Chapter 02 - Daring’s Meeting with the Princesses
“You are gone for about five years, and they change the place!” said Daring a bit out loud to herself as she walked through Ponyville, she was met by a good group of fans, who left as soon as she signed autographs for them. Then she went inside a building that was full of cakes, and such; then Daring started to get a bit hungry, so she went to the counter, and ask for some cupcakes.
“Just wait one mmmmm…..second” said a voice who was still eating a big, chocolate cookie, and was just finishing up a bite that she just took, when she was done, she came to the counter, and asked which cupcake Daring wanted, and Daring chose a chocolate cupcake, pumpkin spice cupcake, and a simple vanilla cupcake.
When this female pony with wild, but also pink curls, was done packing the cupcakes neatly in a bag, and was just about to hand them to Daring, before her mouth dropped open when she saw who it was that asked for the cupcakes, she was just about to scream Daring name, when all of sudden the sound was muffled, and was stopped by a bunch of hair in Pinkie’s mouth. It seems like when Daring saw Pinkie starting to yell out her name, she whipped her tail toward Pinkie’s mouth, and then poor Pinkie started to spit out the hair, as she did so, she was listening to what Daring had to say to her, which was this:
“Okay, Yes I am Daring Do, and please be quiet, I am just trying to check Ponyville before heading toward Canterlot to meet with the Princess Celestia, so if you can keep your voice down, that will be very appreciated!”, at first she use a hushed tone of voice then at the end with a smile and a tone of voice which implied how grateful she will be if Pinkie quiets down without gaining more attention than was necessary.
When Pinkie was able to get the hair out of her mouth, she smiled very brightly, and laugh a small laugh before saying, “Oops, silly me, I just got oh-so-excited, that you are here DD, my friends, especially Twilight has read all of the books about your adventures, and I just get excited so easily. Oh my, oh my, I am so sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Pinkie Pie, and it is so nice to have you visit Ponyville Daring” said Pinkie Pie, trying and using all of her energy to contain her excitement as she saw Daring picking up her order, then she followed Daring since Daring offer Pinkie to accompany her, and then they left the Bakery, and walked toward a building close by the Bakery.
On the other side of Equestria on the shores of the Nile River, was a cat, who was a general of the Roman Cat Army, this cat has the most silkiest, black fur that has ever been seen, and his body was lean, but muscular, and he always had a proud look on his face mixed with a warm smile on his face. As he got out from the tent he was in, the toga that he was wearing was made out of silk, and was the color of black with gold trim, which flow freely with the wind.
Lucifer came to Cairo, Egypt, for one thing, and one thing only to see his old playmate, and his fiancée Kiya, who he hasn’t seen for five long years, since he went to battle, which this time was ship battle, so the ship, which he arrived from had damages, but the damages were minimal, but his army and him had to stop to fix the ship; so Lucifer took the advantage, to go, and see Kiya. As he was thinking about Kiya, the recent Queen of Egypt, The descendent of Bast herself; his right hand man, Ares, came to him, and disrupted Lucifer’s thoughts about Kiya, since Ares was reporting the damages made to the exterior of the boat from the battle, and what they needed to go and fix the boat, so then it will be in tip top shape, when they set sail to go home…
“Oh Opal, I am retiring now to my bedroom, and I will be closing shop earlier than usual, for once I can relax since there are not many ponies in need of my fashion services just yet.” said Rarity as she hugged her cat Opal tight for a few seconds, and then she set her down as she walked toward the entrance door of her shop, The Carousel Boutique, and when she was just about to close shop, she saw Pinkie running and telling her to wait a moment, which she did. As soon as Pinkie Pie reached Rarity; Rarity saw from the corner of her eye as she was greeting Pinkie that someone was following Pinkie, and when she saw who it was she was a bit in awe before saying:
“How do you do Ms. Do?” asked Rarity with a casual tone of voice as she smiled warmly at Ms. Do; then after she said that she let Daring sit on one of the chairs close by her designing room. As Daring sat down she said that she was doing swell, and that it was nice to back at Ponyville, even for a little bit.
“Oh my manners, I am so very sorry Daring, my dear, I am Rarity, and I own this quaint clothing store, as you see here, I also, well….I hate to brag, but I also design some of the most wonderful outfits that are on display here.” said Rarity sweetly, then to a modest tone of voice as she was talking about her work, and her clothing business.
