The next few days were full of strange occurences, as if the world had become a buggy video game. Twilight had taken notice of this, but just as she was about to talk to Rainbow about it, she came up and pinned her to the wall. "What are you trying to pull?!" she demanded. Poor Twilight was reduced to a stammering wreck. "I-i d-dun-nno wha-at y-yo-ou'r-re t-tal-lking ab-bou-ut..." "Ever since you came here, magical attacks have been happening!! And now reality itself is *yay*ing falling apart!! What do you think is going on?!?"
Crimson had been worried. He needed to understand whatever Richard had told him otherwise it would be the end of the world. Even worse, Richard claimed to be his father. Not just his biological one, but a spiritual one as well. Even if that wasn't true, he did make plenty of sense when it came to how him and his soul are connected in general. The violence....the death...it made perfect sense. And now Crimson had to find out what the elements were, which was something he didn't know at all. And he had two weeks...
"You..." said Rainbow Dash angrily, "YOU DID THIS!! YOU! DID! THIS!!!" Spoiler: Music (HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) Twilight was shaking in fear. Rainbow Dash was panicking like crazy. Not only that, but she seemed to be absorbing a massive amount of magic, looking almost like Sunset's transformation at the Fall Formal. "It's not my fault..." Rainbow Dash simply sneered at the terrified Princess as she screamed, as if with a million enraged, agonized voices speaking as one: "DON'T LIE TO ME, YOU B*yay*!!"
Crimson then felt a deafening boom, before he merely collapsed onto the ground as the ground shook around him. It rocked him violently, as a beam of light seemed to be coming from the northwest. Towards his neighbourhood...towards the school. Immediately picking up the pace, he quickly tried to jog to Canterlot to help conceive energy. Whatever the hell was happening, things were about to get bad. Meanwhile, a few streets away, a heavenly footstep touched the ground....
Twilight was now on the receiving end of a beatdown. Rainbow Dash would not let up in her blind rage. "I'LL SHOVE YOUR ASS SO FAR DOWN YOUR THROAT THAT WHEN YOU CRAP, YOU'LL SING F*yay*ING BEETHOVEN!!!" she roared.
With Crimson slowly breaking into a sprint, Richard appeared in the back of his mind trying to motivate him. "Unknown force has currently sped up the process of universal destruction. Forget about the elements, you need to kill Twilight Sparkle. You now have 20 minutes..." Richard vanished again as Crim started to approach the school, noticing a demonic figure and a petrified girl.
Rainbow Dash simply turned and looked at him, the fires of rage burning in her eyes. "GET AWAY!!!" she demanded as she waved a hand at him, knocking him back for quite a ways, "SHE IS MINE TO KILL!!"
Crim flew across the air spinning, but fortunately managed to recover himself fairly successfully. Although, skidding across the ground, all RD did manage to do was ruin the pair of gloves he was wearing. But he wasn't going to let some demonic upstart ruin his chance...until he realised the voice of the demon. "Rainbow?" He said, eyes widening
"As much as I hate to say this," said a Australian-accented female voice from behind him, "I'm the one you have to fight."
Crim looked in utter shock as Orchid spoke behind him. His hand gripped into a fist, unable to deal with was the same girl who grew up and died for him. The same girl who professed her affection to him before she died, despite knowing that Crim was with Sunset. "No...." Crim said sadly. "That's impossible..." Orchid looked at him sadly once more. "There is something deep inside you Crimson. Something that you have always had, and it's never been stronger...." Orchid was clearly talking about Richard, but in the back of his mind, the voice was starting to get louder and louder. Yelling at him to take her life and embrace his destiny. "No....not against you Orchid. I cant....I'm not losing you again" Crim said, turning around to face her. Orchid just shook her head, knowing that she was given a second chance to save her loved ones. "It needs to be this way..."
Circuit looked around as the world descended into madness. Now his friends were fighting each other as reality collapsed in on itself. Why is this happening?! he thought, What the hell IS happening?!?
Orchid and Crim slowly walked towards each other, knowing what must be done, as they suddenly charged with everything they had. Crim with his signature baseball bat, and Orchid herself with a butterfly knife. Both had their range advantages and disadvantages, not to mention their own strengths and weaknesses. Of course, they'd both go down like any other man once firearms were brought in, so their style was focused around Melee and unarmed weapons. And the first blow was anything but brutal...
