The distant sound of rushing rainbow-falls underscored Twilight's delighted moans, as Rainbow Dash's muzzle busied itself upon her.
"Oh, Rainbow," she gasped, "this feels so much better than when I do it by myself!"
"'Course it does." Rainbow lifted her face from Twilight and chuckled. "I should be charging you money for this."
"Don't stop, Rainbow!" Twilight cried breathily, her chest heaving. "Don't ever stop preening me!"
Rainbow's teeth clamped down on Twilight's wing, and the alicorn princess cried out ecstatically.
"Ahem."
Rainbow rolled her eyes up, away from the wing between her teeth, and spotted Princess Luna standing a few feet away. Her face was set into a scowl.
Rainbow blinked. "Wan' sum?" she mumbled around a mouthful of feathers.
Princess Luna's eyes narrowed. "Haven't you something better to do?"
Confused, Rainbow tilted her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but her words were swallowed by the sound of the rainbow-falls building in intensity. Louder, and louder, and louder they grew—
Rainbow Dash lurched awake to the sound of violent applause – and the sensation of being violently shaken. Immediately, and instinctively, she started to stomp, looking frantically left and right. Her mouth tasted weird, too – kind of oily, with a weird texture along her tongue and between her teeth. Around them, the attendees were standing and filing out of the rows, to the buffet table and the bar, or picking up conversations left hanging when the presentations started.
"What'd I miss?" Rainbow mumbled.
Daring Do looked decidedly miffed. "Everything. You dozed off two minutes into Pfeffernusse's intro, and I couldn't wake you up."
"So, nothing important, then?" Rainbow grinned lopsidedly.
"Ugh." Daring Do stood, stretching out her legs and wings. Her left looked somewhat uneven, with some feathers slicker and straighter than others.
Rainbow must have stared too hard, because Daring Do snapped her wings shut, face red. "You snore like a rusty chainsaw. I had to shove my wing in your mouth to shut you up. Then you started... preening me."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
"...Well, it felt kinda nice, okay?" Daring Do muttered, glancing away.
Internally, Rainbow chuckled.
"So, what do we do now?" she asked, as she and Daring Do rejoined the throng at the front of the reception hall. "Catch a train back to Ponyville? Find a place to sleep in town for the night?"
"As if. The night's still young, and the presentations are only one part of the evening's festivities," said Daring Do. "We got plenty of mingling and schmoozing to do. Not to mention the free food..."
Glancing about, Daring Do caught sight of Dr. Pfeffernusse on the other side of the crowded hall. The same thoughtful expression that'd caught her before swept back over her face.
Rainbow nudged her shoulder. "You with me, Da— uh, A.K.?"
"...Hmm? Yeah, just..." Daring Do glanced quickly between her date and her mentor. "Could you give me a few minutes? I, uh, think I'm gonna try smoothing things over with Pfeffernusse. Meet you back at the bar, okay?"
"Sure thing, but—"
Daring Do was gone before Rainbow could finish her sentence.
"How long are you—" Rainbow grunted, took off, and hovered over the crowd to track Daring Do through it. "How long are you gonna be?"
But Daring Do was gone, another black gown among dozens of other black gowns.
Rainbow dropped down and folded her wings with a bitter groan.
"Schmoozing alone at an egghead gala," she muttered, trudging off. "Sure, that's my idea of a good time. Why wouldn't it be?"
A younger Rainbow Dash would have thought the answer would be "because schmoozing is boring." Far from it. She'd been to enough galas and social events with the Wonderbolts to know that, depending on the crowd and the event, schmoozing could be both fun and rewarding.
But this was the Egghead Gala, and she had nothing in common with anypony. Once more, she thought of Twilight, at how easily she'd handle a situation like this.
For some reason, thinking of Twilight made Rainbow blush.
Alone, Rainbow wandered the fringes of the reception hall, overhearing snippets of conversations from strangers on subjects she had no experience with. Most, she filtered out.
One caught her attention.
"...think you're all acting ridiculous. She's a bestselling writer and an alum; she's got every right to be here."
Rainbow's ear piqued. That was Ascot speaking, the grad student who'd been with Dr. Pfefferfurter, or whatever. She swiveled toward the source of the voice, and glimpsed him with a few other ponies. One, Rainbow recognized as the mare from the check-in table. The two of them were standing close together, with their flanks almost touching.
