//------------------------------// // Safehouse // Story: Daring Do: Home is Where the Heart's Warm // by BubblepipeWrangler //------------------------------// Cold, the kind of cold that bit into your bones and turned your breath to vapor, gripped the late afternoon. A pony wrapped in layers of warm clothing staggered through the doorway, then dumped her bulging saddlebags and duffel on the cement floor. With a weary sigh, she turned around to force the heavy door shut. Once the room was secure, the tired pony slumped against the wall. "If I didn't know better," she chuckled, "I'd think that the Windigos were back." The mare pulled off her scarf and reached for her saddlebags. After a moment of fishing inside, she pulled out a pendant etched with ancient dragon-glyphs, then promptly tossed it away. The priceless relic clattered into a corner of the small safehouse. It was soon joined by a bracelet, a pulsing gemstone, and a treasure map. The room was dim, since its only light came from a small rectangular window high on one wall. Finally, the mare found the mess of letters she had recently picked up from a dead-drop. She shrugged off her bulky overcoat and left it on the floor, but kept her vest and topee. The pegasus wrapped her wings around herself and shivered, then reached up to bar the sturdy door before crawling into the next room and curling up in bed. Though the blanket was old and worn, it was still warm enough for the golden mare. She swatted at the lightswitch, but the bulb had traitorously given up the ghost while the room was vacant. With an annoyed murmor, she stood up, rummaged about in a drawer, drew out a lantern, then dove back under her blanket. Inside the lantern's glass cylinder were a few faithful fireflies, who awoke from their deathlike hibernation when their owner breathed gently into their home. They flickered to life, and within a few seconds were providing all the light she needed. Reading her mail was part of her ritual for returning to civilization. After a year out of touch with the ordinary world, she had to ease herself back into society. First her mail, then... well, she had a few changes of clothes in her duffel, and knew a good club or two in this town. The golden mare huddled beneath her blanket, then bit open the first envelope. "Ugh!" she groaned in disappointment. "Dear Miss Annebelle A. Adventure, we are writing to inform you that you have won the Cloudsdale Skyball Lottery, and stand ready to pay out your duly-won winnings of two-hundred million bits as soon as you come to our offices to collect. Please come by yourself, alone, and on your own. Just bring this letter and suitable identification to prove your identity to any parties interested in paying out a bounty. We look forward to seeing you..." The mare stuffed the letter back into its envelope and tossed it out from under the blanket. "Well, looks like I gotta burn that name. Oh, and what's this one here?" The golden mare glanced down at the next envelope. The return address was: One Canterlot Way, Definitely Canterlot, with a postal code of: C4NT3-R10T. "Dear Mister Action Jackson, I am writing to inform you of a tragic event. One of Equestria's beloved nobles has passed, and while we all mourn life must go on. To that end, I have been recommended your name by a very good acquaintance in moneybrokering investments. A large sum of money has been left behind, but is tied up in over invoiced contract fees..." She rubbed her forehead. "Sheesh." The mare knew it had been written by a gryphon. Their quills left telltales that a trained eye could see, and the slant of the letters told her they had been written by a creature with claws. This letter had not come from Canterlot, it was just another one of the scam mass-mailings sent out by con artists. Sure enough, the reader was asked to send a reply with bank account details to a Just Dough, conservator of the late Prince Blueboned's estate. "Who the hay do they think they're fooling with this stuff?" She could write a thicker cover story in her sleep. Actually, once upon a time, she had done that exact thing... Her next letter was much nicer. "Dear Daring Do. I am a Filly Scout in troop number..." She yawned. "...and all the other girls tell me that you are not real. But I know you are real, because if you weren't real Ahuizotl would have stolen the Sapphire Stone and the world would be..." She yawned again, eyes skimming over the filly's excited scrawl. Fans were cute, but she had heard it all before. "When I grow up, I want to be a big heroine like you and protect the world from bad guys. That's why I'm in the Filly Scouts, to learn all I can! I hope this letter gets to you, and even if you don't respond I still believe in you." A blush colored the mare's cheeks. "However, if you do have time between all your adventures to write back, I've included a self-addressed stamped envelope." Daring paused for a long moment, then glanced down at the buzzing fireflies. "So... what do you guys think?" The little living sparks spiraled back and forth. They were as vigilant at their task as they were silent, giving off only a faint buzz now and again. "Could