"A story! A story!" Were the excited cries emanating from a sandy brown filly as she clambered across her two older siblings to snuggle down between them upon the soft, warm mattress of the heavily quilted bed.
"Hey! Watch it!" Grumbled a pale blue coated colt as his younger sister's tiny hooves scrambled across his face and the smooth downy feathers on her wings tickled at his nose.
"Whoops!" The filly apologised comically, sharing a brief giggle with herself as she twisted and turned to lie on her back between the two other pegasi. "Sorry."
The ecstatic filly slid beneath the green and blue patchwork quilt, enthralled by the tremendous warmth that had been instilled by her brother and sister and pulled the white lip of the bedsheet up and over her petite nose, until only her unkempt steel-grey mane and rose tinted eyes were peeking out. A small lamp perched on a stout side cabinet, it's dull yellow light being cast around the bed and no further. The rest of the room dissolved into a calming blackness, only the slithers of light from the platinum moon making their way around the thick forest-green drapes spared enough light to make out the copious number of infantile pastille drawings whose artist happened to be the bright young filly now nestled snugly within her cosy bed.
About a foot or so from the side of the quilted furniture sat an older, much lighter brown mare whom had drawn up a comfortable wooden seat from the dining table a few doors down. The home in which the ponies lived in was small, and even that may have been too big of a word to describe it with. It spanned one floor, accommodated only two bedrooms and boasted only the simplest of necessities. All together, five ponies inhabited the quaint apartment, earning just enough money to scrape by with next to no luxuries. However this was no issue to Mr. and Mrs. Do; they felt no need to plaster themselves with pleasantries when the most valuable possession, rather, the three most valuable possessions they owned lived right beneath their noses, and to know this fact was far more than they could ever ask for.
Two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen which backed onto the dining room that also doubled up as the living room were the only facilities in which the happy pegasus family resided. With neigh enough insulation to keep the family warm, one would often see the five ponies huddled together in one bed - a tight squeeze, but nonetheless, a solid reminder to them all about what a treasure family was. None of them grumbled or complained about their less-than-average lives, no matter how much the strains of society bore down upon them, and the pair of commendable parents gave every last morsel of what they earned towards keeping their three children happy and content with life. Just one of these sparse creature comforts included a smattering of awe-inducing books detailing the adventures of an elaborate treasure hunter and his quests for knowledge.
"Now." Began the mother pegasus, her matriarchal prowess clear, yet very distinctly benevolent in terms of the backlit care in her voice. "Tonight, it's Daring's turn to pick a story." She said with an erasable smile, her straight rouge hair covering one of her knowledgeable green eyes. She reached up, and pushed the stray bang of hair behind her ear to get a closer look of her three beautiful foals. Her smile only widened as she watched the dazzling excitement grow in her youngest filly's light rose eyes.
"Indiana Pones!" The filly all but yelled, her voice only slightly muffled by the sheets in which she hid.
Her laté-pelted mother closed her eyes and chuckled demurely in her throat. "Again?" She asked, already opening the hardback book to the first page, the strangely relaxing scent of old paper met her nostrils instantly, and she took a moment to acknowledge the musty smell.
"Of course, mommy!" Cried the filly, still just as eager and excited as before. "Indiana Pones is like, the best pony in the whole wide world!" She threw her frail little forelegs up into the air in glee before she could contain herself. With a marginally depleated smile, she allowed her small hooves to fall slightly, and she linked tender eyes with the mare perched upon the hard wooden chair. "Oh, after you, mommy..." She bowed her head respectively, awaiting her mother's response towards being seen as 'second best' for a moment.
"You do realise he's not real, right?" Encroached Daring's sister who had her fair yellow forelegs crossed above the duvet. She was the eldest of the foals in the bed, she could in fact be regarded less of a filly, and more of a young mare. Though her parents had tried to preserve her foalhood innocence, time waits for no pony, and soon she would have to go out into the huge world of Equestria to begin a legacy of her own.
"Nuh-uh!" Daring Do argued back, pulling the covers down to her waist and shooting daggers from her wide eyes in the most aggressively defensive manner a foal could manage. "He is too real, and one day, I'm gonna be just like him." She huffed and turned towards her kind and tentative mother. "I'm gonna have a whip, and a cool hat, and I'm gonna go on lots of great adventures!" She bore an expression of sheer passion, theoretical fire burned within her eyes.
The red-haired mare simply chortled under her breath again, her smile widening to show teeth. Without another word on the matter, she found her place on the first page of the miniature novel, tapped the point twice with her hoof and begun to read.
"The great adventurer, Indiana Pones, was relaxing as he usually did by the tranquil pool which backed out rather immodestly from his mountainside terrace. His mind was as clear as the cloudless sky, died a deep blue by the slowly setting late afternoon sun..."
For the next hour, Daring's attention never left her mother, her soul was captivated by this astounding tale of her marvelous idol. She listened to the passion her mother put into reading the story: the accents, the dramatic voice in moments of impending peril, and the way she would occasionally shot a wink at Daring, just to keep the magic alive. Daring Do was fixated on every single syllable that graced her mother's lips, every sly comment and heroic quip made by the pony who she idolised, who she had never met, yet knew exactly what he would be like if she did. During the reading, Daring would often stare towards the crayon illustrations she had drawn about herself and Indiana. The walls were chocked full of these amateur pictures depicting one of the most valuable things anypony could own: an insatiable passion for anything that they loved - not a rare trait in the world of Equestria, but nonetheless, it was as superb as diamond.
"...And just when he thought he was safe, the earth began to tremble beneath his hooves and the floor gave way to a tremendous pit of fire!" Continued Daring's mother, her voice filled with as much heart as her daughter's adamant eyes. Daring do gasped and cupped her hooves over her mouth. The wonder in her eyes transformed to terror as her hero faced certain peril. "All seemed lost for Indiana Pones, but just as he was ready to give up hope, he caught the sight of a tiny opening in the temple roof." Daring Do began to rock on her haunches, and the grip upon her blanket which was wrapped around her head tightened as the story reached an impossible climax. "As different portions of the floor dropped into the fiery abyss below, Indiana leapt from stone pillar to stone pillar, barely dodging parts of the sandstone ceiling as they too plummeted downwards. With barely enough time to catch his breath, our hero took a great leap towards the temple exit. There were many times where Indie wished he was not a simple earth pony, and right now was unquestionably one of those times." The light sand mare took a breath before continuing, building yet more tension in her daughter. She relished in the sight of Daring's eyebrows disappearing behind her stony grey bangs as the story became unbearable.
"The great explorer sealed his eyes and, putting all of his strength into this one jump, leapt towards freedom." She darted her emerald eyes just above the top of the book, locking icy stares with her enthralled daughter. "End chapter four..."
"Chapter 5! Chapter 5! Chap-"
"Shhhh..." Daring's mother interrupted, pressing the tip of her hoof over her lips, politely silencing the sandy filly to a distilled silence. "Dashing and Dancing are asleep."
Daring Do allowed the hood of her makeshift cloak fall behind her head and looked down to both of her siblings, who were now fast asleep and dreaming. "Oh." Daring replied in a hushed tone. "Sorry." She whispered with a slight smile. "What happens next? Does Indiana Pones escape the temple of Achi? Does he ever get to the Serpent's Spire?"
"Hm hm hm..." The hugely engrossed filly's mother chuckled, somehow making less sound than a whisper, but carried with it the amused rumble of love and decorum only a contented parent could posses. "Well that will just have to wait for another night..." She said, causing young Daring to sigh in quick defeat.
"Huhhh..." The filly softly exhaled, her voice provoking a tiny twinge of sadness in her mother's heart as she put her beloved daughter's one true passion on hiatus. "I guess so..." She muttered, sliding back down into the bed between the two other ponies she loved so unquestionably dearly.
