawned bright and glorious, as Luna set the moon to rest and Celestia woke the sun for an especially glorious dawn.

She sat on her stoop, watching the lands below her cloud-home wake with the rising sun while she ate a bowl of cold oats. A few early rising pegasi greeted her as they flew past on their morning rounds to gather up the mists and low lying clouds that had been snuck in by mischievous youngsters and corral them for a light rain to the west.

By the time the glory of morning came and went, the clumsy but diligent, and loving Derpy Hooves was coming about on her rounds, mail bags full. She made stops at this and that mare or stallion's mailbox, leaving the day's mail behind along with a kind word and the enticing smell of freshly baked muffins hanging from a bag around her neck.

"'Morning, Rainbow Dash," she called from below. The gray mail-mare bumped her mail-bag when she waved to Rainbow as she fluttered by. A sheet of paper fell free from the overstuffed bag and fluttered to the ground.

"Derpy! Hey!" She called after her, pointing to the paper laying on the ground with a hoof. Derpy just waved at Rainbow again and went on her way obliviously, disappearing behind a stand of trees before long.

Rainbow finished her breakfast quickly after that and tossed the bowl into her Whirlwind dishwasher, which was an actual rainy whirlwind, and started her morning exercise routine. Perfection in flight had its cost, and one that she gladly paid for being the best.

After a vigorous warm-up and a few high speed laps around her house, she glided down to take a look at the paper lying on the ground. It was a flyer, rather garishly done, but very eye-catching. She brushed off a bit of mud and barely held back a gasp of excitement.

A travelling group of entertainers, the “Saddleback Seven”, were coming to town to perform several of the adventures in the Daring Do books on stage. A chance to see Daring Do, live, in pony? She nearly leapt up to her front stoop with joy and dashed around in a circle fast enough for the paper to flutter up off the ground.

Just wait until Twilight hears about this! She thought excitedly and dashed off, catching the flyer out of the air as she went.

She caught up to Derpy swiftly, almost running into the gray mare as she rose from the front step of a house. She dodged agilely, almost lost the flyer, and tossed out a quick, though muffled, admonition to the mailmare to watch her takeoffs.

She gained some altitude and sped up, sweeping above the landscape in a blur of rainbow light and blurring wings towards the library.

She could see Spike on the upper balcony airing out some laundry when she arrived, some pins stuck to his crest and a blanket and a few garments strung over the short clothesline.

"Hey, Spike." She said, fairly prancing in the air.

"'ey 'ainbow," came the mumbled reply, spoken around a clothespin, and flicked his tail back towards the interior, "Twili's i' 'eh 'udy."

"Thanks!" She dashed past him, spinning him around and catching him up in the blanket he was trying to hang out to dry. She cringed a little at his yelp, but was too excited to worry right now.

"Twilight!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, landing in the main chamber. "Twilight! You're not gonna believe this!" She slapped the paper down on a table and pranced around the room, fairly floating with excitement. Seeing Daring Do in action, even in a play! So awesome!

"Twilight!" She yelled again and started to poke her head into the rooms of the library, looking for her friend.

"What?!" Rainbow heard the sharp crack of a book landing on a table, "I'm trying," Twilight shouted back in an annoyed tone, "to study!"

"Oh," Rainbow stopped prancing, a feeling of contrition washing over her for just a moment before she brushed it off, "Spike just said you were in the study.”

"And what," she said, tramping out of the study with a glare, "do you think a study is for?"

From up the stairs to the balcony came the little dragon’s ranting about having to redo the laundry.

"Um... Studying?" Rainbow said, attempting a smile while her ears folded back under the ire directed at her. She tapped a hoof on the table and nodded to the flyer, "Take a look at this!” She said, attempting to redirect her friend’s ire, “Daring Do is coming to town!" She lifted her head proudly and pushed the flyer towards the unicorn.

"Really?" Twilight snagged the flyer with a simple spell and read through it several times, eyes growing wider and wider. "Oh Yes! Yes! Yes!" She crowed, dancing around the center of the room excitedly.