Chapter Four
“Where in tarnation is that blasted book?” Applejack grumbled to herself as she shook loose the last contents from Rainbow Dash’s saddlebag, which had been left at the homestead since the accident. The farmer pony had been spending the better part of an hour turning the contents of her home upside-down in an effort to find that book but has since come up empty-hoofed. All the obvious places turned up empty, and even the less obvious spots failed her. How hard could it be to find one book?
“Big Mac!” Applejack shouted at the top of her lungs. Normally, Applejack would stubbornly stick to the principle of doing things on her own, but she was in too much of a hurry to let pride stand in her way. Fortunately for her, her bellow did not have to travel far to reach the ears of her older brother. No more than a few seconds afterwards did she hear the familiar clip-clop of his heavy hooves marching up the stairs. When she saw the familiar red stallion standing in her bedroom doorway, she was quick to ask, “Have you seen that book that Rainbow’s been reading lately?”
“Nope,” Big Macintosh answered in his typical terse manner.
A part of Applejack wondered why she had waited for him to arrive before asking given that the answer was what she expected. Why would her brother keep track of Rainbow’s books? While unhelpful, Applejack couldn’t fault him for it.
“Well could you look around for it?” Applejack asked. “It’s a Daring Do book, so it’s got that archaeologist pegasus on the cover, and Ah think there’s a picture of a big, half-buried temple behind her.” That probably described most of the covers in the Daring Do series, but Applejack figured that the odds of there being more than one book matching that description in her home to be pretty slim; Rainbow Dash was good at taking her books home with her.
“I’ll let you know if you I see—oh!”
Big Macintosh’s abrupt cut-off piqued the younger sister’s curiosity. When a stallion used words as sparingly as he did, one took notice when a situation causes him to drop one.
“What’s going on? What is it, Big Mac?” Applejack inquired as she rushed to her brother’s side. She had no patience for his usual brevity and was prepared to extract the words with her bare hooves if necessary. “Tell me! This is important!”
“Apple Bloom asked me where we kept all the shovels and picks,” Big Mac quickly answered. He knew better than to ever stand between his little sister and something she wanted.
Shovels, picks, and a missing book about an adventuring archaeologist? One did not need fancy mathematics to put the pieces together. “Oh for Pete’s sake! Didn’t she already try for a cutie mark involving shovels or something?”
“I think that was for paleontology.”
“There’s a difference?” Applejack paused for a moment, and her brother was about to answer but was cut-off. “Don’t answer that.” When it came to cutie marks and Apple Bloom’s obsession with them, it was best to leave logic and reasoning at the door. It was better just to deal with the issue before the youngest Apple kin got herself into trouble; Applejack could worry about the reasons afterwards. “Ah better go find her before she digs up the orchard again.”
Knowing her little sister, the west orchards would be the first place she would take her friends. It was close to their clubhouse, secluded, and out of the way enough that a less-observant Applejack would otherwise have not noticed their hijinks. Any other day, she would not have even cared about her sister’s particular direction of enthusiasm, but if she had the Daring Do book with her for inspiration or guidance, then it became Applejack’s business.
Tracking down the wayward sibling wasn’t a difficult task for her. Applejack had a rough idea where the filly was going; all she needed to do at this point was to keep her ears on alert for the sound of their shrieks when things inevitably went belly up.
Why would they even try archaeology? She did not begrudge those that pursued more academic paths in life, but Applejack couldn’t see her little sister being that interested in digging up old pots and relics for the rest of her life. She had little doubt that this little endeavour would result in nothing more than a trio of dirt-covered fillies and a lot of holes to fill in.
As the farmer continued her journey to the west orchards, her mind began to mull over her predicament. There hadn’t been much time for her to think things over. Having her girlfriend under the illusion of being Daring Do was bothersome, but in a way, it was still better than what she had been dealing with prior. The scared, timid Rainbow Dash she had before was heartbreaking to watch; Daring Do was just going to be irritating at worst. And Applejack was able to console herself with that hope that, perhaps, a small part of Rainbow Dash had been awoken along with Daring Do.
