With their chat with Celestia and Luna wrapped up, giving Daring a few good ideas on how to go forward, and the trains still running, Daring and Twilight head on down to deal with her publishers. Spike and Flurry were doing their job of acting as the coordinators, as such, they sent notice to Shining and Cadance about what transpired at the castle.

Daring decided since they were already there to hand Celestia her latest copy of the legal agreement and tell her she had full rights to read through her backlog copies of the legal contracts. She wanted to be thorough in the investigation into just how legal her supposedly legally binding agreements really were. She really didn’t think much of it before, mostly because was out finding and securing artifacts that could mean the safety of Equestria if not the world, but recent events had forced her to reconsider a few things. She also wanted to tie up as many loose ends to her prior life before diving fully into running the faith, and by default clergy, of Zelshirka.

Of course, the trans still weren’t running to their destination. In fact, after a quick check, Twilight found that no trains would be going there for almost a month. Twilight decided to just speed things up, after making sure Daring had everything she needed she cast the glamour on her and teleported them to their destination.

The building that housed Grand Tales Press didn’t look all that impressive; it actually looked a little rundown from the outside. Not what one would expect from a publishing house that was responsible for one of the most popular adventure series in the nation. Twilight suspected the inside would look far more impressive; she also had suspicions that a good portion of the proceeds from the Daring Do series was being spent elsewhere. Of course, she couldn’t be sure without a look at their books, and that was assuming they didn’t file false reports in their own records.

After the stunts that were being pulled the last month or so, Twilight wouldn’t be surprised to find false records masquerading as the real ones. But still, it looked like Daring’s declaration that this would be the last book in the series prompted some of the more questionable actions on the publisher’s part. Twilight would love to look at Daring’s backlog of legal agreements, but she could wait on that a bit to take a look at those. Getting a read on Daring’s publishers came first, Daring could make all the claims in the world about them, but without her own impressions of them, Twilight couldn’t correctly make her own read on them. She had gotten better at being able to tell when somepony she interacted with was faking it over the years.

Despite her generally abrasive personality when they first met, Daring was a genuinely honest pony. Of course, after she was affected by the idol she went through a few personality changes, that somehow managed to make Twilight feel more than a little uncomfortable a few times, but was more of the familial awkward kind of embarrassed than the legal or political sort. Daring was still a bit rough around the edges, but she was a getting less abrasive as things went on.

Of course, chances were she would be pretty abrasive in the subsequent interactions. Just What kind of relationship did Daring have with her publishers? From the sounds of it, she didn’t have a high opinion of them, not mention her statement about being restricted in her options thanks her legal agreement and an inability to get out of it. With the changing of the guard, so to speak, one would think Daring would at least catch a break.

When they entered the lobby Twilight saw something that was more along the lines of what she expected, the room was well furnished in her opinion. Of course, if Rarity saw the room chances were she would cringe. Just because it was decently equipped didn’t mean it was well-maintained, at most, it was kept to the bare minimum for a properly cared for room. It seemed they were slacking off at the bar set for keeping their most public face indoors maintained. It was seeming as if Daring’s opinion of them was at least somewhat justified.

The walls were adorned with framed pictures of prior and current high ranking staff members, nothing unusual about that. Daring went right over to the image of a pony by the name of Fiscal Choice and started tapping around it before giving an annoyed sigh and literally moving a section the wall with the picture in a left-oriented downward sliding door by pressing a point to the right of the wall above the image, revealing a hidden compartment.

Twilight figured this was the hidden compartment Daring had mentioned with her first genuine problem with the publishing house that started her distrust towards them, showing further justification to the young alicorn’s eyes. Inside the cavity was a collection of small strongboxes with old dial style combination locks. Almost reflexively Daring turned the dials to the proper codes after two or three failed attempts and handed the opened boxes Twilight.

Intrigued Twilight looked inside the opened boxes only to find further annoyance, every single piece in the boxes were in-house memos giving suggestions on how to cheat their authors within their own contracts. Twilight knew these wouldn't be admissible in a court of law, no matter who presented them, if they were presented before the court without the proper legal proceeding beforehand. She would place an inquiry to the Equestrian Proper Business Ministry for this company when she got home. After reading through a few and setting them back as she found them and closing the boxes again, she passed them back to Daring, who promptly returned them to the cavity precisely as she found them before closing the door on the crevice.

