The Skin Horse

Chapters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

Chapter One

She braves the darkest dangers to bring the truth to light. She studies a world lost to modern ponies in the hopes of uncovering the wisdom that could save us all. Danger? Adversity? They mean nothing to… Daring Do! To her, another day means another dungeon and another challenge to overcome. Uncovering the secrets of civilizations long past is all in a day’s work for the famous archaeologist, the great adventurer, the one-of-a-kind Daring Do!

-Back Cover, Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone

I exist.

I didn’t, a second ago, but now I do. I have a body now, heavy and solid and real. That’s new, and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I’ve never had a body of my own. Opening my new eyes, I realize I can see. Colors. Shapes. Everything. I look around, my mind (I have a mind!) grasping the concept of ‘looking’ fairly easily. I’m in a... place. It has books. A lot of books, actually. Books feel important somehow, like they’re... part of what I am.

But what am I?

“Did it work?” comes a voice from... somewhere. Close by. I can hear it, with my ears. “Are you all right?”

I turn toward the source of the sound and see something moving. Something alive, in the room here with me. Or somepony, perhaps? She looks like a pony, anyway. A purpley, unicornish... thing. Pony. I’ve never seen a pony—or anything, really—up close, in the flesh. But there she is, right in front of me.

Was it talking to me? Did it want me to say something?

I’ve never said anything before...

“Can you speak?” she asks me.

“I... thunk,” I say blockily. No, no, that’s not right. Think, not thunk! Stupid, stupid, stupid of me. I’m not used to having a mouth and a voice. I know the words, and I know how they ought to be said. I just hadn’t been ready for the feeling of speech. Moving the lips, putting a tongue to teeth, and all of those other things I never had to do until now.

“Um.” Oh, right. The pony. She’s slowly raising an eyebrow at me, her own mouth edging into a frown. She looks... worried.

About what? Me?

I try again. “I... think. So.” Yes, that’s better. Much better.

“Oh, you can!” she squeals. “I did it! I made Daring Do! And Spike said that playing Princess by creating life was a bad idea.”

I blink a few times and try to shake this fuzzy feeling that’s clouding my thoughts. The pony in front of me, the little purple unicorn, is leaping around the room with a smile on her face. “I did it!” she says, coming to a stop in front of me. “You’re Daring Do!”

Daring Do. Is that what I’m called now? I’m alright with that, I guess. It sounds interesting. Exciting, even. And I kind of like the idea of having a name, now that I’m alive. That can be my name, then.

“I’m... Day-ring Doo,” I repeat, sounding the words out the way she did.

I like the sound of it.

“Oh, gosh,” she says, “I haven’t even asked you what you’re thinking yet. How does the framework of your spell matrix feel? Is it tingley? It should be tingley. Tell me absolutely everything. Wait, let me grab a quill and parchment first so I can record this.”

She runs off, leaving me alone to look around the room. The books I notice first are stacked cover to cover on the shelves around us. Looking down, I’m in the middle of a network of lines and symbols that are hissing quietly as steam or smoke rise off of them. I experimentally nudge one of them with one of my brand new hooves. It smears at my touch, but nothing more. Whatever they were doing, it must already be done.

“Okay, I’m back,” says the unicorn, rushing in with a quill and a parchment ready. Her eyes widen and she drops them. “I haven’t introduced myself yet either!” Quickly, she sticks her hoof out toward me and holds it there. “Hi there!” she says, grinning wide. “I’m Twilight Sparkle! I guess you could say I made you.”

Slowly, hesitantly, I take her hoof in my own and shake it. That’s the right thing to do, isn’t it? It... feels right, somehow. I pull the corners of my lips upward into an uneasy smile, and Twilight Sparkle returns it with a nod. I don’t quite know why I did that either, but smiling seems right too.

“So... you made me?” I ask.

“In a manner of—ouch, ease up—of speaking,” says Twilight. She winces in... what is it? Pain? Am I hurting her? Experimentally, I loosen my grip on her hoof and I’m rewarded by the return of her smile. That’s a good thing, I think. I’m getting the hang of this. Slowly, but surely.

“Technically speaking,” Twilight continues, “you’re one of Rarity’s mannequins with a particularly intricate cocktail of illusion and come-to-life spells stacked on. That means you’re more of a golem than a true magical construct, as Starswirl the Bearded describes in Theoretical Works on Hypothetical Magic, but—I’m rambling, aren’t I? Sorry. Yes, I’m the one who brought you to life.”

I nod. I didn’t understand a word of that, but it seems like it would be impolite to let on that I didn’t. I don’t want to be impolite. Not to this nice Twilight Sparkle who made me.

“And, uh...” says Twilight. She stares meaningfully at her hoof, still trapped in my own. “You can let go now, if you want.”

I drop the hoof immediately. Oh, of course. How silly of me. I can’t hang on to hooves like that. Ponies aren’t supposed to do such things... and neither am I, now that I’m a pony too. “Sorry,” I tell Twilight sheepishly. “Very sorry.”

“It’s no trouble, at all, Daring,” says Twilight, rubbing her hoof. “I know everything must be feeling very new to you right now. You’re sort of a basic magical consciousness. Most of the necessities, but not much detailed knowledge. Starswirl’s writings implied that there would be something of an awkward transitional period, but it’s very fascinating to—” She stops, cheeks blushing red in... embarrassment? “Oh, still rambling. Sorry. Anyway, it’ll be my pleasure to help you acclimate and be the very best Daring Do you can be.”

“The best Daring Do you can be,” I say, trying the words and feeling them out. Speech still feels strange to me, but I think I like the sound of that too. My name is Daring Do now, after all. A pony with a body and hooves and a mane. Just like Twilight Sparkle here. Surely she must be trying to be the best Twilight Sparkle she can be. Shouldn’t I be trying to do the same? “Sure.” I nod. “The best Daring Do I can be.”

“Excellent!” says Twilight. “You know, I bet Rainbow Dash is just going to love you!”

“Rainbow Dash?” I ask, confused. It’s very strange speaking with Twilight. She knows so many words and concepts and things that I don’t yet, and it’s hard for me to keep track of them all.

“Rainbow Dash,” says Twilight. “You’re going to love her too. Her birthday’s in a week, you see, and we’ve got her extra-special birthday surprise all planned out. A full day around town with her all-time favorite hero: Daring Do. And now that you’re here, you can be that Daring Do for her. It’ll be great! Best birthday party ever, hooves down. No contest. For su—” She stops again. “That’s okay with you, though, right? I’m sorry, I hadn’t even thought to ask. I wouldn’t want to force you into doing anything you wouldn’t want to...”

I shrug my shoulders, awkwardly moving the muscles into position. “It’s... fine. Fine. I can do it.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Twilight squeals, suddenly wrapping her forelegs around my neck. I’m... not entirely sure what she’s trying to do, or what I should be doing myself, so I stand my ground and wait for her to finish. In just a few moments, Twilight steps back and coughs. “Um, sorry,” she says. “It’s just, I’ve been trying to get this right for a while, because Rainbow’s a good friend and I just wanted to make sure her birthday’s absolutely perfect.”

“I’ll try,” I say. I still can’t follow everything Twilight says, or everything she wants me to say, but it’s getting a bit easier. Just a bit.

“You have no idea how much that means to me,” says Twilight. She looks... relieved, somehow. As though she’d been expecting me to say no. I can’t imagine why, though. She’s the one who made me. Everything I have now, Twilight Sparkle gave me. Right down to my name. It’s only fair that I repay her by meeting with this Rainbow Dash of hers. Less than fair, even. She’s done so much for me already, and all I have to do for her is... be me. It can’t be all that hard for me to be Daring Do for Rainbow Dash. I am Daring Do.

Aren’t I?

“Okay,” says Twilight. “Good. Dandy. Great. Why don’t we get started, then? It’s going to take a lot of work getting you up to speed, after all, and we’ve only got a week.”

I give a hesitant nod as she disappears behind one of the countless bookshelves. I hadn’t thought that it would take all that much work to be the best Daring Do I can be, but I guess Twilight’s been a pony for much longer than I have. She would know exactly how hard it must be to be herself. I’m only just starting to learn.

