- this chapter is the most important and will be further elaborated in the future chapters-
-The following chapter is shown through the eyes of CRIMSON BLAST-
the last of the elemental lords was gone now... leaving me on this mountain to reflect. i sat down on the cold snow and thought. everything around me seemed to vanish. i thought... but i couldn't see what i was supposed to get. i can't stay up on this mountain forever... i need to get back to my friends. but... i feel so lost. i don't know what to do anymore... i can't figure out what i'm supposed to do. i feel like everything i do is only hurting the ones around me. i feel like every move i make is just pushing me closer to the edge. i thought harder and harder... i almost felt like screaming, but before i did there was a flash of light. i looked back in curiosity and saw mirella.
" crimson... you can't hope to understand this over night... you need time." she said.
"then give me time... please." i begged. "i need to know this... i can't go back until i do."
"why can you not...?" asked mirella.
"because..." i stopped for a pause. "because i..."
"crimson you are powerful enough... you don't need this all now." she said.
"but i do... i need it because... because i made a promise." i said.
"a promise?"
"YES, a promise. i promise no harm would come to my friends, i promised that i would protect them and that nothing would happen, i promised that i would always be there for them... that i would never give up... i've made so many promises to my friends... and each one i've been unable to keep because something stops me from honoring them... but i'm going to keep this promise... please... give me the time... i'll train, i'll learn... i'll became what i'm meant to... please... i promise." i said begging now for a way to get time. she seemed completely taken away by my sentiments.
"crimson..." she said looking at me as i looked back. she let out a deep sigh. "fine... i can give you time... and me and the other gods will teach you... you will learn... but i must warn you." she said.
"yes, what anything." i blurted out.
"i can bring you to a place where we will train you for a thousand years and when you come back it will only be tomorrow morning..."
"one... one thousand years!" i exclaimed. could i really do that... one thousand years.
"yes... one thousand years you will train in all the elements and aspects of universal knowledge and harmony... you will be more than ready to take on you're role a peacekeeper. but heed my warning crimson... there will be no brakes, no sleep, and no stopping. once you enter through the portal you will be in there for one thousand years... are you ready for this." she said. "don't blurt out 'yes'... think about it crimson." she said one more time as she waved her hands and a bright white portal opened up out of thin air.
"yes... i'm ready for this."
"crimson I..."
"ive never been more sure of anything in my life." i roared back at her as i cut her off. "i'm tired of feeling like a constant disappointment to my friends and family. i'm tired of feeling like they aren't safe around me... i want them to have that peace of mind... i want them to be safe, and i will do ANYTHING for them..." mirella let out a deep sigh and looked up at me smiling.
"then we better get started." she said walking into the portal. i followed her through eagerly not really knowing what i was getting myself into. and as soon as i stepped through and the portal closed i was scared, i didn't know what this was going to be like and i don't want to have this turn sour on me in a week. when we came through the portal we ended up in a perfectly flat, grey plane. the ground was just ordinary stone and the sky was dark and cloudy... perfect, i guess.
"let us begin..." said mirella.
and so we did... we started and for the next THOUSAND years... i trained. it was hell... nothing else to say but that it was absolute hell. the first week was when it started getting to me... then it only got worse and worse. luckily after the first century the pain subsided and i carried on with my training. soon it became fluent... i moved like a machine, with no real purpose... but somehow with the fires of passion burning in me. days turned into weeks, and weeks into years. and before i knew it another century passed. there were no days and no night's... it seemed like it dragged on for all of eternity... like it was one demonically long day.
then it started happening... by the halfway marker at the fifth century i had already began to forget... forget everything. names places and most ponies. i had the faint vision of several ponies in my mind that never seemed to leave, but no names to go with them. i no longer had any recollection of my life outside of this place. i could remember my promises though, and one that stayed deep inside my mind was the promise to a king. it was to help him in his desperate attempt to take control of his land again from the evil red armies. that promise, along with others, stayed buried deep in my mind with the faces and figures of many ponies, no names though... just faces.
i trained with every element there was. fire, nature, water, light, darkness, thunder, earth, air, life, and death. each god constantly watching me, teaching me... testing me. it was grueling... both mentally and physically. there was no easy teaching either. i often ended up getting hurt and tossed around. i had to fight false enemies to show off my skills and heal my own wounds. it was intense and it never stopped. i didn't sleep, eat, drink, use the bathroom, or rest. each day i became stronger and stronger. every year i reached a whole new level of power. and then one day... the day i never thought existed. it was the last day of the one thousandth year. i had just finished fighting off an army of stone dummies.
