Putting my spear on the ground next to me, I laid out my bedroll before settling down on it with a sigh, letting my head drop.
I had picked a spot in the outskirts of the covered area so it wasn't as crowded, but also gave me better light from the fires. Night Vision or not, writing in the dark of night, especially in the shadow of the 'tent' blocking out even the moonlight was a pain to see what you were doing.
Pulling my book out from my satchel, I set it down and flipped it to the right page before I looked around, ears turning.
Only the wind and the sound of the jungle could be hard over the constant subdurned murmure of ponies talking quietly between themselves. Nothing had attacked us yet, which was a good thing. The smaller things might even avoid us because of how much sound over a hundred ponies made when moving through the jungle.
I looked at my pen and ink.
Now for the difficult part, writing without magic.
I had done it before, I had technically learned mouthwriting before I learned to first control my horn, but I had not touched it since. I mean, why would I?
Uncorking the ink, I dipped the pen and started to carefully write.
It was slow, tedious and a bit messy, but it worked.
I could take my time, I wasn't exactly in a hurry here.
"Hey," a voice said and a bowl of steaming hot stew was set down next to my book. I blinked at it in surprise and then looked up to spot Dee standing there, a spear held beneath one wing, "Thought you were a bit too distracted to figure that food's done."
"Oh," I said and smiled at her, "Thanks.... I didn't even notice."
"I figured," she said and then frowned at me as she sat down, "You have a bit of..." she said and touched her hoof to her cheek.
I just sighed, "Yeah, I figure," I admitted, "Trying to get to writing down what happened during these few days for the book, but I'm not exactly well practiced in mouthwriting."
"Unicorns," she commented with a slight eye roll.
"Well... yeah," I admitted, "The horn just makes it so much easier."
"No it doesn't, you just need to put in the practice," she said and put her spear down, "Scoot over."
I blinked at her in surprise and did like she said, "What are you up to?"
"You talk, I'll write," she said and pulled the book, pen and ink over in front of her.
"You don't need to do that."
"What else am I going to do? I think I can fit it into my busy schedule. Besides," she said and then peered down onto the scribbles on the page before her, "I'm assuming you want to actually be able to read this later?"
I grumbled and pulled my stew closer, sniffing at it. Tomatoes and potatoes and a lot of things I couldn't really identify but it smelled amazing. Is that basil?
"So?" Dee asked, shifting her wings after I risked the first chew from the hot stew.
"I was at..." I said and then nodded as I trailed off for a moment as I thought, closing my eyes as I pictured the scene in my mind, "The brush was thick with the sounds of exotic animals and scents all around us as my new companion and I made our way through the equally thick and exotic underbrush. The heat of the burning sun above was..."
###############
Dee put the pen down and eyed through the latest page she had written, "It reads almost like one of those old travel journals," she said, "More than a modern adventure book anyway."
I nodded, "That's what I'm going for," I said and leaned a bit closer to look, "Mind, this is just a first draft, I'm going to add details and explanations and more... depth so to speak later. It's not meant to be an accurate representation of what happened, it's meant to be entertaining, to draw the reader into the world of the- okay, wow, that's not fair."
Dee blinked at me, "What's not fair?"
"How is your mouthwriting better than my hornwriting? I'm a writer, it's what I do!"
She grinned, "That's the result of endless hours of field reports and thesis writing. You get your writings printed in the end for the reader, mine get thrown out unless it's... you know, readable."
I decided to be the adult pony and stick my tongue out at her before closing the book, "Stil... thanks for the help with this. I'd still be working on the first three pages otherwise."
"No problem," she said and then leaned a bit forward as I put the book away in my satchel, "What do you have more in that thing?"
"Hmm?" I asked and then peered into my satchel, "Nothing much. An apple, some writing supplies, the journal and an adventure book."
Dee nodded, "What kind of book?" she asked with an ear flick.
"Daring Do and the Crystal Chalice," I said and pulled it out, "Have you read it? I think it's the latest one."
She grinned briefly and then shook her head, "I wouldn't say that, but I may have flipped through it before. Not really into reading those kinds of adventure books, too much like work to me."
"Yeah, I guess I could see that," I admitted and flicked one ear in thought, "I guess the inaccuracies would drive you up the walls too..."
It sure did back on earth with movie 'hackers' and how they always were portrayed like some sort of wizards in dark hoodies in a dark basement somewhere rather than somebody sitting around watching tv and eating pizza while his script worked through passwords.
"That too," she admitted and pulled the book over to herself before we both froze and quickly looked up along with a hundred other ponies, ears turning in all directions as there was a howl somewhere far away in the distance.
A few moments passed before we relaxed again and she opened it to the first page, "Share?"
"...Yeah, okay," I agreed and she shifted the book a bit so it was more equal between us.
She might have been the faster and neater writer than I was, but I was by far the faster reader.
