Rainbow Dash can see Daring Do, but nopony else can. With her own reality in question, Rainbow Dash is roped into a mysterious adventure where not everything is as it seems, and not everypony can be trusted.
Rainbow Dash can see Daring Do, but nopony else can. With her own reality in question, Rainbow Dash is roped into a mysterious adventure where not everything is as it seems, and not everypony can be trusted.
Rainbow Dash awoke to a throbbing headache and tingling limbs. She was lying on her back in a bed, but not a cloudbed, and a single scratchy sheet was draped over her. A mostly flat pillow rested uselessly behind her head. She tried to open her eyes, but blinding light quickly forced them shut again.
She shifted slightly and another spike of pain shot through her skull, eliciting a low groan from the back of her throat. Her mind was a muddled haze, and for all her efforts Rainbow couldn't make heads or tails of where she was.
Silence reigned for several minutes as Rainbow lay perfectly still. Even the slightest movement was intensely painful, so she didn't move at all. While her body remained motionless, her mind was abuzz trying to pull itself back together. Slowly, memories began to trickle back to her in clarity. Rainbow Dash absorbed them like a thirsty pony would tiny droplets of water. Each one was miniscule, but she desperately clung to them all.
She remembered waking up that morning and performing her usual morning routine. She remembered going to work. There were a few hours of hazy fog, but that was due simply to the monotony of her day-to-day job more than anything else. After finishing up with the day's weather, she… had decided to practice her tricks. Yes, it was becoming a little clearer now.
Rainbow didn't know how long it had been since she'd awoken. Perhaps she'd been laying there for a couple of minutes, or perhaps she'd been straining against her fuzzy memories for hours, but at long last she was beginning to remember.
"Are you even watching, Twilight?"
"Yes, yes, I saw your trick. It was very impressive," Twilight answered from her seated position on the ground far below. "I just don't see the point in clapping if I'm the only one here. It makes me feel silly…"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. Twilight wasn't exactly the greatest cheering section, but at least she'd agreed to watch Rainbow's stunt routine for the afternoon.
Whatever the case, she had stunts to practice, and practice she would. Rainbow put her game face back on and shot skywards in a blue blur. She twisted and corkscrewed and performed loop-de-loops. She wound around several clouds that had been set up in a makeshift obstacle course, all at speeds that few pegasi could manage even on a straightaway.
Of course, all of this was just a warm-up. With a daring grin, Rainbow Dash flew straight up until she was several hundred feet above her normal stunt-flying height.
She paused at the apex of her flight, inhaled a long breath, and glanced downward. The cloud course looked like a tiny flock of sheep against the rolling green meadows below. Twilight Sparkle was barely even visible to Rainbow's keen eyes as a purple speck smaller than a pinpoint.
And exhale. Rainbow Dash plunged downwards at breakneck speeds. The world famous Sonic Rainboom had once been incredibly difficult for her to pull off. As the telltale cone began to form at the tips of her hooves, Rainbow smirked. It hadn't gotten any easier; she'd just gotten better.
BOOM!
The blast was heard all the way back in town, and the radiating rings of colour were seen for miles. Rainbow Dash never got tired of that part. Her jubilant laughter was lost behind her in a wake of sound and colour. Rainbow Dash sped downwards and pulled up on straining wings just meters above the ground.
She didn't slow down there. Flowers and tufts of grass were torn up in her wake, and the entire meadow seemed to shake with her passing. Twilight Sparkle had to plant her hooves to avoid being knocked over as Rainbow Dash flew by in a blink.
Another blink, and several trees loomed in her path. Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and swerved. On straining wing muscles, she managed to just barely weave through the first few trees. Her stomach lurched and her hooves tingled at the g-forces as Rainbow went left and right around and between countless trees, all without losing any speed.
Only when she saw the treeline ending before her did Rainbow Dash let out a triumphant whoop. Her celebration proved premature, however, as she went to weave between a final two trees. Time seemed to slow when she realized that she didn't have enough clearance. Rainbow glanced to the left agonizingly slowly just in time to see the very tip of her wingfeathers graze the tree on the left side. At such impossible speeds, there was no room for error, no matter how small. Rainbow felt a jolt, and she knew it was going to be bad.
Time resumed its normal pace just as Rainbow went careening across the field. Her screams managed to catch up with her as her tumbling flight slowed her to sub-sonic speeds. She tried desperately to regain control, but it was fruitless. The sky and the ground traded places rapidly in her vision, and knew that she was still going way too fast for this to be anything but painful.
Then she hit the ground. Rainbow yelped and bounced hard, impacting the earth again barely a second later. She skipped across the hard dirt, leaving craters in her wake, until finally landing in a tumbling skid. Rainbow tasted dirt and blood as her face met the ground repeatedly for the next couple hundred feet. She was still tumbling across the grass at an impressive speed when her head pointed forward just long enough to see something large and brown loom in front of her.
She had time for one thought, and it wasn't the most eloquent.
'Oh hey, tree!'
And then everything went black.
Rainbow Dash rubbed weakly at her aching skull as the memory brought a fresh resurgence of throbbing pain. She realized that the stiff bed she found herself in was a hospital bed. The scratchy sheets of Ponyville General were all too familiar to her.
Her hooves still tingled, which probably meant they'd given her some painkillers at some point. That only made the intense pain in her head all the more noteworthy.
She was a mare well-versed in head injuries, and the associated painkillers. For her headache to still be so severe, this had to be one of the worst blows to her cranium in recent memory. Of course, the fact that she could remember it was a good sign…
"Oh cool, you're awake."
A scratchy, familiar voice instantly snapped Rainbow out of her musings. Rainbow Dash's ears twitched at the sudden disturbance. She hadn't heard anypony enter the room. If the stranger had been there the whole time, they'd been awfully silent about it.
She weakly forced her eyes open against the intruding brightness of the room. When her vision finally adjusted to the light, Rainbow looked around for the source of the voice. Nopony was immediately apparent to her lethargic gaze. The room in front of her seemed as empty as it should've been, with nothing but pale blue paint peeling off the cracked walls, and discoloured linoleum flooring to keep her company.
The strangely familiar voice chuckled. "Over here, kid."
Rainbow Dash glanced over to the right side of the room, and the moment her eyes landed on the figure standing there, her breath caught on a prolonged gasp.
"Daring Do!?"
Daring Do, the one and only, stood smirking next to a worn-down table and chair set meant for guests. Her usual hat and shirt were absent, but it was impossible for Rainbow Dash to mistake the mare for anypony else. She offered a small nod and a wink, eliciting a tiny squeak of excitement from Rainbow Dash before the bed-ridden pegasus managed to wrangle herself under control.
Rainbow cleared her throat. "Uh, what… are you doing here?" She winced. "Not that I'm complaining! I'm happy to see you! You're awesome! Uh…"
Daring Do chuckled again, the noise sounding as natural as breathing for her. "Don't worry about it, kid. You have every right to be a little confused."
Daring's expression lost all of its cocksure mirth, and turned deadly serious in an instant. Rainbow Dash could swear she felt the temperature in the room drop by half a degree as Daring locked cold, hard eyes with hers.
"The truth is, I'm in desperate need of your help, Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow Dash pulled her meagre blanket against her chest and clutched it there. A tiny voice which she would argue did not belong to her whispered, "M-My help?"
Daring Do nodded. "It'll be hard for me to explain, and you might have a hard time understanding what I'm about to tell you, but believe me when I say this is a matter of life and–"
"Good afternoon, Miss Dash!" The door burst open to reveal a light brown unicorn in a white doctor's coat. He trotted into the room with a clipboard hovering nearby in his magic, and a stethoscope around his neck. Rainbow Dash turned to face his sudden appearance with a gasp of surprise, but quickly returned her focus to Daring Do.
Daring Do was gone.
"It's good to see you're awake," the doctor went on, completely oblivious to Rainbow Dash's gaping stare. "You were only out for a couple of hours, which isn't too bad by your usual standards. We ran the usual magical scans while you were still unconscious –you know the drill– and I have your results right here if you'd like to peruse them yourself. Or, I can just sum it up for you and send you on your way."
Rainbow Dash stared. Her eyes remained laser-focused on the tiny section of the room containing an old table and two worn-out chairs. There was nopony there. The room was completely and utterly empty save for the doctor and herself. There was no place big enough for a full-grown mare to hide, and the window was secured with bars. Daring Do had simply vanished, like she was never there.
"…Miss Dash?"
The doctor's voice finally managed to catch Rainbow's attention. She slowly rotated her head to face him, a totally blank expression on her face.
"She was never there…" Rainbow Dash murmured sadly, barely loud enough for the doctor to even make out.
The doctor blinked. "Erm, perhaps the damage was more severe than we originally thought…"
Fortunately, Rainbow was finally managing to register what he was saying, so she gave her head a quick shake to clear it and then refocused on the doctor.
"No, no… I'm good, doc." She offered a shaky half-smile.
The doctor scrutinized her for a few moments before slowly responding with, "All right… Might I ask what had you so distracted?" He glanced around the room for whatever might have stolen Rainbow's attention, but found it precisely as empty and boring as it always was.
"No biggie, doc." Rainbow waved a forehoof. "Just getting my head all un-jumbly, I guess."
"Fair enough," the doctor replied. "Well, I'll go ahead and assume you want the usual quick and simple explanation before we cut you loose."
Rainbow Dash nodded, fighting back a wince as the motion caused her head to hurt.
The doctor glanced down at his clipboard, then back at Rainbow Dash. "Well, you're fortunate that Princess Twilight brought you in as promptly as she did, for starters."
Rainbow tilted her head. "Hey yeah, where is Twilight anyway?"
"Your friends all stopped by to visit while you were still out." The doctor smiled kindly. "I've already assured them all you'll be fine, but the truth of the matter is that this was a much more serious incident than your usual visits.
"I won't sugarcoat it, Miss Dash, you took a pretty nasty tumble this time. I know you've been in here a lot for this sort of thing, but this was probably the most concerning incident yet." He looked up from the clipboard to give Rainbow Dash a serious glare. "Rainbow Dash, you are very lucky to be alive."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "What, from a crash? I do that all the time!" She winced. "Uh, I mean, not all the time..."
The doctor shook his head. "I don't know what exactly you were trying to do this time, but at the speed you were apparently going when you hit that tree, you shouldn't have woken up."
Rainbow Dash shuddered, and the doctor noticed. He offered her a sympathetic smile.
"Oh, dear, where's my bedside manner?" He set the clipboard down and gently put a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "You're fine, Miss Dash. It was close, but you're a tough pegasus, and more importantly a lucky one. You've got a concussion, of course, but your skull is in one piece and you should be back up to full strength in a day or two.
"Listen," the doctor went on, "I wasn't trying to scare you. I just want you to realize the danger you put yourself in when you go and get hurt like this. I don't want to see you in here more than I have to, alright?"
Rainbow Dash nodded slowly. She already felt a little better, though the news that she'd very nearly bitten the dust was a hard pill to swallow.
"So..." Rainbow's voice cracked and she quickly cleared her throat. "So can I check out of here?"
The doctor smiled. "Certainly. Just make sure you sign with the front desk on your way out, and Miss Dash?" He smirked. "Don't come back."
Rainbow Dash couldn't help but smile at the old familiar goodbye. "I don't plan on it," she responded with a wink.
The doctor chuckled, shook his head, and departed the room without another word.
That's when Daring Do spoke up.
"He seemed like a cool guy."
"Gah!" Rainbow Dash yelped and nearly jumped out of the hospital bed. She violently snapped her eyes back to the table and chair set, where Daring Do was relaxing on one of the chairs with her hind-hooves up on the table.
Daring snickered. "Y'alright there, kid?"
"I… what…" Rainbow shook her head, wincing at how the action made it throb. "Where did you go!?"
"I hid." Daring shrugged.
"Why?"
"Let's just say I didn't want you trying to introduce me to the doctor."
"…Why?"
Daring sighed and rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. "Okay, this is gonna sound crazy."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Crazier than you showing up unannounced in my hospital room and hiding under the bed when somepony else enters the room?"
"I wasn't under the—Yes, okay!" Daring's eyebrows formed a straight line. "It's a heck of a lot crazier than that."
Rainbow blinked, but said nothing.
Daring took that as her cue to continue. "It's like this…" She tapped her forehooves together and gazed at the floor. "From what I've been able to tell, you're the only pony who, well, the only pony who can actually… see or hear me." She chuckled nervously.
"…" Rainbow stared for several seconds, blinked hard, then said, "Well, you were right about one thing. That's crazy!" Her eyes widened. "Wait, does that mean I'm crazy!?"
"You're not crazy." Daring Do retorted.
"Oh, good, I was worried—Hang on! If I am crazy then you're just a pigment of my imagination and I shouldn't listen to you!"
"Figment," Daring Do corrected offhandedly, "which I'm not. Listen, kid, the truth is that I need your help. Let me explain myself, at least."
Rainbow squinted. "I'm listening, but don't think you can convince me to rob a bank or wear a melon on my head. I know how you imaginary voices operate."
Daring tilted her head. "Right, I'm just gonna ignore that… slightly concerning tidbit and move right along." She cleared her throat. "It all started a few weeks ago. The adventuring business was on a slow patch, and I was itching for a new lead when one of my contacts finally gave me something to work with.
"It wasn't much, just a brief mention of something called the Kioo cha roho." Daring noticed Rainbow's blank expression and coughed into her hoof. "The Mirror of Souls. In any case, it was enough for me to get started. I managed to track the lead across Equestria to a long forgotten temple in the ancient griffon lands."
By that point, Rainbow was leaning forward intently. Her ears were perked and she gave her full attention to every word out of the adventurer's mouth. It was like having an all-new Daring Do novel narrated by the mare herself, and even though Rainbow was sure it was a hallucination, she couldn't deny that it was entertaining.
For her part, Daring Do gestured enthusiastically as she told her story through a bright grin. "So this place was totally awesome. Pre-Celestial construction, perfectly preserved, and completely untouched by explorers' hooves! It's not often that I get to break new ground, so I dove in headfirst.
"Well, turns out I might've gotten a bit too excited. When I found the Mirror of Souls deep within the temple, I kinda… accidentally activated it. The next thing I know, I'm getting sucked into the mirror by a crazy strong force! Only I'm not getting sucked in, because I can see myself standing right there staring at the mirror.
Daring rubbed at her temples. "Then I blink and find myself standing next to your hospital bed, waiting for you to wake up. Like I said, I tried talking to doctors and nurses, but none of them would even look at me. Even tried grabbing one nurse, but my hooves passed right through her. I was almost worried I'd have no way of getting back to my body. Heheh," she chuckled nervously, "you have no idea how relieved I was when you actually responded to me."
Rainbow raised a hoof. "You still haven't explained why you need my help."
"That's just it," Daring sighed. "Obviously, I need to get back to my body, but there are obstacles that I can't get past. I can't just walk through walls, as cool as that would be, but at the same time nothing I do seems to affect the world. I need you, kid, to be my link to the physical world. You need to open doors and navigate the temple for me." She gave a wan smile. "I guess it's fitting, since you were the one who taught me that working alone isn't always the answer. So whadda you say, kid? Willing to partner up once more?"
