//------------------------------//
// S6 Episode 52: Kings Of Freedom 
// Story: JTHW: Journey To Hearth's Warming 
// by Lighttone GryphonStar 
//------------------------------//

Years ago, standing in place of the hurricane winds center of the Giant Blue Hourglass and the scythe's former placement. The sister of this victim watched on as the body was removed from the hurricane winds and brought to her parents. Her other brother was still within the winds, alive and unfazed by it all as he stood in frozen shock. She turned away from his observation of that final strike on the ground.

The pegasus filly sat with her back to the winds, seeing her parents caressing the bloody corpse only made things worse for her. Dropping her face into her and legs and covering her ears. She didn't even flinch as her best friend placed her hand on her back to calm her down. The words of this friend didn't get past her defenses at all.

It wasn't until a shadow draped over the two so big that no light could reach them, that her reaction finally came. "I'm not leaving!!" She lifted her head and shouted at the shadow.

"Gale, don't..." Her friend grumbled behind her.

"Why should I, Pansy?" Gale filly stopped as her eyes locked on the shadow. The alicorn leaned down and gently placed his hand on her. He retracted his wings and apologized. "Come on, it's not safe here."

"Why...? Gale shrunk away, but kept a guard in front of her friend. "Why is an alicorn here?"

He held out his defenses, "Oh, sorry again." He bowed as if offering them respect, they refused to accept it. "My name is King Helios, Master of the Everlasting Sun."

"I don't care about your title!" Gale stood up and aimed her dagger. Pansy showed little help by bowing back to the alicorn.

Helios smiled and held out his hand to Pansy. "At least somepony understands respect." She was so hesistant but took the hand soon enough.

"You will respect me!!" Gale barked back and held her dagger between the two.

"Oh, I do." Helios closed his eyes and with but a flick of his horn the dagger became to hot for her to hold.

"Damn it!" Gale dropped the weapon and stomp her foot. "What the fuck are one of your kind doing here?!" She didn't hesitate to curse more, spouting out several fowl words much to the insult of her parents and other pegasi who bowed to the alicorn's arrive.

"Oh, such a mouth on you. Reminding me of my daughter and the ones around her." The alicorn sat down to their height and answered. "I came here after sensing the call of my mentor's weapon." He held out his hand to the bloodstained ground where the scythe once stood. "To also hear that he would strike down a pegasus was so shocking." He posed a thought that puzzled them. "And to think he used to love all within his Giant Blue Hourglass."

Gale's face flinched and twisted at each of his words. Take back the dagger, despite the heat, she charged at the alicorn. He was unbothered by her attempts, blocking the tip with his wing and melting the edge down to nothingness. "Fucking, shit stain!! Damn you and your alicorn kind! I don't care why you are here? All I want is you to be fucking gone!!"

"Such a colorful vocabulary." He gestured to Pansy. "Does your friend always talk like this?"

"Yes, unfortunately..." Pansy bowed until her face was on the ground.

"No, don't considered me insulted at all." His eyes slowly narrowed on Pansy. "If anything, you are the one showing insult."

"What?" Gale stopped as he noticed his rage slowly simmering at her friend and not her. "What the fuck are you talking about? You horse shit, fuck face!!"

"Your words are insult if I were stand above you." He turned back to Gale but kept his eyes on Pansy. "However, I am choosing now to sit at your level. ergo the only ones insulting me are the ones not meeting us on our level." He placed his hand on the chin of Pansy and forced her to stand with Gale. "Look at her, so weak and frightened by a being far stronger than her."

"Don't you fucking dare!!" Gale bashed her hilt against his wrist. "She is my friend... No, she is my equal!! Everything I do is for her and the other pegasi standing beside me!" Her vulgarness faded as she pressed the melted blade against his arm until blood cut forth.

Helios smiled at her bold actions and proclaimed. "I see..." He retracted his hand and healed his wound. Standing up he turned to the hurricane winds and remarked. "It seemed I was the one insulting you... and again I apologize. Commander Hurricane."

Gale stopped at the name he used. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you have Hurricane in your name?" Helios held up his hand to the very sky where the scythe vanished to. "Master Pluto told me everything about you three the moment he left this place. But he didn't mean the bold strength within you two especially." His eyes grimaced at the older brother still standing in the winds. "He had many insults for that one, but that was for his reasoning only. I didn't agree with any of it." Dropping his rage entirely he placed his hand on his heart and bowed more gracefully to Gale and Pansy. "You two show true valor of royalty, but the honesty of bold commanders.

