She braves the darkest dangers to bring the truth to light. She studies a world lost to modern ponies in the hopes of uncovering the wisdom that could save us all. Danger? Adversity? They mean nothing to… Daring Do! To her, another day means another dungeon and another challenge to overcome. Uncovering the secrets of civilizations long past is all in a day’s work for the famous archaeologist, the great adventurer, the one-of-a-kind Daring Do!

-Back Cover, Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone

I exist.

I didn’t, a second ago, but now I do. I have a body now, heavy and solid and real. That’s new, and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I’ve never had a body of my own. Opening my new eyes, I realize I can see. Colors. Shapes. Everything. I look around, my mind (I have a mind!) grasping the concept of ‘looking’ fairly easily. I’m in a... place. It has books. A lot of books, actually. Books feel important somehow, like they’re... part of what I am.

But what am I?

“Did it work?” comes a voice from... somewhere. Close by. I can hear it, with my ears. “Are you all right?”

I turn toward the source of the sound and see something moving. Something alive, in the room here with me. Or somepony, perhaps? She looks like a pony, anyway. A purpley, unicornish... thing. Pony. I’ve never seen a pony—or anything, really—up close, in the flesh. But there she is, right in front of me.

Was it talking to me? Did it want me to say something?

I’ve never said anything before...

“Can you speak?” she asks me.

“I... thunk,” I say blockily. No, no, that’s not right. Think, not thunk! Stupid, stupid, stupid of me. I’m not used to having a mouth and a voice. I know the words, and I know how they ought to be said. I just hadn’t been ready for the feeling of speech. Moving the lips, putting a tongue to teeth, and all of those other things I never had to do until now.

“Um.” Oh, right. The pony. She’s slowly raising an eyebrow at me, her own mouth edging into a frown. She looks... worried.

About what? Me?

I try again. “I... think. So.” Yes, that’s better. Much better.

“Oh, you can!” she squeals. “I did it! I made Daring Do! And Spike said that playing Princess by creating life was a bad idea.”

I blink a few times and try to shake this fuzzy feeling that’s clouding my thoughts. The pony in front of me, the little purple unicorn, is leaping around the room with a smile on her face. “I did it!” she says, coming to a stop in front of me. “You’re Daring Do!”

Daring Do. Is that what I’m called now? I’m alright with that, I guess. It sounds interesting. Exciting, even. And I kind of like the idea of having a name, now that I’m alive. That can be my name, then.

“I’m... Day-ring Doo,” I repeat, sounding the words out the way she did.

I like the sound of it.

“Oh, gosh,” she says, “I haven’t even asked you what you’re thinking yet. How does the framework of your spell matrix feel? Is it tingley? It should be tingley. Tell me absolutely everything. Wait, let me grab a quill and parchment first so I can record this.”

She runs off, leaving me alone to look around the room. The books I notice first are stacked cover to cover on the shelves around us. Looking down, I’m in the middle of a network of lines and symbols that are hissing quietly as steam or smoke rise off of them. I experimentally nudge one of them with one of my brand new hooves. It smears at my touch, but nothing more. Whatever they were doing, it must already be done.

“Okay, I’m back,” says the unicorn, rushing in with a quill and a parchment ready. Her eyes widen and she drops them. “I haven’t introduced myself yet either!” Quickly, she sticks her hoof out toward me and holds it there. “Hi there!” she says, grinning wide. “I’m Twilight Sparkle! I guess you could say I made you.”

Slowly, hesitantly, I take her hoof in my own and shake it. That’s the right thing to do, isn’t it? It... feels right, somehow. I pull the corners of my lips upward into an uneasy smile, and Twilight Sparkle returns it with a nod. I don’t quite know why I did that either, but smiling seems right too.

“So... you made me?” I ask.

“In a manner of—ouch, ease up—of speaking,” says Twilight. She winces in... what is it? Pain? Am I hurting her? Experimentally, I loosen my grip on her hoof and I’m rewarded by the return of her smile. That’s a good thing, I think. I’m getting the hang of this. Slowly, but surely.

