Scarlet Sunrise

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Enter Ponyville
Chapter 3 - The Mare Who Caught His Eye
Chapter 4 - The Home He Would Call His Own

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 1
Introduction

Ponyville. Yet another new start in a new town.

Things had been this way for quite some time now, after growing up as a young, scraggly colt in a run-down orphanage on the south side of the large, busy city known as Phillydelphia. Realizing from the start that most ponies don't like outliers with barely any vibrant colors in their manes, I slowly sunk into a depressive rut, my psyche being damaged constantly by others bullying me for having ugly skin, or an uncool hairstyle and colour, to the cooler mares and colts bringing me into their circles of friends only so that they could laugh at me behind my back, and ultimately destroy any self-confidence I had managed to build up by telling me I was a fool to think I could really be one of their friends.

Around the age of ten, I had realized not only were red streaks starting to take hold in my mane, but I was devoid of the bane of mostly everypony's existence - a cutie mark. Growing up being called insulting names like "Dirt" and "Mudball" sort of became a normal thing for me after a while, but the constant ridicule and derogatory comments, whilst going through a low-income school without a cutie mark was humiliating to say the least.

After I had passed the age of 18, and still had no cutie mark, my mind started to enter a state of extreme paranoia. Even if everypony was silent at the time, I could still hear their voices, in mocking tones, laughing at me. After several violent encounters with bullies, I was quickly expelled from the school. Even the principal of the school could not stand the shame of having a student without a cutie mark. After being rejected from several schools after that, I quickly began to give up on life, as I spent 3 years living on streets, moving around between several cities and towns in search of somepony who would accept a twenty-one year old, dark colored pony with no cutie mark. This brings me to the latest location in my search, a town called Ponyville.
As I wearily approached it from the south, all I could see were wonderful views, the royal palace of Canterlot situated on the side of a mountain in the background, and a small, but busy village sprawling out before me.

Chapter 2 - Enter Ponyville

Chapter 2
Enter Ponyville

I had already begun to feel the eyes upon me as I crossed a neat, well maintained bridge that let into the main populous of the area. Making quick glances to my sides, I noticed that my feelings were correct - most of the ponies of the town were stopping what they were doing and staring at me with their hateful eyes. As I continued to walk down what seemed like the main street, adorned with fresh grocery stands and sugar treat shops, with a road that had been fashioned entirely out of cobblestone, I spotted a rather large and official looking building straight ahead of me.

As I approached it, I noticed what seemed to be an authority figure, most probably a mayor or something of that likeness. The mare was talking to three other ponies, one who had orange hair and a cutie mark in the shape of some carrots, another with a styled blue mane whose mark resembled gemstones, and a pink maned Pegasus, who seemed to be slowly trying to back out of the conversation and slip away without the other three noticing.

I knew it was rude to interrupt conversation, even if it seemed like just friendly banter, so I backed away to a cobblestone curb within earshot, and waited there for their conversation to end. After what seemed like hours, the subject of their conversation had varied from the new season fashions to dinner platters. I noticed that the pink-maned pony was also growing tired of their conversation, only contributing when asked, and trying to avert the other converser's eyes so that she could slip away.

After a few more minutes, it seemed that she had found her opportunity, ducking her head and backing up until she was out of their line of sight. At this point, she was only a few steps directly in front of me, and after she had made sure they did not notice her escape, she turned around and ran as fast as she possibly could. Unfortunately, her path out of the crowd was not as clear as her quick glance had led her to think, as she barreled straight into my legs, knocking us both straight to the ground.

Slightly annoyed, I stumbled back to my feet. I was about to tell her, in a particularly unpleasant tone to watch where she was going, but instead she ended up making the first noise, effectively blocking out my insult. She let out a yelp, and by the look on her face, I could not tell whether or not she was surprised or scared of me. She ran past and disappeared into the crowd. Puzzled at her reaction, I used this opportunity to move slightly closer to the mayor-like figure, and her two remaining friends. I then managed to discern that their conversation was drawing to a close, because I overheard something about the blue-maned one losing her friend "Fluttershy", of whom I then assumed was the pegasus who had just snuck out of their conversation and ran into me.

Curious for more names, I kept listening, and surely enough, the one with the carrot cutie mark had the name of Carrot Top. "Go figure", I thought to myself, quietly chuckling. The blue maned unicorn was named Rarity, and then finally, my suspicions were confirmed - the third pony was the mayor, whose name was just Mayor, apparently. I gave another quick chuckle at that point. As they exchanged their farewells, and finally broke off their conversation, I approached the mayor pony, and proceeded to tell her the story of with I had repeated a thousand times beforehand, to a thousand different mares, ponies and stallions.

