Chronicles of the Glow

by Rusty Parker

Chapter 6: The Cursed

Chronicles of the Glow
Written by: Rusty Parker
Edited by: Wanderwing
=========================================================================
6
The Cursed

A fuzzy image came into view slowly as two black walls parted at the center. In front of her face lay a blur of a white blob that, when she tried to move, responded. The white blob reacted to her commands as she lay there, beginning to gain her mind again slightly after having awoken from such a deep sleep. Her hoof fell now on the soft surface beside her, pins and needles shooting down her side as she tried to move the rest of her body. Pain shot into her skull like as if applied with a hammer, and her attempted movement was instantly stifled as the clearing room went blurry again. She found her head against the fluffy pillow, her eyes closing… no, sight fading.

“Ahhhg,” a ragged voice responded when she tried to speak. Somewhere past the blue tuft of a blur, she caught the shooting up of a darkly colored figure. The image shifted and grew larger as her vision still faded. She had to speak, to get help. A pain now accompanied the pins and needles that kept her stomach completely numb. It felt as if her blood was boiling, the pain intensifying as time went on. “Ha..aa.. uh,” she heard again in a gasp of a voice as she opened her mouth, trying desperately to ask for help.

“The anesthesia… wearing… more, stat!” barley penetrating the popping of her ears, the voice sounded so distant. She couldn’t catch everything that was said.

“Haaagh,” she again moaned, trying her very best to fight the pain in her stomach that wouldn’t stop burning. Like a fire with plenty of timber, the pain intensified. “Haaaa,” she breathed in now, barely able to keep her lungs pumping air. She desperately needed help from somepony… anypony. She’d be panicking if she could move. The darkly colored blur moved quickly to her as she lost sight entirely. When she felt her stomach was about to explode from the inside out, the needles came back. Numbness set in, and the pain slowly retracted back into the crevice it had crawled from.

“Whew, that… that was a close one,” a voice said in from far off, barely audible as her she felt sleep pulling her in. “Almost lost her… I-“ she didn’t get to hear the rest of his statement. All left her, and as she floated through the space she felt something terrible creep into her mind. An urge… an urge to move that was not hers. In the cloud of her mind, something had her… and it was pulling now with power she had never before experienced.

Nothing was done, not by her or any other. She lost consciousness then, still feeling the tug and pull from within.

…

Long, lively green vines hung from above, swaying in the light breeze. Through the canopy above, the bright blue sky could be seen past the gleaming noon sun. Moss covered trunks stretched as far as the eye could see, and in the crisp fall air, the chirping of birds ready to head north for the Winter could be heard throughout the forest. Standing in the knee high grass, the unicorn looked up, breathing in the clean air that flowed all around him. His aqua blue mane was kept neatly, a solid, white streak running down it off the center.

“Such a beautiful day today, isn’t it?” he asked as he turned to a mare that lay on a plaid mat in the meadow not far from where he stood. Turning to the young, aspiring artist he bound himself to, he felt happiness in where he was. This place was great! So much life, so few worries. The air was fresh from the greenery, and light seemed to seep from every surface. It was perfect.

“You’re always one to inspect nature,” she said softly, eyes moving down to the basket beside her. “Come sit down, let’s enjoy our lunch together!” she said in her sweet, lucid voice. A growling beast roared from his stomach, confirming then what his wife already known. He was hungry, and by more than a small margin. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate. A smile crossed the unicorn’s face as he came to lay beside her, ready to feast on the daffodil sandwiches they had thrown together earlier in the day.

As Kalk tucked his hooves underneath himself, he came to a realization. There was somepony… missing. Yes, he could remember now. His daughter, the yellow coated filly that would one day “Paint the world,” as she had always proclaimed, wasn’t there. Ah, so much like her mother, he thought as he stared at the mare beside him. He could only hope the best for her. “Hold on, where’s our little filly?” he asked her, still smiling. She wasn’t in any danger, and he knew that much for a fact.

“Last I saw, she was heading into the woods… said she was going to ‘Take in the scenery,’ much like how you were,” she told him, happily biting into the sandwich she so gingerly held in her dainty hooves when she finished.

“Ah, I see. Just like her daddy!” he joked, pushing himself up from the blanket. “I’ll go fetch her, be right back,” he said as he stretched his back legs. The muscles had relaxed to the point of stiffness, and he had to get the knots out before he could really move.

“Dear…” the mare said, trailing off as she looked down to the plaid texture beneath her. Her eyes seemed to trace each line individually, her mind focused on something that Kalk couldn’t quite pick up on. He took her chin in his hoof gently, turning her up to face him in a slow motion. Without saying a word, he brought his lips to hers, lightly connecting the two at the mouth. One look in the eyes afterward said it all. He loved her more than she could ever know, and in his gesture, she found comfort. “Don’t lose her,” she whispered, looking up to him with gleaming eyes.

