Author's Note

This is my first ever fanfic. All criticism is welcomed.

Chapter 1: Gateway reopening

“No...That can't be right,” said an Irritated Twilight Sparkle, using her magic to examine a large book for the fifth time, checking for any indication that she might have missed something.

"Why? What's wrong? What's in it?" asked a confused Rainbow Dash.

“Nothing...” Twilight sank on the chair she was sitting in, the large book still in her magical grasp.

"Nothing's wrong? Or nothing's in it?" Daring Do asked.

"It's blank!" Twilight dropped the book onto the table out of frustration. “All that effort, and for nothing...”

The three of them were in the middle of the library in Twilight's castle. Rainbow Dash and Daring Do intended to check up on whatever Twilight found out about the book they entrusted with her for research, and Twilight sat in front of them at a study table, having spent days studying the book that was given to her by the treasure hunting duo.

“Are you sure? Check again, maybe there's a hidden pocket section in the hard cover, or text so small you might've missed it,” suggested Daring Do.

“Yes, I'm sure. I triple checked,” Twilight replied, whilst thoroughly examining the book. “And now I just quadruple checked,” She added, dropping the book again in annoyance.

“Well, what do those... weird green things say?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You said you deciphered it or whatever, right?”

“First of all, these weird green things are runic symbols. They're archaic letters that possibly date back to ancient times,” Twilight explained, pointing a hoof to the aforementioned symbols. "And second: It took painful hours of translation for just the front cover itself! It isn't exactly clock's work deciphering an ancient language for the first time you know, especially without any prior knowledge of this book's origin.”

“Do you think it might have any magical properties? Or historical value atleast?” asked a hopeful Daring Do, not wanting Twilight's efforts to be all to waste. She herself didn't really care what happens after she's done getting the ancient artifact away from the hands of the bad guys, so the book having no value didn't matter to her as much as she's sure it did to the one who actually did all the research.

“Not sure, but—” Twilight starts tidying up her desk, and picking up scattered books off of the floor, "—this translates to The Tome of Encantasia," she said, tapping a hoof to two specific symbols that seemed to implicate that it was the book's title—if you take into consideration the fact that they were in much bigger font, or that they occupy the middle of the cover page. "It's old Abyssinian. I combined a couple of language dating spells and symbol deciphering spells and somehow managed to get a pretty accurate translation into Equestrian..." She finished, a look of worry settling on her face.

"But...?" Rainbow Dash said, sensing the upcoming conjunction.

“But I couldn't translate the other symbols,” Twilight sighed.

Rainbow Dash and Daring Do looked to each other. "What do you mean?" Daring Do asked.

“Whenever I tried the same spells on them, they seem to be—” Twilight looked up wistfully “—blocked by some type of magic I can't understand.”

"Some type of magic you can't understand...?" Daring Do repeated. "You mean like something you haven't learned yet?"

Twilight shook her head. "It's more like... a kind of magic that's too advanced for me," she struggled to explain, finding it hard to put the sensation of magic into words. At this point she was starting to pace and mumble to herself, not able to keep the theoretical ramblings in any longer.

“Is she, uh, always like this...?” Daring Do asked Rainbow Dash, leaning towards her as Twilight continued going on about how she was so sure something as simple as translating a book shouldn't be too hard for her given that she's already mastered so many other factors in magic that were far more advanced.

"Pretty much," Rainbow Dash answered.

Twilight's hair was disheveled, and strands of purple and pink poked out from her head as they refuse to line up with the rest of her hair in a traitorous act of apostasy. She also had bags under her eyes from lack of rest, and the wrinkles in her face were more obvious than Daring Do and Rainbow Dash liked to admit. "She looks like she's had five minutes of sleep," commented Daring Do.

“Six! actually,” Twilight instantly defended, taking a small break from her incoherent rambling.

“So let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash cuts in, “you found absolutely nothing about this book other than what it's called?” she asked, giving Twilight a somewhat disappointed look.

Twilight defended, "I took a trip to the Canterlot Archives and even they had nothing on The Tome of Encatasia.” The idea of an ancient artifact not being recorded in the Canterlot Archives just didn't seem right to her. Although, if it was something that hasn't actually been discovered yet, it would make sense if it wasn't in any historical book at all, she thought. “On the bright side I did get to take a trip to the Canterlot Archives, so that was one little rainbow to my unproductive week," she happily added, causing Rainbow Dash to roll her eyes. After a few seconds, Twilight sighed. “And in the end, I didn't get to really find out much. I thought that I'd atleast spend the whole night trying to find a spell that could open the book to compensate for the lack of any significant results, but then it turns out to be blank..."

After seeing the look on Twilight's face Rainbow Dash felt a bit sorry, and decided to console, "H-hey, it's no big deal. Look, we didn't even have to make you do this, so don't get so bummed out that you didn't find anything." It was true. When asked for help, Twilight was more than eager to do anything if it meant she would be of any assistance to Daring Do's adventure, and added to that, Twilight would have helped regardless. So Rainbow Dash felt a bit guilty for somewhat causing Twilight to feel like she was useless in their whole endeavor despite the fact that she helped out of pure willingness, disregarding the lack of results. “Who knows? Maybe this book's just a scam and we're overthinking things. It might not even have value at all!" At that point, it was obvious that Rainbow Dash was already exaggerating, and even Twilight wasn't convinced.

