Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone

   Despite having her heart burned to a crisp by the fires of rage, life went on for Daring Do. She continued to work at the local Barns&Stable bookstore while penning freelance articles for various newspapers over the next several years. She wasn't nearly as happy as she wanted to be, but she lived on her own now, and it was better than enduring her parents' incessant disapproval on a daily basis. As time went by, she became a better and better writer and got more and more prestigious writing commissions. One day, she got a request from the Mareami Herald to do a piece, and she squealed with joy; it had been a lifelong goal of hers to write for the Herald, the newspaper that helped her learn how to read when she was just a filly.

  She ended up writing a piece about her experiences with neglectful parents as a part of a series on controversial parenting methods. Although she was excited about writing for the Herald and poured every ounce of effort she could into the piece, it was really hard for her to reflect on her unhappy childhood; it took her almost five minutes to gather the courage to write, "Although no words of the sort were ever exchanged, it was mutually understood that they didn't care about me or what happened to me." Her blood, sweat, and copious tears paid off in the end, and the editors were delighted with the quality of the piece.

  Then she received another letter in the mail, a letter that would change her life. It had a Canterlot address on it, which made her think it was from her sister, so she opened it carelessly and expected the worst. What it contained was a complete surprise: if she had looked at the address more closely, she would have seen that it was from the Equestrian Geographic Society! They had read her beautifully written story and wanted her to write for them.

  She couldn't remember a time when she'd felt more elation; while writing for the Herald was a goal of hers, writing for EG was a dream!

  She had been a member of the Society since she was old enough to read the magazine. She was enchanted by the vivid descriptions of how ponies from faraway lands lived and the breathtaking photography of Equestrian landmarks. She was particularly inspired by an article about flora in South Equestria, which was where she happened to live. There was a photo of a cool-looking blue slime mold that she was dying to find, and she set out on a quest through the woods around her neighborhood to find it. She packed a little bag with a compass, a magnifying glass, a box to put cool rocks in, and an egg salad sandwich, and she set off at sunrise (well, she told herself to set off at sunrise, but she really ended up leaving around eleven a.m.; her bed was just so cozy!)

  When she finally found the slime mold, it paled in comparison to the wonders she had seen on her quest: ancient trees covered in carpets of emerald moss housed busy woodpeckers and icky grubs, a babbling creek filled with smooth stones and darting minnows, little dark caves that hid sleeping bats and snoring bears.  Who knew that all of this awesome stuff was just outside her door? As she made her way home, she thought about all of the stuff that she'd tell her sister and parents about; this was going to be awesome! She was so excited that she didn't even realize that she had gotten her cutie mark, which was a sepia compass rose.

  As she reflected on this years later when she was deliberating over what to write for EG, she decided what she really wanted to write: she'd report on South Equestrian wildlife, but this time she'd give it a more ecological theme, as many ponies didn't realize how the population explosion in the area was affecting the environment.

  And so began a phase in her life where she finally began to heal from her heartbreak that lingered from Harvest's betrayal and her unloving parents. She went on to gain a position on the EG staff, moved to Canterlot to be closer to her office at the headquarters, and hired Flamington as her personal assistant. Other than a couple of letters every year from her sister, she thought that she'd never have to think about her old life ever again. Unfortunately, she was dead wrong.