Daring Do and the Heart of Storms

Chapters

The Beginning in the End
The Name of the Rose
The Virtue of the Knight

The Beginning in the End

Please Note: This Fic was written and conceived before the events of Season 4 episode 4. This fic proceeds under the understanding that Daring Do is a work of fiction by an author who isn't integral to the plot and who also isn't Twilight's mom.

~~~~~

Daring Do stood above the volcano, looking down into its fiery maw as it spat balls of flame in an effort to keep her at bay. But the ledge she was perched on held her weight despite its precariousness as she crawled ever forward on shaking limbs. She had finally made it to the end, and she was one dastardly trap closer to reaching Doctor Rosenthorn’s evil volcano lair.

She was certain that there would be many more trials ahead, but the trap of the crumbling ledges proved no challenge compared to what she had to go through in order to get here. Picking out the one safe path out of many was as easy to her as picking out a red ball from a barrel of blue ones.

And there, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a glint of silver winking out of the crust of the volcano's wall. That was it –the place she had been searching for all this time!

She looked down at the volcano with a tinge of regret in her heart as she recalled the reason why she was there.

The Heart of Storms – that nefarious device she had found on her expedition last month – who would have thought it would have turned out to be something like this?

But with a renewed burst of spirit and sweat on her brow, she kept crawling along the precarious perch that wound its way along the cliff face toward the hidden base that lay beneath, toward the place where the evil Doctor Rosenthorn had installed the stolen relic…

~~~~~

Rainbow Dash let the cover of the book fall shut, not even bothering to shut it herself. The picture under the title looked blurry to her, as if she were staring at it from a long way away. The image of her hero – the stalwart and brave Daring Do – danced on the edge of a fiery volcano, staring furiously at a mechanical device of some kind.

The book’s title, Daring Do and the Heart of Storms, proudly paraded itself across the cover, but the words underneath were what Rainbow couldn't stop focusing on.

'Daring Do's final adventure!' the subtitle claimed, inviting all to witness the last in a long line of novellas.

Rainbow let loose a puff of air, gazing up toward the far wall of her home. She had read this story six times now. The more she read it, the more she felt as if the words had run into streaks of ink across the page, offering no explanation to the one question she had.

What now?

It was the end of an era.

Rainbow Dash scratched distractedly at the melancholy that started to well up once again in the pit of her stomach – a gripping, tightening, turbulent flood of dissatisfaction and pensiveness.

She fumbled with the book in her hooves, tossing it back and forth while considering her next step. It was something she had been considering for a while, but pride fought against logic.

Finally, she let out a sigh that bordered on a groan and shut her eyes, steeling herself for the inevitable.

There was only one pony to whom she could talk to about all this.

Bursting out of the window of her home in the clouds, Rainbow Dash let the cool night air refresh her harrowed face as she spread her wings in majestic flight, the book cradled securely beneath her, clasped in tight legs.

Diving down through the clouds, under the stars that twinkled in their way in the skies above, she made her way to the library.

~ Daring Do and the Heart of Storms ~

Chapter 1 :: The Beginning in the End

"Hey, Twilight, thanks for lending this to me," Rainbow said, tossing the book up onto a stack that was reserved for her and her alone. It landed upon a pony-high tower that consisted of all of the Daring Do series, in order, and one lonely volume of the Galaxy Battles series that Dash didn't really find she enjoyed.

The books, save one, had been borrowed so many times at random that Twilight decided setting them aside in a pile was preferable to always having to go upstairs to the Fiction section and retrieve them.

As long as the pile is neat, Twilight reasoned, and that was enough to help her get over her initial gut-reaction over leaving books on the ground in such a haphazard manner.

A bloom of magic helped adjust the final book to perfect alignment on the very top of the stack.

"No worries," Twilight replied, taking her attention off the tower and refocusing on her guest. "We are a library, after all. You took longer than normal to finish this one. Must have been good, huh?"

"Yeah, it was good! They're always good," Dash said with a level of brash assertion. But even so, there was a dip in the usual level of excitement she had when talking about her favourite series.

"What's up, Rainbow? What’s bothering you?" Twilight asked, picking up on her friend’s mood.

"Hey, is Spike around? How's Spike doing?" The pegasus asked suddenly, ruffling her wings, giving Twilight a half-loaded smile. She looked around, hunting for the little dragon.

"I'm in here!" came a faint voice from the next room. "Just cleaning up!"

"Don't avoid the subject, Rainbow," Twilight said sternly, causing Rainbow’s attention to snap back to her.

"Subject? What subject? I'm not avoiding anything! Nothing's wrong! Who said something was wrong?" Dash stammered out suddenly.

Twilight just waited.

Rainbow Dash was never able to hide anything, despite all her attempts to do so. Her emotions were like oil in a bucket of water; eventually they all ended up rising to the surface. The wry look Twilight was giving her only served to speed the process along.

Rainbow sighed.

"I'm just…" Dash mumbled as her eyes trailed across the spines of the stack of books. "I can't believe they did that."

"Oh! Yes." Twilight nodded, a little less perturbed than Dash was. "It came as a surprise to me as well. I had no idea they were even planning on ending the series. I guess the author just got tired of doing them or something."

"Yeah, you know. I just… I'm kinda bummed out," Dash continued, her gravelly voice sounding even more gravelly than usual. "It's like, I can't believe it, you know? I’m feeling all messed up about it and stuff. It’s weird."

"Oh, you’re just a little upset, Rainbow. Nothing to worry about!"

"W- well, why am I upset, then? Huh?" Rainbow countered, her mind still struggling to accept a very simple, fundamental truth.

"Um… because the series ended?" Twilight offered.

"Well, why'd it have to end, then?" Dash blurted out suddenly, in a loud outburst that heralded a far off thumping in the distance – the sound of a dragon falling off a ladder in shock.

"Calm down, Dash!" Twilight exclaimed, equally shocked at the sudden outpouring of what had to have been a long period of pent-up frustration. "Things end! It’s not that big a deal, is it? I mean… stuff stops, but we move on."

"But not like that! There's… there's so many more stories to tell! There's so many questions to answer! What about… what about in book four?" Dash rushed over to the stack, throwing her hoof at the book in reference. "When they sort of talked about her family but never really said anything after that? O- or book nine? When Daring mentioned her other job? How are we going to find out about that now?”

"Oh Dash, it's up to you to answer those questions," Twilight said with a gentle smile. It warmed her heart to see this particular friend be so passionate about the written word. It wouldn’t be long until Dash would turn into a proper lover of all the literary arts!

"Up to me?"

"Well… look at it this way," Twilight explained gently, taking a step closer to Rainbow. "It's up to us to let them live on in other ways. I mean, you could discuss theories with others, you could… write your own stories, even. It'd just be for you, but that's the idea, isn't it? The books are only as… as alive as you make them, you see."

"Not getting it," Dash said, her eyes as empty as a pair of wells.

"It's like this," Twilight continued, pulling Dash away from the book stack. "The characters in the book… they aren't real. They're only what someone thinks of and puts down on a page, right?"

"I guess so."

"So really, all of Daring Do is just what someone thought of and put down on a page, right?"

"Well, yeah." Dash shrugged. She couldn't argue with that.

"So let's say all these ideas and thoughts were still in that author’s mind, and she never wrote any of it down. They only existed in her head. Does that make Daring Do any less real to you than she is now? All that separates the two is that in one case, these stories have been published in a book."

"What… what's your point, Twilight?"

"If you thought up stories about Daring Do, does it mean it's any less real just because it's not written down?" Twilight leaned closer.

"Well," Rainbow mused slowly, putting a hoof up to her head, mussing her mane. "I mean if you… if you put it that way, then…"

"Yes?" Twilight grinned.

"I… I don't understand the question…" Dash stammered, staring at Twilight's suddenly deflated visage.

"Well, let me put it another way…"

"No! Don't. Stop, alright? Stop." Dash held her hooves up to her temples, groaning in mental defeat. "This is egghead stuff! I don't deal with egghead stuff, you egghead!"

"O- oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

"Anyway, you know what? This has been your fault from the start!" Rainbow exclaimed, pointing a hoof at Twilight's nose.

"Wait, but… how is this my fault?” Twilight asked quizzically, her hoof clutching at her chest in defense.

"You should have never taught me how to read!" Dash yelled.

"Now, Rainbow!" Twilight murmured. “I think blaming me for that is just…”

The room dropped into a well of silence, the swishing of a soft feather brush upon hard leather bindings the only noise as Spike went about his daily duties in the other room.

“Hold on,” Twilight said, softly. “I never… wait… what?”

Rainbow stood there, grinning slyly.

"Rainbow." Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Sorry. Just kidding," Dash apologized, rubbing the back of her neck. "Couldn't help it. I just… I guess I sort of get what you were trying to say. I just don't really wanna think about it that much, you know? I'm not a thinker. That's more your department. But at least I came clean about my feelings, right?"

"At least you gave it a shot, you mean." Twilight shrugged, lips pursed wryly to the side.

"Well, I'm a mare of action!" Dash straightened up, taking in a deep breath, rearing up on her hind legs so that her front ones could participate in a traditional Rainbow Dash flex. "Can't do anything about that! Thinking about it won’t help! I gotta see and feel and do! So if the book are over, then… I guess I’m out of luck, huh."

"Seeing and feeling, hmm?" Twilight asked, looking at Dash with a mixture of guilt and pity.

"Yeah. What about?” Rainbow dropped back down to four hooves, tilting her head slightly.

“You know what?” Twilight sighed, relenting against her better judgement. “I think I can do something for you.”

"W-what?" Rainbow asked, pulling up next to Twilight with a wide-eyed expression.

"I learned a rather interesting spell a few weeks back," Twilight said. "I've been using it for official business, but I don't see why it shouldn't work in this case, too."

"Wait. Are you sure that's a good idea?" Dash asked with scepticism. "You don't exactly have a good track record with messing around with spells."

"I'm going to ignore that," Twilight huffed. "And yes, I’m technically not supposed to use it recklessly, thanks, Princess Celestia, but this one is fool proof. It's a complex but very straightforward sort of spell. The chances of it going wrong are less than one percent."

"So, there's still a chance, then." Rainbow narrowed her eyes.

"It's not going to go wrong!" Twilight groaned with exasperation. "You haven't even heard what the spell is yet!"

"I don't want to hear what the spell is if it's going to go wrong!"

Twilight scrunched up her nose, her bullet-like glare shooting out from her indignant gaze and locking with Rainbow’s. She knew that Rainbow was just being apprehensive about the whole situation, and Rainbow did have a habit of throwing her frustrations over everypony else like wet blankets over a cat.

The two of them stood, seething in silence, glowering at each other for a couple of tense seconds.

Spike walked in, carrying a little stepladder.

"Hi, guys!" he said cheerfully, walking between the two ponies and setting the ladder up against one of the bookcases. “I’m finished over there, Twi.”

Meticulously, he began to swish the feathers across the books, magical dust and other such things coming loose from where they clung.

"Well, alright then," Dash said quietly, eyeing the little dragon.

"Do you want me to do this or not?" Twilight growled.

"Okay, okay!" Dash surrendered, throwing her hooves up in the air. “Tell me what you’re planning!”

"It's a spell that creates an image out of words," Twilight explained. "I learned it to better visualise some of the letters that Princess Celestia sent me. You know, descriptions of complex geometric shapes and complex spell patterns are good up to a certain extent, but sometimes you just need to see things in front of you."

"I don’t think I’d know much about that," Dash muttered.

"Well. What it's going to do is take a selection of text and make an image out of it. Sort of like a… ghost, I guess! It'll be transparent, but you'll get a good view. I'll cast it on a passage of your choice and let you have a little glimpse of Daring Do in the flesh! How about that?"

"You mean I get to see her in front of me? Like, as if she were really here?"

"Yep! Well, she won’t be real, but… you know!"

“How big would it be?”

“Oh, any size, really. I’ll make it life-sized! Just for you!” Twilight explained eagerly.

“And… can I bring her home with me?”

“Ah… no. I’m afraid they don’t last very long, but… a couple of minutes is better than nothing, right?” Twilight grinned hopefully.

“And you say I can pick any passage,” Dash clarified.

“Yep!”

"But… but there's hundredsof cool scenes!" Dash's mouth gaped. "How am I supposed to choose?"

"Well… maybe something from the final book?" Twilight suggested.

Rainbow let loose another sigh, turning her face to the ground.

"And you’re just doing this out of the kindness of your heart, huh?" she asked, voice grumbling low.

"And maybe you’ll be able to get a little closure as well." Twilight grinned sheepishly.

"Well, if you think it’ll help.” Rainbow relented, shoulders dropping a little before she perked up again. “But even then, there's so many cool scenes in the final book! There's that bit at the start where she finds the map, or… or that scene where she valiantly delivers the Heart of Storms over to the museum! Or how about…"

"What's a scene that makes you proud of her?" Twilight asked.

"Proud? Well…” Rainbow trailed off, her eyes flicking to the side as she gave to some thought. “Well, I don’t know. I’ve never really thought of things that way before, but… I guess it’d have to be just before she enters the base at the end. You remember? When she's standing above the ledge that leads down into the volcano?"

"Well, actually, Dash, I haven't read it yet. You borrowed my only copy, remember?"

"Yeah, but I just returned it fifteen minutes ago!"

"And?"

"And why haven't you read it yet?"

"Dash!"

"Sorry!"

"I don't know why I put up with you, sometimes," Twilight bemoaned, yanking the book off the top of the pile. "What page is that scene on?"

"Do you think I remember every page in-"

"What page, Rainbow?"

"Page 158, okay? Sheesh!"

"Okay. Let's see here," Twilight said to herself, flipping to the mentioned page. Right there, in the middle, was the paragraph that Dash mentioned.

Rainbow tapped her hoof on the floor impatiently as Spike dusted another shelf.

"Okay, I think I'm all set," Twilight said, placing the book upright on a little stand on the floor. "Spike, I'm about to cast a spell. Please be ready."

"You got it, Twilight," Spike chortled back, shifting on the ladder to get the far-off bits.

"Are you ready?" Twilight asked Dash, who was already on the other end of the room, just in case that one-percent failure rate decided to bite her.

"Yeah! Go for it!" Rainbow called out.

"Then, let's begin." Twilight nodded, turning toward the open pages in front of her.

And suddenly, the world went white.

A blaze of fire danced within and without Dash's head, a spinning void lacking colour and substance, but the heat… oh the heat! It burned furiously across her eyes and ears.

And when the ringing started, Dash found she had no choice but to pull her hooves away from the sides of her head; the high-pitched whine that began as a far-off siren started to blare loudly from the inside out, and covering her ears only served to keep it in.

Behind tightly shut eyelids, she could smell the acrid scent of something smouldering – a bit of smoke mixed in with a faint chemical-like smell.

But the prickles on her skin reminded her that it was magic that was the spark to this whole explosive mess.

The entire experience was disorienting, and she struggled to find the thought that could describe it adequately. The best she could come up with at the time was that she felt like there was a happy opera-singing pudding bouncing around the inside of her face.

It would have to do.

She peeled herself off the floor, slowly, gently, caution taking hold of her actions as she coughed out the last powdery remains of the smoky air she had inhaled and raised her voice to the room.

"Twilight! I said this was gonna happen, didn’t I? You messed up! Again!" she accused, pushing her way through the dissipating clouds as the storm in her head died down.

"Oh no, I didn't," Twilight responded, chipper. From behind a veil of thick white smog she appeared, the rest of the room following suit.

No damage had been done, that much was clear. The book still lay on the floor in front of Twilight, but so was Spike, lain out, face down, where he had fallen off the ladder. He wasn't moving much, save for a few twitches that showed signs of life.

No, no damage done.

The clouds of magical smoke had definitely come from the book; it was sparking now still, and above it Twilight stood triumphant and haughty.

It was clear that she, too, had been affected by the sudden eruption of noise and light, as her eyes betrayed her with their unfocused dance, but she was attempting to play it calm and steady. She looked back over her shoulder to the approaching Dash, the both of them wobbling on their legs.

Twilight grinned.

"So all this is normal then? Nearly blinding and deafening yourself for a graph?" Rainbow glared, blowing a strand of red hair out of her face.

"Oh, most certainly! Well, alright, the reaction was kind of different. Usually there's not that much smoke. Or noise! Or any of it, actually. But it worked! I cast the spell perfectly!"

"You know, Twilight, I might not be the first to have asked you this but…" Rainbow tilted her head to the side. "How do you know that?"

"Well," Twilight said, walking over to the book and glancing down at it. The pages had begun to shudder, almost as if a gentle breeze was blowing at them. "It's kind of hard to explain, really, but… you just know. That's sort of how magic works. If you mess up, you mess up. And if you do it right, you know you've done it right."

"That's not really an answer," Rainbow countered, stepping up beside Twilight and looking down at the book as well. "Whoa."

The words on the page that Dash had pointed out earlier were shivering. They bounced around on the page, shaking wildly like flies caught under a pane of glass. They seemed almost eager to break free from the constraints of paper, each letter struggling to pull itself away.

"Well, think of it like this," Twilight continued. "If you close your eyes and hold your hoof in front of your face, you still know where your hoof is, right?"

"Yeah…" Dash muttered distractedly. She wasn't really listening any longer.

"It's sort of like that. Even if we don't see the results of the spell, we know where it is. It's based on the casting, you see. When everything goes right, w-"

"Twilight?" Rainbow asked, a tone of reverence in her voice. She was stuck somewhere between wonder and nervousness at the sight unfolding in front of her eyes, an eerie, purple hue casting itself over her face.

