17: Plan Y
Morning dawned in Ponyville.
Striding up and down in front of the rank of three ponies before her, Applejack surveyed her troops and found their preparations acceptable. Rarity had overpacked as usual, and Pinkie had only packed cakes and balloons but... they would make do. She was eager to be away.
“Okay, y’all. Spike here reckons that Twilight and Dash headed northeast, toward some mountain range up there. I know they ain’t been gone all that long but somethin’ about this just don’t feel right. ‘Specially after what happened to the sun yesterday. So we’re gonna find ‘em and make sure they’re okay, help ‘em if they need it, and bring ‘em back safe. Everypony got it?”
“Certainly, darling.”
“Absotutely-lutely!”
“Um... this sounds awfully dangerous.”
“We’ll be fine, and I’m sure they’re okay too. Spike? Hop on. You’ve got the map now, so you’re navigatin’. Everypony else? Keep yer eyes peeled and if’n ya see any sign of Twilight or Rainbow Dash, holler out. Ready? Let’s go!” she finished, rearing up and flailing her forehooves.
“I WIN!” shouted Pinkie Pie before she had even dropped back to the ground.
Applejack lurched to an awkward stop, failing to complete even the first stride of their new adventure. She turned back with a frown. “Pinkie, what the hay’re you talkin about now?”
“You said the first one to see any sign of Twilight and Rainbow Dash wins!”
“I didn’t say anythin’ close to that!”
“I won!” Pinkie insisted, pointing into the sky.
“Pinkie, we don’t have time for...” she trailed off, following Pinkie’s outstretched hoof. “Oh.”
High in the sky, approaching from the north, two immediately recogniseable specks – and a third that she recognised after only a slight delay – glided towards the green in front of Twilight’s castle where Applejack and her company had assembled. They grew closer at a quick clip, circled, descended and landed. And then pandamonium broke out.
Spike raced for Twilight and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. Pinkie Pie launched herself at Rainbow Dash, tackling her to the ground, the pegasus’ last-ditch attempt to dodge coming just a hair too late to save her from the cuddle. Fluttershy and Rarity shared a relieved nuzzle, except that Fluttershy strayed too close to Pinkie Pie and found herself seized by a pink hoof and ensnared. It was fairly clear that Pinkie’s snuggle-pile had turned predatory and wouldn’t rest until every single one of her friends had been captured.
Daring and Applejack found themselves rolling their eyes at almost the same time and then finding their attention on each other. With little, confident smiles they tugged the brims of their respective hats by way of greeting.
“This is amazing!” squealed Pinkie. “We set off on a mission to find two friends, and we find three before we’ve even left town. Best. Rescue. Ever!” The hug-pile was inching its way closer to Daring and she eyed it warily.
“What are you all doing here?” asked Twilight.
“Sorry Twilight. I got worried,” said Spike. “I couldn’t shake this weird feeling that something was wrong, and then last night when the sun turned all black I knew something was up, so I went to find Applejack.”
“Spike told me what had happened an’ where you’d gone and I didn’t like the sound of it one bit,” Applejack picked up. “So we rounded everypony up and were gonna come after you, in case you needed help.”
Twilight stepped within range of Daring and gave her a little nudge in the ribs. “See?” she smiled. “Plan Y.”
Daring sighed, rolled her eyes again, and gave Twilight a little smile. “Sure. Plan Y.”
The writhing pile of ponies on the ground broke up, with Fluttershy looking just a little traumatised, and Pinkie stood. “I can’t wait to hear all about it! Luckily, I came prepared. Who wants popcorn?!” She nosed open the flap on one of her saddlebags packed in preparation for the trek ahead, and began to rummage around.
Suddenly her eyes widened and she pulled her head out. Her muzzle wrinkled and twitched as though in spasm and a moment later she let out an almighty sneeze. She wiped her nose with a hoof and received an admonishing glare from Rarity.
“Pinkie darling, that is most unhygienic,” Rarity scolded as she used her magic to float her a cotton handkerchief from her own saddlebags. But no sooner had Pinkie seized it than her nose wrinkled uncontrollably once again and she sneezed a second time. And then a third time. Her nose wouldn’t stop scrunching.
“Pinkie? Are you... quite alright, dear?” asked Rarity.
