Chapter 1
When the world was ruled by chaos, a labyrinth was built to protect ponykind’s last bastion of hope – the Elements of Harmony. Designed with precision from the remaining sane ponies, the maze was created to filter the false from the true, with tests at every corner to determine the rightful bearers of the Elements.
Rainbow Dash paused to think. What kind of tests could this labyrinth have that would make sense? She grinned.
The trapdoors were magic, selectively halting those who only sought power. The entrance was…
She stopped again, sitting still to listen. Behind her, she could hear the faint sound of clopping. That must be Twilight approaching.
“Rainbow, I’m about to close the library. If you want, I can help you with your writing when I'm done!”
Rainbow cringed. Her masterpiece was not ready to be revealed.
“Not so loud! There are still some ponies left here,” she said.
Twilight closed a window with her magic. “But everypony knows you’re the town expert on the Daring Do books.”
“Yes, Twilight, but they don’t know I’m actually writing about her in a competition. Most ponies would laugh at me for that.”
“You’re in a competition? Rainbow, I’m proud of you! How much have you written?”
“I’m working on it,” Rainbow turned back to the desk.
Twilight stood behind her for three painful seconds.
“Oh! Well, call me if you need any help.”
“Will do!” Rainbow was keen to get back into the story.
An obelisk of tusk and stone presided over the entrance, which dispensed harsh justice upon anypony seen to be loitering outside for more than an hour. The corridors were steep and jagged and had wires that would unleash a hail of stones upon the slightest quiver. Every trap was a challenge made to permit only the correct wielder of the Elements access.
One by one, and sometimes two by two, the builders fell into disharmony and joined the chaos. The world around assimilated them and shunned the final pony for his hardiness. He inscribed four words on the floor of the first chamber as his legacy. ‘Flight, Skill, Endurance, Together’.
Two-hundred desolate winters passed before small bands of ponies, through happenstance and mistake, realised again the benefits of friendship. These rebels set out to conquer the labyrinth on their own to find the Elements. None succeeded. Although the inscription clearly stated that the three races must act as one to prove their worth, none could read it as formal education was outlawed under Discord’s regime.
All would have been lost, if it weren’t for Celestia and Luna, the Two Oddities of Equestria, who queerly possessed the traits of all three pony-races. These sisters held a competition between each other to find the Elements first. The bet was won by Celestia, who then gained significant stature over her sister for doing so, and together they utilised the Elements to stop the world’s devolution and begin a new era.
Rainbow Dash lay back in her chair, rocking on its hind legs, pleased with her creations. The moon was at its apex, signalling it was time to rest. A cushion had been placed beside the desk where there was empty space before. Just a few more lines, she thought to herself.
~~~
“Rainbow, you gotta wake up! There are books you’re sleeping next to that ponies want to read.”
She opened her eyes to see Spike jumping on the spot. Standing up, she bumped the desk causing an ink jar to topple to the ground. Her bleary eyes watched as two Spikes jumped to catch the jars.
“What time is it?”
“It’s an hour past lunch!”
She leaped back into the desk chair and pulled a rough plan out of the drawer. Perhaps she shouldn’t have left it to the last day. Biting her pencil and positioning the page, she noticed it was covered in red scribbles and markings. Looking back into the drawer, her story had gone. A hoof tapped her back, causing her to nearly swallow the pencil in surprise.
“Hey Rainbow!” said Twilight.
Rainbow looked at her suspiciously. “Hey Twilight… you wouldn’t happen to know why…”
“Oh, that! I read some while you were sleeping and I thought it was… very good, so good in fact that I couldn’t resist making some corrections to help you out!”
“Gee, thanks Twi.” She scanned the corrections and put her pencil to a new sheet of paper.
“Aren’t you going to read them? I stayed up all night revising it to the last apostrophe, of which there are now nine instead of ten.”
Twilight’s left ear flopped.
“Alright, if it helps, but make it quick. It’s due tomorrow morning.”