It wasn't anything that Twilight hadn't seen before, and she was perhaps a little nonchalant about it all. Perhaps surrounding herself with the wonder and splendour of magic made her take the spectacle of it for granted.

But Dash wasn't accustomed to it, and the low humming of the book, accompanied by the fireworks sparking off the paper, grabbed her attention more than anything else in the room could.

Swirling veins of light started to appear – a tornado of yellow and white lines cascading in the space just in front of the book. All the while, its words shook with such speed that they fell into a blur, small portions of them disappearing and fading off the page.

The book itself jumped and hopped around, nudged by unseen forces, prompting Dash to cast a wary eye toward her friend.

"Oh, that's supposed to happen." Twilight chuckled, waving Dash's concerns away. "Now watch, the image will appear in front of us in just a moment!"

Rainbow nodded in response, turning her attention back toward the swirls.

From within, a ghostly image appeared, the faint sketching of something there, the whisper of an idea taking shape. Letters and words ran across the glimmering form, and, like batteries feeding a grand machine, the image wrapped itself around the writing, drawing upon the power of inspiration.

Rainbow's eyes grew wide.

A few moments more and the image came into focus – the passage from the book was there in front of her, etched out as though it were a statue. But the way it shined and shimmered, it looked to Dash as if it was made out of soap bubbles rather than stone. It was transparent, light, angelic… and also incredibly fragile.

The winds and swirls and noises had stopped, and it remained as a soft projection made of light and air.

And there she was.

Her hero, the brave and honourable Daring Do, was in front of her, splayed out on a rocky ledge that protruded from the floor of the library, craggy shards of volcanic stone creeping up at an angle.

Flickering and flashing with a magical aura, the translucent figure was frozen in a climb up the face of the outcropping, slate-grey mane blowing in a non-existent wind, hat perched precariously on her brow. The smug expression she normally had was present even then as she peered over the side into the volcano that lay beneath.

"Wow, cool," whispered Dash.

"It should stabilize in a second or two," Twilight said, waiting it out. "And… done!"

The image flickered, like static on a television.

"Done?" Twilight repeated. "Uh… done!"

The book shuddered.

"Twilight?" Dash asked, stepping back.

"I didn't mess up! Something's wrong!" Twilight blurted out, eyes darting from the book to the ghostly form and back.

"You didn't mess up, but something's wrong?" Dash repeated. "Yeah, that makes sense!"

"Yes! Something happened, but it wasn't due to my error!" Twilight shouted again. "It should stop in just a few more seconds!"

With another burst of magical glitter, the words written upon the book started to run down the pages, dripping off as if they were wax running down the side of a lit candle. They collected in tiny black mounds at the base of the book and began to inch their way across the floor like living puddles of sludge.

What was once the final chapter of the final book of the Daring Do series was now an amorphous blob of ruinated words in liquid form, and as the two ponies stared in morbid fascination, they could only gape helplessly as the thick black goop started to gather around the base of the image.

"Twilight, what's going on?" Dash asked, watching it unfold but unable to stop it. “Did you just ruin the book? You have another copy, right?”

"No! I mean, this wasn’t supposed to happen," Twilight said, her horn flashing with sparks of its own. "Nothing to worry about, though. I'll just reverse it, and…"

The spell ricocheted off the river of black, splashing harmlessly into the wall behind them.

"Oh boy," Twilight muttered. "Um… don't worry. Nothing to worry about!"

"You said that already!" Dash pointed out.

“It’s… um. I’ll… figure this out! The normal dispel isn’t working! Something must have happened. Maybe the matrices are out of alignment, or…” Twilight muttered, scratching her head. “Well, no harm, though! Why don’t you check out the image? It won’t hurt you! It’s not as clear as I’d have liked, but feel free to go have a look anyway while I figure out what’s going on!”

“Uh, alright. If you say so,” Dash replied, unconvinced.

With all due hesitation, Rainbow walked over to the image that sat comfortably surrounded by a small pool of ink. She hadn't the faintest idea what was going on, but at least she could still try to get some of this closure stuff while Twilight did her little panic dance in the background.

She leaned forward, looking into the eyes of Daring Do, watching her clamber over the stones. It was her last adventure. Her last hurrah. But Dash still couldn't find it in herself to smile at it. All it was to her was her hero’s final walk to the end.

Or crawl, in this case.

The image flickered.

It must have been hot, there, in the volcano. Dash had no idea how close to volcanoes you could get, technically, before you started to roast, but it must have been pretty warm. She imagined the waves of heat rising from underneath and how Daring Do still bravely kept hold of her hat, no matter the weather.

Dash leaned down, her face nearly touching Daring's.

"So…" she said softly to the visage, "just an average day, saving the world, huh?"

A drop of sweat trickled down Daring Do's face.

Rainbow backed up, blinking.

"Hey, Twilight?" she asked, sight still trained on Daring. The sweat stopped in mid-drip, and the image was once again still, save for some odd magical blinking. "The image doesn't move, right?"

"No," Twilight responded as she frantically looked around for some evidence of foul play, which was the next logical step from her making a mistake. "It's just a still image!"

"Huh," Rainbow muttered. Maybe she was just seeing things.

The sweat fell to the rocks beneath, making a small dark mark where it hit the rocks. Rainbow blinked, moving in closer to make sure she saw what she thought she just did. She poked her head right beneath Daring’s, looking down at the clear, wet spot with wide eyes.

“Got it!” Twilight cried from behind Rainbow.

“W-what?” Rainbow stuttered, her eyes flicking upwards once again.

Dash jumped back, her wings semi-extending in a flight response; she was almost ready to run at what she saw.

Daring Do was staring back at her.

“I fixed it! Or at least, I think I did. I mean, the words have stopped… leaking now, for lack of a better term, I guess. I mean… this never really happened before. Oh, I should really find the term for it an-” Twilight chattered from the side, while Rainbow lay crouched down in front of the image of Daring Do, heart beating with slight apprehension.

“Um… Twilight,” Rainbow interjected flatly.

“Oh! Right. Sorry. Yes. It seems to be fixed, for now. Image seems clearer too!”

“Oh, yeah? H-how’d you manage that?” Rainbow called out, mind on other things.

“Well… to be honest, I don’t know what I did. I’ll have to launch a full investigation later to find out the exact syncopa-” Twilight stopped herself abruptly as she finally looked upon her friend. “Dash, what are you doing?”

“Twilight, the thing’s moving!” Dash cried, refusing to blink as she locked eyes with Daring.

“No, that’s just silly,” Twilight responded, walking over to stand next to Dash. She tilted her head as she looked upon the image, which was flickering less now. In fact, it looked rather filled in.

Daring Do blinked.

“Ahh!” Rainbow cried, scooting back and leaping into a low hover. “You saw that, didn’t you? She’s moving!”

“Actually, I did,” Twilight affirmed, amazed. A keen eyebrow shot up at the discovery. “This is… well, this is actually… I might have discovered a variation of the spell which causes the projection to become kinetic! This is… this is really quite… oooh! I have to write the princess about this!”

“Are you sure that’s… all it is?” Rainbow asked as the image of Daring Do blinked her eyes once again. More and more, Rainbow Dash felt like the moving image was actually looking at her rather than just in her direction.

“Oh, I’m certain of it,” Twilight reassured Dash with a smug smile, reaching over to tap the rock three times with a hoof, each rap giving off a sharp ‘clink’. “It’s just an image, you see?”

“Uh, Twilight.”

“Only an… image,” Twilight repeated, rapping on the rock again. It was remarkably solid. Not only in feeling, but as the black pool seeped up and completely faded underneath the image, its colour filled in as well, the bold and robust forms of the volcanic rock erupting forth.

Twilight reached up a hoof slowly, toward the side of Daring Do’s face.

“Twi? What are you doing?” Dash called out, landing next to her.

“I… I’m testing something.”

Dash watched as Twilight moved her hoof closer… closer still… and even closer still to Daring’s cheek, until it was a mere inch away.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Daring screamed suddenly, her wings ruffling as she twisted in midair, grabbing Twilight’s leg with the crook of her own and pulling her to the floor of the volcanic outcropping.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Twilight screamed in return as she was thrown over the rock roughly, the flat craggy surface scratching her chest. Before she knew it, a leg was pushing her face on the stone, and her leg was locked beside her in a professional hold of some kind.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Dash screamed, falling back on her rear in a rare case of being shocked. She was caught in that moment where confusion and shock prevented her from acting as she normally would.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Spike screamed, suddenly awake thanks to all the other screaming.

Panic and pandemonium echoed throughout the library as a multitude of things happened all at once. But it was very clear, after a few moments, that no one present had any idea of what was going on whatsoever.

Twilight’s horn fizzled out as she attempted to cast a spell.

Rainbow scrabbled back to her hooves and put on a determined face.

Daring’s breathing hastened as fear set in, her eyes taking quick, confused glances at her surroundings.

Spike wisely decided to remain on the floor, keeping up his act of unconsciousness.

“Who are you?” Daring was the first to speak – or in this case, yell – as she demanded information from Rainbow. “Tell me, or your friend gets it!”

Twilight struggled against the tightening hold of Daring, and any attempt to cast a spell was unsuccessful for some unknown reason. They all resulted in a fizzle, flaccid magical sparks flopping around on the ground like a bag of marbles dropped on a trampoline.

“Leff me go!” she cried, flailing around with her three free limbs.

“No! You! With the rainbow mane! Tell me who you are! Now!” Daring continued yelling.

“L-let her go!” Rainbow replied, suddenly aware of the direness of the scene unfolding.

“No!” Daring yelled.

“Pleef! Leff me go!” Twilight begged, speaking half into the floor.

“No!” Daring repeated. “I’m not going to fall for that! Identify yourselves! Tell me where I am! And then tell me how I got here! Is this the power of the Heart?”

“The H- No!” Rainbow cried out, dropping her shoulders and rubbing her eyes in frustration. “We’re not the enemy, okay? We don’t work for Rosenthorn!”

“But you attacked me!” Daring Do growled.

“I waffn’t attackffing you!” Twilight whined.

“She wasn’t attacking you!” Rainbow reasserted, frowning.

“You were screaming! That is a clear sign of an attacker!” Daring yelled down at Rainbow.

“No! We… I mean, you were screaming too!” Rainbow replied. “Why were you screaming?”

“For the element of surprise!” Daring yelled. “It’s basic fisticuffs!”

“But we only screamed because you screamed!” Rainbow cried.

“No! I screamed because you screamed!” Daring shouted.

“Canff we aww stoff screaminph?” Twilight screamed.

Rainbow lowered her hoof. She didn’t even remember when she raised it, but it was, just a moment ago, pointed at Daring Do in a threatening manner. She let her posture drop to one of a less hostile sort and welcomed the short span of silence.

“Alright. Patrician?” Rainbow said, in a regular tone and volume now, at which Daring raised an alert eyebrow.

Rainbow pulled the title straight from the books – it was what all her peers in the Adventuring Academy of Fenwickshire called her according to her adventurer’s rank, and a little respect always went a long way. With any luck, Rainbow could get her attention, and that was all she needed.

“We can explain,” Rainbow continued, noticing how Daring let off the pressure on Twilight’s head slightly when she called her by her title. “You’re not… at Doctor Rosenthorn’s lair anymore, alright? I’m not even sure… how you’re here. This is all a big accident. It’s going to be a weird story, but I promise we’re not the bad guys. Would you please get off my friend’s face there? There’s no danger here.”

“We cnff offerff youff ffuhm tea!” Twilight threw into the bargain.

“Tea?” Daring repeated, looking down at the purple unicorn she was squishing.

Another tense moment passed as Daring Do looked over the two of them, regarded the library itself with even more curiosity, and looked at the ‘unconscious’ figure of Spike with just the tiniest bit of disdain.

“Alright,” she finally said, pulling her hoof off Twilight’s face and getting off her back. “But no cheeky business, you got that?”

There was a properness to her voice that Rainbow couldn’t quite put a hoof on. It was neither boorish nor overly formal – even while making threats she sounded like she was merely issuing a rather austere suggestion.

To Rainbow, her accent sounded as one befitting an aristocrat from a distant land of knights and chivalry. It was true that Daring’s home town was always portrayed as a splice between the days of yore and a modern Trottingham, which, according to the official trivia, it was based upon. But Daring sounded nothing like how Dash portrayed her in her own head while reading the books.

In fact, Rainbow always imagined that Daring sounded a little like herself most of the time.

Rainbow watched with curiosity as Daring Do twirled a small amulet on a chain around her hoof before she slipped it into one of the many pockets on her adventure vest. In the meantime, Twilight tumbled off the rock, rolling unceremoniously back to Dash before she leapt up to her hooves and looked herself over for damage.

It was quick, but Rainbow saw a flash of crimson, the shape of a horn, and the octagonal golden frame that held it, and she widened her eyes as it dawned on her just what that thing was.

“T-that’s the Anti-magic Amulet of Armadale!” Dash gaped, pointing a hoof at Daring. “I can’t believe it!”

“W-what?” Twilight stuttered, still slightly disoriented from the whole ordeal.

“That’s why you couldn’t use your magic! She was pressing it against your face, wasn’t she?” Rainbow yelled gleefully, grabbing at Twilight’s head.

“H-hey!” Twilight batted a pair of curious hooves away, turning her cheek – the one with the weird amulet-shaped imprint on it – away from prying eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“Hold, rainbow-head!” Daring Do declared. “You know about the amulet?”

“Yeah! Of course I do! You retrieved it from the Nests of Neblumor!” Rainbow said, her excitement returning as she started to devolve into an excited child. “I can’t believe it works here!”

“Wait… but that’s guild business,” Daring stated. “You’re a member of the guild? Why didn’t you say so bef-”

“Hah! I wish!” Rainbow cried out in glee. “Omigosh, if only I were!”

“Then how do you know of it?” Daring frowned again.

“Of course I know!” Rainbow smirked, flicking her mane over her shoulder. “I’m your biggest fan, after all! I’ve read all your books!”

Daring Do tilted her head. She felt her frustration and suspicions leaving, soon replaced by an odd sensation that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. A small wave of disorientation hit as she looked to the two ponies that stood before her – normal, unassuming ponies, all things considered, and she couldn’t help but feel that there was something wrong about it all.

The rainbow-head was now staring up at her as if she were looking upon a revered idol, and the unicorn was now covering her eyes with a hoof in embarassment.

The dragon was still pretending to be asleep, face down on the floor, but Daring had noticed him peek at her once in a while when he thought she wasn’t looking.

There were just things that didn’t make sense about this place, little oddities that flicked her in her brain and made her feel uncomfortable.

And that, despite its negative connotations, was something she could take solace in.

It was a silly thing, but she felt more secure when she could feel things. She felt the sudden chill from when she was brought from the volcano to this place. Certainly, teleportation spells were not uncommon, or perhaps this was some sort of variation of the standard Wayfarer Trap, but there was confusion and fear, and she had felt those too.

It made her take comfort in the fact that what was happening was something real, something she could invest in.

There were far more urgent things to worry about, though. She had to get back to the evil Doctor Rosenthorn’s evil volcano lair of evil to thwart his evil plans for world domination – just her regular Tuesday.

But yet… there was something about what rainbow-head had just said that caused her to pause.

Something that itched in the back of her head. Something that she had to address before she continued on her mission. It wouldn’t take too long, she reckoned, and then she’d be on her way.

Daring looked with a newfound sense of determination to Rainbow, staring daggers at her.

“What do you mean… ‘books’?” Daring asked.

“I’ll go make the tea,” the purple one grumbled as she walked off into the next room.

“Um… well. I guess you’d better have a seat,” the rainbow one offered. “This is going to be a pretty unbelievable story.”

To Be Continued ––––––––––––>

Author's Note

This fic would not have been possible without the help of a few special individuals.

Thank you very, very much to:

Crack Javelin for the original idea ball and working out kinks
Mr. Seldom Needy for being an amazing story doctor
q97randomguy for having the most eagle eyes of all grammarists
Cyne for the support and love

And to all else for everything else. You guys are great, and thanks for reading!

