//------------------------------//
// Hospitalized Friendship 
// Story: Living Darkness 
// by vildtiger 
//------------------------------//

Note: Made after the episode "Read it and Weep" and me just wanting to have bit of fun of what would happen if Sniper was stuck in a hospital with Rainbow.
I am glad you guys took my Alicorn OC fine enough. I mean, I haven't so far gotten rage comments about Ignis so far.

This happens four days after the last chapter.


At first, everything is muffled and unclear, but slowly, Rainbow Dash gets her sight and head straight enough to realize that her right wing hurt- not to mention bandaged and she is inside a hospital room. Realizing that, Rainbow knows this means her stunt in the air has failed and now she is trapped in the probably worst place ever! She groans loudly.

Worried for her friend's well-being, Twilight asks the unicorn doctor checking Rainbow Dash's radiograph of her wing. "How is she doctor?" The cream-colored stallion puts down the radiograph of Rainbow's broken wing, ensuring her and the other mares inside the room. "She is going to be fine. Luckily she has friends like you who got her over in a jiffy." He adds smiling. Twilight lets out a sigh of relief, happy that Rainbow isn't as hurt as feared. Twilight do wonder if she can ask the doctor if she could get that radiograph to Rarity's new housemate, thinking he perhaps would find it interesting since he does have a medical sign for a cutie mark. Before she can though.

Rainbow Dash is already feeling impatient of being stuck in a medical bed and would like to get out from this place before she dies of boredom! "How long do I need to lie here?" She asks the doctor pony annoyed. "I've got things I need to do!" Like finishing that new stunt of hers.

"Well, that all depends on your recovery, but I'd say a few days minimum." The doctor replies and not one bit amused by this pegasus's whining of the short wait: "You guys have gotta get me out of here! I'm gonna climb the walls!" Less so when one of her friends; a pink earth pony thinks that sentence meant the pegasus has been turned into a spider and asks him excitedly. "Did the crash somehow give her super-duper spider powers?" He steps away from the pink pony there did not know the term 'personal space' with a drawn out no, adding. "Nor did it give her amazing healing powers. She needs to stay in bed for a few days." He tells Miss Dash hard as he will not be argued with this and with that said. He walks over to the other bed to see how that other patient is doing.

Hearing that from the doctor is the worst news ever. "Few days? Might as well be a few months, or a few years!" She complains loudly and covers her head with her slightly bruised hooves, thinking she will bore herself to death long before the first day has passed! She drops back into the bed and although she appreciates her friends trying to cheer her up that it won't be so bad. For her, it will, more so when Pinkie Pie reveals who her roommate will be for the next three days: that griffin...
Rainbow narrow her eyes and crosses her hooves seeing Sniper here, but does wonder why he ended up at the hospital with bandages all over his chest and back. "What is he doing here?" She asks rather rudely, the griffin can't answer her at the moment, he's unconscious.

Twilight can though. "You accidentally crashed into him when you lost control over your flight." Eyeing the griffin and does feel a bit sorry for Sniper, he had been minding his own business on the cloud when Rainbow crashed into him and unbeknown used him as a pillow for her own fall.
She sure hopes he looks worse than he is. "How is his condition doctor?" She asks the doctor stallion.

Picking up this patients radiograph, he replies the unicorn mare. "He's dealing with a few broken ribs and head trauma, but like your friend, he should be fine in a few days." And leaves the room to attend other patients.

Twilight turns back to Rainbow Dash, noticing the huge scowl on her face and can figure why, Rainbow Dash hasn't still fully gotten over her former griffin friend turning her back on her in a very rudely manner and it seems she is very biased against him for it. "Give him a chance Rainbow, Sniper's not so bad when you get to know him."

Rainbow snorts. "Like you know him..." After all, compared to the others, Sniper has kept for himself and never wanted any part of anything they do. All he really did was sitting on the roofs for hours like some kind of living statue.

Twilight shift on her hooves, feeling both embarrassed and bad that Rainbow Dash did speak the truth. Of all the turned humans there has come here, Sniper is the one she knows the least about. Her thoughts about that griffin do go off the rails when her ears pick on a very familiar sound, looking to the door she smiles seeing a nurse pushing a book cart. She gets an idea how Rainbow can kill the time, storms out to the book cart and find a book she is certain Rainbow would like. She pokes the sulking under the duvet pegasus with it and puts the book beside her. "What's this?" Rainbow asks frowning and reads the book's title out loud. "Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone."
Twilight taps the book, unable keep her excitement down for this awesome book series. "This is the first story in the series. I own all of them."

