The Scarlet Pages

by Wordless Prism

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Slice of Life, Sad, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Octavia, Romance
Length: 3110

This story is a telling of a stallion's life, a stallion who has only been alive for two years.

This story is a telling of my life,I being a stallion who has only been alive for two years. now most would say that two years is no time at all. however, I can say that my life has been a full one so far, I have felt joy, sorrow, love, and friendship. I have seen and marveled at the great, and wondered at the small.

This story has a very light influence from the old welsh myth 'Blodeuwedd'.

Its a work in progress and i'm not to sure how I want it to end. so we will just have to find out together.

Published 2015-12-03 22:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-01-24 02:54:22 UTC

Book

To be thrown in a pit, and swallowed up by it. To hide in fear from the reek, as it squirms and thrashes about, bashing and gnashing its teeth as it rears its blight filled head and crawls onward. Like a canker to the tree it spreads its putrefaction, lives by the laws of rot, eats its decay and spits its putrid smell ostentatiously. However, in this paradigm there is hope, for righteousness hearkens repose no more. For hope will stand atop the hill, and be clothed in power and majesty. He will sing his pipes from one hill to the next and spread his euphoric utopia. He will O’erthrow evils, and bind all together with the sinews of love.

    As I think on these words, I see my current life in prison. For the past fortnight I have been here in this “pit” as the poem put it, but I see no hope in store for me anytime soon. I found this book of blank pages on the corps of a dead griffin, it had some of his writings in it, but they were all about how “I didn’t do it.” And “I didn’t mean to hit her so hard, how was I to know it could kill her.” I feel no remorse in taking two of his bones and making a fire from his pages and clothing, they didn’t last long but the warmth was simply peaceful.

The dead bird didn’t leave me with much ink, so I have to get to the point as it were. I’m writhing more as a muse to pass the time, and I would like to think that one day she will get this book and read it. Maybe as a dyeing pony’s request? Who knows?

Forgive me, I have yet to give you my name, my name is Canis Majoris… now I suppose I should say what I am, however, it’s not as simple as saying “I’m a Pegasus” and it’s a rather strange story.

I am the age of twenty in body, but I was born “or created” not but two years ago. How is this? Well, you see my story starts with one Octavia, a mare of fame and wealth. As a younger mare she was tutored in the art of music and its theory by one Lady Mushroom Cloud, a high born unicorn noble mare living out of Manehatten.

As time went on Lady Cloud saw that Octavia as she was interring her early twenty’s and was severely depressed. Octavia would shrug her studies, sleep all day, and do many other things that I will not say out of respect for Lady Octavia. Being worried for her student and somewhat adopted little sister, Miss Cloud did the one thing she could think to cheer Octavia up. And what might that be you ask? Why find her a few friends of course!

As fate would have it Octavia is a very picky mare in the company she keeps, which to Lady Clouds dismay was a hooful of ponies at best and none of them being close.

Making time for Octavia, Lady Cloud took her out on the streets of Canterlot. Only to have Octavia act the introvert and not say a word to anypony. After this she took Octavia to party’s and outings, had her over for dinner at the same time as others and all were met with the same conclusion. many arguments broke out between them and it was clear Octavia wanted no part in any of this.

When life finally stepped in for lady cloud she had little to no time for Octavia, only able to see her for one hour every other day. In this hour they would practice the religion of music, and there was no time to catch up as it were. Spending all day every day with no one but herself and her cello made Octavia take a nose dive for the worst.

I won’t say much but that when Octavia missed two classes in a row, lady cloud went to her apartment and what she found there was literally a mess. And so was Octavia.

So after getting Octavia cleaned up lady cloud had her last straw broken and arranged for two things to occur. The first was to move Octavia out of manehattin, and the second was simple, find her a coltfriend and special somepony.

Now at first Octavia was very much agents the idea saying.

"Whoever came up with the phrase 'life starts with stallion' needs to meet the back end of a hoof."

However, she went along with her tutors wishes out respect and started courting.

After many a possible suitor, and all of them being a failure for many reasons such as “His language is to foul.” Or “He needed to get off his high horse, I just helped him do so.” and my favorite." When you speak, do you feel like an idiot? Because what you and the rest of us hear when you talk, are two completely different things." Needless to say Lady Cloud was losing hope after months of no good change, seeing that Octavia was getting much worse, after she popped the “Are you in to mares?” question, to which she got an annoyed look and a "No." she soon found that she was out of options.

Giving Octavia some space she soon came up with a plan. Lady Cloud delved deep into love magic, which is a dangerous thing to do. She found nothing to help the situation they were in, therefore, she sneaked into a forbidden section of the Canterlot library, this part of the halls of knowledge housed vary dark and powerful love magic.