“Then why would it be six hundred hooves underground in some old ruins? with dangerous puzzles and traps, gaurded by two manticores?” Daring Do suggested, causing Rainbow Dash to rub a bruise she had on her left forearm, and take her point into consideration.

“I guess that wouldn't make sense...” Rainbow Dash answered.

"But Dash has a point," Daring Do immediately added after a few seconds, turning to Twilight as she started pacing again. "You're stressing yourself way too much over this, princess. We may have asked for your help on this, but it's not like you're running on any deadlines here. It's a request," she emphasized. "And you're sacrificing way too much of your time on it." She saw a circular mirror on the desk, then decided to show Twilight her reflection. "Including sleep."

It had been quite some time since Twilight had last seen the sun, and she can't say she likes the allicorn princess staring back at her from that incidently hideous desk mirror. "Oh dear," she said, seeing the sleep deprived wrinkles worming its way into her princess face, and making it look unprincessy—although, she didn't really have much concern for physical appearances to begin with so that was one problem she could overlook. "You may be right... this book is starting to get to me."

"Starting." Daring Do flatly echoed. "You mean this is just you starting to stress out?"

Twilight sighs, her shoulders sag as she visibly calms down. "Sorry, girls," she apologizes, sitting down, "but I don't think I can be of much more help..." She passes the book over to Rainbow Dash.

"Just like that...?" Rainbow Dash said, taking the book.

Twilight let out a defeated sigh. “I really wish I could've done more, but I'm afraid I'm at my wits end this time."

"So... what now?" Rainbow Dash said after a while, awkwardly holding the book between her hooves and not really knowing what to do with it.

Twilight answered, "If you're still planning on finding more about it, you're gonna have to ask help from the Princesses themselves. This kind of ancient magic is more their area of expertise, and I'm sure they'll be of much more help."

"Are... you gonna come with us?” Rainbow Dash asked, thinking that if Twilight were to come she might find some form of closure for the matter if nothing else.

“I can't," Twilight answered, sighing into a bookshelf she was organizing. "I have to reorganize the library today and Spike's looking after the CMC's.” Twilight felt somewhat conflicted between possibly knowing the outcome of this little—or possibly big—mystery that got her so baffled and riled up for the past torturous days and reorganizing her gigantic library, both of which were things she would very much enjoy doing right away.

"Can't you just reschedule?" Rainbow Dash suggested; however the look on Twilight's face was enough to remind her of how Twilight felt about the whole idea of rescheduling. It's a waste of precious time, and it messes with the balance of my entire week, she would say. “Right, right. That's not your thing," Rainbow Dash decided to say, then made for the door with the book held between her forearm and side. "I guess we'll look for Spike and send word to the Princess. Thanks, Twilight.”

"Make sure to mention that I translated the title for them!" Twilight called out to the door.

"Yeah, yeah sure," Rainbow Dash called back, clutching the book tightly before taking off, and creating a gust of wind that was strong enough to scatter a bunch of stacked books and causing Twilight to groan and pick them up.

“Thanks for the help, princess," Daring Do said, making her way out of the room as well.

Twilight nodded. “It was a pleasure.”

"I'm sure it wasn't."

"No, it wasn't," Twilight replied, deciding to be honest to herself.

Daring Do followed after Rainbow Dash, and left Twilight to her own reorganizing fun.

"Huh... princess." Twilight said to herself the second she was out of earshot. "I'm never getting used to that, am I?"

Whenever ponies used the P word on Twilight, it would still catch her by suprise to this day even if she doesn't show it.

She looks back to the time she was just Unicorn Prodigy Twilight Sparkle, Eccentric Librarian of the townsfolk of TroublesomeVille, home to the perpetually pillaged and their knack for attracting all of Equestria's most dangerous and murderously intentful species. Now she gets to call herself the Weilder of the Element of Magic, Allicorn Princess to the ponies of still TroublesomeVille. It was a title that she held with much pride.

She has no idea what value the tome posseses and what adventures it might possibly entail if it even actually turns out to contain something, but she has a strong feeling that it was gonna be a long day for Rainbow Dash and Daring Do were that the case.

A wooden bucket thuds to the ground, its apples scattering across the grass in all directions as they make a frantic escape from their very pink and very menacing captor whom stood tall on two back legs.

"Woopsie!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, falling out of her ridiculous, bipedal pose as she struggles to chase after each rolling produce to put them back in their respective bucket. "That wasn't the plan now was it." Pinkie loads the apples on a wagon that has already been previously filled with other mounds of apples, then comes back to her original spot, under the tree that Applejack was just about ready to buck.

“Hold it like a normal pony, why don'tcha,” sarcastically said a reprimanding Applejack, hoof-facing herself.

“But it's so much more fun balancing on my head! You should try it!” Pinkie answered, bouncing enthusiastically.

Applejack rolled her eyes, then reared back, her back legs facing the apple tree that was about to be just a tree in a second. “You said you'd help me. Just make sure you don't drop the apples for cryin' out loud. We don't want them to get damaged.” She released full force and bucked the tree, its remaining apples falling off.

