//-------------------------------------------------------// The Silent Sax -by Musical_Scythe- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// A Frightening Birth //-------------------------------------------------------// A Frightening Birth Screaming That's all that was heard in the small housing area in which all the slaves could sleep after the exhausting days of work. A tent was lit by a few lanterns, and many filthy ponies were surrounding the entrance. More screaming was heard, of a mare. It was obvious to everypony there that a mare was having her baby delivered. Well, almost everypony. A light blue stallion with a very clean white mane and tail approached the tent, and he was not happy. The slaves around the entrance saw the stallion, and retreated from the entrance to let him through. The screaming had seized as soon as he entered. "What is the meaning of all of this screaming in the middle of the fucking night?!", yelled the furious stallion. He looked over to the mare on the bed who was holding a bundled up blanket. The mare was crying, most likely from the pain... but her expression was not happy. She was crying if sadness as the baby wasn't crying. The stallion saw the small baby pony in the blanket, and became even more furious. "This racket caused by a dead filly?!", he yelled again. The mare continues to cry, but a yellow stallion, the husband, approached the light blue stallion. By how filthy he was, he was definitely a slave. "I don't want to hear it, Fluorescent! You may not care because she was born by slaves, but-", the yellow stallion started to yell hut was interrupted by the mare. "H-Hun! Look!", the mare exclaimed as she showed the filly who was crying... silently. The filly was making a crying expression, but no noise came from her lips. The mare was only happy to see her baby alive. "Our baby is alive!" Fluorescent grinned as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a Peacemaker revolver, aiming it at the yellow stallion's head. "I think you mean my baby.", Fluorescent said as he fired through the stallion's skull. Many gasps and screams were heard as the stallion fell to the ground, blood gushing from his wound. "N-NO! You bastard! You killed my-", the mare started to scream until she was interrupted by Fluorescent as he slapped her hard. She gasped from the sudden strike, and the filly in her arms was taken from her bare hooves. "I'll take her.", Fluorescent said. "Over my dead hooves!" Fluorescent aimed his Peacemaker toward the mare's head and grinned, "That's the point, deary." BANG! More gasps and screams were heard as the mare layed on the bed, blood pouring onto her pillow, her bed, and down the bed, mixing with the dead stallion's blood. Fluorescent walked out holding the filly, glaring at the slaves. "Get back in your fucking hosues before I start shooting at every one of you, starting with the kids!", Fluorescent threatened. The slaves didn't say a word. They just walked into their perosnal tents, leaving Fluorescent be. Fluorescent sheathed his Peacemaker and walked toward his house. He looked to the filly in his arms and he pushed back the blanket enough to which he could see her coat and mane. Her coat being dark gray and her mane a bright green and blue. Fluorescent grinned at the filly. "I suppose I should name you. How about... Musical Scythe. Ironic, isn't it? You can't speak yet your name is Musical, and you aren't blood kin to us, the Scythe family.", Fluorescent said as he brought Musical inside his home and locked the door behind him. Musical couldn't understand what happened, how could she? She is simply too young. All she heard were loud noises that frightened her. This may have been yet a terrible birth, but this was just the beginning of Musical's journey. //-------------------------------------------------------// Traumatic Childhood //-------------------------------------------------------// Traumatic Childhood Musical was given to Fluorescent's wife, Gem Scythe, to be taken care of for her formative years. She was taken care of like any normal baby. Soft food, easy lessons, and changed clothes. Despite Musical couldn't speak, she was still taught basic English and the 26 letters of the alphabet. Luckily for the small filly, Gem knew sign language and was slowly teaching Musical each sign, though she wasn't the greatest at paying attention. However, she is turning four today, Fluorescent is taking her back, and he is going to teach her to pay attention... Musical was walking beside Gem. She stumbled on nothing here and there as she had just recently learned to walk. Musical made a giggling expression each time she tripped, and got