)Daring Do and the Secret of the Fourth Wall - THE STORY SO FAR - Summary / Highlight Reel · 7:58pm Feb 1st, 2017
SUMMARY / HIGHLIGHT REEL for chapters 1 – 9
(A quick refresher, for when the story updates ...... sometime soon-ish, I hope?! Maybe?! 
)
WARNING. MASSIVE SPOILERS for CHAPTERS 1 – 9!
THE FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARY OF THE EVENTS, AND A SERIES OF HIGHLIGHTS / EXCERPTS FROM CHAPTERS 1 THROUGH 9.
It is ONLY intended to be read by returning readers requiring a refresher after the long period of time since the last chapter.
If you have not yet read up to chapter 9, please turn around now.
Summary & Highligh Reel - AUDIO BOOK VERSION:
> [click here] - no background music
> [click here] - with ambient music loop
General reminders:
This story was conceived long before the episodes "Daring Don't" and "Power Ponies".
For the sake of this story, Daring Do remains a fictional character, and there is no such thing as "enchanted (comic) books".
Chronologically, this story takes place in mid-season 3, still before Discord's release.
MASSIVE SPOILERS for CHAPTERS 1 – 9! (duh)
(Last chance to turn around!)
Super-short bullet-point list summary:
- After a crash-landing in Sugar Cube Corner – Pinkie had stolen the new “Daring Do” book before Dash had a chance to read it – Rainbow Dash wakes up in a jungle, right next to the purely fictional character “Daring Do”.
- So far, Rainbow Dash has considered and rejected the following possibilities:
- - coma-dream
- - Discord breaking free of his stone prison
- - “A wacky science-fictiony parallel universe that just so happens to coincide perfectly with the events in the 'Daring Do' book-series.”
- - “Twilight's fault somehow”
- There have been... oddities:
- - “...And then Dash had acted, before the trap was even visible. She had known what was going to happen, before it happened. She... she had read the next paragraph.”
- - “Wait... If I had all hooves full, and I wasn't using my mouth – I'd remember the taste, yuck! – then... how was I holding the torch earlier?”
- Daring Do and Rainbow Dash have been in the following locations so far:
- - Mareican Jungle (chased by leopards hired by Ahuizotl)
- - Underground cave tunnel-system filled with traps (They got separated for a while.)
- - Rainbow Dash only: A very long, empty tunnel. (“Leave me alone!” ...End of chapter 5.)
- - The 8000-year old lost city of the Mareicans, miles below the surface.
- - Various buildings in the city (e.g. an elementary school for foals ; a guard armory with metal shields, wooden crossbows, and antique laser-weapons)
- “Hey Dash, how did you know about the Sapphire Stone and the Griffon's Goblet?”
- - Dash accidentally let slip that she knows some of Daring Do's secrets. Daring wonders what Dash might be hiding...
- - Dash comes to the conclusion that it would be... wrong to tell Daring Do that her entire world isn't, strictly speaking, real.
Highlight-reel:
(Estimated length: 5000-ish words, or the length of one typical chapter)
Chapter 1 – Welcome to the jungle
Rainbow Dash groaned, rubbing the back of her head. What exactly had just happened?
Her whole skull was throbbing something fierce, as if she'd crashed headfirst into a brick-wall at rainboom-speeds.
The last thing she could remember was flying into Sugar Cube Corner to get the new book back from Pinkie Pie. Then there had been a shout – something about a cake, maybe – but anything after that was a blank.
Since when was Pinkie into Daring Do's adventures, anyway?
[…]
Finally, her sight cleared, and the other pony came into focus. Dash recognized her immediately.
“DARING DO!?” She blurted out.
Dash just gaped.
What she saw was impossible.
She had read every book from start to finish dozens of times, including the editorials and back-covers to get a glimpse on future installments of the series.
She had practically devoured the fifteen-page article “Daring to Do the impossible”, describing how the anonymous author had come to write “Daring Do” in the first place.
Anything there was to know about the series, she knew it. First and foremost, the most important fact: Daring Do wasn't real!
And yet here she was – her favorite fictional character, the protagonist of sixteen adventures and counting, in the flesh and very real indeed.
