My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship

by Danieru

70. Don't you Dare!

Star Twinkle walked through the road of Ponyville. He was on his way to the Golden Oak Library. Apparently, there was a party held in there. He had no idea what kind of party it was but he made sure to show up either way and wished that it wasn't a big one.

He stopped in front of the Golden Oak Library. "Well, here I am," he said after he opened the door to Twilight's library and attending the party.

As soon as the door opened, however, the stallion was greeted with a rain of confetti that was blown right at him and a pink party pony welcomed him. "You're here! Glad you could make it!" She said excitedly before she wrapped a party hat around Star Twinkle's head. "Are you ready to party!?" She asked.

"I don't know!" Star Twinkle replied, clearly feeling a little uncomfortable being attacked by Pinkie Pie like that. "What kind of party is this? You really need to be a little more specific with your invitations," he said as he pulled out a letter at the same time. "I mean, "Party at Twilight's place...please come, there will be cake" doesn't really tell me what kind of party this is supposed to be..."

Pinkie Pie laughed. "Aww, you are always overthinking things a little too much," she said amused while petting Star Twinkle on the head, much to his dislike. "It's a party to celebrate National Random Holiday Party Day!" She explained.

Needless to say, Star Twinkle was even more confused now. He looked over at the others only to see them raising their shoulders in confusion but still with smiles on their faces. They had no idea what exactly she was talking about and just went on with the party so Star Twinkle did the same. "Where is the cake?" He simply said as he walked past Pinkie Pie, putting a smile on her face.

Star Twinkle had difficulties to understand what exactly this party was about and just ended up with a slice of cake next to him. Luckily, there were only his friends at this party, making him actually enjoy it a little bit. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were dancing in the middle of the room while Twilight and Rarity were enjoying the cake and the punch. He decided to join the latter.

Once he approached them, the mares immediately greeted him. "I'm surprised that you actually showed up," Twilight said. "You know, partying not being your thing and all that,"

"Me too..." Star Twinkle simply replied.

"It only proves that you open up more and more to everypony," Rarity then added while taking a sip from her punch. "A very good change if you ask me," she said smiling at Star Twinkle happily.

"Why did the subject have to be shifted to me?" Star Twinkle thought while he was munching on his cake. "Common, there has to be something else to focus on...wait a minute!"

"Where is Rainbow Dash?" Star Twinkle asked.

Applejack stopped dancing. "I tried to invite her but she was so caught up with reading that last Daring Do book for the twelfth time," she explained.

Fluttershy joined the conversation as well. "She is very excited for the new book to come out in the next three months and twenty-six days,"

"That's oddly specific..." Star Twinkle replied to which Fluttershy only smiled.

"And wrong," Twilight added. "The release of the book has been pushed another two months,"

Fluttershy seemed a little shocked to hear that. "Oh dear...I don't think I can take...uh...I mean Rainbow Dash can wait any more time to wait for it," she said while making an embarrassed face.

Star Twinkle didn't seem to be worried about that. "Well, if she was prepared to wait four months, then I'm sure she can take it well after hearing that the book got pushed another two months,"

The group then got startled a little after they heard a party horn being blown at the front door by Pinkie Pie, greeting Rainbow Dash who had a really shocked expression on her face. "Two more months!?" She then said frustrated after hearing the bad news. "I've been waiting so long already! I don't think I can take another two months! I'll never make it!" She then said while shaking and sweating heavily.

"Or maybe not..." Star Twinkle corrected after witnessing the state of the mare himself.

Rainbow Dash then dropped to the ground in her frustration, causing Star Twinkle, Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy to walk up to her out of worry. "Did they give a reason?" She then asked as soon as she noticed the group coming closer to her.

"The publisher just said author A.K. Yearling won't be able to finish the book for another two months," Twilight explained.

Rainbow Dash didn't seem to be too happy to hear that. Everypony knew by now how big of a fan Rainbow Dash was of the Daring Do books and since Rainbow Dash was never known to be very patient, nopony was really surprised to see her being upset about that.

Once she calmed down a little, she confronted Twilight. "How could you possibly know that before me? I'm the series' biggest fan!" She claimed.

"I'm just as big a fan as you!" Twilight replied. "In fact, I'm the one who first introduced you to the books, remember?" She pointed out, referring back to when Rainbow Dash was still a little ashamed of being an egghead for liking the series.

"Oh. Right," Rainbow Dash replied after remembering that fact as well.

"A.K. Yearling just might be my favorite author. I know everything about her," Twilight claimed which didn't strike anypony by surprise given how serious Twilight was taking some of her hobbies. "Where she grew up, where she studied literature, where she wrote the first Daring Do book..." she listed up, making it kinda look like as if she was showing off her knowledge about the writer of the book.

While Star Twinkle felt like as if Twilight was showing off a little to much and feared that Rainbow Dash wouldn't like hearing that because of her competitive nature, she instead got interested after a while. "Where she lives?" She then asked out of the blue.

Twilight seemed confused about this question. "Uh... no, though I could probably find out somehow. Why?"

Rainbow Dash explained "Don't you get it? The new book is obviously delayed because she needs help dealing with whatever everyday nonsense is distracting her from spending her every living breathing second writing! So I– I mean, fans like me can get to read the new book ASAP!"

