Short Stories Collection, vol. I

by fallen starr

Daring Dash [Adventure]

Rainbow Dash took a step forward through the Everfree Forest. She was deep in the forest, near the middle. She was looking for something, she knew. But what that was she couldn’t quite remember. All she knew was that she was looking for an ancient temple that held an object of great mystery

She glanced up with a sigh. The trees were too thick for her to fly through. She could barely stretch her wings on the ground as it were. Not to mention, she was lost.

“We are not lost, Dash,” a voice from behind her said. “I told you, it’s just ahead.”

“Right,” Dash replied. “Where’s the map to prove it?”

The pegasus with Dash gave her an are-you-kidding-me look. “Have you looked at my Cutie Mark? It’s a compass for a reason.”

Dash shrugged and moved on. She pushed through the trees and—
“Told you,” Daring Doo said as she moved past Dash toward the temple. Though it was deep in the forest, it glittered in the limited sunlight. "Now, for the fun part.“

The inside of the temple was dark. Daring passed Dash a torch. "Okay,” Daring whispered, turning to Dash. “This is the hard part. Do exactly what I say. We need to get to the middle without setting off any booby traps. It’s really easy, though, don’t step on anything that looks like it might be a button of some sort, okay?”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure.”

Daring’s hoof roughly stopped Dash. “There it is,” she said. Dash looked up at the skull. It was similar to a ponies, but it looked different. And it seemed to be made out of a type of gem she had never seen before.

“Yes, we did it Daring,” Dash grinned.

“Umm, I’m not Daring,” Daring Doo replied.

“Huh?” Dash blinked and looked up, Twilight’s library coming into view.

Twlight giggled. “I said I’m not Daring. You were really into that, weren’t you?”

Dash’s shoulders slumped as she looked down at the book in her hands. Daring Doo was still trying to make her way through the forest to the Temple of Destiny. “I was just…” Dash rubbed her leg before shrugging. “I was imagining what might happen and forgot to read. I was there and everything. It was so awesome. But…it wasn’t real.”

Twilight cocked her head to the side. “That’s how you know you really like something, Dash. There are several fiction series I think about like that. If you wanted…umm…you could even write stories about Daring Doo yourself. It's…kind of a thing.”

Dash blinked. Write her own Daring Doo adventure. “That actually sounds fun, Twi.”

Twilight smiled. “I’ll help you too, give you pointers. Maybe we could write it together.”

“Yeah, that would be nice.” Rainbow stood and stretched her wings out. “Do you do that too, then? I mean, imagine the scenes ahead like that? It was so real…almost like it was really happening, even though it was all in my head.”

“Of course it happens inside your head, Dash, but all stories do. That doesn’t mean they aren’t real.”* Twilight giggled.

*Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows