//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15 - Crimson and the Art of Misdirection 
// Story: Fire and Brimstone, Book 2 
// by BluePhoenyx 
//------------------------------//

Chains clanked together and their sounds echoed through the caverns.  The Elements of Harmony hovered in the air with a dark glow around them as the large pony stared intently at the corruption surrounding the relics.  He grinned as the golden tiara’s large purple six-point-star slightly cracked from the dark magic.  


* * *


Crimson watched the young filly run up and touch finish her prize.  Sara watched intently to see if her daughter is unharmed.  The filly looked up at the two.  “That was fun!  Can we play another game?”  
Sara looked at Crimson, then back at her daughter.  “Uh, no more hide-go-seek for now, sweetheart.”  
“Aww.”  The filly pouted as her mother walked up to her.
Crimson turned around to leave the two alone to bump into the Duchess.  
“Hellooooo.”  The Duchess said in an low to upward inflection.
“Pardon my negligence.”  Crimson said with a bow.
“Oh, no.  You can bump me any time.”  The Duchess said, scanning Crimson with her eyes.
Crimson looked up in surprise from the comment, then bowed again.  “Uh, your words are very humbling.”
Twilight cleared her throat from behind the Duchess.  She turned around to see Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy standing behind her.  “Oh, Princess.  My apologies.”
Twilight chuckled.  “It’s okay.  It was kind of funny watching Crimson being embarrassed.”  Twilight took a step forward.  “Come on, Crimson.  We have to talk.”
Crimson stood up and started to walk toward the group.  At the corner of his eye, he noticed the Duchess once again scanning him with her eyes.  The girls started to chuckle amongst themselves as they all headed toward the study.
Twilight looked back at Crimson.  “I have to ask - why did you have us walk around the mansion for over an hour?”
Rarity chimed in.  “Don’t get us wrong, darling.  This place is gorgeous and I loved looking around.”
“Me too.”  Fluttershy added with her gentle tone.  “Her gardens are beautiful and peaceful!”
“I believed that if the filly focused on your positions that she would find you with a vision.”  Crimson replied.  “Much like she did in her games with her brother.”
Twilight stopped and turned around.  “That was a great idea!  Did it work?”
Crimson, as well as Fluttershy and Rarity, stopped and he shook their heads.  “Alas, no.  She was unable to get any glimpse of your position or your doings.”
Twilight lightly stompped her hoof on the hardwood flooring causing a thump.  “Drat.  I thought that would work.”
“Princess, things are not all bad.”  Crimson turned his head back toward the kitchen.  “The young one was able to find her way to a place where she has never been to and found an object she would have no purpose knowing of with impeccable accuracy.”
Twilight looked up at Crimson, who looked back at the group.  “What do you mean?  Is that why you were in the kitchen?”
Crimson nodded.  “She was able to use her power to guide us through this residence into the pantry where she grabbed a…  I believe she called it a ‘cookie.’”
“That’s great!”  Twilight exclaimed with a smile.
Rarity agreed with Twilight.  “That precious filly is amazing.”
“I now believe that she can see with some control so long as she focuses on an event that will directly affect her.”  The girls give a cheer as Crimson continued.  “I also believe that, in time, she will be able to control her visions with some degree with events that will indirectly affect her - like my sister seeing the trap for my brother at the cabin.”
“That is such great news!”  Twilight said, hardly containing her excitement.  
“Now Princess, what did you wish to speak to me about?”
“Oh, nothing.”  Twilight turned around and the girls continued toward the study.  “I just felt you needed an escape from that embarrassing situation.”
The group stopped in their tracks and widened their stance to catch their balance as the ground started to rumble.  The walls lightly shook, shifting the pictures hanging on the walls.  The sound of hanging lamps clanked against the slack from the shaking earth and objects started to tremble on the ground lightly gliding across the ground.  The girls stopped and looked at Crimson.  “Is this you?”
Crimson shook his head.  “No, Princess.  This is not my doing.”
A loud crash was heard from the kitchen as a high pitched scream shot through the halls to give alarm to the group.  The tremors ceased as Twilight gestured for the group to follow her.  “Come on!”  She and the group started to run back toward the kitchen to investigate the source of the screaming.  
