Author's Notes:

So, this chapter is basically just Daring and Cadance having a long conversation. I’m going to warn you now, some of this gets a little sad. While I would like to keep the story lighthearted, I felt like some heavy stuff needed to be mentioned. Because it is so brief, I’m not going to add the [Sad] tab to the story, that might change if I somehow manage to continue adding in some sad stuff. But the sad stuff is mainly to provide info on Daring’s past, showing a contrast between her less than enjoyable personal history and the happiness she’s come to accept as her current situation.

I also added a foothold for some lore building.

Daring couldn’t understand what she was doing on a balcony, which happened to be big enough to host a “small” dinner party, with Cadance and an impressive lunch spread. What was worse, she had barely gotten a short greeting in with Spike before Flurry whispered something into her mother’s ear that prompted the pink alicorn to “insist” that she spend some private time with Daring, after a quick stop off at the medical wing to get a blood sample. Daring had her suspicions about what was coming next.

“Keen Tone wasn’t known for his social tendencies, something you clearly share,” started Cadance after twelve minutes of awkward silence, during which time a number crystal castle staff set the private dining area for the two, "but we still need to investigate your claims.”

“I figured as much when you ‘insisted’ Shining and Spike spend quality time together by requesting the profiles of Keen Tone and Astra Showers,” said Daring. “I’m not one to make baseless stories; you know this pretty well. I suppose you’re also sending out requests for the guest list for their funerals and pictures to help substantiate the claims. I would do the same in your position.”

“Yes, and I also want to discuss that with you a bit as well. Nopony really knows what either of those two were like in their private lives, if everything you said is true that means you at least have some ideas of what their private lives were like. You’re right about Astra, she was an amazing weather pony but lacked the ability to be a leader. Although, many of her ideas regarding weather are used to improve weather practices in our modern era. She was a meteorological genius, and was just as gifted in the field of astronomy. She knew the night sky better than anypony in her day, and her understanding of wild weather has just recently been formally recognized by weather experts.”

“Were some of the wild storm cloud fragments she had stashed in jars still around when ponies searched the house? Of course chances are they were in her special compartment in the basement.”

Cadance blinked a few times, “The knowledge of storm cloud fragments in a room behind a cabinet in the basement of Keen Tone’s home wasn’t released to the public, we’re still trying to figure out what the cloud fragments were doing there.”

“Yep, that would be mom’s ‘lab’ in the basement,” said Daring with a smirk. “She always told us we weren’t allowed down there when we were little, but after we got our marks she showed us what was going on down there,” Daring gave a chuckle, “we both gasped when she told us they were pieces of wild storm clouds.”

Cadance looked at Daring in surprise, “Did she say why she was keeping it all hidden?”

“Yeah, she said something along the lines of her research not being officially recognized and not wanting to get in trouble before Equestria was ready. My thoughts, she was just afraid of what other ponies would say about it all. I’m sure Princess Celestia would have been willing to spend some time at least to hear her out on her research and theories, but when I asked her about it, she said she just didn’t want to bother the princess with her silly hobby. Although, it seems she knew just how to contain the pieces for an extended period of time, that’s an accomplishment in itself.”

“Yes, it is. We would all like to study the jars, but all the ones we’ve found are either broken or occupied.”

“I think I can help you there,” said Daring, “she said exactly what to do if a pony of your station asked about the whereabouts of her jars.”

“What did she say to do?”

“Let me see, how did that go again?” Daring tapped her head and massaged her temple for a bit before saying, “oh right, she said to ‘listen to the melody of the clouds, the song of the twelve most frequent will lead you to what you seek.’ She then went on to say that if you can’t make sense of the riddle or follow the instructions that you aren’t worthy of knowing where she keeps her ‘special jars’ of course, she also gave them an official name as well.”

“What did she call them?”

“She called them ‘Storm Bottles’ for some reason, although some of her the oldest pieces of her collection looked like they were in soda bottles.”

“How many?”

“Fifteen, I think that those are the key to the riddle. I think mom also knew this kind of conversation would happen, but I suspect she thought it would be with Princess Celestia.”

“That does make sense; Auntie Celestia was the only known alicorn in your mom’s time. And it does make sense that somepony else would have that space for their personal use, we just didn’t think it could possibly be Astra Showers.”

“It’ll probably take a few hours to confirm everything,” said Daring, “of course,” she got a little melancholy, “it would go faster and better if they were still around.”

“It would also help if we knew who their legal advisors were or where to find copies of their wills.”

“I’m pretty sure mom would keep her will with her spare jars, possibly even in one of them since they were so good at keep conditions inside from changing.”

“That does make a lot of sense, keeping potentially important documents in a place protected from changes in the world around them. And if the wills, either individually or together, name you and your sister it will be a bit of proof you’re related. But the blood comparison test we’re running will be the most conclusive proof. But since the practice is extremely new in our modern era we’re forced to send the sample all the way out to Canterlot to have Equestria’s top experts on genetics run the test, at best we’ll only have a day or two before they send us back the results.”