And it is there that she found a tome from which I was born, a spell that through fire and dust and many other things, super charges a magic influx form some plane of oblivion and therefore makes a soul comprised of other souls. The matter used is random and out of the casters control. That's honestly all I know on the matter for I am not a unicorn and it’s hard to understand that stuff. I do know that the reason for the spell is to make a perfected lover for one who is without love.

Ink

Forgive me I ran out of ink, I’m using some black stones I found in the corner, there not very good, but, oh well.

On with the story.

Working in secret, lady cloud spared no expense in getting everything perfect. From the lines on the ebony floor, to being outside in the light of a crescent moon. Finally the last things she needed was to take the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, the flowers of the meadowsweet, and one dozen red roses.

From this she said the proper words, did the math, and poured out her magic. From the ingredients, matter was formed from a wall of fire and dust. From the ashes I rose up my head.

I knew nothing, could say nothing, I didn’t have a language in my head to even think. The first thing I saw was Octavia, she was yelling at Lady Cloud in words I didn’t know. I couldn’t understand anything around me but, I started to sense the emotions coming from this thing that was making loud noise.

I felt anger, fear, sadness, frustration, and I didn’t like it. With tears in my eyes I walked up to the first one I saw and hugged it. When it stopped in surprise, I was overtaken with peace, it was so warm, and there was a thump that was soothing to hear.

I don’t remember it, but apparently I fell asleep on her. Octavia then had to carry me to her house, and lead me in her bed.

Now, I feel I can describe what I look like, and what I am made out of. The flowers that were mentioned earlier are my body. The flowers of the oak are my mane and tail, the broom and oak my wings ‘that don’t work by the way’ the meadowsweet is my coat, and my eyes and ears the red of the rose.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-      _____________--------____________

OK that’s much better, sorry for the scratch marks on the page, the rocks weren’t working and I lost my temper. It’s just this whole place that makes me angry. I’m using some crunched rose pedals from my ears to make red ink, don’t worry it doesn’t hurt more than a pinch, and they grow back in a day anyway. Bigger lacerations take way longer to heal, and fire kills me instantly.  The fire evaporates the water in my pedals to quickly, after that I’m doomed.

As the days went on Lady Cloud was tried for illegal magic’s, and put somewhere I don’t know, we never talked about it so I never asked. Of course then there was me, I being equal to a toddler, latched on to Octavia for safety. They didn’t know what to do with me, some said I was an abomination and should be destroyed. Others said to lock me away for study, or just to be rid of me.

But something grew within the heart of Octavia pushing her to stand up for me, something started to fill her up her heart. and trough many days and weeks of legal halabolu i don't understand, she was able to have custody over me, and became my legal guardian. Later on I asked what she meant by "Something had started to fill her up her heart." And to that she told me a story.

She said. “Long ago there was a stallion, who did many sinful things, because of these things he had a demon within him. However, one day he wished to change and become clean, so he repented his wrongs to all he had hurt. He eventually expelled the demon from his body and was clean, and so he went back to his home.

However, despite all that was said to him by others, when they told him to change his ways, they never told him that when the demon left, it would leave a hole where it once was.  He felt empty and lost, and because of this, the demon came back. Not only did the demon come back, he brought several of his friends along with him. Therefore, the stallion went back to his evil ways.”

At the time I didn’t know what she meant by all that, but now I do. Now I know that she had a hole in her heart, and she wasn’t filling it up with anything. Until I came along and she had something to take care of, something that would die if not for her. Of course that makes me basically a glorified dog, but, aren't all children like that?

Which is honestly what I became to her, she saw me as something that needed her help to live, and I saw her as the only thing that I cloud trust. She started to teach me how to speak, eat on my own and be independent. She told me that when she truly started to feel like my adopted mother, was when I awoke from a terrible nightmare one night. I was sick, and in a lot of pain. She held me until I calmed down, then played me a song on her cello. After the beautiful song 'that would become my nightly lullaby', I was extremely tiered but not all the way asleep, and so she sang to me until I fell into slumber. I don’t know music well so as to wright what the tune is. 'Yes I know, the son of THE Octavia is not good at remembering and writing music, that doesn't mean I can't play or read music.'

Anyway, I remember the words to this day. They were the words of Princess Luna to her sister, upon her return from the moon.

She sang

“I have returned, I have come home.

These lessons I’ve learned, to sit on the throne.

As days go by, I take it in.

You and I still cry because of my sin.

Remember me?

Remember me?

Remember me, I was always there.

Waiting carefully, in heaven somewhere.

