Conventional Approach

by Knox Locke

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Zephyr Breeze, Romance, Comedy, Daring Do
Length: 3804

Zephyr Breeze had come to the Daring Do convention in hopes of finding his beloved Rainbow Dash. Little does he know, she's stuck at Wonderbolts practice. Zephyr spots a mare. Wait, is that Rainbow? Never pegged her for that big a cosplayer.

Zephyr Breeze had come to the Daring Do convention in Manehattan with high hopes of surprising his crush, Rainbow Dash. After all, she loves Daring Do, right?

Rainbow Dash was bummed that she couldn't go to this year's Manehattan Daring Do convention, but she had Wonderbolts practice, so she simply wouldn't be able to be there.

A.K. Yearling was on a mission. Scratch that, she just completed it. Now all she had to do was blend in with all the Daring Do cosplayers until the convention closed for the day. Wait, who in Celestia's name is this stallion? And why's he calling her "Rainbows?"

Note: This story is my entry into the May 2020 Pairing Contest.

Note: This story is written to take place before Season 9, so any continuity problems from episodes such as Daring Doubt are not actually continuity errors at all.

Published 2020-05-20 04:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-05-20 04:40:01 UTC

Chapter 1: The Search For Rainbow Dash

"I'm sure she'll be ecstatic that I'm here," Zephyr enthusiastically said to himself, urging himself forwards towards the convention center.

"I haven't seen Rainbows in ages!" he dramatically emphasized this point by holding a forehoof to his forehead. "She must really be missing the Breeze under her wings."

Zephyr couldn't stand not seeing her. He hadn't seen his crush in almost a year, but he knew just how tough Rainbow was. She could go longer without seeing him if she had to, but he wasn't as strong as her. He was practically going through withdrawals! He had to see her, and there was no chance Rainbow would miss a Daring Do convention. She loved Daring Do!

Zephyr normally couldn't stand conventions like the one he was now entering. He thrives off of attention, and in a place as packed as this one, he easily blended into the crowd. He managed to find the stallion collecting tickets and quickly wormed his way into the convention center. He wasn't much of a Daring Do fan. He'd only read one of the books, and that had been so he could understand what Rainbow was talking about when he eavesdropped on her conversations with his sister. He was here for only one reason, so he set out in search of Rainbow Dash.

Little did Zephyr know, Rainbow was looking out of a window at Wonderbolts Headquarters towards the Manehattan convention center.

She let out a long sigh before she felt a hoof rest firmly on her shoulder. She glanced toward it and came face-to-face with her closest friend in the Wonderbolts.

"Sorry Crash," Spitfire said sincerely, "but Wonderbolts practice always comes first, and we've got a big show coming up."

"I know, I know," Rainbow replied, still allowing herself to wallow a little bit as she stood up.

She turned back towards the window and sighed.

"Maybe next year."

Daring Do (or A.K. Yearling, take your pick) was on a mission. Never mind, she just completed it. She had the relic stored safely in her hat. She had a meeting with the curator of a museum tomorrow morning. After that, the relic would be safe. All she had to do now was keep the relic away from Caballeron and his thugs until tomorrow.

She had to think fast. The day was still young, and she was exposed here in the outskirts of Manehattan. Where's the easiest place for her to hide?

"Think, Daring, think!" she reprimanded herself as she desperately looked around, deciding which way to go.

Her train of thought finally reached its destination as she ran towards the convention being held in her honor. After all, what better way for her to disappear than to blend in with hundreds of cosplayers!

"Where in Equestria could that mare be?" Zephyr said aloud, once again talking to himself.

He'd been looking for Rainbow for hours, but to no avail. He knew she was there. There was no way she wouldn't be. Why hadn't he found her yet?

"Maybe she improved her cosplay?" he said, rolling the thought over in his head. He'd been searching for her signature mane and tail, streaks of vivid color topping her head and running down between her flanks, but he hadn't seen anypony with such a distinct color palette in this place.

He looked around at the fanponies he was surrounded by. Many of the ponies here were wearing wigs that carried similarities to Rainbow's manestyle, but with the vivid colors replaced with a gradient of different shades of gray. The color palette was beautiful in its own right, but it was a very stark contrast from the rainbow-like pattern that had lit up his world for years now.

