"Isn't it just awesome?" Rainbow squealed.
"It is very exciting, Rainbow. You even look like her a little on the cover!" Twilight explained.
In a moment of clarity, Rainbow Dash looked at the cover again and saw, for what seemed to be the first time, the similarities she and her favorite author had.
"Strange..." she said to herself.
"What is, Sugar Cube?" Apple Jack asked as she entered the Ponyville Library along side Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy.
"It's strange that Daring and I look so alike," explained Rainbow Dash.
Pinkie gasped with shock and excitement.
"What if she is you from a different dimension come here to fight the villain you're supposed to, but aren't! And she is secretly telling every pony this through her stories!" Pinkie shouted.
"Pinkie," Twilight started. "If this is true, then she would have the same coloring," She explained.
But Pinkie would not give up. She explained as she was bouncing, "She obviously puts makeup on! Silly Twilight!"
Rarity looked at Pinkie with a speck of hopelessness.
"Pinkie, dear. This is a little far fetched, even for you," Rarity said
"So you're saying it's a possibility!" Pinkie cheered.
"Um, maybe Rarity is right Pinkie," Fluttershy explained.
"Can I see the book?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow Dash nodded, and handed her the book. She studied it for a while. She started with a simple similarity test, putting the cover beside Rainbow's face to see what that would do. Then she went to her bookshelves to look at books on doppelgangers to see if there were any answers there.
"Help me look through these, girls," Twilight said.
They looked for a good half an hour, but no luck was found.
"Why are we doing this again? It is probably just a coincidence she looks like me," Rainbow explained, defeated.
"I wanted to be sure, Rainbow. Sorry for this goose chase," Twilight said.
"That's okay, Twi. I got an early morning tomorrow, I'm going to bed," Rainbow said.
"Bye, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie shouted.
Rainbow Dash could not stop thinking about Daring Do all the way home. Why did they look so alike? Would she ever find out? Did she even care? She didn't know. She was tired, curious, and invested none-the-less.
"Leave it alone, Rainbow Dash! You need to get home, and you need to sleep!" She told herself.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Rainbow walked through her door, and collapsed on her couch. Not even bothering to go to her bed.
The dream she had that night was unnerving. She was bundled tightly in a baby blanket being held by a mare with a sky blue pelt, and a grey stripped mane.
"Star Map!" A stallion called from behind.
Rainbow Dash could not see the stallion, but she could sense an urgency in his tone.
"Traveler! You shouldn't have left her alone. Go back!" The mare shouted.
"But do you think it is wise to give away this filly when we already know we can train her like her sister?" asked the stallion, calmly.
"I am positive. Now, this is hard enough without you here. Can you please go back to our filly?" asked the mare.
"Yes, Star Map," The stallion said, defeated.
The mare landed in front of... Rainbow Dash's parents' house? She knocked on the door twice before her mother opened the door. The pink mare with an electric blue mane smiled sweetly at the mare.
"Firefly, please. Please take care of my little Dasher until we can assure she'll be safe with us?" The mare pleaded.
"Dasher?" asked Rainbow's mom.
"Is it a colt, or a filly?" she asked again.
"Filly, please Firefly. I wouldn't ask if it weren't the utmost of importance," explained the mare. Rainbow Dash was then taken away from
the mare, and given to her mother.
"Thank you," the mare said before flying off.
Rainbow Dash woke up the next day with more questions than the day before. Was that just a dream?... or was it a distant memory.
XXXX
Daring Do smiled at the good deed she had done for Rainbow Dash, her new friend, yesterday. She had always worked alone until that day, she had no parents to help her, no siblings either, it was always just her. She had to admit it was a great weight off her shoulders to have help, maybe she'd invite Rainbow Dash to one of her adventures some time. Not just then though. She was recovering still, and it wouldn't be long before Arizotal's stallions would be after her for revenge. As it was when she was a filly, as it was then. She couldn't remember a day when she wasn't either hiding, or fighting Arizotal and his men. Always alone. Even as a filly.