Aww.
Besides the two of them, there was a mauve mare in a mauve cape that matched her natural coloring far too well, and a minty-green stallion with a two-toned mane that recalled toothpaste.
The mauve mare snorted in response to Ascot's comment. "Is that a joke? She shouldn't even have been invited – and you shouldn't let yourself be seen with her. Pfeffernusse can get away with it. You, frankly, cannot."
"Yeah, it's fine if you like her books," added Toothpaste Mane. "But if you really want to meet her, then you should do it at a convention, or a signing, or whatever. Someplace where you're not likely to tank your reputation."
"She doesn't do signings," Ascot retorted. "She's, like, super reclusive."
"Whatever," the stallion drawled. "Point is, talking to her at an event like this is academic suicide. Chicory, help me out. Maybe you can get through to him."
The sign-in table mare looked between Ascot and Toothpaste Mane, blinking. "We're talking about that mare with the orange glasses, right? Annabelle Yearling? I didn't know she wrote a book, but she seemed nice enough when she checked in."
"You've never read— are you serious?" Ascot pulled away from her. "I don't think we should see each other anymore, Chick."
Chicory smacked him playfully, and pulled him in for a quick smooch.
Rainbow thought of Twilight again.
"Seriously though, Lamb," said Ascot, now nestled closer against Chicory. "I really think you're both overreacting. What's that thing Pfeffernusse is always saying? 'Hitch your wagon to a star?' What else would you call the author of Daring Do?"
"She's a star that's imploded, Ascot," the mauve mare sighed. "What are imploded stars known for, again? Remind me."
Toothpaste Mane and the mauve mare – one of whom was apparently named Lamb – shared a laugh, as Ascot fought to interject.
And Rainbow stood there, the wheels in her head turning. Daring Do had made it sound like it was only Pfeffernusse that she fell out with. But here were two other eggheads from the same school, cracking jokes about her, calling her names, and acting as if merely being seen with her would kill Ascot's academic career.
It wasn't just Pfeffernusse that Daring Do fell out with, Rainbow realized. Her whole reputation was shot.
And what is an imploded star known for? Rainbow Dash rubbed her nose grumpily. Twilight would know.
She was just about to interject – to relieve the beleaguered Ascot, and to defend Daring Do – when a stallion swept upon her, interposing himself in Rainbow's vision.
"You there! You, young filly, with the dashing mane! Could I beg a few minutes of your time?"
"Uh..." Rainbow recoiled, running a hoof instinctively through her mane. "I was in the middle of something, actually—"
"And I'll get you right back to it. You have my word!" The stallion gave a sloppy bow, baring the top of his bald head to Rainbow Dash. "Dr. Bailiwick, at your service. Perhaps you remember me?"
Rainbow tried very, very hard not to notice the bushy tufts of gray hair sprouting from Bailiwick's ears. "Er... you one of those guys who presented up there, weren't you?"
"Correct! Not that I expect you to remember that. Don't think I didn't notice you back there, with your eyes shut and your muzzle in Annabelle Yearling's wing, Rainbow Dash!"
"You know who I am?" Well, that put him head and shoulders above the other attendees. "Well, uh, nice to meet a fan, I guess. You want an autograph?"
"Why, are you famous?"
Rainbow blinked. "I'm starting to wonder."
"Well, at least I know who you are. You were at the Canterlot Garden Party, some years ago. You propelled a cupcake through the air, as I recall, and it lodged headfirst in my left ear. I was impacted with vanilla frosting for a week after!"
Bailiwick emitted something that was, at once, both belch and chuckle, sending a sour reek of alcohol to assault Rainbow's nostrils. His breath didn't simply smell like gin; it was practically gin in gaseous form.
"...Cool to see you again," said Rainbow Dash. Her nose was wrinkled, in a vain attempt to block out the gin-stench. All it did was make her voice sound higher and squeakier than the norm. "Well, uh, it's been fun, but I gotta go wait for somepony somewhere—"
"Wherever at? I'll keep you company."
"The bar. I mean—" Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut and cursed herself.
Don't try and shake the wino by telling him you're going to the bar, moron!
Bailiwick, predictably, was delighted. "I was on my way there, myself. Wanted to wet my whistle a bit."
