Daring Do had been through many trials and tribulations in her life, and all of them she'd managed to navigate expertly. Dangerous treks through the jungles? No problem. Crossing scorching deserts? No sweat, except for the actual sweat. Facing hordes of fierce opponents seeking to stand in the way of her treasures? Yeah, they weren't gonna be boasting about having met her afterwards. And yet, despite all the grand adventures she'd known, somehow this right here just took the cake. And the cake itself was pretty tasty too, as she took a single bite of it after the cafe's waitress brought it to her. Of course, the waitress, and all the other patrons of the place, saw not Daring Do, but her cover persona, AK Yearling, just out for a simple spot of lunch. Though she was not alone here today, as her table was shared by, of all people, her recurring foe, Dr Caballeron. Though he too had donned his author disguise for this little get-together, downing an especially delectable cup of tea, before letting out a contented sigh.

"Ah! After so many troublesome days, truly this makes it worthwhile!"

A chuckle from Daring.

"No argument here. After a bad day, this place is easily my favourite spot to come to."

Now, anypony who knew these two might have seen it as shocking or unprecedented to see them together in a social situation such as this. But, adversity makes for strange bedfellows, or so the saying went. Still, it was best not to mention that particular phrase to either of them, lest they think you were making the wrong assumptions. Recent events had changed their relationship somewhat, though neither was especially upset about it.

"After all those years...fighting, scheming, plotting..." Caballeron considered.

Daring raised an eyebrow.

"Plots and schemes are the same thing."

Caballeron frowned.

"I was going to say that it's easy to see all we did as...well..."

Daring took a sip of her own tea, musing on those words and giving a quick nod.

"Maybe not worth it?"

Caballeron nodded, leading to a sigh on Daring's part.

"I get the feeling. Who'd have ever guessed the two of us were causing the people of that basin so much trouble all this time?"

Caballeron shrugged.

"Meh, I was in it to steal and get rich, so causing trouble was never an issue for me."

A glower from Daring quickly prompted him to change his tune.

"But...I suppose there are other ways to go about it if wealth was all I wanted."

A smirk crept onto Daring's lips.

"You know, I heard from Rainbow Dash once that there was a whole bunch of treasure just left behind in a cave atop a mountain besides Ponyville, if you're interested."

The mention of vast quantities of gold had the expected effect, as sparkles appeared in Caballeron's eyes as he looked to her. But, ever the thief, his inherent wariness took hold, and his eyes narrowed to her.

"Wait...what's the catch?"

A quick laugh from Daring.

"Oh, nothing...except that the cave was the former home of a terrifying dragon they had to evict."

Caballeron blinked.

"So...there's no chance of it coming back?"

Daring shrugged.

"It might...or it might not. Hard to say."

The mare of course loved making him squirm with indecision over this, seeing his mind try desperately to weigh the pros and cons of taking a dragon's gold. After a while, Caballeron simply sighed, taking another bite of his cake before making a decision.

"Well...let us simply use that as a plan B perhaps."

In the silence that followed, they would occasionally glance to passers by, some of whom saw it as odd that two formerly-rival authors were having lunch together. But more interesting than this was that, every so often, they would see a pony nose-deep in a particular book. A book written by a certain mutual acquaintance of theirs. At first, Daring was amused by the notion, but as time went on, she became a bit more thoughtful about it.

"Ahuizotl...my old enemy...now writing books that children love. If you'd have told me that years ago, I never would have believed you."

Another sip of tea, and then a chuckle.

"Probably would have thought you crazy too."

Caballeron too joined in on the laugh.

"And here we were, thinking we'd be a big hit with our joint book. Then he comes along and boom, suddenly everypony's forgotten about us!"

Daring stared down at her tea.

"Yeah...funny how life works sometimes, isn't it?"

Caballeron, picking up on her tone immediately, realised that he'd probably made quite the blunder by saying what he'd said. He looked guilty, then spoke in a more apologetic tone.

"Ah! Sorry for that. I know how much your writing meant to you."

Daring smiled to him.

"It's fine. I always knew a day would come when my books wouldn't be popular anymore. Everypony has their time to shine, their time in the sun...and then it ends."

She looked out into the street, seeing all those ponies who'd pass by the once-famed writer and not even look in her direction.

"Truth be told, a part of me is actually rather relieved about it."

Caballeron looked to her with confusion.

"Oh? How so?"

Daring thought on that for a moment, then began to explain as best she could.

"Well...I tended to be a bit of a loner a lot of the time. Sure, I had friends, but I was never that big on being around lots of ponies. It can't have escaped your notice that my home was in the middle of nowhere after all."

Caballeron tapped his chin.

"I did wonder about that."

Daring smiled to herself.

"Fame's always nice, but it has its fair share of problems. If nothing else, having someone new take the spotlight means I won't be getting tonnes of letters asking me about future books or whatever else my fans wanted to ask me about."

Caballeron frowned a little.

"I never got tonnes of letters for my book!"

Daring shrugged.

"Meh, you were new. Given time, you'd have been swimming in it like I did."

A pause, then Caballeron cast a sly glance to the Ahuizotl-written books that several of the surrounding ponies were reading.

"Well, I guess he'll have to deal with that now, eh?"

The two shared a laugh.

"Hey, if I'm not giving him grief anymore, at least the universe will be bothering him in some other way," Daring remarked.

Another laugh, and as Caballeron wiped a tear from his eye, he considered the monster he and Daring had made peace with.

"Well, if his job as a treasure guardian doesn't work out, then at least he's got writing to fall back on."

Daring nodded, lifting her tea cup and holding it out to her former rival. Caballeron looked to it and, understanding, took his own cup and gently clinked it against hers. They each took a quick gulp of their respective drinks, and when they set them down, they suddenly noticed a couple of ponies looking in their direction, whispering to one another. Caballeron, understandably, was a bit worried about this.

"Um...do you think they know who we are?"

Daring shook her head.

"Nah. They probably just think it's weird we're having lunch together. Two rival authors? Yeah, that's gonna cause a stir."

Slowly, she grimaced.

"Either that or they're thinking of shipping us in their next fan-fic. Hard to say which is the worse scenario there."

Caballeron looked to her with confusion.

"Yes...what is this 'shipping' fans talk of anyway? I heard a few ponies talk about it during that fan convention of yours, but I never got around to asking anypony."

Daring thought he was joking at first, but when it became abundantly clear that he was not, she gulped, nervously looking around as if trying to find literally anything else to talk about.

"Oh! Um...it's just a fan thing. no need to get worried about it."

Caballeron, more than anypony else in Equestria, knew when somepony was keeping things from him, but, with all being settled between the two, he decided not to press the matter. Instead, he decided to turn the conversation towards something that, to him, was far more important.

"In any case, may we depart soon? I'd really like to get this beard off at some point today."

Daring smirked to him.

"Let me guess...itchy?"

Caballeron groaned.

"Ugh! Like you wouldn't believe."

Daring nodded slowly, then cast a glance to a nearby waiter.

"Oh, waiter? May we have another cake? I feel like we're going to be here a while."

The waiter nodded politely, heading off to get the requested confectionary. Caballeron, for his part, simply glared angrily at her, prompting Daring to smile innocently before finishing her tea.

"Come on, Cabby, like you didn't know that was coming."

Rivalries and enmities are ending left and right nowadays, eh?