“I won’t, that’s a promise,” he announced with confidence as he turned and walked toward the rich forest that skirted their wide meadow. The thin canopy of leaves did nothing to end the light that seemed to pour from above in rays. Walking through around the trees to get by, he started to search for the yellow of his daughter’s coat. Her mane was a dark, grey color much like his coat, and wouldn’t stick out as much as her coat.

On and on he searched, but to no avail. Worry filled his heart as he struggled in vain to locate the filly. What if she got lost, or, Celestia forbid, hurt? It seemed that, in the forest, there was no threat to behold, but the thought still left him unsettled. Unspeaking, he crossed over the top of a hill, coming upon a scene he did not altogether expect to find. One that was eerily familiar. It seemed that here, the forest divided. One half was the same bright, colorful and peaceful land he called home. The other was a different setting entirely. The trees there grew much taller, and much more closely together. Jagged roots shot out of the ground at the border between the two separate biomes, and as he came to the cross section, he could see nothing within. Darkness seemed to be the only thing that filled this forest.

Kalk stood baffled by the sight unsure of what to do or even think. He was certain nothing like this had ever existed here before… and yet, it felt unsettlingly familiar. It was like he had been here before, but he had never seen this place. The thought of going in there sent a shrill of fear down his spine, but his daughter was in there. The idea lacked any knowledge, and was completely without reason. Why would she go in a place as horrid looking as this? She was more afraid of the dark than your average foal, and this darkness seemed infinite. Yet still, his mind couldn’t be swayed with logic. She was in there, and he was going to get her out.

Inhaling air deeply, he stepped into the darkness, flaring on a light spell as he penetrated the sheet of blackness. Even with his horn lit up, he could still barely make out the first meter or two in front of him. A chill passed him by as he stepped around a thick tree, doing his best to force his way through the nearly tangible darkness. It felt like hours had gone by, and from what he could tell, he was lost now just the same as the very filly he was searching for. With a sigh, he sat down, the empty, silent forest seeming to envelop him as he took his time to rest.

His eyes scanned all around the bubble of light he had erected around himself, trying to find any sign that maybe, he was near the edge of the forest. Or, if he wanted to get his own hopes riding high, perhaps his little filly had been here. No such luck seemed to exist in this dingy, dank world that he somehow found himself roaming through. His eyes dropped to the dirt below, no life seeming to grow this close to the ground at all. Roots weaved their way in and out of the ground all around him, the trees the only thing able to live here, it seemed.

Kalk breathed in a long, tired breath of the stale air that surrounded him. There was no wind at all, and for all he knew, this air had remained here, not shifting for all the time of the forest’s existence. A loud crunch in the distance brought his head up from his slouching posture. Ears twitching, he scanned the tiny horizon that his spell had formed, searching all around for any sign of what was there. “Your mom is worried, honey, where are you?” he said to the wall of darkness that seemed to be getting closer and closer to him. His light spell seemed to be fading, and as sight diminished, a small, glowing blue light shone in the distance. It shifted, moving side to side in a sway as it grew closer and closer.

The dark cloud snaked its way up his leg as he stood there, unable to speak at the sight of the approaching orb… no, orbs. There, two orb, floating through the darkness with no sign of impediment. The shadow constricted its way around the stallion’s stomach, coming to grab his throat as it whirled around his body. Tendril like in shape, the shadow slithered further up his neck, getting tighter and tighter as it moved. He couldn’t move, and could barely breathe. His spell wasn’t fading at all! The shadow… or whatever this thing was. It was choking the very life out of him.

The blue orbs stopped, levitating just outside the former radius of Kalk’s spell. They seemed to shift in shape as he struggled to heave air into his lungs. “I,” a very hostile sounding voice erupted from the two, faintly glowing spheres. “Beckon you, Kalk,” the voice said in a near whisper. “Or, should I say, faaather?” it hissed. No, that’s not my little girl! He wanted to scream it, but the constriction around his neck would not end. “Heh eh eh,” it laughed, finding some sort of satisfaction in his lack of ability.

“Dear old Kalk, always trying your very best to save the truth from yourself,” the voice whispered now. The orbs vanished and reappeared, the creature before him only blinking rarely As if it were a gesture, rather than a necessity. The pair of eyes shot from the darkness to his right, seeming to have instantly changed position. The shadows were too thick to see through, and only the bright blue of those eyes would show through. Kalk breathed very long breaths now, trying his best to clear his panicked mind. He couldn’t get enough air like this, and coughed through the grip around him.

The orbs vanished once more, not reappearing at all this time. “I see you are enjoying my gift, dear old friend. How is it? Your ripe, vivid old age?” the voice whispered from directly behind his head. He couldn’t do anything, even his horn was unresponsive. Worse yet, his memory became fuzzy. Why was he here? Where was here? And what was… Beacon? A flood of memories came to him as he thought, the realization of what was happening setting in. Tears streamed down the unicorn’s cheek as he came to recall everything. All this, his wife, his daughter, were gone. Gone and never to be seen again. Victims of time that had only spared him because of the monster that enwrapped him now.

