Damon:
"Hey Damon! Are you excited for our trip?"
"Sure am!" I said with a beaming smile.
I was riding in the backseat of the car with my brother, staring out the window as the plains flew by us. There was nothing in any direction for miles around. My brother had made plans to take me on a camping trip at the start of summer vacation to spend some time with me. Since he didn't have a car however, he asked his friend Marcus if he could drive us to the camp site. My brother almost decided not to go today because it had started raining an hour earlier but reasoned that it should stop soon.
The real reason that my brother wanted to go on this trip was to keep me away from home as much as possible. Since I had no school during the day I had to be home all day with our father who was out of a job and my brother knew what happened when I was with our father. This was the reason that my brother moved out when I was 6 years old. So he could find a job and a place to live so he could one day take care of me.
"Hey Damon. Damon!" My brother was snapping his fingers in front of my face.
"Huh? What?"
"You were kinda zoned out there little man"
"Sorry I was just thinking"
"What were you thinking about?"
"Ummmm...you know.....this and that"
My brother smiled gently "Cmon little man. Don't think of that. In just a few more months I'll turn 18 and can get you outta that place"
I gasped "Really!? You'll take care of me?" I was overjoyed at the mere prospect of getting out of that house. But the possibility of that, coupled with the possibility of my brother taking care of me left me feeling ecstatic.
"Yeah little man. I'll take you somewhere nice to live"
"Hate to break up this touching moment, but I could use an extra pair of eyes on the road here. I can barely see to drive." Marcus said with worry evident in his voice.
We drove like that for another hour and with each passing minute the weather grew fouler.
"Ryan I'm gonna pull over for now. I can hardly see at all and this lightning is getting really close to us" Marcus informed my brother as he stopped on the side of the road.
Ryan sighed. "Yeah okay. Lets just wait a li--" He furrowed his brow.
"What's wrong dude?" Marcus asked.
".....I don't know.....It...kinda looks like somethings coming this way but..." He squints his eyes "It looks like a truck but it can't be. This side of the highway is one waGET OUTTA THE CAR!"
An 18 wheeler was bearing down on us at a breakneck speed. The driver must have seen us because he started frantically honking his horn and slammed on his brakes. The truck was slowing down but because the roads were soaked, it's tires couldn't get a grip on it. The driver struggled to maintain control of the truck, but it began to slide sideways.
It was at this point that we were finally able to see what the semi's payload way. It was a tanker truck with a large stencil on the side saying FLAMMABLE.
I was frozen in terror and barely even registered the fact that Marcus was pulling me out of the backseat. Ryan was struggling with his seat belt as the tanker drew closer.
Marcus moved to help Ryan and as he opened the door the tanker finally flipped onto its side. There must have been something on the road because the tank on the truck ripped open and started spewing a black substance all over the road and the car.
The tanker slid by the car, thankfully not crushing it, but the cab did impact it and knock it off the shoulder of the road. Marcus had tried to dodge the vehicle and almost made it, but got clipped at the last moment by it. The car began to roll down the incline on the side of the road and came to a rest at the bottom on its side.
I ran over to where the car was, terrified for my brother who was still trapped inside the car. I didn't register it at the time but Marcus, who had been right beside the car when it got hit, was lying on the ground with a few broken ribs and a broken leg.
I ran to the front of the car and looked through the cracked windshield at my brother. His leg was being crushed by the passenger door which, incidentally, was where the truck had hit the car. Ryan was struggling to get his legs unpinned but to no avail. The black sludge was coming down the incline and I heard a whooshing sound behind me then felt the temperature spike. There was a line of flames coming down to the car.
I started to pound on the windshield "Ryan! Get out of there! There's a fire! Cmon get out!" The fire was close enough now that Ryan could see the light from it.
"Get back Damon! Get back!"
I obeyed my brother and scrambled backwards as the flames reached the car. The car was quickly engulfed in flames and began to consume it. Then, the screaming started.
My brother was being burned alive. It sounded as if a banshee was trapped in the car instead of my brother as the conflagration completely burned away his legs and pelvis. His chest and face caught fire and he began pounding away at the windshield, leaving bloody hand prints as his skin bubbled, popped, and bled, screaming the entire time. His hair began to burn away and cook his brains while his eyeballs melted and ran down his face like a river of tears. Even after his eyes were gone he kept pounding on the windshield and kept, screaming.
I just sat there in abject horror, being unable to tear my eyes away from the burning car as my brother screams died out. The area was completely silent except for the soft sound of the rain, and the crackling sound of the fire that slowly ate away at my brothers flesh.
I sat there, slowly rocking back and forth while my brothers now empty eye sockets stared at me, accusingly. Why? Why did you have to go on this camping trip Damon? Why did you have to have Marcus pull you out of the car? Why couldn't you stand up to our father? Why did I have to die?
"It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault" I kept repeating this over and over again as I continued to stare into my brothers eye sockets. What happened next, however, was even more terrifying than the screams.
I watched as my brothers charred skeleton began to move and its eyes glowed a hellish red. It broke through the windshield and began crawling towards me, its legs having been burned and crushed beyond use. As it got closer I started rapidly backing away until I tripped over a rock. The skeleton caught up to me and grabbed my wrists in its bony grasp.
"Your fault! This is your fault! I'm dead and it's YOUR. FAULT!
