Fact or Fiction (v2.0)

Yearling took wing and hovered over to Pea's back and locked her forelegs under Pea's barrel. Yearling pumped her wings and sent them into the air at an inclined glide.  The ground and the crowd shrank under them as they climbed into the sky with the pegasi in the crowd deciding against chasing the duo. Pea held onto Yearling's hooves tight as she tried not to look down.

"You know, I thought you'd be a little heavier," Yearling chuckled.

"Hey, are you calling me fat?" Pea looked up at her with a sour look.

"No, don't be silly!" Yearling yelled, “it’s the legs that threw me off,” she giggled.

Pea rolled her eyes and glanced down, regretting it. "Well now what?"

"Hey, is that who I think it is?" Yearling peered off into the distance. Pea looked in the same direction and saw a trace of a rainbow line in the sky.

"...I thought rainbows made an arc, not a straight line."

"That's not a rainbow,” Yearling droned, “that's the trail Rainbow Dash leaves behind when she flies."

"Well I can see why they call her Rainbow Dash," Pea said as she saw the blue pegasus flying in arcs and loops. She began flying toward the mares and Yearling began descending quickly.

"Hey! Where are we going?" Pea said covering her eyes.

"I can't carry you forever, Pea.  Besides, I was meaning to talk to Rainbow today," Yearling said as they grew closer to the ground.

They landed and Pea sat with her forelegs crossed while Rainbow Dash followed up at the rear. The blue pegasus trotted up to the other mares and smiled to Yearling. Dash then cast a sour look to Pea.

"D-, er, I mean A.K Yearling, I'm so glad you're here!" Rainbow said gleefully then glared at Pea, "I see you caught the freak."

"Hey," Pea cast a sneer and bared her teeth at Rainbow, "I have skin and blood just like you. If anypony here is a freak it'd be you, with a mane like yours."

Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof and ignored Pea. "We've been looking for her all night. You know she scared Applejack to death and that colt of her's got Diamond Tiara's dad pretty upset."

"Rainbow, I don't think you understand," Yearling sighed," Pea Gravel here is a very  interesting mare once you get to know her. Oh, and she was staying at Twilight's and we’re writing a book together."

Rainbow Dash was shocked. "B-but you write Daring Do! How can you write something else, let alone with her?!"

Pea stood up which caused Dash to inch back instinctively. "Kid, I've got plenty of stories if you're willing to listen."

Rainbow Dash was dumbfounded and getting frustrated. Her favorite author and idol was sticking her neck out for a complete stranger, and a rather unsettling one at that.  She looked from Yearling to the Pea and her jaw worked to make words, silently.

Pea reached ahead and closed Rainbow’s muzzle with a smirk on her face. "You better keep that mouth of yours closed or you’ll catch a fly."

"Thanks lady," Rainbow Dash smacked Pea's hoof away from her face, "but you need to leave. Equestria isn't meant for somepony like you."

Pea pulled her metallic fingers and with a click and made a fist,"Well then, why don't you make me?"

Dash laughed in a cocky manner as she stood up into an aggressive position. "So you want to do this the hard way?"

"Show me what you’ve got," Pea Gravel said flatly with lidded eyes and a dull smirk.

Yearling looked from one mare to the other. "Hey, nopony is in the wrong here! What are you two doing?"

"I'm showing this punk how we outsiders handle our problems."

In a flash the blue pegasus rocketed to Pea with a hoof ready to swing at her face. Pea watched as Dash swooped toward her and felt the impact of Dash's swing on her muzzle. Pea staggered back and Rainbow hovered in the air, rubbing the hoof she connected with.

Rainbow started mockingly. "Heh-heh, a little taste of Dash Fu.  Was that a bit much for-"

Rainbow barely saw Pea spring back at her. Her boastful words and the rest of her hot air was forced out of her body as Pea rammed a metal fist into the pegasus' belly, just below her ribcage.

Rainbow fell like a tree onto the ground gasping for breath. Yearling had a grimace on her face while the cyan pegasus lay curled in a fetal position. Rainbow Dash looked up at the cyber mare with wide eyes as her attacker had a hand offered to pull her up. Rainbow began breathing normally again and accepted the cyber mares assistance up.  Rainbow took a moment to size up Pea and nodded.

Pea stood smiling as a trickle of blood ran from her lip. Pea wiped the blood off her muzzle. "You got some swing there, if you were any stronger I might've lost a tooth!"

Yearling looked to the cyan pegasus. "Are you alright, Rainbow?”

"She'll be fine," Pea Gravel answered, "I hit her diaphragm with a pulled punch. She's probably hit the ground harder than that from a flight crash."

