Daring looked over her manuscript; it had been proofread by Spike and Twilight a dozen times, officially. Unofficially Rainbow Dash had read through the document fifteen times. Her biggest problem was how to word things, so her publisher didn’t come looking for ‘A.K. Yearling’ when all was said and done. She could just have official reports of her passing on after finishing the manuscript, but then she wouldn’t the royalties from the finished product’s sale.

Thankfully, Ponyville’s park was an excellent place for a pony to gather their thoughts, especially since there were very few ponies in the park. To her delighted surprise, ponies in this town didn’t really care who she was, or just didn’t recognize her thanks to the considerable changes she had gone through since finding the idol. Despite the relaxing atmosphere the park presented, Daring still had a nearly impossible time getting her mind off her worries.
If there was one thing Daring knew about the publishing house that produced and distributed copies of her work, it was they weren’t above trying to take a more significant cut when they thought they could get away with it. She had, thankfully, established a series of bylines in her contract with them that stated if they ever tried to stiff her they were legally liable for what came next, but that would be voided if they were under the assumption she was deceased.

Daring had been using the gains she got from the book series to finance her expeditions, while also keeping a little in reserve for emergencies. Just as she used a pseudonym as an author, she also used an alias with her bank, a moniker that the publishers were probably partially aware of. As a means of keeping things less traceable by those she had built up antagonistic relations with on her journeys she got all of her proceeds sent to a mailbox under an alias with the one it was written to kept blank, the publishers thought she was being paranoid when it all started. They were less concerned with that and saw it was basically their best selling series.

They had even tried investigating “A.K. Yearling” to find out how their checks to her were being handled, and Daring had caught onto the dozen or so private investigators they had sent to spy on her pretty early on. She had fun giving the PIs the runaround, even if it was annoying most of the time, a few times were even dull.

To make matters worse, Daring couldn’t just show up at the facility and announce the series was officially over, especially given her new figure. Daring hated that she had to rely on others to do this particular legwork, but she had little choice in the matter. Princess Twilight would probably be the best option for this endeavor, given her closeness to Daring at for the time being and understanding of codes and systems that most ponies took little to no interest in. Princess Celestia would probably be another good choice, but given her almost nonexistent rapport with the Alicorn of the Sun and the fact that said alicorn was busy ruling over Equestria most of the time that didn’t seem like a good option.

Daring hoped that when Twilight went to speak with the publishers things didn’t get too out of hand; chances were Twilight would probably try and negotiate for ownership of her unpublished manuscript the publishers likely still had somewhere.

This situation was going to be tricky. As long as everypony stuck to the script they should be fine, Twilight was very good at adhering to a script. Thankfully, Daring had thought enough ahead to provide Twilight with a, surprisingly long, list of potential responses the publishers might have. Daring needed as much of clean break from her A.K. Yearling persona as possible, while still managing to get some new income from the last official book in the series.

If the publishers didn’t adhere to her terms, then she had actually prepared a form that had all the legal power to remove the publishers from their hold on the series. If they weren’t will to accept that this was the final book by A.K. Yearling, then she’d just turn over the rights to one of the princesses.

The princesses being in on why she was redirecting everything was as much of a help as it was a hindrance. But desperate times called for drastic measures. The publishing house Daring used wouldn’t relinquish one of their leading money makers so easily; Daring had even informed them with her last book that the one to follow would be the final novel of the official series. Chances are they wouldn’t care that the next Daring Do book was fully intended by the author to be the last, considering how she chose to end said book.

Daring couldn’t come face to face with them now as A.K. Yearling, even if she could disguise her age with cunning makeup work she wouldn’t be able to hide her new figure. While Daring as she was now was one to want to show off her form at almost any given opportunity, this was one case when her former figure was required.

Zelshirska was very much aware of the dilemma she had put Daring in, but it was against the rules of the divine to revoke gifts given to mortals if they have yet to violate their terms of agreement. Daring was just beginning her mission; it was poor form to take back what was given before they could actually start with their mission statement. Daring and Zelshirska needed some new options.

It was at around this time Pinking was bouncing by, her tight yellow shorts did an excellent job of emphasizing her toned partially bubbly rear, and her surprisingly loose fitting sky blue shirt did the same for her bosom. Her mark stamped firmly on the right rear bumper and left breast of her attire.

“Hey Dary, whatcha doin’?” said Pinkie in her usual cheery voice.

Daring sighed in annoyance, “I’m trying to figure out how to cut ties with the publishing house while still getting the royalties for the final book in the series. I just know they’re going to want a face to face with ‘A.K. Yearling’ but I can’t exactly do so with my new figure, I barely look like the old me at this point. My new frame is barely enough to support my new assets properly, but I’ve surprisingly not had any back issues since they grew the first or second times, it’s almost as if something about my anatomy finds my new funbags not worth noticing.”

“Maybe one of your bonuses was a divine gift not to suffer ill effects associated with changes to your figure, anything else we should know?”

“I’m pretty sure Spike knocked me up, I can practically feel myself growing pregnant. It’ll probably be a few weeks before I start showing, and a few months before it’s more evident.”

Pinkie got a little giddy; it wasn’t very often she got a warning about when foals were going to be born. These were extra special foals, not just because they were foals of a pony and dragon but because they were going to be Spike’s. The fact that the mother-to-be happened to be Daring Do was just a little bonus in Pinkie’s mind, and her friends got top billing when it came to her priorities, always.

Pinkie had actually read the unofficial report a couple dozen times, by both Daring and Spike. Daring’s new attire for the day was a pair of blue shorts and a form-fitting green shirt; it was evident she didn’t have a bra but did at least did have panties. It was also apparent her clothing was more of a rush job, which meant it was something Rarity threw together for Daring to wear while she worked on the real attire. Most ponies wouldn’t notice, but Pinkie certainly did, that Daring was more than a little uncomfortable in her attire.

