Author's Notes:

Warning: Feels incoming, I got jabs of a few just through writing and editing. You have been warned, continue at your own peril.

It had been ages since Daring had been to the town she had grown up, Melody Brook, and she was feeling a little nervous. Things weren’t being helped by the fact Flurry, Twilight, and Luna were all accompanying are along with her and Spike on this visit. This wasn’t just the place she and her sister had grown up; it was also the place they had laid their parents to rest. Daring and Star had actually placed their parents in a secluded spot of the area, the funerals had actually omitted the caskets because of this. Daring and Star had done so because it was stated in the letters their parents had left them to read for when they passed on.

Now Daring was going to be on the hunt for the wills of her parents, one last “adventure” before the rest of her life could move forward. Daring was just thankful for anything to take her mind off the annoyance that had been Hearts and Hooves Day a few days prior, anything to hold the embarrassment at bay. Things weren’t made much easier with Flurry now referring to her as “auntie” the day after Hearts and Hooves; this was brought on by the papers referencing her statement that she and Spike were married despite the fact that Flurry had literally read the report stating that Daring and Spike were now officially married.

“Could you explain why you decided to start calling me that now,” said Daring in a teasingly annoyed tone after the sixteenth time Flurry called her by her new nickname on the train ride.

“I didn’t want to start before the public got wind of it all,” said Flurry with a giggle.

“Sorry, just not used to be called something like that. If my sister were still around and had foals of her own I probably wouldn’t think of it as being so weird,” said Daring.

“My sister is looking into the events that happened during the time of her disappearance,” said Luna, “it appears your sister wasn’t the first, several ponies reported loved ones going missing over an extended period of time. It seems somepony in charge at the local law office decided not to file any of them in an official report, the pony in question was hunted down by my elite guard and brought to Canterlot to face his judgment. My sister will be handling that, personally.”

“Most ponies think Princess Celestia is extremely lenient,” said Twilight, “mostly because of her warm and inviting way of dealing with most situations. They’re very wrong; when the Princess goes into her ‘disapproving mother’ state ponies have been known to require professional help to help mitigate the potential psychological issues that come with it. A pony being interrogated by her in that state is likely to crack, even if they had a low opinion of their own parental figures.”

“Sister hasn’t shared most of what she has learned, seeing as we managed to find him a few days before Hearts and Hooves. Although, all of his accommodations and awards that he did manage to obtain during his time of service were revoked and returned to the Castle in Canterlot. As new information comes in his records will be adjusted to reflect the information, but suffice to say he was not the upstanding citizen he showed himself as in the presence of others.”

“I’m guessing he was being bribed by pirates that made the waters around the area their unofficial territory,” said Daring.

“No confirmation as of yet,” said Luna, “but an apt assessment. Do you know of any rogues that made the area their home, aside from your prior publishers?”

“Nothing particularly stands out,” said Daring, scratching her head, “but Star Log and I did hear a rumor that a pony named Privateer and his crew had made the waters outside the bay their territory about six decades before we moved there. It’s possible the descendants of his crew call those waters home and have been playing the part of pirate for generations. Now, what was his crew known as again?” Daring massaged her temples in thought, “oh yes, Privateer’s crew was known as the For Hire Pirates, they would hire themselves out as oceanic mercenaries for any job, they didn’t care what the job was as long as they got a substantial payment for their services.”

“That wasn’t his real name,” said Twilight, “just the one he assumed out on the waters. I remember reading about him a few years back, turns out he was from a noble family that was disgraced so thoroughly they were all barred from even getting close to Canterlot for five generations, he was a colt when that happened. At the time he was actually known as Guild Coffer, his family managed most of Canterlot’s finances along with that of various high profile ponies around the country at the time. Although it was discovered during his father’s running of the family business that they had been guilty of embezzlement on a grand scale for almost ten generations. Princess Celestia was certain the unscrupulous behavior was passed down in the family’s training, thus she felt that even Coffer was potentially guilty by the sheer fact he had been learning to take over the family business as soon as he was old enough to pick up on counting money.”

