Fleety's Pile of Anthology

by Fleety

A Little Daring Doo

A dark, ancient, and ominous place.

That is what Daring Doo could see down these wooden steps. She’d been staring at them for who knows how long, but she knew she had to go down there at some point: she had to lest she never see Lily again.

“It’s okay, she’s just down there looking around…” The little filly tried to encourage herself as she held the lantern in her muzzle.

She could see that the stairs were long, if she made a misstep she could get herself hurt! Yet even when she was holding the lantern she couldn’t see the bottom of the staircase. Only darkness greeted her.

“L-Lily? You okay down there?” she called out to the darkness below.

There was no response and she was too hesitant to move past the door frame.

She knew she shouldn’t have done this. Her mum had even told her that the basement was a place where old things go. Ghosts, dust, you name it, it would all be down there. Yet at the time it seemed safe when her friend, Captain Lily, said that there was nowhere else left to explore except the basement, so the two ventured there. Like always, Lily said she would be the first, so Daring sent her in. Before she left, Captain Lily had promised she would come back as soon as it was safe.

That had been about ten minutes ago and Lily was still nowhere in sight. Dread was building up within Daring Doo as she remembered the events. What if her friend was in danger? She had to do something.

“Gotta be b-brave” Daring said to herself as she took her first step down the steps.

*Creaaaak*

Daring nearly jumped when she heard the sound of wood creaking beneath her hooves. Taking a moment to compose herself she continued down the stairs. Every step against the rough dusty surface brought her closer and closer to the bottom of the basement.

‘It's so dark,’ Daring thought to herself as she walked down the steps, with the creaking of wood beneath her every step.

Her lantern barely illuminated anything. She couldn't see far beyond her muzzle and the walls along her side.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of stepping down a few steps. Daring's hooves finally touched the hard floor. The room was dark, Daring still couldn't see far, but she could make out the shapes of some items that hung around the room.

Author's Note:

This was a story I had back last year, an story idea for a young Daring Doo having no choice but to venture down to fetch her doll that had ended up down there.

I thought it was a great plot for the story, and honestly? Stories about Daring Doo as a young filly is ehh... Pretty much unexplored from what I can tell.

But as I kept writing it, and the deeper into the story I got, I just couldn't shrug away a sense of difficulty in writing this.

I felt that I couldn't properly articulate Daring's emotions. And I think the most important thing that bugged me at the time was finding an explanation on how Daring's toy ended up in the basement. It just felt so difficult to come up with an answer to at the time, and so I pretty quickly lost steam in writing this, and well... This was where I got to.

Maybe I could one day recontinue this and finish it, but until now it'll sit here.