With a serene, gratified smile at the end of another day's hard work all summed up in the adorable little face of her youngest child, Daring's mother deposited the hardback adventure bound in words upon the nightstand beside the dim lamp and leaned in to peck each of her foals on the forehead. Working from left to right, the middle-aged mare began with the oldest filly, a butterscotch yellow pegasus who had earned her cutie mark in journalism. Whenever she thought about her first daughter, Darling Do remembered in picture perfection the day when her daughter, Dancing received first prize in her school's creative writing competition, and an ink-sodden feather quill became embossed on her flank. This particular memory always seemed to tug on her heartstrings and make her tear up a little. But today at least, she managed to keep her cool and move onto her next, youngest offspring.
She kissed Daring Do on the forehead as the filly bowed forward slightly in acceptance. Though Darling didn't know entirely what this pony could grace the world with, one thing she was certain of, was that she would do great things in all walks of life. When you had such an amazing passion for anything, nothing was out of reach. And this spellbinding quality was what would set her aside from the masses, and give her her own stars in the night sky.
"Good night, Daring." She said into the ear of her only filly awake. "Sweet dreams."
"Good night, mommy." Daring Do returned, suddenly finding it mightily difficult to hold her heavy eyelids open once her source of consciousness had been removed. "I love you."
"...I love you, too." Replied the filly's mother after a very brief stare, her mind attempting, and failing to process the sheer amount of love flowing through her veins as the pony she cared for openly spoke the three words that meant so much more to her than any material possession.
Lastly, she planted a soft kiss on the forehead of the little blue colt, who was yet to earn his cutie mark, but judging by his sporting credentials, the likelihood of him receiving a special talent in anything other than physical prowess was slim to nil.
Making as little noise as possible, Daring's mother crossed the cramped bedroom and opened the door, allowing light from the narrow hallway wash into the bedroom. The sand-coloured mare needed to only take two paces backward to reach the table lamp to shut it off, extinguishing any source of light from the bedroom, only able to see where she was going from the still rather dim light of the hallway which connected all of the rooms in the house. Glancing over her three foals, she was once again met with the familiar sensation of accomplishment she still felt every night.
She turned to leave, but halted when she heard a weak call from the youngest foal.
"Mommy?" Daring asked softly, barely able to keep herself awake, even after all of the excitement her fabulous book entailed.
"Yes, sweetie?" The mare replied, bringing her head closer to the barely audible filly.
"Is it... okay... that I want to be an adventurer?" She asked, her eyes half lidded from exhaustion.
Her mother frowned, though a bemused smile quickly broke through. "Of course." She replied in her kind, motherly tone. "Why ever would you ask that?"
"It's just..." Daring began to reply, but was cut short by a haughty yawn that seemed to stretch on forever. "It's just... some of the ponies at school tell me that it's a stupid thing to want to do, and that I have no future." She yawned again, though a smidge of heartbreak threatened her breath.
"Sweetheart..." Darling Do began, biting the bedsheets to pull them over her daughter that little bit more. "You can be whatever you want. Don't listen to the ponies who put you down, because they're jealous: you've got something they can never have..."
Daring said nothing, but her semi-enthused stare urged her mother to continue. "You have passion. Never let anypony take that away from you, and never let anypony tell you that you can't live your dreams. Do you understand?"
The filly closed her eyes, and gave up on trying to open them again once they fell shut. She slowly nodded her cumbersome head in response. "I understand, mommy." She croaked before sinking her head gently into the pillow.
"Good. That's what I like to hear." Cooed the mare softly. "Goodnight, Daring Do... I love you." No reply came, and Darling made the simple prediction that Daring had fallen asleep. Pecking her lightly once more on the forehead, the sandy pegasus rose to her hooves and made the brief journey across the room until she was bathed in the warming light of the eggshell walled hallway. Resting her hoof on the door handle, she took one last eyeful of the mass beneath the covers slowly rise and fall before she tentatively closed the door, the last thin strip of light within the room slowly becoming thinner and thinner before it disappeared completely, without so much as a click of the latch.
Hugging a small plush bear close to her chest, and feeling the soft, warm covers tight against her shoulder enveloping her with the physical definition of 'cosy', young Daring Do just managed to whisper one last hurrah before she drifted off into the land of lions and tigers, temples and vines.
"...I love you too..."
*****
They say time flies when you're having fun. Couple this noble truth with the majesty of youth, and an entire year could flash by in a heartbeat. For the young, aspiratious Daring Do, a lapse of time so vast as a year just seems to dissolve into hazy memory and unkempt thoughts. Even after a whole year, the grey-haired filly's undying passion for adventure and mystery held strong, and had maybe even grown stronger over this expansive sum of days. Whereas many other foals would have their heart set on some kind of dreamlike aspiration: A space-mare, or a soccer-stallion, these heart's desires would either go forgotten, or simply trampled amid the heat of childhood, and the rush of growing up. The problem is, is that some parents urge their kids to grow up too fast; prepare for the future and eliminate much of their younger years with words like 'mortgage' instead of 'mountain', 'tax' instead of 'tree', and for an unlucky some, death in the shadow of diversity.
But not Daring Do; for her extraordinary obsession with the need to know what was over the next hill, past the following forest and what lie at the bottom of a deep chasm had landed her into trouble the likes of which her small, young brain couldn't even comprehend! But that was why she was special: even though she was bumped and bruised, scraped and scuffed, she knew what was on the other side of the hill, she found out what befell the dense, dark treeline. She even discovered, after numerous failed attempts, what was hidden at the bottom of the great scar in the earth. It was nothing to get too excited about; some old rocks and some dust, but the real treasure was the determination and definition which spurred the young filly downward to the truth. Even after being stuck down there for hours with only sand and boulders for company...
Whenever Daring Do's turn to choose a bedtime story arose, there was nopony in their right mind who would guess she would pick anything other than her favourite adventurous hero: Indiana Pones, Equine extraordinaire. Every three nights, the rose-eyed filly would relentlessly force herself to stay awake to open her tiny heart as wide as possible and let the seemingly endless flow of emotions and words sink in from her brilliant mother's thrilling lips. The young filly's two older siblings somehow couldn't see what she saw in this fantastic world of ancient ruins and treasure for some ridiculous reason. They kept on insisting that Indiana wasn't real, or that he was something called 'fiction', a word that Daring wasn't too sure she understood, but judging by her brother and sister's jeers, it couldn't be a good thing.
Daring Do was adamant that her hero was real; certain of it. For how could he not be when the crystal-white stallion paid a visit on her seventh birthday. She remembered crying that day - her first tears of joy. Daring was no stranger to moist eyes, but the only real causes for her bouts of tears in her life so far were from fear or pain; for the first time in her life, she was crying because she was... happy. She couldn't explain it, but something about seeing this brilliant pony in the flesh gave her the biggest thrill of her entire life. Maybe it was because she could prove her hero's existence, or maybe it was because Indiana Pones reminded her so much of her father, the chalky blue hair coupled with his dazzling white pelt, those two intense amber eyes in the middle of his face. It was almost as if her dad was that adventurous pony she idolized. Heck, even when Indie turned up at her house, he sounded like her father, who unfortunately passed away several days after his youngest daughter's birthday, devastating the family. But the tragedy failed to break their spirits.
In the heat of summer, right before the long, enjoyable three-month break from school and work, Dashing Do, the sporting blue colt, was walking his sister, Daring back from their school. For Dashing, this was his last year in junior school, and in a small number of weeks, he would be taking the next step in life and move up into high school to face more difficult trials of the biggest adventure in life, which was life itself. As predicted, Dashing's cutie mark appeared on his twelfth birthday, when he won his first big-league soccer game, and a white and black bucky-ball shape flared onto his rump. It wasn't the most amazing cutie mark in the world, but that didn't matter, because for him, earning his special talent was the biggest accomplishment he had ever achieved, and all of the hard work and training to get to it had been far more than worth it.
