Stranger Than Fan Fictionby ThatOneWriterChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 1 It was a quiet afternoon in the library. Spike and Twilight were going through their twice-weekly book sorting. This time, it was by author, then genre, then subject, then title. Twilight began the spell to levitate all the books at once when something crashed through her window. As might be expected, the sudden noise caused her to lose focus and drop all the books. Frustrated, the unicorn turned toward the window, where a cyan pegasus was sheepishly smiling at her. “Sorry Twilight,” she apologized. “I was trying to land right outside your door, but my wing’s still not completely recovered.” The unicorn approached her friend, feeling both frustrated and concerned for her friend. “You know Dash, your wing wouldn’t be injured so often if you would stop crashing into my window.” Dash’s ears drooped. “Yeah, I know. But I was just so excited about the newest Daring Do book!” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Newest book? I thought that wasn’t until next week!” She ran over to her desk, where her weekly to-do list was currently neatly folded, between her daily and monthly to-do lists. Scanning the list, the librarian groaned. “I’m sorry, Dash. I didn’t order it yet. It’s at the very bottom of the week’s list, right under re-reorganize the books and give Spike a bath. Speaking of which…” The baby dragon groaned. “Ugh. You just had to remind her of that.” His sister smiled with false sweetness. “Oh, that will happen, but later, when you least expect it.” Dash cleared her throat. She hated to be ignored. “So, there’s no Daring Do?” The librarian shook her head. “Not for another week.” “A whole week? That’s like forever from now!” Ponyville’s fastest flier did not like waiting. “How do eggheads like you wait so long for books?” Twilight had to stifle a laugh. “Well, ‘eggheads’ like myself usually read more than one series. Or we write fan fiction.” The pegasus tilted her head. “Fan fiction? What’s that?” Twilight paused. “Well, it’s kind of like writing another book for the series, except that it’s not canon, usually contains OCs and might be better or worse than the original story.” Dash blinked. The unicorn sighed. “It’s a fan-written story, basically. It might not match up with the original, like if you make up your own character, or if you make your own storyline. Plus, it’s usually written in a different style than the actual author’s. Dash’s multicolored mane bobbed as she nodded. “Okay, I think I understand.” Her friend smiled. “So do you think that’s something that you might want to try?” The azure mare grinned. “Of course! Anything I write would automatically be 20 percent cooler than the rest!” Her ears drooped again. “But I might need help getting started. I’ve never written anything before, other than a few Friendship Report letters.” Twilight’s lavender cheeks turned a darker shade of violet. “Me?” Multicolored locks bounced once again as Dash nodded emphatically. “Oh, I don’t know.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, an egghead like you must have a list of ideas for the series.” The studious unicorn visibly brightened. “Now that you mention it…” She pulled a rolled up list out of her collection on a shelf. “I did have just a few…” The list unfurled and rolled across the room, bouncing off the hooves of the cyan pegasus, who groaned and facehoofed. “Okay, the first step of fan fiction is probably to pick which characters you’re going to include.” Magenta eyes widened and stared incredulously at Twilight. “Probably?” The bookworm’s cheeks returned to the same darker shade of purple. “Well…I never actually got around to writing a fan fiction, despite all my ideas.” Rainbow Dash facehoofed again. “Now you tell me…” “Well, whichever characters we pick, they have to be ones that we understand the characterizations of.” Seeing Dash’s blank stare, she added, “We have to be able to write for them.” “Oh, well why didn’t you say so?” Rainbow paused to think about all of the characters in the Daring Do universe. Other than Daring Do and her friends of course, she didn’t think she could really write for them. Wait…Friends! Inspiration struck the pegasus. “Hey, Twi, didn’t you say we could make up our own characters?” Twilight stared back in confusion. “Yes?” Grinning, the pegasus voiced her idea. “Why don’t we include our friends as characters? We know them pretty much inside and out. And,” she said, cutting off her friend’s protestations, “I’m sure they would love to be in our story.” Thinking about it, Twilight did have to concede those points to Dash. Admittedly, a lot of characters in Daring Do were fairly shallow. It would be nice to have characters with depth to them. “Alright, that’s true. So what should we call them?” “Fluttershy could be called Whisperwind. Or maybe Windwhisper. Cause flutter relates to flying, and so does the wind, plus shy ponies whisper a lot.” “Their speech patterns more closely resemble murmuring,” the librarian countered. Irritated, the pegasus flared her wings. “You get the idea, Twi.” Rolling her eyes, Twilight said, “Okay, so Fluttershy’s character is Windwhisper. So what are the rest called?” “Hm…Well, Applejack, um…Jack is a type of alcoholic drink. And apple is a type of food. So, what’s another type of alcoholic drink?” “Scotch!” Twilight immediately blurted. She blushed again when she saw Rainbow’s look. “Right. So…Scotch. Orange Scotch? Chocolate Scotch?” Dash thought hard, until an idea popped into her head. “Butterscotch!” Twilight paused. “So…Butterscotch.” Dash nodded, feeling proud of herself. “Okay, sounds a little generic though. So, what about the rest of the names?” “Hm. Rarity’s a hard one. I can’t think of any good words for hers.” Although she was not quite a walking dictionary, Twilight had a wide vocabulary. Even so, the bookworm found that she couldn’t come up with a particularly good synonym for a rarity. Oddity? No, that sounded mean. Unique? Eh, didn’t quite work. “I guess Scarcity would be the best name.” Dash shrugged, and the unicorn wrote that down. “What’s Pinkie Pie’s name? “Purple Cake,” Dash responded immediately. Blinking, Twilight asked, “Don’t you want to put any more effort into it than that?” “Nope,” was the swift reply. Facehoofing, the scholar wrote down the overly simple name. “And what about my character?” Frowning, the pegasus asked, “What exactly is twilight?” Thinking of how to word her response, the mare explained her name. “It’s pretty much the time between the princesses setting the sun and raising the moon.” “Oh,” Dash responded. That was such an oddly specific word. “How about…Dawn Glimmer?” Twilight shook her head. “Daylight Glitter?” Twilight shook her head again. “Maybe…Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia’s student shuddered, recalling a strange dream she once had. “I think that name’s already taken,” she said quickly. Dash focused her mind on something that would reflect Twilight’s personality, since her name was so difficult. Something came to light, some historical artifact that the bookworm once read about. “Ponetta Stone?” she said aloud. Furrowing her brow, Twilight asked, “What does that have to do with my name?” “Well, you told me about it once. Something about it being an important find to ponykind and all,” Dash stammered out. The unicorn smiled. “Awe, you think that I’m an important find,” she teased. Now it was the pegasus’s turn to blush, folding her wings awkwardly. “That name will do. But who’s your character, Rainbow?” Feigning hurt, Dash replied, “Daring Do of course!” Facehoofing, Twilight sighed. “Dash, you can’t be Daring Do!” Her normal ego returning, the pegasus stated, “Yes I can. She’s 20 percent cooler than everyone else, and she’s a pegasus, and she’s awesome!” Staring at her friend, she added, “What more could you want?” Sighing again, Twilight decided to let Dash be Daring Do. She was only going to edit the story anyway, since she hadn’t planned time for writing. Speaking of which…The unicorn made a mental note to make a paper note, which would remind her to plan time for editing. “Okay then, Dash. Now you have to plan out the plot of the story.” Dash laughed. “Stories have butts?” Twilight facehoofed again. There was probably going to be a bruise on her forehead later. “No, that’s what they call the events of the story. The plot,” she continued, glaring at her chuckling friend, “is the series of events that shapes the characters and either brings about a sad and happy ending. For Daring Do,” she paused, making sure that she avoided that word. “That would probably be fairly simple. She travels to a temple to find a thing and gets out by the skin of her plot.” Dash burst into laughter at the use of the word again, and Twilight facehoofed. Sighing once again, she gave Dash some paper, ink, and a quill, using her magic to put it in a saddlebag. “Just write a few chapters, and I’ll make time the day after tomorrow to read and edit it.” “Thanks, Twi!” the pegasus said, adjusting the saddlebag. Using the front door this time, she left the tree. Sighing, Twilight made a paper note to remind herself about time for editing. Looking at the scroll with her daily schedule, the unicorn remembered something else she needed to do. “Spike!” she called. The baby dragon walked into the room. Smiling mischievously at her brother, she said, “Guess what time it is!” Author's Note It hasn't yet reached the part where fiction matches reality, but I needed this chapter to set things up. At the very least, it should give you an idea of the overall tone of this story. Chapter 2Daring Do was talking to her friend Ponetta Stone about their latest awesome adventure when suddenly Scarcity burst through the door. “Girls, I have found simply the most marvelous diamond for my latest line of jewelry!” Scarcity’s eyes got wider and she droned on about lame things like earrings and bracelets. Ponetta looked slightly annoyed at having been interrupted on instructing Daring on proper use of a rope, (meaning NOT awesomely swinging across a pit), but Daring was glad to be able to start another adventure. Interrupting Scarcity’s monologue, Dash Daring asked, “So where is this giant diamond?” Looking kind of offended, like high-society ponies usually do when you interrupt them, Scarcity lectured Daring on the rudeness of interrupting. Then she said, “We’re looking for the Dragon’s Eye diamond, which is in the mountains conveniently located just outside town.” Ponetta looked up from the paperwork she had been doing. “The Dragon’s Eye diamond?” she asked. “Isn’t that the one the size of a full-grown dragon’s eye?” Twilight stopped reading. “Aren’t you going to put even a little bit more effort into naming the priceless artifacts that Daring is collecting?” Dash thought for a moment. “Nope!” she declared cheerfully. “It doesn’t matter what she’s collecting, just as long as the way she gets it is awesome!” Sighing, Twilight pointed back to the manuscript. “But there is nothing else written about the events leading up to reaching the mountains. You literally wrote ‘Blah, blah, boring stuff’ to fill in the time gap!” Dash slumped in the space she was sitting. “That part is boring, though! Everyone knows that the actual temple part is the best part of any Daring Do story.” Twilight glanced back at the manuscript. “Well, at least the temple part makes more sense. I like how you made it into a temple for worshipping the giant diamond, until people realized that diamonds don’t actually possess god-like powers. And as for the holes in the temple’s rotting floor, did you include that to show how the temple decayed without regular upkeep over the centuries?” “Yeah, of course!” Dash lied. Actually, having to jump over pitfalls in the temple’s floor just sounded like a good trap for Daring and friends to overcome. She would have included lava underneath, but then she realized that made no sense. Smiling, Twilight flipped to the next page. It was blank. Her smile faded as she said, “Um, Dash? I don’t think this is a long enough story. There’s no epilogue or anything. It’s just exposition, ‘blah, blah, boring’,” she shot Dash a look, “and then they go through the temple. There isn’t even a proper ending. You could have included something about Scarcity’s jewelry, like it being a present to her special somepony.” “Bleh,” Dash said, making a face. She wasn’t really one for romance storylines. It was so clichéd. “Oh, come on Dash, almost every fan fiction has shipping in it. You could even be a bit…risqué if you want,” she added with a blush. “Okay, so more story, and more romance. Got it,” Dash said, grabbing a quill and ink. She hastily scribbled, After retrieving the diamond, Scarcity was so excited that she kissed Butterscotch. While everyone was distracted, a dragon, who was entranced by the diamond’s size, snatched the gem for himself, flying off to a cave that was two days of walking from where they stood. Looking up at Twilight, she asked, “Is that good?” Twilight nodded. She got up and said, “I’ll add more later. See ya, Twi.” “Wait! Before you go, I want to show you a new spell I’ve been working on. It allows normal paper to make whatever’s written on it into reality!” Her excited face turned into a frown as she looked at the pile of papers on her desk. “I had the ones I already cast a spell upon in a separate pile a few days ago. Actually I wanted to show you it when you were here last time, but your graceless entrance mixed up the piles.” “Heh. Sorry, Twi.” Dash sheepishly grinned, running a hoof through her mane as she apologized. “It’s okay, Dash. Just let me know if you see those magic papers. I’m concerned that they may have fallen out the window. That could be a major problem if they fall into the wrong hooves.” “Okay, Twi,” Dash said, opening the library’s door. As she took her first step through the doorway, she nearly collided with Rarity. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have some marvelous news! Spike and I have just found a large gem!” “That’s wonderful, Rarity! Where is it?” Twilight asked. Rarity shifted her hooves. “Er, well, that’s the problem, you see. I need help finding it. I know it’s in a rock field on the outskirts of town. I need help finding it.” “That’s okay,” Dash said, still standing near the door. “I’ll get the rest of the girls. We’ll find the giant gem, and it’ll be awesome!” “Yes,” Rarity agreed, not noticing Dash had already flown off. “It will be quite wonderful! I could make an entire line of dresses with a diamond motif. Perhaps I could add a few accessories, like hats, or scarves. Oh, could you imagine?” She continued to rant and rave. Twilight nodded politely, but her mind was still focused on worrying about her missing paper. A short while later, Dash returned, with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack in tow. Together, the six headed north, to the rock field. “It must be here somewhere!” Rarity was beginning to despair after the gem had not shown itself after a half-hour of searching. “I don’t get it either, Rarity,” Twilight said, her horn glowing with the same gem-finding spell. “The only possible source of the feedback is Tom.” The large boulder sat in the middle of the field. After Discord was defeated, Rarity had taken Tom to this field, far from her everyday life. After she had exhausted all of her usual sources of gems, Rarity had decided this particular morning to reluctantly return to the field where she had placed the boulder. That’s impossible! Tom being a diamond was merely an imagining, a flight of fancy, a reverie…” “Yes, we get it,” an irritated Dash said. “It wasn’t real.” “Or was it?” Twilight mused. Spike put his head up against the rock, tapping it with his balled-up paw to check. He shrugged. The rock was too thick to tell. “We never tried to break Tom apart, after all.” She turned to Rarity. “You don’t mind if we give that a try, do you?” Rarity looked at the boulder. “Goodness, no! That thing besmirches my very reputation as the reminder of my temporary insanity.” She sniffed disdainfully. “I shall be glad to see it go.” With that, Twilight began using her magic to find some exploitable crack in the rock to split it open from. She found one that was a little over a hoof in length and somewhat deep. “Get back, everypony. I’m going to try to split this with magic, and it might send pieces everywhere.” She turned to Rarity. “Could you ready a protective barrier?” Applejack stepped forward. “Now I’m not one to toot my own horn here, Twilight, but that there’s a good-sized crack. I reckon I could split this boulder in half with three kicks.” “Applejack,” Twilight reasoned. “Don’t you think that might do more harm to you than to the boulder?” “Yes, Applejack,” Fluttershy added. “That’s a hard boulder. We don’t want you getting hurt.” “Psh, AJ’s got this! She can kick trees right out of the ground. I don’t think any big mean rock could stand in her way!” countered Pinkie Pie. Twilight sighed and reluctantly let Applejack approach the rock. AJ was stubborn enough on her own, but Pinkie Pie’s encouragement would likely temper her persistence. She readied a bone-repair spell just in case. Applejack lifted one of her back legs and kicked. One. The rock gave a small crack, but only a few hairline fissures spread from the weak point. “Wow.” Dash deadpanned. Applejack shot her rival a glare, then lifted her leg again. She gave the rock another kick, annoyance giving her a small boost. Two. The hairline ran all the way down one side of the boulder, and the crack widened into a hole. The others stood gaping in awe, except for Pinkie Pie. “Go AJ! Show that mean boulder who’s boss!” Applejack smirked. She gave the rock one more kick. Three. The hairline fracture split all the way across the boulder, and the hole widened. The rock, however, was still in one piece. Spike frowned and walked up to the boulder. He gave it a cautious tap where Applejack had kicked it, and the rock began to pull apart along the fissure. A normal rock wouldn’t have split open, but this rock was heavy enough to where gravity and momentum fully separated the halves, revealing a diamond the size of a filly. The six all cheered, while Spike stood, looking transfixed at the diamond. He felt kind of…funny. “Way to go AJ!” “Oh, yes, good job Applejack!” “That was awesome!” “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” Rarity squealed as she grabbed Applejack in a hug. She kissed her on the cheek. Both of them blushed, and Rarity backed away, embarrassed. “Ahem. Well. Perhaps I got…er, carried away there.” Applejack straightened her hat. “Yep. I reckon just a hug would do fine next time.” Spike grew a bit taller as he looked at the diamond. “Must…have…” he said, grabbing the oversized gem. It would make for an excellent present for Rarity. But first, he had to make sure it got ‘lost.’ The greed-grown dragon scampered off. “This calls for a party!” Pinkie Pie yelled. Everypony agreed. “Let’s go, Spike,” Twilight called as the group headed back. “Spike?” He was nowhere to be found. She ran back to the group. “Girls, Spike’s missing!” Chapter 3Dash was in a daze. All six of them were: Twilight over Spike’s disappearance, Rarity and Applejack over the random kiss, and Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy over the two unexpected twists in an otherwise normal trip. Nopony had seen any of it coming, not even Dash. What troubled her most was how it connected with her story, where she had thrown in the two events haphazardly. But stories didn’t ever become real, did they? “I want to show you a new spell I’ve been working on. It allows normal paper to make whatever’s written on it into reality!” That was it! Twilight had told her about magic paper that had recently gone missing. Could she possibly have that paper? “Ridiculous,” she said to herself. Twilight would have figured it out by now. But Spike was missing...Would she really be able to think straight after losing her brother? No. There’s no way even Twilight could think logically at this point in time. Hesitating on what to do with her discovery, Dash decided to test her theory. She flipped over the first page of her story, where neat cursive read, ‘It was a rainy day in Ponyville.’ Frowning at the sentence, Dash couldn’t help but wonder if that was where the random storm had come from earlier in the week. There was only one way to find out if this paper was, indeed, magic. Grabbing the quill in her mouth, she scrawled out, ‘Dash fell to the ground.’ Instantly, she felt herself fall through her cloud floor. Wait! She had meant the house’s floor! Quickly, the ground began to rush up at her and she unfurled her wings, hoping to minimize the damage. The breath was knocked out of her with a low grunt as she hit the hard earth below. It was a good thing she had lowered her house recently so Fluttershy would have an easier time visiting to take care of Tank. Dash stood and shook the dirt off her coat. That definitely proved that the paper was magic. There had never been a time that she could recall where she had fallen out of her own house. Flying back up to her home, Dash set down the papers, grabbed a quill, and began writing. Using her natural connection to animals, Windwhisper sent out woodland creatures to find the dragon. They reported back, showing the group a series of scorch marks leading into the mountains, where its lair undoubtedly was. Fluttershy was busy comforting Twilight. “I can’t believe he’s just…gone!” Twilight moaned. Reaching a reassuring hoof around her friend, Fluttershy said, “It’s okay, Twilight. He’ll turn up eventually.” “I just wish there was a way you could find him,” Twilight said, sniffling. That was it! “Twilight, you’re a genius!” Fluttershy said, involuntarily taking flight. Landing, she said more quietly, “Um, that is, you already were. But this idea is great! I’ll send all my animals out to find him.” Wiping her eyes, Twilight asked, “Is there a way they can do that?” Fluttershy lifted her head, feeling uncharacteristically proud. “Oh, yes. He’s a dragon that sends letters. He’s bound to spit fire at some point.” “Fluttershy, that’s brilliant!” Her shy friend blushed and hid behind her mane. Twilight’s brow furrowed. “But can we really count on him receiving enough letters to leave a trail?” “I thought you could send letters to him with a spell. Princess Celestia is able to.” Twilight sighed. “She showed me how to once. The trick would be in finding his magical signature. Sending a letter by dragon requires two magical signatures: One for the sender and one for the dragon. The spell doesn’t require knowing exactly where the dragon is, but it is extremely taxing to cast the spell when you don’t know the dragon’s location.” Just then, Dash flew by, her writing materials stowed inside her saddle bag. “Rainbow Dash! Could I borrow some of your extra paper?” Twilight asked. “No, I, uh…need it.” Dash said, looking nervously around. “For what?” Twilight asked incredulously. Dash rolled her eyes. “My story of course!” Rolling her own eyes, Twilight went over to the desk to grab paper for her letters. Fluttershy couldn’t be sure, but she thought Twilight said something like, “I hope these aren’t the magic papers.” Returning with a quill, Twilight quickly wrote a letter. With a glow from her horn and a soft ‘pop’, the letter disappeared. Outside, Dash exclaimed, “Whoa! I dunno what those birds saw, but they didn’t like it.” “Where were they?” Fluttershy shrieked, flying through the library’s open window. She hoped the poor things weren’t hurt. “Looked like they were in the mountains someplace.” Excited by the prospect of finding her brother, Twilight hurried outside, running toward the mountains. Dash started to follow, but stopped. “Wait, I’m one of Fluttershy’s animals?” Three hours later, with all six mares together, the group was now more or less lost in the mountains. The birds had long since lost track of Spike. Twilight sent another letter, hoping for some clue. With no green flash on the horizon, she reached in her saddle bag for another piece of paper. Her hoof touched nothing but the fabric of the bag. “Rainbow, I’m out of paper,” she called to her friend, who was hovering over the group. “I don’t understand. We should have found him by now,” Dash muttered to herself. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted. Nearly startled into falling, Dash recovered and flew in closer. “I need more paper. I’m all out.” “Twi, I already told you. I need it.” “What in Tartarus do you need paper for?” Twilight snapped. “Your story is not as important as finding Spike!” “But my story can help find Spike!” Dash protested. Twilight rolled her eyes. Dash was not usually this delusional. “Dash, simply writing a happy ending to your story isn’t going to solve our problems.” “It is if it’s written on magic paper!” Dash responded. Twilight seemed stunned, either from surprise at the revelation or surprise that she hadn’t figured it out herself. The others looked confused. “Magic paper?” Applejack said. Dash sighed and flew over the others. “Yes. It’s like this: I ran out of Daring Do to read, so Twi suggested I write my own story. Twi had been working on a spell to make anything you write on a piece of paper become real. She accidentally gave me the pieces of paper she had used the spell on. So now everything I write becomes real.” Her ears drooped and she lowered her head. “It’s my fault we’re in this mess.” “So, everything in the past day or two was part of your story?” Fluttershy inquired. “More or less,” Dash shrugged. “So Rarity didn’t really kiss AJ?” Pinkie Pie chimed in. Dash shook her head. “Aw, that’s no fun! I was planning a ‘Two of our friends are now a couple so let’s party’ party.” Rarity sighed and put a hoof to her chest. Applejack lowered her head, ears drooping slightly. “Write a story to get Spike back,” Twilight pleaded. Dash grinned. “I have a plan to do just that, and be way cool at the same time.” Chapter 4“I have no idea why I’m laying these traps, but it suddenly seems like a good idea, and it definitely distracts me from the diamond,” Spike said to himself. “Why exactly did you have Spike lay traps in his cave?” Twilight asked. Dash shrugged. “It buys us some time.” Twilight facehoofed again. Dash squinted. Had her forehead always been that dark a shade of purple? It was a few shades off from the rest of her coat. After Dash’s latest edit to the story, the trail to Spike’s cave had been much easier to find. “A rainbow, Dash? Really?” Dash nodded. Twilight’s eye twitched. With the rainbow overhead, leading directly to Spike, the group was able to travel relatively quickly. They arrived at the cave within a half-hour. Fluttershy let out a squeak when she saw the sheer number of traps. “Now what, Dash?” Twilight asked. Although normally she would be angry coming across yet another roadblock made by her friend, the traps seemed to be expertly made. That was just because of the story, right? She made a mental note to avoid irritating Spike for the next week, just in case. “I write around this. Duh,” Dash replied, a smirk on her lips. She pulled out a piece of paper and her quill, reading aloud as she wrote: The traps went away. She blinked, expecting to hear a pop when she closed her eyes. No such sound occurred. She closed her eyes again. Something made a loud bang, and she opened her eyes. One of the traps with a board suspended overhead had fallen, setting off every other trap in a chain reaction. Darts and knives went whizzing across the entrance. A large hammer fell, smashing through a spike pit. A jet of fire blew in from the ceiling, igniting the whole mess. “Huh.” Twilight’s head was spinning, trying to process what had just happened. “Well, onward we go,” Dash said, indicating the still-smoldering mouth of the cave. “You’ve got a spell to put out the fire, right Twi?” Twilight nodded numbly. She extinguished the fire and Dash led the others on. Twilight stayed where she was. How did that constitute the traps going away? Fluttershy apparently noticed the same thing. “Um, I don’t think that’s what Dash wrote.” Pinkie Pie popped up behind her, causing her to jump. “Nah, the traps all took care of themselves. It was just a more fun and exciting way of getting rid of them. Everything is okie dokie lokie!” Continuing onward, the group found it harder to see. The light from outside was fading, and the only light inside the cave was a single green flame. They stopped, Fluttershy squeaking again, as they saw a figure pass by the fire. “Spike?” Twilight called out weakly. She hoped it was him. Her legs locked at the thought of the many other creatures it might be. “Come on,” Dash said. Her voice cracked, and it sounded like it trembled slightly now. As they approached, they could see a small purple figure pacing near the fire. “Oh, what am I going to do?” Spike moaned. “I ruined everything…” “Spike, what’s the matter?” He jumped as he turned around, eyes bulging. “Oh…hi, girls. I was just…uh…” He scratched his head, trying to think of a good lie. No such inspiration came. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “Spike, dear, why ever would you be sorry?” Rarity asked, approaching him. He recoiled, then lowered his head. “Cause I stole the diamond and ran off for no real reason! I saw how big it was, and all I could think about was how excited it made Rarity, and how I wasn’t the one giving it to her. I got jealous. So I came here,” he gestured to the cave, “thinking if I disappeared for a while and returned with some fake story, I wouldn’t get in trouble, and I’d get Rarity to like me.” “Oh, Spike,” Rarity said, putting a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “You don’t need to lie to impress me, or anypony else for that matter. You need to be yourself.” She smiled at him, and he raised his head to return the smile. “Now how are we going to get this back?” Twilight asked. Dash smirked and started writing. They all went home. Once more, nothing happened. Dash frowned at the paper. “I don’t get it. This must be busted.” “How many pieces of paper have you used, Dash?” Twilight asked. “Eleven. I still have another one left.” “I only put a spell on ten pieces of paper. You must have used all of them.” The girls all groaned. Spike just looked at Twilight as if she had two horns. “Magic paper?” Twilight laughed. “I’ll tell you all about it later.” She paused. “After we get out of this cave.” One long walk later (although their path was still illuminated by a rainbow), everypony was back in town. Dash had been the first one back of course, although she had stayed within view of her friends. Next had been Pinkie Pie, with Fluttershy right behind. Twilight and Rarity had been the slowest, being the only ones capable of lifting the massive diamond, but things had gone a little bit quicker with Applejack there for moral support. Rarity seemed to cheer up more than Twilight, but AJ wrote that off to Twilight’s mood having been lifted by finding Spike. Upon placing the diamond in the Carousel Boutique, Rarity ogled her new prize. Twilight just laid down, exhausted from carrying it. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Dash gathered around her, also admiring the gem. Rarity turned around, looking at her friends’ smiling faces. Even Twilight was now gathered, having caught her breath. But one familiar face was missing. “Spike?” Rarity called, her grin now turning into a frown. He was huddled in the fetal position, staring at the floor beneath his feet. She called his name again, and he looked up. As he returned her worried gaze, he bit his lower lip. She sat down beside him. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking away. “This was all my fault.” Rarity looked at him. He was not going to forgive himself until she could prove she had forgiven the whole incident. After all, draconian instincts were hard to repress, especially for a child like himself. The fact that it had been part of Dash’s story further complicated the matter. She looked around the boutique for some token of her forgiveness. Her friends now were also looking at Spike. Fluttershy went over to put her hoof on his shoulder, but he slumped and shrugged it off. What could possibly improve his mood? A dress would not do the trick, though that would be a lot of fun for Rarity. A hat? A scarf? She rummaged through her bin of raw materials. Of course! Spike looked up when he heard the plink! of something hitting the floor. There was Rarity, standing over him with a hoof full of rubies. He raised an eyebrow. “I stole a gem from you, and you’re giving me more gems?” “Well, it was hardly your fault, dear. It was part of Dash’s story on magic paper.” His eyes widened. “Wait, what? Dash got ahold of the magic paper? Please tell me nothing burned down or was destroyed!” Dash flapped her wings in annoyance. “Oh come on, just because I crash through the library window every now and again, that doesn’t mean that I’m destructive!” Everypony averted their gaze, thinking of at least one incident where Dash had destroyed personal property. Spike rolled his eyes. “We have a supply of windows for the tree, just in case you crash through. By the way, the one we had to use the other day was our last one.” “Whatever,” Dash muttered. She was still the best flier in Equestria. A few accidents now and then didn’t prove otherwise. “I guess you’re feeling back to normal,” Twilight chuckled. “You’ve at least got your sarcasm back.” Spike grinned sheepishly. “Yeah. I guess it does help to know Rarity’s not mad at me. It looks like things are back to normal.” Author's Note I'm sorry that the story ends so abruptly. I originally planned to add an epilogue, but while writing it, I decided it felt like it should be its own one-shot. I was planning on rewriting this anyway, so if you're unhappy with this story, PM me and let me know how I could get it better next time. Thank you for reading!