"That was a pulled punch?" Rainbow asked. On the outside she still looked ready for a fight, but she was trembling inside.

Pea twiddled her fingers again as she glared at Rainbow, menacingly this time. "I really don't want to have to pull my fist out of another chest.”

Rainbow backed away from her as her face paled slightly and her wings opened at an aggressive angle. Yearling stopped her. "Rainbow, don't go! Just stay for a moment, please," she looked over at Pea with an icy look before stamping to her face to face.

"If you want that book written you're going to have to be more tolerant of others," she said firmly, "no more fighting with ponies, alright?" she poked Pea in the vest and sniffed the air with a wince.  “And clean your clothes,” she whispered.

Pea scrunched her face and was ready to shout but sighed in stead. She looked over Yearling's shoulder to Rainbow who was waiting, nervously poking the ground. Pea rolled her eyes and groaned before trudging past Yearling to the blue pegasus.

Pea rubbed the back of her neck. "Look, I'm sorry, alright? I can be a jackass sometimes. A really big jackass. Can you forgive me Rainbow Smash, er, Dash?"

"Only if you let me help out on the new book," Rainbow Dash said quickly, "I've helped Daring Do, er, A.K. Yearling before, and I could help you too! As long as there's no more punching."

"You recovered pretty quick, Rainbow Dash," complimented Yearling," I hope we can all get along now," she glanced to Pea.

"Wait, isn't Daring Do a character in A.K. Yearling's books?" Pea asked, "Wait… is she," Pea pointed to the tan pegasus, "is she… Daring Do?" She looked to Rainbow who grinned proudly.

"You got me," Yearling smiled bashfully, "You haven't even read my books and you know. The Daring Do books are my personal adventures here in Equestria where I hunt rare and important treasures.  From what Twilight told me, you were looking for treasure too, and with some war going on every waking moment... that must be such an adventure."

Rainbow Dash was quiet again as her idol, Daring Do, was putting this stranger on a pedestal like Dash had done for Daring Do for so long.  Rainbow fainted coughed and wavered just before her eyes rolled back into her head and she landed on the grass face first. Pea and Daring looked at her with wide eyes.

"You know, I think a drink can wait. Let's just hang out here in the field, what do you think Yearli-I mean Daring Do?"

"I-I suppose?" She replied. “Do you think Rainbow’s okay?”

Pea promptly lay on her back in the grassy field. “Yeah, she was forcing herself to breathe normally after I hit her and she just passed out for a few from oxygen deprivation.  I’ve seen it happen before,” she chuckled.

Daring looked around in the empty field.  She saw the mountains, forest, and Ponyville all comfortably away in the distance. She lay on her legs near Pea while Dash lay unconscious near by.

Daring reached into the satchel she had carried with her and pulled out a notebook with a pencil clipped to it. She opened it and Pea turned her head to see the book. It was blank for the most part with a few scribbles on the first page. Daring held the pen in her mouth and looked closely at Pea. Pea  felt almost embarrassed under the writer's keen eye.

Daring made notes of the way Pea's mane reflected the sunlight like the orange of a morning sunrise, how her torso fur, on closer inspection, hid a well toned and muscled core and many scars, the metallic legs had a plated look and seemed to be designed for more than just helping a pony walk again. Out of her vests v neck a hint of her circular brand could be seen and then Daring's eyes went to the mare's flank, Pea pulled her tail over her flank's bare skin.

"Hey missy," Pea shouted, "we’re not writing a smut book!"

"Really, Pea?" Daring Do asked with a groan, "I was looking at your cutie mark, not your rump!"

"For you, I'll take that excuse," Pea moved her tail to reveal her cutie mark. It was a sandstone colored heart with a cracked center and a compass behind it. Daring made a note of it and looked with worry at the cyber mare.

"Why do you have a broken heart for a cutie mark?" She asked.

Pea moved on her back. She crossed her forelegs behind her head and looked up at the slow rolling clouds in the sky. Dash had begun to regain consciousness but kept her head low and watched the two adventuring mares through the short grass.

"Rocks are beautiful, yet I have a heart of stone," Pea said mostly to herself, "I've been forced by chance, or maybe fate, to be a wanderer, the crack is from my first kill. Or from how much of a bitch I became. I was an alright kid before then but after-”

Daring was writing down everything Pea said. "Go on, tell me what happened," she encouraged.

"She, it, was a carnihorse.  I was eleven years old and it kidnapped me when I was in the mountains, and it was going to eat me… I'll never forget those green eyes. They looked just like mine.”