The Name of the Rose

~~~~~

Two ponies and a little baby dragon sat around a table in the middle of a library somewhere in Ponyville.

All of them sat silently, shifting about in their seats as four cups of tea congealed in front of them. Half-drunk and stone cold, they had been resting there for the good part of an hour while words were thrown and things were explained until one of the group decided to leave for a visit to the washroom, where she had a long stare in the mirror and a long think about life.

Every so often there would be a cry and a crash, perhaps the frustrated thrusting of a hoof into a wall. Snippets of words like ‘book’ and ‘alive’ came floating out from behind a closed door, often punctuated by a groan of frustration and general chants of disagreement.

It wasn’t that the others were trying to eavesdrop, but even if they were muffled, her frustrations came loud and strong and filled with emotion, and it was those drops of emotion that nailed themselves into the hearts of the three who were sitting around the table.

This left them in an uncomfortable muteness, not because there was nothing left to say but because there was too much.

The privacy was a bit of a blessing, however, and the looks on the faces of two of them betrayed their intention.

Twilight Sparkle looked from Spike to Rainbow and back again, clearly not wishing to interrupt what their expressions clearly told her.

Rainbow was mostly looking away, a chin propped up in a hoof. Every once so often, she’d glance over to Twilight but turn away instantly once she saw that Twilight was regarding her back with a sort of patient curiosity.

Spike simply looked worried. It was a little easier to read him.

The clock on the wall thundered at them every time the second hand shifted.

“Um… Twilight?” the dragon muttered.

“Hey, Twi…” Rainbow coughed out with a gravelly voice.

The pony at the other end didn’t know who to turn to first and so satisfied the situation by tilting her head quizzically.

“I’m sorry,” the both of them said simultaneously.

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

Rainbow and Spike stared at each other, both of them hovering over their words.

“I just wa-” Rainbow started again.

“Twilight, I-” Spike uttered at the same time.

“Oh, uh… go on, Spike,” Rainbow said, motioning for the dragon to continue.

“Um… that’s okay. I think you’d better go first,” Spike excused himself, wincing from the bad timing.

“Oh… right. Well,” Dash muttered. Being put in the spotlight by the tiny little dragon was just what she needed. “Yeah. So. I’m sorry, Twilight.”

“For what?” Twilight asked, genuinely in the dark.

“Well, I wasn’t… you know. Being real nice this morning,” Rainbow said, waving her hoof around in the air. She looked away again, frowning as if she were annoyed.

She probably was, Twilight reckoned, but only about how difficult it was to say this, and in that did Twilight find the gesture incredibly sweet.

Twilight smiled.

“Not a problem,” she said. “You were upset. I understand.”

“Yeaaaah, but. You know…” she continued in a low grumble. “I was being a bit of a jerk. I was just, you know… you know?”

“I know, Rainbow. It’s okay. Really, it is.” Twilight continued grinning softly. It was something she picked up from one of her other, pinker friends – always wear your intentions on your face, and no one can be mistaken. A smile worked perfectly for this situation.

“Thanks, Twilight. You’re a good friend. I really mean that.”

“And Spike,” the unicorn continued, slightly more motherly. “Why are you apologizing?”

“Um…” Spike grinned sheepishly, playing with his claws. “Well, you know how I was lying in the library just now, after the spell went funny, right?”

“What about it?” Twilight asked. “You fell off the ladder. I’m just glad you’re not injured!”

“I wasn’t… maybe… not really… hurt.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. It was that eyebrow Spike had expected to see. It was the eyebrow that suddenly turned Twilight from a nice, loving friend into a very frightening mare indeed. Spike winced again.

“Go on, Spike. Don’t worry,” Twilight encouraged him firmly. “I’m sure whatever it is, you had a good reason.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t help! But it was all loud, and… things were happening and everypony was screaming and I was just really, really confused!”

“Well… I suppose that’s forgivable. But still, it doesn’t explain why you were pretending to be knocked out, Spike,” Twilight noted.

“Maybe I was kinda… trying to hide.”

“Why?”

“I… um… maybe... caused it…?” Spike half-asked, hoping that turning it into a question would make it less true.

“You what?” Twilight charged, voice raising.

“I think this whole thing with Daring Do is… mayyyybe… my fault?” Spike grinned through the guilt. “Um… I’m really sorry.”

“Wait… but… how is this…” Twilight’s attention flew to the washroom, where a figure, eyes heavy and face sullen, staggered out. “We’ll talk later, Spike. Don’t worry, alright? I’m sure there’s a good reason why you think you caused it, but I’ll need your help to figure it out.”

“Alright, Twilight,” Spike smiled a little, a bit more hopefully this time, ever glad for his boss’ forgiving nature.

But their minute apologies were cut short as Daring Do returned, her hat slung over her back and her grey mane dishevelled. She looked like she had been through much worse than a mere volcano, and there was a dullness in her eyes that showed just how distant she was.

She shuffled back to the table, sitting down where she had been a few moments ago and took the cup of tea in her hooves, cradling it as if it were a baby.

A long sip was drawn from the stone-cold cup, but she didn’t act like it was any different from a wholesome, warm gulp of a freshly steeped brew.

The other three dropped their heads low, and once again, the silence of discomfort ruled the room.

“Can I get back?”

The first thing that she said was something delivered over a cracked, worn voice, strained to the ends of capacity, burnt out like a day-old candle.

“Yes,” Twilight replied as gently as she could. “We think so. It’s just a matter of figuring it out, and… we can put you back exactly where you left.”

“I have a city to save,” Daring Do mumbled.

“I understand. We’ll do everything we can and-”

“Please. You understand that I have to return.” She threw a hoof up to her head to rub her temple. She had spent quite a while by herself, but stress was something not easily discarded. The others could only try to imagine the level of confusion she had been going through.

“We’ll do everything we can,” Twilight repeated, patiently. “I’ll go and check the book, and-”

“The book!” Daring cried out, pushing her hooves into her face. “The book! That’s… I just can’t… How could I be from a book? That’s the one thing I just can’t accept!”

“We don’t know how it happened. It’s… magic. Magic is unpredictable and, in many cases, undecipherable. It’s a powerful thing, and what happened was unfortunate, but…” Twilight said.

“Um… Patrician?” Rainbow started, cutting in.

“No, don’t… don’t call me that. Please,” Daring implored, rubbing her forehead. “I’m not… I mean… I’m sorry. I never liked that title. Just call me by my name. Please.”

“A-alright, Daring, I-”

“No, I meant… I meant my name.”

The comment gave Rainbow pause.

“Wait… um… I’m sorry, but… isn’t ‘Daring Do’ your… name?”

“What? No, but… is that what you think it is?” she asked weakly.

“Well, in all the books… they only ever call you that,” Rainbow explained.

“Oh…” the adventurer muttered softly. “That’s rather odd, isn’t it? I mean, it’s a nickname, really. But… I suppose. It’s strange. These books you say that are about me… they tell stories about my life, do they not?”

“Yes. They… I guess they do,” Dash shrugged.

“But they leave out such an important detail?”

“Well… I mean… but all we get to know from our side is what’s in the books. I mean… all anypony knows about you is from what they read, right?” Rainbow scratched her head.

“Surely not. I mean… you’d think my name would be of consequence. Ponies use it all the time. How could it have not shown up even once? I mean… you know eerie things about me. Things that no one should know. Things I’ve done. Things I own… and you don’t know… this?”

“But… I don’t get it,” Dash continued. “I mean, I’m not trying to argue or anything, but… to us, you’re just a character from a book. I don’t even know how all this magic stuff works at all, but… if it wasn’t written down, then how could there even be anything else? This changes so much.”

“Well, maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Daring stated huffily.

“Rainbow,” Twilight cut in. “Remember what I said earlier today?”

“What?”

“Are the stories any less real just because they’re not written down?” Twilight smiled, giving Dash a suggestive nod. “Funny, huh?”

Rainbow blinked towards the table, thinking back on the conversation they had earlier. Suddenly, in context, the entire thing took on a whole new meaning. There was a strange truth to it that applied in a way that it shouldn’t, and it somehow made things simultaneously more and less clear all at the same time.

“Excuse me,” Daring said, holding up a hoof to the room. “I’m not a fictional character, alright? I’m… real. I have memories. I have a life. I’m certainly not from a book, and I don’t know how I got here, but I can assure you that I’m no less real than you are.”

Rainbow stared at her idol. She was an impossibility, and the prospect of her was frightening on so many different levels. There were so many things that she hadn’t the time or patience to think through. But yet, at the forefront of her considerations was the one single question of what was she?

Dash waved it away. The ideas that rose were far too complex for her mind to want to tackle at the moment, and she was left with just a thought that was far simpler to answer. It was a puzzle that could be solved, and there was something rather comfortable about that. And so it was pursued, and maybe, little by little, this would help Dash to know the pony sitting across the table from her who was nursing a small, cold cup of tea.

“So…” Dash said. “What’s your name, then?”

~ Daring Do and the Heart of Storms ~

Chapter 2 :: The Name of the Rose

The whippoorwills called out to the sky as they took to flight, leaving a dusting of old, discarded feathers and half-eaten grubs to settle on the cobblestone path. The thundering beat of hooves against pavement interrupting their feeding as the fleeing figure cascaded down the narrow alleyway.

Red brick surrounded her, caging her, trapping her in. They rose up against the clouds, and from the alley, they seemed less like the backs of stores and more like a cell.

There were only two ways out, and one path had already been taken.

She stepped back into a murky puddle of stagnant water, wrinkling her nose at the stench. Garbage pails lined the wall, bordering a door that was tightly shut.

Up above, the shadows of the Air Detail blotted out the rays of the sun as they patrolled overhead, keeping a wary eye on the world above.

She ruffled her feathers. This had been a wrong turn. This had been a mistake. She didn’t know this city as much as she boasted, and this was not the first time this had happened, especially when she was being chased by him.

Many moons ago she had stopped expecting that he wouldn’t arrive, and almost as if the thought brought the world to life, a familiar shade of brownish blue appeared at the corner of the alley.

Familiar grey mane. Familiar worn swagger. Familiar blue leg-band that boasted the rank of Staff Sergeant of the Fenwickshire Constabulary – something that he had earned entirely through merit and efficaciousness.

And that was something she knew from example and not hearsay.

The winged mare narrowed her eyes, her crisp, bright wings the colour of a glorious sunrise ready to propel her off into the distance, to whatever direction she desired. Her hat rested uneasily on her brow – a pith helmet, something that she had acquired during one of her many jobs.

The stallion thumped in, a tired, pointed gait carrying him across the uneven stones toward the mare. He looked at her with eyes that looked past the scene, eyes that betrayed the future.

He stopped just after the entrance to the alley, his presence more than enough to provide the final wall to her cage.

“Good afternoon,” he said, sullenly. “Fine day for a walk, isn’t it, Lady C-”

“Ah… ah, ah,” the mare chuckled, despite her weariness, her response the last arrow in her quiver. “No real names in public. You know the rules.”

“We’re alone,” the stallion responded, looking around quite deliberately.

“Still, though.” The mare panted, catching her breath. “Rules.”

“Speaking of rules. Card?”

The mare tossed her jet-black mane up to the skies. This was always the annoying part.

“Must we do this every time?” she asked, tired smile breaking through like the last vestments of sunshine across an aching sky.

“Yes. Rules. As you said. Don’t throw that at me if you aren’t going to follow yo-”

“Fine! Don’t tire yourself speaking,” she said, pushing a hoof up the brim of her hat.

A small rectangle of thick card was retrieved, ‘Guild of Acquisitions Membership Card’ displayed boldly across the top in gold emboss. A mug-shot of the mare balanced itself in the corner next to details of her involvement in the guild and her current rank within – ‘Lady’, as the card so stated.

She flashed it at the officer as she took a glance at the back, four red stamps bearing the Constable Crest filling in four out of ten printed boxes.

She sighed a long sigh. This capture would be her fifth. Unless, of course…

“Go on. You’re knicked. Why don’t you come peacefully?” His voice broke her out of her focused thoughts as she stared down the alley in search for ways to get away. “It would be a lot simpler.”

“Maybe if this was my first time, Sergeant Jameston.”

“Staff Sergeant,” he corrected.

“Staff Sergeant. Yes. But we’ve been around this block five times, and you know we only get more tenacious the more we’re stamped.” She waved the card at him once more.

“And you know we never give up our quarry.”

“So, here we are, at an impasse, my dear. I suppose… I suppose you’re going to have to come here to get me, aren’t you?”

The officer rolled his burgundy eyes, looking upward into the brim of his bobby’s hat. She always made it annoying.

He lifted his leg, and the chance happened.

The chance came in a matter of a moment, and was a chance as opposed to an opportunity due to the very nature of what it was.

But the Lady was a rather smart mare, and a rather quick mare, and she took that chance like a kingfisher plucks prey from a lake full to bursting.

There was a click off to her left at the very moment the Sergeant took a step forward, and that was enough.

It was far more difficult to change speeds as one is in mid-step. It was a rule of life. It was a rule of the world. And it only gave her the barest of seconds, but that was enough to take that chance.

The back door to the grocer shop lay where the noise was made. A grocer, bringing a heavy crate full of scraps out to discard, unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Pushing off the very air, the pegasus flashed her feathers and darted toward it, diving, swooping, all along the alley floor, as the grocer leapt out of the way. She crammed herself into the narrow crack between door and wall, escaping into the shoppe.

Staff Sergeant Jameston landed his hoof, picking up his pace to quicken to a slight trot and nothing more. He stepped over to the grocer, on the cobblestones, picking up his boxes in a daze as vegetable ends and root tops lay scattered across the ground, above whom he stopped, staring at the doorway.

“Pardon us for the mess. The Fenwickshire Constabulary appreciates your cooperation,” he told him before passing by and carrying onto the door.

With a great tug of a well-worn foreleg, he pulled the door open, strolling in as calmly as he had strolled into the alley itself. He nodded at the two constables who stood within the back rooms of the store, keeping watch of their bounty.

Like a rabbit caught in a mess of brambles, the quarry lay tangled up in a thick mess of cord, woven together in what looked very much like a net made from old sweaters.

The Staff Sergeant stepped over her, looking down over the crest of his muzzle, and only then did he finally turn up the side of his mouth in a modest smile.

A card was pushed through one of the many uneven holes in the net, which Jameston snatched up and kept away firmly.

“Thank you,” he said, nodding at his team to release the Lady. “I told you it’d be simpler if you just came with me.”

The Lady sighed. This was going to be another long day down at the station and another long day back at the guild, filling in paperwork.

She hated the paperwork.

~~~~~

The two of them sat at a desk, the desk in the middle of a busy, noisy station, the station on the end of a street down one of the main thoroughfares of downtown Fenwickshire.

Jameston raised his hoof, shaking off the tiny, little stamp he had tied to the end of it and looked at his hoofwork. A new stamp lay next to the others, printed freshly in a slightly lighter shade of red.

“Can I have it back yet?” the Lady asked, tapping her hoof impatiently on the table. She reached out and flicked at a quill that stood in a wooden quill-holder, at which Jameston stared before flicking his eyes back to her.

He slid the card back across the desk to the Acquirer, as they were called.

“May I go?” she asked, grumpily, shoving the card back into her hat.

“You can. But I’d rather you stayed awhile. We’re still filing your reports. You might as well hang about, just in case. You know how these things are. Don’t want to have to come back in a couple of days because of some idiot clerk error, right?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“So, what was it this time?” Jameston started on his documents, leafing through them. “What did you want from the… ah… the Museum of Natural History? Really?”

“What, they didn’t tell you?”

“No, actually. I wasn’t on duty when the call came in,” he wrinkled his nose, as if he smelt something rather foul. “But really. The Museum? That’s a different target. Who hired you?”

“Eh. It was internal this time. Another guild.”

“Hm.” Jameston raised his eyebrow. “Curious.”

“Yeah, that’s what we thought. And you know. I don’t have the best track record. Five strikes and only a Lady. They pawned it off on me. Got me to do the ‘weird’ job,” she continued.

“You sound like you didn’t fancy taking it.”

“Well, not really. I mean… like you said. It’s the museum. It’s one of those places you don’t wanna really mess with. You always hear funny things about the Collectors’ Guild.”

“Yeah, you do. But you took it anyway.”

“Girl’s gotta eat.” The mare shrugged.

Despite bearing the title of ‘Lady’, she was neither ladylike nor elderly. The title was merely bestowed as a rank of the carefully named Guild of Acquisitions, but she was much more youthful and foolhardy than was suggested.

She sat there on a small cushion across from the slightly older Staff Sergeant, blinking her bright red eyes at him in the most scathing way that she could.

It was the little things.

The officer sighed. Somewhat similar to the little thief, he was a lot younger than his title suggested. But once in a while he dropped his harsh exterior to get to the soul of a subject. And this was one of those times.

The officer sighed.

“Don’t start,” the mare interjected, holding a hoof up to him. “Just don’t.”

“I have to.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Do you do this with every pony you drag in?” she asked, staring at him.

“No.”

“Just me, then.” She frowned slightly at the insinuation.

“I don’t.”

“I heard you!” she yelled out, attracting the attention of the owners of the two desks beside Jameston’s.

But he was already caught in a bubble and didn’t pay them any mind. His scrutiny was given solely to the mare who sat in front of him.

“Why’d it have to be you, anyway? Why not… Berkley over there?” The mare griped.

Berkley waved, grinning nervously.

“Uh… I… I don’t know. It just happened.” Jameston shrugged. “I don’t control these things. There are few things I have control over, and I can’t count the life of a young girl amon-”

“Oh, don’t give me that. You’re not that much older than me.” The thief snorted. “You sit here all high and mighty on your… whatever… constable cushions and tell everyone else how to run their lives.”

“Well, no. This… all this is just the job.” Jameston pointed to his hat and then to hers. “But that’s why we have the rules, right? Thing is, you’re halfway to getting discharged from the guild. And I will catch you five more times, Caspia.”

“Don’t use my real name!”

“We’re not in public.”

“See, if it had been Berkley the-”

Berkley waved again.

Jameston frowned him back into his paperwork.

“... If it had been anypony else…” she grumbled.

“Maybe. Who knows. Maybe I just want to catch you.”

“Why?” Caspia asked, slowly.

“Because I want you to change.”

“You don’t like who I am?” she said, looking up at him again, locking eyes to scratch out the truth.

“I… want to know you differently,” Jameston finally answered, after a moment’s pause.

They both fell silent, the Staff Sergeant shuffling papers all over his desk.

“Listen,” he picked up again. “I… You can go. But please take this.”

A small leaflet fell to the table – a brochure for one of the oldest guilds in town. It advertised it, brought forth its qualities. It told the world of its nature and showed its features in bright colours and flashy pictures.

“They started accepting conversions. They’ll allow you to start at equivalent rank in their guild as you have in the Guild of Acquisitions. It’s… worth thinking about. And it’s similar enough to what you do now that… well. Whatever it is you get out of acquiring…”

“The thrill of the ride, I guess. All our lovely meetings.” She plucked the leaflet off the table, flipping it over to scan the information detailed on the back before tucking it into her hat. “I’ll… I have to go now.”

“Yes. As you were. If there’s anything else… I’ll give you a call. But I’ll try to make sure your paperwork’s processed correctly.”