Rainbow Dash stared. The story was convincing. It sounded and felt like she was talking to the real Daring Do, but once the entrancing tale had reached its conclusion, Rainbow was left without any actual assurance that it was all real.
At first, she had been positive that it was all a hallucination, but then for a moment she'd found herself almost willing to believe it. Now, her head just hurt. Daring Do, real or not, had asked her a simple yes or no question, but answering it seemed the hardest thing in the world right then.
"You know, this place ain't so bad for a small town." Daring Do commented as she trotted along next to Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash still hadn't managed to answer the question. Her head hurt, and her mind was a jumble of confused thoughts. Only part of that had to do with her recent head injury.
The doctor had released her mere moments after Daring finished her pitch, saving Dash from having to come up with an immediate answer. The doctor had warned her against any strenuous flights for the next few days, and a fresh bandage had been applied to her head before leaving, though it was mostly hidden under the tufts of her multi-coloured mane.
Daring Do continued to observe the small town, while Rainbow kept tabs on where her incorporeal companion trotted alongside her. While she was still sticking to Rainbow's side, Daring was also casting her gaze around the tiny village, taking in the ponies and the places with the air of somepony seeing them for the first time. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon, painting the town in the oranges and reds of sunset, and capturing Daring's attention all the more.
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to reply to Daring Do, but remembered at the last second that she would be talking to the air and quickly thought better of it. She kept her gaze locked dead ahead, studiously ignoring the incorporeal adventurer trotting along behind her.
Daring tore her gaze from a two-story cottage covered in creeping vines and pranced closer to Rainbow. "This place is simple. It's… nice. I don't get to a lot of nice places in my usual travels, y'know? I would've loved to take a vacation someplace as laid back as this."
Again, Rainbow didn't reply, but this time Daring took notice.
"Oh come on, kid. How long are you gonna keep this silent treatment up?" Her brow furrowed. "It's 'cause you still don't think I'm real, isn't it?"
This time, Rainbow's silence was all the reply Daring needed.
"For pony's sake, kid! We can't waste our time with these shenanigans!" Daring leaped in front of Rainbow Dash and trotted backwards while fixing the younger pegasus with a stern frown.
"Listen, this whole quest is time sensitive, ya feel me?" Daring growled through gritted teeth. "So what am I gonna have to do to convince you, huh?"
When Rainbow didn't reply, Daring only grew more frustrated. "Damnit, kid!" She stomped her hooves, which stopped her backwards trotting and caused her to halt directly in Rainbow's path.
Rainbow couldn't help but instinctively wince before she barrelled into Daring, or rather, barrelled through her. Rainbow Dash trotted through Daring Do's form without any resistance whatsoever. A chilly breeze caused the hairs along the back of her neck to stand up, but Rainbow assured herself it was only because of how creepy the situation was.
Daring stood there in the road, blinking, as Rainbow collected herself and continued trotting down the road.
"...really didn't help my case with that one, did I?" Daring mumbled just loud enough for Dash to hear.
Rainbow trotted a little further down the road before she realized that Daring's incessant badgering had, in fact, ceased. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she realized that Daring might have actually vanished. Her question would be answered, she would know for certain that it had been a hallucination… yet for some reason the idea terrified her.
Tentatively, Rainbow Dash turned around with gritted teeth. She couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped when she saw Daring Do standing silently behind her. Only then did she really take in the adventurer's appearance. Daring's ears were pressed tight against her skull, and her head was hanging close to the hard-packed dirt road. A deep frown was present upon her muzzle, and Daring's eyes were locked on her own forehooves.
Rainbow Dash sighed. She quickly glanced around to make sure nopony was near enough to hear her, then nonetheless whispered, "We'll talk at my house."
Daring's ears shot up along with her head. She locked wide eyes on Rainbow Dash, and a slow smile grew to replace her frown. With one fervent nod, she motioned for Rainbow to move along and the two of them continued the way they'd been going.
The road led them to the edge of town, and into rolling plains of bright green grass. The field itself was unremarkable, but the massive construct of clouds hovering a hundred feet above it was quite the opposite. It was a sprawling mansion of beautiful cloudwork. Pearlescent white pillars and balconies were complemented by waterfalls and fountains of pure rainbow. Three stories tall and just as wide, Rainbow Dash's cloud home was quick to steal the attention of anypony nearby, a perfect analogue for the mare who owned it.
Daring Do was no exception to its wonder. Her focused interest in Rainbow Dash was momentarily forgotten as she openly gaped at the epic structure.
"You live here!?" Daring couldn't help the outburst.
Rainbow glanced around suspiciously once more before deciding it was safe to respond. "Yeah, my dad helped me build the place. It's pretty great, but that's sorta what he does."
Daring blinked. "You built your own house, too?"
"Sure! Did you not grow up in Cloudsdale? Every pegasus there builds their own place when they move out." She puffed her chest out. "Not everypony has an awesome cloud architect for a dad, though!"
"Huh…" Daring nodded. "And no, I didn't grow up in Cloudsdale. I'm actually Caneighdian."
Rainbow jolted. "Really?"
"Pfft, no way!" Daring laughed. "Do I look like a pansy to you?"
Rainbow groaned and offered a deadpan look, then spread her wings and shot into the sky with a rush of air. She soared up and away from Daring Do's dwindling form on the ground below, and came to a stop on the front porch of her house.
Rainbow sighed and rubbed at her temples, but her head still ached. Her bed seemed terribly appealing at that moment. With a slow breath, Rainbow pushed open her front door and trotted inside. She passed right by the kitchen, not feeling particularly hungry. She trotted past her living room and its plush cloud couches, past the lazing form of Daring Do kicking her hooves up on an end table. She went straight to—
"Wait…" Rainbow muttered, freezing in mid-step.
She turned around ever so slowly until her living room came into vision. Sure enough, Daring Do was lounging on one of Rainbow's couches, bearing a manure-eating grin directly at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash stared back, deadpan. "How did you get up here so fast?"
"I have no idea!" Daring exclaimed. "Isn't it exciting? Ooh, I love a good mystery."
Rainbow rolled her eyes and trotted into the room. She took a seat on the floor in front of Daring and stared at the possible-hallucination for several long moments. The silence became increasingly uncomfortable, and only when Daring started to fidget did the older mare attempt to break it.
"So... are we—"
"You can't be real!" Rainbow Dash interrupted, frowning.
Daring blinked. "Okay, but… I am."
"Grrr," Rainbow Dash rubbed at her aching head. "Stop making this difficult. Hallucinations aren't supposed to stick around once you realize what they are. That's totally a rule or something, like how crazy ponies can't realize they're crazy."
"Well I haven't disappeared, so one point for Daring Do, right?" Daring flashed a crooked grin that actually managed to elicit a small smile in response before Rainbow regained her serious expression.
"Look," Rainbow started, clenching her eyes shut and still rubbing her temples. "This is, like, your big chance to tell me something that convinces me you're real. Or at least gives me some shred I can cling to. Right now, I've got a whole lot telling me you're just my concussed brain playing tricks on me, and nothing telling me otherwise."
Rainbow finished by opening her eyes and glaring straight at Daring. The older mare paused, tapping her chin in deep consideration. The silence stretched between them once more, but Rainbow was unfaltering. Finally, Daring Do slowly opened her mouth and spoke with the utmost care.
"I… asked you for help."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Seriously? That's supposed to convince me? I've met the real Daring Do. She hated asking for help!"
Daring pointed. "That's just it, isn't it? If I was just something your brain cooked up, wouldn't I behave exactly how you think I should behave? Instead, I'm going completely against your preconceived notions, because that's the thing about real ponies, they're unpredictable."
Rainbow's jaw hung agape, and when no response seemed forthcoming, Daring Do spoke again in a lower tone.
"Kid… I really do need your help, and I really do hate asking for it." She turned her gaze to the floor. "You know that I have a hard time accepting help, but for the first time ever I'm truly… helpless. I always work alone, but sometimes that's not an option. Sometimes accepting help is all you can do." She looked up with a small smile. "You taught me that, kid."
Again, Rainbow couldn't form a response. She squinted for nearly a full minute before abruptly turning around and marching out of the room.
"I'm going to bed. Don't do any more weird stuff while I'm asleep," she called out over her shoulder.
Without waiting for a response, Rainbow trotted down the hall to her bedroom. She closed the door behind her and hopped into her bed with a sigh. The day had started out so simple, but had ended with a headache in more ways than one.
Her troubled thoughts didn't allow sleep to come easily. She still couldn't say whether Daring was real, or simply the result of her recent concussion playing tricks on her mind. She certainly sounded real, looked real, felt real.
Then there was her story. If what Daring said was true, then Rainbow was really her only hope of escaping from her incorporeal exile. Which mean that, even if Daring could be a fake, Dash couldn't really afford to take that risk.
"Hey, Daring, you in here?" Rainbow asked to the darkness of her room.
"What's up, kid?" the response came from some corner or other, just as Rainbow knew it would.
"I'll do it."
"Cool. Better sleep tight, then. We've got an adventure ahead of us."
Rainbow was sound asleep within minutes, a placid smile gracing her lips.
Rainbow Dash awoke the next day feeling considerably more refreshed. The sun had risen well clear of the horizon by the time she opened her eyes, and slanting beams of bright light shone through her windows to paint glowing patterns across her floor.
Her head still hurt, but it was more of a dull throb that could easily be pushed into the back of her mind. Rainbow did just that, and then rolled out of bed onto all fours. She paused to let out a long yawn, accompanied by a languid stretch that elicited several satisfying pops and cracks from her stiff limbs.
It was at that moment that Rainbow realized how empty her room was. For a brief second, she couldn't recall why that was strange, until her sleep-addled mind finally caught up with her and she jolted in place.
"Daring?" Rainbow's voice echoed through the cold house, and then silence.
Her head spun. Was none of it real? She'd had her doubts, but by the end of the night she'd been almost positive that Daring Do was telling the truth. Rainbow's breaths grew erratic as she desperately cast her gaze about the room. She trotted out into the hall and called out again.
"Daring Do? Where are you?" Rainbow's voice sounded more desperate than she would've expected. She slowly lowered herself to a sitting position on the hardened cloud floor and hung her head. Her eyes clenched shut and her ears pressed against her head so tightly that she almost didn't hear it when a familiar scratchy voice broke the silence.
"Sorry, kid, you say something?" Daring flapped in through the living room window just as Rainbow snapped her eyes towards the source of the voice.
"Daring!" Rainbow Dash leaped toward the adventurer with one mighty beat of her wings, only to pass right through and tumble into the couch. She decided to ignore the cold chill she'd felt and instead pushed slowly to her hooves and glared at her houseguest.
"Where in the hay were you? You had me thinking I'd really gone crazy!"
Daring smiled sheepishly. "Well it's not like I can sleep, y'know? I was just out having a fly around the neighborhood. Honestly, took you for more of a late sleeper."
"Grgh…" Rainbow Dash rubbed her temples. "Normally, I'd love to go back to bed, but we've got places to be, adventures to adventure. We gonna get started on that or what?"
Daring blinked. "Now?"
"Now."
"Now now?"
"Now, Daring!" Rainbow growled. "What's with the cold hooves all of a sudden?"
Daring made a placating motion with her forehooves. "Not me, I just figured you'd wanna tell your friends or whatever."
Rainbow Dash shrugged. "So I'll leave a note for Fluttershy to feed Tank. I just wanna get this thing over with and figure out once and for all whether you're even real."
"You're still on about that?" Daring raised one eyebrow. "I thought you believed me now."
"Meh," Rainbow Dash meh'd as she marched into the kitchen and started pouring a bowl of cereal. She looked up between bites and said, "It's not that I believe you, but I don't… not believe you."
Daring nodded sagely. "That makes no sense."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, paused for another spoonful of cereal, then elaborated, "I just figure there's a chance I'm wrong either way, but if I choose not to help you and I'm wrong, that's gonna super suck for you. If I do choose to help you and I'm wrong, then all I've done is waste my time. No big."
Daring tapped her chin. "Sorta like Pascolt's wager, but with more adventuring and badflankery." She grinned crookedly. "I like it!"
"Whatever," Rainbow mumbled as she put away her dishes. "Let's just get this show on the road already." She started towards the door, only to jerk to a halt with it half open. "Wait, where are we even going?"
Daring grinned in a manner that managed to both unsettle and excite Rainbow Dash. "You're gonna want to pack a bag. We've got a long trip ahead of us."
A couple hours later, the pair were well on their way down a winding dirt road through the Whitetail Woods just North of Ponyville. Rainbow wasn't normally one to hoof it on a long journey unless she was traveling with some of her less-winged friends, but the doctor had recommended no hard flying for the next few days. Her saddlebags bounced slightly at her sides with each step, packed to the brim with items that Daring Do had insisted would come in useful.
As reluctant as she had been to agree to the journey in the first place, Rainbow was enjoying the trip so far. The sun shone down pleasantly from a sky dotted with just enough clouds to prevent sweltering heat. The woods on either side of the well-worn road resounded with a cacophony of birdsong and other friendly wildlife. A cool breeze drifted in every so often and rustled Rainbow's feathers. She closed her eyes in contentment and fluffed her wings as the gentle rush of air washed over her.
Daring, meanwhile, had opted to fly after Rainbow Dash commented that her utterly silent hoofsteps were unsettling. She had been hovering alongside Dash, but was now a short distance ahead. It was still odd seeing her without the signature hat and shirt. When asked about it, Daring had simply shrugged and said that was how she'd woken up. She claimed it must have had something to do with how the Mirror of Souls worked, though even Daring herself knew next to nothing about the strange artifact.
The day dragged onwards as the pair made slow but sure progress. Daring Do fell back to hover at Rainbow's side once more, but there was little conversation. Rainbow was still weirded out by the whole situation, and was still in the process of trying to sort everything out in her head.
Daring Do remained equally silent, though she too shot the occasional fleeting glance towards her traveling companion. All in all, it was the most uncomfortable silence that either mare had ever experienced, but neither of them seemed intent on breaking it anytime soon.
Still, after an hour or two of nothing but silent walking, Rainbow found herself desperate for anything to break the monotony. Eventually, the silence became too much to bear, and Rainbow decided to risk a conversation.
"So how'd this happen anyway?"
Daring blinked and shook her head, apparently jarred out of some deep train of thought. "Sorry, what?"
Rainbow Dash gestured vaguely towards Daring. "Y'know… this. How'd it happen?"
"Oh," Daring Do replied. "I thought I explained it already. See, there was this ancient artifact called the Mirror—"
"No, no," Rainbow Dash interrupted. "I got that part. What I mean is, how did you, the Daring Do, fall for some dusty old artifact's trap? I feel like you'd be more careful than that."
"It's not about being careful." Daring Do sighed. "I'm as careful as I ever can be, in everything I do, but no amount of care is gonna beat simple probability."
"Say what?"
Daring turned around to hover backwards, gesticulating with her hooves as she talked. "It's like this: Every time I dive into some cave or break into some temple or whatever, there's all sorts of stuff that wants to hurt me or trap me or whatever. If I'm careful, I can minimize the chance that any of that stuff is successful, but I can never eliminate it. It's a roll of the dice, every time, no matter how you look at it. Sure, I've had the game rigged in my favour for a long time, but it was only a matter of time before it came up snake eyes, ya feel me?"
