After weeks of survival rations, there was nothing more satisfying than the burn of alcohol. Daring just wished the news that accompanied it was as good.
“Somepony’s been looking for me,” she repeated in hushed tones. Pooch shook his head as Daring waved for another glass.
“No,” he said in that raspy, Diamond Dog hiss. He poured another pair of shots, adding, “Somepony looking for A.K Yearling.”
Daring frowned, raising her glass. The two friends downed the shots.
In the background, somepony started up a song, but Daring was only half-listening. Leaning how not to make waves was an important part of the treasure hunting business; the last thing anyone wanted was somepony else swiping their score at the last second. The fact that somepony wasn't covering their tracks- and was spreading around something as important as Daring’s name- concerned her.
Daring Do had gone to great lengths to keep her work life and her private lives separate. She didn't like the idea that there was somepony running around ruining that- and she liked the idea of her enemies finding out even less.
The Cardinal Point was the closest to neutral ground that treasure hunters had, but even so, Daring shot a few, cautious glances. There were other ponies huddled around tables in dark corners, busy in private conversations just like she was. And while she recognized them, none rated any higher than the rivalry you granted as professional courtesy.
Even so, it was concerning. “Do you know who it was?” she asked. “Caballeron? Bravely?”
The diamond dog shook his head again. “Somepony new. Somepony clumsy. Somepony…” he licked his lips, considering his words. “Somepony lacks discretion.”
A new player. With my name.
Daring scowled, slamming the glass to the table. Her good mood at another successful expedition was well and truly spoiled. “What do you know?”
Pooch leaned forward. Daring did the same as his voice dropped an octave. “Rumors,” he reminded her. “Unsubstantiated- probably wrong.” He waited until she nodded before continuing even lower. “Unicorn. Male. Big; wears a cloak.”
Daring nodded again. A unicorn ruled out Caballeron, and male did the same for Bravely- unless they were working through a proxy, of course, but that wasn't Blue’s style. As for Caballeron… well, someone blundering around this obviously wasn’t his style, either.
“You got all this from Glitter?” Daring asked. Every adventurer knew that, out in the world, not everything that glittered was gold… but in Canterlot, Glitter, one of the foremost information brokers in the city, came close. When Pooch nodded, she waved a hoof for him to continue.
“Asking for you- but badly. Started with barging up to everyone asking for Daring Do, but didn’t like the answer.” Daring had been on expedition to the Haymalaya’s. The trinkets she had persuaded the monks to part with would be on display in the museum in a week. “So started asking for her biographer- for A.K Yearling.”
Daring nodded. The connection was closer than she would have liked- for the umpteenth time, she cursed herself for not taking up Twilight’s offer of publishing for her- but at least it sounded like this unicorn was looking for Daring through Yearling, rather than putting two and two together. Despite the situation, Daring couldn't help but laugh. And Velvet said thick glasses and a shawl was a terrible disguise.
She sunk the shot glass, and there was a small sound as she set it down. “What else,” she asked. Pooch’s ears perked a little, and she smiled. “There’s a reason I beat you every time at poker, Pooch.”
The diamond dog grunted, slugging down his own glass and pouring himself another. When the adventurer tilted hers towards him, he shook his head. “Don’t want you spitting up on me,” he grumbled, adding, a little louder, “Is one thing. Small thing. Glitter had him followed.”
That got Daring’s attention. She grinned, leaning forward. “Followed to where?” Pooch told her.
He was right. If she had been drinking, she would have spat it out. Instead, she settled for swearing very, very loudly.
The first thing Daring did when she go home was make sure the cottage was secure.
The first time Daring had met Celestia, the princess had offered her a boon; a reward, she had said, for recovering Philomena from the Order of the Setting Sun. Daring had asked that her home be taken off every registry in Equestria- the last thing she had needed was some vengeful cultist or archaeologist with a grudge tracking her to her home.
In theory, even if… that stallion went looking for A.K Yearling, he shouldn't be able to find an address. In theory. But Daring knew- better than anyone- that information was never really lost. Anypony with sufficient resources and political pull would be able to find out where she lived eventually; the trick was being ready for them when they did.
Being able to tell them when they were going to be expected helped with that. After another shot or two to calm her temper at the stallion’s stupidity, Daring had whipped out a sheet of paper and scribbled a short- and bitingly polite- letter, inviting him to stop by that evening. She entrusted it to Pooch, to see it delivered to the palace by one of Glitter’s back channels. Daring didn't think it would take long to end up on his desk- and even shorter for him to respond. Daring doubted he got many letters.
Daring sighed, pulling a shawl over herself, and straightening her glasses. As she pulled the purple fabric on, her helmet was replaced by a fabric hat- the camouflage spells of the Zebrican shamans couldn't change how it would feel, but if he even thought about touching her hat, disguise be damned, she would have him pinned on the floor and crying for his auntie faster than he could say… well, anything.
