Double Dare and the Changelings' Chagrin [part 1]
Growing up in the famed Manehattan can be, well, less than extraordinary. Many ponies dreamed of simply going there, let alone living there, but for those that actually did live there it wasn't a piece of cake. Jobs were hard to come by and when they were given to a pony, they hardly received anything in return for their hard work. A pegasus and his lovely wife had found that out the hard way seventeen years prior to where our story begins.
Bold Font had to often be snapped out of daydreaming about venturing off into the wild west or even just outside of the city. His wife would always be kind about it, always joking that he should start writing about his adventures in his dreams instead of simply letting them go to waste. Due to her encouragement, he pursued his talents of writing in wonderful, but light detail as well as incorporating everyday life into it. His main character, Daring Do, was the very essence of adventure and excitement that he ended up basing her off of his witty wife. Together, he deemed, he and Daring Do could perform any feat. At least, that's what they believed until the pregnancy test came back positive.
It wasn't a sad time in the Font home, but it wasn't exactly the happiest of times either. You see, his wife had always been rather sickly and baring a filly only added onto the stress that she currently dealt with on top of her job at the newspaper. Daring Do's days had come to an end and so had his daydreaming. His wife had been thrilled to be pregnant, though it often caused her to miss yet another day or week or work, but Bold Font knew that she missed going out on her adventures. She would often talk about how their filly would most likely be the perfect mix of both her parents, how the filly would be the very image of the amazing Daring Do. Everyday they would sit together and create stories about wonderful adventures that their filly would go on, how their child would be double the daring than Daring Do herself, and even how Bold Font would be able to continue his writing through their offspring. They even joked about how they would literally have to pin their filly down every time they wanted a moment's worth of rest.
Little did Bold Font predict that rest is what they would receive the moment that their 'Double Dare' came into this world.
His Daring Do would vanish. She would leave without a single god-bye and would go and plunge herself int other greatest adventure of all time. His will to write, his will to live had vanished with his Daring Do.
"State your name," said a cream colored mare in a dull voice very little to the young pegasus's surprise, "and why you want to be a librarian here." The mare's mane was dark grey, though she wasn't elderly, and the pegasus, hardly older than a filly herself, began to regret ever trying to apply for a job within the Public Library of Manehattan. "You'd best spit it out, because we have other ponies that actually have cutie marks."
The sand-colored pegasus sighed, "My name is Double Dare and I want this job because I like books."
"Oh?" The head librarian asked in a somewhat surprised manner. "Are you capable of shelving hundreds of books on a daily basis?"
"I guess." Double Dare replied in a dull voice, trying to copy the librarian's as well as get away with it. Her father's words then rang through her head like a bell, warning her to act kind and ready for anything that was thrown at her. Why on Equestria did I ever suggest that I'd get a job here, the mare asked herself before trying her best at a charming smile. "I mean, yes, I'm ready for anything and everything that you could ever throw at me."
Upon hearing this the librarian immediately knew that she did not want a mouthy mare working under her supervision, thus, she knew how she would get rid of this quirky candidate quickly enough. "Then I would like for you to find the book The Entire History of Equestria and bring it back to me within the next five minutes."
"But-"
"And your time starts now." The snobby librarian took out her pocket watch and raised an eyebrow, looking completely serious about this task. Clicking the button that would start the clock, Dare simply stared at her dumbly for a moment before shaking her head slightly; quite unimpressed with the mare's methods of finding a new librarian.
With a sigh the pegasus immediately started towards the history wing of the library and looked through the Equestria history section. She climbed up the ladder which leaned against the shelf in a slightly delicate manner, going all the way to the top before searching for the beginning of the 'H' subsection of the shelf. She was at the top of the ladder, stretching out her hoof for her quarry, which happened to be placed on the ungodly top of the shelf. Just as grabbed the binding of the book she made the mistake of looking down and immediately became dizzy from the height at which she stood. Unlike other pegasi, she was terrified of heights and couldn't fly to rub salt in her wound. "Heights," she said in a shaking and whiny voice, "why does it always have to be heights?" A feeling of queasiness flooded through her head and stomach, and she was about to climb down from the ladder when her foot inevitably missed the step. Thus, she lost her grip on the ladder and fell backwards, much to her dismay and fear, and into the shelf behind her.
There was a loud crash and cloud of dust as Dare and the books from that shelf fell. Coughing from breathing in the musty dust from the old books, the pegasus roughly pushed them off of her as she stood up. She was brushing her wings of the dust when a single book with a colorful cover amiss the dull and bland covers of the history books caught her eye. She picked her way through the mess and pulled the book out, exposing it to her magenta eyes.