After all, the memories came from the books and those were only words. Those memories were going to be filtered and coloured by Rainbow Dash’s own mind and how she remembered them. Why else would Rainbow Dash have mistaken Applejack for Blondie? Their kiss in the library wasn’t the first time she had been called Blondie in the heat of the moment. There were hints of Rainbow Dash buried behind the facade of Daring Do; all the farmer pony needed was that book so she could browbeat the obvious into that stubborn pegasus.
Actually, what would fix her problem was if she had the real Daring Do around. Even a pony under the mistaken pretense of being Daring Do would have to yield to the logical conclusion when confronted with such concrete evidence. But was the famous archaeologist even still alive at this point? Perhaps a pony who paid more attention to the books would be able to put a time period to the adventures. Applejack made a mental note to ask Twilight about it when she returned to the library.
“What did I tell you, girls? This archy-ology stuff is going to be our ticket to getting our cutie marks!”
Apple Bloom’s distinctive elation was enough to derail the older sister’s train of thought. The fit of laughter that followed shortly afterwards confirmed that she was heading in the right direction. As it was laughter and not shrieks of horror, it meant that there would not be a disaster awaiting for the farmer upon her arrival, which was a small relief for her. When she finally tracked down the source of the chatter, Applejack found that her sister and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders had managed to dig out a sizeable hole in the orchard and had even flagged it off with yellow tape and little flags. The little fillies did not spare any expense in their exuberance, that much was certain.
“It’s pronounced archaeology,” Sweetie Belle, who was covered head-to-hoof in dirt, replied. “Also, this seems an awful lot like when we tried to get our cutie marks in treasure hunting.”
“Just help me dig!” shouted a tired and irate Scootaloo. “You two have spent more arguing than digging.”
“Apple Bloom!” the elder sister called out as she trotted up to the makeshift excavation site.
“Oh, hey sis!” Apple Bloom greeted with more enthusiasm than her sibling had anticipated given the size of the hole. In fact, the filly sounded proud of her accomplishments, whatever that might be. “We were just about to come find you. We’ve just made a huge discovery that’s going to make the Cutie Mark Crusaders famous!”
“Uh-huh,” Applejack muttered in a half-hearted attempt to sound interested. Her thoughts were too focused on her own crisis to worry about whatever mischief her sister may have been literally digging up. A few holes could be handled later once she didn’t have to worry about her girlfriend starting her own archaeological adventures. “Listen, you didn’t happen to take a copy of a Daring Do book from home, did ya?”
“We were just borrowing it so we could learn how to be globe-trotting archaeologists just like Daring Do,” Apple Bloom explained as she went to the immediate and reasonable assumption that her sister disapproved of this endeavor.
“Yeah! She’s like the second-coolest pegasus ever!” Scootaloo chimed in before tossing another shovel-full of dirt onto the ever-growing pile. “When even Rainbow Dash thinks she’s awesome then you know it must be true.”
“So we’ve been digging around the old orchard cause Granny Smith said that she once had Daring Do come visit the orchard,” Apple Bloom continued to explain. “We figured maybe she missed something the first time!”
“Yeah, that’s nice,” Applejack said with a curt nod to keep the conversation moving. So focused was she on recovering her book, she didn’t catch her sister mentioning the same famed archaeologist’s past connection to the farm. “Now do you have the book or not?”
Before the youngest Apple filly could even answer, Sweetie Belle took it upon herself to handle the request. “I’ll get it for you,” she announced before hopping out of the excavation pit. A bundle of saddlebags sat underneath a nearby apple tree along with an assortment of other tools. The filly unicorn sifted through the various items and soon produced the desired book. “Here you go!” she exclaimed upon handing the book over. “We really liked the part where Daring Do went to the Everfree Forest.”
“Ah don’t think these books are quite appropriate for a filly your age.” Between the violence, the suggestive themes, and Blondie’s questionable ethics, there was a good reason why the books that included the nameless mare were considered by critics to be a spin-off of the rest of the Daring Do series. In fact, Applejack remembered Rainbow mentioning that there were some who wondered if the books with Blondie were even written by the same pony. Right now, Applejack didn’t care if that were true or not because Rainbow Dash’s brain was treating them as real memories.
Applejack was about to head on her way, content to leave the trio of fillies to continue tearing up the family orchard, when an elated gasp from the still-digging pegasus caught everypony’s attention.
