Reborn

by shadowsythe22

(sequel to "dream machine"). After the tragic incident with queen chrysalis Crimson is brought into the world in a new body with no memories of who he is or was. he becomes reborn as a new pony in more ways than one and to save his wife he must fully realize what he has become and tap into his hidden power to take down his toughest foe yet. (Rated M for clop)

47. Chapter 47: Rift In Time

"Crimson…" said twilight.

"Yeah Twi…" I replied looking over to her. She gave me a sultry look with her deep purple eyes. She paused for a moment like she was giving me time to read the expression off her face.

"Will she be OK?" she asked.

"Who…alba?" I asked.

"Yeah…" she replied. "I obviously don't know what it's like to die, and sometimes that scares me. I don't know what comes next… but you know… what will happen to her?" she asked. She gazed at me with that same still look and I took a moment to sigh. I looked up past the trees and up into the sky and gazed right at the sun. a sudden breeze blew past my hair and my fur, and for a brief second I could hear a voice whisper my name into my ear… and I smiled. I flashed my smile at twilight and she changed to a surprised and confused look.

"Don't worry twilight…" I said. "ponies like you, and alba, and all the other truly good ponies always end up in paradise… don't worry, where she is now, there is no suffering, no anger, violence, hatred, worry, or conflict. Where she went is a place only of pure happiness and carefree bliss… like being a child again without a care in the world."

"You really think so?" she asked flashing a smile back at me.

"I know so…" I replied.

"I always thought that after all the bad things she did she would end up in hell… and I was scared for her." She said.

"Only the truly evil go to hell, she wasn't truly evil… it wasn't her fault, she was innocent… and we all know it." I said. Twilight smiled and closed her eyes for a second. A line of tears started welling up under her eyes and she looked at me with her big purple eyes and smiled. She placed her head against me and closed her eyes imagining how happy she was. I rested my head on top of twilights as we walked slowly down the dirt road. I closed my eyes and started imagining a carefree place, a kind of heaven if you will… though; I'm doomed to never see paradise.

And I can't ever share it with my friends… which hurts the most.

We had been walking for hours. Nopony spoke a word, not even me until twilight just spoke up. We all just moved onward and kept our eyes glued on the ground in thought. With all of my thinking the hours seemed to go by faster than usual. We couldn't take the cullis gate back to the city, it might be working but it didn't have a map with it and we don't know how to control it so we could teleport back, it could have sent us anywhere on the continent, so we decided not to risk it. Even if we had teleported into a city on the other side of stallasia it wouldn't matter because we don't have any money for another trip. Besides, this place isn't so far from the volcano; it looks almost like a straight shot. We could see the massive mountain watching over us past the trees.

Strangely enough when Alba finally was able to move on and rest in peace it must have done something to the forest. When we exited the cave we couldn't believe our eyes when all the trees had fully grown and bloomed and the soil returned to life. We're now following an old path through the forest that must have been made hundreds of years ago. It was starting to get dark though, but this was it, the final stretch… we were so close… so close. We have to keep going. Even though it's not the end it's the first major checkpoint out of god knows how many, we need the boost of confidence and moral. If I had to guess we could make it in the morning if we pushed through the night. I'm sure it still might be dangerous in the dark but not nearly as much anymore. It's a good thing we still have a bunch of lanterns. Twilight kept her gaze on the ground, like the other… but I stared upwards towards the sky. There's a lot I know about the world, and a lot I still have yet to learn… but the one thing that interests me the most, the one thing I could never understand, is what drives us to do what we do. A question like that can't have a simple answer like love… it has to be deeper than that, and the more I think about it the closer I grow to the grim reality of everything.

We don't just die… nopony dies. Sure maybe our bodies fail to function at some point somehow… but those are just bodies, I've learned to look at life a different way. A deep and immortal spiritual connection allows me to commune with the poor souls that haven't found peace yet and still wander the earth and even those who reside in the afterlife. It just shows that we don't die, we live on forever, and everypony is immortal. The only difference between me and the rest is that my vessel, my body won't die so easily if ever. I kept my gaze towards the clouds and let out a deep sigh. From the corner of my eye I spotted twilight turning her head over to me and give me a curious look.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked. I looked back from the sky and gazed into her purple eyes.

"Oh… nothing." I said giving her a smile.

"You know… I wish we could have done something to help her." Said thunder from behind me and twilight.

"I do too thunder." I said keeping my gaze towards the sky. "But there are some things we just can't control, not even I can decide the fate of others… it's not in my place. Only we can decide our own fates, and what Alba did was the right thing, she chose to end her suffering along with the suffering of others and in it she found peace… so there is absolutely nothing wrong with her choice…"

"Sometimes I wish I just knew all the answers to life's questions." Said martukus.

"You should know just as well as I martukus that life doesn't ask questions." I said glaring back at him. We both stayed silent for a while as I glared at him and then I turned my gaze back towards the road. One last time I looked back up at the sky just as the sun was setting. Twilight looked back at me and I glanced away from the sky for a second to shoot her a steely gaze that seemed to freeze her soul. I shot my head back up to the sky and the sun fled over the mountain tops and the world started growing darker by the second as the bright red sky that had occupied me for the last hour or so started fading. "Damn…" I said softly.

"What's wrong crimson?" asked twilight.

"It's getting dark… I can't see the sky anymore." I said. "I liked the sky… it looked especially beautiful this evening.

"Crimson your acting a bit strange… is it something you want to talk about?" asked twilight.

"Yeah, she's right." Added thunder. "I've been noticing it too. The rest of us have been quiet but you've been deathly silent, it was like you weren't even breathing, just walking forwards, not even your hooves made a sound on the dried leaves."

"Something's troubling you." Said martukus.

"Yes… something is troubling me." I said. "But don't worry about it." the others just stared at me with worried expressions but I kept my look forward and walked down the road. They could tell something was wrong with me, and it's taken this long for my pent up feelings to finally start bubbling against the surface. I need to vent out some of these feelings somehow but I can't, I become too dangerous when I let out my feelings, which is why I hold them back. When Alba passed on I wanted to cry, but I couldn't because my friends would see me cry. If I cry then It makes me look weak, and if I look weak then my friends won't think I can survive the fight with shall-Grahkan. And if they don't think I can win then they worry, and that worry leads to them being afraid for me. If they fear for my life, then they'll cry and beg me not to go, and I can't watch my friends cry… because then I would cry. This whole trip I've been holding back my tears, it usually doesn't take long for me to repress my feelings, but I've been feeling all sorts of things on this long and winding road.

I did tell them something's wrong, but not just with me. Something isn't right. It's like every step that I take a new bad memory returns to me like a flashback, making me relive every second of the agony. Every innocent person or pony I've hurt all the mistakes and bad decisions… all of them flood into my head one after another and it never seems to end. Every time I've been hurt or embarrassed, every time I cried of yelled or got angry. Memories of every time I was cruel and abusive, every time I caused others grief or pain. The ones that hurt the most are the memories of when I caused somepony to cry. I pulled myself away for a little bit to look back around at the world around me.

The forest had grown fully dark now and it became difficult to see. I focused some of my energy and used it to illuminate my body and cover myself in my armor. My glowing body lit up the area around us and we could find our way through. As we pressed onward the others remained silent and still while my eyes darted around the forest. I started seeing faces in the darkness, people and ponies that I've known quite well, and each one opened up a new mental scar and more memories. Even memories that I had deeply repressed started bubbling to the surface. My light started to flicker but I focused and kept it on. Twilight and the others noticed my power fade slightly and confronted me about it.

" crimson what was that?" She asked inquiring about the flickering light.

" nothing... I just got distracted for a moment." I said.

" crimson.. Are... Are you sweating?" Asked twilight placing her hoof on my forehead and wiping off some sweat. I didn't even notice it before but now that I notice it now I can see that I'm sweating bullets. I felt sick to my stomach and just wanted to lie down, but I know that wont help.

" I guess I am... It's pretty hot outside." I said feeling the warm air on my skin.

" no... It's cold outside, it's night... I quite chilly actually." Said twilight glaring at me with suspicion.

" crimson if your going to lie you could at least try and do a good job at it." Said thunder. I don't get it... It feels hot out to me. Twilight placed her hoof back on top of my head and felt around.

" oh my god... Crimson your burning up." She said.