“So,” said Pinkie, “that’s the manuscript for the next, and last, Daring Do book.”

“Yeah,” said Daring with a bit of annoyance, “Spike and Twilight did some proofreading to make sure the wording wasn’t too confusing, Rainbow Dash snuck a few peaks at the unpublished work as well, but I’m still worried.”

“How come?”

“Chances are the publishers are going to want a face to face with ‘A.K. Yearling’, which is something I can’t exactly give them in my current state. I can’t exactly throw on my guise and trot right in for that sort of thing; my new figure kind makes that a bit more than tricky.”

“Ooh, good point,” said Pinkie, suddenly getting a lite serious, “and negotiating through proxy is also not something that doesn’t tend to bode well… What if you had Twilight help with that, she’s a genius in the ways of magic.”

“I was actually thinking about how she would be the most likely candidate for liaison, seeing as my current figure prevents me from being able to dawn my guise for a face to face properly and pegasus magic can’t really help me in this case.”

“I’m sure Twi knows a spell that can help, and if not she can probably find one to do the job. Because you’re right, it would be best if ‘A.K. Yearling’ did a face to face with them and explained everything, it would help you to take care of some other things you need to handle.”

“I think I’ll go see her in a bit; Spike wanted some alone time with Twilight and the other princesses.”

“You need to take your mind off the heavy stuff for a bit; it’ll help ya clear your head. Could you do that thing you did with Cadance with me?”

“Why?”

“Because I like making ponies happy, and sometimes a genuinely good kiss can do that.”

“In other words, you want to spice things up with your coltfriend.”

“Ya caught me,” said Pinkie with a sheepish grin.

“I suppose,” said Daring. She walked right up to Pinkie and gave her a two-minute long intimate kiss, with no break. When the kiss ended Daring said, “Thanks for the help, Pinkie.”

“No problem,” said Pinkie, with a goofy grin on her face, “you really know how to kiss, and the lessons are pretty involved as well.”

Daring just shook her head as she stashed the manuscript in her sidebag at her left side, which was ironically made for her by Rarity and her daughter while she and Spike were out of town.

******************************************

A few hours later Daring was back at the castle, with Spike, Twilight, and Cadance. The first thing that happened when she got there was a surprise, and slightly uncomfortable, hug from a pink alicorn in a sky blue dress. Princess Cadance was babbling something about babies, Daring just let her get it out of her system. After the nearly five-minute excited rant, Cadance finished off with, “Have any names decided yet?”

“It’s still a little early for that,” said Daring, “besides, I’m just going to go with whatever comes to mind when the little darlings pop out. We don’t know how many we could have, considering there’s very little information regarding pony/dragon hybrids. What I have managed to find on such things are documentations dating back to before the initial reign of the Royal Sisters, and even those are mostly illegible. For all we know, I could end up having one foal or triplets. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have business to discuss with Twilight.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Cadance.

Daring gave a shallow sigh and said, “If you want to be there for the conversation feel free to join.”

She found Twilight in the library, amusingly reading a book on cartography, Daring cleared her throat in a loud manner to get the alicorn’s attention, “Oh, Daring,” said Twilight, “what can I help you with?”

“I’m going to need your help talking with my publishers, seeing as my anatomy has drastically changed I’m going to need quite a bit of help, and you know I’m really not one to ask for help all that often. I’ve been thinking on this almost all day, and just now came to a decision that I’m going to genuinely require your assistance. Your friend Pinkie was a bit of help on that as well.”

“I’m always happy to help,” Twilight, “you’re thinking you might need some face time with the board of the publishing house, right?”

“That’s the gist of it, but my current figure makes that a bit more trying than it should be.”

“Perfectly understandable, I think I might have access to a spell that could help. But the spell in question would only last a few days under normal circumstances; chances are we might have only a few hours due to the fact divine energies literally changed you. Which you will be channeling more regularly as part of your services in the future, I'm going to want some notes on how that works. I’m guessing you’re coming to me means you can’t use any of that divine magic to help you in this situation.”

“I practiced a bit, but I couldn’t drop my assets less than thirty percent, and even then I could only hold it for about nine minutes. I think that had more to do with who I was near, that being Spike at the time. I think I can control the form of my body based on the desires of others around me, but I really haven’t tested that theory yet.”

“We’ll get to analyzing that theory later, right now we need to work on a plan of attack for your publishers. Grand Tales Press is no joke; they turned into one of the industry giants, thanks in part to the fact their company won distribution rights for the Daring Do series. Why did you go with them anyway?”

“They were the most conveniently available for me at the time, and they put in a byline about having exclusive rights to Daring Do series,” said Daring, “I was young and stupid then, I didn’t bother to read the fine print in those days. And by the time I did bother with such things I was already locked in so tight legally that all attempts to negotiate my contract met with minimal success, if any at all.”

“Okay, the first thing we’ll need is a copy of your most recent contract. They might be good, but every legally binding contract has some errors that can be found and taken advantage of if you know how and where to look.”

“I’ll get right on that as soon as I can,” said Daring, “seeing as my copy of the contract is in a safety deposit box in Manehattan. Under normal circumstance, it would be a bank official and me, but as a princess, you can take charge of handling the other key, the fewer ponies that know me as my aliases see me like this for the time being, the better. I’ll come out with the truth once we have the new town’s primary structures are taken care of."

Author's Notes:

Well, this is a pretty mundane problem, but pretty big. Next chapter Shining Armor and Flurry Heart make an appearance, the chapter that follows that is currently planned to be Daring and Twilight dealing with the publishing house (anyone with suggestions or experience regarding that field feel free to send me some notes to help make that chapter a bit more believable).