That only left one more foal in the Do household to receive a cutie mark, and even though she knew life was uncertain and sometimes harsh, the starry eyed Daring Do continued to pursue her dreams of becoming the best explorer ever to have lived. She had seen what it took to get your heading in life from watching her brother grow and become stronger, so she wasn't expecting to get her cutie mark easily. No matter, the sand pelted filly simply watched the world through her rose tinted spectacles, always feeling as though she owed her sleeping father a debt; he had always told his little daughter to live her dreams, and now that he was gone, though by no means forgotten, Daring made it her goal - no, her duty to make her daddy proud! Little did she know, however, that this eventuality was just around the corner, or more specifically, through her front door.
"Hi, mommy!" Exclaimed Daring Do as she skipped happily through the dark stained doorway, using her premature wings to lift her slightly higher with every carefree bounce. "I'm baaack!"
Her slightly older brother followed suit after closing the door a lot less than carefully and rounded the corner of the kitchen cabinets to see the same sight which had befallen Daring.
Their mother, the content, bubbly, always cheerful mare was hunched over a small table, her head buried in her hooves and her long crimson hair was obscuring her face. She was convulsing gently as she silently sobbed into her soaking wet hooves, and occasionally a teardrop would stray from her face and come to land upon a scruffy piece of paper resting upon the dark wooden surface of the table. She didn't hear her children enter the house - even after the lack of care they had taken in being quiet, so the sensation of a tiny pressure upon her left flank made the pale brown pegasus practically jump out of her skin.
The green eyed mare swiveled around in her seat, unaware of just how much of an awful mess she looked until she caught her foals' reactions. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair matted to her forehead, and her bottom lip was trembling with some unsung sorrow only a mother could comprehend.
"What's wrong, mommy?" Daring Do inquired, the sight of her mother who she loved so dearly in such a state stirred up inner emotions of anguish - even without knowing the full story.
Darling Do wiped both her eyes, gaining some kind of odd relief from the sensation of rubbing them harshly before replying with the best false smile she could muster. "Nothing's wrong, sweetie." She answered, attempting to empower her voice, yet her attempts dissolved into a grief-stricken tone.
Daring Do stared puzzled at the ground for a moment while her brother merely watched the events unfold from the sidelines.
"Then... why are you crying?" The sandy brown filly asked, tipping her head compassionately toward her broken mother.
Darling stared at her daughter for a moment, sizing the filly up, wondering if she was old enough to know the truth. With her decision made, the light mare's fair face contorted in emotional agony and she once again buried her face into her hooves and cried for a good long while.
After several minutes of the pegasus mare's sordid sobs and Daring Do's ignorance as to what was going on in the form of a silent, empathetic stare, the middle-aged widow brought her exhausted, pain filled emerald eyes upward to connect with both her children.
Motioning for the two foals to come closer, Darling hoisted the dull brown coloured filly up onto her knee and squeezed her tight, resting her tear-sodden face atop Daring's head. Dashing, the young sea coated colt took the seat opposite his mother and leaned across the table with a frightful air.
"It's your sister..." Darling Do spoke softly, tears still streaming from her eyes, yet her weak tone was clear enough to understand. "She... She's been..." She wanted to say it, but even with the fact in conscious thought, Darling felt at a loss greater than anything she had felt before.
"Foalnapped?..." Was the masculine input from across the tabletop. It was Dashing who had spoken, reading the message from the curious morsel of paper. He scanned over it many times, but as expected, it took a long while for the truth to really sink in. The note was that of a collection of cut outs from magazines and newspapers which spoke about a large sum of money, and exactly what grotesque things would happen to Dancing Do if this hefty sum of bits was not met.
Darling snatched the ransom note from her son's hooves and threw it into the next room, hoping for some 'out of sight, out of mind' relief. But alas, none came.
"Is this real?" The blue colt asked with intense eyes, feeling more worrisome and angry towards what he had just read rather than sorrowful like his mother. "Has somepony really foalnapped Dancing?"
All his mother could do, was nod her head slowly in defeat.
The three sat there, trying to decide who should speak first as emotions ran cold; heartless through the very air they breathed, chilled by the hellish shock of what could happen to a family like theirs. They had already lost one family member, and now, grievously, it seemed as though they were going to loose another. It was as if life had been too good to them: giving them such love to share among themselves that karma had come back around, and was now tearing their family apart.
"They're..." Darling Do began, propping her weary head up with a hoof. "They say they won't hurt Dancing if we pay them their money, but..." She sighed hopelessly, staring straight through whoever happened to be in front of her, not knowing how she could continue life if any one of her foals were harmed. "But how much they're asking for, I... I don't make that much money in a year... This house isn't even worth enough..." Her voice began to falter, her words a mixture of croaks and whines as she slipped deeper and deeper into depression. "The letter said I can't call the police... I can't get her myself..." The heartbroken mare once again collapsed onto the table, wrapping her forelegs around her head to cover her atrocious appearance. "What am I going to do?" She sobbed, unsurpassable anguish evident on her tone.
Daring Do thought hard for a brief amount of time, blind to the reality of what as going on. Suddenly, she had an amazing idea that seemed to be staring her in the face up until now. "We could ask Indiana Pones for help!" She cried with glee. "I bet he'd listen to me if I asked him."
"No, Daring..." The grey haired filly's mother replied forbiddingly, shaking her head slowly as she wracked her brains for an answer, not coming any closer to one, despite her desparation.
"Yeah!" The young filly insisted with bright eyes, leaning forward to try and look her mother in the eye. "We can go to the Quarabian peaks, find Indie, and he can help us get Dancing back!" She exclaimed with renewed hope.
"Daring-" The emerald-eyed pegasus began in a harsh tone, picking her only located daughter up and dropping her to the checkered linen floor with the intention to be gentle absent. "Indiana Pones can't help us..." She said, brushing the crimson hair out of her view of the filly.
"Wh-" Daring Do started, stumbling over her words as she met her mother's devastated, cold stare. "Why not?"
Darling turned away, unable to look her innocent daughter in the eye.
"Mommy..." The sandy pegasus said, trying to get the mare to turn back around and look at her. "I said why can't he help us?" She asked, tears of neglect, and a smidge of her mother's hopelessness brimming in her eyes. The displaced mare continued to ignore her, which made Daring's frustration begin to surface. "Answer me!" She cried.
The once tentative, caring, overly benevolent laté pelted pony whirled around, catching her daughter in an infuriated glare, making the filly recoil at the new form her beloved mother had now taken. "He can't help us, because he's not real!" Darling Do growled, bringing more misunderstanding to her youngest child's eyes.
"Wh- What?" Daring Do whispered, her rosy eyes fit to burst with confused tears.
"You heard me!" Snapped the older mare in response.
Daring Do stared in shock, extreme contraversion wracking her thoughts. "But- But he... My birthday..."
"That was your father." The infuriated mare growled in an evil, uncaring voice. "He dressed up as that pony to make you feel special..."
The filly couldn't find the words to think, let alone how to respond; her whole life, or at least as far back as she could remember, had been devoted to meeting that famous adventurer, going on amazing adventures with him and travelling the world. It was all a lie.
"But..." Said Daring Do, her voice high-pitched and desperate. "But you told me he was real. You told me I could be whatever I wanted, go wherever I wanted. How could you say all those things when you knew none of them were true!? How could you make me feel like this!?"
No sooner had the exasperated filly finished screaming, she received a firm slap around the side of her face from her furious mother. "Don't you DARE raise your voice at me, you ill-mannered little filly!" Darling Do screamed back twice as loud, making her filly fall into the floor and cover her face with her tiny hooves as her hopes and dreams very quickly fell apart all around her.
The sight of how feeble her tiny filly was being only fueled Darling's rage. "I gave you EVERYTHING! Everything I had, I gave to you to make sure you were happy! And I was happy. I was happy to see you happy, but what do I get? What do I get in return for giving my kids the best life possible in a family as poor as ours?"
Darling glared down towards the trembling filly, her quivering lips and unsettled whimpers making her breath a symphony of sorrow. The terrified silence which met her question made the mare's anger resurface with renewed force. "I get THIS!!!" She roared, slamming her hoof into the table hard enough to rattle the clean dishes on the draining board beside the small kitchen sink. A few calming breaths later, Darling Do had quietened her outburst, but the next words she spoke stung even more so than the screams and the slaps. "It's time to grow up, Daring... Stop living in a dream-world and trying to be something you can never become."