" what... No..." I said feeling slightly hazy. " I... I can't get sick... I'm immortal, mortal sicknesses... Can't... Can't affect me." I said with my vision slowly blackening. I felt tired, nauseous, I was sweaty and hot, and I was dozed and confused. I strayed off for a second and followed what I thought was the path but twilight had to pull me back. Once I recovered for a second I could see that I had almost just wandered into a grove of thorn bushes.

" alright... Lets settle down here... You need some sleep." Said twilight.

" no... We need to push on... The sooner we leave the better." I said.

" no crimson, twilight is right, you need to rest." Said martukus.

" no...I just... Water... I just need some water." I said. Twilight looked over to me with a concerned look.

" alright... Here," said thunder. " here's your canteen." He said handing me over the canteen of water. I unscrewed the cap quickly and started chugging down half of the canteen, I started feeling a bit better and stopped. I poured the rest of the water over my head and it felt wonderful, it felt like I could think again.

" I need... I need to find some water." I said looking around.

" ugh... We just gave you some... You just poured it on your face." Said thunder.

" no... A lake... A puddle... Something." I said.

" a lake?" Repeated twilight. I stuck my snout up into the air and started sniffing around for a source of water. I couldn't smell much but I turned my head a little bit to the right and picked up a scent of fresh water, don't ask me how I can smell water, because I can't even begin to describe it.

" this way..." I said moving towards the smell. I kept my nose up high and started moving around dodging plants and trees using just my scent. My eyes had become unreliable and there was too much noise, plus you can't hear water easily, only when everything is dead silent.

" wait... Crimson wait..." Shouted twilight as she and the other chased me through the woods. I darted through with faint images passing by my face. I used my smell and suddenly stopped and stood still. I sniffed the air once more, and then followed it to the ground. I lowered my nose down and soon I felt something wet. I opened up my eyes and saw a sparkling lake in front of me. Just then twilight, thunder and martukus leapt thorough the syrup and stopped behind me. They looked at me curiously as I submerged my head into the water. Suddenly it was like everything that was wrong started to fade. The cool water felt great against my head. I pulled my head out quickly and let out a relieved sigh. Twilight, being curious as usual, walked over and place sheer hoof in the water but quickly pulled it out. " crap, that water is freezing." Said twilight. She looked at me like she was going to say something, but before she did I leaned over and fell right into the water.

Suddenly my body stared to cool off and I could finally start to think clearly now. All of the bad memories started sinking back down in my mind and the good memories began bubbling back to the surface. All of the memories made me smile as I slowly started to sink down in the dark cold water. My hair waved past the sides of my face and I took in a deep breath then let out a deep sigh. I opened my eyes and started to flap my wings and swim back up to the surface. I grew closer and closer and soon I breached the surface to see my friends standing near the edge of the water. They all had a concerned look on their faces, especially twilight who seemed very worried. I just glanced at them and flashed a smile.

" crimson, are you feeling alright?" Asked martukus.

" well it's pointless to deny it now... So no, I wasn't feeling great, but I feel much better now that I've cooled off." I said.

" I could feel a lot of emotional stress coming from you, are you fine?" Asked martukus.

" yeah, I'm fine... The cold water cleared my head, but I think something In this forest must be messing with my mind." I said.

" so the emotional stress made you feel sick." Said thunder.

" even though you weren't." Finished twilight.

" yeah... It was all just in my head." I replied. I placed my hooves on the grassy shore and climbed up and out of the water. I shook myself off and patted my fur down. " I think I'll be fine... But that was scary." I said.

" your damn right it was... I thought you were going to start freaking out on us." Said twilight seeming a bit angry now. I just smiled at her and she seemed to calm down now. I know that she expects a lot from me being who I am, but she could use to lighten up a bit.

" we should get going back." I said walking past the brush and forest back onto the dirt road. The others followed and we started walking down the path once again. We walked onward down the path and as I took one more step the sky above us started to grow bright, a blinding bright. We shielded our eyes and as I looked out from my hooves I could see the sun, and the whole forest was glowing bright as day once again. I stopped in my tracks as did the others. "...what?" I said looking up at the sky. "...what?" I said sounding even more confused.

" how... How is that there?" Asked martukus.

" something's wrong..." Said twilight.

" I don't feel any disturbances..." Said martukus.

" neither do I." I added.

" crimson...?" Twilight said in a slightly frightened voice as if she were staring at some horrible creature.

" I don't think I have an explanation for this one twilight." I said.

" no... It's not that." She said. I looked back form the sky over to twilight who was staring off into the distance.

" what is it?" I asked looking at her.

" where's the volcano?" She asked.

" huh?" I said looking the way she was looking I turned my head to look down the road and suddenly the large mountainous volcano that overlooked the whole forest, just wasn't there. It wasn't like we couldn't see it form this angle or anything, the paths are straight and the mountain looms high over the trees even from this distance.

" what the HELL... At do you guys talking about?" Asked thunder behind us looking at us like we've lost our minds. We looked at him and gave him the same look.

" you've got to be kidding..." I said. " you can't see the lack of mountain in front of us, or the sun in the sky." I said pointing out both spots.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about... It's still night back here on earth... And I can't see the mountain because its still dark." He said squinting and looking forward towards the space that used to be occupied by the mountain. I peered over at him and started to think for a second.

" this isn't a time for fucking jokes thunder... Something is seriously wrong." Said twilight getting annoyed.

" really now... We have to figure this out." Added martukus.

" wait..." I said silencing them both.

" I might have figured it out..." I said. " thunder... Whatever you do... Don't move." I said.

" what?... What is it?" He asked frantically staying still. I slowly walked over to him. I took one step slowly after another and soon I was right in front of him. I leaned down and drew a line on the ground between us. I looked at his eyes and they were still dilated like he was still trying to see in the dark. I tapped him on the shoulder jut to make sure I could feel him. He just kept sweating and looking at me nervously as well did the others.

" I want you to stick your head past this line." I said moving to the side but not passing the line. He just looked at me with a confused expression but complied and stuck his head past the line. I watched as he fiercely shut his eyes and covered them and back up. He opened his eyes and I saw that his pupils chad contracted to the light but were now dilating again.

" oh god...chat was that light?" He asked.

" he could see it... But..." Twilight said.

" there must be a barrier." Said martukus sparking the conclusion.

" not exactly..." I said. I had one last test. I took a few steps past the line and once my head passed through the light was gone and everything went dark as my eyes started to adjust and dilate. The cool night air covered my upper half as the warm daytime sun beat down on my lower body. I grabbed thunder and pulled him back through with me. He stumbled through and closed his eyes again. The light stung my eyes too as I started to rub the, with my hoof. " it's some kind of rift in time." I said.

" like time travel?" Joked twilight.

" not exactly." I said. " it exists in the same space as this place, since I can still see and touch thunder... But we just passed through into a different time, one where there isn't any volcano around." I said.

" how is that even possible?" Asked thunder who was still adjusting to the light.

" it must have been caused by some traumatic even that happened at this point in time, if this is a rift then we should be able to find it out from in here... But there's no way of telling what the size of the rift is. All we know is that it starts at that line in the ground, but I don't know the boundaries."

" how far back do you think it is?" Asked twilight.

" well seeing as how we're missing an entire volcano... I'd say pretty far back." Said martukus.

" at least two or three million years." I said stepping forwards. There was a small part where the path continued but then it faded away into jungle brush. I looked over to twilight and she looked around. Then suddenly her face lit up and she smiled.

" oh... What if the portal is in this rift?" She suggested. I looked at her and smiled at her cunning resolve.

" that would make sense." I said. " I was finding it hard to believe there would be a portal on top of a volcano, especially one that erupted only a hundred thousand years ago, no pony would go near it, let alone build a portal on top of it. And if it was there before the volcano erupted than it certainly wouldn't be there anymore after the eruption..."

" that might be what caused it." Suggested thunder. " the eruption might have caused it."

" what I'm confused about is how we can still see the real world behind us but we couldn't see the past world form the other side." Said twilight.

" it's easier to look forward in time rather then behind... Don't worry about it." I said. " and the eruption couldn't have been the cause of the rift since the volcano would have had to be here to cause it. But there is a volcano on the map, and we could see it... But it can't erupt through time... Which is confusing me... There's something seriously wrong with this island."

" alright...I'm confused..." Said twilight.

" yeah me too." Added thunder.