[…]
Eyes narrowed, Daring Do pointed an accusing hoof at the rainbow-mare. “Okay, now I'd really like to know. Who in Celestia's name are you?”
For a few moments longer, the other pegasus gaped at her, jaw hanging open in a comical expression. When she snapped out of it, her next words made even less sense.
“This isn't possible! How can you be Daring Do!? You don't exist! And I should know! I'm your biggest fan!”
Daring was taken aback by the distraught mare's nonsensical ramblings.
Sure, she knew her reputation had become somewhat of a “legend” amongst certain circles, but statements like “you don't exist” and “I'm your biggest fan” generally excluded each other.
Well, didn't seem likely she worked for Ahuizotl, at any rate.
[…]
As soothing moonshine pierced its way into the cave where they were staying for the night, Rainbow Dash realized how late it had gotten. Involuntarily, she yawned, as she looked up at the lunar orb above.
And then her entire world came crashing down.
The Mare in the Moon was back.
...Getting back home or even sending a message to Ponyville had just become a lot more difficult.
Chapter 2 - Of pegasi and predators
Daring Do blearily opened one eye – only to see the predator come into focus right in front of her.
Muscles tense, the familiar surge of adrenaline washed away her weariness. She readied her stance to give the leopard a hard time for his meal. She wasn't gonna go down without a fight!
Then she got a good look at the predator.
Eyes wide, ears pinned down, one paw held up as if frozen mid-trot, the leopard stared off at something behind Daring Do, his face almost completely drained of color.
He was scared. Scared for his life.
The other two hunters stepped into the cave, snarling and ready to leap. Then they saw their fellow predator, huddling on the ground, shaking with fear. Their demeanor changed, just as quickly.
First, signs of recognition, disbelief, and then just sheer and blank terror!
And then, the three big cats just turned and ran. With their tails between their legs. And if Daring didn't know any better, it seemed the other two were trying to stay away from the first one. As if touching him could carry a deadly curse.
Daring Do felt a cold chill running up her spine. Where exactly had they stumbled into? What had they seen? What could possibly warrant such a reaction?!
Slowly, very slowly, Daring Do turned around, steeling herself for the worst –
But there was nothing there.
Nothing, except for a carving on the wall. Four simple geometric shapes.
It was both a positive surprise as well as disconcerting.
It was the ancient Mareican civilization's symbol for “death”. She had found an entrance to the temple she had been looking for.
Chapter 3 - Exposition
It still bothered her how she had even gotten here, how it was even possible that she was walking side-by-side through some buried underground-structure with her favorite fictional character become flesh. But as they resumed trotting deeper into the temple, Rainbow Dash's thoughts kept going back to that first trap.
She really hadn't seen it coming. There had been something, like a strong itch at the back of her skull, a sense of unease pushing itself to the top of her mind from the depths of her subconsciousness. And then she had jumped to shove Daring Do out of the way before the spike-trap could squash them both.
It was almost like...
"No," she told herself, sternly. "That's... that's not it." She almost would have compared the experience to her hyperactive, party-enthusiastic friend's "Pinkie Sense".
But she had seen something out of the corner of her eye. She hadn't been able to grasp what it was at the time... but now, it was crystal-clear.
It had been... letters. Words. A sentence. Something along the lines of "... the characteristic noise of a ... spike-trap closing in right behind ... Rainbow Dash slammed her body into ..."
And then she had acted, before the trap was even visible. She had known what was going to happen, before it happened.
She... she had read the next paragraph.
Chapter 4 - Instincts and cave-ins
Their own shadows were wavering, dancing across the walls in the uneven light provided by the flickering flames of her torch and Daring's oil-lamp. It gave Dash an eery feeling she could not explain. Even the shining water-droplets seeping in from cracks all around the cave-walls conjured up the mental image of a hundred tiny pairs of eyes scrutinizing their every move.
A cold shiver ran up her spine. The entire area just gave her this strong sense of foreboding...
Rainbow Dash instinctively looked up, only for ... a drop of water to hit her spot-on in her left eye. Other than that, there was nothing up there. Blinking the water out of her eye, Dash anxiously examined her surroundings.
