Star's Log

by dracone

Star and Daring Hunt for "Treasure"

Daring was in the most adorable pout the entire hike; the two were following a map that Star Log had “copied” toward a prize that supposedly hadn’t been found. That’s not why her little sister was in a notably sour mood the entire hike; she was in a sour mood because she had been forced to leave her new favorite toy behind. They had managed to convince Daring that Gingersnap might get torn on the trip, a tactic they quickly turned to when Daring showed little regard for the fact Gingersnap might get more than a bit dirty.

In truth, the map was something Star had concocted on her own with a few suggestions from their mother. Their mother, who wanted the fillies out of the house for a bit while she ran some of her experiments; some of the experiments that were run by Astra Showers were potentially dangerous for fillies; their father was fine because he had already gone a bit overboard in warding his workspaces to keep Astra’s weather out of his personal space.

The “treasure” was just a bunch of random stuff in an old wooden crate that had been done up to look like a chest of some kind, a bit of work by some of Star’s good friends from school. Timber Art was always good with woodwork, and it showed as his cutie mark, while his twin sister Ingot Plate was accomplished at metalwork. The two had discovered their talents on a visit to Canterlot two years prior; Star Log had missed out due to a rather nasty bug that had her laid up in bed for almost a full week; she had been looking forward to seeing what Canterlot was like. Due to budgetary constraints, the school wouldn’t be able to make a trip like that again for another year or two from the present; by that time, Star would probably have already graduated from school.

The map led them all around the town for almost a full hour before finally stopping at a big rock on the far left edge of the forest. The journey itself had intentionally gotten the girls dirty and torn their clothes in a few places; a miscalculation had almost given Star a scar on her right shoulder. The negligibly dangerous route was enough to convince Daring that leaving Gingersnap behind had been a good call, especially with the three times her backpack had gotten caught, only one of which had been planned by Star.

“Well, here we are,” said Star Log when they finally reached the destination; looking at the place told her that whoever had planted the ‘treasure’ had done an excellent job of making it look like the whole thing had been buried ages ago, she just hoped what was inside corroborated that impression.

Daring dug out a set of multi-sectioned self-assembly shovels and put one together before she wondered around the rock a bit, then started digging on the right side closer to the forest, which struck Star as odd because she had been informed it would be on the left closest to town. Regardless, she followed Daring’s lead.

About a half hour later, they had dug up an old strongbox, which curiously had something that looked like Princess Celestia’s mark on it next to a white crescent moon she recognized but didn’t want to voice out just yet. Daring then dragged the lockbox out in front of the rock and went to where Star had been told the treasure was and started digging; fifteen minutes later, Daring pulled up a treasure chest from a play or movie.

“Something you want to tell me,” inquired Daring.

“Caught me,” said Star, “I worked with some friends to create this treasure hunt for you, that ‘prize’ you just unearthed, the one you pulled up before it wasn’t planned.”

“I thought it was a bit odd when you started drawing up a map of the surrounding area,” said Daring, “you kind of made the layout a mishmash of different eras; that’s not like you.”

Great, Star just got called out on the ploy by her baby sister on something so basic she should have noticed it before things got this far. “Well, that was a success and a bust,” came Ingot’s voice as she and her brother emerged from the nearby woods; the twins were both earth ponies and around the same age as Star Log. Daring hadn’t noticed the approach of the siblings and quickly went into her non-conversational mode.

“Come on,” said Star, “let’s get these back to our place, and then we can see about trying to open them. Daring and Ingot will handle carrying the strongbox, and I’ll handle carrying the chest with Timber.” Without a word, after that, the two teams lifted the items in question and started hauling them off.

Author's Note:

A quick glimpse at some of Star Log’s friends happened in this chapter, we’re still on the gentle slice of life-esque chapters. Since this story is supposed to be about Star, and almost all the chapters had the appearance of focusing on Daring at times, the next chapter will be more involved in focusing on Star