Rainbow Dash's Double Dare Read online

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  HASBRO and its logo, MY LITTLE PONY and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. © 2014 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

  Cover design by Elaine Lopez-Levine and Véronique Lefèvre Sweet.

  Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

  Visit us at LBYR.com

  mylittlepony.com

  First published as My Little Pony: Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare by Little, Brown and Company in January 2014; Originally adapted in 2017 by Five Mile, an imprint of Bonnier Publishing Australia in Australia. First U.S. Edition: July 2019

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2013023720

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-45534-3 (pbk.), 978-0-316-45537-4 (ebook)

  E3-20190525-JV-NF-ORI

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 1

  It’s almost midnight in Ponyville, and more than two hundred ponies are crowded outside the bookshop. They are waiting for the most epic adventure ever to be released: Daring Do and the Volcano of Destiny!

  “Omigosh!” says Rainbow Dash. “I need that book right now!”

  “It’s almost time!” shouts Plot Twist, who owns the bookshop.

  “Dashie!” Pinkie Pie chirps. “Are you going to burst into a rainbow firework of joy about the new Daring Do book?!”

  Rainbow Dash nods. “I just have to know what happens next with Dr. Caballeron!”

  Pinkie smiles. “You’ll know soon! We’re just putting the finishing touches on our Ahuizotl’s temple. We built it completely from books!” Her eyes sparkle. Pinkie never passes up the opportunity to plan a party, from welcome parties to birthday parties and now to book release parties!

  The crowd cheers, and it triggers something inside Rainbow Dash. Hundreds of ponies watching? One minute left? That’s more than enough time to make a grand entrance! She’ll be the first to get the book, and she’ll do it with style!

  “Hey, Daring Do fans! Watch this!” Rainbow Dash shouts.

  She bolts into the air, beating her wings as hard as she can, and completes a perfect triple barrel roll. Several ponies gasp as she swoops down close to the shop. At the very last second, the door opens!

  “Incoming!” Rainbow Dash hollers as she flies into the shop.

  Bang! Boom! Crash! When the dust settles, all that is left of the grand tower of Ahuizotl’s temple is a big, messy pile of books with Rainbow Dash lying in the middle.

  “Oh no!” Plot Twist cries. “My display is ruined!”

  Rainbow Dash reddens as she stands up. “Whoops, sorry about that.”

  Then she snatches up a book, drops her bits on the counter, and takes off. She flies home to Cloudsdale to read through the night.

  Chapter 2

  The next day, Rainbow Dash is so excited to talk about the new Daring Do book. She finds Twilight Sparkle at Ponyville Park.

  “Hey, Twilight,” says Rainbow Dash. “Let’s talk about how totally awesome the book is. Especially the part where—”

  “Spoiler alert!” Twilight sings. “La, la, la!” She holds her hooves over her ears.

  “What! You’re not finished yet?” Rainbow Dash sighs. “How am I supposed to talk about the coolest parts of the story if I’m the only pony who finished reading it?”

  “Sorry, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight says, opening her book and settling in for a reading session.

  Rainbow Dash takes off into the sky. She kicks a cloud in frustration. It disappears with a poof.

  Fluttershy sees Rainbow Dash’s frustration as she leads a group of ducklings to the pond.

  “Is something wrong with Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asks Twilight.

  “She wants to talk about the new Daring Do book, but she’s the only pony who has finished reading it,” explains Twilight.

  “I’ve just started,” says Fluttershy. “But I had to put it down to take care of my daily duckling duties.”

  “If I had it my way, we would read all the time!” Twilight sighs. “Then, we’d have meetings to discuss what we’d learned and exchange ideas.”

  “Well, why don’t you do that?” asks Fluttershy. “It sounds like fun!”

  “Fluttershy, that’s it!” Twilight says. “Let’s have a Daring Do book club!”

  Rainbow Dash flies down so fast that Fluttershy and Twilight don’t even see her coming. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” she cheers.

  Chapter 3

  Book club night has arrived! One by one, ponies trot into the Golden Oak Library, clutching their copies of the book and chattering excitedly. They are all ready to talk about Daring Do and the Volcano of Destiny.

  The book-lined walls of the lovely hollowed-out tree set the mood nicely.

  Rainbow Dash sits right at the front. This is going to be awesome.

  “Daring Do is such an exciting hero! I just love her!” says Berry Punch.

  “This is the best book yet!” says Plot Twist.

  Sweetie Drops nods in agreement.

  Rainbow Dash grins. She can’t wait to impress everypony with her thoughts about the book.

  “Find a seat and we’ll get started!” Twilight Sparkle calls. She is as excited as Rainbow Dash is to spend a whole evening talking about books.

  Soon all the ponies are sitting in a semicircle.

  “Welcome!” Twilight says happily. “I’m so glad you’re all here to celebrate books, especially the Daring Do series!”

  Rainbow Dash is the most excited book clubber of all. “Let’s cut straight to discussing the action sequences,” she says. “Can you believe Daring Do hitched a ride on the back of that Dragon?”