"Think your whistle's plenty wet already," Rainbow muttered as Bailiwick looped a foreleg over her withers. It took everything in her not to buck him off right then and there – if what she'd seen and heard was accurate, then Daring Do's reputation was bad enough without her date for the night assaulting drunken eggheads.
No matter how bad they deserved it. And Bailiwick, that stinky, snickering, swaying old fart, certainly seemed to deserve it.
"One wet whistle deserves another, eh? Eh?!" he all but shouted in Rainbow Dash's ear.
"We'd better still be talking about alcohol, pal."
The unicorn bartender gave Rainbow and Bailiwick different looks as they approached together – Bailiwick, a look of exasperation, and Rainbow, a look of sympathy. "You want another gin, Dr. Bailiwick?"
"You want that letter of recommendation, Lingua Franca?" Bailick slurred back.
The bartender clenched his teeth, and floated over a glass, and a bottle of clear blue liquor. "For you, miss?"
"Cider. Sweet Apple Acres, if you have it."
"Not a drop, I'm afraid."
"Of Sweet Apple Acres?"
"Of cider. Period. Just wine and liquor." The bartender poured a glass for Bailiwick, and slid it toward him. "And water, of course."
Rainbow deflated and dropped her head to rest her chin on the bar. "Water's fine."
The bartender served her. She lost track of time after that.
Bailiwick talked, and drank, and talked less coherently with every drink he had. Mostly, he talked about buffalo: buffalo myths, buffalo legends, buffalo stampeding habits. Apparently, he'd spent some time among them in his younger years, which made him something of an expert. It was the first time that night anypony said anything to Rainbow Dash that she actually understood, having spent some time around buffalo herself.
She tried to follow along, despite his drunken slurring. There was talk about a fancy bird ending everlasting winter – which she knew about already – and something about the sun fighting a bunch of earth ponies – which she tuned out for making no sense. It was only after interminable minutes of buffalo-talk, and fifteen separate uses of the word "ethnography," that Bailiwick finally decided to change the subject.
"Sho, Raybowdish... dash... Raybowdash, that'chername... how'sh a, what'chacallit, a gal like you, wind up with Anna Karenina Yearling?"
...Karenina? Rainbow shook her head – no way that was legit.
"Blind date," she muttered into her water glass.
"Har! Yer a funny gal..." Bailiwick finished his gin and sighed, beckoning for the bartender to fill his cup again. "Bu' c'mon, y'gotta... I mean, I'm jus', I'm confushin. 'Cuz, you... on the one hoof... classy gal, goes to galas, goes to garden parties... an' on the other hoof..."
He made some sort of fumbling gesture with his hooves.
"Anna Yearling. Good wif'a servin' tray... 'n not fer much elsh."
Rainbow looked up from her water, suspicious. "What do you know about A.K. Yearling?"
"Ah... she hashn't told you yet? Shavin' it fer the third date, I sh'posh."
Bailiwick slammed back half his glass and coughed.
"Hokay. Sho. Anna Yearling – great student. One o'the besht. Pfeffernoosh's protege – he'sh real proud o'her. He forksh over bunch'a money, paysh for her t'go on field research, indie shtudy, way out pasht the Badlandsh. Shicksh monsh later, she comesh back, an' what'she talkin' 'bout?"
Bailiwick wagged his hooves in the air spasmodically.
"Artifactsh. 'N monshtersh. 'N the lost Oogah-Boogah shivilashin that wanted the Shaffire Shoresh, or whatever, ta do... shomethin'." Bailiwick snorted disgustedly. "Likely shtory."
"Uh, are you kidding me? That's what she did to drag her name in the mud?" Rainbow spat. "I can't even go to the bathroom without trippin' on a dark artifact, and stumbling into some lost civilizations' ruins. They're, like, everywhere."
"Aaaaaan' thass true! Thass true! An' nopony knows it better'n archaology students. 'N sapientology students. 'N paleontology students. Any-ology students."
Bailiwick finished off the last of his gin, waving the bartender away when he came to refill it. He stared at Rainbow Dash, swaying in his seat, and leaning on the bar for support.
"Yer not in th'field, so... y'don't know thish. But... D'you know how many poniesh try an' get ahead of th'pack by makin' up shtoriesh 'bout findin' artifactsh 'n losht shivilationsh? Get a bunch'a them erry year from shtudents what don't know better. Pfeffer's protege? She should'a known better. Didn't, though. 'N they laughed it off. Made a big stink o'er it, drove her outta th'academy. An' they were right to."