Kalk struggled in vein to fight back the shadow that ensnarled him. Every muscle in his body convulsed as his emotion exploded. Laughter rang out from every direction, echoing through the emptiness. “So you see, now? It has been a long time, dear old Dad,” the voice taunted. Kalk’s teeth gritted as he did everything to move. He felt his eyes burn, the whites in them fading to and from black. Like turning on the lights, his vision shifted between darkness and light. Light that moved with such violence in every direction, light that formed the shape of a filly that moved with such speed that he thought it had to be a trick. His eyes faded back to white, the blue spheres suddenly directly in his face. “I didn’t think you’d forget me so soon!” the frail looking, filly before him giggled out through its own laughter.

Darkness quickly replaced the sight of the two pools of blue, but the thought could not be shaken. That was his daughter! There wasn’t any doubt; he knew it for a fact. Through the malicious intent, the joy in his suffering, he could see a glimmer of what was. “Dad?” a familiar, high pitched voice called out in its nervous way. He turned to the source, having gained a little leeway in motion. What he saw was far worse than any he had before. He promised himself he would never let this happen! That he wouldn’t let her down! He promised her that! His mind screamed at him, the sight of a filly before him causing the loss of all hope.

“Didn’t you promise me, Daddy?” the filly said, her voice still sweet and innocent. Her head was turned down, and though her mane was tussled over her face, Kalk knew all too well what she looked like now. The sight of the yellow filly he had once called his daughter retuned, her head rising and revealing the truth. The filly, in the same manner as the yellow filly before her, lifted her head, revealing the whites of her eyes to be a deep black. A bright blue glow radiated from her pupil-less eyes, and tears streamed down her cheeks freely. Her purple wings were ripped and torn, twisted as anything else the filly bore. Cuts ran down the length of her frail, starved body, and blood dripped from her chin. “Why? Why didn’t you keep your promise?” she wailed.

Horrible screaming erupted from the darkness, and as it went on, unimpeded, darkness enveloped all. Tears ran down his cheeks, and after a few moments, his scream came to a crackling end. Sweat ran heavily down his back and forehead, and as he sat there, the sight still all too vivid in his mind, a hoof came to his ribs. He breathed in spurs, unable to keep a steady breath as he shook. Blinking several times, he recognized that he was in a well lit room for the first time. And there was a heart monitor beside him, beeping more quickly than was healthy.

After a few moments, the white walls around him echoing in a sense of welcome and safety, he turned to the pony that had a hoof so gently pushed against his rib cage. A horrified Tick stood there, eyes white where they should be, and her coat was without a scratch, save a scraped knee. “Kalk! Kalk are you alright?” she asked frantically. “Kalk, say something!” she begged, her eyes watering up.

“T-Tick?” he asked, blinking several times. She nodded, looking up to him in confusion now. More than likely questioning what had made him scream. The memory reentered his shocked mind, causing him to cringe a little. He instantly wrapped the bewildered filly in a hug. A tear fell from his cheek onto her wing, causing her to hug back more tightly. A thought came to him… She hadn’t called him “Dad,” or for that matter, referred to him as “Father” even once. She still called him Kalk. He smiled at this; the monster that he battled still had much to learn.

But why now? Why, of all times, did the nightmare happen now? He stared at the wall, the filly still tightly in his embrace when something occurred to him. The attack! Somepony must have gotten… “Listen, Tick,” he said, a serious expression crossing his face as the gravity of the situation rose in his mind. She came back to stand on her own hooves, and looked at him knowing the seriousness in his voice to be pertinent. “Was anypony hurt by one of the beasts last night?

“Yes, yes there was! Red White, well… not really anymore but. She used be called that an-“

“Tick!” he silenced her as she trailed off. “Where is she?” He asked,

“D-down the hall, in the third year room,” she said in a stammer, not sure what was going on. There was no time for Kalk to explain, he had to go now. That monster was up to something again, and he’d be damned if he lost anypony else to her so easily. He was out the door in the next second, galloping down the hall as quickly as his numb legs would take him. Tick stood stunned by her adoptive father’s shift in behavior, having grown used to his usually calm demeanor. “H-hey, wait for me!” she called as she ran out the door after him.

…

The sheets rose and fell slowly, the filly below breathing in more deeply than before. Her breath drew in and out as sweat beaded on her forehead, the heat building up from within. She wasn’t getting any better at all, the colt thought as he sat silently in his chair by her makeshift hospital “bed”. It was an emergency cot with extra blankets thrown below it, all they could afford with the actual beds filled with the other injured. His eyes fell to the ground below him. He traced the tiles on the floor, following the pattern that made up the checkered red and white... just like her. He couldn’t escape his thoughts; they ravaged him as he sat there, helpless to even do anything.

He kept jumping back to what happened, how the beast was about to leap on him, how it was about to do to him what happened to her. Why didn’t she just let him be hit by that last blow? Why did it have to be her? He looked up to her, the sweat beading off her forehead and flowing to her cheeks. He got up, and with a hot cloth from the tub beside the bed, he whipped off the sweat. He then placed the cloth gently over her forehead, allowing it to cool over her. “Why?” he whispered to himself above her. Looking down at her pained features, he could tell that even now she was feeling the effects of the wound.

