Daring Don't

by Flynt Coal

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Rainbow Dash, Comedy, Adventure, Daring Do, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 26027

Rainbow Dash wins a chance to go on an expedition with Daring Do, but soon learns that her hero may not be everything she's cracked up to be.

Is meeting your hero always such a good thing? How can they ever live up to your image of them if you view them on a pedestal?

While attending Daring Do's panel at a convention in Canterlot, Rainbow Dash wins a contest. The prize? A chance to join the famed archaeologist's team as an assistant on her next expedition. Naturally, Rainbow Dash is thrilled at the idea of an adventure with Daring Do, knowing that the archeologist bases her books on real events. As Rainbow gets to know Daring and her rag tag team of explorers though, she gets the feeling of dissent among the ranks.

Soon, the expedition proves to be more dangerous than anticipated, with a mysterious and dangerous cult after the same artifact as Daring. Rainbow Dash has to stop them while facing the reality that Daring Do may not be the hero her books make her out to be.

Big, big shout out to IFLYSNA94 on Deviantart for letting me use his cute art!

Also, I am well aware of the existence of the S4 episode of the same name (having been keeping up with the show like any self-respecting Brony). At the time of conceiving/writing this story though, I had no idea there would even be another Daring Do episode!

Published 2013-11-06 21:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-11-16 19:44:47 UTC

Chapter 1 of 2

Daring Don't Chapter 1

The Canterlot Convention Center (or C3 as many called it) was jam-packed with ponies attending BooKon: Equestria’s single largest convention for fictional literature. Everywhere one looked, ponies were milling around dressed as their favorite fictional characters buying merchandise at booths, meeting the various big name authors and generally enjoying themselves.

None of these great sights mattered to Rainbow Dash as she flew down the vast hall at a speed that would be illegal on most streets. The rainbow maned pegasus was dressed in the trademark green jacket and safari hat of the titular hero of her favorite book series: Daring Do.

“C’mon Twilight! I want to get at least somewhat decent seats to the Daring Do panel!” She exclaimed, weaving and dodging around countless costumed ponies.

“The panel’s not for another hour and a half Rainbow!” Twilight panted as she did her best to keep up with her speedy friend. The purple alicorn was wearing a similar tan jacket, a pair of red half moon glasses and had her mane done up in a bun. She was dressed as Pyrite Ruby, one of the sidekicks of Daring Do whose main role in the books was to provide scientific exposition that Rainbow usually skimmed over. “I’m sure we’ll have no trouble getting seats!”

Twilight ate her words as they turned the corner and saw the entrance to the auditorium where the panel was to take place: and the line of eager fans (Daring Doers as they were known by) stretching along the wall. Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight to give the purple mare her practiced “told you so” glare.

Nevertheless, the two friends got in line together and began the process of waiting. Twilight reached into her saddle bag and pulled out a book with her magic that she packed, knowing how much time they’d be spending in lines at the convention. Rainbow Dash started a conversation with one of the Daring Doers in line which quickly turned into a heated debate over which of Daring’s sidekicks would make a better romantic partner for the heroine.

Eventually, the auditorium doors opened and the line of ponies began shuffling in. Soon, Twilight and Rainbow found themselves sitting back in the forty fifth row as ponies began appearing on stage.

One by one, an announcer introduced each pony on Daring Do’s team: Gold Digger, Topaz, Iron Pyrite (who the character of Pyrite Ruby was based on).

“And now finally, the mare of the hour!” The announcer exclaimed. “The hero and the author of the Daring Do series. Famed archaeologist and novelist! Daring Daring Daring… “ The announcer provided his own reverb “Do! Do Do…”

With deafening applause from the crowd of Daring Doers, the mare herself entered the stage wearing her famous safari hat and jacket and raised her forelegs in the air, encouraging more applause from the excited crowd.

“I can’t believe it! It’s really her! In the flesh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “The scourge of Ahuizotl! The savior of rare and powerful artifacts!”

“You know there’s a difference between the Daring Do in the books and the one on stage now, right?” Twilight asked.

“Twilight, Daring Do based her books on her actual adventures! Everypony knows that!” Rainbow Dash then returned to cheering enthusiastically for the only pony she worshipped as much as the Wonderbolts.

After thanking all of her loyal fans for coming and describing how pleased she was to be in Canterlot, Daring Do took a seat at the table with the other members of her team that the crowd had all but forgotten once she appeared on stage. The panel then started with a Q&A session. Most questions were directed to Daring Do, but Twilight made sure to ask Iron Pyrite how much she had in common with Pyrite Ruby in the books.

For the next half hour, Daring Do and the other panelists engaged in a live reading of a chapter from the soon to be released next book in the series: Daring Do and the Legend of the Crystal Stars. It was a lot of fun, and a few lucky fans even got to participate in the readings, but before Rainbow Dash knew it the panel was approaching an end.

“We have one more item of business before the panel is over.” Daring Do announced. “You may remember Topaz or somepony mentioning a contest at the beginning of the panel.” One of her assistants handed Daring a small box. “We have all of your ticket stubs here and we’re going to do a random draw. One lucky pony in this audience is going to win the chance to tag along with me and my team on our next expedition!”

A chorus of gasps and murmuring erupted from the crowd. Twilight Sparkle saw Rainbow Dash pull out her ticket faster than a gunslinger in the old west.

“I thought you might like that” Daring Do grinned smugly as she reached into the box and pulled out a ticket stub. “And the winning seat is…” Daring paused and allowed the suspense to build. “45C!”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” It took Rainbow Dash a moment to realize that the loud high-pitched squeal that transcended the auditorium and likely was heard from other panels had come from her. The rainbow maned mare cheeks heated up as she sheepishly looked around and saw that all eyes in the room were on her. Rainbow Dash desperately tried to salvage the situation by casually leaning an elbow on her armrest and adopting a neutral expression.

“Oh. I won. That’s cool, I guess.”

Over the past few days, Rainbow Dash had kept herself very busy preparing for the big trip. She spent most of her down time packing and signing all of the tedious legal documents, which were mostly forms stating that Daring Do was not responsible for any injuries or death that may occur while on the expedition. Rainbow also had to make sure Tank was looked after and that she was covered at work (incidentally, she made it a point to get Fluttershy and Cloud Kicker cool souvenirs for when she got back). Now, she was finally standing on Canterlot’s airship loading docks, looking up at the impressive E.S Dungeon Crawler; the airship Daring Do’s team used on all of their expeditions.

The ship itself was about the size of a decently large building in Canterlot, with five levels not including the top deck. The massive tan balloon with the emblem of Daring Do’s compass cutie mark on the side utterly dwarfed the ship itself, well over twice its size. Sure, Rainbow Dash probably could fly to their destination; Pegaguay in half the time, but she had to admit she was looking forward to embarking on the expedition in style.

The airship loading docks were full of busy ponies loading and unloading cargo, running checks to make sure the ships were in good working condition and generally running back and forth trying to appear busy. The ships, the activity and the view of the morning sun rising over the Equestrian countryside from Canterlot’s perch on the mountainside made for a spectacular view.

“I can’t believe Dashie’s going on an adventure with Daring Do!” An all too familiar high-pitched voice behind Rainbow exclaimed. The pegasus turned around to see her five best friends on the loading dock making their way toward her.

“I’m so super-duper excited that I’m going to pass out and then I’m going to be sad because Rainbow Dash will have to leave but I’ll be passed out so I won’t get to say ‘goodbye’ or ‘see ya later alligator’ or any of my other variations but then Dashie’ll be back and she’ll have all these awesome stories to tell and maybe an awesome present for her bestest pink friend and then…”

“If yer so worried about passin’ out, it might help to stop yammerin’ fer a few seconds to breathe!” Applejack said.

“Just don’t do anything, um... dangerous… or scary… or scary and dangerous…” Fluttershy said as she gave Rainbow Dash a goodbye nuzzle.

“Remember to maintain proper hygiene while you’re gone. Pegaguay sounds like a simply filthy place!” Rarity said.

“I still can’t believe you won out of all the ponies at the panel that day!” Twilight exclaimed, giving her wings a restless shuffle. Nevertheless, she was grinning ear to ear.

“Of course I won! I was the most awesome pony in that room!” Rainbow boasted. “Those other ponies didn’t have a chance!”

“Except for the little detail that winning a random draw doesn’t involve skill…”

“Twilight, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re just jealous that you didn’t win that draw!”

The alicorn princess in question opened her mouth to protest, but hesitated when she made a realization. “... Okay, so maybe I’m just a tiny bit jealous that you’re traveling with the author I’ve admired since before you even liked reading, but still! That doesn’t change the fact that a random draw is entirely luck based!”

“Yeah well… I guess that just makes me awesome and lucky, so there!” Rainbow Dash turned and looked whimsically at the airship she was about to board. “Either way, I still get to hang out with Daring Do!”

“Rainbow Dash, I mean it when I say I’m really happy for you and hope you have a great time…” Twilight started with a sincere yet concerned look on her face. “But I just want you to remember that Daring Do is not the same pony as the character in her books.”

“I know, you said that at the convention Twilight!”

“That’s because it’s true!” Twilight sighed, “I know you have this image in your head of who Daring Do is, and I don’t want you to cling too tightly to that. She’s probably a perfectly good pony who’s really good at what she does, but… I don’t want you to build her up on this pedestal only to have it crumble when you see that she’s not everything you think she is! Do you understand what I mean?”

After a moment, Rainbow Dash glanced at Twilight over her shoulder. “Hmm? Sorry Twi, kinda zoned out there. That kinda happens whenever you go full lecture mode.”

“The E.S Dungeon Crawler is ready for departure! All passengers please commence boarding!” The loud announcement nearly drowned out Twilight Sparkle’s frustrated groan.

“Well, looks like this is it!” Rainbow exclaimed, unable to hide the excited grin on her face, “Next time you see me, I’ll be a certified adventurer!”

Twilight held back a comment about how assisting a world famous archeologist on one expedition doesn’t give you a degree in archeology and simply settled for a pleasant goodbye. After bidding farewell to each of her friends, Rainbow Dash boarded the airship. The ship shortly disembarked from the Canterlot docks and began its journey south to Pegaguay.

A single red line originating from Canterlot on the brown, colorless map of Equestria slowly made its way south. The red line traced the flight path of the Dungeon Crawler all the way down to the destination: Sao Pono, Pegaguay.

Rainbow Dash spat the red pen out of her mouth and looked down at the map in front of her that now had a slightly curved red line connecting Canterlot to Sao Pono.

“Well that killed about five seconds.” Rainbow Dash grumbled.

Canterlot hadn’t even disappeared over the horizon before boredom already set in over Rainbow Dash. The rainbow mare had left the deck and soon found herself in her quarters. The room was a bit small for Rainbow’s tastes, but the bed was comfortable and she had a desk that she could turn into part of a blanket fort later. She considered getting to work on it now, but decided it was better to wait so she’d have something to do later. Instead, Rainbow Dash just sat at the desk in her room staring at the colorless map (save for the red line she added) and listening to the low hum of the airship’s engines.

With a groan, Rainbow Dash got up and headed out of her quarters, hoping she could pass the time by exploring the ship. Most of the crew either ignored her or brushed her away, saying they were too busy to talk or that she was getting in their way. Rainbow did have a pleasant conversation with the ship’s doctor; Soar Heart.

As a former emergency paramedic, the purple pegasus claimed to be a pretty speedy flier, but he declined Rainbow’s challenge to a race around the airship on account of the work he had to do. Rainbow Dash left Soar Heart to his work, really only interested in talking to one pony on the ship, but she hadn’t seen hide or mane of Daring Do aside from a passing glance as she boarded.

Rainbow spotted a door labeled “communication” and decided with a lack of anything better to do, to open the door and go in. She was immediately greeted with a startled shriek from a mare in the room.

“Sweet Celestia! Does nopony knock around here?”

The unicorn mare was currently standing upright against a wall of shelves on the right side of the room with a hoof on her chest, likely to keep her heart from jumping out of it. She had a red coat and a white mane that she wore in a bun. A pair of small half moon glasses adorned her face. Rainbow Dash didn’t need to see the book and quill cutie mark on her flank to recognize her.

“Hey! You were at the panel a few days ago! You’re Pyrite… Pyrite something…”

“Iron Pyrite.” The older mare lowered herself back down to all four hooves. Well, three hooves as she was protectively holding a scroll in one of them.

“Right. Pyrite. Sorry for scaring ya!” Rainbow took a couple of steps into the room and looked around “What are you doing in here anyway?”

The communication room was only marginally bigger than Rainbow Dash’s own quarters. There was a table with a quill and ink for writing letters to the left and the wall of shelves full of meticulously sorted paper to the right.

“Just… relaying messages.” Pyrite explained as she quickly walked to the large open window at the end of the room. It was then that Rainbow Dash noticed the lantern hanging just in front of the open window, or rather the green fire that was in said lantern.

“You have dragonfire? That’s cool.” Rainbow Dash said as Pyrite hastily threw the rolled up parchment into the green flame as quickly as if the parchment itself was going to burn her. Green fire then shot out the other end of the lantern and disappeared in the noon air out the window.

As Rainbow Dash understood, dragonfire was an incredibly rare commodity for instantaneous communication. So rare in fact, that the only two ponies she knew had access to it were both princesses. She should have expected that Equestria’s most famous writer/archaeologist would also have the elusive substance.

“So, what did you just send?”

“Nothing. Personal stuff. None of your business!” Pyrite answered immediately.

Rainbow Dash raised her front hooves defensively. “Okay, okay. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s cool.” Rainbow then stuck out a foreleg. “I’m Rainbow Dash by the way.”

Iron Pyrite finally gave a smile, “The kid who won the contest huh?” She took Rainbow Dash’s foreleg in her own and gave it a single polite shake. “Nice to meet you. Why don’t you join me in the cafeteria? I’m sure the rest of the team would like to meet you!”

Rainbow suppressed a squee as she followed Pyrite out of the room. If she was going to meet the whole team, it probably included Daring Do herself!

Once they arrived at the cafeteria, Rainbow Dash immediately scanned the tables, but was disappointed when she didn’t see Daring Do sitting at any of them. Nevertheless, Rainbow continued to follow Pyrite as the two of them filled up their trays with a variety of fruits and vegetables. Pyrite then lead Rainbow to a table where three other ponies were eating.

“Hey guys, I want you all to meet Rainbow Dash, the fan who will be helping out on this expedition!” As the pair of them sat down, Pyrite gestured to the first pony at the table: a dark green earth pony with a blonde mane, a lot of stubble and a pair of bright, if droopy blue eyes. His cutie mark was a shovel and a pickaxe crossed together. “This is Gold Digger. He leads the dig team.”

Gold Digger gave a casual nod. “‘Sup.”

Pyrite moved to the other earth pony sitting across from him. “This is Topaz, our geologist.” The mare in question had a blue coat, short red bangs and bright orange eyes. Her cutie mark was three different rocks that Rainbow guessed all had unnecessarily long, egghead-y names.

“Hello.” She greeted in a voice that may have been just louder than Fluttershy’s normal voice.

Finally, Pyrite moved to the smaller than average orange unicorn stallion with a brown, poofy mane. His cutie mark was a scroll covered in various markings Rainbow Dash could not identify. “And this is Ancient Rune, expert in ancient cultures and history.” This one hadn’t been at the Daring Do panel.

“Salutations!” The little stallion’s high pitched greeting made Rainbow Dash wonder just how often he got beat up in school when he was a foal.

“And I’m the team’s science and magic expert.” Pyrite explained, neatly finishing the round of introductions.

“Cool. Nice to meet you all.” Rainbow Dash said, starting on her carrots. “So… is Daring Do going to join us?”

Gold Digger looked at her with his half-lidded eyes and gave a casual shrug. “I’unno. It’d be the first time if she did.” He said around the food in his mouth.

“Daring… keeps to herself most of the time.” Pyrite explained.

“She usually summons food to her quarters via members of the airship crew.” Ancient Rune stated.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of chances to meet her once we arrive.” Topaz said in her small voice. On further evaluation, Topaz’s voice wasn’t as soft as Fluttershy’s, but it was definitely as quiet.