" I hate to admit it, but time and space aren't my forte." Said martukus.

" okay... So the rift was caused by a traumatic experience that happened at this time right now, it was so traumatic it caused this point in space to forever loop in time." I said. " therefore if there isn't a volcano here then that means the volcano couldn't have been the problem."

" we got that part." Said thunder.

" but the volcano couldn't have erupted one hundred thousand years ago, because it doesn't exist." I said. " we can perceive it, but it doesn't exist since this area of space was ended and so it stopped in time." I said.

" but how do you know the volcano doesn't exist, maybe it's on the other side of this rift." Said twilight.

" well then we would be able to see it." I said. " just like if you look behind us you can see the current timeline, the volcano would still be visible from here still if it existed around the current time... So the volcano was in this rift... But it doesn't exist."I said.

" uhm... Okay... So the volcano doesn't exist...so it couldn't erupt." Said twilight.

" but it did." Added martukus..."The whole island burned because of it and there plenty of proof."

" there is proof... And the country did burn because of it... But it doesn't make sense... It couldn't have been the volcano, and it couldn't have been whatever happened here." I said.

" so... What happens now?" Asked twilight.

" well... This part of space is doomed to repeat itself forever, so whatever happened here that forced this part of space of stop existing will repeat over and over again infinitely. But, if we can figure out what happened then we can stop it... And maybe that will reset this point of space to its original trajectory in time."

" you lost me at well..." Said thunder.

" ok... Basically, something bad happened here that broke this point in time, if we can stop that from happening then we can fix this place and the volcano should appear and everything will return to normal... Or it will go to the way it should be at least." I said.

" the only problem is that if something was strong enough to create a rift in time then it could be dangerous if we get caught in it." Added martukus.

" that's true... If everything seems to fail then the best we can do is make a run for it and try and escape the rift before everything goes to shit, whatever damage was caused can't follow us out of the rift."

" I swear... Sometimes I can't believe the shit we get ourselves into." Said twilight hitting herself on the forehead with her hoof.

"Yeah… but that's what makes it fun." I said with a smile. Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed but I saw a smile roll across her face.

"Alright… so where do we go now?" she asked.

"I don't know. Something is supposed to destroy this part of the world indefinitely… so it ant be hard to miss." I said looking up and across the tops of the trees for some seemingly visible structure.

"Hey what's that?" asked thunder pointing out into the forest. We all looked over to where he was pointing and saw some kind of small structure sticking out of the ground a while away.

"I don't know… let's check it out." I said. I started galloping towards it and the others followed me. We ran through the forest and passed the trees as the structure become more visible. Once we pulled up to it I could get a good view of it. it was… a totem pole. On the bottom was an earth pony head. It was crying and had a depressing look on its face. In the middle was a Pegasus pony head with wings spreading out on both sides. It had a sullen look and an expressionless face. On the top was a unicorn head with a smile on its face and a horn on its head. The whole totem pole was made out of a light wood like maple or birch. The horn on the unicorns head was jewel encrusted. It was made of some kind of clear and prismatic gem, it wasn't diamond… no, it looked far more beautiful than diamond.

"Whoa… that's creepy." Said thunder.

"what do you think it means?" asked twilight.

"I thik it's a status quo. If there are ponies on this totem then there must be ponies here then… probably more primitive than us… but still advanced enough to use tools and maybe even weapons." I said.

"you said it was a status quo… how?" asked martukus.

"well look, its simple." I said. "The earth ponies are crying on the bottom, thus society must not have a high outlook on them. Then there are the pegasi which are in the middle, and the unicorns are on top with their superior abilities to use magic." I said.

"well that's not very fair." Said twilight.

"I know…" I replied. "I could beat the crap out of tons of unicorns."

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" she yelled. I just smiled and laughed.

"You know I'm joking." I said.

"yeah well… whatever." She said huffing away from me. "what I want to know is why they placed the totem in the middle of nowhere… it seems too new to be a relic or a part of some ruins." She said. she was right. It was very out of place.

"maybe its some kind of marker… or something." Suggested thunder. "look theres another that way." He said pointing off into the forest again at another similar looking structure.

"huh… that doesn't sound too crazy." I said.

"maybe they lead somewhere." Suggested martukus.

"Let's go…" I said running onward toward the next totem pole with the others right behind. I dodged left and right to avoid the trees and jumped high over any thorn bushes or fallen trees. I ran up to the next totem pole and slid to a stop and looked at it. It was exactly the same as the last one. Earth pony, then Pegasus, then unicorn with a jewel encrusted horn. The others joined me and we stared at the totem.

"I think chasing these totems might take too long." Said martukus.

"Yeah…" agreed twilight. "Oh… crimson, fly up and search the area." She said tapping me on the back. I fluttered my wings slightly and smiled.

"Oh yeah… my wings." I said. I flexed out my wings to the side and floated a few feet above the ground. I rocketed up into the air and broke through the thick brush above my head. I had to cover my head and broke through a few branches on my way up. Once I was in the air I uncovered myself and started to look around. Right away my keen eyes spotted something close by. It looked like some kind of… temple. Like an old Mayan temple that somewhat resembled a pyramid. It didn't look worn down or ancient, so it must be somewhat new. The more I looked at the temple the stranger I began feeling. Like something was starting to suck out all of my energy and emotions until I was nothing but an empty shell. I quickly turned away and felt myself rejuvenating. I flew back down towards the ground and broke back through the canopy. I whirled and broke through branches and soon enough landed back on the ground where I last stood. I folded my wings back up and looked at my friends who were anxious.

"Did you see anything?" asked thunder. I looked over to the direction of the temple which wasn't visible from here.

"There's some kind of temple over that way…" I said. "I feel like it has something to do with this."

"Totems, temples, and rifts in time… just another day." Said twilight letting out a deep sigh as we started moving onward.

"You got that right…" I said looking back at her with a smile. "Hahaha…. I wish we could have this much fun more often." We ran rough the dense jungle shrub and dodged past the trees to try and reach the temple. I wanted to get this done fast, not only because I was anxious to see if the portal was here so we could go through it, but also because if we stay here too long we could be doomed to repeat history. Up ahead through a gaps in the trees I could start to see the temple, but it was far off. We ran through and dodged around the trees. We stepped over shrubs and mud to get there. Soon as we started running the roaring sound of a river started to fill the air. There was a break in the trees up ahead that opened up into a muddy river that cut across the jungle and was wide enough to fit two boats across with just enough space to breathe. The banks of the river were muddy and wet but the water was crystal clear. On the other side of the river was the temple which could be easily seen through the trees it towered over.

" we need to get across." I said.

" the current doesn't look too strong." Said twilight.

" let's go." Said thunder being the first one to jump into the water. We all leapt after him and started to trot our ways over to the other side. Once we got to the middle of the river the water levels came up to our undersides, but it didn't get any deeper than that. It was hard to trot through the water so we ended up losing some speed. We slowly made our way through the river and grew closer to the opposite side. As we grew closer the water became more shallow with each step which in turn gave us more and more speed. Once my hooves were just out of the water I bolted for it. I slowed down do I don't slip on the mud and fall on my face while the others stayed close behind. I made my way to the temple and started to slow down until I was at a complete stop at the temple. I stopped and the others caught up.

" well... What now?" Asked martukus.

" I think this might be the back or something... Should we circle around?" Asked twilight.

" yeah... But lets be careful." I said. I started moving over to the left and kept close to the wall. I stopped at the edge of the limestone walls and peeked my head over the side. I looked over and my eyes opened wide at the sight I saw. I saw... Two ponies. They don't look different whatsoever from many normal ponies, both were unicorns with white fur and brown hair. They were wearing hoods and cloaks but the parts of their fur that I could see had tattoos and symbols painted onto them. By their sides they were holding something. They were both carrying some kind of large and ornate box. I watched as they both walked towards the entrance to the temple. I listened closely and I could hear them talking.

" damn this thing is heavy." One of them said. They can speak in our language.

" shut up... Once we get this thing inside the temple we can begin the ritual and finally clean this world of its filth." Said the other pony.

" why can't we just carry this thing with our magic?" Asked the first one.

" you idiot... If you use your magic the nor-shuken will kill you." Said the second pony yelling at him for the others to hear.

" what was that?" Asked twilight curiously.

" ssshhhh." I said silencing her and then looking back. When I turned back the two ponies were gone.