Soon enough, Twilight returns, carrying a stack of colorful books in her magic. “Here, take this one,” she says. One of the books off the top of the stack slowly floats toward me. “You can read, right? I think the spell makes provisions for that, but you can never really be sure without empirical evidence...”

“I think so,” I tell her, neatly catching the book in my hooves. Hooves. Wonderful things, hooves. I already love having them.

But focus! The book. The big blocky orange letters of the title catch my eye first. “Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone,” I read aloud. Daring Do! I smile just a bit at seeing my own name. It makes the book feel a bit less strange and scary, and a bit more... comforting. Familiar, even. There isn’t a lot for me to be familiar with yet, but this is a start.

Just below the title is a picture of a pegasus pony carrying a shiny blue whatsit. I’ve never seen her before in the short time I’ve been alive, but she seems familiar too somehow. Like I know her. Slowly I hold a hoof up to the picture of the pony on the cover, comparing the amber fur that covers it to her own coat. They’re the same color. I look behind me, to the spot on my flank where the pegasus bears a compass-point mark, and I see the very same mark staring back at me.

She's me.

Or... am I her?

Is there even a difference? If we’re the same, then does it matter who came first? But I guess we aren’t the same, exactly. I have a tail and a mane and a heartbeat but this Daring Do is something... more than that. She’s only a picture drawn on a page, but even I can see that she’s special somehow. For some reason I can’t quite understand. Why else would this ‘Rainbow Dash’ love her so much? Why else would Twilight have made me to be her? There’s something about her that everypony seems to love... What is it?

If there’s some way that I’m not her, something I can learn in order to be more her, then I’ll do whatever it takes. I look at the cover again, eyes tracing the image of the other Daring Do, so much like me and yet not. These books must be the key. Surely they can tell me something.

“All extant information on Daring Do can be found in these,” says Twilight, floating the rest of the stack over toward me. “There are a dozen of them released so far, and I’ve got the entire series here reserved from the library. If you can read them all cover to cover, you should know as much about Daring Do as anyone. Up to and including Rainbow Dash.”

I give an absent nod. I’m listening, but the book still has most of my attention. It feels heavier, somehow, now that I’ve realized what secrets it might hold. As if there’s some strange, mystical power inside it that can grant me the one thing I’m missing: an identity. I have a name now—I’m called Daring Do. If I just read this book, and all the others like it... maybe I can be Daring too.

I’ve been staring at the book for a solid minute now without saying anything, and the stillness filling the room seems to make Twilight uncomfortable. She coughs. “Do you want me to, uh, get you anything else?” she asks, to break the silence. “Some food? A glass of water?”

“Do I need them? Does Daring use those?” If she doesn’t then I won’t either, they would only get in my way. I look at the cover of the book again. Daring Do is still there, still just out of reach of the alligators circling below her, still holding on to that sparkly ‘Sapphire Stone.’ Does that look like the sort of pony who lets anything get in her way? Who gets bogged down by things she doesn’t need? No, it doesn’t, and that means neither will I.

“I think it happens,” says Twilight. “You know, off page. Technically you’re a golem, so food and drink aren’t strictly necessary but—”

“I’m fine.” I say. In fact, I’m better than fine. I have a thing to do! A purpose! What else could anypony possibly need when they have something like that? I balance the book a bit awkwardly on one of my hooves and half-walk-half-stumble over to a couch in the corner of the room. Walking is tricky. I’m not even going to try using my wings, although as I stretch them out they ache to take me all the way up to the ceiling above. Maybe in a bit I’ll be ready for a test flight. I settle on the soft cushions and prop the book up against its arm before opening to the first page.

As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step. If only she could escape this oppressive atmosphere and fly up into the cool blue sky

I stop. Cool blue sky, cool blue sky… That’s interesting. I think I know what a sky is, but why does Daring Do—why do I—want to go there so badly? What’s so great about it?

I look around the room for a moment and see a window. Sky. I set the book carefully down, and walk over to it. Briefly, I stick my head outside, feeling the warm sunshine on my face and the gentle breeze blowing against my mane. I look up and see, for the very first time, the sky. It stretches out into forever, or as far as my eyes can see, bigger and cooler and bluer than anything I’ve ever known.

“Fly up,” I repeat, almost overwhelmed by it all, “into the cool blue sky…”

Huh.

After a minute or two more of staring, I close the window tightly shut, stagger back to my book, and keep reading.

Chapter Two

“I don’t understand!” Ahuitzotl screeched, as Daring ran off with the Griffon’s Goblet. “You should have been at your limits!”

“Limits?” said Daring, turning back one last time before she flew off. “The only thing I do with those is push ‘em.”

“All right, Daring,” says Twilight, reordering her note cards. “Are you ready for the next one?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I grin, careful to brush an errant strand of mane from my eyes like Daring always does when she says that. “Let’s do this.”

Twilight nods and takes the first card. “Who is Ahuitzotl?”

“‘My sworn enemy, and a threat to archaeological efforts everywhere,” I tell her. Page 146 of Daring Do and the Crystal Chamber. The words come easily to me as I recite them. Not too surprising, really. I’ve only read that particular line a dozen times. “The absolute most evil, terrifying, and unhygienic villain to ever threaten Equestria.’”

“Correct!” says Twilight, beaming. She flips to the next card. “What has Major Treaton heard about you, Daring Do?”

“‘Professor of Archaeology, expert on the magical, and how does one say it... a collector of rare antiquities.’” Daring Do and the Dragon’s Diadem. Page 246. Easy enough. Foal’s play, as Daring would say.

And so would I now, come to think of it.

“Right again!” says Twilight. She put her notecards off to the side and claps her hooves together. “Word-for-word perfect, Daring! All of them. I bet even Rainbow Dash couldn’t have been that precise.”

“It’s nothing,” I say modestly, though I can feel the hot tinge of a blush growing in my cheeks. “I’m, I’m sure anypony could do stuff like this. Not half as hard as escaping from the Temple of Gloom with the Griffon’s Goblet, right?”

“Nonsense,” says Twilight, giving me an encouraging smile. “And excellent reference there, by the way. It’s only been a couple days, but you’re already three-fourths through the series. Not to mention recalling them perfectly. That’s impressive by anyone’s standards.” She coughs. “Even mine.”

I can feel the blush in my cheeks getting a little hotter, but still it’s nothing to be all that proud of. I’ve only read through the series so fast because I don’t need to eat or sleep or yell at Spike like Twilight does when she reads. It’s fine, though, I guess. I’m still only learning. Just reading up on how to be the best Daring Do I can be. Maybe, in just a few more days, I can move up to something that would deserve all the praise Twilight heaps on me. Like foiling Ahuitzotl again, or saving Timbucktu from an invasion of hippos.

That’s the sort of thing that would be impressive. Time to take this to the next level. “I’ve been practicing hovering and stuff with my wings, too. Not that that’s too big a deal either.” Then I flash her a grin. “Not for the dynamic, bombastic, indescribably fantastic Daring Do!”

I hope I wasn’t being too modest there. That’s just what it said on the cover of Daring Do and the Cove of Candles.

Twilight rolls her eyes. “Princesses preserve me, you’re even starting to sound like her.”

“Really? Like Daring Do?” I ask, eyes widening. That sounds promising. “How do you know what she sounds like? Do some of these things make sounds?” I hold one of the books by both covers and open it with the pages hanging downwards, shaking it like a voice might fall right out.

“ARRRRGH!” screams Twilight, and snatches it back from me, giving it a little squeeze and a hug before gently lowering it back onto the stack. She takes a deep breath and extends a hoof out from her chest before speaking again. “What I meant was, you’re starting to sound like Rainbow Dash. There’s a reason you’re her favorite character in all of fiction... Not that she’s ever read anything else.”

“...Oh,” I say, a little disappointed. Close, but not quite. That’s fine, then. I can do better than sound like Rainbow Not-Daring Dash. I can sound like Daring Do!

I puff out my chest, imitating the pose from Daring Do and the Gardens of Equestria. “Well, naturally she doesn’t! I’m only the greatest archaeologist of all time! Come on, how ’bout we start working on the flying stuff now? I want to show off some of my moves.”