Daring hoped Rainbow liked the surprise she sent her. She smiled once again.
"Daring, you clear and kind mare. How can the world live without you?" she thought to herself.
A thought struck her then. Rainbow Dash. She saw a mare like her before. Daring Do searched her brain for a memory of some sort to help her find the mare Rainbow looked like. Then it struck her like a crumbling Castile falling upon her. That morning! In the mirror! Rainbow Dash looked exactly like her! How is that possible?
XXXX
With a determined exhale of breath, Rainbow Dash knocked on her parents' home. Her mother died two years ago, but she was sure she could get some answers from her father.
"Rainbow Dash!" cheered the elderly frog green stallion with a dark grey mane with balding spots, and fake teeth.
His eyes were dimming. When Rainbow Dash was young, she could remember the deep, lively blue they used to be, but it's like the vibrancy had been erased, and the faded blue is all that was left.
"I was wondering if you could answer a few questions I have," explained Rainbow.
Her father nodded, and invited her in.
It's not like Rainbow Dash didn't know she was adopted, she just never wondered about her birth parents until the day before.
"What would you like to know, Dashie?" asked her father.
Rainbow Dash sighed before she asked, "Who were my birth parents, and why did they leave me?"
Her father looked at her sorrowful, and answered, "Your mom was Star Map, and your dad was Traveler. They explored and mined for a living. They wanted to keep you safe because the job was getting too dangerous to have you around, and that's why your mom and I raised you,"
her father explained. Rainbow Dash chose to say the next sentence very carefully. She didn't want to say the wrong thing, and upset her father.
"Did- did they ever say that they were coming back for me?" she asked.
"No," her father said.
That part must have been the dream then, Rainbow concluded.
"Anything else you have questions about?" asked her father.
"Did you name me 'Rainbow Dash', or did my parents?" she asked.
"No. Before we took you in, your name was simply 'Dasher'. We named you 'Rainbow Dash', after we figured out that you loved to race, even at a year old," her father explained.
After hugging her father goodbye, Rainbow Dash set out for Canterlot to find any sort of biography on Daring Do/ A.K Yearling.
XXXX
Daring Do shot out of her cottage like a lightning bolt.
"Celestia's grace! I have to find a reasonable conclusion for this misunderstanding. Rainbow and I are nothing but friends! And I am going to prove it!" Daring spoke aloud, still flying fast.
Then a thought stops her in her tracks.
"How am I supposed to do this? I have no family history, and no access to books or belongings of either of her parents. Where ever they are," Daring asked herself.
She then sat down, and started to panic. What was she doing? How did she expect to find all that she needed? Did she want to know? Did she care? She didn't know.
"I work alone," She told Rainbow Dash.
But why? When did it start? Was it because solitude was all she knew? Perhaps, but for how long? Daring's head became dizzy from all the unanswered questions in her head, and she couldn't concentrate. Then she heard a twig snap behind her. She turned to see one of Arizotal's goons prowling towards her. She knew it was only a matter of time before they were after her. Might as well be when she was off guard, and unprepared.
"Bring it!" She shouted, getting into fighting position.
XXXX
Rainbow Dash had gotten to the library, right as the librarian was going for a cafe break.
"Please miss, can I use the library? I promise I won't steel any books," she explained.
"I'm sorry," said the elderly grey mare.
"But I can't leave this library unattended in my absence," said the mare.
"Listen, this is kinda a really big deal for me. I need to look up facts about my favorite author to see if we're related," said Rainbow.
The librarian laughed in her face!
"Oh, what a silly fantasy you have created! Sorry dear, the answer is still no," The mare said, wiping a tear off her face.
Some joke! What if she was right though? What if they aren't related at all?
It's not like she didn't have doubts, but it was fun to do the research. Maybe if the princesses... no! Rainbow Dash would not bother their majesties for something they wouldn't care about. Besides, it was her family history, so it was her problem. She flew away, angry with the mare. Rainbow was determined to prove her own doubts, and now this mare wrong! She flew to the Ever Free to ask Zacora for any information, if any, she had on her family. She knocked twice before she heard,
"Come in friend or foe so that I can tell you what you need to know," from inside the hut.