Not one bit impressed over this suggestion of the lamest thing second to be stuck here, Rainbow throws away the book. "No thanks. I so don't read. I'm a world-class athlete." And somepony like her does not sit down and read, after all. "Reading's for Eggheads like you, Twilight." Said Egghead frowns for that remarks. "Heh, no offense." Rainbow smiles weakly, but her point still stands. "I am not reading. It's undeniably, unquestionably, uncool." And much to her surprise, everypony of her friends starts to laugh.

"Is she serious?" Applejack asks, still chuckling of how Rainbow sees reading. "Who doesn't like to read a bang-up tale from time to time?"

"Why, a good book is almost as magnificent as silk pajamas on a Sunday morning." Rarity agrees, although most of her reading happens through a magazine she does like to pick up a crime fiction now and then.

Levitating the book back to her bed stuck friend, Twilight tells Rainbow. "Reading is for everypony, Rainbow Dash!" She along with rest of the group turn their heads to Pinkie blabbering about her head not being in form of an egg but closer to different fruits. Her river of words does get mildly interrupted when one of the nurses arrive, informing them all. "All right, my little ponies. The patients need their rest now. You'll have to come back tomorrow."
Twilight nudged Rainbow lightly. "I think you'd like Daring. She's a lot like you: Adventurous, fierce, and undeniably, unquestionably, unstoppable." She says and with that, leaves along with the others.

Barely an hour after her friends have left, Rainbow is already bored out of her mind. She gets hold on a ball and starts throwing it against the wall, but does miss a hit when her roommate growls from his spot. "Cut out that bloody racket already!"
The ball ends up on the floor where she cannot reach it, annoyed Rainbow Dash turns to the curtain blocking her view to Sniper. "About time you woke up." She remarks, but all she gets back is a grumbling sound. After what feels like twenty minutes of silence but in reality only five minutes, Rainbow gets enough to this eerie silence and decides she might as well use this grumpy griffin as her small entertainment. Pulling away the curtain, she asks him. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
no answer.
"To get over the other side."
Again no answer. Rainbow groans loudly of the treatment he gives her. "Come on, I'm bored out of my mind here!" She waves frustrated at the painstaking silence griffin, Gilda would've been better than this one. Speaking of that former friend and what all griffins seem to have in common. "you griffins really are some rude—"

"I'm not a griffin." Sniper grumbles, turning to this really annoying pegasus there reminds him a bit too much about Scout. "I'm a human. Your bloody world turned me into this form."

Well, at least she got him talking. Rainbow smirks weakly. "I say it suits you. You remind me a bit about another griffin I knew." The smirk fades into a sad frown, but Rainbow quickly hides her sadness losing a childhood friend behind an angry frown. "She pretended she was my friend, but in reality, she was just rude and mean to my real friends." She eyes this other griffin, blinking when she notices he is staring sharply at her. "What?" She demands angrly. "Got something to say bird-boy?"

Ignoring the tamest insult he has ever gotten, Sniper turns his back again to Rainbow Dash. He saw her true emotions to that griffin friend she spoke about, how much it hurt losing that friend. But he will not encourage her to talk about it, he doesn't really know how. He has never been good at talking about feelings, less so his own. Besides, it seems she has already decided what he is, like what people back home do when his accent reveals he is from Australia. He hates being labeled like this but it seems no matter where he goes he cannot get away from being seen as a stereotype of his country. Or whatever form he gets turned into.

Rainbow Dash groans loudly when Sniper once again gives her the silent treatment, but does get the hint and irritated pulls the curtain between them again. A bit of her boredom does get slightly removed during lunch, but after that, she is bored again and in her great need to get rid of it. She starts to play with the table light, more so when it starts to annoy Sniper. Her light on and off game gets to a sudden stop when a tissue paper box hits her square on the face. "Av!" Only thing saving her from getting knocked out or hurt is because it was a paper box thrown at her. Rainbow shoots the just as much glaring Sniper an angry look. "What was that for?!"