  Wild Fire raises her hoof. “Um, excuse me?”

  “Yeah?” Rainbow Dash replies, trying not to be annoyed. She doesn’t like being interrupted.

  Wild Fire flips through her copy of the book. “I like Daring Do as much as the next pony, but there is no way a pony could ever really do all those daring things in real life!”

  A couple of other ponies agree.

  “What?! Are you guys kidding me?!” Rainbow Dash cries. “Of course all the stuff she does could be real! Daring Do is the bravest pony ever!”

  “I guess I’d just have to see it to believe it,” Wild Fire says.

  “Well, maybe you can,” Rainbo
w Dash says.

  “Oh yeah?” replies Wild Fire. “And just how would that happen?”

  Rainbow Dash puts her hooves on her hips. “I dare you to dare me to do anything Daring Do could do!”

  Wild Fire narrows her eyes. “I double dare you!”

  To Rainbow Dash, a dare is unbreakable. But a double dare? Well, that’s a whole other crate of apples.

  Chapter 4

  The next day, there’s a stir in the Ponyville town square. The Cutie Mark Crusaders have made a giant scoreboard that lists all the dares everypony could think of.

  “Thanks for coming!” Rainbow Dash shouts to the gathered crowd. “I’m pretty pumped for you all to see me do some awesome stuff!”

  Even though she hasn’t read any of the dares yet, Rainbow Dash has no doubt that each one will have a check mark next to it soon. She is fearless—just like her hero, Daring Do!

  Pinkie Pie clears her throat and proclaims, “The amazing Daaaaaring Dash will now take on all these incredibly difficult challenges to prove that Daring Do’s adventures are all possible!”

  The crowd cheers.

  “Daring Dash’s first dare is”—Pinkie pauses for effect—“to cross the Ghastly Gorge…”

  Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes. That’s hardly a challenge.

  “… on a tightrope”—Pinkie Pie continues—“over the lair of the quarray eels… without using her wings!”

  “All right!” Rainbow Dash shouts. “To the Gorge!” She shoots off into the blue sky, leading the way.

  The crowd follows, trotting below.

  Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy trail at the back of the herd.

  “We all already know how brave Rainbow Dash is, but sometimes she takes it a little too far,” Twilight says to her friends.

  “Don’t you fret!” says Applejack, trotting alongside Twilight. “She’ll do a coupla dares and it’ll all be over in two shakes of a filly’s tail.”

  Rainbow Dash twirls through the air at the front of the crowd. “Ghastly Gorge, watch out!”

  “It looks like she’s having fun,” says Fluttershy. “I just hope she’s careful.”

  Chapter 5

  It has been a busy day for Rainbow Dash and everypony who has been following her daring escapades.

  Pinkie Pie turns to the scoreboard. “First, Daring Dash walked a tightrope across quarray eel dwellings at Ghastly Gorge. Then, she went inside the scary abandoned barn filled with bats.”

  “I wasn’t scared for a single second!” Rainbow Dash brags.

  “Then she swam in the Froggy Bottom Bogg, gave Rarity’s kitty cat a bath, knocked on Cranky Doodle Donkey’s door during his bridge game, performed a Sonic Rainboom through an obstacle course, and now she’s about to eat the hottest chili peppers in all Equestria!”

  Rainbow Dash nods contentedly and then freezes. “Wait—did you say something about chili peppers?” Rainbow Dash hates hot peppers more than anything. And there is only one pony who knows that secret: Applejack!

  “She sure did,” says Applejack. “One lil’ bite will make fire shoot straight outta yer ears.”

  “Get the fire peppers!” shouts Pinkie Pie.

  “But… but…” Rainbow Dash says. “I don’t like…”

  Twilight Sparkle looks hopeful. If Rainbow Dash doesn’t want to eat the peppers… maybe that means the dares are finally over!

  Rainbow Dash scans her audience. She can’t be defeated by some tiny, itty-bitty hot peppers!

  Rainbow Dash clears her throat. “Um, what I meant was”—she stands a little taller—“I don’t like… how long you’re taking to get those peppers!”

  “Are you sure?” Applejack asks.

  “Go, Rainbow Dash!” Sweetie Drops chants. It isn’t long before the whole crowd is cheering her on.

  When Rainbow Dash bites into a pepper, weird things happen. First, she feels as if her mouth is on fire. Then she’s certain she sees Daring Do herself in the crowd. Then Rainbow Dash coughs, and multicolored flames burst out of her mouth!

  Applejack brings Rainbow Dash water and cider to cool her tongue. “All right, now. Drink up, sugarcube!”

  “Ugh, that pepper was brutal!” Rainbow Dash groans.

  Twilight gives Rainbow Dash a stern look. “Your daring ways are starting to put you in danger!”

  But Rainbow Dash just grins. “Well, I am Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash! Now I must go greet my fans.”

  Twilight sighs. “I think I liked this whole Daring Do thing better when it was just about reading books.”

