Twilight Velvet walked along what she assumed was a path through the woods. It was hard to tell, really, since it didn't seem like a lot of ponies traversed this area. All she could see was … well, that was just it. She'd never even seen plants like that. They seemed like they should be more at home in a jungle, rather than the moderate climate of Central Equestria she was used to. At least they didn't seem to be hiding any predators, except for the snakes that is. She'd almost been bitten three times already this morning.
Quietly she wondered how she'd gotten stuck with this assignment as she rechecked the map to make out her position on the winding path. She'd told her publisher that she'd wanted to take a break from writing. Since the birth of her second foal, she'd become increasingly busy with being a mother. Staying up late into the night, a cup of cold coffee on her desk, it simply wasn't a good way to raise children.
As a result, she'd brought the story of her popular title character in a book series to a satisfying conclusion and declared it finished. Both the fans and her publisher had been disappointed but accepting of her decision.
Unwilling to let one of their star authors go completely, the publishing company had made her an offer. She was to take on the role of editor for fledgling writers, which meant more regular hours while still bringing home some bits to support her family.
The reason she'd agreed was that, after six months as a stay-at-home mom, she was beginning to go stir crazy. Her daughter, Twilight, was finally old enough to be left in the care of their lovely foalsitter Cadence for at least half a day, which gave Velvet the chance to stretch her legs and get back into the industry, even if it was in a new capacity.
Still, a trip to what seemed to be the remote end of Equestria was not what she'd had in mind for her job with 'more regular hours.' Canterlot was her home, and she'd never strayed too far from it.
Eventually the gloom of the forest lifted, and Velvet found herself in a clearing. “Guess this is it,” she told herself, putting the map away in her saddlebag. She wondered why anypony would willingly live out in the middle of nowhere like this. But she wasn't here to judge. She was here for a meeting.
She got a good view of the little cottage as she approached and found it to be in disrepair. The thatched roof didn't look like it was completely watertight, and the wood seemed to be rotting in one corner of the house. Wondering if she'd come to the wrong place after all, since she couldn't imagine anypony living here, Velvet raised her hoof to knock on the wooden door.
To her surprise, it opened at her touch. The door was unlocked. Cautiously, she stuck her head in. “Hello? Anypony home? Miss Yearling?”
There was a moment of silence, then a reply from the back of the cottage. “Just a minute! Come on in!”
Reasoning that she did have the right address after all, Velvet stepped inside. Running water could be heard. It seemed like the occupant was taking a shower. Velvet looked around the sparse living room. There wasn't a lot of furniture apart from the desk with an antique typewriter on it. On a peg, next to the door, rested the curious assortment of a green shirt, a tropical helmet and a leather whip.
The water stopped, and a pegasus mare with a light gold coat and streaked gray mane entered the room. “Miss Yearling?” Velvet asked hopefully.
“Just a sec,” the mare replied, pulling out a package wrapped in plain brown paper from its hiding place under her desk. “Here you go,” she said, pushing it towards her.
Velvet blinked. “Pardon?”
Miss Yearling cocked her head. “Aren't you with the museum? I thought you were here to pick up the package?”
There was something fishy about the way she'd phrased that. Velvet had written enough mysteries to get her thinking of several possibilities. But she decided to clarify the situation. “No. No, I'm not. My name is Twilight Velvet. I'm with Horseshoe Publishing? They told me that they'd sent you a letter, informing you that I was coming.”
“Oh.” Yearling didn't break her stride, but she did immediately push the package out of Velvet's reach. “Sorry. Mail's a little slow out here. Is this about the manuscript I sent in? What did they think?”
“Well, that's the reason I'm here. Do you mind?” Velvet pointed at the desk, and Yearling motioned for her to go ahead. Levitating the manuscript with its annotations and marked pages onto the table with her magic, she began: “First of all, anypony who read it agreed that the story has a lot of potential.”
“Right?” the pegasus mare said. “It's awesome, isn't it?”
“Yes, though some improvements could be made before it goes to print.”
“Improvements? Like what, Miss Velvet?”
“Just call me Velvet.” Knowing how unnerving the first meeting with a new editor could be, she tried to established a relaxed atmosphere. She flipped to a certain passage. “While all the traps are very clever and well thought out, and the characterization of your heroine and her adversaries is remarkably detailed, the prose is a little lacking in parts. At times, it reads more like an archeologist's field report than an adventure story.”
“I like attention to detail.”
“And there's nothing wrong with that, but it breaks the flow of the story. I can help you with spacing these passages out a little better. Now, about the title...”
Yearling gave her a big smile. “It's awesome, isn't it? Miss Adventure and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue. Took me a week to come up with it.”
