The Way to a Mare's Heart
Rainbow Dash was woken from her nap by a sound at her door. She leaped off her sofa and glided over to check it. Derpy greeted her, a bundle of letters in her muzzle.
"Thanks," she said, accepting the letters. Getting fan mail never ceased to be awesome.
"There's one more thing," Derpy rummaged through her saddlebags, first the left, then the right. Rainbow's heart fluttered when she took out the package.
It was unwrapped the instant it touched Rainbow's hooves. She'd been having dreams about it she had been so eager. She was holding nothing less than the newest Daring Do book; she clutched it to her chest. "Yes! Thank you so much."
She didn't hear how the mailmare responded. She was far too busy fawning over the book. All of Daring's books were awesome, but this one was something else. But she couldn't read it yet, Twilight needed to be around for it to be truly appreciated. Still, she couldn't resist a peek inside the back cover. She couldn't keep the goofy grin off her face when she glimpsed what was in there.
She shot up into the sky. She literally could not wait one moment longer to get to Twilight. Diving, she flew straight to her castle. She let herself in through the window of Twilight's study. There was no need to knock.
The room was empty. Though the door to Twilight's bedroom was shut tight. It seemed somepony had finally learned the beauty of naps. She just picked the wrong day for it. Rainbow barged in.
There she was, sprawled on her bed, wings spread, sound asleep. Rainbow was a little torn at the sight. She could continue her mission, though that was less urgent now that Twilight was right there. She could sit and just watch the beautiful mare in front of her; opportunities to do that weren't rare, but there was still no sense in wasting one. Or, she could do something else..
Rainbow set the book down on the nightstand. Just a little longer. She carefully climbed into the bed, crawled up to Twilight, and maneuvered her head under her wing. Then she delivered a vicious raspberry to Twilight's belly.
Her marefriend shrieked, leaping into the air. She quickly regained her composure when she saw who the attacker was that was rolling in the bed cackling.
"Rainbow!" She fluttered back to the ground. Punched Rainbow in the shoulder too. "I don't even know how that's still funny to you."
Rainbow snorted. "You kidding? I'm never going to get bored of your belly." Then she leaned in and kissed Twilight's cheek right on the blush her comment had brought out. "I'd also say I do it because the way you react is so adorable, but you're adorable all the time, so..." She shrugged. Being sappy wasn't supposed to be cool, but Rainbow made it work. The trick was you needed to right pony to be sappy with. Twilight was the right pony for a lot of things.
Twilight smiled and nuzzled her. "So was there an actual reason you interrupted my nap or were you just being you?"
"Oh! Yeah!" Rainbow said. She hopped down from the bed and went over to the book. "You know how I'm the greatest marefriend of all time? Well, I'm even greater now, because I got us this." She picked up the book and showed it to Twilight.
Twilight gaped. "Daring Do and the Amethyst Ring!? That's not out until next month! How did you get that?"
"Let's just say this is one of Daring's awesomer books." She winked. "Now c'mon, I can't wait to start reading." She got back on the bed and laid down next to Twilight. She laid the book open in front of them.
Daring led a normal life. She had some kind of boring job at a museum. Needless to say, when adventure came calling she pounced on it. She eagerly plunged past Equestria's borders.
Daring loved that simple life, when all there was to worry about was herself and the treasure she was pursuing. Sometimes it even lasted.
Not this time. A fight with some of Ahuizotl's goons was going perfectly well when another mare almost as plucky as her jumped into the fray and helped her beat them even harder. Even ponies as great as Daring needed sidekicks.
"Wait, when did you do this again? I can't remember you helping Daring recently," Twilight said.
"It was, uh, oh yeah, on that trip back out to Dodge. That wasn't actually the friendship problem there, but y'know, I got sidetracked a little." Rainbow shrugged. "Anyway, we had this awesome adventure."
Daring set out, now with a companion, Prism Blitz, by her side. Their search for information led them to a library in an obscure town. It's librarian, a shy unicorn named Gloaming Gleam insisted on joining them in an little twist. Daring wasn't happy about having a third pony around, but she was too smart to leave behind.
"Is that... me?" Twilight looked to Rainbow, eyebrow raised. "I've never been in a Daring Do book before."
Rainbow read the descriptions of the character, full of familiar details. "Huh, she put you in too." She grinned. "Yeah, Daring already knows how cool I am, so I kinda spent a lot of the time talking about you."
"Aww." Twilight nuzzled her. She was happy to return the gesture.
It was then that the real action started. Ancient artifacts didn't stay hidden by being in safe places, and Daring didn't deal with her enemies by being nice to them. Having companions tagging along helped her out of dangerous situations as often as it complicated them.
The traps did not need anypony's help to be deadly. An ambush between towns left Daring badly hurt, far worse than the broken wings she suffered on a regular basis. Her friends barely managed to save her, but they got her out.
