//------------------------------// // Chapter IX: Tears in the Rain // Story: The Ranger's Journey // by Silentpegasus //------------------------------// Chapter IX Tears in the Rain Crimson made his rounds through the small town with his head held low. Rainbow Dash who was resting on a tree branch. She spied the red haired man, she gathered her courage and flew down to him. “Hey Red.” She said as she landed next to him. Crimson didn’t even bother to look at the flyer as he walked by her. Dash blinked twice and flew next to him again. “Look, I know that you’re probably mad at me for what I said yesterday.” She said as she scratched her head. “I’m sorry, I was out of line when I said that.” Crimson picked his head up and looked at the flyer. “Oh hey Dash, when did you get here?” Dash’s right eye twitched and was about to unload on him when she looked closer at his eyes. The calm and collected glare she had come to know was replaced of one that was hollow and almost sad. “N-nothing. I’ll catch you later Red.” She said before taking off. Crimson shrugged it off and continued to make his rounds around the small town. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight sat at her desk in her library with a book in hand. The door then opened to reveal the pretty seamstress with a smile on her face. “Good morning Twilight.” She said with a smile. “Hey Rarity, what’s up?” “Nothing much. I just came by to have a friendly chat.” She said with a coy smile. “About?” Twilight asked as she put the book down and looked at her friend. “Rainbow mentioned what she walked in on yesterday.” She said with a small giggle. Twilight blushed and grunted. “It was a fluke! I accidentally tripped and fell on him.” Twilight grunted. “I know that.” She said as she rolled her eyes. “I know full well that Rainbow jumps to conclusions,” She with a smile. “but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re infatuated with our red guest.” “I don’t know.” Twilight said as she hung her head. “I’ll say that he’s caught my attention, but for all I know he’s dating Ivy.” She said with a sigh. “I mean come on you saw her, she’s gorgeous. Why would he go for someone like me when-” “Now that is quite enough of that!” Rarity said as she got up from her seat. “I will admit that Ivy is rather attractive from the male perspective, but I refuse to let one of my best friends talk about herself in such a manner.” The designer then grabbed her friend by the arm and started to pull the scholar by the arm. “Rarity?” Twilight said as she was pulled towards the door. “What are you doing?” “We’re going to go clear this up right now.” She said as she pulled her friend towards the clock tower. As the two reached the front door Rainbow Dash landed beside them. “Hey guys, what are you two doing here?” “We’re just here to clear up a few things concerning Ivy and Crimson.” Rarity answered. Rainbow smirked and looked at Twilight. “Seeing if Red’s available eh?” Twilight grunted and was about to protest when she saw the apple farmer, pastry chef and the yellow winged veterinarian making their way towards them. Twilight then noticed that Pinkie’s hair was straight and tinted darker than usual. “You okay Pinkie?” “Yeah, I think so.” “You sure? You seem kinda down.” “Yeah, for some reason I feel really sad.” She said as she hung her head. “I was fine until I saw Crimson.” The group picked their heads up at this. “Did he pick on you?” Fluttershy asked. “No, I said hi, but he didn’t even gesture back. Now I feel weird.” She said in confusion. “Ah saw him earlier today and he didn’t seem like himself.” The farmer said with a shrug. “Yeah, even when I tried to apologize to him, it was like he didn’t even see me or something.” The group looked at one another in shock. “Regardless, Ivy may have a sense of what’s going on.” Rarity said as she knocked on the door. The group waited a few minutes until the door opened to reveal the green haired flyer. Ivy rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn. “Hey guys, what’s up?” She asked. “Mind if we come inside?” They green mage nodded and held the door open for the group. The girls all sat down at the table and looked at the flyer. “So what’s up?” Rarity then took the floor. “We were just wondering if you and Crimson were together?” “Yeah.” Twilight felt her heart being crushed. “I mean, we’ve been together since our team was formed.” “No, I mean together as a couple.” Ivy’s right eyelid twitched. The flyer chuckled before falling out of her seat in a fit of laughter. “Oh my ribs!” She yelled as she continued to roll on the floor in