“That would be very much appreciated,” Caspia said, turning to leave. “And…”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

The mare walked out of the station, deflated and tired. Many things weighed on her mind, so much so that even Staff Sergeant Jameston could see it perched on her shoulders.

“Hey,” a voice called out.

“Yeah,” Jameston said, eyes following Caspia as she strolled away.

“Hey!”

“Yeah?”

“Staff Sergeant Doudemelle!” the voice yelled.

“Sir!” He snapped back to attention, facing the station’s captain and standing rigidly straight.

“Stop flirting and get the hell back to work,” he ordered gruffly.

“Yes, sir,” Jameston H. Doudemelle replied.

~~~~~

“No!” Caspia cried out, cradling the wooden statue in her hooves. “Noooo!”

“Drop it, I said!” Jameston yelled up at her with annoyance, sweat beading on his brow. “Come on! It’s not worth it! Just… let’s not keep doing this!”

“No! I… No! Just, ‘no’!” She yelled back. “I got this fair and square, James!”

“Cassie!”

Her name echoed off the cavern walls, carved stone dragons spitting fire across the enclosed chamber. Silver-gilt reliefs of Hayztec pictograms decorated the borders, and square pillars kept the crumbling roof aloft.

It was a huge cavern, only able be called a room merely by the function it provided, rather than its architectural nature. But it was filled with traps and death and poison, all to prevent the wayward fool from reaching —

“I found it, James! I actually found the Coltese Falcon!” she shouted, waving the small wooden figurine around with her free hoof. “Can you believe it?”

“Cassie! I can’t get up there, you know! Just throw that thing down, and-”

“No! Mine!”

Caspia hung off the edge of a rocky outcropping, body pressed flat, face-first, against the natural veins of marble that ran across its surface. It was a ledge that was rather impossible, as if somepony had simply cut a small cap in the rock and left it there. It once opened up to a corridor of sorts, but one of the nefarious traps had pushed a rock through, and like a natural piston, shoved everything else out.

Bad planning and tectonic shifts had meant that the rock didn’t move all the way to the edge, leaving a few precious centimeters for Caspia to cling on to. But she had been pushed through decades of cobwebs – the one decoration that the corridor had – and the silk of the Sassifry spider made for a rather sticky situation indeed.

Caspia swayed in the breeze that cascaded through the underground cavern, her back and legs bound by a veil of webbing, the tough, glue-like strands keeping her wings in check.

A spider crawled across her face, silently judging.

Below her was a drop into pure darkness. It didn’t matter what else there was.

“Cassie! Just… this really isn’t as bad as… did you call me here just for this?”

The mare waved the statue around again. It was the only thing she could do. One hoof was busy keeping her alive. Everything else was stuck together with organic paste. She used the beak of the wooden falcon to hit a button on a small device that was tied to her vest – a radio of sorts, just to show Jameston how she had done it.

Jameston’s radio crackled with static as the button was hit.

“You’re not supposed to… I told you before, Cassie. Constable business only. I’m supposed to be working, you know!” James shouted exasperatedly. “Stop calling me to help you with your things!”

“Oh, James! I… eek!” she screamed as a particularly large waft of warm air hit her in the face, causing her to sway back and forth like a pendulum. “Please! I… just… need the points! I’m moving up, James! I just need this! This is ten points right here. Ten!”

“Ten?” James raised an eyebrow. “That’s… quite a bit, actually. Not bad. And you’re at, what was it? I forgot, but that’ll put you over the rank, wouldn’t it? Is that why you’re-”

“James!”

“Oh, right!” The Master Sergeant said, stroking his mustache. It was a new thing. Caspia hated it, but he had wanted to try. It gave him something to stroke while he was thinking.

He looked around the area. He stood on a small outcropping somewhere far below and off behind the large wall that Caspia was hanging from. Being a pony of earthly persuasion, he wasn’t in the position to be able to change his stance on the problem. The wall went on for ages. Crawling along was not going to be an option if she refused to relinquish the treasure, and flight was certainly out of the picture, given her current web situation.

And by right she shouldn’t give up the prize. He would never say it, but he admired her tenacity.

Above and behind him was another cliff face, one that hung above the ledge upon which he stood.

Somewhere in the distance, a dragon carving spat out another fireball.

“Right,” he muttered.

“James! I’m slipping!” she yelled.

“No you’re not.”

“Yeah, I’m not, but hurry up, okay?” Caspia whined. “Just think of something!”

“Not a problem!” he said, calmly. He was always calm. Very collected. Very patient and focused. It was the only way to do things. “Right. First of all. All the webbing on the wall over there? How strong is it?”

“I can’t unfurl my wings, James! What do you think?”

“Right. Sticky. Strong. You’re already trapped. Why not?”

“Why not what?” Her question echoed throughout the cave.

“Cassie, how mobile are your legs right now? All four of them?”

“Well… uh…” She tested it out a bit, moving them around as much as she could. “Pretty… pretty mobile? I mean, my rear legs are tied together, but I can still swing around, I guess!”

“Alright. You’re going to have to jump.”

“What?”

“No, not jump down! Jump back!”

“Back?”

“Yeah. Push yourself off the wall, and try to push… you know! Backwards!”

“I repeat, James. What?”

“There’s a wall behind you,” Jameston pointed. You could probably get to it if you jumped far enough. I’ve seen you make longer leaps, so this should be fine. And the webs…”

“The webs!”

“Yes. Always remember, Cassie. Put what you have to work for you. Remember two years ago? The very last time I caught you before you finally decided to switch jobs?”

“Stop bringing that up!”

“Yes, well. I created the opportunity for you. The door, as you will. And you took it, because… well. It’s what we both had, and we both needed to use it. I turned my weakness into a strength. And that’s how I caught you. So you need to do the same, and always do the same.”

“Now’s not the time to teach philosophy!”

“It’s applicable!” Jameston shrugged, even though he knew Caspia couldn’t see. He knew she felt it, though. And that was enough. “Look, just jump, alright?”

“Fine!”

She sighed, looking at the medium-sized wooden statue. It sat there in her grubby mitt, the final goal on this long and arduous path. She gritted her teeth. It was all that was left.

She flew.

She was like a rock let free from a sling, her powerful spring propelling her across the air as Jameston watched from below, a slightly concerned look on his face. But the look replaced itself with one of minor accomplishment as he saw his plan come to fruition.

Caspia hung off the wall above him, stuck fast like a stamp. The statue remained in her tight grasp, even though the landing had taking some of the wind out of her lungs. Her hat slid off her head, falling with a thunk on the floor next to Jameston.

He walked over to casually pluck something from the band on the hat.

“You really ought to take better care of this,” he remarked, fiddling with the Adventurer’s License in his hoof. Her name, overlaid with rainbow foil, bore the words ‘Caspia H. Lightbrush’ at him in glints and glimmers, followed by the rank of ‘Principalia’. “So, with this statue thing… that’ll push you up to Patrician, huh?”

“Y-yeah,” Caspia responded from behind a daze. “U… Am I alive?”

“Yeah, you’re fine. You should be coming down soon.”

“Wh-what?”

“Gravity. Gravity’s your friend. Just roll with it.”

“R-roll with… wh-?”

As sticky as the silk was, it wasn’t enough to keep her splattered up on the wall indefinitely. She started to peel away as the forces of nature took over, tugging her away from the rock.

“N-no! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” she screamed as she started to roll, tumbling down the side of the wall, the sticky webs always keeping her attached but momentum forcing her progress downwards. Like a child rolling down a hill, Caspia rolled down a vertical face as the world spun around her like she were stuffed into a washing machine.

She stopped moving when she hit bottom, a thick layer of rock dust floating up into the air and scattering itself ceremoniously around the fallen figure.

Jameston walked over, placing the hat back onto her head as she left her face on the floor where it landed.

“There, then. All’s well! I have to be back on patrol now, but… well. I’ll see you Saturday for lunch, yes?”

“Mrefgh,” Caspia responded.

“Good then! Enjoy, and… oh, congratulations on your impending promotion.”

With a smile, the stallion left, walking back to the entrance of the cave.

The rock dust, undisturbed for ages, fell in gentle sprinklings over the still form of Caspia, scattering themselves all over her stilled form. They twinkled in the light of the fireballs of the cave, the scattered flashes reflecting off their reflective surfaces, and in the darkness and gloom, she was rained upon by the stars.

~~~~~

The confetti fell, blinking brightly in the sun, dancing in the air, and trilling on the breeze of that warm, bright Spring day.

Jameston, bare-faced and handsome, all done up in his best suit, stared into the eyes of Caspia, who was wearing an ornate white gown.

It was all nice and all, but the real treasure was that he had actually shaved for the event, something she was trying to convince him to do for over the past three years now.

“You may now kiss the bride,” somepony said.

It wasn’t important who it was.

It was only important that it was happening.

Jameston swept her into a tight embrace, the bouquet of daisies falling to the ground.

They were surrounded by all their friends and family in the procession that took place in a little gazebo at the edge of the lake. The walk up had been decorated with white lace and a white carpet, and everyone was there. Everyone.

Even Berkley, Jameston’s best friend and work partner, gave a little nervous wave when Caspia looked over the crowd through moist eyes.

Small clockwork devices fired rice and confetti into the air – those things had started to pop up everywhere, and were slowly taking over the land as the future technology. Everything now, trended into clockwork.

But some things still remained very traditional, and small refreshments were passed around by hoof, as guests were waited on by the very best of service.

Their parents roared with laughter and shared stories over a drink or two. Tales were told, anecdotes were passed around, and the couple found themselves floating on air.

It was like taking a ride on a carousel – one can spin around on a sea of colours before realising that the ride stopped a few minutes ago and one has to move onward. And so it was for the couple as they retreated back to their home on the waterfront – a small house, a modest house, but something they put their money into with thoughts lying firmly in the future.

It was family land, but belonged to Jameston now, and his parents had no problems with him refurbishing their old summer estate. After all, the Captain of the local precinct ought to have a home befitting of one in order to provide for his family!

It was only right.

His parents had graciously allowed him to remodel a single room, and remodel he did over the next few weeks, for they were deep in preparations for a single thing, and it was soon that the luxurious wallpaper, designed with patterns of fleur de lis and cursives, was torn down and replaced by a wall-to-wall mural of the map of the world.

A cot was soon built out of solid oak, and no expense was spared to make sure the room was proofed adequately for its future inhabitant.

And they installed, to the ceiling of the room, a brilliant, glorious light that took up centerpiece of the nursery. It spun slowly on a chain, every continent of this marvellous world lit up from behind, every ocean hiding a story and every crest of land hiding an adventure.

And in under a year, the cot was filled.

Two loving parents looked down at their child – a beautiful daughter who had her mother’s brilliant yellow coat dulled slightly by her father’s, a black mane with streaks of grey running through, and eyes a blend of both of her sires’.

Her mother would kiss her in the cot every day, promising her the finest schools and the best education that they could afford.

Her father would stand sullenly by, promising the world of support and the adventures that they wish they could have for themselves.

The hat was placed by her cot, with the promise that she would one day wear it herself. It was a gift from them, to inherit what they were.

And they had it embroidered with her name.

A name which took from either parent, just as she had in her appearance, but also bequeathed with a name that, in a foreign tongue, spoke of bravery and truth.

And so did that young filly grow, and live and play, and have adventures, and live her life.

And so did she, one day, speak her name to a band of strangers in a brave, new world.

Rainbow Dash looked at the rough-shod stitching on the inside of the brim of the hat. Not once, in any book, was this ever mentioned. She ran a warm hoof over it, mouthing the words to herself.

“Haley Waleria Doudemelle,” she read, looking up at Daring.

“Just Haley, please,” she replied. “It was my mother’s middle name. And my middle name means something along the lines of ‘the brave one’, if I am to recall it correctly. The last name is my Father’s. It’s not conventional, but my family wanted me to have a piece of them in name. It made us… rather close. We were tight-knit, growing up.”

“So… where are they now?” Rainbow asked, sliding the hat back to Haley.

“My mother moved to the NPS. My father still works for the Constabulary, but as a consulting detective. They’re both always travelling a lot. But that’s fine. I travel a lot as well.”

“The NPS?” Twilight asked.

“The National Preservation Society.” Rainbow explained slowly. “It’s one of the top guilds in Fenwickshire. They oversee the transfer of relics and things like that. Have a lot of influence with the Adventurer’s Guild. It was in one of the books.”

Twilight blinked. If Rainbow had started the day with a lack of enthusiasm, this was Rainbow completely drained of all starstruck peppiness.

“So, you followed in your mom’s hoofsteps, huh?” Dash turned back to Haley, quietly asking the burning question.

“Yes, I do suppose I have,” Haley muttered, as she played with the cold cup of tea that had not been refreshed by request. “I…”

She had stopped. She cut herself off in mid-sentence, trailing off into a wordless mime of discomfort. Her eyes closed for just a moment, opening once again with a slowness that showed just how heavy the thought behind it had been.

“Haley? Is everything alright?” Twilight asked.

“Am… I going to see my parents again?” she asked, softly, the unmistakable glimmer of sadness in her eyes.

It was a tough question. Twilight had no way of answering it comfortably. After all, she could always just be honest and hopeful, but right now, this was a situation that required a better approach. Still, words ought to be said, and thoughts were gathered.

It came to a shock to her when the response came from someone who wasn’t herself.

“Yeah, of course you are,” Rainbow told her, in a voice that matched the sullen dullness of the atmosphere of the room. “Don’t worry. Twilight here’s an expert. Whatever happened, she can figure it out. Might take a while, but it’ll happen eventually.”

“I… do so very much hope that that’s true,” Haley murmured.

“Yeah,” Spike piped up, a little bit more cheerful than the others. “She can do it! She can do anything! She’s one of our world’s most gifted ponies, you know!”

“Thank you, little dragon,” Haley said, looking a little less troubled and a little bit more guilty for the comfort she now felt. “I… I will keep hopeful, then.”

Rainbow nodded. Twilight found herself nodding along as well, even though she didn’t really know why. Rainbow spoke with a decay that this Haley pony might not have picked up, but Twilight had known her for a while, and Rainbow was not merely being sad.

But Twilight agreed anyway. She felt that she was merely swept up in the scene.

“If it is alright with you three, I thank you very much for the hospitality, but I would like some more time alone. I need to think about things. I am afraid that I am still very much in… Well. I’m shocked, I have to admit. Would any of you mind if I retired to a quieter spot if you happened to have one around?”

“Not at all!” Twilight burst in, finally able to add to the conversation. “In fact, I have a lovely place where I go to muse on things myself. Spike, would you show her to the balcony, please?”

“Of course, Twilight!” Spike said, leaping off his stool, his natural instinct to play Best Assistant taking over. After all, what passed had passed. There was only professionalism left.

“This way if you would please!” He flourished a clawed hand toward the back of the library, to the staircase that led up to Twilight’s private thinking spot.

“And feel free to use the telescope!” Twilight added. “It can be very calming, looking at the sky!”

Haley nodded and followed her host.

“Even though it’s daytime…” Twilight added, under her breath. “Stupid Twilight! Stupid!”

The two remaining watched as Haley disappeared up the stairs. It was only when she was most certainly out of earshot when Twilight darted her head closer to Rainbow’s, which had a rather curious expression on it.

“Rainbow! What’s wrong?” the hushed unicorn whispered.

“What?” Rainbow asked, her mind drifting on clouds.

“That! You know! The whole thing with the… ‘you’ll be fine’, and…”

“Oh, that. She just needed to hear that everything was gonna be alright, that’s all,” Rainbow explained, as if it was something she did on a regular basis.

“Well… that’s remarkably insightful,” Twilight commented bemusedly. “But why are you all just… okay with this all of a sudden? What happened to being excited about meeting your hero?”

“Oh, you know.” Rainbow stared up to the corners of her eyes, clearly focusing on something else.

“What?”

“That closure stuff is pretty powerful, Twilight. You’re right. It’s all I needed!”

“Wait, really? That’s all it took? I was thinking I’d have to do a lot more,” Twilight grumbled with the snarky voice that she pulled out once every so often for specific responses.

“I don’t know, Twilight! I just… I don’t feel sad anymore. I just think she wants to get back home, so… let’s find a way to put her back home! I mean, she’s just a character from the book, and it’s been kinda interesting and all with the story and all that, but I guess… I guess seeing her in the flesh…”

“She isn’t what you envisioned?”

“Yeah. I guess so. I mean, it’s probably just because of how the spell worked or something. Maybe it read the books wrong. I mean, I don’t know where all this extra stuff is coming from anyway. Are fictional characters allowed to just… make stuff up?”

“I don’t know. This has never happened before, Rainbow.”

“Yeah, I know,” Rainbow rolled her hoof around in the air. “It’s cool, Twi.”

“So, why is it that you look like you still have something on your mind?” Twilight asked.

“She’s just… not at all who I thought she was, that’s all,” Rainbow sighed, looking longingly toward the staircase. “I mean, I know she isn’t real, but I was hoping at least that she’d be sorta like… She’s nothing like the books! She’s not… strong… and brave… and loud… And, a name? What’s up with that? What’s all this ‘Haley’ stuff? She’s supposed to be Daring Do.”

Rainbow turned towards the table before she continued speaking, pausing for a few moments to collect her flooding thoughts.

“I mean, in the end, I don’t really feel sad about the ending of the series anymore, but… it’s in a way I didn’t expect. You get what I’m trying to say?”

“Well, keep in mind that this never really was supposed to happen in the first place. In fact, I’m still trying to figure out what happened. Well! No problem, though!” Twilight rapped the table. “I’ll just have to try to recreate the problem with Spike. Gotta find out exactly what was on that brush and… in what quantities… and hm… no issue!”

