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“Hey, Dash – How did you know about the Sapphire Stone and the Griffonian Goblet?”
It was as if the room's temperature had suddenly dropped by several degrees within the mere ten seconds it had taken Daring to speak that single sentence. Dash could almost feel her blood turn to ice, her expression frozen onto her face like a mask. Daring herself was blissfully unaware of Dash's reaction, sipping down the last of her soup.
When had she ever mentioned the Sapphire Stone and the Griffon's Goblet to Daring?! ...Oh. Oh, right. Right in the first five minutes of her arrival. Pony-feathers.
'I've read about every single one of your adventures in a popular book series, where you are the protagonist.' Despite knowing it to be the truth, it still sounded crazy, even in her head – she could not say that. She'd sound like she was insane – pretty much the last thing she wanted Daring to think of her. Hay, it had been hard enough to swallow that pill herself!
Rainbow Dash shot a glance over at Daring, who was happily chewing on another batch of red flowers. Taking a deep breath, she regained her sense of calm.
In the past two days, she had come a long way since the awe-inspiring adventurer had decided to 'let her tag along' because she 'didn't have time to bring her back to wherever she had come from'. Certainly, Daring wouldn't just write her off as a mad-pony – she was sure she could trust her to give her at least the benefit of doubt.
Yeah, it may have sounded insane – but she had proof. She could give Daring the run-down of what she knew of the series, details about her adventures and bits of trivia of her life. Things that she, as an avid reader was strongly familiar with.
Having made up her mind, Rainbow Dash turned to face Daring, who was still eating. She opened her mouth to address the other mare – and hesitated, realizing that she didn't know what to say, exactly.
How should she go about telling her?
Looking at the golden-yellow pegasus sitting at the other side of the kitchen table, who thought she was “pretty cool”, who had just shared her meal with her and told anecdotes about her colleagues – she simply couldn't bring herself to tell Daring Do straight to the face that she was a fictional character.
When she had gotten here, she had had a hard time wrapping her head around the concept of her favorite fictional character having become flesh. It was still a mind-boggling thought – but now, it was for the opposite reason.
When she looked at Daring, she didn't see a character from a story, she saw a pony. A real pony. An overall amazing individual she was glad to have made an acquaintance with. Perhaps... even a friend. Just from talking to her in the last ten minutes she knew there was more to Daring than just a few pages in a bunch of books. Thinking of her as “fictional” didn't do her justice.
And yet, Dash found it hard to deny the facts.
She had more than enough evidence to think that this wasn't some kind of wacky science-fictiony “parallel universe” that just happened to coincide perfectly with the novels in the “Daring Do” series. The brief glimpses she'd had at the story itself seemed as good a proof as anything, and that wasn't even considering any of the other oddities.
This was a story. And Daring Do was a character in this story. A story written by some anonymous author, who... who had essentially created both Daring Do and her entire world, who had written her into existence.
Rainbow Dash had to take the mental equivalent of several steps back. The thought didn't seem to register properly. She understood what it meant on some level, but she couldn't wrap her brain around the concept. The mere idea just sounded so... alien to her.
In a rare moment of insight, Dash attempted to grasp the repercussions of telling Daring Do the truth about the nature of her reality – and utterly failed.
She really wasn't much into philosophical topics. Twilight would probably have been more suitable to handle those kind of things. Then again, if she were here in Dash's stead, she'd probably have had a mental breakdown about every tiny little thing that escaped common sense and logic, of which there had been plenty right up till now. Not that her own reaction had been all that smooth either – but that was besides the point.
The entire notion simply seemed too outlandish to comprehend.
Rainbow Dash stared down into her unfinished bowl. The viscous, brown soup sloshed around in it as it slowly absorbed the spoon sinking into it. Bits of lettuce swam on top, each a sickly pale yellow color sprinkled with splotches of brown – suddenly, the food seemed anything other than appetizing.
Dash felt a brief surge of bile rising from her stomach. She hastily averted her eyes.
What – what was she to do?
All she knew was that telling Daring Do that she didn't exist, that her entire world wasn't real and her whole life had been the product of a... a... a story... That... that was just wrong.
There were no words to describe it. It– It was just–
Just–
No. Just... no. She wasn't going to tell her. She couldn't. She couldn't possibly tell her.
Rainbow Dash wasn't the Element of Honesty – telling a more or less convincing lie wasn't beyond her abilities. Maybe she could come up with something using her extensive knowledge of the series? Having read every “Daring Do”-book several times over might prove useful for the task.