The fact they would go out of their way to install something like that, in their own lobby no less, was a severe point against the publishers. Just as much of a tally against them was the egregious fact they had in-house memos giving notes on how to stiff the authors they had under their roof. Twilight suddenly realized they might realize that Daring showed the secret chamber to her, reaching into her bag she sent a message that immediately sent a notice to Spike and Flurry telling them to forward a particular set of notes to Celestia and Luna. With any luck, the investigators would show up for a “surprise” inspection and find the evidence of Grand Tale’s less than ethical business practices.

The two then sat down in one of the seemingly plush, but only marginally comfortable chairs after Daring hit the button that was supposed to ring up the receptionist. This was one of their first real tests, how long it took the receptionist to respond when they weren’t visually available at their post. After a half hour waiting, another tick against them, a very meek looking unicorn mare with a festive red mane and holly green coat appeared.

“Sorry for the wait,” the receptionist said a tone so meek that Fluttershy and Coco Pommel both seemed far more assertive on their usual days.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” said Twilight, “might I inquire your name and the reason you took so long to respond?”

The mare looked a little nervous, she took a look at Daring before moving her attention back to Twilight, “Um,” she paused for a little over a full minute, “I’m Holly Belle, and the reason I’m so late is because I’m also used as a secretary around the office. They say there’s not enough room in the budget to afford a full-time receptionist and secretary. I wasn’t even supposed to be here this long… I was sent here by a temp agency; I was supposed to be out of everypony’s manes two months ago. They said something about liking me so much they thought would be best to keep around as a more permanent member. Well actually, they used the word ‘fixture,’ I don’t like this. They keep me around a bit too long, and nopony bothers to adjust my pay accordingly. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m rambling. I kind of do that when I’m nervous, which is a lot lately.”

“It’s fine,” said Daring, surprising the mare and Twilight, especially since she was using her prior abrasive voice, “I’ve been working with these jokers for decades. They’ve been trying to skimp on our agreement for as long as I’ve known them, even with them changing out new ponies three times to keep ponies at their peak. Three generations of jerks, mostly because I still haven’t been able to get more favorable outcomes for me. Did they lock you in with a contract that severely restricts your options?”

“Um, yes,” said Holly, “and I’m only permitted to discuss such things with other contract holders, according to article nine-section six-subjection-four.” Twilight gave the mare an interested look.

“You remembered that offhand,” said Twilight, “that’s genuinely impressive.”

“I wanted to be a legislative or legal secretary, but I wanted to get some experience in the workforce before applying to such things in earnest,” she suddenly realized Twilight was an alicorn, “oh, um, forgive me for wasting your time, princess.”

“Not at all,” said Twilight, “Ms. Yearling just came to me for assistance in making sure her latest work transitions more smoothly, along with a few legal questions, she admits to feeling a bit burned out on the series and intends to retire from being an author after this last book. She just wants to make sure all the legal proceedings follow the course they’re supposed. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a look at your contract as well; we need to make sure that every business is keeping to the legal obligations they have.”

“Oh, um,” Holly started wringing her hands together while she talked, “they made sure to make me a copy, but they put it in the company safe, they said something about not wanting it getting lost since I don’t really have a readily available safety deposit.”

Twilight frowned, the whole point of a pony having a copy is so they could compare it against the other, by putting the copy in a place they control at their insistence the publisher was already in violation of one of their agreements.

Unknown to Daring and Holly, Twilight was using a magical audio recorder to provide physical evidence of all this. She didn’t think she would really need it, but given Daring’s less than amicable opinion of her publishers Twilight thought would be safer to err on the side of caution. Of course, she didn’t switch it on discreetly until she had heard the receptionist approaching. Turning it on had been a right call, seeing what Holly had said wasn’t provoked out of her. The mare had volunteered the information freely, even if they were found mostly innocent of Daring’s accusations Holly’s admission of their choice of legal actions would definitely warrant the investigation that she was asking Celestia and Luna to call on the publishers during her visit.

____________________________________

Daring couldn’t help feeling sorry for Holly Belle, mostly because she remembered being in the exact same situation. The only real difference was Holly lacked any sort of real assertive properties, which was probably why they decided to keep her. It’s easier to control somepony when they lack the will to genuinely fight back.

