King Crimson's Bizarre Adventure through Horse World: The Crimson-ing

by 81298821227777777_

Phase Three and a Half: Paint the Town Crimson

Spike awoke to a large tremor shaking him out of bed. With a rumble, shake, and thud, Spike had fallen out of his rest, fully awake and somewhat dazed. Climbing from the floor, he took a quick look around the room, seeing that Twilight had already gotten out of bed. Realizing this, Spike began his search for Twilight in her study. Sure enough, she was there.

"I take the tremors woke you up, too." She hadn't faced away from the window.

"Yeah... what's going on? Are we under attack or something?"

"No, it's something else. Those tremors aren't coming from anywhere nearby, but are actually coming from deep inside the Everfree. Something serious was going on out there to have caused that."

"So, crazy stuff that's not important? Great! I'm going back to sleep."

"No, that's not all." Twilight's face grew a worried expression. "Ever since, I've been sensing a strange force coming from the forest, and it's been getting gradually bigger. Something is coming this way."

"...You don't know what it is?"

"The magic I've been sensing is not one I've felt before. We might be dealing with something completely new!"

"So is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Twilight sighed. "I don't know... You can go on back to sleep, but I'm going to stay up a little longer, see if I can get any more information on what's going on."

"Alright, you enjoy yourself, Twilight," Spike replied as he yawned and left the room.

Twilight looked out to the Everfree, the thought of a strange, new power left out there to discover brought her a mix of worry and curiosity.

"It should be fine. Shouldn't it?"

---

"We've got to have the advantage now! She's going to have to sleep sooner or later!"

King Crimson and Epitaph had kept on their pursuit for several hours now, seeing no end of the forest in sight. They had begun their journey of escaping this strange world, and their first key out had a tag that read "Pride" on it. They had been going the whole night, and through the trees, the sun had begun its ascent once again. After passing through the familiar of trees, dirt, and the occasional wildlife, Epitaph's attention was grasped by something in the distance.

"Crimson, up ahead! There's the edge of the forest!"

"I SEE IT! CRIMSON WAS GETTING TIRED OF THESE TREES."

With one final dash, King Crimson was clear of the dreary forest, and entered a familiar setting. A town not far off, plain and hills, cobblestone road, and a very familiar sign.

"ANOTHER FAKE TOWN? CRIMSON IS TIRED OF THIS."

"No, I don't think this one is a fake this time. I can see actual PONIES this time."

"IF NOT FAKE, THEN MAYBE HORSEY IS HIDING HERE."

"Most likely. I pretty sure there were no turns on that path, so this is still the direction she was heading."

"CRIMSON IS LOOKING FORWARD TO CUTTING HORSEY'S FACE OFF."

"No, no, we need her alive if we want to get out of here."

"OH."

"Now, less talking, more searching! Onwards, Crimson!"

"YES!" Crimson shouted with excitement as he began his incredibly short journey to the very real town of Ponyville.

---

Compared to their last 'visit' to Ponyville, the place was more lively than they remembered, with ponies going to and fro to in their unknown destinations. As Crimson and Epitaph viewed amongst them, there were no faces they deemed familiar.

"I have a feeling this may be harder than I thought. You got any ideas, big man? Maybe one of your ass-backward plans can help us out here."

"HMMM..." Crimson pondered for a minute. "OH, OH! DO THE THING YOU DO! DO YOUR THING!"

"What? Oh, that." Epitaph focused for a moment, and suddenly, an echo of King Crimson appeared a few feet away, pointing off at a distant building. Following the prediction, Crimson moved to where his future self was standing, and pointed in the same direction, only to see a gray mare quickly exit the building seconds later.

"THAT WAS HORSEY! THEY WERE HIDING INSIDE!"

"Well, what are you waiting for? After her!"

Without a second thought, Crimson began to run after the mare they had been chasing all this time, occasionally using his ability to make sure he didn't enter her line of sight. As she turned a street corner, so did Crimson, only to see a pony pulling along a cart of produce. Determined to catch the Stand user, Crimson slashed down the middle of the cart, completely destroying it and rendering its carrier dead. Crimson didn't bother slowing down at the commotion he created, and continued pursuit. Another turn, and there she was, at the dead end of an alley.

"NO MORE RUNNING FROM CRIMSON." The mare's face was filled with terror as she searched for a way out of the situation, before locking eyes with King Crimson.

Then, all fear faded from her, and she grinned. "Well, I suppose this is the end of the line, isn't it?"

"We aren't leaving without you. You got some information that we want."

"Is that so?" Pride smirked.

"CRIMSON WANTS OUT OF THIS WORLD AND HE NEEDS YOU TO DO IT."

"I'm not giving up that easily. You can go ahead and try to take it from me."

Pride's horn began to glow, and before he could react, Crimson was blown away by a bolt of magic. When he looked back to where she was, they had already disappeared.

"Damn it! For someone so weak, she's very good at keeping us away." Epitaph looked about, seeing the not only did the destroyed cart draw in multiple ponies, but now a few of them looked their way with expressions of fear and surprise.

"IS IT JUST ME, OR IS CRIMSON BEING WATCHED?"

Epitaph looked again, and sure enough, all eyes were now on them. "I don't think that blast was just to keep us from getting to her. I think we've just been exposed!"

Crimson glanced amongst the frightened faces. "THIS IS GOING TO BE A PROBLEM FOR CRIMSON."

---

Spike slammed the library doors open, panting from the sprint he had made to tell Twilight the bad news.

"Twilight... Twilight..."

Twilight entered the room with haste. "What? What happened?"

"Some... Somepony was... was... k-killed..."

Her blood ran cold. "What!?"

Spike stopped her. "That's... not all... Come look!" He ran back out the door.

Twilight followed. "What do you mean 'come look'?! You just said somepony died!"

Spike stopped her in her tracks and pointed. "Look! I think that's what caused it!"

Twilight looked to where he was pointed, and halted. It was a tall, bipedal creature, covered in a strange, diamond-shaped pattern and donning what seemed to be armor. Its face, or 'faces', were small and oddly-shaped, with fish-like eyes peering around the area it was in. The strange magic she had sense before was irradiating off of it; the power coming from it was immense, almost blocking out everything around it.

"Wh... What is that?"