Rainbow just nodded and took another bite of her lunch. She didn’t really know what to think of the fact that Daring Do rarely came out to mingle with her team. She figured it was simply because Daring was always busy pouring over tomes of lore regarding their latest escapade.

“Hey, so you probably want to know more about what we’ll be looking for in our little expedition right?” Pyrite asked, as if reading Rainbow’s mind.

Rainbow Dash’s ears immediately perked up when she realized she was going to hear about some amazing lost artifact that they were going to find. Who knows? Maybe Ahuizotl might try to steal whatever it was they were after and she’d have the chance to hit him with her patented “Rainbow Dash Kick.” The blue pegasus then realized she was nodding enthusiastically for quite some time now and was starting to get dizzy.

“Okay, well we’re looking for an ancient artifact called the Moonstone from the Lunar War one thousand years ago.”

“Wait, you mean that one time Nightmare Moon was all like ‘I’m gonna make the night last forever!’ And then Celestia was all like ‘not today you ain’t!’ And hit her in the face with the Elements of Harmony?”

The other ponies all stared at Rainbow Dash, who was currently frozen mid-dramatic pose.

“Never heard the Lunar War described like that…” Gold Digger muttered as he went back to eating.

“Yes, during the Lunar War, it’s been said that Nightmare Moon created a powerful weapon and locked it away in a place called the Lunar Sanctum.” Ancient Rune explained. “The Moonstone acts as a means of locating the Lunar Sanctum and unlocking the weapon within. The legend goes that before being banished, Nightmare Moon gave the Moonstone to the ponies that followed her during the war so that they may use it should she be defeated. But they never had the chance and when Celestia’s army defeated them they didn’t even have it anymore.

“However, on our last expedition to the Griffon Kingdom, we found records of a group of Griffon thieves from the Lunar War originating from Pegaguay. This group allegedly attacked a platoon of Nightmare Moon’s forces and made off with a variety of treasures including one matching the description of the Moonstone.”

“So pretty much, we’re gonna see if we can find a place the Griffons would’ve used as a hideout and hopefully find the Moonstone perhaps.” Gold said. Listening to his half-hearted rambling right after Ancient Rune’s excited and detailed descriptions was surreal.

“Okay. So basically, the Moonstone is a magical artifact that leads to a place where Nightmare Moon kept a secret weapon one thousand years ago?” Rainbow Dash asked, liking the sound of this adventure already.

“Of course, whether the Moonstone has any magical properties and the existence of the Lunar Sanctum and the legendary weapon is entirely a myth.” Pyrite explained. “Technically the magic existed to create ‘beacon artifacts’ like the Moonstone back then, but such enchantments would have worn off many years ago.”

“Also, the idea of a ‘Lunar Sanctum’ existing somewhere in Equestria having been undiscovered for a millenium is next to impossible.” Ancient Rune explained, “It’s more likely that this ‘Lunar Sanctum’ is nothing more than an old fortress used by Luna’s armies and the ‘weapon’ mentioned in the legend was nothing more than a cache of standard weapons and armor.”

“We believe the Moonstone however is real enough. It’s just nothing more than a rock” Pyrite said.

“A really nice rock!” Topaz’s tiny voice added optimistically.

“Oh. Okay. We’re at this part of the story!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Uh… what?” Gold ineloquently asked.

“Yeah, I get it guys. ‘It’s only a legend. There’s nothing magical or world ending about this artifact at all!’” Dash rolled her eyes. “I think that after all the other times Daring Do’s found a legendary, potentially world-ending artifact you guys should just assume all legends are true.”

Gold Digger gave a loud laugh, “Good one, bud!”

Gold continued his hearty, if obnoxious laughter while Rainbow Dash was confused. She hadn’t made any joke. She decided to ignore Gold and keep on eating her meal.

The rest of lunch carried on in a fairly lighthearted manner. Rainbow made casual conversation with Daring Do’s team and the team engaged in lighthearted banter between each other that reminded Rainbow Dash a lot of her own friends. After lunch, Rainbow spent time switching between hanging out with each member of the team.

Iron Pyrite and Ancient Rune told her about some of the highlights of their most recent expeditions, while Rainbow regaled them with some stories of her own adventures. Gold Digger introduced her to the members of his digging crew and showed her a bunch of the tools they used. Finally, Rainbow Dash managed to get Topaz out of her shell by letting her show off her rock collection. The quiet mare talked about her rocks with the same enthusiasm Fluttershy had with her animals. She even had names for them all.

Before Rainbow Dash knew it, an announcement from the pilot came over the airship stating they were approaching Sao Pono.

The one thought that kept going through Rainbow Dash’s mind as she walked the streets of Sao Pono was “Rarity would hate this place.” Not that Rainbow minded the muddy roads and the worn out buildings stacked on top of each other the way a child with no regard for structural integrity might stack blocks. The hustle and bustle of the South Equestrian town seemed like the perfect starting point for adventure. The weary sigh that escaped Gold Digger indicated the dark green stallion was not inclined to agree.

Truthfully, Rainbow Dash was a little disappointed in how her adventure with Daring Do was starting out. Mainly because of Daring’s general lack of involvement in said adventure. Not that Rainbow Dash hadn’t had a chance to see the mare herself since departing Canterlot. Quite the contrary, after the Dungeon Crawler had landed on the airstrip just outside the city, Daring Do herself had rallied the team together before entering the town proper.

“Alright! Gather round, team! GATHER. ROUND.” Daring Do had proclaimed, beckoning the others to her with exaggerated hoof gestures.

Rainbow Dash remembered looking around, noticing that the entire team had already been gathered before Daring Do.

“Now, today marks the beginning of our latest expedition: Daring Do and the Search For the Moonshine!”

“Moonstone.” Iron Pyrite corrected.

“Though I wouldn’t mind searching for some moonshine while we’re here…” Gold muttered.

“Now, the plan is simple: we’re all going to split up and ask anyone we meet what they know about the Moonstone or any of the local dragon clans…” Daring Do explained.

“Uh, dragon clans?” Gold Digger asked skeptically.

“Are we not trying to locate possible Lunar Era hideouts belonging to griffon thieves?” Ancient Rune asked.

Daring Do bit her lip and looked around, “Yes. Those too! Especially those!”

Rainbow Dash had cautiously decided to voice something that had been bothering her since Daring Do summoned them all outside of town, “Uh, Daring Do? Not that I think you aren’t awesome and don’t know what you’re doing or anything, but are you okay? You kinda look like how I feel whenever I haven’t studied for a big test at Flight School.”

“I’m fine kid. Just… when you’ve been on as many adventures as I have sometimes they kinda merge together, you know?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t know, but Daring Do was the world famous explorer, not her.

“Now, I want Iron Pyrite and Ancient Rune to cover the east end. Gold Digger and Topaz, see what you can find in the west end. The kid and I will go investigate town hall and the north end.” Rainbow Dash’s smile had grown as wide as Pinkie Pie’s on a normal day when Daring Do gestured to her.

“Heh heh! I’m the kid!” She squealed.

“We’ll all meet in the central market place in the south part of town at sundown, clear?”

“Yes m’am!” Rainbow Dash saluted before bouncing over to Daring Do. “This is going to be so awesome! You can tell me stories of your adventures, not that I don’t know all of them, of course. Oh! And I can tell you about some of my ideas for your books! See there’s this one character I was thinking of with a rainbow mane…”

“Okay! Change of plan! Ancient Rune, you’re with me! Kid, you’re with Iron Pyrite.”

Rainbow Dash’s heart sank a little as she had left Daring Do’s side and switched places with Ancient Rune. While Rainbow hadn’t been totally unhappy about being with Pyrite (she was pretty nice to her so far), it still wasn’t the same as being with Daring Do. However, the red unicorn mare had told her shortly after Daring Do and Ancient Rune departed for the north end of town that she had business to attend to on her own, setting Rainbow up with Gold Digger and Topaz. Now, Rainbow Dash walked along side the two earth ponies feeling very much like a ball in the archeologists’ game of hot potato.

They had spent what was left of the afternoon asking around their end of town for any information they could find about the Moonstone and nearby Griffon fortresses. Now, the sun was beginning to set and they hadn’t found any leads.

Rainbow Dash glanced around the quickly emptying street. All of the townsfolk were either heading back to their homes or going to the marketplace in the center of town for some last minute shopping before it closed. However, Rainbow Dash noticed at least one pony who lingered. Unsettlingly, the white-coated stranger was staring right at them. The stallion was big and muscular, and an ugly scar cut across his snout. He looked like a guard or former guard who had seen plenty of action. Rainbow then realized that she had seen the pony before. She was certain that she’d seen that same scar on a pony they had asked about the Moonstone in a completely different part of town. What was he doing here?

“Hey guys,” Rainbow Dash said in a low whisper, turning to Gold Digger and Topaz, “Don’t look now, but I think we’re being followed!”

“Pfft. That’s stupid. Who would waste their time following us?” Gold Digger asked.

“Maybe, I don’t know, one of Ahuizotl’s spies?” Rainbow declared, her tone implying the obviousness of her answer.

“Okay seriously bud, the first joke was funny, but making fun of the boss’s dumb books is starting to get old.”

Rainbow Dash had to do a double take, “What? Dumb books? How can you say that about the retellings of Daring Do’s amazing exploits?”

Gold let out another obnoxious laugh, “Okay, one more joke. But that’s it! The boss might find out!”

Topaz gave Gold an uncertain look. “Uh, I don’t think she’s joking…”

Gold’s laughter suddenly petered out like a vehicle that had run out of fuel. “Oh…” He turned to address Rainbow Dash again, “Yeah, hey bud? When we get back to the ship, we gotta have a talk.”

Before Rainbow Dash could comment further, she heard the “psst” sound of someone trying to get her attention. Gold Digger and Topaz apparently heard it too, as all three travelers looked to the source of the noise, and saw a cloaked figure standing in the shadows of an alleyway beckoning to them with a hoof. As the group approached the mysterious stranger, Rainbow Dash noticed familiar black and white stripes on the parts of them not obscured by the brown cloak.

“I could not help but notice that you and your other companions have been asking around about the Moonstone.” The stranger was male and spoke in a deep, exotic voice.

“Oh yeah! Y’know anything about it?” Gold asked.

The strange zebra nodded. “Come with me. We can’t be sure of who else may be listening out here.”

Without another word, the zebra turned and entered the alleyway as the three ponies exchanged an uncertain glance.

“Well… my mom always warned me about going into dark alleys with strange ponies.” Topaz said meekly.

“Did she say anything about strange zebras?” Rainbow asked.

“Well... no, but…”

“Then we’re good!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, leading the way into the alley followed closely by Gold Digger and after some hesitation, Topaz.

The zebra led the ponies through the alleyway to a door partially hidden by a pile of crates. Through the door, the ponies found themselves in a cozy room with an expensive looking rug and a variety of vases and other old looking trinkets deliberately placed throughout. Rainbow Dash was surprised to find so many expensive looking decorations in a home as tucked away as this one.

The stranger removed his hood and gestured to a soft green couch on one end of the room, inviting his guests to take a seat. Rainbow Dash and Gold Digger wasted no time on accepting the zebra’s offer, while Topaz settled for awkwardly standing beside the couch. The zebra made his way to an arched doorway on the other end of the room.

“I’m going to open up a bottle of moonshine. Would any of you like some?”

“Well, we’re not supposed to drink while we’re working…” Topaz started.

“Yeah, I’m down for a drink!” Gold casually said.

“Yeah, me too!” Rainbow Dash said, taking Gold’s lead.

Their zebra companion was gone for only a moment before he returned with three mugs of the beverage. Even his mugs looked like priceless artifacts.

Once Rainbow Dash had her drink in her hoof and the zebra took a seat across from her and the others, she was able to get a good look at him. The first thing she noticed was that he had no mane. The zebra also had far less jewelery than the only other zebra she knew, a single gold earring being the only ornament on his person.

“I believe introductions are in order. My name is Zestafa.” He said with a bow of his head.

“Zestafa, huh? And you can help us find the Moonstone?” Gold asked.

Zestafa nodded. “I work with people here whose main goal is the preservation of historical artifacts. I am something of a collector myself, my most prized possession of course being the Crimson Flare.” The zebra indicated a model of an airship on the table between them. The airship would have been much smaller than the Dungeon Crawler, possessing only one deck. A purple balloon with the emblem of Celestia’s sun held the vessel up.

“Wait, you have the actual E.S Crimson Flare?” Gold asked in disbelief. “As in, the fastest ship in Princess Celestia’s fleet during the Lunar War? Ancient Rune told me it was lost when it was shot down somewhere over the Badlands.”

Zestafa nodded. “And he is correct. Shot down, lost, found by my people, repaired and brought back here!”

Rainbow Dash promptly raised her hoof as if she was in class. “Can I ask you a quick question? Why aren’t you speaking in rhyme?”

It took several seconds for everyone in the room to register what Rainbow Dash had just asked. “Um… because that would be difficult and unnecessary.” Zastafa said.

“It’s just that… I know this zebra back in Ponyville, and she always…”

“And how many other zebras do you know?”

Rainbow Dash could only soundlessly open and close her mouth a few times.

“That many, huh?”

Gold Digger sighed and shook his head while Topaz looked sympathetically in Rainbow’s direction.

“Yeah… sorry.” Rainbow Dash awkwardly scratched at the back of her neck and stared at the ceiling.

“A word of advice: Don’t let one strange case tell you about an entire race.” Zestafa’s eyes widened when he realized what he just did. “Hmm… That’s never happened before.”

“Uh… we’ve gotten kind of sidetracked. Weren’t you going to tell us about the Moonstone?” Topaz asked politely.

“Yes.” Zestafa got up and went over to a desk. Pulling out a folded up piece of paper, Zestafa returned to the three ponies and unfolded it on the table beside the model airship, revealing a detailed map of the region.

“Many years ago, a group of Griffin thieves once made their hideout where this very town rests now, but they were raided by the tribal pegasi who lived in the mountains to the West, taking all the thieves had stolen. Nowadays, the tribesponies are long gone but the ruins of their society remain.”

Zestafa pointed to a pair of mountains on the western side of the map. “Between the Padre y Hijo Mountains far to the west is the temple where the tribes would make their offerings to the heavens. I have no doubt that you will find what you seek there.”

“Wow! Thanks! That’s totally awesome info!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“I’m guessing there’s a catch though huh?” Gold Digger asked. “How much we payin’ for this information?”

At this, Zestafa gave the ponies a warm smile. “No payment necessary my friends. I consider it my duty to keep the treasures of the world from falling into the wrong hooves. If you are with the legendary Daring Do, I can rest easy knowing the artifacts of that temple will be well looked after!”

“Sweet!”

“The moonshine however, is ten bits each!”

Rainbow Dash and Gold Digger both looked down at their half empty cups and carefully set them on the table, suddenly no longer thirsty. After negotiating down to five bits for the drinks (based on the fact that they only drank half) the ponies all shook hooves with Zestafa and began making their way out. Before they could get out the door however, Zestafa stopped them.

“Be very careful out there my friends.” Zestafa gave them a grim look. “I am not the only one who noticed you asking around about the Moonstone…”

“Alright, gather around team!” Daring Do boldly waved Rainbow Dash and the others over to where she was standing in the middle of town square. Rainbow practically skipped over to her favorite archaeologist while Gold Digger and Topaz plodded along behind her.

Despite the recent absence of Celestia’s sun in the sky, the main square of Sao Pono was still bustling with activity. Ponies, griffons, and many other creatures Rainbow Dash had never seen before ran to and fro, trying to finish all of their shopping before the various stalls closed up for the day. The market was surrounded on all sides by tall stacks of buildings, and looking straight up gave Rainbow the feeling of being at the bottom of a deep, wood and concrete pit. The stars in the night sky were very nearly obscured by the criss-crossing clotheslines extending between structures like a spider web.

Daring Do looked around at the four gathered researchers around her. Rainbow Dash arrived in front of her with Gold Digger and Topaz, and Ancient Rune had been with her the whole time.

“Where’s Iron Pyrite?” Daring asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I dunno. She said she had some things to do before dumping me with Gold and Topaz. Just said she’d catch up with us later.”