“It’s an itch-a-twitch!” said Pinkie in surprise. “Wow! That’s a really rare one. I can’t even remember the last time I had one of these! That’s the twitch I get when it’s somepony’s birthday, and they haven’t realised it’s their birthday!” She giggled and had to stifle another sneeze. “I mean really, who could forget something so important as their birthday? Now lets see... Twilight, Rarity, Spike and Rainbow Dash have all had their birthdays this year. Applejack’s isn’t for another two moons, and mine and Fluttershy’s aren’t until after that. So whose...” She trailed off as her roving eyes scanned the group. Then her eyes lit up in wild surprise. “Daring Do! It’s your birthday?!”
Daring frowned. “It’s not my birthday.”
“But... hold on. You said you didn’t know when your birthday was,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.
“I know it’s not today.”
“But... how?” pressed Rainbow.
“Because the odds that today just happens to be my birthday are three-hundred and sixty-five to one against!”
“Same as every other day,” Applejack noted.
“And it’s clearly one of our birthdays. Just look at Pinkie Pie,” said Rarity. “And we all know when ours are, darling,” she finished with a smile.
A moment of quiet fell, everypony looking at Daring with expectant smiles.
“You can’t be serious,” said Daring with a quirked eyebrow. “You all think that just because Pink Frosting over there can’t stop sneezing, that has to mean my birthday is today?” To her amazement, she got a series of nods from the others around her. Even from Rainbow Dash.
Twilight stepped up beside her. “Daring? I know it doesn’t make much sense. But those of us who’ve been in Ponyville a while have learned over time that, if Pinkie starts twitching, you’d better listen.” She smiled too. “I’ve never known her to be wrong. You might have to take it on faith, and you might have to trust us that we know what we’re talking about, but believe me it’s more than likely that, even against the odds, today is in fact your birthday.”
Daring shook her head with a sigh. “This is a huge plot contrivance,” she mumbled. It wasn’t even subtle. This sort of thing didn’t happen. Not in real life. The authorial part of her brain refused to accept a coincidence of such scale.
“Even if it were, does it matter? You can’t go the rest of your life not having a birthday!” said Rainbow.
“I’ve managed it so far...” she retorted, only to be cut off.
“You’ve never had a birthday?!” screamed Pinkie over her. And then her expression turned into one of manic happiness. “You know what this calls for?!”
And then silence.
“Uh... what does it call for?” asked Daring with hesitation.
“OhpleasesomeponytellherIcan’ttakeitanymore!” squealed Pinkie, who it seemed had been holding her breath for too long.
“For future reference, the answer to that question is always, ‘a party,’” said Rainbow.
“A PARTY!” screamed Pinkie, bouncing high into the air. “Luckily, I brought plenty of cake and punch, which is good, because if this is your first birthday party ever then I’m gonna make it the best birthday party ever!” She leaned in close and stage-whispered behind her hoof. “Trade secret: all my parties are the best party ever!”
Daring blinked. And looked at Pinkie. And finally nodded. You know what? I can relate to that.
* * *
Daring spent the next two hours feeling... a little awkward it had to be said. The castle had been decorated with balloons and streamers and Happy Birthday banners adorned with her image – where did they come from? – and there was cake and pie and ice-cream and punch and all of it was delicious. Where did it come from?!
And Twilight and Rainbow’s friends were all nice. She’d met them before of course, but only fleetingly. She hadn’t managed to spend any actual time with them before now. Fluttershy was very kind and polite, Rarity took one look at her pith helmet and insisted she could make it good as new, darling. Spike, for the few minutes she talked to him, displayed a dry, wry wit that she found engaging. And Pinkie Pie was... well, she was something else.
But even as she’d been working her way around the room it was fairly clear that parties just weren’t her thing. Too many other ponies. Too many social rules to follow, none of which she knew. The irony was that if she’d been on a mission to infiltrate this soirée, she probably would have been having a less stressful time than she was in this relaxed, informal setting. She was just a little out of her depth and she was sure it showed.
She found herself standing next to Applejack, the last pony among the group that she hadn’t yet spoken to – although she wasn’t sure she could call the interaction she’d had with Pinkie Pie a ‘conversation.’
“Nice hat,” she said with a little nod.
“Back at’cha,” said Applejack with a smile.
“You’re Applejack, right? The one with the novel?”
A rush of colour overcame Applejack’s cheeks. “Rainbow Dash! She promised me she wasn’t gonna blab about it again.”
“Don’t beat her up too much. She just told me she thought it was really good. And hey, she’s got great taste in literature after all,” she said with a self-satisfied grin.
There was a friendly smile followed by an awkward pause during which very little eye-contact was made as two ponies dropped their gaze to the cups of punch on their hooves.
