White Shadows

“So, you brought us this fluffy pony out of goodwill? This is unbeknownst to thee.” Said Luna, as I handed her the light blue creature.

“Just thought you might want it. Judging from my experience with them, I suggest you keep it below speeds of 2 miles per hour, make sure it eats a whole lot, and if it’s a guy, keep it away from mares.”

Luna smiled at me, and I returned it from behind the mask, before returning back to the ballroom. From the inside, I heard the sounds of grunts, and annoyed sighs.

“We’ll never get this thing up. I told you Lyra wasn’t fit for this job!”

“Hey, she’s helped us a whole lot. Don’t jump to conclusions just yet, Lavender. I know you replaced Felix, since he pulled his groin, but don’t think you can talk back to your elder!”

“Shut the hell up, Dusty! Pillows, give me a hand!”

“Screw you.”

I walked in, and all the ponies in the room looked at me. They were trying to lift a large part of the massive stage which the musicians were supposed to play upon. I just scoffed, and Pillows rolled his eyes.

“Finally, somepony with a strong back comes.” Stated Pillows.

“Oh, look at this guy. Dressed up with his stupid fucking mask. I bet he can’t even use that sword,” Said the one who sounded like Lavender.

He was a purple Pegasus, with bright orange eyes and a lighter purple mane and tail. He had an unbeknownst cutie mark, and he had a challenge in his eyes. I just scoffed, looking at the stage.

“You’re gonna need more than a couple strong backs. I’m no interior designer, but I suggest you get a couple of unicorns of substantial magic skill,” I said, and one of the older designers shrugged.

“Lyra’s tried, but that’s not the problem. The action which lifts up the stage is jammed, and we can’t seem to get it unjammed,” Said the elder, and I looked up at it.

“I’ll take a look,” I said, focusing upon the rafter where the action to lift up the stage was.

Then there it was again. A piercing pain in my chest. Perhaps the affection from my daughter was finally rubbing off. But why? I had just killed well over 10 ponies, so I shouldn’t be too exhausted of bad morality. I teleported up to the rafter, and held my chest in pain. The ponies below were staring at me in awe, but I didn’t care. I looked at the small action, and sure enough, it had been jammed. I quickly slapped it a couple times with the sheathe of my blade, and jumped back down.

“I don’t know how to fix it,” I said, and Lavender whinnied angrily.

“Is anypony in this castle good at doing anything?!” He shouted angrily.

I have to admit, I was getting pretty annoyed. Like how a schoolcolt gets annoyed when another school colt teases him or overreacts, and then the schoolcolt comes back with a “your mom” joke.

“Well, I know one thing I’m good at doing,” I said, smiling behind my mask.

“What’s that? Being worthless?”

“No, your mom.”

I heard pillows hold in a laugh, the old stallions start to snort with amusement, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lyra smirk. I guess it wasn’t out of the corner of my eye, because I never saw Lavender’s punch come out of the blue.
I hit the ground, blood spraying out of my lips. I stood up, to only be hit in the chest with a hammer. I fell to the ground, the breathe knocked out of me.

“What did you say about my mom, you fucking son of a whore?!” Shouted Lavender, bringing the hammer down upon the back of my head.

I felt my skin break, and my mask come sliding off.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” shouted Lavender, repeatedly punching me in the face.

Blood was now seemingly pooling around my head, as everyone was running for the guards now. Lavender let up for a moment, as blood dripped down my face.

“Daddy?”

I turned my blurry vision to the door way, where I saw my daughter. Her eyes were wide with horror and rage, as she looked me over. I opened my mouth, but got a hoof to the throat for my troubles. Lavender then dropped the hammer, and turned his vision to Daring.

“Well, well, well. Your daughter, huh? I guess I’ll rough her up a bit as well,” Said Lavender, walking over to her.

Suddenly, Daring spread her wings, and jumped into the air, delivering a swift kick to Lavender’s face. She floated over him, as blood poured out of his broken snout, and she ran over to me, nudging me.

“Get up, Daddy. You hafta get up! The bad man’s gonna hurt us!” She said, frantically, trying to get me up.
Suddenly, a pair of hooves picked up Daring, and I looked up. Daring was looking Lavender straight in the eyes, and Lavender had a sadistic smile plastered upon his face.