“Must be conducting her own research. She’s always working on her little pet projects!” Daring said before getting back to the matter at hoof. “Anyway, you will all be thrilled to know that thanks to my amazing relic finding skills, I was able to discover the location of the Moonstone!” Daring Do held her head up proudly, “But, don’t let that discourage any of you from sharing any of the information you may have found!”

“Ooh! Can I tell her about the stuff?” Rainbow whirled around and was in Gold Digger’s face faster than the lazy-eyed stallion could blink.

“Knock yourself out…”

Rainbow Dash suppressed a squee as her grin grew even wider and she turned to face Daring Do.

“Gold, Topaz and me: the awesome Rainbow Dash gathered some pretty sweet info on the location of the Moonstone. Pretty much: it’s in a temple between these two mountains.”

“The Padre y Hijo.” Gold added. “The temple was used by tribal pegasi who stole the Moonstone from the griffon thieves.”

Daring Do placed a hoof on her chin as she considered this information. “That’s fine work Rainbow Dash. Even though Ancient Rune and I had already uncovered the very same info during our own search…”

“We did?” Ancient Rune asked. The small orange stallion’s question quickly became a whimper as Daring Do silenced anything else he had to say with a harsh stamp of her hoof on his own.

“Of course! And don’t worry Rainbow Dash, even though what you uncovered turned out to be totally redundant, it’s still useful! You helped confirm that what I discovered is accurate!”

This time, Rainbow Dash couldn’t quite suppress a squee as she turned back to Gold and Topaz. “I’m helping!”

Even Topaz rolled her eyes.

“Now, let’s return to the Dungeon Crawler! I’ll set a course for the uh… for the mountains we’re going to and we can explore the temple tomorrow!” Daring Do adjusted her hat and turned to begin her trek through the crowd back to the airstrip.

“Uh… do you want us to show you the Padre y Hijo on the map?” Topaz asked quietly.

Daring Do stopped and looked back at her team, “Please Topaz, I already know everything I need to know about the Paddy Hijacallit… But if it’ll make you feel better I guess you can point it out to me on the map when we get back to the ship!”

“Before we all depart, I must inform you all on some rather unsettling information that Daring and I had obtained whilst asking around about the Moonstone…” Ancient Rune started.

“Please Ancient Rune, that cult is hardly relevant to our search.” Daring Do waved a dismissive hoof, eager to get going.

“What cult?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“How can you say it isn’t relevant?” Ancient Rune ignored Rainbow Dash as he argued Daring Do’s point. “This... ‘Foals of the Moon’ group is after the same artifact we are! They could be dangerous!”

Daring Do turned back around and approached Ancient Rune and the others. Along the way, she bumped into a white pony in the crowd.

“Excuse me.”

“Sorry.”

Just like that, Daring Do returned her attention to her team as she and the other pony passed like ships in the night.

“Ancient Rune, you can’t always concern yourself with everything that ‘could’ be dangerous! If you want to be a great adventurer like me, you have to fin th tursur bfor yusay ‘nuther dey… ‘nuther dunjon.”

All four other ponies stared at their leader with confused expressions. “What?”

Said leader’s eyes were starting to get as half-lidded as Gold Digger’s were normally. “Fin th tursur! Wus won wit yu poonies?”

“Uh… can you say that in a language we all speak?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh jeepers!” Topaz’s hoof shot up in front of her mouth, “Daring, you’re bleeding!” Topaz removed her hoof from in front of her face and pointed down at one of her leader’s forelegs.

All of the ponies including Daring looked down at her forelegs. Sure enough, a small crimson trail of liquid made its way down through the fur from a small incision on Daring’s leg.

“Now when did that occur?” Ancient Rune asked.

Daring Do stared drunkenly into space before she gave a slurred gasp and her eyes went as wide as they could. Or, one of them did. The other just kind of lazily swam around in its socket.

“DAT GYE! WER’S DAT GYE’T BMP’D INNA ME?” Daring Do then stared straight ahead, her eyes cloudy and unfocused. “I dun fel s’gud… ‘M gunna lye doun now...” With that, Daring Do collapsed to the ground like a wet rag. The archaeologist’s four companions all gathered around her.

“Oh golly! What’s happening to her?” Topaz said, panic overtaking her small voice.

“I dunno, she was fine a few seconds ago!” Gold exclaimed.

“It seems highly possible that Daring’s been poisoned.” Ancient Rune deduced, resulting in anxious looks among the rest of the team. “She got that cut around the same time she started showing symptoms. Whatever cut her must have been laced with some kind of neurotoxin!”

“SOMPOONY HALP! DUH GROUN’S TRYIN TA EAT MEH!” Daring called out from her spot on the ground.

“Okay quick, let’s get her back to the ship and have Doctor Soar Heart fix her!” Rainbow Dash said, grabbing one of Daring Do’s hooves and trying to hoist the incapacitated mare onto her back. Ancient Rune quickly moved to help with his magic.

“Who could have done this?” Topaz asked, looking over at Gold. The stallion however, was turned around looking in the opposite direction.

“Just a hunch, but I’m gonna guess those scary looking ponies heading towards us have something to do with it!”

The rest of the team looked in the direction Gold Digger was indicating and saw a group of dark, grim-faced ponies heading straight for them.

“Let’s get out of here!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, Daring Do now filling the role of Rainbow’s knapsack.

The first thought the rainbow-maned pegasus had was to fly away, but another look up made her realize that would be a bad idea. The cramped nature of the buildings and the clotheslines crossing every which way would have made it impossible for even her to maneuver, let alone with a poisoned Daring Do sprawled across her back. Instead, Rainbow Dash just settled for running, the rest of Daring’s team right behind her.

The dark ponies that were making their way towards them stopped and watched Rainbow Dash and Daring’s group flee into the crowd. One of the strange ponies turned to another.

“See? I told you they didn’t need our help.”

“WEEEEEEE S’LIKE FLYIN! WISH I CUD FLY…”

Rainbow Dash just kept galloping through the streets, weaving around clueless passersby, trying to keep Daring Do from falling off her back in the process.

“Are they still chasing us?” Topaz called out. She and the others were running right behind Rainbow.

“I dunno! I can’t look back and run forward at the same time!” Gold answered.

“Perhaps it would be prudent to separate!” Ancient Rune suggested, as usual in an overly complex way.

“I don’t know what you just said, but we might shake ‘em if we split up!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

The fleeing ponies approached an intersection and did exactly that upon reaching it. Gold Digger, Topaz, and Ancient Rune turned right and ran down another cramped street while Rainbow Dash carried Daring Do left into a tunnel underneath a large structure.

Rainbow checked behind her only to find out she’d been the only one to run left. “Seriously?”

Regardless, Rainbow pressed forward through the tunnel until she emerged in a small courtyard. The rainbow maned mare skidded to a stop when she saw that a large stallion was blocking the exit on the other side of the yard. The familiar white scarred visage glared at her from across the fountain that served as the courtyard’s centerpiece.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Rainbow questioned the mysterious pony, glaring right back at him.

The only response the white-coated stranger gave was to raise his right foreleg, Which Rainbow Dash noticed had some kind of metal ring around it. With a metallic click, a small blade emerged from the metal hoof ring. Rainbow immediately noticed a speck of red on the tip of the otherwise spotless metal blade, and soon made the connection to the poisoned cut on Daring Do’s leg.

“Oh. I see how it is! Fine, let’s go!” Rainbow Dash leaned forward to assume a fighting stance, but a heavy weight on her back reminded her of a very important detail, “Uh, lemme just put down Daring Do first!”

The other pony gave her no such chance, clearing the fountain with an impressive leap and closing the distance between himself and Rainbow Dash faster then she would have been able to safely discard her passenger. Right before the scarred stallion could land his blow, he was hit by a white blast of magic and landed on the ground in a mess of sprawled limbs. Rainbow Dash stared down at her would-be assailant for a moment before turning around to find the source of the magical blast that very well may have saved her life.

“Iron Pyrite?”

The red spectacled unicorn stepped out of the shadows of the tunnel Rainbow Dash had entered from. “C’mon, let’s get her back to the Dungeon Crawler quickly. That paralysis spell I just used only lasts a short while.”

Rainbow Dash looked back down at the felled white assassin and saw the same hard face with the scar bridging his snout staring up at her from his position on the ground. He was fully conscious, and his stare was still unnerving even if he couldn’t move. Rainbow just followed Pyrite to the courtyard’s exit, giving the downed assailant a wide berth.

“Who was that? Why did he poison Daring Do?” Rainbow asked as she and Pyrite made their way through more dark side streets in the direction of the airstrip.

“He’s probably a member of ‘The Foals of the Moon.’ They’re an insane cult that worships Princess Luna. Or rather, Princess Luna when she was Nightmare Moon.” Iron Pyrite explained.

“You mean there’s a group of ponies that actually want eternal night?”

“Did I not mention the insane part?”

As the two ponies continued their urgent gallop ahead, Rainbow Dash thought of something.

"Hey Iron... what have you been doing till now?"

Iron Pyrite hesitated before answering, "That's none of your business..."

Rainbow Dash walked down a hallway on board the Dungeon Crawler, feeling drained. It had only been a few minutes since they had received the news on Daring Do’s status.

Gold Digger, Topaz and Ancient Rune had already been back at the Dungeon Crawler when Rainbow Dash and Iron Pyrite arrived with the unconscious Daring Do. After a quick trip to the infirmary and a few tense minutes of waiting that may as well have been hours, Dr. Soar Heart emerged with the news.

“She’s going to be okay,” the purple pegasus doctor had reported. Rainbow Dash and the rest of the team breathed a collective sigh of relief. “You got her back in the nick of time Rainbow Dash. We were able to administer medicine that should restore her higher brain functions. After that it’s only a matter of expelling the remaining poison from her system.” Dr. Soar Heart had then looked away uncomfortably, “Yeah… Daring’s in for a rough night.”

With that sorted out, Iron Pyrite had told the pilot to set a course for the Padre y Hijo and then immediately went to the communication room. Gold Digger declared his intentions to go to the cafeteria and see what was for dinner. Topaz and Ancient Rune said they’d join him after going to their rooms to wash up. Feeling no need to do the same, Rainbow Dash had decided to go with Gold.

“I wasn’t worried at all! I knew she would be okay!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed as she and Gold walked side by side down the featureless corridor. The dark green stallion just stared ahead with his pair of perpetually lazy eyes.

“Daring Do’s survived way worse than a little poison, am I right?” Rainbow Dash nudged Gold Digger a couple of times, whose response was to stop walking and sigh.

“Alright look. You know the difference between fiction and reality right?” he asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged her wings. “Sure!”

“Then you should know that everything that happens in Daring Do’s books is exactly that: fiction.”

Rainbow Dash paused as she tried to comprehend what Gold was trying to tell her. “Well, I guess she had to exaggerate some of the stuff she did…”

“No, you don’t understand. Every single thing that happens in every one of those books is entirely made up.” Gold spoke slowly and deliberately. The lazy, slacker attitude that always permeated his voice before was now replaced with calm resolve. “Her books are nothing but over the top, glorified versions of our actual expeditions where she’s made out to be the big hero!”

“No. The books are based on stuff Daring’s actually done!” Rainbow was starting to get annoyed with this stallion trying to smear the good name of her heroine, “She said on multiple occasions that those were all real adventures she had!” She then got right into Gold’s face, giving him a challenging stare. “Are you calling Daring Do a liar?”

Gold Digger stared right back into Rainbow’s magenta eyes. “I am.” Rainbow Dash just stared at him harder, as if her look alone would get him to admit that he was wrong. “Of the two of us, who’s actually been on most of Daring’s quote unquote ‘adventures?’”

Rainbow backed off slightly when she realized that Gold had a point. “I’m telling you, Daring’s more than just a liar, she’s an all around bad pony! And I’m not the only one on the team who thinks that either! She’s incredibly self-centered, never gives any of us credit for all of the hard work we do for her! Not even our characters in her books get any recognition! Even worse, she doesn’t care at all about any of us as ponies!”

Gold then looked away, all of the momentum from his angry rant taken away. “Not even those of us she’s known her whole life…”

Rainbow Dash stared at Gold Digger in disbelief. “I get it now…”

Gold looked back up at her and smiled. “Thanks. I knew you’d come to realize…”

“You’re jealous!”

Gold’s smile disappeared in an instant as Rainbow continued. “You and Daring were childhood friends, weren’t you? She went on to do great things, and what are you? Just one of her lackeys!” Rainbow concluded with a cocky grin. “I can almost get why you’d want other ponies to think she’s not that great!”

Gold ground his teeth together so hard Rainbow thought they might turn to dust. “FINE! Believe whatever you want! I don’t care anymore! I was trying to save you a bunch of pain and disappointment, but forget it!” Gold started walking away, leaving Rainbow standing in the middle of the hallway. “Just don’t come crying to me once you find out just how pathetic your hero really is!”

The rest of the night aboard the Dungeon Crawler had been uneventful and a little awkward. Rainbow Dash decided not to join Gold Digger in the cafeteria right away, instead hanging out in her quarters until she figured Iron Pyrite and the others would be there. Rainbow wasn’t sure if they were wondering why Gold was so quiet and why she and him hadn’t said a word to each other over the course of the entire meal.

Soon the team all left the cafeteria, having finished their meals and Rainbow Dash and Iron Pyrite were the last two at the table.

“Hey Pyrite. What’s your opinion of Daring Do?” Rainbow had asked.

Pyrite looked around and shrugged. “She’s an alright boss, I guess. The pay could be better though… I’d really like to be able to afford to send my...”

The red unicorn mare trailed off, stopping what could have been a bitter rant with a shrug. When she asked Rainbow why she asked, the pegasus just made up an excuse to leave.

Rainbow Dash had then spent the rest of the night flying laps around outside of the airship. It had been a while since she’d flown using her own wings, and flying was always a reliable way to keep herself from thinking too much. Between concentrating on her various tricks and making sure the Dungeon Crawler didn’t leave her line of sight, Rainbow Dash didn’t get many chances to think about whether Gold Digger really was right about Daring Do. By the time she got back on board, Rainbow Dash was tired enough to pass out as soon as she got in her bed.

The next morning was mostly spent going around the ship helping out the team with whatever odd jobs they needed done before the Dungeon Crawler touched down in a valley between a moderately sized mountain and a huge mountain twice its size: The Padre y Hijo.

“Here you go, Daring Do!” Rainbow Dash gave the archaeologist a still steaming cup of coffee with gluten free milk like she asked.

She took the beverage thanklessly and sipped from it. A bandage was wrapped around her foreleg where the cut had been and she still looked a little green, but otherwise she was on her hooves and standing tall outside the Dungeon Crawler, waiting for an update from her team on the location of the temple.

The valley between the two large mountains was fairly wide open, with only a few trees here and there populating the grassy expanse. The thick, South Equestrian jungle surrounded the clearing on all sides and continued up the pair of mountains that formed the valley’s walls.

Looking over at the beige mare in the safari hat, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but think back to her conversation with Gold Digger.

“Hey, Daring…?” Rainbow started.

Daring Do looked at her, indicating the blue pegasus had her attention. “What’s on your mind, kid?”

Rainbow Dash struggled with her words for a bit. She didn’t know what exactly she wanted to say. “You and Gold Digger were friends for a long time right?”

Daring Do nodded, traces of a smile creeping up on her face. “He’s been there for me more times than I could count. I don’t think I ever told him though...” Rainbow Dash nodded as Daring Do stared ahead, lost in thought.

Rainbow Dash wanted to tell her all about the terrible slander Gold had said about her. For some reason though, the words never came. Rainbow Dash shook her head once and tried thinking of something else. Gold Digger was approaching them, and there was no way she was going to let him figure out she was starting to have doubts about Daring Do… because she wasn’t having doubts on Daring Do. Daring Do was still awesome!

“Hey boss. My team found something that looks like it could be the entrance to that temple. It’s up on the Padre Mountain.” Gold reported. “That’s the big one by the way.”

