Deal with the Devil

by fic Write Off

Read But Unsaid

Rainbow Dash blasted into the library through its perpetually-open window. She landed with her wings fully extended; the hardwood floor resonated with a clack from three of her hooves. “Y’know,” she screamed, “you’re the stupidest feathering egghead I’ve ever met.”

Twilight Sparkle turned around from her bookshelves and gaped. She tripped over her own hooves and fell back onto her haunches. “Rainbow? What—”

“I’ll tell you ‘what’, Little Miss Perfect!” Rainbow’s right forehoof was pinning a hardcover book up against her chest. As she lifted her hoof away, the book clattered to the floor. She pointed a shaky hoof at the text. “That’s ‘what’! I can’t believe you stole my book and read it! You snake!” She ground her teeth and bucked at the air with her rear hooves.

“That’s not true!” She held up her forehooves defensively. “I didn’t steal it; I just found it! At the time, I didn’t even know...” She chanced a quick look at the familiar book laying on the floor. Something clicked inside her mind. “Wait, you returned some of my Daring Do books yesterday!” She pointed to Rainbow Dash and quickly nodded her head. “Remember? You returned Book Fifteen and a few of the Extended Universe ones. Your own book must’ve gotten mixed in when—”

“Oh, so it’s my fault?” Dash’s face darkened. “It’s my fault that you poked your nose in a book that you knew wasn’t yours?” She flapped her wings, hovering just a few hoof-lengths above the ground, and slowly encroached on Twilight, forcing the latter to retract her pointed hoof. “It’s my fault that you just had to meddle in my business?” It wasn’t until she was nearly nose-to-nose with Twilight that hot tears began leaking from her murderous glare. Her next words were a quivering whisper: “It’s my fault you told her?”

Twilight’s chest locked up, too terrified to breath the little air that floated between herself and her livid friend. “No, I...” She bit her lip and rested her forehooves against her own chest as she looked straight into the rose-hued eyes in front of her. “Rainbow, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t—”

Rainbow gnashed her teeth and jammed her eyelids shut. “You idiot!” she yelled, interrupting the apology. “Now everything’s gonna be weird forever and it’s all your fault.” She screeched directly into Twilight’s face, “I hate you! I hate you so much! I never want to see you again! I wish... I wish you’d get banished to the moon forever!” She swooped down to retrieve her book and bolted out the window before Twilight Sparkle had a chance to reply.

She sat alone in her library, trembling slightly. “I’m sorry, Rainbow.” She looked down at her own hooves before her vision blurred over. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have shown off your book without your permission.”

---

Twilight Sparkle opened the book. “Huh. Now where did you come from, friend?”

She gently floated it onto the reading stand and flipped through some of its pages. Unquestionably, it was a copy of Daring Do and the Cove of Candles. She’d read that one no fewer than eight time. The flashes of scenes and dialogue that she spotted in her skim-through were exactly as she remembered them: the treasure map of Three-Legged Blackmane, the deadly traps guarding the pirate captain’s immeasurable riches, Ahuizotl’s surprise reappearance two-thirds of the way through the book, and Daring Do’s episodic sidekick, Short Stuff. Ugh, Short Stuff. Twilight had written entire essays about how that little filly had singlehoofedly made this book the worst of the original series, between her scrappiness, her fangirlish love of Daring Do, her abhorrently broken Equestrian dialogue, and so on and so forth.

No, this was definitely Cove of Candles. That wasn’t the part which confused her. What confused her was whose copy this was. She twisted her neck around and spun lightly on her back hooves, searching for one particular bookshelf in the library’s main chamber. Sure enough, there were exactly sixteen books on her Daring Do shelf, exactly as there should be, ever since yesterday when Rainbow Dash had returned the copy of Spear of the Windigos that she had borrowed. The shelf held her own personal copy of Cove of Candles, a distinct entity from the mysterious volume currently resting on the stand next of her.

