“...that one pony from the book that rainbow twerp keeps dropping on my head? Dary Lo? Or was it-”

“Daring Do, alias A.K. Yearling.” She said somewhat flatly, as if she had already repeated it hundreds of times.

“Ah yes, I remember now. Now how did you, a wild, tomboyish jungle adventurer come into this hellhole?”

“Well. I guess I should tell you. I got nothin’ better to do. So what’s your name?”

“Silver Ocean.”

“Nice to meet you. Anyways…”

Daring lept out of the jungle canopy, the Flowstone of Fire, Sapphire of Stone, Amethyst of Air, and the Wernerite of Water safely tucked in her saddlebag. She flew high and aimed for the closest town: Ponyville. The flight was long and tiring, and as she neared the settlement she spotted a rainbow mare lounging on the clouds. She bolted to the ground, hastily wrapped her cloak from her bag around her, and adorned herself with thick, wide-rimmed red glasses. She lastly folded her explorer had inside-out, revealing a floppy, summer one. She put on a casual but humble attitude, and strolled into town. Not a glance lingered for longer than needed. No one stopped her. No one thought she was a wild adventurer. Suddenly, somepony bumped into her. The pony, Carrot Top, fell onto her. The extra weight caused the strap of the saddlebag to snap, and the Sapphire of Stone skidded to Carrot’s hooves.

“Hey watch it -- wait...isn’t this the stone from the museum?”

Daring was generally confused. Carrot, from what she heard around town, was a nice, non-inquisitive pony. Also, Ponyville was an extremely small town to have a museum.

“No...I...um...found it...on the ground…with dirt...so...yeah.”

Daring fumbled the sentence, but it would have to do. She trotted over to reclaim the precious stone, but Carrot snatched it up.

“Thief!”

Even though her voice was slightly muffled by the gem in her mouth it seemed to resonate throughout the marketplace. Ponies turned to look at her, and suddenly then ran towards her, clearly aggressive. Her survival instincts kicked in, and she bucked at the nearest pony, which appeared to be Berry Punch. Her hooves came in contact with something hard and glossy. It was then followed by a green, smoky flash, and the smell of sulfur. She tried to glance behind her, but it the body was covered with more ponies. She ran, but there were too many. She managed to “kill” a few more, using ways like smashing them with curtain poles, or using wagons to collide with unsuspecting assailants. There were too many, and she was pinned to the ground. Twilight and some guards trotted over.

“Twi, ya gotta help me-YAHHH!”

Twilight Sparkle, the famous, nervous alicorn had just yanked Daring up by her neck.

“Gargahhahah...helppppdgag...gaggag…”

Twilight, still stone-faced, nodded to her companions. They approached Daring with hoofcuffs and a bridle.

“Buck you, you Celestia-mpph mpph mpph!!”

Twilight smiled, a cold cruel sort of smile as the guards forced the bridle of Daring’s yelling mouth. Daring kicked and struggled, but a loud purple flash enveloped her vision, then everything went black.

“Sleeping spell.” Silver muttered. It was a code of law that all royal staff had to know this last resort knockout spell. Twilight probably knew it, but everything had seemed under control, but Twilight had used it.

“This food sucks.” Daring announced out of the blue.

“I agree...I think...yeah. There is a thing floating in my water. It’s...ugh! I think it just hatched!”

They both laughed at Sliver’s little skit, and did a failed attempted at a toast to “I hate Twilight”.

“Ahhhh…This place is so much easier with people around.”

“Yeah. When I’m adventuring in Celestia-knows-where I don’t exactly have friends. I have acquaintances, clients, and a few contacts, but no friends.”

Daring rolled over in her bunk, and pretty sure in a few minutes she was fast asleep. Silver Quill Ocean however was wide awake. He had gained a friend, but more importantly a large batch of information that confirmed his hypothesis.

There is something weird going on in Ponyville, and I’ll get to the bottom of it.

Ocean fell asleep.

Usually his dreams were of his past, or just some kaleidoscopic nightmare with something to do with clowns. Now it was something different. Silver first thought it was of his erstwhile times, but this time there was no younger double. He was alone, and he was floating.

Freaky...I like it!

He tested how he could move around, and found it was extremely. Floating through a wall, he came to what seemed like a heated argument between Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

“You said the feed was going to come in today! Now it’s more than a week late! Our people are starving!” Rainbow yelled.

“What am I supposed to do about it! I’m not Celestia for pony’s sake!”

“But you’re close!”

“I don’t give a bucking damn! I can’t do manure!”

“Look at this!”

Rainbow raised her wing, and it seemed frail. Suddenly, it shimmered. Half dragonfly, Half pegasus. If ghosts could be scared to death, he was past that. By a lot.

Rainbow turned to Twi. “My veil is failing Twi. I can’t-”

At that moment. Twi swung a stray stapler at Rainbow’s face with her telekinesis. Instead of a dull smush a loud crack like the sound of a watermelon breaking came from Rainbow, accompanied by a ear-splitting scream. A large webbed impact point now adorned her face, and it was leaking a gray-green fluid onto the stapler, which was on the floor. A large glob landed on the metallic adhering device, and it started to hiss. Before Silver knew it, the stapler was nothing more than a burned puddle of acidic metal.

“Somepony’s watching us!” Twilight hissed.

She suddenly turned to Silver, even though he was sure she couldn’t see him and blasted his face with magenta light.

Silver woke up in the middle of the night with cold sweat on his coat and a splitting headache. He felt something warm trickle down his head, and blood came off on his hoof. He was seriously burned, right where Twilight had hit him.

Author's Note

FINALLY. This was finally finished on a boring rainy day. But I'm happy with myself. Enjoy!