"No, no, no, no, no! It wasn't my fault!" Tears were streaming down my face "I tried to get out of the car on my own but I couldn't! I was too scared!"
Your fault! You will suffer as I have! It screamed at me before it opened its maw and began bathing me in fire.
I screamed as I felt my blood boil and cook me from the inside out. My hair burned away as my brains cooked and my eyes melted away. My flesh became ash like and just blew away.
'Damon? Damon! Damon what's wrong!?'
I heard something in my mind but it was drowned out by my screaming.
Wake up Damon! Wake up!
I felt something hit me across the face and the my surroundings began to blur and disappear. I was surrounded by blackness and the accusing eyes of my brother.
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"AHHHHHHHHHHH! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!" I woke up screaming, sweating, and falling off whatever I was laying on to roll on the ground in an attempt to put out the flames that I was certain covered my body.
"Damon calm down!" A voice said before a feeling of weightlessness came over me.
My eyes snapped open and I was afflicted with tunnel vision. I could hear my pulse pounding in my head and my heart was actually hurting from how fast it was beating. In a burst of clarity it occurred to me that having my pulse that high after a heart transplant, even if it was a big improvement from my old heart, was not good. I quickly realized that I was not on fire and I was in the same cave as before.
I grabbed my chest as my heart rate and breathing slowly settled back to normal. As memories long buried began to surface in my mind, I started shaking and began rocking back and forth as tears threatened to escape. I felt something soft pull me into a tight embrace and speak to me in a kind voice.
"Shhhhhhhhh. Shhhhhhh. Shhhhh. It's okay. It's all okay. It was just a dream"
After several minutes of this, I felt calm enough to stop rocking and looked up at who was comforting me.
"Luna!" I scrambled out of her embrace and backed up against the wall. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a way out but unfortunately, the only exit was being blocked by Luna.
"What ever is the matter Damon?"
"You're trying to arrest me!"
Luna stared at me blankly before she smiled sheepishly and blushed slightly with embarrassment "Ah. Yes. That. Well....you see......I was just trying to keep you from attempting to use magic, or connect your mind to your soul. People with the capacity to use magic, but without the connection to their souls, that attempt to use it have always ended up either mad and causing wanton destruction, or simply dead. Even worse are the people that connect their minds to their soul so they could use magic safely. Almost everyone that has attempted that has had their mind burned out by the pain. I could sense that you had a great deal of power and if you attempted to use magic then it could have ended with negative results for Equestria"
I gave Luna my best what the fuck face that I could before speaking "So....you mean to tell me......that instead of calmly explaining the reasons behind you wanting me apprehended....you instead chose to have the guards attack me....to arrest me? What the actual fuck Luna. Aren't you supposed to be like a few million years old and super wise or something?"
She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof "Well you see, four years ago I was released from my thousand year imprisonment on the moon and when I was reintroduced to society in Equestria I was somewhat behind the times. While my mannerisms and speech have been mostly fixed since then, in extreme situation I tend to revert to my more....archaic ways. A thousand years ago we took more far direct approaches to possible threats to the kingdom and it was not uncommon for brute force to be the primary method used. I do apologize for this whole ordeal, although it has not come without its own benefits has it not?"
I pinched the bridge of my nose "What you did was exceedingly stupid Luna. In fact it's almost as stupid as something I would do and I jumped out a window. Without knowing how to fly. And, although I am reluctant to admit it, you are correct. This ordeal has had some benefits"
Luna clapped her hooves together "Wonderful! Now with that issue resolved we need to talk about some of the things that happened to you"
"Yeah about that. What exactly DID happen? I remember somehow crushing the manticore into a ball, then ending up wherever here is, but after that I only remember vague shapes and colors"
"After you crushed the manticore, you ran to this mountain where you met a dragon named Aeternium who used magic to force your mind into unconsciousness. Your heart and head would have been raging with emotion after your soul and mind connecting, not to mention the rage, hate, and bloodlust that you would have been feeling from having been in the Blood form"
"Aeterium knew this because he was around during the rise and fall of shadow magic and when the Blood form was first made know to Equestria. He forced you into unconsciousness so your mind could piece itself back together and the Blood form could wear off. It was moments after he did this that we arrived and have been waiting for you to wake up for the past five hours. An hour ago you started whimpering, then thrashing and screaming 'it's not my fault'.
A chill went down my spine "Yeah. That"
"Damon. What exactly were you dreaming about?"
"Something I thought I had locked away long, long ago..." I quietly said.
Luna gave me an analyzing stare before continuing "Let us forget of this subject and talk about the most noticeable of your changes"
I frowned in worry "What kind of changes?"
"Well your wings for instance. Among other things they turned solid after you fell unconscious"
My face lightened "Really?" I spread my wings out, still felt weird being able to control them like that, and sure enough, they were flesh, bone, and feather. They were still the same deep black they been before but now they had a border of dark crimson red along the leading edge of the wing"
"The color looks a bit different. What's with the red here?"
"That is a side effect of the Blood form. Anyone with wings that has achieved it has always had that band of red across the front edge of their feathers" Luna leaned in to look more closely at my wings "Although none have had it quite as.....dark as you do"
I cocked my head quizzically "Luna, just how exactly do you know so much about this 'Blood form'?"
She pondered the question for a moment before answering "Well to answer your question I suppose I should start at the very beginning with how my sister and I obtained the Elements of Harmony..."