" what did you see?" Asked thunder.

" two other ponies, both of them were unicorns with white fur and tattoos on their bodies."

" I could hear them talk about something." Said twilight.

" yeah. Something about a nor- shuken." I said. " apparently they can speak equestrian."

" aww... Really, I was hoping they would speak some kind of strange ancient language." Said twilight.

" I guess not much has changed with time." I said. " they talked about cleaning up the filth of this world... I'm not sure what that means though." I said.

" should we confront them?" Asked martukus.

" I think we should..." I said.

" wait, crimson if what you said earlier about the status quo is true then your the only one here who isn't a unicorn." Said thunder. I looked at twilight thunder and martukus, all three of them had horns on top of their heads... I didn't.

" not a problem." I said. I closed my eyes and started focusing my energy and soon started to glow faintly. My body soon began to warp and shift until the glowing stopped and soon I stood there smiling with a fresh new horn poking out of my head. It felt different, like I was more accurate with my magic now. A horn is a good thing to channel my magic with, but its not my style. I'm just using it for the occasion. " there... How do I look?" I asked.

" different..." Said martukus

" perfect... Lets go." I said walking out form the corner.

" wait a second..." Said twilight. We all stopped to see twilight who was the only one not following me. " we're just going to march in there and ask them what's up?" She said.

" well...yeah. Pretty much." I said. She let out a big sigh.

" alright lets go." She said walking up to me and moving onward. I smiled and walked alongside her. We all started to move forward towards the large entrance of the temple. There was a large dirt path that lead out towards the forest from the temple. We walked over to the entrance of the temple and stood in front of the gaping hole leading into the bowels of the structure. I looked around at the temple and gazed at all the strange symbols and pictures carved into the walls and sides of the building. We all just stopped for a moment and looked. On the face of the building there was a symbol carved and painted onto the building. It looked like the moon and the sun, but the sun was behind the moon... Like an eclipse, I feel like there might be an eclipse today. I looked up into the sky... But there was no sign that was going to happen.

" should we go in?" Asked thunder.

" well... That's the plan." I said taking a few steps. I started making my way forward and into the temple and soon the others followed me there. We walked in and finally entered the temple. We started walking down a short hallway which opened up into a large room up ahead. The walls were lines with torches that burned brightly. We walked over to the opening and stepped into the large open room. In the room was an obelisk that sat in the very center of the whole room, nothing else around... Just the obelisk. We took a few steps into the temple and looked around. There were symbols drawn on the walls and a few pillars on the sides of the room, but that's it. On every wall there was an opening that must lead to a different room. I looked up and the roof seemed to go upward forever until there was a small speck of light just above the obelisk. The light filtered down and covered the obelisk in a curtain of light. The obelisk just looked like a stone rectangle with a strange jewel prism. It was made form the same material as the unicorn horns on the totems in the forest... Could there be a connection.

Suddenly the obelisk began to glow. We got nervous and backed up slightly as the ground began to rumble and crack. The cracks in the ground started emitting this eerie blue glow as they started around the obelisk and started carving out the room. They were strange, not just normal cracks in the ground, but they started carving out symbols. Before we knew what we were looking at there was a large magical circle on the ground with symbols and ancient runes running along the magic rings. The obelisk was rot in the middle and the energy leaking from the room was amazing. Soon the bright prism on top of the obelisk started to glow as well until it fired a bright beam of energy into the sky and lit up the whole room. We stopped and waited for something else to happen... But nothing happened. The obelisk just sat there firing the beam of energy into the air like a beacon.

" HEY!" Shouted a voice that caused us to freeze in our tracks. " YOU CAN'T BE IN HERE!" Shouted the voice again. We all quickly looked over to see two unicorns wearing bright purple cloaks with red tattoos all over their bodies. They looked angry. Their horns glowed an evil looking dark purple as ethereal blades floated by their sides.

" crap..." Said twilight.

"Uh.. Well... We can explain." Said thunder. The others were a bit worried and panicky but I remained calm and stared the two ponies in the eyes.

" hey... Wait..." Said the second unicorn. " you four are unicorns..." He said. The first unicorn guard blinked and then looked back.

" oh my... Our apologies." He said as they both bowed their heads. " you four must be here for the ritual... Please forgive us." He said. I looked back to the others with a look that asked what should I do. Twilight and thunder both gave me a look that told me to do what I do best. Martukus gave me a look that said well follow your lead. I looked over towards the two ponies and smiled.

" don't trouble yourselves... All is forgiven." I said stepping forwards to the two ponies bowing on the ground. They both got back up and one of the guards eyes me over. He saw something on me that caused his eyes to shrink into his head.

"AAHHH..." He shouted jumping back. The other guard looked at him with confusion and anger while I have a confused look too. The others gave of a look of confusion along with me.

"Damnit Jaal... We have honored guests what way is..." Said the first guard before getting cut off

" wings..." Said the second pony pointing at me. My eyes then shrunk in my head too at the realization that I forgot to get rid of my wings in exchange for my horn. I was just starting to notice them now.

"What?" Said the first guard again.

"He has wings... And a horn." He said backing up and falling to the ground. The first guard looked over me and saw my wing sand his eyes shrunk too. He immediately fell to the ground and started bowing down to me. I was confused now. I just stood there with a confused look spread idly across my face. oh shit…I hope they don't think I'm their god.

"The holy one has graced us with his presence." They both said bowing down to me. I don't like it when they bow to me, I hate the feeling of being worshiped, its embarrassing. The others could tell I was a bit flustered from the red glow emanating from my cheeks. I looked back to them with a worried look wondering what to do. Twilight and thunder gave me the same strange expression but martukus just glanced me a confident look. I turned back to the two ponies and swallowed my embarrassment. I took in a deep breath and decided to go into character.

"Yes you fool… it is I." I said spreading out my wings and stepping forward.

"What do you require my lord…?" asked one of the ponies.

"Anything you wish we can bring to you." Said the second pony.

"Who is in charge of this pity temple?" I asked staring down at the two ponies shaking in their hooves.

"Please… this way your holiness… our leader Makar is on the top of the temple, he is preparing the ceremony." Said the first pony. They turned around and politely beckoned me to follow. I followed hesitantly at first but soon they lead up to the doorway over in the left of the room.

"I'm sorry your holiness… but the others cannot come this far." Said the second pony.

"make an exception…" I said in a deep and commanding voice. The fierce volume of my voice caused the two ponies to tremble and quiver.

"y-y-yes sir." He said letting my friends pass with me. They were in character too as they kept sullen looks on their faces that blended well with my false god persona. Well… technically I am a god… just not their god. As I followed the two ponies they lead us through a short hallway that escalated into a spiraling staircase. I remained silent along with the others as we made our way to the top of the temple. One of the guards quietly whispered something into the other guard's ear and he went running up the stairs ahead of us. I didn't bother to question it, probably just going to go let his master know of my arrival.

It didn't take long before we reached the top of the steps and sunlight started flooding the stairs until everything was covered with a blinding white light. Once the light faded we were outside, more specifically we were on top of the temple. There were at least fifty ponies up here and it looked much larger than it did from downstairs, then again the bottom level was huge. All the ponies had the same red markings on their bodies, and they were all unicorns. The blue beam of energy remained shooting up from the center of the temple through some kind of focusing device. What I noticed also were many other smaller beam circling the entire temple, I figure that those totems form earlier must be giving off those blasts. The top of the temple had a large circle on it that was glowing just like the one downstairs. I notice it wasn't as light as it was last time I was outside. I looked up to the sky and to my surprise I saw the moon floating just right by the side of the sun. There is going to be an eclipse soon, id give it another hour. And if I know my clichés then once the sun is eclipsed then whatever bad thing happened to this place is going to repeat itself. I looked back down to see that all the standing ponies, were now bowing before me. I blushed a bit again but cleared my head. at the front of them was a large and imposing unicorn with a jagged horn and black fur. His fur flared around his hooves and as he rose up and smiled I got a bad look about him. He had strange eyes, like a cat with slits for eyes. His smile revealed that he had fangs and sharp ones too.

"Your holiness… you bless us with your presence." Said the pony in charge, Makar, I think his name was. He had a raspy voice with a menacing undertone. It was rather low pitched and was lined with diabolical intention.

"What is happening here?" I demanded.

"We humble mortals are cleansing this world for you, your holiness." Said Makar.

