Edited Details

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Our Heroes
Chapter 2 - Off the Tracks
Chapter 3 - Indigenous Ponies
Chapter 4 - Meeting the Natives
Chapter 5 - Action Heroes
Chapter 6 - Research and Developments
Chapter 7 - A Day Off
Chapter 8 - Afternoon Fight
Chapter 9 - Night Out
Chapter 10 - Accidental Parasite
Chapter 11 - Synchronity
As it is written
OBEY!
Chapter 12 - Heroic Sacrifice

Chapter 1 - Our Heroes

Daring Do, aka AK Yearling, aka The Bane of Ahuizotl, aka one of the best upcoming writers in Equestria paced her writing room again. She still wasn't sure where it had gone south.

The whole operation was pretty straight forward, a minor relic, a series of semi-magical stones that had been collected and formed into fused pile. Just a collection of small spells and effects, things that most unicorns learned in their first few years of practice. They didn't appear to have any outright benefits to the continued battle between the forces of Ponydom and Ahuizotl, but when rumors suggested it was being sought, Daring had to get there first.

The trip was almost uneventful, cross continent, only one hoof-fight with mercenaries. She had to add a bit more drama to the novel and had included a completely fabricated account of cloak and dagger spy games in the little town she had bought lunch in. A bit over the top in her own opinion, but it was an action novel.

After reaching the ruins, she had found them overgrown with vines and other plants, leaving her completely surprised when griffon guardians pulled themselves from the living walls to stop her from reaching the artifact. The griffons were surprisingly pleasant overall, seeking to simply subdue and throw her out. She still felt a bit bad for writing them into more aggressive jungle guerrilla warriors, but again, the novel was to be more action packed.

She had reached the artifact despite their best efforts but...

She grumbled in frustration, putting a hoof to her face. She still couldn't believe it. She didn't want to write it. There was no way for it to be a positive effect in the end.

She had lost the artifact.

More correctly, the moment she touched it, it had vanished in a flash of light. The griffons had wordlessly exchanged glances, and simply retreated back into the living woods, vanishing expertly. She had no leads aside from the fact that the artifact 'felt' like it had teleported. But to where? And how? She really should have been more suspicious with how easily she managed to reach it. Was it a cursed item? Was this entire thing a set-up?

She groaned, sitting herself in front of her typewriter again, glaring at the last paragraph.

The griffon guards stood valiantly against Daring Do's onslaught, for every blow she landed another griffon would leap into the fray, beak clacking shut where a limb had been a moment earlier or claws swiping through the air to rend flesh that darted desperately out of the way. Daring was holding her own, but through sheer numbers would not be able to reach her goal. She looked around the room desperately, panting as yet another blow narrowly missed her skin, tearing through her jacket. Her compass clattered to the ground from a torn pocket, and she leaped for it, narrowly avoiding another attempt to sever a leg with a clack of the griffon's beak. She cracked the compass on the ground with a wince, fracturing the plate glass front before throwing it into the narrow beam of light that illuminated the chamber. The impromptu burst of fractured light forced the griffons; used to fighting in the dark corners of the temple; to cover their eyes. Long enough for Daring to burst through their lines.

And now came the part she really didn't want to do. Usually the writing served to help organize her thoughts, but without any leads, this had the potential to be an adventure she just had to write off. She sighed, placing her hooves on the keys, and started typing.

Daring reached for the artifact, but as her hoof made contact with it it vanished in a shimmering light.

Daring Do frowned. Writing about your own failures, no matter how realistic, never felt right.

She blinked, realizing she wasn't feeling that disappointment so much as a surge of magic. She leaped from her writing chair as her manuscript began to glow, the typewriter erasing part of the line before beginning to write again.

Daring reached for the artifact, but as her hoof made contact with it she and it vanished in a shimmering light.

The glow from the manuscript pulsed outwards, flooding the room; even as Daring covered her eyes it was blinding. As the glow receded she was... still at home? Untouched? Completely healthy and well? Daring rolled her eyes, checking the changes to her manuscript. Well, the story claimed she had vanished. But what had actually happened?

~*~

Fluttershy was headed into the outskirts of the Everfree with a small bucket of hair care sundries in her mouth. While she was the local wildlife caretaker, her duties never officially extended to the residents of the Everfree. But, well, she always felt a little happier to show kindness to all her animal friends, even the ones that were a little dangerous at times. And she knew some of the larger animals didn't want her intruding on their territory, but they were usually nice enough to let her stop by and give them a helping hoof when needed. Such as when an infestation of fleas was troubling them.

"Hey! Is anypony around? Hey!"

Of course, usually they didn't sound like yelling ponies. Fluttershy's ears flattened against her head as she nervously cast about.

"Hello? I'm stuck over here! Gah. Stupid mud. Gonna rip my feathers right out. Hello!"

It was coming from... Fluttershy peeked her head through the bush, vaguely curious, but more afraid of the yelling pony on the other side. The figure was obviously a pegasus of some kind, and vaguely familiar, although Fluttershy was having a hard time placing 'why' they were familiar when they were covered head to hoof in thick mud. They cast about, and noticed Fluttershy, who eeped, retreating slightly into the bush.

"Hey! I could use a hoof over here! ....Please? ...Hello?"

Fluttershy shook, as she slowly eased her way out of the bush, staring with sad soulful eyes at the stuck pegasus.

"Well thank goodness. Look, I'm just a little stuck here. Do you have a rope or something I could use to get the muck off my wings without it feeling like it's trying to yank them out?"

"I...um"

"Oh, so you do talk!" The pegasus laughed. "Sorry, I was a bit surprised when I ended up here."

Fluttershy flinched at the laughter, shuffling her hooves nervously. "I could.. bring a bucket of water. I mean, that might help with the mud."

"I'd appreciate that! Say, you look somewhat familiar, have we met?" The pegasus stared at Fluttershy, who flushed and shook her head. The pegasus laughed again. "Yeah, I'm probably not too recognizable under all this muck. I'd appreciate that water ASAP."

Fluttershy nodded, emptying her hair care products carefully outside the bush, and heading for the nearest river. She wouldn't be able to help very long, she did have a manticore with a mane problem to tend to. She scooped up a bucket of fresh water, nodding a polite hello to the river serpent who eyed her curiously. The Everfree was a fascinating place. She didn't always feel so comfortable, but during the day time, when she could make eye contact with the animals in the least threatening way possible, and could simply ask them what was wrong, it was pretty nice. Occasionally she would come out to speak with Zecora.

The zebra shamare had been surprisingly popular since the rumors of her actions had been cleared up, the Crusaders coming out to help her gather ingredients; Applebloom especially seemed to be picking up a knack there; Twilight and her magical studies, Rarity for dyes, Applejack for exchanging advice on plants, fertilizing, and planting schedules, Dash for news about the weather patterns in the Everfree.

Fluttershy blinked, realizing she had been a bit lost in thought there. Where was-?

"HYARGH!"

With a startled squeal Fluttershy's head shot up as she took a step back, sending the bucket of water flying. Her back hoof caught the slightly glowing pile of stones, and in a flash, she and the artifact vanished.

The trapped pegasus panted. Her straining there, loud though it was, hadn't helped anything. She was still rather unbelievably stuck. At what point did mud stop being mud and turn into glue? Daring Do barely managed to complete that thought before the bucket of cold river water landed on her head, softening the mud. Thank goodness for pith helmets.

~*~

Daring Do was glaring at the manuscript. For whatever reason it had refused to budge from the typewriter. So now she was studying the hammer she had gotten her hooves on, debating the cost of a new typewriter versus leaving the thing cursed as it was. A typewriter that typed on its own could be interesting, if it had anything worth saying. As long as it didn't actually end up causing trouble of any kind.

Or maybe she was just feeling overly sentimental about all the stories she had written down with the old mechanical scribe. She sighed, glaring at the manuscript for the fourth or fifth time in as many minutes.

The document began to glow again, and the typewriter began to type. Her eyebrows shot up as she read along with the new words being put forth.

The griffon guards stared in horror as the artifact vanished with their quarry. Generations of dedication undone in a single afternoon. They bemoaned their fate before realizing that the air was still shimmering. Something was coming back. The room grew bright and with a blinding flash, a small shy pegasus with yellow coat, pink mane, a cutie mark of three pink butterflies, and aqua eyes appeared. The artifact was on the floor behind her, grey and inert, as she stared around the chamber in surprise and fear.

"W-where..?" She stared at the griffon guards with the same degree of wide-eyed surprise they seemed to be showing her. "Uh.. H-hello?"

With wordless shrieks the griffons leaped for the intruder, who ran as fast as her hooves could carry her. Her accidental escape kicking the artifact through a crack in the wall.

Fluttershy had no idea what was going on. Her aqua eyes darted left and right as she desperately sought someplace to hide, or someone she could ask for help. But she was alone except for the griffons behind her. She scuttled into a hard turn, dashing into an unfamiliar room to avoid being trapped by the collapsed hallway ahead.

It was a dead-end. An unfamiliar object seemingly made of fused together stones was resting near the back of the chamber by a pile of rubble. Her eyes drifted upwards over the rubble pile to spy a hole in the roof. The ruins extended further above, but at least it was an exit.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and powered her wings in a desperate attempt to climb quickly.

Only to find the hole above filled with the snarling face of a griffon guard.

Her wings locked in fright, snapping against her sides as her eyes widened and she tumbled to the floor, skittering down the rubble pile. A hoof brushed the just starting to glow artifact, and both she and it vanished in the familiar shimmering light. The guards waited patiently. They knew they'd be ready next time.

Fluttershy?

Where had she heard that name? It was familiar. It was. It was...!

It wasn't ringing any bells right at the moment. Daring Do frowned. She knew it was something she'd run into somewhat recently, but for the life of her couldn't pin down. Perhaps the next time the typewriter sprang into action she'd have a better idea of what was going on?

She glared at the mechanical scribe, gesturing at it threateningly with the almost forgotten hammer. "You got lucky, punk."

The typewriter had no comment.

Chapter 2 - Off the Tracks

Fluttershy eeped as she suddenly slid to a stop just short of her previous position, her wings still locked against her sides as she landed on the soft turf of the Everfree Forest. She oofed, wincing and whimpering, fully expecting to be attacked by an angry griffon of some kind.

"You okay?"

Fluttershy opened her eyes, peering up at the pegasus standing above her. Still stained with mud, but obviously much cleaner than before, the now somewhat obvious shape of Daring Do smiled down at Fluttershy. The adventurous pegasus offered the terrified pegasus a hoof up, which was quickly accepted. She stared up at Daring Do with her head down and whimpered.

"Angry griffons? About yay tall, in green and brown, about four of them?" Daring extended her wing to provide the height profile.

Fluttershy shook her head.

"Five. One blocked the only escape route from the room... How did you-?"

Daring laughed, to Fluttershy's surprise.

"Okay, so that little artifact there is a teleporter of some kind. Guess it was lucky you grabbed it." Daring pointed with a hoof.

"Grab-? Nonono, I um... " She blinked down at the small somewhat innocent looking pile of stones behind her. "That's an artifact? It looks like a bunch of rocks."

"Oh yeah, that's about all it is too, or at least that's all it was supposed to be. 'Course, if you can't touch the thing without it teleporting you, getting it somewhere else becomes a bit more of a task. Mind if I use your bucket?" Daring nodded over her shoulder back at the wooden bucket she had placed next to the mane care products after freeing herself from her sticky situation.

Fluttershy blinked curiously, but nodded. "Go ahead. ...Umm... Miss Do, why are you here?" Fluttershy followed the adventuresome pegasus' progress with her eyes as the latter collected the bucket and a stick. With a quick flick of her hooves, the artifact was (with any luck) contained by the wooden bucket.

"Useful things, sticks." Daring said with a smile, tossing the tool aside. "The why, well, artifact hunting, and the artifact in question being a teleporter, as you yourself found out. Don't suppose I could impose on you for a bit until I get cleaned up for the flight home? This muck has me ground bound until I get the feathers cleared."

"Oh, umm, well, of course. I'm always happy to lend a hoof. But I really need to go give Marline her flea treatment."

"Marline?"

"She's a manticore." Fluttershy smiled sweetly. "Rather nice, but she just didn't keep up with her mane, and rather than leave her itching for a long time, I was going to give her a nice mane-wash. With flea treatment."

Daring raised an eyebrow and smiled. A pony who could handle a manticore by herself? "And you couldn't handle 5 griffons?"

Fluttershy blushed, looking away. "Well... they were already mad... And Marline is nice."

"Whatever you say. So, you need the bucket for the mane-wash?" Fluttershy nodded mutely. "I just need some way to handle this little problem without touching it, and I'll hand it right over. So what part of Equestria am I in?" Daring picked up the bucket in her mouth, looking to Fluttershy for the path to follow.

Fluttershy sighed. She really wanted to go help Marline, but... well... "You're in the Everfree forest. Near Ponyville." She thought, then pointed weakly back towards her home. "I... um... I live right over there. I might have another bucket."

Daring nodded. "Well, lead on!"

"Oh. Um. Yes." Fluttershy blushed and nodded, leading the legendary archaeologist to her humble cottage. Daring kept a weather eye on her surroundings, seeming pleasantly impressed by the flora and fauna of the Everfree; what little presented itself willingly, anyway.

Angel Bunny was tapping his foot in annoyance with his arms crossed. Fluttershy eeped as she walked forward nervously, head hanging down. Daring simply raised an eyebrow. "Who's the bunny?"

"Oh, this is Angel. He helps me a lot around the house, and..." Angel gestured at Daring, chittering. "Well yes, I wasn't planning to help another pony." Angel made another series of noises, making washing gestures. "Yes, I just needed to get another bucket, Angel." Angel gave her a very steady look. "N-no Angel, I didn't just let her take over. There's just this weird thing we found." She nodded to the bucket Daring was holding. "It's a little unsafe-" Angel of course hopped closer for a better look, before leaping up and balancing on the bucket's rim. Fluttershy's eyes widened with a gasp of surprise.

Daring went wide-eyed. "Careful bunny!"

"Angel, don't-!" Fluttershy exclaimed in surprise as Angel grabbed for the glowing pile of stones, vanishing. "...oh dear..."

~*~

Daring looked up at the typewriter as the manuscript began to glow again. Of course, just as she decided to make herself some kind of snack. She rolled her eyes, crunching down on some fresh hay-fries, starting to read along.

The griffons tensed as the air shimmered again, preparing themselves to grab the interloper. As the light flashed they lunged for the pony!

Only to find themselves colliding in midair over a rather confused white rabbit holding the artifact. He skittered out of the way with his prize, raising a paw at the griffons and chittering at them in rage. He kicked a rock from the rubble pile Fluttershy had previously been sliding down back at the knot of angry predators, even as same started to untangle themselves. He looked quickly from the mass of angry feathers and talons to the crack in the wall Fluttershy had previously kicked the artifact through and, with a firm paw grasping the artifact, took off in a lapin scuttle.

Angel Bunny wasn't sure what had happened, but he was sure it was related to Fluttershy's incomplete warning. His brow furrowed as he dashed down another hole in the wall, thankful the rotting state of the ruins was unfinished. Strong carved rock walls with pressure cracks or weight fissures created gaps that had only been overrun by vegetation where sunlight and water found access. No rats or other animals saw fit to challenge his dominance of the tunnels, or even so much as appear, and he was unwilling to stop running until he found a more defensible position against those griffons.

He sighed as he pulled to a stop in a room with a collapsed doorway. He wasn't known for his patience at the best of times, but when suddenly faced with a threat, well...

He hefted the artifact around with an annoyed grunt, glaring at the innocent looking bunch of fused stones. Fluttershy had been bringing odder and odder things home since that draconequus.

He shook the pile of stones in frustration.

Nothing so much as rattled.

He smacked the stones against the stonework around him.

The wall carvings showed more wear than the artifact did.

He gnawed on it in rampaging fury!

He really wasn't sure why he tried that after the wall failed.

He rubbed his jaw in response to the obvious discomfort of biting down on a semi-indestructible magic artifact with a sigh. Another case where his knee-jerk response to try and get something done or set-up for Fluttershy had backfired. The poor pony needed someone to give her a swift kick on occasion, and by the Great Warren if nobody else would do it, he would! He just needed to remember to do it a bit more delicately. Which wasn't exactly in his personality.

He sighed, drop kicking the artifact in annoyance, illustrating his point. Much to his surprise, it managed to lodge itself in a hole partway up the wall. Angel facepawed with an audible smack. Now how was he going to get that thing down?

He glared around the room, as usual completely undeterred by his own lack of size. After a moment's consideration he kicked a somewhat more fragile looking piece of wall, causing the limited connection between the carved figure of a griffon and the moss holding it against the rock wall all these years to dissolve. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it at least gave him a little extra height. Using the carving as a pole vaulting pole, Angel propelled himself into the air; his paw barely grazing the artifact as it began to glow slightly. A moment later, the dead-end room was illuminated by the flash of light and shimmer of air that had become the artifact's calling card.

Daring chewed over another hay fry as she considered the most recent protagonist.

A bunny? A violent bunny?

Well, it did have potential for some kind of story, but made no sense in this case. And most certainly not for pinning down who this 'Fluttershy' was and what might have happened.

She sighed, and contemplated her hay fries.

Popcorn. I should make some popcorn.

Chapter 3 - Indigenous Ponies

Angel landed with a surprised oof on a little pillow, finding Fluttershy carefully nuzzling him. "Are you okay, Angel?" Daring Do stood on less protocol, offering the bucket. Angel enthusiastically slam dunked the artifact into the container, crossing his arms with a sour grape huff.

Miss Do chuckled. "We were trying to warn you." Angel grumbled, but was quickly mollified when Fluttershy hit him with two large worried eyes. He gestured dismissively at her, before giving her a small hug on the nose. He bounced off, leaving the two bemused mares behind.

"Well, we've figured out a few things. The artifact seems to react to anything alive that touches it, and you seem to return to wherever you were, doing whatever you were doing. So he reappeared back where I had been holding the bucket before, falling, for whatever reason." Daring Do scratched at her chin with a hoof. "I suppose it could use some additional testing... but for now I think I'm going to take you up on that offer of cleaning myself off."

Fluttershy nodded, leading the way into her cottage. Daring carefully placing the bucket of artifact on the kitchen counter. The shy pegasus led the way upstairs to the bathroom, nodding to the tub. The adventurer smiled, doffing her outfit and helmet in one fluid moment. Fluttershy eeped before once again reminding herself that most ponies were naked anyway. She still blushed as the other mare started letting water into the tub. "I'll umm.. be downstairs if you need anything, Miss Do."

"Alright, and thanks again Miss-?" Daring perked. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've exchanged names. Daring Do, nice to meet you."

Fluttershy smiled lopsidedly. "I recognized you after that.. telethingy. You really don't recall me?"

Daring shrugged, checking the water in the tub, frowning as it started to turn brown from even that slight contact. She supposed it had been a while since her last bath. "Sadly I tend to be underway a lot, and there's always the chance I ran into something that gave the old noggin a bit of a jar. So if you don't mind humoring me, I'd appreciate knowing how you know me."

"Oh. Umm. Well, you were looking for those rings, and then Rainbow Dash wanted us all to help, and.. well, you said you didn't need it, but it all worked out in the end." Fluttershy smiled happily, eyes closed at the happy memory of the joy on Rainbow Dash's face when she received her advanced copy of the novel.

"The rings... of Scorcherro?" Daring pondered, tapping the hot water valve a bit. "I remember I got some help there, although mostly I remember Hue Spectra helping out. That rainbow colored pegasus. Nice kid, a little over the top at times."

"Hue Spectra?" Fluttershy blinked. "That sounds like Rainbow Dash, I mean, the description; but the name..."

"Huh." Daring puzzled the matter for a moment, before shrugging. "What say you try to set up a meeting with this 'Dash' pony and we see about clearing up the matter." She clambered into the tub, looking around for a moment. Fluttershy smiled, offering the soap and scrub brush from their spot near the side. Daring took them with an appreciative grin. "Thank you again. Better we get this thing worked out before any enemy agents show up. But the teleport should buy us some time."

Fluttershy smiled again at Daring, blushing slightly, and nodded, not really hearing what the pegasus was saying as she lathered and scrubbed herself. She was a few miles away with her thoughts.

~*~

"Come on 'Shy, you're the one who wanted to talk to me about something." Dash peeked out of the communal flight school showers for the third time. "This is about the only time we've got between classes, and I know you don't want to wait until after school because all the bullies will group up and wait for us." She returned to the warm liquid embrace a moment later. She didn't have a lot of time to waste.