While she waited, she sat at her desk and began typing. When she had set out for the Haymalaya’s, she had thought it would be one of Daring Do’s untold stories- the ones where she went somewhere, found some artifacts and nothing exciting happened. And while she wouldn't violate the vow she made to the monks of Shagri-La and Luna, the rest of it demanded to be told.
She had reached the part where the Windigo saved her when she heard the rolls of carriage wheels, and the clip of hooves on the ground. Yearling pushed the typewriter away, and straightened her glasses again, as the door opened, and a dark-cloaked stallion entered.
“A.K Yearling.” His voice came as a thick, affected growl from within his hood. Presumption dripped from it. “You have been expecting me.”
Yearling nodded. “I heard you were looking for me, Prince Blueblood.”
The stallion snorted, and a pegasus hovered into the room, daintily removing the Prince’s hood. If he thought it an inappropriate act in front of Daring, he gave no sign of it. Beneath the shawl, Yearling felt her wings bristle.
But Yearling had a reputation as an earth pony. So she instead forced herself to smile. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner, your majesty. I was on a writing sabbatical.”
“With your… friend, Daring Do?”
Yearling frowned. There was something in the way he said the word ‘friend’ that didn't sound right… though then again, if even half of what she had heard about Blueblood was true, he might just have been unused to saying it. Still, it was something to nip in the bud. “Daring and I aren't friends, Prince, and I have other books. I was in Zebrica doing research.”
He turned his nose up even more at that. “I see,” he said. “Well, I’m not interested in zebra’s. I want to meet Daring Do.”
“I didn't realize you were a fan of her’s, your Majesty.”
“I’m not,” he said curtly.
“Oh.” Yearling paused. “Well, in any case, you aren’t the only one who is looking for her. I want to meet her as well. I have other books, but it’s Daring’s that sell the best.”
“So tell her to come here so I can meet her and you can… do another book.” The yellow-maned prince tried to glare at her, but quickly looked away. Internally, Daring chuckled; the thick, bifocal lenses Yearling had been described had the odd effect of making her eyes look bigger than they really were. Some ponies could find the effect… unsettling.
Instead, Blueblood glanced around the room, at the small, weather-beaten sofa, the case of mismatched fiction and non-fiction books. . She had carefully cultivated this living space; a sofa, a bookcase, fiction and otherwise. It was a writers room… but it was also her room, the place she felt comfortable in. Bluebloods gaze fell on the typewriter, and she felt her wings bristle beneath her shawl at the contempt.
“I can’t tell her to do anything,” Yearling said cooly. “She finds me, whenever she has a new adventure, or she’s bored, or… whatever. And even if I could tell her, I couldn't make her do anything about it; if I can’t get her to come back to me with her stories on a regular basis, I doubt I can get her to meet some stranger.”
The princes’ eyes narrowed. He tapped a hoof against the floor, and another servant brought a small platter towards him. The pegasus from before lifted the lid, unveiling a small chequebook.
“If she won’t do it for the privilege of serving the prince of Equestria, there are incentives,” he said. He lifted the book, and a quill, with a glow of light blue magic. “How much does she want?”
“Daring Do doesn’t do what she does for money,” Yearling said. “You can’t buy her.”
The prince frowned. “Then what does she want?”
“Adventure,” Yearling said quickly. “Excitement. The chance to do what is right.”
The prince snorted again. “And the money she makes from selling gold to every museum in Equestria doesn’t enter into it.”
Yearling’s lips drew to a tight line. Blueblood made another, quick pen stroke and levitated the page towards Yearling. The tan pony took it- and felt her jaw drop. The number on the page was more than she would make if Daring Do topped EQD’s Bestseller List for a year.
“When you see her, tell her I want her,” the prince said simply.
As the Pegasus hastily reattached her master’s hood, Daring couldn’t help but stare. At the same time, she felt something stir inside her. It was the same feeling that always motivated her in situations like this, the same feeling that drove her to trek through the darkest jungles, or hike to the highest mountains.
Curiosity.
“She’ll want to know why you want to see her,” she managed to say as Blueblood turned to leave. The stallion paused in the doorway, looking back at her. “I told you, I can’t make Daring do anything. She’s going to want to know why she should. And ‘because Prince Blueblood said so’ won’t do it.”
“Of course it won’t,” he said his voice oddly bitter. Louder, he added, “I have… an opportunity for her. Which is all I have to say to someone who isn’t Daring Do.?”
Blueblood left, his cloak brushing against the doorframe. His servants followed after him. A few moments later, Yearling heard the carriage rattle off into the distance. She walked into the kitchen, pulled out a bottle of hot, brown liquid and a shot glass, and slumped onto the couch, staring at the zeroes on the page in front of her.