"alright crimson... this is it." said mirella.
"what is?" i asked in a new grizzled voice. my left eye had gone bad from a training accident but i can still see far better than perfectly out of it. it was scared and milky. i had scars all over me and my skin was tougher than leather. i had grown to be at least seven feet or so. i had become incredibly fit and very muscular. and over the thousand years my hair had faded into a long white rag of a mane. i had a short grizzled, white beard as well. my armor was plated and spiked with chains running across it for decoration. my hood and my cape where white now and torn from the training... i had become greater than before.
"this is you're final test." said mirella standing with the other gods.
"f-final test... what do you mean?" i asked.
"today is the 365th day of the thousandth year... this is the last day of you're training." she said smiling... and you're final test is to demonstrate all that you have learned."
" alright..." i said. i faced away and looked to the open world in front of me.
"when you're ready..." she said.
i took in a deep breath and began to focus all of my energy. after a second the ground under me cracked and sunk three inches. the cracks spread across the flat area. they let out golden white light. i pulled in all my energy and finally i released it in the most impressive and terrifying display of concentrated power ever witnessed. i performed literally everything i learned. the land in front of me was completely and utterly destroyed. my marking began to glow and so did my eyes and wings.
spikes of earth and shadow shot up from the ground. beams of powerful light burst through the clouds and lightning accompanied them. spouts of red hot lava shot up from the ground and water washed over the area in a giant wave that i quickly froze and shot spikes of ice form. tornadoes touched down from the sky and it started raining ash and red hot cinders. roots with large thorns over them spread across the ground and weaved in and out of the stone. a fog of death washed over the ground while beams of life parted the clouds in the sky and shone light on the ground. mirella smiled behind me as she watched the spectacle which spread for miles and miles on end.
i settled down and lowered my power. the magic performed slowly sunk back down and the world started to heal itself. the lava stopped tornados vanished and ice melted and washed away. the ground patched back up and the clouds covered the sky again. it was like it had never actually happened. i stopped glowing and folded my wings back into my side and took a few deep breaths. i turned over to the other gods, but they were gone... it was just mirella. she was smiling which gave me an abundance of hope and happiness... feelings that i had not felt for hundreds of years.
"congratulations crimson... you've fully ascended to the title of God..." she said. her smile made me smile which is also something i hadn't done for hundreds of years. these emotions of happiness and joy felt new to me, but i felt like i knew them... it was like deja vu.
"so does that mean...?"
"yes..." said mirella finishing my sentence. "you can now return to you're world... i know you may have forgotten everything you once knew... but unfortunately i can only return some parts of you're memory... you should be able to do the rest on you're own.
"thank you..." i said smiling. she smiled back and waved her hand up and it glowed a bright light. soon everything when white. and then i felt cold... there was something under my feet now, a strangely familiar feeling. i opened my eyes and everything was still white... but not as much as before. i was on the top of the mountain again now. i could remember a few things. i could remember my quest and who i was going after, i also knew the pony i'm going after is my wife... but i can't remember her name.
i remember my current job now. to help the king with his scarlet army problem... that should be today. and i remember that i'm travelling with my friends. i can remember their faces, but no names still. i know where i need to be, and what i need to do. i was reborn again... but this time, i'm SO much more ready than i've ever been before. from now on nothing will stand in my way. i am that i am, and what i uphold is the basis of good itself. i am no stranger to change, i push forward stubbornly with fire in my heart and eyes. i am in control and i will change to the needs of other. i am strong and fast as well as cunning and agile. i am the bringer of life and peace, as well as a harbinger of death and punishment... i am that i am. i am crimson... rightfully proclaimed god of balance, i uphold peace, justice, and harmony.
And i'm ready for what the world has to throw at me.