“You can figure it out, right?”

“I should be able to!”

“Because otherwise I don’t know what we’re going to do with her.”

“Rainbow! That’s not very nice!” Twilight frowned, shocked at her friend’s callousness.

“Twilight, she’s not real,” Rainbow asserted once more. “She’s just something you accidentally pulled out of the book!”

Twilight stared at her friend. There was something remarkably different about Rainbow. She was acting in way that Twilight had not seen before in… well, ever. This was… new. But then again, this whole situation was, and that couldn’t be repeated enough times either.

Rainbow seemed almost insistent to state that the pony they had just met was a fictional creation. It was much like how Twilight repeated things herself. It always brought her comfort, even though they didn’t necessarily reflect the truth.

But if this was the same thing, then Twilight clearly knew what Rainbow was trying to do.

Rainbow was trying to hide.

“I… well. I don’t know about that,” Twilight shrugged, trying to probe deeper. “She seems real, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, but you know, she’s just a bunch of ink and stuff. Bet that’s all that’s in her, huh?”

“Actually,” Twillight mused, stroking her chin with a hoof resplendent with a thought. “That is a good question. And one that I am, for the sake of science, curious about.”

“What?”

“Is she real?”

“What kind of question is that? We know what she is.”

“Yes, but… well. I mean, physically. What exactly did come out? The use of magic to create life has always been debated, mostly because of the definition of what life is. Is she… well… is she like us? Or does she, as you so eloquently put, have ‘ink and stuff’ on the inside?”

“How are you even gonna find that out?”

“Oh… I have an idea,” Twilight grinned. “Let’s give her some time to calm down first. And then, I think we should pay one of our friends a little visit.”

To Be Continued ––––––––––––>

The Virtue of the Knight

~~~~~

“O-oh!” she squeaked.

It was a high squeak. A cute one. One that, in any other situation, might be something that Haley would blush at with justifiable cause.

But this was strictly professional.

Fluttershy pulled the needle away from Haley’s leg, unable to keep it still enough to pierce her skin confidently. The syringe rattled in Fluttershy’s hoof like a toy meant for a toddler, and her gaze told Haley that the demure yellow creature would rather be anywhere else at this current moment.

“No… no… That’s not where the vein is…” Fluttershy muttered.

“You… have done this before, correct?” Haley asked, her regal tones overlaying the quickly falling lack of confidence in her voice.

“O-oh yes. Yes, I have,” came the response. “Well… I mean, o-on animals, that is. T-this is rather different.”

“Forgiving my brashness, but perhaps we should visit a… ah… well, more general practitioner…” Haley turned her head, eyebrow raising toward the figure standing by the door.

Rainbow leaned casually against the cottage’s only traditional exit as if she were guarding it, legs crossed and head tilted away in what appeared to be a cool disinterest of the proceedings of the room.

“Yeah… listen. Number one? Fluttershy’s a great doctor, got it?” Rainbow spat a response at Haley. “I mean, she doesn’t treat ponies, technically, but we’re all the same, aren’t we? In the end we’re all just ‘animals’, so just let her work!”

“Th-thank y-” Fluttershy murmured.

“Secondly, we can’t really see anypony else,” Rainbow continued in a huff. “I mean, you know. We don’t really want it getting out that we… brought a book to life. If you were… you know, full of ink or words or whatever…”

Haley frowned.

“I told you. I am a real flesh-and-blood pony. I don’t see why you keep insisting…”

“Just try to see it from our point of view here!” Rainbow grumbled back tersely, pushing herself off the door and standing up straight.

“Now, why don’t you try to see it from my po- Ow!”

Haley winced, turning down to look upon a face that pleaded for forgiveness.

“S-so sorry!” Fluttershy shuddered with embarrassment, chasing away her grievous mistake with a soft, nervous smile. “I… I didn’t mean to… I mean… please, just hold still! It will be over in just a few…”

“Um… Listen. Fluttershy, correct?”

“Oh, yes, that’s right,” Fluttershy nodded happily. Her nervousness faded slightly as she revelled in the joy that her name was remembered.

A trickle of red started to bubble into the syringe.

A sound came from over Haley’s shoulder, like a puff of air being released from a balloon all at once. The pony named Rainbow had fallen back to her casual lean against the door.

Haley turned back down to the doctor after the momentary pause.

“Don’t worry. It was merely the unexpectedness of it all,” Haley explained. “I’m not hurt.”

“Oh, that’s such a relief,” Fluttershy trilled, breathing easier. “You’re a great patient. Thank you for being so understanding.”

“Not at all. And you’re a great… well, vet, I suppose.”

“Oh yes, I am a vet.” Fluttershy nodded, slightly distracted with watching the little tube fill up with vitae.

“So, just out… out of curiousity…” Haley began, quirking an eyebrow.

“Y-yes?”

“This world…”

“O-oh, yes! It is a different world to you, isn’t it? This must be so new and exciting!”

“Well, it is rather different. But it’s also… quite the same, in some ways.”

“I’ve r-read a few of your books, Miss Do.”

Haley sighed.

“I suppose that’s how everyone in this world is going to see me, isn’t it?” she asked the room in general.

“Well, I mean, if you sorta look at what happened,” Dash commented, “kinda hard to not.”

“I’ve always found your world to be very curious and interesting and lovely,” Fluttershy continued over the other comments, “but it’s always hard to forget that you would see us in the same way! How are you finding it so far?”

“Well, the company is lovely.” Haley glanced at Rainbow out of the corner of her eye.

Rainbow blew a strand of hair out of her face.

“You about done yet, Fluttershy?” Dash asked impatiently, glaring back at Haley for just one fraction of a moment.

“A-almost done!” Fluttershy retracted the needle, immediately setting it aside and drawing out a huge roll of fabric from a shelf along the wall.

“Ah…” Haley muttered, attention caught by the swathe of cloth. “Perhaps…”

It only took a few scant seconds before Haley’s leg was entirely wrapped in bandages.

“Well. Alright, then,” Haley commented softly, setting her leg back to the ground, watching Fluttershy pick up the blood sample and take it to a counter to her left.

The little doctor spat it out onto the countertop, busying herself with gadgets and equipment of all kinds.

“Oh, you were about to ask something earlier. What did you want to say?” Fluttershy recalled, smiling, happy in her work as she drew a glass slide out from a small rack.

“Oh! Yes, that’s right.” Haley nodded. “Well… I suppose this might come across as rather forward…”

“Don’t worry!” Fluttershy reassured, dragging a microscope forward. “Please feel free to ask anything you’d like. You are our guest, after all! I mean… I have so much I want to ask you as well. I-if you wouldn’t mind, that is.”

“Of course not. But… well… my inquiry is… about your names.”

“Our names?” Fluttershy reconfirmed.

“Yes. They are… rather different. I find them curious.”

“D-different? How so?”

“Well, they’re all… just… different,” Haley repeated, a better word not coming to mind. “I mean… for example, and please do pardon the affront, but what is ‘Fluttershy’, exactly? It’s sort of like ‘butterfly’ but not really.”

“Yeah? What kind of name is Haley Waleria Doudemelle?” Rainbow shot out from behind her.

“It’s a name!” Haley turned back again, frowning. “It’s a proper name! Now, I honestly didn’t mean any offence, so…”

“Yeah, well, I kinda liked it better when you were just ‘Daring Do’,” Dash grumbled. “At least that wasn’t a stupid name.”

“Oh, excuse me! Look who’s talking!”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean… you’re named after an… an illusionary sky mirage and some sort of… speedy action!”

“At least I’m named after real things!” Dash exclaimed, once again peeling herself off the wall and thrusting her chest forward. “Whereas you might not even be r-”

Haley burned white.

Her face was flush with a pale crimson, her lips parting to take in shallow breaths of air. She shut her eyes to cast off the world and felt the air around her turning a pale shade of grey.

“W-whatever,” Dash murmured, suddenly much more deflated than she was before.

Haley never saw her leave the room.

The air bit at Haley’s lungs. She could feel the wind rush past her lips as she sucked it down, and she could feel the soft and fluffy bandage coating her leg. She could feel the floor beneath her hooves, and she could feel the sting of the echoes of words left behind.

But she wondered if that was enough to prove that she was really feeling them.

“Um…” a tiny, gentle hum came, pushing past her thoughts and shaking Haley back to life.

She glanced forward, looking at the reticent creature in front of her. Fluttershy crept up with a look of guilt that was far more than was required for the situation.

“If it makes you feel better,” she whispered, “I like your name. I think it’s pretty.”

“It’s… Thank you,” Haley replied, pulling her hat off her head and letting her ashen streaks fall across her face. “I guess…”

Haley tried to think of something to say. Something that would represent the situation, something that would hold a torch up to this dark path. Nothing came to mind, and she found her very words burning out.

“H-here. Have this.” Fluttershy continued, pushing a small flat lollipop into Haley’s hoof. “It’s, um… strawberry.”

Haley stared at it, the corners of her mouth turning up a small sad fraction as she murmured the only reply she had to give. “Thank you.”

Fluttershy sighed, scraping at the floor with a hoof.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“What for?”

“My friend Rainbow. She’s… she’s never like this. She’s usually very supportive and strong-willed and confident. Please, please don’t think badly of her. She’s not herself today.”

“Well,” Haley replied, still staring at the lollipop. “I suppose I’m just a victim of bad timing.”

A little hum grew from Fluttershy’s throat as it led up to a response. “No. It’s something else.”

“What do you mean?” Haley looked up, quirking an eyebrow.

“I… I really shouldn’t say, but, oh, I hate it when ponies fight. Especially my friends!” Fluttershy squeaked, stamping the floor with the fury of a ladybug.

“Hey, it’s alright. You can tell me.”

“My friend Rainbow… I think she’s just confused, Miss Do.”

“Call me Haley,” Haley said. “What do you mean by ‘confused’?”

“Yes! Of course. I’m sorry. Miss Haley. Well, you see… you probably won’t believe me, but she’s actually your biggest fan.”

“My… fan?” Haley repeated with slight hesitance.

“Y-yes! It must sound odd considering all this, but she actually loves you!”

“Pardon me?”

“N-no, I mean, she loves all the books,” Fluttershy amended. “The books that you’re supposed to be from. She can quote lines from them, and memorized all the small details, and… and she owns all the action figures!”

Haley blinked.

“I’m just not sure why she’s acting this way,” Fluttershy went on in rapt frustration. “I would have thought she would be more excited. After all, she’s had a crush on you for oh so very long.”

“A… a what?”

“Oh, no! I mean… it’s not strange, is it?” Fluttershy started rattling, trying to explain. “I mean, we all like characters from books sometimes, or from shows or from things. It’s not weird! Dash is normal, I promise! She ju-”

“No, no. Not that,” Haley cut in, her expression changing to one of confusion. “She had a crush on me?”

“Well, the ‘you’ that was in the books, at least. Your character.”

Haley let the words trail off as she thought about them.

“Huh,” she finally said, summing up her entire feeling about the issue.

“So I really don’t know why she would be so… rude about it, but maybe she’s just confused? After all, it’s like meeting your hero for the first time, and Rainbow is a very proud pony, and… well… and…”

Haley nodded.

“I understand,” she said. “I think I do, at least. I’m not sure. It wasn’t the best of welcomes, but I suppose-”

“Oh, you’re such a patient and thoughtful pony,” Fluttershy blurted out.

“Oh, no. Absolutely not,” Haley waved it away with a disdainful snap of the neck. She never took praise when it wasn’t due.

But yet, her eyes travelled the course of the room to the door. She couldn’t see through it, but she knew who stood just beyond the wooden frame.

Haley let out a sigh. One slightly less of contempt and more of a melancholic sadness as she thought of things that forced their way into her mind.

“Are you alright, Miss Haley?” Fluttershy asked, tilting her head as she stared at the distracted pony.

“O-oh. Yes. I am. I suppose I am beginning to understand the situation here. Albeit slightly.”

“I’m… I’m glad.” Fluttershy said hopefully. “Understanding is always the way to pleasant relationships. My grandmother used to say that all w-”

Fluttershy’s words were cut off as a new look stumbled onto Haley’s face, a little thing that seemed oddly out of place for the situation.

“Um… Miss Haley?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you grinning?”

“Oh, was I?” Haley stopped her smile but left herself in a mood of thoughtful indulgence. “I’m sorry. I was just thinking of something.”

“What?”

“There was a young girl once,” Haley said, looking to her companion and locking gazes, “who was very much like Miss Rainbow Dash out there. She couldn’t deal with something and was remarkably afraid. She was afraid that things wouldn’t go the way she wanted and did not wish to approach that which she was afraid of.”

“What happened to her?”

“She told the truth.”

“And that helped?”

“It helped.”

“But what happened?” Fluttershy asked, quite directly. “If you don’t mind me prying, that is.”

“Well,” Haley replied. “It started on my first day of testing.”

~ Daring Do and the Heart of Storms ~

Chapter 3 :: The Virtue of the Knight

Thank you for considering The Adventurer’s Guild for your future education and employment opportunities! A wild world awaits those who join, and life only gets more adventurous upon the issuance of your very own Adventurer’s License! However, all things start at the School of Adventuring, and each student will be categorized into one of twelve Guild Chapters which will dictate their future role in the Guild. Please familiarize yourself with them below:- Explorers
The brave and stalwart Explorer seeks out new territories and lands. Travelling the world, they learn how to map, navigate, and charter. This Chapter is for the pony who loves to see the new and experience something fresh every day of their lives! The backbone of the entire Guild lies in the hooves of the Explorer.

Trackers
Has an item been stolen or lost? No fear! Call upon the Tracker to find it. Whatever the item may be, be it treasure, document, or pony, the Tracker will find it and bring it back to its original owner. The life of a Tracker is frequently rewarding, and there will be no shortage of excitement!

Archaeologists
Has one of your Guildmates found something that requires a more sensitive touch? Have they found a buried treasure that needs to be unearthed? Or perhaps they have found a relic that needs verification! No fear, just call the Archaeologist! With brush in hoof, the Archaeologist swings in to secure dig sites, extract precious items, and deliver them to clients, freeing everypony else from the hassle!

Spelunkers
If the outdoors is not your scene and you prefer spending your time in a mysterious, unexplored cave, then join the Spelunkers! One of the most challenging Chapters, the Spelunker learns how to navigate dangerous terrain, map out caves, and prepare risk assessments. Oh, and did we mention treasure? There is always treasure in every cave just waiting for a Spelunker to find it!

Tinkerers
Do you have a mind suited for creation and invention? If you aren’t sporty, strong, or quick, there is still a place for you in the Guild! Make your livelihood as a Tinkerer where a careful hoof and ingenuity leads the day! Creating and inventing the equipment that everypony else relies on, you can be one of the first to take advantage of steamtech in the new age!

Assayers
Tombs and caves and foreign lands are filled with traps left by civilizations gone by. The Assayer also avails him or herself to the other Chapters, supporting them with the amazing knowledge of traps and tricks. Understanding the basics of how to disarm, create, and apply traps of all kinds, the Assayer is not only flexible but always in high demand!

-Scriveners
In order to understand the past, we must rely on the records of the civilizations gone by. And the dozens of languages and texts left behind are safe in the hooves of the Scrivener, who is able to translate, decrypt, and decipher. As a Scrivener, you will handle documents and books for the understanding of the old generations gone by.

-Emissaries*
Do you prefer to engage in the quieter side of things? Do you prefer not to be seen? Do you prefer not to be given credit for your work? Then come join the shadowy side of adventuring and be part of the Emissary Chapter! Emissaries take the jobs where a bit of covert operations are necessary!

-Brokers
Treasure and treats not for you? Well, maybe you prefer to deal with valuables of a different kind! The Broker trades information, contacts, and knowledge. They strive to discover the world by approaching what has already been found, and they dig things up from a very different sort of terrain! If you enjoy speaking and are good with communication, Brokering is a highly specialized and very lucrative field!

-Enforcers
If you were born with the blessing of size, the speed of an asp, or the magical dexterity of a wisp, then maybe it can be put to good use! The Enforcer Chapter is about protection, be it securing a site or fighting off bandits. When it comes to jobs that require a bit of offense, the Enforcer Chapter steps in to save the day when words and negotiations fail. Highly important for all activities of the Guild, the Enforcer is highly valued – and highly compensated – for their art.

-Shamans
The mystery of the world is found in the secrets of nature! Unlock the hidden powers of the things gone unseen! Know how to survive in the wild! Learn how to create miracles from materials! Plants, animals and minerals – these are the interests of the Shaman who puts them to good use in the fields of medicine, advancement, and research, and finds a way to unlock their full potential.

-Outfitters*
When a team comes together, they require leadership. The Outfitter takes care of jobs of a grander scale, calling and managing resources and overlooking a team of other Chapter members. The Outfitter is the commander and leader, able to see things from every point of view and handling them accordingly. Outfitters must be prepared to make the hard decisions for the sake of their team and the quest!

*Please note that you may not request to join this Chapter. You will be invited to join if you are deemed qualified during your placement exam.

~~~~~

“Find your groups, and report to your stations,” the voice boomed over the loudspeakers, “and good luck! The entrance exams begin in half an hour!”

Haley stared down at the small brochure in her hooves, a large number ‘5’ scrawled upon it in shaky script. Underneath was written a single name – ‘Viceroy Arlington’.

She looked up from the paper, pushing back the hat that had fallen over her eyes. It didn’t fit, but she still insisted on wearing it anyway; it was what her mother had worn to her entrance examination, and Haley wanted to follow suit, despite being many years too young to wear an adult-sized pith.

