Daring Danger Dash

by Omen

Daring Do and the Scroll of Geniology

“Curse you, Daring Doooooooooo!” Ahuizotl yelled as she idly soared away into the azure sky. “I will have my revenge!”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” Daring do was about to slip the Silver Arrow of Robin Wood under her pith helmet but stopped herself at the last second. After the incident with the Spirit Dagger of Whinnie Tooth she had made a mental note not to carry hazardous objects where they could easily cut her.

Not that the arrow was dangerous, per se, but getting cut today along with all the bruises Ahuizotal gave her during their little dance wasn’t very high on her to-do list. She carried it in her hooves until she finally reached her temporary camp, far enough away from the heart of the Shearwood Forest to make it impossible for the evil villain’s minions to jump her anytime within the next twenty-four hours.

She flung the small silver arrow onto her bedroll. Another mistake, she thought, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, one she had not made since her adventure with the Egg of the Water Drake. She picked it up, irritation showing clearly with every movement, and sat down at the crate that served as her desk. She quickly ignited a match and lit the gas lamp on the table. It was already getting dark, after all.

Immediately, a swarm of moths were drawn to the lightsource. Daring Do rubbed one beige hoof over her magenta eyes and pulled her note book from the saddlebags resting at the foot of the crate and opened it. She dipped a quill into ink and started writing.

Day five of the Shearwood Expedition. Met Ahuizotl. We had another fight. Might’ve fractured a rib or two.

She closed the book and dropped the quill, then picked it back up with a groan. She opened the book again, searching for the right page, due to having forgotten to bookmark it. As she turned pages her eyes skimmed over the tight, orderly lines of text that had, in conjunction with her memory, created the Daring Do book series so many ponies in Equestria loved. Especially… her.

Daring shook her head once more, splashing droplets of ink over her journal from the quill in her mouth. Then she found a single page where two lines had been sloppily scribbled down. She looked at them blankly and added, found a silver arrow. Don’t know what it does.

With an irritated groan she shut the book once more, using the quill itself as a bookmark this time. “What in Tartarus’s name is wrong with me?” she huffed, falling on her back and folding her hooves behind her head. “I did it again! Cheers for the hero! Daring Do prevents Ahuizotl or any other villain from using the… obscure magic of the Silver Arrow to cause calamity! Yay!” It was a forced cheer.

She felt like there was a little devil sitting on her shoulder, whispering in her ear that she knew exactly what was the matter. The kid…

She just couldn’t take her mind off Rainbow Dash. Something about that energetic, superexcited fangirl had struck her eye, and she just couldn’t figure out what it was. In some respects Rainbow Dash was a lot like Daring. She had not hesitated to throw herself into harm’s way. In fact she had enjoyed it. And then there were other things, like her polychrome mane that reminded Daring of her her own, and her magenta eyes.

“It’s like looking in a mirror,” Daring mumbled. She just couldn’t get the cyan pegasus out of her head. Finally she got up, wiping down her tan shirt. “Okay, that’s it. I’m stashing the arrow here and then I’m gonna find that pegasus.” She made a mental note to drop by one of her other trasure hoards before she left. Sure, getting Rainbow Dash’s address had been simple enough, but it never hurt to have some extra directions. After all, for a mare willing to come all the way out here just to be a fangirl, who’s to say she wasn’t on a crazy trip halfway across the sea by now? The compass of Pirate Colt Sparrow could certainly come in handy.

***

Rainbow Dash stirred from her nap on the clouds and stretched like an oversized, winged cat, with a satisfied grin plastered on her face. It was a great day to be napping in the clouds. Celestia’s sun shone warmly down onto Ponyville, there was no disaster or apocalypse threatening the quaint little town.

“Time to get to work again!” Rainbow Dash grinned excitedly as she propped herself up and got to her hooves. Her wings stretched, letting the cool wind pass through her feathers, moving them ever so slightly. With her trademark smile still tight on her lips she dipped over and fell from the cloud, delivering to it a kick during her passage. The construct of fluffy white and moisture evaporated seemlessly at the force and angle of her buck.

