Shadow and Crystal

Twilight Sparkle sat in her room, seated at her desk. Owloysius was perched in a corner.  A lantern burned on the table; Twilight didn’t like to read by magic light, it got in the way of the story. Daring Do was not marching through her temple by magic, but by a brightly burning torch; so how could Twilight, who was right by her side, be using her magic? Besides, Rainbow Dash had made Twilight promise not to use magic as they raced to finish the newest Daring Do novel. Not that Rainbow Dash could really win. After all, Twilight was known to read entire textbooks in hours. But Dash was one of the most competitive ponies in all of Equestria… Twilight picked up the pace.

Twilight watched as Daring Do found the treasure, escaped the temple and outwitted the nefarious Ahuizotl. But the novel didn't end there. A storm brew and Daring Do was thrown unconscious into the heaving sea. Twilight turned the page, on the edge of her seat, blinking back tears of worry and “Be ready for the next installment: Daring Do and the Vanishing Isle!... to be released in two winters.”

Twilight blinked. Once. Twice. “But what happened to Daring Do? You can’t just end it like… What kind of author would… Why?” Then the feeling settled; a dedicated fan who had been left stranded, without  that character that had been part of their life. Twilight Sparkle was faced with:

“A CLIFFHANGER?! IT ENDED WITH A CLIFFHANGER?! I put hours into this book, years into this series and I DON'T EVEN GET TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?!" Twilight took a deep breath, putting her hoof to her chest and reaching out again the way that Princess Cadence had taught her. She calmed down a bit, and looked back down at the book. That infuriating advertisement blared on the open page. “TWO WINTERS?!” Twilight slammed the book shut with her magic, and lifted it, preparing to throw it across the room. She gently put it into its alphabetical place in the bookcase. "I HATE CLIFFHANGERS!" The entire library shook with Twilight’s indignant rage.

Spike slammed open the door to Twilight’s room, lantern in hand. “Twilight, you’re gonna wake up all of Ponyville!”

“But, Daring Do! Lightning! Crash landing! Vanishing Isle! CLIFFHANGER! TWO WINTERS!” Twilight was hyperventilating.

“Twilight,” groaned Spike, “It’s a story! And you woke me up from a really good dream. Rarity had been kidnapped by the Diamond Dogs again, but this time I knew where to find them, so I went in and blew them all away with my Super Flame Breath Wave, and Rarity told me how much she loved me and we had a feast of gems. Someone should write a book about that, instead.”

“Spike, you do not understand the severity of the situation! Daring Do,” Twilight paused for emphasis, “is unconscious.”

Spike paused for a couple of beats. “Uh-huh.” He turned to Owloysius. “This happened on your watch.”

“Hoo.” Hooed Owloysius.

“Yours! Whose else would it- Oomph!” Spike was batted aside by a rainbow-colored blur coming through the door. Rainbow Dash stopped directly in front of Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight!”

“Daring Do!”

“Lightning!”

“Crash landing!”

“Vanishing Isle!”

“CLIFFHANGER!”

“TWO WINTERS!” The two eggheaded ponies fell into each other’s hooves and began to bawl. The two non-pony males shared a look. The mares continued to cry.

A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash broke the hug, stepping back from Twilight and trying to maintain the semblance of cool. “Well, I just came to make sure that you were alright. Because I'm fine. I’m not shaken up about,” Dash gulped, “the Two Winter wait… The two cold, dark, lonely winters.” The blue pegasus’s eyes began to water.

Twilight giggled. “No, of course not.”

Spike dusted himself off. “Yeah, it’s not like you burst in here, push me aside, grabbed Twilight, and started crying about it or anything.” Owloysius hooed in agreement. Rainbow Dash tried to give them both her version of Fluttershy’s stare, but only succeeded in looking like a certain yellow-maned pegasus.

Twilight giggled for a second time. “Come on you two, that’s enough.”

Dash pointed an indignant hoof at Spike. “But HE started it!”

“I did not!” yelled Spike. “Besides, it’s just a book.” The baby dragon slammed his small claws against his mouth.

Both mares rounded on Spike. They spoke in unison “Just a book?”

“No, no, I didn’t say that! I said… Crusts are cooked! Like bread crusts! Because… because Owloysious wanted some bread!”

“Hoo?” hooed Owloysious.

Spike put his claw to the side of his mouth, assuming that the mares would not be able to hear him through it. “Just play along Number Two.”

“Hoo.”

“That’s you! I’m Number One, and you’re Number Two! There's only two assistants!"

Of course, the mares were not even slightly diverted. Twilight spoke first “Spike, Daring Do is the original adventure pony! She started the whole genre, an inspiration for writer ponies, and for fillies and colts of entire generations!”

