The old mare was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of her neck. The bare blotches of the benevolent fur cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the noon clouds were on her cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of her face and her hooves had the deep-creased scars from handling thunder clouds on the—

There was a knock on the door.

...the deep-creased scars from handling thunder clouds on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in Princess Celestia's ancient—

There was a knock and a thud on the door.

...in Princess Celestia's ancient castle.
Everything about her was old except her eyes and they were the same color as the sky and were cheerful and undefeat—

A loud bang on the door.

"Come in!" a pegasus stallion called, rubbing his temples. With a sigh, he shoved Hayscartes' The Old Mare and the Sky away with a wing.

The door burst open and a rainbow tornado with a huge suitcase barreled in.

"Dashie! How was your holiday?" He straightened up, a warm smile crawling across his face.

"Daddy!" The filly lurched forward, knocking off his reading glasses.

"There, there, squirt, you'll cho-choke me!" He patted her back. "So tell me, was it amusing holiday with auntie Colon in Canterlot?"

A grin filled the filly's whole face. "Yeah, it was awesome fun! I got to swoop high around the towers of the castle and then raced the armored ponies! I practiced my wing push-ups every evening! And yesterday, auntie took me to The Wonderbolts Derby! There were so many boring and stick-in-the-mud ponies in ugly dresses, but I've still seen Wind Rider and got an autograph from him!" Rainbow plucked out a feather from her wing, holding it so her father could see the scribble written on it.

"That's really interesting, Dashie. And what about the books you had with you, have you enjoyed them?"

"Oh..." The filly's grin fell as she collapsed into the armchair beside her, trying to return the feather into her wing fruitlessly. "You see, daddy... I has read all but the Homare's Hurricasey. At first it looked like fun, Commander Hurricane travelling to the Griffon kingdom, dealing with Arimaspis and thunderstorms, but it was all that happened. Then he just travelled by airship, visited somepony, feasted for a year and then travelled again! I bet he wasn't even able to fly after that. It was boring..." She plopped her head down on the table, eyeing her father through a glass paperweight.

"Boring you say..." The father tapped his chin with a hoof. "But you read the rest, so tell me; What do you think about Shakerapier's The Taming of the Shrew?" He leaned forward, eyes narrowed and lips curved up in a devilish grin.

"Uh... that? That was a great story! I didn't know Princess Celestia herself could tame a dragon singlehoofedly," Dashie offered, beads of sweat shimmering on her forehead.

"Rainbow Dash, don't lie to me. You know there is no point in doing that. If you haven't read them, admit it."

"No daddy, I hasn't."

"It's 'haven't'. Dashie," he extended his hoof, raising her chin, "I took you to the Equestria Games opening and paid your flight camps for five upcoming seasons. You'll have plenty of time to practice your flying skills there. However, there is not plenty of time left before your first school day arrives, it's just two days away. I want you to make a great impression on the teachers. After all, the Dash family is—"

"A clan of famous publishers, editors and literates in Cloudsdale," the filly finished, rolling her eyes.

"Exactly, so I want you to go to the library and read. Three books of your own choice from there should be enough. Now go." He caressed her cheek with a hoof and nudged her forward.

"Yes, daddy."

Gone was her previous vigor. Ears aback, Dashie trudged down the corridor, occasionally kicking a loose strand of cirrus snaking from the carpet. She passed along a line of old paintings, each featuring a pegasus with a book or quill and a cutie mark portraying some punctuation mark, dashes mostly. All the ponies stared back at her with stern glares. Though, who would be able to smile after hours and hours of standing still while being painted? Rainbow was sure she wouldn't. After all, who would be able to smile ever again after receiving such a boring cutie mark as a punctuation mark? Rainbow sighed, glancing at her—yet—bare flank.

She always wondered why those paintings were here. Was it because somepony needed to cover the walls of the impossibly long corridor? Or did they build it so long so the pictures could be put here? But why? All those portraits could easily hang in the basement. It's not like the carrots stored there would mind their glares. Also, what will happen when there is no more room on the wall? Will they start putting the paintings all around the house? Rainbow shivered at the prospect of having her ancestors staring at her while she slept or bathed.

She arrived at the end of the corridor, a huge door lined with silver towering before her. Turning around sheepishly, she blew a raspberry at one of her ancestors and hurried inside the library. The doors creaked shut behind her.

The smell of dust, old paper and stale air attacked her nose. She found herself face to cover with thousands of books. They stood tightly crammed into the bookcases, rose to the ceiling in high pillars from desks and chairs and some were even stuck in the banister of staircase that lead to... even more books.