Her smile widened even more as a faint haze of moisture wafted over her. She took pride in her job, and cloudbusting was not as easy as weather ponies made it look. Then, getting back to the task at hoof, Rainbow Dash pivoted in the air, closing her eyes. She was falling, backwards, completely blind. The wind in her ears rose to a screeching wail.

She could make out the sweet smell of apple trees below her.

Not yet.

She screwed her eyes shut, refusing to look. Gravity tugged at her, bringing her down even faster. The scent of apple became more powerful as she fell.

Not yet!

Her tail swayed behind her in an almost straight line, her mane was blown around the frame of her features by the oncoming wind. The scents from the ground, sweet apples along with wet grass became so strong she could almost taste them. The howling of the wind blotted out every other sound.

“Now!” She tensed her wings, performing a mid-fall barrel roll and angled upwards. Her hooves brushed over the top of Applejacks prized apple trees as she opened her eyes and rocketed back into the sky with a exuberant cheer. She knew these skies as well as no other pegasus.

Adrenaline surged through her body as she began her routine, performing sharp turns that would be impossible for any pegasus without her experience. Years of practice came into play as she gave her workout everything she had, diving, weaving, and flying backwards, performing barrle roll after barrel roll, following up with a corkscrew loop, one of the most difficult exercises.

Rainbow Dash’s wings felt like they were on fire by the time she was done, and so did the rest of her body. Her lungs, her heart, her limbs, tensed up to aid in maneuvering through the vast expanse that she called her domain, all of it. And she loved the sensation. It was probably one of the most rewarding sensations in the world.

Coming out of another mid-air summersault Rainbow Dash leveled her trajectory and accelerated. She drew more air under her wings with every flap, speeding up beyond the capabilities of most pegasi, trying to test her limits. Of course it wasn’t really all that much of a workout, she thought, considering she could breach the spectrum barrier at will, but if she really wanted to defend her title as fastest pegasus in Equestria from challengers like Fleetfoot or Spitfire, the captain of the wonderbolts, she would need to be able to pull it off consecutively.

But in the end, performing a sonic rainboom so close to Ponyville would be a very bad idea, Dash decided. Too much collateral damage. She didn’t mind, though. Her workout had her pretty beat, this round being the third she had completed since she got out of bed that morning, so she was content with simply flying over to her own house. As she neared the Testament to Rainbow Dash’s ego as her father had lovingly dubbed it, she flared out her wings further to bleed some speed, coming to a perfect halt in front of her door. She dropped down on the foundation and made her way to the porch with a satisfied hum.

“Hey there, Dash,” a raspy voice greeted her as soon as put a hoof on the door.

Rainbow Dash came to a standstill, trying to fit the voice into her memory of ponies while simultaniously searching for its owner. She was sure she had heard that particular voice before, but where…?

The answer came to her as she looked upwards into a pair of brilliant magenta eyes, peering at her from underneath strands of grey. Golden features had spread into a friendly smile with which Daring Do regarded her number one fan. “Come on, you’re supposed to be fast! You do remember me, right?”

“D-Daring D-Do?” Rainbow Dash squealed.

“In the flesh!” the mare in the tan shirt and pith helmet said smirking. “Long time no see. Well, not surprising considering that I live at the other end of Equestria.” Daring gently touched down on the cloud, sending a tingle through it and into Rainbow Dash’s hooves. “So, how’ve you been?”

“I… You… Great, thanks…” Rainbow still stared with her mouth hanging open. Then, suddenly, as if waking up from a very vivid dream, she shook her head. “Sorry, I guess I just didn’t expect to see one of my heroes showing up on my doorstep.”

“One of our heroes?” Dasing Do said with a raised eyebrow. “Now I’m excited to meet the other ones!”

Dash chuckled slightly at that and motioned towards the door. “Would you like to come in?”