He pulled out a box cutter, showing the blade, and he slowly brought it to Daring’s snout.

“My turn, you br-.” He started, when I delivered a swift blow to his face.

“Don’t touch my daughter, you fucker!” I shouted, as I grabbed him by the throat.

I delivered a volley of punches to him, before I slammed a K.O. blow to his jaw, putting him to sleep like I had slapped a fly out of the air. I grabbed my mask, and quickly put it on, as well as picking up my daughter. She hugged me tightly, as I stroked her mane, comforting her. My wounds were slowly healing up, and the blood on my clothes and fur was slowly absorbed into my skin. The guards barged in, and I pointed towards Lavender. The guards picked him up, and I kept on stroking Daring’s mane.

“Are you okay, darling?” I asked, and Daring nuzzled me.

“No…” She said, sniffling.

Well, at least she’s truthful.

I pull of my mask, and I kiss her affectionately on the head, showing that she’s safe now. She drops down, smiling at me.

“Guess what I learned to do today, Daddy?” She asked, hopping in circles around me. Her speech had become much more articulate, due to a month of spending time in Canterlot, where everypony spoke perfectly.

“What did you do, sweetheart?” I asked intently.

She suddenly jumped into the air, her wings flapping wildly.

“I can fly Daddy! Look, look!” she said, making circles around me.

I smiled, watching her fly around the room. She suddenly bumped into a small lever, causing the stage to rise almost immediately. She flew back down, panting wildly. Her small wings could only carry her so far, but she was doing well for her age. As an earthpony, I couldn’t teach her to fly, unless I got metal wing implants, which were next to worthless.

“Wow honey! That was impressive. I’ll tell you what, after Daddy is done with work, we can go and get some of your favorite ice-cream, okay?” I said, and she smiled, and nodded wildly.

“Can I go see Princess Woona?” she asked. That was her pet name for Luna. Luna loved it, and seeing how she spent a large amount of time with Daring, she was like a mother.

“Sure sweetheart, go on ahead,” I said, and Daring ran off, her book-bag bouncing off her back.

Lyra and the other three old stallions entered the room again, staring at me in awe. They had obviously not foreseen the regeneration powers that the mask held. I gestured at the stage.

“It’s up.”

Lyra just walked up to me, and circled around me.

“Teleportation, regeneration, whats next?” She asked, looking at me mask.

“I really have no idea, Ms. Heartstrings.” I said, and she sighed.

“Just call me Lyra. I always knew that Lavender was a bad apple,” she said, looking at the three stallions.
“Well, I suppose we could get started again,” Said one of the stallions, who then looked at me. “You don’t suppose you could help us, do you?”

I tapped my chin for a second, and nodded. “I don’t have anything to do today, so sure.”

Needless to say, we got a lot done. Stage set up, amplifiers brought in, tables and chairs set up, decorations, invitations, food lists. I only did some heavy lifting, seeing as how I’m not an interior designer. It was 6 o’clock PM by the time we finished, and I was exhausted, as well as the designers were. We all picked up, and started to walk out of the ballroom doors, when Lyra stopped.

“Hey, thank you for the help. We would have been here another day or two if it wasn’t for you.” Said Lyra, holding out her hoof.

I held my own hoof out, shaking hers.

“Any time, Ms. Heartstrings,” I said, and she smiled.

“If you insist on calling me that, it’s Mrs. Heartstrings to you- well, not for long, at least.” She said, and I pulled off my mask.

“You’re married?” I asked, and she nodded.

“To a pony named Octave Hearts. I’m getting a divorce, though,”

I raised an eyebrow, and she shook her head.

“He just doesn’t care about me. He abuses me, takes my earnings, expects me to be with him 100% of the time, and doesn’t even acknowledge my problems.

“He sounds like an asshole. You want to talk about it?”

The only reason I even offered to do such a thing was because she was a beautiful young mare, I was a young (not handsome, seeing as how I was missing an eye) stallion. She was getting divorced, and I was single. I have to admit, I had a small crush on her, and now was a perfect time to get to know her.