"Cleansing it of what?" I asked.

"All of the impurities of course." He said.

"What impurities?" I asked again.

"Why those wretched pegasi… and not to mention the despicable and pathetic earth ponies." He said. I stayed silent and let him continue. But now their intentions are clear, and I don't know how they managed to fail at this since they obviously didn't destroy all of the pegasi and earth ponies. "one the sun is eclipsed we will harvest its spiritual power and wipe out all the filth from the world, then only will the purest of ponies be left… the unicorns."

"Is that so?" I asked.

"Yes your holiness." He said smiling. His smile faded as he noticed the three unicorns behind me. He seemed distraught for some reason though. I looked back too to see that martukus had a devious smile on his face, then I looked at him and noticed the horn on top of his head was gone… that bastard. He must be playing along with his own game; I didn't know he could change his form too. That horn must have been gone since we entered the staircase since the guards recognized him as a unicorn. "w-what... is THAT FILTHY earth pony DOING HERE!" yelled Markar.

"He's with me." I said turning and glancing at him with a death gaze. "Is that a problem?" I asked still shooting him my death gaze.

"n..nn..no… that is, if you don't mind… but he won't survive much longer now… the moon is almost in place. And once the sun eclipses the ritual will begin." He said with a wicked smile.

"No it won't." I said.

"What do you mean?" asked the pony taken back slightly.

"Why do you think I would have bothered my time with a pitiful creature such as yourself, if I wasn't here to stop you from doing something astronomically ignorant?" I said stepping up to him. "I cannot let you continue with your plans if it means sacrificing the lives of countless innocent ponies for your sick desire of perfection."

"MY sick desires for perfection?" he asked getting angry now. "You are the being that demands nothing but perfection, you are the perfect being and demand nothing but… and now you say that we should keep the filth here on this world." He said.

"I never demanded anything." I said growing a bit angry. to be honest I was getting tired of this ponies face.

"earth ponies sand pegasi are filth, they don't deserve the life they've been given!" he said shouting at me now and getting arrogant. I think it was time to wrap this up.

"SILENCE!" I demanded as a blast of holy light fired from underneath me and rocketed up into the sky. My feather rustled to the force of the blast and my hair shot up along the blast as well. My body began to glow as symbols coursed through my body and started to glow. I closed my eyes and reopened them as they too began to glow violently. I snarled at the pony in front of me who was taken aback by my power as he stumbled back in shock.

" you're not a god... Your a sham." Said the pony glaring at me as a n evil purple mist started frothing underneath his hooves. All the other serpents around us started glaring at us and their horns glowed as ethereal weapons began appearing at their sides. " you'll die for you impotence" said Makar. A dark circle of energy began forming under his hooves as he grunted and arced his back. He let out a fierce shout as large bat wings sprouted from his back along with a jet of blood. He was sweating but gave me an evil smile.

" crimson what do we do?" Asked twilight.

" go... Leave them to me, go and take down that obelisk downstairs... I'll deal with these fools." I said turning and shouting orders at twilight. She was hesitant but obeyed as she and the others ran down the stairs. A few of the unicorns chased after them with weapons but I let out a fierce shout as spikes of light shot from the ground and skewered the poor souls. They let out muffled cries of pain as blood trickled to the ground and organs started spilling out of the open wounds. I turned to the others and gave them a demonic glare as light started shooting up from around me and caused a massive gust of wind.

" get him you fools... Bring me the head of this heathen." Said Makar. The others charged at me but I shot straight into the air. I started to glow brightly and returned to my normal form. I covered myself in armor and dawned my mask and cape. I folded my hood over my head and my horn disappeared. I flapped my wings and then landed right on top of some poor pony. I felt his organs squish under my hooves through his skin and his bones crunch and snap as he yelled out a painful screech of agony. I glared at the others with my eyes glowing through my mask and I gave them a deathly snarl.

" he... He...where did his horn go?" Asked one of the ponies.

" I never had one... It was an illusion." I said.

" you must be some kind of monster to use magic without a horn, how dare you try and compare yourselves to us great unicorns." Said Makar.

" if you unicorns at so great, then why have I already killed three of them?" I asked with a sarcastic remark. Makar got angry and flapped his wings which shot his right into the air. His eyes seeped an evil dark magic almost like how mine trail a bright glow.

" the audacity... Who do you think you are?" He asked.

" I'm the guy who's going to kick your ass." I said with a smile.

" get him." He shouted at the other ponies. They charged at me and I began my assault. One pony swung at me with a magic axe. I dodged it and the axe wedged itself in the scalp of another pony who came form behind me. The other pony screamed in pain and while distracted I bucked my hind leg out and snapped the front hoof of the pony with the axe. He fell to the ground just as I shot up a volley of spikes to completely eviscerate him. Out of the corner of my eye there was a faint glow. I looked over to see a bolt of dark purple magic heading towards me. I stayed still and the bolt hit me right in the face and exploded creating a cloud of dust around my head. The bolt didn't harm me in the slightest and didn't move me an inch. Once the smoke faded I stared down the unicorn that shot the bolt at me and gave him my death gaze. The other were silent and that one pony was sweating bullets.

I focused the energy in the air around my mouth as a small orb of energy formed near my snout. The energy collected and with one shout I forced the orb of power forward and it rocketed through the air. It hit the one pony right in the chest and he blew up into pieces. The force of the blast caused the ponies around him to get knocked away but the one pony who took the direct shot shattered into small pieces of meat and bone. Blood splattered backwards like a spray of water and all the ponies behind him were now covered in his blood and body. A few of his limbs laid on the gerund like a front hoof and a haunch of meat with his cutie mark on it. But other pieces like fragments of his skull and brain fell from the air and broke further on impact showering the temple with more blood and body. I quickly turned my gaze behind me to see another pony standing there and quivering. I gave him my death gaze as well and he went stone cold.

I quickly lashed around and grabbed him with two tendrils of light. I shot two more spikes of light into his stomach and he hollered in pain. I started pulling on the unicorn as he began to scream and shout for mercy as I slowly started to rip him in half. His skin and fur started splitting near his chest and stomach as blood trickled down. The crunching of bones started to compliment the ripping of flesh as a sickening and horrifying ripping sound shuttered through the air. The once whole pony was now ripped in half straight down the center of his body. Blood, organs and meat fell to the ground and I dropped him into his own pile of entrails. I lashed out another tentacle and it wrapped around the neck of another unicorn. He started to beg for mercy but his words were cut short as I gave the tentacle a quick yank. I ripped his head off his shoulders complete with the spine. The spineless and headless body fell limply to the ground as the head within my grasp soon became still. The heads eyes rolled back into his severed head and the spine leaked blood and cervical fluids.

I turned around once more to give the same deadly gaze to a group of ponies to my left. I let out a deep roar followed by a massive blast of magic. The blast blinded every pony but me as it tore through the trees and forest and obliterated everything in its path. Once I stopped the blast and it started to fade the numerous ponies that once stood there were no more. Once the smoke cleared the only thing left of them were their charred skeletons that stood perfectly still and blackened by the blast. Even the position of their skeletons suggested they died in fear. The others gazed at the straight line of skeletons and became fearful of my power. The air was filled with screams of the ponies who weren't fully caught in the blast. The writhed on the ground with parts of their bodies missing all flesh and skin, just bone. One pony was frothing at the mouth after the blast engulfed half of his head removing held of his brain. Another pony tried diving out of the way but lost all four legs. And one poor sod lost the lowed half of his body to the blast. He tried crawling away in agony as his meatless and bony legs dragged behind him and his intestinal organs spilled out past his pelvic bones.

I quickly spun around making a wave of spikes that tore out from the ground and skewered several of the unicorns. Some of the, where stabbed through the bottom of the jaw and through the head. Others got skewered through the stomach and their organs started spilling out before them. Others bot punctured in the eyes, sides, legs, or heart. Either way the air turned red with blood for a second then a large pool of blood started to leak and form around the spikes. The smell of death was heavy in the air. I grabbed my sword with my teeth and held it up high. I heard a cry from behind me as it grew closer. I looked back slightly to see three ponies charging me with swords in their mouths and their eyes closed. When they got to the perfect spot I quickly spun around and slashed through all three of the, at a downward angle. They all suddenly stopped and their eyes grew wide. The one who I slashed first was the most still. Then the top half of his head slid off of his body and he fell to the floor. The second pony started leaking blood from his mouth as he fell back into two pieces spilling blood and guts everywhere and screaming in pain. Then the third pony stayed still completely.