"Or..." Star Twinkle then interrupted, seeing right where this was going a mile away and trying to stop it until it was too late. "Maybe she is just having trouble to come up with new content? I mean, writing is probably not always easy and sometimes you are just at a loss. Just be patient and wait for the next entry and I am sure that in the end, it will pay off," Star Twinkle explained before he unconsciously winked as if he was giving a signal or something.

"What was that?" Pinkie Pie then asked after this random gesture.

"I...don't know," he replied after realizing that he wasn't so sure about that himself.

But Rainbow Dash ignored those words and turned towards Twilight again continuing with her own theory. "Think about it! We could help her with her laundry, buy her groceries, cooking her meals, whatever! Now, who wouldn't appreciate that?"

"Me?" Star Twinkle said since he would be the one who would end up doing this work. But again, it struck on deaf ears.

"Hmm, I don't know..." Twilight replied, clearly not liking this idea herself. "What she probably wants most of all is respect for her privacy," she pointed out.

"She can always just say no," Rainbow Dash replied to that which unfortunately was something that the group didn't know what to say against that, much to Star Twinkle's dislike.

Twilight looked over to Star Twinkle who was painfully obviously not liking the idea to wander around Equestria to convince a writer to finish a book. It sounded like a lot of work and he didn't like the idea but in the end, he just gave in and agreed with the idea as well.

"I suppose you're right..." Twilight answered.

This caused Rainbow Dash to change her mood in a second. "Of course I am," she said before she dashed out of the door and ready to find A.K. Yearling in order to convince her to finish the next book. But after realizing that she didn't know the address yet, she came back a little embarrassed. "So... how's about getting that address?"

Later...

Before they knew it, the group was on their way to A.K. Yearling's house which just happened to be inside of a forest not too close to Ponyville, making this actually quite a long trip.
It was just like Star Twinkle expected: Really bothersome...

"You see what I mean? Why would she live in this remote part of Equestria except to keep folks from intruding on her privacy?" Twilight pointed out.

By this point, Star Twinkle didn't really care why this A.K. Yearling was living in this place and rather complained about it. "She could have just lived in a normal house in some town or city and never leave it if she wanted to be alone...that's what I did after all..." he explained, which actually got some chuckles out of some of the girls.

Rainbow Dash already went ahead and kept her eyes open to find the house of A.K. Yearling but she shortly returned and said that she spotted it, causing the group to follow shortly behind. What they found was an open space with a small house on it. It must have been A.K. Yearling's house. But something was different. There was stuff scattered all outside of the house and the door was loose. Someone definitely broke into it.

Worried what might have happened to A.K. Yearling, the group approached the door to enter the house and take a closer look inside of it. It looked even worse on the inside. Pictures on the walls were broken, cupboards were thrown over, and books were scattered all over the place.

"Hoo-wee, somepony really trashed this place," Applejack expressed.

"Or maybe A.K. Yearling's just a terrible, horrible, unbelievable slob!" Pinkie Pie figured.

"Well, writing can be really stressful at times..." Star Twinkle said before he winked for a second again.

Pinkie Pie noticed that once again. "What is with you and winking recently?" She asked confused.

"I...I don't know!" Star Twinkle replied confused himself.

"Oh no! What if something terrible happened to her?" Twilight said in worry.

"I know!" Rainbow Dash said in her worry as well. "There might be no more books!" She then added, much to the disappointment to everypony. She quickly realized that she should be more worried about A.K. Yearling well being instead of how much her book was finished. "Uh... But, of course, I'd be worried about her, too. Heh," she then corrected, even though her intentions were obvious.

Shortly after, a mare entered the room and was surprised to see so many ponies in her house. "What are you all doing here?" She asked confused.

The mare had raspberry red eyes, a light gold coat color, and her mane was black and hidden under a grey cloche. She was also wearing a purple shawl and heavy red-framed spectacles. This pony seemed a little upset about the number of ponies that were inside of the house, not to mention what state it was in. This could only mean that she was living in this house.

"A... K-K... Yearling...?" Rainbow Dash asked nervously before she let out a small squee after she realized that the writer of her favorite book was standing right in front of her.

But A.K. Yearling quickly suspected that the group was responsible for the mess in her house. Of course, everypony tried to convince her that this wasn't true but the author didn't seem to care and looked all over the place to find something. Finding something in this mess was not easy but she managed to find what she was looking for. It was a book with a golden hoof symbol on it. It looked pretty important to her. She then moved around some circle-shaped locks on the side of the book, followed by her pressing the hoof symbol in the middle of the book and turning it around. The book then opened and revealed a big golden ring that was hidden inside of it.

The mare sighed. "It's safe," she said in relief before she hid the ring under her clothes.

Of course, everypony wondered what that was all about but all Rainbow Dash could think of was continuing her original plan. "Great! Maybe now would be a good time for me to ask her how we can help move the new book along a little faster. Chop chop!" She said, completely unaware of how annoyed A.K. Yearling reacted to that and didn't even bother to pay attention to that.

"Rainbow Dash, a minute please!" Twilight said before she used her magic to drag Rainbow Dash out of the house with her magic. She figured that Rainbow Dash was taking it a little too far with her approach and scolded for not taking A.K. Yearling privacy in consideration. "A.K. Yearling has made it pretty clear that she wants to be left alone. We need to respect her wishes!"

Pinkie Pie then jumped next to the two mares. "You should tell that to those guys," she said while she pointed to the roof of the house.

