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// Chapter 31:  Daring Do, and the Trouble that Follows 
// Story: Rising Sun 
// by Jet Howitzer 
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(Chapter 31 is brought to you by:  Howitzer's Mind Studios: The next level in insanity!)

You land before the library, and Rainbow lands next to you.  She is bouncing, much like Pinkie would, and you know that she is incredibly excited to talk to Daring.  You push open the door, and Rainbow rushes in, cutting you off.  You give a small shake of your head, and you follow her in.  You first see Twilight sitting on a cushion on the floor, while Daring is sitting on a small couch.  She’s quite old, easily into her seventies, and that surprised you.  You had expected her to be younger.
You close the door behind you, and when you turn back around you see Rainbow sitting right in front of Daring, already peppering her with all sorts of questions.  A small chuckle escapes your lips, and you walk over, and take a seat a bit further back from the two mares.  You are content to let Rainbow get over her initial shock, and questions, before you get to the matter at hand.
Sadly, you didn’t realize just how many questions Rainbow actually had.  Rainbow’s questions are as varied as they are many, and soon Daring starts to look a bit miffed at the unending barrage.  “Thank you for your questions, dear, but I did come her for a reason.  I’d like to speak to Storm, alone.”  Rainbow falls silent, and then both she and Twilight head to the door.
“How long will you need,” Twilight asks.
“Oh, not too long, I think.”
“Well, alright.  Come on, Rainbow, let’s give them some privacy.”  With that they both exited, leaving you with Daring.  You move a bit closer to her, and she just watches you.  She doesn’t say a word, and you are content to leave the silence alone.  Her eyes have a sparkle to them, and it’s eerily familiar.  It’s been so long since you last saw those eyes, so you struggle to put a face to them.
“It’s certainly been a while, hasn’t it?”  She gives you a warm smile, and you return it.
“Well, since I’ve never met you, I can’t say it’s been a while.”
“You don’t know who I am?”  Her smile fades, and is replaced with a small frown.  You wrack your mind, trying to put the pieces together.  The letter…
“Grandma?”  Her frown immediately vanishes, and is replaced with a massive smile.  She spreads her hooves, and you lunge forward to hug her.  You feel some tears roll down your face, but you don’t care.  You have your grandmother back, and you had a life worth living.  You just hold her, and she you.  No words need to be shared, and yet the moment is more emotional than you can explain.
“Kurt, I’m so happy to see you again.  I can’t describe how happy I am to see you happy.  Before I died you never really seemed to be happy, but now?  Now I see that you have friends, and even some enemies.”  You pull back, at that, and there’s a smile on her face still.  “I’m glad you have enemies.  Nopony can be friends with everypony.  Not even Pinkie can be everypony’s friend.  And that just means that those ponies can’t accept you for who you are.”
“Well, I’ve got one hell of an enemy.”  You offer her an ironic smile, considering the gravity of the situation.  “Discord, it seems, doesn’t much like me.”
“God, or no, you’ll rise to the challenge, of that I am certain.”  Her smile never fades, and for that you are grateful.  “Now, what’s this I hear about you and a certain group of six mares?”  You can hear the laughter in her voice.
“Oh.  That.  Well, yeah.  It seems that all six elements of harmony like me.  A lot.”  You feel a blush rise to your cheeks, and you wish that it hadn’t.  Somehow talking about this with your grandmother is far more embarrassing than you could have predicted.
“Oh, so my grandson is quite popular with the ladies, eh?”  She really does start laughing at this, and you can’t help but join in.  “Now, I do have some more serious news for you.”  You look at her, and the serious expression on her face brings a frown to your face.  “This fiasco with Discord, it really is quite serious, despite my lighthearted jape.  When you were brought to Equestria I, technically, violated one of the ancient laws of the multiverse.”
“You what?”
“Yes, well it wasn’t really intentional.  There is already a wanderer in Equestria, a white dragon by the name of Eidar.  Anyway, Discord hopes to use your presence to ascend to the next level of godhood.  You can not allow him to succeed at this.  I don’t fear that you’ll fail, I only fear what it will cost you.  With those six so close to your heart Discord will almost certainly use them against you.  And, since he’s already corrupted them once he’ll be able to do it again.  My advice to you?  Learn them all.  Get to know all of their fears, and know that Discord will use those to his advantage.”
“Why me?”  You interrupt Daring, and she has a small smile for you.
“Because your grandfather, my husband, was the last wanderer of Earth.  When a wanderer dies, which he did, then the title is passed down to the last born heir.  Since you were the last born direct blood relative to him you inherited the title.  This is a great honor, but also a massive responsibility.  I couldn’t stand to watch you suffer on Earth, though, so I used my one wish, granted by the watchers, to bring you here.”
“One wish?”
“It’s just like when you were starting school, so full of questions, and eager to learn all you could.  Yes, your grandfather stopped a great threat to Earth, and for that he was granted a wish.  Since he was happy with his life, he gave the wish to me.  I used it to bring you happiness, or, at least, I hope it brought you happiness.”  She had a hopeful look on her face, and you gave her a hug.
“Yes, grandma, I do think that I’m happy here.”  You pull back from the hug, and you sit back down.  “So, how long have you been a pony?  And why Daring Do?”
A chuckle escapes her lips.  “I was born here, again.  Much like Rachel.  And I always wanted to be an explorer, Indiana Jones was always a big favorite of mine, so I made my choice.  I didn’t choose the name, but it certainly works, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does.  Where do you live now?”