" well... Would you look at that... I missed." I said glaring at him. He just stared at me and suddenly started moving forward slightly. " or did I?" I said looking down to see his legs sliding away. He fell to the ground shouting in pain as his from legs had been completely and cleanly severed. He writhed in pain and kicked his hind legs. I placed my hoof on his neck and he started choking as I placed the tip of my sword between his eyes. He let out one last scream as I thrust the blade into his skull. From behind me I heard a faint roar and as I turned around I saw marker with his eyes glowing purple along with his horn. He raised his horn up into the air as it glowed brightly with energy and lashed his head forward as he released a large blast of black and purple energy that came sailing right for me. I quickly responded by forcing up a wall of bright spikes to block the attack. The spikes rose form the ground just in time for the blast of energy to make contact. The purple energy hit the shield with incredible force but the spikes remained strong and the black and purple magic passed over the shield like a spout of water and started to spray onto the other ponies. They were caught in the splash from my shield and the black magic covered their bodies.

I watched in shock as they all began to scream and shout in pain as their fur started to fall off and their skin began to fester and boil. Cysts and calluses quickly formed on every inch of their bodies as they soon would started to burst and peel away causing them to bleed. Large chunks of skin started to peel off their bodies and fall to the ground. One pony that got the short end of the stick tried walking away and his leg just clean and fell off. Without warning it just fell right off, it was fused to the ground and melted like a plastic doll melting on pavement. The skin and muscle melted onto the ground and his leg ripped right off, bones and all. The bones of his leg seemed to be more delicate than paper. But the most horrifying part was that he wasn't bleeding. I saw the stump from his leg and all the veins were black and swollen. The blood in their bodies had began to clot and harden from inside them, I'm really glad I decided to block that attack. I watched in shock as the skin and muscles of all the unicorns started to rot and fall off their bodies leaving only skeletons lying in piles of rotten flesh and internal fluids. Once all the screaming stopped and the ponies had been fully rotted away I lowered my shield and looked back at Makar. All of the unicorns that weren't caught in the blast stared in petrified horror and disgust.

I looked back at Makar who gave me a devious smile before raising his horn again and shouting as he released another vile blast of dark magic. I quickly responded again by shouting and letting out a beam of light from my i front of me that met with markar's blast. The two blasts collided and caused a void at the point of impact. The air rippled and the blasts collided merging with each other and forcing raw energy out wards in the form of static bolts and spurts of plasticized energy that covered the ground and burnt through it like acid. We were both caught in a stalemate of magical firepower. I could feel the hatred coming from Makar and I could tell he might start slipping. Just beyond him I looked up at the sky and saw the moon just touching the edge of the sun, the eclipse was going to happen soon. I looked to the center of the temple but the beam still remained, that's taking those three so long to destroy the obelisk. Getting mad now, I let out a fierce shout as I stomped my front hooves on the ground which caused the roof of the temple to crack and splinter. Light shone through the cracks on the ground as waves of white energy started circling around my body and I forced more power into my blast. The white bolt of energy that pushed against the black mass of dark magic started to force the markar's blast back and I began gaining some ground.

I let out one last fierce shout as I pushed with all my might and within no time my white blast of magic doubled in width and completely overtook markar's and his blast of dark magic. The white bolt engulfed him and his magic faded as he let out a shrill cry of pain. My blast faded and I let my head down and started to breath heavily from exhaustion. I looked up to see markar floating there burnt to a crisp with his whole body charred and black as his demon wings crumbled to dust and he fell to the ground. He hit the roof of the temple with an audible thud and a crunch as he trailed smoke from his burnt body. I picked myself back up to a standing position and walked over to him. All of the ponies that had witnessed what just happened on this roof where now on the verge of fainting from the fear they felt for me. I walked past them and over to markar's charred body. He was coughing and wheezing as blood spurt from his mouth and he curled up slightly in pain.

" how do I stop it?" I asked placing one hoof on his chest causing him to grit his fangs and growl in pain. From the softness of his chest I could tell that all the bones in his body were no more than dust now.

" you... You can't, it's too late." He said giving me one last laugh before his head fell limp and his eyes shut. Blood started leaking from the side of his mouth and onto the temple roof. He might not be dead now, but he won't survive, so I don't have to worry about him any longer. I took my hoof off of his chest and stepped back a few feet. I turned around and shot a death stare at all the other ponies on the roof who stumbled back in fear and gazed off into space as their lives flashed before their eyes.

" how do I stop it?" I asked them all. I waited but they remained silent. " TELL ME!" I shouted at them causing the ground to rumble. They all started to whimper and cower in fear.

" y-you can't..." Said one of the ponies. " there's not enough time to stop it now, once the sun is eclipsed that endobox over there will summon our god necronomicorn to bring a plague over the world and rid it of all earth ponies and Pegasus ponies." He said whimpering on the ground and covering his head. I walked over to him and looked down at him. I glanced over to the beam of light and noticed another obelisk in the middle of it with the strange box from before resting in the middle of it all. I looked up to the sky and saw the moon almost to the edge of the sun and let out a deep sigh. He was right, there isn't any time left.

" if you don't wish to die then leave the temple now." I said looking down at him. They all looked at me with strange and scared looked but they took my advice and bolted to the nearest stairwell. They all flooded down the stairs just in time for twilight and the others to trot back up to the roof.

" crimson the obelisk isn't going to break and..." She paused for a moment and looked around. " oh god what happened here?" She said covering her snout at the horrifying smell of death lingering in the air.

" you three need to get out of here." I said looking at them.

" why?" Asked thunder.

" there isn't any time left before the ritual is complete." I said gesturing up to the almost fully eclipsed sun. " in only a few minutes the sun is going to eclipse and a some ancient god of death and decay is going to appear on this rooftop... You need to go." I said.

" what are you talking about?" Asked twilight.

" the circle down there isn't some kind of magical cannon... This is a summoning circle!" I shouted at them trying to get them to leave, but it was too late. Suddenly the sky around started to darken as I looked up to see the moon in the sky glowing brightly with a blinding ring of light around its edges. Suddenly it began to glow a faint blue. Then small dots of light started to scatter around the sky as the gerund began to rumble. I stood still and stared up at the sky while the others quaked and wobbled, trying to keep themselves upright. A blue circle of energy appeared in the center of the roof of the temple and started to glow brightly as a blue ring of light radiated around the edges of the circle.

" it's happening..." Shouted thunder.

" get down now..." I said to the others. Suddenly there was a faint ringing and I looked up to the sky to see the blue dots in the sky being pulled towards the moon. One by one they were all engulfed into the blue glowing moon. Once the last one was there nothing seemed to happen. But then the moon faded over to a sickening shade of rotten green and black. Then the beam firing into the sky connected with the eclipse and began to widen. It grew and grew in girth until it covered the first ring of the summoning circle. It stayed like that for what seemed like a while, then suddenly a large blast of sickly green and black energy fired down from the sky and expanded to the second ring of the circle. The force emanating from the blast was furious and threatened to blow us away. I quickly looked over to see twilight thunder and martukus slowly backing down into the temple. Twilight glanced me a look before running down the staircase with the others. I could see the nervousness in her eyes as she shot me a look that told me not to die. I don't even intend to.

Soon a figure started to materialize inside the blast of green and black energy. It was only visible through the green energy that passed by but I could get a solid look of him. The creature was a large stallion with a long tail and hair. I decided to get onto his level and started to grow and increase my own size to become more godly. The energy firing from the sky soon started to dull down and eventually came to an almost dead stop as it started to slowly fade. Once the magic beam faded I could fully see the god in front of me. He was a pony, a stallion with large muscles and fangs. He had black fur along with a green sickly green mane. He also had holes through his hooves and fur along with giant insect type wings that sprouted from his back. He... He was a changeling. Or at least looked like one, he was close to the verge of being a my but with the physical features of a changeling. He wore robes that looked like they had been corroded and dipped in acid then buried in dirt. He looked off towards the forest with a serious expression, but then it changed to one of confusion. He looked around the whole temple then his eyes gazed over the whole battlefield until they settled on me. His hair was beginning to fade white and he had a thick white beard and mustache.