"Okie! Dokie! Lokie!" Pinkie caught each apple with the bucket that was now held between her hooves, curtesy of the farm pony's advice, and made sure to turn to Applejack with a cheerful proud smile to show off her success in a childlike manner.

“G'job,” Applejack said simply, walking to the front of the wagon and getting ready to mount its wagon mounty thingies onto herself (a/n: Don't even with me) then said, “Now fill 'em on up. This here's the last batch.”

Pinkie gracefully bounced towards the wagon with the bucket of apples atop her head once again despite prior warnings. Applejack cringed with every jump, fearing for the same outcome and causing her to regret her decisions in accepting Pinkie Pie's help. "You knew better than this, AJ," she sighed to herself.

To Applejack's relief, Pinkie Pie successfully made it over to the wagon without a hitch then did as she was told, giggling at Applejack's expression with a teasing glee.

“Don't worry, silly. I told you I'd help you with your chores. I'm the element of honesty, remember?” Pinkie joked.

Applejack shook her head, but couldn't help a smile. “I know, yer helpin me an' all, but ya done slowed me down more than ya sped the process, to be honest.” Pinkie laughed sheepishly at that. “Now let's get goin' before Granny gives us an earful,” she says then, mumbling, adds, “Mostly me anyways.”

Before Applejack could get far, however, she gets tackled by a flying, blue blur of feathers sporting a rainbow trail in a speed that had no concern for anything within its path. She and her assailant tumble across the grass in a painful cloud of smoke before stopping a few feet away from their original spot.

“Oof,” Pinkie Pie cringes, one of her eyes tightly closed in sympathetic pain.

“What in tarnation!?” Applejack exclaims. The resilient farm pony picks herself off the ground and begins ridding herself of dust, unscathed.

“Ow... Not a good idea,” Rainbow Dash groans from the ground, rubbing at some old and new bruises. While being the faster out of the two, she wasn't anywhere near as strong as the tree bucking farmer whom sustained less damage.

“Ya think?” Applejack retorts.

Daring Do finally catches up, saying, “Did you find your friend?” to a bruised and groaning Rainbow Dash lying on the grass. She finds herself not questioning the predicament the brash and reckless pegasus was in from either lack of concern or spite for being left behind.

“Oh hey, Daring Do! I'm Pinkie Pie. Remember me? Long time!" Pinkie greeted, jumping up and down with glee. "It's been a while! *gasp* Are you moving to ponyville? 'cause I could throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party!”

“Now, now. We don't want to jump to any conclusions. For all we know she might just be passin' by,” Applejack says then turns to Rainbow Dash, her expression turning furious. “Now what the hay were you thinkin' flyin' into me like that! Ya could've hurt yerself,” she looks her up and down, noticing that she did indeed hurt herself, then added "or worse!".

“This stupid book's just so heavy; made me misjudge my landing,” Rainbow Dash reasoned. "I was supposed to just suprise you, but I guess this book had other plans."

"Like attemptin' to break my bones?” Applejack retorted with a raised eyebrow. Attempting was a key word there.

"Broke my bones..." Rainbow Dash mumbled.

"What the hay are ya doin' with that big a book anyways? Ya plannin' on droppin' it on somepony's head?"

“It's an ancient tome,” Daring Do cuts in, shooting Rainbow Dash a reprimanding glare as she yanks the book from her reckless hooves, “and you're supposed to handle it with care because they don't usually come with an extra copy.” She puts the book in one of her saddlebags, making sure it doesn't get destroyed before they even get to ask the princesses what to do with it.

Applejack looks to Daring Do then back to Rainbow Dash. "Looks like ya found yoursleves another treasure hunt adventure," she said. "You guys have been goin on a lot of adventurin' pretty often lately."

“Yeah—uhh... actually, we're kinda in a hurry right now.” Rainbow Dash said, then looked to Daring Do and back to Applejack. “We're lookin for Spike. You guys seen him?”

"Well, last I've seen 'em they were headin' to Carousel Boutique—prolly to get Sweetiebelle, since it was only Spike and the two fillies. I don't know what those girls are up to, but if Spike's there to supervise them, I'm sure it ain't somethin' safe or smart."

"Yeah, Twilight mentioned something about Spike looking after them or something."

"Why you lookin' for him anyways? you gonna send a message to the princess or somethin'?"

"Actually, yeah. How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," she shrugged. "Well, we need to head back ourselves anyways. Right, Pinkie?"

"That's right!" Pinkie answered, nodding vigorously.

“We were just harvestin' for this week's cider shipment, and since Big Mac couldn't come 'cause of his dentist appointment—"

"I volunteered to help!" Pinkie answered for her.

Applejack sighed. "Which I wouldn't say did much considerin' the fact that we're already behind schedule," she added, using her farmer skills to determine the relative time by judging the angle of the sun.

Pinkie laughed sheepishly, scratching her head.

"Anyways, we gotta go," Applejack said, more to Pinkie, then got ready to rush off to the barn with the wagon full of apples in tow.

"Yeah, us too," Rainbow Dash said.

"Good luck on your adventure!" exclaimed Pinkie as Rainbow Dash and Daring Do make their way for Carousel Boutique.