“Which I’m sure Celestia and Luna are also interested in,” said Daring with a sage nod, “we really weren’t big on record keeping at home, Star Log was the organized one among us.” Suddenly something hit Daring, “She said she bought a warehouse for all the keepsakes from the amazing adventures we would be having, one that’s in Canterlot. She wanted the place to be well protected, and Canterlot’s Warehouse District is one of the most well-guarded regions of the city, only the castle and elite housing districts have higher security. The security in the area is so tight that nopony has been able to run any potentially illegal acts in the area since it went up two hundred years ago.”

“Seems like your sister knew when to plan ahead quite some time before you,” said Cadance, “did she tell you which one? I could have auntie Celestia, and auntie Luna check it out.”

“She said ‘I like it because it subtly uses our first initials’ so I’m sure I know how it’s configured. She always said I was the one to lead, so it’s probably in D block and S converted into a number is 19. But if she decided to go in order of our births then it would be S4. We’ll have to check both D19 and S4 to know for sure, and I’m guessing I’ll have to be there. She would have likely had likely left a little in-joke between the two of us somewhere out of the way but in plain sight to confirm it’s the right place.”

“Sounds like your sister really liked puzzles.”

“She and I created our own cipher when we were little, mostly because we wanted our own secret code. We didn’t really need one with our parents the way they were; it was just something that we decided to do as fillies and kept doing for years after. I actually used that same cipher to leave little messages for her in the Daring Do novels; I made sure to use words for the books that the publishers wouldn’t want to omit so that I could leave the messages to her without them being messed with.”

“But they weren’t the messages you wanted to leave her, were they?”

“No, and you can tell by just reading the transcripts of the stories.”

“Well, Twilight’s going to want to know the key to that cipher and the messages you want to hide so she can institute them, she also gets excited about that sort of thing.”

“I know, I’m still trying to decide if I should share that info with her. Like I said, I shared that as a sort of secret code with Star Log. If she were still with me today chances are things would have gone very differently in my life, I probably wouldn’t even be close to where I am today.”

“Or maybe you would, and your sister would have been offered a position with auntie Luna after she returned. Her name compliments auntie Luna, and she sounds like she would have made an excellent record keeper or personal assistant.”

“If she had been offered that sort of job she would have insisted I get one of my own as part of the deal, one in which I could spend time with her whenever she needed me. She would probably have also insisted the two of us share a living space, at least until one of us ended up in a serious relationship.”

“I’ll talk with my aunts about the warehouse, seems you’re really getting around these days. Twilight’s probably tearing her mane out trying to figure out what your cipher is; you’ll probably end up telling her what it’s like soon.”

“I suppose, but I’ll let her squirm a little more. There’s a lot of emotion tied up in keeping it exclusive, but since you all are technically family and I don’t want the knowledge to be lost, I’ll probably end up telling you all how it works in the near future.”

“I’m sure Shining will like that, as a Royal Guard one of the hardest things is having code that the opposition knows how to break. Your code with your sister has gone all these years without anypony breaking it.”

“Mom and dad came close a few times,” said Daring with a chuckle, “but they didn’t crack it, they probably did figure it out and just decided to let us think it went unsolved by ponies that weren’t Star and me.”

“Sounds like parents to me,” said Cadance. “We really didn’t know much about your family, except maybe Auntie Celestia, and you really didn’t share any personal information about yourself until after you brought Zelshirska’s idol back with you the first time.”

“I felt it wasn’t anypony’s business knowing my genuine past at the time, the biography for the books is something that my sister and I came up with. We actually kicked around the idea of the author’s name actually being a pseudonym, and the author name of A.K. Yearling is a bit of an in-joke between Star Log and me, I left her a lot of hints in the hopes she would find her way back by now. I effectively gave up on having a family before the events that Zelshirska’s idol kicked off; I was too focused on finding answers and stopping others from misusing artifacts to even entertain having a family. It’s been ages since I visited the graves of my parents, last time I was there I left some carnations and a note in a plastic bag with all the things I was sorry to them for.”

“Why carnations? What color?”

“They were mom’s favorite flower, another one of her hobbies was learning the language of flowers. Carnations were her favorite because of all the different things they could represent. I left them both bouquets of pink and red carnations; mom said the reds were the most melancholy because they told somepony your heart was aching for them but the pinks were telling somepony that no matter what you would never forget them.”

“The kind of messages you would want to share with those you lost,” said Cadance sagely, “and until you find concrete proof of your sister’s state you don’t want to move forward with anything related to her?”

“Yes, I probably need to do a lot of cleaning when I get back to that place with so many early memories.”

“Well, that’s enough heavy stuff for one day. You’re supposed to be here for happier; it almost feels like you are trying to bring yourself down. I hear you managed to make Rarity feel a bit uncomfortable in regards to attire, not an easy feat.”

Daring gave a mischievous grin before, “I told her the ceremonial garb would be using fetishwear as a template, what really took it over the top was her daughter expressing interest in being involved in the faith.”