While Crim and Orchid duked it out, Circuit decided he had to end this... He had to snap Crim out of it. So he ran. He ran as fast as he could towards Crimson, so he could try and talk him down. But before he could say a word, he felt something penetrate his gut, as if he were being hit by a bullet the size of a coconut. He gasped for air and coughed up blood. "No..." As he fell to the ground, he looked up to see the face of his attacker. It was Crim, with his bat covered in blood and guts and his face stricken with a look of horror. "Why..." he asked weakly. This was the last thing he said before losing consciousness...
Crim watched Circuit drop to the ground as he weakly stood back, as Orchid suddenly stopped what she was doing. Crim's wild eyes looked possessed, but soon snapped out of it when he managed to piece Circuit with his bat. "No.....NO!" Crim cried out, just as he could hear Richard cry out in laughter in the back of his head. "You idiot!" Richard cried out, laughing. "Out in your anger, you just killed your best friend...." Crim collapsed onto his knees. "No....I didn't! You hijacked me! It's not my fault!" Meanwhile, Richard smiled with a twisted grin. "It's your fault....and now everyone is going to die. I lied to make you feel important, but now, you are a pitiful excuse for a son..."
Rainbow Dash also stopped what she was doing, and looked over at the broken body of her seemingly deceased lover. This seemed to snap her out of her anger toward Twilight... "No, God..." she said under her breath, "No, God, please, no... No... NO! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" She ran to his broken body. "Circuit, please don't do this! Circuit, answer me!!" she pleaded desperately, shaking his motionless body. "CIRCUIT?!?!? CIIIIRCUUUUUIT!!!!" Richard laughed hellishly in the back of Crim's mind, as Rainbow Dash cried out in despair, "Crim... HOW COULD YOU?!" Richard started to taunt Crim. "I'm starting to think the..." He chuckled during the pause in between words. "...adoption process wasn't even worth it." Horrible visions came to Crim suddenly... ---- A baby could be heard crying as a woman was recovering from the pain of delivery. "I never should have gone to Perth Medical..." she sighed under her breath, "Not even an ounce of epidural..." "He looks so handsome," admired the man next to her, as she held Crimson in her arms. "What shall we name him, honey?" asked the woman. "Hmm... well, his skin is red, so... Crimson, perhaps?" "I like that... Crimson Lionheart it is..." Suddenly, Crim could see a translucent hand reaching into the woman's chest. "OH GOD!!!" she shouted in agony. "MY CHEST!!" The man began to panic. "SOMEONE CALL MY SISTER-IN-LAW!! SHE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN RAISE THIS CHILD NOW!!" "Her name?" asked a nearby doctor. "WINTER RUSH!!" As the doctor called Winter, Crim could now see inside the poor, screaming woman. The hand was about to crush her heart from the inside. Once it did, the heart monitor flatlined, and the woman's body slumped over. "She's dead," noted a nurse. Suddenly, the room went dark, being barely lit. The woman awakened, with a psychotic grin on her face, staring Crim right in the eye. "Remember me, Crimson?" she said in Richard's voice, "When I killed your parents?! I talked... just... LIKE... THIIIIIIIS!!!" ---- The vision had passed as soon as it came.