With these words being said, the shattered brown filly shakily rose to her hooves and bolted from the tiny room, her eyes streaming unending berevement as she darted into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.
*****
Crippled breathing befell Daring's body. For a time, all she could do was stand there in the wake of her bedroom, heartbroken. Everything she had ever dreamed - all the majestic adventures, enchanted lands and amazing ponies were all lies. Lies fed to her by her own mother. She knowingly led her to believe that fantasy could become reality - for her at least, but... that too now turned out to be fabrication.
Tears stung Daring's nose and matted the fur on her reddened cheeks as they fell from her clenched eyes. The devastated filly's lips trembled with anguish, and her head throbbed with angst. Grievously, she lifted her heavy head, her vision of her bedroom blurry at best.
Though slightly out of focus, Daring could make out the crude crayon colourings of her and her idol pinned to every available surface of the dull walls. Her sorrow and grief gradually descended into frustration and rage, and the crushed young pony threw herself at her hopes and dreams, thrashing her young hooves across the pictures, tearing them from their place.
The sandy filly bundled hooffulls of paper into her mouth and tore them to pieces, scattering the shredded artwork all over her bedroom floor or whatever surface might have been clear nearby.
Daring buzzed her under-developed wings and skipped up to a large poster of Indiana dominating one expansive section of wall. Blinded by a cocktail of tears, sorrowed screaming and anger, she grasped one of the poster's corners and ripped it straight in half with the sound of tortured paper that personified her pain for the calamity she had become swept up in.
With concentration and care diminished completely, Daring Do toppled over when she landed, bruising her young and tender hip on the sturdy oak dresser which backed onto her siblings' bed. The sharp pain only fuelled the distraught filly's rage, and without hesitating, she continued on to shred the remaining half of her aspiratious star's portrait into as many pieces as possible before she completely broke down.
Daring discarded the shards of poster to her thin carpet floor with careless composure, and with one final bleat of anguish, threw herself onto her bed - which for all the wrong reasons, felt much roomier than it had ever done before. Not taking this sentiment into account, all Daring could manage were ravaged sobs of heartfelt sorrow that tore from her body like desperate spirits.
The ruined filly flopped face-first onto the checkered duvet, feeling the rough fabric itch her coat as she did so. She cupped her tiny forelegs around her dampened face and persisted in her horrendous sobbing. Her legs quickly adopted her optical moisture, and before long, a foal-sized puddle began to form upon her feather-stuffed pillow.
For what seemed like hours, Daring laid there, slowly becoming aware of her own presence and what she had done, but for now, all the depleted little girl could think about was how tired she was, and how much her head hurt.
In reality, little more than ten minutes had spanned since Daring decided to destroy anything and everything she could get her hooves onto that resembled her false hope invested into that fictional idol. She had hoped that in doing so, she would help quell the anguish of discovering her dreams would only remain as a cruel fabrication. Instead, when Daring Do hauled her body over to gaze around at her self-bought destruction, the only feeling to traverse her heart was yet more anguish.
The filly dragged herself onto her rump and pulled her knees into her chest. Her eyes scoured the room for sustenance, but, as predicted, she found none.
The tears refused to stop falling down her cheeks, and despite her best efforts, Daring couldn't even dry off her face. It had been months since she last saw the original colour of her bedroom wallpaper - alas, the reunion with the dull straw hue failed to brighten her soiled spirits. The somewhat imposing but ultimately inspiring poster of the upper proportion of Pones and one of his ever-changing sidekicks was hanging limply from its place, and only half of the adventurous stallion's face remained intact.
Daring Do felt her heart flutter at the sight once again: like the calm after a storm where all the devastation is taken into account. "I'm sorry, Indie..." She whispered, burying her soaked face into her knees, not bothering to try and combat her sorrow, Daring just entered a second wave of heartbreak, this time, grossly self-inflicted.
For whatever reason, whether by some divine intervention, or through a spell of past-times remembrance, Daring decided to peer over at the picture standing unscathed upon her bedside cabinet. It was a framed portrait of her and what she could now clearly note as her father standing side by side, smiling warmly towards the camera, stars in both their eyes.
Daring Do reached over and picked up the picture with exaggerated care. She held it in her forehooves, tracing over her father's features with her rosy eyes. A few stray tears fell and landed on the glass protecting the portrait, leaving no streaks as they slid down and pooled around the bottom of the frame.
After finally calming down with the help of some steady breathing, the dim-eyed filly let out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry, Daddy." She said with a hushed tone. "You told me I could be whatever I wanted to be, but..." She sighed again and wiped her eyes one more time with the back of her hoof. "But... now I... I can't..."
She turned the picture over and embraced it against her chest like a plush, taking a second look at the calamity she had caused. "Mommy said you dressed up as Indiana Pones just to make me happy." Daring informed. "It made me very happy, Daddy." Her tears refused to stop as she continued. She increased her grip on the invaluable photograph as she spoke. "I really miss you..." She sobbed. "You always used to play with me - I know mommy did as well, but... she couldn't crack a whip like you..." A fragmented chortle passed Daring's lips as she said this.
Turning the picture back around to face her father's undying smile again, a meek grin of her own found its way onto Daring's face, and her spirits felt somehow lifted. "When you... when you died, Daddy... Mommy told me you were sleeping, but she told me with tears in her eyes. I knew you weren't sleeping: Mommy never cried when you used to sleep, but now she says you can't wake up."
Daring sighed yet again and closed her eyes, feeling drowsiness set in as she sunk further into her pillow. This time, she envisioned her father's features as she spoke. Her dad was her role model: she looked up to him. It was almost as if... all this time she had been idolizing over a fictitious character wasn't wasted - because even though Indiana wasn't strictly there in her life, he still influenced her; he was still an asset. All properties coincidentally enough reflected in her father.
Without wanting to get ahead of herself, Daring discovered that she had the stallion she yearned to be with was living with her all this time - and it was her own father, no less!
She didn't feel sad or upset or angry. Instead, all young Daring Do could think about was all the happy times she spent with her father: time not wasted; time well spent! Even though he wasn't there now, Daring knew her father was proud of her. And she was proud of him. And nothing anypony could ever do or say was going to change that.
Daring Do pressed her lips to the smooth, cool glass of the picture, tenderly uttering "I love you, Daddy." As she drew away.
She opened her eyes as her head sank further into the pillow. The warm grin plastered onto her face was incredible, and reflected all the determination, richous innocence and courage she had been taught to uphold in life. Beaming despite the circumstance, Daring set the wonderful picture down on the night-stand, picking up a broad purple crayon as she did so to make space.
"Don't worry, Daddy." Daring Do assured with soul, eyeing the stark brown wall beside the torn picture of her idol she once again held to heart, gripping the colouring utensil firmly in her hoof. "I'll make Mommy proud, too."
*****
"Daring?..." Came the delicate call from one fair coated pegasus mare as she tenderly nuzzled the door to her foals' bedroom open. It had been some hours since she had finished her argument with her youngest filly, yet the remnants of the clash was palpable on Darling Do's face: her eyes were impudently bloodshot, and even though she had made a half-hearted point of tidying herself up in the house's one and only mirror on her way, her mane still appeared back-combed and frustrated after becoming saturated with tears.
The disheveled mare wore dark bags under both her eyes; again, she was unsure as to how long she had been in a pseudo-depressive state, but going solely on how tired she was feeling, her chronographical guess was around midnight. Her son hadn't breathed a word after he witness his mother's outburst: he had merely curled up on the family's worn sofa and unconsciously drifted off to sleep. After covering the young colt with a blanket, Darling had made off to seek her daughter's forgiveness - even though she was fully aware that she was neither owed it, nor deserving of it.