With a sigh, she sat her large suitcase down and started for the nearest bookcase. She pulled out one of the tomes, along with a family of spiders living behind it. Reading the cover, she squeezed it back almost immediately, along with the spiders again.

"Mare in the Moon and other legends It's short, but daddy knows I've read it like a dozen times. He won't approve that. So, what's next?" She extended a hoof, randomly tapping one of the thinner books with a sigh. "Twenty Ways of Styling Your Mustache with Magic Sure, I'm dying to read that..." She put the book back, gliding to another shelf, her wings raising clouds of dust.

"Your Inner Horse What the hay?"
"M. Sue's Guide to Popularity I, Rainbow Dash, don't need books to tell me how to be awesome!" She shuffled through a pile of books hastily. "The Strange Case of Doctor Pinkie and Miss Maud Sounds like one of those sugary girlish novels... Nope!"
"The History of Wonderbolts Hm..." She cracked the book open, skimming through the pages. "Names, dates, ridiculous dresses, more names... no way I'd ever need that." She flung the book across the room. "How to Sate a Royal: A Cook Book of Confectionery. Uncensored version! Uh..."

Rainbow slammed her head into the shelf, groaning. Was there anything normal to read? She jumped into the air, soaring along a few more bookstacks. Those were ideal for an agility obstacle course... she could surely look up some books while flying along. No, wait, she couldn’t. She's gonna fly so fast that all the books will be just colorful smears zooming by! She can always read later... She made a few pirouettes in the air, giggling happily at her own cleverness.

Her gaze focused more again, eyes narrowing as if she was going to face the Wonderbolts themselves. She scanned every little detail of her planned track. Her wings buzzed with sheer wing power ready to be unleashed. Then, she shot forward.

She zipped along the bookcases, performing daredevil twists and turns. She spiraled just above the stairs. She zigzagged among the many pillars of books. She soared around the chandeliers. She felt as if nothing could stop her. One bookcase could.

Dashie faceplanted between crime novels and books of cloud gardening. She slid to the ground, her head throbbing like the one time she flew facefirst into a thundercloud.

Thud

Rainbow perked her ears, slowly turning around. She warily scanned her surroundings, ready to face anypony hiding there. There, on the floor, lay a book. Rainbow groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Thud

She quickly turned. Next to her lay another book, swirls of dust and tiny clouds fluttering around it. Rainbow gulped dryly, raising her eyes to the bookcase she collided with.

It swayed from side to side, the cloud floor no longer able to support it. Books rained down with each tilt of the shelves.

The filly shrieked, dashing away from the tumbling beast of a bookcase. It staggered down, crashing into the next one and a few book pillars. The other bookcase shook, many tomes streaming to the ground. Then it faltered too.

Dashie lay on the ground in a fetal position, twitching nervously. An avalanche of books and shelves raged all around her. The old wood creaked and grated. Scrolls flew through the air. Sharp bookbinding tools and quills embedded in the floor. Then, a few last books came down. Everything was quiet once more, only the chandeliers creaked as they swayed gently.

The filly dared to take a peek. Dunes of books lay around her, a bookcase occasionally sticking out like a ship stranded on a long-dried beach. She shook her head, crawling atop one of the book hills. A distant snap caught her attention.

"The door in the corridor," she whispered to the desolated library. She knew how little time it took a pony to reach the door by a normally paced trot or glide. Her muscles flexed, wings buzzing once more.

"Dashie? Is everythin—oh!" An older mare stuck her head in the library, gasping. "Dashie you—you cleaned up the whole library?"

The filly sat on the floor, beaming. "Yes, mum, in ten seconds flat!"

"But... how?" her father stuttered, stepping into the room too. "Your mother made me tidy this place over and over again, but I always had at least a dozen of books that didn't fit anywhere! I haven't seen this tiled floor so clean in decades that I forgot it was tiled at all!" He rubbed his neck under his wife’s burning gaze.

"Anyway, we came here to tell you that picking just two books is enough, Dashie, you don't have to choose three—" her mother started.

"Actually, in the light of recent events, I suppose one book is enough too," her father said, hugging his wife with a wing. "So, which one have you chosen?" He gave the filly an expectant grin.

"I... uh, this one!" Dashie groped in the shelf behind her, praying to Princess Celestia that the book in her hold was something better than a moustache-styling guide. She closed her eyes tightly and pulled the book out.

Her parents bent down curiously.

"Are you sure she should read that?" the mother whispered, glancing nervously between the book and her husband.

"Darling, she is old enough. I've read this when I was younger than her." The filly's gaze twitched between her parents, trying to avoid any visual contact with the book.