He raised a hoof to her curled up form under the blankets, and with a gentle stroke, ran it across her shoulder. His eyes were deep and hollow as he stared at her wounded area through the sheets. Poking out under her leg, he could see the bandages that had stopped the blood, but not on the inside. Was there really no doctor in the whole town who had ever worked with this before? He had heard the conversations about such things, of how she was a lost cause. To his horror, one even proposed to throw her out of the building.

“She’s too dangerous now! That infection is what caused the animals to go insane and start killing anything they could reach!” the angry one had argued. “We can’t risk it here!”

“Do you even hear yourself, Steff? She’s not one of those monsters yet, and we are doctors! There must be something we can do!” the other pushed as he walked around the bed to face him directly.

“There has never, been a case where the infected pony didn’t go insane and try to kill somepony,” he whispered into his challenger’s face. “You hear that? Never!”

The argument went on for what felt like hours. Neither would give up, and in the end, it took a nurse walking in to stop the two. Steff, the one who had been threatening his sister’s life right before him, snorted and stomped his way out the moment she came in. He didn’t know who the nurse was, but the colt had to be thankful for her timely entrance. He didn’t know what he would have done if he had to hear that horrible stallion go on like that about his sister.

“Orange… Cyan?” a frail voice entered his mind. Looking now to the side, he saw her, his sister, eyes barely opened and breathing heavy as when she woke up before. “Hey… Don’t you worry about me. I… I will make it through,” she said, a weak smile coming to her face. She huffed in another breath of air and exhaled as if she had just run a mile. He couldn’t stop himself from hugging her there. Hearing her voice after all these hours… it gave him some hope. “Hey, hey… t-that hurts,” she was able to push out through her weak breath. Realizing what he was doing, he released her. The infection caused her pain whenever she tried to move or was moved. Or at least, that’s what he gathered from the nurse’s explanation.

“R-right. Sorry,” he said, his ears folding down as he looked to the corner of his eye. She laughed lightly for a moment, only to clutch her stomach in pain where she had been cut. “Are you alright?” the colt asked hectically. His hoof remained on her shoulder still, lightly placed to try and comfort her.

“Yea… yea. I shouldn’t be… laughing,” she said as she curled herself back into a ball. She still kept her eyes opened, but didn’t seem to be as eager to try and move again. “So, what did they say?” she asked, looking up at him with a sly smile.

“W-what? How did you k-“

“You’re my little brother, silly,” she told him in her teasing way. “I can tell when something’s wrong,”

The orange maned colt looked up to the ceiling and then back down to her after a moment of thought. He could never get around her, she knew him too well. “It’s… not good,” he said as his face folded into a frown, his forehead creasing as he admitted it.

“Orange. I’m older than you, now tell me,” she demanded with surprising strength in her voice.

“They… they talked about throwing you outside,” he said, his tone getting slightly more angry as he went on. “But… you’re going to be okay, I just know it. They don’t know what they’re talking about!” he said, trying now to relieve her.

The filly’s eyes were wide, her realization coming to bear right before her younger brother. That look in her eyes, the colt thought. Does she already know what this is? “Little brother… Get away,” she told him, her eyes trained on the wall.

“What? Bu-“

“Just get away! As far away from me as you can! I’m not… I’m not safe!” she shouted now. The colt backed up a step now, eyes wide and tearing. She looked straight into his eyes, pleading for him to listen. “Please… I don’t want you to get hurt!” she begged, tears now flowing down her cheeks openly. Despite her pain, she was still able to sit bolt upright and stare him down with perfect movement. She really meant this… he didn’t have a choice.

The orange maned colt walked to the door, looking at her the whole time over his shoulder. Her tears kept flowing as she stared at him, sobbing every other moment. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, the thought of abandoning her too great. There had to be something he could do here! Surely somepony must know! That doctor was wrong, and he knew it. He just had to be. The colt was so caught up in his thoughts, and in his sister’s eyes, that it surprised him when her expression changed to one of surprise. He found himself bumping into the chest of a stallion as he walked forward without looking. His fresh tears caressed the coat of the pony in front of him, and when he looked up, he saw just what was so surprising.

Standing there, his coat positively ragged and mane flowing in whichever direction it seemed to fall, was a usually well kept unicorn. Kalk’s eyes were glued to the colt’s sister, not once leaving the scene of her bed even after the colt had walked right into him. A bandage showed a small bit of blood through its clean, white surface on his tired face. His eyes, filled to bursting with veins and arteries, fell down to him, and with a nod, he looked back up to his sister in the cot. He breathed in a deep breath, and stepped around the orange headed pony without so much as saying a single word.

“Kalk! Kalk hey,” came a frantic voice from the hallway from which he had appeared. “Hey, you’re hurt too you kn-“ she said as she slid to a stop in the doorway, her white mane falling into her face as she did. It was Tick! The colt would have positively bounced if it weren’t for the grim look in her eyes as she looked on at the scene in a mix of emotions he couldn’t identify. Her eye traced the look on Kalk’s face, and then did the same for the red headed filly in her bed. She stayed silent for several moments as Kalk tiredly looked into the wet eyes of the filly before him. Turning to where she faced, the colt was shocked.