herself back up to continue following Gem. They came upon the house Musical was first brought to, Gem knocking on the newly refurbished wooden doors. Fluorescent answered the door and saw Gem and Musical. "Has it been four years already?", Fluorescent said, pretending to not know. "It has, deary. Musical is ready for you to take her back.", Gem said. "Perfect. How did she do with you?" "She knows basic English and sign language, learning to walk, and she us very energetic. Though, she has a hard time paying attention." Fluorescent grinned, "Well I'm sure I can take care of that." Gem nodded and kissed Fluorescent's cheek. "Have fun, Musical.", Gem said as she gently pushed Musical next to Fluorescent's side. Musical just made another giggling expression as she stood next to him. The couple exchanged goodbyes and Fluorescent shut the door, looking at Musical. She was already hoping around like her energetic self. Fluorescent demanded her to stop, but she simply wouldn't. She should have stopped. Fluorescent stomped over to Musical, and the back of his left hoof struck her cheek, causing her to fall on the ground with a bright red cheek. Musical only had a pained expression as she held her cheek as she looked at Fluorescent who pulled Musical up by her hair so they were face to face. "Listen here you fucking shit. You will listen to me and follow everything I say or else, got it!?", Fluorescent yelled. Musical nodded, frightened. Fluorescent punched her chest and dropped her to the ground. She gasped for air as she clenched her chest and Fluorescent kicked her on her back. Musical has never felt this pain before. Her eyes were pouring of tears as her face and chest was in sheer pain. She wanted to scream for help, but she couldn't. All she could do was cry in pain. Fluorescent went back over to her and spit on her. "I want you to clean this entire house by sundown. If I see a spot unclean, I will make you bleed.", Fluorescent said with a grin as he walked out of the house to keep an eye on the slaves who were reaping the harvest. Musical continued to cry for almost half an hour. She could barely breathe and her tears were blinding her. She finally caught her breath and wiped her tears from her eyes. She weakingly got on her four hooves and found the tools needed to clean the house. A mop, broom, rags, and more. She started to clean the house appropriately, and she knew how thanks to Gem. Musical thought to herself, I have to get out of here... //-------------------------------------------------------// Pleasent Friendships //-------------------------------------------------------// Pleasent Friendships This. Sucks. Musical thought as she was scrubbing the floors of the kitchen after Fluorescent had a dinner party. She had to clean everywhere or else Fluorescent wouldn't be happy... Musical kept scrubbing the floors, hoping after she's done Fluorescent wouldn't tell her to polish it afterwards. Four years since was left here by Gem... Ugh. Though, over these past few years, she has gained friends, with the other slaves. Not only are they friends, but they are her teachers, too. She sees them everyday whenever she gets the chance. She only gets these chances when Fluorescent allows her to leave the house... Or when she sneaks out at night. Her best friends are Hickory Deli, a young colt with a yellow coat and an orange mane and tail, and Silicone, a filly with a light purple coat and a dark violet mane and tail. Silicone was more formal and smarter than the others, Hickory... Less than so. They were always dirty as they worked in the fields, it made Musical silently giggle sometimes. After scrubbing for hours and hours, Musical finally finished her work, and Fluorescent allowed her to leave the house and be with her friends. It wasn't even a second before Musical was out the door, heading for the slave sleeping grounds. The overseers watched Musical as she ran toward the grounds, glaring for unknown reasons. Slaves greeted her as she ran through, smiling and waving. One in the fields tried to wave, but an overseer whipped near him, forcing him to continue his work. Musical stopped in the middle of the grounds, confused as her friends weren't there. Suddenly, she is tackled by two ponies of which she recognized immediately; Hickory and Silicone. "Hiya, Muse!", said Hickory. They all called Musical 'Muse' for short. "Hey!", smiled Silicone. Muse smiled brightly at both of her friends, giving them a big hug, receiving two hugs in return. They helped Muse on her hooves, and Silicone spoke up. "So, what should we do for fun today?" "I was thinkin' we could head on over to Ol' Granny's tent to hear some of her crazy