Still nothing. A false alarm? Not like she had any idea how this new “sixth sense” of hers actually worked, or if she could trust it blindly. But she just could not shake the feeling she had come to associate with some rather unpleasant occurrence in her immediate future – and the feeling was only getting stronger with every passing second! The strange sensation of seeing danger coming, but not knowing what it was or where it would be coming from was... unsettling.
[…]
First, a rumbling noise from above announced a rapidly descending ceiling. The next thing Dash knew, she was already up and dodging falling rocks and debris as the tunnel collapsed around them.
All Dash could discern were shapes flying all around her, yet she found herself barely scraped by any of them. “Guess it's my lucky day,” Dash dodged to the left, avoiding a large chunk of rock impacting right next to her.
The cerulean pegasus ducked. Gear wheel. Cut off a few strands of her rainbow mane.
Dash heard a whirring noise coming up from behind, and the cerulean pegasus ducked just in time to avoid an out-of-control gear wheel zipping right over her head – That was close! Dash could've sworn the gear even had cut off a few strands of her rainbow mane!
...Déjà vu? No time for that.
Halt. ...cutting off her path. Left. ...boulder toppling over.
Dash came to a screeching halt, as a large boulder came down right in front of her, cutting off her path. Her ears perking up to some unheard noise, she almost instantly regained her momentum as she darted to the left – just barely avoiding getting squashed by the boulder toppling over to where she had stood merely a second ago.
Slide. Metal piece soaring right past...
Dash didn't have any time to really think about what was happening, she was purely acting on instinct now.
Impossibly, she crouched down and slid right beneath another out-of-control metal piece soaring right past her face. The image of two huge magenta eyes staring down at her with a mixture of shocked disbelief and confusion burned itself into her mind. It had been her reflection.
Despite lacking a light source of her own, Dash practically – for lack of a better term – danced through the rain of stone and metal debris clattering from the ceiling. A sharp turn here, a jump purely on instinct there – she barely received so much as a scratch!
Concerns for her life soon turned into an adrenaline-fueled euphoria. In defiance of danger, Dash couldn't help but grin. This was crazy awesome!
[...]
[Dash's uncanny supernatural luck doesn't last – she and Daring Do are separated, Dash falling through a hole in the ground, ending up in a long tunnel-system. Both suffer wing-injuries.]
[...]
“Hey, where did the torch come from?”
Chapter 5 - Separation
Trotting behind the stone-altar, Daring Do picked up the oddly-shaped wooden object that had fallen on the ground. As she stood back up, taking in the room from a different perspective, Daring Do just ... stopped.
Her mind came to a complete and total halt, and then did a 180° backflip. Her mouth worked silently, yet barely so much as a breath escaped. Eyes glancing over the rows of seats and tables in front of her, Daring had a hard time putting the new tidbits of information that were coming in into a coherent picture.
The adventurer had seen many things. Breath-taking feats of architecture, powerful magic and treasures of legend, which many-a-pony would consider naught but old-mares-tales.
Rarely Daring Do could be found at a loss for words. This was one of those rare times.
“B-But... But... Wha...? This – this doesn't make any sense!! What would this be doing here?”
Glancing back and forth between the wooden object firmly grasped in her hooves and the small wooden desks and chairs filling the room, each of them showcasing previously unseen symbols like tiny hearts, horseshoes or flowers, she just couldn't reconcile the image with her expectations of what a temple was supposed to contain.
The feeling of familiarity had been right. She had been here before.
Not exactly here, of course, but in a place just like this. And it had not been a temple.
It had been an elementary school.
This was a class-room ... a class-room for foals – miles below the surface, protected by countless death-traps, and built sometime about eight thousand years ago.
The supposedly ritual altar she was now clinging to was the teacher's desk. The object she was unconsciously crushing inside her left fore-hoof was a toy.
Daring found her mind reeling, buzzing with questions upon questions as to how this particular scenario could possibly be made sense of.
Why would they have built a... a class-room inside of their heavily guarded temple? They couldn't possibly have sent colts and fillies down here every day just for study. Then where would they have lived? Down here!? Where would they have gotten their food from?
When Daring managed to pry open the room's heavy stone-door, dazed and disoriented from the stale 8000-year old air, she found the answer to some, and cause for many, many new questions.
She had to correct her previous assumption that a class-room for foals would be the last thing she'd have expected to find down here. On a side-note, this answered the question as to where the little colts and fillies had spent their time outside from school.