Everypony looked up to the roof as well. There were three ponies entering the house from a window. Judging from how they took that "entrance" rather than going through the front door, it was obvious that they weren't just gonna visit A.K. Yearling for a friendly chat. In fact, they could be the ones who ravaged the house in the first place.

The group decided to take a look inside of the house by peeking through a window. The three ponies approached the author from behind but she noticed the danger coming up to her and turned around. Everypony feared that A.K. Yearling was about to be attacked by the three and prepared themselves to go inside to help her but then, A.K. Yearling threw away her cloche, her shawl, and her spectacles and revealed some more clothes beneath them.

The group was shocked by what they saw. It was like as if she became a completely different pony. She revealed herself as a Pegasus and her mane was not dark gray but consisted of multiple shades of gray. She was now wearing a dark olivine vest and a tan pith helmet with a dark olive band. She also had a compass rose as a Cutie Mark. Star Twinkle was not sure at first but he was pretty sure that he knew who that was.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash and Twilight confirmed Star Twinkle's thoughts. "A.K. Yearling is Daring Do!?" They both said shocked.

"What. You didn't know that?" Star Twinkle said sarcastically.

Before the group could even comprehend this realization, a fight broke out inside of the house. Daring Do still had the golden ring that she earlier hid under her clothes and those three ponies desperately tried to get their hoofs on it. But just like the stories in the books, Daring Do managed to cleverly outsmart her attackers and keep the ring to herself.

"Amazing!" Applejack said, watching this fight.

"Incredible!" Rarity added.

"So much action!" Pinkie Pie expressed fully enjoying the fight as if it was a movie.

"Shouldn't we...help her...or something?" Star Twinkle suggested, feeling a little weird watching all this unfold in front of them.

"Are you kidding? It's Daring Do!" Rainbow Dash replied. "There is no way that she is gonna lose to a bunch of guys-" However, once Rainbow Dash that Daring Do was once more surrounded by those three ponies, she began to get worried and screamed out. "Daring Do!"

Daring Do heard that scream and got distracted by it for a moment. The three ponies noticed that little moment of unawareness and attacked the mare while her guard was down and managed to let her drop the ring, causing it to land near the front door where another pony was standing at. The pony picked up the ring. "Many thanks, Daring Do," he said.

It was an Earth Pony with a brown almost grayish coat color, a black mane with some light gray stripes, and grayish green eyes. His Cutie Mark was was a golden skull with a red jewel in one eye. He was also wearing a beige vest and a red scarf with white dots around his neck. He thanked Daring Do for finding this, what he called "treasure" for him, after their search for it was unsuccessful, indicating that he and the other three ponies were the ones who created the mess inside of the house.

"Give it back, Caballeron!" Daring Do said, trying to walk up to this pony but she tripped because she got hurt by the previous battle.

"That's Doctor Caballeron to you," the stallion corrected.

While all this was going on, Rainbow Dash and Twilight almost narrated everything for those who were not that informed about what was going on. Rainbow Dash put one of her front legs around Star Twinkle's shoulder. "He's from book four: Daring Do and the Razor of Dreams. He wanted to partner with Daring Do on her adventures," Rainbow Dash informed, with a huge grin on her face.

Twilight then moved her head towards Star Twinkle to feed him even more information that he didn't really ask for. "I know, but she refused! I can't believe it! The real Daring Do and the real Caballeron!" She said while looking at this in pure excitement.

Star Twinkle would never think that he would be the one who wanted to jump into action instead of Twilight and especially Rainbow Dash. Then again, he was not sure what exactly he was dealing with so he ended up watching all of this with them, waiting how things would evolve.

Meanwhile, inside of the house again, the conversation between Daring Do and Doctor Caballeron continued...

"So let me guess: Ahuizotl has put you up to this? You're stealing the ring to give to him so his hold on the Fortress of Talacon will be good for eight centuries as foretold by prophecy!" Daring Do suspect.

"Close, but... no," Doctor Caballeron replied. "I'm going to sell this to him, make a bundle, and retire from archaeology in splendor,"

Daring Do tried to attack Doctor Caballeron but was held back by his henchponies "Caballeron, you fool! You're dooming the valley to eight centuries of unrelenting heat!"

But Doctor Caballeron ignored her and ordered his henchponies to leave with him. They dropped Daring Do on the ground and all left the house. Daring Do tried to go after them but she still looked a little hurt and wasn't able to even stand up properly.

The group kept watching this and Star Twinkle just kept wondering how long it would take the mares around him till they realized that they were not watching a show or a movie. He actually counted down and called when somepony would say something.

It was Fluttershy who finally spoke up. "Uh... should we go in and help her, maybe?" She suggested, causing everypony else to snap out of just watching the scene and taking action.

By the time, where everypony went inside of the house, Daring Do already attend to her wounds by strapping a bandage over her right front leg. As a true Daring Do fan, Rainbow Dash immediately walked up to her idol and offered her help but Daring Do quickly slapped Rainbow Dash's hoof away. "I got this," she said annoyed as she continued to take care of her wound, much to Rainbow Dash's surprise.

Fluttershy walked up to Daring Do as well. "Um, she was just trying to help, Ms. Do," she said, trying to clear up any misunderstanding that might have occurred with Rainbow Dash's approach.

But Daring Do made her message clear. "Daring Do doesn't need help. She handles her business herself," she said before she limped out of the house and following this Doctor Caballeron guy. Her wings were not hurt so she easily flew up in the air and started her chase.