What made things worse, this publishing house was still up to its tricks from when she first had to deal with them. How it was possible for three generations of members to continue the same methods of being complete jerks, if not utter dicks, was a generational accomplishment of the lowest order and highest moronicism Daring had ever encountered. While a company not changing its policies could be admirable, in this case, it was just dicks being pricks. Not once in the history of the publishing house, which predated Daring herself by only about a score, had anypony within its higher echelons been a mare, it was always all stallions.

It seemed the highest powers in the nation being mares wasn’t enough incentive to deter their chauvinistic tendencies and policies. Now they were following a mare who was incredibly meek, and probably socially and mentally abused but to docile to fight back if she did realize it. Daring then came to an unnerving thought, what if all the issues she was having with these publishers was because she was a mare?

Daring leaned in towards Twilight as they moved through hallway and whispered her suspicions to her, in summary. She’d share her full doubts where it was a guarantee the publishers couldn’t hear her. Daring just wanted to get this whole thing over with, but now she felt a need for a rescue operation for poor Holly Belle.

Holly Belle finally finished leading them to the Main Editor’s office and got the door for them; Daring couldn’t tell if she was just being courteous or had explicitly been “instructed” to get the door for whomever she was with. Inside was new pony to her, as was evident by the shiningly new nameplate with pointless gold trim and lettering.

“Ah, Ms. Yearling,” said a young earth pony stallion with mahogany fur and a fire orange mane, so young he would have probably been in diapers when Twilight and her friends had come to visit Daring that first time. “It’s so good to meet you; I’ve heard wonderful things about you.”

“Stow the false platitudes,” said Daring in her distinctive not-so-friendly tone.

“Still have that unfriendly personality I see.”

_______________________________________________

Twilight opted to wait at the door, with Holly Belle. The other mare was looking extremely nervous; she was likely fidgeting uneasily based on some idea that Twilight would have joined “Yearling” in entering the stallion’s office. Glancing at the nameplate, which she saw was gaudy, she imagined Rarity gagging at its sight and the other princesses ordering it to be destroyed via extraction of each of its different materials to be used for more fitting projects.

Instead of the standard copper plate, this one was actually silver, and the intricate border work and naming font were done in gold. Twilight suspected she had a clearer idea of where most of the proceeds from the Daring Do series were going now. It wasn’t uncommon for high ranking executives to have nameplates like this, but that was big corporations that were practically spread out all over the nation. The name on the plate read “Page Block,” that was a rather odd name for a book pony if you asked her. She could hear Daring arguing with the pony inside in a voice that was as abrasive as it was aggressive, she giggled to herself at how Daring was moving away from those tendencies, but it was good to see that Daring hadn’t completely forgotten her ability to deal with ponies she had a great disdain for.

She heard what was a pretty good cue to join in the conversation and went to see what she could do to smooth things out. Just as she was turning around, she got a response back from Celestia and Luna, as well as Cadance and Shining Armor to her mild surprise, that the investigation team was less than ten minutes out. Twilight nodded to herself and stashed the scroll in her bag as she continued into the office.

“What seems to be the problem here?” Twilight said innocently as she entered the room.

Page Block noticeably stiffened, chances were he wasn’t expecting this. “Princess, what a pleasant surprise,” he said, with very forced grin, that almost made Twilight actually want to retch at its sight. That was a minor accomplishment, especially when you considered she usually felt that sort of thing around the more narcissistic ponies found in Canterlot.

__________________________________________

Daring noticed how the stallion she was “talking” with went rigid the moment he became aware of the alicorn that had just entered the room, it was as if he was afraid of something to the point of paralysis. Considering what Holly had said about her contract, probably a lot. Daring wasn’t sure of a lot of things, but she knew darn well that having a copy of your legal agreement was next to useless if the ones you made a deal with had control of your copy. It seemed the publishers were more morally bankrupt than she thought, looks it was time to get the show on.

“I have here,” said Daring in her Yearling voice, “my final draft for the finale to the Daring Do series. This is the final book in the series,” she tapped her bag to emphasize its proximity, “but due to an unforeseen legal issue pertaining to the latest version of our agreement you won’t be getting it ready for the presses just yet.” Daring further emphasized this with a death glare at the stallion, “get your head of legal in here right now, this just became his only priority.”