There once was two hearts, under a velvet sky.

They held each other close, as they watched the world round them die.

Remember me how I used to be, please think of me, how you wanted me to be.

I watched you grow, you watched me learn,

and we lean on each other in return;

as we watch the world round us burn.

You watched me stumble, you saw me fall.

But now we have each other, and that is all.

Do you remember me?”

As she held me in her arms, she remembered something her father said to her long ago, as he held one of her cousins.

“The sign of complete trust from a child, is if they feel comfortable enough to fall asleep while you hold them.” He had told her.

It was then that she saw me as her own small child, and the hole inside her stated to fill up.

Then we moved to Ponyville.

Quill

Mom kept me hidden for some time when we moved. Because of this she fell behind on her payments for the house. As fate would have it mom met a mare by the name of Vinyl Scratch, they were fast friends, despite their clear differences, I never meat Vinyl at first, because when she was over I was not allowed to come down the stars. However, one night mom was out preforming, and Vinyl Scratch came to the house and was a 'little' tipsy.

She found me after knocking the door down, ‘literally’ and then started to attack me because I was, quote “weird looking, and in my friend’s house, steeling stuff.” After telling her who I was it was clearly a misunderstanding. After this she apparently thought I was the most adorable thing ever and crushed me in a hug. When mom got home she and my new Ante V' had a long talk, most of which I couldn’t hear because I was being snuggled to death by a partly drunk mare.

Ante V' moved in when she herd we were having a hard time with money, and this helped mom a lot. Mom was happier when Ante V' was around, she smiled more and that was a big impact on her work to create new music. However, as time went on I found that I was alone nearly all day, Ante V' would sleep a lot in the day, and mom worked 10 to 12 hour days. I was not allowed to go outside because the pony’s in town “won’t understand.” As Ante V' said.

So I stayed inside for months at a time, I learned much from both my mom and Ante. They had fights and sometimes the fights were about me, and that always seemed to hurt the most of all. I never knew what about 'me' they were fighting about, and they never said my name outright, but i knew they were talking about me. And I always felt like I had done something wrong, no matter how many times they said otherwise. After a while I started to grow curious about the outside world, and so I went outside without my adopted parent’s knowing.

I got caught a few times and became a little infamous in Ponyville, they all thought I was a juvenile teen sneaking around. That is until I fell through the roof of one Element of Kindness Miss Fluttershy. What can I say, I wanted to see her critter friends. Said critters ran in a panic, and the sticks that are my back legs were broken and I was bleeding sap.

Then all of a sudden my legs fixed themselves, and all I heard was a strange snap. I turned around and that’s when I first met him, taller than the ceiling itself, and a mismatch of too many animals. The lord of chaos himself, Discord.

Discord, I will never forget what he taught me that day, alas I I’m tired and don’t feel very well. Therefore, I am going to try to sleep, good night my journal.

I lay in bed tossing and turning, steam ripples off my brow and I have already unloaded the contents of my stomach on the floor a few times. Something is wrong, but not just with my body. I don’t know what but I feel like the end is near. White hot blades of fear stab my mind, then all at once I feel a magic surge. My eyes cloud over and I see…

I can see her…

A female form walks toward me, shrouded in a misty mourning. She turns toward me and her eyes open, lightning shoots through me.

My heart begins to beat, the thump pounding in my being. I can see and feel my veins pulsing again and again. My eyes go dark and I can feel it, like a lump in my chest I can feel her coming closer. I don’t know who or what she is as I feel her soul coming nearer.

With her teeth ground jagged, senses and claws sharp like spears.

‘Thump, thump.’ Echoes my heart in pain.

Eyes as piecing as the sun through shadows, the hunting silence after the siren song comes.

Thump

Sleek and proud she walks, not black but death in her coat.

‘Thump, thump, thump.’

Oh when it falls down, when breath is held.

Thump

The thunder applause in concussion sound, when cheers and tears meld.

Why must it hurt so badly? How could something so pretty be so sad? I hate it, I hate it, and I want it to stop! Yet I know that when it’s over it's all I’ll be dreaming of.

Thump, thump.

Night oh Day, why have you forsaken me?

Where is the cold with its chill?

Where is the morning with its mist?

The teary eye without the dew?

Gone is the dust without the ancient story?

Forsaken is the fairy tale without the adventure?

Screaming at the speed of sound, yet I’ve not the strength to stand. Cold, cold, in the dark. Want less, lifeless, deep, deep in the cold.

And so here I ask again, on the fallen day’s dawn.

Night oh Day, why have you forsaken me?

Peace, and roaring darkness. My vision steels to black, and I fall to slumber..... 'she' is coming.