Scarlet Mist

Scarlet Mist (born Scarlet Mist de Chevalier) is as motherly as one could be. Kind to those around her, but can show her strict side when the need calls for it. Her gentle nature often leaves her apologizing more than necessary. Talented in medical magic, she works as a nurse at the Ponyville Hospital, though she has a tendency to spook her patients.
Some of her characteristics have unfortunately led to many ponies to assume that Scarlet Mist is some kind of vampire pony. These include her more noticeably sharp canines, her bat-themed Cutie Mark, and a skin condition that causes her harm when in direct sunlight.
Scarlet Mist is the daughter of Baxton de Chevalier II and Sanguine Song, wife of Lucan and mother to Willow Wisp and Witch Hazel.
== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
Born within the halls of Maison Chevalier on the outskirts of the capital of Blackmist March, Prance, Scarlet Mist was the firstborn daughter of Margrave Baxton de Chevalier II, son of the ruling Marquis Baxton de Chevalier I. She would spend most of her early years within the halls and grounds of the manor, and from the time she was able to do so, her father and grandfather insisted she train with a sword and in hoof to hoof combat. 
Despite never taking to combat with the gusto her father had wished, Scarlet gained a moderate proficiency in self-defense, and was able to mollify her father. Never truly satisfied with her safety, her father would insist on the early appointment of her Knight. Consenting, the Marquis recruited an orphaned foal named Ambre from Northern Blackmist whose parents had been murdered. After a period of training, he was named Sir Ambre de Fer Dorè and would come into service as Scarlet Mist's personal knight, vowing to protect her from any who would seek to do her harm.
Scarlet developed a deep fondness for fire lilies, and began keeping potted firesalt reeds as a houseplant.
=== Loss ===
When she was twelve years old, Scarlet Mist was refused the opportunity to travel with her Grandfather into the country on business. Once they had left, she argued to Ambre that she had a right to see what business her grandfather got up to, as she would be Marquise one day herself. Winning him to her side, the pair left the manor under cover of darkness to follow the trail left by the Marquis' caravan. They discovered the convergence of numerous carts from intersecting paths, clearly heavily weighed down. 
When they finally caught up with the caravan, they discovered a dozen abandoned carts left outside a rundown building built into the side of the mountain in the forest. Upon closer inspection, they found bloodstains, and several bodies dragged off to the side of the road and covered with a tarp. Terrified, but transfixed, Scarlet continued into the building to see what had happened. To make sure her grandfather was okay. Within the building Scarlet discovered a massive hole, blown through the wooden rear wall and into dug deep into the side of the mountain. The walls were stained with more blood, but no bodies were immediately apparent in the building, so Scarlet continued into the tunnel. 
Within the tunnels Scarlet heard the sounds of combat, and rushed forward to find her grandfather and more than a score of knights, armor and shields bearing the Thorned Mare of Maison Fer Dorè, locked in combat with a massive group of cultists, mindless with fever, and wielding pickaxes and stolen weaponry. The knights fought valiantly to hold back the tide, but for every pony they struck down another two seemed to take their place from deeper within the depths of the tunnels. Scarlet watched in horror as her grandfather's knights were slowly overwhelmed while the Marquis himself was busily attacking mining explosives to the tunnel walls with the aid of a pair of squires.
When Scarlet called out to him, and the Marquis finally realized that Scarlet had managed to sneak along, Baxton screamed in terror and fury, demanding Ambre get her away from this battle and back to the safety of home. Pulled from the mine and forced to leave her grandfather behind, Scarlet watched from the upper tunnels as the charges were detonated and the mineshaft was collapsed in upon itself. Barely escaping with her own life and that of her knight, she knew that Baxton de Chevalier I, Marquis of Blackmist was dead. 
In the moments after she became Margravine, Scarlet Mist wept.
=== Margravine ===
For the next seven years, Scarlet would serve as Margravine. Her father Baxton II had been elevated to the rank of Marquis, but, already a fairly cool and distant stallion, he became even more dark and brooding after the death of his father. Seeming resentful and angry the remarkably few times Scarlet would even see him around the manor. In these years, Scarlet would take company in her knight, her sister Violetta, and occasionally even the lesser lords and smallfolk of Blackmist when she was able to go into the country.
When she was 19 in the year 977 cyp, Baxton approached Scarlet with a mission. She was to travel to Equestria. Once there, she was to attend a summit in the capital of Canterlot with representatives from both Equestria itself and Germaneigh to discuss trade and the possibility of a railroad connecting all three nations. Baxton had no interest in renewing any trade with Germaneigh, and flat out refused any possibility of a railway connecting Prance and Germaneigh. However, trade and diplomatic opportunity with Equestria had the potential to benefit Prance.