" your not a cultist..." He said in a voice that sounded much like a changeling. It had a strange clicking sound to it and a creepy echo. " what happened here?" He asked.

" wait... What?" I said. " you... Your here to destroy the place... Aren't you?" I asked.

" what happened to all the cultists?" He asked dodging my question.

"I... I killed them." I said.

" well it's about damn time something changed." He said letting out a deep sigh and sitting down. " one million years I've had to replay this damn scene and it was getting unimaginably boring."

" wait... You know that your trapped in a rift in time." I said.

" no...I'm not trapped." He said. " I know all about what happened to this place, these damn cultists tried to use my powers to spread a plague across the world...idiots, I'm not going to do something stupid like that."

" oh... I kinda... Well...I figured you would be evil." I said.

" yeah... That's what most ponies think." He said. " say... I know you." He said looking at me.

" you... You do?" I said taken aback slightly.

" yeah... Your that crimson guy that took on the role of peacekeeper. Nice to meet ya, my name is mastakus, god of decay and disease." He said.

" oh...well, it's nice to meet you." I said sitting down too.

" hmm... Ways wrong, you seemed troubled." He said.

" well... Sorry, this isn't exactly the outcome I was expecting... I thought I was going to end up fighting somepony to the death." I said as he laughed quickly after.

" I'm too old to be fighting." He said. " I'm more of a omniscient god, than one who directly takes action like you, but I remember the good old days when I would drop down from the heavens and cause a big scene and everypony would freak out and worship me... Hahaha..." He said recalling a few memories and laughing.

" so if I'm correct, then you've had to return to this place every time these cultists perform the ritual." I said.

" yeah..." He said smiling.

" why do you some here then?" I asked.

" because these fools got their dirty hooves on some very ancient and sacred magic. The summoning circle they use forces me to return here... But I can see that since your here then you must be trying to fix the place." He said.

" well... That's the idea." I said. " but, if I could ask, how did this place meet this kind of fate?" I asked.

" well, if your wondering, it wasn't me." Said the god pony.

" it... It wasn't?" I said confused.

" nope." He replied. " when I was summoned here and these ponies told me of their plan I immediately refused."

" so then what happened?" I asked.

" well... It might be a bit hard to believe." He said glancing me a look.

" try me." I said smiling. He chuckle lightly and smiled.

" well, for a while now this place was always doomed to be destroyed in time." He said. " you see a great cosmic worm devoured this place millions of years ago." Said mastakus.

" a cosmic worm?" I said with a hint of great disbelief.

" yep... And a big one too." He said. " well, he's big now. You see I had stayed here to try and defeat the worm but I was too slow and he devoured this place, but I managed to trap him in this time loop for eternity. That, however, was a mistake on my part." He said.

" how so?" I asked.

" well, cosmic worms... Aren't as large as most believe the, to be, they are very strong and very rare, few mortals know of their existence. But, me trapping him hear, meant I forced him to devour this place for millions of years, and all that eating has made him a bit... Well."

" fat and happy." I said finishing his sentence.

" very so..." Said mastakus. " he will be here soon." Said mastakus.

" how soon?" I asked.

" in about... Ten or so minutes." He said looking up at the sky. " if you would help me, then maybe we could defeat the beast together and finally revert this place back in time." He said.

" I don't see any other way... It is my job to keep the peace... A d that's what I have to do, but I have another mission here, not just for the worm." I said.

" I figured that." He said. " I'm sure your looking for the portal, aren't you?" He said smiling.

" yes..." I said.

" I hope you know this particular string of portals leads all the way to the dwelling of shall-grahkan."said mastakus.

" I know... I have business with him." I said.

" so I've heard, the word has been getting around the realm of immortals." He said.

" it has?" I asked.

" well of course, whenever somebody falls victim to shal-grahkan word gets around, he is infamous for defeating immortals and taking their souls for his own. As you can tell he hasn't lost a battle yet."

" and what do the others say?" I asked.

" they say that you won't make it." He said. " but I remain skeptical... If you do defeat him though, then your reward would be the greatest of all other rewards." He said.

" I already know what my reward is, I need to rescue my wife." I said.

" ah...a wife, that's his leverage, it's just like him to lure his prey to his domain and pick away at them on their journey, your quest is no different from the quest of others." He said.

" so what is that reward you spoke of... Some kind of valuable treasure that I don't need." I said.

" no... Not treasure or riches... But power." He said. shal-grahkan is an evil and despicable being with an unnatural power, he has the power to kill immortal beings, nobody knows how he acquired this ability, but they are sure that it has made him unstable, since he himself isn't truly an immortal being."

" he... He's not?" I said.

"No... He was a simple mortal once, but has achieved great power, he resides in his own malicious form of hell where immortal souls burn." He said. " If you can kill him, his domain will crumble and the immortal souls will be set free to the afterlife they deserve."

" I kinda figured that would happen." I said admittedly. Mastakus went to speak but before he could the ground began to tremble violently.

"Oh… the worm is early…" he said as we both kept our balance on the trembling ground. "tell me… he friends you have brought with you… where are they?" he asked.

"In… in the temple." I said.

"Good… keep them in there." Said Mastakus "that's the one place the great worm didn't devour."

"Then how is it still part of this rift?" I asked.

"Because I put a spell on it to protect it, that's what's keeping it here…" he said. "plus its what causes rip in the fabric of space, which is the portal you're looking for."

"So… while I'm fighting the worm… you're just going to make the portal?" I inquired.

"Well…no, the portals already here… it's always been here, since this place has not been affected I only had to make it once, and the worm can't touch this place." He said as the ground shook once more. "Better get ready for a fight." Said Mastakus. He pointed behind me and I quickly snapped back to see the forested area behind us falling apart. The ground shook violently and the trees in the surrounding area began to collapse and sink. once there were no more tree's we saw what looked to be a giant sink hole swirling in the ground and sucking everything up. Suddenly the air was filled with a deathly roar.

"Oh shit…" I said as the trembling almost knocked me off the side of the temple. I used my wings to push me right back onto my hooves and looked back down on the swirling sink hole in front of us. Suddenly the dirt and sand started to rise up like a dome as a giant creature started to appear before us. As it rose up from the ground the dirt and sand began falling off of it until it had become visible. Standing in front of us was a giant worm… just like he said. it was a large thick skinned worm with spikes all along its body. Not only that but it had strange glowing curves along its body that illuminated with purple light. The large beast turned the top of its body and looked over to us. It had purple round circles around the sides of its head that acted like eyes. He opened his mouth and let out a terrifying roar that I couldn't even describe. Its mouth was an endless hole of sharp spikes and teeth. The creature roared once more and quickly dived back down into the ground. Its tail flung up into the air and it too was long and covered in more threatening looking spikes. Soon enough it sunk back into the ground and was gone.

"Hey… crimson!" shouted out a voice nearby. I looked behind me to see twilight and the others running up the stairs to the top of the temple. "What's going on here?" asked twilight.

"And, uh… who's your friend?" asked thunder.

"Oh… yeah." I said looking over to Mastakus who looked over at my friends with a blank stare. "guys, this is Mastakus god of decay, Mastakus these are my friends twilight, martukus, and thunder…" I said.

"Can we trust him… a god of decay?" asked martukus.

"Well, I think so." I said.

"You know I'm not an evil god just because I'm the god of sickness and decay." He said. "Hell if it wasn't for me equestria would have been wiped out by the black plague thousands of years ago."

"That was you?" asked twilight.

"Of course it was…" he said. "Do you really think something like the black plague just magically disappears forever?...not likely." He said just as soon as the ground started to rumble again.

"what is that?" asked twilight.

"a giant worm…" said Mastakus.

"a…a worm?" asked twilight.

"You three better find something sharp and pointy; we're in for a fight." He said as suddenly as the quaking got worse and the large glowing worm burst from the ground behind us as it let out a tremendous roar. It stared straight at us and let out a terrifying roar. The others looked at it with horror and fear. It opened its mouth to reveal a spiraling vortex of sharp teeth and just as it did that something started to glow deep within its mouth. Suddenly that glow became an incandescent light which in turn turned into a fearsome blast of magical energy. The blast fired right at us and we dodged out of the way for it to cut right across the ground and slice everything in half except for the temple which seemed to hold some kind of spell against the blast. It must be what Mastakus was talking about.