As Darling nudged the door open enough to slip through, a chilled breath of night air passed over her tired face, refreshing her aching mind to a trivial extent. However, as the crisp wind struck her, the dim crimson-maned pegasus paused in a bout of apprehension; she was suddenly made well-aware that the time of year was that of the late autumn months: that there was no reason for the window to be open.
Suddenly, Darling Do was worried. She blamed it on a mother's intuition, but something about the room she had just entered seemed 'off'. This unwelcome sensation became amplified as the concerned mother turned on the light.
As the dim ceiling bulb flickered into life, a macabre scene of destruction met her shrunken emerald eyes. Scraps of torn paper lay strewn about the place: all over the modest bed and surrounding floor, as if a tornado had ransacked the room, leaving it a complete tip. The crudely drawn illustrations by her youngest foal had been violently ripped from the walls, and a large poster of the frequently heard-of stallion: 'Indiana Pones' had been severed in two, and where no paper lie on the wall, the half of the portrait not in-tact had been recreated in an infantile manner; traced in humble purple crayon.
Darling took a closer look at the defaced wall, and despite the illustration's crudity, the tired mother could acutely identify the sketchy form of her young filly stood next to the coarse replication of Pones.
A strong gust infiltrated the bedroom, whipping up several pieces of paper and knocking over a small framed photograph on the stout bedside cabinet.
With peaked interest in wherever fate may be concerned, Darling Do made her way over to the overturned picture. She set it back straight, bringing her face to face with her departed husband and eagerly beaming daughter. She sighed. Among many emotions, Darling felt a smile creep onto her face, just as a second bout of strong wind stirred the room's lighter contents back into the air.
Without warning, a paper scrap struck the depleted mare in the face, obscuring her otherwise idealistic view. She recoiled slightly from the unexpected blindfold, but couldn't seem to make a point of flinching.
Darling Do slowly brought her hoof up and removed the piece of paper from atop her eyes, scanning it as she brought it away.
"Daring Do
Equestria's greatest adventurer!"
Those were the words written on the scrap, each crayon entitlement scrawled boldly around a sand-coated filly with slate-hued hair and rosy eyes wearing a poorly drawn safari hat. Without a doubt, this was of Daring's Doing and no other.
Slowly, the widowed mare began to piece the macabre jigsaw together, and before long, a vivid image of her filly's escape painted itself within her mind.
Darling dropped the paper and galloped as best she could in this enclosed space over to the wide open window. She hopped up onto the windowsill and peered out at the night-flooded world below. The candles within the ominous lampposts cast a dull, flickering yellow light over the cold pavement, like insignificant matchsticks in an ocean of black.
"Daring!?" The filly's mother called out in a panic, the frigid wind and the expanse of night stealing her voice's volume. She tried to get a clearer look of the streets, but her view was restricted by the large oak in the back garden. Not that the tree's absence would have helped in any way: the roads were so dark that there may as well have been no lamps at all.
Darling Do called out for her daughter once again, casting her frightened green eyes to the heavens. But alas, the stars held nothing but obscurity, and all the moon had to show for itself was the sinister mare indicated in craters across its surface, watching over the world like some kind of spooky guardian.
Regardless of the wheat-coloured pegasus' efforts, Calling her filly back proved fruitless and she promptly gave up, slumping to the scratchy carpeted floor with tears cascading from her eyes, finding herself physically, and emotionally ravaged once again.
*****
Flashlight gripped loosely between her teeth, Daring Do made her way deeper into the dense forest. A frigid chill nipped at her coat, and she didn't entirely know where she was going. To say the least, she was scared; the emotion divided between her own conspicuous fright and the threat she knew her sister was under. But Daring was not deterred: she just kept soldiering on for the place she had spent many a summer afternoon guarding 'treasure' that lay inside.
It was an old log cabin, buried deep in the heart of this expansive woodland, overpopulated by insects and overwhelmed by decay. It had always struck Daring as an odd place: for a start, what in Equestria is it still standing for? It hadn't been knocked down, nor had it given in to its ridiculous case of wood-rot. What was the point of it? Maybe it had been forgotten because it was so old. Maybe it was the fact that it was as recondite as any building could possibly be, with no one but an enthusiastic young pony to play with. Either way, it had always been Daring Do's habitual reside whenever she was feeling upset or angry.
Daring always seemed to be able to find the dilapidated cabin with an air of instinct. Well, that and the overbearing odor... She needn't be too close to the decrepit house to know it was there: it filled the woods close-by with the smell that came from the stove every time her mother cooked on the burner - the smell that comes paired with the hollow hissing the stove emits before bursting into blue flames. The colours were pretty, but all Daring's mother had told her about it was that it was hot, and that she mustn't touch it.
Some day, Daring thought, she'd learn to cook like mommy on the stove; and know how the fire comes to be. But that was an adventure for another time...
Shivering a small fraction of the chill from her body, Daring re-installed focus in her mind and plunged deeper into the giant forest she treated as a playground. The light from her torch was dim, but without it, she would be totally lost: she had never visited the cabin at night before... She had never even been into the forest when it was dark before!
Thankful to be avoiding the many trees, Daring persisted in making progress. The only other sight apart from silhouetted tree trunks and their densely shadowed canopy above was the midnight purple sky filtering in through tiny cracks in the leaves overhead. Scattered onto the carpet of soggy dead leaves underhoof, small points of silver moonlight filtered down from the mesh of autumn vegetation some distance above.
The young filly swore she often heard noises from deep in the darkness: hoofsteps rustling through the leaves behind her. She knew it was just her imagination - and she kept telling herself that. And although Daring was certain this was the case, it failed to stop her from feeling any less afraid. Regardless, she couldn't stop now - not now that she had gotten so far. Besides, given the darkness, the cold, and the fright chilling her mind, she probably couldn't find her way back anyway.
Turning her thoughts back to the severity of the matter at hoof, Daring Do ducked under a fallen tree that had somehow propped itself up against one that was still standing strong, like some kind of cylindrical ladder made of wood. There was ample clearance, but Daring still felt the rough bark close to her back as she passed.
Many minutes passed as the young filly scoured the pitch-black woodland for her safe-house, keeping herself somewhat amused with the foggy breath passing her lips. She indulged herself in this partially mindless endeavour, beginning to forget the point of her entire quest. So much so, that she lost track of time for a great while, that of which seemed to pass in just a few minutes. However, when the sight of a familiar log cabin - rather, the dull yellow glow radiating from its few windows rose up in front of her, all prior thoughts clouding Daring's mind dissipated, and she was instantly on-form.
For whatever reason, the young explorer was drawn to this cabin: her makeshift fortress of venture. Whether it was a matter of heart, family, or indeed a surplus of pure guesswork, there was not a shadow of a doubt in Daring's mind that this was where her sister was being kept.
She killed her flashlight and approached the structure, which sat atop four cobblestone walls with a rickety wooden flight of stairs leading up to a small porch running the length of the face of the house, which were just as bad - if not worse-off than the rest of the cabin. Daring had never really thought about it, and promptly questioned herself for doing so at a time like this, but she found herself imagining this heavily isolated house in its prime: what a grand building it must've been. She pictured a recluse holiday home, or maybe the habitat of some lucky 'lumber-jockey' who lived each day within these beautiful woods.
All pleasantries aside, the adventurous filly cautiously clambered up the decayed wooden steps, treading lightly knowing that they were famed for their liability to creak.
With a smidgen of common sense, Daring climbed the dozen soggy steps by placing her hooves as close to the edge as possible, causing the time-consumed planks to utter nothing more than a tiny squeak, barely audible even to the young filly who caused them.
She reached the top, feeling as though she had accomplished a mountain as she stepped out onto the porch. Yet she knew her mission was far from over. The young pegasus could hear voices amassing from within: muffled, indistinct in terms of what exactly was being conversed, though it was quite obvious they belonged to two older stallions.