“Hey, I think I found something!” Scootaloo exclaimed as she began to dig with greater zeal.
“Oh, what do you think it is?” Apple Bloom asked. The excitement of the potential discovery, and perhaps a cutie mark with it, left the filly bouncing around the excavation site rather than trying to help her friend speed up the process. “Maybe it’s an ancient arrowhead! Oh! Or maybe it’s an idol from a lost civilization!”
“Or maybe it’s a hairpin,” a disappointed Scootaloo announced as she held up the small, dirt-encrusted fashion accessory. “That’s the fifth dud this morning.”
Apple Bloom’s excitement deflated like a popped balloon. “Throw it in the pile with the others,” the dejected filly instructed. “At least it wasn’t a stale cow patty this time.”
The aforementioned pile sat not too far from where Applejack stood. It consisted of an odd collection of old bottle caps, a rusted key, several rocks, three of Winona’s lost chew toys, a half-dozen bottles, and a bent spoon. To be honest, Applejack was surprised that the Crusaders managed to turn up more than just rocks and bottle caps. It was a shame that so much junk got left behind on their farm, but thoughts about orchard litter were put on hold.
“Ah’m afraid you ain’t gonna find much except what Winona’s buried,” Applejack commented as she held out her hoof to Scootaloo. “Give that here. Ah’ll ask around town and see if anypony knows who it belongs to.”
Winona usually knew better than to bury things that didn’t belong to her, but Applejack wasn’t going to discount it as the most likely possibility. She gave it a quick look-over once it was handed over, and she noted it was definitely not some bit-store hairpin. Hidden beneath the dirt was gold and silver wiring entwined into the shape of a rose. Perhaps it belonged to Roseluck, she thought. Given that it looked valuable, Applejack decided to hold onto it until she found its rightful owner. After tossing it under her hat for safe stowage, the farmer pony hurried on her way back to the library.
“Ah want these holes filled before Ah get back!” Applejack added as she galloped away. She hoped that Twilight did not have her hooves full with Rainbow Dash.
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“This is intolerable!” Twilight shrieked as her hooves slammed against her desk with enough force to topple over several ink vials. “How can you say something like that?”
“You’re the one that’s being obtuse,” Rainbow shot back in an attempt to put the alicorn on the defensive. The fact that Rainbow seemed so indifferent to her own remarks just irritated Twilight further. “I’m just saying that there’s still unsettled contentions about the real extent of Star Swirl the Bearded’s contributions to the advancement of magic.”
“You’re saying he’s a fraud!”
Rainbow knew she was hitting a sensitive spot with Twilight, but since when has Daring Do ever backed down from a fight, verbal or otherwise? Rainbow, who sat at the far end of the library, simply leaned back against her perch upon the stairs. Her calm, unflinching demeanour only further annoyed the librarian by making it seem as though the topic, which was dear to Twilight, was trivial.
“Now I never used the word fraud,” Rainbow insisted, calm as ever, “nor am I saying he wasn’t a major influence in the development of modern magic theory. A lot of his spells had questionable veracity.”
Despite their original intent of research, the two ponies had managed to steer their conversations towards the subject of Star Swirl the Bearded. Twilight had been combing through his research notes in hopes that the famed unicorn had delved into the topic of memories when Rainbow Dash made an off-hoof comment about it being pointless to turn to Star Swirl’s knowledge. That invariably led to the two debating the merits of the famous spellcaster.
“He created over two hundred of them!” replied the ardent supporter of Star Swirl.
“Allegedly,” Rainbow scoffed. “Most ponies would consider ‘turn into an apple’ and ‘turn into an orange’ to be essentially the same spell.”
“Changing one thing into another is not as simple as it sounds,” Twilight insisted with a hint of indignation. “You can’t compare apples and oranges; plus, you’re a pegasus! What kind of expertise could you even have on the intricacies of magic?”
“Hello? PhD in archaeology!”
Twilight was about to shout that Rainbow Dash did not have any such degree, but she managed to hold her tongue. Challenging the pegasus’ belief in her own identity would only drive Rainbow away. Twilight had to imagine how she would handle the conversation were she debating with the real Daring Do.
“That’s an unrelated field. You study ancient relics and past civilizations, not modern magic theorems.”