“Sounds a bit harsh,” said Flurry, “but I guess when you’re family has been cheating the crown for generations a little harshness is required.”

“They did more than that, their revealed actions resulted in Equestria’s Finance Ministry being given a more noticeable power when it comes to inspection of personal finances and the creation of the Better Business Ministry.”

“Didn’t they just go through a massive house cleaning?” Inquired Daring.

“Yep,” said Twilight, “and they’re hard at work going through every connection of the businesses that were found guilty, but they haven’t found anything conclusive yet. Even if the companies had a silent partner or phantom holdings, the Business Ministry will find them. My bet, at least one of the more ‘entitled’ Noble families was responsible for all those messes, it definitely seems their sort of thing.”

“You would know, Auntie Twilight,” said Flurry, “you grew up there.”

“Indeed,” said Twilight, “there’s been a cultural shift since a few years before the time Princess Luna returned, one several of the Canterlot Nobility are unwilling to acknowledge. This town Daring is starting is another milestone for that movement.”

“If they’re not careful the rug will get pulled out from under them,” said Daring, earning chuckles from her traveling companions, “and they’ll all be left in the dust as the next era rises from its foundations. Who knows, maybe someday this nation’s governing system will turn away from the one in place now. The Class system is a cultural artifact that has been falling apart for some time now; sometimes artifacts need to break apart for a culture to move forward.”

“That sounds pretty out of character coming from you,” said Twilight.

“I always think it’s a shame and waste when an artifact is destroyed but doesn’t mean I don’t recognize when such actions are possibly required. Artifacts can be dangerous, even if they have no magic to them. That’s why I think it’s best they remain out of the reach of ponies of questionable morality.”

With her last words, the train made the feeling it was pulling into the station. Their destination didn’t have a station of its own, something Twilight and the other princesses decided to rectify in the coming days; but was almost a reasonable distance from the station.

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

A three-hour trot from the station finally brought them to their destination. It was hard to believe two of Equestria’s underrated innovators had raised Daring Do and her sister, even more astounding was where they raised her. The town was more of a hamlet, and its aesthetic placed its founding around the same time as Ponyville.

The community was the kind of picturesque view one envisioned for raising foals. There were some woodlands a ways off from the edge of the town, a babbling brook (likely how the town earned its name) flowing along the center of the hamlet, the newest looking houses had the appearance of something from a century back, and the roadway through the community was paved with cobblestones.

Twilight was having a giddy moment next to everyone, they all decided to just ignore her so long as she didn’t try to do something too embarrassing. That policy was taken to its limit when they came to the house Daring had grown up in.

The house was unremarkable looking, aside from being a starry green color and two stories with a basement it was pretty unassuming in appearance. One would think the home of a pony of some musical profession would at least integrate some music-themed aspect into its design. However, the structure did not show any sort of personalized indicators as to tell you who called the facility home.

Twilight continued having her moment, much to the amused annoyance of everyone there, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” which apparently meant channeling some Pinkie as her opener, “this is where they lived, this is where they worked...”

“This is where my sister and I spent our foalhoods,” said Daring cutting Twilight off from further excited chattering, “please try to show some decorum, especially because the memories are still strong here. After we search the house and its grounds we’ll be going to pay our respects to my parents.”

“Wait, they’re official burial site is…” said Twilight.

“A ruse, and when mom and dad kicked the bucket they had instructions that came to sis and me a few days after they met their demise. Those instructions said they didn’t want their ‘genuine’ burial sites known to the public, so we buried them in a quiet little place that we all liked around these parts. I’m guessing they were aware of how well-known they were becoming at the time and didn’t want their place of final rest disturbed; their ‘official’ burial sites are nothing more than empty caskets.”

“Yes, sister did mention something like that,” said Luna. “Personally, I’m saddened that such great minds weren’t noticed much earlier during their time.”