“In Canterlot.  I am a big shot there, but I do keep it low key for the most part.  I tend to stay in fairly small groups of collectors, rather than spread out and become more well known.  And the books?  I write them, and everything that happens in them actually happened to me.  They’re an extended autobiography, of sorts.  And I see that you have that lockbox I sent you.  What did you think of it?”
“Well, I’ve spent it all already.”  Her mouth drops open at this.  “I know, four thousand bits is a hefty sum of money.  I used it to save the Apple family farm.  Now I’m broke again, but it was worthwhile.”
“Good to see your heart is in the right place, at least.  And the key, have you figured it out?”
“No.”  Short, sweet, and to the point.
“Oh.  Well, you give the key to somepony, and then have them open the lockbox.  Once they do it will open for them always.  It’s a unique spell, and it’s a sign of great trust.  The box also holds something from your grandfather, but it will only appear when the time is right.  And before you ask, I don’t know what that time is.  He never told me.”
You look at the small key tied around your neck.  “So I shouldn’t really carry it, should I?”
“The magic will only transfer if you do it willingly, so it is of no consequence.  Now then, I am tired.  Being old, again, does have its drawbacks.”  She offers a small smile, and you return it.
“You can stay at my place, if you like.”
“No, that won’t be necessary.  You have company coming over tonight, so I don’t want to intrude.  Anyway, Twilight already offered me her room, and I don’t want to seem rude by turning her down.”
She stands up, and you dash over to help.  “Really, Grandma, you need to stop being so stubborn all the time.  It may have won you Grandpa, but now you’re flogging a dead horse.”  You hear a gasp, and you look at the door to see that Twilight had returned.  “Um… It’s a human phrase.  I’m just going to stop talking now, I think I’m making an ass of myself.”  Wait… Shit.  “Another phrase…”
“What Storm is trying to say, is that humans have many animal related phrases in usage, and that some of them may come across as offensive here.”  Twilight visibly relaxes, and even offers a smile.
“I think I understand.  But what does the phrase mean?”
“To continue to do something even when it is not needed any more.  For example, if you were to get a 99 on a test, and then complain to get a better grade.  It’s a rather pointless exercise.”
“Oh.  But a 99 can be improved…”
“Remember who you’re talking to, Grandma.”  You all share a small laugh at this, and you help your grandmother upstairs to Twilight’s bed.  You let Twilight help her into bed, and you make sure that she is sufficiently tucked in.  “Get some rest, now.  I’ll be around town for the foreseeable future, so if you ever need anything from me, don’t hesitate to let me know.”  She nods, and you and Twilight both leave, to let her rest.
You chat with Twilight for a few more minutes, and then you head to your own home, looking forward to spending some time with Pinkie.  The trip home is fairly boring, until you hear a shout of distress.  Again?  With a quick pump of your wings you take flight, and head in the direction of the shout.
As you soar over the buildings you spot Pinkie being approached by a stallion you’ve never seen before.  You tuck your wings in, and you dive swiftly towards the stallion.  You won’t allow him to hurt Pinkie, and you need to divert his attention.  “Hey, asshole!  Here’s STORM!”  He turns to look at you, and you crash into him.
You manage to recover fairly quickly, and you take a good look at the stallion.  His coat is almost black, and his eyes are blood red.  He rises to his hooves, and he looks at you with murder in his eyes.  “Pinkie, run.  Get help.”  You don’t turn to look to see if she did what you asked.
“You are a foolish stallion to get between me and my goal.  Just like that stupid mare.  I am only here to kill one mare, and I will see this done.”
“Not on my watch.”  You begin circling, and you see the other stallions pull out a knife.  Well that’s not fair.  I don’t have a knife.  You push that from your mind, and you continue circling him.  He takes a step closer, and you take a step back, wanting to stay out of reach as long as possible.  He makes a move to begin moving to one side, so you move in the same direction, but he quickly shifts his weight, and he lunges at you, death in his eyes.  You barely avoid the stab, but he then swings downward, and you feel the burning touch of the blade as it bit into flesh.  Who needs a scarless body anyway?
The blade was jerked from his grasp when you abruptly recoiled from the cut.  You could feel the blood flowing from the wound, but you remained standing, your blood burning with adrenaline.  The adrenaline spike made the world slow down, and the natural magic of a pegasus ran through you.  In Rainbow Dash this let her push the boundaries of speed, allowing her to break the sound barrier.  In you, it let you overclock your mind to ludicrous speeds.  Seconds passed like minutes, and the world ground to a halt.
With a massive kick of your back legs you lunged into the chest of the black stallion, pushing him over.  He kicked you off, though, and you somersaulted over him landing back on your hooves.  You were braced for the attack you thought was coming, but instead he just turned and ran.  You prepared to take flight to pursue, but the ragged wound on your back stopped you.  The pain was finally getting to you, through the adrenaline.  You pushed the pain from your mind, though, and you took flight anyway.
You spotted him heading for the library.  With a few quick pumps of your wings you dove at him once more.  This time, though, there was no battle cry.  You were as silent as the wind, and you felt a sharp crack as you plowed into him from behind.  The jarring impact made your world spin, and you could feel nothing through the burning of your blood.  The other stallion was out of sight, but you felt confident that he was worse off than you.  ‘Heh, I did what you said, mom.  I made sure the other guy looks worse than I do.”
You felt lightheaded, and as the world began to fade you saw a pink blur appear before your eyes.  You could see the mouth moving, and you could hear sounds, but none of it came through clear.  The world slowly faded to black, and you knew no more…

(Getting stabbed?  For shame.  What will happen to our hero next?  Tune in next time to find out!)