Let's see... The Sapphire Stone, Daring Do had gotten that from a temple in a jungle. What was that jungle called again? Hmm... Wait! It was later mentioned the Sapphire Stone had been a part of some Zebrican legend when it was stolen from the Canterlot Archives in “Daring Do and the Sapphire Statue”. (Not to be mistaken for “Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone”, a lot of ponies often got the two confused.)
She could say that she heard the legend from Zecora, the resident zebra of the Everfree Forest. And – superficially at least – she knew enough about Zebrican culture to back up her statement. (They spoke in rhymes and had a peculiar taste in interior decorating.) And... she could just say she had been in Canterlot when the theft took place, overheard some of the guards talking, and put two and two together. Yeah. That might work!
But... the Griffon's Goblet? Oh. Oh horse-apples.
The Goblet had been a sacred artifact, able to temporarily grant anypony who drank from it great magical strength, unicorn or not. The Goblet was fiercely protected by a tribe of griffons that had settled in the Thunderbeak Mountains – and kept a secret for generations. Until Ahuizotl came along trying to steal it.
However, after Daring Do had befriended the griffon elder's daughter, she had managed to convince him to play a part in a massive gamble – totally awesome chapter! – which had ended with Ahuizotl grabbing the wrong goblet in sheer ignorance, but Daring and her new griffon allies giving pursuit anyway and destroying the false artifact in the process.
With Ahuizotl misled to believe the Goblet to be lost forever, the griffin tribe was back to guarding the powerful artifact.
The point was that nopony – nor griffon – was supposed to know of the Goblet. And Dash had let slip that she, in fact, did know of it. Well, buck.
There was no explanation for how she knew things nopony besides Daring and the members of a secret griffin-society should know... except for the truth, and the truth was not an option.
She couldn't even say that she'd met those griffons too. The twenty-something members of the reclusive tribe were hiding away in a deep cave near the top of a blizzard-ridden mountain-range that was supposedly impossible to climb and deadly just by its temperature. Even Daring and Ahuizotl had just barely made it there alive, and only, because they'd been taken in by the tribe.
Were she a unicorn, maybe she could've come up with some shaky excuse, like... having special psychic powers or–
“Ahem.” A decidedly faked cough from Daring brought Dash's train of thought to an unscheduled stop. It was only now that she realized that her mental excursion had likely taken longer than anticipated.
The other mare had stopped eating. Her bowl lay off to the side, still a third full.
“You... kinda spaced out on me there, Dash.” The corners of her mouth twitched up into a smirk at her own remark – but it didn't last. Her expression became utterly neutral, as she addressed Rainbow Dash. “Now... I'm rather intrigued to know where you heard of the Sapphire Stone and the Griffonian Goblet.”
Dash had to swallow a lump in her throat.
She couldn't tell her... but she didn't have a convincing story to tell either. And if she just made something up on the spot, Daring would tear it apart in less than a second. She was trapped.
Rainbow Dash's shoulders slumped in resignation. This was going to get awkward.
“I... I can't tell you.”
For just a fraction of a second, she saw a crack in the mask. It was too short of a time-frame to associate the face with an emotion, though what came afterward was easily identifiable enough. The other mare's eyes narrowed into thin slits, suspicion evident in her expression.
“I see... And why would that be?” she spoke with an icy tone.
“I'm sorry... I really am!” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “But I just can't tell you.”
Daring did not say anything, her expression unmoving – yet the accusation hung in the room, as subtle as a neon-sign in Los Pegasus.
Daring Do uttered a single word.
“...Why?”
“I... I can't...” Dash gulped. Somehow, Daring's stern glare gave her the feeling of being in flight school again, trying to wiggle her way out of a confrontation with the principal after a prank had gone wrong. She visibly had to cringe at the memory. He'd been one of the few ponies able to really get under her skin when she was a filly. That stallion had had this air about him that told you “Young lady, I hold your future in my very hooves. And I do not like what I am seeing here.” This was just like that.
“Where did you learn about it? Who else knows??”
Dash remained silent, biting her lower lip. She couldn't really do much else.
“And just why can't you tell me? Look, it's one thing if you don't want to talk about it – but why won't you talk about it? What's keeping you?” Daring Do slammed a hoof on the table that rattled the plates, her good wing flaring out to its full extent. Rainbow Dash cringed back at her outburst.
'If I tell you what I know, it will shatter your understanding of reality', Dash thought to herself. Yeah, right, if she told her that she'd be pressing even more.