Twilight bites her lip, as if she isn’t sure about that. “All in good time, Daring,” she says gently. Just like the last time, and the time before that. “Remember, we’ve already got the schedule planned out. And you’re doing great so far, there’s no need to ru—”

There’s a loud pounding on the library door, and my new instincts kick in. Pounding on the door never means anything good in the books. I start looking around for escape routes, or things I can use as improvised weapons. “Twilight, where do you keep your easily-torn tapestries to pull down on attackers?”

“Easy there, Daring. It’s probably just Pinkie. We scheduled Tuesday for planning out Dash’s birthday cake. Go wait up in my bedroom, would you?”

I nod, a little disappointed. I’d really been hoping to see some action... but Twilight’s the boss. I race upstairs, as fast as I can, closing the bedroom door behind me just as I hear Twilight answers the front door. “Oh, hello Pink—” I hear, just before the latch clicks shut and muffles the rest of it.

Well, what to do now? I walk over to a chair and set myself down in my usual reading position, only to remember that I forgot to grab a book before I came up here. Ugh. Stupid. Daring Do never forgets the artifact before making her exit. I’ll have to remember that for the next time.

For now, though, I can only throw myself onto Twilight’s bed and stare at the minute hand of her alarm clock.

Tick. A minute wasted I could have spent reading.

Tick. I could have run through at least a dozen flashcards in that time.

Tick. I should be showing Twilight how good I’m getting at flying.

What is taking her so long? I sit up and look around the room for something, anything I can do to practice. I happen to glance over and notice the recliner over in the corner. Hey, now there’s an idea. Page 294, Sapphire Stone: Daring can jump from rock to rock over a pool of burning lava. It’s not that far from here to the recliner. Only ten feet, give or take. Should be foal’s play to make that sort of leap over a simple wooden floor, right?

One way to find out.

I rise up from the bed, hoping Twilight won’t mind a slightly saggy mattress when she she goes to sleep tonight. I bend my knees and prepare myself for a successful leap. A moment before I release it, I hear a new voice scream from downstairs, piercingly loud and terribly shrieky.

“Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!”

The shout splits my ears right as my knees unbend and I spring into the air. No, no, no! Shoot! I wasn’t ready! Time seems to slow down as I hit the peak of my jump, just below the bedroom’s ceiling. I can already see I’m not going to make it to the recliner. The angle’s wrong. The direction’s wrong. Everything’s wrong. My wings are flapping feebly as I plummet to the floor, but it’s too late for them to do anything but stabilize my fa—

“Gah!” I think I scream as my head collides with the floor and stars shoot into my vision. Pain! I’ve never felt that before. I’ve seen it before—read about it—but that’s nothing compared to the real thing. What does Daring say when it happens to her? The books always skip over that bit. “I curse!”

Page 56, Daring Do and the Griffon’s Goblet: Daring can stand up to any pain to do what she has to. But I’m not that tough yet. All I can do is moan and wail while I’m cradling my aching head, wanting more than anything for the agony to just go away. Can Daring Do really stand up to this? This horrible, awful, please-stop-this-feeling that comes just from falling too hard on the floor? I can’t even imagine…

The bedroom door flies open. “Daring!” shouts Twilight loudly. Too loudly. She runs over to me and helps me up into the recliner—the same one I’d tried and failed to land on. “Are you okay? What happened?”

I mumble... something in response. The pain is too much to even think about... that thing Daring does where she turns the things in her head into words. Wordifizing. Or anything-else-izing.

And suddenly it isn’t. It’s starting to dull and recede, slowly fading from my skull, as some sort of miracle leeches the pain from my joints and knits my torn parts back together again. I look up to Twilight as my vision clears and see her horn glowing purple. No wonder. She’s casting some kind of spell. “This should help for now, at least,” she says. “You wouldn’t believe how much practice I’ve had with Spike.”

“Thanks…” I say weakly, trying to shift myself into a more comfortable position on the recliner, so that I don’t rest on the huge bump where my head met floor. “Feels better…”

“Great.” Twilight nods and runs back to the open door. “No, Pinkie!” she yells. “Everything’s fine, probably! Don’t come up yet!” She stops to think for a moment, then adds, “Or ever!”

She shuts the door and turns back to me. “Let’s have a look now,” she says, parting my mane and inspecting my injured head. “Well, that’s not too bad,” she says, laying me back down. “The bruises ought to go away in a day or two. Less if we use magic. I’ve got a few quick-fix spells I’ve been meaning to try, so we should be good there. Now…” Suddenly her relief contorts into rage, her eyes glaring so sharply they could cut me in half. “What in Celestia’s name were you doing?”

“I… I tried to jump from the bed,” I whimper, shrinking back. This is the angriest I’ve ever seen Twilight, and it scares me a little. “I’m really, really, really sorry. I didn’t think this would happen, I swear.”

For a moment, Twilight looks about ready to tear me to shreds, but she stops herself at the last minute. She puts her hoof to her chest and takes another deep breath, which is her own habit for dealing with anger, I guess. Daring does something similar, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe Twilight picked it up by reading the books, just like I did.

“No, no, it’s okay, Daring,” she says. “Just… you have to remember to take it slow, okay? The spells I cast are good—okay, probably really good, since I cast them—but technically you’re still just a mannequin. You’re not really Daring Do.” She turns her head sideways, giving me a funny look. “You do know that, right?”

“I know that...” I say softly. I do. How could I not? I’m reminded of it every time I pick up a book. I never stopped a doomsday cult from destroying the world, or told Ahuitzotl he needs to shower more often. She did that, though. The real Daring Do. The one all the stories were written about… I know I’m not her, but wasn’t the point that I could be, if I tried hard enough? Worked long enough? Wanted it bad enough? “I’m just trying to be the best Daring Do I can be...”

Twilight sighs and shakes her head, but she’s smiling when she looks at me again. “All right, but you need to learn to pace yourself, okay? I drew that schedule up for a reason, after all.”

“For a reason,” I repeat, giving a shaky nod. “Schedule’s there for a reason. Right.”

“Well…” Twilight says thoughtfully. “That said, you’ve been reading through the books so quickly that we could probably afford to move things along a bit. Maybe we could start you on some real flight practice as soon as...” She taps her hooves on the floor, muttering what sounds like calculations under her breath. “Tomorrow morning, eight-fifteen? Assuming we can double-time breakfast, of course.”

“Really?” I can feel the smile creeping across my face. “We can do that?”

“I think you deserve it,” says Twilight, giving me a wink. “In fact, I’ll tell Spike to start setting up an obstacle course for you as soon as Pinkie—” A huge crashing sound from somewhere downstairs. “—Pie leaves.” She grimaces. “I should really go check on that. Will you be all right on your own?”

“I think so,” I say, gingerly rubbing the bump on my head. Thankfully, it feels a little bit smaller this time. Or maybe that’s just my imagination.

“Just call for me if you feel the pain coming back on, then, okay?” says Twilight. She trots over to the door, grabbing the handle with her magic. She pauses, though, before she opens it, and looks back at me. “Oh, and Daring? I know we’re going to start you on flight practice soon, but just… promise me you’ll be a bit more careful from now on. Rarity’s mannequins are sturdy, but it’s probably best if you don’t try to test just how sturdy they are...”

Another crash from downstairs, followed up by some high-pitched giggling and whoops of glee.

“Oh for Celestia’s sake!” shouts Twilight, throwing open the door and sprinting downstairs. “Pinkieeeee!”

More shouts and crashes from downstairs. Plus some other noises bubbling up from the chaos—I’m not even sure what half of them are. Slowly, I stagger to my hooves, and stumble over to shut the door behind her. The noise is muffled behind the thick wooden door again, bringing the confusion down to a dull roar from a deafening one.

I’m alone again, now that Twilight’s left, but I don’t really mind anymore. In fact, I’m a little glad that Twilight had to leave when she did. Before we could finish that talk. I’m not sure if I could have kept the sort of promise she wanted from me. If I could ever promise to be more… what’s the word? To be more careful?

No. No, I don’t think I could make a promise like that.

Daring Do doesn’t even know the meaning of the word ‘careful.’

Chapter Three

“Not gonna happen,” she said flatly. “I don’t even know the meaning of the word ‘careful.’”