stories!", Hickory suggested. "How about we head over to Raspberry so she can give us a history lesson?" Muse pulled up a sign saying, "We could go to Ginger for some food. I'm hungry!" Hickory and Silicone smiled and nodded at each other."Yeah!", both exclaimed. They all three ran off deeper into the grounds to find their destination. Soon they arrived at Ginger's small shack. Fluorescent may be harsh to the slaves, but he wants them to live. Ginger was the best cook in the slave camp, no doubt. She has a minimun variety of ingredients for all her goodies, but she uses them just right to make delectable, mouth-watering food. The three friends arrived at her shack and were immediately introduced to the smell of fresh mushroom stew. They stopped just before the entrance to the shack as they all took in a deep breath of the smell. "Oh I love me some good stew...", said Hickory, drooling on Silicone's hoof* "Aww Hickory! Your gross saliva got on me!" Silicone thrashed her hoof around to get his saliva off her hoof. "I don't need your deoxyribonucleic acid on me!" "Your wha?" "DNA!" "Oh." Muse rolled her eyes at the two, questioning how they are friends when they are almost complete opposites. They're like magnets... Ginger, a green pony with a yellow mane, opened the front door to see the three friends. "Well howdy there little ones," Ginger said with a big, bright smile. "Y'all here for some my stew?" "You betcha we are!", Hickory replied with a nice smile. "Well then come on in ya little whipper snappers!" Muse got confused hearing 'whipper snappers'. She'd been around Gem, Fluorescent, and the overseers most of her life. She quite recently was allowed to go talk to the slaves, and only now has she heard a few words and phrases. The three friends entered the shack and sat down at a table as Ginger brought them bowls of the mushroom stew. Hickory, being a slob, when face first into the stew. Silicone had more manners, eating it slowly as she wipes her mouth each time. Muse did a mix of both, eating fast but still wiping her mouth afterwards. Muse stopped for a bit as she looked at her friends as they ate and talked, then she turned to look at Ginger who was cooking more stew. Muse had great friends, what more could she ask for? Freedom. //-------------------------------------------------------// Violent Father //-------------------------------------------------------// Violent Father Muse was now five years old, polishing Fluorescent's fine china, trying to be as careful as she could. Who knows what would happen if she broke- CRASH! Muse's eyes widened as she noticed her tail had pushed a one-of-a-kind vase off its pedestal. She panicked as she heard hoofsteps coming toward her. She quickly found a dustpan and broom, sweeping up the shattered vase and putting it in the trash, putting back up the pedestal. Fluorescent entered asking, "What was that noise?" Muse used sign language to lie and say it was nothing. Fluorescent glared and looked at the pedestal where his vase was missing. "Where is my vase?" Muse used more sign to say that he sent the vase off to be cleaned. Fluorescent squinted his eyes then smiled. "Ah yes. I remember now." He walked around a bit to look at his china. "You do good work, Musical...", said Fluorescent as he looked at a different vase. Fluorescent's smile went away as an angry expression went across his face and he threw the vase straight at Muse. The vase struck her head and she fell to the ground, shards of ceramic spread across the room. Muse had pain and shock spread across her face as blood dripped from a cut on her cheek. She tried to get up, but was kept to the ground by Fluorescent's hoof. "Do you take me for a fucking fool?!", he said angrily as he pressed his hoof against her skull. Muse tried to scream, but only silence was heard. Fluorescent kicked her into shards if ceramic, causing cuts to go across her back and sharp pains to shoot through her body. She couldn't open her eyes as the pain kept them shut. Fluorescent walked over and broke a piece of ceramic into smaller pieces, lifting Muse up by her hair and saying, "I'm going to teach you a lesson you'll never forget you little bitch." Fluorescent forced Muse's mouth open and started to shove the smaller shard of ceramic down her throat, Muse choking on it and her own blood. Fluorescent punched her jaw and threw her to the ground. He then kicked her sternum, causing Muse to cough up the shard of ceramic and vomit blood across the floor. Muse was trying to catch her breath as Fluorescent started to walk away. She hoped it was all over... Until he returned with a whip in his hoof. She started to panic and tries to stand, but