The Gems Part 1
Crimson Dazzle, a white stallion Pegasus with a long red and gray mane and semiquaver Cutie Mark, was running through the forest, trying very desperately to escape capture from the fiendish things behind him. He had no clue where he was in the great Everfree Forest. He was scared and nearly out of breath. The brush pulled and scratched at his fur and skin as if begging him to give up, but he pushed on, stronger.
He stopped for a brief moment to regain both his breath and bearings. He was surrounded on all sides by the thick brush and tall oak and pine trees. Beside his own heavy panting, he could hear nothing. He quickly checked his knapsack for the gem and looked around. He was safe for the moment. He needed a plan. A plan to escape the forest he was in and the monsters that gave him chase.
Crimson decided he would keep walking though the woods, oblivious to the terror that lurked beyond sight. He looked to the sky and found the North Star, Polaris, and followed in its direction, knowing that Ponyville was north of the Everfree.
Not even five step further, he was knocked unconscious and carried upon the back of another being. Just before losing his senses, he caught a glimpse of the perpetrator, a black-hooded figure with two glowing green eyes peeking from under the hood. He hasped and fainted.
~Earlier That Day~
Crimson Dazzle woke up at Twelve in the afternoon, as usual, and took a shower. After his long session of air drying, he combed his hair, grabbed his knapsack, and head out to Sugarcube Corner to have his daily slice of Apple Pie and glass of orange juice.
As he walked in, he was greeted by the energetic Pinkie Pie, as usual. And stood at the counter of the store.
"Are you having the usual today Crimson?" the pink mare spouted as she usually did, with his just as normal confirmation.
As he stood there, waiting for his lunch, another familiar mare entered the store with a basket of apples on her orange-furred back. Applejack set the basket of apples down next to the counter and pushed her blonde bangs out of her eyes.
"Hey, AJ!" Crimson said to the mare. "How's Sweet Apple Acres coming?"
"Perty good, actually. Cider sales have been through the roof!" replied Applejack, a slight pant in her voice after carrying those apples in.
"Word must have spread about how delicious it is, huh," said Crimson with a grin.
"Sure must've! If it keeps up like this, we'll have that new wagon in no time!" said Applejack, smiling widely.
At that moment, Pinkie Pie, came back out with Crimson's slice of pie, nice and steamy warm! She placed it down in front of him and grinned happily.
"I really hope you like it!" squealed the peppy pony as she sat on her haunches.
"Thanks Pinkie! I'm sure it'll be great, just as usual!" he replied, smiling warmly at Pinkie.
Pinkie grinned again and then turned her attention to Applejack. They both conversed with each other as they walked to the back of the store, leaving Crimson to his sweet pie.
After he finished the pie, he paid his bill and left the building to go to the Town Hall, as there was a festival that day.
When he arrived, he was greeted by Ponyville's own Lyra Heartstrings, who wore a great big smile.
"Hi there Crimson! Come to play some games?" asked the sea-green mare.
"Yeah, I wanna try my hooves at the strength test again this year!" replied Crimson, looking past Lyra to the tall pole in the background.
"You didn't do so good last year, eh?" teased Lyra playfully.
Crimson fake pouted and said, "I'm stronger than you I bet!"
Both ponies giggled and parted ways, heading for their desired activities.
~~~~~
After the fair, at around eight at night, Crimson started to trot home. It was getting dark and he didn't want to be out at night. On his way home, he had to pass by a layer of the Everfree Forest. He was always curious as to what lay beyond them, as he was always forbidden to enter them. Today however, there was something unusual about them. He felt like he was be pulled toward them ever so gently. When he saw an entrance to the thick forest, he decided he would explore them.
As he entered the dark, dank, woods, he felt suddenly isolated. He trotted through the trees along a path that seemed as old as the Everfree Forest itself.