“The pre-classical era can fall under my purview, not to mention history in general is a hobby of mine,” Rainbow explained. The real Rainbow Dash had never so much as cracked open a history book, which made Twilight wonder where the other pony was drawing her opinion from. “You can’t overlook the fact that three other prominent conjurers of the time accused him of stealing their work, as well as the Unicorn Tribunal Ruling of 128BPC.”
Sadly, her recollection of the many Daring Do novels was not as ironclad as Rainbow’s had been. She remembered that ‘Daring Do and the Curse of the Weremare’ had the ghost of Star Swirl play a minor role, but she had always been skeptical about whether there was any truth to that part.
“He was the most prolific conjurer of his time,” Twilight argued. “Of course a few other conjurers were going to think his work copied theres, especially when he worked in the same field. And that court ruling was completely biased! Everypony knows they were trying to protect their monopoly on magical services.”
“A biased individual can still make a valid complaint. The fact remains that nowadays, Star Swirl’s reputation makes it impossible for anyone to objectively measure him. Even the ‘official’ counts for the number of spells credited to him can be considered suspect because they were all tabulated by former students of his.”
Twilight had finally had enough of listening to the pegasus throw such slanders at one of her idols. How could a pegasus know what it took to be a proper wizard? “Star Swirl was the best wizard and we’re not having this conversation anymore!” Twilight shouted with the level of force befitting of a princess.
Rainbow Dash realized that she may have pushed her case a bit too hard, and it had clearly left the other pony in a sour mood. A small pang of guilt ran through the pegasus, and she realized that she needed to fix this.
“Sorry,” Rainbow Dash said after a brief silence. “I can get a bit carried away when I get into a debate.”
It took a few seconds for Twilight to calm down, but once she had, she felt equally guilty for snapping at her friend as she had. “I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that,” she replied. “I just don’t understand why you’d want to bring down somepony’s accomplishments, especially one as significant as Star Swirl’s. What is there to gain by reducing him?”
“The truth,” Rainbow answered plainly. “That’s what archaeology is all about in the end - digging through the stories, myths, and legends to find the truth at its core. I don’t relish the idea of denigrating our own heroes, but one should never hide from the truth. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to be honest and truthful of our history.”
Twilight had to admit that Rainbow made a compelling and passionate argument for her case. As an academic, she couldn’t argue against the quest for truth. She had spent most of her life in the search for knowledge, and she depended on those who came before her to be truthful about what they wrote.
“I hadn’t thought of it like that,” Twilight acquiesced. “I guess it can be hard to stay objective when you’ve invested so much in one side of the argument.” In this case, it was emotional investment along with all the time she had spent studying. The idea of one of her heroes might not have been as infallible as she liked to imagine was a notion that her mind did not find comfortable at all. Then again, she knew first-hand that Star Swirl was not perfect from the incomplete spell that nearly ruined the lives of her friends. “Don’t suppose we could try and focus on something else? We’re trying to fix your memories, remember?”
“Well have you found anything? All the books I looked through had nothing on memory restoration.” Rainbow gestured to the large pile of books that she had left beside the stairs. Twilight had to admit that she was a bit impressed to see Rainbow go through so many books in such a short period of time. Normally only Daring Do titles could keep the pegasus’s muzzle in a book for that long a period. “Maybe I’d have better luck if I tried retracing my steps,” Rainbow suggested before hopping back to her hooves.
With Applejack and the latest Daring Do book still unaccounted for, Twilight had to keep the pegasus from leaving. “Oh, you don’t have to go already, do you?” Twilight asked in a desperate attempt to stall Rainbow while she thought up a valid excuse. “I mean...couldn’t you stay for a little while longer? Maybe we could have some lunch and chat? I’ve always been a huge fan of your work and I’d love to hear more.”
She could only hope that Applejack would return soon. Twilight’s research had yielded nothing that she could use to revert what she had done to Rainbow Dash, and sooner or later, the pegasus would want to venture out on her own.
Thankfully, the mentioning of food prompted a subconscious gurgle from Rainbow’s belly. “A little food and a quick break might help our focus,” Rainbow agreed and flashed a sheepish smile. She figured she could indulge the alicorn a bit since she was a fan of her exploits. Most ponies who knew of the name Daring Do wanted her to find something for them or strap her to an arbitrarily slow-moving death trap.
