Chapters Daring Do and the Scroll of Geniology
“Curse you, Daring Doooooooooo!” Ahuizotl yelled as she idly soared away into the azure sky. “I will have my revenge!”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” Daring do was about to slip the Silver Arrow of Robin Wood under her pith helmet but stopped herself at the last second. After the incident with the Spirit Dagger of Whinnie Tooth she had made a mental note not to carry hazardous objects where they could easily cut her.
Not that the arrow was dangerous, per se, but getting cut today along with all the bruises Ahuizotal gave her during their little dance wasn’t very high on her to-do list. She carried it in her hooves until she finally reached her temporary camp, far enough away from the heart of the Shearwood Forest to make it impossible for the evil villain’s minions to jump her anytime within the next twenty-four hours.
She flung the small silver arrow onto her bedroll. Another mistake, she thought, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, one she had not made since her adventure with the Egg of the Water Drake. She picked it up, irritation showing clearly with every movement, and sat down at the crate that served as her desk. She quickly ignited a match and lit the gas lamp on the table. It was already getting dark, after all.
Immediately, a swarm of moths were drawn to the lightsource. Daring Do rubbed one beige hoof over her magenta eyes and pulled her note book from the saddlebags resting at the foot of the crate and opened it. She dipped a quill into ink and started writing.
Day five of the Shearwood Expedition. Met Ahuizotl. We had another fight. Might’ve fractured a rib or two.
She closed the book and dropped the quill, then picked it back up with a groan. She opened the book again, searching for the right page, due to having forgotten to bookmark it. As she turned pages her eyes skimmed over the tight, orderly lines of text that had, in conjunction with her memory, created the Daring Do book series so many ponies in Equestria loved. Especially… her.
Daring shook her head once more, splashing droplets of ink over her journal from the quill in her mouth. Then she found a single page where two lines had been sloppily scribbled down. She looked at them blankly and added, found a silver arrow. Don’t know what it does.
With an irritated groan she shut the book once more, using the quill itself as a bookmark this time. “What in Tartarus’s name is wrong with me?” she huffed, falling on her back and folding her hooves behind her head. “I did it again! Cheers for the hero! Daring Do prevents Ahuizotl or any other villain from using the… obscure magic of the Silver Arrow to cause calamity! Yay!” It was a forced cheer.
She felt like there was a little devil sitting on her shoulder, whispering in her ear that she knew exactly what was the matter. The kid…
She just couldn’t take her mind off Rainbow Dash. Something about that energetic, superexcited fangirl had struck her eye, and she just couldn’t figure out what it was. In some respects Rainbow Dash was a lot like Daring. She had not hesitated to throw herself into harm’s way. In fact she had enjoyed it. And then there were other things, like her polychrome mane that reminded Daring of her her own, and her magenta eyes.
“It’s like looking in a mirror,” Daring mumbled. She just couldn’t get the cyan pegasus out of her head. Finally she got up, wiping down her tan shirt. “Okay, that’s it. I’m stashing the arrow here and then I’m gonna find that pegasus.” She made a mental note to drop by one of her other trasure hoards before she left. Sure, getting Rainbow Dash’s address had been simple enough, but it never hurt to have some extra directions. After all, for a mare willing to come all the way out here just to be a fangirl, who’s to say she wasn’t on a crazy trip halfway across the sea by now? The compass of Pirate Colt Sparrow could certainly come in handy.
***
Rainbow Dash stirred from her nap on the clouds and stretched like an oversized, winged cat, with a satisfied grin plastered on her face. It was a great day to be napping in the clouds. Celestia’s sun shone warmly down onto Ponyville, there was no disaster or apocalypse threatening the quaint little town.
“Time to get to work again!” Rainbow Dash grinned excitedly as she propped herself up and got to her hooves. Her wings stretched, letting the cool wind pass through her feathers, moving them ever so slightly. With her trademark smile still tight on her lips she dipped over and fell from the cloud, delivering to it a kick during her passage. The construct of fluffy white and moisture evaporated seemlessly at the force and angle of her buck.
Her smile widened even more as a faint haze of moisture wafted over her. She took pride in her job, and cloudbusting was not as easy as weather ponies made it look. Then, getting back to the task at hoof, Rainbow Dash pivoted in the air, closing her eyes. She was falling, backwards, completely blind. The wind in her ears rose to a screeching wail.
She could make out the sweet smell of apple trees below her.
Not yet.
She screwed her eyes shut, refusing to look. Gravity tugged at her, bringing her down even faster. The scent of apple became more powerful as she fell.
Not yet!
Her tail swayed behind her in an almost straight line, her mane was blown around the frame of her features by the oncoming wind. The scents from the ground, sweet apples along with wet grass became so strong she could almost taste them. The howling of the wind blotted out every other sound.
“Now!” She tensed her wings, performing a mid-fall barrel roll and angled upwards. Her hooves brushed over the top of Applejacks prized apple trees as she opened her eyes and rocketed back into the sky with a exuberant cheer. She knew these skies as well as no other pegasus.
Adrenaline surged through her body as she began her routine, performing sharp turns that would be impossible for any pegasus without her experience. Years of practice came into play as she gave her workout everything she had, diving, weaving, and flying backwards, performing barrle roll after barrel roll, following up with a corkscrew loop, one of the most difficult exercises.
Rainbow Dash’s wings felt like they were on fire by the time she was done, and so did the rest of her body. Her lungs, her heart, her limbs, tensed up to aid in maneuvering through the vast expanse that she called her domain, all of it. And she loved the sensation. It was probably one of the most rewarding sensations in the world.
Coming out of another mid-air summersault Rainbow Dash leveled her trajectory and accelerated. She drew more air under her wings with every flap, speeding up beyond the capabilities of most pegasi, trying to test her limits. Of course it wasn’t really all that much of a workout, she thought, considering she could breach the spectrum barrier at will, but if she really wanted to defend her title as fastest pegasus in Equestria from challengers like Fleetfoot or Spitfire, the captain of the wonderbolts, she would need to be able to pull it off consecutively.
But in the end, performing a sonic rainboom so close to Ponyville would be a very bad idea, Dash decided. Too much collateral damage. She didn’t mind, though. Her workout had her pretty beat, this round being the third she had completed since she got out of bed that morning, so she was content with simply flying over to her own house. As she neared the Testament to Rainbow Dash’s ego as her father had lovingly dubbed it, she flared out her wings further to bleed some speed, coming to a perfect halt in front of her door. She dropped down on the foundation and made her way to the porch with a satisfied hum.
“Hey there, Dash,” a raspy voice greeted her as soon as put a hoof on the door.
Rainbow Dash came to a standstill, trying to fit the voice into her memory of ponies while simultaniously searching for its owner. She was sure she had heard that particular voice before, but where…?
The answer came to her as she looked upwards into a pair of brilliant magenta eyes, peering at her from underneath strands of grey. Golden features had spread into a friendly smile with which Daring Do regarded her number one fan. “Come on, you’re supposed to be fast! You do remember me, right?”
“D-Daring D-Do? ” Rainbow Dash squealed.
“In the flesh!” the mare in the tan shirt and pith helmet said smirking. “Long time no see. Well, not surprising considering that I live at the other end of Equestria.” Daring gently touched down on the cloud, sending a tingle through it and into Rainbow Dash’s hooves. “So, how’ve you been?”