"Stop playing around like you're some brain-dead mongrel." Sniper growls and turns his gaze down to the book on her nightstand. "Read your bloody book or something instead. Anything to give me some peace and quiet." And he goes back to his nap again.

"I don't read." Rainbow objects, shooting the book a glare as if it has just offended her before declaring to the trying to nap griffin. "It's undeniably, unquestionably, uncool."

Sniper rolls his eyes of this mare. "Add unbelievable stubborn to that list. Give me the book." Rainbow blinks, he resists the urge to roll his eyes again. "You heard me, give me the book before you start to make me think about jumping out from the window." Yes, he has considered doing it from how annoying she has been this short half hour. Rainbow throws the book over to him, which he catches without a problem. He reads the title of this book. "Hm, sounds like an adventure book." And does looks to be the kind he read as a child, he opens the book and starts to read it out loud. "As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step—"

"I didn't ask you to read it out loud!" Rainbow snaps annoyed.

Finally, he can give her some of her own medicine, Sniper smirks and continue reading out loud. "If only she could escape this oppressive atmosphere and fly up into the cool blue sky. But her crash landing in the jungle had injured her wing and she was grounded for a few days. Few days... it might as well be a few months or a few years—" He glances to Rainbow from a sight escaping her and she muses as she can relate to that. "I'm right there with you, sister." Then she notices he is watching her. "I still think this is waste of my time." She defends herself, crossing her hooves with a big frown on her face. Sniper rolls his eyes, thinking this pegasus really needs to get over her own ego. "Maybe, but I'll you know I have tried been stuck out in the wilderness with—" Why is he telling her this? Why should she care he nearly died out in the bush when a misstep threw him over a cliff, broke his arm and he had been so far from any help that he had been forced to find back on his own. Must say that episode really put his survival skills to the test. "Never mind." He shakes his head and returns back to the book, ignoring the look the blue pegasus gives him, he starts reading again. "The mosquitoes buzzed loudly. The macaws cried from the high trees. Yet all of these distracting noises were not enough to cover the sound of the predators following her every step.
She hid behind a fallen tree, watched the trees for the predators she could hear approaching, but she had been miscalculating. The predators weren't in front of her, the biggest of them all, a huge pony-eating tiger was right behind her! She stared right into the beast's maw filled with teeth sharp and long enough to piece her hide easily. It would've bitten her head clean off if not from Daring's quick reflexes. She got away from the tiger's jaws, and could've easily gotten away from the beast even with her broken wing but turning around, her escape path was blocked by a black partner, maybe not as big but still a big threat for the grounded Daring. Desperately Daring Do looked around for other routes but everywhere she looked, more predators arrived in form of the sharply clawed lynx and a cheetah there was more than fast enough to catch Daring. All hope seemed lost as the big cats of the jungle surrounded Daring, but then, a pathway showed when the smallest of the cats- a small white housecat appeared. Daring Do ran to the hissing cat, easily got over it. She was far from being out of danger, though as the bigger and deadly predators took the pursuit, Daring ran between the trees of the jungle in attempt get the predators off her tail, the leaves hitting her head meant nothing, only the sounds of the roars of the predators catching up to her, they got closer and closer by the second. Daring thought she might be able to outpace them, after all; cats were only fast in short distance but her plan of outpacing them was cut short of a huge gorge blocked her path. She was trapped. With the sound of the predators approaching, Daring Do, now more than anything wanted her wings, with them this gorge would be child's play but with one of them broken, she couldn't fly and unless she found a way across; she would become cat food.
Daring searched for any path of getting across, she found one and without a second of hesitating that she might not make it, she jumped and by an inch got hold on the vine hanging over the gorge. The vine held her weight and with a wave to the predators, there has been hunting her for days.
Safely landing on the other side. Daring finally allowed herself a moment to breathe. She turned around to find herself face to face with the long-lost temple that she had sought tirelessly for over sixty days and nights."
And Sniper stops on purpose, turning his gaze over to the exciting looking Rainbow, yup, she is hooked. "Still find this book boring?" He asks smirking, must admit that he too find this story quite interesting. Does reminds him a bit of his own trips out in the bush— minus the treasure hunting.

