• Published 26th Sep 2013
  • 5,877 Views, 203 Comments

The Skin Horse - Obselescence



It's Rainbow Dash's birthday soon, and Twilight's got the best present ever planned: a living copy of Dash's favorite fictional character. One who will do her very best in living up to the legacy of the one and only Daring Do.

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Chapter Five

“Archaeologist adventurer extraordinaire!” she said. “The bravest, strongest, pegasus on land or in the sky! You won’t find a pony anywhere who’s cooler than I am, or I’ll eat my hat...” She paused to fish the All-Powerful Panther Scepter out from the snake pit. “...And I’m not feeling hungry right now.”


I’m not sure what I was thinking of when Dash said Ghastly Gorge, but it must’ve been something like this. It looks like it came straight off a Daring Do book cover: all craggy black rocks and tall dark trees. It’s big, too. Deeper and wider than any scary chasm I’ve ever seen—not that I’ve actually seen any, I guess. I’ve read about them, though, and for a scary chasm, Ghastly Gorge does pretty well for itself.

A loud, ghostly wail echoes through the Gorge. The final warning that this place is dangerous.

“You ready, Ahuitzotl?” says Dash, stretching. “Last chance to back out if you’re scared. ’Cause, y’know, if I win, you’ve technically got to eat your hat.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I snap, my cheeks growing hot. I shouldn’t have lost that last race. “I get it. So you’re a little faster than I am.” I give Ghastly Gorge another quick scan, mapping out every possible path through the winding caverns and twisting thorn-bushes. I grin. Dash may have me beat in a straight-up race, but this is an obstacle course, and I know those like the back of my hoof. “You’re still gonna lose, though.”

“As if,” Dash snorts. She sets herself down by the edge of our starting line. “Bet you’ve never even seen a quarray eel.”

“Bet I could eat ’em for breakfast,” I grumble back. Just a little more bravado. Daring can eat a lot of things for breakfast. With the taunt-trading out of the way, I take my spot right beside her, as ready as I’ve ever been. I adjust my hat a little, to make sure it’ll stay squarely on my head, take a deep breath, and start the count. “On your mark…”

Dash paws eagerly at the ground. “Get set…”

“Go!”

I shoot off like a rocket, giving it my all right out of the gate. Dash gets an early lead even so, but this part of the race is just a straight flight. The rock pillars are coming up fast, and that’s where the real race will begin.

“Easy peasy,” I call to Dash, weaving left and right through the rocks. It isn’t any harder than navigating bookshelves back at the library, and I’ve done that without trouble a thousand times.

“Easy peasy!” Dash agrees, slowing down only slightly to dodge the pillars, flying past them like they’re hardly even there.

I frown as I notice that we clear the maze at the exact same time, neck and neck. That’s—a little disappointing. A lot disappointing, even. The pillars were supposed to slow her down more than that. She wasn’t supposed to be able to get past them so easily. I’m supposed to have the lead now! That’s what I was counting on!

How am I supposed to beat her if she’s just as good at dodging crazy obstacles as I am?

“Eyes on the prize!” Dash calls, and I turn my attention away from her just in time to notice the thorn bushes closing in on me.

“Woah!” I swerve just in time to avoid tumbling into a wall of thorns. The bushes are so thick in this part of the Gorge that it’s almost impossible to find an opening—not without slowing down to look for one, and I can’t do that if I’m going to beat Dash.

I leave it to my reflexes to find the quickest path through the thorns, vaguely aware of the prickly barbs catching and tearing at my jacket. I keep my hat held on tight and press past the pain as the thorns start to scratch through my outfit and into my coat. Not too bad, I guess... I’ve had worse papercuts. The jacket’s going to be a loss—Rarity will be furious at me when we get back—but Daring always takes a couple nicks when the going gets rough.

It’s not suspenseful if the hero doesn’t get at least a few bumps and bruises before she wins.

Fresh sunlight greets me as I finally make it through all the thorn bushes. I turn my head slightly to check for Dash, and—ha!—she isn’t there! She must still be caught in the thorns… And that means I’m in the lead now!

I put everything I’ve got into making this final dash. There are no obstacles left up ahead of me. Just another eerie, empty stretch of Ghastly Gorge—and, past that, no more Gorge. The finish line is in sight. If I can just make it there before Dash can catch up, I’ll win. And then, finally, she’ll have to admit that I’m Daring. Not just some actor pony playing a part, not some pretender with a hat and jacket, but the real, honest-to-goodness Daring Do.

Because, when the chips were down, the game was up, and nopony thought I could beat Rainbow Dash—I did.