The group walked out of the house as well. "We've gotta go help!" Rainbow Dash quickly suggested.

"You heard her! She says she works alone!" Twilight reminded.

"How can we just stand by and do nothing? You know what's at stake here! Ahuizotl has sought control of the Tenochtitlan Basin since book three!" Rainbow Dash replied.

"True, but in book four, she defeated Ahuizotl and secured control of the Amulet of Atonement, dispelling the dark magic of the Ketztwctl Empress, and thus protecting the basin with the Radiant Shield of Razdon!" Twilight countered.

"But the Radiant Shield of Razdon is vulnerable to the dark enchantment of the Rings of Scorchero!" Rainbow Dash explained.

"But are you forgetting that the Rings were scattered to the four corners of Tenochtitlan, thus rendering the dark enchantment powerless?" Twilight asked.

In the meantime, the rest of the group just stood there in silence, watching the two discussing all this stuff in front of them. Star Twinkle slowly moved his head towards his friends to whisper something to them. "I'm not the only one who has no idea what they are talking about, right?" He asked. His response came in the form of his friends shaking their heads and raising their shoulders in confusion. "Okay..." Star Twinkle simply said before he listened further to the two mares. He only read the first volume of the Daring Do books so he at least had some knowledge but even he felt like listening to two ponies speaking in an entirely different language.

"Only if you assume that the Rings have yet to be retrieved, and the ring Caballeron just stole isn't the last to completely restore the dark tower and its cruel hold on Tenochtitlan! Did you ever think of that?!" Rainbow Dash said, finishing the almost endless feeling discussion of the two.

Shortly after, there was a small silence until Star Twinkle decided to speak up and to confirm what is supposed to happen next. "So...this Caballeron guy having this ring is bad...I assume?" he asked confused from what he gathered of the discussion of the two.

"You bet it is!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "We gotta help Daring Do retrieve the ring for safekeeping before it's too late!" She suggested.

Star Twinkle finally had to put in his opinion into the mix of all this. "I kinda with Twilight on this one," he said as he walked out of the group. "I mean, if A.K. Yearling is Daring Do, then that means that those adventures in her books must be based on her own adventures and judging from those, she always seemed to deal with them on her own so-"

"She left..." Twilight said in the middle of Star Twinkle's sentence.

Star Twinkle looked to his left and just now noticed that Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found. She must have left while he was trying his best to talk her out of this idea of helping Daring Do, much to his dislike. He let out an annoyed sigh. "Did she at least left with a plan?" He asked but all Twilight did was shaking her head. "I thought so..."

"Somepony needs to go after her to keep her from doing anything stupid!" Applejack suggested.

"Agreed..." Star Twinkle said. After the way she was acting so far in the presence of her idol, it was only natural to keep her in check before she would end up ruining everything for Daring Do. Strangely enough, however, he didn't saw anypony volunteer to take up this task so he looked over at the girls only to notice that they were all looking at him. Star Twinkle quickly identified what those looks meant and didn't like it. "Me!?" He asked confused.

"Well, you can fly after her," Twilight pointed out, hinting at Star Twinkle's transformation.

"Just like you!" Star Twinkle replied annoyed. "And Fluttershy too!"

Fluttershy backed up a little. "I'm not very good at convincing others...especially Rainbow Dash..."

Twilight approached Star Twinkle. "She generally doesn't tend to listen to me either, especially since she wants to prove that she Daring Do's number one fan. She can be very stubborn so she needs somepony who can deal with that," she explained.

"And that one is me?" Star Twinkle replied, still not really buying the reasoning that Twilight wanted to get across. Star Twinkle didn't really got a response and only saw his friends looking at him with high expectations. Seeing that only put more pressure on him so he decided to give in and decided to transform into his Pegasus Form before he let out an annoyed groan. "I knew this trip was a bad idea..." he just said before he was on his way to where Rainbow Dash was flying to.

As Star Twinkle was flying through the air, he couldn't help but mumble some complaints on his way to Rainbow Dash and Daring Do, to let off some steam. "What makes them believe that I can talk Rainbow Dash out of this all? Everypony else could have done this better than me...but here I am, trying to be the one who takes charge of this situation. Can't I just sit on the sidelines for a chance?"

It took some time for Star Twinkle to actually catch up Rainbow Dash. She was flying at a really high speed after all. But since Daring Do is most likely not as fast as her, she couldn't have been too far away from Rainbow Dash.

After some more time, he actually managed to find Rainbow Dash. She was slowly walking through the forest as if she was looking for something and Star Twinkle knew exactly who it was. This meant that he had still time to deal with her before she had the time to mess up Daring Do's plan. He landed a few steps away from her, turned back to his normal form and tried to convince her to somehow return to the others and to let Daring Do take care of the situation. "Hey Rainbow Dash, how about we-" but as soon as she turned around to find out who was approaching her, somepony tackled him to the ground. "What the-" he tried to say but this somepony put her hat on Star Twinkle's face to prevent him from seeing anything and confused him even more.

"Wait!" Rainbow Dash then shouted, causing the fight to stop.

The attacker then lifted up the hat from Star Twinkle's face and revealed herself to be Daring Do. "Oh, it's you guys..." she said before she walked away from Star Twinkle again, leaving him on the ground.