The cavern ahead was enormous. The ceiling alone must have been hundreds of meters high, scattered with some kind of magic crystal providing a steady illumination for what lay below – an entire city.
~~~
With a start, Dash jumped to all four hooves and spun around in a circle, all remnants of sleepiness gone.
“Who's there?! Show yourself!” she shouted, eyes searching hectically for whatever was following her. Jumping onto her hindlegs and performing boxing motions, Dash growled threateningly.
“Come out! I know you're there! Come out right now and face me like a real mare, or I'll buck you straight to next week!”
Turning about on her hind-legs to face her pursuer head-on, the pegasus' wings flared instinctively, causing Dash to lose balance as a stab of pain reminded her of the injury. After unceremoniously falling on her rump, Dash just sat there, her rapid breathing slowing down to a regular pace.
What had just happened? She had been so sure somepony ... or something had been there, watching her.
But there was nopony there. There couldn't be. After all, she was in the middle of an underground cave-system, nopony had laid hoof here in what must have been hundreds of years, if even ever at all...
Who could possibly be watching her...?
Rainbow Dash could feel the hairs stand up on the back of her neck, a prickling sensation that ran down the length of her spine.
There was nothing to be seen, nothing to be heard. And yet she knew it was there. It was as if whoever or whatever it was... was everywhere and nowhere at once. She wasn't even sure if it was just one entity, either.
The cerulean pegasus' shoulders slumped, as she raised a front-hoof to massage her temples.
She had walked for hours with no end of the tunnel in sight. Her wing hurt and she hadn't eaten in over a day. The repetitive landscape was driving her nuts, and she was disoriented from sheer exhaustion, her energy drained by fatigue.
All she wanted to do was to take a nap. And now there was... something there creeping her out, apparently stalking her, even though that made absolutely no sense at all, like so many things in this strange “book-world” she had ended up in.
In sheer frustration, Dash turned back and yelled into the empty darkness.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!”
End of chapter 5.
[Chapter 6 summary: Dash and Daring reunite in the ancient city of the Mareicans.]
Chapter 7 – Daring Do and the Balanced Breakfast
Dash gaped.
There stood Daring Do, the most amazing, most awesome-est adventurer ever, who laughed in the face of death, who bucked danger in the flank and who's profession was, well, adventure itself – doing something Dash never would have even expected to read in the books, let alone see it with her own eyes.
“You're ...cooking?” Dash stated in a flat tone, still stunned by the fact.
The gold-yellow pegasus merely reacted to Dash's comment by raising an eyebrow. “Uhm... yeah, so?”
“You're... cooking” Dash finally repeated her previous statement. “I'm just... uh... surprised, is all.”
Daring tilted her head quizzically, her mouth open as if to ask a question, but closing it a few seconds later.
“Eh. When you can show me a restaurant in this place or any other temple or jungle, I'll be glad to pay the expenses.” The adventurer shrugged. “Gets kinda dull if you just eat the same rations over and over again for weeks, ya know?”
Dash blinked rapidly. That... actually made a lot of sense.
[…]
Glancing over the area, Dash took stock of what apparently was a living room. It looked almost ...normal. From her current surroundings, she could never have guessed that they were miles underground in what was supposed to be an ancient civilization's “lost city”. For all she could tell, they had entered somepony's home.
Finishing her current bowl, Dash grabbed it between her teeth and put it on the kitchen desk... Yep, that was an ancient kitchen desk. Looking down at her bowl, she realized that it was actually one of the clay-dishes from the opened cupboard.
Dash suddenly became very self-aware that they were, essentially, sitting at a kitchen table underground in what was supposed to be an ancient civilization's lost city, dining from plates that were older than Equestria itself.
But at least, just for once, she wasn't the only one weirded out by the situation. Daring herself was staring down at her own emptied plate with an expression caught somewhere between confusion and amusement.
“You know, my associates in the archeologist community would be horrified if they knew I'm using eight thousand years old dinner-ware as... well, dinner-ware.” The adventurer chuckled.
Chapter 8 - Under suspicion
“Hey, Dash,” Daring Do spoke up, bringing the rainbow-maned pegasus' trip down memory lane to a halt. “I just remembered something you said earlier, and I was wondering... how did you know about the Sapphire Stone and the Griffonian Goblet?”