a fit of laughter. After taking a few deep breaths and wiping the tears of laughter that had formed in her eyes, Ivy got back in her seat. “No, we’re not like that.” She said with a smile. “Crimson is more like my brother than anything else.” Twilight let out a small sigh of relief. “Why?” She asked as she smirked. “One of you have the hots for him?” “Well,-” “It’s Twilight.” Dash said as she pointed to the scholar. Twilight snapped her fingers and changed the cyan flyer’s hair snow white. “Gah!” “Dash, keep your mouth shut or it’ll be the wings next.” Twilight said as she glared at the flyer. She snapped her fingers and Dash’s hair returned to it’s normal seven colored spectrum. “I figured as much.” Ivy said with a grin. “It was written all over your face last night at the party.” The scholar blushed and held her head low. “Is that all you wanted to talk about?” The flyer asked. “No, there’s something else.” Dash said. “Crimson is acting weird and we were wondering if you knew why.” Ivy cocked an eyebrow at the words. “Define weird.” “Well, I tried to apologize to him today and-” “Apologize?” “Yeah, he told us about the demon attack yesterday and I said that it wasn’t a big deal and-” Was all the flyer got out before Ivy rammed the cyan winged girl up against the wall with her forearm to her throat. “You said what?” Dash gulped as she stared into the once cool green eyes that were now filled with rage. Ivy clenched her right hand into a fist and started to glow with bright green magic. “Start talking. Now!” She yelled as she clenched her fist harder, making her knuckles crack. “Okay, I said that it wasn’t a big deal.” Ivy pulled her arm back and was getting ready to punch the girl’s face in. “Then I heard that his folks died in the attack and I felt really, really bad about it so I went to apologize to him today.” Ivy slammed her fist just beside the flyer’s head. The woman gulped and saw a large hole in the stonework that was the size of a large watermelon. “You have the worst timing ever, of all time for apologies Dash.” She said as she let the girl go and walked back over to the table where the other girls looked at her in shock. “Don’t you people know what today is?” “Tuesday?” Pinkie said with a gulp. “It’s the sixteenth anniversary of the demon attack.” She said in a flat tone. The group all gulped at the words. “So today is-” “Yeah, it’s the day his parents died.” She said in a low tone. “Along with several others, including my dad.” The group fell silent. “Ivy, we didn’t-” “It’s fine.” She said as she put up a hand. “It’s not an uncommon back round amongst Academy members.” “Huh?” Dash asked as she rejoined the group. “Most of the Academy members are orphans.” She said in a calm tone. The group of girls fell silent at her words. “R-really?” Fluttershy said with a gulp. Ivy gave her a nod. “Even though the incident was so long ago we all feel it. Crimson feels it more than anyone.” She said as she hung her head. “He blames himself for his parent’s death.” “Why?” Twilight asked. “They died protecting him.” She said with a sigh. “He’s always blamed himself and feels responsible.” "So why is Pinkie sad?" AJ asked as she looked at her friend. Ivy glared at the pastry chef and perked up. "Pinkie has sensor type aura." She said in surprise. "Sensor type?" Pinkie asked as she cocked her head. "Have you ever known when someone was watching you without looking at them or sense that something was about to-" "Oh, you mean my Pinkie sense!" "Call it whatever you want, but your aura let's you know when certain things are about to happen." Ivy said as she sat back. "People with sensor aura are extremely affected by emotions. Not just your own, but other people's as well." The girls nodded. "Since you spoke to Crimson today, some of his sadness must have rubbed off on you." The girls all let out a collective 'oh' sound. "So Crimson is giving off sad emotions like a light house and Pinkie can sense them?" Dash asked. "In a practacle sense, yes." Ivy said with a shrug. "He always get's like this around this time." “What exactly happened?” Twilight asked as she held back tears. Ivy let out a sigh and walked over to the stove. “Might as well put some tea on. This is gonna take a while.” She said with a sigh. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crimson made his way to the edge of town and into the dark forest. After following the pathway, he stumbled upon a clearing with a crystal blue pond in the center. He sat down on a nearby rock and hung his head. He heard a low growl coming from his right. He looked to see a manticore glaring at him with murder in it’s eyes. “Piss off, I’m not in the mood.” He said as he looked at the pool. The manticore roared and charged at the man. As it leapt to land a blow at the man. It then felt something large and sharp in it’s mouth. It looked to see the man holding a large scythe with the blade end pointing towards the beast’s mouth. Crimson focused his magic and let loose a large blast from the end of the weapon. The beast was sent flying back against a nearby tree and groaned in pain. The manticore looked at the man again and saw that he had an ominous energy around him. “I said, scram.” The beast grunted and limped away from the man as he laid his weapon beside him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ivy poured them each a cup and let out a sigh. The group was silent and a layer of tension filled the room. “Okay, I might as well start at the beginning.” Ivy said as she put her cup down. “Crimson’s parents were members of the Academy. Strong as hell. They were on the same team as the current Headmaster, Crow Blackbird.” “I’ve heard of him.” Twilight said. “He’s one of the council of nine right?” “Council of nine?” Rarity asked. “Okay, there's a group of mages that keep all of the magic users in check and make sure that they’re following the rules of magic.” Ivy explained. “Our Headmaster Crow, has the seventh seat out of the nine. The higher the rank, the stronger the mage.” “So he’s pretty strong?” Dash said. “I heard that he managed to go toe to toe with Celestia once.” Twilight gulped. “That was a long time ago though.” “So what happens if someone isn’t following the rules?” Applejack asked. “Every one of the nine is in charge of a school. They would send students out to deal with the threat.” The girls looked at her in surprise. “It’s what we train for, to protect Equestria.” “So like the royal guard?” Pinkie asked. “No, we operate on our own and the nine aren’t under Celestia’s orders either. We’re an independent force, which is why we take on missions. To get funding for the school.” “Why don’t you work for Celestia?” Twilight asked. “Mostly due to the fact that she’s our biggest threat.” She said in a calm tone as she sipped her tea. The girls all looked at one another in shock. “You can’t deny that Celestia is powerful.” “Well yeah, but she’d never-” “That’s what they said about Princess Luna and look what happened a thousand years ago.” She said as she glared at the girls. “Celestia was afraid of what would happen if she ever lost control like that, so she allows the Council to do as they wish. We’re the 'ace in the hole' in case she goes nuts.” She said with a sigh. “We’re getting off topic, back to Crimson. Where was I?” She asked a she scratched her chin “You were about to tell us about his mom.” Twilight said with a sigh. “Right, his mom was a Professor of Demonology.” “Demonology?” Dash asked. “She’s skilled when it comes to fighting and sealing away demons.” “Sealing them?” Applejack asked. “Demons are immortal. You can’t kill something that’s already dead.” She said with a sigh. “You can only imprison them.” She said as she sipped her tea. “That’s what she did, with Crow’s help.” “So where did they seal it?” Dash asked. Ivy gulped at the question. “Sorry girls, it’s classified. We can’t have everyone knowing where one of the most dangerous monsters are.” “Why?” “Because then we’d be constantly getting attacked from people trying to steal it and possibly destroy Equestria.” She said with a sigh. “You said ‘one of the most.’” Twilight said. “Are there more?” “Yeah, there’s a few.” She said with a shrug. “What would you use to seal them?” “Coffins, tea pots, crystals, anything with an enchantment.” “What about people?” Dash asked. Ivy glared at the flyer. “We’re done talking.” She said in a flat tone. Ivy got up and walked towards the door. “Why?” Dash protested. “Drop it before I rip your wings off and ram them where the sun doesn’t shine.” She said as she glared at the flyer. Dash gulped and shut her mouth. The group all got up and made their way back towards their homes. It was pouring rain outside and lightning cracked in the sky. Twilight snapped her fingers and a forcefield of purple magic covered her body. As she made her way towards the library she saw a red hooded figure walking towards her. Crimson was soaked from head to toe and kept his head held low. “Crimson?” Twilight asked with a gulp. The man paid her no mind. Twilight then stepped in front of the man’s path. A flash of lightning struck in the distance illuminating the two. Twilight could see through his dark hood and