be another trap." She reached up to pull off her pith helm, then lay flat on the bed to think. The blanket settled over her and the lantern, forming two odd mounds. One glowed, while the other shivered occasionally. "Could also be a kid who needs someone to look up to... we all need that." Daring Do yawned. Everypony needs heroes. It had been a long day, and she was tired. Her eyes drifted shut, but sleep would not come. With a sigh, she sat up and read the letter again. "Aww, what the hay." The golden pegasus shrugged, then reached into her vest and produced a curious device. Some called it a marvel of technology, others called it a harbinger of a horrible future and the doom of an entire industry. Daring Do called it a ballpoint pen with a pressurized ink cartridge, and it was mighty convenient for writing when you were out in the middle of nowhere. She scratched out the phony moneybrokering message, then used the back of the page to compose a reply. "Hey kid. Don't believe in me, believe in the me that believes in you." Daring tapped the end of the pen against her chin. Yeah, that sounded hot-blooded enough. She scrawled a few more kind words, along with a note of gratitude for the fan letter, then ended with: "Now, go out there and show all those other girls how it's done!" The adventurer signed it with a flourish, then slipped the letter into the reply envelope. As an afterthought, she reached out from under the blanket and scrounged beneath the bed. Her hoof chanced upon a coin she had recovered from the ruins of a long dead civilization. It had probably been there since the last time she used this safehouse... or maybe the time before that... After a moment to make sure that the coin was not a mystical talisman that would try to eat the poor foal's soul, she slipped it in as well. Other kids might convince her that the letter was just a kind author humoring a fan, but that coin would speak for itself. Maybe twenty years from now there might be another mare following her heart's dreams and protecting the world from threats time had forgotten. If not, it would at least make the filly smile. All the other letters were junk, save for the last two. Daring had to break out her survival knife to open the thick paper of the penultimate envelope, but she already knew what would be inside. The return address, an innocent-sounding "business" by the name of Enigma Industries LLC, was a dead giveaway. "For the attention of Doctor Daring Do, Doctor of the Philosophy of Archaeology:" she winced. "Given your status as an expert in a current field of inquiry being conducted by our Agency, we have elected to once more contract your services. Please contact us with all due haste at the primary method of communication established after your last stint in the employ of Her Grand Royal Highness' Celestine Inquisitorial Agency." A bemused smile crossed her lips. The spooks wanted her again, did they? "Please note that failure to contact us may be regarded as an act of HIGH TREASON due to your knowledge of certain state secrets, and any actions taken to avoid further attempts by the Celestine Inquisitorial Agency to make contact in regard to this matter may be construed as evidence against you in a court of law." Daring Do snickered. After several more paragraphs of legal blather, she saw the real message, penciled into a large paragraph break midway through the letter: "Daring. Please don't make this harder than it has to be. The last time we went through all this, you made fools of us all in front of Her Grand Royal Highness and Her Lunar Majesty. Heads are still rolling from that. Please just come in and look at the bloody artifact, then we can all get on with our lives." She winked at the fireflies, almost able to imagine the poor spook sitting at his desk, tie loose and a bottle of something or other half-empty next to him. "I'm begging here. Celestia's been threatening to cut our budget now that her little sister is back. She wants to reinstate the Darkwatch and do things the 'old fashioned way'. I don't even know what that means, but Her Lunar Majesty came by with some of those bat-ponies, and I'll swear by my hope to see the sun again that one of them threatened to eat me!" The pegasus busted out laughing. "It serves ya right for not believing me when I warned you morons about the Gryphon's Goblet, or the Anarchcanium's Code!" She pulled her pith helm back on and sighed. Daring glanced down the rest of the page, which was covered with information about the horrible fate awaiting her if she somehow was not the intended recipient of this letter, until her eyes chanced upon the final line. "This message will self-destruct after reading." With a muffled curse, she chucked the letter and its thick envelope out onto the floor just as the text of the last line began to glow red. It burst into a million bright sparks that flickered into ash as soon as they hit the cold concrete. "How could I forget," she groaned. "Those guys are the Equestrian Department of Intrigue." Still, the state-funded spooks had helped her out of a jam or two, and she was a good Celestia-revering girl. Daring sprawled