Rainbow Dash was running on a treadmill in her 4th week of Cadets training. She still remembered what Spitfire had told them when they started: "Friends will always be there for you, that's something I had to learn the hard way. If you need help with anything you can go to your teammates because they are your friends and friends, don't abandon each other". Rainbow had wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but Spitfire hadn't shown up to the Cadets Training since the 1st week.
This minor lapse of concentration meant she didn't notice a fellow Cadet coming up to her. "You only have it on the 3rd highest speed? I can do better than that, slowpoke". This insult dragged Rainbow out of her thoughts, and her temper started to rise.
"Why do you care, Lightning Dust? It's practice, not a race."
"Well then let's make it a race," she said getting onto the treadmill next to her. She started to run and soon she had it on the 2nd highest speed. This was when Rainbow's competitiveness got the better of her; she hated to lose, so she didn't think and shifted the treadmill speed to the highest. The sudden increase in speed made Rainbow fall off it, slamming into the wall behind her, and twisting her leg in the process.
The last thing Rainbow noticed before she blacked out, was Lightning running over and getting an instructor to help her bring Rainbow to the hospital.
When Rainbow came to, she saw her parents sitting; she was lying in a hospital bed. Her mother, Firefly was the first to react by saying "She's awake, let me get her friends." Rainbow's first thought was wondering what happened, but then she remembered the race and her foolishness.
"Rainbow that was a very senseless thing to do. They have rules for the treadmills for a reason."
"I know, what's going to happen to me?"
"You have to stay in bed for the next couple days as you twisted your leg. Your friends have volunteered to bring you your homework. Before you ask you were only out for about an hour."
At that point Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie, and Sunset entered the room.
"Rainbow you're okay" Pinkie exclaimed
"We were so worried about you," Fluttershy said
"Yeah, you should have seen her. I've never seen Fluttershy get as angry as once she found out someone hurt you," Sunset said, making Fluttershy blush.
"Well, I don't like people hurting my friends," Fluttershy said defensively.
"It's okay Fluttershy we were just teasing."
"What are you all doing here? Don't you have other stuff to do?" Rainbow asked
"Yes, but we wanted to see our friend." Pinkie said
"To tell ya the truth, we weren't doing much anyway since the new Daring Do book came out." Applejack said, "So we had the time ta see ya."
Rarity squealed at that: "Daring Doo and the Golden Key, so far it's amazing. I can't believe that such fashionable people could be criminals."
"What's Daring Do?"
"Rainbow Dash, how could you not know what Daring Do is?" Rarity exclaimed.
"It's a book series," Sunset explained more helpfully.
"Well that explains it, I don't read books, doing that's for eggheads, I prefer watching movies that's cooler than reading books," Rainbow explained.
"Everbody should read Rainbow" Sunset Chastised "Most movies are based on written stories, and the original can be better than the sequel."
"Then I can wait for the movie to come out. If it's any good, they'll make one."
"I have the first book in the series here," Pinkie told her "You can read it now."
"Pinkie, why do you have the Equestrian version of the book?" Sunset asked her.
"No I don't, silly," Pinkie said as she quickly swapped the book for the human version. "You should read this Dashie since you can't move, and your parents banned you from using the internet or watching movies."
"Wait, what? I can't do anything interesting while I'm injured, why?"
"They said it was to make you learn to follow the rules since you ignoring the treadmill rules was why you got injured in the first place."
"Can't you guys stay here?"
"We can for the rest of the day, but we have to go to school on Monday, the doctor said he's coming back on Tuesday to check if you can leave."
"That sucks, you're telling me I can't do anything for 3 days?"
"Yes we are, we'll give you your homework after school on Monday so that we can do something with you then," Sunset explained.
The next day was Monday, so Rainbow didn't have any company, her parents needed to work so they could afford their expensive lifestyle. This meant that Rainbow didn't have anything to do other than revise for school or do what her friends suggested and read.
Instead of doing either of these suggestions, Rainbow remembered that she had a Neighntendo DS in her bedside drawer. She decided to play Pokecolt, a game that focused on capturing creatures and battling with them to eventually become the best Pokecolt Trainer in the game.
Rainbow was so engrossed in the game that she didn't notice her mother coming home to make her lunch. "Rainbow I have your lunch here," she said as she went into the room. Rainbow quickly tried to hide the DS, but her mother caught her before she could. "I told you that you were to rest and not to use those infernal devices. I'm not angry with you; I'm just disappointed because I thought you would want to be healthy sooner."
"I do, it's just so boooring. Do you have anything I can do to pass the time?"