Fluttershy shuffled her hooves, taking another deep breath. It really wasn't helping things that Dash was in the shower. She needed to work up enough nerve to say her piece over the sound of running water, and that was hard enough at the best of times! She took another deep breath and let it out. One more. Deep breath. Let it out.

"I like mares."

Dash peeked out of the shower with a quirked eyebrow. "So?"

Fluttershy blinked, not sure if Rainbow had heard her right. "W-well, I mean I like mares." She blushed intensely at the admission.

Dash's expression didn't change, still incredulous at the admission. "Yeah, so why's that a big deal? So you don't like stallions-"

"Umm... actually..." Fluttershy faltered as her blush deepened, which raised both of Dash's eyebrows and earned a hearty laugh.

"Oh geez! And with you already this shy, this has to make things twice as hard for you, huh?"

Fluttershy nodded, feeling as though her blush was going to burn itself into place permanently. She kicked at the cloud-ground, looking down at it, trying not to make eye contact with Dash. Her ears flicked as the shower turned off, and the familiar rainbow pegasus exited with a towel being applied liberally.

"Okay, so aside from this really not changing anything, why's this a problem?" Dash waited a few moments for a response, finally removing the towel covering her face and mane. "'Shy?"

Fluttershy was staring, with an intense blush, eyes huge and sparkling, right up close to Dash's. Dash blinked, connecting the dots slowly. "You've got a crush on me." Fluttershy nodded, whimpering slightly, her lower lip quivering. Dash sighed, rolling her eyes, looking back into the huge eyes full of faith and love.

Unable to completely resist the sheer levels of d'aww, she gathered the shy pegasus up into a hug. "'Shy, you're my best friend, and nothing is going to change that. But." The shy pegasus eeped, her forehooves returning the hug with an almost desperate grip. "But I don't feel the same way about you. Pretty sure I'm into stallions instead of mares, but hey, we've got time to grow up and figure it out. Until then, or even beyond that, you're still my best friend. I know you've got my back, and I hope you know I'll always have yours." Dash gave Fluttershy a squeeze, which was returned.

As they returned to standing apart, Dash couldn't help but grin at Fluttershy. "So you like the athletic types, or is it more the tomcolt thing?" Dash's grin widened as Fluttershy blushed deeply. The school bell rang. "Aww geez, we're gonna be late! Come on 'Shy!" The two pegasi took off through the school, nothing having changed, but Fluttershy happily feeling a bit less conflicted.

~*~

Fluttershy realized she was getting the same sort of warm fuzzies she had gotten watching Dash way back when. It made sense really. Daring Do really resembled Dash, and had a lot of similar tendencies. "-Fluttershy-" They both hung onto their thoughts and loyalties with a sort of strength that other ponies envied, and were always true to their own goals. It was just that they'd always try to be out front and handling problems themselves instead of letting others handle it."-Fluttershy?" Of course it would be remarkably rude to bring up something like that out of the blue. She really couldn't even think about mentioning "Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy squeaked and dashed into a hiding spot in the cabinet under the sink, earning a puzzled blink from Daring Do. "Do you space out like that often?"

Fluttershy slowly opened the cabinet, peeking out; her eyes wide with fear. "Mm hmm."

Daring rolled her eyes. "I was asking if you needed to get going right away with your manticore. I could use a spare set of hooves to scrub some of this dirt off my back." It was a bit of an extension of trust, but if Daring thought Fluttershy was an assassin... well, she was pretty sure Fluttershy wasn't a very good assassin if she was. The offered scrub brush was accepted by a nervous Fluttershy as she left her hiding spot. She covered her mouth in shock as she got close to the tub.

The water had been reduced to a thin mud, brown and black all over the place, with Daring Do obviously a few shades lighter brown than she started. Scars and scratches covered the adventurer all over her body, and while she was obviously fit, there was an undertone of starvation under the muscles. Whipcord thin seemed the appropriate descriptor. She certainly didn't recall Daring Do looking this... worn before.

Her eyes narrowed as her kindness resolved itself to a goal of caring and support. She started adding more water to the tub, draining the muck while keeping the pleasant envelope of liquid warmth surrounding the mare. Daring raised an eyebrow at what was going on. Fluttershy gestured for her to turn around as the water started becoming partway clear once again. Daring simply shook her head with an exaggerated eye-roll before turning around, bracing herself against the tub as she enjoyed this bit of relaxation in the middle of an adventure. She really couldn't recall the last time an adventure had had this much downtime in it. She tensed at a contact with her back, then relaxed with a happy sigh as Fluttershy began massaging her back with the scrub brush and the soap; previously thought lost under the watery muck. Fluttershy made a few soothing noises. "It's been a long time since you've relaxed, hasn't it?"

"Mmm, never really have the time. There's a lot of things that need to be done. Work work work." Daring wasn't about to admit it, but this was something she could probably get used to. She tensed again as the feeling of the scrub brush was joined with the more solid touch of a hoof. Fluttershy nudged at some muscle groupings around the wings, earning a grunt from Daring.

"Oh my, you really need a professional... Don't worry. I know a good way to relieve stress until we can visit the spa."

"Wait, a spa? Are you kid-" Daring's eyes went wide as she felt Fluttershy's hooves taking grips along her sides.

"This will only hurt for a second." Muscles flexed. Snapping and cracking was heard. Daring shouted in surprise. Fluttershy's hooves gripped her head and neck from behind. Daring's eyes shrank to pinpricks.

Crack

Chapter 4 - Meeting the Natives

Daring had to admit, when it was all said and done, she really felt a lot better. She had lost several layers of dirt, including the most recent addition of unbelievably sticky mud; really, was the stuff some kind of natural concrete substitute or something? She felt relaxed in ways she hadn't felt since her last full body cast kept her from actually moving for a few weeks.

Daring still was a bit surprised with how... effective Fluttershy had turned out to be at macroscopic massages. Although Fluttershy still had insisted on asking her friend Rarity to bring Daring along for 'their weekly spa trip'.

Daring rolled her eyes, but couldn't completely deny looking forward to it. If this was what a bit of tender care by someone who didn't know what they were doing could feel like, she might need to look into hiring a personal masseuse in each town she visited. Or maybe getting Hue some masseuse training? But that would imply she wanted the pegasus around more, and she really didn't want to imply that. Hue had the tiniest of fan-mare streaks going on. Loved the kid like a sister, but like a sister, she drove Daring crazy in large doses.

Daring Do, adventurer, archaeologist, studier of legends and lore, flopped back on Fluttershy's couch on the ground floor of her cottage. Maybe she needed to look into finding more artifacts with teleportation powers if they all ended this nicely. Sure, it would take a few hours to fly back home from here, but she wasn't exactly hurting for time. There wasn't anything in her home that anyone would be after at this point, and this was the only artifact she had studied recently, so a break was acceptable. She'd still probably find her home rifled through at the end, though. Seemed like she could never avoid somepony trying to figure out what she was up to.

Her adventurer's jacket had been taken for laundering, but at least her trusty pith helmet was good to go after a vigorous scrubbing and a bit of drying. She plopped the familiar protector over her eyes and settled in to a practiced doze. The sound of Fluttershy's animal friends soothed the adventurer off with their familiarity.

Almost like the jungle...

~*~

Fluttershy felt pretty awesome. She had helped Daring Do, found her spare bucket, and had even managed to give Marline a new mane-style along with her flea treatment and mane-wash. She was sure to impress Marty, the local alpha male manticore. Fluttershy couldn't contain her joy anymore and just broke into a playful gambol, giggling. She was a little surprised when she was greeted with a round of applause. She looked around before spotting Discord grinning a snaggletoothed smile, armed with a can of 'canned applause'. "Well, someone's happy!"

"Oh, hello Discord!" She bounded over to the draconequus to give him a warm and honest hug.

Discord rolled his eyes, returning the embrace. "Oh hello? No 'ahh, run in fear'? How about a 'we're doomed! Doomed'?"

Fluttershy smiled up at him beatifically. "Nope. Just happy to see you."

Discord's even minor resistance melted away at her joy. "You know, it's completely unfair how you just ooze love and kindness."

Fluttershy blushed a bit, looking at the ground. "S-sorry."

Discord sighed, offering Fluttershy a small cup of hot cocoa in a 'Best Pony' mug. "It's simply horrible how you abuse your cuteness. You are so adorable at even your worst."

Fluttershy peered up at Discord, her lips just over the top of the cup, eyes huge and sparkling. "What do you mean?"

Discord put a hand to his chest, as though wounded. "Hnnnng! Nothing! Nevermind! Turn down the cute!"

Fluttershy giggled, and sipped the cocoa, used to the draconequus' frivolities. "So how was your trip?"

"Oh, you know, spreading chaos and mayhem, undoing decades of peace and joy, finding ancient cursed artifacts and putting them in the hands of those too inexperienced to hope to contain them." He gestured dismissively, Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "The usual of course."

"Discord..."

The draconequus stuck his tongue out. "I set a few small things into motion, and Celestia agreed to a rematch for our grand Pie Battle Royale. Alicorns versus draconequus! I'm thinking we can sell 4d pay-per-view showings."

"Four D?" Fluttershy blinked in surprise.

"Quite amazing technology, here." He put a pair of clear lensed paper glasses on her nose, before letting a television appear in the space before her. Pies flew in every which direction, Celestia and Luna laughing like madmares as they sought to deliver their sugary payloads on their foe. Discord for his part was dressed as a general in an outfit made of candy with a massive candycane serving as a conductor's baton of sort as he gestured a wave of pies into the air at the rulers. Fluttershy recognized this as last month's pie battle. A pie approached the camera, looking quite realistic and close.

Fluttershy jumped back with a squeak as the pie flew over her head. Discord innocently whistled, looking away. Fluttershy gave him a mildly annoyed glare, which gave way to amused giggles. "It's really too bad Dash doesn't trust you at all. I think she'd love that kind of prank." She removed the glasses. "But I think there should be some kind of warning. Or at least that it's cheap. Or, you know, something to make it safer..."

Discord put on his best wounded expression. "But Fluttershy! They're getting a free souvenir pie! That's value!"

Fluttershy gave him a bemused smile, shaking her head. "You're incorrigible."

"You knew that already." He wagged a finger at the pegasus. "How are things in Ponyville?"

"The usual, as you probably knew already." She smiled up at the draconequus, before frowning and sighing. "Well, almost usual. We haven't had anything going crazy yet, so that's probably coming. But Daring Do was out in the Everfree, with some kind of artifact. She's staying at my cottage for the moment, so if you stop by, please be polite."

The draconequus donned a monocle and adopted a serious mien. "Now when am I ever not polite?"

"Do I need to get Twilight to make a list?" Fluttershy giggled as his monocle popped loose.

"A Twilight list?! We'd both be buried in the paperwork!" Discord shuddered, but smiled when Fluttershy patted him on the leg. "Well, would you like a hand getting home?" A miniature throne appeared in his hands, but Fluttershy shook her head gently.

"Oh thank you Discord, but it's such a nice day, I figure I'll enjoy the Everfree while the sun is up. I need to go get Dash to meet with Daring, and maybe get Twilight to come take a look at the artifact."

"Suit yourself, but stay safe alright?" The draconequus shrugged with obviously faked disinterest.

"I will. And you stay out of trouble." Fluttershy gave the chaos god a quick nuzzle, resuming her travel with her bucket of supplies. Discord smiled happily, giving a wave before vanishing.

~*~

And reappearing inside Fluttershy's cottage. As usual his sudden appearance caused a small stir with the local animals, but they were at least somewhat more used to him. Discord's eyes roved the room before settling upon the sleeping khaki and black bulk on the couch. "Well, well, well. The famous Daring Do."

Daring snorted awake, one hoof raising the helmet off her eyes as she stared in confusion at Discord. The draconequus regarded her with a similar sort of confusion, leaning in with a frown. "...There's something... off about you."

The pegasus raised an eyebrow at the assessment. "...You do realize how many comebacks you left yourself open for, don't you?" She sized up the draconequis in an obvious manner. Discord waved dismissively.

"Yes yes, but that fact remains that there's something different about you. Sorry, I suppose I should clear up confusion, no matter how much I enjoy it. Fluttershy did ask me to be polite. I am Discord. Lord of Chaos." Lightning flashed behind the draconequis' face, for extra dramatic emphasis.

Daring raised an eyebrow once more, before plopping her helmet back over her eyes. "Daring Do, as you already knew.. And if you're a friend of Fluttershy, then I'm going to assume you're not as bad as you're trying to make yourself out to be."

"Oh come now! Not even a little fear or terror?"

"Nnnnope." Daring allowed herself a smile as she heard Discord huff slightly.

"Nopony is any fun today." The draconequus pouted, heading for the bucket on the counter. "So is this that mysterious artifact Fluttershy was talking about?"

"Y-" Daring shot up from the couch. "Don't touch it!" She blinked, as Discord blinked back, hands on his hips. Her pith helmet tumbled down onto her head serendipitously.

"How crazy do you think I am?" Discord snorted, crossing his arms. "You'd have to be pretty insane to just touch some sort of unknown magical artifact." A white blur leaped up onto the counter, with no small amount of anger. Angel gripped the bucket, and threw the artifact at the unsuspecting draconequus, who vanished in a flash of light. Daring's jaw dropped, staring at the empty space Discord had once occupied, then back at Angel.

"Fluttershy is gonna kill you." Angel made a dismissive gesture.

~*~

Daring Do sighed at the bucket of popcorn she'd left by the typewriter, looking up from yet another book on ancient artifacts. The artifact in question, as far as names went, was a 'tor', a pile of stones, even though it wasn't stacked on a hill like the definition required. It was very specifically crafted, and more or less useless. There were some legends about it, concerning its ability to change the world and whatnot, but a similar amount claimed it only had access to minor spell effects. The ones she had used to hunt it down. So this whole 'cursed typewriter' thing was completely new.

She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. It was this same lack of information that was driving her crazy. If she could remember who this 'Fluttershy' pony was, she could try to figure out if something had happened to them. And the bunny thing just wasn't helping. And waiting for the typewriter to start writing again wasn't turning out to be fruitful. No surprise there. Anyone with a lick of sense wouldn't be using the artifact repeatedly.

Speak of the pony devil. The typewriter had glowed and started clattering away once more. With a smile, Daring walked over, grabbing a hoofful of popcorn to chew on.

The dead end room shimmered once more, the familiar light of the artifact's activation blazing for a moment before revealing something unusual. A creature long thought lost to the annals of history for the horror rendered unto ponykind. The draconequus. Standing about the height of an alicorn, the figure would be difficult to describe at the best of times. He had a deer antler on the right, a blue goat horn on the left, one long fang, different-sized pupils, a snake tongue, a goat beard, and white bushy eyebrows all on a vaguely pony like head. His snake-like torso had the right arm of a lion, the left claw of an eagle, the right leg of a lizard, and the left leg of a goat. Finishing his appearance were a bat's right wing, a Pegasus' left wing, a horse's mane and a dragon-like tail with a white tail tuft. Discord, Lord of Chaos, looked about the small chamber with a frown.

He pursed his lips, before letting out a sigh, grabbing the small collection of stones from the floor and glaring at them. "Remind me to give Angel the worst case of fleas I can find. Maybe give those manticore fleas a new home." He shrugged. "Ah well, back to Fluttershy's then." He snapped his fingers.

Nothing happened.

Discord frowned at his fingers, as though it were their fault for the failure, then sighed, switching hands.

Unsurprisingly, this also caused nothing to happen.

"Well, this is.. inconvenient." Discord sized up the room he was in. It was more of a storage room than anything, with the out of place wall carvings that seemed so popular in the ancient times. The doorway had been blocked by wreckage, presumably from the roof outside. While this meant he was safe, he had to admit that he was unwilling to simply sit still waiting for the artifact to recharge. "And everything has that same.. surreal feeling." He commented to nobody.

His room was rather intact, there was the hole in the wall that Angel had managed to squeeze himself through, the blockaded doorway, and not much else. He began tapping along the walls, noting how there had obviously been some kind of water flow through here at one point, dry moss forming a spongy layer to hold some of the stonework up against the base stone. His eyes traced along the old dry moss to a part of the ceiling that had shifted over the years. Perhaps cement had worn down, or perhaps there hadn't been enough applied in the first place, but the lack of weather-tight seal and the shifting of the stone gave him some sense of progress. He put down the artifact, and applied his upper body strength to the stone overhead. It was just at the edge of his reach, but he could just barely grip it.

He heaved, pushing up against the stone as sand filtered around it. A weaker batch of cement likely lead to this failure. Or perhaps even-

An audible crack filled the room as the stone settled on an old hidden fracture, splitting as Discord stepped out of the way. Fresh rubble tumbled from above, but was thankfully not joined by adjacent stones. With a smile the dracoequus grabbed the artifact, half slithering his way up and out the newly created entry.

"People always forget that I'm still a fit specimen." Discord flexed his arms, producing rather small bulges. "Now then, where are we."

The second floor was much more decayed looking than the first, obvious gaps showing where taproots and vines had bitten their way through weak rock or found other hairline fractures that would have been near impossible to detect in the distant past. There was a sameness of sort to the decorations carved into the walls; what little still hung in place. Sunlight filtered through holes in the roof, aiding the natural destruction of the ruin as plants spawned in the life-giving warmth. Discord frowned, looking around. Nothing hinted at an exit or passageway. With a sigh and a roll of his eyes he set off to his left.

The exterior stone appeared to be as thin as the interior, which was worrying in its own right. No matter how well constructed the thing appeared on the surface, he had had first hand experience with how reliable the construction had been. On the other hand, it had endured up to this point.

He was knocked out of his reverie as a pair of griffons slammed into him, sending him flying into the wall. He grunted in pain on impact, dropping the artifact. A faint glow began to cover the artifact as Discord shook his head, trying to clear the stars dancing in his eyes. "Luna, get out of here, you're drunk!"

Realizing these stars were caused more by blunt force trauma than the familiar mare of the night, Discord righted himself, flexing his fingers as the two griffon warriors stalked towards him. While he would love to make some playful banter at the moment, the fact that they seemed to be trying to hurt him, coupled with his lack of chaotic powers lent itself to executing plan B. He flicked his eyes over to the now glowing artifact, and made a desperate leap for it. The warrior on the left responded with a similar leap.

As the griffon's talons closed on the artifact, Discord's eyes widened, watching as the jungle fighter vanished in a flash of light and a shimmer of air.

Daring frowned as the glow once again receded from the document.

Discord. Wasn't he still in the Canterlot gardens? What's going on?

She sighed, turning away, before hearing the familiar click of the typewriter. One single key. At a time. She turned back to the typewriter with a curious expression, watching an unfamiliar brown aura struggling to form. The keys dropped one at a time, slowly, as if fought against desperately.

"I am Discord. I refuse to be trapped in someone else's game without being given any rules. I've been trapped in stone for over a thousand years. I will not go quietly." The draconequus got to his feet, glaring at nothing, walking past the second griffon guard. The griffon appeared to have frozen solid when the artifact vanished, showing some sort of connection between the world and the artifact. Discord wasn't sure what he would find if he kept walking. But he needed to keep moving. Standing still would just leave him trapped once more.

The magical aura faded, but didn't vanish completely. Daring stared at the typewriter with trepidation.

Chapter 5 - Action Heroes

Fluttershy hmphed at Angel, who had crossed his arms in a pout, forced to sit in the corner. "I still can't believe you'd do that to Discord!"

Daring smiled lopsidedly. "To be fair, Discord did say something that ended with his foot in his mouth. But hitting him with the artifact was a bit overkill."

Angel chittered at Fluttershy, who still did her level best to stay mad at him. "I know you said the room you were in was empty. But that place isn't safe! There are angry griffons there and who knows what else." Fluttershy perked as the air started to shimmer, breathing a sigh of relief. "Alright, well, this should be-"

Her eyes widened in horror as the flash of light disgorged a jungle warrior griffon rather than the familiar draconequus. The griffon stood slightly taller than a regular pony, and was muscled in the way survivors had to be. Where Daring had a hint of starvation to her, the griffon almost radiated a vicious sort of hunger, desire for some goal. It's brown and gold fur and feathers were interspersed with living green vines and plants, a sign that the creature was not unused to spending time in the jungles outside the ruins it guarded so jealously.