"I… think so," Rainbow said slowly. "I guess it's just a good thing you didn't get hurt then, right?"
"Right…" Daring Do muttered. "I guess, all things considered, this mirror really isn't the worst that could happen, eh?" She chuckled, but it was a hollow thing.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "You don't sound too convinced, yourself."
Daring Do was silent for several long moments. Still flying backwards, she seemed to stare straight through Rainbow with distant, unfocused eyes. Just when the silence was returning to uncomfortableness, Daring finally spoke up.
"I guess it just doesn't matter what the consequences were. The point is that I failed. I took a risk, the same kind of risk I take every damn day, and I came up short." Her eyes were still unfocused, and even her voice seemed directed at nopony in particular. "It really makes you look back on things differently. I've risked my life on a gamble so many times, and for what? Some old relic or treasure that just ends up behind a glass case for foals on field trips to glance at and ignore?"
Rainbow gaped silently as Daring continued in a low tone, "It always seemed worth it at the time, but you know what? This Mirror seemed worth it too. Now I've roped you into this mess, and we don't even know what shape my body will be in when we find it. Now… I'm not even sure it was worth the risk at all."
The road fell completely silent for several moments. It took a beat for Daring to realize that even the sound of Rainbow's hooves had ceased. Rainbow Dash stood stock-still and wide-eyed, her gaping expression staring silently at Daring Do.
Daring winced. "Ah, jeeze, sorry about that. I guess I got a little heavy for a moment there."
Rainbow stared in silence for several more moments, then nodded slowly.
"Look," Daring said, "just ignore everything I said. Everything's gonna be tickety-boo, we're gonna have a fun little road trip, and we're gonna get me back in my body just fine, alright?"
Rainbow finally muttered, "…Alright." She continued trotting for a few steps, but paused to cast a sidelong glance Daring's way. "Do you regret it all? All those pointless risks, I mean."
"Regret?" Daring raised an eyebrow. "Nah, not at all. It was dumb, and it was crazy, but damnit if it wasn't awesome too!"
The chuckle that escaped Rainbow's lips at that came as a surprise to her, but it did manage to coax a smile onto her face. With that, both travelers felt that nothing more needed to be said. They continued down the road in silence once more, but this time they were both a little more comfortable with it.
The scenery remained much the same for the first few hours out of Ponyville. Whitetail Woods was a beautiful, if not terribly exciting place. Lush trees and light undergrowth surrounded them on both sides, joined every so often by a patch of multi-coloured wildflowers.
The whole way, Rainbow Dash distracted herself from the dull, thudding ache in her head by glancing around at the passing scenery.
It was drastically different from the Everfree Forest that bordered the other side of the town. Where the Everfree was foreboding and dark, the Whitetail Woods seemed to allow plenty of sunlight to stream in through the branches high above. Where the Everfree felt like it was closing in tightly, suffocating anypony foolish enough to enter its grasp, the Whitetail Woods felt open and inviting, never constricting one's freedom of movement or confusing one's sense of direction.
Happily chirping birds and skittering little critters provided an almost musical backdrop, adding yet more to the cheerful nature of the place. The path itself was well-maintained and relatively straight, though it did gently wind and bend here and there. Even though there were trees all around, the canopy overhead provided minimal coverage, and left a mostly unimpeded view of the shining blue sky beyond.
Rainbow Dash realized that it had been a long time since she'd actually journeyed through such pleasant scenery rather than just flying over it. She took the time to enjoy it, glancing around at her surroundings as the day wore on. Eventually, they had to stop for a quick lunch, which simply meant that Rainbow sat down on the side of the road and ate a few tasty wildflowers before they were on the move once more.
The sun passed its zenith, morning turned to afternoon, and still Rainbow Dash trotted onwards. One way or another, she was determined to put this mess to rest once and for all. In the stretches of silence between idle small talk, Rainbow Dash found her thoughts drifting to her unexpected companion, or rather, whether or not said companion was even real.
She still didn't know if she believed it, but… the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't outright dismiss the notion. After all, she and her friends had dealt with much stranger things in their adventures, and it did seem like precisely the sort of trouble Daring Do would get herself into. The odds that it was all true were slim, but they were there, and they were impossible to ignore.
Eventually, Rainbow's deep thought was interrupted by a much-needed change in scenery. Up ahead, she could see the trees thinning out and the terrain growing rockier. The edge of the Whitetail Woods was approaching, and beyond that Rainbow was unsure of exactly what awaited them.
Daring Do flew on ahead, weaving between trees until she disappeared from sight. When she flew back moments later and motioned for Rainbow to hurry up, a vibrant grin was plastered across her face.
Rainbow picked up her pace slightly, and in a few minutes, the trees had thinned enough for her to see the landscape that lay before them. The road wound across wide grassy plains dotted with boulders and patches of rocks. The plains quickly became hills of all sizes, tall or wide, rocky or grassy. The road wound over and around and between the hills, but whatever lay on the other side was impossible to say from Rainbow's current low position.
Rainbow didn't slow down out of the woods, and a wide smile graced her features as the landscape became slightly more interesting. They followed the road as it wound around a small mound, then inclined up towards the peak of a large, steep hill. Rainbow Dash was panting halfway up the hill, and her pace slowed slightly, but they eventually reached the top and paused for her to catch her breath. It was one of the taller hills in the area, being larger than the town hall in Ponyville.
At that height, the world opened up around them. Rainbow's breath left her as she slowly rotated in place to take in the view. Rocky hills surrounded her in a patchwork of green and grey, all tinged slightly orange by the distantly setting sun. To the North, in their direction of travel, stretched more hills nearly to the horizon, some topped with rings of ancient stone blocks that had once been towers belonging to some long-gone civilization. The towers had collapsed and been worn down, but the hills remained, still wearing their ancient crowns given by long-dead kings and emperors.
To the East was a mountain range that cut the horizon into jagged shapes, harsh and beautiful. They were topped with snow and ringed by clouds, distant enough to look small even though Rainbow knew that some were as tall as Canterlot itself.
To the West, the aforementioned capitol stood out proudly as the most prominent landmark. It towered above the relatively flat landscape surrounding it, not a part of any mountain range. Canterlot stood alone atop its lonely mountain, glinting in the light of the setting sun, nothing more than a shining speck atop a great spire of stone. The mountain's shadow laid across the land like a great black arm, reaching out and casting a portion of the landscape into an early night.
Finally, slowly, Rainbow allowed her vision to turn Southward.
The massive expanse of Whitetail Woods stretched out behind them. Looking at the great ocean of green laid out, Rainbow was impressed that she'd managed to traverse it in only a day. The woods extended for miles to either side, and almost reached all the way back to the horizon. They didn't quite manage to block Rainbow's view of the horizon, however. There, straddling the fine line where earth met sky, she could still make out a blurry shape, not much more than a brown blob even to her pegasus eyes. If she focused long enough, however, she could almost make out the lines and corners of buildings, and she knew that she was looking at home.
Ponyville was still visible, if only barely. Rainbow had made good time. For a moment, her wings twitched against her sides. Her hooves shifted almost on their own accord, and Rainbow found herself turned around to face her hometown. The wind atop the hill whipped her mane against her neck, and Rainbow bent her legs to leap into it. It was a Southerly wind; it would carry her all the way back to her friends, her house, her life.
Then her ears twitched to a voice that spoke in an uncharacteristically somber tone.
"Tears at you, don't it kid?"
Rainbow flinched. Her wings clenched against her sides as she spun to face the voice. Daring Do was standing there, her mane hanging perfectly still even in the whipping winds. The adventurer bore a sad smile, and her eyes were locked onto Dash's, unblinking.
"Seeing your home as nothing more than a dot on the horizon, it's not a good feeling." She took a long breath. "But it's not a bad feeling either. I know exactly how you feel. You want to jump into the wind and fly straight back to your old familiar house and all the old familiar faces there." Her lips curved a little more. "But at the same time, you don't. You want to see where this road goes, what lies beyond that mysterious horizon. You want to see where this adventure will take you, and that desire contradicts everything else your heart is telling you.
"It's beautiful… and it's terrible." By the time Daring finished, though her eyes remained locked onto Rainbow's, she was no longer looking at the other mare. Her focus was a thousand miles beyond Rainbow's own eyes, somewhere hidden behind the horizon.
Rainbow Dash gulped a dry lump down her throat. "Is… is this how you feel? Every time you leave for another adventure, I mean?"
Daring seemed to snap back to reality. "Hm? Oh, no. I haven't felt that way in years." She chuckled, but it was a hollow sound. "Doesn't really work if you don't have a home to look back on, y'know?"
Before Rainbow could respond, Daring quickly turned away and marched briskly down the North side of the hill. Rainbow was left alone on the hilltop, the wind in her ears doing nothing to drown out the maelstrom of thoughts consuming her troubled mind. She was only broken from her reverie by a voice carried back on the breeze from the bottom of the hill.
"Come on, kid! Daylight's burning!"
Rainbow sighed. Her wings flexed and unflexed, but remained coiled tight to her sides. With one last lingering look to the South, she ever so slowly turned her back on Ponyville. She released all the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in one prolonged exhale as she took the single longest step of her life. The next step came a little easier, and the one after that easier still.
By the time Rainbow crested the edge of the hill and trotted down the other side, she didn't even look back to see Ponyville disappearing beyond the horizon.
They made camp about an hour later on a flat spot about halfway up a medium sized hill. The site provided shelter from the winds, which allowed Rainbow Dash to start a crackling fire using fallen tree branches and the matches Daring had made her pack.
"See, kid, adventuring ain't so bad if you do it in style." She tossed a smirk Rainbow's way across the flickering firelight. "We might as well be camping. Bring any marshmallows?"
Rainbow giggled and laid down on her belly, resting her head on her forehooves. "That's more Rarity's thing than mine."
"I'll pretend to understand that."
"So, Daring," Rainbow Dash paused to stifle a yawn before continuing, "what'd you mean back there, on the hill, 'bout not having a home?"
Daring's expression was hiding behind the dancing flames, but she almost seemed to hesitate for a second before responding, "Oh, don't worry about that, kid. I adventure a lot, y'know? I don't exactly have one town or house that I call 'home'. Hay, my books sell more than enough for me to rent places in every city from Manehatten to Mareami." She chuckled. "So I do, of course."
Rainbow took a moment for her sleepy brain to consider that. "Still," she mumbled before pausing to yawn, "that sounds kinda sad. I think I'd always want someplace I could come back to. Maybe," another yawn, "maybe once this is over, you can get a house in Ponyville. You seemed to like it a lot. It could totally be your home. Then… then you would always have a place… a place to look back at and smile."
Rainbow's voice grew soft and slurred as she spoke, and by the end of her speech she was practically whispering. Within moments, Rainbow was fast asleep, her chest rising and falling with even breaths in the orange glow of the fire.
Daring Do looked down at the slumbering pegasus and tried to smile, but the expression came out looking broken beyond repair.
The next morning, their travels resumed much the same as they had the day before. Dash scrounged up a breakfast of wildflowers before they set out on the road once again. Though she had, at Daring's insistence, packed some food of her own, Rainbow reasoned that she might as well take advantage of the environment and save her own food stores for an emergency.
"Way to go, kid," Daring commented with a wink. "You're already starting to think like an adventurer."
Rainbow merely rolled her eyes and finished packing up her saddlebags before trotting down the hill and back onto the hard-packed road. The hills still occupied the bulk of the scenery, though Canterlot remained an imposing titan off to Rainbow's west. For the first few minutes, Daring followed silently behind, and Rainbow Dash didn't try to change that.
The longer she walked, the more doubt festered in the deepest recesses of Rainbow's mind. Here she was trusting an incorporeal image of one of her personal heroes that appeared out of thin air shortly after Rainbow Dash had received one of the worst head-injuries in her recent memory.
Really, when she thought about it like that she almost wanted to turn around right there.
She couldn't, though. No matter how crazy it was, Rainbow Dash had to believe in Daring's presence, because to do otherwise would risk letting her down. It was crazy, but Rainbow's undying sense of loyalty was a core part of her being. She had to be loyal to her friends, even if it seemed insane.
Besides, even if Daring was a hallucination then at least Rainbow got a decent camping trip out of the deal.
As they trotted down the road, Daring seemed to show an interest in the scattered ruins that crowned a few of the taller hills. Rainbow Dash didn't think much of it, and instead kept her focus mostly on the road ahead of her. It was impossible to see where the road led or when it would end due to how it wound around and between hills, but Rainbow Dash trotted along in the hopes that the next bend in the road would bring about a change in scenery.
After a couple hours, with no change of scenery in sight, Rainbow was beginning to grow unbearably bored. So it was that she asked Daring to pass the time with stories about her career. Dash was certain that the Daring Do was chock-full of interesting adventures that had never made it into her books.
Shortly into the conversation, it became quite apparent that what Dash had expected was quite different from what Daring had delivered.
"…and you see those pillars over there?" Daring pointed smilingly at a series of massive stones atop a squat hill in the distance.
"Mhmm," Rainbow Dash replied unenthusiastically, not that it seemed to slow Daring Do down.
"Judging by the size and near-perfect symmetry, I'd say those are all that remains of a pre-Unification earth pony fortress." She paused to chuckle lightly. "A lot of ponies think that the earth ponies were a bunch of measly farmers, but they were actually a formidable nation in their own right. The fact that even a few stones are still standing is just a testament to their knowledge of masonry and engineering."
"…you don't say?" Rainbow Dash droned without turning her head.
"I know, right? Pretty exciting stuff." Daring grinned widely, though if she'd turned her focus from the ancient architecture she might've seen Dash's scowl. "Even more interesting are their underground constructions. I mean, nothing's gonna top a pre-Unification unicorn dungeon, but at least the earth ponies gave it an effort. Pegasi of that time don't even have ruins, y'know, 'cause everything was clouds."
Rainbow Dash resisted the urge to groan, but only barely. Sure, she'd been desperate to pass the time, but she hadn't expected was a lecture on ancient historical architecture. She'd already lost track of how long Daring had been rambling about the archeological significance of their surroundings.
"Now, what earth pony tombs have over unicorn ones is a total lack of traps. Not necessarily a benefit, but," she chuckled, "in my line of work, that's considered a plus." Daring paused to flap a little higher and glance around the rolling countryside before her face lit up and she pointed off to the right. "Aha! See, that misshapen hill over there, that's a classic sign of an earth pony mausoleum just beneath the surface. You're not gonna find as many gems and treasures as an ancient unicorn burial site, but the pre-Unification earth ponies built their stuff to last. I'd bet my bottom bit that place is in absolutely perfect condition, so if you ever want to check out beautifully preserved ancient architecture that's the thing to look out for."
Daring trailed off, and for a moment Rainbow thought she might be finished. The younger pegasus didn't even have the time to sigh in relief before Daring launched off again.