Gold glanced in Rainbow’s direction. She gave him her best smug smile to let him know that his bored, uncaring attitude wasn’t fooling her. He knew Daring Do was awesome, even if he wouldn’t admit it!

Daring simply smiled and nodded in response. “Alright. Gather up Ancient Rune, Iron Pyrite and Topaz and have them all meet me at the foot of the Paddy mountain!”

“Sure thing, boss.” Gold Digger sighed, turning to go do the task Daring set for him.

Daring downed the rest of her coffee at a pace that impressed even Rainbow Dash and motioned for her to follow her to the base of the smaller of the two mountains.

“C’mon kid! Let’s go! Another day, another dungeon right?”

“Uh, Daring? No disrespect, but you’re going toward the wrong mountain.”

Daring Do stopped and turned around. “I knew that. I was just taking a less direct path!”

Soon, the six ponies were gathered just outside the tropical forest at the edge of the valley saddled with bags of gear. The group then began the trek up the mountain to where Gold Digger’s team had found the temple. Rainbow Dash suggested that she and Daring just fly up to the temple on the mountain but the others shot down the idea on the basis that they didn’t have wings.

So, the group spent the next few hours trotting up a steadily steepening slope, pushing through thick jungle foliage that blocked the way forward and covered the sky above. The songs of exotic birds and a myriad of other unseen creatures provided the soundtrack to the ponies’ trek. After a while, the thick brush gave way to increasingly sharp inclines. Eventually Rainbow Dash and Daring Do would have to fly up to the harder to reach ledges and lower ropes for the others to climb.

It was late afternoon by the time the group were high enough on the mountain for the trees and bushes of the jungle to completely vanish, replaced with ivy covered rocks and boulders. Looking back, Rainbow could see the enormous compass-crested balloon of the Dungeon Crawler in the valley far below. It looked no bigger than the model in Zestafa’s home from where they were on the mountain.

Rainbow’s head was down, keeping both eyes on her footing when the uneven, jagged rocks suddenly became stairs. Looking up, Rainbow saw that a long flight of stairs had been carved into the side of the mountain, leading up to a dark opening.

“Hey! There it is!” Rainbow called out excitedly.

Behind her, Daring Do and her team climbed onto the ledge and looked up at the sight in front of them.

“Yep. The architecture definitely matches that of the regional pegasus tribes!” Ancient Rune stated, already taking notes.

“Well that’s not at all creepy…” Pyrite muttered.

Rainbow Dash took another look at the face of the temple to find something she hadn’t noticed the first time she saw it: a literal face. The entrance was carved to look like a giant pony skull, with the dark opening forming an unnaturally large mouth.

“Oh golly. Why do these ancient tribes have to make their temples so scary?” Topaz whimpered as the six of them made their way up the stairs.

Once the team made it to the top, they pulled torches out of their bags and began lighting them for their investigation inside.

“Alright, which one of us do you want to send out in front this time?” Gold asked an uneasy looking Daring Do.

“What do you mean? Doesn’t Daring Do always go into dungeons head first?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s send the kid in first!” Daring exclaimed.

“What?” Rainbow Dash looked between Daring Do and the dark foreboding entrance to the temple.

“How about it, kid? You want to be our pathfinder?” Daring asked, giving Rainbow a winning smile.

Rainbow looked between the dark temple and Daring Do one more time before putting on a confident grin. “That would be awesome!”

“You do realize how much trouble we’ll be in if something happens to her right?” Pyrite whispered to Daring through the corner of her mouth as Rainbow Dash obliviously turned and started walking into the temple, torch in mouth.

“I know exactly how much trouble we’ll be in: none. That’s why we got her to sign all those legal forms!” Daring whispered back through the corner of her own mouth.

Rainbow Dash lead the way through the dark, dusty confines of the ancient temple. Cobwebs and overgrown plants covered every surface and much of the patterned walls were completely faded away. The whole structure was like a corpse destroyed by time.

All of a sudden, Rainbow Dash stopped to survey her surroundings, holding a hoof up to signal the others to do the same. She eyed the various floor panels apprehensively. Several small holes in the walls suddenly drew her eyes, and the ceiling seemed suspiciously big enough to hold a lot of hungry crocodiles.

“Why have you ceased forward movement, Rainbow?” Ancient Rune asked.

Rainbow Dash spat out her torch and caught it in her hoof. “Because I know what’s coming…”

“W-what’s coming?” Topaz nervously asked.

Rainbow Dash placed her torch back in her mouth. “Juth watch!”

With that, the rainbow pegasus dove forward. She performed a series of impressive acrobatic leaps, cartwheels and somersaults, trying to minimize her contact with the ground as much as possible. She then ran forward as fast as she could, knowing full well that speed meant the difference between life and death. She finished with a dramatic dive forward and made it to the end of the room with a series of rolls on the ground, only stopping to catch her breath once she was safe on the other side.

“Wow… that was impressive.” Rainbow Dash looked back at the sound of Daring Do’s voice to see that the inside of the ancient temple looked exactly the same as it did when she entered, and that Daring Do and her team were staring at her with wide-eyed, confused expressions.

“So… why did you cross the room like that?”

Rainbow Dash looked around the room she had just crossed once more. The floor panels hadn’t given way to lava, there were no deadly poisonous darts sticking out of the walls and no crocodiles had fallen from the ceiling.

Rainbow Dash calmly brushed herself off. “Because... it’s cooler than walking!”

With a shrug, Daring Do calmly crossed the very much not trap filled corridor, followed by her team. In a few short steps, the six exploring ponies entered the next room, and found a large altar surrounded by various treasures. Most of it was old currency that no country even used anymore, but there were a few gems and priceless vases scattered around as well.

“That’s it! On the altar!” Pyrite exclaimed, pointing a hoof at the altar in the center of the room.

Daring Do calmly approached it and Rainbow Dash curiously followed, eager to see what Daring would do. Sure enough, on the pedestal in the middle of the altar was a white rock about as big as her hoof, shaped like a crescent moon. The rock seemed to sparkle in what little sunlight came through the place. Daring Do promptly picked the artifact up and looked at it.

Rainbow Dash had half a mind to grab one of the vases in the room, place it on the pedestal where the Moonstone had been and ask Daring if she’d learned nothing. After her unnecessary performance in the other hallway though, she decided against it.

“Alright, we got it! An easy find this time!” Daring said, placing the Moonstone in one of her saddlebags. “Unless anyone else has anything they want to do, I say we head on back and send in the post excavation team to clean up the minor artifacts!”

“Well, there are some really nice rocks in here.” Topaz said, holding something that Rainbow Dash thought looked no different than an ordinary rock.

“Okay, you can meet us back at the ship once you’re done here.” Daring said as she and the others started making their way out.

“B-by myself?” Topaz looked frantically around the room a couple of times before putting the one rock she picked up away and running to catch up with the others. Soon, the six ponies were back in the long corridor.

“Hey bud, do ya wanna backflip across the room this time?” Gold snickered in Rainbow’s direction.

“Nah. I’m good.” Rainbow Dash nearly bumped into Daring Do’s flank as the archaeologist suddenly stopped.

“Does anypony else hear that?” Daring asked before anypony could question why she stopped.

“Hear what?” But then Rainbow Dash heard it too. A series of unrelenting low booms in the distance. The sounds reminded Rainbow Dash of a distant storm, which struck her as odd.

“It sounds like atmospheric discharges…” Ancient Rune said.

“Bud, you could’ve just said ‘thunder’ and saved yourself like, five syllables.” Gold deadpanned.

“But the skies were clear…” Rainbow Dash pointed out. She remembered because as a weather pegasus back in Ponyville she was impressed by how clear the sky over the mountains was, even though someone on the ship had mentioned this place had its own weather much like the Everfree Forest.

The ponies all exchanged concerned looks except for Iron Pyrite, who just stared grimly ahead. Without any further words, the six ponies ran to the entrance of the temple. The sun was disappearing behind Hijo Mountain opposite to them, but that wasn’t the first thing they noticed. The valley below glowed a slight orange as Daring Do’s airship burned, smoke filling the air above.

“Oh no! The Dungeon Crawler!” Daring Do exclaimed, holding her hooves to her temples, “We’d just finished paying it off!”

“Please tell me you got the extended warranty like I asked you to,” said Iron Pyrite.

The way Daring’s snout suddenly scrunched up indicated that wasn’t the case.

The sun was nearly gone from the sky when the six ponies took cover in the brush just outside of the valley, silent as cats. When Rainbow Dash had flown ahead to see what was going on, she had spotted dozens of hooded ponies in black robes rounding up the surviving members of the ship’s crew. Those same mysterious ponies were still patrolling the valley in force when Daring Do and her team arrived. The crew of the Dungeon Crawler were corralled a few feet away from the ship’s burning remains.

Now that she was closer, Rainbow Dash could make out white crescent moon and stars insignias on the black robes that the attackers wore. She immediately knew who they were up against.

“Cultists… I hate these guys!” Rainbow Dash whispered, grinning like a foal despite the situation.

“This is not the time for more references!” Gold Digger whispered back.

“How did they find us?” Daring asked, “The Dungeon Crawler is… or was one of the fastest ships around!”

“I’d like to know how they were able to incinerate the entire ship as quickly as they did.” Ancient Rune said.

“Maybe those unicorns over there have something to do with it?” Topaz suggested, pointing a noticeably shaking hoof over at a group of robed unicorns. Their horns all glowed various colors as they focused their magic on… something. None of the hiding ponies could see what the cultist unicorns were casting on.

A faint green glowing speck next to one of the black robed ponies caught Rainbow Dash’s eye. It didn’t take her long to identify the lantern of dragonfire from the communication room.

“Hey, look! They were able to save the dragonfire!” Rainbow Dash quietly exclaimed. Her ears suddenly perked up as she thought of something. “That’s it! If we can sneak over to the dragonfire we can send a message for help!”

“Uh oh. I think I see the leader. Twelve o’clock!” Daring Do pointed out another of the robed ponies. This one however wore purple robes with gold detail. He also had darker purple guard’s armor underneath his robes with the same crescent moon insignia on it.

The purple-robed cultist slowly and deliberately strode up to the huddled gathering of the captive crew, flanked by two of his black-robed brethren. The intimidating cultist looked down at a trembling purple pony that Rainbow Dash recognized as Dr. Soar Heart.

“Uh… I g-guess you’re going to ask me w-where the artifact is.” The doctor stuttered, “W-well I can assure you I don’t know anything! I’m just a d-doctor!”

The purple-robed cultist responded with a deep, resonant chuckle. “Oh, I vas not planning on asking you about any artifact. I vas actually planning on asking Daring Do and her companions once my ponies have retrieved them from their hiding spot in the bushes over there!”

Six gasps filled the air as the lead cultist gestured in the direction of Daring Do and her team. The six ponies turned in an attempt to flee only to find that about a dozen of the robed cultists had managed to sneak around behind them. Rainbow Dash then heard a familiar metal click, and saw that the robed pony at the center of the formation had produced a hoof mounted blade just like the one she saw in Sao Pono. She then realized it was the one she saw in Sao Pono as she looked at the face of the pony wielding it and saw a familiar scar cutting across a white snout.

“Fine. You got us.”

Daring Do and the others were all lead out of the brush and towards the purple-robed pony, who turned and met them halfway. Rainbow Dash noticed a pair of wings protruding from holes in the side of his robes.

“Fine work, Lightning Strike!” He complimented the scarred white pony in his deep accented voice. The cultist leader got no response from his subordinate, but a pregnant pause indicated he was expecting one.

“Vell then. Daring Do, I presume?” The cultist continued, “I am Von Umbrae, leader of the Foals of the Moon.”

Von Umbrae removed his hood, revealing a dark gray coat and a long black mane that looked like silk. The cult leader looked at them with pale blue eyes.

Daring Do set the record for the most nervous, awkward laugh ever uttered. “Uh… pleasure’s all mine!”

Von Umbrae grinned. A tiny gasp from Topaz confirmed that Rainbow wasn’t just seeing things: a pair of large fangs glistened in Von Umbrae’s mouth. Rainbow then noticed how his wings weren’t pegasus wings. They were dark and leathery like a bat. Standing there with the Dungeon Crawler in flames behind him, Von Umbrae resembled a creature from Tartarus itself.

“I vas hoping ve could come to an arrangement that vould be mutually beneficial to us...” Von Umbrae rumbled.

Despite the unpleasant sensation of butterflies in her stomach that she normally associated with flying, Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof on the ground and gave the cult leader her best indignant glare.

“Ha! Daring Do doesn’t make deals with cultist scum like you! I don’t see why I don’t just introduce my hoof to your face!”

Rainbow Dash took a step forward, intending to do exactly that when she was suddenly overcome by a strange sensation. It was as if a gust of cold wind had assaulted her, passing through the very fibre of her being. She then tried to take another step forward and found that she couldn’t. She tried moving her legs, her wings and even her tail but to no avail. Rainbow Dash next tried yelling at the very unimpressed looking Von Umbrae, demanding to know what he did to her but she couldn’t even speak. Finally, Rainbow Dash tried to stop herself from keeling over like a rootless tree but she couldn’t even do that. She hit the ground with a painful thud.

“Thank you, Iron Pyrite.” Von Umbrae said. “You did a fine job leading us here as well. You’ve definitely earned your keep!”

“WHAT?” Four ponies cried simultaneously. Rainbow Dash would have done the same, but all she could do was watch helplessly from her position on the ground as Iron Pyrite powered down her horn and went to stand beside Von Umbrae.

“So Daring Do, here is your choice...” Von Umbrae slowly strode up to the four archaeologists.

Topaz was crouched to the ground behind Daring, covering her face with her forelegs. Ancient Rune knelt beside the blue mare with a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, but looked equally as terrified. Gold Digger took a protective step closer to Daring, who stood frozen in place. Iron Pyrite stood off to the side, a solemn expression on her face.

“You can give me the Moonstone now and I’ll leave you and your team unharmed. Or, you can be like the legendary hero of your books, in which case you vill have a very… unpleasant experience. Isn’t that right, Lightning Strike?” Von Umbrae again looked to his subordinate with the scar on his face and gave an annoyed frown when the white pony remained stoically still. The cult leader then returned his attention to Daring Do. “Vell? Are you going to give me the Moonstone currently in your left saddlebag?”

Rainbow Dash watched the whole scene play out at a sideways angle from where she lay under Iron Pyrite’s paralysis spell. Even now, with the intimidating cult leader’s face mere inches from hers, Daring Do didn’t back down, staring right back at Von Umbrae with wide eyes and tiny pupils. She was also shaking increasingly violently. Rainbow Dash figured it wasn’t a big deal, it was kind of cold out anyway. It was either that or she was charging up for a super attack of some kind. Daring Do was so busy shaking bravely that she didn’t even care that her hind legs were in a puddle… which was weird because as Rainbow Dash established earlier, the skies were clear.

Naturally, Rainbow Dash was surprised when Daring Do, who seemed so ready to bravely defy the villain like she always did, collapsed to the ground and held the Moonstone up in front of Von Umbrae’s face with a heavily trembling hoof.

“YES! TAKE IT! PLEASE! JUST PLEASE DON’T KILL ME! I STILL HAVE SO MUCH TO DO! SO MANY DUNGEONS TO EXPLORE! SO MANY AUTOGRAPHS TO SIGN! SO MANY FOODS TO TASTE!”

Von Umbrae calmly took the Moonstone from Daring Do’s raised hoof and tucked it away in his robes. Daring Do returned her hoof to her face the instant Von Umbrae relieved it of the Moonstone and commenced frantic sobbing into the appendage, incoherently rambling on about hugging her fans and how she'd never tasted watermelon.

The sinister cult leader appeared to have half a mind to thank Daring Do, or say anything to conclude their transaction but instead he awkwardly bit his lip. With one last look down at the sobbing mess of a mare with what looked like genuine pity, Von Umbrae turned and began walking away, barking an order at the gathering of cultist unicorns who were still channeling magic into something.

Looking up at the sky with slowly recovering mobility, Rainbow Dash saw what it was those unicorns were doing. Above the burning wreckage of the Dungeon Crawler, the darkening sky briefly distorted as if it had been turned liquid. The distortion then took a shape, and shortly after color. Another huge airship now hovered above the valley.