the pain she already felt kept her down. Muse attempted to crawl away, but she felt the stinging pain of the whip strike her spine. "Did you really think you could get away from me?!", Fluorescent said as he struck her with the whip again. Muse gritted her teeth, her breath shaky. She laid in her own vomited blood, Fluorescent approaching and lifting her up by her hair again. "Now, are you going to break another thing of mine?" Muse was in too much pain to do anything as Fluorescent hit her head against the ground. "ANSWER ME WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU!!" Muse slowly looked at him and nodded as blood poured from her nose, mouth, and cheek. Fluorescent grinned evilly as he dropped her, replying, "Good. Now, clean up this mess." Fluorescent left Muse on the ground as she bled and cried nonstop. The brutality of Fluorescent was getting worse day by day. Muse was just lucky not to receive any fractures. After minutes of crying, Muse shakingly stood, blood stained the side of her body as she looked around the ground at the blood and shards of ceramic, looking for a mop and broom to start cleaning. I can't take this anymore... //-------------------------------------------------------// Unexpected Savior //-------------------------------------------------------// Unexpected Savior "You goddamn son of a bitch!", Fluorescent yelled at Muse as he slapped her to the ground. "You will no longer break anymore of my precious things!" Fluorescent reached for his Peacemaker revolver and pulled it out, bringing back the hammer as he aimed it at Muse. Muse looked terrified with pleading eyes... Until the front door flew open. Three hours ago... Muse, now but six years old, was with her friends Hickory and Silicone. They were playing on a makeshift tire swing as Hickory was trying to impress Silicone by doing daredevil stunts on the swing. Each time Silicone got worried, getting angry with Hickory each time it looked like he was going to crack his head open. "Would you please stop that, Hickory!", Silicone said as Hickory was upside down on the tire swing, his head nearly scraping the ground. "What?", Hickory replied as he grinned at her, his head nearly scraping the ground again. Muse just silently giggled at the two. "Are you scared?" "Yes! I don't want you cracking your head open!" "Aww you do care about me.", Hickory said. Silicone's expression got angry but she became calm quickly and stopped the tire swing suddenly, causing Hickory to fly off and hit a quite convenient matress. "Oof! Hey! You could've killed me! Or hurt yourself!" "Aww you do care about me.", Silicone said with a mocking smile, Hickory just grinning back. Muse smiled at the two, thinking they would most likely be a great couple. She looked at time and notified her friends that she must return home, giving them a hug and saying their goodbyes before Muse started to head back to the house. As Muse entered her home, Fluorescent was there to meet her. "I want you to clean the dishes, wash the floors, wash the clothes, and polish the furniture.", Fluorescent demanded as he walked to his study to read. Muse simply did as he commanded, heading over to the sink. She was about to grab a stool, but she stopped for a bit and attempted to fly to the counter. She only hovered an inch off the ground before she stopped and landed back on the surface. She silently sighed and grabbed the stool to help her get herself to the sink. Muse cleaned the dishes so they didn't have any spots, washed the floors until she could see herself in them, cleaned the clothes and put them up to dry, and now went to polish furniture. She was careful in polishing each table, chair, counter, etc. Never had she left a spot polishing each piece of furniture. Muse went to the oldest table in the house, which had many precious artifacts on it. Muse couldn't reach a spot on the table as she polished it, so she got on top of the table... Creeeeak... Uh-oh, Muse thought. CRASH! SMASH! Muse forgot that she weighed more than what she did last time she got on top of the table, and it had broke underneath her. Not only the table, but each artifact tipped and shattered on the ground. Muse panicked as she did last time she broke something of Fluorescent's, but as she heard the echo of a book being slammed shut, she froze. "I swear if you...", Fluorescent started to say as he stomped downstairs, only to come to the sight of the broken table and artifacts. He sharply inhaled, ready to blow up. I'm so dead, Muse thought. "You goddamn son of a bitch!", Fluorescent yelled at Muse as he slapped her to the ground. "You will no longer break anymore of my precious things!" Fluorescent