"And that's just ancient Equestrian history! The temples left by the ancient donkeys in modern-day Mexicolt are amazing. The traps there are even more dangerous, but the architecture is fantastic, and pretty well preserved given that most of it is above ground. Why, the ruined ancient city of Tenochtrotlan has—"
"Alright, that's enough of that!" Rainbow Dash interrupted suddenly.
Daring turned, ears drooping. "But I haven't even gotten to ancient Stirropean cities yet. There's Ponpeii—"
"Nope!" Rainbow Dash waved a forehoof. "No more ancient cities, or ancient buildings, or ancient plumbing systems."
"Hey, the advanced aqueducts of ancient Roam are no joke!"
"No more!" Rainbow Dash paused to wince as her own shout brought forth a twinge of pain in her skull. She rubbed the ache away and refocused her glare on Daring Do.
"You know, when I asked you about your job, I wasn't exactly expecting a history lesson."
"Oh, I get it." Daring Do nodded knowingly and gave Rainbow Dash a wink. "You wanted to know about the other part of my job."
Rainbow Dash threw her hooves up. "Yes! Finally!"
Daring Do chuckled. "Well buckle up, kid, 'cause this is where things get crazy."
Daring Do was torturing Rainbow Dash. That was the only explanation. Rainbow Dash had messed up somehow and this was her punishment.
"—so I tell my publicist, 'listen up, bud, if that's what the editor wants then they're just gonna have to invent a new definition for sapphiric, 'cause I ain't changing my wording!'" She let out a guffaw, then continued, "I swear, I've never seen a pony tear apart so many dictionaries in my life. It all worked out in the end though, 'cause they can't just say no to 'AK Yearling', y'know?"
Rainbow Dash's glare was her only response, not that Daring Do saw it.
"Then there was this time I got invited to a dinner party for all the famous authors in Manehatten at the time. And I swear, there were ponies there who couldn't narrate their way out of a friggin' box." She rolled her eyes. "I mean, some of those punks still used a thesaurus! What is this, first year Equish? The fact that these are published authors is really a testament to the degradation of modern literary pop-culture."
Rainbow Dash idly began casting her gaze around the landscape. She tuned out Daring's continued rambling, only briefly noting that she'd moved on to stories of her first publication. The land around them was much the same as it had been all day. The same rolling hills of varying size that Rainbow had fallen asleep next to the night before. Canterlot remained a bright sentinel atop the mountain to her left, though it had moved a little since she'd last checked, a sign of their slow but steady progress.
Whatever lay ahead of them was still a mystery, hidden behind the many hills that the path twisted around and between. Some of the hills were topped by the ancient stonework that Daring had lectured about earlier, and despite her disinterest in the topic, Rainbow couldn't deny a certain sense of awe now that she realized the true age and history behind those standing stones.
Still, she was hoping for a change of scenery before too long. They'd already been walking for hours and the initially stunning surroundings were starting to lose their appeal. Rainbow Dash glanced up to gauge the time and noted that the sun was already at its apex. It would begin dipping towards the horizon soon, and Rainbow was beginning to expect they'd spend another night camping in the hills before a new locale presented itself.
If Rainbow hadn't been checking the sun, she would've missed it. Something moved in the sky, little more than a black speck, but it was gone before she managed to get a good look. Whatever it was, it was very high up and mostly hidden behind the scattered cloud cover. For some reason that she couldn't fully explain, the sight made the hairs on Dash's neck stand up.
"Hey, Daring," Rainbow Dash tried to get the adventurer's attention, but Daring was still in mid-rant.
"—so I said 'liquor? I barely know 'er!'" She paused to cackle so hard that she nearly fell to the ground. "You can bet that got their stuffy pantaloons in a bunch."
"Daring, seriously!"
That finally managed to catch her attention. "Huh?" Daring turned to Dash, blinking tears of laughter out of her eyes. "What is it, kid?"
"There's something in the clouds," she gulped, "and I don't like the look of it."
Daring followed Rainbow's gaze and the two came to a standstill in the road, both staring skyward. Several moments passed without incident, and Rainbow Dash was just beginning to think her head was playing tricks on her, when something flashed between two clouds. It was only there for a split-second, but when Rainbow and Daring turned to face one another they knew both had seen it.
Rainbow's eyebrows went up. "What was—"
"Hide." Daring's face had gone completely serious. "You need to hide, now."
Daring's expression brooked no argument, and Rainbow quickly spun in place, searching for a decent place to conceal herself. She spotted a large, rock-covered hill nearby. One of the rocks at the base of the hill was the size of a small shed, and more importantly, sat in such a way that a small alcove was formed at its base.
Rainbow set off at a sprint for the rock, and Daring followed close behind. Upon arrival, Dash quickly dropped to the ground and wriggled her way under the stone. It was a tight fit, and the place was cool and damp, but Rainbow Dash was able to fit herself entirely underneath.
"Good," Daring's voice came from outside. She was standing next to the rock with her eyes trained on the clouds, having no reason to hide herself. "Now just don't move until I tell you to."
Now that the adrenaline of the moment wasn't quite so strong, Rainbow finally found the voice to question why she was curled up beneath a rock like a crab.
"Daring… why am I hiding?"
"So you don't get seen. Jeeze, kid, I didn't think you were that new to adventuring."
Rainbow knew Daring couldn't see her glare, but she glared all the same.
Daring sighed. "Alright, I know I've got some explaining to do, but can that wait a few? I really can't use the distraction right now, and you should be keeping quiet anyway."
Rainbow Dash grumbled, but said nothing. The next few minutes passed agonizingly slow. A jut of rock was digging into Rainbow's flank, but there was no way to fix it from her cramped position. So she focused on her breathing. Slow and steady, in and out. The light outside was shifting into afternoon, and still Rainbow waited. Only after what felt like an eternity did Daring finally poke her head beneath the rock, smiling.
"Coast's clear, kid!" She motioned for Dash to come out. "Let's get to walking again and I'll explain as we go."
Rainbow Dash carefully extricated herself from her tiny hiding place and took a minute to ease the stiffness in her limbs before turning to Daring with a stern look.
"What the hay was that all about, huh?" Rainbow took a step forward, but Daring held her ground. The expression on Daring's face seemed torn for a moment before settling into resignation as she met Dash's eyes.
"Walk and trot. This is gonna take some explaining."
The two of them set off along the road once more, the afternoon sun tossing Rainbow's long shadow across the grass to their right. Rainbow blinked as she realized there was only one. Daring floated onwards oblivious, shadowless.
After taking a minute to compose her thoughts, Daring flew in front of Rainbow Dash and flapped backwards so they could talk face to face. Her own expression was a cross between worry and determination as she cleared her throat and tapped her forehooves together.
"So, being totally honest with ya, kid. I may have left some… rather important details out of my story earlier."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, but refrained from commenting just yet.
Daring sighed and tore her eyes away from Dash's. She idly stared skyward as she said, "My quest for the mirror wasn't quite as simple as I implied. In truth, I actually had a bit of a nasty run-in with some… unfriendly individuals while I was tracking down the temple."
Rainbow finally broke her silence. "What kind of ponies are we talking here?"
Daring winced. "Not ponies, actually." She looked up and finally met Rainbow's gaze, her eyebrows knit tightly together. "I was attacked by a group of griffon mercenaries."
Silence was Rainbow's only response, though this time was more because of surprise than any conscious choice.
"I don't know what their motive was, or if it even had anything to do with the Mirror. Truth be told, they could've had their own reasons to come after me completely unrelated to the Mirror of Souls. Especially since it's such an obscure and unheard of artifact."
"Okay, but, like, haven't you dealt with plenty of bad guys in your time?"
"Sure," Daring waved a hoof, "but these guys are real serious. They weren't out to just beat me up, kid. If these mercs caught me, they wouldn't have left me alive."
"So, whatever we saw in the sky back there…" Rainbow Dash gulped.
"Yep, that was one of 'em. I'd bet my hat on it." Daring winced and patted at her empty mane. "Er, figuratively speaking."
"How can you be sure, though? It could've been anypony." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Even if it was a griffon, some griffons are friendly."
Daring tilted her head. "Didn't you see the way the sunlight flashed off 'em? Whoever was up there was carrying steel, kid. Unless they were taking their shiny new axe collection out for a happy walk, I sincerely doubt they were friendly."
"Jeeze…" Rainbow Dash wheezed. Then a thought struck her. "But wait, so you got assaulted by some crazy-hardcore griffon dudes, but why would I have to hide from them? It's not like they get their kicks just attacking random ponies in the wild…" she gulped dryly. "d-do they?"
"Heh, see, that's the thing that made me not want to have to explain this…" Daring rubbed the back of her neck. "I managed to lose the mercs before going to the temple for the Mirror, but from what I've seen they wouldn't just give up after that. Some of them are gonna continue on my trail, while others go after any of my associates for information. It's how bad guys work.
"The thing is, y'know… I work alone. I don't have any associates, and never really have." She hissed a breath through her teeth and once more looked skyward. "Except… one."
Rainbow squinted for a moment, but then her eyes widened. "Oh no."
"Yeah, remember my latest book?"
"Daring, no."
"The book about us defeating Ahuizotl together?" Daring gritted her teeth. "The book that had you on the cover?"
"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash stopped walking and threw her forehooves into the air. "Are you saying that I'm the only pony that could ever be linked to you!?"
"Not necessarily, but… yes. Sorry, kid."
"Well crap."
Daring hung her head. "I'd hoped that we could get there without having to deal with these jerks, but it seems they're already out searching for you. This adventure just got a whole lot more dangerous, and…" Her eyes clenched shut and her teeth gnashed. "I guess I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to call it quits and head home. You live next to a flippin' princess; no way some two-bit mercs are gonna bother you there."
There was a brief silence in which Daring refused to look up or open her eyes. She seemed almost certain Dash had already left, yet unwilling to look up and face that cold reality. All the while, Rainbow Dash looked on with an amused smirk. Finally, Dash felt she could open her mouth without laughing.
"Are you kidding!?"
The force of the exclamation would've blown Daring back if she was still a part of the physical world. Instead she just looked up with wide, surprised eyes.
Rainbow Dash grinned. "This adventure just got a whole lot more awesome!" She struck a pose. "I'm Rainbow Danger Dash. I'm not gonna be scared off by some thugs."
Daring couldn't help the small smile that wormed its way onto her face at Dash's confidence. "You know, I did some research into you for my book, and I'm pretty sure your middle name is actually Jen—"
"We don't speak of that!" Rainbow Dash interrupted frantically.
Daring giggled, but her face fell slightly before she said, "But seriously, kid. These aren't your everyday wholesome baddies. These guys play for keeps. You sure you're up for that?"
"Pshh!" Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. "I can't believe you're even asking."
Daring smirked. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."
"Just one question:" Rainbow Dash raised a forehoof. "You said there were also guys following your trail?"
"Yeah…" Daring sighed. "It's only a matter of time before they manage to track me down, I suppose. When they do, I'd rather not be standing there like a zombie staring into a mirror. They won't hesitate to slit my throat while I'm defenseless."
Rainbow Dash winced hard and unconsciously rubbed at her own neck, but quickly reasserted her confidence as best she could. "W-Well, I guess we just have to beat them to the temple then! No biggie!"
"I appreciate the confidence, kid. I really do." Daring smiled softly.
"No more wasting time!" Rainbow pointed northwards. "We've got places to be and butts to kick!"
The grin that sat upon Dash's face was infectious, and soon enough Daring was sporting one of her own. Together, the two of them set off down the road at a brisk trot.
"Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I busted up a magical artifact black market in the Manehatten underground?"
"Now we're talking!"
By the time evening fell, the scenery had finally begun to change. The sun was nearing the edge of the horizon, painting the sky and the land below in vibrant amber, when Daring Do pointed out that the hills around them were growing steadily smaller. Rainbow Dash took this as a sign that something was up ahead, and trotted a little faster.
Sure enough, a few minutes later the pair of travellers rounded one last rise and skidded to a halt at the scene that lay before them.
The landscape changed to a gently rolling grassy plain that extended for some distance before meeting a solid wall of trees. The orange sunlight painted the forest as if it were on fire, and the flaming tops of trees extended all the way to the horizon. It was hard to see, but in the dim evening light Rainbow's keen vision could almost make out several long, thin lines extending skyward somewhere deep, deep within the forest. She recognized the site as columns of smoke, hopefully from a small town.
Daring Do landed soundlessly next to Rainbow. "Sure is pretty, eh, kid? That'd be Hoofington," she said, pointing to the smoke columns and confirming Dash's suspicions.
Rainbow Dash nodded. "Our first stop?"
"Yep!" Daring affirmed. "That's where I initially stepped off in my journey to the temple, so from there on out we should be travelling along familiar ground. Well, for me at least." She shrugged. "It'll also be a great place to pick up some much-needed supplies."
"I already packed supplies." Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "You helped me pack before we left."
"Pshh!" Daring waved a hoof dismissively. "We made do with what you had, but you were missing a lot of key components."
"Oh yeah? Like what?"
"Rope, for starters."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "What kind of normal pony just has rope?"
"Snnkt, fair enough." Daring smirked. "We're still gonna need it though, not to mention a decent hatchet, some proper travel rations, and whatever else they can scrounge up in terms of survival equipment."
Rainbow Dash stared. "So we basically set out for this trip completely underprepared?"
"Eh, I work best when I improvise!" Daring winked. "Now come on, it'll be stupid windy if we try and camp on the plains. Best to make it into the tree cover if you don't wanna freeze your feathers off. Tally ho!"
As Daring turned and galloped down the hill, Rainbow cast one last glance towards the western sky. Canterlot mountain was outlined by a brightly burning orange sun, casting the mountain city as a black silhouette straddling the horizon. Once she dove into the woods ahead, the towering city would disappear from sight, and whether it was visible wherever she came back out was anypony's guess.
So, taking one last moment to soak in one last monument to her home, Dash exhaled all the breath from her lungs and turned away. Daring was already a third of the way to the trees, so Dash leapt into the air and beat her wings until she caught up with her traveling companion.
Even over that short flight, Rainbow was aching by the time she dropped to the ground and settled into a steady gallop. Her wings folded stiffly to her sides and the muscles all over her ached. Once again, Rainbow Dash was reminded that she'd been released from the hospital just a day ago.
Rainbow had experienced enough injuries to know when not to over-strain herself. Clearly, flying would not be an option just yet given the pain it caused across her whole body. Fortunately, she experienced no such problems with walking or running, so Rainbow Dash was easily able to match pace with Daring as the pair galloped for the forest. They passed the first trees while the sun was still poking half above the distant horizon.
Rainbow slowed down and stopped just inside the treeline, and Daring Do stopped with her. While Rainbow Dash panted and caught her breath, Daring stood idly by and watched. Dash was suddenly struck by the odd thought that Daring probably didn't actually need to breathe at all in her current state. The thought was disturbing for some reason and Dash quickly tossed it aside to focus on other things.
In short order, she'd gathered up some wood and prepared a small, crackling fire within the cover of the forest canopy, hidden from any unwanted eyes above. Since they were planning on restocking anyway, Rainbow decided to eat some of the food she'd packed for herself. She reached into her saddlebag and withdrew a beat-up Wonderbolts lunch box. The old lunchbox's latches clicked open with a bit more effort than they might've taken years ago, and the lid squeaked as she tilted it up to reveal stacks of sandwiches within.