--------------------------------------------------

Page Block gulped, visibly. He was sure the princess in the room was mainly here for intimidation purposes, he was confident that she wouldn’t have much input on the proceedings. He wasn’t sure of what Yearling had caught in the latest legal agreement that would have her using harsh words, but he was sure that everything was sounder for the company than she was letting on. His grandfather had impressed on him the importance of making the client feel important while turning the screws and milking them for all they were worth.

Yearling’s book series about the adventuring mare known as Daring Do was always a top seller; he didn’t believe her when she said she was going to be tapped out with this latest book. A.K. Yearling was their premiere money maker; there was no way he would let this golden goose get away from him before she was on her deathbed. When artists and authors kicked the bucket that’s when sales on their work skyrocketed, they needed to keep the publishing rights to the Daring Do series until the very end.

Were their business practices unethical? Probably, were their business practices illegal? Not to his knowledge, his best friend was the head of the legal department and assured him everything they did thus far had yet to fall into the realm of legally wrong. Well, except for the copy of the contract for their new secretary/receptionist but he was assured that they could talk around that should the issue come up. The next scheduled business inspection by the government was still three months out; they had plenty of time to secure all the potentially incriminating evidence in an off-site facility that would be difficult to trace back to anyone in the company and place decoy materials to satisfy the need for secrecy. A few well placed, and slightly out of date, porno mags always seemed to do the trick with the secret compartments if they happened to be found, and could easily be explained away as to why they were in a secret compartment in the facility.

A.K. Yearling was a whale for the company in terms of what she provided, the first legal agreement blunder with her showed they had to be far more careful and have a different approach in dealing with her than any other client. She’d been with them for almost fifty years, thanks mostly to the fact her contract locked her into continued exclusivity with them. But it looked like that was about to change, and they weren’t going to have as much say this time around.

“Holly, could you retrieve Legal File for us,” said Page, “and make it quick, you need to impress on him the urgency of this.” The delightfully timid mare gave several shy, yet vigorous, nods before heading down to File’s office.

Seven minutes later, she took five minutes more than he would have liked, Legal File was in the room and stiffened when he saw who was in the room with them.

Page gave a polite cough to pull his friend out of his trance and bring him up to speed, “Ms. Yearling found something in her latest update to the legal agreement she wishes to discuss.”

“I checked, nine times, and found everything in order with current standing legal codes,” said File in his usual refined Upper Manehattan voice.

“Well, I wasn’t sure,” said Yearling, “so I brought it to Princess Twilight, it worked out as a good decision because I required her assistant’s aid on some of the parts of my latest work.”

=========================================

While technically accurate, Daring moved a few things around and chose careful wording to infer it all had to do with the book. Twilight was probably as versed in legal code as this new pony in front of her; she had also written a few of the new ones he should be aware of. Twilight hated it when ponies were incompetent in the job they claimed was their calling in life, it told her they didn’t understand their duties all that well.

“And I’m glad Ms. Yearling did,” said Twilight, “she also provided me a copy of the agreement prior, and I found several articles that appeared integral to the document in the prior one missing or drastically altered. While I know this in itself isn’t much of an alarm, several lines Ms. Yearling insisted remain in all iterations of her agreement were missing from the latest version. And that’s not even counting the falsified testimonies you have cited and dated for events where she was in fact holding meeting with me and the other princesses, to make such a blunder in an official legal document is a tremendous offense of the client agreements that all businesses must adhere to.”

Both stallions went white as a sheet in terror; they hadn’t counted on expert witnesses in the form the highest powers in the nation being able to call them out on their bid for control.

“To make sure there weren’t any other legally questionable events in our agreements,” continued Daring, “we saw fit to allow the other princesses full access to my backlog in addition to leaving the copy you sent me in their care to analyze, thoroughly. We should be hearing back from them in a few days; they said something like this was high priority.”

Both stallions gulped, while Daring wasn’t entirely accurate, it was true that she let Princess Celestia know she was free to look through Daring’s entire backlogs of legal agreements along with the latest copy of the legal agreement they had sent her before they had departed for the publishing house.

Chances are they knew if the princesses had access to Daring’s backlog they would probably skip the trial, if there were grounds for one, and go straight to shutting down the company and placing all executive officers in prison for questionable business practices.