“Sure!” Daring followed the blue pegasus into her cloudhouse. “You know, you’re one hell of a flier. I tried to catch up to you, but considering I was wearing my A. K. Yearling disguise... Well, let's just say eeing an elderly mare speed across the sky like a canonball isn’t exactly inconspicuous,” she said, motioning to her saddlebags.

“You coulda called my name,” Dash remarked as she led Daring into her livingroom and motioned for her to sit down at the couch. Dash took the empty space next to her. “Sorry ‘bout that,” she muttered as her flank brushed along Daring’s. “I rarely get visitors up here, so there’s not much in the way of furniture ‘n stuff…”

“That’s alright,” Daring retorted with a chuckle. “And about calling your name, I did. Three times. Then I stopped and watched you perform, which was totally worth the wait. You could become a wonderbolt! I mean, I said I could’ve caught up to you, but honestly, I doubt I’m fast enough.”

“Heh…” Dash rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “Well, I did join the wonderbolts reserves, and Spitfire says I have potential, but – hmpf?" Her eyes darted to Daring’s as the older mare pressed a hoof on her mouth.

“Hang on a sec there, champ, did you just say Spitfire?” Daring slowly, very slowly lifted her hoof.

Dash shifted on the couch, uncomfortable with the sudden development. “Y-yeah. She kinda is my idol…”

Daring Do’s lips parted in a wide grin. “So Spits really made it into the wonderbolts, and now she’s training you?”

“I-I guess – wait, Spits? You know the captain of the wonderbolts?”

“Small world, isn’t it…” Daring noted, turning her gaze ahead to some unfixed point in the distance. “Spitfire and I were in flightschool together. Of course she was at the top of the class, her father being one of the most renowned fliers around. Well, so was mine, but I never really cared all that much. I hated the restrictions. So as fate would have it, Spitfire and I got into some scuffles with each other. Well, specifically I and her best friend, Nightshade. I wonder how they’re doing…”

Dash shrugged and grinned. “I’ve never really met this Nightshade, but Spitfire is doing great. I’d tell her you said Hi, but I really don’t wanna get booted from the academy!”

Daring let loose a hearty laugh and put her hoof around Dash’s neck. “That’s the spirit! You know kid, you’re pretty cool!”

“Of course I am, I’m Rainbow Danger Dash!”

“Oooh, middle name being Danger? Quite the fan I got myself there!” Daring grinned.

Dash went along with her laughing, but eventually it died down. After she had regained her composure, she started, “You know, Daring Do - ”

“Just Daring will be fine.”

“Okay, Daring. I really like having you here, but I was wondering, is there maybe some reason you decided to drop by?”

Daring ruffled Dash’s mane. “Tell you what, you get me something to drink, and I’ll spill the beans. Deal?”

“Deal!” Dash chortled as she got up and made her way to the kitchen across the corridor. “But you’ll have to settle for hot chocolate. Twilight’d kill me if she ever saw me keeping alcohol in my house.”

“What, you’re not old enough to drink? But sure, it’ll Do.” She grinned at her own joke.

“Well, I am sixteen, but Twilight really freaks out about it, alcohol being a mental deterrent or something. Of course, having Applejack as a friend means I have access to her private stash of apple cider, but I don’t rub it in Twi’s face.” She took two cups from the top shelf of her kitchen cupboard and filled them with equal amounts of coca powder. Then she set a pot of milk on the oven and started a fire.

“So, Twilight is the purple one, and Applejack the one with the Apple Cutie Mark?” Daring called from the livingroom, where she sat arms laid back over the couch. “I didn’t really get to meet all of them, seeing as I made a rather hasty exit.” She looked around and noticed a picture frame hanging on the wall above the fireplace. It held the photo of a happy family, a couple with a young filly with a polychrome mane. Daring’s smile waned slightly as memories from her own childhood resurfaced.