A beaming grin of pride was on Rainbow's face as she took out one sandwich and held it up in the firelight. She had just raised it to her face for a big bite when a stifled snicker from across the fire caught her attention. Ears twitching, Rainbow turned to face the adventurer seated on the other side of the flames.
"…what?"
Daring was covering her muzzle with her hooves, but it did little to conceal her amused grin and even less to hide the odd giggle that managed to escape her throat.
"N-Nothing—snnkt—carry on." Her eyes were beginning to tear up as she watched Dash raise the sandwich again, and the moment Rainbow took a bite Daring burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Okay, what the what!?" Rainbow Dash stood up and rounded on the rolling pegasus. "Did you do something to my sandwiches!?"
"No… no," Daring managed to get out through fits of giggles, "nothing like that." She took a moment, and several deep breaths, to calm herself before elaborating. "It's just… here we are on an adventure, in some unknown woods, possibly pursued by dangerous griffons, and when we set up camp for the night you pull out this… this l-lunchbox! Pffft-hah!"
"Hey!" Rainbow Dash pouted, even while surreptitiously sliding the lunchbox out of vision behind her saddlebags.
Daring wasn't quite done. "And- and then you have, like, peanut butter and jam sandwiches!?" She barked another laugh. "We're on an adventure, girl! We might not see a fridge for weeks! You're not gonna want to touch those things after a few days!"
Rainbow crossed her arms and huffed, only for her ears to fold back against her head. "…okay, so maybe I hadn't quite thought of that."
"Pffwa-hahah!"
Rainbow wilted lower and lower as Daring continued to laugh, until the senior adventurer finally took notice of the younger mare's crushed expression.
"Aww," Daring paused to wipe away her tears of laughter. "Come on, kid, I don't mean anything by it. You're just a newbie to this whole adventuring thing. Most ponies are."
Rainbow shook her head. "But I'm not! Or… I shouldn't be. I've saved the world, like, a bunch of times with my friends, but I guess Twilight always organized those sorts of things for all of us." She stared into the fire. "I'm some sort of hero of Equestria, but I can't even survive if I leave my house for a few days? That's lame."
Daring offered a warm smile. "Hey, it's no big deal, kid. Look," she paused and glanced around suspiciously, almost as if afraid someone was listening, "I'll tell you a secret, alright? But if you ever tell anypony, I'll deny it."
Rainbow looked up at Daring's smirking face and gave a quick nod.
"When I first started this whole adventuring thing, I had no idea what I was doing either. I made it up as I went along, and more than a few of my first adventures ended horribly. You'll never see a book about 'Daring Do and the Monkey's Goblet' and you wanna know why?"
Rainbow Dash was staring with wide eyes now, ears perked, and she could only offer a shaky nod in response.
"Because I lost it. Doctor Caballeron showed up and had his thugs beat the crap out of me, then he took the Goblet from me with his own hooves and sold it on the black market for a pretty penny."
"You… you lost to Doctor Caballeron!?" Rainbow Dash gaped.
Daring chuckled. "Sure, kid. Like I said, I was new to this whole thing. I'd never been in a fight, much less taken on a gang of bad guys. Hay, I didn't even know there were ponies like him in the archeology business! My original career was… well, you know what, kid? That story can wait for another time. The point is that I've had some nasty mistakes in the past, but I learned from them and kept going. My mistake with the Monkey's Goblet put me in the hospital for two weeks. Your mistake is something we can just laugh about."
Rainbow Dash went through a series of conflicted facial expressions before finally settling on a tentative smile. "I guess it is kinda funny isn't it? I mean, I packed this lunch like it was my first day at school. I really don't know what I was thinking, heheh."
Daring smirked. "That's the spirit, kid. Now why don't you get some shut-eye. We've still got a ways before we reach Hoofington, after all."
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to respond, but all that came out was a long yawn. Only then did she realize just how very tired she was. Smacking her lips, Rainbow gently laid down on her stomach with a contented smile.
"Yeah, goodnight, Daring."
"Goodnight, kid."
The cacophonous sounds of the forest lit up the air around them in an endless chorus of bugs and other things filling the night with their song. The crackling of the fire added its own percussion to the natural harmony, and soon enough it was joined by slow and steady breaths from Rainbow Dash.
Daring Do gazed quietly at Rainbow's sleeping form, the older mare's mouth set into a thin line beneath a furrowed brow. She released a long, heavy sigh, and then turned around without a sound. Before she could take a single step, her ears twitched to a voice.
"Hey, Daring."
Daring Do hesitated, then turned her head. "Yeah, kid?"
Rainbow Dash didn't look up or even open her eyes, but as she lay there she muttered, "I know this whole situation is kinda sucky, but… I'm real glad I got to go on another adventure with you."
Daring didn't respond, couldn't respond, for several long moments. When she finally found her voice, she could only whisper, "Me too, kid. Me too."
They set out at first light the next morning. According to Daring Do, there was a lot of forest between them and Hoofington, and she wanted to cover that ground as quickly as possible. That was hard to do when they were bushwhacking through thick undergrowth, but just a short ways into the forest the two came along a worn dirt pathway that seemed to head in the direction they were going.
The hard-packed path allowed them to pick up the pace, and soon enough they were moving along at a decent trot. Rainbow Dash passed the time by scanning the woods around her, and she was intrigued by what she saw.
Rather than the bare-trunked and leafy trees of the Whitetail Woods they'd passed through on the first day, this forest was made up of thick coniferous evergreen trees. The forest floor was covered in old fallen pine needles, at least wherever it wasn't hidden beneath tightly grouped ferns. Instead of birdsong filling the air, Rainbow's ears constantly twitched to the sound of cicadas’ distinctive songs with the occasional squirrel or other small critter chiming in.
Old fallen logs, overgrown with massive mushrooms and other fungus, rotted away in the shadows provided by the thick evergreen cover. The sky was almost completely hidden, visible only in small patches between the needles here and there. Of course, now that Rainbow was alert to the possibility of unwanted eyes spotting them from above, she was glad for the concealment.
Sunlight managed to stream in through the cover, tinted dim green by the needly filter. The air was still, free of even the slightest breeze within the thick trees. Rainbow Dash could see motes of dust or fungal spores passing through shafts of green-tinged sunlight as they floated aimlessly about on stale air. The whole place felt quiet despite the chirping insects, dim despite the scattered lighting, and overall it felt utterly still.
There was a sort of beauty to it. The stillness wasn't oppressive, even to a pegasus as in-tune with the sky as Rainbow Dash. While most enclosed spaces did tend to make her uncomfortable—not that she would admit it—the forest somehow didn't feel enclosed. It was the sort of natural wonder that made Rainbow Dash truly appreciate what Fluttershy had fallen in love with on her first trip to the surface.
Rainbow Dash was truly amazed at how different things were when looked at from the ground. If she'd been flying at cloud-level, she wouldn't have been able to discern any meaningful difference between the forest she was currently traveling through and the Whitetail Woods.
From the ground, however, the two places shared next to nothing in common. Needles replaced leaves, ferns and fungus replaced flowers, insects replaced birds, and a thick overhead covering replaced what had been a relatively unobstructed view of the sky.
When she thought of it like that, Rainbow realized that the Whitetail Woods sounded more appealing, but in all honesty she found her current environment more appealing. There was just something about it, a quality that she couldn't define in simple terms. Whatever it was, it put a wide smile on her face as she trotted through the thick forest along the worn-down pathway.
When lunchtime arrived, Rainbow Dash once again ate from her supply of pre-made sandwiches. As beautiful as the forest was, the lack of wildflowers meant there wasn't really anything decent to eat around.
"We've still got about a full day's trot before we hit Hoofington, if I'm figuring it right," Daring Do said from where she sat in front of Dash.
Rainbow nodded. "So we should get there by midday tomorrow if we stop and sleep tonight, yeah?"
"Yeah, though it's safest to assume some sort of delay." Daring shrugged. "Probably get there sometime in the afternoon, hopefully before the general store closes. If we're lucky, we can buy what we need, rest and then move on at first light without having to wait around for the shop to re-open." She sucked in a breath. "I'd really rather not stay there any longer than necessary."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at that. "…why do you say that?"
Daring Do only scowled harder. "Look, let's just say not every small town is Ponyville, kid."
As unhelpfully vague as that answer was, Rainbow could see it was all she was going to get. Shrugging, she decided to change the topic.
"I think you should fly up past the trees and try to gauge the weather."
Daring fidgeted. "Uh, why?"
"I dunno, I just feel like it's gonna storm." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Either way, it couldn't hurt to have a basic forecast."
Strangely, Daring only looked more uncomfortable. "Erm, yeah, I… guess that does make sense. Technically…"
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Come on! It'll take two seconds. Just get up there and give me a forecast for the next day or two, jeeze."
"S-Sure… I'll just… do that," Daring Do mumbled as she slowly flapped into the air. Even slower, she rose and rose until disappearing above the tree cover.
Rainbow Dash tapped her chin as she stared up after the older adventurer. "What in the hay was that all about?"
Moments later, Daring dropped back down to land silently in front of Rainbow Dash. She still looked uncomfortable, but put on her best confident smile and inhaled a deep breath in preparation for her weather report.
"Y'know, clouds…" Daring Do shrugged, "and stuff."
Rainbow glared.
Daring threw up her hooves. "What do you want from me? I'm not a weatherpony!"
"Not even—"
"No! I never even had elementary weather courses. Happy now?"
Rainbow Dash merely rolled her eyes, then quickly scanned the tops of nearby trees. She selected one that seemed tall enough, then approached its base and stood on her hind hooves while bracing her forehooves against it.
"You know," Rainbow Dash chirped as she unfurled her wings and gauged the distance to the lowest branch. "One of these days, you'll have to explain to me how you managed to grow up a pegasus that knows nothing about weather or Cloudsdale."
Rather than the quick rebuttal Rainbow had expected from her little jab, Daring was silent for a moment before quietly muttering, "It's really not all that interesting…"
Rainbow blinked, but chose not to follow that up as she spotted the perfect branch overhead. She coiled her hind legs and sprung into the air. At the apex of her leap, Rainbow Dash gave one powerful beat of her wings. It was enough to launch her high enough to grip the branch with her forehooves and pull herself onto it.
Daring sat on the forest floor, shooting a proud smirk Rainbow's way. "You're not bad at improvising, kid, I'll give ya that much."
All trace of whatever malaise had plagued her tone a moment ago was gone, and so Rainbow Dash decided not to press the earlier issue. Instead, she offered a jaunty half-salute and leapt towards the next branch. The small hops were putting a lot less strain on Rainbow's wings than outright flying would have, but it did take a little longer to reach the top. Still, Rainbow Dash did eventually ascend to the highest stable point on the tree, and she sat upon a branch there overlooking most of the forest.
It wasn't the highest tree in the woods, but it was high enough for Rainbow to see the sky. That was all she needed. Strictly speaking, Daring Do's assessment had been right. Scattered puffs of white cloud drifted airily across a wide open blue sky like icebergs gliding through a deep and calm ocean. The surface world hung in a dim grey haze, and Rainbow looked up to find that the sun, still only halfway up in the eastern sky, was mostly hidden behind a single poofy cloud.
Then the cloud moved.
Rainbow Dash's gaze slid downwards as the treetops of the entire forest suddenly exploded in vibrant colour. It was a sea of gold and green, an ocean more choppy and erratic than the sky but no less beautiful. Birds flitted between the tops of trees, appearing for a brief moment in ecstatic bursts of flapping feathers, before diving back down to be hidden once more in the deep green sea.
A chill breeze blew across Rainbow's feathers. Her treetop perch swayed in the wind, and the entire forest swayed with it. While the sky was calm and still but for its drifting white icebergs, the forest was alive and moving, shifting and tumbling almost like waves made of evergreen needles and branches. For the briefest of moments, Rainbow Dash forgot why she was up there. She simply observed, lived on the surface between two seas, silently soaking in the perfect contrast.
Then Daring Do floated up on silently flapping wings.
"See? Just a buncha clouds and stuff!" Daring Do declared, utterly shattering the moment.
Rainbow Dash sighed and ran a forehoof across her face. "Would you stop saying that?"
"Why?" Daring folded her forelegs. "It's accurate."
"It's dumb."
"You're dumb!"
"Look," Rainbow Dash groaned. "Just, like, shut up and listen, alright?"
Daring Do grumbled, but nonetheless gave a nod for Rainbow Dash to continue.
Rainbow Dash took another moment to examine the sky, before nodding and declaring, "We're gonna have a major storm within 24 hours."
Daring blinked. "That's it? You can just tell that? We've been up here for, like, three minutes. Don't you need some sort of device or something?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Nah, just look over there." She pointed a forehoof towards the northern horizon.
Daring Do squinted, then squinted some more. "I don't get it."
"Ugh," Rainbow Dash groaned. "Come on, all that grey right on the horizon?"
Daring Do slowly tilted her head until it was almost at 90 degrees, then broke into a crooked sort of smile. "Oh yeah! I see it! Jeeze, that's barely a smudge though, I don't really see how you noticed it so quick."
"Practice."
"Okay, but still, how is that our problem? That's, like, a bazillion miles away isn't it?"
Rainbow shrugged. "Sure it is, right now. Just look at all the other clouds though. They're all drifting southwards, and at the speed they're going I'd give us 24 hours until that massive cloudbank on the horizon hits us."
"Oh…" Daring's ears folded.
Rainbow Dash wasn't finished. "Not to mention the fact that we're in thunderstorm territory right now."
"Thunderstorm territory?"
"Yeah, it happens. Weatherponies gotta keep the weather perfect for most places, but all that bad weather has to go somewhere right? There's a lot of excess heat pushed down here from Canterlot and a lot of excess moisture from those hick towns in the swamps out east. All of it mixes together in this real nasty concoction right here in the area east of Canterlot. There's really nothing the weatherponies could do to fight against that mix, so they generally just let any storms that build up run their course."
Daring Do cocked an eyebrow. "You're weirdly knowledgeable about this stuff, kid."
"Hey, I was a manager myself you know." Rainbow puffed out her chest. "Weather-making may not be a glorious job but I take pride in my work."
"And I respect that, but if we've got less than 24 hours then I suggest we get moving." Daring winced. "I doubt we're gonna make it to Hoofington before that hits us, but I suspect you want to spend as little time travelling through a thunderstorm as possible."
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. "Right." She jumped from the tree and spread her wings, allowing herself to glide to the forest floor without flapping them, though even that short glide was not without a twinge of pain up her back.
Rainbow touched down on the crunchy bed of pine needles that coated the ground and looked up to see Daring descending towards her. Daring landed without a sound, and the two of them trotted back along the path through the woods.
While the path was clearly maintained at some point in its history, it had fallen into some level of disrepair. The width varied depending on how much the ferns on either side were encroaching in any given area. At times the path was four ponies wide, while at others Rainbow couldn't even trot down the center without her wings brushing against plant life on either side.
Here and there, fallen branches coated in age-old moss were scattered across the hard-packed dirt. Rainbow nearly tripped over the first branch she came across, but kept a more careful eye out after that.