The site of the Adventurer’s Guild’s testing grounds were awash with life, buzzing with potential students and overseers and viceroys. Even one of the Domini had come to give the opening speech and had just stepped off stage to return to the campus.

There was an excited hum that flew melodically through the air, and the entire open field was less green than it was speckled with the assortment of ponies that inhabited the huge space.

Refreshment tents had been set up along the outer border for parents to inhabit – a place to wait while their precious children took the tests. A different sort of energy arose from those areas and stopped short at the applicant-only border that only allowed the applicants through.

Haley stood in the middle of the field, looking past the swathes of crowds to try to spot her parents. It was a futile act, but it didn’t stop her from trying anyway. Even if she could look past the dozens upon dozens of other hopefuls, the waiting tents were far too distant for her to pick them out in a crowd.

But they were there, and in the end, that was all that mattered.

Haley swallowed a gulp of air.

She looked upward to the large poles that had been erected at various places on the grounds, each bearing banners and flags decorated with the guild crest, each lavishly painted and filigreed with reds, purples, and golds. Each pole also bore a number, and it wasn’t long before she found the one bearing the number ‘5’ – the same number as her scrap – to which she moved as she pushed through the crowd.

Like ants, the applicants eventually found their way across this frightening new world to their respective spots, clustering around them and waiting for further information.

In the hot sun of the open fields, the other hopefuls stood impatiently, waiting for something to happen. Haley suddenly felt a bit more thankful that she brought along a hat.

But without direction, the majority of the crowd took their time, and they all mingled and talked and chattered, slowly separating into their individual groups.

It was a good moment to take a breather.

“Hey, got space under there?” a voice came from her left.

“Whu-buh?” Haley replied, pushing the hat back off her eyes to take a closer look.

A young stallion – one a few years older than Haley by the looks of it – stood up tall, a smooth voice of almond butter pouring from his mouth as he spoke.

“Your hat.” He smiled, tilting his horned head toward Haley as a sign of respect. “It’s a cool hat. I like it.”

“Oh! It’s… it’s my mother’s,” Haley replied. “It’s the one she wore when she first joined the Adventurer’s Guild herself, actually.”

“It’s a nice look!” the stallion continued. “But you’d think it’d be a better fit, huh?”

“Whu-? Ah, right!” Haley exclaimed. “No. She transferred in from another guild, so she was a lot older. She told me it was pretty weird to be one of the few adults amongst all the children.”

“Well, there’s a few adults around this year as well.” The unicorn looked out into the crowd. “Rare, but it does happen. Some of them are the invigilators, of course, but at least a couple are surely applicants! And as you can see, I’m not quite so young myself!”

“Invigi-wha?” Haley asked.

“Our testers,” the stallion explained, rubbing his brow with a hoof. It was rather hot.

His long, black mane didn’t help with the heat, Haley was sure. But one couldn’t really do anything about that.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t introduced myself. How rude of me.” He held out a hoof. “Maxville. Maxville Sunderland.”

“Haley Doudemelle,” Haley replied, bumping her hoof against his.

“Well met, Miss Doudemelle.” Maxville nodded again, giving her the most polite of smiles. “It should start soon, I think. They’re just waiting for everypony to get into place.”

“I don’t mind the wait. I’m kind of nervous about it, to be honest.” Haley chuckled, nervously, to prove her point.

“Well, we all are. But all we need to do is put in our best effort, and everything will turn out champs,” Maxville assured her. There was a tone in his voice that made Haley feel a little bit more comfortable with herself. She had no idea what it was, but she felt inclined to believe what he said despite only having met him a few minutes ago.

“So, which chapter are you joining?” Maxville asked, tilting his head to the side slightly to look at Haley’s mark.

“Um…” Haley muttered, swivelling so that he could have a good look at the compass that adorned her flank. “I’m not rather sure. I was thinking explorers, maybe. But my mom was a spelunker, so… maybe that? They’re all the same, anyway.”

“Well, they do seem similar. I always wondered myself why the twelve schools were so closely related but still considered separate.”

“What about you? What are you joining?”

“I don’t know either! Unlike you, I don’t seem to have a clear course,” Maxville laughed, showing off his flank, which was devoid of any picture upon his dark blue coat. “I suppose I will let them assign me one after the test.”

“Listen,” Haley muttered, eyeing a small patch of flowers a few meters away from the pole. Other than the plants, it was one of the few places in the field that bore a small tree. “Would you like to have a seat in the shade? There’s somepony already there, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind sharing.”

“I definitely wouldn’t say no to that!” Maxville exclaimed as the two of them pulled into a walk towards the tree.

“Well, you ought to have an idea, at least,” Haley commented. “I mean, about what you want to do. You decided to join the Adventurer’s Guild for a reason, surely?”

“Oh, yes, yes. I mean, I simply want to be in this line of work. It’s so exciting, isn’t it? Getting to travel the world and meet new ponies and see new things! My parents weren’t really excited about it initially, but I managed to convince them.”

“So you want to work in the Guild, but you don’t know what to do in it?”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Maxville chucked with good nature, the two of them stopping under the shade of the giant oak. “I suppose that sounds a bit silly, but I always felt that flexibility is important. I don’t mind any of the twelve chapters, so I’ll do my best in whatever I get assigned to! Besides, even if you do request, sometimes they’ll pick something else for you anyway, so, in the end, I’m not too bothered.”

“Oh, they do that?” Haley asked. “Mother never mentioned.”

“It’s something quite new. The tests these days are a lot more elaborate than they were many years back. The guild has grown, and they have to make it more efficient now. I think that’s why. I still don’t understand the chapters, though.”

It was something to think about, which Haley did as she looked around the tree. A circle of daisies were growing around the base of the larger plant, and it was only in a small wedge at one side of the tree where the flowers did not grow, as if somepony had intentionally removed them.

“Excuse me, miss,” Maxville said with a cough to clear his throat, approaching the figure who sat in the shade. “Would you mi-”

“Stop!” the figure yelled, raising her hoof.

Maxville and Haley froze in place, Max himself in mid-step.

It was such a powerful voice coming from one so small. She was an earth pony, brown coat and green mane, an odd colour combination that was unfortunately not very pleasing to the eyes. In fact, being so close to the ground, she very nearly resembled a plant herself. Even her mane was slightly shaggy and scruffed up, like the leaves on a bush.

A pair of thick brass goggles hung around her neck, and in her hooves was a small golden cube that she was playing with, covered with lines and etched with channels. It looked as if she were trying to navigate a small ball across its surface – a shiny metal pin-head that would only travel along the grooves in the face of the device. Every once so often, she would swivel the cube along an axis, changing the configuration of the lines.

“Don’t step on the flowers,” she commanded, pointing a hoof at them without looking.

“O-oh, I’m sorry!” Maxville stuttered, retracting his leg. “Are you…”

“No. Gardener’s watching us,” the earth pony continued, swivelling her hoof to a spot across the grounds toward an elderly stallion in a straw hat, although her attention was still clearly focused on the little, puzzle-like toy that she held. “Has been ever since I got here. Don’t wanna bother him. Don’t want him to bother me.”

“Oh, that’s alright, then!” Maxville remarked chipperly, stepping around the border of the tiny, white plants. “We’ll look out for them, won’t we, Haley?”

“Ah…” Haley hummed.

“Haley?” Maxville turned around.

“Yeah… I… um…” Haley pulled her hoof back, a couple of the daisies crushed beneath.

“Oh dear,” Maxville muttered, holding his own hoof up to his mouth.

The pony on the ground rolled her eyes and went back to fiddling with the cube.

None of them saw him arrive, but in that very second, he was there. A hoe and a rake were strapped to his back like a pair of swords, and he stared at the three of them from beneath his straw hat. He moved his stubbled jaw around as he took stock of the ponies in front of him before opening his mouth to spit gravelly words at Haley.

“Why’re you killin’ m’ flowers?” the gardener finally asked with a low voice that sounded like the engine of a steam-powered blimp. “Huh? What’re your names?”

“Haley Waleria Doudemelle, sir!” Haley spat out quickly, blubbing a little as she tried to make herself incredibly small.

“Maxville Sunderland, sir,” Max said, nodding. “But she did not mean to-”

“And you?” The gardener cut him off, flicking his head to the one under the tree.

The earth pony looked up, almost as if it were a laborious task, and eyed Haley with a tiny bit of disdain before moving back to the cube.

“Loveday,” she said with a sigh. “Just Loveday.”

“Just nothin’. What’s your full name, kid?” the gardener growled.

The pony sighed again.

“Adeline Petrona Taylor Loveday,” she muttered. “Just Loveday, though.”

“Alright,” The gardener nodded. “Would you kindly tell me why you were steppin’ all over the flowers, girl?”

Maxville stepped forward. But a heavy stare forced him back. It was clear that the gardener wanted Haley to answer.

“I’m sorry, sir,” she squeaked. “I wasn’t thinking. The pony there tried to warn me but-”

“Warn? Excuse me? Warnin’s are for dangerous things, you understand? Warnin’s are for the sake of the safety of the one bein’ warned! You tryin’ t’ tell me that the only reason not to step on them flowers is just t’ avoid a situation like this one right here?”

“N-no, sir, of course not! I mean… I mean…”

“Yeah? You got an excuse for me?”

“I… no, sir. I don’t. I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t thinking about it at all. I’m sorry.”

“You gotta be aware of these things, kid!” The gardener fumed, pointing to the pony known as Loveday. “She didn’t need to step on them flowers, did she?”

Loveday remained silent, twisting the cube once again.

“Sir, if you would, please…” Maxville started again.

“Boy, do you ever keep quiet?”

“Ah…” Maxvile trailed off.

“What chapter?” The gardener spat at them.

“I’m trying to get into either the spelunkers or the explorers, sir,” Haley said.

“You?” The gardener looked to Max.

“Undecided, sir.”

“Undecided? What is this? Kindergarten? How could you come here so unprepared? And you?” the angry old stallion finally turned to Loveday.

There was yet another short pause before she responded, as if it took her time to gather the will to speak.

“Tinkerer,” she replied.

“Yeah, you look the part,” the gardener grumbled. “Bunch of clowns we have this year, don’t we? Don’t even know what chapter you wanna join, and you come traipsin’ in here like it’s so easy?”

“Sir, I do not doubt for a moment that it will be rather difficult. But all chapters present their own challenges and rewards,” Maxville said, slowly. “I merely believe that it would be simpler to approach the challenges as they come.”

“What a weird-ass way of thinkin’,” the gardener grumbled. “You just makin’ excuses, ain’t ya?”

“No sir, I am not,” Maxville stood firm, shaking his head, calm as ever.

“Do you even know what the twelve chapters are, chucklebutt?”

“Yes sir. Explorers. Trackers. Archaeologists. Spelunkers. Tinkerers. Assayers. Scriveners. Emissaries. Brokers. Then there are three more…”

“Enforcers, shamans and outfitters,” Loveday finished, staring away from the group.

“Ah… yes, thank you, Miss Ade-” Maxville said.

“Just Loveday!” she yelled back.

“And do you know what they all do?” The gardener issued a second challenge.

“I do by their definition,” Maxville replied.

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

Maxville held a hoof up to his chin again as he thought about it.

“Well, you see, sir, I’ve always wondered why there were twelve chapters. I mean, could some of them not be combined? Explorers and spelunkers, for example. The former maps and charts unexplored territories, right? That is their specialty.”

“Yeah? And?”

“And spelunkers do the same thing, sir, except with tombs and caves and specific sites. I don’t see why they couldn’t both be the same job.”

Haley listened closely. She would have been lying if this wasn’t something that crossed her mind as well. Even the one named Loveday perked up, leaning slightly toward the direction of Maxville, although she tried to act nonchalant.

“You tryin’ t’ question the system, boy?” The gardener narrowed his eyes, glaring at the other stallion.

In response, he did not back down nor waver, but put the question to heart and answered with all due honesty.

“No, sir. Absolutely not. But I speak only from the position of limited knowledge. If you had insights that could aid my understanding, I would certainly love to be educated on the subject.”

“Mmm,” the gardener said, quirking an eyebrow, softening his tone suddenly. He drew back, breathing in noisily as he took stock of the stallion in front of him. “Well, I’ve been around for a while, I can tell you that.”

“Do you know why the system is like this? My inability to choose… I will admit, is related to a lack of information. Perhaps with your knowledge…”

“You askin’ a groundskeeper, son?” the gardener asked.

“Why not?”

The gardener snorted, as if there were something to take offense at. He looked intently at Maxville, then to Haley, then to Just Loveday.

“Kid, there are many differences between the chapters,” he said, finally. “It ain’t just about what they do on the surface.”

“How do you mean, sir?” Maxville asked politely.

“They all support each other. That’s how it works. You were talkin’ about explorers and spelunkers, right? Well, open terrain ain’t nothing like tombs. Everything about them is different, and when you start to study it, you’ll find out why. You gotta choose your first and second year chapters carefully, kid! They gotta work together! Compliment what you wanna do for the Guild!”

“Sir, if you could elaborate…?”

The gardener rubbed his face with a hoof with annoyance.

“Fine. You know your first choice dictates what you get to be, right? You can’t change that. If you’re an explorer first year, you’re an explorer for life. Jobs are only open to some chapters, so you gotta make sure you pick well. That’s why it’s so important. Your second year is your second choice, so you gotta find something that works well with your first choice. They all can work together, but some just naturally fit in better. Let’s say you wanna be a tracker, right? And what’s a tracker do?”

“The retrieval of lost goods, items or ponies,” Haley rattled, dictating from the official guide book.

“Good. That’s right. So let’s say you major in that for first year. Then what would help you for second year? S’possin’ you go enforcer. Learn how t’ fight and all that. That’ll help, wouldn’t it? You’re more likely to run into a scrap if you’re tryin’ t’ recover stolen goods then if you were simply just mapping new land, right?”

Haley and Maxville nodded. Loveday remained still.

“And if you were a scrivener, all you’d be doin’ is stickin’ back in offices the whole day and writing documents and stuff. I mean, maybe that’s your thing. I dunno. But it’d be less smart to go choose enforcer for second year if you choose scrivening for first, right? I mean, who ya gonna beat up at the water cooler?”

Haley tried to stifle a smile, despite the atmosphere.

“The twelve chapters are spread out across all facets of what it means to be an adventurer. The Guild wants to train specialists, not general know-it-all buffoons who think they can do everythin’. If you want that, you oughta just go join Bosé and Randello’s. Their guild doesn’t care.”

“I don’t like the Delvers, sir,” Maxville said of the rival school. “They seem… stuffy.”

“Exactly. That’s the point. You wanna know why we make ponies choose at this school? Why we only let them study two chapters at most before they get their license?”

“Why, sir?” Haley asked.

“Figure it out yourself,” the gardener huffed.

“Oh,” Haley muttered.

“I understand,” Maxville said. “Thank you for explaining. I think I know what to do now.”

“And what would that be?” the gardener said, gruffly.

“I am going to let the Guild decide.”

“What?” the gardener roared. “Ain’t you been listenin’ to a word I’ve been sayin’? It’s important to know what you want, son!”

“Yes sir. I mean no disrespect, but please, let me explain. It is clear that I know nothing about what the Guild intends for us, but how could I possibly? The only way I will ever know for sure what the right choice is is to spend many years in the Guild to observe how things are done. And by that time it would be far too late. I am not emotionally charged to join any of the Chapters, nor do I have any other reasons. I believe my new friend Haley here wishes to follow in the hoofsteps of her mother, and Ad- I mean, Just Loveday over there seems to have a natural affinity for gadgetry. I have no such ties, and I will rely on the wisdom of the Guild to guide my path.”

“Yeah, whatever you say, kid,” the gardener spat out. “That’s your choice, huh? Just make sure you can live with it. As for the three of you, I’m gonna have to report you all for trampling the flowers.”

“W-wait, sir. Kind sir,” Maxville stuttered, stepping forward. “If you would reconsi-”

“No!” Haley yelled, finally stepping forward herself.

“Excuse me?” the gardener said, staring at the child.

“Mister gardener, sir,” Haley told him. “It was just me. The others had nothing to do with it. It was my own fault for not considering it. If you must report somepony, please report me and just me.”

“I do what I want!” the gardener yelled. “Now all of you! Get going! I gotta fix this mess. Go wait by the meeting spot, damn it!”

Maxville and Haley exchanged glances, but both put on determined looks. There was nothing else they could do about the situation. There was only the fallout to deal with. With that, they rushed off towards the pole without looking back.

Loveday looked up, watching them leave as she finally popped the small bead out of the cube, having worked it out of the maze. She made no effort to stand but sat there for a few elongated moments.

“Hey, wait for me,” she said quietly, almost to herself, struggling to get to her hooves. With a start, she darted after them, leaving the toy to rest in the grass of the tree.

The gardener bent down to pick it up, then placed it in one of the satchels that hung from the tools on his back.

He shook his head as he watched them leave, and soon they were lost in the crowd.

With a burst of magic, his straw hat lifted off his head, revealing a horn that crackled with energy.

A small clipboard appeared in a flash, his eyes running down the list of names that were written upon the paper it held.

“How’s the turnout, Tweedy?” came a voice.

A pony with a wild red mane stepped up to him quietly with a smile. She shook her head, her hair rustling as if it were the winds itself. A small green streak ran through it, a stem to the rose of her flourishing hair.

“Good day, Dominus Arlington,” Groundskeeper Tweedy responded, his voice now suddenly lacking the gruffness that it held a mere minute ago. “Interesting bunch.”

“Who were those kids?” Arlington asked, jerking her head toward the gathering crowd, although she had only three in mind.