The group stopped in the entryway of the kitchen and stared in horror at the wall that was ripped out of its foundation and thrown over thirty meters away from the mansion.  They looked at the destruction of the kitchen as virtually everything on the walls and shelves were now piled and broken on the floor.  Twilight used her horn and started to telekinetically lift a large cabinet under some rubble that had fallen on the Duchess.  When Rarity noticed the struggle Twilight was facing, her horn too glowed and the two successfully broke free of the debris and slowly lifted the cabinet off the Duchess.  Fluttershy flew in and dragged her body out from under the rubble.  Once out of the way, Rarity and Twilight released the heavy cabinet, letting the clutter crash down on the ground.  
Fluttershy looked over the Duchess as the girls rushed to her side.  “Oh my, the Duchess is in bad shape.”
Twilight looked up at Crimson, who was standing behind a pile of clutter and debris staring at something on the ground.  Twilight stood up and looked at him.  “Crimson, what is it?”
He didn't answer.  Instead, he looked up and started to stare out of the hole in the wall.  
Twilight started to walk up to him when she stopped in her tracks.  “Oh no.”  She looked down at the mangled and lifeless body of Sara, the mother of Ellena.  She put her hooves over her mouth to try to restrain her emotions, but it was no use.  Her eyes watered up and her feelings of sorrow quickly overwhelmed the princess.  
“Darling, what’s wrong?”  Rarity stood up and walked beside Twilight and saw the grotesque sight.  She turned her head and placed is it on Twilight’s shoulder.  She too was overcome by sorrow and started to cry.  Twilight and Rarity hugged each other to console one another.
Fluttershy, though curious on what the two are looking at, stayed with the Duchess.  “We need to get the Duchess to the hospital now!”
Twilight once again tried to restrain her emotions.  She wiped her face with her hooves and sniffed back her tears.  “Okay.”  She lifted Rarity’s face and looked into her eyes.  “Come on.  We need to make a stretcher and help the Duchess.”  
Rarity nodded, then the two looked down at Sara.  Rarity used her magic and ripped a tablecloth from the broken table and covered Sara’s body with it.  Then the two started to make a makeshift stretcher for the Duchess.  In little time, the girls gently put the Duchess on a tattered tapestry wrapped around two large curtain rods.  Twilight looked at Fluttershy and Rarity.  “You two go on ahead and get her to the hospital.”
Rarity and Fluttershy leand down and picked up opposite ends of the stretcher.  Rarity looked over to Twilight.  “Be careful.”
“You too.”  Twilight said and the two started to make their way toward the hospital.  Twilight walked up to Crimson, who didn’t move from his location since the incident happened.  “What’s with you?”  Crimson turned his head at the princess, then back at the outside looking at the ground.  Twilight drew her attention at what Crimson was looking at.  “But how...?”  
“I do not know, Princess.”  Twilight looked at a large burnt portion of grass and earth that stretched all around the mansion and a very intricate drawing in front of the kitchen.  “However, Scorch now has the seer and we have lost the map to your relics.”  
“What can we do?”  Crimson turned his attention to the walls that were broken off perfectly as if cut by a large hot knife.  Twilight observed him looking at the walls.  “Crimson?”
He turned his head back to the circle.  “Pursue.”  He leapt away from the building and started to trot toward the ruined gates.  Twilight spread her wings and flew up and over the debris to catch up to Crimson.
“Do you know where they’re going?”  Twilight asked as she landed in stride next to Crimson.
“I do not, Princess.  However, there are faint hoof tracks leading away from the circles.”  
“That has to be them.”
“I agree, Princess.”  The two turned the corner off of the Duchess’s property.  “And with the young one struggling, my brother will not have any time to cover his tracks.”
“Then let’s hurry.  They shouldn’t be too far ahead.”  
The two trotted faster following the tracks until they both turned a corner and stopped.  They looked at a wall of a building - a dead end.  Twilight looked confused at Crimson.  “Are you sure they went this way?”
Crimson leaned down to get a closer look at the tracks.  “The tracks led this way and they go into this wall.”  He lifted his hoof and touched the wall.
“Did he make this wall?”
“I do not think so, Princess.”  Crimson put his hoof down and turned around.  “I do not see a binding circle.  My brother is too clever to…”  He turned his head and blinked for a moment as he thought to himself.
“What is it?”
Crimson turned to Twilight and bowed  “I am sorry, Princess.  I have failed you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Scorch…”  Crimson, while still bowing, looked at the wall.  “These tracks are not real.  They were planted here prior to the abduction of the young one.”  He looked back at Twilight, still bowing.  “I am sorry I have failed you.”
Twilight looked at the wall, then turned around and faced the mansion.  “That means your brothers have Ellena…”
“I am afraid so, Princess.”