//------------------------------// // A Beautiful Betrayal // Story: Violet Lace // by DemonAngel13 //------------------------------// I glared at the stallion through the bars of my cage. "What is it that you wish to do with me, you weak, pathetic excuse for a stallion?" I hissed. I was weak. The cage was enchanted, leaving me grasping at whatever wisps of strength I had. It hurt. It was as though somepony was sticking needles in my chest, and literately 'sucking' power right out of me. I found myself smirking at the humorous simile, given the situation. "Silence beast!" The stallion demanded. He had changed, and was now wearing a simple black jacket. That didn't make him any less imposing. "We'll decide your punishment in the morning, when we know you can't escape." I hissed again. I didn't dare rest my tired legs and sit down. Though it looked like an act of strength and dignity, in reality, I just didn't want to deal with the possibility of a new pain appearing in my backside. I had never dealt with sun cages before, so I didn't know what would happen. I perked my ears. Apparently, this interesting stallion uses the 'royal we', considering the fact that his scent was the only one I sensed as I was rudely being dragged up here. There was also no sound coming from anywhere else in the house. It was dead, other than the two independent souls that swirled and flickered in the attic, like two lonely flames debating whether to combine or be snuffed. "Why have you taken me here?" I asked. "I serve no use for you." "You serve plenty of use." He growled. "You are a danger to all of the ponies in this city. Therefore, getting rid of you will be very useful." His eyes bored into mine as he said the last words. I felt my cold heart flutter out of fear. "I... have never killed a living pony." I said in my defense. "Ever. Not once." "That doesn't mean you never will." He said. I snarled. "You are punishing me for crimes I have yet to commit! This is wrong. You act like some sort of moral standard setting big shot-" He jabbed a bar of sun silver through the bars. It touched my shoulder, right above the collar bone.. The scent of burning fur and flesh filled my nostrils. The pain was numbing. It was as though the world became submerged in a thick molasses. My movements were slowed, and I could only watch and scream out in pain as my clear blood poured from the sizzling wound. The world went black. I knew that when I woke up, sunlight would stream through the window and start creeping towards the cage. I was stuck. I could escape, and burn to ash. Or I could stay, and burn to ash. Locked in a cage, like a frail little bird desperate for the feeling of clouds under its wings. At least... that's what I was... before it all happened and left me struggling to find the sense of innocence I never had. ... Violet stopped typing. Her fur prickled with tight nerves and sweat. Looking towards Cloudy, she felt her body go cold with relief. She hadn't woken up... Of course she didn't. Violet thought, Her new typewriter was silent. It had padding under the keys. She wiped her slick mane away from her face. Her hooves were still twitching, and the uncontrollable urge to write and draw had only partially subsided. She had never felt anything like that before. As soon as the sun went down, it was like a physical presence was pushing her towards her desk. She didn't even go down for dinner, and Mrs. Sugar had to bring her meal up for her. It was still there, resting on her desk, untouched. The rest of her workplace was covered with papers and sketches. She had ended the day with creating two short stories, another chapter for White Rose, Scarlet Enigma, and Sea Strikes. She couldn't stop until she had everything finished. It's as though the characters want to be written... Violet thought, completely entrapped within her own mind. That was what it felt like, in all honesty. The characters wanted their stories to be continued, and so, made Violet continue it. A few scary thoughts bubbled up in Violet's head. She started frantically looking around. She looked at everything but her desk and her words. Her freshly painted side of the room, painted a bright white. What if I don't have any control? Her lone mulberry colored curtain, hanging on the left side of the window, dividing the room completely in half. What if I'm simply meant to bend to these character's whims? Her pretty bed. Made of iron, and decorated with a pretty vintage lace bedspread. It looked like it was pulled right out of a history book. How am I supposed to handle this?! Am I supposed to just keep writing? Forever and ever?! Her almost empty chests. The only things inside were a few spare blankets and her shawl. The chests were still nice, though. They had a nice silver trim and pretty detailing. They also matched her new bookshelves. What if I go mad? What if... what if I lose myself? She swallowed down the last thought. It sat, like a rock in her stomach. She looked towards Cloudy again, who was sleeping soundly. Raking her hoof through her mane again, she choked down tears. She quickly jumped up onto her bed. She wrapped