“Yeah, that’s right. AJ is the one supplying most of ponyville with crops. I sometimes wonder how she does it, but then again, her whole family pitches in to help. And Twilight, aka Princess Twilight, is living in the Golden Oak Library. Maybe we should go meet them and hang out, since you’re already here!” Dash suggested, filling the cups with hot milk and stirring the quickly darkening liquid with a spoon out of one of the drawers.

“I’d rather not,” Daring mouthed, fidgeting a bit. “Not that I don’t trust your friends, and I’ll certainly drop by again to get to know them, but the last time I met a princess before that, it really didn’t go well…”

“That right? Wasn’t in one of your books.” Dash returned, wings flapping, with two cups balanced on her hooves and offered her heroine one.

Daring took it and strained herself so her voice wouldn’t shake. “Well, Daring Do is a fictional character. As such it wouldn’t make much sense to imply that anything in these stories is real, so I try not to do that. However, when Celestia showed up on my doorstep a few years back, she was pissed at everything I had done. I mean, yeah, my deeds were good in general, but me amassing enough magical artifacts to destroy Equestria three times over? She really wasn’t a fan of that!”

“Whoa, that many?” Dash said with her eyes wide.

“Not all of ‘em make it into my books. Like this little beauty!” She pulled a compass from her saddlebags at the foot of the couch. It was black and polished and when she opened it it spun wildly. “This compass belonged to Pirate Colt Sparrow. It doesn’t show ou where north or south is, but it points at anything you really want.”

“So… cool!” Dash squeaked. “Where’d you get that?”

Daring smirked and put the compass away. “On an island that can only be found if you happen to know where it is. It’s a long and rather dreary story. But maybe I’ll write it down one day.”

“You could just embellish a little bit,” Rainbow suggested with a shrug. “You did it with our own little adventure. Not that I mind, but I can’t quite remember dropkicking Ahuizotal in the jaw.”

“Oh well, get over it. I’m the author, I can do stuff like that.” She frowned at Dash’s cocked eyebrow. “Trust me, my dramatic license is every bit as real as your daredevil license.”

Rainbow’s jaw dropped. “Wait… Have you been spying on me?”

“Reading up on would be the term I’d use. Gotta know your fans, right?” Daring quickly flashed Dash another smile that made her blush slightly. “So, how long’ve you been living here?”

“Oh, just about four years,” Rainbow Dash told her. “Ever since I moved out at my Dad’s in Cloudsdale. What about you? How’d you end up way out in the wildernis?”

“I’ve been living there for something more than fifteen years. Moved out from my parent’s when I was fourteen. I just needed the freedom.”

“I guess that’s something we have in common,” Rainbow Dash said.

Daring finished her hot Chocolate with a quick tilt of her head and shot Rainbow Dash another glance. “Look, I gotta bail. It’s been nice catching up with ya. We should do it again sometime…”

“Totally,” Dash said, standing up, offering her hero a hoof.

Daring just stepped closer for a quick hug, then drew back and smiled sheeishly. “So anyway… Time to get going.” It took her barely three seconds to don the grey piece of cloth, the wide hat and the thick glasses that disguised her as A. K. Yearling.

Dash accompanied her to the front door and waved her goodbeye. As much as she had enjoyed this “social call”, she couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed when Daring left so suddenly.

“Oh well.” She looked back to the couch and her eye caught the picture hanging above the fireplace through the door frame. A smile appeared on her lips. It had been a while since she’d last checked in with her dad.

***

Daring Do moved about the floating city as inconspicuously as she possibly could. The mare walking around glancing at the compass in her hooves every so often was regarded with a few passing glances, but that was all they had for her.

Eventually the gold furred explorer stopped in front of a small, cozy looking house. Very gently she pushed the gate to the front yard open with a hoof, but then she hesitated. She covered her face with a wing and peeked through her feathers. She wasn’t ready.

She didn’t know if she could go the last few steps.

The sensation of hooves on the cloud from behind her startled Daring and made her dart around. There was an elderly mare standing on the street looking at her. “Can Ah help ya somehow, miss…?”