She turned back to examine the mystery text, equipped with a squint and a frown. What confused her further was the nature of the book’s owner. The pages of the book—at least in the beginning—were worn and earmarked, which meant two things. First, which Twilight found admirable, this book had clearly been read cover-to-cover a vast number of times, probably more than she had read her own copy. She was always pleased to discover anypony with a literary passion as large as hers, especially in a sleepy little town like Ponyville. Second—which still caused Twilight to cringe simply by reflecting on it—was that this mystery pony could learn a thing or three about proper book care. She sometimes wished that earth ponies and pegasi could benefit from the basic magical abilities that unicorns possessed, simply for the sake of literary conservation efforts.

Twilight Sparkle rubbed a hoof over her eyes and forced herself to yawn, hoping it would help her wake up. Once more, she caught herself focusing on the minute details rather than the primary mystery at hoof: specifically, the last thirty or so pages had been ripped out. Just like that, the story stopped right around the climax; all that remained of the original conclusion were the jagged, torn edges near the binding. She knew for a fact that, upon discovering this crime against Equestria earlier in the morning, her screams had woken up the neighbors, because said neighbors had come over to the library and demanded an apology. The felonist had at least attempted to make amends for this violation of the Geneighva Convention by inserting a few pages into the vacancy.

She huffed. It was not a proper replacement; the paper was yellow legal pad, matching the original pages in neither size nor hue. “Actually,” she murmured to herself, “I think I lost a legal pad like that.” The writing was sloppy mouth-and-quill, a far cry from the crisp printed book pages. And the content... While nopony was exactly certain who the author of the Daring Do series was, it most certainly wasn’t whomever retched onto these replacement pages.

Still, if anything would be said about Twilight Sparkle, it was that she would not allow a mystery to occur without a proper investigation—certainly not when it occurred within her own library! The pages magically flipped themselves to the last authentic page of the book. After scanning the last few paragraphs to get her bearings, and while gnawing on her bottom lip, she proceeded into the revised ending. Her brow furrowed and her ear flicked at odd intervals as she struggled to traverse the writing style that she could only describe as “needs improvement; see me after class”. However, with each sentence conquered, her pupils dilated further and a hoof slowly traveled up to the mouth. Upon reaching the end, she couldn’t help but to stare vacantly at the wall in front of her.

---

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight Sparkle yelled up into the rainy sky, trying to pierce her voice through the low rumble of thunder. “I’m sorry! Please, can’t we talk about this?” Her soaked mane clung flatly to the side of her shoulder, and her coat felt about three kilograms heavier with all of the water it was holding. Someday later, she mused, once this whole sordid affair was past them, Rainbow and she might be able to laugh at how melodramatic it was for her to surround her cloud house with storm clouds. But not now; now, Twilight knew that Dash was entitled to her grief. All the same, she wasn’t ready to tuck tail and run just yet. “Rainbow Dash!” She stomped a hoof and immediately shivered as muddy water splashed her underside.

“Go take a long walk off a tiny cloud!”

“Rainbow, please!”

Rainbow poked her head out over the edge of her house, her rainbow-striped mane swinging freely in the breeze. “Hey! Didn’t I tell you that I never want to see you again?”

Twilight bit her tongue, realizing now was not the time to point out that if that were the case, Rainbow shouldn’t have so hypocritically leaned over the edge to look down at her. “Please, Rainbow! I’m sorry!”

She sneered. “Good for you!”

“Let me help you!” Twilight shielded her eyes as she looked upward; she could no longer tell if they were wet from the rain or otherwise. “I want to fix this.”

“There’s nothing to fix!”

“Don’t say that!” Twilight made an exaggerated effort of shaking her head so that Dash could see it from her distance. “She didn’t understand what I told her. It’s not too late! We can sit her down and start over from—”

Dash groaned. With a flip, she glided down from her house and splashed down next to Twilight. “You. Are. So. Stupid!” She punctuated each word with another splash of mud, speckling the blue coat of her legs with brown polka dots. “Haven’t you used your giant, nerdy brain to figure it out yet?” Dash glowered at Twilight. “There’s nothing to fix. I didn’t want her to see it. Ever.”

“What? But...” Twilight’s jaw flapped open and shut. “But why, Rainbow? It’s such a beautiful—”

Rainbow snorted. “It’s a story, Twi. It’s not real. Daring Do is just pretend.” Her body wilted downward, her damp forelock hiding her face from view. “My ending is just pretend.”