"Well, Rainbow," her mother smiled, "I think right now would be the perfect time to get into reading. You never know, you might enjoy it, I remember when I was your age everyone was talking about the most recent books."
Rainbow ate her peanut butter sandwich and gave the plate back to her mom, who then left the house to go back to work. This left Rainbow extremely annoyed as she had nothing to do; it seemed to her as if the book on her desk was just staring into her soul. Eventually, after what felt to Rainbow like 5 hours, but was actually only 1, she picked up the book and started to read it.
As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step. If only she could escape this oppressive atmosphere by cooling down and swimming in the river. Unfortunately, she had broken her arm when her plane crashed in the jungle; luckily she still had a way out using her radio to call for a helicopter. She had to find the temple first though, and that was not something you could do from the air as the dense jungle canopy hid it.
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 came across a large ravine that she had to cross by swinging on the vines hanging from the treetops. She waited for a light breeze to push the vines slightly closer to her, and then pounced on it like a jaguar attacking its prey. Carefully making sure not to lose her grip with the one hand that still worked.
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. The temple was magnificent and had a grand entrance at the top of some stairs. The stairs on the outside of the structure made it look more like a pyramid than a temple, and it was all in the shade of the beautiful broad-leaved, hardwood evergreens.
The smell of decay and danger hit Daring Do as she peered into the dimly-lit entrance of the ancient temple. She knew that she would come across multiple traps that would try to end her expedition; she would only survive with her fiery will to live. The first trap she came across was a swinging axe that required her to roll out of the way; she did so at the last second almost being beheaded. After that she stepped on a pressure plate, even an experienced archaeologist makes mistakes every now and again.
Rainbow Dash's reading experience was soon interrupted by her friends coming to visit. She hid the book under her covers just as they entered the room. "Hey Rainbow, I brought you your school work for the day. The teachers want it in by Wednesday, that should be doable as you have nothing else to do." Sunset told her as she put the work on the desk next to the bed.
Pinkie asked her "Where's my book? I could have sworn I put it on the desk". As she did this, she got closer and closer to Rainbow while wearing on a more suspicious expression on her face.
"It might have fallen off while I was sleeping, but don't look for it, you might hurt me, I'll give it back to you on Wednesday."
"Do you want to do anything while we're here? I brought a game we could play." Sunset explained as she pulled a Connect 4 game set out of her bag.
"Nah, I'm tired I might just go to sleep. Thank you for coming over."
Sunset and Pinkie looked disappointed at this "well it's a good thing the others couldn't come right now and agreed to see you later. Rarity, Fluttershy and, Applejack will visit you tomorrow, and AJ is sorry that she couldn't come today as she planned, but she is needed on the farm. They seem to have a worker or two, sick, so she is needed to cover for them."
Rainbow's mother came up with her dinner; after she was finished with it took the tray with what had been her dinner downstairs. She turned off the light as she left, allowing Rainbow Dash to get some needed rest in her mind. Of course, Rainbow, who was now addicted to the fantastic story of Daring Do turned on her bedside light and continued to read the book. In her mind, she was becoming the famous explorer; then she realised that she was an egghead, someone who enjoyed reading. No one, absolutely no one could find out this about her, not even her closest friends. After this critical realisation, she started to read once more.
Daring Do stood at the entrance to the central temple chamber. "At last, she was face-to-face with the legendary sapphire statue! To reach it she would have to cross a floor of pressure plates; there would be no escape for her if she took a misstep. "Hmm, there must be a pattern here. What do all these animals have in common? Ah-ha! These animals are all predators except rats," she thought. Carefully navigating the chamber and making sure not to step on any of the stones with predators on them, she made her way to the sapphire statue.
She replaced it with a bag of equal weight. However, a pressure sensitive plate under the statue slowly lowered making a grinding sound as it fell. Suddenly the floor started to fall away revealing lava underneath it! Daring had to make a very narrow escape using her broken arm at the last moment to push against the wall and propel her the final few meters to safety. The pain she went through by doing that was excruciating. However, she had the statue for all her effort.
"Rainbow Dash" Her father called opening her door. Rainbow quickly hid the book from his sight. However, she was not fast enough. "Ah my little Dashie is becoming a reader now, is she?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I can see the book you're hiding, and the fact that your light is still on even though you should be sleeping tells me otherwise."
"Fine, I'm an egghead laugh at me for it."
"Why would I do that to my favourite child?"
"Because I said reading books was uncool."