After an hour or two of walking, with only bits of small talk interspersed, a thought struck Rainbow hard enough to make her blink.
"Hey, uh… Daring?" Rainbow Dash hesitantly began.
Daring turned around to fly backwards in front of Rainbow. "Something on your mind, kid?"
"Yeah, uh, don't freak out or anything—"
"Always an encouraging start."
"—but, like… how's your body supposed to drink water and stuff?"
Daring came to a halt so fast that Rainbow trotted right through her before realizing she had stopped. Rainbow Dash shivered slightly and turned around. Daring Do was flapping in place, staring at Rainbow Dash with an odd look Rainbow couldn't quite place.
"That's… really dark for you, kid."
Rainbow winced. "Ah, jeeze, forget I said anything. Let's just not think about it, right? We'll get there as fast as we can and everything'll be awesome."
"No, no," Daring waved off Dash's frantic blathering. "You just… caught me off guard s'all. Didn't really expect such morbid thoughts from you. Heh, thought that was my job…" The last part was mumbled so low that Dash wasn't sure she was supposed to hear it.
Rainbow Dash stared expectantly as Daring flapped in silence. Finally, Daring gestured for them to keep walking before she spoke up.
"I know I said the Mirror was an obscure and unknown artifact, but that doesn't mean I knew nothing about it." She paused while Rainbow clambered over a fallen mossy log before continuing, "I was able to find bits and pieces of info along my journey to track it down, but most of it made no sense without knowledge of what the Mirror actually did."
Rainbow Dash nodded, hopped over some branches, and returned her gaze to Daring Do. Daring's ears were twitching as she spoke, but Rainbow's were pointed directly at the older adventurer. She had the feeling what Daring was saying was important, and wasn't about to miss a word.
"From what little I could gather, I was able to find constant mention of a 'user'." Daring shrugged. "At the time, I didn't think much of it, because I was more interested in the Mirror and its location, not whatever schlup was supposed to be using it. Heh, funny how it turned out to be me."
Rainbow was starting to see where this was going. "Okay, so you found info about the user, and I guess it mentioned—"
"That the user would be kept 'safe and sustained for the duration of use', yes." Daring Do nodded. "So, uh… we totally don't need to worry!" Daring grinned crookedly. "My body is safe and sound or whatever."
"If you say so." Rainbow Dash nodded. "You're the expert here."
"Damn skippy." Daring grinned for a moment, but then that grin faltered. "Of course, we do still have to make it there before some griffon merc manages to track down the temple…"
They trotted in silence for a few more minutes, but Rainbow Dash noticed that Daring seemed more forlorn than before. As chipper as she acted, it seemed the macabre subject matter had affected her mood more than she would admit. Dash smirked as an idea came to mind that might fix the situation.
"Say, Daring, what can you tell me about this place?"
"Huh?" Daring started as if broken from deep thought. She glanced around. "What about it?"
Rainbow Dash weaved around a particularly large boulder that had found its way into the road, then said, "Y'know, everything! The history of this place and whatever. Hay, I don't even know its name."
"Well, it's funny you should mention the name of all things. This particular forest has quite a history with names, as it so happens. In pre-Unification times, this was actually the whereabouts of the earth pony capital city."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Wait, really?"
Daring nodded. "Yeah, you remember that old Hearth's Warming story right? The unicorns settled in a gem-rich mountain, the pegasi in their cloud city, and the earth ponies on a great fertile land. Well," Daring tapped a forehoof against the ground, producing no sound. "This is it!"
Rainbow Dash glanced left and right of the path they were trotting down. They were surrounded by thick trees and undergrowth, with nary a space for crops to grow or cities to be built. She turned back to Daring with one eyebrow raised.
Daring Do rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, this was a long time ago. There's a forest here now because the land is so fertile. Let's start from the beginning!"
And then, something Rainbow Dash was very familiar with took place. She'd already seen Daring do it before when discussing the hills they'd travelled through, but the novelty of seeing anypony but Twilight enter 'lecture mode' was still enough to make Rainbow stifle a giggle.
"So when the earth ponies first settled this place they called it, big surprise, Earth. This entire land would've been filled with towns, villages, and castles belonging to the kingdom of Earth, but their pride was the capital city, which they called Terra.
Daring Do gestured around them with her forehooves as she talked, pointing at seemingly random bits of the forest. "Terra was massive, a great city of stone and iron. Hard and enduring, like the earth ponies themselves. Of course, nopony could match the pegasi militarily, but even they would've thought twice before attacking the earth pony capital.
"Of course, all things fade with enough time. Post-unification, there wasn't really any need for militaristic fortress-cities, and Terra was abandoned. Without their capital, the earth ponies saw less reason to stick around here at all. The kingdom was dissolved, so this great expanse of land was nameless for a good hundred years."
"Seriously? This place had no name at all?" When she got a nod in response, Rainbow Dash continued, "What changed?"
Daring Do smirked, stretched her forelegs out, and spun in place. "This forest happened. Within a short hundred years of the earth ponies abandoning their kingdom, this forest had grown up to replace them. Some say the soil was full of earth pony magic, some say they left behind a fertility artifact and its power grew trees like grass. Personally, I think somepony dropped a pinecone.
"Whatever the case, the old earth pony capital was lost somewhere along the way. They named the forest Terra in memory of the city it had swallowed up, but time changes everything. A few hundred years later this place was the Terran Woods. A bit more time and they called it Terrawood. Another several hundred years and the name had been diluted even more. Ponies had started calling it the Terrible Wood, and there were all sorts of pony's tales about the monsters and spirits that inhabited this place.
Daring Do chuckled. "It's funny how what had started out as a beautiful and fertile land turned into a place of legends and horrors given enough time." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, then came Nightmare Moon. She actually had a staging base set up in these woods—she played off their reputation for scare tactics—and during that time she called it the Night Terror Forest.
"As catchy as that name was, it didn't stick. As soon as Nightmare Moon was banished, ponies came up with a new name for this place. Now, during those first few years post-Nightmare, there was a whole lot of Celestial patriotism going around, so it's little wonder this place got a name like the Sunwoods.
"Ponies did eventually realize how inaccurate that was, and a couple hundred years later this place was renamed again to the Shadewood. Why? Because the royal map-maker decided he could get out of the hot summer sun by sitting beneath these pines. Now it's been Shadewood for the past… 600 years, I believe. Give or take a decade.
"The funniest part about the name is that it has absolutely no trace of the original earth pony name. Just like the forest itself lacks any of the original earth pony kingdom. They built a city that would last until the end of time, but that city was lost. They named the forest in honour of the city, and that name was forgotten. All of these grand gestures that were supposed to last forever, and the one thing that stuck was a lazy pony's name for a good place to nap.
Daring grinned. "Just goes to show, you can't try to write history. History writes you."
"Wow," was all Rainbow could manage after almost a full minute of silent gawking. "I can't believe that super hardcore earth pony fortress just up and disappeared like that. Swallowed up by time."
"Oh, I actually found Terra."
"What!?"
"Yeah, a few years back I set out to retrieve this so-called fertility artifact. Turns out there was no such thing." She shrugged. "I told you, somepony probably just dropped a pinecone somewhere. I did find Terra though. Really cool place, and the single best benchmark for pre-unification architecture I have ever seen."
Rainbow Dash stared in silence again, but could only hold in a moment before breaking out into barely-stifled laughter.
When she finally caught her breath, Rainbow said, "You know, Daring, you're different from what I expected after our first impression."
"…oh?" Daring looked apprehensive.
"Yeah, but not in a bad way." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I guess I didn't realize you had all that… booksmarts. I mean, when we first met we basically kicked Ahuizotl's butt and then said 'see ya later'. I didn't really realize you had more going on than butt-kicking."
Daring giggled. "I write a book series, kid. That's a pretty 'eggheaded' profession."
"Yeah, but you don't just write books."
"True," Daring conceded, "but not all of my expeditions are as exciting as all that either. At the end of the day, I'm an archeologist. My job is to unearth and protect ancient ruins, treasures, and artifacts. Sure, nowadays I mostly go after artifacts that require some butt-kicking to retrieve, but there are other much more boring excursions, mostly from my early career, that I never bothered writing about."
Rainbow arched an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Like what?"
Daring put on a mock storytelling voice as she said, "How about The Adventure of Daring Do and the Tomb of the Horse Emperor!" She paused dramatically. "We dug in the sand for three days to locate the entrance, and when we did, it opened easily without any traps! OooOOOoooH! Then we collected the Emperor's belongings onto a wagon and brought them back to the Trottingham Museum of Natural Hiiistoryyy!"
"Okay, okay, I get it!" Rainbow Dash chuckled. "You know, one of these days you're gonna have to tell me how you got into the whole 'adventuring' thing in the first place. Sounds like a lot of the stuff you did is totally… not adventuring."
Daring grit her teeth in a poor facsimile of a smile. "Heh, one of these days I might just tell you that story, kid. But… not today."
They trotted onwards in silence for a while longer. Rainbow Dash found herself looking around at the forest with a newfound sense of appreciation. As much as she would never admit to enjoying a history lecture, she couldn't deny that the place felt so much deeper now that she knew of its past. She could almost imagine a time when the thick trees were replaced by rolling plains dotted all over with farming villages and stone forts.
In a way, she almost felt sad that a place with such vast and storied culture could be so utterly forgotten after enough time. Rainbow Dash thought of Daring Do and her expedition to uncover the lost city of Terra. Daring hadn't let it stay forgotten. As long as there was somepony willing to remember the ponies and places that history forgot, then maybe it wasn't as bad as all that.
Rainbow was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a flowing river just up ahead. Her ears perked, and she remembered that her canteen was mostly empty. Rainbow Dash sprung into a gallop that brought her to the source of the sound in a few moments' time.
The trees didn't really thin out so much as stop entirely. One minute Rainbow was weaving between thick evergreens, and in the next blink she stumbled out into the bright sunlight, only barely catching herself before she would've faceplanted into the running body of water before her.
"Heh, gear down there, kid," Daring Do said, chuckling as she walked nonchalantly out of the trees behind Rainbow Dash. "All good things come to those who… whoa…" Daring Do trailed off as she took in the scenery set out before them.
The river was flowing southwest, cascading and tumbling over stones worn down by countless years of water until they were as smooth as silk. The sunlight sparkled off each undulating splash along the river's path as the crystal clear water flowed inexorably along its way. The bank on either side of the gentle water was covered in soft emerald grass right up to the river's edge, and for the first time since entering the Shadewood Rainbow Dash saw wildflowers all along the riverbank.
Yet none of that was what had captivated the pair of travelers.
While on their side of the river, the trees had stopped several feet before the water, the other side of the river had no trees at all. Brilliant green grass extended north of the river for a couple dozen feet, and then it stopped. A jagged line of rock and gravel marked the edge, and beyond that lay the world.
The cliff ran parallel along the same path as the river, jagged and sharp like the earth had been broken rather than cut. The drop was at least a hundred feet, but the forest below was identical to the rest that they had seen. From their position at the top of the cliff, the land seemed to stretch out before them like a vast, prickly green blanket.
The forest stretched on and on and on before them, laid out as if the entire world was covered in dark green. To the northeast, in the direction the river was coming from, a great green mountain range loomed, its peaks low and unimposing compared to the likes of Canterlot, but still towering well above the forest. Even the mountains were covered head to toe in evergreen woods. Their squat and sturdy forms could almost be mistaken for hills in every way but sheer size.
To the northwest, the forest continued almost to the horizon, except for a patch of hazy tan that could be seen straddling the line between earth and sky. Directly northward, the forest continued all the way to the edge.
The sun was moving downwards in the western sky, lighting the side of the mountains visible to Dash in its brilliance, and casting a slight golden glow across the ocean of treetops laid out before them. The sky was spotted all over with clouds, until Rainbow's gaze focused on the northern edge of the great blue expanse.
There, directly ahead of them, a massive dark grey blur was consuming the entire horizon. It was close enough now for them to see how the edges roiled and tumbled through the sky, and the occasional flash of blue light within its gigantic body. It looked almost alive, and filled with a malevolent energy intent on covering the entire land until not a single ray of sunlight could get through. Even though it was still countless miles away, the great storm seemed big enough to swallow the mountains Dash had seen. It wouldn't even notice a morsel such as herself.
"Well, on the bright side," Daring chirped through a forced grin, "this place has a fantastic view!"
Rainbow Dash slowly turned to glare pointedly at the older adventurer.
Daring's smile only grew. "And hey! There's Hoofington!"
Rainbow blinked and snapped her gaze around to see where Daring was pointing. Sure enough, due north of them several columns of smoke were visible breaking through the canopy and drifting lazily towards the clouds. They were close, but so was the thunderstorm. Rainbow Dash wasn't sure if they could afford another night in the woods unless they wanted to be woken up by crashing lightning.
"We need to go straight there," Rainbow Dash declared determinedly. "The storm is moving even faster than I thought, and stopping for the night just isn't an option at this point."
Daring Do raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that, kid? I mean, you're the weatherpony here so I'll trust your judgement on the storm, but you're also the pony that actually needs to sleep."
Rainbow Dash winced, but quickly shook it off. "Doesn't matter." She stooped to fill up her canteen, an old metal Wonderbolts canteen she'd had since flight camp, then looked up with her jaw set. "Come on, let's get moving."
"Lead the way, kid." Daring Do gave a mock salute. "Honestly, it sounds to me like things are just about to get interesting." She grinned widely. "I like that!"
The sun was cresting the edge of the horizon, and still Rainbow Dash trekked through the thick forest with no break in sight. The road she'd been following had been left at the top of the cliff an hour or two ago.
Daring Do hovered just behind on slowly flapping wings, occasionally casting glances towards the ever-darkening sky and the ever-increasing number of clouds that occupied it. Even from what little they could see through the forest canopy, the change in weather was becoming increasingly apparent.
The temperature continued to drop as the light faded. It was amazing what a difference lighting made, as the trees seemed much more sinister and foreboding in the dim light of nightfall without a crackling fire to illuminate their surroundings.
Daring Do, however, seemed unaffected. She flapped along with a content smile between her skyward glances, looking right at home while Rainbow Dash shivered and glanced into the shadows between trees with every other step.
"Is this storm even gonna affect us?" Daring's question came out so suddenly that Rainbow Dash took a moment to realize it was addressed to her.
"Wait, what?" Rainbow tilted her head.
"I mean, we've got all these trees and whatcrap, right?" Daring Do shrugged. "Why are we worrying about a bit of rain?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head. "It's not 'a bit of rain'. This isn't the sort of storm you anchor your house for and wait out. This is the sort of storm you fly your house away from."
"Pshh, you and your cloud houses. Couldn't you just say 'it floods the basement'?"
"The hay is a basement?"
Daring blinked. "Wow. You know what? Forget I said anything."
Rainbow Dash hopped up onto a fallen log as wide as a dragon's leg, then glided down on the other side before saying, "Whatever, the point is that it'd suck to be caught outside in it any longer than we need to. I'd rather, like… not be that way."
"Real poetical, kid." Daring smirked.