Rainbow Dash kept on insisting to hurry up, and after a while, Daring Do eventually fell behind as Rainbow Dash impatiently sped towards their next destination, leaving only trails of rainbow afterimages for Daring Do to follow, which after awhile of doing so, finally made her catch up.

Daring Do saw Rainbow Dash in front of what looked like a building designed to resemble a carousel. I'm guessing that's Carousel Boutique, she thought to herself, approaching the building with a look of disdain. Rainbow Dash was grumbling and getting irritated about something Daring Do couldn't quite hear from the distance.

"Ugh, they're at Lotus & Aloe's," she heard her say as she got close.

"Who?"

"They're at the day spa." Rainbow Dash started walking towards the maintown, Daring Do falling in step beside her.

"Look who decided to finally take things slow," commented Daring Do jokingly.

"Hehe," sheepishly laughed Rainbow Dash. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Now that I think about it, I've never had this much help before," Daring Do said, looking around.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that not only do I have you tagging along to help me with this; I'm also about to ask help from the rulers of Equestria themselves—and not to mention your friends."

At this point, Rainbow Dash was used to Daring Do always showing appreciation for her help. Sometimes, she wonders if Daring Do's even aware of how much of a privilege it is to be around a hero like her. She figures she probably does, and thinks of how lucky she is to be friends with such a celebrity icon—or atleast that's how she likes to think their relationship is based on. "It's no biggie," Rainbow Dash decided to say, and smirked proudly despite her words.

"I'm counting on you to take good care of my life's biggest secret. I hope you understand the weight of that."

"Yep. Roger! Understood." Rainbow Dash saluted, her limbs going straight.

"Yeah, you don't need to do that." Rainbow Dash dropped the salute, laughing sheepishly. "Now let's go find this spike."

"Oh, I'm afraid you just missed them, dear," a heavily accented voice that could only come from Rarity said. Daring Do finally took notice of the fashionista that had been walking towards them with Fluttershy walking alongside her. "They were headed to their tree house, I believe. Perhaps you should just meet with them there if you're looking for him."

"Oh, hey Rarity. Perfect timing," Rainbow Dash greeted.

"A.K. Yearling—oh, I didn't realize it was you. Oh, it's nice to see you again, darling," Rarity said, giving her a prompt hug which Daring Do returned rather hesitantly.

"Oh, it's so nice to see you," Fluttershy greets as well, smiling. "How's your, um, career going?" she asked, her ability to small talk showing great improvement throughout the years.

"Ok," Daring Do replied flatly, causing Fluttershy to force an awkward smile. It was one thing to finally be the first to engage in social exploits, but when the person you're trying to socialize with doesn't really give you anything to work with, you're kinda just forced to throw in the towel.

"Oh, that's, um, nice," Fluttershy decided to reply after a few seconds, barely able to salvage what little conversation there was between them.

"I must say that is a lovely outfit," Rarity complemented, breaking the silence, much to Fluttershy's relief.

"Thanks. It's... the one I always wear," Daring Do answered. As much as she loved catching up with friends, she had somewhere else to be and something else to do, and she doesn't really plan on getting held hostage by anymore idle chitchat so she decided to keep her replies short and to the point.

"What brings you to Ponyville, dear? If you don't mind my asking," Rarity continued.

Daring Do took out the book from her saddlebag, and showed it to them both. "This," she stated simply, hoping to get out of their meticulously curled manes as soon as possible, but also not wanting to be rude to such well-meaning ponies.

Fluttershy peered. Rarity took a closer look, then immediately reared back for a mighty sneeze. "Oh my," she said, sniffling. "That's, um, pretty dusty." She laughed sheepishly. "I can tell it's been sitting on the shelves for a pretty long time," she added, forcing a smile and not wanting to offend the book writer were it a book she was currently writing.

"Anyways, we gotta bail," Rainbow Dash cut in, not able to take anymore awkward pauses. "We're gonna ask spike to send a letter for us. Then after that we might need to take a trip to Canterlot."

"Oh, I suppose we have to head back ourselves. We still have a lots of work to do after all. Um, do be careful, dear."

"Thanks," replied Rainbow Dash.

The two pairs part ways, one going in much more of a hurry, while the other pair simply walked.

"Oh, I wonder what they are up to," Fluttershy commented, her and Rarity out of earshot. "That book looked a pretty old."

"Oh, don't mind them, dear. You know how Rainbow Dash is when she's with her number one hero."

"I thought the Wonderbolts was her number one hero? Or was it Spitfire...?"

"The point is, Rainbow Dash has been often helping Daring Do with her adventures recently. It's probably just some long lost artifact that she retrieved in some old ruins. I would guess so, because that thing looked horrendously dreadful and the dust that was previously clinging to it is now clinging to the insides of my nose," Rarity explained/complained, making a point by making high pitched noises as she blew out puffs of air through her nose, still trying to get the dust out.

Daring Do and Rainbow Dash arrive at the tree house. They stop a few feet from the wooden stairs.

"I think I should mention something about Spike," Rainbow Dash started.

Daring Do asks, "What."

"He's kind of a dragon."

Daring Do looks back to the tree house, taking good note of its size. "And he's in there?"

"He's a baby dragon."

Princess Celestia sat at a desk in her office, because even though she ruled a monarchy and often held meetings in the throne room itself, she still had the professionalism to have one.

