Author and Adventurer

Yearling groaned as she felt the weight be put off of her. Normally, she would have freed herself somehow, but she wasn’t about to say no to a kind hoof. Maybe if she was lucky, Rainbow Dash would be there. She glanced in the direction of her savior, wincing at the light that streamed into her little enclosure.

The hair was right for Rainbow Dash, which was odd. She had just gotten done with her penultimate battle with Abyss and his cult, sealing the dastardly fiend for at least another thousand years, if not forever. Not that she would say forever. Always leave yourself the ability to make a sequel and what not.

She coughed, the dust feeling so heavy. Yearling didn’t want this. Sure, her adventures provided great inspiration, but after fifteen years of them? Maybe she should just give it up? And hey, this new mare over her looked plenty strong. A nice, goldenrod body, strong looking wings, and hey! She even had a good ol’ adventurer’s hat.

She then winced as she tried to stretch out. Something was wrong. She would never give up on her adventures, not while she still could do them. If she were to take an apprentice, it should be like Batmare. For a moment, she sighed, the nettle in her side of how well that Daring Do wannabe flaring up.

“Will y-you get out of there already, imposter?”

Imposter? That couldn’t be right. She knew she was. A.K. Yearling, or, also known as Daring Do, adventurer extraordinaire. She was the best writer and adventurer in all of Equestria, excelling in both fields like none other before. She turned to the figure and tried to correct her, before coughing loudly. The dust in the air was just so thick.

“What in the… You couldn’t even get my race right?”

Race? What was wrong with this mare? Yearling shut her eyes tight, focusing herself. She was a strong adventurer, and would show this odd mare that. Her legs stiffened, and she leapt in the air, spreading her wings like that of Celestia as she kissed the ope-

Slam!

“You don’t have wings, idiot!”

I don’t have… Yearling moved her back muscles and could feel the muscles move to flap the wings. It wasn’t exactly right though. It was just like in Book Seven, Daring Do and the Ghostly Caverns. The area had robbed her of parts of her body along the way, trying to rob her of her sanity along the way. One of those had been her wings…

She glanced up at the other pony, her mind beginning to put the pieces together. Now that she could see better and was a bit more focused, she could see the gray and black mane, the goldenrod coat, the compass on her flank… She is me. “But… how?”

Daring scowled at the question. After the body snatchers tried this shit on her, she wasn’t buying it. After her initial shock, she guessed that one of the cultists had to just be a changeling, and thought the two were separate beings. “Oh just stop it already! Look, I already pretty much got my ass kicked by a cult, and I’d rather not have to stay any longer than I have already. Just show yourself so I can kick you in the face and be on my way.”

Yearling frowned at the accusations, and was tempted to rush up at the mare and teach her what for. Who didn’t say that she was the clone? That didn’t seem right though, especially with how she described the fight with the cult. Sure, what with the bruised hip and foreleg that Ahuizotl gave her in his surprise attack, it hadn’t gone swimmingly, but she had still managed to take out three of them, and stop the ritual. That was a win in her book, even if clumsy.

But this one thought it was simply disgraceful… “How did the confrontation with Ahuizotl go?”

Daring rolled her eyes. “Why do you want to know?”

Yearling nodded slowly, but her mind was doing anything but. While yes she was currently an opponent, she was also helpless, and thus needed to be interrogated. Made sure that they weren’t going to cause trouble. This Daring didn’t care though. “I wanted to see how you described it, as I would describe it as a tense, suspenseful fight that jeopardized the whole mission.”

Another roll of her eyes came from Daring as she shook her head. “Ahuizotl, really? Sure he is annoying, but he was just a small road bump. He slowed me down, and nothing…”

Yearling saw her chance, and scrambled out of the hole on unsure hooves as she yelled, “That! You’re currently thinking about how Ahuizotl has threatened you before, and that calling him a small threat is something only a cocky adventurer would do, right?”

Daring eyed her warily for a few moments, before relaxing, and sitting down. “Yeah…”

“And how might you describe what I said about Ahuizotl?”

A small chuckle escaped Daring as she thought about calling their exchange of insults as tense. “It sounds like how I’d write the encounter if I felt there wasn’t enough drama in it yet.”

“And why do you think that might be?”

Daring stopped and stared at her counterpart. Now that she was closer, she noticed that her mane was far straighter, and even longer than her own. Not only that, but she didn’t wear a hat like her own, and the compass on her wide, luscious flank… She blinked for a few moments, and decided against focusing on the writing on her compass, and how it differed from the red Xs on her own. “But…”

Yearling came closer to Daring, wrapping a hoof around the other mare as she pushed down the fear growing in her. If she was right, it was likely… likely she would never get her wings back. But it would also mean that her counterpart would be emotional, and need her help more. “We thought we blocked Abyss’s activation of his magic with the talisman Celestia gave us. When he brought his hands down though…”

Daring blinked, realizing that she hadn’t noticed something. It was pain that only flared now because of its importance, as it was minor compared to the rest of her injuries. “We overshot. He didn’t hit the globe, or the talisman, he hit-”

They both paused, looking at each other for a moment, before whispering, “Us.”

Yearling swallowed hard, the first to break the silence that had followed afterwards. She also turned away, not having realized that she’d spent most of the tense moment staring into Daring’s deep, purple eyes. “Y-you can call me Yearling, if you want.”

“And why do you get our birthname?” Daring almost instantly regretted snapping at the other mare like that as she saw Yearling look down. She was supposed to be the big, tough adventurer, which… “No, it makes sense. I’m much more like what we’d always wanted to be when we were a foal.”

Yearling turned back to Daring, a small smile on her lips. “I’m happy you’re willing to say we to that. I… didn’t want to have to fight you on who actually belonged to the past.”

Daring trudged at the ground. She did want to fight about it, now that it was mentioned, but to do so would be childish. Besides she wasn’t the newly crowned earth pony. “We have bigger things to worry about I guess, like if this can be reversed and such.”

Yearling smiled even wider, her heart swelling at the words. When she had realized what had happened, she had expected a brawl, to be left her possibly broken by Daring. She didn’t give her adventuring side nearly enough credit though. “And I know together we’ll be able to. Or… it at least gives me a lot more hope than on my own.”

A small snort escaped Daring at the sentiment, before she rubbed the other mare’s mane. “Yeah, you probably would have been doomed.” Of course, deep down, Daring was overjoyed to have her there too. She could feel that she wasn’t as smart, or creative. Or…

That she was weaker, and that knowing that Yearling was there helped ease the terror inside of her.