Rainbow really hates to admit it but.... "I... I love this story!" And she really wants to know what is going to happen next— even if he doesn't, she will read it to figure— She stops herself and realizes what she has just been thinking, she... "I'm an egghead!" She gasps of what has happened thanks to that griffin. Doesn't make it better he is grinning widely. "What have you done?!" She exclaims as if this realization is the world's apocalypse.

"If the egghead doesn't like the label, then perhaps I should read this myself." Sniper says and flips the page to read this rather good book on his own.

"No!" Rainbow cries, winching of Sniper giving her a smug look for being pretty much in control of this situation. The pegasus crosses her hooves and says in her attempt to win this argument. "I'm not an egghead... you're the one reading."

Well if she says it like that, Sniper throws the book over to her. "You read it then." She shoots him a glare but he is enjoying this a tad too much to care. "Go on Egghead, read the story."

"I'm not an Egghead!"

"Sure and I am no griffin."

Rainbow Dash is not sure if he said that as a joke or a statement since he is clearly a griffin... and yet he is not if looking at what he was before coming here. She groans loudly but is too consumed of want to know what's going to happen next in the story that she drops this argument. "Ugh, fine..." And starts to read out loud. "With the treasure finally in her sight Daring Do went towards the entrance to her goal. The smell of decay and danger hit Daring Do as she peered into the dimly-lit entrance of the ancient temple. Still she dared go into the hallway, refusing letting this stop her from reclaiming one of the biggest treasures in history. Deeper inside the temple Daring was sensing something was amiss, this was getting too easy. And it was, one misstep and a plate underneath her hooves gave under. The sound of metal behind the walls was the only warning for Daring Doo, she ducked, feeling a gust of air above her head of the three axes there had been flung at her from the trap. Daring had only a moment of time to recover from having almost lost her head, as by the sound of it, the traps of this ancient temple were far from done. The floor underneath her tore itself open and feeling a gust of hot air from the place, Daring swiftly threw herself across and thus only her tail got torched by the pillar of fire blasting up from the trap, she took one step away from the flames before she had to throw herself to the floor, pushing herself past the crocodiles biting down in hope getting her as their next meal. Axes slized past the floor and poison arrows got fired on Daring, somehow she got past them but ended up yet another trap this temple was throwing at her, spikes jolted up from the floor, Daring Do had to jump for every time she landed before the spikes could piece her. The sound on the other side of the room Daring realized that unless she hurried up, she would be trapped inside this room of everlasting traps, she had to hurry! Running as fast her hooves could carry her, Daring Do ran against time of the closing door, slowed down by the spikes still trying to reclaim her like many others before her. She got underneath the door just by a hair, taking a moment to regain her breath, Daring moved towards her whole reason putting her life on the line. The temple was not done on keeping her away from its treasure, all the way through it threw one death trap after the another after her, but she refused to give up and finally—" Rainbow reads eagerly but before she and Sniper can get further, a knocking on the door snaps Rainbow out from the story and not wanting to reveal that she is an egghead. Rainbow hides the book under the duvet just in time when Twilight and Fluttershy step into the room, greeting her.
"Uh, hey, guys..." Rainbow smiles weakly as she is not happy about this interruption and so much would like how the story of Daring Do will end.

Seeing that Sniper too is awake, Fluttershy greets him as well, the griffin simply nods in return and the yellow pegasus says to Rainbow, figuring she has been bored out of her mind. "We thought we'd come and cheer you up."
Twilight levitates Rainbow's favorite board game. "We know how much you like to win."

Sniper smirks as he is the only one seeing how unenthusiastically Rainbow is at this and how much she would like going back to the book. She has no patient that's for sure and it amuses him to no end seeing her try so desperately get them to leave that she on purpose lost the board game.
Twilight and Fluttershy are of course confused over this behavior with Twilight pointing out. "But hours back you were desperate for things to do!" He has to cover his own face with a pillow so he wouldn't laugh at how Rainbow almost broke this ridiculous cover of her not being an egghead.
"I told you I'm not interested in reading." She fakes a yawn "It's nap time for me!" and pretends to be asleep. Fluttershy didn't really suspect anything but Twilight sure did. She gives Rainbow a long stare, then glances to him and Sniper does a way better job pretending that he is tired.
The two leave and with their shadow's gone from underneath the door, Rainbow Dash picks up the book, but before she can continue, Sniper does feel like remarking. "Try to keep it more natural the next time you want them to bugger off."

