Blood Red Roses

by totallynotabrony

May 21

I lay in bed for a little while this morning. Saturday. Didn't have to get up. But I did. There's a few things I need to do.
I feel strangely...clear? I think maybe now that I've come to a few decisions, I'm feeling better.
Decisive. Focused.
Funny, it almost seems like I didn't used to know the meaning of those words.

I am so, so pleased to be at Sugarcube Corner for tea. I think this might just make my whole day. That's good. I have a few things I need to do.

I know I’m way overdue for an appointment with Doctor Stable to get those test results. I’ll consider it on Monday, though I'm thinking that they probably don't really matter.

Spike was right there when I came into the library, and I asked him for some of those magic crystals. I told him I had thought about a few potential uses for them. He didn't want to give them to me, but a little cajoling got him to change his mind. I said if Princess Twilight noticed them missing, he should send her to me.
Maybe I shouldn't be handling potentially dangerous items like this, but Spike’s the one who hands out magical exploding crystals to anypony who asks, so is this really my fault?

Speaking of Princess Twilight, she came in. I had the crystals already concealed in my saddlebags. Spike excused himself while the Princess asked me a few follow up questions about Junebug, nothing too deep.
It was getting towards afternoon, and I really needed to get going. I hated to lie to Princess Twilight, especially this lie, but I told her I had a date with Lamplight to get to. If something happens to me, he’ll be the first pony she seeks out.

I'm getting everything ready in my saddlebags for tonight.
That bridle I got from Rarity can be cinched down pretty tight, tight enough to hold a muzzle closed. Either mine or somepony else's.
Spike told me the crystals tend to explode if you jostle them enough. Could come in handy.

Tonight...
Junebug's murderer is still out there. A problem, yes. But tonight is about me.

I have lots of questions. But no matter what happens tonight, I think at least a few will be answered.

Sunset's coming. I felt calm this morning, but I'm getting antsy again. I need to get going to the woods.

Oh wait, one last thing. Reminder: get another journal.

Comments

[General Grant]

So this is it, huh? I'm assuming a sequel story will start in the next day or two with that new journal?

[totallynotabrony]

7234313 I currently have no plans for a sequel. A diary is one person's inner thoughts at a fixed point in time. You have this much to foment your own idea as to what happened and what will happen, without a narrator or being given information. It's a decidedly experimental writing style.

[General Grant]

7234318
Ah, ok. It's still a good story.

[bloons3]

Well... I think we know what happened...

[Shadowkeeper]

I have got to say that I really enjoyed this story way more than I thought I would. I have not read too many stories that have a journal/diary format, but I think you pulled it off.

I currently have no plans for a sequel. A diary is one person's inner thoughts at a fixed point in time. You have this much to foment your own idea as to what happened and what will happen, without a narrator or being given information. It's a decidedly experimental writing style.

If you ever do plan to do a sequel, maybe you could have it done in the same journal/diary style, but have it done via one of her sisters, Daisy or Lily. You could also do a parallel story with Lamplight giving his side of things if you wanted to.

[tyrantOFathens]

Guys! she didn't die! I don't have to write a report on foreshadowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well. technically, we wont really know if she does die unless another Journal is started by either Rose or another character anyways, so i guess it is still up in the air.

I don't want to sound like i am spreading flames, but this was kind of an anti-climatic ending. All this hype ends with Roseluck walking into the forest and reminding herself to buy a new journal.
Either you left it like this, so should you decide to do a sequel, you have a good starting point, or just wanted us to suffer through not knowing what is going to happen and blame it on the lack of journal pages...

ending aside, I loved it over all! time to read more stuff!

[D48]

I'll be honest, I'm in the meh camp as well on this ending. I get what you were trying to do and I can definitely see the merit in it, but I feel like the plot in this story is too strong for an ambiguous and open non-ending like this. What you did could have worked great if it were more of a slice of life story with a relatively weak plot focusing more on who Roseluck is as a character than the events surrounding her because then the hanging plot threads would have been secondary to the core of the story and thus something you can leave to speculation, but as is you are leaving the core of the story unfinished which just doesn't work. You could correct that by making an epilogue of sorts which is a newspaper article about Roseluck's murder to wrap up the plot without narration and move the questions to "did Lamplight do it?", "will they catch the murderer?", and so on in a satisfactory way because the core plot line will have ended with Roseluck's death.

[totallynotabrony]

7236614 That's a good point.

But jeeze, why's everyone so pessimistic about Rose's outcome?

[D48]

7236629 It's called foreshadowing.

Also, Rose isn't exactly the best suited to surviving a crisis with her tendency to scream and faint rather than doing something useful so it's not unreasonable to assume she isn't going to survive the shit hitting the fan, especially given the evidence pointing to there being a strong possibility of Lamplight trying to shank her in the near future.

Of course, my post was only intended to offer a suggestion to wrap this up quickly because you said you didn't want to write a sequel. You could absolutely write a longer and more complex continuation in another journal if you want to resolve this without killing her (Princess Roseluck had to come from somewhere after all ), but I was under the impression that was not your goal so I didn't give suggestions tailored to it. I can take a crack at a more substantial expansion tomorrow if you want, although I will need you to give me more information on the general direction you want it to take and any other elements you want in there for it to be useful.

[totallynotabrony]

7236666 I've said it before, but with the amount of thought and words you put into your comments, you should write stories of your own

[D48]

7236698 I actually did some planning for a story I was thinking of writing a while back which will never be written for a number of reasons, one of which is that the planning document I wrote was actually longer than this entire story so I can't see the actual story being less than half a million words.

[champdalton]

I might think of a story like this idea someday.
thanks for the inspiration.

ps this is an inspiring read...faveorite!

[Hexy]

Damn flood...

I do not know what your intention was with this story, but I will say it succeeded in getting me invested and drawing forth an emotional response. I crave more, it left me with knots in my stomach, it left me hanging in suspense.

Reminds me of when my grandparents grimace at metal music, saying it makes them uncomfortable, uneased, and that is the entire point.

In any case, that is one of the last werewolf stories I have left, and my efforts of finding new ones to read are growing increasingly futile.

[totallynotabrony]

9870371
I haven't written many, but here's a big one

TItchy & Scratchy

• MLP: FiM
• Dark
• Comedy

Octavia is a young vampire. Vinyl is an old werewolf. They kill people.

• Gore
• Human
• DJ P0N-3
• Octavia
• Fancypants
• Fleur de Lis

totallynotabrony · 39k words  ·  177  5 · 2.5k views

[Hexy]

9871118
Already read it...as well as Loony...not read Back In Town now that I look. Thought I did...