Star Twinkle got back on his hooves again and groaned annoyed. "I didn't even do anything yet..." he mumbled annoyed, feeling that this task, was only about to start.

Rainbow Dash, then walked over to Star Twinkle. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Stopping you from doing anything stupid, to put it in Applejack's words..." Star Twinkle replied annoyed, still wishing somepony else would have taken this task.

Rainbow Dash chuckled slightly. "No need for that. All I am here for is to help Daring Do...and showing her how tough, brave and cool I am," she explained confidently.

"Uh-huh..." Star Twinkle replied, not caring about that one bit. "That's exactly what I am trying to prevent..."

"Yeah, you're right! I should go and impress her with my awesomeness! Let's go!" She replied, completely ignoring Star Twinkle's words like she did before and secretly following Daring Do.

"That is not even close to what I..." Star Twinkle said but of course, Rainbow Dash wouldn't listen to him and kept following Daring Do so Star Twinkle had no choice but to follow right behind as well. "Yep, pretty much went the way I expected it to go..." he said with an annoyed tone in his voice.

Rainbow Dash was hiding in some bushes and waited for an opportunity to impress her idol. She advised that Star Twinkle should keep his head down so that he wouldn't ruin her moment to impress Daring Do. As soon as Daring Do walked up closer to the bush, where the two were hiding in, Rainbow Dash jumped out of the bush. However, instead of saying something that Star Twinkle would consider "awesome" or "cool", Rainbow Dash got maybe a little nervous in front of her hero.

"I am suuuuuch a huge fan," she said in admiration before she laughed nervously.

Naturally, Daring Do wasn't impressed by this and just continued to ignore her number one fan admiring her. After, Rainbow Dash's unsuccessful attempt to impress Daring Do, Star Twinkle popped out of the bush as well. "Good job. You totally convinced her," he said sarcastically, but again, he was ignored and Rainbow Dash kept following Daring Do.

This time she was a little more direct and approached Daring Do, face to face. "Wait, wait, wait! Let me help you! I promise I could be a huge, huge help if you just give me a chance," she offered while still trying to act calm and cool in front of her.

But Daring Do narrow her eyes. She was really starting to get annoyed by Rainbow Dash's constant approaches. "I. Work. Alone," she simply said before she walked past Rainbow Dash.

But Rainbow Dash wouldn't just give up and actually crawled on her knees after her idol, practically begging to assist her. "But why won't you let me team up with you just this once?!" She asked her.

Daring Do explained. "My work always involves secrets. And since you never know who you can trust, it's best never to trust anypony,"

"But just because you can't trust some, doesn't mean nopony can be trusted!" Rainbow Dash replied.

Daring Do started to get sick to even talk to Rainbow Dash. "Look, I don't have time to argue-"

"Neither do I. Let's go!" Rainbow Dash interrupted before she flew up in the air to look for Doctor Caballeron on her own, expecting Daring Do to follow her. But instead, Daring Do complained about her under her breath which was actually pretty understandable at this point for Star Twinkle.

Daring Do then looked over to Star Twinkle. The stallion actually got startled because the way she looked at him, made him feel as if she was throwing daggers at him. "Don't worry! I'm not here to get in your way," he said nervously to prevent her from attacking him or something. "I'm just here to take her away from you so that you can go back on your job," he assured.

"Well, you are not doing so well, so far," she said before she got on her way again.

"Yeah...I know..." Star Twinkle admitted before he followed Daring Do. If he wanted to get to Rainbow Dash, he simply had to follow Daring Do for obvious reasons.

A little later...

It took until it got dark but the three actually managed to catch up to Doctor Caballeron and his henchponies. They set up a camp to rest and most likely prepare themselves to return to the marketplace in town. At least, that's what Rainbow Dash figured.

The three ponies made sure to stay out of sight and Daring Do actually came up with a plan to deal with the situation herself. She dug up some mud from the ground and covered half of her face with it. After that, she smashed her hat a little. Rainbow Dash quickly realized what was going on and got excited. "Oh, Look!" She said to Star Twinkle. "She is gonna ambush them like in book four at the Horavian caves! Or maybe, she is doing that neat trick from book three, where she swooped in and knock three guys down with one swing! Or maybe-" But before Rainbow Dash could finish her sentence, Daring Do threw a very annoyed expression towards her. "Okay. I'll be quiet now," she then said before she backed away a little.

Daring Do then put on her smashed hat and put some leaves on her mud-covered face to make it look like a beard and pulled out a little sack with bits inside of it. Shortly after, she walked up to Doctor Caballeron. Even Star Twinkle figured out what exactly she was planning to do now. She tried to buy that ring herself while in disguise. That way she could get it back without those guys even figuring it out. That would actually result in a peaceful result to get this ring back, something that Star Twinkle really would like to.

It actually looked as if it was working. Doctor Caballeron wasn't suspecting a thing and offered his hoof to seal the deal but then a loud roar could be heard from nearby. The ground was shaking and something pushed the trees away until a strange creature revealed itself. "Caballeron!" It said angrily before it demanded the ring from Doctor Caballeron.

It was some kind of big dog-like creature with dark blue fur and a light blue colored belly, hands and face. It also had an elongated dog-like head, with eyes positioned over its nose at the end of its snout, dog-like hind limbs and ape-like forelimbs, and a long monkey-like tail with a hand on its end.