“Daring! For the tenth time, watch yourself! You can’t corner so sharply or you’ll spin out like that every time!”

I look up from the pile of books that fell on top of me when I hit the shelves, thankful that they were all paperbacks. I check a few of the books for damages, making sure I didn’t accidentally bend the spines or tear off the covers. A few titles catch my eye as I look over them: The Old Mare and the Bee, War and Pizza, Historically Accurate Archaeology...

None Daring Do; all irrelevant.

“Sorry, Twilight,” I say, hastily reshelving everything, “but if I’m going to get my time down any lower I can’t go all the way around the table. Under it would be faster.”

“I’m starting to think that maaaybe this obstacle course wasn’t the greatest idea,” says Twilight, wincing with every book I shove back in the shelf. “You’re banging up the—I mean, you’re getting pretty banged up.”

“I can do it!” I insist. No way am I going to let a little bit of pain slow me down. I’m getting used to it now. “I just need to carry more speed in the straightaway between the kitchen and that pile of cushions. Maybe if I took a rope and tied it around—”

“No,” says Twilight, clearly unamused.

“But I haven’t even said what I’d be—”

“No. No ropes, no creative uses of my curtains, no hanging things from the ceiling and swinging from them. And definitely no using a hat to knock over a target.”

I frown. “But Daring uses her hat like that in every single book.”

“Tell that to my lamp!”

“I told you, I didn’t know it was going to curve like that when I put some spin on it,” I tell her, blushing slightly. “...And it’s fixed now, isn’t it?”

“That isn’t the—” Twilight is interrupted by a loud thump from upstairs, one that sends vibrations through the entire room.

“Dang! I totally thought I had it that time,” says a new voice from out on her balcony. “Hey Twilight? You home?”

Twilight’s mane instantly stands on end, like Daring’s in a snakepit. “Oh no, oh no, oh bad, bad timing!” She spins to face me. “We have to hide you. It’s her, that’s Rainbow Dash! She absolutely positively cannot see you at all or it’ll ruin everything. You need to hide. Now.”

Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash… Right. I know her. She’s literally the pony I was made for. The reason I have to be Daring Do. I’m not afraid of meeting her—I’m not afraid of anything—but I know I can’t let her see me. Not yet. I still have a few days of training left, and I’m still not the best Daring Do I can be. She can’t meet me until I’m ready for her. A real, in-the-flesh Daring Do. Not a sad, half-formed Daring Do-it-over-again. I promised Twilight that much.

“Quick, in here!” Twilight opens the basement door up for me, motioning for me to get in. She slams it shut as soon as I’ve ducked inside... and I open it back up a crack as soon as I’m sure her back’s turned. It’s probably not good hiding practice—Daring’s been found out for trying it a few times—but I can’t help myself. I just want to see her, this Rainbow Dash I’ve heard so much about.

I keep my eye close to the door-crack, trying to catch as much of the action as I can. It’s tough to see much of anything through the little sliver of door I’ve got open, but I do notice one thing out of the ordinary: a blur of color, blue, red, and yellow, speeding around the library faster than my eye can follow. It’s… unusual, to say the least.

“Where is it, where is it, where is it, where is it?” cries a mare’s voice. Suddenly the color-blur comes to a screeching halt, and I gasp as I realize it’s not a blur after all. It’s a pegasus pony, with a bright light-blue coat and a seven-shaded rainbow mane.

I’ve never seen her before, but I know who she is. It’s obvious. Who else could she be? Rainbow Dash.

“Okay, Twi,” she says panting. “I give up. Where’re you hiding my birthday present? ”

“I… uh…” comes Twilight’s voice. “I have no idea what you’re, uh—oh, is it your birthday in three days, Rainbow? I had no idea! Sorry, I’ve been so busy lately it must have slipped my mind! And my calendar. And my comprehensively-detailed weekly schedule...”

“Yuh-huh.” Rainbow Dash raises an eyebrow. She doesn’t look convinced. To tell the truth, I probably wouldn’t have been fooled either. She gives the library a look-over and her eyes suddenly light up. “Hey, are those racing hoops you’ve got set up? Are you getting me an obstacle course?”

“Not… really… no?” Twilight stammers. “I mean, it’s for a friend of a friend, who wanted my advice on how to make a good obstacle course for a pegasus you probably don’t know.”

Rainbow Dash cocks her head. “So you built one in your library?”

Twilight gives a nervous high-pitched little chuckle. “Gotta experiment with different configurations to see what works, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” says Rainbow Dash. She doesn’t look especially convinced. “Who’s the pegasus? Maybe I can give a couple pointers. I did win the last Best Young Flyers’ Competition, after all.”

Best Young Flyers’ Competition… Why does that sound so familiar? Then it hits me. Page 43, Daring Do and the Griffon’s Goblet: Daring was named Best Young Flyer three years in a row, back when she flew for sport.

Not too bad for Rainbow Dash, then. I guess. Getting named Best Young Flyer once is kind of impressive, but she still has a couple more to go before she can match up to the Airborne Archaeologist.

“Well, that’s nice of you to offer, but... um...” I see Twilight pace past my field of vision, and then back in the other direction. “She’s a little embarrassed about needing the practice?”

Rainbow Dash shrugs. “Geez, Twilight, it’s not like Fluttershy’s not my friend too.”

“It’s not Fluttershy!”

Rainbow Dash shrugs. “Whatever, Twilight. Tell Fluttershy that if she ever wants to start training for the big leagues, I could find a few hours for her in my busy schedule.”

Twilight sighs. “...Sure, why not? Let’s go with that, then.” A brief silence. “So...” she says, “Completely unrelated to your birthday or my friend-of-a-friend, I heard you crash on my balcony. Do you need me to patch you up?”

Rainbow Dash turns to the side, and I nearly gasp aloud. Just under her wing is an ugly gash, oozing with blood. She lifts up her mane and reveals an ugly-looking bruise developing on her forehead. A mix of purple, black, and dark-blue, in almost as many shades as her mane. I can’t help but wince a bit thinking about that. If a little bump on the head hurts that much, she must be in agony. But she hardly even seems to care.

“It wasn’t a crash, Twilight,” she says defensively. “It was just... a really high-speed landing. Y’know, on my face.”

A high-speed landing. On her face. That one sounds familiar too. Page 268, Minotaur’s Labyrinth... Didn’t Daring use exactly the same line, there? Come to think of it, was it even page 268? Or was that page 269? I knock myself on the head a few times, trying to remember. C’mon, I read this! Why can’t I remember it now, of all times?

...

I give up. I’ll just have to read it over again.

“Riiiight,” says Twilight. Now it’s her turn to look skeptical. “Let me just fix you up, then. Your face-landings look like they could still use a little work.” Her horn glows and she casts the same spell she’s been using on me all morning. The bruise on Rainbow Dash’s forehead fades away almost instantly, and the gash on her wing starts to close up like... well, like magic.

“You’re the best, Twilight,” she says, grinning. “Hey, now that I’m in top form again, how ’bout I put your new obstacle course to the test? No sense in letting it go un-Dashed if your friend isn’t here, right?” Without even waiting for Twilight to answer, she stretches her wings, body coiling into take-off position. “Watch this!”

I blink and I miss it. She’s already in the air, even faster than before, circling through the hoops like they weren’t even there. I open the door just a hair further to track her movements better, but she’s just so fast that it’s easier to tell where she was than where she is. Five, six, seven laps through the hoops before she gets bored with them. She spins upward toward the ceiling, then dives straight for the table. I cringe slightly—I always screw up at the table—but Rainbow Dash swoops under it with ease. She slows just a bit for a mid-air somersault, but she sticks the landing perfectly, instead of crumpling against the floor like a tin can.

She closes with a bow; I have to hold my applause.

“Easy peasy, Twi,” she says, brushing a bit of her wild, uncontrolled mane from her eyes. “Not bad, though. B-plus, probably. It’ll give Fluttershy a pretty good workout anyway.”

“I keep telling you it’s not for Fluttershy!”

“Pfft, c’mon, Twilight. Everyone knows you’re the worst liar in Ponyville.”

“I am not,” Twilight huffs. “And not everyone knows that!”

