The Amazing Adventures of Double Dare

by Fabricia Gearhart

Double Dare and the Changelings' Chagrin [part 1]

Growing up in the famed Manehattan can be, well, less than extraordinary. Many ponies dreamed of simply going there, let alone living there, but for those that actually did live there it wasn't a piece of cake. Jobs were hard to come by and when they were given to a pony, they hardly received anything in return for their hard work. A pegasus and his lovely wife had found that out the hard way seventeen years prior to where our story begins.

Bold Font had to often be snapped out of daydreaming about venturing off into the wild west or even just outside of the city. His wife would always be kind about it, always joking that he should start writing about his adventures in his dreams instead of simply letting them go to waste. Due to her encouragement, he pursued his talents of writing in wonderful, but light detail as well as incorporating everyday life into it. His main character, Daring Do, was the very essence of adventure and excitement that he ended up basing her off of his witty wife. Together, he deemed, he and Daring Do could perform any feat. At least, that's what they believed until the pregnancy test came back positive.

It wasn't a sad time in the Font home, but it wasn't exactly the happiest of times either. You see, his wife had always been rather sickly and baring a filly only added onto the stress that she currently dealt with on top of her job at the newspaper. Daring Do's days had come to an end and so had his daydreaming. His wife had been thrilled to be pregnant, though it often caused her to miss yet another day or week or work, but Bold Font knew that she missed going out on her adventures. She would often talk about how their filly would most likely be the perfect mix of both her parents, how the filly would be the very image of the amazing Daring Do. Everyday they would sit together and create stories about wonderful adventures that their filly would go on, how their child would be double the daring than Daring Do herself, and even how Bold Font would be able to continue his writing through their offspring. They even joked about how they would literally have to pin their filly down every time they wanted a moment's worth of rest.

Little did Bold Font predict that rest is what they would receive the moment that their 'Double Dare' came into this world.

His Daring Do would vanish. She would leave without a single god-bye and would go and plunge herself int other greatest adventure of all time. His will to write, his will to live had vanished with his Daring Do.

---

"State your name," said a cream colored mare in a dull voice very little to the young pegasus's surprise, "and why you want to be a librarian here." The mare's mane was dark grey, though she wasn't elderly, and the pegasus, hardly older than a filly herself, began to regret ever trying to apply for a job within the Public Library of Manehattan. "You'd best spit it out, because we have other ponies that actually have cutie marks."

The sand-colored pegasus sighed, "My name is Double Dare and I want this job because I like books."

"Oh?" The head librarian asked in a somewhat surprised manner. "Are you capable of shelving hundreds of books on a daily basis?"

"I guess." Double Dare replied in a dull voice, trying to copy the librarian's as well as get away with it. Her father's words then rang through her head like a bell, warning her to act kind and ready for anything that was thrown at her. Why on Equestria did I ever suggest that I'd get a job here, the mare asked herself before trying her best at a charming smile. "I mean, yes, I'm ready for anything and everything that you could ever throw at me."

Upon hearing this the librarian immediately knew that she did not want a mouthy mare working under her supervision, thus, she knew how she would get rid of this quirky candidate quickly enough. "Then I would like for you to find the book The Entire History of Equestria and bring it back to me within the next five minutes."

"But-"

"And your time starts now." The snobby librarian took out her pocket watch and raised an eyebrow, looking completely serious about this task. Clicking the button that would start the clock, Dare simply stared at her dumbly for a moment before shaking her head slightly; quite unimpressed with the mare's methods of finding a new librarian.

With a sigh the pegasus immediately started towards the history wing of the library and looked through the Equestria history section. She climbed up the ladder which leaned against the shelf in a slightly delicate manner, going all the way to the top before searching for the beginning of the 'H' subsection of the shelf. She was at the top of the ladder, stretching out her hoof for her quarry, which happened to be placed on the ungodly top of the shelf. Just as grabbed the binding of the book she made the mistake of looking down and immediately became dizzy from the height at which she stood. Unlike other pegasi, she was terrified of heights and couldn't fly to rub salt in her wound. "Heights," she said in a shaking and whiny voice, "why does it always have to be heights?" A feeling of queasiness flooded through her head and stomach, and she was about to climb down from the ladder when her foot inevitably missed the step. Thus, she lost her grip on the ladder and fell backwards, much to her dismay and fear, and into the shelf behind her.

There was a loud crash and cloud of dust as Dare and the books from that shelf fell. Coughing from breathing in the musty dust from the old books, the pegasus roughly pushed them off of her as she stood up. She was brushing her wings of the dust when a single book with a colorful cover amiss the dull and bland covers of the history books caught her eye. She picked her way through the mess and pulled the book out, exposing it to her magenta eyes.

