> Daring Do's Map > by DemonicPinkieGamer > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Journal of Daring Do > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a beautiful day in the peaceful land of Equestria, certainly Celestia had done an excellent job today. Only thing was, that one pony in particular wasn't peaceful and calm like the rest of Equestria was that afternoon. Rainbow Dash, on a visit to the library, was practically about to explode from excitement. "OhmigoshohmigoshohmigoshwhenisTwilightgoingtogethereSpike!?!?!!??" Rainbow practically shouted. Spike looked at her with surprise. "Have you been taking lessons from Pinkie Pie?" Spike said sarcastically. "Because I couldn't understand a word you said." Rainbow Dash took some calming breaths to compose herself, then spoke. "When is Twilight going to get here?" Spike rolled his eyes. He jogged over to a pile of papers, and looked over them for a moment. "COME ON SPIKE!!!" the impatient pegasus yelled, as her temper could not be contained any longer. Spike gave her a look, then began rummaging through the papers. Suddenly, the door swung open, and a magical golden aura surrounded a singular scroll out of the pile. It lifted up, gently, and lazily drifted towards Spike's outstreched claw. Spike jumped up and grabbed it. "Who?" Rainbow said, spinning around. A silver unicorn mare walked into the library. Rainbow sighed. "Oh, it's just you, Eclipse." she said, relieved. The mare slowly walked to the nonfiction center of the library, looking over the books. "Spike, you might as well read the scroll." She said softly. Spike tore open the seal and opened the scroll. He looked at it for a moment before reading. "Girls, I have been called to the Crystal Empire to help Princess Cadence. The Crystal Empire still needs to be reintegrated into society, as they have been gone for 1000 years. Don't worry about me, i'll only be gone for a couple weeks... or months... but the maximum date is 1 LR(Luna's Return), October 17th. If i'm not back by then, go to the Crystal Empire immediately. -Twilight Sparkle." Spike said. Rainbow sighed. That date was like 4 months from now. She looked down, and folded her wings. "Awww..." she said. Eclipse pulled a book out of her saddlebag, and motioned for Rainbow Dash to come. "Look." Eclipse said, and handed the book to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash inspected it for a moment. The book was old and worn, ripped in some places even. Rainbow gingerly opened the book. "What is this?" She asked. Eclipse closed the book and gently removed some dirt with her hoof from the cover. Rainbow read what was written on the cover. "The Journal of Daring Do.:." > The Map > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a couple of days, Rainbow Dash had all but blazed through Daring Do's journal. In her cloud house, Rainbow sat on the roof, book in hoof, as she was sipping some fruit punch. "And so, I grabbed the ancient treaure with glee, only to see something out of the corner of my eye. I stuffed the bracelet into my bag, and tensed my wings, just in case I needed to fly." Rainbow said. Her wings tensed as well, excited for what might happen next. "I looked to where I saw it, and there it was, a full-fledged dragon!!" Rainbow Dash gasped, jumping a bit. "It stood... hmm... perhaps 15 feet tall, 27 feet long. One of those long, serpentine dragons, quick and elusive. Clever, too. I hadn't heard there were dragons here, so this came as a surprise. As you know, I like to do research about an area before I go exploring there." Rainbow Dash read. "The Dungeon of the Cloven Queen is nothing an amateur adventurer should take lightly, I found. Many adventurers have been here, and next to none have come out. The worm dragons are nothing to be taken lightly as well. This may be one of the most difficult dungeons I've faced thus far. So, I flew up into the air and looked around. There was a hole in the ceiling, letting in some light. I flew through it and peered down at the dragon. it was climbing up the wall, finding crevices to put it's claws into, and keeping its eyes on the hole in the ceiling." Rainbow paused. She knew that Daring Do had faced many things ten times as difficult as dragons, so why was she afraid? She figured that maybe the dragon looked a bit more menacing to Daring Do then it appeared in her mind. She took a long drink of juice before continuing the story. "Aaah. As the dragon climbed the wall, it spied my head poking out and breathed a jet of flame at me. I quickly pulled my head in and let the rock take the blow for