"Grim Fairy Tales, good choice, Dashie." Her father gave her a conspiratorial wink. The filly's eyes widened.

"Oh... awesome. Thank you, daddy!" She picked up the book, storming off to her room.

"I don't know what will become of this filly." Her mother sighed, hoof pawing at the ground.

"Don't worry, darling. Remember what the Cockatrice of Monte Cresto said: 'All pony wisdom is trapped in these two words ~Wait and hope. Only a fool uses brute force, such as hammer, to gain access immediately.'" He nuzzled her cheek, embracing her with a wing. Both headed after the filly, dozens of books hidden in neat rows under the thin layer of cloud floor creaking under the two ponies’ weight.

A small puff of cumulus swayed in the gentle breeze. Slowly back and quickly forth. Back and forth. Back and—
Rainbow Dash woke up, trying to rid herself from the cloud she inhaled. She bent over in a fit of cough, her insides tickling.

Sneezing one last time, she shot up from her bed, throwing the curtains open with a minitornado from her wings. Pages of a few books, which were scattered around the room, fluttered in the wind. A few leaves glided from a wall calendar, catching the filly's attention. Her wings stiffened and she fell back on the bed, her smile falling too.

"First day of school..." she muttered, staring at the swirls of clouds on the ceiling. That one looked like a tornado! And that one like a snowflake and the other like a turtle? Or a tortoise? Simply the wrinkled creature with a shell. Having an everchanging swirly ceiling and walls was great. Maybe her posters and the chandelier shifted a little everytime she looked at them, but she couldn't imagine staring into a boring solid ceiling.

"Dashie! Breakfast is ready! I'm sure you don't want to be hungry on this special day!"

"Okay, I'm coming!" the filly stuck her head through the floor, yelling into the dining room below. Pulling her head back up, she blew off a loose chunk of cloud from her muzzle. Patching up the hole in the floor swiftly, she hurried through the door and down the corridor.

"So, that's the school. Grand, isn't it?" her father said, pointing a hoof at the building ahead. When no answer arrived, he glided nearer to the intently staring filly, nudging her side.

"Yeah." Dashie felt beads of sweat form on her brow. When they set off from home, she flew swiftly. Now she was lagging behind more and more with every flap of her wings that brought her nearer to that cursed building. She fought back the cereal and milk raising up her gullet. "Yeah," she repeated, grinning nervously.

Landing in front of the school, her legs and wings were shaking visibly.

"Don't worry, Dashie, it will be fun." A reassuring wing gently landed on her shoulder, dragging her into a hug. The filly burrowed her head into her mother's wing, smiling. Slowly she straightened back up, taking a firm stance and sizing up the building before her.

She was ready to take off when a sudden weight pressed down on her back. Turning, she saw brand new ochre saddlebags resting on her back, their flaps adorned with golden lightning bolt-shaped buckles.

"They. Look. AWESOME!" She grinned back at her smiling parents, then wrapped them in a tight hug. "Thank you!"

"And that's not all, Dashie." Hler father chuckled, opening one of the flaps. "I packed you all you may need; dictionaries, writing guides, a few pencils so in case you broke or ate one, you'll have a spare. You know that plucking out your feathers to use them as quills is highly ill-mannered. Then there is an eraser, a spare eraser, some apples in case you were hungr—"

"Thank you! I'm sure I have everything I need." Dashie shut the flap closed, cutting him off.

"Very well then. Good luck!" Her father waved her a quick goodbye, rocketing into the sky.

"Your father is a little too excited about today's fair at the Cloudoseum." Her mother chuckled. "Are you sure you can get home from school by yourself?"
Receiving a confident nod, she set off after her husband.

Heaving a sigh, the filly readjusted the strap of the saddlebags that was biting into her back. She struggled into the air, the sole weight of her bags nearly flipping her over. She glided to the school yard, scanning the groups of foals playing and chatting. She pushed her way through the crowd. A sudden bump knocked her over, her saddlebags opening and a few of the books spilling out.

"Oops...My bad!" A grey filly with blonde mane bent over, picking up the books. "I'm sorry I didn't see you." She pushed up the glasses sliding down her muzzle. Squinting her eyes, she focused on the tome in her hooves. "A Dictionary of All Things Cloud? Is it a good read?"

"Kind of..." Rainbow snatched the book out of her hooves, continuing past the filly with a huff and a flick of her tail. "At home it's enough, I don't need to talk about books at school too," she muttered.

"Hoops, watch out!" A dense puff of cloud flew above her head, getting stuck in the wall of the school. Now she spotted them. Three colts with longer manes, playing cloud buckball. Cool!