out beneath the blanket and smiled at a memory. She yawned again, and rubbed at an achy muscle in her neck. The latest quest had pushed her to her limits, and she needed some downtime to really recover. Still, she was too keyed up to sleep, there was no way she would just nod off... in the middle of reading... her mail... Perhaps she drifted off for a moment, but if so it was a short slumber. No matter how much she tried to laze about, at her core Daring Do was a mare of action. Her mind ached for input, for sights few others had seen and artifacts long forgotten by ponykind. It was her calling, her mission, her purpose in life. Ever since she had been a little girl, she had loved to seek and save what was lost. Along the way she usually caused quite a bit of destruction, but a blacksmith did not make a fine set of armor without a lot of noisy hammering. That was the real reason she worked alone. Not because she preferred solitude, or because she thought herself better than other ponies. When others came with her, they got hurt, or they got in her way. To save herself from a trap, she needed only wit and reflexes. Saving another might cost that extra second that would doom them both. Then there was the matter of trust. Did she really trust that native guide not to lead her into a trap if he liked her hat and wanted it for himself? Could she count on that upstart young professor to not bump her off at the first opportunity if it meant taking all the credit? The answer to those questions had usually been no. Especially when money was involved. Daring, we are the best of friends! turned into Daring, we are the best of friends, but... as soon as a million bits entered the equation. She looked at the last letter, and heaved a deep sigh. "And then... there's you." The final reason she worked alone. Daring Do had not been coalesced from cosmic energies, nor was she the last of some lost tribe of adventurer-ponies. She was not even a fallen star, gifted to Equestria by some kind quirk of the heavens, as legend insisted was the origin of Celestia and Luna. The golden mare had a mother, and a father, just like everypony else. She was no longer worried about their safety, but... Daring Do had not been an only child. There was always a risk that her family could be kidnapped and used as bait, or worse. That was why she tried to keep them isolated from her adventures. No appearances in her books, no sly references, nothing at all. Growing up, Daring had always been the shining star. Her grades were excellent, her body fit, and she possessed a bottomless well of self-confidence. Mom and Dad had loved both of them dearly, but... well, sis had been a challenge. Daring had been blessed from birth, while her sister seemed to fumble everything. Despite all that, her little sister had never been jealous. They were the best of friends, and not just because their mother had read them the all-but-forgotten tale of Celestia and Luna's "disagreement" ten centuries ago. Her sister knew, though. Knew that her big sister was off fighting myths and unearthing legends. It was in Daring's blood, it was her cutie mark, she could not deny the call of adventure. In contrast, her younger sister was a mailmare. She was a thinker, but the little thought bubbles on her flank were not the same thoughts that drifted through other minds. When they were foals, Daring remembered trying to make her sister understand that two apples plus two more apples made four apples. She simply could not grasp the concept. In frustration, Daring had given up and tried again later with muffins. Her sister understood instantly. The very next week, her sister had grown bored with her math book and asked Daring if she could try the tougher math problems in hers. A smile crossed the golden pegasus' face as she remembered her little sister solving algebra equations by moving muffin crumbs around on her desk. Still, the school board had frowned upon bringing muffins to math class. This meant Daring brought home high marks, and her little sister struggled to pass. Society wanted a heroine, not a bumbling cogitator. That was why it had been such a hard decision for Daring to accept an offer to study abroad as an exchange student in the gryphon territories. It had been the opportunity of a lifetime, one she had wholeheartedly earned, but accepting it meant losing touch with her little sister. In the end, Daring had let the grey pegasus persuade her to go. The younger sibling would feel worse holding her big sister back than she would without her. Becoming an exchange student had been the golden mare's first step on the road to becoming a null. Removing herself from pony society had been easy enough after being educated abroad. The full wipe of her history had been a token of thanks from the CIA, but she and her sister had done a pretty fair job of purging the records before that. Daring Do was now a character in a book, and the mare born with that name only used it for such book-worthy escapades. In her duffel bag, sitting next to the barred door, were three identities she could throw on as easily as changing into the clothes that accompanied them. This