“Hey.” Twilight Sparkle stepped softly up to her friend, stopping just out of hoof’s reach. “There’s nothing pretend about dreams, Rainbow. You of all ponies should know that dreams are made real through perseverance.” She waited for Rainbow Dash to reply; when none came, a light smile crossed her lips. “Would you listen to anypony who told you that your dream of becoming a Wonderbolt is ‘pretend’?”

“That!” Rainbow’s head snapped upright and she reeled back a few steps. Her eyes crossed, staring down at her own muzzle. “That’s... different. That’s actually possible.”

“Is it any different?”

Dash hung her head once more. Her soaked tail curled up lightly between her legs. “Twi, I can’t,” she murmured. “I’m... It’s too...”

Twilight Sparkle pulled up to her friend and wrapped her hooves around her. The two shared a soggy embrace beneath the rainfall. “I know, Rainbow. It’s okay. Let me help you.”

Rainbow Dash reached up with her own hooves and squeezed her tightly.

---

“Um, Twilight? I still don’t get what’s going on here.”

Twilight smiled down at Scootaloo in as nonchalant a manner as she could. “Sorry, Scootaloo. I know that this isn’t making much sense, but I can’t be the one who explains it.”

Scootaloo buzzed along the dirt path on her eponymous scooter, arching an eyebrow at Twilight as the unicorn trotted to keep up. “But why? If you know the answers, then just tell me already.” She made a melodramatic show of pretending to gag on her own hoof. “Don’t tell me. This is one of those ‘lessons I should discover on my own’ that grown-ups love to use all the time.”

“No,” said Twilight, unable to stop herself from giggling. “Not this time, anyway. Actually, that’s why we’re heading out to see Rainbow. It’d be best if she was the one who explained this to you.”

Scootaloo’s ears perked at the mention of her idol. “Cool!” she cheered with face aglow. “What are we waiting for, then?” Her wings revved up with newfound energy and propelled the scooter at double the speed, forcing Twilight to gallop after her.

The pair reached Rainbow Dash’s only to find it in a state of total disarray. From beneath the cloud house, they could hear a series of crashes and muffled curses. A number of Rainbow’s possessions were scattered about the lawn with careless disregard. As Twilight Sparkle was reflecting on this, she looked back upward just in time to dodge an empty pizza box that had been hurled out of the house.

“Rainbow, what are you doing?” Twilight yelled up at the house, stepping forward on instinct. “I hope you’re planning on cleaning up this huge mess. Littering is—”

She was cut off by a throaty groan. “Not now, Twilight!” Rainbow’s voice was muffled from being buried inside the clouds, but Twilight could tell from the tone that she was shouting at the top of her lungs. “I’m kinda busy!”

“But, Rainbow Dash,” shouted Scootaloo, loud enough to be heard but with enough inflection to inject the traditional Cutie Mark Crusader whining into her voice, “Twilight said that you’d be able to help me with this Daring Do book.”

“Sorry, squirt, but I said not now! I’ve—wait.” Twilight and Scootaloo nearly jumped out of their skin as a streak of rainbows crashed down onto the ground beside them. Dash’s eyes jolted from mare to filly and back. Upon spotting Scootaloo’s saddlebags, she hissed in a mouthful of air. The muscles in her legs visibly tensed and flexed underneath her coat. Her wings were locked tight against her frame. “Where—” Her voice cracked, and she coughed into her shoulder, before whispering once more, “Where did you find that?”

“Huh? This Daring Do book?” Scootaloo pointed her hoof to the side. “Twilight gave it to me. She found it in her library, and she showed it to me, and we both agreed that you’d like to see it too!”

Rainbow Dash stared straight at Twilight Sparkle. “She did, did she?”

She tried to match Rainbow’s gaze, but something was off-putting. Rainbow’s eyes were glassy and hollow, like there wasn’t anypony home. Twilight shuffled her hooves against the dusty trail, feeling her stomach inexplicably knot up. Nevertheless, she resolved to move forward. “I... This version has a really interesting alternate ending. Since you and Scootaloo were such big Daring Do fans, I figured that the two of you might want to...” She looked aside and spun her hoof in front of her as her mind tried to catch up. “Y’know, discuss. Like a book club!” She offered her friendliest smile to Dash.