“I… You… Great, thanks…” Rainbow still stared with her mouth hanging open. Then, suddenly, as if waking up from a very vivid dream, she shook her head. “Sorry, I guess I just didn’t expect to see one of my heroes showing up on my doorstep.”
“One of our heroes?” Dasing Do said with a raised eyebrow. “Now I’m excited to meet the other ones!”
Dash chuckled slightly at that and motioned towards the door. “Would you like to come in?”
“Sure!” Daring followed the blue pegasus into her cloudhouse. “You know, you’re one hell of a flier. I tried to catch up to you, but considering I was wearing my A. K. Yearling disguise... Well, let's just say eeing an elderly mare speed across the sky like a canonball isn’t exactly inconspicuous,” she said, motioning to her saddlebags.
“You coulda called my name,” Dash remarked as she led Daring into her livingroom and motioned for her to sit down at the couch. Dash took the empty space next to her. “Sorry ‘bout that,” she muttered as her flank brushed along Daring’s. “I rarely get visitors up here, so there’s not much in the way of furniture ‘n stuff…”
“That’s alright,” Daring retorted with a chuckle. “And about calling your name, I did. Three times. Then I stopped and watched you perform, which was totally worth the wait. You could become a wonderbolt! I mean, I said I could’ve caught up to you, but honestly, I doubt I’m fast enough.”
“Heh…” Dash rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “Well, I did join the wonderbolts reserves, and Spitfire says I have potential, but – hmpf?" Her eyes darted to Daring’s as the older mare pressed a hoof on her mouth.
“Hang on a sec there, champ, did you just say Spitfire ?” Daring slowly, very slowly lifted her hoof.
Dash shifted on the couch, uncomfortable with the sudden development. “Y-yeah. She kinda is my idol…”
Daring Do’s lips parted in a wide grin. “So Spits really made it into the wonderbolts, and now she’s training you ?”
“I-I guess – wait, Spits ? You know the captain of the wonderbolts?”
“Small world, isn’t it…” Daring noted, turning her gaze ahead to some unfixed point in the distance. “Spitfire and I were in flightschool together. Of course she was at the top of the class, her father being one of the most renowned fliers around. Well, so was mine, but I never really cared all that much. I hated the restrictions. So as fate would have it, Spitfire and I got into some scuffles with each other. Well, specifically I and her best friend, Nightshade. I wonder how they’re doing…”
Dash shrugged and grinned. “I’ve never really met this Nightshade, but Spitfire is doing great. I’d tell her you said Hi, but I really don’t wanna get booted from the academy!”
Daring let loose a hearty laugh and put her hoof around Dash’s neck. “That’s the spirit! You know kid, you’re pretty cool!”
“Of course I am, I’m Rainbow Danger Dash!”
“Oooh, middle name being Danger? Quite the fan I got myself there!” Daring grinned.
Dash went along with her laughing, but eventually it died down. After she had regained her composure, she started, “You know, Daring Do - ”
“Just Daring will be fine.”
“Okay, Daring. I really like having you here, but I was wondering, is there maybe some reason you decided to drop by?”
Daring ruffled Dash’s mane. “Tell you what, you get me something to drink, and I’ll spill the beans. Deal?”
“Deal!” Dash chortled as she got up and made her way to the kitchen across the corridor. “But you’ll have to settle for hot chocolate. Twilight’d kill me if she ever saw me keeping alcohol in my house.”
“What, you’re not old enough to drink? But sure, it’ll Do.” She grinned at her own joke.
“Well, I am sixteen, but Twilight really freaks out about it, alcohol being a mental deterrent or something. Of course, having Applejack as a friend means I have access to her private stash of apple cider, but I don’t rub it in Twi’s face.” She took two cups from the top shelf of her kitchen cupboard and filled them with equal amounts of coca powder. Then she set a pot of milk on the oven and started a fire.
“So, Twilight is the purple one, and Applejack the one with the Apple Cutie Mark?” Daring called from the livingroom, where she sat arms laid back over the couch. “I didn’t really get to meet all of them, seeing as I made a rather hasty exit.” She looked around and noticed a picture frame hanging on the wall above the fireplace. It held the photo of a happy family, a couple with a young filly with a polychrome mane. Daring’s smile waned slightly as memories from her own childhood resurfaced.
“Yeah, that’s right. AJ is the one supplying most of ponyville with crops. I sometimes wonder how she does it, but then again, her whole family pitches in to help. And Twilight, aka Princess Twilight, is living in the Golden Oak Library. Maybe we should go meet them and hang out, since you’re already here!” Dash suggested, filling the cups with hot milk and stirring the quickly darkening liquid with a spoon out of one of the drawers.
“I’d rather not,” Daring mouthed, fidgeting a bit. “Not that I don’t trust your friends, and I’ll certainly drop by again to get to know them, but the last time I met a princess before that, it really didn’t go well…”
“That right? Wasn’t in one of your books.” Dash returned, wings flapping, with two cups balanced on her hooves and offered her heroine one.
Daring took it and strained herself so her voice wouldn’t shake. “Well, Daring Do is a fictional character. As such it wouldn’t make much sense to imply that anything in these stories is real, so I try not to do that. However, when Celestia showed up on my doorstep a few years back, she was pissed at everything I had done. I mean, yeah, my deeds were good in general, but me amassing enough magical artifacts to destroy Equestria three times over? She really wasn’t a fan of that!”
“Whoa, that many?” Dash said with her eyes wide.
“Not all of ‘em make it into my books. Like this little beauty!” She pulled a compass from her saddlebags at the foot of the couch. It was black and polished and when she opened it it spun wildly. “This compass belonged to Pirate Colt Sparrow. It doesn’t show ou where north or south is, but it points at anything you really want.”
“So… cool!” Dash squeaked. “Where’d you get that?”
Daring smirked and put the compass away. “On an island that can only be found if you happen to know where it is. It’s a long and rather dreary story. But maybe I’ll write it down one day.”
“You could just embellish a little bit,” Rainbow suggested with a shrug. “You did it with our own little adventure. Not that I mind, but I can’t quite remember dropkicking Ahuizotal in the jaw.”
“Oh well, get over it. I’m the author, I can do stuff like that.” She frowned at Dash’s cocked eyebrow. “Trust me, my dramatic license is every bit as real as your daredevil license.”
Rainbow’s jaw dropped. “Wait… Have you been spying on me?”
“Reading up on would be the term I’d use. Gotta know your fans, right?” Daring quickly flashed Dash another smile that made her blush slightly. “So, how long’ve you been living here?”
“Oh, just about four years,” Rainbow Dash told her. “Ever since I moved out at my Dad’s in Cloudsdale. What about you? How’d you end up way out in the wildernis?”
“I’ve been living there for something more than fifteen years. Moved out from my parent’s when I was fourteen. I just needed the freedom.”
“I guess that’s something we have in common,” Rainbow Dash said.
Daring finished her hot Chocolate with a quick tilt of her head and shot Rainbow Dash another glance. “Look, I gotta bail. It’s been nice catching up with ya. We should do it again sometime…”
“Totally,” Dash said, standing up, offering her hero a hoof.
Daring just stepped closer for a quick hug, then drew back and smiled sheeishly. “So anyway… Time to get going.” It took her barely three seconds to don the grey piece of cloth, the wide hat and the thick glasses that disguised her as A. K. Yearling.
