Becoming Daring
Daring Do and the Blossoms of the Heart, Chapter 2
Endless blooming lilacs stretched out before her, coating hill and valley alike in rolling waves of purple and lavender. Sweetness pervaded the gentle afternoon breeze, the tender scent washing away pain, trouble, and uncertainty. Daring fell to her back in an explosion of blossoms and petals, wings wide, her weatherworn pith hat rolling down the hill unnoticed. This was where she belonged! Here, in lilac arms, buoyed by soft scent and caressing flowers, she had not a care in the world, save one.
Her nostrils filled, her eyes shut tight, and her heart aflutter, Daring’s mind wandered back home. No, not home – or was it? Images sprang to mind: university classrooms, musty academic offices, museums of forgotten exhibits. This was the cloying, stuffy world she adventured to escape from, and yet – there she was. The museum’s Curator of Antiquities, that amazing unicorn, whose every glance left the hardened and scarred explorer trembling and short of breath, called her back to the civilized world without a word. She could never escape that call, nor did she have a desire to.
Once, in her younger days, the lure of thrills and fame drew Daring Do out of the world of academia, away from the drudgery of teaching, grading, publishing. Running away from it all and into the field was her only sure escape from the soul-grinding tedium of spending the rest of her days sorting dusty bones, broken potsherds, and unloved artifacts for display in exhibits few ponies would see and fewer still would notice or care about. That was her life, once, and though it may have been mere months ago, it may as well have been a story told in tomb inscriptions, for it felt like centuries ago.
Now she braved fiendish traps and deadly mazes, sought out eldritch amulets and legendary staves, and endured every harsh clime from the hearts of glaciers to the bowels of mountains, all to do what? To see her! That was enough, and Daring would do it all again. Every ancient tiara she recovered from a ghoulish tomb was another chance to sit with the Curator, to spend hours hoof in hoof with her, muzzle to muzzle with her, poring over every minute detail and every scrap of history of whatever trinket she’d retrieved. The more history an artifact bore and the more mysteries it promised to unlock, the more time it meant she could spend in the heart-stopping presence of that wonderful, brilliant mare.
Every gem-encrusted scarab she recovered from a lost cavern was like a first date, nervous, sweating, brief, and oh so very worth it. Every glowing, cursed torc salvaged from a sunken ship was like an anniversary dinner, familiar, intimate, and long awaited. Recovering that idol from Ahuizotl – that was like a honeymoon that never ended. So many hours side by side with the lilac mare of her dreams and her daydreams, so many late nights and early mornings… Daring wanted that feeling again, now and forever. But love was not an accursed pyramid to be plundered and romance was no ancient temple to be looted.
How was it that could she face demon priests and lava pits but couldn’t tell one smiling, bookish mare what she truly felt? How long could she keep up this pretense? How long could she go on trading relics for romance? It was a lesson she’d learned too well these past months: courage didn’t translate always from hoof to heart. Daring would trade all the adventure, all the fame and thrills of exploring and delving the depths of history just to be able to put her feelings into words.
One last expedition, she promised herself – then I can tell her. One last crown to liberate from some shattered sarcophagus - then I can confess. One more, one more, always one more – would it ever be enough? Will I ever find the courage, she wondered, to make this incredible mare not just a curator, but My Curator? She opened her eyes to a spiral of lilac blossoms and flexed her wings to follow them aloft into the breezy evening sky. Not one more, she thought. No more, no longer. It was time to go home, home – to her Curator.
Daring Do and the Blossoms of the Heart, Chapter 3
The trembling tan pegasus stood before the museum’s oaken door, hat in hoof and heart pounding. She …
~~~~~
“Shy, lemme give ya some friendly advice, pegasus to pegasus.”
“O – Okay, Dash. What is it?”
“Don’t. Do. This. Just – don’t.”
“Oh, I promise I’ll never - wait, don’t do what, exactly?”
“Don’t write me into this. Don’t write Daring like this, Fluttershy, just – okay, let me ask you a question. You know I dig Daring Do, right?”
“Yes…”
“And you know the only way you’ll get me to read anything is if it involves explosions or Daring Do, preferably both. Right?”
“Um, I think so.”
“So that means there’s no feathering way I’d ever be caught reading mushy romantic horseapple bunk like this. Got it?”
“I suppose.”
“Now, Shy, let me guess – you probably noticed me spending lots of time at the Library lately. And you might have figured out that whenever I feel like reading, I could do it perfectly well in my sweet cloud-house but instead I always seem to end up reading with our little librarian friend. How am I doing so far?”
“Well, you’re… surprisingly accurate, actually. I didn’t mean to notice things, I promise! I can be less perceptive, if you like.”
“So Flutters, here’s the kicker. I’m guessing you thought that if you could write a sappy romantic story, I’d read it anyway ‘cause it’s Daring Do, and if it showed Daring Do having the hots for an egghead bookworm unicorn, then maybe I’d be inspired to confess my undying love to Twilight. On the mark?”
“Um, kind of. Well, perfectly, really.”
“Shy, you’re my oldest friend, so I’m gonna tell you three things. If anyone asks, I swear I’ll deny them, and you can bet your wings I’m never gonna repeat any of this again. First – that was actually an awesomely good story. I can see why ponies love your romance novels.”
“Oh, thanks, Dash!”
”Second, if that Daring Do was supposed to be based on yours truly – well, then it was pretty darn close. I totally had the same problem. Guess you noticed that too, huh?”
“A little. Maybe. Sorry!”
“Don’t be. Third, you’re late.”
“Late?”
“Yeah, by about a month. Twi and I have just been really good about hiding it. Eggheads can be surprisingly sneaky, ya know? Great kissers, too.”
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...
Ok, it took me a sec to remember this story. Awesome!
lol, oh fluttershy you are a sillier pony than applejack.