“Technically speaking,” Twilight continues, “you’re one of Rarity’s mannequins with a particularly intricate cocktail of illusion and come-to-life spells stacked on. That means you’re more of a golem than a true magical construct, as Starswirl the Bearded describes in Theoretical Works on Hypothetical Magic, but—I’m rambling, aren’t I? Sorry. Yes, I’m the one who brought you to life.”

I nod. I didn’t understand a word of that, but it seems like it would be impolite to let on that I didn’t. I don’t want to be impolite. Not to this nice Twilight Sparkle who made me.

“And, uh...” says Twilight. She stares meaningfully at her hoof, still trapped in my own. “You can let go now, if you want.”

I drop the hoof immediately. Oh, of course. How silly of me. I can’t hang on to hooves like that. Ponies aren’t supposed to do such things... and neither am I, now that I’m a pony too. “Sorry,” I tell Twilight sheepishly. “Very sorry.”

“It’s no trouble, at all, Daring,” says Twilight, rubbing her hoof. “I know everything must be feeling very new to you right now. You’re sort of a basic magical consciousness. Most of the necessities, but not much detailed knowledge. Starswirl’s writings implied that there would be something of an awkward transitional period, but it’s very fascinating to—” She stops, cheeks blushing red in... embarrassment? “Oh, still rambling. Sorry. Anyway, it’ll be my pleasure to help you acclimate and be the very best Daring Do you can be.”

“The best Daring Do you can be,” I say, trying the words and feeling them out. Speech still feels strange to me, but I think I like the sound of that too. My name is Daring Do now, after all. A pony with a body and hooves and a mane. Just like Twilight Sparkle here. Surely she must be trying to be the best Twilight Sparkle she can be. Shouldn’t I be trying to do the same? “Sure.” I nod. “The best Daring Do I can be.”

“Excellent!” says Twilight. “You know, I bet Rainbow Dash is just going to love you!”

“Rainbow Dash?” I ask, confused. It’s very strange speaking with Twilight. She knows so many words and concepts and things that I don’t yet, and it’s hard for me to keep track of them all.

“Rainbow Dash,” says Twilight. “You’re going to love her too. Her birthday’s in a week, you see, and we’ve got her extra-special birthday surprise all planned out. A full day around town with her all-time favorite hero: Daring Do. And now that you’re here, you can be that Daring Do for her. It’ll be great! Best birthday party ever, hooves down. No contest. For su—” She stops again. “That’s okay with you, though, right? I’m sorry, I hadn’t even thought to ask. I wouldn’t want to force you into doing anything you wouldn’t want to...”

I shrug my shoulders, awkwardly moving the muscles into position. “It’s... fine. Fine. I can do it.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Twilight squeals, suddenly wrapping her forelegs around my neck. I’m... not entirely sure what she’s trying to do, or what I should be doing myself, so I stand my ground and wait for her to finish. In just a few moments, Twilight steps back and coughs. “Um, sorry,” she says. “It’s just, I’ve been trying to get this right for a while, because Rainbow’s a good friend and I just wanted to make sure her birthday’s absolutely perfect.”

“I’ll try,” I say. I still can’t follow everything Twilight says, or everything she wants me to say, but it’s getting a bit easier. Just a bit.

“You have no idea how much that means to me,” says Twilight. She looks... relieved, somehow. As though she’d been expecting me to say no. I can’t imagine why, though. She’s the one who made me. Everything I have now, Twilight Sparkle gave me. Right down to my name. It’s only fair that I repay her by meeting with this Rainbow Dash of hers. Less than fair, even. She’s done so much for me already, and all I have to do for her is... be me. It can’t be all that hard for me to be Daring Do for Rainbow Dash. I am Daring Do.

Aren’t I?

“Okay,” says Twilight. “Good. Dandy. Great. Why don’t we get started, then? It’s going to take a lot of work getting you up to speed, after all, and we’ve only got a week.”

I give a hesitant nod as she disappears behind one of the countless bookshelves. I hadn’t thought that it would take all that much work to be the best Daring Do I can be, but I guess Twilight’s been a pony for much longer than I have. She would know exactly how hard it must be to be herself. I’m only just starting to learn.

Soon enough, Twilight returns, carrying a stack of colorful books in her magic. “Here, take this one,” she says. One of the books off the top of the stack slowly floats toward me. “You can read, right? I think the spell makes provisions for that, but you can never really be sure without empirical evidence...”