She shoots the griffin a glare before Rainbow returns to the book. "Daring Do stood at the entrance to the central temple chamber. At last, she was face-to-face with the legendary sapphire statue! But from all the past traps she had to endure, Daring Do knew that getting to the statue wouldn't be that easy. Before her was a stone carpet, filled with pictures of animals. Daring Do spotted small holes on the walls on each side of the chamber and her past experience told her those holes were hiding countless of deadly arrows, but in case, Daring picked up a stone and threw it out to the stone carpet. The stone landed on a picture of a hawk and as expected, the many holes from the walls fired countless arrows, all with her name on if she did not figure out this riddle before her. "Hmm, there must be a pattern here." Daring Do mused to herself while scanning the many animals onto this stone carpet and trap before her hooves. "What do all these animals have in common?" There were pictures of a cat, a lion, a wolf, rat and a hawk, that was the clue! "These animals are all predators... except... rats!" and she stepped onto the picture of the rat, for a brief moment she feared she had been wrong, but when no arrows fired from the walls, Daring Do could breathe out in relief her hypothesis has been correct. She leaped from one rat picture to another, more than she would like to admit almost missed a step and activated the trap of arrows. But Daring Do did make it and she jumped safely over to the Sapphire statue—"
Rainbow read through all the night, not noticing that she is reading only for herself as Sniper sleeps quietly from his spot, and because she did not see him sleeping, she continuely reading out loud how Daring Do almost got killed by the lava trap there activated when Daring reclaimed the Sapphire stature, but got away by a hair and ended up before a nemesis of hers— "Hello, Rainbow Dash!" and Rainbow snaps out from her story, and once again quickly hides the book, turning to her roommate she only there realizes he has been sleeping for real and just now awake, all thanks to Pinkie.

Pinkie walks inside with Applejack and Rarity right behind her, the latter asking. "How's our patient doing today?" Turning to Sniper there replies with a yawn. "Doing fine."
"That's good." Rarity smiles.

Noticing how sweaty Rainbow is, Applejack suggests. "We need to get some fresh air in here. You're looking sweatier than a pig wrangler on a summer's day."

Why do they have to come on a visit at the worst time? "Uh, well, guys, thanks for visiting, but—"
"Okay, now, dinner time for Rainbow Dash and Sniper." The nurse interrupts her and rolls in both her and the griffin's dinner. Perfect timing! "Oh, just in time. I am sooo hungry." Rainbow exaggerated exclaims, she did not see Sniper roll his eyes at her.

"Oh, well, don't mind us, Rainbow Dash." Rarity says with Applejack adding. "Yeah, just go ahead and eat up."

Oh, come on! Why can't they get the hint! Rainbow internally groans, well guess she will have to be a little creative. Rainbow takes some of her food and on purpose eat with her mouth open, making sure they can see the food getting chewed. About to grab more, a pillow gets thrown at her, she shoots Sniper a glare and the griffin returns it as if saying without words that she should eat properly, looking ready to throw some of his own food at her if she continues with this gross eating. Grumbling, Rainbow eats normally again, all the time glaring daggers at the griffin. Not that it works for he is firmly ignoring her and eating his own dinner quietly.
She is about to start eating grossly again when Applejack asks. "Is the food good?"

"It's hospital food." Sniper replies, playing a bit with the gelly tasting like cheery. "It's boring but healthy."

Applejack smiles weakly, not entirely sure how to respond on this. "Oh um, well then it's a good thing you only have to stay here for a few more days."

Sniper really struggles not to show his surprise hearing that, He knows from the pain he was in yesterday that his ribs were broken, but now the pain has faded throughout the night. The only explanation for him about this rapidly healing is either unicorn magic or some kind of healing stuff like the medigun in the food. He eats the last of his food, eyeing Rainbow who almost twitches in her need to read that book. He wonders why he does this for that annoying mare, she could use some patience but... "Sorry girls, but I'm not in the mood for visits." He tells the three, nodding towards his bandaged chest. "It still hurts."

"Oh, well of course." Rarity says and fully understands Sniper's need to be alone and heal. She turns to Rainbow Dash and has to apologize since this means their visit has to be cut short. "I'm sorry darling, perhaps we can visit you later?"