The griffon shrieked challenge, and lunged for Fluttershy, only to find itself flying out the window through Daring's bodyslam. The two fighters tumbled head over hoof in the cascade of glass before separating, standing, panting for breath. Out here in the sunlight, it was obvious something was, to steal the word from Discord, off about the griffon. Its colors were washed out, and it looked incomplete, for lack of better word. Its shadow wavered, and while color was flooding into it, it was still incomplete saturation, a sketchbook doodle being filled over time.

The griffon considered its foe, then the artifact in its claw. It turned tail, dashing off.

Daring took off after it with a snarl. "Get back here you!"

The griffon took to the air, aiming itself into the vaguely home-like tendrils of the Everfree. Daring narrowed her eyes and put a hoof to her helmet, holding it in place. Without her adventurer's jacket she felt decidedly exposed; especially against the claws and beak she was chasing after; but she wasn't going to let it get away.

"Hey! Need a hoof?" Rainbow Dash pulled level with Daring, who smiled wickedly.

"Hue! Great timing, we need to stop that griffon, and whatever you do, don't touch that thing it's holding. Think you can get ahead of it?"

Dash blinked at the name, but saluted. "I'll take the top road, you keep it in the woods." With a flash of her rainbow contrail, she shot into the air above. Daring pulled her helmet down with a serious smile, her own black contrail blurring into being as she kicked up speed after the griffon.

Dash shook her head as she started to pull level over the Everfree. The brown and green of the griffon, combined with its expert jukes and lunges around and through the flora were throwing off her plan of attack. It didn't help that she was pondering what Daring called her.

Hue? Wasn't that the- whassit called- pseudonym Daring wrote for me in Daring Do and The Rings of Scorcherro?

Her head snapped up as she felt the wind shift ahead of her. The griffon was headed for a small clearing in the treetops, and it didn't seem aware that it had two pursuers.

Perfect

Dash narrowed her eyes, and shot up, angling down into a hard turn. It wasn't fast enough for a rainboom, but it was going to be fast enough!

The griffon snapped out of deep cover, shooting across the clearing with a cry of joy. The artifact was almost charged, and they would return it to its resting spot. It was rather startled when a pair of forehooves drove into its back and plowed it into the verdant turf. Dash leaped from the griffon's back as Daring pulled to a stop beside her. Dash and Daring nodded to one another as the griffon scrambled to its claws, turning at bay, only to find the pair pulling back into mirrored haymaker punches. As the blows landed, the artifact flashed, that single moment of contact pulling all three of them along with it.

~*~

Daring had watched Discord's progress with some surprise. The draconequus wasn't getting 'far', but since all previous typing had depended on the appearance of the artifact the fact that he was getting anywhere was a bit shocking.

Discord rounded the corner, panting at the continued effort resistance was requiring. There wasn't much else for it, he needed to stop and rest. But the world seemed to loosen its tension a moment later. A smile played across the Lord of Chaos' face. "Ah, and here it comes again."

The brown glow that had accompanied Discord's progress gave way to the familiar whitish-yellow glow that normally served as a precursor to the machine's rapid disgorging of writing. It wasn't any different this time, although even the first line raised an eyebrow.

Back where the draconequus had begun his exodus, the light flare and shimmer of air once again released somewhat familiar figures; Daring Do and Rainbow Dash landing a combined two-hooved haymaker on the griffon unfortunate enough to be holding the artifact. The second guard gaped in surprise as his comrade slid to the floor limp, before grabbing the yet inert artifact and taking off.

"Hey!" Daring took off after the guard without hesitation. Rainbow Dash followed a moment later.

Rainbow Dash was a cyan blue coated pegasus pony with rainbow colored mane and tail, a lightning cloud with a multicolored lightning bolt for a cutie mark, a cocky attitude, and almost enough skills to back it up. Her magenta eyes tracked Daring's quarry as they both galloped down the hallway, not trusting the narrow expanse to aid them in flight.

The griffon looked back over his shoulder at the pair, grinning to itself. It had the advantage of distance, and its claws were more suited to the rubble and refuse than the hooves of the ponies. It kicked off the floor into the left wall, seeking to leap off into the adjoining hallway to widen the gap.

Only to run headfirst into the stone block Discord had hefted up. The draconequus winced at the impact, looking over the stone at the now floored griffon with eyes rolling around derpily. "Well, that was effective." He used the edge of the stone to dislodge the artifact from the griffon's grip with a satisfied smug smile.

"Discord!" Daring grinned. "How'd you get down here?"

"Discord!" Dash's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What's your game?!"

Discord shook his head. "Sadly, this isn't my game, Dash. Although I do appreciate the bit of misdirected anger." He sniffed, wiping at his eyes. "It feels just like home."

Now having a moment to recover that train of thought, Daring looked at Dash. Dash felt a bit of nerves seeing her hero examining her so closely, but stood still. "You look almost exactly like Hue. Different cutie mark, but... Only slightly." The adventurer scratched her chin. "Well, guess I'd better get used to calling you Rainbow Dash."

"Just Dash is fine Daring, I mean, we've met before." Rainbow smiled warmly. After all, here was her hero again. Daring just shook her head, causing Dash's joy to collapse on itself.

"I'm not sure what's going on right now, but I think... I think you're 'Hue' but from someplace else."

Discord nodded slightly. "Something strange is going on here, and I think we'd benefit from getting someone in here with a little more preparation." Dash rolled her eyes.

"Like you can't just do what you want?"

"Actually Dash, I can't." Discord frowned at the pegasus, who started to grin.

"Reeeeally? So I could get revenge on you for those 'pranks' of yours and you couldn't run away?"

"But I could get revenge as soon as we leave." Discord's eyes narrowed. Dash took a step closer, lowering her head into an offensive stance.

"Who says we're taking you along?"

Discord took his own step forward, a snarl twisting his face. "You arrogant foal. You'd really betray Fluttershy's trust for your own satisfaction?"

Dash's eyes widened, then narrowed. "I'd be protecting her from your influence you overgrown-"

"Gentlebeings." Daring stepped between them with a frown, seperating the two members of the personality clash, both of whom decided to avoid further eye contact. She looked from pegasus to draconequus. "There's probably more to this than I'm aware of right now, but I think we would be best suited arguing about this somewhere safe. And thankfully we have a convenient option in that regard." She nodded to the now glowing artifact on the floor. Dash and Discord looked up, then narrowed eyes at each other. Daring flared her wings, bending them into place as she moved to the artifact, blocking off access from either side. "We seem to be able to transport as a group when we're in contact with each other, as we were when we 'contacted' that guard. So I would suggest you both place a hoof on me so we can get going before the guards get back up."

Dash scoffed. "Come on, we hit that one griff hard enough to floor him, and this other guy just ran into a rock. They're not getting up anytime soon." As if specifically to prove Dash wrong, the nearby guard shifted, groggily starting to raise its head. Dash's eyes widened as she put a hoof on Daring's back. "Shutting up now."

Discord rolled his eyes. "We could only be so lucky." Dash shot him a venomous glance as he placed a hand on Daring's side. Feeling both their contacts, Daring touched the glowing artifact, and the trio vanished in a flare of light and a shimmer of air.

Daring's eyes went wide.

Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy was one of her friends! How could I forget?!

To be fair, Fluttershy was... very easy to overlook. Sweet, but.. quiet.

Daring paced in frustration, staring at the typewriter. She had to get to Ponyville, and see if these situations were related somehow. It would have to be a train in the morning, and it would still take several hours. And then of course came the question of transit for the typewriter. She couldn't just leave the thing sitting here if the solution to the problem did turn out to be in Ponyville.

The author-adventurer sighed, staring out the window. Sometimes she did think life would be easier if she had become an accountant.

Her face broke into a happy grin.

Nowhere near as interesting, though!

Chapter 6 - Research and Developments

The trio of two pegasi and one draconequus appeared in a flash of light and shimmering air in the small clearing where the two pegasi had previously conquered their griffon foe. They split apart, Daring refolding her wings as Dash stared unhappily at the draconequus. Discord stretched out with a happy sigh. "Oh yes, this is so much better." He stuck his tongue out at Rainbow Dash. "Now since you actually were talking about doing something to me, but didn't do it, I'll give you a warning. Don't use your shower tonight." He winked with an evil chuckle, as Dash upgraded her stare to a glare. "Now I really must go check on Fluttershy. Daring." He nodded a farewell to the adventurer, before pondering for a moment, and offering a plush toy version of himself with button eyes to the less colorful pegasus. Daring raised an eyebrow as she accepted it.

The doll proudly proclaimed "that's a lie, I'd never do that!"

Daring blinked at it incredulously, then back at Discord, who smiled lopsidedly. "I'm going to wager Dash is going to give you an earful as soon as I'm out of the picture. But since I really don't expect any scintillating wit out of her-"

"Hey!" Dash grumbled.

"- I figure automated responses will be good enough. Anyway, tootles!" The draconequus vanished without further pomp. Daring put the plush toy on her back between her wings with a bemused smile. Dash stared at her in confusion.

"You trust him?!"

"Don't worry. It's perfectly fine. Probably. Heh heh heh." The plush commented.

"Fluttershy trusts him. And for what limited experience I've had with her, she seems to have a good judge of character." Daring popped her pith helmet off her head, scooping up the artifact from where she'd left it on the ground.

"Do you even know what he's done?! Who that is?! That's Discord! He almost ruined Equestria, like, three times!" Dash took to the air, gesturing with frustrated energy. "He came back and drove us all crazy and then he's always causing trouble!"

"I am not a crook!" The plush toy responded with indomitable self assurance.

"You stay out of this!" Dash put a hoof to her mouth in embarrassment as Daring raised an eyebrow with an amused smile. Dash groaned. "Look, he does all these things, and calls them pranks, but it's like he doesn't understand what a real prank is, and he uses magic all the freaking time! I bet that toy is enchanted for the most annoying response at a given time!"

"Alright, so, how about you give me the extended version about Discord? We've got a bit of time unless you were planning to race back to Fluttershy's." Daring took the pith helmet in her mouth, and started trotting through the Everfree.

Dash gaped at her. "Aren't we going to fly back?"

Daring looked back at her. "If this mini-Discord is enchanted I don't want to see if it reacts to the artifact, and I'm not about to just throw it on the ground."

"Don't deny it, this is a trustworthy face!" The plush toy continued to stare blankly.

Dash glared at it. She sighed, settling onto the Everfree turf again with a grumble. "Fine. Fine. But I reserve the right to be the first one to stomp that thing apart if you get tired of it."

Daring rolled her eyes, and settled into a pleasant walk, with a perhaps overly dramatic monologue accompanying it. Interrupted every so often by a recorded soundbite of snark.

~*~

Fluttershy had made dandelion salad for dinner, which had been appreciated all around. She excused herself a few moments later to feed her animal friends, which left Daring and Dash to eat alone. Discord was unavailable for further comment, but Daring put the plush Discord on the dinner table with a gentle pat. She had to admit she was amazed that Fluttershy's window had gotten repaired in the short time they were away, but Dash had waved that off as 'normal for Ponyville.'

"Well well well." The plush had yet to stop commentating, much to Dash's frustration.

The two pegasi wrapped up their meal with relative speed, showing more hunger than either had anticipated. Dash cleared the table as Daring did the dishes. Dash quietly tried to avoid making direct eye-contact, before staring at the ceiling with a frustrated groan, and just looked at Daring. "What did you mean I'm not Hue?"

Daring blinked, smiling at Dash. "Really, we're going back to that point? Not that I still trust Fluttershy, and don't mind Discord?"

Dash made a scrunchy face, grumbling, before sighing and kicking at the floor. "That's kind of the point I'm at with Discord too. I trust Fluttershy but I don't trust Discord. So the best I could do is try to make you dislike Discord, and... well, that would be unfair. He pegged me, like he always does, back in those ruins. He's Fluttershy's friend. And while we're not really friends, I guess I shouldn't actually interfere to that extent.

"So since that point is dead, I'm going back to the earlier one."

"Looks like somepony broke the rules." The plush remained as non-sequitur as ever. Dash glared at it, biting her tongue.

"Alright..." Daring wiped her hooves clean of the wash water, and put on her best thoughtful expression. "You've met me before?"

"Yeah, of course!" Dash grinned enthusiastically. "Big fan. Huge fan."

"Do I look the same?"

"Huh?" Dash looked at Daring with a puzzled frown. Daring gestured expansively.

"Humor me. I don't even have my jacket on, so this should be even easier."

Dash stared at the adventurous pegasus, and pointed at her. "You've got your cutie mark, you're the same color. You're you."

"Humor me." Daring shook her head, repeating the request with an admonishing tone."Take all you know about 'Daring', and compare it to me."

"Somepony stop me!" The plush contributed helpfully.

Dash sighed, but walked around Daring, staring at the pony. She was rather convinced this whole thing was a waste of time. They'd talked a bit, and it was weird that Daring didn't seem to remember things right, but...

Dash took a double-take. Then a triple-take.

Those scars.

While Daring had had a few scars here and there, she had admitted that a lot of the more epic battles and wounds had to be invented for the books. Considering how tough she was, it wasn't too much of a surprise. If Daring jumped into every battle and finished it with a single shot, it wouldn't make for an exciting read.

But Daring... Not Daring... This... Imposter-Daring... Was covered in scars. Many of which were old enough to have worn away slightly, but newer ones told tales of countless dangers braved, and survived, not dominated. Dash's eyes narrowed as she braced her hooves and spread her wings threateningly. "Are you a spy?!"

Daring blinked at Dash incredulously. "What?"

"You heard me, Imposter! You're not the real Daring! What are you doing here? Who sent you?!"

Daring flinched as Dash rocketed into her face, doing her best Canterlot Royal Voice impression. She gave Dash her best deadpan expression in return. "You know, I was the one who asked you to check me over. A simple 'yes, you're different from what I expected' was all I needed."

Dash blinked, planting all four hooves on the ground as she bit her lower lip. She chuckled nervously. "Uh, sorry."

Daring shook her head with a sigh. "I don't even want to know. Anyway, my working theory right now is that I'm not the 'local' Daring. I think that artifact might be teleporting me between two similar worlds. Discord clued me in some when he commented that something was 'off' about me."

"Pfft, like he's one to talk."

"I used that line already. Get your own material." The two pegasi exchanged smiles. Daring started pacing as she continued her thoughts. "My point remains, I'm not from 'here', so whatever similarities there are are... inconsistent at best."

"Do you turn into a giant monster with a tentacle beard under the full moon and eat ponies?"

Daring stopped pacing and blinked at Dash. "...What?"

Dash shrugged. "Worth checking, right?"

Daring opened her mouth, closed it, and just tilted her head at Dash. "Do you?"

Dash leaped into the air, hovering in surprise. "Don't be crazy! Of course not!"

"Well that's a relief." The two pegasi turned to examine the amused purple alicorn that had walked into Fluttershy's cottage, followed by the owner of same cottage. "Miss Do, it's an honor and a pleasure again."

"Pull the other one, it's got bells on!" The Discord plush quipped. Twilight blinked at it, then shook her head, turning back to the trio of pegasi, who were giving her expectant stares. Suddenly put on the spot, she put on a sheepish grin, looking from one face to the next.

"So, um, I was here to help figure out this artifact?"

~*~

Twilight was headed home with a spring in her step and the artifact contained in a small cooking pot, which she floated in her telekinetic grip. She'd grilled both Dash and Daring about the object, getting what information Daring had pieced together, as well as Dash's experience on the other side. Fluttershy's comments on how angry the griffons were were noted, but not expected to be helpful. Dash had excused herself for the evening, saying she wanted to be well rested for the inevitable research trip Twilight was sure to suggest.

Really, she just didn't want to break into giggles at the goo-goo eyes Fluttershy kept tossing at the back of Daring's head. Dash remembered how hard it had been for Fluttershy to admit having a crush on her, and figured it wasn't going to go anywhere. It was vaguely flattering that Fluttershy still had a similar 'type' to Dash. Plus, it wasn't like Daring liked mares.

Right?

That momentary doubt sent Dash flying straight into a tree, much to her consternation. She raised her head with a groan, rubbing same object with a hoof. Trying to remember what had just caused her train of thought to derail brought out a blank, so she shrugged and headed on home. It couldn't have been that important if she couldn't remember it.

Right...?

~*~

Daring had, unsurprisingly, been more than welcome to stay at Fluttershy's. The adventurer had been even more pleasantly surprised that Fluttershy had a spare toothbrush, making today the first day in a while that she could claim she felt well groomed. Between the bath, massage, a freshly laundered adventuring jacket and hat, and actual clean teeth, Daring was almost feeling spoiled. She smiled to herself slipping the pith helmet from on top of her head to back over her eyes with a satisfied smile.

The tiny whimper in the darkness snapped her eyes open. The muted noise of the animals never even stopped as Daring silently rolled off the couch. With the practiced grace of a hunter stalking through foilage, she eased her way up the stairs, using her wings and hooves in concert to prevent herself from making any noise. She slid up to Fluttershy's bedroom door, and peeked in.

Fluttershy was clutching the little Discord plush and shaking quietly. As Daring peered into the room Fluttershy shuddered and whimpered. Bad dreams seemed to be haunting her. Although from what, Daring couldn't say. The adventurer considered the terrified pegasus a moment longer before setting her own jaw. She moved into the room, and gently nudged Fluttershy with a hoof. Fluttershy shot up with a startled squeak before dropping back to her bed, having forgotten to flap her wings. Daring smiled weakly. "Bad dreams?"

The yellow pegasus took a deep breath, and nodded quietly.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Fluttershy whimpered, her eyes going wide as she clutched the Discord plushie, shimmering waterlines appearing around the base of her eyes.

"Want a hug?"

Fluttershy nodded desperately. Daring smiled at her, and wrapped her forehooves and wings around the shaking pegasus. Fluttershy squeaked again, unwilling to let go of her plush companion. She finally settled for desperately burying her head in Daring's chest. The adventurer gently used her body weight to push the shy pegasus back onto the bed, humming gently as she started to stroke Fluttershy's mane with a hoof.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head, hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed.

Drifting off to sleep, exciting day behind you, drifitng off to sleep, let the joy of Dream Land find you."

Daring's voice wasn't as practiced at singing as it was at shouting challenges, but right now all it had to do was help Fluttershy feel comfortable. Surrounded by the warmth of another pony, and comforted by the wings around her, Fluttershy drifted into a happy sleep by the third stanza. Daring smiled weakly, closing her own eyes. The two mares swept off into peaceful sleep, Fluttershy with her head buried in Daring's chest, and a Discord plush snuggled firmly in her hooves. Daring for her part smiled at the chance to spend some time with another pony, without fear of complications for her latest adventure. A warm and happy blackness surrounded them.

Chapter 7 - A Day Off

The sunlight was entirely too bright and cheerful. Daring had had decidedly enough of the warm brightness poking indiscriminately against her eyelids. Really, what kind of pony even had a window facing the rising sun in their bedroom?

A quiet squeak answered the question, as Daring slowly opened her eyes, staring into the pink mane of a familiar yellow pegasus, still partially wrapped in Daring's hooves and wings. The impeding sunlight formed a glowing halo as it passed over her mane and fur, giving her an almost angelic appearance. Fluttershy's own wings appeared to have pomfed up in the normal pegasus fight-or-flight response to the unfamiliar, although from the blush on her face... Daring couldn't keep the more crude analysis of wing pomfs out of her mind, resulting in her own blush in return.

"G-good morning."

"Y-yeah." And I'm stuttering shyly. Wing-boners, and now this. Daring narrowly resisted the urge to face-hoof, slowly unwrapping herself from Fluttershy. "Slept well?"

"Much better. Thank you." Fluttershy looked up at her, then away, nervously shuffling her hooves. "I... um... I need to go feed the animals breakfast. If that's alright. I mean... thank you again." Fluttershy blushed again, her eyes downcast as she desperately held onto the Discord plush, as though it would somehow stop her embarrassment at the situation she found herself in.

Daring simply rolled her eyes with a smile. "Would you like a hoof?"

Fluttershy perked up, and smiled sweetly, eyes closed as she nodded. "Mm hmm."

The two pegasi extricated themselves from the warm bed, standing and stretching in the warming sunbeams. If it weren't for the waking up part, this would almost make sunlight worth it. Daring tallied up a mental pro and con list, so far one to one for sunlight in the morning.