“The... knowledge of how I... err, know, is... uhm, really... bad?” Dash grinned awkwardly at the clumsily bludgeoned attempt at an answer to Daring's query.
Daring Do's expression didn't waver in the slightest. She didn't even blink. Dash could tell that Daring wasn't buying it.
Engaged in a fierce staring competition, beads of sweat were beginning to form on her forehead. Under the scrutiny of Daring's eyes, time seemed to have slowed down to a crawl.
It was one of her intimidation techniques, Dash realized. She'd used it against the guards in “Daring Do and the Diamond Curse”, and then again in “Daring Do and the Seapony's Trident” to get the Sea Stone Key. Daring expected Dash to fold, and wasn't going to back down if she saw a way to get the truth out of her.
Why did Daring's staring make her so nervous, anyway? ...Yes, she had something to hide. But she wasn't doing so for selfish reasons – she was doing this for Daring Do!
Rainbow Dash steeled her resolve and raised her shoulders. Holding her head high, Dash's eyes narrowed as she matched Daring Do's stern gaze. Her sudden change of posture and demeanor did not go unnoticed, but Daring's only reaction was a momentary widening of her irises.
After another immeasurable length of time had passed in silence, Daring Do spoke up.
“Listen, and listen carefully. I don't know who or what your sources are or how much you know. But I can tell you one thing – if word gets out of the Goblet, then ponies' lives are going to be at risk. And I cannot allow that to happen. Do you understand that?”
Dash reeled back in surprise. Ponies' lives? What?!
Daring looked her straight in the eyes. There was the expected fierce, determined glare... but there was also something else in those eyes, a sense of urgency, that really got to Dash.
This is real. Rainbow Dash gulped. The Griffin's Goblet... It wasn't just words on a page anymore. That deadly mountain really was out there, somewhere, she realized. And if word of the Griffin's Goblet got out – or the fact that it still existed... Yes, that would be bad. Very, very bad. Least of all, Ahuizotl would hear of it, sooner or later. It was no wonder, why Daring would be alarmed to hear a pony she had never met before randomly blurt it out straight in her face.
She... she hadn't even thought of it like that.
“I'm sorry, Daring, I...” Rainbow Dash faltered. “Look, I... get that this knowledge is dangerous, I promise I won't tell anypony–”
Dash had to wince the moment she said it. Of course she'd already told somepony. She'd told pretty much all of her friends. Not that Twilight hadn't read the book too. Heck, everypony who read “Daring Do” knew of the “Griffin's Goblet”. It was the second book in the series, after all. “I won't tell anypony in this reality,” she mentally added.
Daring's glare intensified at her slip-up, causing the rainbow-maned pegasus to flinch. She looked at the other mare with a pang of guilt. Daring Do was concerned for the well-being of others. That was what this was about – not simply to satisfy her curiosity. And ironically, Daring had given her the perfect opening.
Dash took a minute to sort out her thoughts. When the cerulean mare spoke next, her voice was firm and determined. “I'm sorry I cannot tell you how I know of the Goblet, but you have my word nopony, griffin, or anything in this world is going to find out about it from me.”
Daring Do was about to speak up, but Dash raised a hoof to forestall any objections.
“And I can't tell you how I know of the Goblet, because that knowledge is dangerous too.” Mainly to Daring herself, but she didn't need to know that.
Daring Do cocked an eyebrow. Her mouth opened, no doubt ready to deliver a sharp-witted rebuttal to the mention of “danger”.
But then she paused, seeming to reconsider her words. It was only for a single moment, but for the first time in the interrogation, Dash seemed to have gotten through to her.
“Dangerous... how, exactly?”
Drat.
Burying her face in her hooves wasn't even a conscious act. Daring just kept on asking the hard questions.
“There... there are just some things that a pony isn't supposed to know,” she sighed tiredly. Only belatedly, she realized that it had been a “Daring Do”-quote. “Daring Do and the Blood Diamond”? Or was it from “Temple of Discord”? Somehow, the details eluded her at the moment.
“Oh.”
Dash perked up at the utterance.
Daring was still looking in her direction, but her eyes betrayed a faraway glance and an expression Dash couldn't decipher.
It took a while, before Daring spoke again.
“What about your sources? If you could find out about it, then...” The adventurer trailed off deliberately, letting the question hang in the air unspoken.
Dash actually had to snort at that one. Her mind had somehow conjured up the mental image of Derpy, delivering the latest “Daring Do”-novel to Ahuizotl by accident.