“Oh, I read... oh.” 
[…]
Having made up her mind, Rainbow Dash turned to face Daring, who was still eating. She opened her mouth to address the other mare – and hesitated, realizing that she didn't know what to say, exactly.
How should she go about telling her?
Looking at the golden-yellow pegasus sitting at the other side of the kitchen table, who thought she was “pretty cool”, who had just shared her meal with her and told anecdotes about her colleagues – she simply couldn't bring herself to tell Daring Do straight to the face that she was a fictional character.
When she had gotten here, she had had a hard time wrapping her head around the concept of her favorite fictional character having become flesh. It was still a mind-boggling thought – but now, it was for the opposite reason.
When she looked at Daring, she didn't see a character from a story, she saw a pony. A real pony. An overall amazing individual she was glad to have made an acquaintance with. Perhaps... even a friend. Just from talking to her in the last ten minutes she knew there was more to Daring than just a few pages in a bunch of books. Thinking of her as “fictional” didn't do her justice.
And yet, Dash found it hard to deny the facts.
She had more than enough evidence to think that this wasn't some kind of wacky science-fictiony “parallel universe” that just happened to coincide perfectly with the novels in the “Daring Do” series.
This was a story. And Daring Do was a character in this story. A story written by some anonymous author, who... who had essentially created both Daring Do and her entire world, who had written her into existence.
Rainbow Dash had to take the mental equivalent of several steps back. The thought didn't seem to register properly. She understood what it meant on some level, but she couldn't wrap her brain around the concept. The mere idea just sounded so... alien to her.
In a rare moment of insight, Dash attempted to grasp the repercussions of telling Daring Do the truth about the nature of her reality – and utterly failed.
She really wasn't much into philosophical topics. Twilight would probably have been more suitable to handle those kind of things.
The entire notion simply seemed too outlandish to comprehend.
Rainbow Dash stared down into her unfinished bowl. The viscous, brown soup sloshed around in it as it slowly absorbed the spoon sinking into it. Bits of lettuce swam on top, each a sickly pale yellow color sprinkled with splotches of brown – suddenly, the food seemed anything other than appetizing.
Dash felt a brief surge of bile rising from her stomach. She hastily averted her eyes.
What – what was she to do?
All she knew was that telling Daring Do that she didn't exist, that her entire world wasn't real and her whole life had been the product of a... a... a story... That... that was just wrong.
There were no words to describe it. It– It was just–
Just–
No. Just... no. She wasn't going to tell her. She couldn't. She couldn't possibly tell her.
[…]
After another immeasurable length of time had passed in silence, Daring Do spoke up.
“Listen, and listen carefully. I don't know who or what your sources are or how much you know. But I can tell you one thing – if word gets out of the Goblet, then ponies' lives are going to be at risk. And I cannot allow that to happen. Do you understand that?”
Dash reeled back in surprise. Ponies' lives? What?!
Daring looked her straight in the eyes. There was the expected fierce, determined glare... but there was also something else in those eyes, a sense of urgency, that really got to Dash.
This is real. Rainbow Dash gulped. The Griffin's Goblet... It wasn't just words on a page anymore.
That deadly mountain really was out there, somewhere, she realized. And if word of the Griffin's Goblet got out – or the fact that it still existed... Yes, that would be bad. Very, very bad. Least of all, Ahuizotl would hear of it, sooner or later. It was no wonder, why Daring would be alarmed to hear a pony she had never met before randomly blurt it out straight in her face.
She... she hadn't even thought of it like that.
Chapter 9 – Exploration
...Each home came with its own, individual quirks.
One of the buildings was, bizarrely enough, even sculpted to resemble a giant loaf of bread. Daring Do simply couldn't think of it as anything other than a bakery.
It took her a moment to realize Rainbow Dash had stopped following her.
“You coming, Dash?” Daring joked. “We just ate, and I doubt they have anything that's still good anyway. Heh.”
Her chuckle awkwardly petered out with no witty retort forthcoming from the other mare.
Dash caught up to her quickly, but still remained silent. Odd. Talk about a mood-swing!
[…]
One building in particular caught Daring's interest.