They headed downstairs, moving quietly to let the animals that hadn't awakened yet find their own schedules. Fluttershy lead the way gently placing the little Discord plush on the kitchen counter. It hadn't said much in a while. Daring shrugged it off, after all, who claimed Discord made sense? As Fluttershy lead them out to the feed stores, Daring was amazed at how.. calm it was. Animals were moving, birds were greeting the day.

Nothing was trying to kill her.

Creatures moved through the underbrush, a few scattered ponies were visible in town doing one activity or another, the sky was bright and beautiful. No jungle canopy, no feeling of adrenaline surging through her at the panic that a wild bird or a flushed animal would give her away, no worry about who to trust or what was going on, or whether she was reaching the artifact ahead of her enemies. No animals under the control of Ahuizotl.

Nothing was trying to kill her.

Daring broke into startled laughter, getting a confused look from Fluttershy, which she waved off. "S-sorry. Sorry. It's... It's very nice." She smiled at the now completely confused shy pegasus, coughed, then tried to change the subject. "Do you think you can talk about the dreams now?"

Fluttershy looked away, shuffling her hooves as she grabbed a small feed bag, slowly walking towards a nearby hillock. Daring mirrored the action, following the shy pegasus. Fluttershy sat, and Daring took a seat next to her. She opened the bag carefully, and finally took a breath. "I dreamed about those griffons."

Daring raised an eyebrow as she opened her own feedbag. "What about them?"

Fluttershy smiled weakly. "You might be used to this... but I'm not. I'm weak. I make mistakes. My friends always have to give me a hoof. But... I'm good with animals. And I'm ...okay... with people." Her face crinkled into a frown, her eyes showing worry. "But they... they weren't people. Or animals."

Daring wasn't sure what to say, as she contemplated the feed in her bag. She looked up at Fluttershy, looking into the massive eyes appealing to her for understanding. "There wasn't... it's like they were some kind of magical construct. Like some kind of angry golem or ancient spirit or something. They were hollow of every emotion other than that anger at us. At me. Like they weren't really there, or didn't care who they were fighting against. Just that there was a target for their anger." Fluttershy shuddered, closing her eyes. "...It was terrifying."

Daring sighed, wrapping Fluttershy into another hug. Fluttershy leaned against the adventurer, happy for the warmth and feeling of strength. "When I adventure, I'm scared a lot. Adrenaline keeps me alive. I'm a hero, but that's what I am at the end of the day. I'm just another pony the rest of the time." She tilted Fluttershy's head up with a gentle hoof, bumping her forehead against Fluttershy's with a smile. "Any pony can be a hero. It just means fighting against what scares you."

Fluttershy blushed, not just from the contact, but from the reminder of the friendship report so long ago where she'd faced down her fear of dragons. And, well, a dragon. She stared shyly into Daring's eyes, the adventurer simply smiling at her. "Too cheesy?"

Fluttershy tilted her lower head forward, giving Daring a light kiss. "...I think that's the normal reward for a hero saving a damsel in distress, right?" She smiled warmly, blushing. Daring's wings pomfed up with an expression of surprise and her own blush. An inquisitive chirp and chitter sounded from nearby. Fluttershy flushed almost as pink as her mane as she turned to stare at her audience of animal friends. "I.. oh.. umm."

"So! Breakfast!" Daring said in a much too loud voice. She and Fluttershy began hoofing out feed, both blushing intensely.

~*~

"What do you mean, delayed?"

The conductor rubbed his forehead with a hoof. He'd been answering this question for hours now, ever since the news came down the line. "Rockfall on the tracks, we're working on clearing it, but even with a full team at work, it's going to be hours. Maybe most of the day. Trains are on hold until we get it handled."

Daring frowned and grumbled. She'd packed up her gear, was wearing her AK Yearling disguise, and had the typewriter in its own, heavy, travel case. And now she was stuck in town. "Isn't there any other option?"

"Well, as a pegasus, you could probably start flying yourself, but with your luggage..." The conductor shook his head. "I do apologize, but we're doing our best to get this cleared up quickly."

Daring sighed, but knew there wasn't anything she could do about it right now. That was the problem living on the outskirts of civilization, when things went wrong, they tended to have greater consequences. She headed for the local bar and inn, leaving the conductor to breath a sigh of relief. Which was promptly turned into a groan as a small family group approached. "Where's the train?"

At least it's not like the typewriter seems to be doing anything dangerous. It has been quiet for a while, though. I wonder what's going on...

~*~

"Sweet...sweet Celestia. Unnnngh..." Daring really didn't have the energy for words right now. The next thing from her mouth was a barely coherent moan. Her body felt molten, putty-like. She really couldn't recall the last time she felt this good. "Luna's little stars and planets, don't stop." She convulsed slightly as expert hooves touched her. No, touched her, driving themselves to her core. She almost felt like her brain was going to fall out of her head, her pith helmet and jacket forgotten... somewhere. Heat spread through her extremities and just assisted the feeling of melting away. It was all she could do to keep her eyes from rolling into her head. "Oooohhh."

Aloe and Fern giggled at the adventurer's responses to the deep tissue massage with hot rocks. Rarity and Fluttershy had both sunk into the hot tub with blushes, trying desperately not to think dirty thoughts, which were rather inevitable.

"S-sorry about this, Rarity."

"Nono, it's quite all right dear. I just wish... she was a little less..." Rarity pursed her lips "Vocal."

Both sets of ears flattened against their skulls as Daring let out a moan that could only be described as 'satisfied'. Fluttershy squeaked in surprise. "Umm...Yes."

~*~

As the three spa-goers found themselves wrapped into fluffy coats and prepped with facial masks and cucumbers over eyes. Well, Rarity and Daring did, Fluttershy as usual politely declining all but the most basic of treatments. Daring was still blushing. "I am so so sorry."

"We've already forgiven you, what are we up to, four times now?" Rarity gestured grandiosely. "It's not that big a deal, darling. Aloe and Fern did say it's not that uncommon an occurrence."

"I'm pretty sure they just said that to be polite, considering how much they were trying not to giggle when I apologized." Daring grumbled, but... well, if it happened again, she was pretty sure she'd respond the same way. She hadn't even realized how wound up her muscles felt, old wounds and old tensions that had never been released.

"But it does feel better?" Fluttershy smiled slightly.

"It does. It feels.. incredible really. Like I could really put on some more speed, or wrestle a half dozen tigers without much of an issue. Thank you for this." Daring sighed contentedly.

Rarity giggled. "So with Twilight working on that artifact for you, I suppose you don't have too many plans?"

Daring paused, turning her cucumber covered eyes towards Rarity. "Nooo, not especially. Helping Fluttershy for her assistance. Why?"

"Well, after lunch, I could perhaps take a few measurements. Your jacket looks like it could use a bit of tailoring, and some personal touches are always useful." Rarity smiled. "Plus, something a bit more... social might be fitting while you're visiting." She hadn't gotten the 'entire' story out of Daring, but had gotten the gist of it. "What do you say?"

Daring pursed her lips, but couldn't fault the logic. "I wouldn't be able to offer you much for repayment."

"Nonsense darling, a friend of Fluttershy's is a friend of mine."

Daring chewed that thought for a moment, before responding with a smug smile. "Even Discord?"

Rarity paused. "Perhaps there are some exceptions."

Daring chuckled. Fluttershy rolled her eyes behind her cucumber slices with an exasperated smile.

~*~

A quick lunch of daisy sandwiches at the cafe rounded off the spa trip. Daring really felt incredible, and was rather shocked at it. She knew medicines she could make out of jungle roots, could splint broken bones, repair mechanisms, could even perform minor surgery if that was the only way to get a toxic dart out of her, but she couldn't recall the last time she felt so energized. She was about ready to just bust into the air and start doing loops. For the moment however, her nervous energy was converting itself into a tense smile as Rarity continued to use her magical grip to levitate the measuring tape up and around the adventurer's body.

Rarity hmm'd, carefully noting down numbers as she stared over the rims of her work glasses. "Daring, why are you so thin? You're almost pure muscle."

Daring shrugged the question off, still sporting her smile. "I live a bit.. rougher than most ponies. That's about it."

Rarity tapped a hoof on her clipboard. "There's rough, and there's dangerous, and I understand you're not 'our' Daring, for whatever that actually means, but this is almost like you just don't take care of yourself." Realizing she was starting to step into a verbal minefield, Daring looked around the room, shifting slightly. Rarity nudged her in the side. "Oh do hold still."

Daring groaned, straightening up. Escape wasn't that easy. "I end up spending a lot of time in the jungle, living off roots, berries, brewing semi-functional potions for nutrients... It's a bit of an extreme diet."

Rarity frowned at that description. "There's extreme, and there's nonsensical. What have you eaten in the past two days?"

Daring blinked. "A... dandelion salad, some hay bacon, and a daisy sandwich?"

"Mm hmm. Fluttershy, how much hay bacon did she eat?"

"Oh. Um." Fluttershy blinked from her quiet seat by the entry of Carousel Boutique, counting it off in her head. "...Two pieces."

"It sounds to me, darling, like you are barely eating, even when confronted with food."

Daring quirked an eyebrow in frustration. "If I don't feel hungry, why should I eat?"

"Because it's not healthy! I'd wager the spa felt so much better for you because it covered up some of the problems you were having from not eating enough!" The measuring tape tightened down, earning a small surprised gasp from Daring. "Fluttershy, you and Daring should really go out and eat something tonight. A full meal, dinner, no arguments."

Fluttershy and Daring both blushed at the idea of going out to dinner together. Rarity simply jotted her final notes and walked away with practiced innocence. "I'll make a reservation at Le Jardin Vert for you two tonight. And I will insist on both of you having a full meal. Appetizer, entree, and dessert." Rarity perhaps didn't want to admit it, but she did ever so enjoy meddling in affairs of the heart. And these two were so unsubtle at the spa it was ridiculous.

Fluttershy and Daring were simply too tongue tied to argue with her, which worked out perfectly. She pushed them out the front door with a firm hoof. "Now I really must get to work if I want this outfit done in time for your dinner-date. Do stop by in a few hours, we want you looking your best for the meal, don't we?" The door slammed behind the two confused pegasi, cutting off any chance of argument.

Fluttershy and Daring stared vacantly, blushing. Daring finally turned to Fluttershy. "What just happened?"

Fluttershy squeaked.

Chapter 8 - Afternoon Fight

Having nothing to do for several hours was a bit difficult for the two pegasi. One was an adventurer, whose skills and body were suited to action, adventure, and extreme efforts. The other was an extremely shy pegasus whose skillsets revolved around kindness and caring for others. Obviously neither was able to completely satisfy the drives of the other, and as their thoughts turned in endless mobius loops of self doubt, they eventually found themselves back at Fluttershy's home. A moment of awkwardness was added when Daring, trying to be polite, held the door open for Fluttershy, who tried not to advance on the door while her potential-not-really-but-kind-of-maybe-I-want-it-I-think-if-that's-okay crush was standing right there. The tension on the scene was abruptly drained by the arrival of a draconequus, sporting a florid button up shirt, sunglasses, and a coconut drink he was sipping on. He walked past Daring with an appreciative nod. "Thank you."

Daring for her part blinked and rolled her eyes. Fluttershy gave Daring a blushing smile before following after the draconequus, Daring being the last one through the door.

Fluttershy was given a surprise hug as she walked in, earning Discord a surprised squeak and a return hug a moment later. Daring obligingly decided to examine the ceiling in detail. "Welcome back, Discord. So where did you go?"

"Nice little village, island, don't really recall the details. Decided to get out of there after they started blaming me for the volcano going off."

"Volcan-Discord!" Fluttershy had a look of horror on her face.

"What? I didn't do it! I just needed to pick something up."

The Discord plush, long since silent, spoke up. "That's what they want you to think!"

Discord frowned at the plush in surprise. "You managed to keep it intact?"

Daring shrugged. "Dash was polite enough to not break it. I thought it was amusing, and it worked for something for Fluttershy to hold onto last night."

"Huh. Top marks Daring, full score. I'll be holding you to that level of skill for the rest of your visit." Discord nodded to himself, his attire vanishing for his usual nudity. He looked around, and grinned viciously upon spotting Angel, who returned a nonplussed glare. "Why hello there Angel. I did have to get some payback for your little contribution to my inconvenience yesterday."

Fluttershy attached herself to Discord's leg, looking up with huge pleading eyes. "Oh Discord, please don't do anything rash, I'm sure Angel is sorry."

Angel proceeded to chitter and gesture with his paw threateningly.

"Angel!" Fluttershy's color drained from her face in shock and dismay. "Discord's mother was nowhere near deserving of that!"

Discord coughed politely, gently unlatching Fluttershy from his appendage, dusting himself off, and walking up to Angel with a wicked smile. "Now then. Angel. You grudgingly put up with me, and the only reason you're not a fresh pair of mittens is because Fluttershy puts up with you. For reasons beyond my comprehension."

Angel made some additional chitters which could be interpreted as 'takes one to know one'.

"Be that as it may, you did inconvenience me, and leave me without my powers for a period of time, which ended with me almost being at the tender mercies of some griffons who wished me harm. As such, I demand satisfaction." A white glove appeared on his griffon claw, which he removed, and proceeded to slap Angel with. "I challenge you to a board game!" The white bunny stood stock still for a moment, before snatching the glove from the draconequus and slapping Discord in return. The two challengers faced off in a dramatic glare. Fluttershy and Daring exchanged confused looks.

"A...board game?" Daring walked over, curious.

"A board game!" Discord gestured dramatically, holding aloft an ancient looking weather worn wooden box with a carved name on it. It was carefully decorated, and looked remarkably tasteful, with images of animals and adventure arranged around the letters. Daring and Fluttershy exchanged another look, and a shrug.

"Could we play too? Um, if that's okay, I mean."

Discord blinked. "Well, I suppose it's for up to four players. But this is an epic battle whose resolution will shake the very foundation of reality! The firmament of Equestria will shake under our thundering blows!" Angel blew a raspberry at the draconequus and made a few punching gestures, chittering angrily. "Well said, Angel." Discord nodded approvingly.

Daring chuckled. "So.. teams?"

Fluttershy examined the box with a curious headtilt. "What's a Jumanji?"

~*~

AK Yearling was rather disappointed. The only inn had a small bar, and the small bar only had some moderately bitter apple cider and 'Jungle Ale', which was made with a small spicy native root which had a rather horrible aftertaste. Still, when you had hours with nothing to do but wait, it beat the alternative of just sitting in your room, if not by much.

She tapped her notes with her pen. It had been a while since the last time she'd tried writing out a book with her own hooves rather than with a typewriter, and she had managed to more or less remind herself why she preferred the mechanical scribe. She could barely read her own hoofwriting now. And it was only going to get more complicated as she forgot what she'd written down. Which defeated the entire purpose of writing it down. She sighed for the too-manyth time in the past hour, wishing unkind things upon rocks that simply grew wildly and then fell onto train tracks.

She perked slightly at the arrival of a trio of diamond dogs through the front door. While they weren't exactly an uncommon sight, especially around the rougher edges of Equestria, their personal goal of gem hunting often put them at odds with ponies. These three had a similar build between them, each standing another foot taller than the average pony with long muscular arms and dim expressions. They were wearing battered looking mining helmets, and had much less familiar looking machetes strapped to their sides. The color schemes were grey, grey and brown with black spots, and zebra striped. The last one earned itself a raised eyebrow from Yearling as the Trio approached the bar. Their attire was oddly similar black jackets, as though forgoing the normal sense of rank.

"Triple Jungle Ale for us."

Whatever she was expecting was blown out of the water as the zebra striped one placed his order in perfect smooth Equestrian. None of this 'diamond dogs' or 'ponies' nonsense. The grey one spoke up with a frustrated grunt.

"Come ahn, the longer we waste in town, the longer it's gonna take us tah haul that rock back in." His accent was less familiar, but didn't sound local. Yearling rolled her eyes at the dogs. Of course they were after a 'rock'.

The striped one raised his bottle to his companions. "And if we keel over from lack of drinking it'll take even longer than that."

The spotted dog snarled, grabbing his bottle and draining it in one motion. "Okay! Is done! Now let's go dig before Ponies find rock!"

Annnd there's the more stereotypical diamond dog.

"You!" The spotted dog snarled at Yearling, who blinked back owlishly.

"Me?"

"You no hear nothing! It our rock! You not get it."

"...Okay." Yearling's curiosity got the better of her as she addressed the other two diamond dogs. "What rock are you talking about? I'm a writer and I study a lot of local legends, but if there's something about a rock..."

The spotted dog snarled before the other two could even get a word in. "You no take rock!" He lunged for the author, arms outstretched.

Yearling sighed, slipping down off her seat in a fluid motion, coiling herself against the ground as the dog's arms passed overhead, then launching herself upwards into a vicious uppercut which sent the dog flying back into the arms of his companions. The two smarter dogs grinned sheepishly. "Err, thank you. Rudder isn't the brightest, but between the three of us, he's got the best muscles. We do apologize." "Yah, sorry abut that lady."

"Apology accepted for now, but if he tries that again I'm throwing him out the door." Yearling dusted her outfit off. "Really, I would like to know more about what's going on. I might even be able to contribute."

The other two dogs shrugged, and slumping Rudder into a barstool, they flanked Yearling, and regaled her with tales of the Rosetta Rock; a stone of considerable archaeological value. They hoped. Daring followed along part-ways, but was distracted thinking about her own adventure.

Hmm.. Fight scene could use an even half dozen diamond dogs. Information gathering? No, bandits! Who caused the rockfall! Brilliant!

~*~

The huntsmare reloaded her elephant gun with a grim expression, the unicorn's face serious and enraged. Angel had once again used his small size to blend away into the jungle. The yellow pegasus had completely halted the stampede by Staring at it. And that frustrating brown pegasus. She was constantly throwing herself into harms way to get the others out. While there wasn't anything in the rules about keeping your other teammates alive, and it was in fact encouraged, her sheer dedication had become an annoyance. And the fact that she knew which jungle herbs could be used to cure the toxins from the vines...

The huntsmare swung her gun around with a frustrated glare. Where was that blasted bunny...

Above her, Angel grinned wickedly. The hunter was hunted.

Daring dashed into the encroaching vines once more with her machete, chopping away as the virulent growth tried to carve its way to Fluttershy and Discord, floating on a raft made of Fluttershy's bed. Discord frowned at the board. "Well, my turn's over. Daring, you're up." Daring grit her teeth, swinging the machete once more before dashing over to the raft. The Monsoon rains hadn't helped anything, and even with a pegasus clearing the skies, the cottage had been turning into more and more of a jungle, the walls and boundaries slipping away. She had to admit this was probably the best board game ever.

She took the dice in hoof, carefully tossing them into the marked area on the board. She watched with grim fascination as her piece slid under its own power, finally arriving in the end zone. The word off the game box appeared in the view port. Daring blinked, and read it out loud with a smile. "Jumanji!"

The world around them seemed to crack, the bits and pieces swirling as the box reabsorbed all the pieces it had regurgitated out. Fluttershy and Daring held onto each other for support as the bed swung around wildly as the monsoon waters retreated. The huntsmare appeared from one side, hogtied and gagged as she vanished along with all the other elements deep into the board. Angel dusted off his paws as the game board folded itself with a resounding thunderclap. Fluttershy's house had put itself back together in the storm of activity, leaving her and Daring embracing each other on her bed. They blushed, staring into each other's eyes.

"Oh get a room you two. Oh right, this is your room. Pardon us." Discord nudged Angel out the door, closing it behind them. Blushing intensified.

Daring took control of the situation with a smile, and kissed Fluttershy on the nose. "That was for saving me from the elephant. Per your damsel in distress comment this morning."

Fluttershy squeaked, looking away, blushing as pink as her mane. She slowly let her eyes drift back to Daring, wide-eyed and full of faith. She leaned forward, and gently brushed her lips against Daring's, the shy kiss almost more electric from the restrained emotions behind it. "And that was for saving Angel from the vines."

Daring breathed in the smell of the pegasus under her, feeling light-headed as she sought a counter-volley, her own lips covering Fluttershy's with more enthusiasm. "That was for stopping the crocodiles."

Fluttershy was breathing heavier, both to stave off the panic of her emotions, but also desperately trying to keep her head straight as she planted another careful kiss, this one lingering. "That was for the antidote."

Daring really couldn't think straight anymore. Between riding the high from the game and just the proximity of someone who seemed so interested, her next kiss was a bit more desperate, surprising Fluttershy with its intensity. When the shy pegasus pushed back into the kiss, Daring almost felt as molten as she did during the massage. She was almost breathless as their lips parted, and she whispered to Fluttershy. "That was because you're too beautiful."