She was having a discussion with a light grey griffon sitting across from her.

Celestia clears her throat. "I understand that it causes a huge economical imbalance, given that it takes up a significant portion of Griffonia's trade and industry; You are known for your mead. I understand it is indigenous in your culture," she stated.

"Not just an imbalance. This could compromise our very economy," the grey griffon answered. "Ever since the appearance of Tirek, the bug bears from which we get our main source of bug bear honey have mysteriously dissapeared. We've been using what's left of the hives they left behind but we're aproaching a point where we simply cannot sustain enough bug bear honey for the next six months. It is... looking quite bleak for us, I'm afraid."

"Can't you find someplace else?"

"We have, and that's percisely why the council asks for passage through Equestria for importation. We found bug bear hives all across Minotaurian forests and they've agreed to help us. They're huge consumers of mead so they struck a deal with us in exchange for a partnership."

"Yes, but I don't understand why you can't just find any other routes for importation and exportation. You know our laws concerning alchoholic beverages, even if it's just for providing a passage; I do not allow even it's components from entering Equestrian territory."

"That's just it. There are no other routes. There were too many ravines and all kinds of uncrossable terrain that put too much of our workers at risk. Passage through Equestria is our only safest and fastest option, therefore the only viable one. You know how important this is to our economy so you must understand that refusing could cause many problems for us."

"Yes, I understand."

The griffon sighed. He leaned back on his chair and stared out the window. "I've done my research too, you know," he looks back to Celestia, "Hundreds of years in the past, you didn't use to be so strict with alcohol."

Celestia looked to the window as well. "Yes, I recall." She looked back to the griffon then said, "I also recall that they weren't exactly a very good and productive influence on my little ponies, hence its banning. For a certain time they weren't happy with my decision and it caused an uproar; riots broke out occasionally here and there."

"Exactly my point!"

"Exactly my point," Celestia firmly interjected. "As I've said: It is not a good influence on my ponies, and it causes such behaviours to manifest into their lifestyles. They eventually got used to living without it and soon lived happier and healthier lives. This proves that such depressants only causes more problems than it fixes."

"Morale and health isn't the only factor involved anymore. Like I said, there will be an economic imbalance—a disturbance if you will. Right now mead leads as a number one commodity in our industry and commerce, and its importance is too great to ignore just because it changes their lifestyle," he argues further, mockingly quoting Celestia. "Griffons will lose their jobs; Businesses will shut down. I'm sorry, princess, but the political stakes are just too high for any moral indignation to matter. The council didn't send me here all the way from Griffonia expecting to come back with nothing but good news. You see, they, uh, apparently have this misguided notion that we're really good friends, and that if there's anyone who can get your approval it would be me."

"I get where you're coming from, and we are good friends. But I hope you understand that I'm running a nation and my duty to my ponies still comes first. I wish I could say that our relationship extends as far as me being able to make an exception just this once, but I will not risk sabotaging the integrity of the peace I've had the difficulty of preserving over the past thousands of years over the wishes of another nation that has done nothing but sought for our assistance time and again throughout the extent of our very relationship."

The griffon went silent at that, then after a while, said, "...so I'm guessing that's a no."

Celestia gave him a firm glare. "My decision is final."

He leans back in his chair, letting out a defeated sigh and taking a few seconds to gather himself. He glances everywhere in the room but her eyes lest its stern glare confirm the reality of her rejection, as reasonable and harmless as he still thought his proposal was. Athough he fully understood where she was coming from; she did have responsibilities to prioritize as co-ruler of a kingdom, and he was in no position to bargain any further.

With a last sigh, he stood up from his chair and makes for the door. He stops and glances her direction. "He won't be too happy with this, you know."

Celestia sighs through her nose. After a few seconds, she asks, "How is he by the way?"

"He's doing good."

"Did he say anything?"

"He says 'loosen up.'"

Celestia shakes her head, hiding a small smile. He finally opens the door and exits the room, leaving her to her own musings (and mounds of metaphorical and real paperwork.)

As the door closes, she lets out a longsuffering sigh, followed by a hoof slowly running down her face as if doing so would somehow wipe the mentally strained look on it. Her eyes tiredly scan the room from the ceiling, to the corner plant, to the door, aimlessly inspecting its innocent interior design in a meager attempt to calm her stressed state of mind, then finally to her desk where she had lots of more boring work to be done. Groaning, she reaches for a quill when a burst of green flames interrupts her, and a letter materializes out of it, conveniently landing onto her desk. Her mood immediately lightens at the sight of the scroll.

Twilight's letters, she merrily thought, smiling. Thank Celestia. She giggled at the expression.

She grabs the parchment and quickly opens it. She wastes no time reading through the words with anticipation. A second later, and she gradually slows down with each word as she realizes it was neither a friendship letter nor from Twilight. "Gaurds!" she called out to the door.

"Ooh, I wish I could come, but my schedule's just so full today!" Twilight complained.

"Why not just postpone and finish them later or something?" suggested Rainbow Dash.

"And get behind in schedule!?" Twilight rhetorically question-shouted under the clear presumption that Rainbow Dash would realize the blasphemy in her words.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah fine. We'll just tell you wha—or I'll tell you what happens."