The lower decks of the recently appeared airship were lined with row after row of cannons protruding from various openings. The massive balloon holding the ship was painted with stars to resemble the night sky. The words E.S Eclipse adorned the hull.

Von Umbrae disappeared into the jungle, heading in the direction of the large airship. Lightning Strike and the rest of the cultists all followed suit, Iron Pyrite only stopping to gather the lantern of dragonfire in her telekinesis before doing the same.

As feeling started to return to Rainbow Dash’s body, she felt a pair of hooves lift her into a sitting position. Rainbow looked up into the face of Gold Digger, the green stallion holding her in his hooves and looking at her through his half closed eyes. After he seemed sure that Rainbow Dash was going to be okay, a slight grin crept across his face to the soundtrack of Daring Do’s rambling sobs. Gold’s look was one Rainbow herself had given many times. It said one thing: “Told you so.”

Author's Note

Welp, here's chapter 1. I'm only expecting one more chapter after this, and that'll be around... oh... I wanna say in a couple of weeks? I've never been good at committing to self imposed deadlines.

Hope Daring Do fans aren't too upset by this very different interpretation of her character. Suffice to say, character development is a pretty big deal in anything I write, so if you were hoping to see the badass Daring you know and love... stick around! Part 2 will come sooner or later!

Chapter 2 of 2

Daring Don’t Chapter 2

The atmosphere in the night-covered valley between the Padre y Hijo Mountains was sombre and filled with lingering fear. Dr. Soar Heart tended to the ponies injured in the cultists’ initial attack while everypony still capable of work was attempting to salvage what they could from the smouldering remains of the E.S Dungeon Crawler. As soon as Dr. Soar Heart had confirmed that the effects of Iron Pyrite’s paralysis spell was no longer on Rainbow Dash, the blue pegasus stormed off, looking to have a few words with a certain other pegasus.

Daring Do sat alone next to a small campfire made from burning airship debris. The famous archaeologist and self-proclaimed hero was still shaking violently and had a small plushie of herself tightly clutched to her chest. Daring stroked her tiny, stuffed self’s mane while staring blankly ahead. Rainbow Dash realized she had the very same plushie back home, and made a point to dispose of it as soon as she got back. In fact, she wasn't even sure she was going to read Daring Do and the Legend of the Crystal Stars when it came out.

As Rainbow got closer to the target of her frustration, Gold Digger approached the traumatized explorer from behind with a blanket in his mouth.

“Y’know, there are times when I regret working for you,” the dark green stallion sighed as he placed the blanket over Daring’s shoulders. “Specifically: during times like this.”

Despite his words, there was a level of tender care in the way Gold adjusted the blanket around Daring’s shoulders. Having reached her target, Rainbow began her offensive.

“WHAT THE HAY WAS THAT? YOU JUST GAVE THAT MANIAC THE MOONSTONE LIKE IT WAS NOTHING! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?”

Daring Do snapped out of her trance and looked up at Rainbow Dash, “I-I… I was thinking I didn’t want to die!”

“But you’re Daring Do! You’re supposed to stand up to evil!”

“You tell her, bud!” Gold remarked. The droopy-eyed stallion had lain down in the grass between Rainbow and Daring and was roasting a marshmallow over the fire, watching the scene with an amused smirk.

“You stay out of this!” Rainbow shouted before rounding back on Daring Do. “You’ve beaten Ahuizotl time and time again! How could you just lay down for some two-bit cultist?”

“Yeah, how could you?” Gold smugly added, receiving a glare from Rainbow Dash.

“Because…” Daring Do sighed. “Because there is no Ahuizotl. I made him up. I made it all up.”

Rainbow Dash sat on her haunches, unable to stand up anymore. The worst part was, she’d kind of known all along. Ever since her argument with Gold Digger.

“I tried to tell you…” Gold Digger sighed.

Rainbow would have decked him in the face right there if it weren’t for the inconvenient fact that he was right. She’d been a fool for ignoring him.

“Why?” The question came from Rainbow Dash’s throat like a croak.

Daring Do set down her plushie and stared somberly into the embers before her. “Well… I didn’t make it all up. I… I needed funding for my next expedition, so I tried writing a book about my first one to get some extra bits. My publisher said that it wasn’t interesting enough, so I added Ahuizotl and a bunch of other stuff and it got published.

“Thing was, I kinda forgot to take out the little disclaimer at the beginning stating that everything in the book was an accurate retelling of my expedition.” Daring gave a weak smile before continuing. “So… I guess you can imagine my surprise when I found out that Daring Do and the Quest For the Sapphire Stone made it to the top of the bestsellers’ list. I got all the funding I needed, but… ponies only liked it because they thought all of that stuff really happened, so... I decided to leave out the little detail where it didn’t.

“That little lie led me down a pretty slippery slope. I kept writing more books to get additional funding. So I could buy stuff like my airship…” Daring glanced up at what little was left of the vessel. “Soon, I had all the bits I could ever need, but by then it wasn’t about bits. I had already lied so much through my books that my credibility as an archaeologist would be destroyed if ponies found out just how much in my books is false, so…” Daring Do tugged the blanket tighter around herself, “I guess you can see how the whole thing kind of got out of control…”

Gold Digger stepped in to give his two bits. “And let’s not forget the little detail of the fame and fortune going to your head and turning you into a total flank…”

“Look, none of that matters now!” Rainbow said, shutting down Gold, “What’s important is that some crazy cultist is going to find whatever weapon Nightmare Moon thought up one thousand years ago and we have you to thank for that.”

At this, Daring Do rolled her eyes. “Please kid, the Lunar Sanctum and Nightmare Moon’s legendary weapon is a myth! Even the rest of my team agrees with me on that!”

Gold nodded his head in affirmation. “Yeah, even if the legend really is true, that… Von Umbrae guy won’t be able find anything! Remember what Iron Pyrite said: any enchantments on the Moonstone to turn it into a beacon would've burned out centuries ago!”

“Unless it’s made of lunerock!” Rainbow Dash turned at the sound of the small voice and saw Topaz and Ancient Rune standing there.

“Lunerock, Topaz?” Daring Do asked.

Topaz nodded, taking a deep breathe, “lunerock is a rare mineral that was most commonly found in the northern provinces around the Late Lunar Era. It was commonly sought after because of its innate magical properties that allowed any magical enchantments connected to it to be recharged by exposure to moonlight.”

Rainbow Dash, Daring Do and Gold Digger all stared at Topaz, mouths agape. “So what you’re saying is, those cultists could actually have a way to find the Lunar Sanctum?” Rainbow asked and Topaz nodded.

“Which may not even exist!” Gold pointed out.

Rainbow turned to face the stallion. “How can we know for sure? Do you really want to take that chance? I mean, you saw Von Umbrae. The guy was intense! Do you really think a pony like that would go through all of the trouble to steal the Moonstone from us if he didn’t know exactly what he was doing?”

The other ponies all took a moment to consider Rainbow Dash’s point. “Okay, so let’s assume that there really is a Lunar Sanctum that holds a powerful weapon. What are we supposed to do about it?” Daring asked.

“We saw what direction their ship went. We chase ‘em and we stop ‘em!” Rainbow Dash pounded her hooves together, a determined gleam in her eye.

“Uh, how? We don’t have a ship anymore.”

“Hello? We have these!” Rainbow opened her wings and gave them a few flaps.

“Oh yeah…” Daring sighed, unable to keep the trepidation from her voice.

“Look, like it or not, you’re coming with me!” Rainbow Dash removed the blanket from Daring Do’s shoulders, “this is your mess we’re cleaning up here!” Rainbow then turned to Gold Digger, Topaz and Ancient Rune. “What about you three? You ready to stop some bad guys?”

The three other archaeologists looked uneasily at each other.

“May I point out that we are not in possession of a pair of wings?” Ancient Rune said.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip and glanced around when she remembered that inconvenient fact.

“So... you can just follow us on the ground and catch up with us when we get there!”

“Oh… I don’t know… those cultists were really scary…” Topaz whimpered.

“Yeah bud, I’m gonna say that fighting evil cultist ponies ain’t in my job description!” Gold Digger said.

“This is not our mess to clean up. We had no impact on Daring Do’s decision to give the Moonstone to the enemy.” Ancient Rune said.

“But you’re Daring Do’s team! You’ve gotta help out!” Rainbow Dash persisted.

“We don’t have to do anything, bud!” Gold argued, “And Daring Do hasn’t exactly been much of a team player!”

The archaeologist in question gave no reaction to Gold’s statement. Rainbow Dash looked at the faces of the three ponies before her and saw no resolve to help.

“I’m sorry, but after everything that’s happened… after Iron Pyrite betrayed us… yeah, we just want to go home,” the pain was obvious in Topaz’s little voice.

Rainbow Dash gave a resigned sigh, “Fine, have it your way. C’mon Daring Do!”

Rainbow pulled a reluctant Daring Do by the hoof and like a dog on a leash, the famous archaeologist followed. As Rainbow prepared to take off with Daring Do in tow, she glanced back at the other three. Gold Digger was watching them with a sad look on his face that Rainbow Dash suddenly realized she’d seen on the lazy-eyed stallion before. He’d had it during their argument the other day: the look of a pony who’d lost something precious to him. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what compelled her to say what she said next, on account that she hated apologizing. Regardless…

“Hey Gold? Look, I-I’m sorry about yesterday. I should’ve listened to you, and stuff. But look: if you want recognition from the pony you care about… well, you’re not gonna get it by abandoning her when she needs you.”

With that, Rainbow Dash took off, Daring Do not far behind her. Gold Digger stayed and watched the two pegasi fly away until they disappeared over the trees surrounding the valley. He didn’t even notice when Dr. Soar Heart approached him.

“Excuse me? Uh, I finished taking care of all the wounded. They should be fine until we can get them to a proper medical facility.” The purple pegasus reported, “Do you want me to fly over to Sao Pono to get help?”

Gold Digger stared off into the darkness where Rainbow Dash and Daring Do disappeared, “what am I doing…” He sighed before turning to face Dr. Soar Heart. “You were a paramedic pegasus once, right? Are you still a fast flier?”

“I’m a little rusty, but if the wind’s blowing with me I can probably make pretty good time!”

Gold Digger galloped to the area where the crew had gathered supplies from the wreckage of the Dungeon Crawler and quickly found a pen and paper. Using a partially burned crate as support, he began scribbling out a note as fast as he could, giving it to Soar Heart when he was finished.

“Take this to Sao Pono as fast as equinely possible. Find a zebra named Zestafa. He’s pretty big in the west end of town. Ask around and you’ll find him. Give him this. It says I need to borrow something of his. After that you can do whatever you have to to get help for all of these injured ponies.”

“What do I do if this… Zestafa refuses?”

Gold Digger gave a slight grin, “Just tell him that Daring Do needs it to keep some treasure out of the wrong hooves!”

Rainbow Dash and Daring Do traveled the dark skies east for a few hours, following the last known course of the cultists’ airship: the Eclipse. Daring Do was nowhere near as strong a flier as Rainbow Dash, and the archaeologist had to stop and rest on clouds a few times along the way. Rainbow would let her have a few minutes of respite from their flight before pushing her to keep going again, and Daring would continue without arguing.

The explorer who throughout the whole expedition had done nothing but make empty claims to greatness no longer had any of that vigor. She just went along with Rainbow Dash like a pony in a trance, seeming to not be fully aware of what she was doing or what was happening. This didn’t matter to Rainbow Dash. All that mattered was that Daring Do would go through with this and become the hero she was supposed to be.

Eventually, Rainbow caught a glimpse of a series of lights attached to a dark shape in the distant sky. It wasn’t long before the two pegasi were crouched on a cloud overlooking the dark behemoth that was the E.S Eclipse.

“Okay, we need an awesome plan to go in there and stop those creeps!” Rainbow Dash said in a low tone.

“Look, Rainbow… I’m not sure…” a blue hoof abruptly entered Daring Do’s mouth before she could get another word out.

“Ah buh buh buh buh buh. You can’t afford to have doubts now, Daring!”

Daring made a few noises that likely were meant to be words, but were made unintelligible by Rainbow’s hoof in her mouth. Rainbow put her other hoof to her chin as she tried to think of a plan. Thinking and planning were not Rainbow Dash’s strong suits. When she was with her friends, Rainbow preferred to let Twilight do all of the tedious thinking. Things were different now, though. Like it or not, Rainbow was the one taking the leadership role.

“I saw Iron Pyrite take the dragonfire with her when she left with the other cultists, so it’s probably on board their ship. That means we can probably still go with my original plan of calling for backup!” Rainbow leaned forward, squinting hard at the passing vessel, “The problem is, the place is probably crawling with cultists. We’re going to need an awesome way to distract them!”

Iron Pyrite stood silently on the command bridge of the Eclipse, looking calmly at her employer. Von Umbrae was standing at a desk overlooking the rest of the bridge, Lightning Strike and a couple more of the black robed cultists behind him. The helmspony operated the ship’s wheel on the lower deck of the bridge. The large glass half-dome covering the bridge in its entirety gave a breathtaking view of the partly cloudy night sky.

Von Umbrae smiled when the clouds moved aside to allow light from the moon to shine down through the glass dome and onto the bridge. Reaching into his purple robes, Von Umbrae produced the Moonstone and placed it on the desk in front of him. Iron Pyrite noticed that the sparkling stone appeared to be glowing brighter in the moonlight.

The curious artifact suddenly released a beam of white light no bigger than a thread. The tiny beam passed through the glass dome at a downward angle to the left of the airship’s current trajectory, disappearing over the horizon. Iron Pyrite’s jaw hung open while Von Umbrae addressed the mare at the helm below.

“Helmsmare! Ve have our heading!”

The robed mare at the helm spun the wheel and the Eclipse turned until the thin beam of light was shining out the center of the glass dome. Von Umbrae then noticed the way Iron Pyrite was staring at the active Moonstone and gave an amused chuckle.

“Why so shocked, Ms. Pyrite?” Von Umbrae reached over and gently closed the unicorn’s agape jaw. He kept his hoof there, his lifeless blue eyes boring into Iron Pyrite “You didn’t think I vas paying you all of this money to lead me to a useless rock, did you?”

Iron Pyrite was unable to form words under Von Umbrae’s intense, icy glare. The cultist didn’t seem inclined to wait for an answer, removing his hoof from the mare’s chin and returning his attention to the sky ahead. Iron Pyrite received the message behind the gesture loud and clear: he didn't trust her. He was right not to as well. Pyrite had been operating on the assurance that no pony would be hurt. That her team would remain unharmed, she would get her pay and the Foals of the Moon would have what she had always assumed to be nothing but a mere trinket. Pyrite took another look at the glowing Moonstone as another cloud passed in front of the moon and the beam of light vanished.

“So… it’s real then? The Lunar Sanctum?” She asked.

Von Umbrae grunted in affirmation, “you know, my ancestors served under Nightmare Moon during the Lunar War. Lord Umbrae, the First of his name vas entrusted with the Moonstone by the Goddess herself and he lost it. Not to Celestia or her forces, but to common thieves!” Von Umbrae stared ahead, letting the anger leave his voice before continuing. “The Lunar Sanctum is real! If it isn’t, then generations of searching it out to regain our family’s honor vas wasted.”

“So… what are you going to do once you find it?” Iron Pyrite nervously asked.

Von Umbrae smiled at her as pleasantly as if he was telling her about his vacation plans, “why, use it against Celestia, of course!” Von Umbrae then turned his head in the direction of his right-hoof stallion. “Isn’t that right, Lightning Strike?”

Von Umbrae waited patiently for a response, but Lightning Strike remained as stoic as always. With a sigh, Von Umbrae grabbed a piece of paper from the desk he was standing at, crumpled it up into a ball and chucked it at the scarred pony. The crumpled ball nailed Lightning Strike right between the eyes. He didn’t so much as blink.

“Nothing? I’d have better conversation with a brick vall…” Von Umbrae muttered.

