“Truth or Dare”


Prompt: “Daring, Castle”
The Castle of the Two Sisters had been around for over a thousand years. But until tonight, Daring Do never had a reason to visit its ruins.
There was nothing worth searching for here, really. All of the structure’s treasure had been looted and pillaged for centuries before she was even born. The castle itself was in the Everfree Forest, a place too dangerous to visit even for seasoned adventurers like herself. And, if she had to be honest, the structure itself was straight up ugly. Daring had visited countless structures older than the Castle of the Two Sisters over the years, but at least all those ones had some sort of beauty to them. Either that, or they were home to treasures far too important to keep secret.
And after flying within its vicinity for the past few minutes, the place honestly just gave her the creeps.
So why was this place chosen as the place the pony from the letter wanted to meet? Her guess was as good as anypony else’s.
Castle of the Two Sisters. September 3. 1 A.M., the letter from two nights ago read. It arrived in her mail like any other ordinary piece of mail she’d receive from fans, or her editing team, or the various publishing companies interested in poaching her talents for themselves despite rejecting them countless times.
But attached to the letter was something that made Daring drop everything and book a train to Ponyville as fast as she could the moment she saw it. And thankfully, she’d managed to make it in time.
Nearing one of the castle’s dilapidated balconies, Daring curled her wings and, with a few frantic flaps, slowed her descent to prepare for landing. When she was younger, hurried flights like this were easy and she never had to be as careful with her landings as she did now. But not even the mighty Daring Do herself was invincible against time.
With a soft thud, the pegasus landed on the ancient stone of the castle balcony. The impact was not as graceful as she wished it was, but considering the stakes, none of it mattered much. As long as everything went to plan, she could camp here overnight to rest and head back into town overnight.
She checked over her shoulder to make sure her saddlebag didn’t rip apart during the landing, then looked under her wing to make sure the other thing remained in its holster. Both remained as they should be.
Good.
After collecting herself, Daring began trotting into the ruins towards the most obvious meeting spot in the Castle. The message never mentioned where in the Castle they wanted to confront her at, but considering the history of the site, it was clear the throne room would be where they were waiting.
The light from Luna’s moon dimmed as Daring entered the halls of the castle. When she was a foal, the tale of the Mare in the Moon was a bedtime story, told to foals so they would sleep or else face the wrath of Nightmare Moon.
As it turned out, the tale was not just a myth. Celestia really had a sister, and said sister tried to usurp her out of jealousy, only to be banished for a thousand years once she failed. Her return surprised everypony, despite the Crown’s best efforts to explain the situation to Equestria in the best way it could.
Even now, a decade after Luna’s return, skepticism has only grown about why Celestia chose one thousand years.
Was that why the pony in the mail chose this as the meeting spot?
Daring shrugged, deciding against worrying any second longer about the letter’s intentions. Soon, she’d hear straight from the horse’s mouth about what they wanted from her.
Checking her watch, the time read 12:46 A.M.
Good. Still on time.
The halls of the Castle were empty and ravaged, with the few items still left decorating the walls either damaged beyond repair or overgrown by vines. Considering its age, it was a miracle the structure was even still standing.
Making sure to not step on any cracks in the floor in case the ground decided to break apart from under her, Daring held her breath and continued towards the throne room. Considering most ponies would never think about visiting the ruins at night, let alone at all, there wasn’t any worry about running into anypony before the one she intended to meet.
Old habits die hard, she thought to herself.
After a few minutes of walking, with only the eerie silence of the castle keeping her company, Daring arrived at her destination.
The throne room was huge. The space was easily taller than her home, perhaps even double. The dual thrones in the back loomed over her like a monster guarding its treasure. The broken stained glass windows in the back illuminated the space enough to not require any oil lamps or flashlights.
And in the middle of the room was an earth pony stallion with a camera hanging on a lanyard over his neck and an open saddlebag on the ground beside him.
The pony in the mail.
“Ah, there you are,” he said in an almost boastful tone. “The mighty Daring Do herself. I was wondering when you’d show up.”
Daring stepped closer. The pony had a navy blue coat and a dark gray mane. The cutie mark on his flank was a camera with the flash shining bright as it took its photo. His cyan eyes seemed to glow in the moonlight.
A journalist, Daring thought to herself. Of course it’s a journalist.
“Cut the bullshit,” Daring said as she approached the pony in the mail. “What do you want? Why are we here?”
The earth pony smirked, fidgeting his camera with one of his hooves as he sat and stared at Daring. “I think it’s pretty clear why we’re both here tonight. Don’t you think so?”
Daring shook her head. The letter the pony had sent her was attached with various photos of herself, both as her true self and as the author both the world at large and Equestria’s legal system knew her as.
Most of the photos weren’t incriminating. While A.K. Yearling shared her color scheme, Daring Do always made sure that her false identity had no possible links who she really was. Different birthplace, different hometown, a fake accent, glasses. A.K. Yearling was even an immigrant, born and raised in Shire Lanka before moving to Equestria during her adult years during a midlife crisis.
But there was a photo of her with Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants included in the letter. One, based off of the beard on Quibble’s chin, that had to be taken the last time they all saw each other. Which was this year’s Daring Do Convention, two weeks ago.
Rainbow Dash would never tell anypony about her secret. No doubt about that. Rainbow would rather die than tell anypony Daring Do and A.K. Yearling were the same pony.
But it seemed that Quibble must’ve.
“What do you want?” Daring asked a second time.
The other pony moved his hoof up to his chin to ponder. “What do I want? Hmm…”
Daring stepped closer to him. “I got your letter. I saw your photos. I know you’re a journalist, and you spoke with Quibble about who I am, and that you wanted to meet me here so you could confront me. What do you want?”
Truth be told, this was the first time somepony managed to connect the dots about her. The amount of time it took
The pony grinned. “Funny you ask that. Honestly, I don’t want anything. I just want to talk to you. Big fan, y’know.”
Daring stomped her hoof. “Bullshit. Ponies like you always want something. Do you want money? Do you want a cut of the next book’s profits? What do you want?”
“Money would be nice, I’ll admit that,” he said. “But both of us know that would be a terrible mistake for me to ask for. I know you’ve got a gun under your wing, Daring Do. And you’re itching for an excuse to use it.”
Daring stepped backward, her wings extending out and revealing the revolver kept underneath . “I’ll only repeat myself one more time. What. Do. You. Want?”
“To talk,” he said. “I just wanted to talk to you.”
“In the Castle of the Two Sisters?” Daring asked, genuinely confused. “If you wanted to talk to me, why not just visit my home? You know where I live.”
“Dramatic effect,” the other pony replied. “And plus, I’m not a fighter. I just wanted to talk to you before I send the article out to my publisher.”
Daring rolls her eyes. “Dramatic effect. Sure.”
The pony got up from his hooves. As he rose, he eyed the saddlebag to his right and made sure to keep his eyes laser-focused on her.
“What’s in the bag?” Daring said.
“What’s in your bag?” he asked back.
[unfinished :(]