His sister’s eyes… they faded in and out of darkness, the whites of them becoming jet black every few seconds before fading away to white again. Her expression was one that hurt him simply to look at, her pain so apparent as she fought it back. “K-Kalk,” she barely was able to say as she choked on her own vocal cords. “Please… just prot-tec… protect them… from… me,” she begged, forcing her words to form, even though it hurt so greatly to even breath. She had to breathe much more heavily after just to get air into her lungs, the pain throughout her whole body taking over. Below the sheets, a black mass seemed to glow on and off with her eyes. She gasped for air as she pulled her hooves into herself again, the pain becoming too great for her to stand.

Kalk looked her over with intensity in his eyes. They looked from her eyes to the black spot that kept flashing through her blanket. His face grew distorted as he thought. What could be going through that head of his head? He knew something more than the doctors that the colt had watched arguing before, that was obvious by how he looked at the strange occurrence without any surprise. It was almost like he had seen this before… “Kalk!” he found himself shouting without even meaning to. He didn’t know what possessed him, or even what he was about to say, but he knew that it must be important. “You’ve seen this before… please, please, I can’t lose her!” he begged. “Save her! You know how to so just do it! She’s not a monster,” he said as tears poured down his cheeks, the stallion looking at him now with sorrow in his eyes. They clutched shut and he turned his head to the side, facing now toward the bed ridden filly.

Standing there, the room silent except for the filly’s gasps for air, the old unicorn opened his eyes to look at her. She was staring at him, eyes pleading for him to do something. She couldn’t speak, but there was so much meaning in her eyes. Inhaling once, Kalk opened his mouth and began to speak finally. “I can’t stop it,” he whispered, eyes still locked on hers. “I can’t stop it but I can slow it,” he said loud enough for the two across the room to hear clearly. “It will hurt, and you will eventually become the beast… but you’ll have life for a while,” he spoke softly to her, the dark color still coming and going in her eyes.

“I don’t want to lie to you, you may end up hurting somepony if you don’t stay strong. Do you still want to do it? Only one chance here,” he said almost sympathetically as she continued to gasp for breath. Her white eyelids clenched shut over her eyes as she nodded, the mess of hair falling off the bed with the motion. Kalk shut his eyes and a small grin came over his face. “Good,” he whispered under his breath.

Horn glinting, he pulled the sheets from overtop the filly. She still pulled herself into more and more of a ball as he worked, the magical energy appearing as a visible blue powder as his spell activated. The dark color was now in full view up the side of her body, veins visibly full of it. It seemed to be growing across her, reaching farther and farther as it spread. The gash she had received seemed to be the center of the dark curse that pushed its way through her body. Kalk’s spell formed a circle on her body from the glowing blue dust that lightly sprinkled out and floated in the air around him. Symbols the cyan colt couldn’t remember seeing before took shape, and the overall seal seemed to have a main central focal point. There, in the middle of the forming seal, was a snake, maybe symbolizing the venom that was being sealed below. The circle seemed to contain the snake like a pit, and as the seal became more detailed, it glowed more intensely.

The red maned filly slowly began to relax her tightly closed posture as the seal came to complete itself. It inscribed itself onto her wound, some parts of it still visible underneath the bandage. Her breathing became less erratic, and as she laid there, eyes shut, the shaking of her body came to stop. She seemed to have passed out now, the stress from the curse exerting so much force on her causing exhaustion. Kalk sighed in relief, seeing the filly finally back to a peaceful state. It really was incredible. None of the doctors could even do anything about this, but here he was.

A weary look crossed Kalk’s face as he came to face the two young ponies who waited, still as stone by the doorway across the room. “Tick,” he said, a somewhat gentle tone in his voice, though it was plain that he had to struggle now to maintain such a collected demeanor. “Are there any others who were infected?”

“N-no. None,” she replied somewhat nervously, glancing over to the orange headed colt as her head bowed down a little. “Or at least, since we got here,” she said, the sadness in what had happened apparent. The colt hadn’t known this filly for long at all, he still barely knew anything about her. Yet still, even with their friendship so fleeting, she still seemed to show concern for him. Her eyes kept shifting to him, to see his expression through this all. He was Red White’s brother, sure, but Tick was still a close friend of hers. It must hurt her just the same as him, to see her this way.

“Good... very good. Now, for you two,” he said, stepping toward them both. What could he mean? They hadn’t been hurt really at all during the attack. Thanks to others, they had made it through with only a couple scratches. So why was he coming to them now? Kalk was his teacher, but it he still found a way to elude predictability. “You two,” he said in a near whisper, his voice sounding so filled with emotion, like he could burst out into tears at any moment. “She’s not going to last forever like this. I am sorry, I am truly sorry. I know what she must be to you both. But there’s nothing else I can do,” he trailed off, staring at the wall.