They trudged on as the sun disappeared completely. The moon tried its best to shine down on the forest with cold blue light, but more and more clouds were filling the sky. Only scant bits of light made it through the mostly-covered sky, and even that was filtered by the tree cover.
Still, Rainbow Dash pressed onward. The wind was picking up, biting and chilling through her feathers. The occasional flash of light would illuminate the entire sky in stark white for less than a blink, only to be followed several seconds later by a world-splitting crash. More than once, Rainbow Dash stumbled and barely avoided tripping over a root or a stone that she hadn't seen in the darkness. Eventually, she didn't manage to avoid it.
"Oof!" Rainbow Dash cried out as she landed roughly on her chest on the cold damn bed of pine needles.
A long sigh from Daring Do wafted over Rainbow's prone form. "Come on, kid. It can't be much farther now. Up and at 'er."
Rainbow Dash groaned. It was well into the middle of the night now, and the fact that she'd already been walking for days didn't help matters. Her body ached, her hooves throbbed, but above all else her head felt like it was splitting.
Something flitted past the very edge of her vision.
Rainbow's heart skipped a beat. She shot to her hooves and spun to the left with a sharp breath, faster than she would've thought she was still capable of moving. Something was moving, out there in the jungle. She was positive that something was there, but her vision was hazy and out of focus. Her head hurt, and it was almost as hard to see as it was to think.
"Kid! We gotta get goin' already!"
Rainbow Dash blinked. She stared straight ahead at motionless ferns and unoccupied forest. There was nothing there. There was never anything there. The wind tossed her mane, but the full-body shiver that rolled through her had nothing to do with the chill.
"R-Right," Rainbow muttered as she turned around. Daring was staring at her with both eyebrows raised. Rainbow tried to put on a confident smile. "Let's move. We're probably almost there."
Daring stared in silence for another moment before slowly opening her mouth. "You sure you're okay, kid? Maybe you did hit your head a little harder than—"
Crak-BOOM
They both jumped at the sudden blast of eardrum-splitting thunder. It was closer than ever.
"Don't worry about it!" Rainbow Dash realized she was shouting to be heard over the wind now. "Just go!"
They broke into a gallop northwards. The storm hit them moments later, and within seconds Rainbow Dash couldn't see three feet in front of her. She was grateful for her well-honed sense of direction, without which they could've easily gotten lost in the sheets of unrelenting rainwater.
The sky exploded with blinding brilliance in the exact same moment her eardrums felt like they exploded from a massive peal of thunder. Rainbow Dash stumbled for a moment, but saw the form of Daring Do, somehow visible through all the rain, gesturing encouragingly for her to keep moving.
Gritting her teeth, Rainbow galloped onward. On and on through thunder and lightning and torrential downpour. Her mane clung limply to the side of her neck and her feathers were matted and clumped. The ground was growing ever more slick and treacherous as rivulets of rainwater flowed every which way in and around the trees.
At one point, a bolt of lightning struck so close that the hairs on Rainbow's coat stood up. She could've sworn she saw a brilliant orange flash at the top of a nearby tree before the light faded and all was darkness and water once more.
The sky was gone entirely. No clouds and no stars were visible to guide their path. Even Rainbow's ineffable sense of direction was beginning to give her doubt as the storm tried its best to disorient her.
At one point, Rainbow Dash nearly trotted past Daring Do before noticing that the other mare had stopped under a large evergreen. Rainbow turned around and joined the older adventure, noting that Daring's coat looked stark dry within the pouring rain in a way that made Dash's brain hurt.
Under the tree, the rain was lessened, but not stopped. Enough water still made it through that Dash remained soaked to the bone, and the wind still assaulted her mercilessly to ensure all traces of warmth had fled from her fuzzy blue body.
The wind and thunder were so loud that Rainbow Dash couldn't hear her own voice. She was pretty sure that she shouted something along the lines of, "What!?"
Not her most eloquent moment.
Daring Do mouthed one word at Rainbow Dash.
"…What!?"
Daring rolled her eyes, then tried again even slower. One word. Blanket.
The older mare gestured emphatically at Rainbow's saddlebag, then mimed wrapping a cloak around her body.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, to which Daring only nodded seriously. Another flash of lightning and the subsequent thunder caused Dash to pin her ears against her head, and only made it clear there was no time to argue.
With a resigned shrug, she withdrew her blanket from her saddlebags. While they weren't totally waterproof, they did a decent job at it. The blanket was only wet, which was a step up from Rainbow herself who was drenched. Wrapping the blanket around herself didn't make much of a difference at that point, but at Daring's continued level stare she did just that.
When she was finished, Rainbow Dash was wrapped head to hoof in a plain brown cloak. She'd even managed to get it over her head in a sort of hood. She wasn't any dryer, but she had to admit it helped slightly against the wind. Even so, Rainbow Dash shot Daring Do a skeptical look from beneath her brown hood.
Daring smirked. She carefully mouthed trust me, and then pointed northwards.
Rainbow Dash followed Daring's hoof, only to squint into darkness and rain for several moments. Just when she was beginning to give up, lightning flashed once more, and then Rainbow Dash saw it. She let out a tiny gasp as that brief moment of light caused something in the distance to become visible.
It wasn't much, just a dull orange glowing speck through the trees, but it was all Rainbow needed to see to burst into a huge grin. That light could only mean one thing, there were ponies there.
Even after she'd spotted the light in the distance, it took Rainbow nearly another hour to actually reach it. The unrelenting rain reduced her visibility to the point that Rainbow was forced to progress in an agonizingly slow shuffle else run the risk of trotting face first into a tree.
A flash of bright blue light turned night into day for less than a blink. Thunder blasted apart the sky and rolled through the woods with enough force to shake needles from the trees. The harsh wind sent fat drops of rain slicing sideways through the air with enough force to sting Rainbow's cheek where they struck.
Rainbow Dash trudged on. Her improvised cloak clung wetly to her form and constricted her wings against her sides. The hood pinned her ears down and sagged until it half covered her eyes, leaving the upper quarter of her vision obscured by a persistent brown blur.
Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and the distant orange light grew ever closer. By the time Rainbow Dash finally reached it, her hooves were practically dragging across the drenched ground. The trees didn't quite thin out, but they didn't exactly stop either. Instead, Rainbow found herself stumbling into a field of stumps.
She didn't bother to stop and look around. Rainbow Dash dragged herself forward without hesitation past dozens of evenly cut tree stumps towards the ever-nearing golden light. Lightning flashed, and a massive shape loomed in the momentary light just to Rainbow's left. She veered towards it almost reflexively, desperate for anything that could shelter her from the pelting downpour and incessantly biting wind.
Rainbow nearly stumbled face first into the broad side of a barn. It was only another brief flash of lightning that caused her to skid to a halt inches from the tall wooden wall. Much more tentatively, Rainbow Dash felt her way along the side of the wall through the swirling maelstrom of water and wind and darkness.
She followed the wall around one corner before finally feeling the barn door she was searching for. Rainbow Dash grinned tiredly beneath her soggy brown hood and felt around for a lock or latch of some kind. Her hooves brushed against a large deadbolt, and she gripped it tightly. With a grunt of effort that was lost in booming thunder, Rainbow Dash managed to yank it into the unlocked position.
The barn door swung open easily, and Rainbow Dash stumbled inside with desperate haste. She quickly spun around and heaved the door shut with the last of her energy, pausing only to secure the interior latch before collapsing into a sopping panting heap upon the hay-covered dirt floor.
"As nice as it is to be out of the rain, this place could use some redecorating." Daring Do sauntered casually over to Rainbow's side and shot her a smirk. "Not exactly five stars, eh kid?"
Rainbow Dash merely grunted and continued trying to catch her breath. In truth, the barn did seem in rather poor repair. A single guttering lantern provided barely enough light to see. Tools lay about in rusted piles, and a few of the crossbeams were warped or cracked. Where there should have been neatly stacked bales of hay, there were heaps of musty old hay that should've been thrown out weeks ago. Bits of shredded rope were scattered across the floor haphazardly, and the entire place was covered in a thin layer of dust.
"Yeesh…" Rainbow Dash tilted her head. "You're not wrong." She cautiously poked a collection of rust slightly resembling a shovel that happened to be sitting next to her. "Applejack would have a fit if she saw this place."
Daring Do squinted towards the dim lantern where it sat atop an old crate. "Hey, who do you suppose lit that thing?" She pointed.
"Dunno." Rainbow Dash half-shrugged from where she lay. "Whoever they are, they aren't here now, so I'm not worried about it."
Daring swung a lopsided grin Rainbow's way. "I like the way you think, kid!"
Rainbow Dash grunted and shakily rose to her hooves. She stood, shivering and dripping, in the center of the dimly lit barn. The pathetic light of the failing lantern cast her features in harsh shadow, making her look worse off than she was, but even Rainbow herself knew she was close to spent. She was exhausted, physically and mentally, and wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the ground and pass out for a few hours.
Daring raised an eyebrow in Rainbow's direction. "You gonna be alright?"
Thunder rumbled outside, shaking the barn enough to send dust trickling down from the ceiling.
"Don't worry about it," Rainbow Dash muttered. She cast her gaze about the room, squinting into the shadows of each nook and cranny. "Just gotta… find a hiding place."
"Yeah, that answer is concerning on a few levels." Daring Do squinted at Rainbow Dash. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head again while running through the storm?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Look, I just wanna rest up and meet the townsfolk tomorrow. Getting caught sneaking around somepony's barn wouldn't make a super great first impression, but I'm not super jazzed about going out there to find the farmhouse in…" Rainbow paused as another peal of thunder rattled entire barn in a creaking cacophony of old wood "…that."
Daring stared for a moment, then simply shrugged. "Alright, fair point. Carry on I guess."
As Rainbow continued her slow search of the dilapidated barn, the soggy brown cloak wrapped around her figure dragged wetly across the floor. The waterlogged fabric pressed her wings against her sides, and the hood was still dripping down her face.
"Wait…" Rainbow stood up straight, blinking. "Why am I wearing this?"
"Hm?" Daring glanced over. She saw Rainbow, glaring and gesturing at her improvised attire, and immediately winced. "Ah, yeah, that."
Rainbow Dash merely raised an eyebrow.
"Listen, kid, that's kinda… not fun to explain." Daring Do rubbed at the back of her neck with a forehoof. "Okay, so you know how Ponyville has lots of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns all living together? Not every town is exactly like that. Some places just… never really developed that sort of diversity."
"So… there are no pegasi or unicorns here?" Rainbow blinked. "Okay, I'll admit that's kinda weird. Doesn't really explain anything, but it's weird."
Daring Do sucked a breath in through her teeth. "Yeah, it's not just that this town is full of earth ponies. You probably already know that earth ponies are generally very traditional, yeah?"
Rainbow Dash thought of Winter Wrap Up a few years ago, when Applejack had gotten bent out of shape by Twilight Sparkle's use of non-traditional magic.
"I guess so, but it's usually not that big a deal."
"Well, around these parts, tradition is a very big deal. Ponies' entire lives are based around tradition. They sing songs about it and stuff! It's a whole thing." Daring Do cleared her throat, then went on, "Anyway, I already explained the history of this place so you know that we're basically sitting within the ancient earth pony center of power. It's… traditionally, an earth pony land, if you catch my drift."
Rainbow Dash reared back. "Are you saying these ponies aren't friends with pegasi and unicorns!? No way! That kinda stuff doesn't fly nowadays!" Her voice rose to a shout by the end of her outburst.
Daring Do raised her forehooves in a placating gesture. "No, no, it's not like that. The ponies of Hoofington aren't gonna chase you out of town or anything. They just might not be quite as open or accommodating. Trust me, your wings would bog us down and cause plenty of unnecessary headache."
"So I wear a cloak to hide them." Rainbow frowned.
"Think of it less like hiding and more like a disguise." Daring Do grinned. "It sounds cooler that way!" She waved a hoof dismissively. "Besides, it's only so that our visit here goes as smoothly as possible. You can visit the general store and buy the supplies we need without any hassle, and we can leave this backwater dirt heap in the dust." She glanced towards a crack in the wall where the water-soaked world was visible. "Er, so to speak."
Rainbow Dash nodded slowly. "I… guess that makes sense. So they're not really bad ponies, just a little set in their ways?"
"You got it, kid!" Daring winked. "I found that out myself—the hard way—when I passed through here." The adventurer blinked. "That reminds me, we should start deciding exactly what we need to buy right now. Just how much scratch did you bring anyway?"
Rainbow Dash merely stared with wide open eyes. Her mouth opened slowly, then closed again.
Daring Do blinked. "You know, 'scratch'? Cash? Moolah? Ca-ching?" She rolled her eyes, muttered something about kids these days, and said, "Bits. How many bits did you bring?"
Still, Rainbow struggled to come up with a response. Her mouth opened and closed again before she ever so slowly shook her head.
Daring's grin cracked. "Kid, I'm gonna ask real nice. Please, please, please tell me that you brought some form of currency with which to purchase much-needed traveling items and provisions."
Finally, Rainbow Dash burst. "I knew I forgot something!"
"Are you friggin' kidding me!?"
While the question was rhetorical, Rainbow's opportunity to respond was cut off by a loud crack and a bang. The door to the barn swung inwards with such force that splinters flew where it smashed against the wall. The interior lock had been shattered, and twin hoof marks were imprinted on the door that hadn't been there before.
Standing in the doorway was an earth pony with hooves that perfectly matched those indents, just lowering their hind legs to stand on all fours. The dull green stallion spun about and snorted as he charged into the barn. His coat and mane were utterly drenched, and dripped rainwater into puddles on the floor.
"I know I heard somepony talking! Who's in there!?"
Rainbow and Daring Do both blinked, struck silent as they stared at the angry stallion. It wasn't his sudden appearance that surprised them most, but rather the fact that he was staring directly at Rainbow Dash with a stern glare.
"Don't think you can hide from me! Come on out before I get real mad!" the stallion snarled as he stomped one forehoof.
Rainbow Dash glanced down at her own chest, then back up at the stallion. He was still looking directly at her in the dim flickering lanternlight. Lightning flashed behind him, illuminating the curtain of water and casting his imposing form in dark silhouette.
Daring Do threw Rainbow Dash a crooked smirk. "I like this dude already."
Before Rainbow could respond, the stallion shouted, "All right then! Just try and hide; I'll smell you out!"
Rainbow hadn't thought the situation could get any stranger, but then it went ahead and did. The stallion began slowly advancing into the barn, sniffing the air with every shuffling step. It was at moments like that when Rainbow Dash truly began to question her life and the choices that had led her to be in that position.
A few more pauses to sniff, a few more steps, and the stallion was inching ever closer. Rainbow Dash could do nothing but stand in silent awe as he wove a zig-zagging path in her direction. The thought of fleeing, hiding, or even confronting him never crossed her mind. In fact, almost all thought had ceased as she tried to comprehend what was even going on.
After an agonizingly slow trip across the room, the stallion was finally within a few feet of Rainbow Dash. He grinned triumphantly and took one last bound to land directly in front of her. The strange stallion took one long inhale through his nose and then stood tall and proud.
"Aha! Found you!" He paused and his muzzle wrinkled. "You smell terrible."