Twilight sighs, letting the matter go. "Are your things ready?"

Rainbow Dash patted one of her saddlebags with a hoof. "All set."

"I just hope this won't take too long. I've got somewhere to be tommorow," Daring Do cut in.

"Oh, is there another convention you'll be attending?" asked Rainbow Dash with a hopeful tone.

"No. I'm retrieving an artifact that was stolen from an ancient temple in the outskirts of San Palomino Desert."

"Can I come?"

"I'm going alone. It's a kind of stealth mission, and I can't have your... distracting colors give me away."

Rainbow Dash seemed to visibly sag with disappointment. "I can be stealthy," she grumbled to herself.

"That's you," Twilight informs as a royal carriage lands near them.

The door to the carriage opens and one of its riders call out, "Miss Dash and A.K. Yearling?"

Rainbow Dash turns to Twilight, "Wish us luck." Twilight nods, and Rainbow Dash enters the vehicle, followed by Daring Do. They close the door, and the carriage lifts off the ground as the royal gaurds flap their mighty, labor wings to freedom.

"Don't forget the detailed report on your findings!" Twilight called out.

"That wasn't the deal!" Rainbow Dash called back.

The carriage heads for Canterlot, casually disappearing into the distant, blue sky as Twilight ponders in thought, worrying about one thing or another as she stared aimlessly at the continuously shrinking dot in the sky that was her friend and her friend's friend, who which was also pretty much a celebrity heading into a city that is prominently known for being filled to the brim with social climbing snobs who only care about social power and celebrity status.

Hiding in the background, Starlight finally comes out of her eavesdropping spot and startles Twilight into a high pitched yelp. "Who was that pony with Rainbow Dash just now?" she asked nonchalantly as Twilight breathed vehemently for air.

Finally catching some crisp Co² back into her lungs, Twilight looks to Starlight in shock, but for a different reason. "You mean you didn't recognize her right away?" she asked, baffled.

"Was I supposed to...?" Starlight fearfully asked, unaware of the evident pop cultural reproof she was due to recieve.

Twilight could only gape in disbelief, making Starlight the more nervous.

"Look, if this is one of your friendship lessons where I have to be able to recognize a pony I've met, I'm just really not that good at it. I mean it's just... Some names can be really confusing and tough to memorize, and Ponyville's a big town," Starlight reasoned. "I mean, do you know that there is a Berrycrunch and a Cherrybu—"

"No, no, no," Twilight cuts off, waving her hooves about. "That pony was A.K. Yearling," she clarifies, pointing a hoof towards the direction of the now distant and barely visible carriage, all the while staring at Starlight with a silent anticipation for the sudden recognition to hit her.

Which didn't come.

"Professional book writer and author of the Daring Do series...?" Twilight added when Starlight had already been silent for an entire eight seconds, hoping it would prove fruitful in ascertaining her familiarity with the writer.

To no avail.

"The first trilogy sold over thousands of copies within the week of its release!"

"I've... never heard of her."

Twilight found herself absolutely baffled to hear such a statement. She was certain that Starlight was just as introverted and nerdy as the next pony, and figured that she would have atleast heard of the iconic book writer and her very prominent franchise.

"Look, I spent a significant portion of my life cultivating and enslaving an entire village, what do you want from me?" Starlight quite reasonably defended. Twilight gave her argument a thought, then after a while, she decided to accept its credibility with a shrug. Not much she could do about it anyways. Although nothing was stopping her from introducing Starlight to the first trilogy. So she decided that that's what she was gonna do.

Her schedule could wait...

Bored out of her mind, Rainbow Dash used her hooves and drummed a little beat onto her side of the carriage windows.

Meanwhile, Daring Do took the tome out of the saddlebag and examined its runes, closely eyeing each archaic symbol out of an innate curiosity and out of sheer boredom. She gingerly traced a hoof through them, and suddenly made it glow where she touched, causing Rainbow Dash to stop in her little drum solo ensemble to take a peek.

"Woah," Rainbow Dash said, sitting closer where she could witness the strange phenomenon better. "How are you doing that?"

"I'm just touching them." Daring Do shrugged.

They looked to each other then shrugged, and spent the next few seconds wordlessly watching the unexplainable magic show unfold before their eyes as they refuse to unglue them from the book. Neither of them knew what was going on or how it was happening, but they had no complaints as it pleased their very awkwardly boring carriage ride.

The runes glowed in accordance to where the tip of Daring Do's hoof touched, the glow at the tail end where she last touched fading in time; ending in a whimsical, ghostly chase as her hoof traced patterns in accordance to the contour of the archaic letters.

"Ok, so how come Twilight couldn't do that during the time she had it in her hooves?" Rainbow Dash questioned more to herself. Daring Do gave it a thought, then continued experimenting with the runes. "Maybe it's useless, so she didn't bother telling us...?" Rainbow Dash continued.

"Or maybe it's because of the fact that she was using her magic ninety percent of the time instead of actually using her hooves to hold it," Daring Do suggested.

"...can I try?"

Daring Do looked to Rainbow Dash for one doubtful second, before slowly and hesitantly handing it over—she instanty pulled back ("Be careful"), then finally gave it to her.