“But… Kalk, she can fight it, can’t she?” the colt’s voice cracked as his teacher’s gaze remained glued to the clean, white wall. “There must be something somepony can do!” he said with tears again welling in his eyes. “She’d never give up anypony, never! She would try again and again and again!” he gasped in some air, his teacher now looking into his eyes. “She is always saying that there is hope! There is always something somepony can do,” he cried out as the tears worked their way down his face. Tick, who was weepy-eyed herself, lifted a hoof to his shoulder, gently touching him in a gesture to try and calm him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice again monotone and plain. He turned to look at the filly, her chest taking in air and releasing it at a healthy rate. “This was the only hope she had left, there is nothing that will stop that infection once it is in you,” he said, his eyes still trained on her almost peaceful face. He wanted to scream, to jump at his teacher and just hit his head against his own. He hated everything about this… but he knew that Kalk was right. He should be thanking him, after all. She would have been killed otherwise. He lowered his head, allowing himself to simply let the weeping come.

For a while, they all stayed there, the colt silently letting all his sorrow spill to the floor, Tick looking on in a pale, hollow expression and Kalk simply sitting by the resting filly with his eyes closed. After some time, the colt finally ran out of tears to cry. His eye sockets felt dry and empty, his eyes having grown puffy and bloodshot. Tick still rested right next to him. Her eyes seemed hollowed out, her expression blank as she stared at the filly in the bed. It was plain to tell that Kalk had fallen asleep while he sat, his head hanging slightly as he still stood guard over the filly.

“You know,” Tick said after some time, her eyes still trained forward. “Your sister really saved my life in the long run. She stopped me from starving, gave me her kindness… and hope. And even considered me her friend,” she said, her voice trailing off to a whisper as she went. “All I ever hoped to be able to do was repay her… and now,” she barely let out before her voice stopped altogether. Looking over, she had the same pale face, the same blank expression.

“She would always come back happy,” he found himself saying. She turned to him now in question, her brow lifted. “When she would go to ‘eat’ her dinner outside, she would always walk back in with a wide smile across her face, like she had just had the best meal of her life,” he said, looking at her now with his puffed up eyes and wet face. She looked back to the bed, the filly having just rolled over in her sleep. She didn’t smile, frown, or let a tear role down her eyes. But rather, she let them close; let them rest surely for the first time all night.

He still felt terrible, the factor of what was to come so soon never leaving his mind. But as he looked back, he couldn’t help but smile a little, knowing how good of a pony his sister was to everypony. They would have to make sure she was the happiest filly alive before… it ended. As he himself came to rest on the floor beside Tick, he wondered on and on about how he could do something to bring her the happiness that she had given them. Soon, his thoughts gave way to dreams as surely as Tick’s had.

…

Warm, red light reflected from the surface of the pooled water all around town. The sun could not yet be seen over the tree tops, but the red glow was a sure sign that it had peaked its bright image over the mountains in the distance. In the early morning glow, the water running still from the cracks in the sides of many buildings, all seemed oddly peaceful. Unlike most mornings, there was no sound, no ruckus of ponies waking up and getting ready for their day. The rain had long given way to a silent sprinkle, small drops falling in spread out intervals.

The scene would be beautiful, worthy of being painted again and again on crisp, clean canvas. That is, if this hadn’t been their home up till now. Looking over the ruins, the broken down buildings and abandoned household items that floated down the street, Glitter couldn’t help but feel depressed. This was the same town she had sent her little foals out in, all alone, to get to a safe place. No matter where she looked, nowhere seemed to be safe at all. Hazards remained in every place she could spot. Precariously hanging roofs that sagged and could collapse at any moment, sharp shards of rock hidden beneath the murky water. She felt like she had sent them off to their own death.

“They aren’t normal foals, Glitter,” her husband said reassuringly beside her, knowing her enough to recognize the hidden worry in her eyes. Looking over to him, he was all sorts of beat up. His face was riddled with scratches from the stone shards that had flown everywhere when the monster hit anything, and his eyes showed the deep depravity of sleep and rest. “They made it, so stop worrying for now,” he told her, stopping for a moment to readjust her limp foreleg that hung around his neck. She felt the shifting of her broken ribs as he pulled her up, and clenched her eyes shut in the pain. “We have to get you to the school so we can finally get that looked at,”

“Yea, you’re right,” she responded. Though he never could fix her urge to worry about every little thing that could go wrong, he did know how to reassure her. She smiled and lifted her legs to move on. The bandages restrained the movement of her face a little, and being improvised, weren’t fasted in the best of manners. She must look ridiculous, the thick patch fastened to the side of her head being much larger than it would ever need to be. Stepping forward, they once again had to cross the flooded street. The end of her tail was already soaked, her hooves still shaking with the cold. Yet still, if there was any hope for relief, it wasn’t in these ruins. They moved on.