her sheets around herself in a warm cocoon. The moon was bright. A white disk filtered through her curtain and onto her bed like a spotlight. She closed her eyes and went to sleep. ... "Do you think she's going to do it?" Cloudy hopped nervously in her seat. "Do you think we scared her, Violet?" "Hmm?" Violet rubbed one of her tired eyes with her hoof. "What?" She yawned. Cloudy rolled her eyes, not understanding Violet's lack of energy. "Heelllloooo! Violet, what do you think Satin is going to do? Is it possible that we scared her off before we left?" "I..." Violet yawned again. "don't know." She yawned again. This time, her jaw popped and a stray tear rolled down her cheek. "We just need to see what happens." Cloudy started to whine. "Grrrrrhanaaaaaaah!" "If you keep making sounds like that, you're really going to scare her off..." Violet said as she pressed her ears to her head. Why was she so loud this morning? "I can't help it!" Cloudy said, throwing her hooves in the air. "I can't stand the suspense!" Violet chuckled, finding her friend's frustration slightly amusing. "Who knows, maybe Celestia parted her mane the wrong way, and now everything's going to go to flames. Maybe Satin joined the royal guard." "Stop it!" Now it was Cloudy's time to fold her ears against her head. "Maybe she's sick? Maybe she's not even coming to school today? Or..." Violet paused. Cloudy looked as though she was about to explode. "Maybe she and her father moved away!" Cloudy took in a deep breath of air. Violet, quickly realizing the consequences of her mistake, folded her ears down and instantly sported a look of terror. She pressed her face against the desk and prepared herself for the end. "Um... can I just take his chair or...?" Violet looked up. She was at first startled by Cloudy's appearance. Her cheeks were swelled to twice their normal size, and tears created waterfalls down the large balloons of breath. Her eyes were like bright blue grapes, eager to pop out of her sockets and roll onto the desk like some sort of cartoon character. "Wh... what?" Violet asked. Satin cleared her throat. "I was going to ask if I could steal Grease Gear's seat. He... won't be back until the end of the week so... I was wondering if it would be okay." There was silence. Cloudy deflated like a giant balloon. Both girls simultaneously looked towards Shimmering's seat, which was currently empty, and back towards Grease's. Shimmering wouldn't show up to school until an hour had passed. It was practically protocol for the 'fashionably late'. "Um... Yeah." Violet answered. She got out of her own seat and began to push the third chair next to hers. She was glad Grease cleaned his stuff so regularly, given the fact that he normally left oil stains wherever he went. The bright, shiny metal that made up his chair seemed the brightest out of the three of them. "Here, there you go." "Thanks." Satin quickly climbed up. The three of them sat together, side by side. It was awkward, to say the least. The last conversation they had wasn't necessarily the greatest conversation to leave on. Not to mention Violet's hectic night, leaving her exhausted and slightly raw. "So..." Satin started. In the short time they had spent together, Violet knew that she needed information. She always needed information. How Satin had managed to survive listening to Shimmering's pointless drivel was beside her. "White elephant in the room." She turned her chair towards Violet. "Let's talk about your cutie mark." "Again?" It was the only thing that Violet could say. She was too tired to wiggle her way out of it. "You have a rather extraordinary talent, Violet." Satin responded. Cloudy looked past Satin to see Violet. Her large blue eyes were bigger than normal, and her long gold mane streaked down her face to pool at the surface of her desk. She really did look like the picture of innocence. But, even with her special talent working at full force, Violet knew that her best friend was secretly laughing at her constant interrogation. Even with the constant socializing with Cloudy, Violet still hadn't learned how to be comfortable around other ponies. "I've been theorizing." Satin said. She pulled out some notes from her pack. "Is it possible that your talent could be based off some sort of scientific phenomenon? Personally, I feel as though it would make more sense than the magical alternative." "How so?" Violet said. If she were to be perfectly honest with herself, she really didn't want to hear it. She didn't really want to do anything. "Is it possible that your special talent is simply having the ability to rearrange your genetic structure?" Satin had pulled out a pencil from her bag. She started scribbling, even though Violet hadn't responded. "Can that even happen?" Violet asked. "Well," Satin chewed on her eraser for a brief moment. "After doing some mild amount of research, I found something that could relate to your interesting situation." "Oh?" Violet's jaw stretched with another yawn. "After digging around the library for a few hours, I found something." She pulled some papers from her notes. At first, Violet thought they were pictures of spiders. "Turritopsis nutricula. Also known as 'the immortal jellyfish'." "Are you implying that I'm immortal? To be honest, that sounds dreadful." Violet watched as Cloudy started to pull the papers toward her. Her innocent eyes turned to those of curiosity and wonder. "Is it really immortal?" She asked Satin. "In theory." Satin answered. She was absent-mindedly scribbling in her notebook again. "Whenever it gets injured, or grows too old, it reverts back to its um... 