Rainbow broke in. “Yeah, and she’s totally awesome! Daring runs around temples and solves puzzles and walks on invisible bridges,” Dash had begun to fly around the library in her excitement,” and does these totally sweet stunts in the air when she has to escape and outruns boulders and…  and dude, it’s just buckin’ Daring Do!”

“Language Rainbow Dash! But yeah, that just about sums it up. Can you imagine the amount of effort that goes into every adventure?” Twilight smiled slightly at a thought. “Unless, Spike, you have your own book idea. Maybe one that you’d like to tell Rarity about?”

“N-no Twilight!” stammered Spike, “Th-that’s fine, I don’t have any book ideas. Nothing that could possibly be any better than Daring Do at least, because that mare’s amazing and her books are by no means just books! Right Owloysius?”

“Hoo.”

Spike face-clawed. “I’m starting to think that that’s the only thing you can say.”

The two mares giggled. There was a knock on the door. “A visitor?” asked Twilight, “At this hour of the night?”

Rainbow Dash hovered above Twilight, suddenly nervous. “Maybe it’s a headless pony! This isn’t good, we shouldn’t answer the door. Or maybe we should and we’ll do the same thing that Daring Do did to banish them.” The pegasus began to fly around the library. “Twilight, where do you keep your pieces of ancient Equestrian ruins? And gold? And seapony tears? And provolone?”

The strangest part is that I actually have all of those things, Twilight thought. Well, except the provolone. The unicorn walked towards the entrance of the library, seriously thinking about her lifestyle choices and deciding that mozzarella was, indeed, a better cheese than provolone. Doubts assuaged, Twilight peeked through the eyehole of her library’s front door. She was greeted by the light blue eyes of a certain alliteration addicted pink party pony.

“Come ON Twilight!” squeaked Pinkie Pie. “We’ve been standing around for three WHOLE minutes! And now it’s been three minutes and seven seconds. And eight seconds. And nine seconds. And-“

A white hoof nudged Pinkie Pie out of the way and Rarity took Pinkie’s place outside of the door. “Yes, darling, please do open the door, the cold is never good for the coat.” A yellow head popped up next to Rarity.

“If that’s okay with you, Twilight,” whispered Fluttershy.

“And thirteen. And fourteen. And fifteen. And sixteen. And seventeen.”  Pinkie’s high-pitched voice kept up the count.

“We get the point, sugarcube, ya don’ have ta keep countin’.” Twilight couldn’t see Applejack, but her voice was unmistakable.

The purple unicorn swung the door open and the four other ponies filed in. “What are you ponies doing here?”

Rarity turned around.  “Why, whatever do you mean? We each received a letter to meet here at your home which, if I may say, is looking as tidy as always.”

“So everypony got a letter?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Applejack. “Why, weren’t you the pony who sent it?”

“No, I haven’t sent a letter to anypony besides Princess Celestia.”

Fluttershy spoke next, her voice shaking. “B-But, who else c-could have sent it?”

Pinkie gasped in the way that only she can. “What if this is a setup? Somepony brought us here together and then the lights’ll go dark and we won’t be able to see each other. And then the light’ll come back on and one of us will be missing! Or worse, there’ll be ANOTHER ONE OF US! And then we won’t know which one is the real one, but that’s okay because we’ll love both of them, but what if the other one is actually a long lost evil twin!” Another gasp. “Wobniar! I’M NOT GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!” In keeping with her fighting mood, Pinkie ambled off and raided Twilight’s fridge.

Twilight Sparkle shook off the pink pony’s ramblings. “Okay, so that’s probably not true. Rainbow Dash, can you try to get Fluttershy off of the wardrobe?” Dash saluted and spent the next few minutes trying to convince Fluttershy that she did not have an evil twin nor was she the evil twin and no, Fluttershy couldn’t be turned into a tree.

Twilight continued, her unease growing with every passing moment. "Guys, I think we should get out of here.”

Rarity spoke up. “Wait, is it just my eyes deceiving me or is the room becoming… brighter and… well, a rather nice azure shade.” A light blue aura surrounded each pony, steadily growing brighter.

“Well, sugarcube, I don’t think you’re goin’ crazy,” Applejack remarked uncertainly.

Fluttershy squeaked something unintelligible and tried to fly away from the aura, but to no avail.

Pinkie happily munched on the mozzarella sticks that she had found.

"Twilight, you wanna do something about this magic?!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"I'm trying!" The unicorn began to cast a counter spell, but even with all of her talent in magic, she knew that she couldn't completely break the spell.. Twilight focused her efforts, deciding to redirect the teleportation spell; it would probably be better than wherever an unexpected teleportation wanted her and her friends to go. Her own purple glow grew steadily brighter, mingling with the light blue, interrupting its flow and-

No Twilight!

The purple unicorn's concentration broke, her spell dissipating as a bright light filled the room, leaving behind a shocked baby dragon and an unreadable owl. The ponies were gone.