All she did was tell the truth, Rainbow thought. Her hooves pressed hard against the bar, digging deep into the polished wood.
And they laughed at her for it.
"Wha'm shayin' ish... yer prob'ly better off ditchin' her. Maybe shooner, not later." Bailiwick, leaned closer to Rainbow, his breath ginnier than ever. "Y'know, I-I got an office 'round here... Emeritush office... should be empty right about now, if you wanna, uh..."
He winked.
Rainbow was thinking of how much nicer Bailiwick's face would look with her hoof lodged deep in his eye socket, and was preparing to make that fantasy into reality, when a familiar figure crept up behind him, and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Ehhhh, jus' try an' throw me out," he growled, lurching around to regard the newcomer. "I'll have yer job, you— ah..."
"Hello, Dr. Bailiwick," said Daring Do calmly. "I see you remember me."
The color drained from Bailiwick's face. His eyes traveled up and down the length of Daring Do's body, from her hooves, to her upturned wingtips, to the tin tray of assorted breads balanced on said wingtips.
Daring Do leered at the inebriated scholar. "Care for some? It's complimentary."
Bailiwick made a slurred noise, slid off his stool, and stumbled away with a mumbled farewell to Rainbow Dash.
"Can't believe they keep inviting him to these," Daring Do growled, watching him flee. She shook her head, and looked at the bartender. "Hey, barkeep, nice job keeping Dr. Gropey Hooves off of my date, here. Were you gonna wait until after he tried shoving his tongue in her mouth to cut him off?"
The bartender's face reddened. "Hey, who do you think you are—"
"Somepony who knows how the game is played. Take my advice: you want to suck up to the faculty? Candelabra's always looking for ponies to pick up his dry cleaning." She jerked her neck toward the crowd. "Take a hike. Five minute break."
"I'd do what she says, dude," Rainbow Dash added.
The bartender hesitated, before stepping away and wandering off, casting wary glances back at the two pegasi.
"Y'know, I'd thank you," said Rainbow Dash. "But the truth is, I was ten seconds away from decking that gross old wino before you showed up."
"You should still thank me. You don't want to get a reputation for assaulting the big-name scholars at these circle-jerky meet-and-greets. Take it from me." Daring Do picked up her tray, balancing it on a curled foreleg, and hovered in front of Rainbow Dash. "We're gonna have to make a quick, discreet exit, so, uh... hold still for a second."
"Why, what're you— hey!"
With her free hoof, Daring Do yanked the bust of Rainbow's gown, and tilted the tray forward. Rolls of bread tumbled down the front of her dress, lodging snugly against her barrel.
Rainbow watched her work, an eyebrow quirked. "Is that why you were asking—"
"About how much room you had up front? Well, yeah. 'Cuz I don't have any, and, I mean, you can't expect me to leave a social function without stealing as much complimentary bread as I can. Right?"
Rainbow glanced down – her dress was lumpy, bulging noticeably in multiple places. "This doesn't exactly scream 'discreet,' y'know."
"Oh, you know what that word means. Nice – I wasn't sure that you would. Guess you picked up something from my books."
Daring Do set the tray down, and fussed with Rainbow's bust line, trying to keep the bread tucked inside.
"I take it things didn't go so well with Pfeffernusse?" Rainbow asked quietly.
Daring Do paused, before resuming her work.
Rainbow sighed. "Y'know, I heard about what happened. About why the other eggheads turned on you."
"Yeah? From who, Bailiwick?" Daring Do murmured. "Dr. Boozehound isn't exactly the most reliable source."
"...How about you tell me, then?"
Daring Do gave one last pat to Rainbow's bread-bust, and let her hoof linger, before dropping it down.
"...My first adventure. The one I— well, you've read Sapphire Stone. You know what happened." Daring Do looked into Rainbow's eyes. "I was a grad student. Barely in my twenties. Out on my own for field work. I got sucked into some stuff that I wasn't ready for. Almost did me in. But I survived, and came back home. And when I tried to present my findings to my peers and colleagues... they assumed I was making it up."
She gave a tiny sigh.
"That's what Baileywhatever said, too," said Rainbow. "So, Pfeffernusse, and all these other eggheads... they all think you're some kind'a fraud?"