Twilight gasped at some of the descriptions. "That's... a lot darker than these usually get. Was it that bad in real life?" And her Rainbow had been in the middle of whatever inspired the scene.
Rainbow hugged her with her wing. Even embracing Twilight could not keep her from frowning. It was hard to be cocky remembering what had happened. "It was pretty bad," she said after some long moments. "If I hadn't been there... If I'd been in the wrong place..." She leaned over and kissed Twilight. "I love you" she whispered. "Ahem, but everything turned out alright in the end, don't worry. Daring was okay, I was okay, everypony was okay. It actually worked out, because Daring was able to return the favor later." She quickly added "Not cause I was in danger, in a different way," when she saw the concern on Twilight's face.
There was still a sense of unease as they continued reading, but Daring knew how to tell a story to suck you in. Soon they were far away again.
As Daring recovered, the story took an unusual turn for one of her books. As Daring recovered it got all romantic and stuff. A chapter was filled with Prism developing feelings for Daring, and Gloaming for her. But everypony was cool enough that it didn't get too mushy about it.
"Okay, that's just made up," Rainbow said, scrunching her face. "I've never liked her that way." She snuggled Twilight closer for emphasis.
Fortunately for the hearts of the readers, the love triangle quickly collapsed. Daring thoroughly rebuffed Prism's advances. She did not go adventuring for love. It didn't even turn out that bad for Prism. After getting rejected, she finally noticed Gloaming crushing hard on her. And Gloaming turned out to be the sexy kind of egghead.
As luck would have it their romantic adventures started just when the main adventure began again. Bivouacking deep in the wilderness was not, as it turned out, a good setting for a date. It was necessary for keeping powerful artifacts out of the wrong hooves, however. Everypony understood that, you didn't have to keep saying it over and over, Daring.
In any case, Daring and the two love birds made it to the ancient temple. It took the skills of all three ponies combined, but they navigated it's depths, got the prize, and escaped. Ahuizotl was of course waiting for them outside for the real climax. Through cunning, and just a bit of good luck, they beat him too.
All returned to civilization at last. Even if some of them had to be dragged because they were too busy making eyes at each other to walk.
It wasn't much surprise when Daring attended their wedding in the epilogue.
And there it was, the last page of yet another adventure. Both mares stretched, suddenly realizing how long they had been sitting in one spot.
Twilight yawned. "That was a good one. I liked it." She read the last page again, touched it with her hoof. "So Daring just ran ahead with her versions of us..."
Nopony said anything for a long time. Both lovers lay still with each other and their book.
Finally, Twilight looked out the window at the dark sky. "It's late, I wonder what time it is," leaning her head against Rainbow's.
Rainbow didn't know how many hours it had taken them to finish reading. Not enough, whatever the number was.
She did not get up. She stayed right where she was, looking at that last page. "Hey, why don't you read the acknowledgments? I want to see my name in there," as nonchalantly as possible.
Twilight turned the page, into the end matter. She cleared her throat and read aloud. "As always, there are many ponies to thank for this book. There are too many to name here, but all were needed to make it possible. First are the poor ponies tasked with taming the "jungles" of my hoofwriting. Then come the legions of editors who shape my drafts into something readable. I am in debt to well nigh ever librarian in Equestria, and quite a few outside of it for their aid with the extensive research it takes to send Daring on her adventures.
"Last, but far from least, this book owes a special debt to my good friend Rainbow Dash, without whom it would never have been written, let alone published. I am forever grateful for her aid and friendship, and so it is my special pleasure to here pass on a message from her—"
Twilight choked. She could not even stay composed enough to mouth the words that followed. Her mouth hung open and tears filled her eyes.
Rainbow read on for her. Even her voice was shaky as she read the words printed neatly on the page: "Twilight Sparkle, will you marry me?" In her wing she held a box with an amethyst ring.
Twilight was all but sobbing. She could not speak; she nodded jerkily, repeatedly. She rolled over on top of Rainbow, and kissed her deeply. "Yes," she squeaked, "yes, yes, yes."
Rainbow hugged her tight, returning all of her nuzzles. She could feel Twilight's heart beating hard in her chest. Herself, she didn't even feel the bed beneath them, she didn't even feel like she was on a cloud. She felt like she was in free fall, like there was nothing but sky forever in every direction, and she was soaring on and on and on with her favorite pony ever and it didn't matter that there was no land because their wings would carry them together as far as they wanted to go.
Neither of them had noticed Daring's inscription on the title page: "Congratulations, you two. Daring Do."
Rainbow laid in the bed there for what little was left of the night, holding her fiancee, Twilight Sparkle, who she loved and who loved her. It wasn't the first time they had done so, but it was even awesomer than usual.
"Mmmmm," Twilight said, drying her face in Rainbow's chest fluff, "I don't know if I love you more for being you, or for the fact that you proposed with a book."
Rainbow stroked Twilight's mane. "How else was I supposed to do it?"