The ponies stood in silence for a while as the Eclipse continued its journey in the direction of the elusive Lunar Sanctum. The silence was interrupted by a soft thunk on the glass dome covering the bridge. Iron Pyrite, Von Umbrae and each of the cultists on the bridge slowly looked up to see a blue, rainbow-maned pegasus sprawled out against the glass outside the bridge, looking down on its occupants with a goofy, cocky grin.

“Who in Equestria is that?” Von Umbrae asked incredulously as the pegasus in question pressed her face against the glass and mocked them with a variety of twisted faces.

“Rainbow Dash…” Iron Pyrite said, “She’s the fan that won Daring Do’s stupid contest.”

“So an Element of Harmony is trying to stop us? Interesting,” Von Umbrae mused as Rainbow Dash exhaled hard on the glass, fogging up a small portion of the dome. She then wrote the message “kcus u” in the fogged up glass before sticking her tongue out and flying away.

Von Umbrae turned and briskly trotted off the bridge. Iron Pyrite and Lightning Strike followed him.

Soon, the three of them emerged on the top deck of the Eclipse. The wide open deck was covered from above by the giant balloon holding the ship aloft and cannons lined the edges, pointing out into the dark abyss. Rainbow Dash flew along the right side of the Eclipse and swerved away, partially illuminated by the airship’s lights.

“All hooves to the starboard guns!” Von Umbrae shouted. He wasn’t loud, but he didn’t have to be. All of the ponies on deck scrambled to their posts at the sound of their leader’s deep voice.

The decks below opened their gunports and row after row of cannons showed their barrels and adjusted their trajectory to aim at the distant pegasus pony. Rainbow Dash circled around and began flying straight toward the heavily armed side of the Eclipse. Von Umbrae raised his hoof at the rapidly growing rainbow speck.

“Fire!”

A chorus of booms accompanied by bright flashes broke like thunder and lightning as the guns unleashed their volley. Their target proved to be too agile, weaving and rolling around the fiery balls of iron as they passed. The cultists did not have enough time to reload for a second volley, as Rainbow Dash reached them.

Without slowing down, Rainbow Dash threaded the needle between the top deck of the Eclipse and the balloon holding it up, knocking over any cultists in her path that weren’t quick enough to duck. Von Umbrae turned, his gaze tracking the rainbow-maned interloper as she flew out from the left side of the airship.

“Ponies to the port guns!” Von Umbrae shouted much louder this time, and the cultists under his command doubled their efforts, abandoning the starboard cannons to man the port guns.

Rainbow Dash circled around again and began flying towards the left side of the Eclipse in a horizontal arc. Von Umbrae waited for Rainbow to fly within range of the guns before giving the order to fire again. Rainbow Dash dodged the volley of artillery with ease, performing aereon rolls and somersaults as she flew along the airship’s width. She stretched her mouth open with her hooves and stuck her tongue out at the black-robed ponies before circling around for another attack run from the left side.

“Vhere is unicorn team Alpha? Bring them up here now!” Von Umbrae ordered Lightning Strike, who moved without hesitation to the lower decks.

As she watched the cultists reload their cannons for another volley, Iron Pyrite tried to analyze Rainbow Dash’s attack. She was perplexed, because not only did Rainbow Dash not possess the means to do any damage to their ship on her own, she didn’t even seem to be trying anything offensive. Iron Pyrite had been expecting Rainbow Dash to make an effort to stop them, specifically remembering her plan to use the dragonfire they now had in the hold below.

Rainbow Dash however, didn’t appear to be trying to get to the dragon fire. As another volley of cannon fire on the port side once again failed to hit the blue pegasus, Iron Pyrite noticed that she didn’t even seem interested in “attacking” from any other direction other than the left. It seemed as if she was only showing off to keep their attention on her…

… And away from the right side of the ship.

Iron Pyrite looked back over to the starboard side of the Eclipse just in time to catch a glimpse of a dark, pony shaped figure fly out of sight below the top deck.

“Hmm…” She grunted as she looked back at Von Umbrae. The bat-like cult leader appeared to have his full attention on Rainbow Dash, the hyper-awareness he demonstrated earlier having not alerted him to the true nature of Rainbow Dash’s little attack runs.

The better part of her conscience made Iron Pyrite consider not mentioning anything to Von Umbrae. After learning that the Lunar Sanctum was real, and what the insane cultist wanted to do with the weapon within, she certainly felt worse about helping him. On the other hoof, she had already betrayed Daring Do and by extension, Equestria. Even if she stopped him herself, she would still be put away for treason. Either way, she needed her pay. That was the most important thing. Whatever happened to her afterward didn’t matter.

Iron Pyrite knew what she had to do. The mare marched purposefully below decks, unaware of Von Umbrae curiously watching her from the corner of his eye.

Rainbow Dash weaved and rolled around various multicolored blasts of magical energy. It hadn’t been too long after she started her little diversion that the cultists had given up on trying to shoot her down with the airship’s cannons and instead tried using a group of unicorn mages to bring her down. The magic blasts were infinitely better suited for taking down an agile flier like her, but Rainbow Dash managed to dodge them all the same. Still, she was starting to tire and the homing magical projectiles had nearly gotten her a few times. Rainbow could only hope that Daring Do could complete her part of the plan quickly.

As she ascended straight up past the top deck of the Eclipse, Rainbow Dash noticed that both Iron Pyrite and Von Umbrae were no longer standing on it. Had they caught on to her plan? Rainbow Dash shook her head. There was no way they could have guessed what she was doing. Rainbow decided to concentrate on distracting the cultists on the deck. She ascended high above the Eclipse, the wind on her face and the smell of burning hair in the air.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew wide. She stopped to hover in place and looked behind herself at her own tail. She saw rainbow colored hair being consumed by a small orange flame, likely where one of the cultists’ incendiary spells had grazed her. With a yelp, Rainbow Dash frantically beat at her burning tail with her hooves until the flame was put out. The rainbow hair coming out of her posterior was now much shorter than it previously was and was partly black where the flame had been.

“Great. That’ll take a month to grow back!”

Rainbow looked back down at the airship below and dodged to the side just in time to avoid several more offensive spells. Rainbow Dash decided it was time to get more aggressive with these cultists. She dove down towards the airship at a slight angle, aiming right for the top deck under the massive balloon where the unicorn cultists were firing at her. Performing more aereon rolls to dodge the oncoming salvos of magical attacks, Rainbow Dash maintained her speed as she continued her dive bomb straight down and quickly picked out a target.

Rainbow Dash landed front hooves first on top of one of the cultists shooting magic at her, crushing the hapless pony under the speed of her impact and weight alone. Before any more of the black robed ponies on the deck could do anything, Rainbow Dash took off again, flying straight out the other side.

She heard frustrated shouting as she flew away, but wasn’t able to make out anything apart from the words “change plans.” Rainbow Dash looped around and started another dive bomb towards the Eclipse. Something was different about it this time though. Soon, Rainbow Dash realized that the cultist unicorns weren’t firing magical blasts at her anymore. For a moment, Rainbow allowed herself to relax, thinking that things were finally starting to get easier. However, she then noticed that the horns of the black-robed unicorns were still glowing.

Before she could even begin to wonder what they were up to, Rainbow noticed that she could partially see the mountains far below through the Eclipse. Soon, the dark airship was replaced by an intangible distortion in the air and then just like that, the vessel was gone.

Rainbow Dash sharply pulled up and forced herself to a stop. Fluttering in the air, Rainbow looked around at the space where the great airship had once been, the cacophony of battle mere moments ago suddenly silenced. Rainbow felt like she was completely alone hovering there in the night sky, but she knew the ship was still there.

An idea suddenly formed in Rainbow Dash’s mind and she turned around and took off straight up into the sky. She kept climbing higher and higher until she emerged high above a sea of clouds, the moon and stars suddenly dominating the sky above her. Then, she looped around and dove straight down.

Between the force of gravity and her own rapidly flapping wings, Rainbow Dash gathered speed quickly. She could feel the intense g-forces pulling at her face as a cone of energy started to form around her by the time she passed back under the layer of clouds. She aimed straight towards the area where she last remembered the Eclipse being.

Daring Do carefully crept through the shadows of the airship’s hold at the back of the Eclipse. Not much more than a few minutes ago, the booms of the cannons had stopped. Daring didn’t think about what this could mean. Whether Rainbow Dash had been hit or had simply flown away didn’t even cross Daring’s mind.

The archaeologist wasn’t thinking about anything as she slowly crept forward. Her mind had been distant from the entire ordeal since she left the Padre y Hijo with Rainbow Dash. She was disconnected from the whole world like it was nothing more than one of the fictions she made millions on. All she could think about was how sooner or later she was going to wake up back in her quarters on the Dungeon Crawler and continue her search for the Moonstone.

Her mind was so far away that Daring Do hadn’t even noticed the green glow illuminating the darkness of the hold until she was standing right in front of the lantern of dragonfire. What had Rainbow Dash said she was supposed to do? That’s right: send a message for help.

Daring found a box full of paper, a pen and hastily scribbled out a note. She wasn’t sure what it said or who she addressed it to. Just that she explained the situation briefly and most likely addressed it to the Captain of the Royal Guard in Canterlot. Daring rolled up the letter she had written and headed back toward the dragonfire, picking the lantern of green fire up and hovering over to the nearest window. She opened the window and set the lantern down on the sill, but before Daring could do anything else, an unseen force picked her up and tossed her across the room, colliding painfully with a pile of crates.

Suffice to say, the painful crash brought Daring’s mind back into focus on the present, and the sight of Iron Pyrite walking up to her with a still glowing horn made Daring remember that this was real.

“Why couldn’t you just stay with Gold Digger and the others like the coward you’ve always been?” Pyrite asked. “Is it because of Rainbow Dash? Afraid of letting down your number one fan? Or… is she the one pushing you to live up to the name you made for yourself?”

Looking up at the unicorn mare that was once her loyal companion, Daring Do was suddenly filled with a hot sensation filling her very being. She remembered the humiliation she suffered thanks to Pyrite’s betrayal and was able to identify the sensation consuming her: indignant rage. Daring Do shot up off the ground and flew towards Iron Pyrite ready to bring a hoof down on her annoyingly calm, indifferent face. But she never got the chance, as Pyrite’s horn lit up and Daring was knocked back by a blast of white magic.

Daring Do coughed, struggling to regain her breath after it had been knocked out of her. “H-how could you? Why did you betray us?”

“Why? Are you really asking me why?” Pyrite indignantly exclaimed, picking Daring Do up with her telekinesis and holding her former employer up in front of her. “Well for starters, I don’t like you! I really, really, really dislike you!”

Daring Do felt the invisible force closing around her neck and soon found herself struggling to breathe.

“But the simple answer? I’m doing it for the bits!”

“You… sold us out… just for bits?” Daring rasped.

The archaeologist felt the magical grip around her neck release, but she was then flung up into the ceiling above. She felt like her brain had been bashed into the inside of her skull, her vision clouding as she fell back down to the floor. By this point, her whole body felt like one big ache.

“Of course! With what you pay us, what did you expect?” Iron Pyrite then looked down, her angry scowl evaporating as quickly as it had appeared. “The bits aren’t for me, though. My son… he’s gifted, Daring! It’s amazing… he’s leagues ahead of where I was when I was his age. I want to send him to Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns. I just want him to be able to reach his full potential, but I can’t afford to on what I make working for you!”

Daring Do felt a pressure on her throat, but this time Iron Pyrite’s horn wasn’t glowing. “I-I’m sorry Iron! I didn’t know…”

“Because you didn’t care!” Iron Pyrite spat, her voice noticeably cracking. “It wasn’t enough that you wouldn’t hear me out whenever I’d ask for a raise! You never took the time to get to know any of us or what was going on in our lives!”

Iron Pyrite lowered her head so that her spiteful face was all Daring Do could see.

“You must be the most self-centered pony in Equestria!” Iron Pyrite raised her head back up and ignited her horn once again.

Daring Do clamped her eyes shut, expecting another blow. Several seconds passed, but no blow came. Daring chanced opening an eye and looked up at Iron Pyrite. The unicorn’s horn was still glowing, but a rolled up piece of paper floated beside her: the distress message Daring had written.

“That being said, I can't just let the Foals of the Moon go through with what they're planning,” Iron Pyrite turned without saying another word, levitating Daring’s distress message over to the open window and the lantern of dragonfire sitting on its sill. The message was hastily tossed into the green flame, which spat a burst of green embers out the window and into the night sky.

“Unfortunate…” A familiar deep voice resonated through the hold, “and you were doing so vell too…”

The unicorn and half beaten pegasus both turned to the source of the voice and saw the dark form of Von Umbrae step out of the shadows. The cultist gave an unimpressed glance over at the battered and bruised Daring Do.

“I must say I’m surprised you’re here. After your… breakdown in the valley, I half expected you to retire right then and there!”

Von Umbrae must have noticed the way Daring Do kept glancing over at the lantern of green fire, as a knowing smile crossed his face. “It doesn’t matter, you know. By the time Celestia’s forces catch up to us I vill already have reached my goal, and Canterlot vill be ashes. Your foolish efforts have done nothing to stop the Eclipse from reaching the Lunar Sanctum!”

No more than a second after Von Umbrae’s speech did a bright flash of light and a loud boom dominate the hold. This rumbling blast was more drawn out than the sounds of cannonfire that pervaded earlier. The three ponies in the hold soon realized that there was still a bright light filling the hold as the whole airship continued to rumble. Von Umbrae, Iron Pyrite and Daring Do all looked out the open window just in time to see the massive rainbow explosion overtake the Eclipse and send everything and everyone on board flying.

Rainbow Dash heard the sounds of burning wood before she could see anything else. The world slowly came into focus as her head felt like it was some percussionist’s instrument. Rainbow climbed to her aching hooves and looked around. She was standing on a small ledge jutting out of the side of a large mountain. Looking over the edge, Rainbow Dash suddenly remembered what had happened when she saw the burning remnants of the Eclipse at the foot of the mountain below.

She had successfully pulled off the sonic rainboom in an attempt to flush out the cultists’ cloaked airship only for the thing to appear directly above her as she pulled up. The rainboom had knocked the balloon suspending the ship clear off and the no longer aerodynamic vessel had all but fallen on top of Rainbow Dash as she tried to avoid crashing into the side of a mountain. Given where she was standing now, the effort was clearly in vain.

Rainbow Dash shook off the disorientation as best she could before taking to her wings and gliding down to investigate the aircraft rubble. Her right wing throbbed on every flap. She hoped nothing was broken.

After spending some time digging through the debris with no luck finding the Moonstone or anypony at all, Rainbow paced towards the edge of the jungle surrounding the clearing at the mountain’s base. Sitting down in the dirt, Rainbow stared at the ground, trying to figure out her next move. Her eyes went wide when she saw the distinct shape of a hoof imprinted in the ground, illuminated by the glow of the burning airship. And another, and another.

Rainbow was hoping that the tracks were a sign that Daring was okay, but another look confirmed that there were many sets of tracks, at least a dozen, and they were all headed the same direction into the jungle. Von Umbrae and his ponies were still on the move. Rainbow stood up, ready to track them into the jungle, when she heard something shift in the airship rubble behind her. Rainbow turned around and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the familiar green and beige sight emerge from one of the least damaged parts of the ship, dusting off her safari hat and putting it on her black and gray head.

Rainbow Dash ran over to the archaeologist as fast as her aching hooves could carry her. “Hey Daring! Daring, you’re okay!”

Daring Do looked over at Rainbow Dash with a steadily growing frown. When Rainbow got close enough to have a proper conversation with the explorer, she noticed many bruises and scrapes all over her body.

“Wow, two wrecked airships in one night! That’s gotta be some kinda record right?” Rainbow said.

“Ugh… What happened?” Daring Do groaned.

“Oh yeah, the cultists tried to trip me up by turning their ship invisible, so I hit ‘em with one of my patented sonic rainbooms!” Rainbow Dash patted herself on the chest proudly.

“Did it not occur to you that setting off a giant rainbow explosion might, oh I don’t know, crash the airship?”

“Not really, otherwise I would’ve done it sooner!”

“While I was still on board?”

