Hope's Refraction

You find a book called the dragon’s roar, a small story book about how one small dragon, discovered his ‘roar’, venturing from his home on a mission of great importance, making friends and gaining may treasures along the way.

Extract from chapter one.

CloudRunner gave a great yawn as he woke up from his nap and stuck his head down through the clouds that made up his bed, true he may not have been able to breathe fire like the rest of his clutch but at times like this it was worth it, no matter how much teasing he got for it.

The warm air hitting his scales as he rested upon pure clouds was one of the most pleasant feelings he had ever experienced, something that filled him with joy from the very moment he woke up, something that was purely his as opposed to his family’s and that to him made it all the more special.

A rapidly growing smirk played across his mussel as the sound of laughter reached his ears, specifically the voice of one of his brothers who had just made the mistake of accidently laying down right below his cloud.

With a small shift he rolled though the cloud, dive-bombing straight downward with a shriek of joy as his brothers face froze at the sight of him, yes there were defiantly perks of his ability to cloud walk.

......
..........

Cloudrunner woke up and knew immediately something was wrong, the wind blew with the sent of ash, devoid of the usual birdsong that was the norm, sticking his head down through the clouds his mouth dropped open as he stared at the devastation beneath him, at the ruins that where once his home.

After gaining permission from the church i have embarked upon this task in order to hopefully shed some light upon the matter of the brandless, i hope with this work we may reduce the number of souls that reject our lady’s light.

The Rejected, the Corrupt and the Banished.

As stated before The brand that adorns our flank is a gift from our Lady Destiny so that we may understand purpose of our existence, the Brandless however can be separated into three major categories, the Rejected, the Corrupt and the banished.
The Rejected are those who do not gain there mark at all and are more commonly known as the forgotten by the general population, however both names are misleading as rather than having been rejected are forgotten it is they themselves who have rejected the light of order, discarded the truth of themselves and as such never understood there true purposes, instead choosing on some level, to instead wallow in selfishness and darker thoughts..
These individuals are by far most the most fortunate of the brandless in that it is relatively simple to cure with time and effort.  As such there is little to fear from them but instead bee looked upon with pity as it may by be by that very process that they gain their own brand.
Though  my study’s most of these cases have been shown to be caused by feelings of worthlessness, regret or deep sorrow, something that with the proper care and guidance can be cured, finding purpose and soles in the embrace Destiny’s light, allowing them to become who they are truly meant to be.

The Corrupt commit the sin of rejecting the Destiny’s Light after it has touched their hearts, unlike the Rejected they themselves voluntarily give up, sell or otherwise destroy their brand.
Through time and effort i was able to interview one such criminal before his stay in an rehabilitation centre. His words entreated me when he stated that ‘it was like a veil had been lifted from him, he no longer had to be ‘just’ himself’, however i wasn’t able to get much more out of him before his stay began.
Yet after his stay he had once more found his purpose and commented upon how he was a fool to try and lose himself, that by rejecting the Light he had lost himself, lost what made him have purpose and that once he realised that it became clear what he had to do.
The Corrupted generally have a there brand shattered in some sort of way, not to be mixed up with those brands that naturally have such a effect, these differ because by their very nature do not look natural. The exception to this however is those that sell themselves, gaining a (0 with a / through it  ) symbol as a reminder of their crime.

Unlike the others the banished are unredeemable, ponies who have committed such unspeakable acts that the light of destiny itself rejects them rather than the other way around such as with the corrupted. They become monsters wearing the skin of one of our own, abominations of an unnatural nature who’s only purpose is to sow confusion and despair.
These individuals cannot be reason with, lost so far to darkness that the only mercy that we may give them is a swift death. Should you encounter one such  individual it is advised to run and tell the nearest guard about the situation ,these monsters  marked by the shadowy outline of their rejected destiny upon their flank, can only be given one final mercy, a quick death.