“She’s eight,” said Cadance with minor annoyance.

“I think she mostly said it to get a rise out of her mom; she’ll probably wait another ten years before moving to the town. Of course, I’m assuming she’ll keep her interest in the faith up until then. But based on her show of interest now, that’s all I can do at the moment. Flurry mentioned getting back in contact with somepony she used to know, a mare who was studying fashion at Luna’s school.”

“Luna established an art school in Rainbow Falls a few years ago, in case you were unaware, and it’s proved very popular since it first opened its doors. It’s been up for the past thirteen years now; it has the same sort of refined prestige that Celestia’s school does.”

“Celestia’s school was only intended for training unicorns, Luna’s accepted ponies of all the tribes into her school.”

“Well, Canterlot is mostly populated by unicorns, and she didn’t want to rile up the nobility at the time, she really needed their support when she established the school.”

“And by the time she could change it to something more inclusive without issue it was already too late?”

“Yep, because of modern elitist philosophies among many of the Canterlot unicorns at the time Luna decided to choose a place a bit more rustic, the official reasoning she gave was that she didn’t want her school coming into immediate competition with Celestia’s.”

“But unofficially she just wanted someplace that wouldn’t have the nobility breathing down her neck,” said Daring catching on, “she probably also didn’t want to infringe on the territories of the other princesses.”

“Yep, which meant Ponyville and the Crystal Empire were out. Twilight put a lot of effort into improving the education of Poniville’s populace after Luna’s school went up. Last I checked, she’s been working on a number of projects to improve things for ponies.”

“Yeah, after the debacle with my prior publishers she turned her attention towards starting her own publishing house, she said something about not trusting any of the currently established publishers before the Business Ministry did some serious house cleaning.”

“Well, she has a lot of respect for literature and doesn’t take kindly to anyone abusing the written word, she’s even scolded me and Celestia on it few times,” Cadance gave an amused chuckle, “but she immediately apologized afterward, babbling about how she was being out of turn. We didn’t mind, and we were just happy she was so passionate about something. Honestly, I was practically betting she’d have her own publishing house up already. I guess, she just needed something to push her towards that sort of thing. Will You be keeping your pseudonym for the books with publishing change?”

“Yes, I will. Although, I think my introductory story might end up being published, which means Daring Do volume zero will be made available to the public, my prior publishers kept that story locked away for some reason. Probably wanted a rare, one of a kind volume to auction off after news of A.K. Yearling kicking the bucket reached them, I was pretty close to that before the whole idol situation happened.”

“Youth restored and touched up extra sexy,” said Cadance with a hearty chuckle, “sounds like something out of a foal’s tale that got a more ‘mature’ makeover.”

“I suppose some mares would like that to happen to them; I would have just been happy having the vitality of my younger days restored to me for a few months.”

“But instead you got all that plus the stamina and sexual energy to go fuck a dragon for days. I have to admit, when I read that part I was slightly jealous for a few minutes.”

“We still go at it in the early mornings,” said Daring with a show of mock shame, “although, it’s immensely toned down from what we would like to do with each other. We need to adhere to the communal expectations of such things for such things. While I would really enjoy just sauntering around town with barely anything on,” Cadance giggled at the mental image, “I know I’d get slammed with a Public Indecency charge and fine, I know it’s basically the same with every other community of Equestria. It’s not going to quite be that way with the community I’m trying to build.”

“A pony could walk around in nothing but a hat for all you care,” said Cadance with a giggle. “In order to keep on eye on as much as possible and make sure things don’t get too out of control Flurry will be acting as a liaison with the Crystal Empire for the first year or so, she actually insisted she be given the opportunity.”

“She probably just wants to test just what she can get away with,” said Daring with a smirk, “seeing as how she was under a very public eye for almost every moment she was outside the castles.”

“Well, there’s that too,” said Cadance with a smirk. “I noticed you have some unmarked open-air facilities positioned around the town, I’m assuming they’re some sort of gazebo you want ponies to use on special occasions.”

“Something like that,” said Daring with a saucy smirk, “I’ll explain their function to the town’s residents. I want to be careful with what is said about the town’s specifics for the time being on the off chance some of that information ends up leaking to the masses before we’re ready to announce the details officially. On that note, how are your inquiries into making the bathing facilities functional?”

“Annoyingly slow,” said Cadance with a huff, “research on the pre-Equestrian era shows such facilities were used by ponies but fell out of favor for unknown reasons, back then they just diverted streams and rivers through selected areas and let them flow downstream to reconnect with the outside waterways. Of course, they also used a variety of spells and charms to keep the bathing area as close to comfortably warm as possible. With modern technology we don’t need to do such things anymore, almost all that we need to do can be used without the use of magic.”

“I was aware of some of that stuff regarding the pre-Equestrian era,” said Daring, “but thus far, I haven’t found any reason why they abandoned communal bathing eras ages before our understanding of personal territory had a foundation.”

“Well, if any ponies can find the answers it’s probably you and Twilight.”