Outside the room, Discord and Angel were both braced against the door, ears against the wood, listening. They could only make out the occasional whisper and some rather... interesting sounds. Discord and Angel exchanged a look, walking away from the door. "So Fluttershy likes mares." Discord's comment earned a shrug from Angel, who gestured to the door. "Well, yes, obviously. Only two days and they're already making out." He scratched his chin with a puzzled expression. "I suppose it's not too terribly surprising. Even as the living embodiment of Kindness she does hang around a lot of mares." Angel facepawwed and chittered at the draconequus. "Hm? Oh, yes, we're square. I didn't get hurt badly, and the game did pull a few surprises on you, so-" Angel chittered more. "What's my opinion about it? If Fluttershy's happy, what am I supposed to say?" Angel rolled his eyes, frowned at Discord, and finally offered a paw to shake. With a vague smile, Discord gave the bunny a shake. "Until next challenge, then." The two combatants walked off in opposite directions.

Chapter 9 - Night Out

Rarity answered the knocking on the door of the boutique with a satisfied flourish. "Daring, Fluttershy, I do hope you are ready to be impressed!" Her eyes were closed as she smiled, opening them to look at the rather downcast and blushing faces of Fluttershy and Daring. No, not downcast, they looked shamed.

Now what have these two gotten up to? She frowned at their expressions, as the two of them tried desperately not to make eye contact, both with Rarity, and with each other.

"It's going to be very hard to have dinner conversation if you two can't make eye contact. What were you doing for the past few hours?"

"Mmm..." Fluttershy retreated quietly behind her hair.

"Brd gmes..." Daring seemed to have been taking lessons from Fluttershy in shyness.

"Board games? So what's the problem?" Rarity pressed the point.

The two blushed intensely, Fluttershy looking about ready to bolt and Daring just studying the wall of the boutique as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. Rarity sighed. "If there isn't any problem, then how about we get you into your outfits, hmm?" The two lacked the wherewithal to argue, so entered the boutique.

Fluttershy was put into a more casual form of her gala dress, the green dress not as floral or decorated, but still covering her well. Her only accessory was a decorative necklace similar to the Element of Kindness, a necklace of pink crystalline butterflies. An elegant understatement, allowing her to blend in well without being a nobody. Daring's adventuring jacket had been rebuilt with spider silk and black highlights, giving it a vague appearance of a tuxedo while increasing its durability. A plain silver chain connected to a gyroscopic compass around her neck, likely borrowed from Twilight. Rarity nodded to herself with a smile. "I was going to try to do something with your helmet, but well, classic styles are classic."

She waited expectantly for the duo to say something, but they remained stoic in their blushing silence. "....I would at least appreciate a thank you darlings."

"Hnk ya" "Hnks Rrty"

She tapped a hoof impatiently. "Really now, you can't even give me a full thank you?"

Daring and Fluttershy looked up at each other, sighed, and whimpered. Daring rolled her eyes. "Tng hrts."

Fluttershy commented at the same time. "Lps hrt."

They blushed intensely, looking away from each other. Rarity couldn't contain her laughter and broke down in a mass of very unladylike giggles.

~*~

Three glasses of iced tea later saw the fashionista gossiping with Fluttershy and Daring, now with partially functional mouths. "Really? Over two hours of making out?"

"I think we were both just rather... pent up." Daring sipped at her drink, trying desperately not to blush hot enough to warm the wonderful wonderful chilling liquid.

"Mm." Fluttershy opted for staring into the tea thoughtfully, her own blush still thorough. "....I enjoyed it though."

Daring snorted into her iced tea, removing the glass and giggling. "Did you think I didn't? I think we would've stopped earlier otherwise."

Fluttershy smiled bashfully at Daring, sipping from her iced tea daintily. Rarity was trying very hard to keep from squeeing at the situation. Fluttershy and Daring Do. Who would've thought it. The most bashful pegasus, and the adventurer pegasus of stories. This was going to send shockwaves through the Canterlot rumor mill, and she was here on the cutting edge. The temptation to shout it from the rooftops was only tempered by knowing that Fluttershy would vanish until the gossip reached a more bearable level. Which may take a while, with the fame of her modelling career still lingering.

"As adorable as you two are, I'm afraid you're going to have to get going. The reservations were in an hour from when I got you into your outfits, but with the iced tea..."

Daring and Fluttershy blinked, looking up at the clock, and jumped to their hooves.

"Oh my. Thank you Rarity. We'll umm, yes." Fluttershy dashed for the door.

"What she said. Thanks again." Daring followed at a full gallop, easily overtaking and flipping Fluttershy onto her back.

Rarity sighed, floating the glasses over to the sink with a slight smile. Le Jardin Vert was a little pricey, but as first dates went, it was sure to be memorable. She looked forward to hearing the results.

~*~

The duo arrived in mild disarray at the Maitre D's station, earning a raised eyebrow from the unflappable earth pony maintainer of elegance and grace in this fine dining establishment. He adjusted his bow tie above his tuxedo, and wiggled his miniature mustache as he tried to ignore the decided lack of finesse in the arrival. "Miss... Fluttershy, and Miss Do?"

Daring dusted herself off, and helped Fluttershy off her back, both of them partially flushed. Fluttershy adjusted her dress with care. "Um, y-yes."

"Miss Rarity has already issued that all your purchases today will be credited to her account. As such, we are willing to extend the full wine and spirits menu to you should you so wish."

Daring and Fluttershy nodded numbly. "I think we'll be alright with just juice, thank you." "Y-yes."

The Maitre D nodded, picking up a pair of menus. "As you wish. If you would follow me." His walk was the most formally detached thing Daring had seen. Fluttershy could only roll her eyes. She'd had to deal with ponies like this on occasion as a model and after.

There were only a handful of tables, most occupied by small parties quietly chatting with each other. Candles made the whole affair feel more personal, little bubbles of light against the impending twilight as the sun began to set. Daring felt vaguely like she was walking into a mausoleum where the grave robbers hadn't finished yet. The table they were seated at was given a view of the sun going down over ponyville, warm and cheerful. Menus were delivered, and the Maitre D excused himself silently. Fluttershy and Daring exchanged a glance, giggling nervously.

"So, appetizer, entree, and dessert?"

"That was what Rarity insisted on. If you don't mind, I mean."

"I was just thinking we'd have been better suited with a pizza and something sweet."

Fluttershy giggled, and nodded. "But she did mean well."

"I'm sure." Daring smiled wanly, opening the menu, and went wide-eyed at some of the selections. "Fresh Hay, served with a thick mushroom sauce, on a bed of Herbes Vert, glazed in truffle oil. So a mushroom soup with herbs and hay for dipping?"

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "It is a bit silly.. but sometimes they do taste better. Let's just try not to make a scene."

Daring blushed, biting her lower lip, and nodded. How hard could it be to not offend people?

~*~

"The horror! The horror!"

"The garden!"

"The sauce!"

Daring could only look back in mute shock. It had started with an issue over utensils, and which was appropriate. Then somehow something had been said to the waiter in charge of silverware. Then something had crashed in the kitchen. An explosion had ensued. Shattering bottles had started a mild stampede of wealthy and well to do ponies. Daring had charged towards the explosion as Fluttershy had tried to choose what to do. They both raced out a moment later, Daring carrying the three chefs who had been panicking around the stove.

And then the entire place went up in a massive concussive blast.

She was sure the events were completely unrelated, but still felt guilty.

Fluttershy put a hoof to her shoulder, getting a curious look from Daring. Her dress was slightly scorched from the blast, but she was otherwise beautiful. Daring blinked, and blushed. One day of making out and she was already daydreaming like that. Worse than a schoolfilly. "So, still want a pizza?"

Daring grinned cheerfully. "Considering we didn't even get to eat the appetizer?"

The duo headed off to get something to eat, leaving Le Jardin Vert in the capable hands of its waitstaff. Who stared blankly where their place of employment once had been.

One of the chefs spoke up. "I told you trying to use the modified pressure cooker was a bad idea!"

"The pressure was within tolerances! I warned you about that high octane truffle oil!"

"I still say it needed some salt."

Chapter 10 - Accidental Parasite

Fluttershy and Daring were about halfway through their pizza and armed with a small cake from Sugar Cube Corner; where they had narrowly avoided having an instant party via Pinkie. Daring had found herself almost ravenous once she started eating, which was quite a change from earlier when two pieces of hay bacon were almost too much. Fluttershy herself had only had a slice so far. While it didn't lend itself to the same sort of romantic food element as spaghetti, it was decidedly more enjoyable. Daring had herself another slice as she smiled at Fluttershy, who smiled approvingly. The animals were fed, Angel had been appeased with a slice of pizza, and Discord was off for 'Game Night' at Canterlot castle. Fluttershy had refused to explain further with a knowing smile.

As she polished off the slice with gusto; and a little extra oregano; she realized Fluttershy was staring at her with a smile. "What?"

Fluttershy calmly leaned over, and licked at the sauce stain on the corner of Daring's mouth, turning the slight contact into a gentle brush of lips against lips. She sat back with a blush and a smile. "Had a little there."

Daring blushed, and smiled in return. "Well thank you kindly." She leaned forward hesitantly, then giggled, earning a headtilt from Fluttershy. "You took charge, and now I'm doubting myself." Fluttershy blinked and giggled as well. The two mares gently leaned forwards, halving the distance between each other. Their lips sought one another out, enjoying the flavor of one another and the aroma of roasted vegetables, cheese, and tomato still surrounding them.

"Fluttershy, are you annnnd-" Twilight trailed off as she had walked in through the front door, coming to a stop. "Well, I didn't really need to see that."

Fluttershy blushed. Daring simply tilted her pith helmet at Twilight. "Be with you in a moment." She resumed the kiss with a smile, and Fluttershy happily melted into it, her wings pomfing up. The pair split a moment later, Daring waving Twilight over. "Pizza?" The two pegasi were sporting happy smiles.

Twilight shook her head to clear it. "No, no, this is kind of imp- Roasted Veggie?"

Daring nodded, gesturing to the spice jar. "And extra oregano."

"Well..." She floated a slice over to herself, taking a seat by the pizza, and adding a generous helping of oregano. She took a big bite, with an appreciative mumble. "Mm, mmph, think I skipped lunch again."

"So what's going on?" Daring watched the alicorn devouring her slice of pizza, and starting into a second one.

"Oh! Umm mmph. Sorry." Twilight devoured the rest of her second slice in one massive gulp. "I think I've started to piece together what the problem with the artifact is. The teleporting isn't really 'teleporting'. There's an energy siphon attached to the overall spellweave of the core enchantments. While the whole object is useless unless you have the appropriate composite unlock, which as this point I presume is a personal signature of some kind, it's currently in some kind of secondary mode, where it collects energy. Unfortunately the energy is generalized enough that it seems to be pulling it from everything around it, air, sunlight, moonlight, it's indiscriminate!" Twilight blinked, realizing the two pegasi's eyes had partially glazed over. She sighed, clapping her hooves together to bring them back into the conversation.

Fluttershy blinked a few times, shuffling nervously. "So... why did we need to know this now, Twilight?"

"I'm afraid I need to steal Daring for a while, Fluttershy. I need to run some tests, and maybe see if something unusual happens during the teleportation period. I'd really prefer to have Dash or Applejack along as well, but getting this done quickly means you two can.. err.. go back to what you were doing." Twilight blushed as she gestured in a vaguely general motion at the two pegasi, who blushed in return.

"Alright, well, I have no problem with this. If it'll keep ponies safe, no reason to delay, right?" Daring smiled, standing up and stretching. "I'll be back soon, alright." She nudged her forehead against Fluttershy's, before leaning her lower head forward for a parting kiss. "No worrying allowed."

Fluttershy sighed, and kissed back. "Stay safe."

Twilight blushed as she lead the way out, peering at Daring curiously as she pulled up beside the princess. "...So Fluttershy likes mares?"

Daring rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't this be something you ask her?"

"Well, I figured you'd be able to answer." She gestured back at Fluttershy's cottage. "You did seem pretty comfortable back there."

Daring blushed a bit. "I think we just... fill a hole in each other."

Twilight made a scrunchy face. "Eww. Tee Em I."

"Not like that." Daring facehooved with a deeper blush.

~*~

Daring sat as still as she could. She wasn't sure why she had a metal colander on her head. Nor why Twilight had insisted she remove the compass from her neck, because of 'feedback'. Or the diodes covering at least half of her surface space. Twilight had asked for a blood sample at the start of everything, but Daring was pretty sure she was going on an hour of just sitting here while this gigantic machine in the basement of the library kept printing out paper. Why did Twilight even have a gigantic analysis machine in the basement anyway?

Alicorns. Daring rolled her eyes, closing them again, and regulating her breathing. She was calm, she was focused, she was ready to pounce the moment her captors showed their faces and started making demands.

She was also just about bored out of her skull.

The purple alicorn made a slight noise as she drifted from her test station to the printed outputs, then back again. Daring opened an eye to track her movement for the moment, before closing it again. Twilight was simply too professional to let herself get distracted in the middle of a problem. Which was incredibly frustrating when you wanted some kind of small talk. The ticking of the machinery was almost white-noise but too mechanical for Daring's taste.

She sighed, before Twilight shot into the air in surprise. "Ah ha!"

"What?" Daring blinked.

"I was looking at the problem wrong. It's an incomplete creation, with a semi-binding curse attuned to a functional core. It's reactive with you, as I thought it might be because you were a primary factor in it's reactivation."

"...So something I did makes it respond more to me. Okay. So, what exactly...?"

"Going along the primary magi-spacial controls it looks like the complementary resonance factors-"

Daring knew this was going to be a long explanation, and tried to follow as best she could. But when the pie charts, energy diagrams, and hoof puppets came out, she knew it was a lost cause.

"-simple, isn't it?" Twilight beamed. Daring stared blankly.

"Not especially no. Got a clearer version?"

Twilight blinked, frowned, and rolled her eyes. "It was a trap, only you seem to have reactivated it. But it's been modified to trap energy, and I think you have as well! Have you been feeling less balanced with it removed from your proximity? More thirsty? Hungry?"

"Well.. yes, on the hungry part."

"That fits with the data progression. You seem to be soaking up energy in the same fashion as the artifact itself. Only as a living pony you'd need to fill more energy losses as well. But from your blood sample and energy charts, that's incomplete too!"

"I'm incomplete?"

"Yes! I don't know if it's the specific spatio-temporal energy identifier or what, but you've been soaking up 'our' reality. In fact, I'd really like to check a tissue sample along with the blood. Oh! And I'm going to need to follow along as you use the artifact, and track the energy outputs. I'd almost wager that when the artifact is activated, the cooldown period before it can be reactivated is actually affected by the amount of energy in its proximity."

"That.. sounds like something to test later. Do you need me for anything else right now?"

Twilight blinked, thinking. "Uh, just the tissue sample, why..?"

"You just told me I'm sucking energy out of things and that I'm not quite 'here'. I'd really really like to just go hug Fluttershy and cry for a bit."

Twilight blinked, looking at Daring's serious expression. "You... don't seem very broken up."

"Honestly I'm not sure if I'm mad at you for telling me, or worried that I might be hurting Fluttershy with the energy siphon. And that incomplete fact.. what am I even supposed to say to that?" Daring bit her lower lip, growling at Twilight. "Well?! What can I say?!" She was fighting back tears, but the wetness around the edges of her eyes showed it wasn't working well.

Twilight blinked, her ears drooping as she realized she probably could've been a bit more diplomatic with the information dump."I.. no, the energy is indiscriminate. You feed on energy from everything. And if you're eating, you might be converting your own energy right now." She paused, trying to think of how to address the second point, as she started removing diodes. "As for being incomplete.... I'd need to run more samples. I'm sorry. With only one test, the best I can say is that I have a suspicion, and that's not scientific." Daring grunted as she got off the chair, removing the brain scanning colander, and walking over to where Twilight had taken the blood sample before. Twilight took a deep breath and let it out. "But my suspicion is that you're using the energy to become more complete. The artifact doesn't do that. It's a battery. I'm not sure what it's powering, but there it is. I think... I think you're fine. I was just... this is all so fascinating. I'm sorry." Twilight looked away with a dejected sigh. Daring rolled her eyes, blinking back tears.

"Come on Twilight. Let's get this tissue sample taken. We can test your other theory later." Daring paused, looking at the alicorn with a thin smile. "And... thank you for the vote of confidence." She sighed. "If you do find out I'm hurting Fluttershy... stop me, okay?"

Twilight offered an askew smile in return, getting the anesthetic prepared. "Sure."

~*~

Daring rubbed at the sore spot on her flank for the fifth time since she got back to Fluttershy's. She hadn't felt the need to cry anymore, but she had gotten a hug and a kiss from the shy mare anyway. The pair were sitting outside, and looking up at the starry sky, armed with glasses of punch and some small cookies. The tissue sample spot stung, and left Daring feeling a bit grumpy. Fluttershy had changed out of her dress, and Daring had returned to her original jacket. For now, Fluttershy seemed to be scanning the sky, looking for something.

Daring wasn't sure what she was looking for. But the night sky was beautiful, and the gentle dark glow of the world around them really wasn't taking away from Fluttershy's expression. When she wasn't fighting against her shyness the mare had an exuberance that was impossible to deny.

Her flank twinged in pain again, earning a frown from Daring and a grumble.

"Oh! They're starting!" Fluttershy gestured to the night sky, where some of the stars had started to move around. They were forming... lines? A grid of some kind?

A puzzled Daring watched as a set of stars formed into a grid floating high above Equestria. As she finally resolved the size of the eight by eight grid, she spotted a massive flaming candy cane colored comet on collision course with one of the grid points. It vanished into the grid, only to be replaced by an X of stars, as a large 'Miss' message appeared overhead. It took her a moment to realize what was going on.

"Battleship?"

"Mm hmm." Fluttershy giggled a bit. "Discord doesn't get a lot of chances to just really use his powers much. So Celestia and Luna get him involved in their game nights. It's incredible to watch, but it's always done later at night, so it doesn't disrupt most pony's star watching."

Daring thought about it for a moment, before laughing out loud. "I hope he didn't take that Jumanji game along."

Fluttershy blinked, and giggled. "I think the Royal Sisters would be able to handle it."

The duo stared into the night sky, content. Daring reached out to take Fluttershy's hoof in her own. They enjoyed the simple contact and beautiful sky above.

Chapter 11 - Synchronity

A.K. Yearling got off the train into the warm sunlight filtering into Ponyville. The overnight train-ride had been phenomenally average, with only the one group of mercenaries who tried to steal the Rosetta Rock. Daring Do had made a minor appearance to assist the diamond dogs, which had also given her a pleasant rush for the night. But now she was here, and she was going to get to the bottom of things. She wasn't sure what her first step would have to be, so she'd start by visiting Rainbow Dash. It was a good thing she still had her address from when the advanced copy got sent out.

She contemplated the heavy bag with typewriter, change of clothes, and her normal Daring gear, all contained in separate luggage.

She'd visit Rainbow Dash as soon as she set up her room at the nearest inn. Or found someone to watch her stuff.

~*~

Daring woke to the penetrating sunlight filtering through Fluttershy's window again, and groaned, a twinge from her flank proving she still hadn't suddenly gained a healing factor. Fluttershy was gently spooned against the front of the adventurer, once again wrapped in an embrace of wings and hooves. Daring sighed happily, enjoying the gentle scent of her mane, and the warmth of the sunlight filtering through same pink halo.

It was a wonderful day. And it was time to feed the animals.

~*~

A.K. Yearling hadn't been entirely surprised when the pink earth pony had bounced up to her enthusiastically. She was a little annoyed when the pink pony kept calling her Daring, though, but thankfully it was early enough not many ponies were out.

"Just, please, keep an eye on my things, alright? I'll be back for them in a minute. I just need to talk to Dash."

"Okie Dokie Lokie!" Pinkie saluted with her tongue sticking partway out her mouth with the sheer intensity of her focus!

Not sure if she was trusting the inmates to run the asylum, A.K. Yearling took off for Dash's cloud home.

~*~

"Mmmm" Breakfast had left Daring with a warm feeling of fullness. Of course, a thank you kiss from Fluttershy had resulted in an even warmer response, and a happy blush.