I can almost see it now: Dash throwing a tantrum at the finish line before finally admitting she was wrong, and maybe that I’m pretty cool after all. Twilight and Rarity congratulating me on a job well done back at the party. Maybe even a book written about my exploits: Daring Do and the Dastardly Dash. Probably not as epic as some of the other books, but...

Well, who knows? The sky’s the lim—

Crack!

Something shifts in the Gorge’s walls. Rocks start to tumble down from above, and it seems like the Gorge itself is starting to rumble. An awful, nasally shriek pierces the air, then another, and another, until it feels like an entire chorus is howling right at me.

“Wait!” calls a voice from somewhere far behind me. Rainbow Dash. “Watch out for the quarray eels!”

“Quarray eels?” What is she talking about? Where would an eel be hiding in a place like—oh. From a pitch-black hole in the Gorge’s walls, just large enough to house a giant eel, a pair of beady yellow eyes lock onto me. I gasp. “Quarray eels!”

It snaps out from its cave faster than my eyes can follow—a slimy red blur, with a mouth big enough to swallow me whole. I’m already in motion, my body working purely on reflex now, but it’s too late. A sharp, stinging pain shoots through my wings as the eel’s massive teeth sink into them, magnified by a thousand as the eel shakes and tears them free.

My vision blurs and my head swims. Am I falling now? I must be. I don’t have any wings. There’s a terrible, throbbing ache where they used to be—where they might’ve been—but it’s going away, slowly. There’s a muffled thud as my body finally collides with the ground. It hurts, but it’s a dull pain. Not as bad as I’d expected.

That’s something, I guess.

“Hold on, I’m coming!” says Dash’s voice, from awfully far away. I open my eyes and I can see her, just barely. A little rainbow arcing through a field of thick red lines. I can’t help but laugh, as much as I can manage. It’s not fair. She’s better at dodging quarray eels too.

“Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot! I didn’t—I don’t—” says Dash. She sounds closer now, like she’s right beside me. Maybe she is. “Where’d it get you? Are you bleeding?”

“Wings,” I groan. I roll over and gingerly reach a hoof out to the wound. I almost expect to touch hot, sticky blood, but all I can feel is soft and billowy stuffing. The kind you’d find in a mannequin.

Dash gasps. Maybe she’s horrified that I lost my wings. Or maybe she’s realizing that I’m not really the real life, flesh-and-blood Daring Do, or an actor playing her, or even a pony at all. I’m just a regular old mannequin with a particularly intricate cocktail of illusion and come-to-life spells stacked on, not built to take this kind of abuse.

I don’t blame her for being shocked. It took me a long time to figure that out too.

I don’t know why I bothered. Why Twilight bothered. I’m not Daring Do. I never rescued an artifact or saved the world. Why did I ever think I’d get away with acting like a pony who could?

“Oh shoot, oh shoot… All right, Daring? Hold on, okay? I’ll bring you back to Twilight and she can... magic... something... no, wait, I’ll get you to Rarity and she can sew you up again. Just hold on.”

“Hold on to what?” I ask Dash, the words sounding strange and blocky in my mouth. “I’m not Daring, remember?”

Something warm and wet lands on my side. Tears? Why is she crying? All I did was prove her right. She gathers up all the dirty stuffing around and tries to force it back in through the rips. I watch her do it, but I can’t feel it. I can’t feel anything in that part of my body anymore. Not even the pain. “It’s going to be okay, Daring. You’ll be fine. We’ll make you better and—”

“No, Dash, you don’t have to,” I interrupt. “I’m not going to be fine, and I’m not Daring Do.” I roll over, trying to keep her from putting any more of my stuffing back in me. “Just leave me here.”

“Hey, no, don’t say that,” says Rainbow Dash with a sniffle. She pushes me back and grabs another hoof-full of stuffing. “Daring Do doesn’t leave anypony behind. Ever! You know that!”

I stop. My mouth opens for a moment, but no words come out. No, I guess Daring doesn’t leave anypony behind. Page 390, Daring Do and the Emerald Mask. I do know that. It’s so basic. How could I have forgotten?

How could Rainbow Dash have remembered?

I look back at Dash, still trying to stick my wings back on, hoping against hope that there’s something she can do to save me. There isn’t, but that she’s trying anyway is—well, I guess that’s pretty heroic. Maybe I’m not cut out to be Daring Do after all. Maybe nobody is... but I think I know a pony who gets pretty close.

“It’s all right, Dash,” I tell her. “I just wanted to be the best Daring Do that I could be... and, y’know? I think I was. I was the best I could be.” I grin weakly at her. “I guess my best wasn’t all that good, but I can’t ask for much more than what I got.”