“Oh, and by the way,” said Twilight, “Holly Belle, sweet mare, rambled something about you having her copy of her legal agreement with you in your care.” The violet alicorn gave a pointed glare; her business casual-looking attire had more the appearance of a combat suit when combined with her disapproving stare.

“Well, you see…” File was cut off by Twilight.

“That’s highly illegal, and has been for the past seventy years,” continued Twilight, “that alone could get your business a suspension on its license.” As if on cue ponies in the Business Inspection Ministry’s attire entered the room.

Daring tapped Page on the shoulder and seemed to space out for a moment before heading over to an overly large, and garishly opulent, painting of the company’s founders and moved it aside to reveal a trot-in vault. With what looked like a practiced memory she turned the five dials to the appropriate numbers and pulled the handle to open said vault.

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

Daring didn’t know how she did it, but she knew everything Page Block did regarding the company the moment she tapped his shoulder to make a show of her condolences. She literally had all his knowledge, including where to find his most incriminating things. She was particularly disturbed at the knowledge that he had commissioned a pornographic painting of the novel version of Daring Do bound in a compromising position which he kept hanging over his chair in a secret room of his house that he used to escape his wife when he wanted to do things out of sight of her. The fact he had found somepony foolish enough to actually marry him was also something that bothered her; chances were he had a divorce in his coming future.

Then it hit her, Zelshirska had said one of her domains was Knowledge. That meant she could obtain, and possibly pass on, info through just touching someone else if she willed it. Thankfully, none of the info pertaining to Page’s sexual history had transferred to her; she would have felt exceedingly dirty if that had been the case. Daring trotted over to Twilight and tapped her on the shoulder to transfer all the info she had gotten from Page she knew was useful regarding the investigation. She also did it to some of the investigators to give them a nudge in the right direction and open the appropriate locks with as little issue as possible.

Daring mentally snickered to herself, if she had had an ability like this half her problems in the field could have been avoided. But then again, she probably wouldn’t have bothered with the whole adventure that led to her bring the broken idol before Twilight in the first place. As her mother was fond of saying, "Everything happens for a reason, but we don't always know what it could be until much later." She hadn’t thought about her parents in a long time, when Star Log had vanished they would have been devastated. Daring had tried working with law enforcement to learn her sister's whereabouts for the first year or so in the wake of Star Log’s disappearance; she left to begin her life as an adventurer after that. She'd go visit them when things settled down; she had a lot to say to them.

To think there were ponies out there that stayed within Equestria’s borders that passed down their unethical behaviors through the generations made her sick, and that she had actually been doing business with such ponies for as long as she did disgusted her to no end. She had spent almost her entire life dealing with ponies of dubious moral character out in the field and thwarted them at every opportunity. But to think the publishing house she had chosen more for proximity to something she felt sentimental attachment towards was helmed by the same kind of ponies made her feel like her attempts to keep everyone safe, while she sought out answers, a bit shy of a wasted effort.

But there was something that still annoyed her; thankfully she had passed all that information along to Twilight. From the looks of things, her stories would be getting distributed by a new publishing house. Daring didn’t mind, as long as her stories remained mostly intact. She decided to head over to the company’s head of the legal department and learn what she could from him, the same way she had Page Block.

__________________________________________________

Twilight was more than a little relieved when the inspection team arrived, and was surprised when Daring tapped her arm causing a rapid flow of information to surge through her for a few seconds. Among the data flow was a few things she was unhappy about, chief among them was the fact they literally had an official from the Inspection Ministry in their pocket. Paying off government officials had always been a dangerous legal offense, even more so with her due to her relations.

She noticed Daring give the head of Legal a firm grip as he tried to make an unseen retreat, the pegasus mare’s gaze hardened a moment after she came in contact with him. Twilight then saw Daring expertly pass along the info to some of the investigation team by tapping them on the back or shoulder as she moved, she had touched six in total. Two of the investigation team turned their attention to one of the ponies investigating but had been curiously skipped by Daring as she passed and went over to hold the stallion in question in another room. Twilight figured that was the investigation pony that was leaking info to this company, or at least closely associated with the leak. The others went to investigate the legal office.

Daring took this time to make her leave; the glamour was reaching its end point anyway. On her way out she told Twilight where she would be waiting. Twilight nodded to the mare and went to speak with a member of the team real quick.