“They probably would have,” said Daring, “they just didn’t think their passion projects were worth bothering anypony about.”

“Their projects of passion proved to change the very way we see our world,” said Luna, “it is sad to hear they did not wish to share them with anypony.”

“Why is that?” Twilight inquired.

“This is something they didn’t really want anypony knowing, outside of family,” said Daring, her traveling companions chuckled, “early on in their careers they helped some ponies with their projects, and only asked that they be mentioned as having assisted with the work. They gave some immense contributions despite being rather fresh to the profession, but when the time came, the ponies they had helped claimed sole ownership of all the work, including the parts that mom and dad had put into them. Mom helped redesign the equipment used for crafting snowflakes; you’ll notice a lot of those early sketch designs have her distinctive flair when compared to images she’s drawn up in her notes.”

“Which we haven’t been able to find thus far,” said Flurry.

Daring rolled her eyes before continuing, “Dad helped streamline the way orchestral music happens now, he even wrote a thesis on how to do so for his final project towards his career, the evaluation pony that graded the paper implemented those very alterations a few months later and claimed it was all his idea. The very thing that should have catapulted dad into a more seen light was used by another more affluent pony who claimed it was an idea of his that just suddenly came to him.”

“If that’s true then where’s the proof,” said Twilight with a skeptical look, “if he really did write such a thesis then it should have a copy in Equestria’s grand musical archives, but no such paper can be found. I know, I’ve been through all of Equestria’s major archives.”

As an answer Daring went over to a desk in the office, which was so littered with papers, it could be barely be made out and pulled open a hidden cabinet door that Twilight knew wasn’t in any of the reports. The sound of documents being gathered could be heard before Daring was seen with a small stack of papers in her hands shutting the hidden door with her hoof and waltzing back to Twilight. “Before you go citing plagiarism codes, take a look at the dates,” said Daring before just handing them to Twilight and heading off to the basement.

Twilight took a look at the dates, feeling a little giddy when she realized it was indeed older writing from the ponies in question. Her jaw dropped when she read the date on a thesis she had never heard of before, “How to Make Orchestral Music More Engaging and Smoother” followed by Keen Tone’s signature marking him as the author. What was more surprising was the fact Daring had been a little vague, the date showed it was written half a year before a pony known Stage Sound seemingly revolutionized orchestral music overnight. What was worse, the papers after that were a series of claim forms stating in no uncertain terms that Stage’s claims were plagiaristic and that Keen Tone just wanted his name in the byline, there were nine of them, and all were marked with a “Claim Discredited” stamp. And what made it all worse was Keen Tone had genuinely filled and filed the forms better than any of the known professionals of that era, complete with showing in detail a comparison of dates of when everything happened. There were even copies of the counterclaims stating that Keen Tone, despite the thesis getting a perfect score, was the one responsible for the plagiaristic behavior. Stage Sound’s counterclaims were sloppy and incomplete; it looked like he only got a pass because of the fact he was a well-known member of the musical elite.

What made Twilight’s blood boil most was the fact that none of this, even these plagiarism claims and counterclaims, were in any of the official records. It was looking like Stage had bribed somepony to keep it all off the record. Stage Sound was still around, and still very much a member of the elite. He was quite old, a few decades older than Daring at the very least, and only known to make occasional appearances, usually at a major music award or christening of a new music-themed building in Canterlot.

By all rights, Keen Tone’s thesis alone should have launched him into a spotlight that allowed him to show everypony just how brilliant his mind was regarding music. In a sense, he should have been elevated to a rank similar to that of well-respected ponies in Canterlot. Instead, he was left forgotten until years after he passed on.

Twilight moved onto the papers beneath all the claims and couldn’t help smiling; it was a previously unheard of song called “My Little Log and Compass” that actually ran on for nine pages, it was basically written to be a symphony in its own right, if not just an extra long song. This song right here was proof of Daring's claims, it was a song written by her father celebrating his daughters getting their marks. A song that, in all likelihood, had only been heard by Daring’s immediate family. But chances were that wasn’t the case in the slightest, chances are it had sat in this house all these years without a single musician getting a chance to play it.

