"I'm sorry Miss Yearling, but unless you somehow find a way to bring Daring Do back from the dead, you either find a new series that is equally as popular or we're going to have to drop you"

"But...! But..."

"No buts"

Yearling furrowed her brow in panic and melancholy, I mean, who would be happy after being told that their book series was on the decline? It wasn't necessarily her fault however, after a rather action packed adventure, she was on her way back home when she ended up having a really bad accident, resulting in an injury that dealt permanent damage. Although she didn't want to, A.K Yearling, also known as Daring Do was forced to quit adventuring for good. This put her in a dilemma though, because she was now forced to come up with new and original ideas for her book series, but considering that the Daring Do franchise was practically an unofficial autobiography series, she didn't really know what to do. It wasn't long until ponies began complaining about the lack of originality in her newest tales, fans began constantly talking about how repetitive the new books were and how similar they were to the first ones, so much so that ponies began writing articles about how Yearling was apparently 'running out of ideas' or 'losing her writer's touch', because of this her publishing agency were beginning to lose money, and now she was put in a position where she had to either make a new book series that makes as much of a splash as The Adventures of Daring Do or they would drop her.

"There's no need to jump the gun so quickly hehe..." the pegasus nervously chuckled "don't worry about it, I'll just... make a new series... yeah..."

The publisher, a middle aged pony named Ivory Spark, frowned "are you sure Yearling? The fans are starting to lose interest in your work, if you don't come up with a hot new idea you're through-"

"Okay!" Yearling snapped "I get it! Damn..."

Ivory gave a nod before putting on what looked to be a pair of reading glasses "I'm glad you do" she said before looking up again "anyway, I have a meeting with Malorie Blackmare soon, unlike a certain somepony she seems like a promising protege in the writing industry"

"Why? Because she's popular with all the urban foals?" Yearling snorted, causing Ivory to glare.

"My statement was not an invitation for more conversation, it was a gateway for your exit" although she wanted to give a snarky response, Yearling remembered that her position in the publishing agency was on the line, and she feared that if she pushed her luck with Ivory too much she would have it ripped from underneath her like a rug. So, instead she simply stood up, gave a polite bow and scurried out of the intimidating unicorn's office.

Her walk home was a drag, she was looking around her in hopes that she would find some sort of inspiration for this new project that she had promised, but said new project had to appeal to her fans "what about a romance story? Nah, they wouldn't like that... I could write one of those Y.A novels... but then they'd think I'm ripping off Blackmare's work... oooh, maybe a horror thriller? Nah, ponies would just compare it to Stephan Colt's work, and there's no way I'd be that good..." this internal dialogue went on for as long as her walk was, and it wasn't long until she was walking through her front door and entering her home, she was back in the comfort of her own home, back to being just Daring Do, the retired adventurer. The mare then slumped herself onto her bed, exhaling a heavy sigh before groaning. Writing was so much fun when she was just describing all of her adventures and reliving those moments through scrolls and novels, but now that she had to write her own books she honestly didn't know what to do.

The author's pondering came to a screeching halt when she heard something slam into her front door, most would have been freaked out, but she knew exactly who it was. She got up off her bed and walked to the front door, there stood a grey mare with a scruffy blonde mane.

"Hey there Ditzy" she greeted with a smile.

"Hi Daring! I brought your mail!" the clumsy mare grinned. Now, if one was told that the two were related they probably wouldn't believe it, but alas, there Daring was standing in front of her younger, and much dumber sister.

The mailmare dropped a huge pile of letters in front of her "It's mostly fan mail, I made sure to preview 'em and throw away the creepy ones, just like ya asked!"

Thank Celestia, the author didn't think she could handle another twelve page AhuizotlxDaringDo rated M 18+ fanfiction "Thanks Ditzy, wanna come in? I can make tea"

The mailmare shook her head "I wish I could, but if I don't deliver all of these letter by sundown my boss is gonna kill me!"

Daring chuckled at the other's predicament before nodding "It's cool, I'll see ya later, alright?"

Ditzy had already began hovering with a flap of her wings, before waving a hoof and soaring off "byyeee Dariiing!"

Daring soon dragged her huge pile of fan mail into her living room and decided that instead of stressing over her newest venture in fiction, she would spend the rest of her day opening fan mail. Minus the creepy stuff that had been thrown out, it was the usual, letters from adoring fans that looked up to her, harsh critiques from unknown critics, cool fanart from artists, adorable fanart from kids, it was the usual. She then came across a letter from a fan who's name she recognized, this fan often sent in letters to her and although Daring didn't know her personally, she often heard her name being spoken with high praise and always saw her in the press.