I wasn't even sure when we started to read out loud instead of stopping and waiting to turn pages, but we took turns.
I did the narration parts and male characters and she did Daring and the female characters.
By the end, we had drawn a bit of an audience listening in on us.
I am starting to predict a herd expansion
10451274
Gee, I wonder who you could be thinking of?
It's what she does too, and she has been doing it for longer
What better pony to play the role
10451274
it's certainly a possibility, but we'll see
10451279
Clearly he’s referring to the wolf princess! The young girl, abandoned by her family as an infant, has been raised by the matriarch of the forest as one of her own.
Little does she know that Page is the key to saving her home from a dark fate, a fate brought upon her forest by the selfish desires of ignorant ponies that seek the power of the guardian of the forest!
Missing an L. (made it a capital because i hate how identical uppercase i and lowercase L look)
Been loving this series so far, and i hope that i will love everything that happens in the future of this series.
Page’s observation about how Daring Do is a cheap imitation knock-off of Indiana Jones coming in 3...2...1...
10451274
I like the sound of that.
That some fine bonding time
10451279
Swift Spear... Duh
10451304
Indeed
10451307
Actualy its not a question of if, only when. The supplicant list is quite long actualy...
10451329
Dude... Make that a story
10451382
Nooo waaay... That Hat and adventure clothing was expensive
10451417
Welcome to the club. We have virtual hugs and cookies
10451382
If they hadn't explicitly gathered an audience by that point, her response would be to flip back to bits and bobs of Daring Do's appearance that get peppered through early on in each book until he realizes that it's clearly describing the mare in front of him. (This wouldn't work quite as well without cutie marks being a thing)
10451274
And together they will write (authorized) Star Wars/Daring Do crossover fictions.
Working titles:
Daring Do and the Phantom Menace
Daring Do and the Clone Wars
Daring Do and the really edgy prequel
10451410
since they're alicorns of comparably massive power and authority...they're also incapable of doing anything right because they'd be OP. That's allegedly why celestia had twilight do everything, why twilight lost to starlight (twice) later on, why the storm king beat them, ect ect because they're cursed to be just bad at solving problems, at least that's the fanon explanation
Page: Hey Dee, check it out, you look just like the cover art of Daring Do. Right down to the outfit and Cutie Mark. You even do some of the same kind of stuff, like when we found that temple.
Discord: Well...this is unexpected.
Cadance: I don't get it...she didn't have any chemistry with Page when they were by themselves in the temple! Now that pegasus giving us Sunset Shimmer-level of friendship vibes which we all know is a proven path to herd membership. Discord! Put her on the list~!
Discord: Yep. Definitely worth keeping an eye on now. Should I place her on the low or mid-tier?
Cadance: Low-tier for right now but be ready to change that at a moment's notice! This pony might prove us wrong soon enough!
MEANWHILE...IN THE JUNGLE...
Dee Dee: Huh? I feel incredibly smug all of a sudden. It feels GOOOOD~!
subdurned murmure? Should that be subdued murmur?
10451473
lol it already is, technically. I was making a reference to one of my favorite animated films. Princess Mononoke, directed by an awesome man by the name, Hayao Miyazaki. Definitely worth a watch. Great story and an amazing art style.
[Shipping Intensifies]
Also waiting for the reverse reveal.
Evil Unicorn Necromancer: For you see , Your companions have decived you, they've been lying this ENTIRE TIME TO YOUR FACE!
DD: NO, If its going to come out, i'm going to tell you myself. I'm Daring Doo!
BP: I Know! It was really obvious!
Eun: What?
DD: What?
BP:I'm the alicorn of Stories! That kind of basic plot twist is really really obvious!
DD: Then..Why...
BP: It seemed like it was important to you, and Of course i'm going to play along with a plot point! *Waves at Evil Unicorn* You probably used to be a professor or something who she somehow made look dumb, and you've engineered everything up to this point to get revenge, and the only way we've survived as well as we have is the secret bat-ponies hiding in the forest have been trailing us and subtley helping us this entire time!
Bushes: What?
Clever, she’s co-writing, which means she will have to get credit for this story and also, paid for this story.
10451945
Absolutely PRICELESS ♡♡♡
I'm loving this new path~
Yes, she absolutely did. :D
How has he not made the connection yet
11171359
My guess is because, as far as he knows, Daring is fiction. Only reason we made the connection is because we know differently.
..... wait a minute..... Daring Don't, the episode that the Main 6 meet Daring Do, should have already happened in Midnight's timeline (if it was the exact same as cannon). Shouldn't she recognize Dee Dee?
11363341
Asking the important question… 🤔
11363341
I mean it's possible she just doesn't want to out DD, Iirc she kept a relatively secret identity on purpose and told them all as such
heard
Slice of life and adventure stories are great to leave a troubled mind behind 👍