Whenever he reached a clearing, he noticed an odor coming from in front of him. It reminded him of decaying flesh, left in a pit to waste away. He squinted through the darkness to find the origin of the pungent smell. Finding nothing, he continued on, finding another part of the path. He noticed that the further he walked down the path, the stronger the odor.
After what seemed like a half hour of walking, he stumbled across the ruins of a shack. A large, one story shack. Its roof was in tact, but that was the best of it. The walls were built of decaying wood covered in lichen and moss. Its window were shattered and the door was slightly ajar and hanging on one of its hinges.
The oddest thing about the shack was that it seemed to be the source of the sick fragrance. It also appeared to have a faint azure light leaking from the cracked door, the light flickering. Bright. Dull. Bright. Dull. Bright. Dull.
At this point, he was worried. Crimson was scared of whatever was inside the shack.
"What was I thinking to have come down here?" thought the Pegasus grimly. "Why did I come here?"
At that moment, the door to the shack squeaked open a little further, as if inviting him in, encouraging him to follow the scent and pulsating light. In which he did.
Crimson slowly trotted up to the shack's door, and even slower, pushed the door open with a long, shrill squeak. Whenever he was in, he looked around. It appeared he was in a living room and kitchen mixture of some sorts. There was only a tattered blue couch and lazy boy set, chipped coffee table, and shattered fish bowl on top of an empty bookcase. The kitchen area contained a dusty oven, rusty sink, and wrecked cabinets.
The flickering glow was coming from the fish bowl.
As Crimson came closer to the light, the pulsing grew more rapid, until it was a steady beam and he was right next to it. Inside the bowl was a gem
The gem was a bright cerulean and shown with great intensity, almost too bright to look at. When he picked it up, he knew he needed to keep it.
After he placed the gem into his knapsack, strange things began happening. The lazy boy began to rock. The sink started dripping, and the shredded curtains began blowing in a non-existent breeze. Crimson decided to explore the rest of the shack.
There were only two doors, one on either side of the door. Crimson chose the left door.
Whenever he opened the door, apparently to the bathroom. the first thing he noticed was the note on the mirror. He pulled out the gem to read the note.
The note read, "The Stone is not yours to handle. Return it or suffer."
Crimson was chilled by this, even though he was not very superstitious. Even so, he decided to ignore the note and venture into the door on the right of the main room.
This room was a bedroom. Its centerpiece was a king size canopy bed, whose canopy was in tatters. Around the bed was a rotted armoire, a rocking chair, a cracked full body mirror, and a closed closet. The first thing Crimson noticed in this room was that the stench was the worst in there. There was another note as well. This time on the bed.
The note read, "You have been warned, you shall pay for your ignorance."
As Crimson read the last line of the note, the closet behind him creaked open slowly. Crimson started and stared at the slightly ajar sliding doors through the full body mirror. In the crack, he could see a pair of bright, glowing green eyes.
Crimson's heart rocketed itself into his throat. He was shaking hard and breathing heavily. He slowly started edging toward the door out.
As he reached the door, the closet door slid completely open, revealing a hulking shadow.
The shadow stepped out of the darkness and into the faint light of the gem. The beast was tall, stood on two legs, and had five appendages where the hooves should be, though the body was much sleeker than that of a pony's. The thing was wearing a black, billowing cloak with a hood that covered the face. Only the two green orbs peered at Crimson through the dark under the hood. The worst part was that the monster seemed to be the source of the stench!
As Crimson began to make his way out of the room, the figure began to make its way toward him, slowly. Crimson exited the room, closed the door, and swiftly left the shack. As he was running away from the shack, he heard a loud crunch behind him and looked back. The beast had just rammed through the door of the shack and was now chasing Crimson!
Crimson panicked and galloped away through the forest as fast as possible, hoping to lose the wretched hulk in the thicket.
Crimson could hear the pounding of the beast's feet as it crashed through the brush after him.
Crimson Dazzle was running through the forest, trying very desperately to escape capture from the fiendish thing behind him. He had no clue where he was in the great Everfree Forest. He was scared and nearly out of breath. The brush pulled and scratched at his fur and skin as if begging him to give up, but he pushed on, stronger.