Dash accompanied her to the front door and waved her goodbeye. As much as she had enjoyed this “social call”, she couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed when Daring left so suddenly.
“Oh well.” She looked back to the couch and her eye caught the picture hanging above the fireplace through the door frame. A smile appeared on her lips. It had been a while since she’d last checked in with her dad.
***
Daring Do moved about the floating city as inconspicuously as she possibly could. The mare walking around glancing at the compass in her hooves every so often was regarded with a few passing glances, but that was all they had for her.
Eventually the gold furred explorer stopped in front of a small, cozy looking house. Very gently she pushed the gate to the front yard open with a hoof, but then she hesitated. She covered her face with a wing and peeked through her feathers. She wasn’t ready.
She didn’t know if she could go the last few steps.
The sensation of hooves on the cloud from behind her startled Daring and made her dart around. There was an elderly mare standing on the street looking at her. “Can Ah help ya somehow, miss…?”
“Sparkle!” Daring blurted, using the first name that came to mind. “I’m Rainbow Sparkle. I-I… I was looking for a stallion by the name of Rainbow Blaze who used live around here.”
The mare nodded her grey head. “That’s the ‘ol cloud chaser’s home alright. You a relative of his? Don’ think he ever mentioned ya’ll…”
Daring exhaled softly, drooping her head. “Yeah, I suppose he wouldn’t… We parted on… well, less than good terms.”
“And now ya’ll came to apologize?”
Daring bit her lip and nodded. She really didn’t want to divulge her private issues to some random stranger, but it didn’t really matter anymore. This would be a quick visit, nothing more, nothing less. “Yeah…”
“Uh-huh…” The mare bobbed her head slightly. “Well, tell ‘em if he gives you any grief fer tryin’ to make things right, Sunny Skies will kick his sour old rump to Canterlot an’ back!”
Daring didn’t look at the mare as she went on to trott down the street. She donned her best determined expression and leapt into the air, coming down hard before the front door of the house, sending vibrations to the cloud to announce her arrival to the pegasus presumably inside. After all, you can't knock on a door made of cloud.
Only once the vibrations had ceased did it occur to her that coming down so hard could be considered downright rude. Her expression faltered as she turned away, and her glasses fell. That was when she heard the soft swish of a cloud door opening, and a full, vibrant voice; “Can I help you with something?”
Daring froze up. Command over her legs returned to her in what seemed like an eternity, when she could finally turn around to shoot a glance at the stallion with the rainbow coloured mane from underneath her hat. She bit her lip again, her expression one of sorrow as his eyes widened in recognition. “H-hey. Dad.”
***
Rainbow Dash lounged on the couch, sipping a hot chocolate. Almost a week had gone by since Daring had come to visit, and only slightly less since she herself had dropped in at her Dad’s place.
Dash lifted the letter she held pressed to her chest wth her free hoof, reading it one more time.
Hey Dash,
So I hear you already heard the news. Sorry I lied to you. Or at least I wasn’t completely honest. I understand if you’re angry at me for not voicing my suspicions to you before. I guess I’m a pretty feeble hero after all.
Anyway, I sent a copy of my newest work. With this letter. It’s dreadfully embelished, and only twenty percent of it are actually true. But it was important to me that you received it. I hope I’ll see you again sometime and we can sort this thing out.
Daring.
Shaking her head slightly, Rainbow Dash dropped the letter and reached for the thin booklet on the floor. She scooped it up with her wings, and – setting down her cup of hot chocolate – dropped it into her hooves. Her eyes slowly moved along the title. Daring Do and the Scroll of Geniology.
The cover held Daring holding a single scroll, kept closed by a piece of rainbow coloured ribbon and the wax seal a representation of Dash’s cutie mark.
Opening it, Dash read the first words of the book again, like she had done so often in the past few hours.
For Rainbow Dash, from your big sister, Daring Do. – Stay awesome!
Dash slowly closed the book and carefully laid it down beside the letter. Then she got up and rummaged through various cupboards for a piece of paper and a pen. Gripping it in her mouth with a smile, she began to write;
Dear sis…
Daring Do and the One-sided Conversation
At the far reaches of Equestria lies a humongous jungle. Everypony knows it, and nopony cares. Which, in her honest opinion, was a celestiadamned stroke of luck, Daring Do thought as she virtually hacked her way through the jungle's unparalelled undergrowth with her machete. After all, if more ponies did show up around here, it would severely hinder her past time, raiding tombs and undiscovered ruins to rid them of their priceless and often highly volatile magic artifacts.
Pausing for the briefest of moments, Daring checked the blade of her tool. Finding that it was dulled too much to still be used she sheathed it and pulled out another one, this being her third during this particular adventure. And on she went, while beads of sweat slowly ran down her face and neck, as well as all four hooves. It was hard work, but it was necessary.
Suddenly, something tackled her mid-swing. Daring let out a soft oomph as the attacker knocked the wind out of her, then bucked wildly to shake off whatever creature of the jungle had sought to make her its lunch.
"Woah there, take it easy!" the creature said, fending off the blows with relative ease.
"Dash?" Daring Do asked, her voice a low growl. She pushed her pith helmet further up until it no longer hindered her view from where it had slid down during her fall. "The buck was that about?"
The blue pegasus mare rolled her eyes. "You've been walking through this jungle, hacking away at plants for the last five hours now! I mean, I'm good, but my routine doesn't extend over six hours, so could you just hurry it up? Come on, sis! We're pegasi, we could just fly there!"
Daring glowered at her obnoxious little sister as she picked up her machete. "Well, if the forest canopy weren't so thick, we could definitely do that, yes. But seeing as it's not, we wont be able to find the ruins of the Snake Priest Temple from up there. So ground work it is."
"Ugh!" Rainbow Dash rubbed her temple with a hoof. "Can't you just use that nifty compass of Pirate Colt Narrow-"
"Sparrow."
"-Sparrow to find it?" Dash continued her sentence.
"No, that would be cheating." Daring Do didn't have to wait even a moment for her sister's exasperated gasp as she continued her way through the vivid plantlife.
"Cheating? Seriously? I get that you like to stick to your books, but come on! This is ridiculous!"
"Well suck it up!" Daring snapped. "This is my life ! You were the one who wanted to tag along-" she pointed her hoof accusingly at Dash - "so just deal with it!"
Rainbow rolled her magenta eyes. "Fine, whatever you say, Dashie."
Daring stopped dead in her tracks, one eye twitching. She slowly turned around to face her sister, who had stretched out one muscular wing to preen it slightly. "What did you just call me?" Daring hissed in disbelief.
"Dashie." Rainbow Dash smirked at her. "You know, I think it was pretty cool of dad to give us both similar names. I mean, Daring Dash? Sounds pretty good, don'tcha think?"
Daring swallowed and hissed through gritted teeth, "He promised not to tell you."
"He didn't," Rainbow remarked indifferently as she flexed her wing again. "I looked up your file in the law enforcement unit headquarters. Perks of being best buddies with a princess."
"So you know everything." Daring turned away and stared at the muddled reflection in the machete. "Good," she managed to choke out. She could feel her eyes burning and quickly wiped them. She couldn't let her newfound sister see her crying because of some stupid mistake she'd made.
That was when she felt a wing draping over her back. "I don't. I only looked at your name. Sorry, I probably should've trusted you, but when a almost complete stranger suddenly turns out to be your sister... well, I got curious is all."