What she saw made her heart stop beating for a moment. It was her on the front cover of the book. Slipping the book into her saddlebag, she quickly found and retrieved the book that the librarian had asked for. Setting it down on the desk in front of the librarian pony, she continued towards the door, completely missing the mare's stuttering of how she got the job and even forgot to check out the adventure book.
Upon returning to her apartment, Double Dare sat down and promptly stared at the book cover for a long while in the dark of the setting sun. Her mind was trying to wrap around the fact that she was on the cover of the book. The only thing that made her different from the mare was that 'Daring Do' had a cutie mark, and a rather cool one at that. What on Equestria is going on, she thought to herself as her father opened the door and stepped inside.
"Hello?" Font called as he turned on the kitchen lights and saw his sandy daughter sitting at the table staring at what appeared to be a book. Trotting over to the small table set for two and asked, "Did you get the job?"
Double Dare didn't respond right away, but when she did, it was in a rather quiet voice, "How long have I been on the cover of a book...?"
"What are you talking about?" Font asked as he looked over her shoulder and held his breath for a moment before letting it out in a sigh. He had known that his filly would eventually figure it out sooner or later, but instead of telling her the full truth, he replied in a hesitant fashion, "That's your mother, actually."
"My... mom...?" Dare asked with a squeak, her voice hardly audible. He had never mentioned her mother, except for rare occasions when she threatened to go out and find out for herself. "My mother is a character in a story..." she said before she burst into a fit of laughter, "Pfft! I would have thought you'd come up with a better excuse than that!" She had started to roll on the floor with laughter for several minutes before she sat up a little, wiping a tear away from her eye, and then said in a deadly tone of voice, "Now, tell me the truth about this. Now."
Font let out yet another sigh and nodded to the chair as a signal for her to sit down. As she did so, he walked around the table and sat down across from her, his dark brown eyes locked onto her magenta ones. "When you were very, very little your mother, Daring Do, was blackmailed into finding several artifacts in order to protect you." Font looked entirely serious, so Dare simply tried to be unbiased about this tale of her mother. "This organization was known as Mystic and they had always tried to foil your mother's escapades, but they had never gotten away with their dastardly plans. It wasn't until she had something to lose that she was forced away from us. She's out there somewhere in the world right now... just waiting to see you again." He let all of this sink in before continuing onward, "I know that it's a lot to grip and that I gave you such little information, but I ask that you just believe me for once in your life. Your mother cared about you so much that she gave up her freedom and even threw away her better judgment to protect you from their clutches."
"But..." Double Dare asked in a quiet voice before sighing with defeat; he'd made plenty of good points, though they were rather doubtful, "...what should I do?"
Her father looked down at the tablecloth for several long minutes, each second feeling like a thousand years to the tan and grayscale mare, before looking up and meeting her eyes again. "You're the only one that will be able to find your mother," his tone of voice steady and calm, "because you have your mother's talents for finding ponies and objects of importance if you put your mind to it. I want you to go out and find her; for both of us."
The pegasus looked down at her hooves and then to the window, watching the flickering of a streetlamp. She then looked back to Font when she had thought through her choices: to stay and be motherless or to go out into the world and find her desired parent; that's when she knew that her life would change forever and that there was no way to change her destiny. Her eyes met her father's with a determined glow as she replied, "I'll go and bring Mom back."
Double Dare and the Changelings' Chagrin [part 2]
Each day as Double Dare made her way to the Manhatten Public Library to shelve books upon never-ending books, she would ponder upon why on Equestria she had never realized that her mother hadn't died or simply walked out on her father. She'd been told by her foal-sitter that her mother was probably just too busy to get back home in time for Dare to see her, stating that she worked throughout the day and was only home at night. This, of course, had led to many nights without sleep and several months worth of disappointment for the young foal. When her father asked why she was so tired and was practically sleepwalking, she never saw that foal-sitter again, much to her dismay. Then again, her father had then taken it up to himself to raise her instead of relying on other mares and ponies to do it for him.
At first, as she always remembered with a smile, he'd been a terrible cook and often had to go down to the local cafe in order to buy them some edible supper. It had taken him a long time before he realized that he'd turned the stove onto it's highest setting before he began to prepare somewhat decent meals. Dinner was never anything too special or extravagant, but it was always her favorite time of day. It wasn't until she was a filly that she learned how to make simple things like noodles and vegetables, but even when she had learned to cook, she had always looked forward to her father coming home and praising her for her attempts at making something worthy of his stomach. Her father had always worked so hard when he was able to leave her home alone and she was proud of him.