Others had tried to dye their manes with the gray-scale colors, though most were given away by strands of their original color showing through or the fact that they'd forgotten to color their tail. Perhaps Rainbow had died her hair for the convention? Usually, she flaunted her colorful visage, but perhaps she'd decided to further emulate her personal idol this year.

"That must be it," he said to himself, overly proud of his small epiphany.

He began his search anew, this time looking for similar body shape, eye color, basically anything to differentiate Rainbows from these other Daring Do cosplayers.

Author's Note

This story is a lot different than anything I've written before. Any feedback (positive or negative) is appreciated and encouraged. I hope you enjoy reading Conventional Approach. :pinkiehappy:

Chapter 3: Beauty

[Daring's Perspective]

"Great seein' ya, Rainbows!" continued the stranger, apparently named Zeph.

'What a strange name,' she thought to herself. 'Sounds more like a nickname.'

"You, too..." she said slowly, not wanting to seem rude but still a little on edge from this strange encounter.

"And you know what rainbows?" Zeph said.

Daring sighed. Apparently this "Zeph" would be calling her Rainbows indefinitely.

'There are way worse things to be called,' her brain decided to mention. Daring deemed this a fair point and tried not to let the unexpected nickname bother her.

"What?" she finally said.

"You're as beautiful as ever," he said.

"W-what?" she nearly yelled. She felt a warmth spreading in her cheeks.

Beautiful? Had somepony really just called her beautiful? As Daring Do, ponies usually described her as awesome, epic, adventurous, even insane. Meanwhile, words used to describe A.K. Yearling were usually along the lines of reclusive or mysterious. Daring couldn't even remember the last time anypony had called her beautiful.

She could feel the redness in her cheeks as she quickly turned away from her uninvited "friend."

'No,' she thought to herself. 'Get a hold of yourself, Daring. Beautiful is just another word, like all the others.'

"Rainbows?" asked Zeph. "You OK?"

Daring turned back to face her self-proclaimed friend and scoffed.

"And what makes me so beautiful?" she asked with a bit of venom in her voice. Looking down at herself, she saw she still had twigs and dirt from her recent adventures stuck to her outfit and in her coat. "Especially right now." she added.

[Zephyr's Perspective]

What kind of question was that?

Rainbows should already know she's beautiful. He's only told her a hundred times! Why would she ask "why?"

Despite his confusion, he once again looked over Rainbow, taking in the similarities and differences between her appearance right now and her usual appearance. The biggest difference was the colors of the mane.

"Well, let's see here..."

'Wow,' he thought while looking closer at the mane. 'Rainbows did an amazing dye job.'

The current color palette was beautiful in its own right. Much like her usual colors, the segmentation between the colors wasn't nearly as distinct as it looked from far away. When you focused on the space between two segments, you could see a gradient effect. A small section of the mane transitions from the shade of the first segment to another shade, than through several more shades before reaching the shade of the next segment. The effect keeps the mane's coloration from looking unnatural.

Having given her current appearance one more once-over, he began to explain exactly what made the mare in front of him beautiful.

[Daring's Perspective]

"Well, let's see here..." Zeph said, glancing over Daring's appearance once more before continuing. "Your manestyle does a wonderful job displaying your personality. It has that tough girl, ready-for-action type look. Also, it works very well with the way you style your tail. Then, we've got colors. Right now, this gradient of grays has an elegant feel to it, with an almost calming effect, and there are so many shades in it! Sure, if you look at your mane, you can see distinct segments between the colors, but if you look closer you'll see that there are stands of several different shades mixing together to get that effect. Segmentation like that doesn't just occur without slight variation after all. There must be at least eight or nine shades hidden in between these segments of your mane's colors. Add in the fact that there's six distinct segments of color in your mane..."

He paused for a long moment, apparently struggling with the math.

"There must be... at least, like, fifty shades of gray in your mane!"