Dash’s expression did not change, and her gaze did not leave Twilight, as Scootaloo continued the conversation. “Yeah! I mean, I’ve only seen the movie version, and yeah, yeah, I know that you and Twilight keep telling me that the books are so much better. But this book ends totally different than the movie.” She sat on her haunches, lifted both her hooves, and twisted her face into a grimace. “I mean, what gives? At the end of the movie, Daring Do never—”

“Hey, squirt.” Rainbow still stared at Twilight despite addressing the younger filly. “Can I see that book for a second?”

“Of course!” Scootaloo craned her head back, bit down on the novella, and lifted it out of her saddlebags. She set the book at Rainbow Dash’s hooves, saying, “I mean, that’s why we’re here, right?”

Rainbow immediately flipped to the yellow, mouth-written pages at the end. She stared at them for a mere instant before slamming the cover shut and biting down on the book. “Yeah, don’t worry about it, squirt. I know... I mean, I’ve heard about this book before. Somepony wrote it as a prank.” She stared down at the book held between her teeth, and her shoulders sagged slightly. “An unfunny, uncool prank.” With a snap of her tail and several crispy high-steps, she rotated herself about until she faced away from the pair. Her shoulders snapped back into a firm posture, and her wings unfurled in preparation for flight. “Anyway, like I said, I’m busy now. We can hang out tomorrow, okay?”

Scootaloo’s jaw dropped and her eyes grew to the size of small moons. “I—That—You—” she sputtered. “Hang out? Like, together? You mean it?”

“I mean it. And Twilight?”

Her face was locked in a pert little frown as she tried to study the interactions of the two ponies in front of her, but Rainbow Dash’s address caused her to shake her head and refocus her attention. “Yes?”

Rainbow’s face was turned away from them, but her tone was flat and calm. “I’m gonna drop by the library in a few minutes, so be there.”

“Huh? Okay, that—” She blinked as Dash immediately lifted off and returned to her cloud house. She looked down at Scootaloo, who shrugged back. “That’s fine, I guess.”

---

Tied to Daring Do’s back and muttering in Chineighse, Short Stuff struggled and twisted against her mold-covered restraints. “Dr. Do? We in big trouble!”

Daring Do was not having any more luck than her plucky companion. The ropes were bound tight against her body, pinning her wings and forelegs painfully to her side. The crane above them creaked and groaned, slowly lowering the pair toward the pit and its murky brown water. Spiny scales broke the water’s surface at odd intervals as the crocodiles eagerly awaited the tasty morsels being offered to them.

Daring’s pink eyes flashed, a scowl locked on her face. “Curse you, Ahuizotl! You’ll never get away with this.”

From his control panel on the far ledge, Ahuizotl let out a kooky, howling laugh. “Oh, but I already have, Miss Do! In a matter of moments, I shall be rid of you, and your endearing and infuriating penchant for ruining my every plan, once and for all.” He reared up and clasped his long fingers at the sky. “And then, Blackmane’s treasure shall be mine! Mine!” His mad laughter echoed mercilessly against the dank, stone walls of the temple.

Gritting her teeth, Daring twisted around and muttered into Short Stuff’s ear. “Hey, Shorty, I’ve got a plan. Think you can reach my whip?”

“I think so, Dr. Do! Me try.” Short Stuff twisted her hoof, reaching toward—

“NOT TODAY, MONKEYFUZZER!!!” Suddenly without any warning Daring Do totally snapped the ropes and was free. She flew super fast over to Ahuizotl and she bucked him in the face so hard that he bleed alot and cried.

“Owwww!” He cried. “Daring Do, I am sorry please forgive me? I will be good from now on.” Tears rolled down his face because he really hurt from where Daring Do kicked him in the face.

“No,” ordered Daring. “Your a really bad monkey dog thing and you have to go to jail now.” And then Ahuizotl goes too jail for ever.