"Hey Zacora," Rainbow said.
"Rainbow Dash! Good to see you, why would you like to know anew?" Zacora asked.
"Well, I do have questions, I just don't-"
"You don't thing I have the answers? The answers I do have. They come in three, I'll explain while you have tea," said Zacora.
Shocked, Rainbow Dash did what she was told to.
"Now Rainbow," Zacora started.
"Your questions are about your family's back story. The first answers are from your father Star Free. Next is yours truly. The final is from the thing you never thought, but that is the number three," She explained.
Rainbow just looked confused.
"What thing? Where do I find it?" she asked.
"Drink your tea, Rainbow. And then you can go," said Zacora.
Again, Rainbow Dash did as she was told. When she finished,
Rainbow Dash asked, "How do you know what I want to know?"
"Not the right time, I am only a zebra who speaks in rhyme. Go now before you run out of time!" Zacora said.
"That was a little out of character," thought Rainbow as she flew away.
The thing I never thought... the thing I never thought. What does that mean? I guess I should do some more research... thought Rainbow as she flew further away from Zacora's hut. She arrived back in Ponyville to the whole town calling her name.
"What in the name of Celestia is going on?" She asked.
"Rainbow!" Pinkie shouted as she ran to Rainbow Dash.
"When I went to your house, and saw you weren't there I thought something horrible could have happened! So I told the whole town to start looking!" Pinkie explained.
"Where did you go?" Twilight asked, trotting up to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.
"I went to my father's house in Cloudsdale, and then to the Canterlot library, but the librarian wouldn't let me in, and then Zacora's!" Rainbow explained simply.
"Why? Because of the book cover?" asked Twilight.
The entire town was surrounding them, and Rainbow Dash didn't want them to.
"Can we go somewhere privet?" she asked.
"Yes, we can go to Sweet Apple Acres! I'm sure Apple Jack would want to know this too. Rarity and Fluttershy as well," Twilight said.
So they walked away from the town, and down the street to Sweet Apple Acres. Rainbow really didn't want to bother her friends with this mission, it was her mission after all, but with no ideas of where to look next, she really had no choice anymore. All four friends arrived with in minutes of each other, all wondering the same thing,
"What to do next?"
When Rainbow Dash went over, in detail, her adventures of the day, all that was shown was blank/surprised looks on her friends' faces.
"What did Zacora mean by 'The thing you never expect'?" Twilight asked.
"Weren't you listening? I don't know!" Rainbow said, giving up almost completely.
"Could it mean Discord? Would he know about if you're related to Daring Do?" Apple Jack asked.
"Wouldn't Zacora just say Discord? I don't think he's the one," Fluttershy explained.
"Well who else do we know who we'd think wouldn't be apart of this?" Rarity asked.
"The only other ponies I can think of are the princesses, but that couldn't be right, could it?" Rainbow explained.
"No, it has to be someone more astray from your life," Twilight explained.
"The Flim Flam brothers?" Apple Jack asked.
"Gilda?" Pinkie questioned.
The longer they stayed in the barn and thought, the more obscure their answers became.
"Berry Punch?"
"Derpy?"
"Mr. and Mrs. Cake?"
"Oh, just forget it!" Rainbow Dash yelled.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow, we're only trying to help," Rarity explained.
"Well, you can stop, because this is hopeless!" Rainbow Dash yelled, exasperated.
She flew out of the barn, leaving all her friends alone. Why would she even want to know if she is related to Daring Do? She was already great friends with her, why did she need to have a sister? Besides, Scootaloo is kind of like a sister, sure they weren't related but that was cool to her. She walked into her house, and there was Daring Do herself waiting for her!
"What?" asked Rainbow Dash.
She was bleeding, and out of breath. Her hat was in shreds, and she could barely stand up straight.
"I got to tell you something, and you won't like it," Daring Do explained.
She fainted.