“Excellent. Spiiike! Bring over Rainbow’s fanfic for us!” Twilight called.
Across the library, a minty-green pony lifted her head out of a thick history book, looking around and meeting an icy stare from Rainbow.
“Oh, it is so good now that I’ve proofread it for you! You really have a knack for writing. I bet even Princess Celestia would want to give it a read.” Twilight stamped her hooves in anticipation.
Spike ran in empty clawed and panting. He looked at Twilight.
“Spike? What’s wrong?” She scrunched her nose at the smell of burnt apples.
Rainbow got up. “Where’s all my work?”
Spike stood there. He looked at Rainbow.
“Tell us!” they said together.
Spike took a deep breath and exploded like a party cannon. “Well I was preparing Twilight’s lunch, you see, I was going to make it a garden salad but thought, hay. Why don’t I add some hay? So I went to get some hay out and I… I...”
“Yes?” said Twilight.
“I sneezed! The whole bail went up in flames along with most of the basement. And I had Rainbow Dash’s papers with me.”
Rainbow froze.
“I kept the papers away from the fire, of course, but I thought you would be worried so I didn’t tell anyone!”
Twilight was getting impatient. “Get to the point!”
“Did you stop the fire?” asked Rainbow.
“Yeah, but I had to use the last keg of apple cider to put it out. I hope that’s alright.”
Twilight gasped. She could feel Rainbow staring at her.
“So just now, I was carrying Rainbow’s work in and I sneezed again, all over it. Must have been the dust from the hay. But I can fix it! It was only a transmission fire. Who were you thinking of when I was coming in?” He turned to Twilight.
Rainbow Dash became a shade lighter. Twilight was still confused.
“But why is the cider gone?”
~~~
Daring Do put down the pen and reflected on her effort. Some of it was based on her discoveries but predominantly embellished with fiction. It was a good start to her novella, and an opportunity to reflect on past events. A young stallion stepped into her cabin.
“What are you up to?” he said.
Turning red, Daring stood up.
“Just finishing.”
“Captain wants you on the deck”
He left as quickly as he came in, with Daring close behind after sweeping her latest effort under the table. The starboard side of the ship was awash with excitement as an isle became visible through the morning fog. She trotted up to the Captain, who was watching from the back of the herd with a grand smile. Before she could ask what was up, he span around and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Daring, we’re in grave danger. Look at the island… look at the pillar on the island.”
Silhouetted, the island was mostly flat, with a slight raise in the centre. There was a pillar to the right of the hill, placed around its lowest point but standing high above all else. It was so large that even from the ship a carving of a monkey skull could be seen at the top. Daring squinted, trying to make out more detail, but the Captain pulled her back.
“Now look to the left of that, on the hill,” the Captain said.
Daring spread her wings…
Celestia lifted her head from Twilight’s latest letter as she passed her sister in the hallway.
“More documents from the mayor, we presume?”
“Luna, mind your language! No, she sent them all earlier.”
Celestia drifted the letter along with two more pages into her sister’s satchel.
“One of my best students sent me a story that she must have written in her spare time. Although the grammar falters here and there, it is quite the read!”
“We – I shall utilise it to tremendous effect during a meeting this afternoon with the oxen-folk. Their ability to talk extensively about soil is second to none.”
Following their impromptu meet up, Celestia withdrew to the great balcony. She turned her gaze unto Ponyville. If Twilight had the time to write stories, she should also have the time to do twice the amount of friendship reports. A wisp of green magic flew out from the town and materialised into a letter in front of her. She looked at the seal pattern, confirming it was from Twilight, and unfurled it. Reading only the first few lines before realising it wasn’t a friendship report, she snorted and remembered that her appointment with the Griffon ambassador had started ten minutes ago. She teleported away in a frazzle, leaving Twilight’s unread letter to float off the balcony and into the grip of an attentive pegasus guard.
