False Light

Birth Name: Blood Stain

Name Meaning: a dark discoloration caused by blood

Nicknames:  Stain or Bloody by those who know her by her real name, goes by False Light or Light with everyone else

Age: foal

Breed: Draft/American Saddlebred x Mustang

Exterior:

Pelt:  Splashed White Blood Bay

Markings: Medicine Hat

Mane/Tail: black with white streak in the mane and white tip to the tail

Eyes: icy blue

Height: matures to 16 hh

Lineage/Relationships:

Sire: unknown mustang stallion

Adoptive Father: Windy Nights (kind of)

Dam: Nightmare

Siblings: too many to count

Other relatives: The Tyrant & Queeny (Grandsire and Grand-dam), Princess (Aunt)

~*~

Stallion: too young

Foals: too young

Herd: Hangs around the Spring Valley Herd, but isn’t officially part of it

Friends: Windy Nights, sympathizes with Rhineland and her siblings

Enemies: her birth mother

Interior:

Personality: A withdrawn, quiet and not very talkative kind of foal. She’s quite flighty, even for a foal, and used to jump at fast movements. Only when she is sure her surroundings and the horses around her are safe, she shows her more forceful and dominant, yet still generally kind side instead of her usual shyness. She can be cold if she wants to be and aggressive or even violent if provoked or, worse, threatened. But despite that, she has a friendly, gentle side to her and hates seeing others hurt for no reason other than personal enjoyment. This character trait was the ultimate reason for her more panic-y attitude.

Likes: being alone or with someone she can trust, water, the Spring Valley, being shown how to play by the other foals, Windy Nights, not thinking about Nightmare, getting what she wants, spring grass

Dislikes: thinking about her birth mother, fast movements, the rapids, being forced to do something she doesn’t want, others being hurt for fun, Nightmare, thunderstorms

Strengths: considerably strong for being a foal, keeping her pain hidden

Weaknesses: she’s flighty and only a foal; can have bursts of rage if provoked

History:

False Light’s story started with a run-in between her mother, the tyrannical Nightmare, and her father, an impressive dark chestnut colored mustang stallion. The stallion was in his prime, tall and powerful in appearance and dominant in behavior. While he had his good sides, he still could be forceful if the situation desired it and didn’t allow anyone to order him around, a trait that attracted the dark mare.

It didn’t take much to lure him away from the herd at the right time and getting the stallion to mate with her. But before he could even attempt to force her into his band, she was gone. He never saw the mare again, neither did he meet their daughter, but after finding out who The Nightmare was, he thought it was for the better.

However, 11 months after the incident, Nightmare gave birth to a healthy, strong-looking blood bay filly. The mare was pleased by her daughter’s appearance. She wasn’t weak or wimpy, and her coloring and pattern made it appear as if blood had been shed and dried on her back, hence the name. And young Blood Stain also wasn’t a shy, timid foal; she showed determination and a strong will, even if it was only to get her milk. Needless to say, Nightmare kept the foal with her.

At first, all was well for both Nightmare and Blood Stain. Nightmare of course wasn’t a loving mother, but she showed herself pleased by the foal’s obedience and eagerness to learn what Nightmare had to teach her.

But much to Nightmare’s dismay, there was still a kind light in Blood Stain’s heart. It started simple, just with the foal helping asking why Nightmare was hurting others when there was seemingly no point in it. For the reason of wanting to keep the foal for its determination and strong build, Nightmare tried to get rid of Blood Stain’s gentle side by scolding, neglecting and even abusing her whenever she did something – in her mother’s eyes – wrong.

But whatever she did, she didn’t manage to erase that light spot inside the filly’s heart. She just managed to get Blood Stain deathly afraid of her, and whenever the filly could, she kept away from her mother and tried to hide her good deeds. In her mind, doing what her mother did wasn’t right, but still, she was more afraid of being all alone than of staying with the violent mare.

As the months passed, their relationship didn’t get any better. If anything, the situation only got worse. Eventually, one morning Nightmare had enough and gave up on the foal, beating her badly and leaving her to die.

However, Blood Stain didn’t. Bruised and with tears in her eyes, she got up again, unwilling to let her so-called mother take her life like that. She had long-since realized that she had seen the mare in a false light, as her mother had seen her, and fought her first instinct to go finding her mother. She was too afraid of actually getting killed the next time they crossed ways, as her dam had told her.

So, she started wandering aimlessly on her own, avoiding other horses. She didn’t want to be seen like that, but moreover, she was afraid of being harmed. Her mother was pretty much the only one she had had contact with, as they had never joined a herd, and Nightmare had told the filly many horses were just like her.

As luck would have it, the filly found the entrance to the Spring Valley on her wanderings and curiously stepped into it, just wanting to find a place where she could feel sure. She eventually spotted Hotspur’s herd from the distance and quickly backed away to find herself another secure place to graze. But despite the herd not noticing her, one did – Windy Nights, who was once again grazing not to far away from the band.

Curious about the lone foal, the stallion followed her. As soon as Blood Stain noticed this, she tried to make him lose track of her, but the stallion appeared to be determined to reach the filly. Blood Stain was driven forward by her mother’s lies, and ran without looking left or right or paying much attention to her surroundings.

And this way, she somehow managed to not notice the river which crossed the valley.

Bloody seriously thought this was going to be the end of her. The current and the power of the water were too much for her weakened body and before long, she was closed to passing out. But in this situation, Windy’s pursuit came In handy – the stallion, having jumped in after her, pulled the foal out of the water.

When the filly awoke again, she found herself lying next to the stallion, who was eying her intently. It took only moments for the foal to be on her hooves, but she was trembling, dripping wet and still showed the signs of her mother’s abusive behavior towards her. She couldn’t even manage to run away anymore.

With a calm, soothing voice Windy Nights tried to reassure her, telling her he wasn’t going to harm her – otherwise he wouldn’t have made the effort to rescue her – and asking her for her name. As tired as she was, Blood Stain didn’t want to introduce herself with the name her mother had given her, and changed her name to False Light in that very moment.

She felt oddly safe in Windy’s presence, and the stallion offered her security and comfort. He asked her where her parents were, but she just said that she had never known her father and didn’t want to go back to her mother. Seeing her injuries, Windy could think his part.

In the following weeks, the foal formed a close bond to the stallion, who didn’t really mind her company. Sure, it bothered him that he knew little to nothing about her past, but he guessed she would tell him when she was ready. And Light finally started feeling safe again, being sure her newfound friend and father figure would protect her should they come across their mother again. She even met Hotspur’s herd and played with his foals after some hesitation, but rejected the palomino stallion’s offer to join his herd.

At the moment, she’s still staying with her adoptive father and tries forgetting about what had happened to her in the past.

RTS: her mother is an enemy of the Cimarron Herd, her friend and adoptive father Windy Nights is Strider’s son

Head- and Body-Image (c) Blackhorsebeth

Lineart (c) Lionlover22

Background (c) Spirit: SotC

Adopted from Blackhorsebeth ^^