The wooden facade stood out amongst a row of brick houses, as it was. Daring ran a hoof across one of the many deep grooves in the wood. They had been crafted with great care, but the meaning of the pattern eluded her. Straight lines ran outwards from the entrance door, across the entire facade, turning left and right, up or down in sharp angles. At odd intervals, short wooden planks were attached to the outside walls, angled either horizontal or vertical to the ground in such a way that the grooves in the wooden surface would only intersect underneath them.
On examining the interior, she found a variety of wooden and stone tablets with carvings of a design similar to the building-front, but also depictions of many different cutie marks.
It seemed to be the work-place of an artist.
[…]
At what came into sight when the two pegasi turned the corner, Daring Do had to do a double-take. In the center of the square, there was a tree, of all things. A dead tree, sure, but a tree non-the-less.
Daring was perplexed. They were in a cave. Not even the strongest of earth pony magic could cause trees to grow on solid rock – it needed soil, at least a few pony-lengths deep.
There was no way a tree could actually grow here, unless –
Daring's hoof scraped at the ground, digging a small hole in the dirt. It didn't reveal any stone beneath, just more earth. Thinking back to the tunnels, in the vast majority of the tunnel-system the ground had been covered with a thick layer of earth – despite the fact that they were miles below the actual surface. It hadn't occurred to her at the time, but like the walls and ceiling of the cave, the ground should have been solid rock.
Daring Do shook her head in puzzled disbelief. The implications of this were absurd!
The only possible explanation was that the Mareicans had actually taken the time and effort to transport ridiculous amounts of fertile soil to a location as far removed from ideal farming conditions as you could get short of trying to set up an orchard inside an active volcano. And then they had filled up this central cave until the soil was deep enough to even support tree-growth.
The amount of effort that had gone into building this settlement was insane! What could possibly have justified all of this?
Even if the carvings she had seen were any indication of hostile tribes in the area, the Mareicans could've just moved someplace else – the Mareican mainlands were huge! Going underground just didn't make sense!
[…]
And... how did Rainbow Dash know of the Griffonian Goblet?
If it hadn't been for her initial slip-up, Daring Do would never have suspected a thing. It presented their first encounter in a worrying new light.
What was she hiding? What was the big, scary secret Dash was refusing to tell her?
[…]
Curious, Daring steadied the weapon and took aim through a nearby window. The magnifying effect certainly was impressive, but what surprised her was the tiny white dot she could see in the distance, evidently projected from the crossbow's light-source, marking her target.
“Woah. Now I am impressed!” Daring Do looked at the 8000-year old crossbow in astonishment.
“GAH! Look out!”
Blinding hot light filled Daring's vision that left her reeling, and the crossbow was suddenly on fire.
“What the...!” Daring startled, quickly unbuckling the crossbow. “What... what was that?!” She turned to the other pegasus, who was gaping back at her, clearly shocked. Dash was holding something in her hooves, but began struggling with its hoof-strap immediately after Daring had looked her way.
Eyes widening by the implications, Daring's healthy wing flared out in an instinctive reaction.
“HEY! What the buck!? You shot at me!”
“I didn't mean to shoot at you!” the cerulean-blue pegasus shrieked, her voice shaky and slightly higher pitched than normal. “How the hay was I supposed to know these ancient ponies had friggin' laser-weapons!?”
[...]
“What is going on here?” Rainbow Dash spoke out loud, swiping a hoof in a wide arc that encompassed more than just the room they were standing in.
Daring Do couldn't agree more.
Regular homes, schools for foals – and spike-traps, lava- and crocodile-pits. Carrot- and cabbage-gardens, trees – and a hundred-mile tunnel system twisting into the depths of the earth. Bakeries, shops, lawn ornaments – and legends of an ancient, all-powerful artifact. Swords and arrows – and weapons shooting searing hot rays of light.
These types of things generally just didn't mix. How they had gotten intertwined with each other in Mareican culture was a complete and utter mystery.
“I don't know”, Daring spoke out loud. The corners of her mouth settled into a grim line. “But I'm going to find out.”
To be continued... 
( ...sometime soon-ish, I hope?! Maybe?!!?!? )
Thanks for the refresher. :)
4405786 You're welcome!
So looking forward to the next chapter yo