Daring Doo, Dash and the Dragon
The library's silence hung across the two ponies like a calming safety blanket, the occasional crackle of pages being flipped through and the swish of a baby dragon's broom occasionally punctuating the atmosphere. Twilight Sparkle lay beside the entrance to the library upstairs, her head buried deep in a colourfully illustrated hardcover book; one she hadn't picked up in over eleven years. Not twenty hoofs away from her, Rainbow Dash was apparently reflecting her pose and intents, though her magenta eyes told a different story. Twilight's dragon hatchling assistant, Spike, was making his way around the library in lazy, deliberate circles, sweeping up dirt into an ever increasing mound and then leaving each circle's pile in anticipation of the creation of a Master Pile. He watched Twilight and Rainbow curiously, at first noting the vacant expression on the pegasus' face, and then the emotions of contentment, pause, curiosity and concern that played in order across his other friend's face.
"Everything alright Rainbow Dash?" The pegasus jumped at these words, slamming her copy of Daring Do and the Jurassic Catastrophe shut in her ascension. Her eyes made a show of looking everywhere but at the lavender mare in front of her.
"What? Of course I'm okay! Wh-why wouldn't I be okay?!" She ran a hoof down her prismatic mane in a gesture that wished it were cool but landed upon self-conscious.
Twilight levelled her best deadpan stare at Rainbow, one that had been honed by years of pushing past a mischievous solar princess' millennia-old poker faces. "You've been reading the same page for ten minutes."
Rainbow blushed. "I don't want to miss anything okay?! It's a complicated story! It's deep and--and insightful! Yeah! And I don't want to miss any of the, uh, symbolism and catatonia!" Dash mentally facehoofed as the fib brought back memories of a bear who plays seashells and collects volleyballs came racing to the front of her mind.
"Catharsis." Was Twilight's bemused reply. "Well alright then Rainbow. If you need to cancel on me for any reason you just have to say, even if it's because you left Pinkie Pie with access to a spare canned Tornado wind. Again."
The Junior Speedster champion let that particular comment slide, biting back any number of replies about enchanted dolls and stopping time for the sake of Twilight's guilt/inferiority/self-doubt/whatever complex. That mare took friendly jostling as open criticism, which usually meant either an impending mental breakdown or a magical break through that would revolutionize ponykind for generations to come. Or sulking and eating copious amounts of ice cream. That one was rare.
"Nah, it's cool. We're cool. Everything's cool." Dash said with certainty, flashing her trademark 'I got this' smirk and following through with her 'how could you ever doubt me?' finisher.
"Well alright then. I'll let you get back to the deep and poetic narrative of the Daring Doo Adventure Series For Young Mares." Rainbow couldn't help but reply to that one.
"I could be practicing my Daredevil Tailspin right now, ya know. Joking! Joking!" She cut off Twilight's look of hurt concern before it could develop into an unneeded apology. For a pony who loved using sarcasm so much, Twilight sure sucked at detecting it.
"Daring's just discovering Ahuizotl's secret island. I wouldn't leave ya hanging just to go work on some stunt Twilight."
The room fell into a comfortable silence once more. The cyan cloud kicker tried to stay focused. Really! She did! It was just that she kept thinking back to her camping trip every time she tried to focus. Rainbow checked the clock before remembering Twilight deactivated them every time she wanted to focus on reading. That would explain the all nighters she was forever pulling, Dash supposed.
"Hey Twilight, you mind telling me the time?" Dash whispered.
"You're not bored are yo--" Dash showed Twilight her progress irritably. Like everything else, she read quite quickly, typically taking her only a day to read through a volume of whatever she had her hooves on at the moment.
"Have a little faith Twi!" Twilight gave a happy nod and trotted off to find a time piece. She was sure she kept one in her basement.....
This left Dash to stare at the page irritably, trying to will herself to focus on Daring about to be pounced by velociraptors.
"Come on brain, read!" She grunted under her breath. What she needed was someone to talk to. Someone who wouldn't keep things from her to protect her friends like Applebloom or ask too many questions like Sweetie Belle. She needed someone honest, even brutally so. Someone dependable, someone with experience with this kind of thing. Someone like...