“I think so,” I tell her, neatly catching the book in my hooves. Hooves. Wonderful things, hooves. I already love having them.

But focus! The book. The big blocky orange letters of the title catch my eye first. “Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone,” I read aloud. Daring Do! I smile just a bit at seeing my own name. It makes the book feel a bit less strange and scary, and a bit more... comforting. Familiar, even. There isn’t a lot for me to be familiar with yet, but this is a start.

Just below the title is a picture of a pegasus pony carrying a shiny blue whatsit. I’ve never seen her before in the short time I’ve been alive, but she seems familiar too somehow. Like I know her. Slowly I hold a hoof up to the picture of the pony on the cover, comparing the amber fur that covers it to her own coat. They’re the same color. I look behind me, to the spot on my flank where the pegasus bears a compass-point mark, and I see the very same mark staring back at me.

She's me.

Or... am I her?

Is there even a difference? If we’re the same, then does it matter who came first? But I guess we aren’t the same, exactly. I have a tail and a mane and a heartbeat but this Daring Do is something... more than that. She’s only a picture drawn on a page, but even I can see that she’s special somehow. For some reason I can’t quite understand. Why else would this ‘Rainbow Dash’ love her so much? Why else would Twilight have made me to be her? There’s something about her that everypony seems to love... What is it?

If there’s some way that I’m not her, something I can learn in order to be more her, then I’ll do whatever it takes. I look at the cover again, eyes tracing the image of the other Daring Do, so much like me and yet not. These books must be the key. Surely they can tell me something.

“All extant information on Daring Do can be found in these,” says Twilight, floating the rest of the stack over toward me. “There are a dozen of them released so far, and I’ve got the entire series here reserved from the library. If you can read them all cover to cover, you should know as much about Daring Do as anyone. Up to and including Rainbow Dash.”

I give an absent nod. I’m listening, but the book still has most of my attention. It feels heavier, somehow, now that I’ve realized what secrets it might hold. As if there’s some strange, mystical power inside it that can grant me the one thing I’m missing: an identity. I have a name now—I’m called Daring Do. If I just read this book, and all the others like it... maybe I can be Daring too.

I’ve been staring at the book for a solid minute now without saying anything, and the stillness filling the room seems to make Twilight uncomfortable. She coughs. “Do you want me to, uh, get you anything else?” she asks, to break the silence. “Some food? A glass of water?”

“Do I need them? Does Daring use those?” If she doesn’t then I won’t either, they would only get in my way. I look at the cover of the book again. Daring Do is still there, still just out of reach of the alligators circling below her, still holding on to that sparkly ‘Sapphire Stone.’ Does that look like the sort of pony who lets anything get in her way? Who gets bogged down by things she doesn’t need? No, it doesn’t, and that means neither will I.

“I think it happens,” says Twilight. “You know, off page. Technically you’re a golem, so food and drink aren’t strictly necessary but—”

“I’m fine.” I say. In fact, I’m better than fine. I have a thing to do! A purpose! What else could anypony possibly need when they have something like that? I balance the book a bit awkwardly on one of my hooves and half-walk-half-stumble over to a couch in the corner of the room. Walking is tricky. I’m not even going to try using my wings, although as I stretch them out they ache to take me all the way up to the ceiling above. Maybe in a bit I’ll be ready for a test flight. I settle on the soft cushions and prop the book up against its arm before opening to the first page.

As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step. If only she could escape this oppressive atmosphere and fly up into the cool blue sky

I stop. Cool blue sky, cool blue sky… That’s interesting. I think I know what a sky is, but why does Daring Do—why do I—want to go there so badly? What’s so great about it?

I look around the room for a moment and see a window. Sky. I set the book carefully down, and walk over to it. Briefly, I stick my head outside, feeling the warm sunshine on my face and the gentle breeze blowing against my mane. I look up and see, for the very first time, the sky. It stretches out into forever, or as far as my eyes can see, bigger and cooler and bluer than anything I’ve ever known.

“Fly up,” I repeat, almost overwhelmed by it all, “into the cool blue sky…”

Huh.

After a minute or two more of staring, I close the window tightly shut, stagger back to my book, and keep reading.