Dear A.K Yearling

Hey, it's me again! I just wanted to write to you because I finally got to read Daring Do and the Princess Heist, and even though everyone else seems to jack on it, I think it's one hell of an awesome book!
I've heard other ponies who claim to be fans say that they think your stuff is getting boring now, I don't think so, I just think you might be getting burnt out. I mean, if I had to write the same book series with the same characters over and over again, I'd get pretty bored too!
Basically what I'm saying is, don't be afraid to show us new stuff! You're like the only cool author out right now anyway, I tried some others, but they're either too cheesy, too boring or too sad, you're not! You're A.K Yearling!
Also, it might not mean much to you but even if everyone else decides to stop rocking with you, just know I'll ALWAYS be your biggest fan!

From, Rainbow Dash

Daring had to admit, learning that THE Rainbow Dash was a fan of hers, a dedicated fan no less, made her feel a bit jittery. The mare was a national hero, she was a respected flyer among many and she was basically a celebrity, and at the time, the Daring Do novels weren't as popular as they soon came to be, so knowing that such a... a legend read her books and was a fan of hers was more than humbling.

She decided to migrate to her room and finish off there, sitting at her writer's desk, but as she began writing response letters, her mind wondered back to that mare, Rainbow Dash. It was funny, despite being a hero and national treasure, she had come to learn that according to the press, Rainbow Dash was just a regular pony. If interviews were anything to go by, she was as humble as she was cocky, and although she had mystical powers, she liked reading and lounging about and was a fan of the Wonderbolts. It was more than awe inspiring, and it made the grey haired mare sit back and reminisce on everything she knew about the wondrous Rainbow Dash, Element of Harmony, helped save Equestria countless times, pulled off the legendary sonic rainboom, everything about her was so... unbelievable. Sure, Daring had been on her own fair share of adventures, but nothing on the level of what that multicolored mare had accomplished, that coupled with her surprisingly down-to-earth yet self assured personality...

She'd make a great story protagonist.

"She'd make a great- wait a second..." Daring placed her foreleg on the desk, resting her head against her hoof as her face became that of intrigue, she was right, Rainbow Dash would make a great protagonist! She had the memorable appearance, marketable personality as well as her achievements, if Daring were to say, write a book series about her, it would most certainly be a hit, especially with her core fanbase. However, she couldn't just write about Dash, unlike herself the sky blue mare didn't go by a pseudonym, and as far as everypony else was concerned, Rainbow Dash was a real pony, writing about her, especially without permission was the quickest way to get sued "well, I guess that idea's gone down the drain..."

Why not just make a Rainbow Dash inspired character, as opposed to actually writing about Rainbow Dash?

"Why not just make- woah..." a smirk soon developed on the ex-adventurer's face "I am on a roll today!" she grabbed her pencil, before sliding a spare sheet of blank paper on her desk, and then immediately beginning to brainstorm ideas for this new character. As stated, this character was going to inspired by the professional flyer, but not an exact copy, Rainbow was a pretty recognizable mare, so the last thing she needed was people realizing who she was based off of. She began writing different little notes about this character, she'd be a unicorn instead of a pegasus, she'd have light violet eyes instead of bright fuchsia, a light blue coat, but a few shades lighter than that of Rainbow's sky blue, a mane of color, but as opposed to rainbow maybe just... an array of soft colors? This character would be as cocky and confident as Rainbow Dash, but instead of being a tomboy, she would be more on the feminine side of things, preferring to be stylish and look nice rather than be 'awesome'.

By the time an hour had passed, Daring had filled her sheet full with notes and small sketches of this character, already excited to flesh her out in a potential story, who would she be? She was leaning more towards making her a detective or special agent of sorts, where would she work? She wanted a whacky name, something funny and crude, something like... "Ponies of Obscene Power... or P.O.O.P for short" she snorted, wow, she really had the sense of humor of a foal. Once she had a bit of space left on her sheet, the author then realized something about this character that she couldn't believe she failed to pick up earlier.

She had yet to give her a name.

This was the part about writing new Daring Do novels she hated, making up names for things was hard, that's why in the most recent novel the main villain was called 'Thingamajig'. She then confidently huffed, as long as she continued on with this burst of inspiration, things should be okay. Like Rainbow Dash, she wanted a name that captured her color, but also one that captured her more feminine and girly nature, "synonym for rainbow... synonym for rainbow... oh" something then clicked in her mind, and she quickly wrote it down "Spectrum... yeah, Spectrum, that's colorful and pretty" she soon went back to pondering, now for a last name. She didn't want something similar to dash, that would be way too obvious, and she wanted Spectrum to be her own character at the end of the day, she wanted something equally as pretty as Spectrum.

"Okay Daring, what's soft? Cotton's soft, Spectrum Cotton? Nah... wait, clouds are soft Spectrum... Cottoncloud? Cloudcotton? No... Spectrum Cloud is too plain, come on brain... Cloudsomethin'..." she dropped her pencil, rubbing her head with her hooves "clouds are soft, come on Daring, you're a pegasus, you can literally touch clouds, you can do better than that... clouds are also fluffy, Cloudfluff? That's a little hard to say... wait, clouds are puffy, Cloudpuff- Cloudpuff!" Daring immediately perked once she thought of the name "Spectrum Cloudpuff, that's perfect!" it was a cute enough name that it matched her girly personality, but not so cute that it was egregious. The mare quickly jotted the name down, before looking back at the sheet, proud of the character she had made.