Chapter 1 It was a quiet afternoon in the library. Spike and Twilight were going through their twice-weekly book sorting. This time, it was by author, then genre, then subject, then title. Twilight began the spell to levitate all the books at once when something crashed through her window. As might be expected, the sudden noise caused her to lose focus and drop all the books. Frustrated, the unicorn turned toward the window, where a cyan pegasus was sheepishly smiling at her. “Sorry Twilight,” she apologized. “I was trying to land right outside your door, but my wing’s still not completely recovered.” The unicorn approached her friend, feeling both frustrated and concerned for her friend. “You know Dash, your wing wouldn’t be injured so often if you would stop crashing into my window.” Dash’s ears drooped. “Yeah, I know. But I was just so excited about the newest Daring Do book!” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Newest book? I thought that wasn’t until next week!” She ran over to her desk, where her weekly to-do list was currently neatly folded, between her daily and monthly to-do lists. Scanning the list, the librarian groaned. “I’m sorry, Dash. I didn’t order it yet. It’s at the very bottom of the week’s list, right under re-reorganize the books and give Spike a bath. Speaking of which…” The baby dragon groaned. “Ugh. You just had to remind her of that.” His sister smiled with false sweetness. “Oh, that will happen, but later, when you least expect it.” Dash cleared her throat. She hated to be ignored. “So, there’s no Daring Do?” The librarian shook her head. “Not for another week.” “A whole week? That’s like forever from now!” Ponyville’s fastest flier did not like waiting. “How do eggheads like you wait so long for books?” Twilight had to stifle a laugh. “Well, ‘eggheads’ like myself usually read more than one series. Or we write fan fiction.” The pegasus tilted her head. “Fan fiction? What’s that?” Twilight paused. “Well, it’s kind of like writing another book for the series, except that it’s not canon, usually contains OCs and might be better or worse than the original story.” Dash blinked. The unicorn sighed. “It’s a fan-written story, basically. It might not match up with the original, like if you make up your own character, or if you make your own storyline. Plus, it’s usually written in a different style than the actual author’s. Dash’s multicolored mane bobbed as she nodded. “Okay, I think I understand.” Her friend smiled. “So do you think that’s something that you might want to try?” The azure mare grinned. “Of course! Anything I write would automatically be 20 percent cooler than the rest!” Her ears drooped again. “But I might need help getting started. I’ve never written anything before, other than a few Friendship Report letters.” Twilight’s lavender cheeks turned a darker shade of violet. “Me?” Multicolored locks bounced once again as Dash nodded emphatically. “Oh, I don’t know.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, an egghead like you must have a list of ideas for the series.” The studious unicorn visibly brightened. “Now that you mention it…” She pulled a rolled up list out of her collection on a shelf. “I did have just a few…” The list unfurled and rolled across the room, bouncing off the hooves of the cyan pegasus, who groaned and facehoofed. “Okay, the first step of fan fiction is probably to pick which characters you’re going to include.” Magenta eyes widened and stared incredulously at Twilight. “Probably?” The bookworm’s cheeks returned to the same darker shade of purple. “Well…I never actually got around to writing a fan fiction, despite all my ideas.” Rainbow Dash facehoofed again. “Now you tell me…” “Well, whichever characters we pick, they have to be ones that we understand the characterizations of.” Seeing Dash’s blank stare, she added, “We have to be able to write for them.” “Oh, well why didn’t you say so?” Rainbow paused to think about all of the characters in the Daring Do universe. Other than Daring Do and her friends of course, she didn’t think she could really write for them. Wait…Friends! Inspiration struck the pegasus. “Hey, Twi, didn’t you say we could make up our own characters?” Twilight stared back in confusion. “Yes?” Grinning, the pegasus voiced her idea. “Why don’t we include our friends as characters? We know them pretty much inside and out. And,” she said, cutting off her friend’s protestations, “I’m sure they would love to be in our story.” Thinking about it, Twilight did have to concede those points to Dash. Admittedly, a lot of characters in Daring Do were fairly shallow. It would be nice to have characters with depth to them. “Alright, that’s true. So what should we call them?” “Fluttershy could be called Whisperwind. Or maybe Windwhisper. Cause flutter relates to flying, and so does the wind, plus shy ponies whisper a lot.” “Their speech patterns more closely resemble murmuring,” the librarian countered. Irritated, the pegasus flared her wings. “You get the idea, Twi.” Rolling her eyes, Twilight said, “Okay, so Fluttershy’s character is Windwhisper. So what are the rest called?” “Hm…Well, Applejack, um…Jack is a type of alcoholic drink. And apple is a type of food. So, what’s another type of alcoholic drink?” “Scotch!” Twilight immediately blurted. She blushed again when she saw Rainbow’s look. “Right. So…Scotch. Orange Scotch? Chocolate Scotch?” Dash thought hard, until an idea popped into her head. “Butterscotch!” Twilight paused. “So…Butterscotch.” Dash nodded, feeling proud of herself. “Okay, sounds a little generic though. So, what about the rest of the names?” “Hm. Rarity’s a hard one. I can’t think of any good words for hers.” Although she was not quite a walking dictionary, Twilight had a wide vocabulary. Even so, the bookworm found that she couldn’t come up with a particularly good synonym for a rarity. Oddity? No, that sounded mean. Unique? Eh, didn’t quite work. “I guess Scarcity would be the best name.” Dash shrugged, and the unicorn wrote that down. “What’s Pinkie Pie’s name? “Purple Cake,” Dash responded immediately. Blinking, Twilight asked, “Don’t you want to put any more effort into it than that?” “Nope,” was the swift reply. Facehoofing, the scholar wrote down the overly simple name. “And what about my character?” Frowning, the pegasus asked, “What exactly is twilight?” Thinking of how to word her response, the mare explained her name. “It’s pretty much the time between the princesses setting the sun and raising the moon.” “Oh,” Dash responded. That was such an oddly specific word. “How about…Dawn Glimmer?” Twilight shook her head. “Daylight Glitter?” Twilight shook her head again. “Maybe…Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia’s student shuddered, recalling a strange dream she once had. “I think that name’s already taken,” she said quickly. Dash focused her mind on something that would reflect Twilight’s personality, since her name was so difficult. Something came to light, some historical artifact that the bookworm once read about. “Ponetta Stone?” she said aloud. Furrowing her brow, Twilight asked, “What does that have to do with my name?” “Well, you told me about it once. Something about it being an important find to ponykind and all,” Dash stammered out. The unicorn smiled. “Awe, you think that I’m an important find,” she teased. Now it was the pegasus’s turn to blush, folding her wings awkwardly. “That name will do. But who’s your character, Rainbow?” Feigning hurt, Dash replied, “Daring Do of course!” Facehoofing, Twilight sighed. “Dash, you can’t be Daring Do!” Her normal ego returning, the pegasus stated, “Yes I can. She’s 20 percent cooler than everyone else, and she’s a pegasus, and she’s awesome!” Staring at her friend, she added, “What more could you want?” Sighing again, Twilight decided to let Dash be Daring Do. She was only going to edit the story anyway, since she hadn’t planned time for writing. Speaking of which…The unicorn made a mental note to make a paper note, which would remind her to plan time for editing. “Okay then, Dash. Now you have to plan out the plot of the story.” Dash laughed. “Stories have butts?” Twilight facehoofed again. There was probably going to be a bruise on her forehead later. “No, that’s what they call the events of the story. The plot,” she continued, glaring at her chuckling friend, “is the series of events that shapes the characters and either brings about a sad and happy ending. For Daring Do,” she paused, making sure that she avoided that word. “That would probably be fairly simple. She travels to a temple to find a thing and gets out by the skin of her plot.” Dash burst into laughter at the use of the word again, and Twilight facehoofed. Sighing once again, she gave Dash some paper, ink, and a quill, using her magic to put it in a saddlebag. “Just write a few chapters, and I’ll make time the day after tomorrow to read and edit it.” “Thanks, Twi!” the pegasus said, adjusting the saddlebag. Using the front door this time, she left the tree. Sighing, Twilight made a paper note to remind herself about time for editing. Looking at the scroll with her daily schedule, the unicorn remembered something else she needed to do. “Spike!” she called. The baby dragon walked into the room. Smiling mischievously at her brother, she said, “Guess what time it is!” Author's Note It hasn't yet reached the part where fiction matches reality, but I needed this chapter to set things up. At the very least, it should give you an idea of the overall tone of this story.
