Octavia had never noticed this before, never saw the signs nor the red flags for she was still a foal and foals were still in the process of gaining knowledge about the world around them. But she was being used, used like a toy a tiny foal would use before they outgrew the toy and discharged it. Being used by the mare she had trusted and relied on the most, a teacher that was always the first to lend a hoof to any foal who had a reasonable request and was always so cheerful. However, even the most cheerful, helpful ponies can be the most dark and cruel ponies that no one can expect.
However the little gray foal could never see through the mare who was her user and her teacher, to see the mare her teacher truly was. She was far too focused on her cello practice, performing in front of the crowd and making her parents proud for her to notice the puppet strings coiling around her hooves or the puppet master behind her with the wooden boards that would later become her prison to her tormentor nor how caught in the web of lies her once teacher/tormentor had created until it was nearly too late.
From on the stage while cello practice was going on, Octavia stood on her hind legs with her cello in one hoof and her bow in the other hoof, tuning the strings on her magical instrument to make a tune that was less mournful then the usual ones she’d performed the nights before and more fun than anything else. Below her, the large audience of ponies were tapping their hooves on either the armrests of their seats or the floor of the grand hall, enjoying the music the youngest cello performer was putting on.
They were the only ones enjoying the show, for if one were to look onstage to see the little gray filly on the performance stage, they would be able to see the small smile on Octavia’s face. But nopony could see it from this far distance nor could they see the mad unicorn mare backstage, her magic lifting two wooden Xs with strings attached from a box. As the practice concert neared its end, the ponies in the crowd got up from their seats and began to make their way to the exit while Octavia set her bow and cello away in its case and walked backstage where her teacher was waiting for her.
However when the little gray filly entered the backstage area, she didn’t see any trace of her teacher anywhere. Confused, Octavia blinked and slowly but carefully walked further into the unknown darkness that awaited her. Behind her, the curtains swished softly as a magical aura that was almost barely visible in the darkness before they moved on the user’s command, covering the last rays of light from behind Octavia. In terror, the filly squeaked and whipped her head around to face where she had last seen the light.
But there was nothing but darkness all around her and the backstage supplies that she couldn’t see, she yelped when she walked into a large box filled with costumes. She backed up, her little hooves clicking the wooden floor as she walked. Her ears pulled themselves back and her heart started to race faster than what she expected, she bit her lower lip as her worried gaze turned around and around in the void she was within. Finally a magical aura flickered into being causing Octavia to nearly jump out of her skin, the earth filly squeaked in terror as she whipped her head around to face the source of the light.
The filly’s purple eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she saw who or what was in front of her, it was her teacher but not the mare Octavia had known her whole life. There was instead a monstrous wooden mare built by rusted nails and rotting wood, a worn and weathered leather mask covered her face. On the top of the head, a rotted bony horn that didn’t belong to the wooden mare was stitched to the spot where a unicorn usually had a horn. Covering the body of the monster was a worn, ripped and weathered cloak, pitch black in color with several rips along its surface. Hanging around the monster’s neck were several strings and two large wooden Xs, no doubt things used for wooden puppets Octavia had seen in a wooden puppet show.
At the sight of this monster, Octavia screamed with nothing but pure terror and wasted no more time in running as fast as possible. Behind her, the mare made of wood smiled widely at the fleeing filly, the stitches on its mask pulling apart to reveal a mix of rotten pony and wooden teeth as its wooden hooves went up to its neck and disattached the wooden Xs. The strings moved off and on its mistress’ command, shot toward the scared filly as she moved like the wind to get away from whatever had come into her sights, getting closer and closer with each step.
Despite the speed Octavia was traveling, the strings wrapped around her legs with a tight grip, tripped her then dragged her backwards toward the open maw of the monster. When Octavia was inches from the monster, the creature reached up and stroked the side of her face with a wooden hoof, the other one slowly pulled at the wooden Xs and the strings connecting Octavia to her, tightening the strings on the little filly. The filly let out a terrified and pained squeak as she felt a tight grip on her body, however that was the least of her troubles as the monster’s hoof moved from her face to her mane.
The hoof grabbed hold of the filly’s mane and with force that Octavia hadn’t seen from a pony, she was dragged into the darkness, the magical aura from the creature’s horn vanishing as well.
Aftermath
On an abandoned, falling apart stage, Octavia stood on her hind legs with her cello in one hoof and her bow in the other, performing some sort of haunting song. Above her was her former teacher, now tormentor, hooves on the wooden Xs to control the strings attached to the gray filly, wooden and pony teeth clicked in an horrifying smile as she controlled her newest puppet. A puppet to her fame.
Author's Note
A Puppet I Was To Her Fame...