"Commander... Hurricane..." Gale thought back to the name. "Yes, I am Commander Hurricane."

Yes, exactly." Helios spread out his wings and gave a final word before leaving. "As such you are now the leader here. As a leader, we stand for truth, justice, and loyalty of our citizens and kingdom. Long shall we stand with our soldiers and weapons, whether they be spears, swords or daggers!!"

******

In the final battle of the mindscape, the memory bubbles shook violently out of Twilight's command. Her eyes had been locked in place by the monster's eyes, unable to look away. The memory bubbles burst under the stress and the trio fell, plummeting them down into a deep cavern of darkness. They hit the floor, cracking the surface beneath them.

"Where are we now?!" Clover called out in pain and looked around at the pitch-black void slowly faded away. This reveals a shredded and broken wasteland of metal, glass, and concrete. "What is this place?"

Twilight didn't recognize this place at all. Not any of her own memories, not one that her mother had shown her, nor one that Rex had given her. None of these details were in any possible past at. Which meant this had to be a future? One that wasn't her own, that much was certain. Details of the buildings that remains standing showed this was still the past of Hearth's Warming.

None of it look familiar at all. However upon raising her eyes upward she was meant with a far too familiar sight that she thought would never be seen again. "No, no, no, not this day?!" It was the future, a point of which she only read about and never wished to witness.

Clover followed her daughter's terror to see the same things. Thousands, no, millions of segmented forms connected to create a massive centipede like body. Each one so massive that they blocked out all light. There were no words for the size, not even Twilight could describe it the massive amount. Each part was so bigger that billions of tiny legs swarmed over the sides, like ants marching on a hill.

"What is this beast...?" Clover questioned for answers.

"This... in the true form of Lord Red." Twilight slowly conceded. Her horn attempted to summon another memory bubble. She wasn't even sure if her powers escape his infinite sight for long. Soon enough their presence would be known. She had to get her and her mother out there. Yet nothing came, the spell sparked with power but nothing formed. "We can't stay here long."

"But you must!!" Selena Moondie laughed at their efforts. "You wanted to know the truth..." She took Twilight by the throat, forcing the alicorn to look at her. "Stop looking up and seeing the reality down here!!" The umbrum smashed her face into the ground over and over until the smell finally hit her.

Twilight's eyes widened, fighting through the pain her eyes scanned the ground. What they saw was even more horrific than the beast above. It made no sense to them, and yet it was answering every truth they were unaware of.

Around them was a pool of blood. The source of which was a single mare. A unicorn with her guts ripped right out. Clover shivered back at the face looking exactly like her own. Every detail was the same from the eyes to the ears, even the clothing matched her style. The only stark difference was the mare had the same red hair as Selena Moondie.

"What going on here?!" Twilight hissed. "Who is this?"

Selena Moondie didn't answer with a name. Instead she dragged Twilight over to get a better view. "She stuck by her beloved through the most gruesome battles. Every warzone destroyed more of her soul. She never wavered though, her faith and loyalty were never shaken. Even when her friends began to die one by one, she stayed by his side, refusing to turn away."

"Who?!" Clover demanded. "Who is this?!" The unicorn slammed her fists into the blood. "Why does she look like me?! Is this some cruel illusion?!"

The umbrum still refused to answer. Instead, she drew their attention to the dead mare's stomach. "Her devotion was so absolute that she gave him everything. Standing until her literally organs were ripped out her. Until her very life was drained from her and into this pool of life." Turning them away to a mass that had yet to notice at all.

The details were to distorted to discern, but for the first time Selena Moondie didn't hold back. "The first taste I had in this life... was her blood. My first gasps for air was stole from her own lungs. And when her heart gave out, that's when mine truly began." She turned her attention to Twilight, "Twilily, the truth of who I am... is who she made me."

"What you mean?" Twilight questioned.

"Simply put, what is Elisus to you... Or a better question: What Starlight Glimmer is to both of us and the ones we love?" Selena Moondie dropped her to the ground and gestured back to herself as she walked over the gooey and gruesome form that she proclaimed was herself.

"What does that even mean?!" Clover cried out too, demanding answers.