Chapter 2Daring Do was talking to her friend Ponetta Stone about their latest awesome adventure when suddenly Scarcity burst through the door. “Girls, I have found simply the most marvelous diamond for my latest line of jewelry!” Scarcity’s eyes got wider and she droned on about lame things like earrings and bracelets. Ponetta looked slightly annoyed at having been interrupted on instructing Daring on proper use of a rope, (meaning NOT awesomely swinging across a pit), but Daring was glad to be able to start another adventure. Interrupting Scarcity’s monologue, Dash Daring asked, “So where is this giant diamond?” Looking kind of offended, like high-society ponies usually do when you interrupt them, Scarcity lectured Daring on the rudeness of interrupting. Then she said, “We’re looking for the Dragon’s Eye diamond, which is in the mountains conveniently located just outside town.” Ponetta looked up from the paperwork she had been doing. “The Dragon’s Eye diamond?” she asked. “Isn’t that the one the size of a full-grown dragon’s eye?” Twilight stopped reading. “Aren’t you going to put even a little bit more effort into naming the priceless artifacts that Daring is collecting?” Dash thought for a moment. “Nope!” she declared cheerfully. “It doesn’t matter what she’s collecting, just as long as the way she gets it is awesome!” Sighing, Twilight pointed back to the manuscript. “But there is nothing else written about the events leading up to reaching the mountains. You literally wrote ‘Blah, blah, boring stuff’ to fill in the time gap!” Dash slumped in the space she was sitting. “That part is boring, though! Everyone knows that the actual temple part is the best part of any Daring Do story.” Twilight glanced back at the manuscript. “Well, at least the temple part makes more sense. I like how you made it into a temple for worshipping the giant diamond, until people realized that diamonds don’t actually possess god-like powers. And as for the holes in the temple’s rotting floor, did you include that to show how the temple decayed without regular upkeep over the centuries?” “Yeah, of course!” Dash lied. Actually, having to jump over pitfalls in the temple’s floor just sounded like a good trap for Daring and friends to overcome. She would have included lava underneath, but then she realized that made no sense. Smiling, Twilight flipped to the next page. It was blank. Her smile faded as she said, “Um, Dash? I don’t think this is a long enough story. There’s no epilogue or anything. It’s just exposition, ‘blah, blah, boring’,” she shot Dash a look, “and then they go through the temple. There isn’t even a proper ending. You could have included something about Scarcity’s jewelry, like it being a present to her special somepony.” “Bleh,” Dash said, making a face. She wasn’t really one for romance storylines. It was so clichéd. “Oh, come on Dash, almost every fan fiction has shipping in it. You could even be a bit…risqué if you want,” she added with a blush. “Okay, so more story, and more romance. Got it,” Dash said, grabbing a quill and ink. She hastily scribbled, After retrieving the diamond, Scarcity was so excited that she kissed Butterscotch. While everyone was distracted, a dragon, who was entranced by the diamond’s size, snatched the gem for himself, flying off to a cave that was two days of walking from where they stood. Looking up at Twilight, she asked, “Is that good?” Twilight nodded. She got up and said, “I’ll add more later. See ya, Twi.” “Wait! Before you go, I want to show you a new spell I’ve been working on. It allows normal paper to make whatever’s written on it into reality!” Her excited face turned into a frown as she looked at the pile of papers on her desk. “I had the ones I already cast a spell upon in a separate pile a few days ago. Actually I wanted to show you it when you were here last time, but your graceless entrance mixed up the piles.” “Heh. Sorry, Twi.” Dash sheepishly grinned, running a hoof through her mane as she apologized. “It’s okay, Dash. Just let me know if you see those magic papers. I’m concerned that they may have fallen out the window. That could be a major problem if they fall into the wrong hooves.” “Okay, Twi,” Dash said, opening the library’s door. As she took her first step through the doorway, she nearly collided with Rarity. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have some marvelous news! Spike and I have just found a large gem!” “That’s wonderful, Rarity! Where is it?” Twilight asked. Rarity shifted her hooves. “Er, well, that’s the problem, you see. I need help finding it. I know it’s in a rock field on the outskirts of town. I need help finding it.” “That’s okay,” Dash said, still standing near the door. “I’ll get the rest of the girls. We’ll find the giant gem, and it’ll be awesome!” “Yes,” Rarity agreed, not noticing Dash had already flown off. “It will be quite wonderful! I could make an entire line of dresses with a diamond motif. Perhaps I could add a few accessories, like hats, or scarves. Oh, could you imagine?” She continued to rant and rave. Twilight nodded politely, but her mind was still focused on worrying about her missing paper. A short while later, Dash returned, with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack in tow. Together, the six headed north, to the rock field. “It must be here somewhere!” Rarity was beginning to despair after the gem had not shown itself after a half-hour of searching. “I don’t get it either, Rarity,” Twilight said, her horn glowing with the same gem-finding spell. “The only possible source of the feedback is Tom.” The large boulder sat in the middle of the field. After Discord was defeated, Rarity had taken Tom to this field, far from her everyday life. After she had exhausted all of her usual sources of gems, Rarity had decided this particular morning to reluctantly return to the field where she had placed the boulder. That’s impossible! Tom being a diamond was merely an imagining, a flight of fancy, a reverie…” “Yes, we get it,” an irritated Dash said. “It wasn’t real.” “Or was it?” Twilight mused. Spike put his head up against the rock, tapping it with his balled-up paw to check. He shrugged. The rock was too thick to tell. “We never tried to break Tom apart, after all.” She turned to Rarity. “You don’t mind if we give that a try, do you?” Rarity looked at the boulder. “Goodness, no! That thing besmirches my very reputation as the reminder of my temporary insanity.” She sniffed disdainfully. “I shall be glad to see it go.” With that, Twilight began using her magic to find some exploitable crack in the rock to split it open from. She found one that was a little over a hoof in length and somewhat deep. “Get back, everypony. I’m going to try to split this with magic, and it might send pieces everywhere.” She turned to Rarity. “Could you ready a protective barrier?” Applejack stepped forward. “Now I’m not one to toot my own horn here, Twilight, but that there’s a good-sized crack. I reckon I could split this boulder in half with three kicks.” “Applejack,” Twilight reasoned. “Don’t you think that might do more harm to you than to the boulder?” “Yes, Applejack,” Fluttershy added. “That’s a hard boulder. We don’t want you getting hurt.” “Psh, AJ’s got this! She can kick trees right out of the ground. I don’t think any big mean rock could stand in her way!” countered Pinkie Pie. Twilight sighed