Velvet grimaced at that. “Well, the second part is fine. It's about the name you chose for your protagonist. Frankly, anypony who first picked up your manuscript thought it would be a satire of the genre, rather than a straight-up adventure.”
Yearling blinked in confusion. “Why?”
“Miss Adventure,” Velvet stressed, only to be met with a blank stare from the pony who had written that manuscript. The unicorn decided to change venue and get back to that one later. “What about this Dr. Caballeron? His primary motivation seems to be greed. I think it might be a good idea to make him a dragon. That would open some possibilities for the future. I assume he's gonna be a recurring character with more impact in future stories?”
The author gave her a confused look. “Caballeron isn't a dragon.”
“No, of course not. But he could be.”
Yearling thought about that. “Well, sure. If we tracked down the Rings of Reception from the Valley of Flame, any of us could become a dragon. But why would he do that? He'd probably rather sell them.”
“I didn't mean making it a plot point. I meant making his character a dragon from the start,” she tried to explain slowly.
Only the pegasus didn't seem to get it, looking at Velvet as if she was crazy. “Where is this dragon stuff coming from? Caballeron isn't a dragon.”
Velvet groaned. She'd seen it before, even experienced it herself, that reluctance of a first-time author to change anything and close their mind to any suggestions from the outside, thinking their work was perfect. She'd seen so many of her fellow writers go down that road and never realize their full potential as a result. “Look, I know what it's like to be asked to make changes, but ...”
“Excuse me,” a male voice interrupted the two mares from the door. “I'm here to pick up a package?” the earth pony stallion in a delivery company uniform said.
“Right. 'Scuse me for a moment, Velvet.”
For the second time, she saw the pegasus pick up the wrapped package under her wing. Approaching the stallion, she was just about to hand it over when she spotted something on his outstretched hoof, where the sleeve of his uniform was rolled up. “That's an interesting tattoo,” she said. “I've seen one just like it among the tribesponies of the Tenochtitlan Basin.”
“Oh, this?” he replied without a change in expression. “I got this in Fillydelphia. The mares love it.”
“I can imagine. Looks good on you,” she told him with a big smile.
Bang!
Faster than Velvet's eyes could follow, she'd brought up her hoof and nailed the delivery pony squarely on the chin. She passed the package back with her wing. “Velvet!” she barked. “Hang on to this for a minute, will ya?”
“What?” The startled unicorn caught the object thrown at her in her magic, but she felt completely clueless as to what was suddenly going on.
The stallion had shaken off his momentary daze and lunged at Yearling. Flaring her wings, she avoided him and dove for the whip hanging next to the door. Meanwhile the stallion shifted his attention to Velvet, his eyes fixed on the package.
Velvet could only stare in horror as he started towards her. Then there was the sharp crack of a whip, and the stallion stumbled. His hooves caught in the whip, his muzzle scraped across the floor a little further, stopping inches from her hooves.
Yearling was quick to hog-tie him in a fashion that seemed far too well practiced for her to be doing this for the first time. “Alright, come out!” she yelled. “I know there's more of you.”
As if on cue, a bulky diamond dog with an angry scar above his left eye burst through the window from the outside. Frightened and startled, Velvet could only scream as he snatched the package from her grasp.
“Oh, no! You don't!” Yearling went straight for him, but he was more agile than he looked, avoiding her attack much like she'd done with the stallion earlier.
The dog cackled as he jumped clear of her and made for the door with his prize. Yearling whirled around, giving Velvet a quick glance. “I'm sorry,” Velvet told her in a panic.
“No, I'm sorry,” the pegasus said.
“About what?”
“'Bout this.” She grabbed the pearl necklace Velvet was wearing to make a good first impression with the flexible digits of her wings, ripping it from the unicorn's throat and flinging the now loose pearls across the room.
Apparently under the impression he was clear, the diamond dog didn't realize what was happening until one of his feet hit a pearl rolling along the floor. As he let out a yelp, his leg shot up in front of him, and he crashed into the wall.
“Gotcha!” The pegasus made her way back to the front door, where the package had dropped, only to find a large shadow looming in front of her.
Between her and the package, a large minotaur entered the cottage, having to slightly bend forward in order to even fit through the door. Wordlessly, he took out a pair of nunchakus and started whirling them around his body at amazing speeds.
Yearling stood her ground, gauging her opponent. There was a bead of sweat on her forehead as she licked her lips, trying to decide her best option to attack.
Clonk!
“Ahh!” The large minotaur screamed when a small inkwell hit him squarely in the forehead, spilling its contents right in his eyes. Dropping his weapons, he flailed around blindly to find his way, only to get turned around and conk himself out on the door frame. His massive body hit the floor with a resounding thud.