~~~
The moon had once again risen and Spike was fast asleep. Twilight was pacing about, worrying whether she had potentially let her friend down. Rainbow was toiling away at the desk, finishing the story without the first half. Twilight entered the study, but thought better of disturbing Rainbow, and walked off again. Rainbow put the pencil down and breathed in, the night air filling her lungs completely. There was only one more thing to do, although it hardly felt necessary.
“Twilight?”
“Yes Rainbow! Are you ready for a proofread now?”
Daring watched through the gaps between tombstones as a spade was thrown, landing with a clank upon hitting some rock. The Captain pulled himself halfway out of the hole, nodding to the others as they helped. There was a brief respite from their company as the figures wandered off through the rain. Clinging to habit, Daring counted fifteen minutes while managing to shuffle her soaked self under a small tree. By the time they returned, her tight bindings had become imperceptible from the cold. Coming nearer she spied the spectre of the insufferable primate Muncouth, who held an umbrella by his tail for fear of getting wet. He stopped outside the gate, daring to approach no further. Even if she could stand up, the entrance was too heavily guarded to pass and the walls were too high to scale alone.
Wriggling around, she looked to the caretaker’s shed, which was no more than a couple of metres away. Her hat had been hung on a nail as if it were a prized painting. Her eyes darted to the spade, which had a sharp glint on the edge. In the fifteen minutes when they had left, she had managed to loosen her bindings but not break them. She heard hoof steps smacking into a puddle close-by.
Daring ripped a small rock from the earth with her teeth and tossed at it her hat, knocking it off its perch and into the mud. She wriggled again, straining her neck to snap off a thin branch from the tree she was under. In a broad swing, she lifted it over herself and began prodding at the hat. Once it was hooked on, she reeled it in. Working quickly, Daring meticulously twisted leaves and soft bark around the hat, attaching the two items so they were secure. If there was anything Pony Scouts had taught her, it was how to tie a knot. Now it was time to reach out to the spade.
Just barely hiding the spade after cutting her leg binds with its sharp edges, two heavyset earth ponies hoisted her off the ground.
“Hey, thanks for helping a girl up!” she said.
Surprising them, she tore away in a burst of strength. Ripping her hat from the makeshift rod on the way, she reached a large rock wall covered in shrubs. Threading a line of rope through the cap in the most basic fashion, she cast her new grappling hook into the dark, pulling it back until it was taut.
“You can’t run!”
She scrambled up the rope, falling over onto the other side of the wall. She could feel the thumping of hooves galloping around to catch her. A dirt road snaked off to the left with dense forest covering the rest of the terrain. Once again, she detached her hat from the hasty field craft.
“Thank you, my little hat.”
She threw it as far away from her as she could.
From off the road, several ponies started shouting and gave chase in the wrong direction.
Daring hunkered down next to a boulder and chiselled off the rest of her bindings. Freeing her wings, she took a low route off the island. Now they had the chest, there would no stopping them. Unless…
Daring swivelled around, adjusting her flightpath. It was time for one of her Navy friends to pay back an old debt.
“I’m happy for you, Rainbow. You’ve just finished your first fiction,” Twilight said.
Rainbow Dash looked puzzled for a moment “My fir- oh, ha, yep. Thanks Twilight! I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Let’s just hope Princess Celestia sends us back the first half before tomorrow’s submission date.”
The ponies went to bed.
~~~
Twilight slowly munched on her alfalfa as she watched Rainbow nibble on an apple. The library would have been silent if it were not for Spike digging into some gemstones for breakfast.
“So…” Rainbow said, lifting her head to look at Twilight.
“Yes!” Twilight said a tad too fast. “I mean, yes! What nice weather it is. I mean, as nice as it can be without you out there clearing it! Not to say your weather patrol does a good, uh, bad job. Anyway-”
Spike burped. The chatter stopped.
He looked around. “Why are you all staring at me? I already got the letter from the Princess, I thought you knew that.”
Twilight grabbed him. “You already…?”
Rainbow flew upstairs faster than a speeding Friendship Express.