reached for his Peacemaker revolver and pulled it out, bringing back the hammer as he aimed it at Muse. Muse looked terrified with pleading eyes... Until the front door flew open, to reveal Gem. "Fluorescent? What are you doing?", Gem said, looking concerned. "Gem! I-I-I-I", Fluorescent tried to reply as he hid the revolver behind his back. "I was just, uh, telling Musical that it's ok that she broke the table and all of the artifacts on it..." Fluorescent tried to lie, but Muse was using sign language to Gem behind his back to tell her the real story. "YOU THREATENED OUR DAUGHTER!!?", Gem exploded in rage at Fluorescent. He grew angry and aimed his revolver at Gem, firing a shot into her ear and causing her to scream in pain and get on one knee. Muse's eyes widened, and she grew angry at Fluorescent, charging at him and bitting his hoof that held the revolver, drawing blood. "Agh! You brat!", Fluorescent thrashed his hoof around until she let go and thrown into the wall. Muse rubbed her head and saw Fluorescent aim the revolver at her. Muse covered her head quickly as she heard another shot fire, but it missed and hit next to her head. Gem had moved the weapon, afterwards stabbing his hoof with a nearby silverware knife. Fluorescent dropped the revolver and shouted in pain, pulling the knife out as blood gushed from the wound. He blocked a strike coming from Gem and striked back, knocking Gem to the ground. He threw the knife off to the side and proceeded to brutally strike Gem's head multiple times until he heard the click! of the hammer on his revolver. He turned his head to see Muse holding the revoler, pointing it at Fluorescent. Fluorescent just chuckled and laughed at Muse. "You don't even know how to use that th-", Fluorescent said as he was interrupted by a bullet being shot into his abdomen. "Agh!" Fluorescent dropped to his knees as he held the bullet wound. He looked at Muse angrily as she pulled back the hammer again and fired another bullet into Fluorescent's skull, blood splattering on Muse, and he dropped dead. Oh... Oh my god... Muse thought as she dropped the revolver. She was shaking vigorously as she looked at the blood on her hooves. Gem slowly sat up and looked at Muse, crawling over to her and comforting her. "Do not worry my child... You are safe from that monster now...", Gem said gently, slowly stroking Muse's mane. "I will protect you and keep you safe..." Muse started to calm down as Gem comforted her, a smile forming across her face. She scooted closer to Gem as she shut her eyes, starting to fall asleep. Gem continued to comfort her as she cradled Muse, bringing her outside. Gem went to the overseers and fired every one of them. She then freed all the slaves that were held there. Gem hired escorts to bring the slaves to the providences that banned slavery, and peace was brought to them and Muse. My savior has brought me and my friends the greatest gift of all... Freedom. //-------------------------------------------------------// Epilogue //-------------------------------------------------------// Epilogue Musical Scythe, now free from slavery, lived a great life with her adopted mother, Gem Scythe. After she was free, Muse was brought to a public school to get an education. There she developed her interest into swing jazz and the saxophone. After she graduated, Gem bought Muse a professional alto saxophone so she could continue in her interest. Gem helped Muse through all of college to become an amazing saxophonist. And, through all of the pain and suffering of a slave, Muse still stayed a happy, childish pony. Muse never saw Hickory or Silicone again, until their wedding. Hickory and Silicone, though all their differences, got married and lived a happy life with a son and daughter. Ginger continued cooking for everyone at her own restaurant. She died one year just before Hickory and Silicone's wedding by the tragic disease of cancer. Gem still lives, and Muse still believes Gem to be her birth mother. Now, Muse lives in her own home and is known as a local celebrity as "The Silent Sax". Muse has a daughter named Unique Scythe, a unicorn who bears a snow white coat and identical colors of her mother for her mane and tail. Muse also took in a colt, Daylight Shine, who has grown to call Muse his own mother. Muse has new friends as well, a white stallion named Classic, a black colt named Nugget, a blue mare named Alice, an orange mare named Octane, and by far her best friend, a black mare named Ruby. Musical Scythe, a mare with a terrible past, a wonderful present, and the future looks brighter for her everyday. It seemed it was the end of her adventure. Or so she thought...