Rainbow Dash immediately tried out the same tactic, but with much more haste. "Woah," she said, getting the same outcome.

"Hmm." While Rainbow Dash played with the book, Daring Do gave it a skeptic eye. After a while, she concluded, "It seems harmless enough," then proceeds entertaining herself on a boring trip.

The rest of the relatively short ride was spent with the two of them chatting whilst still fiddling with the book. It was just them, the ancient tome, the curious glowing carriage of doom heading towards Canterlot, and its labor-laden pegasus ponies wondering what in Tartarus is going on back there.

A few minutes later and they were landing in the palace gardens with a worried looking Celestia and a sleep deprived looking Luna waiting for them by the entrance. The two sister's wasted no time letting a gaurd fetch them were the carriage to arrive, and decided to just stand there and wait for themselves.

Rainbow Dash hopped off, and Daring Do got out as well. "Looks like they're already waiting for us. This must be impotant," Rainbow Dash commented, looking back to the royal carriage and its pegasus riders who were giving them strange looks, still never really getting an explanation to what caused the royal carriage to emit such a strange, suspicionsly green glow.

Luna gave her sister an irritated glance. "Yes, this must be," she spat, not quite happy with being awoken in the middle of a very important dream tea party.

Celestia rolled her eyes. "You must be Daring Do," she said, turning to the adventure pony.

Daring Do bowed. "Princess."

"It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard plenty of your valiant adventures from Rainbow Dash; she admires you very much."

Rainbow Dash laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. She felt a bit like a little kid being embarrassingly snitched on by an over enthusiastic parent.

"That... has been made pretty clear," replied Daring Do, taking out the tome and walking over to Celestia.

"This is the book?" inquired the benevolent princess.

"Erhmm," Daring Do answered through the book in her mouth, handing it over with as much grace as she could without the help of magic.

Celestia used her magic to free the heavy book from the grasp of Daring Do's poor teeth, then made her way for the castle. "Let's discuss things inside," she said, walking.

The rest followed with no questions, except maybe for one grumbling little, sleep deprived, moon princess who looked intenesly at the back of her sister's head and imagined shooting lazer beams out of wrinkle decorated eyes.

After entering the castle doors, Daring Do takes a gander through the palace interior, giving it the meticulous, deductive obvservation of a curious explorer, which by all rights was what she technically was. "I guess this is your first time in Canterlot Castle," Rainbow Dash commented, noticing her restlessly adventurous friend's unbridled curiosity at work.

"First time in any castle," Daring Do answered. "I mean, first time being in one where I don't plan on looting its jewelries atleast," she added with a light chuckle.

They promptly arrive at the throne room, and Celestia wastes no time thoroughly examining the book with magic. "Hmm..." She made the tome glow a yellow-greenish hue and lifts it up in the air with a skeptic eye, seeming to scan its very entity for a trace of anything significant. She flips it over a couple times, before her focused expression is replaced with a hint of recognition. And then confusion.

Then terror.

"What is it, sister?" Asked Luna, her earlier peeved manner immediately replaced with worry.

Celestia looks to Luna, shock written on her face, then with a worried tone she said "Luna, this is..." She turns to Rainbow Dash then rushed to asked, "What was it that Twilight found out?"

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash said, confused.

"You mentioned in the letter that Twilight was able to translate a part of the book. What was it?"

"Oh, uh, Twilight said it was called the Tome of Encasor... or something," Rainbow Dash fumbled.

"The Tome of Ecantasia," Luna corrected, having a look of absolute dread as soon as the words escaped her mouth.

"Yeah. Wait. How'd you know?" Rainbow Dash looked between the allicorn sisters as they exchange looks of concern. "Is... something wrong?" She asked, finally noticing the unease.

Luna could only look to her sister and ask with unsure eyes whether or not they should explain the situation. Celestia nodded to her, then turned and faced the other two who were, at this point, worrying if they somehow made a mistake in taking the book in the first place.

"There exists countless of artifacts that are able to open portals to different realities," Celestia began explaining, her relatively calm demeanor causing the two to release their bated breaths and lower their tense shoulders. "These artifacts are called rifts, and they vary in different shapes and forms."

Luna chipped in, "You may remember the magic mirror that Sunset Shimmer used to get to a different dimension and back." Rainbow Dash nodded, never failing to remember the day a certain allicorn princess and her baby dragon assistant were ripped out from this reality and sent to a diffirent dimension on a magical quest to retrieve her stolen crown. Meanwhile, Daring Do never felt so deatached from a conversation and couldn't help but just listen on with interest, having nothing else to say or think other than that Rainbow Dash definitely led an interesting life. "That magic mirror is one of these rifts—"

"And it opened to the alternate dimension of Equestria," Rainbow Dash finished for her, still able to recall its weird dimensional counterpart concept.

"Yes," Luna nodded. "That is one of many realities within the Ring of Dimensions. The magic mirror itself serves as a gateway for that particular reality, and each rift has their own express purpose."

"So you're saying that the book is one of these rifts?" Daring Do said.

"One of only many that have been discovered," Celestia answered. "The magic mirror, the cane of Estrof, Padona's ring, the forbidden chalice," she lifted the book with her magic, "and finally, the Tome of Encantasia. Named after the great sorceress herself who vanquished the Reptilian Beasts during the Tenebris Era."