Daring Do tip-hoofed across the damp landing, stopping whenever the ponies inside paused. She was able to make out soft whimpering intermittent in contrast to the absence of conversation. Quickly, and maintaining the pinnacle of stealth, Daring neared the window overlooking the right side of the porch, the one next to an enormous split in the wall that could comfortably accommodate a filly of her size.
Not breaking her physical silence, Daring pressed her small, furry ear up to the cold, unclean glass and listened intently.
*****
"...So what do you say?" A forest-green earth pony asked, his voice gritty and his forehead sodden with perspiration. He paced backwards and forwards in front of a sorry-looking pegasus, her light butter hooves bound in a tight bundle in front of her.
The young mare stirred uncomfortably upon her makeshift straw bed positioned in the least damp-stricken corner of the bracken room, glancing towards a navy blue unicorn standing guard by the door. "Please," She whimpered, her tone pained with fear and laboured as a result of her endless crying. "I've told you, my family doesn't have that much money!" She entreated. "Please believe me..."
Another pair of crystal tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She tried to dry them on her shoulder, but only managed to strain her neck. The terrified mare tried another approach. "My dad's... n-not alive any more, and... my mom's the only one who makes any money." She informed, unable to look her foal-nappers in the eye for too long. "She'll give you all the money we have. It's not... not as much as you ask... asked for, but it's still quite a lot, and... and it's all the money we have, you've got to believe me..."
She fell back to sobbing, resting her head on the scratchy straw in some bleak effort to find comfort. "Please..." She whispered. "I just wanna go home..."
The dark green pony stopped his pacing, and instead, drew himself closer to his pleading captive. "I have no problem letting you go..." He affirmed, igniting the girl's interest. "...Unless I don't get my MONEY!" He yelled, swiping violently at the air above the yellow pony's head, catching a small oil lamp and sending it clattering to the floor. Its flame died, yet the viscous liquid inside spilled out and pooled near the centre of the room.
The white-maned pegasus curled up as best she could, wincing in pained expectance and screwing her bright rose eyes shut. Her breaths became uneven hiccups, and for the most part, she seemed to be trembling all over with fright.
Elevating his game plan, the male pegasus kneeled on the floor beside the petrified mare, grabbing a hooffull of her spider-silk mane behind her head and forcing her face towards his.
"Look at me." He ordered, and the young girl had no option to oblige. As she frightfully opened her eyes, her captor's amber iris filled her vision, and sent a malicious chill down her spine. "Your mother will pay." He informed, his haunting eyes appearing strangely understanding. But his indistinct expression fell quickly back to devious and maniacal. "After all," He continued, drawing a small blade from somewhere, gripping it loosely as he brought it up to the base of the mare's ear, sawing with it gently until it became obvious it was starting to sting. "I'd hate to get..." He pulled the knife away, sending a fair trickle of blood down the pegasus' cheek. "...persuasive..."
"Ahem..." The sound of somepony clearing his throat came at the same time a soft light found its way into the room. The hell-bent earth pony peered up, catching the off - look his partner was giving him, who promptly raised his eyebrows and spoke. "That's enough, Riptide." He said in a voice relaxed and calm: almost 'soothing' to some far extent, but it was doubtless that the heavy blue unicorn held twice as much venom as his far more intimidating counterpart: not needing to use brute force to frighten the young mare.
The earth pony blinked, turning momentarily back to his captive with ill eyes, a godless smile growing on his lips. "Of course..." He agreed, laying the mare's head gently back down on the straw, breathing on her with a dirty, smoke-filled breath. "We don't want to be returning a pretty little thing like you all cut up and bruised like scrappers such as ourselves."
"Time to go." The unicorn ordered, the tip of his horn glowing bright gold, sounding unimpressed with his lesser partner's 'actions'. He turned to the bleeding pegasus, an unreadable expression woven onto his face. "Don't worry, Miss... We'll bring you back something to eat..." It sounded as if he were joking, as if trying to prolong the poor girl's suffering. And the dark smirk he shot her afterwards failed to help this assumption. However there were aspects of his tone that implied he was being sincere - but then again, they were hardly going to let her starve.
The dark earth pony deemed 'Riptide' jumped up, following who seemed to be his boss out the fragile wooden barricade that once resembled a door. Less than a second passed before he poked his head back through the opening, staring straight into the pained pegasus' soul. "Oh, one more thing:" He mentioned nonchalantly. "If you think about trying to escape, or screaming for help, your ear's not the only thing I'll be taking." He flexed his brow evilly. "Not that screaming would matter: there's nopony to hear for miles and miles around..." The devil's smile found a home on his face, and it became clear he was having the absolute time of his life in this moment.
"Come on!" The unicorn stallion grumbled, bored, dragging the menacing pony out by his shoulder, taking not an ounce of care in slamming the door behind him.
Finally left alone, but blanketed by darkness and the intense cold, the scared, hungry, hopeless young mare sunk further into what now was looking to be her death bed and let her tears flow freely, whilst she listened to her captor's hooves creak down the steps outside, and fade from existence.
*****
"Time to go." Came the other voice sharply, and in such a way that it made Daring recoil from the window slightly. Her ears picked up on another sound as she drew away, though as the sticky, temperamental door handle began to turn, and it seemed to be coated in a pale orange aura: not to indifferent to how a unicorn's horn would glow, Daring thought to herself, before realising that the door, or what could barely be regarded as such, was being opened.
The pegasus filly gave a little squeal of terror, which luckily paired itself with one of the many unoiled squeaks from the rusted door itself, and hopped down from the window. Though her soul focus was to hide, Daring Do still somehow managed to keep an element of stealth about her composure; darting lightly across the floor on the tips of her hooves.
By the time Daring reached the impressive split in the wood, she felt she was just seconds away from being dragged back out by her legs. However she could not allow the stomach-churning dread avert her actions.
She scooted around and begun backing slowly into the wall, keeping a watchful eye on the laboriously opening door. With her breath held, she slid under the cover of darkness provided by the ruined house, listening to hooves clop heavily onto the wooden flooring outside and the muffled voices persisting within. She could barely make out the shadowy figure of a pony pacing impatiently around outside, his silhouette cast onto the ground by the intense shaft of silver moonlight breaking through a gap in the tree canopy above.
The small brown pony dared to let out her constricting breath, but as she did so, she felt an uncannily memorable sensation slither over her front hooves. Daring peered cautiously down and confirmed her fears. The adventurer-in-training always fancied herself as somewhat fearless, but if there was one thing she couldn't be doing with, it was snakes. Though the grass-coloured serpent crawling over her hooves and deeper into the dilapidated cabin was merely minding its own business, and had no intentions of harming anypony, the fact that it was there at all caused Daring to utter a brief, squeamish, high-pitched 'meep' of fright.
The steady ambulous pacing on the porch halted abruptly, and Daring felt her heart hit the roof of her mouth when she realised that whoever it was out there had heard. The snake was the least of her worries right now - in fact, she'd forgotten the snake was there at all. She saw the shadow on the ground poise perfectly still, and watched its head turn gradually to the right. Everything was silent, except for the jackhammer thumping of Daring's heart in her ears. The filly found herself on the brink of tears: she was certain she would become just like her sister, and that her mother would never be able to buy her back.
When out of nowhere, miraculously, the stallion outside began to grumble incoherently, turned about and proceeded back inside the log cabin with a low growl.
"Come on!" Daring heard the stallion snap at whoever else was in the room over her thunderous heartbeat, followed by a scraping of hooves as the other stallion exited the room with his acquaintance.
There was a sharp 'bang!' that made Daring wince in her hiding place as the cabin door was slammed shut. The sandy brown filly continued to stifle her breath as she listened to the dull thudding of hooves make their way down the creaking stairs, paying little attention to the topic with which the voices were discussing as they faded into the blackness of the night. Daring Do couldn't make out what exactly was being said; she didn't particularly want to - all she knew was that one of the stallions was laughing, and it made her sneer in disgust.
Keeping ever quiet, Daring scooted out from her crevasse and fluttered lightly to the base of the decayed door. She reached up and beckoned the rusty handle into her hoof, glancing over her shoulder with an eagle's stare as she slowly pulled down, opening the ancient wooden screen with not but a tiny creek of tired metal.