"I am... what could have been you." The umbrum answered, walking over her past self and kicking the bloody visage into Clover's face. "I am everything you ever wanted from Rex." She was giving them answers now, but the more she spoke the less it made sense. "The love you would have given, if not to him... And if not to her... All I wanted was for her to see me."

"Who is she?" Twilight pushed the image away from her, demanding to know the truth. She stood over the mare that looked just like Clover and screamed. "Who is she? Who are to me?!"

"I... I am your enemy!!" Selena Moondie yelled back with a mix of anger and sadness. "I... I wanted everything you stole..." The umbrum's voice was breaking down, she was losing the control over her emotions. "I was supposed to their everything, not you!!" Selena Moondie took Twilight by the head once more and banged into the corpse's stomach. "I... wanted it all... You stole it all! Twilily!! Twilily!! Twilily!!"

Twilight struggled and fought but this was quickly becoming a loosing battle. She needed to find the linchpin. The balance in this memory bubble that made no sense. A piece that was purpose designed to make no sense, but nothing made sense in this one at all. If this worked like Aitym's trap it would have to be a piece directly connected to either Twilight, Clover or Selene Moondie. But there only thing connected to her in this place was...

The alicorn's eyes widened as a thought echoed at the back of her mind. Being raised up again, she spat the blood in Selena's eyes. Taking this moment of ditraction she grabbed Clover's hand and pushed it into the skull of the unknown mare. "Clover, trust me and pull!!"

Clover didn't know how to react to the mere thought as Twilight forced her fingers into the flesh of the scalp. She had no clue what her daughter was thinking or why she was doing this, but it was her only chance. The unicorn forced her hand into the mare's head, the squishing sensation was so unnatural.

"Pull back now!!" Twilight screamed as Selena's jaws rushed at the both of them.

The hair of the unknown mare ripped out and with it so did the threads of the memory bubble. It all faded into the same nothingness from before. This time though it took the memory and Selena Moondie with it. Her visage faded with one final action that only drove their confusion even more. She simply reached out to Clover and panicked like a little child. Words escaped her mouth, but the power of the realm collapsing around them preventing her voice from being heard.

******

The Giant Hourglass was met with a mighty clash of dark magic. It threw everything for a full loop as two blasts of powerful magic hit the giant centaur head on. Despite this Aitym refuse to falter, standing against the strength of Nightmare Moon and the Chains of Pluto, wielded by Rex.

The umbrum knew just a clash wouldn't be enough, so while he sent the scythe spinning, he used dark magic to teleport through his shadows faster than he ever could. This transplanted his blast into thousands, coming from every direction. None of them alone were near the power of the main blast, but the combining force was enough to start pushing back Aitym's centaur host. Rex gave it one more push called upon this spell true name. "Dark Magic Spell Number 80, Onslaught of Darkness!!"

Nightmare Moon laughed with joy as the giant beast fell to one leg. Her eyes glowed and polled on all the fear and panic down below as the pegasi and griffin soldiers fleed away. Using this extra boost, she clapped her wings out so loud that all the glass nearby shattered. Lifting her head upward as the magic around her horn grew outward until it dwarfed the gaint centaur. " Nightmare Spell Number 50, Screaming Nightmare Guillotine!!"

It dropped down the force of the greatest hurricane. Aitym was pushed back by the sheer pressure of the spell but wasn't able to hold strong against the pain of the impact as the spell sunk in deep. Slicing off his host's arm and parts of it's hind legs.

Reappearing behind the scythe, Rex fingered out several symbols in the air. He had fought this thing before, thousands of years ago. He knew very well, there was only so much time before their magic would fade. The hardest part about fighting this beast wasn't it's massive pool of magic, but rather it's near unlimited endurance, which meant they needed to take it down before it out lasted them. Using the dark magic granted to him by the full power of the dark alicorn amulet and the will of Nightmare Moon behind him, he summoned a far larger swarm of chains than he did before.

Out of every shadow across the Giant Blue Hourglass, massive chains flew out and over Ixion's body. They wrapped millions of layers of over his legs and arms, billions over the chest, bending it into his hindquarters. They constricted until they were near to bursting. His cries of agony were only silenced by the mighty swing of Nightmare Moon's blade that severed his throat.

Seeing the blood pour forth, Nightmare Moon receded her magic. She to her dark magic kin and smiled at their victory. "Thank you, Rex for allowing me free reign even if it was for a little while."