“No, no, its okay. I don’t think you want to waste any of your time on me,” She said, giving me a half-hearted smile.

“It’s okay. I’m heading to an ice-cream shop with my daughter anyways; It wouldn’t be a problem if you tagged along.”

Lyra moved her mouth to the side of her face, obviously thinking about it. On the outside, I was calm and collected. But on the inside, I was like a school colt asking his crush out on a date. Well, that’s kinda what I was doing.

“Sure! How old is your daughter?”

“Five, I think.”

“Five? How old are you?”

“25.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow, giving me a slight smirk.

“Busy guy, are you?”

I just laughed, smiling at her acceptance.

“It’s a long story, I guess,”

We walked out of the ballroom, heading towards the princesses quarters.

“Wow… That’s crazy. Your daughter, who happens to be THE Daring Do, was created by a curse, which drains you of your life forces every time you feel love for her… I have to say, that’s pretty unusual.”

Lyra was sitting across from me, licking a mint-chocolate chip ice cream cone, and I had just told her my life story from the past month or so. Daring was sitting behind me, styling my mane into many different styles. I had left my overcoat at home, so I was left with just my eye patch. I didn’t feel comfortable without clothes, as did many ponies in Canterlot, but it was too much of a hassle to get dressed up for ice cream.

“Well, where I’m from, anything can happen,” I said, and Lyra smiled.

“Where are you from, exactly?” She asked, taking another lick of her ice cream.

“Originally grew up on the streets of Crimea, the capital of Equine. I was orphaned there, grew up in an orphanage that beat us just as often as they fed us. I got out of there at the age of 15, using only my hoofs and a bobby pin. Went with the caravans until I was eighteen, then I served my mandatory four in the guard. After that, I joined explorer school, and worked with them until about a month ago,” I said, and Lyra raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t feel any loyalty towards your country?” asked Lyra, and I shook my head.

“No. Not after what I’ve seen them do. I presume you’ve heard of the pits, have you not?”

“Yes, I have. Why?”

“They work children to death in the Pits of Crimea. I’ve seen the guards shoot them once their worthless, and then throw their bodies into the steam pots. No wonder the air is so polluted there,” I said, taking a lick of my own vanilla ice cream.

“Daddy, why are the people in Equine so mean to their children?” asked Daring, and I sighed.

“I’ll never know, sweetheart,” I said, and she just nodded.

“Maybe I’ll find out one day!” She said estatcially.

“I bet you will. You’ve already mastered basic map making. I won’t be surprised if you help colonize some unknown land,” I said, rubbing her mane.

She puffed out her cheeks, nuzzling me, and I just laughed. I looked at the clock in the shop, and my eyes widened in surprise.

“Okay, we have to go home, Daring. It’s almost time for bed,” I said, lifting her up.

Lyra finished her cone, and we walked out of the shop. The castle had its own Ice cream parlor, so we didn’t have to walk far back to my flat. Even though it was barely 4 minutes to the house, Daring fell asleep on my back, and I had to be careful putting her into bed. Needless to say, I wasn’t one for stealth, so I failed miserably, ending with me reading a bedtime story to her. She fell asleep midway through, so I left Daring in her bed, and I walked out of her room, closing the door carefully.

“You’re a good parent,”

I turned, and Lyra was sitting on the couch. I shrugged, and she stood up.

“I guess I’ve always had a soft spot for children,” I said, walking over to the couch.

“Well, I respect you for that. I guess I should be getting home now,” Lyra said, standing up.

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you at the Gala, then. You are coming, right?” I asked, and she nodded happily.

“Of course I’ll be there!” She said, opening the door.

“Oh, and, if you need any help with dealing with your husband, just tell me. I’m sure I can pull a couple strings to help your cause,” I said, and Lyra smiled.

“Thank you, Steam. I’ll see you later,” She said, walking out.

The door slammed shut, and I sat down on the couch. I ran my hoof across my face, sighing with relief. I pulled off my eye patch, and walked up to the mirror, looking at the sealed up hole that had replaced my eye. I hopped onto the couch, and within seconds I had fallen asleep.

End Of Act One...