"The what?" Rainbow Dash asked, confused.

"The Reptilian Beasts were a race of giant monsters that pillaged towns all across Equestria thousands of years in the past. It was a great tragedy that occurred due to an unprecedented rip in the fabric of reality which opened a gateway to a dimension that let such monstrous and vile creatures into our world. They stood up to massive heights, and bore sharp claws and large jaws, lined with dangerously sharp teeth."

"That's... pretty scary," Rainbow Dash commented, trying and failing to keep up a bravado. "I mean not for me, but that could be pretty scary for others," she very quickly rectified, convincing nopony in the room.

Daring Do couldn't help but be completely obsorbed. These types of serious and ancient backstories that involved magical relics and intense, climactic tragedies always tickled the explorer's knack for sniffing out telltale signs of an adventure, and this situation, no matter how unexpected and unconventional to what she's used to, wasn't any different.

Celestia continued, "However, what made the giant beasts even more perilous, aside from their dangerous physical attributes, was their complete immunity to magic."

That got their attention. Daring Do and Rainbow Dash looked to each other, not having heard of such a thing to even be a possibility for an animal to have. Sure Rainbow Dash didn't quite read up on alot of books on animals or history or magic—or any books that made her snore for that matter—but something as noteworthy as a creature having complete resistance to magic doesn't just make it past her ungraciously stacked pile of common knowledge or anypony's for that matter, and surely Daring Do would have to agree with her considering even she looked pretty suprised, Rainbow Dash thought.

After watching their expressions change about three times, Celestia proceeded, "In fact, it was the one attribute that made unicorns and allicorns alike inaffective against them, hence Equestria became helpless for a hundred and fifty years."

"W-wait. You mean... Equestria became enslaved? For a hundred and fifty years?" Rainbow Dash was practically shrinking in on herself as she asked the question, not being able to hide her fear anymore.

"It might as well have," Celestia answered with a remorseful tone. "It is true that the Reptilian Beasts didn't quite possess intelligence in the same manner as ponies and other nations, but the ability of being magic immune alone was enough to drive an entire class of species into living in seclusion for an entire century. Ponies and other nations were forced to reside in hidden locations, away from the open spaces where chances of being spotted by the giant monsters were high. We might have found different ways of staying alive, but our living situations were very discreet. The ponies of Equestria and its neighboring countries were surviving more than they were living."

"So... even you couldn't stop them?" Rainbow Dash asked fearfully, the image of the princesses themselves being helpless against such monsters making her fear them even more.

Celestia and Luna looked to each other, then Luna turned to them then said, "We were just fillies during the time. And by the end of that dark and terrible era, we were just starting to master advanced magic ourselves." She paused then mumbled, "Or atleast I was," causing her sister to flinch in surprise. Celestia wanted so badly to redress Luna's lies and deflect her immaturity with a passive aggressive insult of her own, but professionally decided against it. She could bicker immaturely with her sister all she wants when they're alone, but now was not the time, and other ponies were in the room.

Seeing that neither Rainbow Dash nor Daring Do seemed to pick up on Luna's little side comment, Celestia decided to continue, "But thankfully, there was one unicorn by the name of Encantasia who had the heart and courage to stand up against the beasts." Rainbow Dash lit up with hope; Daring Do saw it coming. "She was a magic professor who taught advanced magic to aspiring ponies dreaming to be masters of the arts one day themselves. Ever since she swore she would free ponykind from the reign of the Reptilian Beasts, she made the decision to create a powerful spell that would reopen the gateway to the realm of the monsters, where she would
return them once and for all.

"However, such a spell was a whole lot more complex than anypony could have anticipated, and she never expected she would spend decades creating the spell which was soon to be her life's greatest work.

"Thankfully, after fifty long years of pure dedication, her research finally paid off. She developed a spell that would enchant heavily magic-influenced items and turn them into a key that could manually open the door to a different reality. She decided that she would use the very book that contained her entire research, and enchant it into this tome within my grasp," Celestia concluded, shaking the tome itself and causing Daring Do and Rainbow Dash to look at it with renewed wonder. "Using the tome, she cast a series of powerful spells that opened the gateway to their homeworld where she then sent them back. That day, she was deemed a hero and nations all across the lands were free again."

"Woah," Rainbow Dash said "Ok, she sounds pretty cool."

"She was our teacher too," Celestia informed. "Sadly, her spell took a huge toll on her, given that she was already at a late age when she performed such a powerful spell, and she passed away not too long after the week of the celebration of her courage and bravery."

"So now, her... tome was just lying around in some ruins?" asked Daring Do.

"The thing is," Luna said, "after using its powers to free us from their reign of over a hundred and fifty years, Encantasia decided she would hide the Tome someplace not a single pony could find. A place where she put up a magical barrier that made it unlocatable no matter how hard you try."

"And we found it anyways, because we're such good explorers," bragged Rainbow Dash, smiling at Daring Do and trying to make her agree.

"No," Celestia said. "You found it because the spell was broken, which only means one thing."

Rainbow Dash and Daring Do bated their breaths, preparing themselves for whatever bad news they were probably sure to hear.

"The gateway had been reopened," Luna finished.

And Rainbow Dash fainted.