“So, uh... you work with apples?” said Daring. And when Applejack looked up with a little light in her eye and drew a breath that was slightly too deep she knew she’d asked just the wrong question. How was it that she could escape the most cunning death-traps ever devised and yet couldn’t extricate herself from an uninteresting conversation?
Fortunately, help was at hoof.
“Excuse me, Applejack,” said Twilight walking up to them.
“Howdy, Twi. Where ya been? You’ve been gone for nearly half an hour.”
“I’ve been in the library doing a little research. I’ve got something I want to show Daring Do, if I can borrow her for a minute?” she said with a smile. Daring doffed her hat to Applejack and allowed Twilight to lead her away.
“Thank you,” she said when they were out of earshot. “Look, your friends are all very nice. But... I’m not sure I’m ready to make so many new friends at once. I’m still coming to terms with the two I have.”
Twilight chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. For now, all you need to know is that you have a lot of ponies here who’d drop everything for you if you needed help, no strings attached.”
“That’s nice to know, I guess,” she said as they entered the library and approached a large circular table with half a dozen books lying open. Most of them were in a language she couldn’t read. “Though of course, Daring Do doesn’t need help,” she said with a small, playful smile.
“Of course,” said Twilight. “But from time to time, A. K. Yearling might. In fact, that’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you about.” She turned to the books on the table. “There was something you told us back in the city that I thought didn’t quite ring true. So I pulled a few books on the ancient Bovarian dialect, and I discovered a few interesting things.” She brought one book to the front and flipped a few pages. “See, in Cattleese they relied heavily on accented letters. In a similar way to how if we put an ‘E’ on the end of a word we can drastically change how it sounds, they used accents to change what a word means.
“I looked up Avada. You said it meant ‘Unknown’, which is one meaning. But used in context, a closer translation would be ‘Stranger,’ or if we went with the literal version, ‘One who is unexpected.’”
“Sounds about right,” said Daring.
“But, if you write it like this,” said Twilight, pointing out an entry on the page: Avadá. “That has a very specific meaning: ‘Welcome.’” She smiled, and Daring felt her mouth fall open just a touch as she scanned the page.
“I looked up Kedavra too,” continued Twilight. “It’s not quite ‘Unloved’. It literally translates to, ‘One I have no love for,’ or, ‘One who is unknown to me.’ But Kedavrá, on the other hand also has a specific meaning. It means ‘Friend.’” She smiled. “You said you thought your name was a cruel joke or a taunt. But you also said it was never written down anywhere. I think, in reality, when they gave you that name, you weren’t being shunned as unwanted, you were being welcomed with love.”
Daring looked at Twilight with a faint frown. “Let me get this straight. You want me to believe that my name actually translates to, ‘Welcome, Friend Yearling’?” Twilight nodded a satisfied little nod. Daring shook her head. “That’s almost as bad. It doesn’t even scan. I’m not unshortening it.”
Twilight gave a little, light giggle. “I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be ashamed of it. It’s part of who you are. It shows you’ve always had others around who care about you, even if you didn’t know it. You’ve never been as alone as you might have thought. And that’s especially true now.”
As though on cue, the library door opened admitting another pony to make her even less alone. “Twilight!” blurted Rainbow. “Pinkie’s about to start pin-the-tail, except the tail is a hat and the pony’s Daring Do! Let’s—! Oh... what’s goin’ on?” she asked, entering the room fully and allowing the door to swing shut behind her.
Daring grimaced. Party games too? How many more opportunities was she going to be given today to prove just how socially awkward she was.
Well... none, she decided.
“Sorry. As fun as pin-the-tail... or hat... sounds, I think it’s time I made my exit.”
Twilight looked surprised, but then gave a solemn, understanding nod. Rainbow looked crestfallen. “But you’ll miss all the dancing!” she wailed.
Daring sighed. “Look... Twilight, Rainbow, I appreciate it. All of it. Everything you’ve done for me. I’ll never forget it. But all of this friendship stuff... parties, games, dancing... it’s just not my thing. Not yet. The thing about Daring Do is, she’s a loner. She doesn’t want any help.”
“But—!” objected Rainbow and Twilight simultaneously.
Daring held up a hoof to cut them off. “But it’s nice to know that if I ever need it... I know exactly where I can come,” she said with a warm smile. She tipped her hat and, with a strong flap of her wings she was airborne, alighting on a high windowsill and pushing it open. She turned back to Twilight before rummaging in her saddlebag and withdrawing a pastel-pink parcel tied with string. “Sorry about the pink paper, it was all I could find to bundle it up, thanks to party-pony. That package contains the Jewel of Unity and both of those journals. The jewel needs to be kept somewhere secret; somewhere safe. It’s too powerful to let fall into the wrong hooves and too useful to abandon. I trust you to find somewhere for it. As for the books? Well... see that they’re returned to their rightful owners, will you? We both know who they are.” She nodded and turned for the open window, spreading her wings once again. “Goodbye you two. I’d better see you both again soon,” she added with a wink.