After taking a closer look at this creature, Star Twinkle actually realized who it was, based on his memory of the first book that he actually read. "It's that one guy...Daring Do's enemy...uh...what was his name again?"

"Ahuizotl! What kind of fan doesn't remember Daring Do's archenemy!?" Rainbow Dash then scolded before she went back to watching every second of what was happening to Daring Do.

Ahuizotl then demanded the ring from Doctor Caballeron but he was way to scared of this Ahuizotl guy and just ran away, dropping the ring on the ground, leaving only Ahuizotl and the still-disguised Daring Do on the spot, the latter one quickly grabbing the ring and throwing off her disguise in front of Ahuizotl, who was not too happy to see her and was about to attack her. However, Daring Do made sure that the ring was out of reach at all costs.

"The ring, Daring Do! Give it to me!" Ahuizotl demanded once more.

But Daring Do was not scared at all "Now, Ahuizotl, you know I love you, but I can't give you the ring 'til I've properly proposed," she replied, teasingly, playing around with the ring a little.

"Interesting, because my friends here have a proposal of their own," Ahuizotl replied unimpressed before he snapped his fingers to call some reinforcements.

This reinforcement came in the form of a tiger, a black panther, a jaguar, a lynx and...a small house cat, all of them growling angrily at Daring Do, especially the house cat. But the adventurer was not scared at all and waited until the first cat would make a move. Eventually, the black panther charged right at her, only to get slammed in the face by the mare, knocking it to the ground immediately and leaving the other cats surprised but also enraged. What followed was Daring Do taking care of all the cats on her own and clearly proving that she had the situation under control.

This was the perfect opportunity for Star Twinkle to convince Rainbow Dash to not worry about her hero and making her leave with him. "As you can plainly see, Daring Do can clearly take care of herself on her own. So there is no need to get worried about-" But he stopped in mid-sentence after he looked to his right inside of the bush, to where Rainbow Dash was before only to find out that she was no longer there and instead running towards the fight scene, picking up Daring Do's hat, that she dropped in mid-battle. Star Twinkle felt like he was watching over a hyperactive foal and sighed in annoyance. "Can't she just sit still somewhere so that I can keep my eye on here!?" He complained as he slowly sneaked up to the battle himself.

In the meantime, Daring Do was still fighting off the cats without a sweat but Rainbow Dash insisted to do something and picked up her hat. "Daring Do! I've got your hat! You want me to toss it? Daring Do! Daring Do!" She said repeatedly to get Daring Do's attention but as usual, the adventurer did her best to ignore her. Unfortunately, the same didn't go for Ahuizotl who took the opportunity to grab Rainbow Dash with his tail.

That was Star Twinkle's signal to jump into action. "Hey!" He shouted to grab Ahuizotl's attention before he charged right at him so that he could free Rainbow Dash. However, Ahuizotl didn't waste any time and jumped right in front of Star Twinkle and prepared to attack him. Star Twinkle didn't expect that his distraction would work this good and got startled after this big creature landed right in front of him, and roared at his face aggressively. "Um...If you don't mind, can you release this mare so that we can leave?" He asked in his fear. But naturally, it didn't work and Ahuizotl simply used his fist to give Star Twinkle a good smack on the head that knocked him out cold.

Later...

After a while, Star Twinkle slowly regained consciousness and found himself in a strange room. To his left were spiky pillars and beneath him was water. However, the worst part was that he was hanging on a wall. His hooves were all in chains and he couldn't move one bit. If he would be fully conscious, then he would probably freak out and panic but he was still a little dizzy from that punch before.

"So you are finally awake?" A familiar voice then said from his left, making him turn his head towards Daring Do who was chained to the wall like him as well.

"What happened? Why are hanging on the wall?" He immediately asked.

"Well..." Daring Do began, clearly not being happy about this situation as well, judging from the bitter tone in her voice. "Long story short, Ahuizotl has captured us both so that we wouldn't get in his way, and is now preparing everything to doom us all for eight hundred years,"

"Oh..." Star Twinkle simply replied, obviously not bothering too much to show any concern about all of this.

Then suddenly, Ahuizotl showed himself in a little hallway next to the two ponies with the golden ring in his possession. "How's it hanging, Daring Do, and company?" He asked smugly.

"Surrender now, Ahuizotl, or I'll be forced to take you down!" She said as she tried to fight her way out of the chains that were holding her to the wall.

"Really!?" Star Twinkle said as he couldn't believe that she was still thinking that she could deal with the situation on her own.

Ahuizotl didn't seem to think much of this threat either and laughed. "Oh, Daring Do, I will so miss your amusing laughter-jokes. Now, I must leave to commence the ring-placing ceremony to unleash eight hundred years of unrelenting, sweltering heat!" He said victories before he left the scene. But not before he pulled down a letter to cause some water to flow into the room and causing the water beneath the two to raise. It was at this moment, where Star Twinkle realized that the water was filled with hungry piranhas, putting both of them on a timer to get out of this situation fast.

But Daring Do didn't want to end as fish fodder so she began to struggle in order to free herself. "You know, if you two wouldn't have interrupted, then I would have gotten the rings by now!" She complained while she managed to free one of her hooves.

"Hey! I totally agree with that!" Star Twinkle replied as he tried to free himself as well, however, he was not as strong as Daring Do so it was a little harder for him. "If you haven't noticed it yet, Rainbow Dash just tried to help you!"