Daring wiped her eyes again, gritting her teeth. She hadn't cried since... since she'd gotten that one letter. "Can't blame you for it. So is that why you wanted to tag along?"
"Well, yes," Rainbow Dash said, taking the machete from Darings hooves and clamping her own around it. "Spending some quality time with my big sister, getting to know her and why she didn't show up in my life for sixteen years. Perfect opportunity." She began to shlash at the plants annd bushes in their way, but Daring grabbed her hoof with her wing to stop her.
"Fine. You wanna talk? Let's talk." She motioned Dash over to a tiny clearing, where something big had vigurously attacked the trees and pushed them aside like matchsticks. Flapping her wings she flew up onto one of the fallen logs and sat down. When Dash came to join her, she took her machete back and began to clean the other two. "So, I guess I should just start talking?"
"You make it sound like an interrogation gone wrong," Dash remarked with a cocked eyebrow.
Daring slowly shook her head. "Yeah, kinda what it feels like. But I have to get this off my chest. I've been carrying my mistakes around with me for sixteen years." She took a deep breath as she pulled a whetstone from her traveler's bag and began to resharpen the blades. "As you might've guessed, dad and I... we didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. I was one hell of a bad filly. Always getting into fights, getting kicked out of flight school after flight school... After I got kicked out for the first time, I kinda... snapped, you know? I had just lost all my friends, seeing as they lived nowhere near cloudsdale, and so I started breaking stuff. One time I got in a fight with a colt and broke his wing. Dad was furious. I know he was, even though he never told me."
She turned the machete in her hooves and continued, the sound of the stone scraping against the metal being the only thing to breake the silence. "I called him weak. He was always apologizing for my mistakes, always trying to make up for my misdeeds when he could've just pushed it all on me. Now I see that he was stronger than I ever could be. He put up with me, his unruly daughter who couldn't follow a simple instruction for the life of her." Again, the machete turned in her hooves.
"When I was fifteen, still without a job, spending night and day in night clubs, drinking and brawling, things changed. That was when I broke that colts wing, and this time, this time dad actually yelled at me. Of course I didn't care, tried to play it tough. So he slapped me. Once, square in the face." She held her hoof to her left cheek with a look of sorrow in her magenta eyes. "I deserved that and so much more. But he left it at that. Then he sent me to my room, and I just stormed out of the house. I flew until my wings couldn't carry me any more. Somehow I winded up in the wildernes and was lucky enough to find an abandoned cottage. Somehow I managed to get by, and I started scouting the area. By accident I stumbled across some ruins and just so happened to snatch an artifact right out of the claws of the strangest creature I had ever seen. When my wandering lead me to more ruins, I finally discovered my Cutie Mark."
She sheathed the machete and proceeded to tend to the other one. She couldn't bear to look up at her younger sister, so she just watched her hooves out of the corner of her eye as she spoke. "After that I dove into my newfound passion. The first few artifacts I sold in the nearest city, to a museum. I almost got caught by law enforcement units a few times, seeing as some of these artifacts were pretty dangerous and the princesses were quite concerned." Rainbow's hooves stayed planted firmly on the mossy log beside her. If she hated her sister yet, she didn't let it show. "With the money I had acquired I bought enough supplies and equipment, such as machetes, clothes, medicing and such, to get by in the jungle without having to fear for my life. Eventually I started doing research on the places I found. And at some point I decided that maybe I should look for a different source of income, seeing as the artifacts I found became increasingly dangerous, and not all of them just decided to conveniently shatter like that damn ring did... I heard that authors could make quite a lot of money, so after cutting into my sleep time for a few months I basically transformed my journal into the first Daring Do story ever written."
She allowed a faint smile to appear on her lips. "With the money I could finally afford the equipment I needed to keep the artifacts safe. I made it my life's goal to foil the plans of people like Ahuizotal or Dr. Caballeron, individuals who only cared about money and power. I managed to set up stashes all over the country, so whenever I'm not at home in that cozy little shack to write my novels or travel around discovering ruins, or do research on obscure myths to find ruins... Kinda lost my train of thought there, but whenever I can I travel around, securing my stashes further and make sure nothing's missing."
Her smile faltered and she sheathed her second machete. Her nose crunched up as she tried to hold back the tears that were stinging her eyes as she managed to choke out the next few words. "And then, ten years ago, I... I got the news about mom. I was cisiting the cloudsdale hospital for a medical checkup. It had something to do with some documents getting mixed up, so I had to go back there... That's when one of the nurses told me she was sorry for my loss." She burried her face in her hooves, now shaking with every breath. "I... I missed her. By just a few hours. And I've felt awful ever since. I just wish I could've made things right between us. She suffered just as much as dad, but I didn't see it. Heck, I didn't even notice she was pregnant when I left home. I'm so sorry, Dash. I'm an awful sister..."
Daring could feel a wing draping over her back. "You know," Rainbow Dash said, "you're right about one thing. You're an awful pony. I get that you were angry, but I don't get what triggered all of this. And I know you're still keeping something from me."
Daring wiped her eyes with her hoof. Sorry, Rainbow. But you're just not ready to know the whole truth... "I-I'm sorry..." she sobbed.
"I never would've let the ponies that care about me hanging, no matter what." The wing around her shoulders tugged her a bit closer. "But you're not an awful sister. You haven't really had time to be a real sister yet, so how about we just focus on that?"
Daring lifted her gaze to Rainbow's, meeting her magenta eyes with her own. Then she nodded, quietly. They continued on until late into the evening. Finally, when reaching another clearing, Daring flew up to one of the trees and loosened a steel crate tied to the branches with well-oiled chains. She produced from said crate a fine net for keeping off flies that could be hung in between the branches, and two hamocks, as well as a lamp and some matches. None of the two sisters spoke much that evening.
As Rainbow Dash made herslef comfortable in one of the hamocks, Daring Do sat down on a thick branch before the crate and pulled her journal out of her saddlebags.
Snake Priest Temple. Day one...
View Online
Daring Do and the Morally Questionable Work Environment
"Say, Daring... You never told me why you changed your name!" Dash shouted towards her sister as she felt a gust of wind rush past her face, created by a grey skinned hand that had tried to hit her.
"Is this really the time for this?" the golden furred mare snapped back while dodging a rock flung at her.
Dash thought for a second while twisting the hoof of a cultist behind his back and slamming him face-first into the cold sandstone floor of the temple. "S'pose not, but I still wanna know! I mean, it's about time!" She turned around and bucked another in the chest, sending him flying. "We've been doing this for over two months now. Kinda feel like it's time for you to spill the beans!"
"Curse you, Danger Dash!" Ahuizotl howled as he pulled two malevolent looking black polished weapons out of a duffle bag. Dash and her sister dove towards each other, hiding behind a pillar that was getting pelted with bullets a moment later.
"Come on! Just spill it already!" Dash yelled over the excessive gunfire. "And while we're on the subject of names, why'd you introduce me to him as "Danger Dash"? Not that I don't like it, Danger is my middle name, but it's not like it was necessary!"
"I shall end you both!"
"The less he knows about you, the better! And on top of that, if he keeps calling you "Rainbow Dash" I'd have trouble getting into the right mindset for my stories." She rolled her hoof in the air. "It's... sort of an egghead thing."
"Well okay!" Dash carefully leaned around the corner only to pull back her head a moment later. "You never mentioned him having machine guns in any story. Or really out of place looking duffle bags."
Daring sighed and took a sip from her canteen. "We had a little incident a while back where I almost stuck an arrow in his butt. Guess he upped his own equipment a little after that." She listened to the continuing gunfire. "Okay, here's the plan. Soon as he reloads, I'm gonna jump out, and when he focuses on me, you're gonna dash over there and snatch the amulet of Smartland from him!" She peered around the corner, but then turned back when her sister didn't reply. "What's the deal? You got it or not?"
Dash was wiggling her eyebrow at Daring do. "So I'm supposed to Dash over there?" She snorted in a stifled laugh. Daring rolled her eyes.
"Hardy har har. Now get your head back in the game!" The gunfire ceased, followed by a few sharp clicks. Daring jumped out of her hiding place to face her adversary. At the same time, Ahuizotl lifted his tail hand over his back. The heroine's eyes grew wide as she saw the third machine gun, prepped and ready in his grasp.
The very moment gunfire once again rattled, Daring made herslef as small as possible behind her pith helmet. Bullets struck it and a few of them grazed her wings and shoulders, but none hit anything vital. Then the fire broke off. With a fierce battlecry, Dash lunged at Ahuizotl who had clutched the amulet of Smartland tightly. The massive creature toppled over with a surprised yelp and the amulet flew from his grasp and into Daring's waiting hooves.
"No! You will not get away this time!" the villain howled in rage, but when his fist struck where Rainbow Dash had been just a few moments ago, all he hit was empty air and sandstone that shattered under the force of his punch. Dash gently flapped over to her sister who was giving Ahuizotal a soft smile.
"Thanks so much for the amulet, darling. You didn't have to get me anything though. I wouldn't want to trouble you."
Ahuizotl looked at his empty hand, then the amulet Daring slid around her neck with lidded eyes. For a moment his face turned red and his teeth gnashed so hard that they could've broken off. But just as soon as he had broken into his fit, he snapped out of it, smoothing his fur with one grey paw. "But of course, dearest miss Do. You'll just have to give me something in return." He grinned slightly, shifting in place. "How about that water drake egg you took from me?"
"Maybe another time," Daring said, blowing him a kiss, then flapped her wings and took off almost vertically, escaping through the open top of the temple pyramid. She heard gunfire and felt a few bullets graze her leg, but again, no actual damage was inflicted. Of course there was a chance that Ahuizotal had hit Dash, so Daring quickly checked her surroundings. Looking around, she found her sister right behind her. She frowned. Dash was usually two flaps ahead of her. She slowed down to let her sister catch up as they weaved through the tight branches of the jungle canopy and into the clouded sky. "Something wrong? Did he hit you anywhere?"
"'Course not!" Dash scoffed. She batted Darings hoof away as her concerned sister tried to examine her for wounds. "Let it go, I was just thinking about something."
"I get the feeling you're upset."
"Not upset, just confused. It's..." Dash rubbed her leg with a hoof. "You see it's kinda a touchy subject."
"Come on, sis, spit it out!" Daring heartily patted Dash on the back.
"Okay, okay, fine!" Dash growled. Then she fell silent. Her face scrunched up as she tried to find a way to ask her sister the question burning on her mind without making things awkward. "So... Do you have a thing for Ahuizotl?"
Awkward central just became located somewhere in the desolate airspace above the jungle. Darings jaw dropped, and so did the rest of her body as she momentarily forgot to flap her wings. "What? " she yelled a moment later. "Are you crazy ? No way!"
"Huh. Okay." Dash shrugged lightly. "Because it kinda sounded like you two were flirting. I was wondering what that tension was I felt when he showed up, but I figured it was just the imminent danger of getting killed."
Daring remained silent for a moment. Then she said, "Well, maybe we were flirting. Just a bit."
Dash promptly forgot to flap her wings and dropped a few meters before rising back up again. "What ? Seriously? But why? He's your enemy for pony's sake, and he tried to kill you at least twenty times now!"
"Well, things get kinda lonely if you live in the jungle for sixteen years. So I guess we kinda cling to each other to stay sane." Daring didn't look her sister in the eye. Yet another aspect of Daring Do she forgot to mention in her books. The hero was lonely. Yeah, that would make for a stupid hero.
"That's... really morally questionable. I mean, you're dating the guy who tries to kill your sister!" Dash exclaimed, gesticulating wildly.
"We're not dating!"
"It would make for a good title though," Dash continued on, lost in thought. "Daring Do and the Date , or maybe, Dating Do and the handsome villain !"
Dairng pulled her pith helmet down a bit as she felt her face flush. "Yeah well," she mouthed quietly, "It's the way things are for me."
"Well you don't need him anymore. After all, I'm here now!"
Daring looked at her sister in disbelief, only to get back a cocky grin. "Seriously? So you find it morally questionable that I flirt with my enemy, and in stead suggest I flirt with my sister? Not happening."
"C'mon, I'm hot stuff!" Dash slung her forelegs around her sister neck to nuzzle her right behind the ear. "I mean, I'd Do me," she whispered teasingly, her warm breath brushing against Daring's fur.
"Get off!" Daring quickly pushed Dash away, her face now bright red. "It's not funny, Dash!"
"Aww, why not?" Dash grinned with her forelegs on her hips. "You jump into a nest of vipers but a little teasing gets you all bent out of shape?"
"Well I'm not actually realted to the vipers, nor do they imply to do anything improper with my own sister , for pony's sake!" Daring glared.
Dash pulled a hoof up to her mouth to hide the massive grin spreading on her lips. "So let me get this straight..."
"No!" Daring shot forwards clomping a hoof onto Dash's mouth. "No more jokes, teasing, or suggestive implications from you, please! I've really had it with you for this particular adventure!"
Dash just pushed daring away as though she were some little filly. Daring knew that her sister worked out like a madmare, but still, she should't be able to just overpower her so casually. "Oh, fine. I'll stop teasing you. For now!" She said with a wink and dove off into the sky. "I'm heading back home, aight?"
"Roger that, Dashie," Daring sighed. "Are we still up for the southern border investigation next month?"
"Wouldn't miss it!" Dash yelled back before she disappeared, leaving a colourful contrail in her wake.
Daring's happy expression dropped as soon as her sister was out of sight. Dash's behaviour had changed significantly around her. She was no longer shy or reserved in light of her sister's misdeeds. She looked down at the heavy gold and jade amulet around her neck. It was supposed to be able to absorb any magic thrown at it. "That'll come in handy," she murmured. After the next adventure, she would have to tell Rainbow Dash. About their family legacy and the Order of Knights.
Daring Do and the Military Research Base
"Okay, this is it," Daring remarked, bobbing her head in the direction of the military base on the cliff not further than fife hundred meters from them. Red stone surrounded them, and between them and the base lay a deep gorge, so deep in fact, that it's bottom was impossible to make out.
Rainbow Dash pulled away the goggles that protected her eyes from the red dust and motioned for her sister to hand over the binoculars. Then she took a look through and quickly found the tall grey rectangular complex. "Fences... Barbed wire... Watchtowers... Floodlights... Unicorn and pegasi teams patroling the compound... They really don't want anypony to get in there, do they?" She scanned the area once more, noticing that the top layer of the concrete building in the middle of the compound was the only one darkened. "So, what's the deal this time? I doubt there are going to be traps in there."