“Careful, I’ve organised those!” Twilight guided her to the unread letters.
Rainbow shot up in the air. She hit the roof but didn’t care.
“YES!”
“You found it? Go! You’ve got five minutes to hoof it in!”
Slamming the first half of the story on top of her work from the last night, she bolted out the door and took to the skies, landing at the schoolhouse in two minutes, curvy.
She spotted Scootaloo heading in. “Hey kiddo, where’s your teacher?” Rainbow asked.
“Follow me!”
Together they raced through the hall, stopping for nopony and crashing into Diamond Tiara accidentally.
Scootaloo burst through the door with Rainbow streaking overhead into the room.
“Miss Cheerilee!” they said in unison.
“Err, yes? Rainbow Dash, what do you want? Class is just about to start.”
Rainbow tossed the papers onto the desk and cleared her throat.
“Please consider this story for the annual Canterlot Bookquines young fiction competition.”
Cheerilee smiled and looked at Scootaloo. “Of course I will! But you sure left it to the last minute.”
~~~
Rainbow whisked through the clouds, signalling to the rest of the weather patrol where she wanted them for the week. Permission for puffiness was discussed alongside requests for rain. Sunrays would shine through in specific spots at set times. From the ground, looking up would be reminiscent of a Ponét masterpiece. Rainbow’s head was in the clouds in more than one way. It had been a week since her submission with no news. Twilight said it was normal for it to take some time to read through all the stories. Hers just hadn’t been seen yet.
“I have to go! Raindrops here knows the rest.” In the middle of the gathering, Rainbow punched a hole in the fluffy floor, speeding to the library.
Spike was on the lookout. “She’s coming back again!”
“Hurry, get inside!”
Rainbow slowed down and landed with self-restraint this time, trotting through the front door. Twilight was delightfully surprised she didn’t have to ask Spike to repair another piece of furniture. She picked some pages off the centre-table.
“Rainbooow, I have some news for you.”
Rainbow’s ears perked up. She began shaking. Was she ready for this?
“Do you want to read it together?”
Rainbow nodded her head vigorously and jumped onto a pillow. Twilight handed her the letter and they skimmed through it. Flicking the pages to get to the verdict, Twilight put a hoof down on one around the centre.
“I don’t remember you writing this.”
Rainbow peered in.
Through the successful collaboration between Equestria’s country and metropolitan regions, several discoveries have been found which pertain to the safety and well-being of the general populace:
a) Ponyville’s dam is currently being in held in place with constant repairs and could crumble at any moment.
b) Canterlot residents have been complaining about the hot weather. Metro-region confirms this.
The third point warrants a special mention
Rainbow turned the page.
as an avalanche of boulders, on fire, unleashed itself ahead of Daring Do. Leaping to the side and managing to dodge them all, she wondered why anypony would try and outrun them downhill.
Rainbow was flicking between the pages. Twilight had read ahead and was already sending the Princess a letter.
“It doesn’t even make sense. And this is what I submitted?”
Spike burped. Twilight grabbed the message and read it aloud.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
Your friend Rainbow Dash’s story must have gotten mixed-up in my or Luna’s paperwork.
Oops. Happens all the time.
I’ve sent the correct document to you. If you wouldn’t mind sending that other one back?
Spike delivered a few more pages. These were the ones they should have had long ago.
Rainbow sighed. “It’s too late now. They probably laughed it out of the library.” Rainbow said.
Twilight frowned. “Let’s just read what else it has to say,” she said, going back to the Bookquine’s response letter.
Rainbow started towards the door. She already knew what their verdict would be. She was yanked back by Twilight’s magic.
“I don’t understand,” Twilight said. “It says right here that you… you won!”
Rainbow pushed her to the side. She could hardly believe it. With her widening eyes, an incredible smile and her wings raised high, she was just short of prancing about like a little school filly. Twilight turned to watch Rainbow, who suddenly appeared the exemplar of the term 'unruffled'.