Daring Do sat before the fire, a book held in her hooves; an early edition of the memoires of Colonimbus. Completely ridiculous- and half his own invention, particularly where the so-called “Flutterponies” were involved- but interesting nonetheless. Even if he did have a dim view of anything that wasn’t a pegasus.
She didn’t look up as the door to the study opened, and the stallion entered. She hummed to herself as he stopped in his tracks –and from the sound of it, caused one of the ever-present ponies to bump into him- and had to resist grinning. She could practically feel his stare on the back of her neck.
“Hey Princey,” she said. The silence filling the room was punctuated by the turning of a page, and the crackle of a fire.
“Daring Do,” Blueblood finally managed, breathlessly. Daring looked up as he straightened his back, trying to regain some of whatever passed for his dignity. “How did you get into my private study?”
“Yearling said you wanted to meet me.”
Blueblood frowned. “That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Sure it does,” Daring answered, grinning. “Up the wall, over the gate, past the guards, through a window. You know it’s really bad to keep books in front of a window, right,” she added, a little more sternly. She set the book she was reading aside in disgust after Colonimbus referred to his earth pony crew as glue for the sixth time. “I don’t care if your aunt is the sun, that won’t stop them from being destroyed, and some of those are really valuable.”
“I was led to believe you don’t care about how valuable things are,” Blueblood said, taking a seat.
Daring chuckled. “Of course I do,” she said, leaning back. “Knowledge is valuable. The remains of civilizations are valuable. What they believed, what they did… that’s all that’s left of them. That makes it valuable. That makes it precious.”
Blueblood nodded. “I understand. Something that rare is worth something. We aren't unalike, Daring Do.”
“We really are, Blueblood.” She picked up her book again. “This is one of Colonimbus journals, isn’t it? Not a copy; his actual journal.” She flicked through the pages, finding a passage. “ ’The pinheads are throwing a fit. They are concerned their cloudwalking spells won’t let them breath at these altitudes. I told the helmsman to take us higher.’ Modern editions don’t have that passage, especially when he started being taught in schools; they just annotate it and make a note about what happened a third of his crew. Even older editions substitute the slur with ‘Unicorns’. How did you get a copy of Colonimbus journal? This should be in a museum.”
The prince stared at her. A servant brought them two glasses, one filled with red liquid, the other, a shot. Daring couldn't help but chuckle; her reputation, apparently, preceding her.
“You picked the worst book to prove your point, miss Do,” Blueblood said finally. “I have Colonimbus journal, because he was my ancestor.”
That was news to Daring- though it did place Blueblood’s notorious snobbery in a new light. She nodded for Blueblood to continue.
“This isn’t my library, Daring. It is my family’s. We have had an extensive history. In fact, that history is what I want to talk to you about. I have a job for you, Daring Do.” He nodded at a servant, who scurried off to the side of the room, returning with a package.
“I don’t do ‘jobs’,” Daring objected. Blueblood chuckled.
“You’ll do this one,” he said, taking the package and placing it on the desk between them. He undid it, gently, unwrapping it to reveal a fragile, weather beaten journal sitting on top of a piece of paper, almost worn to shreds.
“You’ll do this one,” he said, lifting the journal with his magic and floating it to Daring. “I want you to take me to the Platinum Palace.”
“I don’t do fairy tales either,” Daring said. Even so, she took the journal that was offered her.
The cover was blank; on the first page was the imprint of a royal seal, one which hadn't been used in Equestria for centuries- if not millennia. The seal of Princess Platinum.
Daring Do knew the story; everypony did. The leaders of the three tribes, driven by desperation and their differences, abandoned their homelands and set out to find a new land. They all happened to find the same land, which set their strife to work again, summoning the Windigo’s. It had only ended when their aides, Smart Cookie, Private Pansy and, of course, Clover the Clever, had discovered the Magic of Friendship and driven back the cold.
Hearthswarming eve pageants showed the events as if they happened over only a few hours. In reality, of course, it had taken longer- much longer. The three tribes had existed in the land that would become Equestria for years, a tense peace existing between them. Each had held their own kingdom, their own laws; and the seat of power in Unicornia was the palace of Princess Platinum herself.
When the tribes united, it had taken time for the lands to do the same; the construction of a new palace, Canterlot, had been instrumental in the peace. Pegasopolis, being constructed of clouds, was broken down; according to legend, parts of its foundation were placed in all the cloud cities that had been built since. Earth had turned its capital into the first settlement to house members of all the tribes. But the palace…
Nopony knew what had become of the Platinum Palace. Some legends said that it had been constructed entirely from its namesake, and so could not be destroyed; others claimed that Platinum, unwilling to bow to any authority than her own, refused to tear it down- and that she had frozen there, as last tribute to the winds. After her adventure in the Haymalaya's, Daring wasn't sure she believed that part anymore.
