//------------------------------// // chapter 1: portal, books and monsters // Story: The Girl with Draconequus Tattoo // by MyPeculiarSelf //------------------------------// The scene was relatively simple. It was a usual room, with usual furniture, and a usual closet... well... almost usual... if you don’t count the fact that inside this closet you can see a white vortex. It was something rather unusual to find in a room. The expected reaction in this kind of situation is fear or concern, maybe even running away. But, in this particular case, the one who was looking at the vortex seemed very calm. She just stared at it, as she held a mug full of hot chocolate in front of her. She gave a slight wiggle to her mug to mix the contents and sipped undisturbedly. She then removed her lips from the mug and sighed. "This certainly won't be simple." …………………………………………………………….. One more day in Ponyville and one more day for Rainbow Dash, the fastest Pegasus in Ponyville. She finished her work on the weather for the rest of the day, so she now had time to work on new stunts, pranking ponies in the town or take a nap on a comfortable cloud. Because, being as amazing as she was could be tiring. Rainbow was thinking of the possibilities when something important came to mind: Twilight had said that the new Daring Do book would arrive this week! "Perhaps it's arrived. Only one way to find out." Rainbow said, before she took off at full speed to the library, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake. After what can be defined as a "near perfect" landing by Rainbow's standards in front of the library she started knocking rapidly at the front door without stopping and with a smile of expectation that rivals even Pinkie Pie's. When the door finally opened she was greeted by a giant cloud of dust, causing her a coughing fit. The dust settled soon after and Rainbow can see Spike with a scarf covering his nose and holding a duster in one of his claws. "Hi RD. How can I help you? " "Hey Spike" *cough**cough* "what happened here?" *cough* "Looks like somepony exploded a dust bomb in there." Rainbow said in between coughs, as the last clouds settled below breathing level. "Ohh that? We are cleaning the library today. We're dusting off right now." Spike said. "And there's so much dust? I thought as an egghead like Twilight would clean her house more often.” "We cleaned. This is the dust that has accumulated in the books. You'd be surprised how they can gather dust between the pages." Spike said as he dusted a great book with your duster.The stuff about books made Rainbow remember because she was here. "Hey Spike! Do you know if the new Daring Do book arrived? " "Sorry Rainbow." He said dusting off the book he was holding. "But new books only arrive on Fridays." Spike looked inside the library. "And even if the book was here, I don't know if Twilight, I... or just about anypony could find it. It even took me half an hour to find the kitchen since we started to clean up." Spike looked inside again before whispering to Rainbow Dash. "Twilight already lost herself twice." "SPIKE! WHERE ARE YOU?" The lavender unicorn's voice echoed from inside the library. "Scratch that! She already lost herself thrice." Spike sighed. "In any case, I'm sure we will receive the book beforethe weekend. But right now, I have to find a unicorn amid the dust. Sorry Rainbow. " "All right Spike. And good luck with the cleaning. I think you'll need it." Dash said before launching again. It was a pity that the book hadn't arrived. She was always eager to read a new Daring Do book, but this in particular, she discovered, was about Daring Doo finding a mysterious monster in a distant jungle. A terrible creature, never seen before and unlike anything that a pony could think of. Sadly, the preview didn't say much more than that, but it was enough for Rainbow Dash. Soon, she would find out what the creature looked like, when she read the book. "How will Daring Do win over the mysterious creature? Maybe she'll use some amazing mystical artifact, or lure it into a trap, or maybe she'll just end up with using her hooves." Rainbow said as she kicked and punched the air. "I know I could defeat this creature. First I would land a punch, then I would fly so fast, it didn't know where the attack came from, and the fight would be over before it even knew it began!" She said proudly as she flew up, onto a near cloud and made herself comfortable. She had decided to take a nap away from town. This way, the noise or occasional disaster that occasionally haunted Ponyville wouldn't disrupt her sleep. Dash lay on her cloudy bed, and let sleep slowly pull her into unconsciousness. "Fighting against a mysterious creature... just like Daring Do..." She mumbled to herself as her eyelids were getting heavier. Although her vision was already blurring due