A Change of Pace

by NightSprocket

Rating: everyone
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Daring Do, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other
Length: 1561

Rainbow Dash finds a mysterious book in the library. A book marked with a known symbol, and bound with a spell that may threaten Equestria. Will they know the purpose of the book's existence? Or will they fail and bring chaos upon the lands

Rainbow Dash finds a mysterious book in the library. A book marked with a known symbol, and bound with a spell that may threaten Equestria. The origin of the spell and who conjured it is yet, a mystery. Will they know the purpose of the book's existence? Or will they fail and bring chaos upon the lands? Only fate can tell...

Published 2013-03-26 05:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-26 05:20:01 UTC

1 - The Book

Chapter 1 - The Book

She was standing there, her face expressionless as she stared at the pavement below. It was a cloudy Sunday afternoon, and Twilight Sparkle wasn’t in the mood for studying. And since Spike went off to Carousel Boutique to lend a hoof, the library was closed early. She had nothing to do.

As if on cue, a flash of rainbow zoomed past her then zipped back soon after. Twilight was unfazed but had her attention shifted towards the rainbow maned Pegasus in front of her.

“Hey Twilight!” Rainbow greeted

“Hi Rainbow.” The unicorn responded then motioned to a nearby bench to sit down. The pegasus mare accepted the offer and zoomed towards it, scattering leaves nearby.

“You look kind of down, something wrong?”

“No, uhm… it’s nothing.”

“Anyways, I came here to return these books to you. But it seems the library’s closed early.”

Surely enough, the cyan pegasus was carrying three books of the Daring Doo Series in her saddlebags. Twilight was surprised she finished them that fast since she only borrowed them yesterday. The only possible reason she could think of was the pegasus pulling off an all-nighter, which was very unlikely. Rainbow noticed the lavender mare’s change in expression and stifled a laugh.

“How did you? “ Twilight muttered mouth slightly open.

“Finished it yesterday before going to sleep. Fastest flyer and reader in Equestria! ” The cyan mare beamed with pride.

“Oh really? Then how about if I test you?” The lavender mare asked with a challenging tone.

“Try me.” The cyan pegasus grinned.

Rainbow answered Twilight’s questions easily, each answer puzzling the lavender mare even more. After fifty questions, Twilight sighed and accepted defeat. She smiled after and assumed that since they were Daring Do books, Rainbow wouldn’t pass a chance in reading them nor would she take a break from it. Rainbow overflowed with pride, it was her first time in beating Twilight in her field of reading. Rainbow hoofed the books over as Twilight received them in her telekinetic grasp.

“Let’s go inside. It’s starting to get chilly out here.” Twilight offered. The Rainbow maned mare agreed without a second thought. Both ponies stepped inside as a familiar ‘Whooo’ greeted them.

“Oh. Hello Owlowiscious.” Twilight replied

“He was here all along?” Dash said, pointing at the direction of Twilight’s pet owl. The unicorn nodded and opened the windows. “You should have said so. I could’ve brought tank along!” The librarian chuckled at the thought of Dash’s pet turtle hovering all over the place. For her, it was kind of fascinating to watch the creature floating about having sense in aerodynamics. But hey, it would be natural if the owner’s a pegasus.

“Are there any other Daring Do books here? I could try reading them.” Rainbow suddenly suggested

“Hmm... It’s nice of you taking initiative this time.” Twilight teased

Rainbow shot a glare at the unicorn. Twilight gave out a laugh.

“Let’s see… Daring Do books should be under ‘D’” She smiled and wrapped some books in a magenta aura and floated them in front of Rainbow for her to see.

“I’ve read all of these already...” The pegasus muttered with a groan

Twilight looked at the books she was floating and indeed the cyan mare was right. She already had them in her library card.

‘It’s wonderful that Rainbow started to be interested in books! I didn’t even know she would read them that fast. It’s a little bit odd but hey! Everyone takes interest in new things every now and then... right? Now, she’s already looking for more! I bet the girls want to hear about this.’ Twilight thought to her self, completely oblivious onto what her friend was up to.

While Twilight was busy thinking to herself, Rainbow on the other hand had started searching through the bookshelves. She was already done on letter ‘H’ and was about to search on “I” when a familiar marking caught her attention. Her eyes went wide and a well-known feeling shot through her body. She reared up and zoomed halfway through the library, stopping directly in front of a dark blue book embed in the side with a golden outline of a compass rose.