Speaking of Mastakus, he was the first to attack. He started glowing green and black like slime started to ooze from the pores in his body. He fired a deadly bolt of black magic that trailed sludge along its path. It hit the creature with enough force to force the thing to stagger and sway backwards. I followed up his attack by stomping my hooves on the ground and causing large spikes to shoot out from behind me and fly through the air at the giant worm. The spikes flew overhead and pierced the beast all over. He let out another fearsome shout and fired another blast of energy. The blast came right at me and forced me backwards as I tried to block it. I couldn't block it but it didn't kill me, it just burnt me slightly and forced me backwards.

"Hmm… It seems too easy now." Said Mastakus.

"What do you mean easy, I don't think cosmic worms get this big, do they?" I stated.

"No… they don't." he replied as the beast fired another blast at us but we dodged as it cut past the temple and sliced up the forest behind us. We gathered back up and fired more attacks at him. I fired more spikes and the others fired their own types of magic. "THAT'S IT!" shouted Mastakus. We all looked over to him. "he must be getting fat and slow… he's been eating for thousands of years straight. He must have grown weak." He said.

"why is it just now?" I asked.

"well… I haven't fought him besides that last time we met… I always thought he was getting stronger as he got bigger… I guess I was wrong… he looks like he's ready to burst." Said Mastakus. But with us not paying attention a sudden burst of purple light enveloped Mastakus and sent him flying off the edge of the temple. The worm had fired a blast right at him and carried him away. He grunted in pain as he was forced away and I turned to the worm. I glared at him and my whole body started to glow furiously. I focused all of my energy and fired a giant blast of energy towards the worm. The blast hit the great beast and started to envelope the whole creature as it swayed and shrieked.

Soon it started to grow larger… and larger. Not in size or strength but it was more like it was inflating like a balloon, oh god I hope Mastakus wasn't right. I glanced over at twilight and the others with a stern look and they nodded. They ran back down to the stairs and fled back into the temple. The worm stopped its shrieking and seemed to stop inflating as it began calming down. It let out a firce roar and I knew that this wasn't over yet. I focused all my energy into one blast and started to charge up my attack. At the same time the giant worm started to call up some energy too as a great purple light started to glow inside of its mouth and the spikes over its body began to rise up and the carving along the worm began to glow furiously. I kept focusing my energy but the worm fired a blast of purple energy earlier than I could fire my own blast. The attack caught me by surprise but I was able to fire my blast off just in the last second. With my attack not at full power I wasn't able to push the worm's blast back at him but I kept it from getting any further. The blast came close to hitting me, it was a mere inches away from me with my blast seeming more like a barrier than an attack.

I started pouring more energy into my attack and soon I was beginning to slowly push back the worm's own attack. The large purple beam of light started to inch back bit by bit while my radiant white blast pushed forward inches at a time. The force of the blast was very strong and it had e sliding back. I had to plant my feet into the ground firmly so I don't go flying back. I had to struggle to push myself forward and keep my ground as I pushed my attack further and further. Finally I let out a massive roar of power and forced all of my energy into the attack as my great beam of light grew blindingly bright and soon pushed the worms attack all the way back and even engulfed the worm in light. It began shrieking and wailing again as it started to inflate, and soon the worst happened.

Like the sound of a bomb there was an ear shattering explosion as my blast of white light was disrupted by a large red explosion of blood and tissue matter. The worm had literally exploded from the force and its blood spewed out in all directions. I covered myself with my wings as blood hit me from in front like a wave and forced me on my back. Once the wave of blood and entrails passed I slowly got back up coughing up blood that I'm sure wasn't even mine. I could feel a pitter patter on my head and the sound of rain filled the air, but it wasn't water that was raining down… just more blood. I looked back down to see a blood covered ground with entrails and organs scattering the ground. The whole forest had turned red. The lower half of the worm was slunk over on the ground still bleeding; it looked like it had been torn apart. I stood there on the top of the temple breathing heavily and trying to regain energy. That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be… well, the fighting part at least. It's going to be days before I wash all this blood off me.

"Eugh…messy." Said a voice behind me. I looked back to see Mastakus who was not as bloody as me except for any of the blood rain splattering from above us. His hooves were sufficiently lathered in blood and entrails though. "Nice job though, I'm glad I can be done with this place." He said. "Now that you've killed the worm this place can start healing. Once we all leave it should start healing on its own."

"Can you bring me to the portal now?" I asked

"Crimson!" said twilight as she and the others ran out over to me. "oh god you're covered in blood." She said.

"Well at least it isn't mine." I said with a smile. Twilight smiled back but with a smug look on her face as well.

"if you're looking for the portal… it's here." Said Mastakus as he waved his hoof over the center of the temple roof and it began to glow a faint green. Soon three short beams of light fired from the roof and traveled a short distance into the air before fading. In between those three spikes of light. Opened up a small swirling green circle of energy. "good luck." He said.

"Well…" I said looking right into the portal. "I guess we made it… now the real adventure begins." I said.

"Make sure to write a postcard telling me what it's like." Said martukus behind us all.

"Oh don't tell me you're not coming with us either." said twilight in a very sullen and disappointed mood.

"Sorry… but it's not that I don't want to… trust me I do." He said. "It's just that I can't leave… I'm temporarily bound to this world. It's not my time to leave yet… but I wish the three of you the best of luck."

"Well… I guess this is goodbye." I said smiling and walking over to martukus. I stuck out my hoof and we both shook farewell.

"No…not goodbye… I'll see ya later crimson, I know I will." He said smiling. I smiled a bit more too and so did twilight and thunder. We stopped shaking and I walked over to the portal.

"Well… I guess I'll go first." I said. I took a deep breath then exhaled in a deeper sigh. I swallowed any fear I had in me and took it one step at a time. I was on the very edge of the portal and in a ditch effort I just threw myself in. everything went white and soon I was in a green spiraling vortex. Everything was spinning around me and I felt a retching feeling in my gut, like I was going to throw up or something. Little by little the spiraling green vortex grew darker and darker until everything was pitching black. Soon I felt like I wasn't hurling through space anymore and the retching feeling in my gut faded. I felt like I was asleep now. And soon I couldn't help but drift off to sleep and let the darkness consume me.

I can't wait and see what strange place we wake up in…

-Authors Note: hello everypony. today this authors note goes out to DeadChaos3 who has metaphorically kicked my ass in a single comment. you can check it out in the comments section. but today this one goes out to you deadchaos. the reason im doing this is because for some reason i cant personally message you back and i need to respond to you're comment. so here we go.

dont worry dude... it aint over, not until the fat lady sings. the comment you gave me was probably the best comment ive ever gotten so far and probably ever. i feel for you dude and i would never disappoint my readers like that...EVER! and i do apologize that this chapter has taken a while to get out. but the school year was getting over with, and college finals were beginning, and it was all just a huge nightmare. so worry not, this isn't even close to the end.

and to all my fellow brony's out there who have made it this far, thank you. i admire you contributing to the fanfiction in any way that you have and i admire your loyalty to the story. all of you guys have been great and i know that you'll all stick with me until the end, and i do unfortunately say that yes... there will be an end. eventually, but that wont be for a while, and even after that I'm not going to stop writing. who knows? something like dream machine might emerge after ive told the story of crimson blast in full. but yeah... not going to happen soon. so thank you. and hang in there, because there's still more authors note left.

IMPORTANT: just so you guys catch this, im going to have a contest. as you now ive been asking for OC's. and ive been getting more than i can handle. so i came up with an idea. if you have an original character that you would like to be put into the story send it to me, and out of all the submissions i get, ill choose five of the best to be stars in the story, and they'll stay until the end as well... or until i kill them off which has a very real chance of happening. so send me a PM of your OC with the following: name, race, sex, colors, cutie mark, a brief but accurate physical description, emotional qualities, a background story and anything else that you feel you need to point out. I'm looking for OC's with good character. that's what im judging them on, character... anything else is icing on the cake. you're only allowed to hand in ONE OC for each account and make sure you go over it well, because i will only judge the first submission if you left something out then that's too bad. submissions must be in by next Friday July Fifth. the next chapter i release after that date will contain the winners.

if you are confused or have any questions make sure to ask me and I'll be sure to answer your questions to the best of my abilities.

good luck to you all my friends, fans, and fellow brony's. until then may the best OC's win, and stay shady.

~Shadow~...out!