After that Twilight found something that made her gasp, it was a rough draft of the note Daring had mentioned, she could tell because of all the words that were struck through in motion meant to cross them out. It really did say everything Daring had claimed it did. Twilight suspected half the stack in her hand deserved to be in a museum at this point.

Twilight gasped again when she found what was beneath the note; it was Keen Tone’s will. Daring had inadvertently handed it to her in an effort to show the violet alicorn the truth. Feeling it told Twilight it was well protected in the off chance the hiding place had been compromised, the will was in an early version of a plastic sleeve.

“Come on Twi,” said Spike, “what’s taking you so long? The rest of us are already getting ready to look for the ‘Storm Bottles’ Daring talked about.”

“Sorry Spike,” said Twilight, “I got lost in some reading material Daring gave me,” Spike could only snicker, that sounded just like Twilight to him, “and could you please not treat something serious as a joke. Her attempts to show me something about Keen Tone’s early days in the profession resulted in me actually holding his will, which I got to after going through some things that need be brought to Celestia’s attention.”

“Huzzah,” came the voice of Luna, “she was every bit the musical genius as her mate,” Twilight and Spike facepalmed, Luna had gotten much better with her speech (having dropped using the royal “we” a year or so before she established her school) but there were still times she slipped into her old speaking habits and word choices, like moments of extreme excitement.

“We better go see what the damage is,” said Twilight as she took the time to carefully place the materials Daring had gotten for her in her bag.

With that Twilight and Spike headed into the Basement.

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

Luna was beyond excited, not only had they found the original Storm Bottles (which she was seriously thinking of bringing back to her school to go in a specially designed case in her office), mostly because of the tune the clouds seemed to “sing” when you took the time to listen.

“Ms. Do, where can We find this ‘Sacred Tree of the Falls’?”

“Come again?” Daring said with confusion, “I don’t quite follow.”

“The melody of the clouds you mentioned is an old tune of mine that I crafted for ponies in my teen years; a song now called the Sacred Tree of the Falls.”

“Oh, um,” said Daring, “there’s a waterfall nearby with a tree near the water’s edge, mom used to joke about it being holy ground because of how it always seemed to drive away all the malicious forces whenever she went there. Actually, it’s pretty close to where we placed mom and dad.”

It was during Daring’s last sentence that Twilight and Spike entered the room. “So, what did we miss?” Twilight said as casually as she could.

“Auntie Luna recognized the song the clouds played after making a comment about wanting to take the bottles back to her school with her,” said Flurry, “then she got really excited when she realized what the song was.”

“We heard,” said Spike, “and most of the conversation that followed on our way down.”

“Daring I have some news for you,” said Twilight, “you’re probably going want to be sitting down for this.”

Daring moved to the only chair in the room, one she had told Luna was where her mother had sat for countless hours running her experiments. Astra Showers should have been one of Equestria’s premier weather specialists, by the sheer fact, she had managed to capture and contain pieces of weather clouds so efficiently.

After Daring was seated Twilight said, “There were quite a few different pieces of work in the pile you gave me, the two that stuck out the most were the fact that one of them was his will and the other was a song he wrote celebrating his fillies getting their marks.”

Daring blinked a bit, then started crying a bit as she said, “We both thought him telling us that was a joke, we giggled like fillies are prone to at that age at his proclamation.”

“I’m going to turn over all these papers to Princess Celestia; she needs to see them all.”

“After we go to where mom hid her will and go and pay respects to my parents,” said Daring.