'infant' form." Cloudy looked at the papers closer, as though if she tried hard enough, she could see the process in the ink drawn images. "How does that relate to me?" Violet asked. "Well, you, in a sense, do the exact same thing." Satin answered. "After reviewing the stories that you told me last time we were together, I have come to the conclusion that you can only transform when your situation demands it. You only embody your characters when you are in emotional, physical, or mental trouble. If not, your body reacts in a negative manner, hence the stomach pains." "I wasn't in a troubling scenario when I transformed into Enigma." Violet countered. She was starting to become interested, despite the tired fog that clouded her brain. "Well..." Satin chewed on her eraser again. "The theory isn't fool proof. Perhaps you just simply let your guard down?" "Let my guard down?" Violet sat up straighter. "You act like these characters are alive. As though they are a living force." Satin shrugged. "Maybe they are. It's also a possibility that these could all be mental representations of yourself, Violet." "I... what?" Violet didn't understand. Satin hummed, trying to form her abundant knowledge into words. "After a while... I parted ways from the genetic, and started traveling down the path of the psychological. It might just be a unique form of split-personality disorder." "I... uh... I hadn't thought of it like that..." It was true. Violet really hadn't thought of her talent in that way. "It's not bad." Satin quickly disclaimed. "Just... it's a more logical way of seeing it. At least from my point of view." It was Violet's time to hum. She pondered. "Is it there anything else? About the psychological aspect?" "Well everything you've explained... and with the knowledge I've collected with simply knowing you... I'm quick to assume that these characters are a way for your body to react in a more daring and charismatic way. You are naturally a distant individual, are you not?" Violet nodded, admitting her biggest flaw. "Well, it seems very reasonable to believe that these characters and your talent are forms of outlets for you. You want to behave this way, and you want to say these things, and you want to do the things they do. This is just simply how your body wants to do them." "Huh..." Violet nodded. "That's makes sense." Looking at her cutie mark from a new angle, it really did fit together nicely. "But... magic is still apart of it." "True." Satin agreed. "I never said magic was nonexistent in your talent. I just simply brought up the idea that it simply 'got things started. You mind, or DNA, if you want to go that route, just simply does the rest." "Mmmm..." Violet made a face. "You had me, then you lost me." Satin shrugged. "The fact that I'm talking in this manner, in public, in school, is amazing. I personally don't care if we come to an agreement or not." "Can I keep this?" Cloudy asked out of the blue. She was holding a more detailed drawing of the jellyfish. It was the prettiest of the drawings, and seemed to have a more artistic flair to it. "Sure." Satin smiled. "I'm glad you can appreciate such an astounding find in marine biology." "Uh... yeah. That's totally the reason." Cloudy smiled. "Scarfy!" A frantic voice shrieked. It was deep, but feminine. The three girls, startled, jumped in their seats. Violet's eyes fell onto the bright orange mane of Phoenix Heart. Her appearance made her look like a walking ball of fire. Her magic, and her talent, was the unique ability to tame phoenixes. There hadn't been a pony like her in generations. Her cutie mark stood out against her flank. It was a blue phoenix. Many ponies theorized that it was her pet, and personal assistant at 'the cages', Sapphire. Violet had the pleasure of meeting Sapphire a year ago, before summer break. Phoenix, now trusted with the potentially dangerous animal, had brought her assistant to class for the celebration of getting her cutie mark. She was pretty, but a few of her bright blue feathers had begun to fall out of her bright blue tail. She secretly wished she could see Phoenix's pet now, in all of her newly born glory. "Phoenix?" Satin looked at her curiously. Her eyes darted around, searching for the problem. "What's wrong?" "What are you doing?" She asked. Her voice was smooth and rich. Though deeper than the average adult mare's voice, Phoenix had a voice that had many ponies wondering if she was going to be a singer instead of a fire bird tamer. It was serene and melodic, like the sound of jazz music. "I-" "Do you know what she would do if she saw you?!" Phoenix asked, her gold eyes wide with