What she saw made her heart stop beating for a moment. It was her on the front cover of the book. Slipping the book into her saddlebag, she quickly found and retrieved the book that the librarian had asked for. Setting it down on the desk in front of the librarian pony, she continued towards the door, completely missing the mare's stuttering of how she got the job and even forgot to check out the adventure book.

---

Upon returning to her apartment, Double Dare sat down and promptly stared at the book cover for a long while in the dark of the setting sun. Her mind was trying to wrap around the fact that she was on the cover of the book. The only thing that made her different from the mare was that 'Daring Do' had a cutie mark, and a rather cool one at that. What on Equestria is going on, she thought to herself as her father opened the door and stepped inside.

"Hello?" Font called as he turned on the kitchen lights and saw his sandy daughter sitting at the table staring at what appeared to be a book. Trotting over to the small table set for two and asked, "Did you get the job?"

Double Dare didn't respond right away, but when she did, it was in a rather quiet voice, "How long have I been on the cover of a book...?"

"What are you talking about?" Font asked as he looked over her shoulder and held his breath for a moment before letting it out in a sigh. He had known that his filly would eventually figure it out sooner or later, but instead of telling her the full truth, he replied in a hesitant fashion, "That's your mother, actually."

"My... mom...?" Dare asked with a squeak, her voice hardly audible. He had never mentioned her mother, except for rare occasions when she threatened to go out and find out for herself. "My mother is a character in a story..." she said before she burst into a fit of laughter, "Pfft! I would have thought you'd come up with a better excuse than that!" She had started to roll on the floor with laughter for several minutes before she sat up a little, wiping a tear away from her eye, and then said in a deadly tone of voice, "Now, tell me the truth about this. Now."

Font let out yet another sigh and nodded to the chair as a signal for her to sit down. As she did so, he walked around the table and sat down across from her, his dark brown eyes locked onto her magenta ones. "When you were very, very little your mother, Daring Do, was blackmailed into finding several artifacts in order to protect you." Font looked entirely serious, so Dare simply tried to be unbiased about this tale of her mother. "This organization was known as Mystic and they had always tried to foil your mother's escapades, but they had never gotten away with their dastardly plans. It wasn't until she had something to lose that she was forced away from us. She's out there somewhere in the world right now... just waiting to see you again." He let all of this sink in before continuing onward, "I know that it's a lot to grip and that I gave you such little information, but I ask that you just believe me for once in your life. Your mother cared about you so much that she gave up her freedom and even threw away her better judgment to protect you from their clutches."

"But..." Double Dare asked in a quiet voice before sighing with defeat; he'd made plenty of good points, though they were rather doubtful, "...what should I do?"

Her father looked down at the tablecloth for several long minutes, each second feeling like a thousand years to the tan and grayscale mare, before looking up and meeting her eyes again. "You're the only one that will be able to find your mother," his tone of voice steady and calm, "because you have your mother's talents for finding ponies and objects of importance if you put your mind to it. I want you to go out and find her; for both of us."

The pegasus looked down at her hooves and then to the window, watching the flickering of a streetlamp. She then looked back to Font when she had thought through her choices: to stay and be motherless or to go out into the world and find her desired parent; that's when she knew that her life would change forever and that there was no way to change her destiny. Her eyes met her father's with a determined glow as she replied, "I'll go and bring Mom back."

Comments

[BronyPie]

Very good, continue.

[Fabricia Gearhart]

1140332
Thank you!

[Rayvinne]

Very interesting! I shall keep track of this story.
One little tip though, slow down. Take a littler time to add a few descriptions into the story, and think things through before you put 'em down. For example, how did she know that book was out of place? Maybe instead of out of place, she found said object on the floor.

Please, carry on! I wish to see where this goes! You're doing a fantastic job, and I don't have any complaints grammar / spelling / punctuation wise.

[Star Plasma]

Crash Landing huh? It's funny because thats one of my storie' s titles.

[Fabricia Gearhart]

1140415
This was a rough draft of sorts, so I'll go back and edit (just as you suggested).
Thank you so much for the comment!

[Fabricia Gearhart]

1140927

[Fabricia Gearhart]

1141732
Haha! Love the Indiana Jones reference. ^_^

[Cat Eye]

Good GobJob

[pinkachu]

Very good! I like it!

[SpeedTune]

Its a good story, but I think your rushing the story a little bit at the end. I think it could be improved by maybe slowing it down a little. But other then that, great story, I like where its headed

[SpeedTune]

1140415 I agree, it is rushed. I love the story plot though. Sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next chapter!