But now she was confused about whether she had been too weak to handle the news about her mother earlier or whether he had been holding it back in hopes of keeping her to himself for the rest of her life. He had told her that it was her duty to go out into the vast world to find the one pegasus that she had never once seen until just the day before on the cover of a book. It was a nearly impossible task, but the look in his eyes had told her that she was capable of anything if she truly tried. And she intended to give it her best shot, because not only did she want to meet her amazing mother, but also wanted to see her father smile with pride and joy. He doesn't understand that I'm not doing this for Mom, she thought to herself, but for him.
Just then a high-pitched shout brought Dare back out of her thoughts and into reality, "Double Dare! You have work to do! There's no room for slacking when all of the books are stacked a mile high!"
Dare sent a deadly glare at the librarian that was none other than her dreaded manager and slave driver, Book Smart, before she loaded up yet another cart of books and began to trek them throughout the monstrous library and place them in the right slots on the shelves. She had just placed a book about magic that was affected by the placement of stars on the shelf when she heard a small gasp behind her. The sandy pegasus turned and looked down at a blue unicorn filly with a silver mane and huge glasses. They simply stared at each other for a long moment before Double Dare burst into laughter at the sight of the giant, nerdy glasses. She snorted with laughter, "Those are priceless! They make you look like a total egghead!"
"I am not an egghead," the unicorn filly responded with huff, "I am the great and powerful Trixie! Give to me the book that you just put away without delay!"
From the small unicorn's saddle pack she withdrew a large blanket with crudely drawn stars on it and used her teeth to tie it around her neck like a cloak. Then the filly put her muzzle in the air and closed her eyes with a haughty smile. Dare had to bite her lip in order to keep herself from bursting into another fit of laughter. When the filly opened her eyes and saw the pegasus' expression, she let out a sigh and looked down at the wooden floor of the library, shuffling her hoof in a nervous sort of fashion. "I mean," Trixie said in a small voice that was actually befitting of a small unicorn such as herself, "if you could get that book down for me, I'd be most grateful."
Dare took a deep breath to calm herself and once she had her laughter under control, she noted the look of disdain on the unicorn's face. Reaching up and retrieving the book she said in a hesitant sort of manner, "I didn't mean to offend you or anything. It's just that you looked so funny trying to act like a hotshot when you obviously don't fit the saddle." The pegasus then held out the book to the unicorn and when it was received with hurt pride, she couldn't help but ask, "Why on Equestria did you act as if you're so much better than me?"
"I... well..." the unicorn began as she slipped the book into her saddlebag, "... you wouldn't understand Trixie's problems."
"Oh," Dare said as if she understood, "are you sure that I wouldn't understand? I mean, eggheads always do better in school than the rest of us."
"The great and powerful Trixie is not an egghead!" The unicorn said with a stomp before sighing and admitting, "The other fillies at school say that Trixie is just a book-loving freak that will never receive her cutie mark."
Turning to the side, Dare moved her wing to expose her blank flank before stating, "You don't need a cutie mark to cool. See? I'm several years older than you and still don't have my cutie mark yet." That's when it was Trixie's turn to laugh, but it was in a sweet manner. The mare smiled a little before she folded her wing over her flank again and asked, "You just need to know what you want to do and whether you'll do anything to become what you want. I know, you've probably been told that it's what you're talented at, and that's partially true, but I think it's when you know in your heart that you want to become good at something and try your hardest to become so." She patted the unicorn on the head before turning back to her cart, glancing over her shoulder as she finished, "Just reach for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."
She trotted away with the cart before she could see the tiny unicorn begin to cry slightly. "The great and powerful Trixie will one day become the brightest star and it'll be thanks to you!"
Everyday after work, Dare would check out a book that had anything to do with geography, traveling, and most importantly: ancient artifacts, both real and fictional. She desired to know what sort of treasures her mother might be forced to retrieve for Mystic and soon began to lose hope of ever finding her mother. There were so many treasures out there and many were already in museums and in private collections that she knew would be of no help. Days turned to weeks, which soon turned into months, and she had nearly lost every ounce of hope that she'd felt when she'd first started her research. Of course, she'd worked so much that she rarely ate and it was obvious that she was very unhealthy. Her father began to worry for her and forced her to take a vacation from her job of re-shelving books and magazines
Much to his dismay after returning from another long day of work, she was sitting at the table with several books piled around her, each opened to a separate page of different artifacts, their locations, and even a travel guide for that specific location. He sighed and sat down across from her, gently taking the books from her and said, "Dear," his eyes were tired and showed that he was rather unhappy, "I know that you're doing your best to even figure out where you should start, but who knows where your mother is by now? I remember that she once told me that she wanted to go and uncover the secrets of the legendary creatures known as the Changelings. She also mentioned that their queen had a scepter that allowed her to control her people without question or hesitation."