“That’s stupid,” says Dash, she sets my wings down, finally accepting that she can’t shove them back on. “I mean, I-I thought you were pretty good…”

I know she’s lying—she must be—but somehow it makes me feel a little bit better. It’s not every day that Rainbow Dash gives you a compliment. “Maybe...” I say. “But I want you to promise me something, will you? I’m sorry. It’s your birthday; you’re supposed to ask me for things, not the other way around.”

“That’s stupid too,” says Rainbow Dash, laughing. More tears fall. “Stop being stupid. Of course I’ll promise. I promise I’m gonna be the best Daring Do I can be, too. I’ll make you proud.”

With what little energy I can muster, I lift a pale yellow foreleg—getting paler by the second—and bonk her on the forehead. “No, you doofus. Why would I want you to promise that? I want you to promise me that you’ll be the very best Rainbow Dash you can be.”

She gives me a little smile. “I don’t know if I can get any more awesome than I already am, but yeah. Yeah, I promise.”

“Thanks.” I nod. I believe her. I didn’t do a whole lot as the best Daring Do I could be, but if Dash gets just a little better because of me, that’s enough. More than enough, really. I lay my head back down on the ground, looking up at Rainbow Dash. There’s a light shining down on us from up high, casting her wings in dark silhouette. Or maybe I just can’t make out colors anymore. Somewhere above her, though, it must still be there—the sun in that cool blue sky. “Hey, Rainbow Dash?” I ask her. “How do you think the books should end?”

Rainbow Dash’s mane shifts behind her as she shakes her head. “End? Why would they ever end? Daring Do’s never going to stop going on adventures, even if there aren’t any more being written.”

“See, I don’t think I like that,” I say. I try to continue but my throat feels all clogged up and my words devolve into a coughing fit. I feel something lodge in the back of my throat, and spit out some shredded pieces of cloth and a button. “I think it’s important to have a good ending. Every book’s got to have an ending.”

“All right, how would you end them?” she asks.

It’s almost… surreal, how this all ended up. No racing, no rivalry, no fighting... Nothing at all like I’d imagined when I first met Rainbow Dash. It’s just two friends now, chatting about our favorite books while I fade away.

“I think... I think Daring has one last big, totally amazing adventure. Then... maybe she gets hurt or something and can’t go out into the field anymore. She’s still teaching, but she’s really unhappy because there’s still so much she never got to do.”

“No way, that’s an awful ending!” protests Rainbow Dash.

“I wasn’t finished,” I tell her. Another cough. Another few scraps of tattered cloth. “So… so she’s in her office one afternoon looking at all the old mementos and trophies from all her adventures over the years, all reminiscing and stuff. And then, see... a young filly—a student in one of her classes—she knocks on her door and comes inside. She’s all excited about something she found in a book in the library, and shows it to Daring. Some new treasure or ruins or something. There always seem to be a lot of those lying around her world, aren’t there?” I chuckle a bit at my own lame joke.

“Yeah,” says Dash, chuckling a bit herself. “There sure are. It’s kinda lame how all those ancient cults and stuff left all those superpowered artifacts lying around for the bad guys to find, isn’t it?”

“So, so then,” I say, “the filly tells her that Daring’s her hero, and that she’s going to go out and investigate because Daring’s stories have inspired her. And as she leaves… as she leaves, Daring realizes that even though she isn’t the one adventuring now, she’s still making the world a better place, because of all the ponies she’s still helping. She didn’t even realize that the greatest treasure she ever found wasn’t some ring or jeweled scepter... but the hope she gave them.”

“That’s totally cheesy,” says Dash and then she gently smiles at me. “Still, I guess that’d be a cool way to end it. If it has to end.”

“It does, Dash. I told you, every book’s got to end.” I squeeze my eyes shut and try to compose myself. I don’t know what happens next. It seems like eternity now since that very first moment, when I woke up in Twilight’s library. “I’m really scared, Rainbow.”

“What? No way!” Dash says. She lays down next to me and runs a hoof gently through my mane. It feels almost like yarn as it falls against the back of my neck. “Daring Do isn’t afraid of anything, remember? I don’t care what you say, you were a totally amazing her.”

“Yeah, I guess I was, wasn’t I?” I rest my head against her and close my eyes. I’m pretty sure I feel them stitch themselves closed when I do. It’s an odd feeling, but not uncomfortable. I don’t think I’ll be opening them again anyway. “Thanks for reminding me...”

I exist.

And then just like that, I don’t anymore.

Comments ( 149 )
Eakin #1 · Sep 26th, 2013 · · 1 ·

Since I wrote (a bit less than) half of this, I just wanted it to make it known that Obs is a phenomenal collab partner. Equally willing to listen to ideas as he is to poke me with a stick when I'm being stupid or negligent.

Been great fun working with Eakin through this. Hope you guys liked it as much as we liked working on it!