was the life she loved, and that was the price she had to pay to live it. Her parents would have been very proud of her, especially her father. She had chosen the side of justice and prosperity, even if she did have her mother's renegade streak. Still... there was one loose end that Daring could not easily tie off. That loose end was a precocious niece, whose latest letter she held. Finally admitting that the lingering sense of uncertainty would not go away if ignored, the adventurer opened the envelope. Inside was a neatly folded piece of ruled paper, filled with a young unicorn's hoofwriting. "Salutations, auntie. I hope this letter finds you well." Daring took a deep breath. She loved her niece, but the filly frightened her sometimes. "My studies are coming along superbly. My latest report card has only the highest marks, and I am third in all of my classes, save for grammar. Mother took us out for cupcakes to celebrate, and we had a delightful conversation about whether cupcakes are really muffins with icing, or muffins are cupcakes without icing." The golden pegasus smirked, then busted out laughing. It was too easy to imagine those two sitting at a table in a bakery, debating the tasty treats they were munching on. "After research, it turned out that her position was correct, but she was not able to prove it factually during the debate. Also, during the investigation, we found out that Miss Pinkie Pie's blueberry cupcakes are awesome." "You go, kiddo." Daring rolled onto her back and held the letter above her head. "I spent some time tinkering with that binary abacus you sent me. It is rather interesting, and I think I may consider wearing the garb of a technomystical engineer for our school's upcoming career day. We do not have a manufactoria in Ponyville, but the librarian is a very wise mare who seems to have a tremendous amount of machinery in her basement. I am hoping that she will consent to speak at career day, but have yet to work up the nerve to ask her." The golden mare's ears twitched. The small schoolhouse at Ponyville had been a big draw for sis, who knew how horrible an overbearing and bureaucratic educational system could be for a child with special needs. Of course, her niece's handicap was that she was too smart for her own good. That was how she had worked out the true identity of her dear auntie. The young unicorn kept her mouth shut, and had even helped the golden mare solve an ancient riddle or two, but... it still did not feel right to Daring to burden a kid with that kind of secret. "I hope that you are looking after yourself properly out there. You are always sending things to me, and yet I cannot send anything back to help you. I know you will either have it already, or you will be able to acquire it far more easily than I. Furthermore, I worry that if I were to send you something I thought could be of value, the sentiment might compel you to bring it along instead of an item you would actually need. You are an expert in your field, auntie, but you have helped mother and I so much that I wish there was something I could do for you." Daring felt a lump form in her throat. It only got worse as she read the next few lines. "There is one thing I suppose I can send, though it feels so insignificant. My love, and Mother's as well. She does not talk of you much, neither of us do save in whispers, but we both think of you often. It has been a long time since your last visit, but we have not forgotten you. I cannot even imagine the adventures you are having, any of which would be too much for me, but I know that you will prevail. That is all I can send, and I hope it is not too weighty." The love of a little girl was a precious thing indeed. Entire business empires had been built atop exploiting it. As Daring Do read her niece's letter she felt a warm glow of pride that pushed away the outside world's cold. She ran a hoof through her grayscale mane and smiled at the fireflies. "Sincerely yours, Dinky Doo." Daring twitched her ears again, and flexed her wings. That was just the pick-me-up she had needed. The golden pegasus yawned, then laid back to think for a moment. Dinky really was a paper tiger, she could write far more elegantly than she spoke. What worried Daring was that she tended to be shy, usually going for second place rather than giving her all. It was almost as though the little girl did not want to attract attention to herself for fear that it might reflect upon her mother... or her unmentionable aunt. That was not something a little girl her age should be thinking about. The golden mare yawned again, feeling as though the strain of her latest quest had melted from her muscles, then noticed something on the backside of the page. "P.S. I am writing this letter several months in advance, with the expectation that it will be quite some time before you read it. The school will be holding a Hearth's Warming Pageant. I understand that you are very busy, but I hope to earn a leading role. If you are able to stop by Ponyville, I know Mother would be very happy to see you." The adventurer found her that mouth was suddenly as dry as the San Palomino Desert.