Daring just stood there, listening to a stallion she didn't even know explain exactly why she was physically attractive. In all honesty, the stallion in front of her wasn't ugly, but she didn't find him very attractive either. His personality seemed somewhat grating as well, and he didn't seem all that bright, but...

'but he thinks you're beautiful,' her brain finished for her. 'He can even tell you exactly why.'

Zeph had moved on to why Daring's golden coat melded so well with her mane when Daring felt a sharp pain in her back. She was quickly pinned to the ground.

'Dang it!' Daring's brain reprimanded her as Caballeron's goon tied her legs together. 'Why weren't you looking out for these guys?'

'Why weren't you looking out for them?' she thought back, so thrown off by the day's events that she didn't instantly realize she was retorting against herself.

[Zephyr's Perspective]

"Hey, what are you doing?" yelled Zephyr as he tried to remove a much larger stallion from Rainbow's back.

The large thug struck him in the side, sending him flying about a foot into a wooden convention stall.

When Zephyr recollected his thoughts, he frantically looked around, but Rainbow and her assailants had disappeared into the crowd.

Chapter 4: Savior

Zephyr frantically ran deeper into the crowd, desperately searching for any hint of Rainbow or the thugs that had taken her. He spotted them a few yards ahead of him. Rainbow was struggling against the ropes binding her feet as the thugs carried her on their shoulders. Occasionally, Rainbow would look around, apparently searching for something.

He felt his blood boil as he watched. After a few moments, he began effortlessly dodging and weaving through the immense crowd that stood between him and rescuing his beloved. She turned to face him when she noticed his masterful movements. He was making great progress until Rainbow seemed to spot what she'd been looking for off to her left.

[Daring's Perspective]

Zeph was practically drowning in the sea of ponies as if it weren't a metaphor. His frantic attempts to close the gap between himself and the thugs that were carrying her through the crowd had caught her attention a few moments prior, but now it was quickly becoming painful to watch. She facehoofed with both front hooves (since they were currently tied together) as yet another convention goer easily shoved Zeph to the side.

'So much for my "savior",' she thought.

Then, she saw exactly what she'd been looking for. Off to her left, she spotted a pony who already knew her secret.

"Quibble!" she yelled, catching the stallion's attention.

He turned to face her, saw what was happening, and facehoofed.

[Quibble's Perspective]

"I did not sign up for this," Quibble said to nopony in particular as he gave Daring a small nod to acknowledge the situation.

Looking around, he quickly purchased a grappling hook prop and grabbed a large section of decorative netting.

He started running to a part of the convention hall he knew the thugs would have to pass through, but was stopped by a hoof on his shoulder.

"How can I help?" said the pegasus who'd grabbed his shoulder.

"What? What are you talking about?" said a very surprised Quibble.

"I tried to reach her, but I couldn't. I saw her signal to you, now how. can. I. help?"

Well, a pegasus would make the plan he had in mind simpler and easier to set up. As Daring Do herself had once told him, not every Daring Do plan has to be an overly elaborate ploy. This guy also seemed harmless enough. He looked more like a hippy than anything else.

"Follow me." Quibble finally responded in an exasperated tone, heading for the clearest pathway through the convention. "I'll explain on the way."

[Zephyr's Perspective]

"That sounds crazy!" Zephyr said as Quibble finished explaining the plan. "And why are we going this way? Aren't we actually getting further away from Rainbows?"

"Rainbows?" Quibble said in a questioning tone.

"Never mind that," interrupted Zephyr quickly. "Why are we getting further away from her?"

'Yeesh!' he thought. 'I know Rainbows isn't what most ponies call her, but it's not that weird of a nickname.'

"Well," started Quibble, "we're going further away so we can find a clearer path through the crowds. That way, we can get in front of them with enough time to set it up."

"I see..." Zephyr responded, only half-lying. He knew getting in front of them was important, and this Quibble guy sounded like he had a good head on his shoulders, so he went along with his plan.

Having taken a very crowded route through the convention hall, the thugs were soon passed by Zephyr and Quibble. After reaching what Quibble deemed a good spot between two stalls, Zephyr tied one end of the grappling hook's rope to the far stall. Quibble looped the other end around a loose nail in the other stall. The rope was not tight between the stalls, so the crowd casually walked over it without issue.