“Hooray for Daring Do!” exploded Short Stuff. She was also save because Daring broke the ropes and she’s a pegasus and so she could fly because Daring taut her, even if she wasn’t as good a flyer as Daring Do. “I knew that you would be able to save us!”

“Hahaha!” Retorted the mustard pegasus. “Another day: Another dunjon!” She poised and looked super cool. “Anyway Squirt it is time for us to go home, also where is your home?” But then Short Stuff looked down and cried because she was sad. “I’m sorry, Daring Do,” she stated. “I dont actually have a home or a mommy or daddy. Their gone and nopony knows where they are.”

“WHAT?!?!” explained Daring. “That is to sad.” She cried. “Wait I have an awesome idea, I will be your new mom!”

“Oh my Celestia, that would be so cool because you are my hero, Rain Daring.” Short stuff was really happy but then sad. “But no you can’t. You have a lot of adventures planned, like you someday want to go to the Wonder Temple and find the Bolt Gem.” She looked down and muttered, “I will get in your way.”

The mustard pegasus nodded. “Yes it will be really hard. I know because my friends Mr Pastry and Mrs Pastry have twin foals and they are alot of work. but I will try really hard to be both a mom and a Wonder and go to the Wonder Temple. But if I can’t do both, then I will just be your mom okay?”

“You can’t!” screamed Squirt. “That’s been your dream forever!”

“No it is okay,” replied Daring. She looked at Short Stuff really really serious. “You are sad and I hate that. My radical adventures will make me happy, but being your mom will make me happy and you happy too so its better. I will be their for you and you can always count on me, no matter what, okay Scoota Short Stuff?”

“Okay I believe in you, you will be the best mommy ever!”

And then Daring Do was her mom and Short Stuff was her dauter and they cried and hugged alot, but it’s okay because they never cried ever again and they were happy forever.

---

Rainbow Dash sat in the middle of the library. She stared down at her hooves, where rested a familiar book and an unfamiliar scroll. The scroll was covered in words: long words, dry words, meaningless words. At the bottom of the scroll were lines for several signatures, two of which had already been signed upon. One signature, according to the job title underneath it, belonged to some bureaucrat or another. The second signature was immediately recognizable.

Twilight Sparkle tittered and shuffled from hoof to hoof, looking to the side of the room. “She had to pull a few connections to get the paperwork cleared so fast, but when I told Princess Celestia about your plan, she was more than happy to help.” She looked back at Dash and beamed. “She wished you the best of luck. Both of you.”

Dash shifted her hooves from underneath her haunches, and restlessly opened and folded her wings. Even though she hadn’t eaten anything for breakfast today, she felt like she had swallowed a brick. She looked up at the far wall and its perpetually-open window. “I’ll just screw things up.”

“Probably.” Twilight rested her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Everypony makes mistakes.” She leaned her head down until they were eye-to-eye. “But not everypony will fight tirelessly to correct those mistakes. And that’s what’s most important.”

“Twilight?” The front door of the library swung open. “You wanted me to stop by now?” Scootaloo’s face turned electric as she looked inside. “Rainbow Dash! Hey!”

“Good morning, Scootaloo. You’re right on schedule.” Twilight smiled and tilted her head lightly to the side. “Are you thirsty? Can I fix you up some lemonade?”

“Sure!” Scootaloo’s tiny wings flittered rapidly. “Sounds tasty!”

“No problem. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.” Twilight squeezed Rainbow’s shoulders once more, then dropped her hoof and walked to her kitchen. “You and Rainbow can get settled in the meantime.” She gently shut the kitchen door behind her.

Scootaloo grinned up at Dash. “Sooo. Is today the day that we’re hanging out?” She gasped and trotted up, with only the book and parchment between her and her hero. “Are we hanging out right now?!”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes lingered on the window. She tried to swallow but her tongue felt like it was filling her entire mouth. She closed her eyes and let out a shaky exhale before turning to Scootaloo and smiling. “Hey, squirt—I mean, Scootaloo. Yeah, we can hang out today.” She squirmed her legs and stared down at the items between her and Scootaloo. “Actually, though, I kinda wanted to ask you something first.”