Before she could take flight, Twilight caught her. “Wait, Daring. Before you go... there’s one more thing. I know you’re not crazy about making friends but... there’s one more pony you should consider meeting.”
“I know what you’re gonna say.” She sighed. “I’ll think about it, alright? Take care of yourselves.”
“You too.”
She stepped through the window and her wings snapped open.
And with that she was gone.
* * *
A knock at the door to her chambers brought Luna’s attention, and she opened it to the caller.
“Sister? Is something the matter?” she asked in surprise, ushering her elder sibling inside and closing the door behind her. “Tia... what’s wrong? Have you been crying?”
Celestia turned and sat on the bed, dry tears staining her cheeks. She raised a piece of parchment in her aura to show Luna. “I have just received this letter from Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “It contains an explanation... an apology really... as to why the sun was afflicted with darkness yesterday evening.”
Luna’s brows knitted in confusion. “I do not understand. We guessed that she was the cause already, did we not? And we reasoned that for her to act as such, the circumstances must have been incredibly dire or the situation otherwise of great import. Has something in that letter altered these conclusions?”
“No, of course not...”
“Then why do they cause you consternation now when last night all seemed... if not ‘well’ then at least ‘settled’?”
“It is not that part of the letter, Luna. She sent these too.” She held up a pair of hardbacked books.
Even without the dust-jacket, Luna recognised one of them. The other she had never seen before, but by virtue of its proximity and similarity, she could form a definite assumption. “Is that...?”
Celestia nodded and smiled a happy smile, new tears flowing. “Father’s,” she said with a quaver to her voice.
Luna looked at the book with awed reverence. “How can it be...?” she whispered. She looked at Celestia. “Have you...?”
“No,” her sister said with another smile. “I thought... we should do it together.”
Luna nodded. “Together.”
* * *
Home sweet home.
Daring alighted and trotted through her door. The finishing tape at the end of another adventure, her mind overflowing with thoughts and ideas.
She strode into the living room, shedding her saddlebags and tossing them over the back of a chair. She could unpack later. Much later. The hat came next, whipped off her head and, with the brim gripped in her teeth she gave it a little, expert toss onto the wall-hook where it lived. Shirt next, and that went straight in the laundry basket. She gave a little shake and stretch and, basking in the familiarity of her homely surroundings, looked slowly around the room.
The quiet room.
The quiet, empty room.
The quiet, empty, lonely room.
In a quiet, empty house in the loneliest part of Equestria.
As her gaze travelled over the familiar furnishings, many coated with a thin layer of dust, she realised that no other pony had ever used them. Shared them. No other pony would ever sit in that chair. Or bask by that fireplace. Or admire her collection of ancient trinkets upon the mantlepiece...
Hey, look at this one!
Rainbow Dash, don’t touch that! You don’t know what it does!
Duh, of course I do! It spins! See? So spinny.
She chuckled, but her mirth fell from her as the echoey voices in her head receded into nothingness.
Suddenly, the solitude that she had so long treasured and fought to maintain felt... alien. Like a choice she vaguely remembered making yet couldn’t fathom why. Being alone... it just wasn’t as good as being with those other two ponies. Her smile fell and her gaze turned forlorn as she continued to cast her gaze around the room. And she realised... she had lost something. Something important. Something she had never thought she would want, but really, really did. Her gaze came to rest on the door...
And her smile returned, just a little. Because she hadn’t lost it, had she? No, if she needed it, she knew exactly where it was. Through that door, beyond the woods to the rail station, then the overnight express to the little town of Ponyville. That was where it was. That was where they were waiting. And they always would be, if ever and whenever she needed them. That was enough to make her feel better.
She raised her head and whirled back toward the room, new energy filling her. Right now, A. K. Yearling had a book to write, and a lot of ideas to get down on... oh.
Looking over toward her typewriter, she gave a little, ugly grimace as she spotted the sheet of paper still tucked inside. The page she had been working on when this whole debacle had kicked off. The underwhelming battle from Daring Do and the Goats of Gruff Island. Yuck.
Gonna have to write to the Publishers. Let them know I’m nixing this and starting afresh.