Rainbow Dash’s snout abruptly scrunched up when she remembered that little detail, “right, guess I kinda forgot about that. But it doesn’t matter! You’re okay now and more importantly Von Umbrae is still heading for the Lunar Sanctum!”

“Look, Rainbow…”

“C’mon! We don’t know how much of a head start he has on us!” Rainbow grabbed Daring by the hoof and tried to pull her along, but the formerly compliant mare refused to give an inch.

“No! Rainbow, I’m not going!”

Rainbow Dash turned back around to face Daring Do and found the explorer's magenta eyes staring back into hers with calm resolve. “But… we have to stop Von Umbrae!”

“No, we don’t have to do anything! You can go chase cultists if you want, but I’m staying here!” The sound of more shifting rubble caused both mares to look in that direction. They saw the distinct red form of Iron Pyrite, but the mare didn’t so much as glance in their direction as she carefully dragged a wounded pony in black robes out of the wreckage. She either didn’t notice they were there, or didn’t care.

“The distress message was sent. In a few hours, a Guard ship will be here to help and when it does, I’m going home!” Daring continued.

Rainbow Dash returned her attention to the uncooperative mare in front of her, “but… what about your duty?”

“You just don’t get it! I don’t have some Celestia-given duty to protect all artifacts from evil, that’s just what my character did!” Daring Do exclaimed, taking a step towards Rainbow Dash as she continued her tirade. “Why are you really dragging me along with you to fight these guys? Is it really just to quote unquote ‘make things right’ for giving them the Moonstone? Or, could it be that you can’t stand the fact that you spent so much time worshipping a false idle? That’s it isn’t it? You don’t like that I’m not who you thought I was so you’re going to make me be the hero that you think I should be! Me being a huge phony was as much a shot to your pride as those cultists outsmarting you with an invisible ship! You weren’t thinking about anypony but yourself in both instances!”

By this point, Daring Do’s spiteful face was all that Rainbow Dash could see.

“You must be the most self-centered pony in Equestria!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Daring Do’s eyes widened and her pupils became pinpricks. Her mouth curved even further down than it already had been and a look of pure despair crossed Daring’s face as she took a few steps backwards, away from Rainbow Dash, and sat down on the ground.

For a reason unknown to Rainbow Dash, Daring looked back over to Iron Pyrite tending to wounded ponies in the distance when she spoke next. Her voice was no more than a whisper.

“Oh Celestia… I’ve been such a jerk…” Daring’s eyes started to glisten, “no wonder they all hate me…”

“None of that matters, Daring. Those cultists are going to hurt a lot of ponies, my friends and your team included, unless we stop them. If you care at all about your team then you’ll help me.”

“Of course I care about my team, but… that doesn’t make me any more qualified to be a hero.” Daring gestured to her own bruised and bloodied body, “I mean, look at me! I got my flank handed to me when I tried to sneak on board their ship to send that note. The only reason the message even got sent was because Iron Pyrite decided to help me in the end.”

Daring sighed and looked at Rainbow with a weak smile, “you’re one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony right? You’ve already saved Equestria like what? Three times now?”

“Four if you count the Crystal Empire!”

“Exactly. The fact is, of the two of us, you’re the one who’s more cut out for heroics. Saving the world is your thing, Rainbow.” Daring Do looked down steadily, “All I seem to be good at is lying and being horrible to everypony I care about.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the pony she once idolized. She didn’t think anything could be worse than seeing her scared to tears, but Rainbow was once again proven wrong. Nothing was worse than the sight of the self-hating mare in front of her. Looking at Daring’s slumped posture and pained frown, one would think she believed that she was the single worst creature in existence.

“Fine. Guess there’s no convincing you.” Rainbow Dash sighed. She made to turn around to leave but stopped part way, turning back to face Daring Do. “For the record, I don’t think you’re a bad pony.”

Daring Do looked up at Rainbow Dash and gave a bitter laugh, “what makes you say that?”

“Your books.” Daring tilted her head in confusion as Rainbow Dash continued, “I think the reason why I fell in love with Daring Do in the first place was because she believed in a lot of the same stuff that I do. She was loyal to her friends, she believed in standing up to evil whenever it threatened harmony, and no matter how bad things got, she stayed true to what she believed in: doing the right thing.”

“I know now that there’s a big difference between fiction and real life, but I can’t help but think that maybe… you wouldn’t have been able to create such a memorable character if you didn’t believe in some of those things yourself!”

Standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a vast expanse of grassy plains, Rainbow Dash finally spotted them. The group of a couple dozen robed cultists were marching across the plains in the distance, the moonlight both illuminating them and drawing out the thin beam of light from the Moonstone. Disturbingly, the Moonstone’s beacon didn’t disappear over the horizon like it had when she saw it coming from the Eclipse hours ago. It stopped when it reached a circular formation of six pillars on stone not too far from the group of cultists. It didn’t look like more than the ruins of some small place of worship, but Rainbow knew that the entrance to the Lunar Sanctum had to be there.

Out of habit Rainbow Dash glanced beside herself to discuss a plan of action with her companion, but she didn’t see Daring Do beside her. She was as alone as she had been when she left Daring with the burning remains of the Eclipse. Rainbow Dash typically believed that there was nothing she couldn’t do, but she wasn’t a fool either. She knew when the odds were heavily stacked against her.

She also knew that she couldn’t just let Von Umbrae get his hooves on Nightmare Moon’s ancient weapon, so after taking a deep breath Rainbow Dash spread her wings and leapt off the cliff, her right wing complaining the whole time as she flew down. By the time she landed behind the platoon of robed ponies, they had already made it to the formation of stones. Under the vines overtaking them, Rainbow could make out Princess Luna’s crescent moon emblem engraved on the pillars along the stone circle’s perimeter.

“Not so fast cultist scum!” Rainbow Dash boldly proclaimed, immediately feeling embarrassed over saying something so cheesy. In hindsight, she should have worked out what she was going to say before flying over to confront them.

The entire group of cultists turned to face Rainbow Dash, their black hoods concealing any surprise their faces might have shown. The group of robed ponies parted for Von Umbrae to step through.

“Vell this is certainly a surprise. Hello Rainbow Dash. Vhere’s the bold and heroic Daring Do?”

“Shut up and give me the Moonstone!” Rainbow Dash demanded, “Also, forget that I said ‘not so fast cultist scum.’ Pretend I said something cooler. Like: ‘you’d better pack your bags, because I’m sending you on a one way trip to Tartarus!’”

“I’ll make a note of it. For now though, I don’t have time to trade quips with you. I have an ancient weapon to find! Do not vorry though. My little ponies here vill… take care of you in my absence,” Von Umbrae turned to one of his subordinates, “isn’t that right, Lightning Strike?”

The pony beside Von Umbrae removed his hood, revealing his stoic, scarred face. Von Umbrae once again paused, waiting for a response from his silent subordinate. To the surprise of everypony, Lightning Strike dropped his intimidating guard act and turned to Von Umbrae.

“If I answer will you stop throwing things at my face?”

Just as Lightning Strike had previously met all words addressed to him with silence, so had every pony present done the same when the scarred pony spoke.

“Uh… sure thing brother!” Von Umbrae said, giving Lightning Strike a pat on the shoulder before turning around and walking to a small pedestal in the center of the stone circle.

Von Umbrae removed the Moonstone from his robes and placed it in a perfectly shaped indentation on the stone pedestal. The moment the Moonstone was snugly inserted the stone pedestal began to glow a vivid white. A web of glowing white lines expanded from the base of the pedestal, tracing the various cracks in the cobblestone as they snaked their way to the pillars on the circle’s edge. Soon, all six pillars were glowing brightly, the entire circle of stone emitting a beam of light into the sky above.

Rainbow Dash realized that she had to act immediately, so with a couple of scuffs of her hoof the pegasus charged toward the gathered cultists. She clocked the first robed mare in the face with a hoof but as she made her way to the next cultist in her path, two of them grabbed her from both sides and held her back. Rainbow Dash watched Von Umbrae stand in the center of the circle of stone, except he wasn’t standing. An invisible force was slowly lifting the purple robed cultist off of his hooves and into the air. Then with a sinister smile and a mockery of a friendly wave, Von Umbrae disappeared in a bright flash of light.

Immediately after, the scarred visage of Lightning Strike filled Rainbow Dash’s vision. The white stallion raised his right hoof and Rainbow Dash heard a familiar “click” as he once again drew his poisoned blade. Acting fast, Rainbow spread her wings and took off straight up into the air, immediately knocking off one of the robed ponies holding her in place. The other cultist managed to hold onto her as Rainbow ascended, but a swift kick sent him falling back to the ground.

Rainbow looked at the glowing stone circle ahead of her. If she could just touch down in the center of the circle of bright light she could probably follow Von Umbrae to the Lunar Sanctum. Six robed pegasi rose into the air in front of Rainbow Dash, spread out to create a barrier of cultists between her and her glowing destination. Sharp pain was still shooting through her right wing, and her left was cramping up after having been flying for so many hours. Rainbow exhaled hard. She did not like her odds of making it past these guys.

That was when she heard the sound. It was like the hum of the Dungeon Crawler or the Eclipse’s engines, but it wasn’t as low. And it was getting louder. The group of cultist pegasi facing down Rainbow Dash turned to the source of the noise just in time to see an airship bearing down on them. The speedy vessel broke up the airborne cultists’ formation, creaming two of them against the bow in the process. The cultists on the ground looked up as the airship with Celestia’s sun emblazoned on the balloon suspending it turned and headed back towards them.

Rainbow’s eyes widened across her face when she saw the words E.G Crimson Flare emblazoned across the purple hull. A grin crept across her face when she saw four familiar figures standing on the deck.

“‘Sup?” Gold Digger’s familiar lazy voice called out.

“SUCK ROCK FOOLS!” Rainbow had to do a double take when she heard the surprisingly loud voice of Topaz, who was reaching into her saddlebag and throwing rock after rock at the remaining cultist pegasi, nailing one in the head and sending him spiraling out toward the ground.

Just then, a quill surrounded by green magical energy flew past Rainbow Dash and started furiously attacking a black robed pegasi trying to sneak up on her.

“Ha ha! The quill is mightier!” Exclaimed Ancient Rune, his horn glowing as he continued to will his writing utensil to jab at the cultist pegasus.

Rainbow Dash flew down and landed on the deck beside Gold Digger. “Gold? How did you…?”

“It was kinda hard to miss the giant rainbow explosion in the distance!” Gold said, “after that it was a simple matter of following Iron Pyrite’s directions!”

Another pegasus in black robes landed on the deck behind Rainbow Dash and Gold Digger, but before she could attack either of them the cultist mare was hit by a blast of white magical energy and sent sailing over the side of the ship. Rainbow Dash looked over to her left and saw Iron Pyrite standing there. The older mare gave her a simple nod.

“So what’s the plan, bud?” Gold asked.

Rainbow Dash looked down over the side of the ship at the column of light shooting out of the glowing white stone circle and the cultists gathered on the ground below.

“Just keep those cultists out of the Lunar Sanctum. I’ll go in after Von Umbrae!”

Gold nodded before looking up at the helm, “hey Zestafa! Bring her down!”

Rainbow Dash followed his gaze and sure enough, the zebra was standing on his hind legs behind the wheel. Zestafa nodded and with a swift turn of the wheel and adeptly pulling a few lines, he brought the Crimson Flare down to the ground just in front of the glowing circle of stone, effectively creating a wall between it and the cultists.

“C’mon guys! Let’s show these cultists why they shouldn’t mess with ponies with PhDs!” Gold shouted before pulling out a shovel he had strapped to his back with his mouth and leaping off the deck of the Crimson Flare, screaming dramatically as he did so.

“Is the battle cry necessary?” Iron Pyrite asked as she followed him.

“Only when you’re THROWING ROCKS!” Topaz cried as she leapt off the deck, managing to get off a few shots with her rocks while she flipped through the air.

“I always wondered how I would rate in combat,” Ancient Rune mused as he joined the fray.

Ancient Rune and Iron Pyrite brought up defensive spells to protect the team from magical attacks launched by the unicorn cultists before counterattacking with offensive spells of their own. Topaz continued chucking rocks from the seemingly endless supply in her saddlebag like a pony possessed, while Gold Digger smacked the first cultist he encountered in the head with the end of his shovel, his eyes remaining half-lidded all the while. Lightning Strike then attacked Gold with his poisoned blade, but Gold expertly blocked the attack with his shovel, beginning an eloquent fencing match.

Certain that her companions had themselves handled, Rainbow Dash turned and leapt off the other side of the Crimson Flare.

“Good luck, my friend!” Zestafa called out from his place at the helm as Rainbow Dash landed.

Rainbow Dash stood in the center of the stone circle of pillars beside the altar where the Moonstone was embedded. After a couple of seconds, Rainbow Dash felt a sensation of weightlessness throughout her body as she slowly began to rise off the ground. Taking one last look at the Crimson Flare and the battle raging behind it, blinding light consumed Rainbow Dash’s entire being and then she was gone.

As the archaeologists and cultists continued their battle, they failed to notice the pony watching from atop the cliff a great distance away. Adjusting the hat on her head, the pegasus pony stretched her wings.

The white light that dominated Rainbow Dash’s vision disappeared, and soon she felt her own weight again as she touched solid ground. She was standing on a glowing stone circle identical to the one out on the vast South Equestrian plain, but now she was in an expansive cavern. Pale rock made up the distant walls and towering ceiling overhead and large rings of enchanted metal adorned the cavern, overlapping each other like chainmail along the cavernous walls. Each ring was covered in glowing white runes that acted as very effective light sources.

Ahead of her, Rainbow Dash could see what appeared to be a round metal table with a massive colorless hologram of their planet looming over it, a small holographic moon orbiting it. Beyond the magical hologram was the centerpiece of the vast cavern: something that Rainbow Dash could not identify. It looked like a massive metal stalactite pointing at an equally as large metal stalagmite. Hundreds of fat cords ran like snakes from the base of the strange machine to every corner of the cavernous space, disappearing into the walls.

“This… is the Lunar Sanctum?” Rainbow Dash’s voice echoed as she walked further into the alien expanse, looking around in wonder. “Where in Equestria is this?”

“Oh, Ve are not in Equestria.”

At the sound of the deep voice reverberating through the cavern, Rainbow Dash looked directly ahead of herself and found that she was so busy taking in her grand surroundings that she didn’t even notice the purple robed pony facing away from her. Von Umbrae was standing at a control console in front of the looming hologram of their planet, meticulously pressing multicolored gemstones set into the metal device. He didn’t acknowledge Rainbow Dash’s presence with so much as a head gesture, but the heavily concentrating cultist clearly knew she was there

“So… where are we?” Rainbow asked.

She then took another look at her surroundings. Her eyes once again found the giant holographic planet dominating her vision. More specifically, she noticed the infinitely more detailed holographic moon. A thought suddenly occurred to Rainbow about their current location, but it couldn’t be true. There was just no way that was where they were!

“You know, it must have been so frustrating for the poor Princess,” Von Umbrae gave a lamenting sigh, “to be sealed away on this rock for one thousand years with the means to destroy her sister right underneath her hooves! So close, yet completely unattainable without her powers…”

“Okay, so where’s this weapon, then?”

Von Umbrae gave an ominous chuckle. What was so unsettling about it this time though, was that it wasn’t just a patronizing sound. There was genuine mirth behind it.

“For a pony who claims to be Equestria’s fastest, you are remarkably slow!” With a flourish, Von Umbrae pushed a final gemstone on the console and the once silent cavern began to shake violently as he turned to face Rainbow Dash with a satisfied smirk on his face.

The glowing runes on the metal rings on the walls began flashing wildly and a blinding burst of lightning arced between the great artificial stalactite and stalagmite that Rainbow Dash realized was a pair of big, ancient power generators. The snaking cords on the ground began flashing at regular intervals as magical energy was transferred from the generator to the rest of the Lunar Sanctum.

Rainbow Dash finally realized what was happening when she took another look up at the holographic moon. The center of the moon’s face was opening up like an iris, and inside Rainbow saw the first color on the white and gray hologram. The inside of the tiny moon was as red as the fires of Tartarus. The Lunar Sanctum… no, the moon itself was the weapon!