“Oh… curious picks. Stallion… was…” he ran down the clipboard, “Maxville. This is the guy. A bit older than the others. Thinks about everything. Hears everything. He’s a thinker. Level-headed. Wise. Good speaker. Rallies people real good.”

“And did anyone pick up the Lockney Cube?”

“Oh yeah, yeah,” Groundskeeper Tweedy said, patting the bag in which he dropped the game that Loveday had been playing with. “Left it there as you instructed. Somepony by the name of… eh… Just Loveday picked it up and started working on it immediately. Been watching her for a while. Avoided the flowers, too. Probably saw the obvious gap in the flowerbed. She actually finished the cube in… fifteen, twenty minutes?”

“She finished it?”

“Yep. And left it there. Didn’t even steal it or nothing. She’s a bit spacey in the head. I think there’s something wrong with her general faculties, but, you know. Tinkerers are all pretty nuts.”

“Yes, thank you, Tweedy. I’ll remember to put it in the official report that ‘tinkerers are all pretty nuts’.”

“You do that. But… that last kid. You’re gonna like this. You know who she is?”

“What, the kid with the hat?”

“Yeah, don’t you recognize it?”

Arlington stood for a while as her eyebrows tilted back. It was only when it clicked that her brow shot downward in furious recognition.

“Caspia’s kid?” she asked. “Haley? Haley whatever Doudemelle?”

“Heh,” Tweedy laughed. “Yeah. Caspia’s kid.”

“Small world,” Arlington muttered.

“Not really. Not if you think about it. I mean, it’s kinda natural she’d wanna follow, right?” Tweedy shrugged, the clipboard disappearing in a puff of fog. “Anyway, she’s interesting too. Got her mom’s heart and spirit, I can tell you that much.”

“This is gonna be interesting, isn’t it?” Arlington crooked a smile. “What do you have on her?”

“I don’t know yet. Might be best that we wait for the test for that one. How she handles it will be the most telling of all.”

Arlington breathed in deeply.

“Alright,” she said. “Thanks for the brief. I’m gonna head over to the other Vidame now, see what they’ve seen. Good job, Tweedy. You can take off now.”

“Nah, I still got things to do.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“I got a couple flowers to replant.” Tweedy frowned. “Stupid kid stepped all over ‘em.”

The talking stopped and the whispers grew as the pony with the fiery red mane stepped up towards the pole. Unlike the other invigilators, she hadn’t bothered to disguise herself while making her rounds and already the spread of whispers echoed throughout the entirety of group five.

Her approach to the meeting point merely sealed the deal.

She had been seen, the whispers said, wandering around and speaking to the Vidame – the blue-collar workers – of the Adventurer’s Guild. She had been openly prowling the grounds and hunting prey. The rumours said that she was going to head up one of the groups, but not a single pony knew which.

Now they did.

The infamous ‘Wild Rose’ had now staked her claim.

“Group five!” she hollered, calling her hopefuls to her, a good thirty or so, including Haley, Maxville, and Just Loveday. They all gathered and stared with rapt attention, especially the ones who recognized her for who she was.

“My name is Elisabelle Arlington,” she introduced herself, “and I will be in charge of testing you today. For those who do not know who I am, I am the Dominus of the archaeology chapter of the Adventurer’s Guild. The assignment I have set for you will be one that will not only test your capabilities but show us your spirit and your dedication. We will be watching closely to make sure that you live up to the name of the adventurer.”

The winds blew, rustling her mane over her pallid, white face.

“She’s one of the twelve Domini?” Haley whispered to Maxville.

The two had been stuck together since they met, and as an extra gift, they seemed to have attracted a silent third partner as well. Loveday always kept close by but never spoke and never did more than look around and make odd facial expressions.

“That’s what she said,” Maxville whispered back. “This is the first time I’m seeing her, though. I didn’t know she headed a chapter, either. I just thought she was… you know. Just really famous.”

“Well, you do always read about her in the papers, an-”

“Following the physical half of the test,” Dominus Arlington continued, “we will be holding short interviews with each candidate separately. All this together will determine if you are suited to be allowed into the school. It is during that time when you may appeal for a specific chapter, but please understand that our decision is final. If you do not like it, you are free to leave.”

She stopped to clear her throat, ending her briefing with a curt inquiry. “Are there any questions?”

A younger pony in the front raised her hoof.

“Yes?”

“Will the test be dangerous?” she asked.

“Yes. Next question?” Arlington flicked her head back to the crowd.

“What are we being judged on?” another asked.

“Everything,” Arlington answered. “Next question. Last question.”

“Can we go already?” shouted a familiar pony.

Haley and Maxville both turned, wide-eyed, to Just Loveday, who had yelled out the rather forward line. If anything, she looked irritated in stark contrast to the normally absent look she had.

“Oh, I like that! I like to see a bit of fire in our applicants!” Arlington shouted back earnestly, giving a sly smile to the group. “Let’s go then! Group five, follow me!”

She twirled, clicked her hooves together, and started off on a march towards a white tent in the distance – a spot on the horizon. It was a large one, about a hoofball field’s length away, bearing a small red flag on the main tentpole. It seemed to be their destination.

The group moved, some struggling to keep up with the invigilator’s quick gait, but all managed to finally end up at their destination, a little winded and a little out of breath.

Haley took a look at the group as Dominus Arlington stepped into the tent with a command for them to wait outside.

By far, Maxville was the oldest amongst them, but the range of the other applicants resembled the colours of the rainbow – both literally and figuratively. There was a good spread of earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies, all of whom either stood in smaller groups or by themselves.

There were brave ones, shady ones, nervous ones, and ones who bounced around incessantly. There were all sorts of natures gathered here, which merely highlighted the breadth of characters that one could find in the guild. It was both the mixing pot of paradise and Tartarus’ social experiment at the same time.

But not all would make it.

Next to the tent was something that everypony soon realised was the true venue of the test. It was hard to see from afar, but there it lay: two huge stone slabs rested apart – huge doors that opened the way to a set of stairs that led straight under the earth. Against the grasses that swayed gently in the warm siroccos of the North, it looked like the maw of a dangerous beast, placed oddly against its backdrop. It was the one menacing thing in this field of serenity.

Unlit sconces bordered the walls of the passage, and the sunlight only managed to reveal so much before everything faded into a murky darkness beyond the twelfth stone step.

Dominus Arlington finally stepped out from the tent and regarded the crowd once more.

“Alright, candidates. One by one, I will call your individual name. As I do, you will step forward and receive your lamp. You will then take your lamp and proceed down the stairs over there. It’s one of our training catacombs, one that’s been prepped specifically for this test. Your task is to make it to the end using whatever skills or tools you bring along with you. That is all.”

Arlington swung to a pony who shot her hoof up in the air with blazing speed.

“Dominus Arlington, ma’am!” he said. “What exactly is ‘the end’?”

“The end is the end, kid,” she said. “You’ll know when you get there. Now. Once you accomplish this – if you accomplish this – you will return up the same set of stairs where we will be waiting. You will be escorted into the tent where we will have a short talk alongside two of my fellow colleagues. By the end of the debriefing, we will tell you if you have passed and which chapter you will be assigned to. Or you might fail. That’s quite the possibility. From there, you are free to leave or stay or whatever. I honestly don’t really care. But if you attempt to share information with your new friends after your test is over, believe me, there will be consequences. Everything clear?”

A small murmur of ‘yes’ escaped the lips of the group as the gravity of the situation started to sink in. Dominus Arlington sent her message across very clearly – she wasn’t one to care about frivolities. The task ahead of them started to feel just that much more dire.

Haley looked to Maxville. Even he looked slightly concerned.

“She’s exactly like how the papers portray her, isn’t she?” Maxville whispered.

Haley nodded in agreement.

Loveday still looked bored.

“What do you think is down there?” Haley asked.

It appeared she wasn’t the only one to do so, the others also breaking out in rumour as they wandered away from the tent.

“I have no idea. It’s all very vague, but I suppose that is the point of the test,” Maxville said. “Definitely, the mystery of it is meant to make us nervous. There is nothing worse than a rampant imagination.”

He turned to look at Loveday.

“I suppose some of us are immune to the effects of that,” he observed.

The earth pony blinked back, staring at the goggles around her neck.

“Don’t talk much, do you?” Maxville asked.

“Only when necessary,” Loveday replied.

“Do make sure you speak when it’s your turn in the tent,” Maxville suggested. “I dare say they would like some verbo-”

“Andrea Cuthbert!” the dominus yelled suddenly, reading off a clipboard, interrupting the thought.

Haley watched as a young, jittery pony of small stature made her way to the front, nervously grabbing the lantern by the teeth and proceeding down the steps.

Every head turned to watch in silence. Every lung held a breath, save for a few who didn’t seem to be affected by stress.

It was only a few minutes when they heard a terrifying scream and a crash, a shriek, and a loud scraping of something against stone.

The pony flew back up through the open entryway, flying out on four legs and hitting the ground with wide eyes and raspy breath. She curled up into a ball and, as everypony watched, started to sob uncontrollably.

Dominus Arlington walked over, looked down upon the blubbering form and shook her head.

“Promising batch this year,” she said dryly.

The first had failed, to her utter shame and embarrassment, and it was quite disheartening to see her go, but she was young, and first impressions gave way to a more medial truth. As the minutes ticked by, the candidates tried their luck one by one, and responses were extremely mixed.

Fear and nervousness washed away as the test went on, and the remaining participants all had a boost of energy and confidence with each successful entrant who proudly exited the tent bearing a green sheet of paper upon which was printed a certificate of enrollment.

The ones who failed simply left with head hung low or anger in their step, but the ones who passed stuck around to show their support.

Hope and confidence were not the only emotions that floated through the crowd – confusion struck as the purpose of the test became less and less clear.

It was never constant.

There was the one candidate who passed after a few minutes – a big, strong, burly sort who emerged from the dungeon carrying some sort of gaudy metal chalice.

There was one candidate who failed after doing the same.

There was that one who entered, exited abruptly and requested to wait for half an hour before entering again, when the sun was fully in the sky and blazing down at maximum heat. He retrieved the same metal chalice and passed as well.

There was one candidate who emerged carrying absolutely nothing but also withdrew from the tent with a wide smile and a green piece of paper.

And there was the one who was most mysterious of all – the lonely pony who stood by himself, wearing the cloak around his face and neck. One look was all that he gave to the dungeon before he strolled over to the Dominus and whispered something in secrecy. He was pulled into the tent, and five minutes later, emerged with a fresh new certificate.

That one never said a single word about it and was not the slightest bit sociable during the entire test but sufficed himself to stay anyway, observing the other students with an air of curiosity.

There were many passes and few failures, but the numbers dwindled down to half, and before Haley knew it, Dominus Arlington was calling a very specific name.

“Maxville. Maxville Sunderland. Up front.”

Haley gasped. She didn’t know why. But she turned to her friend expectantly, giving him a nervous smile of encouragement. She pushed her hat up off her face and let him see the earnestness in her eyes.

“Well. My turn. Let’s see how this is done.” Maxville smiled, walking up to the front.

Haley turned to Loveday, who had been watching the proceedings with rapt attention.

“He’ll be fine, right?” Haley asked of the third wheel, who merely gave a shrug in return.

Haley frowned.

“He’ll be fine.” Loveday shrugged, tilting her head at Haley’s reaction to her indifference. “It does not matter what I say, you know. It won’t affect the outcome of the test.”

“Well… yeah, I know that! But still,” Haley argued. “You could be a little bit more expressive!”

“I don’t see the point. Declaring my feelings doesn’t change my feelings either,” Loveday shook her head in genuine confusion.

“It’s… it’s just about saying things,” Haley said. “Sometimes you need to let ponies know things. It makes them feel better. You know? Don’t you care about Maxville?”

“I see,” Loveday replied. “Yes, I suppose I care, sort of. Well. Here are the facts of the matter, then. He will leave in… under… ah, let’s make it fourteen minutes from now. He will emerge smiling and confident, proceed to the tent, and come out carrying the little green paper thing.”

“H-how could you say that?”

“What?”

“Like as if that’s fact?” Haley warbled incredulously.

“I dunno. It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Loveday shrugged, putting on her goggles, which glimmered in the sun. The lenses were covered in rainbow flecks, as if they were crafted from the finest opals and mother-of-pearl, tiny stars against a backdrop of black.

“W-what are you doing?” Haley asked.

“Preparing.”

“O-oh.” Haley turned back to stare at the entrance.

She couldn’t help but look at Loveday once in a while, though. It was funny, but her confidence made Haley that much more nervous about the whole thing.

Under fourteen minutes later, Maxville emerged, carrying nothing, beaming a winning smile to the crowd. He stepped up to the tent, bowing politely at the dominus, and disappeared within. As was predicted, he emerged with a little sheet of green paper tightly grasped in a bloom of magic.

He grinned at Haley and Loveday, moving to the side to join the other successful inductees. But he kept that eye on Haley, talking to her across the field with looks and laughs and comforting nods.

“How did you know that was going to happen?” Haley burst out excitedly. “That was amazing! I mean… down to the time and everything!”

“A simple matter of aggregates,” Loveday intoned.

“Aggre-wha?”

Loveday sighed.

“Patterns and stuff. You know. Look, all the unicorns that have gone down there so far have emerged at an average of about nineteen minutes. Given Maxville’s experience and age and intelligence, I could safely cut off five minutes from that time. Every unicorn so far has returned without the cup thing despite passing or not, so there’s something about not being able to use magic to get the cup. Seemed he would follow the same pattern. It was just a guess, really.”

“A guess?”

“Educated guess. You know. Guessing smartly. I could have been wrong.”

“Oh, I see… that’s neat!” Haley exclaimed again. “Really neat! But how’d you know he’d pass?”

“Eh… I had a feeling,” Loveday turned to look at Haley.

“Yeah. Me too.” Haley smiled, looking at Max as he mingled with the other winners, chatting it up and talking. The others had gathered around him as he led a conversation.

“Adeline Petrona Taylor Loveday!” Dominus Arlington yelled.

“Darn it!” the goggled one groused at the use of her full name.

“Good luck,” Haley whispered.

“May your nuts be tight,” Loveday grumbled.

“Wha?” Haley muttered.

“Old tinkerer’s saying. For luck,” Just Loveday explained, stepping forward a couple paces. “You’re supposed to respond with ‘and your gears well-lubed’.”

“O-oh! Well, and your ge-”

“Nope. Moment’s passed.” Loveday shook her head.

“Adelin-” the dominus’ voice rang out again with a tinge of impatience.

“Yeah! Coming! Sheesh!” the recipient called back, attracting more than a few raised eyebrows, before she turned back to Haley. “Listen. Gotta go. See ya in a bit.”

Before there was even time for Haley to respond, Loveday had swiftly pushed through the remainder of the crowd and stepped up to the entrance of the cave. She looked intense, or perhaps that was boredom, and she peered in cautiously before bending over to place the lantern on the grass.

She looked to Arlington as if to ask if it was okay.

A nod confirmed it, and the little earth pony disappeared into the ground and into the dark without the light to help.

Out of all of the applicants, she had to have been gone the longest. The looks of Maxville echoed Haley’s thoughts as time flew by, and the minutes became more agonizing as they passed.

After all, she was an earth pony of rather small stature. She was… well, weird, and a tiny bit distracted. What if something had happened?

Haley lingered on the thought, not wishing to press it further.

But still, she had to wait.

Even the crowd stopped their murmuring and chatter extinguished itself. Perhaps they were all thinking the same thing.

Half an hour later, on the minute, a figure emerged to the eruption of cheering from the crowd, who were only doing so because they were happy that she was still alive.

The little pony, hooves and face covered with dirt, grime, and soil, dragged the cup up with her inside some sort of net. Slung across her back was a strange device made out of branches and vines and other such things, and she pulled the goggles off her face as soon as she emerged, giving her two bare patches around her eyes where the dirt did not mar her skin.

The second bout of cheering came when she withdrew from the tent holding her certificate between her teeth.

The other winners rushed to her to ask their questions, to discuss and share, and true to her form, she simply tromped over to the side to sit down and attempt to not be bothered.

And all of a sudden, Haley felt afraid.

She realised then, at that moment, on which side of the field she stood.

She had no one to talk to. No one to cheer her on from the same angle. No one to stand beside her as she waited for her turn.

She was alone.

“Haley!” the dominus called.

Haley swallowed heavily.

“Haley Waleria Doudemelle!”

She let her hooves carry her to the front. Maxville was cheering. She could hear the echoes of what he said, but it seemed so very far away.

Before she knew it, she was standing there, at the gaping maw, the open cavern, the darkness beyond the stone doors.

“Haley?” Dominus Arlington asked, stepping up beside her.

“Whuh?” Haley burbled, turning away from the darkness that engulfed her sight.

“Haley,” Arlington stated again. “What’s the holdup?”

“I… I don’t think I can do this, Dominus…”

“Yeah well, you’re gonna have to, aren’t you? I mean, what are you even here for?”

“To join the Guild, ma’am.”

“Why?”

“Ma’am?” Haley asked, looking up at The Rose.

“Why are you joining? Did your mother ask you to? Peer pressure? Boredom? What?”

“N-no, ma’am! I wanted to… I just wanted to be an Adventurer!”

“Then get in there, and come talk to me later.”

Arlington stood back, dropping the lantern with a soft thud next to the young child.

Haley snatched it up with a wing, holding it close to her body. The sun was blazing down in strength, but somehow, it didn’t help to chase away the chills she felt coursing through her.

And with a hoof lacking of sufficient confidence, she descended the stairs into the thick, swollen darkness.