me. I could feel the rock under my hooves begin to heat up immensely. The dragon continued to breathe fire at the rock at my feet. I realized what it was doing, with a start. The dragon WAS clever, for the dragon was heating up the rock under my feet so he could burn my hooves!!!" Rainbow Dash said. She wondered if Spike would be able to breathe fire one day, and wondered, perhaps, if Spike would someday act like the dragon in the story. She shuddered and moved on. "I flew up and did a loop around another jet of flame. I paused for a moment in the air. The dragon quickly moved up the wall with ease, finally popped its great head out of the hole and stared right at me. We locked eyes for a moment. It's great golden eyes looked like shining gold in the daylight. Finally, its gaze moved away from me and- EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" Rainbow Dash was frightened by something colliding into her. "HEY!!!" She yelled. She saw a blur of blue, and suddenly, it was gone. She breathed, relieved. She looked for Daring Do's journal, which she spotted plummenting towards the ground with great speed. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened to saucers as she dove down, flattening her wings against her body, quickly catching up to it. She finally spied the book falling toward Applejack's apple stand! She flew super-fast toward the stand, belly-up.She got to it just in time to have the book smack onto her belly with amazing force. She skidded across the ground, scraping herself up. "oooooooowwwwwwwww.......... my... stomac- BLERCK!!!" She said, throwing up her lunch. Applejack rushed to help her up. "What was that fer? Ya nearly darn knocked over mah stand!!" She said. Her eyes softened. "Are ya alright, sugarcube? Ya don't look too good." Rainbow Dash's face was almost as green as a strip of her spectrum-colored mane. "I'm... okay. This-" Rainbow Dash said, taking the book and quickly waving it in front of AJ. "Ah knew ya liked Darin' Dew, Dash, but ah didn't know ya woulda risked yer life to save a old book o' hers!" She said jokingly. Rainbow Dash slowly got to her hooves and shook her head. "This 'old book' is the REAL Daring Do's journal. And this book is an artifact, being like 600 years old. If I broke it..." Rainbow Dash shuddered. "Anyway, it's every bit as awesome as the books." Applejack raised an eyebrow, but stayed quiet. "Anyway, i'd be best if maybe ya stayed away frem mah stand." AJ said warily. Rainbow rocketed up into the sky without a word. Applejack rolled her eyes. Rainbow probably didn't even hear her... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A couple minutes later... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rainbow Dash settled down on her cloud bed, opening the book. CRACK!!! Rainbow Dash gasped, had she broken the book? She gently closed the book, and peered at it. "Phew... ACK!!!!" she said. She had spotted a large crack in the spine of the book. "BUCK!!!!" She yelled. She looked at it, turning the book slightly. She thought she saw something. She put her eye up to it and squinted. 'A piece of rolled-up paper... what would that be doing here?' thought Rainbow. She reached in with her hoof- and it didn't fit. She thought for a second, then extended her wingtips and reached in. She focused and curled her feathers around the piece of paper, grasping the paper. She pulled her wingtip out of the book, which now awkwardly grasped a piece of paper. She pulled it out of her wing and opened the paper. Draw on it, in fine detail, was Equestria. Only much, much different. She saw things like 'The Cloven Kingdom', 'Tenohooflan', and something where Ponyville used to be called 'The Zebra Tribe'. However, Canterlot was still there. And Celestia was crudely drawn next to it, though. In brown ink, however, there was a big X over her. > A Hidden Secret > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Awesome!!!" cried Rainbow Dash. She looked over the map for a little longer before noticing a piece of paper stuck to the back of the map. 'What's this? Probably from Daring Do!' she thought excitedly. She pulled it off with ease. It was a squarish piece of yellowed paper. Rainbow Dash squealed with glee. "Yes! I wonder what it says!!! I bet it's something AWESOME!!!" She shouted. She started to put her hoof on it, but suddenly, a light orange aura surrounded the paper. "Whoa!" She said. She looked around, looking for the unicorn who casted the spell. Then, she remembered that unicorns couldn't walk on clouds like she could. She turned her attention to the piece of paper, which was now floating in the air. She grabbed at it, but the aura quickly shaped into a small bubble. The now perplexed mare poked the bubble, which now contained the paper. The bubble moved, but didn't break. 