Sometime later... Circuit Breaker woke up in the hospital after landing hard onto his back, grumbling in pain to find himself in such a cold and strange environment. He didn't know how long he'd been unconscious for, but by looking at a clock, it couldn't have been anymore then just a couple of hours. He tried to lean forward before wincing in pain, his chest feeling uncomfortably tight. He rubbed his head to see his friends nearby in the same room, Rainbow sitting right next to him. Twilight looked incredibly guilty as well, feeling as if she was the reason that he was hurt in the first place. Circuit wasn't wrong. He was quite pissed, to be frank...
"Guys... what the hell?" said Circuit weakly, though every ounce of anger in his voice could be heard. "I can't believe that actually happened..."
Twilight awkwardly tried to bashfully look away. "Well...it did happen. And all of the girls know how to use magic" Circuit looked in shock. "But that shouldn't be possible! Next you'll tell me that you happen to be an alien or something...." Twilight didn't say anything, although the girls awkwardly shuffled themselves. "Well....." Circuit fainted again, overwhelmed.
"Um...Twilight? While he's unconcious, when do you think these Mind Worm things could be in this world?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight thought for a moment, not thinking of a possibility of when they could have slipped through. All that was known back in Equestria, was that the Mind Bug pandemic was top secret even to her own world. Knowing that the Mind Bugs somehow managed to enter Earth and this dimension was something else entirely. And if so...did they already infect? "That's a good question, Fluttershy." Twilight said before entering deep thought. "We can't tell the boys about these bugs.' "Well, thankfully Crim doesn't know." Rainbow said confidently. "He had to help Winter with something." "Who?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Oh, it's his mother. He's the Police Chief of the city" Pinkie told Twilight happily. "So his mother happens to be the Chief of the local law enforcement around here...interesting..." Twilight said curiously. "Because...it's different in my world."
---- Circuit took about a week and three days to recover from the broken rib, which seemed to have been inflicted in a fit of karmic irony, to the point that he could leave the hospital. But once he did, he seemed to feel better about the whole "best friends are apparently sorcerers" thing. Not that he had really had any reason to be angry in the first place. One thing was certain... Circuit had taken his anger too far. Or at least, what he thought was his anger. Circuit never intended to say the horrible things he said, almost as if they were said by someone other than himself. Little did he know that while he had slept the night before the reveal, something had slipped into his ear, latched onto his brain, and was now controlling him like a puppet. Circuit had been infected with a mind worm...
While Circuit was unknowingly infected, it would have been extremely difficult to be able to detect the worm. To the average man, this would have been borderline impossible. But as the girls had been learning magic on specifically dealing with this threat, they had been able to find out that the hardest threat would be their closest ally. But things would take a turn for the worst. For the same night that Circuit was infected, the Mind Worms had reproduced to such numbers that it had started to go onto the offensive. Their first target would be the local authorities. The start had been firefighters and their extremely long working days, making them perfect candidates as the worms would slip into their minds while they slept. Then medical staff, and although small in number, they proved to be valuable overtime. But at midnight that night, the Mind Worms had infiltrated the Canterlot Police Department. One such worm had hitched a ride home with someone very close to the group of friends....
----- "Is it just me, or is Circuit acting a bit... off lately?" asked Rainbow Dash at lunch that day. "I mean, he's been avoiding us for days, won't return my calls, nothing." Her voice lowered into a terrified whisper. "You don't think he could've been... y'know..."
Twilight's eyes widened for a moment, already thinking of what could have possibly led to an already infective condition. Now that she thought about it, she did read the local papers to report that although nothing out of the ordinary had happened other then some bizarre isolated cases of a paramedic acting weird. Pinkie then chirped in. "I don't think so." She said before keeping her voice low. "Crimson's at home today, something about having a rough nights sleep due to his injury." Twilight then was in thought. "I don't know the likelihood just yet. Fortunately us girls know how to remove these worms, but the boys don't as they weren't even aware of the existence of magic til yesterday...we should be careful."