"Hello" I said, trying my best to contort my face into a smile. "My name is Scarlet Tangent, and I have traveled here from a city a great distance away, to ask if you perhaps were in need of either a Pegasus pony, or just some sort of manual labor worker?
"Why, hello there, Scarlet. You don't mind if I call you Scarlet, do you?" she asked, inquisitively.
"No, Scarlet is just fine." I hastily replied, hoping to get some good news out of her quickly. I really wanted to find some place to stay the night, and rest my hooves because I had been walking for most of the day.
""Well, Scarlet, if you'd like to come inside to the Ponyville town hall with me, I can show you the job board, and maybe we'll find out if anypony around here is currently looking for help" she said as she pointed towards the formal structure I had noticed earlier.
"Lead the way" I replied wearily as she then started to make her way up the stairs of the structure, and I followed her inside shortly after.

Chapter 3 - The Mare Who Caught His Eye

Chapter 3
The Mare Who Caught His Eye

The interior was just as well designed and ornate as the outside was. Most of the building was taken up by a large circular ballroom, as well as several other rooms off to the sides, most likely housing stairs leading up to sets of overlooking balconies, which protruded from the walls of the ballroom area. As I looked around, I noticed the mayor mare walk up to a large cork board, full of notes and pins. She then explained that this was the job offer board and that the jobs here were available to anypony who had the time.

I obviously had quite a lot of time, so I grabbed a few notes from the board at random, and put them into the fold of my wing. She then asked my next question for me. "Are you here alone, or have you made arrangements for a place to live in?" "Umm..." I mumbled in reply doing my best to cover my lack of a cutie mark, as well as trying to think of what to say next. After a few moments of awkward silence, she started to talk.
"Scarlet, we have a few properties currently up for rent, if you were planning on staying a while?" These words got to me. Not only has she not instantly rejected my help, but she is actually offering me residency in this town. Suddenly strange feelings overwhelmed me, as I realised that this pony was actually being genuinely nice to me.

Taken aback by the offer, I struggled to speak for a moment. She waited patiently. After taking a breath, I accepted her offer, which then moved the conversation to facts about different areas of ponyville, including distance to grocery shops, income rates and specific stores, most of which I zoned out for. She then told me there was a small cottage, on the outskirts of the town, not too far from the bridge I used to enter when I first approached the town. I accepted this offer, namely because it meant I was further away from the main street, where it was nice and quiet. "Since you are new here in Ponyville" She exclaimed, "I shall give you your first weeks rent for free, but then each week after that, it will cost you five bits. I agreed, realising she was not only extremely kind, but she was being extremely generous.

Do you have any questions? she asked, obviously attempting to close the conversation. I only had one, which was about getting directions to this new house. I did not notice any sort of real estate flags out the front of any of the houses, so I was not sure what was leased, and what was owned. She agreed, and she patted at the floor for a moment with her hoof, and looked around, obviously trying to think of something. She asked me to then stay put for a second while she quickly did something outside, and in a rush mentioned something sounding similar to the word bon-bon. Slightly confused, I patiently waited for the mayor pony's return, and soon enough, I saw her gray mane protrude from the door, followed by the mayor herself.

The mayor then said "Scarlet, This is Bon Bon. She is going to guide you to your new house, and show you around Ponyville. Most of her sentence was unheard by me, because the mare she had just introduced had completely captured my attention. She had a beautiful pale cream coat, and the most enthralling blue eyes, which I found myself lost in for a moment. She sported a voluminous navy blue mane with a centralised pink stripe. Staring down towards her rump and tail, I noticed her cutie mark consisted of three pieces of wrapped up candy, obviously pertaining to the fact her name was relative to her cutie mark, like most other ponies I had met. Her tail had been styled the same as her mane; starting straight at the roots, and protuberating from the tips of her hair were large curls.

"Scarlet?" I suddenly heard as the Mayor tried to grab my attention back. "Did you happen have any questions about this arrangement?" I hesitated on my response, trying my best to remember what she had said before i got distracted. I tried my best to answer with "Umm... You said that Bon Bon here was going to show me the way to my new house?" There was an awkward silence for a moment, but then Mayor replied "Oh good, you were indeed listening. It just looked like before you had zoned out a bit. Oh well, silly me. Though, just in case you missed it, I told you that Bon Bon had agreed to also show you around the town."

It was at that moment I was able to hear the voice of the one which I had been fixated to for the past few minutes. She said to me "Shall we go now, Scarlet? There are some things on today that I would like to show you, and there are ponies that I would also like you to meet." I agreed quickly, and as we were leaving, the mayor spoke again.