"More or less." Daring Do turned away. "Y'know, I've done what I came here to do. What say we forget the rest of the schmoozing and mingling, and just get the hell out of here?"
They slinked away, keeping to the edges of the room, and tolerating the occasional glance or glare. Rainbow would stare right back, but Daring Do's gaze was kept dead ahead, the disapproving looks washing right over her.
"I don't get it, though," said Rainbow, as they neared the rotunda's exit. "Why do you put up with all that? You're, like, the most awesome mare in Equestria – in the whole world, even. What do you care what a bunch'a stuck-up eggheads think of you?"
"You don't understand, Dash. And I don't expect you to." There wasn't a hint of malice in Daring Do's voice; she spoke plainly, without inflection. "You're living your dream, after all."
"What, and you're not?"
"What do you think?"
"I think anypony would give a hoof and a wing to live your life. Adventuring by day, writing books about it by night—"
She was interrupted by a harsh laugh. "Sounds great, doesn't it? When you say it like that. And, y'know it's not as if I don't find it fulfilling. But it's— it's never been my dream, Rainbow Dash."
Daring Do stopped walking and turned.
"You think I went to college to be some kind of superhero? Or to learn how to write adventure novels?" She took a step forward, placing a hoof on her chest. "Ever since I was a filly, I wanted to be an archaeologist. Instead, I grew up into..."
Rainbow narrowed her eyes. "An archaeologist."
"What Daring Do does isn't archaeology, Rainbow." She fumbled for words, gave up, and turned back around. "Never mind. You either get it, or you don't."
She trudged toward the exit, toward the Fillydelphia night, with its black, starless canvas.
"Oh, Annabelle? A word, if you please?"
Pfeffernusse's voice made Daring Do freeze.
The old scholar slipped free from the rest of the throng, and headed toward Daring Do with a jowly scowl. Not far behind was Bailiwick, swaying, and looking somewhat lost. He was held between Ascot and Chicory, who braced him between their bodies to keep him from tumbling to one side or the other. The rest of the crowd, quite preoccupied already, paid them no heed.
Daring Do turned, and stood expectantly, as Pfeffernusse closed the distance between them. She tried to speak, but he silenced her preemptively with an upturned hoof.
"What did I say to you before?" His words were clipped and sharp. "Avoid Dr. Bailiwick. Avoid him. Not 'seek him out,' not 'make veiled threats at him.' Avoid him. How you secured an invitation to another academic event after assaulting him at your last one in Canterlot eludes me, but one would think you'd have the good sense not to rock the proverbial boat any further!"
"You know full well what kind of pony he is," Daring Do retorted. "You know he earned that concussion last time. And judging by the way he was talking to my friend, he clearly hasn't learned his lesson. Maybe I'm not the one you should be blackballing here, Pfeff."
She stepped away from him, turned, and cast a look at him over her shoulder. "It doesn't matter, one way or the other – you don't have to worry about me and your professor Emeritus getting into another one-sided tray fight. Dash and I are already leaving."
"Splendid. Fare thee well, Anna. In the future, please assume that any invitations to events hosted by this department were delivered erroneously."
Her back was to Pfeffernusse by then, so he couldn't see the wound that his parting shot made, the expression of pain that crossed Daring Do's face.
Rainbow Dash did, though. It was too much for her.
She rounded on Pfeffernusse, taking to the air – he, to his credit, stood his ground.
"What is your deal, you old windbag?" she snapped, as the academy – finally – took notice of the confrontation. "Where do you get off, talking to her like that? Holding this stupid grudge because, what, she didn't turn into a stuffed shirt like you and Drunky Hooves back there?"
Rainbow thrust a hoof toward Bailiwick, who quailed. The motion of her limb jarred loose a dinner roll, which slipped from her gown and landed at Pfeffernusse's hooves.
She flushed, yet steadfastly refused to budge from her pose.
Pfeffernusse regarded the roll coolly, before looking up at the pegasus.
"I admire your spirited defense of your friend, Rainbow Dash – you've more than lived up to your reputation as the Element of Loyalty. But you are an outsider, here, and you're quite out of line. I do not march into the Wonderbolt Derby, and pass judgment on you and yours for handling your business your way, and I would appreciate it if you'd show the academy and I the same courtesy."