“It very nice to meet you Rarity, and of course you can call me Daring, many ponies do anyways” said Daring smiling and laughing a bit at the end as she helped Rarity to close her shop down, and then after they were done with that they met up with Fluttershy, who was going to visit Twilight at Twilight’s home in the Ponyville library.
“Kira come on, don’t you think, you should come home back at the palace? Some of my handmaidens are waiting to help you settle down again at home” said Kiya as she was brushing Kira’s back with her tail, and smiling at her sweetly as they left the café shop, when they came out, Kira saw that it was the Commander of the Black Stallion Guard, called Lone Sword, waiting for them.
“Kiya, did you had to bring the commander along? So I am guessing you have no important queenly duties to do right now?” asked Kira at first with an amused grin on her face, since she knows Kiya is a warrior, and could protect herself, and then when she asked the second question she smiled at Kiya, wondering if she could have some free time with her sister without her sister being busy.
“No I don’t Kira, not yet anyways, but I was thinking that you and me could have a spa day at the Royal Palace Spa” said Kiya as she smile at Kira as they walked towards Lone Sword, as they did so Lone Sword nodded at both of them, and smile at Kira, then they headed home.
Twenty Minutes Later…
“This is relaxing Kiya, you have a knack for knowing me so well Kiya, that it is scary!” laughed Kira as she was laying down in the bath as Kiya was combing Kira’s mane as the other handmaidens of Kiya’s were putting more soap and warm water in the bath.
“So is it true sister that the Annual Festival is coming to Cairo, and we are going to sponsor it?” Kira as she closed her eyes as she felt the gentle paws of Kiya combing her hair.
“Yes sister it is, and we are going to make it the best festival ever to be seen in Egypt, everyone will be there of course, even the Royal Princesses of Equestria are coming, and we are also going to honor them as part of the festivities” said Kiya smiling as she looked at Kira, and wonder how she could be so lucky to have someone who care for her, someone who she, herself could called a sister even though they weren’t blood-related.
“I have to say, you make it sound so grand Kiya. But I know it will be fun and a very successful festival with your eye and guiding hand” said Kira in a tone that sounded like a bit of admiration toward Kiya. And Kiya just smile as nodded in agreement, and then they were quiet for a bit enjoying each other’s company, and enjoying the spa treatment which they were getting.
“ Fluttershy, it’s so nice to see you here, my friend, what do you need?” asked Twilight as she was again restocking the books of the library with the help of Spike, her dragon friend and companion.
“Nothing much….Twilight, just that, I came here to get a book about the caring of animals, to learn how to take care of the animals, I have at my home better, to improve my skills, and you wouldn’t mind if I burrow another cooking book, Angel is being very picky again, and I want to make him something special” said Fluttershy smiling a bit shyly as she look through the books to see, what animal caring books Twilight has, and what recent cookbooks have come to the Ponyville Library.
As Fluttershy was looking at the books and Twilight was sorting out the books in the library; Daring, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and of course Applejack finally arrived at the library. Then the group which just arrived came into the library, everyone said hi to Daring Do, one last time, then after a few minutes Daring, Rainbow, and Fluttershy flew to Canterlot, so then they will be the first to arrive, and meet with Celestia. As they left Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity, raced toward the Ponyville Train Station to catch the next ride to Canterlot.
As they arrived to the Ponyville Train Station, they saw that their other friends were just arriving at Canterlot, so after what seem like forever, they finally boarded the train that will take them to Ponyville, as the train started moving Twilight and her friends settle down, and started talking about how each of them met Daring, and how nice it was of Daring for letting them accompany her to her trip to see Celestia, Luna, and Cadence.
After twenty minutes….
“Well, that was fun while it lasted, but we all know I win, I am the best flyer of all Equestria!” said Rainbow laughing as she was finishing up her berry smoothie that she brought at a drink store close by the train station of Canterlot.
“ You won only because I was having a lesson from Fluttershy on how to deal with wild cats, so next time, I won’t have too many problems on my next adventure if I meet any wild cats” said Daring shaking her head at Rainbow as she laughed, and Fluttershy just smile at Daring as she finish a cookie of hers.