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

When they arrived at the falls, which were about a half hour’s trot from town and through some mildly foreboding terrain, everypony save Daring just gasped at the beauty. If Luna had known about the location of such an unspoiled grandeur, she would have probably considered placing her school here. But if she had chances are they would have probably cut down the very tree they were coming to see. The tree itself was gorgeous, a solitary peach tree that explicitly said it was placed here by somepony. What was most surprising was that none of the seeds of the fruit had taken root around the area, it was almost as if the tree itself didn’t want its offspring to spoil the majesty of its surroundings.

Daring pointed to the peach tree and said, “Mom would always sit on the side facing the falls, she always came here if she needed to clear her head. Dad would come out here occasionally to see if he could get any inspiration from the region, at least three of the songs he wrote had their genesis here. Star Log and I would come out here every summer and weekend during the school year to stargaze. Star would sometimes talk about old stories involving the stars she managed to find at a library somewhere. One night we saw a pair of shooting stars passing by side by side, we didn’t make a wish, but that was the first time we made a promise to always included each other in our adventures whenever possible. It was a promise that we followed through on until she disappeared.”

“I find it poetic,” said Luna, “forming a pact under a pair of shooting stars.”

With that, they headed to the location Daring had mentioned. Daring gave a chuckle when they got to the place she had indicated. “What’s so funny? Did you just remember a joke your mom said a long time ago?” Flurry Heart asked.

“Nothing like that,” said Daring. “I just realized how she knew that either I or Star would be right here doing this, the melody from the other bottled clouds hints at what we need to do next." The other mares looked her as if expecting to continue, “the rest of the clouds inspired dad to write a song titled ‘You Won’t Phase Me’ on one of the occasions he came down to check on mom.”

Twilight blinked a few times before saying, “That’s one of Princess Celestia’s most requested songs when we have a live band.”

“Yes, my sister does seem to favor that song, she says something about it having a natural harmony no other melody can match. I suspect she knew it was one of Keen Tone’s works, even if she didn’t let on. I thought some of the notes in the clouds my focus was off sounded familiar.”

Flurry, however, had picked up on the implications of song’s title at their location and used her magic to reach down and pull up an almost jar-like Storm Bottle with what looked like carefully rolled up papers inside. “I believe,” said Flurry, “this is what we came here for,” she then looked around a bit, “I’m going to talk to mom about putting up a little vacation home here, it’s a great place to unwind.”

“Considering two of Equestria’s greatest unsung minds thought so,” said Twilight, “I’m inclined to agree.” Twilight then turned Daring, “I have something to discuss with you in private, so after this excursion is over and we’re back home we’ll go someplace we can’t be disturbed and chat.”

Twilight then used a spell of her own design for peering through solid objects, she had been looking forward to properly field testing the charm, and found several other jars that had what looked like notebooks in them. Unlike Flurry, she discreetly teleported the containers with journals into her bag.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Daring with a smile. “Mom and dad are this way,” she began leading the other ponies down a not easily seen path. Flurry placed the glass container in her bag before continuing after everyone else as they followed Daring. Things felt like they were cheerful yet somber.

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

Almost twelve minutes later Daring had led her guests into a shallow cave; there were two small piles of rocks acting as grave markers with pairs of stones at the top having the names “Keen Tone” and “Astra Showers” written in chalk stone upon them. Twilight felt a need to say something when she saw the simple graves, but nothing she could think of did what she was looking the justice it deserved. The graves were so simple and ordinary looking, and out of the way, that nopony would guess to the significance of the ponies buried there. These graves were elegant in their simplicity, a reminder that true greatness can come from the most unlikely of sources and can only genuinely be achieved by one’s own merits.

The only words spoken were by Daring. And she kept it brief, although she showed relief that the site didn’t quite need to be maintained yet, “Hi, mom, dad. I know it’s been a while, I’ve been pretty busy, and I didn’t want to relive old wounds. Things are changing, pretty quickly for me now. I would say more, but I want it to be a bit of surprise, you two always said surprises from Star and me were the best gifts you could ever have.”

And with that, and everyone else giving their own silent messages to the two graves they made their way back out. The entire trot to the station, and train ride, there was sort of understanding peaceful silence among them.