Even the tiniest of sparks served a purpose in a world where light did not naturally tread. The barest of flames – a tiny pulsating glow from behind glass panes – gave life to the chamber as it gleamed forth from the lantern. Its usefulness grew as Haley descended, each step along the damp, moss-laden stairs taking her farther and farther away from the sun.

Soon, each crack along the age-torn walls of rock held shadows of undetermined depth, the light bright enough to see but not enough to detail. It was like looking at the world through a blanket of thick mist – shapes and colours were all that gave the cavern form, but edges blended together in a swirl of muted paint.

Haley remembered how the one who had gone before, the pony just known as Loveday, dared to venture forth without the lantern. Clearly, those rainbow-specked goggles of hers had something to do with it.

And the other one she had met – the suave and confident Maxville – he had somehow passed seemingly without having done anything.

One by one, as she travelled the dusty passage, memories of the other participants and their fates ran through Haley’s mind, each one of them burning into her thoughts the farther she walked.

She hadn’t reached the end of the tunnel before she gave up determining exactly what it was that the test required of her.

The room that she stepped into was just as dark as the rest of the cavern.

The constant downward slope afforded it a high ceiling, no doubt just under the surface, but tightly closed off to the grounds above. Haley felt the debris strewn about the floor before she saw it, branches and vines and other such things crunching under-hoof as she walked slowly to the center of the chamber.

There, in the distance, was a glint of yellow and a flash of white.

Haley rushed to the bars, her heartbeat echoing throughout the cave.

Behind the thick metal bars that blocked off a corridor along one of the walls was the source of the flashes of light – a series of chalices that lay on a small wooden shelf. But far down the corridor they were, and out of leg’s reach they sat.

The bars offered no avenue to pass.

Haley stepped back. More corridors branched off from this central chamber like tentacles off an octopus. Each of them, upon further shining, also showed the glimmer of the prize. Some of them had been retrieved, leaving spots in the rows where they had been shelved ever so orderly. But all of them lay behind something which made them particularly inaccessible.

There was a path that had a contraption of sorts that would open a door only if two odd stones were stood on at the same time. It was easy to understand, but there was only one of Haley.

There was a path that teased her by having the cups only a foot away from hoof’s reach through a hole in the stone that was only half a body wide.

There was that path with the giant monster slithering away inside. Haley didn’t even want to get far enough to see it, let alone sneak by to steal one of its precious, guarded treasures.

None of them were as simple as a long pit that she could just fly over. It seemed like the trials didn’t serve to benefit any one of the three clans specifically, and the longer she stayed there, the more distraught she got at her inability, as much as she tried, to overcome the separate obstacles.

It was also quite apparent why everyone else save one had ended within a certain time.

Her lantern flickered. The oil it carried was burning away slowly. Very soon, she would be plunged into complete darkness without a lifeline.

But despite that, she furrowed her brow and tightened her throat.

She would find one. One passage. She would conquer it thoroughly and make it out with the chalice set firmly between her teeth.

She had to.

She wanted to cry openly. But her overwhelming sense of disappointment stemmed the tide of tears, and she simply stood there sniffing slightly to herself.

Her cheeks burned as she stared at Dominus Arlington and the two hooded figures that flanked her from across the table. She was only waiting for the invigilator to speak, but the wait was what was unbearable.

“So, that’s it, then?” The teacher clarified, poring over a set of documents on the table in front of her.

Haley didn’t respond, sufficing herself to fail at keeping her sadness bottled in.

“Alright. Step by step. What happened?”

Haley let loose a small cough.

“I didn’t make it, ma’am. I didn’t get to the end. I f-failed the test.”

“I didn’t ask you what you think’s going on, Haley. I asked you what happened.”

Haley swallowed and closed her eyes. She didn’t know what to say. There was nothing she could have said to make the situation any better.

“I entered the dungeon,” she explained. “And made my way to the middle chamber.”

“And?”

“And I tried a few paths. I was not able to get past any of the tricks, and so I had to leave because the lantern was going out. I was unable to get the goblet, ma’am.”

“What do you mean by ‘tricks’?” Arlington asked.

“Well, ma’am, when I looked at the paths, I saw there were things that I needed to do to get to the end. There was some kind of puzzle or something for each of them.”

“And why were you not able to get past any of them?”

Haley couldn't help but roll her eyes at the question. It was completely unintentional, but she had no means to stop it.

“I just… couldn’t, ma’am,” she offered as an answer.

“I’m going to ask again,” Arlington said, narrowing her eyes. “Why were you not able to get past any of them?”

Haley huffed. She pressed her eyelids together, a new emotion pushing through. It burned a little. It rose with the heat in her throat and escaped from her mouth in the form of an exasperated sigh.

“Listen,” Arlington said, snapping sharply. “Hey!”

Haley pulled her eyes open in shock, focusing on the Dominus.

“Listen up, kid,” the tester said, frowning, leaning forward over the table. “There’s two ways you can go about this now. I ask questions, and you answer. You answer straight and true, and you quit all this other nonsense. Otherwise, as I said during the briefing, you’re free to leave.”

The Wild Rose cocked her head toward the tentflap.

“There’s the exit. Get out if you want to, and maybe you can save yourself a little face if that’s what you really want. You’ll be free to try out again next year, but right now I’m giving you the opportunity to leave by your own terms and not waste our time.”

Haley’s mouth gaped open slightly.

“I can… just leave?” she asked softly.

“Yeah. I gave this option to a couple of your friends out there. I’m sure you’ve noticed that some have taken it.”

Haley sighed again, eyes wandering as a stray thought floated through the heavy miasma in her brain.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be that bad. After all, she failed, hadn’t she? She’d only have to come again in the future with more preparation. She clearly didn’t have what the others had. Maxville and Loveday had qualities they were looking for, and from the way this interview was going, she certainly didn’t.

She stepped to the side, unconsciously, shifting her stance toward the flap that led out of the tent.

“So I’m going to ask you one last time, Haley,” Arlington said again. “Why did you fail?”

“I’m sorry, Dominus,” Haley uttered, shaking her head.

One last sigh.

It was the sigh of conclusion.

The young girl bowed to the teachers, politely, as her mother always taught her to do, and with an air about her, pushed past the flap and left the tent.

The sun blinded her as she stepped outside, and she felt an anger she hadn’t felt for quite a long time. She felt a burning deep within.

Through blurry eyes she saw Maxville standing a short distance away, a smile on his face slowly turning to one of surprise and sadness.

She saw Loveday who looked up for just a moment from her seat under a tree, only to turn away again in disgust.

She was angry.

But she wasn’t sure what she was angry about.

A churning, bubbling feeling came up, a turmoil of emotion, a slew of confusion. It set her rooted on the grass upon which she stood, and as much as she wanted to turn and hide her face from everypony else, she found that she couldn’t.

Something felt wrong about what she was doing.

She had seen others leave in a similar fashion. The ones who had tromped off in a state of anger, or the ones who had slinked away in a fit of tears.

It seemed wrong.

She took off her hat.

And then put it back on.

She pushed it up on her brow and stared vacantly through the crowd to the skies beyond.

But that unseen, invisible force pushed her, and before she realised, she had taken one single step in reverse, moving backwards toward the tent.

It was then when she turned and, with unnecessary force, burst through the tent once again, planting herself firmly in front of the table, seething with a quiet anger – or was it something else? – regarding the three figures who stood there.

The dominus was surprisingly unperturbed. The two hooded characters too, said nothing, remaining silent as they had throughout the entire process thus far.

“I…” Haley started.

But she stopped. She hadn’t thought this much. She barely knew what she was doing.

Arlington drew in a breath of her own, tilting her head back and to the side and returning to regard Haley with a wry, pursed lip.

“Why,” the dominus said, with a calmness that was oddly unreflective of the situation, “were you not able to pass any of the trials?”

“Because I didn’t know how!” Haley screamed, determinedly, the words bursting open a flood. “I-I-I simply could not! Some of them required more than one pony to accomplish or some other sort of trick! I’m not very strong! I’m not very smart! I couldn’t get past them, and I couldn’t think of a way to figure out some of the tricks! That’s all it was, Dominus!”

“And what of the route with the wadjet?”

“I was scared if you must know! I didn’t even try!”

“Why not?” Arlington continued with that odd air of calmness.

“Because I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it alone!” Haley huffed, still manic in her explanation.

“Hm.”

Haley was left there breathing heavily, sight dizzying slightly from the torrent of catharsis. She could only pant while the dominus gave her a quizzical look.

“Must have been pretty hard for you to say that,” Arlington commented casually.

“It was very hard!” Haley belted, shaking her head and catching her breath. She repeated her words, this time with a softer air and a calmer disposition, the end of her tirade.

“It was very hard.”

“So why did you come back here just to tell us that, then? You left because you failed, isn’t that what you think? Why put yourself through this?”

“Ma-may I speak freely, Dominus?” Haley asked.

“A bit late to ask that, really, but yes.”

“Because it wasn’t right.”

“Explain.”

“I do not know, Dominus,” Haley tried, letting the swell of emotions within her ease off into a gentler stream. “I just don’t know. But when I left I felt… I felt that it wasn’t right to have left. You asked me a question. It was only right that I answer.”

“You ‘don’t know’ why?”

“I do not. I can not explain. I am sorry, Dominus. And I am sorry for my… conduct.”

“Ah, so polite. Yeah, no problem. We have to deal with that a lot more than you think. Alright, lads, what do you think?” she said, turning over her shoulder to regard the silent figures behind her.

The first one, to her left, nodded. The other hood shook left to right.

“Looks like a tie. Guess I’m going to have to-”

“Um…” Haley muttered.

“What?” Arlington replied.

“What… may I ask what is going…?”

“We’re discussing if you pass or not. Well. I say discussing,” Arlington explained.

“But… I thought I’d already failed, ma’am.”

The dominus snorted, putting a hoof on the table.

“Listen, kid,” she said, pointing the hoof towards the young girl. “As long as you’re standing in front of me, you’ll always be considered. You’d be wise to realise that not once did I ever say that you failed. You just assumed that yourself, and that’s something of your own problem. Not mine.”

“But I left!” Haley blurted out, before she could stop herself.

“Yeah? So? Ponies make mistakes, right? Who would we be to turn everyone away just because they made a mistake? This isn’t what it’s all about. It’s not about making mistakes. We don’t want the ones who walk away from them. That’s the difference. You came back for a reason, and maybe we don’t know what that reason is, but it’s something worth exploring.

“So here’s where we are. My friend over there says you’re alright by him. My other friend thinks you should return next year. Guess what? My call. So why don’t you give it a bit of a thought and tell me why you decided to come back?”

“I suppose I just… didn’t want to lie, ma’am.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know. I can’t really explain it. I just feel that… when I was standing out there, I remembered the others who left. They could have left sad or angry. I could have walked away sad or angry. But I didn’t want to. You said that by leaving we’d be leaving on our own terms. But I didn’t believe that was true. I think that leaving on my own terms means that I’d have to… tell the truth. I would have to say what I needed to have said, because if I hid it, it’d be… sort of lying, I guess. I don’t know.”

Haley shuffled slightly, placing her weight back and forth from leg to leg.

“I don’t really mind if I fail, Dominus. I just wanted to come back and answer your question. I’ll come back next year if I have to. Maybe I’ll have learnt how to pass in time. I’ll practice, surely. I’ll read up more and have mum teach me a few things.”

“Yeah, Caspia knows a couple tricks. She’s a smart one, she is.”

“Yes, ma’am. My mo-”

Haley stopped.

“You know my mother?” she asked, finally hearing what had just been said.

Arlington stared down the length of her nose at Haley, remaining silent. It was at that moment when she herself looked quite focused, as if giving something quite a lot of thought.

“You know, you’re putting me in a spot here,” Arlington told her. It seemed off-script, but Haley couldn’t be sure. “The way we test ponies here is either through skill or conviction. They’re both pretty straightforward. For example, the ones you were hanging out with earlier – Maxville shows conviction and intelligence, and that… weird one with the hair was pure skill through and through.

“On the other hoof, you’re something I can’t quite classify. Don’t get me wrong. You’re not special. In fact, you’re a little bit more unremarkable than most who pass by. But I don’t usually have this much trouble pegging someone this far down the road.

“So on one side somepony wants to give you a chance. Perhaps he sees something in you a little bit more. On the other side, perhaps you’re just a little bit too unremarkable. So what do I choose, Haley?”

“I want to be in the Adventurer’s Guild, ma’am!” Haley cried out sharply.

“But you couldn’t even do any of the trials yourself!” Arlington shot back.

“I’ll… I’ll bring a friend next time!” Haley implored. “Why do we have to do things alone? Aren’t we allowed to make friends?”

The dominus reared back, the edge of her mouth curling up strangely. It was a sort of incredulous smirk, the kind that one gives when one is bemused at an unlikely occurrence.

“Heh. Do you know why we spread out what we teach across twelve guilds here? Why we only allow students to pick one for a year?”

“I… I don’t know, ma’am, but I have been asked this just earlier today!”

“Yeah, we ask this a lot,” Arlington said snidely, her eyes darting to the left for just a split second. “It’s the first thing we teach students here at the Guild. The reason is simple. The first rule of the Guild is that we are never alone.”

“Ma’am?”

“The one thing that we try to instill in our students is the one thing that is most easily overlooked. No pony is an island, as they say. We need to rely on trusted friends for help. We need not be embarrassed or ashamed of asking for it, and the trials that we encounter may not always be conquerable through sheer determination alone. Sometimes it takes a bit more than face to ask for help. We teach our students to work with others and not for themselves.

“We only allow students to pick two masteries at most because we want you to learn from each other. To make friends in the right places and have them fill the gaps in your life where you lack. We want you to be… a team.”

Haley stood there silently, listening. It was not the time to respond. It was clear that the dominus was thinking deeply. Her head was bowed and there was a little noise that she was making as she sucked air over her lower lip.

With a final click of her tongue, she nodded somberly, her wild red mane bobbing to her movements.

“Right. I’ve decided. Some might call me silly for doing so, but I believe that skills can be taught. Knowledge can be learnt. It’s only hard work and perseverance that will push you past those boundaries. What’s impossible to teach is spirit and heart. May the Gears help you if this is all an act, but I think you’ve got a strong heart. It takes a strong heart to throw your pride away in the pursuit of truth.

“But you’re not going to choose your chapter, do you understand? You’re going to be monitored very closely. You’re going to have to work very hard and learn a lot of things and train a lot of other things to keep up with everypony else, and it’s not going to be easy.”

Haley tried to keep still. But what was being said was nearly unmistakable, and Haley felt a swell of emotions coming in the other direction.

“So, congratulations. You’re in the Adventurer’s Guild,” Arlington said, writing something down and sweeping a green piece of paper across the table to Haley.

Haley stopped it from flapping about with a hoof like a cat pouncing on a toy, grabbing it to see her name printed across the certificate.

“It’s gonna be a long, hard road ahead, but there’s a silver lining,” Arlington continued.

“Y-yes ma’am?” Haley asked, unable to take her eyes off the sheet of paper.

“I’m going to be the one who’s making sure you’re sticking in line all the way,” she said with a crooked smile. “Welcome to the archaeologists.”

“Oh my!” Fluttershy gasped. “That must have been incredibly nerve-wracking.”

“Yeah,” Haley chuckled. “It was, a little. I’m glad I did what I had to do in the end, though. It wasn’t the best result, but it never is, is it? Still, it was a step in the right direction. And… it was for the best.”

“And what about your two friends? How did they manage to pass?”

“Oh, well. Loveday was just… I do not know. She’s just an absolute boffo genius when it comes to making things. We became rather good friends in the end, as did I and Maxville. We were quite the trio back in school! Loveday sort of made a mechanism to fetch a cup for her. Passed merely through that alone and was admitted to the tinkerers quite easily.

“Max, on the other hoof, well, he simply deduced that the test didn’t necessarily matter. He told Arlington that he realised they were being vague on purpose as to the goal of the tests, and that he wasn’t able to pass any of them, but he knew how to, given he had the adequate resources. I think somewhere along the line he must have impressed them, and he was actually asked to join the Outfitters. Kept him quite busy, indeed, but we’ve had our adventures together!”

“Oh, friendship is such a lovely thing. And stories are such a good way to pass the time!” Fluttershy chirped. “Thank you very much for telling me the tale, Miss Haley. I’m nearly done with my tests, but so far, there doesn’t seem to be anything at all out of the ordinary. You surely aren’t made of ink or anything of the like. I’d like to run a few other tests, however, just to make sure that the trip over here hadn’t made you sick or injured in any way. So if you would please…”

“Surely,” Haley responded, walking over to her.

“All I have to do is-”

The bang made both Haley and Fluttershy jump, Fluttershy a lot higher than her counterpart.

The door peeled itself off the wall, creaking forward, as a figure, chest and back heaving, stood in the frame.

Gaping mouths and wandering eyes flew around the room. Neither of the three wanted to speak. But one made the first move.

Rainbow stepped forward, rushing into the room. She wouldn’t take her eyes off Haley. It had been a while, but Haley still couldn’t help but feel slightly stiff in regards to the pony who had uttered certain comments not too long ago.

“Daring!” Rainbow said to Haley directly through gritted teeth, standing on edge, shoulders raised and wings ready to flap. “We’ll talk later, alright? There are… There’s things I gotta say, but there’s no time now! I need your help! If you’re really the Daring Do that I know, you’ll come with me now.”

“Wh-what is it, Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked.

Rainbow threw a hoof to the door, and in the backdrop of day, a thin stream of black smoke rose up through the air like a spear, cutting through the clouds and plunging itself into the sky.

“The library’s on fire!” Rainbow yelled.

To Be Continued ––––––––––––>