She opened the door fractionally, allowing just enough room for her to back in, all the while maintaining a reconnaissance with the deathly still outside world.
Daring faced into the room. It was dark - even darker than outside given the absence of most of the moonlight. A lamp lie broken on the floor, soaking in a puddle of its own oil. There was a single window to the far right, looking out onto a jury of silver-streaked trees. The window was dusty, grimy, covered in the residue of decades worth of neglect and cracked in many places, but it allowed in just enough light for the self-appointed rescuer to notice the fair yellow colouration of a young pegasus mare: her features were indistinguishable, but even on this dark and sinister night, it was unmistakably her sister.
"Sis...!" Daring Do whispered loudly, straining her voice to be heard across the room. She began to walk forward with an air of anticipation, albeit a very disquieted sensation.
The broken-down pony raised her head wearily, yet her rose eyes seemed to be glowing. All she could make out was a small dark shape shuffling towards her. In any other circumstance, the stolen mare would have labelled this phenomenon nothing more than a desperation-induced ghost: a fabrication of the spiritual mind cast out by an insufferable longing. But the accompanying voice made her think otherwise.
"Daring...?" Asked the captive mare, squinting through the darkness.
Daring Do picked up her pace a little, stopping in the strip of platinum light on the rough wooden floor. There was a moment of kindred silence between the two young ponies as they silently confided with each other. Daring looked at her sister, and the older girl's rich blossom eyes reflected the thousand mile stare the brown filly was bearing.
The stone grey-maned pegasus skipped forward, and wordlessly flung her forelegs around her sister's neck, feeling fresh tears of relief dampen her shoulders.
"Oh, Daring!" Dancing Do sobbed ecstatically, struggling against her bonds once again. If not to escape, then most definitely to be able to return her younger sister's embrace.
Daring found she was crying too; but she was unsure as to why. Maybe it was because Mommy didn't have to worry anymore, and they could be a family again. The aspiratious rescuer could recall experiencing this elated feeling once: her seventh birthday, the day she met her idol in the flesh. She'd cried when he hugged her - and cried even more when he left. And even though she was aware it was only her father acting a part, his ideals were now as clear as the light of day. Everything he did, everything he said and everything he gave her was real, and it was all to make her happy... And she was.
So happy she could cry.
"How did you know I was here!?" Asked the white-maned mare.
"Lucky guess." Daring jested, shooting an off-topic wink at her sister. "I thought to come here because I know nopony else comes out here." Her expression turned somewhat solemn as she carried on. "Whenever I feel sad, I come here, because I know no one will find me... And sometimes I just come here to play!" She decreed, her face becoming a little more cheery as she beamed. "It's so old and overgrown. I tried to explore in the basement, but there's too many big red bottles down there, and it smells really bad - like when mommy cooks on the stove, only... a hundred times more strong!" The infant explorer became excited, chirping happily about her makeshift temple's 'treasures'.
Though it may not have been the time for it, Daring became eager to go back into the basement now there was somepony else who could play with her here too.
"Daring," The younger filly's sister asked in a way that suggested she re-focused herself. "Can we talk about this later? Like, after we've escaped?" She asked uncomfortably.
Daring shook the imagination from her head. "Oh, r-right." She affirmed, Dropping to her older sibling's side as she began tugging at her bounds. She managed to pry one forehoof free, and the other came quickly after that. Now, Dancing could in theory help herself, but she still left it to Daring to loosen the rope cutting into her back legs. Whether this was to assert her aspiratious young sister in doing something heroic, or just because she was too tired to interfere, Dancing Do just closed her eyes and thought gleefully about freedom.
She rested her head on the makeshift bedding and exhaled peacefully. Her tranquil smile died however, when she eased her pale rose eyelids open to see the orange-eyed assailant staring back at her maliciously from across the room, every aspect of his form, except for those haunting orange eyes shrouded in shadow.
Unbeknownst at the time to Daring, Dancing Do noted that her captor was smiling as he opened his mouth to speak. And as he did, every aspect of the sickening sensation of dread previously endured raced back into her aching head. "Hello, sweet pea."
*****
Daring Do whirled 'round with a sharp gasp of surprise. Spiteful eye-contact was made between the two when Dancing's foal-napper turned his attention to the sand coated filly.
"And what do we have here?" He asked, his mannerisms tormentingly sterile, like somepony who had unexpectedly found an extra few bits in their saddlebag. In response to the question, Daring stepped backwards, pressing herself up to her sister's side to seek as much protection as possible from the dangerous-looking stallion.
In her mind, Daring had accounted for this situation, and in her mind, there was nothing to be afraid of. But in reality, she nearly couldn't breathe because of how petrified she was: there was a tight knot in her throat, and she almost just wanted to burst out into tears, run away and hide.
The tall stallion caught sight of Daring's horror, and couldn't resist the easy well of tormentation. "Oh, don't be scared, little girl." He whispered, advancing toward the two siblings menacingly.
Daring yelped and scrambled across the floor, loosing grip on the slippery oil beside her sister's bed. She found herself running towards the wall, and had no clue of what to do once she got there. But she never even had the chance to be in that position, as before she even managed to scramble a few metres, a strong, minatory hoof caught her roughly by the back of her neck and manhandled her into the air, until she was eye-to-eye with the threatening green pony.
"Who are you?" He asked, the vile stench of smoke invading Daring's nostrils, making her choke. When the stallion's new toy didn't respond, he quickly grew agitated, but his aggression came out afflictive and callous.
"Oh, a quiet one, eh...?" He continued to interrogate, putting on a macabre act of false interest all the while. "And I suppose you're here to 'rescue' this little gem. Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but she's ours now. At least until her poor grieving mother pays us for her 'safe return'." He informed, speaking the last part with particular venom.
Daring closed her eyes and struggled in the air, trying her best to wriggle free, but her captor tightened his grip on her neck, sending a spiking pain across her back, and she found she had to choice but to stop.
"What are you trying to be, filly...?" The black-maned earth pony encroached, shaking the small girl in the air in front of him. "A hero? A savoir? Or are you just in the market for an adventure?" Upon the last decree, Daring opened her eyes, and stared straight back at the stallion's fiery amber eyes. They reminded her so much of her father, so much of her idol, but coincidentally, were nothing in comparison.
The deep green earth pony's patience was clearly running out, and this fact made itself evident in his tone. "I'll ask you one more time... Who are you? And what is this mare to you?"
"Her name's Daring Do." A familiar female voice came from the middle of the room. Daring's interest was peaked, and upon the glance she was allowed past the menacing stallion before he turned around to see for himself, she saw her sister standing strong and unbound, a vengeful grimace of protection worn upon her face. "And she's my little sister, you bastard."
Before the enslaving stallion even had time to think about what to react with, two yellow hooves struck the side of his body with immense force, sending him stumbling into the wall opposite. He dropped Daring and she managed to land on all fours, just in time to see the maniacal stallion collide with the wall, sending a huge crack up the rotten wallpaper and across the damp-eaten ceiling.
The winded earth pony rebounded from the wall like a basketball. And when his head hit the ground hard enough to split the wood, he did not get back up.
The time for pleasantries was non-existent, however, as barely half a second later, the other bandit galloped into the room. He quickly addressed the scene, and no time, was shooting sparks from his horn at the two young girls.
Dancing and Daring Do were scrambling about the room together, both trying to avoid being hit by burning balls of magic. The once dark cabin was filled with flashes, bangs and the sound of sparks fizzling out on the wet floorboards.
The unicorn took a step forward, hoping to improve his aim, but a badly timed shot collided with a piece of falling ceiling, and bounced sparks back into his navy blue face. This wouldn't have been a problem, and would have aggravated him even more about the fact that his prisoner had dared to fight back. However, he was standing upon a large puddle of highly flammable lamp oil his partner had spilled just moments ago whilst violently emphasising a point.