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash gives her an evil grin. “Then where’s my birthday present?”

“It, uh, well, you see,” Twilight’s eyes shift to the left, uncomfortably close to the basement, where I’m hiding. Rainbow Dash seems to catch on, turning her head slowly leftward until it stops in my direction. For a split second, even though I’m sure she can’t see anything through the tiny crack I’ve opened in the door, I swear she’s staring right at me.

“It’s definitely not at Sugarcube Corner!” Twilight blurts. She gasps and clasps her hooves to her mouth, like she’s let something slip. “Oh no! Did I just let that slip?”

“You did!” says Rainbow Dash, turning away. I breathe a sigh of relief. Thank Daring, she didn’t see me after all. She zips to the library’s front door and throws it open. “Ha! Wait ‘til Pinkie finds out I found out.”

“No, don’t!” calls Twilight, but it’s too late. Dash is out the door before Twilight can get another word in edgewise, taking off at speeds slightly faster than the average lightning bolt. It’s another blink-and-you-miss-it moment. From here to gone, in just under a second.

Twilight, for her part, just sighs and closes the door. She takes a quick peek through the windows to make sure Dash is really gone, then paces over toward the basement. “All right, you can come out now,” she says loudly. “Not like you aren’t listening anyway.”

Oops. Busted. I step out from the basement and put on my best sorry face. “Was it… really that obvious?”

“Oh, not particularly,” she says. “Just an educated guess. A little curiosity should be natural at this stage in your development. Starswirl actually goes into great detail about it in his writings... But that’s by the by.” She shrugs. She knows by now I don’t listen much when she talks about this sort of stuff. “What did you think of her?”

“Of, of Rainbow Dash?” I ask. That’s… a tough question. I’m not actually sure what to think of her. I’d heard so much about her before this, but seeing her in the flesh for the very first time was something else altogether. I don’t know what I was expecting her to be after all the stories Twilight’s told me about her, but it wasn’t that. “Well… I think she’s…”

“Yes?” says Twilight urging me on. “Keep going! This could be important for future golem research. She’s...?”

Deep breath. “She’s loud and cocky and arrogant and kind of sarcastic, and, and…” I stop. And familiar. I’ve never seen Rainbow Dash before, but I she reminds me of something. Or someone. Loud, cocky, arrogant, and sarcastic…

A perfect description of Daring Do.

“And I need to train more,” I finish. “I’ve only got three days left before I have to meet her, so I’ve got to be in top form.”

“Are you sure?” asks Twilight. “You don’t want to take a break first?” She grumbles something under her breath about a B-plus. “So we could, uh, make some minor improvements to the course?”

“I’m sure,” I say firmly. And I am. More than I’ve ever been. I know I’m not the best Daring Do I can be yet. Not even close. Rainbow Dash has taught me that much. If I’m going to impress her when we finally meet, I have to be better. Have to try harder. “No breaks. I’ll keep working with what we’ve got.”

I won’t let her be a better Daring than me.

“Well, if you say so,” says Twilight, sounding a little disappointed. “A B-plus, though. Honestly...” She grabs her timer off the table and sets it. “Let’s take it from the top, then. On your mark…”

I coil my body, just like Rainbow Dash did, stretching my wings out to prep them for flapping. I’m ready for this. No more mistakes.

“Get set…”

Eyes on the first hoop, just above me. I’m going to have to get the most out of my take-off I want to make that leap and keep going. That ought to shave a extra few seconds off my time. It won’t be much, but it’ll bring me that extra bit closer to Rainbow Dash’s performance.

That extra bit closer to being more Daring than her.

“Go!”

Chapter Four

“So you wanna know how I managed to jump out of a volcano?” She took her hat off and casually brushed a layer of coal-black ash away. “Fine. Since you want to hear it so badly, I’ll let you in on the secret.” Satisfied that it was clean, she set the hat back on her head and grinned. “I’m Daring,” she said simply. “It’s what I Do.”

Through the hoops, ’round the shelves, corkscrew upward… dive! Under the table, back in the air, somersault—one spins, two spins, three—and stick the landing.

Bow.

“Aaaaaand stop!” says Twilight. She glances down at the stopwatch. “Twenty-three seconds, Daring. A new personal best. Again!”

“Really quite stunning,” Rarity agrees. “Now if you both don’t mind, we must be at Sugarcube Corner in fifteen minutes, and punctuality is important. I give Rainbow Dash enough grief about tardiness without her throwing it back at me, so if we could get going soon...”

“Right.” Twilight nods. “That’s all the time we’ve budgeted for last-minute-after-last-minute practice, Daring. Let’s get you suited up—”

“Just one more try?” I beg her. “I think I grazed a ring there or two there, and I know I can dive faster if I can figure out how to corkscrew clockwise.”

“Daring…”

“All right, all right.” I shrug, like it doesn’t bother me. “Just saying, I think I can still do better, is all.”

“Well I’m impressed, Darling,” says Rarity, opening up her bags. She pulls out a dark green vest and holds it up. “And this is coming from someone who knows Rainbow Dash, why—if you could just stand there by the mirror for a moment, yes, there we go—you might even give her a run for her money.”

“Better than that,” I mumble. Rainbow Dash is good—scary good, even—but I’m good too, and I’ve been training harder than ever these past few days. I’m not afraid of her. Not very. “I think my time on the practice course is even lower than hers was now...”

“And I’m sure you’ll do fabulously, Darling,” says Rarity, giving me a light pat on the wing. “But do put the outfit on, won’t you? We’re in a hurry.”

“Yeah, sure...” I take the vest as she hands it off to me and slip it on. It fits me perfectly, as it should. Rarity levitates the hat over to my side soon after, and that goes on too. Then I gasp. Daring Do, professor of Archaeology, expert on the magical, and—how does one say it—collector of rare antiquities, is staring back at me through the mirror.

It’s not like I’ve never seen myself in the mirror before, but this is different. You can’t be Daring without the hat and the vest. It just doesn’t work. She never wears anything else on the book covers. Now, though, with both of those, I finally feel... complete. I look just like the pony I first saw on the cover of Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone. This, the confident, competent, no-nonsense pegasus grinning at me in my reflection—this is what I was meant to be.

I’m her, and she’s me.

“An excellent fit!” says Rarity. “Just like the cover. You know, I’ve always admired how she manages to give that drab safari look her own flair… Though I daresay I could’ve made the outfit a touch more perfect if I’d been given proper measurements.”

“Uh, oops.” I turn away from the mirror for a second to give her a guilty chuckle. I think Twilight might have mentioned taking proper measurements for an outfit between one of my practice runs once. Twice. Constantly. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Water under the bridge, Darling,” says Rarity, adjusting my hat a bit with her magic. “It just took a little creative futzing to account for the wings. Everything else was actually quite easy—you still match all the other models perfectly. Practically a designer’s dream, you know.”

“Oh. Right. I guess that makes sense.”

“And with that,” Rarity says as she finishes straightening out the collar on my vest. “I declare my part in this matter... fini.” She gives me a look-over, nodding silently to herself. “You know, Twilight, I really wasn’t quite sure what to make of this ‘golem’ business when you came around asking for mannequins, but I must say I’m quite impressed. You simply have to provide the present for my birthday too.”

“Well, it wasn’t all me,” says Twilight, cheeks blushing bright red in embarrassment. “I mean, not even mostly me. Daring deserves the credit here, for all her hard work.”

“And I’m sure Rainbow Dash is going to adore her,” says Rarity, giving me a wink. “Shall we be off, then?”

“When Daring gives the word,” says Twilight. She looks to me. “Are you ready now, Daring? It’s almost showtime.”

I turn toward the mirror, looking at Daring Do’s reflection—at my reflection. Nothing in that face should betray any sort of hesitance, or fear, or weakness, even though I’m feeling a little of all those things right now. This is what I was made for, though. I’ve worked hard. Harder than anypony else ever could. My entire life has been dedicated to preparing for my eventual meeting with Rainbow Dash. How can I be anything but ready for it?

“Ready?” I say. I grin and turn back to Twilight, blowing a bit of my go-everywhere mane out of my eyes. “Yeah. As I’ll ever be.”