She strode to her writing desk, ready to tear the offensive paper from the roll, but caught herself as she re-read the final paragraph she’d written, the memories of being sat there only a couple of days ago returning in a rush:
‘Then the remaining foes stood back, and Daring squared up to them. “Had enough already?” she challenged. But instead they parted, standing aside to allow the approach of another of their number. Their Champion, she supposed, for he stood easily twice as tall as all of the others.’
It was weird. She could even recall the exact thoughts that had been going through her mind when she’d reviewed that sentence. And with a smile, a hint of inspiration struck and Daring sat down. Shame to let that work go to entirely to waste, she thought. She hit the carriage-return to begin a new paragraph. And slowly, she began to type...
A heavy sigh accompanied a muffled scrape as Daring pushed her typewriter away, a slight disgusted grimace on her lips. ‘Yeah, and he still only came up to my chin.’ Her eyes meticulously scanned the previous few paragraphs for flaws, and judged them all sorely lacking when it came to anything approaching intrigue, peril, or astonishing feats of bravery...
The End
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These are the best kinds of fanfic, the type that build upon the existing lore without having to resort to drastic changes to Canon. I hope for more. A++
Wait what happened to the Jewel of Unity since it was wrapped together with the two journals.
Top-shelf horsewords, right here.
The pacing, the characterization, the world-building, the cliff racers, the heartfelt drama and the edge-of-your-seat action; this is what an adventure story should look like.
The only thing I can think of even resembling a complaint would be the myriad references that have the potential to pull the reader out of the narrative, but honestly that's more my problem than the story's.
s6.postimg.org/5pzpmopep/Pirate_Approved2.jpg
*Applauds*
Excellent story! While it was a bit grating for me how everyone all but ignored the fact Twilight was an alicorn (a paraphrased Alucard line comes to mind: "Excuse me? I'm a buck-mothering alicorn! I've made a LOT of friends to earn that title and I deserved to be called such!
") but otherwise it was pretty good. I loved the dream sequences and the inner conflicts of both Daring and her antagonist. I also can't help but ship them...
Anyway, it looks like you've set it up for a sequel. I can't wait to see it!
This is a story that I always wanted to read and come back again. It's hard to find a story where it would either line with Canon or create a character build up experience that we haven't seen much in the show.
Also, this has to be one of the best Daring Do's fanfic ever. The best part of the story was Daring learning Friendship. Which many stories I've read and seen, it's rare to find a high quality story about learning friendship.
The plot holes never broke the story. It just made it more interesting and fun to read, I don't think I want to know what the Kings name is, or how they escape or even the mystery around if Celestia and Luna were Alicorns when they were born. Overall this story was amazing and having these plot holes made it a really nice mystery for the readers to think for themselves.
Also I always thought that Celestia and Luna weren't Alicorns when they were born since Celestia said she hasn't seen an Alicorns born before... So that means Luna wasn't Alicorn when she was born.
I think they became Alicorns sometime later like Twilight. But who knows, it's a great mystery.
Amazing story!
I honestly love how you've portrayed Caballeron and Daring's characters here!
I very much enjoyed this story. I plowed through it in a couple hours, and it was easily worth missing a meal or two for. I wish I had seen this when it was first published--I enjoy the agony of waiting for a chapter.
You have an excellent grasp of character, detail, planning, and storytelling. Each of your headspaces were creative and insightful. The backstory of the area and how you tied it into the existing canon was amazing. Can I ask how long it took for you to write this? Did it just rush forth like from some idiot savant? Or was this the work of years of on-again-off-again writing?
This story deserves more praise and recognition, though I've found that stories on FIMFiction without advertised shipping wind up by the way-side. Have you submitted this to Equestria Daily? You'd get a ton of readers from there, too.
If you enjoy Daring Do stories, I humbly present my own in exchange. It's different in tone and story, but maybe you'll like it. (Between you and me, I enjoyed yours more!)
Thanks for making a boring morning entertaining and memorable!
Three cheers for 8686! Hurrah! Encore! Encore!
Every story you've written here is a gem, and this one is no exception.
We all knew the story loop ending was coming, but that doesn't make it any less cliche.
Whether it was bad, however, is another question entirely...
Best story I've read in a long time. I loved the relationship between Daring, Rainbow and Twilight. Also those little things that chain together here and there really got me thinking. Fantastic story! I love it so much!
Fantastic story! Only gripe I have is that Ahuizotl is misspelled throughout.
Heartwarming way to end it.
A FANTASTIC ADVENTURE !!!! DARING SEEMS TO BE A SOMEWHAT TRAGIC CHARACTER.