When I open my eyes, I’m staring at a stone ceiling. Which confuses me because I don’t really remember closing them. My head is pounding like I just flew full speed into a brick wall. I try to sit up, but can’t find the strength.
What the hay happened? All I remember is seeing something lunge at me, then my sister yelling something. And why does it hurt so much? This isn’t even real!
I keep repeating that thought in my head, but it doesn’t make the pain go away. My ear twitches when I suddenly hear voices. Opening my eyes, I find myself lying on a creaky old bed in a dark room. There’s a closed window on the right wall letting in some light. The floor and walls are made of wood, with shelves filled with weird objects surrounding me. I turn my head to the right and see a door slightly open.
“... surprised you took on somepony new before you asked us,” a voice is saying. I don’t recognize it. My heart starts pumping faster when I realize that I have no idea where I am, or who’s outside.
“Well, you would too if you were in my position.” I hear Daring’s voice and calm down a little bit. “Trust me, she’s a good pony.”
“I’ve heard that one before,” grumbles the other voice. “And how good can she be? She barely survived ten seconds with you!”
Hey! Jerk.
The door opens and my sister enters. She’s chuckling and shaking her head. “You worry too much. She’ll be fine. Speaking of which, how are you feeling, Rainbow?”
I groan. “Oh, I feel great,” I deadpan. “What happened?”
“You got knocked out by the statue. You know, the one guarding the door?”
“You’re telling me that thing was alive?”
The other pony behind her scoffs. “If a moving statue is enough to surprise you, you sure aren’t ready for this.” The jerk-pony is wearing some sort of metal armor around her that covers her white coat. And she’s judging me with her seedy blue eyes.
Daring coughs. “Rainbow, this is Mad Doc Redblood, an associate of mine. I brought you to her place after that statue knocked you out.”
“Do not call me that,” Redblood snaps. “If you know what’s good for you, call me Redblood.”
My sister breaks out laughing. “Don’t listen to Red,” she says. “She’s just a big grump.”
Redblood rolls her eyes and scoffs. She goes over to one of the shelves in the room. A metal arm suddenly extends from the back of her armor and pulls a heavy book off the shelf. “Rightfully so. Anypony who spends as much time dealing with you would be a grump.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Daring says.
“Hey, can you stop arguing? It’s doing my head in,” I grumble.
“Oh, quiet. You don’t even have a concussion, so quit your whining,” Redblood snaps before exiting.
I sigh, staring up at the ceiling. “What kind of a doctor is she?”
Daring rolls her eyes and pulls up a chair. “You’ll get used to her.”
I raise an eyebrow at that, but don’t say anything.
In the silence, Daring’s grin slowly slips off her face. She takes off her helmet and starts playing with it. “So, about some of the stuff you said earlier.”
“What stuff?”
She shifts in her seat. “You know. The stuff about me not being your sister.”
I sit up on the bed. “What do you mean? You’re not my sister, you’re just some thing that Twilight made.”
That makes her flinch. “Is that really all you think of me?”
Great. Now I feel bad about insulting her. “Look, it’s just hard for me right now, okay? I haven’t seen you in years, and then all of a sudden you appear again, and… and I just don’t know what to think,” I say.
She nods absently. “Yeah, I guess. But, like, about all the stuff you said. Was that really how you saw me? That I wasn’t capable of doing all this?”
I don’t really know how to respond to that. Daring’s confidence from earlier is gone now. She just looks hurt.
“Hey, don’t get me wrong. You’re pretty cool and all, especially when you were fighting those vine things. It’s just like I said, I’m just having a hard time dealing with all of this right now.”
That seems to settle her. She smiles and nods. “Yeah, that’s fine.”
“So what was in that temple, anyways?”
Daring smirks. “Oh, right. After you got knocked out I had to go through a trapped hallway, narrowly avoid a pitfall, pass a sphynx--”
I sigh, my headache returning. “Did you find the stupid amulet or not?”
“Oh, the amulet wasn’t there,” she says nonchalantly.
I blink. “Then why did we go there?”
She just shrugs and smiles. “I wanted to see if you were really going to take this seriously.”
“So I got knocked out for nothing?”
Daring stands and shrugs again. “Your words, not mine.” With a wink, she leaves the room.
I grunt and swing my legs off the bed to go after her. It takes me a bit to get my balance back, but soon I’m trotting out of the dark room Redblood stuck me in.
Exiting the room, I find myself in some sort of workshop. There’s bits and pieces of machinery everywhere, and a huge board with tools mounted to it takes up the far wall. In between the metal pieces are papers with scribbled figures, and charts of all kinds. It reminds of Twilight’s study, except with a lot less books and a lot more pointy things.
Curious, I approach one of the devices and reach out to it.
“Don’t touch that.”
I whirl around and unfurl my wings in defense. I somehow missed Redblood sitting at one of the cluttered desks, wearing some weird thing over her eye while she fiddles with a small machine.
“Why not?”
Redblood rolls her eyes. “If you’ve got a death wish, then go ahead and touch it. Not my problem.”
“For a doctor you have horrible bedside manner.”
Redblood scowls at me. “Yeah? You’d be a little bit peeved if you’ve seen the things that I’ve seen.”
“You’re like Doctor Hooves, but a lot more grumpy.”
“Doctor who?”
I snort in amusement at that. “No, Doctor Hooves, but never mind. How do you know my sister?”
Redblood sighs, looking down at her work. “Your sister lives a dangerous life. She doesn’t always look out for herself, so sometimes it takes a pony like me to rein her in. Deep down I know her heart’s in the right place, but…” She glances towards the door as she trails off. “I don’t know.”