It feels strange, taking my first ever step outside. I’ve seen all these buildings and places and ponies before, but only through dirty old library windows. It’s not the same as seeing them all in the flesh; the colors are different, the perspective’s changed. I think I recognize some of the ponies I pass as I follow Twilight and Rarity to Sugarcube Corner, but without a layer of dust and glass between us I can’t really be sure. It’s just as well—I don’t really know them anyway.

I guess it isn’t that much weirder than I must seem to the other ponies. They stop and stare at me, watching my every move as I walk on by them. I wonder what they’re thinking? They can’t possibly guess that I’m not really a pony like they are. Maybe they think I’m an actor playing some weird part, like that one unicorn Daring once rescued. Or maybe they think I’m in costume. Just some other pony pretending to be the one and only Daring Do. Or maybe they’re wondering if I might actually be the real deal.

I don’t know. Usually in the books the crowds will whisper what they’re thinking. There’s supposed to be gossiping and laughing and maybe some shouting. This crowd just watches me without speaking a word, and it’s kind of creeping me out. Twilight and Rarity don’t seem to mind. They’re just chatting about Rainbow Dash’s party and all the preparations they had to make for it. Rarity mentions that Pinkie Pie ate the first birthday cake they’d baked in her sleep and Twilight laughs. It’s like they don’t notice that everyone in town has their eyes on us—or if they do, they don’t care.

I wonder what their secret is. I’ll have to ask them sometime, after this is over.

“All right, we’re here!” Twilight says, finally stopping in front of a building that looks like a giant frosted cake. “And we’re only, uh, ten minutes late… Rainbow Dash should already be inside.”

Moment of truth. I take a deep breath and hold it as my escorts push the door open. It’s a big party—a virtual whirlwind of streamers, balloons, and confetti—and there, standing right at the center of the hurricane, is Rainbow Dash. There’s a split-second of silence as she notices me standing between Twilight and Rarity. Our eyes meet: hers full of wonder and awe, and mine full of… well, maybe a little awe of my own. She doesn’t know it, but I’ve spent my entire life preparing for this moment. An entire week of reading, preparing, and pushing my limits, all to be ready for this single, solitary second.

And, suddenly, I’m no longer sure what to say.

“Whoa my gosh!” Dash shouts, breaking the silence. “It’s Daring Do!”

“Y-you’re darn right it is!” I proclaim loudly. It’s a deviation from the script. I had every line planned out perfectly in my head before this, but sometimes Daring has to think on her hooves. “Archaeologist adventurer extraordinaire! The bravest, strongest, pegasus on land or in the sky!” I glance back at Twilight, who’s beaming with pride, and I stand a little straighter. “You won’t find a pony anywhere who’s cooler than I am, or I’ll eat my hat—and I’m not feeling hungry right now.”

Dash doesn’t respond right away, her eyes are still getting wider. “Daring Do!” she squeaks.

“I thought you’d like to meet her, since you’re such a big fan of the series,” says Twilight. “So I did a little magic and made a golem just like her! What do you think?”

“A go-what now?”

“A golem,” says Twilight. “You know, an animated magical construct with the capacity for independent—”

“Yeah, yeah,” says Dash, waving her off before she can get going. “I get it. You brought Daring Do to life! And she’s awesome! You’re awesome! This is the best birthday present ever!” She stops, a suspicious frown forming on her face. “But wait... how do I know she’s the real deal? Maybe you guys just dressed some pegasus up to look like Daring.”

“Rainbow Dash, you know we wouldn’t—”

“Go ahead, then!” I tell Dash confidently—and this is one thing I can be confident about. “Quiz me. Ask me anything about one of my adventures.”

“All right,” says Dash. “We’ll warm you up with an easy one. In Legacy of Nightmare Moon, which constellation was the last one you needed to defeat Onti?”

“Canis Minor,” I say, the words coming easily from memory. I’m starting to get a little more comfortable with Dash now. She’s not really as scary as she seemed only a few days ago. Heck, Twilight’s asked me this same question twice. “Oh, and the Dragon’s name was Inti. Or did you think I wouldn’t notice that little detail?”

“Okay, okay, not bad,” she concedes, clearly a little impressed that I caught her slip. “But! Remember when in the Young Daring Do Adventures comics, you dropped that tiger into the pit trap? What kind of leaves did you cover it with?”

Wait, comics? What are comics? I look back at Twilight. “Comics?”

“Er...” says Twilight, running a hoof through her mane and giving a nervous laugh. “Comics, comics, comics… Oh! Right, there are some really old Daring Do comics in the foal’s magazines section, but nopony ever reads those except—“ Twilight grimaces, burying her face in her hooves. “—except Rainbow Dash.” She laughs again, her voice a bit higher than before. “Don’t worry too much about it. I, uh, don’t think they’re actually canon.”

“Of course they are,” says Rainbow Dash. “How do you think Daring fought off the rogue rum-runners in issue seven? With a cannon, duh.” She grins. “Well, it’s fine if you don’t remember every single detail of your adventures as well as I do—” a little knife twists in my chest “—as long as you’ve got those signature Daring Do moves! Come on, let’s go try a couple of ‘em out.” She looks to the rest of the party guests. “The rest of you girls don’t mind if we go do some quick flying, do you? You should come out and watch.”

“Whatever makes the birthday mare happy makes me happy!” Pinkie Pie declares. “We can reschedule the party games, the party activities, and the party recreational pastimes for later. As long as we squeeze in the party undertakings somewhere between the party endeavors and the party ventures.”

Rainbow grins. “Then let’s do this!” Quick as a flash, she crouches into takeoff position and blasts straight through an open window. I gulp as the aftershock washes over me, rustling my mane just slightly. She’s fast. Really fast. But... I’m probably faster. Or, at least, I’m not slower. That’s why I’ve been training all this time, right? I’m supposed to be giving her a run for her money—and then some.

I crouch into my own takeoff position, flexing my wings and readying myself to fly after her. Dash may have a headstart, but there isn’t a pegasus alive who’s faster than Daring Do. I can catch her, no problem.

“Daring…” says Twilight warningly. “Please be careful. I’m not going to be there to heal you up this time if something happens. And, Dash—well, she plays rough sometimes. Try to stay out of trouble, okay?”

I don’t answer. I should, but I don’t. I’m too busy stretching, flexing, preparing to put my skills to the test. Rainbow Dash is out there right now, waiting for me to prove I’m as daring as my namesake. That’s all that matters. Thinking back, that’s all that ever really mattered.

And I never promised Twilight I’d be careful.

Launch. I’m at the window in the blink of an eye, then past that, out into the cool blue sky. The wind whips past my mane as I fly, and everything else blurs into a big mass of color as I keep accelerating. I’ve never gone this fast before—I couldn’t in the library—but somehow it feels right. Natural, even. Like I’d been made for this.

Maybe I was.

Rainbow Dash is hard to miss—not a lot of things in the sky are seven different colors. I change course to catch her the second I spot her contrail. She darts in the opposite direction as soon as she sees me coming, but it’s not going to help her. Little by little, I’m gaining on her. She must be trying to keep her lead on me, but I’m just a hair faster than she is. Dash isn’t going to be in the lead for long.

The gap between us is closing fast. Soon I’m close enough to grab her tail, and just a second later I’ve pulled up right beside her. Caught her. I grin a little at her when she notices me to her left and gasps. It’s half pride and half relief. If this is all Dash has got, it’s obvious I spent way too much time worrying.

“Pretty good!” Dash shouts over the wind. “Y’know, for an actor!”

“Pretty good yourself!” I shout back. “Y’know, for an amateur!”

“Think so?” says Dash. “Then let’s get serious! I was just warming up.”

Wait. Warming up?

Dash rears back and puts on an extra burst of speed, leaving me in the dust. Well, okay—fine. I can play that game too. I grit my teeth and push myself faster, willing my wings to flap harder. She’s not going to beat me here. I won’t let her.

“C’mon, get your flank crankin’!” Rainbow Dash taunts, flying backward to stick her tongue out at me. She doesn’t even look like she’s breaking a sweat. “That all you got?”