Okay, that was rather clever of him, Rainbow isn't even sure if he lied or not. "Um, there's no need." She tells them, making the three blink and she nods to her own wing. "It aches from healing, so I will be sleeping most of the time, anyway."
Her three friends nod they understand and with Pinkie saying: "See you two when you feel better!" And leaves along with Applejack and Rarity.
With them gone, Rainbow turns to Sniper who has a smug grin on his beak. "I told you it would work better if you play it naturally." He says, it sure did and Rainbow is impressed he knew it would work this well. "Done it before?" To her surprise, Sniper's smile drop and drop slightly his gaze. "Yeah, I have."
She wonders what's up with him now, but before she can asks. "Don't you have a book to read?" Reminding her of the whole reason why she wanted her friends to leave. Forgetting about Sniper's bit strange behavior, Rainbow Dash pulls out the book and begins to read out loud. "'You thought you could evade me and capture the relic for yourself, but you are sadly mistaken, Miss Do. And now, you shall meet your doom!" The menace cried to the sky and with the whistle, Daring Doo's great rival had stolen from an animal tamer, the predator big cats surrounded the battered Daring, each holding a rope or a weapon they would use if she tried anything. But both she and her rival knew that would not happen, Daring was still too weak from escaping the temple's last trap. Her rival laughed manically of her defeat—' Whoa! Who is this dude?" Rainbow interrupts the story briefly before she starts reading out aloud again for both her and Sniper. "The big cats tired Daring Do and by their master's command, brought her back to the temple, where her rival tired her up against a stone altar for the past civilization sacrifices. "You won't get away with this, Ahuizotl!" Daring Do told her greatest rival and enemy.
"But I already have." Ahuizotl mocked her and activated the lever for this room's death trap. He waved her farewell and left the room along with his feline lackeys.
"Not again..." Daring exasperated sighted of again being stuck in a death trap showing to be spiked walls moving towards her from both sides but no matter how much she tried, she could not get free from the restraint. the room wasn't done with throwing stuff there could kill her though, looking down Daring realized that the room was getting filled with: "Quicksand!" She gasped, struggling harder against the restrains—"
"Rainbow Dash~!" the voice of the doctor snaps Rainbow out from the story and realizes she and Sniper are no longer alone. "Oh, good evening." she greets the doctor with a weak smile, again hiding the book.

"Morning." The doctor corrects her.

"—morning. Doc"

The doctor eyes the turned up lamp beside Rainbow's bed, frowning lightly. "Have you been up all night?"

"Uh, of course not." She quickly turns off the light, giving the doctor pony a weak smile.

"Well, I'll be quick. Congratulations, Rainbow Dash, we're checking you out of the hospital." The doctor pony explains with a smile, sure this pegasus will be happy with the news.

Unbeknown to him, she is far from happy. "What? Later today?" Rainbow asks nervously, afraid she might not have enough time to finish the book, She notices she is biting her hoof and quickly puts it down. The doctor shakes his head, saying. "No, right now." Much to her horror. "Right now?! 'Right now' right now?" She asks in a state of panic.

"'Right now' right now." The doctor pony replies amused and let two of the nurse inside, and while they get Rainbow Dash out from her hospital clothing and into the wheelchair. The doctor turns to the griffin, explaining him. "I'm sorry Mr. Sniper, but I would like you to stay a few more days as I do not know how fast your kind heal." Sniper nods he understands, unbeknown to the doctor; hiding his great surprise that he had been healing naturally these three days.
With that done, the doctor explains Rainbow Dash as they leave the room with the nurses. "Now take it easy, Rainbow Dash. Remember to stay off that wing for a week."

Before Rainbow truly realizes what has just happened, the nurse pushing her wheelchair has taken her outside and closes the hospital door after her. Rainbow Dash turns around to the closed door and more importantly, where the Daring Doo book is. "How will I ever find out what happens to Daring Do?!" She exclaims completely out of it that she had been interrupted and forced away at the best part of the story!