"Spike!" It was the baby dragon's turn to jump on the spot, sending his dirt flying in all directions. He sighed before looking to see Dash collect the room's dirt hoard in a tornado and settle it in his beloved Master Pile in the centre with a whoosh.
"I got it covered." She explained nonchalantly.
"Something you want to talk about Rainbow Dash?" The drake began uncertainly, before his eyes widened in panic. "I'm really really sorry I took your Element Dash! Twilight made me and she was having a rough day and please please don't schedule a thunderstorm on my birthday like you did when Snails stuck bubblegum in your wings!" he cowered slightly at the mere possibility of the pegasus' legendary grudge.
"What? No!" She replied indignantly. "It's just....Twilight's not a very good sister is she?" The dragon got a funny look in his eyes. If Dash had enjoyed Ponymon as much as Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy, she would have said Spike was preparing to use Outrage. Rainbow had about ten seconds to explain herself, and she took them. "She works you half to death and cracks joes whenever you're bummered out and she doesn't really even notice how you feel about you two."
"Of course she works me half to death! I asked her to! You ever think maybe I like being busy?! Or like I feel I owe her something since, oh, say, I wouldn't be alive without her! Was she cracking jokes during my growth spurt, even when I was crazy with greed and stealing from her friends?! How about when I wanted to know where I came from?! Who was it who poked fun at me?! Oh that's right, you! She spends time every time she's in Canterlot trying to learn more about who my family was these days, just because I asked! She's always there for me when I ask her to be, even if I don't deserve it! And even if she doesn't say it, I know she thinks I'm like her little brother! She--! She just--!"
Well that could've gone better. Twilight probably heard all that. The Changelings probably heard all that. Now Rainbow had a dragon on the verge of tears to comfort, and she'd ruined their little heart to heart in about ten seconds flat. She put a hoof to her forehead.
"Wow I really bucked this up. Ugh, look. I really don't know what it's like between you and Twi, that's kinda looking pretty obvious right now. It's just--" Don't say it Rainbow. You're a tough pony! You're tough and tough ponies don't worry and--"I guess I'm worried I'm a bad sister." Spike grew confused.
"You have a sister?"
"While I went camping with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo asked me to be her big sister. She spent all that time out there trying to be tough and cool for me, and she got lost trying to be tough. She could've drowned! And she did it just to impress me! And all this time I...I thought she was just a fan, you know?" Spike raised a claw to answer, but the racer cut him off.
"I can't stop thinking about how she wants me to be so cool all the time. Hay, I want me to be cool all the time. But being cool means not getting all mushy, and not getting mushy means I can't like, I don't, help her with her homework or hug her when those punks in school are teasing her for being a blank flank or that other junk a good sister would do." She gave a defeated grunt. Spike scratched his head with a claw. This wan't really something he had any knowledge of. Unless....
"You remember those dragons I thought were so cool?" Spike shuffled a foot at the memory. Learning that your species thus far had tried to shun, eat or bully him was not a pleasant reality for the baby drake, but he had come to terms as best he could.
"...Yeah?"
"And how cool Gilda tried to be?"
"Tries. She was having a nasty day that day. Her parents had just split and she was working overtime to pay extra rent and--Yeah, yeah she does try to be cool." Spike didn't need to know about what she and Cloud Kicker had dubbed The Great Gilda Drama Saga.
"But they weren't really being cool were they? And what about Spitfire? She was cool wasn't she?"
Rainbow balked. "She was coo--She's the most awesome pony in Equestria! After me, of course." Dash added hastily.
"And was she mean? Did she not care? 'Cause it looked like she was pretty worried about Fluttershy to me."
"Yeah...hey, yeah, you're right!" This was going awesome! Spike was right! She had to go find Scootaloo! But first she had to--
"Hey Spike?"
"Yeah Rainbow?"
"What I said earlier...you know, about Twilight? I'm really-- what I'm trying to say is-- ugh I'm just a featherbrain!"
"Well you didn't need to tell me that." He quipped.
"Hey! You say some pretty stupid things too! What about Winter Wrap Up or when Fluttershy was trying to raise her wind speed?! Ah hay, look, I suck at apologies. What I'm trying to say is, thanks Spike. You're a pretty sharp little kid sometimes."