"Do you think she's already been there?" Dare asked with pleading eyes that made Font's heart ache slightly. She was dead-set on finding her mother and he couldn't find it in his heart to tell her the full truth. Not yet, anyways. Then he shrugged as if he didn't know and she slammed her hoof on the table with a victorious laugh, "Then that's where I shall go, damn it!"
She stepped away from the table and started towards the door, but her father was quick to block her path, "You can't just go without knowing where the Changeling's nest is!"
Dare simply stared up at him for a long moment before she pointed with her hoof to a map that had been pinned up on the fridge for the past several days and stated blankly, "It's in the northern mountain range, otherwise known as the Crystal Mountains; at least that's where I assume that it is by their basic body structure and rock traversing abilities." She then slipped past him and pulled on a small saddlebag that would serve as her suitcase for this mission. She then trotted to the pantry and began to stash her packs with plenty of snacks that would last out for several weeks as well as give her the proper nutrition that she required for long periods of walking. "And even if it's not where Mom is, then at least I'll have seen the Crystal Mountains for myself. Maybe I'll even get to study the Changelings a little before coming straight back home."
Just as she walked back to the hat rack and pulled on a vest with a compass in the front pocket, she heard her father clear his throat. She turned to see that he looked resigned and that there was nothing left for him to say or do... except for take off the sacred safari hat from the top of the hat rack and place it on her head. "You have your mother's heart and though I want nothing more than for you to stay here safely with me... I want you to fulfill your destiny and find your mother while doing so." Tears filled his eyes as he placed a kiss on her forehead and stepped back to admire the child that he had struggled to raise. "Remember never to give up, no matter how long it takes or how far you are forced to travel!" He then sighed and gave to her his wallet. "If you are quick, you might be able to make it to the midnight train on time."
The sandy brown mare felt tears spring up in her eyes as she simply turned and left before the tears would fall down her face. She didn't want him to know that she didn't want to leave her home, let alone Manehattan. She trotted quickly down the stairs to the streets below and pulled the hat down to cover the top part of her face as she made her way to the train station. She hated the feeling of tears running down her cheeks and the way that it made her sniffle like a little filly that was crying over misplacing a doll. Tears were pointless to her.
As she walked down the streets, she suddenly heard something in the sky above her. She looked up at the sky and saw one of the most ridiculous sights in her entire life. It was a pegasus stallion sporting a stormy grey pelt and a mane that was the color of the most dangerous of storm clouds. He soared above her and seemed to be watching her intently. She gave him a glare that told him to bug off, but he ignored the look and gave her a smug grin. It was as if he was rubbing salt on the wound and so she continued her short journey to the train station. What made things worse was the fact that he followed her the entire way.
When she reached the platform she stood there under one of the many lamps and pretended not to take note of him flying around above her like an annoying fly. After what seemed like ages, he suddenly plunged to the earth and crushed into the ground. She jumped with a yelp of surprise before asking in a dry tone, "Well, that was a smooth landing."
"It's my name, literally." He responded in a dazed tone of voice as he sat up and shook his head from side to side. Just then he gave her a cocky grin and asked in a coy format, "The name's Crash Landing. You?"
"My name is of no importance to you," the pegasus mare responded in a haughty fashion as she sat down and turned away from him, "so scram before I call the police."
Crash Landing pouted before sighing with defeat, "And why would they arrest me? It's not like I was stealing anything or even looked at you in a sexually harassing way for Celestia's sake."
"You followed me and frightened me." Dare said with sarcasm dripping from every word spoken. "Then you proceeded to harass me with your presence. That could be considered sexual harassment, I'm sure."
"You really thought this through, eh?" Crash asked and managed to receive a quiet chuckle from the mare. He was further surprised when she turned so that she was in profile view now. "The train's for earth ponies and unicorns. So why is a pegasus like you taking the train?"
"I can't fly."
For a moment there was nothing but silence. That single moment's silence hung so heavily in the air that Double Dare was sure that she could have cut it with a knife. Then came a little gurgle of a laugh from the stallion. Seconds later, it became a full-out laughing fit. To add onto it, he was rolling around on the ground like a manticore with a stomach ache. His laughter rang so loudly on the platform that she was sure that the entire city could hear it.
"A pegasus that can't fly!" He said loudly whilst laughing. "That's the funniest thing that I've ever heard!"
He was laughing at her for her disability.
He was going to pay dearly.