Inside the hospital and with the nurse done with preparing Rainbow's bed for a new patient, Sniper leaves his bed, does winch once from the small but sudden jolt of pain going through his chest. But considering they were broken only three days past. It's not bad. Not compared to how he has been killed in the War Games, this pain is nothing. It simply took him by surprise. Stepping over to the now empty bed, Sniper grabs the Daring Do book about to return back to his bed but stops when he hears Rainbow's voice outside. He throws the book gently over to his bed before he walks over to the window where he can see the rainbow-haired pegasus trots back and forward the hospital, wondering out loud about how the book of Daring Do would end in a very distressed manner. He snorts seeing this to the self-proclaimed too-cool-to-read pony practically panics because she can't read the book right now. "Wanker." He muses but knows not all have his patience and if Rainbow is anything like Scout. Well, she will get in a butt-load of trouble just to get hold on that book. Sniper groans, he hates to do it but Rainbow is part of the team, and it's his job support the team the best way possible. Even if it means getting in trouble for it.

***
(nightfall)

Dressed up completely in black, Rainbow Dash sneaks over to the hospital, she cannot take the front door thanks to the night-guard but that did not matter for a window on the second floor is open, she swiftly flies up there and when inside, she uses every object in the hallway as her cover. Hiding behind a big potted plant as her hiding spot when the doctor walks down the hallway. When he is out of sight, Rainbow leaves her cover and sneaks towards the room she had been stuck inside. Like how she imaged it in the book, the moonlight hits the door, showing the way to the treasure. Rainbow smiles and sneaks over to her Sapphire Statue. Inside the room she is extra careful not to wake Sniper sleeping behind the curtain, she would hate he would see her go through all this trouble just for a book- he mocks her enough being an Egghead as it is.
She gets to her bed and realizes that not only is there a new pony there, but the book is nowhere in sight. She checks under the bed, but all there is down there is a pair of slippers. Could the new pony be sleeping on it? Before she can move up and check, this trap activates and the pony cries out in alarm. "Somepony's trying to steal my slippers!" She swiftly leaves the spot, the frighten pony throws his night lamp at her, but that one's got nothing on Sniper's sick aim and she easily dodges the lamp. Speaking of the griffin, she spins to that bed and sights out in relief he hasn't awoken and quickly leaves, disappointed she didn't get her treasure. Out in the hallway, she realizes why she couldn't find it. A pony further down the hallway has it in their mouth, trying to take her treasure away! Rainbow is about to follow but is stopped when the nurses and doctor appear, reminding Rainbow of the predators from the book as they surround her, giving the real thief the chance to get away. Not on her watch! She leaps over the smallest of the ponies and does catch up to the thief, that until her wing cramps up and she crashes. The real thief stops, revealing to be Sniper. Both pegasus and griffin give each other a confused and surprised look before either can ask what the other is doing. The sound of the alarm sends them both into a small panic.

Sniper recovers quickly though, he has been dealing with this before, he pulls Rainbow by the tail and both flee the hospital, still with him holding the stolen book in his mouth. He runs towards the nearby forest with Rainbow close behind. Putting his many trips out into the wild to good use, he pushes Rainbow into a bush and jumps up onto a tree. The doctors and single guard pass by them, but from the looks of it, they will be coming back soon. Jumping down, Sniper signs to Rainbow she should follow, she nods awfully seriously for once and they run the other way. Their chasers catch up to them near the river, Rainbow relive Daring Do by using a vine to get across while Sniper simply leaps over and lands rather hard which send a jolt of pain through his still healing ribs, but again nothing compared to what he has before endured.

Watching this seemly boring griffin do a stunt like that in such an awesome manner, recovering like it was nothing, Rainbow cannot help but see Sniper as a griffin vision of Daring Do and her respect for him greatly increases, more so when this badass griffin only has to nod to get the message across. Grinning of being part of a real adventure, she follows Sniper who knows exactly how to avoid their pursuers in form of the ponies from the hospital but also her friends who woke up because one of the hospital ponies kept barking like a dog.
When the hospital ponies finally gave up and her friends gone back to sleep. She and Sniper leave the cover under the bridge. She turns to Sniper. "That. Was. AWESOME!" She cries excitedly and would've said that he is a real-life vision of Daring Do and he is way more awesome than she first thought, but before she could do that, Sniper hushes her down. She puts her hooves up to her mouth, but still wants to say this. "You are way more awesome than I thought."