----- Spoiler: Music for scene [Heavily Suggested] Crimson's House 2:37pm The recovering body of Crimson Lionheart was relaxing after having spent a whole day of essentially doing nothing. Light music filled the room as a sore and swollen student, still injured from the previous incident that almost killed him, did his best to take his mind at ease. He was still absolutely in shock at finding out that magic didn't only just exist in this world, but it was alive and well apparently in the form of the secret of his friends. He was busy at his desk on his laptop, casually reading an article he found out of pure interest. At the same time, something had been creeping just outside of his door. His mother, Winter, had told him that she was going to be busy doing the washing for the two of them on her day off. Figuring the footsteps outside to belong to her, he did absolutely nothing to stop it. Soon, the door soon opened slowly as a woman stood at the doorframe, dressed in a sky blue sweater. Her eyes had looked totally lifeless as she stood there in a daze, her right arm twitching along with her eye. She stood there, holding a basket of washing before letting it fall to the ground unceremoniously. "Hey Mum, need anyt-" Crimson said before his eyes went wide with horror... In her hand was a gun, her official side-arm from the police force. Her hand and grip was uneasy, helplessly trying to overcome what had possessed her with such twisted and evil thoughts. She slowly tried to raise the gun at Crimson, her son being in such a shocked and terrified state that he was barely unable to move. The boy stood up from his chair nice and slowly, overcome with absolute shock that his mother was now holding his very life in the grip of her hand. Crimson started to back away, while the older woman took a step closer. Winter was absolutely bawling her eyes out, yet she couldn't control her own actions. Crim wasn't told about the Mindworms, making this experience all the more terrifying for him... "Mum....please" He started to panic, almost backed up against the window. "Whatever I did, I'm sorry. I...can't believe that...you'-" Winter slowly opened her mouth to speak, despite the control of her body doing its best to resist. Speech didn't happen til merely a second or so later, as Winter turned the safety off from her gun and lined him down the chamber. Winter sobbed as her words finally expressed themselves, and the word lingered for more then a moment afterward.... "Run...."
With this word, Crimson finally understood. His mother was acting against her will. Mentally cursing himself for not figuring it out sooner, Crimson did as he was told, running as fast and as far as his injuries would let him. When his body finally gave out, he was standing at a city bus stop downtown. Crim knew what he had to do. ----- "Hey Crimmy, what's up?" asked Pinkie Pie cheerfully. To her surprise, Crimson seemed out of breath, almost struggling to form words. "It's Mum... something's wrong... pulled a gun... tried to kill me..."
"Wait, what!!!" Pinkie suddenly panicked, seeing this behaviour as something that was totally unheard of. She then realised that this would have been the result of one thing, the Mindworms must have gotten to Winter. "I need to tell the girls. Twilight must know!" Pinkie then panicked. "Where are you? I'll pick you up and get so- In the background, noises of a loud engine was being heard. "Get help, quickly!" Was all Crim said before the call suddenly fell silent. Pinkie utterly freaked out, stressing out of her mind as her eyes went wide in fear. The other girls looked at Pinkie with worry. "We gotta leave! Now!!!"
"Wait... if they got Winter..." wondered Rainbow Dash, "then does that mean..." Rainbow Dash's eyes widened in terror. "Oh God... not Circuit too..." "There's no time to worry about that!" said Pinkie Pie, grabbing Rainbow Dash's arm. "C'mon, let's go!" "Circuit's my boyfriend, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash replied sternly. "And I'm not giving up on him!" "Worry about him later! If we don't do something, Crimson's going to die!" shouted Pinkie in increased panic.
Crimson's body had failed him, totally shutting down after having sprinted such a long distance in terror. Roughly ten meters away from his body, a police cruiser had pulled up and parked nearby. The tired boy stopped to turn around and look at the one who had parked the police car, absolute terror on his eyes as he started to crawl away to the closest building to him. Stuck in the middle of one of the busier streets in Canterlot, Crimson knew that he'd find salvation nearby should he try get away. Winter had hopped out of the police car, pistol still in hand as she walked closer and closer to Crimson. It seemed that despite the awful tears that she'd been crying, she couldn't quite stop the control that was happening by the Mind Worm. A tired Crim rolled onto his back, unable to stop what was about to happen. Winter lined him down her sights, and merely moments later she was standing directly above him. Crimson looked in horror as his own mother, the most important person in the world to him, was about to execute her own son while she was under control almost helplessly. She then used her remaining will-power to do something far more traumatic to the young boy. She raised her arm, despite her body doing whatever it could to stop it, and raised the gun. The barrel pressed against her temple, as the woman was crying in utter agony. The worm was suddenly overwhelmed by this strong will-power and did everything it could to stop what was going on. Before suddenly, the control that the worm had over Winter suddenly stopped, as the worm suddenly died. And Winter collapsed onto the ground in a heap....