“Of course I won.”
“Rainbow, I’m very happy for you,” Twilight started. “But how could you? The one you sent in wasn’t even complete.”
“Easy. The half that I wrote must have been so awesome it still beat everypony. With one hoof tied behind my back.”
Twilight didn’t have a response.
Discovering another note on the page, Rainbow jumped into a hover. “I can collect my prize today!”
“It’s in Canterlot,” Twilight said.
Rainbow had already gone, leaving behind a smashed window.
“Great.”
~~~
Rainbow was breathing heavily from her flight to the city. Trying unsuccessfully to calm herself, but wanting to look neat for the library, she slicked her hair back so it was flat. She pushed open the oak door and trotted inside. A framed picture of Twilight jumped out at her, gazing back with a neurotic grin.
Twilight Sparkle: librarian of the week, 99 weeks in a row.
She trotted up to a group of young fillies and colts who were gathered in a circle on the carpet. They were being read a fairy-tale by a light pink mare. Rainbow waited for the paragraph to end before interrupting.
“Hey, do you know when the Bookquines are meeting?” She brushed herself off. “I have to collect a prize.”
“Oh, how delightful. We are the Bookquines!”
Rainbow was aghast. “You are the ponies I’ve been mailing?”
“You must be Rainbow Dash. And who is the lucky filly or colt you are representing? We never did get a name.”
One of the fillies tugged on Rainbow’s leg.
“We are always happy to welcome the little one if he or she decides to come up one day.” The mare took something from her bag. “Here is your prize. Make sure it is spent wisely, of course.”
The mare handed Rainbow a packet of 20 bits.
“Uh, thanks. Thank you.”
Rainbow left, opting out of the show and tell demonstration.
~~~
As she pierced the clouds over Ponyville, she realised her story wasn’t as good as she thought. She only won because the other contestants could barely even read.
From the position of the sun, Rainbow realised school had just finished. Taking a path over Scootaloo’s usual route home, she dropped the packet of bits.
Rainbow swooped out of nowhere into the library, causing Spike to jump into the fireplace. Twilight came running in.
“Rainbow, you were hours! You didn’t really fly to Canterlot and back in one day, did you?”
Rainbow lay down on the floor in a heap.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Why do you look so upset?”
“They were third graders, Twilight! Third graders. Anypony could have won.”
Seeing the situation as it was, Twilight put a hoof around Rainbow.
“I think this is a lesson the Princess would like to hear,” Twilight said.
“That I should keep backups?” Rainbow suggested.
“Well, no.”
“That I should proofread?”
“We did that.”
“That I shouldn’t get too confident in my work and think I’m king of the hill in case the hill in question turns out to be a pile of dirt overshadowed by a mountain range?”
“Oh well. The letter can wait.”
Rainbow put her head back on the floor. “What we learned is that you still don’t have anything to send to the Princess and I’m no good at writing.”
“That is not true. You don’t know how good your story really is until it gets fairly judged in a competition with your peers.” Twilight said. “Your stories are interesting, Rainbow, and I want you to continue.”
“Forget it, Twilight. I’m done. The weather hasn’t been taken care of properly in my absence anyway.” Slowly, she got to her feet and expanded her wings. There was no energy left to fly.
“If you don’t want to do it yourself, will you at least do it for me?”
Rainbow couldn’t refuse her friend. Sighing, she turned around to face Twilight.
“Fine. But I’m starving. All Canterlot had were ‘ore durves’.”
“Spiiike!”
~~~
The Ponyville summer had brought frost overnight. Legions of pegasi were moving clouds in a seemingly random sensibility. The only area of the town that wasn’t getting pelted by hail was experiencing a flash heatwave. Scootaloo was up at six in the morning, showing Applebloom her cool new sunglasses. A banner had been raised around the town hall pleading Rainbow Dash’s return to weather duty. Inside the sound-proofed, magically insulated library, Rainbow showed no signs of letting up on her newfound interest.