"Am I going to have to start knocking before I show up?" Discord raised an eyebrow at the pair, earning a startled flush from Fluttershy. Daring laughed.

"I don't know, will you? I don't think this would be that horrible a sight to walk in on. Good morning Discord."

"No fun at all. You're simply too at ease. I have a little message from Twilight. You're supposed to stop by for the results. And possibly a new sample." Discord leered. "So what's this I hear about your incomplete reality?"

Fluttershy blinked, looking at Daring, who was now glaring at Discord. Daring sighed, her expression softening as she turned to look at the shy pegasus. "Twilight says I may be becoming more 'real' for here. Although her usual means of explaining are a bit... long."

"And in detail." Discord and Daring both shuddered.

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth to hide a slight smile. "And the sample?"

"Blood and tissue. Since that's the easiest way to check changes in a body over time." Daring shrugged it off, getting a surprised look from Fluttershy. "I probably lose more blood and skin in my usual adventures. Doesn't make it less painful."

Fluttershy nodded, and gave Daring a warm kiss on the side of her face, smiling. "I'll be there to kiss it all better."

Daring blushed, then laughed. "Considering the last tissue sample came from my flank..." Fluttershy flushed and squeaked.

Discord rolled his eyes. "Three days. You're not even together for three full days and you're both so stinking adorable."

~*~

A.K. Yearling facehooved. "Dash, I'm sorry for showing up unannounced, but please just calm down and get over here."

Dash looked up from where she was desperately trying to wax Tank, polish her windows, dust her cloud home, and organize the Daring Do books on her shelf. "Calm down? I'm perfectly calm! Nobody's calmer!" Her rictus grin twitched at the corners as her eyes spotted dirty dishes and some unsorted mail and she hadn't even gotten anything to serve for breakfast-

"Look, has something strange happened around here?"

Dash blinked, staring at the author dumbly. "I... strange for around here? No."

A.K. Yearling facehooved. "Strange in general. I've got a typewriter that's started writing on its own, and it mentioned you!" She leveled a hoof accusingly at the rainbow pegasus, who gasped.

"OhmygoshIswearIdidn'tdoitSweetbabyCelestiaI'minnoce-e-e-e-eeent." She sobbed out the last word in panic, staring at her beloved author in wide eyed terror.

A.K. Yearling could tell this was going to be a banner day.

~*~

"So what's the news, Princess?" Daring was in the basement with Fluttershy and the Ponyville Princess, who rolled her eyes at the honorific.

"Stick to Twilight, Daring. The good news is that the tissue sample corroborated my initial conclusions. Unfortunately the artifact is still a bit of a puzzle as to the exact mechanisms. I've sent Spike to round up the girls so we can get a full party together to handle whatever threats might be in there while I finish my research. Until then, I should probably get another sample."

Daring rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Another day, another adventure. Although this isn't really what I had in mind." Fluttershy tittered sweetly.

The door to the library knocked loudly. Twilight blinked up the stairs in confusion. "Spike could y-" She groaned. "Right, he's out. Be right there!" She yelled, heading up the stairs. Fluttershy and Daring exchanged a look and a shrug.

She walked past the library shelves, mumbling about interrupting science, and how it just wasn't done.

~*~

"If anyone can figure out what's going on with your typewriter Twilight can."

"I believed you the first three times, Dash."

A.K. Yearling rolled her eyes. Dash was... better than she had been, although there really wasn't anyplace to go but up from their first encounter. Dash nervously looked at the sky, at the ground, then knocked on the door again. Another 3 seconds of idleness, another pounding on the front door. Yearling was about ready to kick her head through the door if she didn't stop. At least her panicked energy had gotten all the luggage in one spot with celerity.

She was beaten to needing to do that when a familiar purple alicorn answered the previous round of summons, in time for Dash to bonk her on the head. "Hey! Ow!"

"Oh, sorry Twi. Hey! A.K. Yearling, the best author ever, is having some kind of magic problems, and you knowing magic and all..." Dash's attempt at a segue was neither skillful, nor subtle. Twilight settled for rubbing her head with a frown. "Anyway, let me just get this set up for you." Dash grabbed the luggage holding the typewriter and dashed into the library past the annoyed alicorn.

Twilight sighed in frustration as the rainbow blur sped down into the basement. Of course she remembers the lab.

She forced a smile at Yearling. "Won't you come in? You're already downstairs."

Yearling blinked and tilted her head at Twilight. "I assume that's going to have a lengthy explanation, isn't it?"

"I'll try to keep it short."

~*~

"Mmm?"

"Mmm."

"Mmmmm."

Daring and Fluttershy finally broke off the kiss, blushing happily, both sets of wings having pomfed up. "I'm not sure Twilight would appreciate walking in on that again, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy blushed and giggled nervously.

"Well I'm sure as hay not appreciating it." Dash was staring wide eyed at the pair from her position in midair, fresh from the basement entry. "I.. you seduced Fluttershy!" She pointed an accusing hoof at Daring, almost dropping the heavy luggage with the typewriter.

Daring and Fluttershy looked at Dash, then at each other, then blinked back at Dash. "I think it was more mutual seduction."

"Y-yes. Only less seducing."

"Mutual co-dependence? No, that's the wrong word." Daring scratched at her chin.

"Mutual indulgence?" Fluttershy flushed. "O-oh my, that even just sounds dirty."

"I... You... What?" Dash looked from Daring to Fluttershy frowning, before rolling her eyes. "Ugh, nevermind." She dashed over to the work counter where Twilight had been examining the artifact. She dropped the typewriter with a room jarring crash on the counter, opening the luggage and unpacking the massive metallic scribe. Daring raised an eyebrow.

"So what's that?"

Twilight and A.K. Yearling appeared from above, beginning their descent. "That, my alternate duplicate, would be a possibly cursed typewriter, related to the artifact you took with you. I'd suggest reading the last bit of the manuscript."

Daring blinked at the author, then nodded turning to examine the manuscript still in the grip of the typewriter. "Hm. There's me, Discord, and Dash." A small expression of horror blossomed on her face as she flipped back. Discord alone. Angel alone. Fluttershy alone. Daring Do vanishing. "I...Oh."

Twilight blinked as A.K. Yearling nodded, removing most of her disguise in favor of adding her pith helmet to her head. "I had a suspicion."

"I'm the book version of.. you." Daring the creation flinched a bit. "You'd figure I'd have been more prepared for that fact after last night."

The artifact, partially forgotten in its cook pot, and the typewriter, in contact with the false Daring, both began to glow ominously, setting everyone back a pace. Two Darings yelled out warning at the same time. "Brace yourselves!"

A wave of light passed from the typewriter, causing Daring, Yearling, Dash, and Fluttershy to shudder and collapse to the ground, orbs of radiant energy forming over their prone forms and circling towards the typewriter. Twilight looked on in vague horror, dragging the ponies over to her position telekinetically, and erecting a defensive shield. What's going on, this-! No, it's not random. These were the ponies involved with the artifact. But why the real Daring too? She ground her teeth in frustration as the artifact began feeding more energies into the spiraling vortex, punching a sizzling hole through the cookpot. As I thought, a battery. But what's it charging?

~*~

The sun was high in the sky. Two combatants stared one another down across the lonely hallway. The draconequus flexed his hands. Angel twitched his nose. They waited for the signal.

"Draw!" The draconequus' face twisted into a smile as his hand lashed for the holster, but Angel's crossdraw was quicker. With a fluid swipe of his paw he drew his pencil, and sketched a tutu on the draconequus. Discord frowned, completing his own weapon draw, his paintbrush leaving a thick mustache and oversize top hat on the rabbit in its wake. The duo considered the additions for a moment before breaking into bemused laughter.

Discord's head shot up. "Huh? Something just-"

The shockwave of light passed over them, sending them both to the ground as orbs of light were collected from them. Discord groaned, forcing himself to his feet once again, glaring in the direction of the library. He rolled his eyes with a frown. "Always interruptions." With a snap of his fingers, he vanished.

~*~

Twilight was frustrated. While the shield didn't appear to be protecting them from anything, the only thing she was getting from the vortex was that the energy was feeding somewhere. The false Daring seemed to have taken the loss worse than anyone, her breathing shallow and her shadow and body looking somewhat transparent. Like the reality energy she'd been absorbing had been sucked out of her. Something was pushing its way out of the story.

Discord appeared with an annoyed expression. "Don't tell me you're involved in this."

"Fine I won't and- Are you wearing a tutu?" Twilight blinked at the still sketch graffiti'd draconequus.

"Don't change the subject." Discord crossed his arms with a hmph. "What I wear in my time off is none of your concern." The two orbs of light that had been collected from himself and Angel sped into the vortex, which sealed itself, before forming into a massive portal. The typewriter began writing again. Although from where they were standing, there was no real way to see what was being written.

A massive form lumbered out of the similarly massive portal. It was a griffon, but almost as large as a manticore. Claws clicked as they touched the solid floor of the basement, one talon gesturing towards the almost inert artifact. It floated into the air and snapped into the waiting grip. The golden feathers and brown fur were interspersed with decorative strings of beads. The griffon appeared to be almost pure muscle, standing impossibly large. Vicious green eyes stared out at Discord and Twilight from under a full burial mask of gold, inlaid with raw turquoise and with a silver domino mask around the eyes. The beak clicked once viciously, as if tasting the air thoughtfully. As the massive griffon cleared his exit from the portal, he sat back on his haunches, looking vaguely squashed in the basement. Behind him, five jungle griffon guards stalked from the portal before it closed.

His beak twisted into the vaguest of smiles as his voice hissed out in an angry whisper. "It has been much much too long."

Author's Note

And it only took 11 chapters to actually introduce the villain. Sheesh.

As it is written

Twilight quailed internally as she took a defensive stance behind her shield. This is impossible. Griffons don't grow that big! The more normal sized griffons shrieked and hissed challenge at Twilight and Discord, coming to a stop as the massive griffon raised his empty talon. A wicked smile played over his face as he began to narrate in that vicious whispering voice.

"Discord glared at the new arrival then looked over at the alicorn beside him, protecting his friends. While he wasn't about to admit it to anyone, he wasn't going to let anything truly harmful happen to Fluttershy, or her friends, if he was around. With a snap of his fingers, the entire party found itself relocated to a more familiar setting."

The griffon laughed quietly, heading into uproarious laughter as Discord tried to fight against the narration, finding his fingers snapping against his will. The party vanished, reappearing inside Sugar Cube Corner. Pinkie perked from behind the counter. "Hi guys! ...Whoa, what happened to you?"

Discord looked traumatized, staring at his fingers. Twilight looked terrified as she let her shield drop. Dash, Fluttershy, Daring, and Daring were all still out. Pinkie frowned. That was going to get confusing.

Twilight shook her head. "Did he just...?"

Discord nodded mutely.

Twilight whimpered, dropping to the floor, covering her eyes with her hooves. "This is bad. This is so bad."

"How about I get you all some ice-water so we can start getting better explanations going on?" Pinkie smiled hugely, heading into the back.

Spike ran in through the front door, followed by Applejack and Rarity. "Pinkie, Twilight needs you at-" He blinked, looking around the eatery, then scratched the back of his head. "Well, this is convenient."

~*~

Spike, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie were all looking a bit horrified. Discord was staring out the window at the library, which as of yet had not decided to start attacking the rest of Ponyville. Daring the author, Dash, and Fluttershy had all woken up without much trouble, but Daring the creation still seemed to be struggling to get out the state of dreaming. She had stabilized into deeper breathing, and no longer appeared to be faded, although her shadow still flickered around the edges, much as the griffon guard had when it had first come across with the artifact.

"So.. yeah. We seem to be dealing with someone who is able to control what others do. Including Discord. Ideas?"

"Call the sisters in to nuke Ponyville from orbit?" Discord grumbled. "I don't have a problem with that."

"Discord!" Applejack looked horrified. "I can't risk anything happening to the farm!"

"Don't you think other priorities might need to be considered, Applejack?" Rarity favored her with a cool glance.

Applejack frowned, chewing on her lower lip in an effort to knock a better idea loose.

Pinkie waved a hoof enthusiastically. "Oo, oo, if he can control Discord, why did that griffon just throw you all out?"

Twilight blinked, and pondered the point. "That's an excellent question Pinkie, I don't know."

"I.. can guess." Book Daring forced herself upright, obviously in serious pain. "He's not real, same as me. He needs time to pull it all together." She panted a bit. "I don't remember feeling this bad ever."

Fluttershy gently pushed book Daring back onto her back, giving her a worried nuzzle. Twilight shook her head. "You were hit worst of the group. I think that's why you were siphoning energy. Less personally, and more as a secondary battery like the artifact. That's what the correlation seemed to be."

Daring the author rolled her eyes. "That doesn't help much now, but at least we have an idea. We need to get back in there before he consolidates his power."

"That may be a little more bothersome now, ladies." Discord gestured out the window. The familiar tree containing the library was becoming buried in an expanding wave of jungle growth, as signs of ancient ruins started to push forth from the ground. Crumbling walls and decaying stone blocks pushed themselves into being, slowly forming a thicker ruin around the central point.

Book Daring had sat up again, much to Fluttershy's consternation. "That's the ruins I was going through when I found the artifact."

Author Daring stared at it. "I wrote that. It's a more dramatic version of the ruins I found the artifact in."

Twilight sighed. "Great. Alright everypony. We're going to have to risk the lack of plan in favor of speed. Any objections?"

Pinkie spoke up. "I think we should all grab something to eat and drink first to keep our strength up."

Twilight paused, and nodded. "Alright, a five minute snack break, and then we take on our mysterious enemy."

Everyone except Discord nodded. Twilight looked at the draconequus. "Comment?"

"Concern. I think it would be best if I stay out of range."

"...Fair point. Alright team, let's get ready."

~*~

Fluttershy nudged book Daring again, earning a wince as they walked for the jungle ruins. "Are you sure..."

The adventurer shook her head, and forced a smile. "We need as many ponies as we can get for an offensive. There are five griffon guards, and while I can handle two or three, that would still leave us short."

Author Daring rolled her eyes. "I'm here too you know. Between the two of us the guards shouldn't pose much of a threat."

Applejack rolled her eyes as they passed the entrance of the ruins. "That's assumin' we don't get hit with some kind of mind whammy as soon as we start actin' like a bull in a daisy garden."

The two Darings looked around carefully, taking point. Dash grinned. "Oh boy, what's going on?"

""Traps."" The coordinated response caused them to look at each other, frown, and look away.

Rarity pursed her lips at the reaction. "Is it just me or is there a bit of tension between those two?"

Two adventurers glared back at her, before sighing. Book daring pointed at the author. "She created me. Every failure, every success, every wound is because of her. She's not a god, but she made me, and everything that has gone wrong in my life is her fault."

Author Daring pointed back at her creation. "She's me in an action hero sense. She's almost indestructible, she can fight for hours, live off bare necessities, and thinks clearer and faster than I can in real life, just so she's able to respond to threats dramatically. She's more than capable of ruining my life accidentally, as she may already be doing." She shot a small glare at Fluttershy, who eeped, hiding behind her hair and cowering.

"Hey, you wrote about the Días de Noches, so you can't be that surprised."

Daring the author flushed and stammered for words. "I never even published that! It was just an experiment. In college!"

Dash blinked. "An unpublished story? What was it about?"

Daring the author stared at the incriminating smile from Daring the creation and groaned. "I was.. it was back in college, like I said. I may have had the tiniest mare-crush on one of my classmates and written an incredibly bad and poorly thought out action romance novella. I buried the only copy of it in a box in my closet."

"Swashbuckling, several ripped coats, at least one extremely steamy scene, and didn't the villain end up 'getting involved' at the end as the twist?" The author blushed almost completely pink as her creation taunted her. Dash just stared at her in surprise.

"Do.. you write a lot of romance?"

"No!"

"I think she erases most of it. I have a lot of things in my head that don't feel like complete memories." The creation easily avoided the shin kick from the now glaring author, who rolled her eyes, still blushing.

"Whatever. We've got a crisis to handle. Speaking of."

The two Darings flared their wings, blocking the way forward, cautiously advancing. The ground around a single stone had dropped, making the stone ominously obvious. Holes in the wall were barely visible.

"Pit trap and a support stone."

"Support stone is a dart trap."

"Trigger?"

"I've got a sandbag, but where's the fun in that?" The creation donned a grim smile as she leapt forward, landing on the stone. There was an audible click as the trap triggered, Daring facing the wall holes with a professional formality. As the darts started firing out, she spread her wings, hooves moving with practiced grace. Using her wings as a form of cape, she spun in place, smacking the majority of darts out of the air, before completing her revolution and catching the final dart aimed at her face with the pith helmet that had suddenly ended in her hooves. She slammed the ancient looking dart into the trigger stone, locking the mechanism into place. She grinned back at the shocked expressions of the rest of the party, taking a cocky bow. Fluttershy applauded slightly as Daring cleared the jump off the other side. The party made their way over with no further incidents.

Daring the author rolled her eyes. "See, that's what I mean. Using a sandbag would've been just as effective."

"Unless one of the darts knocked it off and allowed the trap to reset. In this case I just skipped the usual Action Hero Blunder."

"The what?" Applejack blinked.

"In an action story a hero is almost infallible. They can leap chasms, wrestle manticores, hit the only target in a room filled with antique china. But when it actually matters, they always fail. They run out of supplies. They dropped their weapon two rooms ago. They manage to catch up with the enemy, but are surrounded on all sides. It's narrative convenience, since it creates enough fallibility for realism, and generates drama in a scene that without the mistake would be easy to pass." The author shrugged.

"Or more plainly, the only reason I didn't screw up was because it didn't matter."

Applejack blinked at the shorter explanation, shrugging as she followed along.

"Actually that's an interesting angle of consideration. Narrative casualty. This guy did come out of a book." Twilight pondered a bit.

"But who is he? Why couldn't I find any information when I tried to research it?" Daring the author frowned.

"And how did he control Discord of all beings?" Daring the creation joined in the frowning.

"And why did he just let you waltz in down the least trapped passageway?" The voice from ahead resembled that of the vicious whispering Twilight had heard before, only now had a surprising depth and resonance to it. Twilight winced slightly. Is he gathering energy that quickly? The party entered what could only be called the Grand Chamber of the ruins, sufficiently large that the whole of Golden Oaks Library was contained within it. Jeweled masks of griffons adorned the walls, as torches along the primary pillars gave flickering light. The massive griffon was casually picking up books from the library as one of his guards brought them out, scanning them with a moving light from the artifact, and tossing them to one side. The other four guards had arrayed themselves around the party, ready for action, but as yet holding back. "Hello there Twilight Sparkle." Twilight's thoughts derailed as he addressed her by name. "Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie." The massive griffon nodded urbanely to the surprised ponies in order. His beak twisted into a smug smile when he reached the two Darings. "Creation. Author." The pair tensed slightly.

Rainbow Dash broke formation, zipping over the heads of the griffon guards on mark to drive her hooves into the massive griffon's head. The griffon calmly narrated.

"Rainbow Dash in her usual brash way charged into the unknown. The towering griffon smiled to himself as he coiled the muscles in his forelimb. While Dash was sure she had an advantage in speed, the sudden lash from the griffon sent her flying, landing back in the middle of her group of friends."

Even as he had said it, it had happened, his claw blurring into action as Dash flew back to crash in the midst of the party. Pinkie and Applejack gave her a quick rejuvenation as the griffon tutted to himself. "I should really introduce myself, it loses a lot of necessary dramatic tension when I keep referring to myself as 'the griffon' simply because you don't know me. My name is-" The language barrier fell apart slightly as the griffon produced more animalistic sounds for a moment. "But since we are speaking a much more modern language, you may call me Edward, the undying." He bowed to the party, mockingly. "You are already familiar with my tor." He gestured with the artifact, smiling vaguely. The two Darings blinked, and face hooved. Twilight followed a moment later. Rarity blinked at them all.

"Did we miss something?"

"Edward's Tor. Eddy's Tor. Editor." Daring the creation snarled.

"He can affect words." The author frowned thoughtfully.

"Full marks for Daring Do. Both of them." Edward gave a small golf clap. "Now let's put the little pieces of information together shall we?"

The author bit her lower lip, nervously. "Because you can affect words, you actually erased almost every reference to the artifact yourself. This has been a long term set up, and this is probably not the first time you've gotten out."

"The artifact was important for storing up the energy you needed, but you need a stooge as well, one active form of collection to go with the passive collection." The creation braced herself with a frustrated snort. "That was me. But you needed me separated from my creator. That's why I ended up in Ponyville. But there's still a lot of holes in that theory."

