Chapter 5:
The Beast Within Part 2
Crimson groaned, his hooves were still sore from the burns he had received during the attack earlier that day. His ears twitched as the sound of distant thunder shot through the sky. He could hear crickets surrounding them in the forest, they were singing their usual tune to the nightly sky above. Another shot of thunder could be heard, still distant but louder than before. Moonlight circled their camp site, combining with the warm crackling fire beside him causing shadows to dance along the ground. A light wind flew through the air causing leaves to whisper to each other in the dark. A slight chill went through his body as the wind blew by, but he was quickly warmed by the fire.
A slight cough caused caused Crimson to jolt his head towards the sound. Sitting alone under a tree was the filly that they had protected from the timberwolves. Crimson slowly stood up, ignoring the pain shooting through his front hooves. Somehow something seemed off about her. As Crimson drew closer to the filly and heard a quiet sniffle, causing him to realize that she was crying.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Crimson asked the filly "I uh, I heard you over here crying and just wanted to see if you were okay"
"Huh? *sniff* Oh yea I'm *sniff* I'm f-fine" replied the filly. "I-it was just a dream, nothing more than a nightmare"
"Oh, well I'm sure it is over now. Usually when you have a nightmare you only have it once, after that night it never comes back" said Crimson.
"R- *sniff* really?" asked the filly.
"Really" said Crimson with a warm smile. "Hey, we never really got to introduce ourselves earlier. I'm Crimson Sky, what's your name?"
"My n-name is Roxanne st-Starlight" she said, she closed her eyes let out a loud sob and cried harder.
"What's wrong? You okay?" Crimson asked, his smile fading from his face.
"This is all my fault, you and your friends almost died because I was so stupid to run into this dumb forest alone. I just wanted to go on an adventure exploring this place" cried Roxanne.
"Hey hey hey stop it, don't talk like that. None of this is your fault okay, it was an accident got that" replied Crimson. "Besides I dunno about my friends but I would gladly have given my life to save a beautiful mare like yourself"
Roxanne blushed, her face growing a bright shade of red as she quickly dropped her gaze to the ground.
"Besides even if I did die I wouldn't have anypony waiting for me at home" Crimson said.
"What? Don't you have parents that care about you?" Roxanne asked looking over at Crimson.
"I-They're, well the police pony told me they were sleeping a-and they can uh they can never wake up again" Crimson said, his eyes slowly filling with tears.
"Oh, oh my gosh I'm so sorry I didn't know" gasped Roxanne.
"It's fine, I'm just surprised that you didn't know. I mean, everypony around here knows they were killed. They all look at at me funny and they always keep their distance like they think I'm going to try and hurt them, it's like they think I'm crazy. The two guys you saw back there, they were the only friends I ever had in school. They were the only ones that didn't treat me like I was a monster" said Crimson.
"Why would anypony treat you like a monster? If they knew what happened why do this to you?" Roxanne asked.
"Because the moment my parents were killed I changed. I never slept I hardly ate anything, I never stopped researching for any creature that might have been the one that killed them. I threw away my foalhood looking for the damn thing. I was hungry Roxanne, I was hungry for revenge. I felt as if a beast had woken up inside of me. I don't blame the others for avoiding me, they were scared and they had every reason to be. None of that matters though, not right now. Nopony believes me, they say that I was just seeing things. That my parents were mugged, can you believe that? Mugged" said Crimson.
Crimson opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He lowered his gaze and looked into the forest. It had been a long time since he re-lived this memory. Is saddened him, angered him, made him want to huddle into a ball and cry, but he couldn't not here, not now.
"It happened six years ago on January 19th, t-two days before my birthday. We were on a trip to visit my grandparents in Manehatten" Crimson sobbed, tears beginning drip from his eyes. "We decided to do a little sightseeing first since we had never really been to the cities much, so we basically took a tour of the entire city. We looked around shops, museums, theaters, we even looked at a few homes that were for sale. By the time we were finished the sun was beginning to set, the streets were pretty much empty. We started to head to my grandparent's house when *sob* when a tall s-shadow came from the alley. I couldn't make out what it was, it all just happened so fast. All I could do was watch as my parents were beaten like they were some kind of animal. They were torn to shreds, my mom's eyes were clawed out. It ripped off one of my dad's hooves, and tore off his cutie mark. I can still hear their screams of pain ringing trough my ears. I can never forget what happened to them, how they died and how I just stood there and watched my parents being slaughtered. Every single night I dream about what happened that night. No matter how much I want to, I can't scream, I can't call out for help. I can only stand and watch, just as I did the night they died. Roxanne a-am I going crazy?"