That sounds surprisingly ominous. For a second I wonder what Redblood’s trying to tell me, but before I can figure it out, a shout interrupts us. “Red!”
Redblood jumps up and heads to the door, throwing it open.
I look outside to see a city road, and several other buildings across the street. The black roads and gray sidewalks reminds me of Canterlot, although the streets seem to be a lot wider. It’s dark out, with only a few streetlights providing light.
Redblood takes a step outside and freezes. It’s not hard to see why.
Daring is hoovering in the street outside. She’s surrounded by… herself? Sure enough, there’s a crowd of about five or six other Darings.
“What the buck is this,” Redblood mutters in disbelief.
One of the Darings points at the other. “She’s a fake!”
That Daring snarls and flares out their wings defensively. “No, she is!”
“No, I’m real!”
Redblood just slams a hoof into her face. “Ugh. It’s too early for this.”
I raise an eyebrow, eyes darting in between the Darings. “What are we supposed to do? Ask them a question only the real one knows or something?”
The mare just shakes her head and grins. “I’ve got a better idea.” She presses a button on the console attached to her foreleg. A weird radar dish extends from the back of her armor.
Nothing happens at first. Then, all of the Darings suddenly cower down, covering their ears and hissing. All except for one. The real Daring gives a hoof pump. “Nice one!”
“Wait, what’s going on?”
“Changelings,” Redblood explains. “I used a sonic disruptor to mess with their frequencies. It doesn’t affect real ponies, but messes with the transformation process of--”
“That’s not how Changelings work,” Twilight’s voice interrupts. “I guess this is what Daring meant when she talked about creative liberties--”
“Twilight,” I hiss.
“Right, sorry.”
The fake Darings slowly get up, their coats and manes fading away until they don’t resemble ponies at all. Instead they look like giant oversized bugs. They hiss, spitting out some green stuff on the ground.
Redblood steps forwards. “Let’s dance.”
The first changeling spreads its wings and charges her. Redblood raises a hoof, and a blast of energy shoots out. It catches the changeling right in the chest and sends it flying backwards.
The other four surge forwards. Redblood lowers her stance and plants her hooves. She reaches behind her and pulls out a long metal rod, placing it in her mouth. As the second changeling attacks, she swings it hard, the rod making contact with its head.
It stumbles backwards, and Redblood takes the oppurtunity to smack it again on the side of the head. After knocking it down, she stomps on its chest and it screams out in pain. The final changeling hesitates, probably realizing that charging her down isn’t the best idea.
Daring and I both drop into defensive stances, daring it to make a move.
“Go on, git!” Redblood snarls.
With a hiss, it spreads its wings and flies away. Daring slaps Redblood on the back. “Way to go, Iron Mare!”
“Don’t call me that,” she snaps.
Daring just laughs. The way they talk almost reminds me of some of my own friends.
“So what are you looking for this time?” Redblood asks.
“The Amulet of the Forgotten,” Daring replies. “Said to be guarded by the fierce five-souled monster known as Pentagony.”
Redblood just shrugs. “Great. Where are we going next?”
“Wait,” I say, “you’re coming with us?”
“Of course,” Redblood says. “Somepony’s gotta patch up your wounds.”
I scoff. “As if I’d get hurt.”
“Statues,” Redblood coughs.
“That was one time!”
Daring comes in between us. “Break it up. Save the fighting for later. And to answer your question, we’ve got to go to the city museum. There’s something there that I need.”
With that, Daring heads off down the street, leaving Redblood and I to follow. As we head through the town, I can’t help but take in all the details. Everything from the bricks on the buildings to the clouds in the sky seem so real. There’s lights shining through the windows of buildings, and when the doors open I can hear bits of conversation flowing through. The street lights flicker as we pass, casting shadows in every direction. It’s hard to believe that everything’s just an illusion.
“So, you’re Daring’s sister, huh?” Redblood asks.
“Yeah, why?”
Redblood shrugs again. “She speaks highly of you.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. She’s doing this for you, you know.”
I stop in my tracks. “Doing what?”
Daring keeps walking, apparently oblivious that we stopped.
The mare waves a hoof around. “All of this. Yeah, she writes a lot, but she wrote this one for you. She could have gone anywhere in this world. And she might have gone alone, too.” Redblood’s face falls for a second. “That’s always been my worry for her. It took a long time for her to trust me. And she took you onboard in a heartbeat. I hope you know how important that is.” With that, she trots forwards.
The rest of our walk is in silence. Redblood’s busy brooding or something, and I have so many questions that I don’t even know what to ask. What does she mean by trust? And does she know that she isn’t real either? Why is she acting like she knows my sister better than I do?
Soon we stop at a huge building with several pillars in the front. The words ‘Museum’ are clearly written on the front of it. We head up the marble staircase and through the entrance.. Daring leads us through a bunch of glass cases and weird statues until we reach somepony’s office. She fishes a key out of her vest and unlocks the door.
The office is pretty cramped, with papers covering just about every available surface. The bookshelves are so full of books that they look like they’re about to fall off the wall. In a way it reminds me of Twilight’s study. “Is this your office?” I ask.
Daring scoffs. “Nah. It’s one of an… acquaintance of mine.”
She canters over to the desk and starts rifling around before finding a sheet of paper. “Here we go.”
“Wait, so you’re stealing something?”
“Stealing something back,” Daring replies. “I had this map for ages, then some horrible pony pinched it from me. They thought they got away, but I just never had the time to deal with them.”
Redblood nods sagely. “Not really theft if it’s your stuff.”
Daring points a hoof at her. “See! She gets me.”
Suddenly, the door opens. “What in blazes--Daring Do!”
My sister growls. “Dr. Cobble Iron.”