First time anyone has called him awesome and coming from this pony, Sniper know it is the best compliment he can get. But he doesn't really see the big deal of this, those ponies weren't hard to get rid off. "I've tried worse." He shrugs, frowning when the almost squalling Rainbow jumps up beside him. "Have you been fighting big predatory cats?" She asks with eyes glowing with excitement. He takes a step back from the sudden intrusion of his personal space and question of his trips out in the bush. "Yeah, but mostly crocodile." He replies a bit unsure about how to handle this excited Rainbow. He waves up to his slouch hat which has the teeth from one of those beasts around the crown. "These come from the biggest I've fought, He took a bite out from me— oh, you can't see it because of the fur but I have a bite mark on my left leg." He explains, eyeing his left leg he almost lost when that monster crocodile bit him and almost took it off under a death-roll. Turning back to Rainbow he is not sure why she has a look as if she stands before her biggest hero or something. It's making him a bit uncomfortable. "Here." He hands her the book there caused all this trouble. "Be sure to return it when you're done." And leaves the pegasus to return back to the hospital before the nurse realizes he has left.

***

(a few days later)

Rainbow puts the stolen book down before the hospital window and flies off, she hates to do this but Rainbow has realized that if she wants to read the other books, she has to admit to Twilight that she too is an Egghead.
Fortunately her fear that Twilight wouldn't let her borrow the books because Rainbow called her an Egghead has all been in her head. In fact, Twilight is happy Rainbow admitted she likes to read as well

"See, everypony likes to read something." Twilight smiles after Rainbow Dash confession of being- what she calls it, an Egghead. She walks over to the shelf where all the book of Daring Do are located in her library. "And like I said; I have every book in the series, and you can borrow them all, any time you like!"
Rainbow Dash beams hearing that more so when Twilight levitates the next book of the series over to her.

Rainbow is very close just to take the book and read it, but then she remembers all the things she had said when Twilight gave her the first book, thinking back on it now makes her realize she has been really unfair to her friends. "I'm sorry I made such a big deal about all of this." She apologizes to the unicorn, scraping embarrassed her hoof over the floor. "I thought reading was just for smart ponies like you..."

"Rainbow Dash, just because you're athletic doesn't mean you aren't smart!" Twilight smiles but winch when Spike proclaim himself both smart and strong and starts kissing his arms. Fortunately, the dragon quickly stops embarrassing himself and Twilight can tell Rainbow. "Reading is something everypony can enjoy if they just give it a try."

That Rainbow Dash can agree on and now sort of happy she gave the book thing a try. "Yeah, I get it. I shouldn't knock something until I've tried it." Twilight nods and suggesting to write that down as a letter to the princess, Rainbow will–- when she is done with this new book. She flies home and about to start but stops when she read the title of this book: Daring Do and the Griffon's Goblet. That reminds her.
Putting down the book, Rainbow flies out to find Ponyville's own griffin, she lands on the roof where Sniper is sitting. He dosesn't even look at her when he speaks.

"Did you finish the book?"

"Yeah, and..." She hesitates for a moment, but like with reading, it seems she greatly underestimated Sniper. "Thanks, if you hadn't pushed me, I wouldn't have known how much I love reading. I... I was wrong about you."

"No worries." Sniper simply says, hiding his surprise of getting praised by this over-blown ego pegasus of all ponies. Guess even Rainbow can be humble. He returns back to keeping an eye on everything going on in this town. He waits for Rainbow to fly off, but to his small surprise, she doesn't. Wondering why he asks her. "Is there anything else you want to say?"

Yes, and that is the question. "What are you doing?"

"Observing."

"Can you teach me?" She asks hopefully. Sniper finally turns around to look at her, she can't see his eyes thanks to those sunglasses but from how he continually keep staring at her, she is pretty sure he is surprised. Yeah, she is a bit too herself, but after having seen how awesome he can be. Rainbow would like to get to know this pretty much real life vision of Daring Do better.

Well, isn't this a surprise, Sniper thinks and not sure how to react to this sudden request other than. "Alright." No one has asked him to teach them anything before, it's humbling really but that will not stop him from insulting her. "But I doubt you can last more than ten minutes before you start whining."
Rainbow steps over to him. "Is that a challenge?" She demands angrily but that smile of hers betray her true feelings.
He returns it with a smirk. "A challenge you won't win Dasher."

Oh, that is so much challenge accepted!
Rainbow takes a seat beside Sniper and both start telling one another what they spot around town. It proved Sniper was the better one, but Rainbow wouldn't mind do this observing thing again, it is quite fun when doing it with Mr. Eagle-eye here.