Rainbow cursed herself for not just attacking Von Umbrae as soon as she saw him. Instead, she had to ask all those questions and give him time to finish activating the weapon. Rainbow growled as she crouched, spread her wings and scuffed her hoof along the floor. Better late than never.

“I hope you’re ready for a face bucking, punk! You’ve had it coming for a while!”

“Whatever happens beyond now is meaningless. The firing sequence is irreversible. In a few short minutes Celestia and her precious capital vill be dust and ashes. Righteously smited by the very moon they opposed!”

Von Umbrae reached up and unfastened his cloak. With another dramatic flourish, he tossed the purple and gold fabric into the air behind him. His dark purple Lunar Guard’s armor was fully visible now and his bat-like wings extended.

“Nevertheless, I suppose I can humor you!”

Needing no further incentive, Rainbow Dash shot towards her opponent, her tired, battered wings giving everything they had. Von Umbrae did the same and the two combatants met in mid air, locking their hooves together as the whole cavern shook around them. They stayed like that for several seconds, spinning in the air as they wrestled for control. The whole thing resembled a tango performed in midair.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash kicked off of Von Umbrae and circled around, coming at the batpony again. This time, she unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks at her opponent. Rainbow Dash had been in her fair share of fights throughout her young life, and always preferred to fight like a brawler, letting her attacks come ineloquently spilling out of her.

Von Umbrae however, was a practiced Lunar Guard with years of combat training behind him. Rainbow Dash only managed to land a couple of useless hits to his armored midriff. The bat-like cultist blocked and deflected the rest with ease. After growing bored of letting Rainbow Dash lead, Von Umbrae brought a leathery wing to the mare’s face with the speed of a whip. The strike disoriented Rainbow long enough for Von Umbrae to deliver a series of precise hits to her stomach before finishing up with an uppercut to Rainbow’s chin, sending her flying unevenly backwards.

Rainbow took a small amount of satisfaction in the look of surprise on Von Umbrae’s face when she recovered in the air and shook off the pain from the attack. Nevertheless, Rainbow quickly realized she didn’t have the upper hoof and decided to press her attack more aggressively. She flew straight at Von Umbrae focusing everything on speed.

Rainbow performed a textbook midair tackle, wrapping her forelegs around the cultist’s waist, intending to crush him against the wall. With a remarkable show of strength however, Von Umbrae managed to completely stop her momentum. He then delivered a knee to her face and an elbow to her spine before turning to grab Rainbow by her own waist and throw her face first into the intertwining metal rings along the wall.

Her face, stomach and back pounding, Rainbow Dash turned around in the nick of time to dodge Von Umbrae’s right hoof. The blow resonated through the rune covered metal rings along the wall and Von Umbrae noticeably winced as he shook his right hoof a couple of times.

Now, it was Von Umbrae’s turn to go on the offensive, attacking Rainbow Dash with his own flurry of punches, forcing the mare on the defensive and driving her back towards the center of the room. Unlike Rainbow Dash though, Von Umbrae’s storm of punches wasn’t random. Each attack was a deliberate and methodical effort to fake her out and get through her defenses. Rainbow would continually move to block a punch only to open herself up to a follow up attack to the face.

After having taken many punches and approaching the end of her rope, Rainbow Dash saw an opportunity to attack and tried a final, desperate uppercut. But Von Umbrae caught her foreleg in his own, turned and flipped her over his shoulder, delivering a final hard kick to her chest and sending Rainbow Dash straight down to the floor below. Slowly and groggily she tried to get back up, but was stopped when Von Umbrae touched down beside her and pinned her to the floor.

“Vell, that vas fun!” Von Umbrae said, smiling down at Rainbow Dash, who couldn't stop staring at his large white fangs.

“Are you gonna… drink my blood… or something?” Rainbow Dash asked through burning lungs.

At this, Von Umbrae reared his head back in confusion and then rolled his eyes, “ugh, why does everypony think us bat ponies are vampires? Just because ve have fangs doesn’t mean ve drink blood!”

Von Umbrae then looked up and put a contemplative hoof to his chin, using his other one to keep Rainbow Dash pinned.

“Although, I must admit I’ve always wondered what pony meat tastes like!” Von Umbrae looked back down at Rainbow Dash with a sadistic smile, “Hey, as long as I’m about to destroy Celestia, I might as well cross another thing off my bucket list!”

Rainbow Dash failed to suppress a totally uncool whimper and closed one eye as Von Umbrae leaned forward with his jaws wide open, but before he could sink his fangs into blue flesh, a sudden brief flash of light off to the left caused him to stop. Sure, glowing runes were flashing and the central generators were arcing magical lighting between each other, but all of that was happening on the right.

Von Umbrae slowly turned to look in the direction of the flash of light just in time to be greeted by a beige hoof to his face. The blow sent the dark stallion stumbling off of Rainbow Dash, who turned and looked up at the face of Daring Do, smiling down at her. Daring offered Rainbow a hoof and Rainbow took it, returning her hero’s smile as Daring pulled her to her hooves.

“Vell, look who came back!” Von Umbrae lowered his hoof from his face to glare at Daring, revealing that she’d actually left a mark, “perhaps you’ll stick around this time? I’d say that your friends miss having you around, but unlike one of us, I don’t make a habit out of lying!”

Daring Do and Von Umbrae were once again facing each other, inches apart. This time though, Daring didn’t show any signs of weakness. She just glared right back into Von Umbrae’s pale dead eyes.

“You’re right. I have made a career out of making mistakes, but I won’t let that stop me from doing the right thing!”

“Oh, so you’re playing the part of the hero again? Too bad this isn’t like one of your books!” Von Umbrae scoffed.

Daring Do’s ears perked up at Von Umbrae’s last statement and a sly grin crept across her face. She spread her wings and Von Umbrae assumed a combat stance, but Daring didn’t attack the cultist. Instead, she flew straight up and looked across the chamber at the generators on the ground and ceiling. Rainbow Dash glanced over at the holographic moon, it’s face now fully open, it’s red interior glowing brighter and brighter. It seemed ready to fire at any moment.

It was then that Daring Do took off her safari hat, wound it up and threw it across the cavern. Her trademark headgear flew straight and true right into the lightning arcing between the generators. Magical lighting surged into the hat, keeping it in place between the generators while simultaneously ricocheting across the cavern in every direction, the famous headgear keeping the lightning from going where it was supposed to. Stray bolts hit many of the metal, rune covered rings lining the walls, sending them crashing to the ground.

Finally, a quick succession of loud booms and fiery explosions brought the ceiling generator crashing down to the one below it, sending Daring’s hat flying back in the general direction of the three ponies. All of the glowing runes on the metal rings lining the walls that had been providing light across the cavern had turned a dim red and the whole chamber grew significantly darker.

“You… have got to be kidding…” Von Umbrae stared in awe at the destroyed magical power generators in the center of the chamber.

Daring Do landed beside Rainbow Dash and shrugged, “throwing my hat always worked in the books!”

Rainbow Dash’s attention however, was on the dimly glowing red runes throughout the chamber that were flickering and dying, shrouding the cavern in complete darkness one space at a time. The giant hologram of the planet and the moon flickered a few times before shattering into a million tiny holographic pieces as the glowing runes continued going out.

“Yeah, Daring? I think we should get out of here!” She said, her voice shaking.

Daring Do nodded, and together the two pegasi flew back across the vast cavern towards the still brightly glowing cobblestone circle that had teleported them there, Rainbow Dash stopping briefly to pick something up off the ground. They raced against the the darkness brought on by the dying runes and landed on the glowing stone circle. Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder at the sound of an angry, feral cry and saw the nightmarish form of Von Umbrae swooping down out of the darkness on demonic wings, his fang filled mouth wide open.

Rainbow Dash crouched and with a powerful buck that would have made Applejack proud, she intercepted Von Umbrae’s attack, sending the insane cultist sprawling on the ground. As she felt the sensation of weightlessness begin to overtake her body, Rainbow turned around to get one last look at her enemy. Von Umbrae slowly lifted his head from the ground and looked up at Rainbow Dash and Daring Do, his eyes widening as the horror of what was happening dawned on him.

As Von Umbrae was consumed in darkness, Rainbow Dash and Daring Do were enveloped in light.

The bright light faded away and Daring Do found herself standing with Rainbow Dash on the expansive plains of Pegaguay, South Equestria. The first light from Celestia’s sun was beginning to come in over the horizon. The stone circle of pillars were no longer glowing in bright white light. Daring Do turned around and trotted to the altar in the center, removing the very ordinary looking Moonstone from the indentation it was set in.

“Hey! Boss! Rainbow Dash! You guys both made it!” Daring Do turned around to see Gold Digger, Topaz and Ancient Rune all standing there.

“We were just about to go in after you!” Topaz said.

“We noticed some… strange lunar activity whilst we were battling the cultists,” Ancient Rune said, “might I inquire as to the whereabouts of their leader?”

“Von Umbrae? Let’s just say he followed in the hoofsteps of the alicorn he worshipped,” Daring said, looking up at the moon in the sky. The celestial body was nothing more than the beautiful white satellite it had always been.

Daring Do reached up to put the Moonstone under her hat and immediately remembered that it was no longer on her head.

“Forgetting something?” Rainbow Dash walked up to Daring Do, the archaeologist’s trademark hat on her head. It was charred and torn in several places, but it was intact.

Daring Do moved to retrieve the hat, but Rainbow Dash stood up on her hind legs so she could adjust the hat on her head with her front hooves, apparently not quite willing to give it up yet. Daring just gave Rainbow a patient stare.

“I think it looks kinda good on me,” Rainbow Dash then removed the hat and held it towards Daring, “but you keep it. It’s a pretty special hat, considering it pretty much saved the world!”

Daring smiled and took back her headgear from Rainbow Dash. She placed the Moonstone inside and then put it back on her head.

“It must be made out of pretty tough stuff,” Rainbow said. Daring knew she wasn't just referring to the hat.

Daring turned back to face her teammates. It didn’t take her long to notice there were other ponies on the grassy plain with them. A whole regiment of pegasi in the gold armor of the Royal Guard were rounding up bloodied and beaten ponies in black robes and loading them into sky chariots. Two of them were carrying off Lightning Strike on a stretcher. The scarred white pony didn’t appear to have any injuries save for a single cut on one of his forelegs. The zebra who had lent her team the Crimson Flare was sharing drinks and light conversation with a few of the guards.

Finally, Daring saw Iron Pyrite loaded onto a sky chariot with the rest of the cultists. She made a mental note to put in a good word to the Guard on Pyrite’s behalf. She was sure Rainbow Dash would do the same to Princess Celestia.

Daring Do closed her eyes and let out a content sigh, glad for the whole ordeal to finally be over.

“Another day…”

“Another dungeon…” Rainbow Dash finished.

The cafeteria table on board the E.S Solar Ray was silent as the ponies sitting around it ate. Every other table in the mess hall was filled with guards in gold armor save for this one. It was occupied by three archaeologists and one loyal fan. Rainbow Dash was disappointed that Daring Do hadn’t joined her and the rest of the team for what would be the last meal they’d probably share together as they approached Canterlot. It would seem that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

When Rainbow Dash boarded the Guardship Solar Ray for the journey home, she had been pretty quick to crash in a nice bed. Chasing cultists all night had left her pretty exhausted. She hadn’t even considered at the time that she may not see Daring Do again after that. Additionally, the empty seat across from her next to Gold Digger only served to remind Rainbow Dash of Iron Pyrite. She’d sent a letter to Princess Celestia requesting that she not get punished too hard for her crimes.

Rainbow Dash took another bite out of her hayfries when she heard somepony clear their throat off to her side. Rainbow Dash turned and almost didn’t recognize the beige mare standing there, holding a tray of food and smiling nervously at them. There was a certain vulnerable, honest look to Daring Do when she wasn’t wearing her jacket and safari hat.

“Hey guys,” Daring greeted in a very subdued voice, “Do you… mind if I join you?”

Rainbow Dash gave a simple smile and a nod and Gold Digger patted the seat beside him, not taking his half open eyes off of the gargantuan amount of food he was eating. Daring sat down and began taking tiny bites of her food. Every once in a while she would open her mouth like she wanted to say something but then she would stop herself, using her mouth to eat instead.

“I-I…” Daring started after a while, “Listen guys… I owe you a lot and… and I’ve been kind of… I kind of let success go to my head and… I just want to say…”

“Ah buh buh buh buh! Not another word,” Gold Digger waved a hoof in Daring Do’s face, “you don’t have to say anything,” the stallion then put a foreleg around Daring and pulled her into an affectionate embrace, “we’re just glad to have you with us, boss.”

Daring Do gave a roll of her eyes, but smiled as she leaned into the hug, “you know, you don’t have to call me ‘boss,’ Goldie.”

“Whatever you say… sis.”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t aware it was possible to choke on a liquid until she started coughing up her water all over the table. Daring Do, Gold Digger, Topaz and Ancient Rune all had a good natured laugh at her expense. Rainbow Dash tried to tell them all it wasn't that funny as her face heated up, but sooner or later she couldn’t keep herself from joining in.

The rest of the meal carried on at that pace, with each of the ponies at the table sharing humorous anecdotes that brought the others to giggling laughter. Daring Do told the others about Iron Pyrite, and how she was going to pull a few strings to help her son get into Celestia’s School. Rainbow Dash was enjoying spending time with her new friends so much that a small lump appeared in her throat when the announcement came through the airship stating that they were approaching Canterlot. Rainbow Dash made each one of the archaeologists Pinkie Promise to write to her.

Before Rainbow Dash knew it, she was stepping off of the Solar Ray onto the Canterlot airship docks. The sight of Twilight Sparkle and all of her friends waiting to greet her was bittersweet. Before Rainbow Dash could go to meet them, someone stopped her by putting a hoof on her shoulder. Rainbow Dash turned around to see Gold Digger standing there, Ancient Rune and Topaz just behind him.

“Welp, this sure has been a thing!” Gold Digger said as he gave Rainbow Dash a hoof bump, “see ya around, bud!”

“Farewell, Ms. Dash!” Ancient Rune stated.

“B-bye…” Topaz said. It looked like anything more would reduce her to tears.

Rainbow Dash repeated their goodbyes and turned to leave only to nearly bump into Daring Do. The two of them just stood there for a couple of seconds, neither sure how to close off their adventure together.

“Y’know, when Topaz first proposed the prize for the contest, I thought it was a terrible idea,” Daring Do then wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow, giving her an affectionate little squeeze. Rainbow returned her hero’s hug just as tightly, “Thanks for proving me wrong!”

Rainbow Dash closed the book. Daring Do and the Legend of the Crystal Stars had become one of her favorites in the series. As she sat at the table in the center of the tree library, she opened the book from the beginning and began rereading the prologue. Not only was it a fun adventure, but the sidekick characters were a lot more… focused on. She was sure Twilight had some kind of egghead writing term for it, but the other characters besides Daring each had their own moments where they showed just how important to Daring's adventures they were.

Spike sighed and continued to sort through scrolls as Rainbow Dash hugged the book to herself and gave a happy little squee. It was around that moment that a loud gasp filled the library. Rainbow looked over at the source of the noise and saw Twilight Sparkle staring at the newspaper in her hooves with a gleam in her eyes.

“Daring Do just announced the next book in the series: Daring Do and the Search For the Lunar Sanctum!” Twilight levitated the newspaper over to Rainbow Dash and set it down on the table in front of her, “and look at this: she’s introducing a new character!”

Twilight gave Rainbow Dash a knowing smile, “a pegasus with a rainbow mane!”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” The sound that escaped Rainbow Dash went all the way into ultrasonic. Miles away at Sweet Apple Acres, Winona stopped herding sheep to tilt her head in the direction of Central Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash’s cheeks heated up when she noticed Twilight and Spike both staring at her with amused expressions. Rainbow Dash desperately tried to salvage the situation by casually leaning an elbow on the table and adopting a neutral expression.

“Oh. That’s cool. Whatever.”

Fin.

Author's Note

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnd done!

Don't really know what else to say here other than it's been a fun month writing this and I hope it's been as fun for you reading it. Until next time!