She flew into the air, catching their stray ball. As the gravity caught up to her and her saddlebags, she plummeted back down, right between the colts.

"Um, hello?" She climbed up from the shallow hole her fall created in the cloud. "My name is Rainbow Dash, because I dash through all the clouds. Nice to meet you!" Her own statement surprised her, but it sounded awesome, so she left it at that.

The colts only stared back, unblinking.

"That was a daredevil free fall, Dash." The brown colt stepped forward, patting her back.

"I have never seen a pony with so many colours in their mane. You have to have great parents if they allowed you to dye it," the tan one said, blowing a loose strand of mane from his eyes.

"Hey guys, what are we gonna do now?" the last one called from behind, kicking around the blob of slowly dissipating clouds that were once their ball. He turned to the filly. "Do you know how to create a ball that could last more than a few bucks, Dash?"

Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck, her eyes wandering around the playground. "Uh, no. But maybe we can play something else. We can play The Three Royal Guards. There are three in the name, but there were actually four, so we all could—" A hoof to her mouth silenced her.

"Hold on... Who the hay are The Three Royal Guards?" The colt cocked his head and eyebrow.

"Well, they are characters from a book, but that doesn't really matter. So, wanna play?" She eagerly eyed the colts before her. For a moment, they just stared back. Suddenly, they fell to the ground in a fit of laughter.

"You... want to play some book characters?" The brown one flared his wings, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "At first you looked like a cool flier, Dash, especially with your name..."

"Admit it, you have strong wings just because you drag those books everywhere!" the taller colt teased, poking the dictionary sticking out of her stuffed saddlebags.

"N-no, that's not true!" Dashie cried, backpedalling.

"No? I bet that you can't see past your muzzle from all the reading. You just use the books as an excuse so you don't have to fly faster and crash into everything out of your short sight!" the last colt joined in, apparently oblivious to the fact his mane concealed most of his eyes.

"Hey, I can see pretty well!" Rainbow backed away, colliding with the grey filly from before. Her glasses flew away and her irises immediately shot to opposite corners of her eyes.

"Are you sure your name isn't Rainbow Crash?" The tall one laughed. "Maybe you should borrow Derpy's glasses, seems like you need them more than her, Crash!"

"That's what usually happens to eggheads, Crash. You can either fly as a Wonderbolt or let yourself rot over the dusty old books!" The brown one circled her slowly, leading the trio away to the school building.

"I'm Ditzy, nice to meet you." The grey filly found her glasses and shook the perplexed filly's hoof, then rejoined with some tall sobbing yellow filly and headed inside too. Rainbow Dash just sat there, watching the colts and fillies pass inside before her. Standing up, she trudged her way to the assigned classroom.

***

"M-Maybe being named after p-punctuation mark isn't such as bad as Crash..." Dashie sobbed as she dragged her way through the portrait corridor at home. Arriving into her room, she tossed her saddlebags away. There was a packet with a note on it lying on her bed. She hopped on the bed, taking the note into her hooves.

Dashie,
We've gone to the book trade fair this morning. Father was so enthralled that he insisted on returning there after lunch. We will with most probability return home in the evening, so I'm leaving here the book I bought for you. It has only been recently published and the author already seems to have gained a lot of attention. It's not as distinguished as the works you usually read, but I suppose it might still entertain you.
-Mom

Unamused, Rainbow tore away the paper from the packet, revealing a green book with the cover picture depicting crocodiles and some mare swinging on a vine.

"I'm not an egghead who reads! Reading is undeniably, unquestionably, uncool!" Dashie roared, throwing the book against the wall. It slid down into the drift of dust behind a cupboard.

It lies there still, cracked open and forever declaring the words of a new chapter into the darkness...

The smell of decay and danger hit Daring Do as she peered into the dimly-lit entrance of the ancient temple...

Author's Notes:

And that's all... if Dashie remembered that day, many things could have been avoided. Like breaking in a hospital. Or nearly trading Fluttershy away for a first edition of a certain book

Furthermore, the use of hyphen in the title is fully intentional.

And now, a few thanks and references...
First, the text this story begins with is a ponified citation of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea
Then there are many references to other works of literature. In the order of being mentioned:
Homer's Odyssey
William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish
Robert Louis Stevenson' The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers

My biggest thanks go to the editor of the story, Boulder. He is also the one who gave me the very idea of Rainbow Dash, her name and punctuation (See comments under Inside the Forbidden Room) So if not for him, this story won't even exist or it would, but littered with typos

A huge thank you also goes to Tranquil Serenity who kindly went through the story, fixing up the many runaway errors.

If you spot any errors, please report them in the form of PM rather than comment.