That last comment by Dashie... Brilliant
Well...lol
Good story, keep it up!
Third one was the killer.
truly nailed Rainbow's personality with this chapter
Hahahahaha!! That ending was great. This story is so cute, I HNNNG'ed all over again.
That ending. Brilliant.
To short and way to much Daring Do with not enough plot of your story.
Yay
Indeed, that ending
Very nice. XD
Still, I feel like TwiLuna and RariJack are feeling a little bit rejected... *hint hint* (I'm just half-joking here... ;p)
BWAHAHAHAHA!!
Oh Fluttershy, for being so observant you sure missed that one!!
d'aww!
>The trembling tan pegasus stood before the museum’s oaken door, hat in hand and heart pounding.
Hoof. Hoof! HOOF!
Now i would love a happy Lyra facehere. XD
Love it, especially the great novelistic way Darign Doo was written of Fluttershy. It felt very Fluttershyish if that makes sense while Daring felt much RDish if that makes sense too. xD
Best part was when we got to the "real (fictional) world" back and read how RD told Shy the three truths:
-Great story.
-You´ve got me down to the T.
-And btw, Twi and i are going out for a month.
Now i await Fluttershy writing great clopfics about Daring Doo and a certain liliac curator while having Dash and Twi in mind. And those chapters will never see the light of day. Or maybe Rarity will see them, but really just her cause she asked nicely and alot. XD
You´ve got high quality going here, i´d just wish it was more to read.
*checks his fav and to read later list*
On the other hand i got over 400 stories to read with like 2000 or more chapters so....^^;
Yay!
I was confused for a second....i remember last chapter that everyone already knew they were together. Took me a second to notice that the last chapter was 3 months after the first and this one was 1.
Nice, I'm really enjoying these really short but well written chapters of yours
Hmm..... unexpected but nice.
Good chapter,
BEST CHAPTER YET!!!
1806741
Yep, I need to put the new chapter-ordering tool to use. Hopefully this weekend!
1806576
DOH! Knew there'd be something. That's what I get for writing the original in 30 minutes and posting it as a chapter here almost unedited.
1806068
Two - check that, after tonight's TMP writing prompt, three - chapters of Luna's Librarian are in the queue. Coming very soon!
1805972
I was afraid it'd come off that way. This was meant to be a callback to the first chapter, "Epilogue", in the way it's structured. My aim was to show how much Dash's attitude had changed in a short time thanks to Twilight by showing how different her reaction was in a similar situation. Even Dash doesn't nail 100% of her stunts every time, so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad.
1804239
Thanks! There's plenty of TwiDash out there, and I was hoping to give this one a little twist to keep it fresh. Glad you liked it!
1805715
Great, now I have "Who's A Silly Pony?" stuck in my head.
1762216
in English = Rainbow.
in Spanish = Arco Iris.
Also, Iris was the Greek goddess of rainbows.
This...was fucking[i/] AWESOME!!
God I love this story.
Fluttershy being the Daring Do author? Seems a bit of a stretch, she never struck me as an adventurous sort.
Um, but then again, what do I know?
Oh, Fluttershy.
1807463
Probably not the Daring Do author. I'm picturing "Daring Do and the Blossoms of the Heart" as a fanfic Fluttershy wrote (too late, we find out) just to get Dash to admit her feelings for Twilight.
The first chapter of this story, Epilogue, does show Shy as an author of romance novels, but I'd imagine even Equestria has copyright laws.
1807403
pssst...I think you accidentally your italics closing tag. [sic]
Well done this was cute but now I wonder Is Daring Do wrote by Fluttershy
or was it a Fan Fic. But it does give me an Idea though I have seen this before making Fluttershy the author of Daring Do 
I might put a little of this Idea in one of my stories in the making 
Well done looking forward to the next chapters.
Pay no mind to the crashing sound...its just Fluttershy passing out ...again
One little derp though,
I believe you forgot a 't' there,
waiten a bit for this to come out i really hoped that you could have showed what happened after twi and dashes little game.it was a little short..BUT WAS GREAT ANYWAY was this before sh 1-4 or what? i was not saying this was bad in any way .so dont take it that way ok?
1811820
This latest chapter was slightly out of order, you're correct. Now that FiMFiction lets authors rearrange chapters, I need to put all of my stories into correct chapter order. Hopefully this week! And I'll get to more Dash & Twi post-"lecture" fun soon. No clop, of course, but it'll be fun to see what they're like waking up to each other.
1811634
Clime's a word, I promise! It's just really obscure and archaic. Would have been less confusing as "climate".
1809200
Nah, Fluttershy didn't write the Daring Do novels, just the occasional Daring Do fanfic. She does write romance novels, though.
The chapters seem to go too slow for me to care for the story. I like it and all but I think I'm going to wait for you to release a few chapters and then start reading this again
GAH why do good stories like this always seem to end so fast! :(
1829284>>1817999
Oh, ye of little faith! New chapter later today.
Oh, so wonderful are these snapshots! I feel so warmed every time I read one. Fantastic, fantastic charcaterization.
1812202
I love the TwiDash d'awws just as much.
>no clop
t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSMZj-GNLAtqdK9Ykx_rDX_66Ux9g6nHXe9a0zfCooj5EEGqK7p
YOU HAVE SUCH AN AWESOME WRITING STYLE THERE'S SO MUCH POTENTIAL FOR ANYTHING YOU WRITE
Meh, pay no attention to my own preferences, go for whatever you like! People always write their best when they like what they are doing, and you have a LOT of potential.
That was the best punchline I've seen in quite a while
1805715
Who's a silly pony?
You're a silly pony.
Who is, you is, Applejack.
1805715 No one is more silly than AJ.
This last bit made my day.