Wanderer D
Moderator

I did! :pinkiehappy:

Well aren't you two a winning combo.

Wow , this is a fantastic story. :twilightsmile:

a3V
a3V #6 · Sep 26th, 2013 · · 3 ·

I was kind of hoping for an epilogue. The ending was a bit abrupt, but I guess it was par for the course with the whole "I suddenly don't exist anymore" thing.

Pretty good stuff.

7/7 would read again.

A story about creating life/intelligence that isn't tragic/horrifying?

dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw3192_small.jpg

This sounds... almost a little dark. Now, I haven't started reading the story yet, but I know, a not-real pony created by magic to mimic a fictional character is going to lead to either something very sad, depressing, hilarious or dark... or most likely all three. Not quite sure.

Anyways, it's a great idea. Let's get reading.

...Wow.
Just, wow.
That was awesome.

Interesting idea. And with two phenomenal people having written it, I believe this is a great addition to my read later list. I'll like for the troubles.

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

3259627 Why would you even start off assuming that this story would have sucked? The description itself is perfect representation of what you're getting into. And let me tell you, and a damn nice description.

3258944 That tends to happen with the death of flesh and blood things too...

We are all Velveteen Rabbits... no hope... no hope... :raritydespair:

3259591
Oh. Right, That's why everyone started using it.

Wow.

I'm going to reference this story to all my buds now. :rainbowderp:

Wow. :fluttercry:That was darn good. About what I expected from this duo.:twilightsheepish:

I demand more Eakselescence.

3260055
I'm game, but Obs did a great deal of prodding while I got sidetracked over the course of this fic. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again.

3260082
I'd definitely read more from you two.
Obs, it's your turn to weigh in now.

3260055
3260082

I'd totally be down for it.

3260099
Let the brainstorming... commence!

(Followed immediately by sleep. Seriously, it's like 2:00 AM here.)

3260082
Also, I'm kinda curious about the collaboration process you two used. I've noticed while reading other collab stories that a significant or at least noticeable style change happens between different authors writing different parts, so you can point out who wrote what section of the story. I didn't notice that here. Did you two break the story into sections that you each wrote or did you do something different?

3260109
Kinda. We each wrote different segments of the story, but there were extensive edits after the initial prose was on the page.

If you can't tell where we switched from one author to another, well, then I guess we did our job, didn't we?:pinkiehappy:

3260109

We took turns writing segments of arbitrary length (mostly defined by "WELL THIS SEEMS LIKE A PRETTY GOOD PLACE TO STOP") then went back over it later and reworked things to help equalize the styles.

Looks like it worked pretty well in this case

3260109>>3260129
There was also a half-completed rough draft that got to about where chapter two ended, but vastly worse.

We started over, and I doubt either of us regret doing so

3260129>>3260153
It definitely worked well. I honestly have no idea where the story is segmented at all.
Thanks for answering guys.

that ending, my heart. I liked it upvote and fave if only there's an epilogue of after.

I has a sad now. Good story.
Oh and happy crappy birthday Rainbow, hope you liked it ! :trollestia:

I'm not crying...
It's...
Liquid manliness...

Damn. This ending.

Beautiful.

You two need to do this more often.

~Skeeter The Lurker

Hats off to this one. It's been ages since I've done a proper collab with someone, and I'm starting to itch that direction now. Kudos!

Dang it! You used a Velveteen Rabbit refference, now I'm all but required to read this story.:rainbowderp:

I'm so sad, but also so happy, but so sad...

Mah feelz are broke-ed right now.

So why does this not have a tragedy tag? :fluttershysad:

3260740
Because this isn't a tragic story.

3260750

To me, a tragedy is losing something you can never recover. Seeing the world through not-Daring's eyes makes us feel for her, especially with how very well written this was. Losing her at the end of the story? That's a tragedy.

That ending hit me right in my feels...:fluttercry:

3260768
Ah. We have different definitions of tragedy then. For me, the fact that she reverted to mannequin form completely content with what she accomplished excludes tragedy,

Wow... that was... introspective... Good job you two. :twilightsmile:

All the best in your future writing! :rainbowkiss:

Pega-ace

This story was insanely well done. Bravo.

The Velveteen Rabbit... yikes. I'd forgotten that old story.

Given the quote you used, I will be extremely disappointed if there doesn't turn out to be a surprise epilogue...

Fucking Beautiful

'M not upset. *wipes eyes*

I'm getting feels just thinking about this story....

Velveteen Rabbit?

The first feels bomb ever dropped upon a child? The first story with a legitimate emotional impact?

Fuck yeah I'm reading this.

Holy shit, this idea sounds incredible. Definitely reading.

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