“Heh. Don't you worry about that,” she snickered, glad for the breather.
Daring Do did still seem plenty worried, however.
“Hehe... Sorry. But seriously, you don't have to worry about that. Trust me on that one.” Rainbow Dash smiled reassuringly at Daring Do.
Daring didn't say anything.
“...No, seriously. I can promise you that the secret is safe with me.” She reassured the other pegasus with a confident grin and a disarming hoof-gesture. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake... err.” Dash interrupted her routine with a sheepish expression when Daring gave her a blank stare. “Err... Never mind. It's a, eh, Ponyville-thing. Ehehe.”
Daring Do hesitated. “And the Sapphire Stone?” she asked, still skeptical.
“Huh? Oh. Yeah, same thing.” Huh. Completely forgot about that one.
There was a long silence after that.
Rainbow Dash didn't know if it had been minutes, or merely seconds – but eventually, Daring broke eye-contact. Closing her eyes, she took one long, deep breath.
Another tedious moment passed, before Daring Do spoke. “Ooooo-kaaaay.” She stretched out the word, slowly and deliberately pronouncing each syllable with emphasis.
Daring stomped a hoof on the ground in irritation as they exited the building. Her hoof hit dirt, and did therefore not produce any audible noise, robbing Daring of the desired effect of venting her frustration.
Even despite this, the adventurer couldn't suppress a slight shudder, remembering the all-too familiar words Dash had spoken in another context entirely.
'There are certain... things in the world, things forgotten by history, even by legends. None but the timeless ones may even remember, and even among them, it is but myth. Even then, they are kept secret, and for good cause. No power is to be gained, no wisdom to be obtained therefrom. The mere notion alone... That way lies only madness.
There... there are just certain things a pony was never meant to know.'
Briefly, Daring felt a cold chill running down the length of her neck. That... had been eery. She did not for a second believe that Dash was privy to anything alike – but it had been a sobering reminder.
Daring Do chanced a look over at Rainbow Dash, who didn't even try to hide her relief.
Well, she didn't outright lie. Instead, Dash had openly admitted she didn't want to tell her how she knew of the artifacts. Despite the lack of answer being suspicious to no end, Daring begrudgingly had to admit that this held a point in her favor.
She didn't have a reason to doubt Dash's story about ending up in the jungle through a magical accident – even the bit about being teleported straight from Equestria was not entirely implausible.
But getting stranded right next to the only pony in the entire jungle?
That was more than a little hard to believe – unless the spell that had brought her here had been directly aimed at Daring Do specifically. Though as far as she could tell, that would only have been possible if she had been carrying an item that had previously been enchanted by the same unicorn who had performed the teleportation-spell... Not that Daring herself was an expert on unicorn-magic, but she had to know a thing or two regarding magic-based trap-mechanisms and all.
But... As much as she tried, Daring honestly couldn't picture Rainbow Dash having some ulterior motive for sticking along. She just didn't seem the type. In a way, the other mare even reminded her of herself. And not just for the obvious reasons.
But, on the other hoof, there was just... something that bothered her about Rainbow Dash, something that seemed more than just a little off. Several things, in fact. But despite that, she seemed genuine.
The troubled expression on her face when Daring had told her ponies' lives were at stake... That was what had sold it. You just couldn't fake that convincingly.
And on top of all of that, she really owed Dash one for saving her sorry flank.
Well, more like that she owed her three, really. (That part with her falling unconscious totally didn't count.)
After spending the last couple months in the less-than-thrilling environment of Canterlot University, had she really been letting herself get this sloppy?
“Thanksh for what?” Daring Do grumbled to herself, irritated. That had been all Rainbow Dash had responded with when Daring had shown her gratitude – and with a full mouth, at that. Yeah, 'thanks for what' indeed.
It made some sense though, now that she thought about it. It seemed Rainbow Dash had gotten a lot of practice, having the creatures of the Everfree right at her doorstep.
Perhaps she'd visit sometime. It might make for an... interesting stay.
All things considered, as much, as her curiosity as both an adventurer and an archeologist demanded an answer to the riddle... She had to accept that Rainbow Dash had a secret, and it seemed she had her good reasons for keeping that secret. Not that she liked it – but she could understand it.
Daring threw another glance over at Rainbow Dash. She was stretching her free wing, probably in some unconscious attempt to compensate for the discomfort in her bandaged wing. Daring Do instinctively brushed a hoof across her own injured appendage.
Yeah. She'd... trust Rainbow Dash.
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