Daring chuckled and went through their equipment. Flashbang grenades, smoke grenades, a few firecrackers, wire cutters, made especially for pegasi, and many other things landed in a neat line on the ground as she laid them out. "Yeah, same here. They can't very well expect their scientists to dodge poisoned arrows. We're searching for something they keep hidden in warehouse twelve. An artifact called "Winter's Lance". It's supposed to be quite powerful and dangerous."
"So why not just leave it there? If we donate it to some museum like we did with the other stuff we found, we're only going to make it easier for whoever wants it." Dash stayed on the lookout for any suspicious activity.
"True, but we're not going to donate it. We're going to hide it away forever." Daring quickly checked the wire cutters. They were easy enough to handle. "An anonymous threat has been made against this facility. The princesses can't send their troops here to help, because it doesn't "officially" exist. So all in all, we're doing them a favour."
"Can't wait for Twilight to hear about this," Rainbow mumbled. "She's going to be pissed when she finds out that I broke into a secret military compound just to steal some ancient artifact. What else do we know about that lance thingie?"
Daring shrugged lightly. "It's only the blade we're interested in. It's supposed to be a transparent blue, a sort of crystal, about as big as a hoof, and really sharp. I don't actually know what it does, but I know we're going to meet heavy resistance." She handed Rainbow Dash a set of body armour. "Try it on. We need to be able to get in quick, but once that's done, we try to blend in."
Dash nodded and began to slip into the stiff trousers. "How'll we get in?"
"I've contacted somepony who owes me a favour. He's gonna provide distraction." She looked up at the moon. "It's almost time now."
Making a few adjustments to her set of body armour, Dash returned it to Daring who stuffed it back into the duffle bag. "Okay then. What kind of distraction will it be?"
"Dunno. Guess we'll have to wait and see."
They waited, huddled closely together to shelter each other from the harsh winds, when a thundering crack tore through the night. Daring's ears perked up. "Looks like it's starting." Looking at the compound with the binocular's nightvision module enable she spotted smoke rising from one corner of the building. "Dammit! I told him to provide a distraction, not level the damn building!" Chewing on her lip she noticed that her ally had indeed taken out the power generator. "Okay, we got roughly five minutes before the backup power kicks in. Think you can make inside the main building by then?" she asked Dash.
Rainbow Dash scoffed at her sister's ridiculous question. "Um, hello? You're talking to Rainbow Dash here! My top speed is three hundred thirty metres per second!"
"Then get a move on!" Daring grabbed her bag and started pumping her wings.
***
Rainbow Dash tried her best not to flinch as another glowing line streaked across the sky. Even from where they were hovering in the air, they could clearly make out the muzzle fire of the rifle their ally used. Whatever kind of weapon it was, it packed enough of a punch to tear through solid walls at a two kilometer distance, leaving a blinding afterimage of the shot for everypony that dared to look at the sky.
The two sisters dove down to the double doors of the main building. Daring didn't hesitate and just bucked the door open. Wood splinetered and since the power was still out, no alarm went off. They swiftly made their way inside, then engaged their nightvision goggles. "So," Dash asked, licking her lips in anticipation. "You said this warehouse is a structually integral part of the main building? Kinda defeats the purpose."
Daring nodded and started down the green tinted corridor. "I guess, but it makes our job easier. It's on the top floor."
"The one with all the lights out?"
"Just go up the stairs until you hit a wall."
"Roger that."
Suddenly, lights flickered and their nightvision became somewhat obsolete. Daring and Dash quickly disposed of their goggles, for they would look too suspicious. That was when the alarm went off.
"This is sector five speaking; All non-combat personnel is to evacuate the main building immediatley and make their way to the underground bunker. This is not a drill. Proceed with caution." All that to the blaring of a siren. Luckily, the helmets they wore muffled the sound sufficiently to keep thinking straight.
There was a small pause as Rainbow and her sister made their way to the stairs, stepping aside to allow some wide-eyed ponies in lab coats to pass them. "This is sector seven. Stautus report: Wireless communications are down. Main power generator severely damaged. Backup power running at full capacity. Section leader dispatched for a wide sweep of the area. Main unit dispatched for enemy engagement."
Another pause. "Scout unit reporting in. Confirmed sighting of a single assailant. Weapon confirmed to be a modified high-caliber anti-material rifle. Moving in for capture. All units are highly advised to proceed with caution."
"I hope your friend makes it out of there," Rainbow remarked, nudging her sister with a wing. "These guys seem pretty organized."
"Unsettling, but not our concern," Daring retorted. "He's not really a friend. Just a guy who tried to kill me and whose life I saved. He said he owed me, so if he gets caught, we're even."
"Whoa. Pretty dark, sis," Rainbow said somberly. "So tell me, how high are the chances of them catching him?"
Daring made a quick mental calculation. "Well, their chances of finding him are about eighty percent, with how he keeps firing that thing of his." As if on cue, the building was rocked by another explosion. "However, their chances of surviving the encounter... About ten percent."
"Wait a second!" Dash grabbed Daring's shoulder and forced her to turn around. "I never agreed to killing anypony!"
Daring rolled her eyes behind the visor. "I was speaking figuratively. What, you think I'm so callous I'd kill somepony who hasn't wronged me? He'll leave them off the hook with a few fractured limbs and broken bones, I made sure of that."
Dash snorted, still enraged. "Alright, I'll take your word for it. But once this is over we're gonna have to talk about how you leave me out of the loop every time we do stuff like this!"
Daring simply sighed and nodded, then turned to walk the last few steps up the stairs. "Fine by me. I was going to talk to you about something important anyway." The walked along the corridor at a swift pace. To their left were orange doors lined up, all having a black number painted onto them in large bold letters. They stopped at number twelve.
"You ready?" Daring asked, pulling out the black compass. "Once we breake in there, we'll have to move quickly."
She could've sworn Rainbow Dash had just raised an eyebrow below the visor. "Using the compass, eh? What about your "no cheating" policy?"
"I'm not going to argue with you about this!" Daring hissed as she and Rainbow both started to peel out of their body armour. "I won't use some ancient magic to do my self appointed job for me, but I also won't risk my sister's life out of a false sense of pride!"
"There's nothing wrong with having a little pride," a voice over the intercom spoke.
Daring Do's eyes darted towards the end of the corridor. There was a pony standing there, covered from head to toe in a metallic chrome suit. The only things standing out - aside from the suit being probably as tight as a second skin - were the elegant mask and the large red visor over the pony's eyes. The only thing that was exposed were the golden feathered wings.
Daring tossed her compass to Dash. "Get in there!" she yelled. "Find the lance and get out! I won't be able to hold them off for long!"
The very moment Dash nodded and pushed through the door, Daring went to face the other pony again. She could see her own reflection in the red visor, then the wind was knocked out of her as her opponent delivered a punch to her stomach. Before the adventurer could react or even reagin her posture, she was thrown - or rather, carried - along the corridor at ludicrous speed, only to have her head slammed into the wall.
"You really shouldn't get distracted now."
Glad that she was still halfway dressed, in regards to how much that had hurt, she tried to fight back. But the mare - it was definitely a mare, though her voice was slightly distorted - was incredibly strong. She held Daring pinned to the sterile looking white wall with ease, her hooves digging into the body armour around the wrists of her opponent.
"You're pretty confident!" Daring coughed, straining herself to at least make some headway. "That normal, or only when you catch a pony with their pants down?"