The magical points of light struck the volatile liquid, and flames erupted around the blue unicorn's hooves. His instinctual response was to run away, but when he took a single step, the abused section of floor gave way, and in an instant, his back end was hanging above a mighty drop, whilst his forelegs and face were becoming black from the hellfire he brought upon himself.
Tortured screaming tore through the isolated woodland house, and upon sight of the fire, both sisters stopped running wildly and were now watching the evil pony burn. Though it bore a sick sense of safety and relief, it was still a gruesome sight to behold, and before too long, Daring hid her face away in her sister's leg, crying through a mixture of relief and whatever past fear still lingered.
Dancing Do closed her eyes and smoothed her hoof over her younger sibling's twig-strewn mane, listening to the fading screams of anguish and her distraught sister's sobs.
The pale gold mare quickly became aware of an ominous bowing sound coming from the rafters, and turned her blossom eyes upward, noticing a considerable and alarming dip forming in the ceiling.
"Daring, we've got to go." She informed, the comment sounding more like an order than an instruction. Dancing glanced around the room as quickly as physically possible, desperately seeking out a means of escape. But the doorway - the one and only entrance to the cabin was consumed by fire. That only left...
"The window!" Daring cried, having taken a much faster evaluation of the situation than her sister. She broke free of the embrace and darted toward the grimy pane of cracked glass. She didn't look back, didn't falter, only keeping freedom in her mind. She heard two sets of hooves as she galloped, so she knew her sister was right behind.
Daring heard the roof begin to collapse, and took it as a decisive cue to jump. There was a mighty explosion, followed by a shrill, painful ringing, which was later coupled with the sensation of falling. Being a pegasus, this feeling elated Daring, and she opened her tiny wings up: the fantastic feeling of flight banishing all the woe she may have possessed.
The sand-coated filly soared trough the sky, stretching out her forelegs with the exhilarating knowledge that her and her sister were alright, free, and soon, she could be part of a family again.
But the sensational thrill of air rushing through her slate-hued mane ended abruptly for Daring with a sharp force striking the top of her head. The small filly registered a boundless swelling pain, and the first comparable thought to pass through her mind was like somepony had struck her in the head with a sledgehammer. But before her eyes could unfasten themselves, and way before she could open her mouth to yell, everything went dark, peaceful, painless. And before long, the irritatingly shrill ringing in her ears faded away to nothing as well...
*****
The first dampened and disorientating noises that drifted past the barely conscious Daring Do were the distant whining of sirens and the harsh crackle of fire against wood. A flickering light manifested in front of the tired filly's eyelids, and she soon became aware of a pleasant warmth enveloping her body. As time marched on, Daring became increasingly conscious of the plethora of sensory stimuli surrounding her. The aroma of burning pine wood anchored itself in her nose, and the smoke which came with it stung at her eyes, even though they were shut tight with their psychological weight.
The voices of ponies shouting to one another rapidly became the lead sound over all else. Their voices were panicked, rushed, but also somehow coordinated and sharp. In addition to the multitude of sensations, Daring felt a cool, wet mist brush against her face, moistening her fur and making her shiver slightly at the dramatic change in temperature.
The young filly's minute movement must have evoked another pony standing nearby, as almost immediately as she shook, Daring felt somepony's face close to hers. At the time, she was uncertain as to who that actually was, but the soft, motherly, panic-shredded tone made it all too clear.
"It's okay, sweetie, Mommy's here..." Cooed the voice.
With commendable effort, Daring peeled her eyes open, and stared up at two sets of swirling green irises, which slowly merged together to form one clear pair.
Daring Do struggled to take in a breath, and as she did, a traumatising pain swelled through her head, and she noticed tears obscuring her vision. "...M- Mom...?" She croaked, her throat parched and sore. "What's going on?"
Even though her senses were still a little scrambled, Daring could tell by the way she spoke, that her mother was very distraught. "Don't worry about that now." The light toned mare replied, smiling ever so slightly. "I'll explain everything when you're better."
"When I'm better?" Thought Daring Do as a frightful frown found its way onto her face. "Why?" She asked, finding she had to swallow a few times to compensate for her dry throat. "What's wrong with me?"
Her mother seemed quick to reply. "Nothing." She answered with a broad smile. "Nothing at all."
Daring refused to surrender her frown. "Where's Dancing?" She asked in what could be mistaken as a demanding tone. "Is she okay?"
The emerald-eyed pegasus raised her head and stared off into the distance, somewhere where Daring couldn't see. "Yes..." She answered with a relieved exhale. "She's fine, but she's hurt her wing quite badly."
Concerned, and even a little intrigued, Daring tried to roll her head to the side for a better look, but before she could make half an effort, she felt the soft, yet firm grasp of her mother's hoof stop her. With quizzical eyes, the bruised and battered filly took a second glance at her parent and silently asked for an explanation.
"The doctors said you can't move your head." The rouge maned mare explained, staring sympathetically into her daughter's rosy eyes. "It seems as though you've hit your head quite hard, and they don't know yet if there's any serious damage..." As a mother, Darling Do naturally found it hard to say that. However, she thought Daring, over any one of her foals, should be told quickly and simply. Although this failed to stop Daring from turning her eyes sorrowfully downward.
"Well," She added in a fruitless attempt to lighten the smoke-filled atmosphere. "Lets hope you don't ever hurt your wing like that: a broken wing is a pegasus' worst nightmare!" Her poorly timed 'jest' fell flat, and Daring continued to face down gloomily.
Catching her daughter's uncharacteristic cheerlessness, a bright thought sparked across Darling's mind, and a hopeful smile flashed across her lips. "Hey," She cooed enthusiastically. "I know what'll cheer you up."
She began to fumble around with something Daring couldn't see, but something about her mother's smile let her know everything was alright. The young filly felt something soft brush against her coat, and it was made apparent that she was wrapped up in a blanket. It was also made clear that her mother was unfolding the warm fabric from a spot over her right flank.
The mare with the red hair stepped back with a profusely proud grin and held something up in her hoof. She turned her elated gaze to her daughter, and even at the modest distance, Daring could tell that her mother was beginning to tear up.
"Go on." Daring's mother urged, nodding to the petite article she held in her hoof.
She had to strain her eyes, but upon peering down, Daring confirmed that her mother was holding a small circular mirror. But it was what was in the mirror that Daring sought most interesting. Reflected in the shiny glass circle, was her own brown-hued flank, which catered for a small emblem that she was sure hadn't existed a few hours ago.
She looked at it carefully, and even though the light radiating from the blazing pine trees above was poor, she could still make out a small, golden four-pointed star atop an olive-green circle, not too dissimilar to that of a... compass...
Daring's eyes widened wildly at the sight, and the realisation made her headache almost non-existent. "Is... is that..." She stuttered, yet had to say no more as her mother's gentle nod confirmed it.
The awestruck filly didn't know what to say; it was like she had won an award, and it didn't take much contemplation to decide that, in a way, she had.
"I always knew you were something special, Daring Do..." Clamoured the ecstatic filly's contented mother. "Ever since you first learned to crawl, you've been out there exploring, finding new things, learning about the world before we even had a chance to show you..." Two pearlescent tears rolled down her cheeks as she blinked them away.
At that moment, Daring's elated discomposure fell to little more than a happy simmer so she could pay attention, but her heart was still singing quietly in her chest. She hushed down and listened to what her mother had to say with a sense of mutual fortitude. "I am very proud of you, Daring." Darling Do praised. "And I want you to know that I love you more than anything else in the world." She brought her face down and, keeping caution in mind, gently nuzzled her tired little girl.
"So..." Daring quietly asked, her weak voice barely more than a whimper. "Does that mean I can still be an adventurer?"
The mare's glossy green eyes widened, as did her serine smile at her daughter’s persistently enthused expression. "Sweetheart," She whispered, brushing Daring's unkempt grey hair from in front of her eyes with a level of care so profound only a mother could perform so effortlessly, "You can be whatever you want."
-The End.