Rainbow leaned back, finally broken from her reverie. "Hey!" She leaned her head down and sniffed herself, only to wrench her neck back swiftly. "Eh, okay, fair enough…"
"And you talk!" The stallion smirked. "Interesting. Very interesting…"
The stranger paused, tapping his chin as if trying to remember something. In that moment Rainbow Dash finally got a good look at his eyes in the dim light, and what she saw caused her to let out a tiny gasp. Both the stallion's eyes were dull and grey, dim and without spark.
Daring Do seemed to notice too. "Ah, that explains a lot." She nodded. "Still like him. He's got spunk!"
The stallion suddenly jolted as if finally remembering something, then glared directly at Rainbow. "Oh yeah! What the hay are you doing in my dang barn!?"
"I'm… uh, I'm just hiding from the storm," Rainbow explained, only hoping that he wouldn't ask why she was out in the storm to begin with.
The stallion squinted at her, for all the good it did. "And just where is your friend, eh? I know I heard ya talking to somepony in here."
Rainbow Dash winced. "Ah, nope! Nopony in here but me… and you, I guess."
"Hmm…" The stallion tapped his chin a few more times. "Well, you're a strange colt, I'll give ya that."
"Pffft-bwahahaha!" Daring Do collapsed to the floor and clutched at her stomach as she rolled about in unrestrained laughter.
"B-Buh!?" Rainbow Dash sputtered. "Dude! I'm not a dude!"
"Oh yeah?" The stallion sniffed again, then smirked. "Coulda fooled me."
"Snnkt." Daring barely managed to stifle another laughing fit. "Did I mention that I like this guy?"
On shuffling limbs, the stallion turned about and made his way towards the battered barn door. "Well, come along then."
Rainbow blinked. "Say wha?"
"You just gonna stand there?" he called over his shoulder. "Or are you gonna come inside where it's warm and dry."
Without giving her a chance to respond, the strange stallion marched out into the downpour and disappeared from sight. Rainbow stared for a split-second, but hurriedly scampered after him. The storm immediately enveloped her once again, and her entire world became rushing rain and blasting thunder. Fortunately, she managed to catch the stranger's silhouette in the darkness, and followed behind him as best she could.
Just outside, Rainbow was quickly able to see a large dark shape coming up in front of them. The house wasn't far from the barn, but she still wasn't sure she'd have been able to find it in the torrential rain if she hadn't had somepony to follow.
The stallion approached the front of the house and quickly opened the front door. The house was dark inside, and Rainbow wouldn't have even been able to tell the door was open if the stallion hadn't disappeared within in the next moment.
Rainbow hurried after him into the unlit home, kicking the door shut behind her as soon as she was inside. It was too dark to make out much inside the house, but it was warm and dry. Rainbow stood in the foyer, dripping onto a hardwood floor. Directly ahead of her was a hallway shrouded in darkness.
The only light leaked out between the closed door of a burning woodstove against the left wall of the hallway. Though calling it 'light' would be generous. Only the fact that Rainbow's eyes were adjusting to the darkness allowed her to see anything at all, and even then all she could make out was a pair of doorframes on opposite sides of the hallway and a yawning expanse of darkness swallowing anything further down.
Still, the home was warm, dry, and smelled pleasantly of burning pine. Rainbow ruffled her wings beneath her heavy cloak and closed her eyes as she let the dry heat soak into her and sooth her bones.
"Yeesh," Daring Do shivered. "This dude managed to mix 'comfy and cozy' with 'creepy and disturbing', so y'know, gotta give him props for that." She squinted at a flat rectangular object hanging on the wall, unable to make out the picture it displayed. "As weird as it is."
Rainbow rolled her eyes and smirked up at Daring with a raised eyebrow. "Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark now."
Daring continued to glare down the hallway, speaking out the side of her muzzle, "Firstly, I'm not afraid of anything—"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
"—and secondly, it's not the darkness that scares me, creepy as it is. Nah, it's the guy who chooses to live here." A beat. "Also snakes."
Rainbow blinked. "Wait, wha—"
"Coffee or tea?"
The sudden question wasn't entirely what startled Rainbow Dash, but coupled with the fact that it came from about a foot left of her head it certainly elicited a reaction.
"Gah!" Rainbow leapt aside like a cat and ended up halfway through the doorway to her right with her back arched and eyes wide. "The buck!?" She panted and stared at the calmly smiling stallion poking his head out of the kitchen.
"Sorry about that, girl. Didn't mean to scare ya." He chuckled quietly.
Daring Do poked her head out from behind Rainbow Dash. "I don't think I like this guy anymore."
Rainbow shook herself off and glared at the stallion. "I wasn't scared," she protested. "I was just… on guard."
"And what's a mare like yourself got to be on guard from, eh?"
Rainbow Dash winced, glad that the stallion couldn't see it. "Uh, n-never mind. You just scared me."
The stallion stared in silence for several seconds before simply shrugging. "Suit yourself. Now back to my original question…?"
"Oh, uh, tea."
Daring Do snickered.
"Shaddup."
"What was that?" The stallion tilted his head.
Rainbow waved a hoof. "Not you."
He smirked dryly before turning around. "You really are a strange thing, eh?" the stallion called out as he returned to the kitchen.
"I'm beginning to think so…" Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath.
Minutes later, the two were seated across from one another at a small table in a small kitchen. The house shook every so often from deep reverberating thunder, but the stallion paid it no mind. He calmly sipped from a large tin mug of coffee while the sound of constant rain pounding against the roof and windows provided a noisy backdrop.
Rainbow Dash took a few sips from her tea, served in an identical tin mug. Her ears flicked to each bass vibration that rocked through the house and each preceding bright flash of blue light. She idly glanced at Daring Do, who flitted about the room attempting to examine each and every detail in the limited light. Every so often Daring would hum or haw at something or other, but moments later her interest would wane and she'd be examining something else.
Every sip of tea warmed Dash to her core and chased away a bit of the storm's lingering chill that persisted in her bones. After a few minutes of silently enjoying her beverage, the silence was broken by the stallion across from her clearing his throat.
"I'm sorry for… confronting you, back in the barn." He sighed. "I suppose you could say my guard has been up as of late."
"Don't worry about it." Rainbow Dash shrugged and lifted her teacup up to to muzzle.
"So what's a petite thing like you doing wandering the Shadewood all on your lonesome?"
"Pffft!" Rainbow sputtered and choked on a sip of tea, but finally managed to blurt out, "I am not 'petite'!"
Daring Do turned towards the conversation with a massive grin.
The stallion smirked. "These ears don't lie, missy."
"I'm not 'missy' either." Rainbow Dash frowned. "The name's Rainbow Dash."
Both the stallions eyebrows went up. "Now there's a strange name. Not from around these parts, eh?" He chuckled. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you nonetheless. My name's Emerald, but most ponies call me Ed.
Emerald leaned forward in his seat. "You never did answer my question though."
Daring Do looked on. Rainbow Dash fidgeted. "I… uh… I'm just passing through, actually."
"I figured as much." Emerald nodded. "We don't get many visitors here."
Rainbow's ears perked up. "Hey, speaking of that, have you seen—"
Daring Do coughed loudly. Rainbow Dash winced.
"—er, have you heard of any… griffons passing through here?"
Emerald leaned back, mouth open. It took several long seconds for him to form a reply. "…Griffons, eh? That's a concerning line of questioning, Miss Dash." His face suddenly shifted into a glare and his voice took on an unexpectedly steely tone. "If you came here looking for trouble, you're not going to find it. So you'd better not go making it yourself."
Rainbow Dash gaped. She was too stunned to speak for several seconds. Her tea sat forgotten on the table in front of her, releasing curls of steam that wafted past her shocked expression.
Daring Do raised a hoof in Dash's peripheral. "I'm not sure if that's encouraging or not, but it's definitely something."
Rainbow shook her head. "Look, uh, Ed. I don't know what you're thinking, but trust me when I say I really am just passing through. I'm not 'looking for' anything here. Just curious, I swear."
Emerald's glare didn't falter. "Well I might suggest you get to 'passing through' as quickly as possible, eh?"
"I just need some supplies and I'll be on my way." Rainbow crossed a hoof over her chest. "Promise."
After a few more seconds, Emerald's glare finally softened. He slumped back into his seat looking almost drained, and offered Rainbow a tired smile. "I'll be straight with you, Miss Dash; I smell a lie on you."
Rainbow paled.
"But, I can tell when you're speaking the truth. Whatever skeletons you're carrying, you clearly don't mean any harm to this town." He frowned slightly. "A word of advice, though: Don't go around asking questions about griffons."
"Uh…" Rainbow squinted. "Duly noted."
Daring Do tilted her head and gave Emerald a strange look.
The stallion smiled kindly. "My grandson is coming by tomorrow. I'll get him to show you around Hoofington in the morning. Storm should be passed by then. In the meantime, why don't you go to ground in the guest bed." He paused and sniffed the air, then smirked. "And hang up those clothes of yours to dry, eh?"
"Uh, sure." Rainbow Dash smiled. "Thanks."
The stallion stood up and gathered both their mugs with surprising expertise. Rainbow blinked. She hadn't even realized that she'd sat there and drank the whole thing. She glanced out the window, and for a moment she wasn't sure if it was darker than it had been. Rainbow rubbed at her head with a forehoof as she slowly stood up.
"Uh…" Daring Do shot her a concerned look. "Feelin' alright there, kid?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head, only to wince as it throbbed. "Ugh, I think I'm gonna hit the hay, actually. I'm bit out of it."
"Sure thing!" Emerald called out from the kitchen, unaware that she hadn't been talking to him. "Just go back to the foyer, down the hall, and it's the second door on the right. Oh, shower's right across the hall, by the way. You smell like a wet pillow."
Rainbow shuffled her saturated wingfeathers self-consciously. She frowned and ambled back down the hall towards the guest room. Daring Do trotted silently behind her. The room was sized for one pony, but it wasn't cramped. Rainbow quickly felt her way to the bed, followed it up to locate an end table at the top, and from there…
"Yesss!" She pumped a hoof after feeling the presence of an oil lamp atop the small table.
Rainbow Dash gratefully lit the lamp using the same firestarting kit she'd used when camped out at the edge of the Shadewood. The room was cast immediately into flickering orange light, and Rainbow had to blink several times to readjust to the brightness after so long in the dark.
When the spots cleared from her vision, Rainbow took the time to examine her warmly lit quarters.The guest room was spartan, its main features being a small end table with a lamp on it, and a single bed.
The lamplight revealed more of the room, but there wasn't much more to reveal. A simple painting of a pine tree was hung, crooked, above the head of the bed. Other than that, the unpainted wooden walls were bare. There was no furniture other than the bed and table. Rainbow Dash shrugged off her improvised robe into a soggy heap on the floor, then tossed her saddlebags down next to it.
She left the room to take a shower, during which Daring kindly waited on outside the washroom door. The shower felt awesome after spending the last few days outdoors, not to mention running through mud and rain. Rainbow Dash spent several minutes standing motionless beneath the hot spray of water. She let the soothing warmth flow over her wings and her back and down to her hooves. Once she was fully clean and satisfied, she stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel from a basket in the corner.
After drying herself off, Rainbow stopped in front of the mirror and tossed her hooves through her mane to give it that carefully disheveled look she always pretended came naturally. She gave herself a smirk in the mirror, even tossing in a wink or two, before remembering that she wasn't traveling alone and quickly blushing. After a speedy shoulder check to make sure Daring hadn't seen her, Rainbow Dash cleared her throat, schooled her features, and returned to the guest room to find her traveling companion shooting her a serious look.
Daring Do was sitting in the center of the room, and Dash was frozen in place with one hoof still out in the hallway. They stared each other down for several moments, Daring's brows knit in deep concern and Rainbow's raised in confusion.
"Kid, we need to make a plan."
Rainbow Dash squinted and stepped the rest of the way into the room. "About… what, exactly?" She paused to kick the door shut behind her.
"We need supplies, and you don't have any bits. We need those supplies," Daring emphasized. "We're both as good as dead if you set out to rescue me without the necessary provisions to make the trip."
"Pfft," Rainbow waved a hoof. "I've made it this far, haven't I?"
Daring shook her head. "The trip's only gonna get harder, kid. From here on out we're no longer talking about a nice walk in the woods. There're mountains you can't fly over, even if you could fly, and that's just the start of things."
Rainbow blinked, then shook her head. "Okay, but what do you want me to do about it? Time is a factor, remember? We don't exactly have time for me to play fetch-quest and earn bits here in town."
Daring sighed. "I know that, kid. Look, maybe the answer's right here in front of us." She leaned forward, brows tight. "And by 'right here', I mean right here in this house."
"You mean Ed?"
"I mean Ed's bit-bank."
Rainbow Dash choked on air. After several gasping seconds, she managed to choke out, "You want me to steal from the dude!?"
"Come on!" Daring rolled her eyes. "The guy's blind! It'll be easy!"
"That's not even slightly the reason I have a problem with this."
"This journey is a matter of life and death, kid!" Daring stood up and took a step towards Rainbow Dash. "This is bigger than some old stallion!"
Rainbow Dash took a step back, shaking her head. "There has to be another way. I'm not becoming a thief, no matter how you justify it."
Daring Do sighed. "Listen, kid, sometimes you've gotta make hard calls to get the job done. I honestly thought you would've had some experience with this, but maybe you've just been more lucky on your adventures th-than I… than I have…"
When Daring trailed off, Rainbow stared. Daring's wings drooped and she sat back down on her haunches. Her head hung towards the floor despondently. Rainbow Dash inched forward.
"Hey, Daring…" She smiled kindly when Daring looked up. "I'll find a way, alright? I'll get us the supplies we need without doing anything sketchy, somehow." She gulped dryly. "Promise."
"Heh," Daring's smirk was small, but it was there. "Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it."
Rainbow smirked right back. "Wouldn't dream of it."
At that moment, her head suddenly split with throbbing pain. Rainbow Dash grunted and collapsed to her haunches, clutching her skull between her hooves.
"Whoa!" Daring jumped up. "You alright, kid!?"
"Yeah, yeah." Rainbow waved her off. "I did just get out of the hospital for a stupid serious head injury, remember. Heh, guess I haven't been getting all the bed-rest I should've been." She rolled her eyes. "I was always terrible at following doctor's orders."
Daring chuckled, though it sounded forced. She offered a sad smile and gestured towards the bed. "Why don't you just get some rest, kid? We'll see what's what in the morning."
Rainbow nodded slowly. "Yeah, sleep sounds about right." She trotted towards the bed. "I'll come up with something tomorrow, alright? Who knows, maybe this guy's grandkid really wants to buy a soggy brown blanket."
Daring Do snickered, but said nothing else. Rainbow Dash crawled atop the bed, spun around three times, and then curled up in the center of the quilt. She hummed in quiet satisfaction and allowed her eyelids to flutter closed.
A squeaking yawn issued forth from her mouth before she mumbled into the darkness, "Just… just what kind of a name is 'Ed' anyway?"
Seconds later, before she could even register that the room was too empty for a response, Rainbow Dash was fast asleep.
Rainbow Dash dreamed of great snowy mountains piercing the very sky.