In and out of buildings they went, looking all the while for a way through the streets. Many of the narrow streets had stones and clay toppled on top of them, and finding a way through what was already a maze proved difficult now more than ever. It was tiring for Glitter to move so much in such a bad condition, but she had to. Her compulsive need to fill her pack with supplies might not be helping either, now that she thought about it. Her legs were getting wobbly by the time the two stepped into the nearest building to try and find a way through to the next street. “Okay, let’s have a quick break here,” said Shine as they came to find it just as empty as the rest. Whoever lived here must have been in the middle of some documenting when the attack hit, pieces of disintegrated paper littered the wet tiled floor.

The crumbled steps that once led up to the second floor now seemed to be the only place to sit that wouldn’t get them both soaked to their waists. Looking up, Glitter was able to see bits of the blue sky through the fallen pile of rocks. She opened her bag and pulled from it a small pouch, levitating it before her with her magic. She stared at the pouch with intensity as she pulled out a small shard of the large gem she had worked tirelessly on for a week. Its surface was jagged, and it looked like it could easily cut anything with a little force. “I still don’t get it. What did I do wrong with you?” she asked it, still looking at it as if she expected some sort of answer.

“Maybe it just doesn’t like us,” Shine joked as he sat beside her.

“So much that it tried to explode and kill us? What a thing to do!” she said with angst as she placed the shard back in the pouch. “You know, something else has been bothering me about this whole incident,” she said, looking over to him now.

“Oh? And you mean beside our destroyed home and workplace?” he laughed a little. Plainly, he had made light of the grim situation already, seeming to be happy as ever. She wondered how deep it went, how far he had extended and stretched this happiness to cover up all the pain.

“Stop it,” she said, smiling herself. If anything, he was doing this to make her feel better, and she couldn’t help but do just that. “I mean about this gem,” she admitted, placing it down on the step between the two.

“What, you mean how it exploded? The energy got clogged up and exploded. What else is there to be worried about?” he asked, the two looking one another in the eye as they spoke. Glitter’s eyes shot off to the side, focus needing to be on her thoughts if she was going to explain what she worried about.

“You know how Kalk says that the shadow beasts can see energy inside of one another?” she asked, still looking off to a blank wall. She saw him nod in the corner of her peripheral vision, looking straight at her still. “What if the gem… I don’t know. Gave off energy that they saw when it exploded yesterday morning?” she asked, turning to him with worry filling her eyes. “What if I caused all this?”

He took her hoof between his own two, pulling it up gently as he looked her dead in the eye. “Everypony in the whole town who cares will be blaming themselves, Glitter. All of them. And you know what, they will all be wrong,” he spoke softly, knowing her fears with little need for thought. “It’s not anypony’s fault. Things happen. We move on, we do better, and we make sure that we are more prepared for when it happens again,” he told her. She looked down to the little bag, holding in it the small crystals that could have been the whole reason for Beacon’s destruction.

“You’re right. Thanks, love,” she said with little power. Slowly, the two pulled in to one another, and for just one glinting moment, their lips met. It always seemed that when things got bad, nothing would ever bring her comfort. She couldn’t be happier to find, every single time, that her loving husband could do that for her. “Let’s get moving, we have to get to the school before they start to worry even more,” she said, pulling herself up and onto her hooves. While hurt, she could still stand on her own, just not easily. The pack of gems secured in her bags, and her hoof fit snugly around her stallion’s shoulders, the two made their way out of the building into the flooded streets.

…

The ceiling above lit up with a cool, calm blue from a hanging gem stone, the atmosphere was soothing and peaceful in the room. All around, she could feel the fluff of the soft blanket that she was cocooned in. Lifting fore-hooves into the air, she stretched and let out a weak yawn. Despite having slept for so long, she still felt her every movement as being heavy. Her limbs seemed to crave being in the very same position as they had been in for the past few hours, or longer. She really had no idea how long she was asleep, but judging by the empty room, it had been long enough.

The filly did what she could to lift herself up, but nothing seemed to work. She couldn’t get her legs to put out any strength at all, and after a bit of struggling, simply gave up. She lay back down on her side, looking off to the slotted window across the room. Daylight had long since fallen on the town, or what was left of it. She could see the destruction even from her position. It seemed even worse than she remembered. Though, for her to think that would suggest she remember it well. She still couldn’t quite grasp why she was lying in this hospital cot, alone in this room.

The memories came back in bits at first, simple images that did little to help her. Her little brother, crying desperately in what looked like this very room popped to mind. Then Kalk and casting some sort of spell on her because… Her eyes widened as she came to the realization. It was clear in that instant what had happened. She had to do something, to try and find out if everypony was alright. What if the spell didn’t work and she hurt somepony? She couldn’t bear the thought, and it drove her to worthlessly try and pull herself out of the bed again.

It seemed her muscles were torn apart. Every movement felt like she had just run several miles on end without letting up. She tried time and again but made so little progress. She again gave in, knowing all too well she wouldn’t make it far like this anyway. Sitting upright now, after much effort, she just stared at her hooves. A sigh escaped her lips as she sat, helpless to lift herself.

“She’s been out of it for almost the whole day, are you sure she’ll be alright?” she heard a familiar voice say from outside the door.