He stopped for a brief moment to regain both his breath and bearings. He was surrounded on all sides by the thick brush and tall oak and pine trees. Beside his own heavy panting, he could hear nothing. He quickly checked his knapsack for the gem and looked around. He was safe for the moment. He needed a plan. A plan to escape the forest he was in and the monsters that gave him chase.
Crimson decided he would keep walking though the woods, oblivious to the terror that lurked beyond sight. He looked to the sky and found the North Star, Polaris, and followed in its direction, knowing that Ponyville was north of the Everfree.
Not even five step further, he was knocked unconscious and carried upon the back of another being. Just before losing his senses, he caught a glimpse of the perpetrator, a black-hooded figure with two glowing green eyes peeking from under the hood. He hasped and fainted.
~The Next Evening~
Crimson woke up with a start. He looked around him at his surroundings. He appeared to be in a workshop of some kind, though there were hooks and cleavers hanging from the ceiling along with bloody pony hides. He looked to his left and saw the beast facing him, though preoccupied with something. Another look brought tears to his eyes and bile to his mouth. And only then could he hear the crying and moaning.
He could see the beast, and its ugly face. It was shaped like a monkeys, but longer and with no hair. It was using a scalpel to remove the wings of a mare Pegasus. That mare was Derpy Hooves. Apparently she had followed him into the forest and got caught in the crossfire. Too bad she woke up first.
The beast then cut the mare's cheeks open to let her jaw hang down, squirting blood. Derpy screamed in agony. The thing then tore her jaw clean off, leaving her tongue. By this time, her blood was covering her body. The monster then proceeded in slicing the scalpel through poor mare's abdomen, opening up to the organs hidden inside. The beast then reached up inside her chest and ripped out her heart. The only thing that she had to offer to her friends. Her heart, her love, was stripped away in mere seconds.
By this time, Crimson was in silent tears. He was watching his best friend be brutally murdered. He couldn't believe what he was seeing!
The freak then began to skin the freshly killed mare. When it was done, he took the cadaver into the other room.
When the monster left the room, Crimson looked around for a way out. He could see his knapsack lying on a table just a few feet away from him on his right, and a knife just to his left. The knife was reachable.
Crimson stretched his hoof as far as he could, took hold of the knife, and cut himself free. When he got up, he quickly gathered his knapsack and hid under the table Derpy once laid upon. The table was draped in a white plastic sheeting, making it a good place to hide.
A few seconds later, he could hear the beast return and grunt in surprise at the missing stallion. The monster could be heard searching the slaughter room. Finally, the footsteps stopped in front of the table Crimson was under. The flap of plastic next to Crimson's face was lifted and then he was staring into the beast's face. The freak grinned evilly and started to reach in to grab Crimson.
Crimson retaliated by swinging the knife swiftly at its arm and cutting a deep gash into it. This seemed to enrage the beat as it flipped the table and grabbed Crimson by the scruff of the neck, dangling him six feet off the ground.
Crimson responded by stabbing the beast arm. It howled in pain and dropped to its knees. He took this opportunity to sink the blade of the knife deep into the monster's neck. The monster gave a weak croak and fell to the floor, dead. As he watched, the body of the beast slowly turned to ash, which floated way on an unnatural breeze. The only thing left was a gem similar to the blue one in which he possessed, except it was a deep blood red.
Cimson picked it up and galloped up the stairs. Where he popped up was shocking. The stairs led to a hatch beneath the couch in the shack, only now, the couch was moved away.
Crimson ignored this and continued galloping away, this time on the path to town. As he reached the opening, he broke down crying. He had watched his best friend get murdered. And for what? a few gems? Sure, he didn't know Derpy had followed him, or even that he was in danger.
Crimson j sat and cried for a while longer, until he heard a pounding in the forest growing close from behind.
End Part 1
