//------------------------------//
// The Beginning of Crimson, Phase Two:『ELECTRIC BOOGALOO』 
// Story: King Crimson's Bizarre Adventure through Horse World: The Crimson-ing 
// by 81298821227777777_ 
//------------------------------//

"There's... no one here."

King Crimson had travelled throughout the strangely quiet town known as Ponyville. Across the streets, through the center of town, past the acres of farmland, behind carts, and in between every house and building, but not a single pony had even peeked their head out to them. The entire town was more or less deserted.

"CRIMSON IS CONFUSED. THERE ARE NO HORSIES HERE."

"Maybe some kind of emergency evacuation? Or some kind of out of town party that invited all of the inhabitants?"

"MAYBE HORSEY IS SCARED OF CRIMSON AND HIDE IN HOME."

"That's also relatively possible, though kind of weird, since everyone seemed to have parted almost immediately. Look, there's horse-drawn carts just sitting in the middle of the street!"

"HMMM..."

Crimson looked around him absent-mindedly, searching for clues as to the disappearance of the inhabitants. He strolled along the road, gaining a more closer look at the buildings he had rushed past before. The structures were somewhat odd, almost whimsical, like a strange dream they couldn't wake up from. As he walked on, he came across strange building that stood out amongst the rest. It was one that look like it was made from candies and sweets, all built around a wooden frame. "Sugarcube Corner," Epitaph read aloud. "Sounds like something from a children's book. This place is really weird..."

"SHOULD WE LOOK FOR HORSEY HERE?"

"Might as well. I'm being to suspect that something's not right here."

King Crimson nodded and entered the building, and the situation only became stranger. The entirety of the interior was blank; flat, featureless walls coated in a brilliant white, the floor and ceiling no different. The windows seen outside were not present within, and the only descript object in the room was a strange light fixture in the ceiling, barely showing where the walls and floor met.

"I knew something was up.  This whole 'town in the middle of nowhere' was too good to be true."

"BUT WHAT ABOUT HORSEY TRACKS?"

"Right, but that's were it all stops making sense. Why would someone be out here in a place that isn't even real?"

"...CRIMSON DOES NOT UNDERSTAND."

"Me neither, pal. You might have been right about there being a Stand user around here, so I guess all we can currently do is keep looking about. Maybe then, we can figure out what's REALLY going on here."

Crimson straightened his posture and saluted. "YES SIR!"

Crimson exited the false structure and continued his search, every building sharing the same interior as every other did: white, blank, and featureless. After about an hour of intense investigation, he stopped in his tracks.

"..."

"What's wrong? Did you figure something out?"

King Crimson turned around suddenly, to where the sun had begun its descent below the horizon. "HORSEY IS WATCHING."

"What?" Epitaph tried to look ahead to where Crimson was, but couldn't see anything. "I don't understand what you mean."

Crimson did not respond, and looked onwards. Without warning, he turned and ran behind some building, but suddenly swooped back around, hiding out of sight from where they were. "What was that? Are you losing it?" Epitaph questioned.

"LOOK."

In the remaining sunlight, a light gray unicorn poked her head out from the shadows of the buildings, glanced around, and then followed the path Crimson had taken.

"Wh-" Epitaph was halted by Crimson's finger shushing him. "SHHHHH... HORSEY IS FOLLOWING CRIMSON IN SECRET."

"What? It can see us?"

Crimson continued around the house he was hiding behind, and came up behind the lone mare, looking quite puzzled as to where he had gone. Her mane was only a slightly darker shade of gray, and her purple eyes almost glowed in the growing darkness. Crimson continued to sneak up on the confused mare, and when he got right behind her, he whispered haunting words.

"HELLO I AM CRIMSON," he screamed right into her ear, causing her to yelp, jump, and fall over.

"Real smooth, buddy," Epitaph commented.

Without a moment's hesitation, a large, blue, crab-like hand lashed out at King Crimson, prompting him to smack it away with ease.

The mare got back up on her hooves and grinned. "You... Crimson, was it? You're probably very confused right now, or have been for the few days you've been here, right?"

Epitaph spoke up. "Understatement of the century-" Before he could finished, another hand appeared and hit him dead in the face, of course knocking them both back.

Her smile faded. "I wasn't talking to you, 'Small Face'."

Crimson looked around, puzzled, and then looked back and pointed at himself. "ME?"

"Yes. You." The mare cleared her throat. "You see, I'm the one who summoned you into this world. It was an experiment to unleash new and powerful magic from another world into mine, to be used at my disposal. I suppose you could say it worked," she stated, while looking up and down at King Crimson. "Safe to say, it worked," she continued, as a crab-like humanoid rose from behind her, it's yellow eyes glowing in the dark.

"A Stand is the bounty that I, Pride, had gained on my own!" she boasted loudly. "But, sadly, there was a side effect when casting the spell, and while studying it was fun, it must be disposed of."

"SIDE EFFECT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

"Crimson, watch out, she's going to-!"

Just as its crabby fist had swung, King Crimson was already thinking one step ahead. Crimson shifted aside, watching Pride's stand swung at were he would've been. Time erasure had taken effect.

"S-Shit... I thought you were going to fall for that."

"NO. CRIMSON IS NOT STUPID."

As he stepped behind her, time resumed. Pride was suddenly stunned at the sudden jump she made forward. "What? What happened?"

"YOU CANNOT HIT CRIMSON," he answered sternly. "I WILL KNOW WHEN YOU SWING."

Pride grew angry. "I should've know this would be difficult. My Stand's abilities will not be powerful enough to rid of you alone. And I thought I would've been able to destroy you myself." She smiled, then turned tail and ran, "Don't think you can beat me and my Stand, Electric Boogaloo, just yet! I'll be back for you, just as soon as I can recruit more users! So long!"

"After her! Don't let her get away Crimson!"

As she disappeared behind some buildings, however, the false structures around them began to crumble and melt away. "Crap, I should've seen that coming! Crimson, use your ability again!"

As he was about to, the ground to rumble and shake, and a large tree sprouted directly in front of him. All around, trees began sprouting left and right, all while the structures disintegrated. "There's no catching up to her now. Shit... let's get out of here!"

"ON IT," Crimson stated, as he immediately spun around and ran back to the path they had came from. After reaching the edge of the forest, the ground had suddenly stopped shaking. When King Crimson turned around, all that was left behind them was the dirt path they had followed, leading deeper and deeper in the forest.

"What kind of Stand ability was that?! The whole place just came down! Or... was it the forest all along? Man, that was weird!"

"SO... WAS CRIMSON SIDE EFFECT THAT HORSEY SPOKE ABOUT?"

"What? Oh yeah, that... Hell, I don't know. Maybe. It's the only thing that would explain how we ended up here."

Crimson sniffled again. "I MISS DIAVOLO."

"Will you forget about him!? He's not important anymore! What's important is following that 'Pride' pony, or whatever she said! If she's the one who got us into the mess, then she's probably the way out."

Crimson remained silent. Several thoughts were swirling around in his head, shooting off multiple conflicting emotions.

"Come on, Crimson. If we want to catch up to her, we have to go now!"

"...OKAY. CRIMSON WILL LISTEN TO SMALL FACE."

"Stop calling me that," Epitaph responded as Crimson proceed down the narrow, dirt trail.