Author's Note
And here’s the beginning to the story about what happened to Daring’s sister.
Prologue
Star Log hummed a jaunty tune as she traced a simple map, one that was clearly decades old. Star Log was eight years old, and she was already drawing up maps of the surrounding area. Of course, she would have been lost if it hadn’t been for her little sister, Daring Do. Daring was only five years old and overly adventurous; the filly had followed Star into the wilderness near Melody Brook. Star had lost track of their progress; she knew which direction town was but not which way that was. Daring had managed to find a hidden place in the forest, and the two had managed to navigate the area.
Star had found an old recording book and decided to look through it. Her cutie mark was a night-themed chart and book with a star fountain pen and wave quill; it would be a waste not to check this sort of thing. It had been two weeks since she had gotten her mark, and the talent was proving marginally useful. She still didn’t know which way was west, though, she knew that was the direction of the town. She knew the sunset in the west, but if they waited that long their parents would be distraught.
She caught a flash of light from the corner of her eye; she quickly closed the book that she had been tracing in and scooped all the materials on the table into her bag along with the book itself; she would look them over in detail later. Daring scurried in a few seconds later with a look of excitement on her face; she showed Star Log an old rose compass. It looked like it was in excellent condition, and very functional. Star wanted to just take the compass and follow it out but decided against it, she didn’t want to ruin her little sister’s joy, and instead decided to say something that would show her sister some encouragement, and if Daring got them lost for a few hours, she would make a comment about Daring doing her best and request the compass so she could navigate them out of the wilderness.
“Alright, Daring,” said Star, “we need to go west to get home; it’s marked by the letter that looks like to v’s lined up end to end; it’s actually called double-U, though. Think you can lead the way out?”
Daring giggled a bit before looking down at the compass for a moment before looking straight up and turning a bit to the right and walking in the direction that Star Log could have sworn was north; she really was turned around more than she thought.
“Daring, what was that flash I saw?”
It was almost time for her to start her first day of school, so their parents had gotten Daring her first backpack. Daring went everywhere with it; it was practically a miracle the thing hadn’t been torn as she followed Star through the forest. Daring stopped for a moment and put the compass in the pocket of her shorts before taking her backpack off and opening it to reveal an old magic light lantern; she turned its wheel quickly to the right and then left, and it gave off a flash that was easily mistakable for that of the acquisition a cutie mark. Daring thought about something for a moment before handing it to Star, who accepted with a few words of gratitude.
Daring then resealed her bag and threw it back on herself before reaching into her pocket and checking the compass before once again leading the way. About a half hour later, they were out of the forest and much closer to the town than Star had anticipated. “Well,” said Star, “aren’t you the clever little navigator,” she then ruffled her little sister’s mane. “We should go on more adventures together.”
There was a flash of light, and Star took a quick look at the lantern before looking over to see her sister checking her own flank and grinning with excitement; Daring had pulled up her shorts to reveal a rose compass similar to the one she had used to guide them out of the forest.
Star and Daring Hunt for "Treasure"
Daring was in the most adorable pout the entire hike; the two were following a map that Star Log had “copied” toward a prize that supposedly hadn’t been found. That’s not why her little sister was in a notably sour mood the entire hike; she was in a sour mood because she had been forced to leave her new favorite toy behind. They had managed to convince Daring that Gingersnap might get torn on the trip, a tactic they quickly turned to when Daring showed little regard for the fact Gingersnap might get more than a bit dirty.
In truth, the map was something Star had concocted on her own with a few suggestions from their mother. Their mother, who wanted the fillies out of the house for a bit while she ran some of her experiments; some of the experiments that were run by Astra Showers were potentially dangerous for fillies; their father was fine because he had already gone a bit overboard in warding his workspaces to keep Astra’s weather out of his personal space.
The “treasure” was just a bunch of random stuff in an old wooden crate that had been done up to look like a chest of some kind, a bit of work by some of Star’s good friends from school. Timber Art was always good with woodwork, and it showed as his cutie mark, while his twin sister Ingot Plate was accomplished at metalwork. The two had discovered their talents on a visit to Canterlot two years prior; Star Log had missed out due to a rather nasty bug that had her laid up in bed for almost a full week; she had been looking forward to seeing what Canterlot was like. Due to budgetary constraints, the school wouldn’t be able to make a trip like that again for another year or two from the present; by that time, Star would probably have already graduated from school.
The map led them all around the town for almost a full hour before finally stopping at a big rock on the far left edge of the forest. The journey itself had intentionally gotten the girls dirty and torn their clothes in a few places; a miscalculation had almost given Star a scar on her right shoulder. The negligibly dangerous route was enough to convince Daring that leaving Gingersnap behind had been a good call, especially with the three times her backpack had gotten caught, only one of which had been planned by Star.
“Well, here we are,” said Star Log when they finally reached the destination; looking at the place told her that whoever had planted the ‘treasure’ had done an excellent job of making it look like the whole thing had been buried ages ago, she just hoped what was inside corroborated that impression.
Daring dug out a set of multi-sectioned self-assembly shovels and put one together before she wondered around the rock a bit, then started digging on the right side closer to the forest, which struck Star as odd because she had been informed it would be on the left closest to town. Regardless, she followed Daring’s lead.
About a half hour later, they had dug up an old strongbox, which curiously had something that looked like Princess Celestia’s mark on it next to a white crescent moon she recognized but didn’t want to voice out just yet. Daring then dragged the lockbox out in front of the rock and went to where Star had been told the treasure was and started digging; fifteen minutes later, Daring pulled up a treasure chest from a play or movie.
“Something you want to tell me,” inquired Daring.
“Caught me,” said Star, “I worked with some friends to create this treasure hunt for you, that ‘prize’ you just unearthed, the one you pulled up before it wasn’t planned.”
“I thought it was a bit odd when you started drawing up a map of the surrounding area,” said Daring, “you kind of made the layout a mishmash of different eras; that’s not like you.”
Great, Star just got called out on the ploy by her baby sister on something so basic she should have noticed it before things got this far. “Well, that was a success and a bust,” came Ingot’s voice as she and her brother emerged from the nearby woods; the twins were both earth ponies and around the same age as Star Log. Daring hadn’t noticed the approach of the siblings and quickly went into her non-conversational mode.
“Come on,” said Star, “let’s get these back to our place, and then we can see about trying to open them. Daring and Ingot will handle carrying the strongbox, and I’ll handle carrying the chest with Timber.” Without a word, after that, the two teams lifted the items in question and started hauling them off.
Author's Note
A quick glimpse at some of Star Log’s friends happened in this chapter, we’re still on the gentle slice of life-esque chapters. Since this story is supposed to be about Star, and almost all the chapters had the appearance of focusing on Daring at times, the next chapter will be more involved in focusing on Star