and reluctantly let Applejack approach the rock. AJ was stubborn enough on her own, but Pinkie Pie’s encouragement would likely temper her persistence. She readied a bone-repair spell just in case. Applejack lifted one of her back legs and kicked. One. The rock gave a small crack, but only a few hairline fissures spread from the weak point. “Wow.” Dash deadpanned. Applejack shot her rival a glare, then lifted her leg again. She gave the rock another kick, annoyance giving her a small boost. Two. The hairline ran all the way down one side of the boulder, and the crack widened into a hole. The others stood gaping in awe, except for Pinkie Pie. “Go AJ! Show that mean boulder who’s boss!” Applejack smirked. She gave the rock one more kick. Three. The hairline fracture split all the way across the boulder, and the hole widened. The rock, however, was still in one piece. Spike frowned and walked up to the boulder. He gave it a cautious tap where Applejack had kicked it, and the rock began to pull apart along the fissure. A normal rock wouldn’t have split open, but this rock was heavy enough to where gravity and momentum fully separated the halves, revealing a diamond the size of a filly. The six all cheered, while Spike stood, looking transfixed at the diamond. He felt kind of…funny. “Way to go AJ!” “Oh, yes, good job Applejack!” “That was awesome!” “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” Rarity squealed as she grabbed Applejack in a hug. She kissed her on the cheek. Both of them blushed, and Rarity backed away, embarrassed. “Ahem. Well. Perhaps I got…er, carried away there.” Applejack straightened her hat. “Yep. I reckon just a hug would do fine next time.” Spike grew a bit taller as he looked at the diamond. “Must…have…” he said, grabbing the oversized gem. It would make for an excellent present for Rarity. But first, he had to make sure it got ‘lost.’ The greed-grown dragon scampered off. “This calls for a party!” Pinkie Pie yelled. Everypony agreed. “Let’s go, Spike,” Twilight called as the group headed back. “Spike?” He was nowhere to be found. She ran back to the group. “Girls, Spike’s missing!”
Chapter 3Dash was in a daze. All six of them were: Twilight over Spike’s disappearance, Rarity and Applejack over the random kiss, and Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy over the two unexpected twists in an otherwise normal trip. Nopony had seen any of it coming, not even Dash. What troubled her most was how it connected with her story, where she had thrown in the two events haphazardly. But stories didn’t ever become real, did they? “I want to show you a new spell I’ve been working on. It allows normal paper to make whatever’s written on it into reality!” That was it! Twilight had told her about magic paper that had recently gone missing. Could she possibly have that paper? “Ridiculous,” she said to herself. Twilight would have figured it out by now. But Spike was missing...Would she really be able to think straight after losing her brother? No. There’s no way even Twilight could think logically at this point in time. Hesitating on what to do with her discovery, Dash decided to test her theory. She flipped over the first page of her story, where neat cursive read, ‘It was a rainy day in Ponyville.’ Frowning at the sentence, Dash couldn’t help but wonder if that was where the random storm had come from earlier in the week. There was only one way to find out if this paper was, indeed, magic. Grabbing the quill in her mouth, she scrawled out, ‘Dash fell to the ground.’ Instantly, she felt herself fall through her cloud floor. Wait! She had meant the house’s floor! Quickly, the ground began to rush up at her and she unfurled her wings, hoping to minimize the damage. The breath was knocked out of her with a low grunt as she hit the hard earth below. It was a good thing she had lowered her house recently so Fluttershy would have an easier time visiting to take care of Tank. Dash stood and shook the dirt off her coat. That definitely proved that the paper was magic. There had never been a time that she could recall where she had fallen out of her own house. Flying back up to her home, Dash set down the papers, grabbed a quill, and began writing. Using her natural connection to animals, Windwhisper sent out woodland creatures to find the dragon. They reported back, showing the group a series of scorch marks leading into the mountains, where its lair undoubtedly was. Fluttershy was busy comforting Twilight. “I can’t believe he’s just…gone!” Twilight moaned. Reaching a reassuring hoof around her friend, Fluttershy said, “It’s okay, Twilight. He’ll turn up eventually.” “I just wish there was a way you could find him,” Twilight said, sniffling. That was it! “Twilight, you’re a genius!” Fluttershy said, involuntarily taking flight. Landing, she said more quietly, “Um, that is, you already were. But this idea is great! I’ll send all my animals out to find him.” Wiping her eyes, Twilight asked, “Is there a way they can do that?” Fluttershy lifted her head, feeling uncharacteristically proud. “Oh, yes. He’s a dragon that sends letters. He’s bound to spit fire at some point.” “Fluttershy, that’s brilliant!” Her shy friend blushed and hid behind her mane. Twilight’s brow furrowed. “But can we really count on him receiving enough letters to leave a trail?” “I thought you could send letters to him with a spell. Princess Celestia is able to.” Twilight sighed. “She showed me how to once. The trick would be in finding his magical signature. Sending a letter by dragon requires two magical signatures: One for the sender and one for the dragon. The spell doesn’t require knowing exactly where the dragon is, but it is extremely taxing to cast the spell when you don’t know the dragon’s location.” Just then, Dash flew by, her writing materials stowed inside her saddle bag. “Rainbow Dash! Could I borrow some of your extra paper?” Twilight asked. “No, I, uh…need it.” Dash said, looking nervously around. “For what?” Twilight asked incredulously. Dash rolled her eyes. “My story of course!” Rolling her own eyes, Twilight went over to the desk to grab paper for her letters. Fluttershy couldn’t be sure, but she thought Twilight said something like, “I hope these aren’t the magic papers.” Returning with a quill, Twilight quickly wrote a letter. With a glow from her horn and a soft ‘pop’, the letter disappeared. Outside, Dash exclaimed, “Whoa! I dunno what those birds saw, but they didn’t like it.” “Where were they?” Fluttershy shrieked, flying through the library’s open window. She hoped the poor things weren’t hurt. “Looked like they were in the mountains someplace.” Excited by the prospect of finding her brother, Twilight hurried outside, running toward the mountains. Dash started to follow, but stopped. “Wait, I’m one of Fluttershy’s animals?” Three hours later, with all six mares together, the group was now more or less lost in the mountains. The birds had long since lost track of Spike. Twilight sent another letter, hoping for some clue. With no green flash on the horizon, she reached in her saddle bag for another piece of paper. Her hoof touched nothing but the fabric of the bag. “Rainbow, I’m out of paper,” she called to her friend, who was hovering over the group. “I don’t understand. We should have found him by now,” Dash muttered to herself. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted. Nearly startled into falling, Dash recovered and flew in closer. “I need more paper. I’m all out.” “Twi, I already told you. I need it.” “What in Tartarus do you need paper for?” Twilight snapped. “Your story is not as important as finding Spike!” “But my story can help find Spike!” Dash protested. Twilight rolled her eyes. Dash was not usually this delusional. “Dash, simply writing a happy ending to your story isn’t going to solve our problems.” “It is if it’s written on magic paper!” Dash responded. Twilight seemed stunned, either from surprise at the revelation or surprise that she hadn’t figured it out herself. The others looked confused. “Magic paper?” Applejack said. Dash sighed and flew over the others. “Yes. It’s like this: I ran out of Daring Do to read, so Twi suggested I write my own story. Twi had been working on a spell to make anything you write on a piece of paper become real. She accidentally gave me the pieces of paper she had used the spell on. So now everything I write becomes real.” Her ears drooped and she lowered her head. “It’s my fault we’re in this mess.” “So, everything in the past day or two was part of your story?” Fluttershy inquired. “More or less,” Dash shrugged. “So Rarity didn’t really kiss AJ?” Pinkie Pie chimed in. Dash shook her head. “Aw, that’s no fun! I was planning a ‘Two of our friends are now a couple so let’s party’ party.” Rarity sighed and put a hoof to her chest. Applejack lowered her head, ears drooping slightly. “Write a story to get Spike back,” Twilight pleaded. Dash grinned. “I have a plan to do just that, and be way cool at the same time.”