"Well her "help" made you end up in this situation as well!" Daring Do replied as she managed to free another one of her hooves.

"Yeah," Star Twinkle admitted. "She better get here fast to save us both in time,"

Daring Do still continued to free herself. There were only her two front hooves left. "You really shouldn't depend on others that much when you are in a situation like this," she said before she managed to get another hoof free, making her hang from the wall with only one hoof now.

"Maybe you should learn to accept some help for once," Star Twinkle replied annoyed. As he watched Daring Do freeing herself, however, he noticed how the hooves that she managed to free were still connected to the bricks that were inside of the wall, causing her legs to drag her down to the ground because of their weight. "Wait, what exactly are you planning to do!? If you free your last hoof then you will be dragged down to the water!" He pointed out.

"Quiet! I can do this!" Daring Do replied angrily.

However, seeing the mare being pulled down by the weight already made him seriously doubt that this was true. He released an annoyed sigh. "Why am I surrounded by stubborn ponies like this?" He thought annoyed.

Shortly after, Daring Do managed to free her last hoof. It was just as Star Twinkle expected. She couldn't fly with those bricks on her legs and slowly dropped down to the water no matter how hard she was flapping her wings. Sweat began to run down her body but she kept flapping so that she could free herself and Star Twinkle in time. However, much to her surprise, she was frozen in midair, engulfed by a white aura. She looked up and realized that it was magic, magic that Star Twinkle was casting. Of course, she was confused by how Star Twinkle managed to cast magic in the first place but right now since he was an Earth Pony a few seconds ago but she was also relieved that she wouldn't land in the water. Star Twinkle managed to actually levitate Daring Do to safety but now he had to take care of himself.

"Alright, all I have to do now, is teleporting myself to over there, should be easy," he said confidently. However, Star Twinkle's head started to hurt all of a sudden. It must have been Ahuizotl's smack on the head that still affected him. Whatever the reason was, the worst thing about it was, that it caused Star Twinkle to transform back, much to his dislike. "That is not good..." he said once he realized not only that but the water that was dangerously close to his hooves now as well. He clenched his teeth in fear and closed his eyes, preparing himself for the worst.

Daring Do was still removing the bricks on her chains so that she could save Star Twinkle in time. "Don't worry! I'll get you-"

"Out of there!" Another voice then finished.

It was Rainbow Dash, who came flying to Star Twinkle's rescue. But instead of trying to get him off from the wall, the mare looked all over the place for some reason. At first Star Twinkle wanted to scream at her so that she would help him but then Rainbow Dash found a lever on the other side of the room. She pulled it down and the water was flushing out of the room, together with all the piranhas inside. "Ancient traps like that always have a lever that turns them off. Learned that from the books," she explained boasting with her book knowledge again.

Daring Do watched that scene occurring as well and got a little annoyed. "I was just about to save him myself, y'know,"

"Of course," Rainbow Dash replied, not taking those words to serious. "I just came here because I thought you might need this," she then said before she dropped Daring Do's hat on the ground.

For the first time now Daring Do looked a little surprised or even impressed but she was hiding it under her usual attitude "Have I mentioned yet that I work alone?" She said before she put on her hat again.

"Have I mentioned yet that you're lucky I don't?" Rainbow Dash countered with a smirk on her face.

Daring Do actually smiled after that. It looked as if Daring Do was taking a liking to Rainbow Dash at this point. She must have appreciated Rainbow Dash's efforts or how she handled the situation with Star Twinkle. She didn't seem to be annoyed at all. However, the same things couldn't be said about somepony else...

"Glad that you finally get along now but...could you please get me out of here now!?" Star Twinkle exclaimed while still hanging on the wall-shaking heavily to break free from his chains.

After the two mares freed Star Twinkle, there was only one thing to take care of: retrieving the ring back from Ahuizotl to prevent eight hundred years of extreme heat. Daring Do expect it to be already too late to prevent it at that point but Rainbow Dash assured that things have been taking care of. Of course, Daring Do didn't quite understand at first but as soon as the three peeked out of a hallway and took a look at what seems to be the main hall of the fortress they were in.

"I see..." Star Twinkle figured as soon as he looked over the scene that occurred in front of him.
The rest of his friends were taking care of Ahuizotl and his henchponies and tried their best to keep the ring away from them. They were doing a pretty good job at it as well. "So...if we take away the ring from this Ahuizotl guy then...we win, right?" Star Twinkle asked.

"Not exactly," Daring Do replied before she hinted at some kind of altar with a stone pillar on it that had multiple golden rings placed around it. "If we remove the giant ring at the bottom, the whole fortress will collapse!" She explained.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake after a familiar face jumped in front of the three ponies. "Daring Do!" Ahuizotl screamed angrily as soon as he spotted how his enemy escaped his trap.

Daring Do narrowed her eyes and approached Ahuizotl, eager to deal with him herself but Star Twinkle jumped in front of her, much to her confusion. "You take care of the rings, I'll take care of him," he said before he transformed into a Unicorn, ready to face Ahuizotl this time.

Still, Daring Do doubted that Star Twinkle could take on Ahuizotl judging from how he was knocked out by him before. It was not until Rainbow Dash backed Star Twinkle up until Daring Do agreed with this plan. "If he says he takes of him, then he will. Trust him," she simply said as she put a hoof on her hero's shoulder with a confident grin on her face.