With the pegasus’ attention now on food rather than adventuring, Twilight led her friend to the kitchen and set about preparing a nice lunch for the two of them.
“I hope I didn’t upset you too much about the Star Swirl thing,” Rainbow said as she lent her assistance in preparing the meal. “I can get carried away when I’m having fun.”
“You thought that was fun?” Twilight asked with a bit of confusion. That sense of puzzlement did not alleviate when the pegasus nodded her head. In fact, it took a few moments before Twilight realized that a small part of her had enjoyed the debate too. “I guess it was kind of nice to have an actual academic discussion with someone. Most of my friends seem to get bored when I try to talk about modern transmogrification or the merits of Coperneighcan doctrine.”
“Tell me about it,” Rainbow said with a terse chuckle. “All the other profs in the archaeology department love talking about pre-Imperial gryphon culture, but the second I bring up the Gryphon’s Goblet and suddenly they don’t want to hear about it. According to them I don’t do ‘good archaeology’. Ungrateful swines.”
“You did destroy an ancient catacomb in the process,” Twilight reminded her friend.
“That was totally not my fault.”
Twilight stifled a small giggle while she put the finishing touches on her daisy sandwich. Her friend may have been delusional, but it did feel a bit like she was talking to the real Daring Do. It was probably the closest that Twilight would ever get to living out one of her old childhood fantasies. Once the two ponies had a hearty lunch set up, they moved their conversation to the nearby dinner table.
“So I was under the impression that Princess Celestia was the only alicorn in Equestria,” Rainbow began as she shifted the topic to the other pony. “Where did you come from? Are you, like, the Princess of Ponyville or something?”
Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of being the Princess of Ponyville. “Oh no, I’m no princess,” she insisted despite technically having the title. It took her months to convince the townsfolk to stop calling her ‘Your Highness’ or bowing whenever she showed up at Sugarcube Corner. At the time, she almost found it aggravating, but now the librarian just looked back upon those moments and laughed. “I was actually born a unicorn, but Princess Celestia took me in as her personal student. Apparently if you finish Star Swirl’s unfinished spell, you get to become an alicorn.”
It was an oversimplification of the events leading up to her ascension, but if Twilight tried to recount the whole story, she would never get to eat her lunch.
“That’s pretty impressive,” Rainbow said before taking a bite of her own lunch. “So that means we’ve got two alicorns now.”
“Four.”
“Did Celestia have kids?”
“No, you’re forgetting Princess Luna and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”
“Nightmare Moon is back?” Rainbow gasped as she sprang back to her hooves. “Why didn’t somepony tell me sooner? We’ve got to stop her before she plunges the world into total darkness!”
A loud ‘ahem’ followed by Twilight motioning towards the nearby window where the sun shone through unimpeded. “That’s already been taken care of,” she explained as she held back another chuckle. “Note the lack of eternal darkness.”
Rainbow Dash looked more disappointed than relieved to hear the news. “You mean I missed it? Well that’s just great!” she lamented as she sank back into her seat. “I was looking forward to it, too. Well, at least I didn’t miss the return of the Crystal Empire.”
“Actually...”
“Oh for the love of—!” In order to keep her temper from exploding, Rainbow suffocated her anger in gluttony by shoving the rest of her sandwich down her gullet. By the time she managed to chew her way through it, her temper had simmered down. “What other great adventures did I miss? Let me guess - Discord broke free of his prison?”
“Yup, and he’s been reformed from his evil ways,” Twilight said with a curt nod. “There was also a Changeling invasion of Canterlot.”
“Great, I missed out on all the cool exciting stuff,” Rainbow grumbled as her mood sank as quickly as her head did. Folding her hooves on the table, she rested her chin down and let out a long sigh. “I’d love to meet the pony who stopped Nightmare Moon.”
“You already have.” It was hard for Twilight not to let a bit of pride slip into her voice. With so many accomplishments to her name, it was hard to keep humble about them at all times. “I stopped Nightmare Moon, as well as Discord, using the Elements of Harmony. You were there too, or I should say that Rainbow Dash was. She played an integral part in stopping both of those disasters, as well as helping to save Canterlot and the Crystal Empire.”