“Howdy sugarcubes, we just arrived, so what exactly did we came to Canterlot for?” asked Applejack as she stretched herself since they just got out of the train station, then she smiled at her friends.
“Daring is there a chance you are here to see the Princesses?” asked Twilight quizzically as she walk toward Daring, then Daring smiled and nodded as she told them about the new job she got from the Ponyville museum, and if anypony saw them they would have seen a group of ponies in shock with their mouth open in awe for a few seconds. Then after the shock and awe pass, the ponies started off on their way to Princess Celestia’s palace.
After a few minutes of galloping through Canterlot, they finally reached Princess Celestia’s Palace, but what surprise them was that Celestia was waiting for them in front of the entrance door of the Palace, but what they saw kind of confuse as them as Celestia was laughing at something inside of the palace, but as they got closer they saw that Celestia was having a discussion with Luna, then they heard her say to Celestia that daytime was the best time to travel, and they saw Luna just shaking her head as she responded that traveling in the cover of the night was a safe time to travel since not many ponies could see them, but when she said that she use a bit of her “The Royal Canterlot Voice”, and Celestia just look at her sister with a face that say did-you-really-just-do-that?
Then after watching them for a bit, and trying to hide their laughter as they watched their Princesses go back and forth, when they took a break from their discussion, Celestia and Luna regain their composure, when they saw that Twilight, and her friends were watching them a bit too long discussing about their traveling plans. So then they invited everyone inside the Palace, as they were settling down in the palace, Cadence came down from her room upstairs, when she saw Twilight was there, she race downstairs while keeping her ‘royal’ composure, as she arrived on the ground level, everyone started talking at once:
“Oh my goodness Daring, sweetheart, you are going to Egypt? When you told us the story of this emerald, I couldn’t believe it, could you darling, Applejack?” asked Rarity in a southern belle tone of voice, as she smile at Daring, but her eyes were popping out just thinking about that shiny emerald.
“Nope, sugarcube, it seems unbelievable that not even Apple Bloom will believe it! And I think it was mighty nice of Daring inviting us to go with her to Egypt, isn’t that right Fluttershy?” asked Applejack as she smiled at everyone.
“Well…I guess it is, and there are plenty of different types of animals there, not found in Equestria, like camels” said Fluttershy excitedly a bit at the end before she caught herself, and quiet down again. Then after a few more minutes of chatter, Celestia got everypony’s attention, and started to explain what she and Luna were discussing about, which was mostly at what time they should start their travel to Egypt…
“Wow Celestia that is kind of tough to decide, so girls what should we do?” asked Twilight as she saw that her friends this time were paying attention to the discussion.
“Well, how about we split in groups, it seems like the smart thing to do, I think?” said Daring with a bit of a questionable tone in her voice as she look at everyone else to see what they think.
“That sounds like a good idea Daring, a very good idea indeed since we are taking some of the royal flying chariots to get there anyways” said Celestia as she waited to see how the friends will split themselves.
“Luna, nighttime for me especially seems like a good idea since I want to get to Egypt as fast as possible without extra stops to sign autographs, not that I mind signing autographs for my friends, but I am too excited to wait till nighttime Princess Luna” said Daring excitedly at the end.
“Okay then Daring, we will be taking my chariot and my night Pegasus guards to take us to Egypt, and Cadence is coming with me just so we can catch up on some stuff, and how about the rest of you ponies have you may up your mind, my friends?” asked Luna as she nodded her consent to Daring. Then Rainbow decided to go with Luna and her company so then she could be with Daring and have time to talk to her, and when Applejack said she wanted to go with Daring, Luna told some of her guards that came by to check up on any updates on the traveling plans, that they will be needing two nighttime chariots to use, then they saluted Luna, and left to get the chariots ready.
“Well since you guys want to travel during the nighttime, then Twilight and I will be traveling during the daytime so then everyone can fawn over my outfit, when we arrived to Egypt” said Rarity in an excited tone of voice as she rushed next to Twilight, and side hugged her as if to show that Twilight agreed with her, which she did by nodding her head. Then Fluttershy went to Celestia’s side, and decided to do the traveling since she is kind of afraid of the dark, and with that Pinkie jump up and down toward Celestia’s side next to Fluttershy. So then it was decided who was going with whom to Egypt….