saw the tears almost fully concealed by the rain. The man grunted and side stepped her only to be caught by her arms. The woman held him tightly and cried into his already soaking wet cloak. “Ivy, she told us about your parents.” The man narrowed his eyes. “I’m so sorry.” “Not your fault.” “Not yours either.” She answered back. “That’s debatable.” He said in a low tone. “It’s not! It was a freak accident and-” Crimson glared at her as he broke the hug. His gaze was like two spikes sticking into her. “What makes you think you know anything about it huh?” He bellowed. “You don’t know what it’s like to lose something that special to you!” Twilight gulped. “If they hadn’t brought me along...If I hadn’t begged them to take me with them...Things would have turned out differently.” He said as he held his head in shame. “Crimson I-” “Just don’t.” He said as he held up a hand. “I don’t want your pity.” The man said as he walked past her. Twilight stood frozen, facing away from the man. When she turned around to try to stop him, all she saw was the pouring rain. She held her arms as her own tears mixed with the rain. The scholar slowly made her way back to the library with her head held low. Crimson stormed into his temporary home to see Ivy lighting a fire in the fireplace with her magic. Crimson glared at her as she made eye contact. Ivy gulped at the dirty look. “Look Crimson, they just wanted to know and-” “Did you tell them about ‘it?’” He asked in an emotionless tone. “No, I didn’t.” She said as she hung her head. “Good.” He said as he walked past her. Ivy stood up and glared at him. “Crimson!” She bellowed. “That attitude may work on everyone else,” She said with tears forming in her eyes. “but don’t think for a second that it’ll work on me.” She said as she glared at the man. “The only reason I told them was because they were worried about you.” “Why? It’s none of their concern.” He said in a flat tone. “They’re your friends, or at least want to be.” She argued. “Something like me doesn’t-” Was all he got out before the woman slammed him across the face. “Finish that sentence and I’ll put you through the wall.” She said in an uneasy tone. “You’ve been through a lot. That goes without saying, but that doesn’t give you the right to talk about yourself like you’re some sort of monster!” “The thing in me begs to differ.” His eyes were devoid of all emotion and his tone was like ice. What I did-” “It wasn’t you.” She argued. “That thing just got loose and-” “Who’s fault is that?” Ivy tried to answer, but found no argument. “That’s what I thought.” He said before side stepping the girl and making his way up to his room. Ivy pulled at her hair in frustration. She looked at the fire and threw a bright green fire ball into it put of frustration. Crimson walked over to his bed and pulled out the gem from before. He ran his magic through it. A small image of Crow appeared on the gem. “Ah Crimson, how are you doing?” “I’ve found an odd power flux coming from the nearby forest.” He said in a flat tone. “Power flux?” “Yes, I think that it’s what’s causing the animal disturbances for the town.” “Interesting.” The image said as it folded it’s hands. “I’ll send Cobalt and Rouge to your-” “Unnecessary. I’ll take care of this.” He said in a flat tone. Crow frowned and glared at the man. “Crimson, you are not, I repeat, are not to move in until-” “Sorry sir, you’re breaking up.” “Crimson! If you-” The connection ended as Crimson cut off the magical flow and put the gem back in his coat pocket. Ivy sat down stairs tending the fire when she felt her own gem glow and whistle. She pulled it out and looked to see the small image of the man. “Ivy, we have a problem.” “What’s up?” “I just talked with Crimson and he says that he found an odd power reading coming from the forest. He mention it to you?” “No.” She said in a low tone. “How bad is it?” “Worse than ever.” She said with a sigh. “He’s still blaming himself, no matter what I say it’s not reaching him.” Crow held his head low. “Ever since he found out about what happened, he hasn’t been the same.” He said as he waved his hands. Ivy looked to her left to see an old box appear beside her. “If worse comes to worse, then use this on him.” Ivy opened the box and her eyes shrank. “You can’t be serious!” “Wish I weren’t.” He said in a low tone. “Good luck and I hope that you don’t have to use it.” He said with a sigh. “Keep a close eye on him.” “Will do sir.” She said as the connection was terminated. Ivy sighed and looked at the box. She gulped and hid the item away before lying down on the couch to sleep.