Rainbow Dash was left in an awe-struck silence for a brief moment. She had trouble believing that a librarian of all ponies was able to save Equestria time and time again. Perhaps the alicorn was not the stuffy bookworm that she had been expecting. “And you’re the town’s librarian?” Rainbow remarked in disbelief.
“Librarian is just my day job,” Twilight countered. “Besides, most ponies wouldn’t expect globe-trotting adventures from an archaeologist either.”
A salient point, Rainbow had to admit, though she was still surprised and intrigued to learn that this librarian had adventures that rivaled her own. Perhaps Twilight was just the pony she’d need if she were going to stop an evil sorceress. “I guess I don’t need to worry about you when we catch up to Azura,” Rainbow commented. “In fact, I almost feel sorry for her now that I’ve got Celestia’s prized pupil on my side.”
“You keep mentioning that name,” Twilight asked between mouthfuls of daisies, “but who is this Azura? I’ve never heard that name before.”
“That’s because she was a magicless hack until she stumbled upon some magical trinkets,” Rainbow explained. Evil ambitions and magical artifacts sounded like the kind of adventure that Daring Do would get involved with. “She’s managed to steal a whole trove of them - rings, amulets, bracelets, hair pins, necklaces, brooches, you name it. Now she’s got her eyes on another prize, and I’m not going to let her beat me to it!”
“I doubt we’ll have to worry about that,” Twilight said, which the other pony mistook as a vote of confidence. Given that Twilight had never heard the name Azura before, there was a good chance that the end of the latest Daring Do book ends with Azura thoroughly dealt with. A magic-trinket-powered unicorn running amok across Equestria would not have escaped Twilight’s many history lessons.
Before the conversation could go any further, the pair heard a loud thud as someone barged in through the front door. A familiar voice calling out for Twilight confirmed that Applejack had returned. The librarian excused herself and hurried to meet with her friend.
“Did you find the book?” Twilight asked in a hushed voice as to avoid any eavesdropping by the pegasus in the other room.
“Got ‘er right here,” Applejack replied as she gestured to her saddlebag. “Didn’t have any troubles with Rainbow while Ah was gone?”
“No problems at all.”
The news came as a huge relief to Applejack. She didn’t relish the idea of having to chase Rainbow Dash across town again. “Any luck finding a way to fix this?” A long-shot of a question, but hope was all that Applejack had at the moment.
“I’m afraid not. It seems like nopony has ever spent much time researching this sort of thing.” Then again, what unicorn would think of conducting research into accidentally causing ponies to think think they are historical or fictional literature characters. Were she not so concerned about her friend’s well-being, Twilight would have been taking notes of the whole ordeal for her own research.
“Well, maybe some zebra might know something!” Applejack suggested as the thought popped into her mind. “Ah sure do hope that a certain zebra is nearby to help us fix this,” she added expectantly. Unfortunately, as the seconds ticked by, there was a distinct lack of any zebras showing up at the library. “Dang, Ah guess her zebra senses ain’t working today.”
Twilight refrained from pointing the obvious, and instead focused on the important part of the suggestion. “That’s a great idea, Applejack,” she said.
“You think we can convince Rainbow Dash to come with us to the Everfree Forest?” Applejack asked with a small hint of concern. She didn’t want to run the risk of Rainbow Dash bailing on them because she didn’t want to stop being Daring Do.
“I’ll do it!” Rainbow Dash announced as she landed next to the other two ponies. “If this Zecora can help fix me so I can have my proper body back, then I’m all for it. No offense to Rainbow Dash or anything, but I can’t understand how she stands being like this all the time. It’s like I can’t stop moving. I feel like I have restless leg syndrome.”
“Um...right, sure.”Applejack wasn’t sure how to respond to that sort of remark. She wanted to reiterate that the pegasus was not the real Daring Do, but decided against beating that dead tree. Like Twilight, the farmer pony decided that it would be easier to just play along with the delusion until they fixed Rainbow Dash. A quick trip to Zecora’s and hopefully they would have this all fixed and they could laugh about it later.
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“And now we’ve lost her,” Twilight remarked as the two slowed to a halt. Her voice echoed through the thick canopy of branches and dark leaves, reminding the two ponies of how far off the path they had just wandered.