"Then let me take this monologue. My name is Edward, the Undying. Many many centuries ago, I ruled over most of what is known as Equestria, as well as extensive lands beyond that. I found the power of control to be the strongest one could have over a situation. When reality itself bends to your whims, when plants grow and tides recede at your word, there is no question of your greatness. After a ...disagreement with someone I presumed loyal, I ended up trapped in the written world. Since my power is that of control, and the narrative of that world is set in stone, all I needed to do was learn to become the narrator. I have tried to escape many many times, but the problem is that I am limited to affecting the written world until I can rejoin the real world. I can send my tor across, but if I were to go myself, without additional energies, I would simply keel over, having long since exhausted my natural supply.

"But sending a 'stooge', as you so put it, is incredibly unreliable. Many creations are not happy with their creators. Diary entries would punish their authors for the overwhelming emotion. Childish heroes would cause great calamities through simple do-goodery. Dramatic villains would take their creators out and try to take over their lives, fading away as the only one who had any knowledge of them passed on. So in this case, once my charged tor returned, I simply reached through the aether for a far point from your writing location. It was imperfect, but such actions usually are. As for destroying information, well, I left only enough to tantalize someone into hunting the artifact again, which did work as expected.

"And here I am, returned, alive, and ready to conquer the world anew. And all I will need to do is narrate the changes I wish to see in this world." The griffon clacked his beak definitively. "That is why I have no problem explaining this to you. I know you, from bits and pieces of writing. I can take anything you yourself have written, and gain the knowledge of every other thing you have written. You have no secrets before me, and I have full control over your actions. Twilight's magical research notes, and I know the Princess. Celestia's notes to Twilight and I know the ruler of Equestria. A receipt from Sugar Cube Corner and I know Pinkie Pie. An annotated Farmer's Almanac and I know Applejack. Of course Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were much easier, since they were already introduced in the story with my tor." Edward turned a bemused look to the two Darings. "And of course, the one to trigger my artifact, and her creation, dragged along to open the gate. You write prolifically."

The Author frowned. "I'd be more flattered if I didn't know you were using it against me."

Edward laughed, a wicked and fright inducing sound with his full volume returning. "Then allow me to liven things up with a little blood sport. I think I'm entitled after all this time.

"The extended taunting had served to fray the creations' nerves to the last. "That's it," she shouted, gesturing at her creator. "My entire life is a lie, and I'll be bucked if I'm going to die without taking you with me." The creator narrowed her eyes, and circled her former ally, not wasting the words that could be the difference between life and death. Creation lashed out at creator with brutal energy."

The two Darings had begun moving as the narration began, spoke when the narration had them speak, and were now locked into a hoof-to-hoof battle, each moving with practiced grace. Their faces were locked in grimaces as they struggled against their bodies. The mane six exchanged a look, getting ready to charge Edward. Who wasn't waiting for them.

"Fluttershy cowered, unable to force her body into action against the massive foe. Twilight's brain spun in pointless circles as she realized Edward had possible control over the princess. Rarity, unsuited for combat, circled for an opening. Pinkie Pie leaped forward only to be distracted by one of the guards. Leaving the two more comfortable fighters to try their efforts. Edward didn't flinch away from either's charge, easily stopping the powerful earth pony's blow and sending Dash flying with a gust from his own wings."

Dash and Applejack were scattered at the edge of Edward's range, but both remained defiant. Their serious expressions cracked into smiles, earning a confused blink from Edward.

"You think you know everything-" Dash started.

Applejack finished "- but Ah reckon you missed a smidge."

"Hiyah!" Rarity's karate chop rattled Edward's head with a surprising amount of force. The headlock the fashionista forced him into was almost as improbable as her continued efforts were effective. He strained, finally breaking her grip by sheer virtue of size and strength, but was obviously winded and had his security rattled. He glared at Rarity as she climbed back to her hooves, snapping her head up with a flick of her hair. "Hmph. Not my fault that you thought I was too weak. People always just see the fashion designer."

"Alright then, let's make this a bit less personal then." He gestured with the tor and the guard griffons lunged forward to take on the three combatant ponies. Twilight and Fluttershy were still disabled from the narration, although Twilight at least appeared to be trying to fight. Pinkie had managed to reduce the guard she was talking to to a confused lump of feathers and fur, the distraction having worked rather too well in her favor. And the two Darings continued their battle, although the effects were suffering.

The author knew she couldn't stand up to repeated blows, especially from the action novel version of herself. She was trying to rely on hit and run strikes, dashing in every time the copy swung wildly. Of course watching one of those blows cracking the stone floor beneath them drove home the point about staying safe. Both Darings were trying to struggle against their narrated desire for combat, although it was only with Rarity's direct attack that they seemed able to break through.

The creation growled as she turned another vicious jab into an exaggerated hay-maker punch. The author kept landing small blows on her, but she wasn't able to bring her full stopping power to bear. Book Daring forced her eyes over to the griffons circling the trio of ponies that had managed to challenge Edward, feeling her head rock back as she suffered an actually painful uppercut. She wiped at her chin with her hoof, glaring at the author. "Nothing... to... say?" It was the first words that either of them had gotten out since the start of the combat.

The author took the breather, resting her wings as she tried to force words out. "Gotta... stop... Edward."

"I... know." The creation growled as her hoof crashed into the floor, forcing up a splinter of stone from her previous cracking. "Duck!"

The author hit the deck as the rock shard sliced through the air above her, scattering a light dusting of feathers. The geological assault slammed into the side of a griffon's head, flooring the guard. The battle went from five on three to four on three. The two Darings struggled to smile, once again forced into brutal battle.

"Not.. gonna stop."

"Need... to... finish fight."

The Darings circled one another again, looking for an opening. The creation's focus slipped and her hoof lashed out in a pugilist's strike, sending the author reeling. She charged in, swinging her forehooves high in a two-hooved hammer strike. The author narrowly rolled to one side as the two hooves shattered the stone she had been on down into rubble. The creation pointed a hoof at the author, and drew it across her throat. "Sorry."

"S'okay." The author watched her creation as they circled again. The sounds in the background made it obvious that Edward was probably abusing his ability to control the combatants again. As the creation walked over the freshly created rubble, her back leg shifted, and her face contorted in pain. She put a few thoughts together.

"Hit... flank!"

"What?" The author swung low as another hay-maker sizzled through the air above her, lunging with her hoof into a kidney punch. The hoof was withdrawn with a shake, finding the entire lower section of the opposing mare too solid with muscle to gain much advantage. The creation swung out with a wing and a hoof, trying to box the author in. The author simply took to the air with adrenaline assisted speed.

"Tissue.. sample! Pain!" Book Daring leaped into the air after her foe, the pair starting to dive and dash around the room, in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Real Daring tried to brace herself against one of the primary pillars, only to have her creation wrapping her hooves around the pillar. The rock cracked and groaned as it was finally torn loose. The ceiling shifted, blocks creaking ominously above. But all the author could think of right now was that she really shouldn't have written her creation this strong. Book Daring swung the massive chunk of connected stone and cement pillar at her creator; a horizontal sweep accompanied by a wordless howl of rage and agony. Author Daring dodged upwards, almost running face-first into falling bricks. As the ceiling scattered more small bricks and the first signs of major disruption cracked their way along part of the roof, the creation tracked her creator, armed with the chunk of pillar.

The pillar slowed her down enough for the author to put some distance between them. Judging the distance, book Daring swung the pillar piece over her head, launching the rocky remainder across the gulf between them. Author Daring zipped back down to the ground, a hoof on her pith helmet as the pillar piece tore a hole into the outer wall, a warm beam of sunlight penetrating Book Daring returned to the ground with cratering force, glaring up at her creator. "Getting.. harder. Stop me."

Author Daring grunted, shifting as the duo circled. The creation lunged forward, the author sidestepping and ramming her hoof into her double's flank. The other Daring screamed in pain, lashing out at her author, who; now finally able to crack her opponent's defenses; danced in and out expertly. As she landed her fifth blow, the creation sank to the floor as her back legs buckled. She raised a forehoof weakly as the Author stepped in with a two hooved hammer uppercut, finally knocking the creation out. The author panted, realizing the desire for combat had finally passed her over. She looked over at the fight, the three ponies forced back to back as the griffons pressed in on their position. She launched herself into the nearest griffon with a laugh. "Miss me, boys?!"

Twilight had been stuck in a rut this entire time. Her thoughts were basically infinite looping around the thoughts of Edward's control over the situation, how Celestia might be affected, if she could do anything, and then back to the control. She knew she had to knock herself out of the stream of consciousness. The more she struggled against it, the more her horrified brain kept circling around what could go wrong, or why it was bad. She just couldn't resolve a way out of this, although the most obvious answer was right in front of her. She needed to get in there, to defeat this griffon who claimed to have once ruled the world, and stop him. That would fix everything. But then her mind quailed at his ability to control the situation, and trapped her once more.

She struggled to get herself moving, as the Darings engaged in their aerial battle. As the roof shuddered from the loss of support, her fear started to be replaced with worry for herself and Fluttershy. As the beam of sunlight cut through the gloom, illuminating the alicorn, she snapped a few thoughts together. Light! The artifact and the typewriter... words! He's not real. That's why he's so large. He's just made himself that way, probably the same way he's undying. 'I'm not evil, I'm just written that way.' But how...? Her eyes snapped open as she grimaced at the thought. Well, it would have to be tested. She charged a blast of magical energy into her horn, and released it, letting the spiraling mote spin towards Edward.

The griffon frowned as the claw to hoof battle turned once again, using his control over the combatants to give himself an advantage, but with the battle now even, four on four, he was the only one contributing to successful strikes on his side. He spotted the slow moving mote, and laughed. "Are you trying to tickle me?"

"No." Twilight grinned to herself as the mote zipped past Edward and into the library, scooting down the stairs and striking the still glowing typewriter, where it was hidden from the world around. The crackling purple power grounded itself through Edward, who shrieked as the ruins around him crumbled into words floating in midair, finally vanishing. The griffon guards stumbled, falling forward in surprise. They didn't get back up.

"Nice one Twi!" Applejack grinned broadly as Daring Do tossed the griffon she'd been wrestling aside. Dash and Rarity readied themselves as Edward started to... shed. Pieces of his massive form began to crumble, falling off his body, and turning into words that faded away much like the ruins had. An ancient looking griffon of grey feathers and fur glared at the party from beneath a wooden tribal mask.

Twilight stepped forward. "Hello Edward."

The griffon grimaced, snarling at the party. His voice had lost its richness, instead falling back into the vicious whisper they had first encountered. "Why do you keep resisting? Why can't you just obey?!"

"You really have no idea who you're messing with, do you?" Rarity chuckled darkly.

Edward tensed, before grumbling. "There should've been more power, more charge. It couldn't have been that soon."

Dash took to the air, pointing a hoof. "Give it up! You've got nowhere to go, and we know your weak spot!"

Daring the creation slowly limped over to the still cowering Fluttershy, giving her a supportive nuzzle. The shy pegasus blinked and gasped at the beaten looking pegasus. "Come on 'Shy, looks like we're wrapping this up."

"But-"

"I'm an action hero. If this doesn't heal in a few days I'm doing something wrong." Daring decided to focus on Edward's final monologue. Fluttershy took a seat beside her.

Edward laughed darkly as a simple hedge maze started to form around him. It looked a lot like the one back when Discord-

The party barely managed to reach that thought as bushes started to seperate them from each other. The party tried to reach one another, finding their ways blocked. Dash leaped into the air with Daring, only for both of them to impact an improbably solid mass of cloud cover, barely a hoof length above the thorny hedges.

"All I need is time, and I can control any one of you, even in this weaker state! You will obey!" The voice hissed through the bushes, threatening. Twilight narrowed her eyes.

"We will find you, and we will stop you."

Pinkie pie peeked out from behind the princess. "So, should we just start walking, Twi?"

"Nothing else for it, Pinkie."

The party began making their nervous way through the maze; book Daring and Fluttershy; Applejack and Rarity; Rainbow Dash and real Daring; Twilight and Pinkie Pie.

OBEY!

Twilight and Pinkie followed the darkened twists and turns of the hedge maze as the cloud cover overhead blotted out the midday sun. There was little enough to say, and nothing appeared to challenge them. The silence was ominous and oppressive.

"Geez, this isn't even that original a design, we've had, what, like two forks?" Pinkie frowned at the maze. "You'd figure he'd put some more effort into it."

Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile. "I'm pretty sure this was just intended as a delaying tactic, Pinkie."

"Hey Twilight?"

"Hm?"

"If he's just trying to delay us, why would any of these paths lead to him?"

"I-" Twilight blinked and facehooved. "We should've just gone straight for the library, burned through the hedges. Now I don't even know which direction the library is."

Pinkie looked around and shrugged. "Guess this was a better design than I thought."

~*~

"Rarity?" Applejack looked around as they kept walking.

"Hmm?" Rarity was trying to help, but the maze was remarkably straightforward. If anything Applejack's constant seeking was just proving how nervous she was.

Applejack chewed on her lower lip. "Did you know Fluttershy liked mares?"

Rarity chuckled a bit. "Well, it was a bit hard to ignore when those two showed up at the boutique with sore lips."

"Sore-" Applejack looked scandalized. "You're kidding!"

Rarity considered the farmer for a moment, before grinning broadly. "So is this jealously, or fear that it's catching somehow?"

Applejack's scrunchy face gave her away as her eyes darted back and forth. "It's.. it's just not normal. Besides, they can't even have foals."

"Love is love Applejack. Sometimes being honest with yourself is the best you can do. You should know that, of all ponies." Rarity chuckled.

Applejack grumbled, blushing a bit as she lead the way.

~*~

"So.. what was it like fighting yourself?"

Daring glared back at Rainbow Dash, before sighing. "It was.. interesting. She could've torn my head off with a good shot. I think I made her strength go too far up when her adrenaline kicks in. Probably should address that in the books. Smacks a little of deus ex machina."

"...On the other hoof, it was totally awesome when she tore a piece of the ruins loose."

"I think it was a little less awesome since she was trying to kill me at the time."

"Well-"

"And the roof was starting to collapse."

"But-"

"And she punched a hole through the ruin wall with it."

"...still totally awesome."

~*~

"You alright?" Fluttershy was nudged again by Daring, earning a startled blush from the mare.

"I...I'm so sorry." She sighed, looking away. The adventurer rolled her eyes, wrapping the shy mare up in a hug.

"It's okay. You're allowed to be scared."

"But-but normally I can at least get involved when my friends are in danger. Why... why..." Fluttershy sobbed quietly. Daring sighed.

"If you think anything about that was normal, you're already looking at this wrong. That guy may not be as strong as he thought he was, but he was making me and... Daring... we need some nicknames or something. Anyway, the two of us could barely push through the magic, and we're adventurers! He latched on to one part of your personality and forced it to the forefront. Something authors have a bit of trouble with is keeping established characters acting normally. Since he's trying to change the world by narrating it... He's like a hack author, huge control, no sense of realism."

Daring used her wings to wipe away Fluttershy's tears, giving her a supportive smile. Fluttershy sniffled. "I still feel bad."

"And I love that you care so much. But we can't help anything if we stop and cry now. Maybe after though, okay?" Daring gave Fluttershy a peck on the cheek and a nuzzle. "Come on, let's see if we can find the others."

Fluttershy nodded, still fretting, but somewhat bolstered by support.

~*~

The princess and the Pinkie Pie approached what seemed to be the end of the maze. There had been enough twists that they really weren't sure what direction they were facing anymore. Twilight and Pinkie exchanged a nod, preparing themselves, and leaped out into the unknown!

They stood on the outside edge of the hedge maze, the entry back sealing itself with more thorny hedgerow as they saw the other party members exiting as well. Pinkie blew a raspberry. "All that build up and nothing?! Come on!"

The others looked back at the now sealed hedge-maze, then above at the seemingly magical cloud cover protecting it from aerial assault. Applejack coughed. "I reckon this is going to be time to regroup and figure out how to get in there fast, huh?"

~*~

It had been a narrow toss-up between Carousel Boutique and Sugar Cube Corner for access to the Library, but Sugar Cube Corner had won out by virtue of refueling the party. Twilight paced the main floor distractedly. "Alright, let's review. Edward back there had been doing this for a long time. At one point he ruled the continent, or so he claims. He can manipulate people and places in an almost Discord degree, as long as he knows enough about it."

Book Daring raised a hoof. "Problem is, he doesn't need a whole picture to make us go a bit wacky. He knew I was angry at my creator over there in a general sense, and that was enough to get us both into combat."

Twilight nodded. "I think that might be because he knew you two better than anyone else. Even with the other sets of information he always seemed.. half baked."

Real Daring nodded in return. "That would make sense if he's had access to my writing since I touched the tor, rather than since i wrote about it. He did mention I was a prolific writer, but I have a feeling you've written more research notes than I have novels."

Twilight pondered that a few moments, before nodding with a slight grimace. "Let's... not think about that too much."

Pinkie chimed in cheerfully. "Yeah! If he had like half of Twilight's notes, he could blow us all up without trying!"

Twilight winced. "...Thank you Pinkie."

Rarity pondered as she sipped her vanilla shake. "When we caught him off guard, we were able to do the most damage. He was ready for us to charge him, but not for me to attack. He was ready for your magic to blast him, but not to... do whatever it did in the library."

"It hit the typewriter Daring had brought. I'm sorry about needing to damage such a personal treasure." Twilight shot a sheepish grin at the author, who waved it off.

"I was about ready to deconstruct the thing with a hammer myself. Should've gone with my gut."

Dash was grinning wickedly by this point. Twilight nodded to her. "Got an idea Dash?"

"Hay yeah! We need to go in there fast, unexpectedly, and hit him with everything we've got. I say we split up. I've got an idea I want to try, because it'll be like the absolutely least expected attack ever."

Twilight considered, then looked to the rest of the party, who all nodded agreement. "Good idea Dash, several seemingly unrelated attacks might do more damage. I'm thinking I should lead a frontal attack with a modified shield spell to burn through the hedges. Everypony, if Rainbow Dash is indisposed with her idea I'd appreciate you all lending a hoof."

"Umm..." Fluttershy shifted nervously, raising a hoof with trepidation. "I-uh.."

"You could probably sit out if you wanted to, Fluttershy. We don't want to put you in harm's way when he can just make you cower."

Fluttershy shook her head. "N-no. I have an idea, but it's kind of dangerous. I.. want Daring to lend a hoof. And if she says we're using plan dee, I'd like everyone else to leave. Please."

Twilight blinked at the pegasus, sending her a curious headtilt, but nodded. "Alright, so that's a frontal assault, a sneak attack of some kind, and plan d. Anyone else got any ideas we could use really quickly?"

Silence settled over the party before Pinkie perkily raised a hoof.

"And we aren't going to a throw a 'Try not to be evil anymore' party for Edward."

"Darn!" Twilight smiled at the almost predictable Pinkie response, the building tension dispelled with amused giggles.

"Alright everypony. Positions! We don't know our time limit."

~*~

Rainbow Dash very calmly helped Derpy set up a few small thunderclouds over the cloud covered maze. "Are you sure about this, Rainbow Dash? I mean, I don't want to mess up."

"Don't worry Derpy. You're going to be just fine. And you got the order for after that?"

"One grand piano delivery to the Golden Oaks library, just as you wanted it."

"Good good. I'll leave you to it."

Dash really couldn't withhold her grin as she flew away. There was expected, there was unexpected, and then there was Derpy.

~*~

"Alright. Everypony ready?"

Seeing the wave of nods around her, Twilight pushed her magic forward. Rather than extending a normal shield outward, she pushed a flaming barrier into the air ahead of her, and began the charge into the maze. As the shield hit the hedgerows the plants vanished in puffs of flame and words made of smoke. As before, the creations seemed to be made of nothing more than magic and words. Is that all Daring is? ...Focus Twilight.

The final row of hedges gave way before the fiery assault, letting the ponies spot the familiar library, the familiar elderly griffon, a pile of books near the entrance to the library as an almost barricade, obviously produced with haste. ... and several dozen decidedly unfamiliar shapes inbetween. Each of the ponies took a step back in surprise as they realized just how outnumbered they were, and facing copy upon copy of enemies from various stories. A swashbuckling Long John Silvershoe stood alongside a Frankensteed Monster. Mobster ponies readied knives and brass hooves. An evil enchantress did an evil dance against a backdrop of fire, her shadow seeming to dance amongst the flames impossibly.