"Then you were wrong, but it's okay to be wrong. I think even those super smart friends of yours are wrong sometimes. Now go to bed, you have homework to do tomorrow." Rainbow Dash did what her father suggested and soon fell into a deep sleep, having a wonderful dream about Daring Do.
The next day Rainbow continued to fantasise about Daring Do. She had finished the book by this point and, the talk with her father convinced her to tell her friends that she enjoyed it. The homework she had was trivial as all the classes were coming up to the first tests of the year and so it was just studying for them. She had finished everything she needed to do before it was lunchtime and her father who made her lunch this time allowed her to watch TV. Soon after the meal, the doctor came by and allowed her to move around again, under the condition that she didn't do any sports.
This gave her plenty to do until her 5 friends arrived. Pinkie was overjoyed that Rainbow had her book, it was a first edition copy after all. "I have something to tell you guys."
"Yes? What is it Rainbow?" Rarity asked her.
"I'm sorry for insulting you for reading books, I really enjoyed the Daring Do story, I can't believe how naive I was to put down something I never tried. Especially something that you, my friends who had my interests in mind, suggested I try."
"What's with the sudden change of heart?" Sunset questioned.
"Well, the story was terrific and, my father beat some sense into my stubborn head." They all laughed at Rainbows reluctance to reveal that.
"Sounds like you learned an excellent lesson Rainbow, do you mind if I speak to Celestia about it?
"Why do you want to speak to the principal about our friendship?"
"Not the principal, but the princess."
"Oh, that magical pony princess, yeah sure, do you think that Daring Do will ever visit an alternate reality, like yours?"
"Thank you; I have no idea if the author would ever be able to come up with something like that. That reminds me why do all of the names here have pony puns in them? In Equestria, I understood it as a social norm, but here it makes no sense."
"Ah can answer that. Horses were very important in this region of the country, so it became ah social norm to remember them by including puns in the names of places or things. Soon it spread by entrepreneurs like the founder of Neighntendo who continued the tradition as they came from Canterlot," Applejack explained.
"Why do you know that?" Sunset asked.
"It's very important to learn the history of mah family as a farmer continuing traditions. Ah was ah curious child and was taught the reasons behind the tradition."
"Anyway, I have a letter to write."
Dear Princess Celestia
This week I learned from Rainbow's experience that you shouldn't hate something before you've tried it. Rainbow Dash learned this the hard way because she didn't like reading, that was until she learned of Daring Do. She got into an accident and had nothing to do other than read the book, so she gave it a shot. She really liked it and was soon addicted to the series. Isn't it strange how similar these two worlds are? Daring Do exists in both, what's even weirder is that Daring Do and the Golden Key was released at the same time in both worlds, I remember reading it earlier as you got a pre-release copy. Thanks to this I learned that we only regret the chances we didn't take. I wonder how Rainbow would be different if she hadn't read the book. Talking about Daring Do reminds me of the pony who introduced me to it, Spitfire. Last I heard she was dealing well with the trauma of what happened to her and that she entered NCO training to become a sergeant in the Pegasi Corps. How is that going for her? She's a Wonderbolt in this world. Please tell her I'm sorry for not keeping in touch as I promised and that I'm still grateful for everything she did for me.
Your Ex-Student Sunset Shimmer
A couple of hours later Sunset got a response from Princess Celestia; it was clear that the delay was so Celestia could talk to Spitfire.
Dear Sunset Shimmer
It was exciting to hear from you again. I hope you continue to enjoy your time in that strange world, learning about all the secrets that technology holds. Spitfire tells me that she is doing well and became a Sergeant as she wanted but in the Wonderbolts. She was also disappointed by you for taking the position of Duchess, due to her past I'm sure you know why. Her achievement of getting into the Wonderbolts is hardly unexpected, as she has shown valuable traits such as bravery when saving that Mare from those Timberwolves. She still feels like she should have been able to protect the stallion. Unfortunately, that Mare seems to have passed away during the childbirth of a little filly whose father died in the forest. In other news, Filthy Rich is engaged to Spoiled Milk, and their wedding is going to be held within the next couple of months. I had no idea he was in a relationship, and it seems to be relatively new, Spoiled, however, is showing signs of pregnancy leading me to believe that they must have been together quite a while in a secret relationship. I know you didn't ask, but Twilight is even more engrossed in her studies than you were at that stage and seems to have forgotten about you. I do hope she will learn to value friends as you did, Sunset. She appreciates knowledge, and unfortunately, there is only one other filly her age that knows as much as her, so she spends her time in the library.
Sincerely, your friend, Princess Celestia