Chapter 4“I have no idea why I’m laying these traps, but it suddenly seems like a good idea, and it definitely distracts me from the diamond,” Spike said to himself. “Why exactly did you have Spike lay traps in his cave?” Twilight asked. Dash shrugged. “It buys us some time.” Twilight facehoofed again. Dash squinted. Had her forehead always been that dark a shade of purple? It was a few shades off from the rest of her coat. After Dash’s latest edit to the story, the trail to Spike’s cave had been much easier to find. “A rainbow, Dash? Really?” Dash nodded. Twilight’s eye twitched. With the rainbow overhead, leading directly to Spike, the group was able to travel relatively quickly. They arrived at the cave within a half-hour. Fluttershy let out a squeak when she saw the sheer number of traps. “Now what, Dash?” Twilight asked. Although normally she would be angry coming across yet another roadblock made by her friend, the traps seemed to be expertly made. That was just because of the story, right? She made a mental note to avoid irritating Spike for the next week, just in case. “I write around this. Duh,” Dash replied, a smirk on her lips. She pulled out a piece of paper and her quill, reading aloud as she wrote: The traps went away. She blinked, expecting to hear a pop when she closed her eyes. No such sound occurred. She closed her eyes again. Something made a loud bang, and she opened her eyes. One of the traps with a board suspended overhead had fallen, setting off every other trap in a chain reaction. Darts and knives went whizzing across the entrance. A large hammer fell, smashing through a spike pit. A jet of fire blew in from the ceiling, igniting the whole mess. “Huh.” Twilight’s head was spinning, trying to process what had just happened. “Well, onward we go,” Dash said, indicating the still-smoldering mouth of the cave. “You’ve got a spell to put out the fire, right Twi?” Twilight nodded numbly. She extinguished the fire and Dash led the others on. Twilight stayed where she was. How did that constitute the traps going away? Fluttershy apparently noticed the same thing. “Um, I don’t think that’s what Dash wrote.” Pinkie Pie popped up behind her, causing her to jump. “Nah, the traps all took care of themselves. It was just a more fun and exciting way of getting rid of them. Everything is okie dokie lokie!” Continuing onward, the group found it harder to see. The light from outside was fading, and the only light inside the cave was a single green flame. They stopped, Fluttershy squeaking again, as they saw a figure pass by the fire. “Spike?” Twilight called out weakly. She hoped it was him. Her legs locked at the thought of the many other creatures it might be. “Come on,” Dash said. Her voice cracked, and it sounded like it trembled slightly now. As they approached, they could see a small purple figure pacing near the fire. “Oh, what am I going to do?” Spike moaned. “I ruined everything…” “Spike, what’s the matter?” He jumped as he turned around, eyes bulging. “Oh…hi, girls. I was just…uh…” He scratched his head, trying to think of a good lie. No such inspiration came. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “Spike, dear, why ever would you be sorry?” Rarity asked, approaching him. He recoiled, then lowered his head. “Cause I stole the diamond and ran off for no real reason! I saw how big it was, and all I could think about was how excited it made Rarity, and how I wasn’t the one giving it to her. I got jealous. So I came here,” he gestured to the cave, “thinking if I disappeared for a while and returned with some fake story, I wouldn’t get in trouble, and I’d get Rarity to like me.” “Oh, Spike,” Rarity said, putting a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “You don’t need to lie to impress me, or anypony else for that matter. You need to be yourself.” She smiled at him, and he raised his head to return the smile. “Now how are we going to get this back?” Twilight asked. Dash smirked and started writing. They all went home. Once more, nothing happened. Dash frowned at the paper. “I don’t get it. This must be busted.” “How many pieces of paper have you used, Dash?” Twilight asked. “Eleven. I still have another one left.” “I only put a spell on ten pieces of paper. You must have used all of them.” The girls all groaned. Spike just looked at Twilight as if she had two horns. “Magic paper?” Twilight laughed. “I’ll tell you all about it later.” She paused. “After we get out of this cave.” One long walk later (although their path was still illuminated by a rainbow), everypony was back in town. Dash had been the first one back of course, although she had stayed within view of her friends. Next had been Pinkie Pie, with Fluttershy right behind. Twilight and Rarity had been the slowest, being the only ones capable of lifting the massive diamond, but things had gone a little bit quicker with Applejack there for moral support. Rarity seemed to cheer up more than Twilight, but AJ wrote that off to Twilight’s mood having been lifted by finding Spike. Upon placing the diamond in the Carousel Boutique, Rarity ogled her new prize. Twilight just laid down, exhausted from carrying it. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Dash gathered around her, also admiring the gem. Rarity turned around, looking at her friends’ smiling faces. Even Twilight was now gathered, having caught her breath. But one familiar face was missing. “Spike?” Rarity called, her grin now turning into a frown. He was huddled in the fetal position, staring at the floor beneath his feet. She called his name again, and he looked up. As he returned her worried gaze, he bit his lower lip. She sat down beside him. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking away. “This was all my fault.” Rarity looked at him. He was not going to forgive himself until she could prove she had forgiven the whole incident. After all, draconian instincts were hard to repress, especially for a child like himself. The fact that it had been part of Dash’s story further complicated the matter. She looked around the boutique for some token of her forgiveness. Her friends now were also looking at Spike. Fluttershy went over to put her hoof on his shoulder, but he slumped and shrugged it off. What could possibly improve his mood? A dress would not do the trick, though that would be a lot of fun for Rarity. A hat? A scarf? She rummaged through her bin of raw materials. Of course! Spike looked up when he heard the plink! of something hitting the floor. There was Rarity, standing over him with a hoof full of rubies. He raised an eyebrow. “I stole a gem from you, and you’re giving me more gems?” “Well, it was hardly your fault, dear. It was part of Dash’s story on magic paper.” His eyes widened. “Wait, what? Dash got ahold of the magic paper? Please tell me nothing burned down or was destroyed!” Dash flapped her wings in annoyance. “Oh come on, just because I crash through the library window every now and again, that doesn’t mean that I’m destructive!” Everypony averted their gaze, thinking of at least one incident where Dash had destroyed personal property. Spike rolled his eyes. “We have a supply of windows for the tree, just in case you crash through. By the way, the one we had to use the other day was our last one.” “Whatever,” Dash muttered. She was still the best flier in Equestria. A few accidents now and then didn’t prove otherwise. “I guess you’re feeling back to normal,” Twilight chuckled. “You’ve at least got your sarcasm back.” Spike grinned sheepishly. “Yeah. I guess it does help to know Rarity’s not mad at me. It looks like things are back to normal.” Author's Note I'm sorry that the story ends so abruptly. I originally planned to add an epilogue, but while writing it, I decided it felt like it should be its own one-shot. I was planning on rewriting this anyway, so if you're unhappy with this story, PM me and let me know how I could get it better next time. Thank you for reading!