“Ah looked away for a second and then she said something about ‘I remember going this way’, and then she was just gone,” Applejack explained in a half-hearted attempt to defend herself. It was hard to absolve herself of guilt given that she had been tasked with keeping an eye on Rainbow Dash. The journey to Zecora’s hut was supposed to be quick and simple, but instead the pegasus made a sudden departure, leaving the pair in a small clearing with no clue as to which way their errant friend went. “Did you see which way she went?”
It was a slim hope, Applejack knew, but there was no harm in asking. Alas, Twilight had spent most of the journey at the back of the convoy with her nose in the Daring Do book. “She was gone before I even got a chance to look,” she explained.
Though it likely would not have made much difference, Twilight still felt a bit guilty that she had been reading her book rather than keeping watch over Rainbow Dash. Their brief gallop through the Everfree Forest in hopes of finding a sign of the pegasus had proven futile. Now not only did they not know which way Rainbow had went, but they may have just ran in the opposite direction like a bunch of blind and clueless fillies.
“Why in the hay would Rainbow Dash just fly off like that?” Applejack asked as she turned to the bookworm for answers. “She said she remembered something. Is there any mention of the Everfree Forest in that book?”
“I’m not sure,” Twilight said as she pulled the book out once more. “I’m only partway through chapter four.” Though it ran against every grain in her book aficionado ways, she had no choice but to skip ahead a few chapters. Hastily scanning through the pages, Twilight stopped about halfway through the book. “Here we are! It looks like Daring Do travelled into the Everfree Forest to find—” Twilight’s words were interrupted by a sharp gasp from the alicorn, “—the lost secrets of Star Swirl the Bearded!”
“Now why in the hay would she be looking for those?” Applejack inquired.
“I don’t know! I just had to skip almost a quarter of the book.” Twilight continued flipping frantically through the pages to put some context to the revelation. She made a mental note that when all of this was finished, she would have to find a way to wipe out all the memories she had of the book so that she could enjoy reading it in the way that it was meant to be.
“Well where in the hay are these secrets kept? Ah doubt there will be road signs for it.” Applejack’s growing impatience was understandable. Every second the two spent combing through the Daring Do book for details was time they could have spent finding Rainbow Dash. Even with Daring Do’s memories and bravado, the Everfree Forest was no place for a pony to be wandering through alone. The old Rainbow Dash would know how to avoid timberwolves or poison joke groves, but Daring Do might not. However, if Rainbow Dash were reduced to a bumbling, crashing klutz as a result of another encounter with poison joke, it would make finding her easier.
Twilight became more desperate in her search as Applejack pressed for answers. It was hard to comb for answers while trying not to ruin the story for herself. In addition, the nagging thoughts about Star Swirl’s made it tempting for her to search for more about the aforementioned secrets.
“Ah-ha! Here it is!” Twilight exclaimed. “Daring Do went to the old castle ruins of the Royal Sisters.”
“Wait, you mean where you found the Elements of Harmony all those years ago?”
“According to the book, yes.”
“Don’t remember seeing anything about Star Swirl or secrets there.”
“Well if they were easy to find, they probably wouldn’t have stayed secret,” Twilight quipped. “Plus, we were kind of focused on other things at the time.”
Indeed, the matter of stopping Nightmare Moon had been the primary focus when they first visited the ancient castle ruins. In the aftermath, none of them had any compelling reason to explore the ruins further. With a destination in mind, Applejack and Twilight looked to their surroundings in order to regain their bearings.
“Do you remember which way it was?” Applejack asked. “We really ought to put up some signs or something around here.”
“We tried that, remember? It was one of my first initiatives as Princess to improve safety around Ponyville.” Twilight reminded her friend. “And do you remember what the timberwolves did to all of our expertly crafted, wooden signs?”
“Oh right.” The brief mention was enough to flood her mind with memories of the incident, and Applejack shuddered at the thought. “Ain’t enough cider and therapy in the world to undo what we saw. Brings a whole new meaning to the word ‘hardwood’.”
“Come on, Applejack,” Twilight said as she motioned for her friend to follow along. “I think the old castle ruins are this way. If we’re lucky, we can find Rainbow Dash before something else does.”