Scarlet traveled to Equestria, incognito through northern Germaneigh, passing through without incident. Scarlet almost found it peculiar how smooth their crossing was. The caravan, though not clearly lordly, was obviously Fansie judging from some of the scathing looks they received in some of the border towns, and she had expected more trouble once they were deeper in Germane territory. Not only did it not get uglier as they traveled west, but even the dark looks from the locals had dropped off once they were far enough from the border. Many ponies (and other creatures, Scarlet had never met so many different species!) were even outright friendly; smiling, nodding, and offering their wares as they saw the caravan passing by. This was a side of Germaneigh she had never seen, raised in a family raised to power by their overthrow of the brutal Germane war machine. Germaneigh was the ancient enemy of Maison Chevalier and all of Prance, but this was not the Germaneigh she thought she knew.
En route to Canterlot while travelling along the border of the Everfree Forest, Scarlet and Ambre separated from her entourage to cut through the forest. While in the forest, they were set upon by beasts and found themselves outnumbered. They were saved by a passing local, a local Pegasus stallion named Lucan heading up a pack of wolves, who chased the beasts off into the forest disappearing from sight. Scarlet and Ambre returned to the caravan and proceeded without further incident to Canterlot.
Upon arrival in the Equestrian capital, she immediately joined a roundtable discussion with a group of Equestrian nobles and businessmares as well as a member of the Germane Council where she upheld her father's law of opposition to Germaneigh, obstinately avoiding approval of any plans which would loosen the borders between Germaneigh and Blackmist. While the plans were mired in committee, Scarlet once again encountered Lucan, who had traveled to Canterlot to visit his mother who was sequestered in study in the city, and the two struck up a quick rapport. 
=== Love and Exile ===
Over the next several months, Scarlet and Lucan went from strangers, to friends, to lovers, and Scarlet found herself questioning her loyalties to her old home and her duty to serve and return to Blackmist. She began postponing the discussions no longer out of hatred for Germaneigh, which she had cooled on, but simply out of fear that the end of her meetings in Canterlot would mean the end of her time with Lucan.
In 978, the Marquis began to grow impatient waiting for Scarlet to return and demanded that she hurry the negotiations along and return. When she expressed sympathy towards the idea of allowing the railway to go through, Baxton flew into a fury, sending Scarlet's sister Violetta to Equestria to bring Scarlet home by force if necessary. 
Unbeknownst to Violetta however, Scarlet Mist had already begun looking into ways to integrate herself into Equestrian society, even discovering a potion capable of removing the natural Fansie magic which prevented her cutie mark from being displayed. In a moonlit ceremony, Scarlet and Lucan dedicated themselves to one another, and Scarlet drank the potion, causing her cutie mark to appear on her flank and severing her ties to her homeland.
Upon her arrival in Equestria, Violetta found that not only had Scarlet Mist forsaken her homeland, but her final act as Margravine had been to approve the railway connecting Germaneigh and Prance. Enraged, Violetta attempted to strike down Lucan for manipulating her sister, but wounded Scarlet as she threw herself between them. Scarlet Mist was blinded in her right eye, and she was rushed to the nearest hospital by Lucan while Ambre sent a stunned Violetta away.
After her recovery, Scarlet met with Violetta in the Canterlot palace under the aegis of Princess Celestia herself. Scarlet explained her position, and that she was in love and would not return to Blackmist even if she could. Violetta was not happy, but she consented when it became clear that she could not change his sister's mind and that this turn of events would one day grant her the title of Marquise de Chevalier, an honor she otherwise would likely never have attained. 
Violetta returned to Blackmist March and told her father of everything that had happened. A black mark was placed on Scarlet Mist's name in the family history, she was stripped of her title and of the name 'de Chevalier,' and the both the family and the populace of Blackmist were discouraged from even mentioning her name. Over the years, though she was never actually removed from the family records, Scarlet Mist would fade from the memory of Blackmist March.
She married Lucan shortly after and the two would spend the rest of their lives together in Equestria.
=== Married Life ===
After her marriage, Scarlet Mist moved to the Everfree Forest with Lucan and to live in his ancestral family home deep within the forest. Finding work as a night nurse in Ponyville, she and Lucan settled into a simple, pleasant life together. 
Within a year of their marriage, Scarlet Mist was pregnant, and in 980cyp she gave birth to twins, Willow Wisp and Witch Hazel. Willow and Witch would grow up to become a potioneer and a forest guide and would be integral in the founding of the forest town of Luneria in the Autumn of 1001cyp.Category:Maison Chevalier
Category:House Umbra