fear. "You, sitting there, with them!" "I'll have you know that I have every right to choose where I sit." Satin sunk deeper into her chair to prove her point. "You and Iron Wing are free to join us. I'm sure that you to would find the experience to be quite delightful and captivating." "Wh..why are you talking like that?" Phoenix's eyes only seemed to get wider. "She doesn't like it when you talk like that! She hates it! You know the rules. Only three syllable words!" Violet started to grind her teeth. "Well, I don't care what Shimmering likes." Satin said with her nose held high. Phoenix gasped."In fact... In fact... she..." "Can suck it." Violet finished. Both Satin and Phoenix looked at her with shocked expressions. Cloudy snorted. Loudly. "Yeah..." Satin said, recovering. "What she said." Phoenix looked as though she wanted to pull up the flooring and crawl underneath it, away from Shimmering's presence. She wasn't even in the room yet, and she already had everypony kissing her hooves. "I think it's time we reevaluate our situation." Violet said. As amazing as it was to say those things about Shimmering, Phoenix's expression was not something that Violet wanted to see. "Phoenix Heart, look at you! You have the amazing talent to control some of the most beautiful creatures in all of Equestria. And here you are, cowering like a mouse with only half of its tail!" "You... you think my phoenixes are pretty?" Phoenix asked. Violet could have sworn she was starting to tear up. "That's not the word I used." Violet said, finally feeling energy for the first time in hours. "I said 'beautiful'. For me... it is the only word to describe such a creature. I've written a few short stories with them as familiars. To be honest, I don't think I did them justice." A stray tear rolled down Phoenix's cheek. "Ruby... she..." "Plucks their feathers... yeah, everypony kind of knows..." Violet winced at Phoenix's expression. Unlike the other ponies in Canterlot Gifted, Phoenix didn't have high society parents to get her into the prestigious programs and classes. She didn't have any parents at all. It was a tale, often exaggerated and retold by the gossiping ponies of Canterlot. Violet knew though. She was simply abandoned at the Canterlot Castle gardens, where she was found by the garden's keeper and taken in as a foal. Nothing more than that. It was sad, but it was happy as well. She often heard her mother 'discussing' the story with the other Canterlot mares whenever they went out to shop. Normally, it would be around Phoenix's birthday. Her story seemed to bubble up around that time. It wasn't until she got her cutie mark, did Shimmering and her friends start taking advantage of her living situation. Though that was when Violet was normally silent, she couldn't help but listen as Shimmering 'persuaded' Phoenix to start collecting the stray feathers that fell to the ground at The Cages. Collecting stray ones quickly became plucking them right out of the phoenixes' bodies. Though Violet had read about phoenixes and knew that it didn't actually hurt them, she knew that it wasn't comfortable, and only quickened the amount of time until when they had to be reborn. They tended to use blackmail to do it, threatening to stop spending time with her unless she showed up to school with so many. All of this because the color orange was in. For a few months, Shimmering and a few other ponies wore them in hats, put them in their manes, and stuck them like pins in their dresses. More tears started to roll down her cheeks. It was strange, seeing water seemingly so close to fire. Phoenix was never the stoic type of pony, or the happy one for that matter. Though she... well... Violet didn't really know her all that well. She cried a lot. That was all Violet really knew. They had spoken briefly, once or twice, but it was never enough to really get a feel of her personality other than the obvious. She wasn't sad, just dramatic...and easy to set off. Just then, the large wooden doors swung open. In walked Shimmering, wearing her ruby and sporting a bright red and white dress. She was even wearing heels, and they clicked on the ground and hurt Violet's ears. It wasn't until she got to her table, did the real fun begin. Most of her friends were still on trips, so a large amount of the chairs that normally surrounded her seat were empty. Even still, she didn't expect the entire table to be completely vacant. "Where is everypony!" She screamed. Violet looked around. Miss. Quill, conveniently, was outside, mingling with a stallion that taught the room next door. "H-Here I am!" Phoenix said, wiping the tears away from her eyes. "Oh great, you." Shimmering grimaced. "Where are the others?" "Um..." Phoenix couldn't help herself. She glanced at the three of them. She followed her golden gaze and her wild eyes landed on Satin, sitting in the seat between the two sisters. "Scarfy?!" Violet saw Satin wince at Shimmering's shrill and nasally voice. Satin calmly cleared her throat. Her ears twitched for a few moments. Satin was clearly trying not to show any signs of fear or cowardice. "Sh-Shimmering Ruby." She