"If there is anything you need, anything at all, do not hesitate to come and find me. I'll usually be around this building, so it should not be too hard to track me down." "Thanks for all of your help, Miss Mayor. I honestly appreciate it" I replied back to her and gave her a quick smile. As I proceeded to follow Bon Bon out of the building, I heard the mayor's voice trail after us. "Have fun" she said, as Bon Bon and I walked out into the busy street, heading in what was the exact opposite direction I took when I had entered the town earlier that day.

Chapter 4 - The Home He Would Call His Own

Chapter 4
The Home He Would Call His Own

The walk to my new boarding consisted of mostly silence and awkward looks, and we only really stopped two times, the first of which she was showing me Sugarcube Corner, which was apparently some sort of sweets shop, and the latter being where we helped out a colt, whose cart had turned over, obviously due to the fact that the roads became extremely scabrous the further one traveled from the town square. As we approached the river and the bridge that led across it, Bon Bon promptly pointed to one of the side streets. "We've arrived" she exclaimed as we trotted towards it. "Your house is on this street"
After a few houses, we came across a house that had obviously seen better days. One of the hinges on the door was broken, and paint was peeling off the walls. The grass plots off to the sides of its walkway were long dead, and looked like they hadn't been cut in years. There was a positive about the house though, and that was the fact that it was two stories tall, and, apart from its age, and considering how weathered it looked, it was still a nice, comfy feeling house. Bon Bon, who had been analyzing my expression as I scanned my new home, obviously assumed that I was quite disappointed with it. "Sorry if it looks bad" she said, pawing her hoof at the ground awkwardly, her head lowered a bit. "If it makes you feel better, this is probably one of the best rental properties we have to offer at the moment"
"No, no, I love the place!" I exclaimed, trying to get her to wear a happier expression, because her current one was bringing me down too. "I've never had a place that I could properly call home before, so this is probably the best house I've ever stayed at, ever" I said with a big smile on my face. This sentiment seemed to pick her up, as light returned back to her facial features and I was instantly bedazzled. "That's wonderful to hear, Scarlet!" she said to me in a much more happier tone, with her head held high. The sound of her saying my name sent shivers up my spine, and caused me to breathe quite rapidly. Luckily Bon Bon didn't notice, as she continued to say "The funny thing is, is that my house is directly across the street from yours! I know we are going to be great friends. The concept of that also sent a pleasurable chill down my back. She continued "Just head on inside to your place, get settled in to your new living arraignments, then knock on my front door when you are ready for that tour I promised earlier." she exclaimed happily, as she pranced off to her abode, which looked absolutely magnificent.
Her house was also two stories tall, and looked like it had only just been freshly painted a few weeks ago. She had purple drapes were open on the ground floor, and inside she had an expertly laid out, neat and tidy lounging room. After a few minutes, I started to notice the fact that I was standing in the middle of the road, staring into somepony else's house. I quickly averted my gaze back to my own house, which was depressingly boring and dull compared to its partner across the street.
I walked up, opened the door and took a good long look around inside. The place had very little furnishings, with vanilla white curtains up on each window, and scraggy brown carpets with a white circular rug in the middle of each room. The furniture was quite basic; a table and two chairs over there, a couch, and when I went upstairs, a bed with a drawers and table next to it. I unbuckled my saddlebags, and threw them on the neatly made bed, causing the sheets and blanked to become messy and ruffled, which was just the way I like it. "No hospital corners here" I chuckled to myself.
I got to work unpacking, which never took very long. All I really had was a few bits in a woven sack, a scarf, some cheap hoof mittens and a beanie. I usually never wear any of those, even when it's cold. Growing up in an orphanage doesn't exactly make you immune to cold weather, but it helps.
Last but not least, I pulled out a gray piece of cloth, in which I had the only memento referencing my real parents wrapped up inside. It was a black shard with a red streak through it, obviously a fragment of some sort of gem. I'd tried to get it identified, but all of the ponies I'd ask about it would tell me that they'd never seen a black gem before, and that with the way it was fractured, it was of no monetary value at all. I carefully placed it on top of the table that was next to my bed, and re-adorned the empty saddlebags. I walked around the house for a bit, taking in every detail; it's high ceilings, it's stiff and dull carpeting and it's lack of comfy furniture. I thought about getting some upgrades for the house while Bon Bon was showing me around, but instantly dismissing the thought, then deciding that it really didn't need any more furnishings right at this moment in time. I trotted over to the front door, ready to leave when a beam of sunlight suddenly broke through the light cloud cover and shone brightly into my eyes, which was quite irritating at first, but then, as my eyes adjusted, I noticed that for the first time in my life, the sun was shining, birds were chirping, and I felt at peace. It was a happy day.