Yearling turned around to give the unicorn, whose horn was still glowing from throwing the inkwell, a big grin. “Nice shot.”
“Thanks,” Velvet replied, completely out of breath from the ordeal, even though she hadn't actually physically exerted herself.
The first two goons had come around. Seeing their large companion knocked out cold on the floor, they decided to cut their losses, picked him up and made a run for it.
“Yeah, that's right! Tell Ahuizotl if he wants to tango, he should come himself,” Yearling shouted after them, then began muttering to herself. “Hm, could have come up with a better one-liner there, I guess. Gotta work on that.” Nonetheless the trio doubled their pace, and soon they were out of sight.
Velvet's mind went a mile a minute, trying to digest the hurricane that had just blown past her. Her eyes fell on the package, lying on the floor with part of its wrapping now undone. It revealed a two-headed idol of blue gemstone. “The Sapphire Stone,” she said in awe. Putting all of the pieces together in her head, she stared at the novice writer. “The Tenochtitlan Basin, Ahuizotl, they're all real. Your manuscript, it's not fiction at all.”
Yearling gave her a weak smile. “Guess I'm busted. Please don't tell anypony. I used the pseudonym on purpose. You just saw the kind of dimwits I have to deal with, but even they could figure out my identity if I called the hero of my book Yearling.”
The unicorn nodded her agreement. “Of course, my lips are sealed.” Then she glanced at the manuscript. “So this is why it feels like it does. And here I thought you were just some novice writer who can't handle constructive criticism.”
“And I thought you were just some pencil pusher who doesn't know what it's like to take action, at least until you floored that minotaur.” Yearling also looked at her manuscript. “Truth be told, I'm not sure I can make the changes you want me to make. I'm just not cut out to write fiction. I make a lot of notes during my travels, but it's all fairly clinical.”
Velvet licked her lips. “Then how about a collaboration?”
Yearling raised an eyebrow. “Collaboration?”
“Yes. I've been writing all my life, and you're clearly more cut out for the adventures themselves. So when you finish a manuscript, you send it to me, and I punch it up a little. Just to make it a more enjoyable read, you know.”
The pegasus mare considered that. “Yeah, that doesn't seem like a bad idea. I don't really have the time to sit at home and give it all the bells and whistles myself.” She held out her hoof. “Alright, you got a deal, Adventure Kid.”
Velvet grimaced. “Adventure Kid?”
“Yeah, you can be like my writing sidekick. We'll both combine our names to create a new pen name. Adventure Kid – Yearling!”
“How about … A.K. Yearling?” Velvet suggested, shaking her hoof.
“Hey, that sounds even better!” Yearling gave her a big grin, then frowned. “You're still gonna change the title character's name, aren't you?”
“Absolutely,” Velvet deadpanned. “Miss Adventure just doesn't cut it.” She tapped her hoof against her chin, lost in thought. “Hm, it's gotta be something to match your personality, though. So daring in the face of danger, a mare with a can-do attitude, constantly drawn to the call of adventure, … I got it!”
* * *
Six months later, Twilight Velvet walked up the stairs in her Canterlot home, ready to put her daughter to bed. “Twilight?” she asked, looking into the little filly's room. But she wasn't there.
She heard a crash from the next room and hurried over to check it out. After the bout of fear for her daughter's safety settled, she put on a stern look. “Twilight Sparkle, what have I told you about going into mommy's study without permission?”
The little lavender filly looked at her guiltily, sitting amidst a pile of books she'd accidentally knocked down from the shelf. “Sorry, Mommy.” Then she held up one of them. “You always smile so much when you look at these things, so I wanted to know what they were.”
Her expression softened as she began to clean up with her magic, recognizing the one her daughter was holding as the one she'd just been sent by her publisher. “They're called books, Twilight. They're for reading.”
“Reading?” The filly stared at one of the pages, putting on a serious expression as she tried to make sense of the strange lines and symbols.
“Yes, the one you're holding was written by one of mommy's friends. Would you like me to read it to you?”
Twilight looked up at her and nodded fervently with a smile. “Yes, Mommy!”
Velvet chuckled. “Alright, but first things first. Good little fillies should be in bed by now.”
After placing her daughter and the book on her back with her magic, she carried them over to Twilight's room. After tucking her daughter into bed, she hovered over the hand-stitched Smarty Pants doll into her waiting hooves. There was no way Twilight would go to sleep without it.
“Comfy?” Velvet asked, bringing the blanket up to the filly's chin.
Twilight nodded.
Velvet cleared her throat as she opened the first page, settling in next to her daughter's bed. “Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue,” she began to read out aloud, “by A.K. Yearling.”
