A Smile in the Dark

by The Producer

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, DJ P0N-3, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad, Romance, Original Character, Octavia
Length: 1659

Cheshire has to deal with the ghosts of his past to get along with his life, and he is given a proposition by his friends in the darkest corners of Everfree. They give him two choices; to bend to his own darkness to save his reason of life, or stay true to the lessons of the past.

AUTHOR NOTE: Alright, If you are to thumb down on my story, please tell me why you are. Heck, if you are just doing it to thumb down shipping stories, or just because you don't like the premise, don't bash it or vote down, leave that to the ones that are actually interested with the story.

Published 2012-02-18 13:54:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-02-18 13:54:01 UTC

Beginnings

They were everywhere, the eyes... and the teeth. A small colt was tearing through the everfree, away from a forlorn little cottage that was being hungrily eaten up by the almost tender touch of flames. The only thing that you could see of the little blur were the bright electric blue highlights in his mane and tail, the rest of his body pitch black. The little colt hit a protruding root, and went flying into the air, and the little one remembered that he had wings, spreading them out to try and catch the air, desperately. Unfortunately, the little Pegasus's wings weren't developed enough to even help him glide down onto the ground, leaving him to crash down into the earth. As the colt was scrambling to get up, he instinctively felt them converge around him. He scrabbled off, dashing at full tilt into the uncharted darkness, feeling those eyes bore into the back of his head. He heard small whispers, almost at the back of his head, but he knew it came from the floating mouths,

" Cheshire... Cheshire... Cheshire...CHESHIRE!"

The last burst made the little black and blue colt jump almost a foot into the air and run even faster, bushes and twigs slashing and stabbing into the young pony as he ran recklessly. As he got farther away from the house, he made it into a small clearing, a large ring of mushrooms. The colt was safe, for now. He patted down a large tuft of grass near the middle of the clearing, and settled down, panting heavily. His little body couldn't handle the stress and energy that was used up, and he collapsed, falling asleep almost instantly. In the morning, he couldn't see them, but he just knew that they were there. He got up, and wearily began to drag himself back into the cover of the foliage from the trees. Just as the little colt thought that he was getting to the edge of the forest when a large, furry cat that was larger than even the little colt was dropped from a branch far above. It had a maniacal grin that spoke of blood and murder. The little colt wordlessly scrabbled backward, shaking his head no as he backed away from the maniacal cat. He tore through the rest of the foliage, a scream tearing through his throat as he tried desperately to get away from the furball of death. The cat started shaking his head yes, and approached the little colt, almost chuckling as he pursued the Pegasus. The Pegasus frantically tore through the last remaining yards of land to get out into the open. He tripped on the last rock before the forest ceased to exist, he spun, end-over-end, and landed on his back, staring into the sky with bruises all over his body. He saw a pillar of smoke coming up from the treetops, and started to cry. He was safe, so he cried. It wasn't long before somepony picked up on the child's crying, and the pillar of smoke rising from the forest. A little unicorn filly, not much bigger than the Pegasus, came over, and prodded him on the shoulder. She saw his cuts, and promptly turned on her hooves, supposedly to get her parents. A swift clopping of multiple hooves came back not too long after, and the little colt heard a soft

"Sweet Celestia... Look at the smoke!"

Before he felt himself be hefted up into the air, and faced by a pure white unicorn stallion with neon-electric blue hair and red eyes. He had the filly who prodded her earlier on his back, and he turned his head towards the mare who was standing near him, and murmured something unintelligible.to the tiny Pegasus .The stallion faced the child that he held aloft, and spoke powerfully,

"What is your name?"

The colt stared blankly at the stallion, and pondered the question. What was his name? All he remembers is being chased, chased from the cottage he was near. that cat seemed to know his name. He stammered out,

"Ch-c-c-che-Cheshire."

The mare, who had almost identical colors, except that she had streaks of yellow in her mane, rushed up to the stallion, and snatched the colt from his magical grasp. She began to cradle him, rocking him side-to-side. She said to the stallion,

"Oh, bassy! Look at him, he's just a little one! He looks like he's been running through fire..."