“Hey Twilight, come quick! Look at this!” Rainbow hollered. The said unicorn as if snapping from a daze, turned and trotted to the direction of the voice, only to stop after recognizing the symbol on the book.

“That’s odd. I thought all of the Daring Do books were under ‘D’. And why is it on the History section?! It should be on Fiction!” She said to no one in particular. She sighed and encased the book in a magenta glow.

“The Life of Daring Do” She stated, and then started flipping through the first page. At that moment, she noticed the strange symbols printed on it. She took a few seconds to recognize the symbols to be Old Equestrian. The characters were a bit rough and were definitely hoofwritten. Whoever wrote it, the unicorn was resolute to give that somepony a piece of her mind.

She was about to protest even more when a strange glow started to envelope the book. Both mares took a step back and readied themselves for the coming distress. The book’s glow intensified into a blinding white light, both ponies shielded their eyes but didn’t let their guards down. There was a sudden wave of magic, sending nearby objects flying or crashing down. The light dimmed and nothing else happened. The book finally lost its radiance and fell to the floor with a resounding ‘thud’.

Neither of the two made a move until a certain unicorn braved to go near the book. She wrapped the object in her own magenta glow and examined it for any traces of magic. Unfortunately, there were none. She then opened the book surprised to see the strange characters gone, now replaced with Modern Equestrian.

Rainbow decided to join the unicorn and was equally if not, more surprised when she saw the markings have changed. Both mares looked at each other then read out loud the verses reproduced in front of them…

“Structured and brought forth by imagination

Transformed and rendered into creation

A life fashioned for it to be

Roused by the power of Magic.

Sinews form threads which form the links

Warmth from its body overflows the brinks

Into the light it strides

Right into the bearers it confides

Longing for friendship, lost in the tides.”

“What on Equestria was that?” Rainbow asked. Twilight shrugged, equally confused.

“We need to contact Princess Celestia as soon as possible. Something’s off and I can feel it. Perhaps we should write a letter… if possible, now. WAIT A MINUTE!! Spike’s at Rarity’s! How can we send the letter? We can contact the Princess with my magic but it’ll take much longer! How can I reach them?!” The mare panicked. She was pacing back and forth, beads of sweat coming down her face.

“Uh Twilight…” Rainbow said, tapping the unicorn’s shoulder

“Now’s not the time Rainbow. We need to find a way to contact the Princess! Only if Spike were here! WAIT! I could just call him! But what if something goes wrong and I’m not here to handle it?! What if… What if…” The unicorn’s breathing getting faster.

“Twilight… you really need to see this!” Rainbow exclaimed

“You! YOU! You could deliver the message to the Princess! Why didn’t I think of that? Wait… I did.”

“Twilight! You nee-”

“No… NO! NO! NO! NO! What if you get delayed?! Or what if the Princess might not get in time?! Oh this is a disaster!”

“TWILIGHT!” The pegasus bellowed.

“WHAT?! WHAT COULD BE MORE IMPORTANT THA- oh…” Twilight was snapped out of her trance once she saw the book being surrounded by the same white light… only brighter. The book’s glow intensified once more as arcane magic shot off towards the sky, creating a massive hole in the roof. The place shook and was soon covered with smoke. There was no fire whatsoever but there was smoke. The glow grew stronger and was nearly blinding, both ponies looked up to see a storm gathering on the direction where the beam shot. Right at the center of the madness, the lavender unicorn saw a figure. It was faint and barely distinguishable but she was sure there was something there. The beam gave out a low pulse of energy, flickered then died away. Once the smoke dissipated, she checked on Rainbow and Owlowiscious, both were okay, the book however didn’t share the same fate. The book was burnt, and was beyond unsalvageable. Most of its pages were gone and the cover was charred, but surprisingly intact. Twilight made out another figure lying not far from the book. It was a mare. Her coat was a dark khaki and has a messy grayscale mane. She looked familiar but Twilight couldn’t put a hoof on it. Inspecting further, Twilight noticed her cutie mark was a compass rose. And that’s when it hit her. The pony in front of her was none other than Daring Do.

Author's Note

Once again, this is my first fic so please go easy on me. (*laughs*)
Criticism is appreciated and suggestions too. I really hope you would like it. :)