Rainbow's hoof dipped, and her angry expression faded. "Wait, you... you do know who I am? So you were just clowning earlier?"
Pfeffernusse growled and pressed his hoof to his forehead. "Does anypony at this gathering not know who this mare is?" he shouted, his voice reverberating throughout the space.
There came no reply. Chicory and Ascot's hooves briefly raised, in unison, but Pfeffernusse's horn flashed, and a telekinetic sheath forced both limbs back to the ground.
Rainbow glared down at Pfeffernusse. "Whatever; that's not the point. Look. Maybe I am an outsider around here, but that doesn't change the fact that the way you've treated Da—"
She paused, caught herself, cringed, and soldiered on.
"...Da author of Daring Do is unfair. All of you!" She swept her hoof defiantly across the crowd of scholars. "All of you should be ashamed of yourselves. And you, most of all."
Rainbow pointed the same hoof at Pfeffernusse.
"You were her teacher, right? Her mentor? You're supposed to support your students, aren't you? You're supposed to listen to them – trust them – believe in them. Aren't you?!"
"Dash..."
Rainbow looked down – Daring Do had stolen up beside her. She raised her hoof, planted it on Rainbow's flank, and guided her back to the ground. She spoke in a gentle whisper, audible only to the three of them.
"He was the only one who ever did."
Rainbow Dash gaped at Daring Do. She tried to summon a response to that. Nothing came to mind.
"I believed her from the start." Pfeffernusse's face alternated between red and purple, but his voice remained calm as he spoke, even as fury simmered beneath his words. "Every word. Every detail. Everything about her story, I took at face value. Because I trusted her."
He glanced at Daring Do.
"Because I trusted you." He looked again at Rainbow Dash. "And I told her not to be cowed by the mockery of her colleagues, but to keep fighting for her work to be accepted by the academy. To not allow herself to be written off as another upstart, a dilettante, telling tall tales and shameless lies and big fish stories about artifacts and monsters."
Daring Do pursed her lips. "You know as well as I do that the academy never would've come around."
"They would have. I told you, they would have, if you fought hard enough. And I was willing to fight with you, until the end."
He chuckled bitterly.
"But it doesn't matter now, does it? Because you walked away. Dropped out of your program, threw away your career, your future as a scholar, so that you could write pulp fiction. Ensuring that your work – ensuring that you – would never be accepted within legitimate circles."
At last, Rainbow found her voice. "Who cares?"
Pfeffernusse and Daring Do both looked at her.
"You heard me." Rainbow turned to Pfeffernusse. "You said you believed her story – the one that got turned into the first Daring Do book. Do you still believe her?"
Pfeffernusse's jaw worked in silence before he nodded.
"Then you know how amazing it is that she went through what she did – and that she came back from it alive. The other books she's written? The adventures she's been on? They're no less amazing. And they're every bit as true."
She looked at Daring Do.
"I should know. Been there for a couple of 'em, myself."
The other pegasus broke into a small, guarded smile.
"So, maybe she didn't make it as an egghead," Rainbow continued. "Big whoop. The stuff she has done? It's made the world a better place. Kept it safe. The rest of these ponies might treat her like garbage, but you should be proud of her, Pfefferwhatever. 'Cuz she's made a bigger difference, with her life and her books, than every other pony in this room put together."
She ducked down, nabbed the dinner roll between her teeth, and wagged her eyebrows at Pfeffernusse.
"Fife shecond rule." Rainbow bit off a hunk of bread, swallowed, dropped the roll into her hoof, and took to the air again.
"Or five minutes, whatever. C'mon, Daring Do."
They stepped out of the rotunda, leaving behind its glass canopy and its expanse of stars, and into the balmy, summertime air.
Rainbow bit into her dinner roll again. "Sho. Tha' wen' well."
"Mm. Little better than I thought it'd go," Daring Do said pensively.
Rainbow swallowed. "Seriously?"
"Just a skosh."
"Huh. Well. They say if you set your expectations low, you'll never be disappointed. Not that I'd know either way, 'cuz I'm awesome, and everything." Rainbow shrugged. "We might wanna think about booking a hotel – it's probably too late to catch the train home."
"Oh, it definitely is. But the night's still young enough that we can put the hotel off a while longer." Daring Do's eyes twinkled. "C'mon – lemme buy you a drink. I owe you one. And you've more than earned it."