----- As the girls arrived on the scene, Twilight noticed both mother and son, out cold on the ground. "How's Crim?" asked Pinkie Pie, concerned about her boyfriend. "Fine... surprisingly," replied Crimson weakly, "Apart from the fact that something made my mum to kill me..." "Crimson..." replied Twilight, kneeling down to give him eye contact, "what happened to your mother was that her mind was hijacked from a parasite from another dimension. Surprisingly, it seems that she managed to fight it off..." Crimson was in no position to question anything Twilight had just said. "Get us home," he asked. Suddenly, a car could be heard approaching them. Twilight turned around, only to be horrified at what she saw. It was a dark red 1983 Maserati Biturbo, headed straight for them...
Rarity did her in a valiant attempt to put something to stop the car, her hand glowing a brief blue for a brief moment. The speeding red car came to a stop in a rather abrupt manner, crashing into the field and shielding the group of friends from a controlled Circuit. "Quick! Remove it" Rainbow said to Twilight and Sunset, who both worked together to open the car door. Sunset went to hold down Circuit, who seemed to have been quite shaken, before Twilight put the palm of her hand and removed the Mindworm forcefully. The worm fell out of his eat and disintergrsted in a cloud of ash. Meanwhile, Crimson looked at Twilight with an expression of pure hate despite the girls feeling relieved at removing a worm from their friend. Twilight had inadvertently hurt his mother....
"You need to be more bloody careful next time, eh? 'Coulda bloody killed her." said Crimson, his anger barely restrained. Twilight blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry..." she replied meekly. Circuit took a deep breath. "If anyone needs to apologize here, it's me," he said. "I don't know what came over me..." Rainbow Dash hugged Circuit, almost on the verge of tears. "I'm just glad to have you back," she said.
Twilight sighed in relief as the girls cradled Circuit and gave him the much needed attention he almost deserved, while Crimson was left o the pavement cradling his unconscious mother, unsure if she'd ever wake up again or not. He was angry of these worms and the fact that Twilight knew an awful lot about them, having never been told about them prior. At the same time, he was absolutely petrified of losing the most important person in his life. The bond between mother and son was virtually unbreakable, and nothing was ever going to break that. Twilight noticed the broken Crimson and went to go over to check up on him, feeling guilty about before. "Listen Crim, I'm incredibly so-" "Shut up." Was all Crimson told her, voice contained with venom. He was now starting to sob. The girls looked in shock at what he'd just said, and Twilight was taken back at the comment. "E-excuse m-" "S-Shut up...the hell are you saying at this point?" Crimson coldly told Twilight before looking up at her and the girls, tears streaming down his eyes as he cradled his mother and held her closer. "Be Quiet! Stop talking to me...." "Listen Crimson, please think about this logically." Twilight said, shocked at what she was seeing and hearing. "The Mindworms came from Equestria and infected your mother. I had nothing to do-" "I said shut up." Crimson coldly snapped. "You had everything to do with it! The worms came from the portal right? And so did you?" Twilight and Sunset's eyes went wide with shock. How the hell did Crimson know about the portal? "Although you might not have been infected or know about this pandemic, the fact that you and these worms came through the portal also leaves you partially responsible for this mess..." Crimson's voice suddenly grew louder. "Responsible for....hurting my mother and putting her in a coma." Twilight looked in fear, almost on the verge of tears. "No! I didn't! I mean....yes and well..." Crimson then stood up and lifted his mother, carrying her to the passenger side of her vehicle, not saying a single word. He looked at Twilight in disgust, having every right to, and went to the drivers side and got into his mothers pursuit vehicle. "I'm done talking. Don't follow me..." Crimson looked at her before suddenly he pulled out with the car, doing a U-turn and went to drive home. Twilight, at a total loss for words, collapsed onto the ground in tears. "What have I done?!"
"WAIT, CRIM!! COME BACK!!" Pinkie Pie shouted desperately, but there was no reply. She attempted to run after him, but was held back by Applejack. "It's no use, sugarcube," she said sadly, "Once Crim makes up his mind, there ain't no way in hell anyone can change it." The other girls tried to comfort Twilight, while Rainbow Dash simply continued to hug Circuit. "Dude, don't listen to him," she said. "He's just going through a bit of a hard time." "And I'm not?" replied Circuit, though the sarcasm could barely be noticed through the nervous tone. "I said and did... horrible things... and I couldn't stop myself... almost like I wasn't in control of my body..." "You weren't." "Well... yeah... I know that now... But still, I feel like crap." "I can see that." Circuit pulled Rainbow Dash in closer. "If it's any consolation, I'm actually a little jealous of you and the girls... what with your, ahem, abilities," he said. "Really...?" replied Rainbow Dash, who was now starting to cry somewhat. Circuit smirked slightly as he said, "It saved me, didn't it?" Rainbow Dash simply hugged Circuit tighter, crying tears of joy. "Yes... yes it did..." she replied.
