//------------------------------// // Daring Do and Rainbow Dash are, and have always been, swapped, with Dash being the fictional book character. // Story: Bits and Pieces // by Author-Man //------------------------------// Daring Do had never really meant to end up being stuck doing weather duty in a backwater town like Ponyville. No one ever did, really, but Daring Do felt that her case was special because she wasn't even from Ponyville in the first place. Not that she regretted it, per se - if she had never ended up in Ponyville, she wouldn’t have met Twilight or her other friends. But dammit, she should have been out exploring the world, or at least working on getting an Archaeology degree, not sitting on her butt in some no-name town. Though, in retrospect, sneaking into the old castle in the Everfree Forest was probably not a good compromise. Which, long story short, was how she ended up in the hospital for a week. “So... how've y'all been doing? Besides the sprained wing, I mean.” Daring Do threw a small rubber ball at the door across from her. “Bored out of my skull.” She caught the ball and repeated the process. “You're sure you don't know any magic healing spells, Twilight? Rarity?” “It can't be that bad, darling! I mean, there's... well, you've got that ball, for one?” Pinkie Pie yanked the curtain that hung to Daring's left aside. “And you've got a roommate!” Daring supposed that this was true, in a sense. Even if her roommate was in full-body bandages and thus incapable of speaking. “Yeah, he'll make a riveting conversational partner.” She rolled her eyes, rolled over, and pulled the covers up. “Come on, Daring, I'm sure there's something you can do to pass the time... Ah, a book cart! One moment.” Twilight trotted out of the room and returned shortly with an old paperback book. The pages were yellowed and worn. The cover, depicting a rainbow maned pegasus in a Wonderbolts uniform against a red backdrop, was slightly frayed around the edges. “... Red Steel? Really? Sounds dumb.” “It's a spy novel!” “Still sounds dumb.” “It's about this scientist who invents a state-of-the-art steath flight suit and a special black-ops unit of Wonderbolts have to sneak into the Griffon Empire and help him get out and defect to Equestria!” “Still sounds dumb. Look, do they have any nonfiction?” Twilight sighed. “No, they don't have any nonfiction. Look, Daring, I know this series. I've read every book and enjoyed them all. Just give it a chance. Please? For me?” “Fine. But if it's dumb, you owe me a book on Ancient Sphinx culture.” === “I was right. It was dumb.” “Daring, you broke into the hospital to get it back.” “Yeah, in retrospect I should have borrowed your copy instead.” “I get the feeling that you don't think it's as dumb as you say it is.” “I said it was dumb. Didn't say I didn't like it.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “It's always shenanigans with you, Daring, you know that?” Daring stopped walking. “No, really, Twilight, I did like it.” Twilight raised an eyebrow dubiously. “It's... Well, Rainbow Dash is everything I ever wanted to be, you know?” “I thought you wanted to be an Archaeologist?” “No, no, it's more like... Look, I've never told anypony this before, but I did actually go to college. Majored in equinology with a minor in ancient history.” “Really? But I thought that was your dream?” “I quit.” “Why?” “Because it turns out that real life archaeology mostly just consists of cleaning off tiny shards of broken pots with special brushes. You can't even touch 'em with your bare hooves.” Daring lowered her head in shame. “Yeah, it turns out that I can't follow my dream 'cause I suck at it. But... Rainbow Dash doesn't let that hold her back. She goes out and she has adventures and she saves the world from global war. That's pretty awesome.” She turned to Twilight and smiled. “And it made me think. 'cause know what? I've totally gone on a buncha adventures and saved the world a bunch of times. Thanks to you.” Twilight blushed sheepishly. “So, uh, what exactly does that mean?” “Well, no more wanderlust, for a start. I've got my friends and I've got a job I don't hate. I figure I can sate my lust for adventure with books and the occasional national crisis we need to use the Elements of Harmony to solve. You said this was a series, right?” “I've got all of them.” “The perks of being friends with a librarian. Hey, one question?” “Yeah?” “Why does no one question that the griffon scientist dude who's defecting to Equestria is a Diamond Dog and not a griffon?”