Whatever the case, what ponies could not destroy, time had. There were no pieces of Pegasopolis in modern cities; clouds weren't stable enough to last centuries. Hundreds of towns, from Ponyville to Manehatten, claimed to be the first Earth settlement. And the Platinum Palace had been lost forever- if it had ever existed to begin with.
Blueblood certainly seemed to think it did. He stared at Daring Do, placing a hoof on the map between them.
“My family are descended from Princess Platinum,” he said. “Her diaries, and this map, have been passed down, from parent to foal, for generation upon generation. I have spent my entire life decoding the journal; I received my cutie mark when I finally began to understand the map.”
He looked pleased at that. Daring raised an eyebrow, and gestured at the parchment; he nodded, and she picked it up, frowning.
“This leads to the Platinum Palace,” she said skeptically. Blueblood nodded. Daring stared at the two pieces, before placing them back on the table. “You don’t really expect me to believe this, do you?”
Something twisted across Blueblood’s face, and he seemed to slump into his chair. “I expect nopony to trust what I have to say,” he answered darkly. Daring frowned, thinking of his reaction in her house. He straightened his back, and swept his mane aside, his voice more even. “You have the resources of Canterlot at your disposal, Daring Do. Feel free to verify what I have said, but I am right- this map, and this journal are the key. The key to the resting site of Princess Platinum.”
“Let’s say you’re right,” daring said slowly, not quite able to believe she was saying the words. “And these do lead to the Platinum Palace… why do you care? What’s there that you want so badly?”
“Is it so hard to believe that I want the same as you, Daring Do? To find lost knowledge for the good of all ponykind?”
“Yes.”
Blueblood scowled, and he set the glass on the table. “Questioning your betters is something you find attractive is it, Daring Do,” he hissed. “I am a prince of Equestria. That is reason enough.”
“Not for me,” Daring said. She placed the book on the table, and rose to her hooves, cocking her helmet. “Thanks for the offer, Princey, but I’m too busy for a foal’s errand. Try somepony else.”
She started to step towards the door, and two guards, wearing the armor of the night, crossed their spears. She stopped, sizing the pair up and down. The Royal Guard was one of the most well-trained organisations in Equestria… and it looked like their new captain, Shining Armor, had finally gotten around to fixing the weak joints and vulnerable patches that had been so useful to exploit for so long.
“I don’t want somepony else, Daring Do,” Blueblood said, rising to his hooves. “I've asked, and everypony agrees on one thing: that when it comes to getting through traps and obstacles, there is no pony finer than you. You’re the one I want leading this, Daring. And when I want something, I get it.”
Daring tensed up as he raised a hoof. The guards behind her took a step- to the side. The passage was unbarred. Daring frowned, and looked back at Blueblood, who wore an odd expression, as if he had tasted something bitter. “Please.”
Daring glared at the prince, trying to weigh how much he knew about what he had just done. Trying to keep her captive would have ended badly; it wouldn't take long for one of the Princesses to learn about their nephews antics, but if Daring hadn't escaped before that happened, she didn't deserve to be called an adventurer. If he had tried killing her… well, Daring knew at least three cults which had a vested interest in keeping her alive, and one order of assassins which was sworn so fully to being the cause of her demise that Blueblood, his men and the rest of the palace staff wouldn't live another week.
He couldn't know any of that. He was exactly what he looked like; a spoiled brat, used to getting his way. Throwing a tantrum had only caused her to leave; his pleas were just those of a child, wheedling to get what force wouldn't as a last recourse. Blueblood was an idiot, and she owed him nothing.
But…
Daring felt his eyes pulled to the table, and felt that drive gather in her stomach again. It was, almost certainly, a foal’s errand, especially if Blueblood had personally decoded the directions. But Daring had had a career of false-starts and dead ends. The sceptre of Celestia had been a fraud, and instead of an ancient doomsday weapon, all her team had found in the desert was more sand, rocks, and a stick. The Platinum Palace was sure to be another in a line of Daring Do’s Not-Adventures.
But, a small voice said, what if it’s not? The voice of Yearling.
Daring relaxed a little. “I want to read the book.”
“Of course.”
“And the map.”
Blueblood nodded. “What you are reading, Do, are private family secrets,” he said, stepping past her. “I have no intention of parting with them. Or any intention of letting you leave with them,” he added. “Whatever you need, you will have. My servants will prepare a room for you upstairs- but if you breathe a word of this to anyone before our business is concluded, the results will be… unpleasant.”
A servant closed the doors behind him, leaving Daring Do in the room with the guards. If she made a break for it, she could be airborne and out of the castle before they knew what had happened, but she had no plans of that. She walked back towards the desk, lifting the small, dark journal.
“Can somepony get me some water? And a candle. This will be a long night.” She thought about what she just said, adding, “And something stronger than water, and bigger than a shot glass. This will be a very long night.”