“Not by a long shot!” I growl, pushing forward. Faster, faster, faster! Dash isn’t that far ahead! I can catch her! The wind only gets louder as I pick up speed, until I can hardly hear anything. My wings almost feel like they’re going to tear off at the seams, but I keep them flapping for all they’ve got. Come on, faster! I can catch up to her!

Except... I can’t. No matter how hard I try, Dash doesn’t seem to be getting any closer. In fact, she’s pulling away—and she’s still flying backwards! Even at my absolute fastest, I can’t catch Dash. I can’t even give her a run for her money, and she knows it. She’s toying with me.

How? I’ve put everything into this. Every minute, every second of every day, I’ve been working to be the best Daring Do I can be, and then—and then Dash just shows me up like I’m nothing! And she’s not even trying!

I knew I should have made that one last practice run.

Eventually, Dash puts the whole charade to an end. She skids to a stop on a big puffy cloud, just outside town, and waits for me to catch me up. Which I do… a few seconds later. She’s breathing a bit faster when I reach her, which helps me feel a little bit better. It’s good to know she gets tired, ’cause I don’t.

“All right, game’s up,” she says, jabbing a hoof accusingly in my chest. She looks… not mad, but disappointed. Like she’d been expecting better from me. “You’re good, but not half as good as the real deal. I don’t know if you’re an actor or if Twilight screwed up her wacky mumbo jumbo magic spell or what, but you’re not Daring Do. So who are you, really?”

It takes everything I have not to hit her for that. I can’t. I shouldn’t. But I want to. “I am Daring Do!” I snap back, brushing her hoof away. “Best archaeologist in the business! It’s my name! Who do you think you are, telling me it isn’t?”

“I think I’m the real Daring’s number one fan!” says Dash. “And let me tell you, the real Daring Do would’ve flown twice as fast as you just did. And she would’ve known about the Young Daring Do Adventures too! I dunno who you are, but you’re not her.”

“Yeah?” I say, and now it’s my turn to give her a poke in the chest. Page 78, Griffon’s Goblet: “Well then I got news for you! I’m the genuine article, and I’ll prove it to you the only way I know how. I’m going to take the craziest, stupidest, most dangerous thing you can do around here, and I’m going to do it better than you ever could. So there!”

For a second it looks like Dash is about to hit me, but she shakes it off and gives me a grin. “Almost didn’t catch that reference,” she says, chuckling. “And okay, then, let’s prove it once and for all.” Her grin widens suddenly, and an ominous glint starts to sparkle in her eyes. “Race you through Ghastly Gorge. First one to make it through to the other side wins—if they make it through the other side. You game?”

“Always.”

“Ha! I like your attitude.” Dash spits on her hoof and offers it to me. I take it and shake it firmly. Just for the gesture’s sake. I’m no longer interested in fooling around. “It’s on, then,” says Dash. “Last one there’s Ahuitzotl!”

I nod and coil up, ready to spring as soon as Dash points me toward this Ghastly Gorge. No more fooling around. Dash is going down. Hard. I’m going to win the race, and I’m going to prove once and for all that I’m the real deal, and I’m going to get to Ghastly Gorge before she does.

Last one there’s Ahuitzotl...

It can’t be me, then; I’m already Daring Do.

Chapter Five

“Archaeologist adventurer extraordinaire!” she said. “The bravest, strongest, pegasus on land or in the sky! You won’t find a pony anywhere who’s cooler than I am, or I’ll eat my hat...” She paused to fish the All-Powerful Panther Scepter out from the snake pit. “...And I’m not feeling hungry right now.”

I’m not sure what I was thinking of when Dash said Ghastly Gorge, but it must’ve been something like this. It looks like it came straight off a Daring Do book cover: all craggy black rocks and tall dark trees. It’s big, too. Deeper and wider than any scary chasm I’ve ever seen—not that I’ve actually seen any, I guess. I’ve read about them, though, and for a scary chasm, Ghastly Gorge does pretty well for itself.

A loud, ghostly wail echoes through the Gorge. The final warning that this place is dangerous.

“You ready, Ahuitzotl?” says Dash, stretching. “Last chance to back out if you’re scared. ’Cause, y’know, if I win, you’ve technically got to eat your hat.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I snap, my cheeks growing hot. I shouldn’t have lost that last race. “I get it. So you’re a little faster than I am.” I give Ghastly Gorge another quick scan, mapping out every possible path through the winding caverns and twisting thorn-bushes. I grin. Dash may have me beat in a straight-up race, but this is an obstacle course, and I know those like the back of my hoof. “You’re still gonna lose, though.”

“As if,” Dash snorts. She sets herself down by the edge of our starting line. “Bet you’ve never even seen a quarray eel.”

“Bet I could eat ’em for breakfast,” I grumble back. Just a little more bravado. Daring can eat a lot of things for breakfast. With the taunt-trading out of the way, I take my spot right beside her, as ready as I’ve ever been. I adjust my hat a little, to make sure it’ll stay squarely on my head, take a deep breath, and start the count. “On your mark…”

Dash paws eagerly at the ground. “Get set…”

“Go!”

I shoot off like a rocket, giving it my all right out of the gate. Dash gets an early lead even so, but this part of the race is just a straight flight. The rock pillars are coming up fast, and that’s where the real race will begin.

“Easy peasy,” I call to Dash, weaving left and right through the rocks. It isn’t any harder than navigating bookshelves back at the library, and I’ve done that without trouble a thousand times.

“Easy peasy!” Dash agrees, slowing down only slightly to dodge the pillars, flying past them like they’re hardly even there.

I frown as I notice that we clear the maze at the exact same time, neck and neck. That’s—a little disappointing. A lot disappointing, even. The pillars were supposed to slow her down more than that. She wasn’t supposed to be able to get past them so easily. I’m supposed to have the lead now! That’s what I was counting on!

How am I supposed to beat her if she’s just as good at dodging crazy obstacles as I am?

“Eyes on the prize!” Dash calls, and I turn my attention away from her just in time to notice the thorn bushes closing in on me.

“Woah!” I swerve just in time to avoid tumbling into a wall of thorns. The bushes are so thick in this part of the Gorge that it’s almost impossible to find an opening—not without slowing down to look for one, and I can’t do that if I’m going to beat Dash.

I leave it to my reflexes to find the quickest path through the thorns, vaguely aware of the prickly barbs catching and tearing at my jacket. I keep my hat held on tight and press past the pain as the thorns start to scratch through my outfit and into my coat. Not too bad, I guess... I’ve had worse papercuts. The jacket’s going to be a loss—Rarity will be furious at me when we get back—but Daring always takes a couple nicks when the going gets rough.

It’s not suspenseful if the hero doesn’t get at least a few bumps and bruises before she wins.

Fresh sunlight greets me as I finally make it through all the thorn bushes. I turn my head slightly to check for Dash, and—ha!—she isn’t there! She must still be caught in the thorns… And that means I’m in the lead now!

I put everything I’ve got into making this final dash. There are no obstacles left up ahead of me. Just another eerie, empty stretch of Ghastly Gorge—and, past that, no more Gorge. The finish line is in sight. If I can just make it there before Dash can catch up, I’ll win. And then, finally, she’ll have to admit that I’m Daring. Not just some actor pony playing a part, not some pretender with a hat and jacket, but the real, honest-to-goodness Daring Do.

Because, when the chips were down, the game was up, and nopony thought I could beat Rainbow Dash—I did.

I can almost see it now: Dash throwing a tantrum at the finish line before finally admitting she was wrong, and maybe that I’m pretty cool after all. Twilight and Rarity congratulating me on a job well done back at the party. Maybe even a book written about my exploits: Daring Do and the Dastardly Dash. Probably not as epic as some of the other books, but...

Well, who knows? The sky’s the lim—

Crack!

Something shifts in the Gorge’s walls. Rocks start to tumble down from above, and it seems like the Gorge itself is starting to rumble. An awful, nasally shriek pierces the air, then another, and another, until it feels like an entire chorus is howling right at me.

“Wait!” calls a voice from somewhere far behind me. Rainbow Dash. “Watch out for the quarray eels!”

“Quarray eels?” What is she talking about? Where would an eel be hiding in a place like—oh. From a pitch-black hole in the Gorge’s walls, just large enough to house a giant eel, a pair of beady yellow eyes lock onto me. I gasp. “Quarray eels!”