She felt a wave of inspiration and many different ideas flow through her head, something she hadn't felt whilst writing in a while, with an excited smile and giggle, she trotted downstairs to go grab her typewriter, oh ho ho, if Ivory wanted a good story, she was going to get a damn good story.

It had been a solid month since the meeting with A.K Yearling, a month since she had promised Ivory she'd return with a hit of a novel. Despite how seemingly harsh the black furred unicorn might have been with her, she honestly liked Yearling as well as her work, she remembered the first day she stormed into her office, begging for her to give her book a chance, and although she didn't appreciate the younger mare's abrasiveness she did, which was the best decision she had ever made. Yes, there was a little Indiana Pones inspiration here and there, but her story was so... interesting, fun to read and best of all, it was original. It was what Ivory had been looking for, everyday she had to review uninspired fantasy, Y.A and romance novels that the writer clearly only made with the hopes of it getting popular enough to where it became a film or something, so to have a book series that was dripping in originality such as the Daring Do franchise was enough for her to be fully on board with it.

Then, Yearling had gotten into an accident. Ivory visited the young mare as she recovered in hospital, according to her it was a flight accident that had taken place when she was returning from visiting family, however, Ivory wasn't convinced. There was no way a simple flight accident could have caused so much damage, right? Then again, she wasn't a pegasus, so maybe things just worked differently for them. From what she had gathered, Yearling (who was in incredible shape, much to Ivory's surprise) luckily hadn't lost the ability to fly, but could no longer add to much strain to her wings without them cramping and causing her loads of pain, this meant she couldn't fly too high up in the air, and she couldn't stay airborne for any longer than five minutes at most. At first, it seemed as though this wasn't going to affect her much, Yearling was a writer, not a stunt flyer, and according to the pegasus flight didn't play a huge role in her life anyway, she lived on the ground for a reason.

This changed when it came to her writing new stories. The unicorn wasn't sure why, but ever since the accident, Yearling's novels just hadn't been up to par with what they once were, the plot's were getting repetitive, the characters were no longer as likeable or memorable, and everything just seemed overall... uninspired. I mean for Celestia's sake she named her most recent villain Thingamajig! You can't get more burnt out than that.

As a result, the company began losing bits on the daily, ponies were no longer interested in Daring Do, even the die hard fans were beginning to move on, the higher ups were considered just letting A.K Yearling go, since she seemed to be more of a liability now. Ivory Spark refused to let that happened though, and insisted that she would make sure their once golden author would soon return to her writing glory. She hoped she was write, that Yearling would burst in with a new, original idea just as she had done all those years before.

As the blue eyed mare fiddled with her glasses and rand a hoof through her short white hair, almost on cue, her door flung open, startling her in the process. Before she even had a chance to question what was going on, a mare, who she had later identified as A.K Yearling, slammed a pile of sheets onto her desk with a heavy pant "I did it Ivory! I- whew- finally did it!" Yearling, behind her signature glasses, hat and cloak, seemed to be sweating and blushing out of exhaustion.

"Yearling? Did you run here? Please have a seat-" Ivory was almost immediately cut off by the rather excited mare.

"It's called The Many Tales of Spectrum Cloudpuff, a novel series staring BOOM" she slammed a sheet on the desk which had a nice looking sketch of a pretty blue unicorn with multicolored pastel hair and a pompous smile "this gal! Her name is Spectrum Cloudpuff, she works as an agent at a government facility called Ponies of Obscene Power-"

"P.O.O.P for short...?"

"Absolutely! They solve mysteries and go and missions and stuff! It took me a whole month of nonstop writing but I finally finished the first book in the series, it's called 'Spectrum and the Alicorn Conspiracy', cool, ain't it? So! What do ya think?" she asked rather giddily.

Ivory picked up the sheets "well, it's certainly an interesting idea, but I'll have to read it first to have a full opinion-"

"Then read it! I'll just sit right here, I need to catch my breath anyway haha..."

Ivory watched as she sat back down on the chair ahead of her, the onyx pony sighed, looking down at the pile of papers on her desk. Yearling seemed so excited and confident in this new series, even more so than she was with Daring Do, and seeing as though the mare could be fired if she didn't bring in a new hit series, Ivory was more than willing to give it a chance. She picked up a sheet, which was not only labelled as chapter one but was also labelled page one, glad she didn't have to rummage for pages since they were in order, she put her reading glasses on properly and began reading the novel.

Hopefully it was good enough to be published.

Author's Note

And that's the prologue to this little story, sorry the ending might seem a little rushed, I just really wanted to get this out ASAP haha

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)