'Hmm... What should I do?' Rainbow thought. '...I know! I show this to Eclipse! Maybe she'll know how to break this bubble, being a unicorn... Rarity certainly wouldn't know how...' She grabbed the bubble and held onto it tightly. After a second, Rainbow Dash trotted toward her cloud door and kicked it into oblivion. She then spread her wings and head off for Golden Oaks library. "WWOOOO-HOOO!!!!" Yelled Rainbow Dash. She did a double corkscrew in the air and did a couple backflips with ease. She suddenly dive-bombed, holding on tightly to the bubble. The wind blew her rainbow mane everywhere, slapping her in the face and throwing her a bit off-course, almost ramming her into a building. "Close one... maybe I need to practice turning more." Rainbow Dash said, trying not to crash in a particularily thin alleyway. She finally did a flip and landed right in front of Golden Oaks library. "Phew... where is that bubble...?" She said. She looked around. She checked her mane, then brushed her tail with her wing, and she felt a small bump. 'Aha...' she thought. She pulled it out of her windblown tail, taking a look at it before trotting into the library. "Eclipse? Are you here? I need something for you to do!!!" she yelled. After a couple of seconds, a flash of light came from the center of the room and faded. There stood a unicorn mare. She shook her head and looked toward Rainbow Dash. "What? I was busy studying! This better be quite important, Dash." She said, annoyed. Rainbow Dash blushed. "Oh no! It is important! Erm... what's this?" Rainbow said. She held out the light orange bubble in her hoof. Eclipse cocked her head, but after a second her horn ignited and the bubble levitated toward her. "Hmm..." Eclipse said, studying it. "This is a lock spell. It is supposed to protect an item from being taken... or in this case, opened. I say, 'Supposed to' because these spells aren't supposed to be moveable." She frowned. She looked around the library before levitating a book off the shelves. 'Advanced Lock spells for beginners.' She flipped a couple of pages, frowning until she reached about halfway through the book. "Alright. First, how old is this piece of paper?" the silver mare said. Rainbow Dash's face scrunched up in concentration. "Umm... like, 600 years?" she said quietly. "Alright, that explains a lot. You see, lock spells become weaker with time, as do many spells. However, this spell in particular is almost as powerful as a newly casted lock spell... aha! This tells us something about the caster! This spell must have been casted by a powerful unicorn. You know, the strength of a spell depends entirely upon the magical strength of the caster." "Ermmm... that's nice and all, but... can you break it?" "I don't want to, yet. First, I would like to take samples of the magic and maybe study it. Spells this old aren't common. Second, it could be booby-trapped. If this piece of paper is important, I could destroy it by accidentally blowing it up." Rainbow Dash looked at the ground and her wings drooped. Eclipse walked over to her, placing her hoof on her shoulder. "Can you wait a couple of hours?" she said. Rainbow Dash's face lit up dramatically, and she flew up into the air. "I want to help. Can I, like... find some books about lock spells? Maybe I'll find something out!" she said happily. Eclipse smiled. "Okay. Maybe in the meantime, you could look up some books about dismantling magical traps? That'll help a lot." Rainbow Dash did a little dance, flying up into the air. Eclipse walked toward a door to the left, going toward the lab. She opened the door, and walked inside. She gently placed the bubble on a lab table and got out a sheet of metal. She quickly fired up her horn and used a recording spell, which would record (kind of like a video camera) until the user stopped the spell. It was a routine for her, she had always done that when she was doing science experiments, to document her research. She found sheets of metal to be best to cast the spell on, because it was easy to take with you and easy to make a little recording pop up. (Think of an iPad) She picked up a magically enchanted scalpel with her magic and sliced a thin layer off of the bubble. A paper-thin piece of light orange magic fluttered to the desk, where it was promply placed onto a microscope slide. When, suddenly, a voice came out of nowhere. "Hi, my name is Daring Do..."