"No, no you aren't going crazy. You just saw something horrible" replied Roxanne.
Tears were beginning to fall from Roxanne's eyes as she reached over and hugged Crimson, who was staring at the ground. Tears beginning to build up in his eyes.
Crimson slammed his hoof down onto the ground beside him in extreme frustration. Memories of him and his parents began to flood his mind. His fifth Hearths Warming
"Why did it have to take my parents away? Why couldn't I do anything to help them? Why did I just sit there like a stupid coward? I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. I should have done something to help you, but I couldn't move. I was just so scared. I didn't know what to do" cried Crimson. He felt a deep pit in his stomach, a pit full of pain, sadness, anger, hatred, and an extreme lust for revenge.
"Remember what you told me earlier Crimson? There was nothing you could have done to stop this, don't blame yourself." said Roxanne
Crimson looked up into the starry skies above. "No" Crimson said as he turned to face Roxanne. "But I can do everything in my power to avenge it".
___ ___ ___
Crimson groaned, and slowly opened his eyes. He was back in his room in Canterlot, Celestia's sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon. Bright yellow colors mixed with the shadows of the night, soon the streets of Canterlot would be crowded with local ponies, and travelers. Two nights had passed since Princess Luna had visited him, telling him to decide who he was. Every time he tried to think about any of the flashbacks he ended up with a headache that made him feel like his head was about to explode. Whoever was doing this to him must have either really hated him for something, or had some extremely fucked up fetish. That doesn't matter though, not right now at least. Princess Luna had asked him to do his best to remember the memories, even if it made his hurt like hell.
"Try your best to remember what you see every night in those memories Crimson, I can not watch only you and leave everypony else in Equestria stuck in their worst nightmares. Report to me whenever you feel ready to begin, but you must hurry Crimson. Time is of the essence, the longer we wait the more time the enemy has to become stronger" said the voice of Luna from last they met.
Three loud knocks on the door startled Crimson from his thoughts. Spike burst into the room out of breath, which immediately told Crimson that something was wrong.
"Everypony needs to gather in the throne room, the princess said it's urgent!" gasped Spike.
"Woah slow down there tiger, take a breath. Okay now what's going on?" Crimson asked.
"I don't know, Twilight just told me to get everypony into the throne room and to do it quickly" the dragon replied.
Crimson sighed, he hadn't even been awake for five minutes and he was already receiving a quest to the throne room. Slowly he got out of bed and walked over to a teal colored mirror on the far left corner of the room. Looking at himself through the mirror he noticed that his eyes had become a brighter color than before, not to mention that he had several scratches on his right leg that he did not have before last night. Eventually he just decided that he must have been moving around a lot last night and accidentally scraped his leg across the table beside his bed. Crimson quickly made his way out of the room and towards the throne room. Birds could be heard singing outside the castle, alongside dogs barking playfully at their neighbors. Bees were buzzing around flowers collecting pollen for their honey, wind gently brushed through nearby trees and grass. Crimson found himself so lost in nature around him that he almost walked right by the throne room.
Crimson's jaw dropped when he saw the mare standing in the middle of the throne room. She was a yellow pegasus with bright green eyes that reminded him of grass waving in the wind of a beautiful summer afternoon, her mane was a mixture of bright pink and dark purple, and her cutie mark was a silver compass that represented her love for adventure. Crimson was staring in awe for so long that he didn't realize that he had walked up to her until she giggled.
"You know Crimson, you really shouldn't stair at a lady for so long. She might think there is something wrong with her" said the mare.
"I wasn't, well I was, I mean I, well, wait how did you know my name?" Crimson asked slightly confused.
"W-what do you mean?" asked the mare. "We've been friends for years. Crimson I was the filly that you saved from the timberwolves 13 years ago. I'm Roxanne, don't you remember? Roxanne Starlight"
Everything after Crimson heard her name was nothing but a muffled slur to him. Memories of the night in the Everfree forest flashed through his head like some sort of movie. The crowded marketplace him and ADHD traveled through, the hill they where they met up with Quindem, the scream in the forest that they chased and found the filly named Roxanne being attacked by a pack of timberwolves, everything. These memories showed him the true path that he needed to follow. He wasn't some weird being from some other planet that may or may not even exist. He was a pony of Equestria, and nothing would ever change that.