  Chapter 6

  The next morning, Rainbow Dash can hardly believe it. She’s proved that she’s the bravest pony ever. Everypony is calling her Daring Dash—and she’s unstoppable!

  “Great job, me!” she says.

  Word of Daring Dash’s amazing feats has spread across Ponyville. There are twice as many fans in the Ponyville town square today as there were the day before.

  “Are you all excited?!” Pinkie Pie shouts to the herd.

  Just then a ray of sunlight pierces through the crowd. It shines on none other than the mystical zebra, Zecora! Her gold necklaces shimmer, and her hoop earrings and bangles shine and sparkle.

  Everypony gasps.

  She begins. “I’ve come to summon the pony who has proved to be the bravest—”

  “In that case, I think you’re looking for me.” Rainbow Dash points to herself with pride.

  “—for only she can be the one to save us!” Zecora looks worried. “A token that provides us protection was stolen for another’s collection. The precious relic is of a golden hue and resembles the hook of a horse’s shoe.”

  Twilight Sparkle gasps. “Not the Half-Gilded Horseshoe?!”

  “Huh?” Applejack cocks her head to the side.

  “The Half-Gilded Horseshoe is a key to the Spirit Circle,” Twilight explains.

  “Much of the legend is a mystery, and most regard it as ancient history,” says Zecora. “The ghosts will be free when key meets lock. If you want to save Ponyville, fly fast—don’t walk!”

  If there’s one thing Rainbow Dash knows, it’s flying fast. “I’ll do it!” she says with purpose.

  Finally, Daring Dash has her own adventure to star in.

  Chapter 7

  Rainbow Dash’s friends help her prepare for her quest to recover the Half-Gilded Horseshoe.

  Twilight has been trying to share her vast knowledge on the Half-Gilded Horseshoe and the Spirit Circle with an impatient Rainbow Dash.

  Rarity is updating an old Daring Do costume of Rainbow Dash’s. She is adding in utility pockets so that Rainbow Dash can pack everything she needs for her quest.

  “You know,” Applejack says, “we can be ready to go with you in a jiffy—just say the word.”

  The other ponies nod.

  “Thanks, guys,” Rainbow Dash replies. “But if I’m going to keep my image as the fastest and bravest, I can’t have other ponies slowing me down. It’s nothing personal.”

  “In that case, I better keep telling you about my research on the Spirit Circle,” Twilight says.

  “Sure,” Rainbow Dash says. “How can I find the entrance to the Spirit Circle again?”

  Twilight sighs. “It’s by the Dual Stronghold—whatever that is—and is only visible once every five seasons… on the seventh day of the third week of the year… which is tomorrow,” Twilight says slowly. “Whoever took the Half-Gilded Horseshoe will probably be there, waiting for the entrance to appear.”

  “Well, I’ll be ready with the Daring Do move from book four—the ol’ switch ’n’ fly. This is going to be totally easy!” Rainbow Dash says.

  “But, Rainbow Dash, don’t forget the most important part,” warns Twilight. “If the entrance opens, the spirits will get out!”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash replies. She’s already thinking about her homecoming party.

  Chapter 8

  The six ponies and Zecora all stand at the clearing that leads to the Everfree Fo
rest.

  “You sure you don’t want company?” asks Applejack.

  “For the last time, no,” Rainbow Dash answers. “Being the bravest means you don’t need help.”

  Zecora bows her head. “It is time, Rainbow Dash, and I hope you are ready. May your wing beats be strong and your hoof beats be steady.”

  “Don’t you worry, Zecora,” says Rainbow Dash. “I’ll have the Half-Gilded Horseshoe back in no time. No ghosts will haunt Ponyville if Daring Dash has anything to say about it.”

  Rainbow Dash twists into an action pose: right arm up to the sky, wings spread out. Zecora looks slightly reassured.

  Rainbow Dash takes a deep breath and gulps. “Well, see ya later.”

  “Wait!” shouts Twilight Sparkle. “We haven’t shown you your tools yet.”

  “My what?” asks Rainbow Dash, growing impatient.

  In each pocket of her outfit there is a gift: a piece of rope from Applejack, a mini teddy bear from Fluttershy, some cupcakes from Pinkie Pie, a pair of horseshoes from Rarity, and a Sapphire Stone bookmark from Twilight. Rainbow Dash isn’t sure how any of these things are going to help her, but it is a nice gesture.

  “There’s always room for cupcakes!” Pinkie squeals.

  “Thanks,” says Rainbow Dash. She stuffs the presents back into her pockets. “Now I’m off for real!” She flaps her wings and soars away.

  When Rainbow Dash is out of sight, Twilight turns to the other ponies. “Are you all ready to go?”

  “Yes!” Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie say together.

  Zecora bows to them. The five ponies trot into the dangerous forest.

  Chapter 9

  In the Everfree Forest, exotic birds cry out. It sounds as if they are saying, Do not enter! But Rainbow Dash ignores them. She’s on a mission to save Ponyville.