Zephyr went back to Quibble to get the net. Then, he casually flew up towards the ceiling with it.

[Daring's Perspective]

It felt like it was taking forever to go through this crowd. She trusted Quibble to come up with a plan, so she'd stopped struggling against her ropes, but now she was actually starting to get bored. She looked up ahead and saw Quibble peeking around the corner of a stall.

'Good,' she thought. 'Almost there.'

After the thugs reached the stall, Quibble ducked behind, but her perch above the thugs' shoulders allowed Daring to see him pulling one end of a rope until it was stretched taught across the convention hall. He hurriedly tied it off and ducked down further. Daring just smiled.

The thugs went down to the floor quickly after tripping on the trip wire, and Quibble hurried to get Daring out of their reach. As the thugs stood back up, Daring got a little nervous.

"Ummm... Quibble?" she asked her friend. "How about you untie me before they take both of us captive."

Quibble just held up a hoof as the thugs drew closer.

"3. 2."

"What are you counting towards?" Daring asked, frantically trying to get her hooves free from their ropes.

"1." Quibble finished his countdown.

Down from the ceiling flew Zeph of all ponies, directly towards the thugs!

"What the?" said Daring in shock. "Zeph?"

Zephyr let go of the net he'd been holding, which quickly landed on the thugs, and tried to fly back up. However, he failed to pull up in time and was sent careening into the thugs.

In the commotion that ensued, the net ended up tied around Zeph, and the thugs started running towards Quibble and Daring once again.

"Oh, no," Quibble said dejectedly.

This seemed pretty bleak, but Daring finally managed to loosen the ropes around her hooves enough to wriggle out of them. She gestured towards Quibble to get a safe distance away, which he quickly did. After the earth pony was safely hidden in the crowd, she turned towards the thugs and promptly beat the everliving daylights out of them.

Chapter 5: The One Where Zephyr Finds Out

[Daring's Perspective]

After dealing with the thugs, sending them running out of the convention center, Daring went to untie Zeph from the net. Quibble, seeing that the danger had passed, also rejoined them.

"Rainbows, why were those guys after you?" Zeph asked, seemingly having no idea what had really transpired.

"Wait, wait, wait," Quibble interjected. "Rainbows? I think you might have her confused with sompony else, buddy."

With that single statement from Quibblepants, pieces began falling into place in Daring's mind.

Rainbows. Pegasus. Same mane and tail style. He doesn't seem surprised that I just took on four thugs and won.

Daring suddenly busted out laughing. Zeph and Quibble looked at her curiously.

"Oh, dear Celestia," she said, still laughing as she turned towards Zeph. "You think I'm Rainbow Dash, don't you?"

Zeph looked at her like she'd suddenly become a two-headed cockatrice. It seemed his mind was having a difficult time wrapping around this.

"I'm not Rainbow, Zeph," she said as she finished laughing.

Quibble decided to host introductions as Daring was recovering from her laughing fit.

"Zephyr," he started. "Meet Daring Do herself!"

[Zephyr's Perspective]

She's who?!? Daring Do? Isn't she fictional?

These were all questions Zephyr had, but his mouth wouldn't form the words.

Slowly, aggravatingly slowly, his mind adjusted accordingly to this new information.

"So..." he started, "Daring Do, the fictional action adventurer, is not only real, but I've been hanging out with her all day without knowing it, thinking I was hanging out with a good friend of mine. Is that right?"

It sounded just as ludicrous out loud as it did in his head.

Rainbows (No, Daring) had stopped laughing and now came over to his side.

"Sorry, Zeph," she said. "I didn't mean to trick you like that, honestly."

"That's..." Zephyr tried and failed to be angry about it. "That's alright. I had a good time, even if I never did find Rainbows."

"Oh, she's not here," Quibble said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Zephyr asked.

"Wonderbolts practice," continued Quibble. "Usually we meet up at these conventions, so she let me know she wouldn't be here this time."

"That's just great," Zephyr said dejectedly. "Not only was I not with her like I thought, I wasn't even in the same place as her like I thought."

The three just sat there for a moment before Quibble excused himself to get back to the convention before it closed.

[Daring's Perspective]

A few moments later, Daring Do herself got up.

"I have to go," she said. "Caballeron's thugs will still be looking for me. I can't stay in one place too long."

"Okay," Zephyr said, standing up as well.

"And... I'm sorry," Daring said. "About, you know... Me not being Rainbow."

Zephyr closed his eyes for a moment before shaking his head.

"Doesn't matter," he said. "I saw you in action today, Daring, and you proved you're just as amazing as the mare I came here looking for."

Daring sighed slightly. She didn't know what she'd wanted him to say, but that wasn't it.

Zephyr took a step forward and placed a hoof on her shoulder.

"You're just as beautiful, too."

Daring felt that warm feeling in her cheeks rising up again, and she smiled slightly.

"Thanks for all the fun today, Zeph," she said.

She gave him a kiss on the cheek and turned to leave.

"Maybe I'll see you again sometime."

[Zephyr's Perspective]

'Did that really just happen?' he asked his mind.

'Yep,' his mind responded.

And he promptly fainted.

After leaving the convention, Zephyr bought copies of every Daring Do book there was. He spent countless hours reading them, but he wasn't reading for the plot. He just wanted to make sure of one very specific thing.

Upon completing the latest book, he sighed with relief. His hopes had come to fruition. In all Daring Do books, there was action. In all Daring Do books, there were side characters to help further the plot. In all of the more recent Daring Do books, Daring made new friends wherever she traveled.

In no Daring Do book had Daring ever kissed anypony on the cheek.

For years to come, Zephyr would still keep his childhood crush, for he knew how devastated Rainbows would be if he didn't, but he'd also attend every Daring Do convention there was, hoping for another chance encounter with his beloved Daring Do.

Chapter 2: Misunderstanding

Zephyr spotted a mare across the convention center. He knew in an instant that it was Rainbow. He'd already determined that she must have dyed her mane, but he hadn't expected her coat to also be dyed. He's not sure why he hadn't expected it, though. After all, Rainbows never did anything half-way. If she did something, she was going to be the best, or at least the fastest.

Despite the difference in coloration, he instantly recognized the body shape, manestyle, tailstyle, and natural aura of confidence as belonging to his beloved. He slowly worked his way towards her through the crowd, all the while crying out over the noise.

"Rainbows! Rainbows! Hey, Rainbows! Over here!"

As he grew much closer, she turned towards him, seeming startled.

Given a few more moments to work his way out of the constant flow of hoof traffic, he was soon standing in front of Rainbows. For a moment, he thought he'd noticed something strange about Rainbow's eyes, but he soon reassured himself that her eyes had always been a deep red. It's not like this wasn't her. Even the shape of her eyes was exactly as it always had been. There was no doubt about it, this was the mare he loved. This was Rainbow Dash.

After the awkward silence caused by his thoughts had passed, Rainbows spoke up.

"Ummm... Hi?"

[Daring's Perspective]

Not long after she'd sneaked into the convention center through an open window, Daring had deemed herself appropriately lost in the crowd. Caballeron would have a hard time determining which Daring Do cosplayers was actually the real thing, if he even found out she'd come here in the first place.

"Rainbows! Rainbows!" a scream came across the convention hall.

She turned to face the scream. The screaming was coming from a pegasus stallion with a sandy blonde mane. He seemed to be staring straight at her, but why would he be calling her "Rainbows"?

Soon enough, the stallion was standing in front of her, staring into her eyes as she perked an eyebrow up in a questioning manner. Once the stallion had just stood there a few more moments, Daring decided it might be best to break the silence.

"Ummm..." she started, not entirely sure how to handle this situation. "Hi?"

The stallion finally seemed to break out of his own mind, and he smiled brightly at her.

"Rainbows! Oh, it's been so long!" he said, once again making her wonder why he was calling her that. "You must of really missed your best pal, Zeph! Am I right or am I right?"

"Sure..." she said, certainly not remembering ever meeting this stallion before. Nor could she remember anypony ever calling her Rainbows prior to this.