The flashback proved to be much more traumatic them expected, as Richard had simply released every single repressed memory from Crim's mind. Having witnessed his mother die was traumatic enough, but it didn't stop there, as he was thrown back into the vision. ---------------------- 1996.... A young man stood in the room, having watched the woman of his life suddenly die out of an extreme heart attack. Out of fear, he was backed up against the wall in utter terror as he watched the now motionless heart monitor cease all function, before completely shutting down. The newborn began to scream, crying loudly still connected to his mothers umbilical cord between her legs. The lights in the room also began to flicker, as if a severe lightning storm was taking place outside despite it being a clear night. His eyes shrunk to the size of a pea, sprawled out as his heart and mind were working at a million miles a moment. Outside, a much younger Winter ran into the room. She looked much like she did physically, looking like the talk of every single guy in town, except she looked younger and had much longer hair, having beautiful hair that went down all the way to her butt. She quickly ran into the room, streaming with tears and pushing doctors out of the way to hold onto her dead sister... Crimson could now see everything that was happening, as Richard's ghostly hand was mere inches from crushing the windpipe of the beautiful young woman. --------- All of a sudden, another series of memories flashed. While they went quickly, maybe seconds at a time, they were very vivid and in extreme detail. His life literally flashed before his eyes, and was able to show exactly when Richard interrupted his life. From the death of his father almost two weeks after her mothers death in a car crash, to the time he was bullied in various traumatic experiences throughout his life, especially focusing on his early days during the gang attacks on him. It wasn't all bad, as some of the memories surprisingly shown more positive moments. From the day he met Orchid during their first day at Kindy, to some of the loving and compassionate moments that Winter took care of him, from when he was sick or had a bad day.... --------- 2009... Crimson was crying in the lounge room, burying his head into the pillow after hearing about the "death" of Orchid. His eyes were puffy and red, having not stopped crying for a long time. Winter sat next to her teenage, knowing the heartache that he had been going through. She felt the same when her sister had died. She pulled her son into her arms lovingly and rested his head onto her lap, calming him down by running her fingers through her hair... "It's alright Crimson...." Winter coo'ed, feeling his sobs on her leg. "I'm going to be here for you~" --------- Present-Day..... Rainbow Dash, still in her demonic form looked in utter disbelief as she held onto Circuit's body. Crim was on his knees as the demonic girl suddenly stormed towards him. Twilight crawled slowly back from Rainbow, watching closely at Crimson, as a car arrived as the rest of their friends watched in horror. "LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Rainbow screamed at the top of her lungs at him. "YOU JUST COULDN'T GET ENOUGH, CANT YOU! DO YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT-" Crimson just looked down at the ground while Rainbow continued her monologue. All these emotions that Richard had ever caused him were building up, and he realised who the real enemy was. Rainbow continued her monologue, taunting Crim and poking him hard in the chest with her finger, unsure that he was about to snap. "ITS ALL YOUR FAULT CRIMSON!" Rainbow cried, preparing to strike him. "ITS ALL YOU FAUL-" Rainbow never finished her sentence, as Crimson suddenly snapped in anger. All of a sudden, Rainbow found herself in agony as his metallic bat suddenly swung around with one arm, and smashed the Demonic Dash directly in the jaw, sending her flying with phenomenal strength. Rainbow hit the ground, surprisingly not harmed much, as she felt back to normal. She had the demon literally knocked out of her.... Loud gasps escaped their mouths, as Winter, still dressed in her uniform, tried to run towards her adopted son. She was only restrained by Sunset and Pinkie, as the reality ending world suddenly paused...
A wave of emotion came over Rainbow Dash, as she crawled over to Circuit's body, slowly but steadily, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, the bodies of everyone around Crimson--nay, the bodies of everyone on Earth BUT Crimson--vanished, as if like dust blown in the wind, while the sun glowed brighter and larger in the sky. The temperature rose to a record 124° F, while massive earthquakes began to ravage the planet. Like a black bolt of lightning striking the ground, Richard appeared in corporeal form before Crim's very eyes. "Just you and me left, young man," he said cockily, "Let's dance."
Crimson stood straight up, twirling his bat inbetween his fingers as he looked at Richard. His anger wasn't rage inducing anymore, but was now a serious cold terror as he looked at the bastard demon that caused his life to be like this. "I need to say that I must thank you...had you never done what you did, I would have met my own 'family' in Canterlot." He said before looking at his bat. "I promised that myself when u was younger, that if I ever doubted myself, I would never take a life away...." Crimson pointed his bat at Richard's head, straight towards him. "But I don't have doubts anymore..."
Richard simply smiled deviously. "I'd like to see you try," he said as he grabbed Crim's bat and broke it over his knee. "Especially without that weapon," he added smugly.
Crim just sighed at the loss of his bat, before suddenly kicking Orchid's fallen switchblade from when she vanished, and picked it up and charged him. Richard grabbed his whist while he was attacking, the blade extremely close to his beak, and threw Crim and his weapon across the end of the field. Crim just got up and spat out blood, knowing full well that failure would mean the end of the world....no....the destruction of the entire universe. He tried to charge again, but not before Richard summoned a sadistic looking axe from his boney-looking hands and charged himself. The two were even in blows, before Richard managed to place a hand onto Crim's chest as a light escaped from his hand. Crim's eyes went wide while Richard chuckled. "See you later, son!" He chuckled as the light soon blasted into a shockwave that sent Crim flying long and far, with enough force to kill a man. Yet....Crim survived, if not barely.