The party exchanged nervous glances. There were at least 10 foes for each pony, and they seemed to be moving at a very calm calculated rate towards the party. There was none of the sweeping confusion to reduce the effects of numbers like during the changeling invasion.

And then the clouds above shattered into lightning.

The plan of rushing in was quickly abandoned in favor of Twilight and Rarity creating a quick protective dome as the lightning crackled through the cloud cover above. In her usual impossibly skilled fashion, Derpy had somehow managed to charge the magically created cloud cover with the lightning from each of the thunderclouds before managing to set off the final discharge. The sudden lightning storm crackled as chain lightning sizzled from the hedges to the library and across the ground, shocking many of the foes back into their composite words. Twilight was very happy she'd looked into fireproofing the library as she looked at the scorch marks on the exterior bark. Ball lightning rolled through the scene, frying anything unfortunate enough to end up near it.

Unfortunately, not all the enemies were completely without protection.

The Frankensteed Monster lumbered towards the party, charged by the flashing lightning, as mad scientists cackled and spun up bizarre machinery. The evil enchantress had continued to dance through this all, and was now flanked by a small army of ponies made of both flame and lightning. As the Monster lunged for the party, the skies flashed brightly.

And a piano crashed into it, completely obliterating it.

Derpy peeked out from the now thinning cloud cover with a frustrated grimace. "I just don't know what went wrong..."

Twilight and company couldn't help but smile. "Nothing Derpy!" "Great job!" "Well done!"

"Uh thanks! ...What'd I do?"

The grey mare blinked in surprise as the cloud cover thinned away to nothing, flapping her wings. Edward gestured at a book of curses, and a thick mass of biting insects flew out to attack Derpy. She quickly turned tail and escaped, deciding to leave the usual craziness to the ponies with experience. With the advantage shifting once more, the ponies thrust themselves into the thick of things. Edward calmly gestured towards more books, and more copies of ponies started to walk out at his behest.

Twilight knew they had to get into the library and find the typewriter, but the increasing swarms of foes were not going to make it easy.

As Dash joined the party in a blur of color, slamming into a mobster, Twilight appended that thought. It was almost going to be easy.

Daring frowned as she recognized Dr. Caballeron walking from one of the books, charging her. "Well well well, Caballeron, it's been a while." The duplicate grunted, charging in with a vicious punch. Daring easily dodged it, watching her foe. He's moving wrong. It's all straightforward and unpracticed. It's like-! She realized they may be in trouble. "These are just two-dimensional characters!"

Twilight panted from where she was dispelling the enchanted ponies of flame and lightning. "What?"

"Stock characters, very little details, easy to just make over and over. They rely on your own assumptions." As Caballeron threw another punch Daring ducked low, spinning to buck him into the air. He was fading away into words by the time a new Caballeron walked out, and rushed in. "Because they don't need to be well written, there's not much to them, but..."

"But we're going to get tired while they just keep coming." Twilight glared over at Edward, who was intensely focused on the battle. "At least it doesn't look like he can do anything else right now."

"Probably takes most of his effort for all these characters to keep following a single order." The new Caballeron rushed in to strike Daring, only to find himself being thrown over her shoulder and into one of the hedges, once again fading into words. A new new Caballeron walked out from the books. Daring winced. "We need a distraction."

"If you can think of a good one, let me know." Twilight finally had managed to land a bolt of magic, dispelling the fire-dancing enchantress, but now was surrounded with mobsters and thugs.

~*~

Book Daring winced as she looked through the binoculars. "It's looking bad over there. Plan D?"

Fluttershy took a deep breath, and let it out. "Y-yes. You know what you have to...?"

"Carry you in, get in there, get the typewriter, and drop it. And get out of the way."

Fluttershy smiled shyly. "I know you'd like to get involved in the fight..."

"I'm just curious to see how this all pans out. Stay safe, alright?" Daring gave Fluttershy a quick kiss on the forehead. "If I end up needing to rescue you from your own plan, I am going to charge you even more kisses." The pair grinned at one another as Daring wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy. "Ready?"

Fluttershy nervously gripped the Discord plushie, and squeaked. "Maybe."

"Which translates to 'let's do this before I think about it too much'. Here we go!"

~*~

"Are you sure about this Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy squeaked as Discord questioned her again, before nodding slowly. "It's one of the least expected things I can think of. I just... need it turned to 11."

Discord shook his head. "I don't think this is a great idea."

Fluttershy smiled lopsidedly. "Twilight can fix it again. I hope."

Discord sighed, running a hand through his mane. "Fine, fine, but I'm still going to stay back to not present an easy target."

"Thank you!" Fluttershy hugged the draconequus who returned the hug with a sad smile.

"I just hope you're still saying that afterwards."

~*~

The party of ponies were panting. Even Pinkie's boundless energy was reaching a lower limit, and she had completely exhausted three party cannons. "I think I'm out of balloons!"

Applejack hauled off, shattering another two thugs and bucking a scientist armed with a glowing...thingy to pieces, as another set of foes walked forward. Dash zipped around, shattering ponies, but she was obviously winded. "We're winning! We're kicking so much flank it's not even funny! How is he winning?!"

"War of attrition." Twilight frowned as she blasted another mobster, dodging one with a knife. "It doesn't matter that they're really easy to break, it matters that there's an unlimited number of them."

A black blur zipped into the air above, the vanished cloud cover no longer protecting the maze from aerial bombardment. A somewhat familiar yellow shape was dropped, her color seeming to drain from her as she went. As she impacted into Edward, she was completely greyed out. Book Daring circled once. "Plan D! Plan D! Clear out!" Before lunging into the library, losing several feathers as she slipped over the top of the book pile. The groups of foes stumbled slightly as Edward's concentration was loosened.

"Plan D?" Twilight looked horrified. "Discorded Fluttershy?"

Rarity pursed her lips. "Well, now I almost feel bad for the griffon. Come along ladies, we were asked to clear out."

Fluttershy glared at the griffon below her, who hissed angrily.

"Fluttershy cowered before her foe, seeing herself surrounded on all sides, she was unable to fight back in any way!"

"Fluttershy cowered?" Discorded Fluttershy growled angrily as she slapped the griffon around viciously. "I was going to just beat you for being in my way, but now it's personal!"

Edward gaped uncomprehendingly as the shiest and kindest of pegasi started to tear him a new one.

~*~

Daring found the library looking ransacked. This made sense, Edward had probably looked for books that had easy to use subject matters for his army. It was very likely he had moved the typewriter from its original resting spot, but that was the sensible place to start looking. She headed down into the basement.

The basement had been given an overhaul. Probably the same way the ruins had been set up in the first place, narrated into existence. The walls were sheer rock, giving the whole thing the appearance of a massive cave. The typewriter was still on the desk ahead, clattering away rapidly. Daring Do looked around with a frown. Too easy? Oh yeah.

She charged the typewriter, hauling it up, and flipped away from the desk in one motion. She waited, looking around, realizing that nothing had happened. The heavy thing would slow her down, but that was hardly a problem.

As she turned back to the staircase she realized what the issue was. A massive Ursa Major was between her and the exit. The creature roared challenge, almost blowing the pegasus off her feet. Daring set her face into a smile. At least it wasn't that easy.

The beast moved with a speed and fluidity belying its size. Daring zipped up, almost getting swatted out of the air in a casual gesture from the beast. It snarled, lunging at the adventurer with a muzzle of massive teeth. Daring zipped low and clobbered it in the underside of its jaw. The beast howled in surprise as Daring shook her hoof against the pain. Unsurprisingly, the beast was more solid than your average pony could hope to be. "You know, you're horrible in the witty banter category."

The beast snarled, standing on its back paws as it began furiously swiping at the pegasus. Daring dodged back and forth, dancing out of reach. The beast lashed out forwards, catching her with a grazing strike which left a bloody slash across her chest, her jacket torn open. As she hissed against the pain, she realized the beast had moved away from the stairs to press the advantage. She looked at the beast dumbly. A hero never backs down. A hero faces every challenge and beats it. The only time you run is when you're outnumbered and I can take this beast.

Her adrenaline surging, her strength at its fullest, Daring was about ready to drop the typewriter and just lay into the creature. Beating an Ursa Major would be quite the feather in her cap. A little voice nudged her internally. Fluttershy wanted your help.

Daring glared at the Ursa, before dropping to the ground solidly. As the beast roared and swung a paw, Daring took off at speed, and using her wings, ran up the side of the wall, onto the roof, and over the Ursa before it could bring its massive bulk to bear once again. She dropped to the stairway, and rushed out the front door, bulling her way through the barricade of books. She threw the typewriter over near Fluttershy, before turning back and racing down the stairs.

Business done, now pleasure!

~*~

As the typewriter slammed into the ground nearby Edward cried out in surprise. Fluttershy grinned wickedly at him. "Oh, you don't like that, do you? Let's see how this feels."

She trotted over to the typewriter, hefting the metal scribe in her hooves. "Heavy. Perfect." She cooed as she swung the machine, catching the few foes Edward had had the presence of mind to send after her. They shattered into their words instantly, earning a delighted giggle from Fluttershy.

"How does that old saying go?" She walked back to Edward, who was struggling to right himself after being beaten by the presumably weakest pegasus in town. "Sticks and stones will break your bones." She hefted the typewriter with a vicious smile, whispering. "And so will words."

~*~

"I think Fluttershy might've been overestimating how effective Discording would be."

Dash frowned at Twilight, looking up from the binoculars. "She's holding her own pretty well, Twi. And it is the least 'in character' we tend to be."

"Well, yes."

"And keeping in mind that the rest of us don't exactly.. become useful when discorded, Fluttershy was probably the best option." Rarity shook her head. "Voluntary discording. I would never have expected Fluttershy of all ponies to think of that."

"Which was the point." Applejack pointed over at the hedge maze, which was starting to fall apart as Fluttershy slammed Edward with the typewriter. "We get close enough, he switches from attrition to targets. We get locked into something, we get overwhelmed. He tried something on Fluttershy.. and it didn't work."

Dash winced as she looked through the binoculars. "Oooo, ouch. I think she's meaner than she was before. You got that memory spell handy Twi?"

Pinkie gasped, looking through her own pair of pink binoculars. "Oh wow, I didn't think griffons bent that way."

Dash shook her head. "They don't, Pinkie."

"Oh."

Author Daring watched as the enemies faded away into words with the continued bludgeoning. "Almost sad how easy that was after he tried setting himself up as emperor of the world and all."

Twilight shook her head. "You'd be amazed how many battles come down to just one or two deciding moments."

"Yeah, I mean, how else would you fit it into a half hour episode?"

The party blinked at Pinkie's non sequitur and rolled their eyes.

"Hey. He's starting to fade away!" Dash perked up

"Really?" The party tried desperately and ineffectively to crowd Dash's binoculars. Pinkie calmly offered her pink set to Twilight.

The discorded Fluttershy had been whaling on Edward, and it showed. The griffon had lost most of his coloration, bent improbably, and looked.. two dimensional. Like a paper cut-out of a griffon. Words were starting to show where the color had completely drained, a full on description of Edward the Undying on a griffon cutout. Fluttershy grinned wickedly as she grabbed the griffon, and shoved him into the typewriter, cackling as she jammed the paper back in. The typewriter and the now almost forgotten tor flashed brightly as the last signs of Edward's influence vanished. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "Well that's good."

The sound of shattering glass where Fluttershy had just thrown the typewriter through the window of the Golden Oaks library brought everyone out of their calm. Fluttershy cackled madly as she lashed out to do more harm to anything near her. Twilight facehooved "Right, discorded Fluttershy. Let's go get her."

~*~

Daring was resting against the wall as it turned back into the living wood of the library. She had beaten the Ursa bloody, and both of them had retreated for a breather. As she looked up, the massive beast transformed into nothing more than a paper cut-out, then a series of words. The whole thing faded away, leaving Daring alone in the basement. She snorted. "Pfft, punk." And promptly passed out.

Chapter 12 - Heroic Sacrifice

Daring woke up to a terrified pair of aqua eyes staring at her tearfully. She smiled cockily. "Well there's a sight for sore eyes. And ribs. And legs. And wings." She groaned, flipping into a standing position as she looked around the basement. Fluttershy, her friends, the author, and some grey pegasus mare with oddly rolling yellow eyes. Looked like everyone was here. Fluttershy wrapped Daring into a panicked embrace, kissing her desperately, which the adventurer returned happily. Everyone decided to try and not stare. Derpy spoke up. "Wait, since when does Fluttershy like mares?"

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Since, like, ever! I mean come on."

Daring chuckled, as the kiss was finally broken off. "So, we won?"

Twilight nodded. "Aside from one loose end, yeah. The tor is still here. We're not sure what to do about it."

"That's easy. I take it, get back into the story, and you burn the manuscript."

The party stared in horror at the adventurer, who shrugged in response. "I don't like it, but that's the most sensible way to get rid of it forever."

Fluttershy whimpered, her eyes huge and tearing up once more. "B-but..."

Daring gave her a kiss with a sad smile. "Do you really think I want that bastard coming back to hurt you again? Besides, I'm not 'real'. I'm kind of surprised I didn't just fade away when that Ursa did."

"Ursa?" Twilight blinked.

"Edward left a surprisingly large guard for the typewriter. No surprise there."

"Minor?"

"Major." Twilight's look of surprise edged back towards horror. Daring waved dismissively. "He changed the basement into an Ursa cave, I should've recognized it sooner. And the fact that he could do that emphasizes the point that we don't want this repeating."

The party exchanged looks, looking back at the adventurer. "I don't think we need to go to that extent."

"Twilight, you said the tor is an energy siphon. If all he needs it to get enough energy to try again, it would be incredibly unwise to just let it happen."

Fluttershy was trying not to cry as she stared at Daring. Daring was trying desperately not to look at her, finally turning to her author. "And it's not like you're going to stop writing about me, right? It'll just be one of those incomplete memories. Something that got erased."

"Aside from the fact that you'd be dead." Daring the author glared at her creation. "What was it you said? Everything that went wrong in your life was my fault? You have your own taste of reality now. Why are you running away?"

"Because I can't let something harm those I love if I can stop it." The author and the creation gave each other a worried smile.

Pinkie Pie addressed the elephant in the room. "And Fluttershy? How's she going to feel if you just run off and kill yourself."

Daring stared at the shy mare, quietly sobbing to herself as rivers of tears travelled from her eyes. Her pink mane hung limply as she forced out a squeaking "whyyyyyyyyy?"

Her heart ached as she stared at the most beautiful mare in her moment of pain. "Because I need to protect you."

Twilight considered. "Let's try this diplomatically, we'll put it to a vote-"

"Twilight, safety isn't something that is decided democratically. The tor needs to go, someone would get sacrificed one way or another, it might as well be the action hero. The one who isn't really real." The creation shook her head. "That... that's the answer."

~*~

Daring gave Fluttershy a final desperate hug, tears streaming down her own face. "I love you."

"Please, please don't do this." Fluttershy was barely able to whisper, her body still racked with sobs.

Daring gave her a squeeze. "I love you. That's why it needs to be done." A final kiss as they split didn't serve to settle either mare's nerves.

The adventurer nodded to the other members of the party, walking over to where the tor and typewriter had been placed on a bed of wood, and picked up the tor, vanishing in a flash of light and a shimmer of air.

Dash grumbled. "There's no way that's it. This is like the worst cop out ever. She was so awesome! She was as awesome as you!" She pointed at the real Daring. "She was you! Just different!"

Daring grumbled. "And annoyingly, she's right. She was just a story creation, dragged out. The easiest way to destroy the tor seems to be to destroy the story it's in."

"But didn't Edward claim he'd done this multiple times before?" Rarity shook her head. "There must be some way for him to move it around over time."

"One way or another, the point isn't debatable any longer. Daring exited the story at Edward's convenience. If she can't move anymore, like the story seemed to freeze when the tor was removed again..." Twilight trailed off.

"She wouldn't be able to leave anyway..." Fluttershy sobbed and broke into a distraught wail.

Click

The party perked up at the typewriter. Which even now, beaten, battered, and covered in some window glass, had decided to type. They rushed forward to see what was slowly coming into being.

~*~

Daring sobbed as she returned to the ruins that her adventure had started in. They were empty now, the guards having been drawn out with Edward. Some kind of cheaper minion since they were already written? Daring shook her head, throwing the tor at the wall in uncontrolled anger, sinking to the ground, and letting herself cry. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to leave. She wished she could just be greedy and stay with Fluttershy. Just stay out there and not have to worry about things.

But she had to be a hero. She had to be a stupid hero who always had to do the right thing. She wiped at her eyes, smiling wanly. Would she even know when the document burned? Would there be any sensation at all? Had it already happened? Was this what the rest of her life would be? A frozen moment that she could never escape? How much time had she already spent just crying? Should she be feeling hungry? Thirsty? Tired? Would she ever?

Her eyes were drawn to a yellow pegasus with a pink mane who had appeared in a sunbeam in front of her. Daring looked up into familiar aqua eyes, and a sad shy smile. The adventurer sobbed, tears running down her face. "I guess- I guess you're the angel to take me away, huh?"

"In a way." Fluttershy walked forward, gently bumping her forehead against Daring's forehead. "It's okay to cry."

The adventurer snarled in defiance, but was unable to choke back another sob. "Adventurers don't cry. They just sort of leak." She laughed hollowly at the statement, not even able to believe it herself. The angel of kindness nodded slowly, laying down beside the adventurer and simply letting her cry.

As the sobbing fell back into a more manageable amount, the angel's wings wrapped themselves around Daring's shoulders."Are you ready to go?"

"Is anyone?" Daring scrubbed at her eyes, and sighed. "Let's get it over with."

Fluttershy nodded, and the pair vanished in a flash of light, and a shimmer of air.

They reappeared outside the Golden Oaks library, to the amused grins of the rest of the party. Twilight took the tor from Fluttershy with a vague smile as Daring gaped. "Wha.. bu-"

Fluttershy giggled. "You were wrong."

Twilight nodded to the typewriter. "You're real enough that you were writing out your thoughts. I think.. I think we're willing to take the risk. And with an extra pair of hooves, especially those of an action hero... I think we'll be okay."

Pinkie squee'd. "And guess who's going to have the best 'Congratulations, you're really real' party ever!"

Daring blinked, but her confusion gave way to gentle happiness as she felt Fluttershy's lips against her own, and she pressed back into the loving warmth of the other pegasus. She broke the kiss, looking at Fluttershy in confusion. "But how-"

"When you lost your grip on the tor, I wrote that the artifact auto activated. That's one of the spells in it, which is probably how Edward moved it between written world and real world. And then Fluttershy..." Twilight gestured to Fluttershy, who gave a blushing ponysquee smile. "Well, nobody was going to stop her in the first place."

Daring smiled warmly at Fluttershy wrapping the... no, her angel of kindness in a warm embrace, tears streaming down her face.

~Epilogue~

Fluttershy and Daring both squirmed a bit on Fluttershy's couch. They really weren't sure how they got talked into this. They turned to one another, cheeks burning as they hesitantly leaned in. Fluttershy's lips barely brushed against Daring's before the adventurer jerked away as though electrified. Fluttershy squeaked as she jerked back as well. Daring brought her face forward tentatively, reaching out with one hoof to gently pull Fluttershy closer. The two mare's lips met again.

Daring the Creation walked in the front door and examined the tableau before her. She nodded to Twilight, sitting beside the door. "Okay, fine, it's even weird when I walk in on myself making out with Fluttershy."

Twilight giggled, writing notes happily. "Science!"

"Now if you'll pardon me, I have a lot of making out with my marefriend to catch up on." Daring replaced Daring on the couch, much to the author's blushing joy, and Fluttershy enthusiastically leaned into adventurer's contact. They kissed, forgetting about the world around them for a few endless eternities.

Daring the author coughed. "You know, Ahuizotl made a move for the Rosetta Rock. I think I could use a spare set of hooves to speed up the investigation."

The creation grinned at the author. "When would I ever say no to an adventure?" She hugged Fluttershy close with a happy sigh. "You'll wait for me?"

"Of course." Fluttershy nuzzled into the warm adventurer. They split, and Fluttershy waved as the author and the creation took off at a gallop for the train station.

Twilight shook her head. "Aren't you worried about them?"

"Don't be silly Twilight. Action heroes never die."