sleep, she saw the edge of the Everfree still quite clearly. The branches with their leaves, the bushes on the ground, the strange creature looking at Ponyville, some birds flying into the distance, the clouds- Whoa! Strange creature looking at Ponyville? Rainbow shook the sleep from her eyes and tried to look better at what she thought to have seen. Staying in the cloud and trying to stay hidden, she looked the figure again. She had to make sure it was there and it wasn't just an optical illusion. Rainbow winked to clear vision and looked. It was still there. Rainbow cautiously pushed the cloud closer to the forest with her wings to get a better view. "What the hay is that thing?" She asked to nopony as she observed it. Unfortunately, she couldn't get at good look in it. Apparently it was bipedal, higher than a normal pony and wore clothes to cover its body. At this angle, she couldn't see the clothes very well, but what stood out was a cyan blue hoody that completely hid the head of this thing. Even without being able to see the entire thing, Rainbow could say it was something she had never seen before. She needed get a better look at it. If it was a threat, she needed to know, and take care of it. Being careful, as to not alerting it of her presence, she approached with the cloud a little more, silent as a ninja. All looked well, but then the creature looked up, exactly in her direction, and saw the pegasus crouched in the cloud. Their eyes met, both frozen in shock because they were discovered. Tense seconds passed without either of them moving. The creature decided to take the initiative, as It turned and disappeared into the woods. A few seconds passed without Rainbow showing any reaction, but eventually she did. "Hey, come back here you... whatever you are!" She shot toward the forest without thinking twice. Unfortunately, due to the branches and vines, Rainbow had to swerve several times and, due to that, couldn't fly at her full speed. It took some time, but finally she could see the creature in front of her. She flew faster, and soon, the creature was only a few feet away. And that's when Rainbow noticed something she hadn't before: the back of creature's jacket had what appeared to be small wings of cloth sewn onto it, just like pegasus wings and the same color as the rest of the hoody. She reached the creature and used her speed to throw it on ground. The creature managed to push Dash off, but was weak. The pony soon recovered and landed right in front of the creature, a few feet away from it and in a position to attack again, if necessary. The creature was recovering its breath and starting to get up. Rainbow could now see its hoody better and noticed that it seemed to have several pieces of colored cloth on the hood, resembling a mane. The sides of the hood had what seemed to be eyes made from cloth, and they were pink. And most importantly: it seemed that on the jacket's sides, there was a very familiar mark. Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. What is my cutie mark making on a monster? Then hit Rainbow Dash, this hoody was an imitation of her. It was made to look like her. Why does a monster have a hoody of me? It will have lots of explaining to do. Oh Celestia! I will face a mysterious creature exactly like Daring Doo! She looks at the now standing creature. They turn to look again, pink eyes met dark eyes. Rainbow Dash can say one thing: it will not give up so easy. Rainbow sighed, focused and lunged toward the creature. But this time it was ready. When Dash was close, the creature grabbed Rainbow's mane and pushed her back by her mane. "What?" Rainbow asked confused, as she saw, that for the first time, somepony had eluded her. She was about to attack again with her hooves but the creature just blocked her attacks with its front limbs. The interesting thing is that so, far the creature didn't attack Dash at any time. It just dodged and blocked attacks. "Are you too cowardly to attack?" Dash said getting angry. Rainbow took away and prepared to attack again. She would give a halter so strong that this thing couldn't block. Dash used all her strength. The creature seeing that, decided to dodge instead of blocking. It went to the side and Dash passed the creature without realizing it... and hit the trunk of a large tree. The body of Pegasus slid slowly down the trunk, until it fell from the tree. Her eyes rolling in her sockets and small rainbows circling around her head. The creature watched the confused pegasus. It felt a little bad to run away like that, but it was its best chance. It turned and ran away. …………………………………………………………………… It took some time for Rainbow to recover herself. The head still sore from hitting the tree. "What happened? Ah! The creature! Where'd it go?" Rainbow Dash looked around for any sign of the creature. It was nowhere to be found.