"I didn't do it for you, Cassandra!" His eyes narrowed as his breath strained to the point of coughing up blood. "Just find a sealing point and give Luna back her body as soon as possible."

Her eyes dropped in concern. She flew closer and kissed him on the cheek. "Don't over use our father's power. Luna and Clover would truly be heartbroken if you fade now."

"I understand..." He tried his best to contain the massive pool of dark magic surging from his body. "Just hurry up then."

"Okay." With that, Nightmare Moon flew off in search. Celestia and Lord Red, who had been watching from a distance, followed after her to help in any way they could.

With them gone, Rex tried to control his breathing and blood pouring from his mouth. It felt like his body was thousands of times heavy than before and it drop harsher and heavier by the second. His height in the sky was already slowly decreasing with passing moment. But he couldn't let any of this falter him.

He defeated this beast before and he was do so again. However, before he had Cold Blue taking up half the load of dark magic. Now, he stood alone, his eyes drifted on the might blizzard that had formed around the Giant Blue Hourglass shortly after Ixion was awaken.

"Cold Blue... If you don't lose to that wendigo... than I won't lose to this centaur." Rex trained his stance, despite how much his body was screaming at him to let go.

"Yeah about his supposed fight..." A voice echoed behind Rex that sent shivers down his spine.

The umbrum tried to fight the denial of reality even as the red snowflakes swarmed upward around him. He could smell the faint stench of fresh blood. His eyes slowly lifted to see the wendigo, covered in blood and wounds. His horns was still caked with metal shines from armor clashing as he gave Rex a half smile.

Rex felt the pain of defeat well in his heart. "Indigo Frost... or whatever you call yourself..." He grumbled and grunted. "Looks like you've won."

"Oh, poor Rex. Always assuming the worst possible thing when in reality the worst is yet to come." The wendigo tiled his head to the blizzard as it faded to his command. "Don't worry, Cold Blue isn't dead... But if you don't do something soon, we all will be very dead."

Rex gave a snort, slowly turning his body around to face Indigo Frost. "You won't stop me."

Indigo Frost raised his eyebrows with interest. "Oh, wow. You still think I am the enemy here!" His voice turned into a venomous laughter. "I'm far from the most dangerous evil here." Seeing Rex's confusion, he held his hands out the giant centaur below them. "Do you think one of the first ever alicorns to exist could be trapped so easily!"

The ground and even the air shook violently. Rex struggled to hold on as a sudden aura of magic filled the area. Even while being held giant spell, it still grew in potency and ferocity. And it was all coming from the giant centaur, as it started to push back with even more vigor than ever before.

"What's happening?!" Rex roared at the wendigo. "What did you do?!"

"I've done nothing. This whole chunk of the plan falls upon the Alicorn of the Abandoned." As if to prove his words true, he dropped all his defenses and flew upward Rex to give the umbrum a full view of everything. "Just look closely at his true scheme."

Rex narrowed his eyes on the giant centaur. Scanning until he noticed something truly bizarre. The flesh was pulsing at an increasing rate. However, this wasn't muscles firing, this was far too fast. There was also something wrong with the movement. They weren't simple going toward the heart like in normal body. Instead, they were flaring out in all kinds of random directions until the flesh tore open.

His eyes widened as the giant centaur ripped apart into trillions of tiny shards of blood, flesh, and bones. The true power of Aitym was revealed as the voices of thousands upon millions echoed outward with their loudest screams as the corpse turned into a massive swarm of pieces.

They flew around and wrapped around Rex faster than he could process, breaking his spell entirely in a single move. The wendigo flew around behind him, seemingly unfazed or rather unseen by the power of the swarm.

"Have you figure it out yet... old friend?" The wendigo leaned into his ear.

"What are talking about?" Rex was in a mix of confusion as the voice of icy freak was coming through so perfectly despite the screams of the shard echoing around.

"Listen... Listen!!" He placed his hands on Rex's head, holding him still. "Hear their screams!!"

"Who..." Rex slowly stopped as the familiar finally hit him with so much terror.

"Yes, that's right. Aitym never truly resurrected Ixion at all. Rather he's using the spell of your species to take command of every umbrum soul down below. And used their magic to bind Ixion's form to his will." The wendigo pulled away once he was sure Rex realized the sick truth. "You aren't fighting one, you're fighting a full legion. To defeat Aitym, you must kill your entire species."

******