It snaps out from its cave faster than my eyes can follow—a slimy red blur, with a mouth big enough to swallow me whole. I’m already in motion, my body working purely on reflex now, but it’s too late. A sharp, stinging pain shoots through my wings as the eel’s massive teeth sink into them, magnified by a thousand as the eel shakes and tears them free.

My vision blurs and my head swims. Am I falling now? I must be. I don’t have any wings. There’s a terrible, throbbing ache where they used to be—where they might’ve been—but it’s going away, slowly. There’s a muffled thud as my body finally collides with the ground. It hurts, but it’s a dull pain. Not as bad as I’d expected.

That’s something, I guess.

“Hold on, I’m coming!” says Dash’s voice, from awfully far away. I open my eyes and I can see her, just barely. A little rainbow arcing through a field of thick red lines. I can’t help but laugh, as much as I can manage. It’s not fair. She’s better at dodging quarray eels too.

“Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot! I didn’t—I don’t—” says Dash. She sounds closer now, like she’s right beside me. Maybe she is. “Where’d it get you? Are you bleeding?”

“Wings,” I groan. I roll over and gingerly reach a hoof out to the wound. I almost expect to touch hot, sticky blood, but all I can feel is soft and billowy stuffing. The kind you’d find in a mannequin.

Dash gasps. Maybe she’s horrified that I lost my wings. Or maybe she’s realizing that I’m not really the real life, flesh-and-blood Daring Do, or an actor playing her, or even a pony at all. I’m just a regular old mannequin with a particularly intricate cocktail of illusion and come-to-life spells stacked on, not built to take this kind of abuse.

I don’t blame her for being shocked. It took me a long time to figure that out too.

I don’t know why I bothered. Why Twilight bothered. I’m not Daring Do. I never rescued an artifact or saved the world. Why did I ever think I’d get away with acting like a pony who could?

“Oh shoot, oh shoot… All right, Daring? Hold on, okay? I’ll bring you back to Twilight and she can... magic... something... no, wait, I’ll get you to Rarity and she can sew you up again. Just hold on.”

“Hold on to what?” I ask Dash, the words sounding strange and blocky in my mouth. “I’m not Daring, remember?”

Something warm and wet lands on my side. Tears? Why is she crying? All I did was prove her right. She gathers up all the dirty stuffing around and tries to force it back in through the rips. I watch her do it, but I can’t feel it. I can’t feel anything in that part of my body anymore. Not even the pain. “It’s going to be okay, Daring. You’ll be fine. We’ll make you better and—”

“No, Dash, you don’t have to,” I interrupt. “I’m not going to be fine, and I’m not Daring Do.” I roll over, trying to keep her from putting any more of my stuffing back in me. “Just leave me here.”

“Hey, no, don’t say that,” says Rainbow Dash with a sniffle. She pushes me back and grabs another hoof-full of stuffing. “Daring Do doesn’t leave anypony behind. Ever! You know that!”

I stop. My mouth opens for a moment, but no words come out. No, I guess Daring doesn’t leave anypony behind. Page 390, Daring Do and the Emerald Mask. I do know that. It’s so basic. How could I have forgotten?

How could Rainbow Dash have remembered?

I look back at Dash, still trying to stick my wings back on, hoping against hope that there’s something she can do to save me. There isn’t, but that she’s trying anyway is—well, I guess that’s pretty heroic. Maybe I’m not cut out to be Daring Do after all. Maybe nobody is... but I think I know a pony who gets pretty close.

“It’s all right, Dash,” I tell her. “I just wanted to be the best Daring Do that I could be... and, y’know? I think I was. I was the best I could be.” I grin weakly at her. “I guess my best wasn’t all that good, but I can’t ask for much more than what I got.”

“That’s stupid,” says Dash, she sets my wings down, finally accepting that she can’t shove them back on. “I mean, I-I thought you were pretty good…”

I know she’s lying—she must be—but somehow it makes me feel a little bit better. It’s not every day that Rainbow Dash gives you a compliment. “Maybe...” I say. “But I want you to promise me something, will you? I’m sorry. It’s your birthday; you’re supposed to ask me for things, not the other way around.”

“That’s stupid too,” says Rainbow Dash, laughing. More tears fall. “Stop being stupid. Of course I’ll promise. I promise I’m gonna be the best Daring Do I can be, too. I’ll make you proud.”

With what little energy I can muster, I lift a pale yellow foreleg—getting paler by the second—and bonk her on the forehead. “No, you doofus. Why would I want you to promise that? I want you to promise me that you’ll be the very best Rainbow Dash you can be.”

She gives me a little smile. “I don’t know if I can get any more awesome than I already am, but yeah. Yeah, I promise.”

“Thanks.” I nod. I believe her. I didn’t do a whole lot as the best Daring Do I could be, but if Dash gets just a little better because of me, that’s enough. More than enough, really. I lay my head back down on the ground, looking up at Rainbow Dash. There’s a light shining down on us from up high, casting her wings in dark silhouette. Or maybe I just can’t make out colors anymore. Somewhere above her, though, it must still be there—the sun in that cool blue sky. “Hey, Rainbow Dash?” I ask her. “How do you think the books should end?”

Rainbow Dash’s mane shifts behind her as she shakes her head. “End? Why would they ever end? Daring Do’s never going to stop going on adventures, even if there aren’t any more being written.”

“See, I don’t think I like that,” I say. I try to continue but my throat feels all clogged up and my words devolve into a coughing fit. I feel something lodge in the back of my throat, and spit out some shredded pieces of cloth and a button. “I think it’s important to have a good ending. Every book’s got to have an ending.”

“All right, how would you end them?” she asks.

It’s almost… surreal, how this all ended up. No racing, no rivalry, no fighting... Nothing at all like I’d imagined when I first met Rainbow Dash. It’s just two friends now, chatting about our favorite books while I fade away.

“I think... I think Daring has one last big, totally amazing adventure. Then... maybe she gets hurt or something and can’t go out into the field anymore. She’s still teaching, but she’s really unhappy because there’s still so much she never got to do.”

“No way, that’s an awful ending!” protests Rainbow Dash.

“I wasn’t finished,” I tell her. Another cough. Another few scraps of tattered cloth. “So… so she’s in her office one afternoon looking at all the old mementos and trophies from all her adventures over the years, all reminiscing and stuff. And then, see... a young filly—a student in one of her classes—she knocks on her door and comes inside. She’s all excited about something she found in a book in the library, and shows it to Daring. Some new treasure or ruins or something. There always seem to be a lot of those lying around her world, aren’t there?” I chuckle a bit at my own lame joke.

“Yeah,” says Dash, chuckling a bit herself. “There sure are. It’s kinda lame how all those ancient cults and stuff left all those superpowered artifacts lying around for the bad guys to find, isn’t it?”

“So, so then,” I say, “the filly tells her that Daring’s her hero, and that she’s going to go out and investigate because Daring’s stories have inspired her. And as she leaves… as she leaves, Daring realizes that even though she isn’t the one adventuring now, she’s still making the world a better place, because of all the ponies she’s still helping. She didn’t even realize that the greatest treasure she ever found wasn’t some ring or jeweled scepter... but the hope she gave them.”

“That’s totally cheesy,” says Dash and then she gently smiles at me. “Still, I guess that’d be a cool way to end it. If it has to end.”

“It does, Dash. I told you, every book’s got to end.” I squeeze my eyes shut and try to compose myself. I don’t know what happens next. It seems like eternity now since that very first moment, when I woke up in Twilight’s library. “I’m really scared, Rainbow.”

“What? No way!” Dash says. She lays down next to me and runs a hoof gently through my mane. It feels almost like yarn as it falls against the back of my neck. “Daring Do isn’t afraid of anything, remember? I don’t care what you say, you were a totally amazing her.”

“Yeah, I guess I was, wasn’t I?” I rest my head against her and close my eyes. I’m pretty sure I feel them stitch themselves closed when I do. It’s an odd feeling, but not uncomfortable. I don’t think I’ll be opening them again anyway. “Thanks for reminding me...”

I exist.

And then just like that, I don’t anymore.