The mare was right, little lacerations across the colt's body gave his body some vivid red splotches to the dark black of his coat. The stallion said,

"Good thing Vinyl found him, I wouldn't want to even see what would happen to him if he was out here for an entire day..."

The combination of him ruining his nerves by overexerting himself, and not being able to sleep for the entire night, Cheshire began to drift off to sleep in the motherly mare's arms, but not before seeing a winking eye glinting in the forest...

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

Chesire bolted up in his bed, wings splayed out, and ready for action. It took him a few minuets to notice that he was in his room. His eyes traveled over the spartan arrangement of his room, a simple writing desk in the far corner of the rectangular form, a dresser behind his bed, filled with the two only outfits he had. The door creaked open at the far end of the room, and a unicorn head with a pearly-white coat and electric spiky mane popped out with a tired expression on its face.

"Forest dream again, Cheshy?"

Cheshire nodded, his loose locks of straight spikes sliding about the sides of his head. The mare sighed, and said,

"Cheshy, you're just nervous because this is our last day in fillydelphia. That, and we're going closer to the Everfree. Don't worry, everything is going to be fine. Get some sleep, tomorrow is our last day in The Cathouse. "

Cheshire nodded again, his wings slowly settling down to his sides. He said,

"You're right, Scratchy. Go back to bed, I'm good."

The door clicked back into it's frame with a white glow, and Chesire settled back into the bed he was in, thinking about how the next couple of days would turn out for him, and the two turquoise orbs slowly began to become lidded with sleep.

*** *** ***

Cheshire woke up from another one of those nightmares, the ones when life was better. He got up out of his bed in the middle of his small bedroom, and walked out into the bathroom of his little apartment. A large bottle of hard cider was lying on it's side inside of the sink that dominated the room. One of Cheshire's wings stretched out to open the medicine cabinet that hung over the sink as his hooves were preoccupied with retrieving the cider out of the sink. The cabinet popped open, and Cheshire retrieved a prescription bottle from it with practiced ease using his wing's flexible feathers. The bottle was deposited on the counter as the cider was set next to it. Cheshire peered into the mirror attached to the medicine cabinet, and looked at himself. He had grown much since the first memory, then being about four, to now being about twenty-two. His coat had lost it's healthy sheen from malnutrition and the lack of caring from Cheshire. He pulled back the bottom lid, looking back into his eyes from the mirror, his usual bright blue eyes lacking the quickness that shone out less than a year ago. Cheshire said to his reflection,

"You look like shit..."

He looked down at the prescription bottle, and popped off the cap to the medicine that he had been taking, and peered into the empty bottle. Suddenly, his face changed from complete apathy, to heavy concern. He shook the bottle, muttering,

"No! Nonononononono..."

The cheap door to Cheshire's seedy two-room apartment squealed open, and his ear swiveled to meet the noise. He threw the bottle in his hoof onto the ground, and took a quick slug of cider. A soft clopping noise began to grow louder as whoever entered his apartment began to walk towards the bathroom. Cheshire's face split into a grimace as he prepared to fling the bottle into the face of his intruder. The pony walked into the doorway, and his face hung limp at what he saw.

"Rainbow Dash?"

A mischievous smile split the cyan mare's features as she walked in the room. As she slowly stalked into the room, she said,

"Missed me, Cheshy?"

Cheshire rubbed at his eyes with a hoof, not believing what he is seeing. RD walked past him, and flicked him in the snout with the end of her tail. She reared up, and draped her front half across his back, pinning his left wing to his side, and RD started to nuzzle Cheshire's ear, right where he liked it. She whispered in his ear, her sultry breath warming it up,

"Don't believe I'm real? That medicine you're taking cant keep me away from you. I'm the one that emptied the bottle."

Cheshire didn't believe it, a figment of his imagination had emptied his bottle, is currently nuzzling his ear, and had opened a door. Rainbow Dash continued,

"You know what you have to do to actually have this, don't you? You just have to go see them. See them, Cheshire, and find your happiness again."

And as suddenly she was there, her weight vanished off of Cheshire's back, leaving him with the echoes of Rainbows last words rebounding off of the walls of his head.

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Author's note: I made this as kinda my own persona, and this is my first try at writing my version on how romances should be written, so let me know how I am doing in the comments. Constructive criticism welcomed and appreciated.