“Sparkle!” Daring blurted, using the first name that came to mind. “I’m Rainbow Sparkle. I-I… I was looking for a stallion by the name of Rainbow Blaze who used live around here.”

The mare nodded her grey head. “That’s the ‘ol cloud chaser’s home alright. You a relative of his? Don’ think he ever mentioned ya’ll…”

Daring exhaled softly, drooping her head. “Yeah, I suppose he wouldn’t… We parted on… well, less than good terms.”

“And now ya’ll came to apologize?”

Daring bit her lip and nodded. She really didn’t want to divulge her private issues to some random stranger, but it didn’t really matter anymore. This would be a quick visit, nothing more, nothing less. “Yeah…”

“Uh-huh…” The mare bobbed her head slightly. “Well, tell ‘em if he gives you any grief fer tryin’ to make things right, Sunny Skies will kick his sour old rump to Canterlot an’ back!”

Daring didn’t look at the mare as she went on to trott down the street. She donned her best determined expression and leapt into the air, coming down hard before the front door of the house, sending vibrations to the cloud to announce her arrival to the pegasus presumably inside. After all, you can't knock on a door made of cloud.

Only once the vibrations had ceased did it occur to her that coming down so hard could be considered downright rude. Her expression faltered as she turned away, and her glasses fell. That was when she heard the soft swish of a cloud door opening, and a full, vibrant voice; “Can I help you with something?”

Daring froze up. Command over her legs returned to her in what seemed like an eternity, when she could finally turn around to shoot a glance at the stallion with the rainbow coloured mane from underneath her hat. She bit her lip again, her expression one of sorrow as his eyes widened in recognition. “H-hey. Dad.”

***

Rainbow Dash lounged on the couch, sipping a hot chocolate. Almost a week had gone by since Daring had come to visit, and only slightly less since she herself had dropped in at her Dad’s place.

Dash lifted the letter she held pressed to her chest wth her free hoof, reading it one more time.

Hey Dash,

So I hear you already heard the news. Sorry I lied to you. Or at least I wasn’t completely honest. I understand if you’re angry at me for not voicing my suspicions to you before. I guess I’m a pretty feeble hero after all.

Anyway, I sent a copy of my newest work. With this letter. It’s dreadfully embelished, and only twenty percent of it are actually true. But it was important to me that you received it. I hope I’ll see you again sometime and we can sort this thing out.

Daring.

Shaking her head slightly, Rainbow Dash dropped the letter and reached for the thin booklet on the floor. She scooped it up with her wings, and – setting down her cup of hot chocolate – dropped it into her hooves. Her eyes slowly moved along the title. Daring Do and the Scroll of Geniology.

The cover held Daring holding a single scroll, kept closed by a piece of rainbow coloured ribbon and the wax seal a representation of Dash’s cutie mark.

Opening it, Dash read the first words of the book again, like she had done so often in the past few hours.

For Rainbow Dash, from your big sister, Daring Do. – Stay awesome!

Dash slowly closed the book and carefully laid it down beside the letter. Then she got up and rummaged through various cupboards for a piece of paper and a pen. Gripping it in her mouth with a smile, she began to write;

Dear sis…

Comments

[The Yaoi Mistress]

So... neither name is real??? I like this idea... thought I'm gonna need that you sell it better... I mean I want an explanation!!!!! How is that possible?? what happened?? Her real name is A.K yearling, Daring Do or something else??? Who is their mother??? And everything in between?

XD

[Omen]

6528710 Weeeelllll..... There miiiiiight be a little more exposition coming your way. I marked it as complete for now, but we'll see how much I have with this and where it leads.

Spoilers: Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna explain things a bit better in the next chapter!

[The Yaoi Mistress]

6529905 yujuuuu!!

[Chrome Masquerade]

Adrenaline surged through her body as she began her routine, performing sharp turns that would be impossible for any pegasus without her experience. Years of practice came into play as she gave her workout everything she had, diving, weaving, and flying backwards, performing barrle roll after barrel roll, following up with a corkscrew loop, one of the most difficult exercises.

On that note...