said. "Good to see you this morning." "What are you doing..." Shimmering's tone held so much venom, it caused an all too familiar feeling of dread to crawl out of Violet's stomach. "with them?" "I'm sitting." Satin said. She started fiddling with the edges of her scarf. "I... I'm not your friend anymore." There was a long pause. "What?" Shimmering's voice was cold. It held no anger, nor malice. In Violet's mind, she saw a dagger, laying on a table. That was how Shimmering's voice sounded to her. It was threatening, scary, and dangerous. At any moment, somepony could pick up that dagger and drive it into somepony's side. Until then, it just sat there, begging to be used. "I..." Satin swallowed. "I am not your friend anymore." She repeated. "I have suffered your tyranny for too long, Shimmering." She moved her seat to where she was closer to the two ponies beside her. "If I were to be perfectly frank, I don't think we were ever friends to begin with." Shimmering's eyes darted from Satin to Violet, over and over. "What did you do?" She demanded, staring Violet in the eye. "You must have done something! Something with your freak show talent!" Violet's eyes narrowed. Cloudy practically had steam pouring out of her ears, she looked so angry. The rest of the class gasped. "I didn't do anything." Violet said calmly. "But... neither did you. Nothing positive anyway." "Wh... don't talk to me like that! Do you know who I am?" Shimmering spat. Violet felt actual drops of saliva land on her cheeks. One landed on the end of her nose. "You're Shimmering Ruby, Hoity Toity's daughter." Violet said, wiping the spit off her face. "But that's all you'll ever be." Cloudy added. "And at this rate," Satin continued, taking off her scarf. "You'll spend all of his fortune. You won't be anypony after that." She forced her scarf into Shimmering's chest. Wh- You... You can't betray me! You're nothing but-" "My name is Satin Scarf. I have an IQ of 145, can speak multiple languages, have enough knowledge to rival even the most profound professors in Canterlot, know the difference between right and wrong- which says a lot, given this town- and have the ability to surpass you in any academic field of my choosing." She let go of her scarf, letting pool at the ground by Shimmering's hooves. "But I won't do that. Because it seems that the one piece of knowledge that I'm missing is experience. Life experience." She looked down, letting her eyes focus on Shimmering's large ruby. "I don't want my only fillyhood be taken away by college classes and textbooks. And I certainly don't want my fillyhood experience to continue to be contaminated by you." "You..." Shimmering was still desperately clinging to the argument. She clearly didn't know when to give up. "You can't even use proper magic! What kind of unicorn are you? All you can do is levitate stuff. All because you're a mutt of ponykind." The class was silent. Violet, when she blocked out the pounding of her own heart, could hear the squeaks and grunts of conversation from Miss. Quill and the stallion outside the classroom. "I am a unicorn with a loving father. I am a unicorn who has prided herself in educating her own mind and building her own foundation for life, knowing that she could have anything she ever wanted and or needed if she just asked for it. I am a pony who has seen grief in her own father's eyes. Sometimes, he looks at me, misses her, and starts to cry. Have you ever seen that? You 'noble and great' Fancy Pants cry? I watched him find happiness in somepony else, and will forever be in her dept. Don't you dare speak about the consequences of my mother and father's love." She leaned forward, nearly brushing her nose with Shimmering's. "You, with the paths you've chosen, are nothing compared to me." Nopony spoke. Throughout their entire school life, nopony had ever heard Satin speak so much, and with so much determination. Her voice was like hot ice. It was cold, blunt, and direct, while simultaneously, it was steaming with passion and emotion. She forced every word out of her mouth, not because of fear or meekness, but because she wanted Shimmering to hear every word. She wanted her words to pierce through Shimmering's skull, and dig themselves into her brain. The silence continued as Satin sat back in her chair and faced herself towards the board. Cloudy and Violet followed suit, both too shocked and too proud of their new friend to say anything. "Alright class!" Miss. Quill shouted as she flew back into the classroom. Violet saw that she had a faint blush in her cheeks, and a happy twinkle in her eye. "Let's get started with our..." Miss. Quill looked up to see Satin sitting in the front row of desks, along with Violet and Cloudy. She smiled. "Glad to see one of my best students in the front row." She looked at all three of them and whispered so nopony else could hear. "My three brightest jewels should be the first things I should see in the morning." She cleared her throat again, only to be caught off guard. "Ms. Ruby, please go sit down. I know that this isn't the most stressful time, but you still need to follow the school's rules."