"Fight not fair enough for you? Alright then." The silver mare's hoof released Daring's for a split-second to press the buckle of her belt, then returned, slamming the beige mare's limb back against the wall. "That do it for you?" she said with a very audible smirk.
"What the hell are you..." Daring almost bit her tongue as her assailant's legwear slipped down to reveal her Cutie Mark. "Oh, buck me!" she sighed in resignation and rested her head against the wall.
"Not tonight, Ms. Do," the knight retorted. "The princesses want you brought before them right away, unharmed."
"Not gonna happen!" Rainbow Dash's fur was bristling with electricity as she lunged at the mare holding her sister pinned.
Said mare placed a blow in Daring's lower abdomen that made her fall to her knees and pivoted to face the other pegasus. At that point, she hesitated slightly and Dash's hoof shattered the right side of her visor. The other pegasus drew back, but only to extend a hoof and a wing, and suddenly Dash found herself flying head first to the floor.
She blinked a few times while her mind tried to process what had just happened. She felt a hoof planted firmly on her chest. "Lights out," the other pony said, raising a hoof to strike.
Daring tossed the Amulet of Smartland right into the path of the pony's strike. It started to glow bright green and absorbed some kind of magic, eliciting an enraged roar from the other mare. Daring grabbed Rainbow Dash by the hoof and pulled her with her. The light was too bright for Rainbow to see. She heard the creaking of a door, then the light faded somewhat, but the afterimage was still burned into her retina.
Daring pulled her along at a brisk pace, then there were more sounds of something opening, Dash was unceremoniouly shoved into a small space and a warm body slid next to her. A hoof clomped onto her mouth as she wanted to ask what was going on. "Shhh!" Daring whispered right next to her ear.
They remained silent, their breathing shallow. From outside of wherever they were, they could hear the sound of things breaking. Then there was a short silence and suddenly, their hiding place rocked violently to the sound of an explosion. Rainbow could feel the familiar sensation of a spin out, then they crashed into something. Daring opened the door to their little private place and Rainbow blinked into the moonlight, then took a closer look at what she was sitting in.
She snorted. "A fridge? Really?"
"Hey, I had to think quick on my hooves." Daring replied, leaving the cramped space. She took a look at the facility. Or what was left of it. "Wow. Good thing these fridges are so damn heat resistant."
Rainbow stared across the gorge, her mouth agape. "What the hell happened ?" she yelled. "Did we somehow set off a bomb ? It looks like a freakin' warzone!"
"That, dear sister, is what happens when you piss of a Knight of the Realm," Daring sighed.
Rainbow tilted her head. "A knight of what now?"
"A pegasus belonging to the order of knights. This particular one was the Knight of Dawn. Particularly nasty, and not somepony you'd want to cross."
"Only, that we just did exactly that."
"Yup. Was it worth it?"
"What are you asking me for?" Dash protested.
Daring rolled her eyes and walked over to lightly whack her sister on the head. "I wanna know if you got the artifact!"
"Ouch! Oh, wait, you mean this thing?" Rainbow pulled out a small wooden case she had kept safe under her wing. Opening it she revelaed a shard of crystal that looked exactly like Daring's contact had described it. "So, what's it good for?"
"Told you, I don't know yet," Daring replied, taking the artifact and slipping the case under her helmet. "Let's split up here. I'll contact you once I find out anything new."
"Alright," Dash sighed, flexing her wings, "but don't count on me coming back to help anytime soon. I gotta go back to the wonderbolts academy, or else Spitfire's gonna chew me out in front of all the other cadets... Oh, and I'm still cross about you not telling me exactly how this was gonna go down!" she yelled as she left.
Daring shook her head. Soon, Rainbow. Soon. She had a look at the asortment of things she hadn't needed during this particular adventure. That had been a lot easier than she'd thought. "Well," she murmured to herself, "at least I didn't get my flank handed to me by that knight."
"So what exactly would you call getting pinned to a frickin' wall without any effort whatsoever?" a distorted voice asked, amusement plain in it.
Daring Do whirled around just in time to see the knight land at the edge of the cliff.
"If that wasn't enough of a beating for you, we can go again anytime!" she offered, the orange eye blazing behind the shattered red visor.
Daring Do and the Secret of Winter's Lance
Daring Do took a step back, her hooves scraping over the red rock of the uneven terrain. Very hastily her mind went over her options. One, run away.
She was up against the Knight of the Dawn. Yeah, scratch running away. Not gonna happen.
Two, talk her way out of the situation. She took one look at the the stance the knight had taken, crouched low to the ground, her wings spread in an aggressive demeanor. Not really the kind of position you assume when you consider maybe talking things through.
That left her with number three. Fight.
She was bruised and exhausted. She had lost her amulet and had dropped half her bodyarmour.
She had three flashbang grenades, three more smoke grenades, some wire cutters (not very helpful) and a knife. The knight had her years of battle experience, incredible strength and speed, as well as a mask that could probably filter any pollutants out of the air and a suit designed for extra aerodynamics.
Her visor was cracked and shattered to her right side, also she had already used her most powerful technique once. Her physical abilities would be extremely diminished, but that wasn't really saying much in regards to a knight.
Daring decided to take a gamble. She dropped three grenades, pulling the pin out of one of them. As soon as she moved, the knight sped forwards. As expected, she had slowed down considerably, so now the adventurer could actually follow her movements. As expected, the knight went for the grenades as soon as she saw them. She managed to grab two and hurl them into the distance. As her hoof neared the third, the flashbang went off. Daring had covered her ears and pulled her pith helmet from her bag in front of her eyes, so she was mostly fine. But as she opened her eyes again, the knight was standing before her, clearly blind and disoriented. However, the hooves lowering from her ears indicated that she could still hear quite well.
Daring didn't hesitate. She pulled the knife from under her body armour and immediately went for her opponent's wings. She would only have to injure one to guarantee her escape.
But the knight's hoof intercepted her strike, turning it away with ease. Somehow, though still blind, she averted every single one of Daring's furious strikes.
The adventurer gritted her teeth in desperate frustration. "How in the..."
The knight's free hoof slid forward just a bit and into Daring's stance. then she was suddenly knocked off that leg and her opponent's other hoof came straight for her face. In her panic, she threw the knife, which was batted aside by one muscularw wing. There was a deafening crunch as the knight's hoof smashed right through the combat helmet, ripping it away from Daring's face. She staggered back, grabbed her pith helmet from where she had dropped it on the ground and threw it. Again, a wing intercepted, but this time the projectile didn't just bounce off the wing. It began to ricochet around the pillars of red rock, coming at the knight from all angles.
Just as Daring Do managed to regain her stance, she heard a chomping sound. "Wow. The hell is that thing made of?" she mumbled through the pith helmet she held in her mouth. Daring decided it was time for another flash grenade, but an angry growl from the direction of the knight stopped her. "Don't. You're only delaying the inevitable." The knight removed the mask from where it hung loosely around her neck, and Daring could shee the contemptous sneer on her golden lips. "Pull something like that again and you're really gonna get it."
"So what do you expect me to do?" Daring asked, trying to buy time thinking. "Should I just bend over and..."
"Oh come on!" the knight yelled at her. "I mean, how dim must you be? There's no way you're getting out of this one, Daring!"
"Oh, so you're a fan?"