It was surprising how Daring Do reacted so confused about that, especially since she earlier stated that it's better to not trust anypony but eventually, she put her trust in Star Twinkle as well and decided to go to the pillar with Rainbow Dash.

Of course, Ahuizotl wanted to prevent that but Star Twinkle blocked his path and readied his magic to confront him and buying some time for the two mares to remove the rings. Ahuizotl took a swing at Star Twinkle as he did before, but this time, Star Twinkle jumped out of the way in time. His response came in form of a magic beam heading right towards Ahuizotl, unfortunately, he ducked under it and dodged. Being attacked like that, made Ahuizotl really angry so he charged right at Star Twinkle, something that the stallion actually anticipated. Instead of charging at Ahuizotl, Star Twinkle ran to the side and made him follow him to further distract him from Rainbow Dash and Daring Do.

The chase went on for a little while and eventually, the fortress started to shake under Star Twinkle's hooves, making him trip in surprise. He looked over to the stone pillar and saw how all the rings were removed now, meaning that the two Pegasus succeeded.

"Ponies! Run! This place is goin' down!" Rainbow Dash shouted, warning everypony to get out of this fortress. Star Twinkle did his best to do that now but everywhere where he went, the was rubble falling down in front of him, making it a little harder to make his way out of this crumbling fortress in time. "Over here!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed who was flying towards him, accompanied by Daring Do, both of them lifting up Star Twinkle by his legs and flying him out of the fortress in time.

As Star Twinkle was lifted out of the fortress, he saw how the rest of his friends were running out of the fortress in time too. They were happy to see that Star Twinkle, Rainbow Dash and Daring Do made it out too and waved happily at them.

But there was still one who was not happy with this outcome at all. "Daring Do!" Ahuizotl screamed as fought his way out of the rubble above him. "I will have my revenge!" He screamed as he waved his fist angrily, seeing his enemy fly away and beating him once again.

Rainbow Dash and Daring Do, dropped Star Twinkle back on the ground after they made it far enough away from Ahuizotl. The stubborn adventurer seemed to have not regretted working together with Star Twinkle and Rainbow Dash to get out of all this safely. "I have to admit, you two were a great help. I could not have done this without you,"

Daring Do then reached out her hoof for them to shake it. Star Twinkle did exactly that with a smile on his face but Rainbow Dash went straight for a hug, which Daring Do actually didn't resisted because she felt like Rainbow Dash well deserved it.

"And now I've got a book to finish!" She said excitedly before she flew away but not without winking at the two of them one last time.

The two waved her goodbye and watched her flying into the sunset. As soon as Daring Do seemed far away enough, Rainbow Dash suddenly jumped up and down in excitement. "OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh," she said like a little filly in a candy store. "I just had the coolest adventure with the coolest pony ever!" She exclaimed before she calmed down again. "But I came this close to blowing it because I got so wrapped up in how awesome she was, I almost forgot how awesome I was. Good thing I didn't, 'cause it gave me a chance to show her how important it is to put your trust in somepony else," she said while realizing that this actually sounded really good. "Wait. How about I write that in the book? You know, our journal," she said, referring to the journal that Twilight wanted to start writing with her friends.

"Sounds good," Star Twinkle agreed. "Now let's go to the others. They are probably waiting for us," he said before he led the way to where the others were waiting for them.

"Yeah, and let's tell them all about the awesome adventure that we had with Daring Do!" She suggested as she followed Star Twinkle.

Star Twinkle didn't see any reason in that since they were literally part of this adventure too but Star Twinkle didn't question that and just let her have that moment. "Sure, I let you do the talking..." he said as he and Rainbow Dash approached their friends to finally go home happily.

Some time later...

Hiding his face under a gray hood, Summershine walked through the streets of an unknown town. He slowly walked past a window of a bookstore. He noticed how a certain book was presented in front of any other book. For a short moment, the pony was taking a glance at that one book. He recognized that book as a new volume of the famous Daring Do adventure series. It read "Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny". After he read that title he returned to look in front of him and continued his way through the town and leaving the window behind him.

It took him some time to realize it but he could swear that he saw something off about the cover and quickly returned to the window again, this time putting his face very close to it. He took a very close look at the cover again and confirmed that he wasn't seeing things. On the cover was, as expected Daring Do, the hero of the story but next to her were two other ponies. One of them was Rainbow Dash which he recognized after a while. However, the other pony confused him the most. It was Star Twinkle.

It took a few seconds but after staring at the book for a while, there was only one thing he could say in his confusion of how he would have ended up on the cover of this book.

"...What?"

Author's Note:

Took a little while until I got this chapter done, am I right?

I initially, planned Star Twinkle to hang around with the others instead of with Rainbow Dash and Daring Do, but as you can see, I changed my mind.

I'm actually quite satisfied with this chapter and that is saying something because I usually think my chapters feel rushed.

PS. JRPG FAN, I hope you don't mind me using your idea for the title ^^.

Please consider leaving a like or a review to let me know what you thought about this chapter. I would also appreciate it if you follow me so that you can be up to date of every other story that I write (which are all connected to this one).

See you all in the next chapter.
Bye Bye ^^.

Reading Order:

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 1 + 2(Chapter 1 - 53)

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Diary of The Storm Wings

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 3(Chapter 54 - 65)

Equestria Girls - The Legend of Friendship

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 4(Chapter 66 - 91)