"....And?" She noticed the way he raised his eye brow and tapped his foot like a waiting school marm. He took after his big sister in a lot of ways. Funny she hadn't noticed before.
"And Twilight is a good big sister." She sighed. Apologizing sucked. Apologizing was admitting you were wrong, and a future Wonderbolt couldn't go around being wrong all the time. "Can you tell Twilight I'll be back in a sec?I have to go see some little pegasus filly I know..."
"Sure thing Rainbow." She flew off in a blurr, the whoosh of air she created causing currents to suck at the books surrounding the door, the pages crinkling in the breeze. Spike turned to go scoop up the dirt pile she'd made, before the whooshing sound returned to his field of hearing. Rainbow poked her head through the door.
"Hey Spike? You're a pretty cool little dude yourself, ya know? If you ever want to talk..."
"I'll keep that in mind." And like a hurricane of avoiding awkward warm and fuzzy moments, she was gone in a flash. Spike noticed his dirt pile had disappeared with a start, before watching it levitate out into the kitchen, no doubt heading for the trash. "How long have you been listening?"
"Long enough to know I have a very clever little brother." Twilight telekinetically pulled him into a hug, causing the infant drake to blush.
"Aww come on Twi, you're embarrassing me." He tried to push his way out of the hug for a moment before relenting and returning the display of affection.
"She's kind of right though. I didn't even bring you to my own birthday party. I should let you go out and play with your friends more." She looked down guiltily, the old doubts and insecurities welling up again. He gave a deadpan look.
"It was my own fault for bingeing on ice cream before the party. I know you wanted to bring me, that's good enough. Besides, you didn't invite Shining Armor either."
"I still could be a better sister." She raised a hoof to his coming protest. Nopony interrupt Twilight Sparkle in Summarization Mode. "I should really make some more time for you and your friends. Celestia will understand."
Spike's jaw hung open for a moment. "Who are you and what have you done with Twilight Sparkle?" Twilight took no notice of his comment. She was entering 'I'm so clever power trip' mode, he could tell.
"I'll be sharing the Magic of Friendship with my family, wouldn't I? Oh I should write her a letter to see if it's okay...maybe if I were to write a little report on your time in Ponyville...." This was the crazy mare he knew and loved. 'Little' meant 'sixteen pages' and 'time in Ponyville' meant 'biography of Spike as a friend'. But that....actually made sense when he thought about it. Celestia was always wanting Twilight to take more initiative in making friends and maintaining friendships, not studying magic and literature. She'd probably be pretty impressed after all. "Now come on," she broke him from his thought process, "I think I know a certain little dragon who's earned himself a nice bowl of ice cream while we wait for Rainbow Dash."
Dear Princess Celestia,
Being a sister is really hard! Kids are crazy, I tell ya. But ya know what? I was a pretty crazy kid myself once, and when Scootaloo said she was scared to be afraid in front of me I knew there was a little kid like me in there, too. I never thought about having a sister before. Hay, I was glad I didn't when I saw what Sweetie Belle's little shouting match with her did to Rarity. But I gotta say that being a sister's just about the coolest thing in the world, and maybe if I'm half as good a sister as I am a flier, Scootaloo will think so to. Anyway, I gotta get back to reading. Twilight has the new Daring Do! I'll be sure to sneak it to you sometime if you want.
PS: Twilight says please please please don't banish Spike for her request. Don't take it personally, you know she only says it 'cause she loves you.
You loyal subject and fan, Rainbow Dash
Author's Note
Spike and Rainbow Dash really need more screen time together. Which is another way of saying Spike needs more screen time (Yay Crystal Empire!). I know some people don't like lots of floating dialogue, but Law of Narrative Casualty states that adding a bunch of pointless descriptors between the lines of speech would be in bad taste, and I must concur. As for why I use two hyphens instead of an em-dash, this was written entirely on an iPad (In one session, no less) which lacks the em-dash as a type of punctuation. Hope the story is everything you want it to be, please like, fave comment blah blah blah and no reference jokes this time! A first for anything I've ever written!