“Yes, I’m certain. She will be fine… for now at least,” another said, the shadow of a unicorn appearing on the other side of the foggy glass that made up half the door. Her ears bolted up. Were they talking about her? The door opened, and in walked the best thing that she could ever ask for.

“Mom! Dad!” she nearly shouted upon seeing the two. A doctor accompanied them, and after everypony was in, she let out a huge smile. “Thank Celestia, you two made it here safe,”

“We should really be saying that about you,” her mother said, her brow arching up in the center. She stepped forward, and gave her a concerned look. She looked from her eyes to the bandages and back several times before saying anything else. The filly could feel the intensity of the worry her mother bore like a pile of bricks stacked neatly on her shoulders. “But well… are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Mom,” she said, looking off to the side as to avoid contact with her mother’s eyes. “I just-“ she trailed off. Her mother looked at her with a larger and larger frown, one that could only be sadness. It wasn’t disappointment, as far as she could tell, and anger didn’t seem to exist with her mother right now. Her father approached beside her, having the same, sad eyes. “I… I had to protect Orange Cyan. I couldn’t let him,” she sniffled, feeling the burden now of the scar that ran down her side. “I’m his big sister… that’s what I do, right?” she asked, looking up to her mother’s eyes now.

“Crimson,” her mother whispered under her breath. She pulled the filly into a hug, holding her close to her chest as fresh tears fell to the filly’s back. “Crimson, my daughter. The filly with a heart big enough to lose herself in it,” she whispered into the filly’s ear. Her father pulled joined in, nuzzling her gently. After a moment, her mother backed up a little, and looked at her with a smile. Her father remained right beside her, his hoof gently pressed against her own.

“What do you mean?” she asked, eyes wide. She looked from one to the other, and still couldn’t make any sense of this. “Who is Crims-“

“You,” her mother interrupted. The filly had to shake her head a little; sure that she had misheard her mother. She looked at her with wet eyes, this whole situation suddenly seeming to be a dream. It had to be a dream. There was just no way, no way at all that she could have heard that right. “That’s right, my daughter. Crimson is your name. Not any other’s,”

The red mane flew off in one direction as she whipped her head around to her flank. There, a wavy, red heart had somehow appeared, its center an offset of the outside shape. It almost appeared to be a ribbon, but had no curves to show. The heart was all there was to the cutie mark, no hidden meaning or anything. She couldn’t believe it. She… had a name! “Crimson,” she said, the word seeming od and foreign to her. That didn’t matter anymore. It was hers. Her identity, the word she would respond to should it ever be called!

“We wanted to name you when you were born. So we did. We would always call you Crimson when it was just the two of us, and now, we don’t have to hide it anymore,” her father said, coming to join her mother before her. They both had this smile on their face, like they couldn’t be more proud.

Crimson looked at the two and couldn’t help but smile. She wanted to get up and hug them, to be able to pull them both so close and just cry her happiness into their coats. But she still couldn’t lift herself up, she knew. Something else occurred to her. The sad expression they had on their faces when they entered the room. It could only mean one thing. She felt the bandages at her side as she lifted her hooves out to them. Smiling, she knew the tragedy behind this all. And so did they. She had a timer now, and this was where it started.

“I am so happy,” she cried as the two embraced her once more. Crimson’s emotions flowed like a powerful river, not stopping even for the biggest of boulders. They knew. They heard it somewhere from somepony and knew all about her curse. They knew she was going to have a hard life, or what was rest of it. They knew all that, and still wanted to give her happiness now. They dodged the grim reality to bring a sparkling joy to her on this most terrible of days. It probably hurt them, to hide it now.

She cried with the happiness, soaking their coats and manes where she buried her face. But it was not the cutie mark that brought her this happiness. Nor was it her name. No, what made Crimson so happy now was how much her family loved her. Her parents doing everything they can now to make her happy. Her brother crying because he couldn’t save her. She could be content with this. What time she had left, she would make it into a life worth living. Most importantly, she would help everypony she could before then.

The scar beneath the bandage burned painfully, a reminder of what was to come.

=========================================================================

The other was gone. The forest was so thick and dense; the thoughts of this other being found were hopes long past possibility. For a while, everything had become clear. The snippets of emotion that surged through the head, the body and the essence seemed to have a reason, for the very first time. The other was bright, brilliant and gave so much. The other had to be found. The Blood did not tug or pull in any direction now, seeming only to be content with the darkness that surrounded all. The Luminous One, for whatever reason, seemed to be of no importance anymore.

Hours past, and nothing changed. The clearing where the other was seen, where the rocks rose from the ground rather than trees, was now lit ablaze. The very contact with such flames that seemed to be everywhere in the clearing already would burn the skin, singe the flesh and turn the bone to ash. There was no going back now.

A heavy boulder seemed to tug down at the throat, the emotion having gone. Head hung low, wandering now seemed to be the only option. The Blood was content. Everything was all right as long as the Blood wasn’t boiling with urgency. A trail of fresh hoof prints painted the soft soil of the empty forest.