"Not quite," the other mare spat. Her orange eye opened slowly, blinking a few times before fixing onto Daring. "Let's say I read up on you. You have no idea what you stole. I don't know who put you up to it, but..." The knight stopped herself in her tirade and took a deep breath. "Okay, let's start again. I'm going to take you before the princesses, and it'll be up to you whether I drag you kicking and screaming, or if we're civil about this."
Daring thought about that for a moment. It was true, she couldn't hope to beat the knight in her state. However, there was one secret weapon the pony that had provided the distraction had advised her to bring along. "Alright," Daring agreed, reluctantly. "But we'll do it on my terms, okay?"
"State them."
Daring stuck a hoof into her duffle bag and immediately the knight went combat reflexes on her again. She darted forwards and grabbed Daring's leg, twisting it behind her back as she pushed her face-first into the dirt.
"Hey!" the adventurer protested. "I'm just reaching for the canteen!"
The knight shot her a look, let go of her opponent and took the duffle bag with her as she stepped back. She kept a close eye on Daring, who in turn carefully moved her leg. Her shoulder felt as though it had been broken, but apparently that had just been the pain of the sudden movement added to her injuries. Meanwhile, the knight began to rummage through the contents of the bag until she produced the dulled silver of the canteen. She opened it, cautious, and smelled on it. Her eyes widened slightly.
"Hackman's Spirit?" she asked.
"Of course!" Daring scoffed. "What, just 'cause I'm not a fancy knight like you, you think I have no taste?"
The knight smirked at that remark. "Oh, the way you just said that..." She trailed off, then her voice died down. Her grin vanished as she held the bottle closer to Daring. "You first."
Daring rolled her eyes as she took it into her own hooves, filling the cap with a good amount of the strong alcohol and swiveling it, forming a small whirlpool. "It's not poisoned, if that's what you're afraid of!" She downed the drink, the Spirit burning like fire in her sore throat. "Ah~! That hit the spot!" She grinned and handed the canteen back to the knight. "So, do you want some or not?"
The other mare looked at the bottle and seemed hesitant, then, probably against better judgement, accepted it. "Fine," she said right before she took a long gulp, then wiped her mouth. "But you won't get away with that stupid pain in the ass, even if you get me drunk."
"What, this thing?" Daring said, casually nodding towards the case that had slipped out from under her helmet.
"Yes. That." The knight snickered. "Man, you have no idea what exactly that is, do you?" She passed the bottle back to Daring who then filled another cup full of alcohol. Again, she observed the knight for a few seconds before downing her drink.
"Not really, no. So, care to enlighten me?"
Another snicker. "Winter's Lance used to be the name of a pony, you know?" She leaned in closer, her vibrant orange eye gleaming. She placed her muzzle right next to Daring's ear and whispered, "It's the core of a Spectral Knight!"
Daring Do, the most renowned adventurer in Equestria, a mare who had faced near-death situations on a daily basis for the last sixteen years, choked on her booze. She coughed and her whole body shook violently as she tried to get the alcohol out of her respiratory system. The gently patting on the back delivered by the knight helped a bit. "You're telling me that is a Spectral Knight?!" she then yelled.
"Shh!" The other mare placed a hoof an Daring's lips. "It's a secret! Beside, she's been dead for a while now. Wouldn't want anypony to revive her, though. She was a royal pain in the flank to get rid of."
"Winter's Lance..." Daring sat down, suddenly feeling very tired. "Holy hell. So they actually exist..."
"Indeed, they do." The knight golped down another mouthful of alcohol. "And since we can't just go around killing them, we have to keep a constant eye on them. However, this one..." She stepped closer and lifted the case to strap it to her chest in a custom made pouch, "... this one was just too dangerous. So the Knights of the Dawn had to kill her. And now I'm the only one left. That should tell you just about how difficult she was to deal with..." The knight cleared her throat. "Alright, enough dillydallying. We better get going. And no more stalling, Daring Do!"
Daring sighed. "Alright, fine..." She picked up her duffle bag, making the movement seem as harmless as possible. "But, there's one last thing..." She reached inside her bag and pulled out her journal. "I want to write a letter."
"What for?" The knight asked, lifting the canteen, to take another sip, but then thought better of it and handed it over to Daring who put the cap back on and dropped it into her duffle bag.
"I told my little sister that I'd be in contact with her by tomorrow. I don't think that's going to happen, so I'd like to just write her a quick note explaining that she shouldn't worry. Or do anything stupid."
She could've sworn the knight had just raised an eyebrow, even though it was hard to tell with the mask and the visor. "Your sister? The pony who punched my visor?"
Daring chuckled. "That's her alright." As the knight didn't object, she took a pen from her bag and began to write. Then, she tore out the page and folded it once with her hooves, putting pen and journal back in their place. She followed the knight as she motioned her to come along. The golden silver clad mare now strode beside her, rubbing her dry throat. "You see, I only found out that she's my sister a couple of months ago. And I care deeply about her."
"Yet you let her tag along on missions like these?" A suppressed cough.
A nervous laugh. "Well, what can I say?" Daring rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.
"That you're a terrible role model?"
"Aside from that, maybe?"
"You're impulsive, reckless, and just don't know when to quit?"
"Not quite what I meant."
"You let being a literary heroine go to your head and now you're in way over your head?"
"I don't think - "
"Or that you were just so desperate for a good smacking that you broke into one of Equestria's secret labs?"
"We - "
"Though in your opinion, this is probably alright, since it's not technically within equestrian borders."
"Okay, now you're just taking the piss!"
The knight shrugged. "Hey, you know it's true." Another cough form her.
Just then, they began to round a massive red stone pillar that obscured them from view in direction of the lab. Daring placed a hoof on the knight's shoulder, who'se ears were laid back flat against her head. "Here," Daring said, handing her the note she had written for Dash. "Give this to my sister."
"What? No! Do it yourself!"
Daring rolled her eyes. "And how, pray tell, am I supposed to do that before tomorrow? She's going to throw a fit! Please!" She pressed herself up against the knight, wedging them between herself and the rock, holding the letter close to the other mare's chest. "You're the only one I can ask for help!" She looked at her beggingly.
The knight was clearly uncomfortable, but eventually she sighed and took the letter into her hoof. "Fine. What's your sister's name?"
"Her name?" Daring squeaked. "I-It's Dashie..." she mumbled.
"What's that?" the knight asked, growing irritated.
"Dager! Her name's Danger. That's my little sister," she smirked.
The knight looked at the note, and her gaze softened somewhat. "Daring Danger..." she repeated as Daring stepped back a bit. "What a nice name..." She unfolded the note. For a moment, her eyes strained to read in the dark, then they widened in shock. Her gaze darted up to meet Daring's. "What is this?!" she hissed.
Daring looked at the paper. "Sorry, I lied! :P," was written on it in bold letters. "Remember how I said that alcohol wasn't poinsoned?" she said with a smirk.
The knight's pupils grew as small as pinpricks as she clawed at her throat. By now, breathing should be nigh-on impossible for her. The poison would not kill her, of course, only limit her breathing until her body functions indicated that she was unconcious, but Daring was fine with that. She moved closer to the immobilized knight to grab hold of the pouch, but suddenly the other mare's hooves jerked up to meet her face.
Her head was violently forced sideways and into the red pillar. There was an audible crack and Daring felt something warm dribbling down her neck. She stared at the pool of blood forming on her forehoof in surprise. Trembling, she fell against the pillar and her vision went black.