After Daring had departed the building, giving what looked like a reassuring pat on the shoulder Holly Belle on her way out, Twilight gave a quirk of a smile when saw Holly look to the ponies in the office with surprise and disgust. After watching Holly for a few seconds, she went to speak with a member of the investigation team.

“Are you in charge of the investigation here?” Twilight inquired to the mare nearest to her, whom coincidentally was also one of the ponies Daring had discreetly fed some info too.

“Yes ma’am,” said the mare with a salute and bow, “I am Stern Guardian. I was part of the Royal Guard program before Princess Luna saw fit to transfer me here, keeping this bunch in order is almost a full-time job in and of itself,” she quirked a smile, “what can we do for you, princess?”

“Not much,” said Twilight, “I would just like to see a copy of your report when you’re done here, and would like to know why a member of your team is being held isolated from the rest of the group.”

“You, and the other princesses, will have a full copy of our findings, official and otherwise. As for the team member who is isolated, we have a feeling he might be more than a little connected to some of the members of this business. Prior reports on this business mentioned almost nothing of half the things we’ve uncovered already, and the secret compartments we did know about didn’t have what the prior reports recorded. We suspect somepony in the Ministry has been leaking our inspection schedule, which is intended only to be known to those within the Ministry and the princesses themselves if they should ask.”

“It’s possible the leak could go further,” said Twilight with a stern face, “they could have also been using their ‘contact’ to discreetly spy on the competition using the Ministry’s resources.”

“I hadn’t considered that, I’ll pass along your concerns to my superiors, along with any evidence we find that could potentially justify such feelings. I’m aware you likely have a busy schedule, good day, princess.”

Twilight nodded to the pony and made a go to leave, on her way out she noticed a pony having a deceptively simple looking discussion with Holly Belle in another room, it seemed they had taken her personality into account with their investigation method.

Outside Twilight found Daring where she said she would be. “Everything mostly accounted for?” Inquired Daring.

“Yeah,” said Twilight, “looks like they’ll be investigating possible leaks in addition to their thorough search of the premises. How did you do that little knowledge acquisition and sharing trick?”

“Just another little talent I came to realize recently,” said Daring, “the kind that comes from my agreement with a certain divine being. I guess channeling her power allows for that sort of thing, you have to remember she is a dragon goddess.”

“And dragons aren’t known for sharing info willingly, but they are known to engage in close quarters combat. An ability to gather and share knowledge from physical contact does make some sort of sense. I just hope you can have some measure of control over it in time, that’s a potentially problematic ability.”

“No worries, I should have some idea of how to manage it by this time tomorrow, that’s how it was when I learned I could control my own lactation cycle.”

“Please, let’s not talk about that sort of thing, I feel uneasy with openly discussing potentially kinky stuff.”

“Have any thoughts before we head out,” inquired Daring.

“I think once she is no longer required for the investigation I’ll invite Holly Belle to the castle to be my new assistant; Spike was going to need to train someone to take his place eventually.”

With that, the two teleported back to the castle. Hopefully what was found over the course of the investigation would clear up a few things. But to think, a company that was getting away with so much for so long did make the blood of both mares boil a little, for very different reasons. Twilight decided one of the first things she would do when she got home was set up a new publishing house, and with Daring’s permission, redistribute the Daring Do series. She was sure Daring had copies of her original manuscripts for the stories somewhere, most publishers had a habit of editing the books they put out for the populace. As a result, the raw documents were the kind of material subject to the least amount of change and only had changes from the authors themselves.

Author's Notes:

So yeah, I made Daring’s publishing house run by a bunch of unethical jerks. I think the main reason I went that route is because of the relationship I implied Daring had with her publishers. Don’t worry, Twilight’s got plans for a new publishing house, one that will be more inclined to follow the rules. Not to mention, Rainbow’s going to be happy about being able to get all the books in the series all over again, she’ll probably want to dump most of the Daring Do books she has when she learns about their immoral legal decisions regarding Daring herself.

And, hey new side character for everyone to enjoy.

As always, my policies regarding using the materials and characters I provide are open for everyone with the the only rule you contact me about it or send me a link or copy for the art piece.

Personally, I don’t know why I included Holly, or why I made her coat and mane follow a Christmas theme.